The Spy and the Hitokiri
Characters/Pairings: Kenshin/Kaoru, Sano, Yahiko, Saitou, OCs
Warnings: Mentions of sex, unusual sexual tastes, child molestation, and general dark issues. Also deliberate OOC-ness of one character, and unintential minor OOC-ness of other characters.
Summary: Kaoru has been hiding a dark secret: that she was a genius child-spy during the Bakumatsu. When her fellow spies start dropping like flies, Kaoru realizes that she is in danger.
Comments: Okay. This is a fic that I had major, major issues in reccing, despite the fact that I enjoyed it. One is the deliberate OOC-ness and MarySue-ization of Kaoru. I partially forgive it because it’s kind of necessary for the plot, but it’s still annoying. The other is frankly, that I disagree with her characterization of most the other characters as well. Saitoh, in particular, bares little resemblance to how I think of him. Sano is forgotten throughout the fic, Yahiko is barely mentioned, and the fic never makes more than a faint nod in the direction of dealing with the fact that Kaoru has been deceiving them for all the time that they knew her. Also, that not even Kaoru’s father or Doctor Genzai knew just strains the suspension of disbelief.
    On the other hand, the plot’s well-done and interesting, if you accept the premises it’s based upon. It’s the research that really tipped me over the edge into reccing it. The research footnotes about everything from the tunica molesta to the birthdates of the real-life Saitou’s children just made me grin. Because yes, I am a sucker for people who do their research. And it’s just a long, enjoyable, well-reseached mystery fic that did surprise me at the end at who was responsible (if only because I was so discouraged by her characterization of Saitoh that I found it believable that she would make him the murderer.
    So, yeah, a very mixed review. It really is an enjoyable fic; I just rather wish that she’d made it an original fic loosely based off the Rurouni Kenshin characters rather than change the characters around like she did.
Multi-chapter, complete.