[FFML] [fic][rk][cont] Rurouni Yahiko Chapter 12: The Calm before the Storm

[Abdiel]

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Rurouni Yahiko
A Rurouni Kenshin Continuation fic
By Chester Castañeda
chester.castaneda at gmail.com
gabriel_gabdiel at yahoo.com
http://www.fanfiction.net/~abdiel

Egad, I need to pace myself better. Let's now make this fanfic's glacial
pacing speed up into a rip-roaring Schumacher racecar or something!

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Chapter 12: The Calm before the Storm
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Way past midnight, beyond the dangerous Shinshu cockpits, after the wild
mass of gambling addicts had already dispersed...

"My, my. Such impudent spunk and idealism in a young lad," Akahori
condescendingly marveled at Yahiko, sending the teenager's temper on
edge. "And here I thought you'd naturally help me, what with your
connection with the _real_ Hitokiri Battousai and all. Are you really
okay about seeing your mentor's name sullied by these wannabe Battousai
upstarts?"

"What kind of a stupid question is that? I could care less about who
wants to impersonate whoever, and so does Kenshin. You have enough
guards... too many, in fact... especially with Psycho-Kid here acting as
your lead escort. Besides," Yahiko sneered as he slipped on Takae's
kabuto and began to make his leave, "although the shape of the new era
was formed sixteen years ago, those who are truly in need of happiness
are still in the old era, where the weak is oppressed. I'm much more
interested in protecting the lives and interests of those people than
some politician's sorry ass. So good-bye, Oyakata-dono."

Who cared if Tetsuo Akahori was part of the Ruling Class of the Meiji
Government? Who cared if the old man was at a position of power at par
or even beyond that of Aritomo Yamagata, or just below that of the late
Toshimichi Okubo? In Yahiko's mind, Akahori was no better than the likes
of the slimy, grubby, and greedy Jusanro Tani.

Yahiko had no idea what Soujiro Seta--the _true_ assassin of Okubo and
not the unjustly popular Ichiro Shimada--was doing with such a revolting
man. Maybe the Ten Ken had gone soft and corrupt after all his
wanderings as a rurouni, making him settle down in the position of just
another government lapdog like the rest of the remaining Juppon Gatana
did in order to survive. Perhaps Akahori even helped Soujiro get
absolved of his treasonous crimes in exchange for his services. Yahiko
neither knew nor cared.

"Okay, kid. I'll level with you."

Yahiko turned, and was surprised by the man who greeted him. The black
presence of the Oyakata back inside the Shinshu Cockpits was already
formidable to begin with, but the Tetsuo Akahori in front of him was a
different man... or even animal... altogether. 

"Do you want to know the reason why there are so many policemen in a
meeting that's supposed to be canceled from the get go? They didn't just
come all the way out here because of orders, I assure you," Akahori
finally relented, sitting on a nearby rock and forming a steeple with
his folded hands.

"W-What...?" Yahiko mumbled, his eyebrows furrowed as he gulped down the
rising feeling of dread and bile in his throat. He afterwards shook his
head as if to clear it. "Nothing you say will ever change my mind. In
fact, I'd rather that you canceled your stupid meeting and make all
those policemen return to their original posts!"

"Aw, don't be like that, Yahiko-san!" Soujiro thoughtfully remarked as
he reminded Yahiko, "Kyoko-san will be sad if her father were to come
back to Yokohama after he just got here. Don't be heartless."

"SO YOU'D RATHER HE DIE HERE, RISKING HIS LIFE FOR SOME POLITICIAN
SCUMBAG? No, he's better off returning to Yokohama than staying here
in Shinshu," Yahiko fearlessly berated the Ten Ken, but stopped his
mounting rant short when Akahori declared:

"It's up to you whether you'll accept my invitation or not. But I will
tell you this--these sheer number of guards I have right now? I didn't
force them to come to Shinshu. I didn't force them to do anything they 
didn't want to do. I'm sure you can find things out for yourself,"
Akahori explained obtusely, his expression unreadable behind his
interlocked hands.

"...." Yahiko seethed with an incredulous scowl, but he still opted to
deny the Oyakata's request anyway, rationalizing in his mind that
Akahori's loaded statement was nothing more than the self-aggrandizing 
justifications of a garden-variety politician.

"Oh, by the way; here's the money you three won from the cockfight
earlier," the Oyakata offhandedly mentioned as he threw a cloth filled
with a sack of coins over to Yahiko, which the boy automatically caught.

"So what? Are you resorting to bribery now?" Yahiko hotly demanded.

"Nothing of the sort; you've won that money fair and square," Akahori
explicated equably. "This has nothing to do with whatever you decide
upon. That prize is yours even if you insist on refusing my request."

Once the Tokyo Samurai Descendant gave the pair a curt bow and left for
Nojiri, Soujiro looked at his boss in cherubic inquisitiveness and
asked, "Do you think he'll still come?"

"I know his type. He'll come to the mansion anyway regardless of what he
thinks of me, especially after he finds out the truth about the
Battousai Group."

"So why'd you bother inviting him in the first place, Akahori-san?"
Soujiro persisted, his head tilted to the side. "What could he possibly
add to your plans?"

The Oyakata rubbed his chin contemplatively, the moon creating a perfect
backlight for his thin silhouette as he took out his pipe and bit on its
tip with what looked like a cross between a grimace and a grin. "Call it
a crapshoot, then."


***


Morning rose over Nagano as it would in any other province. The sunrise
was particularly dull; it had neither extra liveliness nor zestfulness
in its unremarkable entrance. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary today.

Well, _nearly_ nothing was, in any case.

Earlier on in the Sakaguchi residence, before meeting with Gan, Minoe,
Chizuru, and the Sakaguchi family downstairs, Yahiko had quietly sneaked
upstairs into the room where he'd recuperated from his injuries, packed
his stuff, tied them onto his cloth-wrapped sakabatou, and hid his
precious few belongings at the shoe and slipper racks on the side of the
soba shop before ultimately entering the kitchen to settle the peculiar
chicken dilemma once and for all.

After the matter was done and over with, Yahiko felt the urge to get the
hell out of Shinshu grow inside him, his samurai pride be damned. There
certainly were more important places for him to visit that needed the
help of a swordsman-in-training like himself. However, Akahori's words
kept on haunting him like the whisper of a nightmare.

'I didn't force them to come here to Shinshu. I didn't force them to do
anything they didn't want to do.'

Was Akahori lying? Was he playing Yahiko for a fool? The boy wasn't
sure, but he was itching to find out, especially now that the Battousai
Group's reappearance was at hand.

As soon as the young man lost the stubborn Gan and Minoe in an ensuing
chase, he made his way back to the soba shop. From there, he called out
and confronted Satoru Sakaguchi, talked to him about the secret behind
the small infantry of policemen assigned to protect Akahori, and was
completely dumbfounded by what the officer revealed.

"Mind you, this is top secret information. The only reason I'm telling
you this is because you have helped save my daughter's life."

"Okay, sir. Mum's the word."

"Do you know who Amakusa Shiro is?" Satoru pursed his lips and carefully
examined Yahiko's expression as he waited for a response.

Yahiko was taken aback by the question. What self-respecting Japanese
person wouldn't know who Shiro Amakusa was? "He was that Christian
Samurai that led an uprising a long, long time ago in a far, far away
place, right?" Apparently, Yahiko Myojin was the historically clueless
sort of Japanese youngster.

At any rate, Satoru proceeded to tell Yahiko everything, and the boy
processed the information accordingly. Six years ago in Shimabara, while
Yahiko, Kenshin, and the rest of their group faced the vengeful
madman known as Enishi Yukishiro, the Meiji Government had at last
gained a semblance of stability after the downfall of the Juppon Gatana.

Ergo, they sought to prove their superiority by moving in to crush a
brewing _second_ Shimabara Rebellion with a covert preemptive strike. In
truth, the leader of the Christian Shimabara rebels even had the gall to
claim himself as the Second Coming of Amakusa Shiro, citing that the
tides of history was on his side or some such nonsense to his followers.

In hindsight, it was rather cowardly of the government to send in a
whole platoon to murder farmers and artisans led by a complete loon who
followed a religion that, more in theory than in practice, promoted
peace and frowned upon violence. Yahiko felt a cross-shaped nerve throb
in the corner of his temple. "So? What does this Ama-whoever have to do
with Akahori's aborted little meeting?"

"Everything, actually. Fact number one: Akahori was called in by the
Ministry of Defense as an advisor to the civil unrest at the time,
because he was supposed to have certain connections to one of the
rebels. That's the reason why this Amakusa incarnate and his newly found
Battousai Group is targeting Akahori as of now. 

"Fact number two: Like cockroaches, Amakusa and his followers were able
to survive the planned assault. Also, this meeting is supposed to be in
regards to Amakusa and many other anti-Meiji factions joining forces to
launch guerrilla warfare upon the government, intending to destroy it
from within. But that's not the worse of it.

"Fact number three: The overall casualties on the government's side
during that covert yet disastrous campaign numbered about two thousand
out of five thousand policemen--and, infamously enough, half of that
number is credited to none other than the new Amakusa Shiro, who renamed
himself Amakusa Shogo by the end of that secret war."

Yahiko blanched at Satoru's information overload, especially at the last
item of his long speech. In typical fashion, the Meiji planned out a
literal genocide of the remaining anti-Meiji insurgents. In atypical
fashion, they were thwarted by some sort of religious zealot pretending
to be a historical figure. "Wait, what? There must be some sort of
mistake. One man was able to take on and kill about a thousand troops
_alone_ in one _battle_? You have got to be kidding me."

"It took about a month's work, and some claim the number of casualties
was exaggerated, but that's how the legend of Amakusa Shogo stands. Like
a flash of lightning, he went--splitting into two, then into a thousand
shadows that left nothing but chopped-up pieces of human flesh and
spongy giblets in their path. Or so I've heard." Yahiko was so busy
being shocked by Satoru's statements that he missed out the hesitant
darting of the discomfited policeman's eyes.

The sixteen year old couldn't believe his ears. He had only met Kyoko's
father for barely a day, so he couldn't rule him out as a liar... or, at
the very least, someone who was merely misguided by the government's
propaganda. But then again, whole troops being slain by one man wasn't
exactly something that the Meiji would proudly advertise to its police
force.

He wasn't even sure if either of the Ishin Shishi hitokiri he knew...
Kenshin Himura-Kamiya or Makoto Shishio... could match Amakusa's feat.
Perhaps, but it was a bit of a long shot, or even an overstatement. It
just had to be a lie! An old wives' tale! But before he could contend
any of Satoru's "facts", the man was already talking, reporting:

"So far, the alliance between Amakusa Shogo's Battousai Group and the
other anti-Meiji factions haven't happened yet because of Akahori-san's
meddling, so Shogo will probably be the assassin who's coming for
Akahori-san's head tonight. He has done his own dirty work before,
assassinating heads of state and incurring the government's wrath, so
it's not that much of a stretch for him to do the same thing now."

Yahiko's eyes furrowed into slits. The one-man army who killed a
thousand government troops; soldiers who handled howitzers, rifles,
and gatling guns; the brothers, fathers, and grandfathers of many a
widow and her children; was already there in Shinshu. Suddenly, the
number of guards Akahori had didn't sound so significant anymore,
despite Yahiko's persistent disbelief over Satoru's claims. "So that's
the reason why the Meiji Ruling Class allowed Akahori to have numerous
bodyguards? Because Amakusa, the Thousand-Soldier-Killer, is coming to
town?"

"Not exactly. To tell you the truth, like you, most of these people
could care less whether Akahori-san lives or dies. This escort job is
supposed to be nothing more than just that--a job. But since they'd
discovered that Amakusa Shogo was involved, everything changed. Most of
the guards gathered here are the friends, comrades, and family members
of the people Amakusa killed six years ago in Shimabara. This isn't just
a meeting anymore. Not for these people." 

Satoru's message was clear: Most of the officers and military personnel
sent to Shinshu weren't assigned there; they practically _volunteered_
to go to that remote province after learning that this infamous Shogo
Amakusa character was somehow connected to the so-called Battousai Group
and Akahori's pending assassination.

Yahiko frowned, realizing an unfortunate implication that went over
Satoru's own head because he, the boy guessed, was far more emotionally
involved with this conflict than he let on. As expected of a master
manipulator, Akahori _deliberately_ surrounded himself with people who
had personal vendettas against Amakusa. For these purported guardians,
this mission was more than just risking their lives in the line of duty;
this was the very culmination of their own quests for heavenly and
earthly retribution. Tenchu and Jinchu. Justice and Revenge. Resolution
and Closure.

Because of that, knowing that this was _Akahori_ he was thinking about,
Yahiko couldn't help but feel sympathy for the devil--pardon the ironic
pun. Amakusa and the Christian rebels from Shimabara, for all intents
and purposes, were merely protecting themselves against an ethnic
cleansing not seen since the Tokugawa Government's murder of the Ainu
people. Granted, the boy had yet to know the _whole_ story behind the
Shimabara incident, but he couldn't, for the life of him, completely
villainize Amakusa and think of Akahori as the victim of this story. He
just couldn't.

After finishing his informative talk with Satoru, Yahiko thanked the
officer and decided to go to the mansion just out of town and accept
Akahori's "offhand" invitation. And now, with a giddy head, a bento-like
packing of his possessions tied to his weapon, and a tired sigh, the
young lad braced himself and started to make his mental and physical
preparations for his upcoming mission, weighing everything on his mind
so that he'd have a realistic assessment of the current situation.

Yahiko didn't _need_ to go. He certainly didn't _want_ to go, either--
that damn house used to belong to that big, fat, greedy son of a bitch
Ishin Shishi politician, Tani. The overweight bastard must have sold the
mansion away to Akahori after being beaten to a pulp by Sanosuke Sagara
(nee Higashidani, _not_ the peculiar chicken), Yahiko mused with a wan
smile. All the same, the circumstances reeked too much of the same stink
of bureaucracy that Sanosuke got banished from Japan by, so it was
understandable why Yahiko was feeling more than a little apprehensive
over honoring Akahori's casual request.

Speaking of Tani, the setup behind the Battousai Group's strategy was
suspiciously just like how Jine "Kurogasa" Udo used to operate. Was it a
coincidence? Yahiko wasn't sure, but it would seem that the Battousai-
in-name-only terrorists probably knew a lot about Jine's confrontation
and eventual defeat in the hands of Kenshin for them to be able to take
a page out of his past experiences. If the Battousai Group wasn't just
using Kenshin's old name as a scare tactic and knew more about him than
even Yahiko expected, then perhaps this serendipitous event wasn't a
coincidence after all.

Yahiko didn't know it at the time it happened, but he eventually figured
out why Kenshin entertained the job to protect Tani; Kurogasa showed the
ex-rurouni what he could've become had he not met Tomoe Yukishiro and
subsequently vowed never to take another human life ever again. Fighting
the infamous Jine Udo was, in a way, a cathartic approach for Kenshin to
face his own innermost demons.

In contrast, Yahiko barely even knew anything about this Amakusa-and-
Battousai-wannabe's history or motivations. There was no incentive for
him to go after this Christian terrorist. Besides, who was he to deny
Amakusa's victims the chance to get their revenge against the obviously
insane man? The whole thing had nothing to do with him, even. But then
again, the siege of Nojiri just three weeks ago and that kidnapping
incident involving one of Shishio's former underlings from a year back
didn't have anything to do with him either.

Was Yahiko going to act hypocritical and deny people help this one time
just because he didn't like the person he was going to save? Maybe. But
Kenshin wouldn't approve of his actions; he knew Kamishimoemon wouldn't
either, even if Sanosuke's father wasn't somehow connected with Akahori
for one reason or the other.

"So you think you can let some maniac with a sword kill all those people
with the excuse that you have nothing to do with it? Bullshit! Bullshit,
I say!" Kamishimoemon would probably admonish.

Yahiko blinked. On that note, why didn't Kamishimoemon use his hefty
connections with the obviously more powerful Akahori to bail Shinshu out
of Tani's grubby influence six years ago? Indeed, if the Higashidani
Patriarch had enough pull to setup a marketplace (and a questionable
gambling arena) in the very heart of Shinshu, then why did he have such
a hard time going against the likes of small fry politicians like Tani?

The boy chuckled after he realized the silliness of his questions. Since
this was Sanosuke's father he was thinking about, then the answer
should've been obvious from the get go; foolish pride and double
standards. That was all there was to it.

Another thought occurred to him, though. Had he not helped bail Nojiri
out of trouble, then perhaps Soujiro, Kamishimoemon, or even the deluge
of police from the rest of the Kanto district would've done so. 'But
that's neither here nor there, and what's done is done. I should forget
about it,' Yahiko insisted to himself, but there was still a tinge of
annoyed bitterness in his mind's voice.

Just then, Yahiko remembered something very important about Kurogasa
that enabled the crazed Shinsengumi/Ishin Shishi turncoat to take out
multiple opponents at one time. 'Nikaido Heiho Ougi: Shin no Ippo,'
the boy reflected gravely.

The Shin no Ippo was the succession technique of Jine's Nikaido Heiho,
a deadly skill that fed off people's fears. If the victim was afraid,
the technique could either paralyze or choke him to death. However, it
could also be shaken off, provided that one had a strong enough will to
go against it. It could be used to hypnotize the user as well, bringing
out his full power.

Considering the sheer arrogance that the Battousai Group displayed in
regards to executing Tetsuo Akahori as they closely followed Kurogasa's
brazen assassination tactics to the letter, it wasn't really a stretch
of the imagination to think that Shiro--no, Shogo Amakusa had the
capability of using a technique similar to or even a tad stronger than
the Shin no Ippo. It would probably explain the bloated number of
victims he had, even.

Of course, Yahiko still remembered Keisuke's last words before getting
mercy-killed by Soujiro; the not-so-juvenile delinquent apparently saw a
red-haired man with a cross-shaped scar whom cut him and his goons down
like trees.

Okay then. The Descendant of Tokyo Samurai couldn't think of any other
reason for the mystery killer to annihilate the fake Battousai Group
save for the fact that he was part of the _real_ Battousai Group and
was sending a grisly message to Akahori and his contingent. Hell, based
on Keisuke's description, he might even _look_ the part of Battousai.

'How does it all fit together?' Yahiko pondered. Could it be that this
Amakusa person was actually a Kenshin look-alike who could perform the
Shin no Ippo at will and take down a small army all by himself, thus
making him a literal cross between Kenshin and Jine?

'That... sounds about as silly as the rumor-mongering and speculation
about Kenshin's origins that the villagers of Nojiri engaged in just
three weeks ago. Whatever the case, this really does look like the
perfect job for Kenshin to handle. But since he's now 'retired' and I'm
incidentally at the right place and at the right time, what the hell.
I'll take the job.'

"Boo," the Great-Or-Not-So-Great-Depending-On-Who-You-Ask Gan boomed
from behind Yahiko, startling the boy.

"Imitation Technique, RYU TSUI SEN!" Yahiko screamed after jumping a
good five feet into the air, hammering the Imprudent Gan on the head
with his sheathed sakabatou. "Dammit, you scared the crap out of me!
Who the hell taught you that?"

"Some silly old man I met back in Kyoto. Nobuhiro-someone-or-another,"
Gan confessed as he gingerly rubbed his sore, bandanna-wrapped head. "I
had the same reaction to it as you did, actually... and the old man just
kept asking for more. He was spry for a fifty-six year old, let me tell
you."

"Uh, right. Too much information, Gan," Yahiko remarked, too bemused to
realize that he should be telling the large hooligan off for following
him all the way to the edge of Nojiri. But Gan was, as usual, not
listening to a word the younger man was saying.

"Oh, and did you know that I used to hang out with a weasel-looking girl
about this high?" he gestured his open palm at abdomen level. "I swear,
she used to chase me all over Kyoto like some lovesick... well, weasel.
She's so cute! I could have sworn she had a crush on me!" Gan blabbered
on and on, much to Yahiko's chagrin.

"Like I told you, you're giving me too much... Wait, weasel girl from
Kyoto?" Yahiko queried as he did a classic spit-take upon realizing the
implications of Gan's surprising revelation.


***


A few minutes later...

"Then she said, 'Does _these_ look like something a boy would have?'
Wow. Just... wow. You should've seen it, Yoshi-boy." Gan wistfully
exhaled with an unsuitable redness on his face that seemed more like a
bad rash than a blush and a sickening look of ecstasy in his twinkling
irises.

"Stop staring into space like that! You're creeping me out." Yahiko
shuddered. "Seriously? You honestly thought Misao was a boy, so she
showed you her boobs just like that?" the younger man incredulously
asked with skeptical, half-lidded eyes, snidely appending, 'Or lack of
boobs,' to himself. "That was awfully stupid of her. Was she drunk at
the time?"

"Don't make it sound so vulgar! She didn't completely expose herself to
me or anything, she only showed her cleavage and unveiled to me the...
truth. And boobies. Although I do think drinks may have been involved at
the time," Gan clarified, but Yahiko still felt somewhat discomfited
about the idea of combining Misao and indecent exposure together.

"Wait. She has cleavage? This _is_ Makimachi Misao we're talking about,
right?" Yahiko didn't bother avoiding the metal bat that landed hard on
his waiting noggin. Even he knew he deserved it. 

Gan sneezed and shivered, feeling the onset of winter grab hold of his
skin with a hair-raising grip. He wondered if the people he was
presently remembering from way back were suffering similar sneezing
fits.

"Before I knew it, Weasel-chan and I weren't talking to each other
anymore. Then, from out of the blue, she disclosed that she'd found
someone else and I should leave her alone immediately, just like that!
So I did what any hot-blooded guy with a blunt object for a weapon would
do: I challenged this Aoshi-sama of hers for a duel to win her heart!"

Yahiko extricated his face from the ground; it wasn't a facefault, his
face had been there for quite sometime because Gan didn't even bother
picking him up after walloping him with that big blunt metal stick of
his.

Truth be told, the boy actually felt like keeping his face planted to
the ground after hearing Gan's cheesy confession. "So what happened?
You're still alive and in one piece, so obviously Aoshi didn't bother
fighting you. Did you make the duel into an eating contest again?"

Yahiko expected Gan to react to his baited insult--the boy purposely
loaded his statements with seeming arrogance to steer their conversation
to a far more palatable, if a bit violent, course--but instead, the
ruffian merely looked at him with pathetic, liquid-brown eyes. 

"Just as I charged at that Aoshi guy, declaring my undying love for the
weasel girl, she slapped me."

"...."

"She then said, 'Listen up, because I'm only going to say this once: You
are not my boyfriend! I don't even know you! You're just some crazy,
loser, stalker goon! You are not my boyfriend, you are not my friend,
and you are not my _anything_!' 

"That's harsh, man." Yahiko paused in mid-stride as something occurred
to him just then. "Did 'Weasel-chan' tell you outright that Aoshi was
her 'true love', or did you find out some other way?"

"Er, about that..."


***


Fifteen minutes later...

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Yahiko laughed to his heart's content as he took
out a piece of folded paper, a makeshift wooden board, and a spiffy new
Waterman and Wirt fountain pen that Tokyo Police Chief Uramura gave him
as a present for handling the kidnapping crisis at the Kasshin Shinto
Dojo last year, and started writing Gan's accounts of Misao for
posterity's sake. "Kenshin and the others will _love_ this! And then
what happened, Gan?"

"Well, to tell you the truth..." Blushing from head to toe, Gan softly
whispered a couple of things into Yahiko's ear, which made the young boy
giggle in boyish delight. They made for quite a sight, with passersby
quickly shuffling away from them after seeing their antics, but for the
most part, Yahiko found the humiliation at his expense worth it for the
mounds of dirt on Misao he'd inadvertently gotten from the least likely
of sources.

"Really? My goodness, I had no idea! U-huh. U-huh. Oh my... HAHAHAHAHA!
Oh, and she has a mole where? HAHAHAHAHAHA! Then that makes it bad luck
for her to go into sea faring trips! Oh, and what did she call Aoshi
that one time in...? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Yahiko was in hysterics, barely
able to jut down everything Gan was revealing to him, but he persevered.
This was just too good to let pass. 

Also, he made a mental footnote to himself to warn the Kamiyas not to
read this section of his letter in front of Kenji, because it simply
wasn't appropriate for young children to hear. Except, of course, he
never really did make that imaginary annotation of his. Consequently,
three months later, the unfortunate implications of his writings were
eventually unveiled with nary a warning or disclaimer.

Yahiko's face flushed red as well once he reread Gan's little story from
beginning to end. It seemed like a hilarious idea at the time, but after
he realized the full implications of the hooligan's Misao-related
anecdotes, he recoiled at the intimate details. It was unfortunate, but
he could never erase and un-know what he'd just discovered. Hopefully,
his selective memory would help him forget about it, but it was just too
over-the-top to completely leave his mind.

Gan gave Yahiko an accusing look after he was done sharing his bawdy and
amusing yet bittersweet account concerning his experiences back in Kyoto
with the bubbly yet rambunctious Misao. "I'm happy that you've taken so
much pleasure out of my heartbreak and loneliness, Yoshi-boy. The way
she was screaming that Aoshi guy's name really broke my heart, you know.
She already had me, but then she had to pull a stunt like that! How
could she? Of course, I'm also at fault, but it was an accident! She
didn't need to go into a psychotic rage every time she saw me from
thereon end!"

"I disagree. After what happened, I do think that she has every _right_
to go into a psychotic rage every time she saw you from thereon end,"
Yahiko disputed flatly before crumpling the paper he just scribbled on
and throwing it into a nearby bush. But he then remembered the breakneck
Kecho Giri to the head that Misao gave him during her and Aoshi's visit
to the Kamiya Dojo last year, which prompted him to take the crumpled
piece of paper he just threw away, un-crumple it, and put it back into
his cloth-wrapped pack.

The weasel girl may have apologized for overreacting to Yahiko's callous
teasing of her and her never-will-be relationship with the Oniwabanshu
Okashira during their special spring reunion and picnic, but the boy
wasn't about to let her get away with her transgressions that easily; he
received more bruises and sprains during her "I am weasel, hear me
SCREECH!" episode than all of his unarmored kendo duels combined.

Gan curiously stared at Yahiko who, despite having shared trauma over
uncovering a little too much dirt on Misao's past, still scribbled the
rest of the hooligan's story down on an improvised notepad--after
initially throwing information away beforehand, even. "More to the
point, what's with all that writing and scribbling, Yoshi-boy? Are you
working for a newspaper or something? And what's your connection with
Weasel-chan anyway? Did you know her from somewhere?"

"It's nothing! Don't mind me!" Yahiko insisted as he folded the fresh
sheet of paper and hid it inside his furoshiki-wrapped belongings. He
should've torn those scandal-laden memos apart and scattered them to
the wind, but then again, the ten-year-old kid inside of him just _had_
to record everything he'd heard for the sake of using it as blackmail
fodder. After all, Kenshin Himura-Kamiya was swordsman who served as a
paragon of virtue to all, not him. 

Of course, in the end, Yahiko decided never to send those pieces of
information to the Kamiyas and Tsubame or use it to blackmail Misao at
any point in time; this was because he realized that he did _not_ want
to have an awkward conversation about it with Misao. Ever. Before that,
he'd originally opted to send it with some sort of footnote, but he felt
it looked too awkward, so he just chose to leave that page out of his
letter altogether.

As such, it was too bad that, through a comedy of errors and fluked
carelessness, he would eventually forget about throwing Misao's deep-
dark-secrets-on-two-sheets-of-paper in the trash and end up sending the
whole collection of writings as one package without so much as a warning
about their content.

'My bad,' Yahiko would think a month later. Yes, it was indeed _his_
bad.


***


As the duo approached Akahori's not-so-humble abode...

"So you know who Weasel-chan is? You've known her for six years already?
Huh. Small world," Gan commented with a nod of idle wonderment. "Is she
still as lively and violent as I remember her?"

"Pretty much," Yahiko replied tiredly as the pair passed the Shinshu
Market, the purveyor of the fish stall whom they just talked to earlier
waving at them enthusiastically. 

From there, with shut eyes and a cross-shaped vein on his forehead, the
younger man impatiently stated, "You can spare me the buddy-buddy act
now, Gan. Looks like you've gotten what you wanted and wormed your way
into my business yet again. You caught me; I was going to Akahori's
mansion without telling you and Minoe in order to become one of the
bodyguards assigned to protect him in his upcoming assassination. Are
you happy now?"

Gan stared at Yahiko and blathered, "I was doing what now? I thought
that we were talking about Weasel-chan!"

It was Yahiko's turn to glare disbelievingly at Gan. "Yeah, but you
were just using that to get my guard down as I went into Akahori's
mansion to apply as a bodyguard... right?"

"Who the hell cares about Yui Horie? I was just relating to you a tale
about my life like I usually do. You never listened to any of it until
now, and it just so happened that when you did, you coincidentally knew
who it was that I was talking about. Don't use a funny coincidence to
fuel your obvious bias and vitriol against me, Yoshi-boy," Gan reasoned
out at length, which made Yahiko feel somewhat sheepish over his
behavior.

"Okay, fine. Fair enough. I'm sorry," the aspiring vagabond begrudgingly
apologized, but then suspiciously challenged, "So what's your _real_
reason for stalking me, Gan?"

"Hey. Cut it out with the stalking thing, man. Weasel-chan gave me
enough of that crap when we were dating," Gan chastened Yahiko with a
wag of his finger.

"You _weren't_ dat--Whatever. What's your real reason for _following_ 
me?" Yahiko rephrased. 

Gan shrugged, then imparted, "I never got to say thank you for getting
me out of that cock-hen dilemma and my food debt in one brilliant
stroke. Well, it was actually the nice soba lady who did all that, and
of course I had to sacrifice what could have been a champion roost--
_chicken_, but at least you were willing to offer your winnings to pay
off part of my debt. So yes, thank you. I really appreciated it," as he
made a serious face while inwardly gloating at the fact that he got to
rub salt into Yahiko's gaffe-induced wounds. Manhandling emotionally
vulnerable people was almost second nature to him.

Yahiko gulped, not quite sure of how to react. "Er, you're welcome?" he
uncertainly murmured, waiting for the other slipper to drop. On the
other hand, he was impressed that Gan could actually man up and give
thanks to where thanks was due, which made him see the criminal-looking
goon in a new light. 

"Don't you wish you've paid my food bills with the money you've won from
me beforehand just so we wouldn't have to go through all that trouble
of finding out the true gender of Sanosuke and nearly getting lynched by
a mob of disgruntled gamblers from the very start?" Gan casually asked,
to which Yahiko glibly retorted, "Know when to stop while you're ahead,
dude. It'll be good for your health." 

"Good answer. And apology accepted." Gan rubbed his hands together
happily. "Now that we've gotten everything settled, let's go ahead and
storm off to wherever you're supposed to go and do whatever it is you
want to do!"

"Hold on just a goddamn minute! _We_ are going to do no such thing. _I_
am going to Akahori's mansion, and _you_ are going to stay out of my
way." Yahiko stopped his determined pace in mid-saunter and faced the
Contrary Gan. "I knew it. You _were_ trying to play with my sympathies
to stalk and victimize me yet again! No. Uh-uh. Never again. Fool me
once, shame on you. Fool me twice--"

"You can't get fooled again?" Gan offered.

"Shut up. Bottom line is that you're not going with me, and that's
final!" Yahiko ordered resolutely, stomping his feet to add to the
effect. "I may have offered to help you out with your little wild goose
chase in the past..."

"Which you contributed greatly to by allowing me to enter a genderless
chicken in a cockfight," Gan noted.

"Stop that. Yes, fine, in hindsight, I should've reigned you in, had
that hunk of metal you call a weapon pawned, and cut the Sakaguchi's
losses then and there, but that's not the point!" Yahiko thought for a
long ten seconds in order to firmly grasp the elusive point that they
were apparently missing. 

"The _point_ that you stick your nose into other people's business in a
misguided attempt to celebrate your 'coming of age' thing, but in 
reality, you make things far worse than better because of your meddling?
Because I've been wanting to bring that point up ever since Kaori-
neechan bullied you into catching little old me for the sake of an
unpaid food bill," came Gan's--pardon the pun--on the nose assessment of
what he thinks the point should be about.

"It's really my fault because I continue listening to the things that
you say." Yahiko rubbed his temples in growing frustration. "The point
here is that it doesn't pay to be a Good Samaritan. Man, it's almost as
if I'm the one who's done something wrong!" 

Inhaling deeply to calm his frayed nerves, Yahiko recommended to Gan,
"Here's what you're supposed to do. Now that you've thanked me for my
token gesture to bail you out, you can now leave me alone and go about
your merry way, never to be seen by me again. For the love of Kami-sama,
just go away. You do what you want to do, and I'll do what I want to do.
Understand?"

Gan twiddled his fingers in a manner better suited for a clumsily
adorable teenage girl. "But what about our camaraderie? The trials and
tribulations we've experienced together? All the people we've met? All
the kicks to the crotch that I've suffered? Don't tell me that was all
for naught!"

Yahiko harrumphed. "I won't tell you that, but you know it's true.
Besides which, you deserved all those things you went through. Minoe
and I didn't... or at least, I think Minoe had nothing to do with it."

The young samurai blinked. "Anyway, where is Minoe? I thought he was
with you when I tried to lose you guys back in the restaurant. Good
thing you were able to pay him back for the meat buns you've
unthinkingly eaten. You should be thanking him _and_ apologizing to him
for all his sacrifices."

Gan scratched his temple. "Patches had no change for a whole yen, so he
handed me my money back and asked me to help him get spare change from
you. I then lost him in the crowd when we went looking for you."

Yahiko raised an eyebrow at Gan. "You bastard. You just took the money
and left Minoe to rot, didn't you?"

Gan looked away and whistled not-so-innocently. "That's really not my
problem, kiddo. Actually, I even helped him find you when you suddenly
left us in the dust without so much as a good-bye. Not that I blame you
for bolting; I'm just noting a fact."

"You..." Yahiko fumed before letting out a choice string of expletives
that ended with, "jerk! Are you trying to blame me for something you're
responsible for? Unbelievable." He turned his head away from Gan and
snorted. "Why am I still even talking to you? I'm going now. If
anything, you should follow Minoe and _find a way_ to pay your debt to
him!"

Yahiko immediately ran off, leaving the Flabbergasted Gan to contemplate
his responsibilities.


***


Later still, just beyond the gates of Yahiko's intended destination...

"Hi there, Yoshi-boy!" Gan waved to Yahiko at the entrance of Akahori's
(formerly Tani's) large mansion, the whole front yard teeming with
Yokohama, Gunma, Tokyo, and Shinshu Police as well as several armies of
hired goons for good measure. Indeed, Gan fit right in with the sea of
weapon-wielding, chopstick-chewing, no good sons of guns.

"...." Yahiko glowered. "What the hell are you doing here, Gan?"

"I followed your advice and went to find Patches," Gan happily divulged.

Yahiko crossed his arms, unconvinced. "And?"

"Coincidentally, the guy Patches kept talking about... his Raiden-sempai
or whoever... is the leader of a group called the Togakudan; spies that
helped the Bakufu safeguard their information sixteen years ago during
the Bakumatsu. They're the ones Akahori hired to do a background check
on this newly formed Battousai Group. Imagine that."

Yahiko proceeded to throttle the big dumb oaf. "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM
ME, YOU OVERGROWN FREAK! Look, I'm sure you're a swell guy... I guess,
give or take a few--a _lot_ of quirks and your gambling problem, sure...
but you've been nothing but trouble ever since I met you! I was nearly
slashed to death three weeks ago because of some stupid misunderstanding
with an insane swordsman, and then I was faced with you and your
androgynous chicken! I'm tired, hungry, sleepless, and over the edge!
Don't push me, Gan! Don't push me!"

"You're welcome! Man, I do a guy a favor, and _this_ is the thanks I
get?" Gan halfheartedly complained as he picked his nose, which prompted
Yahiko to try choking him harder. However, the boy was too exhausted to
inflict the same damage Chizuru and the fish vendor managed.

"Yahiko-chi! Gan-chi!" Minoe greeted Yahiko from behind, which made the
samurai jump right into Gan's arms like a blushing bride-to-be. The boy
certainly kept the blushing part of the awkward visual once he realized
what he'd just done. 

"What the...? Were you two raised in a barn or something? Don't sneak up
on people like that!" Yahiko protested to Minoe as he brusquely got off
his awkwardly intimate closeness with the amused Gan. "And you, stop
smirking!"

Yahiko was about to go into another drawn-out tirade when he saw Minoe's
scuffed-up and bruised face. The black eye was particularly noticeable.
"Oh man. What the hell happened to you?"

Minoe waved off Yahiko's concern and overlooked the guilty glance Gan
gave him. "It's really my fault that Raedo-sempai did this to me. Not
only did I _not_ deliver the meat buns on time, I was also late in
reporting back to my post. I always end up like this because of my
absentmindedness; when we went off into our misadventure with Sano-chi,
I've kind of forgotten myself again. Don't worry about it; I mostly
deserve this punishment."

Before Yahiko could beg to differ, pointing out Gan's (and, avowedly,
his own) partial responsibility, the bandanna-wearing gambler beat him
to the punch, stating, "Who did this to you, Patches? Some guy named
Raiden, right?"

"Wha--Hey, Gan! Don't tell me that you're going to beat up the guy who
beat Minoe up! You're just going to make things worse!" Yahiko blurted
out in warning, but Gan wasn't listening.

"Minoe! What are you doing there? Get back to your post!" a bearded man
who wore the same purple and blue outfit Minoe sported called out, and
Gan immediately pounced on him, holding him up in the air and
disjointedly shouting, "Are you Raiden? Are you the one who beat up
Patches? Tell me!"

The man squirmed underneath Gan's grasp. "Raiden? Patches? Who the hell
are they? My name's Ichiro! Let go of me! Respect your elders, you fat,
idiotic lout!"

Yahiko and Minoe were too distracted by Gan's antics to notice the punch
that came flying towards the timid, eye-patch-wearing man. "Are these
the little boys you were playing with yesterday, Minoe? Tsk, tsk. And
here I thought you learned your lesson. Maybe I should beat it right
into head again, eh?"

Gan let go of his unshaven captive and turned sharply towards the
newcomer, with Yahiko following suit. Just like Ichiro and Minoe, the
lanky yet muscular man was dressed in a similar fashion, complete with
decorative bandages. He held a bokuto on one hand and wore a self-
satisfied smirk on his face. "You got a nice look on you, fatso. Are you
going to swear vengeance upon me for beating up this retard or
something?"

Grinding his teeth, Gan stepped forward and cracked his knuckles at the
arrogant man. "You're Raiden, I suppose?"

The man's lip curled in puzzlement. "No, that's not my name."

Gan nodded before traipsing to the other side of the humongous residence
where more of the purple-gi-wearing Togakudan were hanging out,
intending to discover where "Raiden" actually was. 

Though still a bit nonplussed by Gan's unbelievable stupidity, Yahiko
was desensitized enough to move towards the Togakudan bully and ask,
"You're _Raedo_-sempai, right?" as he felt an odd sense of familiarity
fill him up from inside his gut.

Raedo huffed. "Who wants to know?"

"Myojin Yahiko, Tokyo Samurai," Yahiko confidently declared as he
gripped the handle of his cloth-wrapped sakabatou and gave the
despicable man a cursory once-over. 

"I'm Nagaoka Suzuki, but people here know me as Togakudan's Raedo-
aniki," Raedo introduced himself while Yahiko's breathing became shallow
and strained. The supposed Nagaoka then rubbed his fist mockingly at
the cowed Minoe's head. "Not Raedo-chi, not Raedo-tan. I'm glad Minoe
was able to settle for Raedo-sempai, but that's still wrong! I strongly
suspect that your friend here is a couple of eggs shy of a dozen."

The teenager tried really hard to keep himself from doing what Gan meant
to do earlier, gripping his weapon's pommel tight, but he was perturbed
nonetheless by how this Suzuki Nagaoka character acted a lot like a
certain Mikio Nagaoka--the man who forced Tsubame to almost commit
robbery for the sake of an antiquated custom of, in Yahiko's eyes,
enslavement. "Do you know Mikio?"

Raedo perked up and familiarly slapped Yahiko's shoulder, much to the
boy's surprise and distaste. "Cousin Mikio from Tokyo! How is he doing,
by the way? Was he your drinking buddy or were you one of his gang
members? He gets into so much trouble nowadays! Hahahaha!" The Togakudan
Leader talked about his relative as though he were describing the
precocious actions of an infant.

Yahiko considered punching the dissonantly amiable Raedo's face--not
only for Minoe's sake, but also to uphold his principles--when Gan came
barreling back to the fray and confronted the Shinshu Nagaoka. "You lied
to me! You are _so_ the Raiden-sempai who beat my buddy, Patches, up!"

"Who the hell's lying, you big slab of dumb? My name isn't Raiden, you
ignorant piece of shit," Raedo threateningly cursed as he glared yakuza-
style at the big slab of dumb. He afterwards backed away as the ignorant
piece of shit towered over him by a good foot or so.

"Whatever your name is, the bottom line here is that you beat Patches
up," Gan gravely spoke as he lifted the kneeling Minoe down by the
scruff of his collar and presented him to Raedo like a one-eyed kitten.
"I don't like that. I don't like it when people suffer because of the
things I've done."

Yahiko choked on his spit at that one. Gan possessed about twice as many
contradictions as Kenshin had enemies, the Tokyoite reckoned.

Unmoved, Raedo raised a bushy eyebrow at Gan and challenged, "What are
you going to do about it, then? Eh, big boy?"

To Yahiko and Minoe's surprise, instead of throttling the vile excuse
for a human being, Gan put the eye-patched man aside, dropped to his
knees, and bowed in front of Raedo. "It's not his fault! You should kick
my ass instead! I have the money to pay you back for those stupid meat
buns and a little extra, so stop hurting the poor guy!"

Raedo nonchalantly shrugged, snapped his fingers to call the nearest of
the Togakudan, then everyone proceeded to stomp a mud hole into Gan's
bloated innards. Unfortunately, much to Yahiko's amazement, ten people
against one wasn't enough to even faze the boulder-like hooligan.

'No wonder my techniques weren't working on that idiot! It's like he's
too stupid to realize he's in pain! Are crotch kicks his only weakness?'
the boy reflected, half-tempted to help out his luckless acquaintance,
and half-enticed to join in on the beat-down. 

Little did Yahiko know that Gan was used to getting beat up whenever he
couldn't pay his food bill, seemingly taking in all the bad karma that
fellow food bandit Sanosuke Sagara was immune to. 

Gan went from district to district in the same old rut, falling in love
with girls who wouldn't want anything to do with him and forcing himself
to gamble and drown his sorrows in alcohol time and again in order to
subsist. 

Which was why he was amazed that Yahiko and Minoe were able to break his
cycle of doom, making him somewhat indebted enough to kind of pay his
food debt for the first time in a long time, helping him sort of win a
cockfight, and generally stopping--or at least interrupting--the
downward spiral of his life.

Alas, Gan got a surprise of his own when Raedo decided, "You know what?
On second thought, I don't want to beat you up. Beating up someone like
you is too boring for my tastes; it isn't worth it," and suddenly did a
roundhouse kick to Minoe's jaw. 

"DAMN!" both Yahiko and Gan exclaimed as Minoe dropped to the ground
like a sack of hammers.

"Bastard," Yahiko bristled, but Gan merely pushed the boy away and used
his own body to block Raedo's next few kicks and punches. "Beat _me_ up
and stop picking on Patches, dammit! I deserve it!"

"You mustn't do this, Gan-chi! It's all right! I'm used to this. I
deserve this. Please, don't impede my punishment any longer! You'll only
make Raedo-sempai angrier!"

"No. Beat me up instead," Yahiko requested to Raedo with a glare that
promised each and every last punch and kick he and his two friends
received would be paid back to the smug Nagaoka in full.

Raedo looked at Yahiko quizzically, sighed, and observed with a crooked
smile, "I thought you'd be a lot 'cooler' than this, Myojin Yahiko.
You're not really buddies with my cousin, are you? Mikio must have
kicked your pasty ass from Tokyo to Hokkaido with that kind of lame
attitude of yours. You're pathetic."

With another snap of his fingers, the head of the Togakudan called off
his gang of hoodlums, then offhandedly told Minoe, "Meet us at the
ballroom hall at around eight or so. There will be a meeting. Don't be
late from playing with your life partners or something."

"Y-Yes, Raedo-sempai!" Minoe managed to say in between gurgling spurts
of blood in his mouth, amazed that Raedo didn't push the issue of
battering him and his newfound friends any further.


***


Next: Gathering clouds.

Misao's paraphrased (and harsh) "You are not my boyfriend!" quote
came from "My Life as a Teenage Robot", which is one of the most
underrated shows ever made. Also, the little plot point of Gan
doing a trademark Nuhiro Obaga greet-from-behind-then-get-smacked
skit was taken straight from "The Rurouni's Guide to Idiocy" by
Rurouni Gochan. All rights reserved. Would you believe that those
gags are actually important plot points?

Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others) 
are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki and Sony. Don't sue
me please, I'm very poor.

Maraming salamat po sa pagbabasa!
Abdiel