[FFML] [fic][rk][cont][rewrite] Rurouni Yahiko Chapter 3: Village Under Siege

[Abdiel]

Yahiko was all prepared to leave Tokyo when his journey of manhood,
independence, and coming of age suddenly came to a screeching halt just
outside the Kamiya Dojo's gates.

"Did I startle you?" Tsubame inquired apologetically, as opposed to her
usual outright apologies that were, to Yahiko's distaste, a bit _too_
profuse.

"No. I'm just surprised that you came here," Yahiko confessed, rubbing
the back of his head. "What _are_ you doing here? I promised you that,
no matter what, I'm still going to meet you at the Akabeko first thing
before I leave, didn't I?" 

"I... I just w-wanted to give you this before you go," Tsubame shyly
professed.

"A red string?" Yahiko blinked confusedly as he took the peculiar gift.
"Thanks. I think."

Tsubame blushed hard as she took the red string back and kneeled down.

"Huh?" Yahiko blurted. "Tsubame, what are you...?"

The youth went silent as the teenaged girl started tying the string
tightly on his sandals. 'This is just like the first time we met.'

Tsubame smiled as she got up. "It's so you'll never forget, Yahiko-kun.
I hope you'll find what you're looking for, so do have a safe trip!" she
urged optimistically.

Yahiko grinned in kind, turning quickly lest he risk letting Tsubame see
his reddened face. He directed a sidelong glance towards her. "Tsubame."

"Y-Yes?" Tsubame choked as her heart got caught in her throat. It was a
familiar anxiety, but an ultimately welcome nervousness.

"The address I got from the post office was the Akabeko's instead of the
Kamiya Dojo's. I'm entrusting you the task of getting the letters
delivered to Kenshin, Kaoru, and Kenji. Good-bye."

"But why would you do that if it would be easier to mail--" her words
were cut off as Yahiko looked at her with clear brown eyes that spoke 
volumes.

Tsubame nodded timidly to Yahiko, putting up a brave and hopeful face.
"Thank you." There was no need for more words as the girl gazed at the 
retreating figure of her beloved. The scene was simplicity itself.

Spring had finally arrived, continuing the never-ending cycle.


________________________________________________________________________


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

The first plot point is fast approaching.

________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 3: Village Under Siege
________________________________________________________________________



"Kaoru-san! Kenji-chan! Kenshin-san! They're here! They're here!" one
very excited Tsubame Sanjo exclaimed, clutching a white envelope.
"Yahiko-kun's letters are here!"

"Hold on a minute, Tsubame-chan. It's two-o'clock in the afternoon. Your
shift at the Akabeko ends at four," Kaoru lightly admonished. "Tae-san
isn't a very strict person, but still, you--"

"I'm sorry," Tsubame regretfully pouted, making Kaoru trail off. "I told
Tae-san about the letter, so she agreed to give me the rest of the day
off just so I could deliver it to everyone here. Besides, Yahiko-kun
would definitely want all of us to read his letters together."

"Hooray! We got a letter fwom big bwotha!" Kenji blissfully put his head
on his mother's lap, an impish smile on his face. "Wead it, mama."

Kaoru resolutely sighed, remarking, "Well, now; I guess that settles
that. Hopefully, Yahiko's writing has improved quite a bit since the
last time he wrote unreadable drivel."

"That's too harsh, Kaoru-san." Tsubame tilted her head to the side,
remembering something. "Um, where is Kenshin-san?"

Kenji quickly sat up straight, frowning as he crossed his arms, making
clucking noises with his tongue the same way his mama always did. "Daddy
always wuins things fo us."

Kaoru playfully tickled Kenji's side as she responded to Tsubame's
question. "He's out at the back of the dojo doing laundry. He claims the
exercise helps keep his dizzy spells at bay."

"Oh, he still has those?" Tsubame asked worriedly. After all, from what
Kaoru narrated to her three months ago, those dizzy spells almost cost
Kenshin his life. "What did the doctor say about them?"

"The doctor blames it all on nausea and stress, but he did say that
it'll probably be best if I got a second opinion," Kaoru contemplatively
related, her eyebrows furrowed in concern. "But lately, Kenshin has been
able to handle the recent bouts with his daily regimen, so I think it'll
be all right."

Tsubame nodded sympathetically before she gave Kaoru a look of sudden
panic. "Kaoru-san, where's Kenji?"

"ACK!" Kaoru yelped in surprise. "He was here a moment ago!"

"It's okay. He's with me," Kenshin reassured, forthwith appearing in
front of the two bemused females. His hands and hakama were still wet
from all his laundering. "This little one wanted to get the 'letter 
reading' started as soon as possible," he revealed, pointing at his son
as the tyke steadfastly clamped onto his left leg.

"This's impowtant!" Kenji reminded indignantly.

Tsubame and Kaoru laughed in unison. "Yes, yes. We should already stop
delaying. Let's read my idiot apprentice's letter," Kaoru quipped in
between giggles.

"Hey, you're beginning to sound like Master Hiko," Kenshin idly noted,
which earned him a pinch on his cross-scarred cheek by one very
irritated Kenji. "No mo delays! We wead now!"

Kaoru chortled some more as she affectionately ruffled Kenji's ginger
hair. "Fine, fine! You win, Kenji." She proceeded to unfold and peruse
Yahiko's letter. "'Hello all. It has been three months since I left
Tokyo. Y'know what? It was a mostly...'"


***


'Boring trip. Nothing's happening. Boredom killing me faster than a
maddened, nerve-hypertrophied Enishi ever could,' Yahiko mused to
himself as the heat and humidity of the midday sun exhausted him. After 
spending what little money he had traveling to the province--somewhere
in Nagano, he vaguely remembered--he had to walk the rest of the way.
With the humid weather, repetitive surroundings, and a lack of things to
amuse himself with, walking was mostly a bad idea.

Yahiko looked through the slit of his recently acquired woven straw hat.
A pensive look crossed his features. 'Takae-san; your family did say
that I could keep this kabuto of yours as a memento of sorts. I hope you
don't mind my using it in this heat.'

He looked around. As expected, most of the people with even half a brain
had already gone indoors, leaving him all alone to mind the annoying
heat and the dust that was now irritatingly caking his sweaty skin like
mud frosting. 'Eh. It's a humid and windy day. No, not just that. It's a
humid, windy, and boring day. Can things get any worse?'

As if on cue, an irate-looking Kaoru straightaway stormed out of what
appeared to be a local law enforcement office... or a postal office...
perhaps a doctor's office? It was hard to tell with all the houses in
the backwater village looking exactly the same.

Right then and there, Yahiko abruptly forgot how to breathe.

Yahiko blinked once. He then blinked twice. By the third blink, the
eerie phantom had gone past him, fuming. He did a double-take, then a
triple-take. He rubbed his eyes. He considered pinching himself, but
that would have been silly of him.

'What the heck is Kaoru doing here?' he ultimately questioned in his
head, wondering if she were some sort of hallucination. But he wasn't
"out of it" like the time he searched for a "misplaced" Kenji the entire
night. Besides, he reasoned, if worse came to worst, then the phantom
Kaoru would probably try to hit him with a stray slipper. That was
nothing new.

The young kendo master was about to say something when the ethereal
image of Kaoru swiftly walked towards his general direction, a familiar
glare aimed at his person. He decided that the best course of action was
to shut up, like how one would play dead when a dangerous bear appeared
before him.

"Do you know what the police just said to _me_, young man with the weird
hat? They told me to get lost! They had some nerve! Wait till my
grandfather in Tokyo hears about this! I'll have them know that Raikouji
Muneiwa has many connections in the capital!" The phantasm subsequently
throttled the dumbstruck Yahiko. "Just because Suwa is in the middle of
nowhere doesn't excuse those lazy cops for being lax! AARRRRRGGH!"

"Urk! Hey, get a hold of yourself, lady!" Yahiko nearly choked, not
knowing what else to do. 'If this isn't Kaoru, then I don't know who
this--Wait, she mentioned something about a Raikouji fellow.' The young
boy slammed his fist on his open palm. "Hey, lady; did you say Raikouji
Muneiwa? Old man Raikouji, the foreign goods trader?"

The girl became visibly calm as she heard the name. "Yup, that's what I
said." She brightened. "Wow! You're from Tokyo? Then you know my
grandfather?"

Yahiko shrugged as he began putting two and two together. "We used to
buy imported rice from him." He gave the girl a once over. 'Man, she's
the spitting image of Kaoru. It's almost scary.' To the woman, he
commented, "I didn't know he had a daughter."

The girl raised an eyebrow at that. "It's _granddaughter_, you brat.
Tokyo was getting a bit too crowded for my tastes, so I moved here. I
visit grandpa from time to time, though." The twenty-something female
paused. "Excuse me. I have more important things to attend to."

Yahiko didn't really feel like prying, so he let the woman go.


***


"Look-alike? Maybe I've misread something." Kaoru reread the tentatively
stroked characters again.

Tsubame shyly peeked over Kaoru's shoulder. "It says right there, 'She
looks like the,' um, 'old hag.'"

Kaoru scoffed. "Maybe what he meant to say was, 'She looked like an old
hag.'" She preened herself. "There's no way that a kenjutsu beauty like
myself would ever have a double. I'm one of a kind!"

Kenshin perspired in chagrin. 'So Raikouji's daughter is somewhere in
that province.' He looked at Kaoru, his features bearing a remarkable 
resemblance to that of a lost puppy.

"Honey, what's with that look?" Kaoru inquired with half-lidded eyes and
a raised eyebrow.

'She does look like her! Perhaps they were twins separated at birth?'
Kenshin idly wondered.

Kaoru heaved an exasperated sigh as she tossed her hair to the side.
"Kenji, don't do that to your father."

Kenji sniggered merrily. "It kind of looks good on him!" From the other
side of the room, Tsubame restrained a chuckle.

"Oro?" Kenshin mumbled, unaware of the cute blue ribbon that was now 
tied to his hair in a neat bow.


***


Halfway inside the village, Yahiko felt a tap on his shoulder.

The Kaoru look-alike introduced herself. "By the way, my name's Chizuru!
Nice to meet you!" 

Yahiko visibly bigsweated.

'I thought she had something urgent to do. What a weird woman,' Yahiko
reflected with a droll smirk. "The name's Yahiko. Myojin Yahiko," he
revealed mainly because he assumed he was supposed to.

"My, my. You look like a strapping young lad," Chizuru observed,
casually fingering Yahiko's chin. "Maybe you could help me clear his
name." She nodded to herself sagely, adding, "Stupid bunch of cowardly,
paranoid hicks; blaming the poor man for all their troubles."

"Clear whose name, lady?" Yahiko inquired none-too-gently as he slowly
got annoyed by the woman's haughty demeanor. "Look, it's not as if I'm 
traveling at my own leisure and delight here like some happy-go-lucky
tourist, you know. I have places to go, training halls to train in,
techniques to improve--" 

Chizuru clasped her hands excitedly. "Really? Dojo? Techniques? Then you
must be some sort of traveling martial artist! That's perfect! What's
that long, wrapped package you're carrying? Is it some sort of
specialized bokuto?"

Yahiko deftly swung the cloth-wrapped sakabatou away from the strange
woman's reach. "Like I said, I have no time for this. I have to go."

Chizuru rambled on as if she had not heard anything Yahiko just
disclosed. "Oh, this is perfect! With a martial artist backing me up,
then maybe these village idiots will listen. They'll learn that the
Battousai isn't a bad person."

Yahiko did his double-to-triple-take for a second time. "You didn't just
say 'Battousai' now, did you?"

Chizuru nodded indifferently. "Yes, I did. I don't suppose you have some
sort of hearing impediment, do you?"

Yahiko grunted and seethed. "What are they saying about Battousai?"

"Oh, horrible things! Unfounded rumors and lies! Like how he'd finally
turned up now after years of anonymity, his plans to oust the Meiji
Government because his theories of isolationism conflicted with their
beliefs, him being evil--that sort of stuff."

Chizuru shook her head in dismay as Yahiko listened in rapt attention.
"Probably the most dumbfounding and unbelievable information I've heard
is that Battousai is already somewhere around this district right now,
planning an _announced_ assassination attempt on one of the premiere
members of the Daijokan."

Yahiko nodded in understanding. "Where'd you get all of this
information?"

Chizuru shrugged. "By word of mouth. The news spread like wildfire
within this small village and the other towns surrounding it. The
ignorant masses, typically, lapped it all up, adding their own token
Battousai horror stories." She crossed her arms in disapproval.
"Battousai isn't really like that. The vagabond could never bring
himself to do such blatant acts of terrorism."

Chizuru bit her lip as she continued. "He may look like a swordsman, but
he didn't act like one at all. He was... is... a peaceful, nonviolent
man who only fights when provoked and has a habit of getting his nose
into situations where people are in need."

She looked a bit pensive as a wave of nostalgia hit her. "And, aside
from the cosmetic stuff like the cross-shaped scar on his left cheek and
the longish red hair, he also had the weirdest speech pattern. The one
thing that I did remember about him was his continuous use of the
word--"


***


"Oro!"

Kenshin, Master of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, a school that trained the
user to have superhuman "divine speed" and an incredible reaction time
that came along with it, was hastily and easily strangled by a very
irate Kaoru Kamiya.

"You weren't fooling around with a look-alike of me on the side, were
you, Kenshin?" Kaoru bristled as she pointed accusatorily at Yahiko's
letter as if it were Kenshin's love child. "How did that strange woman
know you so well? She may be Raikouji-san's daughter, but if ever you
cheated on me with her...!"

"B-But sweetheart, you haven't even met her! Oh, I feel faint! It must
be another dizzy spell!" Kenshin sputtered in spiral-eyed bewilderment
as Kaoru shook him like a very shakable thing. 

As Tsubame looked at the marital dispute in amused bemusement, she felt
an insistent tug upon her uniform. It was Kenji, crawling on all fours,
giving her an urgent look.

"Please wead the letter. Daddy did something stupid again, so mama's
gonna be busy choking him. I don't wanna distuwb her any."

"Okay, Kenji-chan. Now let's see. Ah," Tsubame started, "'With such a
persuasive portrayal of Kenshin, I was convinced that the tanuki
doppelganger was telling the truth...'"


***


Yahiko considered Chizuru's words. "I see. So you know who Kenshin is?"

"Who?" Chizuru asked, puzzled.

Yahiko sighed. "I mean, you've already met Battousai the Vagabond,
right?"

Chizuru nodded in assent. Yes. Yes I did. So you've also heard about
Battousai's misadventures as a gentle wanderer of sorts, haven't you? I
can attest to you firsthand that Battousai isn't really all that bad as
people claim him to be, and those stories about him being a gentle
rurouni are all partly true. Except for that one story about him
fighting a living corpse with a flaming sword, which is just plain
ridiculous."

Yahiko sweatdropped at Chizuru's statement. "Uh... right."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go and convince those idiots that 
Battousai isn't really their enemy!" Chizuru prodded as she heedlessly
pushed Yahiko towards the direction of the town square.

"Hey! I didn't say anything about helping you out!" Yahiko protested.
"Besides, if the ignorant masses prefer to remain ignorant, who are we
to stop them? Let them believe what they want to believe!"

Chizuru hesitated for a minute, a deep scowl marring her features as she
gave Yahiko "The Look". She wasn't exactly aware of what "The Look" was
and how it functioned when it came to dealing with Yahiko, but the boy
himself was all too familiar with it.

It was a look of half-dissatisfaction and half-disappointment--with just
a touch of disparagement--that Kaoru gave Yahiko whenever he became
"supremely arrogant" or "incredibly insensitive". Simply put, it was a
look that really, really annoyed and bothered Yahiko to no end, and a
reprimand or speech usually followed it shortly.

Well, the fact that the Kaoru clone did a complete facsimile of "The
Look" grated Yahiko's nerves in ways a repeated "Yahiko-chan"
appellation from Tsubame would.

"What do you want from me, you old hag?" Yahiko couldn't help but
challenge.

Chizuru visibly tried to compose herself first before speaking. "Young
man, you may have not noticed, but this entire village is under siege. A
group of people claiming to be in cahoots with the Battousai is
terrorizing this neighborhood, and all the villagers are either too
scared or too apathetic to do anything. Furthermore, the police seem
more concerned about the safety of one Ishin Shishi politician to even
care about what'll happen to this village. Well, _I_ do care, so even if
you won't help me, I won't let this village fall into their hands
without a fight."

Yahiko regarded the mature woman in a new light. "Okay, old hag; what do
you want me to do?" A slipper hit him on the face.

"First of all, rude boy, I have a name! Call me by that name!" Chizuru
fumed. "Secondly, thanks. I'm not sure if you can help all that much,
Yahiko, but your assistance is very much appreciated! I won't let a
couple of rumors and badly dressed hooligans get the better of these
poor, hardworking people. Why, after all these years of--"

Yahiko rubbed his temples, his head on the verge of an oncoming
migraine. In fairness, it helped him conveniently ignore Chizuru's
tirade. 'Is this really a good idea?'


***


"Ah, it's good to see that this soba shop is still up-and-running," a
well-dressed young man of twenty-four years of age marveled, nodding to
the owner of the quaint little establishment as he inhaled the hot
vapors of the freshly cooked cuisine.

"It's partly because of you. Even with all these weird men running amok
and causing so many problems in this small village of ours, it's a
refreshing change of pace to see a cheerful young boy like you frequent
my restaurant. You're my heaven-sent angel."

"You're too kind," the young adult humbly stated as he carefully parted
his chopsticks and clasped his hands together in apparent thanksgiving
before he consumed his hot meal. He paid no heed to the fact that he was
the only customer inside the establishment, despite it already being
noontime and all. He liked eating lunch in quiet places.

"So how is your employer doing? It's 'Akahori-san', isn't it? From what
I heard, he'll be staying inside the manor just west of Suwa to address
the issues concerning the rampant money-laundering and incorrigible
corruption within the Daijokan, even though there were already those
weird--"

"Death threats?" the young lad finished for her, his tranquil smile
never leaving his face. "Akahori-san gets a lot of those. He's a very
influential and powerful man within the government ministries, so I
guess it's only natural; it's business as usual, even."

"I see. Oh, please do excuse me! I'm not a very good conversationalist
when it comes to politics," the middle-aged woman confessed. A
mischievous look crossed her features. "Though when it comes to other
matters... I've heard that you've become quite close to Akahori-san's
daughter, Miss--"

The young man slurped his soba noisily, really savoring its taste. "What
a great tasting soba! You spoil me at times, Sakaguchi-san," the
supposedly well-mannered young man happily interjected, admiring the
soba bowl as if it were made of gold.

Nonoko Sakaguchi held back a titter. 'Okay, okay. I'll stop teasing you
this time around. It's the least I can do for your recent continued
patronage.' To the charming young man, she commented, "It's good to see
you even happier than usual."

A flicker of wonderment crossed the twenty-four-year-old boy's cherubic
eyes. "Happier, Sakaguchi-san?"

The older woman nodded, grinning. "You always seem to smile, but lately,
somehow, there seems to be a reason behind your smiles. Trust me, a
woman knows these sort of things. It's in our inborn intuition." She
winked mischievously at him.

The young man smiled enigmatically at that statement. "Maybe." He
afterwards blinked as he remembered something that was bothering him
ever since he went into the eatery. "Where's Kyoko-san? She's usually
the one serving me the soba."

"Oh, I had her go to the wet market to buy me some groceries," the elder 
Sakaguchi offhandedly answered.

Just then, a raucous tumult unexpectedly exploded just outside of the
refectory as a lively pair made their way inside the nearly vacant
establishment.

"Do this, do that; y'know what? You're very demanding, raccoon-woman!"

"It's Chizuru, you jerk! CHI-ZU-RU! I am not a mythical forest creature,
I am not an old crone, I'm just me! Stop giving me all these stupid
nicknames!"

"What? More customers? Oh, it's Chizuru-san! And she brought a friend.
That's good," Nonoko appraised as she looked apprehensively at the
boisterous couple. "Chizuru-san hasn't made many friends in our village
ever since she moved here. She just rubbed everyone off wrong. Oh,
leaving already?"

The young adult bowed courteously at the restaurant owner. "I have to
get going. I have some very important assignments to do. Thank you for
the meal," he expressed as he left some bills and loose change on his
table.

The adolescent passed by the argumentative duo at the eatery's entrance,
giving the young man with the spiky hair the briefest of glances before
making his way out. Feeling the older boy's stare, the younger boy
stared back, only to see the guy's back turned at him as he left.

'What a weird guy,' Yahiko idly observed before he went back to
retorting Chizuru's most recent jibes.

The young man smiled--a blissful, idyllic smile--as he left the
restaurant.


***


"That soba lady sure was nice to give us some extra servings since
_some_ of us are too cheap to buy some more," Yahiko casually needled as
he patted his full stomach. "Raikouji-san is a generous fellow. I can't
believe you two are actually related."

"You ungrateful brat! After I fed you, you say such things? I only get
just enough money from grandpa, so shut your mouth before saying such
insensitive comments!" Chizuru snapped. "Besides, what's with this 'soba
lady' thing? You have a very bad habit of nicknaming every other person
you see!"

"Oh, come on. You're too uptight," Yahiko scoffed. He stopped as he eyed
a group of men walking arrogantly across the street. "Tsk. Who do those
men think they are? The Shinsengumi?"

Before Yahiko could protest, he was brusquely dragged away by a very
alarmed Chizuru. Hidden in a narrow alleyway, she clamped her hand over
his mouth as the party passed them by.

"What the hell was that all about?" Yahiko hissed in a discreet manner.
"Who are those guys anyway? Yakuza?"

"No. Worse. They're terrorists."

Yahiko boggled in shock. "Terrorists?"

Chizuru nodded. "They claimed that they're here because of the
Battousai; their group is allegedly affiliated with him." She glared
holes at the passing troop. "But really, they're just two-bit thugs who
clambered up the Battousai bandwagon. I hate those hypocrites."

Yahiko's brow furrowed in deliberation. "So what about the police? Can't
they do anything about it?" he queried, reflexively backing away as
Chizuru fumed.

"That was what I was trying to do a while ago. I wanted those men
arrested, but the police kept saying that their hands were tied; what
was left of them in the police station, anyway." She clenched her teeth
in anger.

She continued. "The police said that the most they could do was issue a
warrant against them for loitering and trespassing. But that's just a
cover-up! Some of those guys are wearing real swords, and not just sword
canes! But what's worse..."

Chizuru rubbed her eyes. "What's worse is that the people here are too
scared to act; too scared to take matters into their own hands. I feel
both pity and annoyance at the same time for their plight."

"Hey, get a grip on yourself, Chizuru," Yahiko anxiously urged. 'As long
as there're people like you in this village, then there's still hope.'

Chizuru gave Yahiko an astonished look before she altogether smiled.

Yahiko went slack-jawed in bewildered confusion. "What?"

"It's the first time you called me by my name," Chizuru pointed out,
grinning. "You can be sweet when you want to."

A girlish screech was heard, taking the duo out of their brief moment of
sympathy.

"It sounded like it came from near the wet market!" Chizuru exclaimed.
"I wonder who's the poor girl that... Hey! Yahiko? Where are you going?
Yahiko!"


***


"Please, mister. Let me pass," a young girl of seventeen years of age
carrying a wicker basket full of vegetables and foodstuff politely
entreated to the gathering hoodlums around her, cornering her in a dead
end.

"You're the daughter of that soba woman. Sakaguchi, right? Well, aren't
you the cutie?" one of the ruffians drawled, leering. "You've become
quite the woman now. Why don't you play with us, little missy?"

The young woman had just started to turn away when the goon slammed his
palm hard against the wooden wall behind her. "Hey! Don't be rude! You
should pay attention to your elders when they speak! It's the polite
thing to do!" he barked.

The very same ruffian was violently yanked out of the way, landing face-
first on the dirt road. The teenaged girl looked up timidly at her
savior, only to recoil in disgust.

"The presence of Kyoko-chan is wasted upon the likes of you," a muscular
man, apparently the leader of the group, growled to his comrade's fallen
form. "Are you okay, my dear?"

Kyoko slapped the man's hand away, giving him a steadfast glare. "Please
go away, Keisuke-san."

The man identified as Keisuke guffawed with reckless abandon. "You send
me away with such venom in your voice and daggers in your eyes, yet you
still say 'please'. You haven't changed a bit, my dear. You're still as
lovable and endearing as ever."

Keisuke insolently cupped Kyoko's chin with his right hand, easily
invading the girl's personal space. "Ah. Sakaguchi Kyoko, daughter of
the common copper Sakaguchi Satoru. It's too bad that your cripple of
a father was reassigned in another district. On the other hand, it's
better that way. He doesn't have to get hurt again."

Through her cold glare, Kyoko retorted, "It's a good thing for you that
he's gone too. Your broken nose doesn't have to get stitched again."

Keisuke slapped the young girl hard as he shouted at his hooting
underlings to shut up. "You're playing hard to get again, Kyoko-chan.
You know I hate that. You should just give it to me now."

"Gladly," was what Keisuke heard before he was dropped like a bad
habit beside the thug he cowed earlier. The other people in the group
drew their swords as they backed away from their unexpected aggressor.

"You're the fearsome terrorists I've heard so much about? Don't make me
laugh. You're no better than common street gangs and yakuza, hiding in
the safety of your designated group while bullying teenage girls. You're
all pathetic," Yahiko lamented as he protectively helped the frazzled
girl up.

Kyoko curtly smacked Yahiko's hand away in the same manner she did with
Keisuke. "Mister, I don't know who you are, but please mind your own
business."

Yahiko gazed numbly at Kyoko as the surrounding thugs taunted him with
jeers of "That's right!" and "Go home, dipshit!" He continued to stare
blankly in space as the older girl stood up and ran from the
dumbfounding scene.

Doors were opened and gates were unlatched as random people heckled
Yahiko from all sides.

"Who is that outsider?"

"He should mind his own business."

"What does he know?"

"He's only making trouble."

"If Battousai ever found out about this..."

"Go away, outsider! Go home! Go home!"

"GO HOME!"

Repeated cries of "GO HOME!" echoed across the narrow landscape of the
small village, overwhelming Yahiko in shock and humiliation.

Chizuru appeared from the side, taking Yahiko's arm, screaming, "What
are you standing here for, moron? Run away!"

Yahiko looked listlessly at the derisive villagers and the hooting
group of thugs as he was dragged away from the mortifying scene.


***


"Now you fully realize my problem. How can I save a village that doesn't
want to be saved? As you can see, they're all apathetic about the
situation at hand, like the way you are right now. HEY, ARE YOU EVEN
LISTENING?" Chizuru demanded.

Yahiko continued to stare into space. A miasma of bad memories appeared
inside his distracted mind; reminiscences of things that he thought he
had gotten over in the passage of time.

Rejection.

"What a weird boy. All he ever talks about is his dead father."

"Did you hear? That kid's mother is in the pleasure district!"

"How dirty! It's no wonder that he doesn't have any friends."

"Go home. We don't want to play with you."

"Go home. Go home. GO HOME!"

"I don't want to go home!" Yahiko half-screamed to himself as he grasped
Chizuru's arms tightly for balance. He paused for a bit before letting
her go, blushing. He muttered a haphazard, embarrassed apology.

Chizuru crossed her arms, unfazed. "Well then, if you don't want to go
home, then I'll presume that you also don't want to give up on our
little endeavor. Or am I mistaken and you were just spouting gibberish
from that little daydream of yours?"

'What am I doing? Getting distracted with something so stupid...' Yahiko
looked up at Chizuru, his voice completely serious. "I won't give up.
I'll never give up."

Chizuru smiled. "That's good to hear. Attaboy. But what are we going to
do now that you've ruined the villagers' first impression of you?"

Yahiko shrugged idly, his old confidence slowly returning. "I say let
them be. I don't care what they think. Let's just storm the hideout of
those supposed terrorists and then beat the crap out of them."

Chizuru slapped Yahiko soundly with a slipper. "Look, violence may work
well with yakuza and street gangs, but it just won't cut it with this
village!"

'You who just whapped me with a slipper could say such things?' Yahiko
thought indignantly.

"So what if you can beat the crap out of them? What'll you get from
doing that? If you truly did take the vagabond's stories to heart, then 
you'd know that he doesn't work that way!" Chizuru finished with a
flourish.

Yahiko gawked at Chizuru as he considered her stance carefully. 'Wow.
Her words are still as demeaning and presumptuous as ever, but she does
have a reasonable claim. Kenshin doesn't go around bullying people just
to prove a point. Is this the same crazy woman who throttled me a while
ago?'

"Tsk. Stop admiring my beauty so much and listen up," Chizuru teased
mischievously. "The only way we can do this correctly is to sway the
villager's general opinion. We can't force them, but we can try to
convince them. If we can only persuade just one of them--just one--then
it'll be enough."

"What's with this now?" Yahiko regarded his companion with open
confusion. "Just hours ago, you were ready to strangle each and every
one of those villagers. You called them a stupid bunch of yellow-
bellied, paranoid hicks. What's with the one-eighty?"

"Oh, that. Heh. Well, I hope you don't take it the wrong way, but I was
impressed with how the villagers collectively jeered at you. It may have
been a bit pathetic, but it's the first time I saw them do something
together. If only we can use that..."

Yahiko let out a feral snarl. "My nigh-traumatic humiliation gave you
faith in those cowardly rednecks? What sort of twisted reasoning is
that?"

Chizuru pouted playfully. "You're always so negative and angst-ridden.
You should relax a little. Come on, let's have a soba on me to cool down
your stressed nerves."


***


"I'm sorry. We're closed. Please go away," the soba shop owner pleaded
as she slid the door closed.

"Hey, I don't get it! Sakaguchi-san was so nice before. She even gave us
extra servings for free. What's with the cold shoulder?" Chizuru visibly
frowned as she walked away in a huff from the soba restaurant.

"Didn't you hear what the thugs mentioned before? The girl, she's the
soba shop owner's daughter."

"I already know that. I'm their family--Oh." Chizuru slapped her
forehead as she groaned. "So much for convincing even just one of them!
Well now, it looks like it's just you and me against the world... er,
village."

Yahiko exhaled a frustrated breath. 'So much for the sword that saves.
What good is it now? I can't draw my sword because it won't do me any
good. How can the sword save this village now?'

Two thoughts surfaced in Yahiko's mind; two seemingly unrelated notions
that were narrated to him in two different voices.

"Remember all the battles of your life. The battles you've seen with
your eyes. The battles you've heard with your ears. The battles you've
embraced with your own skill and all the battles you carry within you,"
one voice in his head lectured. It was Kenshin's voice.

"We can't force them, but we can try to convince them. If we can only
persuade just one of them--just one--then it'll be enough," another
voice in his head reminded. It was Chizuru's voice.

"That's it," Yahiko declared as his eyes brightened in understanding.
"Chizuru, you said that all it took for us to sway this village's
opinion is to convince just one villager, right? Well then," he patted
the older woman on the shoulder, "you're that one villager."

"Eh? Are you daft? That doesn't make any sense! I don't think these
people even remotely consider me as part of their community!" Chizuru
protested, bewildered. "How inane can you get?"

"This from a woman who was able to find faith in her so-called yellow-
bellied neighbors after they communally harassed me for helping a girl
in need? I must have gotten this sort of logic from you," Yahiko replied 
sardonically.

He persisted, stating, "C'mon, Chizuru. You're the wild card that's
going to change their minds about Battousai. We've been going about this
all wrong. The Battousai Group has been spreading around unfounded
rumors and lies that have confused the villagers; they have become
closed-minded and scared because they don't know who the true Battousai
is." Chizuru seemed to consider Yahiko's urgings.

"Let's go, lady. Tell me how you met Battousai the Vagabond. Or rather,"
Yahiko waved his arms around the surrounding area of the open veranda,
"you should tell _everyone_ more about the rurouni by _not_ ramming your
opinions down their throats. Just give it to them straight."

A foreboding hush fell on the surrounding area of the seemingly empty
village, but it wasn't by any means a deathly silence. Rather, it was
reticence filled with the ambiance of anticipation so thick, one could
cut a knife through it.

"Well," Chizuru started to recount, appearing somewhat embarrassed
although there weren't any visible people out there. She modulated her
voice slightly so it would become clearer. "It all began in Tokyo, six
years ago..."


***


"Let me read that!" Kaoru sputtered out as she let go of Kenshin, the
latter jiggling like a wind chime before fainting. Tsubame blinked; the
letter she was holding suddenly wasn't there anymore.

'How long was mama going at it?' Kenji casually mused as he looked at
his mother's excited state. 'I couldn't tell.'

"'She started with how Kenshin saved her from a group of thugs by--'"
Kaoru stopped momentarily as she read the sentence carefully. "'Running
away.' I knew it."

"Yes. That sounds exactly like Kenshin-san," Tsubame agreed.

"Daddy's a dummy," Kenji seconded.

Kenshin smiled self-effacingly. "Chizuru-dono was in trouble with rebels
who were disgruntled with the government. In such a situation, I only
did what I thought was right."

Kaoru gave Kenshin "The Look". "What's with the 'Chizuru-dono,'
Kenshin?" She then became pensive. "It says here, 'Six years ago.'
That's about the same year we met!" Unbidden, her eyes moistened with
tears. "T-Then you met her first? I-I'm the doppelganger to replace
_her_?"

Kenshin, despite all the philosophies he had learned about life and the
way of the sword, didn't quite know how to reply to that. He merely
decided to continue. "Her parents were killed during the Bakumatsu
because they got mixed up in a fight between a patriot and a supporter
of the Bakufu. Because of that, Raikouji-san became distrustful of
swordsmen in general."

"You mean Raikouji-san was actually suspicious of swordsmen? He seemed
awfully fond of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu philosophies and you in particular,"
Kaoru indicated, surprised.

"Well, you do remind him of his granddaughter too," Kenshin replied
cheerfully.

Kaoru scanned the letter again. "It says here that Chizuru was
kidnapped."

"Mama! Just wead it aloud! No mo butt-ins!"

"Okay. Hold your horses, Kenji-chan. Now where was I?"


***


"Now where was I? Oh yeah! So these perverts and lechers kidnapped me,
calling themselves the Forces of Heaven or something, and after that,
the rurouni showed up!" Chizuru detailed, really getting into her story,
not really caring whether or not people were listening to her. At the
very least, Yahiko would be the only one listening. That was enough for
her. It would be better that way, since the boy was no less than
appreciative of her stories of Battousai as she knew him.

"I told him to run away, but I was gagged at the time, so the moron
misunderstood what I was saying and challenged the gang." Chizuru shook
her head in remembrance. "He said some fancy things to them. He really
disputed their so-called ideals, looking as if he really knew what he
was talking about. But I still thought he was a total wimp and weakling,
so I was kind of afraid for his general safety. I mean, it looked like
he was out of his league, and there were--thirty? No, forty
fighters..."

"Hey, you're trailing off again," Yahiko warned, a bored expression on
his face.

"Hey, I'm setting up the atmosphere of the story! Stop interrupting me!"
the young adult argued. "Now then, the vagabond resolutely battled the 
criminals, and they all dropped like flies! I was so scared! The gentle
wanderer was actually a killer! A cold-blooded hitokiri!"

Before Yahiko could protest or complain, Chizuru pulled him by the
collar. Caught completely off-guard, the seemingly dawdling twenty-
something lady was able to take away the cloth-bundled sakabatou from
the boy. "What the hell are you doing, you crazy old hag?"

"Shush! You're ruining the moment! We need to visually demonstrate the
fight," Chizuru scolded. To her apparently nonexistent audience, she
announced, "So the leader and the vagabond-turned-murderer faced off
against each other, the cowardly boss wearing impenetrable black iron
armor to counter the former hitokiri's sharp blade."

She took off the cloth from Yahiko's sword. 'A-An actual sword? Boy,
good thing there aren't any police around here, or else he would have
been arrested,' she concluded. She drew the weapon's blade out of its
iron sheath. "So the vagabond, the legendary swordsman Battousai, drew
his assassin's blade and slashed at the black armor as if it were
nothing, killing the conceited kidnapper!"

She stopped mid-swing once she saw the sword's blade--the sakabatou's
reverse edge. Despite her surprise, she didn't miss a beat. "But as the
leader of the so-called Forces of Heaven group fell, lo and behold! The
rurouni revealed that his sword was actually a sakabatou! A sword with a
reverse edge! The hostage takers weren't killed; they were merely
incapacitated by the protector of the weak, the Battousai!"

She looked at an equally surprised Yahiko. "It's like the vagabond said.
It's a sword that can never kill." Her inflection of the statement was 
relatively the same as her tone of voice during the entire storytelling
session, but her inquiring eyes made it look as if she had said it in a 
perplexed tone.

"This sword isn't something that can kill," the vagabond divulged; a
statement that echoed in Chizuru's head as she held the curious weapon
with trembling hands.

'What is this guy doing with a reverse-edged sword? Is this the
wanderer's one-of-a-kind sakabatou? Who is this boy? What is he doing
with this strange weapon?'

"But Chizuru-neechan, why exactly did the robbers get you?" a shy little
voice inquired. It was followed by a haughty chide of "They weren't
robbers. They were kidnappers."

More questions followed as Chizuru turned around to see their origins.
She was taken aback by what she saw. Children had gathered around her
while she was telling her stories of the Battousai. From all sides,
doors were unlocked and opened as men, women, and children congregated
all around the town square, either in rapt attention or passing
curiosity.

"What about the Battousai? Surely he's not as frail as you claim him to
be! He must have been six or seven feet tall!" one man hooted at Chizuru
rowdily.

"Why did he wear a non-killing sword? What does he get out of it?" a
middle-aged woman of portly shape chimed in.

"How did he get the cross-shaped scar? Did a legendary swordsman of
great caliber give him that mark?" 
"You said he was a protector of the weak. So he didn't come here to hurt
any of us?" an innocent young girl with light freckles and big, wide
eyes asked Chizuru.

"That's right! If what Chizuru-san says is true, then Battousai would
never be in league with those... those terrorists! They're just using
Battousai's name to further their own agendas!"

Shouts and nods of approval followed the anonymous statement as the
crowd happily gathered underneath the mid-afternoon sun.

"Looks like the sword did help save these people," Yahiko concluded as
he woke Chizuru from her dreamlike state, taking the sakabatou away from
her unresisting hands. "Even if it was just a story of its past deeds,
this sword continues to save lives even to this day. Now that these
villagers aren't afraid, they don't have to get bullied by those gutless
brutes."

"You're saying some weird stuff there, boy," Chizuru rejoined weakly.
"Though you're right; with the quickness of word of mouth in these
parts, everyone's confidence and self-respect will return in no time.
Thank you." She espied the glinting blade that Yahiko presently wielded.
"Yahiko, where did you...?"

"Oh, thank goodness you're still here!" a relieved cry from behind the
pair conveyed as someone urgently pushed against the multitude. "I'm
sorry about the way I treated you both when you came back to the shop."

"Oh, the soba woman!" Yahiko uttered in mild surprise, sheathing and
wrapping up his sakabatou. "What are you doing here? Don't tell me you
came all the way here just to apologize!"

"My daughter, Kyoko, is gone! She ran away, taking her grandfather's
sword with her. I'm afraid..."

'Kyoko? That's right, she's the girl whom I 'rescued' a few hours ago,'
Yahiko realized. "Do you know where she could have gone?"

The woman sniffled a bit as she elaborated, "There's no doubt about it!
She must have gone to take matters into her own hands! She's going to
confront the Battousai Group. She probably went to their hideout in the
East Valley to massacre them!"

"Kyoko-chan's going to try and kill those lowlife bastards? That's
foolish of her! She's outnumbered for one thing, and for another, she's
just a soba shop waitress! What does she know about handling swords?"
Chizuru fumed.

"I'm going," Yahiko stated. "Chizuru, stay here."

"Hey, wait!" Chizuru yelped.

"It's too dangerous for you to go with me--" Yahiko explicated, but was
interrupted by an ear-twist care of Chizuru.

"I didn't say anything about going with you! I'm no idiot! But what I
said about Kyoko applies to you too, y'know! Don't be foolish! Don't
throw away your life! There are probably more of those bastards in their
hideout. Besides," she muttered, "you still haven't heard my question!"

Regardless of Chizuru's numerous warnings, Yahiko still made his way
through the gathered people. 

"Don't ignore me!"

His back still turned, the young kendo master spoke. "The vagabond's
true name is not Battousai. It's Himura Kenshin. Well, _Kamiya_ Kenshin,
but that's another story."

"Eh?" Chizuru managed to say.

"Later. I won't be long," Yahiko called out as he broke into a run, away
from the setting sun.


***


'I hope I'm not too late,' Yahiko reflected as he silently went into the
tree-covered thicket. He remembered the soba lady's words after she
caught up with him before he got out of the village.

"Please save my Kyoko-chan. It's all because of that man, Keisuke. He
attempted to have his way with her when she was just fifteen. Her father
intervened, so they got into a one-on-one fight, which injured my
husband. Because of that man..."

Yahiko grit his teeth. 'Women shouldn't be treated like that. My mother
had set aside her reputation by working in the pleasure district just so
our family could somehow survive this new era. I won't let any woman
suffer the way my mother did.' He closed his eyes as Nonoko Sakaguchi's
voice echoed a statement that really shook him.

"Because of that man, Kyoko never smiles. He took away her smile from
us."

Yahiko scowled at that. 'That man will have more than a broken nose to
worry about once I'm through with--Eh?' He sniffed the air around him.
There was an unmistakable smell of rusty musk surrounding the entire
area. 'What's that smell? Could it be...?'

The kendo master's running pace summarily quickened in cadence with the
rate of his own heartbeat. Upon arriving at a makeshift cottage, the
young boy's eyes bugged out as they reflected the flicker of crimson.

'Blood?'

There, across the entire landscape, bodies were strewn everywhere. Dead
bodies.

He was surrounded by scenes straight out of Kenshin's nightmares--
severed body parts, pooling blood, and his own growing nausea. Perhaps
this was the closest glimpse he could ever have of the violence of the
Bakumatsu.

Nonetheless, this wasn't the overzealous slaughter of a madman. It was
more of an efficient, almost clinical extermination, as if the men
before him were but mere pests.

How long had they been killed? It didn't matter. Yahiko's heart was
already palpitating in panic as he raced out of the darkness of his
revolted state when an unexpected sight greeted him.

There, amidst the dead bodies, stood Kyoko, tightly gripping a wooden
cane as her eyes shimmered. When she saw Yahiko, she reflexively went
into what appeared to be a battoujutsu stance, drawing her sheathed
weapon from the sword cane and shivering as the blade glinted.

"You," Yahiko whispered, not able to finish his sentence.

Kyoko eyes widened in recognition. "Y-You... You were the boy who tried
to save me." She withdrew her blade, a poignant look in her eyes as she
gazed at the full moon. "I wanted to protect my mother with
grandfather's Fuyutsuki, but..."

'Fuyutsuki? Winter Moon? Ah, she meant her grandfather's sword. So
that's what it's called. But what's with all her tears? She seems to
know a bit about kenjutsu. But if that's the case... No way!'

Yahiko held his breath after comprehending an appalling, unbelievable
reality. 'No! That can't be true! She couldn't have possibly done it!'

Kyoko sobbed as she fell to her knees. A wet, salty trail freely flowed
on her face. "Who could have done such a horrible thing? All these dead 
people! It revolts me to think what could have happened if I... if I..."
The rest of her words became mere burbles as she broke down into sobs.

Yahiko sighed in catharsis as he tried to approach and comfort the
distraught girl. 'What a silly thing to think about; an innocent soba
waitress killing all these men. But if that's the case, then who...?'

He paused in mid-thought as a bloodied hand grasped his ankle. He looked
down at the person who was nearly unrecognizable because of the amount
of blood on his face. His broken nose was unmistakable, though.

"Keisuke-san! Are you okay?" Kyoko asked despite herself.

Yahiko still remembered his solemn vow of retribution against the man
who took away Kyoko's smile, but even he felt pity for the pathetic
condition of the man before them. "You're lucky to be alive. We better
get you to a hospital or--"

"Red hair... Cross-shaped scar... Please, get him away from... m-me!
Help me!" the near-dead Keisuke pleaded, visibly shaking in mortal
fright.

'It can't be. He must be kidding!' Yahiko reckoned, alarmed. 'First the
waitress, and now this! I can't take this in all at once! This can't be
happening!'

Yahiko was taken out of his confused state after Keisuke's head rolled
away just inches from his feet.

Kyoko screamed until her lungs burned as painfully as her throat. Yahiko
fought the oncoming queasiness building up in him, but he forgot all
about that as he felt someone else's presence: a swordsman's presence.

'Wait. I feel it. Kenki!' He furrowed his eyebrows. 'But that's strange.
It isn't the ki of murderous intent. Perhaps it's just an innocent
swordsman?'

Yahiko narrowed his eyes in resolution. 'Yeah, right. An innocent
swordsman just happened to pass by! Damn, I don't want to leave Kyoko
here like this, but...' Regardless of the fact, the youngster raced
towards the direction of the kenki, his heart palpitating for some
unknown reason.


***


Next: A duel between two prodigies.

Chizuru Raikouji isn't a fan-created character. She is a creation
of Nobuhiro Watsuki-sensei, just like Kenshin. She appears in the
bonus story of the first volume of Rurouni Kenshin. Her existence
helped shaped Rurouni Kenshin to what it is today, truth be told.

As for the "mysterious" presence that Yahiko felt, it should be
obvious who it truly belonged to judging by the numerous clues
presented in the earlier parts of this story. Just read the next
chapter to see what I mean.

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.

Ja ne!
Abdiel