[FFML] [fic][rk][cont] Rurouni Yahiko Chapter 31: The Tale of Two Shinobi

[Abdiel]

Misao Makimachi leaned against the trunk of a leafless tree, her
typically breezy wardrobe that was fit for a young schoolboy replaced
with a heavy winter kimono.

She enjoyed looking at the wonders of nature, especially Aoshi
Shinomori... _with_ "Aoshi-sama", she corrected herself.

However, an argument could be made about Aoshi... Shinobi Genius,
Leader Emeritus of the Oniwabanshu, and Lord of Bishonen Coolness...
being a wonder of nature all his own.

Her cheeks blazed at the notion.

All the same, they had reached the Kamiya Dojo's gates and were now
declaring their presence to the homeowners care of several polite knocks
on the wooden entrance.

Misao scratched her head and thought seriously for a spell. Nobody was
trying to answer any of Aoshi's knocks, and she was a bit worried about
the fact. 'Has something happened inside? Is Himura and the others under
attack? Oh wait, he's 'Kamiya' now, isn't he?'

She felt the wandering wind tease and dishevel his unruly, sharp, and
banged hair as they approached their intended destination, his ornate
overcoat flapping in every which direction.

His leather, westernized shoes treaded their way effortlessly unto the
snow towards the familiar and instantly recognizable entryway in almost
the same manner that they did many years ago.

She averted her eyes at the person before her as he shot her an offhand,
momentary gaze, even though she was fully aware that _he_ could detect
her stare on him. She sensed her face burn up, but she paid the fact no
heed.

She shook her head, did a mental equivalent of an embarrassed cough,
squirreled away her girlish thoughts, and focused on the situation at
hand.

Embarrassed, Misao hit the tree beside her with her signature Kecho
Giri. It quivered slightly from the strike, forcing the accumulated snow
to fall directly atop her head.

Infuriated beyond words, the Replacement Okashira of the Oniwabanshu
shook her head to get the wet sludge of white out of her now-damp hair.
She then noticed Aoshi's mouth curve upwards.

"Oh, come on, Aoshi-sama!" Misao protested, her face flushed with a
burgundy color before further disclaiming, "I don't do prop comedy!"
despite the fact that, six years ago, she acted just like a prop comic
in a rather lame skit designed to cheer Aoshi up after his second defeat
against Kenshin Himura.

She possessed a short, selective memory, after all.

"Good thing it was snow that fell on your head, instead of a leaf," was
something uncharacteristic for Aoshi to verbalize, but he did so anyway.

Sanosuke might quip that, Yahiko could _definitely_ say that, Kenshin
might tactlessly make that kind of thoughtless remark, Saito could
probably come up with something nastier, but Aoshi?

Not a chance. Still, that knowing, "blink and you'll miss it" flash of a
grin on his face said it all.

"The 'leaf on the head' shtick is for raccoon dogs, not weasels!"

"So you admit you're a weasel?"

"AUGH!"


========================================================================


Rurouni Yahiko
A Rurouni Kenshin Continuation Fan Fiction
By Chester Castañeda
chester.castaneda at gmail.com
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/223441/

And now for something different. A meeting of the minds care of the
Kamiyas and the Oniwabanshu.


========================================================================

Chapter 31: The Tale of Two Shinobi

========================================================================


Just in front of the Kamiya Training Hall's entrance, around wintertime,
four months after Yahiko departed from Asakusa, Tokyo...

Misao knelt down and bowed her head in shame. That cute upward curve on
Aoshi's mouth was too much for her to bear.

By reflex, she seized all her kunai and threw it at the Oniwabanshu
Okashira, fully expecting him to dodge or otherwise catch them all. Once
he did so, she jumped and kicked him on the head.

"Your follow-up attack is getting faster. Excellent."

Aoshi wasn't just flattering Misao either. He actually bothered to dodge
the Kecho Giri using his water-like movement instead of merely blocking
the attack with one hand.

"What are we doing in the Kamiya Dojo in the dead of winter anyway?
Don't we have our reunions with the Kamiyas during the _spring_?" Misao
asked. Calling Kenshin's family the "Kamiyas" still sounded weird to her
ears though, especially since she was so used to calling the ex-hitokiri
"Himura".

"There's a change in the winds, and the air now has a hint of blood in
it," Aoshi said. "Even though it's been nearly a decade since I last
heard from them, I did not expect the Sanada Ninja Clan to still be
active and growing after all these years."

The Onibawanshu Leader closed his azure eyes. "It seems that they're now
involved in matters of great consequence, which is why we need to
further investigate their current activities as soon as possible."

"Sanada Ninja Clan? They must be one of those secret organizations, 'coz
I've never heard of them," Misao confessed with a pout. She sure wished
that Aoshi mentioned to her something about ninja clans and whatnot
before they departed from Kyoto.

Then again, she should've asked. She had other ideas as Aoshi whisked
her away on the first train to Tokyo. Ideas that made her face warm and
her head giddy.

"I haven't heard of them either," Kenshin revealed after his carrot-
topped head abruptly popped out of the now-slightly ajar wooden gates
like a curious gopher. "Hello, Misao-dono. Aoshi-dono. It's been
forever."

"Greetings, Battousai," Aoshi bid his hellos as he bowed and regarded
Kenshin with a clinical glance. "How's your health?"

"It's gotten better," Kenshin distantly answered as his eyes darted away
from Aoshi's before altogether settling down on the taller man's outfit.

The shinobi leader still wore his signature trench coat that hid his
weapons quite well, but even then, Kenshin couldn't see his double
kodachi in their usual false nodachi sheath.

Kenshin gave Aoshi a brief once-over. "You're armed, right? You're not
carrying your weapons with your fake longsword, though."

Aoshi nodded. "I'm carrying them separately," he revealed. "They're
easier to hide within my trench coat."

"Okay," Kenshin said. "Is there any particular reason why you've come
here in full yet hidden battle gear? And what does this all have to do
with the... 'Sanada Clan'?"

"Everything will be explained in due time, Battousai. We, the main
representatives of Oniwabanshu, have visited you in concern of Myojin
Yahiko's last duel here in Tokyo," Aoshi replied without answering any
of Kenshin's questions as of yet.

"KENSHIN! You get back here right this... Oh. OH! Welcome back, Misao-
chan! Um... Aoshi. So what brings you two here?" asked Kaoru Kamiya as
soon as she spotted the pair while hiding the bamboo blade she was
chasing her husband with behind her back.

"Hello, Kaoru-san! It's been a while, hasn't it? Aoshi-sama and I came
by because we're investigating... stuff," Misao answered in kind while
scratching the side of her cheek with her index finger.

The forthright, thirty-something ex-wanderer forced a toothy, dogged
grin at the pair as he queried, "So what brings you here, Shinomori
Aoshi? Misao-dono? I mean, I haven't seen you two since our 'Spring
Reunion Picnic' a year ago."

Aoshi didn't start with a trite, "I thought you'd never ask!" response,
but by the tone of his voice, he might as well did.

"I heard through the grapevine that Myojin Yahiko has fought a certain
old ninja by the name of Takae this September. We actually came here to
investigate the circumstances surrounding the event. You'll take us
inside your premises so that we can take a look around, yes?" the
Okashira ordered, not requested.

"Well, that's some grapevine," Kaoru remarked with a mouthy pout, her
right eyebrow raised way up.

"But of course! Oniwabanshu Intelligence is one of the best in Japan,
let me tell you!" Misao proudly stated, barely keeping herself from
laughing a haughty, Megumi-Takani-like cackle. "That, and we tend to
sort through people's mail before it gets to them."

"HEY! No wonder our mails were frayed, crumpled, and easily torn once it
got here! It's all _your_ fault, you interloping snoops!" Kaoru
protested at a rather hangdog Misao as a large nerve pulsated on the side
of her forehead.

"Oh, come on, Kaoru-san! We were just doing our job!" Misao whined,
scowling like a petulant, stubborn Kenji Kamiya who wanted to win some
sort of vague, petty argument he'd taken a fancy to just for the
principle of it (or so Kaoru surmised). "It's not like we're doing it
out of spite. It's nothing personal, just... shinobi business, okay?"

Without missing a beat and before the situation regressed any further,
Kenshin got in between the two quarrelling girls and said, "With all due
respect, _Aoshi-dono_, I'd like to know why you're hunting down Takae
Masahiro in the first place. Since you've read through our mail, I think
it's safe to assume that you're aware that Takae had already passed
away. So why exactly are you running after a dead man?"

"Yes, I am aware he's dead, and you've made a good point," Aoshi
confessed as he made his way into the dojo proper, greeting Kenji
Kamiya, Outa Higashidani, Kosaburo Shinichi, and Tsubame Sanjo with a
curt nod to each and every one of them as he passed them by.

The four waved weakly at the tall, fierce-looking man, feeling more than
slightly anxious by his imposing presence. "Takae is merely a small
piece of a much larger puzzle. This mission has more to do with his
affiliations to the Sanada Ninja Clan than with himself."

Kenji was about to pipe up with some sort of inquisitive, socially
awkward remark when Tsubame wordlessly hushed the kid by grabbing hold
of his mouth and pulling him into the living room, closing the sliding
door behind them with the balls of her socked feet.

That left Outa and Kosaburo to stay stock-still and observe everything
like statues. Heavily sweating statues. 'Take us into the room with you,
Tsubame-san,' was what their moist eyes pleaded.

'Not now, the adults are talking,' was a familiar admonishment for the
young Kamiya boy to hear, so out of respect for his common sense, short
fuse, and self-perceived righteous indignation concerning the oft-
repeated reproach, his "surrogate sister" didn't even bother telling him
that.

Meanwhile, Kenshin rubbed his chin as he, a slightly miffed Kaoru, and a
mutely upset Misao followed the Oniwabanshu Boss inside the Kamiya
Dojo's training room: Aoshi had visited their home once or twice before,
so he knew his way around, much to Kaoru's growing chagrin.

Due to the mitigating circumstances surrounding the meeting, the Kamiya
Matriarch forced herself to keep her cool as she demanded, "As I was
saying, I fail to see what this mission of yours has to do with any of
_us_ here at the Kamiya Dojo, Aoshi."

"In a word: None. If anything, there's nothing but a tenuous connection
between you and Takae Masahiro, so worry not. Nevertheless," Aoshi's
eyes shifted to the side, nigh-flinching, as he adjusted his trench
coat's collar as though it were a hangman's noose around his neck,
"Takae's elite ninja group from the Sanada Clan is on the prowl, and I
believe their ex-leader had come out of hiding for good reason."

"Sanada Clan? No, no, no... Takae said that his techniques were under
'Takae Ninjutsu', as though it originated from his family or something,"
Kaoru interposed, tugging on her husband's sleeves for support and
beckoning him to back her up.

Finally, after much deliberation, Kenshin mentioned, "You keep bringing
up this supposed Sanada Clan, but Takae mostly affiliated himself with
his namesake _Takae_ Clan. Also, when I fought him, he was acting more
like a mere henchman than a mastermind to Hitokiri Gasuke's plot. I
don't quite understand what it is about Takae that makes him important
enough for you, the Okashira of the Oniwabanshu, to go all the way out
here to learn more about him."

"Takae Ninjutsu is merely part of a larger body of ninja arts, which is
essentially what Sanada Ninjutsu is. The Sanada Ninja Clan is actually
composed of nine intermarried families from the Sanada Ten Braves or the
Sanada Juyushi led by Sarutobi Sasuke; they assisted warlord Sanada
Nobushige during the Sengoku Period," Aoshi clarified as he surveyed the
remnants of Takae's kunai cut marks on the tatami mats, floorboards, and
the edges of wooden columns with keen interest.

"Sanada Nobushige...?" asked Misao.

"He's more popularly known as Sanada Yukimura," answered Aoshi.

It had been almost four months since Yahiko's momentous fight with the
aged ninja master, so most of the more worn-down boards had been
replaced by now. However, the subtle yet tell-tale sign of an earlier
struggle... mostly the minute nicks and scratches which did not escape
the raven-haired shinobi's notice... was all the evidence he needed to
properly assess the situation.

"I couldn't possibly be mistaken. Takae had made use of the Praying
Mantis Trap, the Iron Cleaver, and the Invisibility Trick during your
fight. These shallow grooves that grow deeper and deeper after each and
every strike have all the earmarks of Takae... no, Fuuma Clan Ninjutsu,"
Aoshi murmured softly to himself as he crouched down and traced his
finger on one of the ruts, his face incomprehensible, his grave
undertones containing an indistinct hint of either awe or concern.

"Wow. You were able to tell that Takae used all those techniques by
merely looking at those grooves. That's... impressive, if a bit creepy.
Please don't use your crime-solving shinobi skills to stalk people,"
Kaoru pleaded in all seriousness as she herself checked out the
spy's observations while wrinkling her nose.

"Kaoru-san, we're not stalkers! We're spies! Those two things are
totally different!" insisted Misao.

"Yes, those were the techniques that Takae used against us when he and
the rest of Gasuke's gang invaded our home. I had a particularly hard
time with that Minamo Gakure of his," Kenshin confirmed, paused, then
continued.

"For a man his age, Takae was quite the formidable opponent. He made
himself disappear in ways that made both his physical presence and his
battle aura completely undetectable. It was kind of like fighting Seta
Soujiro, except the ninja was using something other than pure speed and
utter lack of emotion to hide himself."

"What the Ten Ken does to 'vanish' in the middle of battle is completely
different from Takae's camouflage. For a Fuuma Clan Ninja to truly
disappear, he must be able to not only stop interacting with the world
around him, but keep his ki from interacting with other people's ki as
well. He must have absolute control of his presence in order to hide
himself in a truly effective manner," informed Aoshi as he surveyed the
dojo for more clues.

"Oh, I see!" Kenshin beamed as he palmed his fist in eager realization.
"In retrospect, Yahiko-kun was lucky to have even _survived_ fighting
the ninja. That Invisibility Trick is one highly advanced technique, let
me tell you."

Kaoru gave the two former rivals-turned-comrades a half-lidded look, her
arms crossed as she tapped her sandaled feet. She felt as though she
were talking to two little boys who were debating over which of their
stag beetles had the strongest 'pushing power' or something.

"Although I do find this little 'talk' of yours fascinating, I still
fail to see what's this Takae or Fuuma person's connection to your so-
called mission, Aoshi. Can you _please_ get to the point?"

Completely misunderstanding his wife's sarcastic remark, Kenshin went to
Kaoru's side and grinningly cooed, "The technique is actually easy to
figure out, Kaoru-dono; it's just nearly impossible to execute! Let me
explain."

Before Kaoru could even squeak out in protest, her husband had already
taken her hand and enveloped it with his own, wrapping her with the
warmth of his embrace, sandalwood scent, and close proximity.

"Your senses can be placed in two categories: Active and passive.
Eyesight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch are all passive senses. They
automatically record information from the world around you and pass it
through your brain in order for it to interpret the data."

Kenshin soothingly traced his fingers over Kaoru's skin before covering
her eyes and ears, pinching her nose, and tickling her sides as he
enumerated each of the five senses.

"On the other hand, your ability to emit and scan ki are both active
senses because you need to consciously send out a bit of your energy in
order to detect what it interacts with. Still with me so far, honey?"

"Uh-huh. R-Right. Of course, Darling."

Kaoru gasped and gulped, feeling a bit woozy, giddy, and frustrated
because of Kenshin's obliviousness. Although he behaved like an
innocuous wimp most (if not all) of the time, all it took was one
simple... albeit accidentally intimate... gesture from him to send
her mind asunder and her heart aflutter.

Worst of all, he didn't even seem to realize this seeming influence he
had over her. 'Damn him.'

Kaoru's heartbeat and breathing rate slowed as she tried to listen to
her surroundings. The first thing she heard was Kenshin's own breath,
followed by his pulsing heart. She could also discern the subtleties of
their tempo and tranquil cadence.

"The Takae Clan's camouflaging technique renders its members invisible
because..."

Even so, Kaoru's heightened senses aside, she failed to hear the rest of
her husband's lecture once she became quite aware of his hands enclosing
hers yet again.

His intimate actions called away all of five, perhaps even six, of her
active and passive senses while pulling at her heartstrings. She did get
the gist of it, though. Takae Stealth Ninjutsu somehow had the ability
to block both active and passive senses through camouflage and ki
manipulation.

Time finally sped back to its normal pace once Kaoru managed to gently
yet reluctantly pull her hand away from Kenshin's grip. She sighed, then
subsequently blinked after she realized her current visitors' lack of a
response. She wasn't the only one sidetracked by traveling thoughts.

"Er, Aoshi? Hello? Are you still there?" she asked as she bent down and
waved a hand in front of the taller man's face while he remained on a
kneeling position. "Earth to Aoshi, are you still with us?"

Aoshi felt the collective gazes of Kaoru, Kenshin, and Misao upon him as
he remained where he was, crouching stock-still.

"Aoshi-do... I mean, Aoshi? What have you found out?" the ex-rurouni
probed.

Shinomori licked his lips, let out a silent yet belabored breath, and
said, "In 1848, the leader of the diminishing Takae Clan... descended
from the Legendary Fuuma Clan... Takae Masahiro, intermarried into the
Ancient Sanada Ten Braves Clan to form an alliance of sorts and ensure
the survival of their brand of Stealth Ninjutsu into the Twentieth
Century.

"The plan worked to a degree, and more than a decade after the merger,
Takae had the manpower he needed to establish the Brigands Guild... an
international group dedicated to taking part in wars, feuds, and armed
battles for material gain without actually being a national or a party
to the conflict... alongside someone codenamed the Puppet Master to
further preserve Ninjutsu Warfare in modern-day settings."

He halted briefly as he recalled the countless documents he browsed
through in order to confirm that the Sanada Clan wasn't a myth or legend
of sorts.

"Indeed, during Okina's time, the shogunate-backed Oniwabanshu and the
Legendary Sanada Ninja Clan went in head-to-head competition for the
title of Japan's Best Spies."

"Brigands Guild? Puppet Master?" Aoshi's three companions echoed in
wonder as a wave of vague and uncertain familiarity washed over them.
Misao let out a small squeak of forthright understanding before she
averted her gaze from Kenshin and Kaoru's direction.

"Hmmm. I've heard of that name before," Kenshin mused as he tapped his
pointer finger on his chin. "Not the 'Brigands Guild', but the title
'Puppet Master'. I just can't put my finger where I first heard it..."

"Well, it should be familiar to you, Battousai. And to the rest of you
as well, especially Kamiya Kaoru," Aoshi revealed as he rose from his
crouching position. "It's only been six years ago, after all."

Kaoru seemed taken aback by Aoshi's claim. "What? Me? What do I have to
do with this 'Guild' of yours?"

"Gein," Aoshi curtly answered, as if the mere mention of the strange
name was enough of an explanation for each and every one of Kaoru's
aired and unaired questions.

The out-of-the-blue statement had the expected effect on the Kamiya
couple; all the color from Kenshin's face drained as his wife's
crestfallen eyes went straight towards the tatami mats.

The Kamiya Kasshin Ryu Training Hall fell silent. A suffocating calmness
typically felt within the depths of undisturbed crypts permeated their
consciousnesses. To think, the mere mention of one name caused all this
quietness.

Gein was an old, experienced shinobi; a great craftsman who was part of
both Makoto Shishio's Juppon Gatana and Enishi Yukishiro's Six Comrades.

A Puppet Master in the truest sense of the moniker, Gein was infamous to
Kenshin and company for pretending to be a savage wild man known as
"Iwanbo", for creating three versions of that terrible automaton, and
for sculpting the hyper-realistic corpse doppelganger of one Kaoru
Kamiya in order to better serve Enishi's brazen schemes.

Enishi Yukishiro... brother of Tomoe Yukishiro, Kenshin's first wife...
wanted to kill Kaoru as revenge for what Battousai did (accidentally
kill Tomoe). However, he couldn't bring himself to kill the kendo girl
because she reminded him of his sister, so he had Gein create a body
double of her to make it appear like he killed her while kidnapping the
real her.

Although Gein couldn't care less about its consequences, the creation of
Kaoru's body double affected a lot of people in ways he couldn't even
begin to comprehend or appreciate.

To the Puppet Master, the Kaoru marionette was his greatest masterpiece,
an art piece born out of the culmination of his years of experience,
innate talent, and supreme dedication to his special brand of martial
arts.

To Kaoru, the entire chain of unusual events merely felt... surreal;
bizarre. Dream-like, almost. The mere idea of a madman making a body
double of herself for whatever reason was beyond her ken. But to Kenshin
Kamiya (nee Himura), seeing that dead body of hers for the first time
was Hell on Earth.

"Battousai?" Aoshi prodded. However, all he drew from the former Ishin
Shishi assassin was a blank, abysmal stare.

"Himura... I mean, _Mister_ Kamiya," Misao echoed as she combed back her
ebony bangs with two fingers. She couldn't blame Kaoru and Kenshin's
reactions, though; Enishi's Jinchuu (Earthly Revenge) negatively
affected, perhaps even traumatized, the Kamiya couple and most anyone
remotely involved with them in a multitude of ways.

"Don't let your bad memories get in the way of your better judgment,"
Aoshi asserted to the unresponsive Kenshin, adding, "In unsure times
like this, you must make rational, absolute judgments that are
unaffected by any sort of feelings or emotions whatsoever to fully
understand the situation."

"Y-You're heartless! Have a little more sympathy! You don't understand
what Kenshin and I went through!" Kaoru spat, which made Misao exclaim,
"W-What? I didn't totally understand what Aoshi-sama was going on about,
but I understood _that_! I demand an apology, Kaoru-san!"

Still, the weasel girl couldn't help but give her impassive Okashira a
hesitant, sidelong glance of apprehension. Shamed as she was to admit,
Kaoru did have a point.

Nonetheless, Kaoru decided to not push the issue any further by quickly
offering, "Oh, never mind. I'm sorry, Misao-chan. Aoshi."

Afterwards, Kaoru went beside her inert husband and clasped her hand
over his, intertwining both their fingers together for a perfect fit.

Kenshin whirled his head in surprise, leaning hard against a nearby wall
as his heart skipped exactly one and a half beats. She afterwards smiled
at him and squeezed his hand.

The middle-aged swordsman had conquered armies, slew hundreds of men,
led individuals on battles and vengeance quests aplenty, and had a ten-
year stint as a wandering vagabond who helped people in need the best he
could.

However, he had yet to learn how to deal with a woman who had just
thrown herself into his arms and wordlessly put his head on her shoulder
in mute understanding of his melancholic feelings.

Kaoru didn't say anything as she embraced her husband. Kenshin didn't
really mind the hug, even though he was mostly perplexed by the gesture,
and put his arms around his wife for comfort all the same.

He then realized what she wanted to convey. She was there. She was
alive. The corpse he saw six years ago with a cross-shaped scar and a
sword stuck in her chest wasn't her, but a scarily realistic meat puppet
created by the mad genius known as Gein.

Kenshin winced and recoiled. His head ached. Minutes passed until he
spoke again. "Please continue, Aoshi. I apologize for ignoring you and
delaying this conversation. It's just that your mentioning of Gein..."

"It's quite all right. I myself must apologize for my insensitivity."
An oppressive air hung across the training room as Aoshi slowly slid the
slightly ajar doors of the hall shut. He took a moment to prepare
himself before continuing.

"He is Edward Gein. Don't be fooled by the name, he's not a foreigner.
'Gein' is just one of his many aliases. He's one of the last remaining
descendants of a small group of ninjas who mastered the art of mechanics
in the middle ages; a talented yet heartless assassin who uses shadow
techniques for his own selfish purposes. Ergo, he's the target of my
pledge and my last mission as the Oniwabanshu Okashira."

Kenshin looked over his wife's shoulder and absently nodded to Aoshi's
statement. "Yes, of course; your pledge. You yourself told Gein during
your fight with him that from then on you will use your shadowy strength
to consign to darkness all shadowy villainy."

Kaoru waited for all of three seconds before she giggled, "Eh? Use his
'shadowy strength' to 'consign' into darkness all 'shadowy villainy'?
Who says that?" which made the formerly sympathetic Misao grouse,
"Humph! If there's anyone who can pull that cheesy quote off, then it's
Aoshi-sama!"

Kenshin went into full 'peacemaker' mode as Kaoru continued to suppress
her mirth at Aoshi's ham-fisted oath, much to Misao's obvious vexation.
"I admit that it was quite the heavy-handed speech, but if it works,
then it works."

Undeterred by the off-tangent side comments, the shinobi leader put his
hands in his pockets and stared wistfully at the ceiling.

"I perused a great deal of documents to prepare for the position of
Okashira. I remember a record of similar shadow techniques in the books
left by my forebears. In the Warring States period, generals would leave
substitute 'shadow warriors' in their places to ensure their own
security.

"But training shadow warriors took a great amount of time and expense.
What was developed was a secret method of constructing dolls out of
corpses that couldn't be distinguished from real people at a glance.
Gein was a master of these techniques, and he was supposed to be the
last of his kind. Takae himself believed that ninjutsu was slowly dying
out in our Modern Meiji Era.

"The Brigands Guild is Gein and Takae's way of keeping the shadow arts
from dying out in this new era. More to the point, the Guild was
specifically founded in order to continue the evolution of ninjutsu,
and because of the Sanada Ninja Clan's obsession to constantly refine
its techniques, it became a virtual treasure trove of information when
it came to the long-lost shinobi arts.

"The members of the Brigands Guild were adept with surgical, disguise,
chemical, concealment, and mechanical arts. They knew an eclectic mix of
Taijutsu (unarmed combat techniques), Shinobi-Iri (silent movement
techniques), Hensojutsu (disguise techniques), Intonjutsu (camouflage
and escape techniques), and Boryaku (strategy), which they taught to the
rest of their fellow clan members to further promote the development of
these skills.

"They also fostered relations with other countries and similar secret
organizations from all around the world... something that was almost
unheard of at the time because of the Tokugawa Government's Isolationist
Policies... so that they could also adapt Western Knowledge and
Technology to their Ancient Ninjutsu Martial Arts."

To himself, Aoshi mused, 'The five original members of the Guild had
code names corresponding to their specific specialty: The Phantom, The
Puppet Master, The Hands of God, The Alchemist, and The Faceless. 'The
Phantom' obviously refers to Takae and his high-level skill of
camouflage, while 'The Puppet Master' probably refers to Gein and his
use of cadavers to create his shadow puppets. That only leaves three
more people to hunt down and silence.'

"So?" Kaoru asked, not seeing Aoshi's point. "What of it? Takae has
retired from his post as the Sanada Ninja Clan's Leader and both he and
that bastard Gein have kicked the bucket. Two of the founding members of
the Brigands Guild are long gone. What's the problem?"

"The _problem_ is the fact that the Sanada Ninja Clan's clandestine
activities have actually increased instead of decreased after Takae
stepped down. That's not normal. By my estimations, there's a disturbing
connection between Takae's retirement and the Sanada Clan's current
state of  affairs. Something's definitely afoot," Aoshi responded at
length.

"And what connection is that?" Misao found herself asking the question
for Kaoru's sake without her realizing it, her curiosity getting the
better of her.

"I daresay that the Sanada Clan made Takae step down in order to get a
younger, more ambitious leader to pursue their goals. I certainly don't
believe that the Brigands Guild disbanded after both Gein and Takae
died. They're instead regrouping and are now embroiled in something big.
It's perhaps their one last, great mission before the turn of the
century. In any case, as far as you're all concerned, the Sanada Clan's
objectives are beside the point.

"Now, imagine a guild, or even a clan, full of Geins running amuck. All
they really need is a cause, a goal, or a _mission_ for them to wreak
havoc with their shadow arts. For Gein, it was Enishi's Jinchuu or
Shishio's rebellion. For Takae, it was Gasuke's revenge. For a member of
the Brigands Guild, it doesn't matter what the goal is, as long as he
could use it to further the development of his ninjutsu. All I'm saying
is that wherever the Brigands Guild is, trouble is sure to follow."

Kaoru did wince a little at Aoshi's revelations. But why wince? Her
husband was a retired swordsman, and she herself didn't care about any
of those...

Yahiko. He was definitely involved. And, even still, Kenshin himself,
despite his attempts at achieving a peaceful life at long last.

Most, if not all, of the "Kenshingumi" were deeply involved in this
Brigands Guild business, and Aoshi knew it: Yahiko for getting caught up
in Takae's death, and Kenshin for simply being the Hitokiri Battousai...
a man that all of the surviving Brigands Guild members would want to
test themselves against.

Aoshi kept a close eye on Yahiko and the Kamiya Family ever since he
discovered Gein's true affiliations because, one way or another, the
Brigands Guild would eventually enter their lives to unleash their
unique kind of mayhem for whatever reason they saw fit.

After all this time, after all the sacrifices they'd endured to live an
ordinary life... even with Kenji around, even with the sense of normalcy
they'd regained after going through hell and back... it was starting all
over again. 'It's not fair. We already have our own share of problems,
what with Kenshin's declining health and all.'

"You understand now?" Aoshi asked after watching Kaoru's emotions play
out through her face. "Whether you like it or not, this issue concerns
you as well, Kamiya Kaoru. Though you'll only have to cross that bridge
when you get there, it'd be in your best interest to keep in mind that
you _will_ have to face the Brigands Guild sooner or later. Your
husband, your son, your students, your friends and family... all of
them... are..."

"Okay, okay," Kaoru interrupted. "No need to get all melodramatic on me.
I see what you mean. But like you said, we'll only cross that bridge
once we get there, right? That's what I intend to do. So thanks for the
warning, but... we can take it from here. Right, Kenshin?"

"Oro?" Kenshin muttered, as though he had only woken up from a deep
trance. "Hmmm. Yes, of course. Whatever problems may arise, we can
handle it."

He smiled and brushed back a limp strand of hair that dangled on his
wife's face, but he then furrowed his eyebrows after seeing her suddenly
flinch at the intimate gesture. "Kaoru...?"

Kaoru bit her lip at what she saw: His hand. Kenshin's hand was shaking,
just as Megumi warned. The secondary symptoms of his body's degeneration
had finally appeared. First the dizzy spells, and now this.

The years of turmoil, pain, guilt, and suffering were apparently not
enough to atone for his sins. A decade of wandering and protecting
people with his reverse-edged sword wasn't enough either. Damn the gods,
for nothing could ever be enough to save Kenshin from his own damnation.

Then there was Yahiko. Though Kenshin's weakening condition was half of
the reason why he gave up his sakabatou to the Descendant of Tokyo
Samurai, the other half rooted from the fact that the boy seemed up to
the task of wielding the sword. But how ready was he? Could he really
handle something like the Six Comrades or the Ten Swords all by himself,
or would he be overwhelmed by such a heavy yoke?

Kaoru imagined Yahiko going through the same kind of arduous, deadly
battles that Kenshin went through in order to protect the weak, the
innocent, the defenseless, and his loved ones... and she inwardly
screamed a shriek that would've torn apart her vocal cords had she done
it for real.

She saw that kid grow up to be a man. She had no intention of crying at
his grave before he did hers.

This type of event should have stopped happening six years ago. Kaoru
had long pushed her memories of such unpleasant matters deep into the
recesses of her mind after Enishi Yukishiro was finally defeated; after
Jine, Kanryu, Raijuta, Shishio, Gein, and various other lions, tigers,
and bears... all their other "natural predators"... disappeared from
their lives forever. But still...

"It just never ends, does it?"

"Excuse me?" Kenshin asked, surprised that Kaoru's ponderous stillness
was abruptly broken. Right then, she at last noticed the red-haired
man's puzzled stare as he continued to hold onto her arms like a
drowning man caught in his own personal rapids would to a lone, wooden
flotsam.

"...You've always thought of everyone else's happiness except your own.
Maybe it's now your turn to let someone else think about your happiness
for once," Kaoru said as her demure eyes gazed at the dojo floor.

Before the ex-rurouni realized what was going on, Kaoru quickly pulled
her arms from his and turned, hoping that he didn't see the teary look
in her eyes before she strode away and announced, "Thank you for the
warning, Aoshi. Misao-chan. If you don't mind, I'll be doing my chores
now. Make yourselves at home. If you want, you can stay for dinner."

Kaoru tried her best not to seem too hasty as she opened the door out of
the dojo and went to the patio to sweep up the snow and clear her mind
of tumultuous thoughts.

Then came thirty seconds of unnerving calm that the three of them felt
forever. Kenshin and Aoshi's eyes met briefly in mute understanding. Old
wounds did heal as time passed by, but the scars still remained: It was
a legacy of suffering chiseled into the heart itself.

Kenshin stood there for a few more moments, thinking about what had
happened and what he had just learned. 'Kaoru-dono... Kaoru isn't just
worried about the Sanada Ninja Clan, but my condition as well. And I
really can't blame her for being concerned. To again face the likes of
Gein, Shishio, or Enishi is upsetting enough as is, but...'

He winced as a migraine erupted from his temples, 'I may have come to
the point where I might not be able to handle such challenges anymore.
Furthermore, Yahiko is now the one tasked to carry out my lifelong
mission in my stead. Taking nothing away from him and his skills, I
really do think he may have bitten off more than he could chew.'

Meanwhile, Outa and Kosaburo felt their lower limbs go through pins and
needles because they had yet to move from their spots. "Hold on a little
longer, Outa-kun!" Kosaburo cheered the young boy beside him on as a
prickly sensation traveled through his own feet.


===


Misao sniffled and felt her throat constrict after seeing the wordless
dialogue between Kenshin and Kaoru: An elegant, almost insufferably
heartrending dance. Hurriedly wiping away her tears off, she fumbled
for the closest piece of cloth... which happened to be the sleeve of
Aoshi's trench coat... and loudly blew her nose.

For Kenshin's part, he opted to squat beside Kosaburo and Outa in order
to meditate "along" with them.

Realizing what she had done only after the fact, she turned bright red
and stammered, "A-Aoshi-sama...!"

Aoshi stared at Misao with no specific expression on his features.
However, as she stared up into his blue eyes, she saw the imperfectly
concealed signs of past suffering and regrets... of persistent memories
of his own personal demons that he struggled to leave behind.

Her thoughts drifted back to their earlier conversation inside the
Kamiya Dojo, then she put it together with the scene she had witnessed
between Kenshin and Kaoru.

'Just like with Kenshin's guilt over Tomoe's death and Kaoru's fake
demise, you still carry your own guilt over the deaths of Hannya,
Beshimi, Hyotoko, and Shikijo in your heart. Somehow, this mission of
yours is dedicated to them, isn't it?'

She felt her chest tighten.

'So all this time, you've been so emotionally distant because you feel
unworthy of... being cared for by me? You don't want to contaminate me
with this dirtiness you think you have. Is that why you only let the
least amount of caring and emotion show if you can help it?'

Something boiled over inside Misao. Without any warning, she grabbed the
collar of Aoshi's clothes and yanked his head down to her level. Hissing
softly in his ear, she said, "Don't you dare clam up on me again, Lord
Aoshi! I've just had it up to _here_ the last time you did that, and I
don't ever want to go through that again!"

"Misao...?" Even though he was as stone-faced as ever, that one raised
eyebrow of his hinted either confusion or skepticism on his part.

Keeping her voice low while ignoring Kenshin's presence and utter
bemusement, she snarled, "I understand that this is your last and most
important mission as Okashira. I also understand why you had to be so
brutally honest with Kaoru-san in regards to the Kamiya Family's link
with your assignment. I get it. This truly is a matter of dire
consequences for all of us concerned. However, that's no excuse for you
to start acting so cold and aloof!"

Aoshi eyed her with the same pitiful stare that a person might bestow
upon a cute little weasel gone rabid.

"Now that you're already starting to open up and regain some of your
lost humanity, you better not lose yourself again because of some stupid
mission! I'm not about to let you go crawling back behind your walls and
become a walking block of ice again, got it?" Misao growled into Aoshi's
ear, her hot breath searing his earlobes.

Understandably, Aoshi didn't quite know what to answer to that. The
shadow warrior leaned next to Misao in the corner of the training hall
and nodded along with her words. He mulled over what she said.

If there was one thing an Okashira such as he knew, it was difficult
life decisions. Even in some of his less violent roles in the past, he
had led people into battle over one issue or another. There were
insights one made during such a colorful lifetime that an inexperienced
onmitsu such as Misao could not.

Aoshi studied the incensed (but totally well-meaning) girl who yearned
for his agreement with her line of reasoning before he formulated the
words he needed to make her understand his side of the story. Words
could be used weapons and traps made for catching people off their
guard. They could also hurt.

After pondering upon Misao's heated contentions and adorable candor some
more, Aoshi steeled himself and asked, "Misao, have you ever been forced
to kill women or children?"

"W-Why would you ask such a stupid question?" she blurted out, feeling
completely unprepared by the sudden, one-eighty degree turn of their
conversation. "Of course I haven't! Why would I, Aoshi-sama?"

"Every living creature deserves a chance at peace, Misao," Aoshi stated.
"Living in fear or pain is a horrible thing to bear. I should know. We
have to do what we can in order to attain this peace, even if we
ourselves have to sacrifice something in return. Let me ask you another
question. If faced with the decision where you'd have to kill women and
children for the needs of the many, would you do it?"

"N-No! Never! For the needs of the many? What good is that? I would
never...!" Misao's voice wavered as the true, heartrending message
behind Aoshi's words dawned to her.

'Oh no. So it wasn't just Hannya and the others' deaths that made your
heart so calloused and unfeeling, Aoshi-sama. They were simply the straw
that broke the camel's back.'

Kenshin got up from his seated position and, with a gentle hand on the
ninja girl's shoulder, said softly, "Misao-dono..."

"S-Stay out of this, Himura! I mean, Kamiya!"

Meanwhile, Aoshi and Misao's respective gazes met and locked with a
proverbial metallic clink.

As Misao stared at Aoshi, her hand missing the wall that she was
supposed to lean on, which made her nearly slip from Kenshin's grasp as
she almost fell on her posterior, the Okashira returned the gaze in kind
with a deadpan look and remarked, "I want you to understand why things
are the way they are. Just ask Battousai. He knows these types of moral
dilemmas from firsthand experience."

Misao's eyes turned toward Kenshin, who slowly removed his hand from her
person and shifted uncomfortably under her stare. He eyed Aoshi with no
particular expression on his face as, out of habit, his other hand pawed
at the nonexistent hilt of his missing sakabatou.

After pausing for a moment to get over her ongoing befuddlement, Misao
sharply retorted, "This conversation isn't about Himura! I'm talking
about you and your _condition_, Aoshi-sama! Please stop changing the
subject and give me a straight answer already!"

However, the conviction behind her voice felt rather weak and
halfhearted. In not so many words, Aoshi told her to get off his case
because it wasn't exactly the easiest of tasks to regain his humanity
after suffering through a variety of traumatizing events all throughout
his life. Being a cold, unfeeling bastard was merely his way of coping,
after all.

Kenshin chimed in, "Can't you understand, Misao-dono? Back then, it
didn't matter who it was... man or woman, adult or child. If anyone
interfered with what we perceived to be our duty, then they died. For
Aoshi, the Oniwabanshu missions were of the utmost importance to him,
regardless of 'collateral damage'. For myself, it was defending the
lives of the members of the Ishin Shishi by whatever means necessary."

"I already gave you an answer by asking you all those tough questions.
I'm sorry I had to introduce you to these truths in such a terrible way,
but there is no soft method to prepare you for what being a member of
the Oniwabanshu entails. We do what we must to survive," was Aoshi's
somewhat sympathetic but mostly adamant reply.

He finally hit the last nail of the coffin right on its head... or
something to that effect, since Misao wasn't good at quoting metaphors,
mixed or otherwise.

After everything was said and done, Misao glared at the two of the three
most important men in her life (the third one was Okina, her Oniwabanshu
caretaker), fists clenched at her sides as she wished the ground would
swallow her up, trying to think of some way to save face and prove that
she was... what?

That she was right? That she could change the way Aoshi thought of
himself with her silly antics, utter stubbornness, and constant,
unremitting cheerfulness? That she wasn't merely some inexperienced,
naive kid who could afford to be eternally optimistic simply because she
had yet to be hit by a brick wall full of _real life_ on the face?

Instead, she turned and screamed in frustration as she stormed off into
the room directly adjacent to the training hall, pushing the petrified
Kosaburo and Outa out of her warpath in the process. What else should
she have done?

Speaking of which, Outa and Kosaburo at last unfroze from where they sat
and scampered out of the dojo like it was on fire while everyone else
was distracted. There was only so much awkwardness the pair could take.


===


Misao slammed open the nearby sliding door. What was this nonsense that
Aoshi told her about life? Never mind that all of it was true, that was
totally uncalled for! She was only trying to help get him out of his
shell! What a jerk!

Misao bumped midriff-first into the huddled Tsubame and Kenji, with the
former covering the confused latter's ears. Apparently, Misao was
mumbling her livid thoughts (complete with colorful language) aloud, as
further evidenced by Tsubame's reddened, burning ears.

"Oh, it's you guys," Misao acknowledged, stepping around them in order
to get to the hallway. But the hyperactive Kenji, to Tsubame's chagrin,
blocked her path again. And again. "Hello, Auntie Misao!" the young tot
cheerfully greeted.

Misao's vision turned red as she protested, "I am _not_ that _old_!
DON'T CALL ME AUNTIE!"

She then lifted Kenshin's only begotten son from the ground and whirled
him around on her shoulders while Tsubame pleaded for her to stop. A
dizzying moment later and all three of them were sprawled on the floor
in a boneless heap as the living room kept on swirling around them like
a carnival ride.

"That was mean, Auntie!" Kenji whined, his face scrunched up and looking
a bit green because of his unexpected trip that led to nowhere. "And it
was yo idea anyway! You wanted me to call you 'Auntie' coz people always
kept thinking yo wa a little gal and you wanted to feel gwown up!"

Misao groaned in repentance. "Sorry 'bout that, little guy. I was only
venting. Oh my gosh, I think I'm gonna...!" The kunoichi blanched and
shuddered after getting a taste of her lunch for a second time.

"What is this all about anyway, Misao-san?" Tsubame politely inquired as
she got up and covered Kenji's mouth. Never mind that the pair of ersatz
siblings already knew what happened because of their eavesdropping
earlier, so there was no need to ask that question: Misao didn't need to
know that, the Akabeko waitress mused.

Misao disclosed, "The mission. Aoshi-sama's mission. My mission. My
future. Just... Aoshi-sama, in general. Lots of stuff. Everything,
really."

Tsubame sighed and relaxed. Although Misao's sentences came in short,
undecipherable fragments, she knew by instinct what the older girl was
trying to say. This type of conversation felt more familiar to her. Not
that she was an expert on the subject or anything, but at least this was
a topic she knew something about. "So you're now... 'involved' with
Aoshi-san, aren't you?"

Misao thought she'd recoil at the allegation, so she surprised herself
by stammering, "Oh, no! I mean, not _that_ much. Not... seriously. He
didn't think it was serious... I think," while correcting herself each
time.

She bit her thumb and twirled her hair. "We have so much in common. We
grew up together and we both love ninjutsu. I mean, even if he's ahead
of me by," she counted the years on her fingers, "a decade and a year,
and he treats me more like a kid sister than anything else, I still
do... care a lot about him, dammit!"

The kunoichi struggled to calm herself down before continuing. "And,
though it doesn't look like it, we've actually spent some time together,
chatting and sharing our thoughts with each other. We've talked about
all the cool stuff going on in the world, and what the future might
bring now that the nineteenth century is about to end and all."

"You two had problems seeing eye to eye at some point in your... uh,
relationship, right?" Tsubame hypothesized, having a slight inkling on
where the conversation was going.

"W-ell... not exactly. This current mission of his is supposed to be his
last: His one final hurrah before he settles down ('with me,' Misao
added to herself) as the innkeeper of Aoiya. So we actually have a
common goal this time around. Still, I can't help but think that
_because_ this is his last mission as Okashira, he's now becoming rather
obsessed about it. More than usual, at any rate."

The ninja girl shrugged and slumped down on the floor. "Oh well. Like he
and Kaoru-san said earlier, it looks like we'll just have to burn that
bridge after we cross it, not before." The onmitsu sighed as she stared
at nothing in particular.

"Er, I don't think you're using those idioms correctly, Misao-san,"
Tsubame said, hastily wiping the drip of sweat off of her forehead.

"Whateva! Enough talking about missions! I wanna know what happened to
big bwotha alweady!" Kenji persisted as he waved the pages of Yahiko's
letter in front of the two women before their girl talk took up all
their attention.

"Humph. That Myojin kid sure loves to write," Misao said as she shook
her head and swiped the pages out of Kenji's tiny hands. "Let's take a
look-see at his latest exploits, shall we?"

"HEY! I thought you alweady wead it!" Kenji griped as he tried to take
the letters back from the Unofficial Okashira of the Oniwabanshu.

"Huh?" Misao raised an eyebrow at Kenshin's son. "Oh. Oh! So you think
that I've already read _everything_ when we first intercepted the
letters, huh? Silly boy, we only read the important parts of Yahiko's
letters and skimmed the rest of it. That self-absorbed brat can sure go
on and on about his little misadventures, let me tell you."

After a few minutes of speed reading... an Oniwabanshu specialty...
Misao's body stiffened as she gave the inanimate sheaf of paper a
peculiar double-take. "I don't believe it. What are the chances of this
happening?"

"What is it, Misao-san?" Tsubame queried as she looked over the older
girl's shoulder to see what all the hubbub was about. "Did something bad
happen to Yahiko-san in the later paragraphs?"

"So Yahiko has somehow met that big, idiotic lug of a felon... Huh. It's
a small world after all. Still, it begs the question: What the hell is
_Gan_ doing in Shinsushin?" asked Misao to no one in particular with an
upturned nose and a scowl.

"Eh? Gan-san? What about him?" Tsubame asked. "Have you met him before?"

As the short-haired Misao's eyes darted back and forth the rest of the
contents of Yahiko's letter, all the blood in her body seemed to rush
forth her fuming head, siphoned by her own fury, madness, or something
approximating those extreme emotions.

The jaws of both Tsubame and Kenji (metaphorically) dropped on the floor
as Misao suddenly tore a page of Yahiko's letter in half and threw them
in the air. It would seem that the contents of the Tokyo Samurai
Descendant's letters were quite rip-and-tear-worthy.

"I'LL KILL HIM! I'LL KILL THAT BIG, OVER-MUSCLED PEEPING TOM ONCE I SEE
EVEN A HINT OF HIS GOOFY BANDANNA AND LONG SIDEBURNS, I SWEAR!"

Tsubame retrieved the torn halves of Yahiko's letter from Misao's grasp
and browsed what was written on them.

"Wait, NO! Don't read that, Tsubame-chan...!"

The Akabeko waitress reacted accordingly. With the awkwardness of a
daughter listening to her mother tell her the speech about the birds,
the bees, and the facts of life, she covered her ears with her hands and
thought of songs she could sing to counteract the uncomfortable images
currently circling around her head.

"Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms, on meadow hills and dale. As far as
you can see. Is it a mist, or clouds? Fragrant in the morning sun.
Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms, flowers in full bloom..." Tsubame sung
in Japanese. If the lyrics above really were in Japanese, they would've
had the added bonus of actually rhyming.

Meanwhile, the steaming, tomato-faced Misao tried to explain why Gan's
revelations to Yahiko were utterly incorrect, but was doing a terrible
job at it.

"It's not what you think! Gan totally misinterpreted what I was doing!
I was just daydreaming and saying Aoshi-sama's name aloud, I swear! He
shouldn't have been in that portion of the hot springs anyway, and now
he's spreading bald-faced lies about me without checking his facts!
Sure, I'd never talk to him about it, but that's because it's none of
his business! Not that I had anything to hide, but... I can't believe
he'd stoop to actually telling Yahiko his wrong impressions and... This
is NOT FAIR! I swear, the next time I see him and his lying mouth, I'll
turn him inside out like a... like a...!"

Both girls went at it for quite sometime, with Misao blabbering sailor-
worthy death threats and frantic explanations while Tsubame sang herself
to ignorant bliss, up until the kunoichi, in spite of her embarrassment,
decided what was done was done, what was read was read, and what was
revealed was revealed, and gently shook the Akabeko waitress out of her
medley of folk song classics.

"I'm fine now. There's no need to ignore me anymore. I won't talk about
what Gan said in that letter if you won't talk about it either... Okay?"

Tsubame nodded mutely at the pensive Misao, her chest heaving and her
lungs gasping for air after her continuous performance. "O-Okay."

Misao nodded in kind, then pleaded, "Can't we please shred that part of
the letter now? I think we've all had our fill of awkwardness for the
day," to which Tsubame eagerly gave her assent, her hands just about
ready to tear the halved page into tinier shreds. Things should have
ended then and there if not for a certain someone calling out, "Misao,
it's time for us to go."

It was Aoshi. Dissatisfied with Kenshin's dull and muted response to the
brewing conflict left to the inexperienced Yahiko's hands (and realizing
that he and Misao had no business left there in Tokyo), the Official
Okashira of the Oniwanbanshu decided to take his ward back to Aoiya
before starting his personal quest to hunt down the last remaining
members of the Brigands Guild alone.

Misao would probably cry and complain at Aoshi once she found out what
he had planned for her, but he decided to let things be. There was no
way he was going to needlessly risk her life for a mission he entrusted
to himself. His hunt for present-day shinobi wasn't only for the sake of
honoring his four fallen Oniwabanshu comrades' sacrifices; it was also
for the sake of the young Makimachi's future.

Before the girls could protest, Aoshi took the two sheaves of torn paper
from Tsubame's hand, asked a cursory, "Has the boy written something of
use to us, Misao? Let me see," and began speed-reading the forbidden
notes with clinical swiftness.

Neither Misao nor Tsubame knew how to react to Aoshi's sudden arrival,
the both of them seemingly frozen in time as he finished up scanning
Yahiko's written account of Gan witnessing Misao's most embarrassing
moment. Then, without even batting an eyelash, he tore the offending
pieces of papers apart into neat little squares and gave them back to
Tsubame's trembling palms.

From there, Misao's knees buckled in flabbergasted shock. On impulse,
her hand flew up and grabbed Aoshi's shoulder for support as she fell
against him.

"Misao," Aoshi began, looking down in dull "surprise" at Misao as she
missed her target and fell face-first onto the tatami-matted floor with
a muted thud.

"Mmph?" Misao mumbled.

"You've fallen face-first on the floor for some reason," Aoshi stated
the obvious, then inadvertently added insult to injury by further
berating, "Don't do that. You're in another person's home. It's rude."

Misao cringed at each and every last word of Aoshi's admonishment,
because not only was he talking down to her, but he apparently wasn't
showing her the sympathy she hoped she'd get.

Her plans to fall into Aoshi's arms foiled (but her plan to distract him
from the full implications of what he just read somewhat succeeding),
Misao got up from her unintentional pratfall, only to have her cake and
eat it too when Aoshi helped her up her feet.

Aoshi and Misao were now in a position she imagined herself in when she
first sort-of-but-not-really-shut-up "fainted". They looked into each
other's eyes, Misao's green ones fluttering demurely while Aoshi's blue
ones were looking as bored/blank/straightforward/calculating/whatever as
usual.

'What's going on in that head of yours, Lord Aoshi?' Misao speculated as
she sightlessly stared into the invisible horizon from inside the Kamiya
Residence. Aoshi's penetrating gaze that seemed to peer into her soul's
depths was itself ironically unreadable. His were eyes that were pools
of whirling nimbus accentuated by crescents of blue luminescence.

"Misao," Aoshi repeated, waking her from her meandering thoughts.

"Y-Yes?" Misao squeaked, her heart thundering loudly beneath her heaving
bosom.

"You're not breathing," he observed.

Misao exhaled, scratching her head giddily and acknowledging, "Yes,
you're right. I'm not."

In contrast to the subdued acknowledgment of Aoshi's understatement,
Misao's mind was practically screaming, 'Aoshi-sama! Please don't
believe what was written on that page! It's all a misunderstanding!
Don't think ill of me!'

Tsubame could only offer her condolences to the thoroughly flabbergasted
Misao in the form of bowing and whispering her "excuse mes" and
"sorries" repeatedly. There was nothing else she could do at the moment.

"Okay, Misao. Let's go," Aoshi announced to the stunned Makimachi girl,
his face as expressionless as always. In contrast, Misao herself looked
like death, her complexion as white as a freshly laundered bed sheet
hand-washed by Kenshin Kamiya himself.

"Goodbye, Uncle Aoshi! Auntie Misao!"

"Don't call me Auntie, Kenji-kun!"

"Uh, farewell, A-Aoshi-san! Misao-san!"

Misao might have lost years in her life thanks to the fateful events
that unfolded that day.

She didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to do. She had never
felt so embarrassed in all her life, save of course during the infamous
events that the "Shaved Gorilla" Gan outlined to the equally idiotic
Yahiko.

'Note to self: Once I meet Yahiko again, I will kick the back of his
meddling, spiky-haired head so hard, his eyeballs will pop right out of
their sockets.'

Speaking of which, Misao cautiously looked at Aoshi's cool-blue eyes as
she brushed her pageboy-cut hair to the side. Was he angry? Ashamed?
Mortified? Disgusted? Uncomfortable? Afraid? Sad? Hopeful? Lonely?
Happy? Giggly? Anything? Anything at all? She couldn't tell. She never
could, come to think of it.

And so, as Misao and the enigmatic Aoshi went to the training hall and
bid their farewells to the Kamiya couple, the Kyoto onmitsu couldn't
help but wonder what the heck was Aoshi's _real_ reaction in knowing her
secret shame. More importantly, did she _want_ to know?

"I like Auntie Misao. She's silly," Kenji whispered to Tsubame.


===


Next: Rurouni Soujiro.

It's now Soujiro's time to shine once again.

Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others)
are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen
Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallop, Studio Deen, and
ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted
material that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me
please, I'm very poor.

Say my name,
Abdiel
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