[FFML] [fic][rk][cont] Rurouni Yahiko Chapter 30: By Any Other Name

[Abdiel]

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

How long ago has it been since we last (metaphorically) saw Kenshin,
Kaoru, Tsubame, and Kenji in Tokyo? Too long, I'd say.


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Chapter 30: By Any Other Name

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That afternoon, two weeks after the assassination attempt on Akahori's
life, in the Sakaguchi Soba Shop in Shinshu...

"Really? You'd tell me the vagabond's home address? W-Wait, this is some
sort of trick, right? Vagabonds don't have addresses!"

Yahiko Myojin tapped his foot impatiently. "He's not a rurouni anymore."
What the hell was he saying? This wasn't the time to indulge Chizuru
Raikouji's fantasies of meeting up with her Samurai on Horseback and
Shining Armor.

His chest expanded as he took a deep breath. "But I'll have to warn you.
Be careful what you wish for. If you meet with him, you might not be
happy with what you'll see."

"W-What are you talking about? Why would I be unhappy if I were to see
him again? Or why should I feel happy about meeting him again either?
It's not like I'm stalking him or anything..." She started pacing on the
floor while mumbling to herself.

'Should I tell her?' Yahiko asked himself. Should he tell her about
Kenshin's marriage to Kaoru? That seemed needlessly cruel. On one hand,
if she did decide to give ol' Scarface a visit and she found out he was
married, wouldn't that be even crueler?

On the other hand, she _had_ been giving him lip in regards to his
claims that he actually faced the infamous Battousaigumi, even though it
was obviously a ruse to make him spill the beans concerning Kenshin.

No, it was too cruel to not tell her about the marriage, even for him.
Still, Yahiko would _want_ to see the look on Kenshin's face as the ex-
vagabond bore witness to the sight of two Kaorus quarreling over him.

The boy couldn't decide which was crueler: Telling her now and dampening
her enthusiasm to see Kenshin again, or leaving it a "surprise" and
breaking her heart later.

Nevertheless, Yahiko would _love_ to be the fly on the wall in the
Kamiya Residence once Chizuru did decide to pay a visit to the Kamiya
Family. How would Kenshin react to seeing two Kaorus in front of him,
with either roughly the same age as the other? How many "Oro?"
variations would he come up with if that ever happened?

'I shouldn't even be giving Kenshin's Tokyo address in the first place!'
the rational part of Yahiko's mind protested. 'Whatever. What's done is
done. If I'm going to tell her about Kenshin, then I might as well tell
her about Kaoru, her 'love rival' that actually won before she could
even stand a chance!'

"Why are you so quiet, Yoshi-boy?" called out Gan from the other side of
the counter. He'd merely been watching Chizuru and Yahiko's verbal
sparring session instead of joining in for the sake of his testicles'
safety.

"We're coming in!"

"Welcome, sirs! What will be your order for today?" the Sakuguchi mother
and daughter pair chorused automatically to the new arrivals, which was
a young policeman with a sling on his arm and an even younger boy beside
him.

"Yo! Oishi-sempai! Pansy! We meet again!" greeted Gan as he gave a
cursory wave at Yahiko's policeman buddy and the little Shinshu brat
that kept attacking his crotch for the sake of self-defense.

The boy Gan named "Pansy" kicked the brute on the shin to show how much
he appreciated his moniker.

"Ah... Gan-san, isn't it? It's been a while!" Both new arrivals bowed at
the thug, although the younger one's bow had a hint of a glower aimed at
Gan that looked adorable on his preteen face. 'Oishi-sempai? Who the
heck is that?'

"What are you guys doing here?" asked Yahiko.

"Yo, Yahiko-sensei!" Kosaburo Shinichi greeted the Coadjutant Master of
the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu with an open-palmed salute that the borderline-
mute kid beside him mimicked. "I heard from the Higashidani Family that
you were leaving, so I came straight here to say goodbye. Naturally,
Outa-kun wanted to tag along too."

"Er, yeah. I guess you can say hello to everyone back in Tokyo for me or
something, Kosaburo," Yahiko said without looking at Shinichi before
realizing something quite important: Chizuru, Kaoru's _identical_
double, was right in front of him and his kendo students.

"MASTER KAORU! What are you doing all the way here in Shinshu?" yelped
Kosaburo as soon as he saw Chizuru.

"It's actually Kaori-neechan!" corrected Gan, but no one was listening
to him anyway.

"Kosaburo, this woman isn't...!" began Yahiko.

"M-Master Kaoru...? Are you friends with Gan or something?" sputtered
Chizuru at the geeky policeman and the cute yet kind of quiet boy that,
for whatever reason, beamed at her with sparkling eyes full of hope and
expectation. "Do I even know...?"

>From behind the quartet, the Gluttonous Gan requested a bowl of Tanuki
Udon from Nonoko. Just as the Elder Sakaguchi was about to go to the
kitchen to fetch that order, Kyoko (of all people) grabbed hold of the
hooligan's arm and demanded payment for that bowl.

As he yelped, the big thuggish man handed the smaller, teenaged girl his
wallet. "I was going to pay anyway!" he insisted.

"Just checking," Kyoko said with a sweet, singsong voice.

"...Is this some sort of surprise training exercise? If that's the case,
can I sit this one out, because I'm kind of injured... Why are you
putting your finger on your lips and hissing at me, Yahiko-kun?"
Kosaburo blabbered while Myojin stared daggers at him.

'You goddamned idiot. How dense can you get? Read the mood,' thought
Yahiko as he palmed his face.

"_Myojin-kun_." Chizuru dropped the overly familiar, first-name-basis
yobisute (calling someone's name without any honorifics or titles) she
and Yahiko had been using to refer to each other. "What's going on?"

Unfortunately, Kosaburo wouldn't shut up. "Oh, where's Kenshin, Missus
Kamiya?" The copper called her by the polite title of "missus" because
he had enough insight to feel the tense air around him, but not enough
to figure out what was going on.

"K-Kenshin? You mean the rurouni? What does she... this Kaoru... have to
do with the vagabond... I mean, Kenshin?" Chizuru asked.

The sling-wearing officer of the law looked blankly at Chizuru for the
longest time along with the young boy he had in tow. "What a weird way
to talk about your husband, Missus Kamiya. Have you gotten into another
fight with him again?"

The whole room's temperature dropped a degree or so as the woman with
the mistaken identity's gaze traveled from Yahiko, to Kosaburo, to Outa,
and back to Yahiko as her brain processed what the Tokyo Policeman told
her.

"I see. So that's why the vagabond isn't a vagabond anymore. He really
did settle down," Chizuru muttered to herself.

The cat was out of the bag. "Chizuru, let me explain...!"

"There'll be no need for that, Yahiko." Chizuru waved the spiky-haired
teen off.

'So she's back to using yobisute again? I can't figure this woman out.'

>From there, the Raikouji daughter began to cackle. The entire restaurant
went so silent... save for Chizuru's laughter... that one could hear the
creaking of the wooden parts of the establishment.

'Oh no. She finally lost it. Because of her heartbreak, she's gone
completely nuts.'

"K-Kaoru-sensei...?" ventured Kosaburo before Outa tugged at his sleeve
and beckoned him to bend down so that the kid could whisper something
to his ear. "Is something the matter? Even Outa's getting worried about
you. Did you hit your head or... something?"

Yahiko warned, "Look, Kosaburo, Outa, that's not really...!"

Chizuru cut the teenaged swordsman off. "That's right! I'm Kariya
Kaori!"

"...Kamiya Kaoru," corrected Yahiko.

"...Kamiya Kaoru! As your sensei, I order you two to jog straight to the
Shinshu Market, buy me some ginger, and get back here as part of your
training!" requested Chizuru while handing Kosaburo some yen coins.

"Sure! This is just like our training back in Tokyo. Isn't that right,
Outa?"

Outa again murmured something inside Shinichi's ear.

"Yeah, I was a bit worried too, but it looks like Kaoru-sensei is back
to normal!"

"Come back soon!" unthinkingly said Nonoko and Kyoko Sakaguchi in
unison as the Outa-Kosaburo pair left the soba shop in a hurry.

Yahiko groaned and slapped his forehead as the young Higashidani and the
older Shinichi jogged off to the Shinshu Market for some ginger, just
like "Kaoru" told them to.

"Hey. I look exactly like this Kaoru person you know back in Tokyo,
don't I?"

Yahiko shrugged and raised his hands in defeat. "Uh... yeah."

"And you were planning to tell me this _when_?"

"NEVER! Why the hell should I tell you? Besides, it was none of your
business who it was you looked like anyway!"

"More importantly, she's now married to the rurouni, is she not?"
pressed the Kaoru duplicate.

"S-So what?" asked Yahiko while averting his gaze from Kaoru's. Er,
Chizuru's. With all due respect to Kaoru's father, Yahiko couldn't help
but wonder if the Kamiya Patriarch sowed some of his wild oats all over
Tokyo around the same time Kaoru was conceived.

"On one hand, I know what happened to the vagabond, the person who saved
my life. He's happily married. On the other hand..."

"Um..." Yahiko had said too much, apparently. "I'm sorry, Chizuru."

"Don't apologize." Chizuru smiled in a way that reminded Yahiko of
Kenshin's pensive smile whenever he'd open up his heart to Kaoru and
whenever Kenji would learn a new word or grow up a little more.

'Please stop smiling like you're about to die. It's creepy,' was what
Yahiko couldn't bring himself to say. He now wished he'd followed his
Kamiya Kasshin Ryu students to the market.

If Myojin hadn't blabbed that he knew Kenshin's home address to Chizuru,
then they wouldn't even be having this awkward conversation. She
wouldn't have discovered the rurouni's marriage either.

Thanks to Chizuru, Yahiko felt right at home there in Shinshu. It was
like he never left Tokyo. It was never his intention to hurt her or tell
her the awful truth about Kenshin and Kaoru in light of her situation.

Then again, Chizuru had been searching for the vagabond all this time,
and she deserved some measure of closure. She earned it after all the
help she gave him. He felt that he at least owed her that much.

Without her, Yahiko wouldn't have been able to stop Keisuke's Fake
Battousai Group from running amok in a village under siege, solve part
of the mystery behind the Battousai Group, meet the Sakaguchi Family, or
recover from his various injuries while staying there in Shinshu.

No. She should know the truth. Maybe this was the only way she could let
go of her six-year crush with Kenshin Himura.

"That's good to know. So, about that home address of the vagabond..."
she continued.

"Huh?" Yahiko blinked before his head snapped up in attention. "Why do
you still want to meet with Kenshin? Especially since he's already
married and all!"

She shrugged. "It's no big deal to me."

"Are we even on the same page? Do you really understand what's going on
here? If you're not bothered by Kenshin having a wife, then why would
you...?"

Chizuru giggled and waved Yahiko off. "Silly boy. What's wrong with me
visiting an old acquaintance of mine from six years ago? It's not like
I'm in love with him or anything."

"Ah. I see."

She had a point. Maybe Yahiko misread her intentions after all? So she
wasn't really infatuated with Kenshin and she was merely trying to find
the man who saved her life in the past. He was overanalyzing things, as
usual.

"I'm happy to learn more about what happened to the vagabond after all
these years. So he married someone who looks just like me, didn't he? In
a way, he didn't forget about me after all those years either."

"Oh... kay?" Yhaiko didn't like where the conversation was going. So
much for him misunderstanding her feelings.

She chortled again, which had the boy worrying about her mental health
once more. He then backed away eight feet from her as he saw the bright-
red blush on her cheeks that was luminescent enough to signal lost
sailors to land in a low-visibility storm.

"I'm so happy that my feelings for Kenshin were able to reach him! I
mean, he yearned for me for so long that he married the girl that
matched me the closest! I guess he and I have been thinking the same
thing! He missed me so much, he found a _Chizuru substitute_!"

Not only Yahiko, but Gan, Kyoko, and Nonoko all blurted out the same
thing.

"EEHHHH?"


===


Four months after Yahiko left his hometown back in Tokyo...

"_I'm_ the Chizuru substitute? Don't give me that nonsense!" exclaimed a
cheesed-off Kaoru Kamiya. As Kenshin Kamiya (nee Himura) attempted to
console his wife, she gave him a teary-eyed look with puffed-up cheeks.
"Kenshin! Tell me it isn't so!" she sniffled.

"Oro?" came Kenshin's catchphrase.

"Kaoru-san, calm down! Please don't tear the letter apart! We still need
to know where Yahiko went after the assassination attempt at the
Shinshushin Mansion was foiled!" pleaded Tsubame Sanjo.

"Oh, okay," said Kaoru prior to using the letter to blow her nose.

It took three days of on-again, off-again reading for the "Kenshingumi"
to get to that point in Yahiko's letter. The boy could spin quite the
yarn... so much so that Kaoru had her doubts in regards to the
authenticity of his tale. "It could all be in his imagination," she had
proposed.

Since it was months later, both Outa and Kosaburo (the latter of which
already got his sling removed) were there at the Kamiya Dojo in order to
corroborate the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu Coadjutant Master's tall tales.

Presently, Outa was out in the yard with Kosaburo doing their weekly
kendo drills. Because Yahiko wasn't around, the police officer served as
the silent preteen's "mouthpiece".

The first confirmation Kaoru got that proved Yahiko was telling the
truth was when the copper asking her, "So what were you doing in
Shinshu, Master Kaoru? You didn't even go with us when we took the train
back to Tokyo!"

>From what Kaoru could gather, Shinichi had a talent for recognizing
sword styles after only seeing a few strokes of the blade. He wasn't a
defensive master like Yutaro Tsukayama, but his lightning-fast ability
in figuring out how a technique worked allowed him to exploit weaknesses
and create battle plans with the least amount of effort on his part.

Kosaburo even used these observational abilities by helping the Kanto
Police Squads make it difficult for the "reincarnation" of Shiro Amakusa
to attack using the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu because of his familiarity with
Kenshin's techniques.

Ergo, his best kendo stance was the most basic of all stances, the
easily adaptable Water Stance or the Chudan-no-Kamae.

As for the young Higashidani (and Sanosuke's little brother, much to
Kaoru's surprise when she found out), despite his reserved nature, he
had an aggressive streak that would make his big brother proud. Kaoru
guessed it was just the Higashidani way to be aggressive, rambunctious,
and offense-oriented.

Even though he wasn't an improvisational expert like Yahiko, he shared
his master's willingness to take risks, such that his thrust to the
throat or tsuki was a sight to behold for a preteen kendoist. As such,
his best kendo stance was a variant of the Chudan-no-Kamae, the Seigan-
no-Kamae, which had the tip of his sword pointed straight at the
opponent's eyes instead of his neck.

The reading of Yahiko's letter had become somewhat of a tradition in the
Kamiya Household. He had fascinating exploits, like when he met a Kaoru
look-alike and a food bandit, fought a former high-ranking Juppon Gatana
member to a draw, confronted a descendant of Shiro Amakusa or whoever it
was that sported the same fighting style as Kenshin did, and trounced
yet another doppelganger who this time looked like Kenshin's younger
Hitokiri Battousai self during the Bakumatsu no Douran.

Kaoru groaned in remembrance. Were any of this true?

Come to think of it, were Outa and Kosaburo not present to confirm some
of the strange things Yahiko wrote, the Kamiya Family... and even his
loyal girlfriend Tsubame... would be well within their rights to wave
off his stories as the fancies of a kid who really missed his friends
back in Tokyo.

"Two look-alikes of me and my husband? Some Hidden Christian rebel who
can do Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu too? If he isn't making things up, then he's
clearly delusional!" came Kaoru's somewhat reasonable conclusion prior
to Outa and Kosaburo revealing themselves as witnesses to Yahiko's
misadventures.

Even after they confirmed everything... well, mostly Kosaburo did...
Kaoru still had her doubts. "You mean to tell me the _most_ unbelievable
parts of Yahiko's cock-and-bull story are _true_? It sounds like
something a hack writer would come up with!"

Regardless, Kaoru took what Yahiko _claimed_ Chizuru said quite
seriously for a story she believed was mostly fictional.

Even with the kind of strange and audacious life Kaoru had led, having
her own double running after her beloved spouse was too weird even for
her to accept. It also somewhat scared her. Just a little bit.

"She's coming here, isn't she? Kenshin's ex-girlfriend is coming here!"

_That_ was news to Kenshin, though. "E-Ex-girlfriend...?"

"Nobody said she's Mister Kamiya's ex-girlfriend! Isn't that right,
Officer Kosaburo?" said Tsubame in another bid to keep Kaoru from doing
something drastic, like using Yahiko's letter as fuel for the fireplace.

"Yes. You're right, Tsubame-san," reassured a sweaty Kosaburo right
after his light spar with the adorably forceful Outa. A couple of days
ago, when the letter arrived, he wasn't around, but he was soon included
in the storytelling sessions when his name came up in the middle of one
of Kaoru's readings.

"You can take a break now, Outa-kun. Kosaburo-kun," said an absentminded
Kaoru while lost in thought. She paced back and forth with a page of
Yahiko's letter in her hand as she let Chizuru's bombshell sink in. What
if that harlot did decide to take a visit to their home? What if she was
right, and she, Kaoru, was nothing more than a replacement for her, Old
Man Raikouji's granddaughter?

What if that home wrecker did the ol' switcheroo and she became the new
Kaoru Kamiya? What would happen to her, the real one? What if she wasn't
the real Kaoru Kamiya? What if she was the clone and the real her was in
Shinshushin, waiting for the right time to expose herself as the true
heir to the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu?

Also, how was Kaoru supposed to keep Chizuru out of her property? Should
she tell her students, "If you see someone like me enter this dojo,
attack her. If she can't defend herself, throw her out!"? They'd be
arrested for assault if that happened! This Raikouji girl could even
cook! This was in stark contrast to the Kamiya Matriarch, who still let
Kenshin do all the cooking!

"She's thinking about something silly, isn't she, Kenshin-san?" asked
Tsubame as Kaoru tore her hair out.

"I'm afraid so, Tsubame-dono." Kenshin considered the possibility that
Kaoru had been drinking sake behind his back. He was afraid of the
implications of her actions if she were stone-cold sober.

"Daddy, do I have another mommy?" Kenji asked in all seriousness, his
cute little eyebrows furrowed.

After Kenshin recovered from choking on his own spit, he reassured
Kenji, "You only have one mommy, Kenji." He then crossed him arms,
rubbed his tapered chin, and nodded to himself, which prompted everyone
to look at him in expectation.

"...."

Kenshin then noticed all the stares on his person. "...Oro? My pardons,
but I don't have anything else to say."

As everyone got up from their synchronized pratfalls, Kaoru inquired,
"Well, what are you thinking about, then? Did this Chizuru girl confess
to you before you headed out to my neck of the woods here in Tokyo?"

"Ah, no. Actually, I could've sworn she hated me. She kept hitting me
for the most trivial of reasons. She also denied ever doing anything for
me, telling me to not get the wrong idea and saying I'm pitiful.'

Like a blushing maiden, Kaoru's face went through several shades of red;
an impressive feat, considering she was a married woman and she already
had her so-called honeymoon with Kenshin. To her husband, she said,
"Yeah, she must've _really_ hated you."

'Wow. That's not like what happened between you and Kaoru-san _at all_
before you confessed your feelings to each other. Right, Kenshin-san?'
was the loaded statement that Tsubame didn't ask because it was such a
rude thing to say.

Unfortunately, Kenshin had no such compunctions. "That's not like what
happened between us _at all_... Right, Dear?" Whether this was a
statement of sarcasm or genuine cluelessness, only the ex-rurouni knew.

"...Shut up."

Thanks to Missus Kamiya's embarrassment, she decided to change the topic
and continue reading Yahiko's letters, Kenshin-infatuated look-alike be
damned.

"Right after dealing with Chizuru, I had an unexpected meeting with
Kenshin Junior..."

"...."

"KENSHIIIN!"

"Ah! Daddy is wunning away!"

"WHAT'S THE MEANING OF THIS? WHO'S KENSHIN JUNIOR? DOES KENJI HAVE A
BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER?"

"ORORORO?"


===


Around the middle of the night of November 21, 1884...

After Yahiko Myojin packed his stuff and said his goodbyes to Gan, the
Sakaguchi Family (including Sergeant Satoru himself), and Chizuru (who
told him to "Do whatever you want," and rushed off in a huff; he hadn't
seen her since), he saw the last man he expected to meet before
"casting off", so to speak.

"Psycho-Kid." In his letter to the Kamiyas that they received three
months later, he accidentally wrote "Kenshin Junior" instead of
"Pyscho-Kid" to refer to Soujiro Seta.

Had Sigmund Freud developed and popularized his psychoanalysis theories
earlier, he would've called Yahiko's gaffe a Freudian slip of the pen.

"Good evening, Yahiko-san. How are your injuries?" asked Soujiro, the
former Heaven Sword of the Ten Swords.

Yahiko snorted, remembering that half of his wounds were thanks to the
Ten Ken's blade. "They could be better. How about yours?"

"They still ache from time to time, but I'll manage."

'I bet you will. The Fake Battousai could've scourged you like a common
criminal, yet you'd still be smiling.'

Myojin gave Seta a once over. Normal men would've still been in crutches
by the amount of abuse Soujiro received from his back-to-back duels with
Shogo Amakusa and Kaede Morinaga... but this was not the case for Makoto
Shishio's Heaven Sword.

Aside from a bandaged foot (all the other bandages were probably hidden
inside his outfit) and a slight hobble in his step, the bob-cut-sporting
young man looked none the worse for wear. Meanwhile, Yahiko served as a
bandage spool after suffering from two separate Kuzu Ryu Sen and a
shoulder stab wound that still ached.

The last time they met two weeks ago, Soujiro tried thanking Yahiko for
saving Rin, but the samurai boy told him to save it, insisting that he
didn't do it for him, he did it because she saved his life.

Yahiko wondered why the Ten Ken pissed him off so much... aside from the
fact that he almost killed him in a duel.

'He's both fast and tough, eh? If he weren't so cuckoo, he'd be the
perfect swordsman.' Again, Yahiko's thoughts betrayed the bitter reasons
why he put "Kenshin Junior" in his letter.

"So where are you headed?" asked Soujiro.

"I'm leaving Shinshu. I'll head out by tomorrow," answered Yahiko.

"Oh, what a coincidence! So am I," said Seta. "Well, if you'll excuse
me, I have some official business with the Sakaguchi Family to attend
to."

"Why are you working for the Oyakata anyway? I mean, Akahori Tetsuo,"
asked Myojin.

"Ah, that's a long story, and I don't think we have all night. I'll see
you around, Yahiko-san."

Clenching his fist and cursing his own impudence, Yahiko called out to
Soujiro, "You did terribly against the Battousai of Speed. I bet I can
do better against her!" What the hell was he talking about?

With that eternally amused mask of a face he had, Soujiro replied, "Can
you now?"

"I bet I can do better than she did against you too." Another blatant
lie. Where was he getting all his confidence?

"Just because you've gotten a hefty amount of reward money doesn't mean
you should go wasting it away on bets you can't win," said Seta.

The Myojin kid winced at the Heaven Sword's remark. That was a change.
Now even the usually pleasant Soujiro was running his mouth on him.

"Just you wait and see. I'll make you eat those words."

"I'm looking forward to proving you wrong." Seta chuckled. "Oh, by the
way..."

"What is it now?"

"The Shun Ten Satsu is about as fast as the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki,
even though it's not as strong and Himura-san's technique broke my sword
apart. Just a little tip. Say hello to Himura-san for me."

'About as fast as...? Is he fucking kidding me?' Minutes later, as
Yahiko stood there like a statue, he answered a bit too late, "It's
Kamiya-san now... Ah, he's already gone."


===


Late evening at a local Shinshushin inn; on November 21, 1884...

"No word on the rumored Seiryu Clan reunion I've been hearing about from
Sergeant Sakaguchi?" inquired Tetsuo as soon as Soujiro arrived at his
room. The Ten Ken had fetched for him a bottle of wine from the cellar
of his mansion. He uncorked it and poured himself a glass. He offered a
glass to the younger man, who politely refused.

The Shinshushin Police... what was left of them, anyway... had turned
the mansion into a crime scene, but because of Akahori's political
clout, he was allowed access to certain parts of the mansion up until he
departed for Hokkaido or anywhere else he needed to conduct his business
at.

Nevertheless, as Spartan as his methods were, the loving father had more
than enough common sense and consideration to not let him and his
daughter spend the night at a place where dozens of men met their
demise. That didn't stop him from going back to the scene of the crime
multiple instances to conduct his own investigations of the matter,
though.

Speaking of which, Rin remained wide awake inside her allocated bedroom
separate from her father. Nighttime was the period for her... a
nocturnal creature... to awaken, although her activities were mostly
limited to reading novels and checking up on her father and his
bodyguard.

"From the looks of things, Sakaguchi Satoru-san has no idea. He hasn't
heard much from his blacksmith father-in-law, much less Minakata Kinta-
san," reported Soujiro.

Kinta Minakata. Now there was a name Akahori hadn't heard in years...
Six years, to be exact. "So he has finally resurfaced after all these
years. I wonder what he's planning now. Maybe he already figured out the
location of the Seiryu Clan's Black Book..."

"What Black Book, Akahori-san?"

"It's the sum compilation of leaked military and government intelligence
from both the Bakufu and the Ishin Shishi collected by four separate spy
clans, one of which is Minakata's Seiryu Clan. The Black Book helped
shaped the course of the Late Tokugawa Shogunate and the Bakumatsu no
Douran, don't you know? Knowledge is power and all that. I'll tell you
more about it at a later date."

By Akahori's estimations, the Black Book was a rather appropriate name
for the extensive collection of classified, secret, and private data
from news sources, leaks, and whistleblowers, although the secrets of
both the patriots and the shogunate were certainly not contained within
one mere book. It was instead compiled in multiple volumes detailing the
true history and behind-the-scenes plans of two major warring factions.

Meanwhile, in the English language, the idiom "black book" referred to a
book that contained the names of organizations and people to blacklist.
Even though no particular person or institute was being blacklisted by
Akahori's Black Book, the dirty laundry contained within its pages was
enough to ruin the career of many a politician, high-ranking official,
or military officer, to the point that they might as well have been
blacklisted.

The bespectacled old man's eyes twinkled. "I remember," he mentioned as
he swirled the wine inside his wine glass that he retrieved from a
study which, for a week or so, served as part of a crime scene.

"Remember what, Akahori-san?" queried Tetsuo's trusty bodyguard.

"I remember that there were reports of the Hitokiri Battousai helping
out Amakusa Shiro the Second in repelling the Japanese Imperial Army
back in the Second Shimabara War," said Akahori before gulping down the
wine.

"I waved it off as nonsense at the time, but apparently, there was some
truth to that info after all. What do you know? Battousai-dono was
probably the Fake Battousai who massacred hundreds of our soldiers in
her wake six years ago. No wonder she was strong enough to give even you
problems."

"She was a Himura-san impersonator even back then, huh? Fascinating,"
said Soujiro. "There's also something familiar about that reverse-edged
short sword of hers. Could it have come from the same sakabatou I broke
when I first crossed swords with Mister Himura?"

"Now there's some food for thought. Maybe she's been snooping around and
learning everything that she could about her infamous look-alike right
under your nose, Seta-kun. She might've even found a way to infiltrate
Shishio's Faction, at that. For someone who allegedly hates the
Battousai name, she certainly knows a lot about the bearer of that
moniker."

"She could've been part of Shishio-san's... our.... group? That would
explain how she got the top half of Himura-san's sword back in Shingetsu
Village." Seta tapped his closed fist on his open palm upon realizing
where the Battousai of Speed got her weapon.

"What do you think? Could she have become a member of the Ten Swords?
Even back then, the rumored Hitokiri Battousai that worked with Amakusa
Shiro the Second during the Second Shimabara Rebellion was a force to be
reckoned with. She and one other person formed the Unholy Trinity of
Amakusa's Faction six years past."

"If Amakusa-san hadn't used that Rai Ryu Sen on me, I would've finished
her off."

"Do you really think so, Seta-kun?"

Soujiro smiled but said nothing more on the subject. Tetsuo nodded in
understanding. The boy wanted payback. Just as he took Kenshin Himura to
the limit, this other upstart did the same to him. 'How adorable. She is
his first real rival since Himura Kenshin retired from active
swordsmanship.'

"Try to find a way to keep your balance while moving sideways with the
Shukuchi other than using your sword as a pivot and you'll be able to
conquer your technique's weakness," was Akahori's answer to a question
Soujiro didn't ask aloud.

"It'll also help you avoid being forced to go to extreme supersonic
speeds that'd burn you alive because of the friction of the air. The
fewer weaknesses she can exploit from you, the more chances you have of
winning against her because you're faster and stronger than her by
default."

"I see." Seta nodded to himself before pouring his employer another
drink. "Like a true scorpion, she lies in wait for most of the battle
before ambushing her opponent. Like a crab, I couldn't penetrate her
hard shell. Even when angered, she still falls back on this defensive
pattern. It's... maddening."

"You'll have your chance soon. She's part of Amakusa's Battousai Group.
The reason why Amakusa personally oversaw this last-ditch effort to
assassinate me was because this may be the final time he'll be able to
do his terrorist assignments by himself. As you yourself saw, he's way
past his prime, and he can barely even summon his own Rai Ryu Sen
without the use of hallucinogenic drugs."

Akahori took another sip of wine. "The next time we meet, Amakusa will
probably be aided by his entire Battousai Group the same way Shishio
employed the help of you and the rest of the Ten Swords. It's not a
stretch of the imagination to presume that he's taking some pointers
from Morinaga Kaede herself because of her experience with Shishio's
Faction... _if_ she really were part of it. I wouldn't be surprised if
the Battousai Group was a direct rip-off of your Juppon Gatana."

Soujiro rubbed his finger on his lower lip. "I agree with you in regards
to Amakusa-san probably depending on the Battousai Group more in the
near future. However, is he really as weak as you claim, though? He was
able to wound me with his Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki even though he
himself was at his limit by the time we fought. Maybe the Battousai of
Style isn't as washed up as you'd expect."

"The facts don't lie. He went from being able to take on a thousand
fully armed military personnel to having trouble dealing with fifty-
something policemen bodyguards and spies," insisted Akahori.

"Yet he should've died fighting against an entire army in the first
place," remarked Seta. "Up to this day, the Meiji Government refuses to
acknowledge that the Second Shimabara Rebellion even happened because of
all the embarrassing casualties from the conflict. We can't risk
underestimating him again."

Tetsuo cleared his throat and smirked at the sharpness of his impudent
bodyguard's words, remembering how he himself lost face thanks to his
Pyrrhic Victory in Shimabara.

Just as the army of King Pyrrhus of Epirus suffered numerous deaths in
defeating the Romans at Heraclea in 280 BC and Asculum in 279 BC, so too
did the Japanese Imperial Army lose most of its men in trying to take
down the Cult of Shiro Amakusa the Second at Shimabara in 1878.

Akahori had to be made a scapegoat by his superiors and the incident had
to be swept under the rug lest news spread through international waters
that Japan's armies were no match against a handful of religious rebels.


===


Around noontime on November 7, 1884; somewhere inside a log cabin within
the Nagano wilderness...

A lot had happened yesterday and today. They were a hairbreadth away
from finishing off the man that masterminded Shiro Amakusa the Second's
downfall back in 1878. So close, yet so far.

What went wrong, exactly? Minoe, as a Togakudan double agent, was able
to leak to Amakusa information regarding the Kanto Police Squads and
their respective captains, lieutenants, and sergeants. The squad
leaders were thusly killed, which should've left the rest of the
surviving cops as helpless as a headless chicken. There were several
deserters that proved this plan went without a hitch, even.

Morinaga also murdered the majority of Togakudan within the Akahori
Mansion's ballroom to keep them from organizing the remaining officers
and giving them much-needed data to take down Shogo as he divided and
conquered Akahori's government-issued bodyguards one-by-one. That
scheme was also executed with little to no problems.

It was that samurai-looking boy with a blunt sword like hers and that
gargantuan slab of beefcake and idiocy that ruined Amakusa's
assassination plot.

Both she and her lord knew that Akahori's head bodyguard, the Heaven
Sword, was a handful, and yet she was still able to go toe-to-toe with
him. What they didn't expect was that spiky-haired kid serving as a
spanner in the works.

This was the same silly teenager who, according to Minoe, helped capture
a food bandit and forced him to pay for his debts so he wouldn't end up
a crook. They only met a few days ago, but it already seemed like they'd
gone through a decade of adventures.

They (apparently) got an androgynous chicken, struggled to find out what
its gender was, ended up in an underground cockpit beneath the Shinshu
Market and was entered in a championship cockfighting competition, won,
got chased by a mob of angry gamblers, went back to pay Gan's debts,
somehow a fish vendor was involved in the mess, and they gave the
peculiar chicken away to the nice soba shop owner as payment for all the
trouble.

Incidentally, Munenori kept a log of events for both his other self,
Kaede, and Shogo to read to keep them abreast of updates. From what
Morinaga could surmise, Minoe really liked those two dunderheads.

'No wonder I held back with the Sasori Gatame at the last moment.' It
was Minoe who kept Morinaga from killing his strange lad who ended up
interfering in other people's business more often than not because of
his self-entitled attitude when it came to helping people out.

"If only..." murmured Morinaga.

"Don't start." Shogo patted Kaede's head. "You and I have both done
things we regret. We should learn from our mistakes instead of letting
them stop us from doing what must be done."

"But I made you stop short of killing Gan! I also stopped short of
killing Yahiko, when we were so close to...!"

Amakusa hushed the redheaded Battousai double. "It was the Minoe inside
you who did that, didn't he? Besides, as it's said in the Holy Book,
'Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I
do: Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies
ahead.'"

As she bobbed her head in assent and wiped the rheum from her eyes,
Morinaga asked, "Shogo-sama, what do you think of Myojin Yahiko?"

Shogo blinked at his apprentice's question. "You mean that irritating
boy you met along with that hard-hitting, bandanna-wearing idiot? He has
skills and lots of potential, but he's still a bit green when it comes
to death matches. There are times when he surprises me, and there are
times when his inexperience in battle shows."

"No, I mean as a person."

"Why are you asking me this? I don't know how to answer that."

"I want to learn from my mistakes like you have."

Amakusa scratched the tip of his tapered chin. "He's one of the most
naive people I've ever met. He almost reminds me of my pacifistic old
uncle and master in his insistence not to kill. I was afraid he was
rubbing off on you because you refused to finish him off when you had
the chance, but it was probably Minoe who held you back."

She swallowed hard. "He knows the Hitokiri Battousai. He is among the
people within Battousai's inner circle. He probably inherited both his
sakabatou and his non-killing vow from Himura Battousai himself. I know
all this because I learned about it from my time as part of Shishio
Makoto's spies for his faction."

"Oh, I get it now. He's another piece of the puzzle in regards to Himura
Kenshin." Shogo hit his closed fist on his open palm. "Himura Kenshin.
It's such a shame. Had Kaio not turned out to be such a snake in the
grass, would he and I have crossed swords during our peak strengths? I
guess we'll never know."

The inheritor of the title "The Fourth Son of Heaven", Shiro Amakusa the
Second, battling "The Strongest Manslayer", the Hitokiri Battousai: That
was the stuff of myth and legend.

Shogo raised his sheathed Sword of Light and Darkness... his replacement
sword for the lengthier blade that was cut in half by his personal Judas
Iscariot during the Second Shimabara Rebellion.

"I believe 'Himura-san' even goes by a different name now. He married
into his wife's family, so his name is registered under the Kamiya
Family Registry," informed Kaede.

"It sounds awkward, calling him Kamiya Kenshin. It doesn't have the same
ring to it," remarked Amakusa. "You haven't met with him yet, have you?"

"No. He's a retired swordsman now. He isn't the man he used to be. He
already found a home and became a family man. It seems he has some sort
of degenerative disease as well. I'm not sure if I should meet with him
anymore, even if I want to."

"And yet you've been practicing day and night in how to counter the
Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu regardless. Why is that?"

"I may not be able to use what I've learned against the Himura Battousai
of today, but it's not a total waste. You could say that I've found
something else to occupy my time with," said Morinaga with a bat of her
eyelashes, remembering the sacrifices she and countless others made in
order for Shogo Amakusa's ministry and rebellion to survive.

She had enough of being forced to do things she didn't want to do (like
assist the suicide of a person who pretended to murder her foster
mother) or having no clear objective at all (like not knowing how to
deal with the existence of Kenshin Himura). For once, she wanted to do
something in her own volition.

"I'm grateful to have your services, but I find it curious how Himura
Kenshin continues to fascinate you so, such that you couldn't bring
yourself to murder someone who knew him way back when."

"He's a part of who I am. It can't be helped. Even after all this time,
I still want to meet him someday... after all this is through."

"I'm not questioning your loyalty, but what if that boy gets in our way
again? What will you do?" asked Amakusa.

Morinaga gripped the handle of the sword that used to belong to Kenshin
tightly. "What I should've done back in that mansion. It can't be helped
as well. He won't be able to do that move he did on me twice."

Amakusa nodded and ruffled the shorter girl's hair. "I appreciate all
your sacrifices for me, Morinaga. I look forward to the day when you've
become strong enough to turn into one of my apostles and the Leader of
our Kakure Kirishitan Church."

"L-Leader? O-Of your rebellion? Are you serious?"

"I'd like to think of it more as a holy crusade, if you will."

Unbeknownst to Kaede, Amakusa named his new squad of warriors the
"Battousai Group" not out of respect for Himura Kenshin (whom he never
met) but instead in honor of his faction's very own Battousai look-alike
and one of his most loyal followers (even though she probably wouldn't
appreciate the gesture knowing how she loathed the name).

"I-I think it's a bit too early for me to take on such a huge
responsibility, Shogo-sama! Please think things through!" said Kaede.

"Why not? Like you said, you're the same age as me, you've been through
a myriad of life-and-death battles, and unlike me, you're not yet at the
twilight of your career as a swordswoman. You've grown so much!"
declared Shogo.

To Amakusa's surprise, Morinaga kicked him on the shin. "How could say
I'm the same age as you then imply I still need growing at the same
breath?"

Ah. Now this Kaede... the irate, short-tempered one who misunderstood
everything he said and looked at him like he was a bug... was the Kaede
that Shogo was most familiar with six years ago. The nostalgia
overwhelmed him, so to speak.

"So what's the plan now, Shogo-sama?" queried Kaede after her temper
simmered down while she brushed back her long, red locks and placed them
behind her ear.

"That depends. What did you find out from Akahori's Togakudan? Or
rather, what did Minoe find out?"


===


Late evening at a local Shinshushin inn; on November 21, 1884...

"Six years ago, the Rai Ryu Sen's only immediate effect was to blind
people. I don't know what happened six years later, but at this point,
it seems that Amakusa can do outright hypnosis with his signature move.
He almost suffocated me to death with that Lightning Dragon Flash of
his, for example. He also hypnotized Myojin-kun and his friend using the
same technique," said Akahori.

"Maybe it has something to do with his use of drugs to activate his
skill because he can't do it on his own?" suggested Soujiro as he leaned
on a nearby wall near the window. "From what I know, the Rai Ryu Sen is
based off a swordsman's ability to manipulate his kenki to the point
that he can weaponize it and rob his opponent's will to fight. I've also
heard an advanced version of this in the form of the Nikaido Heiho's
One-Sided Heart."

"Perhaps." Akahori shrugged as he took another swig of his wine. "One
thing for sure, he's tired of being naive. He's now willing to murder,
lie, and betray others for the sake of his people. However, there's
still a measure of inexperience in his actions."

"What do you mean?"

"He had the audacity to kidnap my daughter, but he didn't have the heart
to kill her. He's willing to murder the loved ones and comrades of the
soldiers he killed in the past, but he still gave them the choice of
fighting or fleeing. His beliefs and his actions continue to contradict
each other. As long as that happens, we have the edge against these
zealots."

Soujiro continued. "Naive or not, Mister Amakusa was still able to do
his signature technique on me before I could finish the Battousai of
Speed off. I don't think that Rai Ryu Sen was powered by his drugs at
all. You mentioned that he had a glass orb of hallucinogens he sliced
apart with his sword whenever he did the Rai Ryu Sen, correct? That was
not the case back then."

Akahori scowled at the notion that one of his mortal enemies managed to
become even more powerful than before, the horizontal scar that split
his face in twain bristling with feverish heat.

The idea left the same bitter taste in his mouth that he experienced
after Kiyotaka Kuroda remained in power and office despite being part of
the Hokkaido Colonization Office Scandal of 1881 (of whom Tetsuo served
as a secret whistleblower for). Even with Toshimichi Okubo and Saigo
Takamori's deaths, the Satsuma Domain's influence on the government
remained significant.

"Regardless of whether or not Amakusa really did manage to diversify his
skill set after all these years, Father Time is not on his side. Besides
which, he still hasn't completed his Battousai Group yet, so he's of no
immediate concern to us. Right now, we have bigger fish to fry, like the
reemergence of the Seiryu Clan under Minakata Kinta's leadership."

"What do you think Minakata Kinta is planning?" inquired Soujiro.

"Who knows? Even six years ago, he was a mystery. He's a man of action
and few words." Akahori put down his wine glass, leaned forward on his
desk, and rested his nose on his interlaced gloved hands.

"There's no denying his skill, though. He wasn't called the
Mimawarigumi's Battousai for nothing. He even ended up with a cross-
shaped scar on his face for some reason, which made him live up more to
the Battousai name. He may prove to be a greater threat to the Meiji
Government than even Amakusa once he gets his hands on the Seiryu Clan's
volumes of the Black Book. Even one volume from those classified
documents is enough to start a war."

"Mimawarigumi...?" mouthed Soujiro before remembering Shishio mentioning
tales of him clashing against the Kyoto Mimawarigumi. In contrast to the
much more famous Shinsengumi, the Mimawarigumi were a special police
force composed of sons of hatamoto-class retainers and higher-ranking
samurai instead of ronin or masterless samurais. "Minakata-san is yet
_another_ Battousai wannabe too? And he's a high-ranking samurai to
boot?"

"While it's true that Himura Kenshin was the original Battousai known
for the speed, precision, and strength of his sword-drawing technique,
the Mimawarigumi Battousai's entire swords style is mostly composed of
battoujutsu and iaijutsu strikes. He was also called the Mimawarigumi
Iaisai by his peers. His Musou Madden Ryu is a branch of iaido, in fact.
Although he never crossed swords against the two shadow hitokiri of the
Ishin Shishi, he did go against the infamous Shidai Nikuya.

Soujiro's eyes narrowed despite his smiling mask. Battoujutsu was the
old-style name of Japanese sword-drawing, which was now called iaijutsu.
Meanwhile, any school practicing that art exclusively was part of
iaido.

In other words, iaido was to battoujutsu as kendo was to kenjutsu.
Certainly someone whose style exclusively made use of sword-drawing
moves was worthier of the Battousai name than even the original
Battousai himself.

As for the Shidai Nikuya or the Four Butchers of the Bakumatsu, they
were manslayers like Kenshin and Shishio who helped pave the way for the
new era through an ocean of blood.

They included Izo Okada, Shinbei Tanaka, Toshiaki Kirino, and Gensai
Kawakami (who shared Himura's effeminate looks and bloodthirsty
Battousai side). Nevertheless, something bothered Seta: Where exactly
did he hear the swordsmanship school "Musou Madden Ryu" before?

Akahori disclosed, "The name 'Battousai' itself is a play on the name of
one of the most famous swordsmen to ever grace the land, Ito Ittousai.
He was rumored to have never lost a duel. Ergo, Battousai is a fitting
name for a swordsman rumored to be the Strongest Hitokiri. Who knew what
would've happened had the Ishin Shishi Hitokiri Battousai and the Kyoto
Mimawarigumi Battousai clashed blades? Old-school battoujutsu versus
modern-day iaijutsu. It would've been quite the spectacle."

"I'm more interested in seeing how Himura-san would've fared against the
Amakusa-san who was able to kill over a thousand policemen and
soldiers," admitted Soujiro.

"Without a doubt, Amakusa would've won," said Akahori. "As arrogant and
naive as he was and even with the primitive version of his Rai Ryu Sen
that steals people's sight, I believe he was twice as fast as and even
more aggressive than Battousai. Perhaps the version of Himura that was
the Hitokiri Battousai would've presented a fairer challenge to
Amakusa."

"Don't underestimate Himura-san's resolve. He's the kind of swordsman
who doesn't only pierce through your flesh, but through your soul. Even
the version of him that couldn't kill would've broken through Amakusa's
fragile psyche." Soujiro was of course speaking from experience. "On
that note, who would've been the winner between Amakusa-san and
Minakata-san, then?"

"They'd already fought. Judging by what became of Amakusa, Minakata won.
He helped bring down someone no soldier in the Japanese Imperial Army
stood a chance against."

"...Really?"

"Minakata Kinta was Amakusa's Judas Iscariot, the traitor who gave him
the vertical scar on his chest, which was why it turned into a mark
shaped like a crucifix. And this was during the time when the Hidden
Christian was at his peak."

"So he's _that_ strong?"

"Certainly stronger than Morinaga Kaede, at least."

Soujiro's sword hand twitched. Although Hajime Saito had long lamented
the lack of strong warrior in the Meiji Era compared to the days of
the Bakumatsu, there were still fighters left from that bygone age. He
wanted to meet this samurai-class warrior who defeated Amakusa at his
peak and was stronger than the woman who gave him fits during battle.

"The Minakata Estate also remains one of the wealthiest in Japan, so
even though his privileges as a hatamoto-class retainer has long ago
ceased to exist in today's era, he certainly has all the resources
needed to fund his own rebellion. Couple that with the fact that all the
families that are part of the Seiryu Clan share a long and distinguished
swordsmanship history, and it's quite clear who's the real, immediate
threat between him and Amakusa. All he really needs now is to get his
hands on the Seiryu Clan's volumes of the Black Book in order to become
the most dangerous man in Japan."

"So what are we supposed to do about him?"

"Find the volumes of the Black Book written by the spies of the Seiryu
Clan before he does and stop him from reorganizing the Seiryu Clan into
a cohesive fighting unit," said Akahori as he adjusted his glinting
glasses over the bridge of his nose. "Fortunately, I've anticipated this
event and I've already given the signal to one of my foreign connections
to unleash the Mimawarigumi Battousai's Achilles' Heel."

"If you say so, Akahori-san." Strange remarks from his employer aside,
Seta wanted to meet and defeat Minakata. Even though Kenshin wouldn't
have approved of the feelings welling deep inside the young man, Shishio
certainly would've. What would have it been like to fight actual
samurai?

Saito and Shishio were ronin, but what about the jikisan hatamoto? How
skilled were these privileged men who were in direct service to the
Tokugawa Shoguns? Were they even stronger than peasants like him (and
unbeknownst to him, Kenshin himself) who weren't born with the class,
but learned to fight with skill worthy of a samurai? Soujiro wanted to
know.

'Yahiko-san himself was a Son of Tokyo Samurai, come to think of it,'
mused the Heaven Sword. 'No, he's not yet ready, and he was probably
born after the age of the samurai was already over, just like me. Had he
been born a little earlier and trained like a true samurai, how would
our duel have ended? Even now, without his advantage as a samurai, he
continues to surprise me.'

"By the way, has the missing Minoe Munenori, Myojin-kun's friend, been
found among the other deserters?" asked Akahori. "I'm not totally
convinced he was among the unidentified bodies of the Togakudan."

"No, the policemen were the only ones who fled, or least they were
the only ones who had the opportunity to flee. Most of your Togakudan
were killed instead, probably by the Battousai of Speed's hands,"
informed Seta.

"Minoe, huh? Did you know that both he and Myojin-kun were acquainted
with a former family bodyguard of mine from Shinshu? Those three were
interesting fellows. It's too bad that eye-patched man ended up dead."
Tetsuo scratched his curtain beard and went silent.

"Akahori-san? Is something the matter?"

"Something about his name bothers me, though."


===


A long time ago, around the period when the War of the Year of the
Dragon ended but before the Meiji Era sword ban was enacted...

"You are now Minoe Munenori," Kaede's master, Doraku Akatsuki, said one
day.

"M-Minoe...? What kind of a stupid name is that? There's no such name as
Minoe! Don't go making up names for me! I'm perfectly fine with my name,
Morinaga Kaede!" complained Kaede, insulted by the audacity of her
mother's murderer for even suggesting to her to drop the Morinaga Family
Name in favor of a made-up one.

"Maybe I did." The greasy, hairy, and slightly smelly homeless ronin
scratched his behind. "But Munenori is the perfect name for you. Don't
you know who that given name came from? It's from Yagyu Munenori of the
Yagyu Clan! You know, the Legendary Yagyu Clan?"

Kaede looked at him blankly. "No, and I don't care. If you call me that
name, I won't respond to it! Call me Kaede! Call me Morinaga! Don't make
up stupid names, you murdering bastard!"

"Pearls among swine, I swear," mumbled the muscular mercenary as he
palmed his face. "Mister Munenori is a famous samurai who practiced
Yagyu Shinkage Ryu. He's the father of _the_ Yagyu Jubei Mutseyoshi. He
was the one who gave his even more famous son a scar on his eye after a
particularly rigorous sparring session and forced him to wear an eye
patch ever since. _That_ Yagyu Munenori!"

Kaede pointed at the oversized eye patch she was wearing right then to
hide her cross-shaped scar and the black wig on her head to hide her red
hair lest people thought she was Battousai. It also helped her hide her
gender during those times when her master needed her to spy on his
enemies or serve as lookout for the police.

"Wouldn't it make more sense to name me _Jubei_ or _Mutseyoshi_, then?
He was the guy who got the eye patch, not his asshole father."

"His asshole father didn't mean to scar the kid, dammit! And you're
missing the point." Doraku growled, grunted, and punched out a random
passerby. How was he supposed to make the kid understand how brilliant
his name choice was for her?

"Look, there's a famous legend where one day, while Munenori was
meditating from his garden, he turned around, only to be stunned to see
his assistant behind him. He was troubled all day by what had happened,
ashamed to have mistaken his assistant for impending danger.

"Later on, his assistant confessed that he thought about attacking him
from his position while bringing him his sword. That guy discovered a
new level of swordsmanship, where he can sense impending danger while
people merely thought about it."

Akatsuki looked around in time to see Kaede playing around with a couple
of hens that had strayed from a nearby chicken coop.

"MINOE MUNENORI! Why aren't you paying attention to my great story?"
admonished Doraku with a chop to the eye-patched young girl's head that
the kid swiftly avoided and countered with a kick to the groin. The
mountain of muscle remained unfazed.

"I don't know who this Munenori guy you're talking about is, you stinky
old man! CALL ME BY MY NAME!"

"Minoe is your name now!"

"No, it's not! SAY MY NAME, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

Even after years of constant bickering between master and pupil, Kaede
never once even considered responding to that weird name change.

However, someone else inside her did and adopted that name for himself.


===


At Shinshu; on the morning of November 22, 1884...

"So where are you really off to, Yoshi-boy?" the Black-and-Blue Gan
asked after finally prying himself away from the violent hands of
Chizuru Raikouji. They had another fight or something.

"Did you already pay your tab? I won't answer your questions unless
you've paid your tab."

"Of course, I did! How the hell do you think I was able to get away from
that screaming banshee?" Gan revealed. "So where are you going?"

"Joetsu. To be honest, Shinshu was just a detour I took so that I could
check up on my kendo student who lives here. I didn't even expect my
_other_ kendo student to end up here too. I was supposed to go straight
to Joetsu Harbor because I heard an old friend of mine is currently
looking for a crew there."

Gan invaded Yahiko's personal space to take a better look at the boy's
shifty eyes. "Eh, whatever. Let's go."

"What? No! _I'll_ be going to Joetsu! _You_ can go fuck yourself! Don't
decide things on your own!" Yahiko said as he put on Takae's flat
kabuto, slung his duffel bag, and started to walk away from the
Sakaguchi Soba Shop.

"Don't give me the cold shoulder! I helped you out yesterday with that
Ban Hammer thingy you were doing at the East Valley. Oh, and that Hell
on Earth technique too."

"No means... Oh." The Tokyo Samurai Descendant stopped dead in his
tracks.

"'Oh' what? Okay?" asked the Clueless Gan before his gaze shifted in
the same direction as Yahiko's. "Oh."

"Y-Yahiko-chi. Gan-chi."

"M-Minoe."

"Patches."

Right under the cool shade of a birch tree stood the missing Munenori
Minoe, his leather eye patch replaced with what appeared to be a hand
guard, his wig a bowl cut, and the bangs nearest his ears long enough to
reach his cheeks and mouth. "I-It's been a while, isn't it?"

"Patches! I missed you so much...!" began Gan.

His body moving on its own, Yahiko wordlessly walked towards the
diminutive Togakudan member, grabbed hold of his wigged hair, and pulled
it off along with his eye patch before their thuggish friend could even
yelp out in protest.

'Let's settle this once and for all, Minoe. Or rather... Morinaga
Kaede.'


===


Next: Back in Tokyo.

Yahiko's journey all over Japan is about to restart. As usual, it
will involve old, familiar faces as well as new ones to keep
things interesting. Even though the Meiji Era is supposed to be a
time of peace and change, the shadows of the past won't die
easily.

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