"Whew!" Yahiko stretched
and let out a breath. "What a day. My legs feel like
rubber."
"There sure were a lot
of customers today," Tsubame agreed. "It's been like that
lately. A lot of foreigners,
particularly."
"You did a good job,
both of you." Dae gave them both a smile. "Tsubame, will you
do me a favor and please follow
Yahiko to the dojo? I've packed a few leftovers
for Kaoru but there are two
bundles. I think you should stay the night, since it's
getting dark."
"OK, Dae-san." Tsubame
nodded.
"Good night, Dae-san."
Yahiko shifted a bundle on his shoulder and marched out,
Tsubame behind him.
"Is there really a lady
samurai at the dojo, Yahiko-kun?" Tsubame asked with
wide eyes.
"I don't know if she's
a samurai, but she's a kenkaku at least," Yahiko shrugged.
"I've never seen her fight,
though, so I don't know."
"Someone said her sword
is too fast to see!" Tsubame told him.
"Then it would have
to be as fast as Kenshin's sword, and that's pretty
impossible," Yahiko said with
confidence.
"Yes, that's-"
"Sh!!"
Yahiko suddenly stopped
and listened. In an alley nearby, two men were talking in
low voices. He could've sworn
he'd heard the words, "Kamia Dojo".
"... were all defeated
by Kamia Kaoru and that rurouni," one of them was mumbling.
"Tonight," hissed the
other. "Get everyone gathered tonight. And meet at the
dojo by midnight."
"It'll be a hot time
in the old town tonight," snickered the first. Yahiko paled. So
did Tsubame. "Yahiko-kun ..."
"Tsubame, turn around
and go ? " he stopped. If she went alone ¡¦
"We don't have a choice.
Hurry up, we have to get to the dojo quickly!"
"Karen-san! Karen-san!"
"hm?" Karen looked back
to see Kaoru gasping for breath.
"Karen-san, don't we,
have to, report, the bodies?" Kaoru tried to speak normally.
"Bodies?" Karen said
vaguely. "Oh, those guys. Don't worry about it ? their friends
will take care of them. We
have to get to the dojo as quick as possible."
They will be nervous
now that there has been an open attack. They might even
try something big and put
a complete end to this. What will they try, with someone
like Himura at the dojo?
I'm sure he's noticed something by this time.
Half walking, half running,
the two girls made it to the dojo in time to meet
Yahiko and Tsubame coming
the other way.
"Hello, everyone. Did
you have a good day?" Kenshin asked cheerfully.
"...^^;" All four of
them stared.
"Oro?" Kenshin blinked.
Yahiko spoke first.
"This is no time to
be saying 'oro'!" he scowled. "I heard some guys talking on our
way here ... I couldn't hear
very well, but they said something about Kaoru and a
rurouni defeating someone,
and to gather tonight in front of the dojo. And the
last one said, 'It'll be a
hot time in the old town tonight'. What does that mean?
What's going on?"
"That's what I'd like
to ask." Sanosuke was leaning against the wooden doors.
"Something's going on, and
she has something to do with it. Don't you think it's
about time we knew?" he glared
at Karen.
"I've been feeling something
around us for awhile now, but it was too unclear to
be sure of anything. And it
still is. Karen-dono, do you know anything about this?"
Kenshin looked at her.
"I saw her last night
talking with someone outside of the dojo," Sanosuke said
accusingly. "Who was it, Karen-san?
Did you hire the yakuza to burn us down? I
have a feeling you know more
about us than we know about you."
"Stop it, Sano!" Kaoru
suddenly found her voice. "Karen-san ... Karen-san saved my
life today! I trust her. Everyone
has a past they don't like to talk about. Don't
you?"
"That's all right Kaoru-san."
Karen was as cool as ice. "I'm used to such
accusations. But I wish you
would save such words until the morning. If Yahiko-kun
heard aright, the dojo will
be set on fire around midnight tonight. We must hurry
if we are to stop it."
"Karen-dono is right,"
Kenshin drew his eyebrows together as he spoke. "We must
set up a plan ..."
"I already have one,"
Karen twirled a stick in her fingers and scratched a line in
the dirt. "But to follow it,
you must trust me. Absolutely. In the case I am with
the enemy, this plan will
give me the perfect chance to do away with all of you."
Her face was expressionless.
"And if I am the enemy, believe me, I will do so
without thinking twice."
"..." Everyone was silent.
Kaoru met Kenshin's eyes. Kenshin looked straight at her,
and she could almost hear
him. You trusted a rurouni you knew nothing about once
... a rurouni who had a
past drenched in blood.
...Can I do it again?
Without hesitation,
Kaoru put her hand over Karen's. "Karen-san... Kenshin was a
rurouni once. He had a past
stained with the blood of others. But he saved me, and
he helped me stand up again
when I was down. So I trusted him. I don't know
anything about you, Karen-san.
We've only known each other for two days. But you
risked your life for me today."
"That doesn't mean it
is safe for you to trust me," Karen shrugged.
"I know," Kaoru nodded.
"But your eyes ... your eyes are like Kenshin's ..." She
blushed a little.
Kenshin and Karen both
looked surprised. Then Kenshin smiled and turned to
Karen. "Karen-dono, if you
were our enemy, you would've done everything you could
to make us trust you. But
you aren't. You're pushing us away. You are not our enemy,
Karen-dono. You are our friend."
"I have no idea what
the hell you guys are talking about," Yahiko cut in. "But if
Kenshin and Kaoru trust you,
Karen-san, then so do I." Tsubame timidly nodded her
head behind him. Kenshin glanced
at Sanosuke.
"Hmph! You guys sure
are turning me into a big bad wolf," Sanosuke shook his
head. "All right! I guess
I'll be an idiot like you guys and trust this lady."
Karen's eyes widened
as the group smiled at her. She bent her head for a second,
and her hair covered her face.
"...Thank you, everyone." Then she looked up and
briefly smiled. "Thank you.
Now, listen carefully ..."
The moon was new, nothing
but a silver sliver hanging in the deep black sky
speckled with stars. A light
breeze shook the trees, making eerie sounds as it
whistled around the dojo.
Karen crouched from her spot and listened. But her
thoughts wandered.
These bastards are
moving awfully fast ..I didn't think they'd come out like this.
There's something we don't
know here, but what is it? And where is that damn
policeman when you need
him? She bit her lip. Just wait till this is all over ...
Then she heard it. The
sound of many people ... maybe around 40?... gathering
around the dojo. She tensed
as she heard the sound of some kind of liquid being
poured. That'd be gasoline.
"Make sure no one gets
out alive," someone muttered.
Karen softly leapt on
tops of the wall surrounding the dojo and watched the men
scatter. The sound of a match
being lit reached her ears. Her hand crept to her
sword.
"The fun begins," the
voice cackled as it threw the match on the ground. It
fizzled.
"...?!" Karen smiled
grimly at their cursing. "What ... what the hell is going on?"
Karen whipped out a
match and struck it on her blade. Then she lit the torch they
had set at each corner of
the dojo. Almost at the same time three other torches
sprang to life, blinding the
men that had surrounded the dojo. The fire traveled
down gasoline-soaked threads
and lit the other torches they were connected with.
The dojo was as bright as
day.
"Up here, you morons!"
Sanosuke's voice could be heard by everyone. "Surprise,
surprise!"
"Wha ... what the hell?!"
All was confusion as
the men bumped into each other, trying to escape the light.
Yahiko, who was guarding the
inside of the dojo along with Tsubame, grinned.
"That was a pretty good
idea, digging a trench and soaking the earth with water.
Those bad guys must've been
pretty surprised." His face slightly darkened. "Now
it's up to Karen-san ..."
"Hello, everyone." Karen
leapt down from her perch and calmly surveyed the
group. "Nice night we're having,
isn't it?"
"The rurouni!" one of
them gasped.
"Rurouni? Not exactly,"
Karen shook her head. "I'm a secret messenger from the
government. They sent me to
make a deal with you guys. Care to listen?" Her voice
sounded as if she didn't care
whether they did or not.
"Silence." One of the
men who seemed to be the ringleader stepped forward.
"What is it you want to say?"
"They know what you're
after, and they want to help. Only they can't do it openly
because of the people. If
the land around here is used right, Japan can make quite
a fortune, am I right? So
can the foreigners. Profit for all involved. Too valuable
to be used as an old falling-apart
dojo. Don't you agree?"
Kaoru glared at her
from her perch. "^^; I'll forgive you since you don't mean it,
Karen-san," she muttered to
herself.
I can practically
feel Kaoru-san's glare. Karen swallowed a smile. "They've agreed
to help you if you agree to
keep your mouths shut."
"...How do you plan
to help us?"
"These people trust
me." Karen's mouth curled up in a sneer. "Nice people, but too
innocent to live in the Meiji
Era. I've convinced them to follow my plan. They think
I'm going to lure you in and
kill as many of you as I can. In the meantime they'll
attack from the sides, and
the police will appear and attack from the back. But
see, I'm the one who was supposed
to explain to the police what's happening. And I
did. But not the way they
expected." Karen laughed. Kaoru shivered from her
position. The plan Karen was
talking about was, in fact, their actual plan. If Karen
really had done what she was
telling the men she had done, and if she did what she
was telling them she would
do, they were done for.
"So the police aren't
coming." The ringleader was suspicious.
"Of course not. Are
they above the Meiji government?" Karen shrugged. "So how
about it? I'll let you in,
and you destroy the dojo."
What if ... what
if ... Kaoru found herself paralyzed with doubt. Then she
remembered the light in Karen's
eyes that evening when they had fought with
those men. She had said, I
wouldn't work for the Meiji government if my life
depended on it. Kaoru
mentally shook herself. I said I would trust her, and I do.
Kenshin was listening
carefully to Karen. Yes, we can trust her ... but she knows
too much to be a simple
rurouni. What is she really?
"How can we trust you?"
the man said suspiciously.
Karen looked bored.
"Don't, then. It doesn't matter to me. I have nothing to lose."
The man frowned and
conferred with his comrades for a minute. Then he nodded.
"All right. Open the door."
Everyone in their spots
was tense as Karen moved to open the doors. They made a
creaking sound as they swung
open. Karen calmly walked inside as the men followed
her. Then she walked up to
the leader.
"How does it feel?"
she asked lightly.
"How does what feel?"
the man barked.
"How does it feel to
be fooled by a woman?"
Before anyone could
react, Karen's blade gleamed in the moonlight as it sliced
into the man. Blood spurted
out and splashed on the ground as he fell.
"Shit!!!" the others
quickly drew their weapons. "She tricked us...!!!"
Karen smiled. "Never,
ever trust anyone from the Meiji government." She lifted
her ninhontou. "Who's next?"
"Die!!" Several
men jumped on her at once. At the same time Kenshin and
Sanosuke attacked from either
side. Kaoru gripped her shinai and stood guard in
front of the room where Tsubame
was. Yahiko had come out and was watching the
three figures fight.
"Not bad!" Sanosuke
shouted as a knife nearly ripped his clothes. He jumped up
and connected his fist cleanly
with the opponent's jaw. "But not good enough!"
"Hiten Mitsurugi
ryuu!" Kenshin leapt up. "Ryuu Tsui Sen!!" He hit the enemy
full
force on the head as he landed.
They fell, their faces frozen in fear. "Gua!!"
"Say your prayers!"
Karen yelled as she took on a stance. "Hyat!!!!" She ran, did a
flip, and attacked from below,
her blade coming in contact with the enemy's jaw.
"Ryuu Shou Sen!!"
"...!!" Kaoru and Yahiko
both stared. "Ryuu Shou Sen ...that's Kenshin's kenjitsu!!"
Yahiko breathed.
"But it's not the same,"
Kaoru was fascinated. "Karen-san did a flip right before
she attacked. Her strength
is not as strong, but ... but her speed was greater!!"
"She's faster
than Kenshin!?" Yahiko exclaimed. "Faster than Hiten no
Mitsurugi?"
In the meantime, Kenshin,
Kaoru, and Sanosuke had paused as the remaining gang
started to back off. Karen
smiled wickedly. "I don't think so."
"Police!!" A swarm of
officers were running toward the dojo. The men looked at
each other and nodded.
"..!!!" Kenshin caught
sight of one of them pulling out a small gray ball. "It's a
bomb!!"
"Damn it!" Karen cursed.
"Run away! Get down!" She swiftly jumped and tackled
Kaoru and Yahiko.
In that moment, just
as the man was about to set the bomb off, a figure
attacked from behind. In a
single movement the rest of the men fell. More blood
stained the ground, mingling
with the dust clouds that arose from the sudden
attack.
"Who ... what .." Sanosuke
coughed, waving the dust away.
"Pitiful, pitiful."
The attacker sheathed his sword and dug in his pocket. In a
minute a cloud of smoke rose
from his mouth. "I knew something like this would
happen. Battousai, you've
grown old."
"Goddamnit, you're early,"
Karen hissed at him, breathing hard. Kaoru was struck
dumb. Yahiko stared.
"Long time no see,"
Kenshin greeted the arrival rather flatly.
"What the hell are you
doing here?" Sanosuke snapped.
"Hey, I just saved your
butts." Saitou blew a long line of smoke and watched it
disappear.
"Don't expect us to
be grateful," Sanosuke growled.
"Perish the thought."
Saitou took a drag.
It was dawn when the
friends were able to sit down and take a breath. Saitou
was leaning against a post,
smoking his umpteenth cigarette. Kenshin, his
sakabatou against his shoulder,
was sitting with his back to the wall. Sanosuke
dangled his feet and chewed
on his fishbone. Yahiko and Tsubame sat next to
Kenshin. Kaoru and Karen sat
beside each other, facing the others.
"I suppose I should
tell you now," Karen sighed.
"You don't have to,
Karen-dono ..." Kenshin started to say, but Karen shook her
head.
"No, I want to." She
took a breath.
"I am from Kyoto. My
father is - was - a kenkaku, and my mother was an oiran. My
father met her when he was
maybe 18 or so. Their destiny together was for but
one night, but I was the result
of their meeting. Until I was 17, I didn't know who
my father was. I worked at
the oiran house where my mother was. It was then I
met Yumi."
"Yumi?!" Kaoru interrupted.
"Yumi, as in the Yumi that was with Shishio?"
"Yes," Karen nodded.
"We were close friends. But anyway, my mother died when I
was 17. At her funeral my
father suddenly appeared. He took me away to his home,
and for several years he taught
me his kenjitsu."
"Who is your
father?" Kenshin asked.
Karen smiled a little.
"His name is Hiko Seijuurou."
"Whaaaat?!" everyone
shouted. Kenshin's eyes bulged. "Sensei ...?!"
"He never told you,
did he?" Karen sighed. "I thought I was his only pupil as well.
Later he told me about you,
Kenshin-san, and how you were the legendary
Baittousai. I left him a year
before you returned to learn the rest of Hiten no
Mitsurugi."
Kenshin was still in
shock. "Sensei ... it was him?"
Karen allowed herself
to smile, then resumed her story.
"I returned to the oiran
house and was able to meet Yumi before she left. She
told me about Shishio and
why she must leave. After she left, I took my mother's
place. That's how I met him."
She glared at Saitou.
"You ..." Kaoru was
shocked. "You met him as an ...?!"
Karen sniffed. "Unfortunately.
I became somewhat of a concubine.
Kaoru's mouth dropped.
Sanosuke stared. Yahiko was red. Kenshin looked at
Saitou, who ignored his glance.
"So anyway, that is
how I became what I am now. I do not work for the Meiji
government, although sometimes
I end up helping them. I move to help the people
who need my help. The Meiji
government is rotten to the core." Karen raised her
head. "I am only one person,
but I do all I can to set right the wrongs I see." She
smiled at Kenshin. "We hitokiri
don't really belong in the Meiji Era ..."
"So what exactly is
going on here?" Sanosuke interrupted. "Why are we being
attacked?"
Saitou removed a gloved
hand from in front of his face and blew out yet another
cloud of smoke. "The foreigners
want Japanese land."
"So they're trying to
force us to sell it," Kaoru guessed.
"They what?" Yahiko
burst out.
"On the surface, it's
very simple." Karen pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes.
"The land around here has
become very expensive. From a developer's point of
view, it's going to serious
waste because it happens to belong to the Kamia family.
So the foreigners want to
buy it up. However they've heard about the inhabitants
of the dojo, and they know
Kaoru-san's not going to sell. So they hire the yakuza
to chase you off."
"More like to find a
way to chase us off," Kenshin finished. "They never meant to
move in so suddenly. They've
been watching us for about a week."
"They have?" Kaoru exclaimed.
"But they weren't expecting
Karen-dono to move in," Kenshin nodded.
"Immediately they suspected
her to be a spy from the government, so they
watched her - or tried to.
They weren't counting on Karen-dono catching on to
them so quickly."
"Still, the smartest
thing for them to do at that point would be to stay low for
awhile," Saitou said coolly.
"But for some reason, the idiots panicked. They decided
to finish the thing in one
night."
"Why?" Karen mused.
"Did they figure out who I was?"
"Maybe they thought
you had figured out who they were," Yahiko suggested.