Master and manslayer

"I know your there, Battosai," Hiko Seijuro, the 13th master of Hiten Mitsurugi called as he felt a strange Ki.

"You did well, Shishou, in training him...us," Battosai told his master as he entered the pale moonlight.

"Us..." Hiko wondered aloud, "just how long have you inhabited my Baka Dishi.

"Always," Battosai whispered, "at least since his family died and he was sold. Shinta's soul...it could not face such pain, so I took that pain; all of it, all the shame that being a slave was. Especially one that looked like Shinta did with red hair and violet eyes, a slave as weak and feminine looking...let's just say that there is a reason that Shinta despised physical contact."

"So, Shinta created you to deal with the trauma," Hiko said, "I often wondered how such a young boy could deal with such trauma and still have such a pure soul." Hiko said as he took a drink of sake, "so what's up with the 'Sessha' thing. Took me months to break him of that habit."

"I did my best to be his shield, but when it came to the beatings, he refused to allow me to take those." Battosai said, "he took many lives, I did my best to take the guilt and I did at first, all the pain and turmoil that his soul faced, I took that from him, but sadly I could not take all of it. Shinta was still in us and he felt the pain of taking another life, every time we killed Shinta died, little by little."

"And the slavers?" Hiko asked when Kenshin was younger he was a slave in every meaning of the word. he refused to do anything without being told, even eat. Hiko remembered the first time that they eat together. He had handed Kenshin a bowl of rice, and began to eat his, yet Kenshin simply looked at his.

"Aren't you hungry, Kenshin?" Hiko had asked, he made appoint to use the young ex-slave's new name. The young boy was little more than skin and bones. Kenshin nodded but didn't move to eat until Hiko had given him permission.

"For what they did to him, I would have killed them myself," Battosai's eyes flickered with rage. "though in truth I should be grateful to them, every beating that Shinta took offered Kenshin and me strength and determination. They took Shinta, stripped him of everything that he was, all hope and dignity they had taken from him before he had taken his first life, they took his innocence. You gave him so much, Shishou, you returned him to life and gave him a reason to lie again."

Hiko looked at The Demon of Kyoto, how could the man that was thanking him for teaching him the art of death be the same frightened child that he had found years ago.

"how is he?" Hiko asked.

"Kenshin, he's as good as can be expected," Battosai told his master, "if only he would accept the happiness that Miss Kaoru offers him. Goodbye, Shishou it seems my time is up."

"his no killing vow, do you agree with it?"

"it's not his vow, Shishou, it is mine, Kenshin would never harm anyone," Battosai said, "it is he that agreed with me."

So the assassin gave up killing, Hiko thought to himself as Battosai's amber eyes returned to Kenshin's lavender.