Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin is property of Watsuki Nobuhiro. If I did own it, it would be set in space and nobody would read it.
Once a Thief?
By Quadhelix
Chapter 1: The Crime
As dusk fell over the Kamiya Dojo, none of its occupants were aware that an immense change was on the verge of occurring. As they settled into their beds for the night, they were completely oblivious to the fact that their world would be turned on its head by the next morning.
A dark figure snuck through the house, carefully concealing its movements with absolute stealth. Moving swiftly past several rooms, the form finally entered the owner's bedroom. After making sure that the owner, Kamiya Kaoru, was asleep, the intruder snuck into the closet and began a quick search. After several seconds, the thief took something from the closet. A few moments later, the burglar left the room, looking for any signs of its having been there. Its objective accomplished, the prowler left and headed down the hall and entered the room of the dojo's youngest resident: Myojin Yahiko.
As the first rays of light entered her room, Kamiya Kaoru noticed a problem. Being a master, or mistress as the case may be, of kendo, her senses were able to come to the full, even an instant after awaking. Although she could not place it, something was definitely wrong. Heading over to her closet, she found out why: the closet door was slightly ajar.
This bothered her greatly because she was sure she had slid it all of the way shut the night before. After extending her burgeoning ki sense past the door and finding nothing living, she ruled out an ambush and opened the door.
Something seemed to be missing.
Carefully examining the contents of her closet, she could not find anything suspicious. That is, until she found, or rather, failed to find her mother's bracelet. The bracelet was solid gold with several varieties of precious stone set into it and had been a gift to her grandfather from the Emperor for unspecified favors. And now it was gone.
Kaoru screamed.
After several moments, Himura Kenshin and Myojin Yahiko stormed into the room.
"What's wrong?" For an instant, some part of Kaoru's psyche wondered if she was hearing double.
"It's gone! My mother's bracelet is gone!"
After Kaoru explained the problem to Kenshin and Yahiko, both agreed to help her find the bracelet. Kenshin decided that the best first course of action would be to inform the police. After Kenshin left, Yahiko said that he had some business to take care of and left.
As Yahiko walked down the street, he decided to step into the Akabeko to buy several beef bowls. And that was the only reason. Honest. I mean it. It absolutely did not have anything to do with a cute, shy waitress with short hair who had caught Yahiko's eye. It certainly had nothing to do with the way his heart would beat a little faster when she smiled at him or how he would do anything in his power to protect her. Definitely not the reason. Really…
Who am I kidding? She was the main reason that he ate there.
"Hey there, Tsubame!"
"Hello Yahiko-kun, how is your day today."
"Not bad, how is yours?"
"It is very good, Yahiko-kun."
"That's good Tsubame. May I have three beef bowls to go, please?"
"Certainly Yahiko-kun."
After buying the beef bowls, Yahiko left the Akabeko and headed for a different area of town. As he did, he made sure to hide the food that he was carrying and did his best to stay out of sight. All around, there were unkempt men in muddy torn clothes. The buildings were crumbling and the wood was rotting. Garbage was gathered in piles in the street.
Yahiko ducked into an alley and looked around for a few minutes. After making sure that nobody was looking, he ducked behind a pile of trash and slipped through a hole in the wall. Inside there was a small room that gave the impression of being a minor disaster area. The walls were, by some aberration from Japanese architecture, wood, which was by that time long into the process of rot. The door had been sealed shut by a pile of waste so large that Yahiko doubted that it could be moved without mechanical aid. Discarded paper and cloth covered the floor and the only real piece of furniture was a futon hidden by a large, decaying table.
On the futon, there was a small boy of about eight years of age, but who was small enough that most people mistook him for a five-year-old. His dark hair had mostly fallen out and he was missing several teeth. His skeleton was visible on most parts of his body and his skin was extraordinarily pale. As he lay there under piles of crumpled up rice paper walls, tatami floor mats, and old kimonos, Yahiko had to fight to hold in a tear at the sound of the child's labored breathing.
"Akio, wake up, it's almost noon."
The child stirred for a moment then froze, sniffing the air. Suddenly he bolted up and smiled a huge smile.
"Yahiko-sempai, you brought food!"
"I can't let you starve, Akio-chan."
"Don't call me 'chan!'" Akio was able to hold a straight face for all of three seconds before giggling uncontrollably. Yahiko gave Akio the three beef bowls and sat down to talk.
"So Akio, why do you still live in this place. There are plenty of people who would be more than happy to-"
"No! You've asked me before and I will not live by the charity of others!"
"Then why did you accept the beef bowls?"
"What's so bad about sharing lunch with a good friend, Yahiko-sempai?"
"I'm glad you see it that way, Akio."
"Besides, Yahiko-sempai, you obviously have a job for me."
Yahiko had just started to swallow some saliva that had been building up in his mouth, but the surprise cause him to choke on it and he spent the next minute trying to clear his throat. Finally, he recovered his ability to speak.
"How did you, Akio-chan?"
"It's simple Yahiko-sempai, you brought three beef bowls. When you don't have a job for me, you only bring me one beef bowl because you know that I would only accept one. However, if you have a job that you want me to do, you can convince me to accept additional bowls as payment for the job. Therefore, since you brought three beef bowls, it must be a relatively simple but still difficult enough that you felt I would accept two bowls as payment. Am I right, Yahiko-sempai?"
"Sometimes I wonder which of us really deserves the title of 'sempai.'"
"You do, of course, Yahiko-sempai. So, about that job."
"Well, there's this bracelet…"
That evening, when Yahiko returned to the dojo, there was a police officer conducting interviews of Kaoru and Kenshin. After getting statements from all three of them, the officer said that he would like to search the house for clues. After finding none in Kaoru's room, he began to search Yahiko's room. Soon, he found a small box hidden in the closet. Yahiko's face turned scarlet.
"Don't open that!"
However, it was too late: the box was open. Everyone but the officer gasped. Yahiko's face turned white. The officer raised an eyebrow.
"What the…"
"It can't be."
"That looks like the bracelet Kaoru-dono described, that it does."
"It seems that we have our thief."
To Be Continued…