Reflection
Water splashed into the wooden bucket, synchronized to gentle humming. The sun was out and bright, and it was a beautiful day in Spring of the new year of `92. No longer did he wear his old colors of his simple kimono of cheap cloth. His pants were still white, called umanori hakama, with a zori and a white tabi(waist cloth). Though his pants were white, his top had changed from it's popular pinkish red since he was no longer a wanderer, and his new color was periwinkle. He hadn't lost his feminine like features, though he moved slowly, not like how he used too, ever since the battle with Shishio, 15 years ago.
Sleeves rolled up, and casually going about his work in a peaceful way, there was little room to believe that this man's days of peace were not endless. However, that was soon short lived when there was the sudden sound of a police whistle. Familiar violet eyes widened slightly, that old sound echoing in his ears. He stood up slowly, nonchalantly hanging up the new article of clothing with the clothing pins, but his hands weren't shaking like you would think. They were calm. Calm as the clouds drifting above. He heard his name being called. He looked over his shoulder.
"Yes, Kaoru?" He blinked at her, seeing her agitation.
"When someone is calling for you, answer them, dammit!" She socked him on his head and his eyes swirled in their sockets.
"O-Oro, my bad, my bad, pardon me, my hearing is not what it used to be," he fibbed, meekly rubbing his head. Kaoru bought it easily enough, but his eyes flashed when he heard his old name uttered.
"Battosai! It really IS you!" A young police officer was panting, clearly he'd come a great distance to get here, and on foot no less.
"...I have dropped that name long ago, that I have," And true to his word, he hadn't heard it nearly as much these past 14 years as the dust around his past had finally seemed to settle. Why now, was such a name being re-introduced? Hadn't he suffered enough for it while he was young?
"I-I apologize," The man bowed, "I humbly request that Mr. Himura come down to the station right away, you see..."
Kaoru's brow furrowed. "...Kenshin, it can't be, can it?"
Kenshin's jaw firmly set. "State your business, if you will," he responded politely but there was an edge of tenseness that he just couldn't instinctively shake.
The man nervously swallowed and then bowed again, "I'm sorry, but your presence is required immediately by Chief Uramura!"
"Kaoru, please see this man to the door," Kenshin turned away, eyes closing. "I do not mean to be rude, but I must be clear it would appear. I have laid down my blade long ago." Only using "I" in serious situations, Kaoru was alerted, and she was a little worried for Kenshin.
The police man nervously looked back and forth between them. "W-Wait, please! It's important. If it wasn't, we would have handled it ourselves!"
Kaoru stepped between Kenshin and the Police man. She is quiet but then she looks to Kenshin's tense back. Her face is sad momentarily, but she places a hand on his shoulder. "...Let us at least hear him out, perhaps Yahiko can assist him? He is a graduate of my style...and he's nearing 22 now, I'm sure...if anyone can help..."
Kenshin looked to her, placing a hand on her own. He sensed her anxiety, and slipped into his care-free manner, hoping to lighten the situation. "...That is true, that it is...but this one does not wish to put anyone else in danger in his place. If this business is meant for this one, Miss Kaoru," he smiles at her apologetically, forever used to calling her Miss Kaoru, "...then this one can't let anyone else take my place, for it is not fair to them, that it is not." He turned around and lowered her hand to her side. Kaoru's familiar dark eyes flitted with worry. Her long black hair tied was up in a bun now a days at times, but despite that, she looked youthful as ever, after all, she was only 32. She was wearing a pretty flowered purple, red and white kimono.
"Kenshin..." Kaoru's voice trailed off. The police man reaches into his coat, and pulled out a letter, desperate.
"W-wait, he said you may react like this, so please, accept this and think it over, if the answer is still no...then we'll have to accept it," He held out the letter, hopeful. Kenshin halts, and gazes at that letter over his shoulder. Kaoru tries to read her husband's expression. She finds it difficult. It is not so rare to see him look so conflicted and yet totally calm at once. After all, raising their son, Kenji had been quite a two person job. Yet, their son had recently as of the age ten, started to treat his father with a weird hostility that neither parent could understand. Kaoru hoped that their relationship would get better, four years later, after all, they were her family and she wanted her boys to be happy.
"...It is true...that this one owes him one," Kenshin slowly walks over, and he takes the letter graciously. "Thank you for your efforts, this one will have an answer by morning." He smiled meekly, and the police officer looked ready to faint from relief.
Kaoru smiled to herself, eyes glistening with tears. There was the compassionate man she loved and married. He couldn't turn down a friend's plea for help after all. Her anxiety lessened, she escorted the police man from the dojo, leaving Kenshin to look at the letter addressed, "Himura".
"What does this mean, I wonder..."
"Oraaahhh!" The sound of wooden swords colliding resounded in the trees, causing the birds to flap up and away agitatedly. An older man with spiky messy black tussled hair grinned in his green kimono and grey pants, smirking as he swung his blade downwards, tripping the charging pupil with flaming dark eyes and red-orange hair.
"You'll have to do better than that to beat me," the older man laughed.
"Oh yeah? Try to block this!" The younger kid swirled on his heels, and it was all the older guy could do to use his own sheath to clack against the kid's.
"...Not bad, you may be a prodigy, but you're still gonna lose!" and thus the sparring continued.
"Kenji, not bad form, but your footwork is a bit slow," his instructor panted, hopping back, and shouldering the wooden sword over his back, as he grinned at his sweating and panting apprentice.
"N-Not my fault, old man," Kenji snarked, smirking.
"Why you-who you calling old man?! I'm not even in my prime," his Sensei growled. He got his familiar hot headed expression of irritance, which Kenji found ultimately amusing to draw out.
"Sensei, when are we going back?" he said, leaning against a tree, sitting with his legs splayed lazily, his wooden sword nestled between his legs and against his shoulder, his arms around it, as he rested his chin on his arm, gazing up at his Sensei.
"Ah...it is getting late, we should get back before your mother has a fit for keeping you up past curfew," Yahiko sighed. He wiped his brow. Kenji nodded.
"Hey, when are you gonna teach me Dad's style?" He asked eagerly. Yahiko gecked.
"...I don't know your father's style, we've been over this," Yahiko sighed.
"I don't believe that," Kenji's eyes narrowed. "Ma's style is fine and all, but I want to learn a real sword style."
"...The Kamiya Kashin style is not fake," Yahiko growled, "...what makes you think it is? You've been a lot more sour lately, you gonna tell me, or do I have to go to extreme measures?" He got a cheeky look on his face, making wiggly finger gestures towards Kenji. Kenji got a momentary "oro" face that his father often got when Kaoru was mad and he quickly thwacked Yahiko in the head. Yahiko swirly eyed to the ground, floating 2-D comically.
"Wow, for a successor of Ma's style, you really suck," Kenji laughed.
"Oh yeah?! Let's settle that here and now! Round SIXTY!" He jumped to his feet, drawing his wooden sword again. Kenji shook his head, smiling still, amused.
"Sensei, I know all your moves by now," he said amused.
"...Prodigy or not, you shouldn't ever get cocky with a sword," Yahiko brought the sword down and Kenji's eyes widened, and he barely dodged, ducking and rolling to the side, and wielding his katana in a defensive stance, on his knee.
"Yahiko, aren't you a little young to be fighting the pros?" a familiar voice joked from the trees. Yahiko growled up at said voice.
"Go away, Tsukayama!" he growled, glaring.
"Ah, Mister Yutaro! Hi!" Kenji perked up, at the new arrival. Yutaro laughed, hopping down from the tree with precision and he smiles, crossing his arms and looking at Yahiko and Kenji. Dressed in cheap cloth, his top was blue, while his waist cloth was dark green, and his pants were grey as well. He carried a blade on his right side, uncommon as most swordsmen were right-handed, including Kenshin.
Yutaro teased Yahiko, "Do tell me, who is teaching whom, hmm?"
Kenji brightened up, running over to Yutaro. "Hey Mister Yutaro, wanna spar? This old man needs an oil change," jabs a thumb in Yahiko's direction.
Yahiko growled, "For the last time, I'm NOT OLD," and his yell pierced the heavens and all of Kyoto. In fact, it echoed throughout all of Japan. Kaoru who was preparing a bath, looks up at the sky and blinks momentarily.
"I could have sworn I heard...nah..." she went back to preparing the bath for the boys when they got back. Meanwhile, Kenji tugged Yutaro's sleeve. Yutaro stopped laughing long enough to look to the boy.
"What is it, Kenji?" he asked.
"Ah, I was hoping, you could teach me, Dad's style," Kenji asked outright.
Yutaro's brow knitted in surprise. "...Ah, I am sorry. I never learned that style...however, why not ask Yahiko, he-"
A shoe got thrown at his head. "You've been gone for six years and that's the first thing you have to say to Kenji!" Yahiko fumed.
Kenji glared at Yahiko. "I knew it, I knew you knew Dad's style."
"...Shit," Yahiko sighed, scratching his head while Yutaro sat up with a bump on his head, rubbing it, holding Yahiko's sandal.
"Eh, w-well be that as it may, your parents wish for you to carry on a brighter sort of style," Yutaro shook his head. "It is a style both Yahiko and I have learned, and quite honestly, I find it quite refreshing...in the face of evil, that is," and he smiled at Kenji, patting his red hair.
"Look at you, trying to steal my student," Yahiko griped. "Hands off, it's MY job to say profound things!"
"Really? I have to say you're pretty profound when you're drunk off your ass," Yutaro cheekily replied.
Yahiko's vein twitched. "What was that?! You want to go? Huh, punk?!" he wielded his wooden sword. Yutaro just laughed again, hopping out of the way and dodging.
"Thanks to training I can defeat you, even left handed, and it's all thanks to your profound advice," he chuckled at Yahiko, dodging swiftly.
"I said for you to get BETTER at swordsmanship, not BETTER than ME!" He tackled Yutaro but their rivalry was playful with an edge of actual competition. Kenji just sighed.
"I'm sure I wasn't this ill mannered when I was a kid," Kenji remarked amused.
"Who ya calling ill mannered!" Yahiko griped. "Why is everyone picking on me?"
Suddenly, the sound of twigs snapping, caused Yahiko and the other two, to go on alert. Out of the bushes stepped…
"Tsubame?" Yahiko gecked, surprised.
"A-Ah...Y-Yahiko..." Tsubame blushed nervously. Yahiko untangled himself from Yutaro and got up, dusting himself off, swinging his wooden sword into its sheath on his back. He walked over to her and stood in front of her while the other two watch in curiosity.
"What is it? Is something wrong?" Yahiko's voice is urgent. Tsubame swallows. "Out with it, woman," he continued impatiently.
Yutaro sighed next to Kenji. "His fighting is good, but his women skills are shot, it's a wonder they're engaged," he smiled at Kenji, amused.
Kenji nodded, looking at the back of Yahiko lost in thought. He knows my father's sword style...why won't he teach it to me...I don't understand. Kenji's thoughts ate at him, but he was pulled out of it when he was hit in the face by a small rock. "Orah?" He collapsed, swirly eyed.
"...They do have their similarities, after all," Tsubame chuckled meekly, as Yahiko laughed.
"Wow, way to dodge Yutaro," he picked up his sandal which Yutaro had previous dodged during Kenji's spacing out, and patted Kenji's head. "You ok, Kenji? Sorry about that, you spaced out and didn't see me trying to hit Yutaro."
"Is ...alright, really," Kenji managed to get out in an "eeghhahhh" tone.
"When it comes to swords, these two are good, but hit them with anything else and look what happens," Yahiko snickered. Tsubame shot him a rueful look and he instantly smarted up, looking meekly at her, scratching his head. "Ah...so, let's all head back to the dojo, I bet Kenshin is gonna make really good fish tonight," he snickered nervously.
"I got Kenji," Yutaro lifted Kenji onto his back. "So, when the legendary battosai learns who hit his son, you take the blame, ok?" He beamed, cackling.
"Shit, Kenshin will understand...right..." Yahiko sweated.
"I think it's his wife you should be worrying about," Yutaro laughed.
Tsubame smiled nervously, walking next to Yahiko. Yahiko noticed her silence and he looks to her. He blushes a little bit, but then he just casually takes her hand into his own. She looks in a little bit of surprise at that, because Yahiko isn't really the expressive type, but she sees him scratching his nose in that familiar "it's nothing" way and she smiles to herself, blushing happily. Yutaro sighs.
"Man, I wish I was holding a nice lady, instead of Kenshin's son," he sighed dejectedly.
"Don't you have suitors?" Yahiko asked surprised, as they walked back to the Dojo on the familiar dirt trodden path.
"I...put that aside to focus on training, I haven't had much time," Yutaro takes a deep breath. "I don't really have the time at the moment. Besides… I don't want to marry for money, but for love."
Yahiko nodded. "Unfortunately, womanly as he looks, Kenji is a man and 14 years your junior," cheekily replies Yahiko.
"Idiot, don't make fun of me," Yutaro glares, blushing. "I have no interest in men, much less Kenshin's son."
"Sheesh, it was a joke, party poo-" Yahiko rolled his eyes. "Hey...look at that, isn't that Kenshin?"
The others look to where Yahiko is pointing. Kenshin is indeed leaving the dojo, and he looks like he is walking away, in the direction of the town. The sun is setting and the lights reflect off of him but from far away, his expression is unreadable. Yahiko and Yutaro exchange glances. "You take Kenji back with Tsubame, I'm gonna go see what's up with him," Yahiko nodded to them, as Kenshin disappeared down the path, having not noticed them coming from another direction.
Kenji came to, groaning at the bump on his forehead. His eyes open and he sees Doctor Megumi, dressed as she always was in her purple layered kimono, leaning over him, dabbing at his forehead with a swab. "Ah...what happened?" he asked groggily.
Megumi chuckles. "Yahiko got a little too energetic, that's what happened," Kenji blinks sitting up as she talks. The cloth falls off his forehead.
"Ah, it's just a scratch," he said.
"Be that as it may, you actually got hit hard enough to get a scrape, I'm making sure it won't get infected, do stay still, young man," and Kenji obeyed, sighing impatiently.
"Where are the others?" he asked.
"Mmmm, Yahiko and your father are doing some business, and you, are going to spend some time with your mother, young man," she pinched his ear.
"Ow-ow -ow -c-crazy fox woman!" Kenji yelped.
Megumi boxed his ears. "Who you calling a fox, hmmm? After all I've done for you, all the times I cleaned you up after a fight?" Her eyes glinted and Kenji would have pissed himself except another familiar face popped his spiky bangs faced into the doorway.
"Hey, no need to torment him, after all, it's not his fault you're crazy," Sagara Sanosuke smirked, teasing. His clothing was the same as it ever was, with the symbol for bad on his back, his familiar red headband around his head, and his usual grin plastered on his cheeky face.
"I should just rub salt in your wounds," Megumi huffed at him, though Kenji was no idiot. He could see the faint flush in her cheeks.
"Just kiss already," He began but then he got hit in the forehead by her medicine bowl. "-orooahh..."
Sano sighs, looking at Megumi amused. "You know, your job is to treat the patient, not injure him further," and she grumps, getting to her feet.
"You can treat him, I have business to tend to," she huffed, exiting the room. Sanosuke let her go, but he watches her back, a small smile on his face. Well, she's as interesting as she ever was. He grins to poor Kenji.
"Alright, guess you're in my care, kiddo."
The night in the town was quiet. The half moon hung in the sky, casting its light over the roofs of the homes below, like freshly fallen snow. A dog barked in the distance, but otherwise it was quiet. Signs of the industrial revolution showed in this small town. Though for the most part, not much had changed dramatically. Horse drawn carts were still very common, though in the West there was word of auto-mobiles and other Western subjects reaching the ears of Japan.
Kenshin himself, kept his hands to his chest, in his sleeves, thinking about the letter. He carried on himself, no blade. It was a time when swords were banned on the streets, but practicing swordsmanship now was merely a way to respect the tradition, actual samurais were dying out-or turning corrupt.
Kenshin was a much older man now, gearing up to his mid-forties, yet despite his age, he was a lucky man to not have a receding bald gene. His hair had some streaks of silver to it though, and his bangs were longer than ever, shielding his eyes. His hair wasn't as long as the past, but it was tied up into a small ponytail that went past his neck. While Kenji had a ponytail to his back, Kenshin kept his hair a lot shorter, hoping it would help to deter people from confronting him about looking like a ruffian samurai. Though Kaoru's dojo was doing well, there were those that feared samurai still, even now, 34 years into the Meiji era.
What could possibly be disrupting the flow of peace for the police chief request an audience with him after so long? Chief Uramura was lighting another cigar, his second one, when he heard the doors to his study open. He turned around from the window he was standing by. His age showed him having gained a few more age lines, yet he remained as tall and stoic as ever. He looked relieved, when a familiar red-head walked through those doors.
"Ah, you came, Himura," he said, in a relieved and inviting tone. Kenshin let him dismiss the secretary, standing still and stiff in the center of the room. Chief Uramura noticed instantly, Kenshin's fists balled up by his sides.
"...What is the meaning of this?" Kenshin cut straight to the point.
Chief Uramura hesitated, sitting in his chair, and interlacing his fingers on his desk, puffing on his cigar. After a tense moment of silence, he took the cigar out of his mouth and squashed it in the ashtray, speaking as calmly as he could.
"I take it, you read the letter?" Chief Uramura sighed.
"That I have," Kenshin's tone was angry.
Chief Uramura sighed again. He ran a hand through his hair, his balding had begun but was not incredibly noticeable. "Mr. Himura, please understand, times are changing, the times for swords is over and has been for the past 24 years, and is continuing to lessen, even now. You of all people must know the relevance is fast fading," he began, watching Kenshin's blatant hostile glare. It was rare for Kenshin to get riled up so quickly, but then again, he'd given him quite a bit of time since that morning to stew over the letter. "I merely think that since you've done our country a great service, your son may want to foll-"
"I refuse, he is not going to fight a fool's fight," Kenshin interjected sharply. "I won't have you send him to the military academy, Chief Uramura."
Chief Uramura watched him quietly. The pain of a father letting his son go to battle, Chief Uramura knew the pain of putting the ones you love in danger. However, he set his jaw. " It is not your decision to make, Kenshin."
Kenshin's violet eyes widened, and he took a step back. His body trembling, fists still by his sides. "I...fought for a world...a world where future generations, can live...in peace...as much as they can...Chief Himura, why ...of all people, do you think I'd be the one to send my son to a death that is only certain if he goes?"
Chief Uramura rose from his desk slowly, his face apologetic. "Times are changing, we need to prepare our soldiers of the future...there is unrest in the West, and Korea is trying to fight against certain trades with us. We are being held at the throat here, please do try to understand. A sword can not protect him. But a gun can."
Kenshin shook his head. "I refuse," he flatly spoke. "He's only fourteen. He's just a boy."
"Kenshin...please, this is the honorable thing to d- Kenshin!" he shouted, as Kenshin ran from the room. Chief Uramura sank back into his chair.
"To serve for one's country is a duty...but I suppose his heart, is not so easily swayed," he sighed. "That's ...a reasonable reaction considering he turned down a position in the military on numerous occasions in the past."
Kenshin didn't stop running till he was panting by the river on the bank of town. Sitting in the grass, not as young as he used to be, he coughed, choking back tears. Why was this happening now? He tried not to let the panic rise to his throat. His blade could protect his family, but who would protect his son if he was not there? Kenshin always knew his son would go off and pursue his own goals as a samurai, or a soldier, but he was only fourteen. It was too soon, too soon for him to be sent away to a military academy. Recently, education had become a pinnacle of the Meiji era, and while Kenshin and Kaoru had found merit in it, it was difficult to send their only son away to school. Much less, a school that would teach on how to take human life and numb the mind and body. Kenshin knew that the time of honorable combat was being tossed aside for brute force, and this worried him for his son. He held his head in his hands.
"What am I going to do?" he whispered to no one in particular. "I can't be selfish...but...I don't want him to go away...to become a tool used by the government..."
He felt an arm on his shoulder. With a small jolt, he looked over his shoulder. Yahiko was frowning at him, eyebrows knit in a worried way, as he looked Kenshin's tearful face over. "Kenshin, what's wrong? You rarely cry."
Kenshin wiped his eyes. It was true, he rarely cried, and he often didn't like to in front of others if something was bothering him. "Ah. Nothing, nothing," he smiled his smile but Yahiko growled and yanked his cheeks.
"Don't lie to me, you old fart," he griped.
"Ah-eh, ayieeh," Kenshin teared up for a different reason thanks to Yahiko's painful cheek gripping. He rubbed his cheeks, as Yahiko sat next to him with a sigh.
"So you gonna tell me, or will I have to go to desperate measures?" Yahiko nudged his arm. Kenshin smiled weakly.
"Yahiko...I have a serious problem, and I'm not sure, what to do," he gave him an apologetic look. Yahiko saw pain there. His demeanor became serious.
"Well, you can count on me. I won't tell no one," He said comfortingly. He was worried about Kenshin. What had gotten him so distraught?
"Chief Uramura wants to send Kenji away...to school," Kenshin said softly.
"Eh? That's not so bad, lots of people are doing it, something about a movement," Yahiko blinked.
Kenshin shook his head sadly. "Not just any old school. A Military one...to train him as a tool for the government's future squabbles with Korea and the West," his tone was bitter.
Yahiko's eyes flashed. "What? He can't do that? Can he?"
Kenshin smiled dryly. "Who knows, if the government makes a law saying it to be so...who am I but one rurouni to stop them." That bitter tone stabbed into Kenshin's heart, but he knew it was the truth.
Yahiko bit his lower lip. "Growing problems...damn...did the Chief hint at all to war?"
Kenshin shook his head. "That he did not, but… none the less I am, afraid. Not for myself for I will gladly fight, even wounded in my son's place if need be. Not for you or Yutaro who I know are fine honorable fighters, but I fear for my son. Fifteen...sixteen...it is too young for war. I know...I've been there. Though I was fortunate, many were not so lucky." His eyes clouded over, remembering the past, the cries, the begging, the screams, and the bloodshed. It had been so long. Was the growing dissent in his heart not his imagination after all? Was war coming? And if so, how soon?
Yahiko bit his lower lip. "Why Kenji?"
"Because he has shown promise as a fighter," Kenshin replied dryly, "And because he is linked to me," and Yahiko could hear the guilt in his voice. "I wanted to live to see my family grow, not be cut down by the dogs of the government," Kenshin slowly got to his feet.
"I...can I do anything?" Yahiko asked, upset.
"Yes," Kenshin smiled to him gently, although his eyes looked angry, and Yahiko shivered for he knew that Kenshin was in a battle mood. It'd been a long time since he'd seen that look. "Go tell my wife and son that I love them...and that I need to go away for a little while."
Yahiko's eyes widened. "Kenshin...what are you gonna do? Where are you going?"
"I need to visit an old friend in the mountains," Kenshin smiled wryly. "I'm five years do for a visit anyhow, and I need to clear my head. The mountain air will be good for my old age."
Yahiko stood up, and watched as Kenshin walked away down the bank. Yahiko bit his lip, looking towards the water in the river. "...There as to be something...anything I can do." Yahiko shook his head. "First thing's first...just tell his family that he's going on a little adventure and will be back soon." Yahiko looked down the river bank, towards the man disappearing down it's green flank. Even from this distance, Yahiko could see the determination. With a sigh, he turned, and headed back to the dojo, to let everyone know that Kenshin was going on a recreational adventure.
Meanwhile, from inside Chief Uramura's office, there rang three loud gunshots.