Author's Note's: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin. It is owned by Watsuki Nobuhiro, Shueisha, Fuji-TV and SPE Visual Works.
1. After the Fall
1862 Shieikan Dojo
Western Edo
"997, 998, 999, 1000 …"
The kendokas have been practicing their strikes for over three hours, and their current head instructor, Okita Souji Fujiwara no Kaneyoshi is showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. Perhaps it was the display of natural abilities in kendo at the young age of 9 or the discipline that was instilled during his training that drove him to demand perfection from each of his students. Perhaps it was a little bit of both. In any case, his students were currently praying for a miracle to occur.
And then Harada Sanosuke appeared on the scene. "Okita-san," he leaned against the doorway. "It's almost time for lunch."
Without acknowledging the interruption, he turned his attention back to the class and called for fifty more strikes. Harada shook his head and hovered near the doorway, watching Okita as he observed the class with a frown on his face. A face, he concluded, that was far too serious when it comes to training. He needs to loosen up, Harada thought as a smile slowly spread on his face.
Soon enough, the morning class was dismissed and most of the students greeted Harada as they filed out of the dojo. Bowing respectfully in greeting, the students passed Sanosuke one by one as he stepped inside the training hall. "Sa, Okita-san," he said as he stretched his arms out over his head. "That was pretty hard on them, don't you think?"
"Fights can last for hours," his friend replied without looking at him directly. "Sometimes days if they are going up against someone skilled." Okita ran his finger against the wood grain of a bokken that he held in his hand. The polished surface, smooth under his callused fingers – so elegant yet so deadly a weapon. Harada watched him closely as he felt the atmosphere almost change around them. The feeling of unease can be felt all around them, not just in the dojo, even in the towns in general. It was hard to miss.
"Without stamina, they will easily fall within the first few minutes of their fight." Okita continued as he replaced a bokken on the wall. He grabbed one and took a few practice swings, making the weapon sing as it swooshed in the air. "I'm training them hard so that they can have a fighting chance at surviving any kind of attack."
Harada pursed his lips, and for a moment, looked resolute in its seriousness as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Che, you make it sound like we'll be going to war soon." Okita said nothing in response, unwilling to let his friend's words affect him, as he continued along the training hall. The city had felt uneasy in Okita's recent memory, and as if waiting at the edge, hovering between action and inaction. He did not relish the feeling at all, not one bit.
Still, it didn't help things to wallow in these feelings. Okita looked up to his friend, hoping to dispel the gloomy atmosphere that has descended between them, moved towards the doorway. "As Hijikata-san would say," he lowered his voice. "'It never hurts to be prepared, Souji-kun." He mimicked the other man perfectly and they both broke into matching grins.
After they had caught their breath, Okita patted his friend on the shoulder. "Ara, Harada-san shall we see about lunch?" Harada grinned back and elbowed Okita playfully in response. "I could have sworn I heard Kondo sensei mention sukiyaki this morning …"
"Sukiyaki, eh?" The pair set off towards the main dining area in search of lunch. They had not gone very far when they heard hurried footsteps coming from the front gate.
"Kondo sensei!" A young girl's voice screamed as soon as she entered the Tennen Rishin Ryu compound. "Kondo sensei!"
Okita and Harada turned around and hurried towards the child, her long hair escaping the loose ponytail, as another man came rushing out from one of the other buildings. "Nanami-chan," Kondo Isami, fourth master of the Tennen Rishin Ryu, called out softly to the girl and knelt down in front of her. Nanami was crying and shaking as she tried to catch her breath. Okita knelt beside the girl as he rubbed her back soothingly to help her calm down.
"Tell us what happened," he asked gently.
Nanami nodded her head and took a deep breath. "We were walking along the river," she rubbed her arms nervously, shivering a little bit as she recalled what had happened. "And there was a body. A body floating on the river."
At the mention of an unknown body, Harada's frown deepened and caught Okita's eye. For a body to be found was certainly disturbing and for the girls to be the ones to discover it was even more disconcerting. The times are indeed becoming more dangerous if bodies are turning up in rivers and happening more frequently. Okita rubbed his forehead as if to clear his thoughts as he waited for the rest of the story to unfold.
"I was with Suzume-chan and Nee-chan when we saw it drifting in the water." She covered her face with her hands as if to block the image and continued in a muffled voice. "Nee-chan told me to run as fast as I can to get help," she looked at Kondo, tears filling up her eyes once again, waiting. Kondo stood up, nodded to the two men in an unspoken command and the pair ran off towards the river. Kondo steered Nanami back to her mother before sending one of their pupils to get the doctor in town.
Meanwhile, Harada and Okita ran towards the direction of the river, to a spot where they frequently took the girls for picnics. The chilly afternoon air went unnoticed as the pair hurried along the familiar pathways. Harada spotted Kumiko first, standing a few yards away from the edge of the river where it met a smaller area with a few trees surrounding it. In her arms, the smaller girl, Suzume had burrowed her head on Kumiko's shoulder and was crying softly. "Shh, Suzume-chan," the older girl soothed. "It will be okay."
Hearing their approach, Kumiko looked up and sighed in relief. She whispered something in the little girl's ear that made her turn towards the two men. Recognizing them, she wiggled out of her grasp and ran towards Okita. "Okita-nii, I'm scared," she cried out as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
Okita smoothed down Suzume's hair and slowly wiped the tears from her face with his gi. "Let's put our brave face on, ok?" Suzume just nodded in response as she fought down her hiccups. Taking a deep breath, she gave Okita a watery smile and gripped his hand firmly ready to be led back to Harada and Kumiko.
"Its not far from here, maybe a few yards." Kumiko pointed down the river. "There are more branches and reeds in that part of the river. I was taking them to watch the butterflies in the fields across the bridge when it floated by us."
"Both of you please stay here." Okita said as he smiled reassuringly at the two girls. "We will check it out."
They jogged over to the area and Harada started wading into the shallow water, occasionally batting away the reeds that seemed to impede their progress. They have not been in the water too long before Okita saw a flash of color just beyond the reeds they had pushed away. "Here," he called out as he was closer to it and his friend had followed along behind him. Harada held back some of the taller weeds as Okita slowly made his way towards the body. Together, they had managed to dislodge it from the rushes and turned the body over.
"Kisama!" Harada muttered under his breath as Okita's face displayed an unfamiliar frown. He had already carefully brushed the weeds off of the face, arms and the soaked yellow kimono. With some effort, they managed to get the body out of the river and set it down at the nearest beach. It was a young woman, possibly 17 or 18, judging from her appearances. Her right arm jutted out at an odd angle in which indicated a possible break. There was an open wound on her right temple and the exposed skin looked pale and almost translucent.
Harada sat on the opposite side as Okita had placed his ear over her chest to detect a possible heartbeat but couldn't find any. "Is she dead?" his friend whispered as if afraid to know the answer. Okita shook his head and placed his fingers on her wrist to feel for a pulse. There! he thought. There's something there. Quickly, he moved his head to listen for her breath but could not make it out. Placing two hands over her chest, Okita pushed down twice before moving to her face to pinch her nose and breath into her mouth. He repeated these motions for a few minutes, each time pressing harder and getting more frustrated until finally, the body convulsed. Water poured from her mouth and her body shuddered a few times as it expelled the water she had taken in. Surprised, Harada had immediately taken off his gi and Okita wrapped the young woman in it before scooping her up in his arms. "We have to get her warm and changed out of these clothes," he said as he started to move quickly back to the Shieikan dojo.
As soon as they entered the compound, Okita carried the woman towards the living quarters, following Kondo to the room they had prepared for her earlier. The doctor, Yamada sensei from the local clinic, was waiting for them inside and called out instructions for the rest of the house to follow as they settled the unconscious woman on the waiting futon.
"Have someone come and change the woman's kimono!"
"Boil some hot water so that we can clean some of the grime off of her."
The commotion in the living quarters had sent the servants in a flurry of activity as they followed the doctor's orders as quick as they can. Soon the unidentified woman was clean, changed into a clean yukata and laid on a futon before the real examination began. As the doctor's assistant closed the door, Nanami looked up to one of the adults to ask a question. "Who is she?" She could not get inside the room with the rest of the adults but was curious nonetheless.
"Well, we'll have to find out when she wakes up," Okita turned around to face the little girl. "But for now," he took her hand gently. "We have to let Yamada sensei do his examination." Harada and Kondo followed him out as they heard the doctor and his assistant converse in quiet tones. The pair made their way towards the main courtyard as Nanami ran towards the other girls. Okita had ducked into his room to change before returning to the front yard to the others.
"What do you think happened?"
Okita remained silent but he had noticed a few things when he carried her back to the dojo. First, she had calluses on her hands, obviously from training with a weapon but he didn't know of any schools in the area that trained women kendoka. Second, she might also have a couple of broken bones as he could see the odd angles from when he picked her up. Injuries from the accident or before the accident, he can't be sure.
"We won't know anything for certain until she wakes up," Kondo replied as he looked towards the direction of the rooms. "In any case, she looked like she came from a middle class family. Her kimono was simple enough but the fabric was of good quality."
"I wonder who she is?" Harada mused aloud as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Okita remained silent as he nodded in agreement to Kondo's assessment. "Perhaps we can start inquiries tomorrow when we have more to go on."
Not long after, Yamada sensei and his assistant returned from the examination room and met with them in the front yard. One of the servant girls came to serve them hot tea as the others joined them on the porch to sit down to hear his findings. Yamada sensei sipped the hot liquid and closed his eyes to relish the warmth. He had lived in this city for years and over time, has come to be aware of the changes that are inevitably coming to their town. Peasant uprisings, economic instability and the general distrust of all things foreign and at each incident bringing about the slow disillusionment of the current government, he has seen it all. The appearance of a body, found half-dead in the riverbanks, could be perceived as a sign of things to come.
The doctor let out a sigh as he stared into his tea cup. "It's a good thing she was found before the onset of winter. Otherwise, she might have been frozen in the river and we would have never found her." Each man nodded at his statement and contemplated its implications.
"How long do you think has she been in the water?" Okita asked as he watched the doctor closely. Suddenly, Yamada sensei looked tired as he rubbed his chin and furrowed his eyebrows.
"Not more than two days," the doctor responded. "She has a cut on her right temple just below the hairline and a broken right arm and rib, possibly from the fall or received shortly before she fell in the water." The men nodded as the doctor took another sip from his ceramic cup, delicately painted with deep gold gingko leaves. He frowned slightly, not wanting to dwell on her present injuries without knowing the full circumstances surrounding it. "She currently has a fever also from being in the water for a long period of time. I've left instructions on how to administer the medicine and watch for any changes in the next few days."
"That should be fine, " Kondo nodded his agreement. "We will send for you if anything changes in her condition." The doctor smiled as he finished his tea and stood up. His assistant had already grabbed the medical bag and stood slightly behind him. "Good," Yamada sensei smiled. "The only thing we can do is wait for her to wake up."
"Do you know when that could be?" Kondo asked.
"It's hard to tell with these things." Yamada sensei fell in step with Kondo as they headed for the front gate. Okita and Harada trailed a little behind them as they all listened to him. "Head injuries can take a while to heal and I can't be sure if she is suffering from a concussion."
They had reached the gate and Yamada sensei stopped for one last reminder. "If everything goes well, she should wake up in the next few days." They watched as the doctor and his assistant walk away from the school entrance. Silence descended between the three men as they watched the pair's progress. "We should make start making inquiries later this afternoon," Kondo murmured to no one in particular. Okita nodded absently as he was still processing the doctor's assessment of the extent of the woman's injuries.
Harada looked past Kondo deep in thought, before turning to Okita and poked him on his shoulder. "Well, since we won't be getting answers anytime soon, how about that lunch?"
Okita let out a short laugh at the sudden turn of Harada's thoughts. "When it comes to food, you have a one-track mind, Harada-san!" The other two joined in the laughter as they made their way to the dining hall.