Kill.
That was all the dark haired man could think about.
Kill. Kill. Kill.
Funny. Another thing he hated that started with the letter 'K'. Just a long list that kept on growing.

Katsushiro stood from his futon, eyes closed. He spent so much time in the dark room that it was his the only place he could properly sleep. At least, away from her. Ever since he'd left Kanna so long ago...

He didn't want to think about it. He bit his bottom lip, and began to clean himself in the corner of the room with a washcloth and a small tub of water. The only thing in the room that looked anywhere near of value was a sword, resting on top of his neatly folded clothes. The room itself was empty, but for those articles, a futon, the tub of water and a small stand to place things on. He liked it that way. It was much simpler and easy to manage. The samurai no longer tied back his hair, which was unkempt, rather like the previous owner of the sword he carried. He pulled on his clothes, if you could consider them that. He'd worn them after he left Kanna, and he had gotten used to the rough, heavy fabric. He pulled on a pair of black trousers that stopped at his feet, which he pulled boots over, and then adjusted his pants to cover them. He wrapped a golden sash loosely around his waist and it hung at an angle. He tied the sword to it, and Katsushiro was done. He would purchase a cloak later, as he had a keen feeling it would rain. He left the room, stepping on a few leaflets of paper that the house keeper had left. The samurai left the room silently, down the stairs and out the door before a single person had noticed.

It was obvious he had improved his skills with a blade and a samurai in the long, five years he'd been gone. The sixteen year old he had been back them was a memory, vague and immature. Katsushiro had trained under some of the finest samurai he'd ever met, but Kanbei had by far been the best and easiest to understand. In his travels, he'd met an old man, and he called him as such. He was Katsushiro's contact.

The old man was wise and stupid at the same time, borderline insanity. The man informed him of everything and anything that went on outside of the small village he lived in now, thousands of miles away from Kanna. The village was usually rainy, but it was very rare for it to be sunny outside, as it was this day. He enjoyed the warmth of the sun. Every time he looked at a puddle of water from the previous day, he was reminded of Kanna, and the former Water Priestess.

But obviously, there were no plans for him to enjoy his peaceful, sunny day. He sighed and turned, hearing a commotion behind him.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME, KID?" A man snarled into the silence.

Katsushiro looked at the man. He was heavily muscled, but reeked of a drunk, even from the distance he was at. He looked at the child, no more than eleven, cowering before the man. It disgusted the samurai that a man would even shout or insult a child. He watched as the man raised a fist, and aimed it for the child. Katsushiro drew the line there. He was gone in a millisecond, hand on his sword. The man throwing the punch stopped moving. Katsushiro was between the boy and his fist, sword drawn. The man was confused for a brief moment, before howling in pain. Katsushiro took out a cloth, and ran it along the blade of his sword.

The man howled loudly, enough to wake the entire village. Katsushiro rolled his eyes. There was a single cut on each of the man's knuckles, but the cuts were very deep and he hoped they hurt. He looked at the child, who was wide-eyed. "Turn and walk."he said quietly to the boy, who obediently did as he was told. Katsushiro slid the sword into its sheath, as he heard the man fall to the floor with a loud thunk.

"What is your name, child?"Asked Katsushiro abruptly as the two walked to the edge of the village. Word would spread fast about his little intervention, and surely people would want to talk to him about it. He had no interest in gawking people or girls. Save for a sole girl, thousands of miles away.

The child spoke rather suddenly. "Takayoshi."*

Katsushiro smiled faintly and nodded. The boy was in obvious awe still, gazing from Katsushiro to the sword he bore. Katsushiro looked at the boy, and grinned. He reminded him of himself at a much younger age.

Takayoshi spoke up, his previously small and timid voice replaced by a more confident one. "I want you to train me."

Katsushiro wasn't surprised. He'd figured out that the child would ask that soon. "Why?"

"I want to be able to protect people, like you."

"You are naive and foolish. No matter how much you want to protect something, it with die away with age or in battle."

"I don't care!"

Katsushiro rolled his eyes. He did not feel like training the boy, nor did he feel obligated to train him in any way, shape or form. But he would. Kanbei had accepted him, now he decided it would only be out of respect to Kanbei that he did this. He sighed, biting his lip and nodding.

"It will be hard."

"I know."

"It will be painful."

"I know."

"It will be awful."

"I know."

"Let's begin."

Criticism is very welcomed as this is my first story that I decided to put onto FanFiction.

Its one i'm rather proud of so far(emphasis), and i strongly encourage criticism.

This is ongoing, but i fear i wont be able to update as frequently as i would like, but the second chapter will be up today as well, but it will be a time-skip during the duration of training.

*Takayoshi translates literally into "High Justice"

Side note: In my little version, both Katsushiro and Kirara were sixteen during the events in the anime series, making them both 21 at this current age. Don't get used to it, I plan to change that very soon.