Author's Note: This is just a little idea I had stuck in my head for some days now. It takes place during the fight of Kenshin and Saito in volume 7. I hope you like it! And please excuse my English... (I guess I shouldn't write stories when I'm super tired U.U")
Please let me know what you think! :)
Disclaimer: I own either Rurouni Kenshin nor Kaze Hikaru.
Kaoru's and Sano's first lines of dialogue (and the title itself) are more or less directly taken from chapter 54 of Kenshin.
The One Who Stopped Them
"Stop them! Somebody stop them!" Kaoru yelled.
"It's no good, Jou-chan. Only someone who's lived through the chaos in Kyoto during the Bakumatsu has any chance at stopping this fight" Sano replied with a serious look on his face.
The fight went on. It was a hard fight, for both of them. Hard, and dirty. Not at all resembling the noble duel one thought of when thinking of two samurai fighting each other. But they weren't samurai. They were Oni, trying to kill each other.
Both of them repositioned. This would be the last attack, both of them knew. Possibly the last attack ever. Saito Hajime, Captain of the third troop of the Shinsengumi or Hitokiri Battousai – who would win this battle that had started so long ago? Which one would stand in the end and live?
Just as they started towards each other, a loud voice pierced the room. "Stop!"
Sei hesitated for a moment as she read the sign of the dojo. Kamiya Kasshin Ryu. It had been such a long time since she last had heard the name Kamiya, let alone used it. When she finally had come to Edo, no, Tokyo, it had been a pleasant surprise for her to learn that she still had living relatives, one at least. Kamiya Kaoru was the daughter of her uncle, her mother's older brother. She was still very young and yet she managed a dojo on her own. Sei was impressed and actually eagerly awaiting meeting her cousin. It seemed like she would find a like mind in her relative.
When she opened the gate to the dojo grounds, her gaze fell onto the hole in the wall at once. She could hear the noises of battle coming out of the dojo. That and voices. Familiar sounding voices. But that was impossible, wasn't it? At this place?
She ran towards the door and opened it in a hurry. She couldn't believe her eyes. There was her troop Captain, fighting with Hitokiri Battousai, the Shinsengumi's archenemy.
She yelled "Stop!", but before Sei knew what happened to her, she was in Kyoto and back in the Bakumatsu as well. She raced forwards, reaching for her daitou, which of course wasn't there, and settling for the tanto she still carried around all the time. She wouldn't let Saito-sensei die. Never again would she let someone she cared for die. Never again.
Everyone, including both fighters, looked at the door when suddenly the voice reached their ears. It belonged to a woman, about 30 years old, in a nice, but worn kimono, and with brown hair that was tied up in a complicated hairstyle. Unexpected to everyone, she flung herself forward, onto Battousai, a tanto appearing in her hand so quickly no one saw where it came from.
Then everything happened at the same time. Kenshin turned towards her, remembering in the last second that he was facing a woman and turning his blade to use the dull side once again. Kaoru screamed and caught the obi of the stranger who suddenly seemed more dangerous than even Saito. The woman let out a battle cry. Saito, all of a sudden, had a look of utter confusion on his face.
Kaoru's grip on her obi made the woman stagger. She fell onto her knees, not letting go of her tanto and her narrowed eyes still fixed on Kenshin. The hitokiri lowered his sword as he saw that the woman was no acute threat anymore, thanks to Kaoru who, in the meantime, had grabbed the attacker at the waist and tried to wrestle her on the floor.
The confused silence was finally broken by Saito.
"Kamiya?"
"Yes," both women answered simultaneously, Sei determined, Kaoru confused. The latter loosened her grip on the other women, a fact which Sei used to break free and jump away.
She let her gaze wander for the first time since she had entered the dojo. The bewildered looks everyone shot her reminded her at last that she wasn't in Kyoto, fighting for her life. Possibly.
She started to become confused herself now. What exactly had she just disrupted...? But that didn't matter anymore when she registered the man who had just called her by her name and whom she hadn't seen in such a long time. "Ani-ue!" she called delighted and hugged her substitute brother tightly.
Kenshin narrowed his eyes. He had no idea what just had happened, who that woman was and why in the world she would want to kill him, but she seemed faintly familiar. He felt a short pang of remorse. He probably had killed someone dear to her; as if there was any question why anybody would want to kill him. He expected to be killed every day after all. His streak of luck would probably end very soon – he had survived way too many fights now, especially with members of the Shinsengumi. It couldn't go on like that forever. For now, his life seemed to be spared though. Maybe tomorrow would be his last day on this earth then.
A female voice ripped him out of his thoughts. "Kenshin. Kenshin. Kenshin!" He suddenly noticed that she was talking to him. His eyes focused on the girl besides him, who shot him worried looks out of teary eyes and called his name with such concern and care in her voice that it made his chest tighten. Kaoru. But that was wrong, she wasn't supposed to be here, what was she-
"Ah..." Realization struck him. Of what had happened to him. Of what he had almost done. Of what he had been trying to do with all his strength.
He punched his face.
Megumi had been silently observing the events for a while now. She hadn't been able to do anything to stop the fight. She had been dumbfounded when that strange woman had appeared and tried to attack. She had been confused when the woman then had flung her arms around Saito's neck and called him "Ani-ue". But when she saw Ken-san punching his own face, her patience reached an end.
"What the heck is going on here?" she demanded to know. "Who are you," she pointed in direction of the woman still hugging her supposed brother, "any why are you trying to kill Ken-san?"
"Er... and why did you answer when he called my name...?" Kaoru added.
"I would like to know what is going on here as well, that I would," Kenshin said softly. Megumi and Kaoru both sighed happily when they noticed him using his usual speech patterns, they had grown so used to, again.
Sei let go of Saito and turned around, her face red with embarrassment. She put away her dagger, when she suddenly noticed that she was still wearing her sandals.
"Ah! Oh no, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to, I was just so, er, caught up in the moment, you could say, I guess," she babbled while taking off her shoes in a hurry. When she was done, she bowed deeply and finally introduced herself.
"My name is Tominaga Sei. I originally came here to visit my cousin, Kamiya Kaoru-san. But when I saw Saito-sensei fight with Battousai, I-"
"Cousin? You are my cousin?" Kaoru interrupted her dumbfounded. "But that's impossible! The Tominaga family was killed 15 years ago, all of them!" She narrowed her eyes as something Sei had said suddenly registered in her mind. "And why are you calling that... why are you calling him sensei? And Ani-ue!"
"That is because Saito-sensei looks and sounds so much like my late brother," Sei answered with a fond smile on her lips. Her eyes then turned dark. "Chichi-ue and Ani-ue died indeed 15 years ago. They were murdered by some Choshu ronin, because they were accused of being spies for the bakufu. I wanted to avenge them, and so..." She wrung her hands. She had never openly admitted this to outsiders before, but she guessed it wouldn't do any harm. If Battousai wanted to kill her after hearing the truth, she wouldn't go without a fight. "I joined the Shinsengumi."
Silence met that statement. Saito smirked and patted her on the back, while everyone else stared at her in disbelief.
The tall one with the rooster head finally spoke up. "But you're a girl. Not that I know much about those wolves, but I'm quite sure they didn't let girls join."
"That's why I disguised myself as a man and called myself Kamiya Seizaburo."
Kenshin's eyes turned even wider. Now he knew why the woman seemed so familiar to him. He only wondered why he had never drawn a connection between the two Kamiyas.
"You are.. You are the Ashura?"
Saito laughed at that. "An angry Kamiya was quite a sight to behold indeed!" he remarked proudly.
"But... Did no one ever find out?" Kaoru asked incredulously. "I mean, what did you do when you had your, you know, erm...?"
Sei felt a sharp pain in her chest at those words. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes and clenched her fists. No. She had promised him that she wouldn't cry for him and she wouldn't break that promise now. Not after ten years.
"There was... someone who knew and... helped me, but I'd rather-" She choked on her words, as another newcomer entered the dojo.
"I see you haven't killed him, Saito. Better for you," the small man said. "Battousai, Minister Okubo has to talk to you!"