Kyoto had once been a city awash with the blood of many in the night, during the Bakamatsu, it had been a time where it was constantly raining blood, but now, they were in a time of peace, even after Katsumoto Moritsugu's rebellion. Although it had passed quietly, those who possessed the intelligence network to know that it happened noted that it truly heralded a time of peace for Japan, following the Samurai's graceful and glorious end to their own age, giving Japan and all her children into a new age where the people could shape their own fates.
Ten years ago, this city was where all the pain of war was felt. This city was where it had all began, and this city was where two dragons had carved a name for themselves. Two dragons that rose from the shadows, and disappeared in them as well: Himura Battousai and Tsubasa Battouryu. Ten years had passed, and the people of Japan received no word of them, save for a year ago that a woman known as Tsubasa Miryu, a woman with the rank of Samurai was married to a gaijin, awarded as a Samurai by Emperor Meiji, with pomp and much celebration. No more was said of this strange daughter of the Tsubasa Clan, disgraced as they were. Of course, there were whispers that Tsubasa Miryu and Tsubasa Battouryu were one and the same, but the common populace found it hard to put two and two together, for Tsubasa Miryu, now Algren Miryu, was more of an entrepreneur than a warrior. She had made a name for herself in the diplomatic community for offering protection and translation services to those who would hire her and her husband, despite their vast wealth.
But in Tokyo, things were all different. In the new capital city of Japan, progress came faster and faster day by day. New Western technologies were brought into the country, even the first steam train that linked the city to Yokohama bay. It was a dramatic change since before Commodore Perry's first steam trains came. The new age of peace had arrived, so deemed Kamiya Kaoru, the young Master of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu, whose life has changed much ever since she had encountered a red-haired man, Himura Kenshin who called himself a rurouni, a wanderer.
He had come to her, as if it were a trick of fate, as if the Gods had willed it completely, and they had no choice to keep it from happening. She had been tracking down the man known as Hitokiri Battousai who had been using the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu to harm innocent bystanders, but she had not known that it was an imposter, and the rurouni she had brought to her home was the true Battousai. However, despite her curiosity, he did not reveal to her where Battouryu was, noting of the pact the two of them shared, and the danger his accomplice could bring to her.
They had become a great team together, with three others: Sagara Sanosuke, Takani Megumi and Myojin Yahiko, becoming into a group of fast friends, bound by destiny and by the trials they had faced, but none greater than the one that threatened to ruin the peace that they all held so dear. Shishio Makoto, the man who had taken Kenshin and Battouryu's place as the shadow Hitokiri of the Choushu-han, had risen again, and was now planning to overthrow the government. Home Minister Ohkubo had sought them out, seeking Kenshin's help, but to do so, he had to become a hitokiri all over again, he had kill and become the monster he once was…
Ohkubo had given them time until May 14th to decide Kenshin's participation, but in the meantime he was to visit a certain venue, where one of his old comrades resided in. He had told them that they would give him the counsel he needed, and perhaps even more. Kenshin knew immediately who that was, but for his companions, they had no clue who it was.
When they seemed to have reached their destination, they were facing a large estate, with high gates and walls. They could hear the sound of running water, and they could detect the clang of katana against katana, followed by the laughter of a man and a woman. As soon as Kenshin shouted words of greeting, the laughter stopped, and the door was opened, revealing a gaijin man with eyes the color of the sea, and a Japanese woman, tall and slender, her sapphire eyes glowing with a fiery light, dressed in gi and hakama as Kaoru would have when she trained.
"Battousai, there is only one reason you would intrude upon my humble abode at this time," the woman said to Kenshin with a slight smile, the bell tied onto the tsuba of her katana jingling as she sheathed her weapon. "Knowing you, you would have picked up pathetic life forms as well." Sanosuke was about to react to her words when she turned her gaze towards him, "Sanosuke, you have grown much. The last time I saw you, was a few days before Captain Sagara was executed… Do you remember?"
Sanosuke was a child of nine then, but he could always remember Tsubasa Battouryu as the first time he had laid his eyes upon her. She was dressed in rich kimono, but she still wore her katana, and her words were those of comfort. He had since forgotten the quality of her voice, but he remembered those sapphire eyes… How could Kenshin not tell him that he knew where Battouryu lived? "It is an honor to meet you again," he told her, bowing.
Kaoru just marveled at the woman before her. There was no doubt about it, this woman, was Tsubasa Battouryu. As Kenshin introduced her to Battouryu, she said to the young Kenjutsu instructor, "I knew your father, Kaoru-san; he was a brave warrior, with more valor than I had known in any man. He had wished to teach Kenjutsu in a time of peace, but it seemed that he expired before he could fulfill his destiny. It pleases my heart that you are doing so in his footsteps."
Then and there, Kamiya Kaoru thought that she would faint. She had never known that her father had known Tsubasa Battouryu, and spoke her exact thoughts to the other woman. "Oh, my dear, I am no longer Tsubasa Battouryu," she replied with a smile. "I am now a wife to a gaijin, an American once hired to train the army. Perhaps, amongst the folds of those who still watch my every move, it would be more appropriate to call me Algren Battouryu."
The gaijin shared a chuckle with Kenshin and Battouryu. "Miryu, we should not keep our guests waiting at the door," he chastised in accented Japanese, astounding their new acquaintances to no end. "Come, we have tea already prepared to you."
They knew what the gaijin meant, Shishio's spies were numerous, and there would be a great watch on Battousai and Battouryu indeed, if they were his targets to begin with. But nonetheless, the experience of meeting the other famous hitokiri had opened her eyes more than Kaoru could ever have thought, and immediately, she wanted to know more about this strange new warrior, and her role in this new age of peace that was about to be shaken once again.