Chapter 1

Unexpected visit

Kaoru was walking from the dojo to the house when she heard someone's voice coming from the main gate. Wiping sweat from her brow with he sleeve, she hurried herself towards the entrance. When she opened the side door, she saw a beautiful woman in a turquoise kimono and a silver obi. The visitor instantly turned her face towards Kaoru and smiled.

"I'm sorry to disturb you. Is this the house of Himura Kenshin," she asked in a delicate voice.

Kaoru hesitated a moment. Who was this woman, and what did she want with her husband? Spending the last few years with Kenshin, she had become wary of strangers asking to know the whereabouts of the former hitokiri. Plus, this one had her extra worried since her question had revealed that she spoke in the Kyoto dialect.

The woman, noticing Kaoru's reticence, smiled again.

"I'm sorry, it was very rude of me not to introduce myself first. I am Yumiko Iribe. I was a geisha in Kyoto, Himura-san was my friend. Is this his house?"

Flabbergasted, Kaoru could only nod. A geisha? Kenshin's friend? More like her customer, right? What should she do? Should she invite the guest inside? She didn't really feel like it it, but then again it would be rude to turn away one of Kenshin's friends, if that's what she really was. Unable to take a decision, she stood there thinking. She bet that the women could hear the gears in her brain.

Yumiko, looking at the young woman who had answered the door, could not help but feel uncomfortable. She did not like to disclose information about her past. It usually gave people this kind of reaction. Even thought they knew geisha were not prostitutes, women always reacted badly. In this case, I guess, I do deserve it, she thought. This was probably a bad idea after all. She shouldn't have come. She was about to leave when she her footsteps behind her.

There he was. Wearing a blue gi and gray hakama. His hair as red as they had ever been, the crossed-shaped scar on his cheek a little bit paler but still visible. His eyes were the same purple they had always been yet they seemed different. With a pang, she realized that she had never seen his eyes smile like that. She was even more surprised when she realized that a little red-haired boy was sitting on his shoulders, pulling on his hair distractedly.

A boy. Himura Kenshin, Battosai had a kid.

Coming here was indeed a bad idea.

She quickly turned around to see that the young women had also noticed the samurai and was looking even more worried. She had to leave this place.

"I'm sorry to have bothered you. Obviously I'm mistaken."

What she had just said made no sense at all. The woman had clearly seen her look at Himura, but she had to leave. She felt light headed and feared that she would lose consciousness on the spot. She made a few steps in the opposite direction but it was already too late.

"Kaoru-dono! We have a guest?"

His voice. It hadn't changed at all. Yumiko closed her eyes, feeling like she was going to collapse any moment.

Kaoru, stepping out of her trance, nodded and held her hands out towards her son who was calling for her.

"Um, yes. She just came here, she said she was looking for you, her name is... Sorry, what did you say your name was?"

Yumiko, feeling all her chances of leaving disappear slowly turned around, embarrassed. A gust of wind suddenly made dead leaves and dust twirl in the air. Kenshin covered his face with his sleeve. When he looked up he saw a woman with dark grey eyes looking at him. His head instantly filled with old images, images that haunted him late at night when he couldn't sleep. He closed his eyes and opened them again, as if to make sure he wasn't sleeping. When his voice came out, it was but a whisper.

"Yumiko...dono."