It was a gorgeous spring day and Kenji was sitting on the roof of the Kamiya Kasshin dojo, deep in thought. His best friend Sozo watched him with a mixture of excitement and trepidation-he knew that look. Kenji was getting an idea. Kenji's ideas were either brilliant or crazy, and it was sometimes hard to tell the difference until they were put into practice and caused some unfortunate consequence.

Kenji was twelve years old and Sanosuke's son Sozo was only seven but the boys were roughly the same height and weight. Kenji had inherited Kenshin's delicate build and red hair, although his hair was more of a deep mahogany and his eyes were grey. Long past his toddler stage of hating his father, Kenji considered that any idea that might make Kenshin smile was an especially good one to try and his happy-go-lucky personality was rarely discouraged.

Sozo had his mother's eyes, huge and dark, but his bronze skin and shaggy brown hair were all Sanosuke's and he promised to be even bigger than his father. He had a good share of his father's stubbornness as well. Sozo was more serious than Kenji and almost eerily perceptive. Although he usually went along with whatever his friend wanted to do, he had a tiresome habit of advising caution when something Kenji thought of seemed especially misguided.

Now Sozo winced when Kenji sat up straight and declared, "It's just not right that Uncle Yahiko hasn't asked Aunt Tsubame to marry him yet!"

"He's still pretty young, you know." Sozo wagged a finger. "Uncle Katsu and Aunt Tae aren't married yet either and you're not worried about them."

"Well, but Uncle Katsu is pretty old, Sozo. He's the same age as your dad-maybe that's too old to want to get married anymore."

"Thirty-two is pretty old," Sozo conceded. Then he frowned. "What about your dad? He's forty-one and him and your mom are married, Kenji."

"Yeah, but they've been married for a long time," said the older boy. "They didn't get married when they were ancient. Uncle Yahiko should hurry up!"

Sozo shrugged. "I don't see what you can do about it."

Kenji grinned. "I know exactly what to do about it."

"I was afraid of that," said Sozo glumly. "My dad says it's a bad idea to get mixed up in other people's love lives."

"We're not going to get mixed up in Uncle Yahiko's love life," said Kenji. "We're just going to give him a little help. I'm telling you, Sozo, I know what to do."

The younger boy looked at his friend suspiciously. "How do you know?"

"I heard my mom and dad talking about it." Kenji grinned. "It was their anniversary and they thought I was asleep…."

"You mean you were spying on them?" Sozo was torn between disapproval and fascination.

"No!" Kenji shook his head. "I got up to get a drink of water and I heard them talking about when my dad asked my mom to marry him."

Fascination won out. "What did they say?" asked Sozo with avid curiosity.

"I didn't hear all of it," Kenji confessed, "but my dad said something about a catfish, and then my mom said something about a ring."

"I don't know." Sozo looked dubious. "Don't you think that's a little sketchy to go on?"

"No, I don't." The redhead sounded supremely confident. "All we have to do is get a fish and a ring and Uncle Yahiko will be married to Aunt Tsubame before he knows it."