Something was off about this day, but it wasn't as if there was anything wrong though. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing, and the river was still flowing with clear water. As far as Kenshin could see, there wasn't anything physically wrong. However, he couldn't help but wear a frown as something began nagging his mind.
"You ugly raccoon! I'm not learning anything by just swinging a sword all day! I want to spar with an actual person, not the air!" Yahiko's screamed as his voice broke the silence. Although his voice destroyed whatever tranquility existed in the clearing, something within Kenshin finally felt right, and he immediately relaxed his features.
"When are you going to respect me as a master and just do as I say?" Kaoru asked. Although she was used to her daily arguments with her student, Kenshin noticed that she was getting a little fed up with Yahiko's argument.
As the two of them fought, Kenshin sighed in fondness and looked out toward the clearing. It was only twenty years ago that he and his master were having similar argument in this very same clearing.
Although Kenshin had wanted to visit his master alone since he knew from personal experience that the hermit can be a bit much to handle at times, Kaoru and Yahiko had insisted on coming. At least, Kaoru insisted, but because she also told Yahiko that he couldn't slack off his training despite their vacation in Kyoto, he was forced to come along as well.
To be honest, Kenshin wasn't even sure his master still resided in this hut anymore. As of current, he was nowhere to be seen, and the house looked relatively empty without the jars and vases that once littered his old home. The only signs that he could find from his master were ashes of a recently lit fire in the kiln beside the home. Despite the signs of abandonment, the Kenshin decided to at least wait until noon before returning back to Kyoto. As he was no longer his master's student, his master had no responsibility to tell him if he suddenly decided to tour Japan on his own. However, the swordsman couldn't help but fell a little hurt that not even a note was left in his absence.
"I bet Kenshin didn't have to do all of this useless training when was here!" Yahiko argued, bringing said swordsman out of his trance.
"Oro?" Kenshin dumbly said as looked at the pair. To his delight, Kaoru and Yahiko continued arguing without making him to put in any input. If he was younger, Kenshin probably would have gone through days describing the "training" his master put him though.
There were days where his master would actually try to lose Kenshin in the woods and wait three days before hunting the poor boy out so that he wouldn't starve to death. Then there were the times Kenshin had to do five hundred strokes, do the chores, and head down to the market to pick up the rice for dinner. During the war, Kenshin often heard stories from other swordsmen on their training regime, and every time the young swordsman wouldn't react in shock because of how rigorous it was but instead of how lax it was. It was ridiculous what his master had him do sometimes!
"Trust me you little brat, this training is essential to learning the Kamiya Kashin Ryu! If you want to cheap it out, then go ahead!" Kaoru yelled as Yahiko danced on her final nerve.
"I'm just saying that I hardly see Kenshin doing strokes as practice. In fact, I hardly ever see him practice at all!" Yahiko proclaimed.
"Are you telling me that my baka deishi has been becoming lazy in his training?" a strong voice called out from beyond the woods. Suddenly Kenshin's temperature dropped and he began formulating a way of escape. He knew that tone, and he feared what was coming next.
"Hiko-san!" Kaoru greeted as a large man emerged into the clearing. He was carrying a small cart behind him filled with supplies that would last him a month except the sake, which would last him at least two weeks. For most people, an ox would have been required to carry that cart around; however Hiko's strength was more than enough to carry it.
"Shishou," Kenshin acknowledged as he stood up to meet his master but refused to look into up at his face. He already knew that a stupid, arrogant grin was plastered on his face.
"Hiko-san, as a fellow master, maybe you'll be able to knock some sense into my deishi. Surely you must have made Kenshin told some simple exercises when you were training him," Kaoru asked. Kenshin loved Kaoru dearly, but he wished she didn't say another word before his master got any ideas.
He took raised his head to take a peek and quickly looked down to the ground again. The devil's smile was still there.
"Of course I did. My baka deishi loved training so much; I just had to give him more and more. Isn't that right Kenshin?" Hiko asked with a smirk. Kenshin refused to honor that question with an answer.
Realizing that Kenshin actually matured a little over the years, Hiko upped the stakes a bit. He was always good at getting a rise out of his student, even if age brought on different complications.
"What about a few laps around the forest then? Say, fifty laps?" Hiko proposed.
Kenshin continued to look at the ground.
"Then 1000 sword strokes?"
Images of Kenshin sprawled on the ground after his first days of training began flooding back to Kenshin's mind.
"And finally a spar with me?"
"You can't make this one do all of that in a single day Shishou!" Kenshin insisted, hoping that there still is a bit a mercy in his master's soul.
"What are you talking about? It's not even noon yet. You have plenty of time to do it. Besides, you wouldn't want to give a bad example to the little one, would you?" Hiko said as he placed his student into check.
Violet eyes turned to the right and observed the stunned look on Kaoru and Yahiko's faces. It was funny how similar they were to the Ishin Shishi warriors' faces when he told them about his training regiment. Looking back to his master and trying to hold his stare, Kenshin finally gave up and gave up his sword.
Years ago, Kenshin had thought that if he alternated between training, he would be able to do them faster. Hiko caught on after a while and forbade him from ever running with his sword from then on.
"Fifty you said?" Kenshin asked without resistance. Hiko patted the man on the back as his answer, and Kenshin dearly hoped that Yahiko was going to learning something from this. He hadn't intended to return just to get more training. Without another second to waste, Kenshin made his way onto the path that he trained on years ago.
After a moment, Hiko looked toward the young boy.
"Well?" he barked, obviously irritated at something.
"Huh? What? You want me to do all of that too?" Yahiko asked incredulously.
Hiko paused to remind himself that the young boy was not Shinta. Then he looked toward the master who looked to dumbstruck to actually say anything. Deciding to break the silence before it go to awkward, he merely sat down and observe the boy as if anything he saw was going to change his mind.
"Well since you're not a student of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, I suppose you can do just half of what I just said. But be warned, just because you're not my student doesn't mean I'm not allowed to punish you. After all, you said you wanted to be my baka deishi's pupil one day, didn't you?" Hiko smirked as he saw the child finally make connections. He gulped and without another word, proceeded to follow Kenshin into the forest.
"Uh, Hiko-san, don't you think that's a little harsh for a child so young? Or even for someone like Kenshin?" Kaoru asked as she watched her student run through the forest.
"Che, if you think this is harsh, I'd hate for you to be here with Kenshin's actual training. This is a morning workout if anything. No doubt that if my baka deishi has been slacking off it'll take him well-past noon just to get everything done," the Hiten Mitsurugi master answered and opened a jug of sake. "Nah. If anything, it'll just build character. As for you Missy, perhaps you should down to the Aoiya. I was just there to see if my apprentice arrived yet. Apparently that Rooster-brain has caused a bit of trouble down there."
"Sanosuke," Kaoru muttered and sighed; however, she did not immediately leave.
"If you're worried about the young one, I can handle two students at once," Hiko assured her and took another swing.
Kaoru, seeing that at least Yahiko won't slack on his training while she was gone, nodded and made her way down the mountain. She promised she would be back before sunset, which made no difference to Hiko. He grunted as some kind of noise of acknowledgement and watched the young master leave the clearing.
Once she was gone from his vision and her ki was out of his range, Hiko finally began to relax. He never liked being around people no matter who they were. Whether it is the old lady who was selling his rice or an old friend from his childhood, people always bothered him. In fact, the only person he didn't seem mind at all was Kenshin, but that was because the child was too small to actually to be counted as a person. It obviously wasn't the fact that the small kid was like a son to him. Of course not.
A few hours passed when Kenshin finally exited from the forest with the young one in his arms. Apparently he fainted before he reached his twentieth lap. With the heat and the over excessive running, the kid finally tripped over a tree root and fainted. Hiko laughed as it reminded him of Kenshin's first days of serious training. His baka deishi mad no mention of knowing what his master was laughing about, but Hiko had a feeling that he knew all the same.
"Well, seeing that you're here now, might as well have some lunch," Hiko suggested and went over to the boiling stew. Kenshin looked at his master in confusion.
"Don't look at me like that. It's not like I starved you while you were under my guidance," Hiko said and mumbled the last part.
"This one seem to distinctly remember you saying that this one wasn't allowed to eat until this one finished all of the day's training for the day before this dinner got dinner on many occasions," Kenshin recalled as he laid the child inside the cottage.
"Stop with that rurouni speak will ya? I taught you better. Kami knows that I did what I could with handwriting, but at least some of my speech lessons should have gotten through that thick skull of yours," Hiko chided and began pouring the soup into two bowls. He though about pouring some for the child, but it didn't seem like he was going to be waking up anytime soon.
The two swordsmen ate lunch in blissful silence. Hiko noticed his former apprentice's slightly ragged appearance from running the fifty laps, but took it as a sign that he wasn't as out of shape as he initially was worried about. He caught word that Kenshin's body might be deteriorating from the stress that came with the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu. While he was not a skilled doctor like the fox faced woman was, he knew that Kenshin's body was not ideal for the sword art. As a result of a slight panic, Hiko did what he normally did when Kenshin's health seemed to be the death of him and put him to training. There have been many occasions where Kenshin's illnesses seemed to be solved with ruthless training. Hell, he would even say that his baka deishi survived the war just because the kid never forgot about training even during the war.
"Yahiko is a good student," Kenshin said out of nowhere. Hiko's attention was pulled from wherever it was and given right to his student.
"There are very few bad students in this world," the master admitted.
"He has the ambition. He's just young. And impatient. I know how he feels," Kenshin continued, unsure how his master will take the statement. Luckily, the master just grunted some sound and continued eating.
"But he has a good teacher. A teacher who knows how to push at his buttons to make sure he'll become a good swordsman and not a killing machine," Kenshin finished. He expected the conversation to finish there and his master will just order him to complete his sword strokes but did not expect his master to stand up.
"Unless she throws him into the fire, a good sword cannot be forged," Hiko concluded and walked over toward the location he and Kenshin often sparred.
"I decided to forgo your sword strokes today. Instead, we'll just have our spar a little early. I've been meaning to find a good fight, but I suppose I'll just settle for you," Hiko smirked and unsheathed his sword.
Kenshin remembered his first spar with his master. He was terrified of suddenly being cut up by his master as Hiko refused to use a wooden sword as well. But true to his word, Hiko has never laid an unintentional scratch on Kenshin during training. Taking up his own sword and momentarily checking on Yahiko, Kenshin got up and followed his master to the Arena, the name he was fond of calling it years ago.
"No holding back," Hiko reminded him as if it ever crossed Kenshin's mind. There was one rule Kenshin managed to figure out during his training with the Hiten Mitsurugi Master.
Never hold back on a spar fight.
"Agreed," Kenshin announced and took his stance.
-
Honestly, Kaoru couldn't understand how Sanosuke could get into so much trouble when they weren't there to watch him. With Kenshin, the fighter was hardly ever a threat, but alone, it seemed the troubles of the world were attracted to him.
It was just reaching sunset when she finally managed to find time to climb the mountain and retrieve her student. She hoped that Yahiko learned at least something from the training. She probably wouldn't be surprised if Yahiko was just sleeping from all of the training Hiko put him through. Kaoru wasn't even sure her father would be able to do all of that.
When she finally reached the clearing, the world seemed so still that time didn't even seem to affect it. Kaoru stopped for a moment to look for the source of the tension, and saw something moving in the distance. Beside the moving objects, she was able to make out Yahiko's brown hair watching them in awe.
Suddenly, it had all clicked. The moving objects weren't objects at all. This was a fight between two masters of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu. It was fitting that an art that masters in inhuman speed have battles that are untraceable with the human eye. That said, the longer Kaoru watched, the more her eyes were able to see, but there was a limit in place.
It hardly seemed like a battle at all. It seemed to be something much more beautiful than a simple brawl.
"It's like a dance," Yahiko said suddenly. She had no idea how he was able to tell if she was even near or not. Perhaps he wasn't even talking to her at all.
"They're not really fighting. They're more like dancing where one guides and the other reacts. It's just kata, isn't it?" Yahiko asked, and this time his attention on his master. Kaoru, confused with what her student was asking, looked back to the fight in front of her and saw exactly what he meant.
For every attack Hiko had, Kenshin had a block. There was no thinking or quick maneuvers. They were simple techniques needed for more advanced ones. Of course, she says simple because she knows Kenshin was capable for so much more. However, because those moves were engraved in his head, he would never miss. Instead of thinking, he was simply fighting on instinct.
"Kenshin has trained hard to reached the level he's at. No doubt Hiko trained him harshly every day just for him to get there," Kaoru explained. Yahiko sat there deep in thought without any sign that he heard her.
"Then, if I do your dumb training, I'll get as good as Kenshin?" Yahiko asked suddenly.
Kaoru thought for a moment and shook her head. "Not exactly, but you'll be able to achieve the same level of fighting at least. To fight simply on instinct is what training is meant to do. It's different than techniques because it enables to fighter to simply attack rely on what the body knows rather than what the brain thinks."
Yahiko wen silent again, but his hands grasped his sword tightly. He took a deep breath and sighed.
"I'll do a hundred stroke before noon tomorrow then. And then those push ups after lunch," Yahiko promised but never let his eyes leave the dance of dragons.
"And some kata practice before dinner?" Kaoru pushed.
"Yeah, whatever it takes," Yahiko agreed.
Somehow, Hiko was able to push into Yahiko's mind that training wasn't something that can be skipped. Kaoru had no doubt that Kenshin was similar to Yahiko when he was the same age. He must have had some kind of experience with this kind of thing. Initially, Kaoru almost regretted taking her student to show an esteemed sword master and having him dishonor his school. However, now she realized that this was probably the best thing that could have happened.
The sun was beginning to set further and the three of them should be making their way down the mountain. However, nothing seemed to be able to separate the onlookers and the dragons apart. Each learned a very important lesson that day, and no one seemed eager to move away from as the dragons danced the sun away.
A/N: I am really happy with this one. Although I probably could have picked a better ending, I was rushed to get it finished before Ruroken week. I missed writing these characters so much!
Day 1 of Ruroken Week: Lesson or Technique
(Kind of cheated with both here, but oh well!)