Chapter 2
Rurounis in the City
Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin or it's characters, this anime and manga belongs to Nobuhiro Watsuki, I only own Tsuki Hayashi and her past, Mori Takani and her past (sort of), and Shiro Hatagane and his past. I also own Kohei Hiruma, not her brothers Gohei and Kihei. And I also own Kaori Kamiya. Also the little History Lessons left by Watsuki-sama don't belong to me either.
A/N: Hello everyone! This is my first Rurouni Kenshin Story! I will be following the first three volumes of the manga and so forth. Mind you this is a Kenshin x OC, a Sano x OC, Kaoru x OC, Yahiko x OC, and Megumi is under deciding. Anyway, hope you enjoy!
A week has quickly passed since the 'Battosai' hoax of the Hiruma Brothers met its end. Kamiya, Kaoru, Master of the Kamiya Kasshin-Ryu Dojo, has been running around trying to get her students back.
But...
"No one. Not-ONE." muttered an angry Kaoru. "Cowards!"
"These are time of great change," said Tsuki, "once they move on, it's not easy to come back."
"AND YOU! YOU SAY YOU'RE 28?!" yelled Kaoru's little sister, Kaori. "IT'S A LIE AND YOU KNOW IT!"
"Would 30 make you happier?" asked Kenshin.
"...No, it wouldn't..." said the sisters.
"This isn't going to be easy." said the two rurounis.
-Later that Day in the Marketplace: Kaoru's POV-
Himura, Kenshin is a swordsman with no destination, a rurouni who's currently staying at our dojo.
But once, he was one of the revolutionary warriors who slashed open the new age...the legendary, incomparable hitokiri...
...Himura Battosai himself.
Hayashi, Tsuki is a swordswoman who is also staying at our dojo. But like Kenshin she was once a warrior who also slashed open the new age. The graceful, deadly hitokiri...
...Hayashi Battosai herself.
-Normal POV-
'Or so they say...' thought Kaoru as Kenshin bumped into a 'large' man.
Tsuki and Kenshin apologized to the man and the group continued walking.
-Kaori's POV-
Why are they rurouni while all the other revolutionaries threw away their swords, and have taken positions of power and glory in the Meiji Government?
-Normal POV-
"You have a question in your eyes." Tsuki said with a smile on her face.
-Flashback-
"We all have things in our pasts we don't want to talk about." said Kaoru.
-End Flashback-
"IT'S NOTHING," yelled Kaoru, pounding Kenshin and Tsuki in the head, "and didn't I tell you both to NOT carry a sword!"
"Owoh," yelped the two rurounis.
"Calm down! Just two years ago lots of people carried swords. No one's really bothered by it, are they?" asked Tsuki.
"WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO WHEN THE POLICE SPOT YOU LIKE LAST TIME?! THEY'LL ARREST YOU EVEN IF IT IS A SAKABATO!" yelled Kaori.
"It worked out last time, didn't it?" asked Tsuki, with a cheesy grin.
Kaoru grumbled and suggested, "Let's get our shopping done. Both of you get the miso, salt, and soy sauce."
"Always the heavy things." mumbled Kenshin as he and Tsuki ran inside a store.
"No complaining!" ordered Kaoru.
After the two rurouni left, Kaoru and Kaori were about to go on with their own shopping, until a carrige stopped them.
"Please pardon our rudeness. We must ask for directions." said the man in the carrige. "Is this the correct road to the police station?"
"Uhhh...yes. Take a right onto the main street when you hit the end." replied Kaoru, pointing down the road.
"Thank you," the man said to Kaoru then he turned to the driver, "Let us hurry."
Then they drove away down to the station.
"Scared me...I wonder who he is. I think I would've noticed." said Kaori, looking down the road from behind Kaoru's leg.
"Gah! We have to finish shopping!" mumbled Kaoru, grabbing her little sister's hand and went off to a stall.
-Man's POV-
'Are you here? Are you truly in this city...' thought the man, smoking his cigar, 'Himura Battosai and Hayashi Battosai?'
-Normal POV: Market Stall-
Little Kaori grabbed a vegetable from the stall when she heard some people talking. Kaoru went to go get the rest of the food and stuff on the other side of the market. Soon, Kaori's curiosity got the better of her.
"What's the commotion? What happend?" asked the little girl.
"The police caught some guy and girl violating the sword-banning act!" replied one person.
Kaori stood there wide eyed as she heard that and broke the vegetable she was holding.
-Somewhere Else-
"You two gave us a good chase, but now you've got nowhere to run!" yelled a police officer, panting heavily.
"Hmm...so persistent." mumbled Tsuki.
"What can one do but surrender?" said Kenshin, sweat dropping a bit.
"MOVE!" yelled a voice from the crowd.
"Let the Sword Corps through or our blades will move you!" yelled another person from the crowd.
The Police Sword Corps composed of those officers adept with the blade and trusted by the Government to carry one.
"Lieutenant Ujiki..."confirmed an officer, saluting the leader of the Sword Corps.
"Good job, we will take care of it. You are dismissed." said the Lieutenant.
"But they never drawn their swords, and we have them surrounded." said the officer. "There's really no need for the Sword Corps to..."
The officer never finished his sentance, for his face was bashed with the hilt of a sword. He fell to the ground, his nose bleeding.
"A 3rd lieutenant would tell a veteran from Satsuma what to do?" said Ujiki, darkly. "When I tell you to leave, you leave."
Then the officer stared at Kenshin and Tsuki.
"What is this?" questioned the lieutenant. "Such gentle looking people."
Then he drew his sword and the crowd gasped as the blade was near Kenshin's throat an near the edge of Tsuki's neck. Some people looked away as Ujiki stared at the emotionless faces.
"Draw your swords, gentle people." said Ujiki, a small smug smile on his face. "You two must be confident to be carrying a sword here."
"This one does not carry a sword..." began Kenshin, grabbing the blade between his fingers.
"...merely to flaunt it as a symbol of undeserved power." finished Tsuki, her eyes closed.
The lieutenant 'hmphed' and place the blade of the sword on his shoulder gently. Then there was running footsteps.
"KENSHIN! TSUKI!" yelled Kaori as she ran towards the scene.
"She is with them? Hm?" mumbled Ujiki.
"Kaori-dono, stay away!" shouted Kenshin.
"Huh?" said Kaori as her ribbon, was cut off by two sword corps officers, even though she was smaller and younger than them.
"It will be more embarrassing when we cut her kimono." stated Ujiki. "I'll say it again, draw your swords."
"Are you really a policeman?" asked Tsuki, an emotionless look on her face.
"An officer." replied the man. "Permitted to carry a sword. A swordsman who can kill people legally."
"What's the matter? You aren't going to draw?" taunted the officer.
The crowd wasn't happy with this.
"YOU TYRANT!" yelled one man, angrily.
"YOU AREN'T A GOD!" shouted another man, giving him the finger.
"GO BACK TO SATSUMA!" a woman shouted from the crowd.
This amused Lieutenant Ujiki even more.
"Courage in numbers, hm? This is now a case of obstruction on justice." said the corrupted officer.
"Discipline every one of them. Draw your swords!" Ujiki ordered his men as they drew their swords, causing the crowd to stop yelling.
"If any resist...kill." he commanded.
The people in the crowd screamed, trying to escape the blades of the sword corps men. They were to be feared as the people tried to run away, scared. Until the two rurounis had enough, and drew their sakabatos.
"Do not lay a single blade..." started Tsuki.
"...on any of these citizens." finished Kenshin.
"This one is your opponent. If you want death come forward." said the red headed rurouni, to the officer.
"At last they take the bait. Whatever I do now is completely self defense." said the officer. "Heh, to stay in practice I need to kill someone every once in a while." Ujiki said, licking his blade.
-Police Station-
"Then it was a hoax...?" asked a man.
"Yes," replied the police chief.
"I was delayed by the mopping of the Seinan War. But had I thought it out, I'd realize that Himura and Hayashi would never use their swords in such a mad way. It is true that they killed many in earning the names, 'Hitokiri Battosai' and 'Mizuki Battosai,' but never did they wield their swords in self interest. All they did, they did for the emperor and the new era." explained the man to the police chief, crushing his cigar against a dish on the table. "They saved the lives of many of our warriors, even though those two never met. Without them, the revolution would not have succeeded."
"Well...we found the culprits of the hoax tied in front of Police Headquarters early one morning...we don't know who arrested them. But when we interrogated the culprits they said, 'The real ones got us.'" said the police chief.
"What?!" questioned the man, eyes wide.
"Of course, it's probably a lie, but still..." replied the chief.
Then an officer bursts through the door, a worried look on his face.
"Chief! There's an incident!" he yelled.
"I'm in a meeting, fool! At least knock!" shouted the cheif.
"My apologies, sir, but the sword corps is..." began the officer, saluting the chief and man.
"Ujiki, is he causing trouble again?!" muttered the police cheif.
"Sword Corps? I haven't heard of this." said the man.
"We formed them to handle this "Battosai" Incident, but they are all brutal men, and the captain is a revolutionary from Satsuma. It's too much for me to handle." explained the chief.
Revolutionaries were divided into five catagories according to their origins: Satsuma (now Kagoshima), Choshu (Yamaguchi), Tosa (Kochi) Hizen (Saga), and "Other" (Mito, Fukuoka, ETC.).
Satsuma and Choshu were then the two greatest forces within the Meiji Government, Satsuma in the Police Force and Choshu in the Army, dominating them like Feudal Fiefdoms.
"Indeed. A hero from Satsuma must show off, mustn't he?" said the man, grabbing his jacket and hat.
"So what did he do this time?" asked the cheif.
"Well...umm..." said the nervous officer, "They're getting beaten. By just two swordsman, but one was a swordswoman."
"WHAT? THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" shouted the officer. "They're the finest swordsman in our department!"
"But it's true!" argued the officer.
"Unbelievable...who are these people?" the cheif questioned.
"We don't know. They're short...skinny...young looking...but their swords' faster than the eye can see..." explained the officer, " and one has a scar like a cross on his left cheek and the other has a scar like the cresent moon on her neck."
The man's eyes widen and he and the police cheif hurried to the carriage. When they got there, the man scurried out to the incident.
"Himura! Hayashi!" he yelled in surprise.
What he saw surprised him. Tsuki was taking care of the men by swinging her sakabato to their backs and render them unconsious. Kenshin helped her, because some of them tried to sneak up behind her when she was busy with another. Nevertheless, it wasn't long until all of them were unconsious, except for Ujiki.
"One left." stated Kenshin.
The Lieutenant growled viciously.
"Swear that you will not tyrannize your people any longer." stated Kenshin. "Then we can end this."
"And you may arrest this one for violating the sword-banning act." the two rurounis said together.
"SILENCE! I cannot bow to you!" yelled the lieutenant.
"KYAAAA!" he cried, charging at the rurounis with his sword high, held with both hands.
"He's a master of Jigen-Ryu!" yelled Kaori.
"Ujiki, stop! You're..." shouted the officer, but was cut off.
"A dead fool." said the man. "Jigen-Ryu is a style of unmatched power. Except...in the face of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu and Kitsune Tsukino-Ryu."
The two rurounis jumped into the air, avoiding Ujiki's deadly strike. The two slashed the corrupted lieutenant in the back, not killing him, but knocking him out. The two landed softly on their feet, as Kaori ran towards them.
"Kenshin! Tsuki!" cheered Kaori, just as the two sheathed their swords.
"Are you alright?" asked Kenshin.
But before there was any reply, the crowd surrounded them and congratulated them asking them where are they from or complimenting them. Suddenly, they heard a voice above from the crowd.
"Himura, Hayashi."
"I have finally found you. For ten years, I've sought you..." said the man.
"You've grown a mustache, Yamagata-san." said Kenshin.
By this time, Kaoru had made it through the crowd and noticed what Kenshin said.
'The Yamagata-san...? Really...?" thought Kaoru as the other police officers moved the crowd along.
'The general of the Revolutionary Army's "Kiheitai"...now General of the Army's Ground Troops...' Kaori thought.
'The Revolutionary Warrior Yamagata Arimoto!' the sisters both thought.
Yamagata held out his hand, as if making a proposal to the two.
"I have a carrige waiting. Many of your comrades await your return. Come!" Yamagata offered.
Both Kaori and Kaoru looked sadly at the two rurounis, sad to see them go.
"Our apologies, but not a strand of hair on our bodieswishes to spend the rest of our lives as a Hitokiri." was the response of the former BattÅsai.
"What are you saying?! Yes, you both killed, but it was all for the revolution! Your souls bear no burden!" Yamagata exclaimed. "Only cowards and fools would denounce you as a Hitokiri. But I will-"
"...Silence them with your power?" interrupted Tsuki.
"It's such thinking that creates men like him." Kenshin explained.
"It was to create a world of peace, not to win positions or power, that we raised our swords and killed." Tsuki explained further.
"If we forget that, we are no Revolutionaries after all." Kenshin finished, as he and the three women walked away.
However, Yamagata stopped them.
"Himua! Hayashi! Times have changed! This is the Age of Meiji! Swords have been banned, and the samurai have fallen! This is the Age of Bakumatsu no longer!" he shouted. "This is an Age of Law! You'll accomplish nothing with a sword!"
Kenshin and Tsuki remained silent throughout Yamagata's speech. They turned to stare at him.
"With a sword, the people within our sight," began Kenshin, picking up Kaori while Tsuki patted Kaoru on her shoulder.
"...Can at least be protected." finished Tsuki, giving the general a small smile.
"This one is no different now from before. Except that he is now a Rurouni and not a Hitokiri." stated Kenshin as he and the three girls walked back down the street.
As they left, Yamagata and the Police Cheif understood the intentions of the two former Hitokiri. As they walked, it became clear to the two Kamiya Sisters that all that Kenshin and Tsuki wanted to help people with no ties at all, only free in spirit.