Thank you all for the encouraging reviews! Here is the next part, I hope you enjoy.

Wpoe asked if I would explain who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. Not easy for such a complex story, and especially not for someone who still pleads newb-ness to it, but I'll try:

For purposes of the story and the anime:

The Uesugi - good. (Kagetora, Naoe, Chiaki, Haruie, Irobe)

The Oda - very bad. (Nobunaga, Mori Ranmaru)

The Takeda - bad but more of a nuisance right now than a major threat. (Shingen, Kousaka)

The Hojo - bad and complicated. (Ujiyasu, Ujimasa, Ujiteru, helped by Kotarou the autistic ninja)

The Date - good. I think. At least not bad. (Masamune, Kojirou, Kojyurou, I don't think I spelled that right)

Don't own, no infringement intended, just trying to spread the MoB love in a shameless attempt to get official translation and PLEASE GOD MORE ANIME. By the way, there will be references to things that happen in the novels in this story, but if they're really important to understanding the fic, I'll explain them. Otherwise, just consider them background noises...or, if you're masochistic enough, I can direct you to what translations are available so far.

Now let's switch to Takaya's point of view for a bit, and continue...

PENDULUM
Chapter 2 - Ad Infinitum

The relief that Naoe's answer gave Takaya was short-lived. No sooner than his breathing had begun to calm and slow than the man was coming closer. Takaya could always sense when someone was behind him and he hated the feeling of it; he had always preferred to sit in the back of classrooms for this reason as much as for his slacker attitude toward school.

It's just Naoe, he told himself angrily, but it wasn't getting through. This aggravating, irrational fear was as bad as the unexplored, embarrassing part of him that constantly wanted Naoe close. It was a game of tug-of-war and he was pulling and being pulled from both ends, mentally edging closer to the monk and at the same time leaping away. Fuck, I'm such a girl. No wonder Naoe treats me like one.

Warm arms embraced him from behind, gently holding Takaya's back to a broad chest. Game over, the rope snapped near one end and the players have fallen down. The not-real game set off a not-real alarm in Takaya's head, warning bells that weren't there and had no sound, merely symbolized the rush of vague panic that shot through him. The voice, too, must be imaginary, the faint one that sounded like his own and whispered "Not safe, get away". It was nothing, he'd heard this strange conscience a few times before, the part of him that didn't like to be touched, especially not from behind.

"Takaya-san?" Worry. Naoe must have felt him shaking. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Takaya couldn't think what else to say. He wasn't sure he could add 'Now get the hell off me', either as an order or a joke. Politeness had never been one of Takaya's virtues, but he...welll...he liked Naoe, even aside from the stupid-girl part of him that hated when Naoe was away. And then there was the odd way he often caught the guy looking at him, as though Naoe was both expecting and dreading him to do something.

"I'm sorry I didn't realize your distress sooner, Takaya-san. I wish I could have addressed it more promptly."

Man, I wish he'd quit this whole master-servant thing. When Naoe treated him formally like this, it felt to Takaya like they were playing a game only Naoe knew the rules of. Is this normal retainer behavior, anyway? Hugging?

It felt good, though, if he ignored the ominous, dark place the voice came out of. It was how good it felt that made Takaya begin to shift, the warmth that couldn't compete against embarrassment and the ego of a seventeen-year-old boy. Naoe let go of him slowly, his reluctance palpable, and stepped back so Takaya could turn. The dark place didn't fade away, it never did completely around Naoe, but at least it shut up.

"I'm relieved that you have recovered fond memories of Lord Kenshin, Takaya-san."

"You talk like you expect me to hate the guy or something." Hate Kenshin? It struck Takaya as something he could never do, no matter what. That unnerved him a little, as though he'd fallen into a trap Kagetora had set.

"No, my lord...it's just that Lord Kenshin was the one who charged you to first perform kanshou and lead the Uesugi underworld army. It would not be unreasonable to resent a man who put such a burden on your shoulders."

"Why did he choose me?"

The vulnerability of the question and how small Takaya looked banished the rise of bitterness that Naoe himself felt toward his old lord. "He never told me why. But I think it was because he had such faith in your strength and your heart."

"Why you?"

"My lord?" He asked that before.

"Why did Kenshin choose you to work with me? I mean, you were my enemy, right? You served Kagekatsu."

To punish me. To reward me. To apologize for setting me against you in the war. Because he trusted me. Because he wanted to trust me and never did. I don't know. Men can't understand the gods, and Kenshin was half one, even while he lived.

What Naoe said, though, somewhat lamely, was "He never told me that either."

"You didn't ask?" Takaya laughed a little. "Why you were being assigned to guard someone you hated?"

"Kagetora-sama, I never hated you."

Shit, why does he have to look so sad? "It would be okay if you had," Takaya said casually, shrugging it off in a clumsy effort to comfort. "It's in the past."

"I could never hate you." The same conviction, the same quiet intensity. It was ironic that Naoe, who had rightfully died centuries ago, seemed more alive than anyone he had ever known.

"I'm...not mad at you about back then. I mean, I don't remember much, so..." Naoe was smiling at him again, which made the boy relax a bit. "Anyway, it all seems so petty now. All that fighting for honor and power."

"Perhaps that is why Lord Kenshin chose you. Because he knew you have no ambition to rule and so would not use your powers for personal gain."

Takaya scowled, reminded of the day's earlier encounter. "Next time I see that Kousaka guy I'm gonna beat his face in, so don't try to stop me."

"Is that an order from Kagetora?"

"I don't know. The whole thing's so damn confusing." Takaya plopped unelegantly back onto the couch. He repressed a smile when Naoe came closer, and a frown when the man sat on the couch's far end, instead of directly beside him. "It's not for you?"

"Why would it be? I remember all four hundred years of our history together. You are beside me as you always have been. All that's changed is - "

"Me," Takaya said glumly.

"Not really. Actually..." Naoe smiled with some feeling Takaya couldn't identify, except that it looked sad. "...without your memories, you are more like you were when we first met."

"Is that good?" Is that what you want me to be? Just tell me.

"I'm enjoying it."

Naoe smiled again, and Takaya realized that Naoe had not called him anything within the last few minutes, not 'Takaya' and not 'Kagetora' either. It was a strange relief, as though both names represented a wall between them. The teenager wondered briefly if he should ask Naoe to continue this practice. Nah, probably doesn't realize he's doing it. If I bring it up he'll just jump back into the 'Kagetora-sama' thing.

"So, I liked you when we first met? We got along okay?"

"I don't know what your impression of me was, Takaya-san," Naoe said with a slightly tenser voice, and Takaya mentally cursed at himself. "We knew each other only formally...it was a different time."

"I guess that explains the way you act. So, it was some sort of formal introduction, with a lot of bowing and bullshit?"

Naoe couldn't help but smile; how this new Kagetora would have scandalized the old. "Something like that," he answered vaguely.

"So...why did my death bother you so much? You said...Naoe?"

The man had turned away, looking straight ahead to the wall with his arms tense on his lap. Naoe's eyes, the strange dark violet that Takaya snuck shy peeks at, were alive with some subtle internal movement, like something in them was overflowing or blooming.

"Naoe? If there's something you don't wanna talk about, just tell me. But if I did something wrong I - "

"You have done nothing, Kagetora-sama." Spoken gently, but the switch of names didn't evade Takaya's attention. If Takaya brought out this care and indulgence, then Kagetora made Naoe walk on eggshells. "I am sometimes distracted by memories, that's all. As I told you, it was my urging that hardened Kagekatsu's heart against you. I was one of the fools who feared you might betray us because you came to us as an outsider."

"But didn't I? Didn't I call the Hojo for help, or something? The book said - "

"Kagekatsu's faction began it, my lord. It must have been painful for you, to be looked on with suspicion so soon after the blow of Kenshin's death." You secluded yourself more than ever before, I had to mourn so far away from you, and for what? All this hurt, for what? "You must have felt betrayed."

"Naoe, I forgive you, you know that, right?"

"You alone I will never forgive..."

Naoe shut his eyes. "Perhaps you should not be so hasty, until you remember."

"Didn't Kagetora forgive you? After four hundred years?"

"There are things Kagetora will never absolve me of."

"What did you do?"

A much more recent memory assaulted Naoe's senses. Learning that Kokuryou, who had been tutoring Takaya in his absence, was injured, and his wife dead. Naoe had rushed at dangerous speeds to the hospital, checked perfunctorily on the old monk, thinking only of Kagetora, how he must be blaming and loathing himself for this. Narita-kun worriedly guarding an isolated door, polite Yuzuru who willingly told him what had happened, and how Kagetora was dealing with it.

"He shut himself in this room and says he won't come out until he recovers his memory and gets back all his power. He said he's going to use meditation, but I'm still - Naoe-san? Naoe-san?"

He nearly broke the door down, stumbled in over the tatami floor, ungraceful and animal before the vision of Takaya seated in the center, beautiful and pained, unseeing expression. An angel tormented by everything earthly and awful, fighting against his older and stubborn self. He was shaking, eyebrows furrowed, struggling it seemed in vain, but Kagetora didn't accept defeat even from himself. Before there was time to consider or judge, Naoe was flying at him, leaving behind the alarm of the kind boy and the nurse who'd joined him.

"Kagetora-sama! No!" It was risky and foolish to shout that name, more so to choose the part of this creature who was least likely to listen to him. But Takaya was a recent gift, it was Kagetora who carried Naoe's guilt and only Kagetora who could ease it. Naoe shook the boy, more harshly than he ever would have knowingly. "Kagetora-sama, please stop this, please! Kagetora-sama!"

Takaya's head first lolled back, then lifted heavily. He came to life in Naoe's hands from dead weight; that, and the way his eyes fluttered open with such difficulty told Naoe that he had been very deeply under. He braced himself for the old predator glare, for a just and deserved hatred, but the tiger was still sleeping. The gold that struggled to focus on him was confused and pained, but only sixteen years old.

"Naoe? Naoe, I couldn't get past it! I know where the memories are but a wall blocked me from it, and it became a door when I got close enough but he wouldn't let me near it! No matter what I said, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't open it!"

Takaya was gripping his suit jacket; Naoe tried to cover the accusing hold with an embrace. He wanted to say that everything was all right, that he'd make sure it always would be, but Takaya wouldn't stop looking at him, wounding him with that pleading gaze. And Naoe couldn't turn away, not after he'd hurt him so much, loved him so long.

"What did you do to Kagetora?"

"Naoe?"

The voice from the present was faint, overpowered by the past. Naoe was back in that empty room, kneeling on the soft mats, holding Kagetora more closely than he'd ever been permitted to. Two arms weren't enough to enclose him the way Naoe wanted to, to hide and protect him, but they hugged the boy to his chest and surrounded him with warmth and desperately pet his hair, trying to make the head rest on his shoulder. Miraculously, more than Naoe deserved, Takaya let their bodies rest together like this, but he kept his head up, mouth unmuffled by expensive suit fabric and free to whisper something that would have shattered even a whole and innocent heart.

"Naoe?"

"Naoe, what did you do to me?"

"Naoe?"

It was scaring Takaya to see Naoe covering his eyes like that, such a sad, weary, adult gesture. Even scarier was Naoe not answering him. Always, no matter how haunted the elder had looked, once prompted by Takaya he would smile and shake it off. "I'm sorry," Naoe finally whispered, but not with a dismissive laugh, and his eyes remained hidden. "I'm so sorry."

"But...you don't want me to know for what?" Takaya tried to piece together the little he knew of Naoe and the less he knew of Kagetora into some kind of coherent answer, and succeeded only in uncovering a nameless sadness that felt much older than himself. "Whatever you did, it's over. Can't be all that important if I forgot it, right?"

Naoe was looking at him now, and on the surface, his expression was pensive and gentle and torn, the things he always was. Beneath this was weariness and suspicion, love and want, guilt and even a little pity. This Kagetora had no idea of how he'd been wronged, how justified he was to despise and mistrust. Takaya was a faerie tale tower imprisoning him, where he slept and dreamed of a naive self that had to pain him to witness. More than a kiss had exiled Kagetora to this enchanted sleep. What kind of hurt would it require to wake him, and how could it be prevented?

Takaya made a surprised noise as he was hugged. It hadn't been done fast enough to really frighten him; it was the tightness of this hold, the memory it brought up of Naoe's behavior at the hospital that he had never explained. Naoe held him like he feared Takaya would pull away, and not just because he was a not-very-tactile teenaged boy. Why? What the hell does he feel so awful about?

"Naoe, I do trust you," the boy heard himself try. "I really do."

"You alone I will never forgive for all eternity."

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"I have to tell him. I can't do this."

"What? Slow down." Haruie's voice always went higher when she was worried; Naoe could hear it through the crackle her cell phone made. "Are you still in Uozu? What happened?"

"Yes. Nothing yet. Kousaka showed up to give warnings, provoked Kagetora into nearly attacking him, so I put off our visit to the castle. We stayed here at the hotel and talked." Naoe's hand felt sweaty on the receiver; in the dark of the room he imagined the wetness was blood. "He joked with me, laughed even. Gods, I think he was trying to cheer me up."

"I guess I can see why that would freak you out. Where is he?"

"Asleep. I think he's doing that for me too, to give me space. I think he actually likes having me close by."

"He does. You make him feel safe."

"That's why I have to tell him!" Naoe kept his yell in a whisper, though he was in his own bedroom, alone. "It's a lie, I'm lying to him, letting him think I'm safe!"

"You are. He trusts you."

"He doesn't remember Minako."

"I do, and I trust you."

"May I ask why?"

"Because you hate yourself for that," she said simply. "You won't do it again. And there's no one in her place now."

"It wasn't her I wanted. It was him. I..." Naoe had to clutch the phone tight to keep his grip on it. He had never spoken about the Minako incident in any kind of detail. "I told her why, she knew, and she forgave me. He hasn't, he keeps trying, but he can't absolve a sin he can't remember. I pretended she was him, Haruie, but I was brutal to her, because she wasn't."

"Naoe."

"He has no idea what's wrong, and yet he keeps trying to make it right. I can't bear the trust in his eyes, knowing he'll hate me again as soon as he remembers."

"So you want to tell him?" Haruie sounded confused, but Naoe wondered if she really was or if she was using a technique she picked up in psychology class. "To make that happen sooner? Why not enjoy what you have now and in the meantime hope that Kagetora, when he remembers, really will forgive you?"

"Because he won't. And because I loathe myself even more when he's not here to do it for me."

Haruie sighed. "What about couples' counseling? It's in vogue."

Just the sort of half-serious, impossible thing she always suggested. "Right. I should drag a minor unrelated to me to the office of a complete stranger and confess my sins while Kagetora-sama sits there and denies knowing me at all, which he would do."

"Why not? You might feel better."

"I would prefer not to be arrested for corrupting a minor or some such nonsense."

"Hmm," Haruie mused, not without a certain mischief, "just like Socrates."

"Socrates was at least permitted to die."

"Oh, Naoe."

Damn, he hadn't meant to sadden her. Haruie had suffered from their drama and idiocy enough already. "I'm sorry. I should not be laying this on you."

"I always want you to confide in me. I just wish I could do more."

"You are invaluable to us both," Naoe said gently. "And Kagetora-sama trusts you as much as I do. When he returns to himself and pushes me away, you can serve as the link between us again, if you're willing. You can protect him whenever he won't allow me to."

"Of course I will."

"You are a source of tremendous comfort and support for him, you always have been. More than he has ever let on, I suspect."

Haruie laughed, a bubbly and unmanly sound. Whatever maleness was left in her spirit only came out when she drank. "I know, I know my place in this craziness, Naoe. You and Kagetora are the crazy stars and I'm the sturdy, crazy stage, or maybe a crazy basement underneath it."

"And Nagahide?"

"He's the sane one. Sane enough to try not to care about us, at least, although he fails miserably at it." She laughed again. "He would have been happier with a smaller part."

Wouldn't we all. "Thank you for listening, Haruie."

"What are you going to do?" She heard nothing but his slow, sad breathing. After a few moments she took pity, whispered "Good luck" and hung up.

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The following day passed in tension. Maybe in an effort to shorten it, both possessors rose late in the morning, and though they spoke to each other in their normal way, the change in the air was unmistakable. Naoe responded to each of Takaya's questioning or worried glances with a reassuring smile, but it didn't seem to ease the boy's concern much, if at all.

After breakfast, Naoe suggested that they enjoy the area's sights, since they were free until dark. Takaya agreed without enthusiasm and followed the elder to the car, into souvenir shops, through well-tended parks, not paying any genuine attention to anything but the man at his side. Naoe tried to distract him with talk of anything but themselves, and with eager offers to buy him everything they saw, all of which were politely declined.

This isn't a school trip, Naoe. And you can't go all weird and glomp me like you did last night and then act like everything's fine.

"It must be weird for you."

"What's that, Takaya-san?"

"You remember hundreds of years ago. Everything must look really different."

"Oh. Yes," Naoe said with a soft, distracted chuckle. "Back then, few or none of us could imagine the machines and structures of today. Nobunaga was quite obsessed with the advance of technology from other lands, but not even he, I imagine..."

"Maybe he'll get distracted by video games or something, and give up the whole conquer-Japan thing."

Naoe laughed, not used to Kagetora so readily making jokes. "Or aerospace technology. Nobunaga in space."

"Or anime. Nobunaga the otaku, conquering conventions."

They snickered at this together as they walked the inhabited streets, relieved by the release of tension it provided, appreciating one another with powerful warmth in this moment. Takaya felt lighter to see the shadow leave Naoe's face, though he knew it probably wouldn't be gone for long.

"The people were different too, right?"

"No, actually. I am sometimes struck by how much the same people remain."

"Doesn't seem very similar in historical dramas."

"Styles of dress change, of course," Naoe said with a smile. "But human motivations, hopes, failings, feelings...they don't change. We always long for more than we have. We always hurt each other."

Takaya looked at the ground pensively. They halted a few steps later in front of a stand offering glass prisms for sale in various shapes and sizes, admiring - as many people were - the mass of tiny rainbows they made under the afternoon sun. The middle-aged man hawking them seemed momentarily caught up in the beauty of his own wares, and paused his practiced sales speech to enjoy the sight with everyone else. As yet unaware of the slowly gathering crowd, Takaya stared in wonder at the shifting arcs of red, green, blue, yellow, purple, and the orange that made him think of Naoe's blaze, the light that swirled around him when they performed exorcisms.

He spoke suddenly, with a hardness that startled the monk. "They're mirages. The colors aren't really there. Just a trick."

"Takaya-san?"

"Like us. You pretend to be a monk, I pretend to be a high school student. We fool everyone. We lie."

Naoe looked at him lovingly, but Takaya's eyes were locked on the prisms. "We act according to our nature. We do this for our mission. And if we didn't survive, the warlords would destroy this country in a fight for domination. And after Japan, the world."

The dark amber of the boy's eyes caught the reflected light and glowed golden. As Naoe marvelled at them, at how they had not changed in four hundred years, Takaya continued to stare. He wanted to turn to Naoe's comforting presence, but he felt glued in place. Naoe's voice was becoming muffled and everything was going faintly dim. A wave of something was rising up inside him, about to sweep him over.

"Your existence is essential, Kagetora-sama, for me, for everyone. It is...it is all right for you to be alive."

He was somewhere else, someone else, but himself. Another sunny day, the smell and rustle of flowers and trees all around, and he was small, chasing something. The bright colors that the prisms made came together and formed a butterfly, flitting on the breeze just out of reach of his little fingers.

A hand blocked the sun, caged the butterfly and slowly descended to offer it to him. The hand was like his, the face too, but the fingers most of all. Time shifted, he was taller, it was early morning as he limped into the garden, and he wanted to die.

"Takaya-san!"

Naoe was growing alarmed, speaking sharply to the boy out of fear. A tall, burly man behind Takaya noticed what was going on and gently clasped his hands on the boy's shoulders.

"You okay, kid?"

It all happened faster than Naoe could act to prevent it, but he had no way of knowing how much Kagetora might react to anything, he never had. As a rule, Kagetora's behavior was subdued, except in battle. There was no fight here and no enemy that Naoe could see, but of course a man's personal demons have no visible shape, often not even to himself.

"Get the fuck off me!" Takaya snapped, but his eyes showed the terror his voice wouldn't. "Don't fucking touch me!"

The stranger jumped back before Takaya could push him, wide-eyed and apologetic. A rare, welcome exception, when most men either reacted to Kagetora with lust or violence.

"Sorry, kid. Calm down, I was just - "

Takaya was growling, and Kagetora's tiger-stare was both hypnotizing and scaring the man. And naturally, the crowd around them was murmuring. Naoe, relying once again on his charm and his retainer-instincts, grabbed Takaya's arm and maneuvered them away, flashing a smile and calling out apologies. Takaya fought the gentle grip but without enthusiasm, and didn't jerk out of it until they had reached a less crowded street and an isolated spot.

"Takaya-san, what happened?"

"...sorry about..." he muttered, not sounding sorry at all.

"It's all right. What was it? A...memory?"

Try not to sound too thrilled, Naoe. "I don't know. I was a kid, in a garden, chasing a butterfly. Nothing important."

"You were very upset." Naoe didn't mention 'afraid', but it was obvious he'd seen that too.

"That guy startled me, that's all." The boy scowled and clenched his fists. "Asshole."

"He meant well."

"I know, I just...fuck," Takaya swore, aiming a kick at the sidewalk and scattering a few pebbles. "I just fuckin' hate it when people are behind me, it drives me crazy."

"I know. You've always disliked that." Takaya glanced at him; Naoe wasn't sure if he'd ask, but answered anyway. "I don't know why. I don't know if you ever knew why. We all have our quirks."

"What about you?"

"I don't know. I lack the proper perspective to judge, perhaps." Naoe smiled thinly. "When you remember, you can tell me all that is unpleasant about myself."

There was a faint sting in those words, which Naoe only caught and kicked himself for when Takaya winced.

"Naoe..."

"We've been out in the sun, no doubt that added to your distraction. There's a stand just there, I'll purchase cold drinks and we'll take a rest."

Takaya thanked him for the soda and took a long swallow of it, mainly to placate Naoe. The elder led the way to a shaded bench and Takaya dutifully sat, though he felt too jumpy to relax. Rather than look at Naoe, he let his eyes wander, and they continually drifted back to a distant patch of woods, where he thought he could see a hint of stone through and above the trees.

"You keep looking that way."

"I do?" He notices more about me than I do. "Is that significant?"

"Uozu Castle is just beyond those woods. That is our destination for tonight," Naoe said. "Does it sound familiar?"

"I probably read something about it, but no. Guess I forgot. Wait, I thought you wanted me to meet someone."

"Indeed."

"So...there are people lurking around an old ruin like that?"

"I never said they were living people, Kagetora-sama."

"Let me guess, we have zombies on our side too." Takaya smirked. "My life's turned into a bizarre dream. I keep thinking I'm gonna wake up."

Naoe's kind smile faltered at that, and neither of them spoke again for a long time.

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It wasn't yet very late, but there were few cars on the road, even in this tourist season. As Naoe drove, as he parked the car, as he led the way back to their hotel suite, he kept replaying over and over the meeting that had become a ritual each time Kagetora took a new body. Naoe had never before this life needed to explain who the thirteen Uesugi generals were, and the tragedy of their mass suicide which just a little more time could have prevented. He hadn't been sure how Takaya would behave, if he would become overwhelmed, or sullen to hide his fear.

The honorable dead had shown no surprise at Kagetora's youth (he had met them young before), or his need to be told who they were, or the strength that hardened his eyes when he stepped forward and swore to never abandon them. The same words he used every time, the same confidence mingled with childish stubbornness. It was Kagetora, true, but it was also Takaya accepting his duty, even if only for now, and Naoe could not recall ever having been more proud of him. He wanted to say this to the boy, but Takaya had become distant and absorbed in his secret thoughts. His silence was resolute, and Naoe let him have it.

So it startled the elder when they entered the shared main room and Takaya abruptly said "I don't get Kenshin at all."

"Takaya-san?"

"He wants us to exorcise the spirits of the Sengoku because their presence among the living is dangerous and unnatural, right?"

"Yes," Naoe said, guessing this was a trap of sorts but willing to fall into it.

"But he's the one making spirits remain in this world! If other possessors are breaking the laws of nature, that means we are too."

"This is a confused, inconstant, contradictory world, Kagetora-sama," Naoe said softly, busying himself pouring them some water. "It always has been."

"That's not an answer," Takaya scoffed. "You're satisfied with that?"

"I am satisfied with this. This existence. I think I told you that I originally died with so many regrets that I became an onryou, spectrally wandering the shadows of this country, taking my grief out on the living. If Lord Kenshin hadn't summoned me, I might still be lost in that darkness. And..."

"And?"

Naoe smiled at the window he was facing, so the boy could see its reflection. "If I didn't perform kanshou, I never would have gotten the opportunity to begin to understand you. I would have ended my life as your enemy four hundred years ago. I am grateful to Lord Kenshin for choosing me as your guardian, and letting me be by your side."

Takaya shifted in his seat and looked away, feeling awkward. "Whenever I talk to you, you throw me off."

"How so?"

Well, for one thing, you say stuff that I think you're only supposed to use on women. "You say we were enemies, but you never hated me. You served Kagekatsu, but you said that after my death, you wanted to die too. You say you hardly knew Kagetora back then, but you willingly stayed by him for four hundred years even though he was a jerk to you."

"What? Who told you - "

"Before we left Matsumoto, Chiaki said I was a lot nicer to you than I used to be and I should keep it up. I'm not nice, so Kagetora must have been a complete - "

"Nagahide is..." Naoe couldn't think of an appropriate word, but his disapproving tone said enough. "Kagetora was burdened by a heavier responsibility than the rest of us, and wounded by the suffering of the war. And I'm sure you had other regrets as well. Even when we first met, before the trouble began, I thought you seemed sad."

"When I look at you, I feel this...coldness and anger and..." Contempt betrayal how dare you, you alone I will never... "It's old and it's not mine. I know Kagetora was unfair to you."

"No more than I was to him."

"You still haven't answered me. Why would you die for someone you barely knew, and then agree to spend eternity with him?"

"Takaya-san." A hint of wariness. "Must everyone who cares for you have a reason for doing so?"

The simple question hit a little deeper than the boy was prepared to admit, so he covered it with brattiness. "Yeah."

"What about Yuzuru-san?"

"He's got an angle. I just haven't figured it out yet."

Naoe laughed quietly, not fooled for a moment. "You have always found it so easy to care for people, yet you remain suspicious of others' love for you."

"Sometimes that's smart."

"And at other times, unnecessary."

"Naoe, answer the question. Why?"

A short silence, a search for a vague enough truth. "Because I wanted to protect you."

"Protect Kagetora, you mean."

"You are Kagetora-sama."

"Yeah," Takaya sighed. "I think I'm starting to realize that."

To be continued.