Well here is chapter 2 please enjoy. I was merrily typing away when I realized I had almost hit 3000 words and so figured I had better turn it into a chapter, before it got any longer.
Disclaimer: I dont own D.Gray-man or any of its characters. I do own a Timcampy mini plushie that I bought and paid for so you can't take him away from me.
Thanks to all who reviewed the last chapter
The next morning Yu woke early heading to the bathing room in his yukata. Ducking inside he ran to the outer door. Sliding it open he grabbed some wood from the pile and placed it inside the outdoor burner that heated the water. There was no way he wanted a cold bath and his father would want one also. Not to mention very angry if he found no one had the hot water ready.
Whilst the water was heating he pulled the chord for the cold water which flowed down a bamboo pipe into the deep bath. As it was filling he added some of the oils that were only used for special occasions. He then grabbed a small bucket and took some of the warm water that was still heating from the tank into the bathing room. Stripping off his yukata and folding it neatly on a shelf he moved to the back of the room and using a cloth and soap scrubbed himself clean then washed his hair and tipped what was left of the bucket over his head. Once he was completely clean he pulled the chord to release the hot water into the bath. When it was full he pulled his hair up into a ponytail .
Yu then sat on the edge of the bath with just his feet in at first. As he became accustom to the temperature he slid in a bit more until he was in up to his neck. Leaning back so that his head rested on the edge of the bath ensuring his hair was kept out of the water. Closing his eyes he relaxed until he heard the door slid open behind him. His father stepped inside and nodded at Yu. "Ah I see you have already set the bath up for us Yu. Thank you. I will join you in a moment." Yu closed his eyes as his father went to fetch some water in which to clean himself before getting into the bath. He didn't really need to watch that. When he heard his father slide into the bath next to him he opened his eyes. "I'm really sorry about last night, and I am going to do everything I can to find a Daimyo today." His father smiled and nodded. "I know you will Yu, if you work hard today I will allow you some free time before we return here so take a change of clothes, if you play around in your best kimono and ruin it your mother will kill you." Yu grinned and hugged his father. "Then I will work extra hard...but why the free time?" His father put an arm around him. "We are holding a meeting after-wards to discuss village things very dull and I don't want you walking all this way back here by yourself. I know it's safe and all but I don't like you being too far away plus with all the work your mother has lined up for you this will be the only chance to get." Yu pouted and nodded. "I kind of deserve it though I made a mess of the shrine and touched things I shouldn't't. I need to listen more and I will. I promise. I'm going to get dressed before breakfast I will see you soon father." Yu climbed out the bath and grabbed a clean robe from a shelf heading up to his room.
When he reached his room he released his hair from the tie and brushed it through drying it off with a towel before brushing it again and tying it up. He then changed into a clean yukata. Folding away his futon and sweeping the floor underneath he grabbed his math and started studying as he waited to be called for breakfast. Yu stopped when a pain shot through his chest. Breathing heavily he gripped at his chest. Every morning the pains had been getting worse and it was a dull ache through the day. He had been keeping it quiet but he wasn't sure how long he could do that for. It was getting worse and for longer periods of time. The throbbing he could ignore but the stabbing pain was something else. He didn't know what it was nobody did.
After sitting still for a little while the pain eased and he knew he had to go down for breakfast before they came looking for him. Taking a deep breath so that he could regain control of his body and not look like he was in pain. He then headed down to the kitchen to greet his mother and sister, before heading through to the dining room. When he sat down his father handed him a list of names of Daimyo who would be in attendance at the ceremony, mostly because there didn't seem to be that many samurai considering how many had come of age...maybe they were elsewhere in Japan. He wasn't sure exactly.
Studying the names he spotted one. Miyamoto Hibiya he was said to be one of the most prominent Lords in Edo. He was thirty five and well experienced. He knew if he could get that Lord to take him in as a novice his father would be proud. He then made second and third choices, but he was a Kenshin and Kenshin never fail. He quietly ate breakfast before following his mother so that she could dress him in a fine silk kimono.
The top part of his silk kimono to the waist was in bright red, with hand painted koi outlined in gold. The lower half was traditional brown. His Obi which was thinner than a girls was gold. His mother carefully dressed him as he stood perfectly still the white under shirt being tied on first before the kimono. The sleeves reached down to his wrists yet there were large sections of material on his arms running from shoulder to wrist and hanging down. When he placed is arms at his side they fell around his calf's. These could be used as pockets to store things. There was extra material at the shoulders which was folded to makes his shoulders appear more square than the female one.
His hair was secured up in a tie to keep it neat only the longer front bangs escaping. Hair was just as important to keep neat and perfect as the kimono itself. There were going to be other boys there and he was going to beat the lot of them to the grand prize. After he was dressed he picked up the kimono box and placed it inside a cloth bag then tossed in his blue yukata that he could wear in his free time. He then carefully made his way out to the waiting carriage and climbing inside. The ride was long to the next village and it was already nearing early afternoon by the time they arrived. Yu had know the boy who was coming of age as his Lord lived in their village, but the boy was actually from the neighboring one. For the ceremony it was customary to return to your home village.
Climbing out of the carriage carefully, Yu made his way to Yamazaki who was grinning like an idiot. "So what do they do with stupid samurai who come of age Yamazaki." The boy turned to Yu and scowled.
"Hi Yu, nice to see you too. Glad you could make it." Yu grinned back. "Like I'd miss this. Anyway my father has your gift, I can't stay and talk I have things to do but I will be watching. Then when it's my turn you have to come back and watch me too right." Yamazaki laughed and nodded. "I wouldn't miss it for anything Yu."
Yu moved through the crowd searching for the Daimyo. The problem was there were ten of them and he had no idea who was who. Yu went up to each of them in turn and introduced himself getting to know each one a little before moving to the next. He had found nine but none of them had been Miyamoto. Until he caught sight of a crowd of boys. "Damn it." Heading over to the crowd of boys fighting over Miyamoto by trying to be the best looking or most flirtatious with him. Kanda scowled he needed to get the guys attention and fast before he picked one of the other kids. The best way to do that was to stand out. Moving into Miyamoto's line of sight he leaned against one of the statues scowling death at Miyamoto. Inwardly smirking when Miyamoto turned to see who the hell was glaring at him. When he did that Kanda merely smirked and arched an eyebrow. Then turned and headed behind the building.
He hoped that worked it was last minute and would be pure luck if Miyamoto followed him. He just had to...didn't he? Yu stood waiting when the man appeared from round the corner. "Now little boy why would you scowl at me like that? When someone scowls at me I demand answers, it is disrespectful to scowl at a Daimyo. Didn't't your father teach you manners?" Yu looked up at the guy his mind screaming 'Oh crap I screwed up again.' Taking a breath he had to win this game. "Well all those boys out there were begging to be your new novice, it was shameful. You were encouraging it. Samurai don't beg and plead they fight, win, take and conquer. I don't play childish games...not anymore anyway. I want to be a samurai a real one so I will not start by begging and playing games I will make it clear what I want and I will not fail to get it. I want the open place you have for a novice. There are a huge quantity of boys out there just begging for that place, I am the smallest and youngest, but I am far more advanced than any of those out there, so it's your call Miyamoto Daimyo. I'm just giving you a far better offer. My name is Kenshin Yuji, though I am usually known as Yu." The man laughed and patted Yu on the head. "So you're the little Kenshin I've heard about a lot of the Daimyo's want you Yu-kun even I have heard of your skill. Well I will consider your offer. I was thinking of taking on that Daisuke boy." Yu scowled at the mention of the boys name. "That kid is an idiot Daimyo. All he does is look pretty he says fighting is pointless. I hate that." Miyamoto nodded. "Yes...well I will consider my options and decide by the end of the meeting. I will let you and your father know of my decision before you leave." Kanda scowled "Thank you Daimyo." Kanda stalked off to get a good seat to watch Yamazaki from scowling at the thought of being stuck with Miyamoto. He had no intention of stooping to the other kids tricks. Hell he didn't even really want a Daimyo yet. Taking a floor cushion he sat down and waited for the ceremony to begin.
His seat placed him directly opposite the Daimyo. He had to keep his eye on them, in particular Miyamoto. He had to remain on the others mind, he had been told often enough that you have to always be on their mind. He had listened to his father for hours talking about the Daimyo. Though he had always taught him to go for the less popular ones because they were far easier to win over. Which he didn't get because this was suppose to be all important. Was he missing something? He didn't know but he needed to find out in his own village everything seemed normal but here...it was different, he could feel it. Something was very wrong he just didn't know what it was.
Out the corner of his eye he saw Miyamoto looking in his direction. Ignoring him as he ran a hand through his bangs and gave his best I am so bored right now look then pouted, as he had been told by his sister many times that pouting was his charm point...which usually ended with him screaming and chasing her...but today it was going to be used as a weapon. He noticed the other boys sitting down waving at the Daimyo...but he held Miyamoto's attention and he was happy. Snapping out of his daze when the taiko drums started and the ceremony began it's opening ritual.
Ten minutes later Yu was attempting to stay awake so far they were still announcing the opening of the coming of age ceremony and introducing people and bowing to each other and to the crowd and they bowed back. Then they bowed some more and Yu was getting extremely pissed off because they had spent so much time just introducing the ceremony that he was going to die of boredom. He had heard that the coming of age ceremony was the best thing ever to go to...now he was actually attending one, he was thinking of a multitude of ways to kill the lying bastards that had told him this boring never ending speech and bowing fest was actually fun. They were going to die very slowly and very painfully, when the hell were they getting to the hair chopping part? How the hell was everyone still awake? Which was more to the point. It was beyond him why it had taken four people in four different ways to announce that the ceremony had begun. He could feel his eye twitch and figured that sitting in seiza was a much lighter punishment than this.
Kanda sat quietly listening to the various people, watched and listened to the singing and the drums. He then watched as they shaved Yamazaki's head oiled his hair and set the top knot. Then fought to stay awake for the following two hours of speeches and then half an hour of announcing the closing of the ceremony. He had noticed however that many of the older people had gone into self induced meditation which kind of pissed him off because he couldn't do that.
Finally they were permitted to leave...or in his case hang around until the meeting was over. Yu hurried inside and changed into his Yukata carefully packing away his kimono. He headed back to the main area to find all the other kids had gone home and Yamazaki had gone off to celebrate with sake. Which left him all alone waiting for his fathers meeting to end. Figuring no one would notice he headed to the meeting hall and hid behind a tree. Then moved closer to the building until he could hear what they were talking about.
"We have reports that the Earl is expanding again. Akuma have been spotted close to our boarders in the barrier zone. Only thirty per cent of Edo is still populated by humans which basically means from us up to the Eastern most point." Yu could hear muttering sounds but nothing clear until another voice spoke up. "What are we going to do? The Earl is getting closer to us. We can't fight them or even slow them down. We have done everything that he has asked of us. We have made the sacrifices but still our lives are threatened." Listening closely he didn't really have a clue what it was about. "We have heard that there may be one or two exorcists in the area. The problem is when they are here they don't fight unless they really have to. They don't draw attention to themselves. They may be here on re-con missions again."
Yu tried to hear the end of the conversation but realized people were coming and so quickly ran and hid. It seemed there were guards around after all. Resting with his back against the tree he tried to make sense of what he had heard. Who was the Earl? What were akuma and exorcists? What sacrifices had been made? For now he would have to be careful and listen to what the adults talked about. But it seemed that whatever was happening it was being kept quiet. So for now he would have to play along and try and gather information. Maybe getting stuck with a Daimyo would prove useful after all. He'd have far more chance of listening in if he went around with one. He just had to hope Miyamoto chose him, and also that he could get close enough to places to find out more. He could tell that he couldn't just come out and ask about it. Sitting quietly he lost himself in thought waiting for his father.
Thanks for reading.
Chapter 3 hopefully wont take too long to write but since I am back at work this week it may take a little longer than planned.
As always please r&r much love to all.
If there are any words that you need explaining for this chapter just let me know.
