The stones in the road hurt his feet. But he didn't care. He had to find Kaoru, and fast, before someone harms her.
It was a long, slow trek up the Kamiya dojo, or what it used to be about ten years ago, as Kaoru had told him. Yahiko was getting tired. Really that ugly girl is making things too hard for me.
A few years ago and Yahiko wouldn't have minded to volunteer to go look for Kaoru. Of course, he didn't know her then, and she didn't know him either. But now, as both of them had known each other now, no matter how grudgingly, or how annoyingly, they had at least formed a friendship, and that friendship was telling him now to find her before something bad happens.
"Yahiko-kun… please find Kaoru-san," he could still hear Tsubame's voice. Inside, he cringed. Doesn't she know when to stop calling me 'Yahiko-kun'?
If only he wasn't… friends with Tsubame he would've ignored her.
Now back to Kaoru. Tsubame said the dojo was somewhere…
… here?
Is this really Kamiya dojo?
A big pile of stones littered what supposed to be the open yard of the dojo. Some parts of the walls had already crumbled, others were overgrown with wild vines and moss.
As he gingerly picked his way from the debris-littered place, he wondered what could have happened to it. Some kind of fire? No wonder Kaoru had been staying in Tae's place almost all her life, or almost ten years, from what she told him.
Yahiko thought about it. Kaoru never did tell me about anything about her life. The only instances she really talked to him were the times when she decided to teach him kendo. Even though she was blind, she had an uncanny ability to spot his mistakes.
"You swung the bokken too hard," "No, that's not correct," "What are you doing? That isn't the right way to swing," He really had to remember that the blind had far keener senses than normal people had.
He stopped. Voices. They're coming from the east. He recognized Kaoru's. The other, he did not.
Someone else is there!
He took out his bokken and prepared to hit whoever was with Kaoru, innocent or no.
-----------------------
"Oww!" Kaoru shrieked. The liquid Tsubame was pouring down her head was stinging.
That idiot, Yahiko! she fumed. To whack my head with that bokken I gave him!
"Please be still, Kaoru-san," Tsubame pleaded. "This isn't so bad once your wound would be healed."
"I don't want Yahiko to be near me ever again," she said.
A reply came from the other room. "As if I'd want to be with an ugly-faced raccoon too!" Yahiko retorted.
Kaoru grabbed her pillow and threw it.
It whacked Himura Kenshin right in the face as he was coming up the stairs with a tray of food for her.
"Good shot, Kaoru," Yahiko said as he entered the room.
"What?" Kaoru said, as she heard a series of crashing dishes and deafening bumps. "What happened?"
"You went and threw the pillow in your new friend Kenshin's face," Yahiko said.
"Oh no!" Kaoru jumped up.
"No, it's okay, Kaoru-dono, I might have to pay Tae-san about the dishes I broke," Kenshin's voice startled her.
It was only a few hours that she had known this "friendly wanderer," who decided to help Yahiko lead her back to the restaurant, but it was so amazing how he had been able to socialize and be friends with everyone in the restaurant.
"Y-you don't have to, Kenshin. I was the one who made you fall down those stairs, I'll talk to Tae-san," Kaoru said.
"Yeah, that raccoon'll pay for them, don't worry," Yahiko brushed it off. "Where'll you go now, Kenshin?"
"I don't know… where the road will take me, I guess," Kaoru heard Kenshin reply. "But I think I'll stay here longer, because I've already found what I'm looking for."
"And what's that?" Kaoru asked.
There was a slight pause. "Oh, just something an old friend of mine gave me."