Disclaimer: See previous chapters

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-VI-

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'Whew. That should do it.'

Wiping her brow, Misao had finished up with her training exercises for the evening. It had been a while since she trained so strenuously, but she wouldn't let what happened days ago at the Shirobeko happen again. Living in a peaceful era, Misao hadn't trained as much as she used to, doing so only in the afternoons and even that was at uneven times. So it would only be natural that her movements slowed somewhat as time went on. She felt a little ashamed by this, knowing that her Lord Aoshi didn't neglect his training.

'I'll just have to keep at it from now on' she smiled mentally.

Moving toward a nearby tree, she pulled out a couple of kunai that were stabbed in it and hooked them onto her side. She had to get back to the Aoi-Ya now before anyone realized she was outside. She was surprised that no one had come out to her earlier. If it was one thing she knew, the Oniwanbanshu seemed to be more active at night that in the day.

'Guess I haven't lost all my ninja skills, hehe.'

Moving through the trees, she soon came upon the backyard of the Aoi-Ya. Stepping lightly, she made her way into the building and crept down the hall with barely a sound. She made her way toward the stairs and was about to ascend when a faint sound caught her attention (sensitive hearing was apparently another trait she still had). Tracing it, she soon followed it to one of the customer rooms. One particular room...

'Soujiro...?'

Her curiosity getting the best of her, Misao moved toward the room instead and peeked inside. A candle was still lit, casting the room in a dim light, but it was enough to see Soujiro sleeping on his bed. But it wasn't a peaceful sleep. His head moved from side to side and his face was one of deep discomfort. It was very much different from his usual pleasant expression and Misao immediately grew worried.

"No...Please...I didn't...no..."

His head began to move about as he muttered incoherent, but still miserable, words. Entering the room, Misao moved a hand over to his shoulder and shook him lightly, hoping that it would be enough to dispel his nightmare. But she wasn't expecting for his eyes to suddenly snap open as a result; eyes full of terror and fear from whatever it was that plagued his sleep.

"Souj..."

Before she could finish, Soujiro suddenly rose up from the bed and wrapped his arms around her, with his head buried in her shoulder. His grip around her was unyielding, but it was the fact that he was trembling that kept her from reacting. Not that she could have anyway. His eyes and suddenly motion had stunned the hell out of her and it wasn't until she felt the moisture of tears that she understood what had happened. Shaking a bit herself, she slowly put her arms around him in a loose embrace.

"It...It's...okay...It's...okay...Soujiro..."


"Misao-chan. Hey, Earth to Misao-chan!"

"Huh?" Misao blinked as Shirojo called to her. It was almost noon and she was outside of the Aoi-Ya drying dishes when she had...drifted off.

"Oh, sorry."

The elder man gave her a curious look. "Are you okay? You have been acting weird all day."

"Just fine. I just... didn't get a lot of sleep."

That seemed like an understatement to her. She had spent a good hour with Soujiro last night; simply holding the young man and attempting to soothe him until he drifted back to sleep. And even then, she stayed with him a bit longer just to make sure he didn't fall into another nightmare. And if that wasn't enough, she had trouble sleeping herself. She just couldn't get out of her mind what had happened between her and Soujiro.

"I can imagine, with you sneaking out of the Aoi-Ya and all." Shirojo continued.

This prompted a low groan from the young girl. "Aw! And I thought no one had heard me."

"Well, no one did. But I saw you out the window just as I was going to bed. When I followed you and saw you were training, I figured it was okay to leave you alone."

Misao face-faulted. "You followed me too? I didn't even notice."

"Don't worry about it." the man shrugged. "After all, I've been doing this a lot longer than you have." Balancing a sack he had on his shoulder, he moved toward the exit. "Well, I better go. I have some errands to run."

Misao waved a goodbye to him before returning to her own duties. 'Guess I have a lot of training to catch up on' she moped in thought as she finished drying off the dishes. Not only was she seen, she was followed and all without her knowledge. Well, at least he didn't keep watching over her, otherwise he would have known about...

Sighing, Misao rose up with her hands full of the collected dishes and entered back into the Aoi-Ya.

Entering in the kitchen area, Misao put away the dried dishes and moved toward the interior, but paused as she thought that she might run into Soujiro. Strangely enough, she found herself growing nervous at the thought and decided to head to her own room instead to think it over. She turned toward the stairs, but only made it halfway up, being stopped by the presence of someone coming down the stairs; the one person she was trying to avoid.

"Misao-dono..."

"Soujiro... Hi..."

The two were silent for a moment, a long awkward moment in Misao's mind as she struggled to find something to say. What should she say? What could she say? Should she say anything at all? She started to grow frustrated from her thoughts, but then Soujiro's soft voice broke her out of it.

"Misao-dono..." the youth struggled. "About last night... I..."

"It's okay, Soujiro-kun." Misao interrupted, not even noticing her change in address. In truth, she had hoped that Soujiro would have believed that what happened last night had just been a dream. No such luck there...

"No. I was...it was inappropriate and...well...I..." Soujiro bowed his head solemnly. "...I'm sorry."

There was another moment of silence, but this time, Misao wasn't nervous. Mostly because of his behavior, she saw that he was just as uncertain about what had happened, probably more so than she was. He had a smile on his face, but it was a nervously thin smile. Despite this, he tried to amend it by coming to her to apologize.

"Well, you did almost squeeze the life out of me." she replied, folding her arms and looking upward as if in thought. When she saw his head and eyes rise in confusion, she smiled. "That aside, you don't have to apologize. I did sneak into your room after all."

"Still..."

"Where is he!"

The two were interrupted by the sound of dishes clashing on the ground, probably in pieces now. Descending from the stairs, the two soon saw Oumime in the front hall, confronted by a group of large, brute-looking men. The one up front, the leader, had slapped away a plate of dishes that she had been holding, giving her an ugly sneer all the while. Due to their position, Misao and Soujiro weren't seen by them, but that didn't seem to matter to the woman facing them. Oumime was simply staring back at the man, unafraid with solid eyes. It was obvious that these men weren't from around Kyoto, otherwise they would have never thought to do such a thing in the Aoi-Ya. A thin smile gradually arose on her lips.

"Gentlemen. I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave."

The men in the back laughed aloud while the leader grabbed her roughly by the shoulder. "We're not leaving until you tell us where he is!"

Soujiro prepared to step in to help, but Misao held his arm and shook her head, with a half-smile on her face. And for good reason, for just as the thug grabbed her, Oumime grabbed his arm and pulled back. The lead thug faltered forward in near trip as the woman suddenly shot forward in a partial jump and connected her knee with his face with a crack.

"Guah!"

The lead thug flew back though his group and landed right outside in the dirt, his nose obviously broken. Lightly dusting herself off, Oumime looked back at the men with the same smiling face, but her eyes were clearly the opposite.

"Again, I'll have to ask you to leave...now."

The thugs looked to one another, not sure what to do or even think. Misao smiled openly now and let out a stifled chuckle at the display. It was because of this that one of the thugs turned toward their direction.

"There!" he pointed at Soujiro. "That's the guy!"

Both Soujiro and Misao blinked at this proclamation and even Oumime turned to see. Unfortunately, this distraction was seen by one of the other thugs and he jumped forward. Snapping back, Oumime quickly pushed the thug away, but that allowed two others to grab her arms and hold her from behind. Misao and Soujiro rushed out to help, but stopped short by the silhouette that came out of nowhere from behind.

Bap! Whap! Bam! Pow!

In the span of a few seconds, all the intruders had been knocked down and laid out on the floor. Oumime sighed lightly while Misao gasped in amazement at the sight of the man who had beaten up and was now standing over the fallen thugs.

"Ah! Aoshi-sama!"

Aoshi regarded her with a lightened glance while Oumime sighed again, muttering under her breath about letting her guard down, even for a moment. Aoshi soon turned to look at Soujiro and his gaze hardened.

"It's time for you to go."

The amazed expression completely fled from Misao's face the minute she heard Aoshi's words, replaced by open confusion. "Huh?"

"They came for you." Aoshi finished, still speaking to Soujiro.

Soujiro lowered his eyes, understanding what the elder man was saying. In staying in the Aoi-Ya, he was causing the residents and those who stay in it unwarranted trouble. His eyes lifted and Soujiro simply smiled as usual.

"...Yes. I will go."

"Wait..." Misao said weakly, too weakly for them to hear. She looked back and forth from the two. "Aoshi-sama...? Soujiro-kun...?"

But Soujiro had already turned around and walked toward his room to get his things and Aoshi turned to the fallen thugs and Oumime leaving to alert the authorities. Misao was absolutely stunned by all of this and found that once again, she didn't know what to do or say. So when she spoke to Aoshi, she found herself thoroughly surprised by her own words

"Aoshi-sama? Does he really...?"

Aoshi turned to look back at her again, his expression unchanged, but his voice softened. He figured that Misao would become attached to the young swordsman, much like she does with so many others. It was her nature after all. But it would have to come to this sooner or later.

"He has to, Misao. He is dangerous."