First of all, I'd like to thank those of you who reviewed the last chapter, especially since ffnet was all like 'no logging in! Bwahaha!' Y'all rock my striped socks. That's all. Oh wait. No. One more thing: we're coming up fast on chapter 12, which I'm still having trouble writing. Life and writers' block have conspired against this fic. So, once I run out of prewritten chapters, updates might slow. I'm sorry. Anyway, that really is all for now. Please R&R!

Chapter playlist

1. New Pulse By:Yoshihiro Ike -Ergo Proxy Soundtrack Opus I-

2. Kanashimi no Shi By:Fukasawa Hideyuki -Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto OST-

3. Last Order - Crisis Mix (from "LAST ORDER FFVII") By:Takeharu Ishimoto -Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- OST-

4. Heaven's Not Enough (Steve Conte) -Wolf's Rain OST 2-

5. Centzontotochtin By: Yoshihiro Ike-Ergo Proxy Soundtrack Opus I-

CITIZEN SOLDIERS


CHAPTER SEVEN:: MEMORY

"It is always important to remember that your enemies are as human

as your allies. You do not need to love them, but respect them as living, breathing

people. If you forget this, you lose your own humanity."

-- Sagara Sōzō


Sleeping in the hospital was a difficult venture for Kaoru, now that she had regained consciousness. Every instinct and trained response in her was screaming for her to get the hell outta there. There were too many people around, too many people with unrestricted access to her room, and not enough motion allowed her by her injuries. She would have stayed awake the whole night, but with the MINies and her own body burning through her energy reserves like wildfires in order to heal her, she found herself nodding off. The naps were short, and light, and she invariably snapped awake at the slightest provocation, but the fact that she kept dozing off made her edgy.

For the nth time, Kaoru jerked in her bed, eyes flying open, ears straining to hear whatever it had been that had awakened her. In the darkness, her irises were black, though they glinted blue where they caught the dim light from the bedside monitor. She scanned the room, holding her breath so that she might hear any slight sound. But there was nothing. Kaoru exhaled.

'I wish my leg were healed!' she thought fervently. 'One more day…'

She'd asked the nurse to help her lever her bed up so that she could be reclining more than lying flat, and he'd complied readily enough, so at least she could actually look around the room with relative ease. That helped bring down her hackles, so to speak. She wasn't having to strain to lift her head and sweep the room. Her bandages, and that damn stasis-deadened leg, were making any sort of movement difficult, even one so small as that. Kaoru huffed and whacked her head back against her pillow.

Glaring at the ceiling, she wondered: 'Is Tsubame alright? Did they tell her I'm in the hospital, or did they just leave her to sit and wait in growing fear? That sounds like what sensei would do.'

Her eyes closed. 'Damn the man. Gah. 'Husband'…'

With a grimace, she opened her eyes.

There was a figure at the foot of her bed.

As soon as Sanosuke had mentioned a girl in a hospital with injuries claimed to have resulted from a fall down the stairs, Kenshin had had his suspicions. The added information of a possible Syndicate connection through a husband, and the name Kaoru, had nearly clinched it. He was almost completely certain who she was. And he wasn't going to let the chance go to waste.

Kenshin entered the hospital in true assassinfashion- silently and with no witnesses. He moved quickly through the halls, hiding from the few nightshift nurses and doctors, carefully opening and shutting doors… He knew what he was about, and was all but invisible.

The directions Sanosuke had given him to Kamiya Kaoru's (or rather, Shide Kaoru's) room were convoluted and imprecise, so Kenshin dismissed them within seconds of entering the building, relying instead on the room number he'd received and the signage of the hospital. He found it easily.

Kenshin slipped inside the darkened room, pausing in the deep shadows by the door to allow his eyes to adjust. Information about the room's setup and contents flooded his mind in a steady stream. There were no other people in the room beside himself and the girl in the bed. Good.

The girl was lying half-propped up, her head slightly tipped back and her eyes closed. The pale light from the glowing screen of the monitor by her bedside lined her face in dim blue-white. Kenshin couldn't help but trace her features with his eyes for a moment. Yes, there was a distinct resemblance to her father, but what had been strong on the man had been softened in his daughter, what had been handsome had become striking. Koshijirō had had wide, almost gaijin-like, eyes and if Kenshin remembered correctly, his daughter's were even larger, wider, and were a vivid blue. Those eyes were currently closed, and she looked almost as if she were sleeping. But Kenshin could hear her breathing, and saw her heartbeat on the monitor screen. She was awake.

Even as he thought this, a grimace passed over her face, and her eyes opened. She saw him right away, as he would have expected from an assassin. She reacted instinctively, and Kenshin knew that, had she not been hampered by her injuries, she would have thrown herself to the side in a rolling dodge, to come up in a low ready position. As it was, her body jerked, and frustration and fear suffused her ki at the ineffectiveness of the movement.

Would she call out? Were there Syndic guards nearby? Kenshin didn't chance it; he moved so quickly to subdue her that he seemed to vanish for the space of one blink. He pinned her arms to her sides and immobilized her shoulders, covering her mouth with one hand. She immediately struggled. It was in vain, though. The disparity between their states and abilities at that moment was too great for her to succeed. Kenshin kept her pinned, and brought his mouth to her ear.

"Do not struggle, and do not scream," he whispered at her. She froze, to Kenshin's somewhat-surprised pleasure. He whispered again: "If I remove my hand, will you call out?"

There was a wary pause, and then she shook her head minutely. Kenshin slowly withdrew his hand, prepared to slap it right back over her mouth if she so much as breathed loudly. He was very aware of the warmth of her breath across his palm.

"Are you here to kill me?" she asked, whispering as well. She kept her eyes staring straight ahead, though Kenshin stood more-or-less at the edge of her peripheral vision. Her instincts and training must have been clamouring at her, but she displayed remarkable self-discipline in restraining herself from twisting to face the threat he represented.

Kenshin wasn't about to let her take control of the situation by answering her question, so he replied with one of his own. "Are you Kamiya Kaoru?"

She didn't respond outwardly, and offered another question: "Who are you?"

"Who is Sanjō Tsubame to you?" Kenshin fired back. This time, there was a response, albeit a very faint, very subtle one. She stiffened ever so slightly.

'Aha,' Kenshin thought. 'Got you.'

She evidently knew it, too, because she gave an actual reply, though it was evasive and reluctant. "She is a friend."

"I find it hard to believe," Kenshin said, eyes narrowing slightly, "that a girl described as quiet, shy, and disliking of violence would be friends with a Syndicate assassin."

He saw Kamiya's jaw tense and release. "There was not much choice in the matter."

What an odd response… "On whose part, the girl's or yours?"

Why had he asked that? 'What am I doing? She is a Syndic! She did not deny that. Why haven't I simply killed her?'

"Both," she whispered presently, to his question. "Both."

There was a sudden flurry of silent motion, in which she twisted herself around as much as was allowed by her bandages, and seized his kimono front. In the same instant, Kenshin grabbed her wrist and drew his wakizashi, placing the blade at her throat.

"Please," she whispered, ignoring the weapon pressed against her carotid artery. There was real desperation and pleading in her voice. "Please. You are from the rebellion; you must be. Please, help me save her. If I bring her to you, will you help her, will you take her away and hide her from them?"

Kenshin stared at her in shock, almost missing the words for his focus on the sharp blade menacing her pale throat. If this had been a usual encounter, he would have already slit her throat in reaction. But again he'd refrained from taking her life; he'd stopped unconsciously, automatically. Why? Out of the hope that his mentor's daughter wasn't betraying her father's memory? Or was it that the feel of her ki against his was affecting him? He'd sensed her depression from the moment he'd entered the room, though he hadn't put a name to the feeling at first. It was… an emotion he could relate to.

But… She. Was. A. Syndic! He kept forgetting that; how could he keep forgetting? Just because their ki were- Kenshin swallowed thickly- reaching out to each other and intermingling as if for comfort, he could not just dismiss what she'd done up to now. Dammit all! She could very well have been the one to kill Madaren-san! And here he was, hesitating to eliminate her.

There were, however, some valid points to his hesitation. He acknowledged that, but he couldn't understand it. It frustrated him, angered him. His head ached.

"What are you saying?" he growled. "What game are you playing?"

"Game?" she whispered, seemingly confused. "No game. Tsubame is in danger because of me, because of what I am. I don't want her to die because of that. But the Syndics won't help- They are the danger!- so I need help from the rebels… Even though I… even though…"

Her voice seemed to fail her there, and she blinked rapidly against the tears that welled in her eyes. She took a couple ragged breaths, gasping: "If she is saved, then I can finally-!"

She snapped her mouth shut, apparently unwilling to finish that statement. After regaining some of her composure, she murmured: "Nevermind."

Kenshin didn't pay much attention to her half-finished sentences, her senseless mutterings. His grip on his wakizashi tightened to the point that his knuckles creaked in protest. 'She wants to save Tsubame?'

Was Sanjō Tsubame not a Syndicate member? Kenshin had been almost completely certain of that before, from what information he'd had on the girl, and Kamiya Kaoru's words now seemed to clinch the fact. But who was she, then? Why did the Syndicate represent a danger to her? Why had she Vanished, and why were her files erased? Kenshin's previous theory had been that the Syndics were stealing and using the orphans of the City to further their own ends, but if that were true, why was Sanjō in danger from them? 'You ask that, when they obviously sent one of their assassins to off one of their own spies scarcely a day ago?'

But… That sort of thing was unlike in the case of Sanjō Tsubame, wasn't it? Why would the Syndicate have placed a quiet and shy girl who disliked violence into any sort of position where they might eventually want to kill her? Going from what he'd been told of the girl's character, Kenshin didn't imagine she could have been at all successful at espionage or assassination. So then what use had the Syndicate for her? And why were they a danger to her now? Unless all Kenshin's theories were wrong… But Kamiya Kaoru didn't seem much enamoured with her job, and if Kenshin's theories were incorrect then she would have had to become a Syndic assassin by her own will.

'You became an assassin on your own decision, and you hate it,' reminded his subconscious. Kenshin fought back a furious growl, though his lips twitched into a slight snarl and his nostrils flared. 'But this makes no sense! Not with her! She was the daughter of a Shishi rebel! The Syndicate killed her father! Why would she join them? I don't understand!'

He ripped himself away from her, with a near imperceptible huff of frustrated fury. He put his back against the wall and leaned back into the shadows. Kamiya Kaoru stared after him with confusion, fear, and painful hope. The recognition of those emotions in her night-dark eyes only increased Kenshin's headache. He had the sudden and uncharacteristic desire to just run. Flee from the incredibly perplexing young woman and the incomprehensible mystery that had woven itself around them both.

But he'd promised Tae-san and Yahiko that he'd help Tsubame if he could. Such an easy promise to make at the time, but now he had the shameful wish that he hadn't so sworn, because it had trapped him in this place now. It was almost physically painful to be in the same room with Kamiya Kaoru, because he felt almost personally injured by her apparent betrayal of the rebels in her becoming a Syndic assassin, and because he felt… guilty… at her becoming a Syndic assassin. 'If I had kept watch on her these past seven years, would things have been different? Had Koshijirō-sama meant for me to, when he'd choked out the word 'promise' that night? At his funeral it had been all I could stand just to give her those rings; I never considered watching over her, protecting her. Ah, Koshijirō-sama, have I failed you again in this?'

His roiling emotions were tearing him apart, making him lose some of his iron-control of the darker aspects of his soul. His eyes were glinting a cold, horrible golden colour and his voice was dark and grim. His insecurity made him cruel.

"If you are lying-" he repeated the admonition when the Kamiya's chin raised indignantly, "If you are lying, I will kill you. But we will have Sanjō Tsubame back from you. Ask the girl where Yahiko would first look for her, and be there in seventy hours' time. Just you and her. If you bring anyone else, I will know. That is not a threat, it is a promise. Mark it well, Syndic."

That said, Kenshin finally gave into his desire and fled the hospital with all his considerable speed.

"Mark it well, Syndic." The clear accusation stung, but Kaoru couldn't really deny it, could she? She killed for the Syndicate, though unwillingly, and was now only alive and healing because of its power to give her MINie-treatment. And in any case, she would gladly bear any insult as long as it meant that Tsubame would have a chance at salvation.

'Oh. Oh. I may have just saved her…' the realization struck Kaoru and made her eyes overflow with astonishing immediacy. 'Tsubame… I may have just… oh thank you. Thank you!'

Had the rebel been there still, Kaoru would have embraced him, death threats none-withstanding. She smiled waveringly, fighting the urge to laugh aloud. Who had the rebel been? Was he that boy from the noodle stand in the Silk Market District? Or did he know the boy? It didn't matter. Tsubame would be saved!

'Hopefully,' Kaoru amended hurriedly, unwilling to tempt fate. 'Hopefully what just occurred will save Tsubame.'

She controlled herself, and listened to the soft noises of the hospital. Almost as quickly as the joy had manifested, fear and depression gripped her. In the dark, quiet night, in this calm, untouched setting, she could barely believe what had just happened. In fact, she wondered if it had occurred at all. Had it all just been a dream? Had there really been a rebel assassin here in the room with her?

Kaoru shivered, feeling fatigue and depression weigh down on her and trying to fight them to stay awake. She was afraid what reality she would wake to if she were to sleep. In the end, though, it was a losing battle. She drifted into a restless slumber until the morning.

Her joy at being released from the hospital in the morning was somewhat diminished by her worry. 'Was it real? Will I be able to get out of the Home with Tsubame in time? Will I be able to find the rebel? Will he be able to hide Tsubame from the Syndics?'

She kept an impression of outward normalcy, thanking Dr Takani with a smile, greeting her sensei with the perfect wife impersonation, exclaiming over how amazing it was her injuries were healed so quickly. Sensei finally took her back to the Home in a very polished electric car- really the only type of car found in the City- giving Kaoru a smug, pleased look.

"Your acting is getting better, Kaoru," he said in his usual condescending, cruel tone. "You don't know how… happy… this makes me."

"I am pleased you approve, sensei," Kaoru said dully. For the first time, she was glad that being near him never failed to make her feel a grey mix of suicidal and homicidal; it made it easier for her to act normal with him. He did not suspect.

"Oh now, Kaoru love," he chuckled, stroking her cheek with a mere whisper of touch. The gesture was his favourite with her, and it was more effective at cowing her than any more forceful sort; the gentleness of it terrified her. She gulped and turned her face away and down. Sensei laughed lowly and dropped his hand.

She was incredibly grateful when she finally got out of the car and away from him, even though it meant she was back at the Home.

In a surprising appearance, Tsubame was waiting in the foyer of the Home for Kaoru to return. Typically, the fourteen-year-old stayed shut away in Kaoru's rooms; she wasn't bothered by the other Children or the adults running the Home when she was there. It was only rarely that she put herself at the mercy of the others by leaving the rooms. Kaoru was touched that Tsubame had braved the deranged, amoral inhabitants of the Home just to welcome her back a few moments earlier than if she'd just waited out of sight.

Tsubame gave a small cry "Kaoru-san!" and threw herself at the older girl, wrapping her arms around her. Kaoru hugged back, feeling a jolt of excitement at the reminder that Tsubame might be delivered from the hands of the Syndics and protected by the rebellion in just two days' time.

"It's alright," she murmured into Tsubame's bobbed brown hair. "I'm alright. It's going to be okay…"

"Kaoru," broke in the voice of sensei. "I will need to see you in my office for your debriefing."

She nodded reluctantly, and sent Tsubame back to their rooms with a whispered: "I'll speak to you later."

"The first order of business, I suppose, is to return to you your uniform," sensei said once Kaoru was sitting seiza before him and his office door was closed. He produced said uniform from behind his desk, and Kaoru blanched. Of course. They would have had to change her out of the telltale assassin garb before taking her to the hospital. She felt faint relief that she had been unconscious for that venture, with her broken leg and ribs it would have been very painful. However, that they had changed her clothes without her knowing…

"Ah," sensei said with malicious pleasure. "You are doubtless wondering who changed you out of the uniform. Don't worry, it was one of our women operatives."

Kaoru found enough moisture in her mouth to respond: "Actually, sensei, I was more disturbed that I didn't notice before now…"

"Hm," he replied, looking no less amused. "That is likely due to the injury to your head. Speaking of which, I would like to know just how you came by it."

'And so it begins,' Kaoru thought, settling herself in preparation for the questioning that would doubtless come.

"I don't remember too much about it," she said carefully. The verbal cues sensei was giving led her to conclude that lying about the presence of the other assassin would be a bad idea. So she'd tell the truth, albeit slightly edited. Wasn't it said that the most effective lie was one that was close to truth? "I remember going to eliminate the target, but he was already dead. I immediately began to leave the area, but I was attacked from behind, presumably by the other assassin. The transmitter I was given to call the troops was damaged in the exchange. I managed to drive away the other assassin, but I was clumsy with haste and fell. That is all I remember, until I woke in the hospital."

"Did this other assassin see you?"

"No," Kaoru lied. "I made sure of it."

"Oh?" Sensei lifted an eyebrow. Kaoru gave him her best blank look.

"Sensei, you taught me yourself how to avoid being seen. Was I not a good pupil?" He gave her a toothy smile that was more warning than amiability.

"Clever, Kaoru. Yes, you were my best student, but you have not been the most cooperative."

She said nothing in return, but kept up the blank expression. Sensei leveled a gaze at her that was just a little too perceptive for her comfort.

'Perhaps I should not risk saying anything aloud to Tsubame about the rescue. Not when it is possible for there to be listeners…' Kaoru thought with private worry. 'I'm so close… I can't be reckless.'

"Did you see this other assassin?" He watched her with intent eyes.

"No, sensei. I was too busy trying not to be seen myself," Kaoru replied. Actually, she'd been too busy trying not to be killed, but the end result had been the same: She hadn't seen him.

"Pity," said sensei. "If you had, we might have been able to ID him… or her… and eliminated another of those irritating rebels."

"I am sorry for my failure in that regard," Kaoru said, not sorry at all.

"I cannot fault you too much," sensei said in a mockingly gracious tone. "Since you did not make the mistake of allowing him to see your face."

'Why,' Kaoru thought, a trickle of cold running down her spine, 'do all his comments sound like he knows full well what happened? Does he, or am I just being paranoid? This is driving me crazy… I hope he dismisses me soon…'

"Tsubame seemed very happy to see you," the leader of the Home stated casually. Kaoru blinked at him, a little surprised by the change in topic.

"Um, yes. I expect she was glad to know she wouldn't be dying any time soon," Kaoru replied, only marginally provocatively. Even though back-talking was a rather risky venture, sometimes Kaoru just couldn't help it.

Sure enough, sensei shifted ever so slightly and said in a deceptively mild tone: "Manners, Kaoru."

He left it there, but Kaoru was properly cowed. She'd already experienced what would happen if she persisted, back when she hadn't known the true extent of the man's cruelty.

Sensei pulled out a folder from a drawer in his desk and set it on the surface, flicking it open deftly with his thumb. From where Kaoru was sitting she could see that the top paper was an electrocardiogram. It was probably hers from the hospital.

"I have one last question before I let you go," he said. "This is your EKG print out from the hospital. I see your heartrate got a little high here, at about 0200 hours this morning. Would you care to venture a guess as to why your bpm spiked?"

'Clumsy Kaoru! Clumsy!' Kaoru thought at herself, furiously. She was able to control her vitals to some extent; it was foolish of her to have slipped up in this way and allowed herself to react to her excitement and hope. She struggled to keep her reaction now, to her anger at herself and her fear, under control.

"Nightmares," she told sensei shortly, meeting his eyes fully. He held her gaze for a little while, but when she didn't flinch away, he dropped it.

"Of course," he said, and then he was waving her away. "You're off active duty until I deem otherwise. Now, go on."

Kaoru stood deliberately slowly and walked out of the office with an outward calm she didn't feel.

As soon as she entered her rooms, Tsubame was clinging to her, radiating relief and concern.

"Kaoru-san! I was so worried! I thought… I thought…" the younger girl trailed off, sniffling a little. Kaoru returned the embrace.

"You were afraid I might be dead?" she said. "No. Did they tell you anything about what had happened?"

Tsubame shook her head, releasing her friend and wiping at her tears. "They only told me today that you were returning. Before then, they didn't say anything, and after you didn't come back, I was too afraid to leave the rooms in order to ask."

"That's alright, it's probably better you didn't." Kaoru paused. "I was injured in my last assignment. I was in the hospital."

"Oh!" Tsubame's eyes widened and she raked Kaoru's body with a concerned stare. Kaoru waved her off.

"I'm fine now. It was just a couple broken bones, that's all. They injected MINies, and they healed me right up," she reassured the girl.

"I'm glad," the brunette said quietly. "And not just because of what it means for me."

Kaoru gave her a gentle look. "I never thought for a moment you only cared about that. But I was very worried. Another assassin got to the target before me. I was afraid they'd consider that a failure on my part; I was afraid they'd kill you for it. But I should have known they wouldn't waste the power they have over me by killing you for such a thing."

The blue-eyed assassin morosely concluded her statement with a slight slumping of the shoulders. She dropped her gaze to the floor. A change of subject was in order, or else she might go mad. She forced herself to look at Tsubame and smile. "I won't be sent on any missions for a little while. I think we should have a day out on the town, so to speak. What do you say?"

"O-okay," Tsubame said. She hadn't missed Kaoru's brief dip into depression, and had been taken somewhat by surprise by the abrupt smile. "Where will we go?"

"Oh, I dunno," Kaoru said, faking nonchalance. 'Now how can I ward this so I don't give anything away?' "Hey, do you remember what we saw the last time we went into the Silk Market District? Where do you think we could see something like that again?"

She locked eyes with Tsubame as she spoke, willing the younger girl to understand. Tsubame looked puzzled until Kaoru covertly mimed a few gestures at her. Then shocked understanding grew in her face. The brunette hesitate a moment before answering.

"I'm not sure, but I think there is a place that has the same things in the Sakura District," she told Kaoru.

"Great! I don't think I'll be quite up for going today, or tomorrow… but maybe the next day."

"Okay…" Tsubame's gaze was obviously questioning, but Kaoru was too paranoid to speak any more for fear of giving the game away. Sensei's comments had been a little too pointed for her comfort, and after all: Better safe than sorry. If she didn't speak of it aloud, then no one could possibly overhear.

Kaoru shook out the bundle of clothes sensei had given her, and a chain with two rings on it fell to the floor. Kaoru stared at it in surprise. She hadn't even thought about her mother and father's wedding bands since waking in the hospital. She took it up and draped it over her head with shaking hands. How could she have forgotten?

'Head injury, excitement, fear…' she thought. 'Poor excuses, but excuses all the same…'

She pressed the rings to her lips. She was somewhat surprised that they had been returned to her… but wasn't going to question it. She was just glad that she hadn't remembered them before they'd been returned; if she had discovered they were missing without knowing sensei had taken them, it was possible she would have had a mental break down. She wasn't joking when she said the rings were a part of her sanity.

'Like Tsubame… something which keeps me sane…' Kaoru glanced at the fourteen-year-old.

Kaoru woke with start, panting for breath, her heart pounding. It seemed that the nightmares she had claimed to have had yesterday decided to make an appearance today. She sat up, her blanket falling around her waist. Kaoru covered her eyes with the heels of her hands and leaned her elbows on her knees, breathing deeply and evenly to control the rapid pants of fear.

She remembered the dream; it was one she used to have very often when she'd first come to the Home, but had since either grown out of or managed to repress. It was a dream of the death of her father, the sort where she was kept paralysed on the sideline, unable to help, unable to scream, a helpless spectator. Even though she hadn't seen the manner of her father's death in real life, her imagination seemed more than up to the task. It changed every time, but it was often in brutal and painful ways. Kaoru recognized some of them as stemming from her intimate knowledge of the Syndicate's punishments and tactics. There was something indescribably horrible about watching her father be tortured to death, be disemboweled alive, be dismembered slowly and methodically…

Kaoru shivered and stood up. Scooping up her daishō, she quietly left the room. There was a dojo on the first floor; she would be able to work off some steam there. Maybe she would even wear herself out enough that when she managed to get back to sleep, she wouldn't dream.

The dojo was, unsurprisingly, empty. It was a large room, suitable for a dozen swordsmen to practice all at once, if they were working full-motion swings and forms. It could probably fit a dozen-and-a-half if they were practicing constrained hand-to-hand. Two of the four walls were covered in full-length mirrors, and a section in the back of the room had mats on the floor and an array of weight machines lining the walls. Kaoru bowed at the door and moved to the far end of the oblong space, her bare feet making no noise on the polished wood floor.

The dojo was the most expensive room she had ever seen, because of that wood. As could be expected, true-wood was a rare and pricey luxury in the City. The only place they could really grow the number of trees needed to supply the amount of wood in demand was the Sub-City. With the help of various technologies, they'd been able to hollow out caverns beneath the City and set up relatively efficient farms within them. Space was still a problem, however, as they couldn't delve too deep or else they might disrupt the mining tunnels, which supplied the other too-rare necessity of metal-ore. So wood production, along with fresh produce, was limited. Much of the food in the City was synthetically created using nanobots to form the nutrients, minerals, and vitamins from basic atoms.

Nanobots also created and cleaned the air in the City, Kaoru recalled as she sat seiza on the floor and took a deep preparatory breath. Her daishō were set before her. Kaoru breathed slowly and evenly, emptying her mind. After a few long minutes of meditation, she moved.

In a blur of cloth and long black hair, she came to one knee, snatched her katana off the floor and unsheathed it. The blade flashed through the air in a swift arc. Tossing the saya off to the side, Kaoru surged to both feet, sword cutting glittering patterns in the air.

She advanced through the space, focused and aware of her surroundings. Reaching the end of the drive forward, she span and cut to the side, then span again for a vicious thrust in the other direction. Kaoru turned into a whirling vision of Death as she imagined a group of enemies surrounding her. The Home taught its Children several forms of combat, and a couple were how to deal with multiple opponents, even though they were all assassins and by definition avoided facing too many enemies at once.

Going down in a controlled fall, Kaoru grabbed her wakizashi from where it lie on the floor and began adding to her motions the forms that included simultaneous use of the short sword and her katana. Her wakizashi was still sheathed, and formed the defensive aspect of the technique, blocking as the katana struck. Kaoru's movements were graceful yet powerful, a product of years of training.

She was in the middle of a complicated form when she sense the ki of another person enter the dojo. She drew the form to a premature close, and turned to face her sensei.

"Well this is certainly unprecedented," he drawled, dragging his eyes up her form. Kaoru refused to be provoked, and coolly tucked her yukata more securely closed. She paced over to where her saya lay and picked it up, elegantly sheathing her katana. "I don't often see you practice, Kaoru love."

"I attend the practices during the week," she replied.

"Of course you attend the mandatory practices, but it is not often I see you practicing on your own," sensei retorted. "So I'm a little curious as to why you are now. Especially at this time of night. I'll admit that when the house security detected someone entering the dojo, I did not expect it to be you."

"I don't see how it is surprising," Kaoru replied. "I had a scare: I was injured. I was worried it would affect my performance, so I couldn't sleep well. I came down here to test myself in privacy."

"You were worried about your performance?" echoed sensei with a tilt of the eyebrow that indicated doubt. Kaoru's expression chilled even more.

"I can't fail in my duty. I can't let an injury risk that," she in a brittle voice. He of all people should know that, and know why. And from his growing smirk, Kaoru knew he was well aware of it.

"Oh yes," he purred. "That's right. We appreciate your dedication."

Kaoru clenched her jaw against the furious words that swelled in her throat. She jerked a quick bow to him and bit out: "If you'll excuse me, sir. I think I'll return to bed now; I have reassured myself of my abilities."

She stalked out of the dojo, trying not to turn around and gut the hated man.

"Kamiya Kaoru and Sanjō Tsubame. My number is 0-8-8-2-0. I have outside clearance," Kaoru said, and waited with hidden impatience as the guard punched in her ID. Tsubame stood in her shadow.

"Going somewhere, Kaoru?" said a voice before the guard could wave the two girls on.

'No. Oh no, please!' Kaoru thought, experiencing a moment of panic. Sensei. She turned to face him, controlling her expression tightly.

"Yes, sensei," she replied. "Is this a problem?"

The Home leader looked between her and Tsubame with all-too-shrewd eyes. With an utter lack of concern, he said: "No. No problem."

And Kaoru felt a numbing chill wash over her. She looked him in the eye and saw what was there. 'So. That is how it is to be. Very well. It still leaves me an opening, though I'll have to play it perfectly.'

"Alright," she replied, putting a hand on Tsubame's back and ushering the shrinking girl on through the guardstop into the tunnel to the City. "By your leave, then."

"Until later," said sensei. Kaoru didn't respond to the dark threat in his voice. She was too busy working out how to adapt to the new situation. This would be her only chance to get Tsubame to safety. If she played it right, only one of them would die today.

Very, very faintly, she could sense the ki of the man sensei had sent to follow them in the tunnel behind them.

TERMS

gaijin—this pretty much means 'foreigner.' This is often considered a derogatory term, but in this story, I imagined that it would have become a lot more accepted after the City was closed off by the SAM-C. A closed gene pool, starting off with only a few foreign individuals, would not see that much diversity. There wouldn't be many people to resent being called gaijin. And no reason to not use it.

ki-- in Chinese culture it is 'qi'. It's an active principle forming part of any living thing. It's like an energy flow

Hitokiri—assassin

Battōsai-- a compounding of Battō which means 'sword drawing' and refers to the martial art of Battōjutsu (a technique which requires unsheathing and striking with a sword in one fluid motion) and the suffix –sai which is added to pen names or professional working names.

wakizaki-- a traditional Japanese sword with a blade between 30 and 60 cm (12 and 24 inches), with an average of 50 cm (20 inches). Worn with the longer katana, it is one of the two swords comprising the samurai daishō.

seiza—traditional seated position. Legs are folded beneath you, and you sit pretty much on top of your heels, with the top of your foot against the floor.

daishō— the two swords that were the trademark of samurai. Comprised of the katana and wakizashi.

saya—sheath.

yukata-- the lighter kimono-like garment worn during the summer, or for sleep.