AN: Hello. Chapter 20 is here. Thanks to everyone who's read so far. I want to thank Kwebs, CB73, RSFan, and Sentinel especially. Their comments made me feel better about chapter 19, which I didn't feel, turned out that well. Anyway we are getting down to the final chapters here. I'd say, counting this one, 3 to 5 more chapters. So those of you that have been reading and haven't voted on my poll please click on my profile and do so. As it stands the sequel has a narrow lead over the prequel. Now that that's out of the way on with the story.

Sword of the Revolution

Chapter 20: Round Table

Immediately after Kim, Ron, Shego, and Saito returned from the airport they rushed down to the secret command center underneath the hotel. They took seats around the large table in the room they had met in before they had gone after Cho and Senkaku. Sensei, who had already been in the room alone, spoke after the four settled in.

"Okina is escorting our new guests downstairs and they will be here momentarily."

The room held a silent anticipation while waiting for the new arrivals. Saito was on the left side of the long table right in the center chair, and he had begun to light another cigarette. Shego, directly to his right, had pulled out a long file and started sharpening her claws. Ron was sitting across from Saito and was merely staring at the table; his left hand playing with sword handle on its side, his right hand hung limp. Kim, who was sitting on his right hand side slowly reached out and took his right hand and gave it a small squeeze. Sensei was on sitting across from Shego on Ron's left. The wizened old man turned his head and spoke in a conversational tone.

"Ron-mu-, Ron-san were there any complications with your parents flight out?"

Ron turned to his master and gave a small smile, "No, they made it off with out a hitch."

Sensei smiled, gave a small nod, and was about to speak when the door to the room opened. Three figures walked into the room; the first was Megumi Takani, next was the officer that had escorted Nagamasa when he asked Ron to return to Japan, Yi, and bringing up the rear was Okina. The two newcomers bowed toward the others and spoke their greetings. After the pleasantries the three took up seats around the table. After a few moments of silence Saito took a long drag from his cigarette and then extinguished it.

He exhaled and spoke to Yi, "Were you able to find those photos as well as the files?"

Yi nodded, "Hai Saito-taicho!"

The short man reached down and pulled up a black briefcase that he had brought with him, opened it and passed it down to Saito. His ice blue eyes scanned over the pages of documents for a few minutes before he passed a few over to Ron. While the blonde was reading Kim was nonchalantly, or at least trying to look that way, trying to read the papers out the corner of her eye. However she wasn't able to decipher the documents, as, aside from numbers, she wasn't able to understand any of the markings on the pages. After Ron read it for several minutes he placed the documents on the table and gave Saito a nod.

Saito drew in a long breath and then spoke, "Alright, from Senkaku's information we learned the identities of six more members of the Juppongatana. So for those of us keeping track that's eight of his ten lieutenants. Cho's dead, and we already knew about Usui and Hoji." He then passed around the papers that he had held back, "These are the photos that we have on record for our new targets." Saito slid the photos to Ron who picked them up while Kim looked over his shoulder.

The top photo revealed a fairly attractive woman with a short bobbed haircut wearing a pink floral Kimono.

Kim asked, "Is that Yumi?"

Saito laughed, "No that is Kamatari Honjo, the crossdresser, he's known as the 'Beautiful Sword.' He fought on my side during the war, and I met him a couple of times. He was an informant for the Shinsengumi several times. He uses a large scythe with a weighted ball and chain on the end. We think he's in charge of Shishio's spy network."

Ron passed the photo down to Sensei while he and Kim examined the next one. This photo was of a man about four feet tall, with a large bald 'egg head'. He wore an obnoxious oragne suit that was made even more so by his rat like face, and small thin mustache.

Megumi spoke, "That's Prof. Saizuchi Nishikawa the 'Sword of the Mind'. He's a genius who holds doctorates in biology, chemistry, and is also an expert on the human nervous system."

Saito continued, "He's in charge of Shishio's Research and Development. We think he's performed several experiments on humans."

The next photo was very funny… in a disturbing way. The man pictured in it was about five foot five and perfectly round. His skin was a light red color almost pink, and his eyes were almost completely white. His gaze however was as vacant as his pearl white smile was bright.

Saito lectured, "This ball of walking lard is Iwanbo, and that's almost all we know about him. There are no records of him before he began working as a hired bodyguard in the closing days of the revolution. He's rumored to be very stupid so I don't think Shishio would entrust him with anthing that important, but he's said to be the 'Indestructible Sword' so he was probably brought on solely for his fighting skills.

As he prepared to hand off the next photo he was stopped by Shego's trademarked bored annoyed tone, "Okay I've got to ask what is with all the sword of this and sword that? I mean can't you guys come up with more original nicknames!"

Saito smirked and shot Shego a smug look, "Remember dear, early on the war was fought in the shadows and many of the fighters were anonymous. Sometimes people who fought on the same side weren't even aware who their allies were. Anyway, during the war the former government came up with a code where it referred to all participants as 'Swords'. So whenever an 'action' took place they would be detailed and then the government would try to attribute an 'action' to a particular agent. Government agents reported who they met, fought, and what information they were able to find out. Take me for example I was know as the 'Ice Sword' and I killed the leader of the 'Knights of Shikoryu' who was known as the 'Pure Sword' while at the same time I was able to confirm several of his 'actions', and the government merely wrote 'Ice Sword met Grey Sword, Ice prevailed and confirmed, revealed and corrected Grey's previous movements. This also helped confuse any unsuspecting bystanders who happened to see the transcripts."

Kim curiously asked, "What Sword was Ron?"

Saito turned to her and replied, "The Death Sword." He then spoke in an after thought, "To tell you the truth though I always preferred the titles that the rank and file gave us."

He turned to Ron and questioned, "Don't you agree Battousai?"

Ron gave Saito a dark look, "I don't have any attachment to the titles they don't change anything."

Saito spoke while passing on the next photo, "True, but they tell you how the people around you perceive you, which is at the very least interesting."

He then passed on the photo that he had been holding. It was a picture of a tall thin man with long jet-black hair that was standing up straight. Ron stiffened as he saw the picture and spoke in disbelief.

"Are we sure this is the right Henya Kariwa? I fought with this man several during the war and he wasn't the kind of person who would fight for Shishio."

Saito looked thoughtful, "It's either this man, a four year old living in Tokyo or an eighty-five year old retired banker living on Shikoku. Trust me Himura, this is the guy we're after."

Ron was silent and looked at the picture for another moment before passing it on. The next photo Saito brought out was of a gorgeous woman with black hair and pale skin. She had dark eyes, full lips that were painted with a dark red and small beauty mark on her chin. She wore a large loose fitting floral Kimono that hung down from her shoulders and revealed a large bust.

Saito spoke, "This is Yumi Komagata."

Ron spoke with a eureka tone, "Oh! I know this woman she was a very popular strip… ah actress."

Kim gave Ron a hard look and spoke in a dangerous tone, "What were you going to say Ron?"

Ron started to stutter, "Uh… I mean… I never… well… I saw, but… ah…"

The others around began to chuckle at Ron's plight before Saito decided to have him spared, or at least given a small reprieve.

"Relax, I'm sure Himura never had the guts to engage in a lap dance or anything like that."

Kim still glaring at Ron, who was shaking his head in agreement with Saito's statement, spoke, "Why were you even near that kind of… entertainment?"

Ron sweating laughed, "Oh… well when my team was in Tokyo we would sometimes meet in public places that were… frowned upon by the more mainstream."

Kim was still giving Ron a glare but it had softened slightly. Saito began to speak once again.

"When the Shinsengumi drove out the cells from Tokyo we conducted investigations into several of the locations that had been used for meeting places. We also ran thorough background checks on the employees in those places, and that's where I had heard the name before, she was working under an assumed name when we discovered her real name. However aside from a fake name she didn't have anything to hide or a connection to any side during the war so we didn't do bother her. She probably met Shishio after we moved back to Kyoto to deal with you Himura."

Everyone was silent for a few moments as the pictures all made their way back to Saito. After a minute Ron spoke.

"What did we find out about Seta Sojiro?"

Saito answered, "Only a birth certificate and family history was found in terms of official documents, but it lead us to a connection to Shishio. Sojiro was an illegitimate child; his mother was only about eighteen when he was born and she died giving birth to him. His father was about forty and he took the child in, but he died of a sudden heart attack less then a year later. Now after that there is no official record of Sojiro until about last February. After his father died his two elder half-brothers and the woman he was married to were left in charge of the kid. Now they lived in Saitama, in the Greater Tokyo Area, which is where the soldiers tried to execute him. After they returned to make sure his body was disposed of they found that it was gone. When they initiated their search for Shishio they found, sometime later, Sojiro's family all dead and in quite a gruesome state. Upon investigating they found signs of the missing boy, and of the abuse Sojiro suffered at their hands. At the time they decided that Shishio had taken the boy as a hostage, but now… who knows. Maybe the boy became a monster and joined Shishio after the man arrived and killed his tormentors, or the man convinced him to kill his family. Whatever the case may be we don't really have anything other than a vague description and a name for the kid."

Ron nodded, "What do we do now?"

Saito spoke excitedly, "Right! Down to Brass tacks now. All right Saizuchi has an easily followed paper trail. He owns a fair sized warehouse in Osaka Prefecture and gets regular shipments sent to it. So that means it's probably a private lab since I don't think Shishio would like Fed Ex deliveries to one of his bases."

Shego sighed and thought, 'Just like Dr. D, why don't super scientists ever think about covering their tracks.'

Saito drew a breath, "Now as for Kamatari, I know a few of his old safe houses locations and favorite… hangouts."

Kim smirked at his strained voice, "What kind of hangouts?"

Saito flushed a little causing everyone in the room to snicker, before mumbling incoherently.

Kim's grin grew a bit wider, "I'm sorry Saito what was that again?"

Saito glared at the redhead before yelling, "Gay bars okay! Look Kamatari would sometimes make those our meeting places, and if you think about it that was a pretty good idea. I mean when you think about cold-blooded killers, neon lights, techno, and dance music dosen't come to mind... at least not at first. So yeah they were actually pretty good meeting places."

Saito tried to regain his composure but was stopped by Kim's fluffy tone, "Aww… Saito had a man crush on Kamatari."

Everyone burst out laughing, as Saito turned a black red, "No… if you hadn't noticed I don't like anyone now I respected him as a fellow warrior and spy but nothing else."

After a moment Saito regained his composure and started talking once again, "Now Iwanbo wasn't hard to find apparently he spends every day at some run down dojo just sitting around. Like I said, not to bright, so who ever finds him might be able to fool the fat ass into revealing Shishio's location. We've also got a couple of former addresses for Yumi in the city so we should check and see if she has had any contact with old friends. For now though we will adjourn. Make sure to get as much sleep as you can. We will meet back here at five hundred hours when Himura and I will hand out assignments. Goodnight."

Everyone stood up except Ron and Saito. Kim looked at him with a confused look.

Ron spoke, "We're getting ready to come up with assignments it wont be long."

Kim nodded hesitantly when Okina spoke up, "Pardon me Possible-dono but we are still short of rooms only the Stoppable's has opened up and Megumi-dono and Yi-san will be joining us. Would it be too much trouble for Megumi-dono to stay with you, or could you think of any other arrangements you might like?"

Kim recognized the light humor in the man's tone and knew were it came from but surprisingly she wasn't that embarrassed about what the older man was asking. She was however nervous about what Ron might say, but those fears were quickly chased away with Ron's warm nervous tone.

"You can stay with me if you want to KP."

Kim nodded, "Right I'll go move my bag."

Kim and Okina walked and exited as the others had while they were speaking leaving Ron and Saito alone. The two sat in a light silence before Saito smirked and spoke.

"Be careful with her Battousai she has a fire that could burn up most men."

Ron shot Saito a bemused look, "You're one to talk."

Saito laughed and the two were silent for few moments before they got back to work.

Shego reclined on the bed in her room she shared with Saito and sharpened her claws waiting for her old friend and lover to walk through the door. When the tall lanky man stepped in he kicked off his shoes and walked silently over to the bed and threw himself down on it.

Shego still filed away and spoke without looking at Saito, "So you don't like anyone?"

Saito turned to her and sat up, "No but you're not anyone and I don't like you," he leaned over and gave the green woman a passionate kiss, "I love you."

Kim pulled the bathrobe tightly around her lithe frame as she sat in front of the mirror in her joint room with Ron. As she removed the towel that she had wrapped around her head Ron walked in.

She turned to face him, "Hey... I just got out of the shower. Are you hungry? We could order room service."

Ron smiled, "No I think I'll just take a shower, go to bed, and have a huge breakfast in the morning."

Kim laughed lightly as she turned back to the mirror and began to brush her hair with comb Ron had given her. She felt Ron looking at her motions and looked at his sad smile in the reflection. Neither said anything and then, after several moments Ron turned and began to take off his shirt, grabbed a small bag, and walked into the bathroom. Kim noticed the scars that adorned his body and felt a wave of pain pass over her. She hated that she wasn't able to help him during his vulnerable moments, and the loneliness he must have felt. However a thought crossed Kim's mind, a thought that maybe Ron wasn't that alone. Maybe Yori had helped her friend in those dire moments. That thought made Kim give a silent, honest thanks to the mystery woman if that was indeed was the case, and for some reason Kim knew it was.

AN: There we go. This would have been up last night but I ended up seeing Dark Knight, so it got pushed back a bit. Anyway Please read, review, and vote.