Algren's back hurt, and he knew clearly that he had not been anywhere near a sword and Miryu, which meant that she had not utterly beaten him in kenjutsu for the umpteenth time. "Glad that you're awake," he could hear Sanosuke's voice, followed by Kenshin's, telling the youth to get Miryu into the room. Where was his wife? Moments later, he could feel soft, but slightly calloused hands take his larger ones within them.
"Algren, are you alright?" she asked, unconsciously reverting to her old method to address him, which endeared her to him greatly. Concern ran through her sapphire eyes, and the idealistic war-veteran that was his wife had temporarily melted away, revealing the innocent young warrior that he had fallen for from the very first time they had met. Carefully, she asked him many questions in Japanese and in English, sometimes a mixed jabber of both, making it rather hard for him to comprehend what she was talking about. "Thank the Gods!" she finally said when she had poked and fussed enough. Then, her expression changed from one of relief into a condescending one. Whacking his good shoulder as hard as possible, she shouted, "Never do stupid things like that again!"
"I swear I won't," he wheezed, moving still pained him, but he knew his body well, and it would go off in the morning. "Well, who do I have to thank for patching me up?" he asked Kenshin and Sanosuke, who told him that it was a police-sent medical officer that rescued him in time. Of course, like every wounded soldier, he passed off his injury as something fairly minor, and did not see why his wife fussed so much about him; however, he remembered well why he had received that wound: he was protecting Miryu from an unhonorable strike from her treacherous cousin.
Pushing his hair from his eyes, Miryu kissed him on the forehead. "I would have never forgiven myself if you could not be saved," she told him in a small voice when the other two men took their leave to give them the privacy that they had needed. "Luckily, we found this inn for you to rest in, and we shall return to Kyoto tomorrow when you are well enough to travel… You scared me half to death, you bull-headed American!"
Algren drew her into his arms, allowing her to rest her head on his broad chest. Hiryuko was aiming for the kill, and she could have succeeded in her mission, if he did not stop her. Miryu had given him everything that he had now, and he would do anything to defend her. No words were exchanged, and he felt warm tears from her sapphire eyes on his bare chest. Slowly, he kissed them away, and then her brow, before tightening his hold over her tall, lithe form, inhaling her sweet scent. "I'm sorry," he whispered into her ear, slightly nibbling on the lobe, causing her to purr ever so softly.
A small smile broke into her fair face. "Well, as long as you're safe," she murmured, the candle-light illuminating her beauty in his eyes, moving closer to him, she made sure that she did not hurt him even more as she kissed him lightly on the lips, tentatively at first. However, Nathan Algren was a man that always wanted more, especially when Miryu was concerned. He deepened the kiss to the best of his abilities, tasting of her sweet flavor of peaches and Sake, something totally unrelated, but was a powerful and potent combination.
"Miryu…" he groaned when their tongues met, but was granted no more. Instead, his wife thrust to him a black concoction which smelled and tasted bitter. Once again, he had been seduced and fooled by her and her womanly wiles, falling hard for it. "You tricked me…" he complained, but she just kissed him again in the same manner after he had finished his bowl of medicine.
Smiling, she said, "I am not at fault if you are so gullible, Mr. Algren." Returning her head to his chest, she cuddled close to him, ready to fall asleep any moment. Even the strongest of warriors and the hardiest of men had to sleep, particularly when the battle of the age was to be fought in two days, they needed to be in top fighting form.
However, before sleep took them, Algren was able to retort, "And that's why you're Missus Algren," earning a playful jab from Miryu. There they slept, in the embrace of tender lovers, ready for whatever the morning brought them.
"Damn you, Algren, you can't go through anything without getting stabbed or shot," Saito complained the next morning the moment Miryu and Algren appeared before him with Graham, Kenshin and Sanosuke. However, he was just exaggerating. Algren was anything but totally useless on the battlefield, but when Miryu was concerned… Come to think of it, her grandfather would give him a piece of Aku. Zoku. Zan, if he had not done the same to protect her as well, nor would her dead mother forgive him if she somehow ended up dead by unnatural causes.
Algren found no words to speak for his actions, but there was no need, because Miryu was already glaring daggers at the man, shutting him up about the incident. "Saito, you had something to tell us, am I not correct?" she asked, cutting him off mid-sentence. There was only one person alive that could stare the Wolf of Mibu down, and that was his sworn-niece.
"No buildings were burnt down," Saito said, quickly disregarding his defeat, "And fifty minor blazes had been successfully put out with only forty-one police casualties… Not bad, not bad at all."
Kenshin begged to differ. "Forty-one good men are now dead, leaving behind their families," he argued, "that is never a good thing…" His sentiments were founded, but many things were to be risked in times like those, and it miffed Saito that a former hitokiri like him could have such soft tendencies. Miryu could only put a hand on his shoulder as comfort, while she technically stood by Saito's standpoint.
"Nevertheless, many more lives were saved from their sacrifice," Graham said, seconding Saito. "But what am I talking about, I'm just your average translator…" That was the closest thing to an outright lie anyone had heard of. The Englishman was more than just a translator, he was a witness to many, many events in Japan's recent history, from the battles of the Bakumatsu, to the last stand of the Samurai, wherever the action was, Graham was bound to be there. No doubt, he already had several photographs taken on the Rengoku and the fighting that had begun.
Miryu stepped out and said, "Gentlemen, it is time that we broke out from this little disagreement and look at the big picture. I'm sure Saito has many other things to do, we will wait for you until you call for us in the Aoiya." It was not a request, it was an order. Miryu, at her most vicious, was when she was smiling so much that her eyes appeared to be closed. It was a warning sign that she was in a highly murderous mood, and a signal that Algren had known too well already.
"So, where is that place anyways?" Sanosuke asked. Ever since he had been in Kyoto, he had been detained in a police station with nowhere to go, and hence, there was little that he had seen around the ancient capital city of Japan. He would have missed it completely, if not for Kaoru's head peeking out of the doors. "Jou-chan! Good to see you!"
Yahiko had also emerged from within the inn, so much so that it seemed to be a reunion of sorts between Kenshin and his Tokyo-based companions. Miryu signaled Algren to take their leave silently, and they went up into their room.
The American could clearly see that his wife was highly perplexed, solving a puzzle in her mind. "Alright, spill it, Miryu," Algren said once he had closed the shoji doors of their room. "What's going on up there in your head?" At that moment of time, Miryu was sure that her husband looked as if he was interrogating some enemy soldier, and she knew that he would not stop until he had received the answers that he wanted.
Sighing, she replied, "Hiryuko was my cousin, one of the Ishin-Ishishi, and although she worked for the Satsuma-han, there was no inclination that she was just like Shishio Makoto…" True, she did not know her cousin well, and the only contact she ever had with Nagasaki Hiryuko was when she had saved her from Udo Jin'Eh during the Ikeda Incident, she knew from various reports that Hiryuko had been a loyal agent to the Ishin-Ishishi as she was. But something happened in the middle of that time frame, when the Choushu-han began to deal with the British forces… Hiryuko was said to have "gone rogue". "We are both daughters of the Ryujou line, Nathan, the last of our kind… How can I ever raise a weapon against her?"
Although Miryu was never seen to be a traditionalist in many ways, he knew that Miryu often honored several of the old ways, and she was exceptionally proud to have been a descendant of the Daughters of the Dragons. "Well, if she tried to kill you, you have to defend yourself against her," Algren told her, looking into his wife's sapphire eyes. "It's the only way…"
For one moment there, Miryu wanted nothing but to throw down her katana and tell Algren that she wanted a new life with him, away from the confusion and conflict, but as always, her duty was to Japan, and to those who could not defend themselves against the terrors of the times. "You are right," she murmured, placing her head on his shoulder. "You're always right, Captain Algren…"
"I'd do anything to help you out, Battouryu," he replied. His actions had shown more than just words shared between a couple of warriors, and she knew it all too well; she would have done the same for him as well, if given the chance and opportunity. "Just don't take it too hard on yourself; you'll need to be focusing on your fight against Shishio and his lackeys."
"Shishio and Hiryuko are only the least of my worries," Miryu told him, looking around the city from their window. The Aoiya was strategically placed, right in the heart of Kyoto city, and there was no doubt that it would be a prime target when they would leave to fight in Mt. Hiei… Hiko was enlisted to help, but they still did not know whether he would even budge, having isolated himself from the world for so long… "Nathan, I want you to stay here and protect the Aoiya as best you can."
Somehow, Algren had already anticipated that Miryu would say something like that, and she had the greatest excuse as well, because he had an injury on his shoulder, which made him less able to fight against whatever those two villains would throw at them. He would be safer with the Oniwabanshuu and Kenshin's other companions, with Graham in tow. "You think of everything, don't you?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
Miryu nodded, and kissed his temple as she moved towards the window. "Kyoto is where I grew up, Nathan, where I made my own name and forged my own destiny… I cannot allow her to burn, nor can I allow her to be taken advantage of when Kenshin, Saito, Sanosuke and I are away. In the short time that you have been here, you have come to love this country as much as I do. Nathan, this time, I must enlist your help, to protect this city."
"You never had to ask," Algren told her, placing an arm around her shoulder. What she had was true, he had come to love Japan as she had, and that he loved the country as much as he loved his beautiful wife. He would do everything in his power to defend her. "I was just worried if you never wanted my help."
There was a slight chuckle that they had shared after that, and they looked into each other's eyes: fiery sapphire and tempestuous ocean-hued ones. Quickly, they were drawn into a kiss that scorched their souls, a promise to one another. It would be the first time since they had met that they would fight on separate fronts, but not the first time that they would risk their lives for those that they had pledged to protect… They knew that however hard for them it was, duty always came first, and it was what they had decided to see through.
When the next morning came, Algren bid goodbye to his wife, with nothing more than a Japanese bow on her part. Whatever that was needed to be said, had been said the night previous. "You do know that there is a huge possibility that she could be a young widow, or you a widower when this ends, don't you, Algren-dono?" Okina asked him, when Miryu was seen to look back towards them even as they walked towards the light of the rising sun.
"We try not to think too much about it," Algren replied. With their line of work, being attached to diplomats and politicians, it was already dangerous to start with. "One thing that I've learnt here is there is always life in every breath, and Miryu and I, we try to live as we know it the best."
The wizened Onmitsu could only agree with those words. "Life in every breath, eh?" he repeated. "Well, we shall see, won't we? Who will really inherit the new age…"