CHIBI GLOSSARY-CHAN
Obousan : Buddhist monk. Also the proper term of address for a monk
Bozu : term of endearment for little boys
Bakufu : former Tokugawa government
Juushoku : Buddhist abbott. Also proper term of address for the abbott
Meiji 2
(March 1869)
The muddy roads had dried somewhat by the time they set out from Tokyo.
Hiko's boots sank only slightly into the dirt as they walked along, keeping a decent pace but not rushing. There was no hurry, after all; the house would still be there whether they arrived in nine days or ten.
It felt strange not to have Enishi along with them.
There had been an uncomfortably emotional conversation when the boy had announced his intention to remain behind, and Hiko had wanted very badly to make himself scarce while it was going on. Kenichi had been distraught at first, and when Hiko had seen the look on Enishi's face as he watched his nephew cry at the thought of not seeing him until the wintertime, he'd thought Enishi might change his mind. But the look of real pride on Yukishiro's face had been enough to keep the boy to his decision, and he and his father had waved them goodbye from the gate as they'd left.
Of course, Hiko had gone over to Kamiya's dojo on the day before they had been scheduled to depart, in order to formally ask Kamiya to train Enishi.
"He needs direction," Hiko had said. "A means of channeling his emotions. He has a natural talent for kenjutsu, but what he needs more than anything is a focus."
"And what of your Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu?" Kamiya inquired.
"He's learned the basics." Hiko sighed. "And I imagine there will always be a strong element of it in his own swordplay. But I can't teach him properly if I only see him for a few months out of the year. And it's far more important for him to remain here with his father than it is for him to learn one style over another."
His eyes met Kamiya's. "You'll do well with him, and you'll do right by him. I trust in that."
Kamiya had bowed deeply at that.
And now, walking along the Tokaido and musing about the future of his second apprentice, Hiko's thoughts turned to his first. Or rather, to a man connected with his first.
"We should visit Asukaderaji," he said aloud, looking back over his shoulder. "A few more days' walk won't make much difference, and I did promise Jiyu that I would make the effort to see him."
Kenichi bounded over to Hiko and looked up at him, hopeful expression on his face. "See Obousan again?"
"It'll be a long walk, bozu." Hiko hoisted the little boy up without breaking stride and sat him atop his massive shoulders. "But yes. We're going to see Obousan again."
"Shishou is getting nostalgic in his advanced age," Kenshin murmured to his wife, just loud enough so that Hiko could hear him.
"Your father will be fortunate if he makes it to such an advanced age," Hiko growled to Kenichi.
Kenichi merely giggled and wrapped his arms around Hiko's head.
Traveling on the Tokaido with a small boy was no faster than it had been last time, even if Kenichi had grown over the past several months. He alternated between boundless, eager enthusiasm and absolute lethargy, with seemingly nothing in-between.
At one point, Kenshin had to physically scoop the boy up from where he had simply flopped in the dirt, wailing that he was "All done walking today, Touchan! All done!"
And just as before, Tomoe insisted on stopping at a traveler's inn at a waystation every few days, when camping off the road had become too much and they had become too filthy for her liking. The first inn that they had stayed at had been a nightmare of too many people - crowded sleeping room, crowded bathhouse, crowded restaurant, crowded everything.
Hiko was awake long before the rest of them the next morning, and by dint of some very forceful suggestion, got them on their feet and moving by the time the sun was just peeking over the horizon.
"I'm never doing that again," he muttered for the twelfth time. "People packed in together like fish in a net, rebreathing one another's air, not a single bu between futon at night…"
A small smile flickered across Tomoe's mouth. "So no different than my father's house?"
"Or our house?" Kenshin added.
"Neither of which have dozens of people I don't know all crammed into my personal space," Hiko retorted. "At least in our own house, or even in your wife's father's house, the people I'm stuck with are the people I've chosen."
He thought briefly that at least there would be a bit more space in the house on Atago now that Enishi had elected to stay in Tokyo. Indeed, the house would feel somewhat empty without the boy's massive personality.
He sighed.
Kenshin glanced at him. "We'll try for a less populated one next time."
The next inn was a day's walk from Asukaderaji, and while Hiko might have preferred to camp on the side of the road (after all, baths were only a day's walk away), Tomoe put her foot down.
"We are not arriving at a temple without having bathed," she insisted.
Kenichi scrunched his face up. "Not bath again."
"Scourge of your life," Kenshin said, running his fingers through the boy's hair. "I know."
At least the inn managed to be less of a crowded mess than the previous one, Hiko thought grumpily as he sat in the men's communal bath sometime later. And maybe it was the fact that only a few other men were in the bath that got Kenshin talking.
"I thought he might make the choice that he did," he said without preamble. "And yet, part of me is still surprised."
"You as well?" Hiko settled back against the edge of the tub. It was much less beautiful to look at than Yukishiro's had been - the wood was bleached and worn, bowed from long and hard use - but it was spacious and well-heated. "He made the right decision, though. All of his early life was spent in pursuit of his father's approval. Now that he has it, he could never have left the man again."
Kenshin leaned his head back on the edge of the tub. After a moment, he said, "And yet, we said the same thing about him never leaving my wife's side once he found her." He closed his eyes. "I wonder how long he battled that conflict in himself?"
"I can only guess." Hiko shrugged, then rolled his neck in a series of satisfying cracks. "But I would imagine that Yukishiro won out for several reasons."
Kenshin hummed in response and shifted the washcloth on his forehead so that it covered his eyes.
"He's getting on in years, for one thing." Hiko sighed. "Between that and the strain he's been under for so long, he may not live to see very old age. Quite simply, Enishi's likely to have more time with your wife than his father."
"I know he's seen at least fifty years." Kenshin frowned. "Hopefully he has more time left."
"And for another thing, Yukishiro's family is gone." Hiko gestured slightly, his hand breaking the surface of the water briefly before settling back underneath. "Oh, certainly he has the housekeeper, and Kamiya and his daughter, but his wife is dead and his two surviving children haven't been home for years. Enishi won't worry about Tomoe. She has Kenichi to look after, and you and me to look after her. But he'll worry about his father being alone, and so he made the choice to stay with him."
"It was a hard choice for him to make, and a mature one," Kenshin murmured. "I'm proud of him. I told him as much before we left."
"He's certainly done quite a bit of growing," Hiko acknowledged, then opened one eye and smirked over at Kenshin, even if he couldn't see it. "He's taller than you now."
Even though he couldn't see it, Hiko knew Kenshin was rolling his eyes under that washcloth.
"I understand that's not much of an accomplishment," he said. "Most people don't have the good sense to remain the correct height for all situations."
"And yet I still have to reach the highest rafters for you." Hiko closed his eyes again and settled back into the soothing hot water.
The inn was fairly accommodating, and even somewhat pleasant. The food was decent (if bland), the futon were soft (if shabby), and the population was less than half of what it had been at the last inn. Which was still more than Hiko wanted, but at least he could manage to sleep through the night without wanting to lash out at the snoring bodies around him.
He was still up before the sun rose and ushering his family back on the road before most of the other travelers had stirred.
The walk to the temple was pleasant enough, though Hiko did notice that they attracted what seemed to him to be an unusual number of wary glances from passersby. After several such glances, accompanied by whispered mutterings and quickened paces, he began to feel on edge.
"You'd think these idiots had never seen people on their way to a temple before," he grumbled, half to himself, as they walked on.
As they approached Asukaderaji, though, his ill-at-ease feeling began to grow. He couldn't explain it, but something about their journey felt off somehow. A glance over at Kenshin showed an expression of similar unease upon his apprentice's face, and an unspoken communication passed between the two of them.
They quickened their pace.
The noise from the temple was far louder than it ought to have been, and far more disorderly. Shouts, yells, and even screams could be heard as they drew nearer. It was no fire, for there was no smoke. Hiko spared Kenshin a look and broke out into a run.
"Stay with Kenichi," he heard Kenshin say to his wife, before following a step behind him.
The scene in the temple courtyard was one of absolute chaos.
What seemed to be the entire group of monks and children had been herded into the middle of the large open area, surrounded by an enormous crowd of people. The children looked absolutely terrified. Most cowered, except for a few who resolutely stood holding rakes or hoes. The monks, though, held back those would-be heroes from the overwhelming number of invaders.
Several buildings in the temple area had been damaged, and as Hiko watched in horror, a group of men wielding shovels and mattocks hacked at the wall of another structure. A great pile of books and scrolls lay heaped in one part of the courtyard, and more were being callously thrown onto it every minute. Several large men were wrestling the great bronze bonsho bell down from where it was supposed to hang in its pavilion.
The men who appeared to be directing the destruction looked to be samurai. And Hiko could see, with a burning sensation of furious rage, his brother Jiyu sheltering several children who appeared to be the same age as his grandson.
He whipped his sword from its sheath so quickly it seemed to have leapt into his hand of its own accord.
"Most of them are peasants," Kenshin shouted as he ran past Hiko, thumbing his sword from its sheath. "Don't kill them." He leapt right into the fray of mattock-wielding men.
"That's fine," Hiko spat, slashing one across the legs with a deliberately shallow cut intended to cause debilitating pain. "You'd be surprised what a man can live through."
"Don't permanently injure them either," Kenshin retorted, though he dispatched the mattock-wielders with the kind of force that suggested he was still very much learning how to hold back. One ended up going through the wall he and his comrades had so deliberately damaged.
"I'm no bodhisattva," Hiko snarled. He flipped his sword around, however, and leapt spinning into the center of a knot of men with the corkscrewing Ryukansen Tsumuji. They flew into the air like paper dolls scattered by a gust of wind and fell limply to the ground wherever they landed. "And I'm showing no mercy whatsoever to those samurai in charge."
The mattock and shovel-wielders handled (and whether or not they had permanent injuries remained to be seen), Kenshin dealt with the cluster of men who were throwing books and scrolls into a pile right before they would have set the entire thing aflame.
It was over in mere seconds.
Kenshin then easily knocked aside the burly men handling the bonsho bell, their hefty bodies sailing across the courtyard as if they weighed nothing at all. He landed lightly atop the massive bell, which was now laying on its side, allowing him to fix them all with the sort of glare that Hiko imagined was the last thing many Bakufu loyalists had ever seen.
Meanwhile, Hiko himself had seen the ringleaders looking uneasily at one another and drawing their own swords. His eyes narrowed in cold anger, and in a single eyeblink he was in front of them, sheathing his sword as he sprinted.
His single perfect battoujutsu strike cut the leader's blade in half before he could even move to defend himself. And as the rest of them stood there, paralyzed with horror, Hiko seized the man by his topknot and smashed his nose flat with the fist still gripping his sword hilt.
The man collapsed to his knees nervelessly, his head bowed forward and blood pouring from his mouth and nose. Hiko looked down on him with pure disgust, shifted his grip on the sword, and raised it high over his head to deliver the blow that would send the man's head tumbling into the dust…
"Seijuro." Jiyu stepped forward, detaching himself from the knot of frightened, wide-eyed children. "Enough. That's enough."
Hiko turned to his brother, his jaw clenched and his hands on the sword trembling in anger.
"They attacked you, Jiyu," he said in a voice that shook as much as his hands. "They would have burned this place. Who knows what they would have done to you, or to the children, if I hadn't come when I did?"
Jiyu shook his head. "No more."
Meanwhile, Kenshin's gaze swept across all who remained standing in the courtyard. He held his sword in one hand, the other gripping the sheath so tightly, his knuckles had turned white.
"What is this?" he said, voice icily, dangerously quiet. "Who authorized this at all?"
The samurai looked amongst each other, and Hiko could hear them whispering about Kenshin's most obvious attributes - red hair, a scar on his cheek. And then sudden, shocked recognition, and finally one of them stepped forward.
"Himura Battousai," he said loudly, and that same shocked whisper then rippled through the monks, the children, and some of the men who were just now coming back to consciousness. "We're here on behalf of the Meiji government that you also serve."
Hiko turned, his eyes blazing, his hand clenching the hilt of his sword so tightly he felt it creak.
"Say that again," he said in a voice so low and cold that it might have come from the deepest depths of the sea.
The unfortunate man looked from Kenshin to Hiko and then back to Kenshin, before clearing his throat. His voice sounded a lot less certain this time. "The government authorized this."
"The government?" Kenshin narrowed his eyes. "You're claiming the entire government authorized this?"
From the corner of his eye, Hiko saw Tomoe approach the front gate with Kenichi, then falter, a look of shock and horror on her face.
"No." The man shook his head, his eyes darting from Kenshin's sword and then back to Kenshin. "No, not- not the entire-"
"I want names," Kenshin said flatly, and the blood seemed to drain entirely from the man's face at that.
"Saigo," he said. "Saigo Takamori."
Hiko saw his apprentice's eyes narrow into freezing slits at the mention of the name. The man before him turned a sickly shade of olive green and fainted.
One of the older boys, rake clutched in his hand, snorted.
Kenshin fixed his gaze on another one of the samurai. "Explain. Very quickly."
"It's a- a government policy - 'Shinbutsu Hanzenrei.' The Kami… Kami and Buddhas Separation Order," the man stammered. "Saigo-sama signed the order a month or so ago, for all- all Buddhist temples across Japan." He cleared his throat, added, "Not just this one."
Hiko turned a furious look on Kenshin, recalling every admonition he had ever given his idiot apprentice about the consequences of choosing a side, but saw that Kenshin's expression was every bit as furious as his own.
"This temple takes in children, you waste of perfectly good flesh and bone," Hiko thundered. "Dozens of temples do. The monks nearly starved when you samurai took the rice from their mouths for a tax. And now you'll lay waste to every temple in the country on the orders of some bloated warthog from the new government?"
His hands itched to deliver the death blow to these men, and then to find this Saigo Takamori and eviscerate him. What these men had done could not be forgiven. And what Saigo had done deserved the sort of death that would terrify others into never following in his footsteps.
Several of the peasants groaned back into consciousness. A few of them rose unsteadily to their feet, rubbing their heads or their backs and taking in the scene with shocked expressions.
Kenshin's gaze swept over all of them. "This temple has taken in your own sons for years. A few of you were even raised here. And this is how you've chosen to repay that care?"
The peasants, at the very least, had the good grace to look embarrassed.
"Leave." Kenshin ground the word out. "Leave, and don't return unless you intend to help rebuild what you destroyed today."
They picked their tools up off the ground and shuffled shame-faced out of the courtyard. Some of them stopped and bowed at the monks before turning and hobbling away.
"As for the rest of you," Hiko growled at the samurai, all of whom wore terrified expressions and some of whom seemed to have soiled themselves. "I would kill you all if it wouldn't befoul the ground of this place any more than you've already befouled it."
One or two of the men began to look relieved, and Hiko stomped on that instantly.
"But if I ever see any of you again - no matter when, where, or in what circumstance - I will take something from you that you will never get back." He pointed with his sword as he spoke, relishing the looks of primitive terror on the faces of the men. "Perhaps it will be your sight. Or your ability to walk. Or to sire sons." His glower deepened, and he slid the sword back into its sheath for punctuation. "Now get out of here."
The samurai glanced amongst each other, and one or two of them reached down to heft their leader, who was just coming around, onto his feet. One of them, though, turned suddenly and glared up at Kenshin, who was still standing atop the bonsho bell.
"Himura Battousai," he shouted, clearly enough so that everyone would hear him, "whose side are you on anyway? You were Ishin Shishi like the rest of us, which means you serve the Meiji
government like the rest of us."
Hiko pivoted smoothly from the waist, his hand on the sheath of his sword, and with a lightning-fast flick of his wrist and extension of his arm, launched his sword hilt-first at the man who had spoken. The butt of the hilt struck the man squarely between the eyes with a satisfyingly loud thock - the Hiryuusen was a maneuver Hiko had used only once or twice before, but his aim was as perfect as it had ever been - and the man fell unconscious to the ground, a thin sliver of blood trickling from the split-open skin of his forehead.
Kenshin's gaze flickered to the man on the ground before returning to the remaining samurai.
"The people," he said flatly. "I'm on the people's side. Not the government's. Not anyone who would willingly destroy a temple. And certainly not Saigo Takamori's."
He leaped down from the bell, landing lightly on his feet, and the remaining samurai nearly fell over themselves backing away from him.
"Now leave."
The men tripped over one another in their haste to flee. Two of them seized their fallen comrade by the arms and dragged him along. Hiko, thoroughly disgusted, retrieved his sword and turned to Kenshin.
"I seem to recall saying something about the actions of the government being your responsibility if you helped to put them in power," he said as he resheathed the blade.
Kenshin glowered at him, snapped his sword back into its sheath, and turned toward the monks and children. "Is anyone hurt?"
The abbott - Hiko remembered that the elderly man was called Genan - stepped forward. "No one is hurt. I don't know if they meant to hurt us or not."
"They would have burned down the temple, Genan-juushoku!" one of the rake-holding boys said angrily, and several of the other older boys murmured their agreement.
"They said they were going to melt down the bonsho bell for a cannon," another boy added.
"Be that as it may," Genan said calmly, "they did not."
Cautiously, Tomoe entered the front gate. She gripped Kenichi's hand, the both of them taking everything in with wide eyes.
"We'll rehang the bell, Juushoku-san," Kenshin said. "And if it's not too much trouble, we'll stay here and help set everything right."
"No trouble," Genan said. "You've been welcome here since you were a child." He glanced over at Tomoe and Kenichi. "Though I believe this is the first time you've brought a wife and your own child."
Hiko shrugged out of his cloak and let it pool on the ground. He set his sword down with it, then turned to look his idiot apprentice in the eyes. He did not say a word, but his look clearly carried the message that they would discuss the matter in private later on.
The great bonsho bell still lay on its side where it had fallen, and Hiko seized it by the dragon-shaped ryuuzu handle at its top. Heaving it up into an upright position was not difficult for a man of his great strength, but he intended to do far more. He had doffed his cloak for that reason.
Gripping the huge bronze bell at its rim with one hand and at its handle with the other, Hiko strained his massive muscles. His great arms and chest knotted, veins and cords standing out clearly, and to the awe of the assembled monks and the amazed delight of the children, he lifted the bell off the ground.
"Jiyu?" His voice gave barely a quaver as he held the bell steady. "Remind me where this is meant to hang."
"The pavilion, Seijuro." Hiko could hear the raised eyebrows in his brother's voice.
It took only a short time for Hiko to cover the distance to the pavilion. Muscles bunching, he hoisted the massive bell onto its hook and felt the hook take its weight. He dusted his hands and turned, a self-satisfied smile on his face, to face his brother.
"We did promise my grandson that he could ring the bell, after all."
…
Over the next several days, they did as Kenshin had promised and remained at the temple to help put everything back together.
While Hiko and Kenshin worked on repairing the buildings, Tomoe relieved the monks of their kitchen duties so they could focus on the rebuilding efforts as well. Kenichi, for his part, found much entertainment in playing with the other boys his age.
Some of the peasants did return, shame-faced and apologetic, to help patch up the buildings they had destroyed in their rioting. And while Hiko was tempted to throw them out without a second glance, it wasn't his decision to make. Genan-juushoku accepted their assistance without so much as an eyebrow raised in disapproval.
"We had heard rumors about these Buddhist hunts," Jiyu told him over tea during a spare moment, "but we weren't sure what to make of them. Then it started happening in Nara."
"The most vulnerable will always be targeted." Hiko drank a mouthful of the tea, wishing (as always) that it were sake instead. "When the Bakufu were in charge, they starved you. Now that the new government has taken power, they foment riots." He shook his head bitterly. "The world will never change."
"The common people are angry, Seijuro," Jiyu said quietly. "They feel that too many Buddhist temples benefited far too greatly under the Bakufu's patronage, while commoners starved." He sat with that for a moment. "And while that might have never been true in Asukaderaji, I know it was true in other places."
"Asukaderaji wasn't the only temple that took in children and reached out to share the little it had with those who had less." Hiko's voice sounded sour even to his own ears. "How many children are going to be homeless after this is done? How many places just like Asukaderaji have already been destroyed?"
"Many, I'm sure, especially in Saigo Takamori's home domain of Satsuma." Jiyu set his teacup aside and rubbed at his forehead. "I know that many temples grew too wealthy under the Bakufu. This is the new government's attempt to correct that, it seems."
"An asinine attempt," Hiko snorted. "If they can't even direct it properly. And if those imbecile peasants couldn't even be bothered to recall how much you've done for them."
"They're not the ones with the power, Seijuro." Jiyu sounded tired in a way that Hiko was not accustomed to. "They're just looking to have any power at all, wherever they can find it."
"A tiny bit of power can be the most dangerous thing in the world." Hiko set down his empty teacup and sighed. "Power means nothing without someone to wield it against. And merely a small amount of power can only be wielded against the truly weak."
Jiyu said nothing to that. After a moment, he stood, brushed his blue cotton samue pants down, and picked up the tea tray.
"Despite the circumstances, I'm glad to see you and your family, Seijuro." He spoke with his back to Hiko. "Your visit was well-timed."
"I might have timed it better." Hiko managed a small (and not entirely humorless) smile. "And then again, I suppose I could have timed it far worse."
He stood as well, sighing. "For as much as it's worth, it's good to see you again as well."
…
…
Kenshin spent the better part of the week helping in whatever way he could around the temple, which gave him plenty of time to turn things over in his mind.
In a strange way, he was glad he was at least a ten-day walk away from Tokyo. Glad that he didn't have immediate access to Saigo Takamori, because if he did…
If he did...
He didn't want to let his mind stray too far down that path, and so he focused on what needed to be done and pushed the greater ramifications of the Kami and Buddhas Separation Order out of his mind for the time being.
But he could not let such a thing stand.
Part of him wondered if he could let Saigo Takamori himself stand, but if he dwelled on that for too long, his mind went nearly white-hot with rage and-
No.
He could not go down that path again.
But at the end of the week, once everything had been set right and they had said their goodbyes and walked some distance from Asukaderaji, Kenshin finally put to words what had been brewing in his mind for the past week.
"Shishou." He stopped in his tracks and faced his family. "Please escort my wife and son back to Mount Atago. I need to return to Tokyo."
Kenichi frowned up at him. "Touchan forgot something?"
Hiko arched an eyebrow. "Might you be thinking of paying a much-needed visit to Saigo Takamori?"
Tomoe went pale and turned wide eyes on her husband.
Kenshin's jaw clenched and unclenched several times before he was capable of spitting out a stiff, "Yes."
Hiko's eyes traveled down to rest on the sakabatou for a moment, then back to Kenshin's face. The question was perfectly clear.
"I don't want to," Kenshin managed, even if that wasn't quite true. Even if he wasn't quite ready to put words to what he would or wouldn't do.
Damn it.
"How long will you be gone?" Tomoe whispered.
Kenichi looked from his mother to his father with wide, questioning eyes. "When Touchan come back?"
Once Kenshin was certain he could speak without grinding the words out, he said, "I don't intend to stay very long. Just long enough…"
He was gripping the sheath of his sakabatou much tighter than necessary, he realized. He shook his head, releasing his grip, and turned to go.
Damn it all.
Hiko came over unhurriedly to stand directly in front of him. He looked up into his shishou's face.
"Just long enough to convince him that his crusade against temples is a pile of horse droppings?" Hiko's tone was arch. "Or just long enough to do something entirely different?"
Kenshin glanced at his wife and son before replying. "Long enough to put my vow to the test this early on."
NOTE THE FIRST
Iiiiit's the Buddhist hunts! *jazz hands* Remember those? No, of course you don't. None of us were alive for them. (Immortals, don't interact.) But you DO remember Anji (panda bear-looking 'roid rage rock smashin' monk) talking about them. Welp, heeeeeere they are!
Everything Jiyu said about why they happened is true, and it's also way more complex and tragic than that. I mean, YOU SAW WHAT HAPPENED TO ANJI AND HIS ORPHANS! And yeah, Saigo Takamori (one of the three great leaders of the revolution, along with our boy Katsura Kogoro and Okubo Toshimichi) was largely behind it, which is why Buddhist temples in his home domain of Satsuma were nearly ENTIRELY WIPED OUT.
But he got his in the end, I suppose, when he turned against the Meiji government, started the Seinan War, and died in the battle. But that doesn't happen until like 1877 or whatever, so he gets to destroy art, culture, and religion in the meantime. (Saigo stans, don't come at me. I'm sure some of you exist somewhere, and this is what ya boy did, okay?)
NOTE THE SECOND
Asukaderaji (or Asuka-dera Temple) is a real place in Nara, and you can google it. However, you have to google it as Asuka-dera Temple, because if you google as Asukaderaji, but without using actual kanji, the first several hits are... well... this story. Anyway, it's very temple-y looking. Today it is famous by virtue of being the one of the oldest extant temples in Japan, having been built in the eye-watering year of 588.
NOTE THE THIRD
I have an inbox full of NOTES and NEW READERS. Thank you for joining us, NEW READERS. And for my long-time readers, thank you for sticking with my NONSENSE week after week! Do fill up my inbox with even more notes, because I well and truly love it when you talk to me! (Even if a bunch of you are still talking to me about a very DEAD Ishin Shishi hitokiri.)
Kodachi Claws : "I especially liked Hiko's interrogation. It felt like a combination of Sherlock Holmes and Batman." That is the best description of Hiko I've ever read. I've been thinking about that all week. Thank you. As for "birth control tea." If by "birth control" you mean tea that caused miscarriage, yep, that existed. But tea that prevented pregnancy? Nope.
Althea : Kenshin is, indeed, a sweet, sweet, deadly man, and the ladies just luuuuuurve him. And YES, Shishio is dead. Thank you for your understanding in this difficult time.
Raj8 : I'm so glad you're here! Thanks for binging and leaving a comment. Hope to see you around more.
Pervy Sage : Exactly. There is no war in Baa Sing Se. Thank you for your understanding in this difficult time.
Skenshingumi : I have a lot of plans for Yumi. None of them involve Shishio, because he's dead, but you'll definitely be seeing more of her throughout this fic. She's a lot of fun to write, and it's also nice for Tomoe to have a female friend.
Pouasson : Thank you for the compliment about Enishi! He's one of my favorite characters to write. As for Shishio, nice try there, but he's DEAD. Dead people cannot be secretly alive somewhere. (Also? Your English is fantastic. Never apologize! It's soooo much better than my French, which is limited to a few phrases.)