You like me! You really really like me!… Okay, that was sporadic. Anyway, I would like to thank everyone who has read this Fanfiction (even those who haven't reviewed). It means a lot to me to have people compliment me on my very first one posted here on Fanfiction.net! So, in honor of my respectable readers, I have again posted a chapter early! Unfortunately, I will be out of town on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (i.e.: June 15-17, 2001), so I will not have access to my computer in order to work on this Fanfiction. I am apologizing in advance to any of you daily/nightly readers out there (because I am one of you—I know how you feel when a story isn't updated every day/night). Anyhoo, read on….
Ditto.
~*Chapter Three: Runaway*~
The usual morning chatter surrounded the table as Kaoru, Kenshin, Yahiko, and Sano ate breakfast. Hitomi, because she had obviously traveled a long way, was told by Kaoru the previous night that she could sleep in as long as she wished.
"You know, something's up with that new chick," Sano remarked as he downed yet another bowl of meso [AN: I can't really remember how to spell that name. Is it "meso" or "miso"?] soup.
"You shouldn't call her a 'chick', that you shouldn't," Kenshin interjected as he calmly took a sip of tea. "She is an expectant mother—though she is young—and deserves to be treated with dignity, that she does."
"Go Kenshin! Go Kenshin!" whooped Yahiko. "You show that rooster-head how to treat a lady!"
Kaoru simply watched with amusement as Sano stuffed a plump fruit into Yahiko's mouth, promptly shutting him up.
"As I was saying," Sano continued, "something's up with her."
"What do you mean?" Kaoru asked, intrigued. Sano's instincts had been right when it came to there being something suspicious about Megumi. But surely Hitomi's not an opium maker, right? And she DEFINITELY couldn't have been a manslayer or anything so…?
"Since I have to pass her room when I come in, I couldn't help but look in," Sano answered.
"So you mean you were peeking in my new student's room?!" interrupted Kaoru, her eyes flashing death threats to Sano. Soon, though, she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Sessha is sure he didn't mean it, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin stated, his violet eyes flashing with warmth. [AN: "sessha" is Japanese for "this unworthy one". This is how Kenshin refers to himself, because of his past (which you will find out about later on if you don't know about it already). Also, "-dono" is a suffix to endear utmost respect.]
"Right," Sano agreed. "Anyway, I happened to find our new comrade sleeping on her futon. And get this—there are feathers everywhere!"
"You rooster-head!" Kaoru exclaimed, hitting him on the head with her bamboo sword that she pulled out of thin air. "The pillows in there have feathers in them! She probably just had a pillow fight in her dreams or something!"
"Well, do those pillows have feathers in them as big as this?!" Sano retorted, pulling a pristinely white feather approximately ten or twelve inches in length.
"That is a big feather, that it is," commented Kenshin. "And you say that all the feathers are that big?"
Sano nodded. "There are hundreds of the things in there; all on top of her futon, surrounding her."
"Wait a minute," Yahiko interrupted, having finally dislodged the plump fruit from his mouth. "Did she ever mention anything about a boyfriend or a husband to any of you?"
Kaoru, Kenshin, and Sano all shook their heads in the negative.
"Well then maybe those feathers are like a protection spell or something!" Yahiko concluded. "Maybe she was being abused by her husband/boyfriend, and that's why she came here to learn the Kamiya Kasshin. She's a runaway!"
"Sessha doesn't think that's true, that Sessha doesn't," said Kenshin. "Hitomi-dono is much too young to be legally married anywhere in Japan, that she is."
Kaoru nodded in agreement. "But the brat's right; she COULD be a runaway."
"Hey, who're you calling a brat, hag?!" Yahiko inquired with annoyance. One of his eyebrows twitched with anger.
Kaoru just ignored him. "I mean, have you seen that look in her eyes? Do you think that maybe her boyfriend died? She looks so alone…." Her normally cheerful blue eyes fell downcast.
The conversation suddenly halted as the object of it came walking in through the doorway.
"Good morning," Hitomi greeted as she joined the group at the low table. She sported a pale green kimono that Kaoru had lent her the night before. "I hope I haven't overslept my limit." She smiled cheerily, though it didn't quite reach her eyes.
"Nonsense," Kaoru objected. "Sleep as much as you like," she ordered as she poured Hitomi a cup of tea. "Would you like some soup?"
Hitomi nodded fervently. "It smells delicious!" she exclaimed as the scent of Kenshin's concoction reached her nose. "You know, it's weird—I've been craving soup for a while now."
Kenshin smiled warmly. "It's the pregnancy, that it is."
"Hey, how far along are you anyway?" Sano prodded as he downed his seventh bowl.
"Four months," Hitomi answered. She swallowed a spoonful of the soup, and her eyes lit up. "Mmm! This is really good!"
"Kenshin made it all by himself!" Yahiko bragged. "He cooks so much better than that hag over there!"
Kaoru's spoon clattered as she dropped it into her bowl. "I will not have you calling me that in front of my new student!! BRAT!!"
Kenshin and Sano sweatdropped. Hitomi looked on, finally giggling after a few more insults were shared between Kaoru and Yahiko. "You two act just like brother and sister," she commented, still giggling.
Both Kaoru and Yahiko growled. "Arg. Megumi said the same thing," Kaoru whispered to Yahiko.
"Yeah. I'm beginning to think it's a conspiracy between these women that show up out of nowhere," Yahiko replied, whispering as well.
A WHILE LATER
"Okay, now this time I want you to thrust from upper right to lower left. You should be able to knock the wooden block off of the string," Kaoru instructed to both Hitomi and Yahiko.
"I'll go first," Yahiko volunteered, pointing to himself. He readied his stance, and then took off into a run. He let out his fierce—or "girly" as Kaoru would put it—battlecry, thrusting with all his worth.
He ended up face down in the mud.
Kaoru stood, laughing so much that she feared her lungs would burst. However, Hitomi approached the young warrior-wannabe and helped him out of the mud.
"Thanks," Yahiko said, wiping mud off his face. "But I didn't need your help, you know. I could've gotten out by myself."
Hitomi smiled wistfully. "You really remind me of him." She started walking back to the dojo, going to get a towel for mud-soaked Yahiko. "Kenshin does too," she continued as she paused by a now non-laughing Kaoru. She turned to look at Yahiko. "You remind me of that youthful and brash side of him; always attacking before calculating the odds." She averted her gaze to Kaoru. "But Kenshin—he reminds me of that gentle side. And then there's that mysterious part; that part that everybody has a problem with, that everybody claims is a danger or a curse." Again she smiled wistfully. "Kenshin has that side too, doesn't he? He has it in his eyes…just like his." And with that, she walked into the dojo.
Kaoru and Yahiko stood blinking, Yahiko also scratching his head. At the same time, they mused aloud, "Do you think she knows about the Battousai?"