Life of a Rurouni

Disclaimer: we all know that I do not own rurouni kenshin or any other characters from the
tv series. They are all the wonderful creations of the great Watsuki Nobuhiro. Hope you
enjoy this story as much I like writing it! Well, got to write this fast…I should be
studying for my exams now….
Happy Reading!!!

Chapter 2: The Twins

Soujirou, tired from all the walking that he had done today, decided to spend his money to
stay at the inn.

'Well, I knew that I would run out of money someday… I just didn't expect it to be so soon.
But I'll think of something tomorrow. Right now all I want is some sleep.'

Soujirou placed his swords by his futon and slowly fell asleep, unknowing of the danger
that was going around town.

~*~

"Did you get the girl?" asked a voice in the shadows.

"No, but I did get someone else." a cloaked man answered as he held an unconscious girl
up.

"tsk tsk. Still not good enough" replied a man as he stepped out of the shadows.

"But… I… can… explain…"

With a flick of his wrist, the man had silenced the soldier. As he cleaned the blood off
his sword, he walked up to the unconscious girl and placed her over his shoulder, as if she
didn't weigh anything. As soon as he had claimed his 'prize', the mysterious man
vanished into the shadows once again.

~*~

The sun was rising in the Eastern sky as Soujirou woke with a start.

'Not again… it's the fifth night in a row that I can't get a full night's sleep. Yare yare,
now what can I do? It's too early to leave and I can't go back to sleep.' He thought to
himself as he fell back down to lay on his futon.

There was something wrong, Soujirou could feel it but he just couldn't put his finger on
it. So, he decided to just lie there, thinking. Something even he had to admit he didn't
do often. The reason being he didn't like to rack his brains too often. Recalling what
happened during his last battle with Himura-san did not help him at all.


It was just ten minutes later when Soujirou found out that thinking just wasn't one of
his best qualities.
'It's still dark out…oh well.' Soon, he quietly made his way down the stairs so as to not
wake anyone. However, when he reached the bottom of the stairs, he realized that he wasn't
the only one awake. He heard someone sniffling in the shadows.

Curious, Soujirou walked slowly to the person, intending to find out what was wrong. As he
got closer, he realized that the person who was crying was a girl.
"Hello? Daijoubu ka?" Soujirou asked politely as he squat down to face the girl.
Looking up, the girl shook her head and flung herself on Soujirou. Soujirou, who had never
been this close to anyone before, didn't know what to do. But, ignorant as he was to people's
feeling, he was wise enough as to not run away. Instead, he just sat there, letting her cry
on him until she was ready to tell him what had happened.

When she was ready, she backed away and looked up at him.

"Gomenasai… I think I've ruined your sleeve." She said trying to pat away the tears that
stained his sleeve, but only managing in spreading it.

"Yuka-chan! What are you doing up and crying to early in the morning?" a shocked Soujirou
exclaimed, almost forgetting that there were people upstairs who were still sleeping. She
shook her head twice before answering.

"Iie iie, that's my twin sister. When they couldn't find me, they took her away and left
this note." She said holding up a small piece of paper, which was now stained with her tears.

Soujirou slowly took the piece of paper from her and scanned through it. Wanting to help
Yuka and her sister, Soujirou needed to ask some questions.

"Boku no namae wa(1)Seta Soujirou." He introduced himself, hoping she would do the same.

"Ah… watashi no namae wa Mayumi Kaede.(2)" She said softly in between her sobs. "They took
my sister looking for me… please, if you knew my sister, help me get her back."

"Hai!, but first, I need to know who is 'they' and what did they want with you that was so
important that they had to kidnap your sister?"

"I not too sure who they are exactly, because they hide in the shadows. But they did try
to take me away once but I managed to escape. I'm not too sure why they want me either,
and they just won't leave us alone."

"Then why don't you try moving on to the next town or something." Asked Soujirou.

At this, she looked up at him and smiled. Soujirou realized that she and her sister
share the same smile. 'Well of course they do, they're twins.' he thought to himself.

"Because we are not like that, ever since Yuka and I were young, we never ran away from
anything. Instead, we stood together all the time and always overcame any obstacle that we
came across." She answered proudly. "She was always the one who thought about the things we
would do, and I would do it. Like two bodies with one mind ne?"

At this, worry once again shone in her midnight blue eyes.

"It's not much to start with, but there may be a way to find out."

"But how? Even I have no idea who is behind this." asked the now confused Kaede.

"We give them what they want." Soujirou stood up and was beginning to walk away when…

"What, after they took my sister you want me to just give up and go with them too!"

"No, you'll see. I'll come back after the sun sets tonight and explain. Ja ne!" He said
walking out of the door.

"Matte(3)!"She said running after him.

But it was too late, Soujirou was nowhere in sight.

'Just what is that boy thinking of…' she sighed as she stood staring at the rays of lights
that were creeping slowly over the horizon.

*~@~*

1)Boku/watashi no namae wa: My name is (boku is usually only used by males, watashi by females)

2)Kaede: to everyone who watches the anime slam dunk, I know what you are thinking but its
not. Kaede as a girl's name means maple leaf.

3)Matte: Wait

Well, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, (though I can't believe that you actually read
it). Oh well, Pls r&r and tell me what you think about this story. Arigatou!!
(But...hehe…gomen nasai minna-san, I don't think I'll have time to continue this story
until the exams are over…which will be around late October)