Life of a Rurouni
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the rurouni kenshin characters…we all very well know who
does…soo….
Happy Reading!!!
Now… on with the story…
Sisters in training
Yuka woke up once again in the over furnished room she did he last time. Immediately, she
put her guard up, just in case.
"Well, look who finally decided to wake up."
"Where are you" Yuka jumped off the bed with a start. Even though this happen before, she
did not see herself wanting or wanting to get use to this.
"Nothing to worry about. I just brought breakfast."
"Breakfast?" Yuka asked and her stomach, as if on queue started rumbling.
"Come and eat. It seems like your sister would be arriving a little later then expected."
"Your plan didn't go as smoothly as you thought it would did it." Yuka grinned knowing
her sister would come and save her soon too.
The man again stood up from the shadows of the room. He walked over to a study table which
at the moment had a uniform of some kind on it.
"After you have eaten, please put this on and walk out of the room. There, the guards
outside will escort you to the training grounds." He said coldly as he walked out the room.
"Training grounds?" she whispered to herself.
She walked over to the food that was on the table. It had so many different dishes. Yuka
was reluctant at first as she thought that the food might have been drugged or something
like that. But her hunger was beyond her control. She has not eaten for two days now and it
was finally taking a toll on her.
"Besides, it can't be drugged can it. They want me fit and healthy to 'train' me in
something." She question herself as she reached out to a riceball first.
~*~*~*~
The next day past rather slowly for Soujirou. Time seemed to have slowed down since he
woke up that morning, up to when he sneaked out of town to do some self training while
waiting for Kaede's shift to end.
'Ahhh. It's been a long time since I practiced by myself. Probably a little too long.'
Soujirou thought as he held his left hand open in front of him. It was now sore and held
blisters from the rigorous training.
Soujirou proceeded to sit down under the shade of a green tree.
'I'm running out of time. But what can I do? My right arm is injured and I am not good at
using my katana with my left hand. I still have to train Kaede-chan, and she does not have
a proper weapon. Can she fight with just my wakazashi? Besides, we don't even know where
the enemy is, all we know is who they are.' At that very moment, Soujirou had a sudden urge
to break something, anything. There was too much to do and to little time.
Soujirou couldn't help but suddenly laugh at his situation. He was actually thinking for
himself, never in a million years would he be going through this if Shishio was still alive
and if he was with Shishio.
'Yare yare, I really have to go back to town now, it's finally getting dark.' Soujirou
picked up his katana and tied it to his side. When he came training this morning, that was
all he brought and needed. His katana. Without it, he would not be able to survive. With
it, comes trouble.
Soujirou walked back towards the outskirts of town with a heavy heart.
~*~*~*~
After Yuka had eaten, she walked towards the table which had the clothes he wanted her to
put on.
It had symbol on one of its sleeves. The material was clearly cotton. It looked like the
uniform that would belong to a ninja. She didn't want to put it on at first because it was
very short and it exposed her legs from her thigh and she was not very used to. But, when
she lifted up the uniform, she saw that beneath it there were stockings and a pair of shoes.
They were very thin and flat, as if made for mobility.
'It probably was.' Yuka thought as she was deciding in her mind if she should put it on
or not.
'He did say training grounds. What training could it be?' Then it struck her. The uniform
that she was holding also belonged to the people who kidnapped her two nights ago.
Immediately, she dropped them on the floor.
'He was thinking of training me to fight, probably my sister when she comes.'
Suddenly, the door opened once again. This time, it was the man again.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"What's wrong? Everything is. I know what you are planning for me." Yuka yelled.
"And may I know what it may be?" He asked.
"You want to train me to fight my sister don't you?" Yuka yelled on the verge of tears.
"Very smart." He said clapping his hands as he walked to the clothes which lay on the floor.
"Well, I'm sorry to break it to you, but I won't. I will never fight with my sister." She
said between sniffles.
"You will. Even if I have to do it by force." He said at the top of his voice as he
turned to walk out of the room. Leaving Yuka locked in the room.
~*~*~*~
"Seta-kun?" Kaede whispered as he tapped lightly on Soujirou's room door.
The door slowly slid open. Soujirou was all packed up and ready to leave.
"Are you ready?" he asked.
"Where are you going? Did you forget your promise?" Kaede asked.
"Iie Iie. But you don't expect me to do training here do you?" the boy asked.
"You mean we are not training here? But where else. The town is heavily guarded especially
at night." Kaede asked.
"You don't need to worry, I'll get us out."
"Alright, fine. But can you hold on for a while. I think I should change first, and there
is something I want to bring along." Kaede whispered as she lightly ran down the hallway to
her room.
Almost ten minutes later, Kaede finally returned dressed in what used to be Soujirou's
clothes.
"Gomen, I had to make some changes to your clothes for it to fit." The nervous girl
stood in front of him, waiting for him to say something.
"It's okay." He scanned through her outfit, he noticed that she had a katana by her side,
and his wakazashi in hand.
"You are carrying a katana." He sounded a bit surprised.
"Yes, it's the only thing that I have left from my past, and here." She stretched out her
hand to him with the wakazashi in it.
"Keep it for now. I won't be able to use it." He said looking at the wound that he had
received just the night before.
"Arigatou. Well, let's go." Kaede said as she made her way out of the room.
"Matte." Soujirou said as he picked up his katana with his left hand an ran out of the
room.
'Funny, that's the first time I had to ask somebody to wait for me.' Soujirou thought to
himself as he followed her.
~~~
"What are you doing?" She asked as he climbed up onto the roof of the inn.
"Getting us out of town for some training." Soujirou said as he helped her up the roof.
"On the roof?" She asked loosing her patience.
"It's the only way out of town." He said.
"Fine, but where do we go from here." She asked as a frown crossed her face.
"You sure are inpatient." He giggled.
"Hmp."
"Get on my back." The young boy told the girl.
"Why." She asked.
"Just get on.
"Fine." She said almost tempted beat him up at the same time.
"Ready? Hold on tight." Soujirou asked.
Before she could say anything, He tapped his foot once in the inn's roof and starting
half running and half jumping across the roofs, never stopping until they were out of town.
'That was a new way of using fighting techniques.' Soujirou thought to himself.
"That was fun." Kaede said.
"The training for it wasn't." He said plainly.
"Yare yare. What do we do now?" Kaede asked.
"Come with me."
Soujirou ran slowly, into the woods. Once in a while, he would peek behind to check if
Kaede could keep up with him.
When Soujirou finally found his training spot, he stopped and waited for Kaede. It did
not take long considering she wasn't far behind him through the whole thing.
"Next time, warn me before you just start running off." Kaede said, almost breathless.
"I did, and you need to build up your stamina in the short time that we have."
Soujirou said.
'Besides, I had to see how swiftly and fast you could move through the
forest.' Soujirou thought.
"Follow me does not count as a warning. Anyway, let's start." She said as she took one
last deep breath.
"Alright. Let's see how good you are." He said drawing his katana.
She instantly drew her katana to block his oncoming attack.
"What are you doing?" She asked as she pushed him back.
"Just fight." He said charging at her, katana in hand. He battled normally, not using
any special moves which Shishio had taught him. If he had, Kaede probably wouldn't be able
to block his attacks even if he was handicapped because of his wound.
The battle went on. Kaede attacked and defended much better then Soujirou had expected.
She deflected all of his attacks and managed to break though his defense once. She did all
this with ease, as if she was just swatting a fly.
'No wonder they want her to join them.' Soujirou thought as he continued his attack on
the girl. 'She battles with such grace too. The way she handles her katana is amazing. In
battle, she seems like such a different person too. She doesn't fight based on her emotions.'
Soujirou accessed her skills in his mind at the same time.
"Seta-kun. Can I please take a break now?" Kaede shouted to him when he came towards her
for a hit.
Soujirou, seeing her breathless, also thought that she could use the break.
"Fine." He stopped just in time. "When you are ready, call me, I'll be practicing
by the river just beyond the bushes there."
"Alright, arigatou." She said walking over to her bag. She sat down and pulled out a
water bottle to drink.
After almost ten minutes when she was ready to practice again, she walked over to the
bushes and peeked to see how Soujirou was coming in his own training.
What she saw amazed her. He was running so fast she couldn't see him until he stopped.
Right now, he seemed to be practicing his body stance and his sword handling with his left
arm. In the moon light, she could see that he was really very tired. Although he was not
breathing heavily, he was sweating a lot. There were beads of sweat dripping from his hair.
Soujirou didn't seem to know that Kaede was watching. If he did, he didn't show any sign of
acknowledgement that she was there. Keade was suddenly encouraged to do her best.
'If he can fight with his left hand, I'll make sure I can fight. I'll make sure nothing
happens to him when we go save my sister. He is after all helping me, and he has to go
through his training from the beginning because of me. The least I could do is improve as
much as I can to make things easier for him.' She thought to herself as she picked up her
katana and went to do some self training.
Half an hour went by since Soujirou left to do his training. He was wondering where or
what Kaede could be doing or why she was taking so long to catch her breath. Curiosity got
the better of him, so he went back to see what she was doing.
"Kaede-chan, what are you doing?" Soujirou asked as he emerged from the bushes. He was
surprised to see Kaede training, by herself. She was jumping, cutting trees with her attacks,
doing katas.
"Ahh, Seta-kun, I didn't want to bother you." She said blushing a little.
"It's okay. But, may I ask you where you learnt all those attacks." Soujirou said, a
little shocked at her amazing improvement.
"Oh, they were my father's. I remembered them from a long time ago. I used to watch him
practice in the backyard of our home. Why?" Kaede thought she had done something wrong and
was about to say something when Soujirou mentioned that it was time to go back to town if
she wanted to get some sleep before morning when she needed to work.
"Ano, can I stay here and practiced a little more?" She asked.
"Yes, if you think you can handle it." He said.
"I can." She said confidently.
"Okay fine then." Soujirou put his bag back on the floor. "I'm going to try some of my
attacks on you, try and defend yourself. If you don't think that you can handle it, then
just move out of the way."
"Alright, I'm ready." Kaede said getting into her stance.
Soujirou tapped his foot once on the ground and disappeared.
Kaede let her instincts take over. She stood there with her eyes close, every once in a
while, she would be able to hear him footsteps which came from every direction.
When Soujirou went in to attack Kaede, she turned around and blocked his attack. Both of
their katanas clashed in mid air.
Soujirou jumped back and landed on his feet. The momentum from the attack and her block
sent him sliding into the tree.
"Seta-kun. Seta-kun." Kaede called as she ran to him. When she got to him, she picked him
up and started shaking him.
"Ano…I'm okay. You can stop shaking me and put me down now." Soujirou said almost pleading
for her too.
"Aa. Gomenasai. Did I hurt you?" Kaede said, her face full of concern for the boy who she
had just knocked into a tree.
"Iie Iie, I'm fine. Arigatou." Soujirou said patting himself as he slowly stood up.
'She seems to be growing stronger by the minute. Even though she just started using a
katana, she was able to use my momentum against me. How did she do that? Not only that, all
her techniques are from her memories from her father. How is it possible that someone can
be born so talented? It probably is a good thing that she does not battle from her emotions.'
Soujirou thought to himself as he got ready once again for the second round.
"Ano. Seta-kun." Kaede said.
"Hai Kaede-chan. What is it?" He said.
She did not say anything. All she needed to do was point towards the already rising sun.
"What, its sunrise already. I think we had better go before the innkeeper wakes up and
find you gone. Get on, and hold on tight." Soujirou hung his katana at his side and bent
down, gesturing for her to get on his back.
"Umm. Let's go." She climbed on his back and closed her eyes to enjoy what little sleep
she might get before she reaches the inn for another day of serving people.
~*@*~
Ano… minna-san, another boring chapter. Sorry to torture you guys but…hehe…I can't help it.
Soujirou: Boring! Do you have any idea what I went through in this chapter.
S.C: I know, you were injured, trained with your left arm, got beaten up really badly by Kaede-chan.
Kaede: hehe. Gomenasi.
Soujirou: I wasn't beaten up that badly. Besides, we do defeat th…mpmmhmmmm
S.C: *ties Soujirou up and stuff a cloth in his mouth. *
S.C: Anyway, like I was saying, pls r&r and let me know what you think. Arigatou!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the rurouni kenshin characters…we all very well know who
does…soo….
Happy Reading!!!
Now… on with the story…
Sisters in training
Yuka woke up once again in the over furnished room she did he last time. Immediately, she
put her guard up, just in case.
"Well, look who finally decided to wake up."
"Where are you" Yuka jumped off the bed with a start. Even though this happen before, she
did not see herself wanting or wanting to get use to this.
"Nothing to worry about. I just brought breakfast."
"Breakfast?" Yuka asked and her stomach, as if on queue started rumbling.
"Come and eat. It seems like your sister would be arriving a little later then expected."
"Your plan didn't go as smoothly as you thought it would did it." Yuka grinned knowing
her sister would come and save her soon too.
The man again stood up from the shadows of the room. He walked over to a study table which
at the moment had a uniform of some kind on it.
"After you have eaten, please put this on and walk out of the room. There, the guards
outside will escort you to the training grounds." He said coldly as he walked out the room.
"Training grounds?" she whispered to herself.
She walked over to the food that was on the table. It had so many different dishes. Yuka
was reluctant at first as she thought that the food might have been drugged or something
like that. But her hunger was beyond her control. She has not eaten for two days now and it
was finally taking a toll on her.
"Besides, it can't be drugged can it. They want me fit and healthy to 'train' me in
something." She question herself as she reached out to a riceball first.
~*~*~*~
The next day past rather slowly for Soujirou. Time seemed to have slowed down since he
woke up that morning, up to when he sneaked out of town to do some self training while
waiting for Kaede's shift to end.
'Ahhh. It's been a long time since I practiced by myself. Probably a little too long.'
Soujirou thought as he held his left hand open in front of him. It was now sore and held
blisters from the rigorous training.
Soujirou proceeded to sit down under the shade of a green tree.
'I'm running out of time. But what can I do? My right arm is injured and I am not good at
using my katana with my left hand. I still have to train Kaede-chan, and she does not have
a proper weapon. Can she fight with just my wakazashi? Besides, we don't even know where
the enemy is, all we know is who they are.' At that very moment, Soujirou had a sudden urge
to break something, anything. There was too much to do and to little time.
Soujirou couldn't help but suddenly laugh at his situation. He was actually thinking for
himself, never in a million years would he be going through this if Shishio was still alive
and if he was with Shishio.
'Yare yare, I really have to go back to town now, it's finally getting dark.' Soujirou
picked up his katana and tied it to his side. When he came training this morning, that was
all he brought and needed. His katana. Without it, he would not be able to survive. With
it, comes trouble.
Soujirou walked back towards the outskirts of town with a heavy heart.
~*~*~*~
After Yuka had eaten, she walked towards the table which had the clothes he wanted her to
put on.
It had symbol on one of its sleeves. The material was clearly cotton. It looked like the
uniform that would belong to a ninja. She didn't want to put it on at first because it was
very short and it exposed her legs from her thigh and she was not very used to. But, when
she lifted up the uniform, she saw that beneath it there were stockings and a pair of shoes.
They were very thin and flat, as if made for mobility.
'It probably was.' Yuka thought as she was deciding in her mind if she should put it on
or not.
'He did say training grounds. What training could it be?' Then it struck her. The uniform
that she was holding also belonged to the people who kidnapped her two nights ago.
Immediately, she dropped them on the floor.
'He was thinking of training me to fight, probably my sister when she comes.'
Suddenly, the door opened once again. This time, it was the man again.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"What's wrong? Everything is. I know what you are planning for me." Yuka yelled.
"And may I know what it may be?" He asked.
"You want to train me to fight my sister don't you?" Yuka yelled on the verge of tears.
"Very smart." He said clapping his hands as he walked to the clothes which lay on the floor.
"Well, I'm sorry to break it to you, but I won't. I will never fight with my sister." She
said between sniffles.
"You will. Even if I have to do it by force." He said at the top of his voice as he
turned to walk out of the room. Leaving Yuka locked in the room.
~*~*~*~
"Seta-kun?" Kaede whispered as he tapped lightly on Soujirou's room door.
The door slowly slid open. Soujirou was all packed up and ready to leave.
"Are you ready?" he asked.
"Where are you going? Did you forget your promise?" Kaede asked.
"Iie Iie. But you don't expect me to do training here do you?" the boy asked.
"You mean we are not training here? But where else. The town is heavily guarded especially
at night." Kaede asked.
"You don't need to worry, I'll get us out."
"Alright, fine. But can you hold on for a while. I think I should change first, and there
is something I want to bring along." Kaede whispered as she lightly ran down the hallway to
her room.
Almost ten minutes later, Kaede finally returned dressed in what used to be Soujirou's
clothes.
"Gomen, I had to make some changes to your clothes for it to fit." The nervous girl
stood in front of him, waiting for him to say something.
"It's okay." He scanned through her outfit, he noticed that she had a katana by her side,
and his wakazashi in hand.
"You are carrying a katana." He sounded a bit surprised.
"Yes, it's the only thing that I have left from my past, and here." She stretched out her
hand to him with the wakazashi in it.
"Keep it for now. I won't be able to use it." He said looking at the wound that he had
received just the night before.
"Arigatou. Well, let's go." Kaede said as she made her way out of the room.
"Matte." Soujirou said as he picked up his katana with his left hand an ran out of the
room.
'Funny, that's the first time I had to ask somebody to wait for me.' Soujirou thought to
himself as he followed her.
~~~
"What are you doing?" She asked as he climbed up onto the roof of the inn.
"Getting us out of town for some training." Soujirou said as he helped her up the roof.
"On the roof?" She asked loosing her patience.
"It's the only way out of town." He said.
"Fine, but where do we go from here." She asked as a frown crossed her face.
"You sure are inpatient." He giggled.
"Hmp."
"Get on my back." The young boy told the girl.
"Why." She asked.
"Just get on.
"Fine." She said almost tempted beat him up at the same time.
"Ready? Hold on tight." Soujirou asked.
Before she could say anything, He tapped his foot once in the inn's roof and starting
half running and half jumping across the roofs, never stopping until they were out of town.
'That was a new way of using fighting techniques.' Soujirou thought to himself.
"That was fun." Kaede said.
"The training for it wasn't." He said plainly.
"Yare yare. What do we do now?" Kaede asked.
"Come with me."
Soujirou ran slowly, into the woods. Once in a while, he would peek behind to check if
Kaede could keep up with him.
When Soujirou finally found his training spot, he stopped and waited for Kaede. It did
not take long considering she wasn't far behind him through the whole thing.
"Next time, warn me before you just start running off." Kaede said, almost breathless.
"I did, and you need to build up your stamina in the short time that we have."
Soujirou said.
'Besides, I had to see how swiftly and fast you could move through the
forest.' Soujirou thought.
"Follow me does not count as a warning. Anyway, let's start." She said as she took one
last deep breath.
"Alright. Let's see how good you are." He said drawing his katana.
She instantly drew her katana to block his oncoming attack.
"What are you doing?" She asked as she pushed him back.
"Just fight." He said charging at her, katana in hand. He battled normally, not using
any special moves which Shishio had taught him. If he had, Kaede probably wouldn't be able
to block his attacks even if he was handicapped because of his wound.
The battle went on. Kaede attacked and defended much better then Soujirou had expected.
She deflected all of his attacks and managed to break though his defense once. She did all
this with ease, as if she was just swatting a fly.
'No wonder they want her to join them.' Soujirou thought as he continued his attack on
the girl. 'She battles with such grace too. The way she handles her katana is amazing. In
battle, she seems like such a different person too. She doesn't fight based on her emotions.'
Soujirou accessed her skills in his mind at the same time.
"Seta-kun. Can I please take a break now?" Kaede shouted to him when he came towards her
for a hit.
Soujirou, seeing her breathless, also thought that she could use the break.
"Fine." He stopped just in time. "When you are ready, call me, I'll be practicing
by the river just beyond the bushes there."
"Alright, arigatou." She said walking over to her bag. She sat down and pulled out a
water bottle to drink.
After almost ten minutes when she was ready to practice again, she walked over to the
bushes and peeked to see how Soujirou was coming in his own training.
What she saw amazed her. He was running so fast she couldn't see him until he stopped.
Right now, he seemed to be practicing his body stance and his sword handling with his left
arm. In the moon light, she could see that he was really very tired. Although he was not
breathing heavily, he was sweating a lot. There were beads of sweat dripping from his hair.
Soujirou didn't seem to know that Kaede was watching. If he did, he didn't show any sign of
acknowledgement that she was there. Keade was suddenly encouraged to do her best.
'If he can fight with his left hand, I'll make sure I can fight. I'll make sure nothing
happens to him when we go save my sister. He is after all helping me, and he has to go
through his training from the beginning because of me. The least I could do is improve as
much as I can to make things easier for him.' She thought to herself as she picked up her
katana and went to do some self training.
Half an hour went by since Soujirou left to do his training. He was wondering where or
what Kaede could be doing or why she was taking so long to catch her breath. Curiosity got
the better of him, so he went back to see what she was doing.
"Kaede-chan, what are you doing?" Soujirou asked as he emerged from the bushes. He was
surprised to see Kaede training, by herself. She was jumping, cutting trees with her attacks,
doing katas.
"Ahh, Seta-kun, I didn't want to bother you." She said blushing a little.
"It's okay. But, may I ask you where you learnt all those attacks." Soujirou said, a
little shocked at her amazing improvement.
"Oh, they were my father's. I remembered them from a long time ago. I used to watch him
practice in the backyard of our home. Why?" Kaede thought she had done something wrong and
was about to say something when Soujirou mentioned that it was time to go back to town if
she wanted to get some sleep before morning when she needed to work.
"Ano, can I stay here and practiced a little more?" She asked.
"Yes, if you think you can handle it." He said.
"I can." She said confidently.
"Okay fine then." Soujirou put his bag back on the floor. "I'm going to try some of my
attacks on you, try and defend yourself. If you don't think that you can handle it, then
just move out of the way."
"Alright, I'm ready." Kaede said getting into her stance.
Soujirou tapped his foot once on the ground and disappeared.
Kaede let her instincts take over. She stood there with her eyes close, every once in a
while, she would be able to hear him footsteps which came from every direction.
When Soujirou went in to attack Kaede, she turned around and blocked his attack. Both of
their katanas clashed in mid air.
Soujirou jumped back and landed on his feet. The momentum from the attack and her block
sent him sliding into the tree.
"Seta-kun. Seta-kun." Kaede called as she ran to him. When she got to him, she picked him
up and started shaking him.
"Ano…I'm okay. You can stop shaking me and put me down now." Soujirou said almost pleading
for her too.
"Aa. Gomenasai. Did I hurt you?" Kaede said, her face full of concern for the boy who she
had just knocked into a tree.
"Iie Iie, I'm fine. Arigatou." Soujirou said patting himself as he slowly stood up.
'She seems to be growing stronger by the minute. Even though she just started using a
katana, she was able to use my momentum against me. How did she do that? Not only that, all
her techniques are from her memories from her father. How is it possible that someone can
be born so talented? It probably is a good thing that she does not battle from her emotions.'
Soujirou thought to himself as he got ready once again for the second round.
"Ano. Seta-kun." Kaede said.
"Hai Kaede-chan. What is it?" He said.
She did not say anything. All she needed to do was point towards the already rising sun.
"What, its sunrise already. I think we had better go before the innkeeper wakes up and
find you gone. Get on, and hold on tight." Soujirou hung his katana at his side and bent
down, gesturing for her to get on his back.
"Umm. Let's go." She climbed on his back and closed her eyes to enjoy what little sleep
she might get before she reaches the inn for another day of serving people.
~*@*~
Ano… minna-san, another boring chapter. Sorry to torture you guys but…hehe…I can't help it.
Soujirou: Boring! Do you have any idea what I went through in this chapter.
S.C: I know, you were injured, trained with your left arm, got beaten up really badly by Kaede-chan.
Kaede: hehe. Gomenasi.
Soujirou: I wasn't beaten up that badly. Besides, we do defeat th…mpmmhmmmm
S.C: *ties Soujirou up and stuff a cloth in his mouth. *
S.C: Anyway, like I was saying, pls r&r and let me know what you think. Arigatou!
