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…


Family

Yuka could not help but wonder why a complete stranger was so determined to get her out
of here.

'Could it be true then? Those dreams?' Yuka was very confused now. Kaede could see the
confusion in her sister's eyes.

Even though Yuka didn't say anything about how she felt, Kaede could tell.

'Yuka, never changed since she was young. Always keeping her feelings bottled up inside
her.' Kaede stood up stretching out her unharmed hand to her sister.

"Let's go Yuka. Go home, or wherever you want to. I don't care. As long as we are together."
Yuka just stood there staring at her sister's deep blue eyes.

"No. You can't be my sister. I don't have any family. The closest people I have to a
family are here. I only pretended to be your sister that night because Kage asked me to."
Yuka got down on to the ground. She stood leaning against a training pole. Beside it,
there was a weapon case.

Apparently, someone had forgotten to keep it.

Suddenly, Kaede started laughing.

"What's so funny." Yuka said as she let her guard up.

'Why didn't I see this before.' Kaede thought. "If we weren't sisters, or twins I might
add. Why do we look so much alike? Why?"

"It's just a coincidence. That's all." Yuka said, trying to fight off the memories which
were haunting her mind at that instant. 'Coincidence...that's all...right?'

"No pair of strangers can look exactly alike. It's impossible. Even if it were possible,
what percentage is there in that happening?" Kaede walked towards her sister once again.

"Urusai!" Yuka reached into the case and picked out what was in it. A pair of Sai.(1) She
smirked and then charged at Kaede. Yuka had been very good at using the Sai. During practice,
she could beat anyone with it.

Kaede, not sure of how to defend herself against her sister's newly found weapon, just
decided to keep avoiding the attacks.

'How long can I keep this up? Definitely not forever.' Then, Kaede noticed a shiny surface
in the same case in which Yuka had pulled out the pair of sai.

Kaede turned and ran towards the case. Hoping that in it was the same weapon her sister
was using. When she had reached there, she opened the case fully and pulled out another
pair of Sai.

She rolled on her back and got on her feet just in time to defend Yuka's attack.

Kaede winced as she felt the pressure from her sister's attack on her wound. The wound
was opening, she could feel it. Kaede, having no other choice as she could no longer take
the pain, twisted her Sai from her sister's and jumped over Yuka and landed on her feet in
the middle of field. She was panting as she lowered her weapons to her side.

Yuka turned around and looked at her sister. Then, she smiled.

~*~*~*~

Soujirou had ignored Kaede when he had heard her call his name. He stood up straight.
Ignoring the pain from the recent attack he had received from Kage.

"That's more like it." Kage said as a smile crossed his face.

"I don't think you'll like this side of me any better..." The boy in blue replied.

"Well, we'll just have to wait and see." Kage said getting into his stance.

Soujirou just nodded as a reply. He got into stance for his next attack. 'Shun ten satsu,
it has to work.' Soujirou thought.

This time, Soujirou attacked first, intending to confuse his opponent with his attack.

Kage just stood there, waiting for Soujirou to come in for the attack.

Soujirou smirked before he went in for the kill, he attacked Kage's back.

At that instant, Kage fell to the ground. Soujirou stood up and looked back at his fallen
opponent.

Yuji shocked at what had just happened, stood there for a while before he ran towards his
father.

Soujirou then remembered that Kaede was here with him to when he heard the sound of metal
against metal.

The young boy turned his head and saw Kaede panting in on the field. He was shocked when
he noticed blood dripping down her arm. He dashed between the two sisters, intending to
bring the two together without hurting either one of them. Though, he did have an urge to
just stand by and let them fight it out. But he didn't.

"Yamette!" The boy shouted as he stood between the twins. "What do you think you are
doing!?"

Yuka shocked to see Soujirou here, turned her head to see where Kage was. When she saw
Kage lying on the floor in Yuji's arms, anger suddenly overtook her.

She lowered her head, letting her hair fall over her face to prevent people from seeing
her tears.

"Urusenai!" She charged at Soujirou intending to take revenge for her 'father'.

"Seta-kun. Watch out!" Kaede said behind him, when she noticed that Sojirou had not
gotten out of the way.

Soujirou stood there, sword not drawn, waiting for Yuka to strike him. When Yuka reached
him, he found an opening and hit her using his fist. Yuka fell over onto Soujirou.

"Yuka!" Kaede ran to her sister, hoping that Yuka's injuries were not serious.

"Daijoubu. I didn't do much to her. She'll be okay." Soujirou handed Yuka over to Kaede
as he stood up glaring at Yuji who was crying as he drew his own sword.

"It's over." Soujirou said as he approached the boy.

"No it's not! Father taught me never to give up. To keep on trying." Yuji shouted as he
got into a stance.

'Battou jitsu, not bad.' Soujirou thought as he too got into the same stance as the boy.
'I will never make the same mistake like I did with Himura. Never underestimate your
opponent.'

"Yuji-kun." Yuka said weakly as she walked up from behind Soujirou.

"Momiji-chan?!" He said, not letting his guard down from Soujirou.

Soujirou just stood there, still in his stance. He could attack at any moment if he
wanted to.

"Onegai, ne? It's over. I'm going home. Right now, you need to go back home to too." Yuka
said.

"Yuka..." Kaede whispered as she saw her sister go up against the boy.

"Momiji-chan..." Yuji was cut off by the girl before he could finish his sentence.

"Iie. My name is Yuka." She said as she noticed the hurt in the boy's eyes. By this time,
she was already in front of him. Holding the blade of his katana down with her hand.

Soujirou twitched as he noticed that Kage was gone.

"Kaede-chan! Yuka-chan! Watch out, Kage is gone..." At this, all turned their attention
to the place where Kage was lying.

At this, Soujirou felt pain on his right leg. When he looked down, he saw a shuriken(2)
stuck in his thigh. He pulled it out, wincing at the pain.

"Very good of you to notice that I was gone." Kage said as he suddenly appeared behind
Soujirou and slashed his back.

Soujirou bent forward as he felt the cold metal of the blade connect with his skin,
drawing blood.

"This isn't good." Kaede said as she went to help Soujirou.

Now, Kage was up against three very skilled and angry fighters.

Yuji had taken his place at the other end of the field, not intending to have any part in
this fight anymore. Either way, he would lose something. If his father won, Yuka would go
stay with them, but, it would no longer be the same. On the other hand, if his father
lost, he would lose his father and his 'sister'.

Kage sheathed his katana and straightened himself.

"You must be wondering how I survived your attack, ne Seta-kun?" Kage said as he noticed
Soujirou expression.

No reply came from the blue clad boy.

"First of all, you have become weak. Your attack wouldn't kill a cow!" Kage said, almost
laughing.

Soujirou twitched with anger as the listened to the man criticize his technique.

"The second is the main reason why I'm not dead right now. You used the back of your
blade to attack me. Thus, you slowed down your own attack because the shape of the sword
was not made to attack like that." Kage said with a smirk on his face.

Soujirou's shock was not as obvious as the two girls standing beside him. Although in his
mind, he was very confused.

'I used the back of my blade? It can't be. Can it? I remember using the front blade.'
Soujirou thought.

"You are getting weak Soujirou-kun. If Shishio was here,..." Kage stopped in mid sentence
as he looked at the boy.

"That was the past. I will not kill people unnecessarily anymore." Soujirou said.

"Exactly, that philosophy will get you killed one day." Kage said.

"Well, I have a feeling that that day is not today or anytime soon." Soujirou said. "You
don't want me dead. You want to keep me alive to run errands for you."

"You are wrong there Soujirou-kun. The objective of the battle had changed. If you lose,
I'll keep the girls. I don't need you anymore. With all those thoughts in your head, I don't
think you would even kill to save your live. Let alone others."

"Nani!" Soujirou said. This time, Kage has really done it. 'If I do kill him, it would
only be one, right? It wouldn't matter that much, would it?' Soujirou's mind contemplated
his situation.

"Seta-kun." Kaede shot Soujirou a worried glance form the corner of her eyes.

"So, Soujirou-kun, you'd better make your decision fast, time is running out and I'm
losing my patience." Kage said as he stood in his stance.

"Kaede-chan, take Yuka-chan and move out of the way." Soujirou told Kaede, concentrating
on his current opponent.

"Demo..." Kaede was about to disagree, when Soujirou turned to look at her.

She saw someone different. Not the Soujirou who was always smiling. True, the Soujirou
before her was smiling, but it he was not the same person. Something inside him changed.
Scared, Kaede obeyed him and helped Yuka out of range.

"Good choice." Kage said. "But, whatever choice you make, it won't be good enough."

No reply came from the boy, the smile on his face was enough. Standing up straight as he
once again got into position for his Shun ten satsu. This time, he was not intending to
turn the blade over. No, he wasn't.

"That technique again? Well then, come on." Kage said, as confident as ever.

Soujirou started his technique. He started running as fast as he could, forgetting about
all his injuries. He put everything into this attack. If he doesn't get this attack in,
both he and Kage knew that he was a goner.

Everything was going as Soujirou had planned. When Kage saw Soujirou coming in for the
attack, He blocked the Soujirou blade with his katana.

Kage smiled, but it soon faded as he noticed the boy smile even wider. As if Soujirou
wanted him to block his attack.

Soujirou took this opportunity and attacked Kage with his saya in his left hand. Kage
fell once again, this time, he smiled as he did.

'Shishio, you have really done a good job with this boy.' Kage thought as he let himself
fall into unconsciousness.

Soujirou stood there, panting. When he heard footsteps approaching him, he spun around on
the balls of his feet and drew his katana.

Kaede and Yuka stood there staring at Soujirou. Shocked to see him to tense.

"Seta-kun. It's over. You did it." Kaede said.

Soujirou did not reply, he just lowered his katana and everything around him turned dark.

~*@*~

1) The Sai - (This is like a set of two small sword-like things. Usually the sais are used
in pairs. A third sai was hidden in the obi (belt) and was used to replace one sai that was
thrown at the charging enemy. If the throw was succesful, the fight could be over all at
once. If not, the distraction could be just enough to get close enough to stab with the sai
or to counter an attack and to win the battle.

2)The Shuriken - The word shuriken means ``a dagger hidden in a palm,'' so all daggers small
enough to hide in a palm were called by this name. They have many variety in their shape
and usage. Some are starlike shaped, and thrown with spin. Some other are needlelike shaped,
and thrown just like a throwing dagger. Though a shuriken can hardly penetrate armor protection,
it was enough because ninja threw it at unarmed target mainly. Venom was used with shuriken
normally.

There. Finally done. Yea!!! 'though there is still one more chapter' Arigatou minna-san.
Pls remember to r&r while you are here. Arigatou!!!