Mirai

Disclaimer: Sessha does not own the anime rurouni kenshin or any of it's character.
'Although it would be nice too....* sniff sniff *'
They all belong to the great Watsuki Nobuhiro.


Trust


"Konnichiwa Himura-san." Soujirou smiled. He expected the reaction he was receiving, so it
was not too bad.

"Soujirou, is there any particular reason you are here?" Kenshin stiffened as he sat down
in front of Soujirou.

"Nope, none really. I was just passing through, and I thought it would be rude of me not
to at least come and greet you." The boy picked up his cup again and sipped the tea.

"I see." Kenshin let up his guard as he heard someone approaching.

If Soujirou had heard of felt it, he did not show any sign that he did.

"Kenshin, Saitoh is here." Kaoru was now wearing her training uniform. Kenji was nowhere
in sight. Kenshin use assumed that Kaoru had left him in the care of Tsujimoto-san again.

Kaoru left as suddenly as she appeared, as soon as Saitoh entered the room, she had ran back
to the training hall to continue the kendo lesson.

"Aa, Himura, it seems like you have another guest today." Saitoh turned to look at Soujirou.

The boy shifted in his seat, feeling a little uncomfortable. Being wanted for murder did that
to you if you were in a room with a police officer. And it did not help that the officer
was an ex-Shinsen gumi member.

"Seta Soujirou. I didn't think that I would find you here." Saitoh grinned at the idea that
came into his mind.

"Aa, I was just passing through, and I just came to visit Himura-san." The former tenken
tensed up as Saitoh took a seat beside him.

A moment of silence came after.

"Well, Himura-san, I'm sorry to intrude. I really should be going now." Soujirou stood up
and bowed.

"Matte." Saitoh said.

The boy froze, thinking that he was going to get arrested. He wanted to reach for his katana,
but remembered that he had entrusted it to the boy at the restaurant. Instead, the boy just
decided to act normally.

"Is anything the matter?" Soujirou turned to face the two men before him. He had his usual
smile on his face, to him, it was as normal as he could get.

A frown slowly crept across Kenshin's face as he realized Saitoh's plan, but he did not say
anything about it.

"Sit down, and we'll talk about things." Saitoh grinned.

'This can't be good.' "Hai." Soujirou took it one step at a time. Literally. He walked
slowly towards his seat and sat down, not once looking at the ex-Shinsen gumi captain.

"I don't know if you know about this, but recently, some murders have been taking place.
All of the victims were former Isshin Shishi members." Saitoh ignored the look Kenshin shot
at him when he said this.

"And you think I committed them?" Soujirou replied, not really surprised if that was what
the older man thought.

"No, but we need all the help we can get to find and stop the person or people doing this.
Many people are getting insecure, and are losing their confidence in the police each day.
Therefore, we must act fast."

"So, what do you want me to do?" Feeling safer about his situation now, the young boy
relaxed a little, but still kept his guard up in case Saitoh intends to change his mind.

"Well, if word gets around that the tenken is in town, there could be a possibility that
whoever committed this would want you on his side." The man answered.

"No." Kenshin said.

"And why not?" Saitoh turned his attention towards the red-head.

"Firstly, you want to risk someone's safety just to find out who the person is. Secondly,
don't you think the person might realize what you are trying to do?" Kenshin said calmly.

"Have you ever thought that you, Himura-san, could be next. It's obvious that they are
targeting and murdering ex Isshin Shishi members." Saitoh grinned.

"I don't care, I will be able to protect myself...and my family."

"Ano, I don't mean to interrupt, but Himura-san, I think he is right." Soujirou cut in
after he had sorted the events out in his mind.

"See, even the boy agrees with me." Saitoh smiled. Thinking and knowing that he has won,
Saitoh stood up and walked to the closed shoji.

"If you have any better ideas, contact me. Excuse me." Saitoh soon escorted himself out of
the dojo.

'What is it, Himura. I know you know something. But, just what is it?' Saitoh questioned to
himself as he made his way back to his office.


Kenshin and Soujirou sat in silence. Soujirou, not knowing what to say just sat there,
looking as he twirled his fingers. Kenshin felt angry, and concerned. But he was happy to
know that Soujirou would help him. Yet, if the boy does, he would be risking his own life,
and Kenshin would not allow that.

"Soujirou." Kenshin was the first to speak, breaking the cold silence between them, but not
relieving the tenseness in the air.

"Hai." Soujirou looked up at the older man, expecting a long lecture.

"Do you remember what you wanted to do eight years ago?"

"Hai, to find my truth." Soujirou wondered if this was a trick question.

"Then, continue your journey. There is no use staying."

"Himura-san, please don't say anything. Like Saitoh said, you or your family could be next
on the man's list. If you don't care about yourself, think about them. You can't always
protect the ones you love, by yourself. Please, Himura-san, let me help. And who knows,
maybe I can find my own truth from this experience." Soujirou stopped, taking a deep breath.
'I wonder if I have talked to much before...'

Kenshin looked up at the boy before him. 'He has grown a lot mentally in the long time he
was traveling.'

"Arigatou Soujirou." Kenshin bowed.

"Ahh...it's okay." Soujirou places and hand on the back of his head and starts laughing.

"Ano, Himura-san...Does this mean I can keep my katana with me?" Soujirou asked.

"Yes, is anything the matter?" Kenshin asked, scanning through the blue clad boy only to
notice that he was not carrying a katana.

"Ano...well, I left it with a boy called Yahiko, and I don't think he would be too happy
when I ask him back for it." Soujirou sighed. How was he supposed to fight or protect
anything with his katana. 'My leg muscles are strong, I wonder if I can fight.'

"Hai, I'll get it back from him tonight." Kenshin said, a little confused as to why Yahiko
wanted Soujirou's katana.

"Arigatou. Demo, I have another problem." The young boy blushed at his awkwardness.

"Hm, nani ka?" Kenshin asked one more time.

"Ano...ano sa...eto...well, the problem is, I've used up all my money already, and since I
was not planning to stay in town, I thought it would be alright, but now,...well...it seems
like I will be spending awhile here."

"Well, if you want, you can stay here. It seems we have an extra room since I moved out."
Kenshin blushed for a short moment.

"Moved to where, aren't you still staying here?" Soujirou turned to look at the man, who
was trying very hard to answer his question.

"Can I not answer this question?" Kenshin, without waiting for an answer, pulled Soujirou
onto his feet and dragged him to his room.

"Huh?" The boy only managed saying that before having his brains jumbled around in his
skull from the speed Kenshin was dragging him.

"Until this whole mess is settled, you can stay here." Kenshin opened the shoji to his
original room, letting the boy wander around inside awhile to get use to it.

Soujirou took a step in, before turning around.

"Arigatou, Himura-san, you don't know how much this means to me." Soujirou bowed, feeling
very grateful to the man.

"But, how do you think the boy or you wife will react to this?" Soujirou lifted his head
to look at Kenshin.

"It's alright. But, can you do me a favor?" Kenshin whispered it into the boy's ear.

Soujirou nearly fainted when he heard what his duty was.


~ 10 minutes later ~

Kenji was bouncing happily on Soujirou, who was not too happy about his current position.
Kenji was sitting on Soujirou's shoulder, and every once in awhile, the little boy would
pull his hair.

Soujirou laughed, as he reached to take the boy down, feeling something tugging at his hair
even though the boy stopped moving.

When the former tenken pulled harder, he realized that his hair was in the boy's mouth as
he felt something wet reach his skull. 'Drool?...* Sweatdrop *'

The blue clad boy moved towards the kitchen where Himura was. Hoping that he could solve
this problem.

Kenshin expecting something like to happen when he saw Soujirou put the boy on his shoulder
removed the boy who was now chewing on Soujirou's hair.

Kenji didn't stop chewing, until he realized he was in his father's arms and had been
biting nothing but air for the past few seconds. The little boy stretched out his hands,
reaching for Soujirou hair.

"I think you should wash you hair now, it's in a mess." Kenshin held on to the wriggling
boy in his arms.

"Aa. Arigatou." Soujirou walked out, and straight to the bathroom.

"Kenji, how many times...Itai!" Kenji had bitten his father's hand, Kenshin could not do
anything but to drop his son, who landed on his feet. The little boy was out of the room
before Kenshin could recover.

The little boy was at the bathroom door before Kenshin could make it down the hallway.

Hearing someone knocking on the door, Soujirou just hurried and splashed some water on his
hair, soaking it, before using some shampoo (??) and washing it off. As soon as he was done,
the knocking stopped and Soujirou opened to door to see who it was.

Outside, Kenji was struggling in Kenshin arms before wriggling out and jumping on Soujirou
again.

Luckily, Soujirou's reaction was fast, if not Kenji would have probably fallen face flat on
the floor. He caught the boy, and stared at Kenshin.

The other man was only happy that Kenji was out of his hand and he was able to go back to
his cooking before he burnt his tofu. And no one likes overcooked tofu.

Soujirou spent the rest of the day playing with the little boy, having his hair pulled and
chewed on over and over again. Kenji even tugged at Soujirou's hakama once and it almost
dropped. Apparently, Kenji had loosened the strings at Soujirou waist when he was struggling
in his arms outside the bathroom.

'It is going to be a long day. I never thought looking after a single child would be this
hard.' Soujirou mumbled to himself before going back to looking after the little boy.

At dinner that night, Sanosuke had come over again to have dinner, and Yahiko was home
early as there were fewer customers today.

"Tadaima!" The spiky head boy shouted as he walked through the dojo's gates.

"Oh, welcome back." Soujirou looked up and smiled. The boy was sitting at the steps of the
dojo, trying very hard to hold the hyperactive boy in his arms.

"Tenken! What are you still doing here?" Yahiko asked.

At that moment, Kenji jumped off Soujirou's lap and jumped up and down.

"Tenken, Tenken..." Then, he started laughing as he fell over.

"Yare yare, I'd rather you not call me that. I don't go by that name these days." Soujirou
smiled before picking Kenji up.

"Well, what have you done?" Yahiko asked.

"Nothing, I've been here the whole day." Soujirou wanted to add more details, but thought
against it.

"Nothing, then why is everyone staying indoors? And when they come out, their talking
about a boy in blue, who was always smiling. The Akebeko was nearly empty today and Tae
was so downhearted that she closed early." Yahiko nagged.

"He didn't do anything." A tall man walked through the gates.

"Sanosuke! How would you know?" Yahiko spun on his heels to find the former Zanza standing
behind him.

"Well, on my way here, I saw Saitoh and he told me part of the story." Sanosuke walked
towards Soujirou and patted him on the back.

"Very brave of you do look after that boy." The tall man whispered into Soujirou's ear
before walking into the usual room in which he would find his dinner.

At Yahiko's side, hung Soujirou's katana. Yahiko, trusting the boy a little more, threw it
at the boy. Soujirou caught it with his free hand.

Without a word, Yahiko walked passed the other boy, and made his way to the room.

'That went well.' Soujirou took one last look of the sunset before he walked back in.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Minna-san, arigatou for all the reviews. Pls continue to r) Arigatou!!