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.

Distressed


The once proud member of the Oniwabanshu was now sitting, withered like dying flower, back
hunched. Okina must admit, age is the one thing he can not run away from.

"So, Himura, any special reasons for being back in Kyoto?" The old man sipped his tea as he
waited for an answer.

It had been eight long years since he had last met the red-headed samurai. The last time he
had come to Kyoto, it was to stop Shishio. What could be the reason this time? Was it that
bad that the former tenken had to come along a help?

"Well, a month ago..." Kenshin goes on, telling the old man everything he knew.

Once in a while, Okina would look past the former battousai's face, and his eyes always
seem to meet the smiling face of a certain blue clad boy.

"So that's why we are here. To get back my son and to get Hijikata for all those people he
had murdered to get to me." The red-haired man clenched his fist, cutting of the blood
circulation to them, turning then white for an instant.

"I see, so, what can I do for you?" He asked, sure that there had to be a catch to the man
coming to 'visit' an old man like him especially during such a crucial time, for him and
his friends.

"I was wondering if you could let us stay here while we are in Kyoto, since..." Kenshin's
voice softened, a little nervous of how to put this.

"Huh? Sorry, you will have to speak up; these ears of mine don't seem to be working the way
they used to eight years ago."

Okina leaned forward.

"We seem to be...um..." Kenshin blushed at his situation. Even though he was a rurouni for
ten years, he had not been in need for money in such a long time.

"Himura-san is trying to that he is" Before Soujirou could finish his sentence, Sanosuke
decided to do it himself.

The tori atama leaned forward, before shouting, "BROKE!" at the already half deaf old man.

"Oroooo?!?!?" Kenshin felt backwards, landing on the floor, a little stunned at his friend's
loud voice.

Soujirou just sat there, staring at Kenshin, wondering why he was so shaken. Both stared at
each other from their places. Kenshin was in a rather painful position, but he pushed it
aside, ignoring the fast that his neck was hurting.

"Ano, Himura-san, I think you can get up now." Soujirou said, help the man sit up.

"Okina, would you..." Hikaru opened the shoji to the room, dashing in when she saw the old
man.

He was lying on the floor, legs and hands twitching in mid-air.

"Okina-san, Daijoubu?" She asked, her face showing only worry for the old man.

"Aa. Arigatou." Okina said, sitting back up, at the same time, gesturing her to leave.

Once the girl was gone...

"Whoa, Oyaji, where did you find her?" Sanosuke asked, half drooling.

"She's my granddaughter."

* Tong *

Everyone in the room fell, shocked at what they had just heard.

"She does not even look like you, how can she be..." Kaoru said, before being cut off.

"Yeah, I didn't know you were married in the first place." Sanosuke laughed, and almost hit
the old man on his back if he didn't remember who he was about to do that to.

"No, no. Her parents and her sister had passed away two years ago, and she needed somewhere
to go, so I adopted her."

"Che." The street fighter leaned back against a wall.

Before Yahiko could even think of something to say, Kenshin had already cut in to continue
where he had left off.

"Well, anyway, since we seem to be rather short of money right now, I was wondering if you
could let us stay here." Kenshin asked.

"Well, of course." Okina replied.

"Arigatou."


That night, dinner went surprising well, even if it was Kaoru who had done the cooking.

"Jou-chan, you really overdid yourself." Sanosuke stared at all the dishes laid out on the
table in front of him, drooling as he did.

"Yeah, Kaoru-san, everything looks too nice to eat." Soujirou added.

'Does he mean that or is he just too afraid to eat it.' Kaoru asked herself as she forced a
smile on her face.

"Itadakimasu!" Yahiko said, before picking up his chopsticks and gobbling his food down.

Sanosuke was not too far behind the boy, as soon as Yahiko was gobbling down his food, he
picked up his chopsticks, and just started stuffing himself, picking at some of the fish,
tofu and some other dishes once in awhile.

Okina was a little taken back by the spread that Kaoru had prepared at first, he just
stared at his food, not sure what to so with it, as Yahiko and Sanosuke fight over each
other's food.

"Okina-san, I think you'd better start eating if you don't want it to be eaten by somebody
else." Soujirou told the old man, remembering the time that happened to him.

"Hai! Arigatou Soujirou. I suppose that you speak of that from experience." Okina said,
before gulping down his sake.

Soujirou only laughed his reply.

Kenshin watched on, not touching his food. He was thinking about someone else now. Kaoru
who had noticed her husband's mood right now, poked him in the arm, startling him.

"Kenshin, I think you should start eating your food before it gets cold, or before something
worse happens to it." Kaoru swatted away a hand which was on its way to Kenshin's rice.

"Itai! Busu, what did you do that for?" Yahiko yelped as he held on to his sore hand.

"Busu?!" Kaoru clenched her fists into balls, about to jump on the boy, until...


"Himura-san!" Kaede pulled the shoji open so hard that it rattled the walls.

"What is it?" Kenshin asked.

Kaoru and Yahiko had stopped fighting, letting go of each other. Soujirou calmly placed
down his bowl and chopsticks as he turned to face the girl at the door. Sanosuke simply
turned to look at the girl. Okina, unlike everyone else, was simply to drunk to keep even
himself focused on something for more than two seconds.

The girl stumbled into the room, panting as she handed a shuriken (1) and a note to Kenshin.

"It came through the window." The girl said, wobbling a little.

"Kaede-chan, daijoubu?" Soujirou was the first to notice the blood which had stained the
girl's sleeve. He walked up to her, noticing her shaking a little.

"Aa." She replied.

Kenshin looked down at the shiny star shaped weapon.

'Where have I seen this before?' Kenshin's eyes opened wide when he realized that these
weapons were usually coated with poison.

Then, Kaede's eyes slowly fluttered shut as Soujirou caught her before she hit the floor.

"Soujirou, hurry and take her to Omasu." Kenshin said, receiving a nod from the boy.

Soujirou dashed out of the room, down the stairs, attracting everyone's attention as he ran
to find Omasu in the kitchen.


Kenshin slowly opened the note, shocked when a lock of red hair fell out of it. Both
Sanosuke and Yahiko shot worried glances at their friends. Kaoru picked up the lock of
hair, while Kenshin's hands shook as he opened the letter.

~

Glad to see you arrived in Kyoto. A little earlier than I expected, but, it does not matter.
One of my men will go to where you are now, and escort you to a place. Well, see you
tomorrow I guess. I'm sure you'll turn up with your friend, because I think this little boy
here misses everyone.

~

Kenshin passed the letter on to Kaoru, who read it out loud. Kenshin picked up the lock of
hair on the floor, staring at it, mind drifting away.


~*~*~*~

"Stay still!" Hijikata placed the little imp of a boy on a chair, before placing a bowl in
front of him.

Thinking that the boy knew how to eat on his own, Hijikata walked away, needing to tend to
his own things. He walked to his work table on the other side of room.

Kenji stared at the food. Then he looked at the tall man sitting by the other table. Then
back at his food. Quietly, the boy inched to the edge of chair, jumping onto the floor
quietly, before tiptoeing to Hijikata's side.

There, he yanked hard on the man's ponytail.

"Itai! What do you think you are doing! I thought I told you to eat." Hijikata picked up
the little boy, carried him back to the table and dumped him onto the seat again.

This time, he waited for the boy to pick up the spoon before he walked away.

Kenji who had the spoon in hand, scooped up some rice in it and catapulted it, aimed it at
the man's head.

The rice flew through the air, landing hard on the man's head.

"What did you do that for?" Hijikata turned to look at the boy, but realized that he was
gone.

Apparently, it seems that Kenji had inherited his father's accuracy and speed, the boy
yanked hard on the older man's hakama, loosening the string that held it up a little.

Hijikata picked up the boy once again, sitting him at the table. The picked up the
chopsticks and started feeding Kenji. Little by little.

'Kuso! I suppose that Kaede has been pampering him. I'll have to talk to her later.'
Hijikata then continued to feed the little boy.

As soon as the rice had entered the boy's mouth, he pretended to chew on it for a while,
and waited for Hijikata to look away.

Once his opportunity came, he spit out the mashed up food that was in his mouth at Hijikata.

"This is going to be a long, long night." He mumbled curses as he tapped his fingers on the
table, listening to Kenji laugh and giggle at him.

~*~*~*~*~
1) 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 varieties in their shape
and usage. Some are star-like shaped, and thrown with spin. Some 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.

Ahh...gomen gomen minna-san...lol...I changed the name of the girl and gave her name to
Hijikata's....nvm...I shouldn't spoil it. Anyway, Arigatou minna-san, pls r&r , ne? ;)

p/s: Arigatou kitsune-chan, for giving me the title.