Kokoro No Itami Nakunaru Made Zutto: The Will of the Rurouni
By: Hitokiri Gentatsu
Author's Note/Disclaimers: All the usual disclaimers apply. Hopefully I will be putting up several chapters at once as I have finished several already. Please R/R. Thanks again.
Chapter Three: Truth and Rumor
"My answer is with this Sakabatou."
Himura Kenshin
Seisou Hen
Fansub
Kenshin did not notice Toshihiro's scrutiny or his growing curiosity about him because he was so deep in his own thoughts about what had brought him here on a day that he would not normally be in the village.
"There is a reason I came to see you today, Toshihiro-dono." Kenshin looked up at him and smiled faintly. "I was hoping you would be able to tell me something."
Toshihiro started out of his reverie and looked at Himura. "If I can be of service, then I shall. What seems to be troubling you?"
Kenshin shook the hair out of his eyes and pushed it back away from his face in a nervous gesture. He wasn't sure how to tell Toshihiro his problem without giving himself away but he had to know, had to find out what was wrong with him. He had been feeling weary and easily tired for no reason that he could see, even when is sleep was peaceful. It seemed to him as if his body was slowing down and old wounds were beginning to ache, particularly the ones on his back. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment and then plunged ahead, speaking carefully.
"I seem to feel more worn and tired then I should and some of the wounds I received in battle years ago are aching.
Toshihiro's eyes widened at this news and his mind began to seriously consider that his friend might indeed be the legendary hitokiri. He fell into his professional voice and used it to mask his growing curiosity. "Have you been working harder than normal?"
"No." came the swift reply. "I'm doing less actually, much less."
"Have you had this trouble before?"
"I have been feeling tired a lot recently and I have not been sleeping well." Kenshin sipped his tea again and looked up at his friend, who was deep in thought.
"How old are the wounds that are troubling you?"
Kenshin thought for a moment, wondering if Toshihiro would know enough about the goings on four years past that would connect him to the Ishinshishi's strongest and most well known hitokiri, before he answered. "Four years."
Toshihiro nodded at Himura's words. "I will have to examine the scar to find out what the problem is. If you will come into Father's examination room."
Kenshin put his cup down and rose, following Toshihiro into another part of the house used by Toshihiro's father as his clinic, his heart full of trepidation and the hitokiri's voice muttering ceaselessly at him. Toshihiro lit a lamp and set it on a nearby table, instructing Kenshin to remove his gi so he could look at the scars. When he did so, Toshihiro eyes widened in surprise. There were three parallel slashes across the young man's back and numerous other scars besides. Some of the scars were merely thin and faint lines, while others indicated deeper and more serious wounds.
"How did he survive some of these?" Toshihiro wondered as he asked Kenshin which scars were aching.
"The three across my back mostly," was Kenshin's answer.
Toshihiro examined the scars and felt them, noticing that they were white with age already and that the scars themselves were ragged and slightly bumpy. He passed a finger over each on in turn and noted the amount of scaring beneath the surface of the skin. The muscles beneath were tight and had very possibly been damaged when the wound occurred. Toshihiro frowned, knowing there was very little he could do to help beyond some medicine for the pain and that the damage would grow more noticeable as time passed.
"The scars ache because the wound never healed properly to begin with. Whoever treated them at the time did a poor job of it."
Kenshin made no comment about his statement for he had been the one to treat his wounds that day. There had been no doctor in Otsu and he hadn't had the strength of mind or body to travel to one at the time. After that there had been no time to see that they healed properly.
When Toshihiro was finished with the examination, Kenshin dressed again and they returned to the front room. Toshihiro poured fresh tea for them and they sat in silence for some time, each with their own thoughts. Finally, Toshihiro broke the silence.
"I can give you something for the pain but that is all. As for your weariness…I can see no reason for it other than lack of sleep." He looked at Himura closely, wondering what it was that disturbed his sleep so much that it kept him awake nights. There were dark circles under his friend's eyes and his normally bright eyes seemed dull.
"Arigato, Toshihiro-dono. I will try to get more rest and I will take whatever medicine you give me but you must know that I have no money, and so I will have to pay you back when I am able." He drank the rest of his tea and stood. "And now I must be on my way."
Toshihiro rose and bowed to Himura, watching as he wrapped a purplish scarf around his neck and placed the straw hat upon his head.
"I will be back for the medicine when I have finished at the market."
"I will be here." Toshihiro watched Himura leave and wondered anew about the young man. "He has to be the legendary hitokiri…But what is he doing here of all places?"
Toshihiro pondered this question as he got up and began to put away some of the dried herbs his father had brought back recently. He had just finished putting away the last of them and was sweeping the floor around the counter clean of the debris created by his work when a tall, dark-eyed man entered the shop. He looked up and found himself face to face with a farmer's hand from one of the nearby farms.
"How may I be of service?" he asked good-naturedly.
The man looked around the shop as if in search of something, then he looked at Toshihiro. Toshihiro noticed that while the man was dressed as a farm hand the clothing fit very badly and the man seemed ill at ease in it but he gave no indication that he had noticed the man's discomfort.
"I am looking for something that will help me sleep at night." The man's deep voice said as his eyes once more scanned the room.
"You're the second person in here today complaining of lack of sleep." Toshihiro looked around the shop to find something to help the man and did not notice when the man slipped something into some of the medicine on the counter.
"This is just what you need, sir. Seep these leaves in water for a few minutes and drink it right before sleeping."
"Arigato." The man bowed, paid for his purchase and walked back onto the street, disappointed that he hadn't found what he had truly been searching for.
"No matter, he will come out of hiding soon."
The man slipped unnoticed down the street, his mind on other matters so he did not notice when the one he sought walked by him.
*
Kenshin returned to Toshihiro's shop to pick up his medicine and, after a brief visit, then he headed back to the farm. The wind had picked up during the morning and the temperature had dropped considerably by the time Kenshin began his journey. He wrapped the scarf tighter around his neck and pulled his hands inside his gi for warmth. He watched as each breath he took turned the air around him to frost and looked at the slate gray sky overhead, his heart suddenly depressed.
"It will snow again soon," he thought but that thought brought forth a host of memories he would rather not deal with so he pushed them aside for the moment, intent only on reaching the farm before the impending storm broke.
He concentrated on each step he took instead of the memories that tried to play themselves out in his mind. There were some places on the ground beneath his feet that were covered by a thin layer of ice under the snow and footing was hazardous at best. Carefully he made his way across the open space in front of him, heading for the surer footing under the trees ahead.
He was concentrating so hard on his footsteps that he didn't, at first, hear the faint whooshing noise as a dagger was released and flew through the air behind him. He also failed to notice the two shurikens coming at him from the cover of the nearby trees. A half second later he was instantly alert and his battle training took over. He continued to walk a few paces forward and then, as the three projectiles where about to slam into him, he ducked and rolled, throwing up a cloud of powdery snow to block the vision of whomever had thrown them. At the same time he reached for his sakabatou, hearing only the call of battle and the voice of the Hitokiri Battousai who rushed forward to answer that call.
His amber eyes narrowed as he came out of his roll and found that his hands held no weapon. Then he remembered that he had left the sakabatou at the farm.
"Kuso!" he muttered as he dashed for the cover of the forest with a burst of speed so that he would not be in such an exposed position.
He saw no other option but to find his foe and take him out hand to hand as quickly as possible. Once he reached the cover the trees provided he sent out is Ki to sense where his foe was hiding and at the same time masking his own. He sensed nothing. There appeared to be no one there.
"Shurikins and daggers do not just appear. Where are they and how did they know I would come this way? Do they know who I am? No, they could not know. Everyone here thinks I'm a harmless rurouni and nothing more. No one knows about my past in Kyoto or that I am/was hitokiri."
Hitokiri Battousai scanned the trees above him with his eyes narrowed, but saw and sensed no one hiding within their branches.
For the next hour, he searched the area around the two most likely points of attack giving the weapons' trajectory but he found nothing. The only footprints in the area were his own and the weapons used in the attack were gone as well. He frowned and after making one more check over everything, he once more gave control to the rurouni.
"Who attacked us and why?" Kenshin thought as his violet eyes continued to watch everything around him.
Someone who is after our blood. We have many enemies.
Kenshin could not deny that but in a far corner of his mind, Kenshin wondered if they were not both starting to snap. As he walked by a tree, a shadow detached itself from another nearby and watched as the former Hitokiri Battousai disappeared among the trees. As soon as he did so, the shadow headed swiftly back in the direction of the town, leaving no trace of its passing and anxious to tell its master that the Battousai was still among the living.
