"A Cat and a Dragon"

As usual standards disclaimers apply. The song belongs to the Joe Hisaishi, i think. From the Sen to Chihiro Soundtrack.

Tokio had been helping Arashi all day at the inn, helping her to clean up the rooms, preparing the meals, arranging the flowers and so on and so on. The day was bright and she hadn't felt so cheerful for a long time. A feeling of guilt kept on tugging at her soul but she refused to acknowledge it by busying herself with her newfound friend.
Lunch time had came and passed without Tokio noticing it so it was with surprise that Kagome forced her to sit in the kitchen with the other maids to enjoy her meal. Kagome's kids too were there, making a ruckus in the kitchen as usual, the boys and their little sister had already eaten but they liked to stick in the kitchen. Tokio was sitting next to Arashi, on the porch leading to the garden, their meal trays lying, forgotten and empty besides them. The maid was babbling on her dream love: the captain of the second squad, making Tokio smile.
For a reason or another, the kids got banished from the kitchen and were sent rather abruptly in the garden. The little boys watched at themselves, shrugged and ran away to cause some more mischief. Sakura-chan looked hesitantly between the girls sitting on the porch and her brothers, unable to decide what to do.
Tokio noticed her and called for her:
"Sakura-chan! Come here!" She waved heartily at the little girl and was greeted by a sunny smile on her cherry face. Sakura-chan ran to them, laughing heartily, and nearly jumped on Tokio's lap.
"Tokio-neesan!!!!" She cried in greetings, her exuberant little arms closing themselves fiercely around Tokio's neck to give her a hug. Arashi giggled at Sakura-chan display and at Tokio's horrified expression when the little bundle of energy fell right on her lap and almost choked her to death. "Sing for me! Please!!! Pretty please!!!!!" She begged, trying to convince her by trying the 'puppy eyes' technique, as her brothers disgustedly put it.
"Oh, yes! That's a great idea! Tokio-chan, you have such an incredible voice! Oh, please, sing us something again." Arashi added, clapping her hands expectedly.
Tokio put a finger on Sakura-chan's nose and rubbed it, making the little girl giggle. "Hmm, I don't know." Tokio hesitated,
"Oh, please, Tokio-chan, before Kagome-sama calls us to get back to work." Arashi begged and she grabbed Sakura-chan, making her sit in her lap and moved her head till she was cheek to cheek against Sakura-chan, and the two of them gave Tokio the best 'puppy eyes' they could achieve.
Tokio laughed at their antics and gave in. "Okay, then. Let's see…" She turned her glittering eyes with laughter to the blue sky, trying to find a song. "Oh, there's a song my mother would sing to my brother and I whenever we were crying. Her voice, while singing this song, would wash away our tears because of the warmth she held in it." Sakura-chan clapped her hands happily, and exclaimed, rather loudly, tearing Arashi's ear, who was still holding her close. "Oh, yes, sing it, please, pretty please, Tokio-neesan." Tokio burst in laughter at Arashi's expression: her friend looked like she could see angels turning around her head.
After stifling her laughter, thanks to a deadly glare from Arashi, Tokio answered the little girl. "Alright."
Tokio's eyes turned dreamy, as if she was looking at something or someone the others couldn't see and her clear voice rose in the light of the mid-summer day.

She calls me this voice,
Deep down my heart.
I would like to dream
Only dreams, which thrill me.
I crossed oceans of sadness.
But I know that on the other bank,
I shall meet you certainly.
I am this traveler
Who always repeats the same errors.
But who knows the blue of the sky
To have investigated it in every fall.
The road seems long and endless,
But I can of these two arms
Embrace the light
My heart stops beating
When I say to you goodbye.
My empty and silent body
Stretches out an ear towards the world.
The wonder of the life,
The wonder of the death.
Flowers, wind and cities
Participate in the same wonder.
She calls me this voice,
Deep down my heart.
Always let us dream
The same liked dreams.
Rather than to enumerate
The ritornelle of the misfortunes.
Let us use the same lips
To sing cheerfully.
This voice locked
Into every recollection.
Let us continue to listen it and to keep it
Affectedly the whisper.
Over the mirror
Broken in one thousand pieces.
Thousands of new landscapes
Are now reflected.
Through the peaceful window
Of the first morning.
My empty and silent body
Is going to fill with a new life.
No more need to look
Beyond seas.
The spark of the happiness
Is there, near me
I found it finally.
It is there deep down of me.

Tokio let her voice die, leaving an unreal silence around her.
Arashi was the first to break it when she whispered. "Aah, I feel like I'm floating on a cloud. Your voice is simply enchanting."
Trust Arashi to have silly expressions, Tokio thought, covering a chuckle with a hand. "Thanks, I'm glad you like it."
"Will you teach me the song?" Sakura-chan burst in, her eyes locked on Tokio's face.
"Arashi-chan!" A voice, behind them, suddenly called. It was Kagome, the owner of the inn, standing in the doorway with a soft smile on her lips.
Arashi turned around and quickly stood up, putting Sakura-chan on the ground and gathering hers and Tokio's food tray. "Oh, it's Kagome-sama. I'm coming right now, Kagome-sama."
Tokio stood up as well to follow Arashi when Kagome interrupted her. "No, no, Tokio-chan, you stay here. You helped us enough this morning, that was extremely kind of you."
"Oh, no, Kagome-san, don't worry, i like it." Tokio answered truthfully.
Kagome smiled back and gave in. "Then, maybe you could watch the scoundrels i have the great displeasure to call my children?"
"Okaasan!" Sakura-chan stomped her little foot, annoyed by her mother's pet name for her and her brothers.
Tokio looked down at her and threw a glance at the two boys, having a sword fight with some wood sticks. "I'd be glad to, Kagome-san." She told Kagome, meeting her eyes steadily. Kagome nodded and went back in the kitchen, in which Arashi followed her, smiling at Tokio.
Sakura-chan wasted no time and tugged on Tokio's hand, leading her to the deeper part of the garden, next to the back door. "Tokio-neesan, come here."
A small, tiger-like kitty walked lazily in the garden by the ajar door. Sakura-chan noticed and squealed, opening her arms wide and running toward the poor animal. "Oh, a baby cat." She exclaimed, brushing her cheek against the animal's. "Look, Tokio-neesan. It's a baby cat!" She added, extending her arms so that Tokio could see the cat.
"It's cute." Tokio answered, but suddenly, the little cat broke free for the little girl's grip and ran away, by the door.

"Oh, wait!" Sakura-chan cried out, running after her cat, outside the garden.
"Sakura-chan!" Tokio yelled after her, running as fast as she could in her kimono and sandals. The outside of the inn led to a street which turned in three different directions, but no Sakura-chan in sight. "Sakura-chan, come here." Tokio called, a bit upset of losing the girl so fast. "Sakura-chan, where are you?" She called again as no one answered her. A few passant were walking by, but when Tokio saw them, she couldn't muster enough courage to ask them if they hadn't seen a little girl, because one of them could be * him *.


Unknown to her, Sakura-chan wasn't looking where she was going, no she was only looking at the direction her cat was taking. That was why she didn't see the older boy, a lot bigger and heavier than her, joking with his friends, in whom she bumped into. "Wah!" She cried out, falling on her little butt. The boy too fell backwards but he jumped on his feet almost immediately after, but it didn't save him from the snickers and the sarcastic comments his friends made. They were joking on how easily a little girl could make him fall and despite the boy denials, his friends kept on snickering, making him angry.
Sakura-chan, still sitting on the ground, raised her eyes to meet the angry ones of the boy she had just bumped into and suddenly heard her name being called. "Sakura-chan!"
"Tokio-neesan!!" Scared, Sakura-chan stood up and backed from the older boy who marched on her, willing to show his friends he was much stronger than a little girl, but a strong hand stopped him.
"Why don't you look for an enemy of your size?" The boy turned on his side, glaring at whoever was stopping him, but he met the violet eyes of a man with long red hair, tied up in a high ponytail, a sword on his side.

I am this traveler
Who always repeats the same errors.
But who knows the blue of the sky
To have investigated it in every fall.

Kenshin came closer till he stood between the boy and his target and glared down at him, making him tremble and back away slowly to his friends. He then glared at the boy's friends too and the whole lot turned around and ran.
"Sakura-chan!" A female voice called again, attracting the little girl's attention.
"Tokio-neesan!" Kenshin turned around to see the little girl, presuming she was 'Sakura-chan' and handed her a small bundle which had ran into him a little earlier.
"Here, chibi-chan. I think this baby cat is yours, no?" Kenshin smiled down at her, and was rewarded by the sunny smile she gave him.
Sakura-chan beamed and held her cat close to her heart, looking up at the man. "Yes! Thank you a lot!" Unnoticed by the pair, Tokio arrived at that moment.
"Oh, it's nothing, chibi-chan." Tokio stared at the young, red haired man that had helped Sakura-chan. He was barely 15 but he looked more than comfortable with the sword he held on his side. The dark blue hakama and the white gi were used, like some of a man who had been walking for a long time.

The road seems long and endless,
But I can of these two arms
Embrace the light

His violet eyes gently looking down at Sakura-chan while she hugged his leg with one arm in thanks, her cat in the other arm. Something was wrong with this man. Tokio felt it instantly. Something was changing in him, something was starting to devour him, something was pulling him inside the darkness. Tokio shivered lightly, she had almost smelled blood coming from the young man.
"Thank you so much for finding her and helping her out, sir." Tokio finally said, coming closer to the pair, her eyes settling themselves on the man. Sakura-chan squealed when she saw Tokio and ran to her. Tokio bent to the little girl level and hugged her, relieved of finding her but she never took her gaze off the man.
"It was nothing." He answered, smiling gently at her, his violet eyes twinkling softly. Tokio stood up and Sakura-chan immediately attached herself around her leg.
"Your daughter should just learn not to pick up fights with boys!" He ruffled Sakura-chan's brown hair, making her giggle, her little cheeks pink.
A warm feeling rose in Tokio's chest: this man was dangerous, she could feel blood around him but he'd never harmed anyone for fun. No, despite the darkness that seemed to linger around the man, she could also see, as he ruffled Sakura-chan's hair a kind heart, much like the one of a child. He was a boy in the body of a man, a child lost in the horror of war.

Rather than to enumerate
The ritornelle of the misfortunes.
Let us use the same lips
To sing cheerfully.


"She's not my mother!" The little girl said happily, attracting Tokio's attention, by tugging on her hand. "She's my Tokio-neesan!" Tokio took Sakura-chan in her arms, smiling softly down at her, even if her heart felt heavy for the man-child in front of her.
"Thank you again, sir." She said, trying to see through the mask.
"My name's Himura and please, don't call me sir, I'm not that old." The young man answered, suddenly blushing. This woman's eyes looked weird: they made him feel like a child. She seemed to see past his mask and Kenshin cursed himself for behaving like such a fool. He should just take his leave, but something about her made him feel… Well, almost like how he was feeling when he was a little boy, still behind his mother's skirts: young, carefree and ignorant of the horrors life could bring.
Tokio smiled. "Then, thank you a lot, Himura-san. My name's Magami, Tokio Magami and this is Sakura-chan." Tokio said with a small bow, but she had to hide a smile behind her hand as Sakura-chan tried to copy her bow while the kitten she still held in her arms was trying to get free from the little girl's grip.
"Well, Sakura-chan, Magami-san, goodbye and Sakura-chan be careful the next time!"
"Hai!" She promised him, holding her cat with both hands this time.
Tokio put Sakura-chan down and called out softly to the younger man. "Wait, Himura-san." The young red-hair man stopped and turned around, curious. And he froze, stunned.
The sight of a woman out of the time greeted him: her long black hair having a will on their own, whirling around her, resting on her shoulders and her odd black eyes who seemed to see what other people couldn't. "The next time we'll meet, I'll be the one helping you." Her soft whisper reaching his ears on the wings of the soft wind which had suddenly raised when she had spoken.

I would like to dream
Only dreams, which thrill me.
I crossed oceans of sadness.
But I know that on the other bank,
I shall meet you certainly.

Startled, the younger man said nothing and just stared at her, his violet eyes locked with her night gaze. The two of them remained unmoving, staring at each other, as if sharing a secret knowledge.

My empty and silent body
Is going to fill with a new life.


The mystic mood was suddenly broken by the young man who bowed deeply in front of the woman and turned around silently, as if nothing had happened or as if nothing was to be add.

The spark of the happiness
Is there, near me
I found it finally.
It is there deep down of me.


Satisfied, Tokio nodded after his departure and took Sakura-chan's tiny hand in hers and led her back to the inn, knowing fully she'd see that young man again, when Fate would have marked him as one of her 'chosen ones'.
A lost child angel in a time of war. A demon with the eyes of a children. He surely was an assassin.

She calls me this voice,
Deep down my heart.