What's Wrong With Cursing Ex-Students To Hell?
A little more than two weeks later, Sanosuke, Kaoru, and Yahiko arrived back at the Kamiya Dojo to find things exactly as they had left them.
"Megumi did a good job of watching over our school," Kaoru said, tossing her bag down. "Ah, it's good to be home."
"It is good to be back," Sanosuke agreed, picking up Kaoru's bag and following her as she walked into the dojo.
"No kidding!" Yahiko laughed. "I never thought I'd be so glad to see this run down place."
"Run down?!" Kaoru demanded.
"Well it is run down!" Yahiko shot back.
"It is not!"
"Is TOO"
"Is NOT!"
"Is TOO!"
"Hey Kaoru, look at these," Sanosuke had found a small stack of papers on her records table.
"What?" Kaoru came over to look. "Messages left by possible students. Akira Fumiyo requests apprenticeship at this school. Akira Fumiyo. . . why does that name sound familier. Oh! Now I remeber!" Kaoru snatched the paper from Sanosuke's hands, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it across the room. "He was the first of my students to quit when that Gohei moron started killing people and claiming he was the Battosai who studied at this school!"
"I take it he's not welcome back, huh?" Yahiko said with a superior smirk on his face.
"Ha! The day I welcome him back is the day Sanosuke gives up fighting!"
"And that is never going to happen," Sanosuke told them. "I don't care if rivers start flowing uphill, farm animals start flying, that bastard Saito becomes the next Buddha, or the flaming hell of Shintoism gets cold enough for the souls there to have a snow ball fight."
"So Akira Fumiyo is never going to be welcomed back!" Kaoru picked up another piece of paper. "Totsuri Akakawa wants to learn here. Never heard of him. He sure never trained here before. I'll consider him. Yukiko Ideta, another of my dear ex-students!" Kaoru balled up the paper and threw it in the same direction that Fumiyo's had gone. "She can go to hell. Atsuko Komichi. She can go to hell too! Goro Tananka! The fourth of my ex-students to leave, the fourth to have his application throw across the dojo which he will never again set foot in!"
"You're enjoying this," Sanosuke remarked.
"There's nothing wrong with that," Kaoru scowled at him.
"I never said there was." Sanosuke smiled as Kaoru began digging through her stack of papers again, saving only the applications of people who she'd never heard of before, to consider. "You're going to start training Ayame soon, aren't you?" he asked.
"I was going to let Dr. Gensai know we were back and start training her tomorrow. Why?" Kaoru looked up from her stack of papers.
"Just wondering. You know Suzume really would like to train with her sister. Those two do everything together."
"Suzume is too young," Kaoru told him. "Ayame's old enough to start grasping the principles and actually understanding them. To Suzume they'd be something pointless that she'd have to meamorize without knowing why. Besides, those two will have to learn to start acting on their own eventually. They're not always going to be allowed to stick together."
"Which is why they should be together while they can," Sanosuke argued.
Kaoru shook her head. "Suzume's too young. I'll start training her the day she turns five, but not before."
Sanosuke sighed. Well, he'd tried. Now it looked llike he'd have to take Suzume's training into his own hands.
"A very important part of martial arts is stamina," Sanosuke told Suzume. "Do you know what stamina is?"
"Nope!" Suzume said cheerfully. "What izzit?"
It was the day after Sanosuke, Kaoru, and Yahiko had gotten back from their trip. Kaoru had taken Ayame to start her training at the Kamiya Dojo. Sanosuke had taken Suzume out 'to play' with permission from her grandfather, under the excuse that he didn't want her to feel bad. He knew that he wouldn't be able to 'play' with Suzume every day- Kaoru would either catch on or start thinking that Sanosuke was a nice guy or something- so he had to teach Suzume something uncomplicated and harmless so she could practice at home when Ayame was at the dojo.
"Stamina is the ability to fight with someone and continue to fight for a long time, while the person you fight gets tired." There. That definition should be dumbed down enough for the kid.
"Ahhhh," Suzume grabbed her pigtails and turned them so the loose ends stuck upward. "Will it make my hair spiky like yours?"
Sanosuke could only stare at the child for a moment. "No. My spiky hair has absoulely nothing to do with my stamina, I assure you."
"Ahhhh."
Cute kid. Dumb, but cute.
"You need stamina if you ever want to be a good fighter. So what we're going to work on is your stamina."
"How do we do that?" Suzume wanted to know. She spoke around four of her fingers that she had stuck in her mouth.
"Well, first we'll make you a good runner," Sanosuke told her, pulling her hand our of her mouth. "Running will build up your stamina."
"I can run already!" Suzume protested.
"I know you can run. But do you know how long you can run?"
"Until I get to where I'm going!" Suzume answered, still cheerful.
"And if the place where you're going is far away?" Sanosuke asked, trying to keep the harshness out of her voice. Suzume couldn't help that she was young and stupid. "You might have to run for a whole hour someday to get where you need to go in the amount of time that you have to get there. Do you think you could do that?"
Suzume only stared at him with wide eyes.
"The training that I'm going to give you will help you be able to do that someday," Sanosuke told her. "Are you ready to start?"
Sanosuke usually made time to see Suzume once a week. Training her cut into his own training, but kept Suzume from feeling as though she was beind left behind by Ayame. Sanosuke would have cut into his own training time even more to keep that from happening, if he had to. But he didn't.
Suzume learned how to pace herself when she ran so she wouldn't burn up all her energy in the first few minutes. It took her some time to learn that she could run longer if she didn't run as fast as she could, as young children like to do, but she eventually did learn it. After she finally figured that out, she became a very good runner. Summer turned into fall and Sanosuke had Suzume run while carrying a rock the size of her palm in each hand.
The Kamiya Dojo became busy once again, full of new students. In the end, Kaoru allowed three of her old students to return- the three who had stuck with her the longest. Of course those three got a great deal of punishment exercises everyday for nearly everything. Sanosuke got used to the sight of the three younder teenages doing push ups every time he went to Kaoru's dojo.
Yahiko was Kaoru's only student that actually lived in the dojo with her. The others had homes in other parts of the city and came either for the class Kaoru gave in the morning, or the class she gave in the afternoon. Yahiko was the only one who attended both classes every day and kept his place as Kaoru's star pupil easily. Sanosuke watched his young friend's skills increase greatly as the weather got cold.
Kaoru was getting stronger too, Sanosuke noticed. He wondered how much stronger he himself had gotten since Kenshin left for Kyoto in May, but had no real way of knowing. There were no really tough guys in Tokyo, no one he could beat on without feeling guilty about abusing a weakling. If only that bastard Saito were around, Sanosuke could test his strength on that ugly whore son. Or if Kenshin was around. . . but if Kenshin hadn't left, Sanosuke doubted he would have forced himself to find an intense way of training that would increase his strength so much.
Sanosuke wondered where Kenshin was, and what was going on in Kyoto. Surely Kenshin had reached Kyoto by now. Had he turned into the Battosai again? Or would he come back to the Kamiya Dojo once that Shishio guy had been killed? Then there was that Aoshi guy to consider, as well as Saito. Had Kenshin killed either of them in one of his Battosai mood swings? Sanosuke didn't know if he hoped Kenshin had or not. They were both tough guys who Sanosuke would like another shot at fighting.
The weather grew colder and winter came- Sanosuke's least favorite season of the year. Whenever snow flurries fell from the sky, he was reminded of the night the Sekihotai was destroyed by the thrice-damned imperialist government pigs. Sometimes Sanosuke wondered if another of his comrades had managed to survive the massacre. There had been a lot of soldiers in the Sekihotai. A number of them, Sanosuke included, had managed to escape into the woods. There was a chance that another warrior had survived and run away instead of trying to save Captain Sagara's life- but if there was such a warrior, Sanosuke didn't think he wanted to meet the coward.
In Kyoto. . . (Remember that Sanosuke's, Kaoru's, and Yahiko's choice to stay behind altered the course of the anime, making what happened in the original anime void)
Kenshin walked through the streets of Kyoto aimlessly. Shishio had been defeated. It had taken him, Aoshi, Saito, and even Misao all to stand together against him, and in the end, they'd only won because Shishio had spontaneously combusted. But Shishio was dead and that was all that really mattered.
"No," Kenshin thought out loud, though no one was there to listen to him. "His death is not all that matters, that it is not." He hadn't had to kill with his sword again. Hadn't turned into the Battosai once more. He was still Kenshin Himura the wanderer, but he wasn't sure if he had any place to go. He wanted to return to Tokyo, to the Kamiya Dojo, but he wasn't sure if he was welcome there again.
"Talking to yourself again, Battosai?" a voice said from nearby.
If Kenshin hadn't recognized the voice, the smell of the newcomer's cigarette would have given his identity away. "What do you want, Saito?" he asked.
"A cigarette, a bowl of soba, and a good fight." Apparently Saito was in good humor today.
"Was the fight which we recently finished not good enough?" Kenshin wanted to know. "It was enough excitement for me for a long time, that it was."
"Is that why you're loitering around Kyoto instead of heading back to the road then?" Saito all but sneered. "I thought you intended to return to your life as a wanderer."
"That I do," Kenshin told him.
"Hmph. Bet you didn't do much wandering after you got to Tokyo either," Saito exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Tell me, Battosai, is it the big cities that you like or the comapny you keep in them?"
"I have not stayed in Kyoto because of you, Aoshi, or Misao," Kenshin frowned at Saito.
"But you stayed in Tokyo so long because- the hell?" Saito's cigarette fell to the ground and his eyes widened momentarily. They quickly narrowed once more and Saito gave a short, harsh laugh.
"What is it?" Kenshin followed Saito's gaze down the nearly empty street to where a tall, dark haired man in black pants and a black surcoat had just walked out of a run down, little known tavern. He wore a red head band and blazoned on the back of his jacket in white was the familiar symbol for 'Bad'.
"I guess your friends got tired of waiting," Saito snickered. "Though your fool friend seems to have changed his colors."
Kenshin ignored Saito and began to run after the man he believed was his friend Sanosuke. "Sano!" he called. The man didn't break his stride. "Sanosuke! Sanosuke!" At that name the man paused for a just the slightest moment, but then began walking again. "Sanosuke Sagara!" Kenshin shouted, confused.
The man froze, then slowly turned around. Kenshin, less than twenty feet from the man, now saw his mistake. This man was not Sanosuke. The only physical features he had in common with Sanosuke were dark hair and height.
"I appologize, sir," Kenshin bowed slightly to the man. "I mistook you for one of my friends, that I did."
"You know a Sanosuke Sagara" the man said more than asked, his eyes narrowed at Kenshin.
"Yes I do," Kenshin told him. "He is tall like you and has dark hair. That is why I mistook you for him."
"Hmph. I doubt your Sanosuke Sagara would wear the symbol on his back that I wear on mine," the man started to turn away.
"He does," Kenshin said promptly.
"Careful what you say to this guy, Himura," Saito said softly from behind Kenshin. "He doesn't seem like the safe type. You might endanger your fool friend by blabbing about him."
The man turned back to face Kenshin, and Kenshin could see what Saito meant. The man looked dangerous. His face contorted in a scowl of rage and his hands clenched into fists that shook. "Your Sanosuke Sagara- is he about nineteen or twenty years of age?"
Kenshin nodded slowly.
"He wears a red headband?"
Kenshin nodded again.
"He has horrible looking scars between his lower ribs and hips, particularly on his right side?" The man's breathing was now sporadic. Kenshin couldn't tell if the guy was getting ready to attack him or pass out.
"I do not know. He weared bandages wrapped around his stomach and ribs all the time, that he does," Kenshin hoped that he wasn't going to get his friend into some kind of trouble- if he did, Kenshin resolved to hurry back to Tokyo and help Sanosuke out of whatever trouble he got into because of Kenshin.
"And this Sanosuke Sagara. . . has he ever spoken to you of. . . traumatic events that happened to him at the age of nine or so?" the man asked, staring at Kenshin in a way that could only be described as dangerously.
"Careful, Battosai," Saito warned Kenshin again.
"He has," Kenshin said quietly.
"He was a survivor of the Sekihotai," the man continued to glare at Kenshin.
"You shouldn't answer that question. There are still bounties on Sekihotai heads," Saito commented.
"Like me," the man had seen confirmation on Kenshin's face.
"You know Sanosuke then," Kenshin relaxed a little bit- but only a little. Whoever this ex-Sekihotai soldier was, he was mentally unstable.
"Of course I know Sanosuke Sagara, though I had no idea he survived the Sekihotai massacre," the man gave a cold smile. "Sanosuke Sagara," he paused a moment, then continued, "is my little brother."
"And you are?" Kenshin was unconvinced.
"My name is Sozo Sagara."
A little more than two weeks later, Sanosuke, Kaoru, and Yahiko arrived back at the Kamiya Dojo to find things exactly as they had left them.
"Megumi did a good job of watching over our school," Kaoru said, tossing her bag down. "Ah, it's good to be home."
"It is good to be back," Sanosuke agreed, picking up Kaoru's bag and following her as she walked into the dojo.
"No kidding!" Yahiko laughed. "I never thought I'd be so glad to see this run down place."
"Run down?!" Kaoru demanded.
"Well it is run down!" Yahiko shot back.
"It is not!"
"Is TOO"
"Is NOT!"
"Is TOO!"
"Hey Kaoru, look at these," Sanosuke had found a small stack of papers on her records table.
"What?" Kaoru came over to look. "Messages left by possible students. Akira Fumiyo requests apprenticeship at this school. Akira Fumiyo. . . why does that name sound familier. Oh! Now I remeber!" Kaoru snatched the paper from Sanosuke's hands, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it across the room. "He was the first of my students to quit when that Gohei moron started killing people and claiming he was the Battosai who studied at this school!"
"I take it he's not welcome back, huh?" Yahiko said with a superior smirk on his face.
"Ha! The day I welcome him back is the day Sanosuke gives up fighting!"
"And that is never going to happen," Sanosuke told them. "I don't care if rivers start flowing uphill, farm animals start flying, that bastard Saito becomes the next Buddha, or the flaming hell of Shintoism gets cold enough for the souls there to have a snow ball fight."
"So Akira Fumiyo is never going to be welcomed back!" Kaoru picked up another piece of paper. "Totsuri Akakawa wants to learn here. Never heard of him. He sure never trained here before. I'll consider him. Yukiko Ideta, another of my dear ex-students!" Kaoru balled up the paper and threw it in the same direction that Fumiyo's had gone. "She can go to hell. Atsuko Komichi. She can go to hell too! Goro Tananka! The fourth of my ex-students to leave, the fourth to have his application throw across the dojo which he will never again set foot in!"
"You're enjoying this," Sanosuke remarked.
"There's nothing wrong with that," Kaoru scowled at him.
"I never said there was." Sanosuke smiled as Kaoru began digging through her stack of papers again, saving only the applications of people who she'd never heard of before, to consider. "You're going to start training Ayame soon, aren't you?" he asked.
"I was going to let Dr. Gensai know we were back and start training her tomorrow. Why?" Kaoru looked up from her stack of papers.
"Just wondering. You know Suzume really would like to train with her sister. Those two do everything together."
"Suzume is too young," Kaoru told him. "Ayame's old enough to start grasping the principles and actually understanding them. To Suzume they'd be something pointless that she'd have to meamorize without knowing why. Besides, those two will have to learn to start acting on their own eventually. They're not always going to be allowed to stick together."
"Which is why they should be together while they can," Sanosuke argued.
Kaoru shook her head. "Suzume's too young. I'll start training her the day she turns five, but not before."
Sanosuke sighed. Well, he'd tried. Now it looked llike he'd have to take Suzume's training into his own hands.
"A very important part of martial arts is stamina," Sanosuke told Suzume. "Do you know what stamina is?"
"Nope!" Suzume said cheerfully. "What izzit?"
It was the day after Sanosuke, Kaoru, and Yahiko had gotten back from their trip. Kaoru had taken Ayame to start her training at the Kamiya Dojo. Sanosuke had taken Suzume out 'to play' with permission from her grandfather, under the excuse that he didn't want her to feel bad. He knew that he wouldn't be able to 'play' with Suzume every day- Kaoru would either catch on or start thinking that Sanosuke was a nice guy or something- so he had to teach Suzume something uncomplicated and harmless so she could practice at home when Ayame was at the dojo.
"Stamina is the ability to fight with someone and continue to fight for a long time, while the person you fight gets tired." There. That definition should be dumbed down enough for the kid.
"Ahhhh," Suzume grabbed her pigtails and turned them so the loose ends stuck upward. "Will it make my hair spiky like yours?"
Sanosuke could only stare at the child for a moment. "No. My spiky hair has absoulely nothing to do with my stamina, I assure you."
"Ahhhh."
Cute kid. Dumb, but cute.
"You need stamina if you ever want to be a good fighter. So what we're going to work on is your stamina."
"How do we do that?" Suzume wanted to know. She spoke around four of her fingers that she had stuck in her mouth.
"Well, first we'll make you a good runner," Sanosuke told her, pulling her hand our of her mouth. "Running will build up your stamina."
"I can run already!" Suzume protested.
"I know you can run. But do you know how long you can run?"
"Until I get to where I'm going!" Suzume answered, still cheerful.
"And if the place where you're going is far away?" Sanosuke asked, trying to keep the harshness out of her voice. Suzume couldn't help that she was young and stupid. "You might have to run for a whole hour someday to get where you need to go in the amount of time that you have to get there. Do you think you could do that?"
Suzume only stared at him with wide eyes.
"The training that I'm going to give you will help you be able to do that someday," Sanosuke told her. "Are you ready to start?"
Sanosuke usually made time to see Suzume once a week. Training her cut into his own training, but kept Suzume from feeling as though she was beind left behind by Ayame. Sanosuke would have cut into his own training time even more to keep that from happening, if he had to. But he didn't.
Suzume learned how to pace herself when she ran so she wouldn't burn up all her energy in the first few minutes. It took her some time to learn that she could run longer if she didn't run as fast as she could, as young children like to do, but she eventually did learn it. After she finally figured that out, she became a very good runner. Summer turned into fall and Sanosuke had Suzume run while carrying a rock the size of her palm in each hand.
The Kamiya Dojo became busy once again, full of new students. In the end, Kaoru allowed three of her old students to return- the three who had stuck with her the longest. Of course those three got a great deal of punishment exercises everyday for nearly everything. Sanosuke got used to the sight of the three younder teenages doing push ups every time he went to Kaoru's dojo.
Yahiko was Kaoru's only student that actually lived in the dojo with her. The others had homes in other parts of the city and came either for the class Kaoru gave in the morning, or the class she gave in the afternoon. Yahiko was the only one who attended both classes every day and kept his place as Kaoru's star pupil easily. Sanosuke watched his young friend's skills increase greatly as the weather got cold.
Kaoru was getting stronger too, Sanosuke noticed. He wondered how much stronger he himself had gotten since Kenshin left for Kyoto in May, but had no real way of knowing. There were no really tough guys in Tokyo, no one he could beat on without feeling guilty about abusing a weakling. If only that bastard Saito were around, Sanosuke could test his strength on that ugly whore son. Or if Kenshin was around. . . but if Kenshin hadn't left, Sanosuke doubted he would have forced himself to find an intense way of training that would increase his strength so much.
Sanosuke wondered where Kenshin was, and what was going on in Kyoto. Surely Kenshin had reached Kyoto by now. Had he turned into the Battosai again? Or would he come back to the Kamiya Dojo once that Shishio guy had been killed? Then there was that Aoshi guy to consider, as well as Saito. Had Kenshin killed either of them in one of his Battosai mood swings? Sanosuke didn't know if he hoped Kenshin had or not. They were both tough guys who Sanosuke would like another shot at fighting.
The weather grew colder and winter came- Sanosuke's least favorite season of the year. Whenever snow flurries fell from the sky, he was reminded of the night the Sekihotai was destroyed by the thrice-damned imperialist government pigs. Sometimes Sanosuke wondered if another of his comrades had managed to survive the massacre. There had been a lot of soldiers in the Sekihotai. A number of them, Sanosuke included, had managed to escape into the woods. There was a chance that another warrior had survived and run away instead of trying to save Captain Sagara's life- but if there was such a warrior, Sanosuke didn't think he wanted to meet the coward.
In Kyoto. . . (Remember that Sanosuke's, Kaoru's, and Yahiko's choice to stay behind altered the course of the anime, making what happened in the original anime void)
Kenshin walked through the streets of Kyoto aimlessly. Shishio had been defeated. It had taken him, Aoshi, Saito, and even Misao all to stand together against him, and in the end, they'd only won because Shishio had spontaneously combusted. But Shishio was dead and that was all that really mattered.
"No," Kenshin thought out loud, though no one was there to listen to him. "His death is not all that matters, that it is not." He hadn't had to kill with his sword again. Hadn't turned into the Battosai once more. He was still Kenshin Himura the wanderer, but he wasn't sure if he had any place to go. He wanted to return to Tokyo, to the Kamiya Dojo, but he wasn't sure if he was welcome there again.
"Talking to yourself again, Battosai?" a voice said from nearby.
If Kenshin hadn't recognized the voice, the smell of the newcomer's cigarette would have given his identity away. "What do you want, Saito?" he asked.
"A cigarette, a bowl of soba, and a good fight." Apparently Saito was in good humor today.
"Was the fight which we recently finished not good enough?" Kenshin wanted to know. "It was enough excitement for me for a long time, that it was."
"Is that why you're loitering around Kyoto instead of heading back to the road then?" Saito all but sneered. "I thought you intended to return to your life as a wanderer."
"That I do," Kenshin told him.
"Hmph. Bet you didn't do much wandering after you got to Tokyo either," Saito exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Tell me, Battosai, is it the big cities that you like or the comapny you keep in them?"
"I have not stayed in Kyoto because of you, Aoshi, or Misao," Kenshin frowned at Saito.
"But you stayed in Tokyo so long because- the hell?" Saito's cigarette fell to the ground and his eyes widened momentarily. They quickly narrowed once more and Saito gave a short, harsh laugh.
"What is it?" Kenshin followed Saito's gaze down the nearly empty street to where a tall, dark haired man in black pants and a black surcoat had just walked out of a run down, little known tavern. He wore a red head band and blazoned on the back of his jacket in white was the familiar symbol for 'Bad'.
"I guess your friends got tired of waiting," Saito snickered. "Though your fool friend seems to have changed his colors."
Kenshin ignored Saito and began to run after the man he believed was his friend Sanosuke. "Sano!" he called. The man didn't break his stride. "Sanosuke! Sanosuke!" At that name the man paused for a just the slightest moment, but then began walking again. "Sanosuke Sagara!" Kenshin shouted, confused.
The man froze, then slowly turned around. Kenshin, less than twenty feet from the man, now saw his mistake. This man was not Sanosuke. The only physical features he had in common with Sanosuke were dark hair and height.
"I appologize, sir," Kenshin bowed slightly to the man. "I mistook you for one of my friends, that I did."
"You know a Sanosuke Sagara" the man said more than asked, his eyes narrowed at Kenshin.
"Yes I do," Kenshin told him. "He is tall like you and has dark hair. That is why I mistook you for him."
"Hmph. I doubt your Sanosuke Sagara would wear the symbol on his back that I wear on mine," the man started to turn away.
"He does," Kenshin said promptly.
"Careful what you say to this guy, Himura," Saito said softly from behind Kenshin. "He doesn't seem like the safe type. You might endanger your fool friend by blabbing about him."
The man turned back to face Kenshin, and Kenshin could see what Saito meant. The man looked dangerous. His face contorted in a scowl of rage and his hands clenched into fists that shook. "Your Sanosuke Sagara- is he about nineteen or twenty years of age?"
Kenshin nodded slowly.
"He wears a red headband?"
Kenshin nodded again.
"He has horrible looking scars between his lower ribs and hips, particularly on his right side?" The man's breathing was now sporadic. Kenshin couldn't tell if the guy was getting ready to attack him or pass out.
"I do not know. He weared bandages wrapped around his stomach and ribs all the time, that he does," Kenshin hoped that he wasn't going to get his friend into some kind of trouble- if he did, Kenshin resolved to hurry back to Tokyo and help Sanosuke out of whatever trouble he got into because of Kenshin.
"And this Sanosuke Sagara. . . has he ever spoken to you of. . . traumatic events that happened to him at the age of nine or so?" the man asked, staring at Kenshin in a way that could only be described as dangerously.
"Careful, Battosai," Saito warned Kenshin again.
"He has," Kenshin said quietly.
"He was a survivor of the Sekihotai," the man continued to glare at Kenshin.
"You shouldn't answer that question. There are still bounties on Sekihotai heads," Saito commented.
"Like me," the man had seen confirmation on Kenshin's face.
"You know Sanosuke then," Kenshin relaxed a little bit- but only a little. Whoever this ex-Sekihotai soldier was, he was mentally unstable.
"Of course I know Sanosuke Sagara, though I had no idea he survived the Sekihotai massacre," the man gave a cold smile. "Sanosuke Sagara," he paused a moment, then continued, "is my little brother."
"And you are?" Kenshin was unconvinced.
"My name is Sozo Sagara."