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Chapter Fifteen; Old Flame
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'When a true genius enters this world you shall know him by this sign; all the dullards shall rise up in confederacy against him.'
-Johnathan Swift
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'When Mama ain't happy, ain't no one happy.' was the reigning philosphy of the Dojo at the moment.
Kaoru just wondered who had nominated her 'Mama'.
Her leg was well on the mend, to the point that Megumi was even allowing her to do a moderate number of chores in the morning (mostly she watched Ayame and Suzume play) Unfortunately all that free time had given her too much space to think-- and she'd long since learned what a depressing place her mind was.
She tried to keep a game face up, but it didn't always work. Enishi was convinced he'd done some horrible thing to his 'Kamiya-Sensei' (Mou! that's almost as bad as Kaoru-dono!) Because he moped around the dojo like a conemned man, Megumi was convinced that he had indeed done something and now guilt was eating him alive. Kaori was a little closer, she thought her Kaa-chan was feeling lonely (how true, but if only she knew...) Sanosuke was a little confused but was patiently waiting out the storm, although he did make some attempts to stir things up.
"... but I thought you wanted to get out of the Dojo!" Sanosuke complained. "This is just what you need!"
"Sano, you -never- beat me at dice. You never will. Stop while you still have rice-money." Kaoru told him flat out.
Kaoru was sitting on one of the larger stones in the garden with a pile of mending in a bucket beside her and Sanosuke was perched on another stone.
"There's a first time for everything." he grumbled. "but I don't want to gamble -against- you, I just want you on my side! You -never- lose!"
"Yes I do." Kaoru said primly. "Just not against you."
"Aw-man, that's cold!"
"It's also true." Kaoru glanced at him. "What's with the sudden need to get me out of the Dojo? The gambling bug can't have bitten you that hard and I know you haven't run out of money. You aren't stupid enough to have gambled away five hundred ryo."
"Hey, I still have nearly all of that!" Sanosuke protested. "Damn it, can't you take a hint? I'm trying to cheer you up!"
"... by taking me to a place where I can win you money?"
He flushed. "Well, ya know, Two birds with one stone and all that..."
Kaoru shook her head. "No thank you." she cursed as she pricked her finger. "I hate mending! Why won't Megitsune let me do something I'm good at?"
Sanosuke chuckled. "She's just worried about you, Kaoru. You've been majorly down since you got that hole in your leg."
"I'm depressed because I'm bored." Kaoru grumbled. "I want to be able to move around again!"
"Megumi told me to carry you wherever you wanted to go." Sanosuke offered.
"That's not the same."
A sudden bout of vile cursing interuppted Kaoru and both she and Sano looked over to the cloud of dust billowing out of one of the more disused bedrooms of the Dojo.
"Tell me again why Kaori is cleaning out -all- the other rooms?" Sanosuke asked Kaoru. "I realize you have a million of the damn things, but there's only so many people living here. Did she make Megistune mad?"
"Maybe." Kaoru replied. "but they do require a good cleaning out every few months just so the dust doesn't take up permanent residence and bugs don't get it."
"She's only been working on that one room though and I saw her hauling out a futon onto the roof to air it out." Sanosuke confided to her.
"We aren't expecting any guests." Karou thought out loud. "Or at least... I didn't think so..."
"Okeranasai!" came a cheerful shout.
Enishi and Yahiko had chosen that moment to return from their grocery shopping. A jug of sake dangled from Enishi's elbow. Kaoru raised an eyebrow as they went into the kitchen, the items they had bought weren't so suspicious. Red miso, rice, soy sauce, ginger, and fish were the norm for the Dojo but no one in the Dojo drank Sake.
"Did you see that?" Sanosuke asked Kaoru in an undertone.
"The sake?" Kaoru asked.
He nodded. "That, and they bought more food than normal, two sacks of rice even."
Kaoru frowned. "Someone is coming to the Dojo and no one has seen fit to tell us." she said seriously.
Sanosuke nodded. "Isn't this your Dojo?"
"No, it was formally given into the care of Enishi in my father's will." Kaoru told him. "It's his Dojo, he can invite whoever he wants to stay here."
"Still... there is something known as courtesy." Sanosuke huffed. "You want I should snoop around?"
"No." Kaoru shook her head for emphasis. "We'll know soon enough."
***
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Misao asked Kaori. "I mean, Enishi's going along with it but asking a guy like that to come stay at the Dojo..."
Kaori tossed her ponytail over her shoulder, she'd taken to wearing her hair in a bun and ponytail so as not to look exactly like a mintaure version of her Kaa-chan. "I'll have you know that if there is a single soul in Japan who can cheer my Kaa-chan up, it's him. Now quit yapping and help me clean!"
The bedroom that Kaori had enlisted Misao's help in cleaning was actually the third biggest in the Dojo. Enishi and Yahiko shared the biggest, Kaoru had the next biggest, Kaori slept in a smaller room next to her Kaachan and the other five bedrooms weren't used at all. Unfortunately since no one went in them, they accumulated dust faster than the more used rooms.
"Why does this guy need a room this big anyway?" Misao complained as she went back to chasing spiders out of the cobwebs on the ceiling.
"You've never met him, when he gets here you'll see why." Kaori said absently, in midst of rubbing a coat of oil into a small writing desk.
Jsut then the visitor's bell started clanging and Kaori leapt to her feet. "He's early!" she fussed. "Damn him."
Misao followed Kaori as she bolted out of the room, headed for the front gate.
***
Sanosuke helped Kaoru up from her seat as the bell rang again. "So help me." he grumbled when Kaoru hissed in discomfort. "If that's a travelling salesman there's gonna be an ass kicking fest today."
Kaoru laughed merrily. "Your favorite kind."
He grinned as he got Kaoru's arm over his shoulder and helped her walk to the front. (Megumi had caught her walking on her own that morning and had nearly brought down the roof so now she at least pretended to have help.)
Together they made slow progress to the front courtyard where Kaori and Misao were taking luggage from the new arrival.
"Let me go, Sagara." Kaoru told Sano as she got a good look at the newcomer. "This could get ugly."
He was tall, on the better side of six feet, with powerful muscles that could be seen even under the long white cape he wore over a navy blue short sleeved gi and trousers. He looked away from the girls who had welcomed him and straight at Kaoru, who was leaning heavily on her bodken in lieu of a cane.
Without a word he strod over to where Kaoru stood, with Sanosuke hovering behind her ready to catch her if she fell or beat up the newcomer. He stopped a dangerously personal distance away from Kaoru; she was practically nose to chest with him.
Kaoru looked up at him, unpreturbed by the invasion of her personal space and said. "You're still too damn tall, Seijuro-kun."
"That's Hiko to you." he growled, albeit warmly. "And you're just too damn short." he dropped a friendly kiss on her upturned lips and gave her a quick hug before getting to busines. "What's this Kaori-chan tells me about you being hurt?"
Kaoru smiled up at him. "I took a bullet to the thigh in a little rumble. Nothing serous, no ligament damage and it's healing clean. I'm just impatient to be up and around. Did you come all the way from Kyoto just because you heard I got hurt?"
"Not exactly, I'm moving out of Kyoto and when Kaori mentioned in her last letter that you were staying here I figured this was as good a place to go as any and better than most." Hiko replied flippantly.
Kaoru's eyes narrowed. "You've got a good business in Kyoto, why move?" she asked suspicously.
"My Baka-deshi moved his wife into Kyoto, so naturally I couldn't stay." Hiko explained. "You shouldn't be standing. You!" he pointed to Sanosuke. "help me get her to the veranda."
Sanosuke grudgingly took Kaoru's arm back over his shoulder and helped her to a seat, although no before giving Hiko a filthy look.
"Who is this guy?" he demanded of Kaoru as Hiko sat down next to her. "And why's he so familiar?"
Kaoru blushed lightly. "This is Seijuro Hiko, we and I were... ah... close a few years back. I met him when I was pregnant with Kaori, and we stayed together for a little while."
Kaoru's explanation of her relationship with Hiko left a lot to the imagination, but she wasn't about to explain to Sanosuke -of all people- that Hiko had found her unconscious in a dirty little alley admist post-war Kyoto after a gang of foreign sailors had had their fun with her. He'd taken her to the forest and nursed her back to health; mentally and physically.
Sanosuke looked a little put out at the evasive answer but he soon had other things to occupy his mind with.
"Show me your wound." Hiko instructed her.
Kaoru pulled the skirt of her kimono open and laid her leg over Hiko's lap. She valued his opinion on the wound. Megumi was a good doctor but Hiko could tell her if the wound wound would affect her swordsmanship.
Unfortunately Sanosuke didn't take to this intimate behavior very well, he sat in the background cracking his knuckles and making low growls as Hiko removed the bandages from Kaoru's thigh.
Kaoru became just a little worried, she knew for a fact that Sanosuke didn't think of her as anything more than a partner in battle, but he could be awfully territorial on behalf of his friends.
Thankfully, Hiko ignored the younger man with fine precision and focused his attention on the bullet wound. "The doctor who mended this is very talented." he commented causally.
"Glad to have your approval."
Kaoru and Sanosuke froze at the acidic tone of voice Megumi used.
The good doctor emerged from the front hall with a tray of tea and ohagi, but she didn't look very welcoming as she set it down beside Hiko and Kaoru. "Just what, may I ask, do you think you are doing to my Kao-san?"
Hiko cocked an eyebrow at the panicked looks on Kaoru and Sano's face. "-Your- Kao-san?" he chuckled and shook his head. "Well, then there's no doubt about your identity. You're Takani Megumi, am I right?"
"Indeed." Megumi nodded her head coldly. "And you are..."
"Seijuro Hiko."
"Never heard of you."
"Of course -you- wouldn't have."
Kaoru rolled her eyes as Hiko and Megumi started trading 'polite' barbs. "Um, are you through looking at my leg now?" she asked Hiko. "Cause I'm getting a cramp..."
She took her leg back without waiting for an answer.
Megumi sat down beside Kaoru and latched onto her arm. "Kao-san, you -do- prefer me to this rude man don't you?"
"Um... I ah... er..." Kaoru said intelligently.
"Well, you haven't changed much." Hiko chortled. "I take it you weren't expecting me?"
"Ah, no. Definately no." Kaoru slipped her arm out of Megumi's grasp, much to the doctor's annoyance. "I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I may incriminate myself." she quoted something she remembered Raven saying once (something about Miranda rights)
"Slick, Ru-chan."
Kaoru made a face at Hiko. "I thought we agreed that you'd stop calling me that?"
"Did I?" he blinked innocently. "I must have been drunk."
"Hmph." Megumi got back to her feet. "I need to go start supper."
***
Misao and Kaori watched the exchange going on among the 'adults' from inside the hall.
"See?" Kaori said cheerfully. "She's cheering up already!"
"... but everyone else is totally p.o.ed." Misao pointed out. "Although, I guess he's no worse than Takani-san when she gets going, but what about when Enishi finds out they used to be lovers he's going to go mad."
Kaori chuckled evilly and rubbed her hands together. "It's all a part of my master plan, Misao-chan! Kaachan would never go for a guy nine years younger than she is! Especially when she knows I like him. With Hiko-oji here he'll see that Kaa-chan is far too mature for him and naturally I'll be there to comfort him when he decides to be noble and abandon the field." she sighed and clasped her hands over her heart.
Misao nodded and rubbed her chin. "That's pretty diabolical, Ri-chan. Not only does this cheer your Kaachan up and give you a shot at your guy, but it also gives Takani-san absolute proof that Kamiya-san is really straight."
Kaori gave Misao a thumbs up. "... and I didn't mention this before, but Hiko-oji is a Master Swordsman. The next Psycho who comes sniffing around here had beeter watch out! He'll have to deal with Kaa-chan, Sano-nii, and Hiko-oji all at once!"
The Ninja-ko was impressed. "Have you ever thought of joining the Oniwabanshuu?" she asked casually.
"No way!" Kaori laughed. "Shadows are not my style, I prefer to take care of my business in broad daylight."
***
Dinner was a strained affair, Hiko and Kaoru ate comfortably in the silence, but the rest of the Kaoru-gumi were prone to suddenly putting their food down and glaring at one or both of them.
Kaoru retreated out to the garden the first chance she got and was followed by Hiko. Enishi got up to stop him, but Aoshi interceded and said a few quiet words to him that sent him into the dojo where he spent the rest of the evening ruthlessly training Yahiko.
Hiko settled himself behind Kaoru with his legs on either side of her so she could lean back against his chest. "It's been a while." he said quietly after they'd sat like that for a while.
"Yeah, almost eight years, Kaori says she's been writing you regularly." Kaoru replied.
"She has, she treats me like some sort of Diary," Hiko grumbled. "but it is nice to know what she's doing and what is happening around her. She is my God child after all."
"Well, you and the Abbot at Iron Mountain are the closest things she has had to a father figure. When she was small I think she thought you -were- her father." Kaoru chuckled. "I remember the time she tried to call you tou-chan. I don't think I've ever seen anyone turn so pale before or since."
Hiko muttered something foul under his breath. "Do you mind changing the subject?"
"Not at all."
Companionable silence ereigned again for a while until Hiko asked Kaoru a question.
"Why did I come back to Tokyo?" Kaoru clarified.
"Yes, I was with you when you got news of your Father's death. You didn't go rushing back to Tokyo then, so this Dojo obviously didn't need you around. So why now?"
Kaoru sighed. "Time and place, Hiko. It was time for me to stop travelling, that's all."
"I don't get you." He sighed. "In fact I think it's the entire female species I don't get, which is how it should be I suppose. Every woman I talk to always makes referances to 'it's time for this' or 'time for that'. Men go through life just trying to figure where they're supposed to be and what they're supposed to be doing, most die without ever coming close to figuring it out. Women seem to have some sort of sixth sense about that, you especially."
"No, you're wrong about that." Kaoru corrected him. "Women get confused too, we're just better actors than men. I spend every morning trying to figure out whether or not I should be here and not there." 'Now instead of then.' she added silently. She sighed and leaned her head back on Hiko's collar bone. "Even your presence here has so many ramifications that I just don't even want to think of the consequences."
"Or the benefits?"
Kaoriu blushed. "Hey, down boy! I have a ten year old daughter to set a good example for."
"If you can't be good," Hiko reasoned. "You might as well be good at it and you are the best."
"Glad you think so." she sobered. "Why couldn't you stay in Tokyo with Kenshin?"
"Feh, what if I met him on the way to the sake shop one day? What would I do? Ignore him, chat like good friends? That brat walked out on his training and used the Hiten Mitsurugi like one of those western weapons meant for mass slaughter. Someone as powerful as a student of the Hiten Mitsurugi should have been completely neutral, belonging to neither side. I can't stand the sight of him."
"He was fifteen." Kaoru reminded Hiko. "Not even that, thirteen when he left you. Children do childish things, even go off to war. He's not a child now, maybe he understands what you were teaching him then?"
"No, I saw him before I left. His eyes are dead, his swordsman spirit is crippled beyond repair. He's only alive when he looks at that wife of his and she's not much better than he. Both of them have let their souls become so battered that it's amazing they still have the will to breathe."
Kaoru frowned. "You're wrong, I think." she told him. "I've known Tomoe, she's the kind that keep her true thoughts and emotions inside. There's an amazing fire in her but it's controlled and coiled tightly inside her. Her eyes may give the impression of one who is eternally sad, but once you've seen her let loose you'll never believe that again. As for Kenshin, I've only met him once, but I think you do him too little credit." she looked away from Hiko. "He spent too long as an assassin. It's true that mindless slaughter damages the soul, but he truly believed it was for a purpose. His soul is not dead, but it is hidden now. I believe he could surprise us all, given the chance."
"Why can't you let me be disgusted with my ex-apprentice in peace? Now you've got me hoping he'll pull through!" Hiko complained.
"You don't need me to say anything." Kaoru chided him. "It's part of teaching, you and I both know it.
**********
End chapter Fifteen
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Seiyuu; Hehehehe, yet another future complication for when Kenshin and Kaoru meet up again, but then again you don't know all the details yet. That's all for now, see ya next update!
Ja!
Chapter Fifteen; Old Flame
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'When a true genius enters this world you shall know him by this sign; all the dullards shall rise up in confederacy against him.'
-Johnathan Swift
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'When Mama ain't happy, ain't no one happy.' was the reigning philosphy of the Dojo at the moment.
Kaoru just wondered who had nominated her 'Mama'.
Her leg was well on the mend, to the point that Megumi was even allowing her to do a moderate number of chores in the morning (mostly she watched Ayame and Suzume play) Unfortunately all that free time had given her too much space to think-- and she'd long since learned what a depressing place her mind was.
She tried to keep a game face up, but it didn't always work. Enishi was convinced he'd done some horrible thing to his 'Kamiya-Sensei' (Mou! that's almost as bad as Kaoru-dono!) Because he moped around the dojo like a conemned man, Megumi was convinced that he had indeed done something and now guilt was eating him alive. Kaori was a little closer, she thought her Kaa-chan was feeling lonely (how true, but if only she knew...) Sanosuke was a little confused but was patiently waiting out the storm, although he did make some attempts to stir things up.
"... but I thought you wanted to get out of the Dojo!" Sanosuke complained. "This is just what you need!"
"Sano, you -never- beat me at dice. You never will. Stop while you still have rice-money." Kaoru told him flat out.
Kaoru was sitting on one of the larger stones in the garden with a pile of mending in a bucket beside her and Sanosuke was perched on another stone.
"There's a first time for everything." he grumbled. "but I don't want to gamble -against- you, I just want you on my side! You -never- lose!"
"Yes I do." Kaoru said primly. "Just not against you."
"Aw-man, that's cold!"
"It's also true." Kaoru glanced at him. "What's with the sudden need to get me out of the Dojo? The gambling bug can't have bitten you that hard and I know you haven't run out of money. You aren't stupid enough to have gambled away five hundred ryo."
"Hey, I still have nearly all of that!" Sanosuke protested. "Damn it, can't you take a hint? I'm trying to cheer you up!"
"... by taking me to a place where I can win you money?"
He flushed. "Well, ya know, Two birds with one stone and all that..."
Kaoru shook her head. "No thank you." she cursed as she pricked her finger. "I hate mending! Why won't Megitsune let me do something I'm good at?"
Sanosuke chuckled. "She's just worried about you, Kaoru. You've been majorly down since you got that hole in your leg."
"I'm depressed because I'm bored." Kaoru grumbled. "I want to be able to move around again!"
"Megumi told me to carry you wherever you wanted to go." Sanosuke offered.
"That's not the same."
A sudden bout of vile cursing interuppted Kaoru and both she and Sano looked over to the cloud of dust billowing out of one of the more disused bedrooms of the Dojo.
"Tell me again why Kaori is cleaning out -all- the other rooms?" Sanosuke asked Kaoru. "I realize you have a million of the damn things, but there's only so many people living here. Did she make Megistune mad?"
"Maybe." Kaoru replied. "but they do require a good cleaning out every few months just so the dust doesn't take up permanent residence and bugs don't get it."
"She's only been working on that one room though and I saw her hauling out a futon onto the roof to air it out." Sanosuke confided to her.
"We aren't expecting any guests." Karou thought out loud. "Or at least... I didn't think so..."
"Okeranasai!" came a cheerful shout.
Enishi and Yahiko had chosen that moment to return from their grocery shopping. A jug of sake dangled from Enishi's elbow. Kaoru raised an eyebrow as they went into the kitchen, the items they had bought weren't so suspicious. Red miso, rice, soy sauce, ginger, and fish were the norm for the Dojo but no one in the Dojo drank Sake.
"Did you see that?" Sanosuke asked Kaoru in an undertone.
"The sake?" Kaoru asked.
He nodded. "That, and they bought more food than normal, two sacks of rice even."
Kaoru frowned. "Someone is coming to the Dojo and no one has seen fit to tell us." she said seriously.
Sanosuke nodded. "Isn't this your Dojo?"
"No, it was formally given into the care of Enishi in my father's will." Kaoru told him. "It's his Dojo, he can invite whoever he wants to stay here."
"Still... there is something known as courtesy." Sanosuke huffed. "You want I should snoop around?"
"No." Kaoru shook her head for emphasis. "We'll know soon enough."
***
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Misao asked Kaori. "I mean, Enishi's going along with it but asking a guy like that to come stay at the Dojo..."
Kaori tossed her ponytail over her shoulder, she'd taken to wearing her hair in a bun and ponytail so as not to look exactly like a mintaure version of her Kaa-chan. "I'll have you know that if there is a single soul in Japan who can cheer my Kaa-chan up, it's him. Now quit yapping and help me clean!"
The bedroom that Kaori had enlisted Misao's help in cleaning was actually the third biggest in the Dojo. Enishi and Yahiko shared the biggest, Kaoru had the next biggest, Kaori slept in a smaller room next to her Kaachan and the other five bedrooms weren't used at all. Unfortunately since no one went in them, they accumulated dust faster than the more used rooms.
"Why does this guy need a room this big anyway?" Misao complained as she went back to chasing spiders out of the cobwebs on the ceiling.
"You've never met him, when he gets here you'll see why." Kaori said absently, in midst of rubbing a coat of oil into a small writing desk.
Jsut then the visitor's bell started clanging and Kaori leapt to her feet. "He's early!" she fussed. "Damn him."
Misao followed Kaori as she bolted out of the room, headed for the front gate.
***
Sanosuke helped Kaoru up from her seat as the bell rang again. "So help me." he grumbled when Kaoru hissed in discomfort. "If that's a travelling salesman there's gonna be an ass kicking fest today."
Kaoru laughed merrily. "Your favorite kind."
He grinned as he got Kaoru's arm over his shoulder and helped her walk to the front. (Megumi had caught her walking on her own that morning and had nearly brought down the roof so now she at least pretended to have help.)
Together they made slow progress to the front courtyard where Kaori and Misao were taking luggage from the new arrival.
"Let me go, Sagara." Kaoru told Sano as she got a good look at the newcomer. "This could get ugly."
He was tall, on the better side of six feet, with powerful muscles that could be seen even under the long white cape he wore over a navy blue short sleeved gi and trousers. He looked away from the girls who had welcomed him and straight at Kaoru, who was leaning heavily on her bodken in lieu of a cane.
Without a word he strod over to where Kaoru stood, with Sanosuke hovering behind her ready to catch her if she fell or beat up the newcomer. He stopped a dangerously personal distance away from Kaoru; she was practically nose to chest with him.
Kaoru looked up at him, unpreturbed by the invasion of her personal space and said. "You're still too damn tall, Seijuro-kun."
"That's Hiko to you." he growled, albeit warmly. "And you're just too damn short." he dropped a friendly kiss on her upturned lips and gave her a quick hug before getting to busines. "What's this Kaori-chan tells me about you being hurt?"
Kaoru smiled up at him. "I took a bullet to the thigh in a little rumble. Nothing serous, no ligament damage and it's healing clean. I'm just impatient to be up and around. Did you come all the way from Kyoto just because you heard I got hurt?"
"Not exactly, I'm moving out of Kyoto and when Kaori mentioned in her last letter that you were staying here I figured this was as good a place to go as any and better than most." Hiko replied flippantly.
Kaoru's eyes narrowed. "You've got a good business in Kyoto, why move?" she asked suspicously.
"My Baka-deshi moved his wife into Kyoto, so naturally I couldn't stay." Hiko explained. "You shouldn't be standing. You!" he pointed to Sanosuke. "help me get her to the veranda."
Sanosuke grudgingly took Kaoru's arm back over his shoulder and helped her to a seat, although no before giving Hiko a filthy look.
"Who is this guy?" he demanded of Kaoru as Hiko sat down next to her. "And why's he so familiar?"
Kaoru blushed lightly. "This is Seijuro Hiko, we and I were... ah... close a few years back. I met him when I was pregnant with Kaori, and we stayed together for a little while."
Kaoru's explanation of her relationship with Hiko left a lot to the imagination, but she wasn't about to explain to Sanosuke -of all people- that Hiko had found her unconscious in a dirty little alley admist post-war Kyoto after a gang of foreign sailors had had their fun with her. He'd taken her to the forest and nursed her back to health; mentally and physically.
Sanosuke looked a little put out at the evasive answer but he soon had other things to occupy his mind with.
"Show me your wound." Hiko instructed her.
Kaoru pulled the skirt of her kimono open and laid her leg over Hiko's lap. She valued his opinion on the wound. Megumi was a good doctor but Hiko could tell her if the wound wound would affect her swordsmanship.
Unfortunately Sanosuke didn't take to this intimate behavior very well, he sat in the background cracking his knuckles and making low growls as Hiko removed the bandages from Kaoru's thigh.
Kaoru became just a little worried, she knew for a fact that Sanosuke didn't think of her as anything more than a partner in battle, but he could be awfully territorial on behalf of his friends.
Thankfully, Hiko ignored the younger man with fine precision and focused his attention on the bullet wound. "The doctor who mended this is very talented." he commented causally.
"Glad to have your approval."
Kaoru and Sanosuke froze at the acidic tone of voice Megumi used.
The good doctor emerged from the front hall with a tray of tea and ohagi, but she didn't look very welcoming as she set it down beside Hiko and Kaoru. "Just what, may I ask, do you think you are doing to my Kao-san?"
Hiko cocked an eyebrow at the panicked looks on Kaoru and Sano's face. "-Your- Kao-san?" he chuckled and shook his head. "Well, then there's no doubt about your identity. You're Takani Megumi, am I right?"
"Indeed." Megumi nodded her head coldly. "And you are..."
"Seijuro Hiko."
"Never heard of you."
"Of course -you- wouldn't have."
Kaoru rolled her eyes as Hiko and Megumi started trading 'polite' barbs. "Um, are you through looking at my leg now?" she asked Hiko. "Cause I'm getting a cramp..."
She took her leg back without waiting for an answer.
Megumi sat down beside Kaoru and latched onto her arm. "Kao-san, you -do- prefer me to this rude man don't you?"
"Um... I ah... er..." Kaoru said intelligently.
"Well, you haven't changed much." Hiko chortled. "I take it you weren't expecting me?"
"Ah, no. Definately no." Kaoru slipped her arm out of Megumi's grasp, much to the doctor's annoyance. "I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I may incriminate myself." she quoted something she remembered Raven saying once (something about Miranda rights)
"Slick, Ru-chan."
Kaoru made a face at Hiko. "I thought we agreed that you'd stop calling me that?"
"Did I?" he blinked innocently. "I must have been drunk."
"Hmph." Megumi got back to her feet. "I need to go start supper."
***
Misao and Kaori watched the exchange going on among the 'adults' from inside the hall.
"See?" Kaori said cheerfully. "She's cheering up already!"
"... but everyone else is totally p.o.ed." Misao pointed out. "Although, I guess he's no worse than Takani-san when she gets going, but what about when Enishi finds out they used to be lovers he's going to go mad."
Kaori chuckled evilly and rubbed her hands together. "It's all a part of my master plan, Misao-chan! Kaachan would never go for a guy nine years younger than she is! Especially when she knows I like him. With Hiko-oji here he'll see that Kaa-chan is far too mature for him and naturally I'll be there to comfort him when he decides to be noble and abandon the field." she sighed and clasped her hands over her heart.
Misao nodded and rubbed her chin. "That's pretty diabolical, Ri-chan. Not only does this cheer your Kaachan up and give you a shot at your guy, but it also gives Takani-san absolute proof that Kamiya-san is really straight."
Kaori gave Misao a thumbs up. "... and I didn't mention this before, but Hiko-oji is a Master Swordsman. The next Psycho who comes sniffing around here had beeter watch out! He'll have to deal with Kaa-chan, Sano-nii, and Hiko-oji all at once!"
The Ninja-ko was impressed. "Have you ever thought of joining the Oniwabanshuu?" she asked casually.
"No way!" Kaori laughed. "Shadows are not my style, I prefer to take care of my business in broad daylight."
***
Dinner was a strained affair, Hiko and Kaoru ate comfortably in the silence, but the rest of the Kaoru-gumi were prone to suddenly putting their food down and glaring at one or both of them.
Kaoru retreated out to the garden the first chance she got and was followed by Hiko. Enishi got up to stop him, but Aoshi interceded and said a few quiet words to him that sent him into the dojo where he spent the rest of the evening ruthlessly training Yahiko.
Hiko settled himself behind Kaoru with his legs on either side of her so she could lean back against his chest. "It's been a while." he said quietly after they'd sat like that for a while.
"Yeah, almost eight years, Kaori says she's been writing you regularly." Kaoru replied.
"She has, she treats me like some sort of Diary," Hiko grumbled. "but it is nice to know what she's doing and what is happening around her. She is my God child after all."
"Well, you and the Abbot at Iron Mountain are the closest things she has had to a father figure. When she was small I think she thought you -were- her father." Kaoru chuckled. "I remember the time she tried to call you tou-chan. I don't think I've ever seen anyone turn so pale before or since."
Hiko muttered something foul under his breath. "Do you mind changing the subject?"
"Not at all."
Companionable silence ereigned again for a while until Hiko asked Kaoru a question.
"Why did I come back to Tokyo?" Kaoru clarified.
"Yes, I was with you when you got news of your Father's death. You didn't go rushing back to Tokyo then, so this Dojo obviously didn't need you around. So why now?"
Kaoru sighed. "Time and place, Hiko. It was time for me to stop travelling, that's all."
"I don't get you." He sighed. "In fact I think it's the entire female species I don't get, which is how it should be I suppose. Every woman I talk to always makes referances to 'it's time for this' or 'time for that'. Men go through life just trying to figure where they're supposed to be and what they're supposed to be doing, most die without ever coming close to figuring it out. Women seem to have some sort of sixth sense about that, you especially."
"No, you're wrong about that." Kaoru corrected him. "Women get confused too, we're just better actors than men. I spend every morning trying to figure out whether or not I should be here and not there." 'Now instead of then.' she added silently. She sighed and leaned her head back on Hiko's collar bone. "Even your presence here has so many ramifications that I just don't even want to think of the consequences."
"Or the benefits?"
Kaoriu blushed. "Hey, down boy! I have a ten year old daughter to set a good example for."
"If you can't be good," Hiko reasoned. "You might as well be good at it and you are the best."
"Glad you think so." she sobered. "Why couldn't you stay in Tokyo with Kenshin?"
"Feh, what if I met him on the way to the sake shop one day? What would I do? Ignore him, chat like good friends? That brat walked out on his training and used the Hiten Mitsurugi like one of those western weapons meant for mass slaughter. Someone as powerful as a student of the Hiten Mitsurugi should have been completely neutral, belonging to neither side. I can't stand the sight of him."
"He was fifteen." Kaoru reminded Hiko. "Not even that, thirteen when he left you. Children do childish things, even go off to war. He's not a child now, maybe he understands what you were teaching him then?"
"No, I saw him before I left. His eyes are dead, his swordsman spirit is crippled beyond repair. He's only alive when he looks at that wife of his and she's not much better than he. Both of them have let their souls become so battered that it's amazing they still have the will to breathe."
Kaoru frowned. "You're wrong, I think." she told him. "I've known Tomoe, she's the kind that keep her true thoughts and emotions inside. There's an amazing fire in her but it's controlled and coiled tightly inside her. Her eyes may give the impression of one who is eternally sad, but once you've seen her let loose you'll never believe that again. As for Kenshin, I've only met him once, but I think you do him too little credit." she looked away from Hiko. "He spent too long as an assassin. It's true that mindless slaughter damages the soul, but he truly believed it was for a purpose. His soul is not dead, but it is hidden now. I believe he could surprise us all, given the chance."
"Why can't you let me be disgusted with my ex-apprentice in peace? Now you've got me hoping he'll pull through!" Hiko complained.
"You don't need me to say anything." Kaoru chided him. "It's part of teaching, you and I both know it.
**********
End chapter Fifteen
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Seiyuu; Hehehehe, yet another future complication for when Kenshin and Kaoru meet up again, but then again you don't know all the details yet. That's all for now, see ya next update!
Ja!