I don't own Kenshin. Darn.
*****
BLADE OF THE PAST
Chapter Six – Battousai's Past
Sano lazed on the porch. Kaoru was inside teaching the younger kids. He could hear the calls and grunts as they practiced and Kaoru's voice as she taught them and corrected their stances. She was an amazingly patient teacher, considering how impatient and quick to anger she was where he was concerned.
He was about to give into the temptation of a nap when he heard Yahiko's voice out by the gates. The boy was obviously trying to get someone to come into the yard, and that someone seemed very reluctant to cooperate. Sano thought it might be Tsubame, but she wouldn't be nervous about coming into the dojo. He got up and ambled over.
"Oi! Yahiko!" he called.
"Sano!" the boy called back, his hand still gripping the mysterious someone's wrist and trying to wrestle them inside.
"Who is that?" Sano asked.
"Someone I met," Yahiko answered without really answering. He gave a final tug and tumbled to the ground, a smaller boy sprawled beside him.
Sano looked down at the two boys at his feet. Sano's breath caught. The kid was probably about Yahiko's age, twelve or thirteen, though he looked a lot younger. He was considerably smaller than Yahiko and malnourished from the looks of it. Smudges of dirt were on his nose and hands. Light blood-colored eyes looked up at Sano, showing how scared the kid really was of the big man leaning over him. But the most impressive feature of the kid was his bright red shaggy hair that reminded Sano of another red-headed man.
"Who are you?" Sano asked.
The kid fidgeted and got to his feet quickly, showing a natural grace that was marred by deep distrust of practically everyone, if Sano read the shaking of the kid's hands right. He kept his head bowed down, genuinely afraid of Sano. "Shinta."
Sano wanted to ask who this kid's father was. He wanted to know why this small-framed boy happened to look almost exactly like Kenshin. He opted to be polite. "I'm Sagara Sanosuke," he said ruffing Yahiko's hair.
"Stop it you big twit," Yahiko protested, trying to squirm away from Sano's longer reach. The action had Sano's desired effect, and the kid laughed behind the fall of his bangs.
"So what are you doing here, kid?" Sano asked, turning around and walking back to his perch on the porch.
"Yahiko invited me."
"I kinda figured that much, kid. So why did he invite you?"
Shinta looked aside at Yahiko, as if seeking permission. It made Sano growl under his breath. The kid had been abused, and it was as obvious to Sano as it no doubt had been to Yahiko, or else Yahiko wouldn't have invited him here to the dojo. The way the kid fidgeted, the way he kept his head bowed. Sano had the distinct impression that if he took off the kid's brown shirt there'd be bruises as evidence of his latest beating.
"He said I could stay here," Shinta very nearly whispered, his shoulders tensing as if he expected a physical outburst from Sano.
"Well, I'm not the one in charge here, kid, but if the missy throws you out, you're more than welcome to stay with me."
Shinta's eyes looked impossibly big as he focused them on Sano. "Really, sir?"
"Sure," Sano said as nonchalantly as possible. He tried to make it seem as if it were no big deal that he was quite possibly saving this kid from being beaten to death by whatever bastards had abused him every day until now. "And don't call me sir. Sano's just fine."
"Thank you, Sano sir."
"Sano."
"Sano," the kid finally said.
"So, Yahiko-chan, you know what's for lunch?" Sano asked.
"I knew you only came here to eat my food!" a feminine yell came from inside the dojo. Kaoru's young students came filing out past Sano, Yahiko, and Shinta. They were snickering as their sensei scolded the bum on the porch yet again.
"Hush, Missy," Sano yelled back. "We have a guest, so be nice."
"A guest that you dragged in with you, no doubt," Kaoru answered, sounding like she was coming closer to the doorway if her voice was anything to judge by.
Shinta looked positively frightened.
"Like I said, she's an ugly old hag but nice enough when it counts," Yahiko said.
"UGLY?"
Yahiko took off running through the yard, Kaoru hot on his heals. Sano simply laughed, and Shinta looked like he didn't know whether he should run away from the angry woman or laugh at Yahiko like Sano was.
"Would you stop chasing me, Ugly? There's someone you should meet!" Yahiko screamed as he jumped over the bucket that Kenshin did laundry in earlier that morning and ran along the porch.
"Meet who?"
Kaoru skidded to a stop as she caught sight of Shinta.
"Who's that?" she said, pointing at the kid.
Yahiko stood next to Shinta, no doubt being the only person in the yard that Shinta even got close to trusting. "His name is Shinta. I found these bandits attacking him earlier this morning, and he didn't have a place to go so I brought him here."
"Another boarder." Kaoru stopped thinking about the money she'd lose long enough to get a good look at the boy. His shaggy red hair hung about his face and ears, not long enough to reach his shoulders. "You have hair like Kenshin, Shinta," she said, reaching out to finger the red locks.
"Kenshin?"
Sano shook his head. He'd been avoiding the subject of the kid's father for a long time. Kenshin was an honorable guy. He didn't just have illegitimate children running around. And Kenshin wouldn't let them go without, as poor Shinta obviously had.
"Himura Kenshin," Kaoru went on, ignoring the pleading in Sano's eyes and Yahiko tugging on her sleeve to get her to stop talking. "He lives here too, and he has hair just like yours. Say, who are your parents?"
Shinta immediately got a look of despair on his features. "My mother left. They don't let me see her much, and they send her away all the time."
"They?" Sano asked, wanting very much to have a target for his hatred against abusers.
"The men I live with." Shinta shivered, wrapping his arms about himself as the talked. "They keep my mother away. They tie her up when I do get to see her. I know they threaten to kill me if she doesn't do what they say."
Sano was very nearly shaking with anger. He was about to demand who these people were and where he could find them, until Kaoru put a light hand on his clenched fist. He nodded to her. Getting angry and violent now would only scare the kid more.
"She's been gone for three months." He looked up, tears welling in his eyes. "I ran away to find her here. I heard them talking, saying that she would come here to Tokyo. I ran away from Kyoto and came here to find her." Shinta focused his gaze on Yahiko. "Those were the men you fought. They came to find me before my mother found out I was gone and found me first."
Kaoru put a hand on his head, getting motherly in less time than it normally took her to get heating mad. "Would your mother take care of you?"
Shinta nodded vigorously. "She would! Mother is wonderful, so strong and beautiful. They only control her because of me, because I'm too weak."
"Then you need to get stronger," Yahiko said. "Learn swordsmanship, like me and Kaoru. You'll be stronger then."
"What about your father?" Kaoru pressed on. Sano felt her light touch on his fist get a little tighter, as if she were afraid of a bad answer as much as Sano was.
The tear-streaked and young face suddenly turned dark with long-fed hatred. "My father deserves to die. He was a swordsman. He raped my mother and tried to kill her. That's why she's here in Tokyo. She came to kill him."
Kaoru took a step back, bumping into Sano.
"So who's your father?" Sano asked. He almost feared to ask. With the kid's red hair and his father being a swordsman, he very much feared to find out who his father was. But Kenshin was no rapist, was he?
"Hitokiri the Battousai," Shinta answered.
******
ooh….I know, don't yell at me.
Calger459 – I know that Kenshin already knew how to read and write when he met Tomoe (didn't he read a few words of her journal? – it's been a while since I've seen samurai x so I can't tell for sure). But note that I didn't specify what language she taught him how to read and write ;)
mae – Sorry about the previously short chaps. That's why I put two up last time I posted. I end up just posting a chapter by the point of view change, so some are longer than others.
Crystal – I know, Ken crying is very very sad. I hated writing it. He gets more angsty in the future, so be prepared for some bad memories. This fic will be full of them, I think.