Tae stood nervously at the dojo. It had been a month since she received Kaoru's letter, which she received the day after Kaoru had her dinner at the Akabeko. She had thought it strange that Kaoru had not mentioned anything about moving away when they were chatting, but had not given it much thought. However, recent news from Sae, her sister in Kyoto, revealed that Kaoru has sent a similar mail to the oniwabanshu, who had then tried to locate her without success. The oniwabanshu's failure doesn't bode well. If Kaoru was indeed moving to look after an elder relative, why didn't she leave any contact details? Also, why couldn't the oniwabanshu locate her either? Hunting her down shouldn't be a problem for the oniwabanshu who specialized in such matters. Although the search had started out lightheartedly enough by Misao, who after a sympathetic casual comment about Kaoru's forgetfulness (actually, what she said was "Poor Kaoru's brain must have suffered more than we realize from Himura's rejection! Either that or Yahiko's comment about her being a senile busu is coming true. She didn't even leave a contact address! Oh well, it's nothing to the oniwabanshu to find that out by ourselves! And won't she get a surprise when we visit her suddenly!!") it soon turned serious when the entire oniwabanshu, including Aoshi, cannot come up with a single clue. The oniwabanshu had then decided to locate Himura first to bring him back to the dojo, as requested by Kaoru, before discussing on the next step. It had taken a while for them to locate the Kenshin and the rest, but Tae had received word that everyone will be reaching today, hence her wait at the dojo.
Soon, Tae saw the familiar figures walking towards her. Sano was as usual chewing a fishbone nonchalantly, Yahiko was still wearing an obnoxious expression and Himura's face was politely, although slightly distant, pleasant. In fact, only Misao's tense expression hinted at anything remiss. When they neared the dojo, Yahiko greeted Tae in a loud voice "Hi Tae! I'm back! Tell that busu to get her fat ass here and tell me what was the trouble she got herself into which needed her to get the oniwabanshu to track us down so that we can solve it for her!"
Tae shot a questioning look at Misao, who shook her head. "Aoshi-sama told me not to say anything yet. He said he'll be checking on something and that I'm supposed to bring them back to the dojo first. He'll explain everything when he gets here. Of course he didn't know how difficult it was for me to persuade Himura to come back to the dojo without a good reason. One would almost think that I'm asking him to go to his sworn enemy's den" Misao rolled her eyes in disgust.
Kenshin's face took a grim cast at the comment as he hung his head, not replying. When he lifted his head, his polite smile was back on his face, and he greeted Tae politely, while Sano just yawned at the background.
"Well? What are we doing here? Where's the busu?" demanded Yahiko impatiently.
"Ahhh… right, let's go inside the dojo and wait for Aoshi-sama." stammered Misao, and Tae nodded her agreement. "I've prepared dinner for all of you, let's eat first"
Kenshin's eyes narrowed slightly, watching the two ladies' nervous demeanor closely, but it went unnoticed as Sano and Yahiko dashed inside with loud cheers.
After a loud dinner, during which Kenshin's sense of unease grew stronger, Aoshi finally joined them. Kenshin promptly put down his cup of tea and waited for Aoshi to speak, fear growing stronger as he noticed that Kaoru wasn't with him. It was a detail which he was painfully aware of the moment he came back, and it signifies ill omen when he saw Aoshi coming back with Saitoh, but not Kaoru. He exchanged a cool impassive look with Aoshi and Saitoh, but did not speak. Silence reigned, not even Sano make a noise. It seems as if his fear had somehow communicated to everyone. Finally Aoshi broke the silence.
"We received a letter from Kamiya Kaoru a month ago, enclosing a letter to you. Because we could not find you, and because we needed as much information as possible, we have taken the liberty of opening the letter. Our sincere apologies, it was I, as Okashira, who gave the order that the letter be opened." The hidden meaning was clear: I gave the command and I alone will bear the responsibility. Come after me if you are displeased, but do not involve the others.
Kenshin gave an almost imperceptible nod, and motioned for Aoshi to continue.
"Kamiya stated clearly in her letter that she will be leaving the dojo for good to look after an elderly grandmother, and that she wishes the dojo to be transferred to you. Since you have by then left Tokyo for a few months, she did not know where you were and hence requested that we track you down and hand her letter, which encloses the transfer documents, to you."
Silence, then Yahiko blurt out "She's giving Kenshin her dojo? But… but… who's going to teach? Where is she?"
"That we cannot answer. She wrote 3 letters when she left, one to us, one to Himura, and the last one to Tae-san. None of the 3 letters contain her whereabouts. In fact, all 3 letters were deceptively casual, but if you look carefully as we had to after we failed to locate her, you will notice that she has taken pains not to reveal her whereabouts." Aoshi replied.
Kenshin stared at the letter, then spoke for the first time that evening "Explain."
Aoshi sighed "Misao-chan noticed that Kaoru 'forgot' to leave her new contact details, and decided to locate her using our specialized talents and to pay her a surprise visit and at the same time to cheer her up. Unfortunately, we could not even discertain the time she left, much less where she went from here. No one saw her leave, and no one has seen her in the entire Japan since she had dinner the night at the Akabeko. When Misao-chan's investigation failed to uncover anything within a week, I ordered the whole oniwabanshu in Japan to search as thoroughly as possible, but not even a shadow turned up. What we DID discover though, was that the day before she was last seen, there was a break-in at her dojo, nothing was stolen, although it was clear that the dojo had been searched, and her father's shrine dismantled. Why and who we cannot say."
Sano broke in with curse "Dammit! You are saying Jou-chan transferred the dojo to Kenshin and left without telling anyone where she's going? And the oniwabanshu can't find her? Che, some kinda ninjas you guys make! While I can see why you are concerned, after all your subordinates have fouled up, why have you tracked us down and dragged us to Tokyo urgently? After all, it's only Jou-chan moving without letting anyone know her new whereabouts. All that f**king bullshit about looking after her elderly grandmother is obviously false, and I'm sure once she gets over the heartbreak our loverboy here has given her, she's sure to contact someone!
"Sano. When the oniwabanshu can't find someone, it means that the prey is not only extraordinarily gifted to be able to slip past them, but also that pains have been taken to ensure that the oniwabanshu do not find them. If Kaoru-dono indeed is only moving, there is no reason for her to go through all the pains to remain undetected. If she did, why? If she did not, then who did? To be able to slip past the oniwabanshu…. Not even Shishio nor Enishi was able to accomplish that. My only concern is: did Kaoru-dono do it on her own? Or was it devised by someone else? Someone who had Kaoru-dono captive against her own will? Also, the fact that Saitoh is here as well implies that there is something which not even he could handle on his own, and that means something beyond Kaoru-dono's league. If she was involved in whatever it is that Saitoh's handling…." Kenshin voiced his concern before Aoshi and Misao can take offense at Sano's outburst, and before he himself could take offense at Sano's last comment.
"At least Battousai has not lost all his wits. Here." Saitoh finished his cigarette and casually threw a stack of documents at Kenshin, who read it after catching it smoothly Kenshin's brows creased.
"Well, what does the paper says?" Sano and Yahiko asked impatiently.
"There have been reports on break-ins of houses all over the country. The reports are always normally almost identical: the victims hear noises in the night, they check and find a figure cloaked in black searching their house. The figure chant some kind of chants, the victim can't move while the figure continued to search the entire house, when the figure finishes, he disappear into the thin air right before the victims' eyes. Oh yes, I almost forgot, the victims' names are all 'Kamiya'" Saitoh informed them coolly.
Silence again while everyone tries to digest the information. Then Kenshin asked "Aoshi mentioned a break-in of the dojo. Was it the same criminal?"
Saitoh shrugged "Hard to say. Her report did not mention anything about magic acts of disappearing into the thin air, but the officer who took the report noted that the tanuki seemed to be keeping some information to herself. Not that I blame her. From what I understand, she was treated with ridicule when she reported a break-in of the dojo, no point making it worse by telling the ahous who call themselves policemen that the criminal could vanish into the thin air."
"Oh come on, you don't mean to say that you believed all these silly reports? These are only bad bed-time horror stories you to kids!" scoffed Yahiko. "Besides, why would anyone want to break into this old dojo guarded by a violent busu?"
"Same reports happening all over the country? While I may not believe that the criminal can actually vanish into the thin air, I do believe that the Kamiyas all over the country are experiencing a break-in, and the criminal, while not exactly a magician, do possess some kind of special skills which allow the witnesses to believe that they have the ability to vanish into thin air." Saitoh returned calmly.
As Sano and Yahiko started to make protesting noises, Misao turned to Aoshi "Aoshi-sama? Is it true? Do you believe Saitoh?"
Aoshi *leaning against the wall, with closed eyes projecting that cool impassive indifference* "….." Everyone sweatdropped. Finally Aoshi opened his eyes, "I agree with Saitoh. We have checked and most of the victims are quite unrelated, so it's not a family conspiracy. Then why the same reports from all over the country? Something strange is going on. And there's another point which Himura refuses to share," Aoshi raised his eyebrows at Kenshin's glare, which did not go unnoticed by the rest.
"Another point?" Sano and Yahiko looked puzzled, looking at Kenshin half-accusingly, "Well Aoshi?" they queried when Kenshin stubbornly remained quiet, staring at the floor.
Aoshi looked at Kenshin for a moment before speaking "Himura himself acknowledged that it takes a person of rather extraordinary skills to evade us. Do you think Kamiya capable of such a feat? And also whatever it is that Saitoh can't handle alone would be beyond Kamiya's league. Under such circumstances, how safe do you think she is? Wouldn't it suggest that Kamiya is in the enemy's hands and that it is the enemy who has given the oniwabanshu the slip?"
"The letter was written by Kaoru-dono herself! She intended to leave on her own accord!" Kenshin retorted.
"On her own accord or because she had to? Don't kid yourself into thinking that the tanuki is some innocent little girl-next-door who don't know anything about the real world! Shinomori and I have acknowledged that she is of more substance than we initially gave her credit for! Which wasn't much come to think of it. Everyone of us only thought of her as Battousai's little playmate" mused Saitoh.
"Aoshi-sama?" queried Misao uncertainly.
Once again silence, while Aoshi meditated, or looks as if he's meditating, with his eyes closed while everyone else face-faulted. "After the fight with Okina, I went back to the Aoiya to get information on Himura's whereabouts. I would have killed everyone there to get the information, but she stopped me. There's something about her that just made me stop." Aoshi answered abruptly. Yahiko blinked, as he recalled the scene. "That's right! I was all prepared to do battle, but Kaoru stepped forward and said a few things, and you changed your mind immediately!" Yahiko exclaimed.
"NANI!!" everyone else exclaimed, then they started pestering Yahiko, who couldn't remember anything more, for more details on that exchange while Aoshi continued to meditate. Kenshin stared hard at Saitoh, who then grinned, "You should remember that she couldn't stop me from skewering you," Kenshin's eyes narrowed as he recalled the scene when he fought Saitoh at the dojo. "During your first fight with Enishi, I told her to leave before things get complicated," Saitoh shrugged, answering the unasked question. This time even Aoshi took the effort to open his eyes to look at Saitoh, who exhaled a puff of smoke before replying "She understood without me having to tell her that Enishi is after her. Not even the rooster over there noticed anything, yet she could. It was only a glance which Enishi gave her, yet she could sense his enmity. How? A child of her calibre who couldn't even sense chi, how could she know? Yet she took it very calmly, in a rather mature manner. At that time I did not think much of it, attributing it to her past experiences with all your enemies, now I'm not so sure."
"Che, I still say you 2 are too paranoid, making too much out of nothing!" scoffed Sano. "Jou-chan? Extraordinary abilities? Impossible! Besides, so what is she's hiding some special talents? What has that got to do with anything?"
"Again you miss the obvious," sighed Saitoh "She couldn't have been hiding fighting talents because we would have sensed it, there's no way for her to hide that from Shinomori, Battousai or me. But what if it's some other talents? Remember the supposedly magician? What if she has talents similar to him? Wouldn't it imply that she is the target of the magician who have been searching all the Kamiyas in the country? And that she knows who the enemy is, hence her sudden disappearance? The police and the oniwabanshu had been looking for the past weeks, but we can't find anything. It's almost like water evaporating, and I don't believe that people can evaporate!" Saitoh ended with a growl.
Silence once again, while everyone turned to look at Kenshin, who was reading Kaoru's letter to him while absently fingering the transfer documents with infinite tenderness. Which did not go unnoticed, but no one chose to comment.
Finally, Saitoh stood up, "It's late and there's some stuffs I need to do. Shinomori has assured me that the oniwabanshu intends to continue their investigation (here Misao gave a loud cheer) and we have agreed to co-operate. As for the Battousai and your lackeys (protesting curses from Sano and Yahiko) if you want to join, come and see me at my office early tomorrow morning. If not, Ithe police and the oniwabanshu will just handle this alone." With that Saitoh left.
Kenshin finally looked up, "Minna-dono, it's late. We better get some sleep, since Saitoh has insisted that we see him early in the morning." Yells of cheer resounded through the night as everyone rejoiced for their own private reasons. There was some good fighting guaranteed for Sano and Yahiko while Tae and Misao are overjoyed that there seems to be a second chance for Kaoru and Kenshin. With joyful yells oh "Hai" everyone retired to sleep.
Author's note:
Readers who have read this before might notice slight changes. Nothing major, just a few amendments. In any event, please feel free to let me have your comments, praises and/or flames at chibibuta@hotmail.com