.: Author's notes :. First of all: IIIII'M SOOOOO SORRY. AH-AH-AH-AH-AH-AH I'M SO SO-O-O-O-O-ORRY. (Why do you come here/ When you know it makes things hard for me?/ When you know/ Oh, why do you-- a-herm, sorry. I think I got too enthusiastic...). I'm sorry for the loooong period of absence. As I've already told on my bio, my pc -EVA 01- got sick, poor it... And it took me about six weeks to have it fixed. I apologize for the many -freaky- mistakes on last chapter. I guess I had been possessed when I wrote that... (joking) And I have also something to apologize for in advance: from now on, the updating may take a bit more (no more than three weeks, I hope), because I'm taking college entrance exams, and I'll have to study madly. So, don't be nasty to me, pleeeeeeeease? T_T'
Mwahaha! Now the fic really STARTS! The thing's gonna get hot as fire! Now, to the third chapter!
III-
"Hmmmm! It smells like bread..."
Beneath the first rays of the sun that fell piercingly from among the leaves smack in her ocean-green eyes, Misao sat up in a hurry, waking from her dream. Sniffing with sharp attention, she realized the scent in the air was no dream of hers -it was true. Finding the direction it came from, she violently shook Yahiko, who was splashed on the grass like a jellyfish. "Yahiko! Yahiko, wake up! I smell!"
Yahiko didn't open his eyes. He just clasped the grass beneath his palms and muttered, tightening his teeth. "Wha'?"
"Foooooooooooood!" the weasel-girl's eyes rolled glimmering at the sound of that word uttered by her own -and hungry- self. Her voice was a scratching whisper, much Gollum-like.
Yahiko sat up, instable and sleepy, rubbing his eyes with no effort at all. "Uh?"
"The scent! It's food! And it's near!" the girl said, getting up and grabbing her stuff. She took a couple of rushed steps but stopped dead when she noticed the boy didn't follow her. "C'mon, dude! I smell it!" her long braid whiped the air.
"For Geddy's sake, Misao..." Yahiko trudged up, placing his backpack over his shoulders. "Smelling food out as a dog..."
"Hey, I've been on the road for more than two years now! I had to pick up some animal skills, uh?" the girl winked and dragged her companion down by the collar.
^_^x
"Shinomori-sama?" the secretary hindered Aoshi's way to his office as soon as he got to the bureau. "The mayor has called right after you left yesterday."
"Tell him I died." Aoshi slid the door open and entered his room without a glimpse on the secretary's face.
"He says it's important, sir!"
The lawyer sighed, a throbbing headache menacing his well-being. "If he calls again, give him my number. I will talk to him myself." he turned his back and, as if remembering something, looked back on the secretary. "And please, find me some coffee around." With that, he closed his office' door in front of the secretary, before she could ask him anything else.
Aoshi sincerely liked his job. He liked all that cold red tape, for it matched him. But those last days, he was getting fed up with his later clients, as if he was choking with his once pleasure. His head ached. And it ached throbbing, in a very particular way, when his client was the mayor. The "old depraved pig", as the lawyer himself thought on the politician, always made him dizzy with work when bringing his confuse and absurd cases. Aoshi hated them. "Let us see what the flop is this time..." Aoshi sighed alone.
^_^x
After walking for some minutes amongst the trees, Yahiko and Misao got to a glade, where the scent came from. A bunch on fabric tents were put up and, near one of them, a big stone oven laid. The girl nudged her companion. "There! Food! Let's go!"
Sneakily, the couple of friends crept to the inside a tent, where nobody seemed to be around. Misao ran her eyes from side to side, trying to find something she could eat. On a table, there was a basket full of healthy, bright vegetables, which made her eyes ogle as a beggar's ones.
"May sessha help you?" A red-haired man entered the tent, his long hair tied up and another basket on his arms, just when Misao prepared herself to steal some of the food on the table. The girl jumped from her skin and got dumbfounded: she was taken unawares, too soon for her to whip up an excuse properly. "Uh... erm... I... I mean, we..."
"We came because of food." Yahiko nodded synthetically. "We came here to ask if you minded to give us some."
The man smiled. "Ow, that's it then. Sessha'd be pleased to help, if you both would help our community in reward. In anything you know how to do. We're many in here, help is always welcome, as well as newcomers."
"It's a deal." Yahiko shook the man's hand, as an alliance being made out.
"Wow, sometimes his sincerity amazes me..." Misao made a mental statement, while raising her eyebrows.
"Let sessha introduce himself. Sessha's name is Himura Kenshin." the hippie bowed. "And you are...?"
"I'm Yahiko, and that's my sister, Misao." The boy smiled and fixed himself into his clothes, seeming to be amused by the man.
"Sister, uh? OK, then..." Kenshin nodded thoughtfully. "So, could you please give me a hand while I prepare you some breakfast? Can one of you peel me those vegetables?" The man asked, placing the basket he had brought on the table.
"Hey, Misao. It's women job." Yahiko jeered, handing her a knife and heaving himself lazily on the floor.
Misao took the knife and crowned the boy just afterwards. "Useless brat."
Before Yahiko could have any reaction, a woman entered firm and carelessly, speaking easy and barely looking around from inside her bossy aura. "Good morning, Ken-san. Is breakfast ready yet? I'm so hungr--" The woman suddenly stopped when finally taking a glimpse on the couple of friends. She stared sideways, a bit suspicious "Hi... Who are you?"
"Newcomers, Megumi-dono. They came asking for some food, and they agreed to help us in response" Kenshin said, leading to the big stone oven and returning in with a big newly-baked piece of bread on a wooden tray.
"Ow, ow, ow... It doesn't look good to me..." Megumi shook her head worriedly. "And why on earth you kids don't eat at home?"
Misao scratched the back of her head. "Uh... well... Our mom left to work very early and she forgot to prepare our breakfast and--"
"Hey sis, cut it out!" Yahiko interrupted the girl's excuse. "I don't think we have to lie to them."
"You clumsy brat, shut this big bazoo of yours up..." Misao glared at the boy and muttered softly, her face growing paler and paler.
"Wake up! They're hippies, they'll understand us!" Yahiko turned to the couple of hippies. "The truth is that we're--"
"DON'T YOU DARE!" Misao jumped over the boy, hampering his mouth with her hand and causing him to topple over. With that, a battle settled down between the couple of friends, Kenshin and Megumi just staring the twister conjured by their fray.
"Ahrm... If you both don't mind sessha's interrupting..." Kenshin tried to meddle, oro-faced, while Misao and Yahiko kept on tangling. "Sessha must say he has a clue about why you're here... Could it be because you're outers?"
Out of the blue, the bickering ceased. Yahiko and Misao stood still on their very positions, looking startled to Kenshin, the girl over the boy while holding him by the collar, fist pointing to his face. "Uh... Yeah... How do you know?" the weasel babbled.
Kenshin chuckled. "Sessha imagined. Besides, sessha is a rurouni, sessha remembers having seen you both somewhere around the country."
"Oh, really?" Misao got up wide-eyed. "And where was it?"
"Hmmmmm... Sessha can't remember..." Kenshin scratched the back of his neck. "Sessha just remembers you were running away from the police..."
"Euh... was it in Tokyo?" Misao raised her shoulders in question.
"Sessha hasn't been to Tokyo for ten years..."
"Was it in Osaka?" Yahiko risked, as Kenshin gave him a slice of hot bread.
"No, no..."
"Yokohama!" the girl pointed
"Sessha doesn't think so..."
"Kobe?"
"Nnnn...no."
"Erm... Nagoya?"
"No, no. You were running away from the police."
"Ow, I can't remember all the places where we ran away from the police!" the weasel concluded, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Megumi bugged her eyes in astonishment. "Hmmm... Was it in Kyoto?"
"Yes!" Kenshin cheered. "Kyoto! It was in Kyoto!"
"But in Kyoto we didn't run away from the police!" Misao frowned, making Kenshin fall backwards, legs up.
"Yes we did." Yahiko meddled, the mouth full of bread. "We stole the policeman's wallet."
"Oh, indeed..."
"Ken-san!" Megumi shrieked. "They're pickpockets!"
"No, we're not!" the boy said angrily. "We just did this once!"
"As a matter of security, burry the money, Ken-san."
Kenshin laughed and placed, in front of each of the three, a slice of bread and a glass of tea. For a while they ate silently, as the sun grew higher in the sky with little effort, a soft breeze shaking the tent and moving away something that blocked the light in. A ray of sun fell right over Megumi and detached her expression to Misao, who shouted her surprise on recognizing the familiar face. "Hey! You're the woman I thought that was going to be raped the day before yesterday!"
Megumi looked at the girl and squinted, realizing she also knew her. "And... You're the naked girl from the river!" With that, the both of them burst into loud laugher, Yahiko and Kenshin understanding nothing about those strange epithets. Some seconds of laugh and Megumi was able to speak again. "Hey, you're a real crackpots. But... What is it about 'being raped' stuff? I don't remember being threatened by any rapist..."
"Oh, and indeed, I guess you weren't. Yahiko and I mistook it. We saw you arguing with a tall man the day before yesterday, late at night. We thought he'd attack you, so we knocked him down just when you were leaving..."
From an intricate expression, Megumi turned to thoughtful, then amused, finally bursting into laugher again. "MWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! It means you assaulted that berserk?"
"We did." Misao chuckled. "But it was a mistake of ours, he was no criminal. In fact, he's a nice guy."
"NICE GUY? Oh, it's obvious you're too young to recognize a crook when you see one." Megumi sipped her tea. "That man is a piece of some strange species, stupid and rude. A daft, that's it."
"Hey, foxy fox..." A bassy voice came into the tent behind Megumi, causing her to spit the tea she was drinking, a vein popping up on her forehead. "Ya don' get through with praising me, uh?"
Red and smoking, the woman balled her fist and turned angrily to the coming man -the same one she was talking about. "Serves you right."
Sanosuke chuckled, finally taking notice of Misao and Yahiko's presence. "Hey! My two trouble-friends! What are ya doin' here? Did ya come to cadge Kenshin's food, uh?" the motorcycle rider crowned the boy, messing his hair.
"Eh... hehehe, come on! Do I look like a food-thief?" Misao crossed her arms and cocked her head, while Kenshin pushed a chuckle back, slicing bread to the other dwellers at the community.
"They'll help us in retribution." Megumi spoke out. "They're not lazy and useless people, like a certain rooster-head I know."
"Glad yoah not talkin'a me." Sanosuke mocked, gazing fixedly to the woman's angry look. "For I can do a lotta things around."
"YOU?" Megumi jeered. "I bet my neck you don't."
"Oh, ya do? So I guess someone's gonna loose the head."
"Erm..." Misao sweatdropped, feeling the atmosphere get dense. "Sa-Sano, why don't you find Himura some firewood? He's willing for a lot of firewood, isn't it, Himura"
"Yes, Misao-dono. Very much! Sessha needs a lot of firewood!" Kenshin pulled Sanosuke by his strip with great effort, while the later kept on staring mockingly at Megumi. "Would you mind find sessha some, Sano?"
"Nah really, Kenshin." Sanosuke finally took his eyes from the foxy woman, looking to the red-haired man. "Leave tha'to me." With that, the motorcycle rider turned round and meant to leave the tent.
"Nice, then" Kenshin smiled. "Near the stone oven there's a hatchet."
"F'get about it. I'll need none."
"Yes, he will need none." Megumi teased. "He will cut the wood with this hard rooster-head of his."
Sanosuke meant to answer, but Kenshin dragged him out of the tent, avoiding further argues. Once again silence settled down for some short minutes. Suddenly, the four of the remaining at the tent felt the ground quiver beneath their feet and heard a loud and frightening noise that made them jump from their skins.
BUMmmm! -crack, crack, craaaaaack... KABOOOOF.
"K-K-Ken-san! What was it?" Megumi retreated. "Could it be another earthquake?"
"Sessha doubts it, Megumi-dono." Kenshin looked around wide-eyed, sharpening his ears. "See? The sound ceased."
Some seconds of silence ensued, then Sanosuke came back, a great bunch of wood in his arms, a wide provoking smile on his face. "Here's the wood."
Three startled pairs of eyes -Misao's, Yahiko's and Kenshin's- nourished the motorcycle rider's pride, while Megumi chuckled in dismiss. "That's the source of that noise. He must have cut the wood with his hard hair full of brilliantine."
"Swallow the tongue, fox." A vein peeped up in a forehead again, this time on Sanosuke's. "Tha's no brilliantine. It's my hair's natural bulk."
"Oh, I imagine. There must be beams sustaining it, coming from inside your head. That's why you're such an asinine: the beams take your brain's room."
Megumi laughed foxily. Face that, Sanosuke just placed the firewood on the floor, uttering loud. "I'll let ya know, fox, that I had cut it with my own hands." He raised his right fist proudly, torn bandages around it, blood and splinters all over. Megumi opened her eyes wide and ran towards him.
"You mad! What did you do?"
"-t's named 'Futae-no-kiwami', -t's a technique that--"
"That wrecks your hand if you're such an idiot, that's it!" The woman lost her temper and dragged the motorcycle rider by his left wrist out of the tent, shouting inwards. "Ken-san, boil me some water, please."
"Hey fox, worried 'bout me now?"
"Shut up, I'm just doing what I'm supposed to."
"Hey, cut it off. I'm used to it, I'll see a doc later and--"
"I am the doctor here and I'm telling you to damn shut up!" Megumi pulled Sanosuke into another tent, making him sit down on a wooden crude chair.
"Doctor?" the man repeated astonished. The woman ignored his intricate look and, still outside, summoned a man who passed and asked him to bring her some fresh water. With that, she ran to a crudely made counter inside the tent. Sanosuke just watched, running his eyes around.
Of all the tents he had seen on the community, that one seemed to be the most organized one. There were two chairs -he was sitting on one of them- and a table between them. Towards the chair he was sitting on, a counter stood. Megumi fumbled something by it, her back to the man. To its right, a wide wooden display, with many shelves. On them laid strange stuff, that Sanosuke imagined to be Megumi's working material: a pile of white pieces of fabric, packs full of leaves, glasses filled with light liquids, a few others labeled, filled with lab drugs every now and then. On a corner, a bunch of metallic devices, such as scissors -and other stuff Sanosuke didn't know how to name- shone clearly, revealing no rust or dent on them. All the air was filled with slight sandalwood scent.
Megumi had already had fresh water on her when Kenshin came with a bucket, full of boiled water. She filled up a big bowl with it, spilled some herbs in and placed the bowl on the table, right in front of Sanosuke. Picking out the pincers, she sat in front of him and pulled his injured hand, in order to keep it right above the smoke that swirled up from the bowl.
"Whadda hell are ya doin'?" Sanosuke muttered, while the doctor took off his tattered bandages.
"Sh! I'm preparing a brew with some leaves. While it gets ready, I'm taking advantage of the warmth." Megumi roared.
"Why to?"
"So as to make it easier to take all this splinters. Now shut up an let me work!" Megumi scrutinized Sanosuke's hand, sighing to herself. "How on Earth will I get through with them all?"
Sanosuke got silent, lowered his head and looked from the corner of his eye. He just heeded Megumi's dedication to her work, her concentration while she pulled gently the thrust pieces of wood from his hand. Her cinnamon-eyes looked much sharper and her lips, tight due to her attention, glowing much more then when he argued with her. His paying attention to her work just made Sanosuke realize two things. That the doctor was even more beautiful than he first considered her. And that the sandalwood scent came from Megumi's hair.
^_^x
The day was hot and bright, though the sun didn't seem very sure about its willing to stay awake till sunset. The effort of making light was not very high and, even like this, Aoshi was feeling disturbed.
From outside his office came the flat sound of his secretary's hitting the typewriter. Nobody had shown up on his bureau the whole morning but the sun, for it knew Aoshi hated it. The lawyer closed the blinds and heaved himself on his chair, his head throbbing as if it was about to blow up. Suddenly, the typewriting sound ceased. "Oh, no. Do not come here...", he buried his face on his bowled hands.
"Shinomori-sama?" the secretary opened the door slightly. "The mayor is waiting outside. Shall I show him in?"
"Please." Aoshi said, while his head meant to ask. "Do I have any choice?"
In no time, the mayor Nenji Kashiwazaki, as known as Okina in politic scenery, entered Aoshi's bureau, his portfolio on his hand, a green ribbon on his beard matching his tie. "Hi Aoshi-chan, my boy!" the old man winked, bowing to the lawyer.
"How do you do, Okina-sama?" Aoshi bowed formally in response, sitting down on his chair afterwards.
"Ahm, fine, fine." the mayor sat down, not waiting for the lawyer to finish his movement of showing down the chair. Aoshi patched another movement on, scratching the top of his head. "Some boring stuff around, problems with my granddaughter, but in general, no news. You know, I got a cold that--"
"A-rhem" Aoshi raised his eyebrows and coughed loud, ripping the conversation. "What is the matter that brings you to my bureau?"
"Oh, yes. I have a little work for you."
"I must say I have got work enough, maybe I will not be able to help you, sir. As you must know already, I will get married in two months."
"Oh, I see. The wedding's getting closer, uh? But unfortunately I really NEED it to be you, Aoshi-chan."
"Well, I am sure I can indicate some good lawyers, of maximum trust, that can easily replace me and--"
"None of them is liable to me, for none of them grew up in a traditional onmitsu family."
Aoshi took his magic cube from a drawer, for he knew exactly what conversation to expect. Yet, he simply hated when Okina persuaded him to work on his absurd cases by reminding him of his ninja blood and the strict and long relationship between his family and the mayor's.
"I will need, not only a righteous and proficient lawyer, but also a skilled and well-instructed ninja, someone creepy, who can sneak around without being noticed. That means you."
"I am a lawyer, not a thief, Okina-sama." Aoshi built a green line and spun it left. "I work in complete transparency, rigorously into the limits of law."
"As a good lawyer, you must know some criminals must be trapped out of what law offers you."
Aoshi stopped fumbling his magic cube, placed his flat hands on his desk and, propping on them, bowed forth, a cold look in his eyes. "Do not ever try to teach me my work"
"I don't." Okina raised his flat hands. "If I could, I wouldn't be asking for your services." Aoshi straightened his spine back on his chair and crossed his arms, as a signal of his paying attention. Okina smiled and took a brown envelope from his portfolio, handing it to the lawyer just afterwards. Aoshi opened it and started examining its content. "Tell me, what do you think?"
The young lawyer raised an eyebrow. "Okina-sama, I must remind you I am about to get married. And the contents of this envelope are something my fiancé certainly would not enjoy." The mayor looked to the envelope he had handed Aoshi. His eyes bugged face the red writing on it's front: "Tits all over".
"Erm, that's the wrong envelope." Okina smiled sickly, taking the envelope -as well as its content- from Aoshi's hands with a dash and replacing it clumsily on his portfolio, from where he took another brown envelope. "That's the right one." he said, handing it to Aoshi.
The lawyer took the envelope and examined its content: an unsigned contract and some newspaper pieces. "'Electricity rationing can affect seventeen cities on the north'" Aoshi read one of the headlines aloud, then went on reading the same news. "'Electric Wheel Inc. president, Denkou Mittsuu, says power plants' generation systems are overloaded". Shuffling the news, the lawyer took another one. "'Burnt forests get The Greens worried - Environment protectors demand strict action against illegal devastation of green areas and ancient forests'". Yet scrutinizing the papers the mayor gave him, Aoshi reached for the unsigned contract among them. "As I can see, it is a contract for bestowal of a terrain upon the power generation company, the Electric Wheel Inc." the lawyer frowned.
"On the bull's eye." Okina pointed. "Electric Wheel Inc. stated the systems would break down for overloading. Another company would enter the ranking and share the charge on the electricity distribution."
"Let me guess. Sharing the distribution, Electric Wheel Inc. will also share the profits, and they did not accept the solution, am I right?"
"Yes, Aoshi-chan."
"Well, and why does the government yield to the demands of Electric Wheel Inc.?"
"It's not a question of yielding to their wishes. The competitor is a small new company, they wouldn't carry out with all the charge if Electric Wheel Inc. would step out of the ranking."
"I see. And, face this contract, I imagine Electric Wheel Inc. have no money to build another power plant."
"Oh, they do. But they have no ground. They meant to buy a huge green area and devastate it, but the city's government didn't accept this project. We don't wanna get a fray on The Greens."
"Fine. So, our city's government will subside them a terrain, right? What is the problem then?"
"The problem is: they need too much room for it, and it's mandatory for them not to pollute the green areas around or water sources. Those were the conditions for signing the contract. But the two of these needs are impossible to conciliate." Okina unwrapped a gum and seized it with his mouth. "Though, the contract says nothing about previously devasted and polluted areas."
"So you suspect the devastation on the forests to the north of our city is being provoked intentionally by the Electric Wheel Inc.?" Aoshi brushed his newly shaved face.
^_^x
"Dad? Daddy? Otousan are you there?"
When arriving at home from school, Kaoru saw no trace of anybody home but herself. Leaving her stuff to a corner, the girl ran to the kitchen, where a post-it had been attached on the refrigerator's door. Recognizing the father's calligraphy, Kaoru detached it and read. "Kaoru-chan, the maid's missing and dad's at the dojo. I cooked something for you to have lunch, but don't wait for me to have dinner. Take care, Otousan." Kaoru chuckled, a mischievous idea on her mind. She got upstairs to take a shower, her spirits up, for her father's being at the dojo meant they finally had a new student. Kaoru knew teaching was something her father had been missing for long.
Kaoru was kind of a buff on her father. Kamiya-sensei had taught the Kamiya Kasshin all along his life. He was a talented swordsman and an honored man, and his noble spirit made him succeed on his style, for its philosophy was "sword protecting life". Since she could remember, Kaoru identified herself much more with her father than with her mother. She couldn't define what was the cause and what was the consequence, but the fact is that, despite all the girls, she didn't watch her mother cooking; instead, she took kendo classes with her father. Her mirroring was so intense, that sometimes she got convinced that she was her own father female-like. The only disagreement between their personalities -and the only spot Kaoru believed not to understand her father- was his anachronic behavior about Kaoru's future. In a time when all families dreamed about the girl's graduating and being independent, yet still womanish, Kamiya-sensei insisted in getting his daughter married, as if they lived in the nineteenth century.
The girl wore her training clothes, placed her bokken on her hakama's knot and got to the kitchen once again. Suspicious, she checked out what had been left inside of the pans by her father. The meal had a strange look, no smell and it tasted awfully bad. Kaoru drank a full glass of water and left, laughing inside. She knew cooking wasn't something her father was really good at. As a matter of fact, nobody in her family was, including herself. With that, she took her way to the hippie community.
^_^x
Aoshi wore his trenchcoat, got out of his room and slid its door closed. He headed to his bureau's door, when the secretary called him back. "Shinomori-sama? Are you leaving yet?"
"Yes. If any client comes, tell him not to expect me before tomorrow, by about ten AM." The lawyer said leaving. In his head, a brief summary about the places he kept each of his stuff at home. His mind summoned a specific place, where he kept his favorite weapons. "Time to wake up."
^_^x
When Kaoru got to the community she had to be introduced to the newcomers, Yahiko and Misao. Also she recognized the later by her sudden appearance at the river, naked and furious, the previous day. After cadging some lunch, she vanished amongst the trees in order to train her skills. Yet, she felt annoyed, for she hadn't had a real opponent for over six months then. She had never hurt anybody, neither had she had this intention, but she liked to handle with people, not only with dummies.
She stopped not far from the glade, took a deep breath and raised guard, her eyes and ears sharpened with attention. Her gracious movements started slow and retracted, evoluting till she finally jumped and turned round with impressive speed, accurate and freely, always hitting her unreal challengers and ripping nothing but the air.
A sudden noise took Kaoru out from her concentration.
The girl looked rapidly to her left, where the sound came from, a creepy crackle such as squeezed dry leaves. Kaoru looked all around, fearing it to be someone who could find her there, but finally concluded it might have been some fruit or seed falling to the ground, for it was an isolated sound, not a sequel of them such as steps. Yet, looking to her left for the second time, she had the clear impression of seeing a shadow running, yet dumbly, a glowing spot shining afterwards. Apprehensively, she got back to the glade, in order to tell Kenshin and Megumi about what she had seen back in there. But, when getting to the glade, a special scene called her attention and pushed her back.
Yahiko, the weasel's brother, was handling a shinai. His standing was man-like, adult and determined. He seemed to be training obvious initiating steps, movements that didn't reveal any style. Kenshin, passing by his side, whispered gently. "Hey, if sessha was you, he'd hold the tsuka like this." The rurouni re-arranged the boy's hands position. "Yeah, just like this."
"Hey, Kenshin." the boy said seriously, trying out the effects of this new position. "Do you fight?"
"Sessha used to fight on his early days. But nowadays, sessha just practices kendo."
Kaoru watched still while the boy waved his bamboo sword. Kenshin noticed her presence and looked fixedly at her. She didn't lower her head, as she'd do if that situation had happened the previous day. She sustained her look on the rurouni's violet eyes and, with no why, a strange poignancy warmed her body from the downside of her feet till her throat. Maybe it was the opportunity she had to teach. As if reading Kaoru's mind, without taking his eyes from hers, Kenshin placed his hand on Yahiko's shoulder. "Why don't you ask Kaoru-dono to teach you? Did you know she's mastered on her style?"
The girl smiled, as if thanking Kenshin for giving her credit. As the boy nodded and left to meet Kaoru, a few yards away, the distant clutch of her eyes lingered, yet the wide and thankful smile stood. To the rurouni, that smile was enough a "thank you".
^_^x
The day had fainted slowly and dull, little by little till night settled down. Among the trees, a lonely shadow rushed through the dark without making the slightest noise. Its blood-red eyes shone bright each time they looked back to the hot light exhaled by the burning oaks, pitch-black smoke swirling up as if devilish clouds were pouring fire down. Not long time after, the first desperate screams and alarms could be heard. The shadow curled up on a tree's crown and vanished.
The despair crusted in the screams of his companions woke Kenshin up. The rurouni had the old habit of not laying down to sleep, sitting instead, his sword propped on his shoulder. This custom allowed him to be en guarde each time he had a sudden waking up like that one. His sharp violet eyes looking frantically to every corner, Kenshin didn't hesitate to tie his sword' scabbard on his hakama and rush to outside the tent he slept in. He didn't have to take too many steps to see the threatening smoke that rose to the sky from a glowing spot among the trees. All the community was a great hustle-and-bustle, people carrying buckets full of water from the riverside. "Ken-san!" the rurouni could hear Megumi's voice calling him, then see the doctor that came running, a disheartened look in her eyes. "Ken-san, the forest's burning!"
"How? How come?" Kenshin wigged his head, instable violet eyes not knowing where to look.
"I don't know, what does it matter now? We must stop it!" the woman dragged Kenshin down to help.
Not distant from there, while the trees were engulfed by the fire and the hippies tried to light it out, a black figure stopped dead from his running towards the flames. Aoshi, the lawyer, replaced his both kodachi in the scabbard and took his long blue-black wicks from his sweaty face. "Too late. I came too late..."
Avoiding to be seen without a real need to it, the ninja managed to slip out. Also too late, for a pair of ocean-green eyes had already took notice of his presence in there. "That cold lawyer..." Misao scratched her chin suspiciously. "What is he doing here, smack at the time when fire is destroying the trees?"
^_^x
.:It's Me Again:. Now the plot really comes out. So, does this fic suck too much? Or else, do you like it? I hope so, but it's you to say it! Thanks for the reviews (yet I'm not exactly a good writer, I'm trying my best, believe me!) and also for the non-reviewer readers. Next chapter: an unexpected incident gathers all the people interested in finding out who's that one that's meddling in the forest's affairs!