Enjoy and please R&R.

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Entry One

February 24th

While walking through the busy streets of Kyoto, I think I figured out why my father abandoned me. I've come down to three possibilities. Number one, I look just like my mother only with red hair that it would of killed him to raise me. Number two, he did not have the money or the ability to wander and care for a baby at the same time. Or number three; he did not know he was going to stop being a manslayer, so he gave me up for my own safety. All are perfectly good, well… except number one. After a while he would get used to it am I right? Anyways, my facial appearance must have changed over the past ten years. After I sold some of the woman's silver for cash, I bought my self a purple and white kimono. Its kind-of a guy's kimono, I mean it's not a dress. I can't stand wearing anything frilly and girly. I know I'm a girl and all but I just can't stand it.

The top it a light purple and the pants are like extra baggy and are pure white. I got odd looks from passers by as I walked through town. I heard a couple men at the bakery where I stopped this morning for some fresh bread talking and staring at me. This is what I caught of there conversation…

Old man: "Isn't that the Battousai?"

Younger man: "No it can't be. No scar."

Old: "But look at the kimono and the long red hair!"

Young: "Yeah, well if it is the Battousai, where's the sword? Maybe it's just a wannabe."

Old: "Maybe, but those violet eyes, and the long red hair pulled up on top of his head, go ask him."

Young: "What are you nuts? What if it is him and we just don't see the sword. Maybe the sword's hidden by that bag he's carrying and his scar healed?"

Me: * walking out the door and stopping to answer the men* "Sorry to disappoint you guys, but I'm no Battousai. See, I have no reverse blade sword and a scar as deep as that, won't heal completely! Have you any news about him? It would really help me?"

But just as I thought, they say they haven't seen him since the great house fire in the mountains almost ten years ago. That's what everybody here in Kyoto has said to me. Not to mention a few "…don't bother with him he's dangerous…" and a couple "…your only looking for trouble seeking the Battousai…" None of them would ever understand. If I told them I was his daughter, who knows what they would do. Put me in an insane hospital thinking I was crazy or soon will go crazy? Laugh in my face? I need to start searching the world – well at lest Japan – for my father. Oh daddy, where are you? Are you okay? Are you alive? Have you found solitude in another town? Are you looking for me? Do you even remember me? Oh daddy…

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March 5th

I've been huddled under a tree in the middle of nowhere for the past week. The rain never let up until this morning. I feared writing for the rain might out ruined my book and made the ink run all over the pages. I haven't gotten very far in my journey. I'm soaking wet and I fear catching a cold. The only this I did not buy in Kyoto is some kind of medicine just in case. A cording to my dripping wet road map, I'm somewhere in a town called Osaka. Only about three hundred, thirty-three miles till I reach the center of Tokyo. Once there, I can look up my father and see if the town hall has any news on him. Anything with the slightest hint as to his location would do me

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Later March 5th

I stopped suddenly like, that due to the fact that I just stepped into the main streets of Osaka, and man are they busy. I tried to continue writing but all the shops were mesmerizing, and the streets were crowded and noisy. I asked around and I only got a few positive responses. According to a police officer who got an odd look upon him when I mentioned I was looking for the Battousai, he said the Battousai was headed north-east and past through Nagoya about 5 years ago headed for Tokyo. The man looked strange he did not have an appearance of a police officer. He had long black hair and his bangs were long and straight and hung in front of his face just above his nose. He asked my name and I told him it was Kanji but refused to tell him by last name when he persisted that I do. He kept trying to persuade more information out of me like why I wanted to find the Battousai until a nice young girl by the name of Misao Makimachi came and pulled me away telling the officer I was her cousin who just traveled from Kure. The girl led me to her temporary house and that's where she told me her name. We had a nice long conversation. This is how it went…

Misao: "Your real lucky I found you back there. That man, he's the new officer in town. A bit mysterious if you ask me. He carries a Japanese sword. No other officer does. So what's your name and where are you really from?"

Me: "My name's Kanji Himura. I'm from Nara. I'm in search for my father. He left me on the steps of a temple when I was just six months old due to my mother dying. I was raised by an elderly woman who passed on about a month ago. Ever since then, I've been determined to find my father and renter his life as his daughter."

Misao: "Wow, that's sad. Um…why were you asking that officer back their about the Battousai? Sorry about eavesdropping."

Me: "Its okay, you see, the Battousai is my father. I ask around using that name because I know that how everyone knows him. His real name is"

Misao & Me: "Kenshin Himura."

Misao: "I thought your last name sounded familiar. Kenshin never said he had a daughter or at that a dead wife. Well I guess that is a touchy subject."

Me: "You know my father?! Have you seen him? Where is he?"

Misao: "Calm down. He's not in Osaka. I met him a while back in the forests of Kyoto. We wandered together for a while before we went our separate ways, me back her to Osaka and him… I think he said something about friends up in Tokyo. I remember a girl and a small boy looking for him just after he left. They were the friends he told me about that lived up in Tokyo. The girl, Kaoru, owns a dojo called Kamiya Dojo and the boy, Yahiko, is one of her students. According to Kaoru, Kenshin was living up in the dojo for five years. He was looking for peace and seamed to find it there. He came to Kyoto to stop some bad people and succeeded. He went back to the dojo to settle down."

Me: "I need to go to Tokyo. That was my plan all along. Destiny wants me to find my father. I must go. The faster I find him, the better!"

Misao: "Calm down. I was planning to visit him myself. I need a few friends considering I have no family. My bags are packed. I was in the village getting a few more items. We'll head off tomorrow after I get a few more things."

That was it. We both went to bed. I can't believe it. I'm going to see him again. Of course its going to take me at lest a few months to get to Tokyo, but who cares. It's worth it!