Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin or any of its characters.
Kenshin's POV
I woke up earlier than I normally do and with a slight headache. The night before I had practically collapsed on my futon and had sleep like a rock. That was very unusual for me, too. Since my days during the revolution I had been a light sleeper.
Once I was up and moving around, however, I felt better. I got dressed and began to straighten the sheets on my futon. Suddenly I felt something stab my left foot. I gave a small yelp of surprise and kind of fell-sat onto my futon.
I fumbled in the dark with the lantern I kept in my room, but finally got it lit. Peeking around the futon, I saw three daggers lying on my floor. I picked them up. They were the daggers that the man who had attacked Yahiko and I had used.
Two things about this discovery disturbed me greatly. First of all, three daggers lay on my floor. One was missing. The other troubling aspect was I had no idea how they had come to be on my floor. I had no recollection of seeing the daggers since I had picked them up off the roadside.
I reached down and tentatively picked on up, turning over in my hand as though I had never seen a weapon before. Double bladed with a sharp, stabbing point. A weapon with no other purpose than to rip flesh and spill blood. I dropped the hateful thing with a disgusted shudder. I never wanted to hold a weapon made for killing again.
Using a pillow from my bed, I pushed the three daggers beneath the futon to avoid touching them again with my bare skin. Breathing a small sigh of relief, I stood and headed out to the practice lawn. Although I was up earlier than usual, I was the first person up and about in the morning each day, and I used this time to do my own sword practice.
I preferred to practice when no one else was up for several reasons. First of all, there were no distractions. I could concentrate completely on my routines. But I felt the second reason was more important. I did not want Yahiko to see me. I knew he had a misplaced admiration for my killing techniques and I did not want him to try to replicate my exercises.
I sighed as I slipped on my sandals and stepped out into the cool predawn air. I really could not blame him; I had felt the same way when I was his age.
"Kenshin," Sano said as he sauntered in through the gate.
"Sano," I said in surprise. "I did not know you got up so early, that I did not."
He laughed as he approached me. "It's not so much getting up early. More like staying out late," he said with a grin. "I was going to wait until after I had gotten some sleep, but I didn't think you'd be up."
"For what?" I asked, looking up at the younger man's face.
"We need to talk."
"Yes, I seem to be getting a lot of that," I muttered to myself. "Would you like some tea?" I started to head back into the dojo.
"No," Sano said once inside and we both sat down. "You're bleeding!" he said suddenly.
I looked down and noticed rather belatedly that my foot was bleeding where the dagger had stabbed me. I felt a blush rising to my cheeks as I pulled off my now bloody sock to reveal a slit puncture wound in the instep of my left foot.
Sano was watching me with a worried expression on his face. I stood and pulled out a linen bandage from Miss Kaoru's stores. "It was nothing, really Sano," I said, wrapping the bandage around my foot tightly. "A bit of carelessness on my part."
Sano looked at me silently for a moment. "I've never known you to be careless, Kenshin. What's going on with you?"
All I seemed to be doing lately was assuring people that I was ok. I almost wished they didn't care so much about me. I did not deserve their concern.
"This isn't why you wanted to talk, Sano." I hoped he would accept the abrupt topic change.
Sano smiled and moved to hand me the last dagger. I did not take it, but looked at it curiously. "Where did you get that?"
"That," Sano said stretching his arms above his head, "is a story unto its self. I did put the other daggers in your room, though."
I raised my eyebrow to him. "I noticed," I said quietly.
"Anyway," Sano continued ignoring my reaction. "I recognized the work and I went to go see this guy. And from there I did some other investigating."
"You were up all night investigating?" I said disbelieving.
"Well, I did some other things," he admitted. "But I did find out a lot. This group, the Black Asps, they call themselves, is richly backed. They've got at least two extremely wealthy benefactors. They've been active in Kyoto for years, many as a thieving organization. Recently they've come under new command and they are getting bolder."
"Which is why they left Kyoto," I guessed. The Kyoto police were a formidable group and they did not take sedition lightly.
"Right," Sano said. "So now they've got money, too. Now it seems they are going to try to kill off as many government officials as they can in one blow. That's why they are after you."
"What?" I asked, surprised. "They should have no problem causing plenty of trouble without me."
"That's the beauty of this group," Sano said with a grin. "In a twist of supreme irony, these anarchists are incredibly well organized. They want to go high in the government. Real high. They think they need you, and they are going to continue threatening you until you agree."
I frowned at this. Even as the Hitokiri Battousai, not just anyone with money could hire me. So why did they think they could?
Sano watched me carefully. "They seem to think they've practically won you over already."
"What gave them that idea?" I asked.
"You killed one of their men," he said avoiding my eyes. "I suppose most people would not take that as a good sign, but these guys…" He trailed off.
…think that I'm back in the killing trade, I finished the sentence in my head. I gave a frustrated groan and held my head between my palms. I pushed my bangs out of my eyes with a weary sigh. Why couldn't people just leave me alone?
"Kenshin," Sano said. "Don't worry about this. I'll do what I can to help the police on this. You just worry about yourself and Yahiko and Kaoru."
I gave him a small smile and hoped it did not look too forced. "No, Sano. I need to deal with this, too."
"What about Kaoru?" Sano asked.
"It's no longer a problem," I answered. "Where are they?"
Sano smiled and threw his hands up in the air. "No one seems to know exactly."
The conversation ended there and we sat in companionable silence for a long time. After a while I noticed Sano was fast asleep sitting up, a bit of drool coming from the corner of his mouth. With a smile I half carried, half dragged him into the guest room, which luckily was right there.
Then I went out into the practice yard, hopeful that the concentration needed for my exercises would clear my mind for a blissful hour or so.
A/N: Ok, not much action again, sorry. Next chapter though, I promise. This is kind of a boring chapter but it's needed or else I'd have to have Kenshin go figure all this stuff out. I thought it'd be easier if I just let Sano do the explaining. I wonder if people actually read these. I do whenever I'm reading fanfiction so that's why I bother at all. I mean, if I just said, "Whug a lugi Bula," would anyone notice? Hmm…
