Changing Leaves
Part Four

Rurouni Kenshin Fanfiction
by Laura Gilkey

*

September 24

Kenshin looked up from the breakfast dishes as the door opened and Soujiro slipped in. "Do you mind if I come in?"

"No, not at all. Tomi-dono...?"

"She's with Kaoru-san," Soujiro replied. "I kind of wanted to see you..."

"Oh? What about?"

"Nothing, really," he said, with a nervous laugh. "I'd help you with the dishes, but..."

"I know, you should rest your arm."

"I did things like this when we first were at the inn, for Ojisan and Obachan," Soujiro said, taking a seat against the wall a bit to the side. "When I decided to stay, then they got me a uniform and I started doing room service. Everybody said I was good at that because I always act so happy and polite."

"I can imagine."

"Maybe I shouldn't have stayed, though..."

"From what you've said, you'd found a place you belong, with people you love. That's not wrong."

"No, but..." Soujiro trailed off. "Nee, Himura-san?"

"Hm?"

"Do you think it would be okay, I mean... Could you maybe take care of Tomi-chan for me for awhile, while this is going on?"

"I think I definitely could," Kenshin said.

"...Because I know if she's with you that she'd be safe, and I don't want to make trouble for you by staying here..."

"She'll be sad to see you go."

"I know, but... I don't want her to get hurt..."

"I understand that." Kenshin remembered telling Kaoru goodbye when he left for Kyoto, because he didn't want her to be hurt in his fight. Kaoru had proven him wrong that time, but he knew what Soujiro was going through, and Tomi so young...

"Ahh, gomennasai!" Soujiro said. "I feel so bad... Like you haven't done anything but help me, and I've given you nothing but trouble..."

"Not at all."

"I'm sorry about what happened before..." Soujiro said, looking away. "I was so wrong... Not because I lost to you, but in everything that's happened since then, I think more and more that you were right and I was wrong..."

"Everything that's happened?" Kenshin asked. "How have you been, this past year?"

"Good mostly. At first it was so hard, though, being a Rurouni... I'd never been on my own, having to make money... I really thought I was going to starve for awhile!"

"Really?"

He nodded. "And winter was so bad... I almost didn't make it, but... But when I was in trouble, people I didn't even know helped me. I was so happy that I'd been saved, and I decided I wanted to be like that. I visited Anji-oshou in prison, you know."

"Oh? How is he?"

"He was doing fine. I talked to him about it, and he said the way people decide to live creates what the world is like, and it made me think of you. I want a world where what Shishio said doesn't have to be true, where Tomi-chan or anyone wouldn't have to worry about whether they were the strongest, to have to fight to save themselves. That's why I know I was wrong before... I'm sorry!" he laughed. "Here I'm just babbling..."

"Not at all," Kenshin said, and smiled. "It sounds like you're finding your own way, and I'm glad to hear it. After our battle, I was a bit worried about you, but now I can see you've grown a lot."

"That's what Anji-oshou said, too," Soujiro replied. "But really, it's so embarrassing! I remember how it felt fighting with you, how I got so mad... I remember I said I never wanted to be like you, and now here I'm saying I do. Really stupid, huh?"

Kenshin shook his head. "I was sure, even back then, that you weren't a killer at heart. It was the anger of seeing something you wanted and couldn't have, because you believed in Shishio's way, and to let go of that belief so that you could live the way you wanted to, it would also be letting go of the justification for everything you'd done. It's not an easy thing. The truth is, I had to pay an even higher price, before I could admit that I was wrong..."

"Ehh...? It's so hard for me to imagine you changing your mind. The way you are, it's just... It seems like you must have always been this way."

Kenshin shook his head sadly. "I was Hitokiri Battousai, if you remember."

Soujiro nodded slowly. "How do you do it...?"

"What?"

"You had to fight Shishio-san, and I know all kinds of other things happened to you, but you're still here with everybody. I didn't know what to do except run..."

"To fight Shishio, I tried to leave here. My friends wouldn't let me go alone, and they came after me, even though I didn't want them to. But the truth is, I was happy they did."

"They sound like great friends."

"They are."

"But Ojisan and Obachan couldn't do that, and it's not that they don't like me that much... I just wish... I wish somehow I could've gotten through it and stayed, but I couldn't fight with the police. That just would've made it worse... And really, I always knew it would happen." He leaned back against the wall and spoke softly. "At Tanabata, I'd just gotten my uniform, and we were all tying wishes to the bamboo..."

Kenshin dried his hands on a towel and turned to listen.

"My wish was 'To live here in peace with my family,' and I wouldn't tell anybody what it was, because even then I knew it couldn't come true... And maybe it was irresponsible or it was wrong, for me to wish for something like that... But... It already was true, and I thought, I'd just have it as long as it lasted..." His voice broke, and he rested his face on his right hand. "But now that's over..."

Kenshin crossed two steps to Soujiro and took him, with one arm around his uninjured shoulder and the other behind his head. "That's a beautiful wish," he said. "I hope that it comes true for you, and although things look bleak now, I believe that it still can someday."

Soujiro leaned his head on Kenshin's shoulder as he began sobbing in earnest. "I don't know what to do!" he cried. "I don't want to go back to being alone, but I can't stay here, I can't go home... If I don't keep going by myself, it'd be the same thing all over again, but..."

"People like us always have to face that problem," Kenshin said. "We never want to see the people we love hurt, but sometimes... Sometimes you're fortunate enough to find someone who thinks you're worth the risk, and you have to respect that, too. When someone really loves you, it might be worse for them to lose you..."

"That's not any easier."

"I know. It would be easier to walk away and say no harm was done, but it isn't that simple. It was a hard thing for me to learn..."

Soujiro sat back. "But my family... They can't fight for themselves... So I have to try to protect them, make sure they're safe." He turned his head toward his injured shoulder. "Otherwise, I'd never forgive myself..."

Kenshin paused for a moment, with a feeling that there was some significance in that turn of Soujiro's head that he didn't understand.

The door rattled open and Yahiko pushed into the room. "Hey, Kenshin, the police are here."

Soujiro started up. "Eh!?"

Kenshin simply turned. "Looking for Soujiro?"

"Kaoru already told them he wasn't here. They're not tearing the place up or anything, but their captain wants to talk to you."

"All right." Kenshin unfastened his tasuki cord(11) and shuffled his creased sleeves back down over his elbows. "Stay right here," he told Soujiro. "It'll be okay," and he walked past Yahiko and out of the room.

Soujiro closed his eyes and sighed, leaning back against the wall again. Had he seriously thought the police wouldn't come here? Nothing to do... Surely if Himura-san was so calm about it... But still, in his mind, this place could fall in around his ears in another minute, and it would be his fault for bringing it down on everyone...

"What are you so upset about?"

Soujiro hadn't been paying attention; he was almost surprised to see Yahiko still there, giving him a hard look.

"If Kenshin says it'll be okay, then it will be."

Soujiro managed a smile and a laugh. "That's right, isn't it?"

Yahiko kept looking at him for a moment, a kind of fiercely-on-guard, sizing-up look. "I defeated one of Shishio's Ten Swords," he said at last, for no reason except wanting to.

"Really?"

Yahiko nodded.

Looking over him, obviously he was more than the "punk kid" image he presented. Maybe Soujiro could've done it at Yahiko's age, depending... "Who?"

"Hisho no Henya."

Soujiro forgot his fears and burst out in merry laughter.

"Don't laugh! It wasn't easy!"

"No, no," he said, wiping laugh-tears. "It's just too perfect! Wasn't the way he fought just the cheapest thing ever? Shishio-san said that if I was going to judge him without his wings and bombs, then I'd have to give up my sword, but somehow I still think... Well, I'm happy he was beaten by someone like you."

"Don't patronize me!"

"I didn't mean to."

Yahiko shot him one last glare, which looked like biting back the words "I'm not scared of you," and then turned sharply and stamped out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Soujiro smiled to himself; he remembered Henya always acting so smug, convinced he'd built himself the invincible advantages... He'd been brought down by an earnest child with a shinai. Soujiro remembered that he should stay quiet, and he felt the suppressed laughter shake his injured shoulder, just a little.

**********

May 9

By the time Soujiro got home with the noodles, he'd begun to feel the magnitude of what had happened, and he couldn't eat. Instead, he darted around the apartment for what to take with him—probably the police would come that very night. He collected together all the money he had there; he hadn't thought to save, but even the little bit he could find was something. His mind flew across the contents of the room, picking up nothing. Of course the furniture couldn't be carried and would all have to be abandoned. His eyes lingered over the blue kakefuton draped over Tomi's knees, and he knew that he'd miss it.

"What are you doing?" Tomi asked around a mouthful of noodles.

"We have to leave here tonight," he said. No way to keep it from her. "I'm sure your father will be sending the police here anytime now. We have to get away."

She stared at him. "Where?"

"I don't know." He folded the carrying-cloth from the bento box and put it in his kimono, looked at the toys on the floor and took the worn old stuffed horse.

"Can I take my doll?"

"Yes."

"And my ball?"

"We have to carry everything we take..." He trailed off realizing that she looked more excited than upset. How she managed that with a broken rib, he had no idea. "Just hurry and finish your noodles."

Tomi didn't have to be told twice. She clutched her doll in one hand and wolfed her food with the other. Soujiro sat and watched her—there wasn't even any point in trying to think of more to pack.

When she was finished, he put her yukata on over her nemaki, tying the obi hastily and loosely—the furisode kimono would just have to be left behind.

He told Tomi to wait and left the apartment to sneak a look down the staircase. No police yet, but the landlady was sitting down there and would be sure to see anyone leaving. Buying an extra few minutes could make all the difference... Back in the apartment he looked out the window and found himself lucky—the alleyway below was quiet and empty.

"Stand aside, Tomi-chan," he said, locking the door and starting to pile as much furniture in front of it as possible.

"How are we gonna get out?" she asked as she watched him.

"The window."

He pushed the low table across the floor, using it to prop the futon against the rest of the furniture. The sights and sensations of the home he'd built here... It hurt to see them all in a pile, the blue kakefuton rolling a flash of color into the tangle, now no more than cloth and wood. Hopefully they could escape unseen, and these things piled up would convince the police they'd barricaded themselves inside. In one last gesture of kindness, the furniture would buy them time before the police realized where they'd gone. It was a noble sort of goodbye.

"It's an awfully long way down..." Tomi said as Soujiro finished blocking the door. When he turned he couldn't help a pang of fear, seeing her leaning her head out the window, two stories up. After all, that was the window Kotori-san had tried to fly out from...

Gently he took her and pulled her back. "I'll carry you; it'll be okay," he said. "I'm sure I can make it."

"What if you fall on your head? You might get hurt."

"It'll be fine, I know how to do this." He gave her a smile that he hoped hid his own nervousness. His old skills always seemed to be there when he needed them, but it had been a long time... "Hold on tight," he said as he picked Tomi up against his chest. She held him around the neck.

The western-style windowframe came in useful as he lifted the pane open completely and slid himself out facing up, getting handholds on the outside frame. The starry sky over the eaves was a dizzying sight, and he took care not to bump Tomi on the window, but at last he had his feet on the sill. Balancing carefully, he managed to grip the inner pane with his toes at the split in his tabi, and he pushed it down enough that the opening would look too narrow to have admitted this escape route.

He looked over his shoulder and gauged the distance to the opposite wall of the alley, then turned back for one last look at the piled remains of their home, warm and hazy through the lamplit glass. He let go of the windowframe and pushed off with his feet in one motion, and when the ground met him, he rolled to a kneel, so as not to jar Tomi in the landing. It was perfect, except that he took a step to get his balance, and without a pause, he rose and walked away.

**********

September 24

Kaoru was wearing her dojo clothes, facing a single uniformed federal policeman, who held his hat in his hands as Kenshin approached behind Kaoru.

"...And Kenshin was the one who fought Shishio for you," she was saying, "so I don't see how you could think—"

"No, nothing of that kind, Ma'am. No one here is under suspicion," the policeman assured her, then noticed Kenshin coming. "Ah, Himura-san, I presume?"

Kaoru looked over her shoulder. "That's right," Kenshin said, stopping beside her.

The man paused awkwardly, noticing the bruise on Kenshin's cheek, but then put it aside and surprised them both with a deep bow from the waist. "Federal police, Captain Hakata, at your service," he said. "I believe this is the first time we've met, but I've read the reports, and I know what a tremendous help you were to our nation's government against Shishio's attack and others. I must say, it's an honor to meet you." He offered his white-gloved hand.

Kenshin took it and shook hands, a little awkwardly. "The pleasure is all mine."

"As to the matter at hand, I'm sure you're aware by now that Tenken no Soujiro has been seen in this area in the last 24 hours."

"Yes."

"I'm commanding a special unit sent here to capture him. He's eluded us for over a year now, but since he was injured in our last encounter, I'm quite confident that we'll catch him this time. I know that you defeated him before, and probably understand his mind more than I do. I would greatly appreciate any assistance you can offer me in finding him." His amiable face became more stern as he spoke.

"I understand, but I apologize, Hakata-dono," Kenshin answered. "I can't help you."

"I see," Hakata said. "I apologize for disturbing you and Kamiya-san. Please come to us with any information that finds you." With another bow, he put on his hat and left the dojo.

When he was safely gone, Kaoru sighed with relief. "I was afraid he wasn't going to leave... Really, though, I hadn't expected him to be so nice."

"Ah," Kenshin nodded. "But he's also very determined. We'll have to be careful about him." He turned and headed back toward the dojo. "I'll tell everyone he's gone."

"Okay."

Kaoru thought to close the gate, but stepped outside and looked around. Hakata was out of sight, but before she could go back inside, she saw Ayame and Suzume running down the street toward her. "Kaoru-oneechan!"

**********

May 20

Tomi's face, flushed and sunburned, was red as a cherry as she sat in the grass, crying.

"It's okay," Soujiro said, carefully taking her sandals off her feet. The constant travel had worn on them quickly, and he held it up to show Tomi. "See, it just wore a hole there." Probably it had left a blister, but it would heal before long.

Tomi snatched the shoe out of his hand and screamed as she flung it away into the trees.

Soujiro watched it fly. "There's a town not too far ahead," he said. "I'll get you some new shoes that'll be better to walk in." He offered a hand but Tomi crossed her arms.

"My feet hurt," she wailed, "and my legs hurt, and it's so hot! I wanna go home!"

"We'll get caught if we go back there."

"I don't want to walk anymore..." Tomi sniffled.

"It gets easier after awhile, I promise," Soujiro said. He smiled for her and clasped both of her hands. "I'll carry you into town, and then we can get something cold to drink, and I'll get you new shoes and a sun hat. Okay?"

"Okay," she whimpered.

But when he turned to let her up piggyback, she paused for a long moment before taking hold of him.

**********

September 24

While Kenshin and Kaoru were talking with the policeman, Yahiko patrolled the dojo, with his shinai on his shoulder. He whipped around at the sound of approaching footsteps and found Sanosuke coming up the hall. "Hey, Sanosuke! What are you doing sneaking in the back door?"

"There's a cop at the front door," Sano answered. "Where's Soujiro?"

"In the kitchen," Yahiko said, pointing.

Sano passed him without another word, and by the time Yahiko caught up, he was leaning in the kitchen door toward Soujiro. "Come on. I need to talk to you."

"Eh!? But, Himura-san said to stay—"

Sano glanced up and down the hallway. "Coast is clear. Come on."

Hesitantly, Soujiro rose and followed him into the wide into the wide, tatami-floored practice hall, with Yahiko close behind. "So, what is it?"

Sano turned to face him. "We're going to get somet things straight," he said. "Where did you pick up Tomi, really?"

Soujiro smiled, but his brows knitted up. "Well, I told you she's just an orphan I—"

"That's not what the papers say. Either they're lying or you are, and by the look on your face, I think it's you."

His face fell. "Gomennasai. I guess you read about her father then?"

"That he wants her back and you said no? Yeah."

"Wait," Yahiko said. "You kidnapped Tomi!?"

"It's not like that!" Soujiro protested. "She wanted to come with me! She's my friend!"

"She's just a kid! She's too young to decide that," Sano argued. "Being her friend doesn't give you leave to take her away from her father who loves her!"

Soujiro's eyes were downcast. "Do all families love their children...?"

"What kind of a question is that?" Yahiko asked.

He looked up. "Tomi can't go back home. I won't let that happen. It's better for her to stay with me."

"Better for her to be a fugitive on the run from the cops, with bullets flying around!?" Sano demanded.

"I know about that... I wish I could do better, but I can't let her go back, whatever happens."

"Why not!?"

Soujiro avoided his gaze, silent for a long moment. "If you don't approve of it, then we'll just leave."

"Listen, I know you don't remember it, but the night you showed up in town you made me promise to protect Tomi-chan, and not let anyone take her away from me," Sano said. "And until you give me a good reason not to, I say that includes you."

After another long pause, Soujiro looked up. His eyes had narrowed, and his face was uncharacteristically grim. "With my arm like this, maybe you can stop me if you want to, but you saw me fight Himura-san in the Hiei mountains, so you know it won't be easy."

"Nothing ever changes, huh? If you're stronger, then you get your way."

"No," Soujiro said. "This is because keeping Tomi with me is important enough to fight for. Maybe in ten years I'll find out I was wrong, but right now I'm sure enough to bet that I'm right." Only now Sano realized that Soujiro had crossed to the wall as they were talking, and he lifted one of Kaoru's bokken from its place. Yahiko readied his shinai in response.

"If you want to bet against me," Soujiro continued, "then we'll see who wins."

"Well, if you're not going to tell me why this is so damn important—" Sano shouted, readying his fists.

He was interrupted by the door sliding open; seeing Sano, Yahiko, and Soujiro facing each other on guard, Kenshin dashed into the room. "What's happening!?"

"He kidnapped the girl who's with him!" Yahiko said, not taking his eyes off Soujiro.

Soujiro and Sano did turn to him and loosen their guard. "I saw it in that newspaper," Sano said. "She has a father and he wants her back."

"I knew she had a father," Kenshin said, slowly walking in between the opposing parties.

"Eh? You knew that?" Soujiro asked. The bokken was lowered at his side by now.

"I asked Tomi-dono about it and she told me. I agree with Soujiro that we mustn't let her be taken back to her father."

"Then you tell me!" Sano insisted. "What the hell is the deal!?"

"I think that when Soujiro met Tomi, he had to protect her," Kenshin said, and turned to Soujiro. "...Because she was in the same place where you had been, and no one protected you."

Soujiro stared at him speechlessly.

"Before Shishio. Am I right?"

He laughed, but turned away. "How do you do that?"

"What you were ranting about, back then...?" Sano surmised.

"What are you guys talking about??" Yahiko asked.

"Shut up," Sano said.

"Hey!"

"No," Soujiro said. "When I fought Himura-san before, and he told me life wasn't just survival of the fittest, I said 'why didn't you protect me?' It was a really dumb question, since he wasn't even there..."

"And the same thing happened to Tomi—what?" Sano asked.

He paused for a long moment before he spoke, eyes to the floor. "Before I met Shishio-san, my family always hated me, because I wasn't their real child, but I was just little and they were stronger than me, so they could do what they wanted, and there was nothing I could do. So I learned to take it and smile and not make any trouble..." he was almost whispering, "...no matter how much it hurt when they would beat me... That's how I got the way I was before..."

"Soujiro..." Sano said.

"When I asked you if all families love their children, I really don't know. Tomi's father is her real father, and he would say that he was sorry and that he loved her, but I don't understand how someone could be like that, if they really loved their child... Everybody told me 'you can't interfere in other people's families,' but when I was little like Tomi, I lived through Hell because of people thinking like that. So..."

A long moment of silence blanketed the room. Yahiko finally put up his shinai, and Kenshin touched Soujiro's uninjured shoulder.

Sanosuke's face darkened until he let out a hot, grating sigh.

Soujiro looked up at him. "Areh?"

Sano seized him by the collar. "Why didn't you just tell me that!?!?" he shouted before letting go. "Shit, you made me look like a stupid jerk!!"

"Gomennasai! It's just embarassing somehow. Like, how horrible would you have to be for your own family to hate you? With how I was later, sometimes I still wonder if maybe I deserved it all along..." He was looking away again, his smile strained.

"Now look, it's okay," Sano said apologetically. "Don't get like that. Just forget it."

"No, I'm okay," Soujiro said, brightening up. "Really, I'm happy to know you're so concerned about Tomi-chan, that you agree I made the right choice to take her. I—"

He cut off as Kaoru ran into the room; she glanced quickly to the side before looking at the group. "What are you all doing here!?" she cried.

Soujiro put away the bokken with a guilty, innocent smile.

"Out! Out, out, out!" Kaoru shouted, but as she started herding them out of the practice hall, she only targetted Sano and Yahiko, and Kenshin stayed Soujiro where he was.

"What'd I do!?" Yahiko protested.

"Get out!" With one last push through the doorway, she slammed the sliding door shut behind them, then ran to one of the storage closets at the side of the room. Kenshin had seen her glance at it when she entered, and now she cautiously slid the door open. "You can come out now; it's safe."

"Tomi-chan!" Soujiro's mouth went slack with surprise as Tomi crept out of the closet a few steps, then ran to him and clung to him tightly.

Kenshin looked up and found Kaoru still upset. "Kaoru-dono, what happened?"

She took a deep breath. "Kenshin, Megumi-san was just arrested!"

"Eh!?"

"The lady doctor?" Tomi asked.

**********

June 2

"Is she okay?" Soujiro asked.

"With some rest and plenty of fluids, she'll be fine," the doctor said, drying his hands with a cloth. "The vomiting was from stress and maybe a little dehydration; she just got tired and overheated. Where are you two headed, anyway?"

"Um, nowhere in particular..." Soujiro said. The doctor raised an eyebrow at him and he paused awkwardly. "How soon do you think we could leave again?"

"Are you crazy?" he asked. "This once is a minor thing, but you can't take a little girl traipsing around the countryside indefinitely. You saw the strain it puts on her. When you leave here, you need to get where you're going and be done with it, or you need to take her home."

"Well, how soon should we leave?"

The man sighed. "I'll say about a week. You'll have to find somewhere to stay in town for that long."

"But I don't have any money for—"

"Not any?" the doctor asked.

"Well, just a little..."

He folded his arms crossly. "There's a charge for a doctor visit, you know."

"Eh!?" When Tomi had become sick, Soujiro had panicked and brought her here without any thought of the cost, and now that he got out his wallet, the doctor frowned at the few coins he was able to shake out of it. "I'm sorry..." he said. "I was so worried about Tomi-chan, I didn't think..."

The doctor sighed again. "All right, I'll tell you what you can do," he said. "An old friend of mine runs an inn just down the street; I'm always putting patients up with them. If you'll work there for the week, they'll probably let you have the room and board and you can pay me back. That all right?"

"Oh, yes, yes," Soujiro replied.

"Well, no time like the present."

Soujiro went into the room where Tomi was sleeping, and she only half-woke as he lifted her onto his shoulder and followed the doctor out into the narrow, quiet street.

The clinic was located on the inland fading edge of Yokohama, a short walk from the railroad tracks that led to and from the busy heart of the city. The doctor led them away from the tracks, and a short way down the road, a wooden fence bounded a large yard blossoming upward with peach trees throughout, so many of them that only the path up to the door offered a clear view of the pristine wooden building and the sign above its door: "Sumidaya." The smell of peach blossoms lingered as they went inside.

The doctor looked into the kitchen. "Hello, Reiko. Is Junzo around?"

"Oh, he's out doing some shopping, but he ought to be back soon," came the reply. "What is it?" As Reiko emerged from the kitchen, she was revealed as a slightly roundish woman with variegated grey hair tied back in a bun at her nape, and a wrinkled but friendly face. She wore a white kimono and a dark blue jacket, with mon at her hips and at the center back in the image of an ink bottle and peaches.(12)

"I've brought you some help," the doctor explained, "but it needs a place to stay."

"Oh?"

"Pleased to meet you," Soujiro said, resituating Tomi on his shoulder. "My name is Soujiro, and this is Tomi."

"Pleased to meet you, too; I'm Sumida Reiko," she said.

"These two were travelling and the little girl got sick from exhaustion," the doctor told her. "She needs a rest, but her big brother here couldn't even pay me for the office call."

"I didn't mean to bother anyone," Soujiro said. "If you would let me work here to pay my debt and have a place for Tomi-chan to rest, I'd be very grateful."

"Oh, that's no trouble. The poor little darling," Reiko said. Tomi stirred as Reiko stroked her hair. "We'll get her all tucked in and then you can help me out in the kitchen." She began to lead the way to a room, but paused in the hallway. "Ah, Junzo, honey!"

Her husband was coming through the door behind them, carrying a basket of vegetables. He had white hair with a beard, mustache, and a short ponytail, and he wore a similar uniform to Reiko's, with white hakama. "This what you needed?" he asked her, lifting the basket.

"Oh, yes, put it in the kitchen," she said. "These two will be staying here, working for their room."

"All right, fine," he said, and walked past them into the kitchen.

"Ah, Junzo," the doctor called after him and followed.

"Right this way," Reiko beckoned. "It's just a small room, but I hope you'll feel at home, and then I'll get you started chopping those vegetables."

Tomi raised her head. "Onii-chan?" she asked blearily.

"It's okay. We're at an inn; we'll be staying here awhile until you're better."

She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder again.

to be continued...

Footnotes:

11. A tasuki cord is a cord or stip of cloth tied around the shoulders and crossed in back, used to hold back kimono sleeves during activities when they would be in the way. We often see Kenshin wearing one as he does housework, and Kamatari wears the biggest tasuki cord I've ever seen.

12. This is a "hanten" kimono jacket, with the inn's "mon" or crest on it. The crest has an ink bottle in it because the "sumi" in the name "Sumidaya" means "ink", and of course the peaches refer to the peach trees in the yard.