Chapter 3

Misao was extremely amused by this turn in events. Homosexuality wasn't a big deal to her; she had grown up with the Oniwa Banshu after all. Almost all the members were in or had been at one time or the other in a gay or lesbian relationship.

The artist looked at the door, stricken.

"He doesn't want me," he whispered, heartbroken.

He stood up, rushed to the window which overlooked the water and began to jump out. Sano grabbed him.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I would rather be dead than have to give Kenshin-san up!"

Sano rolled his eyes, completely unsympathetic. "Baka!! If you wanna die, then die, but do it after we've left!"

He threw him back into room. Ryuzaburo smashed into his art supplies.

"As a man, you shouldn't take death lightly," Sano told him.

"Sano-san," the artist looked up, eyes wild and face now streaked with paint. "I'm really, really serious."

He jumped up and in a flash was face to face with Sano. Sano jumped back in surprise. "Sano-san, I respect you as a man! Please give me guidance!"

Misao grinned from the middle of the room.

"Because you're a real man, you can't let him down right?" she said impishly. "Why not just help him out?"

Sano was suddenly glaring in her face.

"Don't you try to make things worse," he hissed. "I hate getting involved in this crap! Kenshin, obviously doesn't want him; I don't want him to want him or him to want him to want him to want him or any wanting whatsoever."

'But, you have to tell him something."

Sano froze, lost in thought. Then he slowly smiled. He turned back to the artist.

"Well Ryuzaburo, because of your great passion, I don't mind giving you a hand."

"Really?"

"There is one obstacle you must overcome to woo Kenshin."

"One obstacle?"

Sano solemnly handed him the wooden sword Yahiko had left behind.

"There is only one way to win Kenshin. You must defeat him in battle before he will even consider you!"

Ryuzaburo looked at the sword dubiously.

"Are you serious?"

"Serious as death."

"But I don't want to hurt him."

Sano turned his back on him.

"Fine, then just forget about it."

"No, wait a moment. I'll do it! Certainly I won't have to hurt him too badly to defeat him. And, once I win him, he's sure to forgive me. "

"Of course he will. Now I want you to understand. Give it your all, but if you don't defeat him, you must give up. Got it?"

"I understand, Sano-san." He gripped the wooden sword resolutely. "I shall take good care of him."

Sano turned and winked at a shocked Misao.

"Oh, one thing I completely forgot to mention," he said offhandedly. "Kenshin may look scrawny, but he's the Hitokiri Battousai from the end of the dynasty that scared even the Shinsen Gumi, got me?

The wooden sword clattered on the ground and the artist's expression suddenly became impossible to read.

"Well don't go getting killed over this, you hear," Sano said as he headed towards the door.

Misao, valiantly attempting to stifle her giggles, followed close behind.

"Because he is the Hitokiri Battousai, you know," she said sweetly.

They fled the room and laughed hysterically once they were no longer in earshot.

They met up with Yahiko who had just escaped Kaoru's clutches in the wooded area behind the inn. They told him what they had done to the artist and laughed some more.

"It was hilarious. When he heard the words, Hitokiri Battousai, he nearly pissed in his pants," Misao said.

Sano snickered. "I hope he got the message."

Yahiko looked less than amused.

"You let him use my sword for something so stupid?"

"Sorry about that. I'm sure he'll come running back with it soon," Sano assured him.

"He's right."

They froze when they heard rustling behind them. They turned to see said sword moving quickly to the bushes.

"Uh oh."

The sword moving in the direction Kenshin had fled.

"He can't be."

".going after Himura."

Sano and Misao spoke together. Swiftly, they followed him.

Kenshin was chatting with the manager on the path to the springs. Ryuzaburo crept up on him with more stealth than one would expect from a mere artist. Kenshin appeared completely ignorant of the threat behind him.

"Oh no," Sano moaned.

Ryuzaburo raised his sword for a knock out blow.

He tripped over a rock when he lunged forward, rolled down the hill, and hit a stream with a splash. He surfaced looking slightly dazed and saw the sword floating away from him. With a cry, he went swimming after it, disappearing downstream.

The three of them breathed identical sighs of relief.

"Oh, thank god."

"Thought we were in deep shit there for a moment."

"My poor sword."

***

Kenshin, divested of his alternative means of acquiring funds to pay off his hotel bills, had gone back serving at the hotel. The manager welcomed him back with open arms. During the short time he had worked there, he had become very popular among the staff and customers. He was unaware of the many traps being prepared to defeat him.

Ryuzaburo was an obsessive man, but not a completely stupid one. He wanted Kenshin, but knew he would never win a fair fight against the Battousai. Therefore, a surprise attack was the only way to go.

Early that morning the head cook discovered they had run out of good firewood. Kenshin was sent to the forest to get some good blocks.

He brought the ax down, splitting yet another block in two. He sighed and wiped some sweat from his brow.

"Sessha better get this done quickly so I can help prepare breakfast. I ought to pick up my pace a little."

Kenshin sometimes talked to himself. It was one of those little quirks one picks up from wandering alone too long.

He set up another log.

Unbeknownst to Kenshin, Ryuzaburo was hidden behind a bush near him. He was trembling in anticipation, waiting for his moment.

Kenshin lifted his ax.

/Here it goes!/

He lunged out sword raised high. /I'm so sorry it has to be this way beloved./

Kenshin brought the ax down. Hard. The two halves went flying. One hit him hard in the face. Ryuzaburo and Yahiko's sword went flying backwards, landing again obscured behind the bushes.

"Eh?"

Kenshin turned around.

"Thought I heard something."

There was nothing there.

"Must have been my imagination, de gozaru."

He turned and chopped some more.

Sano watched merrily from afar.

***

"Hmmm."

At lunch the next day, Kenshin carried stacks of hot food up the stairs, again clad in the staff uniform.

Kenshin paused at the top of the stairs and looked back and forth.

"Where would the Yuri room be?" he asked himself, pausing long enough for a figure hidden in the shadows behind him to gain confidence and lung forward with a familiar wooden sword.

"Ken-san, this way," a feminine voice called from down the hall.

Kenshin moved from the stairs at exactly the right moment.

"This way?"

He paused and started to turn around when he heard a crash come from the bottom of the stairs.

"Ken-san, hurry."

"I'm coming."

He hurried down the hall.

***

Saitou was on vacation. He hadn't been on vacation for so long, he wasn't sure what he was expected to do. He supposed he should just relax. He decided to spend his days off in Hakone. That little town never failed to be quiet and he had a house there near in an inn with palatable food.

He had just finished off his lunch in the downstairs area when he saw a familiar looking redhead move from the kitchen doors to the stairs. His face was obscured by the food he carried on stackable trays, but his hair was tied back with the same navy ribbon in the same low ponytail. Saitou blinked. Surely that was not the Battousai he just saw working as a common server at an inn?

Only moments after the redhead disappeared up the stairs, a man with a wooden sword and a sketchbook came crashing down.

Saitou moved to where he lay and loomed over him. The man didn't even appear to notice him at first. Despite himself, Saitou was impressed. There were very few people who could become so fanatical to not notice a man as tall as himself looming over them. And he was very good at looming.

***

Lost in thought, unaware of the tall samurai looming over him and the fact that he was lying on the ground, Ryuzaburo began to talk to himself.

"I must have Himura Kenshin!"

"Really?"

Ryuzaburo yelped and nearly jumped out of his skin when he looked up and saw the tall dark-hair stranger standing over him.

"What are your interests in the Battousai?"

Instead of cowering in fear as he usually would have done with a tall, muscular, possibly homicidal stranger who was asking casually about the Hitokiri Battousai and very good at looming above him, the artist became enflamed by passion with the thought of his work.

"He is a true beauty. He is the one I have been searching for."

"But didn't you just attack him?"

"I do not want to hurt him. But the only way anyone can have that beauty is to defeat him in battle."

***

Saitou was genuinely bemused.

"You are aware he is the Hitokiri Battousai?"

"Of course. It does not matter."

"Idiot. A weakling like you has no chance."

"No! I have been on a quest for true art for too long to just give up now. I will have him or I will die trying!"

Saitou raised an eyebrow, amused by his zeal.

"Art?"

Ryuzaburo nodded eagerly.

"Let me show you."

He flipped open his sketchbook and handed it to Saitou.

Saitou looked through it, studying each page in turn. The book was filled with nothing but images of Kenshin. Kenshin sitting looking straight ahead of him uncomfortably, Kenshin looking out of the page and smiling at the viewer, Kenshin looking to the side and laughing at something only he could see, Kenshin looking at the sky thoughtfully, and. sleeping Kenshin, curled up on cushions with his hair loose and strands everywhere, innocent and alluring at the same time.

As Saitou examined the sketches, Ryuzaburo prattled on. "By drawing him like this, I could not help but fall in love with him."

He looked at Saitou earnestly.

"Imagine the art I could make if he would be my lover."

Saitou resisted the undignified urge to snort.

He looked back down at the picture of sleeping Kenshin with interest. He couldn't resist.

"I will pay you for this one," he said, thrusting a few bills at the surprised artist.

"But."

Saitou gave him one of his most terrifying smiles.

"I will pay you for this one."

"O-ok."

He took the sketch out of the book.

"Don't tell anyone about this."

"H-hai."

Saitou walked away from the cowering artist, intending to return home for now. However, he had every intention of returning for dinner.

This vacation was going better than he thought it would.

***

TBC