Mizu Kagami

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Disclaimer: I do not own Rorouni Kenshin. Nor do I own Himura Kenshin. Well except in that one fic.....

Hee hee I shortened the title......

I think I should add this little note:

I've gotten two reviews asking about the part in the last chapter where Akemi states that she's protecting Kenshin. I didn't mean she got the bruises physically protecting him. There are other ways of protecting someone. As in someone protecting someone else's honor or their good name. See? Don't worry, it'll make sense soon.

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The group looked at Akemi, then at Kenshin, then back to Akemi. Kenshin stepped towards her.

"May I see your arm Akemi-chan?" Akemi obediently held out her arm. Kenshin took in the abused limb silently, he knew full well what caused marks like that, "When did I inflict these Akemi-Chan?"

"When I was Lady Kaguya," Akemi whispered, "Last night to be exact."

"I had a feeling there was a connection between the two of you. You have the same eyes, that you do," Akemi looked up at him.

"I admit I find this strange," she said, "You are completely calm by the fact that I become the demon Kaguya at night."

"Demon?" Kenshin mused, "She seemed fairly normal for a demon, that she did," Akemi smiled shyly.

"Then you do not believe the stories?"

"Most of them," the others had been watching them, their heads moving from Kenshin to Akemi like spectators at a tennis match. (Not that Tennis was invented yet , but at least you get the picture), finally Karou stepped forward.

"Akemi-chan are you telling me that you are the reincarnation of the demon Kaguya?" Akemi sighed.

"No. I am not a reincarnation Kamiya-sama. And Lady Kaguya isn't a demon. It is kind of a lengthy story."

"We've got time kid," Sanosuke told her, "Loads of it," Akemi sighed again and sat down, the others sitting with her.


"A long time ago there lived a demon of water. She could control water in any of its forms, her favorite being ice. This was the Kaguya that legends often speak of. They speak of her in hushed tone, fearing tones, and with good reason. Kaguya is one to be feared. She is a ruthless fighter, a cold blooded killer of men who cannot defeat her. However, demons aren't completely immortal. They may live unnaturally long lives but they can be killed. Seijiro Hiko, the man who created the Hiten Mitsurugi style killed the demoness Kaguya. Using her last breaths, she told of a man who had a child. This man found the child crying one day by the river and took it in as his own. This child was hers and would grow up to kill Hiko. The little girl would have all of her mother's powers and would come for him. Hiko brushed it off as a dying woman's nonsense and she died.

But it wasn't nonsense. The child she spoke of was hers, however she did not posses any of the powers Kaguya had, only the same name. That and the inhuman beauty were the only part of her mother that this child possessed. She grew up and had similar daughters of her own, all of them looked like the demon but none had her powers. So the blood of Kaguya was passed on quietly without anyone noticing.

Go forward in time several generations. I know nothing of the Meji revolution, I was just being born as it ended. However, spirit that resides within me remembers. She was there. This Kaguya was the only daughter of a merchant. Her mother died giving birth to her. Just like all the females in her mother's family tree Lady Kaguya possessed ethereal beauty. However, she possessed a great strength and warriors skill. These gifts could have come only from the demon herself. Kaguya's father wanted only the best for his daughter and so decreed that no man could have her save for the one who could beat her in combat. He told Kaguya to kill any man who didn't defeat her, just like the demoness. Kaguya, ever obedient obeyed and rumors of the demoness's return spread. Men feared her, women hated her, in the end she never found love.

She left home at the age of 20 to try and create a sword style that women could use. She despised the fact that other woman couldn't do the things she did simply because they were women and therefore thought of as weak. She thought that if she created sword techniques that gave women an advantage then they too could fight for the revolution. She called her techniques the Kamikaze Style. One because they used the sword wielder's weight and speed to make several cuts at once. When you use one of these techniques you use the force of air you create to cut your opponent. The second reason the style is called Kamikaze is because if done incorrectly both wielder and opponent would die. She never finished the style. You see one night, ten years ago, Lady Kaguya met someone who could beat her. She met a disciple of the Hiten Mitsurugi Style.

Those who study the Hiten Mitsurugi Style know of the demon. They know that it is their duty to kill any girl who has her powers so that the demon's reign of terror wouldn't be revived. However this was no ordinary Hiten Mitsurugi follower. Lady Kaguya had the misfortune to come across the Hitkiri Battousai. The legendary manslayer fought and killed her that night. She remembers that night so clearly. It was raining that night. She knew that he was honor bound to kill her, but she told him she would die fighting or not at all. He didn't want to kill her. He was sick of killing. She sympathized. She made a deal with him. If he defeated and killed her he had to promise to give up being the manslayer. It couldn't be a fulfilling lifestyle, she reasoned, put aside your sword and live peacefully. She offered to sacrifice herself for his freedom. He didn't want to but she persisted. They fought and she was killed. As she lay there dying, as he was next to her holding her, she spoke of her two regrets. She regretted never falling in love. She regretted never finishing her Kamikaze Style. She was sad that women would never have the chances to learn sword play like she had, simply because the current styles were made for men. He told her that in her next life she would finish it, that reincarnation seemed to work that way. She hopped that she would meet him in her next life because, she feared, she was falling in love with him during her last moments. He told her that it was ok she could fall in love whenever she chose to. Then, without her even noticing, drawing on power she didn't know she had, she sent her spirit into the body of a just born baby."

"You," Karou said, Akemi nodded.


"Me. My parents must have noticed that I was different when I was tiny because the old Priestess of this Temple says she has taken care of me since I was a baby."

"You were abandoned?"

"Yes."

"So what deity does this temple worship?"

"Lady Kaguya. This temple is very young. The Priestess was a friend of Lady Kaguya's and knew about her ancestor. When the Lady died she started this temple."

"She wants to raise Kaguya's name to that of a goddess?"

"Yes. She told me that since Kaguya picked my body to hold her spirit then I must be a Chosen One. I don't know what that means. I do know that since Kenshin-sama beat her last night that she is no longer restless."

"A restless spirit?" Sanosuke said.

"Yes. She searched the city by night, while I slept to find another man who could beat her. Because she died while just beginning to love that's wha she searches for. You see only one of us can be in control of this body at any one time. Now she sleeps, when she walks I sleep. Now she's found someone who can love her," she turned her eyes to Kenshin.

"Me?"

"You beat her. She's in love. She will stay in my body until you die, then she will leave so that her spirit can be with yours."

"So how is it that you know the Kamikaze Style?" Kenshin wanted to know.

"Her memories are mine. My attacks are not as effective because I am so small. When I grow older and have some weight and height to my frame my attacks will be stronger."

"So what we have," Karou began to summerize all the information Akemi had presented them with, "Is a little girl with a spirit of the Demon Kaguya's descendant in her. During the day she is Mizukagami Akemi during the night she is Kaguya. Kaguya was killed by the Hitkiri Battousai ten years ago. Kenshin beat her for the second time last night and so she has fallen in love with him and will stay in your body until Kenshin dies at which point she will leave."

"What did you just say?" Akemi asked.

"She will stay in you body–"

"No, no, before that. The part about Kenshin beating Lady Kaguya for the second time," Akemi turned astonished eyes on Kenshin. As Karou, just realizing what she just said, clapped a hand to her mouth, "Are you the Battousai Kenshin-sama?"

"I did not remember Kaguya last night, that I did not. I tried to push out of my mind the young maiden that gave up her life so that I could have one of my own, that I did. She told me to atone all I could for my sins, that she did. She told me that we would meet again. That I should count on it. She said the same thing last night, she did."

"It's true. You are the Hitkiri Battousai. You seemed so gentle."

"Kenshin was the manslayer," Yahiko told Akemi fiercely, "Now he uses his sword to protect people! Look at your bruises they're caused by a reverse blade katana! He could've killed you but he doesn't do that anymore!"

"Calm down Yahiko-chan. I do not believe Kenshin-san is possible of killing anymore than I believe Akemi-chan to be," they all looked at the young woman that now sat where Akemi had been.


"Lady Kaguya," Kenshin said, bowing slightly from his sitting position. Kaguya inclined her head, as Kenshin smiled, "I was wondering when you would make an appearance that I did."