Kaoru's mind raced. 'Shinta? Who is this kid? He looks just like a little Kenshin… Oh, Kami! Is he Kenshin's son? … No, no… he would have told me…. But… what if he was afraid to tell me? No… even if he was afraid… Kenshin would have told me… he's always so open with me..… but, then… who is Shinta?'

Then, something clicked in the back of her mind. "Shinta…" She muttered. "Wasn't that Kenshin's birth name? Yes… that's it! But…"

Kaoru's eyes widened. "Kenshin!" She cried, kneeling beside the futon. "Oh, Kenshin, what's happened to you?!"

The boy stared at her in confusion. "Kenshin? Who's Kenshin?"

She stared right back at him. "Who's K--…. You're Kenshin!"

The red head shook his head repeatedly. "Nuh-uh! I'm Shinta. No Kenshin."

'Oh, that's right.' Kaoru thought.

"Shinta…" She said. It felt strange calling Kenshin by the name. "How… how did this happen? How did you get so small?"

The toddler blinked in indignation. "Small? I'm not small! I'm a big boy now! Momma said so!"

Kaoru sat back, stunned. 'He's acting just like a normal child would… It's not just something that happened to his body… It looks as if he's turned back in age, body and mind… b-but HOW?!'

She was still sitting there, deep in thought when Sano slammed Kenshin's door open and stepped inside.

"Oi! Kenshin! Get up Lazy! You promised to get me some breakfast this morn-" He stopped himself as he ran into Kaoru. "Mornin', Jou-Chan. What're you doing in Kenshin's ro-" he stopped himself again, this time a sly smile formed on his face. "Oh, Jou-Chan… I never thought you'd be the kind to do something like that…"

Slap. Sano got a very red mark across his cheek.

"Of course I wouldn't! I just came in here to check on him…"

"Sure, sure." Sano said, still smiling. He glanced over at the futon and gasped.

"Whoa! Who's that?!" He took a closer look at the child. "Kuso! That kid looks just like Kenshin…" he stopped himself once again, a grin forming. "Wait! Is that his son, then? … Wow. I never would've thought Kenshin would do something like that before marriage…" He glanced sideways at Kaoru. "It wasn't with you, was it?"

Another slap. This time so hard that Sano was slammed into the wall across the room.

"Mou! Sano no BAKA! Of course not!!! Just how low do you think I am?"

Sano shrugged. Despite the two bright red hand-shaped bruises on his checks, he was still smiling. "Well, if it wasn't you, Jou-Chan, I wonder who's he is…"

Kaoru shot an angry glare at him. "Would you stop thinking like that? It's Kenshin."

"Yeah, I know he's Kenshin's. He looks just like him. What I was wondering was who the woma-"

"No! The boy isn't Kenshin's, he IS Kenshin."

The child shook his head violently and spoke up. "Nuh-uh!! I'm no Kenshin! I'm Shinta!"

"Shinta?" Sano thought about the name a minute. "But wasn't that Kenshin's name when he was little?"

Kaoru nodded. "Exactly."

"But then…" He eyed the miniature rurouni up and down again. "H-How in the world did he get like that?"

Kaoru shrugged. They both stood there and stared at the boy. He stared right back at them.

"Where's my momma?" Little Kenshin demanded.

That seemed to shake Kaoru and Sano out of their shock.

"I'm gonna go get the Fox Lady…" Sano muttered as he walked out of the room. "She'd know if something like this is possible…"



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twenty minutes later….

Megumi was now standing with them in Kenshin's room. She crossed her arms and shook her head violently.

"It's not."

"But-"

"It's not possible, Sano."

Kaoru frowned. "So… you don't think it's him?"

Megumi shook her head again. "Of course not, you silly girl. I don't just think it's him. I know it's him. There's no man in Tokyo that looks quite like Ken-san. And, even if it was his son, there's no way in the world he'd get so many of his dad's genes that he'd look identical to him. I have no doubts that this child is Ken-san."

Sano was confused. "But you said it wasn't possible."

"It's not. My guess would be this is some sort of witchcraft. Magic does tend to perform the impossible, Rooster-head."

Sano glared at her. He was about to retort with some nasty comment when Kaoru cut in.

"So, what should we do, Megumi-san?"

"You should both sit yourselves down and think back to everything that happened yesterday. Try to remember what might have caused this. Anything abnormal." She paused and looked over at the young Kenshin. He had his legs crossed "Indian-style", his elbows settled on his knees, and his head propped up on his hands. His eyes were starting to droop and he looked a little nauseous.

"Oh, Kami help me… You two idiots haven't fed him breakfast, have you?" They both just stared at her.

Sano was the first to speak. "Feed… him? We were kind of expecting him to feed us…"

Megumi let out an exasperated sigh. "Unbelievable!" She hurried over to Kenshin and picked him up, gently cradling him in her arms. "It's all right now, Ken-san…" She said gently. "Auntie Megumi's here now…" She walked out of the room with him, muttering. "Can't believe them… trying to starve a baby… and they call themselves his friends…."

She left, slamming the door behind her. Kaoru and Sano just stood there.

Two seconds later she poked her head back inside the doorway.

"Well, come ON you two! You can't just stand there all day. You still need to figure out how he got like this."

Kaoru nodded. "Right… right…." She left the room, and went over to sit down in the kitchen.

Sano snapped out of it too. He followed her out.

Megumi rolled her eyes and shut the bedroom door. She made her way to the kitchen as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

15 minutes later, Sano and Kaoru were both sitting at the kitchen table, relaying the previous day's events to each other. Megumi was spoon-feeding little Shinta mashed rice.

"Lets see… I woke up, then ate breakfast with Kenshin and Yahiko…"

"And you guys pigged out and ate it all before I got there…"

Kaoru laughed a little. "You got really mad about that…"

"Yeah, but Kenshin promised he'd save some for me tomorrow…"

"So… after breakfast I had a student for an hour or two, then I watched Yahiko train for a bit…"

"Then I left to go see Tae…"

"And Kenshin made us a really fabulous lunch…"

"And when I got back he was watching you spar with Yahiko…"

"Which was when my sleeve ripped… and he offered to mend it…"

"…Which I tried to talk him out of… sewing is women work…"

"And, then… it started to get dark, but he wasn't done fixing it yet… so I went out to get the tofu for him, and…" She gasped. "That old man! He must be what caused this!"

Megumi paused and looked at her. "Old man?"

Kaoru nodded. "Yeah, yeah! I got the tofu from a rather strange old man. He had kind of silvery colored hair and really bright green eyes. He seemed nice. He gave me the tofu free of charge! But then… the moment I looked away, he just disappeared. His stall was gone too."

Sano glared at her.

"You accepted free food from a man like that and GAVE IT TO US TO EAT?!"

"You say that like you actually ATE it! You and Yahiko were bring so ungrateful…. Kenshin's the only one who actually ate anything-"

"That's it, then." Megumi interrupted. "I thought it might be something like this. I've heard of that man before. Dr. Gensai mentioned him to me once. He said that the man is very in tune to the spirits… he performs spells for people and is really great with mixing herbs and such. He thinks it's his 'calling' to watch over the people of Tokyo, using his spells to make their lives better. Maybe… maybe that's what he was trying to do here…"

Kaoru was confused again. "But… how would THIS make our lives better?"

Megumi shrugged. "Maybe he wants you to appreciate how things were before.