Act 14: Continued Chibi Chaos in Kyoto- Part Two
Disclaimer: *waves frantically* Watsuki-sensei! I'm not making any money off your characters, I'm just being one of those fans who _really_ loves them so much that I'm devoting so much of my time and effort to my fanworks! And thanks so very very much for signing my Kenshin Kaden book at Anime Expo!
Author's notes: Finally! The next chapter to this madness! Tweaked the story description after a reviewer by the name of Kartos pointed out the obvious to yours truly about spoilers in the description. As you might have guessed from the disclaimer, I got to meet Watsuki at Anime Expo, and I got his autograph, to boot! (If anyone wants to see the pictures, go to http://rpstudios.ian-justman.com/AXpics/ to see the list. I'm the Kaoru cosplayer in the yellow and orange kimono! We've got more pictures to put up still, including the one of my sister and I in costume posing with Watsuki-sensei, but there's a lot of piccies already, including a few very weird ones we took the last day of the con when we had time and memory card space to burn. There was one Saitou cosplayer who seriously, right down to his blasted aura, looked and felt like the real thing walked right out of the anime/manga and into Long Beach. Gave me the creeps.) Haven't worked on TP in awhile due to preparing for the expo (and man, I have a whole new respect for Kaoru. I don't know how the hell she manages to dress herself without help whenever she wears a kimono x_x; My sister had to help me get into costume. Which is kinda a weird thing, given she was cosplaying as Kenshin =p) Anyways, seems I missed the chaos of trying to update a fic when ff.net was being all loopy (though the RK poem I wrote, "Wanderer" got caught up by that mess so nobody's really seen it ;_;) Anyways! I should probably close the opening ramble and get on with the fic!
Kumiko's birthday dawned bright and cheery, the Aoiya
bathed in the light of the rising sun, still nice and quiet as Aoshi sat
down to get in some meditation before everyone else awoke. The peaceful
atmosphere held no warning of the utter chaos that would ensue in a matter
of hours.
All Aoshi wanted was to sit on his (very cute) butt
and do absolutely nothing for just a few minutes. Kumiko would hopefully
sleep in just a little so that the former okashira could get himself properly
centered and grounded for the hectic day ahead. It was still very early
in the morning, the sun having just peeked over the horizon, so Aoshi figured
he was safe.
"'TOOOOOOOUSAN!!!!!!"
Yeah, right. About as safe as, oh, say... an Imperialist
in the middle of the Shinsengumi headquarters during the Revolution.
Kumiko, still in her sleeping attire, came barreling
out of the Aoiya like a cannonball from a cannon and ran to Aoshi's hiding
spot in the garden with frightening precision. "Tousan! My birthday's finally
here!" The chibi pounced Aoshi happily.
"Really now, Kumiko-chan?" Aoshi raised an eyebrow
and ruffled the little girl's unruly black hair. "Shouldn't you still be
in bed?"
"I couldn't sleep, 'tousan!" Kumiko grinned. "And
today you'll get to meet all my friends!"
Aoshi raised his other eyebrow at that. He took
Kumiko's accounts of her invisible friends with a grain of salt. "I see.
But you need to go back inside, it's cold out here, and your okaasan will
have my head on a stick if you catch a cold." He shooed the chibi toward
the building and attempted to resume his meditations. This time, however,
he was startled out of the attempt by something completely nonsensical.
As soon as he'd shut his eyes and started to meditate,
he could have sworn he saw Okina and the other dead Oniwabanshu members
peering at him, as well as Himura Kenshin and the redhead's wife.
"Oro-?" Shinta blinked and watched Aoshi jolt out
of his meditation and look around in confusion.
"He probably saw you, Himura-san." Hannya noted.
"I think when he's meditating, he can see us when we happen to wander through
his field of vision."
The others nodded agreement to the theory, which
they had tested numerous times on the former okashira, much to the detriment
of his meditation.
The ghostly gathering watched with varying degrees
of amusement as Aoshi determined there was no one around and resumed the
lotus position. After several minutes of the birds chirping and not much
else, Shinta acted completely out of character.
He floated into the air above Aoshi, and dropped
upside-down into the former okashira's field of vision, sticking his tongue
out and overall making a funny face, just an inch or too from Aoshi's nose.
Aoshi's eyes flew open and his kodachi flew threw
the air the ghost occupied in an instant, more a reflex than any intent
to butcher the former hitokiri he could almost swear he'd just seen. Swords
still in hand, the decidedly boggled former okashira looked around, perplexed.
"Himura-san?" He glanced around, trying to figure
out what the hell he'd just seen behind his closed eyes.
While Shinta was cracking up, and Kaoru and the
others giggling or trying not to laugh, a delighted squeal sounded from
the Aoiya.
"'Tousan, that was great! I wanna know how to do
that!" Kumiko hopped up and down in the doorway.
Oh, so much for Aoshi getting some nice quiet time
to himself in the morning...
Several chaotic hours later, the garden was decorated
to the little girl's satisfaction, but not before she'd managed to run
Aoshi, Misao, and everyone else (the dead folks included) ragged. While
the party was only going to consist of Kumiko, Aoshi, Misao, Omasu and
Okon, (Shirojo and Kuro were out of town on Oniwabanshu business.), the
chibi had insisted that places be set for all her 'friends'.
While the women were in the kitchen preparing food
for the little party, Aoshi was stuck keeping an eye on the excited chibi.
The little girl disappeared inside the building, and Aoshi thought he had
a few peaceful minutes to himself. Inside, however, the ghosts were trying
to pick up Aoshi's slack.
"Ne, Kumiko-chan, you shouldn't go in there-" Okina
weakly protested as the little girl began poking through her mother's things.
"Oro..." Shinta watched with wide eyes as the little
girl proceeded to go through all of Misao's clothing (including the tattered
robe the spunky young woman had with her when the rurouni had met her en
route to Kyoto), and with a delighted little giggle, the girl found what
she had been looking for, and held the packet up triumphantly.
"What the-?" Kaoru started to say when it dawned
on her just _what_ the chibi had picked up.
Before the ghosts could react (not that they could
do a whole lot anyway), the little girl ran from the room laughing happily,
the words "-just like 'kaasan!" drifting back to the dead group.
"Oro..." Shinta sweatdropped. "I feel really sorry
for Aoshi, that I do."
The rest of the ghosts nodded solemn agreement.
Aoshi sneezed and resumed his meditation. While
Kumiko was occupied in the Aoiya, the former okashira hoped to catch some
of the quiet time he was denied that morning.
Yeah, right. We saw how well that sort of reasoning
worked in the morning.
Try as he might, Aoshi couldn't shake the feeling
he was being watched. He didn't sense any danger, just that he was being
observed by some unseen entity.
Which would explain why when something metal and
pointy poked lightly at his leg, he jumped up in surprise as a second object
hit the ground next to him with a dull thud.
He was startled out of the act of unsheathing his
weapons by Kumiko laughing at him.
"'Tousan made a funny face!" She declared between
peals of laughter.
Aoshi then took proper stock of the situation. The
object that had poked him first turned out to be one of Misao's kunai,
poorly thrown so that the dagger had more or less just snagged his pants
rather than done any real damage. Second, the item that had hit the ground
next to him was yet another one of the little daggers, also weakly thrown.
Thirdly, Kumiko was standing a short distance away, standing in her best
imitation of Misao about to kunai somebody to a wall (as he himself had
been once or twice when Misao was pregnant with the little girl). The small
roll with the daggers lay at Kumiko's feet, and she clumsily had a fistful
of the knives, her hands still too small to properly have a full set of
five in hand at once.
Beshimi sweatdropped at the clumsy throws while
Aoshi was still trying to figure out how best to scold the girl.. "Kumiko-chan,
you should wait until you're a little older and bigger to throw your okaasan's
kunai at your otousan."
"But I threw them really well, didn't I?" Kumiko
looked at the ghost hopefully. Unable to tell the little girl that, in
fact, she didn't, Beshimi fidgeted.
"Those knives are still a little big for you, Kumi-chan."
Hannya bailed his fellow ghost out of the hot seat. "But I suspect when
you're a little older, you'll be able to throw them just as well as your
okaasan."
"Really?" Kumiko bounced happily.
"Kumiko..." Aoshi finally figured out how to go
about scolding the girl for playing with Misao's favorite set of sharp
pointy objects.
"Hai, 'tousan?" Kumiko fidgeted, her sense of 'uh-oh,
I'm in trouble' having just started to kick in. So she did what any intelligent
seven year old would do. She turned full power puppy eyes on her daddy.
"....." Aoshi promptly found any will to get angry
or even mildly annoyed at the girl sapped by her ultimate fighting technique."...
You should let your otousan know when you plan to throw knives at him."
He finally said. ...I suppose someone ought to help her learn to use
them properly so she doesn't have an accident. He mentally added.
"Hai, 'tousan!" Kumiko nodded, satisfied to herself
in the knowledge that her father wasn't going to scold her.
"But since you found those, someone should show
you how to properly use them." Aoshi continued.
"I think she's better at the innocent routine than
Kenji ever was." Kaoru noted idly as Aoshi began to instruct the little
girl on sharp pointy object safety.
Meanwhile, inside, Misao went to her room to get
changed for the birthday party. She slid the door open to find.... a mess.
A big one. And her kunai were missing. Her FAVORITE set. (It had been Aoshi's
gift to her at the wedding.)
Outside, the ghosts watched in amusement as Aoshi
coached the little girl on how to throw the knives better and without risking
injury.
Wait a minute... He picked up one of the
knives and looked at it. This is...
And all activity came screeching to a halt
as a voice only a mother can generate boomed from the doorway, riveting
adult and child, living and ghost alike to the ground.
"SHINOMORI KUMIKO!"
Closing notes: Okay, so the stuff with the party itself got bumped back
a chapter. Gomen! I think we all know 'the tone'. I know that I could always
tell just how bad I was in trouble by the tone and number of names. If
it was just "STEPHANIE!", I wasn't in too deep and could probably puppy-eye
my way out of it. If it was "STEPHANIE AMAHIRA!", then I knew I was in
kinda deep and would probably get grounded for a few days or something.
But if it was "STEPHANIE MICHELLE AMAHIRA!", then I knew I was doomed beyond
all hope.
Let's see... other news type stuff... 4 people on
the update notification list thus far! J.Liha- sorry I didn't update for
like, 3 or 4 weeks. Like I said in my excuses-ur... opening notes, I was
getting ready for/at Anime Expo ^o^. Joak- I'm glad TP's helping with yer
depression =) Kartos- I fixed the description so it's not so much a spoiler
=p Now could you say whether or not you like the story? =p Raphie- It wasn't
meant to be quite so angsty/bittersweet, since this is a humor fic, but
I hope you like it!, Prudence-chan- I have no idea if Aoshi will utter
Kenshin's kawaii little catch-phrase. We shall see >=D Jason- You have
NO idea.
Recommended reading- First, I must shamelessly plug
my little RK-ish poem, "Wanderer". It got kinda lost amid the chaos with
ff.net a couple weeks back. ;_; Also, I suggest "Young Again" by Fitz-
a humorous yet somewhat deeper piece in which the phrase "Be careful what
you wish for, you just might get it" takes on a whole new meaning. (I could
not help but squeal "KAWAII!" out loud while reading it.). And, this is
more of an author recommendation than a single fic. I HIGHLY (See,
I even used bold font!) recommend Unseen Watcher's stories. Mostly one-shots,
but also a couple of fledgling multi-chapter projects, most of which take
on unusual and very original concepts, particularly in 'Ties of Loyalty',
which is a very kickass story focusing largely on Hiko and Kenshin.
As for the Hijinks chapter, I think I've got enough
people now. If you still want to get in though, your persona had better
be pretty nutty.
And one final thing, a plea to you RK trivia experts
out there! If anyone knows how old Ayame and Suzume are at the start of
the anime, please clue me in! (Also, I always get this mixed up- which
one of the two is older? I need to know for a future chapter! @_@)
As always, reviews or emails are appreciated!