Kenshin Meditates

Kenshin was the first one up at the Shinomori house. He couldn't sleep much the night before. He was too eager to get started with the search for Kiriko. Since no one else was awake, he decided to go to the shrine and do something he hadn't done in a long time…meditate.

When Kenshin arrived in the shrine, Aoshi was already there. Well Kenshin thought he was the first one up but he should have known Aoshi lives to meditate.

"Good morning, Battousai."

"Oro? Good morning, Aoshi."

Aoshi opened his eyes and turned to face Kenshin. "So I see you've come to meditate. Don't worry Battousai we will find Kiriko."

"I know Aoshi but I need to calm my soul." Kenshin knelt down beside Aoshi.

Aoshi nodded and they both began to meditate.

Aoshi and Kenshin walked back from the shrine together. In the house, Misao and the twins were all talking at once. Even though the twins looked more like Aoshi, they had the mouths of their mother. Kenshin watched in amusement as Misao kept squawking about something that the twins were supposed to do and Aoshi sat at the table with the twins ranting in his ears. Poor Aoshi…how does he go through this every day? Kenshin began to laugh when the twins started to play tug-of-war with their father.

"OKAY! Enough girls! Leave your father alone and help me set the table!" Misao scolded from the kitchen.

Kenshin actually saw a look of relief wash over Aoshi's face. This made him chuckled some more. The twins kissed their father on his cheeks then went into the kitchen to help Misao. Kenshin almost gasped when he noticed the small smile on Aoshi's lips. They might get on his last nerve but I can see he loves his little girls very much, Kenshin thought. The whole scene made Kenshin miss his own family.

As they ate breakfast, Misao and Aoshi talked about plans on how to search for Kiriko.

"Meshi, Asao, did you pick up the package I asked you to get yesterday?" Aoshi asked.

"Yes. Oh and we forgot to tell-" "you. We had a little confrontation-" "with the Yagi Yakuza." "They tried to take the package from-" "us." The girls continued to eat not noticing the look of concern on their parents' face.

"WELL! What happened? Did you two give them a good butt kicking? Cause if you didn't I'm noting that on my 'things to do list'." Misao said very seriously.

"How dare they mess with my daughters. I knew I should have had them taken care of them a long time ago." Aoshi mumbled this under his breath then he turned his attention back to his daughters, "Finish the story girls. What happened?"

"Well we were kicking their butts pretty good-" "but needless to say we were-" "out numbered." "Luckily Kiko came along and-" "helped us out."

Aoshi and Misao looked at each other. Kenshin could see that they had no clue about the person Kiko.

"Who's Kiko?" Aoshi asked before Misao could open her mouth.

"Well, she just arrived in town." Meshi said.

"We don't know much about her but she sure can fight." Asao spoke up after her sister.

It was almost comical to see the slightly shocked look on the adults' face when the twins didn't finish each other sentence.

Kenshin was the next to speak, "Girls, do you remember what she looked like?"

"Well…" the twins thought about it then looked at Kenshin. "Hey! As a matter of fact she looked just like you Mr. Himura!" The girls stated in unison.

Misao gasped…I had a feeling they were talking about Kiriko.

"Oh my goodness! Is a she your-" "daughter, Mr. Himura?"

To Aoshi's surprise, Kenshin didn't look upset or distressed about this news but was actually smiling.

"Battousai?"

"…Oh I'm just happy she made it to Kyoto safely. Do you know where she went after she left you two?" Kenshin became serious again.

"Why yes we-" "do. We took her to-" "Seiku Orai's knife shop."

Now this information totally confused Kenshin, how on earth does she know about Seiku's knife-….oh….the letters…then that means…"Aoshi thank you for your hospitality. I better get going." Kenshin got up.

Aoshi stood up with him; "I'll come with you, Battousai."

They headed towards the door.

"WAIT! We want to come too!" The twins ran after them then clung onto Aoshi's waist.

"No girls. Let your father go. They'll be back tonight to tell us the whole story. Right honey?" Misao said this sweetly but her eyes meant that she didn't want them spending the night out on the streets.

Aoshi sighed, "Yes dear."

Kenshin inwardly chuckled as they walked out the house.

"Battousai…how does Kiriko know Seiku Orai?"

"Well…I forgot we received some letters from him over the years. Kiriko usually gets the mail. She probably didn't pay any attention to it until we had that argument."

They became silent for a few moments. Then Aoshi spoke up again.

"Did you ask him to keep the secret as well?"

"Well…no. I only met Seiku that one time and he doesn't know that much about me anyway. I didn't think it important for him to obligate himself to keep a secret for someone he hardly knew."

"But he knows enough for Kiriko to keep searching for more information, right?"

Kenshin stopped walking. "No he doesn't really know anything."

Aoshi stopped a few feet ahead of Kenshin then turned to look at him, "Battousai…think about it. Even though you do not live in Kyoto, your legacy still does. It would be impossible for Seiku not to know the story of the legendary Battousai the man-slayer. What ever he did or did not tell her would still be enough for Kiriko to keep looking for more information."

Kenshin didn't say anything. He just stood there thinking about Aoshi's words.

"Come Battousai. We don't know what he's told her but we must hurry to find out."

Kenshin nodded and they began their journey to Seiku's knife shop.