Jenji Meets the Battousai

Yori was sitting on the front steps reading a book until he saw two figures coming up the walkway. He sat up to get a better look. One was tall and lean; he also had a serious stone cold face. The other was short compared to the other man. He had fire red hair with a silver streak in his bangs and bright lavender eyes. He almost looked girlie if it wasn't for the cross on his left cheek and the sword on his side. Yori stared at the short one as they approached. Red hair, Yori thought, cross-shaped scar on the left che-…oh my god! Yori jumped up.

"Oh my god! You're him! You're him!"

"ORO!"

Yori grabbed Kenshin's hand and shook it madly, "you're him! It's a pleasure to meet you! I-I mean thank you so much!"

"Oro?"

"Do you know this man Battousai?" Aoshi asked finding the whole scene very amusing.

"OH!" Yori let go of Kenshin's hand. "I-I am so sorry. I just don't know how to thank you, Mr. Himura."

Kenshin smiled, "Well your welcome. But I don't believe I know who you are."

"Oh…I forgot the last time you saw me was when I was a baby."

Kenshin gave him a good look then it finally clicked. "You're Yori."

Yori nodded. "Yes, thank you so much for saving my life."

Kenshin scratched the back of his head and blushed.

"What's with all the noise out here-…Oh we have guests." Seiku stopped in the doorway then he bowed. "It's good to see you again Mr. Himura." He walked down to were they stood, "And it's an honor to meet you Mr. Shinomori."

Aoshi raise his right eyebrow; "How do you know who I am?"

"Well…I met your daughters the other day and they look just like you two." Seiku pointed to both Kenshin and Aoshi.

Kenshin smiled, "Sir Seiku it's good to see you and Yori again. We came to ask you about Kiriko's visit."

Seiku looked at Kenshin curiously; "well didn't Kiriko tell you herself?"

"Um…no. Kiriko has run away. I haven't seen her for almost ten days." Kenshin answered sadly.

Yori looked at his father. Shock was written all over his face.

"I'm sorry to hear this. Please come inside and I'll give you any information that might help you find her."

They followed Seiku into the house.

"Well…what I just told you is the same thing I told Kiriko. I really don't know that much about you, Mr. Himura except from what I heard in the legends."

Kenshin was relieved and disturbed by this information. From what Seiku told him, Kiriko didn't get much information but she did get enough to spark her interest in his secret even more then before.

Seeing the look on Kenshin's face, Seiku knew he did something wrong; "Mr. Himura if I had known that I wasn't suppose to tell her about you, I would have kept my mouth shut. I'm sorry."

"No-no it's all right Sir Seiku. This is not your fault. This is all my fault. If I had just told my children about my life along time ago, she wouldn't be looking for answers now."

"Did she tell you were she was going next?" Aoshi asked.

"I'm sorry to say that she didn't tell us." Seiku shrugged.

Kenshin got up; "That's okay. I have a feeling I know where she might be heading next but thank you very much for your help. We better-"

Seiku touched Kenshin's arm; "Wait! I must ask you something."

Kenshin sat back down.

"Did you teach Kiriko the art of swordsmanship?"

"I forgot about that part of your story. How is it Kiriko did such things when I never taught her swordsmanship?"

Seiku and Yori gasped; "You didn't?" They both said in unison.

Kenshin shook his head; "No and neither did her mother."

"Well…that's very unusual because it looked like the style you use but….."

"But?" Aoshi spoke before Kenshin could. This was all getting very interesting to him.

"…but it looked different some how….Anyway, I gave her a present for helping us. Since she broke her brother's bokken I gave her another one…plus a sword for herself."

This alarmed Kenshin greatly, "You gave her a sword!"

"Please calm down Mr. Himura. This is no ordinary sword I gave her. It can't cut."

Now this really got Kenshin and Aoshi full attention.

"The sword……its name is Laplatina. It basically means platinum sword but this sword has blunt edges."

"Is this Laplatina like the Battousai's sakabatou? If that's the case then you're wrong, it can cut." Aoshi pointed out.

"No, it's not a sakabatou. Laplatina is a sword that I made to honor my father, the 'sword of peace' you can say."

Aoshi scoffed; "There's no such thing."

"Yes, you're right about that. No weapon can truly be a tool for peace but I tried to make one anyway. Laplatina has no sharp edges. It was made to protect people and that is why I gave it to your daughter. I believe Kiriko is following the path that you wanted, Mr. Himura."

Kenshin thought about this for a while then he finally spoke up. "Thank you for your help, Sir Seiku. We better get going."

"I'm sorry I couldn't be more help." Seiku lead them to back out towards the road.

"Thanks again for everything. Take care." Kenshin and Aoshi disappeared into the setting sun.

"So Battousai, what do you think he meant by Kiriko's following the path you wanted?" Aoshi kept his gaze on the road as they entered the market place.

"Well…I know I always wanted to help and make a peaceful future for others but I did it the wrong way during the Revolution. So I'm trying to repent for my sins but I'm getting older and it's harder for me to do so much now that I'm a father. Maybe Kiriko is-"

"MOVE OUT THE WAY, PIP SQUEAK!"

A large hairy man that looked pretty beat up bulldozed his way through Kenshin and Aoshi.

They watched as the man did the same thing to the other people in the marketplace. Kenshin and Aoshi dismissed the man rudeness until…

"I'LL FIND YOU KIRIKO IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!" The man screamed at the top of his lungs.

Kenshin and Aoshi spun around fast after hearing this.

"I think we better follow this man, Battousai."

Kenshin nodded.

They kept a far enough distance from the man so he wouldn't suspect them of following him. The man kept mumbling things under his breath. Kenshin and Aoshi decided to get a little closer so they could hear what he was saying. It was very difficult to listen but they did make out things like; "I'm going to get you." And "I'm gonna kill that guy." And "you will be my wife." Now Kenshin didn't like the sound of that last comment. He decided that he better get to the bottom of this.

"Excuse me, Sir?"

The big monster turned around and growled at Kenshin. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT!"

Kenshin step back away from him. The man's breath was atrocious. "Pardon me, I just want to ask you if knew a girl named Kiriko?"

"OF COURSE I WOULD KNOW MY OWN WIFE! WHAT'S IT TO YA!"

Kenshin and Aoshi looked at each with the same expressions that said 'Wife?'

"Well…I'm talking about a girl age seventeen, dark red hair, dark blue-violet eyes-" The man grab Kenshin by the collar of his gi and picked him up.

"YES! YES! THAT'S HER. HAVE YOU SEEN HER? TELL ME?" He yelled in Kenshin's face.

Aoshi was ready do beat this giant buffoon to a bloody pulp but Kenshin looked at him and shook his head.

Kenshin answered him calmly; "No I haven't seen her and even if I did I wouldn't tell you."

"THEN GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" The man threw Kenshin down but he landed on his feet like the grace of a cat.

"I don't think so Sir because I don't want you to ever find her." Kenshin straighten out his gi and Aoshi came to stand beside him.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? DO YOU THINK YOU TWO PUNKS CAN STOP ME? I'LL KILL YOU IF YOU TRY TO STOP ME FROM FINDING MY WIFE!"

"Sir, I think you should stop saying that. There is no way Kiriko could be your wife. First of all, you would need consent from her father and I would never allow it."

The huge man looked Kenshin up and down then he burst out laughing. "DO YOU THINK I GIVE A SHIT IF YOU'RE HER FATHER OR NOT! HA! HA! HA!"

"Battousai, I know I'm not a violent man anymore but I really want to knock the shit out of this asshole." Aoshi whispered.

Kenshin looked at Aoshi perplexed. "Oro." He never heard him curse before. "Aoshi, there will be no need for violence." Kenshin turned back to the still laughing giant.

The man finally calmed down. "That was really funny but I don't ask permission for nothing! I'll be with who I want and I take who ever I want!"

Kenshin's eyes flickered. What does he mean by 'take'? "Well, that's fine sir but you will not be 'taking' my daughter anywhere."

"Well how are you gonna stop me, daddy? With that little stick you've got there." He snickered.

"No, I'm just going to ask you nicely to leave my daughter alone."

The man burst out laughing again.

"Battousai, this man is an idiot. We should deal with him before he hurts someone." Aoshi stated. He was totally fed up with this jerk off.

The man stopped laughing all of a sudden. "Battousai?….Battousai? This man is no Battousai the man-slayer. The Battousai is seven feet tall with huge muscles, fire hair and a cross-shaped scar on his left cheek. That man is my hero."

"Oro!" Kenshin scratched the back of his head and frowned. "I see the legend had changed a bit over the years that it has." He said mostly to himself. Aoshi heard his comment and inwardly chuckled.

"See there's no way this guy could be him." He spoke to Aoshi.

"You buffoon. You're so blinded by what the stories have said that you don't see the real legend standing right in front of your ugly face."

Kenshin grimaced, "Now, now Aoshi lets be nice."

The man just snickered at Aoshi's insults, "Oh really." Before Aoshi knew it, the man threw a large piece of pipe at Kenshin's head.

The man watched in disbelief as the pipe split into two and the remaining pieces flew past Kenshin head. All that time, it looked like he hadn't moved an inch.

The large man dropped to his knees and bowed; "I'm so sorry Battousai the man-slayer! I didn't realize! I will never mess with your daughter again! I'm Jenji your humble follower! Please don't kill me!"

"Please get up sir. I am not the Battousai anymore that I'm not. I will not hurt you. All I wanted to know was if you have seen my daughter lately?"

"Well…um…yes I have. I was trying to help her…yeah yeah that's it….I was helping her with her things but this guy came and beat me up for no good reason then he took her away. Even though I'm a big man, I'm not very good with people with swords. I really did try to help her, honest!" He lied.

Aoshi knew this man was lying through his brown teeth but Kenshin said thank you and they left.

"Battousai, you know that man was lying, right?"

Kenshin remained silent for a moment then answered; "Yes, I know but for some reason I have a feeling that part of what he said was the truth…. It's getting really late. We better hurry up and get back to your house before Misao sends the rest of the Oniwaban group after us." He joked.

Aoshi thought about this and decided Kenshin was right. Unbeknownst to Kenshin, Misao really did send the Oniwaban group after him once when he stayed out too late.

"You are right, let's go."

To Kenshin surprise, Aoshi began to jog.