Rental Trouble
"Megumi's going to rent out the extra bedroom?!" Misao said incredulously. Megumi, Kaoru's aunt, had always refused every time someone mentioned renting out the extra bedroom.
"Yeah, she is," Kaoru said. It was lunch period and Kaoru was sitting with Misao, Aoshi, and Kenshin on one of those ugly green picnic tables that the school thinks are simply wonderful. "I think she wants some extra spending cash and to maybe go back to school."
"Well, Shishou would never let any one in the house. He always mumbles something about hermits not wanting company whenever I have friends over," Kenshin said. The girls giggled and Kenshin grinned. Aoshi laughed too, or at least he gave his version of one-a muffled grunt.
"It'd be weird huh?" Kaoru thought out loud. "I mean to have somebody else in our house. It's only been her and me for the last two years." She took another small bite of her turkey sandwich.
"So do you think that if Okina gets on my nerves I could stay there?" Misao asked.
"Misao, I don't think that-" Kaoru was cut off by.
"ORO?!" Kenshin yelled as a chawan bowl slammed into the side of his head.
"Hey sorry!" It was Sagara Sanosuke resident thug of Fukuju high his trademark fish bones stuck out of his mouth. His brother apparently had been an old friend of Kaoru's aunt. "Hey Jouchan," he directed at Kaoru, "think I could borrow a dollar for lunch? Mine seemed to have liked the back of Mr. heartthrob's head."
Kaoru scowled, "No, why do you think I have any money? It's your fault that you don't have lunch now."
"Oh, come on! Library fines just take such a huge bite out of my profits." "Hard to believe you know what a library is," Kaoru shot back.
A sudden thumping sound came from Kaoru's right. Aoshi had put his bottle of soda down rather . firmly on the table.
"Here," he said and pushed a giant Spam musubi at Sanosuke.
The ends of the rooster-like bandana drooped slightly, "Thanks." He turned and walked away. Kaoru and Kenshin exchanged meaningful glances when they spotted the word written across Sano's back-warui.
"Aoshi-sama, that was really nice of you!" Misao exclaimed. "See I knew you were a sweetheart!' Kaoru swore she could see the little hearts dancing in Misao's eyes as she gazed at her new "friend".
"I've heard that Sagara Sanosuke is mixed up in some sort of drug business. Don't think that he's stupid enough to take any himself but any money you give him will probably find its way to his. profession," Aoshi explained stoically as though to say that he wasn't trying to be kind.
~ ~ ~
Kenshin was hiding in a closed staircase that had probably once led to the roof of the school building. It had a fantastic view of the school grounds. In the distance he could see the football team training and the kids leaving campus.
Today he had had a particularly hard time out running a group of three girls who still wanted him to date them. These girls who wanted to go out with him now would never have so much as spoken to him if they knew the details of his not too spotless past.
He sighed. Life in Fukuju (apart from the rabid girls that hunted him like a bunny) seemed so easy. There were new friends, new classes. Before Shishou had gotten the business deal that had demanded that he and his nephew had to move out of Naku, Kenshin had been miserable. In the old neighborhood Kenshin had been "the boy who had no parents and whose sister was murdered" or "battousai". Sympathy and fear were not the best neighbors.
"Oi, what are you doing here? This is my spot." a voice interrupted his reverie. It was the boy from Lunch, Sagara Sanosuke, climbing the steps towards him. "Are you really Battousai? Maa, must be-cross shaped scar and red hair just like they told me."
Kenshin looked up. The other boy sat down next to him and flicked the ashes from his cigarette. Just when he thought the world had forgotten him this punk shows up.
"Iiya. I'm not Battousai any more," Kenshin's eyes darkened.
"Ok well, I'm Sagara Sanosuke but you can call me Sano," he took another drag on his cigarette and gazed out at the campus grounds. "Your sister was murdered right? Yes, I remember the rumors: a masked man had hired some twenty men to help him murder a girl. And after that each man who had helped had been sliced into pieces on the streets of Naku. They said it was you who killed them and gave you a name just like those soldiers of the bakumatsu, Hitokiri Battousai." He paused and Kenshin didn't respond. So, they hadn't forgotten. Sano went on, "I'm not here to judge. I would have done the same thing."
"I'm not Battousai any more though," Kenshin said.
Suddenly a cell phone began to ring and Sano quickly pulled out a tiny Nokia out of his pocket, "Moshi moshi. Sano here," a pause then, "what do you mean your throwing me out?! You found what in my room? Opium?! You want me to get out by Friday? Fine." He hung up the phone. "Dammit, stupid gramps!"
"Opium?" Kenshin asked. Aoshi had been right then.
"It's not like it sounds. Well, maybe it is but I don't push to little kids or anything. 'member I said that I would have done the same as you did well this was how I was planning to get them.
* * *
~Five years ago~
A twelve-year-old Sano was running down the street trailed by five or six punks. They were monstrous guys and Sano didn't think that they had any moral qualms about killing him. After all he had just dumped several thousand dollars of coke on the ground and hastily sketched the word "Sekihoutai" into the white powder.
Sano and his brother Souzou were the last members of the renowned gang the Sekihoutai. Over the last few years the majority of their members had been murdered or had mysteriously "fallen ill".
Even though they were almost extinct Sano still made sure that the legacy was not forgotten. Whenever it seemed that the rival gangs had forgotten them Sano took another risky mission into enemy territory.
Tonight though it seemed that he had gone too far. Or maybe it was just that tonight he got caught.
"We're gonna kill you punk!" Sano heard from behind him. He turned a corner and stumbled into the Naku mall-neutral territory. His breathing was ragged.
He rushed past a big lady carrying her baby and spluttered an apology and then tripped into the Genki Sushi. If he were lucky his brother would be there to bail him out.
Today he was lucky. His brother was sitting in the corner and looked up when Sano stumbled in. "What's wrong, Sano?" he asked calmly.
"Umm. got caught," Sano replied breathlessly and Souzou stood up.
"Let's go." He led Sano out of the back of the restaurant. With a little more luck Sano would be able to avoid those guys. Guess he wasn't that lucky. The half dozen guys were waiting for him as soon as he got out of the mall.
"Ooo, kid you're gonna die! Hey there are two of them." Souzou was standing slightly in front of Sano. He had drawn his sword, the trademark weapon of the Sekihoutai.
"Sano, go, I'll take care of them." The thugs charged and Souzou pushed Sano backwards. "Go!"
And he left; ran for dear life. A gunshot rang out from behind him but Sano wasn't worried. His brother would be fine; he was invincible.
* * *
"Turns out," Sano said and leaned back and took a long drag, "that Souzou got shot and died instantly. They planted a bunch of L.S.D on him and the handgun so the police figured that it was just another drug related suicide. They placed that label on his back and I still wear it now. That's how I ended up in this business. I needed a way to get close to them."
Kenshin carefully nullified any emotion on his face, "Did you get your . revenge?"
Sano gave a smirk, "I didn't have to. Turns out that those six were among the men who helped murder your sister." Kenshin's eyes darkened again. "Well, and by the time I was close enough to have done the job myself they were already dead."
The two sat in silence, Sano puffing his cigarette and Kenshin deep in thought.
"So now," Sano said casually, "it's up to you. Either you can keep my secret or not but either way I win; if you don't tell then I've found a new friend; if you tell then I have a chance to revenge two of my fellow members of the Sekihoutai."
Kenshin looked up but his fiery, red bangs still concealed his eyes, "Did they help?"
"Yeah, they needed the money. I was in the hospital; needed my appendix out."
"Gomen."
~ ~ ~
It was Friday night Kaoru and Megumi were sitting in the kitchen eating dinner. It had been two days since Megumi had originally decided to offer the room up for rent and no one had come to look at it.
Right after they had finished there was a short knock on the door and Kaoru got up to answer it. Standing in the rain was Kenshin and surprisingly- Sano.
"Konbanwa, Kaoru-dono. Seems that a friend on fine needs a place to stay for a while. I'd let him stay at my place but you know my uncle and hermit crabs." Kenshin said as the rain continued to turn his red hair into a more of a dark auburn. Water was making his red tabi heavy.
"O..okay," Kaoru stepped back to let them in. "Megumi, for you. Kenshin wait here." She went upstairs to find a few clean towels for her houseguests.
From upstairs Kaoru could hear Megumi talking to the Sano. "So how long are you planning to stay?"
"Don't know," was Sano's response. Kaoru could just imagine the fish bone in his mouth wiggling up and down as he said that.
"You have a job? I'm not gonna just let you stay here for nothing."
"I have a ."
"Sano." Kenshin cut him off softly. During their little chat Sano had said that he would be leaving the drug business for good.
"Ok, then, I just quit my job. I have at least enough money for the month."
Kaoru came back downstairs a couple of green towels in her hands. She walked to the kitchen where negotiations had moved and were continuing. Kenshin and Sano both gratefully accepted the towels Kaoru handed them and began attempting to dry off.
"So," Megumi said and sipped her tea, "how're you gonna pay after that then? You know I'm willing to make a deal with you because I was good friends with your brother."
"Ok, sure." Sano was busy blotting his bandana dry and Kenshin was wringing out his long hair. A sudden thought flashed through Kaoru's head; his hair must feel real good. Quickly she pushed it away.
"So after next month, you're gonna come work for me at the clinic. I'll find something easy for you to do and in return you get your room. The only rooms you can't go in are mine and Kaoru's."
"Good, good."
"Okay then that's settled. Here's your key. Kaoru'll show you to your room."
A/N: Hmmm. well. So I'm finally getting into something that resembles a plot. Bit more serious ne? ^_^ Watching Vash now!!! I remember seeing an ep of trigun and thinking that Vash was just like Kenshin. ne? Don't worry I still totally love Kenshin! Well. I was visiting a site online that said Kenshin was only 5 ft 2 in. Can that be possible? I thought that he'd be at least three inches taller! Well he's still like three and a quarter inches taller than me!! I've come to peace with being short but five feet would be nice. I guess now I should practice my kirikaeshi and do!!! Hmm.. Maybe I'll make some more Sano/Megumi stuff in a later chap. What you think? Oh, and I'll make a chap a little about Kenshin's past, and I want one about Yahiko or Misao. Mmmmmmmm. I have to do dishes. Mou. dun wanna!! I wish I had someone to do my laundry like Kaoru. sigh. till next time canchan O and PS. REVIEW!!! ONEGAI!!! Oh and BTW. Sagara Taichou no na wa Souzou da.ne? That's what it said in the second manga!! Wow, when I first got that one I nearly dropped the book when I saw his head on a platter.!
"Megumi's going to rent out the extra bedroom?!" Misao said incredulously. Megumi, Kaoru's aunt, had always refused every time someone mentioned renting out the extra bedroom.
"Yeah, she is," Kaoru said. It was lunch period and Kaoru was sitting with Misao, Aoshi, and Kenshin on one of those ugly green picnic tables that the school thinks are simply wonderful. "I think she wants some extra spending cash and to maybe go back to school."
"Well, Shishou would never let any one in the house. He always mumbles something about hermits not wanting company whenever I have friends over," Kenshin said. The girls giggled and Kenshin grinned. Aoshi laughed too, or at least he gave his version of one-a muffled grunt.
"It'd be weird huh?" Kaoru thought out loud. "I mean to have somebody else in our house. It's only been her and me for the last two years." She took another small bite of her turkey sandwich.
"So do you think that if Okina gets on my nerves I could stay there?" Misao asked.
"Misao, I don't think that-" Kaoru was cut off by.
"ORO?!" Kenshin yelled as a chawan bowl slammed into the side of his head.
"Hey sorry!" It was Sagara Sanosuke resident thug of Fukuju high his trademark fish bones stuck out of his mouth. His brother apparently had been an old friend of Kaoru's aunt. "Hey Jouchan," he directed at Kaoru, "think I could borrow a dollar for lunch? Mine seemed to have liked the back of Mr. heartthrob's head."
Kaoru scowled, "No, why do you think I have any money? It's your fault that you don't have lunch now."
"Oh, come on! Library fines just take such a huge bite out of my profits." "Hard to believe you know what a library is," Kaoru shot back.
A sudden thumping sound came from Kaoru's right. Aoshi had put his bottle of soda down rather . firmly on the table.
"Here," he said and pushed a giant Spam musubi at Sanosuke.
The ends of the rooster-like bandana drooped slightly, "Thanks." He turned and walked away. Kaoru and Kenshin exchanged meaningful glances when they spotted the word written across Sano's back-warui.
"Aoshi-sama, that was really nice of you!" Misao exclaimed. "See I knew you were a sweetheart!' Kaoru swore she could see the little hearts dancing in Misao's eyes as she gazed at her new "friend".
"I've heard that Sagara Sanosuke is mixed up in some sort of drug business. Don't think that he's stupid enough to take any himself but any money you give him will probably find its way to his. profession," Aoshi explained stoically as though to say that he wasn't trying to be kind.
~ ~ ~
Kenshin was hiding in a closed staircase that had probably once led to the roof of the school building. It had a fantastic view of the school grounds. In the distance he could see the football team training and the kids leaving campus.
Today he had had a particularly hard time out running a group of three girls who still wanted him to date them. These girls who wanted to go out with him now would never have so much as spoken to him if they knew the details of his not too spotless past.
He sighed. Life in Fukuju (apart from the rabid girls that hunted him like a bunny) seemed so easy. There were new friends, new classes. Before Shishou had gotten the business deal that had demanded that he and his nephew had to move out of Naku, Kenshin had been miserable. In the old neighborhood Kenshin had been "the boy who had no parents and whose sister was murdered" or "battousai". Sympathy and fear were not the best neighbors.
"Oi, what are you doing here? This is my spot." a voice interrupted his reverie. It was the boy from Lunch, Sagara Sanosuke, climbing the steps towards him. "Are you really Battousai? Maa, must be-cross shaped scar and red hair just like they told me."
Kenshin looked up. The other boy sat down next to him and flicked the ashes from his cigarette. Just when he thought the world had forgotten him this punk shows up.
"Iiya. I'm not Battousai any more," Kenshin's eyes darkened.
"Ok well, I'm Sagara Sanosuke but you can call me Sano," he took another drag on his cigarette and gazed out at the campus grounds. "Your sister was murdered right? Yes, I remember the rumors: a masked man had hired some twenty men to help him murder a girl. And after that each man who had helped had been sliced into pieces on the streets of Naku. They said it was you who killed them and gave you a name just like those soldiers of the bakumatsu, Hitokiri Battousai." He paused and Kenshin didn't respond. So, they hadn't forgotten. Sano went on, "I'm not here to judge. I would have done the same thing."
"I'm not Battousai any more though," Kenshin said.
Suddenly a cell phone began to ring and Sano quickly pulled out a tiny Nokia out of his pocket, "Moshi moshi. Sano here," a pause then, "what do you mean your throwing me out?! You found what in my room? Opium?! You want me to get out by Friday? Fine." He hung up the phone. "Dammit, stupid gramps!"
"Opium?" Kenshin asked. Aoshi had been right then.
"It's not like it sounds. Well, maybe it is but I don't push to little kids or anything. 'member I said that I would have done the same as you did well this was how I was planning to get them.
* * *
~Five years ago~
A twelve-year-old Sano was running down the street trailed by five or six punks. They were monstrous guys and Sano didn't think that they had any moral qualms about killing him. After all he had just dumped several thousand dollars of coke on the ground and hastily sketched the word "Sekihoutai" into the white powder.
Sano and his brother Souzou were the last members of the renowned gang the Sekihoutai. Over the last few years the majority of their members had been murdered or had mysteriously "fallen ill".
Even though they were almost extinct Sano still made sure that the legacy was not forgotten. Whenever it seemed that the rival gangs had forgotten them Sano took another risky mission into enemy territory.
Tonight though it seemed that he had gone too far. Or maybe it was just that tonight he got caught.
"We're gonna kill you punk!" Sano heard from behind him. He turned a corner and stumbled into the Naku mall-neutral territory. His breathing was ragged.
He rushed past a big lady carrying her baby and spluttered an apology and then tripped into the Genki Sushi. If he were lucky his brother would be there to bail him out.
Today he was lucky. His brother was sitting in the corner and looked up when Sano stumbled in. "What's wrong, Sano?" he asked calmly.
"Umm. got caught," Sano replied breathlessly and Souzou stood up.
"Let's go." He led Sano out of the back of the restaurant. With a little more luck Sano would be able to avoid those guys. Guess he wasn't that lucky. The half dozen guys were waiting for him as soon as he got out of the mall.
"Ooo, kid you're gonna die! Hey there are two of them." Souzou was standing slightly in front of Sano. He had drawn his sword, the trademark weapon of the Sekihoutai.
"Sano, go, I'll take care of them." The thugs charged and Souzou pushed Sano backwards. "Go!"
And he left; ran for dear life. A gunshot rang out from behind him but Sano wasn't worried. His brother would be fine; he was invincible.
* * *
"Turns out," Sano said and leaned back and took a long drag, "that Souzou got shot and died instantly. They planted a bunch of L.S.D on him and the handgun so the police figured that it was just another drug related suicide. They placed that label on his back and I still wear it now. That's how I ended up in this business. I needed a way to get close to them."
Kenshin carefully nullified any emotion on his face, "Did you get your . revenge?"
Sano gave a smirk, "I didn't have to. Turns out that those six were among the men who helped murder your sister." Kenshin's eyes darkened again. "Well, and by the time I was close enough to have done the job myself they were already dead."
The two sat in silence, Sano puffing his cigarette and Kenshin deep in thought.
"So now," Sano said casually, "it's up to you. Either you can keep my secret or not but either way I win; if you don't tell then I've found a new friend; if you tell then I have a chance to revenge two of my fellow members of the Sekihoutai."
Kenshin looked up but his fiery, red bangs still concealed his eyes, "Did they help?"
"Yeah, they needed the money. I was in the hospital; needed my appendix out."
"Gomen."
~ ~ ~
It was Friday night Kaoru and Megumi were sitting in the kitchen eating dinner. It had been two days since Megumi had originally decided to offer the room up for rent and no one had come to look at it.
Right after they had finished there was a short knock on the door and Kaoru got up to answer it. Standing in the rain was Kenshin and surprisingly- Sano.
"Konbanwa, Kaoru-dono. Seems that a friend on fine needs a place to stay for a while. I'd let him stay at my place but you know my uncle and hermit crabs." Kenshin said as the rain continued to turn his red hair into a more of a dark auburn. Water was making his red tabi heavy.
"O..okay," Kaoru stepped back to let them in. "Megumi, for you. Kenshin wait here." She went upstairs to find a few clean towels for her houseguests.
From upstairs Kaoru could hear Megumi talking to the Sano. "So how long are you planning to stay?"
"Don't know," was Sano's response. Kaoru could just imagine the fish bone in his mouth wiggling up and down as he said that.
"You have a job? I'm not gonna just let you stay here for nothing."
"I have a ."
"Sano." Kenshin cut him off softly. During their little chat Sano had said that he would be leaving the drug business for good.
"Ok, then, I just quit my job. I have at least enough money for the month."
Kaoru came back downstairs a couple of green towels in her hands. She walked to the kitchen where negotiations had moved and were continuing. Kenshin and Sano both gratefully accepted the towels Kaoru handed them and began attempting to dry off.
"So," Megumi said and sipped her tea, "how're you gonna pay after that then? You know I'm willing to make a deal with you because I was good friends with your brother."
"Ok, sure." Sano was busy blotting his bandana dry and Kenshin was wringing out his long hair. A sudden thought flashed through Kaoru's head; his hair must feel real good. Quickly she pushed it away.
"So after next month, you're gonna come work for me at the clinic. I'll find something easy for you to do and in return you get your room. The only rooms you can't go in are mine and Kaoru's."
"Good, good."
"Okay then that's settled. Here's your key. Kaoru'll show you to your room."
A/N: Hmmm. well. So I'm finally getting into something that resembles a plot. Bit more serious ne? ^_^ Watching Vash now!!! I remember seeing an ep of trigun and thinking that Vash was just like Kenshin. ne? Don't worry I still totally love Kenshin! Well. I was visiting a site online that said Kenshin was only 5 ft 2 in. Can that be possible? I thought that he'd be at least three inches taller! Well he's still like three and a quarter inches taller than me!! I've come to peace with being short but five feet would be nice. I guess now I should practice my kirikaeshi and do!!! Hmm.. Maybe I'll make some more Sano/Megumi stuff in a later chap. What you think? Oh, and I'll make a chap a little about Kenshin's past, and I want one about Yahiko or Misao. Mmmmmmmm. I have to do dishes. Mou. dun wanna!! I wish I had someone to do my laundry like Kaoru. sigh. till next time canchan O and PS. REVIEW!!! ONEGAI!!! Oh and BTW. Sagara Taichou no na wa Souzou da.ne? That's what it said in the second manga!! Wow, when I first got that one I nearly dropped the book when I saw his head on a platter.!