A/N- Okay, I know this is awful long of a Bakumatsu compared to reality and the Ruroken OVA. But bear with me, okay? It's fanFICTION after all.

CHAPTER 10- WHITE PLUMS

A year passed. Winter set its cold shadow upon Kyoto once again. Red rain froze into red slush and ice as the killings continued.

Himura, Tokaji, and Hotaru had become living legends. Himura was the redheaded prodigy of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, and he had yet to turn 16. Tokaji was the son of a powerful clan leader in the Ishin Shishi. But Hotaru was the most famous of all.

Only two inches taller than when she first killed, she was a seemingly innocent child with killing hands. Like her comrades, her eyes gleamed devilishly, as if always full of rage and pain. She too had changed.

No longer did she do chores or spend time in the sakura grove outside the city. Her life had been confined to the inn by day and the bloody streets by night. During the day, she only ate and slept, preparing for the killings at night. This was her fixed routine, as it was for Himura and Tokaji.

Okami-san wasn't the only one who showed concern. Both Kogoro and Idzuka noticed the change.

Kogoro sighed, his expression troubled. "If not for their success, I'd say this was the biggest mistake I've ever made."

"What a shame." Idzuka agreed. "All three of them are only children after all."

Then, one night, Himura was assigned to an assassination. Hotaru and Tokaji remained in their rooms, leaning sleeplessly against their walls. Whenever a comrade was absent, the others did not sleep. It was subtle, yet there was a sense of siblinghood between the three assassins.

Hotaru sat in silence, gazing at the sword in her lap. After that first kill, Kogoro had given this katana, and a wakizashi to her.

'A year today.' she thought. 'It's been a year since I swore to suffer with Tokaji and Himura.'

Just then, her heightened senses heard the downstairs door slide open. Then, there were light, tentative steps, as if the person entering was tiptoeing. Himura didn't tiptoe!

Grasping her sword, she sprinted out of her room, down the stairs, and around the bend. It was there she came face-to-face with---

"Himura!"

Himura looked like he was about to have a heart attack. "Hotaru?"

In his arms, was a woman!

Hotaru gasped. As she did, a strange, almost over-powering smell overtook her senses. 'Is that.white plum?'

The woman was young, perhaps a little older than Himura. Her face was pale and her white kimono was covered with blood. But she wasn't dead or injured, something the trained shoujo picked up on right away. She'd fainted.

But by the next morning this mysterious newcomer was in the kitchen, preparing breakfast with Okami-san. It turned out that her name was Yukishiro Tomoe and she was at the inn to stay.