Notes: The second and last chapter of Quiet Life III is here, people. Thanks for reviewing.

I have to make some announcements. First, that I´m writing a third chapter for Quiet Life II. Rememeber, when Tomoe was supposed to tach the children to write. Please, do not get confused with the timelines when I post it. ;)

Second, to supernaturalove. I took your word…well, more or less. I was intending to write of Tomoe in the Bakumatsu, after she was supposed to have died, and I´ve written it. But asking me to write about misundersandings is never a good idea…see "Dead" for details. ^_^

Nothing more and thank you very much!

Disclaimer: The characters belong to Watsuki. Thanks to Margit for beta and Aaerdan for editing.

Quiet Life III

III: Demons of the Past.

"Did you have fun today?" Tomoe asked her daughter as they walked back home. The sun was low in the sky, and this made the trees project deeper and longer shades on the irregular path they had taken. A colder air than that of the morning was starting to hurt her cheeks slightly, and she could now hear the birds singing a different kind of songs than those of the morning, this time to aid each other to find their way back to their nests.

"Yes! Lots of fun!" Miyoko cried, hugging her doll to her chest. "We were playing hide-and-seek with Yoshi, the son of the shopkeeper, and I got behind him while he was counting. When he ended and started to look, he bumped into me and he had such a funny face! He did not even react in time, and I won. The other girls laughed a lot, and made a lot of comments about his funny face. They said he had turned totally white…"

Kenshin could not help but chuckle at the interminable outburst. Even before turning back to check it, he had already foreseen that his wife would carry a quiet but glowing smile on her face as she listened to her daughter´s explanations, but now that he knew, he found himself unable to keep himself from looking back over and over to see it again. Soon, he would trip and fall like a careless idiot, he mused to himself.

"And, do you know what?" Miyoko continued after a brief pause to catch breath. "They also asked me things about you and Father!"

"About... me and your father?" Tomoe repeated, suddenly sounding worried. Kenshin slowed his pace a bit, too, as he felt his heart skip a beat. "What did they ask exactly, Miyoko-chan?"

"A stupid question!" the girl answered, shaking her head. Kenshin stopped wholly now, waiting fearfully for the answer.

"Which stupid question?" Tomoe insisted once more.

"They asked that how it came that you were older than him," she revealed at last,  shrugging her shoulders. As the red-haired man found that air was entering his lungs normally again, the first thing he did was to inhale deeply and avidly.

Then… he had to laugh.

"And what answer did you give to that remark, Himura Miyoko?" Tomoe grumbled, her relief masked by her annoyance. Her daughter shook her head again.

"That it was because you were born years before him, of course!" she snorted, petulantly. "The question!"

If Kenshin hadn´t used all his legendary self-control to keep his mirth to himself then, as he thought afterwards, he would have tripped and fallen like a careless idiot. That he did, and kept walking as if nothing had happened, only made him think higher of himself than what he had in a while.

*     *     *     *     *

Once they had reached their home at last, and Tomoe had begun to prepare dinner aided by a little girl who wasn´t planning on shutting up anytime soon, she did not look too surprised when Kenshin went to the back of the house and took his most precious and dangerous belonging out of its hiding place. Her only reaction was to throw a long glance to the haori under which he had hidden his katana, and arranged it a bit so that it would show even less.

"Be careful", she pleaded.

Kenshin nodded, and closed the door behind him. Good, he thought thankfully, there was still enough sun to suit his purposes. It was not that darkness would hinder his endeavours, but he knew that Tomoe would be worried, and, after all, he was mainly doing it for her. If he had been alone after the Bakumatsu, without anybody to love or protect, he would probably have let himself rot until he died, swallowed by his demons. But he hadn´t been… and now, after so many years, he thought more than ever that a peaceful life was worthy of being lived and protected. Whenever he began to have dangerous nightmares and put his loved ones in danger, he had to get rid of his ghosts.

It was a well-known routine by now.

At a brisk pace, the ex-swordsman reached his hiding place of sorts, a clearing behind the small forest next to his isolated house under the mountain. As he entered it, like so many times before now, he abruptly ceased to be Himura Kenshin, the peaceful medicine seller, and the fire burning deep inside his eyes would have scared anyone who had dared to sneak upon him in that moment. Not that there would have been any chance of that, for the student in Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu who had joined the Ishin Shishi and had become known by his astounding skills as the hitokiri Battousai was perfectly able to sense anyone´s presence from a much longer distance.

He unsheathed his katana.

Become aware of all your inner strength, he could almost hear his Shishou´s words echoing through his mind. Concentrate on it. And, at the precise moment, let it out.

Do not think of anything else.

Nodding, as if Hiko really had been there, Kenshin readied himself and got into a stance. His eyes, as the eyes of an eagle, chose and immediately centered on his target, this time a big rock which had been already cleaved at several sides by his previous attacks. His muscles tensed; and so did his mind.

"Ryu Tsui Sen!" he screamed, making all birds flee from the surrounding trees in a noisy flap of wings. The powerful impulse of his legs projected him high, towards the sky, and from there he crashed down at godlike speed, the air whistling in his ears, towards…

His victim…

Kenshin staggered, losing his concentration in the fatal moment when his sword landed on the rock and broke it down in a thousand splinters. His head was spinning, and in his mind, suddenly, everything was blood. Then, a groan escaped his lips, and that same everything turned into pain.

Baka deshi.

Hiko didn´t know a thing, his pupil thought vengefully as he rolled on the floor, clutching his injured leg. He could bet that he never had had to plan a graceful landing while haunted by the memories of hundreds of murders. That was something that would even have killed other people, the life that he had chosen to follow since he had left that mountain…

See? Baka deshi indeed!

Well, so I am, he confessed sourly at last, to himself and to Hiko, as he got up once more. So what?

Somewhat ashamed, Kenshin shook his head to chase away abandon those weird conversations with himself, and began a conscientious attempt to be more effective the next time. He had to concentrate. Concentrate. Rid himself of his warrior spirit freely, without boundaries or cares. He was alone …

"Dou Ryu Sen!" he cried, shattering the earth with his mighty blow. This time it worked better, and he could notice a weight being taken off his spirit as he rested his body and his soul rejoiced at the perfection of the move.

"Sou Ryu Sen!" The part of the rock that had been severed before was now split in two, and the two pieces crashed against trees at opposite sides of the clearing. He was feeling the effect now; all his pent-up ki was being freed by those attacks, and he was beginning to be more and more aware of the exertion. More moves came and went afterwards, in a continuous dance, first tiring him, then wearing him down to his last breath.

Harmless.

It was the only way, he thought sadly, during a single moment in which he allowed himself a brief distraction. The only way he had ever known.

*     *     *     *     *

Half an hour later, after having ended his performance with a Hi Ryu Sen that left his katana imbedded up to the hilt in a tree, and having retrieved it with his last forces, Kenshin stumbled and fell to the ground, limp and exhausted. At last… For a long while, he knew he would be in peace, and no nightmare would bother him. He wouldn´t be a source of worry and distress for Tomoe.

He felt freed.

The sun´s last ray disappeared behind the peak of the mountain at that precise moment, caressing his scarred face gently before its departure.

IV: The Teaching of Compassion

It was already becoming difficult for him to see things at a distance, when Kenshin perceived a tiny presence getting tentatively nearer to the place. As he could, he pulled himself up with a shiver of cold, and put the sword into its sheath again in the wrong way, as always forgetting that the blade of that sword was reversed. Somehow, or so he thought at times, this could be a metaphor for his fate; to never be able to wholly forget the role that the killing blade had played in his life.

As if a hitokiri could forget…

"Come over here, Miyoko-chan," he invited, in a gentle but weary voice. Almost at once, a little girl with a red kimono stumbled out of a bush, and lifted a pair of wide, violet eyes towards him. Though it was becoming a real challenge to see through the thickening shadows, Kenshin could perceive the unspoken questions that lay in those pools, as well as the awkwardness as she patiently waited for him to come.

It hadn´t been even two months ago, when she had known. Tomoe had insisted; the girl was already at the limit of the age where things could be hidden from her without committing a dreadful and often irreparable error, but, in spite of those sound reasonshis inner resistance had been strong. Even more, for a long time he had been convinced that she had acted differently towards him ever since that day, and it had taken Tomoe to tell him that he was imagining things to get into his head that what he had seen was his fears and nothing more.

Or not much more…

"Mother says that dinner is ready," she chirped, considerably more subdued than what she had been that afternoon. She had probably run out of stories to tell, Kenshin thought with an inner smile.

"Then, we shouldn´t make her wait, should we?" Hiding his sword under the sleeve of his haori again, he offered his other hand to her. "Let´s go."

Miyoko nodded, but did not take the hand.

"I´m old enough to go alone," she protested, as if she felt insulted.

"But you can´t see in the dark, can you?" Kenshin retorted, shaking his head. "It´s dead night now, or will be soon."

As he got no answer, he began to walk past the bushes and trees, and at once felt her panic rise as she was suddenly unable to see him anymore. He stopped to wait for her then, but when she ran towards him she tripped over a root.

"It´s… It´s nothing," she assured, her redness evident for the eye of Kenshin´s mind even if it couldn´t be for the other. Sometimes, he thought ruefully, as he helped her to get up, checked her, and dusted her kimono a bit, her attitude was somewhat of an enigma for him. Being a more or less good child, she had to choose the less profitable occasions to oppose him.

The second time he offered his hand to her she didn´t dare to protest anymore.

"You see? Sometimes, it´s actually good to do what you´re told," he scolded her, deciding automatically to cease relying on his eyes and use his other senses instead. In spite of his present weariness, he could find his way through anything using them alone, and this had made him terrible indeed as a shadow hitokiri. His aim had been just as good in the darkest of alleys…

"Father…"

"Yes?"

The girl trotted at his side, her little legs keeping up with his longer ones.

"Do swordsmen see in the dark?"

Kenshin was taken a bit by surprise by that question, though he was fortunately able to gather himself soon. Miyoko was rather quiet compared with the other girls, but even he was aware that some questions at least were pretty much inevitable.

"No. Not in general."

"And you?"

"I do not see in the dark, Miyoko-chan," he answered. "I just feel the things, hear them… and therefore know where they are. It´s actually a bit difficult to explain."

"Ahhh. Oh, and Father… Mother said that nobody must know what you did, never ever, not even my friends," she changed topic then, without the smallest hint of transition. Once they got the cue, children weren´t certainly those to let it go… "But she said that it wasn´t bad. Why do you hide, then?"

Kenshin inhaled air deeply, totally clueless as to how to answer such a simple question. Tomoe was great at putting him in difficult situations, he even thought - unfairly, of course - for the smallest of moments. She and the highly logical mind of his daughter, inherited from he didn´t know whom. So that was what she had pretended before, when she had refused his hand, to act grown up so that he would answer her?

Why do you hide?

How the hell could he tell his little daughter why he did hide?

After a brief telling of all his possibilities, tales and lies he could have told her, he could not help but slump back in defeat, just as resourceless as before. He could not lie, but he couldn´t tell her the truth, either. Not yet. Maybe not ever….

He chose to stay silent.

"I´m… I´m sorry," Miyoko muttered after a while, misunderstanding his silence. "Mother says that a little girl shouldn´t ask many questions,  but I just keep forgetting it. Are you… are you angry?"

In spite of his worries, Kenshin couldn´t help but feel warmed at this sally. Slowing his pace, he squeezed her hand a bit tighter, to let her know somehow that he was in fact smiling.

"It´s fine, Miyoko-chan. We all have our questions in this life, especially little girls. Unfortunately, there are also things that little girls cannot understand."

"Next month I´ll be eight," she stated, hope filling her voice again. "Will I be a big girl then?"

Kenshin laughed.

"Ask your mother. I´ve never been a little girl."

Miyoko had to laugh at that, too, her father supposed that just at the idea, and for a while both fell silent. The lights of the house where Tomoe was waiting for them were already near, and some of the glow lighted their faces and allowed them to have a better look at each other. Then, Kenshin noticed for the first time that his daughter was still pensive.

"Father," she said again, just as they were going to step into the small field where they sowed  the vegetables. He turned towards her again, curious.

"Yes?"

Miyoko inhaled deeply, looking very flustered for a moment. When at last she opened her mouth, Kenshin could detect a certain shyness in her voice, and he could not help but wonder what it was that was making her so nervous.

"Mother…Mother told me that she had done a very, very bad thing to you once. That, if you hadn´t forgiven her, I wouldn´t have been born. That... was scary."

Kenshin stopped dead in his tracks, astonished.

"Miyoko-chan… When did your mother tell you that?" he asked, slowly.

"When I first saw your sword. Two months ago," she added, with a tiny, tentative smile. The smell of the food could already reach them, in sparse but constant waves, but none of them moved. "Since that day, I… I´ve forgiven everyone for everything. Even Ayumi for throwing my doll into the river."

 "Really?" Kenshin managed to ask, even as he was feeling something unknown twist inside his chest. Miyoko nodded fervently.

"I´ve…forgiven you, too," she muttered, in such a low voice that it seemed as if she was afraid of being heard. Then, before Kenshin could react, she bit her finger and ran towards the house.

*     *     *     *     *

"I promise I didn´t tell her anything about you!"

Kenshin gave a sharp intake of breath and commanded his tense body to lean back, while still holding the cup of tea in his hands as if for support. Tomoe looked sincere, and she had always been trustworthy… all right, if he excepted their first months together, which were well in the past now. All forgiven, as Miyoko had said. But, still, if it hadn´t been her… how …?

"Then… why did she said that?" he insisted, throwing a surreptitious glance to the screen behind which the girl´s soft snores had subsided minutes ago. "Did she… maybe overhear…?"

"Maybe." Tomoe nodded. As Kenshin noticed then, she was rather calm, nothing in her betraying nervousness or worry. "But maybe I can offer a better explanation."

"Which explanation?"

"Miyoko doesn´t tell people about her feelings very often, but she tells me, most of the times," she explained, smoothing a wrinkle in the blanket she was sitting on. "That time, two months ago, she was… scared by what she saw. I know, because she told me, and I told her about myself then. I thought I owed you that much."

Kenshin´s eyes widened a bit, in realization. "So… But...didn´t you tell me that there wasn´t anything strange with her?"

Tomoe lowered her head, and gave a soft sigh.

"I could not stand to make you miserable without a motive. I know Miyoko better than anyone else in this world, and I knew that, with my help, she was going in the right direction. If she didn´t do this by herself… how would she be able to deal with other things later in her life?"

For several moments, none of them said anything else. The only sounds were those of the cracking flames, while both stayed back from each other, plunged in their own musings.

Then, unexpectedly, Kenshin got up and sat behind. He nuzzled her ear, and she looked up to see that he was smiling.

"Thank you."

"Uh?"

"I told you to teach her compassion. Do you remember?" he asked, an intent look in his eyes that was, at the same time, filled with unfathomable gratefulness. Tomoe felt a thrill running through her body, and her heart started to beat irregularly. She tried so hard to have that glance…

To be useful for him and his pain, as he was for hers…

"It was me who said that," he continued, slowly. "But you, you were the one who did it."

A smile graced her porcelain features as well, and she allowed herself, at last, to lean back on him.

"And yet," she finished with a glint in her eye "it was you she forgave, wasn´t it?"

Unable to withstand temptation any longer, Kenshin strengthened his embrace, leaving his cup on the floor just in time before she suddenly turned back and kissed him with fierceness. Behind the screen, kneeling and with her eye pressed to the little hole, a little girl covered her mouth with both hands, and giggled.

She will eat him alive!, she thought, shocked.

(The end)