"What the hell just happened?" Yahiko asked the wanderer, who appeared to be holding on to the eagle's jesses for dear life as Sano's dark wings buffeted him around the head. "Where's Saitou going?"
"Calm down, Sano," Kenshin commanded the eagle weakly, ignoring the boy. "We won't let him kill Shibumi, that we won't." The eagle continued to screech at him, but slowly stopped trying to fly off with him. Yahiko watched the scene with growing trepidation.
"What do you mean; you won't let him kill Shibumi? Wasn't that the plan, to kill the Daimyo, something about Aku. Soku. Zan. But I don't understand why Saitou would just leave Sano here." Yahiko watched as Kenshin's eyes widened in realization.
"He left even after I told him that killing Shibumi would mean that the curse couldn't be broken. He told me to take care of Sano…He means to sacrifice himself as well as kill Shibumi. Stupid Saitou, that won't work! If he dies without killing the Daimyo, then Sano's still in danger, and even if he does kill Shibumi and then dies, the curse won't be broken," Kenshin said more to himself, and to the absent man, than Yahiko as he paced passed the boy back into the monastery.
"What's going on?" Yahiko shouted at Kenshin's back.
"I don't have time to explain, that I don't. But we have to stop Saitou from making a big mistake, that we do." Yahiko walked back into the monastery from the porch in time to see Kenshin hurriedly packing up his meager belongings.
"How are we going to stop him?" Yahiko asked. "He's on his horse."
"He has to go back to pick up his sword and clothes, that he does. We, on the other hand, will be able to head straight for Aizu; plus, we'll be able to travel at night." Kenshin said as he stowed away his cooking pot. "We should be able to catch up with him before he gets to the city, that we should. But we'll need to hurry. Go put out the fire, Yahiko. We're leaving in a few minutes." Yahiko rushed to do as he was told, wondering all the while why he had let himself become entwined in this mad adventure. He had to tell himself that helping Saitou and Sanosuke achieve their justice would also be justice for his own family. Task finished, he came back into the main hall in time to see Sano reluctantly hop onto Kenshin's gauntleted fist. "Let's go," Kenshin said quietly.
The sun came out as the day wore on, melting the little snow that had accumulated on the ground, rendering the main road to Aizu little more than a muddy track. Sometime after noon, Kenshin led them off the road and into the woods on a more direct path to the city. "I sure hope you know what you're doing," Yahiko grumbled as he picked himself up off the forest floor after stumbling over a hidden branch.
"Of course I do," Kenshin said as he helped the boy thief to his feet. "I've wandered all over Japan for the last two years, that I have. Trust me." Yahiko scowled, but kept his complaints to himself. In order to make the day go faster, Yahiko pestered Kenshin into teaching him some very basic hand fighting techniques, saying that all good samurai knew several of the martial arts.
"There is a stream nearby," Kenshin said tiredly as the sun was sliding towards the horizon. "We will rest here for a little while, that we will." Yahiko could only nod in agreement. "You go get a little firewood, and I'll make camp," Kenshin suggested. Yahiko watched as Sano hopped from the gauntlet and glided to a nearby log before going into the woods for kindling. Dusk had gathered over the forest when he returned to the small clearing.
"Why did Hajime leave, Kenshin? What did you say to him?" Yahiko heard Sano ask. He snuck to a nearby tree to watch unseen as Kenshin finally answered the questions that he himself had asked earlier.
Sano still sat on the same log that he had landed on, wrapped in a blanket, and hugging his knees. The fading light of the early evening made him appear very young to Yahiko. Kenshin seemed to be absorbed in digging through his pack for something.
"I think that this will do," Kenshin said, holding up a dark kimono in the dying light. "It will be a little short on you, that it will, but…." Sano cut him off.
"Don't dodge the question Kenshin. What did you say to him?" Sano practically shouted at the wanderer. Kenshin lowered the kimono and his eyes.
"Sano," he said plaintively, looking at his friend. Whatever he saw made him sigh. "I told him that the day with two sunrises and two sunsets was upon us, that I did," he said quietly. Sano sat up straight.
"But that's good news! Why would he…"
"Because, there is a second condition to the curse that I hadn't told you about… Sanosuke, what are your feelings toward Saitou?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you love him?"
"I - I don't know," Sano said hesitantly. "Why? What does that have to do with anything?" Kenshin sighed again.
"Because it's part of the second condition, Sano," his voice was so low that Yahiko had to strain to hear it. The light was almost gone now.
"Why didn't you tell us this in the beginning?" Sano asked roughly, standing and clutching the blanket around himself. Kenshin looked up at him.
"Because the first condition was impossible enough without adding the second… Sano, where are you going?" Sano had started walking towards the woods.
"I need to think, Kenshin," he said crossly, without looking back at his friend.
"But what about clothes, you'll freeze," Kenshin told Sano's blanket wrapped back.
"I'll be back," Sano said as he disappeared into the woods. Kenshin stared at the limp kimono in his hands for a few minutes.
"You can come out now, Yahiko, that you can," he said, looking right at Yahiko's hiding spot. Yahiko started guiltily, then stepped out from behind the tree. "This eavesdropping habit of yours is unbecoming, that it is." Yahiko walked into the little clearing and began setting up the wood for a small fire.
"I just thought that you'd like some privacy," Yahiko tried to explain. Kenshin gave him a look that said that though he didn't believe Yahiko, he was going to let it pass. "What are we going to do now?"
"We are going to eat and rest ourselves by a fire for a few hours, that we are." Kenshin struck sparks from his flint, and soon had the fire blazing merrily. After what seemed like an eternity, Sano came back into the clearing, the blanket wrapped around his narrow waist. He dropped a rabbit at Kenshin's feet.
"I caught it, you cook it," he said, a little of his former humor restored. Kenshin nodded and smiled tentatively at him. "You're lucky that I've never killed anyone, Kenshin; you're lucky that I don't want to start with my best friend." He grabbed up the kimono and turned from the fire, letting the blanket fall to his feet. The light of the fire highlighted the twigs and leaves in his hair, and the new scratches on his skin as he put on the kimono and tied the obi. Kenshin said nothing as he skinned and cooked the rabbit; and they ate in silence. Yahiko yawned into the night as he watched the two friends staring at each other across the fire, neither sure of what to say to the other.
"Oi, you two need to stop worrying about something that happened in the past, and start worrying about what happens when we catch up to Saitou," Yahiko said into the tense silence. Two pairs of eyes turned his way, and he regretted saying anything. Sano began laughing.
"I guess between the three of us, we'll just have to beat some sense into him when we find him, huh?" Sano said, still laughing. Kenshin snorted, and Yahiko rolled on the ground, laughing hard at the image that statement conjured up.
"I'm sorry, Sano," Kenshin said quietly after he stopped laughing. Sano smiled a half smile, and nodded toward Yahiko.
"It's okay. The kid's right, Kenshin. We can't change what happened in the past, and we have other things to worry about in the here and now," he said shrugging. "Why don't you two take a nap, and I'll wake you in a couple of hours?" Yahiko felt like he was asleep before his head touched the ground.
Sanosuke shook them awake all too soon for Yahiko's taste. After dousing the fire, they were soon walking through the clear night. Sano started at the sound of a wolf howling, but shook his head in bemusement. "It's not him," he muttered. Behind him, Kenshin caught Yahiko's eye. They stopped to rest again as the day dawned brightly. They dined on leftover rabbit and napped sitting up, the eagle keeping guard over them. When they awoke, the bright day had disappeared into sullen, heavy bottomed snow clouds. It began snowing soon after noon.
It was Yahiko who spotted the small village in the dying afternoon light. "This snow is not letting up," he said to Kenshin. "We should find shelter," he pointed to toward the little grouping of buildings. Kenshin nodded his agreement tiredly and they trudged through the shin deep snow into the village.
"The sun is ready to set, that it is," Kenshin murmured. "Take Sanosuke to that stable so he can change, while I find out if the inn has any rooms." The wanderer handed Yahiko the eagle and his travel pack, and went into the village proper, while Yahiko and Sano hid in the dark stable to await Sano's transformation.
Yahiko guarded the door, watching the snow as the sun set and Sano became a human being again. "Oi, Yahiko!" Sano said excitedly. Yahiko turned from the door to see a totally naked Sano being lipped by, and hanging onto, a big black horse.
Yahiko's eyes widened as he recognized Horse. "He's here?" he said, breathlessly. Sano nodded happily.
"Did you miss me, Horse?" the young man murmured, kissing the horse's cheek. He petted his way down Horse's flank, and then went looking through the saddlebag for his clothes.
"I guess that means that tomorrow we get to try to beat some sense into Saitou," Yahiko said in mock despair. Sano looked over Horse's back at the boy and laughed as he pulled on his pants.
"No, that means that you get to try to beat some sense into him; I'll be a bird." Yahiko threw a dried piece of dung at him, which he easily dodged.
"Hurry up, Feather-Head. We've gotta tell Kenshin the good news!"
***
True darkness had fallen by the time that Akamatsu, angry, cold and tired, stopped his wagon in a little village for the night. He had been throughout the prefecture, and was on his way back to Aizu to tell Shibumi: 'Fuck you and your stupid wild goose chase'. Of course, he had a couple of days traveling to think of a more polite way to say it.
Akamatsu looked around the nearly deserted village with distaste. He could remember when this place had been bustling, even in winter, with farmers who were passing through from delivering their shares of rice and buckwheat to Aizu. Now its only redeeming features were the inn, and the hot springs. At least he would be warm, and wouldn't have to sleep under the wagon tonight, he thought.
Voices from the direction of the springs broke through his reverie. "I don't care if you haven't gambled for two years," said a squeaky, irritating voice that had yet to settle into its adult register. "I worked too hard for that money to let you piss it away on a rigged dice game." A deeper voice snorted.
"Worked, Yahiko? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you steal that purse?" Akamatsu frowned at the thought of thieves; he seemed to be running into more robbers and highwaymen since Okubo died and Shibumi became the Daimyo. He tied his nearly empty purse tightly to his obi, and made sure that he took his skinning knife with him as he got down from the wagon. He watched as the young man and the boy rounded the corner of the inn into the torchlight, still steaming from their sojourn in the hot springs. "I don't see why you can't lend me a couple…" the young man's deep voice trailed off into a gasp as he caught sight of the hunter and his wagon.
Akamatsu was so accustomed to people fearing his stitch-scarred face and his grisly cargo that he barely noticed the young man in white hurriedly backing away from his wagon, staring at the wolf pelts with an expression of fear. No, what caught his attention was the companion that the young man almost stepped on in his haste to get away from the wagon.
"Sanosuke! What the hell is your problem?" the kid yelled, pushing the older boy forward, before noticing Akamatsu's payload and attention. The hunter's eyes widened as he returned his attention to the young man in white. Large, unusually brown eyes in an extremely attractive face looked up at him from beneath a thatch of messy brown hair. This young man was certainly pretty enough, Akamatsu thought, looking the boy up and down again. He had to be absolutely sure, though.
"Sagara Sanosuke?" If anything, the young man's fearful eyes widened further, and Akamatsu grinned to himself, the scars on his cheeks and forehead tightening.
"Who the hell are you?" the forgotten little boy asked heatedly, as he began pulling on the older boy's jacket and waving his eating knife at the hunter. "Leave us the hell alone! C'mon, Sano."
"Ooh, you're scaring me, little boy," Akamatsu said, laughing as the kid bristled at the slur.
"Yahiko, go get Kenshin," Sagara said quietly in a surprisingly calm voice, without taking his eyes off the hunter.
"I'm not leaving you here alone with this creep!" the kid said heatedly. "C'mon, Sano!" Akamatsu watched as Sagara let the kid drag him to the inn, his eyes never leaving the hunter's. Akamatsu grinned, giving the young man a mock salute as he and his young companion disappeared into the inn. The hunter hopped back onto his wagon and drove off into the woods to set some traps, his need for the warmth of the inn forgotten.
***
Sano listened to Yahiko tell Kenshin about their encounter with the hunter with a detached air. He nodded and said the right things as Kenshin tried to reassure him that Hajime was much too smart for some backwoods hunter to catch. He laughed as Yahiko got drunk on one cup of cheap sake and tried to tell jokes that he couldn't remember the punch line to. Later, in their room, he unrolled his futon near the door and lay on it, as the others got ready to sleep. And as Kenshin and Yahiko's breathing deepened, he snuck out of the inn and into the stable. He led Horse out into the snowy night, climbed onto his bare back, and kicked him into a gallop in the direction that the hunter had gone.
***
Saitou stood suddenly, stretching himself like cat in sunshine, sighing as he took a cigarette out of his case and tamped the end down on the metal.
"Hey," Sano's raspy voice stopped him from striking a match on his heel, "what the hell do you think you're doing? Didn't you hear Megumi say that she'd kill you if you smoked in here?" Saitou looked down at his lover, who was looking up at him through his long fringe of dark lashes. He noticed that the boy's breathing was still labored, but the fever flush on his cheeks was fading. Still, Mibu's Wolf thought to himself as he put the unlit cigarette in his mouth, this would be a good time to have Sano take the medicine that Dr. Takani had left. Saitou quickly began to make the tea.
"And I will kill someone, most likely you, if I don't smoke, Ahou," Saitou answered with a smirk. Sano pouted at him, but the Rooster knew full well how irrational the older man could be about his one bad habit.
"Well, if the Fox Woman kills you before the end of the story, I will never, ever forgive you," Sano said petulantly. "And you can just forget me ever leaving anything for your grave." Saitou snorted, amused.
"Ahou. I can smoke and talk at the same time, you know."
"Hn. Well then, if she kills you, then I won't have anything to live for; and my death will be on your conscious," Sano said smugly.
"I'll be dead, Ahou. I doubt very highly that I'll be worried about you." Saitou handed Sano the drugged tea and went to sit by the window to smoke. Sano looked at the tea cup, then gave Saitou a stricken look. "Drink every drop," Saitou said, sounding very much like a parent, "or I won't finish."
"Blackmailing Bastard," Sano muttered. Saitou bared his teeth in a feral grin.
"I can always leave; I really do need to smoke." Sano sighed, held his nose, and downed the tea in one gulp, looking completely martyred. Saitou gave him his scary 'pleasant' smile, nodded, and opened the window, lighting his cigarette. He inhaled deeply, holding the acrid smoke in his lungs until the nicotine rush made him relax. He exhaled the bitter dregs of smoke out the window. "Now, where was I?"…
