Tragedy Prologue

Standard disclaimers apply

Kenshin forced himself to smile as he walked into the dojo. Sano looked up at him from his conversation with Megumi and thanked him for the advice with his eyes, the thanks that he thought would never get spoken aloud.

Kenshin truly smiled and walked outside to meet an old friend.

The crisp night air was refreshingly chill, and he folded his arms in the Kimono he borrowed from Kauru. It was warmer than his own tattered one.

"Himura, you look more like a girl every time I see you." Came a voice from the side gate.

"Kioja?" Kenshin asked, "Is that you?"

"Who else Baka?" The gate opened, "Can I come in?" she asked.

"Hai."

A tall blue haired woman with black eyes walked into the moonlight and stood beside the other figure against the wall.

"It's been awhile."

"Hai"

"You remember why I'm here?"

"Hai." He looked at the snow covered Lotus tree in the yard. "You have come to pay your debt. You know I don't think that you owe me, that you do."

"Hey, I said I owed you, didn't I? I pay back all my debts." She grinned. "Even if the person I owe doesn't want me to pay them back. That I do." She flopped down onto the floor beside the Ruroni. "You adapted my methods of speech, That you did. I am honored. That I am."

Twenty Two Years Earlier...

"Are you sure that you are not a girl?" Kioja asked him.

Kenshin fell over. "I am not!" He was walking with his love through Kyoto during a stand-still in the war.

"So you're not sure" She prodded.

"I am a boy!" He shouted in mock fury.

They were 16, assassins, and both ruthless in their methods. And, if only for today, children.

Kenshin sensed a presence on a rooftop nearby. He looked up and caught the glimpse of steel as a dagger whizzed through the air, right at Kioja. He used his momentum to push Kioja aside and take the dagger himself in the left shoulder up to the hilt.

Then, unsheathing his Katana, he followed through with his momentum and cut off the man's head, as it went sliding down the roof, he jumped himself and never found the ground.

The next thing he remembered was being carried. Then he woke up in the apartment that he and Kioja shared.

Kioja was leaning over him, When he opened his eyes, she screamed at him, "BAKA! YOU SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME!" she shook his shoulders like a rag doll.

He tried to get up, and she pushed him down. He tried again, and she sat on his chest. "You are not getting up till your fever is gone. That dagger was poisoned, and you still have a high fever. That you do."

"Aa." He sighed.

"I bet you're hungry." She got up when she was satisfied and walked into the kitchen.

In a few weeks, he was walking around, and practicing with his Katana.

When they departed for separate sides of Japan, she whispered in his ear. "I will repay you for your kindness. Himura, if it takes me twenty three years, I will."



He looked at her solemnly and smiled.

"You're almost late." She grinned in reply.

"How has your life been, Himura?"

Sanouske listened to the conversation outside as Megumi was helping Yahiko and Kauru in the kitchen. He smiled, 'Finally, a person from Kenshin's past that doesn't want to kill us all.'

Notes...

Hai = yes

Baka = Stupid

Aa = yes

Other notes...

I got bored, and I thought Ken-ny really needed a break for once, at least in the prologue. It'll get better, I promise. It's not called Tragedy for nothin'.