Hi, everyone, and happy new year. Sorry for the delay. My mind refuses to
work for this story. Hopefully you like this chappie. Thanks to everybody
who's still reading this little piece, despite the change in the RK
demographics and all.
To the best of my knowledge, the shinai is the usual kendo sword, the one you see with Yahiko in the series. The bokutou is the more swordlike wooden sword, the one Kaoru uses in actual battle. I apologize for my descriptions. I love RK, but I was never any good at knowing the techniques. ^_^ Argh, this chap took so long to write, arrrrgh..
................
Yukishiro Enishi was annoyed.
He was in the middle of a mental block, worse than all the others he had before. This was the worst kind, when absolutely nothing came to mind. All the rest could be considered mental lapses compared to it. Before, it was just a matter of remembering fully what used to be there. In this situation, he had to work with what was supposed to be in his brain through past experience, and add something new. No plans were forming in his head. Such a situation was dreadfully irritating to a man who planned strategies for some sort of a living, illegal but profitable.
In fairness to the businessman, kidnap for ransom or for exchange was not the bread-and-butter of his section of the organization. He used to be into trade negotiations and business deals, very large ones. Unfortunately, kidnapping was one of the means he was familiar with to place pressure where needed. He knew how to use kidnapping to good advantage. And worse, he knew that Wu was a master of the trade. After all, did he not partly orchestrate Kamiya's kidnap a few years back?
And that, was dreadfully annoying.
He released his frustration on sword drills that morning, after a restless night of fruitless thinking. He still had trouble with his ankle, but by that morning he could walk with it quite normally. The drills proceeded to his satisfaction, but slower than usual. Armed with a bokuto, the kendo sword more similar to a real one, he swung and followed patterns - angrily, gracelessly.
All around him, there seemed to be targets to hit with his wooden sword. First, Wu, with a hand wrapped over his little friend's head. But he was replaced and alternated by another, long-standing target of his wrath. A man with red hair and threatening eyes. When this target appeared before him again, he lost no time. He charged and thrust with a loud scream.
But the thrust was blocked. His target looked him straight in the eyes.
"Why do you hate me so?" he was calmly asked, as his sword was brought low.
"Don't bother me, Battousai!" he gripped the sword tightly and snarled.
"Kenshin, Himura Kenshin, please," the former assassin reminded.
"Shut up." He snatched back the wooden sword. "It's bad enough that I have to live with you. It's worse that I happen to like your offspring. Now I have to actually help you. You! Of all people, why does it have to be you?! Sacre' bleu!"
He stomped to the far end of the dojo's practice area. He closed his eyes, held the sword before him, and tried to focus on the next sequence of drills. But Battousai's face appeared before him again. "Damn!" He charged again, toward the real one. "Get out of my life!!"
As soon as he saw him running, Kenshin rushed to a wall and grabbed a shinai for himself. He was just in time to stop the bokutou from hitting his chest.
"Let go of the past, Enishi," he said, keeping a firm block with the shinai. "Move on."
"Why are you asking me to forget it all again, Battousai?" Enishi asked, without removing the wooden sword. "For over 15 years, you were the thoughts of my waking hours, the contents of my nightmares. You cannot just ask me to erase, again, more than 15 years of my life!"
Enishi broke away from the deadlock, took the sword overhead into both hands and swung down. He hit wooden flooring.
Enishi's target had moved to one side and had his shinai over the bokutou. "Too slow, even for you," his opponent quietly noted. "Stop this already, Enishi. You have already forgiven me, have you not?"
"I never forgave you, even then. I only lost to you." He pulled the bokutou from off the floor. "True, my sister's journal made me understand her feelings for you. True, Seta told me it was an accident." He suddenly tackled Kenshin to the floor, and held the wooden sword lengthwise over his throat. "But you took my sister away from me. I never forgave you for that."
Kenshin's face was resolute. He showed neither defeat nor retaliation. As Enishi breathed heavily over his face, he kept silence. It drove the snowhaired man to more wrath. He dug the wooden sword deeper into Kenshin's neck. "Does the weight of your remorse keep you from answering? Well? Let go of the past, you say. Move on, you say. Have YOU done that, o philosophical one?"
The lock on Kenshin's neck was held, until both heard the cocking of a pistol.
"Now who do I shoot? Which fool do I help out of his misery?"
It was Saitou. He had a pistol aimed at both men, just a foot away. Enishi looked at him with cold eyes. Kenshin gave him a momentary sideglance, and resumed an earnest gaze at his opponent.
The officer tsked. "Both of you are pathetic." He withdrew the pistol, and walked back to the door. "I'll let you two little boys fight it out first. Maybe afterward you would be mature enough to hear new information."
At this, Kenshin turned and looked intently at Saitou. "Please, Saitou, any news of Kenji?" He managed to ask as he choked.
Saitou took out a cigarette and lighted it. "Oh, no. Not until you little boys settle your squabble."
"Why you -----------" Enishi took the bokutou off Kenshin's neck and turned to face the officer.
But from the floor Kenshin swung the shinai at Enishi's knees and made him trip. Enishi hissed and swung the bokutou toward Kenshin's neck. He missed him entirely; Kenshin had rolled away and assumed a runner's starting position. He made a slight leap, took the shinai into both hands and forcibly hit Enishi's right shoulder. It made him release the bokutou and kneel from the shock.
"Now, please, Saitou, tell us what you know," Kenshin implored.
"It's not over yet," Saitou replied, and pointed behind Kenshin.
Enishi charged with both hands on the sword, readying an upward swing. Kenshin easily countered with one downward stroke.
Enishi withdrew and panted. "How DARE you think so lightly of me!"
"You are not even fighting at a quarter of the level of skill you showed me then," Kenshin looked him squarely in the eyes. "Your ankle is still a bit swollen, and a lot is on your mind. You are in no condition to fight me. Do not do this. What will Kenji -----"
"Don't bring Kenji into this! This is between you and me, and nobody else!"
"What we do affects others, whether we like it or not, Enishi!"
"What you did to Yukishiro Tomoe affected me as well, Hitokiri Battousai, sink that into your head!"
"But the past is the past, and there is nothing you nor I can do to change it!"
Red dragon and white tiger continued exchanging blows and words, while Saitou looked on and puffed.
Eventually Kaoru came running to the dojo, surprised to see the police officer in her house at such an early hour, and annoyed at hearing loud noises in the dojo before students were expected. "What is all the ruckus about?" She asked Saitou, before taking a look inside. Upon seeing her husband and his brother-in-law, her face turned red. "What.....why....SAITOU-SAN! Why aren't you stopping them?!"
"Waste of time, raccoon," he said.
"But....but...." she then remembered, "What news of Kenji?"
Saitou sighed. "Seeing as you are the most level-headed person right now," he took a puff, "The weasel went on a reconnaissance mission last night until this morning, and she has told one of our informants the location of the Shanghai dealer's current hideout. Another informant, who stayed after she left, said he noticed a little redhaired boy in the premises."
"Is he....is he....."
"In something like a cage, but fine."
Tears began to well up in Kaoru's eyes. "Saitou-san....I could just hug you!" And she would have, if his piercing eyes did not tell her to cease and desist. "Let's go and get my son!"
Saitou merely nodded toward the ongoing swordfight in response.
Both were still at it, and both had not noticed Kaoru's arrival. Both of them used their wooden swords to full advantage, and delivered hard blows. Kenshin now had bruises on his arms. Enishi's bad ankle had swollen again, from all the quick turns he forced himself to make.
"Stop living in the past, Enishi!" Kenshin struck.
"YOU have to stop reminding me of it!" Enishi parried.
They separated from each other.
"We already started, Enishi," Kenshin panted. "Why cannot we work together? Let us put our differences aside, and work together."
"I have tried working with you, Himura. But the look in your eyes stop me from trusting you completely."
Kenshin assumed his clueless gaze.
Enishi did not lower his bokutou. "No matter how you try, you keep giving me those eyes that judge me. I forced you to remember my sister when you almost forgot her. I made your life miserable with the remembrance. I ruined your life with that new woman. YOU would not let go of your past with me. So why should I let go of my past with you and my sister?"
"You do not understand. Every time I see you, I recall not what you did to me, but what I did to your sister. The eyes of judgment you see are for myself."
Enishi assumed a thrusting position. "If you had not met my sister in the first place, we would not be in this situation!" He charged.
"STOP IT!" a female voice screamed in front of him.
Kaoru got in between the combatants with arms outspread. "STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT!"
In surprise, Enishi fell backward and dropped the wooden sword. "Nee-san!"
"Tomoe!" the color in Kenshin's face disappeared.
"I've had enough of you two!" Kaoru screamed again.
She raised a menacing finger to both men. "I have heard more than enough self-pity out of you both! You are useless! Why are you letting a dead woman run your lives?! TOMOE IS DEAD! DEAD! The dead cannot dictate on the living! Mistakes have been made, fine! Stop moping about them, both of you!"
The two could only look at Kaoru, dumbfounded and ashamed.
"Saitou was right. You are no better than two boys fighting over spilt milk." She grabbed for the bokutou and the shinai, and turned her backs to them. "You will excuse me. I have a son to get back. I will find a way to do it myself. It seems like two boys I know can't stop fighting over something they lost years ago." She returned the wooden swords to their places on the walls, and walked back to Saitou. She raised her head to him, and spoke with angered resolve. "Saitou-san, please, give me the location. I'll go there personally."
"But....but....Kaoru-dono...." Kenshin called after her.
"Kaoru-dono! Kaoru-dono! Do I have to be dead as well before I really become plain Kaoru to you, anata? Oooooh, MEN!" She stomped out of the dojo, and marched toward the kitchen. There, away from irritating husband and annoying houseguest, she wept.
In the dojo, Saitou remained smoking by the door, and ignored the combatants, both with lowered head and ashen faces. They remained so as the officer finished a cigarette.
"She is right, Kaoru-dono is," Kenshin eventually whispered.
"Hm," Enishi answered, seated on the floor, arms over one knee, his right leg extended for the sake of the swollen ankle. "Maybe I shouldn't have bothered remembering all of this. You should have left me in the dark. Start from scratch. All that. Well?"
"My conscience would not allow it," Kenshin murmured.
"The law won't allow it," Saitou added. "Your records, and all of the riffraff you met in your misspent life, will come back to haunt you."
"Hm," Enishi replied, and buried his head.
Saitou took another puff. "I forgot to tell the raccoon. There are reports from the weasel that Shinomori and Seta are coming over here. Evidently the weasel has told her friends in Kyoto, and they want to help."
"The weasel has been hard at work?" Enishi raised his head and looked at the officer.
"The girl annoys me, but she is not selfish, unlike a redhead and a snowman I know," Saitou answered.
Both clenched fists, then lowered them. As usual, Saitou Hajime was right.
"Go after the woman, Himura. Right now," he ordered. Kenshin nodded and complied, dragging his sandals. Saitou then tossed a small piece of paper to the businessman. "As for you, you might make something out of this."
It was a crumpled telegram. "No access code, no exchange. Stop." It was dated two days prior to Kenji's kidnapping.
Enishi nodded. "I remember. My second to the last mission in Shanghai before going home. Our contact to America made me memorize a set of numbers. The numbers will be their way to confirm that they are dealing with me directly."
"What are those numbers?"
"I.....I......don't recall. Four digits, non-consecutive, on that I am sure. Kamiya said something about Wu's location?"
"Here." Saitou displayed a folded paper between two fingers. "Your weasel gave it to us. She had been busy last night."
Enishi took the paper from him and examined it. He shook his head and clucked. The map was good, the diagram of the warehouse even better. Misao was incredible when she wanted to be.
"It's enough information," he nodded. "It makes the fool open for any kind of well-laid attack. He just doesn't know it........."
He stopped.
"That's it," he muttered, looking straight ahead of him.
"That's it, what?"
"He thinks I'll mount a well-laid attack, but what if I don't? I think.....I know how to get the little brat....I...I mean...I know how to get Kenji back now," he answered, still absentmindedly.
The officer looked at him oddly.
"Alright.....how?"
He smirked. "Leave that to me."
.........
Sorry, not much action yet. It's taking me such a long time now to think up a scene, unlike before. It used to come so quickly. Now, I have to make a conscious effort to imagine things. This one took me several days going on and off. Still, thanks for reading. I hope you come back for more!
To the best of my knowledge, the shinai is the usual kendo sword, the one you see with Yahiko in the series. The bokutou is the more swordlike wooden sword, the one Kaoru uses in actual battle. I apologize for my descriptions. I love RK, but I was never any good at knowing the techniques. ^_^ Argh, this chap took so long to write, arrrrgh..
................
Yukishiro Enishi was annoyed.
He was in the middle of a mental block, worse than all the others he had before. This was the worst kind, when absolutely nothing came to mind. All the rest could be considered mental lapses compared to it. Before, it was just a matter of remembering fully what used to be there. In this situation, he had to work with what was supposed to be in his brain through past experience, and add something new. No plans were forming in his head. Such a situation was dreadfully irritating to a man who planned strategies for some sort of a living, illegal but profitable.
In fairness to the businessman, kidnap for ransom or for exchange was not the bread-and-butter of his section of the organization. He used to be into trade negotiations and business deals, very large ones. Unfortunately, kidnapping was one of the means he was familiar with to place pressure where needed. He knew how to use kidnapping to good advantage. And worse, he knew that Wu was a master of the trade. After all, did he not partly orchestrate Kamiya's kidnap a few years back?
And that, was dreadfully annoying.
He released his frustration on sword drills that morning, after a restless night of fruitless thinking. He still had trouble with his ankle, but by that morning he could walk with it quite normally. The drills proceeded to his satisfaction, but slower than usual. Armed with a bokuto, the kendo sword more similar to a real one, he swung and followed patterns - angrily, gracelessly.
All around him, there seemed to be targets to hit with his wooden sword. First, Wu, with a hand wrapped over his little friend's head. But he was replaced and alternated by another, long-standing target of his wrath. A man with red hair and threatening eyes. When this target appeared before him again, he lost no time. He charged and thrust with a loud scream.
But the thrust was blocked. His target looked him straight in the eyes.
"Why do you hate me so?" he was calmly asked, as his sword was brought low.
"Don't bother me, Battousai!" he gripped the sword tightly and snarled.
"Kenshin, Himura Kenshin, please," the former assassin reminded.
"Shut up." He snatched back the wooden sword. "It's bad enough that I have to live with you. It's worse that I happen to like your offspring. Now I have to actually help you. You! Of all people, why does it have to be you?! Sacre' bleu!"
He stomped to the far end of the dojo's practice area. He closed his eyes, held the sword before him, and tried to focus on the next sequence of drills. But Battousai's face appeared before him again. "Damn!" He charged again, toward the real one. "Get out of my life!!"
As soon as he saw him running, Kenshin rushed to a wall and grabbed a shinai for himself. He was just in time to stop the bokutou from hitting his chest.
"Let go of the past, Enishi," he said, keeping a firm block with the shinai. "Move on."
"Why are you asking me to forget it all again, Battousai?" Enishi asked, without removing the wooden sword. "For over 15 years, you were the thoughts of my waking hours, the contents of my nightmares. You cannot just ask me to erase, again, more than 15 years of my life!"
Enishi broke away from the deadlock, took the sword overhead into both hands and swung down. He hit wooden flooring.
Enishi's target had moved to one side and had his shinai over the bokutou. "Too slow, even for you," his opponent quietly noted. "Stop this already, Enishi. You have already forgiven me, have you not?"
"I never forgave you, even then. I only lost to you." He pulled the bokutou from off the floor. "True, my sister's journal made me understand her feelings for you. True, Seta told me it was an accident." He suddenly tackled Kenshin to the floor, and held the wooden sword lengthwise over his throat. "But you took my sister away from me. I never forgave you for that."
Kenshin's face was resolute. He showed neither defeat nor retaliation. As Enishi breathed heavily over his face, he kept silence. It drove the snowhaired man to more wrath. He dug the wooden sword deeper into Kenshin's neck. "Does the weight of your remorse keep you from answering? Well? Let go of the past, you say. Move on, you say. Have YOU done that, o philosophical one?"
The lock on Kenshin's neck was held, until both heard the cocking of a pistol.
"Now who do I shoot? Which fool do I help out of his misery?"
It was Saitou. He had a pistol aimed at both men, just a foot away. Enishi looked at him with cold eyes. Kenshin gave him a momentary sideglance, and resumed an earnest gaze at his opponent.
The officer tsked. "Both of you are pathetic." He withdrew the pistol, and walked back to the door. "I'll let you two little boys fight it out first. Maybe afterward you would be mature enough to hear new information."
At this, Kenshin turned and looked intently at Saitou. "Please, Saitou, any news of Kenji?" He managed to ask as he choked.
Saitou took out a cigarette and lighted it. "Oh, no. Not until you little boys settle your squabble."
"Why you -----------" Enishi took the bokutou off Kenshin's neck and turned to face the officer.
But from the floor Kenshin swung the shinai at Enishi's knees and made him trip. Enishi hissed and swung the bokutou toward Kenshin's neck. He missed him entirely; Kenshin had rolled away and assumed a runner's starting position. He made a slight leap, took the shinai into both hands and forcibly hit Enishi's right shoulder. It made him release the bokutou and kneel from the shock.
"Now, please, Saitou, tell us what you know," Kenshin implored.
"It's not over yet," Saitou replied, and pointed behind Kenshin.
Enishi charged with both hands on the sword, readying an upward swing. Kenshin easily countered with one downward stroke.
Enishi withdrew and panted. "How DARE you think so lightly of me!"
"You are not even fighting at a quarter of the level of skill you showed me then," Kenshin looked him squarely in the eyes. "Your ankle is still a bit swollen, and a lot is on your mind. You are in no condition to fight me. Do not do this. What will Kenji -----"
"Don't bring Kenji into this! This is between you and me, and nobody else!"
"What we do affects others, whether we like it or not, Enishi!"
"What you did to Yukishiro Tomoe affected me as well, Hitokiri Battousai, sink that into your head!"
"But the past is the past, and there is nothing you nor I can do to change it!"
Red dragon and white tiger continued exchanging blows and words, while Saitou looked on and puffed.
Eventually Kaoru came running to the dojo, surprised to see the police officer in her house at such an early hour, and annoyed at hearing loud noises in the dojo before students were expected. "What is all the ruckus about?" She asked Saitou, before taking a look inside. Upon seeing her husband and his brother-in-law, her face turned red. "What.....why....SAITOU-SAN! Why aren't you stopping them?!"
"Waste of time, raccoon," he said.
"But....but...." she then remembered, "What news of Kenji?"
Saitou sighed. "Seeing as you are the most level-headed person right now," he took a puff, "The weasel went on a reconnaissance mission last night until this morning, and she has told one of our informants the location of the Shanghai dealer's current hideout. Another informant, who stayed after she left, said he noticed a little redhaired boy in the premises."
"Is he....is he....."
"In something like a cage, but fine."
Tears began to well up in Kaoru's eyes. "Saitou-san....I could just hug you!" And she would have, if his piercing eyes did not tell her to cease and desist. "Let's go and get my son!"
Saitou merely nodded toward the ongoing swordfight in response.
Both were still at it, and both had not noticed Kaoru's arrival. Both of them used their wooden swords to full advantage, and delivered hard blows. Kenshin now had bruises on his arms. Enishi's bad ankle had swollen again, from all the quick turns he forced himself to make.
"Stop living in the past, Enishi!" Kenshin struck.
"YOU have to stop reminding me of it!" Enishi parried.
They separated from each other.
"We already started, Enishi," Kenshin panted. "Why cannot we work together? Let us put our differences aside, and work together."
"I have tried working with you, Himura. But the look in your eyes stop me from trusting you completely."
Kenshin assumed his clueless gaze.
Enishi did not lower his bokutou. "No matter how you try, you keep giving me those eyes that judge me. I forced you to remember my sister when you almost forgot her. I made your life miserable with the remembrance. I ruined your life with that new woman. YOU would not let go of your past with me. So why should I let go of my past with you and my sister?"
"You do not understand. Every time I see you, I recall not what you did to me, but what I did to your sister. The eyes of judgment you see are for myself."
Enishi assumed a thrusting position. "If you had not met my sister in the first place, we would not be in this situation!" He charged.
"STOP IT!" a female voice screamed in front of him.
Kaoru got in between the combatants with arms outspread. "STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT!"
In surprise, Enishi fell backward and dropped the wooden sword. "Nee-san!"
"Tomoe!" the color in Kenshin's face disappeared.
"I've had enough of you two!" Kaoru screamed again.
She raised a menacing finger to both men. "I have heard more than enough self-pity out of you both! You are useless! Why are you letting a dead woman run your lives?! TOMOE IS DEAD! DEAD! The dead cannot dictate on the living! Mistakes have been made, fine! Stop moping about them, both of you!"
The two could only look at Kaoru, dumbfounded and ashamed.
"Saitou was right. You are no better than two boys fighting over spilt milk." She grabbed for the bokutou and the shinai, and turned her backs to them. "You will excuse me. I have a son to get back. I will find a way to do it myself. It seems like two boys I know can't stop fighting over something they lost years ago." She returned the wooden swords to their places on the walls, and walked back to Saitou. She raised her head to him, and spoke with angered resolve. "Saitou-san, please, give me the location. I'll go there personally."
"But....but....Kaoru-dono...." Kenshin called after her.
"Kaoru-dono! Kaoru-dono! Do I have to be dead as well before I really become plain Kaoru to you, anata? Oooooh, MEN!" She stomped out of the dojo, and marched toward the kitchen. There, away from irritating husband and annoying houseguest, she wept.
In the dojo, Saitou remained smoking by the door, and ignored the combatants, both with lowered head and ashen faces. They remained so as the officer finished a cigarette.
"She is right, Kaoru-dono is," Kenshin eventually whispered.
"Hm," Enishi answered, seated on the floor, arms over one knee, his right leg extended for the sake of the swollen ankle. "Maybe I shouldn't have bothered remembering all of this. You should have left me in the dark. Start from scratch. All that. Well?"
"My conscience would not allow it," Kenshin murmured.
"The law won't allow it," Saitou added. "Your records, and all of the riffraff you met in your misspent life, will come back to haunt you."
"Hm," Enishi replied, and buried his head.
Saitou took another puff. "I forgot to tell the raccoon. There are reports from the weasel that Shinomori and Seta are coming over here. Evidently the weasel has told her friends in Kyoto, and they want to help."
"The weasel has been hard at work?" Enishi raised his head and looked at the officer.
"The girl annoys me, but she is not selfish, unlike a redhead and a snowman I know," Saitou answered.
Both clenched fists, then lowered them. As usual, Saitou Hajime was right.
"Go after the woman, Himura. Right now," he ordered. Kenshin nodded and complied, dragging his sandals. Saitou then tossed a small piece of paper to the businessman. "As for you, you might make something out of this."
It was a crumpled telegram. "No access code, no exchange. Stop." It was dated two days prior to Kenji's kidnapping.
Enishi nodded. "I remember. My second to the last mission in Shanghai before going home. Our contact to America made me memorize a set of numbers. The numbers will be their way to confirm that they are dealing with me directly."
"What are those numbers?"
"I.....I......don't recall. Four digits, non-consecutive, on that I am sure. Kamiya said something about Wu's location?"
"Here." Saitou displayed a folded paper between two fingers. "Your weasel gave it to us. She had been busy last night."
Enishi took the paper from him and examined it. He shook his head and clucked. The map was good, the diagram of the warehouse even better. Misao was incredible when she wanted to be.
"It's enough information," he nodded. "It makes the fool open for any kind of well-laid attack. He just doesn't know it........."
He stopped.
"That's it," he muttered, looking straight ahead of him.
"That's it, what?"
"He thinks I'll mount a well-laid attack, but what if I don't? I think.....I know how to get the little brat....I...I mean...I know how to get Kenji back now," he answered, still absentmindedly.
The officer looked at him oddly.
"Alright.....how?"
He smirked. "Leave that to me."
.........
Sorry, not much action yet. It's taking me such a long time now to think up a scene, unlike before. It used to come so quickly. Now, I have to make a conscious effort to imagine things. This one took me several days going on and off. Still, thanks for reading. I hope you come back for more!