Remember and Renew: Chapter 1
Tsubame had traveled this road many times in her young life. She always took the same route to and from work. The second left from the Kamiya dojo, then right onto the bridge overlooking the canal, then another left leading to the main road by the cemetary where Kenshin and Kaoru were laid to rest all those years ago, then on to work. She kept a habit to always keep her head down for her short trip, until she reached the cemetery, where she would briefly look over to the right to make sure that the grave stone for the Himuras was clean and well kept. If not, she would quietly slip inside, give proper respects, and clean the headstone of any collected leaves or dead flowers before continuing on. This always made her late for work, but Tae was an understand mistress, and never complained about her quietly slipping into the resturant five or ten minutes late on occasion. Though, she had not been working for the last few days, she had left the dojo early, expecting to make her cleaning effort at the gravesite, then on to work on time. Stopping by the side of the street, with the carriages and people flowing around her like the human river that downtown Tokyo produced in the morning, she noted with shocked recognition the slightly greying man with the red bandana sitting cross legged at the foot of the stone edifice....
*****
"Well, where does our story end and mine begin, guys? Was it after Shishio? Enishi? I really don't know, anymore. For two years(find out proper timeline...) we traveled as friends down a road, a blurry and unkept road of redemption, pain, love, friendship, and anger towards a future we thought would be better than the past we were leaving behind. We faced it, together, you, me, Yahiko, Meg..., all of us. We fought more battles in those times than I think I ever had my entire life before that summer we met. Sure, I had FIGHTS and brawls before, small and unimportant stuff that I forgot five minutes later, but... I guess I could consider you guys my family, and this my home. Back then, I was so wrapped up needing to prove my strength and my pain against everyone and everything. Blinding striking in the dark at the people who had hurt my own stubborn pride. Though, looking back, those were always about me, my father, my aborted childhood, everything was always reacting, my own need to control my destiny before everything else, and anyone who gets in my way be damned. You both changed that for me. Kenshin, you cracked the hell out of my head that first battle we had. I'd never met anyone who respected my own dreams, and my own pain, more than you, while at the same time not giving his own dreams up in the face of that anger, or my stupid pride. Jou-chan, you too, with your quiet, shy smiles, your constant love of everyone, and your vibrance, you kept us all together, I think. Kenshin may have been the forge for our motley crew, but you, more than anything else, were the smith that helped keep us together when we were fighting for the people who COULDN'T fight back. Even when Enishi had... killed.... you, and destroyed Kenshin, your work, your craft, kept us all together, everyone except me, that is. I was so angry, then. I had found a family, only to have it taken away, with me completely unable to do anything about it. So. I ran. For that, I applogize. I was a stubborn, stupid bastard then, just as much as I am now... In the end, it worked out, I know, but... it still... well.. you know. I think that, more than anything else, is why I left. I needed to find my answers for myself, and to make my own answers to the questions that I could never reveal, even to myself.
*****
Tsubame slipped quietly along the narrow lane of the cemetery, moving with the simple quiet skill she had mastered so young to avoid the rough bastards she had to call master for so long. She approached behind him, never keeping her eyes on him for more than a second, her soft soles making barely a whisper. Quite without warning, Sano seemed to heave a sigh, bow his head for a moment, and shake off some evening chill, though it was barely the crack of the morning. Then, he settled back down and then began his story, quiet, sad, and completely without the Sano bravado that she had known all those years ago. She settled nearby to listen She didn't normally eavesdrop, but damnit, she WANTED to know what Sano would say. She settled down behind one of the nearby stones, her skirt ruffling quietly in the still early morning air. She didn't have to wait long, as Sano began his tale.
*****
"When I left that day, looking back from that small little dingy boat, it's wooden hull rotted nearly all the way through, its filth, I thought 'Yes, this is for the best. They HAVE their dreams, their lives, and their loves sorted out. They will be fine.' I saw all of you standing there, bright colorful. The yellows in Jo-chan's kimono offset by the fiery blaze of her cheeks, the sleek black curve of Kenshins saya at sash, his scar standing out to the testament of his own answer, and it was all slipping into the past for me, even then. Even after five minutes, I saw not my past with you guys, but a future, freedom, moving across my eyes like the fires of the sun on the waters. I almost wish I would have stayed."
"The boat was unremarkable, a trading ship by the name of the Flowering Sakura. One of my old friends, Shin, had put me in contact with the captain, convincing him that there was no better worker this side of Hokkaido. Thinking Shin right, and me stupid, the captain, a Sato Shuchi, had put me to work nearly the second that I was on board. It was terrible work. Slopping decks, cleaning the hold, lugging one hundred pound kegs of water around to the other ship mates to give them THEIR water, without getting any myself until I was slogging off the bottom of the barrels, its dingy water tasting of brine and scum. My bed was a straw matress and rough old timber pillow that had been used last sometime before the Bakametsu for the horses, I think. Anyway, we were three days out to sea, traveling east towards China with a full load of silk and iron for trade, when I found the stow away rifling through my rucksack. Thinking one of the ships mates had taken to thieving the new crewmembers for everything they owned, I snuck up in the dim light's of the cabin to show the nasty little shit what pain WAS. Then I noticed it was a kid. A SMALL kid. She couldn't have been more than 10 or 11 at the time, wafer thin, brown still pools for eyes glancing everywhere for any sign of trouble, a dirty thin yakuta her only garment, without any tabi or geta on her feet. She had gotten into my precious rations of dried beef and was trying to shove five chunks into her mouth while at the same time trying to find convient locations to put most of my other pesonal goods for a getaway. Quickly moving up on the little vermin, I kept myself carefully out of sight until her back was turned away, then stepped into the light filtering down from thet checkerboard grill above.
"OI! WHAT IN KAMI'S NAME DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!" I belted out at her. Spinning around like quicksilver, she was nearly past me and across the deck before I had time to stop her. Grabbing her around the waist before she could throw herself into one of the shadows cast by the huge shapes of the cargo, I put my hand over her mouth, and wrapped my other around her waist while trying to keep her quiet enough that she didn't draw any more attention than she had already.
I was surprised when she somehow got one of my fingers in her mouth and bit down as hard as she could. Yelling out a curse for every kami that ever put teeth in people's mouths, I pulled the injured and bleeding digit of my right hand free of the little mongrel's mouth before she got another pound of flesh. I continued to curse under my breath while my little friend fought and flailed around. She seemed quite unhappy that I had not completely let go of her when she bit down, so she proceeded to start flailing and kicking at my knees and thighs blindly in an attempt to finish the painful job her sharp little teeth had started. As one of her legs came back to try to knock whatever children I might eventually have somewhere into the upper atmostphere, I quickly pushed her forward, and, added by the angular momentum of her leg, watched with great pleasure as she did a complete aerial flip into what accounted for my bedding. Crashing down with an audible THUMP on the top of one of my best sake glasses, the snarlish little thing cursed in a very strange tounge before warily stepping up and wincing in pain while still keeping an eye on me.
"Who you are?" She said in badly broken japanese.
"Hurt," I replied sharply.
"Good," she cried before running forward with a shard of sake cup, intending, no doubt, to try to put it through some vital part of me.
Whipping quickly to the side, I grabbed her off wrist in one hand before pivoting it behind her back, and drawing it up to just below her shoulder blades. Dropping the white and red shard in pain, she quickly dropped to her knees, me sitting behind her back, one hand dropped by her side in defeat, the other still help firmly between her shoulder blades by my light grip.
"Now," I drew my breath out quickly, then exhaled, "Why you rutting through my sack?"
"None of yours, roosterhead!" Was the quick reply after some judicious arm pressure.
"Well, it IS my damn business if its my sack, right???" I idly noted the fact that everyone thinks I look like a chicken before easing the pressure off her arm slighly. It was grinding alarmingly, and I didn't wanna SNAP her little arm off.
"Didn't have your name on it, now did it?"
"Don't matter. Come on, we are going to see what our captain will do with you." I quickly grabbed her around her waist before yanking her up into and under arm carry and moving toward the open hatch.
"No, nononononononononoNOOOOO" was the continued cry as I brought her out into the late afternoon sunlight.
To Be Continued
Authors Notes:
I've already had emails about this, so I am going to just come right out and say it plain. Sano and Megumi will not marry in this fiction. Period. *backs away from rake and shovel wielding fangirls* Seriously, though I kinda enjoy the banter as a couple, and the chance they might get laid from each other sometime, I just don't think they make that good of a couple. Sano is, was, and will always be, a wanderer. Megumi couldn't live with a man like that, imho. Anyway. that was the only direct question that I had regarding the fiction at this time, so, without further wait, I finish off this authors notes.
Jeremy Bennett
Tsubame had traveled this road many times in her young life. She always took the same route to and from work. The second left from the Kamiya dojo, then right onto the bridge overlooking the canal, then another left leading to the main road by the cemetary where Kenshin and Kaoru were laid to rest all those years ago, then on to work. She kept a habit to always keep her head down for her short trip, until she reached the cemetery, where she would briefly look over to the right to make sure that the grave stone for the Himuras was clean and well kept. If not, she would quietly slip inside, give proper respects, and clean the headstone of any collected leaves or dead flowers before continuing on. This always made her late for work, but Tae was an understand mistress, and never complained about her quietly slipping into the resturant five or ten minutes late on occasion. Though, she had not been working for the last few days, she had left the dojo early, expecting to make her cleaning effort at the gravesite, then on to work on time. Stopping by the side of the street, with the carriages and people flowing around her like the human river that downtown Tokyo produced in the morning, she noted with shocked recognition the slightly greying man with the red bandana sitting cross legged at the foot of the stone edifice....
*****
"Well, where does our story end and mine begin, guys? Was it after Shishio? Enishi? I really don't know, anymore. For two years(find out proper timeline...) we traveled as friends down a road, a blurry and unkept road of redemption, pain, love, friendship, and anger towards a future we thought would be better than the past we were leaving behind. We faced it, together, you, me, Yahiko, Meg..., all of us. We fought more battles in those times than I think I ever had my entire life before that summer we met. Sure, I had FIGHTS and brawls before, small and unimportant stuff that I forgot five minutes later, but... I guess I could consider you guys my family, and this my home. Back then, I was so wrapped up needing to prove my strength and my pain against everyone and everything. Blinding striking in the dark at the people who had hurt my own stubborn pride. Though, looking back, those were always about me, my father, my aborted childhood, everything was always reacting, my own need to control my destiny before everything else, and anyone who gets in my way be damned. You both changed that for me. Kenshin, you cracked the hell out of my head that first battle we had. I'd never met anyone who respected my own dreams, and my own pain, more than you, while at the same time not giving his own dreams up in the face of that anger, or my stupid pride. Jou-chan, you too, with your quiet, shy smiles, your constant love of everyone, and your vibrance, you kept us all together, I think. Kenshin may have been the forge for our motley crew, but you, more than anything else, were the smith that helped keep us together when we were fighting for the people who COULDN'T fight back. Even when Enishi had... killed.... you, and destroyed Kenshin, your work, your craft, kept us all together, everyone except me, that is. I was so angry, then. I had found a family, only to have it taken away, with me completely unable to do anything about it. So. I ran. For that, I applogize. I was a stubborn, stupid bastard then, just as much as I am now... In the end, it worked out, I know, but... it still... well.. you know. I think that, more than anything else, is why I left. I needed to find my answers for myself, and to make my own answers to the questions that I could never reveal, even to myself.
*****
Tsubame slipped quietly along the narrow lane of the cemetery, moving with the simple quiet skill she had mastered so young to avoid the rough bastards she had to call master for so long. She approached behind him, never keeping her eyes on him for more than a second, her soft soles making barely a whisper. Quite without warning, Sano seemed to heave a sigh, bow his head for a moment, and shake off some evening chill, though it was barely the crack of the morning. Then, he settled back down and then began his story, quiet, sad, and completely without the Sano bravado that she had known all those years ago. She settled nearby to listen She didn't normally eavesdrop, but damnit, she WANTED to know what Sano would say. She settled down behind one of the nearby stones, her skirt ruffling quietly in the still early morning air. She didn't have to wait long, as Sano began his tale.
*****
"When I left that day, looking back from that small little dingy boat, it's wooden hull rotted nearly all the way through, its filth, I thought 'Yes, this is for the best. They HAVE their dreams, their lives, and their loves sorted out. They will be fine.' I saw all of you standing there, bright colorful. The yellows in Jo-chan's kimono offset by the fiery blaze of her cheeks, the sleek black curve of Kenshins saya at sash, his scar standing out to the testament of his own answer, and it was all slipping into the past for me, even then. Even after five minutes, I saw not my past with you guys, but a future, freedom, moving across my eyes like the fires of the sun on the waters. I almost wish I would have stayed."
"The boat was unremarkable, a trading ship by the name of the Flowering Sakura. One of my old friends, Shin, had put me in contact with the captain, convincing him that there was no better worker this side of Hokkaido. Thinking Shin right, and me stupid, the captain, a Sato Shuchi, had put me to work nearly the second that I was on board. It was terrible work. Slopping decks, cleaning the hold, lugging one hundred pound kegs of water around to the other ship mates to give them THEIR water, without getting any myself until I was slogging off the bottom of the barrels, its dingy water tasting of brine and scum. My bed was a straw matress and rough old timber pillow that had been used last sometime before the Bakametsu for the horses, I think. Anyway, we were three days out to sea, traveling east towards China with a full load of silk and iron for trade, when I found the stow away rifling through my rucksack. Thinking one of the ships mates had taken to thieving the new crewmembers for everything they owned, I snuck up in the dim light's of the cabin to show the nasty little shit what pain WAS. Then I noticed it was a kid. A SMALL kid. She couldn't have been more than 10 or 11 at the time, wafer thin, brown still pools for eyes glancing everywhere for any sign of trouble, a dirty thin yakuta her only garment, without any tabi or geta on her feet. She had gotten into my precious rations of dried beef and was trying to shove five chunks into her mouth while at the same time trying to find convient locations to put most of my other pesonal goods for a getaway. Quickly moving up on the little vermin, I kept myself carefully out of sight until her back was turned away, then stepped into the light filtering down from thet checkerboard grill above.
"OI! WHAT IN KAMI'S NAME DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!" I belted out at her. Spinning around like quicksilver, she was nearly past me and across the deck before I had time to stop her. Grabbing her around the waist before she could throw herself into one of the shadows cast by the huge shapes of the cargo, I put my hand over her mouth, and wrapped my other around her waist while trying to keep her quiet enough that she didn't draw any more attention than she had already.
I was surprised when she somehow got one of my fingers in her mouth and bit down as hard as she could. Yelling out a curse for every kami that ever put teeth in people's mouths, I pulled the injured and bleeding digit of my right hand free of the little mongrel's mouth before she got another pound of flesh. I continued to curse under my breath while my little friend fought and flailed around. She seemed quite unhappy that I had not completely let go of her when she bit down, so she proceeded to start flailing and kicking at my knees and thighs blindly in an attempt to finish the painful job her sharp little teeth had started. As one of her legs came back to try to knock whatever children I might eventually have somewhere into the upper atmostphere, I quickly pushed her forward, and, added by the angular momentum of her leg, watched with great pleasure as she did a complete aerial flip into what accounted for my bedding. Crashing down with an audible THUMP on the top of one of my best sake glasses, the snarlish little thing cursed in a very strange tounge before warily stepping up and wincing in pain while still keeping an eye on me.
"Who you are?" She said in badly broken japanese.
"Hurt," I replied sharply.
"Good," she cried before running forward with a shard of sake cup, intending, no doubt, to try to put it through some vital part of me.
Whipping quickly to the side, I grabbed her off wrist in one hand before pivoting it behind her back, and drawing it up to just below her shoulder blades. Dropping the white and red shard in pain, she quickly dropped to her knees, me sitting behind her back, one hand dropped by her side in defeat, the other still help firmly between her shoulder blades by my light grip.
"Now," I drew my breath out quickly, then exhaled, "Why you rutting through my sack?"
"None of yours, roosterhead!" Was the quick reply after some judicious arm pressure.
"Well, it IS my damn business if its my sack, right???" I idly noted the fact that everyone thinks I look like a chicken before easing the pressure off her arm slighly. It was grinding alarmingly, and I didn't wanna SNAP her little arm off.
"Didn't have your name on it, now did it?"
"Don't matter. Come on, we are going to see what our captain will do with you." I quickly grabbed her around her waist before yanking her up into and under arm carry and moving toward the open hatch.
"No, nononononononononoNOOOOO" was the continued cry as I brought her out into the late afternoon sunlight.
To Be Continued
Authors Notes:
I've already had emails about this, so I am going to just come right out and say it plain. Sano and Megumi will not marry in this fiction. Period. *backs away from rake and shovel wielding fangirls* Seriously, though I kinda enjoy the banter as a couple, and the chance they might get laid from each other sometime, I just don't think they make that good of a couple. Sano is, was, and will always be, a wanderer. Megumi couldn't live with a man like that, imho. Anyway. that was the only direct question that I had regarding the fiction at this time, so, without further wait, I finish off this authors notes.
Jeremy Bennett