Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin, the characters, or anything related to it. The anime is owned by Watsuki Nobuhiro.

Fanfic Title: Epic of a Rurouni

By: Et-chan, the Abnormal

Genre: Action/Adventure/Romance

Rating: PG-13 for violence and mild language

Summary:What can the rain conceal or maybe reveal?

Chapter 3: Rueful Rain

Branches scraped at Soujiro's face and clothes as he sprinted after the girl. He did not use his super agility to catch up with her, it was almost as if he enjoyed this coquette cat-and-mouse game.

"Why are you walking away from me? I saved you from those men and you aren't even grateful," complained Soujiro as he literally stomped after her. He was never really angry, frustrated could describe his feelings for the kunoichi.

She swiveled around to face him, her eyes blazing with anger. Soujiro stopped walking forward and stood quite still almost as if she had some kind of projectile that would hit him if he flinched.

"Why did you save me?" she asked; her voice was not pleasant at all.

"So you're saying that I shouldn't have stopped them from trying to rape you?" countered Soujiro. He smiled at her almost as if he were mocking her unintentionally.

"Shut up, ahou. I'm perfectly capable of handling lowly thugs like them," she said indignantly.

"Well, it didn't look like it," said Soujiro, the smile was still on his face. He obviously did not know that she was upset by his charming smile.

The girl said nothing else back to him and turned. She was beginning to saunter away from him but she felt Soujiro's friendly hand on her shoulder.

"Gomen, I was just trying to help you," he said warmly, "A man once told me that it was the strong's obligation to protect the weak. But another man said that the strong survive and the weak die."

"Are you saying that I'm weak?" whispered the girl slowly.

Soujiro laughed uneasily, his eyes were snapped shut from embarrassment. "Oh, no! I didn't really mean it that way!"

The girl sighed. "But who's words do you believe, Seta-san?"

He felt a bit alarmed at being called "Seta-san" but he answered her question after some thought. "Hmm…I'm not sure."

"How can you not be sure?" she asked in a puzzled voice.

"Well, I respected and admired both of the men who told me their truths. And I've become a rurouni to search for my own truth."

The girl said nothing after that. She softly shrugged Soujiro's hand off of her shoulder and began to trudge away from him, heading in the direction of a faint metallic glimmer in the distance.

Soujiro followed the kunoichi silently. They stopped when they reached the glorious silver sheet that was a lake. Soujiro felt that his shoulder was damp so he looked up to the dark blue sky. A light drizzle of rain was falling on the woods, sending out a call of narcissistic attention around his surroundings. The calmness of the lake was disturbed by the rain that rushed into its silver waters. A sigh and the faint splash of water broke the loud silence of the rain.

The kunoichi had her hand in the water. "I'm searching for something too, Seta-san."

"And what might that be?" asked Soujiro as his suave gaze fell on her.

"The clan that left me."

Soujiro looked at her, a surprising feeling welled up inside him and sparkled in his gaze. "Do you have any idea why they left you?"

The girl sighed again. "Maybe they didn't need me."

"Oh, you shouldn't say that. They probably needed you very much," Soujiro reassured her as he sat down next to her on the very edge of the lake.

An uncomfortable silence hung like a vapor above Soujiro's head as he sat next to the girl. He wanted to speak to her but whenever he turned to her, she looked lost and far away as if the rain drowned the vicinity to bring her to another dimension.

Tiers of pale pink curled up into a smile on Soujiro's face as the thunder above rumbled and brought down heavier showers of rain. The rain shifted through his dark brown locks as it made its way down to his eyes. The water streamed down his eyes like tears which caused him to quickly rub them away in shame. He turned his head slowly to look at the kunoichi and to his surprise, real tears flowed down her cream-colored cheeks.

"Seta-san, why do you think they left me? Was I too weak to be a ninja?" she sobbed.

Soujiro smiled ruefully, brooding about why she asked him. "I don't know, but it's all right to be weak."

"I know what it's like to be weak; to not be able to protect yourself. When the words 'the weak die and the strong survive' were engraved into my heart, it gave my soul new life. Those words gave me an unshakable will to live; I became stronger so that I would not be prey for the strong. But when those words were proved false, I tried so hard to deny it but I knew deep inside that they were not right. Now, I'm trying to find another truth to engrave into my heart next to the words of Hitokiri Batousai and my Shishio-sama," continued Soujiro, whose eyes looked past the woods and the gray rain that fell from the heavens.

"Hitokiri Batousai…was he the one who told you not to kill the weak?" the girl asked while the rain cleaned her face of tears.

"Hai," Soujiro nodded, "And he proved Shishio Makoto-san's theory incorrect."

"I've heard of the name Shishio Makoto but I can't remember who he was or what he did," said the kunoichi as she mused.

Soujiro couldn't help but smile. "I saw him as a great man because he saved my life. But others saw him as a horrible man because he plotted to burn all of Kyoto."

The kunoichi's eyes widened. "Burn all of Kyoto?!"

Soujiro sighed. "Hai, but he's dead now."

"That must make you sad, Seta-san. You call him 'Shishio-sama' and he saved your life so he must have been someone dear to you," she said dejectedly.

"It makes me sad but I try not to dwell on the past so much. And you should be looking for memories of the future to make up for those you lost," he said while smiling at her.

She sighed but it was inaudible because of the thunder that roared through the dark sky. "I know but I want to know who I am and I want to find where I belong."

"I will help you find your clan then," said Soujiro without really thinking much about the effect of his statement.

"Why would you want to help me?" she asked, baffled.

Soujiro lifted his hand from his lap and gently wiped away a tear that was slowly gliding down her cheek with his finger. "It's okay to cry sometimes but I think your face would be much more beautiful with a smile."

He stood up and offered his hand to her so they could get beneath the shelter of a tree. "I know you don't have a name so I think the name 'Yuki' would suit you because you seem as pale as the snow."

She took his hand and rose off the damp ground. When she was on her feet, she gave Soujiro an unexpected but coquette grin.

"Arigatou, Seta-san. I don't know what I'd do without you here with me," she whispered a little shyly.

Soujiro returned Yuki's thanks with a suave smile of his own. While still clasping her hand, he led her through the harsh rain to the dryness beneath a tall tree.

Geez, English Honors is really killing me with the work load...but AP next year will be even worse. So yeah, that's the explanation of the long absence of my epic..er Soujiro's epic. Thanks to moguera for clearing up the Kikuichimonji Norimune sword mess, now I can go beat up the person who told me it was a wakizashi! :D