Note: Mwahahaha. This is almost over! (When it´s really over I swear I´ll throw a party.) Only a short chapter and an epilogue to go!

Thanks to all the reviewers and to Margit Rizka for wonderful beta.

Eclipse

Chapter Eight: The Fall of the Petals, II

"I've brought this cake, just in case that there was lack of food…"

"Uh?" Yahiko's eyes widened as he saw the enormous strawberry-and-almond flavoured work of art that Franziska was proudly displaying in front of them. For once, his voice didn't even sound forced. "It looks delicious!"

"Cooking complicated pastries is her hobby since she was very young," Yutaro explained with a wink. "You know… sometimes it can be useful."

"Hobby?" both Tsubame and Yahiko asked at the same time. The blond samurai could not help but laugh at their clueless faces.

"It's when…let's see, when a person puts a lot of work in something, but not in exchange for money or goods, just because he wants to," he explained.

Shocked, Yahiko fell back into his now usual stand of shaking his head dismissively.

"Those gaijin are crazy."

"I heard you!"

"You think you're one of them, at present?" he asked, feigning innocence.

Yutaro frowned. "You know perfectly what I mean! And it's very normal of you, by the way, to bring a fucking real sword to a birthday party!"

"I don't understand…" While both men continued their argument, poor Franziska walked towards the mantle they had put for her on the grass next to Tsubame, and sank on it slowly with a lost expression. "Why do they talk so quickly, and get excited over nothing?"

Tsubame gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

"They have been… friends for a very long while," she tried to explain to her. "Sometimes it's difficult to understand what they're on about."

"Hey!" Both women lifted their glances to see the tall and already muddy figure of Outa, who had been hanging at the river for a while. "They're coming!"

"Are they?" Yahiko turned his back on Yutaro, and got up in a jump to scrutinise the horizon. "Oh, yes, they're… but…"

"What?" Yutaro asked. "What's that face all of a sudden?"

"Someone very big… It's Hiko!" Yahiko continued, ignoring him. "Hiko! What the heck is he doing here, of all people? And… and… the weasel? No, I can't believe it!"

"Hello, people!!" Now, the eyes of everybody were clearly able to capture the strange sight of the little woman waving her hand to them in enthusiasm, while she tried to run through the grass with a dress that looked disturbingly alike to the one Franziska was wearing. Soon tired of the long skirts that got tangled on her legs whenever she walked at some speed, though, she had somehow managed to tie them up at one of the sides. "Did you find a good place?"

"The best," Yahiko answered. "We're all alone in this forgotten corner. But what are you doing here? And where are your kids?"

"We came with Hiko-san. The children are in Kyoto," she explained with a grin, pointing to the group that walked slowly behind her. Kenji and Aoshi came first, carrying huge quantities of food and looking in their direction. Then, there was Hiko's gigantic silhouette… and, over his back…

"Kenshin…" the young samurai muttered, as his features were for a moment taken by an expression of shock. Soon, however, it melted away in a somewhat nostalgic smile. "You're late."

"We had to prepare all the food, you morons!" a peeved Kenji protested energically. "And carry it, just for you!"

"And we didn't have any horses," Aoshi intervened, turning his face towards the place where Yutaro's dark steed was eating grass with a contented demeanour. "Though" he added in a lower voice, "it might have been practical to have at least one."

"I heard you, Shinomori," Hiko grumbled. Over his back, Kenshin stretched his neck to look at the people they had just met, and smiled in slow acknowledgement when he saw Yahiko. "I don't even feel his weight. Partly, of course, because of my natural strength as the thirteenth successor of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu style…and partly because he never was the heavy type."

Old boaster, the young samurai couldn't help but think with a wry grin. Kenji rolled his eyes from behind, for which Kaoru sent him a reprobating glance. Side to side with her, Megumi smiled.

"Here, Kenshin, you will be fine with your back lying against that tree," Hiko said to the older red-haired man. "You really should have raised your son better."

"Hello," Yutaro got up now as well, followed by his fiancée. "I'm Tsukayama Yutaro, Kaoru's former student and assistant master. And this is my fiancée, Franziska von Ossum-Bösinghoven. She's foreign."

"Delighted to see you!" Encouraged by the introduction, the Prussian woman proceeded to hug and kiss an unsuspecting Misao, then Aoshi - who didn't do Kenji the favour of looking helpless, though he might have felt like it -, then Hiko, who did not seem to mind it much, and then, before he even had the time to attempt an escape, she attacked him.

"Happy birthday, little Kenji!" she cried, pulling him into an embrace. "My, sixteen years already! You're such a handsome little man!"

With the distinct impression that the whole world was laughing at him, Kenji muttered a disgruntled expression of his thanks, and managed to pull free with the excuse of helping to put things in order. From his new security, and while he exchanged some funny glances with Tsubame, he could witness the successive attacks on the people that remained, until the terrible woman stopped in front of his father.

"Himura-san, you look quite happy this morning!" she sang, doubling over to kiss him without spoiling her dress with the grass. Kenshin looked lost and shocked, but to Kaoru's relief he didn't make any brusque movements. Maybe his inner soul could still perceive and distinguish good intentions, at least in a sense.

"Kenji-kun," Tsubame tugged at his arm at that moment.

"Hello," the young man answered mechanically.

"Kenji-kun," she insisted. Now, he had to turn back and meet her face with an inquiring expression.

"What's the matter?"

"Your friend is over there."

"My..? Oh." Guilty, Kenji realised that he hadn't still tried to say a word to Outa since he had arrived. Standing up, he swallowed deeply and walked towards where he was sitting, a bit away from where the others were caught in merry conversation.

"Outa…" he began. As he got no answer, he continued. "I'm back, as you see."

The other man twisted his face in a perfectly achieved mask of surprised ignorance. "Who are you?"

"Please, no jokes now," Kenji protested to the symbol of evil on his friend's back. (1) "Look, when I came back my father and my mother were ill, and I've been with them most of the time until…"

"Give me your name and I'll offer you my services," Outa replied with a smile. Kenji almost growled in frustration. Of all the jackasses in the world….

"Okay, okay, I'm SORRY!" he shouted. Some people turned their faces to stare at him for a moment, but he paid no attention to them. "Is that what you wanted to hear?"

Outa continued chewing a weed placidly, though Kenji was now able to detect a slight expression of self-satisfied amusement growing in his face.

"You assume too much," he said. "And you're too impulsive. Sitting here for some hours to meditate while watching the harmonic circles that the fish draw while swimming in the river would be definitely good for your present state of mind."

Feeling his short temper evaporate with the last shreds of self-restraint Kenji threw a punch in his direction. Outa seemed to have been expecting it, and ducked before answering on his own. With a respective growl, both fell on the ground, struggling to gain the upper hand.

"Hey! Kaoru-san, your son has got into a fight with the roosterhead's brother!" a vibrant female voice reached their ears almost immediately. Both put all their forces in their last struggle, and then let it go as each one's strength projected the other to fall at a considerable distance from his opponent's body. Everybody was staring at them now.

"Kenji..!" Kaoru started, but in the middle of her shout she seemed to think the better of it and changed the tone of her voice. "I'm eh... glad you have revived your friendship so soon."

Franziska got closer to Tsubame, Misao and Megumi, and called surreptitiously for their attention.

"Uh, er… Is this meant to be positive?" she asked in a confused tone.

"Welcome to the world of moronic Japanese males," Megumi answered in a much higher voice. Yutaro threw her a dirty look, but before he could even say anything, Franziska pointed at him with a dangerous smile.

"Right, right! He's like that, very often!"

Misao and Megumi started to giggle, and the man turned his back of them, defeated.

"That was a good one," Misao breathed as her laughter started to subside.

"And he deserves it," Franziska added with no sense of loyalty whatsoever. "You should have seen him earlier in the morning, when he almost ran over Tsubame with his horse. And later, he got into another fight with Yahiko-san…"

"Those two are always fighting and kicking each other for stupidities," Misao sighed. "Hey, I used to do so as well, but I grew up!"

Franziska's eyes widened again.

"You…?"

"Better not ask," Megumi counselled her smugly.

About half an hour later, the party members - or some of them - had at last managed sucessfully to put a bit of order in the whole scenario. The cloth was already set in the middle and, on top of it, the different types of food and drink had been arranged around Franziska's cake. In a somewhat retired place, there were some jars of sake waiting to be opened, and the people were sitting in groups, gaily lost in jokes and conversation.

Kenshin, as the one with less freedom of movements, had been spontaneously turned into some kind of centre of the party. Sitting with his back against the tree, mostly keeping quiet, his mouth was curved into a pleased smile that now and then, when nobody was paying attention, contracted a bit in tension, while his violet eyes were always wide open and watching everything that went on around him with full attention. Kaoru was sitting at his left, following his expressions and his evolutions with loving concern and giving him frequent conversation. On his other side, at his right, the true protagonist of the event had taken his place while he was immersed in an animated conversation with his friend Outa. Megumi was somewhat apart from them with Misao, Franziska and the pregnant Tsubame, all four sitting on another cloth that had been set there to protect certain expensive dresses, and Yahiko and Yutaro seemed to be taking care of having a certain distance between the women and themselves. Hiko was near to Kenji and Kenshin, holding his inseparable jar of sake, and Aoshi was beside him, keeping rather silent as was his usual fashion. The sun was already very high in the sky, and it spread its bright rays over them, even making some of the people listen longingly to the rustle of the waters in the river behind their backs.

"And Tae-san? Isn't she coming?" Megumi asked Kaoru. "I thought she had said yes."

The younger woman shrugged her shoulders, more attentive at the evolution of her son's conversation with his friend.

"She has to work. But she said she would try to arrive later, and hopefully bring some sweetmeats."

"A whole year in a cottage on top of a mountain training swordsmanship? That's what you do when you run away from home?" Outa still could not believe his ears. Kenji adopted a dignified pose, but lost it at the enervating sight of Hiko's expectant smirk. That damn old man just had to be in everything.

"I wasn't losing my time, okay? I got much stronger than what I was before, and I achieved what I wanted!"

Kaoru and Kenshin turned their heads towards his direction in some surprise, but neither of them said anything. Hiko's smirk was dangerously intensified, and Kenji swallowed before he was able to continue at all.

"Nah, pity that in the end the times had changed and all that, and I couldn't be a warrior. Still… well, I'd wish I could make a living with it, at least."

"You could teach at your mother's dojo," Outa suggested.

The expression in Kenji's face showed that the young man had already thought about that before.

"Hmmm…. I may want to open one myself. Or leave the business altogether. After all, it's not very productive right now," he retreated unexpectedly, making his mother's eyes grow much bigger. "And you? What are you doing right now?"

"Living," was Outa's answer.

The young red-haired man shook his head in a not-very-resigned-resignation. "Meaning to get money."

"Ah… Tsukioka's newspaper."

"Again?"

The tall and thin man grinned in consent.

"Again."

"I wonder why he hasn't thrown you out yet. You never hand him things in in time!"

Outa looked offended at this. "Hey! When I don't, it's for some important reason! That time was because there was that girl... And anyway, he's used to it. He has decided that when anything of mine happens to show up in his newspaper he uses it as an extra and lifts the price."

"Band of thieves…" Kenji smiled. "And how many times has the newspaper changed of name since I went away?"

"Belive me, you don't want to know. And even with that he had quite a pile of serious problems. The war has them on edge," Outa explained with a tired gesture. His friend, for a moment, could not help but send a fleeting glance to his father who looked interested by their conversation… and thought he had caught in his eyes, once again, part of that deep expression of melancholy that seized him sometimes. There was no doubt that he could understand most of the things said.

The letters…If he could just publish one single paragraph of his letters, Katsuhiro-san would be able to raise more anti-Meiji sentiments than ever before, he could not help but think. But, of course, that was impossible… his father got hysteric at the simple prospect of someone reading it. Maybe he was even right or next to the truth when he pretended that there were things that still depended on that secrecy.

"I wish you luck" he commented. He did not feel any sympathy for the Meiji government right now, especially after what they had done to his father. "Fat, greedy politicians, they could have gone to China themselves!"

Kenshin and Kaoru looked at each other again, but their glances did not mirror each other's anymore. Kaoru looked slightly shocked, while Kenshin's smile widened.

"Hey!" In that moment, Yutaro stopped an animated discussion with Yahiko about the reversed blade that the latter had brought hidden in a package, in order to raise his voice for attention. "Isn't it already a good hour for having lunch? The smells are killing me."

"Good idea. But…" Tvhe oices subsided a bit, and the different groups stopped their conversations to look at Yahiko, who had got up behind his friend and was picking his package from the ground, "first, I demand your attention for just some time."

Before Kenji ever had the time to react, Hiko performed a quick movement and produced a sheathed sword from under the mantle, behind his back. While the red-haired young man was still wondering how he could have carried it all the way there without anybody noticing, he threw it to Yahiko, who caught it gracefully in the air. Kenji's glance then turned towards his father out of instinct, and he could see him nod repeated times.

Surely, it couldn't be…

"Any clue on what does this all mean?" he heard Misao whispering in a rather loud voice to the women sitting around her. Almost at once, she, Megumi and Franziska turned towards Tsubame, who blushed and started to apologise with a nervous smile. Kaoru was strangely calm, while Aoshi looked… interested.

All of a sudden, something whistled in the air in his direction, and he was barely able to catch it in his surprise. It was his old sword, the one he had used to practice in Hiko's house in Kyoto.

"Get ready, Kenji."

Get ready.

Those words, engraved in his soul since long ago, had the power of immediately bringing him back to the shadows of a distant time.

Get ready, Yahiko…

Begin!

A gift for your coming of age...

Take it.

During all his life, there had been some hazy recollections in his mind of that fight, which had been the first one he had ever witnessed. Sometimes, when he closed his eyes, he could recall fragmented perceptions, like a quick flash of swords that frightened him in his mother's arms, Yahiko's yell, or his father's expression when he gave his prized sword away. He had been too young to know the meaning of all this, but he could remember the feeling of solemnity, of almost transcendental importance that the whole thing had presented. When he had been older, he had been unable to refrain from asking his mother… and that's how he had come to know the whole story of the passing of the reversed blade.

As a young boy, he remembered having held hopes of being the protagonist of a similar scene when he was old enough. After all, he had thought, shouldn't the reversed blade be his next by right? He would train very, very hard for that day, and he would be as strong as Yahiko, or even stronger than him. All those hopes, however, had slowly but inexorably dwindled with the course of time, as he saw his father losing his faculties and growing weaker and weaker, and he had cursed them in his growing bitterness and fury. Kenshin's absences had increased through the years, then he had got ill, and then he had left for good, leaving Kenji alone in the once dreamed day of his majority.

And now…

"Y…you?" Kenji muttered. "You're going to… test me?"

Yahiko's eyes were adamant, but for a moment he could see a smile on his lips.

"Yes. Even though it's late."

"Who will judge for them?" Yutaro intervened. Kaoru nodded with a serious expression.

"It's true. It should be Hiko-san's privilege."

All the eyes were now fixed on the old man, who chuckled and shook his head.

"I delegate on you, Kaoru-san."

The woman opened her mouth, but then closed it in surprise, and bowed in thanks. Slowly, and after answering Kenshin's accomplice grin, she stepped out from the crowd and joined the fighters.

"Well…which are the terms? One point?"

"No." Yahiko checked on Kenji, then looked at her. "Until one of us is disarmed or gives up."

"What's this?" Franziska was asking Yutaro in what she pretended to be an undertone.

"A kenjutsu match, dear. It's like…what I do in my dojo, but with real swords, see?"

"But…won't they kill each other? That's horrible!"

"No, dear, they're master swordsmen, and their swords can't kill. Kenji's is blunt, and Yahiko's is reversed. You'll see…"

"Though well… if I were you I'd hurry," Misao intervened. "I don't know how it is in Tokyo, but in Kyoto I would be warning that someone might come and see us and give a weird reaction!"

"Misao is right, Kaoru…give the start. Are you ready, Kenji?"

"Uh… eh… yes." The young man had heard the things that each person had said to the others, but as if it was all something external, something that had nothing to do with him. It was only now, as he saw his mother in place and Yahiko taking his stance in front of him, when the meaning of the scene in which he had suddenly found himself started to sink into his brain.

His father was smiling to him.

"Get ready!"

Little by little, Kenji sheathed his sword, and eased his body into a precise Battou-Jutsu stance. His heart was thumping in his chest, as he felt the eyes of all those people fixed upon him, but he returned the smile. Yahiko took his own stance, with his sword held in front of his body.

Would he be able to prove him at last…?

He couldn't think on what would happen if he missed this chance. He had to concentrate, in order to win. He was learned in Mitsurugi Ryu, the most powerful sword school in Japan, and both had mastered Kamiya Kasshin.

He should win.

"Begin!" the woman yelled, lowering her arm.

Kenji did not even have to think of a strategy before his body started moving on his own; his training with Hiko was still fresh on his mind, and the moves he was performing had become his second nature. As soon as he got behind his opponent with the godlike speed of the Mitsurugi and Yahiko blocked his strike, though, repelling him some metres away with a powerful clash, his mind was barely able to register his disadvantage in the middle of the frenzy, the thrusts and the parries.

He had no fighting experience.

With renewed fury, he turned his defensive leap backwards into a new attack, and performed a somersault in the air before crashing down on Yahiko with a Ryu Tsui Sen. Again, his blade met another blade that repelled him back with another clash. He felt suddenly frantic.

Kenji idiot, idiot, idiot,. he grumbled under his breath, while he somehow managed to land correctly with his feet on the ground several metres away from Yahiko. His opponent took his stance once more, and time was frozen for a second.

He was an idiot, no doubt. He had thought that both of them shared the Kamiya Kasshin, but that he was the only one of them to know the moves and the techniques of the Hiten Mitsurugi. But the truth was that Yahiko had seen and studied those moves countless times, as he had watched his father fight. He had seen many people fight, and had fought them himself. While he…

Biting his lips in bitter determination, Kenji advanced towards the waiting Yahiko, and prepared himself to deal a strong strike. Acrobatics would bring him nowhere, and flippancy wouldn't either. In fact, he might as well... lose, after all.

A fierce yell coming from two throats at the same time rang in the air, as both swords cut the air towards their target. When the blur slowly came into focus, the breathless spectators were able to see Yahiko standing in a strike position, and Kenji falling to his knees, clutching his shoulder.

Silence was absolute for a second… two seconds. Then, the young man's ears rang with breaths, murmurs, and finally voices commenting what had happened.

"Is he... is he hurt?" Franziska was asking in worry.

"Seems Yahiko won in the end...," Misao said.

"Yes," Hiko intervened. "Unless my stupid pupil can get up after taking that."

"Kaoru-san, have you become a statue? Signal the end of the match!"

"Kenji…"

The young man bit his teeth, and concentrated himself into breathing deeply. It hurt, but the blow hadn't been too strong. His grip on the hilt of his sword tightened, and he suppressed a curse. Damn.

"Kenji… my son…"

As if he had received a sudden attack, the head of the red-haired fighter jerked upwards, and his eyes met those of his father. They were full of love and concern, and also… pride?

"It's very good. Very good," he repeated. "You… did enough."

Kenji lowered his head again, to prevent the rest of the people from seeing his face turn purple red. His father was condescending, as with a child. Convincing him that he was good enough even though he hadn't been able to win for him. Remembrances of all he had trained in order to show him what he could do flashed through his mind, almost drowning him in frustration.

Unless you're stupid enough as to believe that to know you're better than him will frustrate him, only an option occurs to me, and it's that you simply need his approval.

Hiko's words came back to his mind, and his shame increased. For years, he had been bent unto this. Bent unto an useless, sterile endeavour while his mother wasted away alone, and his sick father called for him. And now, definitely, it seemed that everything he had tried to do wasn't even enough as to show him that he had grown.

"Kenji?" Now it was Yahiko's puzzled voice addressing him. "Kenji…what..?"

He saw his father again, sitting on his couch at dawn and wrapping himself in a blanket. His expression was weary, his body frail, but there was hope shining in his eyes.

"No! Not yet," he pleaded in a shaky tone, surprising even himself with his words. "Don't leave yet! You promised... you promised you would be here on my birthday. The last one. Please… don't leave, yet."

Suddenly, the weight of all those years of anger, of quiet suffering and loneliness for his mother, and of obsessed and selfish fixation in surpassing a shadow for him, crashed against his mind, as well as his father's silent agony of a whole month, sitting upright with a smile while his insides were torn apart. Always smiling, for him. Always smiling… even now. And for once…

For once, and for the first time in all his life, Kenji's heart could feel the meaning of atonement. Of feeling the need to pay something back to a person in the measure of one's possibilities… or beyond.

"Not yet…" he breathed, standing up. Everybody stared at him in shock, except Hiko, who smirked, and Aoshi, who nodded in approval.

"Kenji, aren't you…?" Kaoru advanced a hesitant step towards him, and Yahiko dropped his stance.

"Don't lower your guard!" the red-haired young man shouted. "You were holding back when you hit me, you idiot!"

After a mere second of hesitation, maybe of… recognition, the samurai's face adopted again the impenetrable battle glance, and he did as he was told. Kaoru retreated without any further comment, and both fighters got in position. Silence was absolute once more, as people's eyes were all fixed upon the renewed exchange.

"If you still can… then do it."

Kenji checked his shoulder with some anxiety before launching his attack. It was sore and somewhat numb, but, he realised in relief, it would function for a while yet. Maybe it would slow his speed if he had to fight for longer, but if he did what he had planned… it would be perfect.

It could not fail.

Smiling to himself, the young man gave a yell and charged forwards at a slowed speed. Yahiko, surely in the wrong belief that the shoulder was giving him problems, charged as well, but before their swords met Kenji's foot stopped firmly, and his body gave a whole turn around it. The speed was so enormous that the air whistled in his ears like a windstorm, and his shoulder hurt like hell, but he paid no heed to all those sensations that distracted him from his sole and unique purpose.

"Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu, Ryu Kan Sen!"(3)

Kenji's blade stopped at an inch of Yahiko's neck. With a smile slowly taking the place of his astonished expression, the samurai loosened his grip on the hilt of his own sword, and the reversed blade fell to the ground with a clatter.

When he was at last able to snap out of his battle concentration and pay heed to his surroundings, Kenji heard some claps and praises coming from beyond his circle of friends. Astonished, he saw that several passers-by were standing next to them, murmuring things to each other.

"Oh, no," Yahiko muttered. "Problems."

Kaoru ran immediately towards her son, and, after pulling him into an embrace, she started touching and checking his shoulder in spite of his protests. Soon enough, however, Misao claimed her attention in a rather urgent way.

"Kaoru-san, there's… police!"

"What?" The woman lifted her head in alarm. "One of the swords is blunt, the other is rever… but… uh?" In the middle of her sentence, as she looked in the direction of the police agent who was watching - and cheering the loudest -, her expression changed again. "Shin'ichi!" (2)

"Talk about dumb luck," Yutaro commented, shaking his head. "We're too reckless."

"Is this forbidden?" Franziska asked, as she clutched his arm in anxiety.

"More or less," Megumi explained for him.

"What a wonderful display of swordsmanship! Like in the old times! And what a hero, Kenji-kun… he had been floored and he got up again, fuelled by his warrior spirit… and he defeated Yahiko-sensei! And what an awesome move!" The enthusiastic policeman soon became the target of the curious glances of the people around. When he noticed, at last, he began to scratch the back of his neck in sudden awkwardness. "Uh… er…" he stammered, clearing his throat and struggling to return to an official tone. "Those… people are owners and masters of a famous Tokyo dojo, and are allowed to do public performances once a year in our city. Uramura-san can confirm it!"

"What a cheek," Kaoru muttered.

"As much as he grows, he'll always be the same," Yahiko added while he rolled his eyes.

"Have a good day!" the policeman cried, waving them a hand merrily and shooing the people away from the place. Our friends stayed frozen in place for some moments, all with their eyes fixed in his direction, then slowly started to return to their usual selves.

"Kenji… you won!" Kaoru hugged her son once more, and continued her examination. "But your shoulder! Tomorrow it will be all blue."

"Mother…" Kenji complained. Tsubame got up to place herself next to Yahiko, who smiled to her and put an arm around her shoulder before turning to Kenji.

"We congratulate you, Kenji. You did it very well, and you won," he said. "And you're really an adult now."

"You kicked his ass big time," Yutaro laughed, evading his friend's warning look. "That's our Kenji!"

"You're so strong!" Franziska took the cue soon enough, and with great pleasure. "And brave!"

"That was a good fight, Kenji," Misao nodded knowingly. Beside her, though, Megumi shook her head with somewhat less enthusiasm.

"That shoulder…," she sighed. "Completely like his father!"

"Ah... so you did something in that boring lonely mountain, after all," Outa offered magnanimously. Aoshi turned his head towards Hiko.

"That made me think of old times." he commented with a wry smile. The old master leaned back, looking satisfied with himself, and both their glances fell inadvertently upon Kenshin.

"Seems I was able to teach him some things, after all. Right… Shinta?"

The sick man had spent all the time after Kenji's counterattack with his eyes fixed upon the improvised scenario of the fight. Not a single muscle of his had moved, but he wasn't just mind-clouded. Hiko could perceive a great intensity of tumultuous emotions springing from his ki.

"Kenshin!" Yahiko called. The samurai picked the reversed blade from the ground, and made a signal for Kenji to come. Then, he gave it to Kenshin, but the weight he had carried so nonchalantly was about to fall from the hands of the older man, who was almost incapable of bearing its weight anymore.

"Here you are. You should be the one to hand it on."

Kenji felt the instinctive urge to help his father, though something prevented him from doing it this time. He could hear his mother's irregular and excited breath behind his back, and felt everybody's eyes fixed on him again. Almost numb to all the congratulations and praises, now, in front of those violet eyes clouded by emotion, he was at last able to feel his heart swelling with pride and happiness.

He had won for him.

"Kenji…" His father's voice sounded hoarse. He looked so frail sitting there, trying to hold the heavy sword with his shaking hands… but he was surprisingly able to give him a clear glance and search for the adequate words. "It's late… and I'm sorry. You're a man, Kenji. Take this… it's yours, now."

Unable to stand the sight of how his father tried to no avail to lift the sword in order to offer it, Kenji knelt on the ground in front of him, and took it in his own hands with reverence. Before he even could realise too well what was happening, two bony arms encircled his body, and a familiar sickening scent invaded his nostrils.

"Kenji…I'm so proud!" To the young man's astonishment, Kenshin's body was convulsed in soft sobs. Behind them, he could perceive some gasps of surprise, even the stressed breaths of other people who, like his mother, were being also unable to control their emotions. He himself couldn't prevent a knot from forming in his stomach and throat that rendered him incapable of speech or motion for a very long while.

It was the first time he saw his father cry. Sick, suffering, his defenceless mind floating between the mists of confusion and moments of lucidity… he had never, ever cried.

"Thank you, Father," he managed to utter at last, as he gently pulled away from him and got up with his prize in his hands. His shoulder ached so much when he put it in state of stress… or was it his heart, not able to contain so many emotions in a matter of seconds? "Thank you very much. Now… why don't we let the party begin?"

"Kenji is right." Kaoru was doing frantic efforts to wipe away the tears in her cheeks without letting the people notice. "Lunch is waiting for us!"

"Well, well…" Hiko poured some sake in his cup with his usual expertise, and turned to Aoshi. "It seems that my stupid student was even able to change the ideal of the sword!"

But the day of surprises was not yet over, in the very least. After they had fallen in ravenous hunger over the sweetmeats that waited for them on the ground, and their wish for food and drink gradually had diminished between conversations and jokes, Kenshin suddenly lifted his face, and they could see his eyes widen in alert.

"He is… he…" he began to mumble. Kaoru looked at him with a strange expression.

"Yes, Shinta?"

"He. He is here," Kenshin offered as only explanation. The rest of the people started to cross inquiring glances in all directions… but, just as they were at it, a cheerful female voice called in greeting.

"Tae-san!" Kaoru cried happily, getting up. At the mention of her best friend, Tsubame followed her example, in spite of Yahiko telling her she should rest. "And with… uh? That's not her husband!"

Megumi winked mischievously, though her wink was soon to turn into an expression of purest shock at the next shout that came from Kaoru's mouth.

"It's… Sano!"

"Sano?" Yahiko got to his feet at an inhuman speed, and so did Misao.

"My brother?" Outa exclaimed. Megumi turned her head slowly, just in time to see the newcomers approach the place where they were sitting. The woman who was waving her hand was Tae, no doubt… but the tall man who walked next to her looked rather like someone from a faraway land. He wore unbelievably dirty trousers that one day might have been white, and his torso was bandaged. On his shoulders, there was a green, torn cape which fell down his back and flickered at the whim of the wind, mimicking the movements of his long, unruly dark hair that was kept from his face by a red headband. In his unshaven face, however, there was a broad smile that looked decidedly familiar, and characteristic of only one person in the world that they could know. It was Sanosuke, the world adventurer… who did not hesitate in sneaking inside the country whenever he wanted to see his friends, even if he was still searched by the police for assaulting an important politician.

"Hey, people! Look who I found at the old restaurant!" the waitress cried. Kaoru had reached them by now, and for a second she stopped to stare at Sano. Yahiko and Misao, who came behind her, stopped in imitation.

"You're even dirtier than ever!" the woman exclaimed in mock reprobation.

"And he still hasn't paid me back," Tae added thoughtfully.

"What a welcome!" Sano feigned indignation too. "Should have stayed in China… the women there treated me better!"

"They like dirt there, maybe?" Yahiko joked, punching him playfully. Sanosuke punched him back, and the young man was projected against an unsuspecting Misao.

"Be more careful, you jerk!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. Fortunately, before she jumped over him for retaliation, Yahiko was able to grab her dress and yank her back.

"Sheesh… here's the weasel, and the fox too! I think I'm leaving again…"

"Don't you dare do that, Sagara Sanosuke!" Kaoru trapped him in a happy bear hug, and for a second she looked again like the innocent and carefree girl she had once been. "I'm so glad that you're here..!"

"I came because…" Before the man was able to give his explanations, though, he stopped himself in renewed surprise. "Outa!"

"Hello, brother," the young man said with a grin, coming towards them.

"Still hanging around here. Feh! At your age I had already seen half the world!"

"And missed most of it, I'm sure," Outa answered. Kenji got up to follow him, and joined them in their walk towards the place of the party.

"Hey, Sano! Do you know that you and Outa look really alike!" he whistled.

"But I'm more handsome," the younger brother added. Sanosuke protested.

"Hey! It's me who's supposed to say that!"

"According to the taste of which country?"

As they entered the circle, the first person they met was Megumi, who was sitting with her face towards them. Like always, she seemed successful in smothering her agitation.

"Fox lady! Did you miss me too much?" the newcomer greeted her. The woman shook her head airily, and swallowed a small knot in her throat.

"And you, did you miss water? Here you have a whole river at your service…"

"Always so kind!" Sanosuke shot back.

"At least he catches them on the first time, now," she nodded in approval, provoking a shy giggle from Tsubame, who was trying to explain Franziska who that tall and dirty man was. Sanosuke's attention, however, was already elsewhere. His surprised eyes wandered over Aoshi and Hiko, and finally were set on Kenshin, who was looking at him with a gleeful smile.

"But what's this?" he cried. "A congress of old warriors?"

"Kenji's coming of age, you moron," Hiko answered, a bit offended.

"Still the same, Sagara," Aoshi commented while he picked an ohagi from the plate. Sanosuke, maybe to prove them that he wasn't the same, ignored them, and knelt in front of his best friend, next to where Kaoru had already taken back her place.

"Kenshin…" he began. As he talked, he could not stop checking his friend's state, his frailty, his bandaged limbs and his clouded eyes, and his smile started to dim a bit. "I was around Manchuria when somebody told me you were there. I hurried to see you, but when I got to the place they told me you had left. They said you were very ill… and I… "His voice sounded strange, or so Kaoru thought…she had never saw him so awkward before. "Well, you know, I decided to pay a small visit to Japan again. I was already halfways there, so to speak!"

"Sano…" To the tall man's surprise, his friend made him a signal to get closer… and when he obeyed unsuspectingly, he was pulled into a hug similar to the one Kenji had been pulled into shortly ago. His eyes widened, but he was too shocked as to say a word. What…?

He smelled even worse than him…

Was he…?

He remembered the last time he had come back, about four years ago. Kenshin had saddened him with his weakness, but that had been the price to pay for the techniques he had mastered and used during a great part of his life. Now, however…

He had some infectious disease, and he was requested to go back home…I heard it was syphilis or something of the sort, but I cannot tell…

That was what he had been told, but he hadn't quite believed it until now he saw it with his own eyes. Could he… really be dying? The man he had once thought to be almost immortal, invincible… diminished, defeated by something so unheroical?

"Sano…" Kenshin repeated once more, clutching the fabric of his cape. "Thank you. Thank you… for coming."

His eyes were caught by Kaoru's in a flicker of a second, and he saw his expression mirrored in them. Then, as he eased Kenshin back into his initial sitting position with all the gentleness he was able to muster, he turned towards Megumi, and was able to perceive the tension in her hands as she tried to put order in the leftovers scattered around her.

"Well, people," he exclaimed, after closing his eyes and inhaling deeply to regain his composure. "Want to hear some travel stories?"

A couple of hours later, when the sun was already in the middle of his course downwards, Kenji was still listening attentively and laughing at the anecdotes that Sanosuke told them. He was a great storyteller, and, knowing him, as strange or impossible that might seem sometimes, what he told was only the truth. What he said about the world and the people he had visited never failed to awake a deep longing inside him, now more than ever since he knew that most probably he would have little chances to leave Japan.

Unlike Outa…

Part of that longing was also caused by the knowledge of this sad truth; that his friend would soon leave as well and try his luck in all those places he had often dreamed about since he was young. But he had to admit that, in a way, it was only fair. Each one had his own life and his own duty, and his, right now, was there in Japan. He threw another proud glance at his now most prized possession, safely wrapped in his lap, and a smile took over his features.

He was a man, now.

"Kaoru-dono..." he heard his father's voice behind him. His mother gave her husband an inquiring glance, but when she saw his eyes she seemed to understand at once.

"Right now, Shinta," she answered in a calming tone. With all care, she got up and helped Kenshin to struggle to his feet. As soon as she noticed what Hiko had known that same morning, however, that he couldn't stand up alone anymore, she supported him strongly, and let her body lean on hers. "Excuse us, please. We return in a minute."

Sanosuke and Kenji nodded almost at the same time, and the others looked at them briefly before turning back to the former and asking him for more tales with their silent glances. The humid warmth of spring had spread even over the shades of the riverside, and, mingled with the pleasant feeling of having one's stomach full of delicious drink and food, it had by now managed to infest the whole group with a hazy feeling of total laziness. Misao had sat next to Aoshi and was snoring softly, Tsubame was resting on Yahiko, Yutaro on Franziska, and Outa on a log as they listened to Sano's voice, while Megumi kept absently fanning herself with a leaf. In the distance, they could hear the soft sound of the water current rolling endlessly over the round stones of its bed, and, even farther, the laughs and shouts of other people who were having similar reunions at other zones of the river.

"Curious." Kenji opened his eyes in surprise, and turned them towards Aoshi, who was still staring at the couple that slowly walked away.

"What's curious?" he asked.

"The cross-shaped scar Himura used to have in his left cheek," the ninja muttered pensively. "It wasn't there anymore when he left."

While not knowing very well why, the young man felt a small commotion in his stomach at that unexpected information.

"Really?" he asked. Sanosuke had just made people laugh again, and nobody seemed to have noticed their conversation. "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Curious…" Kenji let his hand lay on the wrapped sword on his lap, and tightened his grip on it. "Really curious…"

Still thoughtful after a while of wondering about the strange phenomenon, but as unable as in the beginning to spot the true reason of his uneasiness, the young red-haired man bit his lips, and turned back to listen to his friends' conversation.

(to be continued)

(1)Outa also had the "Aku" kanji on his back. In the 26th volume, he asked his sister to put it on his own clothes, in imitation of his brother.

(2) Kosaburo Shin-ichi is a young policeman who appears in the Jinchuu arc. He studied in the Kamiya dojo according to Volume 28.

(3)According to Watsuki, Kenji learned Hiten techniques.

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