Disclaimer: I owns what I owns and that's all that I owns. And I don't owns no Kenshin.









Confessions of a Dangerous Hairstyle:

A Ruroni Kenshin Fan Fiction

by

C M Forde









It was stock still in the salon, no one dared to breathe. In the back the short haired woman toyed with Kenshin's face while Hoji grinned maniacally at the flaming scissors gripped in Shishio's hands. Everybody was on edge it seemed, everyone except Aoshi, who held his ground with his standard icy coolness. It was a direct opposition to the other man's wild expression, as if he were waiting to tear Misao's hair to ribbons.

Misao…

Sano wanted to move, but a mixture of shock and anger kept him from doing so. She was going to risk herself for him, for Aoshi. He didn't try to kid himself, this wasn't to save Kenshin, he could see it in the way she looked at the man in the white coat, the way every muscle in her body seemed on edge as long as he was around. To think that she would to this to him after the night before, after what they had shared. But he paused, eyes not daring to close. What had happened last night? He couldn't remember, the memories eluded him completely, hidden behind veils of alcohol and the blurry half imagined dreams of his fantasy.

"Do you think you're ready little girl?" It was Shishio, his voice deep and throaty, a challenge to all in its tone. Aoshi didn't even look at him, and Saitou laughed.

"Your little girlfriend is very friendly isn't she ahou?"

Sano spun around to confront him, but was halted before he could get a word out by the expression on Megumi's face. It was disbelief, and he could tell it had nothing to do with the wrapped man's flaming steel or goading taunts. She was looking only at Aoshi, and when Sano joined her gaze he knew why. He wondered if he had been wearing Megumi's expression while he was looking at Misao. The doctor's fiancee seemed almost open hearted, almost friendly. He was looking at the teenage girl who was willing to sacrifice herself, and there was an almost imperceptible turn at the corner of his mouth, nearly a dimple in his cheek. It was enough to make Sano cringe.

"Let's get this over with." It was Misao, trying to muster up some of the bravery that she almost certainly didn't have. She was ready to back down, only her stubborn will holding up against the mad stare of Makoto Shishio. Sano prayed she would, he closed his eyes and prayed to every deity he could think of, every divine force in the universe. Just please, don't let her do this. It almost worked, she faltered for a moment, but Aoshi laid a hand on her shoulder. And then there was no more question, she was going to do it.

She took her seat in the chair and he heard a movement from behind him, a tragic gasp of air that he had almost let go himself. Megumi had broken. But Sano couldn't risk turning to her, the due was beginning then, Misao taking her seat in the chair, tarp placed over her. Sano felt a tightening on his arm and looked down to see a small hand grasping his forearm, fingernails digging deep into his skin, but the pain was keeping him alert. His eyes met those of Karou's for a moment, and he realized that this was bigger than just Misao and Aoshi, bigger than the crumbling relationships of himself and Megumi. This was about Kenshin, and it had to stay that way. He placed a hand over hers, and her gripped loosened somewhat, relaxing just a bit in comfort. "Everything's going to be fine." God, he hoped that was true.

"You show him Shishio!" It was the short haired woman, now sitting in the bound Kenshin's lap, trailing a finger over the crossed scar on his face, he felt Karou's grip tighten again. The other woman of the Juppon-Gatana nodded her approval.

"Don't waste any time."

Shishio just laughed, "Don't worry, I'm not going to." And with that simple phrase it began in truth, those flaming scissors flaying towards Misao's hair. Sano wanted to turn away, but he couldn't, instead he watched the flames burning at the edge of the blades, licking at the air as they snipped across her scalp. Once. Twice. From where he was standing, Sano could see what the flames were for. The scissors were moving so fast that the flames themselves never touched her hair, but the heat crushed it, raised it, expanded and lifted. Sano had never seen anything like it. He would have expected Misao's hair to wilt, to heat and catch fire, but Shishio's technique was flawless. Instead of destroying the hair, the heat brought it to life, gave it volume, texture, made the cuts clean and smooth, like nothing he had ever seen before. Perspiration beaded on her brow, across her scalp, almost immediately evaporated, the steam rising and making subtle fluctuations in the flow. After just fifteen seconds it was done, Shishio pulled back.

The result was magnificent, pure artistic beauty, Sano had never seen anything like it. There was no wonder that this man was the most feared stylist in the Salon Wars. With his ingenious instrument he had crafted perfection that Sano had never experienced before. There was nothing that could be done, in a single stroke it was over, and Aoshi had lost. Karou gasped, and there was even a silence from the piece of wall that Saitou had been occupying, no steady breathing, it had stunned the man.

Hoji cheered, "Excellent! Perfection! You've done it again!"

Shishio just smiled, it seemed he never stopped smiling, and with a wave of his hand he drew the scissors out of the flame, letting the air itself extinguish them. "All too easy."

Sano looked at Misao's reflection in the mirror, and she didn't look good, having that much heat so close, she was red faced, sweat pouring off of her, she only seemed half conscious. He wanted to run to her, but Karou's grip stopped him, as did Aoshi's cold words. "Are you done?"

Shishio turned back to the other stylist, arms crossed over his chest, "Isn't it obvious? You've met your better, you lost Shinomori."

Aoshi moved, or at least Sano thought he moved. It was a sudden flash, like from a camera, a glint as steel reflected the sun outside into his eyes, but it almost hadn't happened. The quiet master of ninjutsu hair styling, hadn't seemed to have changed position even a millimeter. Then, with a slow, surreal motion, Misao's braid came off. It tumbled to the floor in a pile that lay like a silent viper on the linoleum, pink bow down near the end the only thing that seemed to give the creature any life. Along the edge of one of Aoshi's dual blades, a single black strand of hair slid down, its own insubstantial weight enough to effortlessly split it in two.

Aoshi didn't move, he didn't speak. He just presented his emotionless eyes to the burned man. No one in the salon dared to even breathe, if Sano had turned around he was sure that above Saitou's cigarette, the smoke had paused in mid air. Everything was deathly quiet, no sound from the traffic outside coming into the place. Aoshi's lips moved, "You're useless." Shishio crumpled to the ground on one knee, and finally, Sano's heart started to beat again.

He moved in an instant, across the room, his fist connecting with Hoji's face, sending the erratic looking man tumbling to the ground, face splattered in his own blood. Karou rushed forward, and the short haired woman burst through the back door of the salon, followed by the other woman, who had managed to drag Shishio up by the arm and pull him into their retreat. Karou was on Kenshin in an instant, first tearing at the ropes that bound him with her fingernails, then taking a pair of scissors from the counter and cutting him free. Sano stared to go to Misao, but he was beaten to it, the young woman already in Aoshi's arms, the tall man wiping her sweaty brow with a damp cloth. Megumi was nowhere to be seen.

Sano wanted to punch Aoshi in the jaw. To scream, 'Get your hands off my girlfriend!' But he couldn't, he didn't have the heart at the moment, the sight of her in his arms pushed a gaping hole deep into the man's soul. Then he heard a grunt and turned to see that Saitou had Hoji on his feet, "Talk to me." As Saitou spoke smoke blew into the smaller man's face, and he coughed.

"Ha! You think you've won! You can't defeat The Juppon-Gatana!" His voice was nasally despite the fact that his nose was crushed across his face. "Shishio was nothing! Our master would defeat all of you with no trouble! You're all going to pay for what you've done here today! My lord can not be stopped!"

Sano stepped forward, grabbing Hoji by the shirt and pulling up close, "We just kicked your lord's ass." He wasn't going to admit that it had been Aoshi that had done it, he couldn't just then. "So I think you're pretty much finished you little turd."

The man laughed, and his laughter sprayed little droplets of blood across Sano's face, "You think Shishio was in charge? That useless punk? Ha! My lord will eat you alive Sagara! All of you! Hajime, Shinomori, none of you stand a chance! You're going to lose!"

Sano snarled and shoved him back into the counter, disinfectant solutions and hair products scattering across the floor, "What do you want with us? What did we ever do to you?"

Hoji laughed again, Sano had never seen a man so outnumbered and battered laugh like that before. "It has nothing to do with you Sagara! You arrogant bastard. My lord cares only for The Wolf of Mibu and Battousai! You are all just flies!"

Saitou stepped forward then, between Sano and Hoji, arms folded across his chest, "What do you know about The Wolf of Mibu?"

"Hajime Saitou, what's the matter? Feeling the old memories of the Salon Wars coming back to you after ten years?" The little man's chest heaved with joy, "You don't even recognize him do you? Your memory's failing in your old age."

This time it was Saitou's time to throw Hoji, sending him careening into the far wall, shattering a mirror, "Where is he? Where's The Wolf of Mibu?!"

"I'm right here."

The voice hit Sano like a brick, clubbed him in the back of the head. He turned back, looking over his shoulder. Kenshin was in Karou's arms, but only for a moment, pulling away from the girl, standing straight and as tall as he seemed to be able to muster in his condition. "Hajime Saitou, leave that man alone."

Saitou froze, turning to look at the teenage boy standing there with his face one huge bruise, and the scar on his cheek burning a fierce red. Then Saitou stiffened, hand raising into a sharp salute, "Sir!"

"What?" Karou's question broke the tension. There was no urgency in it, no surprise, just a simple query. One which Aoshi answered.

"Your boyfriend, it seems, is Himura Shinta, The Wolf of Mibu. In the Salon Wars the only one who could match him was Battousai."

Karou shook her head, "No. No no no no. His name is Kenshin, he's a foreign exchange student from Scotland. He moved here six months ago. He was only seven when the Salon Wars were going!"

Kenshin looked exceedingly guilty and turned around with his best helpless smile, "Actually Karou they're right. I'm Japanese, I've never even been to Scotland."

She blinked, "But but but, you're still too young! The Wolf of Mibu had to have been at least in his mid twenties! That would mean you'd have to be…"

He blushed, "Thirty four."

He caught a first with his eyeball. "THIRTY FOUR?! You little son of a bitch! You're thirty four? You told me you were seventeen! You lied to me you little red headed bastard!"

"The Wolf of Mibu was also married," Aoshi offered.

"YOU TOLD ME I WAS YOUR FIRST!!!"

As Kenshin's head was repeatedly smashed into the ground, Sano turned to Saitou, who was smoking a cigarette once more, "Umm…"

"Himura-sama doesn't seem to have changed."

At that moment the back door slammed and Sano noticed that Hoji was gone. He shook his head, no point in going after the little turd, he felt sure they'd get another chance to meet. Instead he left the room, there was too much going on in there. Misao was still half conscious, but he wasn't going to go after her. She had Aoshi to take care of her. Everybody seemed to have found their niche in this situation, everybody except him. The whole thing had left him feeling alone and useless. Maybe Hoji was right, maybe he was just a fly. He sat on the hood of the car, watching traffic, and pulled a cigarette out of the pack in his pocket, bringing it to his lips and flicking open his zippo. Then a hand on his shoulder brought his head around, it was Megumi. "Hand me a smoke?"

Sano smirked and handed one to her, then lit first hers, then his. After taking a long drag between pouty lips, she exhaled a plume of smoke and sighed, "That was really something in there."

He nodded, "Yeah." He didn't feel he had much else to say.

"She turned to him then, and shook her head, "You know Rooster Head, if I didn't know you better I'd say you were jealous. Your little girlfriend sure seems to like my fiancee."

"Yeah, well your fiancee sure seems to like my little girlfriend."

The slap knocked the cigarette out of his mouth and she stood up, "Never make jokes about that again."

He stood up and confronted her, "It wasn't a joke you bitch. You know as well as I do what's going on there. So why don't you just admit it and quit acting like the whole world spins to your every wish and desire?"

Megumi spun on her heel and walked away, and despite himself Sano couldn't help but watch her go. Even when she was pissed she moved in a way that Misao could only dream of.

Grumbling under his breath at the audacity of that woman he fished another cigarette out of his pack, but was interrupted in the middle of lighting it. "What was that all about?" This time it was Kenshin, somehow he had managed to get away from Karou, and the red headed man took a seat next to Sano. He wanted to ask Kenshin so many questions, like what this whole thing was about, but they just didn't seem important at the moment.

"You really wanna know?" And Sano told him everything, from first seeing Megumi swimming towards him at the pool, to what he remembered of the night before, waking up nude with Karou, which Kenshin took surprisingly well. And he finished it all off with, "Something happened last night. Something between me and Misao, I know it." He shook his head, "It's just, I can't believe she'd do this, not after last night."

Kenshin nodded, "Well, what happened last night?"





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Author's Note: The great shock episode is concluded! Many questions answered, but even more raised as the events of the day come to an end! Who is this leader of The Juppon-Gatana? What connection does Kenshin have to him? What will happen next? What kind of relationship is blossoming between Misao and Aoshi? And does Sano stand a chance of keeping his beloved, or will he instead for the other woman? And most importantly, What Happened Last Night? Find out in our flashback episode: Cherry Blossom Night Part II!