Disclaimer: Elienta owns not, nor has she e'er
Claimed to own the most esteemed Rurouni
Kenshin. Though many's the time she wishes
It were so. *pants from the effort of writing in pentameter*

It was a typical summer night, warm and clear, the music of crickets and cicadas filling the air. The moon was in her last stage, a feeble crescent that failed to cast much more light than the sprinkled stars. Kaoru shifted a little to keep her foot from falling asleep. Beside her, Kenshin touched her knee reassuringly, his eyes sharp and focused. Kaoru silently berated herself for fidgeting and schooled herself to stillness. Surely it must be midnight by now!

The creaking of the front gate made her tense, and she could hear Karen's voice. "It took you long enough getting here."

By the sound of it, there were between twenty and thirty men entering the yard. "You said you want to deal?"

"That's what I said, didn't I?" Sanosuke drawled as he and Karen stood together, facing the rough-looking group. "Your employer wants this piece of land, right? So we might give it to you, if the price is right."

"Why?" the first man asked suspiciously. "You're friends of Kamiya Kaoru, aren't you?"

"I hardly know her." Karen sounded bored. "She's just the daughter of some friend of my old man's. And Sanosuke and I..." Her smothered chuckle practically smoldered, as she slipped one arm around Sanosuke's waist and put her free hand on his chest possessively, idly stroking his muscles. Sanosuke suddenly found himself flush as she pressed herself against him, and tried to keep his features casual. "Let's just say we've come to an...understanding. We need money if we're going to get out of Tokyo."

"So we burn the dojo down, and make it look like an accident?" another demanded to know.

"Kaoru-chan's an absent-minded, clumsy little girl," Karen said, sounding greatly amused, and Kaoru had to reminder herself that this was a ruse to keep herself from bursting out and strangling Karen to death. "It will look like she forgot to extinguish the kitchen fire before she went to sleep."

"All right." the man grumbled. "Do you have the kerosene?"

"Right here." Sansosuke patted a bucket next to him. Karen nodded at him, and he liberally doused the wall closest to them with it. "The fire will spread easily." Karen commented. "Shall we get started?"

Kenshin motioned for Kaoru and Yahiko to get ready, while he carefully eased his sakabatou in its sheath. Kaoru found herself entertaining a moment of irrational doubt. If Karen wasn't what she said she was...

"We'll be burnt worse than Kaoru's cooking," Yahiko whispered under his breath, and ambush or no Kenshin had to forcibly restrain Kaoru from attacking her rude pupil with her bokken. The sound of grumbling in front of the door to the dojo warned them to keep silent.

"By the way," Karen asked casually as she lit the match. "Who is this big man wanting to buy the land around here so badly?"

"Some rich foreigner," he grunted. "Oi, are you going to drop the match or not?"

Karen sniffed as she tossed the lit match. It landed in the liquid...and suddenly fizzled out in the dampness. Sanosuke smirked. Before the men could grasp what was happening Karen had whipped her katana out and stabbed the nearest person. "Kenshin-san!!"

Kenshin burst out of the dojo, followed by Kaoru and Yahiko, but by this time the gang had regrouped and unsheathed their own swords. Karen and Kenshin took the forefront, with Sanosuke covering their few misses and Yahiko and Kaoru concentrating on finishing off the wounded. Kaoru watched Karen and Kenshin do their work, and she noticed that they were nearly the same. Silly, they learned from the same master. Yet Karen's style differed from Kenshin in subtle ways. Kenshin attacked swiftly; Karen spent a bit more time on defense before moving in for the kill. She lacks the strength and speed...but not the grace. While Kenshin moved with grim intent and a frightening concentration, Karen moved in a fluid dance, whirling amidst her foes with careless abandon.

"Chii!!" One of the remaining men rolled out of Karen's reach and pulled something out of his clothes. "Don't move, bitch!"

Kaoru recognized the object and could not hold back a scream. "Karen-san!"

Karen turned, and so did everyone else, but the man was out of their range. "You think you can fuck with us?!" he shrieked, pointing the barrel at Karen.

A moment later, blood splattered everywhere as a katana seemed to bloom out of the man's forehead. Karen lowered her own blade. "Took you long enough, you old wolf."

Saitou Hajime wrenched his sword free, and as the police force surrounded the dojo he leisurely flicked the blood from it before shoving it into the sheath. Then he removed the cigarette from between his teeth, blowing out a cloud of smoke. "Didn't want to spoil the fun," he shrugged.

It was nearly dawn by the time everything had been cleaned up and taken care of. Karen had somehow found the time to clean up and prepare tea, and as she poured the hot water, one hand gently holding her sleeve back to expose her wrist, Kaoru watched her with more than a little envy. She's so beautiful, and a skilled kenkaku besides... She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. Kenshin gave her a questioning look, and she tried to look cheerful, indicating nothing was wrong.

Saitou, who had stayed behind while rest of the police force had left, took a silent sip of his tea. "I don't think we'll get much from those idiots. They don't know who's the mastermind behind this. Not that I expected much."

"It's a lot more to go on than we had," Karen retorted. "You should thank these people, Saitou. They were nice enough to hang themselves as bait even though they knew it was dangerous."

"I didn't ask them to do it," he replied lazily, lighting a cigarette. Karen rolled her eyes.

"We're used to him, Karen-dono," Kenshin said pleasantly, putting his tea cup down with a quiet click. "Now that things have died down a bit, could you tell us exactly who you are and what this is all about?"

Karen glanced into her own cup as if the answers he looked for were floating in her tea. Then she took a long sip, put the cup down, and looked up to see four pairs of expectant eyes locked onto her with various degrees of interest. She took a breath.

"My father is Hiko Seijuuro," she began, "And my mother's name was Yamada Godori. She was a geisha. My father met her when they were quite young...before he had, in fact, received the title of Hiko Seijuuro. But that was the only name he gave my mother during that one night they spend together. He left to finish his training, never knowing she was with child."

"He never went back?" Kenshin asked, spellbound by this secret of his shishou. He was always a private person, but I can't believe he never even mentioned this to me...

"He did," Karen replied. "But I was about thirteen, and my mother died a few days before his second visit. I was being brought up as a geisha, but my father took me to live with him and taught me the ways of Hiten no Mitsurugi. I never heard about Kenshin-san until later on, when he told me about his "baka deshi" who had run away against his orders." She grinned at Kenshin. "Anyway, I stayed with him for a few years, and then I returned to the geisha house to live my own life. He didn't like that very much."

"I told you she was lying about not knowing kenjitsu!" Yahiko crowed triumphantly. Karen chuckled. "I must say I'm impressed, Yahiko. One of the most important virtues of a kenkaku is observance." Yahiko shot Kaoru a smug look. "It appears your teacher taught you well," Karen added, causing Kaoru to smile sweetly at her impudent pupil.

"How did you meet him?" Sanosuke interrupted, jerking a thumb at Saitou.

"It was during the years I was a geisha," Karen said cautiously, picking her words with care as if she was afraid of revealing something she didn't want to. "I was invited to a party of government officials, and there he was. It's a long story, but in the end I gave up being a geisha and became a sort of part-time secret agent. There was no one left at the house anyway, after my mother had died and my friend had also left to follow another man."

She met him when she was a geisha. That means... Kenshin tried not to blush. No one else seemed to pick up on the meaning between her lines. He caught a subtle exchange of glances between Karen and Saitou.

"Tell them who your friend was, Karen," Saitou said, and Kenshin almost detected a note of amusement in his bland tone.

She shot him an annoyed look. "My friend's name was Yumi. Gomagata Yumi."

It took Kaoru a few seconds to recognize the name. "Yumi?! That was Shishio's..."

"Yes, Shishio-san was the man she followed," Karen said matter-of-factly.

It took a moment for everyone to digest the information they had just received. "It's a small world, ne?" Sanosuke offered with an attempt at a joke.

"Too small, in my opinion," Saitou took another drag on his cigarette. "But enough of this pointless talk. I'm assuming you're not going to sell?" His cigarette pointed towards Kaoru. "That's too bad, because these people aren't going to give up easily. You're going to have to keep on being bait until we figure out who the bastard is. Not that I mind."

"You wouldn't," Kaoru returned. "But I'm willing to do it, in order to keep the dojo."

"I will stay here for a while long then," Karen said decisively. "Kenshin-san and I should be more than enough to prevent anything from getting out of hand. You can put up with me a little longer, Kaoru-san, ne?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Karen-san." Kaoru said indignantly. "You can stay for as long as you want."

"Yeah, that way we won't have to put up with Kaoru's cooking," Yahiko said bluntly, to everyone's general amusement.

Karen looked slightly surprised before giving Kaoru a grateful smile. "Thank you, Kaoru-dono. I promise I will guard this dojo with my life, if necessary."

"Oh, you wandering kenkakus are all the same," Kaoru said, with impatient affection. Kenshin blinked. "Oro... what does that mean, Kaoru-dono?"

"Never mind." Kaoru looked as if she was enjoying a private joke. Saitou shrugged and stood up. "Well, if that settles it, I'm going. This is a lot of fuss over a old dojo."

"Shut up Saitou," Karen snapped. The former Shinsen-gumi looked unperturbed as he strolled into the dawn.