Disclaimer: I do not own RK.
My lovely siblings juz banned my singing. They did a vote & the results say they prefer a session with the Gestapo, KGB etc. to Karoke nite with me. So sad... there goes family-time... Speaking of house & home... on with our story.

Chapter 6: House of Sorrow

Saitou disappeared again. He spent the remainder of the night at Aoiya. Morning found Saitou gone from the building. Himura Kenshin was troubled. He had written a letter back to the Kamiya dojo. He did not know how long this matter will take. How will Kaoru take it? Maybe leaving her at this time was a mistake.

Kenshin wanted to return to his wife but he had given his word to the police chief to help. Kyoto was the old hunting ground of Battousai. He had many painful memories here. After Tomoe's death, he had wanted to give up but he had given his word to Katsura. He saw the war through to its end and the coming of the new era.

What of Saitou? Himura was shocked when he first learnt Saitou had a wife. He had married her shortly before the war when he was still in the Shinsengumi. Okita was both his wife's cousin and his best friend. They often patrolled together. Himura had seen them together more than once. What other friends or family did Saitou have during those tumultuous times?

Assuming the killer is linked to Okita, who will bear a grudge for so long? Okita was popular. Were there other friends or family? Kenshin remembered Sano when they first met. Sano had nursed a grudge against the Meiji government for ten years over what happened to his taicho. He will have to ask the Oniwabanshu...

Local ramee stall. Saitou waited for his informant. He had eaten soba with Tokio at the restaurant across the road. Sweet, understanding Tokio. She helped him get back onto his feet after Okita's death. If it weren't for her...

"I thought you retired." His informant had arrived. Same beanstalk-head, same tacky outfit.

"You better have something..." Chou nodded as he ordered a bowl of noodles. "The second house on the left of Lantern Street from the fish market."

Soujirou's fever finally broke. She could leave him alone for a while. Megumi packed her kit and prepared to go on her rounds about the neighborhood. Kenshin will be coming along when she called on her patient in Lantern Street. Kaoru-chan will be furious if she knew! Megumi laughed, going "oohohoho" as she pictured Kaoru's face.

But Kenshin really should be more understanding. His wife's pregnant after all. Mothers-too-be are more emotional...

The house was small but well built with high walls about its court. Saitou stood outside the door. Should he knock? They had parted on very, very bad terms. She tried to kill him with a kitchen knife. Will the years have changed her? Mitsu was much older than her brother. She came to Kyoto a widow hoping to land another husband. She flirted outrageously with the Shinsengumi men to poor Okita's horror.

They nicknamed her Neko or cat because she almost purred when she spoke. Another girl came with her. Okita's little dove, Sakuraki Yukiko. She was Okita's fiancée but he freed her from their engagement when he learnt of his illness. They believed she had left for her hometown soon after. But Chou said Yukiko was living here with Mitsu...

"Saitou?!" Both Megumi and Kenshin's eyes bugged when they saw the tall man outside the house.

"Are you here to see Okita's sister?" Kenshin asked. "When did you make a habit of harassing my patients?" Megumi glowered at Saitou when he nodded. The gate creaked open and a very beautiful woman peered out.

"Takani-sensei, I'm glad you are here. Mitsu-san isn't too well..." The woman wore a plain short-sleeved kimono. Her hair was tied up neatly as a married woman's would be. Saitou recognized her. So she had married. "Yukiko-san?"

The woman blinked. "Saitou-san? Come in, Soshi will be coming home soon..." Both Saitou and Kenshin exchanged puzzled looks. Did she mean Okita? It was impossible...

Their suspicions were confirmed when a smiling Yukiko presented their baby--- a straw dummy. So Okita's fiancée had lost her mind. They found Mitsu sitting up on her futon. The house was spartanly furnished. Saitou tried to help her after Okita's death, but Mitsu had fiercely rejected his offer. She vanished in the chaos of that time. He never thought to look for her till now.

She glared at Saitou like an angry cat. "Slimy bastard! What are you doing here? Haven't you done enough harm?"

"Saitou-san, you better leave..." Megumi spoke as she tried to take Mitsu's pulse. Saitou was not deterred. "Mitsu-san, there's been a massacre at the Miyagi mansion... the Butcher was killed..."

"So? He deserved what he got!" The woman laughed and then coughed blood into her palm. Mitsu was now suffering from the same affliction as her brother had. She had once been beautiful. The years had been cruel to Mitsu. Her hair had grayed and her eyes had hardened. She was now an old woman.

"Do you know what he did to her?" She pointed to Yukiko. The younger woman nursed her imaginary baby, oblivious to their attention.

"Poor naïve girl. She went to plead with Miyagi to free Soshi. He offered her a deal. The Butcher's not one to turn away a pretty face..." Mitsu spat the words out. He raped her. The implication in Mitsu's words was clear. Saitou felt sick to the pit of his stomach. Still he must ask her.

"Has he been here? Izumi Ichiro, your bastard son..." Mitsu flinched visibly.

"I never had a son. He ceased to be mine when I gave him away," Mitsu answered flatly. "Soshi was a fool to think I would take him back." She had been wild in her youth. She had a child from a liaison with a ronin. She gave the child away as soon as he was born to a childless trading couple on their way to Kyoto.

Then her moronic brother tracked down the boy in a misguided attempt to reunite them. She was horrified when Soshi asked her to take in the youngster when he learnt that his foster family had died. Who'd want a woman with a bastard son in tow? Soshi doted on his nephew. Maybe she should have taken the child in rather than leave him at the orphanage...

"I last saw him more than ten years ago," Mitsu smirked. "You, Tokio and Soshi were more his family than I ever was. I've got nothing to hide."

"Mitsu-san, please..." Kenshin decided to question further. "Miyagi Takeshi had no part in Okita's death. Neither did his children and grandchildren. And Saitou's wife and children had nothing to do with..."

"Tokio? Tokio's dead?" Mitsu blinked with a stricken look on her face. "It's a pity she paid for your sins!" She glared at Saitou. Yukiko came over. "Mitsu-san, what are they saying about Soshi? Mitsu-san, look, he just called me..." She pushed the straw dummy onto Mitsu's lap. The older woman lost her patience.

"Why is it we women end up paying all the time?" She shoved the straw dummy away hard. "Not just me, not just Tokio..." Yukiko stared in puzzlement. "Yukiko, he never really saw you. Soshi's an imbecile when it came to you! He thought you'd gone home to marry another!"

She gripped Yukiko's shoulders. "Don't you remember? When you learnt he was taken away from the hospital, you went to plead with that beast! Remember how I found you in the street, after the Butcher and his lackeys gang-raped you? For what?"

Yukiko tore free from Mitsu's grip with a look of horror on her pretty face. She ran to the corner and cowered there, shaking and weeping. "Yuki-chan! I'm sorry!" Mitsu realized she had shattered the fragile world Yukiko had built for herself. She ran over and hugged Yukiko, trying to calm her... Megumi shooed both Kenshin and Saitou out.

It was a somber trio that left the house. They walked together in silence. Saitou's shoulders were hunched. Mitsu's words had hit him hard. Kenshin broke the uneasy quiet. "Megumi, will she recover?"

"Yukiko's mind's long gone... And Mitsu should really be in a hospital, but she'll never leave Yukiko alone..." Megumi shook her head sadly.

"How like Soshi..." Saitou remarked.

Author's notes:

In most wuxia novels the swordsman hero does everything right by his master, comrades and family always, always fails the woman who loves him the most. He's too dense to see her feelings... Kenshin? Naa, he fell out with Master Hiko, so Kaoru need not worry.

R&R please. Arigato for the reviews.