Act Two: All Roads Lead to Kenshin

I stood at the doors of the dojo marked Kamiya Kasshin-Ryû Kenjustu on the board by the gate. Raising a hand, I rapped sharply against the wood, worn smooth by the knuckles of various people over time. When no one came right away, I stood back from the door and waited patiently until I heard footsteps coming, and the door opened a small way until a spiky black-haired head was stuck out. I gave the man a hesitant finger-wave, and he opened the door wider, shoving his shoulders through it and leaning on the doorframe. "Hai? What do you want?"

"Is a man by the name of Himura Kenshin here? Also known as Hitokiri Battôsai?" I asked him carefully.

"Yes. Who's asking?"

"An old friend who knew him as Hitokiri. May I see him?"

The tall black-hired man looked me over quickly. "What's your name?" he asked finally.

"Shinrin Sachi," I answered, lifting my chin.

"Mmm," he responded. "You can call me Sano, for now."

I bowed slightly, placing my hands on my knees. "Sano," He dipped his head at me in return, and then swung the door open. "Follow me. Kenshin's in the dojo."

We walked through the open courtyard, past a well and a toilet and bathhouse. I looked around, aware of my surroundings, but also keeping up with Sano, who turned to make sure I was behind him and following periodically. He stopped and pointed to the porch of the dojo, and a mess of flame-red hair. "There he is," he said to me, and then shouting across to the figure, "Hey! Kenshin! Someone's here to see you!"

Battôsai's hand was under his chin, propping it up, and his back was to us, engrossed in a game of checkers with a girl who was both a few inches taller and a few years younger then myself. She looked past his shoulder at Sano and I, and regarded me with a mixture of fascination and worry. Battôsai still didn't turn.

Clearing my throat gently, I called out. "Hitokiri. It's been quite awhile."

I watched his back stiffen, and Himura suddenly whirled around, and fell to the porch's floor in an extreme bow, his head touching the floor. He kowtowed to me for a brief second, and then leapt up, jumping the steps of the porch and running across the yard to where I stood with Sano. "Sachi."

He ran straight into me, knocking me off balance, and I laughed as I flung my arms around his neck. Battôsai wrapped his arms around me to catch me, and lifted me upright again. He was smiling like a child, eyes wide and blue and clear as a perfect summer sky. But looking back into them, my smile faltered for a moment, and I buried my face against his neck so that he nor the others could see my face. He held onto me tighter, and closed his eyes, kissing my forehead gently. We both sighed, and very slowly, our breathing shifted into time with one another's. "I've waited so long," I whispered, and he nodded.

"As this one has as well. This one thought you were dead."

"I thought you had disappeared."

"This one did, for awhile, for which this one will be eternally sorry for causing you any pain during that time."

Kaoru stood on the porch, having risen in shock the instant Kenshin had hit the ground in kowtow. She watched as the pair in the courtyard clung to each other, like a man in the desert clings to his mirage of water. Slowly, her heart settled into the pit of her stomach as they whispered in discernable tones to each other. She exchanged shocked looks with Sano, who had stepped back to give the two of them room.

"Who is she?" she mouthed to him, and he shrugged back in response.

Kenshin finally let go of the strange girl, and stepped back, still with an arm over her shoulder. She half leaned against him, and half stood on her own, as if not quite sure what she felt. The look of relief and weariness on her dainty yet strong face was more then enough to speak for her.

"Kaoru-dono, Sano, this is Shinrin Sachi. She'll be staying here, with us."

Kaoru's heart plunged further with Kenshin's words.

Kaoru tip-toed down the hallway to the new girl's room, beside Megumi's. She carefully slipped the door open, not making any sound. Looking in, she saw the room was empty, and that the bed hadn't even been slept it. Her blood boiling, she slammed the screen door shut with a bang, and stalked back down the hallway in the direction of Kenshin's own room. "That vixen," she muttered through gritted teeth. "Not even here a day and she's already in Kenshin's bedroom. I'll get through to her!"

Sano's voice floated out from the darkness behind her. "Did it ever occur to you that she might belong in there?" he asked her. "And furthermore, eavesdropping isn't very lady-like. Not that you ever were, though."

Kaoru snarled and spun around to face him. "And creeping up on people in the dark isn't very mature either! Besides, this is my house, so I should know what's going on in it! I'm not eavesdropping!"

"Then what do you call pressing an ear to people's walls to hear what's being said inside?"

"…Gathering information!" she insisted. Sano chuckled.

"Fine. Whatever you say. Just be careful, Kaoru. If Kenshin or Sachi catch you listening to them, they won't be very happy. They have a lot to talk about."

Kaoru's chin wobbled threateningly. "But-but-but-but-but…she shows up today, and she's all over him, and now they're alone in his bedroom ALL NIGHT!!!"

Sano looked down at the hysterical girl with a look of scorn and condescension. "Correction. THEY were all over EACH OTHER. Kaoru, did you ever think that maybe she belongs in there?"

"SHE DOESN'T BELONG IN THERE!!!"

The voices inside the bedroom hushed, and Sano threw a hand over the yelling Kaoru's mouth. "Shhh!" he hissed at her. "Idiot! Be quiet! Do you WANT them to come out here?"

She shook her head 'no' frantically under his hand, eyes wide as they stared through the screen of the bedroom, back-lit with a lantern. The two figures sitting on the futon had gone rigid, turning their heads simultaneously to the door. For a long minute, neither Sano nor Kaoru dared to breathe.

Finally, the heads turned back, and their postures relaxed. The two outside the doorway let out a low breath in relief. "Ok, now, I'm taking you away from here before you really do get caught," Sano insisted, and dragged a resisting Kaoru away from the dimly lit bedroom, back down the hall to her own, and threw her in, shutting the door behind her and bolting it from the outside. "Sweet dreams," he chuckled at the door as Kaoru's muffled curses and thuds of things hitting the sturdy wood met his ears.

Grinning widely to himself, he walked back down the hall to his room, pausing only for a second outside the lit bedroom to watch as Kenshin touched the new girl's face. 'Or rather,' Sano thought, 'Should that be the 'old girl's' face?' Shaking his head, he tore his attention away and went into his own room, leaving the two to their privacy.

"I didn't know what had happened to you. I waited here, in Tokyo, for a year for you to catch up with me, but you never came. So eventually, I went back to the inn. Tengai was glad to see me, of course, seeing as the profits had gone down after I'd left. And gradually, I began to hear rumors of the red-haired Hitokiri Battôsai in Tokyo. I figured it could have only been you," I said, with a small sad smile to Himura where he sat across from me.

"They told this one that you had died, that night in the forest. That you had been caught by a group ahead, and were killed on the spot. They obviously lied, but at the time, this one was so furious that I killed them all in rage. Later, they captured me, as I was travelling to meet you here, to see if they had been lying, or if you had actually escaped somehow. I went to prison for a year."

Battôsai's face clouded over, his eyes becoming dark and narrow, the way I had known them for so long so many years ago. But then they brightened again, and he looked up. "Well. Now we know our good fortune that we've found each other again."

I frowned a bit, tilting my head to the side to look at him who I once knew so well. "Hitokiri. You've changed much."

His eyes softened gently, and he smiled sadly at me. "Bijin," he said, reaching out to me. I caught his hand, and folded his fingers shut, turning it over to kiss his knuckles. I placed it on my face, my hand on top of his, and he regarded me solemnly. " 'Hitokiri Battôsai' has no place here now. Now, this one is but Rurouni Kenshin, the wanderer."

"Your hair is lower now."

"Hai. The high ponytail of a Hitokiri has no place on a simple rurouni."

I nodded, letting his hand drop from my face. "If I can fall in love with you once, I can fall in love with the same person twice, no matter how different you are, or what you chose to hide," I said strongly, watching his face as he looked at me. "You're more child-like now. Innocent and cheerful. You say 'this one' instead of 'I' or 'me'. But you can't hide all from me, Himura. You're still as passionate about justice and fighting as you once were when I knew you."

"Kenshin, please. And you know this one still, as you show by your astute observations. You have gotten more defensive and careful as the world around you has changed, changing you as you adapt. This one would dearly like to see you laugh in joy again, or smile without the shadows behind your green eyes." He reached out and touched the corner of my left eye, and I blinked.

"Time changes all, as it heals all wounds, Kenshin."

"Time doesn't heal all wounds, as this one is afraid he caused you wounds."

I hesitated, wondering what to say, if I could be as cruel as I felt. But those steady blue eyes bored into me, and I only could nod, and offer a small explanation. "Yes. You did hurt me. I had hope, and then it was taken away from me as I had to return back to where I had come from, alone again."

My Hitokiri leaned forward, and embraced me, nudging me forward into him. I laid my head on his shoulder and blinked slowly as he smoothed my hair down and whispered to me. "I never would have wished to hurt you in any way, bijin. You must believe me."

"I do, Himura."

His eyes flicked from their usual purple and blue to the gold and red that I had seen him wear years ago. The assassin eyes fell on me, and I stood transfixed. It was like being caught standing half in a rainstorm, and half out, with one side of your body went and cold and the other wondering at the sunlight. Caught in limbo between Hitokiri Battôsai and Rurouni Kenshin, I realized it was a lot like that mystical half-rainstorm. Lightening flashed close-by in warning of danger, but the sun was still smiling down on you. I knew as long as I was there, Battôsai could never truly be the Rurouni 'Kenshin'.

I walked out of the back porch of the dojo, stretching my arms above me head and loosening them, smiling slightly at both the perfect day and the sight before me.

Kenshin sat on a tree-truck, facing another tree-trunk with a block of wood precariously placed on it. It wobbled, and Kenshin's tongue was slightly stuck out the side of his mouth in concentration. Narrowing his eyes at the piece of wood, his hand reached down to his side and flashed out again, whipping his sakabatô out of it's sheath with stunning speed beyond what my eyes could watch. "No! NOT THAT!" I screeched, waving my hands 'no' across in front of my chest. Kaoru and Yahiko looked up quickly from the other end of the yard, where they were practicing with bokotu practice swords for one of Yahiko's lessons.

The sword flashed in the sunlight, and then two perfect halves of wood tumbled off the trunk. Kenshin smiled in delight, bending over to pick them up. Straightening up, he frowned at me, eyebrows furrowed. "Why-ever not?"

"WHY are you chopping WOOD with your SAKABATÔ?!" I asked, breathing fire as I rushed down the steps and grabbed the tree-trunk away from him, pulling it farther away so he couldn't reach for another block of wood to chop. Leaning over the trunk with my hands planted on either side of it, I waited for his answer as he blinked at me.

"What else is it good for? Wood needs to be chopped. I'm chopping it."

I buried my hands in my hair. "That's it, I give up. Fine, ruin your sword. See if I care when you go to draw it and your foe laughs at you because it's so dull from splitting endless blocks of wood. Try telling him warm baths and hot meals are good while he cuts you down."

Yahiko looked over at Kaoru. "She does have a point. It's a sword, not an axe."

"I never asked him to use it."

Kenshin turned back to look at me. "No one's laughed at it yet."

"Wait a few years of slaving away over the chopping block, and then see," I said mulishly, crossing my arms.

"This one doesn't plan on chopping wood for Kaoru-dono forever," he protested.

"Why don't you use it how it's meant to be used?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"I don't know. Maybe, a lesson," I wheedled, tilting my head and smiling innocently. His face went flat.

"You've been planning this."

"Just a teensy bit," I admitted.

"Fine. But I don't usually do this. Only for you. I must do what I promised to."

Kaoru's voice rang in my ear, and I fell sideways in shock at the sound of it.

"KENSHIN TAUGHT YOU?! I thought he didn't teach students!" she shouted furiously. I rose up again, rubbing at my ear.

"Ow. My eardrum."

Kenshin smiled, reaching out to pat me on the head in sympathy. "I know. Powerful lungs," he said in an undertone.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!"

Kenshin was caught off-guard, his eyes bugging, and then smiled sheepishly.

"This one only taught her a little, a long while ago. But it will be good to get a sword in her hand again. May we borrow some bokokus?"

"I…what…sure," she finally sputtered, pointing into the dojo. "Hanging on the wall in the training hall."

Kenshin and I both stood in the dojo's yard in front of the porch, both of us holding a bokuto, a wooden sword used for kendô. "Do you need the flat side to be marked for you as it would be on a sakabatõ?" Kenshin asked me gently.

"Of course not. Don't be silly," I protested sharply, tightening my grip on the wooden handle.

"Good. This one hoped you would not have forgotten already."

I snorted out my nose, very unladylike. "When pigs fly," I retorted, and Kenshin smiled.

"Now, show this one what you have not forgotten," he requested, and we both sunk into an on-guard defensive position.

Kenshin let me initiate the first move, as any generous sensei will wait until his pupil is ready, or he thinks his pupil is ready. But once you start, they are merciless. Kenshin was not one to play down his skill, even when just sparring. As I remembered, and soon found out again, I had a long way to go before I was at his level. I frequently found myself at the end of his practice bokuto, and was forced to drop mine in surrender.

Sweating from the exercise, I blinked my eyes, and then opened them to find that in that split-second, Kenshin had cornered me in the small space between the porch end and the bath house. I looked up quickly as he paused, giving me a second to gather myself. Overhead, I spotted the overhanging end beam from the porch roof.

Without thinking, I jumped up, reaching for the beam. Grabbing it, I curled up, around it, and then dropped down on the other side of Kenshin, holding my bokuto at his back. He whirled, faster then my eye could see, but my hand followed what my eye could not.

My bokuto clashed with his, and suddenly, it flew out of his hands and through the air, landing twenty feet away, sticking out of the ground, point-first. "Oro?" Kenshin asked, staring at it almost cross-eyed.

We both gaped at it for a few moments, just staring at it, not saying anything. Finally, Kenshin laughed, and went over to retrieve it, pulling it out of the ground and wiping it across his wide pant legs.

"You surprised this one. This one always thought that women would make great fighters because they often can act faster then a man can react. Well done, Sachi-san," he praised, smiling at me with happiness in his eyes as he beamed at me.

My mouth still open, I gestured with my free hand to him and the bokuto. "But I…how…what?"

"You seem to not have forgotten much, bijin."

"Whew," I whistled, and then we went pack to sparring without rest.

More jaws hung open on the porch. "Did she…she just…didn't she?!" Kaoru asked Sano, who was still staring bug-eyed at the two on the courtyard.

"She did. She just disarmed Kenshin!"

"HOW?!"

Sano pointed at her as she defended herself from Kenshin. "She's a good sword-hand at her own level, but against Kenshin, it's amazing that she achieved what she did. I'd say it was just sheer luck, but when you watch her, you see a few things. She's more 'covered' then most fighters. Because she's used to sparring with people more skilled then she is, she fights defensively, not striking, but blocking, which takes less energy. Also, she doesn't give her moves away with her body movement, making her dangerously more surprising."

"She's fast too."

Sano turned to look at Kaoru. "You're the Kamiya Kasshin-Ryû trainer. You should know what makes her that quick."

"Training with people like Kenshin, who are superhumanly fast makes her reflexes faster. If you are ever to beat them, you have to be a step ahead of them."

"Right."

Megumi and Yahiko joined them. "Did you just see that?!" Yahiko demanded. Sano and Kaoru nodded their heads.

Megumi looked on in awe. "She's amazing," she breathed.

"No," Sano corrected, "She's learning."

Dinner wasn't much of a formal affair, other then we all gathered and sat around the low table. Megumi had made the rice balls and miso soup, since Kaoru no longer seemed to have that task, being one-upped by the better cook.

We all sat quietly and ate, small talk being exchanged between everyone. Megumi was more civil toward me then Kaoru, but I didn't expect any less. Kaoru had more to lose to me then the aloof doctor's daughter.

Kenshin reached for his cup and brought it to his lips, then paused, looking down his nose into it. Looking into my own cup, I realized no one had poured the tea. Reaching for Kenshin's cup, I took it from him. "I'll pour the tea," I offered quietly. I picked up the pot of green tea, and tilted it expertly, pouring it daintily, and then stopping the flow cleanly with a quick tilt back up to center. I followed suit with everyone else's cups, and then paused when I got to mine, looking up at the staring faces. "What?" I asked quizzically.

"You pour like a geisha," Sano explained. I smiled at the rooster-haired punk.

"Ah. Yes. It would make sense then, as I lived in an okiya for quite awhile."

Sano and Kaoru both hit the proverbial roof, leaping up and landing again with thuds. "YOU were a GEISHA?!"

Sipping tea delicately, I took a moment to respond. "No, actually. I ran away from the okiya and became a prostitute."

Megumi turned to look at Kenshin, who blushed a faint red. Yahiko turned to me so fast I expected his head to whiplash. And Kaoru and Sano hit the roof for a second time, as I expected. "YOU were a PROSTITTUTE?!"

"Mmm. Yes. I was for some time."

Kaoru practically jumped down Kenshin's throat as she yelled at him, leaping for him with a fist raised. "WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN A BROTHEL?!"

Meanwhile, Yahiko was almost crawling across the table to get to me. "Where were you a prostitute? Did you know a woman named Myõjin Yumisaga?! Did you know my mother?!"

I laughed cheerfully, raising one hand palm out and flat to stop Yahiko's chatter, and reached out with my other hand and snagged Kaoru by her kimono collar before she could pummel Kenshin into oblivion. He sat up again from where he had been huddled, and rubbed his head sorely.

"No, Yahiko, I didn't know your mother. She must have been at another place. And no, Kenshin was never at a brothel, Kaoru, so calm down. I worked from a roadside inn and tavern. Furthermore, what is so bad about being a prostitute?"

Dead silence met my eyes, and everyone stared down, not meeting my gaze. "Oh, really, all of you. It's a JOB. It's a way a slave girl can support herself, and even eventually buy her own freedom. Megumi. From what I've heard of you, you concocted opium for a gang. Without knowing it, of course," I added hastily as she looked up sharply at me. "Yahiko, you were a pick-pocket. Sano, you are a fight-merchant for hire. Really. None of you have the clean conscious to judge others from their past." I stood sharply and looked down, at Kaoru. "Except maybe Kaoru-dono. If you'll excuse me," I asked stiffly, bowing and walking from the room.

I stalked out onto the porch and down into the yard. I heard Kenshin scrambling after me, and the shoji screen doors shut behind him again as he followed me outside. He stopped on the porch, and I turned back to him. "What is the meaning of this, Battôsai? Your new friends of their own unclean pasts judge me, and even you yourself, the emperor of the dark past, don't raise either hand or voice to help me? I thought you were more of a man then that. You used to be. Now I see you aren't anymore." Kenshin placed a hand on the porch railing, and without waiting for his answer, I turned away again and walked for the gate doors.

His voice stopped me as I reached for the handle of a door. As it always had, it made me stop and listen to him. "Megumi who you made mad also saved people's lives, even Yahiko's. As for himself, he converted from his past to become the apprentice his samurai father would be proud of. Sano stopped fighting the past of his hatred for the loyalists, and even joined this one in my fight. And you, who was once the prize blossom of the Green Dragon Inn, have become the strong-hearted and independent woman this one sees before him."

I sighed and rested my forehead against the door panel, closing my eyes and breathing deeply. I straightened again, and faced him. "I was wrong to say what I did to them. They have taken me in, and I was rude to them all. I'll apologize and ask for their forgiveness."

Kenshin smiled that innocent little-boy smile at me. "They already forgive you. They all know what it's like to bite at the hand that offers them help. Come back inside, bijin." Even now, after my outburst of temper, he could call me 'Beautiful One.' It never ceased to amaze me at the generosity in Himura's heart, either as a Hitokiri or a Rurouni.

He reached hand out to me, and I walked back across the yard and up the stairs, taking it in my own. He squeezed it gently. "Shall we go back in now?" he asked gently, and I nodded, not trusting my tongue.

Leading me back in, and shutting the door behind us, we stood in front of the seated Kenshingumi, and I let go of Kenshin's hand so I could deeply bow down to knee height to them all.

"I'm very deeply sorry for my outburst aimed at all of you. I won't allow it to happen again."

There was no sound for a moment, and then they all rose and came over to me, holding out a hand to help me rise up again, or offering a smile. It seemed all was forgiven. Life in this dojo seemed to flow from outburst to outburst, and none of it was taken seriously. Kenshin had found a group of people all as loyal and generous as he was. And I seemed to be the latest acquisition to their small group of misfits and reformers.