Act Six: Rivals and Assassins

"This one thinks that it's time for you to have serious training," Kenshin said, peering at me closely in interest. "With these 'guests' coming in, it's always a good thing to know how to protect one's self."

My jaw dropped open. "You mean, you're bringing me to the dojo where Kaoru trains?"

"This one doesn't see any reason why not to, and all the reasons why it should happen."

I threw my arms around his neck and hung onto him, kissing him furiously. "Oro?!"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Kenshin wrapped an arm around my shoulders to keep me upright, and I over-balanced, tilting forward, the hilt of his sakabatô imbedding it's self into my stomach and knocking the wind out of me. "Ompff!"

"Oro?"

The next day I followed Kaoru and Kenshin and Yahiko to another kenjutsu dojo across town. The sensei was an old friend of Kaoru's father, and she had been going there to train for awhile.

We stopped in front of a large dojo marked 'Chuetsu-Ryû Maekawa Dojo' on the board outside. We kicked off our sandals by the door and slid the shoji screen aside. The action inside the training hall stopped as we filed in, and then shouts went up.

"Kaoru-kun!"

"Kon'nichiwa!"

"Where have you been in the past week?"

I slipped in behind she and Kenshin, keeping my head down and scoping the place out from behind their backs. One of the men saw me, and pointed, leaning over to whisper to one of his friends. Soon, a buzz was going around the assembled students and then they hushed.

A middle-aged man with gray hair and a beard stepped forward, tall and strong. He shot a look to his students. "Why did you stop working? Come on, go back to your training," he prompted, and they reluctantly turned away, back to their training. Turning to Kaoru, he tilted his head to me. "Kaoru-kun. I see there is someone new with you."

A hand slipped behind my back, and Kenshin pressed me forward. "Maekawa-dono, this is Shinrin Sachi. She will be training here from now on when Kaoru-dono comes."

Maekawa-sensei nodded. "I trust your judgement, Himura-kun. Shinrin-kun, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you before. I am the sensei of this dojo, Maekawa."

My tongue was sticking to the roof of my dry mouth. "Kon'nichiwa, Maekawa-sensei. I am…a friend of Kaoru-dono and Kenshin."

His thick eyebrows raised momentarily when I didn't use a suffix after Kenshin's name, and in fact, used his familiar first name. But he smoothed out his face in a second's span, and turned, taking a bamboo shinai off the sword rack behind him. He offered it to me, hilt first. I took it, and shifted it from side to side, testing the balance. Satisfied with the balance and springiness of the shinai, I nodded.

Maekawa smiled at me. "Obviously you have training in kenjutsu."

"Only a bit, from what I pick up, and what Kenshin teaches me."

"Himura-kun teaches you?" The surprise in his voice was evident, and he turned to Kenshin, who nodded. "Then you are a lucky person, Shinrin-kun, to have the good fortune to be taught by Himura-kun. So why are you here?"

"Yes, why am I here?" I said, turning and posing the question to Kenshin, who blushed.

"This one wants her to have more experience in a kenjutsu school setting, rather then just in a back yard whenever we have spare time. She has talent. This one would like to see it honed."

"But you won't shape her yourself?" The sensei was incredulous.

"Îe. It's not this one's style to take on a student."

"If you say then, she will be welcome here."

So with that I became a regular with Kaoru at the Chuetsu-Ryû center every week. Once the students there got over the fact that another girl was training alongside them, and they learned that I didn't tolerate being babied just based on my gender, we got along for the most part. In fact, the only one not getting along with me was Kaoru.

It seemed as if she had taken offense to no longer being the only girl, and in impromptu rivalry sprung up between us of who could beat whom, and rise to the top of the class first.

Although we might have been rivals at the center, back home at the Kamiya-Ryû dojo, we were as friendly as always. Which at times stretched the term 'civil'. But for the better part, the sword training war was kept for the days we trained, and the friendship was kept for the home life.

I was thoroughly enjoying my training. Not only was I finding that sparring against Kenshin had made me capable of dealing with most of the men at the dojo, I was also finding my own 'center' of my mind and body through the intense training.

Kenshin continued to give me private training, and was impressed with what Maekawa-sensei had been teaching me.

I stood, facing Kenshin in the front yard, a bokuto in my hand. "Today, bijin, we are going to discuss the five basic stances of kendô: Jôdan, Seigan, Gedan, Hassô, and Wakigamae."

"Jôdan." He stood with his sword lifted over his head.

"Seigan." A cut to the middle level of his body, in quadrant 2, being the torso.

"Gedan." A low, sweeping block down toward the shins.

"Hassô." The sword held vertically, with his hands at shoulder level.

"Wakigamae." A horizontal guard position.

I blinked suddenly, the images seared into my mind of past times fighting, frantically racing to match them with the stances. "You use Seigan the most!" I blurted, and Kenshin smiled.

"You catch on quickly. Yes, this one tends to favor Seigan, that is true. Very good memory. Now I would like you to try each stance and tell me which you find most capable to you. Each swordsman is different, each will have his or her own favorite stance that works best for them. Take your time. This isn't a test."

I understood. I really understood. Breathing deep, I settled myself into my feet, grounding myself, and closed my eyes, raising my hands and bokuto above my head for Jôdan. I opened my eyes, and Kenshin leapt toward me.

"Yagggh!" I yelled in surprise.

"Sachi-chan, use your stance!"

Needless to say, I took more then a few tries of each until I found the one that I preferred. But as I moved into the position, it felt right. Again, Kenshin leapt toward me, but this time, I swept my bokuto down and to the left, blocking his side-swing.

"There! Now butterfly-cut! Crescent! Down! Block!" He stopped suddenly, and I waited, holding my bokuto ready in the favored stance.

"You understand," he said suddenly. I nodded, not wanting to take my eyes off him even for a second in case he attacked again. He lowered his sakabatõ, indicating I could relax. I followed suit and dropped my sword, and Kenshin smiled. "That will keep you covered from anyone, no matter who you fight. A good neutral stance that can either block or guard is the best defense."

I nodded, wiping the sweat off my forehead with my forearm. "That's it for today," Kenshin said. "You'll be at Maekawa-sensei's dojo tomorrow. Use it then. See what happens."
Kenshin turned away from me, and I smiled, the bokotu rolling lightly off the ends of my fingers and falling to the ground, raising a small cloud of dust as it dropped. My bare feet taking short but quick strides, I launched into the air, reaching out toward the unsuspecting ex-Hitokiri's back.

Just as I started to fall onto his back, a figure walking around the corner of the dojo caught my eyes, and I looked up at Kaoru, taking my eyes off Kenshin's back. "Kenshin, there's something I need you to-" Her eyes suddenly widened, mirroring mine. "Hey…!"

I looked down again quickly, but Kenshin's back had disappeared under me as he dropped toward the ground.

"Hey!"

Her fist swung up from her side and I winced. "Crap."

Wham.

"Ompff!"

"Sachi-san! You must stop doing that! This one ducks because of his Hitokiri training, and you end up getting hurt by Kaoru-dono!"

"Hey!"

The voice startled me out of my deep concentration as I swept the shinai around me in a complicated fan-like movement. Blinking, I turned, forgetting that the bamboo sword was still in the air, waiting to be caught and swung again. It fell to the tatami floor with a clunk, and I blushed bright red as I quickly snapped down to pick it up.

"You! Shinrin-kun!" A medium-sized, medium-built, medium-looking student was standing a few feet from my side, his hands on his hips and a fierce expression on his face.

"Yes? How can I help you?" I asked levelly, keeping my tone and expression blank, but my shinai grasped in hand. It would appear to be a loose place at my side, but anyone who would have looked closer and known a thing or two about kenjutsu would have noticed I had it ready to be swung up to defend at any moment.

"That's a geisha bun!" he cried, raising a hand suddenly to my head to point at my hair. I might have been a bit jittery, and as soon as I saw the movement of his hand swinging up, I raised the shinai up. It knocked into his wrist, but by that time, I had had the time to slow the motion so that it merely tonked off harmlessly.

He looked own and then shoved the shinai blade off of his wrist. "I'd know one anywhere!"

A passing student muttered as he passed us. "Yeah, we know you would, Shinkei." I covered a small smile with my other hand, and then nodded.

"So what if it is?"

"But then…that would make you…a geisha!"

"Wrong. Well, half-wrong. I was. But then I was a prostitute," I explained to the student.

Thud. His eyes rolled back into his head and he moaned, falling backwards and hitting the floor.

"Oops," I said.

"She trains hard. It's almost as if she purposely pushes her limits. I fear that she may break herself one day," Maekawa said to Kenshin as they watched Sachi going through her drills on the floor, her jaw set and eyes intensely focused.

"Mmm. This one will watch her to make sure she doesn't hurt herself."

"It's a shame she was born female, and European with a tendency for self-exhaustion. She would have gone far back in the day."

"That she would have."

I eyed the man that I was set to spar with today. He was a good foot and a half taller then I was, and had at least fifty pounds on me. Dubiously, I lifted my shinai when I heard Maekawa call the 'start'. Holding my shinai vertically, and at shoulder level, I assumed the Hassô stance.

He came at me from the side, and I tilted my sword to block him. At the same time I blocked, I slid past his offense, seeing as he was attacking, and wasn't guarded. Using the power from the block, I slid it down the side of his shinai and to the space where his armor gaped open under his arm, and tilted it downward, toward his heart.

"Valid hit through arm-hole past offensive swing!"

I leapt back and looked at the man I had beaten as he looked down in failure. "Better luck next time," I offered, and moved over to Maekawa-sensei.

"Shinrin-kun, where did you learn the Hassô stance?"

"Kenshin, yesterday, sensei."

"Very good. Very good," he said with praise in his voice. "And why did you pick Hassô?"

"It felt right to me. And the maneuverability of my sword is made to either block or cut."

"Good choice. Now, I have your next opponent." He gestured behind his back, sweeping a hand behind him to someone who was waiting. "You and Kaoru will be sparring."

I gaped at him. "Wh-what?!" I demanded, and pointed to Kaoru. "I'm fighting her?"

"It's time. You both have been rising rapidly through the ranks here. I want to see how evenly matched the two of you are."

I stared at Kaoru, and she stared back. Looking into her eyes, I saw what we were both thinking. Whoever won this match would be the best in the dojo. The top fighter. I wanted that so bad I could taste it.

We never took our eyes off each other as we lined up for our match. She raised her shinai in front of her, and I fell into Hassô. Her eyes widened, and then narrowed again. She wasn't going to let a stance stand in her way of winning. And I wasn't going to let something like her confidence in my way.

"Start!"

As I predicted she would, Kaoru jumped forward to me, always the one to take offense. I was happy staying in my stance and blocking her thrusts, seeing as the defense took less energy then the movement of attacking. All I had to do was block her blows and wait for her to slip.

Kaoru wasn't a push-over in the least. In fact, she was the hardest I had faced here since I had progressed past the stage of initial shock where I was losing to most of my matches. A few lessons with Kenshin, and more trusting in my instinct, and I was fighting against the likes of Kaoru.

Finally, with a grunt, she lunged past me, and I stepped back, letting her fall forward with her momentum. As she passed, I stepped back behind her and raised the tip of my shinai to the back of her neck. She froze, and time seemed to stand still.

Without a sound, Kaoru turned carefully and looked at me out of the side of her eye over her shoulder, as careful of the shinai tip as if it had been a real katana. We regarded each other, and then I lowered my sword, bowing to her slightly. "A worthy opponent, Kaoru-dono. It was a pleasure to face you."

"As it was you, Sachi-san. Congratulations."

She turned and walked off the fighting tatami, and Maekawa-sensei came up behind me and laid a hand on my shoulder as I watched the defeated girl go. "Even the best get beaten and know when to admit defeat. Well done, Shinrin-kun. We're all very proud of you. I would like to talk to Kenshin about your style some day, so that I might know how he is training you. It's very…unique."

"Thank you, sensei. May I leave, please? There is someone I wish to speak to."

"Of course."

"Kaoru!" I called out, once back on the streets, hurrying after the retreating figure. She stopped suddenly, and I stopped a few feet from her as suddenly, my chest rising and falling with my deep breaths of air. "Wait."

"For what?" she asked, and then turned away, walking away from me. Without turning to me, I heard her say something. "Wait so you can brag about winning? I don't think so."

"That's not what I wanted to say."

"Then what is it? Huh?"

"I just…" I paused. "I would like to congratulate you, too. And maybe request a re-match sometime. I think Fate might have dealt a bad card."

Kaoru spun to face me. "Don't even start!" she yelled. "You get everything without even trying for it! The title, the skill, Kenshin!"

The last one shocked me, and I rocked back on my heels as if I had been punched and had had the wind knocked out of me, my eyes wide. As her meaning registered, they flashed like green fire at her. "Kaoru. Stop."

Her mouth snapped shut and she glared at me. If I had been anyone else, I would have been getting beat on, but I wasn't one she would hit.

"It might not seem like I work for my successes, but I do, Kaoru. Oh, how I do. I train as hard as you do. You know that. As for skills," I shrugged. "I won't apologize for what the gods gifted me with, and what was ought out and helped along by those who wished to help me. And Kenshin…don't bring him into this. I spent so many years of my life alone and in the most horrible of places, selling my body so I could live. Don't begrudge me of my prizes of survival. What I went through you can't even imagine."

Kaoru's face fell and she shut down, not meeting my gaze. "I'm sorry. I was harsh. I didn't mean that. I know that you haven't had the best of lives."

I raked a hand through my wind-blown hair. "One day, Kaoru, I'll tell you of a life so outside of the one you've known. And maybe once I share it with you, it will give me the strength to share it with he who doesn't judge."

"You haven't told him?"

"We all have secrets. You should know that."

The next week when we arrived in the Maekawa dojo yard, I stopped, looking questioningly to the building in front of me.

"Come on, Sachi, what are you waiting for?" Kaoru asked impatiently, and she and Yahiko walked to the door and entered, without waiting for me.

Kenshin gently touched my elbow. "What do you feel?" he asked quietly, and I frowned, shaking my head in confusion.

"I don't know. It just feels…off."

"Off? Some chi?"

"Almost. Tell me what you think."

He paused for a moment, and a look of stillness overcame his face. Blinking and breaking out of it, he looked at me. "I get the same feeling. Someone with a powerful chi is concealing it."

We entered the dojo cautiously, looking around. Maekawa-sensei and Kaoru were in conversation, but he paused when he saw me, catching my eye and tilting his head as if to say 'come here.' I obeyed, putting an arm back to tell Kenshin he didn't need to follow after he started after me.

"Yes, Maekawa-sensei?"

"We have a guest here today that I was just telling Kaoru about. He comes from a dojo in Kyoto. Looks like a promising swordsman, and was asking to duel against some of my more skilled students. Would you be up to it?"

I hesitated, and then nodded. "I'd be pleased to."

"Good. I'll have him do a few practices before, and then he can have a go at a few of you."

Kaoru and I nodded in unison, and the sensei turned away. "What do you think?" I asked her quietly, in a low tone that wouldn't carry.

She shrugged, lifting her hands to her shoulder palm up. "Who knows? New blood."

I watched the strange traveler from a distance. He hadn't taken off his long black cloak, and the deep hood his all but the lower half of his face in shadow. Peculiar behavior for someone when fighting in a match.

"What did he say his name was?" I asked the sensei as we watched him fight against another of the students of the dojo.

"Nobu. Nobu Atsushi."

I snorted out my nose. "There are a million Atsushi's in Japan, and Nobu isn't exactly a rare name. But someone with this type of skill wouldn't have a common name like that. We would have heard of him."

"Agreed. He is something else. He's beating my best students effortlessly, not even breaking a sweat or pressing for speed or strength. What a swordsman."

The stranger had already picked his way easily through three students, and was in a match with Kaoru as we watched. She gave it all her talent, but there was no getting past this man. Her teeth gritted, sweat pouring off her, she finally had to admit defeat when Atsushi pressed the tip of his shinai into the side of her neck.

Stalking off the tatami platform, she walked right over to me and laid a hand on my shoulder. "Sachi," she gasped. "He's incredible. You can't beat him. You can't even touch him. He's in front of you one moment, and then the next…gone. You won't be able to beat him. Don't even try. No one but Kenshin could handle him."

I listened to her, but was already sizing up the man who was waiting for me on the tatami fight platform, shinai held loosely at his side. Shrugging her hand off, I laid my own on her arm. "Kaoru. I'm going."

"Fine. Be that way. I warned you."

I walked slowly out onto the tatami, like one would if one was walking across ice they weren't sure was completely frozen. One could never be too careful with these hidden swordsman.

Standing across from him, I peered over at him sharply, trying to see under his hood. As if sensing my movement and objective, he shifted back again, deeper into the shadows.

"Match of two-out-of-three," Maekawa-sensei announced. "START!"

He lunged even before I had time to raise my shinai. I saw his own go up high above my head, and my eyes widened in alarm. It hissed down, and I squeezed my eyes shut, reading the outcome.

CRASH. I hit the floor, grasping my left shoulder as I howled in pain. I heard bone click, and then felt my shoulder slide back with a sick wet thunk. "AGGGHHH!" I wrenched my shoulder forward and clumsily popped it back in again

I opened my eyes to see him standing above me, raising the shinai for a second blow. Rolling to the side, I leapt up at the ready. But he had already committed to the swing, and his shinai hit the tatami floor.

CRACK. I looked down to see a split in the floor where I had been a moment ago. This stranger was fighting me with everything he had, not in the easy-going yet forceful manner he had been with the other students. The man was brutal. He meant to kill me, I knew that now. But who was he?

Cries came up from the gathered students. "Hey, what're you doing?! Be careful!"

"What was that?!"

"Are you trying to kill her?"

I saw his mouth move in response under the hood. "Yes."

My hand dropped off the shoulder it was nursing and down to the shinai's handle. "Hey. Traveler. Come get me."

He whirled in a tight circle, shinai raised, and then swept it down and to my side. Both hands gripping my shinai, I raised it up to meet the attack and blocked it, gritting my teeth in effort as I skidded back across the floor with the force of the blow that resounded down my sword.

My already hurt left shoulder gave, and I ducked down and under his swinging sword as it rushed to where I had stood. Standing up again, I took the time to try an attack of my own. Enough waiting to be killed. Seek death or wait in fear.

I jumped high, out of the reach of his shinai and over it as it whizzed under my legs as he whirled, landing to the side of him. He looked over and I frowned at him. Using my legs as pendulums, I swung them over into a cartwheel flip and swept my shinai parallel to the floor and into his shins. A roar of surprise went up from the crowd.

Landing, I held my shinai ready in my right hand, by left hand to the side of the sword with two fingers held straight up as a guide. Some of my hair had fallen out of it's bun in my rapid movement, and I blew it out of my eyes. That wouldn't be helping me any.

There was a moment where neither of us moved. Breathing fast, I watched his torso and hips to betray any sense of movement before it happened. This man was sharp. You could usually watch an opponent's eyes to see where they went for their next hit, but he was covering his face under his hood. Who was this dangerous man?

Suddenly, he grinned, and I knew I was too late to dodge his next hit. I raised my shinai against it as it fell, and then before he could apply more pressure to the hit, blows were raining down all around me. Block after block I gave hit for hit.

He was wearing me out with the force of his hits, even for someone like me who prefers to block rather then strike. I was dripping with sweat, gritting my teeth with effort and even crying out as he locked shinai blades with mine, interlocking stances and leaning into me.

I could finally see under his hood, when pressed up against him, body to body, and fighting for balance, and the power to push him away. His crazed black whirlpool eyes shot sparks of hatred at me. "Fight me, damn you. Or I'll kill you if you won't help yourself!" he hissed in a low voice at me, and I gasped at him.

"Nagara!"

"Who else?"

My eyes blazed back at him without warning, and I pushed back on him with a surge of power I got at seeing this crazed assassin again. A figure from my dark past, this was not a man I wanted here now. So much could go wrong with him here. And I had no doubt he would kill me, if he got the chance.

"Fire-eyes again," he chuckled. "That's more like it. Come on, Sachi-yabi. I know you're hiding in there somewhere. Come out, come out," he called in a sickening voice.

Knowing I was losing a battle by pushing against the taller, heavier and stronger assassin, I quickly disengaged my shinai from his and bent over backwards, watching his blade as it whizzed past and over my face, narrowly missing it.

"I forget how quick and supple you are, Sachi-yabi. I won't make that mistake of underestimating you again. So say good-bye. The best treacherous woman is a dead one." He laughed heartily, and threw his head back. His hood fell back, and exposed his chin-length spiky black hair and crazed eyes. He hadn't changed at all since I had known him, not even looking like he had aged a day.

My eyes widened as I watched him as he raised his shinai above his head and started a rapid serious of butterfly cuts down, zigzagging from side to side. I knew this attack. So well. The technique used to slice a person like a ribbon, butchering them. And if one man could kill with a shinai, I wasn't doubting it was Nagara.

I didn't even raise my shinai. It wasn't worth it. It would be cut until it fell in small piles the thickness of a sandal sole. If I was going to die, I would die facing the sword with my eyes on it the entire time. Dimly, I heard the roar of voices in the background.

A blur jumped in front of me, pushing me back. Landing in a sprawl on the floor, I looked up quickly to see the cutting shinai blade met with the flat side of a sakabatô. Grinding the momentum of the shinai to a halt, it was pushed down slowly, inch by inch, even though Kenshin was putting all his muscle into it. The two men stared eye-to-eye, glaring at each other. Nagara raised his shinai again, sweeping it toward Kenshin's side with impressive force.

Kenshin jumped over the blade, avoiding it. Nagara grinned in surprise. "What have we here? Someone with talent? Well, come on then, little red-head, show me what you've got."

Pushing myself up, I bit my lip as my shoulder seared in pain. The two men, lithe Kenshin and tall and sinewy Nagara were a blur of action, attacking and blocking with rapid speed.

"Nagara!" I shouted. "Stop it! Your battle is with me, not Kenshin!"

The two sprang apart, and Nagara grinned at the smaller man. "So this is the Rurouni that I've been hearing so much about. That explains a lot."

I stepped forward, but Kenshin swept out an arm, stopping me behind it. "No. You're hurt. He'll kill you."

Nagara grinned again, at me this time. "Quite true. As it is, it's no fun to fight people who can't swing back when hurt. So I'll be back for you, Sachi-yabi. There's a message I don't think you're quite getting. Make sure the next time I see you, you're healed, have a real katana, and have that fire in your eyes again. I won't fight you without you into the battle. I'll just kill you."

"Warning taken, Nagara. Don't feel as if you need to come back."

"Oh, but I do. We have unfinished business, you and I." He turned and thrust the borrowed shinai back at a student behind him, and then left the dojo quickly, leaving the door open behind him.

Kenshin sheathed his sakabatô and walked over to me where I stood, holding my shoulder in place. "Who was he?" he demanded, eyes still narrowed into his Hitokiri death-glare.

I winced under his gaze, and shifted my shoulder up again. "Nagara."

"Just Nagara? No last name?"

"Nagara doesn't need a last name for what he does."

"How do you know him? What does he want?"

My face shut down, and my eyes closed off from revealing any of my emotions or thoughts. "He's someone I used to know," I offered, and that was it. Kenshin wouldn't be getting any more then that out of me.

Kaoru, Maekawa-sensei and Yahiko crowded in to us, all wearing worried expressions. "Are you alright?" Kaoru asked, and I nodded to her, adding a little hitch of my shoulder in.

"As best as could be expected."

Maekawa-sensei looked down at me. "Shinrin-kun, that man was after your death. He didn't even fight the other students, he only beat them. But he went after you with complete ferocity. Who was he?"

I glared at the same question again. "Someone I used to know."

"I'd advise that you find out what he wants, and then that you stay out his way."

"I know what he wants." The statement shocked them all into silence, and then Yahiko looked up.

"So are we going to go after him?"

"No."

" 'No'?! What do you mean by 'no'?! You're just going to let him kick your butt and then walk away?!"

"There's other things that need to be done. Besides, he'll find me when he wants to see me again."

"ARRRGGGHHH! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU! WHAT ARE YOU, A COWARD?!"

"No. I'm hurt and I know enough not to go after Nagara when I'm hurt and tired. I couldn't face him again now if my life depended on it. Even when it did, he's still a better swordsman then I am."

"This one hasn't faced someone who's trained in the ancient sword arts and is that fast in quite some time," Kenshin offered, eyes hooded. "He's truly a powerful one."

"I could tell that from his fighting aura," Maekawa-sensei said. "He gave out this void of space that I could feel even watching. How didn't you feel it, Shinrin-kun?" he asked.

"I'm used to it."

Kenshin looked sharply at me. "The concealed chi." I nodded at him.

"It's been so long that I didn't recognize it."

"Hmm…" he murmured, and then trailed off, staring out thoughtfully.

Maekawa-sensei pointed to my shoulder. "You best get that to a doctor to examine it. At the very least, he dislocated it."

Kaoru smiled. "I know exactly where we're taking you."

"Megumi."

Th taller girl smiled. "Kon'nichiwa, Sachi. Ken-san, Yahiko. Kaoru," she added, and the other girl growled and raised a fist in warning. Megumi giggled behind a hand.

"What can I do for you? You said you needed a doctor."

All pointed to my left shoulder.

Megumi frowned and looked at it, peeling back the shoulder of my gi to examine it more closely. Kenshin blushed red, and Yahiko's eyes widened. I smiled at their responses. "It's alright. I've got a wrap-band on."

"Does it hurt when I do this?" Megumi asked, and pushed my shoulder back. I yelped and flailed out toward her. "Ok, I'll take that as a 'yes'," she said hastily. "I think you've had it dislocated. What happened?"

"A fight at the Maekawa-dojo got out-of-hand," I told her tersely, and the expressions on the others face's tightened. She looked around and frowned.

"Mmm. I see. Why don't you others leave us alone, and I'll slip this back into place?"

They nodded and trailed out of the room. Once they were gone, Megumi turned to me. "So now tell me what really happened."

"Someone from my past showed up and wasn't too happy with me. In fact, he was pretty sure he'd like to kill me."

"Ah. I understand."

"Better then the others do." We locked eyes for a second across my shoulder and arm. Of all the gumi, Megumi had the past closest to mine. She knew about gangs and shady trades. A question entered her eyes, and I read it, nodding.

"So."

"So."

"Did Ken-san jump in?"

"Of course. Threw me out of the way to do battle," I said dryly.

"Doesn't change, does he?" Megumi asked, smiling.

"He did."

"True. I forget you knew him long before the rest of us did."

"Sometimes I forget that too. You all know more about 'Kenshin' then I do. I knew about 'Battôsai'."

She looked at me and her face became thoughtful. Shaking her head, she smiled at me. "Ok, you win."

"What?"

"When you first came, I tried so hard not to let you in. I didn't want to like you, or have you replace me. Or even Kaoru. I wasn't very welcoming to outsiders. I wanted the group to stay that way forever. But…"

"But?"

"I guess I like you. If I can't have Ken-san, then I'll be happy seeing him with you instead. You make him happy, if not a little less Rurouni-like. But he's still the same, really. And you can tell he truly cares for you."

Her speech shocked me. I sat back with my mouth open, trying to gather back my quickly floating away words. "Megumi…I don't know what to say. Well, I do. Thank you. Domo arigatô."

"Eh. It makes no difference," she reasoned, shifting her focus to my dislocated shoulder again. "Ready?" she asked, and I nodded.

"Good," she said sweetly, and then pushed back on my left shoulder hard. I felt bone grind on bone, and then pain hit my shoulder like a sledgehammer, racing like wildfire down to my stomach.

"YAAAHHH!" I cried in pain, eyes smarting with tears. I balled my fist up and slammed it down into the floor to get my mind of the shoulder as Megumi gently tweaked it back and forth until it settled back into it's socket.

"There. All done."

I gasped. "Thank the gods."

"Why? You don't like pain?"

"Not like that I don't. I think it hurt less being dislocated then going back in."

"Probably. It was faster, anyway."

"Sano! Catch!" I called, and the tall rooster-head turned around as I threw the bokotu through the air to him. He reached up quickly, and snagged it from the air in the middle, a true fighter. When catching anything, you won't be put off-balance by grabbing something toward the middle, where the center of balance of the object will usually be.

"Can the fight-merchant fight with a sword?" I asked, and raised my own bokotu, smiling sharply like a cat.

"Sure. How different can it be from a zanbatô, anyway?"

I laughed.

"Hey, you aren't even supposed to be holding a sword! You're shoulder isn't ready for the strain, Megumi said. And Kenshin would kill you and me if he finds out I helped you start training again."

"Come on, Sano," I moaned. "I'm dying of boredom. I can't train, I can't even do any sort of psychical fighting or work. I've got two choices: sit on my butt all day, or sleep."

"Sleeping sounds good."

"Put yourself in my sandals for a minute. I'm dying here, Sano. No one's even around to talk to."

He rested the bokotu across his shoulders and rested his arms over it. "So go see Megumi."

"I'll get in her way."

"Go to the beef bowl shop."

"I don't have any money."

"That makes two of us."

A slight pause.

"You could change that, you know," Sano suggested. "Go put on a kimono and find Kenshin and charge him for-"

Whack. I glared at him. "That's enough from you, freeloader."

"Owww! Man, I don't know what Megumi meant when she said you needed to 'recuperate', but that arm doesn't seem to be hurting you to strike like that!" Sano protested, rubbing his forehead.

I smiled grimly, leaning on the bokotu again. "Drugs," I reminded him. "For the pain. I'm floating in a happy little bubble."

" 'Happy bubble' my-" Whack.

"Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to put your sword where your flapping mouth is?" I asked him, drawing back my bokotu and raising an eyebrow as I stood on guard.

"THAT'S IT! YOU DID IT NOW!"

"I was hoping for that."

Sano swung from the end of the hilt, using his upper-body to swing his arms around.

Zoop. I stood on his other side, looking at him in interest. "You've never used anything other then the zanbatô, have you?"

He turned again, gritting his teeth and swinging down at me, wielding his bokotu as if it was the zanbatô, rather then a shorter, lighter weapon with a different technique of use.

Zoop. I ducked out from under him and swung in from the side. Stopping most of the propulsion, I tapped him lightly but sharply on the ribs. "Sloppy. You're leaving yourself wide open with your big attacks."

"WILL you STOP IT with the COMMENTARY?!"

"I'm only giving you tips."

"I don't NEED tips!"

"Yes, you do. And stop swinging around like that. It's easy to duck under such a wide swing and enter the range behind you or to your side."

Sano stopped the swing he was making by dragging it down instead of out and changed his course, now attacking straight at me rather then around me. I shifted my weight and blocked the gigantic attack, stiffening into it so he wouldn't push me back. With a snap, his bokotu broke in half between himself and the pressure from mine.

I jumped back, and Sano threw the two halves of broken wooden practice sword aside, bringing his fists level to his grin and bending slightly.

"Ok. Now try."

I lowered my sword. "That's not the point."

"So?"

"So I'll still be able to get under and around you."

"No you won't."

I sighed long-sufferingly. "Don't you want to become better with a sword? Any initiative at all?"

"Who needs a sword when you've got fists?"

I rolled my eyes. "Ok Sano. Consider this your lesson. I'll fight you…" I shifted the bokotu from my right hand to my left. "…Left-handed. And I'll still beat you."

"That's your weak shoulder."

"Uh-huh."

He smiled. "This'll be easy. Sure. You're on."

"Ready?" I asked.

"More then you." So confident.

"On guard." I dropped, tucking and rolling under him as he lunged forward with a punch. Unbending from my crouch, I waited for his next move. Both his arms shot out, and I turned sideways between them, tapping the top of his head with the bokotu. "Head."

"That's it! No sword-freak touches me!"

"Ribs."

"I MEAN IT!"

"Thigh-"

The next thing I knew I was falling backwards with a ringing in my eyes and a pounding in my jaw. Then I was flat on my back staring up at the blue sky and white clouds. "Ouch."

"That's what it means to be a fight-merchant! No sword can compare to that."

"Ow."

"So are you planning on getting back up, or what? Going to keep lying there?"

"Ohhh…"

"Sissy."

My feet levitated me off the ground, and I landed with sword in front of me, eyes narrowed. "WHAT did you call me?!"

"A sissy."

"You're not going to get away with that, Sano. Welcome to me kicking your butt now."

I jumped forward to meet him, and fists and wooden sword clashed, starting a full-on brawl. Fist and foot found me, and the edge of my sword frequently smacked onto his exposed limbs.

The dojo gate opened, and Sano and I looked toward it. A flash of red caught our eyes, and we both leapt quickly away from each other, Sano brushing off his haori off, and I hid the bokotu behind my back. We were both covered in black-and-blue bruises, Sano had a cut pant-leg, and I had a trickle of blood running from the corner of my mouth.

"Hey Kenshin."

"Kon'nichiwa, Kenshin!"

Kenshin stopped and looked at us for a moment. "You two weren't fighting, were you?"

"Who? Us?" Sano asked, shaking his head and smiling broadly.

"No. Never. Why would you think that?" I asked, flapping my hands 'no' and opening my eyes wide and innocent.

"Good. You know what Megumi-san said, Sachi. No-"

"…Fighting, training, or hard work for another week, I know," I said, joining in and finishing for him.

Kenshin nodded, and then continued on, into the dojo. We waited a second for him, and as soon as the door slid shut behind him, Sano and I let out a deep breath. "Whew."

Turning back to each other yet again, I whipped out and held the bokotu out in front of myself and grinned. "Again?"

"You bet. I haven't beaten you enough yet."

"All words, Sano, all words. I'll let my blade do the talking for me." We held our positions for a second later, Sano with his fists raised, and me with the bokotu held across in front of myself.

The dojo door slid open and Kenshin looked out at us with flat eyes and a frown. "I thought so."

Sano and I offered him weak grins. "Heh…heh?"

I sat upright on the futon, peeling the covers back off me and rolled off the side of the bed. Silently, I crossed to the door and opened it, looking back at Kenshin's sleeping form.

I slipped out the door and walked down the dimly lit hall, out the dojo's door and across the yard to the training hall on the other side of the little courtyard in the middle of the square-shaped building.

It was raining, and I stopped in the middle of the yard, lifting up my head to taste the rain and let it slide down my face. I would rather walk in rain then take the long hallways to the training hall, any day.

Continuing, I stepped up the hall steps, slick with wetness, and into the hall. I went over to the cabinet on the far side and opened one of it's doors, rummaging around in the bottom until I found what I wanted. Wrapped in a length of fabric I had cut from an old kimono was a katana in it's lacquered sheath.

I lifted it up, and examined it in the flickering candlelight. Strapping it to my side, I walked out to the middle of the long hall and stood, center. I popped it up with my left thumb, and reached across with my right hand, drawing it out in a flat arc in front of me. It made the sharp shing noise that well-made and dangerously sharp katana do as they are unsheathed, and I smiled and drew it and my arm behind my head, and then back, resting the flat side of the blade on my shoulder. I slid my right hand up, and placed my left below it, on the end of the hilt, with pinkie finger curled around the bottom. Pressing up again with my hands, I swung it to the left, and then stopped at center, where an opponent's chest would be.

I stretched my left hand out in front of myself, holding my pointer and middle finger together hand straight, palm out and thumb out to the side. I held my katana vertical, and then drew it back as if you would a bowstring, flat and horizontal with the ground. I lunged forward, and as my sword swept past my left hand, it joined on the base again, swinging it to the left in an arc, back to center, and then stopped, moving back to the first position with left hand out. Only, this time, I braced the hilt on my side, under my left arm, and then stepped forward and left as I struck parallel to the right.

Caught up in the sword-dance, I practiced swings overhead, complete with turns as I let the katakana's centrifugal momentum carry me, spinning in a tight circle. Bringing it down straight with a gasp, I lifted it back up, and started to get lost in the dance. Some things take a katana to make it real, and my old friend brought back memories and moves I was sure I had long forgotten.

I held the katana in a straight line across my chest, with my left hand gripping it higher and facing in, and my right lower and facing out. Using this 'strength' hold, I could increase the power of my hits by double the force. Sparring with the shadows, faces floated in front of me, past foes and others who wept in despair.

Kenshin sat up as the sword of a sword being drawn echoed through his dreams. Looking beside him, he realized Sachi wasn't there. Reaching for his yukata, he shrugged into it, hurriedly tying the obi.

Going to the doorway, he stopped for a moment, closing his eyes and honing in on the presence he felt across the dojo in the training room. He opened his large purple eyes, and walked out the side door and across the courtyard, where it still spat rain down outside.

Lights flickered in the training hall, and Kenshin softly drew the shoji screen door open, looking in at the whirling figure that held the shining katana. Sachi's chi was unbound, and he rocked back a moment, as it washed over him.

She was already dripping wet from walking through the rainstorm, and her hair was limp and damp around her face. Her eyes were fierce and a cold green as they concentrated deep inside of herself, focusing not on her hands and sword, but on something in front of her that Kenshin couldn't see.

"Sachi." She continued to move in her sword dance, and Kenshin frowned. A lot of these moves he hadn't seen before, but what he did know also took a fair amount of skill and higher-level kenjutsu training to master. The look on the girl's face was starting to get more and more intense, and he could see that she wasn't far from snapping completely out of the normal world, and into whatever memory she was fighting with.

"Sachi!" His sharp voice reverberated around the training hall, and Sachi froze, then whirled around, sword held in front of herself. She looked up, her eyes cold and in some other place, not recognizing him.

He stepped forward toward her, and she raised her katana a fraction of an inch to follow his movement. "Stop," he said, reaching out toward the blade. It jumped up as he reached out, and he caught it flat between his hands.

The girl's eyes fell to the trapped blade, and then she shook her head sharply, eyes clearing. Looking up, her eyes grew wide. "Kenshin!" She withdrew the sword, and he let go of it. Quickly sheathing it again, she looked up. "I'm sorry! I didn't realize…" she trailed off.

"You were far away in another time and place. This one doesn't take offense in your actions. Any swordsman would have done the same." His eyes grew sharper as he looked down at her. "I just wish that you could tell me where you were. Those aren't just any form of kenjutsu. They're a special technique."

Caught off guard for a second, she nodded. "It's called Yoruyousha–ken, 'swords of night-mercy'," she said off-hand, and then her face closed down.

"I've never heard of it. Something from the past I don't know about."

"Yes."

"One day I hope you will share where you trained and why with me. But until then, I'm happy to see that the technique calls of a firm grip but loose wrist with all the swings. It's a help for you."

I nodded again, and he took the katana from me gently. "Come. Now that the night-demons are out of you, let's go to bed."