Mirrors of the past and the future
Disclaimer: RK does not belong to me…
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Chapter 7: Confessions ( Shinta and Yuki )
"GAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Yuki and Shinta rubbed their ears gingerly as the early morning shout of Sanosuke reached their ears.
Kaoru looked at the pair preparing breakfast, "Ok, who's Sano is that?" she asked them
Yuki grinned, "That would be our Sano."
Right at that moment, Sano (from the future) skidded to a halt right behind Yuki and grabbed a kitchen knife.
"Alright where are those brats?!" Sano growled as he gripped the knife harder.
Yuki understanding what Sano intended to do, grabbed the knife and forced him to sit down on the table. When he started to get up, Yuki waved the knife in front of him and growled dangerously,
"You know what I can do with these things so BEHAVE!"
Sano's eyes widened as he saw the knife in front of him and gulped. "Hai!!!"
"Good. Now where are those two little brats?!" Yuki muttered
"Maaa…. You know how Yahiko is…" Shinta told Yuki coming up from behind her
"Yes, I know. One Yahiko is enough but two? This is going to be a very long vacation." She grumbled as Shinta gentle rubbed the back of her neck.
Kenshin looked at Shinta and Yuki, everything they did, it seems, that they already had an understanding between them. Mutual understanding that is.
Kenshin sighed. Yep. Shinta was exactly like him…. Demo, luckily for Shinta, he could get close to Yuki whenever he wanted, unlike him.
Sano turned to look at the scene before him. His future counterpart was sitting on the table looking for all in the world like someone who has just lost his most prized pet. He smirked and remembered the events the night before….
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"Ummm….. Kaoru-san? Kenshin-san? Minna-san?" Yuki called from outside the dojo when Kaoru and the rest went out to see what was wrong, they all stood frozen in their places as they saw five more new comers who looked exactly like them. Welll, as for the future Kenshin-gumi, surprise was an understatement. Megumi almost fell down and fainted while Yahiko ran up to the original Kenshin-gumi and stared at his ancestor.
"Yuki-dono? Shinta-san?" Kenshin asked them incredulously.
"Everyone inside! Yuki, Shinta, you two explain everything." Kaoru told them as she led everyone inside.
After Yuki and Shinta explained everything… they were now faced with a major problem. How to call everyone with out messing each others names up.
After a bit of deliberation and squabbling, it was agreed that the future group have nicknames, even if they hated their nicknames. Sanosuke's nickname would be Sano-chan, Megumi would be Megitsune, Yahiko would be Gaki-chan and if Aoshi and Misao ever dropped by from Aoiya, Aoshi would be Shi-san and Misao would be Mi-chan.
As much as everybody hated it and caused Yahiko to call Yuki names even more than before, they all agreed in the end with their designated nicknames after Yahiko got some severe injuries from Yuki.
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Sano sighed. Well looks like his future counterpart was indeed behaving himself… or so he thought when the two Yahiko's entered the room. His counterpart stood up with daggers in his eyed due to his unholy awakening courtesy of the two brats. Just as he was about to strangle the nearest kid to him, which was exactly Yahiko, gaki-chan in short, a knife whizzed past his face and imbedded itself to the wall.
Everyone was shocked except for Shinta and Kenshin. Shinta who had half expected her actions winced while Kenshin stared at Yuki. She has deadly accuracy which was quite unusual unless she had some training of sorts. he thought
"Oi! Jou-chan! Are you trying to kill me?" Sano muttered
"Oh, Tori atama, you know me." Yuki told him silkily but with a deadly note attached to it.
Shinta noticed the way Kenshin was looking at Yuki and sighed. After putting all the food on the table, he called everyone to eat. Aoshi and Misao had come just in time to see Yuki hurl the knife at Sano. Misao chuckled and teased Sano about him wanting to have his head cut off by angering Yuki very much.
As they all sat down and ate, Shinta nervously waited for Kenshin to pop the question, and when he did he winced internally.
"So, Yuki-dono, where did you learn to do that?" Kenshin asked her
"Eh? Do what?" Yuki asked him in turn
"Learn to throw a knife at someone with deadly accuracy."
Yuki blushed. "Ummm… didn't I tell you that I'm not your traditional non fighting prime minister?"
"Wha?" came the chorus from the group
Yuki sighed, "I mean, when I was still a little kid, I was trained to protect myself and if ever the time comes, I'll be able to protect my parents. My training was that of a skilled assassin, and ninja under the oniwabanshuu's guidance. Thanks to Misao."
"Misao?" Kaoru asked her
"Hai…well….um… it's complicated." Yuki told her
"Try me." Kaoru told her
Yuki sighed and looked at her friends who nodded in consent, when she looked at Shinta, she eyed him worriedly since his face was obscured by his fringes, hiding whatever emotions he was feeling at the moment.
"Well, the truth is, we only got to know Yuki through Misao." Sano told them
"It was Misao who was able to pull Yuki under the rubbles after a government office in Tokyo was attacked by terrorists." Megumi told them
"Terrorists?" Kenshin asked them
Yuki looked at everyone and noticed that most of them didn't know what they were talking about, so she decided to tell everything from the start. After she had explained to them everything it was Sano who asked the first question.
"So exactly what happened that day?"
Before Yuki could answer him, Shinta spoke up. His voice tight and devoid of any emotions. The only emotion they could see from him was the glitter of his amber tinged eyes.
"I visited Yuki that day after an assignment of mine. She has just got out from the office after a meeting with the Secretary of Defense. It was already lunch time so I decided to buy us some food, leaving Yuki at her office, since I knew she was tired after her meeting." Shinta gritted his teeth and continued. Kaoru saw how hard it was for Shinta to tell them this story… even Yuki left this story out…which means that whatever happened that day… was meant to be forgotten.
"I was just two blocks away when I heard a thunderous explosion. I got out of my car and saw smoke coming from the Defense Ministry. I immediately headed back to the ministry…" Shinta stopped and eyed his food as if it were someone he wished to kill.
"When I got back, the entire building was destroyed. Only a few survived. The rescue effort was done immediately to save whoever survived from the blast and was buried beneath the rubble… I… we… never found Yuki after that. Most people believed that she died immediately at the blast."
Yuki gasped as Shinta's chopsticks snapped in to two. Fury and regret etched deep in his face.
"Luckily, Misao was also at that area around that time and saw everything. She saw Yuki jump out from the building before it collapsed. Unfortunately, Yuki was still caught in the blast, she was thrown straight into a tree and remained unconscious for the next 4 months." Sano told them
"We thought that she'd never make it since she stopped breathing more than a couple of times." Yahiko told them
"Wait a minute." Sanosuke told everybody "Gaki-chan, if you're Yuki's cousin, how did you know that she's still alive?" he asked Yahiko.
"Megumi has always been the family doctor. She was the one who called me up and told me where Yuki was. I've been told never to tell anyone in fear of getting her assassinated, especially now that she's too vulnerable." Yahiko answered him
"It was Aoshi's idea to keep it secret that she's still alive to protect her. We all agreed. What we didn't count on was Shinta." Misao told them
"Eh? What do you mean?" Yuki asked them
"Yuki, it was ordered to make sure that nobody knew that you were alive. Remember that we even changed your identity and your appearance?" Aoshi told her
Yuki nodded. Still puzzled out with what was now being revealed to her by her friends.
"Everything was going great and we had plans to announce that you actually lived through that blast, after your 18th birthday so that you can resume your position as Prime Minister." Aoshi continued.
"But as we said earlier, we never counted on Shinta." Yahiko added
"Wha…" Yuki started to ask
"Shinta never gave up on believing that you're alive. He hunted down every available information that was about you until he came face to face with Aoshi." Misao told her
"Aoshi is the head of the oniwabanshuu. Since he's the head and the rest of us had taken it to ourselves that we would become your right hand bodyguards, he decided to confront Shinta." Sano added
"That confrontation led Shinta to believe that you were really alive. He continued looking until the two if you met. Now the question that's been bugging the rest of us for months now is…" Megumi trailed off
"How did Shinta know who you were." Yahiko finished for Megumi
"A…I… don't know." Yuki told them and looked at Shinta for answers.
Shinta, still looking down on his food answered, "The sword. You had been carrying my sword when I bumped into you."
"Your sword?" Yuki repeated.
Shinta looked directly into her azure blue eyes. "I left my sword with you before that accident. That sword was unique because…"
"Your sword belonged to your ancestor…" Yuki finished for him and then slowly turned to look at Kenshin.
Yahiko looked at Kenshin and Shinta, "Wow!!!! Kenshin! Your sword was passed down from generations to generations! Cool!"
Kenshin looked at Shinta, "Can I see it de gozaru?" he asked him
Shinta smiled, "Hai. Yuki has it."
"Yuki-dono?" he asked him
"Hai, I let her keep it for me. Just to make sure that nothing ever happens to her again." Shinta answered him
"How's that gonna make sure that nothings gonna happen to her?" Yahiko asked him
"Shinta's sword is special to him. He takes great care with handling that sword… and since Yuki has it, that means that nobody better mess around with her unless they want to meet the assassin, that is Shinta." Sano joked only to be poked hard on the ribs by Megumi while earning a death glare from Yuki.
Kenshin eyed the sword and smiled. "You take very good care of it de gozaru. It's very well maintained."
Shinta smiled, memories of the past now pushed at the deeper recesses of his mind. "Arigatou." He told Kenshin as he accepted the sword back and passed it on to Yuki.
"Well now, why don't we all eat and take you to a tour around Tokyo?" Kaoru suggested to lighten up the mood around them.
"HAI!!!!!!" came the chorus of responses from the entire group.
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After finishing their breakfast and cleaning up, Yuki approached Shinta who was practicing at the yard and hugged him from behind.
Shinta felt her ki as she approached him. And was slightly surprised when she hugged him from behind.
"Arigatou." She whispered from his back
"For what?" he asked her back as he held one of her hands in his
"For believing and for not losing hope. For looking for me even when everybody thought that I was dead." She whispered
Shinta whirled around to face her and grasped her chin to force her to look up at him, "I… never forgave myself for what happened to you. I could have prevented it if only I brought you along with me. "
Yuki shook her head. "Iie. It wasn't your fault."
"But, I…" Yuki cut his reasoning off with her hand.
"No. I don't want to hear you blaming yourself for what had happened. Its over and done with."
"Tell me though, why didn't you tell me?"
"I…"
"Yuki, tell me."
"I really wanted to tell you. But they told me to be patient. If word got out that I was alive, whoever tried to kill me would know and they were afraid of the consequences if that happened. I'm sorry Shinta. I really am… please.. I..."
"Shhh…." Shinta placed two fingers on her lips to stop her, "Daijobou. I understand. You don't have to explain."
Yuki looked at his face and let tears fall as she sobbed in his chest.
Shinta held her and stroked her hair in comfort. Steeling his nerves, Shinta whispered something in Yuki's ears which made her start and look directly in his eyes.
Aishiteru
More tears filled her eyes as Shinta tenderly held her face and whispered the same word again. Throwing her arms around his neck, Yuki sobbed.
"Kami, I never thought… you feel the same way…" she whispered
Shinta grinned ruefully, "I have loved you from the very moment I saw you during my training with Uncle Hiko…"
Yuki laughed out loud at the look on his face. "I remember you were sitting under that falls trying to meditate. Ne?"
"Yeah, right. Meditate. Who can meditate with him throwing pebbles at you every minute?!"
Yuki laughed as Shinta held her body closer to his. "Aishiteru Shinta." She whispered.
Shinta enfolded her in his arms as he returned the greeting to him… he smiled as he vaguely felt the ki of his ancestor.
I've finally got the chance to have her, Kenshin-san… now it's your turn. Shinta thought before burying his face at the crook of Yuki's neck.
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Kenshin smiled as he saw Yuki and Shinta hugging at the yard. He was glad for his descendant, at least got to have his angel. He sighed. He never thought that their lives were even more complicated than theirs.
Looking up at the sky, Kenshin smiled. Shinta and him were almost the same. If Shinta got the chance to tell Yuki what he felt, then maybe he should do the same with Kaoru. His only wish was that he'd have the strength to go through it and let Kaoru feel the same for him.
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AN:
Hi again minna… sigh I'm still sitting here on the site twiddling with my fingers hoping for more reviews… I wonder when they'll come?
Anime tenshi no miko