Me on Saturday- ::Looks over timeline set for Kazue's past, scribbles in notebook. Stops:: Wa-ait a minute…If Kazue was born in the first year of the Meiji…she's fifteen…that would mean when Zanza killed her father a brother would be in the…OO TWELVTH YEAR OF THE MEIJI??? AUUUUGGGHHHH!!

::Points at above message:: Yep, I had a spaz attack. Went a little nuts when I found out my timelines didn't match up correctly. Made a quick change so it all fits together nicely. It does make a little less sense though, in my opinion. I'd personally much rather go to a country at peace than one that was war torn, but whatever. At least the dates fit now, and I'm completely calm.

Well, here's Chapter 7. It didn't quite turn out how I'd have liked it to, but it's still good. I hope you guys enjoy it!

Disclaimer: No I don't own Rurouni Kenshin, but I'll be the first to bid on it when it goes up for auction on Ebay!

"Did you get into another brawl?" Tae asked as she brought Sano's order.

Sano opened his eyes and looked up at her, sighing a bit at hearing the question. 'Damnit Tae.' He thought to himself, sitting up straight. 'I didn't want to think about it.' Slowly, he looked at the stain on his shoulder. It had dried by now, leaving a nice red-orange mark on the white fabric.

"…sort of." He responded, grabbing his chopsticks and digging in.

"I thought you gave up on the whole Zanza thing." She commented.

"Doesn't mean I can't get into a few brawls now and again, does it?" he asked, a smirk forming on his face. However, his eyes did not mirror it.

Tae giggled. "I suppose not." She said, apparently oblivious to the look in his eyes. Then, from behind her came the aggravated yelling of another customer, obviously impatient to get their order. She quickly rushed away, shouting, "I'll be putting that on your tab again!"

'I wonder if she realizes I'm never really going to pay that.' Thought Sano as he chewed. Slowly, reluctantly, the questions and memories returned to his mind. It had only been four days since he had dropped Kazue off at the dojo, and he was already considering returning. His original plan had been to stay away for week or more, letting the subject cool off before he returned. However, curiosity slowly overtook him.

He rubbed his forehead, trying to think of who Kazue's father and brother could have been. Of course, he'd fought so many men in his days as Zanza that most of them were hardly worth remembering. His year of separation from the fighting business didn't help all that much either. By now, what remained of his meal tasted very sour.

With a sigh, he set down his bowl and chopsticks and leaned back against the screen separating the booths. At the moment, he had two options; He could stay away like he had planned and squash the curiosity until the time was right. That would probably be the smarter of the two options. The second option was to abandon his last bout of reason and head to the Kamiya dojo to satisfy the nagging curiosity. Obviously not the most intelligent thing to do.

When he was finished thinking, he stood and strolled out of the Akabeko, again without paying. He brushed the noren to the side as he passed. Those things got a little annoying after a while.

As he stepped into the busy afternoon traffic that was uptown Tokyo, he paused and looked both directions he could go. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets, then turned and slowly headed toward… the Kamiya dojo. Damned curiosity.

Soon enough -maybe too soon- he found himself in front of the gate to the dojo. He paused for a moment, starring at the gate's handle. It would be so easy to turn around, go back the row houses, and stay away for another week or two. However, the curiosity overpowered him yet again, and he soon found himself pulling the gate open and stepping inside.

'Maybe I can avoid her.' He thought as he slid the gate closed. 'I mean, it shouldn't be too hard…'

"Sano? Where've you been?"

'Damn!'

Sano turned to the right to see Kazue leaning over the washtub, elbow deep in sudsy water, washing her laundry yet again. Just like last time, she was wearing Kaoru's clothes, which she was having the same issues with. Sano, who had never witnessed the event before, couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at Kazue's attire.

"Hey Kid." He said, pointing at the shirt she was wearing. "Ain't Missy's clothes a bit too loose for ya?"

Kazue slowly looked down at the shirt, then back up at Sano with a glare. "Maybe it's supposed to be like this." She said defensively, crossing her arms over her chest and successfully covering the shirt with suds. At this, Sano snickered.

"I don't think so Kid." He responded with a smirk. "Since their Missy's clothes, I'd assume there supposed to be worn the way she wears um." When a smirk similar to his own lit Kazue's face, he couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

"Hm…" she said, "I didn't know you paid that much attention to Kamiya-san, Sano.

Better be careful though, or you'll anger Himura-san."

For once in his life, Sano was speechless. All he could do was glare at the girl while she snickered evilly at him. She'd won this battle of words. Slowly, Sano shook his head at her, and headed towards the dojo.

"Matte!" shouted Kazue, getting Sano attention. She signaled him back over with a, "come here," and a wave of her hand. She was staring at his bloodstained shoulder. With a sigh, he walked over and stood next to her.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Is that mine?" asked Kazue, pointing at the bloodstain, her tone now somewhat nervous. Sano simply nodded in reply.

After a moment's pause, Kazue reached up and grabbed his sleeve, jerking on it. "Let me see it." She said in response to the strange look he was giving her. "I'll wash it for you. It's the least I could do for you helping me the other day."

Sano pulled back on his sleeve, almost knocking over the unprepared girl. "I don't need payment kid." He replied.

"Please?" she asked, putting her hands together in a begging motion. "I wouldn't feel right if I didn't repay you somehow."

Sano paused a moment, then shrugged it off his shoulders. 'Why not?' he thought. 'Needs to get washed anyway.' He balled it up and tossed it to her lightly. For a moment she stared at him, apparently unaware she was doing so. However, when he raised an eyebrow at her, she quickly looked down, submerged the shirt in the water, and began to scrub.

"Missy's inside right?" he asked, gesturing over his shoulder with his thumb. Kazue quickly nodded, not looking up. Sano couldn't help but notice the healthy blush present on her face. He rolled his eyes, shook his head, and then headed into the dojo.

"…And that's all she could tell me." Finished Kaoru.

"…Wow." Responded Sano, crossing his arms over his chest. "Quite the interesting story."

Before Kaoru started retelling the story she had heard from Kazue, both she and Sano had moved to the back of the dojo so that they would not be heard by Kazue. However, they still spoke quietly as an extra precaution. They sat in a shadowy area of the to keep cool.

"So…" said Sano, massaging his forehead. "She says I killed her father and brother." Kaoru nodded her confirmation.

"But…did you?" asked Kaoru nervously. "I mean, I know you were a thug, but you wouldn't actually kill a couple of dumb drunks, would you?"

Sano looked toward the wall, his face twisted. 'Is that guilt??' thought Kaoru, examining Sano's expression. Sure enough, guilt shown clearly in his features.

"Sanosuke?" asked Kaoru, her voice soft.

"I never gave a damn about the guys I fought." He said, not looking at Kaoru. "If they lived or died was their own problem. After I had had my fight, it didn't matter." Slowly, he turned and looked at Kaoru. "I probably killed them without even knowing it."

Slowly, Kaoru looked at the floorboards below her knees. She had hoped that somehow, Kazue had gotten her story mixed up. Maybe, she had thought, Sano hadn't done it at all. Maybe no one even knew who did it and blamed it on Zanza for his famous name. Or maybe the actual killer just looked like Zanza. However, hearing Sano himself say he was guilty immediately killed those hopes.

Silence filled the room, neither of the two daring to speak a word for quite a while. The only sounds for quite a while were the sounds of their own steady breathing.

"She didn't say what happened afterwards?" Sano asked suddenly. "To her and her mother?"

Kaoru shook her head. "No," she said. "She couldn't take anymore stress. She broke down crying after telling me what happened to her father and brother. The last thing she said was that she was going to find you. She said she knew your name, and about the mark of evil."

"…Mark of evil?" questioned Sano.

"I think she means the aku sign on the back of your shirt." Answered Kaoru casually. "That was your defining symbol as Zanza, wasn't it?" She slowly looked up at him, tilting her head. "By the way, where is your shirt?"

Kazue scrubbed at the white garment forcefully, trying her hardest to get the red stain out. She knew that blood stained terribly, but not this terribly. This was just ridiculous.

She really had felt bad about what had happened, and still did. He had not only saved her, but he had also brought her home without anything to gain. 'He really is a sweet man on the inside.' She thought to herself with a smile. 'Even if he does act tough a lot of the time. I hope this will work as a thanks, even if it is meager.'

She wrung out the shirt and gave it a quick snap- like one would crack a whip- and examined it. She had made some progress; the once red stain was now a light orangeish color. Still, it wasn't completely out. Kazue sighed in exasperation.

"How hard can it be to get blood off a shirt???" she shouted, dunking it back in the water so forcefully that a good amount of the soapy liquid splashed her in the face. A throaty growl escaped her as she shook the suds from her hair. Slowly, she took a deep breath to calm herself, and wrung the shirt out again to have another look. As she turned it over, the design on the back caught her eye.

"What's this?" she asked, blinking. She flattened the shirt out across her lap to see the design more clearly. She traced the lines of the symbol with her finger. "It's pretty…I wonder what it means."

She squinted, attempting to decipher it. One thing she had never been very good at was kanji. Sure, she had learned it, but she always forgot the meanings, and it took forever to remember them. It wasn't nearly as simple as the English alphabet, nor the hiragana alphabet. It didn't help much that several different kanji could all look the same.

She traced it with her eyes, racking her brain in search of the meaning.

"Ak…Aku! Evil. It says evil." she said triumphantly, clapping her hands together. She raised an eyebrow at the shirt, a smirk lighting her face. "Sano sure likes acting like he's some sort of bad ass." She commented to no one, shaking her head and snickering. She stood, folded the shirt over her arm, and carried it to the line.

Then, just as she was about to hang it up, she froze. "Wait…evil?" She unfurled the shirt and looked at the design again, double-checking her translation. Yep, it was definitely "evil."

Then, suddenly, it hit her like a brick to the face. "Oh my God…" she said weakly, bringing her hand to her mouth. "The mark of evil…" Quickly she clumped the shirt up, obscuring her view of the aku marking. A million thoughts started racing through her mind at once. 'There's no way…this can't be right…' she thought desperately. 'S-Sano's way too nice. There's no way in the world that he could be…him.'

'Damnit!' thought Sano as he headed for the front door. 'Why the hell didn't I think of that before?' As he went, he prayed that she hadn't seen the mark. Kazue was a little dense after all. Maybe she hadn't noticed it yet. Or maybe she couldn't read kanji. Any of those would do as long she didn't figure out what it said.

Upon reaching the door, he threw it open forcefully, intent on getting his shirt back before she saw the mark. He looked over at the washtub, and seeing no one there, looked about the yard. When he caught sight of her, Kazue was standing by the line, her body as rigid as a pole. She turned her eyes toward him. When he saw what filled them -confusion, panic, desperation- he realized with dismay that he was too late.

"Sanosuke…are you…?" She trailed off, her eyes pleading with him to tell her she was wrong. She had to be wrong. However, when Sano turned his eyes away from her, she knew she was right.

There wasn't even a warning that the tears were coming this time. Kazue could feel them sliding down her cheeks, dripping onto the clumped up shirt, which was wrung tightly in her hands.

And, not for the first time in her life, Kazue was speechless.

Well, here you go, chapter 7. We have officially reached the beginning of the climax! I wasn't at all pleased when I first wrote this up. It was awful! How that I've revised it…well, I'm still not all that pleased with it, but it's better than it was I suppose. ::sweatdrop::

As always, please R/R!