WARNING: Spoilers! If you don't know who Kenji is, please read at your own risk!
WITH DUE CREDIT: This fic was loosely spun off from two fics - "Over the Sting" by sasori and "Chronicles of a Rurouni", one of my earlier fics.
A/N: Eeeeeto... tis a... boring chapter. -_-x Please bear with me!
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Yesterday's Shadow is Tomorrow's Twilight
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Chapter 24: Conversations
Soujirou followed Okina until they stepped out of the main building and headed
towards a smaller hut, near the fringes of the temple walls. It was situated
in the midst of a wild, untamed garden which at one point of time had surely
been beautifully cultivated. Soujirou could not help but notice the dilapidated
arbor next to the wooden gate they then passed through to arrive at the building
proper.
It was a small, rustic hut with a beaten path towards it's elevated door. There were stepping stones leading towards it, and a stone wash basin stood nearby, almost wiped out from sight by the overgrown bushes surrounding it. Okina led the younger person towards a door of full height, with traces of modification. Soujirou observed that it wasn't a sliding door as it probably should have been - rather, Okina merely lifted the piece of wood blocking their entry and put it aside, gesturing for Soujirou to enter into the hut.
Bowing slightly, although he was not sure what for, Soujirou did as told.
The first thing the wanderer noticed was that the room was in absolute upheaval. The several out-of-place cabinets there challenged the height of the ceiling, and within their compartments were several boxes, some opened, others closed. Despite the disorder, Soujirou's eyes were drawn to a scroll of calligraphy hanging from the alcove, written with fine handwriting. Then he noticed a withered seasonal flower in a pot upon the alcove's vertical beam, looking sad and forlorn. Okina had moved to the back of the room to rummage through one of the boxes there, so Soujirou decided to walk around a bit. As he did so, he almost stumbled over a dark, greyish earthenware sitting in a comfortable, square-shaped hole in the ground.
Bending down to examine the sunken hearth, Soujirou found that, old as the pot looked, it showed signs of recent usage. From behind him, Okina approached, and Soujirou turned to look at him, smiling. "Sir," he asked, while standing up, "correct me if I'm wrong, but... is this room..."
"Just an old tea hut." The old warrior shrugged, and placed a pile of clothing in the Tenken's hands. "Aoshi is the probably the only one who ever visits it nowadays."
"And in the meantime, it has been converted to look like a haphazard storage bunk of sorts, hasn't it?" Soujirou smiled at his surroundings, inviting Okina to take a good look as well. The older man laughed and stroked his beard.
"Young man," Okina pat Soujirou on his shoulder with one hand, "there are few, if any, people around here nowadays who are not too busy rebuilding their lives to try to appreciate the fine arts of tradition. To many, this room is merely a waste of space. What better way to put it to use than to use it for storage?"
"Even so..." The younger person examined the room closely. "... this is... an awful lot of things to be putting in a hut like this!" Looking down at the clothes in his hands, he asked, "Is something major going to happen in Kyoto these few days?"
"It's not that major, and not that minor either," Okina knelt down near the hearth and dragged out a box of tea utensils from under one of the cabinets, sticking his pipe into his mouth in the meantime. "The first day of the horse is approaching, so the Fushimi Inari Taisha will be holding a procession to retrieve the mikoshi - the portable shrine, between Touji and Aburanokouji. As a rule of thumb, those who wish to handle the portable shrine are loaned appropriate clothing, and these clothes are just being temporarily stored here until the time comes." He paused to light the hearth. "Don't worry, boy, those clothes in your hands are not from the Fushimi shrine. Those are spare clothings from this shrine you can take without worrying too much about."
Soujirou smiled at nothing in particular. "I see." He settled into a more easy stance, fingering his tattered clothes. "Kashiwazaki-san... about that particular matter we were talking about prior to this..."
At that, Okina made a sound of approval through his pipe. He watched carefully over the apparatus in the sunken hearth. "We knew," he began, in a low voice, "that they were snooping around all the time. I must give them credit for managing to do that at all, but unfortunately for them, I'm afraid they didn't stand a chance at all."
"Is there a reason why you didn't do anything to them?" Soujirou asked, examining the gi and hakama as he did. He was surprised to see that they were in similar shades of blue as his now tattered clothing were. Wondering what to think of it, he finally giggled softly to himself. Even Enishi had mentioned - briefly, one day in the long past, that blue was Soujirou's colour.
Okina exhaled, throwing out a mini cloud of smoke as he did. He bent down to prepare some tea for himself from the hearth. "There was no need," Okina spoke with candor, "since allowing them to infiltrate, was part of our plan to begin with."
Soujirou blinked once. He was no longer smiling, a look of semi-understanding drawing over his countenance instead. The wanderer glanced expectantly at Okina, inviting him to explain in detail what he meant by those words.
The older man smiled cryptically. He set an exquisite looking bowl out and gestured towards a spot perpendicular to him.
"Let's have some good tea before the casual chat."
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A group of young, female servants - probably still in training, giggled and
gushed in a corner when Enishi stalked past them on the corridor. Although the
white-haired man did not immediately notice them, he stopped a few steps away,
then quickly retraced his footsteps, as if he suddenly remembered something.
"Hey," he half-mumbled, stopping a foot away from the group of girls,
a few of whom gasped and quickly hid their faces. Frowning slightly at their
etiquette, he directed his question to most sane looking one of the lot, "where's
the kitchen?"
"K-Kitchen?" The most sane looking one of the lot, however, was at present blushing like a ripe tomato. "We... we have a few, but they're... they're all near the west, a few doors away from the main shrine room there..."
"Thanks," Enishi cut her short and nodded, then proceeded to move towards the east.
"Sir?" The girl called out meekly, eliciting a response by Enishi in the form of him turning his head around slightly. "Di... Didn't you want to go to the west..."
"No," Enishi shook his head and pointed east, "I'm asking so I can stay the hell away from it." With that abrupt reply , he stalked away, disappearing behind a turn in the corridor faster than the girl could ask what exactly did he mean.
"What a strange man..." The girl had stopped blushing and was simply staring out at the distant.
Her friends behind her squealed their responses.
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Comfortably changed into his new outfit, Soujirou knelt quietly beside Okina,
who busily prepared tea. While the silent sound of clay knocking against clay
filled the room, together with tendrils of strong fragrance, Soujirou's mind
started to drift, confronted with the uniformity of Okina's actions. He noticed
how nice his new clothes smelled, despite it having vegetated in the small hut
for likely a long period of time. Although he had to lose his badly ripped western-styled
undershirt, he did manage to locate a clean, white, round-neck one, not quite
unlike the ones he saw Yahiko wear, a long time ago. As the boxes appeared to
be void of any other yukatas that could otherwise serve as an under-layer of
clothing, Soujirou did not feel he could have much qualms about it. He was glad,
however, that the new gi and hakama were in familiar shades of blue.
He jolted out of his thoughts just as Okina finished pouring out a large helping of thick tea on the bowl he had earlier set out. "Here you go," Okina offered the tea to the boy, pushing the bowl towards him. Taking a slight bow, Soujirou picked the bowl up and drank.
The older person relaxed and blew a ring of smoke out. "Your superior is right," he began. "We, unfortunately, do have more information regarding this phantom band of bandits than the police force does."
Pausing in the midst of admiring the craftsmanship of the bowl, Soujirou cocked his head to one side and turned to look at Okina instead. "Will we be seeing any of that 'information' anytime soon?"
Okina laughed in short, curt breaths. "I am in no position to promise you that."
"Why, though, has the Oniwabanshuu gotten this 'vital information' before the police has?" Soujirou shrugged and steered the conversation in another direction. "I believe Saitou-san's men have links to a much wider network across the nation than the Oniwabanshuu has - with due respect, of course," he ducked his head slightly towards the elderly spy. "It's just something that refuses to stop bugging me." He added hastily, pushing the half-filled bowl of tea back to the old man at the same time.
"Don't worry, child," Okina laughed again, "you ask well." He took the bowl and drank from it. "I suppose this isn't anything I can't tell you about." Finishing the tea, he set the utensil aside and stuck his pipe back into his mouth. "It was just something we asked the police to do when they first approached us. The plan was to go through the investigation under the watchful eye of the Yuugure, and to make definitely sure that it would appear to the enemy, that it is only the Oniwabanshuu they have to worry about as regards espionages. That would, of course, be their undoing, because, as you have mentioned, the police have a much larger network of spies in the nation than we do, and once the enemy's attention is on us, they will have much more freedom to carry on their activities." He blew out a long stream of smoke. "That," he sighed, "was what was supposed to happen, anyway."
"What happened actually, then?" Soujirou quickly asked, smiling.
"The enemy did direct their attention to the Oniwabanshuu," Okina nodded, "and have been closely monitoring our every move. And we, for our part, have done just enough to keep them on their toes about us. By some strange twist of fate, however," the old spy put his pipe aside and blew out a final jet of smoke, "we started finding out bits and pieces of information from them about their syndicate that you couldn't possibly have if they hadn't sent so many spies to watch over you the way they do to us." He chuckled. "It is a very amusing process, I must add. Are you the spy? Or are you being spied on? Have you been found out? Or are you just letting them find you out?"
"A devious little mind game," the smiling wanderer agreed, "which I might have enjoyed playing too! If the stakes weren't so high." He paused slightly to ponder. "So in short: the original plan was to use the Oniwabanshuu to distract the Yuugure, so the police can have more freedom in their investigations. Yuugure spies planted in the Oniwabanshuu, however, have revealed vital pieces of information which could not otherwise be unearthed by onlookers." He glanced up slightly to see Okina nodding. "But, Kashiwazaki-san, what if these 'information' they've 'dropped', are nothing but a concerted effort to throw the police AND the Oniwabanshuu off their scent altogether?"
At that, there was silence again.
And then Okina laughed once more, much more heartily. "You know how to ask the questions, young man," he nodded with approval. "And you have the patience your partner does not care to cultivate." He jested blandly, shaking his head at that particular train of thought. Composing himself, he addressed Soujirou again, saying, "I would have asked the same questions, my boy, if I had not seen for myself the way our men have worked so painfully hard at, with the utmost degree of caution, to finally go through so many layers of deceit to sift the information out."
Soujirou, for his part, simply smiled questioningly.
"We are creatures of reason and logic, boy," Okina continued, folding his hands on his knelt lap, "and when nothing else seems to work, trusting your gut instinct is sometimes the key to staying alive."
Not daring to challenge the words of an experienced warrior, Soujirou nodded tersely. There were new facts to be rearranged and new decisions to be made, and thus, the younger person remained quiet.
"Aoshi is the person you need to talk to for this," Okina picked his pipe up and slowly rose to his feet.
"Rest assured that we will," Soujirou smiled up at the ninja. For himself, however, he made no attempt to stand.
"And just one more thing..." Okina was saying in a soft, subdued voice which resonated close to Soujirou's ears. "This conversation never happened."
The younger person's expression not so much as shifted as he saw the older person's form out with his eyes. "Thank you for the tea!" He chirped loudly. Loud enough for anyone who was present around the small, picturesque hut besides the both of them, to hear.
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Enishi was resting by a shouji post in the eastern part of the shrine, having
possibly concluded that this was the spot furthest from the kitchen. He tilted
his head upwards to glance at the sky, which was gloriously blue at that hour
of the day, marred only by the occasional passing of a wayward cloud or two.
The small, squarish area in front of the corridor housed a simple garden, with
a few well placed rocks and neatly arranged flower bushes. A single butterfly
fluttered gracefully around a particular blossom, and that was what Enishi saw
when he lowered his gaze. All around him, the crickets hummed a monotononic
tune of summer, sporadically interrupted by sounds of the birds in their flight.
Nobody else seemed to pass along these corridors as often as they did in the central and western sections. The white-haired man scoffed internally, fully understanding how that could be, and how he was not surprised that the person he had been looking to talk to, would be in a serene, tranquil spot as such.
/Hear the wise words of the old,/ Enishi thought sulkily to himself, /looking for an icicle? Just follow the quietest path in the temple.../
Beside the post he was leaning on, was a meditation room with its doors wide open. A single, solitary figure was knelt there, his back greeting anyone who would walk in. Despite the imposing figure it portrayed to onlookers, the man blended into the surroundings easily, experience and ease of belonging emanating from within.
Of course, that was of no real concern to an agitated Enishi.
"Hey, forest of death," the ex-mafia boss's voice was restrained, but neutral.
"We need to talk."
... to be continued
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14/11/03
xd@tougenkyou.net
A/N
Hmm... although the kanji is written differently, everytime I see Aoshi's surname
'Shinomori', I keep thinking of 'shi no mori' (means forest of death). Yeah,
so forest of death... Definitely, definitely appearing in the next chapter.
*looks at chapter* Well, he sure took his time! XD And one more time for the
record, everybody! Aoshi is not a bad guy! :D
Yes, Kenji is such a motley mix of Kenshin and Kaoru, isn't he, Silver
Nightingale? XD *feeds April-san more sugar* April-san
on crack is always entertaining. XD *runs away* sasori!! I'm
sorry! I /will/ reply the Sou ficlet ASAP!! *huggle* Publish soon! :D I'm sure
Misao's not that bad, Fyyrrose. XD XD Kenji is just... well,
too smart! XD Shahrezad1, I do agree that was anti-climatical...
but it just came out like that! XD Chibi-chan, well, it's not
in the manga that Kenshin died, but in the 2nd OVA. I based this fic off that
fact so that... well, Kenji has a reason to run away. XD Espi!
How could you sacrifice your poor homework! XD But it's Maths. I understand.
-_-x - imma maths idiot! EEevee! :D Fyyrrose
is so fun. XD Why can't my bounceboards be like that? XD Yes, wrong move to
try to sneak out, Kenji. *wags finger* Dawn, don't worry, Aoshi
definitely in next chapter! Hi again, Angrybee! :D I like Okina
the Tour Guide too. XD And finally, nope, Aoshi is NOT the bad guy, not at all,
lebleuphenix! :D All together now!