WARNING: Spoilers! If you don't know who Kenji is, please read at your own risk! INSANITY! INSANITY!! INSANITY!!!
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.
------------------------------------------
Yesterday's Shadow is Tomorrow's Twilight
------------------------------------------
Chapter 28: Interlude - Day Two
Kenji hadn't gotten out of bed, even by noon. And it was little wonder. You
wouldn't want to get out of bed either if you had just spent an entire day fighting
off taunts and jokes about how your cooking sucked stronger than a dry sponge
in an oasis, would you?
Nevermind it was the absolute truth.
In an attempt to salvage whatever was left of the boy's self-confidence, Misao had to drag him kicking and screaming from his room into the courtyards, where Aoshi, Soujirou and Enishi were engaged in menial sparring matches - moving as sluggishly as the snail did in summer. Come to think of it, it /was/ pretty hot on Day Two. And Aoshi /did/ pretty much admit that he'd tested all he wanted that night during the drinking festival, much to Soujirou's dismayed amusement. And the conversation went something like this:
"So it really was you!"
"No duh."
"Why?"
"Because, duh."
"Really?"
"Duh."
"Come on, Shinomori-san."
"Duh. And duh. And Yuugure. And stuff."
"Yuugure?" - Enishi
"They fight. They can knock teeth off without guns."
"No shit." - Enishi
"Good."
"Ahahahaha." - Soujirou
"So I had to make sure you guys are still good enough to not get your teeth
knocked off."
"Why you little-"
Misao gladly intercepted before the beautiful zen garden of the temple the abbot had so graciously allowed them to take walks in got razed to the ground in the blazing fury of an Aoshi Versus Enishi aftermath. She re-introduced a wildly struggling Kenji to the trio, who showed no signs of remembering anything that had happened on Day One. She then recommended that they picked on Kenji instead - albeit she concealed it with better language. After all, if they wanted to spar, they could always spar with Himura's prodigy son, couldn't they?
Despite the boy's protests, the men seemed very interested. And the fights went something like this:
Aoshi beat Kenji. Bad.
Soujirou thrashed Kenji. Beyond a doubt.
Enishi nearly nailed Kenji into a tree. Until they all realised they were using wooden swords. Then they all released the breaths they had been holding.
Misao then banished everybody into kitchen duty for the rest of the day. Except Kenji, who was allowed to return to his room.
"Maa, one day Himura-san will grow up to be like his father," Soujirou was saying, while trying to fight a greasy stain off a dinner china. Those things were even more stubborn than Shishio on a bad hair day, he swore! "Just give him a little more time to polish his skills..."
And the temple heard nothing but the loud wails of a boy claiming injustice and demanding new salve every now and then for the rest of the day.
... to be continued
--------------
24/3/04
xd@tougenkyou.net