DISCLAIMER: All copyrighted characters belong to their respective
owners. No money is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not
distribute without permission.
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.
------------------------------------------
Yesterday's Shadow is Tomorrow's Twilight
------------------------------------------
Chapter 34: Familiar Faces
Kenji sat on a rock by a creek, listening to the crickets.
It had been nearly two hours since Enishi had run into that tree, and he had nearly died laughing - literally, thanks to a close shave by an annoyed Enishi's rather large sword. They, or specifically, Enishi had then pushed on with the journey like they were engaged in a death march. It was not until Kenji threatened to smash all the sake bottles he was carrying against the trees that Enishi finally agreed reluctantly to rest by the nearby creek.
Somewhere up front, the white-haired man finished his last drink, splashed some cool water on his face, and stood up. "Are you done yet?" He uttered abruptly, while turning to look at the boy. Kenji glared at him in response.
"I've barely sat for five minutes!"
Enishi frowned right back. "You've sat for at least fifteen! We're never going to reach our destination at this rate."
"You can say what you want!" Kenji protested in a loud, unhappy voice, kicking some water in Enishi's general direction. "/You're/ not the one carrying all these bottles of wine around!"
The older person harrumphed and shook his head. "I can't concentrate on leading the way if I have to try not to break those fragile things every other step." He turned and walked towards the beaten path. "I'm leaving you behind if you're not moving."
Sighing loudly, Kenji quickly shouldered the pack which contained the heavy bottles of rice wine and trudged after Enishi in dissatisfaction. He did understand that he was purposely delaying the trip - but he was justified!! Which grown man let a young boy lug so many bottles of wine; which he was yet old enough to drink, by the way - around by himself?!
"Why are we doing this again?" He eventually grumbled when he caught up with his companion. The pack the bottles were in kept slipping from Kenji's shoulders, and he had to readjust them every two steps. It wasn't that they were /really/ heavy, Misao had made him carry heavier things before. It was just plain uncomfortable. And the blazing sun wasn't making it any easier.
"Because the old man said so," in reply, Enishi mimicked the monotonous drone of Okina and shrugged. "We're supposed to be looking for some old hermit hiding away in the mountains so we can get Soujirou's weapon back. Nothing fantastic, so don't hold your breath."
Kenji tried to observe the taller person's expressions. "Is it really as simple as that?" He asked quietly, stepping on and then kicking a random stone away. The forest crickets seemed more active at high noon, and their chirping was really starting to get on his nerves. "I smell a hidden agenda... as always. I just wish I can figure out what it is..."
"Enthusiasm can kill you, boy," Enishi warned from somewhere behind, causing Kenji to stop. "It sure as anything killed your father."
Kenji growled and rolled his eyes to indicate to Enishi what he thought of that sentence. "We've been walking since lunch," the boy complained. "Just how deep in the forest is this hermit guy anyway?"
"Shh," the urgent voice of Enishi alerted Kenji to the fact that there was noise further up the hidden mountain trail. The same trail they were trying to trek through. The white-haired man gave a signal, and immediately Kenji dived behind a nearby bush. Enishi blended into the background behind a large tree beside the redhead, and they were just in time to avoid being sighted by a small group of people making their way down the path.
Kenji squinted through the leaves of the bushes. He saw that this was an entourage of four people, and they were dressed in strange, foreign clothing. It took a while, but he eventually recognised the clothing as Chinese. He could not help but to turn around to sneak a brief glance at Enishi.
And when he did, he could not help but notice the look of surprise and recognition written all over the face of the ex-mafia boss.
Intrigued and slightly suspicious, Kenji returned his attention to the four persons walking on the trail. There were two decked in similar garb, flanking the other two - evidently acting as their bodyguards. They were not only intimidating in form and statute, but their eyes reflected years of seasoned training and immersion in life-threatening battles. Kenji could tell that it would take a lot more than just pure strength to bring them down, if need be. Unsure about why he was even considering these things, his eyes flitted over to Enishi again.
He was surprised to find that Enishi was no longer at the spot where he had been hiding in. As he debated whether he would try to locate his companion, the entourage came to a halt right in front of the bush he was behind. He jumped slightly, heart in his mouth. Beads of sweat trickled down both sides of his face. He could feel his fingers turning cold with anxiety.
"Zeme le?" A rich, smooth voice drawled out what was evidently a question, in a language Kenji understood nothing of.
He could understand, however, the language of danger that was bespoken in the air.
One of the bodyguards slowly turned to look at the bush. Kenji found himself striving hard not to gulp at the sheer amount of intensity the large man was giving him; through the bush. His eyes darted around again. Where was Enishi when you need him?
"It is all right," the man with the rich voice spoke again, this time using local tongue smoothly and fluently. Kenji jumped again. He felt himself crouch lower out of pure instincts. Peering through the leaves, he could see that the man who had spoken was a well-dressed, long-haired young adult, with a pleasant but plastic smile on his face. His eyes were bound by a strip of loose, white silk - evidently he could not see - and his aura was easy but wary.
"It is just a weak little rat. There is nothing to be afraid about."
That said and done, he continued on his way. His bodyguards grunted something and followed along, and the lady who was by the young man's side turned to stare impassively at the bush. She soon turned back and followed her apparent leader down the trail.
Kenji remained rooted in position. The previous aura of cutting danger had forced his muscles to freeze for fears of being found out. Of course, now that he thought about it, that was a moot point altogether. His aura had been so evident to the group he wondered why he had bothered hiding in the first place.
Not to forget, they had just called him 'a weak little rat.'
The boy was not new to insults - Yahiko dished them out on a regular basis, and sometimes he thought he was near immune to them already. There was just something different, however, at being belittled as a being not worthy of consideration. His mind began to shift backwards. He remembered all the things different people - Yahiko, jealous fellow doujou students, sometimes his mother and Megumi - especially Misao...
... no one had ever called him weak before.
These past few days, he had been finding out a lot about his life and skills - or rather, lack thereof, than he ever would have wanted to.
He was not sure how long he stayed in his position behind the bushes, for by the time he could hear Enishi calling for him, the taller person had a look of incredible displeasure in his face and was just two steps away from tearing him out from his hiding place. "Kenji, you little runt! How long are you going to laze in that bush until?! Hello?"
The boy blinked at first, then slowly recovered from his daze. He stood, dusting his hakama in deliberate brushes. Shaking himself free from any other random thoughts, he quipped, "Where the hell did you disappear to? And why did we have to hide from them anyway?"
Enishi's eyes grew slightly wide at the questions, and he had a retort ready on his lips. As if suddenly remembering something, though he cast his eyes away quickly. "Bad habit," he stated monotonously. "In the streets of Shanghai, you had to hide from everybody - especially in lonely alleys and trails..." There was a pause, and Kenji could see that Enishi was holding something back. "Anyway, hurry up," the white-haired man had turned and continued down the path. "I want to get there as soon as possible."
Kenji could only frown at the disappearing figure of Enishi. He then turned around to stare at the path the four foreign strangers had just taken, thoughts and questions of all sorts bombarding his inner mind.
Of which, foremost was the sure fact, that Enishi knew those men. Somehow.
Not that he was revealing anything to the boy.
Quietly, Kenji followed the older person along the path, all the while shooting him questioning, and sometimes suspicious looks from the corner of his eyes. "You knew those men," he blurted out, after the silence had dragged too long for him to be comfortable, "didn't you? That's why you hid from them?"
"I don't know what gave you that idea," Enishi replied dully, much to Kenji's surprise. The boy had not expected the man to reply at all, much less immediately. "Mind your own business, at any rate. You get to stay longer alive."
After a pause, Kenji growled. "Grr," he bared his teeth at his companion, "Now I really understand what that police spy meant when he said you were a giant pot of cactus waiting to prick anybody and everybody. And now I /really/ want to know how Soujirou managed to put up with you for such a long time."
"He's too dense and too soft-hearted," Enishi answered again, no hint of annoyance in his tone nevertheless. They had veered off the visible track and were now making their way slowly through thick undergrowth. "You can rest assured, though, that we didn't, and are not, going to stay together /all/ the time. When things happen, they happen, you got that, kid?" Enishi paused in front of a large tree, beyond which of laid a few separate routes they could take. He mulled over which one to advance in.
Kenji, unable to figure out what Enishi could possibly mean, shrugged and leaned against a nearby tree. He concentrated on trying to get the heat out of his mind. Forest trekking, he now understood, during summer was a bad, bad idea.
"Those men we saw must have come from where we are about to go to now," it was rare to hear Enishi offer information willingly, so Kenji perked up with a start. The man continued, "It's a deserted area around here. They couldn't have been here for a picnic," the boy thought he saw Enishi narrow his eyes slightly while pausing, "so we'll just have to keep a lookout on the most disturbed trail in the forest."
"... You mean you didn't know how to go to wherever we're going in the first place?!" Kenji exclaimed.
"That big lunk of meat moves around more often than we travel," Enishi grumbled, eventually picking the path directly to his right. "Every time we come we need to send out new intelligence to snoop out where he stays. And it doesn't help that Soujirou insists on visiting him as long as we're near this place." He randomly whacked an overhanging tree branch away with the sheath of his sword and trudged along unhappily.
"Then what was that earlier about not being able to concentrate on the road because of fragile wine bottles and whatnots?!" The boy screeched again, coming to a dead halt.
Enishi blinked at the boy in confusion. "What? When did I ever say that?" Then his memories struck him and he corrected, "Oh, wait, right. /That/ sentence? I believe the people nowadays call it..." he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "... a big, fat excuse to manipulate others do things for them." Without waiting to see Kenji's response, he turned and continued on trekking.
It took all of Kenji's self control not to run over and smash Enishi's head in with sake bottles.
"I know what you're thinking, boy," Enishi's voice came from the distance. "So don't even think about it. You'll not only miss, but you'll make the old hermit very very angry."
Kenji growled again, just for the sake of growling. He concentrated on keeping a safe distance apart from Enishi, just in case his hands automatically did things on his own. "Just who is this old hermit anyway?" He asked, trying to divert his exasperation into a distraction. "All of you seem to know him pretty well."
They walked out of the foresty area into a clearing of sorts, where a small hut could be seen in the distance. Beside the hut was a large blasting furnace, which Kenji would swear was at least as tall as the house was. He could not dream of what anyone would need such a huge furnace for.
Before his thoughts could proceed, Enishi scoffed and replied his earlier question, "Unfortunately yes, we do know him pretty well. Though I really wish I never had. I swear, people don't know what a proud, egotistic bastard really means until they-"
Abruptly, Enishi stopped walking and stopped talking. Taking his cue, Kenji stopped as well, glancing up at the taller person with question in his eyes. As his eyes swept casually through the terrain, however, he was taken aback to see that they were standing in the shade of a large shadow - and that the large shadow was not caused by the trees behind them. He could hear himself gulp.
"Until they?" The voice of the tall shadow spoke, amused and serious at the same time, in an attempt to get Enishi to complete his interrupted sentence. Enishi followed the source of that sound and frowned as he glanced over his shoulders to the looming man behind him.
"... until they meet you," he finished.
Over the horizon, the sun dipped and disappeared into the mountains.
... to be continued
--------------
22/7/04
tougenkyou . net / xd
a/n
it took 35 chapters to finally introduce the real bad guys behind the evil organisation in the story. am i longwinded or am i longwinded!! XD XD XD please nominate and vote for your favourite rk fics in the rkrc awards here: tfme . net / rkrc
Koukeisha
thanks so much for your compliments!! it's a great honour to be compared to canon! looking forward to your fic! ;D yes, pens are pointy and sharp and can get you a pay cut. XD i consider myself a minor writer, koukeisha. the popular writers are those who write smutty romance :P
Zeromaru
mwahahahah nah. no strange things like that in this story. more about the fox for sure later! :D
nodaaaaaa
watsuki-sensei mentioned that he based soujirou on okita souji and aoshi on hijikata toshizou (vice captain of entire shinsengumi). :D
PraiseDivineMercy
mwahahaha!! yes, no don't worry, it was entirely okina's idea. :D
Silver Nightingale
yes it's all your fault and you know it!! XD i would never have written that scene in if you never mentioned it!! XD
Sailor-Earth13
ah yes. it's in kamatari's nature to be naughty like that. XD
misaoshiru
thank you! hope this long long long fic hasn't killed you yet... how long? ehehe... it's probably going to hit 50 chapters and beyond. sorry!! O.Ox i'm a very longwinded person.
sasori
WOOHOO!! XD probably you're the only one who did understand. XD
Fyyrrose
only 10 people?! wow, you mus be a genius!! O.Ox i hope you're back on good terms with your mother! my father is a bit like that too so i really understand the feeling of being trapped :O and ehehe, yes, i suppose the entire oniwanbashuu has a strange sense of humour - they inherited it from okina! XD see you if i see you!
EEevee
not at all! i'm rather interested in PMK, although i've only read the manga and seen nothing much else. i should start reading fanfics for it... should i??! XD and aoshi is just plain weird. creepy, in a way. XD
April-san
[tackles back] and i'm a fan of yours right back O.Ox although i admit, aoshi / sou interaction is verily hard to write...
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.
------------------------------------------
Yesterday's Shadow is Tomorrow's Twilight
------------------------------------------
Chapter 34: Familiar Faces
Kenji sat on a rock by a creek, listening to the crickets.
It had been nearly two hours since Enishi had run into that tree, and he had nearly died laughing - literally, thanks to a close shave by an annoyed Enishi's rather large sword. They, or specifically, Enishi had then pushed on with the journey like they were engaged in a death march. It was not until Kenji threatened to smash all the sake bottles he was carrying against the trees that Enishi finally agreed reluctantly to rest by the nearby creek.
Somewhere up front, the white-haired man finished his last drink, splashed some cool water on his face, and stood up. "Are you done yet?" He uttered abruptly, while turning to look at the boy. Kenji glared at him in response.
"I've barely sat for five minutes!"
Enishi frowned right back. "You've sat for at least fifteen! We're never going to reach our destination at this rate."
"You can say what you want!" Kenji protested in a loud, unhappy voice, kicking some water in Enishi's general direction. "/You're/ not the one carrying all these bottles of wine around!"
The older person harrumphed and shook his head. "I can't concentrate on leading the way if I have to try not to break those fragile things every other step." He turned and walked towards the beaten path. "I'm leaving you behind if you're not moving."
Sighing loudly, Kenji quickly shouldered the pack which contained the heavy bottles of rice wine and trudged after Enishi in dissatisfaction. He did understand that he was purposely delaying the trip - but he was justified!! Which grown man let a young boy lug so many bottles of wine; which he was yet old enough to drink, by the way - around by himself?!
"Why are we doing this again?" He eventually grumbled when he caught up with his companion. The pack the bottles were in kept slipping from Kenji's shoulders, and he had to readjust them every two steps. It wasn't that they were /really/ heavy, Misao had made him carry heavier things before. It was just plain uncomfortable. And the blazing sun wasn't making it any easier.
"Because the old man said so," in reply, Enishi mimicked the monotonous drone of Okina and shrugged. "We're supposed to be looking for some old hermit hiding away in the mountains so we can get Soujirou's weapon back. Nothing fantastic, so don't hold your breath."
Kenji tried to observe the taller person's expressions. "Is it really as simple as that?" He asked quietly, stepping on and then kicking a random stone away. The forest crickets seemed more active at high noon, and their chirping was really starting to get on his nerves. "I smell a hidden agenda... as always. I just wish I can figure out what it is..."
"Enthusiasm can kill you, boy," Enishi warned from somewhere behind, causing Kenji to stop. "It sure as anything killed your father."
Kenji growled and rolled his eyes to indicate to Enishi what he thought of that sentence. "We've been walking since lunch," the boy complained. "Just how deep in the forest is this hermit guy anyway?"
"Shh," the urgent voice of Enishi alerted Kenji to the fact that there was noise further up the hidden mountain trail. The same trail they were trying to trek through. The white-haired man gave a signal, and immediately Kenji dived behind a nearby bush. Enishi blended into the background behind a large tree beside the redhead, and they were just in time to avoid being sighted by a small group of people making their way down the path.
Kenji squinted through the leaves of the bushes. He saw that this was an entourage of four people, and they were dressed in strange, foreign clothing. It took a while, but he eventually recognised the clothing as Chinese. He could not help but to turn around to sneak a brief glance at Enishi.
And when he did, he could not help but notice the look of surprise and recognition written all over the face of the ex-mafia boss.
Intrigued and slightly suspicious, Kenji returned his attention to the four persons walking on the trail. There were two decked in similar garb, flanking the other two - evidently acting as their bodyguards. They were not only intimidating in form and statute, but their eyes reflected years of seasoned training and immersion in life-threatening battles. Kenji could tell that it would take a lot more than just pure strength to bring them down, if need be. Unsure about why he was even considering these things, his eyes flitted over to Enishi again.
He was surprised to find that Enishi was no longer at the spot where he had been hiding in. As he debated whether he would try to locate his companion, the entourage came to a halt right in front of the bush he was behind. He jumped slightly, heart in his mouth. Beads of sweat trickled down both sides of his face. He could feel his fingers turning cold with anxiety.
"Zeme le?" A rich, smooth voice drawled out what was evidently a question, in a language Kenji understood nothing of.
He could understand, however, the language of danger that was bespoken in the air.
One of the bodyguards slowly turned to look at the bush. Kenji found himself striving hard not to gulp at the sheer amount of intensity the large man was giving him; through the bush. His eyes darted around again. Where was Enishi when you need him?
"It is all right," the man with the rich voice spoke again, this time using local tongue smoothly and fluently. Kenji jumped again. He felt himself crouch lower out of pure instincts. Peering through the leaves, he could see that the man who had spoken was a well-dressed, long-haired young adult, with a pleasant but plastic smile on his face. His eyes were bound by a strip of loose, white silk - evidently he could not see - and his aura was easy but wary.
"It is just a weak little rat. There is nothing to be afraid about."
That said and done, he continued on his way. His bodyguards grunted something and followed along, and the lady who was by the young man's side turned to stare impassively at the bush. She soon turned back and followed her apparent leader down the trail.
Kenji remained rooted in position. The previous aura of cutting danger had forced his muscles to freeze for fears of being found out. Of course, now that he thought about it, that was a moot point altogether. His aura had been so evident to the group he wondered why he had bothered hiding in the first place.
Not to forget, they had just called him 'a weak little rat.'
The boy was not new to insults - Yahiko dished them out on a regular basis, and sometimes he thought he was near immune to them already. There was just something different, however, at being belittled as a being not worthy of consideration. His mind began to shift backwards. He remembered all the things different people - Yahiko, jealous fellow doujou students, sometimes his mother and Megumi - especially Misao...
... no one had ever called him weak before.
These past few days, he had been finding out a lot about his life and skills - or rather, lack thereof, than he ever would have wanted to.
He was not sure how long he stayed in his position behind the bushes, for by the time he could hear Enishi calling for him, the taller person had a look of incredible displeasure in his face and was just two steps away from tearing him out from his hiding place. "Kenji, you little runt! How long are you going to laze in that bush until?! Hello?"
The boy blinked at first, then slowly recovered from his daze. He stood, dusting his hakama in deliberate brushes. Shaking himself free from any other random thoughts, he quipped, "Where the hell did you disappear to? And why did we have to hide from them anyway?"
Enishi's eyes grew slightly wide at the questions, and he had a retort ready on his lips. As if suddenly remembering something, though he cast his eyes away quickly. "Bad habit," he stated monotonously. "In the streets of Shanghai, you had to hide from everybody - especially in lonely alleys and trails..." There was a pause, and Kenji could see that Enishi was holding something back. "Anyway, hurry up," the white-haired man had turned and continued down the path. "I want to get there as soon as possible."
Kenji could only frown at the disappearing figure of Enishi. He then turned around to stare at the path the four foreign strangers had just taken, thoughts and questions of all sorts bombarding his inner mind.
Of which, foremost was the sure fact, that Enishi knew those men. Somehow.
Not that he was revealing anything to the boy.
Quietly, Kenji followed the older person along the path, all the while shooting him questioning, and sometimes suspicious looks from the corner of his eyes. "You knew those men," he blurted out, after the silence had dragged too long for him to be comfortable, "didn't you? That's why you hid from them?"
"I don't know what gave you that idea," Enishi replied dully, much to Kenji's surprise. The boy had not expected the man to reply at all, much less immediately. "Mind your own business, at any rate. You get to stay longer alive."
After a pause, Kenji growled. "Grr," he bared his teeth at his companion, "Now I really understand what that police spy meant when he said you were a giant pot of cactus waiting to prick anybody and everybody. And now I /really/ want to know how Soujirou managed to put up with you for such a long time."
"He's too dense and too soft-hearted," Enishi answered again, no hint of annoyance in his tone nevertheless. They had veered off the visible track and were now making their way slowly through thick undergrowth. "You can rest assured, though, that we didn't, and are not, going to stay together /all/ the time. When things happen, they happen, you got that, kid?" Enishi paused in front of a large tree, beyond which of laid a few separate routes they could take. He mulled over which one to advance in.
Kenji, unable to figure out what Enishi could possibly mean, shrugged and leaned against a nearby tree. He concentrated on trying to get the heat out of his mind. Forest trekking, he now understood, during summer was a bad, bad idea.
"Those men we saw must have come from where we are about to go to now," it was rare to hear Enishi offer information willingly, so Kenji perked up with a start. The man continued, "It's a deserted area around here. They couldn't have been here for a picnic," the boy thought he saw Enishi narrow his eyes slightly while pausing, "so we'll just have to keep a lookout on the most disturbed trail in the forest."
"... You mean you didn't know how to go to wherever we're going in the first place?!" Kenji exclaimed.
"That big lunk of meat moves around more often than we travel," Enishi grumbled, eventually picking the path directly to his right. "Every time we come we need to send out new intelligence to snoop out where he stays. And it doesn't help that Soujirou insists on visiting him as long as we're near this place." He randomly whacked an overhanging tree branch away with the sheath of his sword and trudged along unhappily.
"Then what was that earlier about not being able to concentrate on the road because of fragile wine bottles and whatnots?!" The boy screeched again, coming to a dead halt.
Enishi blinked at the boy in confusion. "What? When did I ever say that?" Then his memories struck him and he corrected, "Oh, wait, right. /That/ sentence? I believe the people nowadays call it..." he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "... a big, fat excuse to manipulate others do things for them." Without waiting to see Kenji's response, he turned and continued on trekking.
It took all of Kenji's self control not to run over and smash Enishi's head in with sake bottles.
"I know what you're thinking, boy," Enishi's voice came from the distance. "So don't even think about it. You'll not only miss, but you'll make the old hermit very very angry."
Kenji growled again, just for the sake of growling. He concentrated on keeping a safe distance apart from Enishi, just in case his hands automatically did things on his own. "Just who is this old hermit anyway?" He asked, trying to divert his exasperation into a distraction. "All of you seem to know him pretty well."
They walked out of the foresty area into a clearing of sorts, where a small hut could be seen in the distance. Beside the hut was a large blasting furnace, which Kenji would swear was at least as tall as the house was. He could not dream of what anyone would need such a huge furnace for.
Before his thoughts could proceed, Enishi scoffed and replied his earlier question, "Unfortunately yes, we do know him pretty well. Though I really wish I never had. I swear, people don't know what a proud, egotistic bastard really means until they-"
Abruptly, Enishi stopped walking and stopped talking. Taking his cue, Kenji stopped as well, glancing up at the taller person with question in his eyes. As his eyes swept casually through the terrain, however, he was taken aback to see that they were standing in the shade of a large shadow - and that the large shadow was not caused by the trees behind them. He could hear himself gulp.
"Until they?" The voice of the tall shadow spoke, amused and serious at the same time, in an attempt to get Enishi to complete his interrupted sentence. Enishi followed the source of that sound and frowned as he glanced over his shoulders to the looming man behind him.
"... until they meet you," he finished.
Over the horizon, the sun dipped and disappeared into the mountains.
... to be continued
--------------
22/7/04
tougenkyou . net / xd
a/n
it took 35 chapters to finally introduce the real bad guys behind the evil organisation in the story. am i longwinded or am i longwinded!! XD XD XD please nominate and vote for your favourite rk fics in the rkrc awards here: tfme . net / rkrc
Koukeisha
thanks so much for your compliments!! it's a great honour to be compared to canon! looking forward to your fic! ;D yes, pens are pointy and sharp and can get you a pay cut. XD i consider myself a minor writer, koukeisha. the popular writers are those who write smutty romance :P
Zeromaru
mwahahahah nah. no strange things like that in this story. more about the fox for sure later! :D
nodaaaaaa
watsuki-sensei mentioned that he based soujirou on okita souji and aoshi on hijikata toshizou (vice captain of entire shinsengumi). :D
PraiseDivineMercy
mwahahaha!! yes, no don't worry, it was entirely okina's idea. :D
Silver Nightingale
yes it's all your fault and you know it!! XD i would never have written that scene in if you never mentioned it!! XD
Sailor-Earth13
ah yes. it's in kamatari's nature to be naughty like that. XD
misaoshiru
thank you! hope this long long long fic hasn't killed you yet... how long? ehehe... it's probably going to hit 50 chapters and beyond. sorry!! O.Ox i'm a very longwinded person.
sasori
WOOHOO!! XD probably you're the only one who did understand. XD
Fyyrrose
only 10 people?! wow, you mus be a genius!! O.Ox i hope you're back on good terms with your mother! my father is a bit like that too so i really understand the feeling of being trapped :O and ehehe, yes, i suppose the entire oniwanbashuu has a strange sense of humour - they inherited it from okina! XD see you if i see you!
EEevee
not at all! i'm rather interested in PMK, although i've only read the manga and seen nothing much else. i should start reading fanfics for it... should i??! XD and aoshi is just plain weird. creepy, in a way. XD
April-san
[tackles back] and i'm a fan of yours right back O.Ox although i admit, aoshi / sou interaction is verily hard to write...