Healer

By Meii-chan

Chapter 5-Sword Hunter

"Tadaima! (1) Kirashi-san, you need to come meet someone!" Yumi exclaimed loudly to no one in particular as she opened the door.

The building was quite ancient, with a sundry of vines twisting along the buttresses. However, the room on the other side was surprisingly simple and spacious, even though the actual building seemed like it was going to fall apart. Thick straw colored tatami mats lined the floor, and a few violet wildflowers graced the sturdy, lacquered table. There was no one inside.

"Kirashi-san?"

"Yeah?" A voice behind them spoke, shocking everyone besides Kenshin. "Who are they? Your friends, right, Yumi-chan?"

"Right."

Everyone turned around to see who it was. The person was a young and average looking woman. She had a few stray strands of ebony colored hair falling across her face, while the rest was tied back and secured with a wooden comb. "My name is Tachikawa Kirashi. You are…?"

"I'm Megumi, he's Soujiro," she said, pointing to Soujiro, "and he's Kenshin!" she pointed her finger in Kenshin's direction.

"It's a pleasure to meet you…you have a sword?"

Kenshin blinked. "Oh this?" he said, indicating the sword by his side, "Don't worry, this unworthy one swore not to kill anybody. Yumi-dono said something about how this unworthy one would be of help here."

"Eh?" Kirashi looked at him blankly. She was most probably wondering how a hobo like the red haired man standing before her can possibly be of any assistance at all. She looked toward Yumi for any clue as to what she had in mind.

"Apparently, he protected the police chief, Sadojima Houji during the war. He trusts him, so I was thinking if they could stay to protect 'it'." Yumi told Kirashi, confusing everyone else. What exactly was "it"?

Kirashi closed her eyes and thought for a moment before opening them again. She broke into a sincere smile. "Sure, you can stay. But you have to help Yumi and me with the housework. I'll tell you guys about 'it' later—Oh dear! What happened to you?"

There was a general feeling of confusion in the group until Soujiro realized that Kirashi was staring at him. Or, more precisely, was staring at the blood seeping though Megumi's bandages. "You see, there was a bit of trouble getting here. But I'm perfectly fine."

Kirashi sighed. "You would think…" She pushed Soujiro into the room and went inside before sticking her head back out of the door. "Yumi-san, can you make lunch?"

"Um…sure…"

Kirashi had already left before Yumi's answer, leaving the three stunned. Yumi glanced at Kenshin and Megumi. "Are you going to help me or stand there all day?"

"We'll help." Megumi and Kenshin said simultaneously.

A tall mysterious man wearing a red shirt paced impatiently around the room. He had sent them out and hour or two ago, what can take them so long? Idiots, all of them. He walked towards a sword rack and took a sword from the top. "Hey, Kuto!"

"What is it? Chou-sama?" Kuto replied, appearing immediately at the doorway. Perhaps it was because Chou was looking more irritated than usual, and Kuto didn't like the homicidal look in Chou's eye while he was handling the blade.

"The group that I sent out earlier, why aren't they back?"

"They're all dead, Chou-sama…massacred."

"By Yumi?" he skeptically raised his eyebrow. Street bandits these days are so useless, but I never imagined them to be that pathetic.

"No. It was probably someone else." He said, sweating profusely. "I can get another group together if you want…"

"Good. I don't know who would want to protect her, but if they're in the way, kill them. Take your group under the cover of darkness." Chou tossed him the sword.

Kuto caught the sharp blade, hissed with pain, and dropped the sword on the ground. Chou looked at him with an almost pitying expression. "Somehow, the swords will be mine."

"Yumi-nee-chan, is Kirashi-san related to you?" Megumi asked out of the blue, trying to stir up conversation. She knew Yumi had called Kirashi her landlady, but they looked incredibly similar.

"No, she's not. But Kirashi-san is very reasonable. Just as long as you don't pose any kind of threat, she'll let you live on her property." Yumi answered thoughtfully. Kirashi-san doesn't care who you are, and that's what makes her so avuncular and kind. Even if it is some sinner like me…

"Why is it Kirashi-san's property? Did she inherit it or something?" Megumi asked, puzzled. There weren't many female proprietors in Japan, even if it was a new era.

"No, it actually belongs to her husband. But Kirashi-san manages almost all of it, she basically runs the place. She's really self-sufficient. Her husband is almost a liability. You'll meet him later. Although, frankly, I don't know what Kirashi-san ever sees in him."

"What's his name?"

"Kariwa Henya." Yumi answered, "The strangest person you can possibly meet…"

Kirashi was leading Soujiro down a deserted hallway in the middle of the building. Even though the actual house appeared to be quite small, the corridor was in reality very spacious. It was dank and smelled fresh, like the air after a rainstorm, rather than musty, even though it seemed like no one had been there for ages.

She opened a door at the end of the corridor, revealing a large storage area. She then walked to a large wooded trunk and promptly pulled open its dusty lid. Inside were folded masses of clothes of all kinds. Rummaging though the trunk's contents, Kirashi pulled out a gi (2) and hakama (3) and tossed them to Soujiro.

"Areh?"

"Here, keep those. I think they'll fit you. I think the clothes you're wearing now are bloody beyond any hope of getting clean again." She told him. "Oh wait!" Kirashi exclaimed as she pulled something else out. "I forgot this was here!"

Soujiro just stared at her.

"Let's get out of here. This place is kind of creepy." Kirashi said, slamming the lid down, dust particles falling everywhere. "I'll show you where you can stay. Follow me."

"Oh, Himura's back from fishing."

And indeed he was. Yumi and Megumi had kicked him out of the kitchen on the excuse that men couldn't cook, and sent him out to fish at a nearby stream. Kenshin was saturated from head to toe with stream water. Droplets were falling from his clothes to the ground, and a dark trail of water followed him from the streambed to the door of the kitchen.

"You're such a klutz…"

"Did you catch any fish?" Megumi asked, hoping that if Kenshin got that wet, he could have caught at least something.

"Yup, this unworthy one did!" Kenshin looked overly pleased with himself as he held up a straw basket full of skinny, squirming fish.

Yumi took one look at the fish and wrinkled her nose. "Are those fish or worms bloated with water?"

Megumi rolled her eyes as she dumped the entire contents of the basket into a steaming pot.

The collar of the western shirt was extremely irritating, Soujiro found out after Kirashi persuaded him to wear the clothes she gave him. But still, it made her happy, so he decided to put up with it.

"You don't have to wear it if it bothers you."

"Areh?"

"The western shirt. I'm not blind, you know. I can perfectly tell that you're tugging on the collar every few minutes." Kirashi said, exasperated.

Soujiro shook his head. I'm supposed to be grateful. "I'll get used to it." He assured her politely.

"Don't worry; I won't be offended."

"I'm okay! There're worse things in the world than itchy collars."

"Eh? Does it have to do with all those injuries you have?" Kirashi never quite understood why Soujiro looked like he was half-dead when he arrived. She had just figured that he fell out of a tree and into some thorny bush underneath. "You didn't fall into a prickly plant, did you?"

"Um, no. Why would you think that?" It never occurred once to Soujiro that if people saw him back then, they assumed he fell into a thorny botanical object. And he just thought they didn't care...

"There must be some gang in town that threatens little children!" Kirashi was quite sure of her prediction. "Tell me who they are, Soujiro-kun. I'll make sure the police are informed." She was looking so fiercely into Soujiro's eyes that he couldn't find a way to evade her questions.

"You know the house that belongs to the Seta rice distributing company?"

"Yes. Is that their hide-out or something?"

"They live there. The rice merchant and his family…my family…they tried to kill me…"

"Oh…" Kirashi was silent after that.

Sensing Kirashi's uneasiness, he tried to assuage her. "But it's okay. It's unfair, but that's the way life is. I can't help it, but I don't mind it as much as you probably think."

"Kirashi-san! Sou-chan!" Megumi called in a cheerful voice from another room. "Yumi-nee-chan finished cooking!"

"Well, off you go to lunch. Just try to follow Megumi-chan's voice. I need to go get my husband…" Kirashi left him, walking outside in her stocking feet, to some shack unattached to the main building.

Lunch was over and done with without any particular awkward moments. That is, not counting caviling over whether the fish Kenshin caught were actually fish or bloated worms. For safety's sake, no one touched them.

Kirashi's husband was, as Yumi had so eloquently described to Megumi, strange. He seemed to be a decent person, but was abnormally gaunt and cold despite what was going on around him.

"Now about it…I hope you aren't going to betray us to the government, Ken-san, but it is a set of swords." Kirashi said, while absentmindedly fingering a tatami mat. As she finished speaking, she flipped the mat up, revealing a large box underneath. She promptly flipped open the lid. Inside were two sets of katana (4) and wakizashi (5).

"Oro…" Those were expensive swords…decorated beautifully, they were probably heirlooms.

"Koketsu…a collection of swords of the Kariwa bloodline. For some reason, every bandit in town seems to want to get a hold of it. Normally, my husband and I would give it to them to save the trouble, but my husband seems to have a thing with pride."

"Him? I thought he didn't care about things like that, after letting you run the house…" Yumi exclaimed.

"Yeah, he admits being incompetent with the regular jobs and being a swordsman, so he's taken to trying to invent a flying machine. But he wanted to keep the sword collection away from thieves in order to keep his pride as a descendent of a powerful samurai line."

"You were too?" Megumi asked her, perplexed. She never guessed that they were like that, after the quaint, simple atmosphere she felt inside their home.

"Yes, but in this new era, your social class isn't enough to save or slay you. That's why this place is the way it is today. We had to change it in order to prosper economically. To live the other way would be too anachronistic." Kirashi explained. "Are you willing to help us, even now?" she asked Kenshin.

"If those thieves pose a threat to your happiness, then this unworthy one would have to stop them. Even so, I will not kill anyone. But don't worry Kirashi-dono. I don't need to kill to protect those around me."

"That's a relief…I wouldn't know what to do if there were a dozen bloody corpses stacked up in my front door. Thank you…"

Soujiro could tell from her even breathing that Megumi was asleep. Everyone was, as far was he could tell, as it was all silent save for the occasional buzzing of a lone cicada. Normally, Soujiro would have just passed out from exhaustion, but for some obvious reason, he didn't feel like he was going to slip into unconsciousness anytime soon. Bored, he got up and went outside for a walk.

He was crossing the threshold of the exterior door when he heard a voice behind him speak. He immediately stiffened.

"The night is too peaceful, is it not?"

Soujiro turned around, and upon the sight of Kenshin, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, it's just you, Himura-san."

"Aa. This unworthy one has to protect the koketsu for Kirashi-dono." Kenshin said glancing at the room where the sword rack was. "Are you going for a walk?" Soujiro nodded, noting that Kenshin found nothing abnormal with taking a stroll in midnight. "This unworthy one will go too."

And so, they strolled into the forest at the edge of the property. Overhead, autumn leaves swayed on the branches before falling to the ground. Footsteps, though it seemed like more that two pairs, plodding along the grassy undergrowth.

"Ironic, isn't it?" Soujiro said to himself. "How a day can pass and everything is different."

"Oro?"

"Oh, thank you for protecting Megumi-san earlier today. But if you're not there…Can you teach me to fight like you do?"

"No; not like that."

Kenshin's abrupt answer surprised him. There wasn't anything wrong with it, right? "Why not?"

Kenshin didn't speak as he took the sheath off of his sword. The bright metal shone blue in the moonlight. He handed the sword to Soujiro. "Take a good look at this sword, Soujiro."

"Areh?" As far as he could tell, there was nothing different with it. Kenshin's sword looked like any other sword he had seen: metallic, slender, sharp…no, Kenshin's sword wasn't sharp; the longer side was quite blunt. "Why is the curved edge dull?"

"The cutting edge and the dull edge are reversed. That's what's special about this sword. A sakabatou: reversed edge sword." Kenshin explained, re-sheathing the sword.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Soujiro asked, perplexed.

"Did you wonder why that guy earlier—whatever his name was—didn't die when I slashed him?"

"Because the blade is dull…obviously…So he would have died if it wasn't for your sword?" Yes, that made sense; even though Soujiro initially thought Ichiro wasn't dead because Kenshin never took off the sheath.

"That's partly right. But a blunt edge isn't enough, this unworthy one had to hold back as well. Despite what other people might think, it is not possible for a person to be alright if an object, even a blunt one, slams into him at a very high speed. Even if the blade is reversed, it just prevents lacerations. There's no guarantee that the other person would be fine."

Soujiro looked at Kenshin with a discomfited smile on his face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Did you really want him to die? This unworthy one won't be angry at you if you said 'yes'"

"No. It's not his fault."

"But if he really wanted to kill you, you would fight back, no?" Kenshin asked, dumbfounded by Soujiro's previous answer.

"Maybe…I guess. But there's no point since both of them are so much stronger than I am."

"But if this unworthy one teaches you, you'll become stronger, right?" Kenshin waited for Soujiro to nod his head before continuing. "You'll get to the point where you can defeat the both of them."

"But I won't kill; I only need to protect Megumi-san!"

"Killing…it's such a simple thing to do. Too simple. You don't know what it feels like to take another person's life. I don't want you to experience that…that's why…"

"Oh. Himura-san—" Soujiro's speech was cut off as Kenshin abruptly clapped a hand over his mouth. "Mmph!"

"Shush, Soujiro. Do you hear anything?"

Kuto and his group, about half a dozen in number, prowled through the forest like a pack of hyenas. The group consisted of ordinary bandits Kuto had found outside a busy restaurant with varying degrees of grumpiness. Apparently the restaurant owner didn't tolerate freeloaders. Even so, the six men were more than what he needed to steal the prized sword collection for Chou the sword-hunter.

They were near the edge of the woods now, and there was a vast stretch of rice paddies between the forest and the house. If they made it to the inside of the house without anyone noticing them, they would be able to ransack the entire building for the Koketsu without and outside witnesses. Even so, Kuto felt they were being watched.

The peace of the night was shattered with nothing more than a single splash of the water.

Glossary:

1. Tadaima—I am home.

2. Gi—the shirt (traditional)

3. Hakama—the pants (traditional)

4. Katana—the long Japanese sword. Otherwise known as nihontou

5. Wakizashi—the short Japanese sword.

Author's Notes: Stupid final exams... I have no time to write... especially since I'm actually supposed to do my history essay now.

Kirashi is a character of my own strange imagination! I think I'm going to put a character named Kirashi in every multi-chapter fanfic I write. She is quite the non-conformist woman in the era of Rurouni Kenshin. Basically, she runs the house (Kaoru does too, but she isn't married.) I will make her play a vital role in this fanfic, so she's not just there because I feel like sticking in a Kirashi into the fic. (Well, sort of.) And I made her married to Henya?! Oh, dear…What was I thinking…? The swords Kirashi possesses are the Koketsu. I made them the set of swords from which the Nagasone Koketsu came from. (Nagasone Koketsu is the sword Soujiro used to slice Kenshin's Sakabatou in half, remember?)

Soujiro didn't have all that many lines in the last chapter, so he's saying more in this one. Yeah, otherwise Soujiro would seem like Aoshi…

And so, Chou is after more swords…how predictable. 'Tis the beginning of the second part of my fanfic. "Sword Hunt."

And remember the three R's! Review, review, and review! (Okay, that was lame…)

Lord Cirenmas: Er…not much I can say in response to "good story," but thanks for reviewing!

Fallen: I need to start killing off more people; it inevitably makes this fanfic more tragic. (And Rurouni Kenshin revolves around killing one way or another.)

Kyone: Thank you Kyone-san! I think I like writing unusual pairings, it's different. What shall I write after this?

Twilight Sky: Thank you for reviewing again! It would be strange if Houji was against Yumi, but in this fanfic, they aren't united with Shishio. Remember that part in the anime when Houji complains that Yumi is so useless because she couldn't see Kenshin's succession technique? (Speaking of which I have to include that technique in here somewhere…)

Seaoknarnar: Isn't hobo such a funny word? It sounds so cute, like some kind of fluffy animal…And unfortunately, with this being a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic, I can't get around the fight scenes. So you'll just have to put up with mediocre fight scenes was I try to write better.