The Trouble with a House Full of Ninjas

by: Shrine of Ice and Fire

July 2004

disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin belongs to its creator, producers and distrubutors.

Megumi Takani sneezed.

Instinctively, she paused in her writing and brought her hand to her head. Satisfied that she wasn't sick, she decided instead that perhaps a draft from the open window was responsible. She put down her brush pen and moved lightly to the window, suddenly reminded that she had been sitting hours and hours in her task.

It was unfortunate that she had left all those pages behind somewhere. Her secret project was certainly going to be set back at least another month or so with that written material missing. She was certain that it had been either left in Kyoto or in Tokyo, but was almost too embarassed to bring up the matter.

---

"I'm sure koneko is here somewhere," Omasu padded down the hallway and paused at the door that led to Aoshi's office.

"I don't know about this," Misao shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. "Aoshi-sama hasn't given us permission."

"Blah blah blah," Omasu ignored the younger woman and strode into the office and began peering under and around pieces of furniture. "Aoshi- sama will not like a loose kitten in his office either. He's allergic to cats, you know."

Misao sighed from the doorway. No matter what, -she- wasn't going in. "See her?"

"No," Omasu frowned as she leaned over Aoshi's desk and spotted a
very out of place box. "But I found something else."

(LongwindedGirl)

Though the unearthly feminine scream that shook the walls of the Aoiya, shocked its rowdy afternoon customers into silence, and had Okina vaulting up the stairs with equally shocking agility certainly defied human standards of lung power, it still failed to reach even Shinomori Aoshi's sensitive hearing. At that moment, he was sitting through his second of three hours of meditation at the temple on the other side of Kyoto.

And so he could hardly be blamed for his utter confusion and bewilderment when he returned home to the Aoiya to find Misao unconscious and ill with fever, Okina gone with hardly a word of explanation, and the rest of the Oniwabanshuu shooting him black looks.

As Okon excused herself awkwardly from his presence, mumbling something about "black silk--I mean packed milk" and growing very red in the face, he stared after her retreating figure, feeling distinctly at a loss.

He sighed, very quietly, and turned to head for his office. Had he been more inclined toward showing his emotions, he would have shaken his head. It didn't help that his meditation had been a near complete failure. He had been distracted entirely too many times by... the letters.

He laid his hand on his office door and stopped dead.

Something was wrong.

(Mirune Keishiko)

The door was closed.

Knowing full well that he had left the door slightly open intentionally, he was well aware that someone had disturbed it and perhaps had entered inside. He confirmed that particular someone was long gone as he entered his office. But he felt an odd sense of discomfort as he realized that at least one person (perhaps more) had gone near his desk. The letters sat there, yes -- but they were folded too precisely.

His face warmed as he considered that the contents of those letters had become common knowledge in the Aoiya. Perhaps that was the reason for the odd look Okon had given him? But even so, it would not explain her odd words. There was no mention of black silk or packed milk within them. He scanned the letters again to be certain of that fact, his mind simultaneously contemplating that of those in the Aoiya, she was least likely to have made that decision to enter his office and invade his privacy so horribly. Okon could not have read the letters -- but rather someone else. As for who -- the person he suspected most capable of that was nowhere inside this compound.

Okina returned later for dinner, with little to say. What he did in the few hours he had disappeared he did not reveal to Aoshi, or apparently anyone. Everyone had already turned their attention solely to the task of tending to the unconscious Misao. And so the odd matter was hidden away or forgotten, just like the letters Aoshi had made sure to secret away to a much more secure place.

But the matter, in fact, was not destined to lie quietly. Not when the reason for Okina's convenient disappearance appeared suddenly in Aizu, several weeks later, in the form of a small, light box addressed to the Doctor Takani. Megumi Takani -- recognizing the postmark and hoping it to be the valuable scraps of writing that she had left behind -- opened it immediately. But when her fingers touched the soft contents inside, she inhaled sharply. Black silk -- amongst probably the finest from China. But as she pulled the strangely cut cloth out of the box and held it against her, she wondered exactly what it was for.

(LongwindedGirl )

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