I wrote this yesterday, and decided that finding a song for Yahiko and Tsubame wasn't going to be quite simple, so... Enjoy this for now, I'll get the third chapter up ASAP.


Kenshin's eyes widened. From seemingly nowhere there was… a noise. It sounded like It might be a sort of warped music… certainly nothing he had heard before, with it's strong beat and odd-sounding instruments. Suddenly, words were accompanying the music.

"Fly into the rising sun, Faces, smiling everyone. Yeah, she is a whole new tradition. I feel it in my heart!"

"What!" Kenshin cried, looking around for the source of the music.

"Something wrong, Kenshin?" Kaoru, sweeping the porch nearby, asked.

"N-nothing, Kaoru-dono!" Kenshin said, waving his hands dismissively.

"My woman from Tokyo, She makes me see! My woman from Tokyo, She's so good to me!"

"ORO!"

"Kenshin?"

"NOTHING!" Kenshin cried frantically, looking around still, desperately trying to locate the source of the sounds.

"Are you really alright, do I need to make you some tea?"

'She really is good to me… ORO!'

"No thank you, Kaoru-dono, I am fine…" Kenshin tried to tune out the song. Tried, and failed.

"Well… I'm finished here. Would you like to come help keep Yahiko in line while I train?" She grabbed Kenshin from his unfinished laundry and dragged him to the dojo. He sat at the edge as he watched her select a bokken and tossed Yahiko a shinai.

"ORO?" He cried as Kaoru began to show Yahiko a new Kata.

"It's like a dance, Yahiko, you have to get the timing—Kenshin!" She turned to look at the former assassin, curled up in a fetal position with his hands over his ears…

"Talk about her like a queen, Dancing in a eastern dream, Yeah, she makes me feel like a river, That carries me away!"

"Make it stop make it stop make it stop…" Kenshin repeated like a mantra. 'It's not stopping!'

"Kenshin… I'm going to go get Megumi-san, alright?" Kaoru said, backing slowly away. "Everything will be okay!" She cried before running out and towards town.

"My woman from Tokyo, She makes me see! My woman from Tokyo, She's so good to me!"

"Geeze, Kenshin, are you alright?"

"Make it stop.. it's talking to me… and telling me things… and saying things…" Kenshin whispered, eyes wide.

"But I'm at home and I just don't belong ... So far away from the garden we love, She is what moves in the soul of a dove, Soon I shall see just how black was my night, When we're alone in her city of light."

"Doves… no, not doves! Pretty… too pretty for dove… Liiiiiiiight…." Kenshin trailed off, thoroughly disturbing his young friend.

"Kenshin?" Yahiko backed away even as he said this before turning and running after Kaoru.

"Rising from the neon gloom, Shining like a crazy moon, Yeah, she turns me on like a fire, I get high"

"Fire… turns me on… NO! NOT NOW!" Kenshin jumped up and ran to the laundry tun, jumping in the cold water. He returned to his fetal position…

"My woman from Tokyo, She makes me see! My woman from Tokyo, She's so good to me!"

…And remained in such until Kaoru returned, Megumi, Yahiko and Sano in tow.