A birthday present for my cousin, who adores Sanosuke. I'm writing this focusing on her enjoyment. She's a hopeless romantic and a girl after Shakespeare's heart so…you've been warned.

Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin was created by Nobuhiro Watsuki-sensei and also owned by Shueisha, Shonen Jump, and Sony Entertainment. I would say I'm just having fun, but not this time. This time I'm just as much a victim. I'm even actually chained to the keyboard, see? Steel chain and manacles.

The stars twinkle brightest to smile at the snow
I'm so cold but right now I can't find home
I know where I want to go, it's how to get there I don't know
Old story, dusty old tome…

1
Byakudan

"I am not lost!"

I was lost. Very, thoroughly, completely lost.

"That town's around here somewhere."

I had no idea where the town was.

Five years since I left Japan, my sense of direction had not improved in the slightest. The thanks of the convoy I had been guarding still rang in my ears, and the money they'd paid me was in my pockets, but neither of those things did me any good if I couldn't find the town or shelter before the storm hit.

I glanced up through the canopy of trees at the churning sky, scowling. "You are not going to rain on me!"

No sooner had the words left my mouth than the bottom fell out and I was drenched in an instant.

"Damn, damn, damn!"

I marched over to the thickest tree I could find and flipped my jacket over my head, figuring it would be best just to ride the storm out rather than losing what miserable bearings I had left. At least, I was still fairly certain the town was in this general vicinity.

Such was one of my first introductions to the Mongolia. So far, it hadn't been a very warm welcome.

In fact, it was a freezing and wet welcome, lined with the edges of my hunger. My stomach protested vehemently that my mind had just been telling stories of the exotic food we might have been sampling if I had just found the town the convoy had told me would be around here.

My jacket over my head, I jammed my hands beneath my underarms and huddled there. At least it was spring and not winter. A little spring storm wasn't going to kill me.

Hunger though, that was a different matter.

I sighed, my thoughts drifting back to Tokyo. The food at the Akabeko. The free meals I'd mooch off Jou-chan and Kenshin.

I wondered how those two were doing. Had they finally quit dancing around and got hitched? Yahiko, he'd be about, what? Fifteen, sixteen, something like that now?

I sighed again, gustily this time, stretching my muscles over a slight ache that settled in my chest. I knew I would miss them, but sometimes… Sometimes I just wanted to, you know, know how they were doing. If they were all right. Still happy, still safe. I hoped they missed me a little too. I liked to think that they did.

The world, I had come to realize, was a really big place. Big enough to swallow me up without a trace, which, at the time of my leaving, had been the general idea.

I just never expected to lose myself so quickly. I was having the time of my life, most of the time. But there were days, like today, when I wished I'd wake up in my little shack, back in Tokyo, with the Kamiya dojo and my friends only a stone's throw away...

So I had been a little lonely lately. I'd get over it. As soon as I found that town, I'd find a good game, enjoy some beer and some rowdy company. Maybe even the company of the feminine sort. Then the loneliness would fade back and I'd go on like always.

"I am not going to get sentimental," I growled to myself.

But, nothing else in the universe was listening to me, so why should I bother to listen to myself? I missed my friends, damn it! And it wasn't just their faces I longed to see, it was the fact that it was getting difficult to remember what it was like to have someone be concerned for you. In this big, empty place, not one soul would give a vagabond like myself a second thought. But at home I could expect someone to quire over whether I was cold, or hungry, or if I'd like to stay the night, if my injuries were healing okay, or if I'd finally learned my lesson after drinking myself into a new level of hangover.

It's not like I wanted someone constantly worrying over me, but I just missed having someone to just...care. At all.

A sudden clap of thunder strong enough to shake the world almost made me jump three feet into the air from where I was sitting.

Shivering again, I pulled my sodden jacket more tightly around myself. "See?" I said to myself. "See what you get for getting all mushy? Now knock it off."

Still, being mostly exposed in a thunderstorm as violent as this one was turning out to be was an idea I didn't particularly relish. I peeked out from under my jacket to regard the height of the tree I had chosen for cover. It was pretty tall and thick…didn't lightning strike the tallest thing around first?

Thunder boomed again, and I winced.

Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea after all to get back up and try to find that town again. Much more pleasant to wait out a storm in an inn or standing under someone's porch instead of sitting in the mud hoping lightning wouldn't strike your tree.

I shrugged my jacket back on, deciding to give it one more try. I hoped that my poor sense of direction would at least help me find this tree again so I could backtrack if I lost my way again.

I actually did find the town, a five-minute walk away from where I had been sitting. Seeing the houses peeking up from below the muddy ridge I was trying to navigate, I swore colorfully into the rain. I couldn't believe that I had been about to spend the night in the rain with the town I had been looking for almost right on top of me!

Lightning flashed in the sky, illuminating the town, sprawled about the valley. It also brought my attention to a lonely little grave just at the bottom of the ledge.

I've seen graves before of course, but this one caught my eye because of the large lettering of the word "Byakudan" scrawled in the stone, large and wild enough for me to make out even in the rain-driven darkness.

Byakudan. I glanced around, wondering if I would see any trees that bore that name, but it was too dark to be sure. I shrugged tiredly and sauntered past the stone and into the town, seeking an inn. It was probably just someone's name, though I found that an odd spot for a headstone to be, there at the entrance of the town like that. Well. None of my business where these people buried their dead. Maybe there was some kind of interesting story to it.

It was just as I passed by the stone that I was struck by lightning. Or maybe it wasn't me, exactly, as much as the bolt striking the place between the stone and me. It didn't hurt, at least, not right away, but it was with great enough force to throw me back, and burst the tombstone apart!

It seemed to take forever to hit the ground, and to bounce upward slightly from the impact. I saw pieces of the stone fly everywhere. I closed by eyes as bits of stone rained down on me.

Then I must have passed out.

Someone was shaking me, speaking.

"Hey. Stop," I murmured, and the touch drew back.

I opened bleary eyes to too-bright sunlight. Lifting a hand to shield my eyes, I tried to sit up, only to be pressed back by the same gentle hands.

Irritated, I opened my eyes again and to my great shock, it was Kenshin who was kneeling over me! I still couldn't focus my eyesight, but there was no mistaking that blazing red hair.

"Kenshin?" I said, voice sounding hoarse and slurred. "What're you doing here?"

Kenshin cocked his head to one side, as if not certain how to answer. I tried to sit up again, slowly this time, shaking my head to clear it. "Ow… Kenshin? Not that I'm not glad to see you, but what are you doing here? Is Jou-chan with you? Wait a second, is she all right? Is everything okay at home?"

When he still didn't answer, I dug my knuckles into my eyes and rubbed furiously, then squinted back, trying to understand the reason for his silence.

I was struck dumb the instant my eyes cleared. This person before me was…not…Kenshin.

The first thing that I saw that made me realize there was something terribly wrong was the scar. There was a cross-shaped scar, but instead of being on the left cheek like it was supposed to be, the scar was misplaced on the right cheek. The hair was the same rich shade of red, and the eyes just as large and wide and violet. The same straight nose, same shade of skin, same shape of mouth…

But the face was even more rounded and gentle, the skin smaller-pored, the body even smaller and slimmer. A gentle swell at the chest. This wasn't Kenshin. I was looking at a woman. A woman who looked enough like Kenshin to be his twin.

I gaped like a fool, unable to even think. She stared back at me, amethyst eyes both wary and concerned. Her hair was loose over her face, partly concealing the pale scar on her cheek.

"Sir, are you all right?" she asked. Her voice was similar in texture to Kenshin's,though both higher and softer.

"Uh…I…wh-who…?"

She blinked. "I'm Shino. Himura Shino."

"H-Himura…Shin…o…?"

Then I passed out. Fell asleep. I did not faint. I was exhausted. Being struck by lightning takes a lot out of you. That's all. From my injuries, not my shock. You hear me? Not a faint!

When I woke up again, it looked to be early afternoon. I was lying on my back, looking up at the swaying branches of a tree. I frowned at the flowers I saw on those branches. Byakudan… White sandalwood. Sandalwood flowers.

"What a weird dream," was my first though. "What the hell is this!" was my second as I sat up.

Nearly half of my upper body was bandaged. My right arm was neatly wrapped from the tips of my fingers to my shoulder. My chest to my abdomen were also wrapped with the same clean, white strips. Curious and confused, I grasped the end of one of the strips on my hand, planning to pull it apart to see if I was injured and how badly.

"Please don't do that!"

I jumped, startled, and my bladder almost turned almost weaker than I could control it at the sight of…of this "female Kenshin" walking toward me, carrying a pail of water with a fish thrashing in it.

She was dressed in a scarlet gi and white hakama, both garments badly worn and tattered to shreds at the ends of the gi sleeves and the bottoms of the pants. What of her chest that could be seen through the slightly open gi was bound. She wore sandals but no tabi. She seemed to be a few inches shorter than…than Kenshin. And she actually even wore a sword thrust through her obi.

"I'm sorry," she apologized quickly, that same worried look in her eye. She moved slowly, as if afraid of startling a wild animal. She set down the bucket by a fire that I hadn't even noticed until that moment, then stood and held up her hands in a placating gesture I had seen Kenshin oh-so-many times. She smiled, and it was Kenshin's smile, Kenshin's teeth. "Are you all right now, Sir? How do you feel?"

"…ah…um…f-fine," I lied.

I felt like my head was going to explode. My mind scrambled to find a way to explain this.

Okay. Okay. Kenshin…Kenshin has a daughter he doesn't know about…a-and it's just a coincidence they both have crossed scars on their faces. No, no, that's stupid! Kenshin's not old enough to have a child her age. Uh…Kenshin has a twin sister that he really resembles. No, he's an only child, he said. And the scar--on the wrong side--! And she has his name! Okay…okay, Kenshin and I have died, and he's been reincarnated as a girl. No, I'm an idiot! I'm haven't died, I'm still Sanosuke! But then how is this possible?

She was suddenly beside me, and I jerked back. I gawked at her yet again, how similar she was to Kenshin in face and form, and how she was just as silent as he was when she moved.

"Make some noise when you walk!" I felt like snapping…but it was something I said too often to Kenshin.

"You're in shock," she said, concerned. "You had some burns all over your arm and chest when I found you. Can you tell me what happened to you?"

"I…there was a thunderstorm…"

"The thunderstorm last night? You weren't struck by lightning?"

I nodded, noticing a numbness in my shoulders as I did.

"You're lucky a few burns are the only injuries you have," she commented with another smile. Another of Kenshin's gentle smiles.

"Y-yeah."

"My name's Himura Shino," she introduced herself again, perhaps figuring I might not remember the first time. "What's yours?"

"Sagara…Sanosuke."

"I'm pleased to meet you. You're not going to faint again are you?"

"I…I didn't faint," I bristled distantly against the unmanly idea. "I passed out. Very different."

"I'm sorry. Do you think you're going to pass out again?"

"…I don't know." I didn't. She was right, I was in shock. I felt weak and shaky, my vision swimming in and out of focus. Which "shock" had put me in shock, I wasn't certain. The lightning bolt or the fact that I just woke up with a girl-Kenshin looking after me. Neither one had helped the other, of that I was sure.

I looked up and past her, seeking the town I had been trying to get to when I'd been struck. Somehow, I wasn't surprised that it was gone. I didn't think I could handle another surprise anyway. I wasn't even on a ridge anymore, but a flat, grassy, and forested area that was only vaguely familiar.

"Where am I?"

"Oh. We're a little off the East Sea Road. I was heading toward Kyoto when I found you lying here, wounded."

"Kyoto…?" I repeated, my voice a squeak. "You mean I'm…in Japan?" So much for not getting any more surprises.

She raised an eyebrow. Nodded slowly, her brow puckering between her eyes. "Um. Where did you think you were, Sanosuke-san?"

"Sano!" the correction came, totally unbidden. "I mean, just call me Sanosuke or Sano. No '-san.'" And for God's sake no "-dono". Please don't ever call anyone -dono, or I might lose my mind. "Please."

She looked mildly surprised, but nodded.

I cleared my throat. "The…the last thing I remember, I was in the Mongolian highlands, making my way into a town the travelers I had been hired to guard had directed me to."

She lowered her head and narrowed her eyes slightly, the same way Kenshin did when he was thinking. I felt my stomach twist slightly at yet another frightening similarity.

"That's…very far away. That's a long time of memory loss if the last thing you remember is being there, and here you are back in Japan partway to Kyoto. Are you certain that's the last thing you can remember?"

Memory loss! I grasped the idea like a drowning man. Maybe that was it! Maybe years had passed that I didn't remember, and I must have returned to Japan sometime in that time. Maybe this really was Kenshin's daughter, or something, and there was a weird coincidence that her face was scarred as his was. That would explain it! Explain why she was so like him.

Taking a deep breath, I decided to test part of that theory.

"Say. Um. Shino?"

"Yes?"

"Are you…I mean… Do you know Himura Kenshin?"

She blinked slowly. "No…"

My heart made an almost audible plunk into my stomach.

I think around nighttime I may have started unsettling Shino as much as she unsettled me. I know it must have been weird, me staring at her, asking odd questions like what the date and year was. Actually, that might have been smarter than asking her if she knew a man who shared her surname, but… The smart idea just doesn't always come to me first.

So I shared her camp that night with the shock wearing off enough for me to finally feel just how much my burns were paining me, though the world still seemed to have spun right out of control for me. I couldn't wrap my mind around the things that had happened. Tonight I was several thousand miles away from the place I had been the night before. The burns on my body were more than enough evidence that the lightning strike had only just happened. And I was being helped by a woman who had the same name and form as one of my dearest friends.

It didn't matter how often I thought those facts over and over in my head, I couldn't find a way to explain them. And it drove me crazy.

While Shino kindly cooked her dinner of fish to share with me, I tried very hard not to stare at her…but I couldn't always help it.

Kenshin was pretty, especially to be a man, but Shino was downright, breathtakingly beautiful. The realization that I thought so just disturbed me further, so I tried not to think about it. She was an exact duplicate of Kenshin, for God's sake, except for being the opposite gender. Kenshin was like a brother to me! So shouldn't this doppelganger of his, or whatever she was, feel more like a sister?

That's it, I tried to tell myself. Think of her like a sister. She's sweet. She's kind. She cooks okay. She dressed your wounds. She's treating you like a basket case with a serious head injury. Which may indeed be what you are.

She came to me with a plant poultice she'd mashed herself to soothe and rebind my burns and I realized, with great relief, that at least she had a different scent than Kenshin.

I breathed deeply without meaning to, the scent of her more a balm to my frazzled nerves than the medicine she'd made was for my burns. There were other scents mixed with that soothing sandalwood smell of her, of scents you'd catch on a midspring breeze, of sweet plants and clean air.

Still sitting up against the byakudan, I fell asleep before she was finished. I remember thinking drowsily that I hoped that this was just a dream and I'd wake up exactly where I was supposed to be, back lost among the trees in Mongolia looking for shelter from the rain.

And another, quieter but much more honest part of me hoped I'd wake up right where I was. With her.