Kanbei sat on his futon, thinking as he ran his thumb across the sheathe of his sword as it rested against his shoulder. What could Kyuuzou possibly have meant?
I came back for you.
No, he was putting the wrong inflections in it when he thought of it. To his mind, it still sounded like he had returned to finish the business of their duel. Which obviously was not the case. Where was the empahsis in the words? What was the feeling behind them?
'If only he were easier to read...'
I came back for you.
I came back for you.
WHAT DID IT MEAN?
He sat thinking far into the night, which was rather stupid considering he had the early morning guard shift that started at 4am.
It was at 3:50am, after having puzzled over it from 3pm,that he finally understood. The wording was slightly off. There were things Kyuuzou had left unsaid, thinking that Kanbei would understand them implicitly. They were one of two things:
I came back for your sake,
or
I came back to be with you.
Either option was relatively disconcerting and yet...
As he stood and pulled on his uniform, feeling comforted that he had finally figured it out, he also was struck by a realization that made him even more uncomfortable.
'Kyuuzou said he'd find me, though. I'm certain he'll keep his word.'
Ryuuo yawned and leaned against the turret, watching the lights that lit the street slowly fade as all signs of life dissapeared for the few hours before dawn. Kanbei's body was complaining that it hadn't had enough sleep, but he was able to ignore it because of the chill wind that blew over the turrets.
"I can't believe you know Kyuuzou! The Kyuuzou!" Ryuuou said sleepily, but with an undertone of awe and envy.
"If I had known he was so well known around here, I wouldn't have mentioned his name."
"You don't like bringing attention to yourself, do you? Yet you have a way of doing so unconciously."
Kanbei gave the younger man a wry smile.
"You know what I've heard, Shimada-san? You know that during the last Great War, this castle used to belong to the uncle of the man who controls this city now? I heard it was a summer home, almost a kind of resort for him. I don't quite remember his name, but I do know what happened to him. Its said he died mysteriously, perfectly healthy one day,and then the next, mutilated and very much dead. The thing was, he was a very good, very skilled samurai. How someone could have gotten close enough to him to kill him in such a spiteful fashion is beyond me."
Kanbei was mildly startled by this tale. The city had looked a little familiar, but he had never seen it from the ground.
"Ryuu."
"What?"
"His name was Lord Takae Ryuu."
Ryuuo's eyebrows shot up. "You knew him? Wow. You really know a lot of bigshots in this city."
"It's all coincidence."
"I guess you were on the losing side, if you knew Lord Ryuu?"
kanbei nodded slightly. "Kyuuzou had something to do with his death?"
"Rumor has it."
"How? Kyuuzou has a hard time hiding in a crowd."
Ryuuo shrugged. "Beats me. It's only rumor anyway."
'But one I will ask him about,' Kanbei thought to himself.
Ryuuo yawned again, making Kanbei want to yawn as well.
"I hate early morning shifts."
Kyuuzou was slowly recovering from the abuse, although his body did occasionally give some nervous twitches, memories of the pain. It had taken three days for the runes to slowly fade back to skin color, and even then they were still a little darker. 'I need SOMEthing to do. I looksuspicious enough as is without having work. But what?'
He walked slowly in the shadows, people's eyes flitting over him, barely registering his presence. He came across a group of samurai not unlike the one he had found Kanbei with, so he slowed down and listened to their conversation.
"i hear our Lord is looking for bodyguards. Do you think I could manage to get a post?"
"You? You're not observant enough."
"What's that supposed tomean!"
"You're also not good enough, martial arts wise."
"You all suck. so much."
The group laughed and continued on, and Kyuuzou turned towards the castle that he remembered far, far too well.