As per Chiki's suggestion: until I have proof otherwise, EK was first in calling Soujirou as Jiro. Capiche? You can use the nickname, but please give credit.
This chapter was insane to make. I had lines and lines with holes and holes. Five lines, a big gap where more words should be, seven lines, a big gap, three lines, a small gap………..you get my point? Annoying. Thank you for all the comments, and thank you for waiting. I can't believe how long this chapter got, but as you can see, I couldn't cut it anywhere. This is probably the longest chapter I have made so far. Now, I understand you have a fight to read………
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"Are you sure about this, Kaoru?" Kenshin held his wife back to a corner. "Ultimately, you decide if this fight proceeds."
"Yes, I am sure, dearest," she answered with a determined face.
"But, in front of his students?"
"Let Yahiko win his honor, since he wants to," she said, and walked away from her husband. "It would humiliate him more if we don't let him."
Kenshin called Yahiko to him, who approached with nervous confidence. "Can you handle it?" the redhead asked.
"Stop treating me like a child, Kenshin," the young man growled. "He is my problem, and mine to deal with."
The students were oblivious to all this, chatting and betting among themselves who would win in the duel. Most have found places, sitting on the floor, or leaning on the walls. Many of them had gotten into conversations about why Jiro-san would win, or why their teacher would win.
As for Tsubame, she was still wondering how things got to be this way. Why did Jiro have to visit the Kamiya dojo? Why did the children have to ask for a demonstration? Why did they not refuse?
She hated being in the middle of two men she both befriended and admired. She most especially hated being the ultimate reason for the duel. She knew that Yahiko would have refused to get into this mess, if it was just a simple offer for sparring practice. She knew that Jiro had goaded him on to this.
This Jiro, she did not know him. She kept remembering the man who kissed her a few days ago, and compared him to the man standing in the midst of the practice area. He had vengeful eyes, hidden in a smile. The smile was frightening now, very frightening.
And yet, it was strange.
Those same eyes, and his whole face, were also frightened. About something. He tried to hide it in the vengeful eyes and frightening smile. He tried to keep smiling, but he was twiddling his thumbs and slowly pacing the floor as he waited for Yahiko. She wanted to come closer, tell him that Yahiko was a good man and would be fair and probably did not really want to fight. She wanted to tell him that it would be alright. But something about this Jiro that she did not know kept her from doing it.
She was also anxious for Yahiko, but she found it hard to come to him as well. She was almost sure of what he would say: "Stop feeling sorry for me. I'm no longer your Yahiko-chan. I can handle this." The boy trying to be man. He was already a man, but he was still, deep inside, the little boy searching for himself.
So she just stood by the door, her eyes shifting between a man she thought she knew, and a man she knew too well. And she could not help either one. She felt incredibly useless just then.
Kaoru approached the two young men, carrying two bokken. "Wooden swords only, gentlemen!" she declared. "This is too trivial a matter to lose a life over." She tossed a bokken to each man. "Any style will be allowed."
The two men came a few feet from each other.
"Myoujin Yahiko, current master of the Kamiya Kasshin school, it is a pleasure to challenge you," Jiro bowed with a blank happy smile.
Yahiko gritted his teeth as he bowed. "The pleasure is all mine, Tenken no Soujirou, top man of the Juppon Gatana."
"It seems you already know me by reputation," Jiro spoke with calm. "Just one question, master of the thousand shirahadori."
Yahiko just glared at him.
"Have you ever fought anyone like me?"
Yahiko placed his sword in front of him. "No time like the present!"
"I know all your moves, Myoujin," he warned with a grin. "I know kendo. I have seen the Hiten Mitsurugi school. Even if you mix them up, I know how to counter."
"Like that's supposed to scare me?"
"Yes. Because I intend to win."
He placed the sword on the floor, showed his hands, as he walked to where Yahiko stood, and spoke into his ear.
"Let us raise the stakes, Myoujin-san," Jiro placed his hands behind his back and gave a happy smile. "If I win, you will allow me to take Tsubame to Kyoto next week. I'll be on a business trip there, and I want to tour her around the city. And you will not follow us. If Tsubame chooses not to tell you what happened there……….you will not find out."
Yahiko grabbed the man by the front of his gi, and readied a fist.
"But, if you win against me," Jiro continued despite Yahiko breathing down his neck, still with a smile, "You can take her to the hot springs with you for the weekend. You planned to take her when you and the Himuras go, am I right?"
It was a secret between the teachers of the dojo. The parents of one of their students gave them weekend passes, as a gift. Neither Kenji nor Tsubame had been told.
"HOW do you know that!" Yahiko snarled.
"And I won't visit Tsubame for two weeks," Jiro ignored the question. "It's a fair deal, don't you think?"
Tsubame guessed at the wager from where she stood, judging from Yahiko's angry face. This much she understood: whoever won the duel, won her.
"I'm not agreeing to anything, you spy, you stalker!" Yahiko answered his opponent.
"It's either that, or I tell Tsubame how much you've been gambling these past few days," Jiro grinned.
Yahiko pulled back his fist, but Kenshin moved in and separated them. "The children asked for a demonstration, not a fist fight."
"Will you PLEASE stop interfering!" the trainer shouted, and walked farther from his opponent.
His breathing grew heavier. He did not know exactly how much Jiro knew, but what Jiro knew was too much. He had indeed been going to the little gambling halls very often of late, trying to forget how he was losing her slowly. He had learned from Sanosuke how to bet just enough but not too much, such that he still had money after each spree. But Tsubame was always saddened whenever she heard that he had gambled again. Still, he would prefer that she heard it from him, and not from anyone else. Certainly, not Jiro, her perfect man.
Kaoru came between them again, and raised her hand over her head. A heavy silence descended on the practice area. The warning to the start of a match had been raised. "Whoever gets three strikes…….."
She was interrupted by Jiro. "No, Himura-san. The man who can no longer get up, will lose the match." He faced his opponent. "Do you agree to these terms?"
"I will not agree to that," Kaoru said. "Kendo rules. Three direct strikes to any part……….."
"It's alright, Kaoru, I'll be fine," Yahiko held up a hand and stopped her. He spoke to Jiro. "I agree to your terms. Last man standing wins."
"Very well, then," Kaoru shook her head at the combatants. "But I will not allow you two to kill each other, understand? I will stop the match at any time if either of you are in danger of losing his life. Agreed?"
Both men nodded. She raised her hand again.
Yahiko looked at his opponent from head to foot. He looked neither angry or nervous about the fight.
"Begin!" She threw down her hand, and got out of the way.
Tsubame began to pray hard, that Yahiko would win. She needed time alone with him, to explain and to just be with him. This time, Jiro had to understand.
Yahiko held his sword in front of him. He planned to stick to kendo for as long as possible, leaving the tricks he learned from Kenshin as a last resort.
"Remember," Kenshin told him when he gave the demonstration, "the strength and weakness of the Tenken's technique is that, except for the Shukuchi, he has no real technique."
Yahiko decided. It did not matter. He had mastered the basis of all the other sword techniques. In the end, if he stuck to kendo, Jiro would have to use it, too. At least he knew how to handle that.
Jiro also placed his sword in front of him, and waited.
A stare-down occurred for two minutes. Jiro had a kind, partly condescending smile as he stood with the bokken before him. Yahiko did not know what to make of it. It was nuts. Having competed and fought for so many years, he knew the importance of keeping a cool exterior that the opponent could not read, while reading what could be seen in the opponent. But the Tenken no Soujirou was a master! Not only could Yahiko read nothing in his face, he could read nothing in his body language!
"Well, no use waiting any further," Jiro finally said.
He ran and circled him, hitting him at abdomen, shoulder, and head. Yahiko only managed to block the head strike.
Yahiko was getting dazed by his opponent. Jiro was fast, and whirled around him, giving strikes he barely blocked, using his own style of attack. And Jiro had a ready block for any strike he gave him, as if he could predict them a half-second early. This is insane! Yahiko thought. He is copying all my moves! And he is doing it faster than I can!
Yahiko did not know exactly how Jiro felt. Angry or threatened, he did not know. For Jiro was now wearing his battle mask, smiling happily. Yahiko could not feel him coming!
It went on for a few more minutes. Jiro would let him attack, but would block, and use the same attack against him. He mirrored his movements, but had enough time to circle him and hit him from the back. Yahiko was losing speed and strength with each attack. He forced himself to focus and think of one strike, just one, that might work.
But a strike came too close for comfort, and Yahiko had to attack. Jiro blocked and copied. The pattern was faultless, now Yahiko understood.
Well, then, Yahiko thought. If he's going to copy me, I'll make him regret it!
Yahiko raised his sword over his head, in one of the traditional kendo stances. His opponent followed suit.
But instead of hitting straight down, the next expected step, Yahiko swung the sword diagonally, taking down his opponent's sword and pulling down his opponent. He then hit him at both shoulders and at the chest in rapid succession. His opponent went down on one knee.
Yahiko leveled the sword to his opponent's face. "I will not let you underestimate me. Yes, I am a student of the Kamiya Kasshin and Hiten Mitsurugi schools, but I am my own man!"
Jiro screamed and swept up his wooden sword. But Yahiko saw it, and blocked with his left hand. He held on to the bokken with two fingers. Jiro was unable to pry out the sword.
"The ougi!" Kaoru had seen it often, but still she was astounded every time.
Yahiko smirked at his opponent, and kept his hold on the wooden sword.
"Do you know why I got to be master of the thousand shirahadori? Because I had to prove myself, all my life. I was only Kaoru's street rat, they told me, they all told me. Only one kid never teased me, like all the rest. That was Tsubame. She called me Yahiko-chan, but she never called me names. I have returned the favor countless times, and I will keep doing it as long as necessary. Because she was kind to me, because she believed in me, because ………I love her. More than you'll ever know."
With the other hand, he swiped at the sword, and sent it flying to a corner.
The crowd oohed and aahed.
Jiro meekly smiled at his opponent, bowed, then walked to the corner. He picked up the bokken, and returned to the center of the room.
"I agree with you. I underestimated your skills." He placed his hands on his sword, and assumed battle stance with a happy blank smile. "I will fight you seriously now."
Yahiko's eyes grew wide in shock. Jiro was already hard to beat as it was. He was still not seriously fighting him then?
"Be careful, Yahiko!" Kenshin begged from the sides.
"I don't need to be reminded!" Yahiko shouted back, but his forehead grew moist.
"Don't worry, Himura-san!" Jiro also spoke, with a faraway look. "I only plan to be as good a fighter, as I was with you."
"Soujirou!"
"There is yet a part of me I want to find," he faced Himura and gave him a sad smile. "I was hoping this fight will help me find it."
"It is not necessary, Soujirou!"
The young man chuckled bitterly. "Yes, it is, Himura-san. Yes, it is." He waved his hand over his face, and the smiling mask returned. With blazing eyes, he glared at his opponent. "Enough talk. Here I come."
Jiro tapped a foot on the floor several times, did a hop-skip, then………….disappeared.
The sound of shuffling feet encircled Yahiko. Then he barely saw Jiro from the limit of his peripheral vision, before Jiro struck his neck from the back. Yahiko kneeled and placed his hands on the floor, not sure just what happened.
Kenshin had told him what it was called. The Shukuchi.
"You don't understand what it means to be me," Jiro hissed as he sped by and struck. "You don't understand, how it is to live without friends, without loved ones. I tried to find my own path, my own reason, for years," he sped around Yahiko. "But I never knew, or I did not understand, what I was supposed to be looking for. It is not Himura's fault. Everyone finds his own answers. I just have not found mine."
Yahiko heard and felt the anguish in his opponent. This was not about Yahiko and Tsubame, as it was about proving himself as a person.
He appeared for a half-second, did a two-step, and charged, hitting Yahiko cleanly on the shoulder. Then he disappeared again.
"Now I have finally found someone who accepts me, who believes me, who…….who loves me!" Jiro said in the whirlwind. "I don't want to let her go, do you understand, Yahiko?"
"I can't do that," Yahiko answered so only he could hear. "She is special to me, too. She is my reason for living. I can't give her up to you."
"What are you waiting for, Yahiko!" Kaoru called out. "Don't just stand there!"
Yahiko could not help but stand in one place, with Jiro's plaintive voice resonating from all directions, and his strikes hitting at unpredictable points. He focused on the words, and tried to make sense of them all, as he kept blocking. He did notice that the more Jiro talked to him, the more he saw the strikes coming, and the easier it was to block them.
Kenshin spoke beside his wife. "Soujirou is unraveling."
"Come again?" Kaoru asked.
"Soujirou is losing control. Stop looking at Yahiko for a moment and focus on Soujirou." And he pointed.
The wisened swordsmen in the crowd noticed that Jiro was making crucial mistakes. Yahiko's strikes were connecting or were closer than his opponent's. Jiro's two-steps ended up either too far to be useful, or too near for a decent strike.
"He's losing it, Yahiko!" Kaoru coached from the sides. "Attack!"
"Easy for you to say, old hag!" Yahiko shouted back.
For the whirlwind was still encircling him, whispering and explaining.
Jiro re-appeared, and thrust, making him draw close to his opponent. "Please Yahiko, have mercy," he begged in a panicked whisper. "Before…………before this feeling…………this loneliness…………drives me insane!"
Yahiko locked the thrust inches from his chest. "Why does it have to be her? Is there no one else?"
"But there is no one else like her!"
Yahiko paused. On that point, they agreed.
He pushed him away, and released the lock on the thrust. He looked at Tsubame, as she stood at the sidelines anxiously, and sighed.
"Yes, there is no one else like her. That is why I cannot let her go."
Jiro gripped his sword a little tighter, as he spun around him again, and faded from everyone's view…………except Yahiko's.
Now Yahiko saw him, very clearly, wherever direction he went. He saw his steps, he saw him run across the room and circle around him. He saw him raise his sword overhead. And he knew how to counter it.
Jiro appeared from the whirlwind, and jumped for an overhead strike. Yahiko crossed his wrists, and fully blocked it. It had been too easy. Their faces came inches from each other, and they stopped to catch their breath.
"Please, Yahiko!"
"I am sorry, Seta," Yahiko said gently. "But the answer is no."
The kendo trainer pushed up his opponent's arms, took down his hands and struck Jiro clean on the abdomen.
It sent the opponent to the floor, and got the children cheering.
He won……he…………won! Tsubame sighed with much relief.
Yahiko found it hard to believe himself, and dropped the bokken with a clatter. He was quite ready to just drop to the floor and breathe and breathe. He had made his point, and there was nothing else left to be done.
Tsubame walked slowly, ever closer to Yahiko, waiting for the children to finish clapping and congratulating their teacher.
But as she made her way to her best friend, she heard someone pant and move behind her. She turned around, and saw Jiro struggling to stand up. He planted his bokken on the floor, and leaned on it as he lifted one foot then another.
"Not……………so……………fast."
She was glad he was alright, but concerned about his continuing the fight. "Jiro, you're hurt! You don't have to do this!" she said.
"I will win, Tsubame," he said with heavy breaths. "I will win."
Jiro was standing again. Much to the excited astonishment of the crowd, that, after a stunned silence, cheered loudly and triumphantly. Yahiko's jaw dropped.
Kenshin and Kaoru made the students move back to the walls and corners. The battle was not over yet.
Jiro looked at the ground for a few moments. Then he gave Yahiko a piercing glare. The man's anger was obvious in his face, and in the ki he let out.
"You'll be sorry."
The battle mask was off.
He disappeared.
"Himura wasn't there when I was a kid, and I needed him," he said. "Tsubame was there, and I didn't even know I needed her, but she was there! And now you insist on taking her from me? I can't let you!"
"But it had always been us from the start!" Yahiko told him.
"You never told her you love her!" Jiro shouted and struck.
"I have!"
"Recently?"
Yahiko was struck harder by that one word, than by the hit to the back that followed.
"Are you telling me that I am wrong, yet again? I can't be wrong anymore! My mind is clear, my heart is true. No one owns me anymore. I know I am right! And what I feel about her is right! Who are you to say I am wrong?"
Yahiko could not counter. Jiro was right. He showed Tsubame he loved her; he rarely said it. He could not blame Tsubame if she thought he did not love her. Sad, but true. Jiro had had no friends, Tsubame was his first real friend, and first real love. Love was a new and powerful emotion, and the Tenken could not control it. He understood what Jiro felt. Still, it hurt him that Jiro felt that way about Tsubame. WHY did it have to be Tsubame?
Two strikes to the abdomen forced Yahiko to kneel, and cough out a few drops of blood. He took two deep breaths, then forced himself to stand, and assume the first stance. He smiled weakly at Tsubame, then faced his opponent. "I'm still standing. Bring it on."
"That's enough, Jiro!" Tsubame begged. "That's enough!"
"Not until he's down!" Jiro answered and gave two more strikes, forcing Yahiko to step back.
The strikes suddenly had purpose, the attacks were meant to kill. They were closer, stronger, more accurate, than before. He was finding it harder and harder to even think, much less to counter. Yahiko was certain. If they had used real swords, he would already be down from the loss of blood.
So this was the power of the Tenken no Soujirou, unbridled and fiery. The power he restrained was terrifying when unleashed. Now Yahiko was afraid for real. Soujirou was serious about Tsubame. If he had to kill for her, he would. If he had to kill him, he could.
He realized in horror as Jiro circled, he would soon be dead. He could not protect his favorite girl from him, her perfect man.
As his panic mounted, he saw his opponent do a two-step, then disappear, as he felt a rush of wind encircle him.
"It ends here, Myoujin Yahiko!"
He was too stunned to counter, as Jiro hit all his vital points in quick succession, then stepped forward for one powerful upward swipe. He did not feel each, but felt the combined pain of all, as he flew into the air, fell, and hit the wooden floor.
"Was that………….." Kaoru gaped.
"……………MY ougi?" Kenshin paled.
But as Kenshin looked down at Jiro's feet, he stopped. Jiro led with the right foot, and not the left foot. Jiro did not execute the ougi the way he himself would, which could have knocked the wind out of Yahiko, even with a wooden sword. Still, it frightened the redhead that the young man knew enough of the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki to use it, short of its full execution. Even Yahiko did not get that far in using his style, choosing to perfect the Kamiya Kasshin school.
As soon as the floor stopped spinning, and the numbness lessened somewhat, Yahiko looked up, and saw his opponent's bokken held over his neck, ready to thrust down. His opponent wore a happy grin.
"Alright, alright! You win!" Yahiko coughed and weakly said.
"And?" Jiro kept the wooden sword over him.
"You're better than me, I admit."
"And?"
"You're cruel," Yahiko grumbled. "And you can take Tsubame to Kyoto with you," he sighed, and blacked out.
Tsubame's feet were planted where she stood. She hovered between the terrifying victory glare in Jiro's eyes, and Yahiko sprawled on the wooden floor. She could not approach her long-time friend, for fear of increasing the angry fire in Jiro. She was about to faint herself. She watched helplessly as the Himuras rushed to Yahiko's side and checked his wounds. She felt ready to cry at her weakness, as a group of concerned little students came near as well, and peered over their teacher, and she could not.
The children crowded around Jiro, and gave him congratulatory pats on the back and handshakes. Soon Jiro was back to being the friend of all, with a happy and sheepish smile, as he thanked his admirers shyly. When he smiled at Tsubame, she gave him a non-committed smile back, then frowned again when he looked away.
Her perfect Jiro was no longer so perfect. There was a terrible and terrifying person that he hid deep in himself, and she did not know, if she wanted to know more about that.
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Whew, this chapter is done, at last. (EK sighs with relief then faints.) I'm sorry if I'm not too precise with the moves, but I hope you understood what was going on. (Faints again) It was exasperating that I couldn't upload it as soon as it was done, but that's okay.
The major difference between rurouni Kenshin and rurouni Soujirou is this: even if Kenshin did not like what he was doing, he believed that he was doing the right thing. When he went a-wandering, he just sought out a better way to do what was right. In Soujirou's case, not only did he know he was murdering in cold blood, he knew in some measure that he was helping to commit evil in the world. You can therefore imagine the poor boy's confusion as he got older, trying to find what WAS right to do when he had grown up not knowing.
I'm finally getting to read Nekotsuki's Tanabata Jasmine. It deserves its hype with its great characterization of Kenshin. I really wish I could write like that. And like XD too, who can describe fights and traps incredibly well.
Cat H - I thought so, I'm so sorry it's turning out too Westernized. But thanks for pointing it out. The couple's response? It's partly being protective, and partly wanting to let him go already. I'll get the two coaches head to head eventually.
Zezura - Thanks for the support and the strawberry Orbit. 8 )
MK zantaz - Wow, long review and many opinions, selamat! You just took JML's and Firuze's place as my tough critic, and that's a compliment. Yuan-san? Correct. Evidently no one else has noticed, and you had to be told, so it's okay for now. Cat fight and pom-poms? Good idea, thanks! Obvious taunt? So sorry, and thanks for pointing it out. Sou-chan too smug? So sorry. Thanks for laying out where Sou-chan and Yahiko currently stand in fighting abilities, it helps in thinking. Finally, being a girl, it's scary that I can understand guys' problems with girls. Is that good?
Pnaixrose - I'm torn between liking underdogs and dangerous men. Such is why I like Kenshin. He's both underdog and dangerous. 8 ) Thanks for liking.
Maeko-Nohara - My Easter? Nothing interesting, either. Would you believe I actually DON'T want an iPod? I want an mp3 player, sure, but not the iPod. I'll try to make Sou-chan more in-character, because you do have to see Sou-chan. I didn't get a big lot of graduation money, just enough to pay for the Kaden, so I bought it with that. Congrats, the review still rambled a bit, but not too much.
Chiki - Yes, ma'am, I only get 4-5 reviewers average now. At least all are helpful in some way. Thanks for thinking Yahiko is so far OK. Sou-chan getting OOC? So sorry! I hope he wasn't OOC here. Don't worry about being late to review, at least you did!
Taromice at LJ - Thanks for reading and liking.