Hiya, I'm back. Evidently I have enough old rambling material to finish this story. Many of the contents of this chapter and the future chapters were typed up MONTHS ago, back during the time the duel chapter was uploaded, when I was on a high and typed up possible future content. I just have to patch up the holes. That is a lot easier to do, no matter what I currently feel. Hopefully the choppiness will decrease a bit from now on.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year. Thank you all for being so patient with this story for most of this year. Thank you for tolerating all the problems and delays for this long.
I have a new person I will introduce now. Hope you like.
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Two weeks passed.
Yahiko avoided the Akabeko for those few weeks, finding ways to meet up with Tsubame on the way to the market or at the dojo instead. He did not want to run into him again. He did not want to be angry with her.
But a request for lunch from the Himuras forced him to go to the Akabeko in the middle of the day, when they were busiest. He smiled good-naturedly at his fiancée and quickly took up a few trays off the regular waitresses, carried in a few sacks of vegetables for them. He gave Tae the order, and asked if someone else could deliver it there. She agreed, glad to see him again and to have his help.
He stayed for the rest of the afternoon. He did miss his favorite girl, and he missed seeing her doing what she did best. Nothing was out of place. She was smiling and kind and sweet, as always. He promised himself to let her keep working at the Akabeko even after they were married. He did not want to keep her all to himself; he wanted the rest of the town to keep seeing what he saw in her.
Miraculously, nothing was ruining that afternoon for him. He had already stayed for more than two hours, and he had not seen any sign of Jiro.
"What? No smiling visitor today?" he asked as he watched her sweep.
"Oh, he's not in Tokyo right now," she said. "He went on a business trip to Kyoto. He should be back in a few days."
That was good, to him at least. The smiley would not suddenly pop in and find him being sweet to Tsubame. But something still bothered him.
He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, but I have to ask this. What is he to you?"
Tsubame stopped sweeping and looked up. "Jiro-san?"
"Yes."
She looked at him straight in the eyes. "He's my friend. That is all."
Yahiko placed his hands on his hips.
"He is my friend. He will not be my husband. I have made up my mind." Tsubame placed her own hands on her hips and glared.
"So why do you still entertain him here?"
"Because he is my friend. I can still have friends, can't I?"
"But, Tsubame, I think it's safe for me to say that Jiro is more than a friend…."
"I will say it one more time, and I will say it as often as necessary. He. Is. Just. My. Friend. He will not be my husband. You will be."
"But…."
"Unless you get me mad enough at you to change my mind."
That is when they heard the door slide open and a male voice tsk at them. "Oi, Yahiko, that's no way to treat a girl."
Both looked at the door and found a rather familiar figure there, wearing Western clothes and polished leather shoes. He was a well-dressed young man with smooth hair and bright eyes.
"Well, stop gawking, you two! How about a nice little kiss from Tsubame-nee-chan, aye?"
The newcomer raised a walking stick as Yahiko took out his wooden sword, and so began some quick close-quarter sparring. "You haven't had practice, Yutarou!" Yahiko eventually blocked the walking stick and patted him on the shoulder.
"You've gotten soft, Yahiko-sensei!" the young man chuckled back. He walked up to Tsubame and wrapped an arm around her back.
"Hey, let go of her, you lover boy!" Yahiko shouted. Tsubame was wriggling out of it while laughing.
"Oh, be nice, Yahiko! There aren't many girls as pretty as yours, you know!"
"How would you know? How many girls have you tricked in the last 6 months?"
"What girls?" the young man rolled his eyes in mock innocence and smiled.
"Spill it, Yutarou," he repeated, unconvinced.
"Just two," his friend grinned and confessed. "And it was a night out for each of them, nothing more!"
Over the course of the years, the young man with the cat-like eyes had gone to school while regularly visiting and getting lessons from the Kamiya dojo. But the Kamiya dojo was a good distance from the college he now attended, preventing him from visiting as often as he wanted. He regularly wrote to his friends back at the dojo, and many of them wrote back.
"So how's that young man, the courier?" Yutarou asked as he popped a roll into his mouth.
Yahiko looked at Tsubame and frowned. "You told him?"
"You know I write to him about almost everything," she just shrugged.
"That's why I also know you two are already engaged," Yutarou patted his friend on the back. "All the more I wanted to come over and give my congratulations. Come on, old friend, give us the story!"
"Why do you want to know? Just to tease me?" Yahiko knuckled him on the head.
The old bantering was still there, but the years had watered it down to a friendly level. By now Yahiko had been declared the better swordsman, but Yutarou was still good competition against him. The tall young man with the Western clothes was also good competition against the girls around the town, including the elusive pretty waitress of the Akabeko. He just quit trying to win her before he went to college.
"Really, Tsubame, why do you turn down such good men like me for a hothead like him?" Yutarou smiled at her good-naturedly.
Tsubame bowed, sideglanced Yahiko, and frowned.
Yutarou took up her hand and patted it. "Just kidding, dear friend, stop worrying about it. I know you're perfect for each other, I've known that for years." He looked at both of them. "How is everybody here? Tell me about Kenji-kun. Is he improving with his drills?"
As the old friends laughed and chatted, they did not notice the time passing. The afternoon giving way to the evening.
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It was dark as he went home, very dark. He was not the kind to be afraid of anything human or otherwise that might lurk in the dark, but the darkness of this particular evening was………..disturbing.
And it got worse.
He heard a loud scream, followed by several more. Screams that came from the depths of the underworld. It came from nearby, and he ran across the street to the corner where he heard the noise. He arrived, and saw the bodies of three men fall, one after another. He heard another scream and he saw the gleam of a sword swipe through two more men. Soon those two men were also sprawled on the ground.
Yahiko feared for the worst, and drew his own sword. "That's enough!" he shouted to the man with the sword, surrounded by fallen bodies. He walked closer. "No one deserves to die before their time!"
Yahiko expected the man to run. He did not want to fight him, just to scare him. But the man did not run away. He even dropped the sword, with a clang, as he dropped to his knees. "I…….I…………just…………I………just…………they shouldn't have …………they shouldn't………" The man murmured in a plaintive voice.
Suddenly all his plans of swashbuckling chivalry dissolved with the desperation in the man's voice. "Hey, you," Yahiko moved a little closer. "You sound like a good man at heart. Just get out of here, as fast as you can. Do you hear me?"
The man was not even listening. "I didn't………want to………..do it…………but why……..why?...why did I do it?"
"Come on, you," Yahiko sheathed his sword and walked to the much-shaken man. "I'm the only witness. I won't kill you, and I won't squeal. Go on, before the police get here!" He touched the man at the shoulder.
The man faced him………..and drew back in shock.
"Jiro!" Yahiko suddenly withdrew his hand.
The man became white as a sheet. His face was dotted with cold sweat He kept staring at Yahiko with frightened eyes. "Please don't tell her! Please don't tell her!"
Yahiko was still recovering from the initial shock. "Get……Get out of here, Jiro. Go, now!"
"Promise me!" the man pleaded, terrified.
Yahiko slowly stepped backward. He could not get his eyes off the man, and a whole whirl of motives and choices filled his head. He did not want to think about them. "Get outta here, Jiro!"
He found the corner. He turned and ran as fast as his legs could take him, and never looked back.
He ran, straight to the Kamiya dojo.
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Kaoru heard an incessant pounding at the gates. She looked up with some concern at their clock, which chimed eleven times just then. Worried about a fire that she did not know about, she made the effort to get out of bed and get the door.
She found Yahiko at the door, panting heavily, very pale, and sweating hard.
"Yahiko, you look awful!" Kaoru exclaimed, and started dusting off his hakama. "What happened?"
He brushed her off. "Please don't ask." He paced around for a few seconds. "I need to sleep here tonight. I need to think. That alright?"
"I guess so," Kaoru said. "You want tea?"
"Kenshin. Get Kenshin," he ordered. "Don't argue with me, old hag, just get him." He bit his lip, and took up her hand. "Please."
"Um, um, sure………" Kaoru said, and left him at the porch.
When Kenshin found the young man on the front porch, he was pacing like a caged animal, with a straight and solid face. He stopped as he saw his redhaired mentor.
"What's the matter, Yahiko?"
It was only then that the panic in his eyes surfaced. "The…the…I met him….but it was not him…I don't know, I don't know!"
"Who, Yahiko?"
"Tenken no Soujirou!"
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For those who are wondering: No, the new guy won't complicate matters for Tsubame, thank you! This story is confusing enough as it is. Sorry, it's still quite a short chapter.
Even if I have to force myself to wake up in the morning and force myself to work through the night, I shall be alright. I shall be alright. I think that's my mantra now until February, oh dear. Again, if my grades and the teachers let me, I will be on clerkship next school year. Therefore it is very likely that this will be the last multi-chap I will make for the RK section. I am trying to stop myself from making any more Samurai 7 short fics, and just finishing this story, currently the only thing I still have hanging (as for Hours to Renewal, I'll make a rush job at it around April, hopefully).
Maeko-Nohara: Thanks for the concern. 6 hours is normal, don't worry, and I'm generally happy to have the 6 hours (because there are days I get even less). And it is not this story that will kill me. Poor Jiro is actually my outlet, so I will not kill me. Warg: Thanks for still liking this story even with the mistakes. Thanks for pointing out the mistakes; I was in a hurry then and typed in what seemed like the best words at the time. Chiki: Just 20 chapters exactly. Sorry I'm being a bit unkind already to poor Sou-chan. It will actually get worse from here. Of the few times I've eaten takoyaki, I liked it a lot, too. Skenshingumi: Thanks for liking Yuan-san, gosh! I have to keep the spring deadline otherwise the story might never ever get finished, and that would be worse. But thanks for the vote of confidence. What you were asking for? It's in the old drafts and coming your way. Another Baka: Are you sure you read that chapter? Thanks anyhow for liking it. Junyortrakr: Thanks for liking. I think I have a direction now, don't worry. And thanks for not reporting. Some writers, especially the younger ones, have a tendency to overdo the replies, which is why in-chapter review replies are being discouraged now.