Chapter two! I'm quite excited about this story; it's so much fun to write! But anyway, I won't talk too much since I promised I wouldn't last chapter. All I want to say is have you ever noticed that when you are writing, whatever you write about seems to overtake your emotions? Like, for example, when I was writing the prologue, I felt dark and gloomy. But when I wrote the part when Yamashi-san interrupts Kenshin's pursuit of a bath, I felt frustrated. Weird, huh? Oh, and it is a known fact that Kenshin was modeled after Kawakami Gensai, who was so girly people actually thought he was a girl when they saw him. That is why in this story he will be girly-looking. In the manga you can obviously tell he is a boy, but for the sake of the story, forget about your opinion and just think like Watsuki! XD

Also, I know my chapters are short. Please know the Prologue and first three chapters will be like that. I pre-wrote them, so that's why. The fourth, expect it to be long. Oh and I am so ticked about chapter one! I had lines to distinguish new scenes and it took them out when I posted the chapter! Ugh! Oh well, I rambled again.

Disclaimer: I OWN YOUR MOM (but nothing else). lol

Chapter Two

The Characteristics of a Girly-Man

Kenshin opened his eyes groggily. He never was a morning person, even in his days with his shishou. Hiko would often resort to cruel methods to awaken his baka deshi. Hot water, wasabi paste, thorns from rose bushes…

Kenshin cringed at the memory.

Suddenly, a loud crash was heard from downstairs, drawing Kenshin out of his memories. Himura bolted upright from his sitting position, that familiar searing pain shooting up his leg once again.

'Right, forgot about that,' he thought, cursing his injury.

Getting up in a more favorable fashion, the redhead sprinted to the shoji and turbulently threw it open. He scrambled down the hallway and down the flight of stairs, ignoring the protests his thigh was giving him.

Reaching the source of all the commotion, Himura Kenshin's eyes widened in shock.

The crash had been from a wounded man falling through the main entrance shoji.

Blood was everywhere, from the walls to the floor. The hitokiri scanned the scene. Six or so men were lying on spare futons, crying out in anguish as some of the inn's maids hurriedly cleaned their wounds. Some maids were scurrying about carrying pots of steaming hot water and washcloths while others were cleaning the blood off the walls and floors.

'There's so much of it…' Himura thought, pondering its source.

"Himura-kun!" he heard someone yell.

Diverting his gaze to where the call originated, Kenshin saw, once again, a frantic Yamashi-san.

'Kami, does the woman ever just breathe?'

"Katsura-sama wants to speak to you!" she panted as she finally reached him, completely out of breath. Apparently, she had been running around looking for him for quite some time. Why she didn't just look in his room in the first place…

Well, we can do her a favor and blame that on age.

"Hai. Thank you, Yamashi-san." Kenshin said, bowing politely and heading straight for Katsura's room.

Walking down the vacant hallway, Himura stopped at his boss's room. Throwing the shoji open, the hitokiri glanced around the room, searching for the head of the Ishin Shishi.

"Himura."

Looking for the source of the soft beckon, Kenshin spotted a very dreary and tired-looking Kogoro Katsura. The redhead approached, bowing and sitting on a spare tatami mat across from him.

Seeing Katsura was not looking at him, Kenshin took the opportunity to examine the room. It was in a state of disarray, with papers strewn about in an unorganized fashion. Some of his books were out of the bookshelf, hanging over the side of his small table in the corner. The room all together felt rather dark and congested, nothing like the bright, cheery room it normally was. Kenshin tore his gaze away from the sight and looked at Katsura.

"You called for me, sir?"

A slight pause. Katsura closed his eyes briefly, a strained, dejected look on his handsome features. Taking a breath, he looked Kenshin in the eye.

"Himura, I didn't want it to come down to this, but it seems it must be done. Our last three infiltrations of the Shinsengumi's headquarters have failed miserably. They have been pushing back our attacks easily with a steadily increasing rate. Also,…"

Katsura's calm façade broke, a pained look emerging on his face.

"…they have Ikumatsu."

Just now Himura noticed the absence of the geisha. Her presence was so familiar, the hitokiri was quite ashamed not to have realized she wasn't there.

'But…how did they get her?'

Not wanting to upset Katsura more, Kenshin kept his mouth firmly shut and cast his eyes to the floor, letting Katsura continue without interruption.

"In light of the situation at hand, I needed to come up with an alternative. It's pointless to continue losing the lives of our men to accomplish a useless tactic. So, I have finally come up with the alternative I have been searching for. Send one man. Alone."

At this, Kenshin looked up at Katsura with disbelief.

'Just one man? That's assuring death!'

As if sensing Kenshin's skepticism, Katsura continued.

"I know that sounds like a poor decision, but listen to my reasoning. Ikumatsu is an accomplished geisha. The Shinsengumi have no doubt found out about our relationship and will use her to get to me. This means, they will, of course, be ordered to keep her alive and well. And with their insane code of honor, they wouldn't dare kill her for fear of having to commit seppuku. So what to do with a geisha? Put her to work in a geisha house. And they would trust that okiya to keep a watch on her for them, because my sources have told me they have one nearby that they favor. They also have many teahouses where they often visit the geishas and maikos from that okiya. This is where that one man comes in."

Through this whole speech, Kenshin had remained calm. But now as he gazed steadily at the man who had been the closest thing to a father since he became an assassin, he began to feel upcoming dread of what he was about to hear.

"He will go undercover. Not as a typical merchant or anything of that sort, but as a maiko."

The hitokiri's eyes widened slightly, but he kept remained calm. Of course, he was trained to keep his composure, but he definitely was not trained to be a maiko!

"My next dilemma was figuring out the best man to send. So, I compiled a list of characteristics."

Reaching into his haori, Katsura pulled out an old, rolled up piece of paper. Quickly unrolling it, he began to read, eyes scanning the elegant handwriting and commenting after every characteristic.

"'Number one: He has to be short.' I would say about 5'5 or shorter, for that's about the average woman's height. And as you know, that disqualifies almost all of my men." he said, looking up at Kenshin from time to time. Katsura didn't seem to notice, but Kenshin was beginning to get very nervous now, already having a feeling he knew who this list was pointing to.

"'Number two: He has to be elegant.' The man had to have the certain grace of a woman. This, surprisingly enough, can be obtained by practicing swordsmanship. Again, this disqualifies many more men because most of them are just normal people with nothing but the essential training."

Kenshin began to fidget, softly fingering the side of his hakama.

"'Number three: He has to be delicate.' Most men have a very large or medium sized frame; a far cry from a woman's. I need a man with a small frame."

Now Kenshin had outright broke into a sweat.

This was not going well.

Katsura suddenly rolled up the piece of paper and tucked it back into his haori. He held his fist up to his mouth and loudly cleared his throat.

"And the last characteristic I didn't care to write down. He has to be, well,…pretty." Katsura said, a hint of color on his cheeks. It seems he was as embarrassed as Kenshin was at this awkward moment.

Not.

'Please tell me this is a joke.' Kenshin thought, his features contorted with dread.

Seeing the look on the younger boy's face, Katsura decided to just finish. It couldn't possibly get any worse, right?

"And as I'm sure you've already realized, I called you here to tell you are that man, Himura."

Composure completely gone, a flaming red blush in its place, Kenshin's eyes widened to the size of a large frying pan.

'This is no joke! He's actually serious! I'm the one he's sending!'

No amount of training could have ever prepared him for that!

"Demo, Katsura-san! I know nothing of maiko and geisha!" Kenshin sputtered indigently. "And I'm not even a woman!"

Katsura chuckled at his young hitokiri's reaction, his blush having faded. "Yes, I can very well see that, Himura. But do you think I could in good conscience send one of these maids? They would be killed instantly if the Shinsengumi found out! I want you to go because I have faith in your abilities, Himura."

Kenshin calmed down, letting what he just heard settle in. Katsura was right; it would be extremely dangerous to send someone who is not very familiar with the Ishin Shishi and the Shinsengumi. They could be found out and ruin all hope of rescuing Ikumatsu.

"I understand, Katsura-san. When will I be leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning, you'll be headed to the okiya in Gion I mentioned. I have already informed the mother of the okiya of your arrival tomorrow. She'll explain some things you need to know." Katsura told the redhead, gesturing to him that he could leave.

Taking in the information, Kenshin bowed and walked to the door, sliding it shut behind him.

As Himura Kenshin slipped out of his customary outfit, many thoughts onslaughted his mind. It was not as if he was wavering between obeying Katsura's orders and not obeying them; the Ishin's leader's word was final. He just had so many questions and doubts that he couldn't answer. He would voice them to Katsura later; right now, he needed to get some sleep. He had too much to think about and not enough energy to actually think about it. And it didn't help that amongst all of his thoughts, one kept grabbing his attention, having slipped his mind when he heard it.

'Did Katsura-san just call me pretty?'

Japanese Words

hitokiri: manslayer, assassin

-san: it shows respect

-kun: a suffix you would use to talk

okiya- a geisha house

geisha- person of the arts

maiko- apprentice geisha

demo- but

hai- yes

baka deshi- stupid student

shishou- what you would call your master in swordsmanship

kami- God

Ok, chapter two is done. Funny enough, this one took an awful long time to type up for some reason. And I revised the previous chapters so they would be pre-Tomoe. See you in chapter three!

Punch Buggy