Disclaimer: I do not own either Inuyasha or Rurouni Kenshin.
Chapter 13.
The warm sun woke Misao the next day. She'd been having dreams of Aoshi, as normal, but last night she kept finding herself with Soujiro. Soujiro was apparently still asleep, so Misao opened her eyes.
She had always dreamed of Aoshi's face being the first thing she saw when she awoke. Under the circumstances this morning, it hadn't been something she had hoped for. However his face WAS the first thing she saw. He was standing on the riverbank looking at her dispassionately. Here she was having spent the night sleeping with Soujiro, something she'd been dreaming of doing with Aoshi, and now her dream of seeing her as she awakened had to be realized like this?
Misao slowly raised up, a blush coloring her cheeks. "Aoshi-sama."
Aoshi looked at her for a moment longer before turning back to the river. "You should have taken one of the huts Misao. The night would have been more comfortable for the two of you. I have been your protector since you were small, but since you have grown you have become more independent and it has been hard for me to protect you and still maintain my position as leader of the Oniwaban. I have asked Soujiro to protect you from now on." With that Aoshi turned and walked back towards camp.
Since I've been grown? Misao said the words over to herself. Aoshi didn't see her as a child. She was a grown woman to him now. A grown woman he had apparently grown tired of protecting, a grown woman he apparently considered incapable of taking care of herself. She was a grown woman that had just been handed over to Soujiro like some sort of bloody family HEIRLOOM!
Misao got to her feet and looked down at Soujiro…
Soujiro stirred slowly. He thought he heard voices, but the only voice he cared to hear was Misao's. He was stiff because he hadn't moved all night long. He hadn't wanted to let go of the woman in his arms. He hated to admit it, but he had grown to care about Misao deeply. He hadn't been able to contain himself when he'd talked to Aoshi that night, and had scarcely been able to contain his happiness when Aoshi had given him the blessing to pursue Misao. He'd been laying there last night trying to figure out how to approach her when fate brought her to him. Last night had been perfect.
Soujiro opened his eyes just as the foot came down on his forehead. The entire world suddenly swam with exploding colors and stars.
"SOUJIRO YOU JERK!" Misao cried as she stomped off towards camp.
Soujiro sat up and watched her back, well backside, as she stomped away. "What did I do?"
"He did WHAT?" Kaoru said, astonished.
"He GAVE me to him like some piece of meat!" Misao said in between sobs. When she left the riverbank that morning, she had run to the only friend whom she could spill her heart to about her love life. Fortunately, Kenshin had already been stepping out of the hut he had shared with Kaoru as Misao barreled past him and in to see Kaoru.
Kaoru shook her head sadly. Misao could only imagine what she was thinking. Finally, Kaoru go to her feet. "We're going down to the river for a bath. Kagome said there is a nice secluded spot down there where Kaede took her. We're going to gather all the ladies and go down there for a long talk."
"I'm sorry to dump all my troubles on you Kaoru." Misao cried. She sniffed a little and then looked up at Kaoru. "I saw Kenshin leaving this morning, did things go well between the two of you last night?"
Kaoru's smile spoke volumes. "Kenshin proposed last night. I still don't think he understands how much I want a husband instead of a servant. I was an emotional wreck yesterday and last night. I really feel bad about the way I acted. It's my cycle. I couldn't control my emotions after everything that's happened."
Misao nodded, they'd all been through a lot. She only wished that crying and yelling could solve her problems. As the two talked about Kenshin, Tae came in with a tray. "I thought I'd find you here Misao. I noticed you didn't come back to camp last night. I started to worry, but Hiko said you'd be all right."
Misao glared into the bowl Tae gave her. "Men!" she said venomously.
Tae looked at Misao and smiled knowingly. "I take it Aoshi told you what he told Soujiro."
Misao's face turned several different shades of red. "You know?"
Tae nodded. "All the men were there when Aoshi said it to Soujiro. None of the women really know though, except for maybe Tokio, and I don't think she's one for gossip."
"How did you find out?"
"You think I'm going to let Master Hiko off with just a vague reassurance? I made him explain why he thought you would be OK, so he told me that Soujiro was probably guarding you. Apparently, the men decided not to let any of the women be alone last night." Tae sniffed at this.
Misao got up and gave her bowl back to Tae. "We're all going down to the river to bathe. I need to wash the stink of men off me."
"Certainly dear, I'll get the other ladies."
As one the little troop of women marched down to where the men were seated around a fire pit discussing their options. Misao watched as Tae took the lead and went up to Hiko. Yahiko had just returned with a jug of sake, and Hiko was just about to open it when Tae promptly snatched it from him.
"Hey, I was drinking that." Hiko complained.
"Not anymore you're not. You drink too much Hiko. You men need to keep clear heads. That and should you actually decide to DO something today you should be helping instead of sitting on a log all day drinking sake." Tae turned and handed the sake to Megumi.
"Who put you in charge?"
"I did, by unanimous vote." Tae said sweetly. "There's soup in Kaede's hut for anyone who wants breakfast, and I've made rice balls for your lunch. The ladies and I are going down to the river to bathe, otherwise we'll end up smelling like you men do."
The women then headed off for the river. Tae looked back over her shoulder and shouted one more thing. "Yahiko! Don't be getting him any more sake either. He'll get it when I say he gets it."
Misao brought up the rear and could just barely make out the men as they marched away. "I didn't realize that Master Hiko and Mistress Tae were married." Anji said innocently. She missed Hiko's retort, but it sounded violent.
She quickly caught up to the rest of the women, since most of them wore kimonos. They walked down to the river with Kagome leading the way. Sango joined them half way there and fell into step beside Misao. The two ninja women walked up ahead of the rest of the women and were following Kagome when they reached the bushes that hid a sandy bank that jutted out into the river.
Misao saw Kagome freeze in her tracks, and froze herself as her eyes connected with what Kagome was staring at. The rest of the women stopped as well, looking into the river. There, near the bank of the river, a little over waist deep stood Kamatari.
Kamatari turned, and quickly covered her breasts sinking to neck deep quickly. The damage had been done however. Kamatari had breasts, and all the women had seen them. Kamatari was blushing furiously.
The tears wouldn't stop. Suddenly Misao was bawling for all she was worth. Everyone looked at her with confusion, at least more confusion considering the circumstances. "It's not FAIR!" Misao sobbed as tears flew out of her eyes like a river. "Even one of the GUYS has bigger breasts than I do!"
Most of the women just rolled their eyes. Kaoru was the first to speak. "Kamatari, I thought you were a cross dresser. Why didn't you tell us you were really a woman?" Kaoru said as she started shrugging out of her clothes.
"Uh…" was all Kamatari could get out.
The rest of the women seemed relieved and started undressing as well. Megumi was the only one not getting undressed. The women all started getting into the water chattering about different things.
"Uh, I'm just getting done. Could you all turn your backs while I slip out of here?" Kamatari said shyly.
"Oh, please." Tae said jovially. "Your secret is safe with us Kamatari. I know how hard it is to make it in a man's world. I guess men even have more respect for cross dressers than an actual woman. By the way, doesn't it hurt binding your chest that tightly?" Misao started crying again.
"You get used to it…" Kamatari said vaguely trying to back away from all of them and still reach the shore.
"How do you get that, you know, bulge down there. Do you roll up some tabi and stuff them in some way?" Tokio said conversationally.
"That's what my younger sisters used to do." Tokio said defensively when the other women started looking at her. "Only they were trying to make their breasts seem larger." Misao made a mental note about that one.
"Uh, no, it's kind of hard to explain…" Kamatari was still backing away and was looking around as if for a place to hide.
"It's real. Isn't it?" Megumi said from the shoreline.
Kamatari froze and looked at Megumi with terror crossing her features.
The rest of the women looked back and forth between the two of them as new waves of confusion began to set in.
"What are you talking about Megumi?" Kaoru said shakily. "She's a woman, we all saw her chest."
"But you didn't see below her waist." Megumi said clinically. "Is it true Kamatari?"
Kamatari looked down at the water and started to cry. It was amazing for the women, who still sometimes thought of her as a man to watch her cry. Finally she nodded. The women all gasped and started covering themselves.
"What do you mean?" Kaoru said shocked.
"The term is called hermaphrodite." Megumi said sadly. "It means that she has both male and female gender. Apparently she has a woman's torso and a man's lower half."
The rest of the women looked at Kamatari who looked ready to sink under the water and disappear. "It's better to be a social freak than to be looked at like a freak of nature." Kamatari said heatedly. "Now if you ladies will please turn away, I'll leave you to your bathing."
Everyone was silent until Megumi started undressing. "You don't have to leave for our sakes." Megumi said taking off her clothes. She stepped into the river and began washing herself. "You might as well stay. The men wouldn't understand, and we're not about to go telling them, are we." Megumi eyed the rest of the stunned women coldly and extracted nods from each of them.
Tae was looking at Kamatari herself. "So you can't find a place with either gender?"
Kamatari still didn't look comfortable, but hadn't moved. She obviously hadn't finished bathing, as her hair was still dry. "No, when I was a young boy I tried to be a boy and court young girls. I really wasn't attracted to any girls though. I kept finding myself attracted to the other boys. It wasn't until these things started to grow that I realized why. Seeing these things scared the girls about as much as seeing the other would scare a man."
Misao watched as Kaoru went over to Kamatari and took her hand, pulling the young 'woman' back over to the rest of them. "Don't worry Kamatari, we can't see your lower half and you look like the rest of us otherwise. We'll turn our backs when you get out. You're one of the girls, now."
Misao had to admit, that if you were just looking at Kamatari from the waist up, she looked like an attractive young woman. It was little wonder that she and Kaoru had mistaken her for a woman when they first met her.
Tae seemed to become strictly business-like. "So what are we going to do?"
"What do you mean?" Kagome said washing her hair. She had brought something called shampoo and the other ladies were delighting in it.
"Some of the men have been acting like jerks ever since we got here." Tae said, then looked at Misao. "Some before then even. There isn't a woman here that isn't having man troubles, including Kamatari."
"I'm not having man trouble." A small voice said shyly.
"OK, every body but Tsubame is having man troubles. I still think that the only reason that she doesn't have man troubles is because Yahiko isn't a man yet."
"Why must men be so aggressive?" Kagome said. It was of course rhetorical; one might as well ask why the sky was blue.
"At least your men are all aggressive. Mine has to be led everywhere or else he doesn't go." Kaoru said glumly. "I want Kenshin to be at least a little more aggressive. I've lived alone, I've made my own decisions and quite frankly I'd rather have a husband."
"You're setting womankind back hundreds of years you realize that don't you." Tae said flatly.
"We ARE back hundreds of years, Tae." Misao said hotly.
"I don't let men walk all over me!" Sango said in a huff.
"You can't tell me that Miroku isn't aggressive." Kagome said.
"Well, yeah, but not so much that it isn't cute." Sango said defensively.
"Please ladies," Tae said rolling her eyes. "Men will be men, and I'm not saying it's a bad thing necessarily, but these guys have been running around as if we were some sort of luggage they had to take care of and it's demeaning."
Megumi shrugged and went back to rinsing her hair. "You can't change men. They'll always be the big stupid brutes that are pretty to look at, but hell to live with when they get older. Much like cats, I think."
"Yeah, but I for one don't intend to become one of the little old ladies that have nothing else in their lives, but a house full of cats." Kagome said worriedly.
"Please ladies, I think Misao probably has the worst problem of all of us right now." Tae said seriously.
"What would that be dear?" Tokio said to Misao quietly.
"Aoshi gave me to Soujiro." Misao said darkly.
"I can definitely think of worse things than that." Megumi said brightly. "Soujiro is a cute boy. Don't get me wrong, Aoshi is handsome and all, but Soujiro just has that sweet cuteness you just want to cuddle up to at night."
Misao hoped desperately that she wasn't giving anything away by blushing, so she disguised it with anger. "It's not that Megumi! How would you like it if Sanosuke walked up to you and said that he was tired of you and that now Cho was going to be your boyfriend?"
"I'd be thankful he picked someone who at least had a steady job." Megumi thought about it for a moment though. "Then, of course I'd have to kill him. It's not his place to be telling me who I should be with."
"My point exactly. I want to choose, not to have it chosen for me." Misao said whining.
"I thought Aoshi was supposed to be your guardian. Wouldn't it be about the same as a father giving his blessing to a young suitor or something? I mean it's pretty obvious you and Soujiro have been getting rather, close, since you met him." Megumi smiled wickedly.
Misao was blushing furiously now. Soujiro was her friend, sort of. Sure he was cute, warm, friendly, caring, strong, brave, handsome, and had a perfect body to die for, but he wasn't named Aoshi, not that 'Soujiro' didn't sound pretty either. Misao shook herself out of her thoughts to realize all the other women were laughing.
"What's so funny?" Misao said hotly.
Tae was still chuckling. "Nothing, you just got the same look on your face that Tsubame gets when she's thinking about Yahiko." As if on cue, Tsubame went quiet looking of into space with an unmistakable expression of longing crossing her face.
"OK, so Soujiro is cute. It doesn't mean that I can still let the two of them get away with it." Misao said quietly. This obtained the general consent of the women. Men could do a lot of things, but a woman's heart was NOT something to be traded to other men like women traded recipes.
Misao was looking at each of them when her eyes came to rest on Kamatari. Suddenly a plan began to form in Misao's mind. If Aoshi didn't want her, fine, she wouldn't waste her time chasing the man anymore. She would look for someone new, even if it meant going along with the 'trade'. She wasn't about to loose someone as special as Soujiro out of spite. However two could play at trading games.
"Kamatari, do you want Aoshi?" Misao said slyly.
"That isn't a fair question Misao. I think I'd take anybody who didn't run away from me. It's been kind of lonely." Kamatari said in exasperation.
"No, I mean you get along pretty well with Aoshi right?"
"Yeah, so."
"I'm giving him to you."
"What in the name of Kami-sama are you talking about?"
"If Aoshi thinks he can give me away to Soujiro, fine. I'll give him to you. You now have exclusive rights to Aoshi." Misao grinned wickedly to the other women. "We're going to set-up Aoshi. It will help Kamatari, and it will get me even with Aoshi!"
"What are you planning weasel." Megumi said slyly.
"A plan that would do you proud fox. We're also going to fix Kenshin and the other men while we're at it. It's time these men started paying more attention to us, and this is how we're going to do it."
Kenshin sat at the edge of the river with the other men. The women had been gone for a few minutes to go take their bath. The monk Miroku came and sat near him. "I sense Inuyasha returning." Miroku said distantly.
"So, that's what it is. I've been sensing something for some time now, but couldn't figure out what it was. Does Inuyasha always resonate with such malevolence?" Kenshin didn't know much about the half demon, but apparently Kagome exercised control over it.
"Not usually, but when his brother is around he tends to become a great deal more malevolent. I really don't know if I agree with Kagome binding Sesshomaru like that. He is a dangerous enemy who has nearly killed us all several times before." Miroku crossed his arms and closed his eyes as if concentrating.
Kenshin looked at Saitoh and the other men trying to decide what they needed to do next. He could definitely understand the problems of having to rely on a former enemy as an ally. Life could be that way sometimes.
Kenshin considered the rest of the men for a moment. Most of them except for master Hiko had been an enemy at some point. It was interesting that Master Hiko had never been his enemy and he liked him the least including Saitoh. You knew where you stood with Saitoh, whereas Hiko seemed to prefer other men kneeling.
Kenshin looked off in the direction of the well. A figure in a tattered western suit was just appearing from amidst the trees. The figure was visibly injured. Kenshin got to his feet and ran to one of the small bridges that spanned the river and ran until he reached the form of Alanor as he staggered from the woods.
Kenshin hadn't even realized the other men were right behind him until he caught Alanor and turned to see them there. "Where are Yahiko and Tsubame?" Alanor said through the exhaustion.
"I'm here." Yahiko said coming to his side opposite Kenshin. "Tsubame is safe too, she's down by the river taking a bath."
"Good, good. At least that hasn't gone wrong. Take me to the village. I must see Kagome." Alanor struggled to stand, but was unable. Sano stepped forward, and he carried the aging wizard back toward the encampment.
Inuyasha and Sesshomaru were waiting when they returned, standing with a scrawny old man and a bull with three eyes. "What happened to the old geezer?" Inuyasha said with only slight concern creeping into his voice.
"I don't know, we haven't asked him yet, we just found him." Miroku said as he laid a blanket out for Sano to lay Alanor on.
The old man hobbled over and sat down next to Alanor. "A western wizard is it? It's been a while since I've seen one of them around these parts. Come to think of it, I've never seen one around these parts."
"How do you know what he is then?" Inuyasha asked with a sneer in his voice.
"I traveled into the west once with your father. He went to fight against these wizards and to bring back some of their magic." The old man said with a distant look in his eyes.
"WHAT? You mean we're harboring one of my father's enemies?" Inuyasha said indignantly.
"I do not remember father taking on such a campaign." Sesshomaru said quietly.
"It was before either of your times. He was a brash young demon lord out to prove his might against the world."
Alanor sat up as he the old man spoke. Slowly recognition crept across his face. "I thought I remembered you. Totosai wasn't it?"
Totosai looked down at the man and actually smiled before darting behind Inuyasha. "Needless to say your father was soundly beaten back. I remember that he lost a lot of warriors to the likes of those wizards."
"You mean that these two are HIS sons?" Alanor said incredulously. "Kagome managed to bind BOTH of you?" Alanor rolled his eyes and shook his head. "My how fate can change the fortunes of the unwary."
Inuyasha growled. "If you think I'm going to let you teach Kagome you're out of your mind. I have no intention of letting you anywhere near her. If you try to hurt…" Inuyasha never got the chance to finish the sentence. Alanor waved his hand in a backhand gesture and Inuyasha crashed into a tree, back on the other side of the river.
"Other people may tolerate poor behavior from bad mouthing half demons, but I do not. I am here to accomplish my tasks and that is all. Where is Kagome?" Alanor said in annoyance.
"I like this man better with each passing moment." Sesshomaru said looking at the tree as it collapsed on top of Inuyasha.
Kenshin shook his head and turned to the old man. "I'll go get Kagome. If we're all here then there won't be anyone to protect the women."
Miroku stepped up and threw an arm around Sanosuke and Cho. "An excellent suggestion! We'll go get them immediately!"
"Not so fast." Saitoh said quietly. "My wife is among those women. I'LL go get them. That way you three won't be getting into trouble. Coming, Shinomori?"
Aoshi's shrug was about as emotionless as ever. "Sure."
The two of them set out for the river. Kenshin shook his head but had to agree. Sanosuke and Miroku made a good pair. A pair of what he wasn't sure, but a good pair none-the-less. Sending them after the women would have been like sending the wolves to find the sheep. Kenshin considered the fact that Saitoh really WAS called a wolf, but stowed it away quickly.