The Meji Era has passed for ten years, bringing peace and happiness for the citezens in Kyoto and Tokyo. But there is a past friendship that has deepened for it's own good. Two friends, seperated by time and space, are meeting for the first time in ages. A girl with the beauty of a rose and a boy with the power of ten men...
---Kyoto, Kamiya Kashin Dojo, Himura Kenshin---
He was setting out the laundry to dry. His long red hair swished behind him, like a beautiful wave of red water on a sea of pink sand. His kimono consisted of a pink top and white bottom. His face was smooth and calming, but the soft curves are interupted by the scars of the past, carved deep into the skin, scaring it forever with a cross. Lavender eyes of beauty shimmer inoccently, revealing his calming side.
Himura the Batousai doesn't exist in this body or this era, as he has died out with the rest of his kind. Himura the Man-slayer had now becom Kenshin the wanderer... Who is currently doing laundry.
He was about to wring a towl up to dry when he spotted her, just standing there at the open front doors to the dojo. She was frightend, seemingly, of nothing. She stood there, her hand clasped hear her mouth, her pale beauty giving off a shine like the moonlight. Her pure white kimono made her even paler than she already was. Her hair was black, like everyone elses, but her eyes were dark, as if they were darkening with fear.
"Can I help you?" Kenshin asked politly walking forward.
When her hands titled slightly, a small charm on her fan moved, cathing Kenshin's eye. His eyes widened, and he suddenly took her hand from the fan. There it was, the little jade teddy bear. The beautiful bear that this girl held was strikingly similar to her's.
---flashback---
"Shinta! Shinta!" She slid around the corner and almost fell. Her hair was short and black, which was normal for someone lik her. "Shinta, look! I got you a birthday persent!" She held it out. It was a beautiful golden dove with a silver wing. "See? I spent all my savings to buy it for you!" She smiled.
Shinta, who would be later known as Kenshin, smiled. At the time, the two of them were friends from the farming feilds. This girl's name was Kanna Higashi. She was an only child and was to be wed to someone in a different village. At the moment, it was Shinta's birthday, so they were spending time at the river, playing around.
"You out-did yourslef, Kanna-san!"
"Yes, I did, Shinta-chan!" She smiled as he examined it. "I wish mydad was home more, than I wouldn't be so lonely and be so mean to everyone." She plopped down on the stones with Shinta, swinging her legs a little and splashing the water. "I wish I could become a samurai or a sowrdsman! But I'm a girl. All I'm good for is waiting at home for my husband and doing chores and making dinner for him and allthat stuff."
"You can be a swordsman. Run away from here. Like I want to. I want to go be someone special. I want to be someone special someday to someone I love." He smiled and looked up at the sky. "I'm running away tomorrow. If you ever see me again, I want you to have made something of yourself." He dug into a pocket. "Look, I know that your being taken away today. I want you to keep something for me." He took out a small jade bear attatched to a crimson rope. The jade was the most beautiful color of green and it was still gathering color. "It was something I found in the market for cheep. Keep it. If you ever meet me again and have made something of yourslef, give it back to me with another string, not this one. And keep the red string, that way, I know it was you."
"Deal!" Kanna smiled her inoccent smile once more.
That was the last time they saw or heard from each other. Shinta had run away after his entire village was desemated to dust and he had barely escaped. Kanna had vanished into the abyss. She'd never reached her destination, only an empty carriage with a half-dead coach arrived there, and the coach died moments later.
---end flashback---
"Kanna!" Kenshin grabbed her shoulders.
The woman sheilded her face with her arms, as if expecting a blow to her face. "P-please! Sir! I'm l-looking f-for Sa-Sagara." She was shaking now, her eyes squeezed shut.
"Y-yes. Forgive me." Kenshin turned to the house and saw Yahiko coming out. "Yahiko, can you please tell Sano he has a guest?"
"Fine." Yahiko turned back around and went inside.
"Why do you wish to see Sanosuke?"
"Um. Someone wishes to see him." She looked at Kenshin and her eyes widened. "Shinta! Is that really you!" She touched is cheek where the scar stood out.
"So it is you, Kanna-san!"
"Then why are you here? Did you make something of your life?" Kanna stared at his blad and up at him. "Swordsman, ne?" She pointed to his sword. "I was expecting something like a man-slayer of the old world." She smiled a sort of lost smile. Her eyes seemed more distant and slightly lost from the last time Kenshin had seen her. "I'm a very valuable warrior of my group of fighters."
Sanosuke came into veiw, scratching his head and spotted Kanna and almost fell over. "Higashi Yura! What are you doing here!"
"Someone wishes to see you, Sanosuke." She bowed to Kenshin and walked up to Sano and gave him a letter. "Tomorrow, perhaps?" She smiled warmly and walked away, her white kimono stained with her black hair. She closed the door silently behind her and walked down the streets and around a corner.
She knocked twice on a door and waited for granted entry. When she was allowed, she gently pushed the door open and stepped inside, being careful not to make to much noise. She took her sandals off and quietly crawled across the wood floors and sat before a door and gently knocked once. She placed her hands in her lap and bowed her head, erasing her smile and replacing it with a stern look as the door slid open.
There, in the middle of the room at a table drinking tea was Captain Sagara. When he saw Kanna his eyes went from stern to soft and sad and he made a soft sigh. "Yes, Kanna-chan?"
"The note was delivered." She pressed her forehead to the ground and waited for him to say somehting. When he didn't, she sat back up and crawled over to the table and sat down opposite him. She put her fan upon the table and looked up at Sagara with a soft smile on her lips as her eyes lit up with laughter. "I met Shinta again. You were right, he does have the eyes of a veteran of the destructive era who has no place yet in this Meiji era. I was also wondering, why do you ask me to give Sanosuke a letter that I wrote?"
"I don't want him to know it's me who wishes to see him. And don't think I will ever forget what you had done for me that night, all those years ago." Sagara patted Kanna on the hand. "But, I will try to see him tomorrow. Dismissed."
Kanna bowed and crawled out backwards, not raising off her hands and knees and watched the bottom of the door slide shut before she fell back onto her back and stare up at the ceiling. It was getting harder not to flush when Sagara touched her, but, alas,she must get ready for tomorrows spar against Sanosuke.