---a river bank on the outskirts of town, Sano---

He came down the bank and saw that white girl again. She was seated on a log and was silently fanning herself and watching the muddy water running past her. She sighed and put her fan down and looked at him. She smiled warmly and stood up, dusting herself off. "I suppose you came alone, as requested?"

"Yeah, but I thought I would be up against a man, not a beautiful rose of sorts." Sano scratched his head slightly.

Kanna dusted her kimono sleeves off and picked up a sheathed sword. A red ribbon was tied around the top of the sheath. There was the name Sagara imprinted on it. Her eyes slid closed and a breeze blew past, swirrling around her and kicking up dust and her hair, causing the image of a white rose who's thorn was beside it. When she opened her eyes once more, her eyes flaring with an unseen power. "I will acknowledge you as both an opponent and an ally." She held the sword horazantally before her. "Now, it will be our battle, Sano."

Sanosuke's eyes fell on the red ribbon first and then up at her eyes. "An ally, huh?"

"The bird that lays the egg with a snake will be eaten alive by their own offspring. The simple tale of being eaten alive is as simple as a moment of hesitation." Her swift movement caught Sano off guard. "The man to whom whishes to speak with you will comment on success and desemate on failure. Because I love him and for the sake of not becoming rusty, I will not tolerate hesitation." Her sword sheat thwaped Sano on the back of the head with a sickening CRACK! and she jumped back, holding the sword's hilt in her hand, her eyes narrowed, the red ribbon dangling beautifully against her stark white kimono.

Sano's whole body shook for a moment before he whipped around with his kick aimed high, straight for her face. "Very well! The table has been set! So I guess I have to play my cards!"

Kanna's head ducked low and she unsheathed the sword so quickly that she landed five blows before Sano felt the first. She quickly ducked once more, away from his punch and slammed her elbow into Sano's gut, making a mixture of spit and blood come flying out of his mouth.

---Kamiyakashin Dojo, Kenshin---

"Sano!" Kenshin pushed open the door to the room Sano was "renting" from Karou and saw nothing there, not even as warm bed and futon laid out. "Sano? Wheredcha go? Ah?" Kenshin had taken two steps and had stepped on a piece of paper.

Picking it up, he read; "Sanosuke Sagara, Come down to the river bank just outside of town. I will send a warrior to test you. If you fail, my warrior will destroy you for being so weak. I will ask that you leave this note in a place your friends may find it, bid that you die during the test. Come when at dusk the eve of tomorrow. Sagara."

"Eve? That must be where he went! Karou-dono!" Kenshin almost ran into the closed door, rushing to tell Karou and Yahiko.

---river bank, Sano & Kanna---

Her white kimono remaind spotless whilst his white jacket became more and more dirty, covered in blood, dirt, and some water. He raised his fists once more as she dropped the sheath and tied the red ribbon around her wrist.

She held the sword up in the Kuzu Ryu Sen stance, as if to strike with the Hiten Mitserugi Style. Her eyes slid closed as she uttered a name that Sano heard.

"Captain Sagara, forgive me for these sins, let me stand beside you instead of behind you, in the darkness that is your shadow." She crouched down lower, her hands coming closer together on the hilt. "I wish to be the one you adore from within your heart, Souzou-sama." She charged forward, her blade becoming a streak, along with her whole body, tears streaking the air.

Sano was just preparing himself for the blow when she appeared, the blade grazing his skin. "Why'dcha stop? AH!"

There, only a few feet away, stood Captain Souzou Sagara, a few years seem to have been added to him in height and in body. He was holding the other end of the red ribbon that was tied around Kanna's wrist, stopping her from harming Sano.

"Kanna!"

She stood there, her shoulders shaking, silently crying where only Sano could see. She shook her head and the tears were gone from her face, but not from her eyes. "hai, Souzou-sama?"

"That's quite enough!" He tugged harder and her hands released the blade as she gave a soft yelp. "iie, Sanosuke. I never thought you would have acctually taken my name like that. Kanna!"

"hai?"

"Go, leave me and our guest. Return to head quarters."

She opened her mouth to protest, but thought better of it and bowed, retreiving her sword and sheath, abandoning her ribbon that lay in the dirt at Sagara's feet.

---the bridge just above the river, Kanna, Kenshin, Karou, & Yahiko---

Kanna was seated just a little ways away from the three who had come for their friend and felt a ping of sadness. She loved her captain, she loved him for everything he had done and for the sake that her heart was set on him. She knew it was a hopeless cause, but she couldn't help but feel that she was destined to be near him, somehow.

She looked at Kenshin, her eyes stinging. Souzou had always told her to bite her lip and take things tougher than heartbreak. She wished that she would have seen Shinta earlier, before the revolution, so she could have never met Souzou and been in so much pain.

"Perhaps a white rose of the blade should shed tears colored joy instead of sad."

She was shocked and when she turned to see the speaker, she was met with the tall Aoishi.

"The White Rose does not always cry tears the color of joy. Her tears are always the color of sadness. Perhaps I am misunderstanding?" Aoishi's hand patted her on the head. His eyes were like an older brother's looking down upon a sorrowed sister's face.

"Misunderstood? iie... I simply want to be more to him than what he sees me as now, that's all, Aoishi-nii." She wiped her tears away and turned to look at the trio once more. "I wish for friends that he does not shun away. I wish for a friend I have lost that he will accept. I wish for his hand in marriage, or just a moment to be nearer to him. But my wish will never be heard in the roar of his life."

"You are geting more poetic. Maybe, one day, those words of your will become the roar of his life for the last time." Aoishi smiled a slight smile and walked away, down the path he had just come.

"Poetic? That's what Shinta told me once..."

---flashback---

Shinta's hat was falling off his head as he continued to work in the blazing sun. Kanna, not to far away, was working even harder than most of the boys. She threw her whole body into the swing of the blade she was using to cut down the stale crops.

Break sounded off with a blast of a loud whistle. The two children walked to the bank together. The river was cooling and the sky was burning. Kanna was staring up when she spoke the words that she wondered if anyone would ever use.

"The flames of revolution clash with the ice of a normal evolution. Like the sun bathes the earth in heat and the water cools the furnace of the beautiful earth. One of dvine heaven the other of devine earth. One cannot live without the other. The revolution cannot be completed without the ice of time's own evolution."

"Kanna-dono?"

"oi!" Kanna hit Shinta on the forehead.

"iie! iie!"

"I told you, I'm not THAT much older than you! Only by a few months, true, but that doesn't make me a noblewoman!"

"But you will be, someday, Kanna-nee-chan!"

"n-nee-ch-chan?" Kanna stared at the little redhead. "Gee, being, probably, the only healthy boy around here sure doesn't seem fair. You don't have any disabilities, not disease, and you sure don't seem to be having heartattacks or wrinkling real quick. Someday, your fine witt and beautiful face will charm the one you seek for love and they will follow you! You will always bear the beauty that everyone wishes to possess!"

"Kanna-nee?"

"sono tori desu, Shinta-chan?"

"I like it when you speak in a poetical way. I'm sure someon will adore those words someday and love you for the way you speak them so gracefully and with such beauty!"

"don'na!" Kanna stared in wonder at Shinta until the whistle blew once more.

---end flashback---

"sono tori desu, Kenshin-dono..." She quickly joged away, her eyes watering, but not a tear fell down her pale cheeks, but she was ready to stain her inoccent soul with something very tarnishing to her little village. "I will wear the sinless color of white no longer, as I commit the same sin everyday." She was ready to change theColor of the Sinless White to theColor of the Liar Black...