All-righty, my peeps, here it be! The anticipated sequel to "Whispering Sunshine". Much more surprises and plot twists this time around. Much thanks to all of you who diligently reviewed 'Whispering Sunshine'. They were much appreciated. And a special thanks to Twilight Sky who took the consideration and care not to spoil the ending to those who 'might' stumble across the reviews page. Before I began the first chapter of this story I suppose I should clue you in as to what on earth happened in the prequel. (though if I were you I'd just go read it! It's only 17 chapters long.)
In 'Whispering Sunshine' Sachi is a girl with blonde hair (and is about the size of Sano) who had been forced to live like a slave since she could remember. Then one day she made a daring escape and her pursuers threw rocks at her, one hitting her in the back of the head, causing temporary blindness. Kenshin sees that she's under attack and saves her. She comes with him and lives at the dojo (and for a while she does not speak at all).
One day Yahiko is teaching her some moves from Kamiya-Kasshin-ryu when her boss's men decide to attack. In the fight she gets a long scar that goes from above her left eye to down nearly to her chin. After this point she regains her sight.
When she first opens her eyes and discovers she can see she sees Kenshin's face for the first time and old memories come back to her. With fear she runs for her life, destroys some property and gets thrown in the slammer. Sano helps her weasel her way out of jail, and back at the dojo she confesses that when she was a little girl the Hitokiri Battosai had killed her father and since then she had been under the oppression of the robbers who found her. Kenshin asks her to forgive him and she gives him her father's diary (which is in a foreign language) and asks him to find someone to translate it.
Then a wound on her arm gets infected, she goes to the hospital and gets in a fight with Megumi. After this fight Megumi and Sano make out and then get engaged.
Later, at the dojo, Aoshi Shinomori arrives with Sachi's former suppressor's thugs. Aoshi kidnaps Sachi and challenges Kenshin to a fight at the bridge in three days. In the fight Kenshin is loosing and is down. Aoshi is about to strike the final blow when Sachi steps in with Kenshin's sakabato (which he had let go of in order to catch Aoshi's strike with his hands). She faces off with Aoshi until he is swept off the bridge by a log because the flooding river is starting to overtake the bridge. Sachi saves Aoshi's life by giving him the handle of the sakabato and pulling him up while she grabbed the blade.
Aoshi said his goodbyes and left. (for those of you that were wondering, yes, Aoshi is safe. He left the scene quickly and was no longer on the bridge). Kenshin came up to ask Sachi if she was all right. When Sachi noticed the water coming over the bridge she pushed Kenshin unto the bank just as the water rushed over and washed her away. Kenshin ran along the bank but never saw her. Sobbing, he collapsed on the bank, grasping her father's diary, vowing that he would complete her last wish if it were the last he would do.
But don't take my word for it, you should read it. Now, unto the sequel!
--
'Divided Waters'
Chapter One:
Drifting Memories
By KatDrama
The bright summer sun scattered through the fluffy white clouds that dotted the sky. Looking at the reflection of the calm blue sky in his washbasin, Kenshin scrubbed wearily at the laundry. No matter how occupied he kept himself his thoughts kept drifting back to her. He had always enjoyed his quiet work time with his companion. Washing the clothes had been her favorite chore. And she had liked pretty much all chores. What a hard worker. His thoughts floated by like the clouds.
He sighed and continued scrubbing. Where are you now, Sachi-dono? Are you alive? Are you looking up at the serene sky and thinking of me as I am of you? Do you miss us? Could you come back? The former Hitokiri closed his eyes reverently as a single crystal tear rolled down his cheek and splashed into the wash bucket, mingling with other particles of it's own kind.
Across the yard a raven-haired girl ceased her kendo practicing and observed the silently grieving rurouni. Oh, dear. She sighed. He's thinking of her again. She snorted. Kaoru had always disliked the girl, as she did all competitors for Kenshin's love. But this time she worried that her rival might have won. Why does it seem that you have to die to be the love of his life? She shook her head as she thought about what Kenshin had told her of his first wife, Tomoe. Will I ever be a lasting memory for this man, or just a budding flower that shall fade away before it has a chance to bloom? She sadly wondered.
Women. Yahiko muttered, noticing his instructor's hesitation as he swung his shinai with a steady rhythm compared to her distracted motion. He softly followed her gaze to the redhead washing clothes. Memories that seemed so far in the past, but had really only occurred a little over a year ago flashed into his mind.
-flashback-
"Yah! Yah!" Yahiko stepped forward to put emphasis in each of his practice swings.
"No! No! No! You're doing it all wrong!" Kaoru shouted at him. "Here! You do it like this! Got it?" She wrapped her arms around her student and put her hands of his on the grip of his shinai as she guided him through the move of the Kasshin style that he was learning.
"Okay! Okay! I get it now! Like this, right?" He pushed his sensai off and swung some more.
"Close enough." Kaoru muttered. "Kenshin, when are you going to have breakfast ready?!" She yelled over her shoulder and stormed off to the kitchen.
Sachi tentatively moved forward to where she heard the swing of Yahiko's shinai. She was quite curious as to what he was doing.
"Oh, hey Sachi." Yahiko stopped practicing and swung his bamboo sword over one shoulder. "Man, what is up with Kaoru today?" He shook his head.
Sachi shook her head in fear. Quickly grasping her long ponytail she clasped it close to her with both hands in fear that the maniac woman was nearby. Yahiko laughed at the girl's childish antics.
"Yahiko!! I don't hear you practicing!!" The said woman yelled from somewhere inside the dojo. The shouting was quickly followed by some loud shrieks. "Kenshin, you let it catch on fire!!!!!"
Inside the kitchen Kenshin smiled nervously. "But it was you who was boiling the water, Ms. Kaoru. That it was."
Outside in the courtyard, Sachi and Yahiko could clearly make out the sound of water sloshing and a pot clattering against the floor, and a certain rurouni yelling something about how the hot boiling water burns. The two figures giggled. Yahiko turned to face the blind girl. "See? What'd I tell ya? Kaoru can't even boil water right!" He smiled broadly. Though Sachi could not see his smile, she caught the tone of his voice and brightly returned the gesture.
Sachi bravely reached forward and found Yahiko's arm. The boy stood still as she traced his arms to his hands and the shinai. She turned her head as if to question him.
"It's a shinai, a bamboo sword." He explained. "Would you like to try?" Sachi's smile beamed as she vigorously nodded her head. "Okay, be right back!" Yahiko ran off to the training hall, and came back momentarily with another bamboo sword clutched in his hand. "Here." He guided her hands to the correct grip.
"Now let's see..." Yahiko scratched his head. "Usually when ugly shows me a move she just does it and I observe it...but you can't exactly do that. And you're to big for me to guide you through it from behind...so let's try this." He popped up between the larger girl's arms and slid his hands underneath hers. "Instead of me being behind you, you be behind me and feel the movement, okay?"
Sachi nodded her head with a look of determination plastered upon her face. "Here, this is the first swing." Yahiko led her through the move several times. "Now you try it." He backed away from her to give her space. Sachi tightened her grip and held the pretend sword above her head before slicing through the air in a solid gliding motion. Yahiko stood amazed. "Perfect!" He congratulated his newfound pupil. "Now just repeat as many times as you can before breakfast. Don't worry if you work up a sweat. You're supposed to do that." He moved a safe distance away from her before continuing his own practice.
-end flashback-
The boy smiled subconsciously at the memory. She had been a natural and she had been the first woman to respect him. She had even risked her life for him...
-flashback-
Sachi knew that Yahiko was wounded. The men were after her. Either way she would die. It was time to take a stand. She moved her feet apart in a fighter's stance that somehow came to her by instinct.
"Oh hoh. You've been training, I see. Well, come and get me. Never mind, I'll get you!" One of the men charge forward. He aimed his blow at her shoulder joint, but unable to see the action, Sachi dodged the wrong way, putting her head at the mercy of the blade.
Sachi stood dumbstruck for a moment as her blindfold fluttered to the ground in two pieces. She gingerly reached her hand up and felt the warm blood gushing from the gash that went from above her left eye almost all the way down to her chin. Sachi flicked the blood from her fingers and once again took a stance.
"Sachi! No!!" Yahiko came barreling forth with a full head of speed. He plunged into one her would-be attackers, knocking the wind out of the man. "Are you okay?" Yahiko turned to ask the girl with blood seeping down her face. The girl nodded her head.
Suddenly Sachi felt strong arms wrapping around her and a dagger blade pressed against her throat. "Give up boy!" Sachi's captor called. "Or else she goes down. Give yourself up willingly to us and we'll spare her."
Sachi bit the man's wrist. The taste of his filthy flesh filled her mouth and made her eyes water, but she stayed latched on for all her life.
"Let go of me you b!" He hollered as he shook his arm wildly. He moved his hand with the dagger over as he tried to pry her fangs loose from his skin. In the process a bleeding wound appeared on the side of Sachi's neck.
"Sachi!!" Yahiko ran in, hitting the man hard with his shinai where he knew it would give the man the most pain. It worked and the man immediately released his prisoner.
"Die you brat!" A man charged and dealt Yahiko a devastating blow to his rib cage. Blood spurted out of Yahiko's mouth as he coughed and held his side.
Fuzziness began to seep into Sachi's vision. Wait a minute! Vision! Yes! Little by little she saw shapes and colors. They were very dark and blurry but at least now she could SEE her enemies! At least, she saw well enough to fight back.
Several men were working away at her, edging her and Yahiko away from each other. She blocked their blows with the shinai as well as she could, but they were still inflicting more damage on her than she was to them. Suddenly she heard a cry of pain as Yahiko went to the ground.
"You're hard to get rid of!" One man exclaimed as he stomped Yahiko's face into the dirt. "But luckily, I'm experienced in disposing of brats!" He picked the boy up and flung him into the air. As he came sailing back to the ground, the man hit Yahiko with the back of his sword, sending him flying across the courtyard.
"I've had about enough of this. Tie the girl up. I'll dispose of the witness." The leader ordered as he drew a gun from his coat. Clicking a bullet into the barrel he pointed it at the helpless kid.
Sachi felt the men trying to bind her but she fought her way free. "Y-A-H- I-K-O!!!!!!!!!!!" As if in slow motion, Sachi screamed as she launched forward. Adrenaline filled her veins as the bullet was fired from the barrel.
Sachi felt a sickening pain in her arm as the bullet made impact. She fell just feet from Yahiko, their blood forming pools in the dusty ground.
-end flashback-
Sachi, I sure do miss you.
"Yahiko, why have you stopped practicing?" A sharp voice drew him away from the chilling memory.
Yahiko turned his sorrowful brown eyes to look at his instructor.
"Well?!" Kaoru put her hands on her hips and tapped a bare foot as she waited for the answer.
"I..." The young Tokyo samurai hung his head low with sadness. "I was thinking of 'her'."
"Get over it!" Kaoru shouted. "She's long gone by now. If she had survived she would have come back by now. It's been nearly four months!" She mocked.
"Would you just shut up?!" Yahiko's face scowled as tears began to ring the edges of his eyes. "Just because you say she's dead doesn't necessarily mean that she is. She could still be out there!" He yelled defiantly.
Kenshin drew his eyes reluctantly from the reflective water to the quarrelling two in the courtyard. Wiping his sudsy hands on a towel he stood up and slowly plodded his way across the dojo yard, the empty sheath that had once been home to his sakabato flapped loosely at his side, a constant reminder of his ever need for repentance. He stood silently at the sidelines for a moment before stepping in. Brushing the tears from his eyes he placed a supportive hand on the young boy's shoulder. "Yahiko is right, Kaoru-dono. We must never give up hope, that we mustn't. Right, Yahiko-kun?" He smiled down at the fuming boy.
"Yeah! We can never give up hope that someday Sachi will show up!" Yahiko hurriedly agreed with the rurouni who had come to his rescue.
Kaoru threw her shinai to the ground and stomped it hard with her foot before looming away. Stopping halfway to her room she turned and stared the freeloaders down. "You guys just don't know when to stop, do you? Face it! She's gone, and good riddance!" Her face flushed the hue of a ripe cherry.
Yahiko sniffed back a tear and looked up at his hero, the ex-Battosai for support.
"Do not worry, Yahiko-kun." Kenshin massaged the child's shoulders to try to comfort the strong-headed boy. "Sachi-dono is of strong spirit and determination. If she is out there she will come back. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, or next week, or maybe within the next year, but someday she will march trough the dojo gate triumphantly and we will be here to welcome her with open arms."
"You think so?" Yahiko wiped his face with his shirtsleeve.
"Hai. She may just be delayed, that is all." The rurouni smiled.
--
Four months earlier:
"Hey, Sakura! Come see this!!" A little boy called from down by the winding river than ran near his home village..
"What is it, Toshi?" A skinny farmer girl in ragged clothes flipped her jet-black hair and shifted the weight of the basket of vegetables she was carrying to her hip impatiently. She shuffled her feet on the dusty path and glared at her childish little brother.
"There's a body in the river!" Her brother, Toshi exclaimed.
"What?!" The girl named Sakura dropped the basket. Vegetables forgotten and thrown helter skelter across the path; the girl skidded down the grassy bank to where her brother stood prodding a person who lay in the shallows of the river.
"Do you think it's dead?" He questioned in his little boyish way.
"I don't know." Sakura bent over and studied the poor creature that had washed up on the bank. Underneath the layers of mud she thought she saw the shine of blonde hair. The person's right arm was stretched back unnaturally, and her left leg was bent up underneath her body. Cuts and scratches, the worst of which was a nasty gouge on her left arm. "I suppose we could take it back to the village."
"Ewww. Why?" Toshi's face twisted up in the most indignant face.
"Look at the chest rising and falling. I'm pretty sure it's alive." His sister pointed out. Sure enough, the person was breathing shallowly. "You go and get old Mrs. Tenuki. She was a midwife in her younger days, she might know something 'bout mending peoples."
"Okay." The little boy sped off. Gingerly Sakura linked her lanky arms under the muscular ones of the unconscious girl and drug her out of the water. A pitiful groan escaped her lips. Setting the body down Sakura noticed a shiny object clasped in the person's hand. Prying the handle from her clammy fingers, Sakura held it up and watched it shine in the sun.
"Wow." She whispered in admiration. "A reverse blade sword."
In 'Whispering Sunshine' Sachi is a girl with blonde hair (and is about the size of Sano) who had been forced to live like a slave since she could remember. Then one day she made a daring escape and her pursuers threw rocks at her, one hitting her in the back of the head, causing temporary blindness. Kenshin sees that she's under attack and saves her. She comes with him and lives at the dojo (and for a while she does not speak at all).
One day Yahiko is teaching her some moves from Kamiya-Kasshin-ryu when her boss's men decide to attack. In the fight she gets a long scar that goes from above her left eye to down nearly to her chin. After this point she regains her sight.
When she first opens her eyes and discovers she can see she sees Kenshin's face for the first time and old memories come back to her. With fear she runs for her life, destroys some property and gets thrown in the slammer. Sano helps her weasel her way out of jail, and back at the dojo she confesses that when she was a little girl the Hitokiri Battosai had killed her father and since then she had been under the oppression of the robbers who found her. Kenshin asks her to forgive him and she gives him her father's diary (which is in a foreign language) and asks him to find someone to translate it.
Then a wound on her arm gets infected, she goes to the hospital and gets in a fight with Megumi. After this fight Megumi and Sano make out and then get engaged.
Later, at the dojo, Aoshi Shinomori arrives with Sachi's former suppressor's thugs. Aoshi kidnaps Sachi and challenges Kenshin to a fight at the bridge in three days. In the fight Kenshin is loosing and is down. Aoshi is about to strike the final blow when Sachi steps in with Kenshin's sakabato (which he had let go of in order to catch Aoshi's strike with his hands). She faces off with Aoshi until he is swept off the bridge by a log because the flooding river is starting to overtake the bridge. Sachi saves Aoshi's life by giving him the handle of the sakabato and pulling him up while she grabbed the blade.
Aoshi said his goodbyes and left. (for those of you that were wondering, yes, Aoshi is safe. He left the scene quickly and was no longer on the bridge). Kenshin came up to ask Sachi if she was all right. When Sachi noticed the water coming over the bridge she pushed Kenshin unto the bank just as the water rushed over and washed her away. Kenshin ran along the bank but never saw her. Sobbing, he collapsed on the bank, grasping her father's diary, vowing that he would complete her last wish if it were the last he would do.
But don't take my word for it, you should read it. Now, unto the sequel!
--
'Divided Waters'
Chapter One:
Drifting Memories
By KatDrama
The bright summer sun scattered through the fluffy white clouds that dotted the sky. Looking at the reflection of the calm blue sky in his washbasin, Kenshin scrubbed wearily at the laundry. No matter how occupied he kept himself his thoughts kept drifting back to her. He had always enjoyed his quiet work time with his companion. Washing the clothes had been her favorite chore. And she had liked pretty much all chores. What a hard worker. His thoughts floated by like the clouds.
He sighed and continued scrubbing. Where are you now, Sachi-dono? Are you alive? Are you looking up at the serene sky and thinking of me as I am of you? Do you miss us? Could you come back? The former Hitokiri closed his eyes reverently as a single crystal tear rolled down his cheek and splashed into the wash bucket, mingling with other particles of it's own kind.
Across the yard a raven-haired girl ceased her kendo practicing and observed the silently grieving rurouni. Oh, dear. She sighed. He's thinking of her again. She snorted. Kaoru had always disliked the girl, as she did all competitors for Kenshin's love. But this time she worried that her rival might have won. Why does it seem that you have to die to be the love of his life? She shook her head as she thought about what Kenshin had told her of his first wife, Tomoe. Will I ever be a lasting memory for this man, or just a budding flower that shall fade away before it has a chance to bloom? She sadly wondered.
Women. Yahiko muttered, noticing his instructor's hesitation as he swung his shinai with a steady rhythm compared to her distracted motion. He softly followed her gaze to the redhead washing clothes. Memories that seemed so far in the past, but had really only occurred a little over a year ago flashed into his mind.
-flashback-
"Yah! Yah!" Yahiko stepped forward to put emphasis in each of his practice swings.
"No! No! No! You're doing it all wrong!" Kaoru shouted at him. "Here! You do it like this! Got it?" She wrapped her arms around her student and put her hands of his on the grip of his shinai as she guided him through the move of the Kasshin style that he was learning.
"Okay! Okay! I get it now! Like this, right?" He pushed his sensai off and swung some more.
"Close enough." Kaoru muttered. "Kenshin, when are you going to have breakfast ready?!" She yelled over her shoulder and stormed off to the kitchen.
Sachi tentatively moved forward to where she heard the swing of Yahiko's shinai. She was quite curious as to what he was doing.
"Oh, hey Sachi." Yahiko stopped practicing and swung his bamboo sword over one shoulder. "Man, what is up with Kaoru today?" He shook his head.
Sachi shook her head in fear. Quickly grasping her long ponytail she clasped it close to her with both hands in fear that the maniac woman was nearby. Yahiko laughed at the girl's childish antics.
"Yahiko!! I don't hear you practicing!!" The said woman yelled from somewhere inside the dojo. The shouting was quickly followed by some loud shrieks. "Kenshin, you let it catch on fire!!!!!"
Inside the kitchen Kenshin smiled nervously. "But it was you who was boiling the water, Ms. Kaoru. That it was."
Outside in the courtyard, Sachi and Yahiko could clearly make out the sound of water sloshing and a pot clattering against the floor, and a certain rurouni yelling something about how the hot boiling water burns. The two figures giggled. Yahiko turned to face the blind girl. "See? What'd I tell ya? Kaoru can't even boil water right!" He smiled broadly. Though Sachi could not see his smile, she caught the tone of his voice and brightly returned the gesture.
Sachi bravely reached forward and found Yahiko's arm. The boy stood still as she traced his arms to his hands and the shinai. She turned her head as if to question him.
"It's a shinai, a bamboo sword." He explained. "Would you like to try?" Sachi's smile beamed as she vigorously nodded her head. "Okay, be right back!" Yahiko ran off to the training hall, and came back momentarily with another bamboo sword clutched in his hand. "Here." He guided her hands to the correct grip.
"Now let's see..." Yahiko scratched his head. "Usually when ugly shows me a move she just does it and I observe it...but you can't exactly do that. And you're to big for me to guide you through it from behind...so let's try this." He popped up between the larger girl's arms and slid his hands underneath hers. "Instead of me being behind you, you be behind me and feel the movement, okay?"
Sachi nodded her head with a look of determination plastered upon her face. "Here, this is the first swing." Yahiko led her through the move several times. "Now you try it." He backed away from her to give her space. Sachi tightened her grip and held the pretend sword above her head before slicing through the air in a solid gliding motion. Yahiko stood amazed. "Perfect!" He congratulated his newfound pupil. "Now just repeat as many times as you can before breakfast. Don't worry if you work up a sweat. You're supposed to do that." He moved a safe distance away from her before continuing his own practice.
-end flashback-
The boy smiled subconsciously at the memory. She had been a natural and she had been the first woman to respect him. She had even risked her life for him...
-flashback-
Sachi knew that Yahiko was wounded. The men were after her. Either way she would die. It was time to take a stand. She moved her feet apart in a fighter's stance that somehow came to her by instinct.
"Oh hoh. You've been training, I see. Well, come and get me. Never mind, I'll get you!" One of the men charge forward. He aimed his blow at her shoulder joint, but unable to see the action, Sachi dodged the wrong way, putting her head at the mercy of the blade.
Sachi stood dumbstruck for a moment as her blindfold fluttered to the ground in two pieces. She gingerly reached her hand up and felt the warm blood gushing from the gash that went from above her left eye almost all the way down to her chin. Sachi flicked the blood from her fingers and once again took a stance.
"Sachi! No!!" Yahiko came barreling forth with a full head of speed. He plunged into one her would-be attackers, knocking the wind out of the man. "Are you okay?" Yahiko turned to ask the girl with blood seeping down her face. The girl nodded her head.
Suddenly Sachi felt strong arms wrapping around her and a dagger blade pressed against her throat. "Give up boy!" Sachi's captor called. "Or else she goes down. Give yourself up willingly to us and we'll spare her."
Sachi bit the man's wrist. The taste of his filthy flesh filled her mouth and made her eyes water, but she stayed latched on for all her life.
"Let go of me you b!" He hollered as he shook his arm wildly. He moved his hand with the dagger over as he tried to pry her fangs loose from his skin. In the process a bleeding wound appeared on the side of Sachi's neck.
"Sachi!!" Yahiko ran in, hitting the man hard with his shinai where he knew it would give the man the most pain. It worked and the man immediately released his prisoner.
"Die you brat!" A man charged and dealt Yahiko a devastating blow to his rib cage. Blood spurted out of Yahiko's mouth as he coughed and held his side.
Fuzziness began to seep into Sachi's vision. Wait a minute! Vision! Yes! Little by little she saw shapes and colors. They were very dark and blurry but at least now she could SEE her enemies! At least, she saw well enough to fight back.
Several men were working away at her, edging her and Yahiko away from each other. She blocked their blows with the shinai as well as she could, but they were still inflicting more damage on her than she was to them. Suddenly she heard a cry of pain as Yahiko went to the ground.
"You're hard to get rid of!" One man exclaimed as he stomped Yahiko's face into the dirt. "But luckily, I'm experienced in disposing of brats!" He picked the boy up and flung him into the air. As he came sailing back to the ground, the man hit Yahiko with the back of his sword, sending him flying across the courtyard.
"I've had about enough of this. Tie the girl up. I'll dispose of the witness." The leader ordered as he drew a gun from his coat. Clicking a bullet into the barrel he pointed it at the helpless kid.
Sachi felt the men trying to bind her but she fought her way free. "Y-A-H- I-K-O!!!!!!!!!!!" As if in slow motion, Sachi screamed as she launched forward. Adrenaline filled her veins as the bullet was fired from the barrel.
Sachi felt a sickening pain in her arm as the bullet made impact. She fell just feet from Yahiko, their blood forming pools in the dusty ground.
-end flashback-
Sachi, I sure do miss you.
"Yahiko, why have you stopped practicing?" A sharp voice drew him away from the chilling memory.
Yahiko turned his sorrowful brown eyes to look at his instructor.
"Well?!" Kaoru put her hands on her hips and tapped a bare foot as she waited for the answer.
"I..." The young Tokyo samurai hung his head low with sadness. "I was thinking of 'her'."
"Get over it!" Kaoru shouted. "She's long gone by now. If she had survived she would have come back by now. It's been nearly four months!" She mocked.
"Would you just shut up?!" Yahiko's face scowled as tears began to ring the edges of his eyes. "Just because you say she's dead doesn't necessarily mean that she is. She could still be out there!" He yelled defiantly.
Kenshin drew his eyes reluctantly from the reflective water to the quarrelling two in the courtyard. Wiping his sudsy hands on a towel he stood up and slowly plodded his way across the dojo yard, the empty sheath that had once been home to his sakabato flapped loosely at his side, a constant reminder of his ever need for repentance. He stood silently at the sidelines for a moment before stepping in. Brushing the tears from his eyes he placed a supportive hand on the young boy's shoulder. "Yahiko is right, Kaoru-dono. We must never give up hope, that we mustn't. Right, Yahiko-kun?" He smiled down at the fuming boy.
"Yeah! We can never give up hope that someday Sachi will show up!" Yahiko hurriedly agreed with the rurouni who had come to his rescue.
Kaoru threw her shinai to the ground and stomped it hard with her foot before looming away. Stopping halfway to her room she turned and stared the freeloaders down. "You guys just don't know when to stop, do you? Face it! She's gone, and good riddance!" Her face flushed the hue of a ripe cherry.
Yahiko sniffed back a tear and looked up at his hero, the ex-Battosai for support.
"Do not worry, Yahiko-kun." Kenshin massaged the child's shoulders to try to comfort the strong-headed boy. "Sachi-dono is of strong spirit and determination. If she is out there she will come back. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, or next week, or maybe within the next year, but someday she will march trough the dojo gate triumphantly and we will be here to welcome her with open arms."
"You think so?" Yahiko wiped his face with his shirtsleeve.
"Hai. She may just be delayed, that is all." The rurouni smiled.
--
Four months earlier:
"Hey, Sakura! Come see this!!" A little boy called from down by the winding river than ran near his home village..
"What is it, Toshi?" A skinny farmer girl in ragged clothes flipped her jet-black hair and shifted the weight of the basket of vegetables she was carrying to her hip impatiently. She shuffled her feet on the dusty path and glared at her childish little brother.
"There's a body in the river!" Her brother, Toshi exclaimed.
"What?!" The girl named Sakura dropped the basket. Vegetables forgotten and thrown helter skelter across the path; the girl skidded down the grassy bank to where her brother stood prodding a person who lay in the shallows of the river.
"Do you think it's dead?" He questioned in his little boyish way.
"I don't know." Sakura bent over and studied the poor creature that had washed up on the bank. Underneath the layers of mud she thought she saw the shine of blonde hair. The person's right arm was stretched back unnaturally, and her left leg was bent up underneath her body. Cuts and scratches, the worst of which was a nasty gouge on her left arm. "I suppose we could take it back to the village."
"Ewww. Why?" Toshi's face twisted up in the most indignant face.
"Look at the chest rising and falling. I'm pretty sure it's alive." His sister pointed out. Sure enough, the person was breathing shallowly. "You go and get old Mrs. Tenuki. She was a midwife in her younger days, she might know something 'bout mending peoples."
"Okay." The little boy sped off. Gingerly Sakura linked her lanky arms under the muscular ones of the unconscious girl and drug her out of the water. A pitiful groan escaped her lips. Setting the body down Sakura noticed a shiny object clasped in the person's hand. Prying the handle from her clammy fingers, Sakura held it up and watched it shine in the sun.
"Wow." She whispered in admiration. "A reverse blade sword."