Howdy.
Our story begins! Enjoy :) and review 3
The Sakura tree was always lovely this time of the year. Kaoru Kamiya beamed as she hailed an afternoon greeting to the amulet peddler beneath it. The raven headed sensei had always been one for superstition, and hence a frequent patron of the retro-centric kiosk.
She raised her eyes to watch the late afternoon sun through the glass dome of the sector she had spent all her life in, the smile still on her face. It had been a beautiful day, all things considered.
She had lost her ninth swordsman student that day. She had never had too many students to begin with. Kenjutsu wasn't really seen more as a proper self-defence skill than a recreational talent in today's society. Guns and space aeronautics was the order of the day and so her classes were never full, but at least she had a consistent and committed set to train.
Or she had had until some damn rogue bounty-hunter had gone round falsely claiming her fighting style as his preferred murder technique. This criminal had donned the name Battousai and sported red hair and a large X scar on the left side of his face. Kaoru's smile dimmed as she idly kicked a pebble out of her path.
How she would love to give the bloody murderer a piece of her mind! What did he have to do with her, that he would take the fighting style her father perfected till his dying breath and drag it through the mud? He would definitely hear it from her; he was a serial killer too, targeting women who were actively taking non-domestic roles in society such as detective work, police, and martial arts. He was probably slandering her name to spite her - a swordswoman sensei - pending when she would become his next target. She sighed at the thought and stopped her stroll, holding her face up with her hand as she contemplated her predicament.
Well, Kaoru Kamiya of the Kamiya Kashin style was waiting for him either way, that much was certain. With resolve, she straightened her posture to resume her stroll, and quickly took a casual sweeping glance around before making her way. She was determined to enjoy this beautiful day with a peaceful stroll-
Her eyes quickly returned to the man sporting vibrant red hair on the other side of the road, and they narrowed as he made his way across to the sweet peddler lady she had walked by. She couldn't turn away from the X shaped scar on the left side of his face.
...
'Kenshin we have to leave this place soon, we're running behind on our next hit and we're out of cash.'
'Again?' Kenshin Himura sounded incredulous, surprised at how quickly they had blown through their last bounty reward.
'WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY AGAIN YOU'RE THE ONE THAT STUFFED THE FRIDGE WITH DANGO AND ICE-CREAM YOU-!'
Kenshin winced and held the phone away from his ear, chuckling nervously as the other speaker continued to rant on about the redhead's incurable addiction to sweet things and threatening to actually visit a dentist to pull the damn sweet-tooth out. He chuckled nervously while rubbing the back of his head and when he no longer heard the other man shouting, he put the phone back to his ear.
'My apologies, Sanosuke-san,' he responded quietly and smiled when said Sanosuke muttered something about him using honorifics when he knew he was in trouble. Kenshin turned his head and noticed a quaint little amulet kiosk under a great Sakura tree. Sanosuke was a very superstitious man and would surely appreciate a token of good fortune as his atonement for indulging in sweets. 'I'll be by the ship soon, just give me a moment.'
'It damn well better be a moment or you'll be sorry!'
'Tsk,' Kenshin couldn't help but smirk at the threat, knowing his partner would never try to harm him. He stuck his hands in the pocket of his Yukata to check for some spare change. He loved the Tokyo sector during this time of the year and came when Sanosuke thought they could to enjoy it. He was not about to let his partner cut the experience short, no matter how loudly he ranted about it.
He made his way to the kind old lady and smiled in his greeting, bending over to browse through her display of plushie rabbit feet, horse-shoe key-chains, rainbow scrunchies, lady-bug robot-dolls, and four-leaf clover necklace pendants amongst other items of luck. He lifted the rabbit foot and held it out to the lady.
'Ne baa-chan, how much is the bunny foot?' He smiled at her as he tilted his head. 'I hope its good enough to give to my comrade as an apology; I'm afraid I'm a bit short in cash.' The old woman swooned under his amethyst gaze and held her chin.
'It's no cost at all dearie-'
'Baa-chan look out!'
Before Kenshin could look up to identify the owner of such a loud voice, a fist connected with his jaw and sent him flying into the ground. The kiosk owner gasped and in shock and covered her mouth in surprise.
'Kamiya-san!'
'I'm sorry you have to see this baa-chan, but you must stay where you are. This man is a dangerous criminal,' the ravenette attacker looked at the woman with determined sapphire eyes, in a battle-ready stance. Her hand was on the hilt of her bokken, and she turned her gaze to the fallen ginger-head on the ground. He stared up at her in disbelief and blinked twice. 'Battousai the Man-Slayer! You have dragged my father's name and that of my family through the mud for weeks! But no more!' She drew her sword menacingly and brandished it at him. 'You'll regret the day you messed with me, Battousai.'
'I think there's been some mistake Kamiya-san,' he began with a nervous chuckle, slowly rising to her his feet as he rubbed his left cheek. 'I am not who you think I am.' He raised his hands in a show of innocence and attempted to take a step the girl thrust her sword forward to caution him. He took a step back instead.
'Stay where you are!' She warned and scoffed. 'X shaped scar on the left-side cheek and hair that bleeds the blood of his enemies.' Behind her, the poor old amulet seller gasped and took refuge behind the tree with her market. 'You can't fool me. You're a lot shorter than I expected - I'll admit,' his right eye twitched at the comment. 'But you can't fool me!' She took another step closer. 'I'm going to make sure I send you to the authorities a broken mess. Now tell me why you're insistent on falsely claiming my family techniques to commit your heinous crimes -'
Kenshin's phone started to ring in his pocket. He winced and laughed sheepishly when she scowled at him, slightly thrown off by the interruption.
'You'll have to forgive me Kamiya-san,' he pleaded as he slowly lowered his hand and drew out the phone from his pocket. He answered the phone and put it to his ears.
'IT'S BEEN A DAMN MINUTE HIMURA YOU'RE A DEAD MAN-' Kenshin winced and held the phone away from him as his partner continued to rant furiously. 'I'LL START THROWING OUT YOUR DANGO IF YOU DON'T COME BACK TO THE SHIP!'
'Sano no please!' Kenshin whispered loudly. 'I'm in the middle of a...' he glanced at the girl whos patience was starting to wear thin. '...situation. I bought something to make-up for-'
'Battousai! End that call and face your reckoning!'
'Hold on I've been keeping my friend waiting for a while, Kamiya-san,' Kenshin absently raised one finger at her to signal her pause, and she blinked, taken aback by the situation. 'Sanosuke please stop laughing she isn't an admirer! She's got quite the temper actually-'
'That's it!' she snapped, provoked by Kenshin's comment on her temper and charged at him. She made to deliver another punch to his face, but he easily side-stepped and caught her wrists, before tripping her with a kick to the ankle and tackling her to the ground, trapping her beneath him and between his knees. She tried to claw at his face but he held her two wrists in one hand. He offered her an easy smile and leaned back.
'I'll be there soon Sanosuke,' he assured and chuckled into the phone. 'Talk later.' With that the call was ended, phone returned and attention back on his attacker. He sighed. 'Kamiya-san you have been quite the force to reckon with, but I'm afraid this tirade of yours must come to an end.' A small smirk came to his lips. 'Though I couldn't help find it the most attractive as well, I must ad-'
'So now you want to kill me, as you've done all those other women,' she hissed. 'How sad that a man who clings so hard to the archaic ways of thinking has the power to end lives.' Kenshin let go of her hands to facepalm at the situation and he shook his head in complete exasperation. She tried to use this opportunity to strangle him but he easily caught them and pinned them to the ground on either side, before leaning over for their eyes to meet.
'Kamiya-san this is neither the time nor the place to initiate such an en-risque activity,' he teased, his eyes narrowing to playful slits. Her cheeks turned red with heat and she turned her eyes from him. 'Heh,' he sat up again and crossed his arms. 'I'll say this again: I am not the man you are looking for, Kamiya-san. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a ton of lucky charms to buy to help me apologize to my partner.' He stood up and offered a helping hand to her. She rejected it, opting to stand by herself and crossed her arms across her chest.
'So what are you then?'
'Funny you should ask,' he mused and smiled. 'I'm a bounty hunter.'
'I don't fancy you lot either! You're all money chasers and grabbers, with no real code of conduct to guide your operations.' She scowled and pointed at him accusingly. It was a poor attempt to gripe for an opportunity to save face on her end, but Kenshin chuckled and shrugged.
'I suppose so. Well, I guess I won't bother staying to find out who is using my name and yours to commit all those heinous murders then,' he reasoned. He went to the woman by the tree and offered his apologies, before buying a bag of amulets and tipping her extra atop his payments for the trouble. The girl gaped at him.
'Wait, so you are Battousai?!'
'Not Battousai the manslayer, that's for sure. Battousai the Samurai? Yes, nice to meet you Kamiya-san.' He corrected with a pleasant smile as he closed his eyes. 'Well, good luck finding the fraud trying to make a reputation off of our names. I would help, but I have no code of conduct to tell me so, and its honestly a you-problem anyways.' He placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed reassuringly with his insufferable smile. 'Goodbye!'
...
Kaoru Kamiya watched the bounty hunter walk away till he disappeared around a corner.
She went over to apologize to the woman profusely and tipped her for her troubles.
She walked back home in silence, made her way to her dojo and sat down to meditate by the family shrine, letting out a long sigh.
"Stupid Kaoru."
...
Kenshin quietly alighted the space-ship, hoping his partner had fallen asleep waiting for him.
'You're clearly not trying to be stealthy, now stop mocking me with whatever it is you think you're doing.'
'Sanosuke!' Kenshin responded nervously, taken by surprise at the taller man's sudden appearance. The spiky-haired brunette glared down at him, unimpressed while Kenshin sheepishly handed him the bag of lucky charms and bowed. 'My apologies dear friend.'
After inspecting the contents of the bag and finding good luck charms, Sanosuke Sagara gave his fellow bounty hunter a long, hard look and sighed.
'Your dango is still in the fridge.'
Kenshin beamed at him and went on his merry way to chomp down on his beloved sweets.
With his ravenette attacker still prominent at the back of his mind.
SEE YOU NEXT TIME, SAMURAI COWBOI.
And... done.
Chapter one guys. Hope you liked it.
Don't forget to review, okay? =UwU=