A/N: Thanks for the nice feedback, and sorry it took so long to come up with the next chapter! I hope you like it, R&R! Oh, and Happy Earth Day...!


Morning arose and the sun's rays crept their way into Kenji's room. The teen clenched his eyes shut, as he found the flooded light that shone in his eyes was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. Once he was aware of the fact that the sun would be of an annoyance to him, there was no use in fighting it. "I may as well get up and do something," he grumbled angrily, undressing out of his yukata only to scramble around to find his training clothes. It was the same as always. He would often leave the house early to train on foot and come back just in time to tend to his mother in the evening. Though he had craved excitement in his life, he learned to cope with the fact that he had responsibilities and would never abandon them, as well as Kaoru.

Kenji tied the straps on his sandals together, tapping his foot against the floor so that he could have more heel room. "There that oughtta do it. Now what am I forgetting…" Kenji grazed an index finger along his chin, eyes wandering around his room. He looked down at his unkempt futon and that was when he realized what he was about to leave without. "That book!" he cried, suddenly scrambling around to find it. In the mess of his sheets did he come across it again, its worn cover in Kenji's hands. He leafed through the pages for the second time to make sure that it was the same one and sighed heavily. "Man, almost forgot about it. And it looked so interesting and everything! Can't wait to see who's keeping a secret!" Kenji grinned devilishly, held the book close under his arm, and almost dared to skip out of the door.

Kaoru was still tucked away when Kenji walked into her room quietly, poking his head in to survey her condition. "Mother, I'm going out again," he stated firmly as he hid the diary behind his back so that Kaoru wouldn't see it.

"You're going to grow to be a fine swordsman, I just know you are," Kaoru said as a smile. Silence suddenly befell the pair.

The distilled silence put Kenji at ease. Of course he was aware of the fact that Kaoru had never minded that he would go on his daily excursions and return in the late hours of the night. It was the matter of him returning that Kaoru cared about most. And Kenji could not leave, even if his heart so desired to. It was the fact of reciprocating his father's actions that made Kenji refuse to leave home. His insatiable desire to perfect Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu would have to wait.

"I'll be off then, mother," Kenji exclaimed, a resounding laugh trailing beneath his words. His lips were still tugged upward as he turned around and walked out of her room, his face forming into an angular shape as he did so. His face was usually gentler when he did not smile. The curves around his face hadn't yet formed naturally and his overall features seemed much younger than most boys of his age. Particularly though, his shining cerulean eyes were his best feature, seeing how large quantities of emotion were habitually expressed from them, no matter what the emotion happened to be.

Kenji ran out of the doujo, one hand clenched onto the hilt of his katana and the other protectively clutching onto the decrepit journal. He hadn't wanted to train. Though the temperature was nearly ideal and that Kenji surely wouldn't mind perspiring due to training in the sunlight, a certain curiosity took hold of him. He had to learn of the contents written in the book. They lay there in wait to be read. "It was there for a reason, I know it," He muttered to himself through clenched teeth as he picked up speed and dashed through the woods close to home.

Kenji had often found it useful to train far away from passersby. In the deep heart of the woods just beyond a small clearing was where he was able to concentrate. It was the general atmosphere and solitude that the woods had to offer that he was able to focus on nothing but pure swordsmanship. When he was alone, he was able to release. He was able to connect without feeling pressured, flow as if he were a continuous tributary. The chirping of the cicadas surrounding him in the clearing put his mind at ease. It was merely his focus on swordsmanship.

Kenji had spotted a large boulder in his clearing and jogged over to sit down to read the diary, the rock's support underneath him as he flipped the book open. His eyes narrowed in curiosity as his finger trailed downward, studying the shoddy kanji that was written on the page. "Man, this is hardly legible!" he cried out in surprise. His eyebrows curled down as he tried his best to make sense out of the indecipherable handwriting. "Oh here… it gets neater over here," Kenji mused as he tapped his index finger against the first page. "'I had never expected to meet someone like her,'" Kenji read aloud, an eyebrow raising in sudden interest.

"Well from the looks of it and sound of it, seems like my dad wrote it…his penmanship is horrible," the boy muttered under his breath as he proceeded in skimming through the book. "'To think that my life as a wanderer couldn't possibly get any better. It's precisely because of the friends that I have. The people in my life nowadays are those with righteous hearts. I was very lucky to stumble across Kaoru-dono when I did.'" Kenji's eyes widened. "So this is basically…a story of my parents' meeting…?"

There was a slight pause in his reading and he closed his eyes for a few seconds before recollecting his thoughts. "So…if I read this, I'll see just how great of a person, Himura Kenshin, was." Realizing that thought had piqued his interest a great deal. Though he had not been very trusting of Kenshin, Kenji was curious as to who he used to be. He cleared his throat and his eyes widened in intrigue as he glanced at the book to read aloud again. "'It all started when I was walking down the street…'"

I had been minding my own business, really. It was a typical day in all of my wandering days for the past ten years. But not quite so typical as today. I hadn't expected a young girl, Kaoru-dono, to charge at me, calling me by my former name of Hitokiri Battousai. I really hadn't thought that anyone would suspect me but she was ready and willing to fight me, bokken and all. Naturally I was surprised as to why she would charge at me but it turned out that a man named Hiruma Gohei happened to be impersonating me. I knew that no good would come out of that but before I could help her, she suddenly ran off to try and find him. I knew…that she was different from the moment I saw her.

It seemed as though Hiruma-san was using her way of swordsmanship, the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu, as I later discovered when I had to save her from death by his sword moments later. I felt sorry for her, I truly did. I could see her swordsman's spirit in her eyes and how much she was determined to make sure that Gohei would not tarnish and sully her father's name and sword style. It was unusual to me, though. To see Kaoru-dono using a sword…I don't know why that struck me as odd. I had imagined that most females tended not to practice swordsmanship, let alone kendo. Kaoru-dono seemed quite interesting, really. Almost, too interesting for a wanderer such as myself.

Once I had saved her from being killed by Gohei, she had fainted in my arms and I proceeded to tend to her by taking her back to her home. It was only right that I tend to her while she fell unconscious from shock. This is how I came to reside in this doujo. After tending to her and making breakfast that very day, she allowed me to stay with her, since she realized that I really had nowhere else to go. Of course I was worried that she would find out of my past and that I was the real Hitokiri Battousai that had slain continuously ten years ago.

I had enjoyed that day, I remember. Kaoru-dono had told me the art of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu and how it revolves around the sword that protects. I myself was very fond of that. A sword used to fight for the weak and oppressed people was what Kaoru-dono preached. I felt within my heart that she was… unlike anyone I've ever met before. And it made me smile.

I knew that she was greatly bothered with the fact that her swordsmanship style was in danger and I, as a complete stranger could not do anything to help ease her pain. It was in the late afternoon where I was stoking the fires for her bath and I thought her to be crying. I heard her short sobs from outside and naturally, worried if she would do anything rash. And so I let my samurai spirit get the best of me as I ran into the bathhouse and unexpectedly caught sight of something I shouldn't have… I made it no secret that I was horribly embarrassed, as I am sure Kaoru-dono was as well.

That night, I was sent to sleep in the equipment shed, Kaoru-dono still furious about what I had done earlier in the day. I told her, however, that she should not go after the man who defaced her swordsmanship style if it meant losing her life. I hadn't wanted to see that. Especially to someone who chose to impersonate Hitokiri Battousai. But she was obstinate about wanting to catch the criminal red-handed and I could say nothing to change her mind. When she had run away, upset that I had even brought up the subject of how her father would not want her to risk her life over a battle, I felt that I had to leave. Imprisoned as I was, I could not do anything to aid Kaoru-dono in any way and I felt that I should track down Hiruma Gohei before it was too late.

It was the next day where he had come to find her instead and I had come just in time to see her being held by the collar, about to be cut by his dirty blade. It was then that Kaoru-dono realized that Hiruma-san was not Battousai and that I was the one. I wanted to apologize to her for hiding my identity from her but I first had to dispose of Gohei and his henchmen. I did so rather quickly, incapacitating his left hand so that he might never hold a sword again.

If there was one thing that I would always remember, it was the look in Kaoru-dono's eyes when the chaos subsided and she stared up at me with eyes of cool blue. Those sharp yet forlorn eyes caused my heart to pound guiltily within my chest and I had felt sorry. I thought that she would want to have nothing to do with me now that she realized that I was a manslayer.

What happened next, though, was remarkable. "I don't care at all about your past and I meant it," she said. I was astonished. Kaoru-dono had still wanted me to stay and I humbly accepted her offer, but not before receiving a smack in the face for telling her that I might accidentally see her in the bath again.

Kenji's lips tugged upward, closing the book delicately as he stared upward into the sky. He realized that he had taken a little over a half-hour in the clearing and sighed heavily. "I can't believe that was how they actually met. Jeez, and it was all because of that idiot, Hiruma Gohei," the teen sighed happily as his eyes morphed into crescents. Kenji shook his head as he rose from the boulder and outstretched his arms. Considering the fact that hadn't spent much time training but instead began to read Kenshin's journal, he set the leather-bound book in the grass and clutched the hilt of his sword with his left hand.

As he pulled out his shimmering katana, he looked left and right as if it were second nature. He began to hesitate, his right hand hovered over his blade. "I just picked up a strange flow of ki… something is coming…" Kenji wasted no time in facing the opening of his clearing, his teeth clenched together in anger and determination. He was certain that he was the only one who knew of his secretive training area and was prepared to see who else had recently learned of it.

Kenji felt a bead of sweat roll down his left temple and he swallowed hard. Surely he had fought before and was not modest when it came to his physical ability in sword combat. Nevertheless, the ki resonating around the area was unlike anything he had ever felt before. It was…stronger than his own. Questions formed in his mind shortly after. Was he in danger? Had he done something that would make a Yakuza go after him? He hadn't wanted to know. It was now the fact that he had the chance to use his raw swordsmanship skills to defend himself against the approaching presence.

Kenji winced as his keen sense of hearing picked up the sounds of footsteps. It was now or never. Kenji grabbed the hilt of his sword and drew it out without the slightest fraction of hesitation. "Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu! Ryuu Kan Sen Tsu--" The teen stopped short as he realized who came in to check up on him. "Holy…" Kenji muttered, biting off his last word as he felt his heart beat within his chest. "Yahiko! What are you doing here? And you realize that I could have seriously hurt you, right?"

The twenty-five-year-old laughed. "I'm sorry for scaring you."

"Huh, yeah right," Kenji replied sourly, his nose pointed upward, his hands folded across his chest. "Hey, you didn't answer my question! How'd you get here anyway?"

"You didn't really think that you were the only one who knew of this clearing, did you? I used to train here a few times after Kenshin showed it to me." Kenji snorted at the slightest mentioning of his father. "Oh come on, he's not a bad guy."

"Yeah, yeah…" Kenji waved a hand at the older boy and proceeded to sheathe his weapon.

"But the reason, Kenji, that I came to contact you was because… your mother left without saying a word to our neighbors and that's not usually like her. Of course I could be worrying for no reason and she could be in the market for whatever reason but I felt that I should contact you first before I did anything."

"That's not like mother to leave without saying anything…" Kenji muttered just above an audible whisper. "I think we should get back to the doujo…" Yahiko nodded in agreement. The two boys had begun to leave the clearing but Kenji realized that he would have forgotten Kenshin's diary if he had just left. He looked out of the corner of his eye to see if Yahiko looked in his direction but when he realized that his back was facing him, Kenji causally scooped up the book and hid it behind his back.

"What's wrong?" Yahiko inquired, glaring at Kenji, who at the time, began whistling out of tune.

"N-nothing! Let's get going…" he muttered as he took a step forward. Suddenly, Kenji jumped out of the way and a Shiruken fell to the ground where Kenji would have been, had he not moved out of the way. "What the…? A throwing star?"

"There's a note tied to it. What does it say?"

Kenji picked up the star and winced when he realized that his finger had been cut open. "Damn, these things are sharp as ever! You think whoever threw this was out for blood?"

"One can never be too sure these days," Yahiko noted, carefully retrieving the note and unfolding it.

Kenji peered over the taller man's shoulder and shrugged listlessly. "Jeez, doesn't anyone have decent handwriting?"

"And who else do you know around here that doesn't?" Kenji immediately placed his hands over his mouth and Yahiko felt that it would be best to ignore Kenji's histrionics. Yahiko's eyes suddenly narrowed in anger and he quickly handed the note to Kenji. "Read this…"

"'Worrying for Kamiya Kaoru is the right thing to do. Keep an eye out, for we will be watching her very closely from now on and will… claim whatever we wish from her and the Kamiya doujo if necessary. It's a shame that Battousai isn't here, now you will be powerless to stop us. Come and find us if you can.'" Kenji's eyes widened. "Someone's after her…" He began to breathe heavily and without fear, ran out of the clearing and back to the doujo, Yahiko trying to catch up with the youth's fury.


A/N: dramatic music Had to leave it off at a better spot this time. I hope you liked my extra long chapter! Thanks so much and please review! Ja, minna!

Son Christine