Author-chan's notes: HI EVERYONE!!! ^_^ Chapter 8 is here! I'm very happy now, because A-chan has currently gotten one of the Rurouni Kenshin soundtracks! "Heart of Sword" is my favorite RK ending song!!! *drools* It's so cool! It's just as cool as "My Will", the ending song from Inuyasha. If not, "Heart of Sword" is cooler!
Strange note: When A-chan made up Kenshin's new name, Kenichi, A-chan realized that (if using the right kind of kanji) Kenichi can be translated as "One sword". However, A-chan also realized that if by slightly changing the kanji of Ken-nii, Sasuke's nickname for his "baby brother", and making it Ken-ni, the nickname can be translated as "Two swords". A bit of a stretch, but it is possible. Maybe A-chan is being psycho and is making a play on words for our dear Ken-chan's mental state with his new name. Or maybe A-chan did it by accident and just realized what she had done so recently…And A-chan must have drunk too much sweetened fruit smoothes because she is referring to herself in third person. Opps.
Key:
"talking"
'thoughts that can only be heard by thinker, a.k.a. private thoughts'
/thoughts that can be heard by thinker and spirits, a.k.a. telepathy/
*** indicates scene/time change
Like Father Like Son
(Chapter Eight: Cops and Robbers)
A few months later…
Kenshin was lying in the laundry basket. Again. The ex-rurouni sighed (mentally of course). Ever since that first incident several months ago, Kenji and Chizuru had taken to placing him in the laundry basket whenever they need to put him down rather than putting him on the futon or the floor. Kenshin guessed it was some sort of odd humor on his new "parents" part. When Sano had first seen "Kenichi" in the basket, the former gangster started laughing his head off. Between snickers Kenshin could have sworn that the Sekihoutai survivor had said something along the lines of "just like his grandfather."
He may have liked doing the laundry in his past life, but he never fell asleep in the basket, thank you very much!
That was just in this lifetime. And it was against his will.
When Sasuke first saw his "little brother" in the basket he had simply stated that "Ken-nii" was not dirty laundry. To this statement, Kenji had protested that the clothes were clean. Sasuke, being smarter than his mere two years, asked if his "Kaasan" cleaned the clothes. Kenji simply grumbled under his breath. It wasn't his fault he couldn't clean anything!
Kenshin was actually very sympathetic to Kenji's plight. Despite what the others thought, Kenji actually could do laundry. He did it very well actually. The cloth that Kenshin found himself surrounded in whenever he awoke in the basket was always impeccably clean, soft, and sweet smelling, even if Kenji was the one who did the washing. What lead to everyone's misconception on Kenji's laundry abilities was the fact that when it came to other household chores, such as cooking, sweeping, and scrubbing floors, Kenji came up lacking. Also, Chizuru was much better at laundry than her husband. Chizuru was much better at all the household chores than her husband, and did each perfectly. The exception, of course, was cooking. Kenji was much better than his wife was. Kenshin allowed himself a mental wince at the thought of Chizuru's cooking. Last time Chizuru had almost set the kitchen on fire making onigiri. Surprisingly, that was an improvement. In the Himura household everyone found it best just to call everyone's favorite slaves, Yahiko and Sano, to do the cooking or to eat out. Sometimes Megumi or Tsubame would come over and cook as well. Chizuru was banned from the kitchen and Kenji was getting close to that point.
Kenshin lay in the basket waiting for someone to come by and pick him up. He would have liked to be able to climb out of the basket himself, but due to circumstances beyond his control, he was unable to. He was however slowly starting to get more control over his body. Not too long ago Kenshin was able to re-teach himself how to roll over. By his estimates, it wouldn't be too long before he would start crawling. And after crawling came walking, and with the ability to walk came the ability to control his body. However, due to the small space of the basket, Kenshin had no way of rolling over, let alone getting out.
With nothing left to do but think, Kenshin let his mind wander off. He was alone in the dojo. Not even Kaoru or Shinigami were around. Well, he wasn't exactly alone. Sano was babysitting, or at least he was supposed to be babysitting. At the moment, the white-clad ex-gangster was asleep somewhere within the dojo walls. Sano figured that if the baby wanted anything, it would wail, otherwise the kid was fine and happy and didn't need Sano's care. So Sano, being the loveable rooster-head that he was, decided it was naptime for him. Kenji, Chizuru, and Sasuke, in the meantime, were in the market buying food and other supplies. Kenshin had no doubt that Kenji was buying a new wok (AN: JML-san, thanks for telling me about the mistake with the pan, I changed it, see? I'm in your debt again. *bows*) to replace the old one he destroyed in his cooking endeavors a few months ago. Yahiko, on the other hand, was spending some quality time with his family. Kenshin had to smile (mentally) at that. It seemed like it was only yesterday that Yahiko was a young ten-year-old boy with potential. Now he was an accomplished swordsman with a steady career and a wonderful family. It almost made the ex-hitokiri jealous.
"Kenichi" gave off a wide yawn. It was time for a nap again. Kenshin was just about to close his eyes and drift off to dreamland when he felt something. His ki senses were ringing alarm bells in his mind and there was no way he could just ignore those feelings. Kenshin's eyes snapped wide open as unwelcome guests began making themselves known…
***
Just outside the dojo
Five young men dressed in Western clothing and black bandanas drawn over their faces were huddled together next to the entrance of the Kamiya dojo. They were neither residence of the dojo nor students. In fact, none of the inhabitants of the dojo (living or dead) could say that they recognized those young men.
"Genji, do you think we should really be doing this?" one of the boys asked nervously, "This is a dojo!"
"A prosperous dojo," the boy named Genji pointed out, "That means this place has got to be full of valuable stuff!"
"What if some of the students try to get revenge on us for stealing from them?" the first boy asked, still worried.
"Swords are no match for guns," Genji retorted, pulling out a revolver from his coat pocket to emphasize his point. The first boy nodded, looking more confident.
"Let's go and make our fortunes!" Genji called, rallying his "troops".
The five interlopers squared their shoulders and flung open the door, their weapons out and ready…
***
Elsewhere in Tokyo; the police station
Tensions were running high at the police station. All the officers were on their toes today, being very careful not to make too much noise around a certain door. None of the officers even dared to breathe. For behind that certain door was the office of a certain lieutenant…a certain grumpy lieutenant…a certain grumpy lieutenant with a perchance of slaying people…
And that lieutenant was…
"KUSO!!! Didn't I tell ya people to shut up?!" a furious voice snarled from behind the doors.
…very, very angry.
"Yes, sir!" the various police officers called back before running away to avoid their superior's wrath. The door to the office popped open and out came the dreaded lieutenant…Sawagejou Chou. (AN: Ha! Bet you all thought I was talking about Saito!)
"Idiots," Chou growled under his breath. Chou, formally known as Chou the Sword Hunter of the Juppongatana (and often called Houki-atama by a certain Tori-atama), had, after the defeat of Shishio, gone into the police force as the personal lackey of Saito Hajime, known in the police force as Lieutenant Fujita Goro. The former Juppongatana member had risen through the ranks until he had attained the rank of lieutenant, just like his former boss. He had quickly learned why Saito acted like a complete bastard once he assumed the duties of an acting lieutenant. All that damn paper work was enough to make even Himura on his best and happiest Rurouni days want to return to being Hitokiri Battousai. And all that (*censored*) paper just seemed to keep on multiplying!!! If he could, Chou would have destroyed the busy work from hell a long time ago with a well-placed Orochi from his Hakujin no Tachi. However, to do so was to guarantee even more paper work that he would have to do.
"I hate you, Saito," Chou snarled under his breath, as he returned to his office with the dreaded paper work covering his desk, "Why did ya have do go and leave me with all this damn work!" Chou continued to grumble to himself, even though he knew that doing so wouldn't bring the irritable Wolf of Mibu back from retirement. Who knew where that creepy-eyed nutty-killer went? As far as Chou was concerned, he hoped that Saito had jumped off a cliff somewhere and was now all buddy-buddy with his old dead Shinsengumi buddies. Either that, or the old wolf would suddenly appear like a happy little ghost and help Chou with the evil paper work. Hopefully it would be the latter.
Chou continued to grumble to himself as he picked up a pen and the first form lying on his desk. Maybe, if he was lucky, the roof would fall on him and he would die and then he would get to see Saito in hell and beat the (*censored*) out of him for leaving the paper work behind. Either that, or maybe he would be called out to go on some mission. Chou really wanted a mission right now. He needed to kill something…
…Darn Saito and picking up that (*censored*) wolf's habits.
'Yep,' Chou thought as he furiously attacked the documents in front of him with his pen, 'I really need to kill something soon…'
Outside his door a tiny figure wearing a green gi grinned. With surprising swiftness, the tiny figure glided away, his long chestnut braid flying behind him like the streamers of a kite. Of course, none of the police officers took heed of the seemingly eight-year-old child. They couldn't see him if they tried.
Only the dead could see Shinigami.
***
Back at the dojo
Kenshin was wary. There were five unknown people wandering about in the dojo, and, judging by their ki signatures, they weren't friendly. Kenshin guessed they were some petty thieves trying to rob the dojo. Nothing he couldn't handle…
…If he wasn't a baby.
Shimatta.
Well, Sano could deal with them. On hit from Sano's Futae no Kiwami and those intruders would be off running. And Sano was in the dojo…
…Sleeping soundly.
Kuso. Not even the apocalypse could wake up Sano when he wanted to take a nap! Where was the help when you needed it?
So Kenshin continued to worry. Kenji and Chizuru would be very upset when they found the dojo robbed, not to mention Kaoru…
Luckily, since the ex-hitokiri was currently a four-month-old baby and couldn't do anything except roll over, he wouldn't be blamed…
…Sano would. (In the deep dark depths of Kenshin's mind a small, almost invisible, icy smirk flickered on Battousai's lips and then disappeared like a dream. Served Zanza right for sleeping on the job.)
Still, even if it wasn't his fault, Kenshin, being Kenshin, would blame himself. Then he would feel gloomy. And then Kenji and Chizuru would get worried about "Kenichi's" mood and health. And then Kenshin would feel even worse for causing his "parents" to worry, because that was how Kenshin was.
Kenshin was too caught up in his thoughts to realize that the ki of the five intruders was getting closer. It wasn't until the shoji that led into the room he was in slid open did he realize how close the trespassers were.
*
Glossary of Japanese terms for those who don't know
Kanji: Chinese characters for writing; Japanese characters are the hiragana and katakana, though plenty of fanfic writers just say "kanji" when referring to the various characters used in Chinese and Japanese writing.
Ken-nii: "Big brother Ken"; the "nii" is short for "onii-san" which means "older brother"; Sasuke's nickname for Kenichi
-chan: prefix put at the end of names to indicate familiarity; normally used with girls or young boys and can be used for close loved ones
rurouni: "wander"; actually it's a made up word and a play on words with "ronin"
(O)Kaa-san: "mother"
hitokiri: "manslayer" or "assassin"
ki: a person's aura; also spelled "chi"
dojo: martial arts school/training grounds
Kuso: all purpose curse word; shortened term of "Chikuso" (also A-chan's favorite curse word next to "Shimatta")
Shimatta: another all purpose curse word
Juppongatana: literally "The Ten Swords"; Shishio Makoto's elite fighting force, which Chou used to be part of; currently the Juppongatana is split up (or dead) and is spread out all over the world
Houki-atama: "broom-head"; Chou's nickname referring to his outrageous broom-like hair
Tori-atama: "rooster-head"; Sanosuke's nickname referring to his spiky hair; a more literal translation would be "bird-head"
Orochi: the name of Chou's main attack; by swinging the Hakujin no Tachi across the ground, Chou can slash at his opponent from far away as well as destroy the ground in front of him (I can't properly describe it…-_-;)
Hakujin no Tachi: Chou's favorite sword; it's very long and thin allowing the wielder to attack enemies farther away from them as well as being able to control all the movements of the blade; in A-chan's opinion it's kinda like a whip only it's a sword…um…a bladed whip!
Wolves of Mibu: nickname of the Shinsengumi; their headquarters was located in Mibu
Shinsengumi: "Newly Selected Corps"; the Shinsengumi were a police force during the Meiji Revolution (better known as the Bakumastu) who were pro-shogun; the Shinsengumi were broken down into ten squads each lead by a squad captain (or gumi-chou), Saito was the captain of the third squad, and the Shinsengumi, at its height, had over 300 members
Shinigami: "God of Death"; It's more of a title than an actual name, but here I'm using it as a name, but whether or not it is a name is debatable. I might answer that question in later chapters though, so keep reading…
Zanza: Sanosuke's nickname back when he was a fighter-for-hire; it refers to the zanbatou, the giant sword Sanosuke referred to as his "partner".
*
Author-chan's notes: There we go, chapter 8. Thanks to all the reviewers out there who review this unworthy one's work. I'm sorry for the short chapter, but I've been working on other fics as well and I need to pay attention to them too. The glossary was added on the pressuring of my friend Allison. She's been telling me to put a glossary for a while and I finally stopped being a lazy bum and put one up. If there is any problems with the glossary or any other part of the chapter/story, please tell me! And if any one can describe Chou's sword and weapon better than I can, please don't be shy!
Yay! I brought in Chou and everything! I'm so proud. I hope that pleases everyone who has been asking for more RK characters to pop up. Others RK characters are forthcoming. Ken-chan just needs to grow up a bit so he can deal with everyone. Maybe in later chapters (probably in a whole different Arc of the fic even) I'll bring together all the Juppongatana together again, though not necessarily on the same side. *Suddenly, sensible side pops up out of nowhere*
Sensible Side: Wait a second, A-chan! Aren't some of the Juppongatana members dead and in hell?
A-chan: *waves comment off* Details, details!
Sensible Side: *sweat dropping* I can't believe I share a body with such an idiot!
Please R+R!!!