Author's Note: Weeha! Next chapter is here! Thank you to those of you who have reviewed so much. I haven't been so buy lately and it's nice not to be so busy. That had given me more time to catch upand work on the couple of next chapters. So yay for me!Please read and review! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin

Chapter Eleven: Learning a Truth That Was Long Forgotten

Aoshi was thinking of a plan on how to escape this wretched place. The metal door he assumed to be inches thick, gave off quite a vibe of lost hopes on trying to open it. However, in the end he decided to use his Kaiten Kenbu. This attack is usually meant to use on a person, because no one else was around to use it on with the exception of for this door.

Aoshi got in his battle stance and concentrated his energy on the door. Then, with as much speed as he could gather, he rushed to the door and struck it three times in quick succession. And as expected, his technique ensured severe damage upon it. A few seconds later the now bent up door slowly fell open, its broad hinges diminishing apart on the ground in extremely loud clatters.

The ninja leader stepped out of the room. Now standing in an extended hallway and looking to both his right and left, he couldn't make a decision on which way to go. After hearing a chuckle from down the hall to his right, he quickly hid himself behind the wall of the room he was just trapped in, and listened.

"Yeah I took care of him Houko, he's locked away right now."

"Yes, I already informed lord Matsuo of this and he plans to do away with him soon."

"That won't be too hard. He was so easy to beat; I took him down in five minutes."

Aoshi narrowed his eyes, 'Yeah, plus twenty-five …' He leaned in closer to eavesdrop more before their voices would fade away.

"Shouldn't we check on him, you know, make sure he isn't awake and trying to escape or something Musuko?"

Aoshi raised an eyebrow, 'No wonder he reserved Misao and I from knowing his name… it's stupid.'

Well, he knew that wasn't probably the honest reason, but it was good enough to be reasonable.

"Nah, the way I beat him back there, he'll be out for at least a week."

Aoshi's jaw tightened, he could just hear Musuko grin when he said that last statement and it made Aoshi all the more pissed off than he already should be, 'That deceitful bastard…' He couldn't hear anymore of the conversation, both Houko and Musuko had walked far away by now. And to where? Aoshi sure as hell had no idea.

The ninja walked out of his former prison chamber and into the hallway once more.

Aoshi decided now, to go to the right since he understood that the other two would be going somewhere near where the lord of this place would be, and also because they had both of his kodachi in their procession and he wanted them back. No one steals Aoshi's weapons and gets away with it lacking a bloody nose or broken bone.

Aoshi turned to the right and was about to walk down the hallway, but turned his head to look at the large fallen door on the ground and shook his head in shame for the other two guys, '…I can't believe they didn't notice that…'

Misao and Hideki had made it to the battlegrounds where she had been injured and Aoshi came to save her. She laid a slender hand on her wound subconsciously and looked around. The battle was still fresh in her mind and the pain of his blade cutting her skin.

She was in such grief at the moment; having no any idea if Aoshi was ok or not just made her so distressed, despite all her self-determination in her actions.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Hideki's concerned expression towards her, "Misao, are you all right?"

She quickly nodded, "Yes, just worried."

"It's ok, we'll find him." He replied and she smiled her thanks. He smiled back, "Alright now, let's spread out and look around for anything." Misao was already walking off, "Ok."

The sun had fully set by now, and dusk had arrived expectantly.

After several minutes of searching, Misao stood up, dusting herself off in random places and looked in Hideki's direction. "Find anything?" She called out softly. The swordsman stood up and brushed his hands over his knees, "No, not yet." He said and was about to walk on the way to her, but saw something shine out of the corner of his eye.

Hideki turned his head toward the source of the small light, and found a tiny dagger. He narrowed his eyes and walked toward it; he kneeled down slowly and picked it up. He rubbed his thumb over the flat side of the blade that showed the moon's reflection. 'Why does this look so familiar to me?'

Misao was right next to him by now, and kneeled down as well. She gasped lightly at what he held, "Did you find that just now?" Hideki only nodded very vaguely. It was the only thing to let her know alone that he heard her. Hideki had not taken his eyes off of it. Misao looked at it more closely at the dagger, her deep cobalt eyes shinning with curiosity.

Misao glanced at Hideki and was shocked to see the look of realization on his face, "Is… something wrong?" She asked hesitantly.

"I-I think I know where this came from." He whispered. He kept looking at it and then stood up. Misao stood up also, wanting to see where he was getting at. Hideki at long last finally looked at her, "I think I know where Aoshi is, come on!" He exclaimed and took her hand to follow him.

She resisted at first, "Wha- ? Hey Hideki, how do you know?"

"I'll explain to you on the way, let's go."

Aoshi was already walking down another hallway where he had assumed Houko and Musuko had gone. He was at the moment beginning to think that he had taken a wrong turn somewhere. 'That can't be, I sensed them come here.'

"Shinomori Aoshi, so we finally meet."

Aoshi stopped.

"It's alright Shinomori; I won't hurt you without you not knowing where I am. That wouldn't be right."

Aoshi wanted to roll his eyes. It was very called for at the moment, but Aoshi really wasn't an 'eye-roller', so to speak, so he instead continued to make no movement, "Where are you then, Matsuo?"

"You're not expecting me to tell you that now are you? Just sense where I am, I've heard you ninjas are so good at that." He taunted, and spoke no more.

And so, Aoshi walked down the hallway he was currently in and tried to sense a powerful ki… or any ki for that matter. It was rather difficult at first, one reason being this place was so damn huge and no one was around anymore.

A couple of short minutes later, he arrived in front of a large training dojo. He suddenly thought about Misao and her whereabouts once again. Was she ok? Surely Hideki and the others have taken care of her of course. But Aoshi knew that right about now Misao was awake and demanding some answers about where he was.

He was so caught up in his thoughts about Misao that he hadn't noticed the two large shoji doors slide open and far apart now.

"Don't worry about Misao, Shinomori. I'm sure she's just fine." He said indifferently in the darkness of the training dojo room.

Aoshi looked up at hearing the different voice again and raised his eyebrows indistinctly, wondering how this man knew what he was thinking.

"You're expression says it all. I know you're thinking of her, but you shouldn't right now. You're battle awaits you, so come."

"Why should I waste my time fighting you?"

"For the reason that Battousai defeated my all time rival Shishio. I am not taking revenge on what he did to that fool, of course not; I just want to beat him myself knowing that Shishio could not. And since the Battousai is not here to fight at the moment, I have the next best thing. Shinomori Aoshi, leader of the Oniwanbanshu."

Aoshi narrowed his eyes at this; he was no second or next best anything. If he had both his kodachi at this point, the guy here would be dead and buried right now where he stood. But Aoshi had some self-control, sure, so he'd fight this guy according to his rules, for now anyway.

Megumi walked casually into Misao's room while holding a small bag filled with medicinal herbs to treat the wound for a second time. She was going to carefully re-bandage it and so would do just that.

When the lady doctor walked in though, it was dark and she expected Misao to be sound asleep still.

Megumi walked in quietly and put the small bag down on a far-off table, getting her things ready. She lit a large candle to see around the room better, and saw a small figure under the covers and assumed it to be Misao asleep. And so Megumi went on to mix in some very helpful medicine with warm water in a cup and walked toward Misao's futon. "Wake up Misao, we need to put more medicine on your-" She gasped when she uncovered the small mountain only to find two large bundles of blankets underneath.

Megumi immediately lit a few more candles and looked around the empty room, 'Misao, this is certainly one thing that has not changed about you.'

She rushed out of the room, calling for help.