Author's Notes: Arigato gozaimasu for all the sugoi reviews! I appreciate them very much! I decided to put off the revision process 'til I reach a larger number of chapters, like say...20 or 30. That way you'll have more to read while I fix up the little mess-ups and bugs in the chapters (yes, I know they aren't real computer bugs, that's just my nickname for misspellings and stuff like that..pay no mind to the computer terminology illiterate nerd). Since it's almost here, I feel like I can now say: Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and school break! I know I'm enjoying mine...heheh...spent four days of it just sleeping. Please review!
Disclaimer: No tengo nada. I do not own this story, the characters, or anything else used in this. I'm not responsible for any hair-pullings either over frustration/anger/disappointment/etc.
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Sanosuke spent much of his time that night regaling his old friends with stories of the group's exploits. "You should have seen the look on that guy's face when we popped out of the bushes! He took one look at us and high-tailed it down the road. Li Jin, though, took him down before he got very far," Sanosuke told them, a nostalgic grin on his face.
"Wow, so you all have been doing this awhile, neh?" Yahiko asked, a look of awe on his face. Years passing had made him older, but no less impressed by the doings of his talented elders. Of course, now the kid could kick some butt too, but less than Sanosuke, still.
"Yeah, a long while," Bai Ru replied. The rakshasa had made themselves pretty comfortable, though they were ready an a split instant's notice to run if Hiko made a threatening move. Their leader figured they could wait until their hosts were asleep before discussing anything with the strange person who apparently was also visiting the Himura family. "Ow!" he said, startled when he felt a sharp, tugging sensation on his head. Turning around, he saw the perpetrator of the crime was a tiny child with huge dark violet eyes and red hair. "Who's this?" he asked the kid, playing the act most silly adults do in the prescence of children.
"That's our son, Kenji," Kaoru said with a proud smile.
"Hey! You guys didn't say you had a kid!" Sanosuke protested.
"Well, he was supposed to be asleep and we were planning to tell you in a bit," Kaoru defended herself and her husband. "Come here, sweetie," she crooned to her child.
Kenji let go of the interesting blonde hair and toddled over to his mother, burbling happily. "'Kaasan! Up!" he demanded. The young mother chuckled, and picked up her insistent son, craddling him.
"Never thought I'd see the day when jou-san would be holding a kid," Sanosuke said, a bit of surprise still in his eyes, but swiftly being replaced with a sort of mixture of pride and loss. The young girl had grown into a young woman, and he had missed it.
"Kenji is almost three now," Kenshin stated, his face full of parental joy/pride.
Sanosuke asked if he could hold the kid, and Kaoru passed Kenji to the tori-atama. He bounced the kid on his knee like he saw some Westerners do at a port city and found that Kenji liked it as much as the Western kids did. The toddler clapped his hands and giggled the whole time while the adults went back to filling each other in on what had been happening during their time apart.
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Saitoh hated paperwork. Nothing could be more boring, apparently useless, and tedious. But it had to be done and no one was up late enough other than him to do it, so he could not just fob it off on some underling. Picking up a pen, a small blessing from Westerners, he began to detail his patrol report, noting that there was no sign of the murderer on his route for the official version. The unofficial one told that the oni was dispatched easily and no further trouble was anticipated. His superiors would be happy to have another thorn taken from their sides. But it was only one of many, and it seemed that this night had just sprouted six more thorns, all harder and longer ones that would be difficult to extract.
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Author's Notes: Ok, so things didn't really get going, but I did lay the groundwork for it to start speeding up. Expect a new chapter soon. This story writing thing is a bit harder than I hoped it would be...just finished fleshing out what each rakshasa looks like in my notes, that took forever! Rawr! It was tedious. I also had to figure out what types of animals they would favor for two different situations. Anyways, at least that's all done. Now the fun can begin. Please review, it's my lifeblood for creativity!
Review Responses:
Cleo: Sorry for the slow starts. Hopefully that will change very soon. Of course Saitoh has a good nose! Didn't I say what he was? Must go check...
Omasuoniwabanshi: I always did Saitoh as the sort of person who says that. He's like one of my head voices when I feeling particularly mentally exhausted and more shit hits the fan, so to say. You know how that goes, neh? I didn't want a bloodbath between Hiko and the rakshasa, they're just two predators checking each other out to see if someone wants to pick a fight is all. Oh, and to make good tea, just put the tea bag in an empty cup, then fill it with hot water and let it steep for at least ten minutes, ok? That method usually makes a good cup of tea.
Miharu Kawashi: Yeah, I didn't want to make it short, but I was running low on creative juices to be entirely truthful... You hate Saitoh! Nani! tries to calm down He's actually my third favorite character, mostly because of Samurai X: Trust and Betrayel. He's such a bastard, I love him. Reminds me a lot of Roy Mustang, or the other way around I should say, since FMA is a younger anime...
