A.N. Welcome back, Minna-san, to my sixth chapter of 'Fading Futures'. Shinya's now met the Kenshin-Gumi, but he's already feeling the strain!I want to thank everyone who read my fic so far and is now giving this chapter a go too, so arigato gozaimasu! As always, thank you to Beth-kun for your inspiring reviews. Also, thank you Spriggen for yours. I'm glad you're enjoying my fic. You're helping The Kenshin-Gumi and me out big time! Your review's are giving us motivation to get better and better, and to keep working on 'Fading Futures, so give yourselves a big pat on the back too! Hope you like this one!

Disclaimer: (grumbles under breath.) Still not mine…

Last time on Fading Futures:

Shinya finally met his ancestors, but already feels the strain of his task.

Tanoshimimas! (Enjoy!)

Chapter Six

Truth of Feelings

Shinya had decided that he would give the Kenshin-Gumi a week to get used to him being around before he'd attempt anything. Just then, Shinya's position was still fragile and he would never convince them to let him help out a relationship without him actually having any of their trust. It would also help him to understand what made the two tick. Besides, Kenshin and Kaoru were his ancestors; he needed to give them some respect!

Shinya waited patiently on the dojo porch for Yahiko to finally get himself up. He was sitting in his new practice clothes, not much different from the ones back home – a white gi and light blue hakama – as well as a new Shinai Kaoru had given him only moments before. It felt strange as he sat watching Kenshin doing the laundry, while Sanosuke dozed in the sun. For strange reasons he kept expecting Kiyoshi to come storming round after him to do 1000 strokes, or Noriko to pop round and ask if anyone wanted refreshments, even though he knew they wouldn't. Still, it was a funny thought.

Finally, Kaoru dragged Yahiko out of bed. Shinya was just really glad he wasn't getting the ill feelings from vanishing anymore and was getting up at his usual, admittedly early, times. Yahiko complained a bit, but it looked like it was still too early for him to argue. Shinya got up and followed them inside.

As they began with a deep breath, Shinya began to mentally prepare himself. He was going to have to act as if he had never held a weapon in his life. He was privately glad that he had been getting such good marks in drama class now…

After Kaoru had set Yahiko up on his own, she turned to Shinya and said, "The Kamiya Kasshin-ryu is a sword to protect people. Its techniques rely on using the opponent's strengths against him."

He knew that already…

Finally she began to 'show' him how to hold the Shinai. Shinya also knew this, but purposely messed up, as a beginner would do. She then started to show him the basic stances and then started to teach him how to downward stroke, like the ones Yahiko was doing at the other side of the dojo. For the first few strokes, Shinya purposely messed up his stance, but after Kaoru corrected it, he began to use the correct forms. Better her thinking he was a fast learner rather than he teaching himself bad habits that could get him hurt in a real fight.

Meanwhile, Kaoru stepped back a bit to watch, not long after joined by Kenshin, who came to see the new student. The new comer's potential impressed both of them.

"He's good. He has the spirit for it and it looks like he has caught onto the concepts of Kamiya Kasshin-ryu quickly, hasn't he, Kaoru-dono."

Kaoru nodded. "If he continues like this, he'll be a great swordsman one day. The look in his eyes makes me think he has his reasons to want to learn, just like Yahiko did"

It was a little later when Shinya finally put away his Shinai and changed into his other clothes. The sun had broken all the cloud in the sky, so it was very warm, despite being in February. He joined Yahiko and Sanosuke as they watched Kenshin playing a ball game with Ayame and Suzume. Kaoru was cooking breakfast. Interested, Shinya glanced over to see what it was they were having, but found he couldn't quite distinguish anything. He sat back again slowly with apprehension.

Yahiko caught his gaze and said "Just thought I'd warn you, it'll be bad."

Shinya flinched slightly at the look Kaoru flashed Yahiko. Sanosuke muttered something about why Kenshin wasn't cooking, before he ducked to avoid Kaoru throwing an over-large daikon at his head. Shinya sniggered.

Kaoru began to dish out the whatever-it-was and passed it to everyone. "I really outdid myself this time" Shinya hated to think what it was usually like then…

Slowly, he dipped his chopsticks in and hesitantly ate the blob. It was all he could do not to spit it back up again. Kaoru was looking at him expectantly. "It's… well… um…." But what to say that wouldn't sound insulting?

"Oh, he's speechless cause it's so good!" Kaoru laughed.

"Uh, sure…"

He was sure he heard Sanosuke say something about a strong stomach or something.

They were getting closer to the end of their meal (if that was what you could call that Whatever-it-was) when Kaoru brought up the conversation about Shinya's skills. "…You seemed to already have that want to protect people." She said in a way that was obviously a subtle question about the reasons. Well, this was the moment of truth. The story he was going to tell them wasn't a complete lie, but it still sounded like something from a soap opera. Slowly he put down the bowl and chopsticks and took a deep breath

"Well, when I was living in the outskirts of Yokohama, my family and I lived very close to an inn, where my grandma used to work as a cook. The owner of the inn was a man named Ukawa Inoue, who often got drunk and you could sometimes hear him shouting at people. But the guy was really big and strong, so no one ever complained in case they got hurt. The guy had a very young daughter named Sumire. She was only about Ayame-chan's age, perhaps a little older, but she was very kind and helpful. My friends and I used to see her quite often, but every time we saw her she was always hurt in one way or another. She used to say she was clumsy and fell often.

"But then, when my friends and I saw her one-day, she was all beaten up and unconscious. It was really bad; she was black and blue all over and several ribs had been broken. We took her back to my place, where we called a doctor. When she had regained consciousness, she confessed that it was her father who had beaten her in a drunken rage."

"No!" Kaoru gasped. Huh, good audience Shinya thought. He took another breath and continued.

"My family looked after her until she was well again, but one-day she just went back to her dad again, so she wouldn't get us into any trouble. She was so selfless, really.

"It wasn't long after until I saw her again, though. I was late coming home and I saw Sumire and her father and he was beating her again. I-I tried to help her, but he was too strong and in the end he beat me, took Sumire and left."

Shinya's voice caught in his throat. It surprised him. This had happened some time ago now, when he often went on holiday with this grandma (his mother's mom), but it still brought the righteous anger up. It was after that when he asked Kiyoshi to give him lessons in kendo. Still, he thought he should have been okay talking about it now, five years later.

In a smaller voice, Shinya forced himself to continue. "When we next heard about her, we found out her father was being arrested for manslaughter – for killing her in one of his drunken rages. I sort of thought it was my fault, you know, 'cause if I had been stronger, I could have saved her, most likely. So when I heard about the Kamiya Kasshin-ryu, I thought that I could make myself stronger and help other people, in her memory."

Everyone was surprised into silence after his story. He glanced at all of them. Each of them looked as if they were half-sorry for him and half in awe. He could almost feel himself blush. "Wow…" Yahiko whispered. Shinya smiled, hoping to lighten the mood again. He had enough to worry about than thinking of the past.

"Anyway," he said in a lighter tone "I already said that they wouldn't want me to be sad. I'm sure that wherever she is now, she'd be happy with the deceptions. Really, our friends never truly leave us, because while we hold them in our hearts, they live on within us, so I don't feel too sad now."

Shinya wasn't all that surprised when he saw the astonishment on everyone's faces.

0

Things began to settle into a pattern as the days went by and Shinya began to learn a lot about his ancestors and the rest of the Kenshin-Gumi.

Kaoru had been the daughter of Koshijiro Kamiya, who had died during the Seinan war against the Samurai classes in the old Satsuma prefecture in 1877. She had lived alone after that with Ayame, Suzume and their grandfather, Dr Gensai, coming to visit every so often. Then a guy named Gohei Hiruma, who was a former student, began to pretend to be Battosai to discredit the dojo and Kenshin had come along and helped her out. Shinya remembered reading something about that in the book Kiyoshi had lent to him.

Sanosuke had been a member of the Sekihotai, Shinya found out mostly by accident. He had been under the command of Captain Sozo Sagara, which is why, he guessed, that Sanosuke had taken 'Sagara' as a last name. Shinya had taken to calling him 'Rooster', after accidentally calling it him once. Shinya was starting to think Sanosuke thought him a demon or something. Perhaps it didn't help that Shinya had told Yahiko about the practical jokes he had played on his Grandpa, which Yahiko had taken to use on Sano, with a little help from himself.

He had been right in guessing Yahiko had been of samurai decent. Kaoru told him once when Yahiko was acting a little cocky, as if in apology. Shinya actually thought he wasn't too bad – he acted a little like Yukie's little brother, who Shinya got on well with.

Kenshin, however, was still a bit of a question mark to Shinya in some cases. Sure he was polite (to the extent of annoyance) and laughed and smiled, but Shinya had a feeling that he did this mostly as an act. He was sure that Kenshin knew a lot more than he let on, however dense he acted at times. He was also sure Kenshin had read his ki more than once. But Shinya realised that Kenshin was holding back because of the Tragedy, but it was more tragic than he had first suspected. He had caught a flash of his ki – at the hidden loneliness, the sorrow, and the guilt – when he was sneaking a look at Kaoru. He noticed Kenshin was often watching her out the corner of his eye, as if he was frightened she would vanish…

The week came to an end quite quickly, yet Shinya had found that they thought him part of the group now and already trusted him, so he began to think of what to do now. The easiest, he speculated, was to just ask them about it – separately of course. Then he would know where he stood. So it was with some anticipation that he finished his lesson and waited for Yahiko to exit the dojo, leaving only him and Kaoru inside. Carefully, he approached her.

"Kaoru? Could I talk to you a minute, in private?"

"Sure. Is there something wrong, Shin-kun?"

Shinya smiled. "Not exactly. I was just wondering if you've told Kenshin how you feel about him yet?"

As Shinya asked the question, Kaoru ran through some rather amusing reactions. First she turned red as Kenshin's hair, her eyes widened and she fell over anime style. Finally regaining her composure, at least a little bit, she spluttered, "W-what do you mean, 'How I feel about him!'"

Shinya had to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing. With a serious face he said. "Come on. From the way you and Kenshin act round one another, there are three options. One - you two haven't told your feelings for each other; two - you have told them, but are still afraid of others seeing – and to be honest I wouldn't blame you at the moment – or you two have broken up. Which is it?"

Kaoru quickly hid her face as she busied herself with herself with her Shinai. "W-what makes you think that I have feelings for Kenshin?"

"I'm not blind, Kaoru. You two are so obvious sometimes it's painful to watch," he replied.

Kaoru, blushing furiously, looked as if she wanted to die of embarrassment or strangle him just then. Shinya decided he would have to tread a little more cautiously from now on.

"Kaoru," He said softly, back to her but using his ki reading her reactions, "Every time you look at him, or he looks at you, you can see that the feelings are there, but it is also followed by torment and pain. Everyone can see it – except you two it seems. It breaks my heart to be honest with you. Both of you are really nice people, you don't deserve to feel that way. So, for both you're sakes, please tell me."

Shinya could feel Kaoru's ki soften as he spoke. Now it felt as if she was close to tears. Slowly, he looked around to see her with eyes wide and shinning.

Slowly, she lowered her eyes, but eventually complied. "Well, if you must know, no. No, I haven't told him. I can't just say 'Kenshin I love you'. I don't know if he feels the same way as me. I mean, I'm not much of a lady and-"

"To be totally honest with you, Kaoru, I don't think he cares one wit about whether you're a 'lady' or not. The way he looks at you says he loves you exactly as you are, but I think that he doesn't want to say anything because of the same reasons, as well as the fact that he acts as if he doesn't think he's worthy of you."

Kaoru looked stunned " 'Worthy of me'?" she whispered.

"Yeah" He watched as she stared into space. Finally, he said "Look, Kaoru, how about I make a business proposition: If you can help me out if I need it, I can help you to get over that shyness and everything and help you to say those words to Kenshin – or even the other way round. What do you say?"

Kaoru stared at him for several moments, fumbling with her Shinai before she turned a little red again. "You can help me to get Kenshin?"

"Yup!"

A radiant smile spread over her face "Okay, it's a deal!"

Yahiko glanced up, more than a little confused when Kaoru almost skipped out of the dojo, later followed by Shinya, who was shaking his head with a laugh. Something was going on here…

0

With one down, Shinya set off to look for his other ancestor, finding him kneeling next to the bowl doing the laundry. Shinya sweat dropped – he was sure that Kenshin was supposed to be a swordsman, not a maid! Still, he put that out of his head and strode forward to him. Kenshin turned and smiled as he approached.

"Ohayo, Shinya-kun"

Shinya smiled in return and knelt at the other side of the bowl facing him. "'Ohayo, Kenshin. Need any help? I'm done with practice today, so I haven't really got much else to do."

Kenshin glanced up at him from under his bangs. He was sure the boy had come with more of a purpose than he was letting on. Still, when he checked his ki, it wasn't showing anything too suspicious, so he nodded. "Of course. Sessha would like the company."

Shinya rolled up his sleeves and reached into the bowl to scrub one of the training gi. For several minutes, Shinya and Kenshin worked silently. Finally, Shinya spoke.

"I was wondering if you're going to tell Kaoru at some point in the future."

This confused him. "Oro?"

Still scrubbing the Gi, he said, "You know what I'm on about Kenshin. Are you going to tell her before someone else comes along and says the words before you?"

Kenshin stared at him in shock. The boy finally looked up and caught his gaze. "Kenshin, I know you like her. I know she likes you. I think everyone knows but the two of you, so why don't you tell her?"

The swordsman was doing such a good impression of a fish that Shinya had to stop himself from laughing in his face. It was beginning to hurt his ribs when Kenshin finally got his act together. He sighed and lowered his eyes.

"Kaoru-dono deserves much more than someone like me, that she does. She should have someone closer to her own age, one who doesn't have so much blood on his hands."

"Dammit, Kenshin" he said quietly. Kenshin looked up at him in surprise to see him frowning. "Do you think Kaoru cares about whatever happened then? You think she gives a damn that you're older than she is? She loves you for who you are now!"

"Sessha is not worthy to love anyone, Shinya" he said, suddenly amazed that he had said it in front of him "Sessha could never deserve that type of happiness again"

Shinya stood to hang the gi on the washing-line. Quietly he said, "That be as it may, does that also mean that Kaoru doesn't deserve that happiness too?"

Kenshin gaped up at him, before he turned to go. This wasn't a convocation he wanted to drag out just then.

"BATTOSAI!"

Kenshin flinched slightly and spun round, staring at the boy. Shinya smiled bashfully. "Sorry." He said sheepishly "but that was the only thing I could think of to stop you from going. Please listen to me for a moment. I promise I'll never talk about this again if you don't want me to." Shinya put another gi on the line, his back to Kenshin, but softly he said, "What you're doing right now is hurting both you and Kaoru, Kenshin. You're pussyfooting round each other and even though everyone else can tell you both love each other, you're both still blind.

"I don't know what happened in the past and to be honest, it's got nothing to do with it now. But I just want you to think, if someone says those words before you, would you act like you are now? Could you watch while someone else has what you could have had? Then again, I don't think she could love anyone else. Could you let her live like that? With you, yet still all alone? You can't just walk away now, either, because it will break her heart. Kenshin, if not for your own sake, can't you tell her for her's? To protect her heart?"

Shinya met his wide eyes and smiled again sadly. Finishing hanging the laundry he walked away, leaving a stunned Kenshin behind him. A little further away, from their hiding places, Yahiko and Sanosuke exchanged shocked glances.

To be continued…

Chosha's notes: A nice load of angst for you in this chapter, as well as some spoilers too! So Shinya's starting his plans, but Kenshin was being difficult. I thought that Shinya should be similar to Kenshin, you know, in the way he can get people to tell him things and come up with those words of wisdom. I guess even someone like Kenshin's gotta hear 'em! This chapter was fairly difficult for me, so I wasn't sure how it would come out or how Kenshin or Kaoru would react, so any comments would be great, so I could perhaps improve on the chapter. So, how was it, Minna? Good, bad? You just keep those reviews coming! We're always happy to get constructive comments!

To be honest, I surprised myself. After I wrote Shinya's speeches, the only thing I could think was "Good God, I came up with THAT!" really, that's the most grown up thing I've ever thought of! Guess doing AS Religious Studies and looking at all those philosophers is messing with my head, I tell you!

Next time on 'Fading Futures'

Shinya gets a visit from a person he didn't think he would see and learns the truth behind the ex-hitokiri's feelings. Plus Sanosuke and Yahiko get in on the act. What are they going to do and who is Shinya's mysterious guest? Find out on the next chapter of Fading Futures: 'operation; get-together'

Mata Aimasho, Minna-san! See you next time…

Chosha Kurenai xXx