Chapter One: Aging of the Revolution

Kenshin scooped Yahiko into his arms and looked around the room, taking his last look at the dojo. His load was heavy, on his back were strapped two katanas, at his side his sakabatou, and on top of the two katanas rested a bag with as much food and water as he could carry, along with two first aide kits. He stole from the room, moving quietly through the halls and toward the front door, stopping only to look in to Kaoru's bedroom, where she and Megumi were sleeping. He closed his eyes, whispered a quiet goodbye, and left the house. He continued on the path and toward the forest, where he would begin his long trek north and to the place where he himself had learned to be the Battousai.

But now he was having second thoughts. Second thoughts about Yahiko, what kind of effect the sword training would have on him; about Kaoru. She would worry even more now, knowing only that Kenshin had left and taken Yahiko with him, knowing nothing about the dream or what Kenshin's intent was. He looked down at the boy in his arms and rethought his decision thoroughly. It was true, that Kenshin himself could protect his friends from many of the warriors that had attacked them, but the man four nights earlier had nearly killed him. At least if Yahiko knew how to use the Hiten Mitsurugi style to his advantage to protect them, there would be more of a chance that everyone would survive. And if Kenshin himself should happen to be killed, at least Yahiko would be able to fight the revolution in his stead... But he could not be called Battousai. He would need a name of his own.

He let his thoughts wander like this for hours on end, never pausing in his walk to rest. He decided that it would be best to walk until dawn, then he knew that he would be safe, deep in the forest. Then he maybe, would be able to begin teaching Yahiko the basics of Hiten Mitsurugi, providing that he wasn't too tired.

But to his dismay, fatigue began to set in several hours before dawn. Kenshin decided to bed down against a large oak. He sat down without bothering to take off his pack or set Yahiko down, and fell to sleep almost instantly. The rurouni slept so deeply that he didn't even notice when Yahiko began to stir and eventually wake later in the morning.

Yahiko looked around himself in a panic, forgetting for a moment that Kenshin was even there, and began to become worried. He only calmed when he felt Kenshin stir under him and heard his light mutterings in his sleep. He looked down at the rurouni with curious eyes, but he dared not wake him. Yahiko knew that Kenshin had been up for at least two days, taking care of him and apparently, taking him away from the dojo. With that in mind, the boy carefully removed Kenshin's arms from around him and stood, replacing the wanderer's hands in his lap. He walked around in a circle around the tree that Kenshin slept against, taking in his surroundings. But his eyes once again fell on the rurouni, this time on the katanas that graced his back. He stepped over to him and leaned down, pulling one of them from its scabbard.

The weight was unexpected, it was much heavier then his bokken had been. The blade was longer, and difficult to control, but deciding that it would be for the best, he began to practice his kata.

"You should not hold the sword like that, that you shouldn't."

Yahiko dropped the katana and froze in position. He turned and stared at Kenshin, who sat against the tree with one eye open, a smirk apparent on his face. "I'm sorry, Kenshin, I didn't know... I--"

"Don't apologize to me..." Kenshin replied. "However, I want you to forget everything you learned about the Kamiya Kasshin style of martial arts... It will do you no good now."

Kenshin stood and drew his sakabatou, stepping toward Yahiko. "Use this until you have a feel for the katanas. This way you wont get cut as much."

"All right," Yahiko replied cautiously as he took the sakabatou. He watched as Kenshin took off his pack and laid it against the oak, and retrieved the katana that Yahiko had dropped. "Now what?"

"I'm going to begin to teach you the beginning kata movements for Hiten Mitsurugi."

Yahiko nodded. "All right."

"Now firstly, you need to control the sword with one hand. Your right, I presume. Being your dominant hand it will be much easier to execute the necessary attacks, indeed it will."

Yahiko removed his left hand from the blade and turned toward Kenshin. "Now what?"

Kenshin stepped up to the boy and took his hand, placed his own hand gently around the blade in order to pry Yahiko's fingers away from the hilt. He situated the sword so that it laid more diagonally along his palm and closed Yahiko's hand, letting go of the blade. "Is that more comfortable?"

"A little."

"Good. Now, lets begin the kata motions."

"Kenshin?" Kaoru peeked around the corner and into Kenshin's bedroom. Once again finding no Kenshin, she rushed to Sanosuke and Yahiko's room, expecting him to still be consoling the young boy. But there was no rurouni in the corner, no small boy on his lap. There was only Sanosuke, sleeping peacefully on his futon. But he wouldn't be for long. Kaoru rushed over to the futon in a panic and began to shake Sanosuke furiously. "Sano, Sano get up!"

The fighter for hire roused himself with a groan and looked up. "What's the matter, Jou-chan?"

"I can't find Kenshin... And Yahiko isn't here either. It's not like them to just up and leave like that!"

Sanosuke looked up at Kaoru, he knew that he would have to lie to her in order to keep the promise that he made to Kenshin. He shook his head, putting on the most convincingly confused face that he could. "I don't know where they went."

The lie had been told, he had to go along with it, trying as hard as he could not to slip up. It would be a long nine years.

"And if you don't hold the katana right you're going to get your hand chopped off, that you will."

"..."

Yahiko repositioned the katana again and began working his kata, each position flowing into the next almost flawlessly while Kenshin watched on from across the clearing. He nodded his head in satisfaction and sighed. It had only been a few months, but the poor boy had already begun to take on the mindset of a killer. It would take hard work to keep Yahiko from becoming another uncontrollable Battousai.

"Ken-san, I'm finished."

"All right, Yahiko. If you'd like to we can eat lunch now, indeed we can."

"I'd rather work my kata, if that's all right. I'm not very hungry."

Kenshin placed a hand on his hip and quirked an eyebrow. "Yahiko Myojin, you haven't eaten in a day! Maybe longer! You need something or else I won't teach you any more kata."

Yahiko inhaled deeply and sheathed the katana on his belt, and waded across the small brook that ran through the campsite and walked quietly toward Kenshin without giving him a second glance. It was obvious to the rurouni that his student wasn't at all the same ten year old boy that he'd been five months ago, and it was his fault. But there wasn't anything that he could do except for to warn the boy of the consequences of allowing one's self to fall victim to the desires of a manslayer, maybe watch him closely while he was doing his kata. If he got angry doing his kata there was no telling what the boy could do with his sword, there would have to be strict discipline involved.

"So, Yahiko-chan," Kenshin began playfully, dismissing his thoughts as far back to the depths of his mind as he could. He placed his hand on Yahiko's head, rubbing it over his hair. "How would you like to go into town? I can buy you something…"

"Buy me something for what?" Yahiko retorted quickly, as he pushed Kenshin's hand away.

"I don't know, doing well on your kata? You've gotten the first twenty minutes learned, that you have."

"It's not that great, Kenshin. It's taken me five months."

"But that doesn't matter, you'll learn it all eventually."

The alley was dark and cold, the sixth winter of the new revolution, the first kill for the newest of manslayers. For a long while he had been walking next to the Battousai, waiting for their target to show himself, but little did he know that his predecessor would do none of the killing that night. The mission was resting on his shoulders.

Yahiko pulled against his new gi nervously and looked down. The dark blue gi nearly blended in with the dimly lit sidewalk, but the camoflage was ruined by the white pants that he wore under it.

"Don't fidgit."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize either."

Yahiko clenched his jaw and put his callused hand against the hilt of his katana, ready at any moment to pull it from its sheath. He peered ahead and squinted through the darkness--two tall figures were walking a bit ahead. Upon seeing his, Yahiko lowered his voice and spoke quietly. "That's them...?"

"Indeed it is."

"You will take one--"

"No. Now go, be as merciless as you can--be clean and swift."

Yahiko gave a nod and stepped ahead, using his thumb to unsheathe the sword an inch or so, just as Kenshin had taught him to, and began to approach the two with a stealth and silence unmatched by even the legend himself.

He was so close that he could smell the scent of cologne and sake on them, he could see every individual wrinkle and crease on the faces, and he could see where he would strike. And in one lightning fast motion, Yahiko struck, sending the two men sprawling out on the ground in a mess of blood.

It had happened so quickly, but to Yahiko it seemed so slow. For a moment, as he stared down at the two dying people, it replayed itself in his mind. The first man had fallen quickly after the katana had entered at his hip, slicing diagonally upward and into his shoulder, nearly cutting him in half. The second seemed a bit more lean, the blade didn't slice as cleanly through him. But the job was still done, and two more of Shinomori's men were gone, never to come after the Meiji leaders again.

"Battou Jutsu, Sou Ryu Sen…"

Yahiko peered down at the men on the ground, and examined each of them closely. The first was completely dead, but the second of the men still stared up at him through half-opened eyes, his breathing shallow and nearly spent. But he still managed to speak.

"Sou Ryu…" he uttered quietly, voice shaky and weak. "So young… To be the successor--"

"Not as young as you may believe," Yahiko replied coldly.

"Then tell me…"

"Sixteen. Now give in… Or I will bring you from your misery."

"I will not die so easily—"

Yahiko shook his head and pulled the katana back from his sheathe, thrusting it downward and into the man's chest, and in one short convulsion, the man was dead, laying helplessly on the ground. Yahiko sheathed his sword once again and turned, pulling the small towel from his belt. He wiped the blood from his face quickly, knowing the consequences of leaving it for long periods of time, and peered at Kenshin. It was then, for a brief moment, found himself startled. He'd not noticed it before, but he now stood at eye level with the Battousai. He turned his gaze from Kenshin and looked back at the men on the ground.

"It wasn't right…"

"It was fine—you'll get better at it… Just don't stare."

Kenshin nodded as Yahiko ran once again through the entirety of the three hour kata, the motions smooth and flawless as though he'd been born to do them. There was another nod as he began the first of the attacks, beginning with the easiest, Ryu Tsui Sen, and ending with the Battou Jutsu, the hardest attack, in all of its forms.

"Good," Kenshin complimented as he approached the training ground on the opposite side of the brook. "It is time to go back to the dojo. We've done all that you can do, indeed we have."

"Are you sure?" Yahiko looked across the water and toward Kenshin, who'd not seemed to age at all in nine years. He nodded at Kenshin's silence. "All right then, we'll go."

"Good. Pack your things and we will leave before nightfall, that way we can keep a lookout for any of Shinomori's samurai. After all, they have been getting closer to camp lately, yes they have."

Yahiko nodded and stepped across the stream, thinking nothing of the fact that only a few years ago he'd had to wade across. "And I nearly forgot… There was another encounter that I haven't told you of yet."

Kenshin followed the boy to the small house that they'd been living in, into the larger of three rooms that acted as their living quarters. He watched as Yahiko knelt, wiping his forehead with the sleeve of his blue gi. The rurouni sat his pack down on the small, worn wooden table, beginning to fill it with everything that he'd wanted to take back to the dojo. "Go on."

"I was in town, getting supplies from Aisho," he paused to pull his shoulder length hair into a tight ponytail at the nape of his neck, "there was a scuffle at the shop next door, the samurai were apparently demanding to see me…"

"Were they demanding Yahiko or Ryu?"

Yahiko shook his head. "It's all the same—It doesn't matter much which name they know me by, does it, Ken-san?" He looked up at the rurouni with deep adult eyes.

"It does matter, Yahiko, that it does. Friends know you by your given name. Enemies know you by the name of Hitokiri Ryu, nothing more. If one calls you by—"

"You once told me not to segregate the manslayer from the boy, did you not? So why are you telling me to do so now? It wasn't as though they were going to negotiate anything with me, am I not right?"

Kenshin was taken aback, surprised at how Yahiko had developed a sort of talent for using people's words against them—especially his. He stared down at Yahiko, for the first time in nine years taking in the image that was before him, a feeling of guilt washing over him in a rush. "Yahiko—I only told you that for when you are fighting—So that you don't become…"

"A manslayer? Like you?" Yahiko replied smartly as he gathered his things from the floor and shoved them in his pack. "It's too late for that, it is. You know as well as I have that the count has risen by two hundred men in the past three years alone… The number of men I've killed is countless by now."

There was silence, something uncommon between the two men. Yahiko looked over at Kenshin and stood, towering four inches higher than him. "If you wish to scold me then do so now, if you please."

"I'm not going to discipline you, Yahiko. You're a grown man, it's unnecessary. And aside from that, it is my fault that you've become the way that you have, indeed it is, and it is I that should be apologizing to you for that mistake."

"It was not a mistake, Ken-nii-san. Nor was it your fault. You allowed Hiko to take me for those years, and that is when I learned to kill. This was what you and I both foresaw, it was what Megumi-san deemed necessary, and it was what I, unfortunately, wanted."

The two left their conversation at that and nodded to each other, signaling to each other that they were ready to leave for the dojo once again. They had packed enough food for a week and a half, hoping that the journey would take them less time since both could travel faster than before.

Kenshin led the way in a comfortable silence, waiting for night to fall so that maybe be could take out some stress on some samurai of the dictatorship.

"Where are they?!" The bulky man drew an unconscious Kaoru closer to himself, katana held to her throat. He was ready for the kill at any moment. "And if you fail to tell me once I slay her, then you will join her in the underworld!"

The group of large samurai that surrounded Sanosuke began to close in on him, swords drawn as though they were ready to strike him down where he stood. This was not, however, the first time that this sort of attack had occurred. The black clad samurai had attacked them twice before, but both times previously, there had been much fewer in number than there was now. This time, they were serious.

"I will give you one last chance. Where are the Battousai and Ryu?"

"I don't know where Kenshin is! And I don't know where Ryu is either! For the last time, now let Kaoru go!"

"Battousai is here…"

The soldiers around Sano fell onto the snowy ground, unconscious. They hadn't seen the Hiten Mitsurugi attack coming toward them; they hadn't even seen Kenshin approach from behind. But the rurouni had once again showed in time to save his friends, and now stood confidently beside Sanosuke.

"You are wounded," Kenshin noted quietly as he shot a glance to Sanosuke's shoulder, where he'd been sliced by a katana earlier on in the fight.

Sanosuke touched the dried blood on his shoulder, trying to give as little regard to Kenshin's eyes as he could. They were the eyes of the Battousai at that moment, something that he'd never wanted to see again after the many trials that Kenshin had gone through before. "It'll be all right. But I'm glad you decided to come back. Now how 'bout you save Kaoru?"

Kenshin stepped forward and sheathed his katana. He looked up at the man that stood behind Kaoru and took the position of the Battou Jutsu attack. "You will let Miss Kaoru go, indeed you will."

"Battousai," the man replied in a raspy, sinister voice as a malicious grin appeared on his face. "You are here… Now, tell me where Ryu is…"

"Let Miss Kaoru go."

"Tell me, Battousai."

"If you choose to be so stubborn, then so be it, your death has been assured by your own will. I would have considered letting you go, that I would. However, you have put one of mine in danger, and I will not stand for it." Kenshin paused for a moment, a flash of uncontrollable anger burning in his eyes. "The time has come for you to die."

"You are too far away to do your Battou Ju—" The man froze in mid sentence. From behind him came a low chuckle, an evil sound of the sort that made a man's blood freeze in his veins. It was the laugh of the great Ryu.

"Are you really so stupid? To think that I would be far behind Battousai." The voice returned to its normal baritone pitch, the short silence between sentences interrupted by the sound of metal against sheath as the deadly katana was brought from its place. "I pity your kind, indeed I do. It is a sad thing that you must die so shamefully…"

"Ryu—Successor to Battousai the Manslayer," the man mused to himself as he closed his eyes. "My master will find you, and kill you. Both of you…"

"If he wishes quarrel with me, then so be it. However, you will not be the one to tell him." There was a pause, signature to Ryu, followed by a deep breath. "Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu, Battou Jutsu. Sou Ryu Sen!"

A gush of blood spurted from the large sword wound, and the assassin fell lifelessly onto the ground, leaving Kaoru to fall back and into Ryu's arms as soon as he'd sheathed his sword. She was scooped up with a gentle motion as though she were a small child, and Ryu approached Battousai and Sanosuke with the same merciless look in his eyes that Kenshin had had many a time before after he had killed.

"She fainted, that is all. I'm sure she will be all right in a while."

Sanosuke caught his breath. "Ryu. And Kenshin?" He pondered this for a few moments and stepped up to the blue clad manslayer, barely having to look down at him. But his young features were shadowed by nose length bangs, Sanosuke couldn't see through the deep black hair and at the eyes, but he felt recognition.

"Come, we will bandage your wounds, Sano," Kenshin ordered as he turned to face Sanosuke. "Yahiko, please take Miss Kaoru to her room, make sure she is not wounded."

"Yahiko!?"

He looked up abruptly at the use of his familiar name by a voice that he didn't at first recognize. "Sanosuke," he replied with a short nod to respect his presence before making the first eye contact in nine long years. "It's good to see you again, that it is."

Sanosuke once again caught his breath, frightened at the sight of the eyes that once were those of an innocent, defiant child, grown into a ruthless killer. They were deep and angry eyes of a reddish tint, but behind them somewhere, he knew that Yahiko was inside.

"You're kidding me! Yahiko is the great and feared Ryu!?"

Kenshin shook his head. "It would be best if you not taunt him, he will not show mercy on anyone, including you or me, if provoked. Now please, come inside. We will explain everything."