Rawr, sorry guys, it's been forever I know. I've just been so insanely busy with everything lately, just started college and working and all this stuff, I completely forgot about fanfiction. SO..that being said, here's the next chapter!! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!
Chapter Two: A Manslayer's Weakness
Yahiko tenderly dressed the wound on Sanosuke's shoulder while Kenshin sat on his right, explaining calmly the events that had taken place in the past nine years, using as little detail as possible unless Sanosuke asked him otherwise. Yahiko didn't speak unless there was a question that Kenshin couldn't answer—a rarity among the conversation.
"I'll be back in a minute…" Yahiko offered quietly, finding that the water that he was using to clean Sanosuke's shoulder was very bloody. "Excuse me." Sanosuke watched closely as Yahiko stood, holding the wooden bowl carefully in both hands, and walked from the dining room into the kitchen. He'd been, since the two manslayers had returned, keeping a close eye on him, waiting to catch another glimpse of the child he once knew. But upon finding nothing there, he turned to Kenshin with an expression of dismay. "I didn't know he would change this much." Kenshin smiled briefly and shook his head. "If I had had my way, he wouldn't have. I wasn't expecting it either, but there was nothing I could do, indeed there was not." "It's kind of scary, you know?" Sanosuke took a sip of the tea that Kenshin had made for him. "The look in his eyes was worse than yours when you're Battousai." "I know." "And you trained him to be like this?" "Trained who to be like what?" The two men turned their heads to the door, still closed. But they could see Kaoru's silhouette behind the tiny, square paper windows. "Sanosuke, who are you talking to?" Kenshin stood as the door slid open, Kaoru entering the room, a look of utter surprise on her face. "Kenshin?!" she shouted, her expression changing to one of anger as she approached the rurouni. "Kenshin Himura! You're a horrible, horrible man to have left me for so long!!!" "Oro?" Kaoru rushed over and punched him angrily in the side of the head. "Where have you been?! Why didn't you tell me you were leaving?!" Sanosuke stood to speak, but stopped when he felt Yahiko's cold hand clamp down on his right shoulder. "Am I interrupting something?" he asked quietly, voice barely above a whisper.
Kaoru stopped shouting and gawked awkwardly at the boy in front of her, attention drawn completely away from Kenshin. She shoved him into the ground abruptly, sprinting over toward Yahiko. "And who are you?" she said flirtatiously as she wrapped her arms carelessly around his neck. Yahiko dropped the bowl of water at the touch and looked with an expression of panic at Kenshin, who by this time had sat up and was rubbing his head, looking toward Kaoru. "That's Yahiko, Ms. Kaoru, indeed it is." Kaoru backed away for a moment, not removing her arms from around his neck and looked Yahiko over. "You… Grew up… You look nice, Yahiko, very unexpected." Yahiko looked down, a light blush gracing his young features. He rubbed the back of his neck under his ponytail and pondered for a moment. "That makes one of us." Kaoru pulled her hands back and put her hands on her hips, insulted by Yahiko's retort. But then she realized something else—it had been forced. The insult wasn't an instinctive thing anymore, he'd had to think about what he was going to say. It was that thought that began her worrying. "Yahiko…" "If you'll excuse me I need to clean the mess that I just made—" he interrupted quietly, not wanting Kaoru to finish her sentence. "And I need to finish dressing Sanosuke's shoulder." "And, Yahiko..." Kenshin began, drawing the boy's immediate intention. "Please take off that gi… It's full of blood." With a nod, Yahiko once again left the room, this time quicker than the last time, Kaoru following him into the kitchen. "Ms. Kaoru, what is it that you want?" He asked as he pulled another wooden bowl from the cabinet.
"Would you like me to wash your clothes?" Came the reply in a concerned tone. "That would be unnecessary, I can do it myself." Kaoru was taken by the response. She'd been expecting him to practically throw his clothes on top of her at the offer, but to her dismay, he offered a horrendously cold response. An unselfish one at that. "Are you sure?" "Yes, Ms. Kaoru, I'm positive," he replied and turned toward her with the bowl in his hands. "However, if you'd not mind…" Kaoru grew excited, ready to see her old Yahiko again. "Yes?" "Could you possibly take this to Sano-san and Ken-san? I would like to change my gi but conscience tells me it'd be improper to do so in your presence." "Yahiko Miyojin!" The water bowl almost fell to the ground again as the boy jumped. He fumbled it in his hands for a moment and grabbed it before it fell, but to his chagrin, the water splashed out and onto his gi. At this, Kaoru couldn't help but laugh, seeing the expression of surprise and disgust on Yahiko's face had been priceless.
Kenshin pelted into the kitchen, expecting the worst, but stopped in the doorway and began laughing. "You should take your clothes off before you wash them, indeed you should." Yahiko groaned disgustedly and untucked the gi from his belt, allowing it to fall open. "Excuse me, I'll be washing my clothes if you should happen to need me." "But—it's snow--" He left the room, without allowing Kaoru to finish her sentence, pulling the gi from his shoulders and folding it over his arm, and stepped outside the dojo into the back yard. It was beautiful, the entire yard was white and covered with snow, and large flakes still fell from the sky, but for some strange reason he didn't feel the cold. Dismissing the weather, he pulled one of Kaoru's washtubs to him and filled it with cold water, the best he could get given the snow, and placed the gi in it. And the moment the gi touched it, the water began to change color, from clear to crimson, the blood running from the cloth and his arms. He'd not realized that the assassin's blood had dried on his bare skin, something he'd always tried to avoid. It was a feeling that he hated, having his skin stained with another man.
But it wasn't long before his thoughts were interrupted. "Hey." "Would you leave me alone?" "I'm not gonna leave you alone, you saved me. And Kaoru wanted me to give you this…" Sanosuke threw one of his jackets down and onto Yahiko, but the boy still refused to face him. "Kenshin saved you, not me. I disposed of the leader, that's all," he replied, his voice diminishing to nothing by the end of the sentence. His attention had been turned a few moments ago from the recent conversation to scrubbing his arms with the scouring pad that he'd been using on his gi.
Sanosuke approached him from behind and looked down at him. "That shirt is giving you a hard time, isn't it?" There came no reply, a thing that Sano hadn't begun to get used to. But when he saw the blood soaked water, he took yet another hard look and knelt down, realizing the problem. Sano pulled Yahiko's arms from the water and pushed the washtub away, beginning to scold him. "You shouldn't wash your—" he started at the sight of several small cuts on Yahiko's arms. "When did you do that?" The boy tried to pull his arms away, but to his dismay, he found that he couldn't. "Nothing, it's not important. It was an accident from when Ken-san and I were training in the woods… That's all. I fell in the brush…" "We're going inside…" "But… My gi!" "Kaoru will wash it in the morning. Now come with me. Us guys need to have a talk."
Sanosuke dragged Yahiko back inside, finding it hard after a while. The boy was just as strong, if not stronger than him, by this time, and he was resisting with all of his strength. But eventually Sanosuke got him in the house and into his bedroom. He called for Kenshin with urgency, and the rurouni came running as fast as he could.
"Yes, Sanosuke, what is it?" Sano latched the door so as not to allow Kaoru in. "I think he's got something to explain." "I don't have to explain anything!" Kenshin shot Yahiko a glance, the boy immediately quieted himself and sat calmly. Kenshin sat down on the futon on the far side of the room. "What is there to explain?" "These abrasions on his arms?" "Those could be caused from many things, Sanosuke." Yahiko folded his hands in his lap and looked away as Sanosuke directed Kenshin's attention to him. The boy refused to speak for a moment, save for when Kenshin ordered.
"Yahiko, what are they from this time?" "The trip home." "Don't lie to me, Yahiko." "I'm not lying, Ken-san." "Then there's something else you're not telling me, that there is." "It touched me," Yahiko replied, his voice a near whisper. "I had to get it off and the only thing I had to use was that abrasive wash pad…" Kenshin sighed and laid back on the futon. He looked toward Sanosuke. "There's nothing to worry about, it's a bad mindset that he's gotten himself into, that it is." "What do you mean a 'bad mindset'? Is that supposed to mean that this is all right?" Kenshin crossed his arms behind his head. "By a bad mindset, I mean that blood is the one thing that will make him change. It cannot touch his bare skin. I can't give you a reason for this, I cannot. It's complicated." "Then maybe he can explain." Yahiko stood. "I don't have to put up with this." "Yes you do, kid, now sit down." Yahiko sat.
"Now explain this weird phobia of yours to me. I think it's my right to be at least warned if you're going to go berzerk and start scrubbing your arms with a sharp scouring pad!" "It reminds me of what I am, Sano… I'll want more of it if it stays for too long. Unlike Ken-san, I don't quite have a firm grasp of my… Other half like he does." Sanosuke fell silent and looked toward Kenshin for affirmation.
"It was the only thing that I couldn't teach him," the rurouni replied quietly. "It's a very difficult thing to do… To control a manslayer inside of you, especially while merely trying to protect those you care about, that it is. The blood of men is the one thing that will drive any man to kill uncontrollably and lose his very human soul. This fact includes both myself and Yahiko, along with all of the other men that we've fought in our time." "I'm sorry, Yahiko…" Sanosuke walked from the room, leaving the door open behind him and Kenshin and Yahiko alone. The rurouni stood up and looked over at Yahiko, hands folded on his lap, eyes glued to the wooden floor. "Yahiko?" "Yes, Ken-san?" "Are you all right?" "I'm fine." "I would like to share a room with you tonight, if that is fine with you." "Because of our—encounter?" "Yes." Kenshin replied as Yahiko sat down on the floor in the far corner of the room. "I want to watch you another night. Just to make sure that you're doing all right." "All right." Kenshin nodded and sat down in the floor next to Yahiko and brought his knees slowly to his chest, pulling his katana from its place in his belt. He laid the sword tenderly against his shoulder and crossed his arms over his legs. Yahiko copied the motion and pulled Sanosuke's jacket over his shoulders, draping it across himself like a blanket. He then turned his brown eyes up to Kenshin, examining his calm, flawless expression, and spoke quietly.
"I suppose I made a rather poor impression, didn't I?" Yahiko looked up at the ceiling. It was lower than he remembered it, but then again, he'd grown much taller.
"Your chance at first impressions isn't over yet, you still have tomorrow. Kaoru was telling me that Miss Megumi is coming over tomorrow morning to help with housekeeping. Tsubame will be joining her—it would seem as though she has matured into a fine young lady…" Kenshin trailed his sentence, shooting eyes up at Yahiko. He knew that Yahiko hadn't yet discovered the wonder of the opposite gender. But it was a fun thing to watch, when he encountered a girl—the boy seemed to stutter and trip over his words, like he'd never seen one before.
"I have no interest in her anymore, Ken-san." "You're not being very fun." "I'm a manslayer in a revolution. For some reason those two words don't belong together in a sentence with 'fun'." "Yahiko! You're not my age yet, so stop acting like it!" "…I don't act like I'm forty." Kenshin jumped and glared over at Yahiko menacingly. "I am not forty yet!" The young man closed his eyes and smiled. "Fine… thirty-seven." Kenshin returned the grin and sat back in his relaxed posture. "That's the first time you've smiled since we got here. You should do that more often." "We should sleep more often, Ken-san." Kenshin nodded. "Indeed we should."
Chapter Two: A Manslayer's Weakness
Yahiko tenderly dressed the wound on Sanosuke's shoulder while Kenshin sat on his right, explaining calmly the events that had taken place in the past nine years, using as little detail as possible unless Sanosuke asked him otherwise. Yahiko didn't speak unless there was a question that Kenshin couldn't answer—a rarity among the conversation.
"I'll be back in a minute…" Yahiko offered quietly, finding that the water that he was using to clean Sanosuke's shoulder was very bloody. "Excuse me." Sanosuke watched closely as Yahiko stood, holding the wooden bowl carefully in both hands, and walked from the dining room into the kitchen. He'd been, since the two manslayers had returned, keeping a close eye on him, waiting to catch another glimpse of the child he once knew. But upon finding nothing there, he turned to Kenshin with an expression of dismay. "I didn't know he would change this much." Kenshin smiled briefly and shook his head. "If I had had my way, he wouldn't have. I wasn't expecting it either, but there was nothing I could do, indeed there was not." "It's kind of scary, you know?" Sanosuke took a sip of the tea that Kenshin had made for him. "The look in his eyes was worse than yours when you're Battousai." "I know." "And you trained him to be like this?" "Trained who to be like what?" The two men turned their heads to the door, still closed. But they could see Kaoru's silhouette behind the tiny, square paper windows. "Sanosuke, who are you talking to?" Kenshin stood as the door slid open, Kaoru entering the room, a look of utter surprise on her face. "Kenshin?!" she shouted, her expression changing to one of anger as she approached the rurouni. "Kenshin Himura! You're a horrible, horrible man to have left me for so long!!!" "Oro?" Kaoru rushed over and punched him angrily in the side of the head. "Where have you been?! Why didn't you tell me you were leaving?!" Sanosuke stood to speak, but stopped when he felt Yahiko's cold hand clamp down on his right shoulder. "Am I interrupting something?" he asked quietly, voice barely above a whisper.
Kaoru stopped shouting and gawked awkwardly at the boy in front of her, attention drawn completely away from Kenshin. She shoved him into the ground abruptly, sprinting over toward Yahiko. "And who are you?" she said flirtatiously as she wrapped her arms carelessly around his neck. Yahiko dropped the bowl of water at the touch and looked with an expression of panic at Kenshin, who by this time had sat up and was rubbing his head, looking toward Kaoru. "That's Yahiko, Ms. Kaoru, indeed it is." Kaoru backed away for a moment, not removing her arms from around his neck and looked Yahiko over. "You… Grew up… You look nice, Yahiko, very unexpected." Yahiko looked down, a light blush gracing his young features. He rubbed the back of his neck under his ponytail and pondered for a moment. "That makes one of us." Kaoru pulled her hands back and put her hands on her hips, insulted by Yahiko's retort. But then she realized something else—it had been forced. The insult wasn't an instinctive thing anymore, he'd had to think about what he was going to say. It was that thought that began her worrying. "Yahiko…" "If you'll excuse me I need to clean the mess that I just made—" he interrupted quietly, not wanting Kaoru to finish her sentence. "And I need to finish dressing Sanosuke's shoulder." "And, Yahiko..." Kenshin began, drawing the boy's immediate intention. "Please take off that gi… It's full of blood." With a nod, Yahiko once again left the room, this time quicker than the last time, Kaoru following him into the kitchen. "Ms. Kaoru, what is it that you want?" He asked as he pulled another wooden bowl from the cabinet.
"Would you like me to wash your clothes?" Came the reply in a concerned tone. "That would be unnecessary, I can do it myself." Kaoru was taken by the response. She'd been expecting him to practically throw his clothes on top of her at the offer, but to her dismay, he offered a horrendously cold response. An unselfish one at that. "Are you sure?" "Yes, Ms. Kaoru, I'm positive," he replied and turned toward her with the bowl in his hands. "However, if you'd not mind…" Kaoru grew excited, ready to see her old Yahiko again. "Yes?" "Could you possibly take this to Sano-san and Ken-san? I would like to change my gi but conscience tells me it'd be improper to do so in your presence." "Yahiko Miyojin!" The water bowl almost fell to the ground again as the boy jumped. He fumbled it in his hands for a moment and grabbed it before it fell, but to his chagrin, the water splashed out and onto his gi. At this, Kaoru couldn't help but laugh, seeing the expression of surprise and disgust on Yahiko's face had been priceless.
Kenshin pelted into the kitchen, expecting the worst, but stopped in the doorway and began laughing. "You should take your clothes off before you wash them, indeed you should." Yahiko groaned disgustedly and untucked the gi from his belt, allowing it to fall open. "Excuse me, I'll be washing my clothes if you should happen to need me." "But—it's snow--" He left the room, without allowing Kaoru to finish her sentence, pulling the gi from his shoulders and folding it over his arm, and stepped outside the dojo into the back yard. It was beautiful, the entire yard was white and covered with snow, and large flakes still fell from the sky, but for some strange reason he didn't feel the cold. Dismissing the weather, he pulled one of Kaoru's washtubs to him and filled it with cold water, the best he could get given the snow, and placed the gi in it. And the moment the gi touched it, the water began to change color, from clear to crimson, the blood running from the cloth and his arms. He'd not realized that the assassin's blood had dried on his bare skin, something he'd always tried to avoid. It was a feeling that he hated, having his skin stained with another man.
But it wasn't long before his thoughts were interrupted. "Hey." "Would you leave me alone?" "I'm not gonna leave you alone, you saved me. And Kaoru wanted me to give you this…" Sanosuke threw one of his jackets down and onto Yahiko, but the boy still refused to face him. "Kenshin saved you, not me. I disposed of the leader, that's all," he replied, his voice diminishing to nothing by the end of the sentence. His attention had been turned a few moments ago from the recent conversation to scrubbing his arms with the scouring pad that he'd been using on his gi.
Sanosuke approached him from behind and looked down at him. "That shirt is giving you a hard time, isn't it?" There came no reply, a thing that Sano hadn't begun to get used to. But when he saw the blood soaked water, he took yet another hard look and knelt down, realizing the problem. Sano pulled Yahiko's arms from the water and pushed the washtub away, beginning to scold him. "You shouldn't wash your—" he started at the sight of several small cuts on Yahiko's arms. "When did you do that?" The boy tried to pull his arms away, but to his dismay, he found that he couldn't. "Nothing, it's not important. It was an accident from when Ken-san and I were training in the woods… That's all. I fell in the brush…" "We're going inside…" "But… My gi!" "Kaoru will wash it in the morning. Now come with me. Us guys need to have a talk."
Sanosuke dragged Yahiko back inside, finding it hard after a while. The boy was just as strong, if not stronger than him, by this time, and he was resisting with all of his strength. But eventually Sanosuke got him in the house and into his bedroom. He called for Kenshin with urgency, and the rurouni came running as fast as he could.
"Yes, Sanosuke, what is it?" Sano latched the door so as not to allow Kaoru in. "I think he's got something to explain." "I don't have to explain anything!" Kenshin shot Yahiko a glance, the boy immediately quieted himself and sat calmly. Kenshin sat down on the futon on the far side of the room. "What is there to explain?" "These abrasions on his arms?" "Those could be caused from many things, Sanosuke." Yahiko folded his hands in his lap and looked away as Sanosuke directed Kenshin's attention to him. The boy refused to speak for a moment, save for when Kenshin ordered.
"Yahiko, what are they from this time?" "The trip home." "Don't lie to me, Yahiko." "I'm not lying, Ken-san." "Then there's something else you're not telling me, that there is." "It touched me," Yahiko replied, his voice a near whisper. "I had to get it off and the only thing I had to use was that abrasive wash pad…" Kenshin sighed and laid back on the futon. He looked toward Sanosuke. "There's nothing to worry about, it's a bad mindset that he's gotten himself into, that it is." "What do you mean a 'bad mindset'? Is that supposed to mean that this is all right?" Kenshin crossed his arms behind his head. "By a bad mindset, I mean that blood is the one thing that will make him change. It cannot touch his bare skin. I can't give you a reason for this, I cannot. It's complicated." "Then maybe he can explain." Yahiko stood. "I don't have to put up with this." "Yes you do, kid, now sit down." Yahiko sat.
"Now explain this weird phobia of yours to me. I think it's my right to be at least warned if you're going to go berzerk and start scrubbing your arms with a sharp scouring pad!" "It reminds me of what I am, Sano… I'll want more of it if it stays for too long. Unlike Ken-san, I don't quite have a firm grasp of my… Other half like he does." Sanosuke fell silent and looked toward Kenshin for affirmation.
"It was the only thing that I couldn't teach him," the rurouni replied quietly. "It's a very difficult thing to do… To control a manslayer inside of you, especially while merely trying to protect those you care about, that it is. The blood of men is the one thing that will drive any man to kill uncontrollably and lose his very human soul. This fact includes both myself and Yahiko, along with all of the other men that we've fought in our time." "I'm sorry, Yahiko…" Sanosuke walked from the room, leaving the door open behind him and Kenshin and Yahiko alone. The rurouni stood up and looked over at Yahiko, hands folded on his lap, eyes glued to the wooden floor. "Yahiko?" "Yes, Ken-san?" "Are you all right?" "I'm fine." "I would like to share a room with you tonight, if that is fine with you." "Because of our—encounter?" "Yes." Kenshin replied as Yahiko sat down on the floor in the far corner of the room. "I want to watch you another night. Just to make sure that you're doing all right." "All right." Kenshin nodded and sat down in the floor next to Yahiko and brought his knees slowly to his chest, pulling his katana from its place in his belt. He laid the sword tenderly against his shoulder and crossed his arms over his legs. Yahiko copied the motion and pulled Sanosuke's jacket over his shoulders, draping it across himself like a blanket. He then turned his brown eyes up to Kenshin, examining his calm, flawless expression, and spoke quietly.
"I suppose I made a rather poor impression, didn't I?" Yahiko looked up at the ceiling. It was lower than he remembered it, but then again, he'd grown much taller.
"Your chance at first impressions isn't over yet, you still have tomorrow. Kaoru was telling me that Miss Megumi is coming over tomorrow morning to help with housekeeping. Tsubame will be joining her—it would seem as though she has matured into a fine young lady…" Kenshin trailed his sentence, shooting eyes up at Yahiko. He knew that Yahiko hadn't yet discovered the wonder of the opposite gender. But it was a fun thing to watch, when he encountered a girl—the boy seemed to stutter and trip over his words, like he'd never seen one before.
"I have no interest in her anymore, Ken-san." "You're not being very fun." "I'm a manslayer in a revolution. For some reason those two words don't belong together in a sentence with 'fun'." "Yahiko! You're not my age yet, so stop acting like it!" "…I don't act like I'm forty." Kenshin jumped and glared over at Yahiko menacingly. "I am not forty yet!" The young man closed his eyes and smiled. "Fine… thirty-seven." Kenshin returned the grin and sat back in his relaxed posture. "That's the first time you've smiled since we got here. You should do that more often." "We should sleep more often, Ken-san." Kenshin nodded. "Indeed we should."
