Chapter 13
Fear-monger
"Thank you so very much for everything, Miss Hiyo-dono" "No matter, rurouni!" He rose from his bow and turned, offering a lopsided smile as he took off. Warmness emanated from his figure.
"But rurouni-san! Don't walk alone after the sun goes down. Don't go alone. There have been whisperings. Hitokiri Battousai has taken 8 already. Be careful, please." In a deft instance, the cheeriness in his aura dissipated as sudden as a flame being blown out. Like the lingering wisps of smoke left behind, his very demeanour changed, setting a chill in the air around him.
"Hitokiri…Battousai?" The name tasted foul on his tongue. "Here?" He turned to face the kind old woman—naive enough to feed a stranger on her path. She too, was not as before; her shrivelled lips trembling; her grey eyes sinking; her body, fear-stricken. Hitokiri Battousai. That title, a decade on, still rang loud and clear: an entire country captivated by its cruelty. The infamous name cursed. Feared, even in Meji.
The woman knit her bony fingers together. "You're welcome to stay until morning, rurouni-san." He recoiled slightly, taken aback by her generosity. Her kindness. His audacity. A smile crept to his lips, but it was less genuine this time—sombre. He never should have stepped foot into her home, tainting where the sun graced its rays. He'd no right to speak to her: his words filthy, his presence unworthy before the old lady.
He opened his mouth, eager to flee her kindness. "No, Miss Hiyo-dono. Sessha will be fine, that he will. I have inconvenienced you, that I have." And he left, hating the way his voice turned out. Cold. Cruel. Unbeknownst to him, the old lady clapped her hands together that night, offering prayer to the gods, "Keep that dear rurouni safe, now. Pray that Hitokiri Battousai leaves him be."
But he ambled on in the dark, and it was like back in the unglory days; the boy with the cuts, now a man with the scars, sought the sixth ghost of his past. From Bakumatsu to Meji. Haunted by himself.
Heya, needed to put something out here already!
Basically whats happening here is, like the start of the RK story, there are other criminals going around spreading fear by using his name. Kenshin doesn't like that, like, at all. :/