"A Price for Freedom"

Chapter 1

"You're going to Kyoto?" She set the teapot down with a soft thud. Her wide blue eyes were worried. "Why? Kenshin... I thought... I thought Kyoto only held bad memories for you. Why do you want to return so soon?"

Kenshin smiled gently at Kaoru. "Once, yes, Kyoto was a place I avoided, that it was. In all of my travels throughout Japan, I never wandered near there. It is in Kyoto that I am most well-known as hitokiri Battousai. That is one of the only places in Japan that even twelve years into Meiji, I still need to cover my scar to escape recognition."

"Then why?"

Kenshin didn't answer right away. He was looking past her at the blue skies through the dojo window.

Kaoru watched Kenshin with concern. She didn't like this. Old instincts were telling her not to let him wander off. He might not return. Another part of her was still terrified by his last trip to Kyoto when he had nearly died. She didn't think she could take that again. And according to Megumi, it was possible that Kenshin wouldn't be able to take it either.

Finally Kenshin's eyes focused back on Kaoru and his distant expression faded. He smiled at her. "I just need to go. I have something I need to do."

Kaoru's eyes hardened. "All right, Kenshin," she said, her voice lowering dangerously. "Out with it. What's going on in that head of yours?"

"Oro?"

"Don't 'oro' me!" She crossed her arms. "Fine! Go if you want to, but I'm going with you."

Kenshin opened his mouth to speak, but Kaoru would have none of it. "Don't try to talk me out of it. I'm going. I can spend the time visiting with Misao. We haven't written back to her in awhile. Now would be the perfect time to visit." Her eyes lit up. "In fact, Yahiko and Sano might want to come, too!"

Her abrupt change in moods startled Kenshin.

"Oro?"

Kaoru glared daggers at the one-time assassin before here, clenching the teacup filled with scalding tea in her hand.

His eyes widened to saucers, and he tried to back up. "I do not want to fight over it, that I most certainly do not," he said hurriedly, clearly afraid of her wrath. The last thing he needed right now was Kaoru-dono getting angry and throwing her cup at him. "If you want to come, that would be fine. Maybe even Megumi-dono can join us. I never meant that I had to go alone!" He held his hands out in front of him to keep her back.

Kaoru slowly set her tea down and started at him in surprise. "You didn't? I guess I just thought..." She sighed. "It's just lately you've worried me, wandering off the way you have. And now, saying that you need to go to Kyoto and not telling me why... I just thought..."

"I would like to visit somebody," Kenshin replied softly. "A few people actually. Misao and the Oniwaban-shu are some of them. Hiko Seijuro is another."

"Your old master? Is something wrong?"

Kenshin blinked. "Wrong?"

"You never visit that guy unless something's wrong!"

Kenshin relaxed. "No. Nothing like that. I do not wish to only visit him during hard times, that I do not. I thought that perhaps Hiko would like some compant now and then."

Kaoru's eyebrow raised. "Are we talking about the same Hiko Seijuro? Because the one I'm thinking of is a self-imposed hermit who attracts women like magnets when he does bother rejoining the world. And as I recall, this same Hiko is the one who seems to relish in making you miserable. Is this the same Hiko you were planning on visiting, or is there another one near Kyoto, Kenshin?"

Kenshin smiled. "That is the only living Hiko Seijuro I know of, that he is. He secludes himself, because he's lost faith in people. He's lonely. He doesn't trust anyone, except for me... sometimes. He needs human contact occasionally, that he does. But with Shishou, you can't tell him." Kenshin tilted his head back, thinking. "And he doesn't make me miserable, Kaoru-dono. Well, only a little. Only when I don't listen."

"Sanosuke should meet him," Kaoru said. "Maybe Hiko could teach him to stop trusting other people so much to pick up his tab!"

"I don't think Sanosuke and Hiko would get along well, that I do not. I probably would be a good idea not to introduce them." Kenshin said thoughtfully. Then he stood. "I would like to leave in a week if possible. Can we make preparations by then?"

Kaoru nodded. "Of course. I'll contact Misao right away. But what's the hurry?"

Kenshin had that strange expression again as he gazed once more at the sky. "Winter will be coming soon." There was a different quality in his voice that made Kaoru shiver.

Blood in the snow as another swordsman tried to kill Battousai. This was the final battle, and Kenshin knew that he wouldn't live through it. Even as he fought, he felt his life flowing from his body with the blood from many wounds. Too many. Then the swordsman's blade sliced toward him. Kenshin readied his own katana, determined to go down fighting... She came out of nowhere, throwing herself in the way. More warm blood in the snow, mixing with his own, making red slush.

"Kenshin?" Kaoru's voice came as though from a great distance.

He blinked and refocused on the pretty, dark-haired girl in front of him... so different from the other, but in many ways so similar. When he spoke, his voice was back to normal. "Winter will be coming soon, that it will. And winters around Kyoto can be harsh."

Author's Note: There's the last of what I had. Now I have to write new stuff... God save us all...

(involuntary shudder at thought of trying to finish this one...)

Thanks for reading. Please review!

Dewa mata!!

Sirius