Chp. 3: Lady of White Plums

Murmurings, a cold cloth over my forehead. I snapped my eyes open, startling whoever was attending me. Sitting up, snarling, I glanced around for my sword. It was no where in sight. I didn't seem to have a flesh wound; Kenshin must have rammed the hilt of his sword into my stomach, causing me to lose consciousness. I looked at the woman in front of me, whom I assumed to be helping me. A young woman, with long black hair and dark eyes…eyes that had seen sorrow and pain…she had a dark part in her past. She wore a white kimono, and the scent of white plums was emitted from her. Glancing around the room again, I spotted the door and stared outside.

The weather had surely changed. A glance at scenery showed that here was in the mountains, where it was cold all year round. A blanket of fresh-fallen snow covered the ground, as more still fell. I turned back to the woman. She had said nothing. There was a silence.

"I am Yukishiro Tomoe," she finally said. "Kenshin has not returned from selling medicine down in town, but he will return shortly."

"Do you know where my swords are?" I asked, not in a demanding tone, but more like a simple question.

"If I did, I wouldn't have told you," replied Tomoe. "I would have been forbidden to. But Kenshin did go down to the village to find your belongings in the hotel you had been residing in."

She handed me the small bundle of clothing. I glimpsed the red silken cloth of the kimono in there, and touched it gently. I looked up, somewhat startled to find her staring intently at me.

"…Your eyes bear a sense of sorrow," I stated, breaking the silence. "Have you experienced something that you wish you hadn't?"

"Hasn't everyone?" she asked coldly.

So she was clever, no doubt. And had a way at avoiding questions that she had no intention of revealing to a perfect stranger. And not only that, she had a soothing way of returning an inquiry, as an effortless return that yet strangely cleared one's mind.

"True," I returned in the same cool tone she used. "But you seem to have experienced somewhat of a…loss."

Tomoe's flashed abruptly. She stood up. "Would you like some hot tea, …you have not told me your name."

"…Nato Kikome."

"Then tea, Kikome-chan?"

"That would be greatly appreciated."

I rested against the wall, missing the weight of my two swords in my arm, like they were a shield. I was incomplete without a weapon. Looking around the small room once more, my eyes landed on things that had seemed peculiar for a man like Kenshin. Medicine boxes were strewn over the floor, as well as in the corner a futon for two people. I stared, then looked back at the place where Tomoe had left. Collecting the little evidence I had, I assumed that Kenshin had been having either an affair or a marriage. It startled me somewhat, to think that Kenshin had been married at only 18 years old. Tomoe didn't look much older.

She reentered the room, a tea tray with two cups of tea and a pot, steaming. Placing it on a table, she beckoned me to come, which I obliged. Sitting down, I looked at her. Calm and serene, she held an air of mystery and sadness, never smiling, speaking with a soft and yet determined voice. My curiosity became the better of me.

"Pardon that this seems a bit…odd, Tomoe-san, but I can't help wondering…" I glanced at the futon again, "…what you are to Kenshin."

She paused for a moment. "I am…indeed…his wife."

I involuntarily let out a bark of laughter. She stared at me.

"Pardon me," I said, regaining my composure, yet unable to get rid of the simper on my face. "I didn't mean to say anything awkward, Tomoe-san, but the fact that Kenshin is married…is…"

My voice trailed away as my heart hardened again as I looked at the falling snow outside. How was it that Kenshin could be a hitokiri and still have a private life, with someone he loved, and that I couldn't? His lover was not killed, his lover was not dead, his lover was not murdered by the people that she was employed by—

"Kikome-chan?"

I turned to her apologetically. "Ah…forgive me."

"No, there is nothing to be apologizing for. It does seem a little awkward…but…just as you asked me, I will ask you the same thing. Have you experienced something you wish you hadn't?"

I looked at her intently. "…Yes, I have. And I must say you have experienced the same thing."

She seemed to understand. Closing her eyes and bowing her head, she said in an undertone, "You speak the truth…and Kenshin was the one that killed him."

I stared again. "Tomoe-san…I can't help but ask…why are you telling this to me? I am but a complete stranger, a prisoner, at that, and yet…"

She looked at me, a glimmer of knowledge in her eyes. "I tell you this, even if I have not told my own husband, because you have experienced the pain of losing the one most important to you, and sought for revenge." She gazed at the small bundle of clothing that I had in my lap.

"You fight like a soldier, a hitokiri," Tomoe stated calmly. "You bear not emotions similar to a woman's; you might as well as have been born the opposite gender."

"And what are you trying to imply!" I snapped, slamming my cup on the table, letting my temper getting the better of me. Being reminded of my past was a thing I had tried not to remember often; it led to me becoming angry and cross, almost itching to kill the nearest person by. I had become something that only wanted to hurt something, anything, when I became disturbed.

Tomoe gasped a little, startled by sudden change of emotion.

My eyes widened a little, realizing that I had no need to have changed my emotion abruptly.

"Ah…"

"Think nothing of it," she replied to my stammering. "Forgive me; I didn't mean to say anything that made you somewhat uncomfortable. What I was trying to say was that the way you chose to react to the death of your loved one…is what I wished to have done." Her dark, emotionless eyes closed as she sipped her tea. "But I do not have that strength. I do not have what you possess, the power, and the skill. However…" She glanced again at the kimono. "I do have what you don't."

I started to say something abruptly, but caught myself, and fell silent. This woman was older than me, and wiser, even if she did not look above 18 years of age. She had pondered what had happened to her with a great deal of thought, and perhaps it would do me well to hold my tongue and listen to what she had to say.

"The way you reacted to my earlier statement confirmed my suspicions," Tomoe continued. "You don't have the emotional strength."

Exactly what Master had said before. Her words instantly cleared my head of the mist of blood that lingered so often after assassinations and seeing so much off it.

For a hitokiri, after assassinating anyone, and seeing the sky rain blood, anything that one saw looked blood red, anything that one ate or drank smelled and tasted like the substance: tasteless, disgusting, and nauseating. Most had used sake to cure themselves of it, using the strong alcohol to clear their heads. I, for one, had also done that. But the drink was not strong enough. The liquid still tasted like that disgusting remnant of a human, and even though directly, I had a look of indifference, when I returned late at night from the assassinations, the smell and sight of blood had clogged up my head and mind that I could not think like a sane person. It disgusted me, and yet, whenever I saw the blood of the one I had killed, I could not help but smile, that cold smile under the red moon, the one that I had given Master on the night that I had left to become what I was for the past eight months…and still am. That insane frightening glimmer in my dark eyes gave no sign of emotion, but when I drank or ate anything after that, I couldn't force it down; I wouldn't be able to rid my eyes of the red color, nor seem to make the color disappear from my stained hands.

"You aren't stable when people ask you questions about your past; you don't smile, nor do you cry. Instead, you resort to your sword, and the way of the soldier, and the hitokiri." She opened her eyes. They were shining with a light, determined as herself, fragile and delicate as she may seem on the outside. "My husband saw blood before I met him. Everything he tasted would be blood, everything he saw would be adorned with the red color of it." She shook her head poured some more tea into her cup and mine. "But he told me…that my responses to his questions would clear his mind, and he could think clearly. That was not my intention. I did not mean for it to happen. I meant to seek revenge, not with my own hands, but with someone else's. I made compromises, and dedicated myself to plotting his downfall…"

Her eyes gazed wistfully at the beautiful white blanket outside, as if they were trying to remember a time when she had been a person that she had always wanted to be, and never had the chance.

"But something unexpected happened. I came to fall in love with him, and I can't seem to be able to get myself out of this tangled web. All I can do is wait, and let fate unravel itself…however, Kikome-chan, perhaps it is time for you to forget your past, and look at the present. The kimono you carry with you seems to not have been worn past one time, but you still cherish it. And, even though I am seeing you for the first time, I can safely say that you did not buy it yourself, and that the only reason you carry it is because you remember him because of it."

She was beyond clever; she was completely analytical. I held my breath and remained silent, keen to hear what she still had to say, and then respond.

"Perhaps…perhaps, Kikome-chan, it is time to let go of it."

My hands clasped in my lap, and I looked at the woman as if she were insane.

"Are you trying to tell me, Tomoe-san, that you think it is time that…that I threw it away?" I asked quietly, keeping my voice calm.

Her eyes closed again, and she sighed. "There are things that we don't need in our life that seem to be there because we cherish it. I am telling you to be rid of the kimono because it is not what you want, nor, I believe, what your lover wished for you to be. Men, when they fall in love, love us for who we are, our personality, and our traits. Some just use us, and throw us away when they our unsatisfied with us…and some women believe that in order to earn money, they sell their bodies to the whim of men." She said these last phrases in a cool and hard tone. "But being who we are, and what we experienced, we should let go and look ahead, and see what the people that we cherished in our lives wished for us to be. Satisfied, content, happy. And for us…to love again."

I could find nothing to say, and instead closed my eyes and my mind to the world. Her words had a great impact on me, and had me thinking what Souzou had wished for me. "Live, and love again…" he had said. I was living…but without a soul.

I scoffed. So what? I had no intention of loving another man, nor carrying on some useful life. I was not going to sell my skill to the Ishin Shinshi or another agency. Hitokiri Sokusai works alone, and a hitokiri she is, and a hitokiri she will stay.

"…It seems that my husband has returned," Tomoe's voice said coolly. "Along with some company."

I opened my eyes and followed her gaze. Kenshin, no doubt, with his flaming red hair, was followed by two men, both whom wore straw hats.

"Do not lose your mind around them," Tomoe cautioned, standing up and collecting the tea tray. "They are not to be tampered with."

"Don't worry about me," I smirked coldly. "It's time Katsura Kogoro and I had a nice talk…about the Ishin Shinshi…and about the Sekihou Army…"

NOTE: There will be notes like this from the author from now on.

Jenniko-chan here!

Well, FINALLY, I got to Tomoe. .

Yukishiro Tomoe is a complicated character. Having had her fiancé killed by Kenshin, Tomoe-san had plotted to have Kenshin killed by some other weirdo dudes that will come later in the story. However, I am writing this note because I made a few changes in the original storyline to have it fit mine.

Himura Kenshin, or Hitokiri Battousai, is known throughout the manga and the anime to have a cross-shaped scar across his left cheek. The belief was that when the dealer of the wound has a forever-lasting grudge against the person, the scar will stay with the victim until the day that the grudge is settled. The first scar was made by Tomoe's fiancé, in his desperation to continue living with her. However, Kenshin killed him, yadayadaya, and he's with Tomoe now, so yeah, but he doesn't know.

I made an alteration with Kenshin's age to make it fit my story. In this fanfiction, Kenshin is 18; however, in the original manga, he is 15 and Tomoe, likewise, is 18. (In other words, Kenshin married a woman three years older than he was in the original story. o.O Queer, no?) But, to make my life a lot easier, I made them the same age, and Kikome fifteen.

Second is the timing in the story. I spent MANY MANY MANY days/nights thinking of the timing and how it is going to be. . Instead of the rest of the Revolution extending on to another three years, it will end (as the first Boshin War will start) in, I think, four months. Then, the second book will unfold with the Meiji Era, when they meet Kaoru, and blah blah blah.

Well, I suppose that's enough for now…

Oh wait! Sagara Souzou's age…Souzou was supposed to be 29! (o.O) He also had a wife and kids…that he left to create the Sekihou…(TT He's so hot…) and since I couldn't have a 14 year old with a 29 year old, I make him…ten years younger…I believe…? I think I made him 19…

Also the way Souzou was killed. I plan to follow the manga, as the anime leaves out many details, but I followed the anime in the way Souzou was killed because the manga was too hard to think up of a way Kiko-san (Kikome) would live…in the manga, Souzou was beheaded. (TT) But that was too hard to think up of a storyline, so I followed the anime line when the whole army was shot, because it was simply easier. Oh, and the Ishin Shinshi are the Patriots, in case no one knew. (In the anime, they are called the Imperialists…big difference, no?)

Uh…I think that's enough for now, sorry if I bored you all. I really appreciate comments and it'd be useful if I could reply your comments, but the e-mail doesn't give me a link! TT But thanks to all of you who are patient with me!

Sayonara tomodachi! Jenniko-chan