Blurbs: In the bloom of Cherry Blossom under the sun of spring, Seta Soujirou escorts a child to the Kamiya Dojo, life is about to get very interesting, and not necessarily in a bad way.
Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin and subsequent characters belongs to Nobuhiro Watsuki. Steal my characters without my permission and die
Timeline: Spring, 1882—Meiji year 13; PostJinchuu (No, I don't know when the Meiji year starts or whatnot, this is just estimated through the birth dates)
Beta: Khori Bannefin and Bloodedwyngs
07: Recounting Value
"It's almost bewildering how you could like Sakura so much, considering your history." He had laughed at her, but it was not at all mocking.
Leaning back against the grey trunk, he caught a falling petal in his fine-boned hand. "If nowhere else, the spirits are quiet around my trees. A measure of peace I won't get anywhere else. Isn't it the same with you? Admit it; you like my trees as much as I do. We're the same, after all, despite sharing no blood."
She crossed her arms and pretended to be offended. "I don't have to admit anything."
"I suppose not, considering it's something we all know even if we never openly acknowledge it."
"Mou!"
He laughed again, and this time she tried to swat his head. He caught her hand and pulled her into a warm hug. "Himeccha, I know you."
"I know you too," despite her sombre tone; she tried to tickle him, to no avail. But he laughed even harder.
She smiled.
"Keiji thinks that Sou-nii feels a lot better now."
Yahiko stole a look at the young boy intent on his one-thousand-swing routine, before returning his concentration to his own exercise. "Well… he's gotten comfortable with us, I think. Quite lost that kicked-puppy-ness of his. It's been a good month."
And indeed it was. Soujirou's presence restored the balance that Kaoru used to hold, until she changed radically—once he was comfortable to do so, the young man had fallen into the habit of teasing Sano and Yahiko until they chase him around, and in turn they tease him the way they used to tease Kaoru, though he doesn't chase them as often as they chased him.
Kenshin had always been warm toward their new addition, but he had always been friendly—or at least acts so—with everyone with the possible exception of Saitou. After that first tense afternoon they had started to settle into an easy friendship. Yahiko suspected that the fact they both had a past they regret was part of the reason why they were so comfortable with each other—other people could only sympathize so much without going through the same thing. Not, he supposed, that they talked about it—because he certainly couldn't imagine the topic ever coming up in a normal conversation.
Sanosuke didn't help matters at first with his rather violent greeting, but he had accepted Soujirou's presence readily enough afterward. He certainly shows up to drag Soujirou off to wherever he hangs around often enough. Yahiko hoped it wasn't gambling dens, because he knew if Kaoru found out there'd be hell to pay. But other than that, they were friendly enough with each other.
Yahiko supposed they were nearly the same age—maybe there were things for them to talk about.
Soujirou seemed to think of Kaoru as a mother figure, and weird as that was, Yahiko thought that it was, in a way, strangely fitting. Kaoru seemed to have ceased thinking of their newest family member as a stray and more like a son, treating him like Keiji's brother sometimes.
Yahiko had a feeling that one of these days; Soujirou would start calling her 'mother' instead of 'Kamiya-san'.
Megumi came down from Aizu to visit in the middle of that month, and to say she was surprised was a gross understatement. She had quizzed Kaoru and Tae on details, but the both of them were uncommonly close-mouthed regarding the whole matter.
The lady doctor had been slightly wary about Soujirou at first, but the moment she found out that he was easy to fluster her fox ears had popped out. Now she took every opportunity to tease the hell out of him—Soujirou was a perpetual shade of red whenever she was around. Yahiko suspected that Soujirou would have run for the hills at any sign of Megumi's appearance if only he wasn't afraid of being impolite.
Keiji took his cue from Kaoru, and unlike the women, he was far more skilled in deflecting conversations from topics he doesn't want to touch. A little too skilled, Yahiko thought sometimes, for a four-and-a-half year old.
Kaoru had mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'a little too much like his father' when she had stumbled on Sanosuke trying to dig up things from the boy. She had, of course, refused to say anything more, and took Keiji to town to Dr. Genzai to escape the 'inquisition' a bit.
Ayame, Suzume, and Tsubame adore Keiji even more than Yahiko had predicted. Sometimes, the descendant of Tokyo Samurai thought that he could see a strain in Keiji's expression when the girls were coddling him, but all in all he bore the coddling with good humour and kept on smiling cutely.
Either he was a masochist or just that stoic, Yahiko couldn't quite decide.
Normally, he was prickly about boys around Tsubame, but he didn't mind so much. For one, Keiji was too young for Yahiko to be bothered with the situation, and Tae had commented that Keiji was good for Tsubame—he had a way of coaxing out Tsubame's self-confidence with the most common little things the way Yahiko's brash nature couldn't. Thirdly, Yahiko was much too happy to see her finally getting over the slave's training—damned those slavers—to mind.
Keiji had started his Kamiya Kasshin training a week after his arrival. Kenshin had peeked in to see, then promptly dropped his jaw. Yahiko took that as a sign that he wasn't alone in his opinion of the younger boy's potential.
Patience of a monk, or a mountain. Keiji took things slowly but surely, mastering each step with precision and a scary level of dedication. And that was just the visible practice.
Yahiko was aware that Kaoru took Keiji out every morning on a run and a hand-to-hand martial arts session from Keiji's father style, and he found that the boy wore weights whenever he was clothed. It wasn't obvious, really, until he got hit by one of them when its' ties broke. It whacked him right between the eyes and knocked him flat out, to wake up with an ugly bruise and an almost tearfully apologetic little boy he couldn't find in himself to be mad with.
Soujirou seemed to be contemplating learning Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu as well, or at least the basics of it. He seemed to find the philosophy behind the sword style fascinating, and was far more inclined to give it credit compared to, as Yahiko heard, Kenshin, who had called it a pretty dream.
Now, Kenshin.
Yahiko idolized Kenshin, but let it never be said that he wasn't occasionally frustrated by the rurouni's stubbornly whacked frame of mind.
Sheesh, if he wanted Kaoru, the very least he could do was ask her instead of mooning and making himself miserable like that! It's not like nobody else knew about it, and when Yahiko had asked Saitou why the heck did just about everyone conclude that Kaoru was Kenshin's woman, the Wolf had snorted and in an uncharacteristic move explained to him about ki-sensing and Kenshin's passive possessiveness of one Kamiya Kaoru.
It couldn't be plainer to those who can sense ki than if Himura Kenshin had painted a sign saying 'Mine, back off!'
Yahiko wondered, knowing that Kaoru could sense ki as well as Saitou could, why she hadn't said anything other than saying that she wanted to be with Kenshin forever last year, before Enishi's Jinchuu hit the dojo, and even that could be taken in a different meaning.
He thought she would, at the very least, balk at the notion of being someone else's property, but she hadn't made a sound. And when once upon a time everyone would have agreed that she was head over heels in love with the redhead, no one was sure, now that she had retreated beyond the mystery of a woman.
In the meantime, live in the Kamiya Dojo continues…
Soujirou pressed his forehead against his raised knees, wrapping his arms around them and curled almost into a tiny ball with a contented sigh.
"That posture really isn't very healthy, Sou-nii."
He raised his head and blinked at the little boy who had managed to sneak up on him, eyes very dark and particularly old that day.
Despite the look in his eyes, Keiji smiled brightly. "We're going to have a hanami(1) in the backyard in a couple of days, so things will get a little busy."
"Hanami?" Soujirou mused, "why in the backyard?" Then his eyes widened—of course they had to do it in private; he was still a wanted man.
Before he could start feeling guilty and miserable, though, Keiji shook his head in mirth. "Nothing to do with that, Sou-nii. Sano-san and Yahiko-nii could get rowdy—Okaa-sama told Keiji that we had something of a formal request by the authorities not to go celebrating in public. Not to mention that while there's only a limited amount of Sakura in our backyard, they are among the most beautiful in this town. Ask anyone, Keiji dares you, and they'll say the same."
Soujirou nodded, only partway convinced, but was already trying to calculate how much Sakura mochi they'd have to make.
Keiji giggled and got to his feet, sauntering off whistling a tune.
Kaoru leaned back against the greyish bark of the yamazakura in her backyard, looking up at the spring moon. The air was slightly cloying in the scents of sakura in full bloom, petals raining down on them.
"Hanami in our very own backyard." Megumi sighed as she leaned against a post on the engawa. She had opted to stay with them at the dojo for the duration of her visit to Tokyo, as Kaoru kept a room open for her at all times. "Beautiful trees, Kaoru, do you know who planted them?"
The addressed young woman sighed, tightening her hold on the little boy curled against her left side among the greyish roots of the tree. Sano and Yahiko were quarrelling over a piece of fish on the picnic mat spread in the middle of the sakura trees. Soujirou—who had made the mistake of accepting a drinking challenge from Sano—was curled on her right, head pillowed on her outstretched legs. Saitou and Tokio were calmly sipping sake on the far corner of the mat, while Kenshin sat with his back against another post on the engawa, sword on the curve of his arm settling over one upraised knee, nursing his own sakazuki(2). Tae and Tsubame sat slightly behind Megumi, opting for tea instead of sake.
"Kaoru?"
She sighed again. "Persistent Megumi…" Keiji giggled slightly at that. "Keiji's father planted them when he came to live here permanently. That was… when I was four, I think."
The older woman gasped slightly, "But they look far older than that," she exclaimed.
"They do, and don't ask me why because I know about as much as you to the details. They just do."
"Oku-san! Won't you tell us what he's like? At the very least his name?"
"Stubborn Sano." Kaoru returned airily. "Why do you need to know? And just how much would you give to know anyway, hmm? I'm not telling for free."
Sanosuke stopped wrestling with Yahiko, who snatched the fish with a triumphant cackle and fled to the engawa and the relative safety of being near Kenshin. "Enough to fix up your storage shed's door?" The door had broken down earlier that week when Sanosuke had stumbled and promptly fell into it.
"You're going to fix that up anyway, or you'll deal with my wrath. Do you want that information enough to pay your tab at the Akabeko?"
Sanosuke choked on the sake he was guzzling. "Oku-san!"
"A compromise," she proposed with a slight mischief. "You can ask Saitou, because he knows."
The ex-gangster's mouth dropped open with disbelief. Paying his tab was one thing, and he didn't have the money anyway. But asking the Wolf? He had pride, dammit!
He was also really, really curious, and decided maybe this once…
"Oi, Saitou! You know the little kid's father?"
Megumi's eyes widened slightly in disbelief and she straightened. The Rooster-head had done it! He had swallowed his pride and asked the Wolf for information! Maybe he was finally growing up, though on second thought, she doubted it.
Saitou grunted slightly in response, putting down his sakazuki. Though the Battousai hadn't showed any outward reaction of interest, he had no doubt that the short redhead was listening intently on their conversation. Well, no one can say that he wasn't being a sport. "Ahou, have some manners when you're asking someone."
Tokio and Kaoru shared a look and rolled their eyes. Sano grumbled under his breath and gritted his teeth. "I'm asking nicely. If you'd be so kind as to tell us who Keiji's father is," he paused, then added hastily, "and what's he like, it'd be much appreciated."
Saitou snorted, and Sanosuke was about to give it up as a lost cause when the wolf opened his mouth.
"Yoshino Kazuomi."
They waited, but Saitou seemed to be content with just that one admission.
"And?"
"We know his name already!" Yahiko protested loudly, slightly sullen.
"You do? But—Hey! Why didn't you ever tell me you know?" Sano whined, but Yahiko shrugged and would have made a face at the gangster if he weren't aware of Keiji's half-dozing presence.
Tokio prodded her husband, "Anata, I know it's not your habit, but surely it won't kill you to indulge them just this once."
The Wolf snorted again. "Yoshino Kazuomi is the other Shihan(3) of Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu and co-inheritor of the dojo along with the Tanuki. He is also a civilian co-operative for the police force; I've worked alongside him on occasions."
"Is that how you knew him?" Megumi ventured.
"Hardly. He was one of Okita's neutrally-inclined friends."
Kenshin started slightly, his narrowed eyes regarded the ex-Shinsengumi captain. "Okita Souji? Shinsengumi's First Captain?"
"Correct, Battousai." Saitou drawled, "You know, friendly smile, died of consumption—pity, for someone of his calibre to die of a disease."
"Five years after the war, that was." Kaoru interjected reflectively, fingers absently combing Keiji's hair, while the boy purred like a kitten. "Kazu and I were very sad to see him go. He was a nice man."
"So Yoshino introduced the two of you." It was almost a question, if it wasn't Saitou.
"He didn't." Kaoru commented almost absently. "I met him when Souji-san and Seizaburo-san were on a trip to Edo. A woman was trying to give me trouble—you know, one of those people who delight in making everyone else miserable—and she accused me of ruining the kimono fabric she bought. Souji-san saved me from being harangued to death by buying the bolt of fabric off her. He gave it to me."
"Sounds like the Baka alright."
That startled a laugh out of Kaoru, "You didn't insult everyone and everything when you were in Shinsengumi, Saitou, or so Souji-san told me. He said you were one of the politest individuals in the force."
The Wolf didn't dignify that with an answer, nor did he acknowledge the many bewildered stares thrown in his direction.
"Oi, oi! We're getting off topic here! You haven't told us what that Kazuomi guy's like." Sanosuke exclaimed, swigging more sake straight from the tokkuri(4).
"Keep drinking like that, Rooster Head, and you won't be sober enough to remember if he does tell us about the guy." Megumi needled.
"Hey, hey! I've never forgotten a thing no matter how drunk I was!"
Saitou smirked. "They want to know what he's like, Tanuki. Should we indulge them?"
"You're the one giving out the details, Ookami. You may say as much as you like." Kaoru offered in lazy mischief.
"That's a tacit permission to say everything I know, which isn't much anyway." He took a moment to pause and inhaled the smoke of his cigarette. "Yoshino was a brilliant man, an accomplished warrior, patience of Buddha, and one of the most confusing persons I've ever had the misfortune of meeting. You had that last honour as well, Tanuki, never fear."
Kaoru laughed softly. "Kazu thinks that he's a simple man."
"To himself, maybe." Saitou snorted. "I never could understand why he insisted on that green bokken of his. I know he could handle a katana; I've worked with him often enough over the years to know that, and Okita never shut up whenever he had the chance to mention how well Yoshino handles a sword. That bokken slows him down—it's as heavy as a steel ball."
"Your criminals ain't worth a living blade, apparently." Kaoru shrugged lightly, sighing and tipping her head back against the trunk. Soujirou mumbled something and curled tighter on himself, snuggling slightly against her side like a child. "Kazu's bokken is made of a wood called Lignum Vitae, a tree that grows in South America. It's heavy, but very, very strong and durable. Even with a crack, it would pound our average kashi(5) bokken into pieces in probably about a five or so hits, honest."
Saitou mumbled under his breath and everyone else strained to hear.
"What was that?" Kaoru asked almost languorously.
"I said," caught, Saitou gritted his teeth and answered, "that bokken would put me at a disadvantage and he waved it around like it weighed as much as a chopstick."
The shihandai laughed, long and hard, jostling Soujirou half-awake to mumble his protest before passing out again, and waking Keiji from his half-slumber to blink wide, foggy eyes at her. "He probably, by accident, brought his suburito(6) instead the day you tried it. It's made of the same type of wood, but lined with heavier metal inside for practice," she consoled lightly.
"Was he a big man?" Yahiko, who had been uncharacteristically quiet until then, ventured with a hushed wonderment. "Have you ever fought him?" he added with much more eagerness.
"No, I haven't, as you call it, fought him. I really don't want to either."
"Was he a big man?" The boy pressed, curious.
"Yoshino-san was about a little less than a head taller than Himura-san, and probably weighed about the same." Tae volunteered acidly. "He's a arguably the best chef I've ever known, though no matter how much I proposed to pay him he won't cook for my restaurant unless I needed an extra hand in the kitchen badly."
"Tae-san," Kaoru drawled, still slightly convulsed with laughter. "I said that Saitou can tell them about him, not you."
"Aa, gomen Kaoru." The Akabeko owner looked slightly abashed.
"Saa… That's enough, ne?" Kenshin, who had been listening intently, privately thought that Ishin Shishi was very lucky to never have this Yoshino Kazuomi as an enemy, if Saitou's telling was to be believed. Someone who the Third Captain of Shinsengumi hesitates to cross blades with… "It is growing very late, that it is." And he really didn't want to talk about Kaoru-dono's husband anymore. He sounds like a terribly good man.
He wasn't that much of a masochist, even if no one else believed it.
"Ken-shin! The night's just beginning! Don't be a spoilsport!"
"Maa, maa… this one thinks that it is late enough, that he does."
"And for once I'll agree with you, Himura." Saitou commented. "The moon's receding. Tokio and I shall take our leave of you. Thank you for the invitation, Tanuki."
"You're welcome, Ookami." Kaoru replied tartly, "Besides, with Aoshi and Misao unable to come down from Kyoto at the last minute, it's no trouble. Will you walk Tae and Tsubame to the Akabeko?"
Ignoring Kenshin's proclamation that he could do it, the police officer—quite gallantly for him—escorted the restaurant owner and the waitress out the premise.
With their guests gone, Sanosuke also took his leave. Yahiko, Megumi and Kenshin started clearing up the picnic. The doctor volunteered to do dishes with Yahiko, as Kenshin had cooked their food—with Soujirou. Normally, Kaoru would have helped as well, but tonight she had children curled on both sides.
"Should this one carry Soujirou to his room, Kaoru-dono?"
She looked up at him and smiled indulgently. "Kenshin, Kazuomi is Kazuomi." When the redhead looked at her with confusion, she added. "He's not perfect, but that didn't matter. He was himself, and that's all he really needed to be." She turned away from the questioning violet eyes and nudged Keiji awake. "Musuko, clean up and go to sleep inside. You may sleep in my room if you like." The child went off with a sleepy nod, slightly unsteady in making his way into the house, but never stumbling.
"Don't worry about Soujirou, Kenshin," she said softly as she gathered the sleeping young man into her arms and lifted him like a child. "He's not that heavy. I'll take him in. Would you brew me some tea to drink before I turn in, if it's not too much trouble?"
What trouble? If Kaoru-dono wanted the moon Kenshin would have tried to find a way to get it for her. "Aa, this one will see to the tea, that he will. Would you like it to drink it out here, Kaoru-dono?"
Now on her feet, she straightened and looked up at the trees. "Yes, I think it'd be nice to drink it out here, ne?"
Kenshin probably wasn't aware that she knew how he looked at her when he thought no one was watching. She wasn't, maybe, when she didn't have her senses fully operational. But now she definitely knew, though she didn't plan on doing anything about it—not in her nature to pursue, after all, despite being the predator.
Not that knowing he looked at her with want didn't excite her, because it does, in a way that no one else had ever managed.
But she knew that he had to make the first move, if they were ever to have a relationship that works.
Sitting on the quiet engawa with only the red-haired man for company, she regarded the yunomi(7) and steaming tea. Kenshin had brewed the fresh sencha she had gotten from the Uji-affiliate—she had very carefully kept from everyone the fact that the one small container of tea was worth a small fortune. Fresh grass scent rose, and she could see the expanse of uninterrupted green at the back of her eyelids.
Things had gone well so far.
Soujirou was comfortable with them, Kenshin hadn't been called away, Keiji was by her side once more, and her haphazardly thrown family of people with absolutely no blood relation to each other were back together. Life was good.
"Kaoru-dono?"
"Hmm?" She drawled lazily, scenting the tea with half-lidded eyes and a faint smile. Memory was a double-edged sword, and she knew she was for the period she was free of them. But as painful as they were, she knew that she would never give them away. "Yes, Kenshin?"
They were her sunken treasures, waiting for her in the deep sea of her consciousness. She had dug them up again, and worn them with, perhaps, a little regret but much more acceptance. She had lived as well as she could, and she regretted very little, and would continue to do so.
"… Nothing…"
She was aware of Kenshin watching her sideway profile with something like painful longing, and in a way it hurt her to be aware of it. In contrast, the possessiveness in his ki amused her to see. This contradictory man…
Yahiko was puzzled, that she knew, why she did not say anything if she was aware of that possessiveness. They were also unsure if she had finally grown out of love with the redheaded ex-hitokiri, and worried about it.
Well, they really needn't worry. She was as in love with him as she was when she was seventeen. And perhaps even more, now, than she was, her feelings maturing with age and time.
And that was why she would never marry anyone else to her death. She might have been contented, but that would have hardly been fair to the man she might marry, other than him, even more if they love her when she couldn't fully return it.
That was why she would never marry Hibari, even if they ever made peace over Tsuyumi's demise.
And she would wait; memories weren't the only sunken treasures nor was consciousness the only ocean. She would never force this to the surface, so it must either rise on its own volition or never. She had hoped, perhaps, that it would be before Yahiko and Tsubame got themselves married. But truthfully, she doubted that.
And she was fine with that.
The wind rose in the darkness, petals dancing red and white and pink, their scent cloying the wind. Kaoru heard at the back of her mind familiar warm laughter of the man who planted them, and saw, in the back of her eyelids, his support of her.
She smiled.
Cherry (petal) shell8,
hiding a pearl
from searching eyes.
Author Note:
-Whee, the end!
-Who are Hibari and Tsuyumi? Stay tuned for the sequel to find out. (spoiler)one will become a major character(spoiler end).
-As to the tea from Uji (shrugs) they weren't rich, even though they were not as impoverished as they were before—like, in the pirate episodes in the anime. Uji-tea is pricey, right enough, depending on the plantation brand and such.
-This fic was originally an exercise in limiting how much I write for one story, because my stories tend to go on and on and on. Needless to say, it wasn't a successful study. One good thing that came out of this effort is that I now knows a lot more about Japanese culture (and potteries) that I did before I started. Attention to detail is a very demanding thing, but they can, occasionally, be very educational.
-I thank all readers who had stayed with me until the end, for gracing this not-very-well-written fic with your attention. Now, people tends to tell me that I'm too hard on myself, but I will always insist that I could have done better. That said, if anyone has constructive criticism, I will welcome them. By all means, email me with long letters if you'd like; I will welcome them.
1 Hanami—Sakura-viewing party.
2 Sakazuki--Sake cup. Nowadays they're called guinomi, but I'm not sure when the transition occurs, so sakazuki it is.
3 Shihan –Master of the dojo (or style, the distinction is a bit vague, I'm afraid).
4 Tokkuri--Sake flask
5 Kashi--Japanese white oak; the material for bokken in Japan.
6 Suburito – intentionally heavier bokken, made for kata-practice (suburi single cutting). Due to its' weight, it's not suitable for sparring practice because it's kind of off-balance and instantly a disadvantage
7 Yunomi – basic Japanese teacup, which usually is made under tsutsugata-shape, and looks like handle-less mugs instead.
8 Cherry (petal) shells—Sakuragai—small seashells that very much resemble cherry petals