A/N: FINALLY! The exams took the life out of me (can you imagine having to sit home for a month without touching the computer, all the while facing the same book on Chinese History for six whole days?) But yes, I'm back, and the hiatus is no more. I know that I haven't been updating very regularly; exam has that effect. It'll get better now, I'm positive. And greetings to my readers after such a long while! As always, constructive criticism and reviews are welcome!
Right, wrong, justification. A person of my profession would quickly learn that the world dabbles in shades of grey; the matter of right or wrong depends entirely on how it is justified. Justification is the art of mixing white or black into the mass of grey, a political art that I have never believed in.
" Katsura-san…Katsura-san? The next meeting will start in ten minutes." The demure, gentle voice, accompanied by the sound of shifting papers, was barely enough to wake him from his thoughtful trance. Tired, dark eyes lifted from the floor, and were unsurprised to see the trim figure standing directly in front of him, arms circled around a clipboard with a distinctly patient air.
Katsura considered chasing his secretary away with irritable words, but quickly vetoed that idea. His logical self told him that it was not a necessary action; a brief narrowing of his eyes had already informed the sensitive lady that yes, he knew very clearly there would be some sort of meeting – he couldn't even remember what, but he could always check – tonight, and no, he welcomed neither the reminder nor her interruption of his musings.
However, the worthy woman could not be blamed for his dark mood, and Katsura could only give her a terse, subdued nod as acknowledgement.
"Thank you, Ikumatsu. I will be there." He watched his assistant depart, leaning his head against an open palm as he made an effort to retrace his pattern of thoughts.
It was getting annoying, in a way, how the meaningless meetings managed to catch up with him even when he was currently out of capital. Couldn't the idiots do anything without his advice? He already had his hands full with Himura – the boy wasn't remotely easy to deal with, even if Katsura had the advantage of the curse. And whatever people thought, the curse wasn't all-powerful – it simply wasn't the best way to control a person. He had to take into account the boy's psyche, pull the right strings, coax and threaten at different intervals to get Himura to work. The morning's meeting had been disastrous enough, having to resort to downright death threats; the president wanted no repetition of such a mistake. There was, after all, no point in driving the lad up the wall if there were other alternatives.
The Tokugawa kid was planning something behind their backs; trying to undermine the Meiji government, most probably. Katsura could think of ten different possibilities concerning that plan, but none were particularly convincing. However, the gut feeling that something imminently dangerous was being schemed against the government left him in constant worry…he needed Himura in order to unveil that mystery. He'd worked so long to achieve the cause – they all had, Himura included. He was not going to let the fruit of their combined efforts lie in ruins.
"Aren't you in a funky mood, Kogoro." Katsura didn't even bother to trace the owner of the voice; there was only one person in this world that could address him with such informality – and one person who could walk into his office unannounced. Sporting an untamed smirk, Takasugi leaned against the office wall; his eyes, dark and narrow and analyzing, scrutinized his friend in deliberate minuteness.
Katsura ignored him, languidly pretending to read the paperwork on his desk. Justification was not needed; he was not in a good mood, and his friend simply had to deal with it. Not to mention that he had a meeting within five minutes, before which he really had to finish reading that file.
For a while, the sound of ruffling documents dominated the room, until Takasugi spoke up again, this time far more seriously.
"You're giving him a redundant threat, aren't you?"
Katsura did not look up; the "who" and "what" in Takasugi's statement was not lost on him. He pondered his own response for a while before releasing it in soft, composed words.
"I knew he would not doubt its likelihood." There was a pause, in which Katsura stacked up the papers and gathered them back into the file. "He would do as I say as long as I hold the entire population in Tsutoki High as hostages." There was no triumph in his voice, merely the flatness of stating a fact. He knew Himura too well, after all…three years of manipulating the child had allowed him to know the boy like the back of his hand. Himura could be so predictable, sometimes, and his predictability gave Katsura the leverage to dominate over him.
Katsura knew, for one thing, that conscience had often blinded Kenshin to the most obvious of things. The threat to annihilate all in Tsutoki High was blatantly empty, as a person of Himura's intelligence should have noted. How would it look to the public, after all, if the Meiji government suddenly decided to massacre a thousand schoolchildren in order to locate one hidden spy? The Meiji government was under enough pressure already; it didn't need to raise more trouble for itself. The new government had also promised, right after its establishment, that past political feuds would be forgiven and forgotten - a very appealing lie. How would it look, then, if the government were intent on murdering the last Tokugawa kin – the son of the prior president?
Kenshin had not stopped to consider, much to Katsura's expectation. Conscience had lent the boy his incentive to be powerful; it was only fitting that conscience would hamper his judgment in one way or another. Which was only appropriate for Katsura's blackmailing to hold the boy in place.
Everything was going according to his plans. Yet…
"Yet you do not feel well about it." Takasugi spoke his sentiments out loud. Katsura rose, packing the file into his suitcase. He considered saying something, gave up, and started towards the door. It disturbed him slightly when Takasugi becameuncannily insightful at events like this.
It disturbed him more to know that Takasugi was only too right – he actually felt guilty for what he'd done to the boy. Hell, maybe he was developing a conscience on par with that of Himura's. That was totally unnecessary - for him, and for the government. Himura was neither his family nor his current subordinate – Katsura had no reason to be so concerned. After all, he'd never had any emotional ties with the teenager, be it past or present. Himura…no, Battousai…was merely his pawn.
Those violet eyes, hard and incriminating and just so full of hatred, raised an unsettling feeling at the pit of his stomach. The boy's face had gone blank, like a flat sheet of paper, yet the hatred was clearly revelatory; through his eyes, his posture, the very aura he gave off.
The boy hated him. And he, in turn, did not care.
At least that was what he kept telling himself.
"You care for him, and you know it. That's not a sin, Kogoro." He was brushing past Takasugi then, fine fabric meeting a much coarser one. The president stopped, startled, and stared sideways at his comrade.
Pain. That feeling had to be pain; though in his mind, pain was too irrational. It was almost out of Himura's ability to properly hate someone – the mildness of the lad's temper belied greatly the lethal art in his possession - yet he'd achieved it. He'd earned the boy's complete hatred, and there was no turning back. Kenshin would continue to hate him. He in turn would carry on manipulating the boy. The vicious cycle would continue -there was simply no other way out, for him or for Himura. The Meiji government and its people was his priority; Himura was trivial when compared to the above. He could not concurrently attend to the interests of both.In this light, caring for the hitokiri was a sin.
"I will use him. He's one of the pieces on my chess board; nothing more, nothing less." Heartless words that didn't signify anything; Katsura twisted the doorknob with a little more force than he intended.
"I see." Takasugi relented, and Katsura was secretly grateful. When had he started avoiding things that he'd rather ignore in his life, anyway? It wasn't like him at all. Then again, sulking wasn't like him at all ether; which he was currently doing.
Himura Battousai was getting him all too emotional, it seemed.
He would have left his friend alone in the office and went on to his arranged meeting if Takasugi had kept his peace. Instead, a stifled snort of laughter behind him made Katsura raise an inquiring eyebrow to his smirking friend.
"Is there something else you need to inform me of, Takasugi?"
"You truly believe in burying personal thoughts for a greater cause, don't you." The latter's smirk tilted to a wider angle. "If I recall correctly, you gave Himura one day to consider your proposal. I think I'm giving you a night – both of you need to reconsider your lives." He put up a hand to stop further retorts when Katsura faced him with a baffled frown. "Oh, and I've cancelled that damn useless meeting for you, Kogoro. It seems to me that you need a break."
Katsura glanced at his hand on the doorknob, then the file he had in hand, and nailed his friend with a very unfavourable glare.
When Shishio returned from his private hot spring, humming softly under his breath, he found Soujiro hunched over his desk, a pen in hand, poring over what happened to be a piece of Mathematics assignment. The boy's unusual activity seemed to have attracted the attention of his fellow comrades - Kamatari had draped himself over the back of Soujiro's chair, enquiring idly on random formulas that caught his interest; Houji was eyeing the teenager with obvious distaste, as though he considered being associated with someone on the level of high school Mathematics a grave enough insult to his intelligence. Soujiro paid little attention to both, black pen dotting down equation after equation as he went on with his task.
"Hm…this angle could be calculated by the cosine law." A heavily bandaged hand tapped on the figure beside the handwritten workings; Soujiro tilted his head to see Shishio looming over him, an amused smirk hanging on his lips. The dark-haired boy smiled radiantly in greeting, bending down again to add the finishing touches on his piece of work.
"It seems to me that the Tenken is more engrossed in his school life than his mission, Shishio-sama." Houji commented sourly as Soujiro packed his Mathematics notebook into his backpack, and promptly pulled out what seemed to be a Chemistry textbook. His boss smirked, an utterly lopsided curve gracing burnt lips.
"So it seems. Soujiro, how are your dear classmates doing?"
Soujiro murmured under his breath as he laid out a periodic table, eyes flickering briefly through the numbers. "Himura-san is absent, so I have to do the lab report all by myself. Fever, it seems."
"I see." The bandage-wrapped figure replied smoothly, settling cross-legged on a cushion as Yumi bustled around to get him wine. "Who exactly contacted the school for him?"
Soujiro considered it for a moment, pen poised over his book. "I suppose it was Ikumatsu-san, the president's secretary."
He leaned against the wall of a restroom cubicle, earpiece fitted snugly against his ear. The phone rang, and was picked up before long.
"Tsutoki High, school office. How may I help you?" Soujiro could discern the soprano squeak of the office lady, young and shy and utterly nervous every time she picked up the phone.
The female voice on the other end made him frown; it was eerily familiar, in its slow, languid pace and formal choice of words. "Good morning, I am the guardian of Himura Kenshin…yes, Himura Kenshin of 5B…he will not be able to attend the school today because of a high fever."
Something in his mind clicked.
"I see. I'll inform Yumi-sensei of this. Good day to you." The line went dead, and Soujiro grimaced. He'd tapped onto the school line long enough to know that the office lady was – very obviously – not a Miburo. Her lack of caution with questionable calls proved her identity - she seemed oblivious to the fact that Himura had no local relatives, nor guardians of any sort.
Himura Kenshin, according to school records, was the adopted (or was it illegitimate? No one had thought of asking.) son of a political bigwig. One thing that attested to it was his inexplicably huge amount of money. He had an apartment of his own, which - though not overly luxurious - was decent enough, and was equipped with more security gadgets than any ordinary schoolboy would think of putting into his home.
After further investigation, the school finally conceded that Himura did have a connection with a political figure; the man himself had approached the school two months ago; stating, very clearly, that he did not appreciate his son being harassed by incessant background checks – the boy was to be left to himself and treated with the same treatment that all other students received.
The only thing they didn't know was that Katsura had sent "the man" there. As for Kenshin, he never knew that he had been granted a second "father" in the first place.
It was a shame, Soujiro decided, that the Miburo hadn't already known Himura for who he was. It was pretty obvious when one looked at it, actually. To have chosen this school, and to have hidden from his foes for this long… Battousai had to be either a genius or a complete idiot. Possibly both.
"Ah, that whore. I see that Katsura isn't quite finished with his pet hitokiri yet." Pure hatred curled at Shishio's lips at the mention of his most hated enemy. Charcoal fingers continued their tap dance on the cushion, an idle gesture. "Have you located the Tokugawa brat yet, Soujiro?"
There was a pause as Soujiro's perpetual smile diffused slightly, and it made Shishio's brows quirk. Having no emotions, Soujiro was seldom upset at anything, nor was there anything that truly pleased him. But the little slip in emotions had told the man all he needed – Seta was intrigued, and fairly annoyed.
"No, sir. I cannot be sure." He stopped there, rejoining only when Shishio eyed him steadily. "I have thought that whoever he was would be in contact with Himura-san a lot; but up to now, I have no means of pinpointing the exact person. I am starting to think that…"
"…the intelligence is false, and Tokugawa is either nonexistent or not in Tsutoki High in the first place." Shishio finished the line for his subordinate, who quickly ducked down to face his homework. "That is understandable. Yet, Soujiro…use your ki. It will never lead you wrong."
Soujiro nodded in understanding, letting his pen roll across the table as he rose from his seat.
"I'll go practice now. If you don't mind, sir."
Shishio dismissed him with a lazy wave, not even bothering to look up as the door clicked shut behind the teenager.
He didn't bother to ask where the boy had hidden his katana, either.
When night came, Kenshin had become increasingly antsy. Having successfully roused himself from a troubled sleep earlier on, the boy had spent some time worrying at a solution that didn't include gutting Katsura – not that it was possible, anyway; the man was near immortal as far as he was concerned - getting the Tokugawa kid killed, or having Tsutoki High go up in flames just because he'd refused Katsura outright.
It was at times like this that he yearned for the comfort of his katana.
Katsura was nowhere to be seen after his last visit, and, left entirely to himself to weigh his choices, the teenager felt as if he was trapped once again in the waking nightmare of his past, trudging down a path that he'd never consented to, but was forced into because it was necessary.
Too many things were termed necessary, but were not, he thought.
At least someone had had the grace to move him back to the bed, a part of his mind consoled, and the ex-hitokiri massaged his cheek lightly. The cross scar seemed to have split open again, all thanks to Katsura's interference (or was it his own brashness?), but was recuperating with an almost inhuman speed. Kenshin couldn't bring himself to be surprised under the circumstances.
The truth, he acknowledged, was that he didn't have a choice in the matter. It was either the Tokugawa child alone or the whole school, and Katsura had made it rather clear which he would prefer. Kenshin was hardly friends with the Miburo, and didn't even know the Tokugawa kid; but he had no wish to harm them. They were his enemies once, yes, but he had never hated them. Katsura had foreseen his softness of heart once again.
You have too soft a heart for a hitokiri, Takasugi had once told him. It once disturbed him to find out that it was true.
He would not be manipulated this time. If he could inform his master of this conspiracy, could warn the remaining Tokugawa kid of his imminent fate…
He had to get out of here first. He could feign agreement to Katsura's proposal and sort things out his own way. Katsura could control his mind and soul, but there was no way the man could know his inner thoughts, too. Tokugawa, whoever he was, would hate him once he realized that he was Battousai; would want to kill him for daring to live on after all he'd done. That could not be avoided; it was the path he'd consented to, if not chosen, and he was ready to shoulder whatever blame the world was to fling onto his shoulders.
Kenshin made up his mind at that moment.
A day, by Katsura's standard, obviously did not consist of twenty-four hours; he was back before the clock struck twelve to find Kenshin sprawled over the couch, arms crossed. Somehow, the Meiji president was not surprised. He doubted that Kenshin would simply go to sleep after the entire ordeal.
"So, Himura. Have you made up your mind?" It might be his imagination, but Katsura was looking more haggard than usual - as if the man was tired of dealing with him already, and wanted him out of his sight. Which wasn't even possible.
Amethyst eyes gleamed in the dark, and settled on Katsura in form of a glare. It occurred to the Choshu leader that Kenshin hadn't bothered to switch on the lights after dark.
"I agree to your proposal, Katsura-san. I will find the Tokugawa kin for you…but you will promise not to harm any of the innocents." The flickering gaze turned and vanished, presumably covered by the flaming bangs in the dark.
Fixing his eyes on the silhouette huddled in the dark, Katsura wondered why a part of him wanted badly for the hitokiri to refuse.
Rejuvenation of Fire: Thanks for your prompting, or else I'd never have known that someone out there is waiting for an update. The reason for my late update is my public exam; which I have explained in my bio…I'm sorry if it offends you or anything. Real life just tends to get in the way
Nekotsuki: I'm aware that I'm probably posting this while you're still beta-ing another copy…and this chapter must be full of mistakes of some kind as per usual. Forgive me! I'm just too eager to update…thanks for your help as always. I've finally realized that I've been mixing up "discrete" and "discreet" (blushes and stares off somewhere)…
Bakabokken: yeah, I've experienced emotional tumult during the exam…stress, I think. Keeps dreaming about failing the exam, and things like that. I'm SO glad it's over…you might be having an exam while I'm updating this thing…exams are just evil. Do your best too, and don't forget to review me when you have the time! And just a PS, what is Bourne Identity?
Kik-ting: thanks for your compliment; I've been thinking a while on why someone like Kenshin would want to go to school, especially when it involves risks.Streetwise Girl: I've been having a headache on how to place the girls, especially Kaoru and Tomoe, without turning it into a romance fic, so I've left them out on purpose. And I'm running out of cliffhangers. Practically…
A lilmatchgirl: Shishio would be thanking you for your generous support, until you find that he isn't doing kindness to our little redhead, either…and thanks for giving the luck, I've been utilizing it well in the exam. o I didn't mean to make Katsura that evil, it was an accident…I'm trying to justify for him this chapter. I meant him to be a grey character, yes, like everyone in the story including Kenshin himself. But that won't stop anyone from standing on his side, anyway…
xZig-zagx: I would love this story to be in your community…I consider it an honor. I see that you have many good fics in the community, too; many are my personal favourites. So feel free to put anything I posted up to your community!
Shauntell: Actually, I am a dudette despite my penname…and about Kaoru, I'm not entirely sure about it. Thanks for your review anyway.
NARGIEGIRL21: Your compliments make me rather proud… you like Katsura x Kenshin? Never thought about that one before…shrug still, one can try it out. And anyway, what is Koto?
Sakabatoushunuchi: we will be seeing more of Sou-chan yet…seems as if he isn't the most loyal friend of Ken-nii…
Night-Owl123: thanks for the encouragement, I'm trying to update as regularly as possible…
Lucrecia LeVrai: nice to see you again after some months! I hope you haven't been waiting long…sorry to have kept you waiting!