Chapter 8 - In Season
"Soujiro-san, is everything all right?" Kaoru asked, noting the other man's uneasiness as she herded Kenji into place beside her. After a much-enjoyed, and needed, bath, Kaoru had changed from her hakama and gi into a deep plum-colored kimono embroidered with trails of white blossoms, and wrestled a reluctant and protesting Kenji into a yukata. One of the Okami's girls had arrived shortly after to escort them to a private room off the dining hall.
"I ... do not recognize any of the servers, or the Okami, that is all," Soujiro said hesitantly.
"You stop here a lot, then?" Sano had acquired a fishbone from somewhere while they had waited for dinner, and was chewing on one end.
"It has been several years," Soujiro admitted.
"Things change," Sano said dismissively and took a deep appreciative sniff. "Ah, real food."
Hiko snorted. "Decent sake, that's what I'm hoping for."
Soujiro nodded. "You are right, it's probably nothing."
The last scarlet rays of the sun filtered through the paper shouji, which whispered aside to admit a pair of young women balancing a stack of trays in their hands. They set the trays on the table, miraculously keeping their elegant sleeves from trailing through any of the food. Kenji shifted as they swept between his place, and where Hiko sat to his left so he could duck behind Kaoru's arm. Kaoru lifted her sleeve to raise questioning eyebrows at the usually-gregarious boy. Kenji's bright blue eyes stared back, his hands fisted in her kimono fabric, until a yawn caught him off guard. Her concern melted and she reached out to tuck him closer.
The serving girls bowed to the group as they finished their task, and left, leaving the shouji open, which looked out onto a simple formal garden of stone paths and well-tended shrubbery.
The dinner progressed quickly, as the group concentrated more on eating a real meal than on conversing with each other. When they were done eating dinner, the servant girls brought out the sake. With a gracious nod, Kaoru took the small jug they left on the table and poured saucers for the men.
Kenji looked up expectantly. "No, Kenji-chan," Kaoru said patiently.
Kaoru set the small bottle to one side and picked up her tea cup. Soujiro looked at her in slight puzzlement and set his sake cup down. "Kaoru-san. Would you like one of us to pour for you?"
"No thank you, Soujiro-san. I don't drink sake."
"It's because she's a lightweight," Sano said, and took a long draw of the liquid, and then refilling his own cup.
"No, it's because I have Kenji," Kaoru said.
"Yeah," Yahiko agreed. "And you're a lightweight."
Kaoru's eyes sharpened and her hand edged toward the pitcher of sake before she stilled and settled for smiling evilly and rising to her feet, carrying her teacup with her. "Let's go sit outside, Kenji-chan. It sounds like they have frogs in the garden."
Kenji perked up at the mention of slimy things and his mother's tacit approval of looking for them.
"Good," Hiko muttered as he sipped his sake once Kaoru and Kenji had exited the room. "She's not as much of a chatterbox as she used to be, but it's nice to drink sake in silence."
Sano raised an eyebrow and looked around diplomatically before he nodded. He wasn't going to risk a bump on the head from either Hiko or Kaoru. "Soujiro, you haven't touched your sake."
"No, Sagara-san, I have not," Soujiro replied, voice quiet and void of clear emotion. Sano snorted and reached for the pitcher to pour himself more.
"Damn shame. It's good sake."
From the noise they were making, it was good sake. Sagara and the boy had three bottles they were drinking their way through. Soujiro picked up his cup and swirled the pale liquid, watching it darken the ceramic where it clung to the edges.
"Sake changes with the seasons," Hiko's deep voice rumbled as conversationally as the ronin had ever heard him speak. The massive man was refilling his cup with a measured, practiced hand, and looked to be ignoring his companions. Soujiro began to doubt whether Hiko had sad anything at all. Without looking at him, Hiko set the remainder of the final jug in front of Soujiro and rose.
Sano raised an eyebrow at the younger man and said with only the hint of a slur, "I think he's trying to say that good men do, too."
When Soujiro nodded, Sano rose as well to walk to the shouji. "You know, Kenshin wouldn't drink sake for a long time when I first met him. Tasted blood."
"Will he drink it now?"
"Oh yeah. Says it smells like jasmine now, whatever that means."
Soujiro smiled, but it was not the same one Sano was used to seeing. This was not the smile of the broken boy with no emotions or the rurouni who avoided them. This was the sad smile of a man trying to come to terms with his past. "I have no Kaoru-dono to save me, Sagara-san."
Sano shrugged. "You ever think that Kaoru didn't save Kenshin? He did that all by himself. He had to be ready for her. Kaoru came along when he was ready. Whether he believed it or not."
"Where is your Kaoru-dono who came along at the right time for you, Sano-san?" Soujiro asked.
"Aizu. When we find Kenshin, I'm going to find her," Sano said, and his eyes drifted out over the landscape. "I hope she's waiting for me."
"I, as well, Sano-san," Soujiro said as a strange sense of peace stole over him. Cautiously, he took a sip. In the sake was a hint of the air of summer. "Changing seasons indeed, Hiko-san," Soujiro muttered.
Hiko grunted and started to leave, stepping over Yahiko's sprawled form as he went, then pausing and looked down with narrowed eyes. The young man had sprawled haphazardly across the tatami and seating cushions, commandeering Sano's in addition to his own.
"The boy didn't have that much to drink," Hiko said to the room, and turned around. Sano was slumping against the wall, and Soujiro's eyes were drifting shut.
Hiko cursed, as he felt his muscles turn to lead and the weight of his eyelids press against his eyes.
"I think we've been drugged," Sano said aloud. "Can you make it to Kaoru and Kenji? They need to get out."
"Yes," Hiko answered shortly, using all his energy to remain awake as he stumbled outside. His vision was blurring, with a growing darkness around the edges, and he could feel lethargy dragging at this steps. With an annoyed snarl, Hiko reached up and wrenched at his mantle, allowed the weighted cloak to fall and freeing himself from the added weight. Anyone who would drug sake deserved no mercy, and Hiko's ki senses extended with deadly intent, though shaky and blurry now as the drug coursing through him dragged at his mind.
The grounds outside the hotel were well-kept, it would be easy to spot his former student's wife and offspring. Hiko grunted. He was unused to devoting this much energy to staying upright and concentrating on foot placement. He would have to find his idiot student's family, and soon, if he wanted to be semi-coherent when he did so.
Coming around the corner of the hotel, he heard Kenji's familiar piping voice. "Kaasan, I don't know what exactly, but…"
He saw them, mother and son crouched together studying the small creek that ran behind the hotel. At his voice, Kaoru turned swiftly. "Kaoru-san, they've drugged the sake. Take the boy and get to safety."
Kaoru's eyes widened as she took in the hesitating stumble in Hiko's movements; unnatural in a man so accustomed to moving with deadly grace. "Hiko-san!"
"Dammit, girl!" Hiko barked. "Go!"
As Kaoru fought between her instincts to fight and her instinct to protect her child, Kenji made the choice for her, making a break for the trees surrounding the hotel. "Kenji!" she shouted as she ran to catch up.
"I'm gonna get Tousan!" Kenji shouted back, as he ran with his unnatural speed.
"Get the brat!" Kaoru heard a shout from behind her. She had no time to think over Kenji's certainty of his father's presence. Ten women wielding an assortment of weapons were now intent on cutting her son's path off.
"You'll have to get through me first!" she shouted, reaching behind her for the bokken that she had carried constantly for the last week. Her hand met embroidered cotton and she realized with a sinking feeling of doom, that her bokken was still in her room. She could even visualize the polished length of wood lying atop her folded futon with Kenji's nestled beside it. She had left it behind, thinking that it would be impolite to carry it with her into dinner; even if Soujiro and Hiko had both been wearing their swords, and Sano was technically never without his preferred weapons.
Hiko's sheathed sword landed at her feet and she refocused on the swords master, who was tottering before her eyes. "Kaoru. The warrior protects because she realizes the value of others."
Kaoru bit her lip in understanding and scooped up the sword, then dashed after her son, not looking back even when she heard Hiko collapse behind her. Kenji needed her protection, and she would have to trust the others to defend themselves for now. She could do that. And, in the meantime, she would try and adapt her training to the deadly weapon in her hands. Hiko's blade was perfectly balanced when it was bared. While still in its sheath, it was point-heavy and put more strain on her arms than her bokken did. Also, she could never use her bokken to kill, and she did not want to kill with the katana. She would have to exercise more self-control than she normally did.
"Right," she breathed. "Kenshin does this all the time. I can do it." Before her mind could shout at the gross unfairness of that particular comparison, she settled into her traditional defensive stance.
Kamiya Kasshin Ryu was not the best style for being so grossly outnumbered, but Kaoru was an adaptable fighter. She'd always had to be in the past, and now, not only was her life on the line, but also the life of her son.
The women broke into two groups, and half held back. Kaoru assumed they were waiting until she was distracted to go after Kenji. The remaining five focused their entire attention on her. "Good. Right. Breathe."
The first to attack was a woman carrying two daggers, which called for close fighting… not a weapon Kaoru herself would have chosen in any situation, especially in a battle with a katana. A blow to the stomach took care of that attacker, while another woman came in on her left. Kaoru barely had time to block the attack headed straight for her head before she was defending herself against being gutted like a fish.
Dimly, she acknowledged the sounds of fighting beyond her own … Grunts and whacks that were not coming from the group she was with, but could not focus on anything beyond the opponents standing between her and her child, and the unending now. An overhead blow took out the woman who was crouched low to use her chains and an elbow knocked out another woman. "Four down," she muttered, and turned around, only to find herself facing the tip of a katana.
The woman behind the naked blade grinned ruthlessly and moved minutely, preparing to impale Kaoru's throat on the silvery steel. Kaoru dropped, throwing herself back and to one side, desperate to get enough distance to bring Hiko's sword up to turn aside the blow she knew was coming. She hit the ground and rolled, ignoring the sickening thud a hair's-breath away as the other woman's sword sank into the ground.
A spray of pebbly sand from the path caught Kaoru across the face as it was thrown into the air and she cursed, eyes watering and sight blurring. Forcing her eyes open, she saw a blurry shape advancing on her, and the flash of steel in its hand. Kaoru slashed upward to block and knock the other off balance, cursing the weight of Hiko's sword, and the rattle of the sheath around the blade as it slipped loose.
Sliver erupted in front of her and caught her blade across an unyielding length of a katana, then stilled. Kaoru's involuntary tears finally cleared her eyes as the sheath, loosened by the battle, succumbed to gravity and slid off with the hissing whisper of wood over steel.
Her opponent faced her through their crossed blades, and blinked wide violet eyes at her. "Oro?"
LadyChi's Notes: This has been, as Hiko-sama says, a time of changing seasons, especially in my life, and I appreciate everyone's patience as our once-a-week update plan kind of slides and flexes and Kat and I try to survive the college experience, something I've only just begun. Thank you, as always, for the favorites and the alerts and the reviews. We appreciate your reading very much. Keep your socks on for Chapter 9. It's going to be a doosy.
Kat's Notes: She means for us to edit. It's going to be a doosy for us to edit. Which usually means we're going to be writing several other chapters in advance in an effort to avoid it. And yes, college life does have this tendency to beat us up, take away our lunch money, and stuff us in a locker fairly frequently. Anyway ... for everyone who wanted to know when Kenshin was going to show his red-headed self, this is for you. This is also your first official notice that the rating is going up in about two chapters. We thought we'd get away with a PG rating and it's ... not happening. Oh well. C'est la vie. Especially with stubborn and persistant muses!