Disclaimer: I don't own anything of importance in this story.

I got another story for you "Rurouni Kenshin" fans! This one's called "Against a Sea of Troubles" by haku baikou. I'm not real good at summaries, so I'll just copy the one haku baikou wrote for the story. "A red-haired, amber-eyed stranger washes up on shore in a small, seaside village." It's really good! You should check it out!

Chapter 31

Kenshin was confused. He was pretty sure that he was still in Kaiba's virtual world, but he didn't know why this was happening. After the fight, he had gone outside to investigate a noise he'd heard. Once he'd exited the dojo, he'd been astonished at the sight that greeted his eyes. Before him was one of the Kyoto Ishin Shishi safe houses. He also noticed that it was bright, as if he was standing outside. Looking back, he saw the dojo had disappeared, replaced with stores and houses that lined the street. People were coming and going, as if nothing were out of the ordinary. One of his fellow patriots saw him and hurried over.

"Himura-san! What happened to your shoulder?! Did you run into some Shinsengumi? Let's take you to the Soseki--he's staying in the safe house right now," he said quietly, leading Kenshin inside the building. They went up the stairs, and Kenshin was left in one of the rooms, his comrade promising to send Soseki as soon as the young healer was found.

Kenshin was still trying to figure out what was going on. One minute he's fighting Kaiba, and the next he's back in Kyoto during the Bakumatsu! "Very strange, indeed..." Kenshin said softly to himself.

"Yes, it is strange for you to be wounded in a fight," Soseki said, opening the shoji and stepping inside. "I think I've only had to bandage you up once or twice in three years!" he said, kneeling to the left of Kenshin and beginning to examine the wound.

"Of course, I'm not complaining about it. It's just, you're such a skilled swordsman, I'm glad we have you on our side. This wound looks pretty fresh," Soseki paused, giving Kenshin a chance to elaborate on the surrounding circumstances. When he didn't respond, Soseki continued.

"It's a clean cut, not too deep. Managed to miss all the tendons and muscles, somehow. Good thing, too," Soseki commented as he began cleaning the wound. Kenshin's face remained emotionless, showing nothing of the pain the doctor was inflicting. Soseki finished cleaning and began putting the bandages on it. Sometimes he wondered if Kenshin could even feel the pain. The kid was so emotionless. He decided to test his theory.

"There you go. Should be good as new in a week or two," he said, patting the bandage with a little more force than was necessary. That elicited a faint hiss of pain from Kenshin. Well, at least he's human, Soseki thought.

Kenshin thanked the doctor and left the safe house. He wandered around, just walking, looking at everything. It was just as he remembered it. Well, except the fact that everything was transparent, but he had gotten used to everything looking that way.

As he wandered aimlessly, his thoughts turned to his master. I remember the first time he sent me here, Kenshin thought, looking at a shop specializing in sake. He was considerably surprised when a young red-haired child exited the store and started running up the street. Kenshin just stared. That boy looked like...me... Kenshin thought as he followed the boy. Kenshin caught up to him easily.

He stayed a few feet behind the boy, seeing where he was going. As he expected, the child followed the roads that lead deep into the mountains, and up to Hiko's residence. For some reason, the child looked a little nervous, as he hurried home with his burden. Kenshin, having come to the conclusion that this boy was indeed him, tried to remember any such times he would have acted in such a manner. It was then that Kenshin noticed there was no sword at the boys side.

I remember now. This was the time I forgot my sword. Hiko had been upset because I had forgotten to get his sake, and I had left in such a hurry that I forgot my sword in the house. It wouldn't have been a problem, except that there had been bandits running around, Kenshin thought, remembering. They had since left the city streets and entered the forest.

It should be anytime now, Kenshin thought, looking around. As if on cue, two men stepped out on the path in front of the child. The little boy stopped and looked up at them, his eyes a little larger than they should have been.

"Well, what have we got here?" one of them teased, walking up to the child. The red haired boy instinctively took a step back, only to run into another bandit that he hadn't heard come up behind him. Startled, the boy tried to run away, but one of the bandit's caught his pony tail, and jerk him back. The boy cried out, dropping the bottle of sake as the bandit threw him to the ground. He curled up into a ball, as if afraid to move while the bandits all laughed at him.

"So, what are we gonna do with this little runt?" one burly bandit asked the other two.

The one that seemed to be the leader spoke up. "Let's tie 'em up and take 'em wit' us. We can sell 'em off nex' time we run into traders," he replied. One of them bent over the child, intent on following his leaders orders. The boy, however, had just been waiting for an opportunity. As soon as the bandits head was in range, the boy kicked as hard as he could, his foot connecting with the bandit's nose. The bandit cried out in pain and surprise, falling backwards. The other two were also momentarily surprised and the child took advantage of that, racing through the forest before they could react.

Thinking he was safe, the boy allowed himself a small smile, before two large arms encircled him from behind, picking him up in mid-run. The bandits were surprisingly fast for their size, and had caught up to him easily. He struggled in the bandits grasp, and the bandit threw him against a tree--hard. The boy fell to the ground, momentarily stunned. He rose slowly to his feet, still a little dazed, only to be back-handed by the bandit he had kicked earlier. The boy's small body hit the ground again, sliding a few feet. This time he did not rise. He was preparing himself for the next blow when a new voice cut threw the air.

"It is a weakling and a coward who would fight a mere child. And I also see three of you. Was one boy too much to handle?" came a taunting voice from the shadows. The boy smiled in relief while the bandits looked around, nervously.

"Strong words for one who hides and plans an ambush. Show yourself and fight like a man!" the one of the bandits yelled back. Suddenly, Hiko appeared from the shadows.

"If I saw a man here, I would be happy to fight him," Hiko retorted. "But all I see are cowards beating up an obviously defenseless boy." The boy flinched at those words.

The bandits, seeing their prey out in the open, attacked simultaneously. Even so, it took Hiko longer to clean their blood from his sword than it did for him to dispatch them. He looked at the child still lying on the ground, and then turned and walked back towards the path. The child hurried after him, stopping to pick up the dropped bottle of sake before falling in step behind his master, head hung very low as they continued back up the mountain. Hiko did not say one word to the child. The disappointment in his eyes when he had looked at him had been enough. They continued up the mountain in silence.

Kenshin had watched as his memory had played itself out. He was a little surprised that all the emotions he had experienced at the time were still fresh in his mind, as if he had actually lived through that again. "I'm sorry I was such a disappointing student, Master," Kenshin whispered to no one, a bit forlornly as he started walking in the opposite direction, back to Kyoto.

~*~

On the way back to Kyoto, Kenshin thought about the bandits Hiko had killed. It reminded him of the graveyard he had dug for the other bandits who had attacked the slave caravan. Lost in his thoughts, Kenshin was a little surprised when his path suddenly became brighter. Looking up he discovered he had not exited the forest, as he first suspected, but that he had stumbled upon a clearing that allowed more light onto the path. Looking out over the clearing, he saw that it was littered with wooden crosses made from two sticks being tied together by inexperienced hands. In the middle, there were three rocks that had some plant life growing at their base. Almost reflexively, Kenshin looked past the rocks toward one lone cross that had a blue ribbon tied around it.

"Tomoe..." he whispered into the wind.

Hearing something similar to a shoji sliding open behind him, Kenshin whirled around. He was understandably stunned to find himself standing in front of his house in Otsu. Looking towards the door, he saw a woman dressed in a white kimono with a red obi and ebony hair closing the shoji she had just stepped through. She turned to him, her pale skin a stark contrast to her dark eyes. She bowed.

"Tomoe..." Kenshin whispered again, not daring to believe his eyes. The woman bowing to him spoke, her voice soft and respectful.

"Gomen to keep you waiting, anata. I'm ready to go now," she said, straightening up although she kept her eyes lowered to the ground in front of her.

Kenshin could restrain himself no longer. He ran to her, taking her in his arms and clutching to her tightly, as if she would disappear if he were to let go. "Tomoe, I've missed you..." he whispered, brokenly. The tears fell freely down his cheeks, being absorbed by her kimono.

Tomoe, for her part, was stunned. Never had Kenshin shown his feelings so openly before, and she wasn't sure how to react. What did he mean, he missed her? She had only taken a few minutes to get ready...

A little hesitantly, she placed her arms around her husband, trying to soothe him. She didn't know what had upset him so and normally she wouldn't care, but she had grown to love this man before her and his pain hurt her as well.

"Ssh, anata, I'm right here," she said, a bit uncertainly. She wasn't sure how to calm down the normally emotionless hitokiri. Apparently, that worked because she felt him relax his hold on her and eventually pull back altogether. She was somewhat shocked to see a smile on his face--not the small smile he would sometimes give her that could barely be counted as a smile at all, but a really genuine smile! It suits him, she thought, ignoring the fact that him smiling at her like that made her feel warm and giddy inside. She hoped he would smile at her like that more often, but her upbringing as a lady would allow her to show none of this on her face. She looked at him with the same blank mask she always used.

"We're going to be late, if we don't get going," she said, returning her eyes to the ground, hoping he wouldn't rebuke her for being so bold as to remind him of that. He just kept smiling as if he had never been happier in his life.

"Hai," he responded, reaching down to pick up his medicine basket. He usually set it down on the ground next to him while he waited for Tomoe to finish getting ready. So overjoyed was he at seeing his wife alive and well during the best part of their lives together, he failed to notice that the basket he picked up had not been there previously. In fact he had already forgotten about Kaiba's virtual world, Yugi, Grandpa, and his trip to the future in general. All he could think about was the woman a few feet behind him as they walked down the mountain path to Otsu.

~*~

Mokuba was excited. Seto had promised that today Mokuba'd get to try out Seto's new virtual reality system. He didn't really know why he was so excited about it. Seto hadn't had time to program anything else into it except for the dojo where he and Kenshin fought, but Mokuba was excited anyway. He didn't really know why he wanted to go and sit around in a virtual dojo when he could go to an actual dojo in the real world, but it was the principle of the matter. Originally , he had wanted to try it out so he could tell Seto how cool it was later and maybe make his brother smile. Or, he could help Kaiba make it better by pointing out things that might need to be fixed. Somewhere along the way, this had turned into a sort of adventure for him, which is why at this precise moment he was begging his brother to let him try it out.

"Please, Seto? Can I try it out your virtual reality system now?" Mokuba pleaded, looking at Kaiba with big puppy-dog eyes. Kaiba looked down at his little brother kindly.

"Not yet, Mokuba. They're still checking the system. You can try it when they're done," he said, wishing they would hurry up. He deny his brother anything, but to be in the system while a system check was being performed might be dangerous. It shouldn't have any effect on the user, but one could never tell with a proto-type--which is exactly why Mokuba had to wait until they were finished.

Fortunately for them, one of Kaiba's employees knocked on the door before entering Kaiba's office.

"Mr. Kaiba, the system check has been completed on the virtual reality system, sir," he said, bowing slightly.

"Thank you for informing me," Kaiba said, smiling at Mokuba. "Tell my assistants to prepare the system for my little brother's use."

"Sir," he said, bowing again before leaving. Mokuba jumped up and hugged Kaiba. "Oh, thank you, Seto! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he cried, enthusiastically. Kaiba just smiled.

"It shouldn't take them long to get it ready. Why don't you head on down there?" Kaiba suggested.

Mokuba didn't need to be told twice. He raced out of the room, and to the nearest elevator. Kaiba just smiled again, while he went back to work.

~*~