Notes:
- Ayame is no man's love interest. She is Kyuuzou's Third Sister (not his biological sister but his Sensei's older student).
- Kyuuzou does not fight with the same ease he used to have because his new body does not yet have the muscle memory of his old body.
--
The three samurai and Rikichi all stared slack-jawed at the determined warrior blocking Shichiroji's spear with his twin blades. The crimson-clad samurai threw the stunned Shichiroji back. The sloppily-dressed blond stumbled into Kanbei, who steadied him. Then Shichiroji exclaimed. ""Kyuuzou-dono!!! But how???"
The metal-armed veteran had forgotten about Ayame for the moment. Kyuuzou ignored his question.
"No one is to touch her!" the new arrival stated coldly and clearly.
Katsushiro managed to stutter, "We… we saw you die! How could this be??? …."
"It's none of your business," the red samurai said curtly.
Kanbei stepped forward towards Kyuuzou, but stopped a few feet away from the red-clad young samurai. Kyuuzou was paler than before, but otherwise looked quite alive. Something else had changed about him too. The red samurai was still the willowy androgyne, but there seemed to be a new definition to his form. His face and figure looked slightly more angular than they did before. There was another change Shimada noticed . In the scarlet warrior's brief exchange with Shichiroji, Kanbei noticed that he did not move with his old practiced fluidity. Kyuuzou was still the master swordsman, for sure, but his motions were more jerky and abrupt than they used to be. This was not quite the same Kyuuzou who had dueled Kanbei.
The old commander just stood there regarding the young man with amazement. For a moment Katsushiro thought Kanbei was going to embrace Kyuuzou, but as the tall, handsome man stepped forward towards the red warrior, the dark beauty beside Kyuuzou barked sharply, "Back off! Has anyone been kind enough to tell you that you have a serious body odor problem?"
Kanbei stopped in his tracks. Shichiroji, enraged that his former commander was thusly insulted, would have gladly killed that insufferable woman. He rattled his spear and started towards Ayame again, but Rikichi restrained him. Kanbei, however, did not dignify the woman's remark by acknowledging her in any manner. He simply continued gazing at Kyuuzou with the kind of expression that made Ayame frown – it was a look of surprise, and joy, and something more. The silent young man stared back at Kanbei with an unreadable look on his face.
Ayame interrupted. "Well, they're your … friends I guess?" she asked the red samurai.
"They are people I worked with on the Kanna Project." Kyuuzou responded dully.
Kanbei winced inwardly at Kyuuzou's cold reply. But outwardly, he maintained a warm demeanor. "It seems we have a lot of catching up to do. Would you and your sister like to join us for some tea?" he asked.
"No!" Ayame replied on Kyuuzou's behalf. But the crimson samurai turned towards the shorter warrior. He bent and whispered something inaudible in the woman's ear. Kanbei felt a stab of pain in his heart as he observed this intimate gesture.
The darkly handsome woman paused for a moment. Then she addressed all present. "Well, I will take my leave now," she dipped ever so slightly in a mock bow to the samurai. "I have to run some errands for a friend. I leave Kyuuzou in your care. Make sure you return him in an untouched condition." The golden-eyed fighter stated in an almost threatening tone. Then she turned and left, but not before throwing a not-too-friendly look at Shichiroji and Kanbei.
"You have my word," Kanbei called out after her in as amiable a tone as he could muster. Why was it always his bad luck to be faced with the angry, jealous lovers of the people he desired?
Kyuuzou fixed his cold eyes on Shichiroji even as he watched Third Sister's departing figure out of the corner of his eye until the woman passed out of sight. Kanbei had the feeling that if his friend so much as took a step in that woman's direction, Kyuuzou would have killed him. "Does he care so much for her?" Kanbei wondered.
Katsushiro was already prostrating himself on the ground before Kyuuzou. "I'm so sorry!!! I didn't mean to…"
Kyuuzou stared down at him almost disgustedly, then he looked away and sighed.
"Forgive me!!!" Katsushiro was still talking with his face in the dirt.
"Oh get up already!" Kyuuzou rolled his eyes.
Without thinking, Shichiroji said to Kyuuzou. "Your sister owes me an arm …"
Before he knew it, Kyuuzou's angry face was right in front of him, barely inches away. "Do not even think about touching her," the red-clad warrior spat with a murderous glare in his eyes. "Or you are a dead man!"
"Oooh… touchy!!!" Shichi said, looking down at Kyuuzou with raised eyebrows. Kanbei too was somewhat surprised. He had never before seen that level of raw aggression coming from the cold, calculated fighter. Had Kyuuzou changed? Or perhaps he did not know the young man well to start with. Or maybe Kyuuzou was acting this way only because of that woman. The thought gnawed at him.
But the old ronin hid his feelings of doubt. Instead, he gently but firmly parted the two blonds as he stepped between them. The dark samurai said soothingly to Shichi, "Come on, let's go back to the teahouse. I believe we forgot to pay for our tea when we left in such a hurry just now." Then Shimada turned to the crimson samurai and said amiably, "Kyuuzou-dono, you can join us if you wish."
"If you want an arm so badly," Kyuuzou continued glaring over Kanbei's shoulder at Shichiroji, "you're welcome to try to take mine!"
Shichiroji made as if to reply in anger but Kanbei placed a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. "My friend, if we are to avenge ourselves on every former enemy soldier who ever wounded us, it would be the Great War all over again. Likewise, if you and I have to pay for all the lives we've ever taken, we would be dead many times over. The war is over. Let it rest."
Shichiroji sighed. He began making his way down the street. The tall blond walked on ahead as he needed to be alone to calm down. Kanbei fell into step next to Kyuuzou.
"She's not really your sister, is she?" Shimada asked.
"No, not really." Kyuuzou replied grudgingly. The silent loner was no fool. He knew there was another unasked question behind Kanbei's question. But he felt no obligation to explain anything to anyone.
"Did she …" Kanbei began.
"It is a secret between me and her." the red warrior cut him off. Kyuuzou said the words without any feeling, but they stabbed Kanbei to the core.
"What is her name?" the dark ronin asked. Kyuuzou did not answer. He did not think any information given to Kanbei would be safe from Shichiroji. The silent samurai was not going to give the angry aide any means by which he could trace and stalk Ayame. And even without Shichiroji in the picture, Third Sister's name was still none of Kanbei's concern, Kyuuzou thought.
At the scarlet samurai's silence, Kanbei wondered, "Does he guard even her name so jealously?" The dark ronin had once thought the cold loner never returned his feelings because he simply did not have the capacity to love anyone. Now that he saw that there was indeed a strange, beautiful someone whom the silent samurai seemed to be jealously protective of, he could not help feeling bitter, hurt and rejected.
Still, the dark ronin tried to reach out to the younger man. "I'm glad to see you back, Kyuuzou," Kanbei ventured.
"Don't be. We still have our 'date', remember? I'm back if only to finish things."
"Kyuuzou, we need to talk." Kanbei said urgently. It seemed that coming back from the dead had not caused Kyuuzou to value a second chance at life.
"You're not trying to talk your way out of your promise, are you?"
"No, but I still have some things to say to you, before one of us…"
"For once, I do feel the same way," Kyuuzou responded coolly. "There is something I need to ask you, but I think I will save it for just before our match. I want to get this duel out of the way before one of us gets killed by unforeseen factors."
"Do you wish to set a date?" Kanbei asked tentatively.
"I will seek you after I have taken care of other matters," the young man answered. "Where can I find you?"
"I expect to be in the House of the Fireflies for the next few days," said the dark ronin. "I will wait there for you."
--
Kyuuzou returned to Sayoko's apartment to find Ayame unloading the grocery bags into the refrigerator and cupboards. As he approached her to help put the food away, Third Sister asked, "So who exactly were those people you were hanging with just now? Turns out that badly-dressed blond and the tall man with long hair were Allied Forces soldiers who fought against our side during the assault on the Sky Fortress in Genna 8. I saw them briefly on the sky battlefield."
The scarlet samurai answered, "The blond is Shichiroji who works and lives at the House of the Fireflies. You'll probably want to stay clear of Iyashi no Sato for the remainder of your stay in Kougakyo if you don't want to run into him again."
"I didn't kill him during the war, but he's really pushing his luck now, asking for another fight." Ayame shook her head as she shoved a box of dried buckwheat noodles into the bottom shelf of Sayoko's kitchen cabinet. "Some people just can't seem to move on."
Kyuuzou put 10 packs of instant miso soup onto the top cabinet shelf that was too high for Ayame to reach.
"By the way, who is the big unshaven guy?" the golden-eyed woman asked as she recalled the sleazy-looking ronin. "He was looking at you funny. That person is not giving you any trouble is he?"
"That's Kanbei, Shichiroji's former commander," the young man said as nonchalantly as he could. "He was our team leader for the Kanna Project."
"He was ready to kill me over you," Ayame remarked. "What's going on between the two of you?"
"I think you are reading too much into things." Kyuuzou thought as he controlled the urge to roll his eyes. But he did not speak his thoughts out loud.
Receiving no answer, Kyuuzou's senpai could only keep her questions to herself.
--
1 day later…
Kyuuzou returned to the Governor's palace and found to his relief that the guards were willing to allow him entry. Apparently, none of the lower-level staff knew of his 'disgrace' and 'defection'. Ayamaro's bureaucracy was not very transparent. Low-level employees were never informed about changes in the upper management, unless it directly concerned them. Kyuuzou had wondered about this policy before, but now he saw that it had its advantages.
The guards just let him pass without question. Since Ukyo's thugs were all dead, there was no one around to challenge his credentials. Kyuuzou went to his old room to find that, as he feared, it had been locked.
He located the chief janitor and asked if he could be let in. The janitor said that the bodyguards' old quarters had been cleared and Kyuuzou's belongings were now in the second floor store room. Without much ado, the crimson-eyed young man went to the store room and began sorting through the piles of boxes. He finally found two boxes labeled 'Kyuuzou'. There was only one thing he really came here for, though he would not mind taking a few extra changes of clothing too. So far, other than the outfit that Ayame had brought for him, Kyuuzou's 'new' wardrobe consisted of Sayoko's cast off out-of-fashion clothes, which did not fit very well. That ex-samurai was shorter and slightly bulkier than Kyuuzou.
To his great relief, he found what he came to find. The slender samurai quickly left his old place of employment and returned to Sayoko's apartment.
--
Ayame was preparing to leave Kougakyo for Hokuhei. As she packed her bags, the crimson samurai approached her with a package wrapped in yellowish-white paper.
"O-ne-sama, there is something I'd like you to keep for me..." Kyuuzou began as he knelt down beside her.
Ayame unwrapped the package carefully. "It's Second Sister's sumi-e set!" the golden-eyed woman exclaimed with surprise as she raised her eyes to Kyuuzou. "She gave it to you. Why are you giving it to me to keep?"
"I don't have any place to keep it," Kyuuzou said.
"If you can't find a place to stay, you can come with me to Hokuhei."
The quiet young man remained silent as he looked away.
Ayame persisted. "Well, if you don't want to leave Kougakyo, Sayoko says you can stay with her until you find your own place. You'll have to pay rent, of course, but we can arrange a work-stay program…"
"I have to make a trip," Kyuuzou finally spoke. "I don't know when I will return."
Actually, Kyuuzou did not know if he would return.
"Where to?" Ayame queried.
"I haven't decided yet," Kyuuzou reluctantly replied. "Maybe I'll go to my home village."
The dark-haired woman gave her kouhai a long, odd look. Kyuuzou had never once expressed the slightest wish to visit Shirase Village since the day Ayame met him sixteen years ago. Something about the current situation made her uneasy. Had it anything to do with that dark man she ran into the other day? But she knew it was pointless trying to get answers out of Kyuuzou when he was not willing to talk.
Ayame finally spoke. "If you're planning to go get yourself killed, I'll never forgive you."
Kyuuzou avoided those sharp golden eyes and occupied himself with helping his senpai pack her bags.
--
Author's Comments:
- For those who asked, Kyuuzou does have his 'masculinity' back ;-) That is why his face and build are more angular than they used to be. And his new 'aggressiveness' might have something to do with that.
- Kyuuzou whispers to Ayame because he is voicing a disagreement with her that he does not want the others to hear. She flatly turned down Kanbei's offer, which Kyuuzou did not want to do. He wanted to go with Kanbei. But instead of openly challenging his senior in front of people outside their 'family', he gives Ayame 'face' by presenting his request to her in private.
- "Why it always his bad luck to be faced with the angry, jealous lovers of the people he desired?" Kanbei is inaccurately projecting his past experience from companion fic One Life, One Love onto the present and misunderstanding Kyuuzou and Ayame's relationship.
- Second Sister's sumi-e set was given to Kyuuzou in Wolf Warriors chapter A Song and A Sigh.