Miryu went back to the Choushu headquarters with two of her friends in the form of Okami's housekeepers later that day, with a purchase of new books and bargain-priced kimono. Miryu even bought a set of throw daggers from Arai Shakku, who recognized who she was immediately when he saw her mother's katana. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me" she could remember him say.
As soon she was at the entrance of the room she shared with Kenshin, she heard him and Tomoe speaking to each other. "I want you to forget everything you've seen yesterday and leave for home" he said.
"Am I such a burden?" Tomoe asked, crestfallen that she was driven off by her "savior". Don't think that I'll leave so easily, she thought. "Okami seems to like me a lot"
"Your family will be worried of your safety" Kenshin explained, "You should go home as soon as possible"
"I wouldn't have gotten myself drunk in a strange place had I a family to go to" she replied sadly. "Would you finish me off if you knew that?"
"I only kill people who are armed and, or support the Bakufu. Of course, no civilians will be hurt, I promise you this" he said.
"So, good people do not carry weapons while bad people do?" she asked in defiance. Kiyasato was a good man; he came all the way here although his skills with the katana weren't as sharp as the other samurai just to please me… "If I was armed that night, would you have killed me too? Would you kill me if I was Miryu and I stood on the side of the Bakufu? Doesn't she carry weapons?"
Miryu was flabbergasted when she heard Tomoe's words. Perhaps she was just making a statement, or she was one of those idiotic conservatives who still believed that women could not carry the sword, read or write and should focus on finding a husband, cooking, weaving and arranging flowers on their free time?
"I…" Kenshin stammered, unable to find an answer.
"Tell me when you find an appropriate answer" she said coldly before leaving the room, not even noticing Miryu.
"Miryu, you've heard everything?" Kenshin asked when she entered the room. The girl could only nod her head in answer. "Why are women so hard to understand?"
"Not all women in general, Kenshin" she said, "It's only Tomoe one-san. Somehow, she seems more afraid and angry at us than the others here. I sensed her emotions, and they appear only maleficent to me"
"I agree with you" he said, "I guess we'd best keep a watchful eye on her"
Tomoe heard their conversation, anger once again raged in her heart, yet there was no expression in her face. I must do something to hide even my heart's desires from the two of them. But how can I kill them? How can I break them and find their greatest weaknesses?
The bell on Ryumiko's katana that was passed on to Miryu tinkled with the wind. No sound was fairer at the moment, when silence could suffocate human beings. How many more victims will the blade of the katana claim was still unknown, but it was sure that that particular katana would ensure the opening of a new age, and the closing of an age of tyranny with bloodshed and gore unparallel in the course of history.