"Miryu… Kenshin!" Algren shouted when the almost-giant of a man Senkaku crushed the former hitokiri towards the wooden walls of Shishio's manor. However, when the dust from the blow had subsided, it was revealed that the two of them had blocked his blow with their katana, leaving two great kinks in each of his axe-blades. Relief immediately washed over him, while Saito berated him for having so little faith in his own wife.

With precise, twin movements, the two of them darted to either side to recover from the blow, and to re-sheath their weapons for yet another battou-jutsu attack, or so it seemed to be. "Sessha has given Sessha's word de gozaran," Kenshin told Senkaku. "Sessha will destroy you before Sessha destroys Shishio!" Blow after blow was rained upon him and Miryu, but two of them were always able to parry his attacks, darting behind him whenever they arrive at a dead end.

Senkaku looked amused, that his enemies would not dare face him in outright combat, but still, he marveled at their speed and agility. "So, it is true that Battousai and Battouryu are as fast as the eye can see!" he exclaimed, "However, where physical strength is concerned, I have the upper hand!" Once more, he swiped both his axe-blades at the two of them, but they leapt above his head, landing behind him. Sensing that Kenshin was going to strike next, he quickly turned to the right, and started to give chase again.

As Saito watched this exchange, he could see many things, more importantly, literally how synchronized Kenshin and Miryu's attacks were. In the days of the Bakumatsu, the two of them were among the most powerful warriors, blessed with supreme speed and resilience, this Senkaku would not outlast them in such a flimsy excuse for a battle indeed. He remembered clearly that not even a full regiment of Miburo behind him could defeat the two of them, and to face them both singly, it would be utter suicide. There was no need to communicate, nor was there any need for intricate signage between them. They literally could read each others' mind, something that Shishio direly wanted to his advantage.

Outside, Simon Graham really swore that he needed to lose a few pounds. A few more steps slower, and he was sure that Shishio's thugs could have noticed him, Misao and Eiji creeping about the property. However, some thugs were just needed to be crossed. With the mansion being so vast, there was a very real possibility that they would get lost within its confines. They needed a guard to get them in.

"So, what are we going to do?" Eiji asked, looking around the bush they were hiding behind. "Any bright ideas?"

Graham grimaced. He was very sure that he would be roasted like a pig over an open fire by either Shishio or Miryu if they were discovered. "Whatever you do, just be sure that you do not take me as the President of the United States," he told the children, reminiscing on the escapade last year when he, Miryu and Algren went to save Katsumoto from suicide.

"We can do that?" Misao asked, but suddenly remembered that a person as prolific as Shishio would certainly have known how the President of the United States looked like. "Still, we need to find a way to get in though!"

And then, chance came. They were noticed by the guards outside the door, and immediately, Misao began to take them down one by one. "Who are you three?" one of the guards asked, but Misao quickly delivered a kick below his jaw, silencing him.

Just as they thought that all of them were unconscious, one remained, and was prepared to raise a whistle to alert more of his comrades. Sadly for him, he did not notice that Eiji was holding his katana level to the man's neck. "Lead us to Senkaku and we will let you live."

The man had no choice but to comply.

"How long do you think that you can avoid me, you fools?" Senkaku asked Miryu and Kenshin when the both of them darted behind him once again. The look on Shishio's face was not pretty at all, not that it was a sight to begin with. Just a little longer, and this brute will go down like an injured beast before a hunter, just a little more…

From the sidelines, Algren began to see through their strategy. The way they allowed themselves to be cornered, the way they took turns to lead Senkaku to turn on his right knee, it was all a strategy. This way, it would put undue stress on Senkaku, given his weight, which would give in any moment. And as an added advantage, Shishio Makoto would have no chance of deciphering their technique at all. Yes, that must be it.

"Saito-san, why don't you help them?" Soujirou asked Saito, who released a puff of cigarette smoke. "If I'm not wrong, Battouryu-san could be said as your niece…"

Scoffing, Saito said, "Miryu can very well take care of herself, but it is Shishio that I'm worried about. All this while, he has been speaking with a charismatic flourish, and now, look at him, he is as sour was a lemon." What the Miburo said next was enough to conclude that Algren's theory was utterly correct. "The two of them will lead Senkaku to a road of self-destruction."

It was time, Miryu deemed, and for the first time throughout the battle, she looked at Kenshin, who nodded back at her. Leaping back to their former places, they watched Senkaku's right knee turn awkwardly, and give in, rendering him immobile after falling onto the floor. "My leg!" he shouted. "My leg! It's broken!"

"When you moved, you did not lose any of your speed, and when you turned, it gave your leg undue pressure," Algren said, revealing to Shishio subtly that he too, was not to be taken lightly. "And at the same speed that the three of you were moving, your weight was greater, and hence, more damaging to yourself."

Senkaku did not accept that fact. "It is ridiculous, nothing like this has ever happened before! I am in top physical shape!"

Throwing away his cigarette butt, Saito scolded, "Ahou, when Battousai and Miryu turned, they gradually increased their speed, that is why you were trapped under the impression that you were just as fast… Baka, you killed ninety-nine people, and the hundredth is yourself."

"I never thought that there was so many sides to a battle like that!" Soujirou marveled, not noticing that the shoji door behind them opened slowly, allowing three pairs of eyes to peer through the opening.

Standing above Senkaku, Miryu turned to Kenshin and said, "We had a deal, Kenshin. Your values will not overcome that of my own…" As she said those words, she turned the cutting-edge of her katana towards the man, ready to kill him at any moment. Looking at him with sheer pity in her sapphire eyes, she said, "It has been fun indeed, although we hardly even broke a drop of sweat…"

Before Miryu swung her katana to decapitate him, Senkaku raised his head and begged for mercy. "I didn't really kill ninety-nine people!" he shouted, but was interrupted by Kenshin, who said that the death of Eiji's parents and brother was by his doing. After saying those words, Miryu began to strike once again.

"Senkaku," Shishio's voice cut through the room. "I have never expected you to win this fight, but if you would not draw even one of Battousai and Miryu's techniques, I will kill you personally, and it would be far merciless than what she is about to do."

Indeed, fear for the master was mostly what drove minions to do their bidding, for Senkaku immediately rose and lunged at Kenshin and Miryu once again. This time, however, it was only Kenshin who attacked. "Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu, Ryu-Sho-Sen!" Kenshin shouted, delivering a blow below Senkaku's chin, leaping from below. He had shown the brute mercy, and Miryu knew that one day, his mercy will one day come back to haunt them.

Every time they see Kenshin and Miryu fight, it just gets better and better, even for Graham, who had known them from the time of the Bakumatsu. "Well, don't just hide there, Graham," Algren said, opening the door a little wider, allowing the three of them to tumble out. "We knew that you were there all along." Somehow, something inside him told him that the three of them must have had a great adventure of their own.

"Battousai, that attack… Ryu-Sho-Sen, as you called it, if you had used the cutting edge, would you have killed Senkaku?" Shishio asked, with a raised eyebrow (if they could see it, that is). Kenshin said nothing, but nodded. "You are a fool. I had heard how you have become a rurouni with no desire to kill, now that I know that it is true. You are worse than Miryu, who has become a government watchdog like Saito…" After saying thus, he gestured to woman beside him, "Come, Yumi, my love, we shall depart. This place is so boring that I do not wish to fight." Yumi smiled, and dutifully removed the screen behind them, revealing a hidden stairway. "Come to Kyoto after you are once again the hitokiri you were, and perhaps, I shall decide whether to fight with you and Miryu…"

Kenshin had had enough. "You would leave, after all this?" he demanded. But Miryu just put her hand on his tsuba, saying that there was no point to force a coward into battle. Instead, the chance was given to Soujirou, along with Shishio's katana.

"And so, you really can fight," Saito said, looking at the boy, who politely stated that he would be facing both Kenshin and Miryu at the same time. In their battle with Senkaku, they had no chance to determine his strength as an enemy, and did so using their Ki, succeeding only in making Misao and Eiji sit down from their standing positions. "Its useless, I've tried doing that when you were busy with that brute. Even an ahou like Algren noticed that earlier."

While Algren was still a stranger to the concept of "Ki", he knew that there was no spark of energy that gave Soujirou away. The boy was an utter enigma to begin with. Without wasting any more time, Kenshin and Miryu got into their stances, and surprisingly, Soujirou did the same.

"If it will be Battou-jutsu, then I shall use the same," he told them with his customary smile. "I shall show no quarter, if you don't mind."

Then, it all happened in a flash. There was no set technique, but all three swords met in the center between them, and seconds later, a edge of a katana flew out. "The sakabattou!" Algren exclaimed, much to Soujirou's elation.

"Well, that's it…" he chirped happily, until Saito interrupted him.

"Yes it is, if all parties are unable to fight, its called a 'draw'".

With one look at his katana, Soujirou fond that it was shattered beyond the state of repair, while Miryu's had a greatest notch where their katana met. All three katana were rendered useless. "How come Battouryu One-chan's katana is only notched?"

Although Miryu found it cute that Soujirou would called her "One-chan", she still regarded him as a deadly adversary. "My katana is not made from tamahagane (carbonized steel), but from titanium, it was my mother's."

"Ah, indeed, I forgot that you were the Shinsen-Gumi's Tetsu-Rou-Jou's daughter," Soujirou replied. "But it does not matter, I have to get to Shisho-san, and the both of you need to replace your weapons. We shall fight again until then."

Miryu nodded, and smiled as he left, before moving to Kenshin and gave him the broken edge of his sakabattou. "Do you remember that Shakku Arai promised us new katana when ours have broken?" she asked him, "Do not worry, we will obtain new weapons, and we will get through this together."