"Miryu, calm down, you're going to burn a hole in the floor," Graham said to Miryu, who had a bottle of Sake in her hand, and one of her whips in another. Algren was with Okina and Kenshin, discussing their next move, while Misao was nowhere to be found... "Perhaps you could loan your grandfather's katana?"
With her sapphire eyes, Miryu glared at the Englishman and asked, "What about Kenshin, then?" She knew the consequences of Kenshin returning to becoming hitokiri Battousai. As hitokiri, he was more bloodthirsty and violent than she was, although the both of them were regarded as equals, and if he killed again, no one would be able to subdue him. She had sworn before that she would never lay her katana against his in straight combat, and she knew that he would be an even more formidable enemy than Shishio would be. And when that happens, even she would not be able to stop him... "He needs a sakabattou, and nothing else."
Graham took the bottle of sake from her hand and asked her, "Do you have so little faith in Kenshin?" He had known them around the second year of their career in the Choushu-han, and ever since then, he had never lost contact with either of them, even if Kenshin had roamed around Japan for ten years. His belief was that there was no one stronger than Kenshin in willpower, and he was appalled that she would even agree with Kenshin that he would return into Battousai willy-nilly just like that.
"You do not know Kenshin as I do," she replied. "He is so pure in mind and soul, it borders on stupidity. I am not qouting my Shishou, I am speaking with experience, Graham, nothing can get to him once he sets his mind to it, not even me." It had happened ever since he left their training to fight for the Ishin-Ishishi, and no matter what she said, he would not remain, much less Hiko Seijurou.
It was a revelation that Graham never knew would come. And one that if true, would bring dire ramifications to Japan. That was why Miryu was acting as she was, and that was why she had never let her heart at ease, until Kenshin had a sakabattou in his hands again.
Just then, Kenshin, Okina and Algren dashed out of Kenshin's rooms and out the door, while Algren dragged Miryu out, who had Graham in tow. "Where are we going?" Graham asked, trying hard to keep up.
"We have received word from Misao that one of Shishio's lackeys met Seiku and is now taking his son hostage for the last two katana made by his father!" Okina exclaimed, no doubt, he would receive such news via carrier pigeon, a method which was still used even in those days, for their effectiveness and reliability. Armed with only her whips, Miryu looked at Kenshin, who still had his sakabattou by his side...
It was a dire situation indeed, and Miryu knew that there was no time to waste.
Chou the Collector of Katana walked up the steps of the Hakusan Shrine and found two figures already waiting for him. One was a woman, taller than most Japanese man, her hair the color of the night, holding a whip in each hand, while the other was a man, shorter than the woman, with red hair that burned like fire and a bandage was plastered upon his cheek... "Who are you?" he asked them, and the man pulled off the bandage, revealing his cross-shaped scar. At the same time, a breeze started to blow, and the woman's hair moved accordingly, showing her own unique scar at her neck, the word "ryu".
There was no need for answers, for their apperances alone were evidence enough as to who they were. Miryu and Kenshin knew well enough that Chou could recognize them immediately, what was important, was that they saved the child that he was dangling by one of his katana that he was holding upright. "Release the child," Kenshin commanded, earning only a sly smile in return.
"Ah, the two hitokiri are here," Chou said in his thick Kansai accent, "Battousai and Battouryu... Are you here for the last works of Arai Shakku as well?" Houji's intelligence reports never lied, and he knew that they were after the same items as he was, even if they might not show it.
Kenshin's features were unmoving, remaining as stern as they had been. "We are not hunting for the same weapons de gozaru, release the child and we shall be on our way," Miryu said, revealing her sapphire eyes already flecked with amber. "Shakku's grandson has no quarrel with what you seek." The flare of Ki from her was so strong that every katana on Chou's body started to quiver and shake, pronouncing her power. However, it failed to deter Chou in any way, it only managed to pique his interest further.
After hanging Seiku's son on a tree-branch with an ingenious move by thrusting his saya and the child onto the air, revealing his dearly-prized weapon. "I'll guess that I'll decline your request," he told them, "We'll have a fair and honorable fight instead."
"I do not think that you know what you are talking about means," Miryu scoffed, readying her whips while touching her hair on the left side of her head, a sign to Kenshin that she would attack from the left, while Kenshin pointed straight towards Chou, and told him that fighting a man with a broken katana and a woman with only whips to defend herself while holding a hostage has no honor. Miryu, however, understood the gesture, where Kenshin had indicated that he would allow their opponent to charge towards him.
With that, Chou started his attack, springing forward towards Kenshin as he had predicted, and Miryu leapt to Chou's left, and whipped his back, breaking all of the katana with sheer use of her Ki. "Hey, that's not fair!" he shouted, while Kenshin was able to evade him just by stepping to the side. Too weak, there was no chance that Shishio Makoto would allow such a weakling to be at the center of his plans, Miryu thought, he does not have the same standards as Shishio does, although a deranged man he remained, he was still a man of honor, not like this common rogue. Well, at least he was down and out already...
Kenshin immediately turned towards Seiku's son, who seemed to be unharmed and smiled to the boy, only to sense Chou getting up behind him. Miryu thought that he was about to attack, but on the contrary, he clamped two of his blades together, forming a single katana with two blades, which interestingly enough, Kenshin broke into pieces with a bare-fisted punch, ending with a Ryu-Sho-Sen attack aimed at his abdoment, which sent him flying towards the ground. If he was the common riff-raff that Kenshin had fought these days in Tokyo, it would be enough to finish him...
"Don't worry, child," Miryu said to the baby, who was cooing and gurgling at her. "We will bring you to your parents safe and sound..." However, she was interrupted by Chou, who was steadily rising to his full height. He had already shed his outer clothes, revealing some sort of armor that he wore on his waist, ending the riddle as to why he could withstand Kenshin's attack.
However, something told her that the thing around his waist was not armor at all... As she looked at him, she saw a tsuba that was not attached to any katana on his body... No, the thing was a katana, so flexible that he could wear it around his waist like armor. "No!" she heard Seiku crying in anguish. When did he get here? When did Okina, Misao, Algren and Graham get here, for that matter? "This is one of my father's later works, one that he had refined again and again..."
Without a moment's notice, Kenshin's leg received a deep, vertical cut from the katana, which was revealed to be extremely long, if not extremely flexible, while one of Miryu's whips was cut into pieces. "This is not good," Graham stuttered, while he saw Algren starting to reach for his gun. "Wait," he told the American. If there was something that he had learnt in Japan, was that things had to go down honorably. "Miryu and Kenshin would never live this down if you helped them like that..." And luckily for him, Okina agreed.
"This is their fight, Algren-kun," Okina added, and reluctantly, Algren withdrew his intentions to shoot Chou. "I know that you love your wife, but this is no way to end a battle."
If it were any day, Algren would have readily argued with the two of them, but it was not any other day, with each little progress Kenshin and Miryu achieved, they were once again cut down by the deadly Hakujin-no-tachi, which was the name of the katana Chou was using, its blade weighted in such a manner that one flick of the wrist could direct it anywhere the user wished to attack.
Miryu spat out blood as she leapt into the air with Kenshin's saya and hit Chou on the head, and for the briefest moment, she was able to evade his attacks, but the impact of her own assult crumbled the saya into nothingness, and once again, she was left without a weapon, and was cut right across her abdomen, while Chou manuvered the blade towards Kenshin, and cut his chest just seconds after, earning a deathly glare from his opponent.
"Those eyes again," he said, looking at the both of them. "Do you even understand that you are about to die just for some kid?" he asked them, but Kenshin helped Miryu to stand, both struggling to gain their composure.
"Ten years ago, we killed many to bring in the new age," Kenshin said, numbing his mind from the pain his wounds had caused him. "You do not even know how gruesome it was... We fought for the children of today, we fought for the child that you are going to kill, and we cannot allow that de gozaran!"
Miryu looked at Seiku's son and added, "You might see this child as a nuisance, but for us, he is the gift sent onto us from the heavens, our hope for the future!" Algren knew that she could not last any more beatings, and was losing her stamina... "We will risk our lives to defend him from people like you if need be!"
Just then, Seiku started to dash towards the shrine, knowing that he would buy Kenshin and Miryu enough time to recover, and that he was the only one who could deliver them the weapons that they so desparately needed. "Himura-san, Algren-san, please, hang in there!"
It was more than Chou could allow. His rage had started to blind him, and Miryu knew that it was time to strike. There was still a bit of Kenshin's saya left usable, and it was what they utilized. Nodding to one another, Miryu became the decoy, and leapt towards Chou, while Kenshin channeled length of Chou's flexible katana through the opening of the saya, closing their distance to him. With that, the both of them smashed his forehead with their elbows, knocking him down once again.
With that, Seiku called them, and threw them the katana they needed. Miryu's even had a golden bell at the tsuba, one that rang almost similarly to that of her mother's. There was no time now, the final attack had to happen now. It was to kill, or be killed. But Miryu knew, even if she had a katana now, Kenshin was in the position to attack, not her. There was nothing more that she could do. Gripping her new katana, she felt its weight settle against her. Yes, it was a little heavier than that of her mother's, but it was made from tamahagane, unlike her previous weapon. The saya was made just the same, with a snakeskin wrapping. And she knew, like her previous weapon, it would not be a sakabattou. She had no need for one, but Kenshin... He stood there for the longest time, contemplating whether or not to restart the duel.
Once the rurouni inside him tastes blood, he will never stop killing,Miryu's inner voice told her, and she knew that it was true. If that happened, she would have to break her oath... I will have to kill Kenshin before Shishio kills him...
"Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu, Ryu-Kan-Sen Tsumuji!" Kenshin shouted after a long moment of silence, and immediately attacked Chou, an attack that Kenshin executed while spinning in mid-air, his body parallel to the ground, sweeping an arc aimed towards Chou's neck. I attacked, he thought, its over...
Simon Graham would never have thought that he would see that one day, the violence during the Bakumatsu would be repeated, that one day, the gentle, quiet soul that was Himura Kenshin would be drawn once again towards bloodlust... He could not imagine that he would live to see the day, and he was terrified.
"Sakabattou," Algren's voice rang, shaking the Englishman from his dark thoughts. "It is a sakabattou!" He repeated, along with Misao, whose voice was killed with joy. Kenshin looked up and blinked. He did not understand. Apart from Miryu's katana, Arai Shakku's last work, was a sakabattou?
To that, Miryu smiled, and said, "Thank the gods," before collapsing. She had bore the brunt of Chou's attacks, knowing that it was Kenshin's fight in the first place, to find the balance between the hitokiri and the rurouni from within him, and this time, it was evident that the rurouni won by a clear default. Algren rushed to his wife, overjoyed to see that she was still conscious. "Nathan, don't worry," she whispered, "I'm alright."
Algren lifted her chin with his finger and hushed her. "I know..." he replied, and carried her in his arms while turning to face Kenshin. "Kenshin, look!" he said, when the tsuba of the new sakabattou started to split, dropping the blade to the floor, revealing engraved words where the tsuba had been.
"I forged katana that killed for countless of years, this is for my grandchildren who bear no ill-will at all," Miryu read from Algren's arms, and she looked at hers as well. Like Kenshin's the tsubasa was made of brittle wood that she could easily break. "For the youngest dragon, a katana for the new age... The blood that this katana sheds, will always be the last..."
Hours later, at the Aoiya, after Kenshin and Miryu had received proper treatment for their wounds, and Chou was shipped off to the police for Saito to handle, Seiku quickly made new tsuba for both of the new katana. "My father continued to make weapons that killed at the height of the Bakumatsu... and I thought that he was just stubborn. He really wanted to end the bloodshed after all, that is why he made these two last katana..."
"The Tetsu-Rou-Jou of the Shinsen-Gumi used a titanium katana, and Shakku knew that one day, her daughter would fight as well, per the Line of Dragons, so he made a new one for the Youngest Dragon as well," Okina added, looking at Miryu.
"I heard that the two of you are leaving the Ishin-Ishishi", Shakku said to Kenshin and Miryu, who stood side by side amidst cries of victory. The battle of Toba and Fushimi had been won, and from then on, the Ishin-Ishishi would easily gain control of all Japan, any fighting from then on, would be for selfish reasons... "The two of you have lived and killed with the sword, and it is only fitting that you would die by it as well, for the lives that you have taken."
Both Miryu and Kenshin smiled, claiming that they would not have it in any other way. "Himura, I heard that you would not kill anymore, and here is the katana that might help you," Shakku added, throwing a katana towards Kenshin, one with a reversed edge. "This is not my finest work, and if and when this one breaks, I shall give you another one..." Kenshin took it and bowed his thanks. "Tsubasa, you seem pretty comfortable using your mother's katana, but remember, you are the youngest of the Line of Dragons, and possibly the last. When that one breaks, you shall have a new one too. You shall create a new linage, and with that, you need a new one..."
Shakku always had a sense of morbid humor about him. Although in death, he has earnt the respect of his long-estranged son, and for generations to come, he would always be remembered, as the man who created weapons to kill, weapons that shed blood, for an age of peace.