Miryu relished this day for fifteen years already. It was the day she was going back to her former home, with Kenshin. It was a reunion that she had been waiting for fifteen years, literally almost half her lifetime, and depending on what calender system you were using, around her fourteenth or fifteenth year of life. "You look like a kid at the candy store," Algren told her, handing her a hair-stick, the exact one that Kenshin tried to steal and pawn. "I've never seen you so happy before, Miryu."
Looking at the little bronze mirror, she looked at her smiling reflection. "The both of them were not together at our wedding," she said, reading his mind completely. Her sapphire eyes were glowing with a reminiscent light that made Algren love her even more, and Gods, he knew that she wanted nothing more than to actually see Kenshin and Hiko together ever since the former defaulted his training to join the Ishin-Ishishi.
"We did not know that the name was a secret one," Okina had told Kenshin, while Miryu smacked her own face out of exasperation before hitting Kenshin on the head.
"Excuse me, not all of us had utterly no contact with Shishou!" she exclaimed to Kenshin, who was nursing a new head-wound by then, her clear voice nothing more than a vicious growl, enlightening Okina to what the Line of Dragons actually meant.
Afternoon. The air was clean, and the water was flowing in the stream near his kiln as it has always been. But that day, the wind had been a little stronger, and the fires a little hard to control. It had been always like that, his two foolish apprentices always had a strange affinity to the elements: Miryu to fire, and Kenshin to the wind. The two of them were coming, and they were coming together. It had been fifteen years since they were last before him, the both of them.
He could sense it, the apprehensive flow of Ki that came from nowhere at all. Seconds later, he felt two katana swinging towards him, and one leap towards the skies was enough to evade their attacks. "Attacking a lone potter in the middle of nowhere," he told Kenshin and Miryu, "You should be ashamed of yourselves."
A chuckle could be heard. Miryu's most definitely. He had seen her more often since her marriage to the American, as strange as he was, and he was inwardly thankful for it. She had someone who loved her for a husband, and a thriving business, well, there was nothing he could ask for when she was concerned.
"Hiko Seijurou cannot be said to be a common potter," Kenshin said, sheathing his katana as Miryu did, before bowing to him. There were many works around them, and the kiln that they always seen. It was strange, very strange that he had never even relocated after fifteen years, what was it about this place that made him stay there after so long?
Miryu walked towards Hiko and said, "Shishou, we're home..." There was a small silence between them, and she could detect a small smile on his part, but not for long. He turned around with his katana on his shoulder, and walked into his house, telling them that since they had the gall to see him with each other again, they might as well be straight and open with them.
The house had not changed much as well, as Kenshin had found out. There were ceramics all around though, upon shelves that Hiko had obviously installed. When they were but children, he would always make one or two in order to make ends meet. He had himself and two growing children to feed anyways, but why continue with it? "Sessha can see that Niitsu Kakunoshin is a rising star in the world of pottery," Kenshin said, looking around him.
"Genius cannot be eluded in whatever form a genius pours himself in," Hiko said, almost blinding his two apprentices with the light reflected from his teeth. "Besides, with Miryu's gentle prodding, I do get the one or two guillible gaijin after my works, so why not?"
Those words were enough to set Kenshin and Miryu into a huddle. "Ah, and I thought that he was really that famous," Kenshin whispered to Miryu, who replied that she had strategically put some of Hiko's better pieces in her home whenever Algren brings home some customers, and she would bring them to Kyoto on a side tour with a certain extra charge to get them to Hiko's place to buy more from the "master" himself.
Hiko sighed. They were young, they were still impertinent. Foolish apprentices would always be like that. "You didn't answer my question, Kenshin," he said, "You are here to ask me something but you can't spit it out... Don't look at me like that, I am your Shishou, after all. And Miryu, don't think those eyes of yours can help him in any way."
Miryu looked away in a huff, obviously offended that her old trick did not work. Heck, it only worked when Hiko wished to act to her wishes anyways. There was no way around it, that much Kenshin knew. Taking a deep breath, he said, "Shishou, I need you to teach me the final lesson that you were going to teach Miryu and I fifteen years ago..."
At that moment, time literally stopped. Kenshin's eyes moved from Miryu's sapphire eyes to Hiko's cold emerald ones, from the ceramics behind their master, back to Hiko's again. "Absolutely not," Hiko replied, causing Kenshin to grab the hemlines of his cape, something that Miryu had never seen him do before.
"Please, Shishou," Kenshin begged, and Miryu did not neglect her part at all.
"Shishou, it would not be fair to Kenshin, that I received that part of your teachings and Kenshin did not," she said, almost in a condescending manner. It was something that Hiko had never seen before. What happened that would reduce the two of them to begging? Even in their most stubborn, they would even go on days without food when they were at loggerheads with him, continuing with his punishing training schedule...
Hiko Seijurou may be conceited, he may be a borderline alcoholic, but he was not a cruel man. "Alright," he said, brushing his hair off his face. "You look like you're at the end of your ropes, if you are here to talk about it, I shall be here to listen."
"Himura's gone?" Misao asked Algren and Okina, with Kaoru and Yahiko in tow. Algren showed no change of expression when he saw the two of them, merely bowing in greeting, while telling Okina that they were Kenshin's friends from Tokyo. "Where is he?"
The two men looked at one another, wondering who was best to answer the question. "They have gone to see Niitsu Kakunoshin," Algren said in the end, "He is a rising ceramics artist overrun with orders, but that is just an alias. The man you are looking for is Hiko Seijurou XIII, the Master of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu. He is Kenshin and Miryu's Master."
"Why would Kenshin even go back to his Master, and not Miryu-san as well?" Yahiko asked. It was ultimately strange, because it was rumored that Battousai was more famous than Battouryu because Battousai was more effective in those days. But Sanosuke had told them before, when they went to Miryu and Algren's mansion that he could feel that Miryu was marginally more powerful than Kenshin was.
That was strange, wasn't it? They came from the same school, the same Shishou, unles...
"Himura hadn't completely mastered the style!"
An instant wave on enthusiam rushed over the two children. "Wow, that would make Kenshin an utter demon!" Yahiko exclaimed.
"While Miryu-san is already a demon in the first place!"
Kaoru just looked at the two of them, and told herself, "It is normal that swordsmen get stronger and stronger but..." Her thoughts were interrupted by a man's voice, apparently shouting.
"Miryu did not abandon her training halfway, when it was most critical for your young minds!" the owner of the voice iterated, most probably towards Kenshin. "Fifteen years ago, you left your training for those ideals of yours. It doesn't matter if Miryu is like a daughter to me, she was a loyal student of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu, and if she was a man, she would have already become Hiko Seijurou XIV, and I would not have to place my hope on you!"
Kenshin, Miryu and Hiko were training before a magnificent waterfall. Miryu seemed to be restraining Kenshin before Hiko, while making sure that her Shishou did not kill Kenshin at the same time. "No!" Hiko shouted, his voice was abstinate and final.
"Shishou, more and more people are being dragged into this violence!" Kenshin tried to reason, "I cannot sit here and watch the people die every single day! The Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu is all about saving those who cannot defend themselves! If I cannot use my katana, what can I do to defend them?"
Miryu tried to speak, but she found no words to say at all. Her sapphire eyes were filled with confusion. She was not blind. She was not deaf either. She had known all her life the oppression of the Bakufu, on the women, the old, on the children. She too, was a student of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu, and she was a woman as well. She wanted to swing her katana to help in the cause too, but she knew, that there were more important things to do. "Please, Kenshin, do not make Shishou any angrier than he is now," Miryu told him through gritted teeth.
"If you do not wish to tell me why in legible words, then defeat me and be on your way!" Hiko said, not expecting Kenshin to hit him on the head with his sheathed katana.
"After that, we parted on bad terms, and you joined the Ishin-Ishishi," Hiko said, "And look at the result. Yes, you have gotten more powerful with the sword, but what about your psyche and your own soul? Have you ever thought why Miryu was never as disturbed as you are?" Kenshin knew that this was not Hiko comparing him to Miryu for comparison's sake. He knew that Hiko treated the both of them the same, it was just because Kenshin really did not continue with his training, it was really his fault. "This Shishio Makoto that you speak of, he is the ghost of the Bakumatsu, what you Ishin-Ishishi had unleashed. Yes, you may have been able to rebuild a new age out of the blood and ashes of the old one, but you created a phantom too powerful for you to stop. We of the Mitsurugi Ryuu have been able to protect the ages even under the rule of the Bakufu for 300 years, because we were all free swords without any master!"
Miryu had served the Ishin-Ishishi on her own terms, while Kenshin, he did so unquestionably, with no terms at all. After the Bakumatsu, Miryu had served the Emperor, with the condition that His Imperial Majesty did not tie her down with marriage, unless it be her own will, and she knew that she was serving by her own will. She was a free warrior, as much as she was a free spirit. That is why she was able to retain her sanity. That is why Kenshin was different than her. In his desire to defend the people, he had given himself to the demon, literally...
"You have never understood this," Hiko exclaimed. "You could never have learnt the ougi!"
At this moment, the door was kicked down by two children. A boy and a girl, to Hiko's eyes, shocking Kenshin and Miryu to no end. They knew these children, he mused, and by the looks of it, they knew them well.
"Are these friends of yours?" Hiko asked, and subconsciously, the two of them nodded. Usually, Miryu would be the first to shove them away, but Kenshin seemed to have other ideas. And what put the icing on the cake, was that beautiful kenjutsu-teaching girl from Tokyo, Kamiya Kaoru. She had bet with her husband how long would it take for Kenshin to propose to her... Judging from this situation, it would not be long since then. "Are you not talking to the girl?" he asked Kenshin. "She seems to have a lot to say to you..."
Kenshin tried struggle, but something within him restrained himself. "Kenshin, just go," Miryu said, pushing him towards Kaoru, while the children faced Kenshin fiercely.
"How old are you?" Misao and Yahiko asked Hiko, to the surprise of all.
"Forty-three, is there a problem with that?" came the reply.
The answer was enough to start a fit for the two of them.
"How can Kenshin and this guy be so good?" Yahiko asked, before turning to Miryu, "Wait... Kenshin said Miryu-san is almost only a year younger than he is..."
"Wait, what do you mean?" Misao asked, her voice increasing in volume and shrillness. "You mean, Himura and Miryu-san just look young?"
"Yeah, Kenshin is twenty-eight!" Yahiko exclaimed. And then, a sudden clearness came into his mind. "It must be a youth-potion of some sorts"
Just the, Miryu used her throw-daggers and threw it towards the children, merely grazing off a few hairs on their head. "It is rude to reveal a woman's age," she told them, before Hiko cut them off and told Miryu that she would be an old maid soon, and he would not forgive her if she did not provide him with a few more grandchildren. "Shishou!"
"Can I go on?" Hiko quickly retorted, turning towards the intruders while Miryu retrieved her dagger. "I know that you know Kenshin, but why are you here?" Once again, the children went into a mess, but a mess trying to tell Hiko that Kaoru was there to be with Kenshin. "Well, I do not know why, but that piece of wood seems to be pretty popular... Kenshin, carry that bucket to the stream and fill it with water. Go with Miryu, when you come back, I will decide whether or not to teach you the ougi..."
He then turned his attention towards Misao, Yahiko and Kaoru. He had stopped getting information regarding Kenshin ever since the Bakumatsu ended. He needed information from them, and Miryu, he knew that she would defend Kenshin whenever possible.
It was going to get interesting.