"Tell me, Kenshin," Miryu said to Kenshin as the two of them were fetching water per Hiko's orders, while Kaoru, Yahiko and Misao remained with him in his house. "How is meeting with Shishou again after so long?" Kenshin looked at her and smiled. He knew that what she had wanted for the past fifteen years was this reunion… Heck, she even suggested that the two of them go back to their Shishou after they left the Ishin-Ishishi ten years ago… There was an evident sense of joy in her, but at the same time, a slight sense of fear… and he wondered why.

Well, Miryu was an enigma, even to one as himself. No one knew what she was thinking about save for herself, and it seemed only Hiko was able to see through her ruses. "It was as if time had not ceased between the two of us," he told her honestly. "But he certainly has got… crabbier."

Those words made her laugh non-stop. "He thinks that he can live without much human contact," she added, still smiling, "But it is quite different, actually…" During her childhood, it always had been the three of them on this mountain alone, and now… She was starting a family in Tokyo, while he had avoided Kyoto for ten years. There was no wonder really, why Hiko Seijurou had become more and more unsociable than he already was in the first place.

"Have you two gossiped enough about me?" Hiko's voice cut through their minds. Was the walk to the stream really that short? It was impossible! It used to be so far when they were but children… Looking around, it was only then did Kenshin realize that they were back in their Shishou's house, guests included as well. Only Miryu had the gall to reply that they actually had more to go, which did little to ruffle his feathers. "Your friends here have told me that in the ten years of the Meiji era, you have wandered throughout Japan as a rurouni, righting the wrongs you see… Tell me, did you do it out of the teachings of the Mitsurugi Ryuu, or out of your own guilt?"

It was a question that Kenshin answered each waking moment ever since he was schooled by Hiko, ever since he became a rurouni, even as he was hitokiri. "It was both," he answered firmly. If there was one thing about getting around Hiko, it was to be finite and resolute. "The suffering of the people, even in an age of peace, cannot be ignored, for whatever reason. It was why I left in the first place as well."

Thankfully, it was an answer that pleased Hiko. So, what the children had said was true indeed. Kenshin was a fool, but not that big a fool as he had suspected. For the last ten years, what news Miryu had given him were not outright mistruths to ease his heart as well… "Even if you are a fool, you still talk sense when you are up to it," Hiko muttered under his breath, those words of praise barely inaudible save for Miryu and Kenshin. Really, it was one of those few moments where Hiko actually showed that he knew how good his apprentices were. "Alright, I shall grant you this one last request. I shall teach you the ougi, as I have taught Miryu."

It was an answer that pleased not only Kenshin, but everyone else as well. Finally, Kenshin could reach new heights in his skill, and he would not have to kill Shishio Makoto to defeat him. "I'm glad that you finally came to your senses, old man," Miryu told Hiko, who once again brought the issue of his grandchildren to counter her "attack" upon him, causing her to blush to no end.

"As a generous and compassionate man, I cannot suffer this Shishio character to take over my country," Hiko added as he went through the door with Kenshin, "And to make things worse, I don't have the time to look for another male apprentice, and train him in time…" There were more face faults around, not did he cared anyways. "Come to think of it, I could do it myself if I wanted, but, I'd just rather not to deal with that." It was evident that Miryu and Kenshin showed signs of retaliating, but as always, he defeated the two of them, just because he was their Shishou. "The two of you have a great responsibility, and I hope that you will be able to take him out."

With a scoff, Miryu said, "Don't worry about it," while she nudged Kaoru to say something. Really, the girl came all the way to Kyoto just to see Kenshin… The least she could do for herself was to speak to him, if she failed to confess how much she loved him. Oh, she knew much. The way Kenshin was around her, it was no different than when he was with Tomoe, and she knew that he dearly loved his late wife. Although Kenshin might be clouded with guilt over Tomoe's death still, there was no shred of evidence that he had feelings for the young master of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu.

"Kenshin…" Kaoru called to him in a small voice, causing Kenshin to stop in his tracks. "Are you angry with me for coming here, even if I knew how dangerous it was?"

Angry? Kenshin could never be angry with an angel like her. Never. Taking a deep breath, he answered, "Half of me is," without looking at her. "But the other half is relieved de gozaran. Please, be careful, you might never know where Shishio's men would lurk."

"Don't worry, Nathan will take care of them," Miryu reassured, blatantly ignoring Hiko's snort. Yes, her husband may not be used to combat in the manner of the Japanese, but he was an extremely capable warrior. He just needed a little polishing, is all.

With that, she left with Hiko and Kenshin to the ledge before the waterfall, where they had always trained. She knew what fate lied to the two men when the ougi was to be passed down, and she knew it very well. If Kenshin failed, there was absolutely no possibility that he could survive, and she would have to face Shishio and his cohorts all alone, and she did not want that to happen.

"Before we begin, I must say this to you," Hiko told Kenshin, his katana already raised, the cutting edge facing him as they had always trained. "When this training is complete, you might gain enough power equal to mine… sorry… just touch my level of skill, like Miryu… But do not get to sure of yourself." There was a great deal of seriousness in his tone of voice, and at once, Kenshin knew that whatever he had said was not to be taken lightly. "If you bear your burden alone and try to protect others by sacrificing yourself, the Meiji era will not be easy for you, likewise, it is not easy to gain happiness alone. If you fail, the girl who came to Kyoto for you will be sad and lonely for the rest of her life…"

Amakakeru-Ryu-No-Hirameki… The flash of the dragon descending from the heavens… So this was what it was like, to gain such speed and power with just one strike… Miryu looked at her own bokken, purposely purchased for this reason alone, or rather, pieces of it scattered around her… This was what it meant, to live, to strive for the goals of the Mitsurugi Ryuu. "Shishou… if we were using real katana…" she told Hiko, who was now sporting a diagonal bruise across his broad chest as she helped him to stand. "You would have been dead…"

Hiko nodded somberly. "This is the way of our Ryuu," he told her, slightly wheezing. "You have done very well, Miryu, but because of who you are, I cannot make you the Fourteenth Master, and it has no matter of your gender." Women in Japan were oppressed as much as the poor, regarded so lowly that men would turn to other men for love… He knew that her mother was of the secret and sacred Line of the Dragons, and she was its scion. She could not live to be killed by her own apprentice in the future. She needed to live, and to carry on her linage, the only pride of the women of the samurai. "Besides, I did not raise you just to kill you, your mother would never, ever forgive me if I did."

"I… do not know what to say…" she replied, her usual smile disappearing. "But one day, Kenshin will return… and you will…" Tears started to form in her sapphire eyes. She could not imagine a life where her Shishou, the man who was supposed to be her father, the man who loved her like one, was not there with her.

Instead of brushing her worries aside, Hiko brusquely said, "Ahou, this is the way of all Hiko Seijurou throughout the times," In a way, it was true. For with the power the ougi grants a warrior, there could not be two of the same level at the same time… It would overthrow the balance of power… "I killed my own master like this, do not forget that…"

That was fifteen years ago. For her love of her Shishou, Miryu chose to stay a year longer before she went into the city to look for Kenshin, and for the longest time, she did not want Kenshin to go back to Hiko and resume his training. But as time passed, she gradually saw that even she could not stop what was to pass. At least now, what Kenshin was using was a sakabattou, and no great harm would come to Hiko, but what about Kenshin?

"You have to do it, no matter what," she told Kenshin.

And so, the final stages of Kenshin's training began, with the moon high above them, and the stars watching over them, like so many years ago. But the innocence of childhood was removed, replaced with a sense of urgency, of the need to reach new heights to relieve the suffering of the populace.

Nagasaki Hiryuko looked at the moon from the entrance of Shishio's hideout, drawn to its beauty. At this time, there was no doubt that Battousai had returned to the abode of his Master, to learn the final secrets of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu, the secrets that were not passed down in the Line of Dragons… "What could it be?" she asked herself for the umpteenth time. For three hundred years, Miryu was the only Ryujou that had them, and now that she had to acquire them for herself. For too long their linage had to hide in the shadows of men, for too long that they had been compliant and subservient.

To swing the katana for the weak and the defenseless, the male line had deformed the Mitsurugi Ryuu into some charitable gift unto the world from being a divine gift given to her children; it was not what Hiryuko could stand for. That was why she needed Battousai and Battouryu to be killed. However, it was this spirit that allowed the Mitsurugi Ryuu to survive through thirteen Hiko Seijurou…

"Soon, you will come and fight your enemies," she told her younger cousin in her mind, "and soon, you will surrender the secrets that you know, and once again, the Ryujou will prevail…"

There was no other way. Only she could do it, to maintain the purity of her mother-ancestors, she had to destroy the scion of her own line… Any offspring from young Algren Miryu would be tainted by gaijin blood, sacrilege enough to smear the good names and powers of their many foremothers. The line would end with her, as a result, but at least, it remained untarnished…

At least, that was what she thought.