The night was calm, but that calm was betrayed. Algren's eyes shot open when he felt the presence of many individuals coming towards the Aoiya, shuffling, scuttling, most probably ninja, as he had witnessed before the previous year. Ninja of a different organization trying to infiltrate the Oniwabanshuu, which had probably the largest network in Japan… Could they even be such fools?

Readying his gun, he quickly went downstairs to check on the others, before meeting one such ninja himself, who threw a three-inch long spike at him, one that opened into a lotus flower upon contact with the wooden beam behind him as he ducked. Kicking the ninja at the shin, Algren hit him at the back of his neck, knocking him unconscious.

"It is good to see that you are not so trigger-happy after all," Graham said, panting as if he had been running for miles. Algren smiled inwardly. This man was a survivor, there was no need to worry about him even in the most dire of situations. "Okina and the others have already confronted the rest of them, old, boy. Seems like Shishio Makoto was behind this."

"He always is," the American muttered, silently hoping that nothing of the sort would happen to Miryu and Kenshin while the latter was undergoing his training… Wait a minute; they should be fine, seeing that they were with their Master… "But why attack this place? I thought hardly anyone knows that the Oniwabanshuu is still active…"

Okina was the one who came with the answer, accompanied by Omasu, Okon, Shiro and Kuro. "There is only one person, and no other," he told Algren and Graham, disappointment and anger playing in his old, experienced eyes. "It was Aoshi. Only he could have told Shishio Makoto…"

"I want you to find Battousai and Battouryu for me," Aoshi told Okina at the shop at the corner of a busy street. "I need to defeat them to gain the title of the 'strongest' for our organization." The coldness of his eyes, it was even more intense than what it had been years ago.

Deep down, Okina knew that this search for the two people who would deliver Japan from Shishio's clutches were not the ones that he wanted to defeat. He had to defeat his own guilt, shame and remorse. Shinomori Aoshi had clouded himself from the truth, and had fallen into a darkness that only he could pull himself fro, and no others. "You do not need vengeance, Aoshi," Okina told the younger man, forgetting the formality to be used with his Okashira. "You need closure, and a place to rest your heart."

Turning away, Aoshi said, "If you are not with me, you are against me… I have given you my warning…

"That boy has gone off the line," Okina told the two gaijin. "He must be stopped before more damage is done…"

Those were the words of a man that has found his enemy, a man declaring war. "If there is need to defeat Shinomori Aoshi, I will go," he told Okina. Granted, his skills as a swordsman was in a total different style than those Japanese were used to, but he was confidant that he could hold out on his own. Nathan, we Oriental swordsmen use Ki, the internal energy within ourselves more than anything, Miryu once told him. The stronger the Ki, the more powerful the swordsman, even if his or her skills are not that profound…

The old man went towards Algren and patted him on the shoulder. "My good man, I cannot allow to risk this," he told him. "You have just been married a year to a most beautiful and talented woman, you would be the last person to be caught up in a quarrel that is not yours to begin with. I was the one who gave Aoshi all his skills, and I will be the one who will take them back."

Nodding, Algren could not help but to agree with Okina, not because he feared for his life, but because he knew that there would be nothing to stop Okina from facing off with Aoshi. "But you have some interrogating to do, it seems," he said, looking at Okon and Omasu, who were holding candles and nails. "Would you like some help?"

"Are you sure that your plans would work, Houji?" Hiryuko asked Shishio's advisor. No, he was her advisor as well, so long she was in this bargain with Shishio. She would help him destroy Algren Battouryu, and all his resources and manpower was half hers. "The Oniwabanshuu are not to be taken lightly."

However, Houji seemed to be confidant. "The Kyousoushuu are our elite corps, which specializes in night operations," he told her, his eyes laying strongly on Aoshi, whose cold demeanor was starting to affect those in the room. "There is no need to use one of the Juppon Gatana… A handkerchief is sometimes too much to catch rats."

Aoshi hoped that he was right. The keyword was "hoped", of course. He was, is, the Okashira of the Oniwabanshuu, and he knew that nothing got past Okina, nothing at all. And if Houji's reports were true, the American formerly hired to train the Imperial Army was there as well, and he had heard a great deal about this Nathan Algren, apart from him marrying Battouryu, that he was a strategist as great as he was a marksman with a gun. However, guns were useless here, where the sword was still of use, and not forgotten.

Needless to say, Hiryuko's presumptions were right. None of the Kyosoushuu that were deployed had returned by the next morning, save for one. And the worse thing was, that man returned with his arms nailed onto a plank of wood, almost as if he had been crucified, except for his legs, and on his back, words were carved onto his raw flesh.

Meet me at the old lookout post. Come alone. It was a message from Okina, that much Aoshi could tell. "It looks like I still have to get rid of the old man myself," he told Houji and Hiryuko. "It would take a bigger handkerchief to catch those rats… Now, if you would excuse me…"

Morning came, and Okina had already left before dawn. Algren knew that nothing good would come out of this… There was a high possibility that both Aoshi and Okina would have to suffer a huge amount of injuries if they would not die from this duel. However, there was nothing that he could have done to stop Okina from attempting such a risk, not even the people from his own organization.

"Okina and Ao-sama are as stubborn as one another," Okon told him as they looked at Okina leaving the Aoiya. "I worry for them… We would not be able to function without either of them, unless a new Okashira is chosen…"

"Don't worry, perhaps somehow, someone would come and stop them…" Algren thought wishfully. "And let's hope that it is not Misao…" He had known Misao for a couple of days now, and he utterly marveled at how much energy the girl had, particularly towards her efforts to locate Aoshi. Now that he was here, it was ironic, that it was best that she did not see him at the moment…

The hand of fate was a cruel one indeed. In all actuality, it was Misao who would run up to the old lookout post to stop the two of them, or at least, try to. The previous night, as she was leading Kaoru and Yahiko back to the Aoiya, she had heard from them that the four members of the Oniwabanshuu that had followed Aoshi to protect Edo Castle were all dead, and Aoshi was on the road of vengeance, seeking the title of the strongest.

"It's not true!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, not caring who would hear her. "All four of them were the best onmitsu ever!" Perhaps in times of utter danger, Hyotokko or Beshimi would be the victims, but not the others… It was impossible! "Tell me that it's not true!"

Yahiko was the one who spoke to her, after drawing a deep breath. "No one could defeat the might of a Gatling gun… No one, even Hannya." When he had went with Kenshin to visit Miryu and Algren, they had told them about the last stand of the samurai, where they had faced not only Howitzer cannons, but also three new Gatling guns, fresh from the American assembly lines… It was a gruesome sight that he had witnessed before, and he was sure that he would not witness it again.

She had been running all night and all morning. From Hiko's mountain, back to the Aoiya, and straight towards the lookout post, Misao had not stopped. Even Okina had taken out his tonfa and his old uniform, a sign that he was deadly serious on his mission that he would not be backing out… She just hoped that she would not be too late.

One man is the one that she loves the most, Omasu's words to the others rang in her ears, the other is the man that she respects the most… I hope for her sake that both of them make it out alive… And the Gods above knew that she thought so too.

Soon, the lookout was in sight, and her heard raced even faster, even if her footsteps had slowed down. Please, let nothing happen to them, she prayed inwardly and opened the door, finding Aoshi standing over Okina, both looking seemingly unharmed.

Seconds later, blood spewed forth from the old man's body, as if rivers of the red liquid had been cut from his body. Okina collapsed, and Aoshi was the one who had caused it. "Ao-sama…" she called towards her Okashira, the man that had cared for her in her childhood, softly. "Why?"

Shinomori Aoshi did not look at her, opting to remove himself from the scene as soon as possible. He had done his part, and now, Shishio Makoto and Nagasaki Hiryuko would have to deliver either Battousai and Battouryu to him and him alone. "If you dare to interfere, I will kill you as well."

"Do you believe in Hell?" Shishio asked Houji over a glass of red wine, but the man answered that there was nothingness that follows a person's death, not eternal punishment or torture. Shishio just begged to differ. "I think that there is a hell. Take Battouryu, for example. Her parents died on the day she was born, and she was thrust into a world of violence and blood with Battousai. And in the new age of peace, she loses her comrades and her other teacher, Katsumoto Moritsugu for the new ideals that our nation sells herself in… She has been in hell, as well as Battousai. And this Okina, he has been betrayed by the man he had cared for like a son… Is this not hell?"

Hiryuko raised an eyebrow. She too, had been in utter hell before. The darkness of the ages could not be compared to the darkness that had covered her entire lifetime… She had been cast out by the new age, and even in the old, she had not been honored as a true daughter of the dragons… She had only been used as a free warrior… She had been nothing but a female with a sword in the world of men…

Taking off his gloves, Shishio approached Houji until his advisor had his back against the wall. That was when he pushed his hand onto the other man's forehead, burning it with his own body temperature. "I had been burnt, throughout my whole body, and experienced true, physical Hell, even until now. Because all my sweat glands have been sealed, my body temperature soars to amazing fights, so much that I seem to be burning constantly… Is this not Hell? Houji, you are shaking… Are you afraid?"

"Quite the reverse, Shishio-sama," Houji told Shishio. "I am shaking, out of joy. Those dogs in the government, they have nothing on you, a leader of true caliber and vision. I will go to the ends of the earth for your cause, Shishio-sama. Your goals, and that of Nagasaki-sama's will go down in the annals of history!"

Shishio smiled, and removed his hand. "You are ready, Houji," he told the man, looking at Hiryuko, who was smiling as well. "We will have to rely on you more, from now on."