...Ow.
Sleep gas and at least one stun-bolt, training stated clinically. You're going to be sick for another two hours, but not seriously impaired. Unless someone waves something awful under your nose.
Ow, Kenshin thought again.
Most of the bolt and gas are handled, training went on, a regular human wouldn't be awake for at least another hour. Stay still, look unconscious, gather more information.
Starting with, what happened?
That was filtering back, in the shattered bits and pieces sudden unconsciousness left of even a swordsman's short-term memory. He'd been sitting on a log by the river, caught between dread and necessity, waiting for Jin-e to track him down.
Kaoru had found him first.
They'd argued... the words weren't important, not with that blaze of fear and heartache behind blue eyes. Wide, bright eyes that said, Stay. Please.
I don't want to lose another friend.
So he'd taken Kaoru's blue ribbon and promised, relieved that she would be going back to the dojo, and then-
Gas. A rain of stun-bolts. Ambush.
And the laughing dark eyes of the assassin who'd shrouded it all.
Jin-e is... truly lost to the Dark, to wreak that...
He might have fought free, even so. Could have, had he been willing to shed the concentration necessary for the gentle blow, and strike his attackers down. But too many of them had felt - not evil, but only desperately determined and afraid...
And ki had said Kaoru, and wait.
So he'd fallen, and wondered if he would wake again alive.
I doubt spirits would feel duracrete under their cheeks. Delicately, Kenshin reached out with physical senses first. Cold duracrete. Hollow echoes that spoke of more duracrete, overhead beams of high-strength alloy spanning a great, high ceiling. Scents of fuel, droid oil, dried food, the odd flowery sweetness of certain explosives.
Empty warehouse.
Soft, gas-slowed breaths a few yards away; a subtle hint of jasmine. A warmth in ki, when he reached out, that could be mistaken for no other.
Kaoru.
Warmth vanished like sun behind a cloud, as clicking droid feet followed near-soundless steps across the floor, carrying Darkness with them. "I know you're awake, Battousai."
You left me unbound, Jin-e. Not wise...
"Someone wants to talk to you."
A holo-projector hummed alive, carrying a voice he hadn't heard in near twenty years. "Himura-san."
"Saigo-san." Kenshin blinked his eyes open, slowly shoved himself up to a sitting position. Jin-e might merely suspect his injuries not enough to keep him unconscious; Saigo would know. "If you wished to talk to this one, a comm-call would have served."
"Who are you working for?"
Of course. Why waste courtesy on one not born samurai? Kenshin met the hologram's gaze. "As this one told Katsura-san after the battle of Toba Fushimi, this one is rurouni. Only rurouni. And a wandering sword serves no one."
"You're working for the Empire."
Kenshin glanced down at his threadbare gi and hakama, gave Saigo a sardonic look. "Oh, of course. Because the Empire pays all its former killers so well."
"Save the dense act for those who don't know you, Battousai."
As if you ever truly knew me.
Anger narrowed Saigo's eyes. "I've followed rumors of you for years. Years! There and gone like the wind, never lingering long enough to be caught; always where the Empire's grasp is trembling on our planet. Until you come, and cut the foundations of rebellion asunder!"
I suppose you could look at it that way. If you were drunk and standing on your head. "One is a wanderer, Saigo-san. Trouble tends to find those not oath-bound to lords. If one wants to keep wandering, a certain amount of trouble must be dealt with."
"And that just happens to help the Empire," Saigo said sardonically.
Kenshin didn't even bother to shrug. Kaoru was across the room by the far wall, slumped in a boneless pile. He could sense fitful ki slowly clearing the toxins from her system, but she'd be out for some time yet. Jin-e is there, and... yes. Guards around the building, and in the rafters. Human and droid. And I am still slowed. Buy more time. "If assisting an honest man to prevent murders is aiding the Empire, Saigo-san-"
"Honest?!?" Even through the blue cast of a hologram, Saigo's face turned red. "That traitor to his own kind - how any true samurai could abandon honor to serve as an Imperial Inspector-"
And he's off. Kenshin hid a grin. Katsura might have respected Saigo for his skills on the battlefield, but the Ishin Shishi leader had more than once torn his hair out over the Satsuma samurai's love of his own voice. The man could list his and his han's grievances for hours...
Or, with luck, just long enough for the rest of the sleep-gas to wear off.
As Shishou always said, sometimes there are alternatives to fighting.
---------------
"We've got to go after her!"
"Kid, we don't even know where to start looking." Sano's voice was tight, vibrating through the dusk with suppressed fury. "Uramura's scene guys know their work. If they say whoever it was dragged them onto a boat and took off - they could be anywhere. Out to sea. Off the planet."
"She's not! I'd know!"
"Oh yeah? You've been her apprentice for just-"
"I'd know, you ahou!"
"Language, brat-"
Obi-Wan stepped out onto the engawa, completed lightsaber a warm weight of relief at his belt. "What's gone wrong now?"
Sano and Yahiko turned to him with faces that mingled relief and apprehension. "Ah..." the boy stumbled over his tongue, "Well..."
"It's a little complicated," Sano jumped in.
Obi-Wan regarded the smuggler's sling. Took in the nightmares sifting from Megumi's exhausted sleep in a spare room, Kenshin's definite absence, and the lingering echoes of Kaoru's panic and desperation. Gave Sano a skeptical look. "Really."
"It's not complicated at all," a cool voice floated out of the darkness.
Koubai!
The Jedi whirled - to see only a loose gathering of shadows on the roofline, barely recognizable as a human form.
Ninja. Like Shinomori.
"Your nephew and the little dojo mistress have been taken by Saigo's hired killer," Koubai stated, regarding him through shadowed eyes. "They're alive, or the little one would know. How long they'll stay that way..."
"Don't call me-"
Obi-Wan held up a warning hand. "Kenshin's more valuable to Saigo alive."
"No. Battousai is." Fangs gleamed in the night. Shadows moved, and something fluttered in the wind, like a dove's wings.
Obi-Wan caught the scrap of paper automatically, trying to track the moment shadows went from alive to empty-
She's gone.
"Tell Saigo his assassinations lack poetry!" the wind carried back.
No, now she's gone, Obi-Wan corrected himself. I think. "That means something?"
Flattening out Obi-Wan's scrap to read it, the smuggler's grin was all teeth. "Means Saigo just screwed up, big time. Uramura said he thought a geisha got away from Kurogasa's last assassination-"
"Kurogasa?"
"Long story." Sano nodded at his 'saber. "That going to work?"
Wordless, Obi-Wan activated the familiar hum, regarding the still-unfamiliar color; pale blue-white, like sun through cool spring clouds.
The emerald had all summer's fierce strength; the dark sapphire, all the clarity of stars in a winter sky. But this one...
Pale blue, with just a hint of green, like the first new leaves after rain. It had felt like new beginnings, after a winter that had never seemed to end.
Not starting over; I've seen too much for that. But starting again... yes. "I take it we have a location?"
"Yeah." From the stiffening of his shoulders, Sano was less than happy about it. "But just the two of us-"
"Three!" Yahiko jumped in.
"-Up against Saigo and all of his guys, not to mention Jin-e-"
"Will fare far better than a battalion of stormtroopers," Obi-Wan said matter-of-factly. "I should be able to cloak the approach of only a few beings, even from Jin-e's senses. The only one we could go to for help would be Uramura, yes? His aid would take time. And if I've read Koubai correctly, time is not on our side."
"Big if." Sano glanced at Yahiko, face sober. "Get whatever you think we'll need, and let's blast out of here. I'll tell you what I know about this bolthole on the way."
---------------
"Uh…." Kaoru blinked fuzzily, vaguely registering someone ranting about duty, honor, and the Empire. Tried to lift a hand to rub her aching head-
I'm tied up? She willed the Force to her, tracing the shape of knots so she would know how to break them.
"Don't. Move."
Cold. Gleeful. A voice that sluiced chills down her spine, and a dark grip on the Force that left all but the slightest twitches impossible.
"Jin-e Udou, little girl," the gray-haired murderer introduced himself, smirking. "Not that you had any doubts."
"Leave her out of this!"
Kaour blinked, taking in the almost-empty warehouse, the holoprojector, the flickering feel of armed guards out of sight. Kenshin sounds… angry?
Oh no.
"Where would be the fun in that?"
"Enough!"
Saigo. Somehow, that voice was even more chilling than Jin-e's Dark presence.
"Decide, Himura Battousai." The hologram crossed his arms, eyes cold. "Are you for us - or for the Empire?"
"Neither of you." Violet had paled to startling blue. "The sword of Hiten Mitsurugi is wielded to protect the innocent." Red hair shook slowly. "Do you know how many have been slain in your name, Saigo? Do you care?"
"You sang a different tune under Katsura, Battousai."
"Katsura-san," Kenshin said softly, "is dead. And Battousai has been dead decades longer. Let the past go, Saigo. Let us go. We are no threat to you."
Speak for yourself, Kaoru thought angrily. Five minutes with him and a student's 'saber… no. Calm. Breathe.
"I doubt your uncle feels the same."
There was a long, agonizing silence.
"Threatening a man's honorable kin to mold his will," Kenshin said at last. "It is beneath you, Saigo."
"Offworlders have no honor," Saigo said flatly. "And I do what I must. For Yamato's sake."
"As must this one," Kenshin breathed. "I will not kill, Saigo. Not for you. Not for anyone."
"I wish I could believe that."
Oh no, Kaoru thought, chilled. I know that tone. That's "this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you," and it's never true-
"It seems you will have your moment after all, Jin-e."
"Finally!" The assassin stood and stretched; tossed Kenshin's lightsaber to the ground. "No more time to chat, then."
"I will not fight you." Kenshin's voice was low. Taut. Storm-tossed rigging, fraying in the wind.
"For yourself? No. You'd let me stab you through the heart. And what fun would that be?" Jin-e smirked. "But for the girl-" Green slashed down.
Amber was faster.
---------------
The heat of the lightsaber at his throat was almost a relief. "So it's a family trait, then," Saigo said coolly. "Attacking from ambush."
"Where I come from," the offworlder said in that archaic, impossible accent, "a thirteen-year-old trying to survive a war would be shown lenience, even if he used far darker means." His voice hardened. "Call off your assassin."
"I can't," Saigo said flatly, briefly wondering whether any of his guards still breathed. Besides the droids, who were partly in evidence in a clatter and a curse from Kamiya's street rat and a growl from the smuggler. "And I wouldn't if I could." He kept his gaze on the holoprojector, where the two hitokiri were exchanging a flurry of blows. Beautiful. Deadly. And yet…. Is this all, from the legendary hitokiri?
"Your Rebellion cannot profit from your death."
How little you know. "Kill me, then."
"You misunderstand me," Kenobi said evenly. "If Kamiya-sensei dies here, Himura's next target will be you. And I doubt he will let you die easily."
"From what Jou-chan's said," the smuggler growled, "I'm thinking that's probably exactly what the bastard is after."
Pure, killing ki flared bright a moment - and vanished. "I see."
"Yeah, well, I don't!" The street rat glared at Saigo, proud as any samurai. At least he had the blood to back it. "You're supposed to be this great guy, up against the evil Empire? Kenshin and Kaoru didn't do anything to you!"
"Unfortunately for our friends, that doesn't matter," Kenobi said dryly. "A hitokiri, fully Fallen to the Dark Side, could unleash tremendous damage on Imperial forces here. Even, perhaps, drive them from Yamato's soil entirely."
Ah. So the man did see-
"Unfortunately for you, Saigo-san, the Empire now has weapons at its disposal that could crush one rebellious world into lifeless fragments of asteroid." Sea-blue eyes were cold as winter storm, and far more unforgiving. "Ask of your contacts, what happened to Alderaan. There were no survivors."
Surety crashed against Saigo's spirit, wave after endless wave. No… it can't be true….
Terror, in a young woman's voice. "Kenshin!"
---------------
Pain, hot against the chill of duracrete seeping through his clothes.
"Pitiful."
Blood, dripping from his pierced shoulder to the floor.
"You aren't Battousai again, not nearly. In three cigarettes' time, I could kill you."
"Kenshin!"
Kaoru. So much fear in her. And a Jedi must not fear….
"I didn't choose this fight to be bored… uhu-hu-hu…."
Dark ki struck, choking Kaoru's breath in her throat.
"Kaoru-dono!" Kenshin staggered to his knees, right hand clutching his shoulder. He could see the bonds wrapping her lungs, but not how to cut them-
"I made it stronger than usual," Jin-e smirked. "Enough to stop her lungs."
No.
"She'll last two minutes at most." White teeth flashed. "Death by suffocation, so messy…."
"Jin-e…." Don't make me do this. You have no idea-
"No time for talk!" the assassin snapped. "If you've something to say, say it with that blade!"
As you wish. Reaching within, he called the storm.
And vanished.
---------------
One moment the rurouni had been crouched on the warehouse floor, left hand just touching the hilt of his 'saber. The next - he was yards past the assassin, leaving Jin-e staggering from a shattered nose.
Not decapitated? Obi-Wan thought. He still has control, then. But how long can he last?
The Jedi could feel the siren pull of that Darkness himself, calling like wind and endless sky, and shook his head to clear it. Wild. Savage. Like nothing he'd ever felt in the Temple.
And yet, so very Kenshin.
Jin-e was sniggering like a madman. "I never saw the blade, or even your body move! So that's Hiten Mitsurugi style…" he turned toward his opponent, blood still flowing, "and this is Hitokiri Battousai!"
"No time for talk." Himura's voice was cold, pale blue 'saber held loosely in his left hand, eyes pure, molten gold. "Strike, then, so I can kill you."
"W-what is he…." Yahiko stammered.
"Dun Moch," Obi-Wan said clinically, as Jin-e let the top of his kimono fall back to expose a black jumpsuit, and rushed his smaller opponent. "Weakening your opponent by word and will. I've seen Sith use it before." But I've never seen this.
A mere glance of will - golden eyes, blazing into mad green-
And Jin-e sheered off, dodging to land yards away, muscles trembling.
"Afraid?" Battousai asked coldly.
I don't know if he is, Kenshin, but I am….
---------------
"Such innocent intent, to mask such killing ki…."
Battousai did not move, even to agree. The best blades had sheaths to protect them. Surely his foe knew that. "If you wish to live, break the spell you put on Kaoru-dono."
"I can't."
Truth, whispered through the vortex of ki about them.
"This is far stronger than the spell I cast on that pig, Tani."
Truth.
"She must break it herself, or my will must be shattered."
Truth.
"Of course the former," Jin-e sneered, "is impossible."
Battousai didn't so much as shrug. "Then I will just kill you."
"That," Jin-e chuckled, gazing into the green light of his blade, "is also impossible."
The crystal-
"I - am - steel!"
-Is the heart of the blade-
"I - am - power!"
-Is the soul of the samurai.
"I… cannot lose."
"So," Battousai observed, feeling dark ki lock image into his foe's reality, "by using Shin no Ippou on yourself… you become what you believe."
"Shin no Ippou shadow skill. 'Grasp of the Demon'." A dark laugh. "I haven't used this since I escaped the Shinsengumi, twenty-five years ago."
Ki and 'saber shattered duracrete, flung it in a flamboyant fan of destruction. Battousai stood just outside its range, unflinching.
"You could call it unfair. Yet I will use it."
"Use whatever you like." Battousai snapped his 'saber off, feeling each breath Kaoru could not take. "But when I say I'll kill you… all you can do is die."
Enchained in peace, there is passion….
"Come." Stance was as natural as breathing. As the heartbeat of the woman he would save. "Learn the meaning of the name, Battousai."
---------------
"Stunbolt, Sano, if you would."
"Gladly," the smuggler growled.
Yahiko jumped as the green rings of light felled Saigo. Glared at Obi-Wan. He wanted to cry. Yell. Curl up in a ball and make it all go away. "What's the point? Even killing the bastard won't stop this!"
"No. But whatever the outcome, this man does not deserve to see it." Obi-Wan narrowed his gaze, studying the two swordsmen. "That looks very much like something my Temple would call Tràkata. Have you a name for it?"
Yahiko gulped. "Battoujutsu."
"Battou-" Obi-Wan stood slightly straighter. "I see."
"Yeah?" Sanosuke growled. "Well, I don't! We're just a few walls away. Why not just blast our way down there and kill the bastard who's killing Jou-chan?"
"Things are not always what they seem, my impetuous young friend." Obi-Wan bent a slight smile on Yahiko. "Have faith in your teacher."
---------------
Perfect stance.
Kaoru watched with a samurai's admiration, awe almost eclipsing the fact that she couldn't breathe. Despite the lashing storm of ki about him, Kenshin - Battousai - crouched, still as one perfect, curling wave.
A tsunami. And all within its path will perish….
Except - there was a glint of calculation in Jin-e's gaze. The merest feather-brush of quickening anticipation.
Battoujutsu is a one-strike move, Kaoru thought. Call the 'saber to your hand and ignite it with the Force in the same instant; far faster than any flesh and bone can press the activation switch. But with all your concentration bound up in that, you don't have the will to spare for anything else.
And even if Jin-e can't freeze him - he can make Kenshin blink. Even… make Battousai blink….
"Strike now, Battousai!"
Glowing green rushed the redhead, dark ki piercing ahead like an arrow to the heart. Blue blazed to life-
Slashed past the black jumpsuit, searing a gray hair-
Couldn't possibly return in the fraction of a second needed to parry-
"Victory is mine, Battou-"
Crack.
Jin-e smashed to duracrete, flattened yards back from Kenshin's outstretched, lightning-filled left hand.
"Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu Battoujutsu… Souryuusen."
Double dragon strike!
"I know very well that battoujutsu is normally a single strike," Battousai said coldly, shaking free red sparks. "And vulnerable to any mental technique that interferes with timing."
Jin-e writhed on the ground, red lightning still sparking along his sword arm.
"One who has mastered everything of battoujutsu. That is the meaning of the name, Battousai."
The gray-haired assassin hissed, struggling to his knees.
"I crushed your elbow and severed your ligaments. Even now, my lightning destroys your nerves. Bacta tank, prosthetic limbs - nothing will change that. Your life as a swordsman is over."
Dear gods….
"And this-" the 'saber changed in Kenshin's hands, blue overpowered by blazing amber, "is the end of your life." He raised amber high. "Die."
Silence, stretching through the warehouse darkness.
Jin-e smirked. "What's wrong, Battousai? Why do you hesitate?"
Kenshin… he's unarmed, you can't… a hitokiri wouldn't care, but you can't….
The redhead was still.
"You must kill me to break the spell. If you don't, the little girl will die. If you do, she lives. It's the easiest of choices." The smirk spread. "There's no reason to hesitate. You've no time for it-"
"You underestimate your opponents, Jin-e." Glowing gold lifted to her gaze, creased in the slightest of smiles. "He will not live a heartbeat beyond your last."
Easy for you to say, you're not the one who's suffocating… over… here….
Only - she wasn't.
Oh, she would be, inside another half-hour or so. She'd had no time to prepare, just the oxygen trained reflex had snatched in that instant before Jin-e's will crashed down. But she was Jedi. She didn't have to breathe all the time.
And he knew it! When I get loose, I'm gonna-
Well. Obviously, she had to get loose first. Because Battousai had no intention of helping her, although two minds together could probably break the spell with ease.
But then I wouldn't learn anything, would I? And that would be just wrong. You should always look at yourself, when you're facing death. Particularly if you… brought it on yourself….
Gods. That's why he's not helping me.
She wasn't to blame for Saigo's self-glorifying actions, no. Not for Jin-e's mad bloodlust, either. That was their choice.
But she had dashed after Kenshin without thinking, knowing there was an assassin after him. A killer with no respect for life, and absolutely no qualms about targeting innocent bystanders.
It's not my fault he used me to get to Kenshin. He'd have used anybody to get to Kenshin. It is my fault he could do it this easily. Why did I do that?
Kaoru sank within herself, seeking the roots of pride, envy, fear.
The last of my kind. Only - I'm not anymore. But I am, I'm more samurai than Jedi, and I didn't know… and Yahiko will figure it out and leave me for a better teacher, they'll all leave me. And I'll be alone.
And - I'd rather die than be alone again….
"We are all alone." Battousai's voice was cold, but… somehow, not unkind. "To live is to risk death. To love is to risk loss. The butterfly rests in your open hand; will you close it?"
…No.
I am proud. And afraid. And terribly alone. And… I'll never stop having feelings like that, not really. I'm a sentient being like everyone else, and we all feel.
But courage isn't not being afraid. Courage is seeing the fire, and knowing how bad it'll hurt, and how you might not get out. And going in anyway. Because it's right.
I will not give into my fears. I will follow the will of the Force. I am Jedi.
And I will not… let my friend… kill an unarmed man….
Kaoru breathed.
---------------
She did it.
Anger was… hard to let go of. It clung with fingers of swamp muck and righteous flame, unwilling to relinquish its place to the rurouni's cultivated calm. Hitokiri did not leave live enemies behind them.
"Kenshin…." Sweating, she collapsed.
Anger blew out like a candle as he caught her. Looking within one's self was never easy, even without other lives to worry about. "Kaoru-dono!" Not part of the harmless act; it'd belatedly occurred to him that he didn't know how well Hana had trained her daughter, she could have been in far more peril than he'd believed. "Kaoru-dono, are you all right?"
Kaoru was breathing hard - but she was breathing. Alive. Smiling. "I'm all right… Kenshin."
She knows the difference. He smiled weakly back. She knew, and still her ki welcomed him, wishing him not to go-
Dark ki moved behind him, and Kenshin tightened his grip on his 'saber.
"You and the bird-haired punk, I can understand. But a little girl, breaking my spell?" A vibroblade hummed. "I must be getting soft."
"Stop it, Jin-e." Kenshin remained still, reaching out with ki's sight to know exactly where his foe was. "With a wakazashi and your left arm… you've no chance." He reached within for the words that would bite, tear, shatter what remained of will. "You've lost. It's over."
"Indeed." Kenobi's ki was almost as quiet as his voice, but unmistakable. "Your allies and your employer are all… otherwise occupied. I suggest you surrender, and wait for the Guard."
"No." The blade lifted. "It's not over yet."
Even prepared-for, the blow was a shock; vibroblade humming through bone and flesh with a swift pain that moaned like a ghost in every soul left intact. Dimly Kenshin felt Obi-Wan wrapping bright power's protection around Sano and Yahiko, even as his own trained reflex swirled a dragon of denial about himself and Kaoru.
She is of Light, Kenshin told the burning corpse. I am of Shadow. Crimson as his lightning, the dragon bared fangs against the unleashed Dark. You have no hold on us. Begone!
No hold, Battousai? Malicious laughter brushed the vibroblade embedded in Jin-e's own heart, forced the charred corpse to speak. "By now… Saigo will have escaped. And no one will believe… a hitokiri did not kill me…."
"Amaterasu's sweet, glowing-"
"Language, Sanosuke," Obi-Wan reproved.
"Hey, a dead man is talking! If a guy can't swear now, when can he?"
"And it is true," the inhuman voice went on; half from charred lips and tongue, half carried by oily ki. "Like the truth in your eyes, Battousai… when you said you would kill me…."
No. No, I-
"You are in truth a hitokiri," the black wind murmured. "Another hitokiri tells you this. It cannot be wrong."
No; please, no, not in front of her-
"A hitokiri is a hitokiri until death. Play at rurouni if you want. I'll be watching you from hell…."
Ash crumbled in a sourceless wind, leaving the vibroblade embedded in shattered duracrete.
"All right!" Sano's strong hands landed on Kenshin's and Kaoru's shoulders, shoving both toward the door. "Out! Out! Everybody ki-sensitive, away from nasty bad dead guy. That goes double for you, Yahiko!"
"I'm not dumb, rooster-head!"
"Could've fooled me, brat."
Outside, and the clean touch of night air. Kenshin breathed deep, taking this precious moment before he had to face reality. What Kenobi and the others had heard… what they had seen-
He choked on a pungent drift of spray sealant. "Oro?"
Shaking the can so it rattled, Sano sprayed a few more neon-orange strokes of spacers' emergency atmo-seal, scribing a familiar warning symbol on the door he'd just closed. "Don't want the Guard walking into that mess."
Too true, Kenshin thought wearily. Uramura at least could be badly injured, should he come on that unwarned.
"I can read some of your script," Obi-Wan began, "but I don't recognize-"
"Bad death, bring a miko," Yahiko filled in. "Kaoru's got a book full of stuff like that. I bet Kenshin knows… most of them…."
Probably all of them. Kenshin dared to raise his gaze to the Jedi's. "So." Hard to swallow, in a throat gone dry. "Now you know."
Obi-Wan didn't answer, instead glancing at Kaoru. "I'm curious. Jin-e didn't know a Jedi's training includes breath control. How did you?"
It's not as if he can kill you twice. "Ulloriaq-san was a friend of this one's master," Kenshin admitted. "But… when the Revolution grew more bloody… one hadn't seen her for five years. Before that night."
"Ulloriaq?" Sano shook his head in disbelief. "That crazy offworld sorceress? If that's one of your master's friends, I'd hate to see an enemy!"
"Shishou has no living enemies," Kenshin said dryly.
"That, I can believe," Obi-Wan mused. "And she was an honorable being, once." His voice softened. "The woman I knew would have wanted to be stopped, before she could murder more innocents. I'm grateful that it came by a friend."
Kenshin stared at him.
"For the love of-!" Kaoru grabbed his whole shoulder, turned him to face her glare. "Yes, he knows you're Owen's son. Yes, he knows you were Battousai. Yes, you're safe in my house, he does not want to kill you!"
"…Oro?" It didn't make sense. Any of it. Obi-Wan was Jedi, and Light, and….
Yahiko poked him, and shook his head. "I think you broke him, busu."
"Who's ugly, Yahiko-chan?"
"I think the guy is still bleeding, and I'm not going to get any sense out of any of you 'til we're away from the bad spot, here." The smuggler swept Kenshin up in one quick grab, muttering under his breath about idiot samurai and kitsune who'd better be ready with their med-kits.
"Do you know, Sanosuke," Obi-Wan said thoughtfully as they started back toward the lights of town, "I think you've the most sense of any of us."
"Oh gods," Yahiko muttered. "We're all doomed."
Kenshin might have agreed with him, if he weren't half convinced he was hallucinating anyway. Obi-Wan… doesn't want to kill me?
Maybe Sano would wake him up when the world started making sense again….
---------------
Ahou - fool, idiot.
