Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin
Chapter Fifteen
The warmth from a fire came to Phoenix first. Slowly opening her eyes she focused the flames creating designs on the ceiling. Swallowing she found her throat dry and coughed a little.
"So you are alive. I really couldn't tell with that little bit of breathing you did when I found you."
She shifted her head toward the voice, a man's voice. He was sillouetted by the fire. She blinked.
"You probably feel foggy, maybe tired. Or perhaps exhausted would be the better word."
"Where...where am I?"
"Hm? That's not a first questioned I'd expect from a lethal assassin." He mixed something in a pot that was sitting by the fire. "Of course I never thought I'd find an assassin laying for dead under a bridge either."
She moved her head to stare at the ceiling again.
"Those wounds are pretty serious. You're lucky you're not dead."
"I'd probably be better off...if he had just finished me."
"You shouldn't say such things." He bent down. "Are you feeling up to eating something?"
"Not really."
"Hm, well that's fine, you should probably rest some more anyway."
Her eyes began to get heavier. "Who...are you?" But oblivion took over her mind before she could hear him answer.
"Shinta?"
The boy turned. "What do you want? If you're going to take up for his actions then I don't want to hear it."
Kenshin smiled. "Your dad did what he thought best, that he did."
"Keeping my mom away from me, from us, is unforgivable." His voice rose a bit. "We searched for them for weeks. And yet here we were all under the same roof." He rubbed furiously at his eyes.
Kenshin sat beside him. Minus the light navy blue eyes, Shinta resembled Lina. "Shinta, you love your mother correct?" The boy nodded. "You love your father also?" And he nodded but slower. "Shouldn't you trust that love to keep you connected no matter what? It is after all what kept you and your sister going after your village was attack, is it not?"
"Yes, but Kem was with us also. He showed us a safe route around the band of attackers."
"Kem?"
"Umhm. He's a hawk. Mom said he kept her in touch with the other world. I thought he would have gone with her when she left but he was there soon after the village was attacked."
"Shinta." Lila opened the door before picking up a tray. "Miss Kaoru made some tea." She saw Kenshin.
Kenshin stood. "Don't mind me. I'll go make something for dinner." He slid the door closed behind him.
"Hey Kenshin, did the boy know anything?"
"Sano, I just talked with him. I didn't try to get information out of him." Kenshin smiled but Sanosuke wasn't buying it. "I honestly believe that neither Shinta nor Lila know much of their mother's past."
"So should we go probe Eto again, or do you think he knows nothing either."
"No. The one we really need to see..."
"Yea, I know."
The hideout was cleaned and abandoned. Nothing was left behind. It was if they had never stepped foot in their area, in Tokyo, even in Japan.
And that's how he wanted it for the last battle against her. Because deep down he knew she was part of the reason for his sister's death.
"I'm glad to see you doing better. Much better than a few hours ago." The man smiled and handed her a cup.
Phoenix sat with a warm bowl of stew. "Yes well whatever you gave me appeared to have done the trick. Though I didn't like the hazy feeling, or the ache's it caused."
"Aches? Your lucky that's all you had to endure. If it hadn't been for those prior wounds you would have felt these for sure."
She sipped from the cup. "How do you know so much? Who are you? Where are we?"
"Oh well off to a good start we are. Easy with the questions otherwise you'll make yourself dizzy." He grinned widely. "We're outside the limits of Toyko, a little south actually. I'm of no real importance. As for how I know so much, you've been telling me."
She scoffed but didn't look away from the flames. "Now I know one of us is crazy."
"No I assure you that neither one of us are crazy, Hinageshi."
She cut her eyes. "Don't you dare...call me by that name."
He looked at her innocently. "But isn't that your name?"
"No one is allowed to call me by that name, never again. It's Phoenix and if you must be so informal, Lina."
"Lina? But isn't that just Hina with an 'L'?" He pretended to think on it. "Lina-geshi?"
She growled. Her weapons were missing and he was smart enough not to give her a spoon. Plus with her injuries tightly bound, her movement was slow at best. He could provoke her without causing his death, he knew it, and he knew she knew it too. Which just angered her more.
"That man, the one who's calling himself Katsura Kogoro, he tested your strength."
She stood and slowly walked back to her given bed. "I have nothing to say to a man who won't tell me his name."
He shook his head. "I saved you from dying of cold out there, you could be a bit nicer Hinageshi."
Her back was to him. "I know most of everything, all but who he really is."
"You need to go back to that dojo and talk to him." He sipped his drink. "Like you he had deals with Kogoro also. I'm sure that after your meeting he's realized that Kogoro isn't Kogoro either."
"I can't." She rested on the bed. "I can't go back to that dojo. It'll endanger everyone there." She glared at him fiercely when he laughed.
"Come now Hinageshi, I'm sure we both know that since The Battousai's residence within the dojo that it and it's inhabitants have been attack quite often."
Turning over toward the wall she covered herself with the blanket. "I'm going to bed."
For a while the man stayed up tending the fire. As the last of the sticks faded to embers he stood. /My brother taught you well child./