During the day, Miryu was the stoic, silent bodyguard of Captain Algren, who was to train the Imperial Army, but during the night, she would be his drinking partner as well. This was the woman who knew all the best restaurants, where the best Sake, in terms of quality, and not price, would be sold to regular customers. She would be the one to tell them stories about Japan, the myths, the patriots, and what the politicians did not want others to know. She knew them all.
"So, girlie, what about ya?" Gant asked Miryu one night in a soba shack that served Sake as well. It was one stall that a "high and important Shogunate warrior" used to frequent whenever he was in Tokyo, according to her, and the Irishman had to admit, the food was not half bad. "How did you come into the picture, with all these bastards killing one another?"
If Graham had acted quickly enough, he would have kicked the vulgar Irishman in the shin for daring to ask Miryu such a question. Her past as a hitokiri was not a problem for her, a woman held in high honor by Japan, a woman cherished by the Emperor and held dear by the men who carved the Meiji government from the blood and the bodies of the Bakufu; but her origins, how she came to be, was. During the Ishin-Ishishi, she would have been executed, or ordered to commit seppuku if she revealed who she really was. Of course, she used the name Tsubasa freely, as a sign of defiance, to bring shame to her father's clan, but that was where it all ended. She was Tsubasa Battouryu, the daughter of the Tsubasa Clan no one knew about, defected from her family, was disowned, and joined the Ishin-Ishishi.
It was then when Algren noticed a change in her demeanor. Miryu had always been cheerful, and she would always be smiling. But now, she was the complete opposite. In the matter of seconds, she became withdrawn, silent and reserved. "Miryu, (he had grown so accustomed to her that he stopped calling her Miss Tsubasa) you don't have to answer Zeb if you don't want to," he said, his voice almost tender. For a moment, she regarded her charge, and took a big gulp of Sake. It was time she had faced herself, who she really was, and not hide in the shadows any longer. It was time that she had basked in the light of the new age that she had brought with her own two hands.
A smile broke through her sudden graveness, and she said, "No, I must do this, for myself." After finishing the rest of her soba, she adjusted her black locks, taking a deep breath before she started to tell them a story that she never would have thought she would ever tell. "You already know that I was a hitokiri, and that my counterpart, hitokiri Battousai, come from the same kenjutsu school as I did. However, Battousai was not born into a Samurai clan, I was. I am a daughter of two clans that were among the most powerful: the Tsubasa clan, and the Reiyama Clan. My mother, Reiyama Ryumiko, was the Captain of the First Division of the Shinsen-Gumi before Okita Souji, and she was promised to my father, Tsubasa Akurou by my grandfather to gain political favor. But, she was in love with a man named Hiko Seijurou, a man with no master, a swordsman regarded as among the best in Japan…"
Even then, Graham joined in with Gant and Algren. He had not heard of that part of her story before. All he knew about Miryu was that her mother killed her father to protect her from him, and that Reiyama Ryumiko died fighting. She was trained by a mysterious swordsman, yes, he did not know that the Iron Wolf-Maiden of the Shinsen-Gumi, or the Tetsu-Rou-Jou in Japanese, was in love with her Master, or Shishou, as she called him.
"Hiko Seijurou loved her as well, but there was nothing they could do. My mother had her own duty to her clan, and her father, while Hiko Seijurou had the principles of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu to uphold. It was a difficult decision for them, but they had to do it. And when my mother married into the Tsubasa Clan, many evils befell her. My father, he was an opium addict, and would often beat and violate her… One day, my paternal grandfather was so incensed with her that he dragged her back to the Shinsen-Gumi headquarters to deal with her father, who had her whipped, even if she was three months pregnant."
Gant had the sudden urge to say, "That good-for-nothing bastard!" but he refrained himself from doing so, having a feeling that it would hurt Miryu even more. He did not know that she had such a complex past, a violent and brutal one at that, and marveled at her ability to hold herself with such honor and integrity. No doubt, Algren thought the same way about her.
The American looked at her, and put a hand on top of hers. "Miryu, are you alright?" he asked when she stopped, trying to suppress a tear. He knew that she had a right not to divulge what she could not, but there was this determination in her that burnt so brightly that she was able to deny the pain she felt. She really wanted to come to terms with her past, to know that she was born to a father who did not love her mother, out of a union blessed only in politics and strife. The gaze that she had shared with Algren may have been brief, but to the both of them, it seemed like forever. She could see that he held the same fears, the same pain and the shame of their past deeds that she held as well.
Nodding her head, she mouthed a word of thanks, and continued her tale. "My mother ran to Hiko Seijurou, and he took care of her. It turned out that her father already knew what was happening, and struck her so that she could run away back into her beloved's arms. And when I was born, my father came with his clan's henchman, wanting to take us back as slaves, but my mother fought and killed him, but she was spent, and passed on in Hiko Seijurou's arms. I was named Miryu, as she wanted, and Hiko Seijurou took me under his wing, as my Shishou. He taught me, and Battousai soon after…"
The rest of her tale, was now an open secret. Hitokiri Battousai, at the age of 15, left Hiko Seijurou and Miryu and his training to fight in the Bakamatsu, siding with the Ishin-Ishishi. He got himself into the Kiheitai, and was discovered by Katsura Kogoro, a revolutionary, the leader of the Choushu Han. And then, half a year later, Miryu, came into the city of Kyoto, with a katana, and only two names: Kenshin and the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu, and was found by patriots of the Choushu Han, and was also made a Hitokiri for her skills. Even nine years after the Ishin-Ishishi has won the Bakamatsu, and the Boshin Wars just coming into an end, the deeds of Battousai and Battouryu was still the talk of many a conversation. And Algren had the honor of having the beautiful and intelligent Tsubasa Battouryu as his bodyguard. It was an opportunity that Algren knew could not go to waste, and somehow, he just knew that there was more than Miryu than just her smile, her laughter and her talent in tactics and the martial arts. He would just have to find it, and see for himself.