Chapter Two
"Hey Everyone!" Sano's voice was loud as he swung open the door to the dojo, a battered white bag in one hand and an irate vixen thrashing about on his other shoulder.
"Put me down you stupid birdhead! I can walk, you know." Megumi yelled, pounding on Sano's back with her medicine box, her feet kicking, ineffectually, at his stomach.
"Cheer up, I was carrying you because you complained so much, it was very gentlemanly of me."
"Yeah, right."
"The least you could do is say thank you, you get really heavy after a couple of miles."
"Shut up!! And put me down right now! Your just as bad as that old man in Shinshu."
"Higashidani Kamishimoemon (a/n what a name! 0.0) is my father, thank you very much, don't slander him," said Sano, glaring at Megumi as he let her slide to the ground.
"Then I see where you got your stupidity." Megumi snapped, brushing off her clothes and straightening up. It was at this point that she realised that everyone in the room was staring at her and Sanosuke, stunned into silence.
"…Hello Ken-san, Kaoru, how have you been?"
"…we've been well…" said Kaoru slowly, Kenshin nodding his bright red head beside her, purple eyes wide.
"Good, Kenshin, I want to check how you're doing –"
"– After dinner." Sano amended, sitting down next to Kenshin and Yahiko. "Look what I brought."
"SAKE!" Yahiko whooped in delight, snatching the bottle from Sano and popping off the cork.
"Hey! What about Kenshin?"
"No thank you, I don't like sake." Kenshin said quietly, his eyes sad and distant.
"Can I have some dad?" Asked Shinya hopefully, holding out a glass.
"If you don't tell Tsubame-chan... Kenji?"
"No."
Yahiko shrugged, unperturbed, and began measuring out the sake.
"Can I have some too?" Asked Shinko, not really thinking she would get any.
"What?" Yahiko looked at her, bottle raised, and blinked. "You…want sake?"
"I'm the same age as Shinya, why can't I have sake too."
"Tsubame will –"
"I won't tell."
"But –" Yahiko looked around the table for support. Kaouru and Megumi looked surprised, but didn't object, Kenji and Kenshin both didn't seem to care, and Shinya just looked disbelieving.
"Let her have a drink," said Sano, handing Shinko a glass. "Everyone can enjoy sake, and if she's anything like you, which she is, she'll probably duel you for the right if you don't let her. She may even win, if she kept up her training."
"Thanks uncle Sano," Shinko said, accepting her glass with a gracious smile, and a quick smirk at Shinya. Returning her smirk with a glare, Shinya and the others settled down to dinner.
*****
"Gochisosama," Said Shinko quickly, gathering her bowls together and standing up. "May I be excused, Kaoru-san?"
"Okay, Shinko-chan, but you three kids are all helping me with the dishes later."
"Wakarimashta..." Shinko left the dining room, dumping her dishes in the kitchen sink, and grabbing her shinai. Moving quickly and quietly, Shinko went to the dojo's training hall, loosening the knot on her obi. Unwrapping the long, heavy band of silk from her waist, Shinko removed the delicate summer kimono as well, dumping them in a pile by one of the doors, along with the flowery bag for her shinai. She moved to the centre of the hall, standing in the yukata she had smuggled from Shinya's closet, and managed to fit on under her kimono. The sharp creases in the yukata were a testament to how difficult that had been, Kimono weren't made to wear over something (or under something, if it came to that), Shinko mused as she dragged her short black hair up into a ponytail.
Shinya always teased her about her hair, saying it was always as spiky and ruffled as a boy, he didn't realise that Shinko took it as a compliment, smiling, Shinko touched the back of her head, where the ponytail stuck straight out in ragged black spikes. Taking a deep breath, Shinko closed her eyes, and imagined that it had been her fighting Kenji this afternoon. The slender red-head sprang to life in her mind's eye, hand resting by the hilt of his shinai. Shinko adopted the same position, knowing where to place her hands, even with her eyes shut. She heard her own voice say quietly,
"Begin." She saw Kenji rush towards her, his feet fast and light as he drew out his sword. He didn't add the left-footed step of Amekakeru no hirameki, but was more than fast enough any way. Shinko let him come, before pivoting to the side and using the centrifugal force of her turn to snap the blade forwards, aiming the attack on his back as he passed her. Fast as lightning, Kenji countered, his blade coming up to block hers as he turned. He was stronger than her, and twisted his sword, attacking down her own blade, his eyes expressionless. Shinko arched backwards, and the blade whistled past her chest, before she twisted sideways, aiming for Kenji's left side, and was once again blocked. The fight continued behind Shinko's eyelids, but it was only her body slipping through the moves of the duel, only her feet that brushed against the wooden floor, and only her breath that moved the quiet air.
Then her Shinai collided with another sword. Shinko's eyes flew open, and for a moment she was confused as the scene didn't change. Kenji was standing in front of her, sword in hand, in exactly the block that she had known he would use.
"What are you doing, Shinko-san?" He asked quietly, disengaging the two shinai.
"I'm training." Shinko said, uncomfortable and embarrassed that she hadn't heard Kenji come into the room, and that he'd seen her 'training'. It was worse than talking to yourself.
"By yourself?" Shinko shrugged, trying to read Kenji's eyes, the same blue as his mother's, but far deeper and more shadowed.
"No-one else will train with me, not properly. Chichi says that I'm probably the best girl in Japan, and thinks that should be enough. He wants me to be happy, and thinks I need a husband to achieve that, but he's wrong. I know that most guys only fall in love with feminine girls and that I'll probably never meet someone like Kenshin, who would love a swordswoman, but…" Shinko trailed off, blushing as she realised that she had said much more than she had ever meant to. Kenji was staring intently at her. Without saying a word, he took one of Shinko's hands of the Shinai, tracing the calluses on her hand with his own calloused thumb. After a few seconds he looked up at her again.
"Okaasan never had calluses like these." He said quietly, letting go of her hand and gripping his shinai again. Confused, Shinko let the hand fall to her side. She never knew what Kenji was thinking, or what he expected her to do, but it seemed he always was waiting for her to do, or say, something…
"Please begin the match, Shinko-san." Shinko's eyes widened as Kenji said those five words in his quiet, distant voice. Dropping her hand to her side in the battojutsu stance Yahiko had learned by watching Kenshin, and Kenji had learned by listening to Kenshin, and Kenshin had learned by instruction and practise from his master, and later perfected in the bloody days of the Bakumatsu, so long ago. When she was ready, she looked up, ready to start again, and nodded slightly to Kenji. He attacked, just as fast as this afternoon, just as fast as in her mind's eye, and their swords clashed. The point of his shinai hit the hilt of hers before she could step to the side and bring her blade up, he'd been expecting it. Feeling the hilt bang into her left hand, Shinko jumped back, bringing her sword up in front of her. A faint smile touched her face as she and Kenji faced off, this was a real fight, no holds barred. It was the fights like these that tested your skills to the limits, and let you get stronger.
Kenji's bare foot scuffed against the floor as he sprinted forward, Shinko raised her sword to meet him, also charging into attack. The two weapons met with a splintering crack, Shinko's crossing over Kenji's. Usually having her blade on top would give her an advantage, but Kenji was stronger than her, so neither blade moved, seeming to hang suspended, trembling slightly as the full force of the two young fighters' will and strength met. A heartbeat passed and the two broke apart, only to come clashing together again. The flurry of blows passed and began again, measured in heartbeats and less, sometimes the impact was of wood on flesh, more often the cracking thud of the two shinai coming together with such force and momentum. Nothing stopped the battle, except for the momentary pause between exchanges, when the two combatants, panting now as sweat poured off their bodies, stepped back to reassess, and look for a new opportunity.
Shinko jumped back, once again, blinking to clear the sweat from her eyes. Her right side ached from one of Kenji's bruising hits, and blood trickled from just below her left collarbone, where the Shinai had hit her bare skin. Kenji had a wide purple bruise beginning to form across his ribcage. Clenching her teeth, Shinko tightened her grip, willing the pain away. Injuries from a shinai were nothing. Once again, they charged at each other, shadows fleeting through the dojo's half darkness. This time, when they met, the splintering crash was different, and Shinko found herself falling forwards as the resistance she had expected vanished.
"Nani?" Shinko's hands came up in front of her to brace for the impact against the ground, her shinai falling to the ground, but instead her fall was stopped by Kenji's chest. His right hand was holding a shinai, snapped cleanly in half. Shinko stared at it in surprise for a moment, before realising that she was in a rather compromising position, with her hands and face pressed flat against Kenji's chest, and she stepped back quickly, muttering an apology.
"Sumimasen, Kenji-san…"
"…I must have worn it out more than I thought…no matter; it's easy to break a Shinai." Kenji Smiled at Shinko and his blue eyes cleared for an instant. "You're very good, Shinko-san, and not as impatient as your brother. But," Kenji's voice dropped and his eyes narrowed again. "The sakabato is my inheritance, and if you or Shinya-san tries to claim it, I will stop you." Shinko nodded, feeling unbalanced from trying to react to Kenji's mercurial mood.
"We should probably help Kaoru with the dishes…"
Kenji nodded, his face assuming its normal, blank expression.
"You get changed first, I'll tell her you're coming." Shinko winced as Kenji left the training hall, imagining Yahiko and Kaoru's reactions when Kenji came in, sweating and dishevelled to say that, Shinko had not disappeared to be alone for some reason but was on her way, after Kenji.... Kenji would probably even say that she was getting changed. With that thought in her mind, Shinko dressed, probably breaking world records for putting on a kimono, and ran out of the hall, tying her obi as she stuffed the sweaty yukata and battered shinai into her bag.
"Kenji, wait!" she said, hiking up the bottom of the kimono as far as it could go (which was about mid-calf) and running to catch up with him, the loose ends of her obi flapping.
Kenji turned, raising his eyebrows as he saw Shinko, crooked Kimono, spiky ponytail, flapping obi and all.
"Your obi is crooked."
"I know, help me tie it while I get this mess straightened out." Said Shinko, waspishly, pulling her hair down, and beginning to tug the kimono into the proper shape. Kenji was good at tying obi, he had lots of experience, due to Shinko herself, who, when she had been little, had pulled off any kimono her mother had forced her to wear, and run, giggling and wearing only her underclothes, to play with Kenji and her brother, leaving the kimono, and it's obi, in a dirty pile. Kenji had taken it upon himself to ensure that Shinko never went home in her underwear though, so he'd ended up getting her dressed again each evening, when it was time for the twins to go home. That was, he'd helped her with her kimono until, just after he turned thirteen, six years ago, he'd decided it was inappropriate.
It was also soon after that that he became completely obsessed with kenjutsu, and began to learn Hiten Mitsrugi-ryu, simply from listening to Kenshin's stories. It was amazing that he had managed to learn, only from a description, but he had. Even Shinya and Shinko had watched Yahiko, when he occasionally practised the moves he had managed to learn by watching Kenshin. But from there, all three had managed to learn the deadly kenjutsu.
"There." Shinko felt Kenji's hands lightly path the elaborate bow in her obi. "You're presentable, now let's go, Shinko-san."
"Okay," Shinko nodded and grinned at Kenji, as they walked back towards the dining room and kitchen to help Kaoru with the dishes.