Chapter Nine

"These grazes aren't too bad – they're just messy," said the doctor, pulling the last bamboo fragment from a stone-faced Shinko's hand. He'd already swabbed it with a disinfectant that had burned Kenji's nostrils from several feet away, and now proceeded to tie soft bandages around them. "There's also some deep bruising to the right palm, but you should be back to top condition in a week or two. I'm worried about these calluses though; do you want something to soften your palms up again?" He pointed to the hardened flesh along Shinko's right hand.

"No." Snapped Shinko, her eyes flashing as she stood up. "I like them." Still glaring at the doctor, she brusquely paid, producing the money from the drawstring bag that Kenji recognised as her shinai bag. He didn't have time to even formulate a comment before Shinko left, beckoning from him to follow her.

"Where did you get the money, Shinko-san?" Kenji asked, feeling slightly guilty that he hadn't managed to pay – it would have been proper, but then again, with Shinko, what was?

"I sold my obi." She said calmly, stalking through the streets. "Do you want to come with me to the Hakoshi dojo? I'm going to get my hands on a bokken, since those damn shinai keep breaking."

"Of course, it will be my pleasure." Kenji said with a faint smile, lengthening his stride slightly so that he was beside the younger girl. She really did have fire in her eyes. A thought struck him.

"Sumimasen, Shinko-san, but why did you decide that Shinya would be the one to inherit the dojo? Is it not mine by right?" He asked, his voice neutral.

"Because you don't want it, do you?" She paused before the last two words, making them a real question, glancing at him with her warm brown eyes wide, and faintly worried that she had annoyed him. "You wanted to study Hiten Mtusurugi-ryu, ne?"

"Still – I don't appreciate having my birthright given away by proxy." Kenji said with a slight chuckle. "Although, actually, I don't intend to study Kamiya Kasshin anymore – I'm staying in Kyoto to learn from Shinomori-dono."

"Really? That means I can come visit you!" Shinko grinned, her eyes lighting up – she'd always been easy to please.

"We're here." Kenji said, smiling back.

*

"Where did you go?" Demanded Tsubame as Yahiko and Shinya came back in, slightly out of breath. Misao was standing sheepishly near one of the doors, adjusting Yuki's hair-clips.

"Well, you see, Tsubame-chan... Shinya thought that he saw someone who looked like Shinko, so he came to fetch me – since you were too busy yelling at Misao-chan – and we chased her down, only to find out that 'she' was some twelve-year-old boy..." Yahiko tried his best winning smile, as Shinya made choking sounds, red-faced and trying not to laugh as his father threw him a dirty look.

Tsubame looked from father to son, her eyes narrowed. When neither offered up another explanation after several moments, she nodded brusquely.

"I'm going to say hello at the Shirabeko, the two of you should get tidied up, since dinner is in less than an hour."

Yahiko nodded, kissing her on the cheek as she left. As soon as she was judged out of earshot, he turned to his son with a grin.

"Good acting – she wouldn't have bought it if you'd tried to look sincere."

Shinya burst out laughing.

"I can't believe haha bought it! As if I could mistake someone else for Shinko!"

"Oh." Yahiko's grin slipped off his face and he chuckled in resignation. "You're a dreadful liar then."

"And your innocent act was worse. I bet even Yuki could tell you were lying, ne, Yuki-chan?"

"I'm Oniwabanshu – of course I could tell!" Yuki snapped, as Misao clipped the last butterfly-shaped pin into the girl's hair.

"Sorry, Yuki-chan, my mistake." Shinya said, hoisting the young girl onto his shoulders. "Let's go see if we're as tall as your daddy yet."

Yuki giggled, clenching her fingers into Shinya's hair for balance and eliciting a wince from the teenager as the two wandered off.

"Don't let Tsubame-chan see them like that." Yahiko said to Misao with a grin "Yuki is much too young for matchmaking."

"Shut up, shorty." Misao said, thwacking the back of her palm against the side of her childhood friend's head.

*

"Konbanwa Hakoshi-sensei." Shinko said, smiling at the young dojo-master, using the title out of deference for his status as a teacher. He was only a few years older than Kenji, and had recently inherited the dojo when his father retired. They had often trained together when they were all younger, although without the benefit of legendary swordsmen hanging around his home, Hakoshi Ken hadn't managed to keep up with the younger children.

"Ah, Shinko-san, Kenji-san, konbanwa." He bowed slightly in greeting, as his last class of the day peered around him, trying to get a better look at the two newcomers. "How have you been?"

"Fine – I was wondering if I could get a bokken off you though," Shinko said, gingerly holding up her shattered shinai. Her left hand, snugly tucked in the pockets of her yukata, had a layer of bandages that inhibited any movement, as well as stinging irritatingly, and her right hand felt like it had a hilt-shaped dent on it.

"Of course – just let me finish this drill." Hakoshi said, pushing his fine dark hair out of his eyes.

"Sumimasen, sensei," One of the students asked, putting up his hand. "Is that the Kenji-san that you told us about?" The question sent a ripple of murmurs through the class – Kenji had trained here before, along with Shinya, and – before Tsubame's edict – Shinko. Hakoshi nodded in agreement, sighed as the excited whispers got louder.

"Can we see you fight, please, Kenji-dono?" One of the other boys asked, wide-eyed.

"Not tonight," Kenji said with a glance at Shinko. "But I will be staying in Kyoto for a while, so maybe another time." The group of students – most of whom looked to be a year or two younger than Shinko – sighed in disappointment, turning their attention back to their sensei as he finished showing them the drill.

"Sumimasen, Shinko-san." He said, walking over as the class paired up. "Here, please take these – if you're still like your brother, you'll need more than one." He smiled slightly, as he handed Shinko three bokken with a slight smile.

"Arigato, Ken-san." Shinko said, dropping the more proper 'sensei', and using his first name, due to their long acquaintance.

She glanced over the group of training students, noting their slow and clunky moves – a fairly inexperienced class – and the occasional blatant flaw in technique. Tilting her head to indicate one of the worst offenders to the dojo master, Shinko and Kenji bid Hakoshi farewell.

"Are you going to duel Ken-san again?" Shinko asked as they walked back to the Aoi-ya in the twilight. Kenji hadn't duelled Hakoshi in several years

"No, it's not worth it. I was thinking I'd wait till your hands were better, and then simply borrow Hakoshi's training hall." Kenji said tonelessly. Shinko bit back a hint of irritation; Kenji had seemed like he might have been thawing out, but now he was back to being completely unfathomable. Shinko stopped as she realised they were very close the Aoi-ya already.

"I can't stay there – haha will find me." She said, frowning, chewing slightly on her lower lip as she thought. It was a nervous habit she'd picked up a few years ago, when Shinya accused her of 'pouting' when she was concentrating.

"I'm sure that you can go in the back way," Kenji said, beckoning and turning down a side street that would take them in behind the inn.

"I guess so..." They walked down the smaller alley in silence, before turning onto another small road, running behind two rows of buildings, including the Aoi-ya.

"Shinko-san," Kenji said as they reached the tall fence around the back of the Aoi-ya, "Will you tell me about your... 'adventures' sometime?" He asked, easily climbing the fence – in an establishment belonging to the remnants of the most renowned onmitsu in Japan, the fence was practically a back door.

"Sure," Shinko reached up to grab the fence, but stopped, frowning in consternation as she saw the bandage on her hand.

"Do you want some help?" Kenji asked, perched on the top of the fence, his red fringe falling into his eyes as he leant down towards Shinko, proffering his right hand, using the left to steady himself. Shinko hesitated, she could probably get herself up using only her (albeit bruised) right hand...

"Pride comes before the fall, Shinko-san." Kenji said, a smile brushing his lips as he shook his hair out of his eyes. Shinko huffed slightly, but held out her hand to Kenji, letting the older boy grab her wrist as she climbed up the fence, using the hand more as a point of balance than as support. Seconds later, they were both sitting atop the fence in the last light of sunset, staring out over the gracefully curved roofs of Kyoto, with temples rising from among the lower buildings to pierce the flaming heavens.

"Kyoto is so beautiful, isn't it?" Shinko murmured, the fresh scent of trees mixing with the heavy enthralling scent of the rare flowers that filled Misao's garden.

"Kyoto has... elegance," Kenji murmured, catching a small leaf that had blown off of its tree, and was now dancing in the light breeze at their backs. "Beauty is in living things... Kyoto may last for many years, but beauty is ephemeral, and always changing." The leaf blew away again, in a brief dance across the rooftops before it vanished from even the sharp eyes of the two watching it from the fence.

"Unless someone burns it down again." Shinko said after several moments, the light reflecting a tint of pink to her cheeks.

"Nani?" Kenji looked at her, confusion darting across his features as she looked resolutely over the city.

"Kyoto will last for many years unless someone burns it down again." Shinko repeated, glancing at Kenji.

"Ah." They sat in silence for several more minutes, until the sky had faded to the faintly luminous royal blue of early night.

"We should probably go in – they'll be wondering where you are." Shinko said suddenly, shifting.

"They're more likely to be wondering where you are – but they'll be expecting me." Kenji said, swinging off the fence and into the darkness of the garden. Shinko was about to follow suit as she heard one of the screens on the second floor of the Aoi-ya slide open, soft bare feet whispering against the balcony as Tsubame came out, clad in a loose cotton sleeping robe, her face pinched and worried.

There was an instant of frozen silence when even the rustling leaves seemed to pause their sighs, as Tsubame saw her daughter, clad in dusty yukata, and white-faced as she met the eyes of her mother.

*

"Shinko..." Tsubame's voice was full of the emotions that didn't make it past the mask of shock to her face.

Shinko stared at her mother, feeling panic rising in her chest as she heard her name, said in the way that only Tsubame could say it – the mother's way, which she wouldn't be able to fight against, because there was no anger there, nothing hard or commanding to resist, only love.

"Shinko-san," Kenji's voice was soft, hidden in the leaves as they began to move again, and it recalled to her why she was wandering Japan as a rurouni, and she looked back at her mother, the determination in her striving for something just as indescribable as Tsubame's love.

"I'm sorry, haha, but I need to do this... I need to find..." She trailed off, her eyes, black in the darkness begging her mother to understand, as, with a single, fluid motion, she jumped off the fence, rolling as she hit the ground, away from the Aoi-ya, vanishing into the dark streets, her eyes stinging with guilt, as Tsubame stared at the space she had left, despair and disbelief warring on her face.

*

Aren't I nice? I made it not a cliff-hanger, because otherwise this chapter would be too short... Also, I think I'm going to up the rating soon, because darker themes will be developing... but only to T... Anyway, the next few chaps are being annoying, so they may take a while.

*