Ahem... about those weekly updates... not gonna happen, I'm afraid... I might try for fortnightly... or at least better than monthly... sorry Caseyedith...
Chapter thirteen
"What do you think of Natsuko-san, Kenji?" Shinko asked, looking up from the bokken and leaning back against the trees.
"Wealthy probably. Few friends, and prefers the company of males to females – since she knows that her looks will affect them. Wants to learn judo as a conversation piece, most likely, and has never been willing to fight for the right to study it. On the whole, I would judge Natsuko-san to be a rather shallow young woman who only really knows about sheltered privileges." Kenji counted the traits off on his fingers, not looking directly at Shinko. "She's fairly boring on the whole; and desperate to fit in." He stood up, holding out a hand to Shinko, and picking up one of the spare bokken on the ground under the tree.
"I still owe you the rematch, don't I?" Shinko asked, accepting the hand.
"Not today, Shinko-san, I haven't had a chance to duel anyone worthwhile today – I haven't had a chance to warm up, even – so simply training." Kenji said with a smile that held a flicker of warmth, and even a hint of playfulness – so completely at odds with his usual demeanour, that Shinko was left slightly off-balance.
"So a full-out match then, just like last time?" Shinko asked, grinning herself, ignoring the sound of Tsubame and Shinya talking to Natsuko inside.
"Is there any other way to train?"
"Most people do drills." Shinko replied wryly.
"Useless, ne?" Kenji said, waiting for a full heartbeat of silence before he met Shinko's warm, dark amber eyes and charged.
This time, the bout was less graceful, both fighters moving slightly slower than usual, Shinko trying to prevent the scabs on her palm from cracking, as well as nursing her twisted ankle, while Kenji's rib was still half-healed.
"What happened?" She asked as she dodged back an inch or two to avoid a wide blow getting caught in her sleeve.
"I took a ryukansen to the side – Yahiko-sensei wanted to make a point."
"You fought chichi?"
"And lost." Kenji said, lunging forwards with a gatotsu-like thrust.
Shinko knocked the sword aside with her hand, before slashing at the target left exposed.
"I really need to get some sort of glove for my left hand." She muttered as Kenji followed his blade to the side, away from hers.
"If you're going to be travelling, you need a proper weapon." Kenji replied as the volley of attacks increased in pace and ferocity, but the blades still cracked against each other, rather than softer targets.
"I'm not sure if I should try and find a sakabato or not. After all, that's your birthright, and Kenshin-san's... it represents his truth."
"You can't have a real sword – they've been banned for more than twenty years."
"True, but a sakabato's not much better." Shinko said, wincing as Kenji's bokken thudded into the same area as Shinya's hit from before. She was beginning to empathise with his cracked rib, even if she was beginning to feel vastly less concerned over her family's adoring opinion of Natsuko.
"Mm, and a sakabato can be turned to cut, just as a katana can be turned to bruise..." Kenji said, as they launched into another exchange. Suddenly, his eyes widened as Shinko managed to somehow get under his guard, her bokken thudding into his stomach and pushing the air out his lungs.
"How did that hit?" Shinko asked, backing off, eyes wide and slightly worried.
"It was faster than I'd anticipated," Kenji muttered, rubbing his stomach and chewing slightly on the inside of his cheek in irritation.
"Oh, um... gomenasai..."
"Not your fault." He snapped, feeling irritation surge through him. He should have blocked that one...
"Kenji-kun, Shinko-chan!" Misao poked her head out of the door – it was probable that if she had learnt her cooking from Kaoru, Kaoru had learnt her timing from Misao's oniwabanshu-honed instincts. "Dinner time! Come see Natsuko-chan's okonomiyaki." She beckoned the two in, before vanishing into the next room, leaving the rice-paper screen slightly ajar.
"That was a good hit, Shinko-san." Kenji said, leaning the borrowed bokken against the tree and swallowing his pride.
"Thanks..." She grinned with embarrassed pleasure at the compliment, but didn't say anything about Kenji's half of the duel – something that the red-haired young man was grateful for, since he knew that he hadn't fought as well as he should of, and so any compliments would be false or pitying.
"It will be interesting to watch you fight Yahiko-sensei." He said quietly, too quietly for Shinko to hear, as they went into the house.
*
Three days later, still slightly sore from the bruises of her week of intensive Kenjutsu boot camp, Shinko was stretching in the courtyard of the Aoi-ya, under a spreading Chinese maple tree, Yahiko across from her, doing likewise, the Sakabato at his hip seeming bigger and blacker, and on the whole more dangerous than it ever had previously.
"Good luck Shinko," Shinya called from his seat on the wooden veranda at the edge of the courtyard. "Try not to embarrass yourself too much!"
"Shut up, baka!"
"Imoto!" he called back good naturedly, leaning back against one of the thick, dark wood beams that supported the second floor. Kenji was standing silently beside him, shaded by the eaves of the inn.
Shino went back to her stretches, feeling slightly less nervous as she watched her father, assessing what she knew about him as a warrior – he used miyoumimane (homage strike) Hiten Mitsurugi ryu – but mostly only ryutsuisen and ryukansen, Kenshin's favoured technique. He was a master of Kamiya Kasshin, and had added several of his own techniques to the style since he had taken over the training of students from Kaoru. That was the most dangerous, since he was able to block any attack that came at him, no matter how, and counter-attack with the deadly Hiten Mitsurugi ryu – essentially what Kenji, Shinya and herself had been aiming at. He wasn't too fast, but every move he made was filled with strength and passion, and a fierce protectiveness born from growing to manhood fighting to defend the ones he loved.
"Okay, Shinko, are you ready?"
"No," Shinko said with a nervous laugh, Closing her eyes for a moment, and shaking out her arms. "Kenji-san said you cracked his rib." She said, as she weighed her trhee bokken, selecting the least battered one, and leaning the rest against the Chinese maple.
"...I slightly underestimated the momentum of the lighter sword..." Yahiko murmured, sounding ever so slightly sheepish.
"Oh... do you want to borrow a bokken?" Shinko asked, opening her eyes with a grin, looking instantly calmer.
"No thank you," Yahiko said with a glance as Tsubame came out from inside the Aoi-ya and knelt next to Shinya on the veranda. "You need to prove to Tsubame-chan that you will be okay against even the most dangerous attacks, and a steel sword is slightly heavier – and slower. Shinya – call the start."
Shinya nodded, looking from his sister to father with a nervous look – like he sensed that no matter what happened today, there would be a fundamental shift in the dynamics of their life as a family.
"Begin."
*
Shinko darted back, getting as far away from Yahiko as she could, managing to dodge the sakabato by a hair, and the heavy black scabbard came round in Souryusen, just missed her as she rolled forwards and around, trying to stay as far away as she could, while she tried to think of some way to get past the impeccable defences of Kamiya Kasshin. She came to her feet, twisting back to face Yahiko as he slashed down at her, catching the blade on her yukata. Shinko swore, backing off again and circling. She needed a distraction, or else she would have no hope of lasting another minute.
"Doryusen..." Shinya murmured from where he was watching, eyes wide. Shinko blinked, and drew her shinai across the ground, raising the faintest cloud of summer dust. Yahiko used the moment where she was undefended to spring forwards, bringing his sakabato down from above, as Shinko thrust her sword into the ground, raising a cloud of dust and pushing herself away, the blade scraping along the back of her hand, and nearly making her drop her bokken. She darted back again, feeling completely overwhelmed.
"I won't win." She murmured, as she darted back towards he mother. "I could get away, but that's not the point of a genpuku, is it?"
"Concentrate, Shinko." Kenji murmured, spurring Shinko to duck down, just as Yahiko's blade came slicing towards her shoulder.
She brought the sword up from under, mimicking the move Shinya had tried against her the other day, and Yahiko blocked it with the hilt of the Sakabato before thrusting forwards. She ducked back again, but felt the point catch against her shoulder, the sharp underside opening a tiny, but stinging cut as she darted away again. The duel continued, Shinko breaking away from engagement, again and again, trying to find some advantage.
*
Yahiko felt some tiny part of his mind watch in detached surprise as Shinko dodged his attacks again and again, the style she used was almost completely different to Shinya or Kenji – in the last few years, as she'd watched the fighters training in dozens of dojo across Tokyo and Kyoto, she'd developed a mish-mashed milieu of all of them as her own. It was unpredictable, and let her keep him just enough off balance to dodge. She was completely different to Kenji. If he had used any style other than Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu, he would have probably managed to defeat Yahiko, but since he fought in such a difficult style, which the older man was more experienced in, he had played himself at a disadvantage, compounded by his arrogance – but even then, he'd just managed a hit that had bruised, even if Yahiko hadn't let that on to the red-haired boy. Shinko, without the same innate genius, had created a stylistic advantage for herself that even the most knowledgeable of masters would be hard pressed to analyse.
His body fought instinctively, knowing what to do better than his mind did, following Shinko as she dodged back towards the tree again, ducking low under his attack. He parried the first serious attack Shinko had managed to launch. It's ferocity and recklessness surprised him, as she spun towards him. He counterattacked with a quick flick of his blade, striking Shinko across her right shoulder as her body turned square to him. She dropped the bokken from numb fingers, just as her left arm came round, holding a second bokken and landing against his arm with a muted thump, as he barely managed to cushion the impact.
Shinko dropped to her knees in front of Yahiko, sweat dripping from her body and her wild spiky mane hanging lank to her shoulders, as she cradled her shoulder, her second weapon clacking on top of the first.
The courtyard radiated with silence, except for the panting of the two fighters.
"Well done, Shinko," Yahiko said, reaching down with his left hand as he sheathed the sakabato. Shinko smiled slightly, pale with pain as her father helped her up.
"She fights like an onmitsu." Aoshi said, emerging from just around a corner. "Resourceful, unpredictable, and not entirely fair."
"What was that?" Shinya asked, staring at his sister as if she had sprouted a new head. "There was... Kenji?"
"I'd call that Shinko-ryu – or possibly Myojin miyoumimane-ryu." Kenji said, jealousy and frustration warring with amazement. "Your family seems to have a talent for learning by sight. I wonder if you inherited it." The red-haired warrior stepped away from the veranda, walking over towards Shinko, and ignoring Shinya's protests. He stopped abruptly as Shinko pulled the yukata off her shoulder to examine the red bruise appearing on her shoulder.
"My hand feels all tingly." She muttered. Her fingers twitching slightly.
"How did you get your hands on the second bokken, Shinko-chan?" Misao asked, slipping her hand into Aoshi's. "I missed it."
"As I dodged towards the tree, I twisted away, and grabbed one. I kept it hidden behind my body and attacked straight away."
"Soryusen." Yahiko nodded with approval. "And cheating."
"Well, it wasn't really a genpuku, so much as a full out fight to first blood. I think Shinko-shan was justified in using everything at her disposal." Misao said, poking her tongue out at Yahiko.
"Shinko does that. It's not fair." Shinya muttered, as he came up to Shinko too, giving her a tight, fiercely proud hug, and wincing slightly as she gasped and pulled away, gripping her shoulder. "Gomen."
"It's fine. Make sure you don't get humiliated in comparison to a girl." She said with a grin.
"No way you're a girl, Shinko – girl's look like Natsuko, not planks."
"Do you want me to prove you wrong?" Shinko asked threateningly, gripping the edge of her yukata where it hung over her shoulder, the bandages wrapped around her chest to preserve her modesty already rather exposed.
"No way. You're not my type – or anyone's type."
"I'm your sister, of course I'm not you're type."
"You're a cross-dressing tomboy with no figure, who's type is that?"
"Shinya!" Yahiko snapped warningly as Shinko opened her mouth, trying to find a reply.
Shinya shrugged, sulkily, and stopped talking.
"Shinko..." Tsubame said quietly, coming towards the group.
"Haha?"
"...You..." She broke off, looking away. "...We can't make you stay." She said quietly.
*