Rurouni Yahiko

A Rurouni Kenshin Continuation fic
by Chester Castañeda

It is now time for the gratuitous fight scene chapter.

Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others) are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki and Sony. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.

Chapter 2: Farewells

Yahiko's eyes widened as the man before him suddenly flickered into nonexistence. He didn't know what to expect as he saw a horizontal flash of light shimmer over his abdomen, ripping his upper garment open while he was nearly gutted like a fish.

The older man flickered back into reality. "It seems that I was the one to draw first blood," he derided.

Yahiko clutched his exposed abdomen as he felt stinging, wet warmth in his fingers. He winced as he regarded his opponent carefully. 'This man's good. He's definitely no ordinary street thug,' he begrudgingly determined. 'In fact, his stance and abilities are all very reminiscent of Aoshi's skills with the double kodachi. I know it's essentially different on an aesthetic level, but on a more fundamental sense, they're very much alike. It's as if they're both... That's it!'

"Hey. You're a ninja, aren't you?" Yahiko concluded.

The man chuckled at that. 'He's sharper than Gasuke claimed. This young man isn't just a scruffy street urchin.' He smirked a bit at Yahiko before his silhouette again wavered into nothingness.

Yahiko growled audibly. "You can't use the same trick on me twice!" He unwrapped the cloth around his sword, unsheathing the sakabatou and throwing the fabric at the supposed ninja's way in two movements.

The fabric was immediately ripped and torn apart by an invisible force. 'You can't use cheap tricks on me, boy. As a ninjutsu master, I know all of them!' the ninja thought disdainfully.

Yahiko frowned in contemplation as he went into Jodan-no-Kamae stance, fully feeling the kenki of his opponent. 'Should I use it now?' he mentally debated. 'Should I use that experimental strike I learned from developing the Revisal Techniques?'

The burning sensation in his gut, the early signs of fatigue in his eyes, the glint of the blades coming towards him, and the urgency of finding Kenji at the back of his mind had already made his decision for him.

The shredded pieces of cloth dispersed into a circular pattern as the three blades collided. A reverberating clang of metal was heard from yards on end as the sakabatou vibrated like the well-taut string of a biwa. The sword canes clattered loudly on the ground, their edges chipped away because they were not able to withstand the superior craftsmanship of Shaku's last creation.

Yahiko drew ragged breaths as he examined the situation. Aside from the broken weapons, metal shards, and wooden splinters scattered across the dirt, there was no sign of his enemy. He braced himself just in case he was faced with yet another one of the ninja's tricks, but he could feel no particular battle aura being emitted around the area. Only groaning, moaning, and prone drunkards littered the landscape that he was currently standing on. He exhaled a breath of relief.

Yahiko then smacked his forehead after a very important issue came to mind. 'Kenji!'

"You WHAT?" Gasuke raged as a pulsating vein popped out of his forehead. "Have you gone insane? What if the boy found us out and warned Battousai? The police might get involved!"

"I said I was testing the boy to see if he was as weak as you claimed him to be. This changes nothing," Takae insisted in a calm and collected manner using a menacing undercurrent in his voice that promptly silenced the ranting yakuza boss.

"M-My men were given a bum rap because of your little stunt last night. I don't want a repeat happening tonight... not while everything is finally coming into place," Gasuke countered, although his behavior was more subdued than before.

"Your 'boys' were a bunch of impudent fools who needed to get drunk just so they could gather enough courage to fight your so-called 'street urchin,'" Takae scoffed.

"I paid good money for you, you lowlife scum!" Gasuke whined more than screamed, inching away from the ninja. He had seen how effective Takae was at dispatching his old boss, using some sort of 'invisibility' trap that was very hard to figure out. He fiddled under his clothing for his pistol, bracing himself for anything despite his painful hangover.

"There are no more ninja nowadays. They've all died from various wars during the revolution. And you know what? Nobody really gives a shit! Without the yakuza, you'll just be a two-bit thug hired for petty jobs and the like! Learn your place!" Gasuke spat, wincing a bit as his throbbing migraine ripped through his cranium once more.

The mobster backed away a few inches, his grip firm on his firearm as he saw Takae's eyes flash back at him. "Are you with us or not?"

Takae seemed to consider Gasuke's stipulation before replying, "It would seem that, for the time being, our agendas are the same."

Gasuke relaxed visibly as he put his hand away from his gun, rubbing his pulsating temples with his other hand as his headache suddenly went up a notch. "Our boys from several other districts will be coming here soon. We've arranged to meet at the docks. From there, we'll go to the Kamiya Dojo and start our mindless massacre. We're going to rid the world of the Battousai once and for all!"

"What am I going to tell Kenshin and Kaoru now?" Yahiko worriedly muttered to himself as he yet again scoured the streets for any sign of the couple's lost son. He remembered Kaoru's words from before; something about his foolish pride and arrogance, but mostly about the Revisal Techniques being ineffective.

'Ha! Ineffective? I only used one maneuver from it, and it was able to dispatch a freaking ninja! How do you like that, Kaoru?' Yahiko mentally congratulated himself, disregarding the fact that the man did look more like a drunken lout instead of a master of the dark arts. There was also the minor detail of him not really defeating the ninja in the usual sense. He pushed such thoughts out of his head as he noted the power and precision of his deceptively simple strike... the result of many months of hard training with the sakabatou.

'My technique is... infallible. The Hiten Misturugi Ryu and the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu fusion is possible. I'll prove it to them. I can do it,' Yahiko assured himself. 'I'll train and develop my own kenjutsu, and then become the swordsman that I was meant to be... the man that I was meant to be. I have to do that, or else all this talk of genpuku will be just that: talk.'

He rubbed his eyes sleepily, calling out Kenji's name from a nearby alley. 'It's the reason why I have to get out of here. I want to search for my manhood the only way possible; on my own.'

Yahiko called Kenji out again, riling up several dogs in the process. He yawned because he'd been up the whole night, but the rising panic within him put his drowsiness at bay, beckoning him to continue with his endeavor.

'I have to go. I have to...' Yahiko groggily rattled his head as images started to dance in his eyes... visions he had seen before. The dream of him running alongside Kenshin and Sanosuke replayed itself in his mind.

"Kenshin isn't the only one I expect great things from," Sanosuke had confessed to Yahiko, chuckling goodheartedly.

"You'll only be as strong as you want to be, Yahiko," Kenshin had encouraged in his usual cheery manner, smiling.

'I have to follow my own path!' Yahiko's other self went unhesitatingly towards a fork in the road, separating himself from his two other companions. 'I owe it to Sanosuke's expectations; to Kenshin's expectations; to my beloved parents' expectations as well. I have to do this.'

But that apparition of Yahiko suddenly stopped as a very angry Kaoru blocked his path.

"You and your foolish pride! You're so self-assured that you think you can get through anything with a smirk and a swing of a sword! But look at what your conceit did. Now I've lost my son AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"

Yahiko just froze on the spot as he saw Kaoru suddenly break down and cry. He couldn't even offer her a hand of comfort. Before he noticed, his own self-image had already merged with his consciousness, shifting his point of view as a specter of Kenji briefly flickered before him.

"Wow! Big bwotha was gweat!" Kenji praised before altogether vanishing into nothingness.

Yahiko fell to his knees, his fatigue finally catching up to him. 'Some great swordsman I am. I've failed to protect Kenji and I was barely able to protect myself. I've broken both of my promises to protect. I'm a complete failure as a swordsman.'

Yahiko wept silently, his eyes shimmering with tears he would not allow to fall. "I'm just a big fool." He fiercely rubbed his eyes as he looked around him. Incidentally, he had already made his way back to the Kamiya Dojo during the time he distractedly wandered around.

He braced himself as he dared to enter the compound, wondering briefly if Kenshin and Kaoru were already asleep. 'No. I have to tell them. This is important. What if Kenji was kidnapped by the yakuza or even by that weird ninja guy? They have to know.'

To confirm his suspicions, a chuckling phantom of Kenji again appeared in front of him, screaming, "Big bwotha!" That was before the aforementioned ghost suddenly punched him in the eye.

"Ow! What the heck?" Yahiko yelped in surprise.

Kenji blinked once. "Why big bwotha shocked? You say once that you big boy now, so you told me if eva you sob like baby, be shu to punch you in the eye. So I did that." Kenji blinked further as he was engulfed by the tentative embrace of his foster brother.

"Dammit, where were you? I was looking all over for you the whole night! I thought the yakuza or that crazy man that attacked me with the sword canes got you. What happened?"

Kenji raised an eyebrow; it was a curious mannerism he learned from his mother. "I went home. I know how to go home. I'm fast. You stupid."

Yahiko pinched and stretched the little tot's cheeks. "That's the thanks I get for looking for you in all of Tokyo for the entire night? And what the heck are you doing awake so early in the morning anyway?"

"I dunno about that, but mama weally gave it to daddy last night. Daddy was in big twouble." The little boy snickered at the thought. His features subsequently turned pensive as he confronted Yahiko earnestly. "You not going away anymo, big bwotha?"

Yahiko heaved a forlorn sigh. "I don't know yet. We'll have to wait and see." He looked eastward as beams of light shot through the sky, reassuring him of a new day.

Tsubame waited patiently at the gates of the Kamiya dojo, worry etched on her soft features.

"Tsubame-chan! What a nice surprise. What brings you here?" Kaoru inquired as she hastily wiped her sweaty forehead. "I'm kind of in the middle of kendo practice with some of my students, so please excuse my appearance."

"I'm so sorry to disturb you, Kaoru-san, but I was sort of wondering," Tsubame dithered, a light blush appearing on her cheeks, "have you seen Yahiko-kun?"

"Oh. Oh! Of course, of course! Tell me, why are you looking for Yahiko?" Kaoru prodded cheerfully.

"Um, we kind of agreed on having dinner tonight at the Akabeko after my shift in the morning, since I won't be working in the afternoon, so it won't be awkward for me to eat and serve at the same time, and..." Tsubame trailed off, her hands on her burning-red cheeks.

"That's perfect! I mean, he's here," Kaoru notified, giggling a bit. "He was up all night last night when he came back to the dojo. It was all because of my husband's negligence. Well, it's nothing important." Her left eyebrow twitched as she nearly snarled at the memory. "He had to catch up on his sleep, and he was too tired to return to his longhouse, so we let him sleep here. He's probably in a futon inside our house right now."

"Well, if he's still sleeping, I really shouldn't..."

"Oh, nonsense! He promised! And he already had his fair share of sleep. He practically snored away the entire morning. He should be awake by now. Come on, let's wake him up!" Kaoru insisted, urging the young girl towards the open yard inside.

"B-But Kaoru-san!" the shy young girl weakly protested.

"Mama! Mama!" Kenji cried out, tears in his eyes as he pitter-pattered towards maternal comfort.

"Huh? Honey, what's wrong?" Kaoru soothed as she gently wrapped her arms around the distressed little kid. "Don't worry, mama's here."

"Mama, big bwotha is gone! It's all my fault! Shouldn't have made him wowwy so much; shouldn't have left him when the bad man attacked!" Kenji sobbed, crying in his mother's bosom.

"Shush, sweetheart. It's not your fault. I'm sure Yahiko is in the dojo somewhere. Maybe he went back to the longhouse or something. There, there. Don't cry."

"That's right, Kenji. There's no need to worry. It's not as if Yahiko's going to leave without telling us," Tsubame reassured.

"But he did told us! At least he twied. He twied to tell daddy, but daddy went to sleep. Mama was away, and I think he's too shy to tell you, Tsubame-neetan," Kenji revealed in vexation.

Kaoru became bewildered by the turn of events, not able to fully follow what her son was trying to say. "Wait. You said that your father suddenly fell asleep? You're not just teasing mama now, are you?" Kenji replied to that with a solemn shake of his head.

'The dizzy spells! Kenshin should've told me sooner. That was why Kenji was able to slip away. Kenshin should stop playing hero and be honest with me for once!' Kaoru mused indignantly, but the rest of her thoughts were suddenly cut short as she heard a thud on the ground.

Tsubame sunk to a crouch, an almost frenetic look on her face. "No. Kenji must have misunderstood. Yahiko-kun never journeyed any further than the Maekawa Dojo; not for the last five years. And he'd never leave without telling... not without saying good-bye. It's all a big misunderstanding."

"Kaoru. Tsubame," Kenshin hailed as he gradually made his way to the patio; he still hadn't fully recovered from his fainting spell yesterday.

"Kenshin, why didn't you tell me you fainted...? What are you holding in your hand?" Kaoru double-took.

Kenshin gave everyone a piercing, poignant look before responding. "It's Yahiko's farewell letter."

"What was that moron thinking, leaving Tokyo like that?" Kaoru fumed as she reread Yahiko's letter for the seventeenth time. "And half of his sentences don't even make sense. That's what he gets for not paying attention when I taught him how to write, the stubborn fool!"

"Don't be so hard on him. Look, at least his handwriting is better than mine," Kenshin rationalized, holding his hands up in a calming manner.

"Everybody else has better handwriting than you, dear. That's beside the point. Don't tell me you've actually consented to this!" Kaoru waved the letter threateningly at Kenshin, as if she were wielding a shinai or bokuto. "What he did was highly inconsiderate and downright rude! The nerve of that guy! Tsubame was so devastated, she practically cried herself to sleep here in the dojo."

Kaoru observed Tsubame's form in the futon laid side-by-side with Kenji's in the adjoining room, exhaling wistfully. "Poor thing; she was affected the most by that moron's rash and inconsiderate decision."

Kenshin rubbed his forehead before speaking. "I kind of understand Yahiko's side of the story. Ever since he received the sakabatou as his genpuku present, he took it upon himself like it was some sort of great responsibility... which is what it essentially is. He trained and worked harder than ever before. He really took his genpuku seriously. If he really had 'come of age', then he must have something to show for it... thus his belated decision to wander around Japan for a while."

"It still doesn't excuse him for not saying good-bye to everybody! Especially to poor Tsubame-chan," Kaoru persisted adamantly.

Kenshin stared intently at the floor, trying his best not to meet Kaoru's gaze. "Sometimes the hardest thing about parting is the good-byes. They present such strong feelings of regret and an unwillingness to let go, concentrated in one brief moment, that it could almost be enough to... It must've been very hard for Yahiko to come up with the decision already, so long good-byes could've complicated matters."

Kaoru's eyes twinkled in comprehension. 'Of course. It was like Kenshin's good-bye to me before he went to Kyoto.' The couple became silent for an instant as they shared a mutual moment of understanding.

"I guess not saying good-bye has its merits," Kaoru conceded, gently grasping Kenshin's hand with her own. "I'm just saying that it's not like Yahiko to weasel out of his responsibilities like that."

Kenshin absently nodded in assent. "In fairness, it seems that Yahiko and Kenji have gotten closer," he deduced.

"Yeah, they kind of look cute together; like they were really... Honey, what's wrong? Is it another dizzy spell? I'll get some water."

"There are people... a lot of people... outside." Kenshin shook his head. 'I should have sensed them earlier. This 'disease' has robbed me of my swordsman senses.'

"I don't understand. Is there a parade of some sort? In the middle of the night?" Kaoru supposed before halting. "You couldn't possibly mean...?"

Kenshin spoke somberly. "Their sakki are brimming with murderous intent. They're intruders."

Kaoru's face paled. "Intruders?" Then her eyebrows met. "I'll get the spare bokuto. I'm sure you could handle them better with that than a shinai, right?"

Kenshin nodded as both he and Kaoru rose up from the floor, careful not to wake up the two sleeping children.

"Climb over the gates! Ram them if you have to! I don't care if their neighbors suddenly sounded the alarm or something. Let them! These pathetic Tokyo police couldn't possibly stop my powerful army of yakuza!" Gasuke screamed boisterously at the assembled troop of thirty men. "Not even Battousai can handle all of us. Other than him, there are no other threats! There are just women and children in there, so don't hesitate! Waste them all. You can even have the women for yourselves if you want, but not before the Battousai is dead."

Several of the men had put up long ladders over the dojo walls, while a few had already made it in the inner courtyard.

"You seem sure of yourself, Gasuke," Takae drawled as he unexpectedly appeared from behind the yakuza boss. "I just hope your attitude will not lead to folly or death."

"The old Battousai could have easily taken us out with a few strikes of his sword. He could have sensed us coming even as we're talking at the outside of these gates. But where is he now? He's just a washed-up hitokiri who doesn't even have his own sword to protect himself. I promise you, the Battousai and his family will die tonight," Gasuke guaranteed superciliously as half of his men had already made it within the patio.

Gasuke grinned as the front gate was flung open. He then stared dumbstruck as several of his men flew in the air at various directions and velocities, all landing unceremoniously like rag dolls. "W-Who the hell did this? Battousai? Is that you?"

"I've been called worse," a surprisingly female... and not merely effeminate... voice greeted the yakuza honcho. "I am Kamiya Kaoru, master of this dojo. You have defiled this sacred training ground. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

In the next few seconds, Kaoru gasped as she shakily pointed her bokuto at Gasuke, exclaiming, "You! You're the yakuza scumbag that beat Yahiko up six years ago! Boy, you got uglier as you got older."

"Shut up, bitch! Where's Battousai?" Gasuke glared at his men, who were all frozen like statues. "What are you idiots waiting for? ATTACK HER NOW!"

Many more of Gasuke's men collapsed like puppets whose strings had been cut off. He grimaced; he recognized this familiar scene all too well. "Come out. I already know you're there."

"Hiring entire groups of people to kill off a man, two women, and a child? I know yakuza usually don't prioritize morals, but you scumbags are the lowest of the low," Kenshin lectured, appearing from the side of the open gate as he slipped his wooden sword inside his cloth belt, going into his usual battoujutsu posture.

"There you go again, preaching like some sort of moralist. Well, let's see just how ethical your mouth can get while being fed hot lead!" Gasuke raucously announced as he pulled out his gun.

"Kenshin, watch out!" Kaoru shouted, not taking any chances with her husband's erratic reaction time as the first shot was fired.

The bullet embedded itself in the gateway where the ex-hitokiri had been standing. Kenshin, faster than the eye could blink, was quickly upon Gasuke.

Kaoru heaved a sigh of relief. 'It'll take that yakuza hoodlum a while to reload his single-shot pistol. Kenshin won't even give him the chance, now that he'd dodged the bullet. The danger has passed.'

Kaoru was roused from her reprieve as reverberating clangs and brief glints formed around a cackling Gasuke. 'What's going on? Gasuke's not even moving! I could only see glints and flashes of blades. Whose blades are Kenshin parrying?'

"I have all the time in the world to reload my gun and shoot you at my own leisure. You know why, Battousai?" Gasuke taunted the surprised former assassin. "It's all because of one man. Meet Takae Masahiro, the last remaining ninja of the Takae Clan!"

The yakuza leader subsequently reloaded his gun as Kenshin remained on the defensive, backing away from the mostly invisible ninja whose only proof of existence was his flickering image every now and then as his blades reflected the dim moonlight.

"Kenshin!" Kaoru called out as she tried to help her husband, but numerous yakuza started to surround her, forming a wall between her and the heated battle outside the dojo gates. A myriad of prone figures also got up, taking on a second wind.

"Dammit, get out of my way, you hoodlums! Hold on, Kenshin! Tsuka no Gedan: Hiza Hijiki!" Kaoru declared as she barely avoided her nearest opponent's midsection hack by diving down and breaking his kneecaps with her bokuto's thick handle, effectively disabling him. The battles resumed.

Kenshin backed away ever so slightly as one of his opponent's blades sliced through thin air, splitting one of his bangs. 'An overextension; he's wide open,' he reflected as he turned around and countered with a strike from his notched bokuto.

Kenshin's now-visible adversary skidded a good three yards away from the recoil of the counter-offensive. 'Incredible. So this is how it feels like to be struck down by the great Battousai. The searing pain makes me feel so alive!' Takae chortled to himself.

Kenshin regarded his nemesis briefly before charging forward. 'His effective use of the colors of his garments, in shades that would reflect as little light as possible, complements the cloak he uses. By perfecting movement and balancing his speed, he could execute a nearly perfect invisibility trick that doesn't just rely on shadows and shade. His clothes themselves act as his blanket of shadow. It was effective enough to fool me, even in the moonlight. I won't give him the chance to fool me twice.'

"You barely had a serious fight for over six years. You seldom practice outside of your usual daily kata. Your health has begun to fail you. You even gave away your sword," Takae appraised, looking directly at Kenshin through the rend on his hat. His mostly white eyes glared intently at the ex-vagabond. "But your Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu is still quite formidable. Go ahead and charge! Charge with your best attacks!"

"Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu: Ryu Sou..." Kenshin started to say, but before he could even bring his nigh-dilapidated wooden sword down, his whole world suddenly spun into turmoil as a startling pain ripped through the very heart of his soul. It exploded from every part of his body; from every pore of his skin. Nothing mattered now except his anguish.

Regardless of how brief his suffering was, what truly worried Kenshin at the back of his mind was the lack of sensation from his surroundings that followed his episode of excruciating torture. He fought against the weightless trance with all the strength he could muster until he was able to discern the blades coming straight for him.

"Hagane Tachi Kai!"

'The Iron Cleaver technique?' Kenshin idly wondered as he prepared to block the strike.

Splinters and shards flew everywhere as the remnants of Kenshin's bokuto fell noisily on the ground.

'Was it my imagination, or did Kenshin hesitate when he charged at that ninja?' Kaoru deliberated as she choked out one of her luckless assailants with her mostly intact bokuto while buried under a makeshift dog pile of yakuza ruffians. Her eyes then bugged out in apprehension. "Kenshin, Gasuke's gun...!"

A gunshot rang out, silencing the boisterous night.

Kenshin, having just awakened from his dangerous reverie, barely evaded the path of the pistol's deadly projectile, grazing his side the way a missed thrust from a sword would.

Gasuke gleefully cackled like a rooster in heat, pulling out a second gun from his coat. "This time I won't miss. DIE!"

Gasuke saw a brief flash in the corner of his eye prior to feeling the cold bite of blunted steel at the back of his neck.

His pistol misfired, bloodying his hand.

Before he could react enough to flail his arms wildly, he was already flying towards a nearby tree. He then had a sample of what tree bark tasted like.

"What...?" Kaoru mumbled.

"Oro?" Kenshin articulated.

A spike-haired shadow descended upon the potpourri of chaos underneath the light of the moonlit sky. Yahiko Myojin grinned. There was nothing like a good entrance to jumpstart a late night brawl.

"Sorry I'm late. I had to roughen up some guys at the pier and at the old yakuza headquarters where the former boss Tanishi stayed to gather some useful information. And guess what? That guy eating tree bark over there is a usurper. He murdered Tanishi just to get complete control of the organization. Good thing I came here just in time..."

A stray slipper hit Yahiko squarely on the face, silencing him.

"Instead of blabbering there like an idiot, producing more wind than a typhoon," Kaoru growled as she struggled to get up amidst getting tackled by grown men at least twice her size, "you could, oh I don't know, help us out here? ACK! I can't believe you touched me there! How dare you! I'm a married woman! Take that! And that! And that!"

'The old hag needs help? It's those poor, pathetic bozos stupid enough to latch onto her that needs help,' Yahiko considered before realizing, 'Oh no. Kenshin and that weird guy with the flat hat and cloak are gone! Wait a second. They must have gone into the dojo.'

One of the punks suddenly pointed a sword at Yahiko's direction. "I remember you! You're the boy who beat us up yesterday!"

"We'll show you what happens to people who mess with the yakuza!"

Yahiko sighed as he prepared himself. 'Wait for me, Kenshin. I'll soon catch up with you, no problem.'

'He went in here, in the training room. I mustn't let him near Kenji and Tsubame,' Kenshin thought, tensing himself. 'However, I came here in a hurry without a weapon. Oh well. Perhaps I am an overbearing martyr that Kaoru claims me to be.'

"So you came here after all, as predicted. I knew you couldn't resist this obvious trap... trying to protect your loved ones and all. It's so typically you," Takae mocked, flickering into existence. "A few stabs here, a few thrown blades there; who knows what could have been the result? Perhaps the return of the old hitokiri, the greatest of all killers? Should I even risk it?"

"For a ninja, you seem pretty talkative," Kenshin scoffed.

"Ah, excuse me for that. It's just very rare for me to get so excited like this," Takae explained maliciously, taking on a completely different appearance from the dispassionate ninja from before.

Before long, Kenshin adopted a different demeanor as well, narrowing his glinting eyes and openly scrutinizing his elusive foe. "You were the one spying on us for days on end for the last two weeks, weren't you?"

"Yes," Takae openly admitted as though he had just noted that the night was dark. "It took a lot of effort to spy on you since you were highly aware of your surroundings. I had to use the best of our clan's shadow techniques. But lately, you've suddenly become lax. You weren't much of a challenge anymore."

Takae took off his damaged straw hat altogether, revealing a wrinkled, world-weary face and eyes as white as snow. "On one hand, maybe you're suffering from some sort of incurable disease. On the other hand, your constantly battered body may have reached its limits. It doesn't really matter to me. This sorry state of affairs kind of reminds me of the status of ninjutsu nowadays, though. I'm the only remaining ninja of my clan. All my comrades are either dead or have taken up other occupations; new lives. I couldn't do that... not even in the face of this Meiji Regime. Ninjutsu, like yourself, is slowly dying out." Kenshin slightly winced at that last statement.

Takae drew his two kunai at the reformed hitokiri. "But those first few seconds of fighting and the demeanor you have right now... even though these are just glimpses and shadows of the great Battousai, I still want to fight him! The flicker of your true self was enough to whet my appetite. Come, transform into your true self and give me the magnificent fight I deserve. In return, I will show you the full power of the shadow arts of the Last of the Takae Clan!"

Kenshin waxed contemplative as his purplish eyes blinked in rumination. He equably replied, "Go ahead with your plan. I have no arguments against it. However, don't ever involve these little ones I'm protecting, or you will live to regret it."

"You speak with such flourish even though you currently have no weapon. You're so confident of your skills that you believe you can win without one. But I don't want this to become a contest of dodging and weapon snatching, and I have no desire to strike down an unarmed man. Here! Hold this!"

Kenshin neatly caught what appeared to be, for all intents and purposes, a katana. Before he could protest further, Takae had by then vanished.

"Fight me with a sword whose edge has been put in the correct side lest I send these little ones you protect to heaven!" an ethereal voice threatened as glinting daggers seemed to fly from all directions of the room simultaneously, each and every one of them converging towards the ex-rurouni.

Kenshin had just gone into his proverbial attacking position when two familiar friends... his former sword and his current prodigy... jumped into the blades' way.

"Yahiko," Kenshin half-whispered.

Gasuke slowly got up from his awkward posture, spewing out bits of tree bark, moss, and insects that had somehow ended up in his mouth while he was out cold. He winced slightly at the current condition of his hand. Then again, he reckoned that he couldn't feel any pain from it anyway, so he heedlessly wiped the blistered and bloodied appendage on his vest as though the blood weren't his own. Afterwards, he resentfully tried to recall what had happened earlier. He fingered the back of his neck in reminiscence.

'A reverse-edged sword! I was hit by a fucking reverse-edged sword! Did Battousai...? No, he gave it away. He gave it away TO THAT WASTE OF SPERM, YAHIKO!' he mentally screamed, his veins popping on his forehead amidst bloodshot eyes.

Looking around his general vicinity... an entire lot filled with his unconscious and semiconscious thugs... he discreetly reloaded his last remaining pistol as he sneaked off inside the dojo a good distance away from the screaming banshee that beat up the remainder of the conscious gangsters.

Yahiko tried his very best to counter the deadly flurry of hacks and slashes as sparks flew from the repeated clang of metal resounding across the enclosed space.

Yahiko was barely able to block all of the strikes from one of the blades, much less two. As both combatants parted a good distance away from each other's forceful assaults, the boy flinched in pain. He dolefully noted that his fingers and forearms were full of nicks and gashes. The room hadn't fared any better; the walls and the floor were marred by a crosshatch of lacerations as well.

'That stance, that stupid invisibility trick, and even that wrinkled old face of his! I know him!' Yahiko comprehended as he looked at his currently perceptible opponent. "You're the ninja pretending to be a drunken yakuza who attacked me yesterday!"

"Ah, and you were the boy with the impressive sword arm and downward strike. How's your stomach?" the ninja queried as he gestured towards the crude cloth bandages on Yahiko's abdomen in amusement. He promptly scowled. "Get out of my way, boy. This battle is between me and Battousai. This is a real fight, and not some insipid kendo duel."

"Well, I can't allow that," Yahiko straightforwardly stated as he fell into his usual kendo pose. "Kenshin made a promise to an important someone to never kill again. So, in turn, because I inherited from him this sakabatou I'm holding right now, I swore he'll never have to hold another sword again. I'm here to keep that promise."

He gave the ex-hitokiri a sidelong glance. "Right, Kenshin?"

Kenshin smiled as he flung the katana away. "Right."

Takae sneered. "Well then. If you stand against me, then I won't hold back." He soon winked out of existence.

'Damn. Last time, he only used his changeable speed and his cloak to disappear into the shadows. Now that he's in full gear, he's all the more difficult to detect! I can sense his presence, but somehow he is able to spread it everywhere, so it seems like he's charging from different directions at once... but not really! What am I going to do?' Yahiko brooded, perturbed. He glanced at Kenshin as the erstwhile swordsman looked at the empty space of the silent dojo.

Heedlessly, an assault suddenly materialized over Yahiko's blind side. The young kendo master had a hard time countering the strikes because the ninja used a special maneuver that made it look like his kunai were flying everywhere and anywhere concurrently. The boy couldn't tell if the numerous luminous lights were afterimages or genuine strikes. And, as suddenly as the attack came, it disappeared.

'This is getting me nowhere fast. If I don't figure out the ninja's method of attack, I'll lose! But I can't even use the Revisal Techniques since he just isn't set up properly like before.' Yahiko licked his bleeding knuckles. 'There has to be a way. What would Kenshin do in a situation like this?' he considered as he glanced towards the redhead's direction, the former rurouni still not taking his eyes off the bare space of the dojo.

'I wonder if he's trying to say something about the fight. Then again, maybe he's just as confused as I am! This ninja isn't easy to beat,' Yahiko thought as seconds ticked by in cadence with his heartbeat. 'His shadow arts are good. In fighting him, it's like I'm sparring with my own shadow!'

Yahiko's face lit up in understanding. 'Oh yeah. The answer was so obvious! Why didn't I think of it before?'

One second later, luminescent lines crisscrossed in the corner of Yahiko's eyes. He raised his sakabatou high above his head. He didn't move an inch as the wind from the furious strikes ruffled his hair.

Another second passed after the last strike glinted in his eyes. His heart skipped a beat as he held his breath. Spirit, mind, and body became one in that split second as he compulsorily brought his weapon down in full force.

Takae dropped down on all fours, screaming after the blunted weapon struck his shoulder hard and nearly broke its bones. A low thump was heard nearby as a kunai got stuck onto the wooden floor.

Yahiko wiped the sweat off his brow before speaking. "You tricky old bastard! The whole 'flurry of kunai' thing was just a sneaky trap!"

Kenshin smiled wanly. 'You've truly matured, Yahiko. You were able to figure out Takae's tactic on your own. His technique was really just a trap he used to trick his opponents into defending at the wrong time, thus making them open and vulnerable. It's like trying to hit one's own shadow; you can't hurt it, but the same could be said vice-versa.'

'So the Praying Mantis Trap has been defeated,' Takae ruminated as he looked at Yahiko in a new light. "You were able to understand the inner workings of the Toro Soujin. Perhaps all those generous accolades to your name were actually well-deserved. But this story hasn't ended yet." He vanished again.

"Jeez, gramps! You never give up, do you?" Yahiko shouted at empty air. "First time, you caught me in the gut; second time, you nicked and cut me apart; do you really think," he suddenly swung the hilt of the reverse-edged sword at a very surprised Takae, its end going deep into the ninja's right eye, "that there'll be a third time?"

The old man fell as he clutched his newly formed black eye.

"How were you able to figure out my Minamo Gakure invisibility technique?" Takae asked, more in wonder than in bitterness.

"Figure it out? I never did. You were always able to fool me with that. It was just plainly obvious that, in your agitated state, you'd attack me immediately after being defeated. Let's just say you trounced yourself more soundly than I ever could," Yahiko elucidated harshly as the elderly ninja fell silent.

"Humph. To think, you even had the gall to fight Kenshin, a legendary hitokiri who's in an entirely different level than me. Before you even consider challenging him, you better get through the Second Greatest Swordsman in All of Japan first!" Yahiko ranted, pointing at himself proudly with his thumb.

"Oro?" Kenshin sweatdropped. 'Oh well. No matter how mature he may appear at times, boys will be boys, I guess,' he reflected to himself laughingly.

Just then, they heard a scream from the Kamiya Dojo's courtyard. Both Meiji Patriot and Tokyo Samurai Descendant hurried outside, a feeling of mutual apprehension eating at their hearts.

Kenji repeatedly kicked, punched, and bit the stranger aiming the weird toy at his mama and calling her names. He even ripped out the man's brush-like hair. He instinctively knew that his mother was in trouble and he had to protect her from the mean, ugly stupid-head.

"OW! You little fucker! I'll get you and your whorish mother...!"

"Don't talk to my son like that. And never call my wife a whore," an icy voice that seemed to come from the darkest pits of hell seethed, sending chills down Gasuke's spine.

"Battousai! How nice of you to drop in!" Gasuke grinned as he grasped a hidden blade from one of his pockets. He held the child beside him, knife on the tot's neck, while still holding his loaded pistol with his other hand. "Don't you dare move."

"KENJI!" Kaoru was in hysterics as Kenshin held her back.

"Gasuke, you're still a fucking asshole! Let go of the kid!" Yahiko demanded, threateningly pointing the sakabatou at the gangster boss's direction, his scratched knuckles turning white with rage.

"You still owe me one for that foolish backhanded bludgeoning thing you did to me a while back, but I'll have to take a rain check on that, seeing that my worthless army of yakuza is... out of sorts right now," Gasuke shared rather glibly. "I'll just have to settle for this. Battousai! Get out in the open, your hands on the back of your head. Afterwards, I want to see your back turned! And no funny stuff! Move it!"

"You don't actually believe we'll..." Yahiko's eyes quickly expanded like saucers as Kenshin complied to Gasuke's demands. "Kenshin, have you gone nuts? He'll kill Kenji no matter what! Don't do it! There's got to be another way!"

"If I could somehow buy Kenji a few more seconds, then perhaps we'll get a chance to save him. I won't hesitate to offer my life for him."

"Kenshin, no!" Kaoru cried, torn between Kenji and Kenshin's lives, not knowing what to think, what to do, or what to say. She suddenly felt faint as Kenshin's image started to disappear in a salty, watery blur.

Yahiko cursed. 'Dammitdammitdammit!' A familiar feeling of helplessness flowed into his inner being. 'After all this time and everything I've done, I'm still not strong enough to help when it counts! Again, Gasuke's making my life into a living hell, and I can't do shit about it.'

"That's it, Battousai. That's it. Now don't move an inch, or else my other hand might 'accidentally' slice your son's throat in surprise. This is a very delicate procedure." Gasuke cackled, a glint of lunacy in his eyes as his face contorted into utter madness. "I've been waiting for this moment for so long. DIE, BATTOUSAI!"

The shot was fired.

A kunai was abruptly thrust into Gasuke's shoulder, making him drop his two weapons along with a very shell-shocked Kenji.

Takae fell into a bloody heap, his upper vest painted red with his own blood.

Gasuke howled an animal-like cry of frustration. "You idiot! You ruined everything!" He looked maniacally at the petrified Kenji. "Oh well. It's time to cut my losses." He casually extracted the dagger from his shoulder and lunged.

"Gasuke, you bastard!" Yahiko yelled as he caught his former employer's assassin by the hand and twisted it painfully. The hoodlum yowled in agony. "If you dare touch one hair on Kenji, I'll make you suck that pistol until it shoots off lead in your mouth."

"You talk tough for the son of a destitute samurai and a sickly prostitute!" Gasuke screeched. Relying solely on the strength of his despair, he forcibly wrenched his hand back as he struck Yahiko in the gut with his other fist. The teenager recoiled from the blow as an earlier wound reopened, the sakabatou clattering on the stony ground a good distance away.

"You never had any right to be anything other than our property. We own your life! And now I'm taking it back!" Gasuke raved, his sanity finally leaving him as he held Takae's kunai over Yahiko with both hands.

Yahiko ignored the searing ache in his gut as he refocused his vision. He willed himself to concentrate on the grotesque visage of the monster before him. He crossed his wrists as the dagger nearly plunged into his eye. "Defense Succession Technique Hadome!"

He turned his wrists, pulling the weapon out of Gasuke's grip and throwing him to the floor in one swift movement. "Attack Succession Technique Hawatari," he gravely declared to Gasuke's fallen form. From there, he picked up his sakabatou, his grip tightening as childhood memories of Gasuke's constant abuse resurfaced in his mind, threatening to skew his own judgment. He morbidly looked at Takae's still unmoving body.

Yahiko shrieked almost as maniacally as Gasuke did, raising his sword over the yakuza's head. Gasuke looked up, and as realization struck him, beads of sweat started to flow freely upon his fear-contorted features.

Dirt and rock pelted Gasuke's face excruciatingly as the sakabatou missed his head by mere inches. Yahiko drew ragged breaths as he idly wondered what it would've felt like to use one of the Revisal Techniques on someone's skull. A hand then unexpectedly gripped his shoulder firmly.

"It's over, Yahiko. Don't mar the beauty of that strike with the blood of an opponent," Kenshin asserted as he ruffled Yahiko's hair.

"Hey, Kenshin. I'm not a little boy anymore," Yahiko complained, heaving a sigh of relief nonetheless.

"Oh baby! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Mama is so sorry!" Kaoru sobbed as she rushed towards Kenji's side. Kenji, upon feeling Kaoru's warm embrace, bawled ceaselessly.

An urgent thought entered Yahiko's head. "Kenshin! The old ninja... will he make it?"

Kenshin shook his head. "He already lost a lot of blood, and it's a fatal wound. If Megumi-dono were here, he might've had a chance, but now..."

Yahiko was instantly beside the elderly ninja. "Hey, old man! Old man! Don't go dying on me now! I just fought you, and it was a goddamn good fight too! You owe me a rematch, gramps!" he prodded, ignoring the familiar pang of helplessness. "You were so stubborn during the fight! Where's that stubbornness now, eh? Gramps!"

Takae looked at Yahiko with glassy eyes. "Hey. I have a name, you know."

"Huh?"

"It's Takae Masahiro of the Takae Ninja Clan," Takae introduced himself, his once dark and smooth voice now tarnished by an increasing hoarseness in his throat.

"Why are you telling me this, gramps?" Yahiko queried, his demeanor becoming more subdued and calm. "You didn't even bother telling me your name when we fought."

The old man smirked. "I'm a ninja. I'm not supposed to give out my name on a whim." He narrowed his eyes. "However, I believe that you've earned the right to know."

Yahiko didn't know what to say; the only thing he could do now was stare at the growing pool of blood. "Gramps!"

Takae coughed violently. "I suppose 'gramps' will have to do, since we can't exactly be on a first name basis." He guffawed humorlessly. "I'd rather have a warrior's death, but dying in a manner more reminiscent of the gentler Battousai will suffice. I have no regrets. The Takae Clan's Minjutsu dies with me. I'm glad... its legacy... ended... on such a..."

Yahiko rubbed his tears away before closing the old man's unseeing eyes.

"Yahiko-kun?"

Yahiko looked up, his eyes reddened and his vision slightly blurred; however, the voice, the scent, and the silhouette within his hazy sight were all unmistakably clear in his mind.

"Tsubame," Yahiko mouthed before he was suddenly overwhelmed by a crying girl's hug. Words were not needed anymore.

"I don't understand why you still want to go through with this. You said you were going to skip out of town three days ago, but you came back anyway. If you're still this undecided, then it's better to spend a little more time here than to jump haphazardly into some unsure thing, right?" Kaoru argued as she poured herself another cup of tea.

Yahiko bristled in irritation. "You didn't read the letter right. I said I was going to go soon, but I never said anything about going that very day!"

It had been three days since the yakuza incident. Chief Uramura, being such a close family friend and all, had personally taken care of the situation. Gasuke was now safely behind prison bars where he belonged, and the mysterious man known as Masahiro Takae was provided the proper funeral he deserved. His cremated remains were given to his family afterwards.

"It's not my fault that your writing is atrocious," Kaoru scoffed as she calmly sipped her tea.

"It's your fault because you were the one who taught me in the first place, you old hag!" Yahiko countered heatedly.

"Don't call mama an old hag, o else I beat you up like bad man!" Kenji admonished Yahiko as threateningly as he could, stretching his big brother's mouth to different proportions.

"Oh, I'm so touched, Kenji! Did you see that, Kenshin? Kenji's defending his dear, sweet mother's honor!" Kaoru snuggled against her son as the little tot giggled. Yahiko groaned inwardly.

"So what are your plans now? Do you need any monetary support?" Kenshin inquired.

Yahiko shrugged. "I figured if you were able to survive on your own with little more than a sword and a tattered hakama for ten years, I should be able to fare better. Besides, I still got some cash from working at the Akabeko, so money's no object."

Kenji looked at Yahiko very seriously as he offered his pinky finger. "You pwomise you come back?"

Yahiko smiled wanly as he curled his own pinky over the tot's. "Yep. And remember: big brother doesn't break promises!"

"Yay!" Kenji cheered.

Kaoru leaned towards Yahiko and did the unexpected; she kissed him on the forehead. "Now don't be a stranger, okay? Write back as soon as you arrive at... wherever it is you're supposed to go."

A stray memory of his mother kissing him on the forehead the very same way Kaoru did entered Yahiko's psyche. He shook his head clear before responding, "Uh, yeah. I checked with the post office. As soon as I find the time and the money to buy the paper and ink, I'll write."

Kaoru smiled. "That's all I needed to know. Have a safe trip, Yahiko."

Yahiko turned towards Kenshin. Grinning, he offered his hand to the former vagabond the same way Sanosuke did all those years ago. They clasped hands briefly yet firmly.

"I'm off," Yahiko stated.

"Right," Kenshin confirmed.

From there, the wannabe vagabond made his way outside the Kamiya Dojo's gates: in search of his manhood, his independence, and his true coming of age.

To be Continued...

Next: A village, a maiden, and a neophyte vagabond.

For your added information, this fic will be using the East Asian Age Reckoning System, which counts a person's age from the day of conception. Incidentally, the Rurouni Kenshin manga itself uses this outdated practice for historical accuracy purposes because its story is supposed to be set during Nineteenth Century Japan. As such, when the manga says Sanosuke is nineteen years old, he's actually just eighteen in western terms. In any case, this fic's narrative won't be following the western standard to keep everything consistent.

Ja ne!
Abdiel