Yahiko was all prepared to leave Tokyo when his journey of manhood, independence, and coming of age suddenly came to a screeching halt just outside the Kamiya Dojo's gates.

"Did I startle you?" Tsubame inquired apologetically, as opposed to her usual outright apologies that were, to Yahiko's distaste, a bit too profuse.

"No. I'm just surprised that you came here," Yahiko confessed, rubbing the back of his head. "What are you doing here? I promised you that, no matter what, I'm still going to meet you at the Akabeko first thing before I leave, didn't I?"

"I... I just w-wanted to give you this before you go," Tsubame shyly professed.

"A red string?" Yahiko blinked confusedly as he took the peculiar gift. "Thanks. I think."

Tsubame blushed hard as she took the red string back and kneeled down.

"Huh?" Yahiko blurted. "Tsubame, what are you...?"

The youth went silent as the teenaged girl started tying the string tightly on his sandals. 'This is just like the first time we met.'

Tsubame smiled as she got up. "It's so you'll never forget, Yahiko-kun. I hope you'll find what you're looking for, so do have a safe trip!" she urged optimistically.

Yahiko grinned in kind, turning quickly lest he risk letting Tsubame see his reddened face. He directed a sidelong glance towards her. "Tsubame."

"Y-Yes?" Tsubame choked as her heart got caught in her throat. It was a familiar anxiety, but an ultimately welcome nervousness.

"The address I got from the post office was the Akabeko's instead of the Kamiya Dojo's. I'm entrusting you the task of getting the letters delivered to Kenshin, Kaoru, and Kenji. Good-bye."

"But why would you do that if it would be easier to mail..." Her words were cut off as Yahiko looked at her with clear brown eyes that spoke volumes.

Tsubame nodded timidly to Yahiko, putting up a brave and hopeful face. "Thank you." There was no need for more words as the girl gazed at the retreating figure of her beloved. The scene was simplicity itself.

Autumn had finally arrived, continuing the never-ending cycle.

Rurouni Yahiko

A Rurouni Kenshin Continuation fic
by Chester Castañeda

The first plot point is fast approaching.

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 3: Village Under Siege

"Kaoru-san! Kenji-chan! Kenshin-san! They're here! They're here!" one very excited Tsubame Sanjo exclaimed, clutching a white envelope. "Yahiko-kun's letters are here!"

"Hold on a minute, Tsubame-chan. It's two-o'clock in the afternoon. Your shift at the Akabeko ends at four," Kaoru lightly admonished. "Tae-san isn't a very strict person, but still, you..."

"I'm sorry," Tsubame regretfully pouted, making Kaoru trail off. "I told Tae-san about the letter, so she agreed to give me the rest of the day off just so I could deliver it to everyone here. Besides, Yahiko-kun would definitely want all of us to read his letters together."

"Hooray! We got a letter fwom big bwotha!" Kenji blissfully put his head on his mother's lap, an impish smile on his face. "Wead it, mama."

Kaoru resolutely sighed, remarking, "Well, now; I guess that settles that. Hopefully, Yahiko's writing has improved quite a bit since the last time he wrote unreadable drivel."

"That's too harsh, Kaoru-san." Tsubame tilted her head to the side, remembering something. "Um, where is Kenshin-san?"

Kenji quickly sat up straight, frowning as he crossed his arms, making clucking noises with his tongue the same way his mama always did. "Daddy always wuins things fo us."

Kaoru playfully tickled Kenji's side as she responded to Tsubame's question. "He's out at the back of the dojo doing laundry. He claims the exercise helps keep his dizzy spells at bay."

"Oh, he still has those?" Tsubame asked worriedly. After all, from what Kaoru narrated to her three months ago, those dizzy spells almost cost Kenshin his life. "What did the doctor say about them?"

"The doctor blames it all on nausea and stress, but he did say that it'll probably be best if I got a second opinion," Kaoru contemplatively related, her eyebrows furrowed in concern. "But lately, Kenshin has been able to handle the recent bouts with his daily regimen, so I think it'll be all right."

Tsubame nodded sympathetically before she gave Kaoru a look of sudden panic. "Kaoru-san, where's Kenji?"

"ACK!" Kaoru yelped in surprise. "He was here a moment ago!"

"It's okay. He's with me," Kenshin reassured, forthwith appearing in front of the two bemused females. His hands and hakama were still wet from all his laundering. "This little one wanted to get the 'letter reading' started as soon as possible," he revealed, pointing at his son as the tyke steadfastly clamped onto his left leg.

"This's impowtant!" Kenji reminded indignantly.

Tsubame and Kaoru laughed in unison. "Yes, yes. We should already stop delaying. Let's read my idiot apprentice's letter," Kaoru quipped in between giggles.

"Hey, you're beginning to sound like Master Hiko," Kenshin idly noted, which earned him a pinch on his cross-scarred cheek by one very irritated Kenji. "No mo delays! We wead now!"

Kaoru chortled some more as she affectionately ruffled Kenji's ginger hair. "Fine, fine! You win, Kenji." She proceeded to unfold and peruse Yahiko's letter. "'Hello all. It has been three months since I left Tokyo. Y'know what? It was a mostly...'"

'Boring trip. Nothing's happening. Boredom killing me faster than a maddened, nerve-hypertrophied Enishi ever could,' Yahiko mused to himself as the heat and humidity of the midday sun exhausted him. After spending what little money he had traveling to the province... somewhere in Nagano, he vaguely remembered... he had to walk the rest of the way. With the humid weather, repetitive surroundings, and a lack of things to amuse himself with, walking was mostly a bad idea.

Yahiko looked through the slit of his recently acquired woven straw hat. A pensive look crossed his features. 'Takae-san; your family did say that I could keep this kabuto of yours as a memento of sorts. I hope you don't mind my using it in this heat.'

He looked around. As expected, most of the people with even half a brain had already gone indoors, leaving him all alone to mind the annoying heat and the dust that was now irritatingly caking his sweaty skin like mud frosting. 'Eh. It's a humid and windy day. No, not just that. It's a humid, windy, and boring day. Can things get any worse?'

As if on cue, an irate-looking Kaoru straightaway stormed out of what appeared to be a local law enforcement office... or a postal office... perhaps a doctor's office? It was hard to tell with all the houses in the backwater village looking exactly the same.

Right then and there, Yahiko abruptly forgot how to breathe.

Yahiko blinked once. He then blinked twice. By the third blink, the eerie phantom had gone past him, fuming. He did a double-take, then a triple-take. He rubbed his eyes. He considered pinching himself, but that would have been silly of him.

'What the heck is Kaoru doing here?' he ultimately questioned in his head, wondering if she were some sort of hallucination. But he wasn't "out of it" like the time he searched for a "misplaced" Kenji the entire night. Besides, he reasoned, if worse came to worst, then the phantom Kaoru would probably try to hit him with a stray slipper. That was nothing new.

The young kendo master was about to say something when the ethereal image of Kaoru swiftly walked towards his general direction, a familiar glare aimed at his person. He decided that the best course of action was to shut up, like how one would play dead when a dangerous bear appeared before him.

"Do you know what the police just said to me, young man with the weird hat? They told me to get lost! They had some nerve! Wait till my grandfather in Tokyo hears about this! I'll have them know that Raikouji Muneiwa has many connections in the capital!" The phantasm subsequently throttled the dumbstruck Yahiko. "Just because Suwa is in the middle of nowhere doesn't excuse those lazy cops for being lax! AARRRRRGGH!"

"Urk! Hey, get a hold of yourself, lady!" Yahiko nearly choked, not knowing what else to do. 'If this isn't Kaoru, then I don't know who this... Wait, she mentioned something about a Raikouji fellow.' The young boy slammed his fist on his open palm. "Hey, lady; did you say Raikouji Muneiwa? Old man Raikouji, the foreign goods trader?"

The girl became visibly calm as she heard the name. "Yup, that's what I said." She brightened. "Wow! You're from Tokyo? Then you know my grandfather?"

Yahiko shrugged as he began putting two and two together. "We used to buy imported rice from him." He gave the girl a once over. 'Man, she's the spitting image of Kaoru. It's almost scary.' To the woman, he commented, "I didn't know he had a daughter."

The girl raised an eyebrow at that. "It's granddaughter, you brat. Tokyo was getting a bit too crowded for my tastes, so I moved here. I visit grandpa from time to time, though." The twenty-something female paused. "Excuse me. I have more important things to attend to."

Yahiko didn't really feel like prying, so he let the woman go.

"Look-alike? Maybe I've misread something." Kaoru reread the tentatively stroked characters again.

Tsubame shyly peeked over Kaoru's shoulder. "It says right there, 'She looks like the,' um, 'old hag.'"

Kaoru scoffed. "Maybe what he meant to say was, 'She looked like an old hag.'" She preened herself. "There's no way that a kenjutsu beauty like myself would ever have a double. I'm one of a kind!"

Kenshin perspired in chagrin. 'So Raikouji's daughter is somewhere in that province.' He looked at Kaoru, his features bearing a remarkable resemblance to that of a lost puppy.

"Honey, what's with that look?" Kaoru inquired with half-lidded eyes and a raised eyebrow.

'She does look like her! Perhaps they were twins separated at birth?' Kenshin idly wondered.

Kaoru heaved an exasperated sigh as she tossed her hair to the side. "Kenji, don't do that to your father."

Kenji sniggered merrily. "It kind of looks good on him!" From the other side of the room, Tsubame restrained a chuckle.

"Oro?" Kenshin mumbled, unaware of the cute blue ribbon that was now tied to his hair in a neat bow.

Halfway inside the village, Yahiko felt a tap on his shoulder.

The Kaoru look-alike introduced herself. "By the way, my name's Chizuru! Nice to meet you!"

Yahiko visibly bigsweated.

'I thought she had something urgent to do. What a weird woman,' Yahiko reflected with a droll smirk. "The name's Yahiko. Myojin Yahiko," he revealed mainly because he assumed he was supposed to.

"My, my. You look like a strapping young lad," Chizuru observed, casually fingering Yahiko's chin. "Maybe you could help me clear his name." She nodded to herself sagely, adding, "Stupid bunch of cowardly, paranoid hicks; blaming the poor man for all their troubles."

"Clear whose name, lady?" Yahiko inquired none-too-gently as he slowly got annoyed by the woman's haughty demeanor. "Look, it's not as if I'm traveling at my own leisure and delight here like some happy-go-lucky tourist, you know. I have places to go, training halls to train in, techniques to improve..."

Chizuru clasped her hands excitedly. "Really? Dojo? Techniques? Then you must be some sort of traveling martial artist! That's perfect! What's that long, wrapped package you're carrying? Is it some sort of specialized bokuto?"

Yahiko deftly swung the cloth-wrapped sakabatou away from the strange woman's reach. "Like I said, I have no time for this. I have to go."

Chizuru rambled on as if she had not heard anything Yahiko just disclosed. "Oh, this is perfect! With a martial artist backing me up, then maybe these village idiots will listen. They'll learn that the Battousai isn't a bad person."

Yahiko did his double-to-triple-take for a second time. "You didn't just say 'Battousai' now, did you?"

Chizuru nodded indifferently. "Yes, I did. I don't suppose you have some sort of hearing impediment, do you?"

Yahiko grunted and seethed. "What are they saying about Battousai?"

"Oh, horrible things! Unfounded rumors and lies! Like how he'd finally turned up now after years of anonymity, his plans to oust the Meiji Government because his theories of isolationism conflicted with their beliefs, him being evil... that sort of stuff."

Chizuru shook her head in dismay as Yahiko listened in rapt attention. "Probably the most dumbfounding and unbelievable information I've heard is that Battousai is already somewhere around this district right now, planning an announced assassination attempt on one of the premiere members of the Daijokan."

Yahiko nodded in understanding. "Where'd you get all of this information?"

Chizuru shrugged. "By word of mouth. The news spread like wildfire within this small village and the other towns surrounding it. The ignorant masses, typically, lapped it all up, adding their own token Battousai horror stories." She crossed her arms in disapproval. "Battousai isn't really like that. The vagabond could never bring himself to do such blatant acts of terrorism."

Chizuru bit her lip as she continued. "He may look like a swordsman, but he didn't act like one at all. He was... is... a peaceful, nonviolent man who only fights when provoked and has a habit of getting his nose into situations where people are in need."

She looked a bit pensive as a wave of nostalgia hit her. "And, aside from the cosmetic stuff like the cross-shaped scar on his left cheek and the longish red hair, he also had the weirdest speech pattern. The one thing that I did remember about him was his continuous use of the word..."

"Oro!"

Kenshin, Master of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, a school that trained the user to have superhuman "divine speed" and an incredible reaction time that came along with it, was hastily and easily strangled by a very irate Kaoru Kamiya.

"You weren't fooling around with a look-alike of me on the side, were you, Kenshin?" Kaoru bristled as she pointed accusatorily at Yahiko's letter as if it were Kenshin's love child. "How did that strange woman know you so well? She may be Raikouji-san's daughter, but if ever you cheated on me with her...!"

"B-But sweetheart, you haven't even met her! Oh, I feel faint! It must be another dizzy spell!" Kenshin sputtered in spiral-eyed bewilderment as Kaoru shook him like a very shakable thing.

As Tsubame looked at the marital dispute in amused bemusement, she felt an insistent tug upon her uniform. It was Kenji, crawling on all fours, giving her an urgent look.

"Please wead the letter. Daddy did something stupid again, so mama's gonna be busy choking him. I don't wanna distuwb her any."

"Okay, Kenji-chan. Now let's see. Ah," Tsubame started, "'With such a persuasive portrayal of Kenshin, I was convinced that the tanuki doppelganger was telling the truth...'"

Yahiko considered Chizuru's words. "I see. So you know who Kenshin is?"

"Who?" Chizuru asked, puzzled.

Yahiko sighed. "I mean, you've already met Battousai the Vagabond, right?"

Chizuru nodded in assent. Yes. Yes I did. So you've also heard about Battousai's misadventures as a gentle wanderer of sorts, haven't you? I can attest to you firsthand that Battousai isn't really all that bad as people claim him to be, and those stories about him being a gentle rurouni are all partly true. Except for that one story about him fighting a living corpse with a flaming sword, which is just plain ridiculous."

Yahiko sweatdropped at Chizuru's statement. "Uh... right."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go and convince those idiots that Battousai isn't really their enemy!" Chizuru prodded as she heedlessly pushed Yahiko towards the direction of the town square.

"Hey! I didn't say anything about helping you out!" Yahiko protested. "Besides, if the ignorant masses prefer to remain ignorant, who are we to stop them? Let them believe what they want to believe!"

Chizuru hesitated for a minute, a deep scowl marring her features as she gave Yahiko "The Look". She wasn't exactly aware of what "The Look" was and how it functioned when it came to dealing with Yahiko, but the boy himself was all too familiar with it.

It was a look of half-dissatisfaction and half-disappointment... with just a touch of disparagement... that Kaoru gave Yahiko whenever he became "supremely arrogant" or "incredibly insensitive". Simply put, it was a look that really, really annoyed and bothered Yahiko to no end, and a reprimand or speech usually followed it shortly.

Well, the fact that the Kaoru clone did a complete facsimile of "The Look" grated Yahiko's nerves in ways a repeated "Yahiko-chan" appellation from Tsubame would.

"What do you want from me, you old hag?" Yahiko couldn't help but challenge.

Chizuru visibly tried to compose herself first before speaking. "Young man, you may have not noticed, but this entire village is under siege. A group of people claiming to be in cahoots with the Battousai is terrorizing this neighborhood, and all the villagers are either too scared or too apathetic to do anything. Furthermore, the police seem more concerned about the safety of one Ishin Shishi politician to even care about what'll happen to this village. Well, I do care, so even if you won't help me, I won't let this village fall into their hands without a fight."

Yahiko regarded the mature woman in a new light. "Okay, old hag; what do you want me to do?" A slipper hit him on the face.

"First of all, rude boy, I have a name! Call me by that name!" Chizuru fumed. "Secondly, thanks. I'm not sure if you can help all that much, Yahiko, but your assistance is very much appreciated! I won't let a couple of rumors and badly dressed hooligans get the better of these poor, hardworking people. Why, after all these years of..."

Yahiko rubbed his temples, his head on the verge of an oncoming migraine. In fairness, it helped him conveniently ignore Chizuru's tirade. 'Is this really a good idea?'

"Ah, it's good to see that this soba shop is still up-and-running," a well-dressed young man of twenty-four years of age marveled, nodding to the owner of the quaint little establishment as he inhaled the hot vapors of the freshly cooked cuisine.

"It's partly because of you. Even with all these weird men running amok and causing so many problems in this small village of ours, it's a refreshing change of pace to see a cheerful young boy like you frequent my restaurant. You're my heaven-sent angel."

"You're too kind," the young adult humbly stated as he carefully parted his chopsticks and clasped his hands together in apparent thanksgiving before he consumed his hot meal. He paid no heed to the fact that he was the only customer inside the establishment, despite it already being noontime and all. He liked eating lunch in quiet places.

"So how is your employer doing? It's 'Akahori-san', isn't it? From what I heard, he'll be staying inside the manor just west of Suwa to address the issues concerning the rampant money-laundering and incorrigible corruption within the Daijokan, even though there were already those weird..."

"Death threats?" the young lad finished for her, his tranquil smile never leaving his face. "Akahori-san gets a lot of those. He's a very influential and powerful man within the government ministries, so I guess it's only natural; it's business as usual, even."

"I see. Oh, please do excuse me! I'm not a very good conversationalist when it comes to politics," the middle-aged woman confessed. A mischievous look crossed her features. "Though when it comes to other matters... I've heard that you've become quite close to Akahori-san's daughter, Miss..."

The young man slurped his soba noisily, really savoring its taste. "What a great tasting soba! You spoil me at times, Sakaguchi-san," the supposedly well-mannered young man happily interjected, admiring the soba bowl as if it were made of gold.

Nonoko Sakaguchi held back a titter. 'Okay, okay. I'll stop teasing you this time around. It's the least I can do for your recent continued patronage.' To the charming young man, she commented, "It's good to see you even happier than usual."

A flicker of wonderment crossed the twenty-four-year-old boy's cherubic eyes. "Happier, Sakaguchi-san?"

The older woman nodded, grinning. "You always seem to smile, but lately, somehow, there seems to be a reason behind your smiles. Trust me, a woman knows these sort of things. It's in our inborn intuition." She winked mischievously at him.

The young man smiled enigmatically at that statement. "Maybe." He afterwards blinked as he remembered something that was bothering him ever since he went into the eatery. "Where's Kyoko-san? She's usually the one serving me the soba."

"Oh, I had her go to the wet market to buy me some groceries," the elder Sakaguchi offhandedly answered.

Just then, a raucous tumult unexpectedly exploded just outside of the refectory as a lively pair made their way inside the nearly vacant establishment.

"Do this, do that; y'know what? You're very demanding, raccoon-woman!"

"It's Chizuru, you jerk! CHI-ZU-RU! I am not a mythical forest creature, I am not an old crone, I'm just me! Stop giving me all these stupid nicknames!"

"What? More customers? Oh, it's Chizuru-san! And she brought a friend. That's good," Nonoko appraised as she looked apprehensively at the boisterous couple. "Chizuru-san hasn't made many friends in our village ever since she moved here. She just rubbed everyone off wrong. Oh, leaving already?"

The young adult bowed courteously at the restaurant owner. "I have to get going. I have some very important assignments to do. Thank you for the meal," he expressed as he left some bills and loose change on his table.

The adolescent passed by the argumentative duo at the eatery's entrance, giving the young man with the spiky hair the briefest of glances before making his way out. Feeling the older boy's stare, the younger boy stared back, only to see the guy's back turned at him as he left.

'What a weird guy,' Yahiko idly observed before he went back to retorting Chizuru's most recent jibes.

The young man smiled... a blissful, idyllic smile... as he left the restaurant.

"That soba lady sure was nice to give us some extra servings since some of us are too cheap to buy some more," Yahiko casually needled as he patted his full stomach. "Raikouji-san is a generous fellow. I can't believe you two are actually related."

"You ungrateful brat! After I fed you, you say such things? I only get just enough money from grandpa, so shut your mouth before saying such insensitive comments!" Chizuru snapped. "Besides, what's with this 'soba lady' thing? You have a very bad habit of nicknaming every other person you see!"

"Oh, come on. You're too uptight," Yahiko scoffed. He stopped as he eyed a group of men walking arrogantly across the street. "Tsk. Who do those men think they are? The Shinsengumi?"

Before Yahiko could protest, he was brusquely dragged away by a very alarmed Chizuru. Hidden in a narrow alleyway, she clamped her hand over his mouth as the party passed them by.

"What the hell was that all about?" Yahiko hissed in a discreet manner. "Who are those guys anyway? Yakuza?"

"No. Worse. They're terrorists."

Yahiko boggled in shock. "Terrorists?"

Chizuru nodded. "They claimed that they're here because of the Battousai; their group is allegedly affiliated with him." She glared holes at the passing troop. "But really, they're just two-bit thugs who clambered up the Battousai bandwagon. I hate those hypocrites."

Yahiko's brow furrowed in deliberation. "So what about the police? Can't they do anything about it?" he queried, reflexively backing away as Chizuru fumed.

"That was what I was trying to do a while ago. I wanted those men arrested, but the police kept saying that their hands were tied; what was left of them in the police station, anyway." She clenched her teeth in anger.

She continued. "The police said that the most they could do was issue a warrant against them for loitering and trespassing. But that's just a cover-up! Some of those guys are wearing real swords, and not just sword canes! But what's worse..."

Chizuru rubbed her eyes. "What's worse is that the people here are too scared to act; too scared to take matters into their own hands. I feel both pity and annoyance at the same time for their plight."

"Hey, get a grip on yourself, Chizuru," Yahiko anxiously urged. 'As long as there're people like you in this village, then there's still hope.'

Chizuru gave Yahiko an astonished look before she altogether smiled.

Yahiko went slack-jawed in bewildered confusion. "What?"

"It's the first time you called me by my name," Chizuru pointed out, grinning. "You can be sweet when you want to."

A girlish screech was heard, taking the duo out of their brief moment of sympathy.

"It sounded like it came from near the wet market!" Chizuru exclaimed. "I wonder who's the poor girl that... Hey! Yahiko? Where are you going? Yahiko!"

"Please, mister. Let me pass," a young girl of seventeen years of age carrying a wicker basket full of vegetables and foodstuff politely entreated to the gathering hoodlums around her, cornering her in a dead end.

"You're the daughter of that soba woman. Sakaguchi, right? Well, aren't you the cutie?" one of the ruffians drawled, leering. "You've become quite the woman now. Why don't you play with us, little missy?"

The young woman had just started to turn away when the goon slammed his palm hard against the wooden wall behind her. "Hey! Don't be rude! You should pay attention to your elders when they speak! It's the polite thing to do!" he barked.

The very same ruffian was violently yanked out of the way, landing face-first on the dirt road. The teenaged girl looked up timidly at her savior, only to recoil in disgust.

"The presence of Kyoko-chan is wasted upon the likes of you," a muscular man, apparently the leader of the group, growled to his comrade's fallen form. "Are you okay, my dear?"

Kyoko slapped the man's hand away, giving him a steadfast glare. "Please go away, Keisuke-san."

The man identified as Keisuke guffawed with reckless abandon. "You send me away with such venom in your voice and daggers in your eyes, yet you still say 'please'. You haven't changed a bit, my dear. You're still as lovable and endearing as ever."

Keisuke insolently cupped Kyoko's chin with his right hand, easily invading the girl's personal space. "Ah. Sakaguchi Kyoko, daughter of the common copper Sakaguchi Satoru. It's too bad that your cripple of a father was reassigned in another district. On the other hand, it's better that way. He doesn't have to get hurt again."

Through her cold glare, Kyoko retorted, "It's a good thing for you that he's gone too. Your broken nose doesn't have to get stitched again."

Keisuke slapped the young girl hard as he shouted at his hooting underlings to shut up. "You're playing hard to get again, Kyoko-chan. You know I hate that. You should just give it to me now."

"Gladly," was what Keisuke heard before he was dropped like a bad habit beside the thug he cowed earlier. The other people in the group drew their swords as they backed away from their unexpected aggressor.

"You're the fearsome terrorists I've heard so much about? Don't make me laugh. You're no better than common street gangs and yakuza, hiding in the safety of your designated group while bullying teenage girls. You're all pathetic," Yahiko lamented as he protectively helped the frazzled girl up.

Kyoko curtly smacked Yahiko's hand away in the same manner she did with Keisuke. "Mister, I don't know who you are, but please mind your own business."

Yahiko gazed numbly at Kyoko as the surrounding thugs taunted him with jeers of "That's right!" and "Go home, dipshit!" He continued to stare blankly in space as the older girl stood up and ran from the dumbfounding scene.

Doors were opened and gates were unlatched as random people heckled Yahiko from all sides.

"Who is that outsider?"

"He should mind his own business."

"What does he know?"

"He's only making trouble."

"If Battousai ever found out about this..."

"Go away, outsider! Go home! Go home!"

"GO HOME!"

Repeated cries of "GO HOME!" echoed across the narrow landscape of the small village, overwhelming Yahiko in shock and humiliation.

Chizuru appeared from the side, taking Yahiko's arm, screaming, "What are you standing here for, moron? Run away!"

Yahiko looked listlessly at the derisive villagers and the hooting group of thugs as he was dragged away from the mortifying scene.

"Now you fully realize my problem. How can I save a village that doesn't want to be saved? As you can see, they're all apathetic about the situation at hand, like the way you are right now. HEY, ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING?" Chizuru demanded.

Yahiko continued to stare into space. A miasma of bad memories appeared inside his distracted mind; reminiscences of things that he thought he had gotten over in the passage of time.

Rejection.

"What a weird boy. All he ever talks about is his dead father."

"Did you hear? That kid's mother is in the pleasure district!"

"How dirty! It's no wonder that he doesn't have any friends."

"Go home. We don't want to play with you."

"Go home. Go home. GO HOME!"

"I don't want to go home!" Yahiko half-screamed to himself as he grasped Chizuru's arms tightly for balance. He paused for a bit before letting her go, blushing. He muttered a haphazard, embarrassed apology.

Chizuru crossed her arms, unfazed. "Well then, if you don't want to go home, then I'll presume that you also don't want to give up on our little endeavor. Or am I mistaken and you were just spouting gibberish from that little daydream of yours?"

'What am I doing? Getting distracted with something so stupid...' Yahiko looked up at Chizuru, his voice completely serious. "I won't give up. I'll never give up."

Chizuru smiled. "That's good to hear. Attaboy. But what are we going to do now that you've ruined the villagers' first impression of you?"

Yahiko shrugged idly, his old confidence slowly returning. "I say let them be. I don't care what they think. Let's just storm the hideout of those supposed terrorists and then beat the crap out of them."

Chizuru slapped Yahiko soundly with a slipper. "Look, violence may work well with yakuza and street gangs, but it just won't cut it with this village!"

'You who just whapped me with a slipper could say such things?' Yahiko thought indignantly.

"So what if you can beat the crap out of them? What'll you get from doing that? If you truly did take the vagabond's stories to heart, then you'd know that he doesn't work that way!" Chizuru finished with a flourish.

Yahiko gawked at Chizuru as he considered her stance carefully. 'Wow. Her words are still as demeaning and presumptuous as ever, but she does have a reasonable claim. Kenshin doesn't go around bullying people just to prove a point. Is this the same crazy woman who throttled me a while ago?'

"Tsk. Stop admiring my beauty so much and listen up," Chizuru teased mischievously. "The only way we can do this correctly is to sway the villager's general opinion. We can't force them, but we can try to convince them. If we can only persuade just one of them... just one... then it'll be enough."

"What's with this now?" Yahiko regarded his companion with open confusion. "Just hours ago, you were ready to strangle each and every one of those villagers. You called them a stupid bunch of yellow-bellied, paranoid hicks. What's with the one-eighty?"

"Oh, that. Heh. Well, I hope you don't take it the wrong way, but I was impressed with how the villagers collectively jeered at you. It may have been a bit pathetic, but it's the first time I saw them do something together. If only we can use that..."

Yahiko let out a feral snarl. "My nigh-traumatic humiliation gave you faith in those cowardly rednecks? What sort of twisted reasoning is that?"

Chizuru pouted playfully. "You're always so negative and angst-ridden. You should relax a little. Come on, let's have a soba on me to cool down your stressed nerves."

"I'm sorry. We're closed. Please go away," the soba shop owner pleaded as she slid the door closed.

"Hey, I don't get it! Sakaguchi-san was so nice before. She even gave us extra servings for free. What's with the cold shoulder?" Chizuru visibly frowned as she walked away in a huff from the soba restaurant.

"Didn't you hear what the thugs mentioned before? The girl, she's the soba shop owner's daughter."

"I already know that. I'm their family... Oh." Chizuru slapped her forehead as she groaned. "So much for convincing even just one of them! Well now, it looks like it's just you and me against the world... er, village."

Yahiko exhaled a frustrated breath. 'So much for the sword that saves. What good is it now? I can't draw my sword because it won't do me any good. How can the sword save this village now?'

Two thoughts surfaced in Yahiko's mind; two seemingly unrelated notions that were narrated to him in two different voices.

"Remember all the battles of your life. The battles you've seen with your eyes. The battles you've heard with your ears. The battles you've embraced with your own skill and all the battles you carry within you," one voice in his head lectured. It was Kenshin's voice.

"We can't force them, but we can try to convince them. If we can only persuade just one of them... just one... then it'll be enough," another voice in his head reminded. It was Chizuru's voice.

"That's it," Yahiko declared as his eyes brightened in understanding. "Chizuru, you said that all it took for us to sway this village's opinion is to convince just one villager, right? Well then," he patted the older woman on the shoulder, "you're that one villager."

"Eh? Are you daft? That doesn't make any sense! I don't think these people even remotely consider me as part of their community!" Chizuru protested, bewildered. "How inane can you get?"

"This from a woman who was able to find faith in her so-called yellow-bellied neighbors after they communally harassed me for helping a girl in need? I must have gotten this sort of logic from you," Yahiko replied sardonically.

He persisted, stating, "C'mon, Chizuru. You're the wild card that's going to change their minds about Battousai. We've been going about this all wrong. The Battousai Group has been spreading around unfounded rumors and lies that have confused the villagers; they have become closed-minded and scared because they don't know who the true Battousai is." Chizuru seemed to consider Yahiko's urgings.

"Let's go, lady. Tell me how you met Battousai the Vagabond. Or rather," Yahiko waved his arms around the surrounding area of the open veranda, "you should tell everyone more about the rurouni by not ramming your opinions down their throats. Just give it to them straight."

A foreboding hush fell on the surrounding area of the seemingly empty village, but it wasn't by any means a deathly silence. Rather, it was reticence filled with the ambiance of anticipation so thick, one could cut a knife through it.

"Well," Chizuru started to recount, appearing somewhat embarrassed although there weren't any visible people out there. She modulated her voice slightly so it would become clearer. "It all began in Tokyo, six years ago..."

"Let me read that!" Kaoru sputtered out as she let go of Kenshin, the latter jiggling like a wind chime before fainting. Tsubame blinked; the letter she was holding suddenly wasn't there anymore.

'How long was mama going at it?' Kenji casually mused as he looked at his mother's excited state. 'I couldn't tell.'

"'She started with how Kenshin saved her from a group of thugs by...'" Kaoru stopped momentarily as she read the sentence carefully. "'Running away.' I knew it."

"Yes. That sounds exactly like Kenshin-san," Tsubame agreed.

"Daddy's a dummy," Kenji seconded.

Kenshin smiled self-effacingly. "Chizuru-dono was in trouble with rebels who were disgruntled with the government. In such a situation, I only did what I thought was right."

Kaoru gave Kenshin "The Look". "What's with the 'Chizuru-dono,' Kenshin?" She then became pensive. "It says here, 'Six years ago.' That's about the same year we met!" Unbidden, her eyes moistened with tears. "T-Then you met her first? I-I'm the doppelganger to replace her?"

Kenshin, despite all the philosophies he had learned about life and the way of the sword, didn't quite know how to reply to that. He merely decided to continue. "Her parents were killed during the Bakumatsu because they got mixed up in a fight between a patriot and a supporter of the Bakufu. Because of that, Raikouji-san became distrustful of swordsmen in general."

"You mean Raikouji-san was actually suspicious of swordsmen? He seemed awfully fond of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu philosophies and you in particular," Kaoru indicated, surprised.

"Well, you do remind him of his granddaughter too," Kenshin replied cheerfully.

Kaoru scanned the letter again. "It says here that Chizuru was kidnapped."

"Mama! Just wead it aloud! No mo butt-ins!"

"Okay. Hold your horses, Kenji-chan. Now where was I?"

"Now where was I? Oh yeah! So these perverts and lechers kidnapped me, calling themselves the Forces of Heaven or something, and after that, the rurouni showed up!" Chizuru detailed, really getting into her story, not really caring whether or not people were listening to her. At the very least, Yahiko would be the only one listening. That was enough for her. It would be better that way, since the boy was no less than appreciative of her stories of Battousai as she knew him.

"I told him to run away, but I was gagged at the time, so the moron misunderstood what I was saying and challenged the gang." Chizuru shook her head in remembrance. "He said some fancy things to them. He really disputed their so-called ideals, looking as if he really knew what he was talking about. But I still thought he was a total wimp and weakling, so I was kind of afraid for his general safety. I mean, it looked like he was out of his league, and there were... thirty? No, forty fighters..."

"Hey, you're trailing off again," Yahiko warned, a bored expression on his face.

"Hey, I'm setting up the atmosphere of the story! Stop interrupting me!" the young adult argued. "Now then, the vagabond resolutely battled the criminals, and they all dropped like flies! I was so scared! The gentle wanderer was actually a killer! A cold-blooded hitokiri!"

Before Yahiko could protest or complain, Chizuru pulled him by the collar. Caught completely off-guard, the seemingly dawdling twenty-something lady was able to take away the cloth-bundled sakabatou from the boy. "What the hell are you doing, you crazy old hag?"

"Shush! You're ruining the moment! We need to visually demonstrate the fight," Chizuru scolded. To her apparently nonexistent audience, she announced, "So the leader and the vagabond-turned-murderer faced off against each other, the cowardly boss wearing impenetrable black iron armor to counter the former hitokiri's sharp blade."

She took off the cloth from Yahiko's sword. 'A-An actual sword? Boy, good thing there aren't any police around here, or else he would have been arrested,' she concluded. She drew the weapon's blade out of its iron sheath. "So the vagabond, the legendary swordsman Battousai, drew his assassin's blade and slashed at the black armor as if it were nothing, killing the conceited kidnapper!"

She stopped mid-swing once she saw the sword's blade... the sakabatou's reverse edge. Despite her surprise, she didn't miss a beat. "But as the leader of the so-called Forces of Heaven group fell, lo and behold! The rurouni revealed that his sword was actually a sakabatou! A sword with a reverse edge! The hostage takers weren't killed; they were merely incapacitated by the protector of the weak, the Battousai!"

She looked at an equally surprised Yahiko. "It's like the vagabond said. It's a sword that can never kill." Her inflection of the statement was relatively the same as her tone of voice during the entire storytelling session, but her inquiring eyes made it look as if she had said it in a perplexed tone.

"This sword isn't something that can kill," the vagabond divulged; a statement that echoed in Chizuru's head as she held the curious weapon with trembling hands.

'What is this guy doing with a reverse-edged sword? Is this the wanderer's one-of-a-kind sakabatou? Who is this boy? What is he doing with this strange weapon?'

"But Chizuru-neechan, why exactly did the robbers get you?" a shy little voice inquired. It was followed by a haughty chide of "They weren't robbers. They were kidnappers."

More questions followed as Chizuru turned around to see their origins. She was taken aback by what she saw. Children had gathered around her while she was telling her stories of the Battousai. From all sides, doors were unlocked and opened as men, women, and children congregated all around the town square, either in rapt attention or passing curiosity.

"What about the Battousai? Surely he's not as frail as you claim him to be! He must have been six or seven feet tall!" one man hooted at Chizuru rowdily.

"Why did he wear a non-killing sword? What does he get out of it?" a middle-aged woman of portly shape chimed in.

"How did he get the cross-shaped scar? Did a legendary swordsman of great caliber give him that mark?"

"You said he was a protector of the weak. So he didn't come here to hurt any of us?" an innocent young girl with light freckles and big, wide eyes asked Chizuru.

"That's right! If what Chizuru-san says is true, then Battousai would never be in league with those... those terrorists! They're just using Battousai's name to further their own agendas!"

Shouts and nods of approval followed the anonymous statement as the crowd happily gathered underneath the mid-afternoon sun.

"Looks like the sword did help save these people," Yahiko concluded as he woke Chizuru from her dreamlike state, taking the sakabatou away from her unresisting hands. "Even if it was just a story of its past deeds, this sword continues to save lives even to this day. Now that these villagers aren't afraid, they don't have to get bullied by those gutless brutes."

"You're saying some weird stuff there, boy," Chizuru rejoined weakly. "Though you're right; with the quickness of word of mouth in these parts, everyone's confidence and self-respect will return in no time. Thank you." She espied the glinting blade that Yahiko presently wielded. "Yahiko, where did you...?"

"Oh, thank goodness you're still here!" a relieved cry from behind the pair conveyed as someone urgently pushed against the multitude. "I'm sorry about the way I treated you both when you came back to the shop."

"Oh, the soba woman!" Yahiko uttered in mild surprise, sheathing and wrapping up his sakabatou. "What are you doing here? Don't tell me you came all the way here just to apologize!"

"My daughter, Kyoko, is gone! She ran away, taking her grandfather's sword with her. I'm afraid..."

'Kyoko? That's right, she's the girl whom I 'rescued' a few hours ago,' Yahiko realized. "Do you know where she could have gone?"

The woman sniffled a bit as she elaborated, "There's no doubt about it! She must have gone to take matters into her own hands! She's going to confront the Battousai Group. She probably went to their hideout in the East Valley to massacre them!"

"Kyoko-chan's going to try and kill those lowlife bastards? That's foolish of her! She's outnumbered for one thing, and for another, she's just a soba shop waitress! What does she know about handling swords?" Chizuru fumed.

"I'm going," Yahiko stated. "Chizuru, stay here."

"Hey, wait!" Chizuru yelped.

"It's too dangerous for you to go with me..." Yahiko explicated, but was interrupted by an ear-twist care of Chizuru.

"I didn't say anything about going with you! I'm no idiot! But what I said about Kyoko applies to you too, y'know! Don't be foolish! Don't throw away your life! There are probably more of those bastards in their hideout. Besides," she muttered, "you still haven't heard my question!"

Regardless of Chizuru's numerous warnings, Yahiko still made his way through the gathered people.

"Don't ignore me!"

His back still turned, the young kendo master spoke. "The vagabond's true name is not Battousai. It's Himura Kenshin. Well, Kamiya Kenshin, but that's another story."

"Eh?" Chizuru managed to say.

"Later. I won't be long," Yahiko called out as he broke into a run, away from the setting sun.

'I hope I'm not too late,' Yahiko reflected as he silently went into the tree-covered thicket. He remembered the soba lady's words after she caught up with him before he got out of the village.

"Please save my Kyoko-chan. It's all because of that man, Keisuke. He attempted to have his way with her when she was just fifteen. Her father intervened, so they got into a one-on-one fight, which injured my husband. Because of that man..."

Yahiko grit his teeth. 'Women shouldn't be treated like that. My mother had set aside her reputation by working in the pleasure district just so our family could somehow survive this new era. I won't let any woman suffer the way my mother did.' He closed his eyes as Nonoko Sakaguchi's voice echoed a statement that really shook him.

"Because of that man, Kyoko never smiles. He took away her smile from us."

Yahiko scowled at that. 'That man will have more than a broken nose to worry about once I'm through with... Eh?' He sniffed the air around him. There was an unmistakable smell of rusty musk surrounding the entire area. 'What's that smell? Could it be...?'

The kendo master's running pace summarily quickened in cadence with the rate of his own heartbeat. Upon arriving at a makeshift cottage, the young boy's eyes bugged out as they reflected the flicker of crimson.

'Blood?'

There, across the entire landscape, bodies were strewn everywhere. Dead bodies.

He was surrounded by scenes straight out of Kenshin's nightmares... severed body parts, pooling blood, and his own growing nausea. Perhaps this was the closest glimpse he could ever have of the violence of the Bakumatsu.

Nonetheless, this wasn't the overzealous slaughter of a madman. It was more of an efficient, almost clinical extermination, as if the men before him were but mere pests.

How long had they been killed? It didn't matter. Yahiko's heart was already palpitating in panic as he raced out of the darkness of his revolted state when an unexpected sight greeted him.

There, amidst the dead bodies, stood Kyoko, tightly gripping a wooden cane as her eyes shimmered. When she saw Yahiko, she reflexively went into what appeared to be a battoujutsu stance, drawing her sheathed weapon from the sword cane and shivering as the blade glinted.

"You," Yahiko whispered, not able to finish his sentence.

Kyoko eyes widened in recognition. "Y-You... You were the boy who tried to save me." She withdrew her blade, a poignant look in her eyes as she gazed at the full moon. "I wanted to protect my mother with grandfather's Fuyutsuki, but..."

'Fuyutsuki? Winter Moon? Ah, she meant her grandfather's sword. So that's what it's called. But what's with all her tears? She seems to know a bit about kenjutsu. But if that's the case... No way!'

Yahiko held his breath after comprehending an appalling, unbelievable reality. 'No! That can't be true! She couldn't have possibly done it!'

Kyoko sobbed as she fell to her knees. A wet, salty trail freely flowed on her face. "Who could have done such a horrible thing? All these dead people! It revolts me to think what could have happened if I... if I..." The rest of her words became mere burbles as she broke down into sobs.

Yahiko sighed in catharsis as he tried to approach and comfort the distraught girl. 'What a silly thing to think about; an innocent soba waitress killing all these men. But if that's the case, then who...?'

He paused in mid-thought as a bloodied hand grasped his ankle. He looked down at the person who was nearly unrecognizable because of the amount of blood on his face. His broken nose was unmistakable, though.

"Keisuke-san! Are you okay?" Kyoko asked despite herself.

Yahiko still remembered his solemn vow of retribution against the man who took away Kyoko's smile, but even he felt pity for the pathetic condition of the man before them. "You're lucky to be alive. We better get you to a hospital or..."

"Red hair... Cross-shaped scar... Please, get him away from... m-me! Help me!" the near-dead Keisuke pleaded, visibly shaking in mortal fright.

'It can't be. He must be kidding!' Yahiko reckoned, alarmed. 'First the waitress, and now this! I can't take this in all at once! This can't be happening!'

Yahiko was taken out of his confused state after Keisuke's head rolled away just inches from his feet.

Kyoko screamed until her lungs burned as painfully as her throat. Yahiko fought the oncoming queasiness building up in him, but he forgot all about that as he felt someone else's presence: a swordsman's presence.

'Wait. I feel it. Kenki!' He furrowed his eyebrows. 'But that's strange. It isn't the ki of murderous intent. Perhaps it's just an innocent swordsman?'

Yahiko narrowed his eyes in resolution. 'Yeah, right. An innocent swordsman just happened to pass by! Damn, I don't want to leave Kyoko here like this, but...' Regardless of the fact, the youngster raced towards the direction of the kenki, his heart palpitating for some unknown reason.

To be Continued...

Next: A duel between two prodigies.

Chizuru Raikouji isn't a fan-created character. She is a creation of Nobuhiro Watsuki-sensei, just like Kenshin. She appears in the bonus story of the first volume of Rurouni Kenshin. Her existence helped shaped Rurouni Kenshin to what it is today, truth be told.

As for the "mysterious" presence Yahiko that felt, it should be obvious who it truly belonged to judging by the numerous clues presented in the earlier parts of this story. Just read the next chapter to see what I mean.

Ja ne!
Abdiel