Back in 1549, the Catholic faith was brought to Japanese soil under the Portuguese flag by the historical Jesuit missionary, Saint Francis Xavier. He and his fellow missionaries arrived at the bottom end of Kyushu, in Kagoshima, and was amiably received by the Japanese leaders of the time. He baptized hundreds of people-the ancestors of future generations of Japanese Christians-before he departed in 1551.

At one time, the Christians of Japan were over a hundred and fifty thousand in number. However, Ieyasu Tokugawa banned Christianity as soon as he rose to power in order to avoid foreign influence, and the Christians were persecuted all throughout the time that the Tokugawa Shogunate was in charge.

The Hidden or Secret Christians of Japan, which were otherwise known as the Kakure Kirishitan, had no other choice but to stay hidden because of the rampant persecution, torture, and death they faced. Like the early Christians of Nero's Rome, these Japanese Christians were viewed by the feudal lords as a threat to the stability of Japan, and were summarily executed for their beliefs.

Tortures such as Tsurushi or Reverse Hanging were often employed on both captured Japanese and foreign Christians in order to make them recant their faith. This cruel and unusual punishment involved being bound by the feet and one of the hands by rope, while the other arm was left to dangle freely just in case the tortured wanted to use it to signal that he was willing to renounce his Christianity.

A cut could also be made on the forehead of the victim in order to lighten the blood pressure on his head and increase his agony. Other means of persecution included getting the Tsurushi treatment with excrement scattered right below you, dismemberment, plucking out your fingernails, and crucifixion.

Therefore, many Kakure Kirishitan were forced to turn secret caves into churches, create statues of the Virgin Mary that resembled the Buddhist Kannon, make Buddha-like Christ figures in the center of elaborately decorated crucifixes, and adopt prayers into Buddhist chant so that they could practice their monotheistic worship in peace.

Rurouni Yahiko

A Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction Continuation by Chester Castañeda

Learn your history, folks.

Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others) are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallup, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted material that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.

Chapter 20: The Return of the Young Dragon

An hour and fifteen minutes past midnight, in the shattered entrance of the Shinshushin Mansion, right after the interrupted sword-drawing exchange between Shogo Amakusa and Sergeant Satoru Sakaguchi...

Towards Amakusa, Yahiko approximated as cool a facade as he could muster and declared while picking the injured Satoru up, "It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he's got and all he's ever going to have."

From there, Amakusa cackled until it hurt his throat, his eyes bulging out of his sockets at the perceived absurdity he gleaned from Yahiko's words. At that moment, Satoru took the opportunity to whisper to the boy, "That was an impressive technique you've got there, but Amakusa has even more tricks up his sleeve. Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu is a frightening school; you best leave while you still can. He'll chop you up into pieces."

Once Yahiko made sure that the bleeding Sakaguchi could stand and walk on his own two feet, he turned his back on the patriarch, keep his eyes trained on the hysterical Christian rebel, and remarked, "Please, sir; go back to your squad and get ready to fire at Amakusa in case I fail to stop him. I don't want Kyoko to have to say farewell to his father after only meeting him yesterday."

"No. Promise me you'll run away if Amakusa ever gets the upper hand!" the sergeant exclaimed with passion, but then winced and grabbed hold of his shoulder wound because of his sudden physical exertion. "I don't think either my daughter or I can stand seeing you gone either, though we've only met recently."

Yahiko didn't respond because at that point, Amakusa had already finished his hearty guffaw at the boy's expense and focused his attention on the situation at hand. It took Lieutenant Nishimura himself to grab Sergeant Sakaguchi and pull him out of the danger zone just as Yahiko and Amakusa crossed swords once more.

"You have a reverse-edged sword and you're not using it like a sickle? You have got to be joking." Amakusa only did tentative, exploratory swings of his blade in fear of Yahiko busting out that sword-breaking technique again. "Who are you and what business do you have here?"

"I am Myojin Yahiko, son of Tokyo Samurai and Coadjutant Master of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu, the Sword that Protects," Yahiko introduced as he kept on producing opening-like traps in his seeming lackadaisical stance in order to invite Amakusa to miss and be countered; however, his opponent wasn't taking any of his baits.

"Oh, so you were serious about that one-liner you recently said? How killing people will basically take everything away from them? You really are a boy sworn to never kill so that you can maintain some sort of higher moral ground against your opponents? I've never seen such willful ignorance in all my life!"

Amakusa pushed Yahiko to the ground, grabbed hold of what was left of his scabbard, and used it to blast the off-balanced youth with an Earth Dragon Flash. By instinct, the teenager did a kip-up and sidestepped the miniature, short-range wave the same way the Tokyo police did earlier after they figured out how the technique worked.

"I have no idea what your problem is, but I think the better question here is how the hell did you learn Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu!"

"My problem is this government and its corrupt leaders. For three centuries, my people have suffered all because they chose to worship a foreign God. As such, Japan needs to be purified in a baptism of fire in order for the righteous to prosper and reach utopia while its wicked leaders burn in hell."

"None of that validates what you're doing now! I know plenty of people who hate the Meiji Government-hell, I hate those bastards in power too-but that doesn't justify disturbing the peace we're experiencing for the sake of starting another pointless, bloody revolution!"

Yahiko did a couple of feints, hard blocks, then a body blow using his own metal sheath that seemingly broke Amakusa in half. Thanks to the previous stabbing efforts of Kamiminochi Lieutenant Okami Yamazaki and Tokyo Captain Mitsuru Ujiki, the strike that Yahiko did became three times more effective than it normally would've been.

The Son of Tokyo Samurai afterwards followed that up with a sword strike right at the rebel's chin. As his spit flew in the air, Shogo noted to himself, 'His sword is blunt? He's using the same weapon as Morinaga? No... He's using the same weapon as Battousai did when he turned into a vagabond!'

"I can't believe Master Hiko would actually get a student straight from the mental asylum! I thought he'd be smarter than that!"

Amakusa reeled and retreated using the freed-up distance between him and his opponent to sheath his katana and go into a sword-drawing stance. Yahiko gulped and halted, his mind racing as he tried to figure out which battoujutsu technique his nemesis would pull off next. "I had a master who was taught by someone named Hiko as well; Hiko Seijuro the Twelfth, to be exact. You still haven't told me why you're here, boy. How did you know who Hiko Seijuro is?"

'Twelfth? But the Hiko that Kenshin and I know is Hiko Seijuro the Thirteenth. I guess that makes sense. But before Kenshin used the reverse-edged sword on Hiko, all masters were supposed to die by their students' hands in order to pass on the school to a new master! There can only be one master per school, and that's an iron-clad rule!'

Upon seeing Amakusa's lead foot pivot, Yahiko made his prediction then and there and inwardly implored the multiple Japanese gods to ensure that he made the right choice.

Amakusa executed a Hiryu Sen technique... the same handle-smashing one he employed to knock Officer Ren Heiko out... but was then shut down when Yahiko thrust the tip of his sakabattou's handle to block the tip of the handle of Shogo's katana as well, which kept the sword from leaving its scabbard. 'How is he able to predict my every move? Even that Chujo Ryu master from Kamiminochi couldn't do this to me when we fought!'

"Defense Succession Technique Hadome!"

The larger Amakusa struggled to get enough slack and leverage to release his saber and cut the annoying young man in half, but like an Aikido expert, Yahiko used the cross worshipper's strength against him by intersecting his wrists over the interlocked weapon and catching it before it left its container.

"Are you talking about that Master Hyoue you mentioned earlier? Then you must be lying through your teeth, or else both Himura Battousai and Hiko Seijuro the Thirteenth would never have inherited the secrets of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu! Attack Succession Technique Hawatari!"

The confused Amakusa was afterwards left bowled over as this young stranger whom his spy, Morinaga, never told him about disarmed him of his katana, the blade harmlessly spinning on the ground and kicking up dust a couple of yards away from them.

"Tsui Gami!" Just like when the police force caught him flatfooted enough to get blasted by the Armstrong gun, Yahiko too had put Amakusa in a compromising position and released a headshot strike for good measure.

In order to keep his sharpened sheath from getting damaged any further, Shogo intercepted the boy's face with a fist as his own head was hammered three times at the same point by a deliberately blunted sword.

Thanks to the punch, Yahiko's skull-splitting strike didn't hit clean enough to knock the rebel down; however, the blow proved strong enough to make Amakusa stagger on his feet like a drunkard. "...C-Curse you, Myojin Yahiko!"

Getting as close to Yahiko's proximity as possible, Amakusa elected to do a pointblank Ryu Sou Sen with his sharpened sheath so that the urchin-haired kid couldn't read his attack and deploy yet another one of his counters. Alas, the Master of a Thousand Weaponless Defenses against Sword Attacks had one more ace up his sleeve.

"Hadachi!"

Yahiko caught the errant scabbard with one hand and broke off another section of it before punching Amakusa on the temple with the same hand that gripped part of the edged sheath and making him lurch some more.

'Good. I've managed to destroy Amakusa's saya. I'm at least safe from the wrath of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu Battoujutsu, especially from the unstoppable force of the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki. Screw that noise.'

"Here's a word of advice: You don't use pointblank attacks against someone who has mastered a thousand shirahadori. You just don't," the teenager announced before throwing the broken piece of hollow metal to the side.

Yahiko wiped the blood off of his bleeding nose and cut hand. "You don't deserve to use the name Battousai. I don't know how a faker like you managed to learn the secrets of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, but if ever the real Battousai gets his hands on you, I'd say your chances of beating him are up a rat's ass. You'll need to beat me first to even stand a chance, Mister One-Man Army!"

'Who is this Myojin Yahiko? And why does he have a reverse-edged sword like Battousai?' Amakusa thought to himself.

"I don't believe it. How is this kid doing something that four whole police squads armed with rifles, bayonets, sabers, a Gatling gun, and a cannon couldn't? It's annoying," Officer-in-Charge Amon Saruwatari asked no one in particular before getting the presence of mind to order one of his men to check on the jettisoned officers, Sugiura and Tadashi, to check if they were alive or merely unconscious.

"Did one of the other officers from any of the four districts come close to doing what that boy has done?" the slightly coarse-voiced Lieutenant Yusuke Nishimura quizzed the nearest Togakudan he could find, which was the coconut-haired shinobi named Minamoto.

Minamoto answered, "Kamiminochi Lieutenant Yamazaki certainly came close by stabbing Amakusa on the side, and maybe even Kamiminochi Sergeant Askikaga for helping make that wound possible. I've heard from the other spies that Tokyo Captain Ujiki really gave Amakusa a run for his money. However, all of them are dead now. Also, none of them were this dominant against the rebel; the only wound the boy has is a bloody nose, come to think of it."

"Well, here's hoping that the battered head of Amakusa will make him easier to shoot down," Officer Atsushi Dankichi quipped to the hopeful-looking Officer Kazuki Matsuri, who a while ago was contemplating whether or not to abandon the mission. The elderly-in-appearance (but not really all that old) Officer Taiki Sagami had a similar gleam of anticipation in his eye because of the recent turn of events.

At that moment, even Kosaburo Shinichi's mouth was left agape because of the display of skill his "sensei", Yahiko, exhibited. 'Maybe he can do it. Maybe he can take on the supposed One-Man Army of Nagasaki. Hell, if this boy can face down a criminal that can hold the Armstrong cannon in one arm when he was just ten years old, then maybe, just maybe...!'

The grinning Kosaburo went toward the infirmary with the intention of exchanging knowing, wordless smiles with Sakaguchi, but he was immediately taken aback by the dour expression on the Kanagawa Sergeant's face as he was being bandaged by the meat-bun-faced Okazaki.

"D-Does your wounds hurt that bad? I'm sorry that I didn't realize sooner that Amakusa had hit you with something serious," the concerned Kosaburo told Sakaguchi, but he was immediately cut off by the fatherly man's soft murmur of, "If we don't do something soon, that boy is going to die."

"W-What are you talking about, Sergeant Sakaguchi? Yahiko-kun is doing extremely well! There's barely even a scratch on him, and he's utterly dominating the terrorist!" Kosaburo reassured.

"Dominating? Really now." The sergeant chuckled. "Has he ever killed anyone? Why hasn't he finished Amakusa off by now?" questioned Sakaguchi.

Kosaburo frowned. "Well, no. Kamiya Kasshin Ryu is a purely defensive, counterattack-based kendo school. We don't do fatal attacks; we even live by the code of 'The Sword that Protects'."

Satoru shook his head and sighed with a deep scowl. "Then he doesn't stand a chance, especially once Amakusa starts fighting seriously and begins figuring his techniques out."

"N-No... wait. Don't be like that! Y-You're just j-jealous that you or the rest of us couldn't even do what Yahiko-kun did to Amakusa! He can make it because even Mister Kamiya believed enough in him to give him his reverse-edged sword!" Kosaburo disputed, although it came out more like an imploration than a reasonable argument.

Sakaguchi's eyes went wide as his head jerked back to the direction where Amakusa and Yahiko were dueling. In fact, several of the officers and even Kosaburo himself did the same unrehearsed movement in near cadence with each other; a reaction to the subtle yet unbearable feeling of something askew.

"Ah, did you feel that? Of course, you did; you're a kendo student, after all." The sergeant's eyes narrowed. "That's Amakusa's sword-ki. It's beginning to flare up."

Kosaburo paled even as he reasoned, "Yahiko-kun himself has begun to learn how to control his kenki too. I've seen him do it as a child, even."

"No, you don't understand. When I fought Amakusa, however brief our battle was, I felt the same rise in kenki. He's about to make his move. I can only hope that your friend has a shirahadori technique or counterstrike for whatever that mass-murdering Christian has in store for him."

Amakusa winced as he gingerly kept Yahiko in front of him for the simple reason that the splitting headache he had didn't bode well for him in terms of dodging bullets or bayonets anymore; he needed to use the boy as his meat shield of sorts. 'So he knows who Battousai is. He probably even saw him fight back in the day when the ex-hitokiri could still fight. Fascinating.'

To Yahiko's chagrin, Amakusa dropped the one-third of his sheath he had left and began clapping at the boy's impassioned speech. "Bravo. Bravo. Bravura. You got me. I'm not really Battousai, although I did admire his exploits a few decades back in Kyoto and Tokyo from afar, while I was still growing up and learning the same techniques that he knew." He considered revealing a bit more than that, since he certainly needed to buy more time at that point.

Yahiko sneered while he contemplated giving Amakusa another Tsui Gami to the skull to knock him out. On the other hand, since he risked concussing the man by doing so, he instead opted to try out a Ryu Sho Sen to the neck once the opportunity presented itself.

"Are you still going on about that? Look, I already exposed your lie. You're only mimicking Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu; you never actually learned it formally."

"Oh, but I did. Uncle Hyoue loved his master so much that when the day came for him to learn the Amakakeru Ryu no Hiramiki, he opted to invent a sword technique he could use to spare himself and his master the rule that only one master could inherit the school." Amakusa's eyes narrowed, remembering the backward iaijutsu stance that Sakaguchi deployed against him earlier.

"Whether he was a success or failure depends on your point of view, but in the end, he used a slashing technique that enabled him to survive the Kuzu Ryu Sen without killing his master. Many years later, he taught me what he knew, although he kept that particular non-killing strike a secret from me."

"Bullshit. There's no such technique. Stop making things up; just surrender already before I make you surrender," Yahiko warned, but he then felt the hairs on his neck rise up and his spine tingle upon seeing the strange, hypnotic glint in Amakusa's eyes. 'I-Is that Nikaido Heiho's Shin no Ippo? Shit, I almost forgot; this guy knows the techniques of both Kenshin and Kurogasa!'

"I always did find my uncle's morals an unfunny joke of sorts; his own hypocritical life served as the punch line. Did you know that even when faced with the prospect of getting rid of a few bad apples in order to avoid spoiling the whole barrel, he couldn't bring himself to do it?"

For one reason or another, powerful gusts of wind from out of nowhere began to ebb and flow across the body-strewn yard.

"Don't you find that a little selfish, or maybe even a bit capricious? He'd rather keep himself pristine and holy, never bothering to finish off enemies even though he knew that they'll be back to kill even more innocent people. Even the Hitokiri Battousai himself knew at one point in his life that killing is a necessary evil that must be done before he himself succumbed to the same dangerous naivety that my uncle suffered from."

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, KID? Kill him or get out of the way so that we can shoot him!" Surprisingly, it wasn't Officer Michishige of Kanagawa that screamed that statement; it was instead a frustrated Tadayoshi Nakamura from the Tokyo Troop.

"Fine! Shoot him NOW!" Yahiko eventually relented as he sidestepped from the firing range of the lined-up policemen's Murata rifles since he figured it was the job of law enforcement to apprehend criminals, terrorists, and rebels by any means necessary, including deadly force.

"What? Are you actually running away? Are you really the same as Uncle Hyoue? YOU COWARD!"

As the emotional Shogo hollered the words, the three Tokyo coppers and four Kanagawa officers who were still available to get up and fight felt their "flight" instinct escalate in the face of the Hidden Christian's mounting sword energy. The men who somehow coped with the sudden onslaught of petrifying terror and shot their load at Amakusa found their bullets flying all over the place, not one projectile landing anywhere near the insurgent.

'K-Kenki! I've never felt kenki so strong since I saw Kenshin use it! No, it's not just kenki; it's touki! His battle aura is almost suffocating to behold,' Yahiko thought as he skid to a halt and dashed back towards Amakusa. 'Granted, it's nothing like Kurogasa's Shin no Ippo, but it's powerful enough to confuse the policemen and even intimidate them on a subconscious level! For Buddha's sake, he doesn't even have a weapon on him!'

From the nearby trees, birds flew away from the waves of invisible power emanating from Amakusa's body that spread across the yard like cancer. He then nonchalantly walked towards his discarded sword.

"I am not like my gutless uncle or untalented father. I am willing to sully my hands and my soul to get things done! I am prepared to put my soul through damnation in order to save other souls from that same fate!"

Yahiko crouched down and was about to jam the blunt edge of his sakabatou at Amakusa's throat when the rebel unleashed supersonic punches all over his body, turning him into some sort of punching bag.

"If the Lord Jesus Christ himself had to sacrifice his mortal shell to free mankind from their original sin, then I too will forfeit and corrupt my immortal spirit in order to see my people through paradise!"

After Amakusa got a hold of his sword, he flew off and avoided the bullets from the recovering police before zeroing in on the bruised and battered Yahiko with his own Ryu Sho Sen. The boy countered with the Tsui Gami in order to break the katana in half, but the religious radical shifted from the Dragon Rising Flash to a complete Nikaido Heiho routine in one fluid movement.

Because the newly branded Tsui Gami struck at a single point in quick succession, it wasn't the best move to utilize against brushstroke-like sword slashes. Then again, thanks to the defensive nature of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu, Yahiko dodged, swayed, parried, and blocked the predictable attacks before punishing Amakusa's aggressiveness with a well-timed Dragon Rising Flash.

'What an irritating brat! He also knows how to counter the Nikaido Heiho using the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu?'

"Just as long as you're not as deliriously fast and unreadable as Psycho-Kid, I can take you on, frightening kenki or no! Imitation Technique! Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu: Ryu Sho Sen!"

By the time Yahiko finished with his follow through, Amakusa was already bent backwards from the force of the counterattack, a visible imprint of the sakabatou's flat edge on his neck.

Nevertheless, the Christian revolutionary remained unfazed as he straightened up from his awkward position and inquired, "You've never killed a man, have you? Foolish child; this is no place for you."

"SHUT IT! You've killed one too many people already! I won't be able to forgive myself if I let you kill anymore of these brave men! I certainly won't let the cops you've already killed die in vain either! This time around, I'm going to split your head open like a watermelon! Revisal Technique: Tsui Gami!"

"Even if you can kill me and completely destroy my body, there's nothing you can do to me that I fear. The only one I fear is God Almighty, and no one else."

Then, for the first time, Amakusa announced his attack in the same manner that Yahiko usually did. "Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu: Kuzu Ryu Sen."

At that juncture, Yahiko learned the difference between imitation and the genuine article as he saw the somewhat healed wounds that Soujiro Seta inflicted upon him three weeks ago reopened in renewed agony.

Because he had revealed how his Tsui Gami worked by using it four times in a row, Amakusa had the presence of mind to avoid the mistake Soujiro made and began his assault in reverse order so that the stabbing portion of his attack could push the boy away before the sword-breaking move could hit his sword.

Fortuitously, the boy managed to block several strikes using his sword's grip while curling into a fetal position to avoid any truly grievous cuts. In turn, the Tsui Gami again helped save his life by hitting at least three of the nine simultaneous strikes, which pushed him back and chipped away at the fine edge of the katana despite all of Amakusa's precautions.

At the moment, Yahiko's chest wrenched at his every belabored breath, his mouth ripe with a rusty tang. He licked his lips; his blood burned his throat and bubbled through the orifices of his nasal and oral passages. That couldn't possibly be good.

'Dammit. It looks like the higher-level techniques of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu are about as powerful as the Shukuchi after all.' That was the thing he hated about fighting someone of Kenshin Himura-Kamiya's caliber; one special move was all it took for these gods among men to turn the battle around to their favor.

"Congratulations. You managed to survive and weather the storm. You're not looking too good, though. What do you think? Maybe you've already changed your mind about my chances against your idol, the Hitokiri Battousai?" Amakusa mocked as he waved around his sword towards the ground several times to remove Yahiko's blood from his blade.

"You're still no match against him," was Yahiko's honest opinion.

"Whatever. Ah, speaking of Battousai, I almost forgot to introduce myself. I am Amakusa Shogo, formerly Amakusa Shiro the Second, formerly Muto Shogo of both the Nikaido Heiho and the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu. Currently, I am known as the Battousai of Style of the Battousai Group."

'Come to think of it, the criminal's name in that Echigo kidnapping incident I was involved in was also Muto. Muto Kaname. I wonder if it's just a coincidence or something significant...'

Not knowing what else to do in that situation, the bloodied Yahiko got up to his feet, gave meaningful looks at Kosaburo, Sakaguchi, and the rest of the policemen whose names escaped him at the moment, and fell into his traditional Jodan-no-Kamae stance.

"You're something else, you religious nutcase. Fine. Let's see how good of a one-man army you really are."

An hour and twenty-five minutes past midnight, outside the gates of Akahori's Shinshu Manor...

Soujiro Seta arrived at the Shinshushin Mansion in time to witness Amakusa crashing through a window while Yahiko and his friends gathered around the debris-filled remains of the entrance, which the former Heaven Sword presumed was destroyed by the Christian rebel's Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu techniques.

Earlier, he saw a boy resembling a younger and perhaps faster version of Kenshin Himura carry off his boss's daughter, Rin Akahori, back into the manor. Furthermore, another shadow of the Hitokiri Battousai emerged in the form of a man who somehow knew all of the different special techniques of the Ishin Shishi patriot's arsenal.

If he didn't know any better, he would've sworn that these strangers bearing familiar characteristics of his redheaded conqueror came all the way to Nagano just to test how much he'd matured since the last time he faced the former vagabond who changed his life forever.

All the same, he had two pressing matters to attend to: Checking on Tetsuo Akahori's condition while also searching for the literal Battousai clone and Rin across every nook and cranny of Jusanro Tani's repossessed abode. Even with the speed to reduce earth to the point of seeming teleportation, that was still a tall order for even Makoto Shishio's ex-second-in-command to handle.

Undaunted, Soujiro sprinted towards the balcony leading to his employer's office with his wall-scaling Shukuchi, his frozen heart fully prepared to confront the separate personifications of Battousai's fighting style and Battousai's spirit and image. "Akahori-san. Rin-san. Be safe."

An hour and twenty minutes past midnight, at the front yard of Akahori's Shinshu Mansion...

Just as Amakusa let loose a Ryu Sou Sen that he intended to turn into a Kuzu Ryu Sen as soon as Yahiko was forced to guard against the strikes with no hope of countering them, he bore witness to the curious spectacle of a small, eye-patched man blocking each and every last strike of his with what looked like the miniaturized wakizashi version of the Myojin kid's sakabatou. The smaller, pirate-like individual was even as fast as he was. No, actually, he was a fraction of a second faster, if the Hidden Christian wasn't mistaken.

"M-Minoe!" Yahiko stuttered as he let his veneer of battle-readiness drop, his shoulders drooping as he planted the sakabatou into the ground and used it as his crutch of sorts.

'He blocked every one of Amakusa's strikes like it was second nature! How...? Why...? He looks so thin and frail, a strong wind could probably knock him down!' The boy's eyes then bugged out upon spotting the Christian rebel's other opponent.

Just to complete Amakusa's befuddlement as he moved away from the defense-oriented Munenori Minoe, he saw a muscular, bandanna-wearing man reminiscent of the samurai that murdered his mother grab hold of his sword's edge with his bare hands and bizarrely cry, "Hey, Mister Force of Nature! If I can knock you out, does that mean I can kayo the next typhoon that comes ripping through Japan?"

Without waiting for a response, the Great Gan tested out his theory with a hammer blow to Amakusa's skull care of a metal club he earlier hid in the mansion's backyard. He retrieved it recently after he learned of Yahiko's choice to fight.

The religious insurgent went into overdrive in trying to cut the Nakahara-looking man apart with his sword, but the bleeding, tough-as-rubber hooligan still got his bat swing to hit Amakusa right on the center of his crucifix-scarred chest anyway, knocking the wind out of him. To the shock and amazement of everyone present, the walloping blow made Amakusa fly straight into a nearby tree, which splintered and fell upon impact.

'Gan? GAN? What? Gan? What? Gan?' Yahiko figuratively picked his jaw up from the ground. '...What? That soba-loving bum can fight? Sure, he's built like an ox, but he also acts like a clueless jackass! It doesn't make sense!'

The boy babbled to himself, unprepared by the sudden and arguably contrived turn of events. 'He also went down like a brick dropped into a tub of water every time people kicked him on the nuts! What, did I stumble outside a Martial Artists Convention when I met these two dunderheads? I mean, what are the chances?'

Once they recovered from Amakusa's ki-induced hypnosis, the remaining Tokyo and Kanagawa troopers armed their rifles and commenced firing at the unmoving heap of leaves, branches, and cloth to make sure it stayed down.

The police focused all their concentration and firepower at the mass of shattered wood and clothed flesh. No other thoughts entered their heads because they still couldn't wrap their minds around the feat they just witnessed (the most impressive one they'd seen thus far against a seemingly unstoppable foe, which was saying a lot).

"Yay! You scored a touchdown, Gan-chi!" Minoe cheered at Gan's success after recovering from his initial surprise. "The Sanbaka are back in business!"

Gan made a clucking noise with his tongue. "Ah, but you're mistaken, Patches! I actually scored a goal!"

"IT'S A HOMERUN! AND STOP TALKING ABOUT THINGS YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW ABOUT!" Yahiko found the strength to shout in spite of his wounds. "I... I mean, it's good to see you guys back. Thanks for saving me. You two were amazing. You make a great team."

"We make a great team, Yoshi-boy. Call it our debt of honor and all that sappy shit, even." Gan greeted Yahiko fondly with an overly familiar ruffling of the injured boy's head before saying to Minoe, "And you! Where have you been, Patches? I kind of lost track of you in all that commotion. Can you drop the Three Stooges thing? I don't want that to catch on."

"'Sanbaka', eh? How insultingly droll," the capeless Amakusa said from behind the celebratory stooges, which made Gan smack Minoe at the back of his head as they all turned around and faced the durable cult leader.

"See? Now even the terrorist knows us by that stupid name!"

Amakusa began his impromptu divide and conquer plan by first directing twin full-on Dou Ryu Sen blasts at the pillars that supported the ceiling of the mansion's foyer, which resulted in its collapse right atop seven or eight officers (which didn't include the two Togakudan and the injured policemen inside the infirmary). As Shogo predicted, Yahiko yelled after the two officers that he knew of (Sakaguchi and Kosaburo) and ran straight for them.

Just as the open-vested brute with the large metal mace attempted another swing at Shogo, the latter whirled around to avoid the banal assault and did his least favorite technique in his impressive library of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu moves: the Ryu Kan Sen, a move best used for counterattacks.

Nevertheless, the imp known as Minoe arrived in time to block that technique as well, so no decapitations took place at the moment. A second later, a crater formed at the place where Amakusa stood a second ago. Knowing that he left himself wide open, Gan pushed Minoe aside as he faced the full brunt of Amakusa's Earth Dragon Flash.

Soon, Amakusa and Minoe were face-to-face. The redheaded Christian offered the defiant, turnip-banged Togakudan girly man a curious glance as he brandished his katana over his head and contemplated his next move.

"Minoe! Big fat guy! GET OUT OF THE WAY!" a third latecomer to the party (fourth if you count Yahiko) proclaimed while cranking up a familiar-looking killing machine.

"R-Raedo-chi? I mean, Raedo-sempai!" Minoe stuttered at his leader before grabbing hold of the bruised-yet-still-standing Gan's humongous hand and leading him out of harm's way. "This way, Gan-chi! I don't think that even you can take bullets from a Gatling gun!"

"O-Okay, Patches! Whatever the three of you say!" the Somewhat Dizzy and Nauseous Gan stumbled as he inwardly marveled at how soft to the touch Minoe's hands were.

Amakusa grunted and snarled as he dodged, weaved, and ran away from the suppressive fire of the still-operational Gatling gun. He considered using another Dou Ryu Sen at the thing, but then realized that it was about to run out of ammunition anyway, so he instead chose to leap straight inside the mansion unopposed through the second-storey window. At this point, he reckoned that all of Akahori's hired guardians had been properly dealt with, more of less.

Sure enough, the Gatling gun ran out of bullets. Perhaps it was just their luck that Amakusa chose that moment to make his move towards the mansion instead of staying around and making sure that nobody was left to stand in his way.

The slightly wobbly and faint Yahiko hated the fact that his first instinct was to check to see if Sergeant Sakaguchi, Officer Kosaburo, and all their other fellow policemen were all right, abandoning the two people who saved his hide in the first place.

Still, he'd already made it halfway through his run when Amakusa went forth with his plan, so he chose to check on the officers anyway, then hope for the best when it came to the wellbeing of two of the Three Stooges. 'This time around, I do deserve to be part of a Sanbaka. I'm such a stooge. Dammit.'

"Mister Sakaguchi! Kosaburo! Officer... Anyone from the Tokyo police? The Kanagawa police? A-Are there any officers still conscious in there?" Yahiko said as he kept on rapping his knuckles on the torn-apart bits of plaster and wood that covered the entire entrance.

"Hello? Are you that kid who disarmed Amakusa? We're all right for the most part, but we're all trapped by the debris. It's pretty thick and heavy. This is Lieutenant Nishimura from Kanagawa, by the way. It may take a while for us to dig ourselves out into the yard or inside the house," the muffled voice from beyond the ruins answered.

Yahiko bit his lip. "You mean the blasts were able to reach inside the house itself? Y-You're stuck in there?"

"I'm afraid so. Some of us are even trapped within the rubble and knocked unconscious. Sergeant Sakaguchi is busy clearing the wreckage out with those people."

Yahiko felt his heart jump into his throat. "How about Shinichi Kosaburo? He's from the Tokyo police. Is he all right?"

Nishimura took a while to respond. "I-I don't know who that is. I'd check with Officer Saruwatari, but he has been hit knocked out by part of the roof, so I'm having a hard time knowing who's who from the Tokyo Squadron."

Upon realizing the lack of any sounds of struggle from the open yard, the Kanagawa lieutenant ventured, "Where's Amakusa? Is he dead? Have you killed him?"

Yahiko pounded his fist on the remains of the pillar. "H-He got away. He's now inside the mansion. He's probably after Akahori now."

Nishimura cursed under his breath. "Son, can you... go after him? We'll catch up as soon as we can, but you're our best hope right now. Besides, you were personally invited as a yojimbo by Akahori-san himself, right?"

Yahiko paused for a moment before Nishimura asked him if he were still out there. "Y-Yeah. I guess I am one of the Oyakata's hired bodyguards."

"Help Akahori-san's other bodyguard, Seta Soujiro, finish off that cop-killing madman. He chose you to be part of our troops for a reason. We'll help you out as soon as we can get out of here, but as of right now, you and your friends are the only people we can count on."

His throat already raw from all the screaming he did while Sakaguchi fought Amakusa, Nishimura croaked, "We must finish the mission, or else our comrades would've died in vain."

Yahiko again contemplated Nishimura's words before saying, "Okay. Oh, and please... keep yourselves safe and sound. Thank you."

After the bushy-haired teen was done talking to the Kanagawa Lieutenant through the thick pile of wreckage, he turned around and saw Gan staring down on him. "I guess running away is out of the question for you... Right, Yoshi-boy?"

Yahiko nodded as he stood up. "It can't be helped."

Gan pulled back his nonexistent sleeves over his arms and brandished his studded, tetsubo-style kanabo. "Then I'll be coming with you too. Apparently, this Amakusa Kumamoto fellow is weak against large metal bats. Then again, everybody is."

Yahiko smirked and shook his head at Gan's non-joke. "You dumbass." He then espied Minoe bowing profusely to his Togakudan leader, Raedo. "What's going on there?"

"Patches wants to come along and fight with us," Gan said while picking his nose. "I say we should let him come, since he saved both our asses."

Yahiko chuckled. "Yeah. He sure did, the little weirdo."

Suzuki Nagaoka pushed the diminutive defensive expert at the two other Sanbaka members and proclaimed, "Of course you can come with them, Minoe-chan. I didn't want you to hang around with the rest of the Togakudan anyway. You'll just get in the way."

Minoe brightened up like a newly bought and recently fueled gas lamp while Gan and Yahiko exchanged chortling glances at each other. "Really? Thank you, sempai-chi! I mean, Raedo-sempai! Also, thanks for saving my life by aiming that Gatling gun at Amakusa-chi when he was about to chop me into pieces!"

Raedo harrumphed and turned his back on the childlike wannabe shinobi. "It's not like I did it to save your life or anything. It was more me trying to kill Amakusa than me attempting to rescue you. I'll stay behind and search for the rest of our spies. They should be able to help dig the officers out."

His tone suddenly waxing pensive, Minoe asked, "How many of us in the Togakudan are left?"

Raedo cleared his throat. "I don't know. It's been sometime since I heard the others report back. I confirmed it from Okazaki. There are many of us who are missing in action."

"I see." Minoe nodded as he closed his eyes and breathed in the night air, frowning upon smelling a hint of metal and gunpowder around him. He turned towards his Sanbaka comrades and announced, "Looks like I'm coming with you too, Gan-chi. Yahiko-chi."

"Then let's go." Yahiko gave Raedo a curt nod, which Mikio Nagaoka's cousin immediately returned in kind. The little quarrels and squabbles that they engaged in earlier were all irrelevant now; the only thing that remained in their hearts and minds was the capture or execution of Shogo Amakusa.

"Go pummel his head until he can't remember his own name, kid," the Togakudan leader recommended.

Gan gave his club a thoughtless twirl that Yahiko and Minoe had to duck lest they suffered the same fate as Amakusa earlier. "We'll combine our powers and drive that uppity ginger into the ground like a railroad spike!"

"M-Mochiron!"

An hour and thirty minutes past midnight, inside the Shinshu Manor...

On his part, Yahiko witnessed intermittent flashbacks and memories of the Kenshingumi's mission to rescue Megumi Takani from a drug dealer and his henchmen, the Tokyo branch of Aoshi Shinomori's Oniwabanshu, specifically because they were also running inside a large mansion at the time.

The nostalgic vision made his heart twinge. 'The circumstances from what happened back then and now are way different, but I'm hoping we can get a resolution to this madness regardless.'

From time to time, Gan and Minoe stopped to let Yahiko take a breather or two. Even though Amakusa's Kuzu Ryu Sen didn't hit him as deeply as Soujiro's did, the fact that they reopened some of his earlier wounds left him in a precarious state. Regardless, his comrades never once left him behind or suggested to him to back down.

"So much for having Amakusa Kumamoto as your idol, huh?" Gan needled Minoe from out-of-the-blue without bothering to turn his head to look at him.

"Gan, this isn't the time," Yahiko said, frowning at how insensitive the brute was of Minoe's feelings. 'Raedo hasn't even found the rest of the Togakudan yet. I hope for their sake that they're okay.'

"Well, a person's perspective can and will change after you see your idol murder the rest of your comrades," came another unthinking jibe from the Great Goon.

Yahiko asked, "How about you, Gan? What the hell are you getting out of this?" The image of him crossing his arms and tapping his foot was implied by the tone of his voice. To the young boy's relief, that shut Gan up.

Gan grumbled an apology under his breath, which made Minoe giggle and say, "Let's forget about it, Gan-chi."

While running, the downtrodden Minoe raised his head and turned it sideways after sensing Yahiko give him a squeeze on the shoulder from behind.

"Yahiko-chi...?"

"Ah, sorry." Yahiko retracted his hand and reddened.

"Is something the matter?"

"No. I... You know. I'm sorry to see you look so dejected about Amakusa." He cleared his throat. "But at least you got the trust of your, um, sempai now. That counts for something, right?"

Minoe grabbed hold of the shoulder that Yahiko held and smilingly shook his bowl-cut head, his turnip-like side bangs swaying along with his pinkish face's side-to-side movement. "Oh. Don't worry. I'm quite all right. I just don't want to talk about that right now."

Yahiko furrowed his eyebrows. For some reason, he had an inkling that he made his companion feel even worse than before. 'Stupid Gan. He's the one who brought the subject up anyway,' he reflected with a grimace.

After a few more minutes of jogging, Minoe mentioned in a hushed voice so that Gan wouldn't hear it, "He's not really a bad guy, you know."

"I kind of find that hard to believe in light of him nearly killing my student from Tokyo and the father of a friend of mine in Shinshu," Yahiko remarked.

"He only had the best interests of his people in mind when he ended up killing all those policemen. He even... I heard from the other Togakudan that he kidnapped the Akahori daughter so that he can exchange Oyakata-chi's life for hers to avoid bloodshed. He didn't mean for this to happen."

Yahiko ruminated over Minoe's words for about a minute before answering, "Everything that starts with good intentions gets corrupted eventually. It's not the ideals that are wrong; it's the willingness of people to use it to their advantage without regard to their fellow man."

Yahiko learned that lesson the hard way, after witnessing everything that a demonically powerful yet pacifistic ex-patriot, an orphaned female kendo master, and a vengeful yet honorable street fighter had gone through.

"..." was Minoe's reply to those words.

"This way. Kumamoto must be back at that ballroom thingy where Curtain Beard did that long, boring speech of his," Gan beckoned as the three ran back to the same place they were assigned to guard. He scratched his nose after noticing both Yahiko and Minoe lag behind. "Come on, lazy butts! We don't have all day. Or night. Or morning. Whatever. Let's go!"

"Either that or he's already in the corridor leading to the office," Minoe said with a flat tone.

Yahiko hid his neck inside his collar after the light of a nearby lamp revealed the sprays of blood (not Minoe's own) that covered the Togakudan spy from head to toe. The eye-patched man probably witnessed Amakusa's murders firsthand.

"Less talking, more running! We're almost... shit," said Gan as he screeched to a halt and lay unmoving while his two cohorts, Minoe and Yahiko, crashed onto his wide back and collapsed as if they'd hit a concrete wall.

"HEY! What's the big idea, Gan? We have to...!" Yahiko cut his sentence short upon seeing what the Goofy Gan saw while Minoe gasped beside the both of them.

"Buddha's earlobes. What the hell is going on here?" Gan sputtered in not so many words. "Dead people. Dead people everywhere."

That was the gist of it. To be more precise, the trio saw before them a kneeling, closed-eyed Amakusa in the middle of the cavernous space, bathing in the blood of a ballroom-full of dismembered bodies. The Hidden Christian appeared to be praying a hymn for the dead, his naked, blood-covered blade serving as his pillar of support.

Yahiko forced his tentative eyes to get a better look at the grisly scene while again resisting the urge to vomit like when he saw the remains of the Kamiminochi and Gunma forces.

Upon closer inspection, the lone Tokyoite noticed that the bodies wore the same garish purple-and-blue ensemble Minoe and Raedo sported. After comprehension hit him like a wooden clog to the face, Yahiko paled, retched, and forced himself swallow down the puddle of vomit in his mouth. The Togakudan shared the same fate as Keisuke and his fake Battousai Group

"Fuck me. Almost all of them are here," Gan rasped as he wiped his face and forehead with both hands while shaking his head slowly. "Pumpkin Head. Frog Lips. Shaolin Reject. Tumbleweed Hair. Some of them I can't even recognize anymore."

"This was where the disappearing Togakudan went." For his part, Minoe bowed his head low and let the shadow from his bangs cover his non-patched eye. A minute later, Yahiko heard sniffles and withdrawn sobs from one of the last few surviving Togakudan inside Akahori's Mansion.

The hooligan's bare skin took on the texture of a freshly plucked chicken, remembering that only this afternoon, he had a fist fight against most of the Togukudan that'd been massacred here. "Holy shit, man. This is messed up beyond belief."

Something bothered Yahiko, though. Did Amakusa kill all those spies right then? Granted, Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu practitioners were scarily efficient killing machines, but why exactly were the Togakudan huddled inside the ballroom in the first place? Did Amakusa kill them one by one and dragged them back here to hide them? No, that made even less sense.

The three backed away in unison after Amakusa opened his eyes and stood up; either he was finished with his prayers, or he noticed the trio standing there in awe of what they'd seen. "I thought you three had the common sense to take my generous proposal to let you go. You disappoint me. That offer is still on the table, though."

"I'm sorry, bud, but you can't go killing people and expect their loved ones to not be pissed off about it. I don't care how abused your people were by the government; you've made their lives a lot more miserable with your terrorist acts. You need to be stopped," said Yahiko.

"As usual, you don't understand a thing. You've all been manipulated by Akahori into doing his bidding. As long as that bastard is alive, my people will never be truly free. I'm merely doing the same thing that your idol, the Ishin Shishi hitokiri known as Battousai, did in order to bring about the new age. That's part of the reason why I named my new group of revolutionaries after him."

"Don't you dare compare yourself to Kenshin! You can never be half the man he is! Battousai is nothing more than a name. Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu is nothing more than a sword style. Up until the time you can feel remorse for the people you've killed, you can never know what it's like to be Battousai."

Yahiko took a step forward, unsheathed his sword, and raised it up over his head. "Where were we?"

"So be it. I will pray for your soul," the bruised, battered, but undefeated insurgent exhaled in resignation as he moved away from the piles of Togakudan bodies and assumed a sheath-absent battoujutsu stance, the tip of his sword scraping the wooden floorboard in order to use it as leverage for lack of a scabbard.

"Now hold on a second, Yoshi-boy!" Gan swung his kanabo-tetsubo with one hand around his head, producing a gust of wind that ruffled the hair and clothes of everyone standing, and slammed it onto the floorboards with a resounding thump. "We're here as backup, remember? You won't be fighting alone. Isn't that right, Patches?"

After a couple of minutes of silence, Minoe brushed back his hair, readjusted his eye patch, and whispered with a wan smile, "Mochiron."

Yahiko scuttled over to Amakusa's side, arms tensed and his reverse-edged sword completely still within his tight grip while eyeing the insurgent's own blade. His fingers relaxed and danced on the handle as he evaluated potential openings he could exploit, remembering the successful Tsui Gami he'd executed to render the rebel's sharp-edged sheath unusable.

'The good news is that without that strange, bladed sheath, Amakusa can't do his battoujutsu. The bad news is that he knows a lot more than battoujutsu.'

Out of the blue, Yahiko heard Gan tell Amakusa, "Yeah... I'm just going to kick your ass now, okay?" before delivering the first blow of the match: an arcing swing of his studded bat right from the hip towards Amakusa's head.

"Eh? Gan-chi...!"

"Gan, you goddamn moron! Don't bum-rush the guy! He'll slaughter you!"

Shogo hurtled right inside Gan's personal space as the bat reached the apex of its arc, bent his knees, and jumped to slice off Gan's head with a Rising Dragon Flash, only to change the trajectory of his sword and block Yahiko's God Hammer strike with the handle in fear of getting his katana broken.

"HAPPA!"

Both Shogo and Yahiko jumped back after Gan slammed his blunt weapon onto the floor and smashed it into bits. Even before the dust settled, Yahiko leapfrogged over his hooligan compatriot's outstretched arm and delivered a combination of counterstrikes hidden by the surrounding clouds of dirt and sawdust at Amakusa.

The Tokyoite corralled Shogo to the foot of the ballroom's left staircase, renewing his efforts in landing a second, fight-ending Tsui Gami on Amakusa's shining blade. The rebel took that as his cue to unleash more calligraphy-based Nikaido Heiho in between the single-stroke magnificence of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

Amakusa noticed that compared to earlier, the boy's breaths had become a lot shallower; the exertion and his wounds had made him a hair slower.

Shogo exploited the amateur swordsman's lack of familiarity with Nikaido Heiho by doing the school's equivalent of the Ryu Kan Sen: A special, unnamed back-pass technique wherein the practitioner switched the blade from one hand to another in order to confuse the enemy with a blindsiding attack.

Shogo's irises shrunk into mere dots after Minoe barreled in the middle of the furious exchange and blocked the deceptive strike with his own reverse-edged wakizashi. To compound his slip-up, he heard Yahiko thank the diminutive blocking expert before slamming the sakabatou into one of his kneecaps.

Amakusa's legs buckled underneath him, but he compensated for the slip by unleashing a Dou Ryu Sen to keep the two interlopers at bay... for all the good that it did, because Minoe blocked the move before the sword could hit the ground while Yahiko exploited the opening and sent the rebel smashing into a wall.

"You got him, Yoshi-boy! Patches! Keep him right there!" Gan praised, his tetsubo on standby as two of the so-called Sanbaka poured on counterattack after counterattack (with Minoe doing all the blocking while Yahiko provided the counters), not one of Shogo's ragged slashes landing on the two defense-oriented fighters.

To himself, the ruffian pondered, 'Even though we're winning, that Kumamoto guy is looking far too calm for my tastes. What does he know that we don't?'

Yahiko was about to smash Amakusa's sword in half when Minoe blocked the Tsui Gami by sliding the reverse-edged wakizashi over the sakabatou so that the God Hammer couldn't hit any particular part of the weapon more than once to break it.

"Minoe! What the hell are you doing?"

"AH! I'm sorry, Yahiko-chi! I was so concentrated on blocking attacks that I blocked yours!" Minoe apologized for his mistake while Amakusa did a feinted strike and countered Yahiko's counter with shallow swipes that the Togakudan didn't block in time.

Gan slapped his forehead with his beefy hand. "Never mind that, Yoshi-boy! Focus on Amakusa Kumamoto! Amakusa!"

'Kumamoto...?' Amakusa considered before ignoring the Boisterous Gan's nonsense and reassessing his bearings. 'Never mind. Whatever his reason for calling me that, it'll probably be foolishness of the highest order anyway. A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.'

On his part, the wild-eyed Yahiko's mind recalled the eye-patched man-child's undying support for Amakusa even after the rebel killed the vast majority of Togakudan. He then reeled from a stab that missed him by mere inches.

'Minoe doesn't want Amakusa to die, does he?' the teenaged samurai realized.

"Watch out!" exclaimed Minoe as he jumped towards Yahiko's side to keep Amakusa from moving in for the kill, but he was shoved away by the boy. "Ow! What was that for? I'm sorry I didn't block in time! Jeez..."

Yahiko opened his mouth as if to retort, but seemingly thought the better of it and instead murmured, "I-It's... I'm sorry for shoving you around and snapping at you. It's just that I almost got him..." He gawked at his hands. Why was he trembling so much?

To be Continued...

Next: Tooth and nail.

Yep, I used a Clint Eastwood quote (and paraphrase) from the 1992 film "Unforgiven". All rights reserved. Anyway, here's the deal. In order to reconcile two Rurouni Kenshin continuities (namely, the cut-short TV anime and the manga), I've decided to answer the questions, "What if the Kenshingumi were too busy with Enishi and company to resolve the issues presented the filler arcs? What if these unresolved issues came back to haunt Yahiko, the inheritor of Kenshin's sakabatou?"

Also, before I forget, even though in the original anime, the eighty-eight followers of Shogo were faced with annihilation from multiple army squadrons during the Day of the Holy Spirit, things are slightly different in this version for reasons you'll have to discover later on.

Taas noo kahit kanino,
Abdiel