Rurouni Yahiko
A Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction Continuation by Chester Castañeda
How long ago has it been since we last (metaphorically) saw Kenshin, Kaoru, Tsubame, and Kenji in Tokyo? Too long, I'd say.
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 30: By Any Other Name
That afternoon, two weeks after the assassination attempt on Akahori's life, in the Sakaguchi Soba Shop in Shinshu...
"Really? You'd tell me the vagabond's home address? W-Wait, this is some sort of trick, right? Vagabonds don't have addresses!"
Yahiko Myojin tapped his foot impatiently. "He's not a rurouni anymore." What the hell was he saying? This wasn't the time to indulge Chizuru Raikouji's fantasies of meeting up with her Samurai on Horseback and Shining Armor.
His chest expanded as he took a deep breath. "But I'll have to warn you. Be careful what you wish for. If you meet with him, you might not be happy with what you'll see."
"W-What are you talking about? Why would I be unhappy if I were to see him again? Or why should I feel happy about meeting him again either? It's not like I'm stalking him or anything..." She started pacing on the floor while mumbling to herself.
'Should I tell her?' Yahiko asked himself. Should he tell her about Kenshin's marriage to Kaoru? That seemed needlessly cruel. On one hand, if she did decide to give ol' Scarface a visit and she found out he was married, wouldn't that be even crueler?
On the other hand, she had been giving him lip in regards to his claims that he actually faced the infamous Battousaigumi, even though it was obviously a ruse to make him spill the beans concerning Kenshin.
No, it was too cruel to not tell her about the marriage, even for him. Still, Yahiko would want to see the look on Kenshin's face as the ex-vagabond bore witness to the sight of two Kaorus quarreling over him.
The boy couldn't decide which was crueler: Telling her now and dampening her enthusiasm to see Kenshin again, or leaving it a "surprise" and breaking her heart later.
Nevertheless, Yahiko would love to be the fly on the wall in the Kamiya Residence once Chizuru did decide to pay a visit to the Kamiya Family. How would Kenshin react to seeing two Kaorus in front of him, with either roughly the same age as the other? How many "Oro?" variations would he come up with if that ever happened?
'I shouldn't even be giving Kenshin's Tokyo address in the first place!' the rational part of Yahiko's mind protested. 'Whatever. What's done is done. If I'm going to tell her about Kenshin, then I might as well tell her about Kaoru, her 'love rival' that actually won before she could even stand a chance!'
"Why are you so quiet, Yoshi-boy?" called out Gan from the other side of the counter. He'd merely been watching Chizuru and Yahiko's verbal sparring session instead of joining in for the sake of his testicles' safety.
"We're coming in!"
"Welcome, sirs! What will be your order for today?" the Sakuguchi mother and daughter pair chorused automatically to the new arrivals, which was a young policeman with a sling on his arm and an even younger boy beside him.
"Yo! Oishi-sempai! Pansy! We meet again!" greeted Gan as he gave a cursory wave at Yahiko's policeman buddy and the little Shinshu brat that kept attacking his crotch for the sake of self-defense.
The boy Gan named "Pansy" kicked the brute on the shin to show how much he appreciated his moniker.
"Ah... Gan-san, isn't it? It's been a while!" Both new arrivals bowed at the thug, although the younger one's bow had a hint of a glower aimed at Gan that looked adorable on his preteen face. 'Oishi-sempai? Who the heck is that?'
"What are you guys doing here?" asked Yahiko.
"Yo, Yahiko-sensei!" Kosaburo Shinichi greeted the Coadjutant Master of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu with an open-palmed salute that the borderline-mute kid beside him mimicked. "I heard from the Higashidani Family that you were leaving, so I came straight here to say goodbye. Naturally, Outa-kun wanted to tag along too."
"Er, yeah. I guess you can say hello to everyone back in Tokyo for me or something, Kosaburo," Yahiko said without looking at Shinichi before realizing something quite important: Chizuru, Kaoru's identical double, was right in front of him and his kendo students.
"MASTER KAORU! What are you doing all the way here in Shinshu?" yelped Kosaburo as soon as he saw Chizuru.
"It's actually Kaori-neechan!" corrected Gan, but no one was listening to him anyway.
"Kosaburo, this woman isn't...!" began Yahiko.
"M-Master Kaoru...? Are you friends with Gan or something?" sputtered Chizuru at the geeky policeman and the cute yet kind of quiet boy that, for whatever reason, beamed at her with sparkling eyes full of hope and expectation. "Do I even know...?"
From behind the quartet, the Gluttonous Gan requested a bowl of Tanuki Udon from Nonoko. Just as the Elder Sakaguchi was about to go to the kitchen to fetch that order, Kyoko (of all people) grabbed hold of the hooligan's arm and demanded payment for that bowl.
As he yelped, the big thuggish man handed the smaller, teenaged girl his wallet. "I was going to pay anyway!" he insisted.
"Just checking," Kyoko said with a sweet, singsong voice.
"...Is this some sort of surprise training exercise? If that's the case, can I sit this one out, because I'm kind of injured... Why are you putting your finger on your lips and hissing at me, Yahiko-kun?" Kosaburo blabbered while Myojin stared daggers at him.
'You goddamned idiot. How dense can you get? Read the mood,' thought Yahiko as he palmed his face.
"Myojin-kun." Chizuru dropped the overly familiar, first-name-basis yobisute (calling someone's name without any honorifics or titles) she and Yahiko had been using to refer to each other. "What's going on?"
Unfortunately, Kosaburo wouldn't shut up. "Oh, where's Kenshin, Missus Kamiya?" The copper called her by the polite title of "missus" because he had enough insight to feel the tense air around him, but not enough to figure out what was going on.
"K-Kenshin? You mean the rurouni? What does she... this Kaoru... have to do with the vagabond... I mean, Kenshin?" Chizuru asked.
The sling-wearing officer of the law looked blankly at Chizuru for the longest time along with the young boy he had in tow. "What a weird way to talk about your husband, Missus Kamiya. Have you gotten into another fight with him again?"
The whole room's temperature dropped a degree or so as the woman with the mistaken identity's gaze traveled from Yahiko, to Kosaburo, to Outa, and back to Yahiko as her brain processed what the Tokyo Policeman told her.
"I see. So that's why the vagabond isn't a vagabond anymore. He really did settle down," Chizuru muttered to herself.
The cat was out of the bag. "Chizuru, let me explain...!"
"There'll be no need for that, Yahiko." Chizuru waved the spiky-haired teen off.
'So she's back to using yobisute again? I can't figure this woman out.'
From there, the Raikouji daughter began to cackle. The entire restaurant went so silent... save for Chizuru's laughter... that one could hear the creaking of the wooden parts of the establishment.
'Oh no. She finally lost it. Because of her heartbreak, she's gone completely nuts.'
"K-Kaoru-sensei...?" ventured Kosaburo before Outa tugged at his sleeve and beckoned him to bend down so that the kid could whisper something to his ear. "Is something the matter? Even Outa's getting worried about you. Did you hit your head or... something?"
Yahiko warned, "Look, Kosaburo, Outa, that's not really...!"
Chizuru cut the teenaged swordsman off. "That's right! I'm Kariya Kaori!"
"...Kamiya Kaoru," corrected Yahiko.
"...Kamiya Kaoru! As your sensei, I order you two to jog straight to the Shinshu Market, buy me some ginger, and get back here as part of your training!" requested Chizuru while handing Kosaburo some yen coins.
"Sure! This is just like our training back in Tokyo. Isn't that right, Outa?"
Outa again murmured something inside Shinichi's ear.
"Yeah, I was a bit worried too, but it looks like Kaoru-sensei is back to normal!"
"Come back soon!" unthinkingly said Nonoko and Kyoko Sakaguchi in unison as the Outa-Kosaburo pair left the soba shop in a hurry.
Yahiko groaned and slapped his forehead as the young Higashidani and the older Shinichi jogged off to the Shinshu Market for some ginger, just like "Kaoru" told them to.
"Hey. I look exactly like this Kaoru person you know back in Tokyo, don't I?"
Yahiko shrugged and raised his hands in defeat. "Uh... yeah."
"And you were planning to tell me this when?"
"NEVER! Why the hell should I tell you? Besides, it was none of your business who it was you looked like anyway!"
"More importantly, she's now married to the rurouni, is she not?" pressed the Kaoru duplicate.
"S-So what?" asked Yahiko while averting his gaze from Kaoru's. Er, Chizuru's. With all due respect to Kaoru's father, Yahiko couldn't help but wonder if the Kamiya Patriarch sowed some of his wild oats all over Tokyo around the same time Kaoru was conceived.
"On one hand, I know what happened to the vagabond, the person who saved my life. He's happily married. On the other hand..."
"Um..." Yahiko had said too much, apparently. "I'm sorry, Chizuru."
"Don't apologize." Chizuru smiled in a way that reminded Yahiko of Kenshin's pensive smile whenever he'd open up his heart to Kaoru and whenever Kenji would learn a new word or grow up a little more.
'Please stop smiling like you're about to die. It's creepy,' was what Yahiko couldn't bring himself to say. He now wished he'd followed his Kamiya Kasshin Ryu students to the market.
If Myojin hadn't blabbed that he knew Kenshin's home address to Chizuru, then they wouldn't even be having this awkward conversation. She wouldn't have discovered the rurouni's marriage either.
Thanks to Chizuru, Yahiko felt right at home there in Shinshu. It was like he never left Tokyo. It was never his intention to hurt her or tell her the awful truth about Kenshin and Kaoru in light of her situation.
Then again, Chizuru had been searching for the vagabond all this time, and she deserved some measure of closure. She earned it after all the help she gave him. He felt that he at least owed her that much.
Without her, Yahiko wouldn't have been able to stop Keisuke's Fake Battousai Group from running amok in a village under siege, solve part of the mystery behind the Battousai Group, meet the Sakaguchi Family, or recover from his various injuries while staying there in Shinshu.
No. She should know the truth. Maybe this was the only way she could let go of her six-year crush with Kenshin Himura.
"That's good to know. So, about that home address of the vagabond..." she continued.
"Huh?" Yahiko blinked before his head snapped up in attention. "Why do you still want to meet with Kenshin? Especially since he's already married and all!"
She shrugged. "It's no big deal to me."
"Are we even on the same page? Do you really understand what's going on here? If you're not bothered by Kenshin having a wife, then why would you...?"
Chizuru giggled and waved Yahiko off. "Silly boy. What's wrong with me visiting an old acquaintance of mine from six years ago? It's not like I'm in love with him or anything."
"Ah. I see."
She had a point. Maybe Yahiko misread her intentions after all? So she wasn't really infatuated with Kenshin and she was merely trying to find the man who saved her life in the past. He was overanalyzing things, as usual.
"I'm happy to learn more about what happened to the vagabond after all these years. So he married someone who looks just like me, didn't he? In a way, he didn't forget about me after all those years either."
"Oh... kay?" Yhaiko didn't like where the conversation was going. So much for him misunderstanding her feelings.
She chortled again, which had the boy worrying about her mental health once more. He then backed away eight feet from her as he saw the bright-red blush on her cheeks that was luminescent enough to signal lost sailors to land in a low-visibility storm.
"I'm so happy that my feelings for Kenshin were able to reach him! I mean, he yearned for me for so long that he married the girl that matched me the closest! I guess he and I have been thinking the same thing! He missed me so much, he found a Chizuru substitute!"
Not only Yahiko, but Gan, Kyoko, and Nonoko all blurted out the same thing.
"EEHHHH?"
Four months after Yahiko left his hometown back in Tokyo...
"I'm the Chizuru substitute? Don't give me that nonsense!" exclaimed a cheesed-off Kaoru Kamiya. As Kenshin Kamiya (nee Himura) attempted to console his wife, she gave him a teary-eyed look with puffed-up cheeks. "Kenshin! Tell me it isn't so!" she sniffled.
"Oro?" came Kenshin's catchphrase.
"Kaoru-san, calm down! Please don't tear the letter apart! We still need to know where Yahiko went after the assassination attempt at the Shinshushin Mansion was foiled!" pleaded Tsubame Sanjo.
"Oh, okay," said Kaoru prior to using the letter to blow her nose.
It took three days of on-again, off-again reading for the "Kenshingumi" to get to that point in Yahiko's letter. The boy could spin quite the yarn... so much so that Kaoru had her doubts in regards to the authenticity of his tale. "It could all be in his imagination," she had proposed.
Since it was months later, both Outa and Kosaburo (the latter of which already got his sling removed) were there at the Kamiya Dojo in order to corroborate the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu Coadjutant Master's tall tales.
Presently, Outa was out in the yard with Kosaburo doing their weekly kendo drills. Because Yahiko wasn't around, the police officer served as the silent preteen's "mouthpiece".
The first confirmation Kaoru got that proved Yahiko was telling the truth was when the copper asking her, "So what were you doing in Shinshu, Master Kaoru? You didn't even go with us when we took the train back to Tokyo!"
From what Kaoru could gather, Shinichi had a talent for recognizing sword styles after only seeing a few strokes of the blade. He wasn't a defensive master like Yutaro Tsukayama, but his lightning-fast ability in figuring out how a technique worked allowed him to exploit weaknesses and create battle plans with the least amount of effort on his part.
Kosaburo even used these observational abilities by helping the Kanto Police Squads make it difficult for the "reincarnation" of Shiro Amakusa to attack using the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu because of his familiarity with Kenshin's techniques.
Ergo, his best kendo stance was the most basic of all stances, the easily adaptable Water Stance or the Chudan-no-Kamae.
As for the young Higashidani (and Sanosuke's little brother, much to Kaoru's surprise when she found out), despite his reserved nature, he had an aggressive streak that would make his big brother proud. Kaoru guessed it was just the Higashidani way to be aggressive, rambunctious, and offense-oriented.
Even though he wasn't an improvisational expert like Yahiko, he shared his master's willingness to take risks, such that his thrust to the throat or tsuki was a sight to behold for a preteen kendoist. As such, his best kendo stance was a variant of the Chudan-no-Kamae, the Seigan-no-Kamae, which had the tip of his sword pointed straight at the opponent's eyes instead of his neck.
The reading of Yahiko's letter had become somewhat of a tradition in the Kamiya Household. He had fascinating exploits, like when he met a Kaoru look-alike and a food bandit, fought a former high-ranking Juppon Gatana member to a draw, confronted a descendant of Shiro Amakusa or whoever it was that sported the same fighting style as Kenshin did, and trounced yet another doppelganger who this time looked like Kenshin's younger Hitokiri Battousai self during the Bakumatsu no Douran.
Kaoru groaned in remembrance. Were any of this true?
Come to think of it, were Outa and Kosaburo not present to confirm some of the strange things Yahiko wrote, the Kamiya Family... and even his loyal girlfriend Tsubame... would be well within their rights to wave off his stories as the fancies of a kid who really missed his friends back in Tokyo.
"Two look-alikes of me and my husband? Some Hidden Christian rebel who can do Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu too? If he isn't making things up, then he's clearly delusional!" came Kaoru's somewhat reasonable conclusion prior to Outa and Kosaburo revealing themselves as witnesses to Yahiko's misadventures.
Even after they confirmed everything... well, mostly Kosaburo did... Kaoru still had her doubts. "You mean to tell me the most unbelievable parts of Yahiko's cock-and-bull story are true? It sounds like something a hack writer would come up with!"
Regardless, Kaoru took what Yahiko claimed Chizuru said quite seriously for a story she believed was mostly fictional.
Even with the kind of strange and audacious life Kaoru had led, having her own double running after her beloved spouse was too weird even for her to accept. It also somewhat scared her. Just a little bit.
"She's coming here, isn't she? Kenshin's ex-girlfriend is coming here!"
That was news to Kenshin, though. "E-Ex-girlfriend...?"
"Nobody said she's Mister Kamiya's ex-girlfriend! Isn't that right, Officer Kosaburo?" said Tsubame in another bid to keep Kaoru from doing something drastic, like using Yahiko's letter as fuel for the fireplace.
"Yes. You're right, Tsubame-san," reassured a sweaty Kosaburo right after his light spar with the adorably forceful Outa. A couple of days ago, when the letter arrived, he wasn't around, but he was soon included in the storytelling sessions when his name came up in the middle of one of Kaoru's readings.
"You can take a break now, Outa-kun. Kosaburo-kun," said an absentminded Kaoru while lost in thought. She paced back and forth with a page of Yahiko's letter in her hand as she let Chizuru's bombshell sink in. What if that harlot did decide to take a visit to their home? What if she was right, and she, Kaoru, was nothing more than a replacement for her, Old Man Raikouji's granddaughter?
What if that home wrecker did the ol' switcheroo and she became the new Kaoru Kamiya? What would happen to her, the real one? What if she wasn't the real Kaoru Kamiya? What if she was the clone and the real her was in Shinshushin, waiting for the right time to expose herself as the true heir to the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu?
Also, how was Kaoru supposed to keep Chizuru out of her property? Should she tell her students, "If you see someone like me enter this dojo, attack her. If she can't defend herself, throw her out!"? They'd be arrested for assault if that happened! This Raikouji girl could even cook! This was in stark contrast to the Kamiya Matriarch, who still let Kenshin do all the cooking!
"She's thinking about something silly, isn't she, Kenshin-san?" asked Tsubame as Kaoru tore her hair out.
"I'm afraid so, Tsubame-dono." Kenshin considered the possibility that Kaoru had been drinking sake behind his back. He was afraid of the implications of her actions if she were stone-cold sober.
"Daddy, do I have another mommy?" Kenji asked in all seriousness, his cute little eyebrows furrowed.
After Kenshin recovered from choking on his own spit, he reassured Kenji, "You only have one mommy, Kenji." He then crossed him arms, rubbed his tapered chin, and nodded to himself, which prompted everyone to look at him in expectation.
"..."
Kenshin then noticed all the stares on his person. "...Oro? My pardons, but I don't have anything else to say."
As everyone got up from their synchronized pratfalls, Kaoru inquired, "Well, what are you thinking about, then? Did this Chizuru girl confess to you before you headed out to my neck of the woods here in Tokyo?"
"Ah, no. Actually, I could've sworn she hated me. She kept hitting me for the most trivial of reasons. She also denied ever doing anything for me, telling me to not get the wrong idea and saying I'm pitiful.'
Like a blushing maiden, Kaoru's face went through several shades of red; an impressive feat, considering she was a married woman and she already had her so-called honeymoon with Kenshin. To her husband, she said, "Yeah, she must've really hated you."
'Wow. That's not like what happened between you and Kaoru-san at all before you confessed your feelings to each other. Right, Kenshin-san?' was the loaded statement that Tsubame didn't ask because it was such a rude thing to say.
Unfortunately, Kenshin had no such compunctions. "That's not like what happened between us at all... Right, Dear?" Whether this was a statement of sarcasm or genuine cluelessness, only the ex-rurouni knew.
"...Shut up."
Thanks to Missus Kamiya's embarrassment, she decided to change the topic and continue reading Yahiko's letters, Kenshin-infatuated look-alike be damned.
"Right after dealing with Chizuru, I had an unexpected meeting with Kenshin Junior..."
"..."
"KENSHIIIN!"
"Ah! Daddy is wunning away!"
"WHAT'S THE MEANING OF THIS? WHO'S KENSHIN JUNIOR? DOES KENJI HAVE A BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER?"
"ORORORO?"
Around the middle of the night of November 21, 1884...
After Yahiko Myojin packed his stuff and said his goodbyes to Gan, the Sakaguchi Family (including Sergeant Satoru himself), and Chizuru (who told him to "Do whatever you want," and rushed off in a huff; he hadn't seen her since), he saw the last man he expected to meet before "casting off", so to speak.
"Psycho-Kid." In his letter to the Kamiyas that they received three months later, he accidentally wrote "Kenshin Junior" instead of "Pyscho-Kid" to refer to Soujiro Seta.
Had Sigmund Freud developed and popularized his psychoanalysis theories earlier, he would've called Yahiko's gaffe a Freudian slip of the pen.
"Good evening, Yahiko-san. How are your injuries?" asked Soujiro, the former Heaven Sword of the Ten Swords.
Yahiko snorted, remembering that half of his wounds were thanks to the Ten Ken's blade. "They could be better. How about yours?"
"They still ache from time to time, but I'll manage."
'I bet you will. The Fake Battousai could've scourged you like a common criminal, yet you'd still be smiling.'
Myojin gave Seta a once over. Normal men would've still been in crutches by the amount of abuse Soujiro received from his back-to-back duels with Shogo Amakusa and Kaede Morinaga... but this was not the case for Makoto Shishio's Heaven Sword.
Aside from a bandaged foot (all the other bandages were probably hidden inside his outfit) and a slight hobble in his step, the bob-cut-sporting young man looked none the worse for wear. Meanwhile, Yahiko served as a bandage spool after suffering from two separate Kuzu Ryu Sen and a shoulder stab wound that still ached.
The last time they met two weeks ago, Soujiro tried thanking Yahiko for saving Rin, but the samurai boy told him to save it, insisting that he didn't do it for him, he did it because she saved his life.
Yahiko wondered why the Ten Ken pissed him off so much... aside from the fact that he almost killed him in a duel.
'He's both fast and tough, eh? If he weren't so cuckoo, he'd be the perfect swordsman.' Again, Yahiko's thoughts betrayed the bitter reasons why he put "Kenshin Junior" in his letter.
"So where are you headed?" asked Soujiro.
"I'm leaving Shinshu. I'll head out by tomorrow," answered Yahiko.
"Oh, what a coincidence! So am I," said Seta. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I have some official business with the Sakaguchi Family to attend to."
"Why are you working for the Oyakata anyway? I mean, Akahori Tetsuo," asked Myojin.
"Ah, that's a long story, and I don't think we have all night. I'll see you around, Yahiko-san."
Clenching his fist and cursing his own impudence, Yahiko called out to Soujiro, "You did terribly against the Battousai of Speed. I bet I can do better against her!" What the hell was he talking about?
With that eternally amused mask of a face he had, Soujiro replied, "Can you now?"
"I bet I can do better than she did against you too." Another blatant lie. Where was he getting all his confidence?
"Just because you've gotten a hefty amount of reward money doesn't mean you should go wasting it away on bets you can't win," said Seta.
The Myojin kid winced at the Heaven Sword's remark. That was a change. Now even the usually pleasant Soujiro was running his mouth on him.
"Just you wait and see. I'll make you eat those words."
"I'm looking forward to proving you wrong." Seta chuckled. "Oh, by the way..."
"What is it now?"
"The Shun Ten Satsu is about as fast as the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki, even though it's not as strong and Himura-san's technique broke my sword apart. Just a little tip. Say hello to Himura-san for me."
'About as fast as...? Is he fucking kidding me?' Minutes later, as Yahiko stood there like a statue, he answered a bit too late, "It's Kamiya-san now... Ah, he's already gone."
Late evening at a local Shinshushin inn; on November 21, 1884...
"No word on the rumored Seiryu Clan reunion I've been hearing about from Sergeant Sakaguchi?" inquired Tetsuo as soon as Soujiro arrived at his room. The Ten Ken had fetched for him a bottle of wine from the cellar of his mansion. He uncorked it and poured himself a glass. He offered a glass to the younger man, who politely refused.
The Shinshushin Police... what was left of them, anyway... had turned the mansion into a crime scene, but because of Akahori's political clout, he was allowed access to certain parts of the mansion up until he departed for Hokkaido or anywhere else he needed to conduct his business at.
Nevertheless, as Spartan as his methods were, the loving father had more than enough common sense and consideration to not let him and his daughter spend the night at a place where dozens of men met their demise. That didn't stop him from going back to the scene of the crime multiple instances to conduct his own investigations of the matter, though.
Speaking of which, Rin remained wide awake inside her allocated bedroom separate from her father. Nighttime was the period for her... a nocturnal creature... to awaken, although her activities were mostly limited to reading novels and checking up on her father and his bodyguard.
"From the looks of things, Sakaguchi Satoru-san has no idea. He hasn't heard much from his blacksmith father-in-law, much less Minakata Kinta-san," reported Soujiro.
Kinta Minakata. Now there was a name Akahori hadn't heard in years... Six years, to be exact. "So he has finally resurfaced after all these years. I wonder what he's planning now. Maybe he already figured out the location of the Seiryu Clan's Black Book..."
"What Black Book, Akahori-san?"
"It's the sum compilation of leaked military and government intelligence from both the Bakufu and the Ishin Shishi collected by four separate spy clans, one of which is Minakata's Seiryu Clan. The Black Book helped shaped the course of the Late Tokugawa Shogunate and the Bakumatsu no Douran, don't you know? Knowledge is power and all that. I'll tell you more about it at a later date."
By Akahori's estimations, the Black Book was a rather appropriate name for the extensive collection of classified, secret, and private data from news sources, leaks, and whistleblowers, although the secrets of both the patriots and the shogunate were certainly not contained within one mere book. It was instead compiled in multiple volumes detailing the true history and behind-the-scenes plans of two major warring factions.
Meanwhile, in the English language, the idiom "black book" referred to a book that contained the names of organizations and people to blacklist. Even though no particular person or institute was being blacklisted by Akahori's Black Book, the dirty laundry contained within its pages was enough to ruin the career of many a politician, high-ranking official, or military officer, to the point that they might as well have been blacklisted.
The bespectacled old man's eyes twinkled. "I remember," he mentioned as he swirled the wine inside his wine glass that he retrieved from a study which, for a week or so, served as part of a crime scene.
"Remember what, Akahori-san?" queried Tetsuo's trusty bodyguard.
"I remember that there were reports of the Hitokiri Battousai helping out Amakusa Shiro the Second in repelling the Japanese Imperial Army back in the Second Shimabara War," said Akahori before gulping down the wine.
"I waved it off as nonsense at the time, but apparently, there was some truth to that info after all. What do you know? Battousai-dono was probably the Fake Battousai who massacred hundreds of our soldiers in her wake six years ago. No wonder she was strong enough to give even you problems."
"She was a Himura-san impersonator even back then, huh? Fascinating," said Soujiro. "There's also something familiar about that reverse-edged short sword of hers. Could it have come from the same sakabatou I broke when I first crossed swords with Mister Himura?"
"Now there's some food for thought. Maybe she's been snooping around and learning everything that she could about her infamous look-alike right under your nose, Seta-kun. She might've even found a way to infiltrate Shishio's Faction, at that. For someone who allegedly hates the Battousai name, she certainly knows a lot about the bearer of that moniker."
"She could've been part of Shishio-san's... our... group? That would explain how she got the top half of Himura-san's sword back in Shingetsu Village." Seta tapped his closed fist on his open palm upon realizing where the Battousai of Speed got her weapon.
"What do you think? Could she have become a member of the Ten Swords? Even back then, the rumored Hitokiri Battousai that worked with Amakusa Shiro the Second during the Second Shimabara Rebellion was a force to be reckoned with. She and one other person formed the Unholy Trinity of Amakusa's Faction six years past."
"If Amakusa-san hadn't used that Rai Ryu Sen on me, I would've finished her off."
"Do you really think so, Seta-kun?"
Soujiro smiled but said nothing more on the subject. Tetsuo nodded in understanding. The boy wanted payback. Just as he took Kenshin Himura to the limit, this other upstart did the same to him. 'How adorable. She is his first real rival since Himura Kenshin retired from active swordsmanship.'
"Try to find a way to keep your balance while moving sideways with the Shukuchi other than using your sword as a pivot and you'll be able to conquer your technique's weakness," was Akahori's answer to a question Soujiro didn't ask aloud.
"It'll also help you avoid being forced to go to extreme supersonic speeds that'd burn you alive because of the friction of the air. The fewer weaknesses she can exploit from you, the more chances you have of winning against her because you're faster and stronger than her by default."
"I see." Seta nodded to himself before pouring his employer another drink. "Like a true scorpion, she lies in wait for most of the battle before ambushing her opponent. Like a crab, I couldn't penetrate her hard shell. Even when angered, she still falls back on this defensive pattern. It's... maddening."
"You'll have your chance soon. She's part of Amakusa's Battousai Group. The reason why Amakusa personally oversaw this last-ditch effort to assassinate me was because this may be the final time he'll be able to do his terrorist assignments by himself. As you yourself saw, he's way past his prime, and he can barely even summon his own Rai Ryu Sen without the use of hallucinogenic drugs."
Akahori took another sip of wine. "The next time we meet, Amakusa will probably be aided by his entire Battousai Group the same way Shishio employed the help of you and the rest of the Ten Swords. It's not a stretch of the imagination to presume that he's taking some pointers from Morinaga Kaede herself because of her experience with Shishio's Faction... if she really were part of it. I wouldn't be surprised if the Battousai Group was a direct rip-off of your Juppon Gatana."
Soujiro rubbed his finger on his lower lip. "I agree with you in regards to Amakusa-san probably depending on the Battousai Group more in the near future. However, is he really as weak as you claim, though? He was able to wound me with his Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki even though he himself was at his limit by the time we fought. Maybe the Battousai of Style isn't as washed up as you'd expect."
"The facts don't lie. He went from being able to take on a thousand fully armed military personnel to having trouble dealing with fifty-something policemen bodyguards and spies," insisted Akahori.
"Yet he should've died fighting against an entire army in the first place," remarked Seta. "Up to this day, the Meiji Government refuses to acknowledge that the Second Shimabara Rebellion even happened because of all the embarrassing casualties from the conflict. We can't risk underestimating him again."
Tetsuo cleared his throat and smirked at the sharpness of his impudent bodyguard's words, remembering how he himself lost face thanks to his Pyrrhic Victory in Shimabara.
Just as the army of King Pyrrhus of Epirus suffered numerous deaths in defeating the Romans at Heraclea in 280 BC and Asculum in 279 BC, so too did the Japanese Imperial Army lose most of its men in trying to take down the Cult of Shiro Amakusa the Second at Shimabara in 1878.
Akahori had to be made a scapegoat by his superiors and the incident had to be swept under the rug lest news spread through international waters that Japan's armies were no match against a handful of religious rebels.
Around noontime on November 6, 1884; somewhere inside a log cabin within the Nagano wilderness...
A lot had happened yesterday and today. They were a hairbreadth away from finishing off the man that masterminded Shiro Amakusa the Second's downfall back in 1878. So close, yet so far.
What went wrong, exactly? Minoe, as a Togakudan double agent, was able to leak to Amakusa information regarding the Kanto Police Squads and their respective captains, lieutenants, and sergeants. The squad leaders were thusly killed, which should've left the rest of the surviving cops as helpless as a headless chicken. There were several deserters that proved this plan went without a hitch, even.
Morinaga also murdered the majority of Togakudan within the Akahori Mansion's ballroom to keep them from organizing the remaining officers and giving them much-needed data to take down Shogo as he divided and conquered Akahori's government-issued bodyguards one-by-one. That scheme was also executed with little to no problems.
It was that samurai-looking boy with a blunt sword like hers and that gargantuan slab of beefcake and idiocy that ruined Amakusa's assassination plot.
Both she and her lord knew that Akahori's head bodyguard, the Heaven Sword, was a handful, and yet she was still able to go toe-to-toe with him. What they didn't expect was that spiky-haired kid serving as a spanner in the works.
This was the same silly teenager who, according to Minoe, helped capture a food bandit and forced him to pay for his debts so he wouldn't end up a crook. They only met a few days ago, but it already seemed like they'd gone through a decade of adventures.
They (apparently) got an androgynous chicken, struggled to find out what its gender was, ended up in an underground cockpit beneath the Shinshu Market and was entered in a championship cockfighting competition, won, got chased by a mob of angry gamblers, went back to pay Gan's debts, somehow a fish vendor was involved in the mess, and they gave the peculiar chicken away to the nice soba shop owner as payment for all the trouble.
Incidentally, Munenori kept a log of events for both his other self, Kaede, and Shogo to read to keep them abreast of updates. From what Morinaga could surmise, Minoe really liked those two dunderheads.
'No wonder I held back with the Sasori Gatame at the last moment.' It was Minoe who kept Morinaga from killing his strange lad who ended up interfering in other people's business more often than not because of his self-entitled attitude when it came to helping people out.
"If only..." murmured Morinaga.
"Don't start." Shogo patted Kaede's head. "You and I have both done things we regret. We should learn from our mistakes instead of letting them stop us from doing what must be done."
"But I made you stop short of killing Gan! I also stopped short of killing Yahiko, when we were so close to...!"
Amakusa hushed the redheaded Battousai double. "It was the Minoe inside you who did that, didn't he? Besides, as it's said in the Holy Book, 'Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.'"
As she bobbed her head in assent and wiped the rheum from her eyes, Morinaga asked, "Shogo-sama, what do you think of Myojin Yahiko?"
Shogo blinked at his apprentice's question. "You mean that irritating boy you met along with that hard-hitting, bandanna-wearing idiot? He has skills and lots of potential, but he's still a bit green when it comes to death matches. There are times when he surprises me, and there are times when his inexperience in battle shows."
"No, I mean as a person."
"Why are you asking me this? I don't know how to answer that."
"I want to learn from my mistakes like you have."
Amakusa scratched the tip of his tapered chin. "He's one of the most naive people I've ever met. He almost reminds me of my pacifistic old uncle and master in his insistence not to kill. I was afraid he was rubbing off on you because you refused to finish him off when you had the chance, but it was probably Minoe who held you back."
She swallowed hard. "He knows the Hitokiri Battousai. He is among the people within Battousai's inner circle. He probably inherited both his sakabatou and his non-killing vow from Himura Battousai himself. I know all this because I learned about it from my time as part of Shishio Makoto's spies for his faction."
"Oh, I get it now. He's another piece of the puzzle in regards to Himura Kenshin." Shogo hit his closed fist on his open palm. "Himura Kenshin. It's such a shame. Had Kaio not turned out to be such a snake in the grass, would he and I have crossed swords during our peak strengths? I guess we'll never know."
The inheritor of the title "The Fourth Son of Heaven", Shiro Amakusa the Second, battling "The Strongest Manslayer", the Hitokiri Battousai: That was the stuff of myth and legend.
Shogo raised his sheathed Sword of Light and Darkness... his replacement sword for the lengthier blade that was cut in half by his personal Judas Iscariot during the Second Shimabara Rebellion.
"I believe 'Himura-san' even goes by a different name now. He married into his wife's family, so his name is registered under the Kamiya Family Registry," informed Kaede.
"It sounds awkward, calling him Kamiya Kenshin. It doesn't have the same ring to it," remarked Amakusa. "You haven't met with him yet, have you?"
"No. He's a retired swordsman now. He isn't the man he used to be. He already found a home and became a family man. It seems he has some sort of degenerative disease as well. I'm not sure if I should meet with him anymore, even if I want to."
"And yet you've been practicing day and night in how to counter the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu regardless. Why is that?"
"I may not be able to use what I've learned against the Himura Battousai of today, but it's not a total waste. You could say that I've found something else to occupy my time with," said Morinaga with a bat of her eyelashes, remembering the sacrifices she and countless others made in order for Shogo Amakusa's ministry and rebellion to survive.
She had enough of being forced to do things she didn't want to do (like assist the suicide of a person who pretended to murder her foster mother) or having no clear objective at all (like not knowing how to deal with the existence of Kenshin Himura). For once, she wanted to do something in her own volition.
"I'm grateful to have your services, but I find it curious how Himura Kenshin continues to fascinate you so, such that you couldn't bring yourself to murder someone who knew him way back when."
"He's a part of who I am. It can't be helped. Even after all this time, I still want to meet him someday... after all this is through."
"I'm not questioning your loyalty, but what if that boy gets in our way again? What will you do?" asked Amakusa.
Morinaga gripped the handle of the sword that used to belong to Kenshin tightly. "What I should've done back in that mansion. It can't be helped as well. He won't be able to do that move he did on me twice."
Amakusa nodded and ruffled the shorter girl's hair. "I appreciate all your sacrifices for me, Morinaga. I look forward to the day when you've become strong enough to turn into one of my apostles and the Leader of our Kakure Kirishitan Church."
"L-Leader? O-Of your rebellion? Are you serious?"
"I'd like to think of it more as a holy crusade, if you will."
Unbeknownst to Kaede, Amakusa named his new squad of warriors the "Battousai Group" not out of respect for Himura Kenshin (whom he never met) but instead in honor of his faction's very own Battousai look-alike and one of his most loyal followers (even though she probably wouldn't appreciate the gesture knowing how she loathed the name).
"I-I think it's a bit too early for me to take on such a huge responsibility, Shogo-sama! Please think things through!" said Kaede.
"Why not? Like you said, you're the same age as me, you've been through a myriad of life-and-death battles, and unlike me, you're not yet at the twilight of your career as a swordswoman. You've grown so much!" declared Shogo.
To Amakusa's surprise, Morinaga kicked him on the shin. "How could say I'm the same age as you then imply I still need growing at the same breath?"
Ah. Now this Kaede... the irate, short-tempered one who misunderstood everything he said and looked at him like he was a bug... was the Kaede that Shogo was most familiar with six years ago. The nostalgia overwhelmed him, so to speak.
"So what's the plan now, Shogo-sama?" queried Kaede after her temper simmered down while she brushed back her long, red locks and placed them behind her ear.
"That depends. What did you find out from Akahori's Togakudan? Or rather, what did Minoe find out?"
Late evening at a local Shinshushin inn; on November 21, 1884...
"Six years ago, the Rai Ryu Sen's only immediate effect was to blind people. I don't know what happened six years later, but at this point, it seems that Amakusa can do outright hypnosis with his signature move. He almost suffocated me to death with that Lightning Dragon Flash of his, for example. He also hypnotized Myojin-kun and his friend using the same technique," said Akahori.
"Maybe it has something to do with his use of drugs to activate his skill because he can't do it on his own?" suggested Soujiro as he leaned on a nearby wall near the window. "From what I know, the Rai Ryu Sen is based off a swordsman's ability to manipulate his kenki to the point that he can weaponize it and rob his opponent's will to fight. I've also heard an advanced version of this in the form of the Nikaido Heiho's One-Sided Heart."
"Perhaps." Akahori shrugged as he took another swig of his wine. "One thing for sure, he's tired of being naive. He's now willing to murder, lie, and betray others for the sake of his people. However, there's still a measure of inexperience in his actions."
"What do you mean?"
"He had the audacity to kidnap my daughter, but he didn't have the heart to kill her. He's willing to murder the loved ones and comrades of the soldiers he killed in the past, but he still gave them the choice of fighting or fleeing. His beliefs and his actions continue to contradict each other. As long as that happens, we have the edge against these zealots."
Soujiro continued. "Naive or not, Mister Amakusa was still able to do his signature technique on me before I could finish the Battousai of Speed off. I don't think that Rai Ryu Sen was powered by his drugs at all. You mentioned that he had a glass orb of hallucinogens he sliced apart with his sword whenever he did the Rai Ryu Sen, correct? That was not the case back then."
Akahori scowled at the notion that one of his mortal enemies managed to become even more powerful than before, the horizontal scar that split his face in twain bristling with feverish heat.
The idea left the same bitter taste in his mouth that he experienced after Kiyotaka Kuroda remained in power and office despite being part of the Hokkaido Colonization Office Scandal of 1881 (of whom Tetsuo served as a secret whistleblower for). Even with Toshimichi Okubo and Saigo Takamori's deaths, the Satsuma Domain's influence on the government remained significant.
"Regardless of whether or not Amakusa really did manage to diversify his skill set after all these years, Father Time is not on his side. Besides which, he still hasn't completed his Battousai Group yet, so he's of no immediate concern to us. Right now, we have bigger fish to fry, like the reemergence of the Seiryu Clan under Minakata Kinta's leadership."
"What do you think Minakata Kinta is planning?" inquired Soujiro.
"Who knows? Even six years ago, he was a mystery. He's a man of action and few words." Akahori put down his wine glass, leaned forward on his desk, and rested his nose on his interlaced gloved hands.
"There's no denying his skill, though. He wasn't called the Mimawarigumi's Battousai for nothing. He even ended up with a cross-shaped scar on his face for some reason, which made him live up more to the Battousai name. He may prove to be a greater threat to the Meiji Government than even Amakusa once he gets his hands on the Seiryu Clan's volumes of the Black Book. Even one volume from those classified documents is enough to start a war."
"Mimawarigumi...?" mouthed Soujiro before remembering Shishio mentioning tales of him clashing against the Kyoto Mimawarigumi. In contrast to the much more famous Shinsengumi, the Mimawarigumi were a special police force composed of sons of hatamoto-class retainers and higher-ranking samurai instead of ronin or masterless samurais. "Minakata-san is yet another Battousai wannabe too? And he's a high-ranking samurai to boot?"
"While it's true that Himura Kenshin was the original Battousai known for the speed, precision, and strength of his sword-drawing technique, the Mimawarigumi Battousai's entire swords style is mostly composed of battoujutsu and iaijutsu strikes. He was also called the Mimawarigumi Iaisai by his peers. His Musou Madden Ryu is a branch of iaido, in fact. Although he never crossed swords against the two shadow hitokiri of the Ishin Shishi, he did go against the infamous Shidai Nikuya.
Soujiro's eyes narrowed despite his smiling mask. Battoujutsu was the old-style name of Japanese sword-drawing, which was now called iaijutsu. Meanwhile, any school practicing that art exclusively was part of iaido.
In other words, iaido was to battoujutsu as kendo was to kenjutsu. Certainly someone whose style exclusively made use of sword-drawing moves was worthier of the Battousai name than even the original Battousai himself.
As for the Shidai Nikuya or the Four Butchers of the Bakumatsu, they were manslayers like Kenshin and Shishio who helped pave the way for the new era through an ocean of blood.
They included Izo Okada, Shinbei Tanaka, Toshiaki Kirino, and Gensai Kawakami (who shared Himura's effeminate looks and bloodthirsty Battousai side). Nevertheless, something bothered Seta: Where exactly did he hear the swordsmanship school "Musou Madden Ryu" before?
Akahori disclosed, "The name 'Battousai' itself is a play on the name of one of the most famous swordsmen to ever grace the land, Ito Ittousai. He was rumored to have never lost a duel. Ergo, Battousai is a fitting name for a swordsman rumored to be the Strongest Hitokiri. Who knew what would've happened had the Ishin Shishi Hitokiri Battousai and the Kyoto Mimawarigumi Battousai clashed blades? Old-school battoujutsu versus modern-day iaijutsu. It would've been quite the spectacle."
"I'm more interested in seeing how Himura-san would've fared against the Amakusa-san who was able to kill over a thousand policemen and soldiers," admitted Soujiro.
"Without a doubt, Amakusa would've won," said Akahori. "As arrogant and naive as he was and even with the primitive version of his Rai Ryu Sen that steals people's sight, I believe he was twice as fast as and even more aggressive than Battousai. Perhaps the version of Himura that was the Hitokiri Battousai would've presented a fairer challenge to Amakusa."
"Don't underestimate Himura-san's resolve. He's the kind of swordsman who doesn't only pierce through your flesh, but through your soul. Even the version of him that couldn't kill would've broken through Amakusa's fragile psyche." Soujiro was of course speaking from experience. "On that note, who would've been the winner between Amakusa-san and Minakata-san, then?"
"They'd already fought. Judging by what became of Amakusa, Minakata won. He helped bring down someone no soldier in the Japanese Imperial Army stood a chance against."
"...Really?"
"Minakata Kinta was Amakusa's Judas Iscariot, the traitor who gave him the vertical scar on his chest, which was why it turned into a mark shaped like a crucifix. And this was during the time when the Hidden Christian was at his peak."
"So he's that strong?"
"Certainly stronger than Morinaga Kaede, at least."
Soujiro's sword hand twitched. Although Hajime Saito had long lamented the lack of strong warrior in the Meiji Era compared to the days of the Bakumatsu, there were still fighters left from that bygone age. He wanted to meet this samurai-class warrior who defeated Amakusa at his peak and was stronger than the woman who gave him fits during battle.
"The Minakata Estate also remains one of the wealthiest in Japan, so even though his privileges as a hatamoto-class retainer has long ago ceased to exist in today's era, he certainly has all the resources needed to fund his own rebellion. Couple that with the fact that all the families that are part of the Seiryu Clan share a long and distinguished swordsmanship history, and it's quite clear who's the real, immediate threat between him and Amakusa. All he really needs now is to get his hands on the Seiryu Clan's volumes of the Black Book in order to become the most dangerous man in Japan."
"So what are we supposed to do about him?"
"Find the volumes of the Black Book written by the spies of the Seiryu Clan before he does and stop him from reorganizing the Seiryu Clan into a cohesive fighting unit," said Akahori as he adjusted his glinting glasses over the bridge of his nose. "Fortunately, I've anticipated this event and I've already given the signal to one of my foreign connections to unleash the Mimawarigumi Battousai's Achilles' Heel."
"If you say so, Akahori-san." Strange remarks from his employer aside, Seta wanted to meet and defeat Minakata. Even though Kenshin wouldn't have approved of the feelings welling deep inside the young man, Shishio certainly would've. What would have it been like to fight actual samurai?
Saito and Shishio were ronin, but what about the jikisan hatamoto? How skilled were these privileged men who were in direct service to the Tokugawa Shoguns? Were they even stronger than peasants like him (and unbeknownst to him, Kenshin himself) who weren't born with the class, but learned to fight with skill worthy of a samurai? Soujiro wanted to know.
'Yahiko-san himself was a Son of Tokyo Samurai, come to think of it,' mused the Heaven Sword. 'No, he's not yet ready, and he was probably born after the age of the samurai was already over, just like me. Had he been born a little earlier and trained like a true samurai, how would our duel have ended? Even now, without his advantage as a samurai, he continues to surprise me.'
"By the way, has the missing Minoe Munenori, Myojin-kun's friend, been found among the other deserters?" asked Akahori. "I'm not totally convinced he was among the unidentified bodies of the Togakudan."
"No, the policemen were the only ones who fled, or least they were the only ones who had the opportunity to flee. Most of your Togakudan were killed instead, probably by the Battousai of Speed's hands," informed Seta.
"Minoe, huh? Did you know that both he and Myojin-kun were acquainted with a former family bodyguard of mine from Shinshu? Those three were interesting fellows. It's too bad that eye-patched man ended up dead." Tetsuo scratched his curtain beard and went silent.
"Akahori-san? Is something the matter?"
"Something about his name bothers me, though."
A long time ago, around the period when the War of the Year of the Dragon ended but before the Meiji Era sword ban was enacted...
"You are now Minoe Munenori," Kaede's master, Doraku Akatsuki, said one day.
"M-Minoe...? What kind of a stupid name is that? There's no such name as Minoe! Don't go making up names for me! I'm perfectly fine with my name, Morinaga Kaede!" complained Kaede, insulted by the audacity of her mother's murderer for even suggesting to her to drop the Morinaga Family Name in favor of a made-up one.
"Maybe I did." The greasy, hairy, and slightly smelly homeless ronin scratched his behind. "But Munenori is the perfect name for you. Don't you know who that given name came from? It's from Yagyu Munenori of the Yagyu Clan! You know, the Legendary Yagyu Clan?"
Kaede looked at him blankly. "No, and I don't care. If you call me that name, I won't respond to it! Call me Kaede! Call me Morinaga! Don't make up stupid names, you murdering bastard!"
"Pearls among swine, I swear," mumbled the muscular mercenary as he palmed his face. "Mister Munenori is a famous samurai who practiced Yagyu Shinkage Ryu. He's the father of theYagyu Jubei Mutseyoshi. He was the one who gave his even more famous son a scar on his eye after a particularly rigorous sparring session and forced him to wear an eye patch ever since. That Yagyu Munenori!"
Kaede pointed at the oversized eye patch she was wearing right then to hide her cross-shaped scar and the black wig on her head to hide her red hair lest people thought she was Battousai. It also helped her hide her gender during those times when her master needed her to spy on his enemies or serve as lookout for the police.
"Wouldn't it make more sense to name me Jubei or Mutseyoshi, then? He was the guy who got the eye patch, not his asshole father."
"His asshole father didn't mean to scar the kid, dammit! And you're missing the point." Doraku growled, grunted, and punched out a random passerby. How was he supposed to make the kid understand how brilliant his name choice was for her?
"Look, there's a famous legend where one day, while Munenori was meditating from his garden, he turned around, only to be stunned to see his assistant behind him. He was troubled all day by what had happened, ashamed to have mistaken his assistant for impending danger.
"Later on, his assistant confessed that he thought about attacking him from his position while bringing him his sword. That guy discovered a new level of swordsmanship, where he can sense impending danger while people merely thought about it."
Akatsuki looked around in time to see Kaede playing around with a couple of hens that had strayed from a nearby chicken coop.
"MINOE MUNENORI! Why aren't you paying attention to my great story?" admonished Doraku with a chop to the eye-patched young girl's head that the kid swiftly avoided and countered with a kick to the groin. The mountain of muscle remained unfazed.
"I don't know who this Munenori guy you're talking about is, you stinky old man! CALL ME BY MY NAME!"
"Minoe is your name now!"
"No, it's not! SAY MY NAME, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
Even after years of constant bickering between master and pupil, Kaede never once even considered responding to that weird name change.
However, someone else inside her did and adopted that name for himself.
At Shinshu; on the morning of November 22, 1884...
"So where are you really off to, Yoshi-boy?" the Black-and-Blue Gan asked after finally prying himself away from the violent hands of Chizuru Raikouji. They had another fight or something.
"Did you already pay your tab? I won't answer your questions unless you've paid your tab."
"Of course, I did! How the hell do you think I was able to get away from that screaming banshee?" Gan revealed. "So where are you going?"
"Joetsu. To be honest, Shinshu was just a detour I took so that I could check up on my kendo student who lives here. I didn't even expect my other kendo student to end up here too. I was supposed to go straight to Joetsu Harbor because I heard an old friend of mine is currently looking for a crew there."
Gan invaded Yahiko's personal space to take a better look at the boy's shifty eyes. "Eh, whatever. Let's go."
"What? No! I'll be going to Joetsu! You can go fuck yourself! Don't decide things on your own!" Yahiko said as he put on Takae's flat kabuto, slung his duffel bag, and started to walk away from the Sakaguchi Soba Shop.
"Don't give me the cold shoulder! I helped you out yesterday with that Ban Hammer thingy you were doing at the East Valley. Oh, and that Hell on Earth technique too."
"No means... Oh." The Tokyo Samurai Descendant stopped dead in his tracks.
"'Oh' what? Okay?" asked the Clueless Gan before his gaze shifted in the same direction as Yahiko's. "Oh."
"Y-Yahiko-chi. Gan-chi."
"M-Minoe."
"Patches."
Right under the cool shade of a birch tree stood the missing Munenori Minoe, his leather eye patch replaced with what appeared to be a hand guard, his wig a bowl cut, and the bangs nearest his ears long enough to reach his cheeks and mouth. "I-It's been a while, isn't it?"
"Patches! I missed you so much...!" began Gan.
His body moving on its own, Yahiko wordlessly walked towards the diminutive Togakudan member, grabbed hold of his wigged hair, and pulled it off along with his eye patch before their thuggish friend could even yelp out in protest.
'Let's settle this once and for all, Minoe. Or rather... Morinaga Kaede.'
Next: Back in Tokyo.
Yahiko's journey all over Japan is about to restart. As usual, it will involve old, familiar faces as well as new ones to keep things interesting. Even though the Meiji Era is supposed to be a time of peace and change, the shadows of the past won't die easily.
Say my name,
Abdiel