Back in Hakata City, November 1884...
"OH MY GODS! YOU GUYS STINK TO HIGH HEAVEN! PEE-YEW!" said Chizuru Raikouji, pinching her nose at the sweaty trio of Yahiko Myojin, Munenori Minoe, and Gan after their footrace around Hakata Bay (Minoe won, unsurprisingly, while Gan and Myojin ended up neck-in-neck).
"That's it! You're all going to a public bath tomorrow! No complaints! I'll pay for it, so no sen-pinching! And get those filthy clothes laundered too! Don't do something gross, like wearing clothes you've already worn after bathing!"
"EEEEH?" said the Sanbaka as one. Then Gan lifted one armpit to the next to smell himself.
"But there's a beach right there from where I'm staying! Just walking distance from my tent! We can bathe there whenever we want!" said Yahiko.
"And how are you supposed to rinse off saltwater on skin, huh? You'd smell like fish! Wash yourselves off like normal people!" admonished Chizuru. "Just because you've been with pirates doesn't mean you have to smell like them!"
"They're privateers, Kaori."
"WHATEVER!"
A blushing Minoe pouted. "I-I don't stink... Shut up."
Rurouni Yahiko
A Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction Continuation Story by Chester Castañeda
I love 19th Century Victorian Literature references! Guess which one is being referenced in this chapter of Rurouni Yahiko. Come on, guess.
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 41: Miss Morinaga and Mister Minoe
Later that evening, inside Myojin's cramped tent near Hakata Bay...
'Wait a minute.'
Caught up with being insulted as "stinky", the implications behind Chizuru's words sunk in too late for the Tokyo Samurai Descendant. In the middle of the night, in fact.
They were going to a bath. A public bath (sento). A public bathhouse where one took their clothes off. Including flimsy disguises like a sword guard tied to a rope passing for an eye patch and red hair hiding behind a rat-nest, bowl-cut wig.
'Oh shit.'
Those and more were the thoughts of Yahiko while lying under the shade of trees, a makeshift tent, and the blanket of twinkling stars... as well as the endless bites of a swarm of mosquitoes on one of the most tropical parts of Japan.
And a Snoring Gan (whose snores sounded more like the growls of a bear) who probably had a hide as tough as a cow's to be able to survive the onslaught of insects.
Or maybe the hooligan's strong manly "scent" that seemingly emanated for miles had the knockout power of a mosquito coil. Who knew?
Myojin slapped his cheek, drawing blood... his blood... from squashing the plump mosquito sucking on his face. One of thousands.
He did not think any of this through.
"You ran another 10 kilometers before getting here?" asked the slipper-wearing, pony-tailed version of Chizuru (which made her, again, the spirit and image of a certain kendoist master of Yahiko's back in Tokyo, mother of one).
Yahiko shrugged. "I was going to bathe afterwards anyway, so I figured, why not? One last run. Stop making a big deal out of it, Mom."
"I didn't run, Neechan," said the Gross Gan, farting for good measure.
"...And you somehow stink twice as bad, you warthog!" she slapped the hooligan on the head with a slipper. "Anyway, in you both go!"
Raikouji pushed the two inside the sento, using handkerchiefs to touch their backs without dirtying her hands. She then blinked, looked around, and asked, "Where's Minoe-chan?"
"Looks like he's not here." Captain "Gan" Obvious shrugged. 'Maybe he'd rather bathe at the bay, since it's free. Seawater be damned.'
'Of course he isn't,' thought Yahiko. "There's no way he'd blow his cover. Maybe his hair dye had already faded away, his red roots showing. Or maybe he ran out of makeup to hide that cross-shaped scar on his...'
Myojin palmed his face at the memory of Soujiro Seta copping a feel and then accidentally undoing Kaede "Minoe" Morinaga's top, who in turn would've turned him into a pincushion were it not for his Shukuchi technique.
'Hell, what am I even thinking? There's no way she can fake being a guy in a public bath unless magic or surgery is involved! Just no...'
Yahiko's eyes bulged out. From behind the fuming Chizuru (right over her shoulder, in fact), was a eye-patch-less Minoe who put an oversized plaster over his cross-shaped scar while carrying a piece of paper, a duffel bag with his change of clothes, and a coin purse.
"Hey, what are you looking at?" Chizuru turned her head to look behind her, only for Myojin to grab it and turned it back forward. "OW! What's the big idea?"
As soon as Yahiko and Minoe's eyes (well, eye, since Munenori's other eye was closed in a wink) met, the ninja-trained (Myojin presumed) ex-Togakudan blinked out of existence. Hopefully right into the female side of the public bath.
The Son of Tokyo Samurai then rested his eyes into the Kaoru Kamiya look-alike's eyes. Beside him, while picking his nose, the Insensitive Gan mentioned, "Why don't you two skip the bath and just get a room?"
Chizuru went red. "GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF ME!" She shrieked and did what she'd rather not do but had to; touch the disgusting, reeking men, even for the sake of slapping the taste out of their mouths.
She entered the female part of the bathhouse in a huff.
"I guess she'd rather you clean up first, Yoshi-boy," said the goon before Yahiko punched his nose.
Even with the nosebleed, the Persistent Gan noted, "Be careful with Kaori-neechan, though. She's trouble. She already set her eye on Patches, and love triangles are not fun."
'All right. I'm just taking a bath. No big deal. Well, she is. I'm sure Kaede-chi won't do anything drastic while bathing, since she's entering the female side of the sento and all. Nothing to worry about. I hope no perverts are foolish enough to peek while she's bathing, though.'
Minoe took a deep breath, took off his clothes, unfurled his bandages that earned him the nickname 'Patches' from Gan, did his best to not stare at the obviously "unmasculine" body he felt didn't belong to him at all, and removed his wig and eye patch.
...From there, Kaede blinked, woken up from her deep slumber. Where was she? Oh, a bathhouse. A public one. Minoe or someone else took her to a sento. She looked at the note she held.
She recognized the handwriting as Munenori's. Her other self.
'Take a bath. From Minoe,' were the words written there.
Wow. Seriously? No shit.
Morinaga crumpled the paper up and threw it away. Who did that eye-patched wimp think he was talking to? A five year old? She could've figured out on her own that she was supposed to take a bath in a bathhouse, dammit.
She looked into a mirror and frowned at her helmet hair. Or wig hair. 'There better not be wig lice in that ratty thing.'
The henna dye had faded immensely due to... sea exposure? Perhaps. She vaguely remembered being in a boat. It would've been more helpful if ol' Minoe gave her a bit more context about what happened there too, but nooo.
The ditz had to tell her instead that she had to take a bath in a bathhouse. Pure genius.
She lifted her arm, sniffed her armpit, put her arm back down, and looked at the mirror showing the nude redheaded woman who stared back at her with a neutral expression on her face.
The sooner she bathed the better. This was unbecoming of a lady.
Had the fuming Kaede, who now had a towel wrapped around her body before storming into the women's communal bath, checked the back of Munenori's letter, she would've read his more important warning:
'Stay away from Yahiko-chi (urchin-haired boy you stabbed), Gan-chi (big hooligan-looking guy Amakusa-chi almost killed), and Chizuru-chi (some... girl, you'll know her when she talks to you) until you're done bathing. Thankies.'
In the men's part of the Hakata bathhouse...
"Really? You're going to run again after this?" asked Gan while soaking in the hot, steaming bath. He scratched the growing stubble in his chin, contemplating getting a shave from a barber.
"Not everyone can be a heavyset heavyweight like you without training, Gan," answered Yahiko while splashing himself with a whole bucket of water. "As long as I build my stamina, I'd find a way to win all my duels and battles."
Inwardly, the teenager considered other avenues of training, if only to avoid the army of mosquitoes that feasted on his flesh every night. How was Sanosuke Sagara able to survive camping outdoors?
To think, Yahiko even considered trying out fried frog like Sano did. 'Dammit, be a man, Myojin Yahiko. They're just mosquitoes. Grin and bear it. Learn gaman.' By "gaman", Myojin meant the Zen Buddhist concept of "Enduring the Unbearable".
"While your enthusiasm is admirable, samurai are dead. If you want some swordplay, you either enlist in the Imperial Army or the Metropolitan Police. Or turn gay, I dunno."
"I told you, it's for...!"
"Yeah, yeah. Mushi Bugyo. I heard it the first time."
Myojin threw the bucket he was using at Gan's head, which landed and swirled on the hooligan's cranium like a horseshoe would on a stake. "I know mangling words and names is your thing, but stop. It's Musha Shugyo."
"I'm serious. Your Musha Shugyo is as outdated as half of our military weapons during the Boshin War! I'm not sure how much longer your genpuku or bushido will exist in this new era."
The Serene Gan removed the bucket on his head and let it float away in the water. "It's 1884. In only 16 years, it's a new century. A new age. Will there even still be swordsmen by that time?"
"I know that, dammit. There's no need to rub it in. I've been there. The title 'samurai' is worthless in this era." Myojin joined the Enlightened Gan (who even sat like a fat Buddha statue) in the bath.
"I don't want kendo to lose its edge and roots. If there's someplace where the spirit of being a samurai can live on, it's kendo. Even though carrying swords are banned now, at least I can carry a kendo stick without trouble."
While picking his ear, the Vulgar Gan asked, "Hey, where's your toy sword, by the way? I half-expected you to bring it along with you inside the sento!"
"The sakabatou? I buried it underneath the tent in a shallow 'grave'. I'll dig it out later. What about you? Where's your big, studded metal bat?"
"HA! I buried my tetsubo underground too! Great minds think alike!"
Yahiko looked away and scratched his nose. "Actually, I learned it from you back in Shinshu, remember?"
"Oh yeah! Isn't it convenient? I hate lugging that thing around. It weighs a ton! Half of the time, I forget I even have it buried someplace!"
"I'd say! It's one thing to have weapons while acting as hired goons by privateers, but it's a whole other thing to saunter in a bathhouse fully armed, even if it is a sakabatou! What am I, stupid? No way am I going to go to jail for that!"
The two bumped fists.
In the women's part of the Hakata bathhouse...
"I can't believe those three ingrates. After everything I've done for them, this is the thanks I get? I have half the mind to take the first train back to Tokyo!" Chizuru grumbled to herself before taking a soak at the calming waters of the bathhouse.
'Ahh. I needed that. This is the life,' she thought, sighing. She then opened her eyes in time to see something she wasn't exactly prepared to see.
The vagabond bathing right in front of her, splashing himself with water and making a soap lather. Or herself with water while making a lather, seeing (what Chizuru supposed were) breasts and an hourglass figure.
Then again, the (Real) Battousai also had an hourglass figure, pectorals that could be mistaken as breasts, and long, fluffy red hair more suited for a lady than a man.
Of course, if a man had barged in, then the women around them would've certainly reacted and had the perv drown in thrown wooden buckets or nailed to the cross or something.
Chizuru closed her eyes, turned her back, and counted to ten. The heat must've been getting to her. She turned around, opened her eyes, and peered closely.
Nope. He was still there.
Chizuru was seeing things. She must've been. There was no way, no way the rurouni would somehow end up in Kyushu, of all places. Wasn't he supposed to be in Tokyo, with his family? And the girl that looked like her?
That was certainly a likelier story than Kenshin having a double like his wife did (which was just silly, despite many foreigners' insistence that all Japanese or all Asians "looked" alike to them).
She told herself to calm down. There must be a rational explanation behind all this. Then again, why should she believe what Myojin had told her the truth about the Battousai? What if he was lying?
She had no reason to believe him, even if he did make a compelling case of knowing the rurouni. What if the vagabond, true to his nickname, continued his nomadic life, wandering across Japan like his fanboy, Yahiko, did, righting wrongs and becoming a vigilante instead of settling down with a girl who looked like her?
In fact, could it be that Myojin added that tidbit about her look-alike settling down with the vagabond because he felt sorry for her for pining for such a legendary figure six years after they first met?
Or maybe this was Shinshu's Fake Battousai? Nah, that guy was never caught, and he actually massacred the group claiming to represent Battousai, at that. 'Can't say that jerk Keisuke didn't deserve it, though.'
There was no Kaoru Kamiya! She had no assurances that the address Myojin gave her was going to lead to anywhere but a wild goose chase. Then that means the person there could be...!
No, no, no. That was stupid. Maybe the girl in front of her looked like Kenshin. No amount of tucking could hide that part of the male anatomy in a public bathhouse.
Unbidden, she had a fantasy wherein Himura accidentally went in the women's side of the bathhouse (because reasons) and it was up to her to lead him safely out before everyone else noticed his... erm... little sakabatou.
The next thing Chizuru knew, the Battousai look-alike entered the bathtub right next to her. Whistling a merry tune, at that. Oh crap.
Raikouji froze, not knowing what else to do, her eyes avoiding the reclining figure of the... Man? Woman? The person sitting next to her in a huge public hot tub.
She didn't get a good look, but she was able to conclude that the red-haired woman was a natural redhead.
Speaking of whistling, Chizuru was somehow reminded of how much the adorable Minoe couldn't whistle during their time on the boat, which made her giggle.
"What's so funny, old hag?"
"O-Old...!?" Chizuru turned towards the... individual who insulted her age. "E-E-Excuse me?"
The redhead grinned back at the fuming Raikouji. "I was only kidding. Relax. Why are you laughing?"
Chizuru gulped. She did not expect this scenario. "I... remembered something funny a friend of mine did."
The diminutive girl scratched her cheek. "Did it have something to do with whistling?"
"Why, yes. You see, he... she couldn't whistle. She blows air and no sound comes out." Raikouji blew air over parted lips to demonstrate her point.
"Oh, I see. That is adorable! Reminds me of a certain klutz I know," the woman guffawed in a way that reminded Chizuru of one of those drunk, loud barmaids back in Naoetsu. Or Shura.
"Hey, wait. Are we talking 'bout a he or a she?"
"I'm not completely certain myself and I wanted to use the sento as an opportunity to confirm it, but I'm sure she's a she," Raikouji found herself confessing to the familiar-looking stranger with ease.
There was something about the woman version of Kenshin that made it easy for her to spill the beans. Chizuru brushed her tied-up hair back and got a better look at the Himura doppelganger.
She took note of the differences in appearance, although it had been years since she last saw Kenshin Himura (or Kenshin Kamiya, if Yahiko were to be believed).
Softer features. Fuller lips. Bigger hips. Those probably weren't pecs. She might've been a little shorter than the vagabond too, almost like a little twin sister of his. That thin waistline that made Raikouji clench her teeth. Dammit, if only she were only five to six years younger...!
"Hey, hey. Don't check me out too closely, lady, or else I might end up falling for you," said the redheaded tomboy while covering herself up with her muscular arms.
"EEEEHH?"
The girl vagabond laughed even harder. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Jeez. You're a laugh riot, you know that?" She wiped the tears on her eyes and bowed low. "I'm Morinaga. Morinaga Kaede. And you are...?"
"Er..." Chizuru bowed back and introduced herself. "Raikouji. Raikouji Chizuru. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"The pleasure is all mine," said the grinning Kaede while rubbing her nose with her finger. In Chizuru's eyes, she acted more like a ten-year-old boy than a... fifteen? Sixteen-year-old girl?
Raikouji blinked. Something was amiss. Something caught her eye in an eye blink that made her quiver. Her female intuition screamed at her to pay closer attention to Kaede.
"Hey, be honest. How old are you really?"
"That's a rude question to ask!"
"I'm not being rude, I swear! I'll tell you my age too."
"That hardly seems fair."
"Trust me."
Chizuru groaned and said underneath her breath, "Twenty-three," which sounded like "Merurree," to anyone else's ears.
Unfortunately for the rich girl, the Battousai of Speed had sharp hearing. "REALLY? Holy shit, those are big tits for a twenty-three year old!"
"Sh-Shut up! You sound like a dirty old man! A-Act your age! O-Or your gender! Honestly, teenagers these days..."
The tomato-colored Chizuru covered her chest up and sunk deeper into the bath while the other women gave her (and her chest) sidelong glances and mouth-covered giggles.
"That's the thing!" Morinaga puffed her chest out and put her hands on her hips. "I'm thirty-one years old!"
The girls in the bathhouse did a collective spit-take. As though they'd been eavesdropping on the entire conversation between Morinaga and Raikouji the whole time. "NO WAY!", "I DON'T BELIEVE IT!", and "ARE YOU SERIOUS?" echoed across the women's side of the sento.
As for Chizuru, she said, "You're lying. How can you be anywhere near thirty? What are you, a vampire? How many virgins did you have to sacrifice to look like that?"
"Oh my! You make an old hag like me blush, but do go on!" said Morinaga before slapping Chizuru's back so hard, it left a visible red mark. "Anyway, it's been nice talking to you, Chizuru."
"S-Same here."
"Bye!" Kaede got up from the bath and wrapped her towel around her body.
It was then, from up close, that Raikouji noticed the cross-shaped scar on Morinaga's left cheek, right below the left eye. "K-Kenshin. Himura Kenshin. R-Rurouni...!"
Morinaga's demeanor changed. In an instant, she went beside Chizuru, creating a big splash on the tub and a(n even bigger) scene on the women's side of the sento.
"You said Himura Kenshin, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU? You know the Hitokiri Battousai by his actual name! Only a few people know his real name..."
Morinaga's eyebrows furrowed. "Are you his wife? His second wife? Is he here in... wherever we are right now?"
"OW! Stop it! You're hurting me, Kaede-chan!"
"CHIZURU!"
"GO, YOSHI-BOY! SEIZE THE DAY! I KNEW YOU HAD IT IN YOU!"
As Morinaga let go of Raikouji and mumbled an apology, someone from the male side of the bathhouse sprung into action, landing right between the two, Kaede and Chizuru.
The Gargantuan Gan followed suit, falling in the middle of the bath and creating miniature tsunamis from his cannonball dive.
A red-faced Morinaga (whose towel had fallen off), an even redder-faced Chizuru (who had no towel to cover herself with), and various women of all shapes, sizes, and ages stared mouth-agape at the teenager that leaped into their side of the bathhouse, a metal sword sheathe on hand.
"Chizuru, are you hurt? Dammit, Battousai of Speed...!" began Yahiko, only to be hit on the head by a wooden bucket. Then another. Then a slap by the maiden he was trying to rescue.
"Are you out of your ever-living mind? GET OUT OF HERE, YOU PERV!" screamed Chizuru at Yahiko while splashing his face with hot water.
The embarrassed Morinaga picked up her towel and hid herself in the waters. Wooden buckets flew everywhere while shrieks and squeals echoed across the bathhouse.
Most of them hit Gan, though. Maybe because he was the bigger target and had the dodging ability of a bull.
His nose bleeding (not because of perverseness, but because a bucket slammed onto it), Yahiko said in one breath, "Wellgladyou'resafetakecare bye!" at both Kaede and Chizuru, inwardly happy that his worst fears hadn't been realized.
After Myojin exited the women's sento with buckets flying at him, Kaede stood up, shook her fist, mumbled, "Unforgivable," and then blinked into nonexistence.
"Ohgodsohgodsthatwassoembarrassing," said Yahiko, who ran all the way to the dressing room with only his waist-sized towel, his stamina training finally paying off with his quick escape.
Before he could get to his clothes though, the red-haired, cross-scared, Kenshin-looking Kaede blinked into existence and cut him off, while she herself was only covered by a full-body towel.
"Perverts must be punished," she said, two bamboo sticks in each hand (one shorter than the other) that she must've ripped out from one of the decorative bamboo-lined walls of the inn.
"Fine, fine! I deserve it! You win," said Myojin while putting down the metal sheathe of the sakabatou (the only "weapon" he took with him), only for him to reconsider and wield it in Water Stance, with its tip pointed at Morinaga's eyes.
"No. Wait a goddamn minute. Maybe not."
"Resistance is futile, you spiky-haired..." Kaede's eyes widened in recognition of the scar on his shoulder. The shoulder she almost destroyed with the Sasori Gatame.
"...Oh. It's you. Minoe's friend. So you've healed your wounds. I didn't realize you were a pervert too," said Morinaga.
Yahiko gulped, but stood his ground. "You're free to punish me for jumping into the women's bath. My bad. However, I'm more than justified to think of you as a threat. After all the people you and your... cult leader killed. After almost killing me."
Kaede turned her head and scratched her black-tipped hair. "I-Is Chizuru your friend too? And Minoe's as well?"
"What are you talking about? We've been traveling together all this time!" said Myojin. "You should know this by now, right? You can't be this forgetful!"
"Oh, we have, have we?" She took a deep breath. "This is the first time I met her."
Yahiko's jaw dropped. Was she serious? "Bwuh...?"
"...As Morinaga Kaede."
Yahiko tilted his head to the side, trying to make sense of her words. "But you are Minoe, right?"
"Well... No. Yes and no. It's hard to explain," She put her twin bamboo sticks on one hand and grabbed her throbbing head.
"Y-You don't know her, but Minoe does. Is that correct?" he asked.
"Y-Yeah. Whenever I take over this body, Minoe goes unconscious and vice-versa. We don't remember what happened to each other more often than not. It's... complicated."
Yahiko's suspicions were confirmed. 'I've heard rumors of this,' he thought. 'But this is the first time I've ever encountered a person with multiple personalities. The closest I got was meeting Kenshin, but even with him, it's more like he gets angry enough to stop holding back when he turns into the Battousai. But to have a different person living inside your head...!'
Morinaga sighed. "Look, I'm sorry about scaring your friend in the bath. I didn't mean to hurt her, I just got excited when she said she knew the Battousai."
Before Myojin could respond, Kaede cut him off. "But I'm not sorry about supporting Amakusa-sama's cause. Or doing whatever we can to assassinate Akahori. You don't know what we've been through. If you want to turn me in to the authorities, you can go ahead and try. I suggest you wait until Minoe wakes up, at least. Maybe then you'd have a better chance of doing so."
It was Yahiko's turn to look elsewhere but the direction of the scantily clad Morinaga while scratching his head. "I guess I have been harboring a fugitive all this time, huh?" He raised his iron saya and went into Fire Stance. "But then again, maybe you can consider yourself as a criminal under my custody."
Both Morinaga and Myojin narrowed their eyes.
"The Juppon Gatana, who murdered countless cops and soldiers in their wake, aren't even behind bars. Only some of them were," Yahiko conceded. "They're instead being used by the Meiji to further their causes. It's hypocritical for me to go after you instead of them for doing the same things, but that's not what I'm saying."
"Then what are you saying?" Kaede asked, raising her right hand's bamboo stick high above her head and placing her left hand in front of her.
"I'll stop you while keeping you close by. Whether you're Minoe or Kaede. Whether it's you or Amakusa. Or his Battousaigumi. Or even the remnants of Shishio's Juppon Gatana. It doesn't matter who. If someone wants trouble to happen, I'll stop it. That's the best I could do, because I can't be everywhere at once."
Kaede harrumphed and laughed, shaking her head. "You're a piece of work. I now see why Minoe is so fascinated about you."
At the back of her mind, she remembered her Master Doraku's proposition when they first met: To train under him and seek revenge for causing her foster mother get killed when the time came. When she was strong enough to take him down.
'They're both lunatics.'
"I'm serious. I won't let another officer or civilian get hurt under my watch. I will stop your rebellion," swore Myojin. "If not here, then somewhere else. Some other time. I won't stop, but I will stop you. I will maintain the peace that Himura Kenshin fought so hard to achieve."
"Oh. Him again. Battousai. So you're his proxy now, huh?" Morinaga combed her hair back with her dainty hands and smiled, which made Yahiko's heart melt.
Being around someone who actually knew Himura (or Kamiya, whatever); the idea made her blood boil. In anger. In anticipation.
'Maybe I could stick around with Minoe's friends for a little while longer,' she thought, realizing that Yahiko was yet another person whose life that Battousai changed, for good or for ill.
"Are you still mad I almost killed you that day?" she asked while readjusting her towel.
"Honestly? No. You beat me fair and square. My only regret was that you were fighting Psycho-Kid back then. I wish you were fighting me instead," he said.
"A samurai till the end, huh?" She chuckled. "Perhaps today isn't the place and time for our reckoning yet. But that's that, and this is this. You're the one who has the crime to pay this time around."
"Fine by me, but I'm innocent, and I won't go down easily," Yahiko waited and struck the exact moment Kaede attacked, executing a Tsui Gami to test the limits of the Cancer Stance and its Vise Grip or Scissor Grip.
However, his empty scabbard hit the valley between Morinaga's bosom instead after she dodged the strike by a hairbreadth, undoing the towel wrapped around her body and revealing her in all her buck-naked glory.
Myojin bopped the blushing, distracted Morinaga on the head while a trickle of blood dripped from his left nostril. "An opening. I win."
"Y-You... W-What are you looking at, you LECHER!? SCORPION NEST!" The bamboo stalks flew like green blurs towards Yahiko's face along with the waist-length towel covering his privates.
"We can never go back to Hakata City," said a more fully clothed Yahiko, who was tied-up, full of lumps, and could only see through one eye because of all the swelling on his face. 'I still have a long way to go before I can take down even one of the Battousai Group.'
That was a shameful display on his part in one of Japan's most historically significant areas. Hakata Bay, after all, was where the Mongol Invasion of Japan almost happened in 1274 and 1281. Very dishonorable indeed.
In front of him hung the sign, 'I jumped over the wall separating the men's and women's baths together before threatening one of this fine establishment's customers and causing a ruckus.'
The Sage Gan nodded sagely. "On the other hand, peeking in the women's bath once is a part of growing up! It's Japanese tradition! It's a phase of youth and the celebration of youth!"
As for the thug, his sign read, 'I helped him jump over the wall separating the men's and women's baths and stayed inside for the longest time, admiring the view until the police arrived.'
Yahiko rubbed his untouched shoulder. While being pummeled to submission, he remembered how Kaede kept avoiding his shoulder injury she inflicting, hitting him everywhere except there. 'Arrogant bitch.' On the other hand, something else bothered him.
Was it his imagination, or did Kaede forget about her Cancer Stance's Vise or Scissor Grip when he attacked with the God Hammer and undid her towel instead? She had no problem using both Cancer and Scorpio Stance on Soujiro when they fought, after all.
Was she holding back on her dual offense and offence too? 'Dammit, I wanted to know how much my Tsui Gami has improved.'
Myojin looked over his shoulder, seeing no sign of Chizuru. He sighed. On one hand, if he died of embarrassment then and there before even reaching Kyoto and Hiko Seijuro XIII, he wouldn't even mind. On the other hand, Raikouji finally left him alone to pursue his Musho Shugyo (Warrior's Quest).
On the other, other hand, he now had a reputation among the people of Hakata City of being a Peeping Tom. Of being a Gan-caliber dreg of society who sneaked peeks into bathhouses to see naked women.
What would Tsubame Sanjo, his girlfriend, say after learning about this? She'd probably dump him (needless to say, he didn't write about this incident in any of his letters to Tokyo).
"Oh my goodness! What the heck happened? Yahiko-chi? Gan-chi?" a refreshed, sparkling, and squeaky-clean Minoe sauntered over his fellow Sanbaka. "What happened?"
Gan gave Munenori a thumb's up sign. "Youth happened, Patches. The Springtime of Youth happened in the middle of winter!"
"What is he talking about, Yahiko-chi?" He read the signs on them. "I-Is this true?" he asked, covering himself up by reflex.
Myojin shrugged. "Who knows? All I know is that I'm never going back to Hakata City again, that's for sure."
"All right, perverts. You've been punished enough. Get those signs off and apologize to the good people who run the bathhouse," said Chizuru from behind Minoe, a strange folded piece of paper in her grip. "And where have you been?"
"Um... bathing on the men's side? I got there later," smiled Munenori while adjusting his eye patch and bowl-cut wig with long side bangs.
"Eh. I'm too tired to question it. Come on. Let's go, you troublemakers. You have another round of apologizing to do."
"Can I keep the sign?" asked the Grinning Gan without a hint of remorse. Chizuru shoved her slipper down his mouth (she was wearing clogs and brought the slippers with her in her bag).
"A-Aren't they going to ban us here for good and file a police report on us?" asked Yahiko. He reeled when Raikouji gave him a withering look that made him feel like he shrunk in size.
Minoe whispered in Yahiko's ear, "I don't know what you did, but Chizuru paid the off the owners of the bathhouse to not press any charges. I heard they had you put into display so that their business won't be affected by what happened, even without police intervention."
"Swell," said the swelling Myojin, wincing while licking his busted lip. He knew by logic that the person before him wasn't the one who bamboo-caned him to near death, but the logical disconnect between emotion and common sense made him feel resentful towards the (innocent) Minoe nonetheless.
To Raikouji, Yahiko began, "Look, Chizuru, I'm..."
"Don't talk to me until this is all finished."
"Yes'm."
"...Well, I do want to know how much you saw." Chizuru peered at Yahiko with one eye, her hands hidden underneath her long-sleeved kimono.
Ever the sensitive guy, Myojin admitted, "Everything," in all honesty. "You trim down there, huh?"
Chizuru shoved her other slipper down Yahiko's mouth. "Bow as low as you can. You also owe me a lot of money, perv. Pay up later."
On the crumpled letter she held on one hand... unbeknownst to Gan, Minoe, or Yahiko... it read, 'Take it easy on the spiky-haired perv. He jumped and attacked me because he thought I was trying to hurt you. From Kaede.'
Munenori felt his face burn up, but he couldn't figure out why. "Huh?" he remarked while grabbing his cheeks.
Later, during the late afternoon, at the Port of Hakata...
"What are you doing now? Community service?" asked Chizuru, her hair unbound and un-Kaoru-like (although if Kaoru unbound her hair and wore boots, she'd probably look a lot like Chizuru).
"Oh, good. You're talking to me again," said Yahiko, with bandages over his scuffed-up face while hauling crates into a ship with other sailors and workers. "I wanted to mix up my training, and they were hiring one-day work as shipment haulers and errand boys, so I volunteered."
"...Why?" Raikouji had to ask.
"Why? Didn't you tell me I owed you money? There's only so much reward money from the Akahori mission to go around." Yahiko hauled another sack of rice over his shoulder. "Besides, I missed my run for the morning. I have to make up for it somehow. They even pay in cash! It's like hitting two birds with one stone."
Chizuru crossed her arms and harrumphed. "Didn't I tell you that you can pay me later for it, you dummy. Jeez. No good deed comes unpunished when it comes to you."
From behind them, the Tokyoites heard the Hakata locals whisper, "What is this? A lovers' quarrel?" and "Don't you recognize the kid? It's the Peeping Tom from the bathhouse earlier!" as well as "No way! Wasn't he a big, fat guy with a pot belly instead?"
"Well, you better save up yourself. Or request your gramps to wire you some more money. We're going to Hiroshima by the end of the month. Or the beginning of December! We're taking the train, and even economy class doesn't come cheap!"
Raikouji blinked. "A-Are you serious? So soon? We practically just got here! We spent more time on that cargo ship with Shura's crew than here!"
"Yep. After visiting Fukuoka City tomorrow, I have nothing else to do here. I can still do my exercise regimen elsewhere," he said, appending to himself, 'And fuck those mosquitoes. And being labeled a perv for life in Hakata.'
To Chizuru, he added, "Buy some winter coats and clothing while you're at it. It snows there in Hiroshima."
"Uh, okay. I guess we'll have that to look forward to now."
"Yeah, I guess. Thanks for saving my hide earlier, and sorry for what happened at the bathhouse. And for seeing you naked. And for being an embarrassment."
"...You were doing so good, so shut up now before we both regret it," requested Raikouji, and Myojin complied by continuing his hauling work.
'So it's we now, huh?' Chizuru turned around and left Yahiko to his own devices. She had an extra spring in her step as she skipped around town with her hands clasped behind her back.
The next day, right after Yahiko's mandatory 10-kilometer morning run training regimen along with Minoe (Gan slept in, so he didn't participate), on November 30, 1884...
"Samurai City, here we come!" said Myojin after getting off the carriage (he would've run there, but Gan, Minoe, and Chizuru wouldn't let him).
He breathed in the fresh air of the smaller of the twin cities that would eventually be combined together, only to frown at the smell of uncleaned manure nearby.
"Ahhh. Refreshing city air. Smells just like home."
Also, the correct term was, "Samurai Town", which actually existed within the confines of 19th Century Fukuoka prior to its merger with Hakata City.
The Sardonic Gan gave Yahiko a half-lidded look with a raised eyebrow and a quirking mouth while tilting his head to the side. "Yoshi-boy..."
"I know, I know! Don't start. Just because being a samurai isn't a prestigious title anymore, it doesn't mean they don't exist!" insisted the Tokyo Samurai Descendant with sparkling eyes.
"The age of the samurai is over," it was Minoe, not Gan, who spoke next. Unbeknownst to many of them, he himself was a three-decade-experienced old-timer. "There are no more Musashis and Kojiros out there, only hungry swordsmen who are willing to trade their swords and dignity for food."
"Jeez, Minoe. Not you too!" Myojin told the wet blanket. "Let me bask in Japan's glorious past, at least. Those who don't look behind them won't be able to reach what's in front of them."
"Suit yourself. Just don't say we didn't warn you," said Chizuru, who herself had her share of run-ins with discontented samurai. 'Ah, the arrogance of youth. How quaint,' she thought to herself.
"You guys suck," said Myojin. "No fun allowed, huh?"
"We wuv you too, ya li'l brat," said Raikouji with a wink. "No one else but your true friends and loved ones can tell you when you're acting like a complete moron... you moron!"
Myojin gave the Kaoru-look-alike... who wore her non-Kaoru-look-alike getup with the boots, unbound hair, and everything... a quizzical, sidelong glance. "Loved ones...? AUGH!"
Speaking of boots, one of them went straight to Yahiko's ass. "THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!"
The teen samurai returned the favor with a karate chop to her head. "Don't get angry at me for repeating something you said! Jeez. You're even worse than Tanuki-chan. Totally uncute."
His sausage-like fingers rubbing his stomach while staring at the sky and walking with the Sanbaka (and Chizuru), the Famished Gan said, "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I can't wait to..."
"Wait, wait. Lemme guess. You're going to say something about local cuisine again, aren't you?" predicted the kid samurai.
"Now who's being the downer here? You or me? Fukuoka is a gourmet paradise! Besides, I didn't get called the Soba King for my stunning good looks, beefy physique, or batting average!"
"Batting average...?" Yahiko shook his head and kicked up dust with his shuffling feet. "Look, I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but seriously, no one else but you calls you Soba King! Stop making it a thing."
"I'll fight you, bro!" said the Prideful Gan, only to go, "Oooh, munchies! Gimme, gimme!" as soon as he spotted the nearest street food cart (yattai).
"Oh, so you want to know more about Fukuoka's samurai history, huh? I know just the guy," said the yattai vendor frying some Fukuoka-style okonomiyaki (literally "whatever you want grilled") or Japanese pancakes with a variety of toppings.
Okonomiyaki that the Ravenous Gan stacked and gobbled up like... well, Japanese pancakes.
"AH! GAN! Dammit, you better be the one paying for that!" came Yahiko's admonishment at the self-proclaimed Soba King (who might as well be a Food Emperor) while pounding his head with a rock to stop him from eating the Sanbaka into another food debt.
"How dare you stop the Okonomiyaki Overlord from tasting Fukuoka-style okonomiyaki! FUCK OFF, YOSHI-BOY!"
"...Okonomiyaki what? Stop making up stupid food names for yourself, ya stupid galoot!"
Chizuru sighed, rolled her eyes, and paid for the Gorging Gan's food tab with a small wad of cash before punching him in the gut so that he wouldn't end up with as big a debt as he had with the Sakaguchi Soba Shop in Shinshu once upon a time.
Minoe adjusted his eye patch and decided to be "that guy" by asking the vendor, "Um, so who is this person that knows the history of Fukuoka samurai?"
The street vendor grinned. "I'm glad you asked, little boy."
The yattai owner led the Sanbaka (and Chizuru) to the squalid ghettos of Fukuoka City, which raised the alarms of the three trained warriors. They were about to leave, fearing for the Raikouji heiress's safety, when they overheard an intriguing commotion.
"...And so there I was. In the middle of a gang war in the Sixties. The Tokugawa were still in power but Commodore Perry's Black Ships have already arrived. Two groups were locked in mortal combat, terrorizing this poor post town that I wandered into. I realized that the town would be better off with both sides dead. However, even with my skills with the sword, I'd be outnumbered if I were to take all these men on by myself. That's why I played it smart."
Ushered by the nameless okonomiyaki yattai vendor, Yahiko, Chizuru, Gan, and Minoe moved through the small crowd of gatherers, as though a street performance was taking place. There was no such thing before them, though. A man with a silky-smooth voice talked about something concerning the era of the Tokugawa Shogunate (or, as the Japanese called it, the Tokugawa Bakufu).
"First, I lent my services as a bodyguard to one of the crime bosses who wanted to get some sort of edge against another gang leader. Actually, the other boss was my new employer's right-hand man until the big boss decided that his son will succeed him, which lead to his rebellion. So anyway, I was hired and I discovered that the big boss was in cahoots with the mayor and a powerful silk merchant."
The audience of excited children and bored adults who had nothing better to do gathered around the open hut of a greasy, gray-haired old man with a cane, squatting inside a house that looked more like a dilapidated shrine with a living idol. The "rojin" might be sixty-something, by Myojin's estimations. Maybe even older.
"I decided to do a bit of double dealing by letting the right-hand man ask for my services for higher pay, which allowed me to kill the big boss's men under the guise of working for him. I then told the boss that the right-hand man's faction had gotten a fighter themselves, which had him pay me more money to fight for him. So I did and finished off several more men from the right-hand man's faction this time around. This went on for quite a bit, but then I realized this can't go on forever."
'Oh.' The sensitive Chizuru reeled at the stench of the greasy, homeless person (he probably didn't even own that doghouse he sat on, as small as it was), but said nothing, her eyes focused on the entranced Yahiko.
The poor brat must be heartbroken, seeing Fukuoka samurai reduced to this: Rambling, unemployed swordsmen, recalling the glory days of their youth and prime.
"I knew they'd find out my double dealing sooner or later. So I decided to behead both factions' best hired assassins next to me before I pretended to be beaten by either of them. I told the big boss that the right-hand man's faction is staging a takeover with hundreds of men while holding the head of his second-best assassin. I then told the right-hand man that it was the big boss who's staging a takeover with hundreds of men, while holding his second-best assassin's head."
Chizuru put her hand on the Tokyo Samurai Descendant's shoulder. "H-Hey, brat..."
Myojin put his finger on his lips and shushed her, never tearing his eyes away from the dirty, smelly storyteller.
"Wha...!? Why, I never...!" With an upturned nose, Raikouji harrumphed. 'Fine. Be that way! It's not as if I wanted to comfort him after this sorry display or anything!'
Yahiko then asked, "And then what happened next, Ojisan?"
"Hold your horses, kid! I'll tell ya what happened. They never knew about my double cross until it was too late. The big boss's and the right-hand man's factions fought to the bitter end in a bloody showdown. After the right-hand man won, I finished off what was left of their forces. The siege on the town had ended, and I gave away all the blood money they paid me to the peasants while keeping only enough to support me for the rest of my travels. The End."
As he bowed, the surrounding people clapped (politely) and put coins and bills into his donations jar. "Thank you! Maido! Maido ari!(Osakan business slang for "Thanks for coming! Come again!") Thanks for the pay! It's a pleasure doing business with y'all!"
"Wow, Mister! Tell us another story!"
"Maybe next time, sport! This old geezer's gotta buy lunch first!"
Myojin put in a whole wad of cash into the old man's jar. "WHOA! Maido maido! You must've really liked the story, kid! Thanks!"
Yahiko grinned and rubbed his nose with his finger. "I'm always fascinated by samurai history. Thank you for the interesting story."
'I remember Saito said Sano would've died if he had fought in the Bakumatsu,' thought Myojin to himself, remembering what Sanosuke Sagara told him about Hajime Saito one drunken night.
'Tsubame is going to hate me for thinking this way, but I'd rather get killed fighting the Shinsengumi back in the Bakumatsu myself than live in today's weak era. I was born in the wrong era!'
"There he goes again, fabricating adventures and making little kids pay for his booze," said a gossiping woman with a whisper that everyone heard.
"You'd have to be stupid or a little kid to believe his lies," said another one of the gathered adults with a chuckle. "Is this how low the noble samurai class has fallen?"
One of the pals of the "grease monkey"... the okonomiyaki vendor, to be exact... shouted in return, "If only the government had kept their promise and made the Shizoku Jusan work, none of the samurai would've been reduced to begging in the streets."
Myojin bit his lip until it bled. While growing up, he'd heard of the Shizoku Jusan (Samurai Rehabilitation Policy), which was the Meiji Government's lip-service effort to solve the high unemployment rate of samurai after the Bakumatsu ended and the Ishin Shishi took over.
The policy "encouraged" samurai to seek other avenues of employment with the new jobs available in post-Boshin-War Japan. The policy didn't do a damn thing for Myojin or his mother.
This program ultimately failed, which led to his widowed mother working herself to death in the Tokyo red-light district to support him before he himself ended up as a yakuza pickpocket because of their debts.
Another man said, "Who cares about samurai lording themselves over others, especially peasants and merchants? This New Japan is where it's at! Instead of gaining respect and stature through birthright, you get to earn it through hard work and effort!"
"Yeah! Hear, hear! Fuck the old ways! Back in the days of my grandfather and great grandfather, all you need to do is look at a samurai funny to 'disrespect' him, giving him all the right to decapitate you! Fuck 'em!"
The man was of course talking about "Kirisute Gomen", the Feudal Era authorization of high-ranking samurai to cut and leave the body of a peasant or lower-ranked samurai who had disrespected them without apology or did not show due reverence.
The whole Namamugi Incident/Kanagawa Incident/Richardson Affair (where British nationals were assaulted by samurais, resulting in the Bombardment of Kagoshima) came about due to kirisute gomen, after the gaijin (Charles Lennox Richardson and other merchants) rode too close to a samurai procession and didn't dismount as a show of respect, which resulted in their deaths.
"Oh. Is that it? So you want to fight about it? Don't you have any sense of Yamato Damashi (Japanese pride) in you? Samurais are supposed to represent the best aspects of our society and culture! When foreigners talk about the bravery of the Japanese, they usually refer to them as samurais, not merchants or peasants!"
"Bring it on, you samurai sympathizer! What do you care about a bunch of socially privileged nobles? Who the fuck cares about what gaijin think? Do you honestly believe I give a damn about them? If the samurai can't adapt to the new age, then they can all lie down and die if they want!"
Yahiko almost joined the "debate", but the dentally challenged ex-samurai storyteller held him back by the collar and sheepishly said, "Leave them be. They're kind of right. I'm totally going to buy booze as well as lunch with the money!"
"BWAHAHA! You're all right, old man! At least you're honest!" appraised Gan while Myojin reconsidered taking back his cash donation.
"So where are you fellers from? You aren't around from these parts, I could tell," said the homeless man. "You're tourists, I reckon."
The quartet went in turns introducing themselves.
"Yup. I'm from Tokyo. The name's Myojin Yahiko. Nice to meet you."
"I'm Raikouji Chizuru. Also a Tokyoite, although I recently spent months living in Nagano with some family friends."
"Hello! I'm the Great Gan! Also known as the Soba King, the Meat Bun Monarch, the Round Mound of...!"
Yahiko kicked the Egotistical Gan's butt. "Get on with it!"
While the Violent Gan returned the favor with an uppercut, he said, "I'm actually from the Ryukyu Islands myself! Oh wait, I think the government renamed them Okinawa now or something, right?."
Minoe, Chizuru, and (a fat-lipped) Yahiko tilted their heads to the side and said, "Ooooh."
Myojin himself added, "Well, this is news to us! We've been together for how many weeks and you've only now decided to reveal that tidbit of information?"
"Watchoo talkin' 'bout, Yoshi-boy? You never asked!" said the Precocious Gan with crossed arms and a pout.
"And how about you, little boy?" the man asked Minoe. "What's your name? Where are you from?"
"Um..." Bullets of sweat traveled across Munenori's forehead before he took a deep breath, exhaled, and said, "M-My surname is Minoe and my given name is Munenori! In this wonderful Nineteenth Century, how is everyone doing today?"
"Oooh. How nostalgic! I remember when you introduced yourself to me the same way!" said Yahiko with a grin that made Munenori blush.
"I-I was also born in Tokyo, when it was still called Edo." Minoe primly cleared his throat and asked the old man, "H-How about you? What's your name, Ojisan-chi? How old are you?"
"Me? I'm..." The missing-toothed, thin-haired old man rifled through what little belongings he had before producing a folded-up and yellowing paper and opening it for the Sanbaka (plus Chizuru) to see.
He peered into the "parchment" and read, "I'm Seibei Enjiro. Family name Seibei, first name Enjiro. Samurai for hire. Also, it's not polite asking your seniors how old they are, sonny boy!"
"Let me see that, Ojisan," said Yahiko, looking at the paper, which was actually an old-timey, Edo Era birth certificate. Something about it caught his eye. "I see. Yes, it all checks out, Old Man Seibei."
'Yeah. That looks and sounds totally legit,' thought Chizuru with a shake of her head while looking over Yahiko's shoulder to see the paper.
"It's all very nice to meet youngins who still value the old ways. It fills this old man's heart with joy." The gummy elder shook his jar of paper bills and coins. "And cash! See ya!"
The four travelers waved goodbye at Seibei. "What a nice old man," said Minoe before screams, gunshots, and an even bigger crowd gathering nearby alerted them of trouble in the middle of Fukuoka City.
Like in Old Man Seibei's "Edo Jidai" story, men with swords had gathered everywhere in the Yokohama Marketplace. However, this was 1884, the 17th Year of the Meiji, not the 1860s during the reign of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Swords were outlawed, and only the police or military had the right to carry arms. Even Yahiko and Gan had to hide their weapons, either by wrapping them in cloth (Myojin actually made the sakabatou look like a kendo stick with this method) or burying them in the ground to be picked up later.
"What happened? Are those kidnappers? Is it a hostage crisis? A yakuza protection scam? An assassination attempt?" asked the well-conditioned Myojin, who ran all the way there to investigate, leaving the rest of his out-of-breath friends behind, the closest one behind him Minoe.
"Disgruntled samurai turned into bandits," answered the mustachioed man Yahiko asked. "It's the Chichibu Riots all over again. I'm gonna call the cops. You better stay out of their way, kid. They're armed and dangerous."
"Wha...?" said Myojin, but the gentleman in westernized clothes he spoke to had already left.
Minoe was right; ever since the abolishment of the samurai class, all ex-samurai turned into jobless, masterless ronin who tended to use their swordsmanship training to become outlaws (despite their romanticized treatment in fiction).
From behind him, Chizuru caught up and said, "Let's go, brat. This has nothing to do with you," overhearing the whole conversation.
However, Munenori and Gan had long ago run past the two and made a beeline to the armed samurais. Naturally, Yahiko wouldn't listen himself, leaping into the thick of the action along with the rest of the Three Stooges.
"Stay back. Keep yourself safe, Chizuru."
"You dummy. You too."
Chizuru hid her shaking hands inside her kimono sleeves, remembering her kidnapping back in Tokyo by, yet again, disgruntled samurai when she first met Kenshin. She also went through the Siege of Shinshu by the False Battousai Group and Sarujiro almost dying to protect her from a lascivious pirate.
To think, she herself had been orphaned and left the sole heiress to the Raikouji fortune exactly because her parents were killed due to a skirmish between the Ishin Shishi and the Bakufu Special Police, which turned them into "collateral damage".
'Not again...'
"We need as many fresh supplies as possible. Spare no one. Act quick before the police get here," the seeming leader of the ex-samurais, a man with a lean, gaunt face and a lanky body that was every bit as tall as a foreigner's, commanded.
"Yes, Iwamatsu-sama!" several of the samurais saluted their master, only to be confronted by the Sanbaka.
"Stop right there, you criminal scum!"
"Huh...?"
Common sense and conventional knowledge actually dictated that the teenaged boy and the smaller "boy" beside him were the lesser threat compared to the huge slab of beefcake with the metal bat.
Ergo, the samurai bandits proceeded to attack what they believed were the weakest links of the group.
"SCORPIO STANCE! RISING TAIL STINGER!"
"TSUKA NO GEDAN: HIZA HIJIKI!"
Munenori attacked high with his sheathed wakizashi and its blunt end that nearly crushed the windpipe of his opponent while Yahiko ducked low and broke the knee of the same samurai.
A young girl then screamed after one of the bandits took hold of her as hostage, but he then collapsed after a reverse-edged wakizashi hit the back of his head by his blindside.
"Sometimes, they make me want to do a little 'kirisute gomen' of my own," said Minoe.
"I know what you mean," admitted Yahiko, dodging the downward sword slash to his head and countering with an Inukido to the armpit. The teenaged samurai then did a spit-take. "W-What did you just say, Minoe...?"
"Minoe" took off "his" eye patch and threw it at Yahiko before opening a lazy eye with a cross-shaped scar below it. "Take care of that for me."
The Tokyo Samurai Descendant caught the eye patch and put it inside his kimono's inside pockets. He then ventured, "Is that you, Kaede?"
The wigged Battousai of Speed nodded. "I was surprised to see that we're in the middle of a free-for-all, but that guy and his goons are probably the bad guys, right?"
"...Yeah, but you better not go overboard like you did in Shinshu's East Valley!" warned Yahiko while backhanding a bandit and/or samurai that attacked him from behind.
"Suuuuure," said Morinaga with her tongue stuck out, adding, "You sound just like Amakusa-sama when you act all bossy."
"..." said Myojin, unsure if he'd want to be compared to the religious, rebellious nut who butchered multiple police squads in one go.
As for Gan, whom many of the gathered bandit samurais targeted as a group due to his fearsome bulk, he blasted away the swordsmen with his longer-reaching tetsubo and his signature attack, the "HAPPA!"
Even without his Bunnage throwing technique that allowed him to punt opponents in the air to set up a handy Kattobashi bat swing, the destructive power of the Happa (which at full strength could even rival Yahiko's Dou Gami) had enough of a kick to make multiple samurais airborne, which allowed him to strike them out of the proverbial ballpark with his studded iron stick.
"ORA, ORA, ORA! KATTOBASHI! KATTOBASHI! KATTOBASHI!" screamed the bandanna-sporting hoodlum while he swung for the metaphorical fences, proving in his mind that he did possess a high batting average.
The Great Gan then espied Yahiko unsheathing his sakabatou and slamming all of its blunted weight into the face of his opponent. "All right, Yoshi-boy! Show 'em your moves! Your training! Show 'em why the Wokou called you the SWORD BREAKER!"
"HADOME! HAWATARI!" Yahiko executed the defensive and counteroffensive succession techniques of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu to setup various possible counters (the Hawatari could be any offensive technique he used after trapping the weapon between the backs of his hands).
They ranged from his weapon-disarming (and formerly signature) attack to the wrist called the Shippu Jinrai Dotou no Ken to the liver-aimed Ichijin Sou Fuu Satsu. He even used the Inukido.
While it failed to stop Kujiranami during his rampage in Tokyo, the armpit strike remained a weak point of the human body such that, when struck hard enough, could break ribs and have enough impact to reach all the way to the lungs.
However, Yahiko wasn't using the expected weapon-destroying Tsui Gami (which he had been practicing for day and night ever since the Wokou attack) or even the crater-creating Dou Gami.
"Whu? Yoshi-boy, why are you...?" the Swarmed Gan trailed off after the bandit samurais dog-piled him the same way that the (mostly deceased) Togakudan did to prevent him from gaining enough leverage to blast them with another Happa.
"Myojin Yahiko! What on earth...?" Kaede herself began, which left her distracted long enough to allow a samurai to grab hold of her from behind.
To Be Continued...
Incidentally, the Gadamer Gem that Abelia La Cerca created and both Cain Merrick and Shogo Amakusa used is based off the levitating magical orb of Shiro Tokisada Amakusa in the game Samurai Spirits (also known as Samurai Shodown).
Furthermore, if you hadn't figured it out, Abelia is based off Pinoko (Pinochle) and Doctor Gadamer is based off Doctor Black Jack, both from Osamu Tezuka's manga, Black Jack.
As for the origin story of Cain Merrick, he references many characters in fiction and history, chief among them Setsuna from SNK's The Last Blade, Jack the Ripper, Lin from King of Fighters, and alleged historical figure Edward Mordrake.
Arrivederci,
Abdiel