Suenagaku na Aki

Chapter 2

Kenshin just stared at Kaoru and Yahiko as they went through their training exercises. But, most of the time, his attention was fixed on the young woman. He was not sure why is he was more interested in looking at her. Kenshin knew that he was confused, but for what reason? Even as his eyes followed her moving form, a myriad of emotions and feelings flooded his heart, threatening to show themselves on his face.

Fondness for her liveliness.

Admiration at for her infallible courage and determination to uphold the principle of "the sword that protects life" even when facing a much stronger opponent.

Happiness at her kindness.

Sadness because she had to endure difficulties and troubles because of him.

Then Kenshin's eyes flashed a yellowish hue as darker emotions surfaced. The most notable of them was anger. A raging anger that had no cause, only wanting itself to be heard and released. A kind of anger that existed years ago, while he's still a cold blooded killer who only brought misery in the name of ushering in a new era. The overwhelming feeling he felt when he saw his fallen enemies lying on the ground, or as he delivered tenchuu, the justice of heaven to those unfortunate enough to be in his path.

Kenshin blinked his eyes. He shook his head, mentally trying to chase the anger away. This was something he was not supposed to feel.

"Are you all right, Kenshin?"

Kenshin looked into the blue eyes of the speaker, noticing her concern. "Hai. Kaoru-dono, Sessha's all right. Sessha is fine"

Kaoru unconsciously held out her right hand to touch his face. Then realizing what she almost did, she shamefully pulled it back. "Gomen-nasai," she said, almost whispering it. An uneasy moment passed, as both of them were lost for words.

"Oi, busu. What are you doing disturbing Kenshin? You're supposed to teach me, nor flirt around"

Kaoru rolled her eyes and walked back to her place to resume training. Kenshin continued looking at her, more confused than ever. As he did, he felt distraught as he finally realized the reason he was angry.

He was angry with Kaoru. But what disturbed Kenshin more was that he didn't know the reason why.

Kenshin tried to meditate to find out what was wrong with him. Even as he began to breathe in a controlled rhythm, he realized that his disturbed mind would have hampered any attempt to relax and clear his thoughts. Admitting defeat to himself, he got up and began walking around the dojo compound.

'I wish… I knew what has happened to me. Have I gone mad? Why am I angry with her? She didn't do anything'

he tried to reason to himself.

'Are you sure, rurouni?'

a part of him taunted.

'Yes. Why must I be angry with her? She's a kind woman, just like Tomoe'

'Then, it is simple. You are angry with her because of her being herself'

'Iie! That's not true! I do like her as she is. You're trying to confuse me'

The rurouni half of Kenshin pointed a finger to his other half. 'Perhaps it was you who have such ill feelings toward her'

'Naze? You're accusing me of harboring ill feelings toward her? You're wrong, hypocrite. If I'm harboring ill feelings, they're directed toward you. You're the one who is angry with her, just like you're blaming me for the endless killings during the Bakumatsu.

The two of you are different people. How dare you try to compare yourself with her?'

The battousai part of Kenshin laughed. 'Perhaps, but that doesn't change the fact that it was you who harbored the anger toward her. And while Kaoru and I are different, you and I aren't, rurouni'

'Kisama… How dare you'

'Of course. Why should I be afraid of you? We're one and the same. We're neither the rurouni nor the battousai; only the boy named Shinta who grew up to became Kenshin Himura. But you're unwilling to admit it even now. And to think you learned the succession technique to suppress me. And remember the night when 'WE' saved Kaoru from Jin'ei? You made a promise to Jin'ei and yourself that you will control me, your evil side as long as you live. Bah! What a big hoax. You and that dead idiot were wrong. If it was true that I am the evil side of you, I would have committed untold atrocities a long time ago'

'You're the one who did the killing during the Bakumatsu. And you enjoyed the killing part'

'Hahahahaha. See? That's the kind of lie you repeat to yourself every time you wake to a new day. No wonder you're so afraid of me. Perhaps you say that because you think that I'm crazy. Yes, you can say I'm crazy. I suffer from battle-craze, but it is because of you. You and your naïve thought of trying to protect by killing. I fought for your benefit for too long, I began to enjoy the battles. In fact, the guilt, the pain and everything else made me feel alive. I wanted to fight. And fight. After each fight I felt empty. I hungered for more. But either I chose to enjoy the fight, or I chose to enjoy the act of killing' The Battousai part of Kenshin stopped. 'If Tomoe hadn't come into our life, I'm not sure about which choice I would have made'

The rurouni part agreed with him in silence.

The battousai part of Kenshin looked at his counterpart in all seriousness. 'Now, my time of making choices for us is over. Only you can choose the path now, whether to walk on a road together with me or to walk alone, with me walking as your parallel all the time'

'What do you mean by that?'

"Ken-san?"

Kenshin turned to see Megumi walking toward him. He has forgotten that he was not alone even though Kaoru and Yahiko were training at another dojo. Megumi was staying with them, while she was visiting them from Aizu.

"Is there anything wrong, Megumi-dono?"

"No, there's nothing wrong, except that you have been standing transfixed in the same spot for a few minutes. And you have that blank look on your face. Would you like to tell me why?"

"Iie. I was just thinking about something unimportant"

"Really?" Megumi sat on the walkway a few meters from him. "That's strange, because that is exactly what Kaoru told me when I found her in exactly the same state. Ever since I arrived here, I see that the both of you seem to have a lot on your mind"

"There's nothing to it, Megumi-dono"

Megumi crossed her arms while smiling a smile she normally reserved for her younger patients every time they tried to lie to her. "Perhaps there's nothing to it, but I seem to notice that Kaoru was quite oblivious to my attempt to make her jealous. She used to get angry every time I teased you in front of her. Now, she doesn't say anything at all. That disturbs me greatly. Something is wrong with her. I may be incorrect, but I say this based on my own experience. In my line of work Kenshin, the quietest person is normally the one who must be treated as soon as possible. The second one is the person who says that there's nothing wrong with him"

Kenshin wondered whether the fact that Kaoru had been acting weird lately had something to do with him. "What can sessha do to help, Megumi-dono?"

"Talk to her. She may be more willing to tell you than anybody else. But I am afraid that it may be not that simple"

Hajime Saitou opened the small box and took out a cigarette. After lighting it up and taking a few puffs, his face changed. He angrily tossed the cigarette into an ashtray and then threw the almost full cigarette box into the waste paper basket to his left while uttering while swearing. Chou, the former Juppon Gatana who now served under him raised his eyebrows, but kept quiet.

"Damn those foreign cigarettes," Hajime Saitou swore.

"You threw the whole box away. Why?" Chou asked.

"The cigarettes are stale"

Chou didn't understand what Saitou meant. He picked up the box and took a cigarette out of the crumpled box. After lighting it up, he smoked it. Then he coughed while spitting it out, obviously unused to smoking. Saitou watched what Chou did, but he wasn't going tell Chou about what he meant. He had better things to do rather than wasting his time trying to educate someone on the fine art of smoking. Ever since he had been transferred to Hokkaido, he found himself constantly being overwhelmed by paperwork, which he despised. The Hokkaido police force did everything by the book, even when doing something as simple such as investigating a public report. In fact, the first time when he asked one of his subordinates to go and get him something at the market, he was asked to fill out a form designated for such requests. It was fortunate for the officer that he was in a good mood that day. The story about him slashing the poor officer's table into tiny pieces ensured that nobody apart from his superiors dared to ask him to fill out anything. And his superiors only asked him to do the important parts of reports, which couldn't be done by anyone else.

Still, even Saitou had to admit that the Hokkaido police force was much better than their Tokyo counterparts. If he asked someone to give him a report in a three days time, he only needed to walk into his office the next day to see the report finished and on his table. And that was before the table fiasco. Everyone in his office knew what his job was, and normally wouldn't ask twice for further explanation on what was required from him.

Suddenly, there was a knock on his office door, and a man entered. It was the officer whose table had been destroyed by Saitou. Ever since that incident, he wouldn't dare to enter Saitou's office unless it was urgent. Saitou looked at a telegram envelope in his hand. "Open and read it", he commanded. The officer nodded his head and opened the envelope before reading it

'HQ informs that Inspector Gorou Fujita to be transferred to Tokyo effective immediately STOP All necessary arrangements have been made STOP Take the earliest ship possible STOP Briefing after arrival STOP'

"That's it, sir", the officer said as he lowered the telegram.

"Kso! What trouble did those fools in Tokyo get into this time?"

Chou smiled as he saw the police officer winced unconsciously. After he has caught hold of himself, the officer's expression changed, as if thinking on something. Chou was not the only one who noticed.

"What do you want to say? I don't have all day", Saitou barked. The frightened man would have jumped out of his boots had Chou not put his hand on his shoulder. "Relax, Ryu", Chou said, assuring him. "Just say what's on your mind just now"

"If I may say something sir, I think it have something to do with the death of some government officials and former Ishin Shishi members", the officer began timidly.

"Go on"

"According to the investigation, the deaths don't seem to be linked to each other. Even the murder weapons are different. The only similarity between the murders is that there seems to be no motive at all"

Saitou smirked. He was reduced to solving bizarre murder cases now. Those stupid politicians must have been having sleepless nights because of those murders. Although he lived by the principle 'Aku Soku Zan' (kill evil instantly), he wondered whether he would have more satisfaction by taking care of the cases as fast as he could or by watching the fat government officials becoming thinner and thinner as they feared for their lives. Ryu was not finished, however. What he said next almost caused Saitou to rise from his chair.

"The telegram office in Tokyo acknowledged that aside from you, a telegram was forwarded to one Aoshi Shinomori in Kyoto"

Saitou muttered an oath under his breath. There was only one Aoshi Shinomori in Kyoto and his involvement meant there was more to the murders than what they seemed to be. Then a small feral smile crossed his lips as he thought about the possibility of Battousai being involved. 'This may be more interesting than I thought' "Oi, you!" Saitou snapped at the police officer.

"Ye… Yes sir?"

"When I'm in Tokyo, you will go to my house every day to inquire about anything that my wife needs and to get them for her, understand?"

"Yes sir"

"Good. Now get me a new box of cigarettes at Omori's shop. Tell the shopkeeper that I sent you. He'll know what I want". The officer promptly left the room to carry out his errand. Saitou turned toward Chou. "Make sure you're at the harbor at six tomorrow morning"

Notes

I'm not a smoker, but I have known some people who will throw away a newly-opened packet of cigarettes if they feel the cigarettes are not fresh enough. Since I assume Saitou is a classy kind of guy when it comes to smoking, I think he would have done the same to 'stale' cigarettes.

The Fic Critic - The freshly cook food, although may taste terrible, may be saved by an excellent bottle of aged wine. I use 'Kso' because of the sound the Japanese pronounce it. But the real spelling is still Kuso. Anyway, thanks on the Saitou bit. I was thinking about ZakuII when I write it.

This chapter was checked by Fujifunmum