Suenagaku na Aki

Chapter 14

Yuri quickly scanned the twenty kunais flying toward her. "Kansatsu tobikunai!!" Ten kunais flew from Yuri's hand to intercept Misao's kunais. Clashing sounds echoed throughout the area. Out of the ten, only five managed to find their mark. Yuri had to jump to the ground to evade the rest. Even as she evaded, one of them whizzed past her, scratching her cheek.

After she had landed, she put a hand on her cheek before holding it in front of her. Her hand was slightly bloodied. Yuri smirked. Then to everyone else surprise she clapped her hands "Not bad! Not bad at all! You're as good as Orochi-sama has said, no, even better! " She then brought out a small bottle from her ninja suit and threw it at Misao. "Consider this as a small reward for your achievement"

Misao caught the bottle and gave the bottle to Megumi who administered it to Kaoru. Then she turned and glared at Yuri.

"This changes nothing, impostor! You're not Yuri-san. The real Yuri-san would never have attacked my friend"

"It's up to you to think who I am, but I assure you, I still remember when you and I used play hide and seek, you always hid either behind a cupboard, or under Shinomori-taisho's futon. As for attacking your friend, you can't blame me totally for what happened. I intended the kunais for Battousai.

"KISAMA…"

Aoshi walked in front of Misao, stopping her. "I will handle her", he said. He turned toward Ichijo and gave an impassive look.

"Yuri-san"

"Yes, Shinomori-taisho?"

"Although you used to be one of us…"

"Hm..."

"What you did… IS UNFORGIVABLE!!" Aoshi dashed toward her with his kodachis unsheated. "Gususen Kenbu!! (Skill Flash Sword Dance)"

Yuri blocked the attack using one of her hands. Instead of the sound of sword cutting through flesh, the others could hear the sound of metals clashing. Yuri had blocked Aoshi's kodachis by using a tonfa. In her other hand, she helda kodachi.

"Were you the one who revealed our secrets to Orochi?" Aoshi said while jumping away to prepare another attack.

"Don't be silly. He has never asked me to do so. It was easier if he did it by searching for it himself" Yuri rushed at Aoshi. "Onmyo Renda! (Graceful barrage)" In a second, she had attacked Aoshi a dozen times using her tonfa and kodachi successively.

Asohi stopped Yuri's barrage of tonfa and kodachi attacks by crossing his kodachis together. "And the escort mission?"

"Did you remember the liaison official that was found murdered a week after the mission? I'm the one who did it"

"Why?" Aoshi forced Yuri to retreat a few steps using his kodachis.

"He was the traitor"

"How did you know?" Aoshi launched another quick attack, but the distance between them allowed Yuri to dodge easily.

Yuri counterattacked using her tonfa. But Aoshi had anticipated it and used his knee to deflect the blow. In response, Yuri put distance between them as she contemplated on another attack. "I saw him receiving his pay from an Ishin Shishi agent two days after that. But let's not dwell in the past shall we? Ishinshi won the Boshin war already and established the current government. I, no, we have tracked the Oniwabanshuu's movement after the war, to see whether the group could be an ally to us in our fight against the Meiji government. But unfortunately, you decided not to fight it"

"What do you hope to accomplish by siding up with a crazed man bent on conquering Japan?" her former commander asked.

"How dare you insult him!!" Yuri shouted back. "If he wasn't around that night, I would've been killed. To him, I owe my gratitude and allegiance. Anyway, while talking about madness, I think you have forgotten about what you have become recently. You distorted Hanya and others' sacrifice to protect your ego"

Aoshi stopped. He knew very well what she was talking about. He had blamed Himura for his friends' deaths because deep inside, he knew that he was scared to accept the fact that they had died. Despite their earlier reminder that they would follow him anywhere, he had felt that he was responsible for leading them to their doom. It was convenient for Aoshi to blame Battousai at that time so that he go on living under the pretext of trying to exact revenge for them.

"Oh come on. Is Shinomori of the famed Oniwanshuu not accustomed to receiving barbed comments? Oh well. Let me make it up to you" Yuri said sarcastically. "Think of it this way. If you had instead of the others, the others would have extracted revenge in your name instead. And it would have been easier for Shishio to take advantage of them than of you. Not to mention the fact that the Oniwabanshuu would have been so upset by the loss of its leader that the group could have been easily manipulated into fighting against the government. Of course this could happen because if you died, it would have been during the fight with him, right?" Yuri said while pointing toward Kenshin. "So, now that you realize how it could have been worse than what happened, shall we continue with our fight?"

Aoshi nodded, feeling foolish as that he needed his enemy to motivate him. He raised his kodachis slowly, trying to think of what attack to use next.

"Wait!" Another voice interrupted Aoshi's concentration. Both he and Yuri looked at Misao.

"How about you?" Misao asked Yuri

"Me?!" Yuri pointed to herself. "What about me?"

"You're part of the Oniwanshuu. You... you belong to us" Misao fidgeted as she contemplated her next sentence. "Even though Aoshi-sama made a mistake", Misao winced as she mentioned the word 'mistake', "he came back to us and we have accepted him. Why didn't you come back?" The last question seemed like a question asked by a child. True enough, Misao had grown into a young woman, but the child-like part of her was still there. It was one of her traits that had drawn Aoshi to her; it also made him withdraw from her as he didn't want to hurt her. But Misao had shown her that it was the act of not opening up to her that saddened her the most. Meanwhile, the girl in question hung her head, waiting for a reply from Yuri.

Yuri hesitated for quite sometime and this fact didn't go unnoticed. "For me, my final mission for the Owanibanshuu was carried out successfully that fateful night. Ichijo Yuri of the Owanibanshuu group was dead". Then her eyes became wide as she seemed to realize something. Misao hoped that Yuri had come to her senses. Even Aoshi stopped and stood, waiting for a response. To her surprise, she watched as Yuri began to laugh.

"W…why?"

"Oh, how ironic that it has been successful"

"What do you mean?" Aoshi demanded, gritting his teeth. He had blamed himself when Yuri went missing after that mission.

"Had the mission failed, and the man we escorted was killed, the war would probably had a different outcome," Yuri gave Kenshin an amused smile. "According to Orochi-sama, even Battousai's superior fighting technique wouldn't have ensured the Ishinshi's success as much as the man we guarded with our lives have ensured the fall of Tokugawa Shogunate. In fact, when Orochi-sama saved me, he was there to see whether the man was alive or not"

"Do you mean we were doing the Ishinshi a favour?" Aoshi asked.

"Yes, but they didn't know about it at that time. Of course," Yuri said while yawning, "it doesn't matter now, right?"

"Don't you see? He tricked you! Orochi purposely saved you so that he can could use you… against us", Misao pleaded. The exchange in the last few minutes had convinced her that this was the Yuri-san that's always kind to her when she's small, spending countless hours playing with her and bringing her gifts every time she returned from her missions. Misao wished very hard that Yuri-san would realize what she had done.

"IE! I myself had questioned his intentions for saving me. But not ever, not even once has he asked me to do something against my will. In fact, he never even asked me to serve under him" Yuri shifted her focus to Aoshi. "Come, Shinomori-taisho. Let's fight like we did years ago. I want to know how I will fare against you now. Kokuen No Mai! (Dance of the Black Swallow)"

"You have to pay for what you did here and I will carry out the punishment. Haou Shoten Kenbu! (Roaring Rising Sword Dance)"

Multiple images of Aoshi and Yuri appeared simultaneously, with multiple footsteps being heard. The images didn't appear to surround each other, like Aoshi's Kaiten Kenbu move. Instead, they appeared at random locations. This went on for a few seconds until Aoshi appeared from his stance to attack Yuri's side. But to his consternation, he realized that he only attacked her image.

"I got you, Shinomori-taisho" Yuri gloated as she appeared behind Aoshi and slashed him. "What the…"

Aoshi disappeared. She only managed to hit his image. Immediately, she realized that she had fallen into a trap. Yuri tried jumping away, but Aoshi appeared behind her and slashed her. Even though she evaded the attack, one of the kodachis managed to graze her neck, and blood trickled from the wound. The outcome of the fight between them had been decided. Knowing this, she jumped away to the supporting pillar, away from Aoshi's reach. She closed her eyes, just like she did thirteen years ago. But this time a tear rolled down, damping her cheek.

"To be honest… I really hoped that I wouldn't run into the two of you. I was expecting Saitou"

"But you were WRONG!" Misao shouted.

"True. I should have taken into account the probability of you two coming here, since Okina was defeated by Orochi-sama" Yuri wiped of the tear off her face.

"YOU KNEW?" Misao asked. Standing not far away from her, Aoshi kept quiet despite his curiosity.

"Yes"

"WHY?!"

"And why not? After all, I'm the one who suggested it. "

Misao was unprepared for the reply from Yuri. But before she could say anything, Yuri continued, "I also should've thought about you arriving here early so that I wouldn't have to meet you, but…" Yuri opened her eyes and smiled at Misao. It was the smile she normally gave to Misao when Misao was small, although sadness tainted the smile. "I'm glad I didn't," she finished softly. "I'm happy to see you have grown up to be a fine and beautiful woman, even as we stand on different sides"

Misao felt moved. "Yuri-san…"

But in an instant the Yuri she knew was replaced with a cold one, the one that had hurt her friends. She looked at the man who was carrying Asuka, giving him a look. Then she turned toward the Kenshingumi and her former friends while raising her right hand in line with her face. Then she folded three fingers, leaving only her index and fore fingers straight. "I will show you a new move I have learned". The ninja then clenched her left hand and placed it underneath her right hand. "I will now create an earthquake in ten seconds"

"An earthquake? Man, you're off your rocker" Sano said before he felt the floor beneath him began to tremble a bit. He cocked his head. Surely the ninja was bluffing, he told himself. Then to his surprise and horror everything inside the temple began to shake. He looked outside to discover that only temple was shaking while everything else was fine. Sano pinched himself to ensure that he wasn't dreaming. It hurt. Instinctively, he picked up the nearest person to him which was Megumi and held her protectively. By then everything inside the temple began to collapse.

A few minutes later, Sano brushed himself while shaking his head to get rid of the dust. He looked at his arms to see a fainted Megumi. Then he looked around to see all of his friends were all right, except the small woman who was in Kenshin's embrace. She was still unconscious. "I never tought that the Oniwabanshuu ninjas knew how to cause an earthquake"

"We don't" Aoshi murmured audibly while checking Misao for any sign of injuries. There were damp spots on her face, indicating that she was crying silently.

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Author's note (30 May 2004)
1) It have been a while since I updated. Sorry, but things happen.
2) If any fornatting is a bit off, it's probably due to the formatting conversion from Palm PDA to Windows. Now I have acquired a newer PDA and a foldable keyboard, I at least can type the story on the go.