Suenagaku na Aki

Kaoru opened the shoji slowly and quietly, and saw a sleeping form leaning against the wall. She shook her sadly, smiling. 'Yahiko, you can catch a cold if you sleep in the open like this,' She scooped the boy and carried him toward his room, taking small steps so to prevent waking him. Kaoru knew that Yahiko was outside of Kenshin's room, waiting for her. She knew how to read ki, after all. She looked at the sleeping boy in her hands. 'He looks so cute while sleeping; I can't believe that this is the boy who bravely fought so many enemies'

Finally Kaoru reached Yahiko's room. She put the sleeping boy on his futon and covered it. She was about to leave the room when she turned back and kissed Yahiko on his forehead. "Arigato, for looking out for me, Yahiko," she said softly. She then left the room.

She walked toward the front porch, the same place she liked to go whenever she waits for Kenshin to return from his household chores. But she didn't go there to wait for him; she simply wanted to sit and gaze into the morning sky, waiting for a new day to arrive. She watched the sky, letting herself to be captivated by the beauty of flaming red streaks crossing over it. The streaks reminded her of his hair. Kaoru let out a long breath. She must stop thinking about him; the violet hues in the sky should not remind her of his eyes.

The young woman knew that she would survive without Kenshin, but not without emotional scars. She will, as she also loved Yahiko very much and wouldn't want him to feel the loneliness that she had felt. It will be very hard, but she has to take a step toward the future without Kenshin beside her.

But, for the time being, she will contend her herself by remembering the ruroni's face. She needed to rest a bit before Yahiko wakes up. The young woman leaned on a nearby pillar, letting her rurouni's name rolled off her tongue with bittersweet feelings.

Orochi looked at Yuri and knew that something was wrong.

"Forgive me, Orochi-sama. We have failed in our attack"

Orochi let out a long breath. "The attack was repulsed?"

"No. But it failed to draw the army from depot"

He walked around his tent, hands behinds his back, deep in thought. "It cannot be helped that the enemy did not fall for our ruse. I was told that they have a new person in charge of their strategies"

"It's Shinomori, isn't it?" Yuri asked.

"Yes" Orochi shrugged. "I must admit, he is a very capable man. He is able to make tough decisions" He regarded Yuri. "You were under a good leader then, Yuri"

"Not as good as you, My Lord"

Orochi smiled at her. "Well, then. Where are Akira and Ryo?"

"Ryo's being treated for minor injuries" Yuri looked down on the floor. "Meikira didn't make it"

The man in front of her displayed a surprised look. "What happened?"

Precisely at that moment, a runner came running into the tent. "My Lord. Forgive me for interrupting, but Shingo's team has returned" the runner said, hyperventilating.

Orochi walked hurriedly out of the tent, stopping for a second to look at Yuri. "Yuri, you will tell me about it later. Come"

"Yes"

Orochi walked toward the newly arrived group. He gave them a look. "Where are your leaders?"

The group parted, showing an injured Neuwindst holding to one of his men's shoulder as a support to walk toward him.

"Dumkopft! Not too fast!" the arm maker croaked toward the man who supported him. "Do you want to kill me?"

"As lively as ever, Neuwindst," Orochi remarked. "Where is Shingo?"

Neuwindst gestured behind him, showing few men carrying a makeshift stretcher. Orochi rushed toward it to see a bloodied Shingo struggling to smile at him.

"Mission accomplished, Orochi-sama. We… have… enough… weapons"

"GET A DOCTOR HERE NOW," Orochi shouted. It was a rarity for him to lose him composure.

Yuri who was behind him was aghast by Shingo's condition. "Your injuries…"

"We had fierce resistance," Neuwindst said, still clutching to his subordinate. "They were waiting for us"

"Gomen. I have failed in my mission to lure them away," Yuri said sadly.

"The resistance wasn't that difficult to break. When we thought that we have won, they ambushed us"

Shingo tried to raise his hand to placate her but was told by a doctor who has just arrived to take it easy. He ignored him. "They… were… ready… for us" He smiled to Yuri "You probably faced heavy… resistance… too…"

Orochi kneeled beside the stretcher. "Take it easy, my friend. You have to rest while we treat your injuries"

Despite his condition, Shingo smiled again. "Ie. I… don't… have… much… time left" His voice became a whisper. "Forgive… me… I… lied… to you" Ignoring his pain, he brought out a blood stained envelope from his gi and gave it to Orochi who took it with a puzzled expression.

"What do you mean, Shingo?"

"I… didn't… want… you to become… distracted…"

Orochi held Shingo's hand.

"Gomen…" Shingo let out his final breath and slumped.

"Shingo…" Orochi closed the eyes of his trusted assistant. He then closed his eyes and remained in the kneeling position. Around him, everyone stood silently and solemnly. After a few minutes, he then stood up, turning toward Neuwindst. "How did this happen?"

The man looked down. "They have snipers in hiding around the woods. They only attacked while we were loading the weapons. At first, they shot me" He looked at his injuries sad. "Shingo… he protected me," he said softly, looking down. "It's supposed to be me. Sorry"

Orochi shook his head sadly. "It is something that he would do" He turned toward Shingo's body. "I want him buried next to my family" He then walked toward his tent. Yuri wanted to follow him but he held a hand, telling her that he wanted to be alone. Once he was inside the tent, he opened the envelope and read the letter.

Orochi-sama,

If you read this letter, it meant that I have passed away before the completion of your glorious plan. I'm sorry that I can't be of any help for you anymore. The reason why I write this letter is to lessen my guilt toward you. You see, I've made a very unforgivable sin. I have lied to you.

During the Takamori's revolt, I was already there when our men were slaughtered by the mysterious swordsman that you wanted to meet so much. I have just arrived at that time and barely saw what happened. All I see is that our men were attacking him. Then it happened. The very large killing ki. I dropped to the ground and could watch as the rain of blood ensued. It was over in less than five seconds and all our men were dead. When I think of it, the reason I survived was because I was quite far from the battle. He must have thought that I wasn't one of them.

That attack he executed. It was impossible! This may sound unbelievable, but during the fight, I saw the man had wings! Wings! When you asked me about our men's death afterwards, I don't know whether I should tell you or not because I myself found it impossible to believe. I thought that I had gone mad and imagined such thing. His movement was so fast that to normal people, he was simply flying past our men. But in reality, he attacked them many times without even slight hesitation. I had seen Battousai in action and even he had a very brief hesitation before killing his targets.

But the attack was without its weakness, however. The attack cost him his life, but I suppose he knew the consequences before hand. And kami help us if we're going to face that man. As you had said, he was formidable. I'm not looking down on your abilities, Orochi-sama, but I don't think that you will be able to battle him without being injured.

From the battle, I found out the name of the attack. Hou'ou Zankaze (Phoenix Slashing Wind). Using the information, I searched day and night for any kind of any clues pertaining to this attack. I can't tell you about this as you will be very interested in finding information on the technique that you may forget about your plan against the Meiji bastards. Forgive me for keeping it from you, but I've been in your service for a long time; I know you your obsession for sword techniques.

I finally found the name of the technique it belongs to, and what I found scared me. Yume no Shiyotaka Tsubasa. Yes, it is the legendary Graceful Wings of Dream.

I believe that the man was its only master and don't think that you would encounter it. The wretched technique died with him. But, in case I am mistaken, the following is Yume no Shiyotaka Tsubasa's signature stance. The swordsman will point his sword downward toward a point three steps in front of him. His left hand will be at his side. The user will always adopt the stance before attacking; according to the limited information that I have, it has something to do with technique's main philosophy.

I would like to seek your forgiveness once more, as I feel guilty in keeping this a secret from you.

Shingo Yamazaki

Orochi put down the letter, wiping a single drop of tear from his eye. Shingo was so loyal that he would do anything to prevent anything from disrupting Orochi's plan to conquer Japan, even Orochi himself. He thought about the content of the letter. Yes, like Shingo had predicted, he would like to know about one of the legendary sword techniques. He smiled. Hiten Mitsurugiryu, the powerful dragon. Wattoujutsu, the fierce tiger and Gen'ei Kagamiryu, the sly serpent. It would have been good to see the Yumo no Shiyotaka Tsubasa, the immortal phoenix in action. He sighed. Now only the powerful dragon and the sly serpent were fighting. The tiger has lost its fangs and the phoenix has lost its immortality. 'What a waste'

Orochi left the tent. He looked at people waiting for him, as if they were expecting him to postpone the plan. He would have, but upon remembering Shingo's request he decided not to. Postponing the plan would make his loyal subordinate, no, his loyal friend sacrificed himself for nothing. No, it would proceed and it would succeed. He would make sure of that

Karl Neuwindst winced as one of his men changed his bandages. "Not too tight," he grunted. "The blood will not flow correctly"

"Sorry," the man answered. He continued bandaging his boss, humming.

"By the way, good shot back there"

"Which one?"

"The one that hit me, you idiot. Do you think that I care about Shingo?" Neuwindst thought a few seconds. "Well, considering he only died after we had reached here, you can say that they were good, too"

"Thank you. I'm your best marksman, after all. But I have few questions I have wanted to ask"

"Shoot" The scheming arm maker's face scrunched. "…wait…make that ask away"

"Why are we doing this?"

"To get their trust. My actual plan was to just save Shingo and become an instant hero"

"Why the change, then?"

"He will be an obstacle to what my plan. He's always suspicious of me"

"But you've done nothing wrong, at least not yet"

"And that's what ticked me off. How can I proceed with my own agenda if he's still around?"

"Ohh… Okay, I understand, I think" The marksman finished the knot on the bandage. "One last question"

"Remind me to cut your bonus. Ask"

"How can you predict that he will shield you from shots? You were taking a huge risk at that time"

Neuwindst smiled. "Because he's very loyal dog"

1

Author's note ( 26 May 2006)

1. Ah, the thrill of updating after a year hiatus. I'm sorry, but it seems that I was out of idea. Every now and then I will revisit this fic and feels annoyed as I was unable to finish it. Oh well, at least I can update few more chapters.