Chapter Sixteen: Parenthood

"Mama!" A little voice called out.

Akari had spent the day babysitting Chisa's two young children, Chiori, thirteen, and Yuuta, six. She took them to visit a few temples, out to some shopping streets, and found a few sweet shops; anything to distract them from why they were in Tokyo in the first place.

Chiori had a complicated relationship with her father, with feelings much like her father had for his mother. The two preferred to coexist with very few interactions with one another. She had found out just two years prior what her father did for a living, though she did not have an understanding of the true depravity that he carried with him. Even when she was much younger, parenting was low on his priority list.

She greatly resembled her mother, but was tall for her age and had Jin-e's eyes. She loved spending time with her aunt Akari, as she had little respect for either parent. To Chiori, her mother was weak for staying married to her father. After she found out about her father's profession, and being old enough to remember days when they had to escape to her aunt's house, she refused to stay at home and went to live with Akari instead.

Yuuta, on the other hand, was a very happy child. He loved his mother, and his father was much more interested in spending time with a son versus a daughter. Jin-e would take him down to the cellar and give him basic swordsmanship lessons. This made the child highly interested in swords, as these were the only times he really saw his father. He closely resembled Jin-e, with very few of his mother's features. He did seem to have Chisa's agreeable nature, however.

"What did you three do today?" Chisa smiled as she looked down at her son, who had attached himself to her leg.

"Oh, you know. This and that. What about you?" Akari asked while braiding Chiori's hair. Chiori didn't acknowledge that her mother had returned.

"I got the watch back and I'll pick up the ashes tomorrow evening. No luck on the wakizashi." Chisa said, pulling the watch out of her bag. "I met an interesting group of people today; they let me tell my stories at length. I'm going to go back to see them tomorrow. It was nice for it to not just be you."

Akari laughed at this. "I'm glad it's not just me too!"

"Mama! Auntie got us hot sweet potatoes!" Yuuta shouted, crawling onto his mother's lap.

Chisa tousled her son's hair. "After little ears go to bed, I'll tell you about who I got to meet today, Akari."

"What about me?" Chiori chimed in, at last engaging with Chisa.

"You're more than welcome to stay up. You know why we're here." The poor girl had put in her time with Kurogasa, she deserved to feel included.

After Yuuta went to sleep, Chisa told an abbreviated version of how Jin-e ended his life following a battle with the legendary hitokiri Battosai, but avoiding most of the details involving Kaoru. That was a story for another time. She was sure to elaborate on how kind Kenshin had been, and how he was seemingly living to atone for what hurt he caused. Chiori stayed without comment while her mother was speaking, seemingly processing for the first time that her father really was dead.

"So he really is gone now? Not like the other times when he came home a week or so late?" She sounded a bit confused.

"He's really gone. I saw his body this morning to confirm." Chisa said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Huh. I didn't think it could happen…" Now Chiori sounded surprised, but the relief in her voice was palpable.

Akari was always uncomfortable when Chisa and Chiori spoke to one another, especially when Jin-e was the subject. She cared very much for both of them and they both relied on her, but they had low mutual understanding of each other. She couldn't say the last time the two had a semi-pleasant conversation. Akari changed the subject before the inevitable "I'm glad he's dead" came out of Chiori's mouth.

"Tomorrow do you think you'll be gone most of the day again? We're thinking about checking out a nearby park and maybe having a picnic."

"Enjoy your day together. The children have never been able to see much outside of Shiga so take the opportunity while it's there." Chisa smiled at her daughter, who quickly looked away.

As they all laid down to go to bed, Chisa thought about her children. They had told them that their father was a former samurai who worked with people in the government and had to travel sometimes. A bit on-the-nose, but the children didn't know better. She thought about how Chiori had always been a bit of a difficult child; headstrong, confident, and blunt. She loved her for it, seeing characteristics in her that Chisa could never see in herself. Jin-e said that Chiori reminded him of his mother, which broke Chisa's heart.

Things were much different with Yuuta. His was a planned pregnancy, with Jin-e praying for a boy. A protégé. A successor. After a difficult pregnancy and birth with Chiori, they weren't certain that they would be able to have another child. This made him all the more important to both of his parents. Chisa did (what she felt like was) her best to make up for the love Chiori was not shown by her father. Chisa did not feel like Jin-e disliked his daughter, but he certainly didn't know how to be a parent. Children can pick up on these things easily, however, and Chiori was quite clever.

Chiori was at the front of Chisa's mind as she fell asleep.

In a dream, she was transported back to a memory…

Jin-e had left for a job in the Hyogo prefecture a few days prior; it wasn't far so she didn't anticipate him being gone so long. She was around seven months pregnant with Yuuta and so she was glad he had agreed to stay relatively close. It was a hot summer and Chisa was feeling miserable, not counting the paranoia that came along with being alone in the mountains with a small child.

On this particular night, Chiori was not sleeping well. The young girl had already been asking questions about the new baby, which made Chisa nervous. She remembered being small and uncertain when she found out that her mother was pregnant with baby Rin. She hoped that she would be able to be a good mother to both.

Chisa had fallen back asleep when Chiori patted her on the face. "Mama, he's home." She whispered. Chisa rolled over, assuming things to be fine.

"Mama…" she whispered again. "Mama, something is wrong with Papa."

This chilled Chisa. She looked up to see Jin-e, eyes black, clothing splashed with blood, staring at her and Chiori.

"Papa, you're hurt…" the little girl said softly.

"Have you girls been good while I've been gone?" He smiled at them.

"Get back, Jin-e." Chisa sat up carefully.

To her horror, Kurogasa bent down and picked Chiori up. She squirmed a bit, looked him in the face, and frowned. "Your eyes are wrong, Papa."

Chisa jumped up. "Put her down now."

Kurogasa just smiled and walked into the other room with the little girl. Chisa grabbed a knife that she kept in the bedroom and ran after them. He had put Chiori down by the door, patted the girl on the head, and turned to her mother. Chisa was dripping with rage.

"I got her a present and I simply wanted to show her." He coolly explained. He pulled out a small jewelry box and opened it. There was a thin gold chain inside. He took a step towards his daughter.

"If you touch her again..." Chisa had started her sentence without first thinking of what threat she was going to make. She realized that at this point Jin-e was, from their young daughter's perspective, the more rational one. Saying she was going to kill him would just scare Chiori.

Chiori started crying, scared. Kurogasa looked at her, shook his head, and redirected his gaze to Chisa. "Put the knife down. You're scaring the little one."

She took a breath and stepped closer to them. "We're going to Akari's. Go down to the cellar and stay there until we leave." She stepped closer again.

Kurogasa handed the jewelry box to his crying daughter, approached Chisa, and held out his hand for her to hand him the knife. She placed the knife in his hand without letting go of the handle, and when his hand began to close around it, she pulled it back suddenly, leaving a deep cut in his palm. Blood dripped into the floor and he laughed. "I wasn't expecting that. Good work."

She awoke sweating, shaking, and gasping for air. She looked around the room, expecting Kurogasa to be standing in the doorway.

He wasn't.