Tenshi: hey i hope this is is better than before...because i have my beta to correct it.

Discover a New Person

“Kenshin, come inside! It’s going to rain soon,” Kaoru yelled from the dojo.

“Hai Kaoru-dono!” Kenshin quickly grabbed the clothes on the laundry line and piled them into the laundry basket, as he sensed a presence nearby. Running inside a room, he dropped the clothes on the floor and opened the front door. There stood a girl. She wore a blue gi and hakama, her red hair tied back with two long bangs falling in front similar to Kaoru’s hair, and her eyes were violet like Kenshin’s. Kenshin eyed her right hand, taking note that she was holding a sword.

“Konnichiwa,” the girl said looking at Kenshin. When Kenshin realized she was talking to him, he bowed.

“Konnichiwa,” Kenshin greeted, “What can I do for you, ma’am?” Kaoru overheard the conversation and ran outside to stand next to Kenshin.

“Konnichiwa,” Kaoru said to the girl. “Is there anything you need?”

The girl just nodded and said, “Thank you for your politeness. May I ask, is this the Kamiya dojo?”

Kaoru nodded her head yes. “Why do you ask?” Kaoru asked as she looked up at the sky; it was darkening and clouds began to cover the bright sun. It was going to rain soon.

“Please come inside and we’ll talk,” Kaoru told the young girl. The girl walked inside the dojo and was led by Kaoru into the living room. As the girl kneeled down, Kenshin watched her, watching her every move before sitting down as well.

She is very casual, he said inside his mind.

“Sumimasen, watashi wa Himura Suyumi,” The girl introduced herself. Kaoru and Kenshin looked at each other, eyes both questioning, holding confused gazes.

“Did you say Himura?” Kenshin asked hesitantly.

“Hai, so do you mind telling both your names, if I may be so forward?”

“Kamiya Kaoru” Kaoru said studying the girl casually.

“That’s a beautiful name,” Suyumi commented with a small smile.

Kaoru smiled for a moment. Suyumi gaze averted to Kenshin. “And you?”

“Himura Kenshin,” Kenshin replied stoically.

Suyumi looked at Kenshin and smiled. “If you’re Kenshin, I assume you must know Hiko Seijuurou”

Kenshin nodded “Why do you ask of him?”

“Oh, it’s nothing really.” Suyumi said to him.

“So, why did you ask so sudden of my Shishou?” Kenshin ask again.

“Shishou? So he also taught you?” Suyumi asked.

“Also?” Kenshin echoed with a quizzical look on his face.

“Kenshin and Suyumi, what’s all of this?” Kaoru interfered with furrowed brows.

Suyumi turned carefully to Kaoru. “I’m sorry if you don’t get it, Kaoru-san. I’m sure Kenshin-kun doesn’t either.” She shot Kenshin a glance and began talking again. “I became his second apprentice of Hiten Mitsurugi after Kenshin left.”

“What?” Kenshin and Kaoru both shouted simultaneously.

“Hey I’m not finish yet,” Suyumi told them, calming Kaoru and Kenshin down a bit. “He found me one day and I didn’t have anyone to stay with so he made me his second apprentice and taught me Hiten Mitsurugi.”

“So do you have any relatives?” Kaoru asked slowly, eyes wandering to the red headed man sitting next to her.

She nodded and spoke carefully, “I do have an older brother. When he was born, a family adopted him, but he still kept the same name. I was born 10 years later. My mother called me Himura Suyumi. One day we were traveling and the carriage accidentally tipped over a bridge. I didn’t know what happened afterwards, though next I knew, I was inside a stranger’s house.”

“Sorry,” Kaoru told her.

“You needn’t act like that, I was only 8 back then,” Suyumi laughed.

Kenshin who had been quiet this whole time had already stopped paying attention to the girl’s talk after Suyumi told them of her elder brother’s existence.

He decided to inquire, “Suyumi, what is your older brother’s name?”

“Why do you ask?” Suyumi asked with an innocent look.

“Nothing really,” Kenshin replied

Suyumi looked sad for a moment and averted her gaze onto the floor.

“It’s all right if you don’t want to tell me,” Kenshin told her and stood up.

“Iie, iie, I was just thinking,” Suyumi told him quickly. “My brother goes by the name Shinta. Himura Shinta.”

At that moment Kenshin turned his head to what he had just heard come out of Suyumi’s mouth.

Slowly and carefully he spoke, “Imouto-chan”

Kaoru and Suyumi stared at Kenshin. “Imouto-chan? What do you mean Imouto-chan?” Suyumi ask.

“Kenshin, do you mean Suyumi is your imouto-chan?” Kaoru asked. Kenshin nodded slowly, his blood red bangs covering his amethyst eyes.

“I am not your imouto-chan,” Suyumi said defiantly. She couldn’t believe it. This man before her had stated his name as ‘Kenshin’, not ‘Shinta’.

“I am,” Kenshin told her. “I was named Shinta before I became a swordsman.”

“That doesn’t mean you are him. I can’t believe you and I will not even though you say you are,” Suyumi told him boldly.

“Why can’t you trust your own brother?” Kenshin asked her quietly sitting down again.

Suyumi looked up and stared at Kenshin, really studying him.

“What do you mean Kenshin?” Kaoru asked.

“I mean…” Kenshin was cut off by a voice from the room doorway.

“Baka deshi!”

The trio turned their head to face a muscular man wearing a billowing, white mantle.

“Shishou?” Kenshin and Suyumi asked at the same time. Kaoru looked at him and bowed a little in respect.

“You didn’t listen to me!” Hiko told Suyumi with a small, almost unnoticeable glare. “I was trying to tell you the truth.”

“Telling me the truth Shishou! You kept playing tricks on me, so I decided to ask Kenshin.” Suyumi replied back returning his glare heatedly.

“And he told you the truth!” Hiko yelled at her.

“What?” Suyumi asked in disbelief, not really wanting to accept the fact that the man before her was her elder brother.

“Kenshin IS Shinta. I renamed Shinta to Kenshin!” Hiko explained.

Suyumi look at Kenshin in disbelief.

“You are?” she asked Kenshin, her voice wavering.

Kenshin nodded. “I…was until Shishou changed it.”

“Will you still be the same…Shinta?” Suyumi asked tears falling from her eyes. Kenshin couldn’t bare seeing Suyumi cry, but he knew he couldn’t be the Shinta that couldn’t even protect three important people in his lives. He was a new person creating a new world.

“Kenshin, Suyumi is asking you something,” Kaoru shook Kenshin from his thoughts.

Kenshin looked at Suyumi “Gomen, but I’m not that person anymore. I will not let anyone I see getting hurt.”

“Iie, not that!” she yelled. “I meant, are you still willing to be my onee-san, Shinta?”

Kenshin stared at her. He didn’t know what she was trying to say earlier but now he did. Pulling Suyumi into his arms he answered, “Hai imouto-chan, for you I will be Shinta.”

tenshi: Thanks na lee for also editing this...