Tenken's Smile: Hajimemashite! Welcome to my first fanfic! XD

DISCLAIMER: I don’t own any characters or plot of “Rurouni Kenshin”! They belong to Nobuhiro Watsuki-sensei.

FOREWORD: There're still mysteries in his past that Seta Soujiro wishes to unravel himself. Let's witness the adventures, experiences, philosophies, and mistakes along his journey as a rurouni! Some chapters are flashbacks to his childhood (you can figure out by noticing the verb tense and the time). The whole story consists of 3 parts: Dawning, The Wanderer’s Eyes, and The Belonging Place - - stages in Soujiro's life! XD

Stage I: DAWNING

Prologue: A FRESH START

Drowning memories stepped in crime down the sea
A man goes out once more on an endless journey
Even if the fierce wind blows away the smile
If one has courage in his heart
Someday he shall meet his dream...

A young man is standing on a hill without a care in the world. He gives up all of his possessions in order to be there. He does not worry about tomorrow nor will he think about yesterday. The only image in his mind is that of Freedom from the pains of this mundane world. There in his place of Peace, he cannot hear anything but himself. A man without anger or sadness, desires or needs. A man in a true state of Nirvana.

I want to seek for the truth by myself, in his untroubled mind echo only those words. Firm. Resolute. Devoting!

The Sky of Freedom is inviting him. For the first time standing on the threshold of life, he’s taking a moment contemplating the grandeur beauty of nature while trying to pull some pieces of intricate life from this world he knows little about. Motivated to understand this spiritual nature, the worlds converge into one, a World of Freedom. Spectacular landscape's captured vividly in his eyes and for a short moment, he has lost in its immenseness.

His long, arduous journey to seek for the ultimate Maxim has only begun. The scenery as he’s heading north through the valley is so quaint and peaceful to this pristine village. The trees and scattered farms, endless variations of straw houses, red barn and tufted cornfield slide smoothly backward. Every mile means that he is freer.

Seta Soujiro smiles again...

...with his solitary self.

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Meiji Japan 1869, ten years ago…

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“Ohhh God!" A little girl jumped off the fence, her skirt meddled with dust. She's standing there, staring at the little boy in the yard...

"You're still awake? This bunch of works won't let you sleep until dawn! Need a hand?” Without waiting for an agreement or a disagreement, seven-year-old Shohane rushed to the wash-tub and plunged both hands into the cold water. The little boy was peering at her appreciatively.

“Finally!” She clasped her hands blissfully as a huge pile of dirty clothes turned clean.

The little boy was sitting right beside a huge pile of firewood. He was smiling. “It's time for you to go home and rest, Shohane,” he said in a hushed voice. “You can hang around, but please, I'm used to it. Before you came, I just did everything by myself all along.”

Seeing his alleviating smile, she shoved herself again to help him chop the firewood no matter what he said.

His soft voice and her laughter took flight in the air...

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Modern 2869, in another part of the world

Katsuga Shohane smiles retrospectively... Memories have painted a vivid color in her mind... It had been ten years, and the bond of friendship that traces back to childhood still remains concrete in defiance to Time. But somehow, ten years ago, she had lost touch with him. She wants to travel back once more to former Japan, passing through time and space, to look for that precious friend, though she doesn't have a clue where he is now... She believes if she keeps looking...

In a former world, dangers could lurk anywhere; security and police weren't sufficient to protect the citizens. Shohane believes that it's best not to reveal her identity until she finds him, so she takes quite a while to create a disguise that would prove helpful for living in the past: After half an hour, she comes out of the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror... No one can recognize her from this point.

She hops into the spacetime ship, is no longer Katsuga Shohane but Sei Hyde - a name she invents that would suit this new boyish appearance.

... The stream of time engulfs the time-traveler into its waves and delivering her back a millenium to reach an obsolete era named Meiji, where her dear friend would be there... somewhere. . . .