Part 3

By Calger459

~*~

Of course, soon after, I begin to wonder what I’ve really gotten myself into.

It takes some doing to get rid of the police once they arrive. I don’t think the chief honestly believes that I’m the one who vanquished Gohei; he keeps giving me odd glances as I explain what happened. I don’t like the way he’s looking at me, as if he were slowly realizing he’s found something he’s been looking for. I can’t even say for sure how I know what he is thinking…it’s just a feeling, a gut instinct that has almost always been right in the past. This can only mean trouble. I do my best to be convincing as the Rurouni without seeming completely incompetent. I’ve never been a very good actor, and I’m not sure I’ve really succeeded in banishing the captain’s suspicions. Eventually though, he rounds up his men. Once they’ve finally gone (it is now nearly midday), taking the semi- conscious thugs with them, I am left alone with Kaoru.

She insists on preparing lunch for me, I guess out of some sort of gratitude for rescuing her a second time, but I don’t miss the disbelieving glances she keeps throwing my way. It’s the same expression she was wearing as she watched my performance for the captain, a desperate attempt to balance seriousness with disarming smiles and the occasional “Oro!” Poor thing, I can’t really blame her, after all in the space of ten minutes I transformed in her eyes from a harmless rurouni to a master swordsman…and a legendary hitokiri at that.

Damn it all, why couldn’t I have fought in obscurity like every other Bakumatsu soldier? Why is it that even children know my name as a scary story told to make them behave? I witnessed such a telling myself scarcely three weeks ago, at an inn in a small town outside Tokyo. “Seven, no *ten* feet tall!” the young mother had proclaimed, “Two thousand men and even children slain without mercy!” Indignation collided roughly with aching guilt in my heart as I listened to the frightened whimpers of her son. The things I did as a hitokiri were terrible, but I never killed one child. I had to leave the room at that point, disgusted with her and myself.

Kaoru stirs her soup pot and tosses in a few more vegetables. I sniff the air and realize something’s burning. “Um…Kaoru-dono? I think the rice…”

“MOU!” I have to catch the thrown soup ladle (images of my sakabatou being tossed airborne in a similar manner flash nightmarishly through my mind) before it ends up in the dirt as she lunges for the now-smoking rice pot. “Oh, I knew there should have been more water! Water, I need some NOW!”

“Oh, right!” I put the spoon down and sprint for the well, dashing back in time to douse the rice before it can burst into flame.

Kaoru is flushing bright red in embarrassment as she stares into the smoldering rice pot. “G-gomen nasai. I thought I had it right this time…”

Hmm…maybe Ayame and Suzame were on to something after all. “It’s all right Kaoru-dono, I’m sure that happens to everyone occasionally.” I can’t recall ever burning my rice, but I smile encouragingly at her anyway.

Looking away, she hastily ladles some soup into a bowl and hands it to me. Some kind of vegetable stew, I guess. Only then, in my typical fashion, do I realize just how hungry I am. When did I eat last, anyway? Oh right, breakfast yesterday. Tipping up the bowl, I gratefully take a sip.

Oh *gods*.

“Kenshin? Kenshin, are you okay?” Kaoru pounds my back frantically as I choke and sputter. Somewhere on a mountain in Kyoto, I’m sure my master is laughing his pointy cape off right now.

Speaking of which, why in the world does he keep popping into my head anyway? These past two days I’ve thought more about the insufferable man than I have in the last two years! Ugh, I’ve never tasted anything so bitter! “I’m *cough* fine Kaoru *hack* dono, you can stop hitting me de gozaru!” I sit back and take a deep breath, trying to clear the burning sensation from my mouth.

She looks at me dismally. “It was the onion powder wasn’t it? Or maybe the vinegar? I think I put too much of *something* in it, but I thought it would turn out okay anyway…oh don’t make that face, I tried didn’t I?” She’s gotten indignant again. Well I must admit, she did work very hard on the soup, it’s just she has no talent whatsoever for cooking.

Now I know why those sisters were so relieved when they thought I’d come to cook for Kaoru. It’s my master’s revenge for all those meals when I was a child, I just know it. I attempt a smile and grip my bowl a little harder. It’s awful stuff but I’m still hungry, and something in her face and posture suggests that if I don’t eat what she’s prepared happily, I’m going to regret it. Well, my instincts have hardly ever been wrong before.

We go through the rest of the horrid meal in silence. I resolve then and there to prepare dinner for us, and begin thinking of ways to tell her so without offending her. Deep in thought, I glance up to find her staring at me in something akin to fascination. Okay, this is getting awkward.

“What?”

She blinks in surprise and hurriedly ladles more soup, even though she’s hardly touched her bowl. “Sorry, it’s just…” she trails off, thinking.

We sit that way for a few more minutes, the only sounds being the wind in the trees and the occasional bird. I sigh gently. “Please, whatever you’re thinking, I won’t be offended. Do you regret asking me to stay?”

“NO!” I gasp a little at her reaction. “N-no, I’m glad you’re here! It’s just that…I really thought he was the hitokiri and all this time…it was you.” She gazes at me wonderingly. “You’re nothing like I imagined Battousai would be…that’s all.”

I smile warmly at her, which seems to surprise her. “It’s all right Karou- dono, you wouldn’t be the first person to have said so. I’m used to it. I just wanted to make sure you were okay with all this, given the circumstances.”

She stares into her bowl, slowly pushing the vegetables around with her chopsticks. “Well…you do want to help me, right? I don’t want to force you to stay if you don’t want to. After all, I’m sure you have more important things to do.”

“Why would you think that?” It’s actually quite amusing the way we keep second-guessing each other. “When I said I was just a wanderer, I meant it. No one else knows I’m here. Helping you is the least I can do, seeing as I’m partly to blame for all this.”

She looks up in surprise. “How so? You only just got here, and Gohei was acting on his own.”

“Using *my* reputation!” I counter forcefully.

I mentally smack myself when I realize what I’ve done. She knows full well what my “reputation” is, and I just dragged it out into the open. “S- sumanu, Kaoru-dono, I—“

“The Hitokiri Battousai,” she interrupts softly, her voice only a murmur “was an Imperialist who fought to free the people from the Bakufu’s rule. He was the strongest of all the hitokiri, and the peace we enjoy today is largely thanks to his efforts and sacrifices. The lives lost to his sword were not taken in vain, but were necessary to secure everyone’s future. Although our style does not condone killing, sometimes it is a necessary evil when a greater future is at stake.”

“My father,” she continues, slowly lifting her gaze to mine, “told me this the night before he left to fight in the Seinen Wars. I had heard…of you, and I was angry that he would leave me to become like the hitokiri I’d heard so many terrible things about.”

So her father went to the south to fight? But those wars ended six months ago and Kaoru is alone now so…he must be dead then. I feel a pang of sympathy for her, and her words, ringing with an unexpected wisdom, leave me powerless to respond.

“Part of the reason I was so furious with Gohei was I thought he, or rather Battousai, had forgotten the ideals he’d fought for and destroyed the honor my father had spoken so highly of. To go killing innocent men and to blame it all on our school…I began to doubt my father’s words and his reasons for leaving me alone with the dojo. But now…” she suddenly smiles at me, her blue eyes shimmering with tears, mesmerizing me with their emotion. “…now I know the truth, and my father was right after all. You are nothing like the stories I’ve heard, and everything like the man my father spoke of. How could I think less of you when I know who you really are? I’m so glad you came when you did.”

I’m lost in her eyes, in her kind words. I…NO! No, I cannot be what she says! I’m filthy, stained, and completely unworthy of her trust. Her father is dead and I’m *still* to blame, despite what she says! I tear my gaze away from her and stare furiously at the ground, trying to hide my warring emotions. “Y-you think too much of me,” is all I can stammer. There is a heartbeat of silence.

“Kenshin no baka!” Her soup bowl collides with my head and I allow myself to keel over with a drawn-out “Oroooo…” “I’m trying to compliment you, you moron! What on earth is wrong with you?”

What an amazingly violent girl. Can’t say I didn’t deserve it though; I should know better than to carelessly mock her kindness to me. How absurd this scene would look to others: Battousai lying prone in a sunny dojo yard, his hair dripping with inedible soup, completely at the mercy of a young female kendoist. I start to laugh then, a low chuckle deep in my chest. I smile up at her in fond amusement. “Pardon me, Kaoru-dono, Sessha truly is a foolish man sometimes. Please let me apologize by making dinner for all of us. You should let Genzai-sensei know that I’m staying, after all.”

She raises an eyebrow at me and for a moment I’m worried she’s seen through my ruse. I steel myself in the event the entire pot of soup decides to join the bowl on my head. “Hmm, I suppose so. You’ll have to do the shopping for me while I clean though; the dojo’s in no state for guests.”

I nod agreeably and accept her proffered hand. She pulls me to my feet easily, and again I’m surprised at the strength in her small frame. “I…suppose I should clean myself off before I go, ne?”

She laughs then, a sound like the chiming of temple bells. Her merriment is infectious and we walk together to the bathhouse, at ease in each other’s company. The irony is not lost on me. “I’ll heat the water for you Kenshin, and I assure you that I will *not* peek in on *you*.”

“Oro!” Did she have to bring *that* up? “That was an accident, Sessha would never—“

“I was kidding, baka. Yeesh, just take a bath already will you? You’re a mess.” She’s grinning at me and I make my way hastily inside before I lose my composure right in front her. I can’t remember the last time I so enjoyed another’s company, or laughed so easily. It’s a very odd sensation, and I’m not sure how to handle it.

Thoughts of the upcoming ordeal of dinner are pushed to the back of my mind as I sink gratefully into the warm bath water. I sigh in contentment and close my eyes. Kamiya Kaoru…I began this little adventure with thoughts of my master, and how right he was about me, and the course my life has taken since I left him. Two days ago I would never have imagined that I would have found someone like you. Your kindness, spirit and forgiving nature are more than I deserve, but it is those same traits that I am determined now to protect. I’m sure your father would have been very proud of the life you’ve made for yourself, and it is my intention to help you in your goals and to uphold the honor your father saw in me.

There is another reason, though; I must admit that to myself. When I’m with you I feel alive again, almost human, in a way I haven’t felt since I was a young boy training in swordsmanship. I’m not sure how or why you cause these feelings in me, but because of them I find myself unwilling to leave your presence. My staying here is an unusually selfish action for me; I can only hope that I really have made the right choice. For certain though, unworthy or not I will see this new course through to the end, whatever that may be.

Owari

Have you ever taken the seed of an idea and just run with it? I had no idea a suggested sequel to “Rainy Dawn” would ever come out like this. Originally I wasn’t going to do it at all (after all, it wasn’t an idea I generated), but something about Kenshin’s behavior during the whole first episode and Karou’s amazingly calm reactions to him struck me as interesting, and a bit odd. I really wanted to make this fic something more than a rehash of episode 1, so I focused on holes in the timeline to further develop Kenshin’s impressions of Kaoru (and vice versa) and to flesh out the many reasons why he would have chosen to stay with her at the dojo (um, besides the obvious -_-;;). I was going to end it with the Gohei fight scene, but then it occurred to me that there was an entire day afterward that must have been quite awkward for Kenshin (in the anime we see Kenshin sitting on the porch being tended by Gensai and the girls, I imagine that would be sometime after the end of this fic) and I was curious as to what Karou’s motivations for wanting him to stay really were. Watching the episode it’s plain that she thinks he’s kinda cute, as well as very strong. It’s also obvious that she’s very lonely and were I her, I wouldn’t want to be left alone in that dojo either, especially since Kenshin’s such an obviously kind and capable man. But were there any other reasons? Why wasn’t she more shocked or frightened when she learned who he was? Why does she so naively not care about the pasts of others, especially when the truth about Gohei and Kenshin are revealed? There seemed to be something missing there within the context of the episode, so I came up with a reason to fill it. I have no idea how realistic it is that Karou’s father would say or believe such things, we know practically nothing about him from the manga or anime, but I tried. So what do you guys think?