It was dark when Kaoru quietly left for the "resturant".  Yahiko trailed her.  The most he could see in the barely moonlit night was that she held a bag of some sort over her shoulder.  After crossing the bridge into town, Kaoru made a turn to the left and walked into the forest.  Yahiko followed.  It wasn't too long later that he finally heard noise rising from a building in the woods.  He peered through the bushes to find a very old building, which looked somewhat rebuilt on the inside, yet still pretty ugly on the outside.  There were men with swords who stood by the door.  When Kaoru walked up, one of the men tried to grab her arm,but with one quick slap that reverberated throughout the forest, Kaoru was left unharmed as she entered the building.  The man was still cursing minutes later.  Yahiko grinned, he know how much those slaps hurt and was pretty happy about seeing someone else get hit for a change.   After an hour, a few other girls from town came to the building.  One of them looked very familiar, but Yahiko couldn't really see her well.  All of them with holding bags, and trying to keep the guards from molesting them.
           Minutes later, Yahiko began to fall asleep when a beautiful voice could be heard from within.  After three songs, Yahiko decided that he wanted a closer look.  The guards, which were passed out drunk, didn't see nor hear the boy as he snuck through the door.  Once there, he only saw very beautiful women in skimpy clothing serving food and drink.  The singer was pretty, too, but not as well porportioned as some of the waitresses.  Yahiko found a closet and looked through a crack, trying to find Kaoru.  When he couldn't find her, he sighed.  She's probably cooking in the back, he thought.  Immediately following that thought, he closed the door and began to laugh as quietly as he could.  Tears streamed down his face as he thought of the unfortunate patrons outside.  But Yahiko stopped laughing when the closet door was pulled wide open.  He froze when the woman came into the closet with him before closing the door after her.
            "Kaoru?  Is that you?"
            "Yahiko, what are you doing here?"
            "Megumi!  What are you doing here?"
            "I think I asked you first.  You're here for Kaoru aren't you?"
            "Yeah, Kenshin and Sano told me to tail her.  What are YOU doing here?"
            "Well, I knew she was going to do this, so I came to keep an eye on her."
            "Oh yeah?  Well, where was she?  Is she still here?  I looked all around, but I couldn't find her."
            Megumi smiled, "Oh, she's here alright.  But I won't tell you where.  So, you're bringing Chicken-boy and Kenshin tomorrow night, right?"
            "That's the plan."
            " Good.  Well, I gotta go.  Kawasaka-san's decent, but I wouldn't want to make him mad."  She smiled and turned to open the door.  "Oh do me a favour, Yahiko?"
            "What?"
            "Don't tell Ken-san or Sanosuke you saw me here.  I wanna surprise them myself."
            Yahiko grinned, "I wouldn't dream of it."
            "Good boy.  Now go home, Kaoru won't be done for hours yet.  And I'm here, I'll look after her."
            "Great, I was bored, anyway."
            "Night, Yahiko-chan."
            "CHAN! YOU-"
            Megumi's laughter faded away as Yahiko quietly cursed in the dark.

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