Disclaimer: I don't own or claim Rurouni Kenshin or Ranma1/2. I don't make any money from this or have intentions of copyright infringements, so please don't sue me.

Bushido

Akane moaned, gingerly placing a hand to her aching head. "W-what happened?"

"Oh my!" Kasumi said, trying to get up and free herself from the tangle of humanity.

"What have you done this time, boy?!" Genma said. He glared at Ranma who, in turn, stared into space unable to believe what had just happened.

"Ranma, you'd best explain yourself," Soun scolded.

Ranma snapped out of his trance, his face turning red with annoyance. "Hey, I didn't do nothing! It was the old freak!"

"Blaming it on me again, aren't ya?!" Happosai replied.

Everyone began to argue, getting louder by the minute. The whole house reverberated with their loud voices, snapping the Kenshin gumi out of their slight shocks.

"Just wait a minute!" Kaoru yelled, catching everyone's attention. Seven pairs of unfamiliar eyes looked up at her. "Just who do you all think you are, barging into my home and ruining it?"

"I'm Ranma Saotome," Ranma said, as though the sound of his name explained it all. (And it would have had they been in their own version of Nerima...or the whole of Japan for that matter).

"And?" Kaoru waited, tapping her socked foot on the wooden floor.

"Uh--?" Ranma was at a lost. He tried to get up, hoping to be in a better position to explain himself out of this tight situation. Then he felt the icky feeling on his chest again. He shrugged everyone off his back and got up amidst screams and yells. He looked down on himself and remembered. "Oooh, no!"

"What is it, Ranma?" Akane asked, getting up next to her fiancée. She looked at his chest and her eyes widened. "Oh, no."

Ranma's family crowded around Ranma, trying to see what got Ranma and Akane agreeing to each other for once. A collective gasp of disbelief and amazement resounded from the group.

The Kenshin gumi tried to stand on their toes, trying to catch a glimpse of what the strangers were all oohing and aahing about.

"What are you people doing?!" Kaoru asked at last, earning everyone's stares once more.

"The Nanban Mirror broke..." Ranma said, once again saying it as though it should explain everything.

"Nanban Mirror?" Sano asked. "A lousy mirror broke and all you guys are crying about it? What a bunch of sissies."

This got everyone arguing again and Kaoru and Kenshin did their best to restore peace amongst the group.

"Ranma, it's all your fault," Happosai finished.

"It's no one's fault for the moment," Kenshin interrupted quickly before another argument could take place. "Now, everyone calm down and let us all go to the dojo, where there will be enough room for everyone."

Everyone muttered their way to the dojo, arguing amongst themselves and spitting insults at one another.

"Alright, let's start from the very beginning," Kaoru said as she stared at each and every one of the strangers that now sat in a semi circle in the dojo.

"Okay, there's this magic mirror called the Nanban mirror..." Ranma began.

"It was all your fault, Ranma!" Happosai accused, pointing at Ranma.

"How could it be my fault this time!? Everyone saw that you made the wish!"

"Hold it you two!" Akane yelled at the two. She held P-Chan tightly in her arms, almost strangling him in her anger. She turned apologetic eyes to Kaoru and Kenshin. "We're sorry about this. Allow us to introduce ourselves before we begin."

Kaoru nodded and Kenshin looked on curiously. He felt a tremendous amount of power coming from these people and he wanted to determine whether they were enemies or... Kami forbid...friends.

Akane let P-Chan go and put her fingertips on the floor in front of her. She had noticed the way Megumi and Kaoru were dressed in kimonos, and Akane knew enough that kimonos in her day was a sign of formality. She wasn't sure what year they were in but just to be safe... Akane bowed, almost touching her forehead to the ground. "I am Tendo Akane."

Kasumi and Nabiki, seeing their sister, thought it wise to follow her example, bowing before speaking. "I am Tendo Kasumi, Akane's older sister." And "I am Tendo Nabiki, also Akane's older sister."

Soun sat with his feet tucked beneath him. He bowed slightly and introduced himself. Genma, not knowing what was going on (as if he ever did), also did the same. All but Yahiko of the Kenshin-gumi froze at Genma’s name.

Yahiko, oblivious to his friend’s tensed state, looked at Ranma and Happosai and smirked. "You must be Ranma, eh?"

Ranma started but made a quick and informal bow. "I'm Saotome Ranma, sorry about this."

"And I am the great master of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, Happosai."

"Hmph!" Sano grunted, thinking back on all the damages that the group had made to Kaoru's dojo. "Great, my butt! And what kind of name is Anything Goes anyhow?"

"Why you little punk!" Happosai said getting up from his position.

"Stop," Kenshin said calmly, his one small word getting everyone's attention. "We will finish the introductions." He nodded towards Kaoru. Despite her misgivings Kaoru obeyed Kenshin.

"I am Kamiya Kaoru, owner of this dojo. These are my friends, Himura Kenshin, Sagara Sannosuke, Myojin Yahiko, Onna Sensei Megumi, Sensei Genzai, and his granddaughters, Ayame-chan and Suzume-chan."

"Now that that's over, you people had better have a good explanation for dropping in like that," Sano said rudely and looking over them suspiciously.

Kasumi felt bad. "We're so sorry about all this. We didn't mean to. It's just that--"

"It's just that it's Ranma's fault!" Happosai interrupted.

"Aw, quit it already, ya old freak!" Ranma said, hitting Happosai on the head. "You had the mirror, you made the wish, you brought us here! Do you deny it?!"

"All I ever wanted was to live a happy life in my old age..." Happosai sniffed.

"Well, wherever here is, we're stuck," Nabiki commented, looking around the dojo.

"And it was all Ranma's--- OW!" Happosai yelled as his face got smashed in by a number of feet.

"You sound like a broken record! Sheesh!" Ranma punched Happosai again.

Kaoru blinked twice before regaining her senses. "How are you 'stuck' here?"

Akane was the one who answered, "The Nanban mirror is a magic mirror that allows the holder to go wherever he wants, including the past and the future. After we landed here, the mirror broke and there is no way of using it to return to our home."

"Just where are we anyway?" Soun asked.

"Tokyo," Ayame-chan called, feeling left out.

And predictably, her sister, Suzume-chan repeated, "Tokyo! Tokyo!"

"What year?" Genma asked.

It took a while for that question to be answered since the Kenshin Gumi were still a little skeptical about their strange guests.

Megumi broke the silence at last by taking out her medicine bag and rifling through it. "I think everyone is just a little delirious from the fall. Maybe if you drank some tea--?"

"Tea would be nice," Kasumi smiled, unfazed by the tension in the air. "Would you like some help in preparing it?"

Megumi looked up and returned the smile. "Thank you."

Both young women got up and left the room. But the tension was still there.

Kenshin finally decided to humor the strangers. Carefully he said, "The year is 1878, ten years after the war."

That led to another round of exclamations, shouting and arguments. "No, it couldn't be!" "Great, Tokyo is a hick town!" "I remember those days...."

"Eh..." Kaoru sweated. She was getting nervous with the number of lunatics currently in her home. "And where are all of you from? That is to say, if you are telling the truth."

"And you better be or we'll beat the crap out of you!" Sano added.

Kaoru continued as though Sano didn’t say anything. "I mean, you guys being part of the Saotome and Tendo clans--?"

"We're from the future. We come from Nerima, a district of Tokyo," Akane supplied.

Whatever, the Kenshin Gumi were expecting, it wasn’t that. They all concluded that their visitors were all crazy. Starting with their presence in the Kamiya home, their story just got stranger and stranger.

Soon, Megumi and Kasumi returned with the tea. The company stayed up all night asking and answering questions about each other. By the end of the night, the Ranma group were nearly as depressed as when they found out that the mirror broke. They decided right then and there that Genma and Soun should go to China and get the existing Nanban Mirror from the Amazon village, considering that they had the most experience with this sort of thing. Happosai had left early since no one was willing to listen to him anyway. The Kenshin gumi felt a bit more lighthearted, seeing that the strangers were harmless lunatics who only want to 'return home.' And if they wanted to claim that they were Tendos and Saotomes, then they could, seeing as how they don’t seem to want to harm anyone. Yahiko and Sanosuke were especially glad that there will be more people staying at the dojo to help out with the work. Kaoru and Kenshin were more worried about the food and living space.

However, because it was summer, though, it wouldn't be too bad if Sano (who practically lived there although he says he's only sleeping over), Genma and Ranma slept in the storage room; and the girls could probably fit by sharing rooms. Kaoru figured it would be best that way.

Overall, that was the best thing to do for the moment and soon, everyone began to get tired and went off to their respective homes and sleeping quarters.

Kenshin yawned as he got up from his futon and glanced blearily around the dark room. He usually got up at dawn, before the sun came up, to cook breakfast for everyone and to start on the laundry if necessary. But that morning, he got up especially to check on the guests. He put on his kimono and hakama and retrieved his sakabatou before he left his room, glancing over to where Soun and Yahiko were sleeping. Both were still snoring away.

Kenshin stopped in the hallway when he felt the battle auras that were swirling in the air. His heart filling with dread, he hurried outdoors, his sakaba in readiness for any attacks. He stepped carefully outside into the yard and waited calmly, his warrior's instinct taking over.

A split second before he could absorb it in, a figure leapt out of the trees and met another that had come from a different tree. It wasn't the fact that it was people leaping out of trees so early in the morning that had Kenshin's eyes widening in surprise, it was that these people were practicing their arial martial arts with as much intensity and familiarity.

Kenshin immediately recognized Ranma and Genma. As soon as the adrenaline rush and the fear subsided, Kenshin sat down on the dewy grass and watched the performance. They were good, he thought, respect gleaming in his eyes as he watched the movements and techniques of the Anything Goes School.

"Oi, Kenshin, what are you doing?" Sano asked, coming up behind Kenshin.

Kenshin had heard him but was still too entranced by the rare spectacle in front of him.

Sano frowned at Kenshin, wondering why anyone would want to sit on wet grass and get a crick in his neck looking up at nothing. Sano decided to get down on the grass as well and see for himself what has the great hitokiri so fascinated.

The moment he saw the two martial artists in the air, his jaw dropped. He couldn't believe the speed and the power behind the attacks and the techniques. And what's harder to believe was that the two combatants were the seemingly confused lunatics from the night before.

"Oi, is that possible?" Sano asked distractedly.

"Ofcourse it is, Sano," Kenshin replied. "Discipline and practice are what it takes."

Up in the air, Ranma smirked at his father. "I'm taking it easy on you, old man!"

"Ha! That's easy?! What do you call that trickle of water running down your face then?"

"Your sweat!" Ranma shot back.

"I'll teach you a lesson, boy!" Genma said, goaded.

"Ha! You can try!"

"Oh, my," a voice said behind Sano and Kenshin. "There's no water to break their fall if I call them."

Kenshin looked up at the pretty young woman that had made the comment. Then he looked back up at the two fighters. "Oro?"

Kasumi smiled at Kenshin and Sano. "Back home, when I call them in for breakfast, one or both of them gets distracted enough to let their guard down. We had a koi pond where they usually fall into when that happens. But now, they'll fall on the ground."

Sano stood up from his sitting position and chuckled, cracking his knuckles. "Why don't you let me handle this, Kasumi-san."

Kasumi smiled in relief. "Oh, I would be so thankful if you would."

Kasumi went to go back to the kitchen.

"Oro?" Kenshin glanced after her. Breakfast was already prepared?

"Wanna have a little fun, Kenshin?" Sano said not bothering to look at Kenshin. He cracked his knuckles, anticipating the small exercise he was about to get.

"Why'd you hafta butt in in the first place?!" Ranma yelled at Sano who slurped his miso soup.

"Kuso! This is good soup, Kasumi-san," Sano said as he ignored Ranma.

Ranma glared at Sano before turning to his father. "And you! What kind of father are you, teaming up with strangers and ganging up against your own son!"

"Ranma! If you had learned your lessons well, you wouldn't have been beaten!" Genma shot back.

The two continued their habitual argument over the breakfast table.

Kaoru glanced at Kenshin and shot him a raised brow. Kenshin just shrugged in return.

"Well," Kaoru said jumping up. "I think Yahiko and I will go and practice in the dojo now."

"Eh?" Ranma said, pausing mid argument to look up at Kaoru. "Whatcha practicing?"

"Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu," Yahiko said. He looked at Kaoru, "Can't we go in a few minutes? I wanna finish the best breakfast I've ever eaten."

Kasumi chuckled at the indirect compliment.

"Well, hurry up then! We don't have all day!" Kaoru said turning to leave.

"What’s Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu?" Ranma asked, curious about the technique.

Kaoru turned to him, seeing him as a potential student. "If you want to know, come watch."

"Let’s go then," Ranma said, sitting up and forgetting about the bowl of unfinished rice in his hand.

Akane, Nabiki, Soun and Genma looked at Ranma, then at his unfinished breakfast. All of them jumped on him, one hand on their foreheads and the other on Ranma's.

"Hey, quit that! What's wrong with you people!?" Ranma said, shying away from them.

"Kaoru-san," Nabiki began as she turned to face Kaoru. "Before you go practice, I want to talk to you about a proposition I had in mind. Would you mind stepping out of the room with me for a moment?"

Kaoru was ushered away by Nabiki, followed by the sighs and the sweatdrops of her family.

"That girl sure finds business wherever and whenever she goes," Soun said. "That reminds me, Saotome. How are we going to get to China?"

"Yes, Nabiki-san?" Kaoru asked curiously.

"Now, you may hear things from the others that I'm not always the person to call nice, but I think you'll understand that everything I do, I do it for the family. I can see that you're dojo is not as lucrative as you want it to be, Kaoru-san, and here lies my proposal."

"Eh?"

"In appreciation for taking us..uh... strangers in, I will help with the expenses that will incur during our stay. All this will be free of charge, on one condition."

"Huh?" Kaoru wasn't quite clear of what Nabiki was saying, considering the strange terms she kept using.

Nabiki grinned dryly. "I so love a business partner who says that. Anyway, I will help with the money, if you don't tell my family anything about our arrangements. I have a rep to uphold and I don't want Ranma and his father thinking that they could... well anyway, do you agree?"

"You will help with the dojo if I don't tell your family that you do?" Kaoru looked at her strangely. Nabiki nodded.

"Okay, I agree then."

"Good, now about the details...."

"Yosh. Now I want you to keep practicing that move," Kaoru instructed Yahiko, correcting his position once in a while.

"So the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu is a kendo style," Ranma commented when Kaoru came by his side to watch Yahiko practice his new lesson.

"Yes. My father taught me well," Kaoru replied smiling.

Ranma watched Yahiko practicing. "How effective is it?"

"It’s based on the principle of non-violence and used mostly as protection. But it is an effective defense when it needs to be."

"I hope so. I've seen a few but I haven't really fought against real kendo masters all that much. There was one kendoist that I fought regularly though, and he was really pathetic," Ranma said unknowingly, thinking about Kuno.

Kaoru glared at him. "Well, the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu may not be as powerful as some other techniques, but the values that it’s built on makes its students confident in their abilities. Confidence in knowing that they are fighting for the right things."

"Yeah, it would be awesome if you work on the students' belief that they're fighting for the right things, rather than physical prowess over other techniques. Students need to believe in something that counts to them; that way they have a better chance at winning using Kamiya Kasshin. The more it counts, the harder they'll try..."

"And what sort of thing would count to you," Kaoru pointedly asked Ranma.

"Well, I’ll tell you something that doesn’t count to me. If it were a choice between fighting to have a normal life and fighting to prove that you’re the greatest martial artist around, I would take the normal life any day. There’s just some things that normal people have that’s priceless."

"And what’s that?" Kaoru asked, softly and breathlessly. She had sensed an underlying current in Ranma’s words that had made her listen more carefully.

Ranma gazed at Yahiko and firmly said, "Peace of mind."

"Ranma—"

Ranma pretended not to hear the edge of pity in her voice, and continued on reflectively. "But then when a person is in the middle of a fight, you gotta admit that in the end, nothing else matters…not confidence, not technique, nothing but life. The way I see it is like this: believe in something important to you, fight for it with your life, knowing that if you die without winning, there might not be anyone around to fight for the same things, and your life would've ended for nothing."

Kenshin stood outside the entrance of the Kamiya dojo. He was quiet and still, his eyes holding an intensity that betrayed the tension of his body. It was Ranma’s words that froze him to silence and immobility. He had first heard Ranma’s opinion about the only kendo he had ever really seen, and was about to charge in and correct his youthful narrow-mindedness, but when he heard the boy’s next few comments, Kenshin had stopped himself. He listened instead, and what he heard surprised him into stupefaction. Ranma was voicing out Kenshin’s unspoken beliefs; beliefs that had sprung from a hellish experience. And now, it led Kenshin to think about what sort of life Ranma had lead before crashing through the Kamiya roof.

"Himura-san," Ranma’s voice interrupted Kenshin’s thoughts. The fact that Kenshin didn’t even hear Ranma come up behind him showed how deep Kenshin’s thoughts were, and how good Ranma’s martial arts was.

Kenshin smiled calmly, as though nothing monumental had happened. "Saotome-san, please just call me Kenshin."

Ranma chuckled, "Sure, and you can call me Ranma. Saotome-san reminds me of pops."

"Alright," Kenshin said. He pretended to look behind Ranma and through the dojo door. "You have been watching Yahiko practice, I see."

"I wanted to see what the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu was about."

"What did you think about it?"

"I don’t know," Ranma said honestly. "I haven’t seen it in battle, and I don’t know much of kendo to say anything to criticize it."

"But you’re a martial artist. Does it matter what style it is before you know whether or not it’s good?"

"Well, no, I guess. If you really want something outta me, I’ll tell ya this: it’s idealistic. It has it’s good points, and Kaoru-san knows what she’s doing, but the real world ain’t like that and it’s gonna be hard to keep those kinds of ideals in a real fight without leaving yourself vulnerable."

"Is the Tokyo you live in without ideals, then?" Kenshin asked lightly, though his eyes bore into Ranma’s, waiting for an answer.

"Everybody’s got ideals, what’s life without them? It’s just that in a fight, it’s the not the ideals that win it or lose it for you, it's how much you want to believe in them, don’t you think?"

"Depends."

"Yeah, it depends."

There was a wealth of unspoken meanings between the words that neither Kenshin nor Ranma could have gone into but Ranma spotted something at Kenshin’s side that made his eyes widen in alarm.

"What? What is it?" Kenshin asked him turning in circles as he tried to see anything unusual.

"K-katana. That’s a katana at your side, ne?" Ranma stuttered, gulping his nervousness.

Kenshin smiled and held out his sheathed sakaba out to Ranma. "It’s a sakabatou."

"A sword is a sword is a katana."

"Oro?"

Ranma, realizing how ridiculous he was acting, tried to cover up, "Hehheh, nothing, it’s alright. Katana is alright."

He walked away, muttering about katana, honor and secrets, leaving Kenshin to gaze after him in confusion.

"He’s nice, but strange, ne Kenshin?" Kaoru said, coming out of the dojo and going to Kenshin’s side.

"Yes. Nice, strange and a little troubled, I think," Kenshin replied.

"I heard what he said to you."

Kenshin looked at her. "Oro?"

"He has a sort of complicated way of thinking that only comes from having lived through a complicated life."

"Mmm..." Kenshin agreed, silently adding, ‘a dangerous combination when the boy is a skilled martial artist.’

********************************

"It's so nice of you to lend me your clothes, Kaoru-san," Akane said to Kaoru as she slipped on one of Kaoru's kimonos.

"Don't worry about it. And please, I insist that you call me just 'Kaoru.'"

"And you call me 'Akane.'" The two girls giggled.

"Your sister Nabiki has already left to explore town," Kaoru said, careful not to say anything about Nabiki's true purposes. "You may want to go as well."

"Maybe I'll go tomorrow with Ranma."

Kaoru stared at Akane for a while. "I don't mean to intrude but I noticed last night that there is a bit of tension around you and Ranma-san. Are you not getting along?"

Kaoru knew that she was snooping, and she was punished as Akane’s reply blew her away.

"Well, Ranma and I are engaged to be married. Our parents arranged it."

"O-Oh," Kaoru stuttered, covering up her shock admirably.

Akane looked curiously back at Kaoru. "You sound surprise. I would’ve thought that arranged marriages were more popular in this era than in mine."

"Well, it’s just that, I mean, you're fathers seem alright with this and—"

"’Alright’? Now, that’s an understatement. They’ve been planning this for the longest time, ever since before Ranma or I were even born. Now that they’ve got us engaged, they’re always scheming for the day of the wedding." Akane laughed.

Kaoru didn’t know what to say. She was starting to suspect that Akane and her family were lying about their identities. "Akane, is your family really from the Tendo clan?"

"Huh?"

‘Well, it’s just that—" Kaoru laughed nervously. "You know what, it’s nothing. I could be mistaken. Maybe you guys are distant relatives of—I mean, sorry to say but I don’t really think much about time travel and--."

"You don’t think time travel is possible?" Akane said, catching on the last part of Kaoru’s confusing speech.

"Well, that is--uh—no."

Akane turned back to fixing the folds of her kimono. "Well, it’s real. Trust me on that. And not only is it real, but a lot of things that I thought couldn’t have possibly existed do exists."

Kaoru was curious. "Such as?"

"Well, one major thing that seems to be a miracle is that Ranma and I haven’t had a fight ever since we got here."

Kaoru stared at her new friend thoughtfully. "Yes, I do believe that is something miraculous."

Akane went on to continue about how fine the kimono was, unaware that her companion was not really listening but was distracted with unanswerable questions racing in her mind.

******************************

Saitoh Hajime looked down at the papers in front of him. A headache was developing somewhere behind his eyes and his eyelids were feeling heavy and tired.

The endless paperwork never gets done and never stops coming. Ever since he got promoted to 'inspector' he never had enough time to have a relaxing day at home with his wife. Now that the war was over and the Shinsen Gumi was defeated and has dispersed over the years, he had thought that he could finally relax and live his life as a normal human being. Wrong! What he got was paperwork and tedious assignments!

All that had changed when he was assigned to look for the former Hitokiri Battousai in an attempt to enlist his help in defeating Shishio Makoto. Fortunately, it all worked out in the end and peace was restored once more-- for now. However, nothing as exciting has come his way recently and he was getting bored with the paperwork once again.

Saitoh was ready to lay his head down on the desk and get some well-earned sleep when the air currents changed, making him sit up in full alert.

His hand moved to the sword strapped on his left hip. "Don't bother to creep up on me. I know you're there."

Nothing moved and nothing was heard.

Saitoh made pretended to lose interest and relaxed, going so far as to reach for a stick of cigarette and lighting it. His eyes narrowed into slits as he let out the first ring of smoke.

"Saitoh Hajime, your skills have not diminished over the years," a voice said from the darkness.

Saitoh blew out another ring. The voice sounded familiar, a long-forgotten memory. "And -where- the hell did you come from?"

"Hell. Hmph, what a well chosen word," the voice said, mockery lacing its words.

Saitoh stopped smoking and leaned forward, his narrowed eyes piercing the dark shadows all around him. "Indeed. And so... you've return."

************************* End for Now ***************************

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