A lone figure stands in a bamboo field, looking down at the sleeping city
of Kyoto. Her manto and long braid floating on the cold night breeze. Her
eyes are hidden by the shadow of her hood.
"The full moon lights up the city so beautifully...you can see everything"
She looks in a certain direction at a building.
"Aoiya...everybody...I'm
leaving now. When I'll be returning, I don't know yet, but when I do...I'll
be different.." She clenches her fists and runs down the path.
"Misao? Misao, are you awake yet?"
Okina stood outside her screen waiting for a reply. Now annoyed he bangs
on the frame of the screen and yells "Come on Misao! Get up already! Breakfast
is almost ready and you're not going to ditch doing you chores today!!"
He waits again but there is still no reply.
"Alright, you asked for it! I'm coming in there! And I have a bucket of
cold water with me!" He slides the screen open only to find it empty, her
futon neatly folded and a letter placed on top. He sits next to the futon
and opens the letter.
"Okina, Aoshi, everyone...I have decided to finish my training on my own
since no one is willing to teach me here. I realize from the last fight
how much I need to improve my skills. Forgive me but I may not return for
a while. Please understand my reasons for leaving and do not pursue me...Makimachi
Misao..."
He folds the letter back up and places it underneath her pillow. "So...it
would seem I was right. She must have asked Aoshi to complete her training
but he refused. Now she is going to finish it on her own. But Aoshi...what
will he think when he learns of this? If he were to go after her now, he
might not make it far considering his injuries."
He stands up, leaves the room and walks toward his room thinking. "I don't
want him or any of the others to worry about her, so I'll tell them that
she went to visit everyone in Tokyo. Who knows, maybe she really is on
her way there. I'll send them a letter and tell them to keep an eye out
for her."
"No way...NO WAY I could have forgotten it!!"
Misao sits in the middle of a shady grove, rummaging through her bag, most
of her things on the ground.
"I can't believe it...out of all the things I could have forgotten...I
FORGOT MY MONEY!!"
She lets out a sigh and lies down on her back with her arms under her head
and looks at the dawn sky through the tiny spaces where branches didn't
cover it. "Well NOW what are you going to do Misao? I can't ask for money
from anyone in Kyoto...they would probably tell Jiya or Aoshi my whereabouts.
And I can't ask for help from Kenshin or anyone from Tokyo..."
She rolls over to her side and fiddles around with one of her tobikunai
trying to think of something. "At least when I went to try to find Aoshi
I brought SOME money with me. It lasted for a while but it ran out eventually...then
I met Kenshin..."
Suddenly she sits up and shouts ", THAT'S IT!! I'll scam it out of someone!!
Heh heh heh...and this time Kenshin isn't around to interfere with his
goody-goody "it's bad to steal" act."
She looks over at the rising sun and yawns. "Ugh...but I got to get some
sleep first...I've been running all night...I'll find some dip...tomorrow..."
"YAHIKO!! COME BACK HERE WITH MY BOKEN!!"
"HA HA HA!! Why don't you TRY to get it back from me you outta shape so-called
Kenjutsu Komachi!! Biiiiiii-daah!!"
"Why...you...little..."
"Ken-nii Ken-nii!! Play with us!!"
"Ken-nii, come pway wif us!"
Kenshin sits on the steps of the Kamiya Dojo, watching Kaoru chase Yahiko
around with a shinai while Ayame and Suzume pull at his hakama. "It looks
like things are back to how they used to be," he thinks to himself. "Maybe
now everyone...and myself...can have some peace." He looks over at Kaoru
and Yahiko, who are now pulling away at each others cheeks, and mutters.
"Well...maybe not everyone..."
Something suddenly hits him on the head and he keels over. "Ooroooooooooo..."
Kaoru
pushes Yahiko over and runs over to Kenshin. "Kenshin!! Kenshin!! What
happened?"
"Ken-nii!!"
"Oooroooooo..."
Yahiko
walks over and picks up something cylinder shaped. "Some bird dropped this
from the sky. It just happened to land right smack on Kenshin's head."
"I
just happen to have that kin of luck de gozaru..." Kenshin sits up and
rubs the now throbbing bump on his head. "It looks like a scroll...and
since a bird dropped it off, I'm assuimng it's from the Oniwabanshuu. Open
it and read it Yahiko."
Kaoru
helps Kenshin back onto the steps, then sits down next to him. "Why do
you think they would send us a letter Kenshin?"
"I don't know Kaoru-dono...but let's hope that the bird has carried good
news with it..."
Yahiko
shakes his head and turns the letter over so that Kenshin and Kaoru can
read it. "It's not good...but it's not exactly bad either. Misao ran away
from the Aoiya. After our last fight, she thought she should become stronger
so what happened to Aoshi, would not happen again. She's decided to train
on her own."
"But
that doesn't make any sense. Wouldn't Okina or Aoshi just continue to train
her?"
Kaoru
takes the letter from Yahiko and looks over it. "But that doesn't make
any sense. Why would she decide to train on her own when she could've just
asked Okina or Aoshi?"
"Knowing
Misao-dono, she probably did ask them but they refused for some reason.Anyways,
the letter just says for us to keep an eye out for her and to contact them
if we see her." Kenshin stands up and starts to walk towards the gate.
"I'm going to Genzai and Megumi-dono's place to see if they have anything
for this bump on my head. She's only been gone a while so even if she does
come here, it will be a while." He takes both Ayame and Suzume's hands.
"Come Ayame-chan, Suzume-chan. I'll walk you back home."
Yahiko
nods and turns to Kaoru. "I'm going to run over and tell Sanosuke too."
Kaoru
nods to Yahiko. "Alright." Then she walks into her room and sits on her
futon. "Misao-chan...please be safe."
"Huh?"
Misao sits up and rubs her eyes. "Strange...I thought I heard Kaoru's voice.
Must have been a dream." She stands up and stretches and looks around.
"Good...the sun is still out. Heh heh...maybe I'll be able to get some
money today." She picks up all her stuff, ties on her manto and hat and
runs down the path.
"Hmm...Osaka
or Kobe..." She looks from back and forth between the fork in the road
scratching her head. "Osaka is closer...maybe I'll run into some shmuck
there. If not I can probably wait one more day to find someone in Kobe."
She
starts to run off down the path...and right smack into a person traveling
the opposite direction. "ACK!! WHAT THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!?
DIDN'T YOU SEE ME WALKING HERE?!?"
"I'm sorry kid. Here, let me help you up." The young man holds his hand
out to her and smiles.
"Just WHO do you think you're calling a KID?" she screams at the top of
her lungs in her mind. "Thanks, but I'm not a kid." She gets up on her
own brushes the dirt off herself, and looks over at the guy who is still
standing there. She thinks to herself ",He's wearing Japanese clothing...but
he doesn't look Japanese."
"Sorry...you just look really young." He picks up her bag, brushes it off
and hands it to her. "Here. If anything is broken, I'll replace it. My
name is Akiaten, Masamichi Akiaten. And you're?"
"Leaving." She grabs her bag from him and
starts walking down the path, but he catches her hand and turns her around.
"What?!"
"Hey!
Hold up! I just wanted to know your name!" He lets go of her hand and smiles
at her. "Because...even you are a kid...you're pretty cute."
Misao blushes deeply and covers her face with her hands to hide it. "I'm
uh...cute...uh I mean...Misao...Makimachi Misao."
"Wait a minute...what am I blushing about? So he said I was cute...so what?"
She looks over at him again and all of a sudden a light goes clicks on
in her head. "Hey...since he's a foreigner and is willing to pay for any
damage AND he thinks I'm cute...I'll trick him and get all his money!"
"So Misao, where you headed in such a hurry? Must be important if you're
willing to run over anybody to get there."
"Actually, I'm not really headed anywhere in particular. Just anywhere
but Kyoto and Tokyo."
"Hmm...that's too bad. I was headed towards Tokyo. Woulda been nice to
have girl like you by my side."
"Why what's in Tokyo?"
"A person."
"A girl? Why would you need me?"
"No not a girl. Just a person. You probably wouldn't know them."
"You never know. The only reason I'm not headed there is because I've already
been there before. Maybe I can help you."
"Well...it seems like you know your way around. Sure why not. Let's go."
"Can we start off tomorrow? I was traveling all night last night and didn't
get much rest."
"Hey, a girl needs her beauty sleep. I got it. Come on, we'll set up over
here."
"The moon is still full like when I left." She looks over to her left and
sees Akiaten sleeping. "Guess it's safe or me to get all his money and
take off." She quietly gets up and rolls up her blankets and ties them
to her bag. "Sorry buddy. Nothing personal but I gotta take your money."
She reaches over to grab his bag, but a hand snatches hers. "Now now Misao...stealing
is bad." She looks down to see Akiaten awake, and winking at her.
"Dammit!!" She wrenches her hand free, grabs the bag and backflips out
of his reach. "Look! I don't need all of this, I just need the money."
Akiaten smirks. "And if I say no?"
Misao drops the bag, shifts from a passive stance to a battle stance and
arms her tobikunai. "Then I'll just have to take it by force!!"
"Let's see how much force you got. Go ahead. Throw 'em at me." He gets
up and crouches next to his blankets.
"You aren't even going to defend yourself? Idiot. So you wanna see how
much force I got huh? TAKE THIS!!" She jumps up onto the trunk of a tree,
and springs off it and uses the extra force to increase the force of her
tobikunai.
"KANSETSU TOBIKUNAI!!"
Akiaten
lifts up his blanket and uses it to deflect the tobikunai then tosses it
away. He then reaches down and picksup two sticks. "Not bad kid. Had I
just been another guy off the street, I would been a pin cushion. Want
to try again?" He stands up and goes into a battle stance holding a stick
in each hand.
Misao pauses. "That...that style...it looks so familiar..." She sees an
image of Aoshi with his kodachi overlap Akiaten. "Nitou Kodachi Ryu?!?
But he's using sticks...not a short sword. No way...I have to see what
it looks like when he actually uses it."
She picks up a fallen branch and charges at him with it. "Toriya!!!!" She
starts to swipe at the right side of his mid-section but he immediately
starts to counter, flicking his right wrist down to block her hit, then
continues to push it away. She's so surprised that she only notices the
stick in left hand coming right towards her face and shuts her eyes expecting
to be hit.
"Geez...you've never trained that much with hand-to-hand or weapon combat
huh?"
"Huh?" She opens her eyes to see him standing behind her picking up his
bag. "But...you were just...and you were going to hit-"
"Me? Hit a girl? A cute gil like you even? I don't think so. I may be a
foreigner and look like an easy target, but I don't hit girls. Even if
they do try to rob me." He winks at her again.
"Teach me!!!"
"SAY WHAT?!"
"Your double stick technique...teach me how to use it too!!"
"Misao..."
"Please!! I want to be stronger!!"
be continued...