Kabuki

A/N: Ah, the second chapter. Enjoy! Also, BIG thank you to De Lazy Lime for pointing out one of my (stupid) mistakes. A big resounding \'Duh!\' is well deserved. And, before I forget, thanks to my wonderful reviewers!

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He held her hand the entire way to the Akabeko, quietly humming to himself as they walked. Kaoru caught herself staring again more than once, curious about the young man who had saved her from the unscrupulous officers. Finally, her curiosity got the better of her.



“Um, Kenshin?” she said quietly. He stopped humming and glanced at her. “If you don’t mind my asking, what were you doing out at such a late hour tonight?”



“I could ask you the same thing,” he said, smiling at her. She dropped her gaze to the ground, trying to hide the fact that she was blushing. Again.



“I guess it is none of my business,” she said, more to the ground than him. “We all have things we’d prefer to keep to ourselves. I shouldn’t pry.”



“It’s okay,” Kenshin said, smiling again. “If you really want to know, I was headed back to the inn I am staying at. I’d had dinner with an old friend, and I ended up staying later than expected.”



“I suppose that I am very lucky that you did,” Kaoru said. “If you hadn’t happen by that alley…”



Kenshin sighed. “That is exactly what I came here to speak with my friend about. He holds a prominent seat in our government, so I was hoping he could see to it that certain officers were held under stricter discipline.”



At that moment, they rounded the corner to see the Akabeko come into view, but were surprised at the sight of it. Dozens of police officers were swarming around the restaurant, shouting at each other in a flurry. Kaoru paled at the sight, wondering just how many of her troupe had been arrested.



“We should leave here,” Kenshin said, pulling the reluctant girl back down the street from which they’d come.



“I have nowhere else to go,” Kaoru said, distraught. She looked at him with eyes that were quickly welling with tears.



“You are going to go with me,” he said reassuringly as he led her in the direction of his inn. She seemed a little more composed as they arrived, but quickly became uncomfortable with the idea of entering an inn half dressed with a young man. It looked absolutely scandalous, even in her line of work.



“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” she said as they reached the entrance.



“I will not have you out here sleeping in the cold,” Kenshin said, pulling her in anyway. It looked deserted, a few candles were the only light visible, but he knew the way to his room. They quietly walked through the halls to his room, meeting no one on the way, and after sliding the door closed, he lit a candle.



“You may sleep on the futon,” he told her as he unfolded it and laid it out. He glanced up at the silent girl, who was nervously wringing the gi as she stared at the floor. “Please, sleep.”



Kaoru looked at him, half smiled, and sat down. Kenshin pulled the covers over her as she lay down, and she blushed when his hands ran over hers. She curled up, clutching the covers under her chin, watching Kenshin walk over to the far wall and sit down. He blew out the candle and rested the hilt of his sword over the crook of his shoulder, pulling one knee up to his chest.



“Please,” he said when he caught her watching him. “Sleep.”



She heeded his words and closed her eyes, but did not sleep through the night. Sometime before dawn she awoke disoriented, but the feeling retreated when she saw him. His head was lowered, a peaceful look on his features, his chin resting on his chest, rising and falling in time with his breath. She smiled to herself and rolled over, but froze when he spoke.



“Tomoe…”



She rolled over to face him again, this time his face was contorted, as if he were dreaming something unpleasant. She watched him for a few minutes, waiting for the dream to release its hold on him, but it did not. He continued to mumble, incomprehensively now, and Kaoru wondered if she should wake him.



His hand went to his cheek and he began mumbling louder, his fingers digging into the flesh there. It was that point that Kaoru decided to wake him, crawling off of her futon and across the floor to him. She sat on her knees directly in front of him and called his name.



“Kenshin,” she half whispered, cautious to not wake up others sleeping at the inn. He did not respond, but his other hand reached up to take a firm grip on his sword. Kaoru started to doubt the distance between them at that gesture.



“Kenshin, wake up,” she tried again, a little louder. He almost seemed to hear her, his head rose slightly, as if straining to hear her again. “Kenshin.”



“Was I dreaming?” he asked as consciousness met him. He ran a hand through his hair and scratched the back of his head, laying his sword on the floor.



“You were talking in your sleep,” she told him, and he finally looked up at her. He looked confused for a moment, then put on a smile.



“I guess I should know better than to eat sukiyaki before bed,” he said. “Always gives me bizarre dreams.”



“You seemed disturbed by them,” Kaoru said, looking at the floor. “I thought I should wake you up.”



“It was…unpleasant,” Kenshin said, moving her back towards the futon. “Thank you for waking me.”



“Kenshin,” she said as he covered her again.



“Sleep,” he said, walking back over to his spot near the wall. “There is still a few hours until daybreak. Get some sleep while you can.”



It was clear that he was done talking, so she relented and rolled over to sleep again. The rest of her night was peaceful, and it was her growling stomach that woke her hours later. She sat up stretching, looking over to the wall to see if Kenshin was awake, but found him gone.



Unsure of what to do, she folded up the futon and sat down to wait for his return. About twenty minutes later, she was bored beyond words and decided to do her stretches. Her two swords were long gone, that didn’t mean she couldn’t practice her hand-to-hand combat. Within a half an hour she had worked herself in to a sweat, and was concentrating so hard that she almost didn’t notice Kenshin had returned.



“You are quite skilled,” he told her, watching her blush and turn away. “I brought you something, but you may want to visit the bath house before you use it.”



Kaoru turned around to see Kenshin offering her a wrapped package, which she took and opened. Inside was a beautiful kimono, white adorned with pink sakura blossoms, a deep navy sash and a pair of sandals. Kaoru stared at it in awe, dumbfounded by the gift in her hands.



“Kenshin, I cannot accept this,” she said finally. “It’s too much.”



“It is my gift to you,” he said, walking behind her and clasping her shoulders, pushing her towards the door. “But like I said, I recommend that you visit the bath house first.”



An hour later she emerged, carrying his gi in one hand and stained bandages in another. He took them both from her, discarding the bandages and donning the gi as they went to find breakfast.



It was inevitable that she would get some curious looks from the inn keepers when she entered; the man she was with had arrived alone the day before. Kenshin explained that she had been attacked and in need of medical attention, but knew that there would be no doctors available at that time of night.



“You should take her to see Dr. Gensai,” the innkeeper told him as they checked out. “He is the best doctor in Tokyo.”



“Dr. Gensai?” Kaoru repeated.



“You know him?” asked Kenshin.



“Yes,” Kaoru said as they walked out. “He is a colleague of my father’s. They served in the war together.”



“Oh,” was all he said as they trekked through Tokyo once again, following the directions that the innkeeper had given them. About mid morning, they reached the doctor’s home, and were greeted with a waiting line, as well as two cherub-faced little girls.



“Ayame, Suzume!” Kaoru said, reaching out to scoop up both children. She soon regretted this action, but luckily Kenshin was right next to her to grab Suzume before she was dropped.



“Kaoru-san!” Ayame cried, wringing Kaoru’s neck as best as her little arms could manage. “We missed you.”



“Grampa said that you couldn’t come visit us this time,” Suzume said, more to Kenshin than Kaoru, due to the fact that she was staring at him. “Is this your husband?”



“I certainly hope not,” said an older man, walking around the corner. “For if her father found out that she had eloped instead of meeting him last night, he would disown her on the spot.”



“I did not elope, Dr. Gensai,” Kaoru said, walking over to give him a kiss on the cheek and hand over Ayame. “This is Kenshin, my savior.”



Dr. Gensai put Ayame down and gave Kenshin a deep bow. “Then I am deeply grateful to you, young man.”



“Miss Kaoru exaggerates,” Kenshin said, one arm reaching back to scratch his head.



“No, I do not,” Kaoru corrected, relieving him of Suzume with one arm and setting her on the ground. “I’m sorry for the trouble I’ve caused, Dr. Gensai, but it was unavoidable. And now I must trouble you again to find out where my father has gone.”



“It is no trouble, Kaoru,” he said. “Why don’t you come in and I’ll attend to that arm of yours while I tell you about your father.”



Kaoru looked down at her arm to see a small blood stain on the beautiful fabric of her kimono. She hadn’t even noticed that it had started to bleed again. She looked to Kenshin, who seemed quite preoccupied with the two young ladies each pulling on an arm.



“Go ahead, Miss Kaoru,” Kenshin said as he was dragged outside by the girls. “I shall wait for you out here.”



Kaoru followed the doctor into one of his treating rooms and began to disrobe her arm. “I ran into a little trouble last night.”



“So I gathered,” Dr. Gensai said, gathering bandages and disinfectant. “When Tae, Sae, and Tsubame arrived at the Akabeko without you, we were worried.”



“I thought it best to provide a distraction for them to get away,” Kaoru said. “It worked, sort of.”



“So just because your father has taught you how to defend yourself, you now feel the need to take on the police force,” Dr. Gensai said, rubbing on the disinfectant with a cotton ball.



“It’s not like that,” Kaoru said, wincing as her arm began to sting. “I was going to distract them for a while, lose them, and then meet up at the Akabeko like we were supposed to. But…it didn’t happen that way.”



“I see,” said Dr. Gensai, beginning to wrap her arm.



“I was attacked from behind,” she said, suddenly feeling a chill. “If Kenshin hadn’t shown up…”



Dr. Gensai cleared his throat, recapturing her attention. “Your father and the rest of the Kabuki are now headed to Kyoto.”



“What happened at the Akabeko last night?” Kaoru asked.



“It seems that someone let it slip to the police where the Kabuki was performing last night,” he told her, finishing of her binding. “As usual, the rumor was spread about the Kabuki being performed at two locations. It is believed that the police staked out the Akabeko, realized that the ‘proper’ Kabuki was being performed there, and apparently raided the second location later in the night.”



“But, when I arrived there last night, the Akabeko was seething with officers,” Kaoru said, confused.



“Ah, that is where the twist is,” Dr. Gensai told her, leading her back out towards the waiting room. “After an unsuccessful raid, the police returned to the Akabeko, catching on that the first Kabuki was a ruse. They arrived within minutes of the vacation of your father and the others.”



Kaoru sighed, visibly relieved that everyone was safe. “I guess I should be heading for Kyoto then.”



Kaoru walked outside, looking for Kenshin and the girls. She found them in the middle of the grass, all sprawled on their backs, staring up to the sky. Once in a while one would point to the sky, giggling.



“I see a lizard,” Suzume said, pointing to a long and curvy cloud.



“Looks like a dragon to me,” Kenshin said.



“A butterfly!” Ayame shouted. Suzume and Kenshin both looked at her funny. She pointed at a small object that was wafting past them, just a few feet above them. “Butterfly!”



Ayame climbed to her feet and began chasing the insect, Suzume close behind. Kenshin sat up and noticed Kaoru. “Is everything alright?”



“Yes,” she said, walking over to him as he stood up. “My father and everyone else have moved on to Kyoto. I am going to meet them there.”



“Ah,” he said, brushing himself off. “And how are you going to get there?”



“I am going to walk, I guess,” she said. “I don’t have any money to take a train or a carriage.”



“Do you know your way?” he asked. Kaoru became irritated at this question.



“Just because I don’t know my way around Tokyo doesn’t mean that I am completely helpless,” she snapped, crossing her arms.



“I didn’t mean it that way,” Kenshin said, bowing. “I just wanted to be sure that you would be okay before we part ways.”



Kaoru reddened, chiding herself for letting her temper get the better of her. “I’m sorry. I will be fine.”



“If it is alright,” Kenshin said, extending his arm, “I would like to walk you to the edge of the city.”



Kaoru blushed further as she took his arm. “I would like that.”



They walked inside to say their goodbyes to Dr. Gensai and the girls, and were surprised when he handed them a care package for the journey.



“One more thing, Kaoru,” Dr. Gensai said, walking into one of his rooms. He returned a few moments later carrying two swords. “I have a sneaking suspicion that these belong to you.”



“My sakabatou and short sword,” Kaoru said, amazed. “Where did you get them?”



“A young patient of mine found them in an alley close to his home this morning,” he told her. “He and a friend of his decided to play warriors with these and a real sword that they found in the same alley.”



“Are they okay?” Kaoru asked, knowing the sharpness of the officer’s sword first hand.



“I assure you that the wound on your arm is worse than what the boys had,” Dr. Gensai said. “That is, until their mothers got a hold of them.”



Kaoru pressed her hand over her mouth to suppress a snicker, then said her goodbyes. It was mid afternoon as they began their walk to the edge of the city, and Kenshin smiled amusedly at how Kaoru waited for him to lead the way.



‘I wonder if I should be traveling with her on her journey,’ he thought as they walked through the busy streets. ‘If I didn’t know she could handle herself, I would have insisted.’



He shook himself of the thought, knowing that either way, Kaoru would get to Kyoto safely. That is, if she didn’t get herself lost. He decided that he should send her off with written directions to Kyoto, whether she liked it or not.



~~**~~



“Tell me again.”



“Again, sir?” Bunzo asked, nervously. His superior was sitting at his desk with his back to Bunzo, smoking a cigarette, gazing out the window. He glanced down at the desk, reading the name there; Lieutenant Fujita.



“Must I repeat myself?”



“No, sir,” Bunzo answered quickly. “I was searching the east side for one of the girls in the Kabuki; the one who attacked the police officers. I heard something down an alley and decided to investigate. Sure enough, it was the girl.”



Lieutenant Fujita gave no indication of whether he wanted him to continue or stop, or that he was even listening at all. Bunzo decided to continue, regardless.



“She attacked me, and I easily defeated her,” he lied. “I had disarmed her when Officer Shouta joined me. Together, we were going to haul her in when we were attacked.”



Fujita snuffed out the cigarette on the overfilled tray, then turned to face him. He rested his elbows on the desk, hands folded in front of his face, two narrow eyes staring over his hands.



“Who attacked you?” he asked quietly.



“I don’t know,” Bunzo said, beginning to fidget. “It all happened so quickly that I didn’t get a good look at him.”



“Officer Shouta had his sword drawn, and you were found without your sword,” Fujita said. “This would indicate that you had enough time to draw them.”



“Well, yeah,” Bunzo stuttered, caught in his lie. “He attacked Shouta first. I got in one strike before…”



“Before you were put down like a lame dog,” Fujita finished for him. He knew this man was lying to him.



The way the two men were found, the first had obviously been attacked from behind, indicating that the two officers were facing each other. And then the blood in the alley. No where in his report was there mention of blood letting.



It was curious enough that both men were found relatively unharmed. Both men had cracked ribs and would be bruised for weeks, but no broken skin. It was as if they were struck with the blunt side of a sword.



Fujita looked up at Bunzo again, about to tell him to go find the nearest unemployment office, but stopped. Bunzo was looking at the floor, one hand on his chest where the bandages were, looking distant.



“I didn’t get a good look at him,” Bunzo repeated. “I only saw him for a second. He was short. Probably no taller than the girl. He had long, wild hair. And a scar. I think.”



“A scar?” Fujita repeated, curious.



“Yeah,” he said, squinting his eyes at nothing. “It was on his cheek. I couldn’t see it clearly, but it looked…cross shaped.”



Now he had Fujita’s full attention. There was only one man in all of Japan that Fujita knew had that scar on his face. And he hadn’t been seen in fifteen years. Fujita smiled to himself at the thought of finishing what was started back in Bakumatsu.

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A/N: Anyone familiar with the name Lieutenant Fujita? Manga readers will know right away. Anyway, good? Bad? Otherwise?