Boxers' Cafe

Warnings: Sexual innuendos,
violence, and language. Rurouni Kenshin is copyrighted, so I don’t own them of
course.

Boxers’ Café.

Chapter 3.

“It
hasn’t been that long,” Enishi snickered, leaning against the nearest
wall, crossing his well-muscled arms, “Too short if you ask me.”

“And when did you plan on reconciling?” Aoshi joked,
sipping the red wine.

“Oh I don’t know, maybe never?”

“You’re so cold nowadays, what’s happened?”

“Cut the
crap, Aoshi. What do you want?” Enishi growled as Aoshi waved off some men as
he placed his glass of wine on the side table, smirking. The muscled men one by
one marched up the stairs and out of the cold dungeon-like room.

“Oh, I just wanted to catch up,” Aoshi casually
replied, grabbing his tank top from the ground, throwing it on, while draping
the trench coat on his shoulders as he nodded over towards a secluded door on
the corner, signaling Enishi to follow him, “Let’s go in here. It echoes here.”
Enishi snorted to the ‘catching-up’ part as he quietly followed Aoshi,
wondering what could Aoshi possibly want after all these years of disregard to
his existence. Entering upon the room, the office was neatly decorated with
European hand-made draperies and Persian carpets. His desk was made of fine
wood and paintings of several mediocre pictures with leather chairs. Aoshi was
always good at presenting a good impression to the unaided eye of art.

“Sit down, please,” Aoshi gestured toward one of the
two seats in front of his desk, “I have a proposition for you today.”

“Whatever it is, no,” Enishi answered, glancing at
all of the small relics that distributed around the room like one of those
home-study quarters. Aoshi raised an eyebrow as he folded his hands together in
front of his face, staring intensely at Enishi. Enishi knew that Aoshi was
waiting for him to give a direct gaze, but instead, Ei gli glanced around the
study hall with a counterfeited fascination to avoid Aoshi’s eyes. Giving up
his charade, Enishi stared at Aoshi straight on, Aoshi sighed.

“Just listen,” Aoshi stated before he began
shuffling papers on his desk, placing them in a neat pile at the corner, “Do
you remember who killed your sister?”

“No.” Enishi didn’t even flinch as he narrowed his
eyes. Lighting a cigar, Aoshi prolonged the silence before speaking again.

“As you know, I have that knowledge that you’ve been
seeking for,” Aoshi continued puffing smoke into the room, “I’ll give you the
information, but in return I want something back from you.”

“You didn’t offer this before, why are you offering
it now?”

“There is someone I want to defeat,” Aoshi brooded,
his eyes lighting up with a fire that Enishi hadn’t seen in him since high
school. Enishi grinned, slouching back onto the chair as he glanced at Aoshi.

“And you think I still want to know who killed my
sister after all these years?” Enishi knew by the look of Aoshi that he wasn’t
buying what he just claimed.

“If that were the case, you wouldn’t have come to
see me at all, you still want to know—that’s why you came. Now if you’re going to
be serious, shut up and listen for once,” Aoshi carried on, “there’s a boxing
tournament coming up in approximately six months. We fight in teams of two. I
recall you being the President of the Boxing Club in high school and I am
almost a hundred percent positive that you haven’t stopped retaining that skill
if not, have improved. Guarantee me a win and I’ll hand that man over to you on
a platter,” Aoshi affirmed. Enishi let out a breath of air as he threw his head
back onto the cushion of the chair. It had been ten years since high
school—when his sister had been murdered. He had been searching and searching,
coming up with clues and hints that always led to a dead end. He couldn’t hide
it from Aoshi. They both knew it and understood it completely. Aoshi was the
only person who knew the killer of Tomoe, but adamantly refused to confess to
Enishi. It was the cause of the depreciation of their long-term friendship of
twelve years. They had not conversed since and now was the only chance he would
have to find out the killer of his own flesh and blood. His blood boiled every
time Aoshi brought it up. He couldn’t deny the desire to know back then and he
couldn’t deny it now.

“I accept.”

“Good,” Aoshi responded vacantly.

“However, why do you need to defeat this person so
badly? You never were the one to compete,” Enishi questioned.style="mso-spacerun: yes">

“It’s a matter of pride and honor. Four of my men
have passed away due to this competition. We will win it for them,”
Aoshi rumbled, his voice wavered ever so slightly with an inscrutable emotion.

“I see.” Enishi had not offered any words of
condolences as he continued to observe Aoshi stature.

isn’t known, so we’ll have to keep on training just in case he is tough. We can’t
afford miscalculations,” Aoshi began, thinking aloud as he tried to remember
what he had wanted to ask, “Oh yes, are you in top condition?”

“I’m better than when I was in high school, but not
the top obviously. I haven’t been to an underground boxing match for god knows
how long. It’ll be nice coming back,” he reminisced.

“We can’t train together nor can you been seen here
ever again until April. It’s to eliminate the possibility of people spying on
me. I don’t want them to figure out whom I’ve requested. If they assess you,
the objective will have the upper hand in figuring out how we train etcetera. I
don’t want to take the chance.” Enishi looked mildly confused as he sat
straight up from his slouch just to hunch over.

“How the hell are we going to train, if not
together?”

“You’re not fighting me, so I’m not a complete
necessity for you to have. You’re quite the wealthy man if what I read in the
newspaper is right. Find someone to be your punching bag. I’m sure there are
many ‘professionals.’ As for me, I will be training with Sanosuke. Though I do
highly recommend you call up Anji, he is a perfectionist, but unfortunately for
me, he doesn’t participate in illegal transgressions such as this,” Aoshi
implied before standing up from his seat and wiping out the cigar, “I will
provide you a messenger that will live with you and don’t worry about her
expenses, they will be paid by me. She works at this café, so her presence is
not unusual around here unlike yours. She will take my instructions from me and
if you have any questions, send her and nobody else.”

With Aoshi’s instructions perfectly memorized,
Enishi had one last question, “A female?”

“Yes. Her name is Makimachi, Misao. She is my
personal aid or secretary, whatever you call them these days. She doesn’t know
it yet, but she’ll be coming to your home at midnight. I can’t risk you two
being seen together around here, so be prepared.” Enishi internally moaned as
the image of the spunky girl was imprinted in his head like a stamp. Six months
with a kitten, just wonderful he thought sourly. He hated to live with
roommates.

“Misao, huh…”

Author’s Note:

Review please! =)