True Gifts

Disclaimer: This fanfic is based on the story and characters of Rurouni Kenshin, created by Watsuki Nobuhiro. I’m just borrowing his creations for a spell, no copyright infringements were intended. I’m not getting paid for this Kiddies! This is my own private obsession!

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Wow! Who knew that writing fan fiction could take so much out of you? I call this my Cinderrella chapter, I wanted Misao to feel special so I got our awkward little girl all dressed up and looking pretty enough to put a warm shaft through that frozen block Aoshi calls a heart! ^_~ No, I'm not Aoshi bashing, I worship him. I just see him for what he is and it's not going to change that easily! Enjoy!

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True Gifts 4a
By Miss_Led


Misao paused for a moment, in the kitchen of the Shirobeko, before a tub of water. She had worked very hard this evening and 9 o’clock was fast approaching. The day had been rather uneventful for the most part. The only thing that bothered her was Aoshi. She had seen him earlier as she was leaving for work. He had stopped her as she was about to leave, looking at her with probing eyes. He had questioned her uniform and asked why she had felt the need to get a job. She had stated that it was simply for some extra money and that it would not detract from her training. Misao had hoped to leave it at that. Aoshi, however, had continued his line of questions for several minutes.

She was curious in the extremity about his newfound interest in her personal life. She almost thought that he had found out about her true reason for working at the cozy restaurant. She prayed that he hadn’t. He had finally let her go to work after she had artfully evaded every question he put to her. He had left her with a strange look in his eyes; it could almost be called hurt. ‘Aoshi-sama could never feel something that mundane though, he wouldn’t allow it. It would be a weakness and any emotion to him is a weakness. Why do I bother!?’

Misao sighed deeply and pushed her thoughts of Aoshi aside. She had bigger problems to worry about, like tonight’s meeting with Takahashi Ryu. ‘I don’t know how I’m going to handle him! The man is to smooth for words!’ Misao’s face pinched as she thought of his kiss the night before, she tried her best not to think of how nice his warm lips had felt against her flesh. ‘He was so forward! The man dares too much by treating me like that in public. I just hope that no one else saw him!!! And this meeting at the Ageya tonight, I’ve never actually been to a place like that before. I know all about what goes on there, well maybe not ALL about it, but at least enough to know that it’s not exactly proper to invite a lady. He said my reputation would be safe with him though.’

Misao took a deep breath and pushed her sleeves back so she could clean the dishes in the tub. It wasn’t one of her favorite tasks, but it was better then dwelling on thoughts of the unfathomable men in her life. She worked diligently, arms elbow high in the water. Her hair had loosened from it’s tie and a few stray wisps had fallen to lie gently upon her face.

Saitou walked through the back door of the restaurant followed by another man in civilian clothes. He stopped for a second as he saw Misao. ‘The girl really is growing up. No wonder Shinomori was so out of sorts to know that I was in her room last night.’ He continued on his way in, Misao lifted her head from her work, startled to see them enter. She was so surprised to find them in the kitchen, she promptly dropped the dish she was holding. It fell to the floor with a crash, shattering against the rough wooden floor. "Mibu-Wolf, you would do me a great favor by not sneaking up on me anymore!!! It’s killing my nerves!" Misao blushed at being caught off guard; she quickly turned around to pick up the pieces of the broken dish.

Saitou chuckled and sat down on a wooden counter across from her. His companion stopped next to him. "Misao-san, this is my assistant, Yugisaka Kenji. He’s been assigned to follow Takahashi’s carriage tonight. As soon as we find out the location of his hideout, he’ll be leaving to come get reinforcements. He’ll be gone about an hour. I want you to make sure that you do not cause any trouble during this time. Like I said to you last night, we won’t be there to help you if you do. Make sure you take your weapons just in case, hide them well. Also, Sae told me yesterday evening that Takahashi appears to be sweet on you," Misao blushed vermilion, "If he asks you to be alone with him for any reason, I want you to decline. This is for your own safety, got me?"

Misao nodded through her blush mortified that Sae had told him of the happenings last night. "Hai, Saitou-san. I’ll be very careful." She walked to the refuse bucket in the corner and dropped the pieces of the dish into it. She then turned back to Saitou with a stern look on her face, "But you have to promise me that you will get your men there as soon as possible. I don’t know what this place is going to be like and I don’t really want to stick around and find out."

Saitou nodded thoughtfully, "Hai, I’ll have my men on standby at one of the local police stations. I’ll assign some runners as well so we can communicate faster. Kenji-san, make sure that several of them are positioned around various parts of the yukaku. That way we’ll have more then one person on the watch in case we lose the carriage while it’s in transit." Kenji nodded and pulled out a pad of paper and a pencil to write down some details.

Saitou tapped him on the arm motioning that it was time to go. "Misao-san, good luck. We’ll speak later tonight. I think you should write a note telling your friends at the Aoiya that you will be helping out here at the restaurant late tonight, don’t you?" With that he gave a mocking half bow and walked out the door whence he came with Kenji following close upon his heels. Misao paused only a moment before she went to find Sae.

‘He’s right, damn him. Jiya would kill me if I came home late without letting him know ahead of time. I’m only afraid of Aoshi, I still can’t let go of the feeling that he knows something’s up.’ Misao went to Sae and asked for some paper and a pencil. She sat down at and empty table to write her note.


Minna-san,

I’ll be a bit late in coming home tonight. As you most likely already know, I have a
part time job at the Shirobeko so I can pick up some extra money for myself. Sae-san
the proprietor of the Shirobeko has had a very busy night and has asked me to stay a
bit late to help her clean up. I will be fine, but I won’t be coming home as early as
expected.
Misao

She knew that to write the letter was to ask for trouble but there would be even more if she did not come home on time. She chose to go with the lesser of the two evils. She ran outside into the street and spotted a couple of boys playing in the light of the setting sun. She called to one of the boys, he ran over to her quickly. She gave him a yen coin and sent him off with directions to deliver the letter to the Aoiya. With that task done she went inside to wait. She looked up at the clock. 'Only two more hours. I don’t think I’m going to make it, my nerves are strung out to the breaking point already. Please let this night go by quickly!’ As she said the prayer to herself, her heart said one as well, "...Please let Aoshi-sama like his gift!"

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Aoshi skimmed the chicken scratch he knew to be Misao’s for the second time. His brow twisted into a deep frown. ‘She’s got other reasons for being home late and I know that cop is a part of them. She wrote this so that we wouldn’t come looking for her. What is she trying to hide? What is it that’s going on between her and Saitou?’ Aoshi crumpled the letter in his fist and shoved it into his pocket. He walked back into the Aoiya to speak briefly with Okon, telling her that he would be home with Misao later on that night. Having said this, he turned and promptly left the grounds, heading into town.

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Misao was pacing the length of the Shirobeko by the time 9 o’clock rolled around. Her hair was in disarray and her face notably strained. As the clock tolled the hour she was overcome by an intense feeling of anxiety. She ran to Sae and latched onto her hand. "Sae-san!!! I don’t wanna go!! Why did I let that baka cop talk me into this!!!!" Misao’s eyes clouded over with tears as Sae looked at her in shock.

"Misao-chan! Now is not the time to be backing out, you should have thought of that from the beginning! Right now, I think you had better go into the back and compose yourself before the carriage gets here." Sae shook the girl’s hand off. Grabbing her by the shoulders she spun her round and gave her a light push towards the kitchen. Misao obediently walked into the back. She dipped a clean cloth into a pail of fresh water, holding it to her cheeks in a vain attempt to cool the heat in them while taking a few deep breaths to get back into perspective.

Out in the front room a man of medium height had just walked into the Shirobeko. He was carrying a box and a small bouquet of flowers. Sae met him inside the door. "Ah, hai! You must be the man sent by Takahashi-san. Misao-chan is in the back. She’s a bit nervous about tonight. I will not let her go unless I have your assurance that she will be safe." Sae blocked the man’s way as he tried to peer around her towards the back of the establishment. She waited impatiently for his answer.

Bowing to her he responded, "Hai, you have the word of Takahashi Ryu that she will be fine ma’am." Sae’s face creased into a frown, ‘Yes, for whatever his word is worth. For a gangster, honor never means much unless self-preservation is involved. Kami-sama, keep her safe.’ Sae closed her eyes and prayed for a second before opening them to look at the man in front of her again.

"I’ll get her for you. Please wait here until we return. It will only be a moment." Sae didn’t bother to wait for his reply as she, instead, turned to walk towards the kitchen. She could see Misao watching her with wide eyes, looking from the short man to herself nervously. When she got to the kitchen she closed the door to the outer room behind her for a moment of privacy.

"Misao, that man out there is Takahashi’s servant. He’s here to get you. Are you ready?" Misao nodded but it wasn’t all that convincing. "Do you have all of your kunai? Any other weapon you wanted to take?" Misao nodded again faintly and held up a short knife. Sae huffed, annoyed at the girl’s lack of response. "I think you should know this, I told Saitou that if anything happened to you I’d chop him up into little pieces and serve him with the soba noodles he loves so much."

At that statement Sae finally got a response as Misao’s face cracked into a smile, a stream of giggles followed soon after. "Sae-san! You didn’t!!! I would have given my kunai to see the look on his face!!" Sae smiled and pulled the girl close to give her a reassuring squeeze.

"I did! He didn't look to happy to see the knife I was waving under his nose either. Don’t worry Misao-chan, you will be fine. There are a lot of people out there to look after you tonight. And I’m sure that, should anything come up, you will be able to handle it on your own. I have faith in you." Sae let the girl go as she opened the door to the kitchen once again. Both women walked together to the front of the restaurant were Takahashi’s servant awaited them.

When they reached the man he bowed formally to Misao. "Misao-san, Takahashi-san has instructed me to present you with these gifts as a sign of his affection. He will not take no for an answer. He requests that you come wearing them." He placed the large box into her arms, laying the flowers on top gently. Sae picked up the bouquet so that Misao could pry open the package.

She finally got the cover open only to drop it down and stare open-mouthed at an expectant Sae. Misao held the package out to the older woman who raised the cover to peer inside. Sae gasped as she saw the contents of the box. "Oh my!!! How beautiful! This is a very expensive gift your employer sends to our Misao-chan!" The man nodded and moved forward to take the box from Misao holding it open as she reached her fingers out to caress the embroidered silk kimono inside.

It was the color of her eyes, a bright cheery blue. There were silver cherry blossoms embroidered about the hem, neck and sleeves. There was an dark-blue under kimono with it of a light, shiny, sheer material for which Misao had no name. In the midst of this beautiful creation lie a thin necklace, it was fairly simple, being naught but a light, silver chain with a pendant hung upon it. However, the blue stone in the pendant glittered like deep, ocean water catching the midday sun. It took Misao’s breath away. She picked it up to look at it more closely.

"It’s a Sapphire, the stone they call the blue fire. Takahashi-san said that you were like the Sapphire, that your spirit burned from within. Only fitting that he would give you the stone that reflects your inner-nature, my lady. Please hurry and change. We haven’t much time." With that he closed the box once again, placing it back into her arms. Misao looked towards Sae, the older woman lead the way out of the room, still holding the sweet smelling flowers.

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Misao sat in the swaying carriage. It seemed like they had been on the road forever but it had, in fact, only been a few moments. She had freshened up and dressed quickly. Underneath the kimono, Sae had found a silver strip of padded cloth to use for her obi and a set of sheer, dark blue, western-style socks. They had been very long, reaching up to her thighs, with them were two frilly, stretchy confections Sae told her were most likely used to keep the long socks held in place.

To complete the outfit was a tiny pair of dark-blue slippers with silver flowers embroidered over the toes. Sae had helped her to rearrange her hair, coiling it into a crown to frame her face. She used one of her own sets of hairsticks to hold them in place. "Silver to match the rest of it. Just remember to bring them back to me, ne?" Misao smiled brightly, using the opportunity, Sae dabbed a bit of red makeup onto her lips. "There! Finished at last! You’re going to cause their hearts to stop beating in their chests, Misao-chan. You are truly beautiful tonight!"

Misao stood to peer into Sae’s looking glass; she was surprised to see how much different she looked, so mature. She reached out to touch her hair not sure if the reflection was real. She smiled again, turning to hug Sae. "Arigatou gozaimasu, Sae-san! I feel beautiful! Now, I must go slay the dragon, so to speak. Tonight this beautiful kimono will be my armor!" Misao patted herself down to make sure that all of her kunai were in place. The stocking holders had made a convenient place to hide some of them. "Yosh! Off I go, Sae-san! Wish me luck!"

"Good luck, Misao-chan! And be careful!" With that, Misao had rushed out of the room and out into the front of the restaurant. Takahashi’s servant had smiled approvingly at the young woman, escorting her into the awaiting carriage. It was only when they had begun to move that the nervousness came back to her. She was dealing with it even at that moment.

‘I can do this,’ She told herself. ‘All I have to do is find their hideout and Saitou said they would take care of the rest.’ Her thoughts strayed to Aoshi, ‘I wonder what Aoshi-sama is doing right now? He’s not worrying about me, that’s for sure. Sometimes, I think he doesn’t even care if I’m around, all he ever does is ignore me now a days anyway. But I’m not going to forget his birthday! He’s been through hell this past year and he deserves to be happy! Didn’t I promise Himura-san that I would make him happy? Even if I can’t make him smile just yet, the least I can do is make him comfortable.’

Her conviction returned to her as she thought of her promise to Kenshin. She would make Aoshi happy, no matter what it cost her. This little adventure was almost over, she could hold on for a few more hours. This was a small price to pay for Aoshi’s contentment.

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Aoshi had been waiting in the shadows across the street from the Shirobeko when the carriage arrived. He had taken note of it briefly, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. The driver had taken a rather large box and some flowers inside the restaurant with him. ‘Sae probably has some wedding party in there.’ He thought nothing more of it until he had seen the woman walk out into the bright light of the entryway.

She was stunning. There was no other word he could find for her. The kimono was a perfect match for her...blue eyes? "Misao!" The sound of his own voice startled Aoshi, what had him even more off guard however was the sight of Misao in that kimono. ‘When, exactly, did she become a woman?’ Aoshi asked himself. He didn’t have a chance to ponder that question for the carriage had started to move. Aoshi wasted no time in following it.

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The carriage lurched to a stop. The door was thrown open a few seconds later and a burly man stuck his head inside. A low whistle sounded as the man got a good look of the woman inside. Several of his companions, who had been milling around nearby, came close to the carriage hoping to get a peek for themselves. The driver shooed them away quickly; he then reached inside the carriage to help the woman descend to the ground.

They had stopped in front of a large two-story building. The decorations were ornate, reticent to the party being held inside. Misao could hear the laughter and noise coming out from the main doorway of the structure. She paused, not wanted to go inside. Steeling her nerves, she raised her chin high into the air and walked to the door. She was greeted just inside the door by the strong smell of alcohol and cheap perfume. There was a thick haze of tobacco smoke hanging in the air. Several tables were situated about the room, most were being used for various types of gambling. The table closest to her was being used as an impromptu stage.

A woman in an extremely short kimono was dancing gracefully on top of it to an intricate tune being played on a koto by another scantily clad woman nearby. Misao tried not to appear too shocked. She was sure however, that her cheeks were flaming. A second glance around the room revealed even more women attired in the same fashion. Some were hanging around the necks of the men, cheering them on as they placed dice or western card games, others were walking around with trays of food and jugs of sake.

Misao turned to leave the room for the fresh air outside. Behind her was Takahashi Ryu, silently watching her. He had a warm smile on his face as he reached out to place his hands around Misao’s upper arms. Misao refused to meet his eyes. "Misao-san, you are truly breathtaking! I thought you were an angel from the first moment I laid eyes on you, but seeing you like this proves me right!" He moved a hand to cup her chin, lifting it he forced her to meet his eyes.

"Misao-san, what is wrong? Are you upset with me?" Takahashi’s voice took on a worried tone. Misao looked up at him her eyes wide and pleading. "Shimmatta! All of this was too much for you wasn’t it? You’re too innocent for all of these goings on." He turned her then to look at the room again. He leaned down close, his mouth next to her ear as he spoke while his hands rested lightly on her shoulders.

"But look, Misao-san. Does anyone look unhappy? They don’t, do they? The men come here for good company and relaxation. The women are here to provide them these simple pleasures. You see, in the world outside they would have to do these things everyday for their husbands, but would have nothing to show for it in the end. Here they are paid and provided for well to be companions to my clientele. I did not bring you here to make you uncomfortable Misao-san. Let me take you to somewhere away from all of this." With that, he took her hand and led her through the throng of people in the room to a pair of double doors at the far side.

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Kenji’s runners were on the move. They had just discerned the location of Takahashi’s Ageya and were moving their strike force in for the seizure. It appeared that Misao was safe for the moment, but in a place like that, things could change at any time. He only hoped that she could keep them occupied for a short time while they moved into position.

Saitou had been adamant that no harm come to the girl. He even went so far as to threaten his men, saying that if even one hair on her head were damaged, he would beat the hell out of the poor sap who had let the deed happen. Then he would hand the man over to her mishappen family, the Oniwabanshu. The men knew he had not been joking. They had all heard of the powerful Oniwabanshu and it’s former leader Shinomori Aoshi and none of them wanted to ever come in contact with him, be it on a good day or bad.

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Aoshi sat comfortably on a roof across from the Ageya. He had seen Misao enter and it was all he could do not to go down there and drag her out by the hair. ‘Misao, what kind of stupid situation have you gotten yourself into this time? And it’s all that cop, Saitou’s fault. I’ll have to kill him next time the sorry bastard crosses my path.’ Aoshi’s teeth ground against each other as he thought of what might happen to Misao inside of the building. He slipped down from his perch on the roof to sneak closer to the structure.

Slipping around to the back, he easily made his way into the yard. He stopped to watch the three guards at the back door as they played dice. Stealthily, he walked up behind them and proceeded to dispatch the men into unconsciousness with a few well-placed kenpo punches. He then went to the door and eased it open hoping to get a better look inside, to his right was a bustling kitchen area, on the left was a dark hallway. He moved into the hallway quickly, conforming to the walls. He walked down the corridor, stopping here and there to look into various rooms along the way. He stopped in one doorway when he heard the soft peal of Misao’s laughter.

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End Part 4a

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Author's Notes: This was originally one very big chapter when I posted it. I was racing to meet the Working Girl Challenge deadline and I overshot it by two hours. Since it was severly lacking on plot in several places I made up my mind to go back and rewrite at least this last chapter before posting it on my page. Part 4b has taken much longer then I'd originally anticipated.