Chapter 3 I hurt her. Onee-san isn’t too happy with me. She was just being nice. Why do I always do that? ‘I’m sorry Onee-san. I won’t hurt her anymore.’ She smiles at that and fades away. To my right, Liya is busy watching the townspeople scurry about. I wish I didn’t have to do this once a week. For obvious reasons, I’m not very well liked. People eye me suspiciously. It’s a good thing I have so much money. Otherwise, I’d never bring back anything to the village. “Would you like to visit the bath house?” I don’t normally spend my money on anything other than food for the village, but today I will make an exception. Onee-san wants me to atone for hurting her. I have to do my best to make Tomoe smile. Liya gives me a sheepish grin as I lead her to a store. Though her dress is very pretty, something tells me she would be more comfortable in something else. Besides, I doubt she will want to get back into that after she has bathed. I think she wants to fit in somewhat. Maybe I should try teaching her Japanese so that she can communicate with other people besides just me. Her eyes light up when she beholds the endless array of silk kimonos. I give her an increasingly less rare warm smile and gesture for her to pick out any one she wants. “S-sir…welcome…” I nod at the shop keeper. He continues to stutter as if I’m going to blow the place up at any moment. I don’t blame him for thinking so low of me. After all, I am a monster. She picks up a red houmangi that fades into white at the bottom. Black silhouettes of sakura adorn the design giving it a delicate style. I like it. The color suits her. I cross the shop to let her show it to me, even if I could see it just fine from where I was. “Help her. She’s foreign.” The man rushes to do as he is told. He guides her to the white under kimonos instructing her to pick one of these as well. She gives him a confused look. It will be amusing to watch how he explains this to a person who doesn’t speak his language. As I suspected, his voice rises in volume. It always makes me laugh when people think foreigners are deaf. He points at the white nagajuban several times and nearly shouts at her to pick one out. Her eyes go from the beautiful garment in her hand to the plain whiteness of the silk the man is pointing to. She has no idea what’s going on. “The white one goes underneath the colored one.” Her eyes register my words causing her to nod and smile at the man. He seems confused at the words coming out of her mouth. “She is apologizing for her stupidity.” Even though she’s not stupid. Yes. I will have to teach her at least a little bit of Japanese. * * * “Kaoru! Did you see that??” “Enishi!? What is he doing here??” Kaoru gasps as Yahiko readies himself for a possible battle. The mentioned man leads a young woman into a nearby shop. Uncharacteristically, he has a gentle expression on his face. “He is fine Anata. He did not come here to fight, that he did not.” Kenshin smiles at his brother-in-law as his wife fumes. She wants to see what he’s doing with this girl in the tight dress. It’s painfully obvious what his wife is thinking. “But why is he in town!? And why aren’t the police arresting him!?” Kaoru is already sneaking towards the shop to spy on the two. “He comes here every week. In Rakuninmura, one person is sent to town to beg for money and food. Enishi probably stored some money away, so he doesn’t have to beg. He never had any intention of keeping his operation going once he got his revenge. The police have taken control of most of his earnings, but sessha is sure he hid a good portion. Saitoh does not arrest him on sight because he does not consider Enishi to be a threat anymore. He is keeping an eye on him and nothing more. As soon as he shows signs of being a threat, he will be arrested again.” Kenshin tries to push his wife and her student along, but they remain rooted to their position. “Stop it Kenshin! Don’t you want to know what he’s up to with that floozy!!? She’s wearing a pretty tight dress! Yahiko don’t look!” She stares at the young samurai with steam coming out of her ears. The boy’s eyes are transfixed on the young woman walking with the white haired man. “And what do you mean by him coming here every week!? You see him every week?? Kenshin!” “Like Sessa said, people take turns every day coming to town to beg. Enishi brings back a lot of food, so he is sent once a week. He has his own money, so he comes to town buys food and reads all day. That is all he does.” The woman and young man face fault making Kenshin laugh nervously and scratch the back of his neck. “Eheh…Sessha supposes he could check up on him a little…Sessha is a bit curious…” “How do you know all this Kenshin?” Yahiko rips his eyes from the girl long enough to look suspiciously at his mentor. “I owe it to Tomoe-dono to keep an eye on her little brother.” * * * Kenshin and his two companions absently sift through the clothes near the front of the store. If Enishi looks their way, they can simply hide on the other side of the wall. The former Hitokiri isn’t as naïve however. He knows his brother-in-law can sense them, but he also knows nothing will come of it. As long as they keep their distance, nothing will happen. “What are they saying?” Kaoru whispers in Kenshin’s ear. Violet eyes flutter briefly. She will have to be reminded of what that does to him…later. “I can hear them…I think. But I can’t understand them.” “Being a business man, Sessha is sure Enishi knows many languages. The girl is wearing a traditional Chinese dress. Sessha has seen them before. She is probably from somewhere around there.” He smiles and watches his wife relax a little. * * * My bastard brother-in-law is watching me. As is his odd family. It bothers me. I have to fight the urge to charge him, but I force myself to look at my sister’s image. Her face is neutral. What’s that supposed to tell me? Figure it out on my own? I guess that’s it. It looks like Battousai will be getting off the hook today. Liya is calling me. She’s not too sure about the obi. This will be amusing to say the least. “Here.” I pick out a random choice. She scrunches her nose. Apparently, it doesn’t match. I wouldn’t know. “You tie it around your waist and make it look pretty in the back.” I grab her by the waist and turn her around. Carefully, I attempt to wrap the obi around her form. Instinctively, she raises her arms slightly to let me work. She turns her head, almost straining to see what I’m doing to her back. Her giggle catches me off guard. “What?” I continue my meaningless attempts at tying a woman’s obi. “You’re tickling me.” She giggles again and tries to reach behind herself to stop my hands, but I’m not done tying this damn thing. “Idiot. He’s tying it married woman style.” I heard that. Doesn’t that woman remember how good my hearing is? It was only a year ago that I kidnapped her. How am I supposed to know how to tie a stupid obi? “He ties obis about as bad as you cook, Busu!” I close my eyes and force myself not to throttle the kid. From the surge of ki coming from the said Busu, she must be doing the same thing. I do vaguely remember her having a pretty bad temper. If this boy is her student, I feel bad for him. But he does have a point, her cooking is pretty bad. “Well, you get the idea.” I give up. “I see. Like knot art.” Not quite, but close enough. I shrug. As long as she gets the idea, I’m fine. The two behind me are still laughing and fuming. I need something to take my mind off of them. Brushing her hands away from the offensive article of clothing, I remove the obi myself making sure to tickle her a bit. Her innocent laughter will do just nicely for taking my mind off of the idiots making fun of me. Much to my astonishment, her giggling turns into laughter. So this is what happens when I purposely tickle someone. Just for good measure, I do it some more. She’s laughing so hard, she begins to bend at the waist to try to break free. I find that I like this reaction and continue my onslaught. I also find that I especially like this reaction when she is so close to me. I have never been with a woman like this before. It almost seems like this is better than the women I was with while I was in charge of the weapons organization. They were there simply to please me and nothing more. Most likely, much like what Liya was accustomed to with the yakusa. This is much different though. She is enjoying herself as well now. “Pervert…Yahiko don’t look. Yahiko!” So, I’m a pervert for liking the sound of her voice when she laughs? I doubt she’s been given the chance to laugh, or even giggle, since she was with the yakusa. This is as good for her as it is for me. Why does that make me a pervert? Is it her physical reaction while she’s laughing and my obvious enjoyment of that physical reaction that makes me a pervert? It doesn’t matter. I let her go. I am not a pervert. She giggles one last time and blushes. My hand tugs at the obi letting it slip off her frame as I smile back. “Go and put it on, so I can buy it for you.” She nods cutely and rushes to a nearby changing room. “How much?” I turn to the shop keeper. He looks surprised that I’m not just stealing his goods. I don’t steal kimonos. That’s stupid. I take out my purse and glare at him from over my glasses. Waiting. He still seems shocked. His mouth opens and closes as if he’s afraid to tell me the price. I take out several coins and let them jingle in my hand. “How much? I’m not going to ask you again.” He continues to stutter, so I toss him an over-estimated amount and cross the store to wait for Liya to finish changing. “He actually paid! That’s surprising!” Surprising? You don’t know me woman. “Now now. He’s a business man himself. He’s not like Sanosuke. He has no reason not to pay.” How dare Battousai know me so well. This is just odd. I wish she would hurry up. I need to get away from these people before I kill one of them. I don’t want to see Onee-san glare at me if that happens, so I have to get away before I do anything. “Are you almost done?” “I suppose so. This sash is very hard to tie. I don’t think I got it right.” I don’t even bother to warn her as I pull open the curtain. Suppressing a laugh, I regard the poor job she has done at dressing herself. Apparently, the many aspects involved with wearing kimonos confused her. It looks like she randomly picked articles and tied it all together. She blushes and laughs at herself. “I look pretty pathetic. Don’t I? The clothes in this country are very hard to wear.” I never realized this until now. She does look very funny. Knowing full well how risqué it looks, I dare to close the curtain behind me. “Do you trust me?” She blushes and nods. Once again, her arms are raised so that I can do what I need to do to dress her. I slowly untie the mismatched chords and sashes. After all, I don’t want to scare her. My eyes catch the many bruises coloring her skin. She has been hit many times. They are all healing, but slowly. Probably due to such a meager diet. “What are they doing in there?” “You don’t want to know Yahiko...” If Battousai doesn’t shut his woman up soon, I will do it for him. Quickly, I finish showing her how to put on the kimonos and guide her out of the dressing room. Someone else can teach her how to tie the damn obi. Obviously, I’m not any good at it. “You!” I try to catch the attention of the wide-eyed shopkeeper. Apparently, he’s been counting the money I gave him. “Yes, sir!” He’s a lot more attentive now. That’s good. “Could you show her how to tie this? I’ll translate for you if you need it.” He nods enthusiastically. He’s very attentive. I must have paid him quite a bit too much. Trotting, he retrieves a small scroll. It has pictures on it of several different tying styles. “You’re wife is young. Does she still want a young woman style?” “She is not my wife.” My sister urges me on with a soft smile. “Just a good friend.” Tomoe’s smile widens. Friend. I’ve never really had any friends. No one ever dared to get that close to me. She’s obviously not running away screaming yet. I suppose she is my friend. “I see.” He points to the styles she can pick from. After seeking approval from me, she finally picks one out. The simplest design she could find. Simple. I never realized so much went into wearing these seemingly simple garments. The shopkeeper points to several accessories. Apparently, these are necessary as well. “Too much. I don’t want to spend all your money.” She’s not too sure about this, but I remember watching Tomoe get ready for the day when I was younger. These seemingly stupid accessories are necessary if a woman wishes to keep her obi on, so to speak. She deserves it anyway, so I shake it off and tell her to pick out what she needs. “Those are new! I’ve never seen them before! Kenshin can I get one too?” That poor man. Perhaps he doesn’t need to experience my revenge anymore. He already has his hands full. “But Kaoru, we don’t have that much money. You said so yourself, that you did. And if you don’t be quiet, Enishi will surely hear you. Do you want that?” Her mouth clamps shut. Good. Now I won’t have to kill her. “Do I owe you extra?” I produce my purse from my pocket again. The shopkeeper shakes his head. “No. You gave me more than enough before. In fact, here is your change sir.” I see. I did give him way too much. Nodding, I lead Liya out of the shop. She looks a lot more comfortable now that she fits in. Perhaps she would want Japanese shoes. A vision goes through my head of how she would walk with wooden sandals on. Scratch that idea. Her Chinese slippers will do fine. “What is that smile for?” She giggles noticing the amusement on my face. “Nothing. You look comfortable now.” Blushing, she mutters under her breath. “Don’t be so polite around me. I don’t need it.” The redness on her cheeks deepens in color. “You spent too much on me. I don’t know how to repay you. I have no money.” I take her hand. The police are eyeing me more suspiciously than normal. Perhaps if I appear to be ‘with’ Liya, they’ll leave me alone. I don’t know why. Just…married men seem to get away with a bit more. It’s not working though. In fact, they seem even more suspicious now. Do they think I kidnapped her or something? “Don’t worry about it. Let’s get you to that bath house.” I tug Liya along with me. Apparently, she was already doing a good job of keeping up. My tug only made her smack into me from behind. Her hand gently presses against my back as she mutters an apology. She didn’t need to apologize. It was my fault after all, but that’s alright. It doesn’t matter. She’ll get over that eventually. * * * Author's Notes: Onee-san = older sister (I'm guessing. If it's wrong, please tell me.) anata = wife (another guess.) sessha = I've been told that this is kenshin's over polite way of saying 'I'. -dono = I've also been told this is an over polite/older version of '-sama' I got the very helpful Kimono info from a few websites actually. http://jin.jcic.or.jp/kidsweb/virtual/kimono/top.html http://www.asahi-jc.com/kimofaq.htm#inst http://www.kikimimi.ne.jp/www/sortie/Ekimono.htm A houmangi is a kimono that can be worn by both married and unmarried women. it's known for its bright colors and designs that adorn the sleeves and back. It's usually worn for formal to semi-casual events. Nagajuban is the thin, white kimono worn underneath the colorful top kimono. It serves as underwear. obi is the sash that is worn on top of the kimonos. there are many ways to tie an obi. married women use a single simple style, but unmarried women can be as ornate as they want with it. There is more involved with the kimono than I thought. It took ten pages just to describe the steps involved with putting on the nagajuban. Ten to show how to put on the outer kimono. And at least twenty to show how to tie the simple married woman's obi. There are a ton of neccessary accessaries involved as well. I thank those websites for giving me this knowledge.