===== 08/07/02 === 11:06:15 p.m. ===== Edodale By wombat Chapter 11 (which is what I might have to declare if I didn't point out that Rurouni Kenshin belongs to Watsuki Nobuhiro and Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon) Yumi looked up cheerfully at Hiko's entrance into the gallery. Her new wardrobe's demureness was slightly undercut by the long tendril of hair sliding down from her upsweep to caress the side of her neck, but otherwise she appeared perfectly proper as she practiced her calligraphy. Its elegant resemblance to Kenshin's handwriting had startled Hiko at first, until she'd explained she'd spent a few years teaching it to Battousai "because I couldn't stand looking at his typical guy chicken-scratch anymore." After all, she had been born a samurai's daughter and been trained with the usual array of accomplishments, even if the one she'd used most was her naginata. She set down her brush and fanned the damp ink with her hand as she waved. "Hey there, boss. Someone finally went for that weird speckled vase, the one that looked like a trout with rabies. If you're looking for the kid, he's out back in the workshop making fishbones." A metallic whine through the walls corroborated Sano's whereabouts. Hiko pulled up a chair on the other side of the counter. She appeared to have been copying out his website's javascript, oddly enough. "As a matter of fact, I need to speak with you, in regard to your former colleagues." "Thought Kenshin would've filled you guys in on all of us by now? Or has he been too busy with Kaoru?" Her question sounded lighthearted enough, and Hiko decided to take it at face value. According to Kenshin, Yumi had never been one to brood on the past, instead throwing herself whole-heartedly into the present. And after all, as Hiko himself had already told the girls at school, Yumi simply didn't seem to know what to make of her adored Battousai's mastery submerging into Kenshin's polite deference. "He has been very informative about your group's activities in the past, but more recent news would be terribly helpful to us. We've investigated the crypt which you indicated, but while there are signs of past occupation, it appears to have been abandoned. The only trace left of them was this." He withdrew a handkerchief from his pocket and unfolded it, tumbling her emerald onto the glass pane between them. "Coolness!" She picked it up and rolled it around her palm. "Never thought I'd see that again. Is it still good for anything, or should I cash it in? Bet I could fill up my closet with a whole dairy herd on this." "Leather clothing appears highly unprofessional, except for shoes and handbags," Hiko reminded her. "Miss Rosenberg has been unable to detect anything unusual about the gem now, although it does appear to be highly valuable. Evidently, after Jineh-- at least, we presume it was he-- retreated from her position that night, he and the others returned to seek you out. However, we don't know what they concluded from your disappearance, where they've gone, or what they intend to do next. Are there any insights you might offer?" "Did you check the rat-maze of tunnels Jineh dug out? I think he tapped into the storm drains at some point. Or they could've just hopped over the walls and moved out. Now, where would they go...? We ran pretty far when those guys from Okusofodo came after us with the silver sakabatou. Ended up in a rough part of town that wasn't much better by the time we came back to life there, but our home base used to be where that cemetery is now. That's why we went there-- figured that's where Battousai died, so that's where he should come back. Next best place I can think of is probably where that old tavern used to be. Used to be a great place to hang around and pick off people when they crawled out after too much sake. Wonder if it's still there, just off the main road behind the silk- merchants' district. Can't remember what it was called, though. The Golden Calf? The Abacus?" Hiko stood up halfway into battle stance, attracting a sudden flare of interest from Yumi. "The Akabeko," he said. --- "Oh, hello there, Rupert." Behind the Akabeko's sushi bar, Joyce Summers smiled at him over the rice she was seasoning. She added one last shake of vinegar. "There isn't a problem with Kaoru, is there?" "Heavens, no," he reassured her, taking a quick look around. No one conspicuously dangerous appeared to be on the premises, and he hadn't seen anyone of the sort outside, either. "Er. It's just occurred to me that my first month's rent is due, as well as your percentage of my profits. I thought that perhaps we could mark the occasion by my taking you and your family to dinner." She seemed nearly as surprised by this makeshift excuse as he was by coming up with it in the first place. "Why, that would be very sweet of you. I hear you've taken one of Kenshin's former classmates under your wing, as the tenant for the locker-room remodelling you asked me about. Would you like to bring either of them, or both, as company for Kaoru and Yahiko?" Oh dear. "I'll invite them if you like. May I ask how you heard?" After dipping her hands into salt water, she started to shape rice balls. "Megumi and Sanosuke-- Kaoru's friends; you know them too?-- keep her and Yahiko company at our house in the afternoons, two or three days every week. They're usually still there when I get home. Sanosuke's always eager to see whether I've brought any leftovers from work; I suppose it's a good preview for me to see how huge Yahiko's appetite is going to be when he's that age. "They talk about Kenshin a great deal, usually when they think I can't hear them. It sounds like Kaoru has a crush on him, but he must be too shy to come ask her out for a date. And Megumi seems to be slightly jealous of Sanosuke's interest in this Yumi girl? I'd forgotten how high-school romance could be so melodramatic and tentative at the same time. "But Kenshin seemed to be a very nice boy when I saw him in your workshop-- I hope his home life has gotten a bit better?-- and maybe this will break the ice for them so they can spend a little more time together. And as Yumi's indirect landlady, I'd like to meet her too eventually, though it doesn't have to be now." "I'll invite them," he said again, hoping they'd refuse. Life was already complicated enough. "Is there anywhere in particular you'd like to go? I assume that you spend enough time here already." "Actually, it would be nice to spend some time here as a customer again, making my co- workers wait on me." She had a very mischievous smile. "Though I hope you're a good tipper, or I'll have to deal with the consequences later. How about next Friday?" --- Enishi leaned from the steering wheel toward the back of the car, where Tomoe sat quietly in her seatbelt. "Might be here for a bit," he said. "Likely to be a rough crowd, so I'd rather you stayed in here to wait for me, love." As her kimono might have been too conspicuous in the outside world, he'd dressed her in some of the clothing Yumi had left behind. The two women were the same height, but Tomoe was more slender, leaving more room for modesty in the long dress that had outlined all of Yumi's curves. She looked out at the building before them. "Yoshiwara," she read the sign, then tilted her head back against the seat again. "This is where Yumi went, but she's not here. Gone away from us, she has. All closed up in clay where the fishes swim around, shining like the bones of the moon." "Well, the chaps here might know what's become of her. Can't hurt to ask, and besides, I've something of a business proposition for them. You sit tight now and I'll be back in a tick, all right, sweetheart?" She didn't respond, but at least she seemed to be calm. He'd trimmed her nails short just this morning and he didn't think there was anything else in the car she could hurt herself with. However, the car did have tinted glass so no one could see in, as well as automated locks so she couldn't get out. So she was all set for now. After blowing her a kiss, he got out, activated the locks, and went back to the trunk to gear up: long black coat, long black shape across his back with a waist strap to keep it still when he walked, and a small, heavy bag that clinked in his hand when he took it from the large duffle's side pocket. Thus equipped, he strode into the Yoshiwara. When he glanced down in the dim light inside, his waist strap blended in perfectly with his coat, just as he'd expected, so the rest of the package was camouflaged too, except in profiled silhouette. The man at the door held out a hand for the cover charge, but Enishi shook his head. "Not here for the show, mate. I'd like to talk to the management about a friend of mine what used to work here.. Komagata Yumi was the name." With a growl of assent, the man led him toward the back, behind the surprisingly large afternoon audience for the assorted undulations on stage. "She was one of our best house dancers. A lot of our customers were disappointed when she quit-- said if they'd known ahead of time, they would've had a goodbye party for her, with all the bills her garters could hold. Boss was upset she didn't give advance notice, or he'd've had her work the champagne room more. But last we heard, she cashed in most of her health benefits at the hospital, and then she just quit. Didn't even come back in; some redhead came in to pick up her last paycheck." "A redhead, hey?" "Yeah, some little thing that wasn't even old enough to come in. Had to wait outside at the door. So what happened to Yumi? Did she overdose on something?" "I was hoping you blokes could tell me." They'd reached the end of the hallway, but Enishi only stepped forward far enough to pass the office door's threshold, leaving his back in shadow as he politely refused the offered chair. "Won't be taking up too much of your time here. So what's this about a redhead?" "Friend of Yumi's," the doorman explained from behind him to the man sitting at the desk. "We figured it might be her little sister or something. Didn't give a name, but she said she had to get back to the shrine before the evening dance started," he continued to Enishi. "Fancy that. Sure it was a girl, and not just a weedy boy with long hair?" "Who knows? In this business, we don't bother looking at bosoms under a certain size. That all you wanted to know?" "Actually, there was one other thing or two. Spoke to some lads at the pawn shop down the street. They said you could help me shift some of this stuff." He tossed the little bag onto the desk, then leaned against the doorway with his arms folded as the man emptied it out. Enishi had salvaged a fair bit of jewelry from the cemetery in the course of making flesh-puppets, and this sample included three gold bracelets, a few mismatched earrings, a handful of jeweled rings, and an antique necklace dripping with gems. In response to the raised eyebrow, he smiled disarmingly. "Got a lot more where that came from." "Nice necklace. Those real?" "Pawn shop's appraisal's at the bottom of the bag. Said they didn't have the kind of money to give me for it, though. That's why they sent me here." The man unfolded the appraisal, read it carefully, and smoothed it out on his desk. "That's quite a tidy sum." "It is, isn't it? I figure if I trade you the rest of my stash in dribs and drabs, I can live quite comfortably with my sweetheart. Or we can make a deal for it all at once. Of course, to have this kind of lolly, you must have your hands in all kinds of pies. Not just the skin trade, but all kinds of good stuff: drugs, weapons, bootleg anime...." Enishi's grin merely intensified as a cool metal edge slipped against his throat from behind. The man behind the desk stood up. "Why don't you just leave this here with us and take us to the rest of your stash, as you call it, and forget about everything else. Then we'll let you and your sweetheart live, period. Now turn around and walk slowly. Don't do anything to alarm my friend there. He's got a knife." Folded out of sight behind his elbow, Enishi's hand released the strap at his waist. He reached up and slightly behind him, heedless of his throat already being cut, and gave a firm tug to the hilt of the sword strapped to his back. Its sheath pivoted up from its remaining anchor point at his shoulder, creating an audible sound of impact from his assailant's crotch. The man behind him collapsed to the floor, retching violently. Enishi pulled the blade out of his neck and tossed it onto the desk, coughing a bit as he held the wound's edges to seal back together. "Scuse me. Had something in my throat. But that little thing's not a proper knife." He finished drawing all five feet of his watou's blade to point directly between two horrified eyes. "Now, that's a knife. Begging your pardon, but what were you saying?" --- "Mmm. Oh, don't do that, it tickles." "Are you sure?" "Yes. Or wait, no. Or... oh!" "Told you. Do that thing with your hair again?" "Wait your turn, you. Oh, that's nice." "Oro?" "Oro. Don't stop now." "I see Mr. Harris has not repaired your latch yet." Though they'd ignored the knock at his door, neither Kenshin nor Kaoru could help noticing when Hiko walked in. After the initial freeze-frame, Hiko stepped forward and encouraged Kenshin to get up from the workbench by applying a firm grip at the back of his collar. "Miss Kamiya-Summers, perhaps you should go sit at my library desk with Miss Rosenberg while I have a discussion with your suitor here." "But Mr. Hiko, he wasn't--" Kaoru shook enough of her hair back out of her face to get a good look at his expression. Hastily tying her ponytail back up, she scurried off. Hiko dropped Kenshin back onto the bench and leaned back against the door with his arms folded. "What was that?" Kenshin's breathing was still somewhat unsteady. "I made her agree that neither of us would attempt to unfasten or remove any clothing. By the time I was aware of some of her... technical circumventions, she said it was too late to renegotiate the terms." "I see. Of course, you were heartbroken by this." Evidently the color of distilled misery was dark blue-violet. "I love her more than my own life." "However, you don't value your own life very highly. Perhaps you only love her because she'll rid you of it." Ignoring Kenshin's shock, Hiko continued, "As one of them might say, this truly elevates pupness to new heights of stupidity. Or do you intend to deliberately ruin her as a form of posthumous revenge?" "I told you, we--" "This has nothing to do with her reputation, though if I could walk in on you, anyone could have. I am speaking about her very self. The more you encourage her, the more she'll love you in return, and yet she's still willing to kill Battousai to bring you back to her as Kenshin. But perhaps she hasn't fully grasped that in the end, she'll be killing both of them together. Once that happens, it could destroy her completely. Don't you think she's already suffered enough from her father's death?" "I thought..." Still loose as well, his dark red hair covered his face as well as his hands. "I thought I could comfort her, if only for a little while. I know it can't be more than a few months, until we can track down the others and retrieve the sakabatou, but--" "It may take longer than that. The rest of your former friends seem to have vanished, and the sakabatou with them. If this remains the case, what do you intend to do?" Hope flared up and died. "I can't stay here more than a few years, or people will notice that I don't change. Or has Miss Megumi had any further insights into my sword?" "Not that I've heard. She took Miss Komagata's knife to her shrine and told the chief priestess, truthfully enough, that she'd found it in the cemetery. I don't know what they've made of it yet, however." "I see." Slowly, Kenshin groped for the string to tie his hair back again. "Meanwhile, ironically enough, I came to speak to you in the capacity of an unofficial go-between. Miss Kamiya-Summers' mother has asked whether you would like to join us for dinner at the Akabeko next weekend. Apparently she thinks Kaoru would like to spend more time with you, which may be true enough. You would not be required to wear a dinner jacket or a five-crest kimono, merely something clean and decent. What do you wish me to tell her?" "Do you think it would be prudent?" Hiko shrugged. "In what regard? Perhaps we ought to lure your former associates from hiding by letting you back out of the ofuda boundary. As for the courtship issue, I leave that up to your conscience. She asked me to invite Miss Komagata as well, but I believe she already has other plans. As does Mr. Harris, though I suspect their plans may not correspond exactly. "But at the very least, I had thought you were more sensible than to muddle Miss Kamiya-Summers' distinction between love and lust. If necessary, I will ask Mr. Harris to replace your latch with a solid lock, and keep the keys myself." --- "Now, this is more the thing." Enishi leaned back, admiring the morning light from the window of their new flat. "We'll only be here until I've made a proper home for us, but it's not a bad place in its own right. Come and have a look-- the river's all spangled with gold, like my own little dove's lovely eyes. Maybe now I'll have a chance to bring someone to test your tanto on, if you like." Tomoe drifted across the room to join him. Today she had put on another of the modern outfits he'd bought her, a long narrow frock of pale linen with a wide blue-violet sash that matched her shoes. Affectionately, he straightened her stocking seam as she sat on the arm of his chair. "This is our new home, then?" she asked him. "Up in the air and not with the scampery beetles any more? They stayed crunchy in milk." "No more beetles, but all the cream in your saucer you might like. And no more Jineh to pester you here. Won't you give me a good-morning kiss, love?" "No." She ducked her face down, deflecting his lips away from hers and onto her cheek, as usual. "Ah well, we've all the time in the world for that." He stretched and stood up, nudging her into the seat on his way to the kitchen. "Sit tight and I'll fetch you some breakfast. The miso soup's steaming up all nice and hot, just the way you like it. Want an egg stirred into your rice?" She kicked off her shoes and curled up, resting her head at the edge of the chair so her hair trailed down to the floor. "Eggs hatch out birds and snakes and lizards, but not at the same time," she said. "And dragons lay eggs too. He pulled off the falcon's wings, you know." Enishi returned, balancing the tray of their breakfasts while he hooked over a small table with his foot. After setting the tray down, he dragged over another chair for himself and propped Tomoe back up. Quietly sipping his tea, he waited for her to finish her soup before he said anything else. "You talking about Battousai again, love?" She nodded, tidily scooping rice into her mouth with her chopsticks. "Think Jineh was right about what he did to Yumi, then? Drained her with his sword?" "No no. Pierced her breast with her own beak, and she burned away into blood. Like a cross between a phoenix and a pelican. Would that be a pelinix or a phoelican? Or maybe a phelicanix?" "So you think she's dead." "Silly," she said, swaying slightly as she set down her empty rice bowl. Her chopsticks rolled off it onto the floor. "She's more alive than we are. Alive as the pretty little bluebird pecking at the inside of his heart, trying to hatch her way out." She leaned back again into the chair, looking at him with a puzzled expression. "Sleepy again." He stroked her hair. "I know, sweet. I'm sorry, but I have to keep you safe while I'm busy. You didn't like being shut up in the car or locked in the Yoshiwara's back room, so I thought this would be better for us. It'll wear off by the time I get back tonight, I promise. Are you comfy there, or should I carry you back to bed?" --- "I really think you should go," Megumi said. She and Kenshin were at the library desk while Hiko and Kaoru put in another afternoon of training in the mini-dojo. Kaoru's attack yells were sounding especially fierce today, even through the soundproofing they'd installed to avoid completely wrecking study hall. "Come on," she encouraged, "it'll give you a chance to act like happy Pooh-Bear Kenshin again instead of gloomy-cloud Eeyore Kenshin. Kaoru thinks you've gone back to avoiding her ever since Hiko caught you two in your room last week, and she misses spending time with you, you know." "I do spend time with her." He was bent over another trig problem set, drawing polar coordinates with nearly enough pressure to cut concentric furrows through the paper. "Not as much since we finished our history project and turned it in, but we still have classes together " "You know that's not what I mean. Whenever you look at her now, it's almost like you're afraid of her. Hiko must've really gone off on you, though it didn't look like he beat you up or anything. Or don't you really want to be around her anymore?" A bright pink inkblot shot across the problem set from Kenshin's fountain pen. By now, he had used more of the same mysterious substance to dye some of Sano's old shirts, including the one he was wearing now, so he simply soaked up the ink with his sleeve. "I miss her too," he said quietly. "But I'm not so much afraid of her as for her." "She said you didn't show any signs of going Battousai on her." "Oro?" He glanced up at her from the edge of a blush. "I believe Yumi and Tomoe discussed me with one another in the past, but surely--" "Oh, don't worry, she didn't give me any of the really squishy details, just that she finally convinced you to do some cuddling." "Doesn't 'convinced' imply that there was a rational debate, instead of--?" "You don't have to give me the details either. Really. Just go out on a real date with her for once. You'll be chaperoned by her mom and her brother and Hiko too, so you don't have to worry about her ripping off your pants in the alley-- oh, don't look at me like that." "Oroooo." Megumi wasn't sure whether he sounded apprehensive or transported at the thought. He certainly seemed off-balance in some direction, though, so she pressed the advantage. "You'll get to eat something besides cafeteria food and instant ramen for once. Sano swears by the Akabeko's beef bowls, and their kitsune-zushi is really tasty too. And you might get to see Kaoru dressed up all pretty, and you'll meet her whole family." His faint spark of enthusiasm flickered out. "I'm sorry, Miss Megumi, but that last statement is incorrect. Miss Kaoru's father is dead because of me, and by going outside the school, I might put the rest of her family in danger as well." She borrowed one of Sano's bad words, shocking Kenshin beyond the capacity of even a little tiny oro. "Yumi said none of them had any idea where you were. I don't know why Mr. Hiko keeps thinking they all have Kenshin-radar or something like that. I bet the only reason Enishi's flesh-puppets were able to find you in the first place was because you were asleep in their cemetery." "When I returned a month later, they came straight to me." "Because you were in the exact same place you were last time. The leftover guys from before kept going in that direction all that month." "Even though we destroyed all the individuals we saw? There must have been some form of distant communication among the flesh-puppets." "Well, they weren't telling anything to Enishi or the rest of them, and they've all disappeared now anyway. So why won't you go out with Kaoru?" Megumi demanded. Kenshin blotted up another rogue patch of ink, rolled up his sleeve a little further to avoid staining the paper when he put his arm back down, and carefully capped his pen before tapping it on the desk. "Miss Megumi, I appreciate your efforts, but I must regard your motives as not only suspect, but misguided. I do not think Miss Kaoru was ever fully aware of Mr. Harris' romantic intentions toward her, which in any case now seem to have been rechanneled toward Yumi. So pushing me into Miss Kaoru's arms will not necessarily help you win his affections." "I don't believe you just said that," she denied, her face hot. "I'm Kaoru's friend, and your friend too, and the two of you are just wallowing in misery again when you'd obviously rather be together. For the love of Inari, make yourselves happy for once, why can't you? You're not making it any easier for me to help you, you know." He put his pen down and looked at her directly. "Miss Megumi, are you referring to the immediate capacity of matchmaking, or is this a form of indirect blackmail regarding your work with my sword?" "Ooh," she fumed. "Just go to the Akabeko with them already, will you?" "Very well." Kenshin folded the problem set back into his notebook and took out a fresh sheet of paper. After a minute or two of writing, he shook the ink dry, folded the sheet in half, and handed it to Megumi. "Please give my acceptance note to Miss Kaoru and Mr. Hiko when they've finished their session." "You can't give it to them yourself?" He stood up, tucking his notebook under his arm. "I beg your pardon, but I am going back to my room. Please tell Miss Kaoru that I do not wish to be disturbed." --- The Akabeko was far different now than the way Kenshin remembered it, but then the old building must have been destroyed sometime during the past century. Nervously, he tugged at one shirt sleeve, trying to make it match up with the length of the cuff showing from the other arm of the sweater. He'd already cut off and hemmed up the legs of all of Sano's discarded jeans, but sleeves were trickier. He could sew buttonholes perfectly well, but that didn't mean he liked it, and he suspected the sweater of trying to unravel. Sitting across the table while they waited for Joyce and her children, Hiko calmly kicked him. In response to a wounded oro, he said, "Stop fussing. They'll be here soon, and then you'll be at liberty to play the role of a typical stupid pup of your apparent age. You needn't rehearse it in front of me, however." "I see. And meanwhile, you'll be acting out the role of meek librarian?" Hiko raised an eyebrow. "I am, in fact, a librarian. Librarians are usually required to be tidy, quiet, and helpful by the nature of their occupation. Anyone who chooses to interpret this as meekness is free to do so." Kenshin nibbled on a mochi ball. "And yet you take on completely different characteristics when you're holding your sword. Not unlike me, in a way. But which one of them is your true nature, the swordsman or the librarian?" "Which is the true nature of mochi, water or rice flour? Powdery surface or sticky center? Why not both together, each in its proper place?" Hiko shrugged. "Believe me, I've heard the endlessly tedious arguments between Mr. Harris and Miss Rosenberg about whether Battousai is an intrinsic part of your nature or externally imposed upon you. Frankly, I do not care, as long as the hellblades are destroyed so they'll never devour souls again. Once that's accomplished, then you may be as meek or violent as you like as far as I'm concerned." "But not as far as Miss Kaoru is concerned, I gather." That provoked a narrowed glance. "Miss Kamiya-Summers deserves a certain amount of respect as the heir to the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu school. And as you have been at pains to point out several times, you owe her an indirect blood-debt. You are certainly in a poor ethical position to offer her further injury of any sort. At least you've taken my advice about pursuing covert courtship, unless the two of you have simply become even more stealthy." The mochi ball flattened out between Kenshin's fingers. "I assure you that I care as much for her well-being as you do," he said evenly, just before his topknot was tugged from behind. "Jeez, the two of you look serious," Kaoru laughed. "What are you talking about, anyway?" Kenshin instantly resolved to apologize to Megumi as soon as possible. She'd been right, Kaoru was dressed up pretty. The scarf tying back her hair was an indeterminate coral/salmon pink that matched the cherry-blossom pattern on her dress, which was otherwise a soft violet-blue that made her eyes shine out like sapphires. It was long and flowing, with a wide, slightly darker sash that made the outfit vaguely resemble a kimono, but was probably much easier to put on. Or take off. He did not just think that, he told himself. When he opened his mouth to greet her, only the inevitable "oro" emerged. Hiko kicked him again, just before standing up to greet Joyce and Yahiko as well. Belatedly, Kenshin got to his feet as well, dropping the squished mochi ball onto his plate and hoping his fingers hadn't gotten too sticky. Instead of extending her hand to be shaken or kissed, however, Joyce simply hugged him for a moment and drew back. His astonishment must have been obvious, because a look of sympathy came over her. "Poor thing," she murmured. "You must not get hugged very often. How are things at home? Are your parents treating you any better?" "I'm sorry to say my parents have been dead for some time. I have a foster family now. If memory serves me, when we last met, I was still having some trouble fitting in with them," Kenshin said, with perfect honesty. "But everything is fine now, though; thank you very much." "Are you sure? You're welcome to visit our house after school with Sano and Megumi if you like, or would your work as Mr. Hiko's library aide keep you too busy for that?" "I imagine we can discuss the matter later," Hiko said. "It's very good to see you again, Joyce, and of course Kaoru and Yahiko as well. Why don't we sit down and decide what I'll be treating you to for dinner?" "Wonderful idea. Kaoru, why don't you sit over there next to Kenshin?" "Okay, Mom," Kaoru said with a perfect note of hassled reluctance, and slipped her toe out of her shoe and up Kenshin's ankle. This was going to be an extremely stressful evening, Kenshin thought, as Yahiko sat down on his other side and began to tell him more about Dragonball than he could have ever possibly wanted to know. "Oro" did not even begin to cover the situation for him.