I don't even own a full set of marbles, much less Rurouni Kenshin or Buffy. Edodale By wombat Chapter 14 Standing in the cafeteria, Kaoru felt someone bump her out of the lunch line. She automatically turned and growled, only to take it back when she saw Kenshin behind her with a stack of three bento boxes. "Miss Megumi and I prepared these during home economics class, so you needn't take your chances with today's menu," he said. "Unless you'd prefer to do so?" Happily, Kaoru retreated from the prospect of soy-protein bowl and followed him to the table where Sano was already waiting for her. Taking the uppermost box from Kenshin, she opened it up to admire the carved carrot flowers. Sadly, the carroty ikebana was wasted on Sano. Around the slice of fish-cake he was stuffing into his mouth, he asked, "Where is Megumi, anyway? She didn't catch that stomach flu that's been going around, did she?" "Miss Megumi is in the library finishing her homework for Monday, as she has shrine duties all weekend for the festival and her evening tonight will be taken up by a new purification ritual on my behalf." "Another one? I didn't hear Hiko planning anything this time." "Well, it's not like you hang around much in the library with us any more," Kaoru pointed out to him before turning back to Kenshin. "Wowsers, how did you get the miso-stuffed baby peppers to stay this green and crispy? Mine always end up more like garden slugs." Sano and Kenshin exchanged nervous glances before both wisely choosing to remain silent. "But I don't think he and Yumi are showing up this time," she continued. "So it'll be just Megumi and the two of us." Sano considered this, narrowly watching the way she was playing with Kenshin's hair. "Want me to come along?" "Do you want to? I mean, I'm mostly there in case I have to kill him." "Oh. Then I think I'll give it a pass this time, if that's fine with you." As Kaoru commenced neck-scritching, Kenshin automatically flopped forward onto the table with a dazed smile. "Mmm," he agreed, as Sano whisked a slice of fish-cake out of his bento box as well. --- "Still slug-a-bed, Tomoe love?" Sunlight shone dull gold through the panels of painted silk around her futon. Enishi was sitting next to her, his feet trailing off the side to stay on the tatami mat underneath. Their flat was even emptier than before; most of the few items he'd furnished it with in the first place had been packed up and carried off to their new home. He hadn't yet shown it to her or even told her where it was, saying only that he wanted to keep it a surprise until everything was ready. Every time he said that, it was with the same pleased grin he leaned down to kiss her with now. "I've been out and about for half the day already, and you're still curled up here with your head under one wing." "I was packing my clothes until rather late last night," she said, half-raising herself on one elbow. "Did you take them all away?" "Not quite all; there was that fresh outfit you'd left out. It's what you'll be putting on now, I suppose? Though your nightie's very charming too, with all those little buttons down the front. Did it give you sweet dreams?" His habitual question troubled her more this morning than usual, but it had become automatic for her to hide her true feelings from him. "I don't remember," she lied. "Should I get dressed now so we can go?" "Well, sweetheart, I'd like you to meet some visitors with me, if you don't mind. That won't be for a few hours, at least, but you may as well change now as later. Anything I can help you with?" He was holding her comb but reached out with his empty hand instead, sweeping her hair off her shoulders and gathering it together in a loose rope. Wrapping it around his fingers, he trailed his hand to the end and raised it up to caress his face, making her finish sitting fully upright. "Enishi, please don't do that." His eyes were dreamy as he sat there without answering her, winding the silk glove of her hair around his hand again and tracing it down his throat. Its tension drew her closer, pulling her head to his shoulder. When he lifted the comb, instead of using it to unskein the dark rope, he gently ran the edges of its teeth against her cheek. His lips were about to follow their trail until she brought her silver-tipped hairpin out from under her pillow. She lifted it between them in a way that made it unclear whether she intended to stab him or herself with it. "I said don't," she repeated. "Go away until I've changed into my clothing. Please?" Reluctantly, he let her go, dropping her comb into her lap as he stood up. His shadow lingered on the other side of the screen until she warned him further off. At least her clothing was still draped over the top, so she wouldn't have to step out from behind its cover yet. Relieved, she took off her nightgown and got dressed. Slowly, she combed out her hair. She'd dreamed of Kenshin last night-- not Battousai, but the soft-spoken boy who'd crept out to meet her in their village shrine that winter morning. But in this dream, he hadn't stopped at a single kiss. Instead, his mouth and hands had relentlessly pulled her further into oblivion while his eyes' blue depths faded from dark violet to cool turquoise. Once she'd put up her hair with the pin, she shook out her nightgown to fold it. The hem wouldn't hang straight, though. The buttons had gone out of line, leaving one side dangling askew at the bottom. But she always put on and took off the nightgown by lifting it over her head, never unfastening it at all. She took a closer look, and sank to her knees beneath the weight of unwelcome revelation. The button over the heart of her bodice had been torn off, and a strand of silver hair was caught in one of the love-knots of ribbon that gathered the lace at the wrists. --- "Good afternoon, Mr. Harris," Kenshin said with a faint air of surprise. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?" "Yeah, I'm thrilled to see you too." Sano slouched into the library, hands in his pockets. He guessed it had been a while since he'd come here after class instead of heading straight for the raku gallery by himself or following Kaoru home. She waved at him from a study table but didn't come over to join them at the desk. "Just thought I'd change my routine a little," he said. "Besides, I want to compare my history notes with you two for the test on Monday." "I'm afraid Miss Kaoru is occupied with other classwork at the moment. But perhaps after study hall is concluded, the three of us can consult with one another at her house? I've already arranged to accompany her there for the same purpose." "Sounds good to me." He swung his bookbag onto the floor and straddled the chair on the other side of the desk from Kenshin, who gave him another minute of polite attention before returning to his trigonometry. Several bright pink inkblots later, Sano spoke up again, under his breath. "Hey. Does Yumi know Hiko's the guy that killed her?" Kenshin batted the end of his topknot back over his shoulder. "I couldn't say. I doubt it would matter to her now, however. Why do you ask?" "I've been getting kind of creeped out lately when I hang around with the two of them at the gallery." "In what way have you been, er, creeped out?" Sano pondered this, trying to put it into words. "It's just been getting all weird around them, especially Yumi. She keeps giving this weird grin to the back of his head, like she's thinking about, I dunno, ripping his head off and sucking his brains out." "Oro?" The fountain pen tapped his notebook in a contemplative way. "Just a moment, please. Miss Kaoru?" he called softly. After sticking a post-it note to the page she was on, she walked over. "What is it?" He beckoned her down to whisper a question into her ear. "Not at this time, obviously," he added in more normal tones. "But perhaps after the end of tonight's ritual?" She nodded, smiling, and returned to her books. "Is it that sort of grin?" Kenshin asked Sano, too softly for her to overhear. Still agape, Sano swung back from staring after Kaoru. "Holy kamoley. Don't tell me Yumi wants to jump Hiko's bones." "Then I shall do my best to avoid telling you that, Mr. Harris." --- After several years, Megumi could practically dance the kagura in her sleep, but that didn't mean it was a good idea. The shrine courtyard's flagstones were covered with vivid, slippery leaves, and the long shadows of autumn afternoon were creeping across them to add further foot hazards. Suppressing a yawn, she tried to stay alert by jingling her branch of little suzu bells extra-loud. She was sleepy, and cold, and really rather cross. Because of the full moon this past week, the whole Hikogumi had been patrolling the streets three nights in a row just in case anything funny turned up. But they hadn't seen anything-- no zombies, no Jineh, no nothing except for really sore feet and way too much green tea mochi. She'd also kept trying more purification rituals on Kenshin and his sword, and none of them had done anything except make him soggy from all the buckets of ice water that Mr. Hiko kept dumping over him in the name of ancient Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu tradition. The only thing they'd figured out was that at least the last transformation into Battousai hadn't been completely spontaneous. It'd been triggered by his weapon touching fresh blood, as usual; it was just that in this case, it happened to be Kenshin's own blood from Jineh just having killed him. But if nothing new happened with tonight's ritual, she was giving up for now. A junior miko nearly winged her with the poorly-timed wave of a fan. Honestly, that girl would probably never get a sense of rhythm even if she got a rhythm transplant from the entire cast of Riverdance. If she ever got one of the kagura roles that involved a sword, they'd all be in big trouble. A few last drumbeats and tweets from the flute, and they were done. Megumi sighed, tucking her own fan into her sleeve, and started to file back with the other girls into their building. One of the spectators stepped forward, though, and blocked her way. After a few drowsy blinks, she recognized him. "Uh, hi," she said. She swatted another miko with her bells to take them inside for her. "Don't tell me-- you're not just the doorman for the Yoshiwara, you're also their talent scout." He completely ignored what she'd said. "You're Yumi's friend, right? We found more stuff that belongs to her." "Oh. Can you bring it over? I'm supposed to meet some friends later tonight, and then I'll be here at the shrine again pretty much all weekend for the festival. Or is it the kind of stuff that would be too embarrassing to let anyone else see?" "How about you come take a look? That way you can leave behind whatever looks like useless crap. If you want, I can give you a ride over right now and then run you back here. Whaddaya say?" Well, the ritual still wasn't for several more hours, and it would be a relief to warm up a little before then. Regardless of her devotion to Inari, she wished his priests were bigger fans of indoor heating. She yawned again, shivering. "Okay, sure. Just let me change back into my real clothes, and I'll be right out." Once inside his car, she gratefully accepted the hot cocoa he poured out from a thermos, including the extra marshmallows he put into her cup. As the road poured by, she leaned her head against the window with an increasing sense of vertigo. She felt nearly as dizzy as sleepy, and there was a funny taste in her mouth. The dance-party reject miko had been out last week with the stomach flu, and Megumi hoped she hadn't caught it from her. It would be bad enough to get the flu without also having to worry about being infected with a total lack of coordination as well. After a while, the man parked somewhere and walked around to open her door, but she couldn't even manage to unbuckle her seatbelt to get out. All she could do was lean out over the pavement and throw up, hoping as she passed out that she wasn't going to choke on it and die. --- "Hey, I'm home." As she walked in, Kaoru waved to her mother, who was on the phone in the kitchen. Sano and Kenshin followed her into the tv room, where an orange- powdered bowl on the sofa showed that Yahiko had already come and gone. His bookbag wasn't on the stairs, so he'd already taken it upstairs to start on his own homework. "Your mom's not at the Akabeko today?" Sano looked dejected at missing even the remote prospect of restaurant leftovers in a few hours' time. "She's shifted down to part time," Kaoru said, spilling her own textbooks out onto the floor. "Ever since Hiko handed her that check, she's been saying that she doesn't understand why he bothers librarianing if even her partial share of the raku gallery's profits is that good. Plus we're getting more money from the rent he's paying us for the place, plus he covered all of the renovation costs for Yumi's room himself, so Mom doesn't really need to work full hours anymore. But it's not like librarians earn such big bucks that he couldn't quit that if he wanted to, either." "Perhaps the library provides balance to his life." Kenshin sorted through his history folder for the material on next week's test. "After all, his other two pursuits are largely physical rather than intellectual, and they're much untidier as well." Having already licked up half of the cheesy poof residue from the bowl, Sano poked an orange nose back up out of it. "So why are you guys clearing out of the library for the shrine this time?" "Miss Megumi and Mr. Hiko thought that the library annex had limited potential for improvisation, and the ritual might be better explored at the shrine itself. If there are complications, she will be able to draw directly upon its resources." Kaoru peered into Sano's backpack and pried open his notebook. "Speaking of resources, did you even take any notes last month, or are you going to completely leech off us again?" The three of them settled down into a morass of historical detail for the next few minutes, until Joyce Summers emerged to greet them. "Welcome home, honey. Hello to you too, boys. I was just talking to Megumi's stepfather, Dr. Gensai. She asked him earlier to call here around now, to remind Kenshin to start walking to the shrine to meet her. I suppose you'll be helping her set up for this weekend's festival? Are both of you going with him too?" "I will, if that's okay," Kaoru said, ignoring Sano's rolled eyes. "Actually, do you think you can drop us off there? If we load my bicycle into the car, I can just ride back afterward. That way we'll have a little more study time here." "Not to mention time to have some dinner. What about you, Sanosuke?" "Dinner sounds good. Oh, the shrine? Nah, I'll just go straight home from here." "All right then," Joyce said, returning to the kitchen. She called back, "I'm afraid I'm in fridge-cleanout mode before the next grocery trip, so I hope random okonomiyaki will be fine for everyone." Without even looking, Kaoru tossed a tissue at Sano for wiping cheesy orange drool-sludge off his mouth. --- Megumi sat up suddenly, disoriented. Through the uncurtained picture window in front of her, a streetlamp's beams shone into her eyes. Beyond it, reflections danced on the river's surface several stories below, bright sparks in the smoky grey of twilight. Other than the light streaming in from the window, the room around her was dark and nearly empty. Aside from the chair she was sitting in, the only things she could see in it were a little table next to her and the pale panels of a screen half-folded against one wall. After a while, she made out another chair on the far side of the table. It was in partial shadow, obscuring the details, but she could tell there was a man sitting in it, sipping tea. It wasn't the Yoshiwara's doorman, but someone she didn't recognize. Whoever it was, the way his hair stuck up in floppy points reminded her of Sano, though ghostly pale instead of brown. This guy had about the same lanky height, too. And like Sano, he was wearing a loose jacket that matched his pants, though instead of faded denim, his were made from some sort of roughly glossy fabric, maybe a thick nubby silk. The similarity made her relax a bit. However, when he broke from his casual slouch, his movement had far more controlled poise than Sano ever did, like a snow leopard compared to an alley tomcat. He leaned over to the teapot on the table and poured out a fresh cup for her. "Here you go, pet," he said. "You took ill, so I had you brought here to rest up. Hope you don't mind." "Uh, thanks," she said uncertainly. "I've really got to get back to the shrine soon, if that's okay?" "Never fear, I'd just like a word or two with you about our friend Yumi. All right?" "Is this about the stuff she left behind? Can I come back and get it over the weekend instead?" He chuckled pleasantly. "Don't you worry about that. We've just been wondering where she's gone to. Wouldn't mind having her come back. She didn't have any complaints about the conditions here, did she?" The tea tasted funny, too. Drat, she probably was coming down with the flu. If she didn't beg off shrine duty this weekend, she was going to end up infecting everyone at the festival, and that would be really unfestive for people to be barfing everywhere. "I think Yumi just wanted a different job." "Well, that's a shame. If she were to change her mind, we'd bump up her regular wages and all. Think you could tell her that for us, next time you see her?" "Okay, sure, but--" His grin flashed up in a way that made her nervous again. "She still in town, then? Or did she take off somewhere with another of her friends? At least I've heard tell you're not the only redhead she's been swanning about with, though the other one has longer hair, and darker. Anyone you know as well, by chance?" She accidentally splashed her fingers as the teacup twitched in her hand. Who was this guy, and why was he stalking Yumi? For that matter, when had he seen Yumi at all lately? Kenshin hardly ever left school, and Yumi hardly ever left the gallery, and Megumi couldn't think of any occasions at all when Yumi had been hanging around with herself or Kenshin outside either of those places. Well, tonight would be an exception, but it hadn't happened yet. Something made her hope it was still going to happen, instead of, well, something else. "Um. I was going to say, I don't really see Yumi that often any more, but I can let her know if it's that important. I guess when I get her new address, I can send a letter to her with the box of stuff. And I'm really sorry, but I don't think I know the guy you're talking about." He leaned back in his chair, still smiling. "I never said the other redhead was a bloke, now did I?" Everything seemed to go into slow motion now. She dropped her empty teacup, jumped up to look for the door, and felt an odd whoosh in her head that she remembered from trying to run up the staircase after giving blood. It meant that her circulation hadn't caught up to the rest of her body going uphill, and it was about to drag her down to its own level. Ground level. At least the carpet here was a lot softer than the school stairs, she thought as she fell onto it. Laboriously, she rolled onto her side, trying to spit carpet fuzz off her tongue. The guy hadn't moved at all. Even his teeth seemed to have the exact same amount of grin reflecting at her, just from a different angle. "So you do know him, then. Where are Yumi and Battousai now?" If he knew Kenshin was Battousai, this was getting bad really fast. Especially if he'd seen Yumi and Battousai together. "Are you Jineh?" She and Sano hadn't been able to get a good look at Jineh's face through that big weird hat they'd set on fire the night they scooped up Yumi, but at least that probably meant he hadn't seen them too clearly either. Not that it was likely to help her much right now. "Or are you just working for him?" His chuckle sounded the same as before, but didn't seem nearly as pleasant to her now. "You've got me dead to rights. It's a fair cop. You haven't answered my question yet, though. If I have to ask a few more times, I might get a bit testy. Where is Battousai?" "I don't know," she protested. "I don't know about any of this stuff." "You sure about that, sweet? Not even about Jineh?" After setting his cup down, he stood up and stretched, hands braced at his waist. They came forward as he knelt beside her, holding a black knife almost exactly like Yumi's. He tucked it into the V-neck of Megumi's sweater and pressed slightly, pricking her through the turtleneck she was wearing underneath. A tiny piece of yarn fluff floated up and away. It hung suspended in the beam of light from the streetlamp, like the single earring to his left of his shadowed face. "Funny thing, really. Sometimes people know more than they think they do. Remarkable, the level of detail what comes up when their memory's jogged just right." His jacket cuff did feel like silk as it brushed her cheek, as smooth and heavy as a trickle of blood. It's just a knife, Megumi told herself. Just an ordinary knife right now, even if it used to be some kind of snack dispenser like Yumi's was. His eyes aren't glowing Battousai gold, so whoever he is, he isn't in soulsuck mode, and it won't feel as horrible as Hiko and Kaoru said it does. But for all that, it still hurt enough in the regular way. --- There were plenty of miko bustling around the shrine courtyard and setting up festival booths, but none of them was Megumi. Kaoru picked out one at random and asked her for help, but didn't get much at first. "Megumi? I haven't seen her for hours, not since we finished the kagura this afternoon." "But we were supposed to meet her here. You don't know where she is?" "I thought she went home, but I guess we can check the miko depot." "Oro?" The girl gave Kenshin a sidelong glance and giggled. "It's her nickname for our building. Over here," she said, and showed them in. "Well, that looks like her bookbag over there, but her clothes are gone, so she must've changed back into them. I can ask around if you want to wait here." "Okay," Kaoru said, and sat down. Kenshin continued to hover at the doorway, reluctant to enter this exclusive female preserve, but edged inside after a few minutes when she opened up Megumi's bag. "Miss Kaoru, do you think you ought to be going through Miss Megumi's belongings? One of the bicycles on the rack outside the gate looked very much like hers, so she ought to be still here at the shrine." "It might give us some idea of where she went or what she's planning. Maybe she's setting everything up somewhere else on the grounds and is going to come get us when she's done? Or maybe she thought she told us where to go, but forgot? Did she tell you any advance details for tonight?" "I don't believe so. That does look like her usual list of equipment and notes, however. Is there anything of interest?" Turning the notebook page over, Kaoru examined it from different angles. "This part looks like a map of what she wants the ritual space to look like, but I don't know where on the grounds it's supposed to be." "She seems to have written the Greek letter alpha all around it. Does that carry any significance to you?" "Is that what it is? I thought they were fish," she said at first, and then, "Oh, it must be near the koi pond. See, those are bridges and stepping stones, and that looks like one of those octagonal gazebo things on the island in the middle." "Too late," Kenshin murmured. "The gazebo catches you and eats you." "What?" "Oh, it's nothing of importance, really. Perhaps we ought to see whether that's where Miss Megumi has gone?" The other miko came back. "Oh, did you find out where she was?" "I'm afraid not. Have you had any greater success?" "Nope. She probably just went home and forgot to take her bag. Either that, or she's just planning to pick it back up tomorrow. Was she supposed to give something back to you?" She was eyeing the notebook they'd taken out. "Uh, yeah," Kaoru quickly said. "We're sharing notes for a test on Monday. If you do see her again tonight, could you tell her Kaoru and Kenshin stopped by to pick them up?" "Sure, I'll let her know." The miko closed up the building again and went back to the courtyard, leaving the two of them standing just outside the door. The moon had risen into view, slightly lopsided like a baroque pearl balanced on the rooftop. Kaoru looked down at the notebook again, peering at it in the silver light. "Well, I can hear splashing noises over that way, so that must be where the koi pond is. I guess we might as well go see if she's there?" "I suppose so," Kenshin said, and shyly took her hand in his. --- Bound and gagged, the Yoshiwara's doorman glared up from the floor behind the folded screen. Tomoe was still sitting quietly in the corner behind his back, but pale streaks were shimmering down her face. Kneeling beside her, Enishi nudged away a teardrop with his thumb. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, I didn't mean to frighten you. But I wouldn't've had to do this if you hadn't made such a fuss, now would I? Besides, this yobbo hasn't done you any harm, has he? Doesn't look as if he's budged since I stowed him back here with you, at least. And I didn't hear a peep nor a scuffle from either of you all this time, so it must've been all right." As he loosened the first loop of crimson silk from around her mouth, she wouldn't look at him, but her eyes glowed with golden tiger-stripes in the indirect light. "Why were you hurting that girl?" He shrugged, intent on unwinding the rest of the undersash he'd tied her up with. "Why not? She should ought've just told me everything in the first place instead of playing coy, but at least she came to her senses and told me where to find Battousai before she went and passed out. Clever of him to hide out in a shrine, probably looking all meek and mild, dressed up like the prettiest little miko since you. Kamiya's daughter must be another miko with the two of them. So here's your tanto back." He stuffed the undersash into his pocket before rubbing the ligature marks from her wrists and laying the knife's hilt in one palm. She jerked away. "I don't want it." "Don't be silly, of course you do." Firmly, he wrapped his hand around hers to force it toward the man on the floor, who was craning over his shoulder to watch them. If anything, the doorman looked less frightened than Tomoe and far more furious, but he still couldn't move against the ropes around him, any more than she could fight off Enishi's strength. Tears were silently running down her face again, and her trembling only intensified when he kissed their salt warmth from her skin. "It's your own, it's part of you, like your own heart. Just as you're part of me, sweet dove, so of course you want it. You'll know soon enough how much you do." With every word, he forced the tanto closer toward the man. "Don't fight me, it's for your own good. You promised me you wouldn't hurt yourself any more, so stop making me hurt you. Just trust me and give it to him." With a last effort, he plunged the point into the man's throat. As the doorman died, Tomoe leaned down low over the knife, its blade buried in his neck and its hilt hidden in the curtain of her hair. Enishi smiled at her, releasing her hand at last. "You see now, love?" Her voice was low, almost choked. "Yes. I see." "All right then." He chucked her chin and stood up. "I'll just leave you to whatever girl talk you fancy with the little vixen out there. Or you can just polish her off for dessert without waking her up for an introduction, whichever you like. In the meantime, I'm off to see the lizard. Once I'm back, we'll be off to our new nest, and I've such a housewarming in mind for us when we get there." --- Yumi leaned into the workshop behind the gallery. "Hey boss. Closing time. Since the kid didn't come by today either and tomorrow's the weekend already, can I take that big urn back out of the box of ghost poop?" Looking up from his potter's wheel, Hiko wiped a small glob of clay off his face by replacing it with a larger one. "It ought to be safe enough now from the depredations of Mr. Harris. As is true of the bento boxes Kenshin gave me earlier today. They're behind my coat on the rack, if you'd like one." "Coolness." She disappeared for some minutes, returning with an open bento box in her hands and a few stray foam peanuts in her hair. As usual, she'd set up her chair behind the counter to have a clear view of both the workshop and the public part of the gallery, and she sat there in front of the laptop to munch pickled ginger. After a while, she said, "This is good stuff. Still can't get used to the idea of Bats going domestic, but at least he can cook as well as he fights. Want some?" "I'm afraid this is a rather delicate juncture for this piece," Hiko said at first, but Yumi waved a slice in front of his face anyway. "Very well, if you would be so kind," he acquiesced, and let her pop it into his mouth. "How is the website coming along?" "Great. Dreamweaver rules. Want any more bells and whistles while I'm at it?" "I don't believe any New Age background music will be required, no." "Just try and get me to give you more ginger after that joke. How about an automated link to the eBay listings, or are you going to keep those up?" "We may as well. It's not a bad venue for advertisement, after all." He stopped the wheel, examined the vase closely, and shaped the mouth into stylized iris-petals before tracing the long blades of the leaves up along the body and setting it on a rack to dry. After washing his hands and wiping them on his smock, he leaned from the workshop doorway to the counter to examine Yumi's progress. He nodded approvingly, though with a faint asymmetry to the motion. "Looks like you've cramped up your neck again," she said, and kicked the chair out from under herself toward him. "Sit down and I'll uncramp it for you. Oh, you would start stealing my pickled ginger while I've got my hands full." "It's Kenshin's pickled ginger," he pointed out calmly. While it would affront his dignity to also adopt Kenshin's being-scritched cat-sprawl of bliss, he did allow himself a faint sigh of relief as Yumi massaged the cramp out. "And I'd say he simply substituted a small amount of plum wine for some of the mirin. I've done that myself on occasion." "Jeez. Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu, pottery, library science, and now cooking? Is there anything you haven't done?" There was a decidedly odd, though nearly subliminal undercurrent to her voice, as well as to the way she leaned closer against him. Her customary loose tendril of hair tumbled down the back of his neck, between her hands. He turned toward her with one eyebrow raised. "Quite a few. For example, I don't believe I'm likely to attempt your former line of work." "But the local Chippendales branch is always looking for new guys. You could do the whole Patrick Swayze gig with live nude pottery. The chicks would be throwing cash at you for a chance to play Demi Moore." If he hadn't known better from the conversational topic, much less from observing Kaoru around Kenshin, he might have mistaken Yumi's expression for wide-eyed innocence. Driven by analogy, he resisted an obscure urge to utter an oro. Gravely, he said, "Thank you for the suggestion, Miss Komagata. I shall keep it in mind for future reference. Now perhaps I ought to finish tidying up so I can leave you in peace for the evening." He stood up and away before she could do anything about it. When he glanced back through the doorway from the workshop a few minutes later, she'd returned to working at the laptop, her shoulders slumped in an almost disconsolate way. Perhaps he had been a trifle brusque with her. As a gesture of rapprochement, he said, "Incidentally, I've been wondering whether you had any interest in resuming your use of the naginata." "Oh. Hadn't thought about it," she said, not looking up from the keyboard. "Did you want me to start going out on patrol with the rest of you guys, or do you still think Jineh's still around somewhere? I guess he hasn't figured out yet that his sword is here, or he'd have come in already to get it back. But I don't really want to run into him if I don't have to." "That is rather the crux of the matter." Hiko swept up a last dustpan of spilled glaze powder. "As you are in residence here, you would be at direct risk if Jineh were to reclaim his sword. Conversely, however, you would also constitute the last line of defense against him. Are you already armed in some way?" "My old knife is still locked up, right? Don't know how much good it would do against him if he really wanted to get past me." "Well, it certainly won't do you much good locked away. I do apologize; I'd forgotten to return it to you after the late unpleasantness. Perhaps we can lash it onto a pole to form an impromptu naginata until I can obtain something better." He unfastened the head from the broom he'd been using, set the bundled straw onto the dustpan, and carried the bare broomstick out into the gallery. Yumi trooped behind him to help move the shelves away from the case that held her knife and the two black swords. While he searched his pockets for the key, she pressed her nose against the glass. "Hey," she said. "Was Megitsune-chan trying something new tonight?" "I believe so, yes. Why do you ask?" She pointed at Battousai's sword inside the case. Its tsuba now held only two gems, the amethyst and sapphire gleaming coolly below the kashira's ruby. Tomoe's topaz was gone. --- Kneeling on one of the benches that lined the gazebo, Kaoru leaned over the railing to stare down into the surrounding pond. The water-lilies were all dormant this time of year, and when she tossed out a bit of mochi, its initial ripples of impact weren't echoed by the larger ones that usually followed from hungry fish. The koi must have gone to sleep too. She nibbled on the rest of the mochi ball herself, worried. She'd taken it from the box of Megumi's stuff they'd found under another one of the benches, but Megumi herself still hadn't showed up to join them. Kenshin was sitting beside her, arms and legs completely pulled up inside the tentlike expanse of one of Sano's old coats, an army-surplus parka with a hood several times the size of his head. "It's not like Miss Megumi to neglect her responsibilities in this way," he said unnecessarily. "I hope nothing's wrong," she said, and turned away from the water. A length of yarn was trailing out of his pocket, wriggling up into an emptily dangling coat sleeve. She poked at it. "What the heck are you doing?" "After shortening so many of Mr. Harris' former sweaters, I decided to unravel the leftover pieces to knit a scarf. I think it's nearly long enough for you now. Would you like to try it on?" "I thought you were going to make them into mittens for yourself. Or that's what you said when you wouldn't let me get any for you." "I didn't wish to impose another burden on you, Miss Kaoru." "But I have to go shopping for my own clothes anyway, and I've got more than enough allowance to cover that. And I don't know how much library aides earn, but it can't be enough for you to keep trying to pay me back for that kind of stuff by hiding money in my pockets when you think I won't notice. I bet you haven't tried that with Sano, or is that where all of your food from home ec was going last month?" "If memory serves, you said that now the weather's turned colder, the fishbone chain chills your neck when you go outside." "Oh, Kenshin. If it bothered me that much, I'd stop wearing it. " She tilted her head against his shoulder, with the tiny silver fishbone resting in the hollow of her throat. "As for you, I brought those gloves you sewed all those tiny silver rings onto for me, if you want to put those on. Your hands must be freezing." He shivered. "Miss Kaoru, your nose is rather cold as well." "So is your ear," she breathed into it. "That coat is probably big enough to keep both of us warm, though. Are you really done with the scarf?" "Close enough," he said. "I can show it to you, if you'd like." Unfolding his legs back off the bench, he shook one arm through its sleeve again to draw out the scarf for display. As he tugged, half-trapped, she ducked under the coat's hem and burrowed up inside it. Pressed against her face, his sweatered chest heaved up, warm and startled. "Hey," she said into it. "I'm trapped in here. Could you undo the top button?" With the one arm still inside the coat with her, he groped up blindly to steady her as he stood up, dumping her onto her feet. She sighed to herself, not terribly surprised. It had been worth the try at cuddling, at least. She was slightly more surprised when he kept holding onto her instead of letting her crawl back out. Once he finished pulling the scarf out from between them, a gap of cool moonlight opened up above her. She had a clear glimpse of his face for an instant, before the coat's opened neck dropped over her head. Tts hood engulfed them both as he pulled her back onto the bench. After that, there was only his warmth in the darkness, binding her close against him with a fiercely tender embrace and kisses that burned like pale fire. --- There wasn't any more loose fuzz on the carpet underneath Megumi. It was matted and sticky, and it tasted like blood. She wanted to throw up again, but she didn't feel strong enough to do it. After a while, she'd been willing to say anything to make the pain stop. Her only consolation was that the guy with the knife hadn't asked her all the questions he could have. She remembered telling him where Kenshin was waiting for her tonight with Kaoru, but he hadn't asked anything else about Yumi, or Jineh's sword, or where Kenshin usually was when he wasn't at Inari's shrine. Before tonight, she'd hoped her patron kami might offer some protection to herself and Kaoru from Battousai, but if knife-guy could hurt a miko like this, there wasn't going to be much protection from him for Kenshin. A pair of tabi was standing in front of Megumi, visible just below the hem of a pale, narrow skirt. They were standing just outside the stained patch of carpet around her, as darkly red as Kenshin's hair in the harsh glare of the streetlight. "Megitsune-chan," a woman's soft voice said thoughtfully. There were stories about Inari as a white fox who turned into a woman, Megumi thought. Maybe she was safe now after all? She couldn't look up at the voice, though, because her own dried blood was sticking her to the floor. After a minute, the woman seemed to understand this, and bent to roll her over. The night outside was glaring through the window with two pale eyes, the streetlight and the moon behind it. And the woman kneeling at Megumi's side was lit with three golden flames, her eyes glowing as brightly as the jewel on the knife in her hand. ----- gazebo: http://www.dreadgazebo.com/eric.html (Finally scraped Yumi off Hiko's leg, at least for now. Meanwhile, I already emailed shiraha, but in case anyone else was wondering, I guess the main Edodale project is a K/K fic in that their relationship is central to the story and no one else is getting lucky so far (down, Yumi!). I didn't plan for this chapter to be a cliffhanger, honest, but I had to cut it off somewhere, and this seemed to be the first good sort of stopping point at about the right length. However, there is still that unresolved question of whether FotN is going to tie in, and hence whether Enishi temporarily overtakes Kenshin wrt Kaoru (much to Jason's dismay). Not to mention the quasi-separate question of whether Kaoru really ought to be boffing anyone at her age, but maybe I'm just being overly squeamish. In any case, Kenshin per se is also likely to be much more punctilious than either Enishi or Battousai, but you know what they say about where nice guys end up....)