#Dojo Castañeda

[vivesanoybien]

la práctica de karate contra el bullying

El karate es un arte marcial que puede ayudar a las personas que sufren de bullying o acoso escolar. El karate no solo enseña técnicas de defensa personal, sino también valores como el respeto, la disciplina, la confianza y la autoestima.

El karate es un arte marcial que puede ayudar a las personas que sufren de bullying o acoso escolar. El karate no solo enseña técnicas de defensa personal, sino también valores como el respeto, la disciplina, la confianza y la autoestima. Estos valores pueden fortalecer el carácter de las víctimas de bullying y ayudarlas a enfrentar las situaciones de violencia con más seguridad y firmeza.…

[gabriel-gabdiel]

【Draft】 Rurouni Yahiko Chapter 58: Déjà Vu

For this chapter, we’ll be harkening back to things like “The Mark of Zorro (1940)” and the impressive on-screen duel between Captain Esteban Pasquale and Don Diego Vega. 

Yahiko is feeling a bit of déjà vu from battling The Faceless. What is it about him that’s so familiar anyway?

Yahiko Myojin remembered the first time Yutaro "Cat Eyes" Tsukayama came back to Japan and the Kamiya Dojo after years of living abroad to seek treatment for his arm injury.

Yutaro was supposed to be injured by his traitorous "master", Raijuta Isurugi. He went overseas for treatment, which enabled him to regain use of his right arm for the most part but he still went "southpaw" or left handed during sparring matches.

Yes, that was right. Mr. Tsukayama had decided to still practice kendo instead of retire.

Inspired by this, Mr. Myojin promised to give his rival the match of his life, showing off his skill honed by his past battle experiences.

When they had their first sparring match in years, Yahiko expected to blow the one-armed Yutaro out of the water, only for Yutaro, with a one-handed handicap, end up making the fight close.

The goddamn magnificent bastard really was a kendo prodigy. Yutaro's careful counters from Gedan-no-Kamae (Earth Stance)`made Yahiko second guess his shots and miss his attacks from the Jodan-no-Kamae (Fire Stance).

Feeling indignant by these turn of events since he went through so much more than him after they last met, Yahiko dug deep into his soul to summon his past battle experiences into the match point blow that literally blasted Tsukayama's helmet off of his head.

He rocked his socks off and then some.

However, to Myojin's annoyance, he still had to do his best against the one-armed student.

Not only did Yutaro remember what little kendo instruction he got from Kaoru Kamiya. He expanded his knowledge somehow when he went overseas to get his arm treated.

He did not waste his time while undergoing treatment and rehabilitation for his nerve-damaged right arm that Raijuta had nearly lopped off.

The cunning "Cat Eyes" somehow added western martial arts and weapon techniques to his solid kendo arsenal, somehow merging east and west together to form a truly unique repertoire.

His approached his kenjutsu like fencing, fighting at a controlled tempo then bursting in speed at the right moments with fluid motion.

It took some time for Yahiko to figure out how Yutaro bested him half of the time, but he eventually realized that Cat Eyes was using mind games and what was known as the "Tactical Wheel" to outsmart him at every other match.

It was from this flashback that Yahiko figured out what this Brigands Guild member's sword techniques reminded him of.

***

Rurouni Yahiko

A Rurouni Kenshin Continuation Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda

Yahiko has seen the sword style of The Faceless before.

Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others) are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallup, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted material that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.

***

Chapter 58: Déjà Vu

***

Back at a narrow alleyway in the Yokohama Chinatown near the Minakata moneychanger offices…

Multiple things happened at once. Like a hurricane of events.

Meanwhile, the lion dance mascot full of martial artists retaliated against Gan by stretching itself like a snake around him and kicking him with spiked shoes and hidden daggers.

Like a wounded animal fighting for its life, even though it was actually multiple men wearing a costume.

"AUUUGH!" cried The Distressed Gan, who did his best to parry and block the slashing and lacerating kicks with his metal bat.  

"GAN!" cried out Yahiko Myojin and Munenori Minoe at their comrade.

Because Fabian La Cerca lost his dagger, he thought fast, grabbed hold of Tatsuya Minakata, and threw him through the already broken windows of a probably abandoned house in Chinatown.

This distracted Yahiko long enough for him to withdraw his thin rapier sword before the frightening strength of the eye-patched Munenori beside him could break his weapon in twain as well.

Then, for a split-second, a shocked Myojin and a pale-faced Minoe stood and stared at each other and the violent scenes before them, this brains barely registering what had just happened.

"H-Hey. Thanks for saving me, Minoe," said Yahiko, sheathing his sword and slipping it back on his cloth belt.

"N-No problem," stuttered Munenori. "You better go, Yahiko-chi! We'll keep the mercenaries occupied while you retrieve, uh, Kinta-chi's uncle."

"Of course. Thanks again. I owe you one! Thank Gan for me too!" answered Myojin before both turned and went opposite directions.

Or they would've had the lion mascot not suddenly appeared beside Munenori and snatched him off the ground with its unhinged puppet jaws, like a real lion biting its prey.

From behind the mascot hobbled the Gasping Gan, spurts of blood making small fountains on his legs and calves.

"AH! Minoe!" yelped Yahiko, intending to run after the eye-patched dual wielder but Gan stopped him cold with an outstretched hand and an open palm.

Without looking at him, Gan said, "Don't worry, Yoshi-boy. I'll take care of Patches. Go after The Masked Rider instead. Time is running out!"

"…Fine. Make sure you finish that mascot off!" said Yahiko, who finally sprinted towards the abandoned building where The Faceless threw Tatsuya.

Their brief hellos and goodbyes kept them from realizing how naïve their presumptions were.

***

Back at the exterior facade of the Minakata moneychanger office building…

The cackling Kai Hidaka briefly distracted the two brothers from the same mother.

One was a Eurasian bastard child who somehow ended up as part of the Brigands Guild of international mercenaries.

The other was the grandson of a samurai turned pharmaceutical tycoon with generational wealth and significant government clout as an oligarch.

They then realized that somehow, the high-flying spidery ninja somehow defeated the formidable shinobi that the bastard with the bastard sword couldn't finish off.

"…You know what? I don't hate you, mate. You're a fine bloke to me," Lucas Grant said to his estranged half-brother, Kinta Minakata. "You spared me from having to deal with both you and that troublesome ninja bodyguard of yours so this ends up a fair fight."

Kinta spared a glance at the motionless Zan, whom he presumed had critically injured Lucas, but was actually somehow like a steam train running on fumes.

Maybe they should've double-teamed the bloody Prodigal Son while they had the chance. Maybe he was too "honorable" for his own good.

Their pattern from before resumed. The wounded but aggressive Luke plodded on, only blocking the most bone-cutting of sweeping slashes from Kinta to avoid getting his limbs lopped off.

Meanwhile, on Minakata's part, every last chopping blow or lunging stab from Grant was potentially a one-hit kill. He also had to watch out for his half-brother's pommel strikes too.

This was confirmed with how, despite outlanding Lucas in strikes, the Sanada Demon Zan succumbed to internal bleeding from a blow or stab.

Nevertheless, like with most of his fight with Zan, Luke couldn't land a significant blow on his big brother and his superior swordsmanship skill.

However, the bastard son of the Minakatas had started clipping and slicing bits and pieces of Kinta's flesh.

"It kind of irritates me that you're as good as you are despite being given everything in the world," confessed Luke.

They clashed swords again. The Akatsuki held true, but it could not stave off the longer reach and thicker steel of Lucas's bastard sword and its superior steel.

"I didn't know what to expect. A spoiled little rich boy, maybe? Someone who has no idea how cruel the world can be. An entitled dishrag of a man drowning in wealth and privilege. But you're something else, Big Brother."

Like a lion to a gazelle, Lucas stalked his prey, his strikes that previously whiffed and got countered slowly clipping and slashing his tiring brother, wearing him down.

However, like a gazelle to a lion, Kinta evaded Lucas. The bastard child of the Minakatas had yet to land a significant blow on him even as his collection of flesh wounds increased.

Even when Luke blocked the Mangetsu O Tsuku Nari (Full Moon Slash) with his much longer, sturdier bastard sword, Kinta's Akatsuki (Red Moon) katana could still penetrate the block and leave cuts on him.

Deep cuts. Cuts that almost dug deep into his bone. His nerves. His veins. Or even his very soul.

Like a dashing stag's horns piercing through the lion's hide from mid-pounce. The prey fighting for its life, injuring its predator.

'Of course it wasn't going to be that easy,' thought Lucas with a smile that formed on his bloody mouth, his teeth dyed red. 'Fine. Anything that's worth anything should be this hard to get!'

***

Inside the nearby abandoned warehouse building…

Yahiko wandered into the area where The Faceless threw Tatsuya Minakata into, the banker's body messily crashing through the structure's western-style windows.

His slippers stepping on shards of glass that glistened in the moonlight, crushing them under his soles.

"HEY! Thin Man! Where are you? Are you still alive?" called out Yahiko, referring to the V.I.P. he was guarding.

Tatsuya Minakata, the banker son of the famous hatamoto-class samurai oligarchs of both the Shogunate and the Meiji Government, the Minakata Family.

One of the heirs of the huge Minakata Zaibatsu (Conglomerate), Tatsuya was next in line to inherit his family's vast fortune after his mother kicks the bucket. Or so Myojin heard.

He was followed by his younger brother the lawyer and their swordsman nephew, the former member of the Shogunate's special guard.

These people were so filthy rich, they'd make Chizuru Raikouji's family look poor. Or the drug dealer Kanryu Takeda look downright middle class. Or fellow oligarch Jusanro Tani quaint.

'Wonder what that's like,' thought Yahiko with a smirk and a head-shake, repressing memories of him pick-pocketing for the mob to help pay for his family's debts.

Even just one of the trinkets or heirlooms here, like a painting or a suit of armor, would've been enough to pay for his parents' debt with the yakuza. Maybe. It looked like they wanted to have him for keeps.

He maneuvered his sandaled feet through the glass shards like he were walking on eggshells. Shiny, sharp, painful eggshells.

He found Tatsuya in the nick of time. He lay there but not in a pool of his own blood, though he did receive several cuts from going through the window.

"Whew. Thank goodness I found you before The Faceless could get you, Thin Man," said Yahiko, his voice barely above a whisper. "…Uh, Tatsuya-san? You okay, bud?"

"…Y-You're fired," groaned Tatsuya. "I'm going to have my brother sue you for the injuries I've sustained, you teenaged brat!"

Myojin sighed in both relief and exasperation. "Yeah, you're welcome. Save your life? No prob. Think nothing of it."

"Save my life? My assassin just threw me through a window! I almost died!" yelped Kinta's uncle.

Yahiko then barely had time to parry and back away from the attacking Faceless in his next breath, its tip clipping his clavicle, drawing blood.

He cursed under his breath. If John Rathbone could get away with it, he'd kill him with a thousand cuts.

"You didn't kill Minakata Tatsuya yet?" accused Yahiko. "You had every chance to do so."

"I like to play with my prey," answered The Faceless, who now wore a different mask than before. "Half the fun of my assassination missions is the thrill of the hunt and triggering the primal instincts of my victims. Fight or flight."

Yahiko groaned, realizing he now had to deal with this pantomiming foreign invader with a mask shtick worse than the late Hannya from the Oniwabanshu (Castle Guardians).

Tatsuya himself said to The Faceless, "Forget the kid. Whatever your sponsor is paying to assassinate our family, I'll double it! Triple it, even! Stay and become our bodyguard and you could earn a fortune!"

"Watch your filthy mouth, my little piggy bank," said the master fencer. "Once the kid dies, I have no reason to let you live either."

"What a coincidence. I feel the same way about you, Faceless," said Yahiko, surprising even himself with the boldness of his words.

The Faceless smirked. "O-ho. You wouldn't care to translate that feeling into action, would you?"

"I might be tempted," the Son of Tokyo Samurai said.

"Would you, now?" The Faceless proceeded to put his right sword arm forward, pointing his rapier at Yahiko's face while his other hand rested on his hip, his left arm bent on its elbow.

He also had his right leg bent forward, his lead foot pointed at his opponent while his left rear leg and foot pointed to his left side.

The Faceless—who now decided to refer to himself as John Rathbone instead of Fabian La Cerca—told the samurai kid, "Didn't realize you brought your friends along. I miss my dagger. Now I can't show off Fabian's sword and dagger technique."

'Good,' thought the teenager, resisting the urge to stick his tongue out at the fencer lest he cut it out. 'I can barely land a hit on you with that dagger around as is. Thanks, Minoe.'

As the moonlight touched the naked blade of Yahiko's inherited sakabatou, The Faceless remarked, "What is with that sword of yours? Is it a sickle you're wielding or a sword? The blade is on the wrong side. You can't cut someone down like that."

Yahiko then said, "It's not for cutting down people. It's for saving people. It's the sword of life."

***

Kinta Minakata didn't mean to retreat. He got forced to do so.

Like sheep being herded back to their corral by a farm dog. Or a pack of wolves picking the herd apart for lunch.

Was he really luring his half-brother to a trap or was he being herded by him instead? It depended on which one of them would ultimately survive this encounter.

He'd actually been waiting for a counter opportunity that never came. Instead, he faced constant, unrelenting pressure from his supposed half-brother.

The literal Minakata bastard.

He didn't know what to think about it. His mind whirled of memories of being bullied and made fun of by his peers for having his father cuckolded or invaded by a foreigner, stealing away his wife who birthed a bastard.

The child whose father ruined his parents' marriage and led his own father to commit sepukku (ritual suicide) by hara-kiri (disembowelment) and later decapitation.

This devilish blond man was like all that past trauma of his personified. This son of a bitch.

No, wait. He'd never call him that. He'd never shame his mother that way.

Rather, he was a son of a gun by the truest sense of the term. A "gun" referred to a foreign military person, he believed. Sons of guns tended to be children of navy sailors.

The phrase potentially originated in a Royal Navy direction that pregnant women aboard smaller naval vessels had to give birth in the space between the broadside guns to keep the gangways and crew decks clear.

He would've pondered on this more had his relentless half-brother gave him enough breathing room and time for his brain to process this bombshell of a revelation.

He'd nailed several counters at Lucas already but he wouldn't go down. As if him attacking while already bleeding and injured by Zan was a lie or ruse to get Kinta's guard down.

The man's stamina was impressive. Unlike his stamina, which was the complete opposite.

Lucas had been fighting, beating, and killing bodyguards left and right for what felt like hours and there he was, fresh like a daisy.

Or rather, the presence of blood seemed to sharpen his senses, activating his fight-or-flight instincts. Or a shark going into a feeding frenzy. Even if it was his own blood.

Luke's wild, beastly eyes shone in the dark, lit by a sliver of moonlight. Like the eyes of an animal ready to pounce. To prove that sometimes even the savviest of humans had to let nature take its course and succumb to getting mauled by a lion or bear.

Cunning and careful planning could only take you so far in the wild.

Kinta also had one serious problem. Try as he might, he couldn't bring himself to hate this stranger who tried his best to kill the entire Minakata Family.

He shouldn't feel this way, especially against such a dangerous man who already murdered so many of his family's elite guards as well as several of the Sanada Ninjas.

Everyone's lives were at stake against the Brigands Guild of assassins and mercenaries.

***

Yahiko remembered Kaoru's words like it was yesterday.

"The Kamiya Kasshin Ryu is a sword style that my father developed during the Meiji Era after surviving the turbulence of the Bakumatsu."

Her father and the founder of the Kamiya Dojo, Koshijiro Kamiya, didn't approve of murderous swords. With the ambition for swords that gave life, Koshijiro and his daughter Kaoru gave this sword style everything they had for 10 years.

"The sakabatou is a sword that gives life instead of takes it. A life-giving sword," said Yahiko, echoing what Kaoru and even Kenshin had told him in the past on why they chose to teach him Kamiya Kasshin Ryu instead of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

"A life-giving sword? What utter hogwash is that? Next you'll tell me you want a healing gun, or a bomb that puts your limbs back together!" mocked The Faceless.

"You're lucky because I follow a non-killing sword style. Even though I want to kill you to avenge the people you've killed, I'll settle on defeating you," said Yahiko while falling into his Water Stance.

He inwardly cringed at his audacity for saying those words but knew deep down that even though he didn't share Kenshin's past regrets, he also wasn't too keen to spill blood himself.

He promised both Kenshin and Kaoru he wouldn't. Let the endless murders end with the Bakumatsu, they said.

"You are aware that this is a duel to the death, child. I'm under no obligation to spare your life even if you're foolish enough to spare mine," said The Faceless.

"A sword is made to kill. Let me teach you that painful lesson, boy."

"Spare me the speech. I've heard it all before.  'Swords are weapons.' 'Swordsmanship is the art of killing.' But even if you think I'm sugarcoating the truth, I can and will show you what a life-giving sword is all about."

Myojin wondered if he could back up his bluster or if he wasn't merely bluffing. A sword that gave life instead of taking it away was patently ridiculous and totally contradictory.

What pushed him to say such things? What made him choose to believe Kaoru's flowery words and her father's idealistic beliefs like Kenshin did when they first met?

"Heh. Is that so? Spoken like a child who has never gotten blood in your hands," harrumphed the masked Faceless, his mask-covered nose seemingly upturned at Yahiko.. "You're a child."

"Yeah, and? So what?" said Yahiko. "I'd like to keep it that way. I don't want to be a murderer. I just want to beat you."

Yahiko did a Simple Attack from the Jodan-no-Kamae (Fire Stance) of having the sakabatou raised high up over his head, his muscles tense and his shuffling footwork gauging the distance by feel.

Whether it was a slash or a thrust after a miss from any of the eight directions as shown in the Kuzu Ryu Sen, it didn't matter.

He expected the Parry Riposte to happen and was actually baiting him to strike to do a combination strike or Compound Attack (attacks with feints) or even a Counter Attack (responding in a way that avoided the riposte while landing the counter).

Patiently, Rathbone's riposte turned into another circular parry as he danced around Yahiko's probing swings and answered with blocks and deflection, as though figuring out the kid wasn't committing fully to the strikes enough to land an effective counter to the counter or Counter Time.

Yahiko did more feints to draw out a possible counterattack from John Rathbone that he could counter or do his own Counter Time. Or he even countered an obvious feint from Rathbone, hoping to react fast enough to counter the resulting Counter Time with his own Feint in Time or a feinted counterattack.

'So he's another samurai who knows the Tactical Wheel,' thought Rathbone. 'Fascinating. Kenjutsu isn't the primitive, ineffective martial art I thought it was.'

The Faceless then read and parried all his feints until he found an angle where he could do an off-time riposte before Yahiko could react.

The thrust didn't stab the teenager in the heart, but only because John slashed at the last second to avoid Myojin's Hadachi (Sword Catch) technique.

"You're a funny fellow, kid," said Rathbone with a chuckle while wiping Yahiko's blood from his triangular blade. He then turned towards the injured Minakata and declared, "You have a champion with you, Minakata Tatsuya. And what a champion."

For his part, Tatsuya Minakata managed to crawl to the nearest boxes and rest his back there, sitting away from these two dueling fools.

He'd give a king's ransom to have both of these dangerous idiots beheaded.

***

Judging by the additional wounds Kinta Minakata gave his bastard brother, the gulf in skill between the two was apparent.

So why didn't it matter? Why didn't the long-lost "Takuto Minakata" crumple down and die from his strikes?

Did he really need to cut him through the bone, lop off his limbs, or decapitate him to kill him? Otherwise, he wouldn't die?

He still kept standing. Biding his time. Parrying endlessly, like his (presumably) sword master The Faceless would, in order to find an opening.

Luke's defense was practically nonexistent compared to Rathbone. However, he more than made up for it with his limitless stamina and out-of-this-world resiliency.

In comparison, the only blood staining Kinta's clothes were that of his brother's or any of the Brigands Guild he'd faced off against so far.

And yet a he felt a sense of gloom at the back of his head. He had to keep his guard up as long as Lucas kept moving.

The blonde foreign devil looked injured but to be honest, none of his bleeding wounds were fatal. They were just flesh wounds.

Also, Lucas noticed that he hadn't landed a significant strike on his brother for quite some time. Injured and bleeding, Luke charged forward, cutting the distance between them and making it harder to land full-strength counters.

Like he'd been prolonging this fight to memorize his older brother's tempo, range, tells, tactics, techniques, tendencies, and rhythm. As though a war of attrition favored him the most.

Now every time Kinta attempted a Full Moon Slash, Luke braced himself to block the strike with a two-handed parry before it could reach its apex.

He also sidestepped the slash with a blade deflection. He even minimized the impact of an unblocked or belatedly blocked technique by hopping backwards and letting the arcing slash push him away.

And just like that, Kinta's ultimate attack had been sealed. He couldn't even do a Blue Moon Slash anymore because Lucas wouldn't let him even land one Full Moon Slash.

On his part, Luke didn't relent on any of his attacks either, with every slash, stab, and chop of his with the potential to maim, bisect, dissect, draw, or quarter anyone it hit.

Again, Minakata felt like a helpless child dodging carriages or a stamped of spooked horses in open traffic.

His brother really swung for the fences. And even if his full commitment to his strikes left him wide open, he was more than willing to take a shallow slash to land a deeper one.

How very Japanese of him for a gaijin. He embodied the very definition of the Japanese saying, "Let them cut your flesh, and you will break their bones."

***

By the age of fifteen, Yahiko had become a national champion level swordsman feared and revered in Tokyo as "The Catcher of a Thousand Blades" thanks to his shirahadori (blade catching) mastery.

At that time, he had also mastered Kamiya Kasshin Ryu, proving as much with the feat of stopping the first five attacks from Kenshin's Kuzu Ryu Sen (Nine-Headed Dragon Flash) technique once.

Nevertheless, Myojin grit his teeth as he faced off against The Faceless' comparatively tamer yet more methodical attacks.

Having to deal with an elusive opponent who picked his spots, took his sweet time to attack, you couldn't hit, could read all of your attacks and feints felt like pulling teeth.

Or a thousand paper cuts while submerged in a lemon bath. These little nicks that were shallower than a wound yet somehow felt worse, like you'd been set on fire.

The difference between death and torture, even.

"We have a hero with us," mocked Rathbone, daring Yahiko to strike all the way with circular parries and inviting thrusts. "I'll gladly play the role of the villain now. Don't disappoint me, hero."

John Rathbone really was the spirit and image of Yutaro Tsukayama's fencing-like kenjutsu, right down to slowing the pace to a crawl in order to peck and prick the enemy to death.

Or at least anger an opponent enough to make him charge recklessly and commit with full bone-cutting slashes then make him pay for his recklessness.

'…How did this gaijin defeat the echolocation ninja anyway?' Yahiko thought as they again exchanged parries and dodges. 'A ninja who could detect and react to him instantly. And could mess with his rhythm. What is his secret to solving those problems?'

Yahiko observed that no matter how hard he feinted or attempted to interrupt The Faceless' rhythm, he'd find a way to recover, parry, or dodge then reset the assault or counter off any of the samurai teen's attempts at charging.

He had a safety zone he could shell up into or retreat towards to cover up any gaps or openings in his stance or his actions.

Even when the Sanada Demon interrupted his rhythm, he could still counter off any openings presented to him by a charging opponent.

He always set the pace and countered at more flexible or awkward angles compared to the comparatively frigid stances of kenjutsu.

He was one step ahead every time and did mind games on what he'd do next. His wait-and-see strategy also allowed him to adapt and counter any tactics thrown at him.

Just like Yutaro's modus operandi.

Because of his injured hand, Tsukayama relied more on an overall strategy that used his opponent's strengths against them instead of relying on tactics and discovering his opponent's weaknesses throughout the course of the battle.

However, this persistent sense of déjà vu (French for "already dreamed") merely pushed Yahiko further, his curved sword clashing in sparking flashes with Faceless' thin straight blade with endless probing parries to find openings or to create them.  

Fortunately, Yahiko's newly acquired skills of dodging, blocking, parrying, and cutting the distance from a retreating opponent limiting the amount of thrusts and ripostes from John.

His endless drills with May Brooks/Satsuki Sakaguchi had paid dividends. Otherwise, he would've been skewered by the Faceless long ago.

The Kamiya Kasshin Ryu master also remembered why he went into his Musha Shugyo (Warrior's Pilgrimage) in the first place. To defeat his rival, Yutaro, and his defensive kendo skills.

***

You shouldn't let his crimson mask of blood deceive you. Lucas Grant was more dangerous now than he was before he started bleeding.

It could be that Lucas was stronger and more durable than Kinta the same way Luke's bastard sword could break the samurai's katana because of its higher grade, carbon-rich steel.

However, it didn't necessarily matter.

Kinta was no mere injured animal fighting tooth and nail for his life by letting his base instincts take over either.

The Mimawarigumi Battousai was as dangerous to his fellow men as men were to animals.

Humans were weaker than most animals yet they somehow ended up becoming the dominant species in the world.

Kinta was no mere beast. He was more than a lion. He was a man. A hunter. The human animal that was on top of the food chain. The apex predator of apex predators.

Granted, a human wasn't faster than a cheetah. Nor stronger than a gorilla. Nor more brutal than a tiger or lion. His nails weren't as sharp as bear claws. Without clothes, he was as exposed as a naked mole rat or a chick that fell off its nest.

By all accounts, in the animal kingdom, a human should be prey instead of the apex predator.

However, humans weren't as weak as one would think.

They had opposable thumbs like apes and monkeys, allowing them the ability to make tools and tightly grip sharp weapons to make up for their lack of claws and raw strength.

They were long-distance endurance runners. While animals could outrun any human at any given time, a human was adept at stalking and tiring such animals down with unrelenting determination.

Any animal could beat humans in a race but they'd tire out trying to outpace a human in a marathon race.

Humans could also sweat, which allowed them to efficiently cool down and prevent themselves from overheating due to activity.

Most animals did not have as effective of a cooling system as humans, so any exertion of commensurate effort on their part, like fleeing or fighting for their life, will leave them more exhausted compared to the self-cooling human.

However, the weapon Kinta had in between his ears was what made him the most dangerous.

The human weapon of intelligence.

A human was able to plan, work with groups of other humans, and make tools. He was no mere animal acting on instinct.

The most intelligent and methodical of humans could turn hunters like any of the big cats into the hunted by springing traps on them or using projectiles against them, from rocks to spears.

Humans could also communicate with each other through language. They could take down even huge animals like elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotamuses by tactics, traps, subterfuge, and cooperation.

Even as Lucas pressured Kinta to retreat from an endless barrage of decapitating strikes—knowing his large chunk of steel he called a sword could withstand a strike better than the thinner though sharper katana—the samurai conserved his energy.

He'd memorized Luke's tactics, which kept him safe from even the wildest strikes through pattern recognition. Like a human stalking his prey and memorizing their movement and habits before going in for the kill.

Even as Kinta panted and sweated from the effort, his intelligence kept him from succumbing to wild beasts like his reckless brother.

Even as he tasted the rusty tang of his own blood in his mouth after clearing his throat, his brother still could barely touch him.

Alas, his brother was no mere beast either. Lucas also resembled the human animal, particularly in terms of his tireless stamina, quick recovery, hand-eye coordination, and ability to outlast his prey like an ancient hunter-gatherer.

A modern human with caveman-like strength and instincts.

***

"…In the next attack, I'll parry thrice then do a riposte," said The Faceless all of a sudden, alarming Yahiko. "Pay attention now."

Was he going to really do it? Was he going to tell him his next attack and still land, confident that Myojin couldn't come up with a counter? Or was he lying about doing that and he'd counter a different way?

And so Yahiko attempted to fly and bash Faceless on the noggin, only for him to get parried.

He then attempted to break the sword with the Tsui Gami (God Hammer), with got neutralized with two parries, followed by a riposte that he tried to counter with the Shippu Jinrai Dotou no Ken (Gale Thunderclap Billow Sword) to the wrist.

However, the riposte ripped through regardless, with Rathbone turning his wrist to parry the blow with his elongated sword handle.  He was landing at will now.

Damn you, Cat Eyes. Oh wait, this wasn't Cat Eyes. This was The Faceless.

Rathbone said, "Wipe yourself, kiddo. You're bleeding."

"…I needed that scratch to awaken me!" responded Yahiko.

Fine. Whatever. He'd been planning to use this technique against Yutaro but… what the hell. He might as well use it on this mirror image of Yutaro's kenjutsu.

Yutaro's swordsmanship was such that it didn't matter if you used your best techniques at him, he'd use your strengths as your weakness with a strategy that figured the whole essence of your own kenjutsu out.

Yahiko was different. He was the Yang to Yutaro's Yin. Or vice-versa.

Instead of figuring out a strategy to take out an opponent, he'd rather wing it or improvise, like when he figured out the weakness of the high-flying Hennya Kariwa was someone who could fly like him.

Any strategy Yahiko exhibited was purely incidental. He was more a think-on-your-feet kind of guy who relied on gut instinct to think up new tactics on the fly.

And his gut instinct told him that The Faceless had the same fundamental weakness as Yutaro.

"Next we'll do a Beat Parry Riposte," bragged Rathbone, only for him to frown when Yahiko charged at him. Like an enraged bull annoyed by all the cape waving of the matador.

'Huh. Fine. If he wants to play to my strengths, I'll indulge him,' thought John, preparing to do a Beat Parry Riposte regardless of what attack, counterattack, or feint Myojin had in mind.

Yahiko instead responded with a Counter Time. So it was a feint.

'No problem, time to adjust…?!' thought John before getting blindsided by a simple head strike, the blunt end of the sakabatou hammering his noggin and leaving a crack on his mask.

To himself, Rathbone wondered, 'What just happened?'

"Maybe next time, you'd have the common sense to not tell me what you're about to do next, old man," the petulant teenager answered back.

***

Back after The Faceless recently faced-off against Kinta Minakata, he relayed the following information to Lucas Grant.

"...I didn't notice it at first since I'm no a spring chicken myself, but Minakata Kinta has stamina problems. He slows down the longer you prolong a fight. Just like me, because of my age. Your youth will win out as long as you can withstand his extensive swordsman experience."

"Does he now?" Luke had asked with a twinkle in his blue eyes. "That's fascinating. Tell me more about Niisan (Big Brother)."

"Make your duel into a war of attrition. I haven't met anyone who has ever outlasted you in a fight. Turn it into a brawl. Throw away all technique. Don't bother outthinking him, just keep on striking. Take him into deep waters. Drown him. Show him how you've survived after all these years."

And thus Lucas did just that. Running high on adrenalin and testing the limits of his monstrous stamina, Luke kept his breathing low to conserve his energy.

He kept his frenetic pace by taking breaks while Kinta second guessed his next move and using twitch reflexes to counter or respond without thought in the middle of his rest period.

Boy, was his big brother a tough nut to crack. Most other swordsmen would've succumbed to him by now. However, the Minakata boys were apparently built different.

He'd thrown everything at him but a kitchen sink, and all he had to show for it were minor scratches and bruises.

Like he'd merely been roughhousing him on the playground like his childhood bully instead of doing his best to assassinate him then and there.

He'd poured the pressure on him, each of his full-power strikes killing blows in their own right, but the high-ranking hatamoto samurai remained cool under pressure. He had ice water in his veins.

The plan was to push his half-brother to his limits and run him ragged, knowing full well that he had respiratory problems stemming from his time with Hidden Christian rebels.

However, the red-faced Luke himself ached all over. He had a splitting headache as well. He underestimated the toll of exerting himself so much, yet he ended up swinging at nothing but air every time.

That cunning bastard. Even as Grant attempted to tire Minakata out, Minakata turned the tables on him and tired him out instead with all his missed swings and over-exertion.

His threshold for pain might be high, but he was testing its limits with all the cuts and lacerations he kept barely blocking from the Mimawarigumi Battousai.

He was also left to wonder: Was Kinta's deadpan face the look of someone out of breath and dying from his effort? He couldn't tell.

Kinta looked like he just went through a light jog. He'd broken a sweat, finally, but what of it? Did it compare to the buckets of blood Luke had already spilled?

Which one of them really was the more tired of the two?

Luke gulped hard, bracing himself for a long volley of attacks to come just to break apart his half-brother's clam shell defense and counters.

He had to do this though. Kinta Minakata was the biggest hurdle towards him getting his revenge against the family that abandoned him and his mother. That turned his life into a living hell.

Even with The Faceless' cunning strategy in mind, everything was still going to go down to the wire. Survival of the fittest.

'No hard feelings, Big Brother.'

***

Yahiko fell into his neutral Water Stance once again.

A basic kendo stance that invited all sorts of fencing attacks or counters at every corner from the more mobile sword style.

The Faceless' sword arm swung like a pendulum again, ready to parry, slash, or thrust at a moment's notice, with it serving as his means of gauging his opponent's next…!

The floor buckled beneath him. In a second, Yahiko had struck the ground with a Dou Gami (God on Earth).

Dammit. That technique had a wide berth and swing! Why couldn't Rathbone anticipate it this time?

Caught flatfooted, John Rathbone hopped to stable ground, away from the sudden explosion of rubble and debris, his sword ready to preemptively attack or counterattack.

Yahiko emerged from the smoke with a running start. Rathbone did a counter thrust that turned into a parry at the last second.

They ended up pushing off against each other with the strength of their swings, John's rapier trembling from Myojin's attempt at a blade-breaking Tsui Gami.

"The Faceless's blade is not so firm," the samurai kid said in jest.

The Brigands Guild member answered, "Still firm enough to run you through."

"Is that right? Make sure to keep your wrists safe from harm, then."

"What…?"

While Myojin was initially intimidated by The Faceless calling out his attacks, he realized it was no different from kendo matches calling out the part of the armor they hit when they were having formal matches.

It was up to the opponent to register what was said and respond. And respond he did.

"KOTE! DOUTOU NO KEN!"

As Yahiko's original signature move as a child—the Gale Thunderclap Billow Sword—landed on Rathbone's wrist, disarming him, the samurai teen inwardly grinned.

That was the weakness of The Faceless. Same as Yutaro Tsukayama.

When push came to shove, they'd wait for an opportunity to counter rather than attack 9 times out of 10.

Even when they attacked, they tended to bait a counterattack first to make their attack a counterattack.

The only time they attacked was when they had run out of options, but at that point they become vulnerable to counterattacks themselves.

Timing a Counter Time right in a way that they didn't see it coming was the key to success.

To John's chagrin, he heard Tatsuya holler at him. "Well, well, well. The fencing master has met his equal."

'My equal, you say?' thought the indignant Faceless while rubbing his wrists. 'Excuse me? Him? My equal? Balderdash.'

***

From the high-pace exchange of slashes and parries, the fight between blood brothers ground to almost a halt.

They paced themselves equally, with Luke pushing for the action while Kinta defended and kept an eye out for counter opportunities.

Their breathing was heavy. They panted like tired dogs in the middle of a summer heat wave. Their fight that lasted minutes felt like hours of nonstop trench war.

Neither willing to give ground. One fought to salvage his honor. The other fought to enact revenge upon the family who abandoned him.

On one hand, there was Kinta Minakata. He glistened with light perspiration from the effort and a couple of cuts and bruises, but his breathing was as ragged as his half-brother's.

The only blood on him was his brother's, among others. As expected of the sole Mimawarigumi survivor given the same moniker as the Ishin Shishi's own Battousai.  

His wheezing and occasional coughing belied his pristine condition. He also looked paler, perhaps even bluer, then usual.

On the other hand, there was Lucas Grant. He was supposed to be named Takuto Minakata, but his blond hair and blue eyes after he was born gave him away.

He looked like he'd gone from hell and back after taking on two of three Sanada Demons. However, his movements looked somehow sharper and livelier than his brother from another father.

For someone who looked like he was tortured, there remained a spring in his step. As though the blood on him was not his own. Or perhaps bleeding somehow invigorated him.

Which one of them was more exhausted? Which one of them was on the verge of death? The one who looked like he was almost dead or the one who sounded like he was almost dead?

Those were the thoughts filling Lieutenant Satoru Sakaguchi as he cradled his daughter near him while warily giving the side eye on the other remaining Brigands Guild member.

For his part, Kai Hidaka himself watched the bullfight of a match between fellow brigand Lucas and his brother, Kinta. If he were unmasked, perhaps he'd show an agape mouth.

Neither of the three moved from their positions as tensions rose between the panting, gasping Minakata Brothers.

The heavy breathing and groaning soon relaxed and slowed until they stopped altogether.

The two Minakata Brothers then stood up at the same time. They had saved up all their strength for this last salvo.

They controlled their breath and measured the distance between them by eyesight. They seemed to breathe almost in cadence with one another.

Slowly but surely, Kinta sheathed his blade. Meanwhile, Lucas kept his hunk of sharpened iron stabbed into the ground, waiting for the right moment to pull it out and lift it for an attack.

***

Yahiko thought about running after or even stomping on Rathbone's rapier on the factory floor to break it apart, but its owner had already dove to get a hold of it.

Oh well. Thusly, the Tokyo Samurai Descendant said, "For my next trick, I'll break that sword of yours apart."

John harrumphed. So now the kid was calling his shot as well? "You dare use my own gimmick against me, Myojin Yahiko?"

"Yessir. I sure do dare." The Tokyo Samurai Descendant fell back to his familiar Water Stance.

Rathbone himself fell into his En Garde fencing stance in kind, bouncing on his heels and measuring the distance with probing rapier thrusts.

Knowing what would happen next. They both knew, actually.

Rathbone had figured out how Yahiko was landing his strikes. The samurai kid used the same preparatory stance to initiate all of his offense, transitioning suddenly to other stances from the basic kendo stance if he had to.

This way, he gave no "tell" or "signal" to what he was about to do next. His stance remained neutral at every exchange.

All of his techniques, from the Revisal Techniques to the original Kamiya Kasshin Ryu and even his imitation Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu moves could be done from the Chudan-no-Kamae.

Making Rathbone second-guess which attack to counter allowed Yahiko to react to his belated counters in time and do the appropriate Counter Time.

In this scenario, even a "telegraphed" attack like Dou Gami could land, because if John were to notice it in time and counter, Yahiko had enough time to react and turn the strike into a feint and Counter Time.

"Genei Gami (Phantom God)," Myojin whispered.

Hiding all his techniques' preparatory movements from the neutral stance to better read his opponent was the next step of his Revisal Techniques.

And as the blocked Dou Gami finally gave Yahiko enough room to execute the Tsui Gami, Rathbone's rapier finally broke into two pieces.

Alas, this was what Rathbone bet on.

With a gloved hand, he grabbed hold of one piece of the broken sword and dual wielded the blades, blocking the samurai kid's follow-up strike with the bottom half and stabbing him in the shoulder with the top half.

"My equal? Really? ¡Qué huevá más grande! (What an annoyance!)" said John Rathbone, who'd transformed into the Spaniard Fabian La Cerca at the last second upon finding a way to turn his rapier into his favored sword and dagger weapons.

"AUGH!" said Yahiko, who had gripped The Faceless' wrist in time to keep the rapier from reaching his vital organs, his face twisted in anguish.

"You're 100 years too early to be facing me, child."

***

To Lucas's surprise, it was Kinta who spoke first after his katana slid to its scabbard with a click. He had one question for him.

"What happened to Mother?" asked the heir to the Minakata Zaibatsu fortune.

"She's dead," said the Prodigal Son matter-of-factly. "Your family killed her. Called her a traitor to her nation. A whore to the gaijin invaders. Disowned her. Cast her aside. Banished her as their black sheep. Forgot about her altogether, like she didn't exist. Does that answer your question, Big Brother?"

"…."

Despite himself, Satoru murmured, "So the rumors were true. Damn."

Beside him, the officer's daughter stirred, pretending to be asleep but clearly hearing what Kinta's yonger brother said.

Azuma Minakata committed ritual suicide after his wife slept with a foreigner and bore their bastard son. Afterwards, Aoi Minakata was never heard from again.

The Minakatas pretended she never existed and thus she didn't. Until now.

The two finally addressed the elephant in the proverbial room, clearing the air between them.

It was the very thing that held them back and kept them from going all out. It left them wondering what they were even fighting for.

Now they know. The Minakatas committed an unforgivable sin and their unknown grandchild had come to collect.

Also, like cowards, they used their precious heir to the throne to defend themselves against retribution, making him implicit to their crimes. An accessory to murder.

Lucas would've rather drawn and quartered his cowardly Uncle Kaneda. Or tortured the pride out of his arrogant Uncle Tatsuya before beheading him.

Maybe even mercy-kill his Grandmother Mieko. Then piss on the grave of his late Grandfather Toshiro.

Luke had been disguising himself as their bodyguard all this time for a reason. To gauge whether they deserved retribution or if they changed from their evil ways. What he saw of them steeled his resolve. Most of them deserved what was coming to them.

Alas, their honorable nephew or grandson Kinta was in his way from committing justified familicide.

It couldn't be helped. They were both victims of circumstance.

The two then charged at each other, Kinta waiting for the right moment to draw his Akatsuki (Red Moon) katana and Lucas preparing a full two-handed swing of his bastard sword.

***

The Faceless's body stood up in attention, as though preparing to march. He then shifted to his fencing stance, his free arm settling on his hips, his jousting or fencing hand moving in circles in front of him.

Yahiko was now faced with two problems. One, his shoulder got injured, so his reaction time had been physically diminished.  

Two, The Faceless was back to using two swords, so even the Genei Gami's ability to hide which attack he was using could not overcome Fabian La Cerca merely blocking or parrying with his other arm.

They were back to square one. Only this time, the game of cat and mouse was over. The cat won and the mouse ended up too injured to still play with.

The cat was about to eat him now.

'Oh yeah? Well screw that!'

Throwing caution to the wind, Yahiko shifted to the offensive Fire Stance this time. His true signature stance—an all-offense one focused on striking at the precise moment.

He feinted and baited the dual-wielding fencing master for all he was worth.

However, he couldn't land a counter-counterstrike this time because Faceless had one other trick up his sleeve other than the broken tip of his rapier. He also broke his rhythm.

He stopped. Paused. Avoided committing into a regular tempo or pattern to allow himself to react even at the last second in case he again misread an attack or feint from Yahiko's Phantom God.

He shifted from fast to slow at irregular intervals, like the clumsiest and drunkest dance partner determined to step on your feet at every turn.

For, unbeknownst to Myojin, this was how La Cerca ultimately beat the tempo-altering, echolocating techniques of the bat ninja Baku.

Furthermore, La Cerca could shift between attacking and defending with either sword arm. He could turn his swords into dual shields or shift between sword and shield on either hand at a moment's notice, depending on the exchange.

The Faceless outclassed the injured and slower samurai in every single way.

However, before the fencer could finish the samurai off with another stab or even an arterial cut to make him bleed so much he'd pass out and die, he had to deflect shuriken from out of the blue and retreat.

A certain ninjutsu master just came back from retrieving the horses and carriage that got spooked earlier by paid Chinese mercenaries.

The steadfast ninja arrived just in time and almost blinded La Cerca with twin kunai to the two exposed eye slits on his mask.

"Kinta! I mean, Kaita!" said Yahiko, mixing up the names of these people he only recently met. "You came back! I thought you abandoned us!"

"Of course I did," said Kaita with a shrug. "I still have a mission to complete, Yojimbo (Bodyguard)."

"Where's the carriage?" asked Myojin.

"It's parked near an open field. The horses are tied there," answered the shinobi. "I originally wanted to run The Faceless over, but then you entered this building."

"A shadow dares defeat me?" said Fabian, his chuckle echoing from underneath his plain white face mask. "Mierda (Shit). The only shadow allowed to defeat me is the Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior)."

Kaita looked at Yahiko then at La Cerca. "You're right. I am but a mere shadow. And that's how we'll defeat you."

The next thing they knew, like a magic trick, Tatsuya had disappeared, prompting The Faceless to action. He had no choice, they took away his bargaining chip.

***

Just like with Yahiko and his Genei Gami, Kaita's invisibility trick made it tough to predict the trajectory of his projectiles.

Thusly, Kaita disappeared from their midst, melting into the darkness of the already dimly lit building in order to attack in the shadows like the coward that he was.

Such was the deviousness of these so-called oriental assassins. They were the yellow peril for a reason, or so Fabian thought.

Either warrior proved tricky for The Faceless to handle on their own, but now they'd decided to join forces, they were double the trouble.

Fine. He'd take them both on at the same time, if need be.

Yahiko and La Cerca clashed blades once more, only this time the kid samurai wielded his iron sheathe like a second blunt sword but with a reverse grip to counteract Fabian's sword-and-dagger technique, just like before in the narrow alleyway.

Interesting. But what about The Faceless' broken rhythm?

Yahiko answered the baits to counterattack by simply attack. He didn't need to dance to the broken rhythm of Faceless' tempo. He'd rather force Faceless to move to his own beat or get smacked  by a wayward strike.

A Simple Attack. Or a series of simple attacks. No Compound Attacks. No feints. No parries.  No counters. Nothing fancy. Just pure relentlessness.

His offense was his defense (along with occasional dodges and whiffs).

However, it wasn't all predictable. He swung for the fences using slashes that changed levels from high to low. Head to body. Or even hips, thighs, and knees.

His adrenalin rush allowed him to persevere, his shoulder throbbing from the stab earlier.

"Good effort, Faceless-san," said Yahiko with a smirk after Fabian countered another God Hammer with a crisscrossing double-bladed block.

The Faceless answered, "My next will be even better, my fancy clown."

Yahiko's unrelenting attacks and chase down then became unintentional counterattacks because he wasn't timing them to counter any responses from La Cerca.

He merely overwhelmed him with his own responses, like a talkative person talking over and silencing someone else with his endless stream of words. He did multiple Dou Gami blasts on the floor to mess with his footwork or Tsui Gami attempts to break or disarm what was left of his rapier.

The Faceless couldn't even parry anymore due to rough state Yahiko's sword-breaking techniques left his swords at. However, Fabian couldn't be easily overwhelmed.

He reestablished his broken tempo by finding counter opportunities from Yahiko's own overwhelming offense. Like slipping in side comments or sarcastic quips here and there that silenced even the chattiest fellow.

He also upped his reaction time, knowing he was basically taking on a tiring one-armed young man, before figuring out his tempo and countering the attacks in kind but stopping short from getting baited into a Counter Time.

He also bided his time, knowing full well Yahiko had to exert more effort to land his strikes than he did, who in contrast merely had to react to him and his frenetic pace.

"Are you tiring, Yojimbo?" asked Kaita from the shadows.

"Just sit tight and I'll take you on in a moment!" retorted Yahiko with a bloody grin.

To himself, he wondered if this was how a duel with "Cat Eyes" Tsukayama would've unfolded at this point. A tug of war between timing and tempo.

The Faceless, on his part, had also been dodging shuriken, spikes, nails, and other projectiles from the shadow ninja's guerilla tactics and assistance to slow him down and give Yahiko more opportunities to strike.

His broken rhythm that saved him from even Baku's screaming tempo-dictation technique and Zan's echolocation accuracy also made him a reactive mobile target that avoided both Yahiko and Kaita's shared attempts at swatting him down.

For an attack to land, it needed timing and positioning. The purely instinctual Yahiko made up for missed or whiffed strikes with even more strikes or follow-throughs.

Combinations on top of combinations to the head and torso that forced Fabian on the defensive in an endless series of parries and blocks.

'Ah. He fights just like Luke,' The Faceless realized. 'An endless stream of follow-through attacks and recoveries.'

It really was feast or famine with this child. No middle ground.

Hesitation was what increased the effectiveness of La Cerca's broken rhythm. Yahiko counteracted that by not caring if he missed and simply striking in bunches, using the misses to adjust his range from the target better and correct the miss with successive blows.

However, the untouchable Fabian La Cerca started figuring Yahiko's tempo out while avoiding or parrying Kaita's shuriken from the background with his makeshift dagger like it was an afterthought.

He danced around both Myojin's close-quarter strikes and the Sanada Ninja's long-range projectiles, while sneaking in cutting counters that stopped the samurai kid's charge cold.

Like with Baku, La Cerca assimilated and countered off of his opponent's rhythm completely while dodging their attacks and counters at the same time.

Everyone had their own rhythm. However, everyone else couldn't counter The Faceless in kind because of his own broken rhythm that changed in accordance to the circumstances.

Unrelenting offense was no solution to his broken rhythm because it only made the attacker vulnerable to his counters.

Their dance of parries and thrusts continued as Fabian swooped in for the kill, with him completely memorizing Yahiko's tempo and countering at every turn.

Beat. Parry. Beat. Parry. Parry. Dodge. Counter. Over and over. Predictable. How utterly predictable.

Yahiko started looking pretty rough, like the bloody Lucas did after facing off against Zan.

The kid's tight mini dodges, constant head movement, sword-stealing attempts, and his own school's cross-armed parry and riposte (Hadome and Hawatari) kept him in the match, though.

Yahiko, Kaita, and even Fabian noticed a small window of vulnerability whenever he shifted from defending against the ninja's projectiles and the samurai's swings from his sword and sheathe.

A fraction of a fraction of a second. It was a small window, but the Tsui Gami also used a small window of reverberation to strike the same point three times fast. It was in Yahiko's bag.

Confident he was landing his sharp counters and ripostes at will at this point, Fabian went ham and stopped hesitating.

He indulged in continuous counterattacks without fear of any traps or counter times from Yahiko while having that vulnerability in his mind. Determined to do a parry and riposte if that happened.

A shuriken flew from overhead instead of straight-on to La Cerca's head, which he deflected by reflex. For that split-second, his timing was predictable. Yahiko thusly attacked.

However, expecting this, The Faceless feinted a counter (Feint in Time), only to get smacked in the head with a simple attack. His knees buckling slightly, he sidestepped a follow-through and did a riposte.

He knew Yahiko's pattern by heart now, errant attacks that slipped through aside.

However, his every riposte and counter got blocked and parried themselves with the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu succession technique, the Hadome (Sword Halt) and Hawatari (Sword Crossing).

Myojin couldn't time him while he was waiting for a counterattack, so he baited him with a predictable pattern while spring-loading his own counter time.

It took his shuffling feet and upper-body movement to get out of range of Yahiko's counters and ripostes, with him figuring out that the kid had timed him by baiting him and drawing out his counters.

Thusly, he paused and waited to see if it was bait or a real attack.

Kaita attacked again at that moment, triggering La Cerca's reflex. At the same time, Yahiko attacked again.

On this toss-up, he predicted another bait-and-switch from Yahiko and got a face-full of sakabatou for his trouble.

He then defended again with his footwork and mindless stab to keep the kid off of him, only for his dagger to get stuck inside the samurai's waiting sheathe.

Yahiko pulled the fencer towards him within his range and then wrenched out the dagger from his hands.

Meanwhile, La Cerca himself smiled behind his cracked mask. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this excited to complete a mission. Who was this Yahiko Myojin character anyway?

If it were up to him, he would've devised a proper plan to take him out, just like with Kinta Minakata. The boy proved himself a formidable foe in his own right.

The fencer dodged, slipped, parried, riposted, and countered Yahiko's strikes even at close range, bewildering him.

Then everything went dark, his mask shattering from a concussive Tsui Gami to the side of his temple. Perhaps his skull might've cracked as well.

He fell in a boneless heap at the scratched-up and bleeding Yahiko's feet, his vision swimming as if underwater.

What just happened?

***

To Be Continued...

The dialog between Yahiko and The Faceless is based on the banter between Captain Esteban Pasquale (played by Basil Rathbone) and Diego Vega/Zorro (played by Tyrone Power) during their duel in the movie "The Mark of Zorro (1940)".

Also, naturally, all this shadow talk is based on Tetsuya Kuroko. In my mind, I've transformed the original Kaita from the Rurouni Kenshin Black Knight filler arc into a Kuroko-like ninja.

Danke, Abdiel

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An old flame of Yahiko returns to Yokohama.

The rest of the chapters of my Rurouni Kenshin fan fiction are available here. Enjoy.

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Back at Yokohama during Winter 1884...

A week had passed since the fateful sparring match between Satsuki "May" Brooks and Yahiko "Joshua" Myojin.

However, the clash between Satsuki and Yahiko quickly became old hat for the kenjutsu students of the Sakaguchi Dojo.

Why?

It was because Satsuki's adoptive grandfather and grandmaster of the Musou Madden School, Genzo Sakaguchi, insisted that Yahiko return and regularly spar with her and the rest of the students in the dojo to prepare them for, well, war.

A war against foreign invaders, apparently.

The so-called Brigands Guild was out to assassinate the members of the Minakata Family, the hatamoto class samurai family whom generations of Sakaguchis served under since the Sengoku Era.

In any case, Mr. Myojin had ended up being a sparring partner for Miss Brooks in the end.

They sparred with each other until everyone got sick of it, including them. Then they sparred some more.

They kept sparring until every following match lost all meaning to them. Like they were being punished through the endless battles.

This was all part of Genzo's Training from Hell: His students' collective punishment for performing poorly against both Yahiko and May.

This went on for several more days until the fateful confrontation between uncle and nephew at the House of Minakata.

***

Rurouni Yahiko

A Rurouni Kenshin Continuation Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda

Old friends meet up with new friends.

Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others) are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallup, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted materials that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.

***

Chapter 53: A Trip Down Memory Lane

***

'Boy, there sure are a lot of foreigners in Yokohama.'

Those were actually one of the first couple of thoughts in Yahiko's mind when their train to Yokohama from Hiroshima first arrived.

Was he not distracted by the prospect of sparring with Satsuki, he would've focused more on that train of thought. However, even the eventual sparring match reinforced his first impressions on Yokohama.

After all, "Satsuki" was actually May Brooks, an Englishwoman adopted into a Japanese family.

A foreigner.

Damn, there sure were a lot of gaijin in Yokohama. It was crawling with them, in fact. Like an anthill. Or a beehive.

Or rather, weren't they more like a swarm of murderous wasps invading a beehive that they obviously didn't belong to?

Maybe that was a bit much of a comparison. However, that was what the Satsuma Domain felt was happening when the Americans first opened up Japan's ports to world trade.

Like they were being invaded by another country.

Yokohama was the place where it all began, from the Convention of Kanagawa to the Bakumatsu. It literally helped end the Sakoku (Locked Nation) Era of Japan, even.

It was all because an arrogant American foreigner embarrassed the Shogunate by forcing it to open Japanese ports for foreign trade.

It was reminiscent of what the British did to Imperial China with its Opium Wars for the sake of getting tea and other goods from the country.

The consequences of their actions could be felt even to this day, in 1884.

Like Yokohoma ending up like a center for world trade full of foreigners. Or Emperor Meiji being installed into power by the Ishin Shishi winning the Bakumatsu and establishing of the Meiji Government.

Regardless, the boy from Tokyo had ended up with a new routine ever since he lost that damn spar in Yokohama.

He attended "classes" at the Sakaguchi Dojo and served as one of its teacher's sparring partners almost daily, including weekends.

On the bright side, he got paid cold, hard cash for his efforts to train. He had that going for him, which was nice.

He was actually there to help Old Man Genzo Sakaguchi and Kinta Minakata along with a short list of volunteer students to help guard the Minakata Family while the Brigands Guild remained afoot.

The Great (Pain in the Ass) Gan also helped out in his own way. The meat shield served as a pretty impressive hand-to-hand combat sparring partner. His fighting style with the big metal bat didn't need as much polish or technique as his street fighting experience.

As long as Gan held actual job and pulled his own weight in terms of rent money, Yahiko was fine with whatever the lout wanted to do.

Even Munenori Minoe visited the dojo from time to time to help out with chores, clean the equipment, or do practice drills on defense.

However, he didn't do much there otherwise.

Yahiko expected more from him. He knew Minoe was capable of much more.

Like in Shinshu, it was hard to convince people that this meek guy with an eye patch and wig was actually a fearsome warrior and assassin in his own right.

Or her own right. Since Minoe was basically just Kaede Morinaga with a wig strapped to her head care of an eye patch.

But if Minoe thought he was a guy, who was Yahiko to tell him otherwise?

The thing was that Minoe barely went to the Sakaguchi Dojo ever since Yahiko's first spar with   Satsuki.

He was a martial artist himself who was probably even better than Myojin at kenjutsu but he chose not to help the Sakaguchis or Minakatas out.

In their other misadventures, Munenori was practically inseparable with the rest of the Three Stooges. Not this time, though.

'Was he avoiding going to the Sakaguchi Dojo because of Minakata Kinta?' Yahiko mused. 'What has he been up to this past week anyway?'

***

Dreading another blistering (and blister-inducing) sparring match with the master of long-range naginata/bo strikes for today, Yahiko found time to write more letters about his exploits addressed to his childhood sweetheart Tsubame Sanjo.

It came with the implication that she should also read the letters to Kenshin and Kaoru Kamiya as well, so they'd also know whatYahiko was up to.

It was his way of relaxing himself.

He sure hoped they were doing fine. Too bad they couldn't write him back in return, seeing how he had no permanent address at the moment.

Also, what would've been Kenshin's reaction to all these strange people using his former sobriquet "Battousai" long after he was retired from being a hitokiri (manslayer)? Everyone was pulling a Hiruma Brothers' style "prank" on him, it would seem.

'Maybe Amakusa Shogo called his band of misfit samurais the Battousaigumi (Battousai Group) partly as his way of challenging Kenshin. He's actually daring him to find them and stop them from abusing his name.'

Yahiko then thought of Tsubame and how she'd pack him lunches or wait for him to come home after every kendo practice, when she herself was done with her shift at the Akabeko (Red Cow) Restaurant.

He missed those idle days of his after all that nonsense with Jinchu and whatnot was finally laid to rest. There was something nostalgic about them, to be honest.

'Wha...?'

Speaking of nostalgia, he just saw a poster posted on the outside of the Yokohama Post Office. A poster for the circus.

It advertised clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, unicyclists, and more.

Huh. The circus, huh? He should pay a visit to the circus one of these days.  

Now that brought back memories.

Before he met Miss Sanjo, he was first smitten by a certain "Human Cannonball". A pretty girl about his age. Like Tsubame, she also had the annoying habit of calling him by the name...

"Yahiko-chan...?"

Staring back at him with a ream of posters tucked under her arm was the girl he was just thinking about.

A girl he hadn't seen in six years. A girl he thought he'd never see again in his lifetime.

"M-Marimo!?"

He felt like having a heart attack then and there.

"Oh, it is you, Yahiko-chan! I'm so glad you still remember me!" said Marimo.

What were the chances of them meeting like this?

Now if only Kenshin, Kaoru, Kenji, and/or Tsubame was right behind her too. Maybe even Sanosuke (Sagara/Higashidani), while they were at it!

Actually, Shinshu was further away than Yokohama was from the Kamiya Dojo. Since he was nearby, maybe he should drop in and visit his friends back in Tokyo instead!

***

Come to think of it, right at the very top of the same circus poster he'd been staring at was the very same "Human Cannonball" Marimo Ebisu, grinning while sitting atop a huge cannon.

'She's still going at it with the human cannonball gig, huh?' he thought. 'Some things never change.'

Marimo, a circus performer, was one of countless people the Kenshingumi (Kenshin Squad) met and helped out. Her job was to get shot out of a huge cannon that was aimed towards a target in an acrobatic fashion for the entertainment of paying customers.

Kenshin, Sano, Kaoru, and Yahiko saved the circus run by Marimo's ringmaster father Jirokichi Ebisu from a circus competitor named Soubei Sumidaya, a man whose own circus started failing after his star attraction, Marimo, left.

Sumidaya actually attempted to sabotage the Ebisu Circus by forcing them to immediately pay their loan to him they used to set up their own big top. According to their unfair contract, Marimo and her father would go back to his circus if they fail to settle their debts.

Afterwards, Soubei had his people steal the money that the Ebisu Family were intending to pay the loan with while at the same time injuring Marimo's father by getting him buried in a pile of wooden boards.

The evil circus ringleader then had some of his goons steal the gunpowder used to fire the Ebisu's cannon and then got the rest of his ex-convict performers to attack the Ebisu Circus in the middle of a performance for good measure.

The Kenshingumi not only filled in as Ebisu Circus performers themselves to stall for time; they also saved the day by taking out Sumidaya's gang in one fell swoop. Even Megumi Takani helped them out by mixing the right gunpowder portions needed for the cannon to work safely on top of tending to an injured Jirokichi.

"How are you? It's been ages!" Marimo asked Yahiko.

"I've been doing fine, all things considered," he replied. "I see you're still working at the circus."

"What can I say? I love my job." She giggled, brushing a stray lock of hair to the side of her face.

The circus was in town, and Marimo was one of its headliners in Yokohama.

At any rate, he and his second crush (Tsubame was his first) caught up with each other like old friends while he helped her put up those posters she carried to advertise her circus troupe's upcoming performance.

"How's everyone in Tokyo? Are they doing well? How are Kenshin-san, Sano-san, and Kaoru-san?"

"Well..."

He couldn't possibly recount everything that happened during Kenshin's stay with Kaoru in the Kamiya Dojo.

She didn't need to know about Jine Udo, Isurugi Raijuta, Makoto Shishio, or Yukishiro Enishi. No need to tell her about those serial murderers, anti-government rebels, and/or wannabe dictators.

He instead gave her the abridged version of what had happened so far. Even more abridged that the letters he sent Tsubame about his current exploits.

Marimo particularly loved the news that Kenshin and Kaoru were married with a child, Megumi was still practicing medicine in Aizu, and that Sanosuke Sagara had been adventuring all over the world, reaching as far as the United States of America.

Man, she was still so pretty. She really blossomed from being a cute girl to a heartbreaker in just six years.

Marimo Ebisu might not be as bombastic as May Brooks was, but she was still drop-dead gorgeous. Sometimes nothing could beat the adorable cuteness of youthful Japanese beauty.

She was like his nostalgia from when he was 10 years old personified. A muse from his past.

Marimo and Yahiko exchanged bows after their posting of all the posters was done. She then told him to come see her at the circus sometime by giving him a free ticket for today's show.

"Thanks for helping me out. See you later, Yahiko-chan!" she said as she waved goodbye.

"Uh, same to you, Marimo," he said lamely. The fact that she called him with the childish "-chan" honorific didn't even register in his mind.

Was he dreaming? Someone pinch him.

"OW! What's the big idea...?"

And so someone did. Right on the cheek.

He turned in time to see two of three Sanbaka (Three Stooges) and Chizuru Raikouji (the girl who pinched him) staring holes at him.

"That's what we'd like to know, 'Yahiko-chan'," said Chizuru, who looked at him with half-lidded eyes, a knowing smirk, and an upturned nose.

He also idly thought that maybe it'd be better if he "swapped" places with Chizuru so she'd be the one to complete the Sanbaka trio of idiots instead.

***

As they walked back to their respective inns, Yahiko's trio of companions grilled him for information even though he'd rather they went to a cookout grill instead. Like for yakiniku (grilled meat cuisine) or something.

"Was that your girlfriend from Tokyo we've heard so much about?" asked Minoe. "She's the one who calls you 'Yahiko-chan'. Right, Yahiko-chi?"

"Oh yeah, Sanjo no Kiwami or something," said the Moronic Gan.

"Sanju no Kiwami (Triple Extreme) is a punching technique, ya doofus! Her name is Sanjo Tsubame!" Yahiko said, not bothering to try and figure out how Gan coincidentally came up with Sanosuke Sagara's learned special technique.

"But this poster here says her name is Marimo the Human Cannonball," said Chizuru.

Uh-oh. Yahiko was the bigger moron after all. He gulped and sweated bullets. "Ummm..."

"Is that her stage name, Yoshi-boy?" asked the Idiotic Gan. "You didn't tell us your girlfriend is a circus performer! I thought she was a waitress in some maid cafe!"

Ah, what the hell. The jig is up. Might as well come clean.

"All right. Listen up. Marimo is not Tsubame. Tsubame is a different person, okay?"

"Oooooh," the Sanbaka (and Chizuru) chirped together in a sing-song way.

"Cut that out," he admonished his three "friends". "Marimo is... well, someone that I, we (the Kenshingumi) met at the circus. We helped her circus out when it was in trouble."

"Your ex?" supposed the Clueless Gan, which earned him a "MEN! (HEAD!)" strike to the noggin care of the wrapped-up sakabatou (reversed-edge blade).

"No, stupid! She's just a friend! A circus girl we saved from being harassed and duped into a bad contract by her former boss in Tokyo!"

"Oh, I get it. She was your first crush!" supposed Chizuru.

"N-No, she's not! She's my second... I mean, no. No! I met Tsubame before her, okay?"

"Ha. Bingo. Second crush, huh?" The Raikouji Heiress smiled like a cat that ate the canary. Her womanly intuition struck remarkably true like a pinprick to the center of Yahiko's heart. "No wonder you were ogling her with goo-goo eyes."

Tokyo Samurai Descendant winced, as though someone just punched him in the gut. "Raccoon Girl, stop it right there!"

Damn. The Kaoru look-alike was scarily perceptive. More so than the "real" Kaoru, even.

"No, that can't be it," said the bright-eyed (well, one-eyed) Minoe. "Mochiron! (But of course!) There's no way Yahiko-chi would ever cheat on his girlfriend in Tokyo with his other crush!"

"GUUUAAA!" exclaimed Myojin, who ended up on the ground, kneeling and on all fours in pain. Doing the dogeza or the Japanese kneeling position to prostrate oneself, especially if that someone were ashamed or embarrassed immensely in public.

"P-Please, Minoe. Have mercy."

***

A week ago, right after Yahiko lost his friendly sparring match against Satsuki...

Munenori Minoe and Kinta Minakata had a little private meeting at the backyard of the Sakaguchi Dojo.

"What are you doing here?" the straightforward Kinta asked. "Did Amakusa Shogo send you after me?"

Minoe chuckled. "This is actually a bit of a detour on my part, but I intended to keep an eye on you regardless. Same with Akahori-chi."

"Detour?" he repeated. "Oh. You're traveling with that kid, right? Why is that?"

Munenori rubbed his bandaged hands to keep them warm. "That 'kid' knows who the real Battousai is, Kinta-chi."

"Oh," he said, remembering how focused and obsessed Kaede was with meeting the original Hitokiri Battousai, to the point of dressing and even looking like him. "Really? That kid has connections with Himura Battousai?"

"Yes, he does. He even inherited his old sword."

"...I see."

Was this the reason why despite looking about the age of a teen, this samurai boy from Tokyo was able to take down grown men from their dojo and almost defeated one of their best students?

Was Yahiko Myojin taught kenjutsu by Kinta's incidental namesake all this time? 'But his sword style didn't look like Hiten Mitsurugu Ryu at all.'

"And as for you," said Minoe, who took off his wig and eye patch, revealing his rust-red hair and lazy eye with a cross-shaped scar near it. "Do you intend to betray Shogo-sama again, Traitor? Are you still working under Akahori Tetsuo?"

By reflex, Minakata's hand went immediately to the handle of his sword as he fell into the aggressive Waxing Stance of Musou Madden Ryu, ready to pull his Akatsuki (Red Moon) blade out of its sheathe at a moment's notice.

He wasn't talking to Minoe any longer, but instead to the much more dangerous and erratic Nisemono Battousai (Fake Battousai): Kaede Morinaga.

"Shozo Lorenzo. Genemon Gaspar. Lady Magdalia. Do any of these names mean anything to you, Traitor? You Judas!"

Incidentally, Judas Iscariot was one of the 12 apostles who ultimately betrayed Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver, leading to the Messiah's crucifixion and death.

"I remember all their names," Kinta said, his countenance unchanging. "I will never forget them."

So Kaede asked, "Whose side are you on then, Minakata Kinta? Shogo-sama's or Akahori's?"

***

Yahiko Myojin grumbled to himself. He ended up under the big top after all, attending Marimo's show in spite of himself. Against his better judgment.

He originally didn't intend to attend the circus performance that afternoon. He had hellish training and sparring to do at the Sakaguchi Dojo with May Brooks and her students, after all.

'Er, on second thought, they can take a rain check,' he mused. 'We can have a day or two without sparring, right?'

Regardless, some burly idiot with a drinking and gambling problem stole his ticket to the circus from under his nose and went there in his place instead.

Myojin was forced to actually wait in line and buy a ticket, if only to make sure the "Great" Gan wasn't up to his usual mischief of brawling, drinking, stealing, lying, and owing more food and gambling debts.

Man, Yahiko had half a mind to continue his journey without Gan and just dump the "Soba King" on the road or leave him like a stray cat at a park one of these days. He was nothing but trouble.

Then again, Gan also gave him the excuse to play hooky on the Sakaguchi Dojo for once and enjoy himself for at least a day after a week of torture and countless pole, shinai, or bokken strikes to his person.

The Ebisu Circus Troupe had blossomed and become a far bigger company than its owners dreamed possible in just six years.

The ringmaster Sumidaya would've rolled in his grave if he were dead (knock on wood). Right now he was serving his sentence in Tokyo Penitentiary, so it was possible for him to roll around his jail cell instead.

Instead of only offering one main star attraction in Marimo the Human Cannonball with half-hearted side attractions here and there, the Ebisu Circus had grown big enough to do tours on a national level.

"You actually came! I'm so glad!" cheered Marimo, who was in her form-fitting leotard cat suit as she met up with Yahiko at the entrance of the circus tent.

She waved off the cashier from selling Myojin a ticket, whispering that the boy was her guest.

"I can't wait for you to see me perform later!"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," he lied with a grin while scratching the back of his head, one eye on the lookout for any sign of the Unruly Gan.

"Dad, you remember Yahiko, right?" Marimo told her father after leading the boy in question to him.

"Ah, yes! The boy who saved our circus along with that nice swordsman fellow, doctor, kendo instructor, and street fighter!" said Jirokichi Ebisu, the ringmaster of the Ebisu Circus Troupe. "Has it been six years already? Time sure flies! I hope you enjoy the show, son! Tell Himura-san and company that Ebisu Jirokichi sends his regards!"

"Yeah, sure, and thanks a lot too!" Yahiko said, who even indulged enough to buy himself popcorn and a candy apple from the nearby concession stands of the big top. Might as well, since he was already there. "Oh, and it's Kamiya-san now. Kenshin married into Kaoru's family."

"Is that right? Congratulations to them, then! I always had an inkling suspicion they'd end up together."

"Would you believe they even have a kid too?" gabbed Yahiko between mouthfuls of popcorn.

"Ha! Himura-san, you sly dog! I mean, Kamiya-san, right? Way to go. That girl is quite a catch. I hope in the future that Mr. and Mrs. Kamiya will get to see how much our humble show has improved through the years!"

"I'll tell them all about it!" said Myojin.

Jirokichi then turned towards his star attraction and said to Yahiko, "If Marimo is lucky, then maybe she could get the same happy ending herself!" while giving her a wink.

"Shut up, Dad!" Marimo fidgeted cutely in her skintight uniform that left little to the imagination. "You're embarrassing me in front of Yahiko-chan!"

"Bwahahaha! Puppy love is so adorable!"

Yahiko laughed along with Jirokichi but his pretend mirth didn't quite reach his eyes. 'She's still going with the 'chan' thing, huh? I guess Marimo will never see me as anything other than that 10-year-old brat she met six years ago.'

He spared a glance at the young girl and her hour-glass form in that tight-fitting outfit before their eyes met and they looked away in embarrassment.

'Also, 'puppy love'? What puppy love? Does Marimo have a boyfriend already or something?'

"Well, we better get going! Marimo, go to your trailer and prepare yourself. Son, enjoy the show! It's about to start!" said the Ebisu Ringmaster.

"Don't mind if I do!" said Yahiko, who then took a large bite of his candied apple.

***

The show went off without a hitch.

It certainly helped that no competing circus ringmaster and his failed circus performers were trying to sabotage their performances this time around.

Ebisu Circus, which was founded in 1878, performed in four to five locations around Japan each year, setting up its bright-red, 20-meter-high big top in each place for roughly three months.

The circus also had shows twice a day, morning and night, up until the end of the month.

This year, in 1884, the troupe opened in Osaka before moving to Nagoya and then Yokohama, intending to perform in Fukuoka before the year was over. According to Jirokichi, they might add Asakusa or Takamatsu if the shows proved successful enough.

This time around, they had everything going for them. Lion tamers and other animal trainers. A zoo full of trained animals. Circus clowns. Magicians and other illusionists. Escape artists able to free themselves from the Chinese water torture box or while hanging upside down like a bat.

There were also jugglers, acrobats, dancers, and death-defying trapeze artists present, among whom included their headliner Marimo Ebisu.

At present, Ebisu Circus had around 50 to 60 performers, among 20 were from overseas. The ringmaster said he scoured the globe to find the best performers as his circus grew in popularity, although it did help that international ports like Yokohama allowed them an influx of foreign talent to hire.

No wonder the lines and crowds Ebisu Circus had currently gathered were even longer and bigger than the ones the Kenshingumi came across when the troupe had first formed. They'd really expanded their show into a world-class extravaganza.

If only Kenshin and the others could witness the spectacular program. It was well-worth the price of admission (had Yahiko paid)!

'Man, I do hope they add Tokyo to their tour dates. This is amazing,' thought Yahiko.

Before the main event with their headliner—Marimo the Human Cannonball—finally started, they held a short tournament of sorts to showcase the skills of their strongman weightlifters, bodybuilders, and wrestlers, many of whom were trained in classic Japanese jujutsu, judo, and sumo as well as Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling from the western world.

Yahiko yawned.

As popular as the wrestling portion of the show was to the kids, he was too old and too experienced in martial arts to not recognize the stage tricks and fake fighting that the strongmen did to each other when doing their little pretend tournaments.

Some of it was impressive, but it wasn't real fighting. More like a dance made to look like a real competitive match.

At the tail end of the wrestling show, they held a contest where the audience members were invited to participate to see if they could take on the circus strongmen in a match.

At least when they were fighting against audience members, some of the more experienced wrestlers had the chance to showcase their actual skills instead of doing fixed choreographed fights for a crowd, but those lasted in mere seconds.

As extra incentive, they offered cash prizes to anyone who could defeat the circus's stable of strongmen.

"BWAHAHAHA! I am the Soba King! The Great Gan! Beware my wrath, puny mortals!"

Wait a minute. That voice. Yahiko knew something was amiss!

Right there, on the ring down below, came forth the Rambunctious Gan in all his bandanna-wearing, barrel-chested glory, beating on his pectorals like one of the damn trained gorillas the circus had caged.

Yahiko had almost forgotten himself. This was the reason why he went to the circus in the first place! To chase after Gan the Ticket Thief and keep him out of trouble!

***

The audience ooh-ed and aah-ed at the spectacle before them.

As far as the audience knew, this unknown Japanese "strongman" thug that wasn't part of the previous shows took down the circus's own strongmen one after the other with karate kicks, punches, elbows, knees, throws, and body slams.

Yahiko tried to go back to the entrance to retrieve the sakabatou he left behind (no weapons were allowed inside the big top for obvious reasons), but it was a packed house and he was soon distracted by the Muscular Gan making short work of the long line of strongmen, wrestlers, bodybuilders, and martial artists one after another, sometimes two or three at a time.

It was a royal ass-whuppin'. A rumble where the Monstrous Gan came out on top. The Soba King of the Ring was seriously cleaning house.

No one who came down on that wrestling ring could get him out of it, it'd seem. Was this all pre-planned in advance? Was it part of the show? But why would a circus humiliate its own performers by "losing" to some random audience member?

'What is that idiot up to?' Yahiko thought. He himself could charge into the middle of the ring and try his luck with toppling Gan, but he had seen the strength and durability of the big oaf firsthand. He felt more confident taking him on with a sword instead of without it.

Yahiko then face-planted when he realized who was the girl—the valet—in the ring with Gan.

"Ohohohoho! That's right! Can no one take my," the girl in kabuki makeup cleared her throat and grimaced, "husband out? Are the wrestlers in this circus nothing but weaklings and clowns against the Monster Among Men, Gan the Great?"

"It's the Great Gan, Kaori-neechan! Get it right!"

"Shut up and mug at the audience, Soba King. I'm working here."

It was Chizuru. Even with her face completely plastered with white paint, Yahiko could recognize that face and that comically large hair bow anywhere. Or at least mistake her for Kaoru Kamiya. She was acting as manager to the dine-and-dashing food bandit.

Myojin sighed and sat back down. He wanted to hit himself for falling for carnie nonsense and circus trickery.

Of course Gan beating up strongmen was all still part of the show. Of course none of this was real and all of it was scripted. Circus or carnival wrestling was fake, after all.

What the hell were the Ebisus thinking, making them part of the show though?

"Are they friends of yours, Yahiko-chan?" someone asked him from behind.

"Ah! Marimo!" said Yahiko. "You scared me. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at your trailer?"

Marimo pouted cutely. "No. It's boring in there. All you can do in there is stare at a wall or eat. I want to watch the show with you. I want to see your reactions from up close."

Yahiko blushed and turned his attention back to the ring as Gan threw several other circus wrestlers over the top rope, growling and grunting like an unhinged wild beast. "How'd you know they were my friends?"

"I saw you with them after I gave you a ticket to the show," she explained. "I also asked them when they got here if they knew you."

"So what's going on?" Yahiko asked, pointing at the commotion that two of his so-called comrades was making. "Who put them up to this?"

"Well, Gan-san volunteered to fight the strongmen for real but my father had other ideas. He offered him some money to do a scripted show instead. The girl he's with, Chizuru, offered to be his manager for a cut of the money, saying he owes her anyway."

"Yeah, that sounds like Raccoon Girl, all right," said Yahiko with a shake of his head. "She's the stingiest rich person I know."

"About that. Is that Chizuru person a relative of Kaoru-san?" she asked. "Like a little sister, cousin, niece, or something?"

"Oh. OH. No, there's no relation between the two of them. But it's freaky, isn't it? How much they look alike, I mean," he said. "They're like twin sisters or something."

"When they first inquired about our wrestling tournament and cash prize, I almost thought you brought Kenshin-san and Kaoru-san with you over from Tokyo! Oh, and that poor Sano-san let himself go."

Yahiko laughed at her joke. "Hey, that was a good one." He then realized something. "Wait, what do you mean 'Kenshin-san' was with them? Wasn't it just Gan and the Raccoon Girl?"

Right on cue, a familiar voice shouted, "Stop right there, criminal scum."

Instead of Munenori Minoe, there stood Kaede Morinaga.

His other personality. The wig and eye patch was off. Her red hair was tied in a ponytail that started on the nape of her neck. Her scar under her eye visible to those with front row seats.

And indeed, even from a distance, she did look like Kenshin to all those who ever knew or met him.

"Well, if it isn't my mortal enemy, Samurai X!" said the Great Gan to Kaede while flexing his biceps (and sucking in his gut).

'Who the hell is Samurai X?!' thought Yahiko with a facepalm.

***

The audience booed Gan as he pushed and prodded around the shorter Kenshin look-alike Kaede like she owed him money.

"Leave the little girl alone!" some of them said. "Or little boy! I'm not sure!"

However, those who knew Kenshin and especially those who knew Kaede knew what was in store for them next.

They waited. Anticipated. With bated breath.

In Christian terms, it was a David and Goliath type of scenario. Where the young (uncrowned) King David slew the Philistine giant Goliath with a slingshot and stones to the skull.

Or at that was how Kaede envisioned it, since she actually paid attention to the bible readings Amakusa did of both the Old and New Testament for his faithful.

In Japanese History terms, it was a Kamikaze (Divine Wind) scenario. The mismatched Japan was able to overcome the Mongols through Divine Intervention in the form of a typhoon.

Morinaga then fell into her deadly Scorpio Stance.

"Swarming Stabs!"

She used sticks instead of her actual weapons, but this was a fixed carnival-style wrestling match anyway. And she was supposed to be the underdog.

The thrust pushed the muscular gorilla man to a corner. From there, as the roars of the crowd grew louder and louder, she did one of her signature moves.

It missed against Soujiro Seta, but the Glacial Gan would not be able to avoid it. He was too big, too slow, and too dumb to be able to do so.

"Scorpion Nest!"

The cheering reached a fever pitch as the seeming redheaded stepchild and weakling wrecked Gan apart like a hapless sand bag.

The feeling of nostalgia filled Yahiko yet again, remembering how the wimpy Kenshin wreaked havoc all over the Tanishi Yakuza, blowing everyone's expectations (and bodies) away.

The crowd then roared in approval as Kaede blew away the swaying, bruised Gan with one final "Deathstalker Stab!" that pushed him out of the ring, in between the ropes.

The match was over. She had won. The crowd roared with approval.

"That stick fighting girl was amazing! She was so fast with her strikes!" was the unanimous consensus of the audience. What a match. What a show.

So that was the end of that.

Myojin brushed away the sweat on the edges of his eyebrows. Damn.

She didn't hold back. She went all out instead of doing choreographed weak strikes or even sparring taps.

The ending was obviously scripted, but the hits weren't.

However, right below the ring, the scuffed-up Gan stirred. Even from that far away, Yahiko could see the wide grin on his face. Afterwards, the lout grabbed something from underneath the ring.

It was a wooden club.

'Wait, the match is over, right?' thought Yahiko. 'Gan, what in the world are you planning?'

***

The Great Gan entered the ring from the bottom rope, towered before the tiny Kaede, and then said, "Those love taps are not enough to take me down, Samurai X. Or am I talking to Patches now? Is that why you're acting so weak?"

This elicited a snarl from Kaede. "Don't compare me to Minoe. Don't imply he's weak either, while we're at it."

Gan snorted. "I don't get why you have so many nicknames for yourself like you've been possessed by multiple spirits, but I'll humor you for now. However, what I won't tolerate is how you keep pulling back your strikes. To do so is to disrespect me. You can do better than that, Samurai X!"

"What are you doing, Gan?" hissed Chizuru. "This isn't part of the script!"

"Sorry, Kaori-neechan! I'm going off-script! I'm doing improv!"

The Humongous Gan hurled his bat at Morinaga multiple times, who then proceeded to dodge in every which way. He ended up hitting nothing but air, the ring ropes, the pillar, and the post, but no swing landed on the Fake Battousai.

Like this was a replay of his fight with Shogo Amakusa back in Shinshu.

Yahiko gulped and clutched his arm rests, his fingernails digging into the material. As much as he hated to admit it, this match-up did leave him at least a little bit curious.

How would a serious Gan fare against a serious Kaede in a real fight?

Gan, with his superhuman stamina and durability versus the offense-minded, lightning-quick Morinaga.

His swings started going faster. And wilder. Gan hit everything he could reach with his weapon. The ring ropes shook around with a twang like they were being strummed like guitar strings.

Each hit spelled death, or at least a one-hit K.O., if any of them were to ever make full contact with the tiny girl or her tiny head.

If they could make full contact.

"Have you lost your goddamn mind, you ape?" Kaede asked, still keeping herself from breaking his kneecaps or shoving a stick up where the sun didn't shine.

Gan was one of Minoe's friends after all, but if he pushed her hard enough, something disastrous might happen.

She did the Scorpion Nest to help better parry the bat strikes and counter the batter at the same time, but each contact she made with his weapon reverberated right into her bone.

On his part, Gan ate all the strikes she hit him with like rain off his back.

She then pivoted and did Swarming Barb thrusts at Gan's blindside. It barely fazed him and one swing of his bat was all he needed to swat her and her silly sticks away.

'Since when was he this strong?' she wondered. If she only had sharp swords instead of sticks, it might've made a significant difference.

The structure underneath the ring mat cracked and buckled from their combined the force of their hammering blows. Like endless waves crashing off of a cliff side until it was crushed into sand and rubble over time.

She dodged, parried, and blocked, but she wasn't as much of a defensive expert as her Minoe personality. Her defense was her offense, and Gan shrugged off her offense. So in essence, he also shrugged off her main line of defense.

"How many more of my attacks can your thin wrists block, Samurai X?" shouted Gan.

Soon, bruises and welts formed all over her body.

Strikes meant to hit a target were different from parries and deflections, so Gan managed to tag her little by little every time she attempted to bombard him with strikes even though she was much faster than him.

They weren't so much parrying as they were exchanging strikes that sometimes happened to get in the way of each other.

Gan soon had her cornered at one of the ring posts and clipped her arm with a crack of his bat when she didn't deflect fast enough. Like a trip hammer, this made her turn and counter with a Deathstalker Stab to the skull.

His head got knocked back for a second before he grinned and kept attacking someone who was used to being the attacker.

The predator had become the prey.

"More! MORE! Hit me HARDER! I can barely feel your mosquito bites on my skin! I'm barely bleeding here, Samurai X! Or should I say Patches?"

This was getting a little dangerous.

Meanwhile, Chizuru had long ago left the ring, probably to ask for help from the remaining wrestlers backstage or even call the police. Like a person with common sense would.

Even though Kaede gave the likes of Soujiro Seta a run for his money, she was merely stick-fighting against someone as sturdy and resilient as Gan, who survived even the most fatal of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu techniques using a real sword.

Granted, he was hypnotized into thinking he had died, but he was still a tough son of a gun. Beating him with sticks would not cut it. She needed to use her blades to stand a chance.

Unbidden, Morinaga then remembered Kinta Minakata's answer to her question back at the Sakaguchi Dojo.

"I'm on no one's side. I don't want what happened to Shimabara to happen to my family. Not again."

To which she responded, "Whatever happens to your family would just be karma for what you did to mine!"

Yahiko stood up from his seat. "I've got to go, Marimo. I have to stop those two!"

"Eh?" Marimo said, just noticing him move. "But isn't this part of the show?"

"It doesn't look like it to me!" he said.

A sickening crack of the bat hit Morinaga upside the head, drawing blood.

Yahiko shouted, "NOOO! Kaede! Gan, you son of a bitch! Someone stop the goddamn match!"

She then countered with a Ryu Kan Sen (Dragon Wrap Flash) at the back of Gan's own head.

"!?" Yahiko was left speechless. He didn't know what to say.

The glint in Kaede's eyes had changed. Something awoke deep inside her thanks to that crushing blow to her head.  

The Immovable Gan paused for a second, noticing the change in fighting style, before waving his bat around regardless, none the worse for wear.

"Time to swat down this annoying fly!"

But this time, he couldn't catch her. She was dodging better than before. Faster too.

'Shinsoki (God Speed),' thought Yahiko. Kaede had reached the high-speed footwork of Kenshin to complement her hand speed advantage.

Minakata's words put Kaede's mindset back to the time when she served as the Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior) to Kenshin Himura while Kinta himself served as Kagemusha to Shogo Amakusa.

When she really did act like the spirit and image of Battousai Himura. Amakusa himself taught her everything she knew about Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

The girl herself felt nostalgic for that time before Akahori helped with the genocide of the Hidden Christians.

If only she could turn back time. If only she could change the course of history.

If only she really were the Battousai.

Before the Indestructible Gan could react, the Battousai of Speed hit him flush with every variation of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu technique known as Ryu Kan Sen.

"Ryu Kan Sen Kogarashi! (Dragon Wrap Flash Gale!)"

"—Tsumuji! (Hair Spin!)"

"—Arashi! (Storm!)'

The howling winds from her relentless typhoon of attacks battered and blew apart bits and pieces of the mountain—of Mount Gan—but it would not move. It would not let her pass.

"That's more like it. I kind of felt that last one, kiddo! Do better!"

As another famous saying claimed, 'No matter how much the wind howls, the mountain cannot bow to it.'

The Fake Battousai then declared, "Ryu Sou Sen Garami! (Double Dragon Flash Head Attack!)" before spinning and focusing the entirety of her momentum towards breaking Gan's neck.

The move that "finished off" Gan at the Akahori Mansion (Formerly the Tani Mansion) now barely made a dent on him.

Gan's ripcord neck muscles splintered Kaede's sticks apart before they could even break one bone on his body or tear apart his thick neck, which he flexed hard enough to stop the sticks short from doing damage.

The Mountainous Gan chuckled as he flexed his biceps and pectorals. "Kumamoto (Shogo Amakusa) hit me harder than that, Samurai X!"

Yahiko's jaw dropped. Never mind Kaede doing better had she gotten access to her swords. How unstoppable would Gan be if he had his tetsubo (metal bat) with him instead?

Kaede wiped the blood from her face, shook her head, and blinked. She then saw the sorry state of her weapons. And grinned.

'Oh my. They look like oversized prison shivs now.'

"Are you done playing? Be serious for a minute, Samurai... GUAAAA!"

Gan barely raised his arms in time to deflect multiple stabs that would've punctured a lung or gauge his eyes out, with it instead slicing open the ridge of his brow.

"BWAHAHAHA! DEATHSTALKER STAB! SWARMING BARBS! SCORPION NEST! DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE...!"

She cackled and screamed as her blunt sticks for weapons were now shaped like daggers and spears. Unhinged, to say the least.

Finally getting nicked and cut apart enough to bleed at last, even Gan himself started to holler in laughter, his face a crimson mask.

"That's the spirit, Morinaga Kaede! If that even is your real name!"Gan screamed her whole name as he bludgeoned the cackling lunatic herself to the head and chest with sickening cracks of his bat whenever she got close enough to hit.

Like rabid dogs, they ripped apart each other with no regard for defense or safety.

"You're still incomplete! You're not fighting at your full potential! I will not lose to an incomplete person! Not while there's two or more of you inside of you instead of just one!"

"SHUT UP AND DIE, GORILLA MAN!"

Didn't Yahiko claim circus wrestling was for children? No, the clowns were for children. No child should see this barbaric display!

Before anyone in the audience could realize what had happened, all the wrestlers and strongmen from the Ebisu Circus ran into the ring and brawled with both the newcomers along with themselves then and there, signaling the end of the match by disqualification.

It became a free-for-all bloody brawl.

A melee that (smartly) showcased their whole roster of strongmen, bodybuilders, and wrestlers defeating the outsiders who dare infringe on their turf in a blowoff, one-off fued of sorts after those two took their spotlight away from them.

"Wait, what? That was all part of the show?" said Yahiko, who finally sat down and exhaled the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding in all this time.

What was even going on anymore?

Something about two factions running into the ring to take out Gan and Kaede, only to end up brawling with each other since they remembered they were rivals. Or something.

That was what he overheard the audience members say anyway. Those were the people who'd been keeping up with all the strongman wrestling matches of the Ebisu Circus.

Yahiko didn't regularly attend enough circus and carnival wrestling matches to keep up with their little storylines or changing allegiances.

"I told you so," Marimo chided. "Your friends did well. They stuck to the booking. I think. Also, I'm about to come on next myself for the show's main event. Wish me luck, Yahiko-chan!"

"Oh. Oh! Uh, good luck!" said Myojin, still pondering which part of the wrestling show was scripted and which part was unscripted.

When the (literal) dust settled from the dissatisfying ending of the wrestling portion of the show, one of the audience members remarked, "Wow, what a dusty finish."

***

Yahiko thought he was seeing things back in the Hiroshima bandit camp full of kidnapped women. Apparently, this was not the case.

He really did witness Kaede Morinaga doing Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu techniques instead of her Scorpio and Cancer Stances.

So aside from Kaede, Minoe had another personality. A third one. One who only knew Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

Like the spirit and image of Kenshin himself, thusly living up to her moniker: The Fake Battousai. The Battousai of Speed.

She was the same Fake Battousai who wiped out the Fake Battousai Group in Shinshushin led by the late Keisuke.

'Keisuke, huh?' It felt like Yahiko hadn't heard that name in ages even though he was in Shinshu just a few months ago, still nursing persistent sword wounds he got from fighting Soujiro Seta, Shogo Amakusa, and the Nisemono (Fake) Battousai.

The Fake Battousai Group was a joke. However, the Real Battousai Group that they based their name on was no joke.

It cost them their lives (and their male bits) to take up that name.

The prospect of fighting a whole group of Battousai-tier opponents like Shogo, Kaede, and Kinta (as well as perhaps several others) was not something anyone should take lightly.

So why did the prospect of doing so excite Yahiko Myojin so much? Maybe it was the influence of Sanosuke Sagara in him acting up. The guy was a "bad" influence to him, after all.

'But what about the Brigands Guild?' he thought. He'd only heard of them recently and how Kinta dispatched several of their members with his supreme iaijutsu skills.

Surely these brigands weren't as dangerous as Minakata or Morinaga, right? Certainly, the Ten Swords or the Six Comrades were stronger than them as well.

***

And now for the main event. The Human Cannonball that closed off the show.

The teenaged Marimo, although still quite thin, was much bigger than she was 6 years ago, when she was 10 years old. Thusly, her father had gotten her a bigger, more powerful cannon to allow her to do her dangerous stunt to sail across the audience with the right amount of firepower.

She posed and danced along to the beat of the music as gorgeous circus dancers and acrobats did the same down at the foot of the huge cannon.

They did the drum roll. Everyone was on the edge of their seats as she entered the cannon.

The ringmaster himself did the countdown for his daughter's main event. "Five! Four...!"

The rest of the audience joined in, including Yahiko.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

Kaboom. The cannon roared and the earth rumbled. Off went the Flying Marimo.

Everyone stood up to try and follow the whizzing blur that was Marimo across the big top and into her targeted net.

Yahiko, a trained martial artist, was able to catch sight of the full arch of her flight.

It was so beautiful. She flew like a swan taking a dive at a lake as she went through multiple flaming hoops and then landed on the safety net down below.

This was a routine action for her that she did twice a day, which belied the real dangers of such an act.

And just like that, within 5 minutes of drawn out anticipation and a second of climax, the show was finally over.

"Thank you and good night, everyone! I love Yokohama!" said Marimo to the crowd.

The audience erupted in claps and roars of approval, which was especially unusual for a Japanese audience to do due to their culture of politeness and public etiquette. Marimo deserved the standing ovation, though.

Yahiko came over to Marimo after the whole troupe went through their curtain call. He caught her signing autographs, blowing kisses, and waving to the milling crowd. What a superstar.

"What was it like, getting shot out of a cannon?" he asked her after he caught up with her, when she was done working the crowd.

She replied, "It's hard to describe. It's like riding the most intense, wildest bronco, but the horse has wings and you're flying in the air! With no saddle! There's a big boom and a second later, you're flying through the air, unfettered and untethered by anything. It's the best feeling in the world!"

They then went out of the tent through the staff exit, away from the exiting crowd of satisfied customers.

They walked together, with her struggling to keep pace with him. He slowed down his walk to accommodate her.

Afterwards, they heard a whistle followed by a small boom. More whistling booms, crackles, and pops followed.

They looked up into the sky.

Sure enough, fireworks painted the black canvas with fire flowers of light and sound.

The bright and flowery sparks in the heavens changed the lighting around them from red to blue to yellow and every color in between. Their mood shifted with these heavenly variegations.

It was like they'd been transferred into another world. Everything suddenly looked otherworldly. Almost dreamlike.

"Hey, what's with the fireworks?" Yahiko asked. "Is there a festival nearby or...?"

"You didn't know? This is our last show of the month for Yokohama," she said. "By tomorrow, we'll be packing up and traveling to Fukuoka. We added fireworks in our last night as a show of appreciation to the people of Yokohama for making our trip here a smashing success."

"Oh. Well, then! This is a great send off, if that's the case," he said. "The Ebisu Circus has become better than I remember it."

She chuckled. "Thanks, Yahiko-chan. I'm glad. We were practicing hard all month and in this particular show, everything just clicked."

Before they knew it, they were standing on a hill, overlooking the flowery lights above.

What a magical night. It was almost... romantic, to say the least.

Too romantic.

What was with this mood?

'Stop it,' he reprimanded himself. 'Stop thinking such thoughts.'

He then turned his head in time to meet eyes with his second crush.

They looked into each other's eyes and got lost in them. This time they couldn't tear themselves away from their gazes.

Myojin's heartbeat went a mile a minute. Nothing else short of swordfights and sparring matches made his heart go crazy like this.

Marimo closed her eyes and parted her mouth slightly, her head moving towards Yahiko's.

He himself closed his eyes.

Their lips were about to touch.

He then saw a vision of a crying, bawling Tsubame in his mind's eye.

***

No. This was wrong. He shouldn't do this.

'Stop right now. Don't make Tsubame cry.'

He shouldn't do something that could make Tsubame Sanjo despair if she ever found out about it.

'She doesn't need to know,' a voice at the back of his mind whispered to him. A sinister voice.

'No. She won't need to know because nothing will happen here,' his inner voice of reason countered.

Yahiko finally decided to come clean, grabbing hold of Marimo's shoulders before she could lean in for their kiss. This startled her.

"Y-Yahiko-chan...?"

"I'm sorry, Marimo. I already have a girlfriend."

The glint of hope and expectation in Marimo's eyes (that Yahiko noticed just now) was extinguished with those simple words.

"What? Huh. Oh."

There was a pregnant pause between the two of them.

"Is it the crazy girl that looks like Kenshin-san? Samurai X-san?"

"WHAT? No!" he exclaimed, saving himself from tripping face-first to the ground.

Yahiko then took a deep breath, composed himself, and said, "Her name is Tsubame. Sanjo Tsubame. She's my coworker at a maid cafe back in Tokyo. I met her before I met you. We ended up together while you were long gone, touring the nation with your circus."

Another second or two of awkward silence passed between them.

"Are you sure it's not the cute girl with the hair bow? The one that kind of looks like Kaoru-san?"

"DOUBLE NO! Ew! Like I'd ever date a look-alike of Raccoon Girl! Kaoru's like a big sister to me! Gross!" said Yahiko. He then stuttered, "...H-Hey, Marimo! Are you okay?" after seeing the face she made.

Marimo smiled at him with glistening eyes as the fireworks finally died down.

"Ehehehe. Looks like I've just been dumped."

***

As Yahiko went back to the inn he stayed at, exiting a rather eventful circus variety show, his head filled up with various thoughts although his heart felt altogether empty.

He ultimately did the right thing in the end.

Even though he sure did take his sweet time to do so. What the hell was he thinking anyway?

He shouldn't lead a girl around when he was already taken, even though he wasn't even completely aware of her feelings up until the last second.

'Sorry, Tsubame. Sorry, Marimo.'

Wait. Was he forgetting something? Was it Gan? Did he leave Gan behind?

No, screw the Goofy Gan. Yahiko wasn't even supposed to go to the circus tonight in the first place. He was forced because Gan was up to no good once again. So let him rot, wherever he was!

No, he shouldn't make excuses. No one forced him to go to the circus to see Marimo.

He'd been tailing her around like a lost puppy ever since they met each other again at the post office. He totally led her on even though he didn't intend to do so.

He should've seen the signs. Or maybe he did notice them but he didn't want to be presumptuous.

He should've nipped this issue right at the bud from the start. Because of his carelessness, he ended up making a girl cry. He was the worst.

The Tokyo Samurai Descendant then felt a chill down his spine.

He thusly ducked before a Tsuki thrust from behind could hit him at the back of his neck, feeling its murderous intent in full.

He turned in time to see a familiar face. Too familiar, to be honest. 'Dammit, I forgot to attend training!'

"AHA! There you are, Joshua-kun!" shouted the blonde bombshell Satsuki Sakaguchi/May Brooks of the Musou Madden School. "I've been looking all over for you! You've been skipping our sparring sessions again, haven't you? I've waited all day!"

"Ah, Satsuki! I can explain!" Yahiko said, though he did not feel all that confident with his (lack of an) explanation. He then heard a cackle from behind him.

"Hahahaha! Iiiinteresting," said Minoe, who'd actually been standing behind Myojin all this time.

Or rather, said Minoe after his wig and eye patch were blown away by the shockwave of air produced from Satsuki's pole thrust, resulting in him awakening his "Kaede Morinaga" persona.

'Ah! Since when did he...?' thought the Son of Tokyo Samurai. 'I mean, she! I mean, whatever!'

"Who is this cheeky bimbo anyway, Urchin Head? I'll mess her up," asked Kaede with a yawn while rubbing her eyes. Practically half-awake.

"She's not a bimbo, Minoe! I mean, Morinaga! It's Satsuki, Chizuru's weirdo gaijin friend who thinks she's Japanese!" said Yahiko, but Minoe, well, Kaede didn't hear him. 'I guess Morinaga hasn't formally met Satsuki yet!'

"She better watch herself. I'm not in the mood for shenanigans. That meat shield you call a friend really pissed me off earlier."

"Hey! Who are you calling a bimbo? What's gotten into you?" asked Satsuki, who brushed her golden hair back then fell into the Waxing Stance of her naginatajutsu school. "Even if it's you, Minoe-chan, I won't let such a comment slide!"

"Oho. You dare approach me?" said Kaede, who tied her unfurled hair up to a high topknot ponytail then unsheathed her sword and dagger weapons.

"What's going on here?" asked Chizuru, the fourth wheel of their group, who ran into the would-be "crime scene" with click-clacking boots as she fixed her large hair bow.

"Joshua-kun stood me up on our date!" answered Satsuki, playing the victim.

"That brute! Kick his ass!" the Raikouji Heiress said, believing Miss Brooks immediately. "What would your girlfriend back in Tokyo say about this? Cheater!"

"Hey, hey, hey! Now hold on a minute!" said Myojin. "Don't pick sides! And you, don't call our sparring matches 'dates'!"

"An opening! DEATHSTALKER...!"

"...And you! No fighting, dammit!" he said as he parried the sword with Kenshin's sakabatou and jumped in between Kaede and Satsuki to break up their burgeoning cat fight.

They soon after became an entanglement of limbs and clothes.

"Out of my way, Urchin Head...! Eeeek!"

"Ah wait, just where do you think you're grabbing, mister?!"

"Blimey! Joshua-kun! You're so forward! My heart belongs to Kinta-sama, though!"

"...I'm sorry! It was an accident!"

Just then, all four of them—three excitable girls in various states of undress due to wardrobe malfunctions from the scuffle who pushed, pulled, and tugged on the shirt and pants of a similarly disheveled guy every which way—stopped cold when it dawned to them who had been quietly watching them all that time.

And understanding how suggestive they all looked to any passerby who saw them without any context.

"So which one of these lucky girls is Sanjo Tsubame exactly, Yahiko-kun?" Marimo asked with the sweetest of smiles.

Oh no. Yahiko had been demoted from "chan" to "kun"

"M-Marimo, it's not what it looks like...!"

God. Damn. It. That was the absolute worst thing he could've said. Famous last words from many a man caught cheating with floozies.

"How dare you play with a woman's heart like this! Have you no shame? You... you... filthy animal! Perv! Womanizer! Two-timing scoundrel! You're an enemy to all women! "

"NOOOO! Marimo, you've got it all wrooong!"

The ensuing slap was so crisp, its sound reverberated all the way to the nearby docks.

Oh well. There were worse ways to end one of your first crushes than to be mistaken for a playboy by your crush.

'Sayonara, Marimo,' Yahiko thought with tears streaming down his cheeks and a wry smile on his face as he saw Marimo's svelte silhouette retreat into the distance with his blurry eyes.

Even though he developed feelings for Marimo as well, he still met Tsubame first and ultimately fell for her the hardest when push came to shove.

"Who the heck was that?" asked May as she brushed and tucked a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear and pulled her sleeves back to her shoulders. "Mary Moe? Marie Mo?"

***

To Be Continued...

Mary Moe... She's a vegetarian!

So here's to having another filler episode character incorporated into the story. First Shogo, then Shura, now Marimo. They join the ranks of the reworked Kaita and Misanagi from the infamous Black Knights saga of the third season of RK.

Danke, Abdiel

[gabriel-gabdiel]

Rurouni Yahiko Chapter 54: The Prodigal Son Strikes Back

The identity of the Prodigal Son has been revealed. He can now enact his revenge against the Minakatas.

The rest of the chapters of my Rurouni Kenshin fan fiction are available here. Enjoy.

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Immediately after Yahiko Myojin's loss to Satsuki Sakaguchi in their "friendly" sparring match at the Sakaguchi Dojo...

"BANZAI! (HOORAY!) BANZAI! BANZAI!" cheered the kendo students of Musou Madden Ryu after witnessing their amazing blonde bombshell of a foreigner teacher show that upstart kendo master from Tokyo what for.  

Abelia La Cerca got caught up in all the cheering too, but instead of "Banzai", she repeatedly shouted, "VIVA SATSUKI!" over and over instead.

"I wouldn't celebrate if I were you," said Genzo Sakaguchi, the grandfather of Kyoko and Satsuki Sakaguchi (A.K.A. May Brooks). His arms crossed. His sourpuss face glaring at every one of his embarrassing students who got defeated by a teenaged kendo master from Tokyo and their own blonde gaijin (foreigner) English teacher.

A collective shudder and multiple groans filled the dojo as past memories of endless drills and grueling training filled the minds of all these Musou Madden Ryu students.

"Man, it's true what they say. They grow up so fast," whispered the pompadour-wearing Sho Kojima to Kinta Minakata.

Sho wore a haori and hakama with flowery colors so loud they looked like they belonged in a parade or festival. After all, he didn't wear colors. He wore flavors.

Kojima then reminisced, "I 'member when Satsuki-chan was just a wee lass. Look at her now. She's even better at naginatajutsu (glaive technique) than many a native practitioner I've personally seen."

Kinta could only nod, but more in agreement with his Master Genzo's sentiments over the pathetic state of the Musou Madden School's students (that he overheard) rather than with Sho's own praise of May Brooks (which fell on deaf ears).

He found it unacceptable that these so-called men were this terrible at swordsmanship. Were they so weak that they'd force women and children like Satsuki and Kyoko to act as bodyguards for the Minakata Family due to their incompetence? Had they no shame?

Meanwhile, Miss May Brooks herself noticed the intense stares of her two seniors and waved at them thusly.

May Brooks walked towards them with quick thumps of her socked feet on the wooden floor. She and Sho then greeted each other with respectful bows.

"Whaddya think, Sho-sensei? That Tsunami wasn't half-bad, right?" Satsuki said with a wink. "It looked as fast as one of your Tidal Waves, innit?"

"Not bad. Not bad at all. You still need to work on your close-range slashes like the Mangetsu Tsuki O Nari (Full Moon Slash), but your sense of maai (range) is superb as usual. You flogged him like a racehorse. Although I expected more welts from him."

"Blimey, he's a slippery one, he is. I was so gutted that Joshua-kun (Yahiko-kun) avoided so many of my strikes! He even left me gobsmacked with that last technique of his! It was mint! "

"...Uh, you're speaking gibberish again, Satsuki-chan."

"You wot, mate?"

Kojima sighed and scratched his cheek, smirking.  He then said, "Are you havin' a giggle?" to the best of his abilities, with the words coming out more like, "Aru yu habingu a giguru?" thanks to his accent.

This seemed to wake Miss Brooks up. "Oh. OH! sorry guv'na! I mean, sorrymasen, Sho-sensei!"

With a chuckle, Sho patted May's golden-haired head like he would a cat.

"Good job. Just don't forget to work on your defense. That last exchange with that samurai kid almost gave me a heart attack. I thought you'd lost for sure."

Satsuki pouted adorably. "Stop treating me like a kid, Sho-sensei!"

***

Rurouni Yahiko

A Rurouni Kenshin Continuation Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda

And now back to your regularly scheduled Japanese soap opera at Chinatown.

Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others) are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallup, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted materials that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.

***

Chapter 54: The Prodigal Son Strikes Back

***

Back at the Sakaguchi Dojo...

The juvenile-in-appearance Abelia La Cerca—the poster child of neoteny herself—asked Kinta, "Do you think Satsuki is good enough to take on the likes of my brother? Or the rest of the Brigands Guild?"

"If it were up to me, the Sakaguchis would not be placed anywhere near the Brigands Guild," Kinta answered, which surprised Abelia. He usually spoke much terser than that.

"Did you see me beat Joshua-kun, Kinta-sama?" May Brooks asked while blowing kisses at the morose swordsman. "I dedicate that fight to you!"

"It was splendid, Brooks-san," he said flatly, which made May pout.

"Call me Satsuki instead, Kinta-sama!" said May. She then "went there" after spotting Abelia, the "little girl" whom she'd only met for the first time then and there.

"Aw, and who's this? A new family friend? Is she going to be another member of the Sakaguchi Family?" she asked with twinkling, shining blue eyes.

"Q-Que paso? (W-What's happening?)" stuttered Abelia, her hazel eyes wide open and her face paler (than usual). "Who is this again, Kinta-sama? How does she know you?"

"Hello there, luv. What's your name?"

"Eh, hola! I mean, hello! My name is Abelia. Abelia La Cerca." Miss La Cerca bowed to Miss Brooks.

Brooks herself reminisced how her "Grandpa Genzo" rescued and adopted her as part of the Sakaguchi Family. She even got a Japanese name added to their family registry and everything after she was orphaned and stranded in Japan as a child.

Was this La Cerca girl a newly adopted daughter or granddaughter of the Sakaguchis?

"Aw, you're such a cutie," said Satsuki, who resisted the urge to pinch Abelia's cheeks.

The shy Señorita La Cerca pouted, moved behind Kinta, and tugged at his shirt.

Satsuki's jaw then dropped as she looked at Kinta, Abelia, then back to Kinta and said, "Oh no. Kinta-sama, don't tell me...!"

Kinta raised an eyebrow at the blonde in askance.

"Don't tell you what? What do you mean, Satsuki-chan?" Sho asked for Kinta's sake.

With tears in her bejeweled eyes, Satsuki said, "Blimey! Is she Kinta-sama's love child? Who's the mother? How could you betray me... uh, us this way, Kinta-sama!"

Kinta didn't do things like face-fault or drop face-first into the ground in exasperation—he was more the straight man than the idiot in a comedic sense—so thankfully Koijma was there to do such things for him.

"Now wait a damn minute! Abelia isn't Kinta's love child, you blonde bimbo! Jeez!" Sho decried for Kinta's sake, the corners of his mouth quivering as he resisted the urge to smirk, smile, or laugh out loud.

Then, with tears in her eyes, Abelia told May, "¡Ay, perdone! Señorita, por pabor! (Pardon me! Please, Miss!) I'm actually 20 years old!"

Everyone just stared at her afterwards, which led her to murmur, "Madre mia (My Mother)," under her breath.

Abelia appeared prepubescent, so she could pass herself off as half that age.

However, she actually lied about her age. No, she wasn't younger than 20 years old. She was older than that. As old as her brother Cain Merrick, in fact.

***

Several weeks later, at the Yokohama Chinatown...

Kinta Minakata had just confronted his alcoholic banker uncle, Tatsuya Minakata.

They were inside one of the offices of an affiliate company (a money trader outfit) that their front company, the Minakata Pharmaceuticals and Foreign Trade Corporation, bought out like the burgeoning zaibatsu (megacorp) that it was.

These offices crawled with bodyguards made up of police escorts, personal security guards, ex-samurais or ronin, ninjas, and even outright mercenaries-for-hire.

Uncle and nephew talked about the shady business dealings of Tatsuya's father and Kinta's grandfather, Toshiro Minakata.

About how, as a hatamoto-class samurai in direct service to (and thus only answerable to) the Tokugawa Shogunate, he took advantage of his position to supply opium to China during the Opium Wars of the 1830s to the 1860s.

He then invested his drug money to build the family fortune, seemingly taking cues from the rising Japanese middle-class full of merchants and businessmen.

Normally, samurai were closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class. They trained as officers in military tactics and grand strategy.

As a decorated military veteran given the task of dealing with Chinese trade at the Port of Nagasaki during the Sakoku (Isolationism or Locked-Down Era of Japan), Toshiro not only policed the seas against Wokou (Dwarf Pirates). He also approved of practically government-sanctioned opium delivery to China that he and his family profited over for decades.

During the Tokugawa Era, samurai didn't need to build their wealth since they were privileged from the start. His peers called him greedy and corrupt. However, Toshiro was actually being as cunning as a fox.

In the height of irony, Toshiro established a pharmaceutical company that truly utilized the full potential of his family fortune from the Sengoku Jidai (Warring States Era) onwards, with the business doing double duty as the manufacturer of high-quality opium and laundering all that money back by making western-style medicine available to the Japanese citizens.

Toshiro basically used his spy history and connections, coded language, and secret intelligence tactics to pull the wool over the Shogunate's eyes and profit over China's own misfortune against western superpowers.

Then, before he could get caught with all his multimillion yen drug dealings, the Bakumatsu (End of the Shogunate Era) happened. The Minakatas were able to keep all their ill-gotten wealth as isolationism and the bakufu (shogunate) ended, with them easily handling the transition from one government administration to another.

The samurai class ended but they were able to transition as part of Japan's new ruling class, the oligarchy.

Meanwhile, even though Kinta Minakata was part of the Shogunate forces as the Mimawarigumi Battousai, his family didn't suffer from them choosing the losing side of the war.

Like with Hajime Saito of the Shinsengumi, he (and his family) ended up in good political standing with the Meiji Goverment exactly because of his strength and reputation.

Ironic, seeing that the likes of Takamori Saigo—an actual Ishin Shishi (Royalist)—ultimately got betrayed by his own allies despite being in the winning side of the war.

***

Yahiko was supposed to do some more sparring and training at the Sakaguchi Dojo in general and with May Brooks in particular when he caught wind of the recent news.

Their sparring session was canceled in favor of a trip at the nearest Chinatown in Yokohama.

From his conversations with May/Satsuki, he found out that the Minakatas were being targeted by a foreign mercenary group named the Brigands Guild.

This Brigands Guild had apparently closed in on the Minakata Family, leading to an emergency meeting filled with all their personal bodyguards, including the Sakaguchis.

Several of which were martial arts students from the Sakaguchi Family itself like Kyoko, Satoru, and Satsuki.

Should he interject himself into their personal business though? Yahiko was mostly interested in the Battousai Group, not the Brigands Guild.

The samurai kid shook his head. There would come a time when he'd end up face-to-face with Kaede Morinaga's Battousaigumi.

Then again, Kaede mentioned that Minakata also had connections with Shogo Amakusa's Hidden Christians as well.

She called him Amakusa's Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior) or something. She also called him a traitor to their cause.

Maybe Kinta was a past member turned enemy of the Battousai Group? Regardless, it was something worth checking out down the line.

For now, if Myojin could help his new friends out with the strength he gained from his adventures with his old friends—the Kenshingumi—then he would do so.

Besides which, what would Kenshin Kamiya (nee Himura) do in if he were in Yahiko's shoes right now? Would he not interject himself into other people's business for the sake of helping out?

Yahiko had to do this because Kenshin would do the same. He'd help out anyone in need before him in the best of his abilities, even to the point of self-sacrifice.

The young lad chuckled in remembrance of how Kenshin's stubborn nature when it came to sticking his nose into other people's business was how he was able to save him from a lifelong debt to the yakuza.

This strong sense of justice was what made Battousai Himura such a fearsome figure during the Bakumatsu.

Personally, it wasn't in Myojin's nature to pry into the affairs of others like some sort of interloper with a savior complex, but... maybe sometimes, being like Kenshin was the right thing to do.

So that was what Yahiko did. He became as Kenshin-like as he could muster while undergoing his Musha Shugyo (Warrior's Pilgrimage).

Involving himself with the Sakaguchis and Minakatas should also help him with his kendo training. Kind of.

There was no better way to sharpen his skills when it came to kendo than by roughing up some criminals and foiling the plans of gaijin assassins.

This was how he ended up tagging along with the Sakaguchis as the Minakata's extra security detail while one of the heirs of the fortune, Kinta, discussed disturbing family secrets within their Chinatown offices.

He thusly snuck into the room next to the offices where uncle and nephew were having a meeting of the minds, with them hurling accusations, dirty laundry, and skeletons in the family closet all the while.

He'd feign shock regarding how the Minakatas gained their wealth—though political connections, abuse of authority, and illegal drug dealings around the time when Japan limited its foreign trade—but his exposure to the likes of Jusanro Tani and the yakuza had long ago awakened him to the ugly truths of the Japanese elite and its corrupt oligarchs.

Meanwhile, the "empty" room he stayed at actually teemed with family bodyguards, among whom were several "ninjas" laying in wait using camouflage techniques and everything.

There was no way the Brigands Guild could possibly penetrate their impenetrable defenses, right?

***

Back in the offices of one of the Minakata Zaibatsu's affiliates...

Tatsuya reacted well enough to Kinta's probing questions. By physical force instead of words.

He'd already swung a fist at his nephew, who dodged it easily.

Kinta said, "You haven't answered my question. Was the company just a front for grandfather's drug cartel?"

Tatsuya harrumphed and straightened out his crumpled western-style suit.

"I remember the way you'd piss yourself whenever I came home pissed off and drunk. How'd a wet spot would form on your pants. Whenever you were in my way. Whenever you bothered me," Tatsuya, the banker of the Minakata Family, jeered at his nephew.

His sister's son. The son of the black sheep of the Minakata Family.

Kinta's uncle took another swing at Kinta, which made the nephew almost push the uncle to the floor in self-defense.

He would've done it too had he not sensed another fist headed his way from behind him that he had to block using an open palm with a loud smack.

One of Tatsuya's bodyguards—a man as tall as a lamppost—towered ominously over even the infamous Mimawarigumi Battousai, who himself was already taller then the average Japanese man.

This person then backed off, seemingly sensing the bloodlust of Kaita the Sanada Ninja, who'd by then unsheathed blade on instinct.

The camouflaged ninja then sheathed his kunai back and hid his presence.

Kinta grunted in acknowledgement of his uncle's strange guardian. The both of them then eyed each other warily.

So Tatsuya brought with him some extra insurance. Or protection.

Something about the lanky bodyguard's face left Kinta unsettled, though. He couldn't put his finger on just what.

"I don't care if you're the Mimawarigumi's version of the Ishin Shishi's Battousai. To me, you'll always be my younger sister's bratty li'l kid," said Tatsuya with a dismissive harrumph.

Kinta frowned as his uncle grimaced at him in kind. Tatsuya's sister, huh?

A memory floated in the surface of his mind. That of a mother he never knew who brought dishonor to their family.

"Don't you forget that, you insipid pissant. Learn your place," said the sneering Tatsuya, who smoothened out his ruffled western-style three-piece suit. "We could've banished you along with your shameful mother. Have a bit more gratitude, you ingrate!"

Kinta's mother and Tatsuya's younger sister had a name though.

The Black Sheep of the Minakata Family. The daughter who was disowned by her own mother and his grandmother, Grandma Mieko.

Kinta's estranged mother.

Her name was Aoi Minakata.

"Hearing" her name in his mind left him with a complicated feeling in his heart. Or several feelings. A mixture of pity, guilt, longing, betrayal, and shame.

Kinta's father was the husband she cheated on with a foreign dignitary. The man who, in turn, killed that same gaijin and then took his own dishonored life to save face and his family's honor.

Save face? More like take the coward's way out.

His name was Azuma Minakata (nee Akahori).

Under the bushido ideal, if a samurai failed to uphold his honor, the only way to regain it was by seppuku (ritual suicide).

It was just like his belligerent Uncle Tatsuya to air out the family's dirty laundry when confronted with the skeletons in their closet.

On the other hand, Kinta did force him to do so by accusing their beloved patriarch, his grandfather Toshiro Minakata, of being a drug lord who laundered all that blood money into legitimate pharmaceutical and medicinal businesses.

Their family fortune sat on a throne of lies, greed, and corruption.

"Should I go to the authorities instead?" asked Kinta. "Grandfather left quite the paper trail. You and Uncle Kaneda worked as accomplices to his graft and corruption. I'm sure they'd love to investigate one of the Akahoris' connections for crimes."

Tatsuya's scowl ran even deeper.

Nevertheless, Kinta felt like he had to do this. He had to get into the bottom of what the Seiryu Clan was and learn more about the so-called Black Book of his uncle from his father's side, Tetsuo Akahori.

This was the key to solving the mystery and conspiracies behind who hired the Brigands Guild and why they were assigned to take out their entire family. Their privileged clan.

Kinta sighed. His intention was to get dirt on his Uncle Tetsuo and all these clans their families were associated with, but the paper trail the Sanada Ninjas decoded instead pointed him to the skeletons in his family's own closet.

Was it intentional? Was this Akahori's gambit all along?

That son of a bitch. What a goddamn manipulative, magnificent bastard.

Growling, Tatsuya said to Kinta, "Fine. What do you want to know?"

"The truth."

"...Can you handle it?"

"I need to know it in order to protect this family."

Kinta wanted to know exactly what he was protecting here. Warts and all.

Tatsuya spat at the floor and slapped his forehead, brushing his sweaty bangs back. "Dammit, I need a drink."

The Minakata nephew and grandson clarified, "Why is the Brigands Guild after the Minakatas? Is it because of Grandfather Toshiro's drug dealings? Or his connection to the Seiryu Clan?"

The sullen Tatsuya poured himself a bottle of whiskey while his nephew kept staring at him all the while with the eyes of a hawk.

Eyes that reminded Tatsuya of Kinta's honorable-to-a-fault father Azuma, to be honest.

'They're both fools too concerned about honor,' Tatsuya merely thought, but his disdainful eyes practically shouted that sentiment at Kinta. 'Seeing such a holier-than-thou goody-two-shoes in action make me sick.'

A second later and Tatsuya finally spoke.

"Probably Seiryu Clan business," was his uncle's terse reply before gulping down a shot of alcohol and pouring another shot afterwards.

"Who are the Seiryu Clan?" asked Kinta.

"We are the Seiryu Clan, you idiot," answered Tatsuya. "Our secret society was divided into four families in accordance to which region they were from in Japan and what connection we had with the government. Our spy group got dissolved due to in-fighting. The marriage between my sister and your father was supposed to fix it. For all the good it did."

"My father belonged to another clan?" asked the former Mimawarigumi Battousai. "I mean, the Akahoris did?'

"Yes. The Genbu Clan. Then your mother ended up having an affair with gaijin, which severed the ties between the Seiryu and the Genbu. With that alliance broken, the Seiryu is now just another enemy of the Genbu as they... or he... made his move to take over this collective intelligence the clans have gathered through the decades."

"He? Do you mean Uncle Tetsuo?" Kinta asked but more like answered.

Tatsuya nodded. "These assassination attempts on our family members have all the earmarks and fingerprints of your other uncle, if you ask me."

Tetsuo Akahori. The younger brother of Kinta's father, Azuma Akahori.

The wily manipulator of the House of Akahori and the Genbu Clan, which were the spies responsible for keeping tabs with the Ishin Shishi royalists.

Tatsuya laughed a hollow chuckle while swirling the drink in his glass.

"And, as usual, you can't pin anything on him. There's no way we can prove he's behind all this nonsense. He always has his tracks covered, just like how Father used to when he was alive. But it sure stinks to high heaven of him. He probably found a way to hire the Brigands to take our entire family out."

"Why? For what purpose?" the nephew further queried. "What is he after?"

"The same thing Father was after, probably," said Tatsuya. "Your grandfather wanted power. Prestige.  Fame. Privilege. Making his mark in this world. Maybe even helping rewrite our shameful family history. It's in our blood, kiddo. And in their blood as well. The Minakatas and the Akahoris are cut from the same cloth."

Oh right. The Minakata name was a stolen one, taken from a dead family of privilege back in the Sengoku Era by a band of roving disgraced ronin (masterless samurai). They were originally ochimusha with their chonmage (topknots) cut off.

These dishonored samurai thieves ended up becoming the ancestors of the current Minakata line, with the original line killed off during the Warring States period. It was stolen valor, plain and simple.

"Tetsuo-ossan could seize power with the Black Book?" asked Kinta.

"From what I understand, our family belongs to one of four spy clans. The Seiryu Clan. The Black Book is nothing more than a record of government secrets used for blackmail. No more, no less."  

Under the hands of someone like Tetsuo Akahori, it served as his multitude of clues to every last sin, crime, or manipulation of all the major political figures and dynasties in this country.

His codex of the many schemes perpetrated by the current administration of former royalists.

A Black Book that listed out these politicians' debts to society, just like how a literal black book worked.

"My brother-in-law is a real piece of work," said Kinta's other piece-of-work (or piece-of-something-else) uncle without any irony. "He wants to take all of us out and steal our thunder the same way our ancestors did with the original Minakatas. Imagine that."

"Was it because of some sort of grudge?" asked Kinta, remembering another dearly departed relative from all this talk about Tetsuo.

His Aunt Sakura. Tetsuo's wife, Sakura Noe.

He felt his heart twinge and throb in remembrance of her.  His gentle mother figure in lieu of his real, estranged mother he could barely even remember at this point.

He then felt shame wash over him for feeling that way. He shouldn't let his emotions overcome him like that, the same way his passionate mother did that fateful day she got caught by his father cheating on him with her lover from another country.

Unbridled passion and emotion could push a person to do something drastic, like betray his or her spouse. Or country.

Therefore, Kinta pushed such feelings deep in his heart before it could take control of him.

The Bakumatsu was indeed a tumultuous time.

It was one thing for his mother to have an affair with another man from under his father's nose. However, it was a whole other kettle of fish for her to do so with a foreigner around the time foreign relations were strained.

She inadvertently became a symbol of the shogunate's weakness against foreign invaders, leading to bloody revolution.

However, Kinta also thought the Minakata Family immediately disowning her was too drastic a decision. He felt sick at how quickly his relatives banished her for the sake of saving their hides. Their so-called "honor".

Then again, he did somehow owe the Minakatas one for taking him in despite kicking off the black sheep of the family, abusive as they were to him.

His uncles treated him as though he were the bastard spawn between Aoi Minakata and her foreign lover rather than the legitimate heir to the family fortune.

As if reading his mind, his uncle said, "You should know better than to antagonize us, boy. We raised you. We bathed and clothed you. We even allowed you a share of the wealth, the so-called 'blood money' you feel contempt for yet still enjoy because we acknowledge you as a legitimate son of the family."

Uncle and nephew glared at each other eye-to-eye.

"You know what it is about you that makes me sick to my stomach, you ingrate? Your holier-than-thou attitude. The way you look down on us after everything we've done for you. How dare you."

Kinta couldn't deny that allegation. He'd considered many a night to disavow his wretched, criminal family. Especially now that he had proof of their illegal activities.

His uncle continued his rant.

"Understand that you'd be trash without us and without the Minakata family name. Know your role and shut your mouth. If it weren't for our magnanimous decision to keep you around instead of disowning you, you'd be no better today than my sister's other bastard gaijin lovechild."

The air inside the office felt so thick it suffocated the people inside. As though they'd just drowned in stale air. Thick, humid air.

He also had a name, by the way. The Prodigal Son of the Minakatas banished away along with his traitorous mother.

"Minakata Takuto."

This gave both Minakatas pause.

"W-What...?" trailed off Tatsuya, whose eyes then traveled back to the person who said that forbidden name.

It was Tatsuya's exceptionally tall bodyguard who spoke those words. That name.

How did he know the birth name of Aoi Minakata's bastard son?

The bodyguard chuckled then talked further.

"Takuto, huh?" he said in Japanese with a slight accent. A foreigner's accent he didn't have a few minutes ago when he talked to his boss. "It's been years since I was called that. I have a new name now. Lucas. Lucas Grant. The name my father intended to give to me before he died."

***

In the office next door...

Yahiko's eyes narrowed as he strained to hear what was going on in the other room.

Not because he had trouble hearing the words but more because his mind had trouble processing their significance.

Wait, what? Who was it that said "Minakata Takuto"?

Oh. The guy who said that was Takuto Minakata.

Who was Takuto Minakata? Weren't they talking about a gaijin lovechild from a disowned family member?

Jeez. He felt like a nosy housewife eavesdropping on her quarrelling neighbors as they aired their dirty laundry next door. He felt dirty just listening to all this unsolicited info.

However, he steeled his resolve. He felt something was definitely afoot.

This wasn't merely simple internal drama between family members. It was a power grab by one of their own fellow elites. Possibly by the person whom the Tokyo Samurai Descendant (and friends) had just saved from his own assassination.

Tetsuo Akahori.

Yikes. It saddened Yahiko how he had to protect oligarch nobility whose daily drama directly influenced the state of society and the wellbeing of the Japanese people.

Even though these wealthy people and V.I.P.s—the ones who belonged to the upper-echelon oligarchy of Japan—stunk of the same uppity attitude of Jusanro Tani, they didn't deserve cold-blooded execution.

To be honest though, Myojin was more concerned with how the Sakaguchis were somehow dragged into this mess due to old family ties and historical subservience to the former hatamoto-class samurai family.

This honor-bound sense of duty among past superiors reminded Myojin of the same debt of honor Tsubame Sanjo and her family had over Mikio Nagaoka and his family, even after the samurai class was abolished by the Meiji Government.

Or how Yahiko himself had to serve as the errand boy and pickpocket for the yakuza after becoming an orphaned child of samurai in Post-Tokugawa Japan.

Nearly all ex-samurai families faced such messed-up circumstances ever since Japan's upheaval from the Sakoku Era to the Bakumatsu to the Meiji Era.

Nearly all of them, anyway. Obviously, this wasn't the case for the Minakatas or ex-Ishin oligarchs.

The Son of Tokyo Samurai then heard anguished screams from an ensuing scuffle inside the office next door.

He turned to investigate along with the rest of the alerted bodyguards, only for one of them to unsheathe his saber and slash at everyone present with frightening efficiency.

Yahiko himself drew the sakabatou (reverse-edged sword) in time to block the blade, which wasn't actually a saber but instead a... a... rapier, was it?

A foreign sword forged from a solid metal bar of carbon-rich steel.

He remembered its name from the stolen foreign swords he saw used by the Wokou under the leadership of Shura's maritime nemesis, the Pirate King Hananuma Masakichi Inoue!

'What the hell was going on here?!' thought the flabbergasted young man. 'Who the hell is this guy? Wait… The Brigands Guild! This guy is probably one of the Brigands Guild!'

'Hmmm,' thought The Faceless after his blade clanged against the unexpectedly thick spine of the Japanese sword swung at him.

Once he shed his policeman guise and brandished his rapier, he expected to massacre the room-full of bodyguards and their brittle Japanese-made sabers or katanas.

Only for this teenaged upstart to block his strike with an unusually robust sword for something made of pig metal.

The Faceless realized something else. 'This li'l boy with the weird sword has some fight in him.'

***

Meanwhile, outside the money changer office...

Lieutenant Satoru Sakaguchi told his daughter, "Stay here with the rest of the security guards! Secure the perimeter! The Brigands Guild is probably attacking from the inside right now!"

"Father, wait..!" cried out Kyoko Sakaguchi, but she turned around too late. Her father was gone. He'd left her with the other Minakata hired bodyguards (or secret service).

She considered following him because the outside office perimeter had the patrolling May "Satsuki" Brooks to protect it, but Officer Sakaguchi ordered her to stay regardless.

So she followed his orders like the good daughter that she was.

Kyoko also probably said a few other things, but Satoru couldn't hear her gentle voice amidst their loud footfalls on concrete floor as he charged along with several other Minakata family bodyguards armed with swords, pistols, and rifles as well as the top students of Musou Madden Ryu.

A feeling of déjà vu filled Satoru's gut to the brim. This sneak attack reminded him of the one done to Tetsuo Akahori back in his hometown of Shinshushin.

So much for the 1880s being peacetime in the Meiji Era! What was with all these assassination attempts of top officials one after another?

The aftermath of the Chichibu Riots remained fresh in the minds of the police force, at that. However, they'd recovered enough from the trauma to provide better protection for the Minakatas than they did with the Akahoris.

However, the Yokohama Police Force sometimes refuses police protection to private citizens no matter how influential to the government they were.

Therefore, Satoru had to go there in his own time (and dime) to act as the Minakatas' bodyguard, along with the rest of the family and several of their school's best students.

He wondered if the Brigands Guild were somehow affiliated with the rebel Shogo Amakusa and his Hidden Christians before pushing such thoughts aside. Now wasn't the time for such idle musings.

He had to pursue these gaijin invaders properly so that the casualties here would be minimized compared to the disaster that happened in Shinshu.

He hoped against hope that these so-called brigands weren't a collection of Amakusas in remembrance of how Shogo single-handedly decimated multiple police squads like a one-man army.

That one man Kinta had faced off previously in his Uncle Kaneda's home certainly was Amakusa-like. That person with no face could fight toe-to-toe against the Mimawarigumi Battousai himself.

Satoru would be more at peace if Akahori's bodyguard, Soujiro Seta, were there with them right about now.

If there were members of the Brigands Guild like The Faceless, they'd all be all screwed.

They might as well evacuate the offices and just burn the place down to the ground to rid of these foreign vermin. Or at least fumigate the bastards.

***

Back inside the main office...

Both Minakatas, nephew and uncle, turned as white as bed sheets as they stared at the tall bodyguard before them.

What was once a man that resided in the background had ended up in the forefront of their attention. Like a marble statue that had come to life.

Lucas "Takuto Minakata" Grant bowed at both Kinta and Tatsuya as though this was a curtain call at a theater play and he was one of the actors taking a bow to the audience.

Like May "Satsuki Sakaguchi" Brooks, he was another person with two names and a foreign lineage involved with the Minakatas.

"It's a pleasure to meet you after all this time. You know me as Minakata Takuto, but to my comrades, the Brigands Guild, I'm instead known as Lucas Grant."

They should've noticed him earlier, what with his unusual height, length, and lankiness.

Sure, several other bodyguards with them matched his tallness. However, they didn't match his musculature and thickness.

Especially when he took off his Japanese disguise, his chiseled facial features showing hints of English or even Nordic features mixed with East Asian blood.

Speaking of which, after a couple of seconds of hesitation, the other bodyguards thusly dog-piled Takuto.

Smiling, Lucas grappled and threw the security around like rag dolls. Or little children. They made a mess, crashing into furniture and smashing into walls like they were flimsy matchboxes.

And now that the Minakatas were focused on him, they also noticed his blood thirst. His manic eyes belied his calm demeanor.

The camouflaged ninja from earlier attempted to attack Lucas with knives, only for him to bat them all away with his sheathed western sword, the half-breed foreign invader eyeing him and his cloaked movement in the corner of his blue eyes.

"So you now know the truth about your family, samurai?" said he Prodigal Son of the Minakatas to Kinta Minakata. His half-brother from another father. His mother's bastard child.

Takuto Minakata. Lucas Grant.

"So you're now aware that you belong to a corrupt lineage of crooks and thieves? Or even demons on earth? But maybe you already knew about that from the start. Maybe you're a bloody little devil yourself, Mr. Mimawarigumi Battousai."

Kinta couldn't believe his eyes. Takuto was there. In the flesh. The living proof of his mother's betrayal of his family.

For a change, Tatsuya Minakata was at a loss for words. His little sister didn't only have one brat but two. And now he had come back from banishment to enact his revenge against them.

Against the family that abandoned him and his mother.

Now it made perfect sense why the Brigands Guild was after them specifically.

They weren't just hired guns. They were his hired guns. The (literal) bastard found a way to rise from poverty and fund his revenge against the family that threw him and his mother away like trash due to her betrayal.

Was it the "Grant" family who funded this? Did Lucas find the relatives of his dead father and then waited all this time to get his long-awaited vengeance?

Kinta could've sworn it was Akahori who manipulated events to end up this way though. Call it a gut feeling based on past experience.

'Dammit,' thought Tatsuya. They—the Minakatas—had his sister marry the brother of Tetsuo specifically to avoid ending up in the Genbu Clan's warpath.

Sure, it was also to gain enough leverage for their family, the Seiryu Clan, to take control of the Black Book themselves, but that was to be expected of the politics of nobility.

'All's fair in love and war.'

Lucas grabbed hold of what looked like a book or even a tome as thick as the Christian bible, waving it at the Minakatas' faces like an arrest warrant.

"I have the smoking gun... or guns, as the case may be... of the Minakata Pharmaceutical Company being a 'habitual line-stepper' in terms of criminal activities. Your company wasn't only founded by laundered drug money. It also grew into a powerful multinational conglomerate through illegal marketing and medical practices."

Some of the knocked-out guards started coming to while the others remained unconscious.

Grant had enough presence of mind to beat the hell out of the awakened ones using his thick tome or callused knuckles before they regained their senses enough to be a threat to him.

All the while, he kept on talking.

Even as his fists got stained with their bodyguards' blood, he kept going with his long-winded spiel, spewing venom and bile all the while.

"Even before the Bakumatsu, Minakata Pharmaceuticals had been engaged in bribing physicians and suppressing adverse trial results. Since the 1860s, around the time the Meiji Restoration came about, your wretched hive of scum and its subsidiaries have been assessed with millions of yen in civil penalties and criminal convictions that have been swept under the tatami mat through your influence and connections with the Meiji Government."

With gleaming eyes and a fist dyed red with blood, Lucas asked Kinta again, "Do you support your family of criminals or not?"

Tatsuya had just about enough of his estranged nephew. "You son of a bitch...!" he trailed off, a pistol in his hand that he drew from a hidden pocket inside his overcoat.

"Hey," said Lucas, looking across the barrel of the gun like he would a wall, his glare focused more on the person holding the firearm.

His sweaty, half-drunk uncle, to be more specific.

The Minakatas then noticed the sheathed sword at Grant's side. They had concluded earlier it was another straight-bladed saber like the police officers had, but that was an optical illusion.

"Don't insult my mother like that. Call me the bastard all you want, but don't you dare sully my mother's name by calling her a bitch, Uncle Tatsuya."

Lucas then unsheathed his humongous sword.

In light of how tall he was, the sword did look like an ordinary saber when he held it. But only because it was proportional to him.

To anyone else who wielded it, it would've been obvious it was an extra-large sword.

The Prodigal Son of the Minakatas brandished a "hand-and-a-half" sword. Otherwise known as a bastard sword.

***

Right inside the next room...

As their swords clashed again, The Faceless got a better look at Yahiko's weapon that didn't break apart as easily as all the other brittle katanas and sabers that surrounded him.

'What an unusual Japanese blade. The sharp end is at its inside curve like a scimitar or scythe yet this boy uses it like a blunt bat or steel pipe.'

Curiouser and curiouser.

The Faceless donned a new mask before falling into his fencer's stance, which meant he shifted into his fencer disguise or perhaps even personality—the honorable duelist gentleman, Duke John Rathbone.

Rathbone embodied The Faceless' his extensive knowledge of western martial arts. The same honorable Englishman that took on the likes of the Mimawarigumi Battousai to a draw, with their matching skills in swordsmanship.

Yahiko went into basic neutral Chuden-no-Kamae (Water Stance) instead of his favored aggressive Jodan-no-Kamae (Fire Stance) in reaction to the somewhat unfamiliar sword style of this person before him.

He had to. Unlike when he dueled against local ronin, former samurai, or May Brooks, the thin, tall man before him fell into a stance he'd never seen before.

This masked man was probably one of the so-called Brigands Guild that was after the powerful Minakata Family of Yokohama.

One of the foreign invaders coming to the shores of Japan in order to fulfill the bloodthirsty desire of revenge by an abandoned half-gaijin child born from the Bakumatsu Era.

Where had Yahiko seen this situation before? 'Is this Lucas person the Englishman bastard version of Yukishiro Enishi or something?' he thought.

With a flourish, Rathbone then introduced himself to Myojin, saying in accented Japanese, "Greetings and salutations. My name is Duke John Rathbone of the Brigands Guild. Prepare yourself. En garde."

'Rasubo...?' thought Yahiko, unable to put into words the syllables of Rathbone's foreign name since Japanese lacked the sounds needed to pronounce it natively.

The teenager then saw the Duke move his lead sword hand like a metronome or a probing, one-handed Tsuki (Throat) strike, startling him.

This was the first time he'd seen the stance, but it looked somehow… familiar.

There was something hypnotic about the way the deceptively thin rapier blade swung to-and-fro from Rathbone's ready position.

Yahiko did probing swings of the sakabatou at the seemingly half-hearted thrusts of the tapered but strangely dense blade.

Little did he know the sword used high-grade steel instead of the katana's lower-grade steel mixed with powdered carbon during its smelting process.

Myojin whiffed on a strike that Rathbone baited him into doing, but countered with a cross-wrist Hadome (Sword Halt) to shield him from a mid-range stab to the heart.

He then stopped short of doing a Hawatari (Sword Crossing), turning the aborted counter into a feint that allowed him to sidestep and parry another thrust.

His sweated bullets and gulped hard, unable to find an opening to hit the fencing master without him getting countered with a stab in turn.

For one reason or another, he couldn't time him as well as he did the long-ranged strikes of Satsuki Sakaguchi.

Yet something nagged him at the back of his mind. Those constant thrusts timed with stomping footwork—where had he seen them before?

Did they remind Yahiko of Hajime Saito's Gatotsu or Hiratsuki? No, that couldn't be it.

Or maybe even someone like the elusive Aoshi Shinomori and his Ryusui no Ugoki (Water Flow Movement)? 'Nah.'

The Faceless smirked to himself inwardly, wondering, 'How far can this pup go?'

Rathbone and his pendulum of rapier strikes then started controlling the distance, mastering Yahiko's timing, and setting the boy up to hit him without getting hit in return.

The same thrusting sword served as John's shield too, parrying every attack attempt from Yahiko and thrusting afterwards, thus the samurai boy couldn't commit to any full-force attack.

Measured aggression. A swordsmanship clinic.

It felt like Myojin was swinging Kenshin's reverse-edged blade at a ghost. That somehow stabbed back.

A phantom nest of scorpions. A million suicidal bees with their stingers at the ready.

'God dammit,' thought the nicked and cut Yahiko, gritting his teeth.

What had he been practicing endless drills and sparring for if not to take down mercenaries like these?

He could barely dodge all this thrusts and slashes to his person, his wrists already raw from all his bare-skin blade blocks.

In Japanese, Rathbone told the bleeding Yahiko, "I have seen the best that Japanese swordsmanship has to offer, and you're not it."

***

Back at the main office...

Kinta himself fell into his modern iaijutsu or iaido stance that the Mimawarigumi confused with the Hitokiri Battousai's classical battoujutsu stance, moving in front of his uncle to protect him from, well, his own bastard half-brother.

His bastard half-brother with his bastard (or hand-and-a-half) sword, to be more specific.

The hand-and-a-half sword, by the way, was a late 19th Century term. Before that, this weapon type was only known as a "bastard sword", which referred to any blade that was an "irregular sword" or "sword of uncertain origin".

Meanwhile, the French "épée bâtarde" and the English "bastard sword" originated in the 15th or 16th Century.

Elizabethans used terms like "short", "bastard", and "long" to focus more on blade length. As for any sword that could be wielded by two hands, they called "two-handed".

By the 20th Century, the "long sword" or "long-sword" term referred to the rapier in the context of Early Modern or Renaissance Fencing.

Regardless, Takuto sneered, wielding his lengthy medieval, double-edged straight sword made of pure high-grade European steel.

"So you've chosen your side. So be it, big brother. I'm a little disappointed in you, though."

"Little brother," said Kinta in kind, pausing as though balking at the "aftertaste" those words left in his mouth.

Did they taste bitter as medicine? Or did they have a surprising sweetness to them that left him longing for a long-lost family member?

Perhaps even both. A bittersweet flavor.

Regardless, Lucas couldn't tell. The Mimawarigumi Battousai had quite the poker face.

Lucas continued. "I've been watching you all this time. You seemed like a stand-up guy. Certainly an honorable samurai when compared to someone like Cain Merrick."

He chuckled to himself. "You're one of the good ones, Minakata Kinta. However, you've chosen to protect criminal masterminds. The representatives of Japan's Oligarchy. But of course you'd do so. You're also one of them."

"That's enough from you," said Tatsuya, who then fired his pistol at Lucas Grant's face to preemptively assassinate the assassin.

Lucas ducked from the shot, the bullet grazing his shoulder as the cold bite of supersonic steel drew blood.

He then rose up in one fluid motion, his gleaming eyes leaving a streak of blue as he swung his bastard sword towards his Uncle Tatsuya's neck to give him a taste of the cold bite of his own (superior) steel.

Kinta himself reacted almost as quickly, even before any shot was fired, his wide eyes noticing Lucas' muscle twitch fast enough to activate his hair-trigger twitch reflexes and let his katana fly from its sheath.

The Mangetsu O Tsuku Nari (Full Moon Slash) from Kinta's curved blade clanged hard against the upward strike of Lucas's straight longsword, thus turning it more of a Hangetsu O Tsuku Nari (Half Moon Slash) instead.

Because Kinta's inherited sword, the Akatsuki (Red Moon), was forged using steel melted from the stolen weapons of the Wokou pirates as well as the swords of European invaders, it used the same grade of steel as his little half-brother's bastard sword.

'Just like Cain Merrick said,' thought Lucas. 'His sword is made of high-grade steel. It's sharp enough to cut apart European swords. But more importantly, his strike was able to block my own even though he has the shorter, thinner sword.'

The reverberation from the vibrating swords sung a solemn hymn of Cain and Abel that reached the two brothers all the way to the bone.

'He really is the Kagemusha. A true-blue samurai. The last of his kind.'

The floorboards splintered beneath their feet, the wood shards flying across the room.

Tatsuya himself tumbled to his posterior from the strength of the diametrically opposed blows, his second pistol shot veering wildly to the ceiling.

To Kinta, Lucas said, "You were the chosen one between the two of us. The favored son. Or grandson. Or nephew. I understand. Even if you ended up in a family of criminals, why would you abandon them after they've given you all of your precious privileges and political influence?"

The clash of blades neutralized their respective strikes, so Kinta couldn't do his signature quick follow-through that would've turned into a second Full Moon Slash, otherwise known as the Blue Moon Slash.

Kinta realized one more thing as he sheathed the Akatsuki back to its scabbard in anticipation for another attack. His gaijin half-brother stopped the Full Moon Slash with a one-handed slash from his heavier bastard sword.

Lucas wielded a heavier sword (48 inches or 120 centimeters) approaching twice the length of his katana (24 inches or 60 centimeters) with enough power in one hand to cut the Mimawarigumi Battousai's strongest attack in half or quarter strength.

"Unfortunately for you, that means you're now my target. Understand that this is nothing personal between you and me, big brother. I want your family dead. You're just collateral damage. Sucks to be you, bro."

***

At the gates of the moneychanger affiliate office...

Kyoko Sakaguchi considered disobeying her father's orders to follow after him, with the reassurance that Satsuki remained there patrolling the surrounding area with her naginata (glaive) in tow.

A festival occurred from beyond the gates across Chinatown. From what Kyoko had heard among the locals, it was for the Dongzhi Festival or a celebration of the Winter Solstice.

The parade would've served as the perfect cover for a team of international assassins in masks and costumes.

They would probably otherwise stick out like sore thumbs, but then again they were also capable of donning subtler disguises. Like the shinobi of yore in Ancient Japan.

She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself down.

Her excited hyperventilation ironically suffocated her rather than give her lungs the right amount of oxygen, her breath forming puffs of white smoke like from a kettle or a steam locomotive.

She then overheard the following conversation from several of the Minakata bodyguards beside her.

"Ugh. Why do we have to baby-sit the lieutenant's daughter? Jeez."

"I'm fine with it. She's kind of hot in a girl-next-door sort of way."

"She's just a kid, you pervert! And it's not like her stick-up-his-ass father would approve! He'd cut you down like he did that guy back in his hometown."

"Ha! I can wait. Just like Genji Monogatari (Tale of Genji)!"

"Shut up. That's enough from you two. She'll hear you."

She opened her eyes and chanced upon the bodyguard that leered at her from head to toe, making her cover herself by reflex.

The other bodyguards had the courtesy of looking away and pretending not to see her, which was a courtesy that the shameless man could not afford her.

Realizing that she'd noticed his gaze, the man winked at her and licked his chops. Like an eager wolf to a lamb.

The leering, creepy man reminded her of Keisuke. Not in appearance but in action.

'Ew. Gross.'

Something about the face she made must've made him realize the error of his ways, because soon enough, he looked away and whistled an off-tune folksong, his back turned at her.

She heaved a sigh of relief. In the past, she would've wilted like a freshly picked flower left on an empty vase over such male attention, which she heard gave them the wrong idea.

At least that part of her personality changed for the better.

However, on the flipside, sometimes a disapproving frown, a look of disgust, or an outright "No!" wasn't enough for men like him to take the hint.

Regardless, the double pony-tailed girl gripped her grandfather's sheathed sword tightly as she clasped her hands together in seeming prayer.

She vaguely remembered "Grandpa Genzo" talking about the Fuyutsuki (Winter Moon) and how their family inherited it from a legendary samurai's old pair of Sengoku Era swords.

Technically, the present Fuyutsuki wasn't the original Fuyutsuki but what was left of a tachi (ancient Japanese long sword) and wakizashi (secondary short sword) named Kogetsu (Little Moon) melted together to form the extra thick steel spine of the current version of the sword.

Unlike the Ship of Theseus—where all of the original boat's parts were replaced, so it was questionable whether the ship could still be considered the original or a brand new ship—the Fuyutsuki was a brand new sword born out of melting an ancient longsword and its short sword companion into one sword.

Like the reverse Ship of Theseus, almost. The separate ship made of the wood taken from the old Ship of Theseus to build a new boat altogether.

It was through the Fuyutsuki that Kyoko gained the confidence to go through the strenuous swordsmanship exercises required to master Musou Madden Ryu. It served like her grandpa's helping hand for her personality flaws.

Like a cane or crutch, almost.

Incidentally, the Ship of Theseus was one of the topics she learned from the personal bodyguard of Tetsuo Akahori, Soujiro Seta.  

She wished Soujiro was there with her now.

Even though they weren't the same age, he wasn't that much older than her and he was the only boy a shy girl like her could talk to ever since Keisuke… made her family limit her interactions with boys her age.

Soujiro never looked at her that way. She could trust him.

He was instead enamored by the daughter of the Akahori Family. The hauntingly beautiful girl with porcelain white skin and snow white hair: Rin Akahori.

Just to be clear, Soujiro never looked at Rin with lewd eyes either. The gaze he gave her was one that Kyoko wished she'd get from a man she cared for in return.

Loving, caring eyes instead of the dirty gazes from lustful men that made her feel filthy and exposed.

By the way, Rin was the one who taught Seta about the Ship of Theseus, among other western ideas and literature. In turn, he brought the subject up to Kyoko.

Kyoko sighed and stared into the cold, moonlit sky. Soujiro had Rin. Kinta had... her Big Sister Satsuki.

No one within Satsuki's age range could beat her in long-range weapons combat, especially when she found her range.

The blonde bombshell turned adoptive daughter of the Sakaguchi Family proved herself a sharpshooter with a bladed stick. She might probably be the strongest female practitioner of Musou Madden Ryu, even.

Quite unlike Kyoko, though. She only started studying the family martial arts for the sake of protecting herself from the likes of Keisuke. For self-defense.

Someone as gentlemanly and reputable as Lord Kinta deserved having a foreign goddess like May Brooks as a wife instead of her: The lowly daughter of a Yokohama cop and a soba restaurant cook.

Satsuki and Kinta belonged together. Like an eastern prince meeting up with a western princess. Like an "East meets West" sort of deal.

All four of the security detail at the front gates of the office then heard a loud bang from above them. It sounded like it came from the roof.

"Huh? Was that a cat?" said the perverted security guard from earlier, scratching his cheek.

Another guard walked to the courtyard to get a better look at the top of the building.

The leader of the guards warned, "Careful now. The Brigands Guild is a tricky band of mercenaries. Don't be surprised if they have some flying freak shows with them."

Kyoko vaguely recalled the briefing she, her father, and the rest of the hired swords and guns got from the longest serving bodyguards of the House of Minakata.

So far the assassins had with them a man who used a poison-coated sword, a man with a thousand disguises, a huge burly lumberjack with a battle ax, and one other weird member.

The one who used grappling hooks and whirling blades to attack. The supposed lone pure Japanese member of the Brigands Guild.

Another shot that sounded like a firework rang out, followed by the scream of a fallen comrade.

A rope spear plucked itself out of the guard's chest, which gushed a fountain of blood.

Startled, the two remaining bodyguards took out their pistols.

The black-clothed man spun around like a whirling dervish, his blades gleaming in the moonlight before staining the sky and ground red like it was the Bakumatsu all over again.

"Who the hell are you? Identify yourself!" said one of the guards.

The swinging, kicking, and slashing shinobi rebutted, "Dead men don't need to know my name."

The guard presumably in charge barked out, "It must be him! The tumbling ninja with the rope spears! Shoot at him! Blast him to hell!"

Gunshots fired at the flipping and jumping ninja in dark clothing and an elaborate gas mask with goggles on it.  

"Hey, he speaks Japanese! Are you Japanese?!" demanded the man who winked at Kyoko earlier, his pistol firing in the darkness. "You traitor. You're a ninja from Japan, aren't you? How dare you betray this country and ally yourself with foreign invaders!"

The goggled brigand harrumphed. "I have no allegiance to this country. My only allegiance is to myself."

The leering man ran out of ammunition and got his neck punctured with a rope spear while he fumbled to unsheathe his sword. He then slumped to the ground, gurgling.

The remaining bodyguard told Kyoko to run inside and get help before he himself had rope wrapped around his neck.

The Brigands Guild mercenary then used his body weight to lift and pull the guard up to hang him from the branch of a nearby tree.

Kyoko gulped, resisting the urge to flee. Her whole body screamed at her to run and hide.

She was the one who insisted to go with her father regardless instead of stay at the dojo with the rest of the students.

'Father. Grandfather. I'm sorry. I must fight.'

She just had to do it. She felt compelled to do so. Perhaps more for her sake than even for the sake of safeguarding the Minakata Family.

Before the guard could reach all the way up to the branch, Kyoko charged and let her Fuyutsuki sword fly from its scabbard, cutting down the rope and saving the man's life.

As the bodyguard's body dropped to the ground, she sheathed her sword back in a fluid motion. Just like how she practiced it countless times against straw dummies.

The goggles of the acrobatic man gleamed in the darkness before more rope spears flew from his wrists with a flick of his arms through a strange mechanism of some sort attached to the side of his hips.

With her heart in her throat and her hand firmly grasping the handle of her grandfather's refurbished ancient sword, Kyoko aimed for those contraptions in particular as she dodged the spears and dashed towards the strange man in black.

She proved elusive care of the ingrained sidesteps that she practiced to perfection care of the Young Moon Slashes she constantly avoided when sparring with Satsuki and her long-distance attacks.

The invader ended up within range of her slash.

Thanks to Grandpa Genzo letting her borrow his Fuyutsuki, she was able to finally do a perfect Mikazuki O Tsuku Nari (Crescent Moon Slash) at the ninja.

She had yet to do a Hangetsu O Tsuku Nari (Half Moon Slash) or Mangetsu O Tsuku Nari (Full Moon Slash) though.

As an amateur swordswoman, every other slash below the Crescent Moon Slash, like a Young Moon (Waxing Stance) or Old Moon (Waning Stance) Slash, she could do.

Darn it. Someday, she'd do a Full Moon Slash and show the rest of her family she wasn't the deadweight.

Today was not that day though.

As she prepared to cut through the rope spear devices attached to the brigand's hips, his body rolled along with the slash, the Fuyutsuki cutting nothing but air.

"Eh...?" she said before she got slashed apart from behind by the somersaulting ninja.

The cut would've been deeper had she not shifted her weight and changed stances from Waxing Stance to Waning Stance.

This allowed her to follow-through her missed strike with a Crescent Moon Slash to the rear that deflected the blade that almost cut all the way to her spine.

***

To Be Continued...

I'm still not over having to rewrite Chapter 52 from scratch. Regardless, I promise to be more careful in saving my work in the future so that I won't pull a Sisyphus and keep on rewriting things I've already written! Dammit!

Also, it needs to be said. Ever since Nobuhiro Watsuki wrote a continuation of RK involving the Hokkaido Arc, this story is now an "Elseworlds" kind of story set a little after the original ending of RK.

Danke, Abdiel

[vivesanoybien]

Motivaciones karate...dojo castañeda karate do https://www.instagram.com/p/CjlmWY4AVW_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Karate Do.. dojo castañeda san juan de miraflores #dojocastaneda #karatedosanjuandemiraflores #karatedo (en Dojo Castañeda Karate Do) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch5l2Imgsx6/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Dojo castañeda karate do en san juan de miraflores #karatedosanjuandemiraflores #karate (at Dojo Castañeda Karate Do) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch07MG_s-VB/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Dojo castañeda karate do (at Dojo Castañeda Karate Do) https://www.instagram.com/p/ChygbEWAHlS/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Cada movimiento que haces es una oportunidad para mejorar... #karate #karatedosanjuandemiraflores #dojocastañeda (en Dojo Castañeda Karate Do) https://www.instagram.com/p/ChkGG14AydV/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Entrenando KANKU DAI "mirada al cielo" Dojo Castañeda Karate Do (en Dojo Castañeda Karate Do) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cha_I4FMYlS/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Un dia de práctica... Dojo Castañeda Karate Do.. SJM Pamplona Baja (at Dojo Castañeda Karate Do) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cfl5cBFAQxz/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Beneficios de entrenar Karate

Además de servir como defensa personal, practicar una arte marcial como el karate hará que mejore tu concentración. Esta disciplina te traerá una gran cantidad de ventajas que probablemente desconozcas.

Además de servir como defensa personal, practicar una arte marcial como el karate hará que mejore tu concentración. Esta disciplina te traerá una gran cantidad de ventajas que probablemente desconozcas. Aquí te explico seis de ellas: 1. Mejora la circulación de la sangre La flexibilidad natural de los vasos sanguíneos va disminuyendo con el paso de los años. Sin embargo, la práctica del karate…