Subject: [KFFDISC] Flower Blooming in a Time of War (Part2) [Angst]
    Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 23:27:42 EDT
    From: Ranma1517730129@aol.com
Reply-To: kffdisc@nabiki.com
      To: kffdisc@nabiki.com


Sorry about the 2 chapter thing...They wouldn't let me send such a lengthy
E-mail



The Aoiya: The Present

    "It's been so long since I thought about that night...I'm sorry
everyone." Kaoru curled her legs tight against her body as if to ward off the
cold, but no tears came from her eyes. It was as if her tears had dried up
for the incident long ago, that she could only shudder at the memory.

"So your father was in charge of an Ishinshishi squad?" Yahiko was looking at
Kaoru in wonder. "I thought that he just ran the dojo. I didn't know he was
some sort of great war hero."

    Kaoru's head snapped up and her eyes flashed. "Yahiko...War doesn't make
a man great. My father was a great man for being a teacher." Kaoru realized
that she had been a bit harsh with her first words. They were almost growls.
Lessons could not be taught by scaring the student. She tried again, with
more success, to explain. " My father was a great man for being my father, a
kind, giving, responsive person. My father's budo was strict in its
conception, to bring out the potential in a man. Ones potential can never be
fully recognized if one is dead."

"Yeah...But yours won't be either if you are the one that is on the other end
of the naginata." Misao chimed in from the tree. "Soldiers in a war are just
that. Philosophy doesn't really have a place on a battlefield...I mean unless
you want to get killed. A lot of times a man is made great by being the last
one standing."

"I gotta' agree with the weasel-girl on this one Jo-chan. Some things are
just worth fighting for. Sagara-san taught me that. I doubt that he would
have been able to live with his wife and son knowing that things would never
change. He wasn't a common man, not a farmer at all, but he knew that the
people were suffering." Sanosuke's eyes were serious now. His drunken haze
disappearing to make way for determination. "I gave up my family to be with
the Sekihotai. I never regretted it. We were going to make a world where
everyone could live without the fear of the ruling class. Equality..." Sano's
eyes then sparkled. "Besides that, I find that the ladies find it hard to
resist looking at my scars." He winked and Kaoru blushed while trying to look
as if she were ashamed of him.

Omasu winked at Sanosuke. "What kind of scars chicken-head?" Her eyes
traveled over the length of his leg.

"Down girl." Misao glared at Omasu. "You're gonna give him the wrong idea.
He's not really your type anyway. I thought your were going to go after
Himura's shisho." Omasu's smile broadened and her eyes glazed over.

"Hiiiiko-saaaaaama!" Omasu was slightly drooling.

"Nonsense..." Megumi walked out from the kitchen with a cup of tea in one
hand and a medical kit in the other. Smile of evil on her face. "Who doesn't
have a little chicken from time to time." She set the case down and began to
gently unwrap the old bandages from Sanosuke's damaged hand.

Sanosuke could swear that he could see fox ears spring up on Megumi's head.
"Listen here Fox..." well at least that's what he would have said were it not
for the fact that he'd been struck dumb. She was smiling at him and holding
his hand...Well not really...She was just doing her job as a doctor, but Sano
couldn't help but look flustered. His statement was more muttered and came
out an indecipherable "Lisssan he Faaaah...."

"And that's" she interrupted. "Why I have decided to become a vegetarian.
Sanosuke. Hold still." She had a concerned look on her face as she ran her
fingers along Sanosuke's hand. "What are we all holding court about? I
thought that you were all having some big party. Where did it go?" She winced
when she felt a new dislocation. Looking into Sanosuke's eyes she tried to
prepare him for the pain as she pulled the joint back into place. Sanosuke
just stared at her and didn't show any reaction. "Don't move I'll be right
back." Megumi rose up and walked back the way she came.

"Hey Sano...Didn't that hurt?" Kaoru looked at her friend concernedly. "If it
didn't there's a lot more for you to worry about than I thought." She said to
herself not wanting to concern the injured man.

"Like hell" He was beaming at her. His teeth were clenched and she could
swear she saw his eyes watering.

Megumi walked back in with a basin and a rag and began to wash the injured
hand.
"Hey...If this is torture...What would you do if I broke my leg?" He tried to
smile winningly but he winced when she ran her hand over the righted joint.

"I would probably break the other one chicken-head." She was going to win
this round of glib comments as well it seemed. Yahiko took this moment to
explain the situation to Megumi trying to save what little dignity the young
street fighter had left.

    "Kaoru is telling us about her childhood." Yahiko chimed. "Well actually
it's supposed to be a lesson but you missed the beginning so at this point I
guess it's more of a walk through of Kaoru's eighth year." Yahiko smiled
broadly, not because of his relation to Megumi, but because he'd remembered
that Kaoru had been eight. This was one story that he wasn't going to mess up
on. Kaoru seemed to be building up to something and he had the strange
feeling that he wouldn't get it if he didn't pay attention now. "I think
something's about to happen. You know...Exciting stuff. You wanna' join us?
Megumi smiled appreciatively and sat next to Sanosuke under the garden
overhang.

    "Nice to know you're all still listening..." Kaoru smiled at her friends.
She had felt so melancholy when she'd stopped. Now she felt strong enough to
continue. It was as if they knew she needed her smile, and they gave of
themselves willingly. "I have happened upon the most wonderful family
father." She said to herself as she stared up at the stars. "You would truly
be proud of them."

"Get on with it BUSU!"

"Stuff it Yahiko-chan! OK! Where was I?"

10 years ago: The Kamiya Dojo

    SKAAAAAA-BOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

    Kaoru screamed as the front reception room wall was blown into the one
she was sitting. Her father's body knocked her to the floor. Whether it was
protective or simply the blast Kaoru would never know. Flames licked up and
out and the smoke made her eyes tear and her lungs hurt. "Get out!" It was
her father. That was when Kaoru noticed the blood trickling down his temple
and the piece of wood he was pulling out of his right shoulder. "NO!" she
screamed above the din. Men were running everywhere. Putting out the fires
and becoming ready for war, a war that had finally entered the Kamiya Dojo by
the front door. Chaos was everywhere and Kaoru could only sit and watch. Part
of her wanted to throw off her kimono and change to join the fight, the other
half...the winning half was too petrified to move at all. The crackling of
fires, the thumping of running feet, the screaming of the injured and the
dying, and the constant clanging of swords. She had never heard so many
swords. She could see the men pouring in through the destroyed gates. Blood
was everywhere. Men lay in puddles of it. Three men had just died in what was
left of the front room ahead of her. Their blood all mixed together in death
although two had been Samurai and one Ishinshishi. Kaoru couldn't look away
and she couldn't close her eyes. She would never be the same again. She
wondered if it was truly her father's voice she was hearing above the battle.

"Remember what I told you. Go quickly and get out of here...If I don't see
you again little one...Know that I love you more than the world." Masuhiro
felt the pain shooting through his arm and he knew that he would bleed to
death if medical care didn't reach him soon. "Ichido Sensei!" The doctor was
running through the door on the right with his medical bag. "Not good." He
looked at his long time friend and smiled. "If I live through this one...I
know that Miko is looking out for me." He tried to smile but failed. Masuhiro
looked for his daughter and found her still at his side. "CHIBI...GO!" he
roared. He watched her jump as if brought out of a trance or a deep sleep.
Tears slipped down to the already ruined kimono. Masuhiro looked on as his
one and only daughter got up from the floor, kissed his shoulder, and ran for
her life. "Miko watch over her...I can't anymore. Please don't let us be
apart, if she goes to you today...I will follow you both." His eyes went to
the floor as Ichido pulled out the board and applied pressure to the wound.

"Sir!" A man that Masuhiro had come to know as Hideo ran up towards him. "The
first unit leader has fallen...It leaves me with little choice but to
ask...Sir...They need you..." The only confirmation the soldier received was
a stern nod of the head. Masuhiro stood and went out into the yard.

The Aoiya:

Everyone was silent and Kaoru looked up at her friends. They all seemed to
understand so well. She felt the pain of that night returning again. The
confusion of not knowing who was dead and who was alive. She felt a tear slip
down her cheek.

"Dear God...Jo-chan...How...How did you get out of there?" Sanosuke's eyes
were skittish, as if he knew the same feelings in her heart. They were
pounding through his veins just as they were pounding through hers. "I
mean...They weren't in the habit of sparing anyone. Especially the daughters
and sons of core revolutionaries."

Misao put her hand around Kaoru's shoulder before she even realized she had
dropped to the ground from her tree. "Do you want to continue...Kaoru...Don't
make yourself..."

"It's ok Misao. I can handle it, the incident has passed, and I've had ten
years to let it heal. Now all I can do is make sure it doesn't happen again
right?" Her eyes lightened slightly and she messed up Yahiko's hair. "Now if
only I can beat it through his thick skull..." Yahiko shot Kaoru a look. "I
guess now would be a good time to inform you that I have no idea what
happened with my father. He told me that a soldier came to him with news of
the death of Oku and that was all he would tell me. I guess he didn't like to
talk about it...Any time someone mentioned it, my father would become quiet,
almost reserved. He never touched the family sword after that, not until he
left for the south almost more than a year now..." Now Kaoru felt her breath
hitch. "It's all I really have left of him, and he hated it so much at the
end." Kaoru's hands covered her face as she wept. To the surprise of all but
Misao however it was no longer Misao who's arms held Kaoru but those of a
bandaged rurouni.

    "Shhhhh...Kaoru-dono..." Violet eyes were looking into her own tear
stained ones. They reflected her feelings. Sorrows, sadness, perhaps anger?
His hand brushed back a loose hair and she could swear that he had dried her
tears, but she didn't see him do it. "You don't have to go on..." He
whispered it to her and she tried to hold on to the sound but the words were
like notes of music and were gone as soon as they were spoken. "No...I have
to. Tonight is special...I want to share this with my new family." She smiled
with her tears still sparkling in her eyes. "You see...This is the first time
that I have ever missed this night. I always go to see them on this night
every year. They are buried five blocks from the dojo. Somehow though I know
that sometimes if I concentrate hard enough I can hear them walking the
grounds where the earth soaked in their lifeblood..."

Ten years ago: The Kamiya Dojo

    Kaoru's feet brought her quickly through the home she thought she knew so
well. Of course she had never had to step over bodies in her house either.
Screams followed her into the room that she and Akari had shared. Akari was
pinned under an unknown man, she was bleeding from her mouth and a pool of
sticky looking sanguine liquid was forming under her left side. Kaoru's
bokken was in her hand before she could think and she clubbed the man into
oblivion. Akari stopped screaming and her bloody hands clutched at Kaoru's
kimono as if to hold onto life for a little longer. She was coughing blood
now; blood and bile seemed to spill from her mouth.

"Tr *choke* unk"

Akari's breath was slowing like everything else in her body. Kaoru was
leaning over her teacher, uncontrollable tears runnelling down her cheek like
a river meeting the ocean. There was nothing she could do. Kaoru could only
sob. "Don't die Akari...Please...Please don't die. I will learn to arrange
flowers just for you. Please."

"Don't...Don't die  *cough* here...Kaoru." Her soft hands slid away from
Kaoru's smaller rough ones. She looked down at her hands and saw them covered
in Akari's blood.

"I swear it to you Akari...I will not die here." In the hall a new body
slumped to the floor.  Kaoru's hands shook as she went into Akari's trunk.
The woman was now a complete mystery to Kaoru. A full samurai daisho was laid
above the fine silk of a formal kimono. She clutched the katana and its mate
to her small body. "I have to get out of here." She thought aloud. "Father
told me that I should run, that I should get as far away as I could." She
tried to remember what her father had said exactly and the words came to her
in one firm realization, he had been expecting this.

"Look as innocent as you can Kaoru. They must never think you are a threat. A
girl especially a young one will never be an open threat...They would kill me
before they kill you. You have to live."

Her hands slipped up towards her hair with a ribbon and she paused for a
second. Her heart was beating at a million miles a minute. "If the samurai
have come...They will surely know father...I can not leave him to fight
alone!" She looked down at the blades in her arms and selected the smaller of
the two. The tanto slid out of its seiya easily. She pulled her hair together
and in a quick movement of the small blade her long hair fell onto the floor
in a silken mass of black. Quickly it was repositioned to the top of her
head. Her father's words were still ringing in her ears as she leapt towards
the other part of the closet where her training gi and hakama were kept.
Kaoru was quick to pull her clothes on; time was of the essence. Katana and
tanto attached to her hakama she slid open what was left of the door to her
room. "I will fight with him. We will live or die together."

Kaoru stumbled through the door. There was a haze from all the smoke. Men
seemed to fly from one room to the next in a dance that Kaoru knew meant
death for one fighter or the other. Clanging swords, and shouts erupted from
every direction at once and she fought the desire to run; to fall to her
knees and clamp her hands over her ears to make the sounds go away. To shut
her eyes from the disparaging scene that filled her senses. "You there! Boy!"
Her head snapped up and a man wearing black hakama and a blue gi now turned
off every sense that had previously been over-stimulated. "Here is the letter
to the Southern Clans. Take the trail outside of town. You have to make sure
this gets to the runner two days from here. He will be on a black mare with a
white mane. He will probably be Choshu. If you don't arrive before the fall
of the sun on the second day we will all fail and they might be ambushed on
the way into the city, they were going to hide here...Now there is nowhere
left in Edo to hide. They have burned sixteen of our posts in the last three
days. You are holding the fate of Japan in your hands Kudo...NOW GO!" The man
was pointing towards the back gate. He was already bleeding from scores of
wounds all over his body, so Kaoru never knew if he had died before or after
the katana skewered through his body. The man holding the katana seemed to
care little as he made his way effortlessly over a pile of three men toward
her. Kaoru found her legs then and ran.

 She knew she would die now, but her father's words ran through her mind like
a mantra. "You have to live." So she pushed herself further than anyone could
expect. Her legs were pumping and each stride took her closer to the back
gate. It was gone of course ripped free she guessed by one side or another.
"DIE!" she heard the man as if he had been right over her. Perhaps he was.
She heard the katana swish through the air. Each second ticked by like a
million years until a sound pulled her free of the stopped time.

KLANG!

"A sword? Who's?" Kaoru would never know, for she had torn forward and he was
now behind her. The burning Dojo was well out of site before she slowed to
breath and rest. To her surprise Kamiya Dojo was not the only home burning
this night. Her heart never slowed before she began to run again.


The Aoiya: Ten years into the future

    "Well what happened then?" Yahiko was all but shaking with excitement.
"Did you get to kick any butt?"

    "Nope..." Kaoru eased into a slow smile. "I didn't see a soul until I met
the man on the black horse. I was very lucky. But by the time I got there I
was sure that I was going to die. The skin on my feet was cracked and
bleeding. Mud and soot and blood...I was covered in it. I made it before the
afternoon on the second day. I don't think I rested once on the way there."

"What did the message say?" Megumi questioned.

"I don't know...I didn't read it." Kaoru was beaming now. "I found out later
that Kudo was the personal messenger of an Ishinshishi leader that was only
ever known by a pseudonym that meant the flower blooming in a time of war. I
never met him I imagine. Very few knew his true nature, only that his role in
Edo was to establish a balance of the clans in times of trouble..."

"Diplomat?" Misao supplied.

"I guess so." Kaoru shrugged. "By the time I reached the man on the horse it
was three weeks until the final battle of the Bakumatsu no Doran. However, I
heard only one cannon fire on my ride home."

"Ride?" Sanosuke craned his eyebrow.

"Yes...The man on the horse relayed the message to two other riders and rode
for Kyoto, taking me along with him. He relayed his message first, and then
let me have a hot bath and some food. We had returned to Edo four days after
that. I was never more thankful for horses than on that return trip...He died
too in the last true days of war. His name was Matsu. I kept in touch for the
last three or four weeks he was alive, he said that he loved writing me
because he didn't have anyone left to protect...His family had fallen under
the hand of the Shogun. They were all executed. But now he had a little
sister again."

"So what was the moral lesson here?" Sano grinned and looked at Yahiko.

"Ummmmmm"...Yahiko strained his brain over the sake and tried for a fitting
answer. 'Don't get it wrong this time' he thought. "Well I guess it has to do
with protecting the ones you love...And finding a reason to fight on, even
when you don't think you have anything left?" He answered in a questioning
voice that children give to teachers when they answer an exceptionally
difficult math problem.

Kaoru smiled and hugged Yahiko. "Good enough."

Her smile made Yahiko warm. "I guess busu can be kinda' cute sometimes." He
thought. "Well I'm going to bed early. I figure we gotta' get up early to
work on the Aoiya and stuff." Yahiko got up and headed to the room the men
were sharing his eyes shielded by his hair.

Yahiko was hiding his blush rather well so Kaoru decided to let it go.
"Oyasumi Yahiko-kun." She smiled at his retreating form. His head swiveled
around to stare at Kaoru in disbelief. She had finally done it...She had
struck her student dumb. He bowed low at the waist and disappeared through
the door to the kitchen.

The people on the porch sat in silence...and then fell into gales of
laughter.

"Shut-up!" Yahiko screamed from inside.

"Oy, kid, it's ok...Jo-chan's a pretty girl..." Sano was up and chasing after
Yahiko in an attempt to fully exploit his embarrassing moment. "Thanks for
the story Jo-chan." He tossed over his shoulder with a smile on his lips.
Kaoru grinned evilly at the street fighter and made waving motions with her
hand toward the kitchen.

Jiya was standing and stretching and he looked about the people still on the
porch. "We could all use some sleep. I agree with Yahiko. Let's get some
rest." He eyed the Oniwabanshuu meaningfully looking at Kaoru who was
studying the grass with intent now.

"I guess I should go back to bed..." Megumi smiled at Kaoru. "I have to take
care of my invalids early in the morning. Ken-san...Please remember to rewrap
that before turning in tonight. Good night all." Then she was gone as well.

Kaoru smiled as her friends left her alone again for the first time in hours
and she felt how tired she actually was. Misao approached her and threw her
arms around her newest friend.

"Sleep well Kaoru-chan. Good night everyone!" she called to the open air as
she jumped for the nearest tree that would allow her access to the second
floor.

Surprisingly she thought she heard another voice above all the other hushed
ones that Kaoru recognized as Aoshi. "Good night Misao." They had both said
at the same time. His eyes were still so cold and filled with anguish, but
Kaoru cold see the warmth seeping in as he stared at Misao's lithe form
sliding into a window. He looked down at Kaoru and bowed before snuffing the
oil lamp in his room...And then Kaoru was alone...Or so she thought.

"What was really in the letter Kaoru-dono?" Kenshin sat down beside Kaoru and
looked intently into her soft blue eyes. "I have to know if it was her." He
thought.

"I guess I can tell you...I can't see that it would hurt." Kaoru tried to
smile but her eyes were slightly wet. "I was asked to never tell anyone...I
don't know why, the message was very cryptic at best anyway. It said that the
northern trail was blocked. It gave the names of some recently dead...It told
of the burnings in Edo, and of the defeated strongholds...And the last battle
plans of a Takasugi Shinsaku, he had died just before a charge onto the
battlefield succumbing to the coughing disease." She looked at Kenshin with a
saddened look on her face. "Matsu told me that his woman would be sad...If
she was still alive...She wasn't you know." She looked back at the ground.
"Akari wasn't her real name at all...Ichido wasn't her husband either. She
didn't have a husband...She only had a lover. His name was Takasugi Shinsaku.
Those were his swords that I carried here to Kyoto. She was so lonely, and I
never knew." Kaoru cried bitterly and she found herself once again drawn into
strong comforting arms.

    "It was the times Kaoru. Those who found love, however fleeting, often
found themselves alone again in the wake of the war." He was whispering, and
he hoped that Kaoru had not heard the pain slip into his voice. "She doesn't
need to know. She has enough pain in her heart for one lifetime." He silently
vowed not to tell Kaoru of his own pain. "Tomoe..." He felt the familiar ache
settle into his chest. Kyoto was a place of too many memories, apparently for
all of them. He held Kaoru away from him and his eyes settled on her perfect
blue eyes. Her eyes closed, and tears slipped down her cheeks. Her focus was
now on the green grass in the garden of the Aoiya.

"Why?" Kaoru demanded in an almost childlike tone. "Why did they all have to
suffer so much. Akari was innocent. They never got a chance to marry...To
really even be together. He wrote to her constantly. I brought two of their
letters with me. I guess I intended to lay them on his grave. I know that he
was brought here. I tucked them into my gi before I ran from my home...They
were under the swords. She knew he was dead. She was lonely, and I don't want
him to be lonely. I want him to see the letters she wrote...She loved him so
much...More than her own life." Kaoru was rambling and she knew it. Her eyes
slowly made their way up to the two glowing purple orbs. "Like I love you."
She said silently in her heart. His face was unreadable. Was Kenshin in pain?
His eyes seemed to say so. Kaoru felt the need to comfort him. "Kenshin..."
Her hand went out to touch his cheek, the scarred one, but the hand was too
slow and was captured by his larger ones.

"I will protect you." He let the words slip from his mouth before he could
recapture them. They seemed so unlike the words he actually wanted to say. He
had only said these words once before and they brought him only pain. He
didn't deserve this happy life. Her heart was so beautiful. He could see
something in her eyes that went beyond friendship, and he understood why
Masuhiro's only daughter was so important to him. Love, understanding,
tolerance, and forgiveness all there. He found forgiveness in her eyes and he
wanted to drown in them. He wanted to have her with him always, it was so
selfish, but he wanted to keep her. He wanted to wake up in the morning and
see those eyes smiling back at him. "No...I can't have her. These hands," he
looked at the hands enveloping her smaller ones. "These hands are so
stained." I will never belong in her heart, but I can protect it from further
harm. Protect her, even if it is from myself... "I will protect you." He said
again and stood.

    Kaoru felt her heart thrumming in her chest and absently wondered if
Kenshin could hear it. She watched his eyes; they were so lost in thought. He
helped her to her feet and she thought that perhaps he would kiss her. Maybe
she could have what she wished for in her heart, and for a second she was
sure all of the days of loneliness were over for good. Then he said it...

"Good night Kaoru-dono. Sleep well. You look over tired. Sesha is sorry to
keep you out so long after everyone else is asleep. We have a long day ahead
of us tomorrow, de gozaru."

She felt her heart crack. No, not today or ever. Kenshin was a rurouni, now
and forever it seemed, no matter what lay in her heart. "Oyasumi Kenshin."
She let herself smile broadly taking the last vestiges of comfort from their
closeness and joined hands. Her hands left his hands and she walked toward
the Aoiya. Sleep sounded so good right now, even more so than before Kenshin
had asked her about the letter. Emotions were always more draining than
physical work. She passed into the darkness of the Aoiya under what she knew
to be Kenshin's scrutinizing gaze.

    "It was her after all. The girl that came dressed as a boy and saved us
all." He thought as he watched her disappear into the night. "Kaoru saved us
all...If that letter hadn't arrived we would have continued on the northern
pass and would have been ambushed, probably slaughtered. One day I guess I
should tell her my ending to the story. She would be proud to know that she
had been so instrumental in saving so many lives at one time." His mind was
in a whirl and he hadn't yet looked away from where Kaoru had disappeared.
His mind was trapped in a different moment however; one made up in a moment
forever lost. A moment in time where he had held her instead of letting go, a
moment that could never be real. He could still smell the Jasmine and sake in
the air and he let them cover him like a warm blanket. "The plans..." He said
aloud to no one that he could see. "They were Takasugi's last contribution to
his cause. It was the only reason we won, we all might have died without
them. Thank you Kaoru, thank you for protecting me, and for giving me a
chance to live again."

In the darkness of the Aoiya Kaoru smiled. "No, thank you."

*****************************************************************
Closing Notes: Well...What do ya' think? I hope you like it. I know it's not
all that great for a first fic. Nothing Earth shattering. The muse struck me
and I couldn't help but answer the call. My husband says it sounds like I
have angst. I really don't. I just thought that I had to be as true to
characters as possible. I think I mentioned wanting to be inside the manga
continuity. This means no Genzai, no Ayame, and no Suzume. I like the girls,
and I don't despise Genzi-sensei. However I think that the characters are
slightly unnecessary fluff, so I probably will never include them in any of
these. If I get a response I will go ahead and do a few more of these. You
know, like a Sano tells a story, Kenshin tells a story. Yahiko tells a story.
Poor kid. If you ask me he gets seriously gypped for fan-fics. Read and
Review! Thank you for reading.