Chapter 5

Changing Tides

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Enishi grinned. It had been almost a year since Kenshin had disappeared, but they’d finally found him. The course of events couldn’t have been better if he’d planned it himself. It was almost like something he would have planned if he had taken the whole disappearance option into account. Kenshin was indeed in China as he had at first surmised. He was going by the name of Shinta… his original name from the information Enishi had gathered ages ago. Even better yet, he didn’t remember anything. Nothing at all. He had forgotten Kaoru, and even his sister; Enishi inwardly twitched at the thought that his sister meant so little to the bastard. But he caught himself, he had known that from the beginning, or he wouldn’t have sought justice in the first place.

Shinta hummed quietly to himself, a tune he didn’t quite remember but it seemed familiar to him. He sighed and did his laundry, his and his sister’s that is, and… he wasn’t quite sure what Sagara-san counted as, but the fluffy haired companion was also family. He had awoken from a Coma after what they’d told them had been a fatal accident, which his wife had died in. He didn’t remember who she was, or who any of these people were, but after he met them, the quickly became home. He had no other way to repay them, as he didn’t have any skills that he knew of. He remembered how to cook and clean and that was it.

He sighed as he scrubbed at a particularly resilient article of clothing. He had suspicions that what they were telling him wasn’t true, but they had been kind to him, and he had no care to go back to whatever past he had. He had a feeling that everything that he used to be was lost, whatever that was.

“Saaanooo” a voice came from inside the modest townhouse “Comeeere!” Shinta smiled, that would be Wei Li, his sister, or the sister of his wife as they had told him, no matter. Wei li and Sano seemed to get along rather well. He chuckled, if you called their constant arguing getting along well. Shinta was sure that they liked each other though, he would often walk in on awkward moments, and so he had learned to avoid them when they were actually being quiet.

“What do you want this time woman!” came the disgruntled protest from the other side of the house.

“Argh, why must you be so difficult when all I ask is a simple request” came the annoyed reply. Shinta grinned as the diatribe continued

“I just wanted you to help me put this up here. I can’t reach high enough”

“That’s because you barely come up to my knee you scrawny little wench” Sano roared across the house. Responsibilities seemed to suit him, Shinta thought offhand. For some reason something about Sano made it seem as if when he was being submissive he didn’t feel at home or welcome where he was. He was not a silent person at nature, but at the same time Shinta had the feeling that being in charge or “the man of the house” was a new experience for the rowdy guy.

“Ah you’re no help! I’ll just jump up here myself and try it” Shinta gulped at this comment. This did not sound promising.

“Oro?” he exclaimed somewhat tokenly as he heard Sano yelling from one side of the house, and a serried of thumps, separated by thirty seconds on the other

 

“Ah damn it woman, wait a minute, you’re going to kill yourself!” he exclaimed and rushed across the house. Sano sighed as he entered the room to see the petite black-haired woman jumping clumsily up with a rather unwieldy object in her hands. Sano strode across the room in less than four steps and grabbed it from her, his bandaged hands brushing against hers. She looked up at him, lowering her arms halfway to her side and then as if in second thought, grabbing his scarred hand in her smaller flawless ones. She smiled at him and his annoyed expression softened.

“Woman,” he started quietly and seemed to trail off. “Wei Li” he continued affectionately, almost spoken like a caress. She mouthed his name as he pulled her to him and took her mouth in a passionate yet gentle kiss.

Shinta had paused in his chores as the thumping had stopped. Their was a period of silence in which he feared it might be another one of those Awkward moments where he wanted to avoid the house. The thumping started again, but an altogether different kind. Shinta groaned. Now he knew he wanted to avoid the house. He would make sure this particular chore took as long as possible. He chuckled to himself as he slowly continued scrubbing. He had to admit, it made thing interesting, having to guess when to avoid what rooms and how long.

Kaoru awoke drowsily from her deep sleep, squinting as the sun pierced her half closed eyelids. She had meant to get up earlier. She yawned, stretching out her arms in the empty room around her. She was used to the empty room, as she had always been alone in that case, but it was lonely knowing that the room over, where Kenshin used to sleep was empty, it was comforting to know at least Yahiko was there, but she would never get over Kenshin’s absence. She had in fact looked for him for months after she had returned, but Aoshi finally stopped her, reasoning that if they hadn’t found even a single clue yet, they likely wouldn’t. Kaoru almost cried, but Aoshi reassured her in his own way saying that if anything happened they’d hear where he was, and as long as nothing was happening they wouldn’t know anything, so the best thing to do was wait.

Kaoru was disturbed and at the same time relieved by this. It meant Kenshin was safe now. She almost didn’t want to find him because that could mean something had happened to him, and that she wouldn’t wish for the world. But at the same time she wanted to find him because she desperately needed to see him. It had been a year at least since she’d seen him last. The only thing that got her through day after day was throwing herself into her role as a teacher to Yahiko. He had gotten further than she had ever imagined, and she even got some more students from people who had witnessed his strength against the huge half-armed samurai he had fought so well but almost lost to earlier.

Kaoru snorted. Speaking of her stupid student, she thought to herself, why had he not gotten her up earlier when she had failed to awake herself. Suspicious. Maybe he went out cavorting with some of those new students of hers. She wouldn’t put it against the lot of them to go off and get into trouble even this early in the morning.

She pushed herself out of bed and kneeled in front of her trunk of clothing. She stopped at the middle, where meticulously folded and placed was the Chinese dress she had received from Enishi. She hadn’t worn it since she found out what the bastard had done to Kenshin. She didn’t even know why she still had it, she told herself as she stared at the offensive object in her hands. She picked up an end in each hand and grasped it tightly, making as if to rip it, but she paused, placing it back in its place. She stared for what seemed like hours before picking it up once more and donning it. Reasoning that it wouldn’t do to waste such a nice article of clothing, whomever it might be from.