“Kaoru here! I’m the well-known kenjutsu komachi, as you may have guessed. Well, I’m well-known no matter what name they call me. In the name of peace, as well as for my own personal profit, I destroyed a bandit gang and took their treasure. Which would normally be a good thing. But later I was attacked by a strange group who wanted one of the things I stole. Of course, armed with my beauty and copious talent, I repelled them. But it seems I’ve gotten hold of one very weird treasure. That night, a suspicious stranger appeared at our inn. ‘I wish to make a purchase. An item you possess… I’ll pay any price you name.’ One thing’s for sure, he isn’t a traveling peddler!”

Kaoru turned to Kenshin. “I don’t buy it,” she whispered.

“I’m sure I must seem very suspicious to you,” said the voice from the other side of the door, “but for now I have no intention of harming you. I merely wish to perform a business transaction.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Kaoru wondered. “Do the terms ‘for now’ and ‘intention’ change once you’re in?”

“I suppose saying ‘don’t worry’ would be useless,” the stranger replied. “However, I believe you have a substantial bodyguard in there as well.”

“Oro?” asked Kenshin.

“He means me,” said Yahiko, stepping forward with his shinai at the ready.

“I’ll warn you now,” Kaoru called through the door, “any funny business, and I’ll show you techniques you won’t forget!”

“I’ll do no such thing,” the voice replied.

“Well then…”

“Kaoru-dono! You’re letting him in?”

“Um! Just try to look threatening, Bodyguard-san.”

“Oro?”

Yahiko snorted at the thought of diminutive, inoffensive Kenshin looking threatening.

“You too, Yahiko-chan.”

The boy glowered. “Don’t call me chan, busu!”

Kaoru took up a position in the center of the room. “Okay, Kenshin, open the door!”

Kenshin pulled the door open and revealed…

It was as if a statue had been brought to life and dressed in a man’s clothing. Light gleamed from skin that had the texture of polished marble. Straight black hair fell over eyes the hue of a frozen sea. Much of the stranger’s face was hidden by the high yellow collar of his white trenchcoat, but what they could see was sculptured perfection.

“No, nothing suspicious here,” Kaoru murmured to herself.

And then the demon-masked intruder from the night before followed the walking statue into the room.

“Well well,” commented Kaoru as Kenshin shut the door behind the pair. “Are you friends with the jealousy demon here?”

“Je… JEALOUSY DEMON?” the masked figure sputtered.

“Stop,” the trenchcoated figure ordered. “He is called Hannya. He is a responsible agent, which makes him impertinent at times. Please forgive him.”

“No problem,” Kaoru smiled. “I’ll just raise the price.”

“You’re a shrewd woman,” the statue commented. “Now then, to business.”

“You said you wanted something of mine?” Kaoru asked.

“Yes. An item you recently acquired from the bandits.”

“And what is this item?

“That I won’t say.”

“Well,” Kaoru replied, “then I guess the transaction’s cancelled.”

Their visitor held up a hand. “Wait! If I started off by saying ‘I want that particular item,’ you might overcharge me. You may not wish to part with it out of curiosity.”

“Well excuse me!” Kaoru sneered. “But you’re right about that,” she went on after a moment’s reflection.

“Show me the items that you acquired on the raid, and name your price. Then I’ll tell you which one I want.”

“You don’t seem to be one of the bandits,” Kaoru mused. “So why?”

The stranger closed his eyes. His eyelashes were unusually long and thick for a man’s. “To find that item I dispatched many of my onmitsu to search. Then Hannya infiltrated the bandits and stumbled across it. But just as he was ready to take the item…”

“I showed up, right?” Kaoru struck an exaggeratedly cute pose.

“As you say.”

“Stealing from thieves, that’s pretty low,” she commented.

“Look who’s talking,” the marble man retorted.

“Um… well…” Kaoru stammered, “now I understand the circumstances. Anyway, let’s run through the inventory of what I took.  “There’s the orihalcon statue, the cursed knife, and the old coins. Can we leave out the gems?”

The living statue nodded.

“Well now, let’s start with the cursed knife. Okay… let’s see… the price for it… is twelve… million.”

Ice-blue eyes widened in amazement. Kenshin oro’d. Yahiko’s mouth looked like it was going to catch flies.

“Mou, what’s that reaction!” Kaoru cried in exasperation. “Men have no balls at all! You said I could set the price!”

Kenshin and the stranger were both sweatdropping; Hannya’s eyes started to bug out of his mask.

“Come on! Come on! Come on!” cried Kaoru. “Quit beefing and pay up!”

I see, thought the man in the trenchcoat. I was expecting her to charge only two or three times the street price…

Then Kaoru held up the silver figurine. “Now for the statue, I’ll charge you… thirty million!”

Hannya’s eyes bugged out even farther. The black-haired stranger’s voice cut like a blade made of ice. “For that price, you could buy a castle from a prince, on prime real estate, fully furnished, with the servants included!”

Kaoru gave a happy gasp. “A castle?” She lost herself for a moment in a vision where she wore the formal robes of a princess, and handsome men in livery catered to her every whim – with Kenshin foremost among them. Then she laughed. “When you think about it, that price is sort of steep. How about if I cut it in half?”

Kenshin sweatdropped. “Just half?” their visitor demanded. “Are you joking?”

“You little brat!” raged Hannya. “Make fools of us, will you?”

“Brat?” Yahiko jeered. “A third-rate mahoutsukai who can’t tell the difference between a light spell and a fireball’s got no business callin’ Kaoru a brat!”

“Third-rate mahoutsukai –” Hannya sputtered. “What? Wait! That was a light spell?”

“Mister Third-rate figures it out,” smirked Yahiko.

“Yahiko,” Kenshin murmured, “didn’t Kaoru-dono’s spell fool you too?”

Hannya rounded on Yahiko. “And you’re the most impertinent brat I’ve ever–”

“Hannya! Enough!” the marble man ordered. He turned back to Kaoru. “How about 100,000 up front, with the rest to be paid later?”

“I don’t think so,” Kaoru answered.

“I have one last idea,” the stranger went on, “why don’t you join us? In six months we could give you two or even three times your price.”

“Ninety million?” Kenshin and Hannya gasped at the same time. “Ororo…”

“I see you want it badly,” Kaoru replied, folding her arms across her chest. “It must have a really high hidden value. The thing is, I really can’t say I’d feel comfortable hanging out with someone like you. I don’t have logic to guide me, just call it woman’s intuition. And my woman’s intuition tells me that you’re the type I’d rather die than join up with.”

Once again, Hannya and Kenshin simultaneously sweatdropped.

The ice-blue eyes widened, then narrowed. “Then you’re breaking off our negotiations? That’s a pity.”

“Too bad, isn’t it?” Kaoru smirked.

The stranger bowed slightly. “As I promised, I will retreat quietly for today. But I will take them from you by force! Tomorrow morning, the moment you step outside this inn, we will be deadly enemies!” He turned to leave. “Let’s go, Hannya.”

“But Okashira…”

Once through the door, the marble man turned around. “Oh yes, one more thing. My name is Aoshi Shinomori.”

“I’ll remember that,” Kaoru replied.

The door closed behind the two visitors. “They’re gone,” Kaoru observed.

“Kaoru-dono, why did you set such a high price?” Kenshin asked.

“And if I’d played along and sold it to them… would you have respected me?” she asked with a cute smile.

“But won’t they come after us now?” Yahiko asked.

“Sessha has known many men like Aoshi Shinomori,” Kenshin observed. His flaming hair shadowed his eyes; he seemed to be lost in some memory of his own. “If he gave his word he would wait until morning, then wait until morning he will.”

Kaoru sat on the edge of the bed and began to remove her tabi, then glanced up at Kenshin and Yahiko. “Okay okay okay,” she said. “I’m going to bed now. You two go back to your own room.” She started to push them out the door.

“Oro…”

“Oi, whaddya do that for, busu!”

Kaoru shoved them out into the hall. “Oyasumi!” She closed the door.

Kenshin and Yahiko had no choice but to go to their own room. “Jeez, I don’t get women at all!” the boy muttered. “Do you, Kenshin?”

“That I don’t,” the rurouni answered.

The next morning dawned clear, bright and peaceful, as the three adventurers continued on their way. “They said we’d be enemies after we left the inn today,” Kenshin noted.

“I guess so,” answered an abstracted Kaoru.

“If you think while you’re walking, you’ll trip,” quipped Yahiko, and promptly stumbled over a stone and measured his length on the path. He picked himself up, a picture of injured dignity. “Lemme alone!”

Kaoru refused to rise to the bait, being too deep in thought. “Now, what is it they’re after?” she wondered.

They hitched a ride on the back of a passing farmer’s hay wagon. “I keep turning it over in my head,” she went on. “I think it’s either the knife or the statue. Excluding the coins, they’re the only things left. The question is, which one?”

“Don’t you know?” Yahiko asked.

“Not really.” She took out both items and held her bokken over them. They began to glow in response to the weapon’s energy. “The one he wants must have some kind of spell on it.”

Yahiko blinked. “They both look like they’re magic.”

Kaoru picked up the items. “In addition to the curse, the knife has a cheap spell on it to make it sharper. That’s nothing special, lots of weapons have those, but because of the curse it could be used as a beacon. As for the statue the orihalcon metal is sealing in some magical power… but that could be as a beacon too. For instance, if you were traveling on the Astral plane this could guide your spirit back to your body…” She trailed off at the sound of a snore. Kenshin and Yahiko were both asleep! She grabbed Yahiko by the front of his kimono and shook him. Don’t fall asleep when I’m trying to teach you something! Did you understand a word I said?”

The boy yawned. “Nope.”

Kaoru sighed. “Anyway, the statue can be used as a beacon too.”

Kenshin took the pretty silver figurine from her. “Assuming this is what they’re after, is it really worth that much?”

“That’s the question,” she sighed.

The farmer’s road turned aside from theirs, and they hopped off the wagon and waved farewell to him. “They were willing to pay a lot for it,” Kaoru went on. “But why are they so obsessed with it? It must hide some sort of secret.”

“Whazzat?” Yahiko asked.

“If I knew, where would the challenge be?” She put her arms behind her head and looked very pleased with herself.

Kenshin’s eyes narrowed. “Kaoru-dono.”

“Hmm?”

“This is the best place for them to ambush us, that it is.”

“And knowin’ that we’re walkin’ right into it?” Yahiko sputtered. “Sheesh!”

They walked on, with black-clad figures skulking behind every tree.

“Just as sessha suspected,” Kenshin murmured.

“So they think they can get us with all these ninja?” asked Kaoru.

And the black-clad figures surrounded them.

Kenshin flashed into motion, whipping his sakabatou from its sheath in a lightning battoujutsu that brought down three opponents at once. His next stroke got stuck in a tree, but with an effort he sliced clean through the offending bole and felled another four attackers. Kaoru danced among the black-garbed horde, and every one her bokken touched went down. Even Yahiko managed to knock out a few with his shinai. But for every ninja that fell, three more appeared.

Kaoru concentrated. Fireball! A blast of flame spat from the end of her bokken and turned a whole squad of ninja into crispy critters.

“Dragon Spooker, huh!” Yahiko cheered.

Kaoru leaped into the air, shot off another fireball, and wiped out another squad of shinobi. She landed right next to a big, powerful-looking ninja. He was too close for her to have time to cast another spell, or even to meet his attacking stroke…

A few clouds drifted lazily across the afternoon sky. Kaoru inhaled the scent of a pretty blue flower next to her face, and sighed happily. “Ah, the sun’s so warm today…”

“Oi, busu,” growled an exhausted-looking Yahiko. “Ain’t ya ashamed to let other people fight your battles for ya?”

Kenshin emerged from the trees, looking rather the worse for wear. His hair had come undone and his magenta kimono was slashed in several places. One last ninja tried to sneak up behind him and met an accidental-looking backhanded stroke of his sakabatou.

“Sorry about that,” Kaoru replied, without moving, “but I did fight some.”

“At first, then ya left Kenshin and me to handle the rest.”

“Well, you have a point there,” she admitted. “But just let me rest a little bit longer.”

“But Kaoru-dono, if we don’t make it to the next town by sunset, they’ll attack us again,” Kenshin protested.

“A little longer,” she begged. “It’s so nice and warm here.”

“Cut it out, busu!” Yahiko grabbed her arm and pulled. Kaoru cried out in sudden agony, and they noticed for the first time that the front of her kimono was soaked with blood.

“Kaoru-dono!” Kenshin cried. “You’re hurt!”

“I just ate a little too much,” she gritted out between clenched teeth.

“But you’re bleeding!”

“I’m all right.” She sat up, but it was clearly an effort. “I’m using my bokken’s energy to heal myself. If we wait just a little, I’ll be good as new.”

Yahiko stared, round-eyed. “They got ya early on, and ya still fought… Sorry, Kaoru.” He had never sounded so respectful before.

“It’s okay,” she smiled. “I’ll be fine in a few minutes, so just rest… Kenshin! What are you doing!?” The rurouni scooped up in his arms and lifted her easily – amazing, considering how nearly the same height they were.

Kenshin smiled. “I’m carrying Kaoru-dono. You can’t walk yet, right?”

“I said I was fine!” she exploded. “You can’t carry me all that way!”

“Shishou told me to be nice to girls,” he replied with that same sweetly wicked smile. “And we do have to reach the village by dark, that we do.”

“No! Not all the way there!” she protested. “I don’t want anyone to see me being carried like some… like some stupid, weak…”

But Kenshin seemed to have become suddenly and unaccountably deaf.

They reached the village without further incident. Stars shone down on utter peace – except for several trolls skulking outside the inn. The last light went out in a second-floor window.

Kaoru Kamiya lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling. Kenshin no baka… he can be so nice, but mattaku, he’s dense! Huh? She sat up, then got out of bed.Out in the hall, she could hear footsteps, coming closer.

The door burst open. A huge man burst in, his muscular body seamed with scars. There was a pack of trolls at his heels. But all the intruders saw was an empty room, its bed neatly made…

“Where is she?” the scarred man demanded.

“Right here!” Kaoru called from her perch on top of the door. She jumped lightly down, a sphere of fire forming at her bokken’s tip.

“A fireball!” Scarface yelled.

“Pin-pon!” cried Kaoru, and slammed the door on the barbecue inside.

There were running footsteps in the hall. “Kaoru-dono! What happened?”

She shrugged. “Bad guys.”

“Didja get ‘em?” asked Yahiko.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “A direct hit from one of my bokken’s fireballs might melt iron, but…”

An uninjured troll burst through the door – only to fall to the lightning stroke of Kenshin’s sakabatou. But the rurouni’s next stroke met answering steel. “Are you with her, boy?” the scarred warrior growled.

Kenshin blinked. “Oro? Boy? I’m twenty-eight…”

A flash of light knocked down another troll. “I’ll cover you, Kenshin!”

“Arigatou, Kaoru-dono.”

And then something very strange happened. The hallway filled with a thick white mist. Red lights twinkled in the fog. Scarface and the trolls dropped to their knees, their eyelids suddenly drooping, and fell fast asleep. Only Kaoru, Yahiko and Kenshin were unaffected.

“Oro?” Kenshin blinked. “What happened to them?”

“It’s a mind control spell,” she answered.

“Way to go, busu!” Yahiko cheered.

“I didn’t do it,” Kaoru admitted. “I mean, it’s a really basic spell, but nobody has enough power to do so many at once.”

“Midnight visitors can be a nuisance, can’t they?” asked a new voice, its owner hidden by the strange fog.

“Who are you?” Kaoru gasped.

A figure loomed out of the shadows, tall and swathed in red. “Seeing those suspicious fellows skulking about at night, I couldn’t help but stick my nose in.” His voice was cultured, but his face and hands were completely wrapped in bandages. The only parts of him visible were a few tufts of black hair and an area of burn-scarred skin around his mouth. Even his eyes were bandaged.

“Kinda like you,” quipped Yahiko, apparently in reply to the stranger’s remark.

Kaoru quickly gave Yahiko a lesson in manners with her bokken. “Thank you so much,” she added with a polite bow. “I assume you’ve put the other guests to sleep as well.”

“You could tell?” the stranger asked.

“Well, considering all the noise in here, and no one else came to investigate…”

“It avoids the nuisance of having to deal with people who have nothing to do with this.” The bandaged man gestured, and Scarface walked out of the inn, followed by his trolls, still sound asleep. “Apparently they were sent by Aoshi Shinomori,” he observed.

“You know him?” Yahiko asked.

“Yes. He is my enemy. He is attempting to resurrect Shabranigdo, the mazoku lord.”

Kaoru gasped. “Shabranigdo? The Dark Lord? Resurrect him?”

“Undoubtedly. Aoshi is a creation of utter evil, an unholy blend of human, golem and demon. He wishes to revive the Dark Lord and destroy the world.”

“Why’d he wanna do somethin’ dumb like that?” asked Yahiko.

“That I still cannot guess,” the stranger replied. “But he is now your enemy as well as mine. I am only a humble priest, but I cannot overlook his evil ambition to revive the Dark Lord. Aoshi is after the key to its revival, which fate has placed in your hands. To recover it, he will surround you with enemies.”

“Key…” Kaoru murmured.

No one noticed Kenshin’s eyes narrow, or the golden fire that flickered in their depths.

“Why don’t you give it to me?” the bandaged priest urged. “Then you can spare yourselves all the trouble.”

“But if I did that, you’d have to fight them alone!” Kaoru protested.

“Do not concern yourself,” the priest replied. “They are formidable enemies, but I, Shishio, should be able to take care of them.”

Kaoru’s eyes went wide. “Shishio! I thought it might be you! One of the five wise men of the age, Shishio, the Red Priest!”

He nodded acknowledgment, not quite a bow. “That is a name they sometimes call me.”

Yahiko goggled. “Ya mean he’s famous or somethin’?”

Kaoru smacked him. “Any five-year-old knows who he is! I’ll explain to you later!” She turned back to Shishio. “Great Priest, I’d like to hold onto this key.”

“But…” Shishio protested.

“I can’t back out of this,” Kaoru went on, “not after hearing the Dark Lord is being revived.”

“I’m grateful for your concern, but…”

She leaned forward, her voice dropping. “They don’t know yet that we’ve made contact. If we keep the key, they’ll attack us again. When that happens, you can sweep in to help us defeat them!”

“That will be dangerous,” Shishio objected. “I should be the decoy.”

“Great Priest, please!” Kaoru begged. “You must trust me!”

He was silent for a long time, then nodded once. “Very well.” He walked away, murmuring the words of a spell as he went.

Time which has passed,
be called back once more.

“What are you…” Kaoru wondered.

A sphere of light floated from the priest’s hand and burst in midair. Kaoru winced away from its brilliance. Shishio turned around. “From tomorrow I will support you from the shadows. Until next time.” He vanished.

“So what’d he do?” asked Yahiko. “Nothin’s changed.”

Kaoru pushed him aside and peered into her room. It was completely unchanged – neatly made bed, vase of flowers on the table, everything immaculate. “He’s good!”

“Oro?” Kenshin blinked.

She sighed, imploring the kami for patience. “This was the room I threw the fireball into.” There was certainly no sign that anything so destructive had ever happened there. “Never mind, I’m going to bed.” She turned, went into the next room, and curled up on the floor next to the bed.

“Kaoru-dono, what are you doing?”

“Oi, busu, this ain’t your room!”

“They’ll probably try to attack my room again, right?” Kaoru asked.

“Well, at least take the bed, Kaoru-dono,” begged Kenshin. “Sessha can sleep on the floor.”

“But I don’t want to be a bother,” Kaoru objected.

“All right,” replied Kenshin, and lay down on the floor on the opposite side of the bed.

“Why won’t you sleep on the bed?” Kaoru demanded.

“What kind of a man would sleep in a bed when a girl sleeps on the floor?” Kenshin asked.

“Well I ain’t a man, I’m a kid,” Yahiko pointed out, “and if you guys ain’t gonna use the bed, I’ll sleep in it!” He jumped in; it creaked at the impact. “Ahhh…” Soon he was snoring.

Kaoru lay awake, listening to Yahiko’s snores and Kenshin’s soft breathing, and wondered about the latest development. Shishio the Red Priest… who clothes himself in the robes of the priesthood and carries all the respect of the Great Shrine. Who travels through all the lands helping people, one of the five wise men of the age. But unlike the others, he is terribly scarred from burns. And another thing, his name sounds like it should belong to a villain. And then there’s Shabranigdo. The lord of all the mazoku in the world, Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo. If I accept what Shishio the Red Priest told me about him… then who is Aoshi, really?

Sleep eluded her for most of the night.

NOTES, EXPLANATIONS ETC.

Many of the Oniwabanshuu names derive from Noh masks. A hannya is a female demon, often a woman who has become a demon due to jealousy. I think the hannya’s horns are the ones the bride’s “horn-hiding” headdress are meant to conceal, but I haven’t really seen anything to confirm that.

I went to a lot of trouble to blend a marble texture into a pic of Aoshi, but it doesn’t really show…