“Leaving the hard path of being unjustly accused fugitives behind, our goal, Sairaag, stands before us! We were lucky to escape Sanosuke and Katsu’s ambush, and having that weird guy propose to Kenshin while he was disguised as a girl was really funny! Well, that’s enough teasing him. We’re finally about to enter Sairaag! Well now, let’s see what’s waiting for us here!”

The city of Sairaag was an island of beauty and peace, nestled in the spreading shade of its great sacred tree. Misao popped her head out of the hay wagon they were hiding in. “Wow,” she breathed. “Is that Flagoon, the famous sacred tree of Sairaag?”

“That’s right,” Kaoru smiled. “They say that long ago, when the Swordsman of Light slew the demon beast Zanaffar here in Sairaag, its body began to give off a miasma of infinite evil that polluted everything around it. To contain the miasma and purify it, the Swordsman of Light planted the seedling of a holy tree here. And that seedling grew to become the sacred tree Flagoon.”

“Is that how it happened, Kenshin?” Yahiko asked.

“Oro?” The rurouni blinked at him. “How would sessha know that?”

“Well,” the boy went on, “if the Sword of Light’s an heirloom of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu and you’re a master, then you oughtta know its history.”

“Sessha never paid much attention to old stories,” Kenshin evaded.

Kaoru and Yahiko both sighed. “We should have known.”

“Quiet, they’ll find us,” Misao hissed as the wagon approached the gate. “They sure do have a lot of guards.”

“And they’re running really strict checks too,” Kaoru observed. Here, as everywhere, Katsu’s wanted posters had preceded them.

“Looks like we’re going to have to wait till dark and sneak into the city,” Misao sighed.

By night, Sairaag was even more peaceful than it was by day. Lights twinkled in neat houses, securely snuggled under Flagoon’s protecting branches. Outside the walls, Kaoru and Misao invoked power.

LEVITATION!

They picked up Kenshin and Yahiko and soared over the heads of the oblivious guards. Misao dropped Yahiko a little before they reached the ground.

“Oi, weasel!” the boy growled. “Couldn’t you hang onto me till we landed?”

“Who are you calling weasel?!” Misao hissed.

“Ssh!” Kaoru warned. “Someone’s coming!”

They hastily ducked around a corner.

“What do we do now, Kaoru-san?” Misao asked.

Kenshin’s eyes narrowed. “We should grab the nearest person and get the information we need, that we should.” His voice was edged steel.

Kaoru gave him a startled look. “Kenshin?”

Misao and Yahiko didn’t notice the change in the gentle rurouni’s voice. “Okay, let’s go!” They darted off.

Kenshin jumped in front of them. “It’s too dangerous de gozaru yo!”

“But you said it yourself!” Yahiko objected. “Sheesh, Kenshin, it ain’t like we’re gonna kill anybody!”

Kenshin sweatdropped. “Sairaag…” he whispered. “Sessha… sessha should not have come.”

“Um, excuse me. Can I help you?”

Kaoru jumped aside and whirled in the direction of the new voice. “We weren’t doing anything!”

The newcomer was a young woman, only a few years older than Kaoru. She was very beautiful in a knowing, foxish kind of way, with red lips and straight black hair that fell down her back in a shimmering wave. She wore the pink kimono and blue pinafore of a novice healer-priestess, and carried a physician’s medicine box. “I only… Ken-san? Ken-san, is that you?”

It was Kaoru’s turn to blink. “Huh? Ken-san?”

“Ken-san!” the young woman exclaimed, and flung her arms around the startled rurouni. “I’m so happy to see you again!”

Kenshin peered at her. “Aren’t you…”

“Megumi Takani! I’m a healer-priestess at the shrine now.”

“Megumi-dono… oh, Megumi-dono!”

“I saw the posters and heard there was a bounty on you… oh, Ken-san, I’ve been so worried! Of course, Father and I knew you could never do anything really bad!”

She led them to her house. They waited in the study while she got her father.

“Himura-san,” Misao asked. “What’s your relationship with that priestess? Why does she call you Ken-san and act so nice to you?”

Kenshin bowed his head. “Thirteen years ago, when sessha was last in Sairaag…”

Megumi came back in, leading a tall, slender man who wore the white robes of Flagoon’s healing priesthood. He beamed. “Himura-dono, I’m glad you made it here safely.”

Kenshin bowed. “So it would seem, Takani-sensei.”

“And these are your friends?”

Kaoru, Misao and Yahiko all introduced themselves.

Takani looked started. “Kaoru? The Kaoru Kamiya?”

“Oh, why do I always get that reaction?” Kaoru grumbled. “Oh well, since I have a price on my head I guess I should expect it.”

“Forgive me, but as a healer I am curious. Is it true that in spite of your youthful appearance you’re really 90 years old?” the priest asked.

Kaoru’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “90 years old?” she demanded.

“Wow, no wonder you’re so ugly, Busu!” Yahiko marveled.

She jumped to her feet and cracked Yahiko over the head with her bokken. “It’s not true! Where did you hear a story like that?!”

Takani had the grace to look ashamed. “The person who put the bounty on you, a lady named Yumi Komagata.”

“Yumi Komagata, huh?” Kaoru’s eyes glinted. “So she’s the one who framed us.”

“That’s right,” Megumi exclaimed. “She came about a month ago, claiming that you and Ken-san were terrible villains, and put that bounty out on you.”

“What?” Kaoru demanded. “Some weird woman breezes into town with a story, and you just start spreading wanted posters?”

“Well,” Takani said, “I did think it was a little odd. I couldn’t believe that Himura-dono would do such terrible things.”

“Unfortunately, Yumi had become… close… to some of the more prominent elders, and they did believe it,”Megumi added.

“They had reason,” Kenshin murmured. Everyone turned to look at him. His head was bowed, his face hidden behind the bright fall of his hair. “Kaoru-dono… Misao-dono… Yahiko… sessha never wanted to deceive you. It is only that… I do not like to speak of this.”

“Kenshin, what is it?” Kaoru’s blue eyes brimmed with concern.

“Thirteen years ago… a group of evil mahoutsukai came to Sairaag, trying to harness the power of Flagoon for their own ends. They had mazoku as servants, and one by one brought the elders and priests under control. Takani-sensei and Megumi-dono were among the few who were left. Sessha was living in the hills then, training in Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu. Shishou refused to become involved; he said that Flagoon would protect itself. But sessha saw only the suffering people, saw girls like Megumi-dono menaced and attacked. So I took the Sword of Light and came to Sairaag. For five years, sessha fought in the shadows, slaying – at first only mazoku, but later the ones who summoned them. Soon the people I was fighting to protect were more frightened of my deeds than of the monsters, and they began to whisper of Hitokiri Battousai who comes in the night and slays without mercy.”

Yahiko stared. “You’re…”

“Hitokiri… Battousai…” Misao repeated. Tales of the legendary assassin had even reached Seyruun.

Kaoru laid a hand on Kenshin’s knee. “Is that why you don’t like killing people?”

“Aa.” He barely whispered the reply. “Many of those whom sessha slew were themselves controlled, and could have been healed. But by then killing had become… a kind of madness. It was Takani-sensei and Megumi-dono who helped free me from that.”

“Anyway,” Megumi went on, “Yumi told everyone that Ken-san was under the control of the evil mahoutsukai, Kaoru Kamiya.”

“Well, she’s right about the evil mahoutsukai part,” Yahiko quipped, and earned a lump on the head for his wit.

“And Yumi-san proved to be a woman with impeccable references,” Takani-sensei went on. “As Megumi said, a number of my superiors in the temple vouched for her integrity.”

“Really?” Kaoru asked.

“In addition, one of the greatest men of the age is currently staying in Sairaag. It seems that Yumi is a particularly close friend of Shishio the Red Priest.”

“Shishio the Red Priest?” Kaoru repeated. Shishio the Red Priest, considered to be the wisest man of the age. And the man who resurrected the Dark Lord Shabranigdo and very nearly destroyed the entire world!

“You know him?” Misao marveled. “You and Himura, you’ve met Shishio the Red Priest?”

“That’s right,” Kaoru replied. “You don’t know about that, Misao.”

“A wise man like him must have done so much to further the cause of Justice!” the princess enthused with starry eyes.

“Kaoru-dono,” Kenshin murmured. “About Shishio… who is he really?”

Megumi frowned. “Ken-san, what’s going on?”

“We don’t know either, that we don’t,” Kenshin replied. “But the man staying here is not really Shishio the Red Priest.”

Megumi nodded. “I’ve been worried that something awful is going to happen here in Sairaag. And if Ken-san is connected with it, then…”

“Daijoubu!” Kenshin gave her his sunniest smile. “You should not worry, that you should not, Megumi-dono.”

“Right,” Kaoru agreed. “All we need to do is find this Yumi who put the price on our heads and make her pay!”

“So where can we find Yumi?” asked Misao.

“She’s taken one of the abandoned mansions, not too far from here,” Megumi told them.

“Sessha is sorry to have imposed on you,” Kenshin told Ryuusei Takani.

“Please don’t even mention it,” the priest replied.

“Ken-san, please be careful,” Megumi begged.

“That I will de gozaru yo. And next time sessha will stay for some of your good cooking.”

“Kennshiiinnn…” Kaoru’s cooking was always a sore point with her.

“Ah, we’d better get goin’.” Yahiko tried to take charge of the situation before his elders could get into a fight. “If you cook that good I’ll look forward to it!”

Megumi gazed after them. “Ken-san…”

Whatever Yumi Komagata had been doing in Sairaag, she hadn’t been fixing up her new home. The mansion still looked abandoned. Vines snaked up its walls, and the windows of its corner towers were as empty as a skull’s eyesockets. “It’s creepy!” Misao wailed.

“I’d say we found the bad guys’ hideout,” Kaoru agreed. “Let’s go!” She felt the wall. “I think we should go in here.”

“Sou de gozaru yo,” Kenshin replied.

“But that’s a wall!” Misao squawked.

Kenshin’s hand went to the hilt of his sakabatou. The blade flashed out, and a circular section of wall fell to the ground with a loud thud.

“Wall, door, whatever,” Yahiko shrugged.

“Misao, don’t fall behind.” Kaoru stepped through the hole.

“Right!”

They found themselves in a strange room. Lines of pipe fed rows of crystal tubes, each the height of a tall man. Indistinct shapes filled the tubes.

“Looks like some kind of lab,” Kaoru observed.

“But for what?” asked Misao. She peered into one of the tubes. “What’s this?”

The thing in the tube opened a single eye and peered back at her. Misao cried out and flinched away.

“This place is creepin’ me out,” Yahiko muttered.

“Looks like there’s nothing but chimaerae in here,” Kaoru murmured.

“Chimaerae?” Misao wondered.

“Combination life forms,” Kaoru explained. “For example, if you combined parts of different creatures you can create a man-made creature.”

“You can do that?” Yahiko asked.

“Pretty much,” Kaoru shrugged. “If they wanted to, a person with that kind of technique could even combine a human with other creatures.” Like giving a man the stone body of a golem…

“No one should play with human life like that!” Misao exploded.

“Well, mahoutsukai are kind of split about the ethics,” Kaoru went on. “Personally, I’ve never been interested in making chimaerae. Anyway, we need to find our mysterious wire-puller.”

They went on, into the main part of the mansion and up the grand staircase. At the first landing there was a huge painting. Kenshin held up the lantern to examine it. It was Shishio the Red Priest, his skin and eyes hidden by bandages, wearing the scarlet robes of a priest of the Great Shrine.

“Having that portrait proves that this mansion’s owner is connected to Shishio somehow,” Kaoru frowned.

“Or to be more precise, this is only one of Shishio-sama’s mansions,” a new female voice informed them.

“Who’s there?” Kaoru demanded.

Their hostess stepped out of the shadows, gazing down at them from the balcony. She wore a crimson kimono that left her shoulders bare, and her face was elaborately made up in the manner of an expensive courtesan. Flanking her were two very familiar figures.

“Sanosuke!” Yahiko snarled.

“Katsu!” Misao exclaimed.

“So you’ve finally shown yourself!” Kaoru snapped. “You’re the one who’s behind all this!”

“Ohohohoho!” the woman laughed. “Exactly! Kaoru Kamiya, the one who put the price on your heads and sent Sanosuke Sagara and Katsuhiro Tsukioka after you was I!”

“Oro? Kaoru-dono…”

“Huh?” Kaoru blinked. “But I’ve never seen you before.”

“Who are you really?” Kenshin asked. His eyes paled ominously.

“My name is Yumi Komagata,” the woman replied. “I live to serve Shishio the Red Priest.”

Yumi… that was the woman that Megumi told us about, Kaoru thought. It figures that she would serve Shishio. “But why did you put a price on our heads?” she asked aloud.

“Why, to lure you here to Sairaag, of course,” Yumi purred. “That’s why I stayed in this town.”

“And why did you want to lure us here?” Misao demanded.

“That’s right, Obasan! What are you after?” Yahiko put in.

“That’s Oneesan to you, brat!” Yumi snapped, and turned back to Kaoru. “First, to get the Sword of Light.”

“That you shall not de gozaru yo,” Kenshin murmured.

“What would you do with it?” Kaoru asked. It sounded like an innocent question, but there was a dangerous glint in her eye.

“I don’t have to tell you that!” Yumi retorted. “If you won’t give it to me I’ll take it by force!” She gestured, and Sano and Katsu jumped down from the balcony.

“It’s time to end this,” Katsu said quietly.

“Let’s go!” Sano sprang to the attack. Kenshin met him with a lightning battoujutsu, and their blades rang against each other in a shower of sparks.

FREEZE ARROW! Katsu intoned.

FLARE ARROW! Kaoru countered.

“So you’re working for Yumi-dono de gozaru yo,” Kenshin murmured, his blade locked with Sano’s.

“Che,” Sano growled. “Even if I hafta be a servant, that don’t matter now!”

Misao took a flying leap and landed behind Yumi. “In the name of Justice I, Misao Makimachi, will right wrongs and triumph over evil – and that means YOU!”

“Ohohohoho!” Yumi laughed. “Well, I’ll grant that you’re prepared in terms of enthusiasm! But I’m afraid I’m not your opponent… this is!” She waved her hand and something appeared in the shadows behind her, a shapeless mass of dripping mouths and pulsing pink tentacles.

Misao sweatdropped. “It’s so…”

The creature advanced toward her, a chorus of demented, lecherous laughter issuing from its mouths.

A blow from Sanosuke’s zanbatou sent Kenshin flying across the chamber. “Nothing can break the demonic Howling Sword!” Sano laughed. “Shishio the Red Priest created it, to try and surpass the work of Arai Magnus!”

“We shall see, that we will,” Kenshin murmured and released the catch that held his sakabatou’s metal blade in place. “Hikari yo!”

Kaoru’s battle against Katsu progressed to more powerful techniques.

ICICLE LANCE!

Kaoru jumped out of the way as spears of ice smashed into a statue behind her and enveloped it in ice.

“You shall be next,” Katsu murmured.

“No way!” Kaoru spat. “I’m not letting you turn me to ice! Time for the big stuff!” She concentrated.

Dragon of Darkness which sleeps in the inferno,
Let your roar burn my enemy to ashes!
AMAKUSA...

“Not this time!” Katsu announced.

ICICLE LANCE!

The near-miss left Kaoru standing on the edge of an ice field. “Mou!” she exclaimed. “He won’t let me use any big attacks!”

“I hate fighting this thing!” Misao sobbed as Yahiko whacked at the chimaera’s tentacles with his shinai. Both were covered in slime.

“Now it ends!” snapped Sanosuke, and brought his zanbatou down in a sharp blow. A wave of energy smashed into Kenshin.

Kaoru dodged another ice-bolt from Katsu. “This is getting me nowhere,” she muttered, and drew her bokken.

Katsu laughed. “You think you can defeat me with that wooden toy?”

“We’ll see!” she retorted.

Katsu responded with a barrage of icicles. One sliced Kaoru’s arm; she winced and dropped to her knees.

“Now you die,” Katsu murmured with a satisfied smile, and blasted her with a wall of ice.

But Kaoru wasn’t there! Moving almost as fast as Kenshin, she darted inside the spell’s range and struck the off-guard mahoutsukai several times with her bokken. He gave a strangled cry. Light poured from the places she had struck him, and his body disintegrated and melted into air.

“You got sloppy and missed with your first shot,” Kaoru gloated. “Don’t underestimate Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu’s sword techniques either!”

Behind her, the ceiling gave way and Misao, Yahiko and the tentacled chimaera fell to the floor. The creature backed Misao into a corner. Tentacles encircled her waist, curled around her back to snake down the front of her tunic, and slithered into her shorts. “No! Not there!” she screeched. “Don’t touch me! BLAM BLAZER!”

Light blasted a hole in the chimaera’s body.

“Misao!” Kaoru rushed to the younger girl’s assistance, just as the creature disintegrated.

“That was too close!” Misao gasped.

Kenshin and Sanosuke were still locked in combat. “It’s time to finish this de gozaru yo,” Kenshin said.

“That’s my line!” Sano retorted, and struck.

Kenshin leaped past him. Sano collapsed in a heap, a shallow slash across his middle and the glowing blade at his throat. “You should give up quietly before you’re hurt worse de gozaru yo,” the rurouni murmured.

“Chikusho,” Sano muttered.

“Looks like you’re finished too,” Kaoru observed.

“No problem de gozaru yo,” Kenshin smiled.

Kaoru advanced on Sano. “Okay, we’ve got a ton of questions to ask you.”

“Oh no you don’t,” murmured a disembodied voice. Ghostly hands grabbed Kaoru from behind and solidified into…

“Ka… Katsu?” Kaoru stammered. She flipped the mahoutsukai over her shoulder with a twist of her body – but what struck the floor was a lump of ice. The real Katsu materialized out of the air a safe distance away. “No way!” Kaoru sputtered.

“There’s another Katsu?” asked Misao.

“They’re twins?” Yahiko wondered.

Kaoru brought her bokken down on top of his head.

“Not exactly,” Katsu murmured. Another Katsu materialized next to him.

Sano flung himself at his partner’s feet. “Katsu, you’ve saved me!”

“Triplets?” Misao guessed.

“No, that’s not it,” Kaoru replied. “You guys are Copies, aren’t you?”

“Copies?” asked Yahiko. “What’re those?”

“A technique like the one for making those chimaerae we saw before,” Kaoru explained. “It can let you use someone’s blood to make as many Copies as you want.”

Yahiko sweatdropped. “So if somebody wanted they could make dozens of you, Busu?”

“That’s right.”

“No way!” Yahiko yelled. “That’s too horrible to think about!”

“It could mean the end of the world,” Misao shuddered.

“Hey, you two,” Kaoru grumbled.

“You’re correct,” the Katsus chorused. “We are Copies.”

“No wonder you never seemed to mind all the times I killed you!” Kaoru exclaimed.

“Care to try and kill us again?” asked Katsu B.

“Even if you do, more of me will only take our place,” Katsu A pointed out.

“You cannot escape!” Katsu C materialized behind them.

“Now it ends!” intoned Katsu D.

Above them, a window shattered. Everybody looked up toward the sound. A shadowy figure dropped from near the ceiling. A white trenchcoat billowed out behind him, and in each hand was a short and wickedly sharp blade. Two of the Katsus fell, slashed across the middle.

“Don’t be fooled!” the newcomer snapped. “The woman is the one controlling them!”

Yumi stepped out of the shadows. “Who are you?” she demanded.

The stranger raised his head. Above the high collar of his white coat, his face was perfection chiseled in marble. Misao gasped. “Suteki!”

“What’s wrong, Kaoru Kamiya?” the living statue asked. “This isn’t like you.”

“Aoshi!” Kaoru exclaimed.

“Aoshi Shinomori!” Yumi cried. “You’re trying to ruin our plans?”

“Hn,” Aoshi replied. “I have a… sort of relationship… with these people. And much as I’d prefer otherwise, our suddenly meeting like this shows it’s an unbreakable one.” With the faint hint of a smile, he incinerated another Katsu with a blast of magical fire.

“First you turn against Shishio-sama, and now you turn against me,” Yumi mourned. “Is that it, Aoshi?”

Aoshi walked to the foot of the stairs. “I owe loyalty neither to you nor to Shishio,” he answered. “Especially since I imagine you helped him create this body for me.”

“Hold it!” cried Kaoru. “You mean you know her?”

“Indeed,” Aoshi responded. “She’s…”

“That’s correct.” The new voice was one that Kaoru and Kenshin had never expected to hear again. The rings on a priest’s staff chimed, and out of a darkened doorway stepped a figure all too familiar. Wrapped head to toe in bandages, mantled in the scarlet robes of a priest of the Great Shrine… Shishio the Red Priest!

“Yumi and Aoshi were both my followers!” he announced.

“It can’t be… it can’t be…” Aoshi repeated over and over.

“That’s the man in the portrait,” Misao whispered.

“Shishio the Red Priest!” Kaoru confirmed.

How had their nemesis managed to rise from the dead?

NOTES, EXPLANATIONS ETC.

Suteki: in this context, something like “what an incredibly gorgeous guy!”

Obasan/oneesan: “auntie” vs. “big sis.” Yahiko is being deliberately insulting, calling Yumi mutton dressed as lamb.