Hi ho! Kaoru Kamiya here! Mou, can’t things be a little easier for us?! While we were trying to get to Shishio’s legacy we had to deal with a ton of things trying to stop us! Shishio, Yumi, and even some fish-man named Rahaminu! And it looks like Sanosuke is really out for blood now. I wish he’d leave us alone! Well, I won’t let this get me down! We’ve found Shishio’s laboratory, so it’s time for the main event!

FLARE ARROW!

Kaoru’s fire blasted through the thick doors. They stepped through the hole into a round chamber. Inside was a trapdoor, adorned with a stylized skull and surmounted with stone arches like the ribs of some monstrous beast.

“Shishio’s legacy is beneath this de gozaru ka?” Kenshin asked.

Kaoru rolled up her sleeves. “Now that we’ve come this far, it’s time I went all out! Just leave it to me!” She pointed her bokken at the trapdoor.

FIREBALL!

Nothing happened.

“What’s goin’ on, busu?” asked Yahiko. “You didn’t even scratch it.”

“I thought as much,” Aoshi murmured.

Everyone turned and looked at him.

“Ordinary techniques won’t break the ward Shishio put on those doors,” the chimaera explained.

“All right then, I’ll blast it with a Dragon Slave!” Kaoru took a step back and pointed her bokken at the doors again.

Megumi’s jaw dropped. Kenshin and Yahiko started edging back toward the hole in the door.

“Uh, Kaoru-san… is that such a good idea?” Misao asked.

“Of course!” replied Kaoru. “I won’t let Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu be beaten!”

Aoshi whacked her across the back of the head with his marble hand.

“Oww, that hurt!” Kaoru screeched. “What did you do that for?”

“Calm down and think,” Aoshi reproved. “Yumi knows where this place is. She’s a powerful mahoutsukai, so why hasn’t she broken the ward herself?”

“Oh!” gasped Misao. “That’s why she was after Himura’s sword!”

“Of course, that must be it!” agreed Megumi.

“The Sword of Light must be able to break the ward!” exclaimed Yahiko.

“So that’s what Yumi wanted it for!” Kaoru breathed.

Kenshin rubbed the back of his head. “Then it’s up to sessha de gozaru yo. Hikari yo!”

Kenshin effortlessly slicked through the metal doors. Brilliant light, blinding blue-white as his blade, exploded from the cuts as the ward’s binding energies were released. Everybody hid their eyes from the glare.

Outside in the forest, Sanosuke waited. He had been applying salve to the bruises where Megumi had hit him with her medicine case. Now, as he retied his red headband, he vowed vengeance. “Damn you, Kenshin!”

Behind him, a column of light erupted skyward.

“It seems they have broken the barrier,” Yumi smiled.

“No matter,” intoned the man who looked like Shishio. “We’ll let them do our work for us.”

Inside the building – which now had a great hole in its roof – Kaoru and her friends looked up cautiously. A red light now shone from the slashed door, and then the pieces fell in, revealing a stairway leading into unknown depths. Some mahoutsukai prefer to work in lofty towers, but it seems Shishio had kept his work buried deep under the earth.

“Way to go, Kenshin!” Kaoru cheered, pounding the oro-ing rurouni on the back.

“You’re so violent, Kaoru-chan,” Megumi scolded. “You might hurt dear Ken-san!”

“Daijoubu de gozaru yo,” Kenshin tried to stop Megumi from fussing over him.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Kaoru muttered under her breath, glaring at Megumi.

“Why are you so angry?” Aoshi asked.

“I don’t know.” She charged down the stairs.

“Wait, Kaoru-san!” cried Misao, and followed. The others ran in pursuit.

“Looks like they’ll end up beating us,” Sanosuke remarked.

“Not at all,” smirked Yumi. “I’ve been told in detail about all the rooms, as well as all the traps inside. I doubt they’re nearly so well informed.”

“How far does this last push go?” asked Misao, running beside Kaoru.

“I don’t know,” Kaoru admitted. “Why don’t you ask Aoshi?”

“I never said I knew these underground passages,” the chimaera replied. “They were put together like a maze.”

“Thanks a lot,” Kaoru fumed. “You’re a big help.”

“Kaoru-dono,” Kenshin began.

“What!?” she snapped – and ran face-first into an elaborately ornamented door.

“I was going to say look out de gozaru yo…”

“Well say it faster next time!” Kaoru muttered. Squealing, the door swung inward under her weight, and she fell into a room lit by brilliantly glowing crystals.

“What a pretty room!” cried Megumi.

“I wonder what it’s for,” Kaoru murmured.

“My my, I congratulate you on getting this far!” In the air above the crystals stood the man who looked like Shishio, with Yumi at his side.

“Shishio!” Kaoru spat.

“You’ve done well, my friends,” the false priest purred. “But this is where your journey ends.”

“Hold it!” Sanosuke Sagara sat nonchalantly on one of the crystal formations, tossing a small stone in his hand. “I thought I was the one who was gonna finish them off.”

“Sano!” Kenshin gasped.

“I challenge you, Kenshin! Let’s do it!”

But before Sano could spring to the attack, blinding light burst from all the crystals!

“Huh?” Sano wondered.

“What’s happening?” squawked Yahiko.

Then Kaoru and her friends were gone, and the Red Priest held his hand over a single glowing crystal.

“What happened?” demanded Sanosuke.

“This room is a transit chamber to the inner laboratory,” Yumi explained.

“It’s what?” asked the shocked bounty hunter. He only wanted to take Kenshin on in a straight-up deathmatch – all this magic was giving him the creeps.

“Ohohohoho! Who knows where they may have been taken?” Yumi laughed.

“Stay outta my way, woman!” Sano raged. “I gotta be the one to finish Kenshin! I’ve worked hard for the money you promised me, but from here on out, I’m fightin’ for what I want!” He ran straight into the glowing transit field.

“A foolish man,” Yumi observed.

“For what he wants, eh?” purred the man who looked like Shishio.

The white light disgorged Kaoru and Megumi in a large round chamber whose walls looked like rough-hewn rock. They landed hard on their backsides. “Ow ow ow,” Kaoru muttered. “What the heck happened to us?”

“Oh no!” Megumi shrieked.

“What?” Kaoru demanded, not willing to put up with the priestess’ proper-lady airs – until she looked around and saw what had scared her. The chamber was lined with what looked like gigantic monsters. They certainly looked frightening enough – until you looked closer and saw that they were only stone. “Don’t scare me like that, Megumi,” the younger girl grumbled. “They’re only statues.”

“Statues?” Megumi sounded doubtful. In the dim light they almost looked like they moved.

“Looks like Shishio used this chamber for making golems,” Kaoru observed. She kicked one of the statues; it fell and its head smashed to pieces on the stone floor. “Well, I don’t want to stay around here all day.”

“I agree,” concurred Megumi, and they set about looking for an exit. High on the wall, a bust of Shishio watched over the golem chamber with sealed eyes.

“Creepy,” was Kaoru’s comment.

And the golems’ stone hands began to flex…

Aoshi and Misao found themselves just where Aoshi wanted to be, in Shishio’s vast library.

“Come on, Aoshi-sama, let’s find the others,” Misao urged.

The chimaera continued to thumb through one book after another. “Don’t forget, I’m here to find a way to turn my body back to normal,” he reminded.

“That’s mean!” scoffed Misao. “I don’t think you have a shred of compassion in you, Aoshi-sama! That’s bad karma!”

“I’ll do what I want!” the marble man retorted.

Watching over their quarrel was a bust of Shishio, identical to the one in the golem chamber.

“Yoo hoo!” Yahiko called. Only his own voice came back to him. “Wow, this place is so big it has a great echo!”

“Sou de gozaru yo,” Kenshin murmured. “We should be finding the others, that we should. I wonder where we are.”

“In our own private arena,” answered a very familiar voice. “One that’s gonna be your grave!”

“Sanosuke!” Yahiko snarled.

“Actually, it looks like a place Shishio used to test new spells,” the tall fighter went on. “But at least we’re alone to finally settle things.”

“Is that really necessary de gozaru ka?” Kenshin asked.

“I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t try and make sure!” Sano went on. “It ain’t worth nothin’ if I don’t beat you, the legendary strongest from here in Sairaag fifteen years ago!”

Kenshin gasped in recognition, and Sano attacked with his zanbatou. Invincible light met demon-forged steel, and the battle was on!

There didn’t seem to be any passage leading out of the golem chamber. Kaoru started tapping at the wall to see if there was anything but solid rock behind it.

“Ken-san, please be safe,” Megumi prayed.

“He’s fine!” Kaoru laughed. “He wouldn’t die even if you killed him.”

“How can you say such a thing!” the older girl protested. “Kaoru-chan, aren’t you worried about him at all?”

“Of course I’m worried,” Kaoru replied.

She must care for him after all… Megumi said to herself.

“After all,” Kaoru went on with a grin, “he cooks better than I do and he’s really great at doing laundry!

Megumi facefaulted. “Laundry?”

“Sure! When I make my fortune I’m going to open a dojo, but I’ll be much too busy teaching to spend time on housework! What’s wrong? Does your stomach hurt or something?”

Megumi waved her hands in embarrassed denial. “Oh no, I’m fine. So that’s the only reason you stay with Ken-san?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” demanded Kaoru in a suspicious tone.

“I was a little worried,” the priestess confessed. “For a moment I was afraid that you and Ken-san were…”

“Quiet!” Kaoru interrupted. She looked around at the motionless statues. “Must have been my imagination.”

But it wasn’t. One of the statues moved. It was attacking, its huge stone fist headed straight for Kaoru’s face! The two girls jumped out of the way just in time. “No way!” Kaoru protested as two enormous golems advanced toward her. “Why are the golems… Megumi!” They hastily levitated to temporary safety, for now out of the reach of the golems’ smashing fists.

The barricade of tomes in front of Aoshi had grown even taller. “Where is it?” he wondered.

“Oh, what happened to Kaoru-san and the others?” Misao repeated for the seventeenth time. “They’ve got me worried – and not the way I usually do.”

“Don’t wander off, Misao,” Aoshi ordered without looking up. “There’s no telling where we’ll find a trap here.”

And then Misao screamed.

“Didn’t I just say so?” the chimaera growled, putting down his book and rising to his feet. “What a bother!”

“I swear I didn’t do anything!” Misao wailed, half in and half out of the wall.

“Misao!” Aoshi grabbed her arm and pulled.

“It hurts!” she whimpered.

“It’s too strong!” Aoshi exclaimed, and the mysterious force pulled him through the wall right along with Misao.

BURST RONDO!

Kaoru fired lightning in all directions at the attacking golems. She blasted them into pebbles, but more took their place. “Mou, there’s no end to them!” she fumed.

“What do we do?” Megumi asked. “That’s a good question!” Kaoru retorted. “There must be somebody around here controlling those golems!”

There was a shriek from somewhere above them, and two of their missing companions fell in a heap at their feet, with Misao on top of Aoshi.

“Misao!” Kaoru cried.

“Kaoru-san! Megumi-san!”

“Megumi, daijoubu ka?” asked Aoshi.

“Hey, what about me?” Kaoru demanded.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Aoshi protested. “And Misao, would you please get off me?”

“Gomen nasai!” Misao apologized, and scrambled off.

“Look, he’s blushing!” Kaoru teased. It was true – Aoshi’s white marble face had taken on a distinctly rosy cast.

“Leave me alone,” the chimaera grumbled.

The golems smashed at them again, but ran into an impenetrable dome of energy, hastily cast by Aoshi.

“I see,” he observed. “This must be a place to finish off any intruders.”

“The golems are combining their strength,” Kaoru observed. “Very intelligent tactics.”

“This is no time to be admiring them, Kaoru-chan,” Megumi reprimanded.

Kaoru was coming to hate being called chan almost as much as Yahiko did. “Aoshi!” she snapped. “When I give the word, drop the barrier!”

“What?”

“Megumi, when he does, I want you to find whoever’s controlling the golems!”

The priestess recoiled. “Me?” It wasn’t that she was a coward, but she certainly wasn’t used to being attacked by large numbers of giant statues.

“It’s something a priestess of Flagoon ought to be able to do. Don’t worry, we’ll block any attacks from the golems. Okay?”

“All right,” she agreed, with some hesitation.

Misao jumped up. “Am I supposed to help block attacks too?”

“Sure. I’m counting on you, Misao. Okay?”

The girl sniffed. “Boy, you really know how to manipulate people!”

Kaoru grinned.

Under Megumi’s hair, fox ears twitched. That sweat-stinking little girl thinks she can manipulate her way into Ken-san’s heart…? I don’t believe that talk about laundry for a second…

“Okay, Aoshi,” Kaoru went on. “Let’s do it!”

The barrier went down.

BURST RONDO!

A barrage of lightning pounded the encircling golems into rubble. They lost no time in taking advantage of the clear space. “Now! Ready or not, here we come!”

“Justice will always triumph!” cried Misao. “FLARE ARROW

FIREBALL!”

FREEZE ARROW!”

Megumi, caught up in trying to sense the golems’ controller, looked up to see one of the ugly stone monsters trying to grab her.

FIREBALL!

Aoshi turned it to smoking cinders. “Come on, Megumi!”

“Right!” She went back to trying to sense the force controlling the golems. The power was coming from… “I’ve got it! The relief of Shishio on the wall over there! I can sense an evil power coming from it!”

“Thanks, Megumi!” Kaoru exclaimed. “I’ll take it from here!” She levitated up to the carved bust, but the golems snatched at her.

BOM SPREED!

Aoshi shattered the would-be attackers. “Go, Kaoru!”

“Thanks, Aoshi!” She rose to within range of the sculpted figure and leveled her bokken at it.

FIREBALL!

Behind Aoshi, Megumi and Misao, the pursuing golems stopped, then crumbled.

“Whew.” Kaoru floated back to the cave floor. “Rest in pieces,” she said to the rubble.

“That was close,” sighed Misao.

“Wait a minute, where’s Ken-san?” Megumi wondered.

“I’d say he was taken to some other place by himself,” replied Aoshi.

“Oh no!” Megumi gasped.

“Kenshin…” Kaoru whispered. And then she heard it – the unmistakable sound of steel on steel.

“What is it?” asked Megumi.

“Ssh! Listen! I hear a sword fight!”

“A sword fight?” Misao wondered.

Megumi knew who it had to be. “Ken-san!”

“You ain’t bad!” Sano grinned.

“Nor are you,” replied Kenshin.

“It’s been ages since I’ve had this much fun in a fight!”

“Sessha is not the kind of man who takes pleasure in fighting…”

“Come on, Kenshin!” Sano jeered. “Show me your real strength! Throw away that stupid idea of not killing and fight me seriously!”

“Why do you want to fight me?” Kenshin panted. “In the forest, you said that if I faced you again you would tell me.”

“You can’t guess?”

“It has to do with the reason you wear the symbol for evil on your back,” Kenshin speculated. “Beyond that…?”

“I useta be one of the Sekihoutai.”

Kenshin gasped. “The Sekihoutai… but that was… you would have been a child!”

Sano spat. “Yeah, about as old as that brat who tails you around.”

From his safe vantage point in the rocks, Yahiko clenched his fists and snarled.

“When it looked like the Ishin faction was gonna win, they disowned us,” the big man went on. “They sent messengers saying we were a false army who’d been deceiving the people, telling them their taxes were gonna be cut in half – just what they’d told us to say! Anyway, they rounded up Sagara-taichou and the rest of the leaders and cut their heads off in the public square! Stuck them up for everyone to see, with the evil symbol hung around their necks.”

“And so sessha, as the Ishin faction’s assassin…” Kenshin bowed his head.

And the wall blasted in! “Ken-san!” cried Megumi.

“Che!” spat Sano. “Your friends interrupting us again?”

“I’d call it good timing!” retorted Kaoru.

“Ken-san, we’ll help you…” Megumi stopped, with Kaoru’s hand clapped over her mouth.

“Don’t worry,” Kaoru said in her ear. “Kenshin’s got it handled. We’d only mess it up if we butted in, and he’d never forgive us. We’ll just wait and let him finish it.”

“But…” the priestess protested.

“It’s all right. Kenshin knows what he’s doing.”

Sano laughed. “So now we’re free to fight to our hearts’ content. Let me show you the might of the Howling Sword!” He whirled the zanbatou over his head and then snapped it down in Kenshin’s direction. A cyclone blasted toward the rurouni.

Megumi gasped in horror. “Ken-san!”

Kenshin avoided the blast easily.

“Don’t worry, he’s fine,” Kaoru reassured Megumi. “See?”

“Not quite,” Aoshi pointed out. The blast reflected off the inside of the domed roof and headed straight for Kenshin. Soon the shockwave was coming from every direction, and Kenshin had to go on the defensive. “The shockwave gets stronger with every reflection!”

“Ken-san!” Megumi buried her face in her hands.

“Hey, Kenshin!” Kaoru called. “If you win I’ll take you to dinner! My treat!”

Kenshin gave her his sunniest smile. “Sessha will remember that, Kaoru-dono!”

“At least you didn’t say you’d cook it, busu!” exclaimed Yahiko. “He’d lose for sure!”

“Yahiko! Where’ve you been!”

“With Kenshin. I was hidin’ behind those rocks over there. Once Sano and Kenshin started goin’ at it, that looked like the safest place. Oww! Hey, busu, whaddya do that for?!” He raised his hands over his head to protect himself from Kaoru’s bokken.

“For worrying me, baka!”

“Now it ends, Kenshin!” Sanosuke effortlessly whirled the heavy zanbatou above his head.

“It’s just beginning!” Kenshin retorted, bringing the Sword of Light up to block the vortex. Sano nearly dropped his weapon in surprise.

“What’s he doing?” Misao asked.

Aoshi’s eyes widened. “He’s… he’s resonating the Sword of Light with the Howling Sword to absorb the shockwave! It’s incredible!”

“Go, Kenshin!” Yahiko cheered.

Slowly, Kenshin turned the energy vortex back toward Sanosuke. Inexorably he forced it back, back, until under the strain the zanbatou’s massive blade snapped! Sano’s battered body flew across the chamber and crashed into a wall.

“Mada mada,” he whispered hoarsely, and started to pick himself up – only to find himself staring into the blinding radiance of the Sword of Light. The zanbatou’s useless hilt dropped from his fingers and clattered on the stone floor.

“All right!” cheered Misao. “I knew Justice would triumph in the end!”

“Sano,” Kenshin said quietly.

“Ain’t ya gonna finish me, Ishin?” the tall fighter asked bitterly.

“Oi, what the hell are you talkin’ about!” exploded Yahiko. “Kenshin ain’t like that!”

“Yahiko…” Kenshin murmured.

“Maybe he useta be some kinda killer, but he don’t kill any more – not people, anyway. Just trolls and mazoku, and that ain’t really killin’ ‘cuz they ain’t alive the same way people are. Kenshin protects people – ordinary folks who just want to live their lives. Ain’t that what your Sekihoutai did, tryin’ to get folks’ taxes lowered and stuff? Maybe I’m just a brat, but it looks to me like there’s a big difference between Kenshin and some ass like Shishio who wipes out a whole town just to prove some kinda point!”

“The Sekihoutai didn’t fight for power or gain,” Kenshin murmured. “They tried to make ordinary people’s lives better.”

Sano dropped his gaze. “I just went along for years,” he said, “gettin’ into fights, finally started takin’ bounties for eatin’ money. Then one day I ran into Katsu – he was in the Sekihoutai too, real smart guy, useta do alchemy stuff for ’em – and he said this Yumi was goin’ after the Battousai. I couldn’t pass that up, not a chance to avenge Sagara-taichou and the others by takin’ out the strongest of the Ishin! But you… you ain’t like the rest of those scum. And it don’t mean nothin’ anyway, the rest of them’re all dead now. So…”

“Megumi-dono is a healing priestess. Won’t you at least let her take care of your wounds?”

The tall fighter snorted. “These little bumps? Che.”

“Ken-san, are you all right?” asked Megumi, coming over with her medicine case.

“Not bad, Kenshin!” Kaoru grinned, right behind her.

“Sano is very strong, that he is,” Kenshin admitted. “Where did you want to go to dinner, Kaoru-dono?”

“What?” she blinked.

“You did offer to treat sessha to dinner.”

“Kenshin no baka! Why would I say something like that? And after you made me worry so much too!”

Megumi stared, her eyes turning to tiny specks. The quarrel was so silly, and the affection beneath it so strong, it was like a blow. That sweaty, violent little girl – and my Ken-san?

“Their relationship just keeps getting weirder and weirder,” Misao remarked.

Aoshi walked over to Sanosuke. “It’s a mystery to me how people with so much talent can be so clueless. The minute they even start to act serious about one another, it always turns into this kind of foolishness.”

“Sure looks that way,” the big man replied. “They’re after somethin’ in the deepest chamber, y’know. But I don’t know what it is.”

Kaoru broke off battling Kenshin to listen. “Thank you, Sano.”

Megumi set down her medicine case. “Ken-san said you were wounded…?”

“It’s nothing,” Sano growled. Then he looked up into her concerned cinnamon eyes, and grinned. “Of course if a foxy healer like you wants to take care of me, I won’t say no.”

The concern in her eyes hardened to irritation, and she was tempted to handle him roughly. But she couldn’t once she saw how seriously he was injured. “Nothing, you say?” Men are such idiots, to do things like this to each other. Even Ken-san…

“Ow, that hurts, woman!” Sano protested. “Oi, what are you doing?!”

She pulled at his hanten. “Be quiet and let me take this off, rooster head!”

“Che, that’s harsh, megitsune…”

They sound just like Himura and Kaoru-san, Misao thought, watching them quarrel.

“All right,” Kaoru called as Megumi finished bandaging Sano. “Let’s go get Shishio’s legacy!”

They all followed her out through the hole in the wall, leaving Sano behind.

“Sano!” Kenshin called. “We’ll meet again sometime!”

“Aa!” he called back.

The goal is in sight, and we’re racing toward it! But which of us will reach Shishio’s legacy first?

NOTES, EXPLANATIONS ETC.

I hope I didn’t botch Kenshin and Sano’s background too badly. Having more or less turned Sairaag into the Slayers-universe equivalent of 1864-5 Kyoto, I figured I could turn the Sekihoutai into some kind of popular front backing Kenshin’s faction. Writing this series is more like making a patchwork quilt than anything else I’ve ever done – cut, piece, fudge, and hope it doesn’t look too bad once it’s all together! And of course I wanted to lay the background for a future Sano/Megumi relationship that will hopefully happen somewhere in Oro Next. As for Aoshi blushing when Misao fell on top of him, well, that’s straight out of Slayers but it looks so much cooler in white marble… Turning Sylphiel (gee, I can see why some people think she’s annoying) into the Fox Lady is a challenge too…