"What the hell sorta question is that!?" Chou exploded. "Tokio-san was the nicest lady I’ve""Yes," Saitoh answered over Chou’s outburst."Wha- wha- what?" Chou stammered."How was she trained?" Enishi asked, his curiousity piqued."By me and my comrades from the Bakumatsu." Saitoh reached his hand into his pocket and fingered the strip of fabric from Tokio’s kimono. "She also mentioned an instructor from her girl-hood days that taught her a great deal of tactics for her personal protection.""I see now," Enishi murmured. "Saitoh, do you know of any schools who’s main attack is in the upper body?" He asked."Why do you want to know? Why should I help you? For all I know you could have taken Tokio yourself."Enishi ground his teeth and stared fiercely at Saitoh, wishin for his sword. "Because if you tell me I could find your wife."

Saitoh snorted skeptically and blew smoke out the window. "The Gatotsu," he replied simply."Not your Gatotsu, An-san," Chou asked in disbelief."There aren’t too many Gatotsu techniques floating around, fool.""Do you know who the masters are, or were?" Enishi asked. Saitoh pulled a battered pice of paper out of his desk and handed it to Enishi. The names, apporxomate ages, families and homes of about three dozen men were listed. Enishi noted that there were checks by several names and more than one location of residence listed."What’s the second city for?""Where they moved."Enishi found three in Osaka and only one left alive. One had no family and the other had two children and had married twice. "There," he said, pointing to the blurred name. "That man taught Otomi the Gatotsu."

Kenshin said softly from behind him, "Enishi, that’s an awefully big assumption.""But-""It was him," Saitoh interrupted. Enishi and Kenshin turned to him in mild surpries. "He was furious that I, who was the leader of his unit, refused to help him open a school to teach Gatotsu. He swore to me he would pass it on somehow, though why he didn’t pass it to his son""The boy is too young," Enishi groweled, suddenly on the defensive. Saitoh ignored him and focused on Kenshin."Battousai, tell me how old you were when you began to train as the hitokiri.""I never trained to be an assassin," Kenshin replied calmly, "and if your point is that it’s never too young to begin to learn kenjutsu, I belive the point in teaching Otomi-dono rather than Iida-kun is simply a matter of personality. Iida is not a person that I belive can control the power of the Gatotsu, whereas Otomi-dono was not only capable of it, but also older. Her father knew his time was wearing thin and most likely wished for somebody to know Gatotsu before he died.

"Perhaps Otomi-dono and Enishi will find later that Iida-kun carries his father’s fighting talents," Kenshin continued, "but it will be their choice and not yours, Saitoh."Saitoh smirked at Enishi suggestively. "Should the need ever arise for a teacher""Shut up," Enishi muttered.A knock came at the door and Shin’ichi stepped in before anybody in the room could respond. "Himura-sensei," he said, "Captain Fujita, we’re locking the building up. You’re the last people here.""Right," Saitoh said decisively, extinguishing his cigarette in the ashtray before letting Kenshin and Enishi exit before him. "I’ll have to talk to Shinomori eventually, but for now just let the police handle it." His tone clearly implied ‘or else’.

END CHAPTER FIVE