Chapter 6: Divided Loyalties; Two Okashira

Back outside Enishi and Kenshin headed back to the dojo. "That’s easy for him to say," Enishi grumbled, "he gets to hear everything first.""He’ll cooperate," Kenshin assured Enishi."I just feel we need more to go on," he complained. "I feel like we’re shooting in the dark. We’ll never be able to hit our target without more light."Without warning a large band of light spilled across the street and hit Enishi and Kenshin in the eyes. They paused and held their hands up to sheild their eyes from the bright glare. Misao’s cheerful voice floasted to their ears. The wary stature that both men had adopted passed to be replaced by ease. Kenshin turned to Enishi and said wryly, "Is that enough light for you?"

"Plenty, thanks," Enishi replied sourly. He pulled his glasses off and rubbed at his eyes."Himura?" Kenshin and Enishi looked up at Misao’s query. "It is you, Himura! Oh, hello, Enishi-kun!" Enishi fixed his glasses back in place in time to see Misao’s radient beam and Aoshi’s dark glare. He didn’t pretend not to know what it meant. He exchanged looks with Aoshi that read plainly they would speak later."Misao-dono, Aoshi, what are you doing here?" Kenshin asked casually."I can’t tell you," Misao replied."Don’t be coy!" Enishi snapped, his temper flaring. An evening spent with Saitoh rairly did anybody any good at all. "Did you find out anything useful, Weasel Girl?" He could sense Kenshin’s disaproval and winced inside. Tomoe dragged him over the coals before letting him go with a splitting headache.

"Just for that, Black-glasses freak," she parried in annoyance, "I won’t let you know til morning!" With a sniff of distaste she turned and marched back towards the dojo. Enishi watched her pale legs, the only things he could see in the pitch darkness, in disbelief.‘You aren’t working with subordinates anymore, Enishi,’ Tomoe reminded him. ‘Treat that girl nicely.’"That little brat" he muttered fiercely.

Aoshi’s silent glare hinted at things neither of them would like to do. Kenshin waited patiently, his hand on the hilt of his sword, for them to finish their staring contest.It was finally Enishi that turned away, waving a hand rudely in Aoshi’s face dissmissively. "Ah, who cares about a fight over a stupid girl like that."A scream suddenly rent the air. All three men looked up in surprise. Aoshi moved first, dashing into the night in the direction that Misao’s cry had come from. Kenshin and Enishi dashed after him next, neck and neck. Kenshin shot Enishi a glance out of the corner of his eye. ‘First he says Misao’s isn’t worth fighting over, then he rushes to her rescue. Where does his loyalty lie? Which young woman is more important to him, Otomi-dono or Misao-dono?

‘For his sake,’ he thought grimly, ‘I hope it’s Otomi-dono.’As they plunged deeper into the darkness they began to hear sounds of a fight. They turned, Enishi clipping his shoulder on the corner of the alley, and continued down the tunnel of darkness. At the end three dim figure could be made out. The one with pale legs was obviously Misao and the taller of the other two was Aoshi.The third figure was slighter than Aoshi, taller than Misao and had a skill of dodging that outmatched both of their attempts to bring them down. "You!" Enishi called challengingly. "Who are you!?"The person snapped something that made Enishi suck in a gasp and look around him wildly. A rustling surrouned the combatants and Kenshin and Enishi as well. "Misao, duck!" Enishi yelled.Misao dropped the ground and Aoshi leapt back. He landed close enough to Enishi that he could see his naked swords gleaming. A sudden rain of people filled the night sky and dashed off in different directions. A muffled scream was heard from Misao’s general direction. Aoshi clentched his kodachi tighter and plunged in, lashing out at everybody indiscriminately.

"Aoshi-sama, stop!"The hasty lack of movement was only softened by the swords in Aoshi’s hands falling to the ground suddenly. In the stillness that followed, one lone person stood silhouetted on top of the wall at the end of the alley.Enishi began to speak to them in Chinese. Kenshin turned to him in surprise. "Enishi, what’s going on?"The other man ignored him and continued to speak. The three Japanese people could only pick up a few words out of the barage of that passed between Enishi and the strange, shadowy man. One that came up a lot was ‘Otomi’. Kenshin couldn’t help but think, ‘Perhaps it is Otomi-dono that Enishi is most concerned about.’As the mostly one-sided conversation progressed, Enishi expression got darker and darker. Finally he began to yell at the man. He shouted back and leapt down from the wall to advance on Enishi menecingly. Kenshin, Aoshi and Misao watched in surprised silence. Even when the man stepped within a few feet of Kenshin, he didn’t move a muscle. The two Chinese-speakers leaned into each others faces and screamed what were obviously vicious epithets.

Without warning, Enishi brought his arm up and planted his fist in the other man’s masked face. They rocked back and fell on the ground with a muffled thud. Enishi calmly closed the distance between them in a few long strides and picked the mysterious man up roughly.The other people in the alley, as though freed from a spell, began to move again. Aoshi turned slowly to Misao, who was sitting on the ground, clutching her leg. "What happened, Misao"She didn’t reply directly. Instead she muttered as she tore strips out of the sash of her fuku to bind the long, shallow cut on her thigh. Aoshi watched in shock as she turned her once elaborate sash into a simple bandage. While she held the pieces of fabric against the wound with one leg, she untied the now lopsided sash and tore it into long strips. Kenshin and Enishi quickly averted their eyes in embarressment. Aoshi watched as she began to bandage the wound. When he was sure that she could handle it on her own, he looked away too.

As Aoshi stared ahead on him, out into the faintly lit street, he seethed inside. Most of his anger was at himself. He had failed to protect her. She had been injured when he could have easily prevented it and then he had almost killed her. The only thing that could make the whole situation worse was the fact that Enishi showed a little too much interest in Misao.‘I don’t know why,’ he thought carefully, ‘but I don’t like it. The last time he paid a lot of attention to a girl, Kaoru was kidnapped and Kenshin nearly went insane.’Misao rose and limped over to the men a little slower than she normally moved. Aoshi turned as soon as she stood and watched carefully to see if she needed any help. He didn’t make a move toward her that would beray his worry to her and the others. To his extreme surprise, she walked right past him and stared up at Enishi."You’ve lost your glasses," she stated. Enishi immediately fumbled for the missing black-glasses."Shit, you’re right." He turned around and began to scan the dark alley. Misao headed past him and Kenshin and stooped at the mouth of the alley and picked something up.

"Enishi-kun," she called cheerfully, "I’ve found them!" Enishi walked swiftly to her side and held out a hand for them. Instead, she rose up on her tiptoes and placed the glasses on his nose for him, brushing her hands along his cheeks fleetingly as she did so. Aoshi stared, trying hard to smother his aghast expression.A slow, gentle smile spread across Enishi’s features. "Thanks," he said softly. Misao smiled back just as invitingly in reply. Aoshi averted his eyes disctreetly and told himself firmly, ‘I will not act childish. I will not. I don’t need to care about who Misao picks as her friends.’Fortunately for him, Kenshin broke the silent exchange. "Everybody, we should be getting back to the dojo with our new information."

Misao and Enishi started a little guiltily. "Will we be telling Saitoh about this?" Enishi asked, heading down the street, followed closely by Misao. He shrugged the shoulder with the limp form of the man resting over it."Only if we have to," Kenshin replied. Aoshi noticed that he was slowly growing colder and more distant. He was leaving his rurouni personality behind and adopting the role of leader. ‘He’s becoming more and more like the famous assassin and not the famous wanderer. Does he know something we don’t?’

The four people walked through the dojo gates and into the main hall quickly and silently. Enishi tossed his still-unconscience hostage on the ground unceremoniusly. "Kenshin, Aoshi, Misao," he said, easly slipping into a comanding tone of voice, "watch him. I’m going to find Kaoru and maybe Sano and Yahiko. We may need them. Make sure they don’t escape."He pause by the door, his hand on the frame, and added over his shoulder, "And don’t let the Weasel Girl get hurt." He quickly left the dojo and shut the door behind him.Infuriated, Misao yelled after him, "I can take care of myself, Black-glasses freak!""Misao-dono, calm down," Kenshin advised, holding up his hands. "You should be careful on that leg."

Ignoring Misao’s angery retort, Aoshi went to the door and pulled it open. The fresh night air washed over him. The calming moment while his eyes adjusted from the cheerfully-lit dojo to the blue-black darkness was all that he needed to get his emotions under control. "Enishi," he called into the darkness. A white head reappeared from the main house a moment later. "You might want to get Doctor Takani to look at Misao’s leg.""Why? The cut’s not that bad, is it?" Aoshi heard Kaoru and Yahiko’s voices exclaiming in worry about Misao."The blade could have been poisoned.""Oh, right." Aoshi shut the door again and turned back to the dojo. Misao was gingerly unwrapping her leg and examining the cut. The blood-soaked strips of fabric fell to the floor with soft, damp