Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ —¤: Boy meets dad :¤— ❯ Coming Clean ( Chapter 9 )

Warning: Extremely sappy chapter ahead, sorry I couldn't help myself. :P

I truly wish I owned Kenshin. :sigh:

 

- CHAPTER 9 -

 

 

Kenshin Himura opened his eyes and met the familiar sight of his bedroom ceiling with surprise. He was laying down on his futon beside his katana back at the inn! Did I just imagine being beaten by Kamiya using my own Hiten Mitsurugi style? He tried to sit up and his body groaned in protest. If it was just a dream then it felt extremely real. He could still feel the blows from the combo attacks. He also noticed that there was blood on the sheets, and his eyes widened.

 

The blood looked like it was coming from his face. When he touched it, he felt a diagonal slash on his left cheek. He managed to injure me despite his reverse-blade sword on top of defeating me? Blood was pouring out of his cheek and soiling his clothes, so he hastily stood up and found a rag to apply pressure on the wound.

 

As he changed his bloodstained clothes, he continued contemplating.

 

No one had been able to beat him before, except for his shishou when they were training, and using a combo move was something that Kenshin never had the chance to witness before either. He's never had to use any fancy Hiten Mitsurugi moves like that since he joined the Cho Su faction.

 

His amazement about the fact that he was defeated wasn't long lasting, however. He sobered as he thought of how the boy Kamiya was able to use a Hiten Mitsurugi move on him, catching him off-guard.

 

There was only one master and one apprentice for the Hiten Mitsurugi Style, and shishou was the master while he was the apprentice in this current time. His master couldn't have trained another apprentice after Kenshin left, could he? I left only last year… he couldn't have found a replacement apprentice immediately or trained him that fast…

 

And… and did Kamiya call me `father'? I know I heard him call me father before, which makes that twice now… counting the first time we met and exchanged swords.

 

It was so bizarre. Kamiya was older than him, so he couldn't be the boy's father. Unless the boy was from the future, which was impossible, Kenshin thought that the boy was demented.

 

Tucking his katana into the belt of his hakama, Kenshin threw the rag haphazardly on the floor, exited his room and headed towards Kamiya's room. The only way I can get answers is by talking to him.

 

Standing in front of the door, he knocked cautiously, still not sure on what to expect. Opening the shoji, Kenji's violet eyes narrowed, stopping at the diagonal scar that now graced the younger man's face, when he saw that it was Kenshin.

 

“What do you want?”

 

The Battoussai almost flinched from the venom in Kamiya's voice. “To talk.”

 

Kenji scoffed. “Aren't you Mr. Slay-Now-Ask-Questions-Later?” Despite his current temper, he knew that this `talk' was inevitable so he opened the door wider, inviting the hitokiri in and closed the door securely behind him. Crossing the room, he opened his window and started climbing out. “Let's talk on the roof,” he offered to explain and then turned around, not waiting for his father.

 

Once the two redheads were settled comfortably on the top of the roof of the inn, the younger one decided to break the silence first.

 

“So who are you exactly and why do you keep calling me your father? How… how were you able to use a Hiten Mitsurugi move on me?”

 

Kenji was quiet for a couple of minutes before finally deciding to come clean. He took a deep breath. “What I am about to tell you, no one else must know. I have already botched things up big time and I don't need to mess them up some more. I am only explaining this to you because I don't want you doubting and trying to kill me every time we cross paths on the street. What I will tell you must not grace anyone else's ears, do you understand? You must swear this upon your honor as a swordsman.”

 

“I promise,” Kenshin nodded.

 

“My real name is Kenji Himura. Kamiya is my mother's family name. As hard as it may be to believe, I come from your future, Kenshin. I'm your son.”

 

Kenshin sucked in his breath at the startling news, not sure whether to believe this kid or not. “If you really are from the future then how come you're here?”

 

Kenji shrugged. “I can't explain it myself. I had just finished training under Hiko-sama and was on my way home to Tokyo when I decided to stop by someone's grave,” He paused, “your first wife's grave, and a thick fog choked me. The next thing that happened was me walking into the middle of your sword fight that night we met.”

 

“That's why you called me otousan that first time.” The young hitokiri observed and then blinked. “First wife?” He squeaked and furrowed his brows.

 

“Yes.” Kenji continued. “My mother was your second wife. You're supposed to have gotten married in the Bakamatsu and your wife died.” Kenji paused, not sure if he should tell his father that he was the one who killed his first wife.

“What is it?”

 

The older Himura sighed. In for a penny, in for a pound… “You were supposed to accidentally kill your first wife, causing you to become a wandering swordsman for 10 years after the Bakamatsu and vowing never to kill again before you met my mother. I don't know exactly when, but judging from the way things are around here, I'm guessing I somehow prevented you from meeting your first wife. If…” Kenji took a deep breath, “if you don't become a rurouni or meet my mother, I'm never going to be born.”

 

Several minutes of silence passed before one of them spoke again. “This is all kind of hard to believe, don't you think? What makes you confident that I would believe you? I saw you talk with the Shinsengumi today and you don't want to kill the enemies!”

 

Kenji laughed a hollow laugh. “Believe it or not, you were one of the people who influenced me and my mentor about `protecting the weak' and `not killing'. My mother's sword style is called Kamiya Kasshin Style, which invigorates the body and protects people, like I told you that night with Katsura-san, but you believe in protecting people while not having to kill anyone years from now as well.” He regarded his father silently and pointed to the sakabatou hanging from his hip. “This was yours.”

 

Kenshin was still struggling with himself. Part of him wanted to believe the young man who looked so much like him, yet part of him was fighting against his gut instinct.

 

“How else will someone who looks totally like you, someone who could pass as your twin,” he glanced at Kenshin's diagonal scar, “or not… okay, someone who looks exactly like you, only maybe with darker red hair and darker purple eyes… I know your normal eye color is purple, don't deny it,” Kenji hastily added, silencing his father, “use the Hiten Mitsurugi style? You know as well as I that there is only one apprentice and one master at a time.”

 

Kenshin frowned at this. The boy's words rang true. But wait… “If there is only one apprentice and one master, does that mean that I'm dead in the future? Your future? And what was that about telling me you hate me before I lost consciousness in the forest earlier?”

 

The young bodyguard smiled a painful smile. “Right now, in my future, like I told you before, both my parents are dead. I hated… or sometimes still hate you… because you abandoned me and mother to travel all over Japan and “protect the weak”. Three years ago, I ran away from home and went to Hiko-sama to train. A close family friend who's almost a blood relative came back to retrieve me because mother was ill. Some time after I returned to Tokyo, you finally returned from your long trip in Shanghai but died on the spot after reuniting with mother. I never got to know you.” The words were said with pure emotion, Kenshin can almost feel the hurt and bitterness that the young man directed toward him, his father.

 

This teenager… really was his son, Kenshin could feel it in his heart. For the first time since he became a hitokiri, he felt the stirrings of what could be described as emotions again. Being a hitokiri, he resolved with himself not to feel for other people anymore, deeming himself unworthy of happiness when he took away the lives of people who represented happiness for their families as well.

 

No matter how you look at it, murder is murder no matter how `just' your cause was. He had to learn the hard way, and it slowly killed him from the inside out. He was practically devoid of all emotions most of the time.

 

Yet, no matter how hard he tried to deny it, deep inside his hitokiri heart, he could feel that this teenager was telling him the truth.

 

Kenshin's heart soared at this piece of information. I'm going to survive through the Bakamatsu! And I was going to be blessed with a family! But… “Was I such a bad person? Why do you hate me so much?”

 

Recognizing that his father was finally starting to believe him, Kenji couldn't help but be blunt. “Oh no, don't get me wrong. You're a wonderful person, and maybe even a passable husband, but you were a terrible father!” Kenji said, spitting the last word out like it was the most disgusting thing in the world. “You were hardly, or mostly never there for me! You were always off in some corner of Japan in one of your `save the world' escapades. I was an only child and mother spent most of her life in the docks of Tokyo, waiting for your return.”

 

He had been far too forgiving because he reasoned with himself that Himura the Battoussai haven't done the things that Kenshin Himura the wanderer did yet, but getting attacked by him twice, with the intent of killing, was just too much. And all this talk about the past was rubbing salt on Kenji's still fresh wounds.

 

“I don't know why I was sent here,” He regarded his father quietly. “But the minute I found out who you were, I thought that Kami-sama was giving me a second chance to get to know you, develop some sort of relationship with you and not feel so bitter every time the subject of the legendary Kenshin Himura, the former Hitokiri Battoussai turned Wandering Swordsman and Savior of the World, came up.”

 

“If you really are my son, how come you were talking to the Shinsengumi earlier?”

 

Kenji laughed genuinely this time. “Believe it or not, one of those Shinsengumi people I was talking to earlier will become an ally in the future. My friendship with him is based entirely on insults but I still greatly respect him.”

 

“Him?”

“Maybe it's best for you not to know, you know? I've already told you so much about your future. It's not that important anyway. What's top priority right now is how I'm going to be born. No wandering swordsman equals no Kenji, remember?”

 

The Battoussai nodded, amusement dancing in his eyes for the first time ever since Kenji met him.

 

“You also don't look like yourself,” Kenshin's son remarked.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I mean, your scar. It's not an X like it should be.”

 

Kenshin didn't think he liked the fact that he was going to have an X-shaped scar all his life. “So I'm cursed with an X-shaped scar forever as well?” He asked, touching the diagonal wound on his face.

 

Chuckling, Kenji replied, “Don't worry, it's going to be famous! Like you.”

 

Himura the Battoussai didn't think he liked that piece of information but nodded his head despite of it. “What if it doesn't become an X?”

 

“I can complete it for you,” Kenji said slyly.

 

Kenshin actually smiled and shook his head. “No thanks, this diagonal line's going to keep me occupied for the time being, thanks.” He also couldn't help but notice the spurts of bossiness that his son tended to display once in a while. He smiled again. “Was your mother a bossy woman?”

 

“Yes, why do you ask?”

 

Kenji was sure to mark this day on the calendar, the day that he heard the Battoussai laugh a sincere laugh. “What's so funny?” Asked Kenji which sent the Battoussai into another bout of hysterics.

 

Kenshin was feeling like a heavy weight was being lifted from his shoulders. If what his son said was true, he was going to marry a woman who sounded pure and innocent, with beliefs like Kenji about not killing people with a sword and protecting them instead. They also know about his past, which meant that the said woman probably accepted him as he was, just Kenshin, and not as Battoussai the Manslayer. Considering the nightmare era that he was in right now, and the gruesome reality of his job as a ruthless hitokiri, Kenshin found himself actually looking forward to his future for the first time in a long while.

 

 

……

 

 

A/N: Hehe, this chapter was one page longer than my normal 3-page chapters in word and full of sappy stuff. Sorry, I couldn't help myself! I just pictured myself in Kenji's place and imagined how -I- would feel if my dad left me and my mom like that. :sigh: I hope Kenji and Kenshin didn't sound too girly. :P