Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ —¤: Boy meets dad :¤— ❯ Meeting Battoussai ( Chapter 3 )

Standard disclaimers apply.

 

 

 

::::::::::::::::::: CHAPTER 3 :::::::::::::::::::

 

 

 

To say that he was shocked was an understatement. His knees felt like jelly. If not for the support of the wall, he thought he might have done something undignified like falling to his knees and passing out.

 

Kenji's eyes were bugging out from their sockets, he was in utter disbelief. Was he dreaming? Did he hit his head on something hard, scrambling his brains out, making him see things!? Was he going crazy?

 

He pinched himself just in case and winced as he felt pain. Nope, he definitely wasn't dreaming. What… where… er… when… how… why… was he here then!?! Questions were swimming in his mind and he was in total shock in being face to face with his father.

 

This man, erm, BOY was his father! He turned his violet eyes back to the figure again, his mouth gaping open like a fish out of water. He was in the past! His father was an ex-hitokiri and he's in the middle of an assassination! Holy son of a mou-ing de gozaru yo!

 

Despite the intense shaking of his hands, he managed to re-sheathe his sword.

 

“What did you say?” Kenshin Himura asked the peculiar stranger who just jumped into the foray and called him `father' afterwards. Was he insane? Kenshin peered into the violet eyes that looked so familiar. Normally, he would slay first and ask questions later, but this boy looked somewhat familiar, as if Kenshin should know him for some reason. Perhaps if there was more light… Kenshin blinked and shuddered.

 

He wasn't this boy's father, that was for sure. He was only 15, he scoffed. He was too young to be a father. Heck, he wasn't even married yet! This boy was nuts and Kenshin tightened his hold on his sword in a sense of self-preservation. He's never had to handle lunatics before. He finished his assignment by assassinating his `assignments' for tonight. The boy did help him, taking down the three bodyguards while he disposed of his main target, so he owed the teenager a couple of minutes to explain himself before he decided what to do with him.

 

This guy saw him kill, but so did he - the boy killed those three people, didn't he? What was he to do with someone who saw him kill? He was supposed to be a manslayer in the shadows, no one was supposed to know of his existence. His eyes narrowed into slits at the thought of killing this boy… Was he an assassin like him?

 

“Are you Kenshin Himura?” Kenji boldly asked the red-haired swordsman who seemed deep in thought. Years of spending time with Hiko had fortified his mother's straightforward genes in him.

 

That statement certainly gathered Kenshin's attention as his amber eyes turned into pure gold. Kenji, who hardly knew his father, much less got to experience the different sides of him - most especially the Battoussai, if his guess was right and he was somewhere in the Bakamatsu - flinched.

 

“How do you know my name? Who are you?” Kenshin asked quietly, bellying a veiled threat. His suspicion grew, only Katsurasan and a handful of Ishin Shishi warriors knew him or of his existence.

 

Kenji didn't know whether to laugh or cry - it was his father, in the flesh… as a teenager! Kami-sama! What the holy heck happened!?!? The last thing he remembered was choking on that weird fog before he passed out and woke up in the wrong era!

 

And what the holy de gozaru was he supposed to tell the young Kenshin in front of him right now?

 

`Oyasuminasai Otousan, I'm your son from the future. Fancy meeting you here ne?'

 

or how about `I'm Kenji Himura, your son… from the future.'

 

Crap! No no no!!!

 

`I come from… your future, otousan!'

 

Smooth Kenji, real smooth.

 

Wait… if he was in the past, does that mean that he's going to be able to affect his father's history? What will happen to him if he accidentally re-writes it? He felt ill as he remembered the pile of unconscious bodies that piled on top of the other just several yards away. Was Kenshin supposed to kill those people tonight? They're not dead… did he already change history unknowingly? Crap!

 

Kenshin sweat dropped at he watched the teenager in front of him have a glazed look on his face and he looked like he was spacing out. Weirdo. He was even whispering to himself.

 

“Are you going to answer me or are you going to talk to yourself all night?” Kenshin mocked.

 

“Oro?” Kenji exclaimed and mentally kicked himself. He can NOT believe that he's stuck in the past using the one thing - well, aside from the sakabatou and his looks - that his father passed on to him. The use of the “oro” word.

 

“What's your name?” Kenshin asked him again.

 

Kenji swallowed. “Kenji,” he answered, very reluctant to say his last name. Should he tell him? What if he slays him on the spot, thinking he was some kind of assassin sent to get him? He frowned, trying to recall the events that were supposed to happen to his father during this time.

 

He heard lots of stories from his mother, and then later on from Master Hiko.

 

The young samurai sighed. What was that saying about honesty being the best policy? He waved his hands in front of him in a pacifying manner. “Before you start slicing and dicing Himura-san, please hear me out. As odd as this may sound, I'm a…” relative, he wanted to say but ended up saying “friend” instead. He swallowed, not really thinking it was a good idea to tell his father that he was from the future. I mean, who would believe him right? He couldn't even begin to fathom how he ended up here as well so how should he be able to explain something he himself didn't understand?

 

Kenshin looked at him skeptically.

 

“I'm here to help you.” Kenji tried again.

 

Now Kenshin had an annoyed look on his face. “I don't need your help.” He paused. “Did Katsura-san send you after me?”

 

Thanking his mother for the history lessons Kenji replied. “No, um I was hoping you would take me to him and I can ask him if I could join your faction.” I hope that doesn't mean I just signed up to be a manslayer, he added silently to himself.

 

“Are you a spy? A rival assassin sent to get rid of me?!?” Kenshin hissed and fell into an attack stance. I knew it! Kenshin said to himself. You really can't trust people these days, no matter what your first impression of them is.

 

Kenji's eyes became as large as saucers. If worse comes to worst, he could at least defend himself, but this was getting absurd! “No, no! You got that all wrong! I'm not here to assassinate anyone! I'm on your side!” His voice cracked as Kenshin disappeared from his view and attacked him.

 

Katana clashed against sakabatou as the older son protected himself from his younger father's onslaught.

 

Despite the circumstances, Kenshin couldn't help but feel almost impressed at how the stranger was holding up against him. He wasn't aiming to kill the guy, just meaning to scare him a bit to make him tell the truth, but even though he looked scared, Kenshin could feel that he was holding back somehow.

 

Stuck in the past with his father trying to kill him. It was like some kind of bad kabuki play if he ever saw one. Kenji wasn't panicking, no, he told himself he wasn't even as he ducked and raised his sword to defend himself against another strike. “Hiko-sama sent me!” He blurted the sentence out, hoping that mentioning their mentor's name would make the hitokiri trust him enough or at least stop attacking.

 

Well that did the trick. The red-haired hitokiri stopped in mid-attack.

 

Kenshin face faulted at the mention of his shishou's name. `How did this boy know about shishou?'

 

“Explain yourself.”

 

Boy, did he know how to dig a hole deep or what!