Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Enigmatic Travels ❯ The Akabeko ( Chapter 8 )

"Well, let's head to Tokyo, it should be really close," Soujiro said as Keiko and Asuka came back. As the trio walked, Soujiro had noticed that Keiko seemed slightly chary and Asuka seemed extremely pensive-which seemed to be quite odd indeed. Soujiro had thought to ask what the problem was, but he figured it wouldn't concern him.

As they all silently trekked on for an hour they had finally reached the city of Tokyo. The city was bustling with people as well as shops, and it had seemed, to Soujiro, that the three of them had walked into a marketplace. "Keiko-chan?" Soujiro asked, "do you happen to know where this Akabeko is?"

Keiko shook her head without even making eye contact with Soujiro, which made him become slightly bewildered, 'what's wrong with her? Is it me? Or is it something about me that's making her so wary? Now that I think about it why is Asuka so...so...dazed? That's odd, I would think that she'd still be staring me down with that glare, why the sudden change?'

"Let's ask for directions," Asuka mumbled to Keiko, with a glance towards the younger girl. Keiko nodded and she walked over to a nearby fish merchant, and she asked the smelly man for directions.

He responded that it was on the other side of Tokyo, near the Kamiya dojo. Keiko didn't really know anything about the dojo, but it was a start. The name did sound familiar though, but she could vaguely remember. She thought that Tae-san might have mentioned it before, during a rare visit to the Rokubeko, as Keiko walked back to Asuka and Soujiro.

She told Soujiro and Asuka of the news, and while Soujiro nodded Asuka barely moved. 'Poor Asuka,' Keiko thought, 'She must still be thinking about her family. I hope she somehow gets her mind off of that subject soon, I'm starting to become worried.'

"I'm going to ask that person over there," Soujiro said, unintentionally interrupting Keiko's thoughts, as he was pointing to an average looking man. There was something about the man that Keiko didn't feel comfortable with. Whether it was the man's appearance, that glint in his eye, or maybe even his posture, he was somehow off-center in some indescribable manner.

Soujiro walked over, talked to the man for a few minutes, and Soujiro came back a few minutes later; "That man's name was Ujiki, although I wasn't sure why he told me his name. He said to take the road we're on, right now, to it's end, and then make a right. After that we need to make a left on the third street, and then make another left on the seventh alley on our right. We should arrive in the middle of one road, and we should make a left, and the dojo is on the right side. He didn't know how to get to the restaurant, so we'll just ask for directions from there, okay?"

Keiko and Asuka stared at him blankly as he gave the directions, and then both girls nodded their heads at the same time. It seemed, to Soujiro, as if Keiko and Asuka were completely in synch with each other as the three of them headed towards the dojo.

The directions seemed confusing at first to the group, but the path almost paved itself for the trio to arrive at the dojo, late in the afternoon. The dojo looked plain, and simple, yet somehow beautiful at the same time. It intrigued Soujiro in two odd ways. He wondered how the dojo was so simple yet pleasant at the same time, and what exactly the purpose of a dojo is in the cities.

There weren't many dojo's in Kyoto mainly because all of the masters, 'whatever those were they were masters of,' Soujiro thought, were either dead or they were scared off by Shishio-sama and the other members of the Juppon Gatana. 'Now that I think about it, Usui always enjoyed killing those mast...wait what am I saying? Usui enjoyed killing everything,' Soujiro laughed lightly.

Keiko glanced at the odd boy, and wondered, 'I wonder what he's thinking about...hopefully nothing about death.'

"Are we going in?" Asuka piped up, after a few minutes of what she thought as 'standing around like a bunch of morons.'

"Sure," Soujiro responded almost as if his voice sounded dead to a certain extent. Like he lost all of his emotions, and his voice became extremely hollow. He walked towards the gate, mainly to look for someone around the yard of the dojo.

Keiko and Asuka warily followed him, both girls sensing the murderer side of Soujiro coming out of him. Keiko in particular was quite frightened on the inside, and she wondered to a certain extent of how this man could have such drastic changes in personality. 'Asuka,' Keiko had figured, 'isn't as frightened because she's seen this side of Seta-san before. It's different with me, I met the nice side of him first, where as Asuka met the merciless side of him first. It's kind of odd how the both of us met each other, and through him for that matter.'

A young woman, about the age of seventeen, came into the view of the trio as she was sweeping some leaves, on the other side of the dojo. A younger boy, around the age of 10, was swinging what appeared to be a wooden sword, near the girl. Ironically, the trio all pondered over the wooden sword in something similar to, 'what the heck? Why is he swinging a wooden sword?'

A slight rustle, caused by Soujiro's feet, stirred the pairs' attention towards not only Soujiro, but to Asuka and Keiko as well. The woman stopped her work and bowed, "Konnichiwa, may I help you?"

Asuka took the initiative, as usual, but she was surprisingly pleasant; "Konnichiwa, do you happen to know where the Akabeko is miss?"

The woman smiled, "yes, just take a right from the dojo entrance, make a left on the first street you see, and then make another right on the first street again. You shouldn't miss it."

Keiko smiled and bowed, "doomo arigatou gozaimasu, ma'am."

"Maa, maa, Kaoru is fine."

"Hajimemashite, my name is Asuka," Asuka said as she bowed to Kaoru.

"Nice to meet you, Kaoru. Watashi wa, Keiko desu," Keiko bowed again.

"Ah, I think I had heard about you, Keiko-san. Tae-san is a good friend of mine, and she had told me about receiving extra help from her cousin. It's nice to see that you're here."

"Thank you again, Kaoru-san," Keiko responded.

"Well, I guess we should visit Tae-san, thanks again," Asuka said as she smiled and bowed. The three of them walked off and Keiko was mentally struck, 'Ah...stupid us, we forgot to introduce Seta-san, and that was kind of weird, but also nice, to see Asuka so well mannered and friendly. I wonder what brought that out in her.'

"Soujiro, why didn't you speak up back there?" Asuka prodded.

He looked at Asuka for a moment and then kept his gaze straight ahead, "I'm not sure. Why were you so pleasant back there?"

Asuka shrugged, "Does it matter? Let's just go, we've been walking enough today."

Soujiro nodded, but he was still slightly wary of the change in Asuka's behavior. 'What caused that change?' he thought as they walked towards the restaurant, 'Was it me? Was it Keiko-chan? Wait...never-mind, I doubt Keiko-chan caused something like that. So, I did it, or Asuka did it to herself...but how could that have happened? And if it did happen, then why did she change her personality? So, somehow it was me, but what did I do?'

About fifteen minutes of walking, in silence, took place before the trio could see the restaurant up ahead. The Akabeko was a medium sized restaurant, although it seemed to have a homely and humble feel to it, that most restaurants these days didn't seem to procure. Maybe the food was more of a home-style of cooking, or maybe it's simply because the employees are friendly-Soujiro wasn't sure of which, but he already liked the restaurant.

He glanced at Keiko and he noticed that she seemed a little wary, and it puzzled him to bewilderment, 'Is it because she had to start working there soon? Or is it that she may have to leave Asuka and me? I hope it's not the second one. Why would she want to be friends with someone like me? I don't have to offer much, and besides I am a murder technically. She probably doesn't know, but that doesn't matter. I'm unworthy of friendship, especially from someone so innocent as her.'

"Something wrong, Soujiro?" Asuka asked while she was looking straight ahead.

"No, nothing is wrong," he replied, almost as an instinctive defense mechanism.

"I know there's something wrong. Cheer up, okay?"

"Areh?" Soujiro asked in surprise. Then, when he figured that Asuka wasn't going to look at him, he smiled and replied, "ano...thank you-Asuka. I will try to cheer up."

Keiko, who had also been in deep thought, looked up at the woman in surprise as well. 'Asuka-chan's changing, I can kind of tell from before,' she thought, 'but that drastically? I thought she was arrogant and selfish, like when I first met her. And I thought she hated Seta-san with a passion, I wonder how that incident changed her. What an odd person, yet I can't help but sympathize for her. Wait...wouldn't that mean I'd be with her and against Seta-san? But I sympathize for Seta-san as well, so how can I help them both out if they're against each other?'

Asuka blankly looked around the interior of the restaurant as the trio entered. There seemed to be a few tables out in the open, but she had noticed that several more tables were private. Sort of an odd way to set up a restaurant, and pretty unique in her opinion.

"Odd restaurant, I've never seen anything like this," Soujiro commented, and his trained eyes caught a waitress coming towards them. Neither Keiko nor Asuka seemed to notice until the girl was in front of them. 'They're probably still taking in the atmosphere,' he thought.

The waitress greeted them, and directed them towards a private room. She was quite young, about the age of ten, but also very pretty in her own subtle way. She mentioned her name was something along the lines of Tsubame, but Soujiro was not quite sure. He looked at Keiko, and the girl had almost a look of recognition towards their young waitress, oddly enough.

Asuka noticed Keiko's somewhat odd behavior and she decided to ask, after they were in their room, "you know Tsubame-chan, Keiko-chan?"

Keiko seemed to ponder a little, "sort of. I had heard of the name Sanjo Tsubame before from Mae-san. Tae-san had mentioned an extremely good employee of hers, by the name of Sanjo Tsubame, the last time Tae-san visited. I never really imagined or thought until now that I'd meet Tsubame-chan."

"Ah, well that would explain some things," Soujiro interjected.

Asuka looked at him with a puzzled, yet slightly irritated face, "and why would you say something like that?"

Luckily, for Soujiro at least, Tsubame entered the room once again before Soujiro could come up with an answer. Tsubame took a drink order from the trio, and she seemed to be observing Keiko the whole time. After the orders were made, she bowed to Keiko, "Would you happen to be Nishimura Keiko?"

"uh...hai," Keiko responded, caught a little off-guard. After she gained some of her senses back Keiko stood up and bowed, "pleased to meet you Tsubame-chan."

Tsubame bowed as well, "pleased to meet you. Please excuse my blunt behavior, I don't usually do things like that normally. May you please some with me to speak with Tae-san?"

"um...ano...hai," Keiko hesitantly said, and she followed the younger girl out of the room.

Soujiro's interests perked. 'Why is she so hesitant?' he thought, 'I thought she wanted to get here. So why is she so hesitant? As much as I hate to ask, Asuka might know. Well, here goes...'

"Ano...Asuka?"

"What do you want?" she retorted in a calm manner.

"Uh...ano...I was wondering if you happened to have any insight on...on why Keiko-chan was...so...hesitant?"

Asuka looked at him straight in the eye and coldly asked, "why would it matter to you?"

Soujiro broke the eye contact as he replied, "uh, well, I...I don't think I'm sure why."

"Probably because she cares about us, but you don't seem to care about her. So it shouldn't make a difference, ne?" Asuka remarked nonchalantly.

Soujiro sighed and looked at her, "I guess not. Doomo arigatou."

Asuka kept a stone-faced gaze on him as she hollowly replied, "don't bother thanking me. I doubt I can ever forgive you for killing my family, you bastard."

"Ah, it's good to see you again Keiko-chan," Tae greeted, and bowed, happily.

Keiko bowed in response, "it is nice to see you again, as well, Tae-san."

"Tae is fine, would you like to have some tea?" the manager asked as she sat on the tatami floor.

"Thank you, tea sounds good," Keiko answered as she sat down as well.

"I see you came with a couple of people, escorts?" Tae asked good-naturedly.

"Hai, they are escorts in a sense," Keiko said, slightly nervous, and she continued when Tae silently prodded her, "Seta-san was asked to escort me by Mae-san in Matsumoto. We found Asuka-chan along the way, and she sort of followed us in a sense. Well, how am I going to explain this....ano, she sort of declared she was coming with us. I was against it at first, but Asuka-chan is not a bad person. She means well, or at least I think so. I'm sorry, I'm saying too much."

Tae smiled, "there's no need to be sorry Keiko-chan. Asuka probably would have done something by now if she was a bad person."

"Th-thank you, Tae-san."

'She's going to call me Tae-san anyway, oh well. She's very similar to Tsubame,' Tae briefly pondered. After a moment Tae continued, "well, let us get down to business, ne?"

"H-hai," Keiko nervously replied.

"Is there something wrong Keiko-chan?"

"Ano...no, not really. I'm just a little nervous about this interview, that's all."

Tae studied the girl for a moment longer, 'Why do I get the feeling that she's not mentioning everything? Hmm...I better ask her anyway.'

"Ah, well Keiko-chan. Would you mind explaining why you're nervous?"

"Well...ano...I, uh, I-I'm not sure if I want to stay here or not, to be honest. Th-there's some uh, issues between Asuka-chan and Seta-san; a-and ano, I care about them."

Tae nodded, "I see. How about we give you a week to come up with a decision, okay? If you decide earlier, great, just let me know. Today is nichiyoubi, so in a week, next Sunday, I'll have to ask you to have a decision."

Keiko smiled, "Thank you very much Tae-san. I really appreciate your generosity."

"Doo itashimashite, it's really no problem. Even if you do go, at least you and your escorts can meet some good friends of mine."

"Friends? May I ask of their names?"

"Sure," Tae responded, "the five I've got in my mind are Himura Kenshin, Kamiya Kaoru, Myoujin Yahiko, Takani Megumi, and Sagara Sanosuke."

"Ah, we met your friend Kaoru on our way here," Keiko claimed happily, "she was extremely nice. I can almost consider her a friend already, and I haven't even known her for more than 10 minutes."

Tae chuckled, "yes, she does have that trait. She also has a temper the size of Tokyo, but that can be avoided so you shouldn't really worry. I wouldn't necessarily add Kenshin in this, but they tease each other to no end even though they're inseparable."

Keiko smiled, "they sound like a wonderful group of people. I'll be sure to mention them to my escorts, I like the sound of that word for some reason."

They both laughed for a few minutes, and Keiko found that she could easily talk to this woman. 'I wonder if her friends are the same,' She pondered after they said their goodbyes.

'So, Tae told me to explain the situation to Kaoru, and ask for us to stay at her dojo. I really hope she doesn't mind, although she seems very generous,' Keiko pondered as she walked back to the dining table.

Keiko was quite surprised to see Asuka nonchalantly glance in her direction and for Soujiro to hollowly smile, which somehow was more frightening. "Welcome back," Soujiro greeted happily.

'Something is wrong,' Keiko immediately thought, 'What happened between those two?' She walked over and sat back down; "thank you Seta-san, how was the food?"

"Fine," Asuka mumbled, which almost slipped past Keiko's hearing.

She smiled, "I see, I'm not too hungry, so may we pay and leave? Tae-san has given me a week to reach a decision. She told us to ask Kamiya Kaoru, the woman who we asked for directions earlier, for a place to stay."

"That sounds grand," Soujiro smiled, "shall we go?"

Asuka looked at Soujiro and she quietly said, "shut the hell up Soujiro."

"As you wish," the frighteningly happy man answered.

Keiko, to say the least, was completely bewildered, and she numbly went to pay the bill. She didn't really know if her traveling partners were behind her, but she assumed they'd know to leave the room with her.

Tae was at the front desk, and she allowed the meals to be free of charge. Keiko wasn't so sure about her friends, or are they even friends to her, but she was quite grateful.

The three of them bid their goodbyes, and headed towards the Kamiya dojo. Through the emotional mask of happiness, Soujiro was actually quite worried, 'damnit, oh crap. I sense Himura-san's presence. What am I going to do, and what is he going to do? Is he going to accept me, reject me, or reject us? Is he going to accept them and reject me?'

Asuka kept a hollow appearance, and she seemed to have an emotional barrier in Keiko's opinion. 'The last time this change happened was when Seta-san changed into whatever he is now,' she inferred, 'Could that be the reason why Asuka said that to him? And, speaking of him, what is he right now? Hopefully he's not in the mood to kill people, that would be extremely scary. I really don't want to have to go through anything like that.'

Pure silence ensued as the trio reached the gate of the dojo, and they all stopped. Keiko second-guessed Tae's request and she asked, "do you think what we're about to do is right?"

"There isn't really a difference between right and wrong, so your question is irrelevant to me," Asuka replied coldly.

Keiko seemed slightly shaken up from Asuka's behavior change, and she didn't really bother wanting to ask Soujiro at the moment. So, she sighed ruefully, and opened the dojo gate.