Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ One Man ❯ A small confrontation ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin or any of its characters.

Kenshin's POV

I was not paying as much attention to my surroundings as I normally did. I had a lot on my mind and walking into town to pick up a few things hardly required my full attention. Fortunately, Yahiko seemed content to walk in silence.

I had come to suspect that Sano, Yahiko, and Miss Kaoru had made a decision to never leave me by myself. Unsure as to why they felt this was necessary, I was coping with it nonetheless. And that was why Yahiko was escorting me into town.

If I had been paying more attention, I would have noticed much sooner that someone was following us, but as it was, it took me a few moments.

Yahiko was oblivious to the man walking perhaps thirty yards behind us, and I made no move. As long as he kept his distance, I was willing to allow him to continue.

However, soon after I noticed the stalker, he picked up his pace and began cutting the distance between us. I knew he thought he was still undetected. That is until Yahiko glanced back. He's a smart kid, but I wished at the moment he was a little less observant or perhaps a little more nonchalant.

He immediately turned to me and said, rather loudly, "Hey Kenshin, there's some guy following us!" I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. If the man had not heard Yahiko, then he was completely deaf.

Now avoiding any sort of confrontation with this man was impossible so I stopped and turned around. "Hello there," I called out in a friendly tone. "Do you need help? Perhaps you are lost."

I knew that was not the case, but I still gave in to wishful thinking. The man was dressed simply enough, but he had several short throwing daggers poorly concealed on his person. And his eyes were the narrow eyes of a fighter.

He did not even bother with the act but immediately drew two of his daggers and threw them with deadly precision at Yahiko's throat. As soon as he made the move for his weapons, my sword was drawn and the tofu bucket was dropped on the side of the road.

I spun my sword quickly as I jumped in front of a stunned Yahiko. My sword was a grayish blur in front of us. Acting as a shield, it easily deflected the two daggers. It was done in one fluid motion that I had barely been aware of. Lately I was moving more on instinct.

The stalker turned attacker did not seemed at all surprised at the failure of his attack. I sheathed my sword and we just stared at each other for a moment. Yahiko tried to move up to stand beside me but I pushed him back with one hand. I felt better having him protected behind me.

"You are the battousai," the man said. It was not a question so I did not reply.

At any other time I might have smiled and said, "That was a very long time ago, and I doubt such a man exists in such peaceful days, that I do," but now…I had my doubts that that sort of man could ever cease to exist.

"Kenshin!" Yahiko said loudly from behind me. "Who is this bozo? What's going on?"

"That's exactly what I would like to know," I said, keeping my eyes on the man in front of us. He was still armed and I was not going to drop my guard.

"I am part of an organization I believe you have recently had some contact with," he said boldly.

The anarchists, I thought, remembering my conversation with Sano earlier. With a small twinge of regret, I wished I had given Sano my complete attention. Now here I was with Yahiko in danger and I knew next to nothing about this man.

He was watching me carefully, trying to gauge my responses. I was careful to give him nothing to work with. "I'm authorized to offer you any kind of pay you can imagine. If you come with me, we can talk about this somewhere more private."

"That won't be necessary," I said, keeping my voice blank of emotion even though I was fuming on the inside. How dare he come and threaten Yahiko then have the gale to think I was just going to walk off with him to do his absurd little group's dirty work! "I am not for hire."

I turned around and nudged Yahiko in the direction of town. He started to make some protest, but stopped when he saw my face.

We had not taken two steps when I heard the whistle of two more daggers fly toward us. My left arm shoved Yahiko roughly to the ground as I drew my sword with my right and deflected the steel missiles easily.

This time there was a hint of shock in the man's eyes when I turned to face him. And of fear. It took me a moment to remember myself. I did not want to see fear in the eyes of those around me any more. Carefully I forced myself to control the rage building inside of me.

I may have broken my vow, but I was not going to let one loss of control lead to countless others. I was in control of myself. I had to be.

I bent over and offered Yahiko my hand. He took it, stunned, and pulled himself upright. The man had disappeared as soon as I took my eyes off of him, but I was not worried. Those had been his last two weapons.

"Are you alright?" I asked watching as he brushed some of the road dust off his clothing.

"Fine," he looked up at me with questioning eyes. "What was all that about?"

"I am not entirely sure," I answered truthfully.

"But he said you had been in contact with them?" Yahiko looked a bit hurt. I think he must have thought I was keeping secrets.

"I assume he was referring to the man who threatened to burn down the dojo," I said dryly. I quickly collected the discarded daggers that were stuck in the soft dirt of the road.

"What are you going to do with those?"

"It would be dangerous to just leave them here, that it would," I said almost cheerfully. "Anyone could just come across them."

We walked the rest of the way to town without incident. My mind kept wandering over small details of the encounter with the unnamed anarchist. The daggers were well made, balanced throwing daggers, and I suspected that they were made in Tokyo, not Kyoto. That could mean two things in my mind. Either the group has had ties to Tokyo for some time, or they were expanding their influence. Either way, I knew that they were going to cause me more trouble than I wanted. I was going to have to do some investigating before things got out of hand.

A/N: I'm not getting too much feedback on this so I'll just keep going until I get writer's block. I haven't gotten any criticisms either, and I just want to say, that if there's something I can improve, I'd like to know what it is.