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Prism - Chapter 3

by Calger459

The three members of the Kenshin-gumi looked on in stricken silence. It was Yahiko who finally spoke. "W-what the hell is going on here? Kaoru?"

Kaoru shook her head silently and walked slowly forward to the Kenshin she immediately recognized, still dressed in his old navy gi. Strangely, the other two matched his clothing (right down to the weathered state of their blue gi), but were of different ages. One was clearly a little boy, maybe eight years old, the other a teenaged version of Kenshin, with his hair tied up in a high ponytail. "Kenshin?" she whispered, kneeling down beside her husband and gently shaking his shoulder. "Kenshin, wake up!"

The rurouni groaned softly and gradually loosened the death grip he had on his own head. Looking up he slowly focused on the face of his wife, her features pale and tight with concern. I'm alive...did I pass out? I don't remember...falling down. My head still hurts, but something's...odd. Slowly his brain registered that Kaoru was actually waiting for some kind of response, and from the growing panic in her eyes he must have been lying there in confused silence for some time. Carefully clearing his throat, he murmured "Kaoru?"

"Kenshin," she whispered, relieved that he has answered her but still filled with worry. "What happened?"

"I...it was..." he frowned, puzzled by his lack of memory. He'd come home, he remembered that, and there had been someone in the dojo...Kenshin struggled to put a name with the face in his memory. Details of their conversation floated just beneath the surface of his recollection, but every time he tried to remember they eluded him, like the last vestiges of a dream. For someone like him, who'd always been blessed with a near-perfect photographic memory, this was deeply disturbing. Even worse than that though was the strange empty feeling that he had, as if part of him had gone missing. "I can't remember, someone was here when I returned, and he did something to me." He placed a hand to his still slightly aching head and looked up at Kaoru. "I think I'm all right, though something seems a little strange."

"Oh...really?" Kaoru asked nervously, eyeing Sano out of the corner of her eye. He was leaning over the teenaged Kenshin, peering curiously into his face.

Momentarily oblivious to the husband-and-wife drama playing out nearby, Sano found himself rather intrigued by this other Kenshin. He was just a kid, maybe fifteen or sixteen, with softer features and a less bushy spill of red bangs over his eyes. There was no scar on this Kenshin's cheek and he seemed to be peacefully asleep, his head pillowed on one arm. Slowly, Sano reached out and touched the young Kenshin's shoulder, giving him a gentle shake. He realized his mistake an instant later when the boy drew in a sharp breath, snapped open hard amber eyes and leapt at him with a snarl.

Kaoru was on her feet immediately. "Sanosuke!"

Somewhere in the next few seconds Sano remembered the fierce scowl Kenshin had attempted to make that morning. Then, the rurouni hadn't actually been angry so the expression had seemed rather funny and misplaced on his normally gentle features. Now, however, was completely different. The menacing, feral scowl on Kenshin's face was anything but amusing; in fact it was downright frightening. Frozen with terror, less than a heartbeat seemed to pass before Sano found himself slammed back against the gate, carried there by the almost inhuman speed and strength he had seen Kenshin use so many times on his enemies. Fierce golden eyes bored into his own and he instinctively tried to wriggle out of the boy's grasp but Kenshin's thin arms were as strong as steel and in the next instant strong fingers were pressed tightly against the base of his throat, threatening to crush his windpipe if he continued to resist. Sano took the hint and stilled, willing his heart to stop hammering against his ribcage long enough for him to think. Fear was not an emotion he experienced often, but he was certainly feeling it now looking into young assassin's eyes, which contained no remorse or hesitation in their depths. Kami, he doesn't recognize me; if I move he'll kill me. He really will. Oh shit!

They stood that way for a tense few seconds, gazes locked. Then, to Sano's amazement, the boy's eyes softened and widened with surprise. He stepped back abruptly, releasing his hold on the former streetfighter. "Sano?" Sano blinked at the softness of the boy's voice, which was unmistakably Kenshin's. His golden eyes were now very round and wide, and full of recognition, which they hadn't been before. Sano found himself breathing a sigh of relief. "What...what's going on?" The boy seemed suddenly very confused, and as he turned slowly to scan the rest of the area, his gaze came to rest on a stunned Yahiko, Kaoru, and... "Rurouni." He whispered.

"Battousai." Kaoru heard the barely audible answer beside her and turned to look at Kenshin, who was on his feet now, violet eyes as big as teacups. She looked between the two versions of Kenshin in growing amazement. They're both Kenshin?!

~*~

Chaotic thoughts and memories settled into inky blackness and the part of Kenshin that was the Hitokiri Battousai settled gratefully back into sleep. In the darkness however, he sensed that something had changed. There was hollowness in his spirit now, as if something has gone missing. It made him restless and tense. The hole he now felt had always contained a steady and comforting presence, calming his feelings and allowing him to exist in almost a half-aware state...most of the time anyway. Something is very wrong. The nagging thought pushed him further towards wakefulness, and though he would much rather have stayed in the calming quiet of sleep, he could sense that there were things in the outside world that needed his attention. Baka rurouni, this probably has something to do with him...

It was then that something, or rather someone, touched him on the shoulder. His response was instantaneous, borne of long years of sword training and later of fighting daily for his very life. Killing instinct flared in his mind and shattered the peace of sleep. Almost without thought he was on his feet and lunging for his attacker. In the next instant he realized he was unarmed; the familiar weight of a sword at his hip was absent and he usually didn't keep other weapons concealed on him. It will have to be bare hands, then. Fortunately, he's not struggling much. Still operating mostly on instinct, teeth bared in a fearsome snarl, Battousai slammed his enemy into a nearby wall, one hand pressed to the fool's windpipe, the other pinning one arm to the wood beneath it. He prey froze beneath his intense gaze and as the world slowly came back into focus Kenshin took the time to study his attacker's face.

OH! Recognition and alarm caused him to leap backwards from his "attacker", whom he now clearly recognized. "Sano?" I attacked my friend? Why? Shouldn't I have realized it was him? Stammering in confusion the young Kenshin, unable to figure out why he felt so strange and on edge, pivoted around, recognizing the other faces around him, including... "Rurouni."

Now everything made sense. Standing only a few feet away was a very familiar figure, one that he had seen many times in pond reflections, mirrors and the occasional dream. Only this was no illusion; the man in front him was flesh and blood, just as he was. The wide violet eyes that met his held the same realization within them. "Battousai," he heard the other whisper. How in the world could they be standing apart and separate like this? It certainly explained the emptiness he was feeling but that's as far as his understanding went. The two Himuras stared at one another for a moment, both trying to read each other's thoughts. Through some unspoken agreement Battousai moved first, walking carefully over to the poleaxed-looking rurouni, who stood stock-still as the younger Kenshin reached out to touch his face.

"You're real," he murmured, aware of the stares of the other three people in the courtyard. "This is no dream, is it?"

The rurouni slowly shook his head. "No, it isn't. But it also isn't possible...you realize that."

Battousai frowned and lowered his hand. "Apparently it is possible, because if this is another dream it certainly feels real enough."

Behind the pair Yahiko and Sano exchanged bewildered glances. Sano coughed carefully. At the sound, Battousai turned and stared back at his friend. The confused expression on the teenage Kenshin's face was gone, replaced by a flat, emotionless mask. He regarded Sano carefully for a moment, and then to everyone's surprise he dipped his head and upper torso in a respectful bow. "Forgive me, Sanosuke, for attacking a friend. I was startled awake."

Sano, surprised by the apology, mentally tacked on Kenshin's implied "fortunately for you, I wasn't armed." Hint taken. "Uh...yeah, well I probably shouldn't have tried to wake you like that...Kenshin, right?"

Battousai straightened back up, surprise flickering briefly through his flat, golden gaze. "Of course, would I be called something else?"

"Battousai-san? Why can I see you?" A tiny voice attracted everyone's attention to a figure who'd been completely forgotten in the last several moments: the child Kenshin, who was now awake and sitting upright in the dust of the dojo's courtyard. Kaoru marveled at his resemblance to her Kenshin; aside from having a darker shade of red hair and much larger eyes, he could have been a miniature rurouni. Kaoru supposed it only emphasized her husband's youthfulness even more; at age twenty-nine, her Kenshin didn't look a day over twenty. Even then, mostly because of his height, foreigners still often mistook him for a young boy.

While the child confused the Kenshin-gumi, the two older versions of Kenshin seemed completely unsurprised by his presence. The rurouni walked over to the tiny boy and offered his hand. "I'm not sure I have an answer to that Shinta-kun, I think that's something we'll have to figure out together."

"Together?" Now the boy looked incredulous, his features drawn into a tiny frown. "But you do nothing but argue!"

"We do not," Battousai muttered, though his expression belied that statement.

Sano and Yahiko looked helplessly to Kaoru, the sheer weirdness of the situation finally getting to them. Noting their pleading looks, Kaoru swallowed her own panic and approached three redheads. "Um, pardon me Kenshin, but could we possibly take this inside? I think we all need to sit down for a bit."

At the sound of his name, both the older Kenshin's heads swiveled around to stare at her at the same time. She watched as they exchanged glances, and she could have sworn that they were somehow communicating with each other without words. Kami-sama this is getting bizarre... "Of course, Kaoru," the rurouni said at last, "that sounds like a good idea. Why don't you make some tea?"

Tea? The idea of doing such a normal thing made her head spin, and it was then that she remembered the fish lying forgotten by the dojo gate. No use, it's probably spoiled now. Oh Kenshin... "All right," she said weakly, turning to go to the kitchen.

The rest of the Kenshin-gumi silently followed.

~*~

Throughout his twenty years of life, Sagara Sanosuke had seen some pretty odd things, and privately he'd always kept a mental list of interesting things he'd seen or done. The past year had been a good one for the list. For a while, it had been topped by seeing Sagara taichou's ghost in the woods on the way to Kyoto. After that, Shishio was by far the strangest (and also one of the most horrible) things he'd ever laid eyes on. But this...the sight of not one but three Kenshins sitting almost casually across from him at the dinner table more than made the top of the list. It redefined it. Yeah, I'd say this was about a 15 on my Weird Shit scale...

Very awkward silence followed Kaoru's bringing tea for the table and had reigned now for nearly fifteen minutes. The three Kenshins sat in a neat row, with the rurouni in the middle. Kaoru sat directly across from him, with Yahiko and Sano on either side of her. The gentle chirping of crickets and the sipping of tea were the only sounds in the room, and it was starting to drive Sano up the wall. He had somehow gotten stuck sitting across from Battousai, who mercifully (for Sano anyway) had kept his creepy eyes shut for most of the time. His young face was pensive, his stiff posture and general air very much reminiscent of Kenshin when he was lost in brooding. Next to him the rurouni seemed positively friendly, despite the disturbed expression in his dark violet eyes. Sano looked to him expectantly but couldn't meet Kenshin's gaze. The rurouni was staring into his tea, as if it would magically divine some solution to his dilemma. Sano let his attention wander to the smallest of the trio, the little boy who called himself Shinta. He was slurping his tea loudly in a very boyish fashion, and he kept actively staring around him in wonder, as if he were seeing this room for the first time. Ironically-or perhaps not so-it was Shinta who broke the silence.

"Wow, everything looks so big now!" He looked down at his tiny hands. "The cup's big too...it's kind of neat to be this small again, very odd though." Everyone was staring at him blankly, each expression different yet equally unreadable. Shinta cocked his head and studied Yahiko across from him. "I wonder how we got like this. Hey, Yahiko maybe that means we can play games now! Ayame-chan brought that new big ball over yesterday, do you want to play later?"

Yahiko uttered a strangled squeak and looked frantically to the rurouni for an explanation. The rurouni seemed mildly confused. "New ball? Oh right, the one she wanted to play with but we...uh, I was doing laundry."

Shinta bobbed his head, causing his messy red hair to flop all over his head. "Yeah, so now while you do laundry I can play! Games are so much more fun than laundry anyway!" Shinta giggled happily and slurped more tea.

Kaoru's voice was very small. "You seem...very happy, Shinta-kun."

Shinta looked over at her, his eyes suddenly serious. "Well I don't have to worry about all that killing stuff now for once, it's all gone!" He threw his hands up in the air, a delighted grin on his face. "All gone, all gone! It's soooo nice not to be sad all the time! It makes it much easier to play. Ne, Battousai-san?"

The rurouni looked like he was going to pass out. Battousai just grunted into his tea.

"Um..." Yahiko said slowly, "Shinta, why are you called that? Shouldn't you be Kenshin too?"

The boy shrugged. "No, 'cause that's what Mama named me. Shishou changed our name to Kenshin after he rescued me, so they-" he indicated the other two with a wave of his hand "-are Kenshin and I'm Shinta. It's really very simple."

Feeling slightly sick, yet oddly fascinated by the information, all Yahiko could manage was a faint "Oh."

"K-Kenshin." Kaoru cursed herself for stuttering, but she could feel icy panic creeping up her spine and it was making it very hard to speak. "Please, what happened while I was gone. How can you be like...well like this?"

Everyone's attention turned to the rurouni, who seemed to have regained his composure somewhat. "I don't know," he said finally. "Whatever was done seems to have muddled my memory a bit, I can remember the face of the man who did this but little else. I remember him mentioning ki and that he could manipulate it, then he touched me-" here he indicated his temple, "-and then Kaoru woke me up. I wish I knew more than that."

"Three bodies," Kaoru murmured, "I just don't understand how that could be. Does it have something to do with your ki?"

Kenshin nodded. "Probably, though when Shishou taught me how to read ki he didn't mention anything like this. He always hinted that everyone had a light and a dark side to them, but why Shinta is here as well I don't know."

"Maybe he's your inner child," Sano muttered darkly.

There was a sharp bang as Battousai's teacup was set down hard onto the table, and Sano found himself looking yet again into those flat eyes, which now carried a hostile gleam. "That's enough, Sanosuke. Shinta-kun has nothing to do with this, it's Yanagi we should be concerned with." He suddenly blinked and looked sharply over at the rurouni. "I just said it, didn't I?"

"Yes," Kenshin realized slowly. "Yanagi-dono...of course."

"Yanagi?" Kaoru sat up straighter. The name was familiar. "Isn't he that..."

"Guy you met in Hokkaido," Yahiko finished for her. "The one you worked with and saved from the fire and all that. He was here?"

The rurouni nodded, relieved that things were becoming a little clearer. "Yes, yes, that was him! He's somewhere here in Tokyo, he must be."

Sano slapped the table. "Good! That's easy enough, we'll just go find the little slimeball and have him put you back together."

"Don't be stupid," Battousai snapped, "He's probably thought of that already. Yanagi was many things, but he was never an idiot."

Everyone stared at the flame-haired teenager, shocked to hear such rudeness coming from Kenshin. Apparently Kenshin's politeness really did lie with the rurouni. Sano was scowling at Battousai, his dislike of the boy obvious. Arrogant little jerk, no wonder Kenshin keeps him hidden away.

"Maa, maa," Kenshin said gently, "that may be the case but we should seek him out anyway. He only wanted to test his technique, surely it won't be that hard to convince him to restore us."

Battousai slowly turned to glare at the rurouni, his fist clenched tight on the table. "Did you forget," he hissed furiously, "that it's yourOr if you hadn't been such a naïve idiot he wouldn't have gotten close enough to use his damn technique in the first place! Stupid rurouni, how could you have gotten so careless!" fault this happened? If you'd just come in the back way like I said to we could have scared him off and prevented this!

"Kenshin!" Kaoru gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. Battousai had been so stoic for most of the conversation, she'd almost forgotten the ferocity he'd displayed while attacking Sanosuke. That same fire gleamed in his cold eyes now, the venom in his words so unlike the Kenshin they were familiar with. Even the brief glimpse of Battousai they'd seen during his fight with Saitou hadn't been like this, so angry and insulting.

What was worse was the way the rurouni cringed away from his younger self, his cruel words apparently hitting home. "But I just thought-"

"Yeah, that's the problem!" Battousai seethed, leaning even closer to the rurouni. "Thinking without actually thinking, trusting that Yanagi wasn't really hostile after all, that everything would be just fine! Now look at us! Ahou!"

Shinta's eyes were huge as he stared at the pair, his tiny face panicked. "Battousai-san, please stop! I told you all you do is fight, and it never ever helps! Leave Rurouni-san alone!"

Battousai shot to his feet, eyes blazing with barely controlled rage. "Shut up, Shinta! Neither of you ever listen to me, and this is what happens! I'm going outside," he announced, stomping loudly (and Kaoru realized, very childishly) to the door and sliding it open. Throwing a venomous glance over his shoulder at the rurouni, he barked "And don't follow me!" Slamming the shoji shut they could hear him walking away down the porch.

Damn, is this what really goes on in Kenshin's head? Replaying the argument Sano found the interaction among the three Kenshins far more disturbing than the near-death experience he's had earlier with Battousai. The rurouni looked just as alarmed, staring at the closed door with a blank, uncertain look on his face. After a moment's silence he started to get to his feet but was stopped by Shinta pulling down on his sleeves. "No, don't. He's really upset this time, can't you tell? Just leave him be, he isn't going anywhere." The rurouni looked doubtful. "Please," Shinta pleaded. "I'm really tired now, can't we just go to sleep? He'll be better by morning."

Kenshin sighed gently. "All right, Shinta-kun. I'm so sorry everyone," he apologized, turning to the others. "For him for...everything."

"Kenshin," Sano said quietly, "we're here for you no matter what, okay? We'll figure this out tomorrow. Is it okay with you if I bed down here tonight?"

"He can stay with me," Yahiko volunteered. He wouldn't admit it for the world, but having Battousai wandering loose around the dojo scared him. He would feel safer having Sano nearby.

Kenshin nodded, suddenly looking exhausted beyond words. Rising from her place, Kaoru took his hand and kissed him tenderly on the cheek. "It'll be okay, Kenshin. Take Shinta-kun and go to bed, I'll be there in a minute."

The oddly assorted family left the room one by one, leaving Kaoru standing alone, lost in thought. Looking towards the direction the angry Battousai had gone, she made a decision. Walking to the door she slid it open and stepped out in pursuit of her husband's darker half.

A/N: I'm sooo mean to Kenshin -_-;; If you're still with me with this weird idea of a fic, the next chapter should be interesting indeed ;) What will Kaoru do when she finds Battousai, how will the three Kenshins (oro!) adapt to this little change in perspective, and where did Yanagi go anyway? Stay tuned for more!
A/N #2: Okay, so I actually wrote out a little character guide for each version of Kenshin that I'm using to help write them (maybe I'll put it up at the very end for you guys to see), but in short Battousai is a rather rash and immature version of Kenshin. He's usually pretty emotionless but under that he has quite a temper, and he's the part of Kenshin that berates himself all the time. I envisioned the rurouni as being much more mature and reasonable (though a bit of a pushover at times), and tried to play him that way against Battousai in this chapter. As for Shinta, I think Sano hit the nail on the head. Ayame and Suzame may not exist in the manga, but Battousai does play with children during the Revenge arc, so I think his sense of fun and play was always around, even while he was a hitokiri. Thoughts, arguments, observations? Let's hear 'em! Reviews make Calger-san a happy happy girl ^_^

Glossary:
-kun: another honorific, often used for young boys or friends, more respectful than -chan
ne: right
shishou: master (here referring to Hiko ^_^)
taichou: captain, if you don't remember who he is go read the Tokyo arc ;)
baka: idiot, fool, etc. (all-purpose insult)
ahou: basically means "moron" in its most insulting sense...
shoji: sliding rice paper doors in Japanese homes
maa, maa: "now, now..." a placating phrase

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