See Author's Intro.
Kenshin’s gotten his first taste of life in Kyoto with the Ishin Shishi and found it to be quite different from life on a mountain with Hiko. As he spends his second day, he finds he has even more to learn, including a few lessons about women and treachery.

Speaking of treachery, I guess I need to say that I do not own the characters of Rurouni Kenshin. They spring from the fertile imagination of Watsuki Nobuhiro and are trapped in the clutches of Sony, Jump Comics, and all the other conglomerates, who own all the copyrights.
None.
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Descent into Madness: Chapter 2


by Conspirator


The next morning, Okami was not surprised to find that, once again, Kenshin had beaten her to the kitchen. Once again, she found firewood stacked neatly beside the stove, buckets of water waiting to be used, and this time also two sacks of rice and two buckets of tofu already retrieved from the storeroom. He was now in the process of cleaning vegetables in preparation for cutting them up.

"Ohayou, Himura-chan," she said brightly. "Helping out again this morning, I see."

"Hai, Okami-san," he replied. "As long as you don’t mind, I enjoy doing this kind of work."

‘Nice boy,’ Okami mused as she busied herself at the stove.

As Kenshin stood there chopping mounds of carrots and daikon, he sensed that the serving girls, Kishi and Yuka, had arrived. Without turning, and before the girls could even utter a word, he said, "Ohayou Kishi-san,Yuka-san. Kishi-san, you’ll find the rice from the storeroom over to your left. And Yuka-san, you’ll find the tofu near the rice—I got it out for you already."

The girls stood there, dumbfounded. He had just prevented them from using their easiest approach to him. Kenshin, meanwhile, mentally patted himself on the back for having foiled what he knew would be their attempts to flirt with him. Unfortunately, he underestimated their determination. It only took a minute before Kishi recovered her aplomb. On her way to pick up one of the sacks of rice, she stepped next to Kenshin and said in her most seductive voice, "I hear you’re awfully talented with a sword."

"Who told you that?" Kenshin responded evenly, without looking up.

"Oh, I’ve heard it from all the men," Kishi purred. "They were so interested in you, they started asking me if I knew what you were like."

"What do you mean, what I’m like?" Kenshin asked. "I am what I am."

"That’s not what they meant," she said meaningfully as she batted her eyes. "You know, what you’re like."

It took a moment to sink in, but Kenshin hadn’t endured those interminable accounts of Hiko’s sexual exploits—what passed, in Hiko’s view, for sex education—for nothing. He started to realize what Kishi was getting at.

"Please, Kishi, I’m really not interested," he said quickly.

Kishi was not used to being turned down. She thought a second, then said darkly, "You’re not one of them, are you?"

"Them who?" Kenshin asked, now totally stumped.

"You know, them—someone who likes men instead."

"What?!" Now Kenshin turned from what he was doing to look at Kishi. He could feel his cheeks burning. "No! Of course not! It’s just that I’m not interested in what you want me to be interested in right now, ok?!"

"Well, gee, don’t get so worked up about it!" she said hotly. "I was just asking." She walked off, but as she passed by Yuka, she muttered, "God, he’s hopeless. Forget about him!" And with that, both girls left him alone.

Kenshin heaved a sigh of relief. He hadn’t had much experience in his life with women—in fact, he had had about zero experience in his life with women—but if this was what it was like, he wasn’t sure he wanted any part of it. He had never felt so flustered! He redoubled his efforts at chopping, then quickly went over to stand by Okami, who was cooking rice.

Later, when he heard the men coming downstairs for breakfast, he took his leave and went to sit with Katagai and some of the men he had traveled with from Chousu. He studiously avoided looking at either Kishi or Yuka when they came to serve breakfast. Katagai noticed.

"Having girl problems?" Katagai asked lightly.

Kenshin groaned. "Not you, too," he said unhappily.

Katagai patted him on the back. "Cheer up, Himura. I was 14 once, too, you know. It’s an awkward age—you’ll get over it." Kenshin just smiled weakly in response.

After breakfast, he returned to the kitchen to await his guide for the day—the stable boy, according to Okami. He didn’t have to wait long before a fresh-faced, smiling boy appeared at the door. Okami waved him in.

"Himura-chan, this is Shozo, the stable boy," she said. "He’s got to stop by the saddlemaker, so he’ll take you around today. Learn a lot and have a good time, boys!"

Kenshin bowed to Shozo and said, "I’m Himura Kenshin, pleased to meet you."

"Shozo the stable boy," Shozo responded, also bowing. He took up his wheelbarrow, which held a saddle in need of repair.

As they started walking, Shozo looked at Kenshin, then at his swords, and said, "You know, I don’t know whether to call you ‘-chan’ or ‘-san.’ You look about my age, but then again, you’ve got swords."

"It doesn’t make much difference to me," Kenshin said. "In fact, you don’t have to use anything at all. I’m only 14."

"I’m 12," Shozo said.

They walked a bit in silence. Then Shozo said, "You must be samurai—you’ve got the swords and a surname—but you don’t dress like samurai."

"I’m not samurai, actually," Kenshin answered. "My parents were farmers, but after they died, my shishou took me in and gave me my name."

"You’re lucky," Shozo said. "My parents died, and I didn’t get a surname from the people I live with. Maybe someday, huh?"

They walked along again in silence. Kenshin noticed, however, that Shozo kept staring at him.

"Is something the matter, Shozo?" he asked.

Shozo was embarrassed to be caught staring, but he finally said, "It’s your hair. I’ve never seen red hair before."

‘What is it with the hair!’ Kenshin thought to himself. He was getting a bit tired of the comments. Exasperated, he said, "Surely there must be other people in a city this size with red hair!"

"I hate to say this," Shozo stated, "but I’ve lived in Kyoto all my life, and I’ve never seen anyone with your color hair. You ever thought of getting a hat or something? Because people are really staring at you."

"Hmm," Kenshin muttered, noticing how people kept giving him furtive glances. "You know, you might have a point there."

As they walked along in companionable silence, Kenshin observed that the buildings were starting to look different from the neighborhood where the inn was located. The walls and gates seemed more ornate, and he saw more and more multi-storied buildings within the compounds.

"Where are we, exactly?" Kenshin asked after awhile.

"We’re heading for the oldest part of the city," Shozo answered. "See all these fancy houses? Homes of high-class samurai. And wait ‘till we go a little further—you’ll see the palace of the emperor himself!"

The palace of the emperor? Kenshin could hardly believe it. Intellectually, of course, he knew that Kyoto was the home of the emperor, but it had never really crossed his mind that he might actually see where the emperor—the descendent of a god, the man whose authority he had pledged to uphold against the Tokugawa—actually lived. After another quarter mile or so, Shozo stopped and pointed to a huge, long wall.

"There—that’s it," he said. "Behind that wall is the emperor’s palace. They say there are lots of buildings and gardens and such in there, but of course no one really knows because no one’s allowed in. Actually, they say it’s not all that fancy—the old one burned down not long ago, and this one is the new one."

Not that fancy? Kenshin was awed by the extent of the walls alone, not to mention the beautiful gate and what he could see of the upper stories of some of the buildings. Milling around the area were dozens of men in a variety of what appeared to be uniforms.

"Tell me," Kenshin said, "who are these groups of men?"

"Well, the maroon ones are the Mimiwarigumi, the light blue ones are the Shinsengumi—they’re both Shogun supporters—then the light green are from Satsuma, you already know who’s in dark blue…."

Suddenly, he felt Shozo tugging urgently at his sleeve. "Come on, hurry!" Shozo urged as he started pulling Kenshin into a side alley. "There’s a daimyo coming, and I’m not in the mood to go bowing and scraping."

In fact, Kenshin had been aware of a rather powerful ki coming his way, but what with all the sword ki he could sense in the area and the fact that he had seen no overt threat, he had chosen to ignore it. He scrambled down the alley behind his companion.

"This isn’t a neighborhood I like to be in much," Shozo said, once they had moved away from the main thoroughfare. "Too many big shots and such, and too many soldiers, but this is where the best saddlemaker is, so here I am."

Despite the fact that the main streets all seemed to follow a simple grid pattern, the back alleys were an entirely different story. They were like a maze that seemed to circle around and double back on itself. The boys finally ended up on the side street containing the saddlemaker. Shozo spoke to the servant at the door, left the wheelbarrow and saddle with him, and then rejoined Kenshin. He led him back to the main thoroughfare and pointed.

"See that down there?" he said. "That’s where the Shogun has his palace, and believe me, it puts the emperor’s to shame."

Down the street Kenshin could see a beautifully ornate gate, a huge moat, and imposing-looking guard boxes. Above and beyond the tall walls, he could make out part of the tallest building he had ever seen—story upon story of graceful floors that looked like the wings of a soaring bird. It did, indeed, put the imperial compound to shame. The area, however, was swarming with even more soldiers, which made him uncomfortable. He made for a side street, with Shozo following.

"That maze of alleys we went down before—I’ve never seen anything like it," Kenshin said. "Is this whole neighborhood like that?"

"Yeah," Shozo answered. "They say it’s so that if someone tries to attack, they’ll get lost and end up trapped."

Kenshin could see how that could happen very easily and determined to investigate the area. Accompanied by Shozo, he started wandering down the warren of alleys off every side street. It was almost dizzying, what with all the twists and turns, but just as with the day before, after walking through several sets of alleyways, he started seeing a pattern, a key to what seemed outwardly to be an almost random layout.

It was past midday now, and the two boys were hungry, so after checking how much money he had, Kenshin suggested they stop at a noodle stand for lunch. Then it was time to start heading back, since Shozo needed to return in time to care for the horses. Kenshin suggested that he himself lead the way.

"But we’re nowhere near where we came into this area," Shozo protested. "You’ll just get us lost!"

"Trust me," Kenshin said, and much to Shozo’s amazement, he managed to get them back to the inn without any trouble at all.

"Maybe we can do this again, huh?" Shozo said as he left for the stable.

"I’d like that," Kenshin answered.

He turned into the inn, deciding to rest briefly before practicing his kata in the courtyard, as he had the day before. After about an hour, he headed outside and started practicing. He had just started the second level when he felt the presence of someone watching. He ignored it, as he had the day before, until he heard, "Trying to show off again?"

He turned to find a young man, perhaps 19 or 20, leaning against the doorway leading to the courtyard. Kenshin bowed slightly and said, "Pardon me, I didn’t think anyone was using the courtyard…"

"You think you’re such hot stuff, coming here with Katsura-san and all," the man continued. "Maybe you’d like to spar with someone who’s got some real experience."

Kenshin wasn’t sure what to make of this challenge. He didn’t know the man, although he recognized him from the dining room, and he certainly didn’t want to antagonize his future comrades. "No," he said finally, "I don’t really wish to spar—I just wanted to run through my kata, that’s all."

In a flash, the man jumped in front of Kenshin, sword drawn. "I’ve challenged you," the man said in a low voice. "You will accept." With that, he swung his sword at Kenshin, intending to disarm him. Kenshin immediately jumped and flipped, landing behind his opponent. The man swiveled, lashing out once again at Kenshin, then laughing as he purposely stopped his swing in mid-air. Kenshin had already sidestepped and jumped to avoid what he thought would be a completed swing and was ready to counter when the man swiveled once again and started running toward him, only to stop just inches short of Kenshin.

Kenshin had had enough. "If you just want to play, I’m not interested," Kenshin said calmly. He turned his back on the man and started walking away. He felt, rather than saw, the man rushing towards him again, the man’s ki practically screaming in anger.

"No one turns their back on Shinzo Tora, master of Shindon Munnen Ryu," the man yelled out, but Kenshin was too fast. Before the man realized what had happened, Kenshin had him on the ground with his blade against his neck.

"I thought we were supposed to be on the same side," Kenshin said coldly. He removed his sword from the man’s neck, resheathed it, then walked away. The man lay there, panting. "Same side?" he laughed arrogantly at the departing Kenshin. "I wouldn’t count on it, boy."

Kenshin went back to his room and sat down, shaken by what had just happened. ‘We’re all Ishin Shishi here, aren’t we?’ he thought. ‘We’re all fighting for the same thing, aren’t we?’ He decided to tune his mind in to any ki that might be in the area, something he hadn’t really thought he’d have to do in the supposedly friendly environment of the inn. Aside from the strong and angry ki of his opponent, however, he sensed only a few other men, all of them non-threatening. Was this the only man who, for whatever reason, had taken some kind of dislike to him, or were there more? Was his ability with a sword such that it made other swordsmen feel threatened? He had a hard time believing that, not after all the ridicule he had gotten from Hiko over the years for his lack of skill. Still, it appeared he would have to watch his back from now on. It was not a happy prospect.

As he sat there thinking, he heard a knock on the door. It was Okami, delivering his new clothes from the seamstress. After thanking her, he said, "Okami-san, everyone here fights for the Ishin Shishi, right?"

"What a strange question, Himura-chan," she said. "Of course they do. Why do you ask?"

"I mean, we’re all here for the same reason, right? To help create a new era of peace and justice?"

Okami thought about that for a moment. "Some of the men fight for that," she said, "but to be honest, some of them are probably in it just because they hold a grudge against a lord or because they like the pay. Who knows what they’re really thinking. Does it matter?"

"Probably not," he said, but he found the answer troubling. It hadn’t occurred to him that not everybody would be fighting for the sake of an ideal. Where would that place the loyalty of those who were not?

It was with his mind in turmoil that he went to dinner, hoping to talk to Katsura and Katagai about it, but they had not yet returned from their meetings, and the rest of the Chousu men, who had gone with them, had not returned either. Not knowing anyone else, and not being sure now of where he stood with these other men, Kenshin found an empty corner and sat down. He studiously avoided the eyes of Shinzu Tora. Eventually, a few men came to join him. He nodded to them warily. Then he tensed, fearing the worst, as Kishi and Yuka came by with the food. Luckily, they said nothing.

"Hey, kid, don’t be so nervous," said one of the men, whose name was Yoshida. "We’re all friends here."

"Himura Kenshin," Kenshin responded, nodding once again.

"Listen, thanks for putting that prick in his place earlier today," Yoshida said.

"What?" Kenshin asked.

"Shinzo Tora," said Yoshida’s friend Sato, as he motioned over to the other side of the room. "We heard what you did. That guy deserved it. He’s an arrogant bastard, and he got even more arrogant after he killed that hitokiri last week. Thinks he’s the gods’ gift to swordsmen or something, just because he trained at the same school as Katsura-san. He got plenty jealous yesterday when he saw you practice."

"Ah," Kenshin responded. That certainly explained things.

"Don’t worry about it," added Yoshida’s other friend, Tanaka. "There’s a rotten apple in every barrel, and as far as most of us are concerned"—he waved his arm around the room to show he meant everyone—"he’s it. It’s just a shame he really is that good with a sword, or we’d have him out of here. But enough of him—why don’t you join us after dinner and meet some of the other men. We’re gonna play dice, gamble a little. Whaddya say?"

Kenshin agreed, feeling much better than he had before, but still not feeling secure in his new home.

It turned out to be about 10 men who joined them for dice after dinner, and seeing a mere youth among them gave them visions of easy winnings. As the dice passed to Kenshin, however, their visions evaporated—it seemed that every time he threw the dice, he predicted the outcome accurately, even after being plied with sake. After seven consecutive wins, he had amassed enough winnings to purchase that hat Shozo had suggested and then some. Noting the unhappy faces surrounding him, Kenshin decided perhaps it was time to call it a night.

As he gathered his winnings and rose to leave, Yoshida came over to him and said, "I’ve never, in my entire life, seen a winning streak like that. How’d you do it?"

"I just watch the numbers at the start, then calculate the trajectory and the speed," Kenshin said. "Doesn’t everybody do that?" He could tell from Yoshida’s face that Yoshida didn’t have a clue as to what he was talking about. "It’s what my shishou taught me," Kenshin added helpfully. Yoshida just shook his head.

Kenshin started heading upstairs, but as he did so, he could feel a flash of ki from some of the gamblers. He had the sinking feeling that he may have unwittingly made a few more enemies—an uncomfortable thought to have just before going to sleep. When his temporary roommate, Katagai, returned that night, he found Kenshin asleep not on his futon, but sitting in a corner, knee up and katana resting against his shoulder.

Japanese Terms:

Ohayou: Good morning.
Tokugawa: the family that had been Shoguns since the 1600s.
Daimyo: feudal lord.
Ishin Shishi: name for the anti-Shogunate faction.


Author’s Note: First, a big thank-you to my CoConspirator, who has been invaluable in helping me with this story, especially her astute observation that Kenshin (throughout the manga) must be truly baka not to realize that his hair is a dead giveaway as to who he is!

Just so you all know, I’ve never been to Kyoto, but I have read Fodor’s and Frommer’s travel guides, and yes, the Tokugawa did have a castle in Kyoto that still stands, and yes, it was built to put the emperor’s to shame. Another historical note: Only samurai had surnames until 1870, when the Meji government decreed that everyone should have surnames. As for the colors for the Mimiwarigumi and Satsuma clan, I made that up (if anyone knows for sure what colors they wore, I’ll plug it in!). And as for how Kenshin manages to predict the throw of the dice, if only I knew! But this seemed as good an explanation as anything else….


CoConspirator’s Note: *blush* I’m not that great, really!! I just find it rather amusing that, even after ten years of wandering, Kenshin can still wonder how his enemies recognize him when you can see his hair from about three miles away. ^_^ Well, I’ll see you in the next chapter.
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