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For This Dojo's Honor: Part 2

by DQBunny

Sunlight worked its way into the bedroom and into Kaoru’s eyes. Yawning, she reached out for Kenshin and touched the tatami instead. She cracked one eye open. He was gone, his futon already folded and put away.

She got up, feeling a bit sluggish and embarrassed. Despite their agreement to share the cooking, Kenshin usually got up first and started breakfast for her - actually, got it to the point where she couldn’t make any mistakes in finishing it. She placed her futon next to his, absently noted that his was folded neater than hers. She bound her breasts and dressed in her practice clothes.

Just as she thought, Kenshin stood over the kitchen fire, checking on the morning rice. He looked up when she stepped in the room, smiled brightly. “Good morning, Kaoru.”

“Good morning.” Kaoru replied, and stepped over to the storage area where the bowls and chopsticks were kept. She quietly set two places, biting her tongue the entire time. She couldn’t believe how annoyed she was over the fact her husband was cooking breakfast. Most women would be envious in her position, she figured.

They ate in silence, something that wasn’t unusual. But, she noted, this was a loaded silence. Kenshin kept giving her odd glances and it made her fidget. She wondered what was wrong with him, if she should even bother asking him about it. She knew him too well. He would just brush off whatever it was in an effort not to worry her. Kaoru picked up her dishes and discarded her mostly uneaten breakfast.

More than half of the rice remained in the tub. Kaoru rinsed her hands and lightly salted, them, then scooped up a handful to make onigiri. A moment later, Kenshin joined her in the task.

Her thoughts went back to the school. Yahiko will be here soon to train, she reminded herself. She needed to have something for him to work on. Sadly, as the days went by, there was less and less for her to teach him. He’d learned the ougi so fast that it amazed her. Lately, she’d taken to training him in other forms of martial arts that the school adopted - jujutsu, for example. But one day, Yahiko would surpass her and that day would be soon.

No, a small voice in her heart told her. That day had already passed.

Kaoru squeezed the rice tightly in her hands. News of Yahiko’s defeat of Enishi’s henchman had quickly spread all over town. In the same conversations that she heard people talk about her and about her uselessness as a swordsman, they also praised Yahiko. She knew she shouldn’t be jealous - after all, she did train him. But he was 11 years old! She was 17. She’d been doing Kamiya Kasshin Ryu ever since she could lift a shinai. He’d only known the style for eight months, maximum.

Still, she realized, her fight against Hiruma Gohei had been her first outside of a normal dojo spar. She’d never used the skill in real life, had even known this when she’d originally searched for the fake Battousai. It shocked, and scared her, how easily her sword broke when Gohei slashed it. Every real battle she’d participated in usually ended up in a broken shinai and someone else - usually Kenshin - rescuing her.

The point of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu is to protect the weak, Kaoru thought. Yet, how could she protect the weak using a wooden sword against the real? Even though the school was designed before the Meiji government outlawed swords, it embodied those ideals. Kaoru sighed. In a perfect world, no one, not even Kenshin, would carry any form of metal sword. If weapons were used, it would be a shinai or a bokken. Kamiya Kasshin Ryu was designed for a perfect world. What happened in the past year completely shattered that ideal. Kenshin was right, she realized. Her school was nothing but play-talk after all.

“Are you making onigiri or are we having mochi for lunch today?”

Kaoru blinked, and glanced at Kenshin. He stared at her with a calm, unreadable expression. Even though he was trying to hide it, she could tell he was seriously upset. Almost roughly, he plucked the ruined ball of mush that had once been rice out of her hand and tossed it into the fire. She shrugged, scooped up another handful, and started shaping it more carefully.

He followed suit. “You know, this one thought marriage meant talking about your problems,” he commented, a bitter edge to his voice.

Satisfied with the second rice ball she made, Kaoru snagged a piece of umeboshi from a jar and stuck it in the middle, then covered the hole. “Is something wrong, Kenshin? What do we need to talk about?”

Kenshin stared at her, almost as if she’d grown an extra appendage. She shot him a look. “What?”

“I’m going to do laundry.” Kenshin abandoned the rice and headed outside.

Boy, he was in a rotten mood. Kaoru made a note to try avoiding him for the rest of the day. When she and Yahiko were done with their practicing, perhaps she could bribe him into preparing the bath for Kenshin. That would be nice for him, even snap the surly mood out of him. She couldn’t ignore the fact that his being grumpy pleased her to an extent. It meant he was comfortable enough around her to not be so cheerful all the time.

She stepped outside and soaked in the warm rays of the sun. It was chilly at times, especially in the shade. Perhaps she and Yahiko could practice outside today. The thought cheered her and she headed for the dojo, humming under her breath. She ignored Kenshin, who was heating water at the outdoor fire pit, and stepped into the room.

The emptiness assaulted her.

She surveyed it, memories hitting her of the lessons her father constantly gave. The satisfying whack of wood hitting wood as the students sparred, while her father, with his gravelly voice, supervised them. He’d promised her that she would be a full master of the school by the time she was 18, Kaoru realized. Yet here she was, birthday come and gone. She was married, but not a master.

And no hope of becoming one.

Instead of retrieving her shinai, she crossed over to the shrine reached behind it. She withdrew a long tube, similar to ones that held ink paintings. Carefully, she withdrew a parchment, unrolled it and spread it on the floor. She studied it for awhile, deciphering the scrawl her father used. She didn’t look up when she heard two sets of feet padding across the dojo toward her.

"I only have very vague memories of the ougi. It's like the ones for Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu. You have to know the first in order to use the second, like when I showed them to you before Enishi…Enishi took me. Defense technique Hadome. Attack technique Hawatari. I've only seen Father use it once,” Kaoru spoke softly. She smiled wistfully. “I wish I’d seen you do it, Yahiko,” she added, figuring it was her student.

"When was this?" It was Yahiko. Without a doubt, the other person with him was Kenshin. Kaoru glanced across the floor, saw twin pairs of white and magenta tabi a few feet away. She shifted her gaze back to the scrolls.

"I was very small, and this was before Hiruma Gohei was a student here. A man came in to challenge the dojo and took my father on. I remember creeping to the door and watching the fight." Kaoru closed her eyes, determined to focus on the memory. "I remember that the man threatened Father, said he would take a hostage if he didn't turn the dojo over. The man pointed his sword at me. I was so scared; I was frozen to the spot. Father...he suddenly made this horrible noise and started toward the man. The next thing I know, his sword was on the ground and so was he, howling in pain. Our students at the time gawked at him, they had never seen the move before. Like me, they weren't sure about what he had actually done."

"All I remember is what Father said after the fight. He walked over to me and picked me up. I started crying because I had been so scared and he told me everything was okay. He then faced the students and said that was the succession technique. You can only use it when your blood is filled with the purest need to protect something. Your next breath depends on making sure that person is protected with your heart, your soul, and your life. That person's protection comes before your own life. Only when you have achieved that can you execute that move with precision."

“So in other words, that person's survival is more important than living.”

Kaoru nodded. "At that moment, you're prepared to give up your life to protect another. Back during that time, my father's goal was to protect me."

The wind blew through the dojo, rustling the parchment. A small corner of the document tore off and disintegrated. Kaoru quickly rolled it back up and stuck it in the tube. She placed it behind the shrine and bowed her head in prayer. Her lips moved, but neither man nor boy could hear what she said. She faced them with a bright smile, hoping it masked the ache in her heart.

Kenshin stared at her, his violet eyes narrowed into slits. He opened his mouth as if to speak, then firmly shut it. He shook his head and walked out.

Yahiko looked after him. “What’s with him?”

“He’s been like this all day.” Kaoru felt the twinge of conscience, telling her that she needed to follow him. She pushed it aside, focused on her student instead. “You’re late. Oversleep again? That’ll be an extra 500 strokes, you know.”

“I’ve a good reason. I stopped by the Akabeko for breakfast and found this.” Yahiko handed her a flyer. “It’s a kenjutsu contest! Each dojo is allowed to compete. It’s a competition of the best that each school has to offer. There’s even a prize! 200 yen! That’s a lot of money!”

“Yeah, that is a lot of money.” Enough money to survive until spring and also do some necessary repairs on the dojo. Kaoru thought of the small bag of money Kenshin carried about, the money he thought she didn’t know about. He’d accepted it from the police chief when he thought she wasn’t looking. He hadn’t wanted it, but as he explained to the chief, he had no choice.

“So, let’s enter it! It just cost 10 yen, but if we win, we’ll get all that money in return! I’m sure I’ll kick everyone else from here to Hokkaido!”

Kaoru glanced at the flyer, then at her student. “Fine, Yahiko. I’ll enter school in the contest.”

“Alright!”

“But you won’t be entering it.”

Yahiko scowled. “Hey! Why not?”

“Because I’ll be doing so instead.”