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The Choshu Chronicles: Chapter Eleven

by Omasu Oniwabanshi ::: 20.Jan.2005

"Have you got room for one more?" asked the man standing in the inn's courtyard in a pleasant voice with a Tosa accent.

Kenshin was sitting on the porch that afternoon, thumbing the interlocking silk bands on his sword's hilt. Apart from checking for wear and tear on the woven bands that kept his hands from slipping off the hilt when sweaty, he was also watching Sota, the two year old, pulling leaves off a small shrub while his mother hung linens up on the clothesline at the side of the inn.

At the man's voice, she turned around, distracted from her task. She opened her mouth helplessly, beginning to shrug a denial when all of a sudden Shunme burst out from the open door of the inn's common room and jumped off the porch.

"Ike Kurata, you old dog! Where have you been?" he yelled, his round face beaming as he confronted the stranger.

Kurata bowed formally. "Shunme. It is good to see you, old friend."

"Where have you been? I thought you were hanging around Takasugi, but the last few times I visited you weren't there."

"I've been working with Sakamoto Ryoma for the past few months."

Shunme pursed his lips and nodded. "Makes sense, you're from Tosa, he's from Tosa, and we haven't been able to offer you much action around here of late."

He shook his head in mock regret. "The shogun's second expedition is running behind schedule, and it's getting boring waiting for it to come. It's not like it was last year when you and I helped Takasugi kick those conservative potato-heads out of Choshu, huh?"

Kurata smiled good naturedly, and opened his mouth to reply, only to stop as Sota toddled up bearing handfuls of leaves.

"Oh ho, and what have we here?" Shunme scooped up the baby and displayed him to Kurata. "Apart from Kenshin over there," he nodded back at the porch. "This here's our youngest Choshu patriot. Say hello to Sota."

"Hello Sota." repeated Kurata obediently, obviously familiar with the other man's sense of humor.

The innkeeper's wife came up, a basket of dry linens under her arm, which she held out. "Here, I'll take him." she said wearily.

Shunme stopped pretending he was going to eat the leaves in Sota's hand and deposited the baby in the basket. "We can fit another guest, can't we?" he asked the woman in a wheedling tone.

She sighed, but bowed and nodded before carrying Sota off with the laundry basket.

"Hey Kenshin, come here and meet Kurata."

Kenshin tucked his sword back through his obi and came down the steps, bowing politely when he reached Kurata.

"I'm very pleased to meet you." responded Kurata. "I hope we will work well together."

Shunme gasped dramatically. "Does this mean you're coming back to the fold? Like a lost lamb?"

Kurata smiled. "Ryoma thought Katsura could use more protection in Kyoto."

"Kyoto?" Kenshin didn't realize he'd spoken until the word burst out.

Shunme shot him a curious look. "Yeah, Katsura is finally going to Kyoto to meet with Saigo of Satsuma. I meant to tell you earlier. I guess Ryoma wore him down!"

"He can be very persuasive." affirmed Kurata.

"And won't Nakamura be ready to spit like a volcano when he hears about it." Shunme grinned in glee. "Come to think of it, he kind of looks like a volcano when he gets mad. His face turns as red as hot lava, and he spews hot air from his mouth too. I think I'll start calling him ‘volcano-head.'" Shunme belly laughed, the ho ho hos filling the courtyard.

Grabbing Kurata by the shoulders, he drew him up the steps and into the inn. Kenshin stood still in the courtyard and watched them go.

Kyoto.

Kenshin hadn't been back since the Ikedaya incident when so many of the Choshu loyalists he'd worked with had been killed by the Shinsengumi. He heard that the subsequent fire had destroyed a swath of the city nearly five miles long by a mile wide.

Kyoto was where he'd met Tomoe.

o-o-o

They traveled by boat, Katsura, Ike Kurata, a messenger sent by Saigo to guide them, Kenshin, Shunme, Oshio and Hojo. Nakamura and Takahata stayed behind.

Kenshin overhead Katsura trying to reason with Nakamura before they left, but Nakamura would have none of it.

"I can't believe you'd let Ryoma send another bodyguard. Aren't I enough? I serve you, Katsura. I would lay down my life for you, but I won't lie down for the Satsuma dogs." Nakamura's voice was harsh with emotion.

Katsura had been silent. "Then I won't ask you to." he'd said quietly, at last.

Now they were in Kyoto. They took a riverboat up the Takase-gawa canal and saw much of the fire damage. Many of the places familiar to Kenshin around the Imperial Palace, such as Choshu's official headquarters, were now gone, though the Ikedaya Inn remained. He saw its tiled roof, and imagined he could see the very window of the room where he'd stayed.

Eventually, they left the canal and walked the rest of the way to Satsuma Headquarters at dusk to avoid recognition. Though they didn't see any Shinsengumi patrols, Kenshin's battousai instincts were at full alert.

They didn't stay at Satsuma's official Kyoto headquarters for long. When Kamatsu Tatewaki, Satsuma's hereditary councilor to the lord of Satsuma, heard that they'd arrived, he insisted they stay at his house instead.

Kenshin was patrolling outside the villa when Saigo Kochinosuke arrived. Saigo was a large man, over 200 pounds. Most of it appeared to be muscle. He walked slowly, ponderously, several warriors at his side, though he left them at the door. An hour later he walked back out, his face as gravely expressionless as it had been when he entered.

Shunme came outside just as Saigo disappeared out the front gate. He folded his arms and stood next to Kenshin.

"Well, Nakamura would have been thrilled."

"What?" Kenshin asked.

Shunme nodded at the gate swinging shut behind Saigo and his entourage. "There is no alliance like Ryoma hoped. Katsura told Saigo off for the Forbidden Gates Incident. And Saigo just sat there and took it all. Never denied a single accusation." Shunme continued to gaze at the gate, unusually serious.

"What did Saigo say?"

"Not much. He nodded, agreed, and then he left."

Kenshin too looked out at the gate in silence.

Shunme clapped him on the shoulder. "Come on. Maybe the next meeting will go better now that Katsura's got all that off his chest."

But there was no next meeting. A week passed. Then another, and still Saigo did not return. Komatsu and his staff went out of their way to be polite and to find things to entertain Katsura with, but Kenshin could tell that his leader was getting impatient.

Shunme was in and out taking messages and running errands for Katsura. Because he'd never been in Kyoto before, his face was unknown to both the Shinsengumi and the city police squads.

One day Kenshin asked permission to go on an errand of his own.

"Katsura. I'd like to go to the street of the stone cutters, if that's alright with you."

He'd just got off guard duty, and Hojo and Oshio were standing out in the hall in front of Katsura's chamber in the mansion. Shunme was out on an errand with Ike Kurata. Now Kenshin sat alone on the tatami mat before his leader.

Katsura sat on his knees, writing a letter on a small square writing table. He lifted the brush from the page.

"Of course Kenshin. I don't have to remind you to be careful, but may I ask why?"

Kenshin stared at the writing table. "I want to hire someone to carve a grave marker for Tomoe."

"Ah." Katsura sucked in the syllable. From under his lowered lashes Kenshin saw him hitch back his kimono sleeve to avoid trailing it over the damp ink on his letter and set down the brush on the table. "Do you need any money?"

"No. I've saved enough." He'd saved nearly all of the wages Katsura had given him since he started bodyguard duty. He'd also saved the money he'd made selling medicines with Tomoe when he was hiding out, but his mind shied away from that memory. In the unfamiliar environs of Komatsu's villa there was nothing to remind him of her, but out in the city streets…

"Go then." Katsura said simply.

Kenshin nodded, got to his feet, and left.