"You're here." Yuukiko couldn't stop touching him, just to
reassure herself that he was real. Kenshin.... Kakushin. Her dreams had
been his dreams. He even smelled the same.
"You look exactly the same. You're beautiful." Kakushin could not resist
kissing her again. He felt something in his soul ease with her near him.
"I never want to lose you again." He held her so tightly against him that
it hurt. But she didn't want him to stop.
"Kakushin. I won't ever leave you. Not ever."
His grandfather had dragged the drenched pair out of the rain and into
the dojo. He had found a light yukata for her to wear until her clothes
were finished drying. Then, with a grin and a couple of comments, he left
the couple to be alone.
"Sagara Yuukiko? Heh. Interesting. I think you've found the right girl,
Kakushin. The Sagara family is a good, strong one. Your children.... Ah!
I can't wait! Heh. I'll be a great-grandfather!"
"Oro?" Kakushin squeaked in surprise. "O-Ojiisan.... W-We're still in
high school."
"And we just met," Yuukiko added. Kakushin's grandfather wanted them
to have kids? They were still teenagers....
"Heh. Don't worry. You two seem mature enough for it. Now, I'm just
going to go to the practice room and meditate. You two can do whatever
you want." He rubbed his hands together with glee. "Wait. I'll go ask your
grandmother to call Yuukiko-chan's parents so that she can stay over. I
know Obaachan is excited."
"Demo.... I-"
"Obaachan can get your parents to let you stay over. Don't worry. Tomorrow
is Saturday. We'll get them to come over and meet Kakushin. Perfect. Everything
will be arranged in no time."
Kakushin could only stutter a faint protest. "A-arranged? O-Ojiisan....
We... We're-"
"Sa! I'll leave you be now. The weather is still too bad to let you
go home now."
"Ojiisan. It's stopped raining."
"It isn't raining? Don't worry, Kakushin. I'll take care of everything."
With that, his grandfather left the room whistling.
"Ummm.... That was weird."
"Yeah, I'd say. I guess no one is going to question this, huh? The same
thing happened to-"
"Huh? What is it?" Kakushin cupped her face in his hands to look into
her eyes.
"You know, some of the others must have passed over, too. My best friend
is Makimachi Aya.... She and her boyfriend Rui are Misao and Aoshi. Everyone
reacted the same way with them. Instant acceptance. Everything was like
a done deal."
"Misao and Aoshi.... I wonder why we were all born again. We had a promise
between us. But the others?"
Yuukiko shivered suddenly. Kakushin pulled her closer to him, trying
to warm her. She had turned pale. Kakushin could feel her heartbeat speed
up.
"Yuukiko?" he asked worriedly.
"Ka-Kakushin.... We have to find the others. There is something going
on here. We have to find them. Soon."
"Yuukiko." Kakushin felt it, too. There was a sudden dark urgency in
the air. He pulled her closer. This time.... This time.... He was not going
to lose her. Not now. Not ever.
"There is more to this than just us, Kakushin. We have to get Aya and
Rui."
******
"Yuukiko! I knew that you went off to find him!" Aya winked and wagged
her finger at her best friend. "You had that look in your eye when you
left."
"What look is that, Aya?" said a voice behind her. Rui moved towards
his girlfriend like a panther. His movements were smooth and silent. Yuukiko
blinked. She never noticed how much he really was like Aoshi until now.
"You know," she grinned up at him, "the Look." She batted her eyes up
at him and pouted. Rui blinked down at her, his lips curling just a bit
at the sides.
"That one?" Kakushin asked, confused. Yuukiko had yet to bat her eyelashes
at him. Not that he would mind, but she hadn't done that yet. Kaoru had
never batted her eyes at Kenshin, either.
"No. That's the other Look. She's just teasing Rui," Yuukiko
explained with a grin. "That couple is the ideal opposites-attract type.
Aya is flirty and fun. Rui is.... Well, he is serious and quiet. But they
seem to just belong together."
The couple in front of them were now leaning in close towards each other,
their conversation hushed. Kakushin and Yuukiko looked at each other and
grinned.
"It's good to know that Misao and Aoshi worked it all out. Her love
for Aoshi seemed so...."
"Yeah. I know. They certainly look like they have worked out their differences,"
commented Kakushin.
"Yeah. When they met in this life," Yuukiko put her hands together and
sighed dreamily, "it was like magic."
"Hey! Yuukiko. You shouldn't talk! Weren't you were the one who called
me an hour ago saying in a breathless voice, 'Aya. I found him.
And
GOD is he gorgeous!'? Now, what's this about trouble?"
Both Yuukiko and Kakushin blushed at Aya's statement. Aya just tsked
at them and turned towards the dojo's entrance.
"Let's go in and talk about what's going on."
Kakushin led them to the living room. They sat down around the low table
in the center of the room. Night had fallen, but the rain had stopped,
so the doors that opened to the gardens were left open. Yuukiko sighed
and stared out at the stars. How could she explain what she sensed was
going on? She wasn't sure if she was right, but she couldn't just dismiss
this.
She took a breath and plunged ahead. "I think this is going to be trouble.
Now. In this world," Yuukiko explained.
"Why do you think that?" Rui sat back, staring at Yuukiko. "I mean,
why do you feel like there's something going on?"
"I-I don't know. I just have this feeling. I can't seem to get this
thought out of my head." Yuukiko sighed in frustration. "I don't know why.
I just don't know."
"Why were we reborn?" Aya asked suddenly. "Kaoru and Kenshin were torn
apart by death. But Aoshi and Misao. They lived a happy life together.
I think there's a reason that we were brought back now," she continued.
"I agree with Yuuki-chan. There is something more going on here than we
understand right now. Kenshin and Kaoru.... Aoshi and Misao...."
"Do you think that the others were reborn, too? I mean, all these events
seem to be related. I just moved here recently. Our dreams were becoming
more and more...real to us. Maybe the others will be drawn here, too,"
Kakushin mused.
Yuukiko closed her eyes. In her mind, she saw the last images that Kaoru
had seen. The tears that fell from Kenshin's eyes as she closed hers forever.
Back then.... She had been feeling the same dark urgency building up. Back
then, she had died. But she didn't think it was about her now. Whatever
was going to happen was about more than their small circle of friends.
"This town.... This part of Tokyo is the key. We are all here, right?"
Rui lay back, put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes to think.
"Maybe being in this dojo is giving you a sense of what's happening," he
offered in explanation.
"The dojo?"
"Yeah. Maybe your soul is connected to it. Like it's connected to Kakushin
over there."
"And all of us are connected to each other? If we came back, what if
something followed us to this time?" Kakushin mumbled.
"Kakushin?"
"What if...What if the others came back because there was something
that was going to happen in this time. What if we were needed in this time."
"Something was reborn, then, with us?"
"We're not planeteers! And this is not an action-adventure story!" Aya
said, exasperated. "There is no 50 foot monster we have to fight. Such
things don't exist."
"Not something. Someone." Rui got up and stretched. "How many enemies
did you have, 'Kenshin?' Someone who hated you enough might have been reborn.
Hate can be as strong as love, can't it? It's not so unfeasible. I mean,
all of us were reborn and now remember our past lives together. Why can't
an enemy be reborn with us? Someone whose soul could not rest."
Kakushin closed his eyes. Enemies? Who was so obsessed that their hate
would span time like this? They didn't even know if a real threat was out
there. But... Yuukiko's vision. She had such a strong reaction. There had
to be something going on.
"Kakushin?"
"Kenshin had a lot of enemies. It was not a peaceful time back then.
I think...." He opened his eyes and looked at all of them. "I think that
we need to find out if Megumi and Sano have been 'awakened.' Yahiko, too."
"Could Tsubame be here, too? Mou!" Yuukiko muttered to herself.
Kakushin grinned at her. He thought she was so cute when she was frustrated.
He reached out to grab her hand and kissed her palm.
"Yuukiko, we can't possibly solve all these questions tonight. We just
have to start looking for the others," Rui said softly. If she was right,
though.... They had better try to gather the rest. The question was still
how.
"Why don't we do a booth at the festival?" Aya spoke up suddenly.
"Huh?"
"Since we're all at the same school.... I assume that everyone was reborn
the same age as us. We could have a fortune telling booth at the school's
festival. We have one right before school ends every year," she explained
to Kakushin.
"How is that going to help?" Yuukiko asked.
"Come here," Aya ordered. "Give me your hands."
Yuukiko put out her hands to her friend. As soon as Aya touched her,
she gasped. "What the heck?"
"I think if you're looking for someone else, you'll know them. You can
feel them. I mean... sense them."
"Aya, that has never happened before!" She reached out to touch her
best friend's hands again. Nothing.
"I don't know. I just felt that I could do it," Aya explained with a
shrug. "Maybe you can only do it if you're looking for someone else. Try
thinking in you head, 'Are you one?'"
"Okay," she replied. "Give me your hand," she ordered to Rui. He placed
them in hers and they both gasped.
"It works. But what are we going to do? Go through the whole school
touching other people to test them?"
"No," said Kakushin softly. "We just put up a sign that we analyze dreams
and tell fortunes at the festival. I think that would be all we need. Hopefully,
the others will be 'awakened' by then."
"We have a month before the festival...."
"Yes. A month. I say we better get ready, starting this week at school."
"What club could we do this for?"
"What about the kendo club?" suggested Yuukiko. "We all can do some
martial arts, right?"
"I dunno. I haven't done any ninja type things in a long time, Yuukiko."
"What about a history club?" offered Rui.
"History?"
"Yeah. We could even dress up for the festival in clothes that we would
have worn during Meiji," Aya added. She liked the idea. "We could start
one right away, right?"
"We're starting a club. Just for this?" Yuukiko asked with a grin.
"You never know. It might actually get the people we're looking for
to come over and join at school. And we DO know about history." It was
kinda stretching it, but it just might work.
For the rest of the night, they made plans. The others had to be found.
And if they all were in the surrounding area, this might just be the best
way to do it. None of them wanted to give up what they had rediscovered
in this life. If there was a threat on the horizon, they were going to
be prepared.
