From: Tatsuko <tatsuko@xoommail.com>

Here's part 6B! 

        She was trapped. 
        Ami wheeled around to see the alley blocked by a mass of very
unfriendly-looking men. She asessed them with a critical eye. <Almost all
of 'em are large. Their movements look slow though. That's good; if I'm to
have a chance against any of their attacks I'll have to stop them almost 
before they start.>
        Ami caught the low sound of one of them yelling something. She
desperately tried to make it out, or even to read the guy's lips, but
neither worked. <It doesn't even sound like English.> she thought. Then it
hit her. <Given what I've seen of this place, they might be speaking
Japanese.>
        They moved forward and raised their weapons. Ami's hand
automatically went to her sword, and she surveyed the hodgepodge of
unusual arms they were wielding. <Damn. I've never fought against
some of these things.>
        The one who seemed to be the leader stepped even closer, raising
his sword. <A sword. Good. Something I know how to go against. De wa...>
She crouched into position. 
        The guy launched his attack, and Ami reacted instinctively. It was
all over in a split second, and it ended with the leader disarmed and the
rest of them stunned.
        <Yatta! It worked!> Inwardly, Ami was jumping for joy, and feeling
rather proud of herself. But outwardly, she gave almost no hint of 
emotional reaction. She reminded herself this was no time to get over-
confident; she wasn't out of the woods yet, not by a long shot.
        The others rushed her and Ami went into a flurry of motion, trying
desperately to adapt her moves and keep track of everyone and everything
that was coming at her. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the glint
of a sword blade, but couldn't parry it in time. Cold steel cut into her
arm.
        Ami hissed in pain. <Itai!> She tried to control her breathing and
calm herself. <Ignore the pain. Work through it. Remember what dad used to
say.> She silently thanked her father for the second time that night.
<Never thought I'd be thanking him for all those times he made me practice
on an injury> she thought wryly. She slowly straightened up... to see a
skinny, red-haired kid face off against the remaining thugs. <The guy from
the place I ran from! He followed me!>
        Ami watched in surprize and and sheer awe as he made his way
effortlessly through the fighters with inhuman speed and deadly grace. He
was like a demon. In less than a minute, all of his opponents were down.
He straightened and flicked his sword with a sharp snap of his wrist, in a
movement Ami recognized immediatedly as chiburi. It was something she
herself had practiced many times, even though she'd never had blood on her
sword. But his was different. She'd never seen it done *that* way before,
so naturally, sharply, instinctively. He must have done it - for real - at
least a hundred times. He turned to look at her, his face hidden in
shadow.
        Only two words came to Ami's mind at that point: <Oh shit.>
        He stepped toward her, and Ami instinctively took a step back,
eyeing his sword nervously. She could faintly hear that he was saying
something, but she couldn't make it out at all. <I hope he doesn't get mad
that I don't answer him. I don't think I want to get this guy angry...>
Desperately, she tried to signal that she couldn't hear him. <Please
please please understand.> He took one more step. <No good.> She sighed
and crouched into position. <No way I'm going down without a fight.>
        Ami watched him warily as his hand moved toward his sword.
Then her eyes widened as he didn't draw the sword, but instead took it,
still sheathed, in his right hand and offered it to her.
        This was the last thing she expected. She looked from his face to
his sword and back, trying to figure this guy out. <Maybe...> Cautiously,
she reached out and took the hilt of his sword, then drew it. <What in the
world? The blade's on the wrong side!> She quickly looked around at the
fallen thugs. <My god, they're not dead, they're just unconscious...>
        She almost burst into a fit of hysterical laughter. <A dream!
That's it! That's the only thing that can explain all of this! It's gotta
be a dream!> She looked at the swordsman and returned his sword. <And
something tells me this dream has a lot to do with this guy> she thought.
<Mou...If I keep getting into fights like this, I hope I wake up soon...>

                        *** End Flashback 2 ***
                      (Told you it was long. :P)

        Hidden outside the clinic, Matsuno took in the whole story. <Hmph.
A dream. No, it isn't nearly as simple as that.> He stood up to leave, his
dark cloak flowing behind him. <I almost feel sorry for you, girl. You had
nothing to do with this. It was between me and the Battousai, and I didn't
even think you were worth bothering with... But now...Now you have the
potential to be useful to me.> He smirked. <Yes, very useful.>

tsuzuku... (to be continued...)

Coming up in Chapter 7: What does Matsuno have up his sleeve? *grin* 
He finally gets some real character development...

                                *****

Japanese Terms:

ara: Huh? (feminine)
sou: Yes/That's right
yoshi: Alright, OK
de wa: Well then...
yatta: Yeah! Yes! I did it!
itai: Ouch!
chiburi: Flicking blood off of the sword
mou: Sound of overall frustration. "Jeez" or "Gawd" or "For crying out
     loud"

                                *****

             The Making of the Characters: Nazotoki Ami

        The obvious choice of character for this chapter was Ami. Her
given name has no special meaning, except that I wanted a name that could
equally have been Japanese or Western (although you would pronounce it
differently, depending on the origin). Her family name is written with the
characters for "mystery/enigma" and "time."
        Well, I have to say that Ami's character is a mixture of me (or 
rather, me at age 17, although Ami in the fic is the same age as I am now, 
23) and a friend of mine. Physically, she is patterned after me; I have the 
same hair and eye color, I really am only 4'6" (Sakka-chan and Madam 
Hydra-san can vouch for that ~_~), and my hair used to be that long when I 
was 17 (it's not _quite_ that long now). The only major difference is that 
I am not part Japanese. (So everything that's going to be in the fic about 
Ami's family is just entirely made up.)
        I am somewhat hearing impaired (30% deaf in my right ear), and my 
friend is almost completely deaf, so I decided to write it into Ami's 
character. (I haven't decided wether or not to make it a plot point or 
not...) It's due to a degenerative condition; she could hear perfectly well 
when she was young, then started to gradually lose her hearing (right now 
she's at only 20 - 25%). If she had been deaf from birth, she (and thus, 
Ami) wouldn't even be able to speak without extensive speech therapy, but 
she was already talking by the time she lost any of her hearing at all, so 
her speech is unaffected. Even with only 25% hearing, she can still piece 
together what's being said, and she's also become quite adept at reading 
lips. This is, of course, as long as people are speaking English and not 
Japanese, which she didn't learn until after she lost quite a bit of 
hearing. She can only understand and speak Japanese if she has her hearing 
aids on (which is why Ami didn't respond to the thugs or to Kenshin at 
first). With her hearing aids, she can hear just about as well as anyone.
        Ami's style of fighting isn't battou jutsu, it's iaidou, which
pre-dated (and in a way originated) battou jutsu. It's still taught, and
in fact my friend studied it from the time she was five until she was 
somewhat forced to give it up at 17 (and yes, she even has a kogatana). It 
is very similar to battou jutsu: it focuses on the quick drawing of the 
sword, and uses some of the same moves and positions. I myself know aikidou 
and western fencing; I may bring those into the story...
        Oh, and in case you're wondering, I really am engaged. My fiance
may make an appearance in this fic.... (Or has he already?)  ^______^ 

                                ~*****~

Well, that's all. For those who have bothered to read this much, doumo
arigatou! ^__^

Tatsuko