Disclaimer: RK is not mine but Nobuhiro Watsuki's. All original
characters and plot belong to me though.

Author Notes: Minna-san, just a short chapter this time. For the moment,
this is the best I can turn out; I think it's pretty all right...but may
do some tweaking in the future. As always, C&C is welcome. For those at
TFME, please don't forget to review, esp. since Mir has gone through all
that trouble to create a review system!


The Master and the Pupil

Part Three: Morning After


He knew that she would be waiting for him. Sunlight stroked the sky in
varying hues of blue and gold pink; dawn was breaking over night. The
hustle and bustle of the small town had barely begun when Eiji finally
slunk back home only to find Tokio sitting on the porch, lying in wait
for him. She certainly lacked Saitou's bark but she had his bite, Eiji
thought sourly as he pushed the gate open. There was nothing that
slipped past this woman. She looked fresh and immaculately groomed as
usual while he was feeling sore and cold from spending the night out in
the streets. There was no way that he was going to sleep under the same
roof as that murderer Soujirou.

Ignoring her, Eiji intended to walk past her when she called out to him.
If it had been an outright command, he could have ignored her, since he
was still seething with righteous and injured indignation. But what he
could not ignore was a simple and reasonable request to hear her out.
That would have been plain rude and Eiji, however stubborn he was, could
not be rude to Tokio who had taken him under her roof without a murmur
and who had been genuinely kind to him. Grudgingly, he sat on the floor
beside her.

"It's hard isn't it? Spending a night on the streets," she commented,
looking him up and down, noting the way he rubbed his joints.

"How would you know?" Eiji muttered.

"How else but through experience?" That got his attention but Tokio said
no more about her past. She hardly ever mentioned it, leaving him to
piece together the puzzle of who she had been before her marriage from
the few bits and pieces she chose to reveal. "Seta Soujirou will be
staying with us for a while." Her hand closed on Eiji's wrist before he
could scramble to his feet.

"If he stays then I'm leaving." To Eiji's dismay his eyes were filling
with angry tears and he fought hard to push them back. "Let me go!"

"I opened my door to you Eiji. I can't do any differently for Soujirou."

"It's not the same! And I never asked you to look after me anyway! It
was your husband that dragged me here without even asking me."

"That was because you had no choice, there was no where else to go. And
it was not so very different for Soujirou when he was your own age. No,
you two are not so very different if you compare circumstances."

When Eiji saw the futility of trying to break her hold on him, he
settled down, a stony, mutinous expression on his face. "And I suppose
I'm going to have to listen to his sob story now." he said
sarcastically. "Like I've got a choice now."

Tokio kept quiet and when it was apparent that Eiji had no more remarks
to make, she began. "During the Shishio Makoto case, Hajime investigated
the backgrounds of all Ten Swords. To my knowledge, this is what we know
of Seta Soujirou's background. He was an abandoned baby, taken in by a
middle-class family and exploited as an unpaid slave. The neighbours
still remembered him. They said that no matter how hard the thrashings,
or how loud the abuse, he never once struck back at his foster family.
Not even when they did it in public. The whole town knew about Soujirou
and how he suffered. But no one did anything to help him. Eventually
though, Soujirou did kill them all. And he was no older than you are now
when he did it."

In spite of himself, Eiji was curious. "He killed them all? No wonder he
did if they kept hitting him," he muttered in a low voice.

"On the night of the murder, an eyewitness spotted Soujirou leaving
town. And it was reported that a tall man swathed in bandages carrying a
sword was with him."

"Shishio."

"Yes, it was Shishio. The police had warned of a renegade swordsman
hiding in the vicinity of Soujirou's town and now we know that Shishio
must have somehow hidden himself in the compound of Soujirou's home. And
that they had contact with each other."

Tokio could practically see Eiji's mind processing the information.
'Good, let him think about it.' She could not defend Soujirou directly
and it was not her intention to either. What she wanted to do was to get
Eiji to realise that there was more to Soujirou than a merciless killer;
that behind all that was a person who needed help. "I'm sure you
remember that day when you stood over Senkaku with a sword."

Under her fingers, his pulse jumped and he clenched his hand into a
tight fist. She would have to be very careful here. "You meant to kill
him. That is perfectly understandable. But if you had, you would have
turned killer, no matter how justified the act of killing. At that
moment Himura Kenshin stepped in and changed your course in life.
Because of him partly, you are who you are now. Do you understand Eiji?"

"So you blame Shishio for the way Soujirou has turned out?"

"Somewhat, yes. I don't know what happened that night. But I imagine
that Soujirou would only have killed if he himself had been in danger of
losing his life. Shishio could have saved Soujirou. Instead, he allowed
a child access to a sword and let him slaughter an entire family. This
is the lesson he taught Soujirou. And it changed Soujirou's life."

Eiji was torn. As much as he wanted Soujirou out of the house, as much
as he still hated him, he could not deny that the young man had once
been a victim too. He didn't want to admit it, but it seemed that
Soujirou had had little choice in the circumstances that had befallen
him. What if he had met Shishio then, Eiji found himself wondering.
Himura had stopped him from picking up the sword; Shishio would have put
a sword in his and encouraged him. Himura would have stopped Soujirou
from killing; Himura would have changed his life the way that he had
changed Eiji's.

"Ho-how long is he going to stay?" he asked grudgingly. "He isn't going
to stay forever is he?" His eyes widened in alarm as the thought crossed
his mind.

Tokio laughed. "Of course not. This is not Soujirou's home. But by
getting him to stay for a while, I hope to teach him some things."

"Teach him? But-"

"Not with a sword. I cannot teach him anything about skills. But I can
teach him about the sword. What a person must know before he or she ever
takes up the blade. Before you master your sword skills, you must be
able to first master yourself. If not, the blade will always rule over
you and your life will be controlled by it."

"Isn't that the stuff that you have been teaching me?" he asked
sceptically. Eiji imagined that if Tokio was going to teach Soujirou
anything, it would be something far above the level of a ten-year old.

"You have been learning the basics. Soujirou has no base. And that is
why Himura defeated him in the end. And if you hurry back from school
today, I'll show you how I am going to defeat Soujirou as well." She
slid that last part in so smoothly and casually that at first it did not
register with Eiji. And when it did, his eyes took on the proportions of
saucers and he seemed unable to move. "Well, didn't you hear me? Go get
ready for school now."

Snapping out of his daze, Eiji went back in, followed closely by Tokio
who prepared a bath and some breakfast for him. As she saw him off at
the gate, Eiji turned around just before he left. "Tokio-san, just
because I think Soujirou should stay a while doesn't mean that I have
forgiven him. I...I won't be speaking to him at all. And you should be
careful around him."

"I know. And I won't ask that you forgive or get along with Soujirou,
Eiji. It is not my place to ask that. But thank you, for understanding."
Lifting her hand, she patted his cheek tenderly before adjusting the
collar of his gi. Blushing Eiji muttered an abrupt good-bye before
taking off. She was watching him when a messenger arrived with letters.
Amongst them was one from Hajime. After reading it twice over, Tokio
took out some paper and ink. Smoothing the page, she dipped the brush in
the ink and started writing.

"Hajime, it is good news to hear that the case is proceeding well. All
is fine at home. And no, as much as I do miss you, I am definitely not
bored... ..."

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