"The Japanese say you have three faces. The first face, you show to the world. The second face, you show to your close friends and your family. The third face, you never show anyone. It is the truest reflection of who you are."
(Unknown)

Rurouni Yahiko

A Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction Continuation Story by Chester Castañeda

The title is based on the 1957 film, "The Three Faces of Eve" starring Joanne Woodward and Lee J. Cobb.

Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others) are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallup, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted material that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.

Chapter 50: The Faces of Eve

May Brooks (A.K.A. Satsuki Sakaguchi) announced to the Sanbaka (Three Stooges) and Chizuru Raikouji, "I'm going back to Yokohama soon with the rest of the Sakaguchis. The Minakatas, our hatamoto lords back in the day, are summoning all Musou Madden Ryu practitioners to their aid!"

"'Their aid'?" repeated Chizuru, the granddaughter of a close family friend of the Sakaguchis in Nagano. "What, they're going to war or something? What do they need a martial arts school for?"

"I haven't the faintest. I merely received the telegram from Ojisan (Grandpa)." May shrugged then rested her head onto her childhood friend's shoulder, biting her lip.

She then brightened up in realization. "I'm going to meet up with Kinta-sama soon, Chizuru! It's been forever! He is such the bee's knees!"

The Great Gan then asked, "Hey, wait a minute. Who's... that?" He didn't yet have an appropriate nickname for this stranger he'd only heard of just now.

Miss Brooks covered her face with her blonde hair like a veil, which prompted Chizuru to roll her eyes and answer, "The hunk of a heir of the Minakata fortune and the star pupil of their martial arts school. Satsuki-chan has had a crush on him since she was little."

"Shut up! I did not!"

"Kyoko-chan told me all about it. And you still do!"

"Chizuru, you meanie!"

Yahiko turned away from the two quasi-squabbling non-blood-related sisters, only to see the wigged and eye-patched Munenori Minoe frozen on the spot like a statue, his eyes staring off into the distance.

Or maybe he looked more like a questionable store mannequin from a hokey martial arts goods store.

"...Kinta. Minakata Kinta," Yahiko heard Munenori mumble.

The Tokyoite then said, "Minoe? Are you there?" waving his hand in front of Minoe's one uncovered eye.

"Huh? Oh. You. Urchin Head. What is it?"

Something changed in Munenori's mannerisms, which prompted Myojin to ask with a whisper, "Do you know who this Minakata guy is? Is he someone you've... sparred with, maybe? Or is he your enemy?"

Minoe removed his eye patch and put it inside his shirt, revealing his lazy eye and cross-shaped scar.

Or perhaps her lazy eye and cross-shaped scar.

"...Kaede?" whispered Yahiko, cupping his hand over his mouth and shielding the small, eccentric Kenshin look-alike from the view of the rest of their comrades. "Is that you?"

"...Minakata Kinta is a coward who keeps running away from you when you spar with him," Kaede Morinaga answered Myojin's question. "He's a coward in a lot of other ways too. That traitor."

In an eye blink, the Battousai of Speed of the Battousaigumi (Battousai Group) disappeared from view, melting into the shadows, unbeknownst to anyone else except Yahiko.

Oh boy.

Before he himself took off after Munenori, Myojin realized something.

"...Hey wait, if you're going to Yokohama and I'm going to Osaka, then that means we're not going to see each other soon. Right, Satsuki?" asked Yahiko to his gaijin (foreigner) teacher friend.

"Huh? You're going to Osaka? I didn't know! Are you on vacation?" asked a blinking, green-eyed May with a finger on her chin.

"IT'S FOR MY MUSHA SHUGYO (WARRIOR'S PILGRIMAGE)!" yelped Myojin.

"Sorry masen!" The blonde covered her mouth and bowed repeatedly, while Yahiko could only stare, asking, "What? Eeeh?"

"I mean, sumimasen! Pardon me! Japan has so many ways to apologise, it confuses me sometimes!" said Satsuki, rubbing the back of her head.

A little later still, while Chizuru and May had one last shopping spree together...

Yahiko jogged across Hiroshima and searched for the third member of the Three Stooges.

"Oh, hello, Yahiko! Top of the mornin' to ya!"

"Ah, one of Miss Brook's new friends! Good morning!"

"Is your eye-patched friend missing again? Good luck finding her!"

"Grandma, Minoe's a boy! A little boy who wants to be a...!"

"...Girl?"

"No, a pirate! That's why he has an eye patch!"

"Really? Well, pardon me, then!"

Yahiko waved back at the friendly farmer people of Hiroshima (certainly friendlier than the provincial people up north in Nagano, but then again Shinshu was being terrorized by a gang at the time) as he passed them by.

He then overheard another farmer family have the following exchange.

"I'm going to town to buy new equipment, Ma! Tell Pa to not wait up!"

"Come back inside, Mariko! I hear there have been kidnappings going on in town! Wait till your father gets done with work in the afternoon!"

"Don't be silly! We're farmer folk, kidnappers don't have any interest in... OW! MA! MY EAR!"

"Don't be naive! They'll kidnap any girl with a pretty face!"

He jogged at a pace that was nowhere near as fast as Munenori (he was practically a turtle compared to Soujiro), but was quick enough to cover enough ground at a short amount of time without running out of steam (as he discovered while having foot races with the stamina monster known as the Great Gan).

Gan, a guy whom Myojin could easily outrun (unless he owed him money or he got into another "eat-and-run" incident with a restaurant), more than made up for his relative slowness with crazy endurance, outlasting sprinters with his marathon mentality.

That freakin' Gan. The freak of nature who knocked him out yesterday with a single blow to the chin during sparring.

Hmm. In a contest of stamina, who would fare better? Sanosuke Sagara or him? 'Nah. Of course, Sano would win. C'mon, what am I thinking? Just because he knocked me out with a sucker punch...'

And he himself couldn't put the big lug down. Nor Shogo Amakusa during their showdown in Akahori's Mansion in Shinshu.

"Hey, Yoshi-boy! Wassup?" greeted the Freakin' Gan, who was now neck and neck with Yahiko, matching his running pace.

Godammit, Gan.

"Didn't we just tell ya to slow down? You're gonna run your muscles ragged with your training regimen if you don't give 'em time ta rest!" added the bandanna-wearing hoodlum.

"I know, Gan. I know. This is just a light jog," reassured the Son of Tokyo Samurai. "Anyway, I'm just looking for, uh, Minoe."

Yeah, sure. "Minoe".

Yahiko gulped, a million scenarios running through his head like a stampede of wild horses.

What if Kaede had finally decided to rejoin Shogo Amakusa's Battousai Group? Or, worse, went ahead of them in order to square up her debts with this Kinta person?

For good or for ill, Myojin felt like the assassin girl was his responsibility somehow.

Like the owner of a dangerous dog who was only friendly to the likes of its master but bit everyone else that ended up on its way depending on its mood. Or personality.

Except this (for lack of a better term) "bitch" had actually tasted blood, and should either be put down or brought to the kennel to be caged permanently.

Would Yahiko be the one to face off with the loose cannon Kaede someday? Or could he rehabilitate her before that happened?

The teenager winced and grabbed the shoulder that Morinaga stabbed with the Sasori Gatame (Scorpion Death Lock).

His muscles still throbbed with soreness and pain occasionally in remembrance of that event, especially whenever he was in Fire Stance or Jodan-no-Kamae (which involved raising his shoulder up).

Even though Kaede's reverse-edged wakizashi didn't go all the way through him, he had almost died from that lethal move.

Such a stark contrast to her Minoe personality, who saved his life from Amakusa's Kuzu Ryu Sen by blocking every last split-second strike even though the Christian leader was actually a cohort of his.

Kaede really did have a splinter in her mind, didn't she? Which one of them was the real one? Minoe or Morinaga?

"Yoshi-boy, TREE!"

"Three what...? WHOA!"

The distracted Myojin then ended up smacking face-first into a tree.

"Ow," he said before rubbing a bloody nose.

Landing on his feet, Minoe had both swords drawn and ready to attack when he realized that it was Yahiko who made him jump down on the tree he was resting on.

Holy crap.

Minoe sighed, ducked, and hid within the tall grass while Gan attended to the hurt Myojin boy. The kid had a tendency to put his (bloody) nose where it shouldn't be, didn't he?

Munenori smiled and put his eye patch and wig back on.

He lost his bearings for a moment, wondering where he was, only to figure out, 'Kaede-chi must've woke up and... wandered off again.'

Minoe "lost consciousness" around the time Kinta Minakata's name was mentioned in passing during a conversation with May Brooks, his feelings of aggression over the Mimawarigumi Battousai's betrayal manifesting itself into Morinaga's awakening.

A few minutes... maybe hours... later, and he found himself sitting on a tree branch, deep in thought, until Yahiko pushed him off of his perch by accident.

Then again, he should've known that Satsuki had connections with Kinta as soon as she mentioned she was the adoptive gaijin daughter of the Sakaguchis: The family that taught the Minakata heir Musou Madden Ryu.

The same Sakaguchis who also had ties with the accursed Akahoris, which Kinta knew as his father's side of his family.

What a small world after all.

Minoe shook his head and decided to hang out with Chizuru and Satsuki instead, guarding them from harm (unbeknownst to them) like their guardian angel over their shoulders.

However, something caught his (one) eye.

At a narrow alley, in broad daylight, he saw two men drag a small squirming girl whose mouth and body was covered with rope back into a horse-drawn carriage that had the windows of its wagon covered in black curtain.

They were hidden from view from the rest of the bustling town thanks to the blind spot afforded by the narrow passageway.

A third man serving as lookout wore a sling and cane, but judging from his posture and gait, it seemed like he wasn't really injured at all.

By (unfortunate) experience, Minoe figured out what was going on.

The men lured unsuspecting, naive girls to their paddy wagon of a carriage with blacked-out windows by making them help out what appeared to be an injured man in distress.

However, the man with the sling and cane was obviously faking it. This was definitely a kidnapping scam in progress.

Munenori Minoe remembered how he and Doraku Akatsuki used to get himself kidnapped so that he'd take out the kidnappers from within their hideout while Doraku barreled in there himself to finish them off.

Or perhaps that was a Kaede Morinaga memory instead.

Minoe would normally scare the men away by screaming and calling for help among the passersby. The sensible thing to do.

However, at that inopportune moment, spurred by nostalgia, Kaede awoke and decided on a different tactic after she regained her bearings (going from mulling over things atop a tree to seeing a kidnapping in progress).

Before she swapped consciousnesses with Minoe, Kaede was actually tracking down the same buggy with a driver who had a sling on his arm, hearing stories about kidnappings running rampant near the more rural parts of Hiroshima.

By reflex, Morinaga took off Minoe's eye patch so she could see better with both eyes.

Then, using speed instead stealth (since stealth was more Munenori's specialty), she caused a ruckus by bumping into the struggling girl and pushing her out of the cart, substituting herself for the would-be victim.

It took a second for the kidnappers to realize that their abducted girl had ended up into the open street. For everyone to see.

Pandemonium erupted when the woman cried out for help, the lookout immediately taking the reins and motioning his comrades to get into the wagon.

"HELP! SOMEBODY, HELP! I'M BEING KIDNAPPED!"

"What the fuck happened?"

"I don't know, man! Some weirdo blindsided me and ran away!"

"Shit. She's making a lot of noise! Let's skedaddle outta here!"

Meanwhile, Kaede herself went inside the carriage, only to see there were many other tied-up girls serving as unwilling passengers of the kidnappers, quivering and cowering all the while.

She couldn't leave any of these girls alone, of course.

By reflex, Morinaga tied herself up with spare rope while searching for compartments and crevices in the wagon where she could hide her swords.

Like she used to do while she and Akatsuki broke apart these kidnapping rings for fun and profit.

Sometimes, they even switched roles, with Akatsuki letting himself get captured while she was the one who "rescued" him. They even made it into a game: Whoever finished the bad guys first would win.

Instead of saving the girls then and there, she decided to get captured and taken to the kidnappers' lair so that she could save all the kidnapped females.

The men didn't bother checking if they had an extra passenger in their wagon. The mere thought of someone intentionally getting into their carriage after learning about their ill-intent was the furthest thing in their minds.

"W-Who are you? Why...?" asked one of the young women. The only one who wasn't crying, despite her having a black eye, bruises, and whatnot. Unable to ask anything further; bewildered by what Kaede did.

Morinaga raised her tied-up hands and put finger on her lip, shushing the girl then winking at her.

She then said, "I'm Morinaga Kaede and I'm going to save you all. I promise."

"MIINOOOOE!" Yahiko screamed after the cart as it rode away. 'Dammit, not again!'

Myojin realized earlier that Minoe was atop the tree that he bumped into. He then tailed the eye-patched person to see where he went.

Only to see Munenori allow himself to get captured by criminals (again) in order to rescue some kidnapped girls.

Yahiko ran, unwilling to lose their trail, but soon the carriage made a turn towards a dirt road and went into the more forested parts of Hiroshima.

"HEY! Yoshi-boy! Why are you in such a rush?" called out Gan, who ran after him in turn.

To Myojin's surprise, the hooligan had Chizuru and May running behind him as well.

"What's all this ballyhoo?" May asked in English, which made everyone stop and stare at her, so she translated in Japanese, "Dou natte iruno?"

Gulping hard and gasping to catch his breath, Yahiko explained, "Minoe... Found him... Tree... Carriage... Kidnapped... Again..."

"All right, all right. Settle down. Let's go over the important parts of what you're saying," said Gan. "You found Patches and he was kidnapped again, this time by a tree?"

The Grimacing Gan then ended up eating a face-full of sheathed sakabatou. "Move aside, you goof! I want to have some intelligent conversation this time around!"

Yahiko went face-to-face with a blinking Chizuru, then turned towards Miss May and told her, "Minoe got kidnapped by hoodlums... again... with them thinking he's a girl! I need to go find him and save him before something happens to him!"

After Chizuru's subsequent elbowing of Yahiko's ribs for his unsaid jibe, the Raikouji heiress interjected, "Let's call the police! If it's a repeat of what happened back in Fukuoka City, then I don't want to take any chances!"

"Huh? Beg pardon? What happened in Fukuoka City? What wacky adventures have you four been up to?" asked a curious Satsuki, her eyes gleaming like inquisitive emeralds as her flowing golden locks made her stand out in the sea of black and dark brown hair like a lone corncob in a grassy field.

"Er... Long story, Satsuki-chan. Now's not the time," said Chizuru, swooning in remembrance of Minoe being rescued by the dashing vagabond who saved her own life once.

"My, my!" said Miss Brooks, her porcelain white hands covering her dainty, pink mouth. "Poor adorable Minoe was kidnapped before? You should take better care of him, since he does look so much like a frail little flower of a girl!"

Both Raikouji and Myojin choked on their spit simultaneously and turned blue in the face at hearing the statement (probably for different reasons).

The Perplexed Gan scratched his bandanna-sporting head, his eyes seeming question marks of confusion. "Why would they ever confuse Patches for a boy? He's flat as a board! Unlike... um. Well..."

As the Pervy Gan's gan (eyes) wandered towards Miss Melon's melons, Chizuru poked them with two fingers. Then she looked at her own chest, pouted, and kicked the big lug's shin for good measure.

"...I have no time for this nonsense! I have to go or I'll lose the kidnappers' trail!" said Yahiko before running off, much to the consternation of his companions.

Kaede planned to jump the kidnappers as soon as they arrived in the compound they were keeping the kidnapped girls, but as her adrenalin rush subsided and she calmed herself down, she ended up losing consciousness halfway, waking up as... Minoe.

'Wait. What happened...?'

He was awoken by the sounds of what seemed like loud fireworks and shouting.

Minoe blinked with one eye, his other eye closed, leaving him with a perpetual wink. His weapons long gone.

He scrambled for them, but he was tied up with a knot that only Kaede knew how to get out of.

'Mochiron (But of course).'

What mess had she gotten herself (or themselves) into?

"Are you okay?" asked a girl beside him, who nudged him with her shoulder to get his attention. "You seem to have something in your eye."

"Uh... yeah. Don't worry about it."

Whispering, she asked, "Did you mean what you said earlier?"

"Eh?" Minoe blinked with one eye. "What did I say exactly?"

The girl sighed. "I knew it was too good to be true. You were only showing a brave front earlier, weren't you?"

Unlike the others who were weeping or shivering, this spunky li'l lady had a short cropped hair that almost made her appear like a boy instead of a girl. A tomboy, to be exact.

With a furrowed brow and a tense body, she added, "If ya want something done right, ya might as well do it yerself."

"...Er, Miss-chi?" probed Minoe with a gulp and swirling eyes.

"Mariko," she introduced herself to Munenori without looking at him.

"H-Hi, Mariko-chi! I'm... Eh?"

The wagon then came at a sudden halt, the horses braying at the front as the driver let out a mighty "WHOA, NELLY!"

Soon after, a bearded man then opened the carriage and barked out, "End of the ride, ladies. Everybody out," with a bullwhip in tow.

"Did we lose that spiky-haired brat that was following us?" growled one of the kidnappers.

The one-eyed Minoe's ears wiggled in recognition. 'Could they be talking about Yahiko-chi?'

"Yup. Scared him off with buckshot. That li'l tattletale varmint won't be bothering us none anytime soon if he knows what's good fer 'im."

"Tarnation. He might've been the twerp who kept us from kidnapping that one girl earlier. He must've been the brat who blindsided me, the li'l shit!"

"We still have ta hurry and get all these pretty girls sold off in a lickety-split," a third voice warned. "That buzz-cut stoolpigeon might've called the cops on us and have them looking fer us in da woods!"

The tomboy then charged at her captors despite being tied-up, screamed bloody murder, and slammed her body at the nearest man with all her might.

For all the good it did.

"Whoa there, nelly!" chuckled the brawny man before she bit his arm, making him yelp, "OW, DAMMMIT, ya li'l bitch! Leggo mah arm!" and backslap her to the ground.

Even while in the dirt, Mariko's eyes stayed defiant, glaring at her oppressor. They were tsurime (almond-shaped eyes where the outer corners slanted upwards) full of fire, spite, and rebellion.

Like an untamed mare prior to having its spirit broken.

Growling, he would've kicked her for good measure had another girl... boy? Someone. Had someone not shielded the feisty hostage with his (or her) back.

The other tied-up girls were about to flee themselves when they were kept in line by the driver of the carriage with the crack of his bullwhip, making them flinch and back away like meek lambs.

They were then herded out like cattle by the guy who shot buckshot at the person who were following him, his "boom stick" in tow.

The thick and stocky man pulled his fist back for a punch, only for Minoe to stare back at him.

Minoe acted as docile as all the other girls they'd kidnapped and put inside the wagon, his one open tareme (eye that drooped and sagged in the corner) like a winking puppy's.

His one eye belied his actions, though. He was less of a cowardly dog and more of a canine sacrificing himself to protect his owner.

"Are you all right, Miss-chi...?" asked Minoe. "I mean, Mariko-chi?"

Marko's eyes widened as she nodded. "T-Thanks, M-Morinaga-san."

"It's actually Minoe. Minoe Munenori," he corrected, his one eye with a cross-shaped scar below it closed as though it was used to having something covering it.

"Oh," the girl blinked repeatedly. "I must've misheard the first time, then."

"Lookie what we have here," the burly man... who reminded Minoe of Gan a little bit... picked up the small female identifying herself as male by the scruff of his collar. "Y'all ain't the first ones to try ta escape, screaming an' kicking like banshees in d'night."

The greasy, hairy man who got bit spat at the ground and declared, "Look, if y'all want to escape from're, feel free. Just be warned that we're in the middle of nowhere."

He let out a hearty laugh, his hammy hands moving towards Munenori's small face as he stood between him and Mariko, but the bitey tomboy almost chomped on them from behind her protector.

He retracted his hand in time. "I see you're a biter. I also like that look on yer face, Missy. Ya have feisty eyes! I like it when ya'll fight back!"

Mariko grit her teeth and gripped Minoe's shoulder tight to keep her tense body from showing that she was actually shaking in her clogged slippers.

The rest of the girls shot dirty looks at the portly man, who guffawed from his belly. "Y'all remind me of horses, almost. Proud thoroughbreds caught in the wild. Y'all have the same glares."

He picked his teeth with his fingers. "Ya know what we do ta dem horses, right? We break 'em down. Whip 'em to shape. Crush their spirits completely and show 'em who's boss. Discipline 'em."

All but Minoe and Mariko backed away and cringed as the three men were joined by even more henchmen with weapons and whatnot.

"Even though any healthy horse can beat dozens of beefy men at the same time in a tug-o'-war contest, man has found the way to master all beasts and snuff out da fire in their eyes. Make 'em dull, sad, and lackin' of life for the rest of their godforsaken lives."

The man smiled. His teeth as ashen and gray as his principles.

"The same thing will happen ta y'all after we sell ya to the highest bidders. We'll train you to be obedient. You'll learn to love submittin' ta your masters' biddin' and givin' 'em comfort and pleasure, your eyes turning like doll's eyes. No light. No hope. Jes you wait and see."

The girls went dead silent, huddled together as the rest of the men chuckled and elbowed each other knowingly. Some of them shaking. Others crying.

Some with the lights in their eyes already starting to cloud, just as this horrible man had predicted.

"Ya better watch yer back for them fillies, Boss," said the rider with a bullwhip. "Ya know what they say here in yonder parts. Beware of the front of a bull, the back of a horse, and both sides of a blind man."

The burly man hit the rider upside the head. "What in tarnation are ya talkin' 'bout?"

Yahiko almost got shot today, running after a carriage on foot when someone (literally) riding shotgun with the rest of the criminals shot at him with his weapon.

His companions Gan, Chizuru, and Satsuki (or May) were long gone at the moment because he had no choice but to leave them.

As he tracked down the wheel imprints that their heavy wagon left behind (since it was probably full of passengers they took against their will), his mind began to wander.

He remembered the fateful fight Minoe... or rather, Morinaga... had against Soujiro Seta, the bodyguard of the Akahoris. How she kept up with him when Yahiko himself almost died without being able to touch Soujiro at all in their own duel.

What happened to Minoe to make him think he was a man in one instance then be aware he was a woman in another instance? Why did he wear a (rather ridiculous) disguise sometimes and other times she let her hair down and fought like an outright demon?

Why did he... she... look so much like Kenshin Kamiya (nee Himura)? Was this by coincidence or did she intentionally change her looks, dyed her hair, and put a cross-shaped scar on her cheek to become Battousai's doppelganger?

Come to think of it, the way she shifted from her to him... from the Kaede to Minoe personalities... kind of reminded Myojin of how Kenshin shifted from his Rurouni to Battousai personas.

This was a little different, of course. Kenshin as Battousai was just an angry or serious Kenshin. He remained cognizant of what was happening when he "turned" into the Hitokiri Battousai.

Battousai was more of Kenshin's alter ego; the hitokiri part of him that was willing to kill to protect his loved ones versus the rurouni side of him that vowed to Tomoe Yukishiro that he'd never kill again.

In contrast, the scale of difference between Minoe and Morinaga were night and day.

Most importantly, why did the "Battousai of Speed" of the Battousai Group possess two personalities? Yahiko couldn't believe it at first, but after multiple encounters with Minoe, he became convinced of this phenomenon.

The murderer of the Togakudan and the assassin who almost assassinated the Akahoris and their bodyguard that was working for Amakusa wasn't the gentle and protective Munenori, but instead the temperamental and possibly crazy Kaede.

The same woman who gave the most powerful member of Makoto Shishio's Juppon Gatana a run for his money. The one whom Tetsuo "Oyakata-sama" Akahori theorized had been abused as a child and rescued by Shogo Amakusa.

Maybe that was what happened to her. Or something close to it. Yahiko could only speculate.

She was like a person looking into a mirror that was smashed or cracked into many pieces, such that the image that ended up staring back at her was split into multiple reflections of herself.

Maybe she herself was the broken mirror. Something inside her must've broke apart for her to become like this, unless she was born this way in the first place.

A shattered mind, if you would.

What sort of fresh hell did she go through for her to turn out like this? What broke her?

Myojin was about to come across a clearing when from out of the bushes emerged the Bigheaded Gan's big head and nothing else.

As though it were a disembodied head of sorts.

"...FOUND YOU."

"AAHHHH! TSUI GAMI (GOD HAMMER)!"

"OW! FOR FUCK'S SAKE! What's the big idea, Yoshi-boy? What are ya tryin' ta do, KILL ME!?"

The trauma of thinking that Amakusa had killed the "Decapitated" Gan back at the Shinshu Akahori Manor was still buried within the youngster's heart.

"JOSHUA-KUN! Where did you go? Why did you leave us?" said a certain bouncy blonde gaijin.

"YOU TWERP! How dare you run off without waiting for us?" said a certain not-so-bouncy Kaoru Kamiya clone with boots and a huge ribbon on her hair.

Wait, they were there too?

"Gan? May? Chizuru? What are you doing here?" asked the Tokyo Samurai Descendant.

A memory from six years ago, back in Shimabara...

During nighttime, the moon served as a spotlight piercing through the nimbus clouds swirling around it like a spiral to the eye of a storm.

Two men stood near the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. A few yards away from them were a young woman in western clothes and a rotund man surrounded by wild dogs.

"At long last, we meet face-to-face," said Shogo Amakusa... at the time known as Shiro Amakusa the Second among the Hidden Christians... to the short, red-haired man before him. "I've heard so much about you. Let's see if your reputation precedes you."

This was Amakusa's one fated rival: His fellow Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu Practitioner, Kenshin Himura, the so-called Hitokiri Battousai of the Ishin Shishi.

The so-called Strongest Hitokiri stayed silent, his glaring, shining eyes stabbing through the darkness more sharply than even the faint shafts of moonlight above them could.

The Battousai answered, "Have you now? I've also heard about your exploits, Amakusa Shiro Tokisada the Second! Is it true that you're a master of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, just like Himura Battousai? Perhaps you can explain yourself and..."

"...Yes, yes. Before your master learned Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, my uncle learned it first and taught it to me, resulting with us becoming two heirs of one school."

"I didn't know that, to be honest," said Kenshin, scratching his tapered chin. "Please, do tell me more about Himura and his Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu."

Shiro the Second raised an eyebrow at Kenshin referring to himself in third person, then unsheathed his longsword; a replica of the historical nodachi of Shiro Amakusa the First.

"In any case, it's about time we found out who the true heir to the Hiten Misturugi Ryu is, Himura Battousai. En garde."

"...Huh? What did you say?"

As Amakusa moved in for the kill, Kenshin murmured something then shouted with increasing volume, "Don't call me by that NAME! I AM NOT HIMURA BATTOUSAI! I HATE THAT NAME AND THAT MAN!" while unsheathing his daisho (his short sword and normal-length sword).

"Wha...?" Even Shiro's sister, Lady Magdalia and their follower, Genemon, were taken aback by the outburst.

"Why does he hate his own name?" wondered the rotund Genemon.

"What are you talking about, Battousai? RYU SOU SEN!" cried Shiro, his blade a whirlwind of steel.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT NAME! SCORPION NEST!" screamed "Himura".

This was the first time Amakusa had ever heard of that particular Hiten Mitsurugi School technique. Was it something "Battousai" invented, like the Christian Leader's own Rai Ryu Sen (Lightning Dragon Flash)?

The Battousai was able to overwhelm Amakusa's Dragon Nest Flash with his own repetitive slashes, but at the cost of taking hits himself that tore him apart.

Shiro was able to get first blood.

Meanwhile, the bystanders and witnesses of the exchange were left slack-jawed, with Lady Magdalia calling out to her brother, saying, "Big Brother, please wait a moment...!"

"...Why do you hate your own name?" demanded Amakusa, who while still left untouched by Himura's blade, was left in a position he was unfamiliar with, which was going on the defensive amidst a riptide of stabs.

As expected of the Hitokiri Battousai. 'Fine, then. I won't hold back either.' The backpedaling Shiro decided at that moment to pivot on his foot as Kenshin overextended himself in order to deliver a turning "RYU KAN SEN!"

"BIG BRO, NO! That's not...!"

The dual-wielding Kenshin ducked the slice to his neck with otherworldly reflexes, turned around to face Shiro, and cocked his sword back to do his own stabbing technique in all his half-naked glory.

...Wait, what?

It was then that Shiro became aware of Battousai's open kimono and ripped-up sarashi (chest bandages) that was torn in the battle, revealing quite a lot about his opponent.

His narrow waist. His wide hips. His exposed midriff. His inward bellybutton. His cleavage and his almost exposed, bouncing breasts the size of small rice bowls. His petite but angry face and glistening, pouted lips.

Wow. The rumors weren't exaggerating when they claimed that Kenshin was quite effeminate.

"DEATHSTALKER...!" began Himura, only to look down on himself and cover up at the last minute. The distracted Amakusa also couldn't react in time as the two butted heads and faces.

It was then that Amakusa's commonsensical sister pointed out what should've been obvious to him from the start.

"...That's not Battousai, Shogo! I mean, Shiro! Battousai isn't a woman! She's telling you the truth! We misunderstood her!"

From there, all went silent save for the crashing of the waves below them and the howls of Genemon's pet dogs.

"AWOOOOoooo..."

And that was how Kaede Morinaga first met Shogo Muto.

Kaede blinked into existence in her shared mind with Minoe, waking up from her unintentional and sudden "slumber".

Dammit, not again. How long was she out of it?

She touched her lips, remembering how it'd brushed against Lord Amakusa's own mouth after they smashed their heads and faces unto each other.

Her face suddenly felt warm all over.

Ugh, she didn't have time for embarrassing, sentimental memories! She was about to bust the kidnapped girls out of their prison when she lost consciousness.

What had happened while she was out of it? Also, why did her cheek and jaw hurt so much?

"Thanks so much for backing me up there earlier!" said the tomboy Morinaga met when she ended up inside the wagon full of females earlier.

"...I did?" she asked. "What's your name, anyway?"

"I'm Mariko, remember? You shielded me from getting kicked by that big bully earlier, Minoe!"

"Oh... OH! Oh yeah, I sure did. That's me. 'Minoe'," said Kaede with a halfhearted sigh and a shake of the head. Yup, that sounded like something Munenori would do. The eternal martyr.

Morinaga took stock of her surroundings. They were in some sort of dim, windowless barn full of hay but no animals with the doors closed from the outside.

It probably had a heavy plank of wood for a lock that barricaded them from getting out.

Kaede could find ways to escape by herself, but what about the rest of the girls she was supposed to rescue? Come to think of it, where were her weapons?

She patted herself for her daisho, only to locate her wig and her eye patch but neither of her twin swords.

Damn.

Wait, she remembered hiding them underneath floorboards of the wagon. And Minoe didn't know that! That was probably why he got kicked in the face while protecting Mariko.

The next time he woke up, Minoe might again have to fight their kidnappers empty handed. Morinaga needed to act fast before she switched places and consciousnesses with Munenori again.

Amidst the cries of help for their parents, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, Kaede declared with resolution, "We're busting out of here," to the women inside the dark barn.

There was a collective "Eeeh?" that intermingled with sobbing and shock.

Complaints of "But they have guns, swords, and whips! What chance do we have against them?" and "We'll get killed if we act against them!" soon followed.

There were also valid points of "After we escape from this barn, what do we do? We don't know the way back home!" and "I don't know how to drive a carriage! I don't want to be broken in like a horse!" as well as "They'll just hunt us down and take us back here! What's the point?"

There were even women who told Kaede, "You're so small and fragile! You'll get broken in half by those big, burly men if you try anything!" and "I'm just a simple farm girl minding my own business! I don't know how to fight!"

It was then that Mariko shouted, "SHADDAP AND LISTEN TO HER! She saved at least one woman from getting kidnapped and took her place, so she must have some sort of plan in mind to bust us out!"

Morinaga bowed... or more like curtsied... at the tomboy for her assistance, undid her rope bindings (that Minoe didn't know how to escape from), and said to everyone, "I do have a plan. Does anyone here actually know how to drive a wagon?"

She peered into the blackness with her eye that was usually eye-patched, so it was used to seeing in the dark. "C'mon. Someone claimed to just be a farm girl earlier, so..."

She saw the farm girl raise her hand, and several other girls who knew how to ride horses followed suit. "Okay, good. I want you and the others to drive all of the kidnapped girls back to the city once you get out of this barn."

"...But we just told you we don't know the way back!"

"There's a road ahead and I'm sure there's a police search party for all you girls headed this way anyway." Morinaga cleared her throat. "Even if you get lost, it's better than staying here."

Everyone collectively gulped.

"Relax. We'll have this all under control. Trust me. Here's what we're going to do..."

An hour later, just outside the lair of the kidnappers...

"I can't believe all three of you ran after me!" grumbled Yahiko as the four trudged into the property of the felons, which was some sort of abandoned farm.

"We had to, you idiot!" insisted Chizuru. "You keep running towards trouble instead of away from it, like the time you went after Kyoko-chan before she took on Keisuke's Fake Battousai Group in Shinshu!"

"Wow! How dashing!" praised Satsuki, who now wielded a long wooden staff as she served as their guide in these forested parts of Hiroshima. She actually used to ride horses in some of these areas, so she was familiar with the terrain.

"You're a regular knight in shining armor... Aren't you, Joshua-kun? Or maybe samurai in heavy armor!" The blonde grinned. "Too bad Kyoko-chan already has a crush on someone, or else you would've swept her off her feet!"

Myojin blushed. "I already have a girlfriend, y'know," he murmured.

"Oh, right. Your imaginary girlfriend from Tokyo," chimed in the Glib Gan. "Nobody buys that at all, Yoshi-boy."

"FOR THE LAST TIME, TSUBAME ISN'T IMAGINARY!" shouted the Son of Tokyo Samurai. "Besides, weren't you supposed to call the police, Chizuru? You should've stayed in the city with your friend and led the police here!"

"I already did that last time in Fukuoka!" countered Raikouji. "I'm not your designated messenger for police backup, you know! I can do whatever I want, and this time I want to make sure that Minoe's safe and sound firsthand, okay? These are hardened criminals you're after, not down-on-their-luck samurai."

"...What she's trying to say is that she's worried about you and Minoe-chan, so she went with me to help you find this place, since I know these woods like the back of my hand," explained May, which earned her a mouth stretch care of her best friend Chizuru.

"STOP SAYING LIES YOU DON'T MEAN, YOU GAIJIN BIMBO!" shouted the blushing heiress. "It's not like I'm worried about the twerp or anything!"

"OWW! UM SOWIE!" said a teary Miss Brooks.

"...Shush. Quiet, you two. I think I heard something," warned Yahiko, which made Chizuru almost strangle him then and there before she took the hint and stood still.

"DUCK!" shouted the Great Gan before he grabbed hold of his three companions with his meaty arms and pushed them down to the ground with him.

Soon after, bullets flew from their previous location, making the resting birds atop the trees fly away from the sudden crackle of firearms.

An hour earlier, inside the locked barn full of kidnapped women...

"Wakey, wakey, bitches. It's time to break you in!" said the burly leader of the kidnappers as his henchmen undid the latch that kept the barn doors closed. "Who wants to go first? We can do it three or four girls at a time, if you want!"

The thickset, hairy man's jaw then dropped when he saw that all the women had vanished save for that one androgynous kid with a flat chest that tried to protect the tomboy who bit him.

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO ALL MY FILLIES?!" he demanded to Kaede.

"I'm afraid they're long gone. Don't worry. I'm still here to play with the rest of you boys," said Morinaga with a wink, armed only with those wooden sticks she took from a broomstick that she broke in half with her knee.

"YOU! Go get the girls back to this barn! And YOU! Inform the others of the escape!" the massive man barked his orders out. "As for you, if we don't find mah fillies, I'm going to take mah frustrations out on you! I'll break you in so badly you'll wish you were nevah born...!"

The kidnapping gang's men were barely able to get to a running start when their fearless leader was thrown right into bales of hay with Kaede's deadly "SWARMING BARBS!" technique.

"...A little too late for that, Pops," she whispered before the kidnappers ganged up on her like a pack of wild dogs.

A few minutes later, while the entire compound full of lowlifes was distracted with the whirling dervish known as the Battousai of Speed, the women that had supposedly "disappeared" started emerging from the open barn.

As per Kaede's instructions, they hid so as to give their kidnappers the impression that they'd escaped, only for them to break out for real as Morinaga dealt with the criminals with her martial arts capabilities.

They then made a beeline to the empty wagon. Since they might overload it this time around with their bigger numbers, some of the girls decided to ride on horses on the stable instead with a designated competent rider.

They did this in order to flee this hellhole they'd ended up in before things really got out of hand.

They honestly didn't expect the plan to work mainly because they didn't really believe that the spunky midget Morinaga could take on all the guards by herself.

Instead, they humored the brave little girl and were prepared to jump the outlaws themselves as soon as they converged on Kaede, come what may.

An hour later, just outside the hideout of the kidnappers...

"Did'ja get 'em?" asked a guy with multiple throwing knives.

The man with the pistol clucked his tongue on the roof of his mouth and cocked his weapon. "We should check."

They moved in to see who were the intruders that trespassed into their territory.

Yahiko and Gan attempted to ambush the criminals from behind, but they were quick on the uptake and knew the terrain better than the outsiders.

This allowed the thugs to keep their distance and shoot before either Myojin or Gan could get close.

The two of the Three Stooges were forced run for cover.

The Fast-Thinking Gan was able to block several bullets with his bat, but as he hid, he had to then deflect a knife aimed at his head, which left him wide open for one last shot from the pistol.

"GAN!" Unthinkingly, Yahiko threw his body to take the bullet.

However, it was actually Chizuru who saved the day by thrusting her long pole at the gun's nozzle at the last second to change the projectile's trajectory, saving both Sanbaka members from harm.

She also had to find cover as well because the guy with the throwing knives kept her from altogether disarming the gunman with the pistol, who was now cursing her under his breath and reloading his weapon.

"Thanks, Satsuki," said Yahiko. "We owe you one."

"No worries, but what do we do now?" she asked. "Both those hooligans can take us out from long range."

They then heard Chizuru shout out from a few meters away, "Gan is the meat shield! Yahiko can break anything with his dinky sword! Satsuki-chan can attack from far away! Y'all have what it takes to take these goons out!"

"Hey! They got 'nother girl with 'em! We can add her to our collection o' fillies!" said the knives thrower.

"Dibs on the gaijin. Ah think we can fetch a good price with an exotic beaut like her," chuckled the pistol shooter.

"MISS MELON AND KAORI-NEECHAN ARE NOT FOR SALE!" the Reckless Gan said as he emerged out of the bushes, charging out in the open with a cross Yahiko and May right behind him.

Again, the gunman shot at Gan, who blocked it with his bat. The guy with the throwing knives then threw knives at the big lug to open his guard, but it was Yahiko who caught the knives and threw them back at him.

Satsuki then overtook Gan and whipped out her staff.

"No, May! You're too far...!" started Yahiko, only for her strikes to reach the guy with the pistol and snap his head back, the full length of her arm and the staff seemingly stretching towards him.

"The name's Satsuki, Joshua-kun!" said Satsuki with a wink.

"The name's Yahiko, Satsuki-chan," retorted Yahiko with a smile.

'Wow. How was she able to reach him from that far away?' he then thought. 'That's an insane amount of range!'

The knife guy attempted to cover for his comrade again, but all his knives got deflected by the staff-wielding Satsuki too.

He tried stabbing her from up close, but he couldn't get anywhere near her without taking a hit, his face full of lumps and welts.

The pistol guy backed away to reload, but his earlier distraction allowed Yahiko to reach him and destroy his gun with one mighty "TSUI GAMI!" strike, followed by a skull-crushing wallop to the head by Gan's tetsubo (metal studded bat).

Meanwhile, the knife guy avoided a second bat swing from Gan and charged to stab him, only for Yahiko to intercept the stab with the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu ougi (succession technique), the Hadome (Sword Halt) and Hawatari (Sword Crossing).

However, that man had a hidden knife from inside his boot that he almost stuck right into Myojin's heart had Satsuki not finished him off with a "TSUNAMI!" of staff blows from all angles.

"It took you long enough to finish them off!" harrumphed Chizuru, only for her to freeze at hearing the cocking of even more guns.

A couple of more gunmen from atop the hill were about to shoot the four interlopers when they were run over by a carriage.

The farm girl riding the carriage then said in relief. "Oh! Um, do you know the way back to the city? We're kind of lost!"

Thirty minutes earlier, after most of the girls had gotten to the stagecoach, a disheveled Morinaga caught up to them, discarding her blood-soaked sticks to fetch her real weaponry.

"Come with us," said the farm girl serving as the driver of the horse-drawn vehicle.

"I'll catch up once I'm done with these scum buckets," Kaede promised after retrieving her daisho. Her eyebrows furrowed. "Where's Mariko?"

"Oh, your friend? She insisted on staying behind to serve as our lookout so that no one gets left behind. She should be here shortly."

Kaede frowned. "You should go. I'll be the one to get her."

"Are you sure?" the farm girl asked.

"We can't risk getting all of you back in that barn after all the trouble we've taken to get you out. I'll get Mariko back. You should go now before the kidnappers realize you're still here. NOW GO!"

At the behest of Yahiko (and with a rough map drawn by May on a piece of paper and Yahiko's pen), it was Chizuru who went with the kidnapped girls to make sure they were found by the police or made it safely within city limits.

The problem was there might still be other girls in the compound who weren't "freshly caught fish" by the kidnappers.

Also, Minoe was still in there as well. As soon as the escaped women informed them of the nature of the place, they doubled their efforts in infiltrating the den.

Despite the risks of this mission, Satsuki insisted she go with Gan and Yahiko into the mouth of hell in order to save one of the friends of her best friend.

It didn't help that almost everyone in the compound was armed to the teeth, so they had to take out each and every hoodlum with close-quarter combat after every gap between gun reloads in a drawn-out waiting game of sorts.

Just Morinaga's luck (or more like a lucky break for her opponents), as soon as she encountered even more of the henchmen and criminals of this camp of kidnappers, she suddenly shifted personalities to that of the more pacifistic Minoe.

Munenori wasn't too pacifistic, though.

Even as he kept his daisho sheathed, he still bludgeoned many a thug in this camp to submission with his blunt weaponry.

He also made short work of the armed men with Vise Grips and Scissor Grips to the throat to choke them out to unconsciousness.

Unaware of who to look for, Minoe wandered almost aimlessly in the encampment, taking out hoodlum after hoodlum that he encountered.

Nevertheless, the forgotten urgency at the back of his mind compelled him to move forward and knock out every last criminal in this compound before anything... bad happened.

Whatever it was.

As more and more of the kidnappers kept getting up because of Munenori's unwillingness to finish them off, another personality started to emerge from the depths of his consciousness.

Not that of the more aggressive and downright murderous Morinaga, but instead of a recent personality he... she... they had developed.

"Ryu Tsui Sen."

"AAH!"

It was the personality of Minoe or Morinaga that followed Amakusa's orders to the letter and eliminated quite a lot of officers and soldiers in the name of protecting the Hidden Christians.

The one trained by Shogo to learn most everything about Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu save for the school's succession techniques: The Kuzu Ryu Sen and the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki.

"Dou Ryu Sen."

"AAAUGGGH!"

She was the Battousai of Speed, if you would. Another shard from the broken mind of Kaede Morinaga.

Back at the entrance of the camp...

Yahiko, Gan, and May were faced with the man who shot at the samurai boy earlier, when he was in hot pursuit of their carriage.

The guy with a shotgun. A veritable gunslinger.

They were also surrounded by hoodlums with knives, plywood with nails on them, broken glass bottles, and even swords.

As they remained behind trees, the yard completely open for the shotgun guy to pick them off with his buckshot, they ended up in an impasse of sorts.

"We can't get near them. The gunman is too far away for even me to reach. What's the plan, Joshua?" asked Brooks in English, which made Gan and Yahiko stare blankly at her. She then excused herself and translated her speech back to Japanese.

"...I'll make a smokescreen for all of us to hide in," said Yahiko, gripping his inherited sword tight. "But you two will have to cover me in return."

"Gotcha." The blonde gave Myojin a thumb's up sign. "I have your back. I'll take out the rubbish myself."

"I know you're planning, and I can make the same smokescreen too!" said the Grinning Gan. "Count me in, Yoshi-boy."

So Yahiko went ahead and did an explosive "DOU GAMI!" that went off like a bomb in the faces of the people around him, flinging dust and snow in all directions.

Occasionally, Gan did the same with the equally explosive "HAPPA!" which increased the volume of the dirt cloud.

As for the thugs' attempts to gang up on Yahiko before he could do a second or third God on Earth, Satsuki was there to beat them up with her long-reaching staff thrusts.

"You naughty boys need to be taught a lesson or two! YOUNG MOON SLASH!"

Finally, Gan also stayed behind to clean house and knock the teeth out of the leftovers of Myojin and Sakaguchi. "Wanna make medical history with me? DORYAA!"

Because of the ensuing bedlam, the buckshot shotgun shooter had trouble shooting the trio down and telling friend from foe. "Who the hell are these people anyway?!"

Gan then grabbed hold of Yahiko and flung him to the air, right above the disoriented shotgun guy. "Go get 'em, Yoshi-boy!"

"Are you out of your goddamn MIND!? GAAAAAN!" yelped Myojin, but it was already too late. Regardless, he had the presence of mind to bring his full weight down with the sakabatou to execute a shotgun-smashing "RYU TSUI SEN!"

A couple of minutes later and the gunman ended up with a wrecked weapon, a face full of welts from a stick, and his skull bashed in with a metal studded bat.

Back from within the heart of the camp...

"What is with this chick? It's like we're fighting the Hitokiri Batousai himself!"

"Come to think of it, pardner... Are we sure that's a chick? Might be a Miss Nancy (effeminate man) that's actually the real Battousai!"

By Battousai's reputation alone, the Battousai of Speed was able to scare off many of the goons. Also, her knowledge of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu helped make her disguise more convincing.

Soon after meeting up with the Amakusas for the first time six years ago, Shiro decided to use Kaede's talents to spread the rumor that he had the Hitokiri Battousai on his side, which spooked the Imperial Army's soldiers.

This was in exchange of him teaching her Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu (which was something she wanted in order to get to better know the man who was partly responsible for ruining her life).

Everyone was soon convinced she was the Battousai. Especially when she started assassinating members of the Imperial Japanese Army as their campaigns against the Hidden Christians grew more violent.

Presently, she ended up head-to-head with the bullwhip-sporting driver of the kidnapping carriage: One of the few kidnappers left that wasn't afraid of her.

Someone with a lasso managed to tie her up and keep her from moving or using both of her arms, which left her a sitting duck against the bullwhip rider.

Enduring the sting of the whip that tore her apart, the Battousai of Speed cut through the rope with a tornado-like Ryu Kan Sen Tsumuji.

She then hammered the (literal) whippersnapper with a Hiryu Sen and bludgeoned the lasso guy with thunderous Ryu Sou Sen.

She took them down with the efficiency of a machine.

She ended up back at the barn where, unbeknownst to her, all the other kidnapped girls had escaped from using the help of her other self, Morinaga.

From there, Amakusa's Fake Hitokiri Battousai bore witness to a revolting scene.

The drooling and cackling burly man that Kaede knocked out earlier tearing apart the clothes of the one girl who believed in her all this time throughout this ordeal.

"Don't blame me for this; blame all the women we kidnapped who left you behind! Don't worry. I'll give ya lotsa luv! Bite me all you want! HAHAHAHA!"

Kaede's eyes widened. Something inside her mind clicked. Broke.

Several "people" residing her mind recognized those moans and cries. Recognized her anguished face and name.

"Please, don't," begged the sobbing Mariko as she was manhandled by the brawny leader of the group of cowardly criminals hidden within the snowy Hiroshima woods.

Back in Yoshiwara, when Kaede was but a wee lass...

"...I have you now! I'll make you my bitch, Battousai!" said the monster that lay on top of Kaede while her foster mother, Mizuki, bled to death.

'Ah, Kami-sama (God)...' she thought as her waking nightmare continued, 'If you really exist, please kill all these monsters before me.'

She then heard footsteps from behind her and saw the silhouette of a mountain of a man with bushy hair emerge from the shadows.

Soon, she got her wish granted, the air filled with a rusty, musty tang from multiple sprays of red mist.

Something snapped inside Minoe. Or Kaede. Or the Battousai of Speed. Or whoever and whatever he or she was at the moment.

One of many of the faces that stared back at the broken mirror of her mind.

Glaring, she made Mizuki's... no, Mariko's... attacker stop and go as pale as the snow outside, the monster recognizing the other, bigger monster that knocked him out earlier.

Such a shame. She was doing so well too, avoiding killing people as Yahiko insisted. Becoming more like the pacifistic version of her look-alike namesake.

But she couldn't lead that normal person's life. Not with the way she was right now. Not after this happened.

Once a murderer, always a murderer.

"Get... your... goddamned filthy hands off of HER!"

To Kaede's (or Minoe's... or the Battousai of Speed's...) surprise, it wasn't her who said those words. Or hammered the beefy lecher with multiple blows to the head to push him away from the girl he assaulted.

It was Yahiko. Tears in his eyes. Shouting something strange. Something she herself would've shouted in his place.

"DON'T YOU DARE HURT MOM...!"

Did the world go upside-down somehow? What happened to Myojin's mother back when he was a child? Did she suffer like Morinaga's (foster) mother, Mizuki?

As though angered on her behalf, the Tokyo Samurai Descendant attacked the hairy half-naked man, striking him with blows to the head and body that would've killed him had the boy been using a normal katana instead of a reverse-edged blade.

Like a man possessed.

It took the next second for Amakusa's apostle to react in time and parry Myojin's sword before he used the God Hammer to pop the man's head open like a watermelon.

Before Yahiko could recover, she then pulled him back in a tight embrace, telling him to, "Stop. Enough. Don't cross the line I've crossed. Please. He's not worth it."

She could've sworn that this scene was supposed to happen in reverse, with Yahiko stopping her from murdering this perverted lecher before them.

Meanwhile, the heavyset man that was several feet taller than either Yahiko and Kaede had his face covered in bruises, unable to open his eyes. He'd also wet himself.

A second sooner, and Yahiko might've...

As for the Son of Tokyo Samurai, his body stiffened in realization, as though coming to from the haze of red he saw earlier.

The big guy reminding him of Hitokiri Gasuke somehow, his thoughts turning dark for a second.

"...Minoe? I-I mean, K-Kaede?" he asked, and she didn't know how to respond. In a soft voice, he whispered, "Who are you? Who am I talking to?"

Which face from the broken mirror that was her mind would she (or he) show to Yahiko? The face of Munenori Minoe? The face of the Battousai of Speed? Or the face of Kaede Morinaga?

She smiled at him and said, "Baka (Dummy). I'm me. No matter what happens, I'm always me."

The woman in front of the broken mirror stared back at Yahiko. Her mirror was so thoroughly shattered she'd forgotten about that person. Who she was. What she looked like.

"Eh...?" The teenager scratched his tilting head. "Whatever you say."

She then let go of him to attend to a shivering, pale Mariko, gathering all her clothes for her and helping her put them back on.

She helped her pick up the pieces of her own broken mirror.

To Be Continued...

Happy 50th chapter! Wow, I didn't realize Rurouni Yahiko would run for this long. Can't wait for the 100th chapter!

Salamat,
Abdiel