Note: Just a quick note--the grammatical errors made in the beginning by the mother are intentional. This story takes place in America, and the mother has a strong Japanese accent and horrible English grammar. Enjoy!
Chapter 1
"Now, Kaoru, this important." Kaoru rolled her eyes and glared at her mother. She rested her chin on her balled fist and stared in boredom at the large chart her mother presented before her. Her mother let out a frustrated sigh and put the chart facedown on the table, crossing her arms irately across her chest.
"Kaoru, you hate learn this, but it important. Is your history. Is important stories to be pass down from generation to generation. Then our ancestors never be forgotten." Kaoru's cheek slipped off of her fist and her head dropped to the table, resulting in a rather loud thunk as her head connected with the cold, smooth wood. Sometimes Kaoru hated her mother's awful English. It was so embarrassing to have a mother who couldn't speak correctly. Sometimes she said the worst things.
"Mom, I just don't like this stuff. This is what history teachers are for, not moms. You're not supposed to torture me with this stuff. You're supposed to tell me to clean my room like normal parents do. Leave teaching to the teachers. It's their job to make it difficult for us." Kaoru's voice came out muffled by the table. Her mother sighed again and shook her head sadly.
"You don't get, do you? We forget the past, how we learn for future?" Kaoru stood up impatiently, scraping her chair across the marble floor.
"Mom, I'm not planning on changing the world, so I really don't care. There's not much I can learn from this, so why bother?" Kaoru rushed off to her room and shut the door resolutely behind her, heavily exhaling in her frustration. Her mother was just so stubborn, always insisting she learn about her ancestors and their past. She honestly didn't care. She'd rather be out with her friends at the moment, hanging out at the mall or simply talking in the park. She was already eighteen; she was just waiting for graduation in a month before she could finally free herself of her mother's hold on her and move out. She wanted to go to New York and become a journalist. It had always been her dream.
Kaoru flipped open her diary and entered a hasty, anger-filled entry for the day.
Once again, my mother insists I learn about my ancestors. I really don't see why it matters. They're dead, I'm alive, so I should be doing some living, right? Not dwelling on the past of some dead people I don't even know. Sometimes my mother makes me so mad, she just wastes my time with this pointless stuff. Who honestly cares what happened to my great great great great grandfather?!
"Hey, Kamiya!" Kaoru spun as she heard her name. A wide grin broke across her face as she realized it was her best friend, Megumi. Megumi Takani always sympathized with Kaoru about the ancestral history aspect of her life, since Megumi's mother was always pushing Megumi to learn more about her ancestors too. Both of their parents were afraid their precious children were becoming too "American-ized" from attending a public school.
"Hey, have another run-in with the parental unit?" Megumi asked condescendingly. Kaoru gave an exasperated sigh and nodded twice.
"I honestly don't understand why I really need to learn it. I mean, as if we don't honestly learn enough boring history here!" She said sarcastically. Megumi giggled and they entered their history class together.
"Good morning Miss Kaoru, Miss Takani," said the history teacher, Hiko Seijuro coldly. Kaoru and Megumi faked respective bows and giggled all the way to their seats at their cleverness.
"All right class," began Mr. Seijuro once the bell had rung, "New project!" The class gave a collective groan, which made Mr. Seijuro smile. He always enjoyed the pain of his students.
"I want each of you to research a specific era or period of time in a different country. I expect a ten-page paper and an in-class presentation on it. The country and time period will be assigned, so you may not pick your own, nor may you swap with your friend. I will have them noted down here, so I will know if you change with someone else." Kaoru cast a horrified glance at Megumi and then raised her hand.
"Yes?" Mr. Seijuro said, acknowledging Kaoru's raised hand.
"Mr. Seijuro, can we do this in partners, or is this individual?" Mr. Seijuro smirked at her.
"Single, please, Miss Kamiya. I expect you all to do your own work." Kaoru groaned and slid down in her seat, her hands covering her face.
"I don't have time for this," she muttered to Megumi. Megumi nodded supportively.
"Miss Kamiya!" Mr. Seijuro yelled, causing Kaoru to jump. She blushed and glanced up at him sheepishly.
"Yes, sir?" she asked timidly.
"You must research the time period involving the revolution that caused the end of the Edo era in Japan." Kaoru groaned. Mr. Seijuro raised an eyebrow and looked at her skeptically. "Is there a problem, Miss Kamiya?" he asked, his voice sounding strained as he forced himself to sound pleasant.
"No, sir. My mother has just been trying to make me learn about our ancestors in that time period. I was hoping for something different, is all." Mr. Seijuro smirked.
"Well, if you're already an expert on it, I expect an exceptional report and presentation from you," he said triumphantly. Kaoru groaned inwardly this time, not wanting to give Mr. Seijuro the satisfaction of knowing how much he was torturing her. He continued to give each student their assignments and dismissed the class.
"I hate him," Megumi stated blatantly once they had reached the sanctuary of the hallways. Kaoru rolled her eyes.
"Give me a break. He gave you World War Two in Germany. How hard is that? I got stuck with the one thing that will make my mother flip." Megumi shrugged.
"I guess you're right. Well then, I hate him for you," she said smugly with a sly grin. Kaoru chuckled and turned to open her locker, letting out a long, weary sigh.
"Mom, do you have any documents on-" Kaoru hesitated. She wasn't sure she really wanted to ask her mother about her project, but she could do it easily if her mother knew everything.
"For what?" he mother called out of the kitchen. Kaoru stepped out of the living room and into the kitchen, watching her mother cook a traditional Japanese dinner. Kaoru scrunched her nose.
"Why can't we ever eat regular American food?" Kaoru asked darkly. Her mother glanced over her shoulder and laughed.
"Regular American food? Only food America manage to produce on own is hotdog and casserole. Everything else twisted, fattened, sweetened, deep-fried version food from other country." Kaoru smirked.
"All right, I'll give you that. But why always the Japanese food?" Her mom stared at her for a long moment.
"It make me sad you rebel against heritage. My mother to make me Japanese food all the time when I little. I love it. I love listen to all story of samurais." Kaoru rolled her eyes.
"Mother, not right now. We can argue later. Anyways, I came in here to ask if you had any documents or recorded information on- uh- the end of the Edo era and the beginning of the Meiji era." Her mother's face began to glow.
"Oh, I have ton!" she squealed, immediately dropping her cooking utensils and rushing off to her office. Kaoru rolled her eyes and trudged after her.
"Here. Entire drawer full of stuff from era. Why you so interested?"
"It's not interest, its obligation. I have to do a project on the stuff."
"When it due? It take while to get through stuff." Kaoru eyed the large jam-packed cabinet drawer and immediately agreed with her mother.
"Actually- it's in a week. I kind of… procrastinated a little." Her mother folded her arms and tapped her foot impatiently.
"Kaoru, how many time I tell you to not put thing off?"
"Like a million, but that's not going to help me now. So can you pull out the major, important stuff?"
"What you want do it on?" Kaoru shrugged.
"Anything of remote interest." Her mother sighed.
"I have document not many other possess on underground dealing in Kyoto, Japan." Despite herself, Kaoru found that her interest was peaked with that.
"What exactly is that?" she asked slowly.
"Darker dealing that hidden from people and government. There little to no document kept on underground dealing. I one of lucky ones who happen to obtain few. Some involve figurehead in government work against own co-worker. It to be end of age of samurai, but were hitokiri, assassins. Shadow assassins what they called. No one know who they are, left no witness. They carry out mission to assassinate rival political figurehead who stood in way. It very dark time. No one sure if family safe. Being on wrong street at wrong time result in death."
"I'll take that," Kaoru said, wanting to know more, even though the warning signal was blaring in her head that she needed to stop. Her mother skimmed through the files and handed her a large folder.
"Here. Give back to me when you done." Her mother smiled sweetly, and Kaoru knew that smile was because she knew Kaoru was finally interested in some of their history. Kaoru took a deep breath and dashed up to her room.
"Blah, blah, blah…" Kaoru said, flipping through papers. It had sounded much more exciting when her mother had explained it all. The writing was boring and there weren't very many details. Mostly names and positions of government different people held. She couldn't find any of the underground paperwork her mother had talked about. Everything so far had been simply records of major historical facts during that time. She wouldn't have been surprised if her mother had simply handed her the entire folder on the Edo era so that she would absorb some of the information while looking through it.
Kaoru pushed aside half of the stack she had barely glanced at and pulled up the next sheet of paper in front of her. She lifted it up in the light, noticing that it was different looking than all of the other plain white documents. It was slightly yellowed, with fancy calligraphy and Japanese characters along the side. The writing was all in Japanese characters, but someone had written in an English translation underneath each sentence.
Kaoru skimmed down the page with her eyes, looking for anything interesting. It seemed like it was just another list of names.
Her eyes stopped suddenly on one particular name. It stood out from all the rest, jumping out at her from the page, causing flares in her mind to go up, telling her it was important.
She rubbed her eyes and looked at the name again, unsure if she had read it wrong. She hadn't.
Kamiya Kaoru, shadow accomplice to the Choshu organization.
Kaoru lifted the paper up to the light to make sure she had read it right. She had. There was nothing wrong with the light or her eyes. There was actually a person named Kaoru Kamiya that had been an underground shadow assassin.
Not necessarily assassin, she thought to herself. It says accomplice, not assassin. Those words didn't bring much comfort to her. Her mother must have known that this person existed, she knew everything about Japanese history. She was a historian, for goodness sake! She knew what she was doing when she named Kaoru as a baby. But why on earth had she named her after an assassin?
Kaoru shook her head and read on.
Hitokiri Battousai.
Kaoru frowned. All of the names had been followed by an explanation of who the person was and what they did. But this name was blank beside it. It was simply the name. And it wasn't an ordinary name. Her mother had said that hitokiri meant assassin. So in translation, Hitokiri Battousai meant Assassin Battousai. But even then, Battousai wasn't a very common name either. It didn't even sound like a name.
She read further, wondering if there were any clues as to who this person was. She noticed that beside the name was a drawn in asterisk. She allowed her eyes to fall to the bottom of the page, where a small asterisk rested beside a short paragraph that appeared to have been scrawled in many years after the document was first made.
*This was not the real name of the man, no one who remains knows of his true identity. The legendary Battousai was a shadow assassin for the Choshu clan, their best hitokiri. The name was feared throughout Japan, the sole cause of most of the frightening stories of the Edo era. History has it that just before the end of the fall of the Edo era, the legendary manslayer disappeared without a trace, apparently giving up his hitokiri ways. No one knows what became of him.
Kaoru gave an involuntary shiver after reading this. A man who was so feared, his name made people scared out of their wits. There was so much mystery around this man, it intrigued Kaoru. She knew what she was writing her paper on now.
"Kaoru!" Kaoru spun around and glared at her mother, standing innocently in her doorway.
"Yes?" she growled through clenched teeth.
"Dinner ready!" her mother sang. Kaoru sighed.
"I'm not hungry, Mother, I'm working on my report." Her mother grinned like a silly teenager and bounced into the room.
"Anything interest?" she asked curiously. Kaoru sighed. She wasn't going to be able to keep it from her mother.
"Actually, yes," she admitted, turning her spinning desk chair to face her mother who was sitting Indian style on Kaoru's full size bed.
"See? There interesting stuff," her mother said teasingly. "You need help? What you find?" Kaoru bit her lip and lifted up the beautiful page of names and history.
"Have you ever heard of a shadow accomplice of the Choshu clan named Kamiya Kaoru?" Her mother smiled slowly and nodded her head.
"Yes. She your great-great-great grandmother. I name you after her." Kaoru frowned.
"Why did you name me after an assassin?" she asked incredulously. Her mother frowned.
"No, she not assassin! She shadow accomplice, there difference. She work with legendary Battousai the manslayer," her mother said in a hushed voice, as if by speaking loudly about the feared man would bring his evil spirit to haunt them. Once again, Kaoru found herself interested.
"She worked with the Hitokiri Battousai?" Kaoru asked in surprise. Her mother nodded.
"Not much known about her. She killed by own people before start of Meiji Era. Would be in 1867."
"Who killed her?" Kaoru asked in a hushed voice.
"No one know. I think it Battousai. No one suppose to know who he is, but she work with him long time. I think she know too much, and end of revolution drawing near, so he kill her." Kaoru gulped.
"But- why? It says here that he disappeared shortly before the end of the revolution, and the dates are so close. I mean- her death date and his disappearance date. Why would he suddenly give up his hitokiri ways but still kill her?"
"He not to want anyone to know about past. She let others know and people be out to get him. If he give up his ways. People shrink back in fear of him. He frightening."
"How do you know all of this? It doesn't say it in the documents," Kaoru pointed out. Her mother grinned slyly.
"I know. It pass down from generation to generation. Only you and I know happen in Japan at time." Kaoru shuddered involuntarily.
"Well, um, I've decided to do my project on the legendary Battousai," Kaoru said, collecting her thoughts and trying to hint to her mother that she wanted some privacy to research.
"Is interesting, but is difficult. Everything guesses and hypotheses about him. No one sure what happen with him." Kaoru sighed, but inside she really wanted to know what had happened. She knew she could figure it out, if she had the right resources.
"I think I'll still try," she said determinedly. Her mother smiled and patted her back before leaving the room. Kaoru stared back at the beautiful page and the name seared her eyes.
Hitokiri Battousai.
Kaoru could hear her mother calling her. She could also tell that she had placed a blanket over her hunched shoulders. Kaoru knew she was asleep. Yet it was as if she were watching herself. She had slumped against her desk, her cheek pressed against the beautiful page of names, her eyes shut lightly in sleep. The blanket her mother had draped over her shoulders hung around her, but her body still trembled from something other than the cold. She wasn't quite sure what was causing her trembles, but it frightened her. And all the time, a single name floated around her mind, the name appearing behind her eyelids.
Hitokiri Battousai.