Chapter 3

"I believe you should leave those two alone"

A voice can be heard from the shadows. All of the bandits stopped their movements and looked at the direction from where the voice came from. Syaoran and Sakura were looking as well hoping there's a better way than revealing their magic.

"Show yourself!" The leader said to the dark figure.

The figure stepped out of the shadows. Long flaming red hair flowed in a ponytail behind him. He wears a magenta colored haori paired with a white hakama. The scar on his left cheek can be seen clearly under the sunny light. On his left side, a sword rested in its sheath tied up to his waist.

"Who are you to interrupt our business here?" the bandit leader asked the stranger. Without wasting any time or expecting any answer, the group attacked the red head with all they've got.

Syaoran was about to help the man fight off the bandits, but changed his mind. The guy with red hair handled those bandits with great expertise and accuracy. He didn't even remove his sword from its scabbard. His movements, very swift and full of agility made his figure look like a blur defeating the bandits one by one. Finally, the last bad guy fell unconscious being knocked down by the man.

"Fewh…this sure is messy" he looked at the pile of men lying on the road and then looked at Syaoran and Sakura. "Are you two alright?" He asked them politely. They only managed to nod at him. " Now, why don't we go somewhere else and take a look at the wound of yours."

"But, what about these bandits" Sakura asked.

"Don't worry about them, miss. One of my friends had already gone to get the patrolmen. They should be here any minute. So, we should get going if you don't want to be the centre of attention." He ushered them out of the way. They were brought to a nicely build house. Like the ones you see in that time with large gardens and compound enclosed within walls. Over there, they were greeted by a nice lady with black hair tied high at the back. Beside her was another woman in purple kimono with black straight hair.

"Kenshin, where in the world have you been? It's almost dinner time and where's the tofu that you went out to buy?" Asked the fierce looking lady oblivious about the other two visitors.

"Ano...gomenne Kaoru-dono," replied the young man. "Actually we had a problem on our way to the town." And so he explained what happened to those two ladies. Kaoru invited all of them in while listening to Kenshin's story. The women with purple kimono saw Syaoran's injury went to get her medical gear to help fix him up. They all sat on the tatami near a table where dinner is prepared. When Kenshin had finished explaining, by that time a teenage boy, slightly younger than Syaoran and Sakura had came back and joined the group. He has spiky black hair and tanned skin. It was he who went and got the policemen.

"Here, let me take a look at your arm." The woman approached Syaoran.

Both Syaoran and Sakura haven't said a word while the rest were talking about them. Then Kenshin looked at them with a smile.

"I believe we haven't introduced ourselves yet, haven't we?" he asked the two. "I'm Himura Kenshin and this is Kamiya Kaoru, the owner of this dojo."

"And my name is Myojin Yahiko, Kaoru's first apprentice." The teenage boy interrupted. "The fox lady over there is Megumi"

Megumi only managed to look at Yahiko with stern eyes since she's bandaging Syaoran's arm. "Shut up brat!" As she finished tying the knot on the bandage, "There, that should do it. The cut wasn't so deep, so I don't think you'll need any stitches. Just try not to move so much while it heals" she advised Syaoran. He nods at her with gratitude.

"So who are you people? Where are you from?" Yahiko eagerly bombarded them with questions. He got a nice bump in the head from Kaoru after that.

"Stop being so rude!" Kaoru silenced him. So, everybody went silent and looked at the two strangers.

"Um…my name is Li Syaoran and this is Kinomoto Sakura." Syaoran said their names carefully while trying to figure out what exactly are they going to tell them. Should they just tell the truth and spill everything out or exclude a few "unnecessary" information. Sakura, sensing Syaoran's distraught held his uninjured hand and firmly squeezed it to reassure him that it's alright to tell the truth.

"We're both from Tomoeda, year 2000" Syaoran spoke the last two words slowly and softly.

"Huh?" was all the Kenshin group could ever reply…