A/N: I love interesting OC's in fanfics ;) Here is the twenty-first installment.

Zhang Shi Hwa

Sano's mouth twitches. "You calling my momma a bitch?" he asks.

"Suits a bastard like you," the strange man spits back. "Why? Think it's unfair?"

"Take your words back, you damn anarchist!"

Shi Hwa grins evilly. "Come get them from me, then."

They advance as quick as lightning, and you can't help it; you scream. However, instead of punching each other in the face like you were expecting, they throw their arms around each other. You pause, and for a moment you think they might be wrestling, but another glance tells you you're wrong.

They're hugging.

"Sanousuke, you sick fuck," Shi Hwa says joyfully, tousling your friend's rooster-like hair with his thick, rough fingers. "Why the hell didn't you tell me you were going to be back on the Mainland?!"

Sano laughs in the same bark-like manner the stranger had earlier, and you're more confused than ever. "Shit happens, you crazy fucker! I didn't have time to send you a note, and how the hell was I supposed to know you were done traveling?"

The coarse nature of their speech shocks and offends you; you almost feel like you should cover your ears. Their words are absolutely filthy.

"Shut the hell up, you damned piece of shit!" Shi Hwa says happily, and they hug again.

You wince at the language.

Sano seems to remember that you're in the room, and he says, "Oh!" then grins hugely. "Kaoru, this is Zhang Shi Hwa! We met on the road from Vietnam to Thailand, you know, with the caravan? I told you about it!" His eyes snake down to Kenshin's Sakabato in your hands, pointed at them. "Looks like you two got well-acquainted."

"Oh," you let the sword fall by your side. "You never mentioned… I'm sorry, I didn't know, uh…Are you Cheng Lei's son?"

Shi Hwa's brow raises. "The one and only."

Sano gasps. "No fucking way! You bastard, why the hell didn't you ever tell me who your dad was?! Your old man's been helping us build the dojo for two months!"

"Well why the fuck didn't you listen when he told you my name?" he shoots back. Then he adds in Chinese, "Unless you still can't speak Mandarin? God, you're as lazy as ever."

Sano's face twists into confusion. "Huh? Come on, speak Japanese!"

He shakes his head. "I thought so. But you speak pretty well, lady. I'm impressed."

It takes you a long moment to realize he was talking to you. You feel like a fool for speaking in your heavily accented Chinese to a man who spoke your first language fluently, and your cheeks heat up in embarrassment. "I, uh, I'm very confused, still," you admit. "When Cheng Lei mentioned his son wanted to learn Kendo, I imagined someone… more… young…"

"You saying you only teach brats?" he asks. "I don't look it, but I'm probably younger than you, Himura." He shrugs. "My old man had me when he was fourteen, if that makes more sense with the age gap."

Sano growls. "Okay, I hereby declare we all speak in Japanese from this point onward. You two could be plotting against me, for all I know."

Shi Hwa grins again. "What say you, Himura?" he asks. "Shall we kill him?"

Shocked, you cry in Japanese, "Kill him?!"

There's a pause, and the two men burst out laughing. "Fuck, it's good to see you, Sanousuke," the new man says.

"You too, you hairy bastard," Sano chuckles.

You quietly clean up the sword rack.

… … …

"So when did you stop traveling?" Sano asks once you've all moved into the house. You have them sit in the kitchen with you while you make dinner, and as you listen closely, the rice burns. "Did you stay in Jeoseon much longer?"

Shi Hwa says, "Hell, Sanousuke, I stayed there for four months after you disappeared. Got real good at the language, too. Met me some real nice people. Everyone kept asking me where you'd run off to, and I had to assume you'd either been caught by that bastard, Lee Sang Min, or you'd gone back to Japan." You feel his gaze pressing into your back, and you know he's looking at you.

You flip the fish and stir the rice.

"I hoped you'd made it back to Japan in one piece, of course, especially since you never stopped bitching about missing your lady. This her?"

You choke on your spit; Sano does the same.

"Shi Hwa, shut the hell up!" he hisses.

"What, I'm wrong?" He waits for you to turn around to wink. "I'm guessing it didn't work out to well for you, since Kamiya Kaoru became Himura Kaoru."

There's a heavy silence in the air, and Shi Hwa is much too smart not to catch on.

"Shit," he mumbles, "There's more to this story than I know, huh?"

Sano whispers, "Later."

You wipe a stray tear from your eye and turn back around to flip the fish again.

"Anyway," Shi Hwa says, then clears his throat, "Since you just up and left I wasn't sure what to do. If I knew you'd be gone for two years I would've gone to visit you, maybe, otherwise I would have stayed in Jeoseon longer than I did. I had a real good life there."

"So why'd you leave?" he asks.

"Got into some trouble," he shrugs. "Tried impersonating a royal entertainer to get the King to change his mind on our business idea. He noticed. I was chased out; hell, they wanted to sentence me to death by poisoning, so I jumped that ship. After Jeoseon I traveled back to Thailand and stayed for a week, then I spend a year and a half in Mongolia."

"What the hell did you do in Mongolia?" he asks.

"Honestly?" He grins. "I was dating this really pretty girl. Her dad found out I was half and chased me away. She still sends me letter, but I just got word that she was set up in an arranged marriage with some random rich wool trader." He leans back. "I'm too free a spirit to be sad about it, though. Gotta date a lot of women to find the right one, right?"

"And after that?"

"After that I took the weapons I'd accumulated and came back to the Mainland. I've been here for six months, and already my heart wants me to travel again. What do you think?" he asks, "If I put my hair up in a topknot could I pass for a Jeoseon nobleman? I speak it well enough to fool people."

"You're crazy," Sano says, shaking his head. "How the hell do you speak so many languages? I can only speak one."

He laughs, and the sound dies down.

You start serving the rice and fish, saying, "I'm sorry for assuming you were a bad person," you apologize. "But you do have to admit you were pretty crazy when you came by."

"Sure, I admit it," he says. "I knew that sword was a Sakabato, honestly. Ever since I realized when we met at the post office that you had to be the girl Sanousuke always talked about, I thought it had to be that sword. He's told me about Battousai the Man-Slayer. I just wanted to see how you'd react."

"You're a strange one," you say. "Why did you come by so late to introduce yourself, anyway?"

Suddenly, his face becomes serious; the grin slips away, and the twinkle in his eyes goes out. "I'm afraid this was the soonest I could stop by, actually."

Sano blinks. "What do you mean?"

"I hate being the bearer of bad news," Shi Hwa says darkly. "But I'm afraid you two won't be safe here. This old factory was under watch by someone very strong, very powerful, and they're not happy someone else snatched up the land under their nose."

"Under their nose?" you cry. "We bought this land fair and square!"

"Unfortunately," he begins, "that's not how they see it."

"Who are they?" Sano murmurs.

Shi Hwa leans back, his face shrouding in the shadows. "The Chinese Mafia."

A/N:

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