As everyone fought around the two of them, Orochi smiled calmly at Kenshin. "How does it feel, knowing that you will lose, Himura Battousai?"

Kenshin slowly unsheathed his reverse edge sword, knowing that the other man wouldn't attack him until the time came. "We didn't lose against Shishio and tonight we wouldn't lose to you." He then slashed in front of him, cutting into two a bullet aimed at him. The former assassin then glanced at a spot at a hill a kilometer away.

"Sorry," Orochi apologised. "Neuwindst, my faction's weapon supplier had always suspected the extent of your skill. That is why he requested to attempt to snipe you from the position. That is the first and final attempt."

"Thank you," Kenshin said drolly.

"Really, I didn't worry," the other man said as he drew his own sword, "once we fight, it would be virtually impossible for the sharpshooter to get a good shot. Should we start?"

Kenshin held his sakabatou at a ready stance.

"Here I come," Orochi said as he faded from where he was standing and reappeared in front of Kenshin, his sword already swung halfway down.

There were sounds of metals clashing against each other as the two of them tried to outsmart each other with their own attacks, knowing very well that a mistake might mean their last.

Kenshin jumped in the air. "Ryutsuisen!" he cried out as he performed a downward slash.

"Gen'ei Kagami: Ryushosen!" His adversary countered with a bastardized version of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

As the two of them moved away after their respective attacks, the former Hitokira Battousai narrowed his eyes.

"It is as you suspected, Battousai," the other man confirmed upon seeing his look.

Hiko had drilled into his mind from early own that in order to master his sword he had to pay attention to three things: power, speed and techniques. The best kenjutsus would try to achieve a balance between the three. However, a kenjutsu that achieved that equilibrium meant that it would be average overall. Hence, Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu placed more emphasis into power. From their duels, Kenshin surmised that Enishi's Wattoujutsu was based on speedy attack.

"To us, mind is the sharpest sword ever. Just like Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu is a wind technique, the sword of Orochi Gen'ei Kagamiryu is the sword of water."

'And Wattoujutsu is probably influenced by fire.' Kenshin thought to himself. Apart from the emphasis on the three factors, each sword philosophy was also influenced by one of the elements from Go Dai, the Japanese elements heavily influenced by Buddhist beliefs. "And our swords is from the Chi aspect," he remarked.

"True. The earth will be paired with fire, wind or water, and the result of that is a void attack," Kenshin conjectured as his sword met Orochi's.

"Ah, I can see that you're not the master of your sword technique."

"What do you mean?" Kenshin demanded as the two clashed sword again.

"Perhaps you have yet to find out that as a swordsman, you must also master the fourth facet."

"There's a four?"

Orochi smiled even though his stab missed Kenshin's body. "That's why I know that you will lose. You didn't know about the fourth facets. And allow me to venture a guess that you think the combination of water and earth produces void attack because your sword technique is named 'dragon flying to the heaven'?"

Kenshin jumped away, allowing himself some time to collect his breath and at the same time process the information given to him. As Orochi remarked, he thought that his Sakabatou, together with the sword technique formed the void aspect. This was due to the fact that void, known as 'Ku' or 'Sora' could also mean sky or heaven, depending to the context. Hence, a dragon flying to the heaven could be understood as a sword attack that achieved the level of void.

"That's why I say you don't understand," Orochi said, seemingly knowing what he was thinking.

Sano grinned at the man in front of him while wiping of some blood of his face. "A rabbit indeed. You're that boy's teacher?"

"Yes. Tohno Shinji's the name, by the way. But right now I'm a wolf," the man said as he deflected Sano's futae no kiwame by slapping his hand away, effectively neutralizing his opponent from utilizing the single-hand and the two-hand versions of that attack. "If you think you can defeat me with that half-assed technique you learned from that monk."

"What are you saying?"

The man moved back a bit and then punch the ground in front him.

Sano watched as the ground cracked in due to the force of the punch and began spreading toward him. He raised his hands just in time to block his body as the ground in front of him exploded and sprayed him with rocks and gravel. But that was a ruse as he felt the ground burst once again with a stronger force, with the explosive power hurling him into the air while the fragments showered on his body. As he sailed through the air, he could see the man reared his other fist and punched the ground. Another explosion propelled him further, injuring him further before and was followed the third and the last blast.

The crash to the ground didn't really hurt compared to the triple attacks.

Sano staggered to stand while trying to analyze the attack. The man had basically performed an attack similar to Futae no Kiwami, but instead of opening his hand for the second impact, he only punched once. "You varied the force release of the punch so that it would come out in two phase."

Shinji shrugged.

It looked like Sano was correct. However, what could he do against someone that mastered such a complex technique?

"The brat tried to use the fang technique against you," the man said. "Without knowing well how to use it correctly." He smiled and held out a hand. "But I'm different than him."

Sano spat, ignoring the blood intermixed with his saliva.

The resulting explosion pebbled Saito and his opponents but both didn't take their attention away from each other. Both of them were breathing heavily as their injuries were beginning to tax their endurance. If anything, Saito felt a bit excited. It had been quite a while since he fought an opponent who used piercing attacks similar to ones he used. If he didn't know better, he would have pegged the man as using Gatotsu.

"This is Gatotsu," the man said suddenly, as if knowing what was going on inside his mind. "At least the bastardized version of it. I hope you don't mind."

"I don't." Unlike Himura, Saito didn't care about clashing sword techniques; to him, all that mattered was destroying evil quickly even if the said evil was using a similar technique.

The man gestured at someone. "Look like your tall friend had been defeated."

The former Wolf of Mibu didn't need to look in the same direction to know that Himura's sidekick had been defeated by his opponent. "He can die for all I care," he said as he settled into an attack stance. "And since you really care about it, I'll send you after him," he said as he launched his attack.

Aoshi looked at the unconscious Sanosuke before turning his attention at the man who defeated the street fighter. The man named Tohno was sitting around, watching other fights as if he had nothing else to do. Oh, the man did taunt other people to attack him now and then but seeing that he easily dispatched Sano spoke volume of his capability. The Okashiraa of the Oniwabanshuu wondered why he felt that something was very wrong. He stared at Yuri.

His former second-in-command shrugged and slowly moved toward him. "Very well, I will fight with you,"

Karl Neuwindst watched the fight from his binocular. Everything was going according to his plan. He had successfully caused Shingo's death when he predicted the man would shield him from his own sniper. As he had suspected, without Shingo, Orochi was nothing and could be fooled easily. Now that the two forces had managed to inflict damage on each other, it was time for him to change allegiance from Orochi to his favorite side: gold.

He didn't lie when he said that Orochi's success would spur his own fortune nor did he skimp on the weapons he had provided. After all, his rather good reputation would allow him get such a lucrative business from Orochi. However, he wasn't stupid enough to put all eggs inside the basket: there was a very small chance of Orochi actually winning the war in a single strike. Instead, he predicted that Orochi would succeed at causing massive unrests all over Japan.

And massive unrests would cause revolts and rebellions; both require weapons that he would happily supply. After he had ensure that a particular faction would win, which not necessarily be Orochi's group, he would throw his full support behind it, only to betray it again when another opportunity arose.

Neuwindst could help but feel proud of himself and his business acumen.

Then he noticed the blade being lightly pressed against his neck as well as the fact that his guns had become silent.

"Orochi-sama would like to thank you for all you did."

"Wha…" Neuwindst managed to croak as he lost control of his body functions and his pants became drenched.

"He also wished to convey the fact that he knew that you were the one responsible for Shingo-sama's death as well your plan to betray him."

"How?"

"From the initial meeting he had predicted accurately your every move, including your attempt to kill Shingo-sama. Despite that he was willing to try and trust you by assigning Shingo to you. You see, if you left Shingo-sama alone, we wouldn't be having this conversation, but you didn't so here I am."

Neuwindst's eyes widened as the ramification of what he had done hit him. By taking out Shingo, he had signed off his own death warrant. "Wait… let me go and I can offe…"

His sentence was never finished as a flick of a wrist severed his head from the body.

Aoshi jumped away from Yuri, his suspicion increasing. Yes, the two of them traded attacks with the intent to kill but he could feel that something was wrong with Yuri's attacks. It was as if she was… she was being conservative in her attacks. It wasn't because he was more skilled compared to her; it was something else. It was then he found the answer to what was bothering him.

Yuri caught his expression and smiled as she put away her weapons. "Your call now, Okashiraa."

Despite his calm façade, Aoshi felt despair creeping inside him. He and everyone else had fallen into the enemy's trap. Orochi's real target wasn't to raze Kyoto to the ground; the man should have another objective, one bigger than that. But what would the man hope to achieve knowing very well that he, Himura, Saito and the rest would be there to intercept him. He looked at Yuri again and it was then he understood everything.

Apart from his close followers, no one could really ascertain the identity of Orochi. However, when the man, under Yuri's suggestion, attacked Okina, he had been identified by Aoshi as well as Misao who was following him at that time.

However, the man he thought was Orochi, the very same man who was fighting against Himura at the moment, was not the real Orochi. The real Orochi, whoever that person may be, had planned the attack so that Aoshi identified the wrong man as him and thus leading everyone into the current trap they were in. "Damn!" he cursed.

"Orochi-sama and I knew you would find out immediately, but you know, it's okay because now it's too late. Even if you managed to kill all of us, he will still win in the end."

There was only one way Orochi could achieve victory despite having all his men killed in Kyoto.

"Yes," Yuri nodded. "Tokyo."

The gathering of leaders in Tokyo; if Orochi managed to assassinate them, the whole country would be thrown in anarchy.

"You have lost," the woman said softly.

Aoshi never felt the kodachis dropped from his hands. All of his preparations, his planning, everything was for naught.

Then something hit him: a strong surge of sword ki from somewhere quite far away, a ki strong enough that it was unfathomable. It seemed that he wasn't the only person who felt it. Every expert fighter on the field could feel it. Those who had fought in the previous war recognized the similarity of the ki with the one felt during the Takamori revolt. However, only Yuri knew the words to describe it.

"Yume no Shiyotaka Tsubasa."

1

Author's note (29 September 2010)

1. The final battle and another few more chapters left before the end.

2. For those wondering, Orochi mentioned the fourth facet that Kenshin had missed. It was soul. In fact, Hiten mitsugiryu's ougi hinged on the strength of the soul. Also, while Kenshin had correctly figured out that earth element (the sword) would be paired with the wind, water and fire elements, he was mistaken in assuming that the the attack formed was of void nature. The truth is Yume no Shiyotaka Tsubasa is the real void based sword technique which would be paired with 'earth' element which is why Orochi knew that Kenshin wasn't the actual master of Hiten Mitsugiryu for not knowing about the real combination.