Now Isn't a Good Time
It took Kenshin a moment to register that the man had called him by the wrong name. Who was this Kenji person? "Hiko-sama. I'm afraid I don't understand. Who is this Kenji?" He looked around again. "And where is Miki?"
The man stared at him a moment, his face still in shadow. "Miki? How did you... who the..." He trailed off a moment, before realization finally struck. "If you aren't Kenji... then you're..."
"Kenshin," the redhead replied. "I appear to have traveled back in time again, Hiko-sama."
The old man's quiet shock finally began wearing off. "Wait a minute, baka... you think that I'm Hiko Seijuro the Twelfth? I'm not that old!" The old man pulled his sheathed sword out of nowhere and swung it, cracking Kenshin hard over the head.
The rurouni yelped, stumbling backwards out of the old man's reach. "But I don't understand..." Kenshin mumbled, rubbing his very sore head. "If you aren't Hiko-sama... then who are you?"
"You know how to read ki, baka. Why don't you try it?"
Kenshin paused.
"Baka?"
Kenshin remained silent.
"Baka!"
"You can't be my shishou," Kenshin finally replied stubbornly. "No." He shook his head. "You aren't Hiko Seijuro the Thirteenth. Hiko would never... He isn't..." Kenshin trailed off, staring hard at him. "Shishou...?" he finally asked weakly. "You're so old..."
CRACK!
Hiko's sword found its target on Kenshin's head once again. "I told you, I'm not that old. And it's your fault I've lived this long anyway. You were supposed to kill me years ago, baka. So don't go blaming me because you screwed up learning amakakeru ryu no hirameki."
Kenshin didn't seem to have registered anything that Hiko had said. He was still just staring at the old man, swirley eyed. "You have grey hair, Shishou. I never thought you'd get grey hair. You always looked younger than your age. You must have aged a great deal to look like--"
This time the redhead didn't even get to finish his sentence when he was nearly knocked silly.
"Shishou!" Kenshin snapped, looking angry. "There is no reason to hit me, that there is not. I'm only saying the truth. I can see that old age hasn't improved your personality any."
The old man snorted. "And I can see that you really are as stupid as I remember." He rubbed his temples in frustration. "This isn't possible." He sighed. "Of course, if something ridiculous, frustrating and impossible was going to happen to anybody, it would happen to you, so I shouldn't be too surprised." He motioned to Kenshin. "Sit."
Kenshin didn't move. "Right here? Can't we at least go inside, Shishou?"
Hiko glared at him. "No. I don't feel like getting up and having to walk in there, so you can sit on the ground and like it."
Kenshin sat. "It isn't a long walk, Shishou."
"Shut up." Hiko whipped out his sake bottle and began chugging it. How the hell was he supposed to deal with this? Obviously he had to send the baka home. But how to do it without Kenshin getting the mistaken impression that his shishou had gotten old and weak? Hiko's eyes fell on his deshi, and he began chugging the sake again.
"Shishou," Kenshin suddenly said tentatively, "do you really think you should be drinking that much sake? That can't be good for a man your age..."
WHACK!
Hiko's eyebrow twitched as he watched his nearly unconscious baka deshi try to drag himself up from the ground. "Watch it, baka. I mean it... You keep making comments like that and you're not going to live to see my age."
Kenshin rubbed his head and muttered darkly to himself, all the while scooting himself backwards a few feet so he'd be out of his shishou's swinging range. "Is that all you're going to do, Shishou? Hit me? Aren't you even happy to see me?"
Hiko snorted. "Why would I be happy to see you? You were a pain in the ass as a kid, You were a psychotic as a teenager. Then you went soft, and became a pain in the ass with psychotic mood swings as an adult. And then you dumped me with your kid for training." He scowled darkly. "And that kid had more attitude than even you did. You should feel grateful I didn't hit you harder."
Kenshin's eyes were one shade away from the amber of a hitokiri. "Fine," he said tightly. "Then maybe we can just figure out how to send me home, so I can get out of your hair."
"Sounds good to me."
The two men glared at each other for a moment.
Hiko finally broke the silence. "So how did you get here, baka?"
Kenshin immediately looked away. "I'm not exactly sure. You and I were fighting. And I was... knocked out."
"So you got knocked silly and you came here. Well, that's easy to fix. Come closer and let me hit you a little harder and maybe you'll go home."
The redhead's expression was dark. "And if it doesn't work, shishou?"
The old man shrugged and smirked. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Eventually I'm sure I'll hit you hard enough."
Kenshin scooted back a little further. "Perhaps we could try sparring again. Maybe it was the situation that brought me here, not the bruising."
Hiko nearly choked on his sake. "What?"
"Sparring. We could try sparring again."
The old man stared at Kenshin for a long time. "You want to spar..."
Kenshin nodded. Then a thought suddenly seemed to occur to him. "Oh, that might not be a good idea. I'm sorry, shishou, that I am. How thoughtless. At your age, you shouldn't have to fight me. I wouldn't want to hurt you..."
Hiko's eyes narrowed dangerously as he glared at his baka deshi over his sake bottle. "That baka's actually smirking at me! I can't let him think I'm afraid to fight him. But shit... he's only thirty. He's over fifty years younger than I am. Can I take him? I can't lose to him... Maybe if I wear him out first with meaningless tasks first I have a chance..." He smirked. "Sparring's no problem. But we're not doing it tonight. It's getting too dark to fight."
Kenshin looked around at the dark woods behind him. "Too dark? But Shishou, we used to spar at night all the--"
"We'll spar tomorrow morning. I've nearly given you a concussion, so I'd have an unfair advantage. Not that my skill and power won't already guarantee my success..."
Kenshin cocked a quizzical eyebrow at his shishou, but tactfully didn't comment. Instead he cleared his throat and asked, "Then what do you want to do until then?"
"Go inside and get some sleep," Hiko suggested. "You'll need it if you want to fight me."
Kenshin nodded. "Fine." He stood up, then noticed that his shishou hadn't moved yet. "Aren't you coming?"
"I'll come when I'm done with my sake," he growled, his hand twitching on the sword once again.
Aged or not, Kenshin didn't want to have to deal with a violently angry Hiko. He'd had enough of that as a child. Without another word, Kenshin retreated to the hut.
Hiko just watching him go. "What have I gotten myself into...?"
He looked back down at his half empty sake jug. "Oh, the hell with the doctor saying I can't keep drinking like this. I'm going to need it tonight..."
And with that he began chugging sake once again...
Author's Note: Thanks for reading. Hopefully "In Due Time" and "Out of Time" will be updated soon! Please drop a review!
Oh, and I've added a note that the story begins in Meiji to chapter one. Thank you everyone who pointed out how confusing time-wise that opening was. I never realized, but I should have... heh...
Dewa mata!