Chapter 85: Half Feelings

Kenshin: Miss... Kaoru...

Hiko: These friends of yours?

Kenshin: Yes.

Hiko: It's like Grand Central Station in here today. People should know when they're not wanted. (Misao and Yahiko look outraged.) Kenshin, run outside and get some water. There's only enough for one here. You can't expect the kids to go all night without anything to eat or drink.

Kenshin: Why would I--

Hiko: Aren't you going for a moonlight stroll with the girl?

Kenshin (getting angry): Master, that's not why I--

Hiko: That's your old spirit. Don't stand here talking about it, just go!

Kenshin: You were always such a slave driver...

(Kenshin walks to the door... past Kaoru... without saying a word.)

Yahiko (to Kaoru): Why did you just stand there?!!

Misao: Exactly! If you couldn't speak you should have started a fight!

Kaoru: I suppose...

Misao (smacking her forehead.): Geh.

Yahiko (likewise): Just when it counts, this again.

Hiko: So...

(They turn around to face Hiko's stare.)

Yahiko (thinking): Hiko Seijuurou. The current master of the Hiten Mitsurugi school...

Kaoru (thinking): The master who taught Kenshin all he knows.

Misao (thinking): But first, above all else--

Misao & Yahiko: Lemme ask you something. How old are you?

Hiko: Forty-three. There something wrong with that?

(Misao and Yahiko freak.)

Yahiko: How can Kenshin and this guy be so good?

Misao: Wait a minute, you mean Himura just looks young?

Yahiko: Yeah, he's twenty-eight.

Misao: Twenty-eight?!

Yahiko: I got it! The Hiten Mitsurugi school must have a secret technique for the elderly!

Misao: All right! I'm going to learn it too when I'm old!

Hiko: Can I go on?

Kaoru: Please.

Hiko: I know you know Kenshin, but why are you here?

(Brief pause.)

Misao (handing Yahiko a ladle (?): Go for it.

Yahiko: So Kaoru could see Kenshin. (handing the ladle to Misao) Your turn.

Misao: Yeah, so Kaoru could see Himura.

Both of them (passing Kaoru their ladles): You're up.

Kaoru: Well... it was to see Kenshin...

Misao & Yahiko: And??

Kaoru: Uh--

Misao: What did you come here for?

Yahiko: To fight at his side?

Misao: To go back to Tokyo with him? To confess your love for him?

Kaoru: I--er--well--no... I wanted to see him, so I left Tokyo... at that time, I really didn't think I would ever see him again. At the Shirobeko, I thought I would hit him or something, but when I saw his face I just couldn't...

Hiko: Hmm. I see. I don't know what you see in that wooden statue, but my stupid pupil seems to be popular.

Yahiko: Who are you calling a wooden statue?

Kaoru: Yahiko?

Yahiko: No matter how much of a master you are, you only know Kenshin as a pupil. The Kenshin we know is definitely no wooden statue!

Hiko: Don't interrupt, child.

Yahiko: Child?!

(Misao giggles.)

Hiko: I stopped getting news about my stupid pupil at the beginning of the Meiji era. What has he been doing with the Hiten Mitsurugi I taught him? That's what I want to know. Not from him, but from those I don't know who came to see him--