Chapter 2 - Time Curse

“Nice job Kenshin. Now I have to fix it for you.” Kitai commented. “Geez, Can I at least kill the ink dude?”

“Well, he obviously has self-will, so no.” Kenshin replied as Kiatso helped him up.

“Forget…You.” Kitai said placing her sheath back on her back. Then she did a back handspring, unsheathing her katana in mid air, and slashed vigorously at the Kashisha’s hands, rendering him defenseless. He fell to the ground in a mixture of surprise and pain. “Now…you die.” Kitai’s eyes narrowed into a death glare showing that she was once again hitokiri. She raised the katana in her right hand towards the guardian’s body.

Naomi ran in front of Kanshisha spreading her arms out in protection. “STOP! DON’T KILL HIM!”

“Kitai!” Kiatso shouted putting Kitai into a headlock. Kitai jumped out of her grip, spun, and kicked her in the back. Then, hearing the scream, Kitai’s eyes widened and she came back into the present time. Kiatso fell to the ground gasping for breath. Kitai sheathed her katana and ran toward her old friend; “Kiatso, I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

“Ya, I think so.” Kiatso got up rubbing her back. “Kitai, that hurt, and those eyes…They were like those of a killer.”

I’m sorry Kiatso. I wish you hadn’t seen that. My whole mind was back ten years ago when I was a hitokiri in the Bakumatsu Era, during the revolution..” Kitai turned to Kenshin. “Now I see why you don’t kill. You don’t want to become a hitokiri again. You only want to protect people. I may be able to forge a blade that’s less deadly.” Kenshin smiled and nodded.
Kiatso walked over to a tree, rested her forehead against the bark, and said in a monotone voice, “Ow, ow, ow…this hurts like crap…ow, ow…Thanks a lot Kitai…ow ow.”

“Hey!” Kitai yelled, “It’s hard to control myself when I really get into the battle.”

“Self-control Kitai.” Kiatso paused, then, “Ow, ow, ow…”

“SHUT UP!” Sanosuke screamed.

“MAKE ME!” Kiatso shouted back.

“She just really doesn’t understand what went on during the Bakumatsu.” Kitai muttered.

“Yes, but why should she?” Kenshin added. “It’s already horrible to talk about. Let her be happy while she can.” Kitai smiled and looked over to the girl she thought of as a daughter.

Naomi was kneeling by the Kanshisha’s side. “Are you okay?” She asked. Then Yahiko walked over and poked him in the hand. “Stop that!” Naomi punched Yahiko in the face.

“Ow! What was that for?!” Yahiko yelled.

“Don’t poke him where the wound is.” Naomi stated protectively.

“But why isn’t there any blood?” Yahiko’s statement attracted the attention of everyone in the clearing.

“What the hey?! I thought I slashed his hands!” Kitai yelled.

“Hey is for horses Kitai.” Kiatso stated sarcastically.

“SHUT…UP!” Kitai glared at her. She softened her look and looked to Naomi. “I’m sorry. Let me help.” She took a layer of bandages from her arms and wrapped them around the Kanshisha’s hands. “Kiatso, why don’t you help out?” She pointed to Kiatso’s arms.

“Uhh...No, I think I’m good.” Kitai remarked nervously.

“Kiatso, have some manners.” Kitai replied.

“No, I really need these.”

“Whyyyyyy?”

“Umm…I’d rather not say.”

“Somebody has a secret.” Kitai remarked in a sing-song voice.

Kiatso glared at her. “You were there. Remember?”

“Ohhhhhhhhhhh…yeah…Okay, I got it.” They all stood there a moment while Naomi wrapped Kanshisha’s arms.

“Well, shouldn’t we get him to a doctor or something?” Kiatso stated.

“Umm, thanks, but I don’t think that’ll be necessary.” Naomi took out a bottle of ink. The group stared at her as if she was some kind of weirdo when, suddenly, the Kanshisha was sucked into it as the bandages on his wrapped around the bottle. Naomi smiled. “He should be fine.”

“That…IS… AWESOME!” Kiatso yelled.

“Thank you. I worked hard on it.” Naomi replied.

“Really?” Kiatso asked.

“No…” Naomi stated bluntly. “I was born with it. It’s actually quite easy for me to do.”

Kiatso’s eyes narrowed. “Jerk.”

“What is a jerk?” Naomi asked.

As Kiatso opened her mouth to speak, Kitai moved to clamp her hand over her mouth, but Kiatso held her back. “Well, in my time, it means a very rude person who holds something over you.”

“I’m not rude.” Naomi said.

Kiatso shrugged her shoulders. “It’s just a saying in my time.”

Kitai smacked her forehead. “Way to keep a secret.” She mumbled.

Kiatso stared down at her arms. “Oh, crap.” Then, suddenly, a flash of light filled the clearing and two voices were heard screaming, “NO!!!!”
As the light receded, there was an evident change in lighting. Most of the members of the group were on the grounds, thrown back by and unseen force. The only one standing was Naomi, who was pushed against a tree.

“What…Was…That?” Sanosuke asked.

“I don’t know.” Kenshin replied helping Kaoru up.

“Where did it come from?” asked Yahiko while looking around.

Kiatso was looking at her arms; then she pulled them behind her back. “I don’t know.”

Kitai was looking around. “Well, we’re still in close to Kyoto. This is the same forest.” She looked at Kiatso. “Do you know what year it is?”

“Wait. What year? What are you talking about?” asked Naomi.

Kiatso looked at her arms again, which had dark symbols on her skin. “Um…nine or ten years in the…”

“Kiatso, do not tell me it’s in the past.” Kitai interrupted.

Kiatso looked up. “In…the past.”

Kitai glared at her, then screamed. “KIATSO! I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!! YOU TOOK US BACK TO THE BAKUMATSU ERA!”

Kenshin’s head shot up. “What?!”

“Wait…no. it’s future, yeah, future.” Kiatso said looking at her arms again.

Kitai looked at Kiatso skeptically. “Kiatso, let me see your arms.”

Kiatso put her arms behind her back. “No!”

Kitai violently grabbed Kiatso’s arms and read the year from the strange markings. “Kiatso…run…now.” She said trying to hold in her anger.

“Why?”

“Just run.”

Kiatso’s eyes widened. She bolted up a tree. “STAY AWAY FROM ME, KITAI! I do not want to die.”

Kitai came back to her senses. “Wait a minute. Exactly ten years ago on this exact day, I had an assassination mission in this very forest.” She ran up a tree. “I can’t let myself from this time see me now.”
Everyone, except Kiatso, looked confused.

Kitai sighed. “I can’t let myself from this time see me from our time. It could completely ruin the track of time.” She turned to Kiatso. “I think it’s time we tell them.”

Kiatso sighed and climbed down from the tree she was in. “First, everyone up to the tree Kitai is in.”

Kaoru looked at her. “Climbing…In a kimono?”

“Yes, Problem?”

Kenshin answered, “No, I’ll just carry her.” Kaoru’s face turned bright red.

Kiatso’s eyes grew big. “Whoa! Your face is really red!”

Kaoru covered her face with her hands as Kenshin picked her up marriage style and jumped into the tree. Sanosuke, Yahiko, Naomi, and Kiatso followed suit.
“Ready, Kiatso? They need to know.” Kitai asked.

Kiatso sighed and nodded. “Six years ago, when I was twelve, my father was trying to train me. Apparently, I was untrainable.”

“Wait,” Kitai cut in. “How did I train you?”

“You were actually nice and patient, and you didn’t teach me how to fight with swords. Anyway, my father finally gave up and devoted all his attention on his other student. He handed me over to his right hand man, so I would be out of his hair. Well, apparently, the man I had been entrusted to was developing a new…formula that, he said, would be able to make an invincible army. He had no volunteers, so he tried it on me, and that’s where it all went wrong.” Kiatso paused, taking a huge breath.

“What happened?” Kaoru screamed.

Kiatso looked at her. “I was building suspense. Anyways…my dad walked in with his student Sojiro, to get something when this curse took place. It was carving its way into my skin, so it hurt like heck! That was the first time it transported me somewhere. Unfortunately, Kitai here, was trying to kill me to get to Makoto, so she transported too.” Everyone looked at Kitai.

“Hey! Don’t judge me. Everybody was violent. It was the Bakumatsu.” Kitai pointed out.

“Anyways, Kitai and I were sent to the future, hundreds of years. Oh! That reminds me!” She pulls out her cell phone. “Hey, four bars!”

“How are you even getting service? I wonder if mine does.” Kitai felt around her pockets. “Dern it. I left it at the dojo.”

“Hey! I can call you!”

It was silent for a minute, then, “Oro?”

“Would you stop that!? Now, back to the story. Well, we had to adjust. Trust me. It wasn’t easy, and to make a long story short, it was hard. Eventually, the time curse acted again, except it didn’t take me with it. Kitai was sent back and I was alone.

“How in the world did you survive?” Kitai asked.

“I worked at the Wal-Mart. I trained by myself and learned street fighting. Eventually, I formed a new style of fighting, martial arts and street fighting combined. Then I was sent back.”

“Great. Now that they understand, how the heck do we get back?” Kitai asked.

Kiatso winced. “Um, I don’t know. I don’t know how to work this curse.”

Kitai’s eyes narrowed. “You mean we have to stay here?”

“Death glare! Run!” Kiatso landed on the ground. Suddenly, a figure burst from the bushes and had its sword at her neck. Kiatso stood statue still as the figure talked to her.

“Who are you, and why are you here?” It hissed.

Kitai gasped. “Throw me a ponytail holder.” Kiatso slowly took one off her wrist and threw it into the tree.

“What was that?” The younger Kitai asked.

“Nothing.” Kiatso lied. ‘Don’t look in the tree.’

Kitai quickly pulled her hair into a ponytail and jumped about twenty trees away, dropped down and threw her Gi on over her clothes. She walked to Kiatso. “Megumi! What in the world are you doing!? I told you not to go out alone. Now would you please remove your sword from my daughter’s neck?” Kitai grabbed the hilt of her sword. “Unless you would like to fight me.” She drew her katana.

The younger Kitai pointed her sword towards the older one. “Happy to.”
Then, Kiatso spun around and tripped the young Kitai. “Whoops.”

Kitai sheathed her katana and punched lightly on a few pressure points. “That should take her out long enough for us to get away. Come on.” She led them quickly out of the forest. “Okay, Kenshin, take your hair down. Kaoru, Sanosuke, Yahiko, you probably won’t be recognized. Kenshin and I can pass for siblings. As for you three, you’ll have to be a family. Just pretend. We can’t be discovered. Everybody got it?” Kenshin took a wrapping from his hair, letting it fall down his back. “Okay, names, I’ll be Sayato Ryuu. Kenshin, you can go by Shinta, your real name, but take the family name Ryuu. Kiatso, you’ll be Megumi. As for you three, you probably won’t be recognized, so you can keep your names. Any questions? No? Good. Let’s go.” Kitai headed toward the town.

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