Life in Tokyo had continued, with its little dramas and large, played out repeatedly over a thousand days. Aside from a wishful regret for what could have been, the Kamiyas, the Sagaras and the Myojins lived lives of a mostly quiet nature.
Most of the terrible threats of the past age of wars were gone, and Kenshin's sword was allowed to rest in peace as his extended family grew in happiness and contentment.
Those quiet lives were about to be rocked, whether for good or ill was yet to be seen. But the herald of change had already arrived.
At the Tendo dojo the innocent sound of a bell rope announcing a visitor was the pebble that would start the ripples.
Kasumi Tendo had aged well, perhaps it was a compensation for starting life late. She turned from her task to look up at the sound of the bell and headed for the door calmly yet swiftly. It was always possible that it was a patient, even though the hour was an odd time of day and she did not often have patients at her home.
She opened the door to an odd sight, a woman wearing a baby-carrier across her back and with a small-girl child at her side. She and the children were dressed in the manner of a country-bred heimin. The woman, her back turned momentarily as she fussed with her older-child, had long brunette hair, streaked occasionally by a few strands of grey. Her skin was tanned by long hours outside and marked occasionally by the small scars acquired by days spent raising a living out of the Earth.
"Be good, Tse, Daddy will be here soon," the woman said, speaking in a clear, educated, city dialect despite her appearance.
There was something familiar about the child that Kasumi could not quite pick out, and immediately dismissed when she heard the Chinese name.
"Excuse me," Kasumi said, wondering what could bring this woman to her door. "May I help you?"
There was a slight groan as the woman straightened and turned toward Kasumi. Kasumi looked briefly over the the woman's face, noting that she wasn't quite so old as she had first thought, despite the occasional grey hair. And her skin was not nearly so damaged as it would have been if she'd spent her entire life in the country. There were faint scars on her face and neck where some animal must have attacked her, but other than that her skin was mostly clean, though it was quite dark. And again Kasumi was struck by that sense of familiarity.
"Hi, Sis," the woman said then, and it struck Kasumi all at once.
"Nabiki??!" Kasumi gasped.
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(Posted Tue, 05 Aug 2003 07:17)
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