"I'll use you as a warning sign,
That if you talk enough sense,
Then you'll loose your mind."
("I Found," Amber Run)

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Kenshin reached the Ikedaya too late to stop the attack. The walls of the inn were slashed by Shinsengumi katanas and sprayed with the blood of their victims. Servants huddled in the corners and behind overturned tables. Broken porcelain and the bleeding bodies of dead and injured Inshin Shishi covered the floors.
Kenshin turned the bodies over to see their faces. Was Katsura-Sama among them?
Katsura-Sama had given most of his men the night off except for his most trusted bodyguards, who would accompany him to the Ikedaya for a meeting with some of the other leaders of the Inshin Shishi. Kenshin should have come with him, but Katsura-Sama specifically told him not to.
"Take Lady Kamiya to the festival," he'd said. "Enjoy yourself for once."
Had he suspected there might be danger?
"Battousai!"
Kenshin reached for the hilt of his sword. He rose to face his challenger. It was only Iizuka, so Kenshin relaxed his stance. Iizuka's clothes were disheveled and stained with blood. Was it is own blood or someone else's?"
"Have you seen Katsura-Sama?" Kenshin asked Iizuka.
"He's safe." Iizuka pulled out a rag to wipe his blade. "We snuck him out the back."
Kenshin let out a death breath he'd be holding in since he'd set foot on the premises. "What happened?"
"Someone found out that he'd be here tonight and ratted to the Shinsengumi." 
"Any leads?" Kenshin looked back on all his interactions during the past days and weeks. Had he said something to someone he shouldn't have?
"I'd start with a woman," Iizuka said. "They have a way of blunting our edges, especially the young and pretty ones." 

Iizuka accompanied Kenshin back to the Aoiya, where Kamiya-Dono was waiting on the engawa outside the room she and Kenshin shared.
"You're back," she said.
"If this one didn't know better," Kenshin said. He gave Kamiya-Dono a smile. "I'd think you were worried about me."  Even if it was only out of self-interest rather than affection, the idea of Kamiya-Dono worrying about him pleased Kenshin.
Iizuka grabbed Kamiya-Dono by her hair and drew his sword. She screamed and tried to fight him off, but he yanked her hair even harder. "Shut up, bitch!" he said. "Good men died tonight because you couldn't keep your mouth or your legs shut."
"I didn't do anything!" Kamiya-Dono replied. Her eyes met Kenshin's.
Kenshin sized up the taller and broader Iizuka. "What are you doing," he said. "Let go of her."
Kamiya-Dono might be a hell-raising brat, but she wasn't a spy. Or if she was a spy, she wasn't one they needed to worry about. She was about as discreet as a rooster at dawn.
"It's one of the oldest tricks out there." Iizuka pulled Kamiya-Dono's hair and used it to twist her head so that she faced him.  Kamiya-Dono cried out in agony. "A pretty young thing worms her way into her enemy's bed and hears some things she shouldn't, so she passes it on to her daddy and her uncle." Tears ran down Kamiya-Dono's cheeks. "She's just a woman and I won't disgrace myself by shedding her blood, but I can shear this lovely head." Iizuka raised his sword to slice off Kamiya-Dono's hair. 
Kenshin pulled Kamiya-Dono away from Iizuka and shielded her behind his back. "She's not the spy. Now go."  The hilt of his katana popped out of its scabbard. 
Iizuka sheathed his blade. Kenshin smiled. The coordinator of executions wasn't a stupid man. He knew better than to go up against Battousai.
Iizuka turned around when he reached the gate. "Looks like Battousai's come to your rescue again, Hime-Sama," he said.
"Need I remind you, Iizuka-San..." Kamiya-Dono stepped out from behind Kenshin. "...What happened to the last man who called me Hime-Sama."
Iizuka bowed and left. Kenshin put an arm around Kamiya-Dono to lead her back into their room. He couldn't help but smile at how she'd stood up for herself.
What a strong-willed woman.

Kyoto erupted in flames and rebellion during the days following the Ikedaya Incident.
"A rogue spark," Katsura-Sama said to Kenshin. They were eating together in the Kohagi-Ya's dining room. "And now Kyoto will burn."
Against Katsura-Sama's orders, a terrorist cell of Choshu ronīn had been plotting to assassinate several officials, kidnap the Emperor, and set fire to Kyoto. Katsura-Sama had gone to the Ikedaya to try to convince the ringleaders to stop this mad scheme, but the Shinsengumi got the jump on them. A shopkeeper had been caught with an arsenal of weapons and was tortured by the Shinsengumi until he revealed the conspiracy and that Katsura-Sama and the other heads of the Choshu faction would be meeting at the Ikedaya. Now, the defeated Choshu faction was in disgrace and exiled from the Imperial Court.
Though Kenshin had the satisfaction of rubbing Kamiya-Dono's vindication in Iizuka's face, he was still uneasy.

"Himura..." Kenshin's body jerked awake. On instinct, he rose and drew his sword. Kamiya-Dono fell backwards. She had been placing a blanket on his lap.
"You looked cold," she said.
Kenshin gasped. Kami-sama, he could have run her through.
"Forgive me," he said. He put his sword back into its scabbard. "After all this one's boasting about never killing innocents, look at me now." 
Hadn't he justified Battousai's murders by saying that he would never harm civilians? That he would only kill to bring about a new and better age.
Kamiya-Dono put the blanket around his shoulders. "Forgive me for disturbing you," she said. She turned her face away from him and rose to leave.
Kenshin took her hand. "Wait!" He couldn't bear the terror in her eyes. "This one would never hurt you. Not ever! You will always be safe with me."
But she was too smart to listen to the man who'd just drew a sword on her.
"Good night, Himura." Kamiya-Dono pulled her hand away from him.

"The Shinsengumi are here!" someone called out from the hallway.
Kenshin lept to his feet. His heart pounded in his ears. Merciful Buddha. It had only ever been a matter of time until the Shinsengumi discovered their location. Kyoto was a large place but not infinite.
Kamiya-Dono's ears pricked up. "The Shinsengumi?"
"Pack up your things," he told her. Kamiya-Dono blinked at him. "Now! We have to leave."
Kenshin picked up his swords and rummaged through his storage chests for his wood carving knife and Tomoe's letters, the only other things he minded leaving behind. Kamiya-Dono just grabbed her getas and money pouch. Kenshin took her hand, and they ran into the hallway.
Okami-San stood at the top of the stairs. "This way," she said. "Hurry."
On the first floor, Inshin Shishi and servant girls scrambled about. Okami-San took advantage of the commotion to sneak Kenshin and Kamiya-Dono through the kitchen. "Quickly! Out the back!" 
They made their escape by the kitchen door. Above them, three Shinsengumi, blue cloaks billowing and white lanterns swaying, paced across the second floor engawa. Kenshin flattened himself against the wall and pulled Kamiya-Dono to his side. Kamiya-Dono looked up at the three Shinsengumi through the cracks between the Engawa's floorboards. She parted her lips as if to say something, but Kenshin put a hand over her mouth. He couldn't risk her making a noise that would give them away.

"Hurry up!" The Shinsengumi leader called to the three men on the engawa. They went to investigate another part of the inn. 
Kamiya-Dono slumped her shoulders. Kenshin raised an eyebrow. Had Kamiya-Dono hoped the Shinsengumi were there to rescue her? Wouldn't that make a lovely story. The Shinsengumi were already national heroes for foiling a plot to kidnap the Emperor. They would go down in legend if they rescued a damsel who was being held captive by the evil Battousai the Slasher.
Once the coast was clear, Kenshin and Kamiya-Dono crept through the garden and into an alley. Kenshin scanned the area for any more Shinsengumi. All was quiet, for the moment.
"Where do we go now?" Kamiya-Dono whispered to him.
"Shimabara," Kenshin said. Katsura-Sama fled there after the Ikedaya Incident and had taken a house with Ikumatsu.
Kamiya-Dono scoffed at the idea. Of course, she would. Shimabara was Kyoto's red light district.
Kenshin laughed. "What? Does that not meet with your ladyship's approval?"
"Looks like we don't have any other options." Kamiya-Dono put on her getas.

"You wanna take me home?
Yes.
Sing the song.
("Wedding Song," Hadestown)

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Katsura-Sama had given Kenshin the address of a sake shop in Shimabara, the Harukiya, where he could be found if there was trouble. Well, trouble had come, and there Kenshin was.
He held onto Kamiya-Dino's arm to keep her from getting lost in the crowd outside the Harukiya. Despite everything, it was business as usual in Shimabara. The arsonists terrorizing Kyoto had unsurprisingly spared its pleasure district, and patrons still felt safe enough to venture out at night.

Kenshin gripped his wakizashi. Men were looking at Kamiya-Dono, no doubt assuming that she was the wife of some debt-ridden samurai, who would soon be on display behind the bars of one of Shimabara's brothels. This was no place for a respectable woman. 

Kamiya-Dono turned up her nose at the Harukiya. "Is this the place?" She lifted the hem of her kimono so it wouldn't drag on the spit and sake-covered floor.
Kenshin nodded yes. What a shame that Katsura-Sama was reduced to skulking about in such a den. "This one will be back in a moment. Will you be alright here?"
"I'm not a child." Kamiya-Dono's cute little pout said otherwise.
"That man over there certainly doesn't think you're a child." The man in question, some drunk kago-barer, was practically liking his lips at Kamiya-Dono as she walked over to the bar. Kenshin made the rogue aware of his katana and that he would use it if there was any trouble.
"What'll it be?" The bartender asked Kamiya-Dono.
Kamiya-Dono knelt down on one of the seating cushions. "Chilled sake, please."
The Harukiya's host stood in front of a patch-work curtain which led to a back room. Kenshin flashed Katsura-Sama's seal and the host pulled back the curtain.
Katsura-Sama was sitting alone at a table in the back room. He rose when Kenshin approached him and gestured for Kenshin to sit with him. Kenshin informed Katsura-Sama about the raid on the Kohagiya and how the Shinsengumi had scattered their men to the four winds.
Katsura-Sama furrowed his brow. "We'll all have to lay low for a while," he said. "I can't return to Choshū but I'm safe here for the time being. What about you, Himura?"
Kenshin took a sip of the sake Katsura-Sama had poured for him. "I could go to Otsu," he said. Otsu was a short journey from Kyoto and near Hiko-Sensei's estate and he kept a safe house there. Kenshin smiled. The wily old fox prepared for everything, didn't he?
"Stay there until things calm down. Iizuka will keep you updated on what's going on in Kyoto."
"Very well." Kenshin bowed his head.
"Take Lady Kamiya with you." Katsura-Sama refilled his cup. "A wife should stay with her husband and a couple will look less suspicious." 

"What did you talk to Katsura-Sama about? Kamiya-Dono asked Kenshin when he returned to her. Luckily, she hadn't gotten into any trouble while he was away.
"We have to leave Kyoto," Kenshin said.  "Hiko-Sensei has a safe house outside Otsu."
"So, I'm to be dragged around like a sack of rice again?" 
Kenshin laughed. "These days, a sack of rice is worth more than a girl, even one as pretty as you." 
It was raining when they left the Harukiya. A heavy summer storm that would be over soon. Kamiya-Dono rested against one of the beams that held up the Harukiya's outdoor awning and the long sleeve of her kimono trailed into the downpour outside. Kenshin grabbed the sleeve to get it out of the rain and held onto it a little too long. "Let's be together, Kaoru," he said. This was the first time he'd called her by her given name. "Not just for appearances. Let's mean it."
Kaoru... Kamiya-Dono pulled away from him and laughed. Her cheeks were crimson. "Did you drink too much sake?"
"I'm serious." She was laughing at him. How could she laugh at him? "On our way to Otsu, we could stop at a shrine and..."
She put a finger on his lips. "I'll accept you, Himura," she said. "...if you burn Tomoe-San's letters and sprinkle the ashes from the top of Mount Hiei."

Kenshin clenched his jaw. The wretched girl knew what she was doing. Princess Kaguya herself couldn't have devised a more impossible test for a suitor. He sighed. Mount Hiei wasn't all that far away, was it?