-Vol 6: Dusk of An Era-

-Reopening Parent’s Case-

“Am I in trouble or something?” asked Kenshin, though he sounded pretty relaxed in comparison to the topic of their discussion.

Furrowing her brows, Yuki thought for some time before saying, “probably not. No one knows who did this, and with the family’s activities spreading around the internet, no one would even bother to check for the killer for now. At least, until this situation with the alien attacks was settled, no one would look for this family’s murderer.”

“That’s good then.” Sighed Kenshin, then he turned around and looked at the night sky. The twinkling stars in the sky seem to resemble his own mood, “I only have you guys as my family. And that family was like a thorn in my neck… how can I let such a chance to slip by me? No one knows what they would do next.”

Facing Yuki, he gave her a wry smile as he continued, “I can’t fight with them if they try to use some underhand methods or deal with me politically. Besides, I had already made up my mind from the day they have sent that assassin to kill me in the dungeon. I realized that I shouldn’t let this tumor to grow any more… it has to be removed.”

“…”

“Yuki, let me be honest with you. The enemies I have are just three, no more, no less… but except for this family, I don’t even know the identity of the other two. How can I slack off and take it slowly in this situation? I have already done so for this long. Since I already know one of my enemies, I should just get rid of one, decrease the number… even if it’s only one.” Kenshin poured out his heart before her, he told her all his inner thoughts. She was his girlfriend after all, if he wasn’t going, to be honest with her, then whom would he?

Yuki came forward and patted his chest, just above his heart gently. Snaking her arms around him, she gave him a bear hug before resting her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeats. Kenshin too circled his arms around her before resting his palm on her head, he tightened the hug.

As if suddenly remembering something, he muttered, “Yuki, I think I will reopen my parent’s disappearance case. You gotta help me with that.”

“What, why?” Yuki was startled, then realizing her wording, she adjusted herself again, “I mean, why now?”

“You know, I am now a level 100+ hunter, right?” Kenshin started, seeing her nod, he continued “since my physical parameters has increased, my brain, too, had improved a lot. I started to remember things and analyzed them deeper… few things started to smell fishy after I have done so.”

“What did you discover?” she asked curiously after hearing Kenshin’s mental ability.

“Before… actually, a few hours before my parent’s death report reached me, I had received a call from my dad, asking me if I remembered the promise I made to him when Akari was born. That day I had a quarrel…” suddenly, Kenshin felt his eyes moist as he remembered what happened that day, especially the behavior he had shown to his parents. He was very ashamed of his past self.

Hearing his quickened heartbeat, Yuki understood his emotional state and gently patted his back before kissing his cheek. She spoke nothing, but Kenshin understood her meaning, so he too patted her back with a smile before continuing, “anyway, I had received such a random call from dad, and exactly three hours later, I received their death reports… don’t you think it's fishy?”

“Indeed, fishy…” Yuki also felt something odd about the situation. After all, why would a dad call his son to remind him of a promise about his daughter many years ago when just in the morning they had a huge argument about something else and then cut the call abruptly at that? There should be a limit to randomness, right?

But… can it be called randomness if just three hours later the said person mysteriously disappears and announced to be dead? Even an idiot would think that something fishy with the whole scenario. There was something else that Yuki wanted to confirm first.

“Kenshin, tell me honestly… do you have some hope that your parents are still alive? Its already been more than ten years, you know.”

At her question, Kenshin fell into a brief silence. He pondered about her question, ‘that’s right, what do I think of this situation? Did I have some sense of false belief that my parents are still alive?’

“Frankly,” he started as he took a deep breath, “I don’t even have a 1% of hope that my parents are still alive… I don’t want to have some false hope only to get crushed or have someone take advantage of that to hurt my family or me.” Kenshin’s answer surprised her a lot. She hadn’t expected to receive such a calm response, especially from someone who just slaughtered a big family of a prefecture to keep his family safe.

“You… I don’t even know how to respond to that…” indeed, she didn’t know. If she agrees with him, it would be too cold towards his parents… although they were already dead. If she disagrees, it would be showing her naivety, which she had long since lost it.

“Haha, you don’t have to respond with anything. I don’t want this matter to become a liability… besides, greater hope will only bring that much disappointment, I don’t want to be disappointed.”

“That’s a… sad way to look at life…” Yuki said these. They are already a couple, why would she hide things in her heart? Being frank with each other will keep their relationship clean. Unfortunately for her, Kenshin’s secrets were something he couldn’t reveal that easily… or else there no telling what would happen. Kenshin knew this and thus felt guilty about it often. But knowing that it was for her own safety, he felt somewhat better.

“That may be so, but don’t you think its better for me to be sad rather than endanger my family?” Kenshin said as his voice gradually softened. He lightly closed his eyes, breathing in the smell of Yuki as he did so, ‘indeed. It's better for me to be sad rather than affect my loved ones. It's worth it… I am prepared to pay for anything for my family.’

“Anyway, that’s the reason. Can you help me reopen my parent’s case? I am pretty sure some nasty thing is bound to uncover from it.” asked Kenshin as he looked at Yuki’s blissful face, looking content like a cat who was receiving a belly rub.

“mmm… of course, I will. Better yet, I think I should do it discreetly, least I would alert the mole by mistake and let the fish slip away from the net.” She said seriously before changing the topic, “but today’s event… I am not talking about the family anymore, it's about those aliens, I think this is going to be a headache to all of us.”

“What a coincidence, I think so too… especially after that look Suguro gave me when I was returning.”