AUTHORESS NOTES: Yeah, another chapter! Boy, I have to thank Chichiri and readers for pushing me on with this fic.

Chichiri: DA! No problem, Ayame-chan, no da!

*grumbling from the other muses*

Oh, don't worry, you guys, you helped, too, ya know?

Tasuki: Yeah, whatever....

TrowaPlushie: You REALLY are starting to sound like Squall, Tasuki.

*Taka-neko nods*

Tasuki: I AIN'T !#@$%@#^%%^*&^%*#$%@$&)(*%^&#$% SQUALL, DAMMIT!!

~Reconciliation~

"Ryu?" Ikumi murmured.

Nobody heard her except for Aoshi as the ninja wiped away the blood on his sword and sheathed it back into its place. He looked at the dead corpse of Akira before him and then at the shell-shocked Misao. He gave a friendly smile at her, lending out a hand.

"Are you okay, miss?" he asked. "Seems like I came in just in time."

"U-uh huh..." Misao stammered as she let the mysterious man hoist her back up. Words were a bit too much for her at the moment.

The other Oniwanbanshuu members rushed forward, leaving Aoshi and Ikumi to themselves. Aoshi had wanted to join the others to see if Misao was all right and to take a good look at the newcomer (who of which was being drooled upon by Omasu and Okon), but his wounds had prevented him to move as quickly as he had wanted to. He was also worried about his sister who had stayed where she was, utterly oblivious to his presence and her eyes wide in shock. It wasn't until little Setsuko came toddling in when she snapped out of attention.

"'Kaachan, what's going on?" Setsuko mumbled as she rubbed sleep away from her eyes.

Aoshi quickly lifted the little girl in his arms and let her face him so that she wouldn't see Akira's corpse.

"We had a visitor today, so your okaachan has to talk to him, Set-chan," he explained to her, taking a glance at Ikumi. "So, wait for her a little bit later, okay, Set-chan?"

Setsuko sleepily complied, wrapping her arms around her uncle's neck and resting her head on his shoulder as she closed her eyes. Ikumi mouthed a "thank you" to her brother who nodded silently at her before leaving. Ikumi watched them go, amazed at how Aoshi could persuade children to his favor. She then turned back to the small crowd that gathered around their new arrival.

Shiro and Kuro were lugging away the corpse as Okina and the women were interrogating their newcomer. Misao just noticed Aoshi walking way with Setsuko in one arm and his twin kodaichi in the other.

Were you trying to help me again, Aoshi-sama? she thought to herself.

"Ryuuen, I thought you were dead!" Jun exclaimed, immediately recognizing their newcomer.

"Oh, his name's Ryuuen," Okon and Omasu sighed dreamily. Okina sighed heavily. Here they go...

Ryuuen let out a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head.

"Maa...istashiburi, Jun," he said, ignoring the heart-shaped eyes that Omasu and Okon were giving him.

"How did you survive? Oneechan said that she saw you fall," Jun pressed on.

"Well, I---"

"That you did," Ikumi softly replied behind him. Ryuuen turned around. Ice green met ice blue.

"Ikumi..."

<later>

She avoided him for the remainder of the evening. Of all the things that Ikumi would have done if she was given the chance to see her dead husband returned to life again, she wouldn't avoid him. And yet...her feelings were so mixed now that she did.

"So there you are," a voice said behind her.

Ikumi started a bit, tearing her gaze from her sleeping daughter to face Ryuuen. He hadn't changed much the two years she had last seen him: the last to years to which she thought that he was dead. The only noticeable changes she saw in him was the deep scar on the right side of his face and that his hair was longer.

"Misao-chan said that you would probably be here," Ryuuen said, walking towards her.

Ikumi looked back at a sleeping Setsuko, brushing away a strand of hair.

"Sou ka..." she murmured.

She still kept on looking at Setsuko as he quietly sat down next to her.

"She looks like you," he said as he too looked at her, no, THEIR daughter.

Ikumi let out a small chuckle. "Hai, but she has your eyes."

"Why are you avoiding me?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Ikumi retorted back.

Ryuuen sighed. He knew her well enough to explain rather than ask.

"Some villagers nearby found me washed onto the riverbank when I fell," he began. "It took me two months to recover from my wounds and regain the ability to fight."

Ikumi finally managed to look at him. "Your ability to fight?"

Ryuuen nodded. "My hands were broken so badly that I wasn't able to use them properly. It wasn't until I went back to the school and met your sensei when I was able to use them. By that time, she told me that you left the school to live with Jun and Isamu...and that you were pregnant with Setsuko."

Ikumi smiled sadly. "She didn't tell you where I was, ne?"

"Aa...so my best bet to find you was to act like one of Rokou's men. I heard rumors that he was looking for you and your brother, so I took that risk."

"So you changed your appearance."

"He's looking for your brother."

"What for?" Ikumi asked. "Revenge? Title of the strongest ninja? That battle was over more than ten years ago."

"I'm not sure why, Ikumi," Ryuuen answered. He wrapped his arms around her and felt something that he hadn't had for a long, long time. Her.

"I'm sorry for putting you and Setsuko-chan through what you've been through," he murmured through her hair.

Ikumi let out a small laugh, refusing to let her tears fall. She, too, felt something that she hadn't felt in what seemed like an eternity.

Safety.

"Baka, what are you sorry about?" she murmured in the crook of his neck, letting her tears fall. "You...didn't do anything wrong."

Ryuuen chuckled softly, a low rumble against her ear. "Then why are you crying, koishii?"

AN: ^_________^ I like WAFFy stuff. R&R!