"She gets off easy this time," the police officer explained, holding onto the girl's arm. "She's lucky her father is who he is. It surprises me to see such unruly conduct from a girl..." he began, trailing off.

"Finish your statement!" the girl whose arm he was holding ordered harshly. "What about girls?" Her gold eyes were burning with a fire fueled by her intense anger as her chestnut-brown hair flailed around her. She was acting nothing like her usually calm and collect self. She was acting like a rabid animal.

"Hawatari Fujita that is enough!" a dark-blue eyed woman shouted. When placed next to each other it seemed hair color was the only trait they shared. The rather calm mother was clad in a yellow kimono adorn with purple flowers with her hair pulled tightly back into a distinguished bun. The daughter's hair fell to ferrily around her face (thought it was usually much better kept), coming to rest on the blue replica of her father's police uniform.

The officer tipped his hat and left with a mumbled goodbye. The two were left to stare at each other, the mother, going by the name of Hoshiko, being the first to break the heated silence.

Hawatari kicked the blue uniform off to the side before stepping into the private bath reserved for the Fujita family. She always enjoyed being there, the secluded bath acting as her escape from reality. She slowly slid in and rested her back against the stone edge, releasing a pent up sigh that faded into the calming silence.

Her day had been a tough one, begining with her father insisting on doubling up on her training the moment he arrived back from Tokyo. She was sixteen now, and he would make sure she grew to surpass him in skill. However, he'd been gone for the past month, out on business, and insisted on "catching up." It wasn't that she disliked her training, far form it, she lived by her sword, but so much in one day had wracked her fragile, feminine body.

At that thought the girl looked down her reflection in the water and splashed at it. Did Buddha find amusement in making her born a girl? She had asked her parents that when she was 13, receiving an answer of, "because you were, now stop asking silly questions." from her father and, "to be beautiful." from her mother. Remembering that answer brought a slight laugh past Hawatari's lips. Beauty got one absolutely nothing in life. Respect, power and skill were what was important.

However, her power and skill seemed to be earning her little respect. She was still a girl and, thank to her mother's genes, unable to hide it. In addition to that, she had a thin waist and wide hips, making her tailored clothes practically scream, "HEY LOOK AT ME, I'M A GIRL!"

She gave the water another angry splash but added a curse this time. She'd show them. No matter what her gender she would always be Hawatari Saitou, daughter of one of the greatest swordsman ever to live, a mistress of the Gatotsu style.

Sure, there were strong women, like Misao, the leader of the Oniwaban Group, but when put up against many of the fighters she was raised with, she was nothing. She herself had given the great Batousai a run for his money. However, her mother had stopped their practice match that she'd begged for for months. Her mother ruined everything. The Match was left a draw.

"It's hard being this good looking. Stupid groupies..." Duil mumbled, ducking under branches and removing his shirt. As far as he knew, Saitou wasn't back and he could still use the "private" bath. Hoshiko had given the families of her friends permission to use it as long as Saitou was away and never told of it. Plus, he could really use a nice, relaxing soak.

After listening closely and finding silence he swiftly removed his pants and parted the thick brush surrounding the steaming area.

Dark brown eyes scanned over the surface quickly before Duil slid in. He submerged himself entirely, surfacing with his spiky blonde locks plastered to the sides of his face. Just as he began to loosen up, bubbles began to rise to the surface, followed by a gasping, naked and now shocked-looking girl.

"I'm what?" she asked, looking down. Reality gave her a cruel smack upside the head. "AH! PERVERT!" No one had ever heard a louder, more girly scream rip from that girl's vocal cords. "I'll gouge your eyes out for this!" she spat, reaching quickly for her katana. However, when faced with the impending wrath of Hawatari Saitou, one can move with a blinding speed fued by a pant-wetting fear. The water still held Duil's imprint even after he ran away with his pants.

Hawatari followed suit, grabbing her own pants and jacket, all the while shouting. "Get back here you peeping Tom!"

"That still doesn't explain anything," Hoshiko Saitou stated, crossing her arms.

"Well, while I was hunting down pervo-boy I came across a group of men who were discussing how rich they were going to be after they assassinated Goro Fujita," she recanted sharply.

"Your father is capable of taking care of himself, you know that," her mother shot back.

"Not when the plan is to use you as bait! 'His wife can't fight for nothing and I hear she's 1/2 blind too. Somethin wrong wit her eyes that cain't be fixed by glasses. We can use her to get him into a trap and slit her throat afterward.'," she quoted, even changing her voice to speak like the ingrates.

"What bout da daughter?" the short man with the accent asked. "I ere he gots himself so perty young girl."

"Furious is more like it," she finally spoke up from her hiding place, katana being drawn slowly from behind her back...

"No, Mother, I did not kill them. Though Buddha knows I would have loved to have painted all of Japan with their blood. No, I went easy on them."

"So...how does it feel to know you're going to die because your friends abandoned you?" Hawatari asked, inching the katana closer to the group's leader.

"Hawatari," a voice called out before she felt her left arm being held in a strong grip. She spun around to find Duil, still wet and shirtless, staring down at her.

"Let me go, this isn't your affair!" she snapped, trying to break free of his hold. Oddly enough, he seemed rather immovable at the moment.

"Don't tell me what to do," she argued back, not noticing the childish, whiney voice she'd taken on.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The man was off, screaming about psycho girls with wolf eyes that ran around killing poor unsuspecting men trying to make some money.

"You bastard," she spat, picking up her sword once more. Duil barely dodged the quick swipe that would have cut him in half. "What business do you have being here. Since when do you run my life?"

"Since when do you kill?" he asked, dodging another swing and grabbing her wrist. "You know that it's against your father's wishes."

"Either way it's still not your problem," she continued, spinning around and kicking him in the face.

"So he was trying to help and you attacked him?" Hoshiko concurred, crossing her arms. "That still doesn't explain how you came to destroy a restaurant and scare half of Kyoto."

"Well," Hawatari began again," Duil took off running, saying that he didn't want to fight me. I chased after him and couldn't catch up with him until we got to town..."

"You mean to tell me that you brandished your sword in public and attacked one of your own friends because of your own stubborn pride?"

"No," Hoshiko interrupted, not feeling the least bit intimidated by her daughter's 15 cm height difference. "You should know better then to act like that. You are 16 years old now, don't you think it's about time you grew up and started acting like the girl you are?"

The words barely had time to fall from her mother's lips for Hawatari snapped. "And how am I supposed to go about doing that, Mother? You- you're nothing but a lowly housewife who knows her rightful place at the feet of men. You make me sick with your endless weaknesses and constantly being at the beck and call of someone else. I hate you, Mother, I hate you with everything in me!"

"Hawatari," a deep, familiar voice spoke up from behind her. She froze, not believing she said all that in front of HIM. She vaguely registered the heavy footsteps coming toward her, barely noted the look of triumph on her mother's face. Reality came crashing back when a strong, white-gloved hand connected with the side of her face, delivering a slap the made her head and body jerk to the side. As she spat dirt out of her mouth and raised herself onto her hands and knees she turned to face the man who had just smacked her.

The man lowered his hand back to his side. "You are never to talk to your mother like that ever again, is that understood?" Gold eyes were glaring coldly into her own.

With a sigh Hawatari stood up and faced her mother, her cheek donning a large red mark on her right side. "I'm so very sorry for the way I spoke to you, Mother."

Hawatari turned with military-like precision and walked back into the house, a scowl plastered on her face.

Hoshiko wrapped her arms around the husband she hadn't seen in a month. "I've missed you so much," she whispered into his chest, changing to a happy tone with the drop of a hat.

"And I you," he replied, not sounding too much like he meant it, rather that is was the customary response. "Did I miss anything while I was gone?" he asked, placing a hand on top of her head.

"I think our daughter has grown up. I said when she turned 16 I would tell her how we met," she answered, sighing into Hajime's white dress shirt. "You missed her birthday while you were out."

"Oh, good, you do know. You should say something to her at the dinner," she suggested, breaking off from the embrace to look up at him.

"I'm having a looooong talk with Hoshiko about that daughter of hers when I see her again," Kitai was screaming from on top of the table, mint greed eyes burning with amber flames of overprotective-mommyness. Duil had just finished his recount of the days events to his mother. "That demon spawn should NEVER hurt my baby like that!" Before the boy could duck and cover he found himself being clutched to his mother's chest, breathing in and chocking on locks of curly blonde hair. He grasped at her orange kimono but found himself planted there. "I'll hold you to my bosom forever. Nothing will ever harm my lil baby ever again!"

"Kitai, let go of him, you'll kill him," Sanosuke laughed from the doorway. "And get off the table before you break it."

"Are you calling me fat?" she asked, so shocked by the insinuation that she promptly dropped her son.

Duil let out a bit of a sigh before leaving his bickering parents alone before they started "making up."

"Evangelina," was called from inside the small, cozy, country house before blonde hair spun around to reveal the deepest green eyes anyone had ever seen. Her pale hands clutched a staff that was now inactive.

"You're father wishes to speak to you and you need to help me prepare dinner, alright Princess?" the girl's mother requested, poking her head out the door. Her daughter seemed to take on most of her traits, though her eyes were much the work of both parents.

"I'll be right in, I was practicing," she called back, leaning her staff against the wall.

"That's good to hear. You know how I worry about you going out at night lately. You're staff and Kempo combination is improving," Shizuka Shinomori began in her usual motherly tone as she dried off her hands on a rag. For a moment it she seemed as thought she thought she'd said something wrong and quickly added, "Or so your father says."

"Well I know she wears a katana openly with permission from her father but there's a first time for everything. Now come on; watch the water while I go fetch something out back."

"Sukiko, I'm back," Soujirou Seta greeted with a smile, a large pastry box in his hands. "They charged us less cause they've gotten used to us coming in once a month with a large order like this. The man at the counter was shocked when he saw you for the first time last month. He thought you'd weight as much as a house."

"You eat more of them then I do," she playfully shot back, tying her long blonde hair up into a bun. "And I'm glad he was shocked that I WASN'T a house. Did you explain they're for a dinner party?"

"Mommy, what about house?" a short, teenage girl asked happily, popping her head only through the doorway. "Oh, Daddy, you're back!" Yozakura waved at him and he gave her a slight wave back before she slipped back into the other room, ebony hair bouncing behind her.

"She's the youngest but she's still getting so old so fast," Soujirou sighed, sitting down cross-legged next to his wife. "Her eyes sparkle just like yours."

"Yes, Hawatari just turned 16. Do you think Hoshiko will really tell her the truth?"

"Well, we all know how her mother and father came to meet. That's going to be hard for her to relay," he replied somberly, kissing her lightly on the forehead with his right arm around her shoulders. "Only time will tell."

"Do you know how much trouble you cause?" Saitou asked, characteristic cigarette in hand as he spoke without a hint of emotion in his voice. The two were seated on cushions as Hoshiko prepared dinner in the kitchen connected to the living room they were in. The day was at that awkward time when burning candles would be a waste but the fading light still cast eerie shadows about the room.

"I understand Moron Jr. is annoying but you still can't go and slice him open. Not only are you being careless and irresponsible but you're embarrassing me."

"Yes..?" he replied, wondering what she could possible have to ask that could invoke that kind of tone out of her. He took a drag of his cigarette and patiently awaited the question.

"Why did you give me a sword?" she asked quietly. Her mother hated talk about fighting and the such and she wanted an answer now.

Saitou sighed and flicked his ashes into the ashtray. "To protect yourself. That's why parents send their children off to dojos, is it not?"

"However, no dojo out there will teach you what I have." Suddenly his lips curled into a slight smile. "To think, Himura actually allowed his children to be taught swordmanship by his wife and that Yahiko runt."

"I married your mother when she was 16 because she never acted her age. Yahiko, on the other hand, acts like he's still 4."

Realizing by smell that dinner would be ready soon and Hoshiko would come out to serve it, he dropped the discussion and snubbed out his cigarette.

The meal was mostly chatter about Saitou's work that month. He had taken a promotion in Kyoto a few years back and such long, frequent trips were like second nature to the family. Hawatari, however, ate her meal in thoughtful silence, barely touching a thing before excusing herself and retiring to her room.

And Life Went On