So...the man on the radio was dead.

Just last night, they had risked so much to take Adel to see him, and now he was gone.

To stab someone six times in the chest was even worse than the politically-motivated assassinations that Kenshin himself had committed in his youth. Any death was, of course, totally reprehensible, but to kill someone like that...well, it was cold-blooded murder.

Kenshin didn't have much more time to dwell on this turn of events, because within minutes, Sano was knocking at his door. The rurouni opened it, smiling.

"Not at all," he said. "Are we waiting for Zuko, or shall we leave now?"