“Okita,” Kenshin replied promptly. There was no use beating about the bush here; Homura needed to know what the rurouni did in order to be better prepared to handle the Shinsengumi officer. “He attacked a group of boys last night, all in their middle teens, intending to take revenge for Sen’s death. This one heard the struggle and managed to stop him long enough for the boys to get away. This one didn’t hear about his reasons until they were gone, and,” he sighed, “it wouldn’t have stopped this one anyway. Revenge killings are pointless and just cause more pain.”

He stared levelly at Homura, waiting for the chastisement that was certain to come with this revelation. Homura had made his feelings about Kenshin’s vow very well known just a few minutes before, and him attacking Okita to prevent the other swordsman from fulfilling his own vows as a captain of the Shinsengumi probably wouldn’t help that very much.

Still… “There is more, of course. After this one stopped Okita, we managed to find ourselves…somewhere else. This one cannot explain it, but he thinks we found our way into the basement.”