Tosh instantly broke distance with Thirteenth and warily eyed the arriving man. He immediately frowned, noticing absolutely no signs of chakra in his body, and for the first time regretted attacking someone without verifying the absence of impressive connections or powerful relatives.
"St-stop!" the out-of-breath Keitashi shouted. A hundred meters seemed like a hundred kilometers to him and completely exhausted the man utterly unaccustomed to physical exertion.
Kenshin barely controlled his anger, trying not to explode with rage and kill them both on the spot, making his bared teeth look like a strained, good-natured smile.
"Listen, no need to bare your fangs at me. Maybe you don't recognize me, but my name is Abe Keitashi, and I demand compensation in the form of all the chocolate you have, plus the strictest punishment for this scum!" Keitashi stated boldly, having walked right up to Kenshin and patronizingly patted his shoulder.
What happened next stunned everyone fearfully watching the situation from the surroundings. There was a loud smack, and Keitashi flew several meters like a sack of trash, spinning in the air a few times and thudding lifelessly to the ground.
"Well, you really managed to anger me even more..." Kenshin whispered coldly after the backhand slap with the back of his hand.
"Y-you!" Tosh exclaimed in shock, but to Kenshin's surprise, didn't rush into attack. He knew perfectly well he wouldn't block Kenshin's strike, so he didn't even twitch, fearing to rush into an unequal fight with a superior opponent.
"Want to say your last words?" Kenshin asked with a slight, sinister smile, making Tosh feel a powerful shiver.
"L-listen, it was a misunderstanding; the man you hit is..." Tosh began, but barely managed to twitch before his head was coldly severed and thudded to the ground with a dull sound.
Fifteenth indifferently sheathed his sword and stood behind his father.
Kenshin silently nodded, then ordered Twenty Second to heal Keitashi to a coherent state and bring him for questioning, while praising Thirteenth himself and returning to his waiting little Karin.
The people who had watched the whole scene trembled uncontrollably at what they saw, and no one had any doubts left that their Lord was just but at the same time a very cruel man, so the cunning thoughts born in their heads were suppressed for a long time by fear of retribution for sins.
Abe Keitashi was delirious and didn't understand where he was until he finally received first aid from Twenty Second. His jaw was still broken, most of his teeth knocked out, and upon waking, the man who had never endured so much pain could only howl with breaks for prolonged whimpering.
"It... hurts... H-help..." Keitashi whimpered pitifully, lying on the damp ground and looking at the blurry male silhouette.
"Endure it; I'll take away the pain now..." Twenty Second said with a sigh and numbed all the nerve endings on his face in half a minute.
"Finally! I thought I'd die from the pain..." Keitashi mumbled in relief when he could finally think straight.
"Help me get out of this place, and when I level everything here to the ground, you'll get a reward!" Keitashi lisped, fully confident this iryonin would agree.
Hearing Keitashi's vile intentions, Twenty Second frowned deeply and barely held himself back, not wanting to break his main rule and harm patients.
"Come on, help me, or after slowly killing the bastard who hit me, I'll order my men to get you!" he hissed threateningly, absolutely sure such threats would work.
"Slow killing?!" Twenty Second exclaimed furiously and with a lightning-fast stomp of his right foot crushed all the fingers on the impudent man's left hand.
"AAAAA!" Keitashi screamed from the unbearable pain, feeling primal terror. No one had ever dared treat him this way, and the man of the Abe clan felt overwhelming fear.
Twenty Second had no intention of conversing further with this man and roughly grabbed him by the scruff, dragging him to his father to decide his fate. Keitashi, in turn, whimpered pitifully and begged for mercy but didn't dare threaten.
Meanwhile, Kenshin tried to dispel his rage and spent time with Karin and Makoto. Just watching the carefree girls brought him pleasure, and their displays of affectionate nature could heal the sharpest soul wounds.
He forbade the girls from sparring with each other and hardly prepared them for fights, realizing that the girls would enter real combat only if the Nakayama Family fell.
Contrary to common sense, Kenshin did everything to prepare little Karin to become an iryonin. Any hospital head would immediately twirl a finger at their temple if they learned of plans to make someone with Uzumaki clan genes an iryonin, but this didn't stop Kenshin at all, for he had what others couldn't even dream of—the best training method.
No shinobi could effectively pass knowledge to the younger generation. It all came down to the student's experience and individual understanding. Before reaching their teacher's level, every student had to accumulate a ton of bumps, barely guided by ephemeral explanations.
Kenshin, on the other hand, possessed a truly incredible ability. He could not only transfer one person's experience to another but also analyze the experience of several dozen people, building an effective training system.
What others studied for years of grueling training, Kenshin could impart in a few hours. The student only had to follow the illuminated path, slightly adapting it to themselves. One who succeeded via knowledge transfer still lagged far behind those who achieved everything on their own, but by Kenshin's estimates, a thirty-year experience gap ceased to be critical after a year of active training, sparring, and missions.
An hour after dealing with the unwanted guest, Kenshin had cooled down a bit and was ready to interrogate this irritating man without the temptation to kill him in the first second.
"L-listen, I-I was wrong... I-I'm ready to pay..." Abe Keitashi said in fear, seeing Kenshin enter the room unhurriedly.
"What's your name?" Kenshin asked emotionlessly, settling into a comfortable pose in the armchair.
"I... My name is Abe Keitashi; I'm the only brother of Miyamoto Hisane!" he exclaimed frightenedly, sincerely hoping this name would clarify the situation and he'd be released immediately.
"First time hearing it." Kenshin replied coolly, not stopping reading this man's emotions.
"H-how?! My sister is the wife of the Fire Country Daimyo!" Keitashi replied with huge indignation, forgetting his fear. No one had ever so openly insulted his high birth.
"Is that so?.." Kenshin asked with interest, frowning inwardly. At that moment, he absolutely didn't want to cross such influential people and began intently thinking about what to do with him.