"When I was a man, I thought it ended,
When I knew love's perfect ache.
But my peace has always depended,
On all the ashes in my wake."
("Arsonist's Lullaby," Hozier)

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Kenshin was nine when Perry's dragon ships landed outside Edo Bay. Hiko-Sensei was in Kyoto, attending the Imperial Court, when the news reached the Emperor. He returned to his estates near Otsu with stories about black dragons and white devils from a place called America. Nine-year-old Kenshin was a gullible child and frequently teased, so he'd assumed Hiko-Sensei was just trying to spook him. The black dragons and white devils were just a tall tale until Katsura-Sama sent Kenshin on his first trip to Edo a year ago.  Kenshin reacted to them the first time exactly as Kamiya-Dono had: with wide-eyed, open-mouthed fascination.

His decision to book passage from Edo to Kobe for himself and Kamiya-Dono on board one of these American dragon ships was one of necessity. Katsura-Sama's last message ordered Kenshin back to Kyoto as soon as possible. Kyoto was two days away by ship instead of two weeks by taking the Tokkaido Road. And it would be more comfortable for Kamiya-Dono.
They spent their first evening at sea having tea in the parlor with an American officer named Babson and his wife.

Kenshin knew a little English (having read Fukuzawa Yukichi's English-Japanese dictionary) and Babson-San spoke some Japanese, so they were able to make small talk and translate for the ladies, who were chatting like old friends by the end of the night. Babson-San was a young man, around thirty, and his wife was perhaps a few years younger. She was ugly, as all gajin women are, with straw-colored hair and a face like a horse, but a brave lady and a devoted wife to have followed her husband to the other side of the world. Her vast skirts made it tricky for her to move about the poky cabin without bumping into someone or knocking something over.

Poor Kamiya-Dono was squished into the corner of the loveseat when Babson-San's Wife sat down next to her.
"What are these?" Kamiya-Dono asked when Babson-San's Wife placed a tray of little brown cakes on the table.

"Chocolate petit-fours," Babson-San's Wife replied.
Kamiya-Dono picked up one of the chocolate petit-fours, took a bite, and looked like she'd reached Nirvana.
"I take it you like them." Babson-San's Wife laughed and vulgarly flashed her teeth, something no refined Japanese woman would do. "I brought them all the way from Boston. They're little pieces of home." 
"What a marvelous place Boston must be if the people there eat such things," Kamiya-Dono said to Kenshin as they were going upstairs to their cabin.

Kenshin smiled. One couldn't help but find Kamiya-Dono's sense of wonder and curiosity endearing. "I hope my wife hasn't been corrupted by those foreign barbarians," he said. Though the Choshu faction's stated aim was to carry out the Emperor's order to "expel all barbarians," the more Kenshin saw of these white devils, the more they looked like ordinary men.
"Perhaps they were the ones corrupted by a..." Kamiya-Dono said. "Like me."  She tottered up the stairs on those ridiculous platform getas and left Kenshin behind her.
Rubbing his temples, Kenshin followed. Kami-Sama. He shouldn't have teased her, and she wasn't going to let him forget that.

Tomoe wouldn't have acted like a silly, spoiled girl and held something stupid he'd said against him. She wouldn't have run wild playing samurai and gotten herself captured in the first place. But Tomoe couldn't have climbed aboard a dragon ship without fear and charmed two strangers who spoke a different language. She wasn't standing dangerously close to him on the stairwell and looking very pretty in a dark blue yukata. A yukata he'd bought for her, though Kamiya-Dono was probably too innocent to understand what that meant...that he had the right to take it off.

Baka! Hands off! The voice in Kenshin's head that scolded him for being stupid often sounded suspiciously like Sejiro-Hiko. She's under your protection.
This was rich coming from Hiko-Sensei, a notorious womanizer. But at least Hiko-Sensei had enough sense to keep his hands off well-born maidens. The Geishas and courtesans he kept company with knew what they were doing and didn't have fathers and brothers who'd raise a fuss.
Didn't you learn your lesson last time?

When Kenshin told Hiko-Sensei that he was in love with Tomoe and wanted to marry her, he slapped Kenshin senseless, called him a "baka" and made him practice his katas until his arms were ready to fall off. But this didn't dissuade Kenshin.
"I love her," Kenshin would whine every time Hiko-Sensei refused to arrange the betrothal.
Hiko-Sensei clobbered him over the head. "Baka-Deshi!" he said. "You're fifteen. You'd fall in love with any pretty girl who's nice to you."  He then took Kenshin for his first night out in Shimabara.
The Yukishiros were just as eager for the match as Kenshin. Their constant marriage offers, and Kenshin's ceaseless begging eventually wore Hiko-Sensei down, and he opened betrothal negotiations. Kenshin was so happy that he never stopped to wonder if Tomoe returned his feelings and never expected her to run away with her childhood sweetheart, Akira-Sama.
"I told you so," was all Hiko-Sensei had to say to the distraught Kenshin.
After this, Kenshin offered his sword in service to the Choshū Inshin-Shishi. Katsura-Sama and his retainers laughed at the scrawny, pretty boy, who was fifteen but looked ten and resembled a girl in disguise but quickly came to rely on him as their top assassin. The boy who'd followed Yukishiro Tomoe like a puppy was reborn in blood as Battousai the Slasher.

Kenshin bid goodnight to Kamiya-Dono at the door of their cabin. In her carelessness, she left the door ajar. He waited a few moments before going to close it. Through the crack, he could see the elegant curve of Kamiya-Dono's neck as she slid off her yukata. Her delicate shoulders and slender back were as white as a swan's down. If she turned around, her breasts would be dainty and delectable like two pastries.
No, Hiko-Sensei. Kenshin closed the door before Kamiya-Dono caught him peeping. I didn't learn my lesson.

Kenshin usually didn't retire until after Kamiya-Dono fell asleep, but he knew that she climbed into her bunk and meditated until she drifted off.  He sometimes heard her cry and whimper in the midst of a nightmare. Anyone would guess that Kamiya-Dono saw the face of the man she killed at the temple in her nightmares, and she meditated to prepare for death.

Kenshin didn't know Katsura-Sama's reasons for ordering him to bring Kamiya-Dono with him back to Kyoto and couldn't soothe her fears that she would be executed. She made a valiant effort to remain brave and cheerful during what she thought were her final days. But she was young and would prefer to live.   

"Well, I got one foot on the platform,
The other foot on the train.
I'm goin' back to New Orleans
To wear that ball and chain."
("House of the Rising Sun," The Animals)

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They had closed the ship's parlor at the hour of the boar (or what the Westerners called 10 pm), and Kenshin went onto the deck. It was a clear night with enough of a moon to allow Kenshin to see the Shizuoka coastline. This far from Edo and Mount Fuji was still in view.

Kenshin stayed out on the deck until the faintest pink blush colored Fuji-San's peak, then returned to the cabin to check on Kamiya-Dono and get some sleep. 
Kamiya-Dono was still awake and sobbing into her pillow. Kenshin sat down beside her on the bunk.
"Is something wrong, Kamiya-Dono?" he said.  He probably couldn't find the words to comfort her, but he could listen.
She rolled over. "I wish I could speak English," she said. "That way I could ask Lady Babson more questions." 
"About Boston?" Kamiya-Dono had been fascinated by what the Babsons told her about their home, a place called Boston. It's gaslit streets. The harbor where people wastefully dumped tea a hundred years ago. The steam-powered trains that could take you all the way across the country.
"And about being married?"
Kenshin furrowed his brow. This was a strange thing for her to ask about. "This one thinks being married in Boston wouldn't be that different than it is here."
"So the Gaijin make love to their wives the same way we do?" Kamiya-Dono giggled.
A flush spread from Kenshin's neck up to his ears. So she'd been curious about that part of marriage? "This one doesn't think that would have been an appropriate subject for ladies to discuss over tea."
"Then you've never had tea with my Aunt Tokio and my sister-in-law Megumi." She giggled again. "I have a basic idea of what happens between husbands and wives but a lot of what they say goes over my head. I suspect Aunt Tokio is too embarrassed to explain it to me and Megumi enjoys teasing me too much."
"This one thinks that's something for your future husband to enlighten you about." High-born maidens were supposed to remain pure and innocent until marriage and honorable men were supposed to protect that purity and innocence.
No inappropriate talk would reach Kamiya-Dono's ears if Kenshin had anything to do with it.
Tears welled up in Kamiya-Dono's blue eyes. "Then I guess I'll die without knowing." Her voice quivered. She threw her arms around Kenshin's neck. "I've heard Kogoro Katsura is a fair man. Will he let me have an honorable suicide?" As a daughter of the samurai class, this was her right.
When Kenshin first saw Kamiya-Dono, he thought she was as pretty as a cherry blossom. A cherry blossom was a fitting comparison, being the symbol of the samurai, of honor and dignity in the face of death. No doubt she would make a worthy end.
Kenshin dried her eyes with his sleeve. "This one wasn't informed what Katsura-Sama's intentions are. Kamiya-Dono will have to wait until we get to Kyoto. This one is sorry."