Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin does not belong to me. Such luck does not come to me to be the creator of such a well written/drawn manga/anime no matter how many four-leaf clovers there are in my backyard. That is my disclaimer for the entire fic. I'm too lazy to come up with new ones anymore…
Summary: What if some strange author decided to drop Takani Megumi into the world of Seta Soujiro? What will happen when Shishio and Kanryuu come popping into the story line? AU. Major OOC-ness for Megumi.
Healer
By Meii-chan
Chapter 1- Doctor Megumi
~Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture; October 16, 1868~
Takani Megumi lounged around, reading a novel, awaiting the doctor's orders. She was an apprentice after all, just there to perform the frivolous tasks the aged doctor didn't have the energy to do. Granted, Yoshimaru-sensei was an ancient man in both reflexes and strength, but he did possess an array of medicinal knowledge that most doctors envy. Thus, Megumi had stuck with him, hoping to someday become a doctor herself.
"Megumi-chan, be a good girl and fetch some water." The aged doctor told her, handing her a shallow wood bucket in the process.
Megumi complied, even though she had no idea as to where to draw water from. Despite the aged doctor's lack of overall endurance, he was a traveling doctor, going wherever sickness appeared. While treating people, they stayed at a patient's home, where they received room and board free of all charge. In a new place every few weeks, Megumi had become rather disoriented, not knowing where everything was. This time, they where staying in the home of a wealthy rice merchant, whose wife was ill. She headed to the main common room of the house to query a member of the immediate family.
Upon arrival at the closed door, Megumi lifted her fist to knock upon the hard, wooden door. Then she stopped, as the sound of cursing, crashing, and colliding resonated through the wall and into her ears. Curious, she slid back a fraction of the door, and peeked inside.
"Stupid brat!" The father of the household kicked a young boy through the opposite door. Upon landing on the ground, the boy looked up at the taller man, smiling pleasantly.
"I told you to move a hundred bags of rice into the western barn! Can't you do anything?! What the heck are you grinning about?!" Enraged, he threw a nearby empty sake bottle at the child; the ceramic bottle breaking into pieces as it collided with his forehead.
Megumi turned away, shutting the door silently behind her, unable to bring herself to witness anymore. Still on her quest to retrieve water, she went outside by a different route. "I'll just…try to find a well on my own." She still shook with distress, as if some cold, icy hand had trailed fingers along her back.
Circling the immense property, Megumi found a well nestled between a warehouse and the western gate.
Reaching for the rope to haul up some water, she saw another hand, smaller than her own, take hold of the coarse twine. Looking to her right, she was shocked to see the same boy she saw a few minutes ago.
"Here, let me help you, Ojou-san (1)." The child said quietly. He drew up the water, and poured it into Megumi's bucket.
Megumi was in utter shock. "Umm…Thank you…" There was a long pause. "You didn't need to help me. It's only water."
The boy smiled at her. "That's alright. I don't mind. Good night." He started to walk away, towards the warehouse.
"Wait!" Megumi scurried after him. "Can I see you again tonight?"
"Sure. I have to finish my work, but after that, I'll still be here."
Megumi dusted off invisible dust from her apron. "I'll see you again as soon as the doctor lets me." Picking up the bucket of water, she added, "I won't be long."
Watching Megumi walk off into the brightly lit house, the child struggled with the bale of rice. "How strange…" he mused, and then proceeded to haul the bale into the warehouse.
* * * * * *
"I've come with the water."
Megumi came into the room and placed the bucket in front of the aged doctor.
"That took a while, didn't it?" the aged doctor commented.
"I guess. I'm tired" Megumi feigned a yawn, trying to convince the aged doctor of her excuse. So far, it was working. "How are they?"
The aged doctor was tired as well. "It is late, isn't it? I'd guess around ten…" Then his speech became incoherent, as it usually did when describing the illnesses of his patients while placing a wet cloth on the patient's head. Megumi did not catch a single word of what he said.
"Yoshimaru-sensei, I think it's best if you retired for the night. They'll be fine through the night, right?"
"Hmm… I suppose you're right." The aged doctor slowly rose from his seated position and made his way to his sleeping room. "Sweet dreams. Megumi-chan."
Megumi also went to her own room. She waited a while, until she was sure all the other people inside the house were asleep. Meanwhile, she tried to think of a way to sneak the boy in with the most direct route. A window about meter from the ground in her room suited the task perfectly. It was simple for her to travel through in her kimono, and she didn't have to risk traveling through the main corridor.
Megumi crawled though the window, and went to the well. There she found the boy, sitting next to a fortuitously placed bale of rice. "Hello, are you awake?" She pulled up some water. He nodded. "Alright. Come with me."
Arriving at the window, Megumi left the bucket on the ground and climbed in. A few moments later, she motioned for the boy to hand her the water, which went into the room as well. Finally, she motioned the boy to climb through.
He struggled, as the window was at level with his head, and he was simply too tired to jump off from the ground. Thus, Megumi was prompted to pull him over the windowsill.
As she pulled a bit too hard, they crashed onto the floor, Megumi being at the bottom of the two person pile. The collision spawned a loud dissonant sound, which persisted to resonate throughout the edifice. After a few seconds, the jarring noise was replaced by a deafening silence.
Megumi sat up, forgetting about the person on top of her. It was only at his rapid apologies of "Gomen nasai! (2)" that Megumi remembered she wasn't the only person in the room.
Megumi turned to her companion, and bent down towards his smaller form. "Don't worry; I'm not going to hit you." She said, as the boy cringed at her movement, still smiling. His timidity was not surprising, as she had seen what the boy had gone through. "Well, I've felt terribly impolite until now. You don't even know my name." Megumi suppressed a giggle rising out of her at the sight of his confused face. "My name's Takani Megumi."
"I'm Soujiro."
"Soujiro…" How cute, Megumi mused to herself before becoming extremely ashamed. "…however, I guess I'm the one who has to apologize to you. I didn't do anything when…um…" Megumi looked away, busying herself with the bucket of water. Soujiro looked at her with an expression of pure confusion and naïveté. Megumi had managed to fish out a lacy handkerchief from the sleeve of her dark blue kimono. Wetting it in the water, she wiped off some blood from Soujiro's forehead. "Well, you got hurt, so I want to help you."
"I'm okay. You shouldn't bother."
"Why shouldn't I bother? It's not like I'm myself doing any harm!" she retorted, her mind steadily becoming foxier. "Besides, you helped me draw up water earlier, didn't you? I didn't need assistance, but you got the water anyway."
"But…"
Putting on her signature vixen grin, Megumi cut off Soujiro before he could protest. "That's why saying you don't need help isn't going to stop me."
One can almost see white flags waving in the background as Soujiro gave up resisting.
"See, that whole argument was pointless…" Megumi murmured, producing an immense quantity of small lacquered jars and rolls of bandages. She had a vague notion that ten rolls were really too much, but having extra bandages were always reassuring. Especially if you're bleeding black and blue, she mentally noted, peeling back the oversized gi that was partially crusted over by blood.
Soujiro gaped and the amount of items Megumi had pulled from her sleeves. So far, he had seen a lacy handkerchief, a sundry of lacquered jars, and ten or so rolls of milky white bandages. "How did you…?"
"Abysmal sleeves…" she answered, now taking a lacquered jar and applying some of its contents across Soujiro's skin. "Don't flinch so much. I know, it stings a lot, but this liniment is supposed to help the cuts mend faster—what did you do to deserve this anyway?"
"I exist."
"What?!" Megumi stopped in mid smear.
"Megumi-san? Did I say something wrong?"
"You get beaten up because you exist? That's insane." She hissed between her teeth. "There has to be something else."
"I guess so…" Soujiro trailed off, omitting any details. "But, it's fine. I'll get by."
"It's not right…" Megumi mumbled to herself, winding the creamy white bandages around Soujiro. "Don't these people know that they're supposed to help people no matter who they are?"
"Megumi-san…" he wasn't listening to her hushed rants, he was quite preoccupied with worrying over what his adopted family would do if they saw all the bandages Megumi was swathing him in now. The one on his forehead he could live with…it was impossible to see under his dark bangs…Still, they'll probably accuse him of wasting bandages.
"Hmm?"
Then he realized Megumi had finished bandaging him up.
"Nevermind."
Megumi shrugged. A sudden though came to her mind. "Say…you haven't stopped smiling since I've met you…why?"
Megumi's simple question seemed to stop the passage of time. Neither person spoke—Megumi because she was waiting for a reply, Soujiro because he never felt that he needed to elaborate more on his life.
"It's a long story." He finally concluded.
Yeah, right. "You mean long story as in 'it's-actually-quite-short-but-I-don't-really-want-to-tell-you' or is it 'it's-actually-quite-a-long-story-and-I-forgot-half-of-it.'?"
"Areh…" Soujiro didn't want to lose his newfound, if somewhat prying, friend by disclosing too much information, so he did the first thing that came into his mind. Soujiro shrugged.
Megumi, at the very least, seemed to be satisfied with his ambiguous response. "Well, it's getting really late. You want to stay here? It gets really cold this time of the year. It's almost winter." She offered. "…actually, I insist; you'll get hypothermia otherwise."
"No thanks." He replied, not knowing exactly who of what hypothermia is.
Soujiro was halfway out the window when Megumi had an ingenious idea. She reached into her sleeve and pulled out a fuzzy blanket. "Here, take this with you and try not to freeze to death, or else…"
"Sure…Thank you…" The blanket Megumi and offered him was so…pink…But Soujiro knew better than to refuse. She'll probably guilt me into taking it either way…"Oyasumi nasai (3), Megumi-san."
"Oyasumi Sou-chan."
"Sou-chan?" Now that wasn't something he was called everyday.
With Soujiro gone, Megumi was left alone with her own thoughts.
"Wherefore is it that the world despises you? (4)
What lies behind your blank and empty smile?
Is it not that every child is precious, a jewel?
Yet they treat you like some malicious bile.
Like a fresh blossom in midst of weed,
Which envies flora's angelical light,
As baleful weed devour the flow'r in greed (5)
The flow'r ne'er cease to grin, making no fight.
Sweet Sou-chan, shall you go on forever,
Awaiting your own demise bittersweet?
Oh rebel, protest! These cruel ties sever!
For I cannot stand these actions discreet.
Please pride in yourself, receive my good aid,
Lest you be consumed and like flowers fade."
A sudden scream pierced the night's calm. Megumi abruptly ceased to continue her sleep-induced soliloquy as she heard mumbled curses from down the corridor—apparently the others have been awoken.
Well, at least I'll have an excuse for being sleepy in the morning, she thought. But I shouldn't think too much into that noise…it's probably just a bunch of samurai who have nothing to do but to annoy the government…
And with that thought, she fell asleep.
* * * * * *
Soujiro had also heard the hair-raising scream inside the dusty rice warehouse. His curiosity was on the verge of dragging him into the street to see what was happening, but his overall instinct convinced him to stay inside, and, as Megumi had predicted, it was rather chilly outside. Being that freezing to death was currently not on top of his list of priorities, Soujiro sat among the immense rice barrels, covered in Megumi's pink blanket.
I'm pretty sure Megumi-san is just something my mind made up…no one in the world can possibly be that nice. But…I don't really care if she's real or not, it's nice to see to see a tenshi (6) once in a while…
* * * * * *
Outside, on the now empty streets of Yokohama, a man was walking briskly out of town. He had two swords, one long, one short. As he walked, the many linen bandages around him trailed across the ground, like a grotesque robe of a demon emperor.
Unbeknownst to anyone, another man was also walking into Yokohama. Instead of having two swords like the previous man, he only carried one. A sudden unveiling of the full moon illuminated his crimson hair. As misty clouds covered the moon again, he disappeared into darkness.
Glossary/Annotations:
1. Ojou-san – Miss.
2. Gomen (nasai) – I'm sorry
3. Oyasumi (nasai) – Good night
4. Wherefore – meaning Why, not Where
5. Flow'r – it is supposed to be flower, but there are too many syllables in the word for it too fit.
6. Tenshi – Angel
A/N: I've never seen a Soujiro/Megumi fanfic, thus I am writing one. One might argue that Soujiro and Megumi can never be a couple because Megumi is older than he is, and they never met in the series. However, Soujiro and Kaoru never met, and there are plenty of Sou/Kao fanfics out there. Besides, if Megumi likes (flirts with) Kenshin so much, she might like Soujiro, who is sometimes viewed as a carbon-copy of the dear rurouni/hitokiri (Although I really think that Soujiro is totally different—Just imagine Soujiro going off to the revolution and disobeying Shishio…) Anyhow…
It's pretty strange motivation for me, but I feel like writing something with chibi-people. But for some odd reason I'm also against changing the entire past of characters, because then they wouldn't be the same after a given amount of time. Oh well…I'm not very rooted into the idea anyway. Actually, I sometimes see myself as Megumi; (though not her capricious and flirtatious nature) I want to get into medical school. (Also note that I'm not in medical school and I know practically nothing about medicine.) ^_^
As another note…I wrote a Shakespearean sonnet! o_O! The end of the world is coming! Then again, looking back at it (since I wrote the chapter in a matter of months) the poem is REALLY bad. Especially since I tried to use old English! Ack… Shakespeare had way too much time on his hands. And to think I actually tried iambic pentameter! English class must have really gotten to me…
So they're all stuck in that rice place! And how will they do with two mysterious (*cough* not really *cough*) people wandering around?