CHAPTER TWO – HIDDEN TALENTS: Zanza Turned Storyteller and Megumi the Businesswoman

"What was Kaoru thinking?" Megumi lamented as she finished clearing up her many drugs and antibiotics.

"I could ask the same thing," Sanosuke said, now reclining lazily against the wall on the tatami-matted floor. The summer sun filtered through the open shoji door and a light breeze followed. Despite the cool ruffling of the four stray strands over his red headband, the heat was making Sano drowsy.

Megumi pursed her red lips in a frown. "You have no room to complain. I'm the one that has to put up with you. What in the world could have possessed her to bring you here? Are you even good for anything in a clinic?"

"Hey," Sanosuke managed to enunciate through a yawn. He stretched his arms wide. "I'm good for plenty of things."

"Oh?" the medic quirked a sculpted eyebrow. "Such as . . .?"

"Zzzzzzzzz . . ."

Megumi's sculpted brow began to twitch in irritation. Picking up a gilded fan along the way, she treaded lightly toward the snoozing mercenary. Crossing her arms primly and leaning against the wall next to Sano, she drummed her fingers lightly on her forearm, waiting for just the right moment.

Smack!

"Ow! Jeez," Sanosuke leaned forward, rubbing his newfound bruise on the back of his head as Megumi tossed out the now broken fan. "What the heck was that for?"

"No wonder Kaoru sent you out. If you stayed here too long, I'd kick you out too," Sano scowled at her response but was given no time to retort as she continued. "But since there's apparently nothing I can do about you being here, I might as well put you to work. Now, I'll ask you this again, but only once more. Are you useful for anything?"

"Lady, I'm not doing anything for you," he stopped gingerly rubbing the lump on his head to stand and put his hands on his hips obstinately. "I'm not quite sure what Missy was thinking when she made me come here either, but I'm not going to be part of any of this." The fighter-for-hire stormed to the door.

"Now hold on just a minute," Megumi rushed in front of him and blocked his passage. "I know as well as anyone that you're a lazy, insensitive, good-for-nothing, scrounging, sponging, freeloading-"

"Does this have a point?" Sanosuke snapped.

This did not help Megumi's mood. "What I was going to say was that since you're here anyway, you might as well do some good."

"Hmph," Sano pretended to focus on the red bandage on his left arm. "And what do you suppose I could do . . . if I did anything?"

"Do you have any experience tending wounds?"

"No."

"Mixing herbal compounds?"

"No."

"Stitching lacerations?"

"No."

"Mending broken bones?"

"No."

". . ." Megumi was at a loss. A small headache sprang from her temples and flared her frustration physically. She pressed two fingers beside her eye and massaged the pain, hoping it and her aggravation would ease. "Can't you do any-"

A scream came from another room in the clinic.

Her head shot in the direction of the sound, all annoyance at Sano forgotten for an instant. "Oh no-Kikeiko . . ." In a blur of purple apron and kimono she flew to the patients' quarters, hesitating only slightly before leaving Sanosuke to himself.

"Now wait a minute!" he called after her. "You can't just think I'm going to stay when you give me the chance to-"

But she was already gone.

"Damn it . . ." Sanosuke muttered and took off in the direction he had last seen her go.

"Kikeiko . . . Kikeiko," Megumi muttered, cradling a child's head in her hand while she tipped a small cup of medicine to small, quivering lips. "Calm down now . . . it's all right . . ."

In the focused light of the small window of the room, the doctor managed to help the girl down the concoction before a fit of coughing began. Grabbing a section of the sheets the girl had been lying upon, Megumi handed them to the child, Kikeiko. The girl coughed and sputtered in to the linen with more force than a child should ever need to muster.

When Megumi pulled the sheet away after Kikeiko was through, she set it down beside her, the tiny flecks of blood only barely noticeable in the shadow of the room.

"Drink some more, Kikeiko," the medic attempted to sound soothing through her worry.

"No," the girl whispered, looking away.

"Kikeiko," Megumi said, "I know it tastes bad, but it'll help-"

"They told me not to!" Kikeiko turned her head quickly back to the doctor with a frightened look in her eyes. "They came and said that if I drink stuff from you . . . if I do, rivers of blood . . . would come from my mouth and I'd drown and . . . and . . ." her attention faltered when her eyes strayed to the doorway.

He stood, filling up nearly the entire doorframe, the sunlight only catching glimpses of his white clothing as the rest of him was shrouded in the shadow of the hall. His voice sounded just as dark, but not so ominous. "I see a lot of your clinic's modelled from the Western style. I hate hallways. They're just begging to get lost in."

"Who-who are you?" Kikeiko had to crane her neck to try to see his face.

"Go wait outside," Megumi commanded Sanosuke. "I'm busy here trying to get Kikeiko to take her medicine and I don't need you—"

"I don't want to take that stuff!" Kikeiko interrupted. "I'll get sicker if I do!"

"Now what's all this, huh?" Sano tilted his head, half in curiosity, half in amusement. He made his way over to the mat where the girl lay quickly with his long-legged gait and squatted down. He blew his bangs out of his eyes. Kikeiko stared. "You think you'll get sicker if you take the medicine?"

"Yeah," Kikeiko said. "I had this dream and there were these voices and they said-"

"Ah," Sano closed his eyes and nodded in understanding. "A dream telling you to do things. I see. I've had one of those before," his low voice, normally rumbling, was strangely smooth.

"Listen now," Megumi said, getting slightly irritated with Sanosuke's gall, "I told you to leave. I expect you should do as I say. I am the doctor here, after a-"

"Really, mister?" Kikeiko did not seem to hear the doctor. "What did yours say?"

"Well," Sanosuke gave a small grin, tilting his head back slightly, "let's see if I can remember . . ." He opened one dark eye to Kikeiko, the girl completely enraptured by now. "I was about your age, I guess, and it was when I was with-" he hesitated to mention his association with the Sekihoutai, "-a bunch of friends out on a journey. One of the nights when I was asleep, I had this dream where I was running through a forest and there were a bunch of voices saying, 'let it go.'"

"Let what go?" the girl asked.

"I'm getting to that," Sano said. "Well, I kept running, but I tripped and fell into a puddle. I got up, but when I started running again, the voices were louder."

"Were they saying the same thing?"

"Yep. 'Let it go, let it go,'" the fighter gave a small chuckle. "Anyway, I ran all the way to a point where there wasn't any forest anymore and I reached a huge waterfall. The voices were so loud by then that I couldn't stand it and I jumped."

Kikeiko gasped. "You jumped in the waterfall?"

"That's right. And all the way down I could hear them saying, 'Let it go! Let it go!' And you know what happened next?"

"What?" little Kikeiko's wide, bright eyes shone with anticipation.

"I woke up . . . with a big puddle in my pants. It turned out that my so-called friends had been pulling a prank on me with some whispers and a bowl of warm water."

Kikeiko could not help but giggle.

"Now, you see how you can't always trust what your dreams tell you?" Sanosuke said, deftly snatching the medicine Megumi had previously been holding. She gave a small startled cry at his abruptness, but stopped when he gave her a look that told her to follow along with his plan.

"I sure do, mister," Kikeiko nodded with a broad smile.

"Here then," Sanosuke handed the cup to the girl and she drank with relish, despite the sour face she wore after. A few moments later, Kikeiko yawned and her eyelids slowly lowered.

With only a small tinge of the fear she had previously, she whispered to Sanosuke, "Will the voices get me now? Say you won't let them get me."

"Tch. They're not going to get you while I'm around," he winked.

Kikeiko smiled and fell asleep.

Megumi still looked in awe at what had just transpired. Not only had Sano managed to do something in her profession that she had just failed to do, he had done it with explicit disregard for her orders. Her red lips turned down in a scowl. "I thought Sir Ken was the only fighter this good with children."

"Well, Fox, you learn something new every day," he stood up from his squatting position at Kikeiko's beside and shoved his hands in his pockets. However, before he began his departure, his eyes fixed on something on the floor. Megumi followed his eyes.

Picking up and tucking away the bloodied portion of the white sheet, Megumi sighed softly. "It's sad, really, how many children we get. Even though I work with Doctor Gensai, he's always out on house visits, and I hear them crying all the time. They can't go home because of their illnesses and they're always so sad here. It's no wonder; they're secluded from everyone: friends . . . family . . ." her voice trailed off with the last word.

"What does she have?" Sanosuke asked calmly.

"Consumption," Megumi stated. "Normally we're supposed to treat it by blood-letting, but both Doctor Gensai and I won't have any of that here. Unfortunately, we don't know of anything to help," she looked back up at Sano, and, seeing his brows knitting together in a sad scowl, decided to lift the mood. "So when was this little wet pants incident, hmm?"

Sano coughed, embarrassed, a slight blush crossing his face. "Well, now if you don't mind, I'm off . . ."

She looked at him slyly from deep brown eyes. "Really? Didn't you already have a chance to leave before?" Sanosuke stopped his progression to the door. "Why didn't you take it?" she persisted.

Smiling wryly, he closed his eyes. "I guess I'm just a sucker for a damsel in distress."

"Hmph. I'm flattered, but I never took you for the hero type."

"Who said you were the damsel?"

She glowered.

"I'm not the hero type anyway," he said before starting toward the exit again.

"Hold it," Megumi stopped him with the conviction in her voice. "You don't think I'm still going to let you leave now, do you?"

"What are you going to do? Try and stop me?" he turned his head slightly to look back at her.

"At least now I know you're good for something. Besides," she tossed her hair saucily, "any good businesswoman knows a good investment when she sees one."

"Huh. Businesswoman. That's a fancy way to say 'sly fox.'"

"Why do you insist on calling me that?" Megumi's upper-hand was fading as her temper grew.

"It suits you," he responded, now fully looking at her. The sunlight shone up on her dark hair, making it comparable to fine silk that trailed down her back with the two wayward strands before her ears framing her ivory face. His eyes darted to the door and back to her again. "Now," he started slowly, "supposing I stay here, what do you intend for me to do?"

The cogs in the Fox's head began turning. "Since you work so well with children," she said, "I was planning on making you just read to them and comfort them during their stays here. Of course, I'm not so sure about the comforting. Who'd really want to get comfortable with a pointy-haired rooster-he-"

"Okay," he cut her off with his hand. "So I tell the kids stories. What do I get out of it?"

Megumi pondered over the transaction with her vixen cunning. "Two square meals and a place to stay once a week," she decided.

Sanosuke's eyes narrowed shrewdly. "Make it four meals and five days of the week and you've got a bargain."

"No deal," she snapped. "Three meals and three days a week is my final offer," she raised a finger to her perfect lips. "Oh, and you have to run errands for me whenever I need more supplies."

Sanosuke pretended to think it over. "Deal," he concluded.

"Deal," she nodded.

Sano smiled and turned back around to leave. "Well, I'm off to go celebrate my new job . . . don't wait up for me, Foxy."

Megumi scowled at the name. "Oh? And just what are you doing to celebrate?"

"Getting drunk, of course. You've got no idea what you've gotten yourself into, Lady."

"Waaaaaahhh!" a child's whine could be heard from another room, shaking the entire building's foundations. "I can't sleep! These stitches are too itchy!"

A triumphant smirk on her face, Megumi stood and crossed her arms. "Apparently, neither do you. I suppose the celebrations will just have to wait, won't they?"

Sanosuke groaned. He had forgotten that work meant that you had to work.