AUTHOR'S NOTES: I swear; I'm not dead. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get this update written and out. I have been so crazy busy since my last update, and this is the first chance I've had to write my story to an update point. I do hope you enjoy this instalment of Tsuki no Kodomo. Just a bit of warning, Kaoru doesn't have too much of a part in this one as she is unconscious for most of it.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Kenshin or any of the characters in this story.
Tsuki no Kodomo Chapter 3: A Long Night
"I'll be out shortly," Kaoru's muffled if uncertain voice traveled through the wooden door to where Kenshin kept his worried watch. He stood there for a moment as he wondered what he should do next.
Releasing a sigh, he walked away from the door. He would have to tell her about her lineage soon. He didn't know if the wards he placed while she was in the bath would be enough, but hopefully, her premature breaking of the seal would draw out those who had hidden her. He remembered the day that he investigated the sight of her supposed death almost two decades ago.
***18 years ago***
Kenshin walked among the ashes of what used to be a small cabin hidden in the woods. The vegetation around the sight was destroyed, and the house was burned into nothing more than ashes. Almost nothing was left of the hideout that the child had been taken to by her parents.
Sorrow was pushed to the back of his mind. Takei and Keiko had been dear friends of his, and he had been on his way to congratulate them on the birth of their child when he, like all of the other demons, felt the surge released by the birth of a moonchild. After the wave of power, his journey was quickened out of the fear that his friend would be the parent of such a child. Demon children weren't born every day, and chances were slim that another was born so near that of Takei's child.
Normally, a moonchild would be a blessing, but with the current state of affairs in Japan, to have one born here was dangerous. Rumors were often taken as fact, and Yumi had yet to be apprehended after the defeat of Shishio just over a year ago.
Now, here he stood, in the rubble of a small cabin that was the end of the energy trail left by Takei and Keiko. They had both died here, and he knew it. The only assumption is that the child had perished with them as well. The lost hope he had felt at the possibility of such a child only worked to strengthen his sorrow at the death of his friends.
"The child is gone," his near silent partner said without inflection. "Hannya has finished his investigation of the area, and all he can find is death." He saw no need to inform his red-haired companion that Hannya had discovered that the female demon had passed before the explosion while all others—pursuers and other inhabitants—had died in the explosion, or that the moonchild was female. Some things were better left unknown including the prevention of a great prophecy. It would be a thousand years before another female moonchild would grace the face of the planet.
"There is nothing left for us here. Please have the others make sure that all signs of the demons are gone." Kenshin left the disaster and moved on.
***Present***
Later, when rumors of the survival of the child started to spread, Aoshi informed Kenshin of the other details of the incident. Shaking his head clear of the memories, he continued his trek to the house. Worry tingled on the edge of his emotions, but he did his best to dismiss it for more immediate concerns.
He was so preoccupied in his thoughts that he almost missed the small sound from behind him. It sounded like Kaoru called him, and, for one second, he thought that she was coming out of the bath house and wanted him to wait for her, but the sound that followed had him rushing back towards his previous position. A bang of something crashing to the floor almost had him bursting into the bathing room, but caution had him checking for a response before he rushed in unannounced.
When no response was heard from his loud banging, he busted the lock on the door and was shocked at the sight. Kaoru lay on the floor wrapped in a towel next to the wall, and beside her, the bucket was just coming to a stop from having been knocked down in her fall—obviously, that had made the crashing sound he had heard. A few small drips were falling onto the floor from the lip of the bucket into the puddle of spilled water.
"KAORU!" he yelled as he rushed to her side pushing the bucket away and turning her onto her side. She didn't respond to his yelling any more than she did to his shaking. He picked her up and carried her into the house.
Yahiko and Sanosuke had rushed from the house when Kenshin had yelled her name only to find him carrying an unconscious shihondai into the house.
"What happened?" Sanosuke asked as he moved to try and help Kenshin.
"She collapsed in the bath house."
Sanosuke stopped in his tracks and took a closer look at his friend whose eyes had been shadowed by bangs. If he looked at the line of his shoulders and the slant of his mouth, he knew that something was not right.
He and Yahiko had gotten back to the dojo shortly after Kaoru and Kenshin to find Kaoru rushing into a bath. He had noticed that she had seemed unnerved, but he had assumed it had been the result of the scene that they had left in the forest. Yahiko hadn't seen it—as they had separated to find them quicker—but Sanosuke had.
Nodding once, more to himself than anyone else, he sent Yahiko to get Dr. Genzai. That would keep things calm enough for Kenshin to regain control.
After Yahiko scampered out the gate to get the doctor, Sanosuke followed Kenshin inside the house and to Kaoru's bedroom where he silently pulled out the futon and watched his friend place the woman who had become like a little sister to him onto her bed.
"What happened out there tonight?"
"She broke through the Shin no Ippou."
Shock washed through his system, "How!?" Kenshin looked up at him, and the implications of her breaking an unbreakable bond, at least for humans, and the rush of power usually associated with the moon, registered in his mind. "No," he whispered.
"Apparently, she has been here, under our noses this whole time," Kenshin moved his gaze back to the sleeping girl. "The stress of the night must have broken the kitsune's spell."
"Well of course it did," a female voice said from behind them. "I didn't design the spell so that she would die from something so weak just because her powers were blocked."
Both men stared at the woman. She strode towards the girl on the bed, her long black hair flowing behind her. Reaching out with one delicate hand towards Kaoru's face, she frowned when a man's hand grasped at her wrist and prevented her from reaching her goal. "I only mean to check on her aura. Physical touch is a quicker way to examine her."
"You hurt her, and I will kill you right here and now." Despite the threatening tone in his voice, Kenshin released her wrist.
With a huff, Megumi, for that was who she was, reached for her patient a second time since her arrival. "If I had wanted to hurt her, why would I have made the ward so many years ago to shield her powers? I had not intended for her to break through them so early. She must be feeling overwhelmed with sensations; she is empathic."
The tone she used left no room for questions, and actually showed a bit of exasperation with their lack of knowledge. As she continued to examine her patient, Kenshin watched with wary, but worried eyes. Sanosuke, however, was busy watching the examiner as curiosity about the lady fox kept him from totally focusing on Kaoru. How she had managed to come right into the dojo without either of them noticing her was only one of the questions running through his mind.
After what seemed like hours, Sanosuke heard the doctor enter the gates. "Kenshin, make sure things are prepared for the doctor so he doesn't know what's going on." And with that, he rushed to delay who he thought was a human doctor.
There was no need to delay him though for, as soon as he entered the gate, the doctor pushed past the rooster demon while saying, "Yahiko will be gone for the rest of the night. I need to see the damage she has done to the wards."
"Dr. Genzai," Megumi greeted without turning her head.
"Did she break through them all?" He asked walking up beside Megumi and beginning an examination of his own.
"Yes. There is no repairing them. Her desire to save Kenshin mixed with the Shin no Ippou she was fighting tore down the wards. There will be no hiding her from them."
He released a resigned sigh, "I understand."
Kenshin narrowed his eyes as the two conversed about Kaoru's condition. Obviously, the two had known the entire time who she was, where she was, and why she was there. They were likely the reason she was here. Answers would come before the night was out, but right now, he wanted them to make sure that she would be fine.
"I can ease the pain of the emotions she is picking up, but I can't take away the sensations themselves," Genzai said to Megumi.
"I will put up a temporary ward to help her filter through the information and aide in her blocking until she learns how to block herself."
They worked for half the night. When Genzai took his first real break from work, Sanosuke approached him. "Where is Yahiko?"
Taking the drink of water that Sanosuke offered him, he said, "I left him back at my house, and I left a charm so that he would fall asleep in the safety of the house. He won't wake until I break the charm."
"Oh," he whispered as the doctor went back to help the fox demon. Time continued to flow as the late night faded into the hours of early morning.
Both men looked up when they heard the all too feminine sigh emanate from the fox demon as she finished her work. "She will be able to wade through the sensations now, and she should be fine."
Dr. Genzai, who seemed to look like he had lost 20 years as he worked, sat back as well and added, "The pain will be less now, and I have taken care of her head injury from the fall."
Kenshin's frown deepened when he realized that she had actually been injured in the fall. "When will she wake up?"
"In a few hours," the lady demon answered. "Likely, she will have many questions, so if you don't mind, I would like to borrow a room and catch some sleep before she wakes up."
"First," Sanosuke started, "we have some questions."
Waving him off as if it was nothing, "Ask Genzai, I need to rest. Making wards is exhausting." They both watched her leave the room, and turned back to the doctor, who was softly sleeping against the wall. "I guess the questions will have to wait."
Kenshin nodded in agreement, and began to move the older man to the room next door. "I guess we all need some sleep. I will watch her for a few hours, you get some rest."
Sanosuke yawned, "Sounds good. Wake me in a while so you can get some shut eye." The ex-fighter barely registered the noncommittal noise that followed him out of the room as Kenshin moved the doctor.
***Many hours later***
The late morning sun shone through the thin rice paper walls. The morning birds had long since stopped their songs. Yet still, the inhabitants of the dojo slept peacefully—well, all except for two. Genzai had woken and left many hours before so as to tend to his patients. He also said that he would keep Yahiko distracted for the day.
Kenshin kept up his vigil watching the young girl who had opened her home and heart to him without any reason other than her personal intuition. She hadn't moved all night, but her breathing was still even. Inching closer for the umpteenth time since he started his watch, Kenshin suppressed his yawn. Yesterday had been a long day, and his side ached from the wound he had received from the battle, but none of that mattered in the face of his discovery.
Kaoru was the moonchild. Her life was now at a great risk because he hadn't dealt with Kurogasa that first night. He had let a madman live, and now Kaoru was facing the consequences. As the sun had risen earlier, he had been horrified to see exactly how white her face was. It looked almost as if she were in a sleep of death rather than just healing from what happened.
Standing up, he stretched while murmuring to himself, "She will want some water when she wakes, and I need to stretch." With those words, he walked out of the room to the well to pull up a bucket of water.
At the well, he pulled up the bucket and splashed himself in the face. Releasing a sigh of frustration, he lifted his hand up and stared at his own fingers. Another failure to protect those around him, and this time, she would hurt for it—she was hurting because of it. How could he do something so stupid again? How could he fix this? Anger and frustration at the whole situation welled up in him. Clenching his teeth, his hand curled into a fist, and he slammed it down on the bricks that lined the well. Turning his back, he walked away and ignored the indent he left on the top rock.
Meanwhile, after Kenshin had shut the shoji to her room, Kaoru let out a soft groan. Pain was the first sensation that registered in her foggy brain. She had a splitting headache which promised to last all day. Fighting her way out of the inky darkness that surrounded her, she released another groan as she raised her hand to her head. Trying to remember what happened last night brought back her hours of sitting on the porch in the forest with a crazy man while waiting on Kenshin to rescue her, but she knew there was something, much more important, that she needed to remember.
Then, the events following her trip home registered. The last thing she remembered was collapsing in the bathroom. Looking down, she noticed that she was in her yukata, but she was uncertain how she had gotten here. What had caused her collapse? She hadn't been injured in the fight. Could it have been related to Jineh's attack on her? No, it had been something else.
As she tried to remember, she sat up. "What happened?"
"That's a bit of a long story." A woman's voice answered her question. She looked up and saw a tall, beautiful woman standing in front of her. The woman gracefully moved across the room and sat across from her without ever once moving her gaze from Kaoru's eyes. "I am Megumi Takani, and I helped your father hide you from those who would seek to harm you."
"You knew my father? Why didn't he ever tell me about it? And who did he need to hide me from?" Her questions poured out, stopping only with the sound of her shoji being opened and Kenshin entering her room.
"Let us explain," Kenshin said as he joined Megumi next to Kaoru.
To be continued….
I know that you guys are thrilled with this ending, but I hope you come back for more. Please read and review! I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
I just want to send out major kudos to my reviewers from the last few chapters. I'm so sorry that it took so long to update. Thank you: Flame-Metal-Heart, kyoandyuya, Mama Kat, Zepharia, R3iga1004, mai-sama, Daichilover, Ragnell, x, phantome101, UrmixMoonstone, and BrunetteBeauty14. Also, a great many thanks to those who favorited my story and/or me, or followed my story and/or me. I hope this update makes you all happy!
