New Meji

Year – 2037

New National Theatre of Tokyo

Megumi leaned forward, eyes going wide at the spectacle playing out before her. Dancers, clad in bright silks and pointe shoes, whirled about like spectral dervishes around Morena, the goddess of the underworld. While there was ballet in this production, the woman on whom Megumi fixed her gaze was an extraordinary mezzo-soprano, the aria a masterpiece on the interplay of power, manipulation, seduction and unholy pacts with the dead and the living.

Morena raised her arms, her flowing gown in a bruise palate of blues, blacks, purples and greys, and her voice rang out as she sealed her pact with the antagonist, Voyslava, a selfish princess who had murdered an innocent woman so that she could claim the deceased woman's lover as her own.

"What are you doing?"

Megumi tore her attention away from the aria's culmination and over to where her father was sitting. Glad in a tuxedo, his expression was unusually severe.

"There are people watching us." He hissed, his rebuke barely above a whisper. "They are watching you. Perhaps I was wrong to have you attend this function if you are going to gawk at everything like a half-wit rather than a gown adult and a promising medical student."

Megumi felt color flooding her cheeks and looked down at her lap, embarrassed, where her hands were clasped tightly together, her knuckles turning white as she tried to control her emotions. From beneath her lashes she looked around at the theatre, especially in the boxes that were nearby where other invited members of the university and military were sitting. Her heart sank as she realized that her father, as usual was absolutely correct and there were people indeed watching, their expressions mixed. Some faces were unreadable, some were disapproving, others humored and in one case, she thought that she caught in the attendee's dark black eyes a measure of compassion.

She swallowed, took a steadying breath and then looked back up, forcing her features to become still and (she hoped) poised. Sitting up as straight as she could, she tried to emotionally separate herself from the beautiful music and dancing and remain still. The music however, had other ideas and despite her best efforts, she felt the beguiling tide of music and song pulling her back into it. Her breathing and pulse secretly joined in the dancing and despite another angrily whispered warning from her father, her eyes welled up as the murdered Mlada and her lover Yaromir were reunited, finally, in heaven.

When the performance was done and the performers were taking their bows, Megumi was on her feet and clapping, perhaps a little louder than a young lady ought, her delight and appreciation naked on her face.

"Get your things." Her father, Dr. Takani ordered.

"We're leaving?" Megumi asked, since the events of the evening were only half over.

"No, you are. You've embarrassed me enough for one evening. I had hoped, foolishly it seems, that you had the potential to be an asset to my efforts to forward my work." His disappointment bit at her sharply. "Instead you've proven yourself to be nothing but a liability." He motioned again that she take up her clutch and head for the nearest exit.

Megumi nodded slightly and forced a smile. (I will not cry. I will not!) Steeling her features, she tried to make her way out of the theatre as if nothing was wrong. She was getting good at this façade, or at least trying to.

Making her way down the large staircase, her gloved hand gripping the marble circular balustrade a tad too tightly, she did her best to appear calm and beyond caring for silly things like this. There was music below, coming from the fully opened ballroom in the renovated building, a spacious, beautifully decorated room that was designed for fundraisers such as this one. People were mingling, some even dancing as the music swelled, the nearly perfectly designed acoustics of the theatre making it feel as if the marble stone itself was singing.

For a moment, Megumi's aloof demeanor slipped. Not yet twenty, this long-awaited evening was going to end far too soon for her liking. She glanced down at her dress, eyes fixing on it's pleats rather than daring to show the threatening tears of disappointment. It was midnight blue, simply cut but beautiful nevertheless. It was the first formal dress she'd ever owned and suspected that it might well be the last after her failure to control herself. She was so focused on her dress that she failed to see the tall man climbing up the stairs and bumped right into him.

"Oh!" Megumi looked up….and then had to look up some more. (Goodness!) The man looking down at her with a bit of a smirk was tall (very tall!) and handsome (very handsome!) and she'd just bumped into him. "I'm sorry." She felt her face explode with color as she stammered out an apology and tried to skitter around the man, a decorated member of the military based on his uniform.

"Now, where do you think you're going?"

Owlishly, Megumi looked up at the officer, wondering why he was impeding her attempts to skitter away and hopefully avoid a confrontation with her father. "I'm…leaving."

"Without a dance? I think not." The handsome officer smiled at her. Megumi's knees did a weird wobbly thing, echoed a second later by her heart.

"A dance? What – with me?" Megumi inwardly cursed at the stupid, girlish response that she blurted out. She could hear her father behind her as he came down the stairs, his anger so strong it could be felt rather than seen.

"It would be my pleasure." The officer smiled again and offered her a large muscular arm which she took anxiously.

"Likewise," she said, praying to ever Bodhisattva that she could think of that she was saying the right thing and not acting like a twit. "Thank for the invitation."

"Megumi!" Dr. Takani was now behind her. She froze, her grip on the tall man's arm becoming vise-like.

"Ah, so this is the name of this lovely young woman." Megumi looked up at the tall officer. He was still smiling, but his eyes were now centered on her father and were no longer warm. "Is this your daughter, Sir?"

Dr. Takani gave the tall man a measured look of his own, his gaze falling to the many bars, chevrons and other militaristic regalia on the decorated officer's uniform. His expression changed from one of annoyance and anger, to something shrewder and more polished.

"Yes, this is my daughter, Takani Megumi," her father said smoothly. "She is a medical student at the University of Tokyo. Top of her class, of course. As part of her studies, she'll be working with me on our joint project, which I am sure you're aware of?"

The office nodded, mentally marking the doctor as a moron and a security risk for having the gall to mention a top secret in the middle of a fundraiser.

"Quite."

He looked down at the young woman clutching at his arm like her life depended on and then back at the celebrated research doctor who was an integral part of a top-secret project that again ought NOT to be mentioned at a fund raiser (What an idiot) that he and select others of various military branches would soon be participating in.

"Then I'm sure you won't mind If your daughter and I, what with being collaborators and all, go and enjoy the evenings festivities." Megumi noted that the last statement had not been posed as a question, but rather a fact.

"Of course. Of course." Megumi looked at her father as if he was sprouting another head, unused to seeing the more astute political side of the man. "After all, isn't that what this evening is all about? You young people enjoying life?" He looked at Megumi with the approximation of fondness. "Have a lovely time, Dear. I look forward to you sharing how the evening transpires."

Megumi stared at her father, her confused expression becoming bleak and nodded her head, slightly.

"Shall we?" The office's smile met his eyes this time and ignoring her father completely, he whisked her down the staircase and into the ballroom.

"Thank you, Officer?" She glanced up, uncertain of this rank or title. (Goodness!) Her stomach/heart did another wibble and wobble as their eyes met.

"Seijouro Hiko at your service, Ma'am"

Megumi noticed the ease and confidence of the officer's response and movement and envied his ability to enter into a space as if he was the master of it. She tried his name out and found it to her liking. "Thank you."

"No thanks are needed, my dear." The all officer said smoothly, moving through the mass of people (who made way for him is if they were waves controlled by the Christian Prophet Moses) swept her along with him to the near center of the room. "I thought you needed an assist there with your old man."

Megumi glanced up at him, her eyes glinting with what might have been bemusement. "Oh, I had everything under control." She was rather pleased that she was able to respond with the approximation of a joke and unable to help herself, flipped her hair out of habit.

The officer laughed then, teeth perfect and white, the sound as infectious as his smile. "Clearly."

The orchestra started into a song. Megumi listened carefully, identified the correct tempo and time signature and to recall everything she could from the few lessons she'd been able to manage in preparation for this evening.

"Relax."

Megumi looked up the officer as he took her in his arms (very large arms!) and began to move, guiding her in a basic circle around the floor. The instructor who had taught her the rudimentary basics of this sort of dancing had told her to expect the man to tell her how to move and where to go by exerting subtle pressure with his fingers, arm or leg. That's how she would know how to follow and what to do.

"I said relax," Hiko looked down at her, perhaps amused at the serious and slightly nervous woman's expression. "Don't think about what you're doing. You'll be fine. After all, you're dancing with me." As if that settled it.

Megumi nodded and soon, she wasn't thinking. Unlike her middle-aged instructor, Hiko didn't jab her waist with a finger or pull her arms in the direction he wanted her to go. He just moved, as naturally as flowing water might, and she moved along with him, a leaf riding the inexorable current. They moved round, simply at first and then, once Hiko and taken her measure and she had taken his, with a bit more flourish.

(This is wonderful) Megumi thought as the tempo picked up. (He is wonderful) It was a waltz, a simple time signature, but in the hands (and feet) of Seijuro Hiko, it became something exciting. Beautiful. Breathtaking. He spun her out and then pulled her back into his arms, like a sun pulling a small planet into its natural orbit. The many medals on his chest glittered in the light of the ballroom, offset by the dress a shade lighter than midnight and the young woman wearing laughed when he did it again and then caught herself when the happy sound caused some people to stare at the couple, not wanting to act out of turn.

"You're overthinking things again." Hiko chided as he spun her again, for good measure. "Focus on this moment. Focus on this split second in time that you'll have once and never experience again." He laughed and added for good measure, "Focus on me."

"I can do that." Megumi said, her face blossoming into something unstudied and sincere.

And she did. For that singular evening, for the first time in her life, she let her attention center on a moment rather than a myriad of future scenarios and past failures and fears. Rather than looking over her shoulder, seeking out the face of a perpetually disappointed father, she focused on the tall man dancing with her and as time passed and her own confidence and ease grew, let him focus on her.

The night continued on and they talked, danced and shared. Megumi tried champagne for the first time in her life and Hiko laughed at her surprised, puckered expression at the taste. He then introduced her to some of his fellow officers and she did the same with the few medical students and professors who were in attendance.

And then, as all good things must, the evening began to wind to a close. People began to take their leave. The open bar closed up and at last, the orchestra stopped playing all together.

"Thank you, for this evening," Megumi said. Her cheeks were pink from dancing all night and she felt as light as a feather. "It was wonderful." (You were wonderful)

"Yes, it was." Hiko nodded, confident as ever. Despite him being near her own age, he seemed years ahead of her in so many things and had already experienced so much that life had to offer. "I'm glad that we had the opportunity to get to know each other."

"Me too." Megumi glanced up at him, her shyness returning as the evening came to a close.

"You'll be off soon?" Unlike her father, she knew better than to mention things of a secret nature in a public place. She felt a pang in her heart when he nodded. There was so much about the project she didn't know about other than it was very important and she was lucky to have a chance to be a part of it. Unlike this decorated officer, she was a medical student who was involved only because her father was leading the project.

"We leave next week."

"I hope that things go well and that you stay safe." Unsure why she added the last part, since clearly the man had everything under control, Megumi forced herself to remove her arm from the officer's. She looked up at him again, still marveling at how tall and handsome he was and her happy demeanor changed, like the color of the sky as a full moon sets behind the mountains of New Meiji. Like it or not, they lived in a time of civil war and war always resulted in casualties. Always.

"I'll be just fine." Hiko looked down that the slender woman. "We'll see each other again."

"We will?" Megumi wasn't old enough or practiced enough to hide how much that promise meant to her.

"Absolutely. I'm certain of it." Hiko gave her a bow. Such an old fashioned thing for an officer to do to a medical student, but she returned the gesture in the proper fashion for a woman. He then led her to where her father's car was waiting outside, bade her farewell and walked away, his tall frame consumed by the rising morning sun.

Slowly Megumi opened her eyes and looked out and around at the dark alley where she was pressed up, half hidden behind an overflowing garbage bin.

She'd eagerly waited for word on this officer, for a call, a letter, anything. She'd waited for any news, any at all about this imposing, handsome man who in the course of an evening had become a cherished friend. As the days and then the months and then the years passed, her search for news of her friend, of the one person who had ever caused her heart to skip a beat or his knees to become wobbly, became more pragmatic, dreadfully so. War changed everyone, and this one was particularly adept at transforming hope into ashes.

Like many during the civil war years, she kept her eyes peeled for his name and military picture to appear along with the other fallen heroes on the electronic casualty lists that lit up the New Meiji Skyline. The civil war was brutal and the government made sure that every citizen knew the tremendous toll that victory entailed.

More time passed and when she could and if she remembered, she methodically checked morbidity tables and other macabre, clinical records to see if anyone came into the morgues that matched his physical description. No one ever did, which was a relief. One decade passed and she wondered if he was dead. Another decade, tore through New Meiji, a terrible one that caught her up and spit her out like a rusty meat grinder, and she knew he'd not survived and at the time, the pain of accepting that he was dead was replaced with thankfulness that he would never know that his confidence and bravery had been sorely misplaced, for the great project and programs that had seemed so exciting and patriotic ended up being nothing much more than government sponsored murder, mutilation of experimentation of not only her generation, but Ken-san's as well. The fact she'd had an active hand in that horror was nearly too painful and shameful to contemplate.

(Ken-san)

Her chance meeting with the Hitokiri (who for her would always, not matter what, be anything other than a monster) had shown her that Hiko had survived, at least up to a point and then today…seeing him across the street had been both a jolt of happiness and a blow of despair that was still biting. He was older now, his still handsome face showed the passage of time as hers never would, his surprise echoing her own.

Megumi wondered what he would have said to her if she'd not run away. She wondered what she would have…could have said to him after the passage of so much time and so many terrible choices.

(Generously, she kept his choice of owning a shirt with a hat wearing turtle from the list of mistakes she was sure they had both made.)

"Meow."

Startled Megumi looked at the rattling trash bin across the street, torn from her reverie by the wary alley cat who had decided to take a liking to her after all. With the coolness inherent in the feline species, the mangy animal hopped out of the garbage and sauntered over to where she was crouched. It eyed her and she eyed it and then, slowly, carefully, she reached out and gave it a gentle scratch on the head. She'd had a cat once as a child, decades ago and if memory served, this is the sort of thing cats liked.

The cat froze for a moment, then relaxed under her hand and began to purr, the sound not unlike an ill-kept small mechanical engine sputtering to life after years of neglect. A part of Megumi, long dead from disuse and despair made a similar (though silent) noise as she shrared the rest of the protein bar and bottle of water with what she assumed was her new pet (or was it the other way around – with cats, you never really knew).

"Well, come on then," she said, forcing herself to stand up and resume her escape (though where she was escaping to was still completely uncertain).