A/N: I feel like an awful person for giving you a six-page chapter when you're used to ten, especially since I now take twice as long to write them. Unfortunately, I have about 100 or so pages of reading to do every night for all my classes, plus a job and stuff. So, hopefully you all will forgive me and continue to read. I truly appreciate it, even if I do a terrible job at showing it.
This one's for… let's go with Delierio599 and Crau-san, just 'cause. Thanks for the reviews!
Chapter 6: Injury and Indecency
For the citizens of Meiji, religion is at best a minor consideration. The land itself is considered mostly secular, though different sets of beliefs have immigrated with the people who hold them from lands to all sides. As with all other things, religious considerations are secondary to loyalty to one's liege. The religion the king practices, then, is given the status of "state" religion, though in practice this means very little change for anyone else, since few kings have declared their beliefs exclusive.
The most common worship is of the One Who is Many, a deity imported from the South. Merely one of several figures in the southern pantheon, the One is looked upon as sole or most important to Her followers in Meiji itself.
The mysterious nature-God of the Western Wilds had also found a home in small clusters of our country's population. Most of the disciples of the Nameless take up a life of religious solitude much as the Western Tribesman often choose to do. Therefore, it is uncommon to find one of the priests of this order in an ordinary town setting; they must be actively sought if they are to be found.
Still other citizens adhere to various forms of superstition or ancestor-worship, all of which have a place in the cities and towns scattered about the country. Several of these tradition are prone to mixing; it is not, for example, rare to find a worshiper of the One who also pays respect to his forebears.
Gensai watched as his apprentice treated the small girl's cut, offering a word here or there when she did something that was not quite correct. He had to admit, Megumi was doing well. Only a year had she been under his tutelage, and already she had the makings of a fine physician.
The two of them watched the patient leave with her relieved-looking mother, the owner of the town's small bakery, and waved after the pair. Sometimes, being a doctor was the most rewarding job in the world, or at least the old man thought so. Bu the look in his student's dark eyes seemed troubled. This in itself wasn't all that unusual; the good doctor knew something of her history, and it was enough to understand that the young woman, barely past her twenty-first year, had a good deal to reflect on and regret even at so young an age.
"Megumi, would you like some tea?" he asked kindly, not entirely surprised when the girl shook her head.
"I'm fine, thank you doctor." Her voice betrayed her melancholy as well as her face did, and he wondered for a moment how she'd ever fooled anyone. Then again, most of the people she had lived around before had no need to take note of anything but a pretty face, their own egos too large to look for any meaning in it.
He was not the same, but still he would not pry. "Very well then. If you wouldn't mind assisting an old man, we could get these things cleaned up, and then you are free to go for today." He was about to make his way back inside his small, well-kept house when he heard something. A war veteran's ears were not without sharpness, even though the all-pervading cloud of age might dull them somewhat, and he stopped. People, and at least on hoofed animal.
"Doctor Gensai-" Megumi began, pointing, but the old man was two steps ahead, and his hand went to the knife at his belt, a thing of utility, yes, but a weapon if need-be. He was not a violent person by any means, but nothing that came from that direction was ever good, or at least nothing he had encountered in quite some time. The forest was not too far from his home, and though it was dangerous to live in such a location, it was better for his back and old bones should he need to visit the woods to collect herbs for medicines.
As time passed, though, and the figures before them resolved into view, his stance relaxed somewhat. That head of bright red hair was quite the recognizable trait, especially if one knew to whom it famously belonged. "My word, it's Pr-" the title was abruptly cut off as the man it belonged to shook his head minutely. Odd, I've only ever known him to travel with Lord Aoshi.
In truth, the last time the two had met was two years prior, when Gensai had aided the fugitive prince and his retainer in their escape from The Usurper. That had been the day Gensai retired from his life as a guardsman and returned secretly to his native village, where he took up his other profession, one he'd been trained for since before he ever held a blade, and one, he privately believed, he was much more suited to.
"Kenshin," he said cautiously, sure that at least this was appropriate, if still a little offensive to his commoner's sensibilities, "to what do I owe the pleasure?" It seemed that Lord Aoshi was indeed present, but accompanying him also was A very tall, rough-looking man, two children on a horse, and a slender woman in a black cloak that struck a familiar chord in the old man's memory.
"Gensai," the other replied with his customary directness, "can you heal this boy?" The doctor's eyes returned to the horse, where one of the riders- less a child than a young woman- was apparently handing the other to the cloaked lady. This one carried the boy, who was no older than twelve, he supposed, over towards the man and his apprentice, brilliant blue eyes filled with concern.
He was again struck by something vaguely familiar about this woman, something he could not place. He did not have time to ponder it further, however, as there was a patient in need of his attention.
Beckoning them all inside, he gestured for the boy to be laid upon his floor, and examined the wound carefully. "Whoever bandaged him did a good job," he said at last. "His wounds will not be fatal because of it, and also because, I think, this one has a strong will to live." In truth, while shallow, the wound could have bled out, and they were quite lucky it had not.
Quietly, Gensai relayed instructions to Megumi on how to care for the boy. At Kenshin's skeptical look, he shook his head. "My apprentice is as much a doctor as I, and her hands do not shake as mine do." The reply to the unasked question seemed to satisfy the swordsman, and he sat back without another word.
"So tell me, how is it that you have come to travel in such… varied company?" the doctor asked slowly, unsure how solid the ground upon which he was treading might turn out to be.
Kenshin's eyes flashed as his gaze shifted to his companions for a second, particularly the black-clad young woman, and for a moment the doctor was afraid he must have overstepped his bounds. "Much has happened since we last spoke," he replied, with a look that made it clear that he did not wish to discuss the topic further at present.
Whatever else Gensai was, he was no fool, and thus he let the subject drop, woefully unexplored. His apprentice soon spoke up, however. "I'm done for now. A few days' bedrest and he'll be good as new." A ghost of relief passed over the former prince's face, only to be replaced with something harder, as though it had never been present at all.
"Very well. I will leave him in your care, and return in two days."
The likely response never came, as there was a commotion to be heard outside the door. Male voices, several of them, exchanging heated words, accompanied by the characteristic clinking sounds of imperial armor.
Kenshin's eyes narrowed in suspicion, but Gensai was quick to ward off the accusation he saw in them. "I would not have had the time to inform them of your presence," he said evenly, trying not to show that he was somewhat offended by the very notion. The glare faded, and the doctor received a nod in response. Not quite an apology, but an acknowledgement at least.
"You should leave," Megumi urged, and Gensai wondered for a moment if she would recognize Kenshin. Surely it wouldn't be too hard, famous as he once had been, at least in the circles she had occupied. The others were commoners; never having seen the face of the crown prince was not a circumstance to be unexpected for them.
Apparently, Kenshin either knew this himself or did not care, for he simply stood, and beckoned for the rest of his group to follow him out the back door. Yahiko he took in his arms, and Gensai sighed inwardly. The boy really did need a few days without the constant exertion of travelling, but he supposed that it was for the best. If the group had been discovered, it was too much of a risk to leave a member of it here.
Ushering them all out, he left his apprentice to attend to the front door. Only later would he realize what a mistake this had been.
Kaoru had simply assumed that the little band would go back to make sure the doctor was okay. Apparently, this was a false assumption, and it was not sitting well with her.
The realization came early the next morning, when the group began to pack their belongings for travel as usual, excepting the fact that the one who called himself Sano was not around.
"Hold on," she said pointedly. "Didn't the doctor say that Yahiko needed bedrest? We can't just move him like this!"
Kenshin shook his head, regarding her with what she took to be an air of condescension, as though she were a small child who had missed an obvious point. "If the soldiers come into the woods, he will be more at risk than he is now," the man stated tonelessly. "We have to leave."
"Wait, what?" the woman returned, incredulous. "What about Doctor Gensai and Miss Megumi? We can't just leave without making sure they're okay!" she was doing a lot of yelling this morning, it seemed, but she wasn't about to leave the point unmade. The old man and his apprentice had helped them escape from the soldiers last night; there was no way anyone should be okay with leaving the favor unreturned, not even a thief.
"We're putting them more at risk by remaining in the area," Aoshi put in calmly, but the complete lack of concern in his tone only served to make Kaoru even angrier.
"How can you say that? What put them in danger was us leaving them in the first place! how could those soldiers have been meant for us, when there was no way anybody could have known we were in town? I understand that you're infamous, but there's no way anybody watches a bandit that closely." Who did he think he was anyway? The king?
She looked to the other two for signs of agreement. Misao simply shook her head, as though resigned to this sort of behavior, but Sano was looking at her appraisingly. At length, he too spoke his piece. "I dunno much about what's goin' on here, but it seems to me that the Missy's got a point about the soldiers at least."
Thank you! Kaoru celebrated internally. At least someone around here was capable of looking beyond themselves for once. She shifted her blue-eyed stare back to Kesnhin, who shook his head slightly. "Have you forgotten Yahiko already?"
"I'll look after him," came Misao's voice, and all eyes shifted to her for a moment. She smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of her head with one arm. "Sorry, but I think she's right. We really should make sure they're okay. They saved Yahiko, after all."
Kenshin sighed inwardly. He had known this woman was going to be a problem, but it appeared to be going beyond even what he had expected. She was turning his band of self-interested thieves who worked only to survive and take care of each other into some kind of… vigilante group. He wasn't an entirely selfish soul, but he was a practical one, and he knew this would do no good for their chances of survival.
He looked to Aoshi, who shook his head minutely as if to say that he was on his own in this decision. Sometimes, his Second's silence said more than his words, and he knew that despite the earlier comment, Aoshi was fully in favor of what Kaoru was proposing.
And something in him was beginning to ask if merely surviving was enough, when it meant leaving behind an ally to potential danger. Damn. That woman's infernal logic was beginning to get to him.
"Fine. Misao, stay here and tend to Yahiko. The rest of you, come with me." He did not miss the broad smile that settled over Kaoru's features, though he chose to ignore the accompanying shift in his own mood that accompanied it. There was simply no way that seeing her smile made him feel in any way happier himself. Not at all.
Not an hour later, the four of them were once again in front of the doctor's home, and this time the man who met them was not the sturdy retired military officer that they'd encountered before, but a distraught old man with nobody else to turn to.
"Please," he said, managing somehow to retain his dignity though his word were just short of begging. "You must help Megumi. She has been taken by Lord Takeda's men." Kenshin felt Aoshi stiffen beside him. Lord Takeda had been among those offering Kenshin false support two years ago, not to mention the fact that his family and Aoshi's had a somewhat antagonistic history, dating back several generations. Aoshi himself might have ignored this, but the other man had been so foolish as to kill some of the tall man's subordinates in what was officially termed a "training accident" but was in reality a very calculated move to won favor with Shishio.
Before Kenshin could react, Sano was speaking. "Where did they take her?" he asked purposefully, and the redhead had a feeling that whether or not he agreed to help, both Sano and Aoshi would certainly attempt a rescue mission. There was no question as to what Kaoru would do, so it seemed he had little choice in the matter.
"The guardhouse," the old man replied. As the four of them turned to leave, his voice called out behind them. "You should know: Megumi once worked for Lord Takeda, and the circumstances in which she left him were… unfortunate. He will likely take a personal interest in her capture." Which was to say, if Takeda wasn't here now, he would be soon.
Somehow, that doesn't surprise me, Kenshin thought grimly.