Standard disclaimer applies here
Standard disclaimer applies here.
A/N: I am very pleased with the reviews of the previous chapter. Thank you very much. I valued most those reviews that correct my grammar mistakes and those things that I've overlooked. Gracias to them, they know who they are. And to everyone, your reviews kept on encouraging me (kicking my ass out from my bed whenever I felt like to procrastinate).
A simple 'Nice' is enough to keep my head up the line to finishing this. I still had six chapters to go, seven if I would have to make an epilogue, so please bear with me. Paragraphs put into italic were flashbacks, other than that, like those in between normal fonts were just emphasized words. There were not many fluffs yet in this chapter. Later, though, as the story thickens, I promise to insert something that would delight my romantic readers. Still, I hope you enjoy this one and don't forget to review…
CHAPTER IX
PRELUDE OF LIES' FINALE
Aoshi looked up on the dusk-shrouded countryside and realized he would be soon arriving at the Takani clinic. While his thoughts circled, his feet picked up pace, taking longer strides.
Exactly two months from now, it will then be five years ago. The mourning and grief had ended long ago. But the sense of lose was flitting. Everyone seemed happy, but not completely. He knew. He wasn't blind and he was never insensitive to the sentiments of the people around the Aoiya. He saw how Okina's health and strength ebbed with each passing day. His cheerful and carefree ways was within restriction to avoid exhaustion. So much like the way her vivacity and life had slowly deteriorated with each passing months, sacrificing her life for the sake of the expected child that she had persistently hoped to deliver to this world.
They were plagued by an epidemic on her third month of conception. She had refused medication from the ailment that had afflicted her. Receiving medication meant to introduce to her system the only potent medicine that would kill the microorganisms that had infected almost everyone in the area. In doing so, she would be putting her child in serious danger. The doctor himself had warned them that the medicine's potency would endanger the child's grip inside her womb. They were shattered when they were made to choose whose life would have to be saved. She hadn't made a second thought, though, regarding whose life would have to be granted. Nevertheless, it was a gamble for life. And stubborn as she had always been, she made her own decision and adhered to it until the very end. A sacrifice that in the end had proved to be worthless.
"I don't have the heart to hurt you, neither do I have a heart to love you…."
Aoshi sighed. In the same way they lost her, they almost lost the Aoiya. Worn and outdated by the new and modern competitors, he decided to take a risky action before they lost completely without doing anything. Risky, because they have a limited capital. Still, the reconstruction and expansion had gone smoothly with just sufficient resources he was receiving from this mission. If it weren't for the Aoiya, he wouldn't have to accept the work offered. But the offer was timely just when they needed it. The new Aoiya now stood, conforming to the new standards of business and elegance.
He received Okon-san's letter informing him that the construction was brought to its completion five days ago, ready for the winter season as planned, and that every detail of his design was followed. Though he considered it was a pleasing news, he still needed to see it for himself. And the Aoiya would have to operate without him yet because he was still stuck up on finishing this mission.
Aoshi made his careful way through the empty halls of Megumi's house, looking for life signs of the residents.
He paused a little to focus on locating them through muffled distant voices. Suddenly, alarm cursed through him when he heard Ryusei's wail of pain.
Megumi had been pacing back and forth, her jaw twitching with a clear mixture of anxiety and rage. Ryusei had gone again. He escaped her watching eyes again. Her emotions were wild as thunder as she remembered how all the things she feared in the past four years had just incarnated yesterday in the person of Takatori Toshiki.
How in the world he was able to trace Izumi? How did he knew and identified her?
Just thinking about that yesterday's encounter made her nerves scream in panic.
"Takatori?" Her breathing came suspended. Sickness washed over her in a deluge. She hadn't anticipated something like this. She feared it coming, nevertheless.
"What do you want?" her voice as frigid as the darkening autumn afternoon air. She was aware that her reaction was quite out of proportion as far as playing innocent is concerned. But fear was cursing through her veins. She tried to calm down, regaining control over her emotions.
"What can I do for you, Takatori-san?" she asked and was pleased to hear that her voice didn't waver.
"There's nothing you can do now and there's nothing I wanted more than to have my quite moment with her if you're already done with yours."
His tone was caustic and she should have flustered at that if she hadn't been used to hearing it from someone she equally defied in her past. Yes, she defied fear. And any fear she was feeling right now, however, was not because of this man's words. It's what he represented in Ryusei's life instead. Takatori Toshiki is a threat to Ryusei, she thought.
"Then, if you'll excuse me." She made a slight bow to him and started to leave the area. Megumi wanted nothing more than to flee away as fast as she can before he had a chance to ask her more about Izumi. She felt relief when she had been a few feet from him without another word from the man. However, her relief was short-lived when his deep voice reverberated at the quite stillness of the area.
"On a second thought, Takani-san, I had wanted so much to know how Izumi came in association with you."
Megumi stopped dead on her track. Slowly but surely, she turned to face him who was making his way towards her. She cast a watchful look at his sure strides. He was much like Aoshi, she thought, confident and arrogant. Ohh.. erase the second description. After knowing Aoshi, she found Shinomori Aoshi was never arrogant. He had a dangerous aura that is why one would really be intimidated by his presence.
"What does it had to do with you?" she asked tartly.
"You see, my family had been looking for her all these years. I have every right to know how my dear little sister ended up like this." Toshiki deliberately put great emphasis on his last word.
Megumi's eyes narrowed with both his sneering words and the memory of helplessly losing Izumi.
"You can at least console our loss by telling us her story."
A tensed silence grew between them broken only when Toshiki sighed deeply, painfully.
"I suppose she told you her story. You did shelter her then, right?" his voice was calmer this time in an attempt for a conversation.
"Yes." Megumi found herself replying. "She came to my clinic asking if I could help her find an inn where she could stay. It was late already and I was concerned for her safety so I let her stay with me for the night."
At Megumi's pause, Toshiki's brow rose, urging her to continue her story. She hesitated, of course. She only met this man a few minutes ago, aside from the fact that he was one of the very people that Izumi had made her promise never to let Ryusei be exposed. He is one of the very people she was protecting Ryusei from. How could she trust him the details of Izumi's story?
Megumi's mind was racing fast, trying to separate what she would have to tell him from what she would never tell, separate truth from lies, taint truths with lies, and inject a little truth to lies. That would be it! Her mind was fast and brilliant, formulating a plausible lie. She was good at lies, right? Hadn't she convinced her friends with her woven lies? If she was capable of convincing those people who knew her already, there's no reason she can't do the same with this man who knew her nothing more than a woman who sheltered his runaway sister.
"And?" she heard Toshiki's voice, a bit of annoyance was in his tone despite the calmness he displayed.
Picking up to where she left, she continued with ease.
"After she told me everything, I found she had nowhere else to go. So, I decided to let her stay with me until her husband… I mean… Akira Ueji-san would come to fetch her as he promised."
"Husband?" Toshiki repeated.
"Yes, Takatori-san. That's what Izumi told me. They were married."
Toshiki was silent for a moment. She saw how the muscles in his jaw tightened in utter disbelief and disdain. Obviously, just like the rest of her family, Izumi's second brother doesn't favor Akira Ueji.
"Akira only came once but left immediately. Izumi told me that Akira went to secure enough amount of money so they can go away to China. Unfortunately, he didn't make it. We only received news about the ambush where Akira was one of the casualties. Frustrated and in pain, Izumi began to despise her health until she became very sick and refused to recover."
Somehow, there was truth in her words. Izumi lost hope despite the speck of hope swelling inside her womb. She lost the will to live even for the sake of the life growing inside her. Megumi found that, even though she was telling only half the truth, she wasn't lying with regards to the matter of Izumi failing herself.
"All because of that damned man…" Toshiki said, gritting his teeth, but his tone was strained and broken.
"Don't blame him for being the one your sister loved, Takatori-san. Akira's death, caused by your father's doing, was the very reason she failed herself."
"Dead? Dead?" Toshiki growled. "My father had done nothing of that sort, Takani-san, in spite that bastard's betrayal. Even when Akira's betrayal caused my brother's life." He hissed bitterly.
"What do you mean?" Megumi gasped.
"Mama?"
A very hesitant voice took Megumi's attention back to the present. She cast a very, very angry look at the little boy who cowered instantly seeing the rage in his mother's eyes, obviously aware of the offense he committed.
"How many times do I have to tell you NEVER to go out of the house without my permission? How many times do you have to disobey me?" She was yelling at him and seizing his narrow arms, stooping on her knees so her eyes were level with his scared blue ones. It seemed like the fire in his blue eyes was utterly extinguished by his mother's cold anger. Never before did Ryusei saw his mother's eyes that way and it terrified him. Megumi was hysterically shaking the little boy's poor body.
Ryusei had started crying then but with her anxiety-filled rage, she was blind and deaf with his plea .
"How many times? How many times, RYUSEI? How many times do you have to stab me with worry?" she screamed, her tone pitched higher note while her hands gripped the boy's arms painfully, her nails digging on his frail skin.
"Even… if… I a-ask p-permission, y-you won't… l-let me go," Ryusei stuttered to reason with small quivering voice but realized soon after that it was a wrong move when her tone reached a note higher this time.
"Do you know why? Would you understand why? Would you? Would YOU?! WOULD YOU?!" she was shaking him vigorously at the point that the child couldn't take it anymore.
"Mama, YOU'RE HURTING ME!! YOU'RE HURTING ME, MAMA!! MAMA!!"
Ryusei screamed at the top of his lungs and that shook her effectively out of her trance.
Megumi froze, realizing the extent of the emotions she kept bottled up for years. In that very second, seeing Ryusei's pained expression, she realized just how horrible her own fear was. She had been overwhelmed at the point of hurting the very person she had tried so hard to protect.
Immediately after regaining control, she reached out to hug the terrified child. His frail body was involuntarily shaking and racked by his sobs.
She felt her heart choked when instead of welcoming her touch, her little boy brazed himself from her, and resisted, trying to shove her away with his remaining strength.
"I'm sorry, Ryu-chan, I am very sorry," she whispered. She captured his small fists and held his hands firmly, kissing his forehead. That calmed the crying child and Megumi took the chance to engulf his lithe figure in her arms, constantly murmuring her apologies like a mantra to regain his trust and submission.
Drawn by Ryusei's scream, Aoshi hurried to where the sounds came and found the child, choking on his sobs, currently resisting his mother's efforts to embrace him. He saw Megumi kissed the child's forehead and that action somehow amazed Aoshi when he saw Ryusei finally stopped resisting and calmed down. It looked more like Megumi just cast a spell to make the child drop his defenses. He saw how Ryusei brought his short arms around her neck, sobbing like a battered animal.
As if sensing his presence, Megumi's eyes lift to meet a stunned and confused look in him. Before he could fully analyze it, Megumi stood up, lifting the boy with her, still rubbing a hand on his back to hush his sobs and hiccups. She regarded Aoshi apologetically before she headed to Ryusei's room.
Before they disappeared, though, in the darkened hallway, he caught a glimpse of the reddened bruises on the boy's arms. Hence, he decided to demand an explanation of what had just transpired before his very eyes.
Aoshi had waited just outside the room where Megumi was lulling the exhausted child to sleep. After about an hour, he saw her slipped through the door and slowly slid it closed behind her, careful not make any noise.
"How is he?" Aoshi asked quietly.
She wasn't meeting his gaze but he caught the slight uncertainty in her usually sharp, bright eyes.
"Tired and asleep," she replied as she started to leave the area keeping her back on him. She drew a deep breath which she actually tried to conceal from him but didn't go unnoticed considering that Aoshi was a bit more attentive now to every gesture she would make, observing her with calculating eyes.
"When did you arrive?" she asked lightly, trying to drift away from Ryusei's topic.
"Just when the child cried out in pain."
With his tone however, Megumi knew that the subject wouldn't go unexplained to him. She couldn't sway him away from the prevalent issue.
"What made you do that?" He cornered her when they were a good distance away from Ryusei's room, where their voices couldn't be disturbing the sleeping child.
"I got carried away."
Still, she refused to meet his gaze when he stared down at her, completely trapping her form against the wall with his arms extended on both her sides.
"From what?" he asked relentlessly.
Megumi's fury was boiling up again at his prodding. She was tired and confused, regretful of her actions. She would rather put the issue aside for now. Obviously, Aoshi had the other way around. He had no plans of resting it off tonight, no plans even to consider how she was feeling and it infuriated her.
"I got very worried when he went out again, coming home very late. My anxiety got the better of me…"
"You never hurt him before. Your actions tonight scared the hell out of him. Apparently, there's got to be a very deep reason to provoke such actions against him."
"There's nothing more than the worry and fear for his safety that's killing me everytime Ryusei does it. There's nothing more," she countered his tone in a hush.
Megumi met his eyes with an intensity that he couldn't grasp. One thing he knew for sure, she was confused. And he found that the more she was confused, the more she became difficult to read.
Looking down at her inside the makeshift trap that was his arms and body, he couldn't help but admire the way she was at ease with their position. She wasn't stiff against the wall behind her nor was she disturbed by his closeness.
"Let's put this matter aside for now, Aoshi-san. I'm tired and I'm certain you are, too."
She made no attempt to move, though. Neither did Aoshi. He was staring intently at her, reading her. She felt a flitting sensation at his gaze but was equally irritated by the way his eyes were scrutinizing her.
"Have you had dinner yet?" she asked, attempting to distract him but he didn't move even an inch of a muscle.
"I'll make you a dinner," she invited, her second attempt to sway him. Again, her quiet words accomplished nothing. It only earned a tiny flicker of light in his intent blue eyes.
He was daring her. Daring her to tell the truth behind her actions. Megumi knew it by the way his eyes searched every inch of her, looking for a weak spot where he could begin to penetrate through her surface. Inch by inch, he was trying to strip off her mask. She was starting to panic as seconds ticked by. She was scared that he had finally found his way and was getting through.
"Aoshi-san," she called.
"………….."
"Shinomori Aoshi. Will you please… ugh…."
He was still staring at her. Scrutinizing her. Daring her. Slowly, but surely, peeling off her skin. It's a tactic he knew so well and had always worked for him whenever he wanted to get to the bottom of the matter. The bottom of the truth. Yet, he was aware that he was facing a persona who had an obstinate and courageous will, and an admirable defiance to everything that threatens her. Through experience, he knew that it would take him to compromise something in him to get into her. Takani Megumi is a formidable woman.
Aoshi heard her mention about dinner and his empty stomach reacted at the mere invitation. Funny, but, if someone else would have said that he wouldn't be as affected as he was now considering the control he placed himself into just staring inertly towards her. He wasn't sure if that involuntary reaction had manifested in his facial expression, but if it does, she wouldn't be able to distinguish it easily.
He had to admit that the mere mention of a tasty dinner made by Takani Megumi was appealing. He was hungry and exhausted, and he badly needed some, no, a lot of rest. But those can wait a little longer. After all, he wouldn't be the Shinomori Aoshi he was if he gave in easily, ne?
There's a more important matter at hand, though he can't find any rational reason why it suddenly became so important to him to ignore his basic needs. At a simple glance, what he saw was a mere action of a mother disciplining her kid. However, knowing how Takani Megumi was to her son, he was convinced that there was an underlying reason for her outburst. Unfortunately, Ryusei had been the first to unwittingly pull the trigger that Megumi had been holding deep down inside her. The child, with his constant disobedience, had finally detonated the raging emotions that his mother had contained all along.
His eyes shifted to look at her red-layered lips when he heard her call his name. Lovely, he thought, and lovelier when it would be naked of its trademark red, just the natural pink. His gaze came back again to her eyes, which reflected the rising panic he deliberately inflicted on her.
Just when he thought his tactic was working, he got lost on the vulnerability portrayed in her hazel eyes.
"Shinomori Aoshi. Will you please… ugh…."
Without warning, his extended arms that served to corner her physically, had wrapped around her. He pressed her to him, cutting anymore words from her.
At the first seconds, Megumi was stiff with her surprise but hearing him sigh a hint of exhaustion, she softened in his enveloping warmth. She felt a comforting feeling when he tightened his embrace right after he felt her body becoming pliant, though it didn't help to lessen her tensed sensation and surprise.
"Tell me," Aoshi demanded quietly, his breath tickling her temple.
"I told you already. I only got carried away."
She thought, it did convinced him when he didn't prod further. He just stayed there, content of the comforting heat her body was giving him. His exhaustion was slowly consuming his remaining strength and her warm breath on his neck was lulling his mind to rest.
"You're tired, Aoshi-san. Do you want me to prepare dinner for you?"
She waited for his reply, expecting for his monotonous "Aa". But when he made none, she brought her left arm around his waist to hug him back. Her action earned her a quick, sharp intake of breath from the man. Alarm crossed her mind when her arm felt the warm dampness of his shirt just below his ribcage.
Forcibly, she pulled herself from his arms despite his reluctance, and found his blood on her inner arm. She gasped and for the first time she noticed the long horizontal cut on his shirt. The damage on his shirt was cleverly concealed by his long trench coat.
"Why didn't you tell me at once?"
In a split second, the doctor inside her was in control again over her emotions. Her voice found that authoritative tone again. She started to examine the wound beneath the blood-soaked cloth of his shirt.
"It's nothing." He said.
"No, it's not. The cut was deep enough to ooze out that amount of blood. And if you caught infection, you will be nothing more than a steaming bundle of a moron you are on a bed."
She looked at the wound one more time to mentally measure its length.
"How'd you obtained that? It looked like I need to do at least three stitches on it."
Aoshi pressed his lips grimly and his eyes narrowed as a response.
Megumi groaned inwardly at his display of obstinacy.
"Take your coat off, Aoshi-san," she made a face that told him she wasn't giving in either.
Megumi was already wounding the long bandage around his torso after treating his wound. He supported his weight with the desk table where Megumi laid her materials. Naked to the waist, he was helping the onna-sensei adjust the cloth's tightness around him. She had placed a sterilized and medicated bandage directly over the four-stitched cut and was wounding another cloth to hold it in place.
They had been silent the whole time. Megumi was focused on her work while Aoshi concentrated to numb the sting of the antiseptic she poured over the wound, and the pain of the needle piercing through his flesh. She hadn't used painkillers for him on his request, assuring her that he could stand the pain. Of course, she knew a needle's prick would not hurt someone like Aoshi. Regardless, she stitched his wound fast and effectively while the antiseptic still had its effect.
Finally, she tied the ends of the bandage securely before she proceeded to clean her table and sterilizing again her metal tools with hot water. All the while, Aoshi watched her moving about her clinic, tidying things. He watched her purposely approach him when she finished with her chore.
"You hadn't answered me yet? How'd you obtained that?"
She thrust him a clean yukata to replace his bloody, tattered shirt. He had no difficulty slipping his arms through the robe despite the new stitches of his wounds. If ever there had been painful discomfort, his cold façade never showed any as Megumi watched him secure the tie of the blue robe that matched his blue pants.
Aoshi's eyes found her still staring at him. His hesitation was never evident in his face but the longer he held her gaze, the more Megumi proved her suspicion that he was actually hesitating to tell her his real business at Aizu.
"What are you really dealing with?" Megumi's expression was firm matching his own.
"It doesn't concern you?" he replied softly.
Aoshi saw something flickered in her eyes. A glint of pain? He can't be sure, but it was there and it lingered for a fraction of second before she spoke again.
"Yes," she agreed. "Still, I wanted to know."
"I don't think you would want to know."
He held one hand to her, which she considered first before placing hers over it. Then, his larger callused hand closed around her delicate ones, pulling her gently to him.
"I'd rather you don't know."
When Aoshi saw the perplexed swing of her expression, he added quickly. "For your safety."
"I want to know," she repeated firmly, meeting his gaze.
After seconds of assessing her, he decided to give in.
"I warned you," he paused, giving her time to change his mind. Her gaze remained resolute.
"In connection with the Tokyo police, I'm tracking down a syndicate that had its roots from Tokyo. After the roots were ruined, the branches scattered everywhere. The police had tracked down and mopped out most of the offshoots but few remained elusive after all these years because of their influences. This one I'm working with was dealing with modern war weapons smuggled from Shanghai."
"That syndicate must really be that powerful to elude the authorities." She said thoughtfully.
"According to investigation, they have Kyoto influence behind them," he continued.
"That's why you were chosen to do the job."
"Aa."
"I see."
"Megumi-"
Her attention snapped at Aoshi's use of her name.
"There's more. You wanted to know and I'm telling you. I'm telling you everything, so listen very carefully." His tone was serious.
"I'm listening."
"The root of this syndicate I'm dealing with was the same that had bound us together in the past," he finished and took her other hand with his free one.
He was giving Megumi a hint to figure it out by herself, somehow excusing his self from causing whatever emotions raised from her discovery.
Megumi's pupils dilated shortly before her eyes dimmed when she finally figured what he implied.
Silence.
"T-takeda Kanryuu?!"
END OF CHAPTER NINE
Reviews... I need at least ten so I'll update sooner. LOL
