Back at Sanno Hospital (no relation to Sanosuke "Sano" Sagara) in Minato Ward, one lazy Tuesday afternoon...
The most exciting thing to happen to Doctor Aoi Arai for that day was Sanosuke dressing up decently and offering her a bouquet in apology for his... transgressions yesterday.
In a way, Doctor Arai kind of envied the denial stage of Sanosuke's four stages of grief over his lost love, Megumi Takani; the girl whom she looked like.
Dammit, this whole situation really did sound like one of those sappy soap operas her mother watched religiously when Aoi was a kid, wasn't it?
'Too bad. He's not even my type.'
All this talk of (nonexistent) romance reminded her that she was already approaching Christmas Cake age, her years from med school and as a staff intern eating away at her social life.
By Christmas Cake age, she meant that women, like Christmas Cakes, had a definite expiration date even though they weren't necessarily "expired" past that date.
No one wanted to eat Christmas Cake after the 25th of December no matter how delicious it looked. In turn, no Japanese male would want to marry a Japanese woman after she was 25 years of age no matter how attractive she was.
She'd always been alone. Not only in terms of boyfriends, but also when it came to friends. She'd never been close with anyone from the staff and crew of Sanno Hospital.
Still, there was no need to depress herself any further than that.
For good or for ill, it was unrealistic fantasies like these or the blind, unquestioning faith her parents that spurred her into becoming a doctor in the first place.
People had to grow up sometime and realize that fate wasn't preordained; it was something you had to grab hold onto and pursue with all your might.
Youtou Shinnoken
A Rurouni Kenshin/Yuyu Hakusho Crossover Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda
Original Concept by Chad Yang
Where the mundane and the fantastic collide.
Disclaimer: Yuyu Hakusho is the rightful property of Yoshihiro Togashi, Shueisha, Fuji TV, and Studio Pierrot. Rurouni Kenshin is the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallup, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted material that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.
Chapter 45: Fourth Avenue Cafe (Part 3)
Soon after, it was back to the old grind of hospital life for her.
On paper, becoming a doctor was like hitting the jackpot in terms of careers. You were paid good money, you healed the sick, and (admittedly) everyone else felt inferior around you because you acquired a diploma that literally gave you permission to play god.
However, the reality of the situation was far, far different.
Doctor Arai felt less like a giver of life than a grim reaper at the ICU, which admittedly wasn't the type of attitude patients would want their doctor to have when acquiring critical care.
Arai went about her juggling act of attending to various Intensive Care Unit or ICU patients (sometimes called the Critical Care Unit or CCU as well as Intensive Therapy Unit or ITU) without further incident.
From the top of her head, she concluded that most ICU patients were middle-aged to old people, many of them suffering from complications of stroke, the flu, pneumonia, coronary heart disease, lung cancer, stomach cancer, liver cancer, attempted suicide, kidney disease, or pancreas cancer.
There were also non-disease-related cases such as major trauma from road traffic accidents, burns, surgical complications, and poisoning.
As she went through the motions of her work, her mind started to wander once more. To a dark place, unfortunately.
Doctor Aoi had her share of medical horror stories. Contrary to expectations, many of them involved the doctors themselves instead of the patients (because you weren't a particularly good doctor if you had too many firsthand patient horror stories under your belt).
For instance, even without the recent Japanese economic bubble burst and stock market crash at the back of everyone's minds, even when doctors were supposed to be well-paid, she knew many a healthcare professional who spent their early careers in dire financial straits.
Some were homeless vagrants while others had huge debts to pay for staying so long... too long... in med school, even the so-called scholars who had scholarships to supposedly assist their expenses.
Others were in the unique position (and "privilege") of gaining access to different prescription drugs that many normal citizens couldn't get, since Japan had such strict laws when it came to drugs that even Paul McCartney... a veritable rock star... was arrested in Tokyo back in 1980 for marijuana possession by narcotics control officers.
This was a blessing and a curse, since many of these doctors end up either abusing prescribed opioids and benzodiazepines, or serving as drug dealers of the rich and elite, allowing them access to a cornucopia of drugs through under-the-table deals.
Or so she heard.
The rest of the doctors who didn't exploit their status for drug abuse and addiction? They ended up abusing alcohol instead.
This wasn't unusual for office ladies and salarymen, for sure, but the stress of being responsible for saving lives and being medical professionals drive many like Doctor Aoi to drink, some of which led to surgery mistakes or prescription errors while drunk.
The ironic thing was that what led doctors to drink like sailors and secretly abuse drugs beyond any narc's reach was the fear of making mistakes and causing deaths that were completely preventable.
Thousands die, probably almost 100,000 patients, from doctor mistakes, according to certain studies Arai had found. Furthermore, even if doctors do everything right, some patients simply die anyway for whatever reason.
Rather than playing god, if you were to look closely enough, the medical industry tended to expose just how flawed and human doctors were to anyone who paid attention, most of all to themselves.
All the same, as a critical care doctor, Doctor Arai loved her patients. Every single one of them, no matter how fleeting their time with each other was.
Even though her work was frightening, draining, frustrating, and daunting all at the same time, she truly did believe it was also the greatest thing she could possibly do.
Such desultory thoughts occupied her mind at work more often than not, usually in the same afternoon. And many other doctors could attest to having the same type of experience.
"Are you done playing around yet?" Doctor Hiroshi Suwabe said around the time Aoi's shift was about to end for the day.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Suwabe-kun," Doctor Arai replied with a raised eyebrow. "Pray tell, how am I 'playing' around exactly? Have I neglected anything?"
"I heard through the grapevine how you were flirting with some younger man who supposedly pushed you down at a dark alleyway one day. How long have you been seeing this tall, dark, and handsome stranger, Doctor Arai?"
Aoi laughed out loud, interrupting Doctor Suwabe's train of thought despite that hurtful implication in regards to her age. "Oh dear me. Is that what they're saying? Oh, no, no, no... He was just there to apologize for a misunderstanding."
'Besides, he's not my type,' she repeated to herself. 'Now Ken-san, on the other hand...'
"Doctor Arai, please. You should conduct yourself in a professional manner and leave out doctor-to-patient, May-December romance fantasies out the curb," Hiroshi insisted. "Now, your love life is none of my business, but we doctors are here to..."
"Suwabe-kun, I didn't take you for someone who'd engage in rumor-mongering like a housewife," Aoi answered calmly with a smirk. "I don't bother you about talks of your new-age religious beliefs and whatnot, so perhaps you should mind your own business and give the same courtesy to me?"
Suwabe cleared his throat and adjusted his collar, deciding to stop beating around the bush. "The Head of the ICU told me to talk to you about the comatose patient in your care. The one we discussed yesterday. Yamada, wasn't it? Have you forgotten, Doctor Arai?"
Aoi frowned. Did the Head of the ICU push the responsibility of taking care of the Yamada girl to her for the sake of her making the final decision to pressure the grandparents to pull the plug on her in light of their thinning financial resources?
Did that old fart expect her, a relatively new ICU doctor, to crack under pressure and do what the other doctors who were assigned to care for the young Yamada didn't have the heart to do, thinking that this business had nothing to do with them?
She hoped this wasn't the case.
Arai harrumphed at Hiroshi. "I remember. What of it?" She ground her teeth, her mouth turning into a thin line as she closed it tight.
Doctor Suwabe attempted to touch Doctor Arai's shoulder as a gesture of condolences, but she swatted his hand away. All the same, with a solemn voice, he said, "It's about time you told them the gravity of the situation. Prolonging her life support only means prolonging her suffering."
"It's all up to the grandparents. They're the ones among the Yamada Family who's funding her life support, so they're also the ones who'll decide whether or not she'll be taken out of it."
They just stared at each other for five minutes, Suwabe opening his mouth and shutting it repeatedly in consecutive failed tries to break the ice (in an attempt to find the right words to say, perhaps).
"If I were you, I would've definitely pulled the plug on the little girl. End her suffering. End the suffering of her family and the rest of them."
Well, he tried. Aside from gossiping, Doctor Hiroshi's tactlessness and lack of "delicacy" was also reminiscent of a middle-aged, bored housewife of three.
"Suwabe-kun, I'm not sure if anyone else has ever told you this, but you have a bad habit of putting your nose into other people's business. This patient isn't even in your department or under your care. She's in critical care. You're in surgery. With all due respect, she's none of your business."
Doctor Suwabe wagged his finger at Doctor Arai. "Ah, but she can end up in my care, if you wish to. If you were to push the old couple in my direction, that is. She has another chance for survival, if you think about it. Aside from this waiting game that will only lead to the Yamadas' destruction."
She frowned and raised her nose at the surgeon. "Like I'd ever entrust her life to a hack like you who's suggesting euthanasia for her!"
To her surprise, Suwabe nodded. "I understand why you'd think that. But I hope you're not implying I'd euthanize her in my attempt to save her life. Still, her chances of survival after surgery are astronomically low. That much I can admit."
"The Yamadas would never agree to it. Especially from someone who's my junior and believes in ghosts and the supernatural like some sort of child!"
"Ah, but we're not talking about psychic surgery here. We're talking about normal, western-style brain surgery that could prevent her brain from turning into soup within a decade."
He invaded her personal space more than Sanosuke ever did and whispered in her ear, "Besides, who are you to say what they'd agree or not agree with? Tell them they have this option. It's certainly a lot better than the sleeping death they relegated her in, notwithstanding the risks involved."
She pushed him away, her nose wrinkled and her eyebrows furrowed. He yielded and gave her some space, but he didn't give an inch or a centimeter when it came to his proposal.
"Here are the Yamadas' realistic options. They can go through the brain surgery to keep their granddaughter from undergoing brain death and risk losing her right now or they could pull the plug on her about a decade later. Perhaps sooner, if their dire financial straits were to worsen."
"Is this the socially acceptable way for you to mercy-kill the poor girl?" she accused. "Like a dying dog you'd put to sleep? Like Old Yeller?"
"Hardly. She'd at least be given a fighting chance, the way I see it." He adjusted and smoothened out his coat. "It's all on you if you don't tell them about this option."
She shook and trembled, her hands clenched. However... Suwabe. Wouldn't. Stop. Talking.
"Although they'd probably save more money by simply letting go here and now. Heaven knows the poor kid and that old couple had suffered enough. Her spirit would be at peace and she'd have a better chance meeting with her parents in the afterlife."
"Shut your mouth for a minute, Suwabe-kun."
"...Eh? OFF!"
She socked him on the chin, hurting her hand in the process, but at least she made him drop on the seat of his pants in surprise.
"There is nothing for her after death! NOTHING! There is no heaven, there is no hell, she'd just cease to exist! A bitter memory in her grandparents' minds! What do you know about suffering, asking for the easy way out? DON'T ASK ME TO MURDER THEIR GRANDDAUGHTER!"
Suwabe got up and rubbed his swelling jaw. Aoi was about to bow in apology when he asked, "Why are you so against euthanasia? Why would you want to let people suffer because of their own ignorance?"
"..."
"Get your hand x-rayed in case the radiologist is still on duty. You might've fractured it or at least sprained it. It's swelling," were Suwabe's parting words before he himself clocked out and left the hospital premises, gingerly caressing his bruised and aching jaw.
Back at the Fourth Avenue Cafe, on Tuesday evening...
Kenshin Himura waved at the good doctor at the entrance of the establishment.
He had an unusual cross-shaped scar on his left cheek and dressed in old-fashioned clothes like a samurai (complete with what Arai hoped was a prop sword) from the Edo Era would (or perhaps like someone who'd just come from a local festival).
This was the man Arai thought was a woman. The man who saved her from a drunken, depressed, and delusional Sanosuke. Her knight in shining armor. Her dutiful samurai or her loyal ninja.
A sensitive, tactful, and patient kind of man that reminded her a lot of her gentle father.
Doctor Aoi waved back at Himura with her bandaged right hand, which prompted him to exclaim, "Oro?! What happened to your hand, Miss Aoi?! Was it from yesterday's...?"
'Oro?' she thought to herself. 'What a weird verbal tic.'
She waved the (rather diminutive, especially since she was in heels) youngish, girlish man with a womanly voice off, reassuring, "No, I just accidentally sprained my hand on the... stair rails. There's nothing to worry about."
She looked at Kenshin's cheek. "Same with you, right?"
Himura absently touched the scar in question. "I suppose so."
She'd actually asked Sano, of all people, to set up this... well, there was no two ways about it... date with Kenshin as a favor.
She told Sagara she'd only forgive him if he did this for her, and to her surprise, he winked, gave her a thumb's up sign, and said, "Up to your old tricks again, Foxy Lady?"
'So much for the rumors of us dating, he didn't even flinch when I told him I wanted to meet up with Ken-san,' she thought, feeling a little... disappointed.
It was more for the sake of her selfish pride, really; it would've been nice if he acted a little jealous of Kenshin, since she was supposed to look like his ex-girlfriend and all.
Just kidding. Who cared, really? Not her.
With a smile and batted eyelashes, Arai grabbed hold of Kenshin's arm and said, "Ken-san, I'm not in the mood for a meeting at a cafe right now. Can we go to a bar instead?"
"Oro?" Kenshin himself blinked repeatedly. "Well, sure, I guess. Can you lead the way? I'm not all that familiar with Minato."
At a karaoke in Roppongi...
"Interesting choice in bars," said Kenshin after receiving his order from a waitress wearing an Eighties sci-fi kitsch uniform.
The karaoke booth they were in was all pink, with neon lighting and leather armchairs in place of the standard Seventies wallpaper and uncomfortable bench.
"Eh, I'm a little too old for this myself, but at least the waitresses here won't be indulging in credit card fraud and blackmail like in other Roppongi bars... or so I've heard," said Aoi, who took a sip of her beer and exhaled in ecstasy.
Damn, that hit the spot. She finished the rest in one swig.
"I see," said Himura, who took one look at the screen before him and asked, "So we're watching, uh... television here or something?"
Arai turned towards Kenshin and, while holding the remote to the karaoke machine, asked, "Ken-san, you've never been to a karaoke before?"
The redhead patted the perspiration that formed on his forehead with tissue paper. "I can't say I have."
"I suppose you don't have karaoke in the province either," she said. "Don't worry, Doctor Arai here will teach you everything you need to know about this place, all right?"
"Please do," said the sword-wielding, old-fashioned Soy Sauce Man with a low, respectful bow right from the hip. "I'm in your care."
Should she be taking this country bumpkin to Roppongi on their... date?
After all, the bar-riddled district that had been attracting partygoers and night owls since the Seventies, when American soldiers from barracks and locals would collide into the wee hours of the night, didn't seem like the kind of place Himura would belong to.
Sure, the diminutive man with the face of a high school girl and the flat chest and figure of a middle school girl could defend himself with that fake sword, but Arai wasn't so sure the naive man would fare well against scammers.
Then again, barkeeps and cabaret scouts out on the street might instead offer him a job on the spot as a cabaret girl (or, if they were to find out he was a guy, a cross-dressing "Onnanoko" or transvestite).
"Hey, what's so funny?" a curious Kenshin asked the giggling Aoi, who waved him off.
"I-It's nothing. Don't mind me," she said before composing herself with a prim cough. "Ken-san, this is a karaoke machine. It plays instrumental music that you can sing along to, with this microphone and videos featuring the lyrics and everything. Let me show you how to pick songs with this remote."
The song she picked was a hit from two years ago, a love song entitled "Say Yes" by Chage and Aska. She essentially did a female cover of it (since it was sung by a male duo) while Himura clapped along with the beat of the music.
She ended it with a flourish and a bow, and her date applauded her. "Wow. This is amazing. Kaoru-dono... I mean, Botan has never brought me to places like these before."
"Well, I guess she's more considerate of you than I am. You probably never heard most of these songs before as well, right?" Aoi asked, drinking her second bottle of beer.
"Wait, I know this one at least," Kenshin said after fumbling with the remote. Arai covered her mouth to laugh again, because the way he was with technology was the same way her Luddite father was with it.
"Really? Which song did you pick?" The doctor looked at the screen and went still, her eyes wide and her smile frozen. 'Wait, isn't this Enka? D-Dynamite Bushi? Seriously? I'm surprised that song is available in the karaoke selection!'
Incidentally, (Modern) Enka was a music genre made to stylistically resemble traditional Japanese music, although the song that Himura picked was actually one available back in the Meiji Era (i.e., actual traditional Japanese music).
From there, Kenshin took the mic and started singing onto it.
'Whoa! No way! He's actually good at singing Enka, of all things!? Wait, he's even a better singer than I am! He's like a pro!' Doctor Arai could only imagine the look on her face right about now.
"W-Way to go, Ken-san!" she cheered, applauding and shaking her head in disbelief after it was over. "Encore, encore!"
A few hours later, and Aoi ended up drinking more than three bottles of beer, which according to her weight and height should've left her impaired for driving and a candidate for alcohol poisoning.
She should've really known better. Dammit, she had work tomorrow.
The room spun around her, a seeming haze blurring the edge of her vision while her mind went blank.
For some reason, memories began invading the surface of her mind, like a bubbling pool from a hot spring.
She remembered talk from her mother about witches sending their familiars or shikigami at them, particularly that one black cat that wouldn't go near the housewife even though usually, other cats took easily to her, which served as proof to her that the cat was... evil.
"It's them again. They're using voodoo and curses to make our lives even more miserable than usual. They're the ones who took your grandmother away from us," Aoi's mom claimed.
That was the kind of mother she had.
Another unbidden memory came forth. One permanently anchored in the shallow waters of her psyche, refusing to drift away to forgetfulness.
"I don't want grandma to die! Please, save grandma! I love grandma!" Aoi had said as a young girl.
She remembered her parents vowing, "No, we won't. We'll hang on till the end."
She woke up in time to hear Kenshin say, "...To be honest, even if the supernatural existed, it won't serve as a magical band-aid to everyday problems. It can even cause more mind-boggling problems to happen rather than become a quick fix!"
Doctor Arai giggled and hiccoughed. "That's a good point, Ken-san," she said without thinking. She then blinked and turned away.
How long was she out of it? She couldn't tell.
Her head cleared, the fog in her brain lifting when she'd realized the situation she was in, her growing embarrassment sobering her up a little.
Here she was. Alone with a man (she shouldn't let his effeminate looks deceive her). After having too much to drink.
Jeez, what kind of conversation were they having the past few minutes or hours? She couldn't remember. Was Kenshin answering a question of hers about the supernatural?
"What are we talking about again?" was the sheepish question she couldn't help but ask, which made her berate herself in third person.
'Wait a minute, Aoi! You're drunk with a man inside a karaoke parlor and you couldn't remember half the evening! Shut up!'
To her horror, Kenshin said, "Now isn't that the million yen question?" his hand scratching the back of his rust-colored hair. "Something about your superstitious family, I believe. Or you saying if supernatural things existed, then life would be easier."
In spite of herself or perhaps thinking she had nothing more to lose in terms of embarrassing herself, Doctor Arai asked, "Ever heard of the term 'Catch-22', Ken-san?"
Kenshin laughed and grabbed the back of his head by habit, as though apologizing in advance for his next few words. "I can't say I have. It's like I've lived under a rock for half a century or so, pardon my saying."
"It's all right. I wish I lived in that rock too, along with you," she said, her mouth curling to an easy smile before she backtracked and amended, "I-I don't mean that in a dirty way!"
'...Dammit, Aoi,' she admonished herself, internally cringing while imagining herself palming her face.
"I didn't say you did, ma'am!" Kenshin reassured, his hands raised up in surrender.
"Don't worry about it. Besides, not many other Japanese know about the term either," she reassured. "It's an expression coined after the book of the same name by Joseph Heller. Set during World War II."
"Oh. What does it mean, though?"
"It's an English term, meaning damned if you do, damned if you don't. Or rather, an unsolvable logic puzzle. Or a paradox. It's like... a fresh graduate who can only get a job by having job experience, but can only get job experience by getting a job."
"Oh, I see!" Himura pounded his palm once with a closed fist. "It's like a no-win situation! It's like waging war in order to gain peace. Or having guards, but not having any guards to guard them!"
"Yeah, you get the idea! 'Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?' right?"
"Oro? I didn't catch that last one."
"You know! It's Latin for 'Who will guard the guards?' That's what you were quoting, right?"
"Eeeeh? I just came up with the idea! It's so old that it's a Latin saying from centuries ago?" said Kenshin. "Wow. You sure are well-read, Aoi-dono. I can barely keep up with you."
"Well, I have read my share of foreign books, but I do like some local literature too, like works written by Soseki Natsume or Mishima Yukio. I was quite the bookworm when I was younger!"
"And yet you ended up a doctor..."
She averted Kenshin's gaze. "I shifted from classical literature and philosophy to medicine fairly quickly, though. You can't make a serious living out of a literature degree."
She ended up checking the clock inside the room. "My gosh, look at the time. We better get going, Ken-san!"
"Oh, sure. I'll walk with you to the train station," the gentlemanly Himura insisted.
They soon checked out of the karaoke booth and paid the bill (her treat). After getting a can of coffee at a vending machine to combat her drunkenness, they went their separate ways at the Roppongi Station.
She never did reveal to him the Catch-22 she currently faced.
On Friday that same week, at Doctor Aoi's favorite Fourth Avenue Cafe where she read either medical journals or one of those local Japanese classics from Mishima or Soseki, she again chanced upon some of Kenshin's closest friends: Yahiko Myojin and Botan (Just... Botan).
Their group was so Kenshin-centric, Yahiko called themselves the Kenshingumi or the Kenshin Squad, a pun on the Shinsengumi or the New Squad.
It was as though these country bumpkins had stepped right out of a historical novel or play set during the Meiji Era, almost.
They sat at the outdoor tables (with huge umbrellas on each of them) of the cafe, because it was full of customers from the inside at that time of day.
Ever the gadfly, Doctor Aoi asked the two, "Are you on a date?" if only to see how extreme their reactions would be. To her disappointment, they both laughed the question off.
"Like I'd date this pint-sized squirt! He's like a brother to me!" said Botan. "Besides, I already have someone."
"Like I'd date this old hag! Tanuki (raccoon dogs) should date their own kind!" said Yahiko. "Besides, I already have someone."
"Eh?" they chorused together, staring at each other for a second or two.
In predictable sisterly and brotherly fashion, the two pseudo-siblings ended up stretching each other's mouths, with one or the other complaining, "Who are you calling a pint-sized squirt/raccoon dog?! Take that back!"
It was then that Arai noticed the prop sword Kenshin usually carried was now wielded by Botan, who for a change wore kendoist clothes rather than her usual restrictive kimono.
As for Yahiko, instead of wearing his Edo Era kendo master clothes typical of the early years of the Meiji Restoration, he instead had a mix of Meiji Era eastern clothes and Victorian Era western clothes.
According to books by Soseki, these were the items worn by schoolboys of the period. The hakama and haori set were mixed and matched with the black or navy gakuran jacket, slacks, and a cap for good measure as Japan began to embrace western fashion more.
This made the doctor wonder if the Kenshingumi was actually a theater guild or kabuki troupe and she kept on chancing upon them on break in the middle of their theater dress rehearsals or something.
Either that or they were born in the wrong century.
She then covered her mouth and turned away after Botan complained to Yahiko, "What's with your stupid getup? You look like a schoolboy from the Sixties!"
"Sixties? This is Nineties fashion! Eighteen Nineties, to be exact, you ignorant tanuki! I'm helping jog your memory of your past life through historical fashion!"
"Ack! Not this past life crap again! This is why people keep staring and whispering at us at the street when we go out to eat! Or why Megu... I mean, Aoi-san probably thinks we're new-age superstitious kooks, you time-displaced old man!"
"You're the one to talk, you blue-haired old hag with a cosplay fetish! Wearing schoolgirl uniforms at your age? Seriously."
"MY AGE?! OLD HAG!? You've crossed the line this time, Mister!"
Aoi only realized that her face had stretched into a smile after her jaw began hurting from her attempts to withhold her laughter. 'These people, I swear!'
On a whimsical note, she asked the two not-siblings, "Let's suppose this whole thing about Sano saying I'm the reincarnation of Takani Megumi is true. Could you tell me more about her? What I was like in my past life?"
Botan gulped and looked away, unable to answer, but the grinning Yahiko indulged Doctor Arai, stating, "Well, Doc. For one thing, you're the spittin' image of ol' Foxy Lady, pardon the nickname."
Doctor Aoi laughed in a noblewoman sort of way in jest. Or like a female Santa Claus. "OHOHOHO! Then she must've been gorgeous back in the day, wasn't she?"
She stopped and felt her mouth form into a thin line as the two just stared at her, shaking their heads and murmuring to themselves, "Wow. It's uncanny!"
Jeez, these two. Every time.
Even the pony-tailed girl with dyed hair had to interject, "I never pictured you as someone who believed in past lives, Aoi-chan."
Arai shrugged. "Yep. Never bought a Ouija board or tarot card deck in all my life. I don't even believe in newspaper horoscopes."
The doctor traced a circle with her manicured fingernail over the table while her tongue played with her coffee drink's straw. "Call it... intellectual curiosity."
"Well, I don't appreciate it when you make fun of people's past lives, Miss Cynic!" Botan puffed up her cheeks (like a tanuki), pouted, put her hands underneath her chin, and slurped her own drink's straw with vigor.
Aoi backed off and raised her hands. "Who's making fun of anyone? You can believe whatever you want to believe. You're not pushing your beliefs on me and I'm not doing the same with you!"
Yahiko lightly punched the sullen Botan's shoulder. "Come on, Kaoru! It won't hurt to tell her. If she's anything like Megumi, you know she won't do anything like that!"
'Kaoru...?' Aoi noticed the slip-up. 'Did Botan remind Yahiko-kun of another deceased friend of theirs too? Are we on the same boat?'
To Myojin, "Not-Megumi" proposed, "Ah, but what if, when you get to know me more, you'll be disappointed that I'm not like your friend?"
"That's actually the exciting part," said Yahiko. "We know you're not exactly like Megumi. Even twins end up not being exactly alike. Seeing what changed and what hasn't can be quite nostalgic for us, even if you don't believe in all that past life crap. Right, Botan?"
"Huh? Uh, oh right!" Botan said, her head jerking up in attention, which made her almost choke on the ice coffee she was sipping earlier.
"How do you 'read' past lives, though? Palmistry? Tarot? A crystal ball?" Aoi asked, and Botan complained to Yahiko, "She promised she won't make fun of us!" and Arai reassured, "But I'm not!"
Before Myojin could interject, Botan ended up grabbing hold of Aoi's hands, the "dyed"-haired girl's smaller hands fitting perfectly under the doctor's bigger palms.
"Hey, Botan! What are you...?" trailed off the wannabe Meiji schoolboy.
Botan then opened Arai's palm and started tracing her finger along its creases and wrinkles. "So palmistry it is?" the doctor ventured, but her weird companion shushed her with a finger on the lips.
"I see a... flirt. A huge flirt. A flirt that somehow got a hold of Kenshin and made him drink alcohol the other day while singing karaoke," Botan said while beads of sweat formed on the doctor's forehead, brow, and temple area. "Same like before. Same like it was a century ago. Some things never change."
"...You're not a palm reader, are you?"
"No, but do I need to be? I smelled booze and perfume all over Kenshin's shirt when he got back... um, home, and I've never seen him drink! Also, the perfume on him is the same scent I smell on your wrists and neck right now!"
"Well, technically, he still doesn't drink, but..." Something then clicked inside Aoi mind. Like the taut twang of a harp when one of its strings broke. 'Oh. So that's how it is. I see what's going on here.'
Because she had more tact and delicacy in her pinky finger than Sanosuke ever had in his whole tall, lanky body, Aoi changed the subject, asking, "How'd the Kenshingumi meet with each other anyway?"
Taken aback, Botan let go of Arai's palm and brushed her hair behind her ear. "Um, it's kind of complicated."
Yahiko, who seemed in many ways like a shorter version of Sano, said, "Kenshin was a hitokiri (manslayer) for the Ishin Shishi before he became a wanderer for a decade. Then he met Kaoru, myself, and Sano back in Tokyo before it became the concrete jungle you know today."
"YAHIKO! You're saying too much!" said Botan.
"What? She said she was curious. Rather than beat around the bush, it's about time we told it to her straight, Kaoru," replied Myojin.
"I-It's, um, Botan! D-Don't call me strange names in front of her!"
"Oops. Sorry, Tanuki."
"THAT'S AN EVEN WORSE NAME!"
There was that name again. So Botan (or Kaoru) really was schizophrenic! Or did she have multiple personalities? Then again, the Kenshingumi did refer to each other with multiple strange aliases.
Instead of asking the obvious, Aoi opted to inquire, "Was... Megumi in love with Kenshin?"
Whoa. That stopped them in the middle of another bout of bickering. Like they were in a game of musical chairs.
"Um, hello?" Aoi backtracked from her seat when Botan leaned forward and looked her straight in the eyes.
"Yes. Yes, Megumi-san was. Madly."
To Botan's surprise, Doctor Arai didn't flinch or back down, asking, "So she's just like you, Botan-chan?"
What the hell? What was Aoi saying? So much for sensitivity! What had gotten into her? She berated herself for asking such a question.
However, like a middle-aged man undergoing a midlife crisis, Botan backed down and murmured, "L-Like me?"
Then, a funny thing happened. Not "hilarious" funny, but rather "bizarre" funny. Botan had an argument with... herself. Somehow.
"Do I...? Of course not! S-So Botan, do you...? NO, KAORU! I barely know Kenshin! Why would I...? Still, do you, Kaoru...? I... I don't know myself! How about you, Botan? If you don't know, then how am I supposed to know? I got to know! I like Kenshin as a friend. Well, so do I! Then that's fine, isn't it? It's none of your business anyway! What do you mean it's none of my business...!?"
"Uh, you'll have to excuse us," said Yahiko while grabbing hold of the gibbering and jabbering Kaoru/Botan. "I think you broke her. I might need to bring her back to the shop for repairs or something. Goodbye, Doc."
"Are you sure she's okay? Maybe she needs to get looked at. Or at least acquire a prescription. I could recommend a good psychiatrist or counselor," said Aoi. It sounded like the responsible thing to say in that situation.
"Oh, I'm sure she'll be fine. Thanks for the meal!" said Yahiko, who left a couple of bills and coins on the table. "Say bye-bye, Botan!"
Botan conked Yahiko on the noggin with the handle of (Kenshin's?) sword. "You twerp! Don't treat me like someone who belongs in a loony bin, you condescending little... Oh. Um... see you around, Megumi Aoi-san!" she waved after noticing Aoi's unblinking stare.
Doctor Arai waved back, her eyes never leaving Botan's. "Yeah. Same to you, Kaoru Botan-san."
"Kamiya Kaoru! That's my... past self's full name! Got a problem with that?" asked Botan.
"Not at all. Have fun with your delusions!" reassured the doctor in return, which earned her a "raspberry" from "Kaoru's" fluttering, spit-spraying tongue.
As the two left, the blue-haired girl's ponytail bobbed from behind her like a dog's wagging tail as she made her exit. Or like a male tanuki's... unmentionables.
The doctor heaved a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding back all that time.
Wow. There was no other word for what just happened. Wow.
She could talk with these people for hours and never get bored. They were indeed her endless sources of entertainment during these past few days of... pressured demands.
On the plus side, the sprain on her right fist after she slugged Doctor Suwabe had healed nicely. The swelling went down as the days passed, so she didn't need to wear a cast or bandages.
However, on the "minus" side, she still had yet to broach the topic of surgery and a chance to wake up the Yamada granddaughter to her grandparents that funded her hospital stay for whatever reason. Adult circumstances and all that.
They might not take kindly to it. She might be accused, as she had accused Hiroshi, of attempting to euthanize their beloved comatose grandchild.
Time and funds were running out on the sick little girl, though. Doctor Arai needed to make a decision that afternoon. She needed to speak up now or forever hold her peace.
One Saturday evening, inside a swanky European restaurant at Roppongi Hills, Minato...
"He's late," Aoi murmured to herself out loud, checking her elegant gold watch wrapped around her thin wrist like a bracelet, her dress hugging her slim body like a thin silken robe.
It was about two weeks since she last met any of the Kenshingumi. Around the same time she stopped going to the Fourth Avenue Cafe until about yesterday, when she went there on a whim.
After much needling from both ends by the Head of the ICU and her junior, Doctor Suwabe, Doctor Arai gave in and told the elderly couple of their options.
Specifically, their third option: An all-or-nothing brain surgery. Their first option involved waiting for the girl to wake up while she was on life support and their second option was pulling her plug and cutting their losses.
The meeting two weeks ago went as well as Aoi expected. So well that she didn't even want to remember it. They were a defensive old couple that would shoot the messenger when it came to their precious comatose granddaughter.
Aoi ended up getting a second date with Kenshin exactly to get her mind off of the Yamada granddaughter's... unfortunate circumstances, the little girl's fate sealed by well-intentioned grandparents who couldn't let go.
But should they let go? It was their money. Their decision. There was only so much a doctor could do when it came to consulting with patients and caretakers, and it was ultimately the ones footing the medical bill that called the shots.
They were the ones assigned with life or death decisions for their loved ones. It was not her place to interfere... Right?
Dammit. Everything was falling apart. 'Just like before...'
She took a deep breath and calmed herself. This was not the time for her to worry about such things. 'What's done is done. It's out of my hands now.'
She ordered wine for herself, but not too much because she didn't want a repeat of what had happened before at the karaoke bar.
However, a different kind of sadness crept into her heart, sitting there in all her lonesome, drinking wine across an empty chair reserved for someone that was supposed to be the most sensitive of his group (who was named after him, of all things) yet couldn't even keep his promise to show now of all times.
She opened her compact to powder her nose, then laughed at the look her reflection had: Ballooned-up cheeks and a pout. The same look that Botan (or Kaoru) gave her after divulging her suspiciousness over the karaoke date Kenshin and the doctor had.
She shook her head. She didn't mean to make Kenshin's shirt smell like perfume and beer. Maybe she'd put on too much for the day? Maybe that extra spritz prior to their date proved excessive after all?
Ah, there was no use crying over spilt milk! She had this date to get over with. 'Over with?'
Wasn't this little attempt at R&R supposed to get her mind off of work? She shouldn't treat their dinner date like it was an obligation. This was a date with her beloved "Ken-san", after all.
'Just Ken-san! Scratch the 'beloved' part! Jeez, Aoi, what are you thinking? Get a hold of yourself!' Oh great. Now she was referring to herself in third person like Botan did during her... psychotic episode last week.
However, she only knew Kenshin for all of three weeks, more or less. Unlike Kaoru or Botan, who sounded like they'd known each other for months' on end. The girl probably even knew the story behind Himura's scar.
Doctor Arai sighed, admonishing herself for having "old maid" delusions of wimpy ol' Kenshin Himura sporting a mysterious scar from his dark, troubled past that filled him with angst.
A bad boy with an innocent, effeminate face that swept her off her feet by being her rescuer from a "bad guy" and all; it sounded like yet another sappy romance straight out of a soap opera or girl's comics.
'I'm not honestly buying into Yahiko-kun's cockamamie story about Ken-san being a historical hitokiri during the Tokugawa Era in his past life, am I? Yeah right, and I was also a European princess from the Kingdom of Albania, complete with my own castle!'
She soon became more and more self-conscious of the gathering couples enjoying their own romantic dinners. While she sat there. Alone with wine, whines, half-finished plates of food, and ebbing candles.
'He's not coming, is he?' she soon realized Kenshin was already an hour late. What a way to end the week, with her date that she thought was polite to the point of being a doormat standing her up and all.
She got up from her chair as quietly as possible so as not call attention to herself, planning to pay the bill and make a hasty exit without looking the receptionist or any of the waiters in the eye before she got stopped in mid-stride by someone with a firm grip on her thin wrists.
"Wha...?"
"Where are you going, Doc? Wait up!"
The last person she expected to show up at the restaurant showed up then and there.
"S-SANO?!"
"Whew, thanks for bailing me out, Doc!" said Sanosuke Sagara in between his bites of Napolitan spaghetti, while thusly making a mess of himself like the provincial idiot that he was, his chin dripping with noodles and sauce. "Wow, is this the gaijin version of soba? Pretty good!"
"N-No problem." Doctor Arai laughed weakly. As soon as Sanosuke grabbed hold of her earlier, the restaurant staff and even the security guard from outside surrounded him, asking him to step outside and not make a scene or they'd call the police, thinking he was an abusive ex, a stalker, or both.
Apparently, he'd been trying to get to Doctor Aoi Arai even before she arrived at the restaurant to warn her that Kenshin might be too busy to go through with their date.
However, he mistook one restaurant for another, and she ended up waiting for the redhead all that time. Once he did find out where she went, the security guard wouldn't let him in without a reservation.
Thankfully, Sano caught Aoi just as she was leaving and explained everything to her before he got carted off into the hoosegow (or before he bashed some heads in and made a run for it). Either way, everything worked out for the best.
Save for one thing.
"Where the hell is Ken-san?!" said Doc Arai with a low hiss before wiping Sano's messy chin like a doting mother. Or perhaps a concerned wife (yeah, right).
"Er, uh... he's busy with his... um, job. Let him be. He really wanted come to your date too, since he wanted to cheer you up and all, but he had to take, uh, a rain check on that," Sanosuke obviously lied, slurping up some more spaghetti with chopsticks instead of a fork, despite restaurant protocol (he had chopsticks with him that he took from the other restaurant he went to).
"'Work', huh?" asked Arai before taking out another napkin and demanding, "Eat like a human being, dammit! You're ruining the moment!"
"Moment? What moment are you talking about?" Sanosuke dropped his chopsticks on the table and took the napkin from Doc Aoi's hands so that he could wipe his face on his own.
Arai gulped, looking at the cleaner, more stylish version of Sano. For good or for ill, even though he was just a stand-in for the absentee Himura, Sagara at least had the decency to dress the part of a gentleman.
Instead of wearing his leather bondage clothes (which made him look like a Japanese version of a Fifties greaser or The Fonz from Happy Days) or his elaborate mix between a karate getup and a white yakuza wannabe jacket with black trim and the Japanese character for "Evil" on the back, he wore something rather... decent, for once.
He sported a cloth jacket with matching pants and a collared, button-up polo shirt. Simple, but elegant. 'Wow. This gigantic manchild cleans up real nice,' appraised the doctor.
Not bad for a feckless, shirking, and perpetual goof-off.
The only thing that looked off about him was his wild outgrowth atop his head that he called hair.
Sano tapped Aoi's shoulder to get her attention and showed off both rows of his teeth with an unnatural grin.
"What now?" she asked.
"Anything stuck on my teeth? Or is there food on my face? Am I a good to go?" asked Sanosuke without opening his jaw, which made him look like some sort of puppet or animatronic.
Withholding a smirk, Doctor Aoi retrieved her compact and let Sano take a look at himself with it. "There you go. Happy?"
"Thanks, Doc." He straightened his bangs with three fingers, aimed finger pistols at his reflection, and made a clucking sound with his tongue while winking at himself.
The doctor lost it this time around, ending up with a peal of chortles and hiccups that she covered with her mouth lest she lost all semblance of dignity and daintiness.
"H-Hey! Shut up, Doc! I dressed up in this monkey suit for your sake, you know!" came Sanosuke's petulant protest.
"No, no. I'm sorry. I know." She let out a long and audible exhale and wiped the tears on the edges of her eyes. "I appreciate it. Thank you. You didn't need to do this, though. You could've just said Kenshin wasn't coming and left it at that."
"Well, I was hungry." Sano looked away and scratched the side of his nose.
Aoi smiled. "Of course, you were. Dig in. You deserve it. You saved my failed date in your own special way, Sano."
Sanosuke cleared his throat and focused his attention back to his plate. "S-Stop acting weird. It's creeping me out. Snap out of it, Doc."
"Hmmm? 'Weird'? In what way?" she asked, tilting her head to the side as she brushed a lock of it behind her ear.
"Don't be so nice to me all of a sudden!" he answered back in between mouthfuls of spaghetti. "You're not acting like yourself! Call me an idiot and be condescending or something! I'm not used to seeing you like this!"
Giggling at something that would've normally triggered her anger, she remarked, "I didn't realize you were such an 'M', Sano," with "M" referring to the Japanese shorthand of calling some a masochist.
"I don't know what that means, but damn you, just in case!" answered Sano before slurping up a long strand of Napolitan into his mouth. "Ah, whatever! I still owe you anyway!"
She blinked. "Owe me for what? If it's for that time you led me to a abandoned construction site, I already said I've forgiven you. You didn't mean any harm."
"No, I didn't mean that. I'm talking about a favor... well, favors... I owed you from waaaay back, Doc. Like during the Meiji Restoration."
'Oh boy, here we go,' she thought, rolling her eyes. "Let me guess, it's about our past life relationship again, isn't it?"
"When you were the Foxy Lady," he said before amending, "I mean, Takani Megumi," after a swift kick from under the table, "you saved my bacon more than once, fixing up my busted hand or tending to my other wounds."
"Jeez, what am I? Your medic or something?" she asked him, her head smilingly shaking from side to side.
"Sort of. Yeah." He patted his stomach. "You even saved my life through surgery after I got skewered by Sa... some sword-wielding maniac. I thought I was a goner for sure!"
"Wow. Did I?" said a blank-faced Doctor Arai. "You must've led an action-packed past life to go through that sort of adventure. Next you'll tell me you met historical figures back in the Meiji Era like Okubo Toshimichi or Yamagata Aritomo."
"Er... Hehehe," trailed off Sano, who became sweatier than usual. "Yeah, that would sound silly, wouldn't it?"
"If you're going to make up a back story, why not make it more fantastic and interesting? How about becoming the reincarnation of an Ainu Shaman from Hokkaido? Or an Egyptian Pharaoh playing magical children's card games? Or a genie from the Arabian Nights tales? Or a ronin attempting to get into Tokyo University? Or a banana slug?"
"Those are strangely specific suggestions," commented the hoodlum. "A banana slug is an interesting choice, though."
She half-expected the fish-out-of-water Sanosuke to ask, 'When did Tokyo University train masterless samurai the art of swordsmanship? Is it like a martial arts university now?' To her surprise, he... didn't.
She continued. "And you know what's worse? I kind of wish that it's all true! That I really am some doctor from the Nineteenth Century who loved being a doctor so much, I became one again when I was reborn because, what the hell, I'm fated to be a doctor!"
She hiccoughed and realized that her glass of wine, along with the bottle from which the wine came, were both empty. 'Oh crap. Not this again.'
"Doc...?"
"I wish I really was friends with all of you. With you. Kamiya Kaoru. Myojin Yahiko. And Himura Kenshin. These past few weeks have been the happiest I've ever been since becoming a doctor. I never realized how lonely I've been till now, and I want you all to take responsibility for making me know what it's like to be cared for after so long."
"Eh? T-Take responsibility?" Sano and several other patrons of the restaurant from nearby chorused. "You look a little red, Doc. Are you okay? You might've had too much to drink already."
She heard murmurs among the other gathered couples, her voice a little louder than usual from all the wine she drank. But she didn't care.
She wasn't really upset at Kenshin for blowing her off, albeit in an inadvertent manner. She herself had stood up many a date because of the countless emergencies she had to face as part of the ER staff.
She'd gone through so many omiai (matchmaking meeting) leading up to nowhere. At least one engagement was called of. Even her childhood sweetheart had ended up marrying another girl in Fukushima after they both decided to call it quits because of their long-distance relationship.
She feigned getting a headache (that actually came much later in the form of a hangover) and said, "I'm not responsible for what I'm about to say. This is probably just the wine talking."
Sagara tugged at his collar. "Whatever. Better to let it all out than to keep it in, I always say."
Memories of Sanosuke claiming Megumi to be Aoi's reincarnation from another time, another life, swirled at the back of the doctor's mind, making her wonder what kind of relationship the two had about a century ago.
Maybe she should've asked Botan about that instead of about Takani's crush on Kenshin.
"Sano, I was wondering if..."
She was wondering what? What exactly was she going to say?
"...AOI-DONO! I'm sorry I'm late, that I am!"
A collective "Tch," noise from clucking tongues arose from the unintentional audience of Sagara and Arai, as though someone had switched the channel on the drama they were watching just when it was about to get good.
Afterwards, seemingly everyone in the restaurant, from the waiters to the customers and especially Sanosuke and Aoi, stared at the out-of-breath Kenshin, wearing a blue, more ornate kimono for a change but looking even more suspicious than Sanosuke did a while ago with that scar on his cheek and that sword of his strapped inside his obi (cloth belt).
One of the customers then shouted, "Ah! It's the other woman! Look at that plunging neckline, the strumpet!"
"GODAMMIT, YOU GOT IT WRONG!" screamed Sanosuke back. "If you're going to misunderstand the situation, then at least call Kenshin 'the other man'!"
"Wait, that's a man?" a woman asked, peering closely at Himura's (lack of a) cleavage.
Yet another one of the customers, a middle-aged man in a three-piece suit, queried to Sano, "So are you cheating on her with him? Or on him with her?"
"THAT'S EVEN MORE WRONG, BALDY!" raged Sano, breaking the chopsticks in his hands in twain and rising up from his chair. "Nobody's cheating with anyone! And it's none of your business anyway!"
For Kenshin's part, all he could do was blink and say, "Oro?"
At a cheaper, smaller, and more cramped 24-hour Fourth Avenue Cafe after making a scene at the other, larger, and swankier restaurant (which they had to leave out of sheer embarrassment)...
After ordering some coffee to clear her mind and sober her up (she should've known better though; coffee counterattacked alcohol-induced lethargy, but not the feelings of drunkenness), she promptly wished that the ground would swallow her up.
What in the blue blazes was she thinking? What the hell was she about to confess to Sanosuke? "I love you"? "Marry me, I'm desperate"? Or how about "Would you like dinner, a bath, or me?"
Holy hell, she must've been drunk out of her mind!
Himura, clueless about what had transpired, continued to apologize profusely to Doctor Arai. "I didn't mean to stand you up! I had to attend to other business on short notice! I hope you understand..."
"Ken-san."
"Yes, Aoi-dono?"
"Who is Kamiya Kaoru to you? Do you like her?"
Sanosuke, who sat at the stool next to the left of the doctor while Kenshin sat next to her right, thus sandwiching her between the two of them, told the redhead, "She's a little drunk, Kenshin. Don't mind her so much."
"Maybe I am," she said, who took a sip of her cup of joe immediately after she got it, "But answer the question anyway, Ken-san."
Actually, she'd been meaning to ask the question back in the restaurant during their canceled date of sorts.
Kenshin stared blankly at Arai while she felt wide, flailing movements from Sanosuke from beside her without looking at him. "She made me feel welcome at a time when I was all alone. She was the one I wanted to go home to when I had to leave her dojo for a while."
With a wry smile, Aoi said, "I see," taking another sip of her cup. She then asked, "Does she know?"
"Er... I haven't told her anything yet."
"Okay. Thank you for being honest."
"Aoi-dono..."
She then thought to herself, 'I lost before I even started playing, huh?' remembering Botan sticking her tongue out at her weeks ago out of sheer jealousy.
She then had a vision of her talking to a raven-haired, brown-eyed version of Botan (the true face of Kaoru?) who lay on a futon, indolent and silent, after Kenshin left her to go on some sort of mission or something. Telling her that he chose her and that she should go after him.
Was this a memory of her past life? Or, more likely, her wishful thinking? Damn, she needed a drink right about then.
Was this the woman that she'd become? Desperate for companionship and romance? Jealous of the bonds of others? Willing to believe any lie or fantastical story to escape her own reality?
Was she even cut out to be a doctor with that kind of selfish thinking? That kind of... desperation?
Here she was, worried about her own selfish loneliness and the "happily ever after" of her life story when some other comatose girl, a juvenile Snow White, was about to stay in limbo for many years to come until she became a shell of her former self.
With no Prince Charming to kiss her awake. A living ghost trapped inside her own shell, earthbound by the desperate longing of her loved ones who couldn't let her go.
"I'm glad we found you again after all these years, Kitsune-Onna," chimed in Sanosuke, and when both Aoi and Kenshin turned towards him, he faced away from them, so they ended up talking to the nape of his collared neck.
"That name again..." she said. "You're really persistent about this past life business, aren't you?"
"It's fine if you don't believe me, but you sounded awful lonely back in that restaurant. And before you go apologizing again, Kenshin, I don't think it's because you stood her up!"
And indeed, Himura had opened his mouth, about to say something.
Sano turned to face the doctor. "You were just like you were back a hundred years ago, aren't you? Alone, isolated, probably with no family left in Tokyo, stuck in a bad place until you met that redheaded knucklehead sitting next to you."
"C'mon, Casper-san. You barely even know me," chided Aoi.
"Yeah, I barely know Arai Aoi. But I know Takani Megumi, and you both have that same lonely look." He turned the stool to make his entire body face Aoi's and slapped his thighs and knees with his hands. "You're having trouble with one of your patients, aren't you?"
Her blood turned cold. That hit too close to home. 'Damn you, Rooster Head.'
She turned to her right to see Kenshin nod his head and cross his arms. "This is exactly how Megumi-dono would act when faced with a dilemma about her patients. She tends to blame herself when she isn't able to save them, like a good doctor would."
"Sounds like a certain ex-hitokiri I know," Sanosuke chuckled. "You two are like two peas in a pod. Bo-chan has quite the competition to deal with."
Doctor Arai swirled the remnants of her coffee with her teaspoon. "'Competition', huh? I wonder about that."
After tapping the utensil on the ceramic mouth of her cup to dry it off, she turned once towards Sanosuke and then to Kenshin to address them.
"There's something that's been bothering me for weeks since we met. About a child under my care in the ICU..."
To Be Continued...
I kind of like this change of pace, going from non-stop shonen manga battles to a simple slice of life story with a dramatic twist you'd usually see from shojo manga or even josei manga. It's a nice "breather" arc, so to speak.
Arrivederci,
Abdiel