******
Chapter Seven: Thou Sick Rose.
******
What ravages a spirit
conjured a temptuous rage.
Created you a monster,
broken by the rules of love.
And fate has led you through it;
you do what you have to do.
But I had the sense to recognize
that I don't know how to let you go
-Sarah Maclachlan 'Do what you have to do.'
******
"I remember Megumi's clinic being in a better part of town." Kaoru confessed to Raven.
The two women were sitting side by side in a road side tea Shoppe across from the Kogane, an Okubansho in the southern 'red light district' of Tokyo. Raven had her black hair in a non-descript coif and was dressed in a black kimono and obi. She absently fingered a Buddhist rosary with one hand; the beads were made of ivory and carved into cylindrical skulls. Kaoru was in her more normal black gi and blue hakama but today she carried a kasa with her so she could shield her face and identifying marks from public scrutiny.
"So do I." Raven muttered darkly. "I don't like this, there are too many changes to the time line."
Kaoru blinked at her companion. "You said that everything might not turn out -exactly- the same."
"I did." Raven agreed with a scowl at the Kogane. "But my estimated margin of vista-shift was much smaller than this. I was expecting maybe 15% but this has to at least be 45% something is just not right." she massaged her temples. "I went over the variables with a fine tooth comb; did I miss a count?"
"I don't understand a word that just came out of your mouth." Kaoru confessed, much to Raven's embarrassment.
The dark haired woman flushed. "I doubt you would, and I won't enlighten you, it would just give you a migraine and distract you from your job." Raven rubbed her sinuses again. "It gives -me- a migraine and I've been doing it for centuries."
Kaoru patted Raven's shoulder sympathetically and ordered her a green tea. When the tea came, the woman mulled over it for a long time. Kaoru could hear her mutter strange mantras to herself that sounded like mathematical equations and "Could it be? No... there's no way, he wouldn't dare... not after Hakone..."
Raven's Spanish accent was starting to creep back into her voice and that bothered Kaoru; that only happened when the chaff was really about to hit the fan.
A hubbub bubbled up at the front door of the Kogane, Kaoru checked... it was Megumi leaving-- she had a large bundle tied around her shoulders and Sano had a largish trunk hoisted up onto his shoulders.
Sumino Morozumi, the owner and head of the Okubansho, stood to one side looking gruff (and a little saddened) while girls in colorful kimono flitted around Megumi like butterflies alternately hugging her and crying their good-byes. Only Megumi's head and shoulders were visible in the crush of rainbow-clad bodies.
Apparently Megumi had been running a medical clinic for the Okubansho out of the basement of the Kogane, which was how she and Sano had met. Kaoru had to smile, the underground clinic was so completely Megumi. No normal doctor would treat any sort of whore no matter how high ranking for fear that they'd lose their respectable clientele. Of course, everyone came to Megumi in this area because she knew her business, wouldn't run up her prices, and was often willing to do charity work for those who absolutely couldn't pay.
"I'm glad Megumi agreed to move her clinic to the dojo until we got her situation cleared up." Raven said suddenly. "It's another change to the time line... but I'm beginning to suspect that it doesn't matter."
Kaoru blinked and stared at Raven. "What do you mean? I thought we were walking on a wire to try and not trigger a paradox."
Raven pursed her lips. "A paradox would only happen if we were still doing a 'patch' in your time line, before now I was positive that's where we were." she crossed arms and looked pensive. "We may not be anymore, this time line is headed off in it's own direction. I've just checked all the vectors and scanned my vista."
"Is that what all that chanting was?" Kaoru asked and Raven looked annoyed and nodded. "How could that happen? You said we never left my time!"
"Chica! Girl, stop!" Raven stamped a sandal clad foot for emphasis. "I don't know! The only thing I can think of is that either there's an anomaly in my calculations or we were shy-sided."
"We were what?"
"Shy-sided." Raven explained. "It's a nasty old trick in my line of work, when you want to sabotage someone doing a patch on a time line it is possible to simulate the conditions necessary to do one thing and force them to do another." she exhaled slowly.
"In Japanese, please."
Raven snarled. "Someone messed me up when I supposedly transferred your consciousness from 1879 to 1864 and now I don't know where we are!"
"I still don't get..."
"Kao-san! We're ready to go!"
Kaoru started uneasily as she stood to go to Megumi... only to stop and stare as she got a good look at the woman.
"Madre de Dios..." Raven whispered in shock.
Megumi blushed at Kaoru's undisguised amazement and batted her eyelashes. "You like this outfit?"
Kitsune-sensei was wearing what should have been a perfectly decent green kimono with a pretty pink and white mum design on the obi... if a fifteen year old had been wearing it. The hem barely covered her knees and the skirt had been cut so that the slit up the side fell open to display Megumi's long legs. The neckline of the kimono sloped gently open to reveal the top curves of her chest. She wore traveling sandals with tall tabi that reached up to mid-calf and were bound tightly to her legs with green ribbon.
Red flooded Kaoru's cheeks. "Megumi! You're barely wearing any clothes!"
Megumi smiled and took up her customary glomping place on Kaoru's arm; Kaoru let her have it (it wasn't worth the scene it would take to get the doctor to leave her be). "Well, what else would I wear? I was unlucky last time and got caught in something that didn't give me room to move." a shadow flitted through her eyes. "I won't let that happen again."
The red in Kaoru's cheeks lessened to pink as Megumi leaned her cheek against the black cloth covering her shoulder. Megumi's mouth took a grim angle... it was an angle Kaoru knew too well. Eleven years ago she'd seen it on herself every day in the mirror for nine months.
Kaoru let Megumi take what comfort she needed... and hoped it didn't give her ideas.
***
"Wow..." Megumi muttered as she took in her new surroundings. "This is really a wreck."
The bigger storage shed had been cleaned out and commissioned as Megumi's temporary clinic, Megumi wasn't too thrilled about it. The basement at the Kogane had more space.
"... but there's also sunlight here." Megumi thought out loud. "And fresh air, that would be better for binding wounds. It'll do, I suppose."
"At least you won't have to deal with Johns mistaking you for one of the Girls." Sanosuke joked and Megumi smiled weakly.
"Yuck." she shook her head and looked around. "Sano, where did Kao-san get off to?"
Sanosuke looked to the kitchen, sure enough there was smoke rising from the vents. "Well, hopefully it's her cooking in the kitchen. If it's Yuki-chan..." he shuddered expressively.
"Maybe I should help..." Megumi started but Sanosuke shook his head.
"Nah, she likes to have the kitchen to herself." he waved Megumi over. "Have a seat here, I need to talk to you."
Megumi pursed her lips but sat down next to her old friend, who was now one of the few men she could feel comfortable with. "You want to know details."
"Got it in one, I've seen the way you've been flinching away from every guy but me and hanging onto Kaoru like a life raft." he said grimly. "Who needs to die?"
Megumi looked the other way. "Nobody needs to die."
Sanosuke spat out a vile expletive, but Megumi who had heard worse on a daily basis ignored it.
"I'm not stupid, Megitsune, no matter what anybody thinks!" he said in a low, intense voice. "I can put two and two together, tell me who nabbed you and better yet was he the one who..."
"No!" Megumi shook her head hard so her hair whipped back and forth. "Dammit, Sano, I'm trying to protect you here! What you don't know can't hurt you!"
"I ain't the one who needs protecting." Sanosuke cracked his knuckles. "Just because I'm bodyguard at a brothel doesn't mean I ain't kick-ass enough to take on all comers."
"It wouldn't come down to a fight." Megumi spat bitterly. "He's got more power than any one person should have. It wouldn't be you he'd go for if you got his attention. He'd hurt the people around you, poison, assassins, accidents... that's just how he operates! He had -me- arrested for the murder of a little girl they found floating in the river and when they had me the charge just went away!"
Sanosuke massaged his chin. "Hmm, he's either got someone in records at the police department or a commanding officer..."
"No, stop!" Megumi ordered. "Don't try and be a hero, Sano. Heroes die slow, nasty deaths. I'm tired of seeing friends hurt."
Sanosuke leaned over to whisper in Megumi's ear. "Then why are you here?"
She flinched. "I... I..."
"Look." Sanosuke leaned away and shook his head. "If you won't talk to me, talk to Kaoru."
Megumi blinked. "Why?"
"You see that little girl that follows her around?"
"Kaori-chan?" Megumi smiled. "Yes, she looks just like her mother."
Sanosuke turned serious eyes on Megumi. "Let's just say you and Kaoru have something in common."
***
Megumi thought about what Sanosuke had said as she strolled around the Dojo, careful to stay within someone's sight at all times.
Could that lovely little girl of Kao-san's be a product of rape?
"... no, not so small Musume."
Megumi's ear's pricked up as Kao-san's voice reached them, it came from the kitchen.
When she peeked in a window she saw Kao-san bending her dark head over a cutting board in front of dark, little Kaori. She was pointing at pieces of a carrot that had been cubed.
"It won't hurt the dish but it looks a little nicer when you use disks instead." she was saying.
Kaori frowned a cute little frown and Megumi stifled a giggle. With a face like hers and her mother's, Kaori was doomed to be a cute teenager and an elegant woman, although she might go through a gawky stage around her fifteenth year.
Megumi cocked her head and compared the two critically-- Kaori took heavily after her mother. That was probably a good thing, Megumi couldn't imagine herself being able to devote herself heart and soul to a child that had a face akin to one about whom she had nightmares.
A hand drifted down to her own tummy... no baby there. She'd gotten her flows this morning, it was a relief... but still she wondered. If she had carried Kanryuu's spawn would she have been able to love it the way Kao-san obviously loved her own child?
As a doctor in ruffian row, she'd treated dozens of rape victims and she knew that most of the recovery was mental as well as physical. 'That's probably why I see Kanryuu in every man I meet...' she thought glumly. 'Not Sano though, I guess I know him too well to ever see that pig in his face.'
"No, dear! Not so much ginger!"
Megumi covered her mouth to stifle her giggles. When the danger passed, she dropped her hands and leaned against the wood wall so she could continue watching the kenshi woman try and produce an edible meal despite her daughter's inadvertent attempts at sabotage.
Maybe... once this was over, there was a suitable house in the area she could open a new clinic in.
***
"Kiiiyaaahhhhhhhh!"
Sanosuke and Enishi looked up from their dice game as a black streak zipped past them and disappeared into the foliage of one of the trees standing at the corner of the dojo.
"Looks like Megumi's after Kamiya-sensei again." Enishi guessed. The good doctor had only been with them for two days so far and this was already becoming something of a common occurrence.
A few seconds later Megumi strolled by in one of her geisha kimonos. She paused and looked about the courtyard, her garnet gaze sweeping past the gate and the bathhouse and finally settling on the trees. The branches were quivering ever so slightly.
"Have either of you seen Kao-san?" she asked loudly, without taking her eyes off the foliage. "I can't find her anywhere!"
"I... uh... think I saw her go for tofu." Sanosuke lied gallantly.
"Yes!" Enishi caught on quickly. "Tae sent us some beef trimmings and she was going to make sukiyaki!"
Megumi smiled nastily at Enishi and strolled up to the tree. She pressed her front against the trunk and gazed up into the canopy over her. "Really, Kao-san? I didn't know you could buy tofu up in a tree!"
Kaoru face vaulted and fell out of the tree. It was actually quite a sight to behold for she somersaulted in mid-air, so as not to land on her head and started backing away from Megumi as soon as her sandals touched the ground. "I ... ah.. left something in the tree... I've got it so I'm going now!" and the black blur that was Kaoru zipped out of the front gates.
Megumi did her Kodachi-laugh, shielding her mouth with the back of her hand. "Ho ho ho! You may run for now, Kao-san but you cannot run from me forever!" she nodded to the dice-players and strolled back inside the dojo, pausing to share an evil glare with Enishi.
"Well she's back and better than ever." Sanosuke grumbled and shook his head. "But wow, I've never seen her this sadistic."
Enishi sighed as well and laughed, but his sympathy was with the paranoid-straight Kaoru... not to mention that his interests were of a parallel with Megumi's. On any other day he might have gotten up and given Megumi a piece of his mind... but today there
had been a letter from his brother-in-law.
He withdrew the folded vellum from the insides of his Chinese coat. Tomoe would have had a fit if she saw him wearing it, she wanted him to dress 'like a nice, normal Japanese man! At this rate no woman will have anything to do with us, you'll never get married and carry on the Yukishiro name!'.
Well, the only woman he had eyes for dressed like a man so he didn't consider it an issue.
Enishi pursed his lips and looked at the still un-broken seal on the paper. He'd wanted to wait until Kaoru had a break from Megumi to read it, she was always wanting to hear how Tomoe and Kenshin were doing... even if it often made her sad.
Enishi closed his eyes and recalled the last letter he'd read to Kaoru, the one where Tomoe proudly announced that she was carrying again and this time had made it all the way to seven months without miscarriage. She and Kenshin were hoping that this time, this pregnancy would come to term.
Kaoru had gotten all quiet and done the things she always did when she was upset, finger her scar and get tea. She had this Zen thing going with tea, as long as there was tea in this world nothing truly bad could happen.
"Whatcha got there?" Sanosuke asked, eyeing the letter. "Didya get another letter from your sister?"
"Yes, I was going to wait until Kamiya-sensei could hear it but..."
"At this rate you might as well read it now." Sanosuke predicted. "Megumi will be back at her the minute she gets in the gate."
That made Enishi grind his teeth and he tore open the sealed letter, imagining himself gallantly coming to Kamiya-sensei's rescue when she was being tortured by a giant evil fox monster.
He groaned as soon as he saw the handwriting.
"what's wrong?"
"It's my brother in law who wrote it." Enishi explained. "His handwriting is a language unto itself. Normally when he has something to say Tomoe writes and he dictates but sometimes he decides to do it himself."
Dearest Brother in law, the letter opened formally
(Enishi privately thought that his sister's husband had been dipped in starch at birth, he was always so damn stiff and distant!)
I hope this letter finds you well, Tomoe asks if you are healthy and if not have you have been eating your own cooking?
*twitch* "They just don't leave me alone!" Enishi muttered darkly.
If so then she says to tell you that if you would just settle down with a nice girl you wouldn't have this problem. If you ask my humble opinion, I believe that Tomoe is a little too attached to the fact that I married her when I was fifteen.
"She only preaches it at me every time I see her." Enishi agreed. " 'Enishi! You have a duty to your family name as the only son! Having become the Master of the Kassien Dojo is all well and good but you must provide it with Heirs as well! I do not think that Kamiya-sama would wish for the Dojo to fall out of trusted hands if Kaoru-sama does not ever return from her travels!'" he mimicked his sister's dark, serious tones with uncanny accuracy.
"Well she's back and has a daughter." he informed the paper. "I'm off the hook!"
Sanosuke smothered a laugh. "I used to get that same lecture from Anji every couple of weeks until he went hermit in that forest." he commiserated.
Enishi kept reading the letter, pausing eery so often to rub eyes sore from deciphering Kenshin's cryptic renderings of perfectly simple symbols.
I regret to inform you that Tomoe has lost another baby, it was hard on her mentally as well as physically. She began to bleed yesterday morning and only stopped a few hours ago. I am still worried over the amount of blood she has lost. I believe the time has come to stop trying. Tomoe may not survive another pregnancy. It pains her greatly, but Tomoe has accepted this and then only because she will be bedridden for several weeks before the doctors say it is advisable for her to begin moving about again. Although one english fool who dared set foot in this house suggested that she could be back up in a matter of days with proper application of bleedings and a number of purges. I nearly killed him as the words left his mouth.
Tomoe is asking for you to come and visit her in her convalescence. She says to bring the pick pocket child you mentioned in your last letter as well, I fear that she may try and manipulate you into adopting him. Be on your guard, your sister has become tricky in these late years. You are welcome to bring any close friends with you, it is a long journey to Kyoto and we here would like to meet the people you see day to day.
Please send us a reply soon, your Brother in law
Himura Kenshin .
Enishi re-folded the letter and tucked it into his coat. "Tomoe lost the baby..." he shook his head and mourned for his sister's pain. He knew that Kenshin had a certain way with the local children and that she wanted to give Kenshin a child of their own more than anything.
"Hey, Yukishiro.... you said that Tomoe and Kaoru were close didn't you?" Sanosuke asked suddenly.
Enishi caught on immediately. "Yes, she hasn't had word of her in nearly a decade. That would revive her more than anything!" he leapt to his feet and dashed into the the dojo to pen a reply to his sister.
Sanosuke chuckled to himself and kicked back on the veranda. "What would they do without me?"
*******
End Chapter Seven
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Seiyuu; I actually wanted to do Kanryuu in this chapter but I realize that the characters other than Kaoru would need some fleshing out before I did anything else. I still need to give Yahiko a few more dimensions but that can wait. Expect more letters between Enishi and Tomoe in the future!