Changing Leaves
Part Five

Rurouni Kenshin Fanfiction
by Laura Gilkey

*

September 24

"Ah, Himura-san!" Hakata greeted brightly when Kenshin caught up with him on his way across the police station. "How can I help you? Have you by chance heard anything?"

"I heard that your men arrested Takani Megumi," Kenshin said.

"Ah, yes, the physician. That's right."

"Megumi-dono is a close friend of mine. She hasn't done anything wrong."

"Well, that remains to be seen," Hakata said more gravely, as a group of policemen passed them in the hallway carrying rustling sheafs of papers. "According to eyewitness reports, it seems Seta was at her clinic, and that she must have treated his injury, but she claims to have no memory of him. She must have seen something, and we have to know. Once this is over, or she is able to give us some information, she'll be free to go; don't worry."

"Chief Muraki told me that you had brought charges up from that trouble with Kanryuu last year, to hold her indefinitely."

"Just a bargaining strategy, nothing out of the ordinary."

Kenshin frowned at him. "Is there any way that she could be released?"

"Not without her cooperation, or Seta in our hands. I hate to say it, but it seems your friend might be hiding something. Maybe Seta threatened her; I don't know. Even so, Obstruction of Justice is a crime, also."

"Can I see her?"

"Not at this time." Hakata came to a room and opened it; he turned in the doorway to face Kenshin directly. "Believe me, I don't want this situation to drag on anymore than you do, but unfortunately I have a duty to perform here. If you want to help your friend, the best way to do that is by helping me with this investigation. I am sorry, but that's the best answer I can give you now."

As Kenshin took a breath to reply, Hakata pulled the door shut between them.

**********

June 10

Soujiro had already memorized the steps of taking the sheets off the clotheslines. With the top of his kimono hanging at his waist and his shirtsleeves rolled back, he held one end and Junzo held the other, then there was a consistent pattern of stepping further to fold lengthwise, closer to fold shortwise until the sheet was small enough to be finished by one person and put in the basket to be taken inside. There was just enough breeze to rustle the sheets with ripples and occasional flapping sounds, and to fill the backyard with their smell, crisp and sunny, but with a lingering scent of water to soften it.

Tomi ran up and down between the diminishing rows of sheets still hanging, occasionally wrapping them around herself or throwing two apart dramatically like curtains to look out at Soujiro and Junzo.

"Now, don't you pull any of those down, girl," Junzo cautioned as she opened a pair of sheets.

"I won't."

"Are you feeling better now?" Soujiro asked, smiling back at her as he unpinned another sheet.

"Um... no." She snapped her curtains shut with a flourish and took off running among the clotheslines again.

"She doesn't want to leave," he said as he brought his two corners of the sheet together in front of his chin. Turn it counterclockwise and step forward...

"You don't have to, you know," Junzo offered, looking at him over the top of the cloth as their hands met and he took Soujiro's corners. "You're such a hard worker, we'd be happy to keep you on, and you said you didn't have anywhere to go."

"I really shouldn't... I mean, we should leave soon..." He stepped back until the shortwise fold pulled taut around his fingers.

"So you're not going anywhere particular, but you're in a hurry to get there?"

"Well, it's kind of..."

"We're fugitives from the law!" Tomi declared through a layer of cloth.

Soujiro started and pulled the sheet out of Junzo's hands, but snatched it up without letting it touch the ground and laughed. "Tomi-chan, don't say that! It's not funny!"

To his relief, Junzo laughed, too. "Kids have such wild imaginations sometimes... Why don't you go inside and see if your Obachan has something for you to do?" he called to her.

"Okay!" she said, and ran back to the inn.

"Seriously, though," Junzo continued, taking the corners of the sheet again as they straightened it out, "you don't have to tell me where you're going. I don't want to pry if you have to get somewhere and just don't want to talk about it."

"It's not that," Soujiro said. "It's just that I don't want to be any trouble..."

"Nonsense! You're a big help around here. Wonder if I'll ever know how you get things done so fast." Junzo answered, bringing the corners up and together again. "I'm afraid we can't pay you too much, but you can keep your room and eat here, no charge."

"Well, I do have to pay the doctor..."

"Oh, don't worry about that; that's all taken care of. We'd just be happy to have you stay on, if you'd be willing to. Reiko and I aren't as young as we used to be. We could use the help, and at the risk of scaring you off, Reiko's talking about how nice it is to have kids around the house again. Of course I understand if the pay isn't enough, or if you really want to leave. What do you think about it?"

Soujiro took the corners from Junzo and smoothed the sheet against his chest as he made the last few folds. "I'd really like to stay..." After all, he hadn't heard a stir from the police here yet, and Tomi was so happy... Truthfully, he was, too. For so long, it had been more comfortable to wander alone, and his travels found so many things to learn, but since he'd left Tomi's hometown, it wasn't the same. He hadn't found anything in it except the distance and practical worries. Staying there with her had felt like moving in the right direction, and here he had begun to feel the same way. Reiko and Junzo were so kind, he already thought he would miss them if he left. Soujiro the Rurouni already felt like something in his past, something he was happy to have been through, but that was finished, that it wouldn't be any use to go back to. And if it did come to that, he reasoned, always better to do it with a bit of money. "I guess I can for a while," he said.

"Splendid!" Junzo said, taking the folded sheet and putting it in the basket. "Reiko will be glad to hear it. I think she's just itching to make you a uniform."

"I didn't mean that long," Soujiro protested.

**********

September 24

Soujiro stood just inside the doors of the dojo, out of sight from the yard and porch, with Tomi still clinging to him. "Onii-chan?" she asked, looking up. He shushed her as he heard footsteps in the yard and turned to listen surreptitiously.

"Kenshin!" Kaoru called. "What did they say?"

"They're holding her until she cooperates or until this is resolved," he answered.

Soujiro's heart sank, although he had to admit that it was what he'd expected.

"Where's Sano?" Kenshin asked.

"He left right after you did. I just hope he doesn't get himself in any trouble... What do we do now?"

"I'm not sure," Kenshin said. His voice had come closer, and from the sound of brushing cloth, it seemed he was sitting down on the porch. "They might let her go once they're convinced that Soujiro isn't here. Or once he's left and has a head start, it would be safer for Megumi-dono to talk to them, if we could let her know..."

Those ideas seemed far away as Soujiro listened; Megumi was in jail for helping him, and even Kenshin couldn't dissuade the police from holding her... What if they realized that the people here at the dojo were hiding him? As he'd said in the kitchen earlier, this danger would follow wherever he went and catch up to everyone in any place he alighted, it was only a question of how long it would take. The only way out of it was to keep running, always alone—and that would mean abandoning Megumi in jail here, leaving everyone to any trouble he had already caused. Or...

"Why doesn't he just turn himself in?" Yahiko said. "Then there wouldn't be any of this trouble, and most of the other Juppon Gatana got arrested one way or another. It mostly came out okay."

"Yes, but none of them assassinated the Secretary of State or had to be chased for over a year," Kenshin said. "There's really no telling. He might be able to strike a compromise like the others, or turning himself in might be throwing away his life. I just don't know."

Tomi looked up at Soujiro again. "Ah—"

"Shh." He tried to stay as quiet as possible, but there was a pause in the conversation outside.

When Kenshin spoke again, his words were clearer, as if directed more toward the doorway. "If that is what he wants to do, I'll help as much as I can, since I do have a little influence, but I wouldn't ask him to take such a risk if it wasn't his own choice."

Soujiro slowly bent down and let Tomi take hold of him, then lifted her with his right arm and silently walked away down the hall.

"Onii-chan, what's happening?" Tomi whispered. "What were they talking about? In the room before, too. I don't understand."

"Ah... I'll tell you about it when you're older," he whispered back. He carried her quietly to the back of the dojo, and when he let her down, he didn't straighten back up, but remained crouched at eye-level with her. "Tomi-chan, I have to leave."

"No!" she cried. "Don't go!"

"I have to," he said. "I'm sorry, I know it's like everything bad is happening all at once, but... It's really me the police are chasing. When they came to the inn, you or Ojisan or Obachan could've gotten hurt, and now it's causing trouble for the people here... Megumi-san was arrested for helping me. Everyone here is in danger if I stay."

"I'll go with you!" she cried, making him flinch as she grabbed onto him without thinking of his injury. "I won't complain this time, I promise!"

She clung to him with desperate eyes, but the pain in his shoulder reminded him what could have happened, with just a little more force behind that bullet... Maybe if he could stay ahead of the police... But even if she could promise not to complain, even if she could get used to the strain, it was enough to imagine himself having to live on the run forever, never resting, never letting himself get attached to anyone... He didn't want Tomi to live that kind of life. If he kept running and left her here, to keep her safe, he could never come back. He could never see her, or Ojisan and Obachan, or Himura-san, or anyone, again... His remembered Tanabata wish ached in his chest. That was what he wanted, not just to last for a moment, but forever; it hardly seemed worth it to run if that wasn't his destination, but the government, the police, in the end they held it in their hand. He couldn't reach it by running from them...

"You can't come this time," Soujiro told her. "I'm going to go to the police."

"No, don't!" Tomi cried.

"It's better this way. This way we can stop running."

"No! Please, let's just go!"

He shook his head. "I don't want to run anymore."

"They'll kill you!" she wailed.

"I'll be okay," he said, and showed her a smile that he hoped masked his own fears. "I just have to take care of this, and then I'll come back. Then we can go home together, back to Ojisan and Obachan."

He knew he was lying, or at least not telling her the truth. Maybe he would be like Anji and be sentenced to 25 years in prison, or even more, but whatever they wanted to do with him, 'to live in peace with my family' lay on the other side, and there was nothing to do but start across. Tomi might even have been right; Kenshin had said as much, too, but even that, instead of everyone back at the inn, or everyone here, going to prison because of him, instead of a bullet in Tomi's head... Even that would be worth it... But even if Tomi could understand that, he couldn't bring himself to tell her...

"Okay?" he asked her.

She nodded hesitantly.

"You stay here with Himura-san. It'll be all right."

Tomi whined and sniffled, and he held her close for a long moment. "Just stay here," he whispered in her ear. "It'll be okay." With that, he stood and walked over to the backyard fence, gauged its height, and bounded over it.

Tomi heard him land lightly on the other side. That slight sound roused her to action, and she ran to the fence where he'd left, but it was twice her height, with no handholds. She reached as high up it as she could, but it was no use, and she started pounding on the wooden boards with her fists. "Onii-chan! Come back!!"

Her cries quickly brought Kenshin and Kaoru running. Kaoru dropped to her knees beside Tomi and took her gently by the shoulders. "Tomi-chan, what happened!?"

"Soujiro-oniichan left me here!!" she wailed, and caught her breath with gasping sobs.

"Did he say where he was going?" Kenshin asked her.

"The police," she answered, her voice strained. "I don't know what's going on! I'm so scared!"

"Shh, it'll be okay..." Kaoru soothed, hugging Tomi against her shoulder as she broke out crying in earnest.

**********

June 26

As Tomi entered the room, Reiko turned from her sewing basket to scan the paper list in Junzo's hand. "That should be everything," she said.

"All right."

"Obachan, when will the cakes be ready?" Tomi asked.

"After dinner," Reiko answered.

"Some of them are cool now."

"You haven't been touching them, have you?"

"I just almost did..."

"Those are for after dinner," Junzo repeated. "Why don't you come shopping with me, keep you out of trouble for awhile?"

"Can I?" She perked up, and noticed Soujiro coming up the hall. "Can I go shopping with Ojisan?"

"It's fine with me," he said as he came to the doorway. His damp kimono sleeves clung to his slender, bare arms, and the neckline hung open enough to show his collarbones. "The lunch dishes are done, and I hung out the laundry, but... Do you know where my shirt is?" he asked with a not-quite-awkward grin.

"I've got it here," Reiko answered.

"Oh, okay. Do you want me to come with you?" he asked Junzo.

"No," Reiko cut in, with a beckoning gesture. "I want you here."

"I warned you about this," Junzo said, passing by Soujiro and out of the room with Tomi at his heels. "Back in a bit!"

"See you later!" Tomi echoed as Junzo shut the door behind them, leaving Soujiro and Reiko inside.

"Here you are," she said, finding his shirt in her pile of mending and holding it up by the shoulders.

"Thank you." He took it from her and found a bundle of paper strips embroidered as a semori(13) on the back of it. "Eh, is there anything else you need me to do?"

"Stay here; I want to measure you." She got up from her zabuton trailing a measuring tape, and she gently guided Soujiro to the middle of the room before wrapping it around his waist. "Just stand straight and relax. Ahh, I've been falling down on the job. Been here a month and you're so skinny I can feel your ribs."

"Um, Reiko-san..."

"You know, you can call me 'Obachan,' too. I wouldn't mind." She placed the end of the tape at his waist in back. "Hold that there, would you?"

He reached around his back to hold it in place as she checked the length to the floor and wrote down the results. "What's this for?"

"For a uniform," she answered. "I'd better get to work on it before the holiday. Around Tanabata we'll be so busy I won't have time to get much sewing done."

"You don't have to do that. I really can't stay for too long..."

"I know, I know. You're a fugitive from the law."

Soujiro laughed uncomfortably. Why did Junzo ever have to repeat that?

"Just drop your arms," she said, measuring across his shoulders. "At least you could stay until the end of the summer when the peaches are ready to pick. It'll be better weather for travelling then,anyway, and you can have the uniform for a few months."

"I don't want to let myself get settled, though..." he said. "That is... It's hard because I really want to stay here and I really can't..." Her touch was warm and pleasant, but also made him nervous as she held the tape at his shoulder and smoothed it down his flank, then measured from the shoulder seam to the wrist of his kimono with one stroke of her warm, leathery hand down his arm.

"Come now, don't feel like you have to go," she said, writing the new numbers down and coming back over. "You and Tomi are practically family. Hold this."

He took the end of the tape again, this time on the bone behind the base of his neck. "Family... You really think so?"

"It's amazing how you can get attached to someone so quickly," she said from behind and below, giving a slight tug on the measuring tape as she checked the distance to the floor again. "Our own children are gone and moved away, maybe I hate an empty nest. I'm sorry, I'm just a silly old hen..." Nonetheless, she turned him around gently for another measurement.

"It's not silly..." he said. Her fingers tickled as she held the tape end on his shoulder against his neck and followed it down, holding the needed length with a gentle hand on his chest, over his heart.

"Family"... The word conjured memories of his childhood family and their hatred: being loaded down with slave-work, being beaten and thrown out into a cold night, being weak and vulnerable and always paying the price for it. But he knew that was an aberration. Tomi's father, too, with his neverending cycle of anger and violence, buried under guilt and apology and secrecy, always to resurface. Even Soujiro knew that those things weren't "Family." That was something he had only seen from the outside—until now. Gentle old men shopping with their grandchildren—what Junzo and Tomi were doing at this moment—and not an order and a threat, but folding the sheets together and "You're such a help." Days together ending with a soft "good night" to see him off to a warm sleep; a gentle, trusted hand—the sensation of Reiko's hand on his chest lingered even as she went to make more notations—surely that, not a blow from a fist, was the touch of Family.

Wasn't this how he always wished it could have been, what he wanted for the rest of his life? To live together in peace... It was so subtle in its presentation that he could have failed to notice, could have let it slip right by...

And maybe he had, at that. Danger still followed behind him, somewhere, and he was alone with that secret. That was why it didn't feel right. This was all superficial, all built on false pretense. It was only true if they really knew him and still made the offer, and he knew that was too much to ask. Against his will, his face squeezed tight as the weight of his guilt bore down on him as it hadn't since the day he'd met Kotori-san(14), and he knew that for someone like himself, someone with so much blood on his hands, it was too much to ask...

Reiko came back from the desk and touched his shoulder. "Something is wrong."

He nodded.

"Can you tell me about it?"

"If I told you, then I'd have to leave," he said in a strained whisper. But he knew it had to be done, and it would only get harder...

A long silence.

"Just one more," Reiko said, and passed the measuring tape around behind his head.

Soujiro took a deep breath and put on a smile to gather his courage. "It isn't really a joke. I really am running away from the police."

Reiko froze just as she was pinching the end back onto the measuring tape snug at his throat, which already felt tight with apprehension. After a few seconds, her knuckle against his windpipe began to ache, and the tape around his neck was threateningly uncomfortable. "Um... this is kind of..."

"Oh!" She let go and lifted it away. "I'm sorry! Just... What happened? May I ask?"

He sat down on the floor and she followed, measuring tape still in hand. He spoke hesitantly. "Well, it's kind of... Um, have you ever heard of... No, you wouldn't have heard of him..."

Reiko cocked her head, listening patiently.

"I was part of a group that... Well, we tried to overthrow the government," he said, with nervous cheer.

"A revolutionary group?"

"I mean this government. The Meiji government."

"But this is about your politics."

"No, not really. I mean, I guess it was, kind of, but I don't really think anything about politics. I don't have anything against them now..."

"I don't understand... You were involved in some protest, some crime in the past...?"

Soujiro covered his eyes with his hand, unable to face her. "It was just a year ago... I... I was their assassin..."

"What!?"

"It's true. I was a famous swordsman. Actually my family name is Seta, and I was called 'Tenken no Soujiro,' so I was their assassin, and I killed people..." His face contorted around gritted teeth. "I don't know... It's like I did it in my sleep, but it makes me sick to think about what I've done... I never want to live like that again! I don't want to hurt anyone anymore, just life my life in a place like this, but I know I can't ask anyone to forgive me. I know I can't ask anyone to take me in..."

"Soujiro," Reiko asked, "who is Tomi? Is she really your sister?"

He shook his head. "I just met her this spring... She doesn't really know about me, or have anything to do with that, but we were friends... Her father would get drunk and beat her, and finally I didn't know what to do but take her with me. I just didn't want her to get hurt..."

Another long silence followed. Soujiro sobbed into his hands, waiting for the inevitable blow and only daring to hope that it would come as a gentle "I think it would be best if you leave," rather than a crushing "get out of my house, murderer!"

"Soujiro, look at me," Reiko said at last.

"I can't..."

Gently, she slipped her hands under his to touch his face and lift his chin. His cheeks were red and wet with ears, but his eyes were still squeezed shut.

"Please, look at me."

He opened them only a little; their sapphire blue was magnified by brimming tears.

"You say you have this horrible past... Is that all over now? Do you really want to start again?"

He nodded into her hands, too overcome to speak.

She withdrew her hands, but supported him again with a smile. "Maybe I'm crazy, but I believe that look on your face. After all, you're the same person you were before you told me this, and I still want that person to stay here."

He stared at her with wide open eyes, hardly daring to believe what she was saying. "But the police... They might come for me if I stay."

"Well, we can deal with that when the time comes," she said. "And I can't promise just yet, I'm afraid. We'll have to talk it over with Junzo this evening, but I think I can bring him around."

With a tremulous but joyful smile, he sniffled now-happy tears. "Thank you, Reiko-san!"

"Obachan," she corrected.

"Obachan."

"Oh, you know, I completely forgot this," she said, picking the measuring tape back up from the floor. "Just let me re-take that right quick..."

Soujiro coughed out laughter through his tears as she measured around his neck again, holding the tape there for just a moment before pronouncing, "There. All done(15). And don't forget your shirt here."

**********

September 24

"Takani-san," Hakata addressed Megumi through the bars of her cell, his chest striped with blocks of light from the one small window at ground level, now above their heads. "If this man threatened you, then rest assured we will take any measures necessary to assure your safety."

"Now, how could I be threatened by someone I haven't seen?" she asked him. "I've told you that already."

He sighed hotly. "Ma'am, eyewitness reports have placed Seta at your clinic yesterday morning; now, you must have seen something then, or the previous night. Someone matching this description? Anything suspicious?"

"No."

"Did you treat anyone with a wounded left shoulder?"

"I told you, no."

"Takani-san, if you are covering up for this man—for any reason—you could be considered an accessory to his crimes. I don't want this questioning to become forcible or turn into a prison sentence, but—"

He cut off at the sound of the cellblock door as one of his men ran up behind him. "Captain Hakata, we have him!"

"What?"

"Seta! He gave himself up to some of Muraki's men. He's on his way here now."

"Finally!" Hakata declared. He glanced over his shoulder into the cell before talking with his back turned, in a hushed tone. "Is everything ready?"

Suspicion pulled at Megumi's gut, and she looked away from them to hide the fact that she was listening intensely.

"Yes, sir," the officer answered.

"The men are all agreed, then? What about Fujikake?"

"He... ah..." His voice dropped lower, and Megumi held her breath to hear him. "He's agreed to look the other way; he just doesn't want to fire a shot."

She suppressed a gasp. 'Fire a shot'...!?

"Well, good news for you!" Hakata jolted her by turning a cheerful tone on her. "I expect you'll be free to go very shortly." With that, both policemen walked away and through the door, leaving her alone.

The others all agreed to shoot... The shock of realization came into focus. To shoot Soujiro! And he'd turned himself in... So that they would let her free? She grasped her hair in exasperation. By the time they let her out, he would already be locked up. No way to warn him...

"Oy, Megumi!"

"Oh!" She whipped around to find Sanosuke's face sideways in the short barred window, looking down at her. "Sanosuke!"

"How are they treating you in here?"

"It's Soujiro!" she cried, running over to the window. "They've got him; he turned himself in!"

"Oh? Well, maybe that's—"

"They're going to kill him!!"

"Wha—!? Ow!" Sano started back and hit his forehead on the stone windowframe.

"Hakata's group, they're going to shoot him! I heard them planning it!"

"When!? Where!?"

"I don't know. You have to warn him or—" The lock on the cellblock door rattled, signalling the police's return.

"I'll find him," Sano said. "When they let you out, you go get Kenshin!" With that, he vanished from the window, leaving a view of rustling grass.

It was a Tokyo police officer who came to the cell door and unlocked it. "Sorry about all this, Takani-san," the man said. "Hakata's got his man now; you're free to go."

"All right," she said as he opened the cell with a loud creak from the heavy barred door. The officer took her by the shoulder and led her out and through the lobby, where she saw Soujiro, surrounded by Hakata and his men. She passed within maybe fifteen feet of them—if she shouted across the room... Soujiro noticed her as well, and flashed her a disarming smile for only a moment before he flinched with pain at the police's awkward attempts to shackle his wrists with his arm in a sling. She just managed to open her mouth before she was suddenly through the doorway, swallowed up into the sunlight and street noises of the open air.

"Do you want an escort home?" the policeman asked as he released her arm.

"No, no, that's fine." Slowly she descended the stairs of the police station. By the time she reached the street, the officer was back inside, out of sight, and she set off running for Kamiya Dojo.

**********

July 7

Reiko had stayed up late the last few nights to complete Soujiro's uniform so that he could wear it for Tanabata. By that evening he was still distracted by it with every step—the kimono had narrow sleeves, he had a new shirt to match, with the cuffs and collar still crisp and stiff, and of course, the extra weight, warmth, and swinging hem of the jacket, which Tomi had already taken to chasing and grabbing onto.

Right now however, she was on the porch with Junzo-Ojisan, and they were seeing off several of the guests who were leaving for the evening, dressed in festive yukata. Soujiro caught a glimpse of them on his way to the kitchen with his arms full of dirty dishes and trays. He found Reiko there, cutting apart another watermelon.

"Here are the last of the dinner dishes. I was surprised; there weren't so many tonight."

"Everyone's off at festivals right now," she said. Funny, it's the one time in the holiday when we aren't busy," she said.

He pointed to the watermelon. "Will I need to take that out, too, or should I start on the dishes?"

"Now, take it easy, bless your heart," Reiko answered, arranging the watermelon slices on a platter. "It's a holiday after all, and while all the guests are gone we can have a little holiday ourselves. Here, take this out to the porch. I'll be there in just a minute."

"Okay." As instructed, he took it out and set it on the porch beside where Junzo was sitting, then stood quietly. Although Reiko had convinced Junzo to let him stay after hearing his history, he had seemed nervous around Soujiro after that and was only just beginning to relax, so Soujiro didn't want to seem imposing.

Tomi was out in the yard, walking here and there and standing on tiptoes trying to see through the peach trees as the slivered view between their leaves revealed hints of fireworks, not so far away. The festival noises wafted faintly back to the inn, punctuated by the occasional pop that blushed the trees with bright colors. "Can we go to the festival?" she asked.

"Not right now; maybe in a little bit," Junzo said, then looked back at Soujiro. "Well, sit down. Eat. Tomi-chan! We've got watermelon."

"Ooh!" she dashed over and grabbed a slice almost before Ojisan could reach over and pick one up. She took a bite and picked up another one. "Onii-chan, here!" she said around her mouthful, holding it out to Soujiro.

"Oh, thank you," he said and took it as he sat down at the other end of the platter, moving forward as he settled down so as to drape the hanten jacket behind him and not sit on it.

"But don't talk with your mouth full," Junzo reminded her.

"Okay." When Reiko came out of the inn, Tomi was sure to swallow the next bite before grabbing a slice for her. "Here, Obachan!"

"Thank you!" Reiko said, then sat on her knees behind the men. When Soujiro turned to see her, he found that she was carrying ink and a brush, and a large handful of colorful paper strips. "So what do we wish for this year?" she asked.

"A good business year," Junzo immediately suggested.

"All right," she said, and started writing.

"Wish for...?" Soujiro remembered the custom of tying wishes to bamboo at Tanabata, but had never done it before and was left a bit puzzled.

"Yes, what do you wish for?" Junzo asked him.

"Well, um..."

"Lots of toys!" Tomi offered.

"All right..." Reiko set the first strip aside and kept writing. "How about Happiness, I wish for a happy year."

"And good health, always important," Junzo added.

"I wish for my Mommy and Kotori-san to be happy in Heaven."

"Oh, how sweet!"

Soujiro half-listened to them making their wishes as his puzzlement faded into distraction. It was a warm summer evening, and his shoulders felt hot under the new jacket. It felt strange, almost dangerous to wear it. It was a commitment, to stay here, and he wanted to stay, but wearing the uniform today, he felt strangely more distant, guarded... afraid? The uniform was like a decision to stay until driven away, and have this good life until then, but it also meant inviting the disaster to come. I'll stay here until it finds me... It was just a matter of when. One year or one day... He could dread it every moment...

Reiko brought him back to her with a gentle arm on his shoulder. "Are you all right, Sou-chan?"

"Oh, yes." He put down the watermelon slice, which he had left untouched as it bled sticky sweet juice on his hand.

"You're just so quiet, and not eating..."

"I'm just tired," he said. "It's been so busy, you know..."

"Yes, this is really the eye of the storm for us."

During his reverie, Junzo and Tomi had gone to hang the wish-papers on a stand of bamboo along the inside of the fence, and now came back toward the porch. "Any more?" Junzo asked.

"No."

"Onii-chan, you didn't wish for anything!" Tomi said.

"I'm just tired, I can't think of anything," he said.

Another pop overhead, and a wash of red glow.

"Can we go to the festival now?" Tomi pleaded.

"Well, I think your Ojisan and I can take care of things here if you kids want to go for awhile," Reiko offered. Tomi immediately turned her begging eyes on Soujiro.

"Oh, no, no," he said. "I really am tired..."

"Come on, please?"

"We could leave him to help your Obachan, and I could take you," Junzo suggested.

"All right, just don't stay out too late," Reiko said.

"Okay!" Tomi looked back at Soujiro. "Hope you feel better soon!" And with a round of 'goodbyes,' she and Junzo set off, leaving Soujiro and Reiko sitting in silence for a long moment.

"Are you all right?" Reiko asked finally. "Today wasn't so bad that you couldn't go to the festival. Could you not sleep last night?"

"No, I just didn't want to go," he admitted. His mind hit upon the flimsy excuse of keeping a low profile to avoid detection, but he himself saw through that almost immediately and found himself facing the real reason—he felt sad, and he knew that a festival wouldn't alleviate that sadness, but only intensify it by contrast. I must be crazy, he thought. All these horrible things happened to me, and still I felt happy, but now that something good is happening...

"Is the jacket too hot, with that shirt?" Reiko wondered.

"No, no, I like it, just..."

"What's bothering you?" she asked. "I've never seen you like this."

He forced a laugh. "I know, isn't it strange? I like it here and I wanted to stay, but now I start thinking already that no matter what I do, it won't last forever..."

"Like 'as soon as you're born, you have to die.' You can't go through your life worrying about that; you make the most of what you have." She squeezed his shoulder gently. "It'll be all right. If you feel so bad, I think you need to make some wishes even more than the rest of us."

"Uh... I really don't know..."

"Surely there's something you could wish for, that would make you feel better?" She held out the paper strips and ink. "It can't hurt."

He took them and stared at the blank papers, trying to think. I wish... He remembered wishes he had made at various times in the past year. I wish I could've had a real family like this all along... I wish I'd never killed anyone, that I wasn't guilty for all this... But those ideas seemed remote. They would be wishing that he hadn't come to be here now, in the way that he had, and maybe it was selfish not to wish never to have killed anyone, and certainly the origin of his trouble was there, it wasn't what he regretted now. The wish that would make this sadness, and the dread and fear within it, go away... That would be a wish for the future.

He dipped the brush and picked up a slip of paper—a blue one. "Don't look, please?"

"Oh." Reiko studiously turned her face away.

After a moment's hesitation, he wrote, "To live here in peace with my family." The wet brush glided easily on the paper and left the words in reassuringly solid black. He was at last able to smile and having made this wish real, even just as ink on paper, and carried to over to the bamboo. Once the ink was dry enough not to run, he tied it to a stalk by the light of another distant firework.

Reiko was waiting for him back on the porch, eating another watermelon slice, and he picked one up, too, as he sat down.

"What did you wish for?" she asked.

"Something impossible," he said with a smile. "But just wishing for it makes me feel a little better."

"You never know," she said. "Wishes do come true sometimes."

"I guess that's true." He took a bite of the watermelon from the sweet, dark red center and savored the taste, together with the coolness of the evening breeze and the fact of where he was, sitting on the porch of his home.

After all, this is what I wished for. Maybe, even if it's just for a little while...

**********

September 24

Soujiro was relieved to see one of the local policemen escort Megumi out, and again relieved when the federal police stopped pulling at his afflicted arm, although they seemed less than satisfied about chaining his hands in front and regarded him with hostile caution. That was to be expected, though, and he didn't plan on making any threatening moves.

Curiously, the officer standing beside the captain—whom they called Hakata—while the other two applied the shackles looked familiar, but before he was able to place the face, a blindfold was tied over his eyes. He was still aware of his surroundings by sensation, balance, and by the sound of people moving around him, but without his eyes, it took extra attention not to stumble as they led him into the noise and breeze of outside air, down the front steps, then back up into a small compartment—he could tell it was small by the resonance of the sound. The height of the step, the shifting of the foothold, and the sensation of the seat they pushed him into meant a horse-drawn carriage.

"Where are we going?" he asked as the carriage lurched into motion.

"You'll find out when we get there," came a voice. It sounded nervous and vaguely familiar, and he realized it matched the familiar face.

With the new clue and a moment's thought, he was able to place it. "Fujikake-san! You stayed at—"

"Shut up!" someone ordered.

"Okay." He settled back in the seat to wait out the trip quietly. Not knowing where he was going or what would happen, his heart fluttered with nervous anticipation, but he knew it was the right way to go, to stop running... Being in their hands at last was strangely relieving, and he settled into the seat with a contented if unsteady smile.

Within minutes, much sooner than he expected, the carriage slowed to a stop. He heard the doors open, and cried out at the burst of pain as one of the men dragged him out by his left arm. They led him away in that direction, and he imagined they would put him on a train or boat for the next leg of the journey, but as he walked there was no sound of engine or water, and their foosteps resonated in a close space. Why? He felt his heart pounding in his chest. They're going to kill me! These are my last moments alive. No, I'm overreacting. It had to be something else...

The police gave him one last push from behind, and he felt a solid wall looming within inches, just in time not to hit it. He touched it with his hands—solid brick—and the sounds were like an enclosed space, a blind alley. What other possible reason...? The moment felt like hours before his terrified curiosity got the better of him and he bowed his head until his chained right hand could reach and push the blindfold up a little. The first motion of his eye found close walls on three sides.

"You might want to leave that on," Hakata said behind him.

Soujiro turned toward his voice amid a chorus from leather holsters and found himself looking into the barrels of three revolvers.

to be continued...

Footnotes:

13. Semori: literally "back protector"; this is an embroidery motif added on the back of a garment as a sort of charm to "protect the wearer from evil influences", usually seen on children's garments or ones with no center-back seam, according to Make Your Own Japanese Clothes by John Marshall.

14. see Fuyumatsu.

15. Just to note on this scene, the measurements Reiko is taking are somewhat based on the ones required by the patterns by John Marshall that I have for kimono and hakama (in the book Make Your Own Japanese Clothes and the out-of-print Folkwear hakama pattern)—and yes, designing a kimono for someone with that pattern does indeed use the measurement around their neck.