A/N: Thousand pardons if I keep treating Sano/Megumi in such a light (flippant, even) manner. Lol, somewhat felt a need to do a "fun" fic once more. ^.^ It's been more than a year since I wrote "Little Rooster" (admittedly, it was a fun ride) and I guess I wanted to do something similar again -so this is a sequel to that, of sorts, and hopefully I've improved - before I go back to the dreariness that is called school. Let the sparks fly! *bows*
Part One
"You never cease to amaze me, Sagara Sanosuke. Just when I think that you can actually do something right, you prove me wrong again. It's uncanny."
Sanosuke was standing on the wooden doorjamb of Gensai-sensei's clinic, looking sulky, his arms folded across his chest. His face was dark, a sort of darkness that Megumi had long referred to as a look of embarrassment. He finally removed the fish bone from his mouth, and with an attempt at nonchalance, sniffed and muttered, "T'ain't much of a difference anyway."
"Yes, there's no difference," agreed Megumi matter-of-factly, towering over him and waving the unopened package he had brought to her, "to anyone who can't count."
"It's just five ounces, onna! What are you so worked up for?"
"I am hardly worked up--merely surprised that you could actually be denser than I thought." Megumi placed the wrapped brown-paper on the table and flipped her long hair over her shoulder in the contemptuous manner she knew would infuriate Sanosuke.
Sano growled in his throat, dragging his hand over his face in exasperation. He could never fathom women; you do an errand for them by the pure goodness of your heart and they hurl you with insults just because you overlooked five ounces. Five measly ounces! He could have spent the time Megumi had been using to attack him to run back to the apothecary and get the blasted five ounces of that stupid ginseng, if that kitsune would just give him a moment's respite. A pox on a woman's smart mouth! Sanosuke stuck his fish bone back and gripped it tightly between his lips, convinced that if women had been mute, the world would've been an infinitely better place. Che. He rolled his eyes, turning his heels to leave.
Megumi had disappeared into a room, the sound of the shoji door closing behind her. She opened the parcel and studied the contents before emptying the grayish powder that Sanosuke had bought into a bottle, trying not to laugh. Sanosuke was so explosive yet so ridiculously predictable, like a bomb just waiting for its fuse to be lighted. It was so simple; all you had to do was to strike the match and you would know exactly what would happen. How very much like a man.
She dabbed her little finger on the last few pinches of the powder left on the brown paper and tasted it gingerly, frowning. Odd. The taste wasn't what she expected from grounded Chinese ginseng root. In fact, it tasted vaguely like Japanese ginseng to her. She licked her lips clean. Well, she had never tasted Chinese ginseng before; maybe the difference wasn't really that noticeable.
She took the brown paper and sprinkled the remaining powder over a tiny, earthen bowl of a few herbal leaves she had freshly mashed the day before and had left to ferment for the food supplement she was mixing. It was a new formula that she had just learned and was experimenting with. She took the wooden pestle and began to ground her mixture vigorously.
Minutes later, she had worked a fine perspiration on her temples and in front of her was a satisfactory specimen of crushed leaves and sap. She took the bowl and carefully emptied the contents with a porcelain spoon into a cup of hot, rice tea that she had prepared earlier. With a pair of chopsticks, she stirred the darkening water, making the leftover pieces of leaves swirl. Then she raised the cup to her lips.
Kanpei.
Megumi drank half the teacup and swallowed it quickly, a wry look spreading over her face. She hadn't expected it to be so bitter. Oh well, what one would do for the progress of medicine. It was only a food supplement, anyway, with no unpleasant side effects. The bitterness would be all. She held her nose and finished her cup with conviction.
The warm, heady liquid spread down from her chest and into her stomach and she sat on down on a nearby stool, suddenly feeling a little drowsy. It must be the afternoon heat; the air had been sweltering all morning and the crickets were going wild. Megumi stretched her arms on the table and yawned, burying her face on the nook of her arm. Perhaps a little nap would be in order. She had been awake the night before, researching old scrolls for verification of this little project of hers. So far, everything had checked out.
She really was getting rather sleepy...
The last thing she heard were the crickets screeching around her herbal garden.
"Oi...oi..."
Megumi felt a soft prodding on her arm and she batted it away carelessly before drifting back to sleep.
"Hey...hey, who are you?" the voice persisted, shaking her arm.
Megumi's eyes snapped open. That was Sanosuke's voice. She raised her head and blearily looked around. It was getting a little dark, but some light was still around. Sano was hovering above her, looking suddenly and strangely taller than usual.
"Sano?" Megumi slowly sat up and winced, her back aching from the position. The blood that had been stuck in end of her arm began to rush in uncomfortably with prickly sensations.
Sano looked at her in queer astonishment. His voice was ghostly. "Amataseru-kami-sama," he swore, paling. "It is you."
"What are you mumbling about now?" Megumi asked irritably, at the same time wondering why her clothes were feeling rather loose. "Of course it is me, you tori-atama. Who would it be otherwise?"
Sano did nothing but gape at her and Megumi finally decided that Sano truly was denser than she thought. Then her eyes wandered down at her loose smock.
She blanched.
She had shrunk.
By all that was sacred in this world, she had shrunk.
She slowly lowered her hands to feel herself, as if she was in a dream, although she already had the sinking feeling she knew what was going on. Her flat chest, her chubby skin with the baby fats still clinging on - it took no surgeon to diagnose what had happened to her. But this was impossible...
"Sano," she squeaked, aghast, in a high octave, her voice sounding out her own horrifying realization. "What have you done to me?"
Sanosuke had a difficult time locating his tongue at this accusation, but he found it. "Me?!" he sputtered. "I think the question you should be asking is what have you done to yourself? I just came in here!" He had a strange, constipated look on his face, as if he didn't know if he should panic or be amused. When he had entered the clinic holding the pack of extra ounces, he had wondered who the pretty young girl with long hair, dozing on Megumi's worktable, was. After calling for the doctor and hearing no asnwer, he had taken a closer look at the girl and found out, much to his astonishment, what great resemblanceshe had with Megumi. And when she had raised her head and had answered him with that unmistakable, cynical tone underneath her endearing six-year-old voice, his mind had frozen in schock. Gone was the sultry, voluptuous seductress of a doctor, and in her place was a little girl with dagger eyes, barely out of her diapers.
Megumi's own mind was racing, searching for explanations. She was sure it had something to do with the food supplement she had drank, but she had verified again and again its certification with her research. She had painstakingly followed each direction for the ingredients to the character...
The ginseng.
Megumi's mind froze into a shrieking halt.
The ginseng. Her doctor's instinct knew that the Chinese ginseng had tasted too much like Japanese ginseng...
She veered her glassy eyes at Sano, who seemed to be thinking that if he made the slightest move, Megumi would explode in front of his eyes.
Was it possible that Sanosuke had bought the Japanese ginseng root powder instead of the Chinese...
"Sanosuke," she said softly but murderously, "what sort of ginseng did you buy?"
"Sort?" he blinked and remembered to answer. "What do you mean, what sort? Ginseng is ginseng; that's all there is to it."
Megumi flushed. "Sagara Sanosuke, you idiotic, numskulled, pea-brained, moronic, blundering...imbecile!"
Sano stared at her, both in perplexity and amusement. "Well, that's the pottiest mouth I've ever heard from a six-year-old! You better have a good reason for saying that, young lady!""Don't you young lady me!" Megumi's voice had neared a scream and Sano could not remember the last time he had ever seen the doctor in such a tizzy. "You can't even understand simple Japanese, you chicken-head!"
"What are you talking about?!" asked a bewildered Sanosuke, raising his own voice to match hers and simultaneously taking a step back, fearing that little Megumi might hurl something at him anytime soon.
"I distinctly told you," growled the furious child between ragged breaths, her cheeks pink, "to get me Chinese ginseng, not Japanese!"
Sanosuke looked genuinely startled. "You mean there's a difference?"
Megumi flew into a rage and nearly toppled off from the stool. "I have never met anyone so retarded in my entire life!"
"Oi, oi, watch it there," said Sano defensively, frowning and putting up his hands in an attempt to placate her and to stabilize the chair. "How was I supposed to know there was a difference? It was a simple mistake!"
"A simple mistake?" Megumi pointed at herself, loose smock barely hanging on her shoulders, eyes like knives. "You call this a simple mistake?!"
"Heck, you're right, it's certainly going to take some time for them to grow back," agreed Sano musingly, staring at her flat bosom.
He took the receiving end of the well-aimed bowl squarely on his face for his trouble.
"Sanosuke, you - " but before Megumi could caterwaul another colorful string of names, Sanosuke had suddenly reached down and scooped her up in his arms, propping her against his strong shoulder. He honestly did not know what in jigoku was going on, only that he had made another big blunder due to his thick head that had reduced Megumi into this, and he felt mostly responsible. Besides, there was something about this little, younger version of the fox lady that made her so lovable to him and brought out all his brotherly instincts to keep her from suddenly running away.
Megumi, on the other hand, did not find this gesture of affection agreeable. The moment Sano had reached out, she had shot out her arms and had tried to scratch him in righteous fury.
"Hey! Ow!" Sano tried to fend himself with his free arm as Megumi's hands swiped left and right. "Claws in, you cat!"
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" cried Megumi accusingly in her high pitch, not ceasing her attempts. "I will not allow myself to be handled in such a disgraceful manner!"
"What disgraceful manner?" yelled Sano just as fiercely, feeling wounded. "I'm just holding you, that's all!"
"I did not ask you to!" squealed the little child, writhing in disgust.
"My, you are a frisky little lady, aren't you?" Sano dodged a near-blow. "Just hold still, will you? I'm not going to do anything to you!"
Megumi beat him with her little balled fists as hard as she could. "Let me go, Sanosuke! Hanase! HA-NA-SE!"
"Or what?" challenged Sanosuke before he could stop himself.
Megumi suddenly quieted and glowered at him with all the intensity her round, chubby face could muster. "Or I'll scream child molestation," she threatened dangerously.
Sanosuke's eyes flashed indignantly. "Heh, I'd like to see you try, you little -"
Her scream was ear-splitting, with all the high-intensity, high-frequency vocal chords of a six-year-old girl in wrathful passion.
"All right, stop, stop it, I get the point! STOP!" Sano implored, who could not cover his ears in fear of dropping her. But she would not cease her shrill wailing until he thundered angrily, "WILL YOU STOP THAT, YOU BRAT!"
Megumi stopped, but during the short silence that ensued, her face began to scrunch up, growing purple, and her eyes began to well.
"Oh, Kami-sama, no, wait..."
But it was too late. Little Takani Megumi had begun to cry in heartrending sobs with her little shoulders shaking, and poor Sanosuke had never felt so helpless as he tried to console her in vain, as he was too shocked to see Megumi in tears to think properly. "Aww, come on, Megumi, please don't cry. You're going to make things worse. I didn't mean that at all...it just came out. I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He attempted to brush away her tears with his fingers.
"Well, Sano, you certainly are pathetic." Megumi suddenly straightened her back, all tears gone and poised foxiness back. "That's not how you calm down a crying child at all. Now that I got your attention, will you please let me go?"
"What-?" Sanosuke looked at her in consternation, unconsciously placing her atop the table as his brotherly instincts dissolved. "You were faking that?!"
"I won't even dignify a response to that," she said coolly, wiping her wet face. "It was merely a means to an end. Besides, it was getting awfully cramped in your arms."
It was Sano's turn to flush red. "Why you little fox-"
But before he could continue, both of them heard the rapid pattering of three pairs of sandals towards the clinic. They heard the creaky gate swing open and a familiar voice urgently call out, "Megumi-dono! Daijoubu de gozaru ka?"
The two looked at each other in dismay.
"Now look at what you've done!" hissed Sano pointedly at the little girl. "What with you screaming your head off like a lunatic, it's a miracle the whole village isn't here!"
"Well, I wasn't the one molesting a child!" retorted Megumi.
"I was not molesting you!"
"Well, whatever it was you were doing could wait - what are we going to tell them?" Megumi whispered pressingly as Kenshin called for her again, now with Kaoru and Yahiko's voice echoing in chorus.
"Tell them? Tell them you've been babyfied, of course. So I can get you off my back as soon as possible. You're not exactly the happy bundle of joy to be carried around either."
"No, we can't tell them that," returned Megumi quickly, although there was a little hurt in her eyes that Sano decided not to notice. "The fewer people who know this, the better. We can't let it spread that this woman doctor can't even get her experiments right just because you bungled up the job."
"Me again! Well, who was it who ordered me to get that ginseng in the first place, smarty?"
"We'll discuss this later," Megumi glared as she leaped onto the stool and shimmied down with her new-found agility. Before Sano could answer, she had run off into the small cupboard on the floor, had crept in, and shut the door.
"Megumi-dono!" Kenshin burst into the clinic, eyes wary and hand on the hilt of his sword. Kaoru and Yahiko came panting behind him carrying their own wooden swords, looking puffy.
"Uh...hey, folks," greeted Sano uncertainly, still a little disoriented by the sudden turn of events.
"Sano?" Kenshin's eyes widened. "Where's Megumi-dono? I thought I heard her scream."
"We heard it too," piped in Yahiko. "She frightened all the birds away with that scream, and we came here as fast as we could."
"Yes, where is she, Sano?" Kaoru asked, then ever the observant, suspiciously added, "And what are you doing here alone?"
"Aa...saa...," delayed Sano, biding for time. Think, Sagara. "Uh, I came here to...uh, get my hand checked, as usual...but it turns out that she's not here. She must be out or something; I searched the whole place. And that scream...well, that was me...er...exercising my vocal chords...to...to practice for a Noh drama," he finished lamely.
"To practice for a Noh drama?" repeated Yahiko incomprehensively.
"Yeah, that's what I was doing, runt. Don't wear it out."
"Wow, Sano, I didn't know you could sing opera," commented Kenshin, surprised.
"Yeah, well, that's only one of my many hidden talents," said Sano, giving a faint grin.
"And you got through that gruelling audition? Sugoi. So when and where is it going to be held?" asked Kaoru, looking genuinely interested, much to Sano's alarm. "We'd have to buy tickets for that. By the way, which opera are you playing? I just love Kanjincho."
"Erm, yeah, yeah, that's it-"
"Will you be playing Minamoto-no-Yoshitsune? Or will you be playing Benkei himself?"
"Well, hey, you know what?" said Sano hurriedly before the Noh discussion could get any more out of hand. "Since we're great friends and all, let me see if I could get myself a few tickets for you guys. On the house, you know?"
"Would you?" said Kaoru gratefully, making Sano wish that he had known that she was a kabuki fanatic earlier so he wouldn't have brought it up. "Oh, thank you, Sano."
"Yeah, Sano, although I still think you scream like a girl," said Yahiko cheekily, which earned him a hard rubbing on his head.
"Good luck with your practice, Sano," said Kenshin as they turned to leave. "And give our best regards to Megumi-dono if you catch her."
"Yeah, I'll do that," he said as he stood there in relief, watching them leave.
"Practicing for a Noh drama?" echoed Megumi as she crawled out of the cupboard.
"And do you have a problem with that too?" shot back Sano, annoyed. "You're weren't exactly helpful back there, hiding behind me."
"I didn't say anything about the Noh drama excuse," said Megumi as she dusted herself and gathered her loose clothes with some difficulty.
"Well...good," he grunted, surprised. It was the nicest thing she had said to him the entire day
"And...thank you," Megumi grudgingly added, averting her eyes from him, "for covering for me."
"Hey, that's what I do best," said Sano, suddenly flashing a lopsided grin. "Covering for people...myself, usually, but I do other people too."
"I'm not surprised." Megumi waited. After a pause, of which no one moved, she said, "I think that's your cue."
"Cue for what?"
She gestured at the darkening sky before waddling away for her room. "It's getting late."
Sano took one look outside then his sight went back to her retreating figure. "You're crazy if you think I'm just leaving you here."
Megumi stopped in her tracks. "Excuse me?"
Sano thought he was losing his mind, but he leaned on the table, scratching his head, hoping he was doing the right thing. "You're only three feet tall now, Megumi, no offense. You can't do a lot of things with that."
"Sano, are you suggesting," Megumi turned to face him, a curious look on her face, "that you're going to take care of me?"
"Well, I-"
"Well, that's a laugh," chuckled Megumi, making Sano frown. "Thanks, but no thanks, Sanosuke. I'm not exactly the happy bundle of joy, like you said; I don't want to burden you, no, heaven forbid." She did not bother to hide her sarcasm. "Besides, I still have to figure out what to do with this thing you've done to me."
"I can't believe I'm arguing with a six-year-old child," groaned Sano."I really must be losing it." And with his long strides, he easily caught up with her and lifted her once again into his arms. But before she could react, he had held both her little arms with four of his fingers and he pressed his index finger on her lips. "Let me just tell you that I know an old herbalist who actually knows what he does. I can take you to him, help you figure out how we can reverse this thing you did to yourself."
"You mean what you did to me," corrected Megumi, but she did not protest.
"Good, it's settled then," said Sano, relieved. "I guess you'll have to live with me for the next few days till we can figure this out."
"What?!"
"Hey, it's not exactly going to be a picnic for me either," retorted Sano as he released her arms. "And we can't live here; people are going to take notice, especially your patients."
"Fine. It's not as if I have a choice anyway." Megumi looked a little peeved. "Gensai-sensei and the children are out on vacation, traveling, so that means there'll be no doctors in the clinic. You'll have to tack a notice in front of the gate about that. Just say I went out too. I'll also have to get some of Suzume's clothes to fit me too." Megumi brought out a small purse from one of the voluminous folds of her summer yukata underneath the smock. "The recipe for the mixture is here too, and so is a little money to last me for some time."
"Good, we can't go wrong with a little money," grinned Sano as he made his way for Suzume and Ayame's room, carrying Megumi with him. "You can take care yourself now?" he said as they reached the place and he lifted her down.
"Thank you, but I'm a big girl now; I can put on my slippers and everything," she said dryly as she slid the shoji door shut. A moment later, the door slip open and she coolly came out, dressed in one of Suzume's colorful yukata, carrying a neatly-tied bundle of clothes that seemed a little too big for her.
"And dare I say that you look unusually charming today, my dear?" greeted Sanosuke, grinning in spite of himself. He was about to scoop her up again, but she held up her hand and said, with much aplomb possible coming from a child, "Thank you, Sano, but I think I can walk on my own. I do have legs, you know."
"Not like the ones you used to have, though," said Sanosuke half-wistfully. "Hey, it was a joke!" he defended himself when Megumi pommeled his shins. "You'd at least let me hold your hand, wouldn't you?" he said a little gruffly. "It's pretty dark outside."
"Fine," grumbled Megumi and she stretched one hand while keeping the other firmly holding her belongings. Sano took her small hand in his own rough one and they walked away.