Writer's note: It's slow, I apologize. Keep on truckin'. Don't be scared.
Disclaimer: I've been reading a lot of Amy Tan recently and it is quite apparent that she influenced my writing a bit…So yeah. If you catch any stylized structuring, it's probably hers. :P Lol, kinda ironic considering Tan is Chinese and wrote about how the Japanese invaded China and now I am taking a piece of her and adding it to my Japanese setting. Mind boggling.
O Capitan de Mio by Leila Winters
Meg's bleary eyes fought to focus as the last vestiges of sleep left her mind. When her vision cleared, she saw the crumpled blankets and indented pillow next to her. Bolting upright in bed, the doctor placed a hand on the pillow, feeling some residual warmth. Her eyes darted around the cabin frantically, her heart accelerating with a lurch.
Nothing.
Megumi lifted her fingers before wide eyes and stared in horror at the single strand of black hair grasped there. It was short and thick, clearly not one of her own…and clearly, a man's.
Meg leapt off of the bed and rushed to the kitchen, stopping at seeing a new parcel laid out for her. Undoing the ties, her stomach rumbled at the sight of the food in the wrappings.
Rubbing her belling uncomfortably, she was interrupted by a light rapping at the door and it reminded her that she had to go to the bathroom. Badly.
At first, the doctor only crouched behind the counter slightly, her weight on the balls of her feet.
"Miss…?" a voice said.
Meg reluctantly rose from her position and eyed the door warily, feeling herself drawn to it.
The woman's voice was soft and deep…each inflection like plucking a single string on a guitar, ringing in the silence. "Be sure you do not ignore what few allies you have…but I will forgive such transgressions this time, since you have yet to realize who your allies are." There was a pause and the doctor could feel how close the other woman was to the door. "I've lingered too long. I look forward to meeting you."
Just before the stranger departed, a note was slipped under the door and Meg watched as the shadow moved away. Audibly exhaling, she hadn't even noticed she'd been holding her breath. This was all so foreign to her. Still a bit shaken, the doctor's curiosity got the best of her and she snatched the paper up to hold it in the light.
To the native-born captive,
I hope this letter finds you to be in good spirits. Things are bleak currently, but I must ask you not to flinch away from it. This life was not of your choosing, I understand that. You are most likely not the first case of mistaken origin, but you are certainly the first to be discovered and tucked away. By no means does this ensure safety. You will forever bear the mark of an Untouchable—a pariah here in Kyoto and much of Japan. The man you are staying with, Aoshi Shinomori, whom you will get to know soon enough, should provide you with all you need. Until then, stay out of sight and trust no one.
Tokio Saitou
PS: I will see about bathroom accommodations.
Relief swept through the doctor at the last line, for she recalled foregoing bathroom needs all of yesterday, when shock hadn't even had time to hit her. Still, her heart beat faster while staring at the letter in her hands. Who was this Tokio Saitou? What did she hope to gain in helping her?
Rattled, Megumi fell into one of the chairs and clicked on the radio sitting on the table.
"—io is steadily gaining more weight in parliament. Sill, that seems to be inconsequential since the Prime Minister issued a warning to the chairman that if he does not end activity in Kyoto, he will be charged with treason. The Prime Minister issued this warning from the safety of—"
Abruptly turning it off, Meg lay her head on her crossed arms resting on the table. People are dying in this living nightmare and they call it "activity." Everything is so wrong…
"Shinomori, everyone's all a-bustle with your new quarry," Captain Hajime Saitou taunted through twisted lips, his cigarette clasped in his hand.
They were standing close to each other in the brisk air, their black uniforms fluttering in the soft breeze. Supervising the male prisoners dig deep into the cold earth, Aoshi fixed the other officer with a heated gaze. "How is it they came by this information at all, Captain?"
Amusement entered the other officer's eyes. "Word travels fast, my friend. The native-born woman with the clinical hands is not something easily missed. Any train you put her on will take her to a place equally dangerous as this one. Have you any idea how you're going to get out of this particular Catch-22?"
Aoshi fumed inwardly. They were working towards the same goal, so how was it that Captain Hajime Saitou had the audacity—even the will—to provoke all those around him? He was arrogant and malicious…hardly someone to abide.
He is not my superior officer. I do not answer to him.
Steeling himself, Aoshi pushed aside his rising contempt. "In all fairness, Hajime, at least I am doing something other than criticize enemies and allies alike. I know what it is I am working towards. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm being summoned."
'Those who are old and without wives or children will find means of support and be able to live out their days; the young and orphaned who have no parents will find someone to care for them and look after their needs…' Meg felt like slamming her head against the table. She had never been so bored…and at the same time, so consumed with thoughts of rampant rivers, waterfalls, trickling streams and the steady drip of the bathtub in the back…her toes curled for the umpteenth time.
O God…I don't care who comes, but please, just let me pee…
The lady doctor was so busy with her thoughts that she didn't hear the key being inserted in the lock. It wasn't until the door swung open that Meg stifled a shriek and stared into the pale eyes of the Hitokiri captain who entered the small domain.
Closing the door unceremoniously behind him, he presented the doctor with the very thing she desired most: a chamber pot.
In actuality, it was little more than a grey bucket but all the world to someone who'd been holding it for nearly 24 hours.
"Um…could you excuse me for just a moment?" Megumi asked.
Settling himself into one of the chairs at the table, Aoshi watched as the woman crept into the back on bashful toes. He heard the water running in the tub and smiled faintly to himself at the woman's attempt to conceal other sounds, the squeak of the knob and ceasing of sloshing signified the doctor's re-entry.
His steady gaze followed the woman's lithe form as it sat itself primly on the chair across from him and uneasy eyes shifted to his.
"Captain," she said.
Keeping himself impassive, he pulled a small writing tablet from his pocket, blinking slowing at his ward.
"Full name, birth place and date," he said tersely.
Clearing her throat nervously, the woman squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. "Megumi Takani…Aizu…December 2, 1899," she murmured, shooting a quick glare at the man who was so determined to intimidate her.
"Tell me your family's name and location. I can have you returned home as soon as the end of this month, three weeks time."
The woman looked as though Aoshi had his fingers wrapped around her neck. He could not be sure if she thought this too long of an interval.
"I…I don't have any living relatives to name," she began tentatively.
The Hitokiri captain shot her a look and leaned back in his chair, indicating she should continue. This made things much more difficult, indeed.
"I mentioned before the profession I am in. I come from an entire family of them."
Takani…I knew that name was familiar…
"When I was four years old—"
"—there was a fire during a riot and the Takani estate burned to the ground. Generations of history was lost that night."
The woman nodded quietly.
"You are the heir and sole survivor of that Takani line," he finished.
Again, the woman nodded.
"Tell me, Miss Megumi, how is it you escaped?"
I hadn't wanted to remember. I'd spent my whole life trying not to remember. But now I found myself thrown to the very center of Dante's Inferno and it was this man—this native-born killer—I was supposed to trust.
My lips were moving of their own volition. I had never told the story in its entirety, but it came out at last after so many years of silence.
I awoke in the night and smelled smoke seeping through the cracks of my bedroom. I ran into the hall, ready to scream for my family to wake up, for my mother who was upstairs preparing for her evening bath, but the smoke nearly knocked me down at first breath. I crawled along the floor, coughing and gagging at the hot air that burned my lungs.
The fire was already blocking my way, creeping up the wall with wicked fingers and consuming a painting of my mother's smiling face…the suffocating heat was overriding my other senses.
I stumbled into the bathroom and tried to climb through the window, but my little feet couldn't bring me over the sill, couldn't even bring me far enough to let the smoke out.
The tears that slid down my face!
I climbed into the bathtub, already cold with the water my mother was to bathe in. Surely, she was dead. She did not come for her daughter when she cried. That portrait was an omen. Eaten up by that fire, surely my mother was, too.
I shivered in the cold water and ducked beneath the surface to escape the acrid smell of burning carpet. And yet, I knew the fire was creeping closer—already at the base of the tub, already beginning to burn my toes.
So I was to be boiled like an egg. Hot and cold. Cold and hot. Burning and shivering.
Imagine my surprise when I heard a scream from the doorway of the bathroom. Quickly, I surfaced and saw Maosa, the head servant of the household. She screamed again and picked up her skirts to dodge the fire and lift my sopping body from the water.
"Come, Meggie-chan. You don't belong here," she said, hugging me to her and rushing to open the window. After lowering me to the ground, she scrambled out and we ran together to watch the estate burn a little distance away.
Pulling on my arm, she said, "Let's go. Do not watch anymore."
But I would not move, I was fascinated by the brilliance of the flames as they surrounded the top window of my house in the night air.
"Meggie-chan," she said more forcefully, "your mother would disapprove."
Of course, my mother was already dead. But as my nightgown dripped steadily into the earth and my eyes watched the fire burn, I heard my mother screaming, the fire already upon her, her window on the top floor glowing.
So you see, the burning portrait was an omen after all.
"I'm sorry," was all Aoshi said after a long silence stretched between them.
The woman studied him carefully and he wondered what she saw. Could she see beneath the black uniform that concealed mixed emotions, to the very heart of his id? At moments, it appeared she could—her words an appeal, his chest feeling a kinship to the way her eyes would glance at the floor and back up again, eyelashes flickering.
"What happened after that?" Aoshi asked, pushing his thoughts aside.
The doctor let out a breath, brushing her bangs to the side of her face. "Maosa raised me on her own. We eventually found some other servants who had escaped, but it was Maosa who took care of me at an inn and raised me. I was not yet old enough to collect my inheritance from the bank. Until then, she was sure to instill in me manners befitting a native-born child. She sent me to make appearances at public functions, and when I was of age, I claimed the money that was rightfully mine and took my place in society. I used some of that money to fund a medical degree for myself and Maosa took a husband."
"So, I can contact this woman, then."
"Well, no…" Megumi said. "Her husband brought home a disease from a whorehouse he visited and it killed her," The bitterness in her tone still heavy after all these years. "She was the first patient I lost."
The Hitokiri captain studied her carefully for a long time. Looking at her, one wouldn't think, wouldn't even suspect, that her life held so many tragedies. It seemed a joke that now she was here, in Kyoto, her life in peril because she had pursued an education that would enable her to help people. How was it that she still managed to keep her back straight, that fire in her eyes? The smiles she had offered her un-born bunkmate?
Aoshi stood up and felt something shift in his clothing. "I nearly forgot, Miss Megumi."
"Please," the doctor breathed, "Just Megumi."
He nodded and reached into the neck of his uniform. A dark cloth fell onto the woman's lap and she blinked at it in awe.
"The craftsmanship was so good, it seemed a shame to let it be pawned for one-third its value." The captain turned away from her, now misty-eyed and rubbing the fabric between her fingers. "It wasn't difficult to find among the dusty blankets and rags."
Turning to go, a hand just on the doorknob, Aoshi heard the sudden movement of the woman, her hand stopping him with a firm grip on his sleeve. "Wait."
The moment seemed to become much more intimate in an instant. Here were two perfect strangers thrown against each other and they were to be sudden allies without ever saying the other's full name.
Megumi's cloak fell to the hardwood floor. "Wait."
The Hitokiri captain looked pointedly at the woman's hand on his arm. Suddenly self-conscious, Meg pulled away and seemed to curl in on herself.
"When I first came here, I was with a boy…Soujiro. We were split up and I haven't seen him since. Tell me the truth…what happened to him? Where are the children, Aoshi?"
Her eyes were so large, so sad that Aoshi almost missed her question. He regretted that he had to be the one to bring such bad news. "…I cannot really say. If they can pass for adults or do the work of adults, they may find a way to survive. The children that were on the train the day you came have already been shipped out of Kyoto. I do not know what became of them." This time, he reached an arm out and touched Megumi's shoulder, fingers already beginning to tingle. "I am sorry."
And as quickly as he had come, he was gone. He prayed he knew what he was doing.
End Notes: About to get to the nitty-gritty stuff. Oh yeah. And that's not REALLY Meg's birthday, if you haven't already figured that out. :P Just a little something I made up to give you guys an idea of the time period we're dealing with.