Disclaimer: My cross-country team once had a motto: "Run like you stole something." So, in the spirit of my precious high-school memories… *holds up the "rights to Rurouni Kenshin"* I will do so. It mine, all mine, WAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! *runs like, well…*
Kanashimi: *sigh!* Gomen, Watsuki-sama. This should only take a moment. *lines up the sight of her straitjacket-gun™ on Narrator*
Straightjacket-gun™: *WHUMP!*
Narrator: Oro! (@_@) Hidoi, Kanashimi!
Kanashimi: *picks up the "rights to Rurouni Kenshin"* Bad onee-sama, no cookie! You know you're not supposed to steal things that don't belong to you!
Narrator: (*~*) Okay, fine; Rurouni Kenshin isn't mine. Now, let me out of this thing!
Kanashimi: Ummmm…no! *starts skipping away*
Narrator: GET BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE…!
Jenner?
"Ano, Megumi-dono, are you certain that this should be done?"
Megumi closed her eyes and counted to ten, very slowly. "Yes, Ken-san," she replied, heroically keeping her teeth unclenched, "For the fifth time in the last five minutes, it's my professional advice, as a doctor, that we do this."
"Sessha isn't so sure it's a good idea, de gozaru…"
Megumi began rubbing her temples in aggravation. "Ken-san, why can't you just calm down so we can go into my office and do this? Kaoru-chan already agreed to let me, so why can't you? They're waiting for us while we waste time out in this hallway!" She fixed him with a fierce glare. "Why do you have to be so hesitant about something that should take less than a minute anyway?"
"But it's the consequences we have to think about de gozaru yo!" Kenshin exclaimed, flinching slightly under Megumi's wrath. "What if there is permanent damage? What if something goes terribly wrong and…?"
"Are you doubting my abilities as a physician, Ken-san?" Megumi asked in a low voice, which carried the threat of unspeakable pain if Kenshin answered incorrectly.
"Oro! Se-sessha is doing nothing of the sort de gozaru yo!" Kenshin yelped, making placating hand motions, "Sessha is, well…"
"Yes?" Megumi prompted dangerously, backing Kenshin into the closed door leading to her office.
Kenshin had already started praying to whatever deities he could think up under pressure when the door behind him suddenly opened and summarily sent his backside into rather pointed contact with the hard wood floor. "Oro!"
"Is Kenshin still fussing about it?" Kaoru asked above him, distracting Megumi from Kenshin momentarily.
The doctor shot Kenshin one last smoldering death glare before turning her attention to Kaoru. "It seems Ken-san is incapable of trusting my expert advice," Megumi replied with a sniff.
Kaoru glared down at her husband, who had been trying to make himself as small as he could on the floor. "Honestly, Kenshin, if Megumi-san says we should, I say we trust her!"
"But, koishii…"
"Kenshin, sh! You don't have to be in here if you're going to make such a big deal about it!" She turned on her heel and took a seat on the examination table beside Kenji.
"Oroooo…" Kenshin groaned pitifully.
"Okaa-san, is it really that bad?" Kenji, who had been remarkably quiet through the entire ordeal, piped up. His eyes were round with trepidation and his lower lip was starting to tremble as he tugged on the sleeve of Kaoru's kimono. "If otou-san is so scared, doesn't that mean it's going to hurt?"
Both females in the room shot such looks at Kenshin that he ought to have been crispy-fried critter on the spot.
"Kenji-kun, I'm not going to lie to you," Megumi answered the five-year-old in a frank, kind voice (entirely different from the tone she had been using with Kenshin of late), "It's going to sting for a bit, but it'll feel just like a pinch."
"You mean, like when okaa-san pinches otou-san at the table and he disappears under it?" Kenji asked worriedly.
Megumi raised an eyebrow at Kaoru, who gritted her teeth in a facsimile of a smile. "Kenji-chan, just because it's true doesn't mean it has to be said," she told her son, "Besides, otou-san's just being silly when he does that." She looked over at Kenshin, who had just made the mistake of getting up off the floor. "Right, Kenshin?"
"Er…hai, koishii!" Kenshin agreed automatically, ready to flee if Kaoru made any sudden movements.
"You've certainly gotten him well-trained, Kaoru-chan," Megumi observed before speaking to Kenji, "You see? It won't hurt so much, not for a brave little boy like you, neh?"
Kenji still looked a bit dubious. "Tell you what," Kaoru supplied, "Once this is over, we'll stop by a candy store on the way home and you can pick out some mochi. Would you like that, Kenji-chan?"
Kenji's eyes lit up, once more proving the old parental axiom: persuasion is good, but bribery is better. "I'm brave!" Kenji declared proudly, sitting up beside his mother.
"Of course you are," Megumi said. She concealed her smirk by turning around and picking up the sterilized syringe that lay on the metal tray beside the exam table.
"It'll be all right de gozaru," Kenshin said to Kenji, nervously tussling his son's hair as he eyed the syringe in Megumi's hands. 'Kami-sama, that needle looks sharp! It's even bigger than the ones Kaoru uses for sewing!' He had already spent his arguments though; Kaoru and Megumi were determined on impaling his poor, innocent son with that incredibly long, sharp, pain-inducing… He clenched his teeth.
"Just give me your arm, Kenji-kun," Megumi said lightly. The boy hesitantly extended his right hand and Megumi swabbed a small section of his upper arm with a cotton ball soaked in alcohol.
Kaoru placed a hand around his shoulders as the needle approached. 'It'll be all right, Megumi-san knows what she's doing…'
Kenji squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face in his mother's side.
*jab!*
"Itai!"
"Oro!"
*WHUMP!*
"Oh for the love of…!" Kaoru exclaimed, looking down at her unconscious husband while Megumi pressed another bit of cotton against the small wound in Kenji's arm, "He's faced the Shinsengumi, Shishio Makoto and the Juppon-gatana, and Yukishiro Enishi without turning a hair, and one little needle makes him keel over before you can say "Banzai!" Kenshin no baka!"
"Actually, you'd be surprised at how often that happens…" Megumi said.
*flashback*
"All right, Tsutomu-kun, if you'll just give me your arm…"
*jab!*
"Itai!"
*WHUMP!*
"Yare, yare," Tokio sighed, patting her son on the head and glancing down at her husband, "You'd think the former Captain of the Third Squad of the Shinsengumi would have a sterner constitution. I'm going to hold this one over Hajime's head for months!"
Owari
Narrator here. Now, before anyone flames me, I just want to point out that, in my experience, it's the big tough guys who keel over when faced with shots. Kenshin and Saitou, being the "ultimate warrior" guys they are, just kinda left that opportunity open for me.
Also for the record, Edward Jenner, an English doctor, first advanced the theory of vaccines in the late eighteenth century, performing the first successful smallpox vaccinations in the 1790's. Therefore, it is entirely probable that the idea of vaccinations had reached Japan a century later.