"Finally awake, huh?"
Sanosuke Sagara struggled to open his eyes to identify the annoying voice. When he recognized the person, he tried to stand up, but found himself suddenly leaned over with his hand on the wall as a wave of dizziness overtook him.
"That's some hangover you have there!" Cho Sawagejo gave him a sardonic grin from the other side of the gated door. "In fact, I'm surprised you can stand after how much you supposedly had."
"Where the hell am I?"
"In jail, you big rooster-head moron." Cho yawned, almost bored. "Had to do something to keep you from beating the crap out of the Tokyo riff-raff. Not that I really minded, but it made the police look really ineffective."
"Too bad I don't remember—"
"That's okay, the guys two cells down do. They won't be harassing customers anymore thanks to you. But enough about them – your friends are waiting outside."
"Dammit." Sanosuke stood up and rubbed his neck. "You called Miss Kaoru and Kenshin down here?"
"They came looking for you. You've been missing for a few days you know—"
Sanosuke frowned as he heard Cho prattle on. He tried to think back on why exactly he was here.
After he had followed Kenshin and Yahiko back from Aizu, things seemed fine. Gloomy, but well, at least every one made the pretense of following their routine.
That is,until the railcar incident.
It was all over town. Sano hated trains with a passion anyways. However, the news that a man had fallen onto the tracks as a train approached and killed -- well that was still shocking.
But the man, who his papers and records identified as a small-time traveling medicine man also had some rather unusual things in his possession.
The odd thing – was that some of these things (mostly papers and some packets of herbs) were linked back to other clients of his. Doctors here and there in this part of Japan. Including one Megumi Takani.
The police eventually linked the man back to Aizu. And a search of his modest home in Tokyo turned up other things that seemed to link him back to the doctor and her house in particular.
Sympathy for the poor man had, after the connection was made, turned into something like an irrational anger and hatred for the man. The knowledge that the killer of Megumi Takani had died an equally random and horrible death did nothing to make him or her friends feel any better.
Only empty.
After that . . . well, he just decided to lose himself in the company of some of his other friends. Eating. Gambling. Drinking. It had always worked before, back when he was just a regular streetfighter. It was the only obvious thing to turn to.
He didn't quite remember all the details. Normally he made a point to ignore other people in the restaurants. But one drunken lewd remark from someone in the next room, followed by the crash of a tray made Sanosuke suddenly slam down his bowl of noodles and march over to grab the offending stranger by the neck and drag him outside.
"Funny thing. In the end we had to arrest like fifteen people."
Cho was tapping his finger on his chin. "Seems like your opponent's
buddies couldn't just let two men fight."
Sano remembered nothing of it. Just that he punched a lot of people. All of whom if had been sober, would have stayed down after he knocked them out. He couldn't quite remember how many times he had to put these guys down, due to the effects of a little too much sake on a mostly empty stomach.
"—You really ought to keep your fists to yourself, roosterhead. Those dorks required stitches from your little punches. And boy was the doctor upset . . . "
"Shut up, broomhead." Sanosuke grabbed ahold of the door. "Are you going to let me out or am I going to have to break this cell?"
"Hmph." Cho unlatched the door. "Lucky for you the hostesses came forward and told us how you were simply protecting them from some scum. Otherwise I'd have to hold you until the bosses came back. Even though your record has been cleaned off your previous warrants, it's not every day we get one Sanosuke Sagara in jail. A lot of the younger officers wanted to come take a look at you."
" If it's my thanks you wanted, then don't hold your breath. If the police were doing their job, none of this would have happened. Not this or –"
"Or the sensei's death?" Cho was following him down the hallway and towards the main office. "Hate to tell you, but you and I both know that the government ain't perfect. You're not getting much sympathy from me, Sagara. You know better. So I don't wanna see your sorry drunk face in here again, feeling sorry for yourself. It's not going to change anything."
Sanosuke glowered at him before turning on his heel and marching over to where his friends were waiting.
"Sano!" Kenshin gave him that smile that he would often make when worried. As for Kaoru, she looked torn between hugging him and scolding him. Fortunately Kenji chose that moment to reach out for him and grab onto his arm.
As for Yahiko, well, he kept up the pretense of conversation joking about all the rumors flying about about Sanosuke Sagara and how he had beaten twelve men with only his fists. It was a welcome distraction, from not only the scolding he felt he deserved from Kenshin, but also the words Cho had said.
Cho had been right.
What the hell was he doing?
~
She was cowering before them, her long hair flowing about her knees as she sat crouched.
Her wrists were bandaged now, the blood flow stemmed by the bandages put on crudely by the one called Hannya, who had been the first to find her on the estate grounds.
Kanryuu could either be cruel or maliciously kind, and he opted to be kind today. She would suffer no beating for attempting to take her own life. However, she was forced to endure the looks of all his men as her quarters and laboratory were searched top to bottom to look for other hidden items like the knife she had managed to steal from a careless guard. Her inner guards also were there, looking at her with contempt.
She knew what most of the men were thinking. Why all this fuss over such a useless woman? Why not let her simply die?
Drug-lidded eyes opened slowly and Megumi Takani blinked once.
She thought vaguely that perhaps the one called Hannya had brought her here. But there were no bandages on her hands, although they were bound together. "Punishment" Kanryuu called it.
She frowned slightly as something came to mind. Something in the back of her mind told her that Kanryu was dead.
Or was he? She couldn't be certain. Her mind was so . . .clouded. She thought maybe if she could get some water, that maybe it would go away. But her limbs felt so heavy, and she could only barely lift her head off the floor and turn it before she gave up, exhausted.
She struggled slightly again, before her eyes closed involuntarily and she fell back into a strange sleep.
~
"Aoshi."
The sound of Okina's voice was enough to wake him from his sleep.
"What is it?" He answered automatically as he sat up abruptly, his mind already compiling list of disastrous things that could explain why Okina deemed it necessary to wake him. His eyes quickly assessed Okina - whose face reflected more bemusement than concern.
"Nothing that serious, but our night patrol caught a mouse in its trap."
Aoshi raised his eyebrow, not quite certain if he had heard that right. "A mouse?"
Okina shook his head, "As strange as it may seem, we've caught someone trying to break in."
He stood smoothly and efficiently exchanged his yukata for his uniform. "Have the police been called?"
"Not yet."
Aoshi gave him a small smile. Clearly Okina knew Aoshi well enough to understand that things out of the ordinary always interested him. "A mouse that ventures into a den of snakes is a brave mouse, or a foolish one. Let's see which of the two it turns out to be."
A/N: It's a bit short but thematically it fits together. I was trying to get the next section written out from the notes I have, but i have an exam tomorrow. haha. I will try to get it up before weekend's end. In the meantime, go read all the new Megumi fics that are popping up. yay!
