The Sacred Night, Chapter 29
"Who's that guy?" Sano asked without waiting for Tsubame's guest to be introduced. The stranger carried a shinai reminiscent of Kaoru's bokken, which now stayed in our closet unless she felt like practicing with it. It was an odd thing for a vampire to do, since did use archaic weapons frequently, but very rarely were they less than deadly.
"This is Myojin Yahiko, my… boyfriend," she answered shyly, presenting him to the group gathered in my living room. Everyone greeted them politely and introduced themselves to Yahiko. He looked about ten, but his ki indicated otherwise. He was in Tsubame's situation- changed as a child, still looking like one over a century later. It was cute how they held hands as they walked to the available seats.
"Nice to meet you, Yahiko-chan," Kaoru chirped as she bowed, oblivious to her mistake. She wasn't a vampire, and so couldn't read ki. He didn't bow back to her.
"Don't ever call me that again, you ugly old hag," he sneered and kept walking.
"Hey! You can't talk to me like that! I am one hundred forty-four and your elder!"
"Not by much, ugly. I'm one hundred thirty-two!" Kaoru gave up at that point, embarrassed by her mistake, I guessed. I smiled and held her hand. She would never cease to be the childlike girl I had married.
Aoshi sat stonily in the corner while Misao laughed beside him. She glanced over and saw his cool exterior, but it just made her laugh harder. Everyone was laughing at this point, and it was quite pleasant. Tsubame's and Yahiko's childlike voices drifted high over Sano's and my deep tones, while Kaoru's and Megumi's voices fit in the middle. Misao's loud laugh overpowered anyone's, and Aoshi just let out one barely perceptible note with a half smile.
We were an interesting assortment to see as well. The humans' clothes were more updated than the vampires', and Sano still dressed almost the same as he always had. He was never one to care what people thought, and doubtless if he could go out in the daytime, he would still wear that. The rest of us owned enough modern clothes to avoid stares if we walked through the streets, but since even that could usually be avoided, we also kept a fair amount of our old ones. Aoshi was currently wearing jeans with a flowing, white coat he'd had since before I met him. Misao was still wearing her favorite shade of blue, and Yahiko had his shinai. I myself had given up only the garments that had become too threadbare to be decent, but did not generally wear them outside. A married man could only go so far in his fashion choices without having to confront the pout of the most beautiful girl in the world. Megumi was the only one who seemed to have shifted with the times, choosing new things constantly.
Despite his rudeness to Kaoru, I could see that Yahiko was good at heart. He looked at Tsubame like Misao looked at Aoshi, and I was sure they would be happy together. I could understand why he was so averse to being taken for younger than he really was- it had happened often enough to me when I was alive, and still did sometimes, though I wasn't as offended by it anymore. Kaoru, on the other hand, made it no secret that she was every bit of one hundred forty-four. She was like a vampire woman in that respect- bound humans weren't always as proud of it as they were. We men remained apathetic for the most part, regardless of our status as normal, bound, or vampire.
"It's nice to have all these people here. When I get better and Takani-san leaves, Kenshin and I will be all by ourselves!" Kaoru said. She hated to be left alone, case in point: Enishi's Island.
"I don't know about that, Himura-san," Megumi answered quickly. "I really like it here, maybe I'll stay…" she had pulled my other hand into both of hers. Sano opened his mouth lazily to say something like, 'Cool it, Fox,' when Kaoru beat him to it.
"NO, YOU MOST CERTAINLY WILL NOT! I DON'T CARE HOW LONELY I GET; I DON'T NEED YOU FLIRTING WITH MY HUSBAND!" These words were accompanied by several mercifully poorly aimed swipes toward Megumi's head, and I thought it best to quietly reclaim my hand.
"It's all right, Kaoru-dono, she was only teasing, that she was," I tried to pacify her, but I began to wonder just how all right it really was. I had always known that Megumi was not serious when she innocently touched me occasionally, but I had never thought she'd do it in front of Kaoru. This was not good- not good at all.
"That had better be all it was," she pouted, plopping back down next to me.
"Relax, Himura-san, he's not some toy we're going to fight over like children. He's his own man,"
What in Nirvana's name was she doing? Granted, she didn't know Kaoru like I did, but anybody should be able to guess that a wife would not be happy about this sort of thing. Kaoru was beyond not happy. She was livid. "You vixen! You flirt! You home-wrecker!" Objects from the nearest table were now receiving frequent-flier miles as they soared toward Megumi's unprotected body. I caught a couple of knickknacks, among them a ceramic elephant she'd gotten as a present from Misao shortly after a fight they'd won together while I hadn't been there. She laughed about it, but I didn't understand the joke.
"Please stop, Kaoru-dono, you'll hurt Megumi-dono, that you will," I pleaded, hoping Megumi would not prod her on again.
"Come on, Missy, you know he's not gonna cheat on you," Sano pointed out.
She admitted that yes, she did know this, and sat once again, deliberately very close to me, shooting disapproving looks across me to Megumi, who just 'hmph'ed and stuck her nose in the air. They were acting like children. I would have to talk to Megumi about that, and now probably Kaoru as well. This would require significant smoothing over. I hoped the two women were not permanently off to a bad start, though, since Megumi's company was much more enjoyable when she wasn't bringing up exactly the thing one didn't want to hear.
We all settled in, just socializing and laughing now that the imminent threat of Kaoru's wrath was temporarily neutralized. Tsubame told us she had gotten a new job at a restaurant in town and that's how she met Yahiko. Aoshi's and Misao's marriage was back to normal, Misao's affection or Aoshi being incredibly resilient. Sano, amazingly, was taking 'nothing' to unprecedented levels- he had not had a paying job in over fifty years now. What little money was required to keep humans around to feed on was won through copious amounts of gambling, at which a vampire could excel easily against humans.
Aoshi, Misao, Tsubame, and Yahiko left fairly soon, leaving Kaoru, Megumi, Sano, and me. It got rather quiet and nice, and after awhile Kaoru and Megumi announced that they were hungry and would be leaving Sano's and my presence for awhile. The two of us did not find it hard to search for conversation topics, and we stayed in my living room for quite awhile just shooting the breeze. Eventually the discussion wove its way to Megumi.
"The Fox really seems to like you," he pointed out, and maybe I just imagined that he was a little jealous.
"Yes… she knew who I was before she offered to let me feed on her. She seemed to think she could understand me better than other people, and I suppose she does to a degree,"
"Why would she think that? She hasn't done…"
"Not exactly, Sano, but I really think you should ask Megumi-dono about that. I'm not sure she'd appreciate it if I told you,"
"So there's some big secret?"
"Yes, she does have a secret. I'm warning you, Sano, you're not going to like it,"
"Hey, I've probably heard worse. She couldn'ta done anything too bad, I mean, she's like, a doctor, so it's not like she killed anybody…"
I didn't answer, and he seemed a little disturbed by that, but I was resolute. He was looking at me a little strangely, clearly wondering what I could have meant, when the two women came back. Sano wasted no time asking Megumi to speak to him privately, and I was left alone with Kaoru, which I ordinarily would not have minded in the least. This time, however, I had some explaining to do.
"Kenshin?" She greeted hesitantly as she came to sit beside me.
"Yes, Kaoru-dono?" I answered perfectly innocently, though I could imagine what was coming.
"Why was Takani-san acting so strange earlier?"
"Well, Megumi-dono has… a secret, Kaoru-dono, and she thought because of it that she and I could understand each other better than most people. It's all right, that it is. She is not serious, Kaoru-dono,"
"I don't like it. I'm going to talk to her about it,"
"No, please don't do that, Kaoru-dono. I can talk to her about it if you like," I suggested. I knew what would happen if she were left to try to convince the tenacious doctor of anything- more items would fly through the air.
"All right," she agreed reluctantly. "Don't be so lenient, though. I want her to understand that she needs to stop immediately,"
"I suppose I can do that, Kaoru, that I ca-"
"91,300 PEOPLE?" I heard bellowed from the back of my house. I guessed Sano had found out Megumi's secret. A few hastily spoken, mumbled words in feminine tones followed it, but Sano probably did not hear them as his ki abruptly disappeared from the vicinity. I heard him in my mind, requesting rather roughly that I come with him. I knew I was in trouble.
Very shortly, I was sure I would be in trouble with just about everyone I knew. I wondered what would go wrong to alienate me from Aoshi and Misao; they were the only ones left. I found him in his surprisingly semi-clean apartment- vampires needed very few material possessions- head in hands. He looked up when he sensed me and began to ask the questions of a betrayed party, though none sounded like questions so much as accusations.
"You knew,"
"Yes, I did,"
"You let that... that Opium Woman into your house and knew I liked her, but you never-"
"I couldn't, Sano. It was hers to tell. She only told me after I'd fed on her several times, that she did,"
"You could have warned me, told me to stay away before I fell for her," he seemed to be finished, but then spoke more after a pause. "You're still letting her stay there, feeding on her?"
"Yes,"
"Even after she..."
"Sano, I know you have a personal issue with opium, but you cannot believe she is worse than this one,"
"I do. She killed 91,300 people. You, maybe 1500. Jeez, Kenshin, you're a vampire. I don't approve, either, but come on, we all go through a little of that,"
"A little, Sano? How many do you think Misao-dono or Tsubame-dono killed when they were changed?"
"How about Aoshi or me? A lot more than the girls, I know that much,"
"That doesn't matter. Fifteen hundred people are dead,"
"91,300 people are dead!"
"Yes, Sano, they are. Did she tell you why she did those things?"
"Do you care why? You always say it's wrong no matter what-"
"Yes, I do, but her case is different. Did she tell you why?"
"She… tried. I left before she could say,"
"She was forced, Sano,"
"Forced? By who?"
"Takeda Kanryuu,"
"The human hunter guy with the big group that tried to get Misao?"
"The very same. He's the one who bound her,"
"And she's the one Aoshi let escape,"
"Yes,"
He sighed loudly, running his right hand through his hair, and disappeared.
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i bet he's not going where you think he's going…
IloveLegolas: glad you like this! a LOTR person should know a thing or two about good fantasy. Anyhoo, yes, many people seemed to think ken and Misao were going to be a pairing, but i did not mean to give the impression that they were ever romantically involved- that was just their cover story with Omasu. i'm not squeamish about blood, really, but violence i sort of am. i just believe violence is wrong, but blood itself doesn't bother me. i loved your nice long review! really, you could be a doctor and not deal with much blood, just not a surgeon. you could be a family doctor or a dietician, but you'd still have to dissect things in med school and do your residency who knows where, but then it'd be over with.
Kenshin's My Man: well, i can't have you dying on me, so here it is! glad he's still IC.
Cattibrie393: you know, I didn't feel great about that scene either, but i posted it anyway because i'm sort of behind right now. sorry about posting a substandard chapter, but glad you liked it anyway. i don't think the rest will cause many problems.
Yuhi-thedoerofevildeeds: glad you liked it. to answer your question, when an organism isn't naturally supposed to eat something, it doesn't taste good to it. people, for example, don't generally like raw meat (except sushi in some cases), whereas a bear loves it. cat food does not taste good to you, I'm sure, as strawberries probably do not taste good to cats, since they are mainly meat eaters. he's just not meant to eat human food. this story was partly inspired by a dream i had where the whole Kenshin cast was some sort of flesh eating creatures, and Kenshin, not wanting to kill, tried to force himself to eat regular food, but it was really gross for him.
Cowgirl4Ever: well, the fic may be there somewhere, cause sometimes the search thing doesn't find all the results that go with the word you typed.
Lady Battousai: glad you liked the chapter. kaoru is getting better and can go out and things now, but she just can't take too much strain (like losing half the blood in her body!). the whole Kanryuu thing is over, but megumi's secret was bought to light by it. the problems are now shifting more toward social issues between the characters, not large-scale crises.
Forbidden Dream: wait a minute, you like Battousai but not Tomoe? they're inseparable! Anyhoo, i usually don't read alternate pairings, either, except b/k, but sometimes in k/k fics, they start out pared with other people and then find each other. people seem to have a fetish for kao/sou and kao/Aoshi, just because all three of them have the same hair and eye color so they sort of look like they go together. kao and sou could be brother and sister, really, as looks go. i don't like enishi/kao, because it makes just enough sense with the story to be annoying, but not enough to be credible. HE TRIED TO FREAKING KILL HER! come on! the same-sex pairings are usually the weirdest, because they have not just stuff like ken/sano which you can almost see because they are good friends even though they are both straight, but weird stuff like ken/saitou… that's just wrong. if the author explains why they are different, i can see it, but not if they just change things randomly to fulfill their fantasies.
Invader Zimo: actually, the people who had the house before me had horses here, but we probably won't because the yard is not *actually* big enough since it is interrupted by a pond and a few other things. i do love horses though. glad this chapter was "feel good." megumi is trying really hardcore to get Kenshin to stop being so hard on himself, but it is so not happening. because he would probably never do that. i'm also trying to point out how similar meg and ken are, thus her body count. the cooking thing was to show kao and meg's relationship, which will be important.