I Disclaim everything that is related to Rurouni Kenshin and its creator. So, nyah.
To Kyoto, Returning
Chapter Two:
The Shadow Warriors
by Ushuaia
He left the Akabeko in a hurry. At first he felt was disappointment and mild anger for not being recognized by Tae, Yahiko and Tsubame. Yahiko even looked at him as if he wanted to clobber him with his katana.
But it was because of him that changed his mood.
When he blurted out that Kanryuu escaped, he almost dropped his rice he so carefully stacked on his chopsticks, and hurried eating and left as soon as possible.
He stopped in his tracks. He remembered that he had forgotten to pay his tab.
He resumed walking. Well, that's what you get when you guys didn't recognize me, he thought. He was planning to surprise them. He'd order, sit in his usual place, and imagined them making pointing gestures at him. He'd smile, wave, and that's it.
He wasn't that imaginative.
Again, his thoughts floated back to Kanryuu. Two days is enough for someone to plot revenge. He felt a strange cold sensation that's telling him that Megumi will be the first one to go.
He was engrossed on getting to the clinic as fast as he could that he didn't notice the stares and few physical changes around him. It was when he saw a house built near where the road forked: the two roads streaming out at the side of the house. He remembered that that lot was empty before.
How much did Kyoto changed since he left years ago?
Well, he knows that Akabeko's menu had changed, noticing the meal he had earlier. There are also a few trees no longer stood where they should be, and a few buildings that sprang in its place.
The faces of the people are also different. For one, he doesn't know most of them. Yahiko had grown a lot, but Sano is still taller in mere inches. Tsubame had grown into a pretty lady and made a mental note to tease Yahiko about it once they all get reacquainted again. Tae is as stubborn as ever that although his barking his orders when he was still in his bad mood, she held her ground.
As much as he missed them, he misses Kaoru and Kenshin more.
The last thing he remembered about Kenshin is when he helped him take that ride home from China. He was sick. No, in fact, he was really sick, and he promised that he'll follow him back to Japan once he's finished with his affairs there. It took a while before he got back, and his heart ached when he found out that they already passed away.
He stopped when he spotted the clinic. He never heard anything about Megumi since Kaoru stopped writing to him a year ago. Is her disposition still as stubborn as a mule? Does her fox ears appear whenever she get devious? Does she still have that long, dark hair, the one he dearly love to yank?
Is she married? A small, lingering voice whispered at the back of his head, which send him an unexplained uneasy feeling.
The gate is open and he could see a queue snaking out of the clinic's front door. He couldn't risk people getting into a panic. Evidence: Just a moment ago, a woman shrieked when he passed by.
He easily slipped inside and into one of the rooms. There, he sat, and by doing so, he could feel the footsteps on the floor better. With all the time he spent with the lady doctor, he could easily recognize her footsteps.
It wasn't long until he felt her presence by the door.
He heard voices. "--she's probably lonely. Imagine, she's not married yet."
"Really? I though she and that gangster-looking guy were getting along just fine."
He smiled. Megumi isn't married yet. That's one thing that didn't change while he was gone.
She entered and slammed the door behind her. She looked infuriated, but it quickly turned to shock when she spotted him. He realized that she caught him smiling.
"Sanosuke." She said upon seeing him. He stood up, quite pleased that she-at least-recognizes him.
"Well, well, Megitsune," he said, purposely throwing in his favorite nickname of her. "I see you haven't changed." Which is true. Her clothes may have changed, and her hair is a bit shorter, but she still looked at him with the ferocity of a fox.
"And you have. A LOT." She retorted. What the hell is he wearing? He looked more like an ogre rather than an adventurer.
She was looking at him from head to toe, assessing. "Oh, this," he pointed to his clothes. "I got some trouble awhile ago. Couldn't resist to tackle a bastard on the ground," he joked.
"Or in the mud. Did you care to change clothes afterwards?" Then, she paused. "Did you bathe?"
"It was the ground, not horse poop. And besides, I thought you didn't care about how I seem to wear only one piece of clothing?" (A.N: Duh! Doesn't everyone of you?)
"That's because we were certain that you take baths." She walked pass him and to a table where her other medical equipment lay idle until needed.
Sano noticed that her eyes looked afraid when she passed by. "I heard about Kanryuu's escape."
He saw her stiffened, but she continued on sorting the instruments.
"Don't worry," he suddenly declared, his voice completely changed to a livelier one. "Sanosuke Segara is here to protect you."
She gave him a wary look. "You're not exactly Knight in Shining Armor, are you?"
"And you're not exactly Sleeping Beauty, so don't be choosy," he walked towards the opposite wall, found a stool, and dropped his tattered bag on it to emphasis permanence. Then he leaned on the wall and made a production of himself. "I'm as good as it gets."
"I am so doomed," she muttered.
"Hey! You don't get a handsome adventurer to protect you without anything in return."
"Handsome? In your dreams, Rooster Head."
The name was like music in his ears. Finally, he's getting some verbal exercise.
He chuckled. "If you don't consider me as handsome, then how come YOU haven't snagged a husband yet?" He was tempted to see her flare up that he didn't mind throwing that little detail at her.
Megumi was starting to get annoyed. "I don't see any need to get married, especially if all men are as vain and obnoxious as you."
"Yeah, I'm obnoxious. So what? But vain?" Again, he pointed at his clothes.
"After all these years of being non-existent, you have the guts to tease me?"
"Well if only people recognizes me from the start, I wouldn't be such a bully."
"How do you think they're suppose to know?" The tone of her voice rising, also finding out that nobody recognized him-which came to no surprise to her. "You looked like a disheveled rag that had been used for over a hundred years."
"Well, is it my fault that I have no other clothes?"
"You could've also taken a bath."
"You know that I did and that I don't smell, despite appearances."
"If you've noticed, I don't trust that."
Silence.
That was a nice welcome, he mused, even if it was hardly that of a welcome. She stood there, irritated, because of a dialogue mainly consists of his inhuman appearance.
"You haven't changed a bit after all," Megumi retracted, a curve on her lips. " You still have the brain of a chicken to even still verbally fight me."
"And you're still as surly. No wonder nobody bothered to marry you."
One minute he was smiling, the next minute, a scalpel shot right at him, landing on the wall behind him with a solid thud, merely centimeters away from sporting a hole in Yahiko's face when he came bursting in.
What in the world was that?
Yahiko stood there--stunned--for almost being skewered by a scalpel. He had been following the Dirty Guy, suspecting him to be one of Kanryuu's men. He almost suspected it right when he saw the guy stopped at the clinic.
Fear was his initial feeling. He slowly walked towards the clinic, careful not to arouse a panic. But he heard voices--shouts actually--that had him dashing to the room.
It was such a surprise when the Lady Doctor hurled a scalpel towards him. Luckily, it missed. Not a comforting thought, though, but still it missed.
"N-nani?!" He croaked. He looked at the Dirty Man, then to Megumi, then back at the man. It was the first time he saw him this close, and he realized why he looked familiar.
"Sano?"
"Well, well, Yahiko-chan. Finally, you recognized me," he said as he proceeded to rummage his hair.
"Don't-Call-Me-'Chan'!"
"Can't help it, Yahiko-CHAN. I missed it."
"Will you two stop that." Megumi scolded, then started walking towards them. "Now that Sano got his revenge, maybe we can---"
She wasn't even able to finish her sentence. There was a loud blast, and all of them reached for the floor.
Soot and dust splayed everywhere, even in the air they breathe. Shouts and cries of women and children followed the blast. The wall where Sano, Yahiko and Megumi stood is nothing more than tattered paper and splinters hanging in an angle. The wall perimeter now sported a hole. Ahead are two men in black--everything is covered except for their faces.
Sano shot up. Megumi. How will he ever find her in this debris? The woodpile in the middle shifted. Sano hurriedly retrieved her from underneath. Blood flowed from a gash on her left arm. Also, she was knocked unconscious.
Yahiko was also quick on his feet, and ran to meet the guilty party face to face. "You bastards! Who are you?"
"It's a warning," the smaller, rat-faced man said wickedly. "Next time, you won't be so lucky."
They were only two of them, but they quickly carried the chunky cannon as if it was a hollow log, then fled.
Yahiko ran after them. He watched as people parted in fearful haste as the two approaches them. Who wouldn't? They were holding a big cannon that can fire up any minute.
The two men turned to the nearest corners, trying to shake Yahiko loose. Into alleyways they went, and didn't miss the opportunity the crowds are to them. Finally, they jumped on to a roof to catch their breaths and to rest their arms from carrying the load.
"We lost the brat." One of them said.
"Yeah." Said the other.
"Not quite." A third voice piped.
The two men looked behind them. Yahiko had reached the same roof where they are. He had also unsheathed his katana.
"You want to fight, then come and get us!" the bigger one bellowed, then hurled the cannon on his shoulders and fired at him.
The cannonball whizzed on his ear as the young lad avoided it. It went smashing another roof nearby.
The thin cloud of smoke cleared, and Yahiko realized that the rat-faced man disappeared--only to reappear right behind him.
"Gotcha!" He uses knives, and if Yahiko didn't quickly blocked his attack with his sword, he might have a cross-shaped wound across his chest.
Rat Face jumped a few feet away, then used his agile feet to hurl himself back towards Yahiko with his knives. Yahiko jumped away, just in time as the roof where he was standing on turned to bits.
"What the--?!" The teen landed on one of the remaining sturdy tiles.
Rat Face grinned. "That's what I call Destruction." He chortled, then went back to give him another blow. But this time, his knives doubled.
Again, the ground turned into ashes as Yahiko evaded his attack. However, a cannonball got him in midair.
He landed on the street with a crash.
"That's what you get for messing with the Shadow Warriors."
When Yahiko finally got up, they were gone.
When he came back to the clinic, people had already swarmed the clinic's perimeter.
"Somebody get the doctor!" Somebody yelled.
"Are you stupid? She's the only doctor around here!"
When Yahiko emerged from the crowd and dashed towards Megumi's side, Sano had already carried her into his arms, a tourniquet tied on her arm to keep from further bleeding.
There's only one man who could do this, Sano thought grimly. "Kanryuu."
Authoress' notes:
I liked this chappie very much because of the verbal fight. Hehehe I hope you guys did, too. Although it's a bit long.. and so sorry that it took me this long to update. I wasn't near a 'net-connected computer to have this uploaded.
If any of you have watched that OAV where Kenshin died..well, that's where this fanfic jumped off to. Oh well. shrug
You know, I suddenly missed the old website...where I do get to see some of keypad characters in this fic. Oh well. This one works okay...
Ushuaia
To Kyoto, Returning
Chapter Two:
The Shadow Warriors
by Ushuaia
He left the Akabeko in a hurry. At first he felt was disappointment and mild anger for not being recognized by Tae, Yahiko and Tsubame. Yahiko even looked at him as if he wanted to clobber him with his katana.
But it was because of him that changed his mood.
When he blurted out that Kanryuu escaped, he almost dropped his rice he so carefully stacked on his chopsticks, and hurried eating and left as soon as possible.
He stopped in his tracks. He remembered that he had forgotten to pay his tab.
He resumed walking. Well, that's what you get when you guys didn't recognize me, he thought. He was planning to surprise them. He'd order, sit in his usual place, and imagined them making pointing gestures at him. He'd smile, wave, and that's it.
He wasn't that imaginative.
Again, his thoughts floated back to Kanryuu. Two days is enough for someone to plot revenge. He felt a strange cold sensation that's telling him that Megumi will be the first one to go.
He was engrossed on getting to the clinic as fast as he could that he didn't notice the stares and few physical changes around him. It was when he saw a house built near where the road forked: the two roads streaming out at the side of the house. He remembered that that lot was empty before.
How much did Kyoto changed since he left years ago?
Well, he knows that Akabeko's menu had changed, noticing the meal he had earlier. There are also a few trees no longer stood where they should be, and a few buildings that sprang in its place.
The faces of the people are also different. For one, he doesn't know most of them. Yahiko had grown a lot, but Sano is still taller in mere inches. Tsubame had grown into a pretty lady and made a mental note to tease Yahiko about it once they all get reacquainted again. Tae is as stubborn as ever that although his barking his orders when he was still in his bad mood, she held her ground.
As much as he missed them, he misses Kaoru and Kenshin more.
The last thing he remembered about Kenshin is when he helped him take that ride home from China. He was sick. No, in fact, he was really sick, and he promised that he'll follow him back to Japan once he's finished with his affairs there. It took a while before he got back, and his heart ached when he found out that they already passed away.
He stopped when he spotted the clinic. He never heard anything about Megumi since Kaoru stopped writing to him a year ago. Is her disposition still as stubborn as a mule? Does her fox ears appear whenever she get devious? Does she still have that long, dark hair, the one he dearly love to yank?
Is she married? A small, lingering voice whispered at the back of his head, which send him an unexplained uneasy feeling.
The gate is open and he could see a queue snaking out of the clinic's front door. He couldn't risk people getting into a panic. Evidence: Just a moment ago, a woman shrieked when he passed by.
He easily slipped inside and into one of the rooms. There, he sat, and by doing so, he could feel the footsteps on the floor better. With all the time he spent with the lady doctor, he could easily recognize her footsteps.
It wasn't long until he felt her presence by the door.
He heard voices. "--she's probably lonely. Imagine, she's not married yet."
"Really? I though she and that gangster-looking guy were getting along just fine."
He smiled. Megumi isn't married yet. That's one thing that didn't change while he was gone.
She entered and slammed the door behind her. She looked infuriated, but it quickly turned to shock when she spotted him. He realized that she caught him smiling.
"Sanosuke." She said upon seeing him. He stood up, quite pleased that she-at least-recognizes him.
"Well, well, Megitsune," he said, purposely throwing in his favorite nickname of her. "I see you haven't changed." Which is true. Her clothes may have changed, and her hair is a bit shorter, but she still looked at him with the ferocity of a fox.
"And you have. A LOT." She retorted. What the hell is he wearing? He looked more like an ogre rather than an adventurer.
She was looking at him from head to toe, assessing. "Oh, this," he pointed to his clothes. "I got some trouble awhile ago. Couldn't resist to tackle a bastard on the ground," he joked.
"Or in the mud. Did you care to change clothes afterwards?" Then, she paused. "Did you bathe?"
"It was the ground, not horse poop. And besides, I thought you didn't care about how I seem to wear only one piece of clothing?" (A.N: Duh! Doesn't everyone of you?)
"That's because we were certain that you take baths." She walked pass him and to a table where her other medical equipment lay idle until needed.
Sano noticed that her eyes looked afraid when she passed by. "I heard about Kanryuu's escape."
He saw her stiffened, but she continued on sorting the instruments.
"Don't worry," he suddenly declared, his voice completely changed to a livelier one. "Sanosuke Segara is here to protect you."
She gave him a wary look. "You're not exactly Knight in Shining Armor, are you?"
"And you're not exactly Sleeping Beauty, so don't be choosy," he walked towards the opposite wall, found a stool, and dropped his tattered bag on it to emphasis permanence. Then he leaned on the wall and made a production of himself. "I'm as good as it gets."
"I am so doomed," she muttered.
"Hey! You don't get a handsome adventurer to protect you without anything in return."
"Handsome? In your dreams, Rooster Head."
The name was like music in his ears. Finally, he's getting some verbal exercise.
He chuckled. "If you don't consider me as handsome, then how come YOU haven't snagged a husband yet?" He was tempted to see her flare up that he didn't mind throwing that little detail at her.
Megumi was starting to get annoyed. "I don't see any need to get married, especially if all men are as vain and obnoxious as you."
"Yeah, I'm obnoxious. So what? But vain?" Again, he pointed at his clothes.
"After all these years of being non-existent, you have the guts to tease me?"
"Well if only people recognizes me from the start, I wouldn't be such a bully."
"How do you think they're suppose to know?" The tone of her voice rising, also finding out that nobody recognized him-which came to no surprise to her. "You looked like a disheveled rag that had been used for over a hundred years."
"Well, is it my fault that I have no other clothes?"
"You could've also taken a bath."
"You know that I did and that I don't smell, despite appearances."
"If you've noticed, I don't trust that."
Silence.
That was a nice welcome, he mused, even if it was hardly that of a welcome. She stood there, irritated, because of a dialogue mainly consists of his inhuman appearance.
"You haven't changed a bit after all," Megumi retracted, a curve on her lips. " You still have the brain of a chicken to even still verbally fight me."
"And you're still as surly. No wonder nobody bothered to marry you."
One minute he was smiling, the next minute, a scalpel shot right at him, landing on the wall behind him with a solid thud, merely centimeters away from sporting a hole in Yahiko's face when he came bursting in.
What in the world was that?
Yahiko stood there--stunned--for almost being skewered by a scalpel. He had been following the Dirty Guy, suspecting him to be one of Kanryuu's men. He almost suspected it right when he saw the guy stopped at the clinic.
Fear was his initial feeling. He slowly walked towards the clinic, careful not to arouse a panic. But he heard voices--shouts actually--that had him dashing to the room.
It was such a surprise when the Lady Doctor hurled a scalpel towards him. Luckily, it missed. Not a comforting thought, though, but still it missed.
"N-nani?!" He croaked. He looked at the Dirty Man, then to Megumi, then back at the man. It was the first time he saw him this close, and he realized why he looked familiar.
"Sano?"
"Well, well, Yahiko-chan. Finally, you recognized me," he said as he proceeded to rummage his hair.
"Don't-Call-Me-'Chan'!"
"Can't help it, Yahiko-CHAN. I missed it."
"Will you two stop that." Megumi scolded, then started walking towards them. "Now that Sano got his revenge, maybe we can---"
She wasn't even able to finish her sentence. There was a loud blast, and all of them reached for the floor.
Soot and dust splayed everywhere, even in the air they breathe. Shouts and cries of women and children followed the blast. The wall where Sano, Yahiko and Megumi stood is nothing more than tattered paper and splinters hanging in an angle. The wall perimeter now sported a hole. Ahead are two men in black--everything is covered except for their faces.
Sano shot up. Megumi. How will he ever find her in this debris? The woodpile in the middle shifted. Sano hurriedly retrieved her from underneath. Blood flowed from a gash on her left arm. Also, she was knocked unconscious.
Yahiko was also quick on his feet, and ran to meet the guilty party face to face. "You bastards! Who are you?"
"It's a warning," the smaller, rat-faced man said wickedly. "Next time, you won't be so lucky."
They were only two of them, but they quickly carried the chunky cannon as if it was a hollow log, then fled.
Yahiko ran after them. He watched as people parted in fearful haste as the two approaches them. Who wouldn't? They were holding a big cannon that can fire up any minute.
The two men turned to the nearest corners, trying to shake Yahiko loose. Into alleyways they went, and didn't miss the opportunity the crowds are to them. Finally, they jumped on to a roof to catch their breaths and to rest their arms from carrying the load.
"We lost the brat." One of them said.
"Yeah." Said the other.
"Not quite." A third voice piped.
The two men looked behind them. Yahiko had reached the same roof where they are. He had also unsheathed his katana.
"You want to fight, then come and get us!" the bigger one bellowed, then hurled the cannon on his shoulders and fired at him.
The cannonball whizzed on his ear as the young lad avoided it. It went smashing another roof nearby.
The thin cloud of smoke cleared, and Yahiko realized that the rat-faced man disappeared--only to reappear right behind him.
"Gotcha!" He uses knives, and if Yahiko didn't quickly blocked his attack with his sword, he might have a cross-shaped wound across his chest.
Rat Face jumped a few feet away, then used his agile feet to hurl himself back towards Yahiko with his knives. Yahiko jumped away, just in time as the roof where he was standing on turned to bits.
"What the--?!" The teen landed on one of the remaining sturdy tiles.
Rat Face grinned. "That's what I call Destruction." He chortled, then went back to give him another blow. But this time, his knives doubled.
Again, the ground turned into ashes as Yahiko evaded his attack. However, a cannonball got him in midair.
He landed on the street with a crash.
"That's what you get for messing with the Shadow Warriors."
When Yahiko finally got up, they were gone.
When he came back to the clinic, people had already swarmed the clinic's perimeter.
"Somebody get the doctor!" Somebody yelled.
"Are you stupid? She's the only doctor around here!"
When Yahiko emerged from the crowd and dashed towards Megumi's side, Sano had already carried her into his arms, a tourniquet tied on her arm to keep from further bleeding.
There's only one man who could do this, Sano thought grimly. "Kanryuu."
Authoress' notes:
I liked this chappie very much because of the verbal fight. Hehehe I hope you guys did, too. Although it's a bit long.. and so sorry that it took me this long to update. I wasn't near a 'net-connected computer to have this uploaded.
If any of you have watched that OAV where Kenshin died..well, that's where this fanfic jumped off to. Oh well. shrug
You know, I suddenly missed the old website...where I do get to see some of keypad characters in this fic. Oh well. This one works okay...
Ushuaia