Nornal text = the present (See chapter one)
Bold = written articles: letters, newspaper clippings, etc.
Italic = the stuff that happened leading up to the stuff in normal text. (flash back)
Bold/italic = Setsunas past (flash back)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"She's not the kind of girl, who likes to tell the world, about the way she feels about herself...lately I'm not the only one, I say, never trust anyone..." (c) 1995 Garbage
Kenshin walked up the small path that lead to the front porch of the clinic, noticing Sano sitting there. A warm smile spread across his face, as he readied himself to great his friend. His foot hit something hard, made him lose his balance and down he went. "OROoooo?!" He crashed face first into the ground, holding the daikon and tofu bucket above his head as to not squish either of them. He managed to save both, but, his face on the other hand was covered in blood from breaking his nose. He was so intent on saving the food he had bought that he didn't brace his fall.
Sano looked up with a faraway look in his eyes which soon changed to panic from seeing Kenshins face full of blood. "Kenshin, daijoubuka?" He ran to his friend, helped him off the ground, and took the food stuff from him. Megumi returned to the porch to continue her conversation with Sano only to find Kenshin full of blood.
"Ken-san!" She ran over to him giving him a quick examination and grabbed him by the arm leading him inside. Sano stood there looking down at the food he took from Kenshin and sighed. "I supose I should bring this back to the dojo..." He walked towards the road to make his way down to the dojo.
Megumi looked back out of the clinics front door to see Sano walking away. She told Kenshin to hold the rag on his nose and ran out of the door to catch up with Sano. "Oi, Rooster Head!" He stoped dead in his tracks and turned around slowly. "Nani?!"
"Are you going to the dojo?"
"No, I thought I'd take a stroll with some tofu and daikon..."
"Not like you could get a date with anything but."
"NANI?!"
"Could you do Setsuna a favor?"
"And what would that be?" His eyebrow now twitching from Megumis remark.
"She has a comb that she wants brought back, can you get it for her?"
"Chi....I supose."
"Don't expect me to thank-you, she should be the one to do that." She turned and ran back to the clinic to tend to Kenshins broken nose. He mumbled something under his breath at her and re-started his walk to the dojo.
~~~~~
Kaoru wiped the sweat from her brow and looked at the wall that she had been srubbing all morning. You could still see the stains no matter what she used on it. Perhaps she could put a decorative screen there... or maybe she could just get her lazy but over to the guy that makes paint and paint over it. Mooo...this was going to be quite the project.
She put the rag back into the bucket and wiped her hands on the apron she had finally put on. If Kenshin would only stop storing that stuff in his beadroom, maybe she would be able to find it when she needed it! She stood up, stumbled from her right leg falling alseep and fell into the table that Setsunas belongings were set on. "Iteee...." Her back screamed out in pain and most of the things had fallen off onto the floor. Today is not my day...
She got herself onto her knees and started to pick up the things that fell onto the floor. She grabbed a bundle of cloth and a book fell out, landed on the floor with a thud. It had opened itself to somewhere near the middle exposing sloppy handwriting. She realized then that it wasn't a book, but a journal. Kaoru picked it up and started to read without a thought to how wrong it was in doing so:
June 1, Meiji ?
Here I am in yet another sword school. This will make it number twenty two after I leave. I'm going to be studying some western style of swordsmenship called "Fencing". Although I watched some of it today in the dojo...I don't think I will be here long. It will not help me much. I'll probably pick out a few things then move on.
The town I'm in seems like a nice place, although I have forgotten a lot of things like the year...and the towns name. They are never that important anyway...
I keep seeing him in my dreams now. It bothers me so much now that it's close to the time of year that it happened. I can't believe that I still let it hurt me so much, but, the monsters in my head just won't go away no matter how much blood I give to them.
It all started last year...
A noise of someone walking down the hall froze her in fear as she still was reading the journal engrossed in it contents. Kaoru wrapped it back up in the piece of cloth and hurriedly put the items back onto the table.
"Oi, jou-chan...doko da?"
It was only Sano, wait why was he here?
She walked into the hallway confused to had returned with the foodstuff she had sent Kenshin out for. "Where's Kenshin?"
"At the clinic getting his nose re-set. He tripped over something and broke in a vain attempt to save this stuff." He handed the food to Kaoru who took it with a worried look on her face.
"Is he going to be okay?"
"I doubt a broken nose will keep him locked inside for a week jou-chan."
"You're right..." she trailed off and headed to the kitchen to put it away until it was time to make dinner.
Sano looked into Setsunas bedroom, knowing it was hers by the faint blood stains on the wall beneath the window that was in his direct view. He walked in, faintly feeling a stomach turning sick feeling that hung in the air. He hesitenetly walked over to the table with items skattered on top of it. He kneeled down and rumaged through the stuff looking for the comb. He finally found it stood up and walked out of the room.
"Ne, Jou-chan...I'm going back to the clinic!" He got no answer for she never heard him, but left anyway.
After he got out into the sunlight he examined the comb. It looked like it was carved wood from a tre he didn't know, nor did he actualy care.He turned it over to see a small inscription on the back slightly worn from much use. it read: "To my dear Setsuna, Love Samanosuke". So she already had a man. Not like he gave two hoots. He shoved the comb into his pocket along with his hands and made his way through the crowds back to the clinic.