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)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If I must be lonely, I think I'd rather be alone"
(Stabbing westward, Save Yourself)
_________________________________________________________________
"ITEEE!!!"
"Ken-san! I have to re-set your nose, now come back here!" Megumi ran after the red haired man with a bloody rag in her hand. She wasn't happy about this. She was having a very bad day indeed. She was just in shock from everything that was going on and now Kenshin was giving her a hard time.
She finally cornered him at the end of the hallway where the patient rooms were. Setsuna stunbled over to the doorway of her room and looked out at the funny scene. She had to laugh. This was even better then finding out Kenshin was the ex-hitokiri.
Kenshin was shielding his broken nose with his hands and Megumi was struggling with the rather frail looking man so she could right his broken bone. She finally got ahold of his hands, grabbed him by the ear, and pinned him onto the floor. She sat on top of him pinning his arms down at the elbows.
"Now Ken-san, shall we finally fix this broken nose?" She felt around the break, put a thumb onto either side of it, and set the nose back to where it needed to be.
"ITEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
She got off of Kenshin, and wiped the blood off onto the rag. "Now, just don't do anything for a few weeks to get that re-broke and you you should be fine." She smiled triumphantly and walked away.
Setsuna still stood in the doorway laughing at the scene, suddenly noticing that Kenshin saw her standing there. "Gomenasai, Himura-san." She turned and started to walk back into the room but Kenshin called to her. She took a step back not turning around, but turned her head in his direction and smiled again. "Hai?"
"I see you must be feeling very well to get out of bed and laugh at me that much," he said with a smile on his face.
Her cheeks turned red and the smiled faded from her face. "I really couldn't help myself..."
"Don't worry, it's okay. I'm just happy to see you in such good spirits today. I'm just a little worried about Sano...," he trailed off thinking of the solemn figure that didn't even resemble his friends usual self.
"Is something wrong," she asked now stepping out into the hallway towards Kenshin.
"I'm not really sure, as you can tell I didn't get to talk to him degozaru yo." She looked at his nose which now was swollen and had dried blood on it.
"Himura-san, you don't mind me asking..."
"I tripped degozaru..."
She couldn't help it...she burst into laughter again.
~~~~~
Sano walked down the dirt street trying to avoid running into anyone during the bussiest part of the day. If was a miracle that he had taken a diffrent way to the dojo to get rid of the food Kenshin had bought.
He held the comb in his fist that was in his right pocket. The teeth dug into his palm causing him slight pain. He couldn't shake the inscription that was on the comb. Who was this guy, and why wasn't HE here to protect her? If he met this guy at all he was going to punch him in the face for letting her be like this. No woman should have to go through something like that if she had a man there to help her through it all. His temper was starting to flare. He let the comb drop out of his fist into the bottom of his pocket and be clenched his fist even tighter. Yeah, he was going to kick that guys ass real good. No matter who he turned out to be.
He turned down the road that led to the clinic and wasn't going to be too happy when he got there. Setsuna had some explaining to do for this guy. No, she didn't need to give him a line of bullshit about that scum bag. He just wanted to know where he could hunt his ass down and kill him.
He walked up the path that led to the clinics front door and Kenshin spotted him from the waiting room. Kenshin stopped in the doorway a little edgy from the anger Sano was radiating. "Sano, are you okay?"
He ignored his friend and walked into the clinic and headed to Setsunas room. The air around him was almost electrified from his hate towards this Samanosuke guy. He flung the door open to her room, took the comb from his pocket and tossed it to her. She was sitting on the bed and picked it up from where it had landed. She looked at Sano confused and opened her mouth to talk.
"Where is he?" Sano looked at her with such hate in his eyes that she lost all ability to think and speak. "Where is this Smanosuke asshole?"
Setsuna looked at him wide eyed and looked down at the comb. She turned the comb over and read the inscription on the back. She had forgotten that he had put that there.
Sano walked over to her and grabbed her by the front of the robe she wore. "Where is he? I want to know where the coward is that would leave you alone like this!"
Setsuna looked up into his eyes with great sadness. "He's dead."
Sanos eyes widened with shock and he let go of her. He back away from her not believeing what he just did. Tears started to fall down her face silently.
"He was murdered five years ago Sano...," she wiped the tears from her eyes and looked away from him. "He was my husband."
~~~~~
Setsuna opened the door with a smile on her face, which died when she saw who it was. He stood there in his black three piece suit, western dress shoes, a hat and walking cane. He pushed his way into the house taking off his hat. Four men dressed in black ninja outfits walked in swiftly behind him.
Samanosuke had gotten up from where he was reading the paper only to see his pregnant wife walking backwards and stumble over something laying on the floor. He rushed over to her and got a arm around her waist to help her back up. He looked up to see the man in western clothes acompanied by the ninjas.
"So, you have got yourself a cozy little life now eh?" The man looked around the small house eyeing it's contents. His eyes returned to Setsuna and he smiled at her. "Can't run anymore now can you? It seems that you thought that you had finally gotten me off your back, am I right?" He walked over to where Samanosuke had been reading the paper and picked it up. He scanned the front page, and looked up at the couple now embracing each other.
"Why won't you just let me be now? I never leaked out any info to the goverment...and you know I never will!"
"......." He put the paper down and walked over to a small table on the other side of the room and picked up the vase that was on it. It held a bunch of wildflowers Setsuna picked earlier that day from the flied near by. He picked out a flower, put the vase down and started to pluck the petals from it.
"Makoto doesn't want to take the chance of you giving out the information on us that could...well...you already know." The last petal fell to the ground and he grinned at her. "Do what you want with them boys. I have a newspaper to read." He sat down on the floor in front of the fire and picked the paper up just as the ninjas readied themselves for an attack. Samanosuke stood in front of his wife and took his fighting stance.
"Please don't take pitty on me...," Setsuna whispered as her husband rushed forward to try and stop the four men from getting at his wife.