Notes:
This is an awfully hard chapter to write because it deals more with the individual character's feelings. As the title goes "kokoro" mind body and spirit, I had wanted to put in more with what each thinks and feels. Probably I'm starting literature as a subject in school and have been exposed to books like these. Gave me the inspiration. :D Apologies if it's too long winded. Hope you guys enjoy it! R/R!
Disclaimer: I don't own RK
--
Once Yahiko shut the shoji Sanosuke's eyes sprang open instantly, as if he had never been knocked out by his bokken moments before. His usual frivolous brown eyes stilled and hardened as he sat up from his lying position. Silence hung between the two men. Both knew they had things to sort through within them. Both let it be, unable to speak what was in their mind.
"Che." Sanosuke finally spat out the fishbone in his mouth and got up, swaying as he went. "I'm off. Ja." With a wave he quickly exited. Kenshin did not even look up. Sanosuke felt as shiver crawl up his spine as he walked past the dojo where they might be. It has been…? 3 years since he last saw him? Dark images flashed quickly across his eyes, stilling him instantly as he reached for the door. He stopped immediately and blinked furiously. Hadn't he gotten rid of the past? Angrily he slammed the door close and strode purposefully back to his hut. Pushing his hands into his pants he gritted his teeth. Kusu….
"Chicken head. Watch your back." An icy voice spoke from the darkness as he strode past an alleyway. Sanosuke spun around and saw the golden eyes of a mibu. His frustrations taking over logic in his mind, he growled and charged towards the alley but when he reached there it was only dust. Raising his fist he punched the wall with all his might. Pain shot from his hand to his entire body, weakening him as he remembered his injury. Collapsing he looked skywards into the thin stretch of sky allowed by the narrow gap between buildings.
It's the same… this is how it happened… A memory that was forced and pushed into the depths of his heart surfaced like someone surfacing for air. Gasping, panting, gulping and indulging in the sweet scent of air. However the memory ate him up from within. For once, Sanosuke felt the tiniest bit of fear.
--
Megumi felt chilled as she worked her way through the line of patients half-heartedly. Sighing once again, she rewrote the prescription the second time, having blotting the first once for being too absorbed in her thoughts. What does Genzai-sensei meant? Kaoru in danger? Kenshin…? BANG!
So startled she was the brush in her hand dropped vertically onto the prescription and blotting it the second time and her knocking her knee against the table as she made to stand up. Falling back onto her behind she rubbed on the throbbing knee, highly irritated and frustrated to be caught unaware. Glancing up, she felt anger replaced as she saw the bloody hand. Opening her mouth she screeched into the ears of the chicken.
--
Kaoru poured tea as gracefully as she could and handed it over to Takura, nervous about the lack of elegance and poise of a respectable lady. Or probably the lack of practise with. Takura sipped his tea and kaoru had a sudden vision of him spitting them all out for her lousy tea. Eyeing him, she prayed that he won't notice her lack of culinary skills. She sipped hers, still praying hard.
Yuck.
She nearly spat it out but held herself back. Oh no. She eyed him again. Is he going to despise me for my tea? Is he going to judge me again? Kaoru dug her fingernails into her fingers, feeling the pain as she tried hard to hold back her uncertainty.
Takura put down his tea and looked up. Kaoru felt as if her fears were exposed as she looked into his eyes. Cold, calculating and powerful. She swallowed her saliva.
--
"Well, your culinary skills obviously hasn't improved, judging from what Keitaro used to say about you." Takura managed a smile which didn't reach his eyes.
Kaoru felt herself blush indignantly at the comment. How dare keitaro talk about her like that!
"Haha, well I'm trying my best to cook and Kenshin is teaching me…" Kaoru felt herself ranting again.
"Oh? Battousai knows how to cook?!" Takura raised his eyebrows, astonishment evident on his face. Kaoru then knew she talked too much and shut up, mutely nodding her head, realising her mistake.
"Well then, Battousai has indeed chanaged..indeed…" Takura spoke again. "Anyway, Kaoru-san let's not waste time shall we? Time is money and that is a phrase I've always lived by."
Kaoru waited for Takura as he reached into the pockets of his smart Western vest he was wearing and handed over an envelope with a large red seal decorated in gold, intricate lines. Kaoru stared at the lines, mesmerised by the design. The small waves it made around the blood red seal. Shiny and bright, enticing and yet strangely mismatched against the red, so bold and eerie.
"Kaoru-chan?" Takura was still holding out the envelope. She blinked, and hurriedly took the envelope, but holding it away from her body as she stared at it still.
"Takura-san…" She finally spoke. Kaoru sighed. "I'm not sure whether I'm still fit to go…or that I…"
"Don't worry about it." Takura replied swiftly. "Take it as a chance for the both of you to sort out the mistakes and misunderstandings in the past. Kaoru-chan...I'm sure your late father wouldn't want you to loose a family friend."
She froze. Her father's voice flooded her mind as waves and waves of memories rushed back to her as the past met with memories. Suddenly she heard her father, as if he was still alive, urging her to put aside differences, forgive and forget. Then she heard him again in her memory, on how he had been very cautious when he was with Takura. But her own personality kicked in, and she found herself agreeing to Takura.
"Well, then. I'll see you at the ball as indicated on the letter?" Takura made a small bow. "I'm sorry I have to leave now, that this is done. It's been a pleasure seeing you again Kaoru-chan." He stood up and Kaoru hastily stood to slide the shoji door open for him.
As they reached the main door, Takura took his top hat from a manservant and tipped it towards Kaoru. "I'll see you again, Kaoru-chan. Ja."
With that he rose up to the carriage and all that was left was Kaoru, dazed as the whirling dust settled around her.
--
Evening, Kaoru bent over the small mirror, salvaging as much as she could to doll herself appropriately for the ball. She have little accessories and was slightly frantic and worried at the same time.
"Mou. I'm not even there to compete." She grumbled as she pushed away the mirror, giving up on trying any harder. Thankfully she had found some decent looking kimono she had never worn before. Simple yet presentable. She gave herself one last glance before heading out.
Sighing, she looked down again. It was hard breaking the news to the rest. Yahiko had insulted her as usual, then announced that he was going over to Akebeko so he need not see "a buso turning out uglier still." A careful aim of the bokken she lifted him up on the helm of his gi and threw him out of the dojo in matter of minutes. But Kenshin especially had been exceptionally quiet and she was worried. Worried for what? She thought angrily. If he had any feelings for her he'd stop her or at least escort her so she won't look dumb being there alone!
Snorting to herself she affirms herself that she, Kaoru, the kendo maiden of the town need not an escort. Especially if that escort she wants happens to be a red-headed sword carrying block head.
"Kaoru-dono! The carriage is here!" Speak of the devil.
"Hai!" Kaoru snatched up the end folds of her long kimono and rushed out. "Ja, Kenshin!" She lingered, before she clambered up the steps.
--
Looking down onto his face, shadowed by the setting sun, she felt a pang of loss. Where is the normal Kenshin she knew?
--
Kenshin had been watching her from afar. Watching, waiting for the chance. Careful to hide his face with his long bangs he watched her transform into a greater beauty in a short time. He felt torn into a million pieces as he held himself back. But one thing that kept him this way.
Takura was a man not to be messed with.
And being careful was one step just to make sure she is safe.
With the carriage out of sight, he locked the dojo door from within, wedged a note for Yahiko when he came home, jumped over the gate, and began his trail.
--
TBC