Part 2: The Blind Operator, The Message, and The Flood
Sanosuke stared at Kenshin who was still holding his map staring at it intently, his eyes wandering over it. "Not there yet, we have a long way to go," Kenshin whispered and looked over at him.
The door at the end of the passenger car opened and an old man walked in, he held in his hand a cane and it made a clacking noise as it knocked against the sides of the seats. The man took a step and then stumbled, his cane falling a good five feet away. Kenshin leapt to his feet and helped the man up and Sanosuke handed the man his cane. "Thank you, both of you."
"Let us help you, take our hands," Kenshin helped him to the other side of the car and into what had to be caboose.
The blind man put his a headset over his ears and was listening. "Do you hear anything?" Sanosuke asked blinking, he had seen telegraph machines before, but nothing like this one.
"Static, mostly, I have been following this signal for sometime," the blind man muttered and gave Kenshin some paper and a brush. "How are you at dictation?"
Kenshin smiled and said he was good at it, he sat down in a chair next to the man and quickly the man started to speak to him. "Ken-something, come….I….something, no….won't back." When it was done, Kenshin dropped the brush, he stood, then fell to his knees, his face going into his hands.
"Young man?" the blind man turned his head and quickly asked Sanosuke to leave the room.
Kenshin wept, his eyes covered, he did not wish Sanosuke to see him cry. "I," he whispered holding the brush giving it back to the blind man. "I, I did not want to make Kaoru-koishii sad."
"Kenshin, how many tickets did you receive for this train in the past?"
"Ten," he whispered and stood up slowly. "Ten."
"This has been your tenth?" The blind man touched his face and shook his head. "You cheated so many times, it is no wonder that leaving this time made you sadder. Are you not happy that your daughter was saved instead of you?"
Nodding, Kenshin said yes, but his eyes continued to water, his head aching. "Can you contact her from here?"
"No, Sanosuke will tell her."
Walking out of the room, Kenshin leaned on the door, he looked at Sanosuke who was looking worriedly at him. "Are you alright?"
"Tell Kaoru-koishii I love her," he whispered and walked back to his seat, his eyes filled with such sadness.
"I will."
The train went dark, as if it had gone down a tunnel, Sanosuke's eyes adjusted, but he just saw Kenshin looking out the window. "I'm sad, it feels as I will never get there, she might be gone," Kenshin whispered, his words seemed empty. He turned to look at Sanosuke, he turned his attention to a door and it swung open, two very large cats walked in looking as if they were people.
One was dressed in a red coat and was talking quite quickly. "You know, I hate it when it rains so much."
The other who was yellow tabby was holding a small child pitch black. "I know, I know. But at least we are on the train now." The yellow tabby was dressed in white, his eyes were like yellow lanturns.
Kenshin turned and offered the seat next to him to one of the cats who smiled taking it. "Fritz look, what kind people."
"Yes, Basle," said the yellow tabby who set the child down. "Charlie wake up, say hello." The black kitten just yawned and curled into a ball into the tabby's side. "I'm sorry, I guess he's still sleeping."
"You're all wet," Kenshin said softly.
"Yes, there was a flood in our town, we weren't the lucky ones who made it up the higher ground tonight. Charlie's my nephew, I couldn't leave him in the house, so I went into it, then we were floating down the street, quite a horrible thing," the tabby, Fritz smiled taking off his jacket and putting it over the small kitten.
Basle sighed and nodded his head. "I went after them in my boat, I was trying to save them, then they went over the falls and I went after."
Sanosuke blinked and saw Kenshin returning his attention to the window, his eyes on a constilllation. "Scorpio, isn't it?"
"Yes, Scorpio," said Basle who was smiling. "I remember when I was boy my father used to tell me a story about the scorpions, some of them aren't evil really, though their poison is rather bad for people. One of them feared dying alone, but really he wasn't alone."
"I heard that story, a friend of mine told it to me." Kenshin smiled.
Five years ago
Enishi sat in his prison cell looking at Kenshin who came in. "Why are you here, I tried to kill you?"
"I forgive you, I wish you to forgive me," the words were soft and sad.
"You're like a scorpion you know, even though you have a horrible stinger on your tail, you don't want to be alone," Enishi growled and looked out the window. His eyes were on the window. "Tomoe-chan told it to me when I was child."
Kenshin smiled and looked out the window. "She never told me stories."
"YOU NEVER ASKED HER TO!"
Silence filled the cell and Kenshin was about to leave. "I will tell it to you, if you want." Enishi just sat there looking as if he did not want to be alone either. "There was scorpioin who lived in a desert and it killed bugs for its meals, but soon a fox happened upon him, he fled and fell down a well. It stayed in the well and begged that it would die alone, it realized that if it had given itself freely to the fox, it wouldn't be in this well and the fox would live well.
"I begged to Kami to let it die, but not alone," the man whispered and took a deep breath. "He said, 'Please, Kami, please don't let be alone, give me another chance to live so that I can do it right this time.' Whether or not Kami heard him, it was not sure, all he knew was that when he died he did not feel alone anymore."
"Such a sad story," Kenshin whispered and turned to look at him before he left. "I have dropped charges on you, you should be able to go to America. I want you in America, Enishi, please go there."
Present
Sanosuke heard Kenshin telling the story and the tabby smiled at him. "Well put good friend."
The little kitten sat listening intently to the story, his eyes closing holding onto Kenshin, he seemed so quiet. There was silence that filled the car, people moved around getting off at their stops, but something about Kenshin seemed to be different.
"Almost there, three more stops."