Disclaimer: All rights and privileges to Rurouni Kenshin belong to Nobuhiro
Watsuki, Shuiesha, Sony Music Entertainment, and associated parties. The characters
of this series are used without his permission for the purpose of entertainment
only. This work of fiction is not meant for sale or profit.
This is my first attempt at the art of fanfiction. Please be gentle. Comments
are greatly appreciated!
Author's Notes:
The title means "Future's Promise" in Japanese. . . . . All the characters I
create belong to me. I began writing this in 1998! Um, that was before
the end of the manga/TV series. I consider those as my main sources. I do not
like the OAVs.
WARINING - KYOTO Spoilers! If you don't know the ending,
um... I think I reveiled that one in this! It is not
all that happy to begin with!
Notes:
The title means "Future's Promise" in Japanese. . . . . All the characters I create belong to me.
Japanese Names:
Yuukiko Brave Child
Kakushin Core/Heart
Japanese Notes:
Busu: Hag
Chikkusho:Shit. Crap.
Nandemonai: Never mind; It doesn't matter.
Minna:Everyone, everybody.
Hajimemashite: How do you do?
Yoroshiku : Nice to meet you.
Tako: Dork. Lit. Octopus.
Jou-chan: "Miss." Sanosuke always calls Kaoru this
Warning: It's not all that happy to begin with! Originally written in 7/98.
Revisions made: 11/20/98.
Update - new edits: 3/11/02
Updated with new revisions: 1/24/99 - Thanks to Amy Forsyth
UPDATE AGAIN: 03/16/2005
For the first time in weeks, he went into practice. He had not wanted to since she was gone. He hardly felt like doing anything since she...
Swinging his bokken about, he numerated the reasons he raged at Kaoru for dying. The reasons he was angry at her for leaving them alone. After weeks of mourning, his grief had given way to the pain and rage he felt him flared. Why do the most important people in my life keep leaving me? Kaoru, damn you! Why did you leave me? Why?
Of course, he knew that it wasn't her fault. Kaoru definitely did not want to die. Especially not like that. Especially not in front of us, not in front of Kenshin... Damn that man. Tanaka Yuuta was insane. How could he do that? The image of Kaoru's broken body was etched in Yahikio's mind. He struck out harder. Tanaka Yuuta. He wished he could make him pay.
Good thing you killed yourself. I could kill you now! He had never felt like this, like he could actually take someone's life. But the hate was flowing through him.
"Chikkusho!" Yahiko took a deep breath and wiped the dampness from his face. Tears and sweat. He shuddered with feeling. It's not fair.
"Yahiko-kun...," a soft voice called from behind him. He stopped mid-strike.
"Tsu-Tsubame." He turned around to face her voice. He wondered if he frightened her with his rantings, but saw that she just looked concerned..
She entered the practice area silently, sliding the doors behind her. She had been staying with them, helping with the daily chores around the dojo. Tsubame had been trying to cope with what happened herself. But this was the first time that she had heard Yahiko strike out about what happened. The hands holding the wood bokken shook with anger. With Kaoru-san?
No. She knew that it was more than that. Pain and rage sparked in his eyes. That man who killed Kaoru deserved to go into the worst hell created for what he did. He took away Kaoru. Yahiko needed her. Tsubame knew Yahiko. He was angry because he thought she abandoned him. Even though Kaoru-san did not want to, she was gone and Yahiko lost someone who stood as a rock for him. Tsubame knew how that felt. She understood him. Yahiko...
Kaoru had been terrific. She was strong and kind. Tsubame wanted to be like her, to be courageous, strong and sweet. Kaoru hadn't cared about what the world thought of a young woman living on her own. She hadn't been afraid to live the way she wanted. She hadn't been afraid of living. In Japan, it was so easy to give in, let some one take care of you. She had overheard Tae comment that Kaoru could have just married and given teaching up, but she wanted to be free, to make her own decisions. And Kaoru did just that.
Yahiko. Kenshin. They all were in a sort of limbo now. Kaoru wouldn't have wanted that. Tsubame was determined to try to help, to try to work through all the grief. This group of very different people had made a family together, finding each other to fight off solitude. She didn't want any of them to lose that. There had be to a way.
"Yahiko-kun. I was wondering..."
"Huh? What is it?"
"Could you teach me the Kamiya Kasshin-Ryu? I want.." She took a breath for courage. "I want to be stronger. I want to be..."
I want to be like Kaoru. I want to be stronger, braver. For Kaoru. No, not for Kaoru, for myself .
"Teach me..."
Tokyo 1999
Kakushin was going to be late to class. It was his first day and he was going to be late!
These damn dreams!
He hadn't been getting enough sleep because of them. To top it all off, it was his first day at a new school.
So much for making a good impression.
He had had similar dreams for a long time, but lately, they had been coming in greater and greater frequency. The name "Kaoru" remained in his mind every time he woke up. The dreams were strange. Vague about some aspects, yet detailed in others. It frustrated him that he didn't remember much. Every morning, he woke with the strangest feeling. He pushed his bangs away from his face as he dashed to his class. No one was in the hallway anymore. That was not a good sign. Damn! He finally stopped in front of the door. The teacher opened the door.
"Gomenasai, Sensei! I..."
"Nandemonai. Class just started. Please go to the front and introduce yourself." He turned to his class. "Minna, we have a new student."
"Hajimemashite. Boku wa Myoujin Kakushin desu! Yoroshiku. "
Tokyo 1879
Megumi stood in the doorway leading to the courtyard of the Kamiya Dojo. She sighed to herself as she watched Kenshin and Sanosuke. They sat together in silence. Both of them contemplating... something in the silence. In a strange way, the dojo had had a cocooning effect on their lives. That safe world had been shattered that horrible afternoon.
Kaoru.
Megumi ached when she thought of her. She had been too young to die.
Though they were, by an outsider's point of view, rivals for Kenshin's attention, she cared for the girl a lot. Kaoru had been alone in the world, but she survived, thrived. Megumi acknowledged to herself that they were very much alike. She had been like a little sister. Megumi knew that Kaoru wouldn't want this silence, this grieving, to go on. This atmosphere of quiet grief was definitely not her style. Kaoru had been so full of life.
Megumi sighed to herself. Kenshin would never be hers. She accepted that long ago. That had been decided that day he left for Kyoto. He loved Kaoru. She was the only one that he said good-bye to that night he left for Kyoto. Kaoru was the most important to him out of all of them. Megumi had begun to get over that fact.
Now... now, she would never make an attempt at him at all. Kaoru would be the ghost in the middle of that kind of relationship. Megumi didn't want to deal with that. And Kenshin... Kenshin probably didn't think of her like that anyway. Besides, she thought, there was someone else she cared about...
"Ken-san, Sanosuke...," she whispered, looking away from the pair. It was too much. It was hard to be at the dojo missing her laughter, her arguing. Her smile. But... We need each other...
"Whatcha doing, lurking in the doorway like that?"
"Eh?" She jumped back at the rough voice. "Sanosuke!"
"Yeah?"
"Tako! " She pushed at him, but he didn't move or even grunt, so it was not very satisfying. "DON'T SNEAK UP ON ME!"
"You were just standing there. I didn't sneak up on you. You just didn't notice me." He shrugged, giving her his "it's-not-my-fault" face. "I can't help it if you don't pay attention..." he muttered.
Megumi looked back to where Kenshin and Sanosuke were sitting before. Kenshin was gone. Sano followed her gaze.
"He went to check on Yahiko. Something about him being too quiet for being at practice. Yahiko was making a lot of noise before, but it got all quiet all of a sudden..."
"Sanosuke. Is he okay?" she asked, entering the courtyard. Sanosuke walked beside her, his hands folded behind his head.
"Maybe. Probably not. He'll get better. Are you?" Megumi felt his gaze on her. Sanosuke was so young, but he had seen so much in his life. Megumi knew that he thought of her as family, someone to protect. Someone to worry about.
"Better. I'm better. But it's going to take a long time." Megumi pushed back her hair. She still felt guilty, even though she couldn't have saved Kaoru. If she had gotten there before... She was a doctor, but there was nothing she could have done to stop Kaoru from dying. Those wounds... The pain she must have felt.
And I couldn't stop it. It was over before I could even attempt to help.
All four of them were there that day. Watching Kenshin and Kaoru say good-bye was permanently imprinted on her. Their bittersweet love. After she passed on, the look in Kenshin's eyes was one of pure torment and grief. All of them had lost something when Kaoru died. She was ripped out of their lives and she took a piece of them to the next world. Why did it have to happen?
Sanosuke looked at her, his head cocked to the side, as if asking if she was telling the truth about her feelings. He probably caught the glimmer in her eyes at that moment. Suddenly he was next to her, hugging her hard. The feel of Sanosuke's arms about her comforted her like nothing else.
"What are we going to do?" She asked against his chest. That was the question that Megumi had been wondering about for the last few weeks.
"Go on... Kaoru wanted us to take care of each other," he whispered, his dark voice serious.
It was amazing, but for the past few weeks, Sanosuke had become a rock, comforting and pushing for everyone to express themselves, teasing them to laugh when they needed it, to cry. But then, he had been witness to the death of his Sagara-taichou. Like many a child growing up in war, Sanosuke knew the pain of losing someone he loved. He took that experience and made himself stronger for it. He knew what was going on in their hearts, the pain and the grief. He knew what to do to ease it.
"Kenshin isn't talking. He has to let it out soon. At least Yahiko has been acting out. I-I hear him crying sometimes." It had pained her heart to hear his wrenching sobs in the darkness of the night. "He's a strong boy. I think he will be okay. But Kenshin..."
"Yeah. Kenshin has a haunted look in his eyes everyday. Jou-chan wouldn't have wanted that for him."
"We are going to get through this, aren't we?"
"Yeah. Like Jou-chan said. We take care of each other. We have to be strong." He hugged her hard again. Megumi let him hold her for a long time.
