Dilemma Chapter 7: Another Stupid One
Kaoru blankly reached for the sakabatou at the side of her futon, despite the darkness that had completely consumed the room. She didn't have the knowledge as to the exact current time, but her biological clock told her it was well over midnight. She had been tremendously tired, and she was fortunate to be allowed the few hours sleep. Her thoughts were on Kenshin, her fingers on the sakbatou. It was amazing how minimal sleep could make one think that much more rationally; instead of sulking over as soon as waking, Kaoru found herself thinking strangely calmly.
Just what had happened to Kenshin? Kaoru pondered, finding it overwhelmingly difficult to suppress all feelings of dread and sorrow from arising to her chest. Soon, however, all of those feelings consumed her, and between them all she told herself that it didn't matter; she couldn't be with him. Her life was destined for loneliness and suffering.
Then, strangely, sorrow led to anger, and the anger to blame; it wasn't her fault, after all. What had she done wrong? And that was the point at which Kaoru made a subconscious decision unbeknownst to herself – it wasn't her fault. It was Kenshin's fault. And although her heart ached for Kenshin and herself, she realized that she could not honestly forgive her father's killer.
Kenshin felt quite comfortable, although the throbbing pain in his head, albeit subdued, constantly nagged him still. He vaguely remembered his confrontation – if it could be called that – with Shin, and various sights around him as he walked away after. As soon as he moved a muscle, all kinds of aching sensations attacked his body. Surely, he had been laying there for a while. Kenshin attempted to use his elbows and lower arms to elevate his body with great difficulty, but fell flat back down immediately.
How pathetic. What idiot would have saved him? He should just have died, Kenshin told himself. As soon as he would see his saviour, he would give his thanks and leave. In fact, he would do that right now. It didn't matter that he couldn't even sit; he just needed to lie there for a few minutes to regain some conscious energy.
He heard the shoji open, and raised his head to address the man that had entered – or, rather, the woman that had entered.
Kenshin stared without emotion. Great – another stupid, innocent woman who doesn't know what she's gotten herself into.
"Ohayo," the woman greeted, almost playfully. Indeed, it was dusk rather than morning.
The woman kneeled next to him, placing a basin next to him. From within she took out a cloth, which she wringed thoroughly.
Kenshin simply laid there, eyes half open, as she applied the very warm cloth to his head.
"Thank you for saving me," Kenshin stated straightforwardly.
"It was no problem. I thought you were dead, actually." Kenshin couldn't tell if the words were playful this time around.
"How long have I been here?"
"About four days... what is your name?" The latter part wasn't added as an afterthought; she had been wondering, no doubt.
"Himura... Himura Kenshin." He didn't ask bother to ask for her name.
"I'm Kayumi," the woman replied readily.
Well, wasn't this a week of finding similar names, Kenshin thought wryly. First there was Shin, and now this Kayumi.
"You shouldn't have saved me," he suddenly stated.
Kayumi stopped her hands, surprise evident on her face.
"Why do you say that? Would you rather have died?"
"Yes. I deserve to die." It almost came out like a child whining. His tone spoke otherwise though.
Kayumi didn't know what to say in reply to that. Instead, her hands resumed to clean his face with the warm cloth.
Kenshin subconsciously inspected her face hovering a good distance over his. She had black hair, of course. And quite a pretty face too – a bright, cute and undeniably beautiful face.
"May I be as rude to ask your age?" Kenshin had no idea what made him ask such a personal question.
Kayumi seemed slightly startled, but proceeded to answer.
"Twenty-one. And I'm suspecting you are maybe a few years older."
"I am twenty-nine," Kenshin replied. He had to admit he somewhat liked breaking his age to wrongly suspecting people.
"Oh." Kayumi uttered. "Surprising."
Kenshin couldn't help but make a small smile at that. He remembered Kaoru's reaction to the fact, which was quite a bit more extravagant than Kayumi's. And everything that had happened was re-entering his consciousness full-force, as if in volatile reaction to the thought of Kaoru.
Kayumi noticed the sadness clouding his eyes.
"You must have had hard times," she said sympathetically.
Kenshin didn't reply, and instead closed his eyes. Kayumi stood, carrying her basin in her arms.
"I'll boil some rice porridge. You shouldn't eat hard food yet."
With that, Kayumi shut the shoji behind her.
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Author's Note: This is my first update in over a year! I was checking my account and came across a couple of reviews for this story that were written recently – and I decided to continue the story. Note, though, that this chapter was written about ten months ago. I just put the finishing touches on it and decided release it. That's why this chapter is so short – I was only in the middle of writing this chapter last year, but now I decided to release this just to let people know the story's continuing. Please write me some reviews so that I can decide if the story is worth continuing!
JS
