Chapter Two

Kaoru looked up in concern as she and Megumi tried to get a ride back to the Shirobeko. Hiko was standing beside her, with a hand on her shoulder to steady himself. He had refused any more help beyond that; wanting preserve as much of his dignity as he could. Yet, even through her shirt, she could feel the abnormal amount of heat coming from his skin, and when his grip tightened minutely when he tried to breathe too deeply.

"Hiko-san, are you sure?" Megumi asked, referring to when they had asked him if he could handle the walk back.

"Aa. Let's go. The Baka Deshi needs you." Hiko stated, as he valiantly started walking in the direction of the restaurant, with the two women following worriedly behind him.

"I can see now where Ken-san gets his stubbornness." Megumi whispered, so only Kaoru could hear her. Kaoru nodded silently in agreement. She knew that there were moments when Kenshin was incredibly stubborn, and she'd often wondered where he'd gotten it from.

"Now I know." Kaoru mused, as they took the long way back, pointedly avoiding the docks; for reasons only Hiko knew about.

Sae looked up when three people entered the restaurant. Expecting to see more customers, she came out to greet them. Her warm smile fell away when she saw who had just come in.

"Seijuro-san?! What in the world happened?!?" Sae yelped, when she saw the blood on the swordmaster's mantle. Hiko gave her a severe look.

"Never mind me, Sekihara. Show Takani where Kenshin is." Hiko ordered. With a slight moment's hesitation, Sae did as she was told, and rushed Megumi up the stairs to the room where Kenshin now lay. Now Kaoru was really concerned; Hiko almost never called Kenshin by name, and now he had just done so.

"Is he worse off than we thought?!" Kaoru wondered, as she and the swordsman climbed the stairs after Megumi and Sae. When they had gotten to a spare room at the end of the hall, Hiko sat down; collapsing against the wall with a sigh that sounded akin to relief. This quickly changed to a hiss of pain when all of his wounds protested at once, forcing a grimace out of him. He jumped somewhat when a cool hand touched his brow, and a pair of worried blue-grey eyes gazed into his.

"I'm fine, Kamiya." Hiko wanted to say, but he couldn't bring himself to lie to her. In some ways, she reminded him of a woman from long ago; someone he'd all but forgotten about.

"You've got a really high fever. I think the next person Megumi-san should see to should be you." Kaoru murmured, not even turning to look when Sanosuke looked into the room.

"Damn, you look awful, Hiko. What happened?" Sanosuke asked, as he limped into the room and sat down across from the pair.

"Local riffraff happened, that's what." Hiko muttered, irritably.

"Y'mean some thugs actually managed to hit you? How'd they manage that?" Sanosuke again asked.

"Guns, and previous injuries given to me by that Baka Deshi of mine." Hiko answered.

"But why would Kenshin attack you?" Sanosuke questioned. Hiko sighed and rolled his eyes.

"The succession technique of the Hiten Mitserugi Ryu……….it's ougi." Hiko said, as he tried to ignore the burning pain in his legs and chest. Sanosuke's eyes widened.

"Ya mean the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki? He hit you with that?!" Sanosuke asked, getting a slight nod from the swordmaster in response.

"Damn. No wonder you're messed up. You're the first person he used it on, so he wouldn't have been able to tone it down like he had with Aoshi and Sojiro." Sanosuke muttered, then added, "And Jou-chan and Yahiko had told me how you came to the rescue while we were at Mt. Hiei. How were you even able to stand?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Hiko in turn asked, with the intent to frustrate.

"When it comes to some things, he's about as evasive as Kenshin!" Sanosuke thought, not knowing that Kaoru was thinking the same thing. Their thoughts were disrupted when Hiko again coughed raggedly into his hand, looked in disgust at the specks of blood on his palm, then settled back with a sigh.

"It appears I won't be able to move for awhile." Hiko murmured.

"Looks that way." Kaoru agreed, knowing only too well that the swordmaster would have rather been someplace else.

"Your injuries almost rival those of Himura. The only difference is that you are still conscious." Aoshi stated, coolly.

"And even that is by a narrow margin. It is my training that is keeping me from going into shock, but eventually my body will have the final word in whether I remain conscious or not." Hiko admitted, leaning his head back against the wall tiredly to prove his point. Aoshi only nodded; he could tell just by looking at the swordmaster that the other man was on the verge of complete exhaustion.

"I'm amazed with how he's remained conscious despite his injuries. Any one of those wounds would have been enough to knock a normal man out instantly." Aoshi mused, as he watched the three from the doorway for a moment, then silently retreated back into his own room. He had no desire to attract Misao's attention and fall victim to her 'Kecho Kick' for even thinking of getting up and walking around.

"By the way, where is the Itachi? She didn't die from getting her wounds bandaged again, did she?" Hiko asked, with a smirk, almost as though he'd read Aoshi's mind. Kaoru and Sanosuke both flinched when they heard Misao shriek 'I heard that!!' at the tops of her lungs, then appear in a flash at the doorway.

"I see you're still alive." Hiko murmured, directing an infuriating glance at the young onmitsu while he was at it.

"You are just as irritating as that yellow-eyed freak of a swordsman called Saito!" Misao snapped, as she walked over and got right in Hiko's face. Hiko was nonplused.

"Really? That is the second time that name has come up in conversation. Was he one of the so-called 'Wolves of Mibu'?" Hiko asked, with some curiosity in his voice. He got a somewhat saddened look from Sanosuke as a response.

"Yeah……He wound up dying in the Inferno Room when it came down……I guess he went the way he wanted." Sanosuke murmured, grimly.

"No matter what kind of jerk he may have been, nobody deserves to die like that." Misao said, her tone much softer than before as she sat down on Hiko's left hand side. As the room went quiet, Hiko allowed his mind to wander. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that a lot of what happened in Mt. Hiei would never be revealed to those who had not been there. Yet, he still wondered what kind of difference could have been made if he'd gone after Kenshin when the battle against Fuji had been concluded.

"Would I have been able to make a difference? It's one thing that Kenshin hadn't been able to bring Shishio down, it's quite another that a Wolf of Mibu could not do it either. Just how strong had Shishio been? What kind of mind smoldered behind the eyes of one who had been completely consumed by bloodlust and hatred?" Hiko wondered, unaware that Kaoru was still watching him closely. She could see that the swordmaster was in deep thought, and that some of those thoughts turned to Kenshin, since his gaze occasionally drifted from the wounds in his legs, to the room where the injured rurouni lay. His unspoken concern, and the anguish hidden in his dark eyes, was invisible to Misao and Sanosuke, but were easily seen by Kaoru. Briefly, she wondered why it was so easy for her to pick up on the older man's emotions, then shook her head. If she'd been meant to understand, then she would have. The only conclusion she had was that the wall surrounding Hiko's emotions was cracked, and the rope binding them was worn thin by the past few days' events.

"In other words, he's as tired as the rest of us." Kaoru thought, as she moved to get some bandages to at least wrap Hiko's legs in till Megumi could get to him.

It was late in the evening when Megumi finally finished tending to Kenshin's wounds. The rurouni now slept quietly on his futon, still under the effects of the anesthetic Megumi had used so she could operate. As she entered the room where Hiko had been settled, she gave the swordsman a look of equal concern.

"He looks worse than he did this morning…….but that should come as no surprise. His injuries are as bad as Ken-san's; I don't even have to examine them to come to that conclusion." Megumi thought, as she walked over and placed a hand on the man's forehead. In response to her touch, Hiko roused up from light sleep and looked her in the eye, not moving in the slightest from his seated position.

"Seijuro-san, I'm going to see to your legs first……..Though I must warn you. If the damage is too severe,…….I may have to amputate both of them. Do you understand?" Megumi asked, trying to prepare the man for the worst as gently as she could. Hiko gave her a cold look in response.

"If that is the case, Takani, when you use something to knock me out, kill me with it." Hiko ordered, shocking the female doctor with his words. Then Megumi considered who she was talking to; this was Kenshin's master, a man who was not used to staying in one place too long or burdening other people with his problems. She knew, as well as he did, that both would happen if he lost his legs. But his request was terrible, nonetheless.

"We'll just have to wait and see……..It's too soon to tell whether or not amputation will be necessary. I just hope it won't be." Megumi murmured, subdued by the swordmaster's morbid request. Hiko nodded, silently.

"Yet you won't know until you get started. If the damage is too great to be repaired, don't even bother to wake me up. I'd rather die whole, then live out my days as half of what I had been." Hiko said, grimly, as he removed his mantle and lay down, ready for the doctor to begin.

"But what about Ken-san? How do you think he'll react to hearing about your death? Don't you think that would hurt him even more?" Megumi asked. Hiko sighed.

"I don't know. Probably. One thing is certain, though; I don't want him to see me like this. Or to see me live out my years in one of those infernal Western wheelchairs. That alone would wound him even deeper than a sword ever could." Hiko replied, quietly, then ordered, "Get started, Takani." With a hesitant nod, Megumi got started. She first held a cloth soaked in anesthetic to Hiko's nose and waited for him to fall asleep. When he had, she moved down to his legs. She could tell that they had been freshly bandaged a few hours before, but now they were soaked all the way through; hinting at the severity of the wounds themselves.

"I hope I don't have to live up to my promise. The opium I had made would have killed hundreds were it not for Ken-san coming to my rescue…….I want to save his master, not kill him too………Please, let the bones be intact." Megumi prayed, as she delicately cut the blood-soaked bandages free, then tore the left pants leg open so she could get to the wound.

"Megumi-san, do you need anything?" Sae asked, as she paused in the doorway.

"Yes. I need more hot water, clean cloths, medicine, bandages, and something to stitch the wounds closed when I am done. Also, he'll need something to lie on while he recovers." Megumi said, knowing that most, if not all, of the extra bedding the Shirobeko's inhabitants had to offer was being used already. Sae nodded.

"I'll see what I can do about the bedding, Megumi-san. The rest will be easy to get. Wait just a moment, and I'll get it sent up to you." Sae said, before rushing downstairs to get what was needed at that moment. Less than twenty minutes later, Megumi had what she needed and began the second most delicate operation of the day……..One she hoped would not end in the death of the Oniwabanshu's 'hero'.

Author's Note!

Yeah, yeah, I know. Cliffhanger! Don't worry though, I will try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible (writer's block has been merciless this year). All in all, I hope everybody has a safe and happy holiday!

Merry Christmas!

Gemini14