Healer
By Meii-chan
Chapter 10-Spring
Hokkaido; April, Meiji 2 (1869)
The pale spring day was still chilly, despite the bright sun shining overhead for a few hours now. There was a very good explanation for the sub-average temperatures; they were in the mountains of northern Japan.
Not to say that Hokkaido was a frozen abyss. Conversely, the mountain villages were already filled with people doing their mundane work: shopping, cleaning, and cooking…Even the local farmers had plenty to do as small, tender green shoots sprung out from the frozen ground. Yes, the mountain villages of Hokkaido were filled with bustling activity, and as they would later find out, an icy storm of hatred that continues to rage even as glorious rays of sunshine melt the snowy mountaintops.
"Ken-san. Are you sure you're fine?" Megumi asked the poor rurouni, who was now turning an interesting purple-blue from the cold.
"This unworthy one's fine. Don't worry about this unworthy one. What about Soujiro? He looks blue…" Kenshin was unable to speak any further as a series of sneezes overtook him.
"Are you sure, Himura-san? I think you're referring to the color of my shirt…" And indeed, contrary to Kenshin's suspicions, Soujiro was fine.
"Gomen. Gomen." He grinned a silly rurouni smile to accompany his apology, but then he became alert as he became serious. Without any warning, he took off, leaving Soujiro to drag Megumi as they pursued Kenshin through the snowy streets.
When Soujiro and Megumi caught up to Kenshin, they found him standing amidst the semi-ruined houses on the outskirts of the village. "Himura-san…why are we here?" Soujiro asked, confused.
"This unworthy one thought this unworthy one heard something, like someone crying…" Kenshin shook his head as Megumi stared at him oddly. "It must be this unworthy one's imagination, then. Looks like there's no one here…This unworthy one guesses we should go then…"
"Wait. I hear it too. It sounds like it's coming from that alleyway." Soujiro said as he pointed to the shadowy crevice between two rundown buildings.
This is bad…Why did I ever decide to go by myself…?
Haru sat at the end of the alleyway, arms pulling her legs up to her chest, quietly sobbing. She could hear the faint padding of footsteps grow louder, and tried to smother her own cries with her long ebony hair. If only I can stop crying, then I wouldn't be found!She flinched as someone touched her arm.
"Hey…Are you hurt?"
She shook her head.
"What's wrong?"
"I…I'm…" Haru tried to choke out the words hampered by her tears.
"You're…?"
"I'm lost!" Haru said forcefully and then dissolved into another round of uncontrollable sobbing.
Kenshin was capable of being completely calm when dealing with and random highway bandits and Shinsengumi trying to kill him, but when faced with the crying little girl in the alleyway, he began to panic when she continued to cry in spite of all he had tried to do to soothe her. It was only when he realized that his skin really was blue and was scaring her when he let Soujiro and Megumi to deal with her. Fortunately for Kenshin, Soujiro and Megumi were able to calm Haru down enough so that they could help her.
And so, they were walking casually along the left side of the road, Haru quite happy with her newfound friends, when they heard voices in the distance. This only made her happier, and she began to race the rest of her distance, slipping out of her sandals in the process.
"Waaah!" A child's voice cried as he reached for the tiny windmill toy that was held slightly out of his reach by an older boy. "It's mine!"
"Hey, Tasuke. Please don't tease Gorou…" A monk, sweeping the steps of the temple tried to pacify the two children. And to no avail—Gorou still cried for his toy, Tasuke continued to tease him. This continued until an older girl ran over and bonked them both lightly on the head.
"Tasuke! Quit teasing Gorou! Gorou, quit crying over nothing! We're supposed to be working!" As the two children scurried off into the fields, she sighed. "You too, Oshou-sama! (1) When you're angry, you have to harden your heart and get mad! You're way too nice…"
"I guess you're right, but I'm not good at getting angry. I'm sorry." The monk apologized to her.
"Well, I guess that's the way you are." She smiled and ran off into the fields.
"Tsubaki!" Haru yelled happily as she flung herself at the older girl, now known as Tsubaki.
"Haru! Where have you been? What happened to your shoes? You're covered with dirt! Go wash yourself up!" Only then did she turn her attention to Soujiro and the others standing at the gate. "Oh! Welcome! Are you here to see Anji-oshou?"
"I thank you from the bottom of my heart for bringing Haru-chan home again." Anji told them, pouring hot tea and handing it to Kenshin. "I was afraid something like this would happen."
"Oro?" Kenshin's skin was returning to its normal color, thanks to the warm atmosphere inside Juuraku temple. "This unworthy one can see that you would worry about her, but Haru-dono seems to be a bright girl, once we found her, she immediately showed us the direction to your temple. It wasn't like she was lost at all."
"Himura-san. There might be something you are not aware of that is happening here." Anji said solemnly.
"Oro?"
"Never mind. I didn't mean to burden you with my challenges. But I do thank you for returning Haru-chan to the temple. Why don't you stay here for a while before traveling again? Don't worry," Anji said as he noticed Kenshin was about to refuse, "It's no trouble, really. And Soujiro-kun and Megumi-chan can make friends with the other children here."
"If you insist…then this unworthy one guesses we can impose on your kindness for a little longer."
"Oshou-sama! Look!" Yoshi, a boy around Soujiro's age pulled the monk over and pointed a patch of disturbed snow on the ground. "Look! Ho-to-ke-sa-ma. Hotoke-sama! (2)" He read aloud the hiragana characters written in the snow.
"Yes. That's right! Good job, Yoshi-kun." Anji lauded the boy while patting him on the head. "If we all pray to Hotoke-sama, our wishes will come true."
"Oshou-sama? If we pray to Hotoke-sama, will I get taller?"
"I'm sure you will."
"Will spring come faster?" Haru added.
"Of course!"
"Then, if we all pray, will Oshou-sama marry Tsubaki-nee-chan?"
"Uh…"
"Let's go pray so that Tsubaki-nee-chan marries Oshou-sama!" The four younger children said happily in unison, and then went off into the temple.
"What…?" Megumi said, flabbergasted at the children's enthusiasm.
"Well, it's just another one of the games that they come up with. They say that if I marry Oshou-sama, then we can really be a family. I wouldn't worry too much about it." Tsubaki said, heading back to the temple when something caught her eye. "Oh…I still have the present you gave me, Oshou-sama!" she shouted, waving the beaded rosary around her wrist in the air. "I'll never take it off!"
Anji just smiled as he watched Tsubaki race into the temple.
Meanwhile, Soujiro squatted in the snow, tracing the hiragana characters with his fingers. "Ne, Anji-san, can you teach me to write?"
"Huh?" Anji turned around in surprise. "I thought you knew how…"
"Megumi-san has been trying to teach me, but I'm not very good." He admitted with a laugh. "I was wondering if you can spare Megumi-san the trouble…"
"I guess I can try. Let's see, if you could give me that twig there…"
"Haru-chan!" Tsubaki shouted at the little girl, for she was wandering off too far from the rest of the children. "Come back here! You know better than to wander off! What's gotten into you? Do you want to get lost again?"
The little girl didn't reply, but quickly coughed into her sleeve.
The older girl placed her hands on her hips and made a chastising look on her face. "Haru-chan, stop pretending to be sick. You can't just be lazy and make Yoshi-kun and Tasuke-kun do your work too. We all need you to take care of the temple. Both of us know that Hotoke-sama protects us from sickness and harm. Nothing's happened to us ever since Oshou-sama took us in!"
"But something did happen, Tsubaki-nee-chan."
"Eh?" Tsubaki was going to start another rant about the virtues of hard work when she saw the frightened look on Haru's doleful and desolate looking gaze. "What happened?" She asked, even though she was quite sure that her world, despite her feigned ignorance, was a hateful place.
"Oshou-sama asked me to buy some tofu three days ago. But, there were a bunch of kids that were trying to chase me out of town. I asked the grownups there to stop them, but they wouldn't listen to me. I eventually lost them by running into an alleyway, but I couldn't get anything that Oshou-sama wanted."
"Well, you wouldn't get anything done if you just run away. Stand up for yourself, alright?" She told the younger girl, explaining it to her with simplicity.
"But I'm scared…"
Tsubaki sighed with annoyance. Where was Oshou-sama when you needed him to restore faith in the little ones? "Haru-chan. Remember the time last year when you where afraid of climbing the cherry trees because you were scared you would fall?"
Haru nodded her head slowly, confusion swimming in circles within her head.
"Remember how you saw the baby birds in the spring try to fly on their own?"
"They all fell down. And it looked really painful."
Tsubaki had to agree with that point. "Yes, but didn't it make you so happy to see them fly around so easily when the flowers were blooming? You were so happy that you forgot that you were afraid of heights and you climbed the tallest cherry blossom tree in the Juuraku temple grounds to see them fly. Maybe this time, you need to be like those baby birds to have the courage to be confident of yourself."
"But, still…"
"Don't worry, it'll take time. And you'll be braver if we're all together, right?" Tsubaki said optimistically as she grasped Haru's hand and led her back to the other children. "Come on, you'll be happier working with Yoshi-kun and Tasuke-kun than you'll be if you are by yourself."
"Hai! (3) Tsubaki-nee-chan!" And so, the two children raced towards the temple fields.
They left the scene too early to notice a group of men walking by. As they were walking, a fledging falcon flew from the frost-covered cherry trees. After a few seconds of freedom, it plummeted down towards the footpath below where the men were walking.
The bird was promptly crushed.
Soon afterwards, the children were playing in the courtyard, making white temples from what was left of the melting snow. Kenshin looked on, too un-accustomed to the northern climate to frolic about with the children. It disappointed him greatly, and he had silently promised himself that he would, once he got accustomed to the climate, or when it got warm, whichever came first. Megumi was chastising, to no avail, the children to stop smothering themselves with snow and put on some more clothes. As Megumi was so ardently watching the children, Anji, Tsubaki, and Soujiro hovered over a copy of a Hiragana primer, which Anji and Tsubaki had so used to teach Soujiro. Anji had the primary purpose of teaching, and Soujiro practiced the lettering by scratching on the undisturbed snow. Needless to say, Tsubaki was only there to show off her own writing ability with great looping strokes in the pristine white snow.
"Soujiro-kun, did you see my writing? You need to make your letters look more rounded, they look like they've been squashed…" Tsubaki said enthusiastically, while drawing another character into the snow. "See? Isn't it pretty?"
"Hey, Tsubaki-nee-chan," Yoshi said, "Now you're acting like my older sister whenever this guy came to our house a long time ago. And then after that, she got married to him. Are you going to marry Soujiro-kun then, Tsubaki-nee-chan?"
Megumi stared at the boy, dumbfounded. What exactly was going on in his head? She wondered.
Tsubaki was not pleased, to say the least. She was rather flustered, and she was glaring rather venomously at Yoshi. "Stop lying Yoshi! I thought you wanted me to marry Oshou-sama! I can't marry every single person that you say I'm going to!"
Yoshi shied away behind the snow temple. "Tsubaki-nee-chan is really scary when she's angry." Haru and Tasuke nodded their heads in acquiescence.
Meanwhile, Tsubaki was still fuming, glaring in the general direction of Yoshi. Everyone gawked at her sudden outburst, unable to penetrate the thick silence that settled in the courtyard.
That is, until there was a knock at the temple gate and then some voices calling "Anji. Anji, are you here?", and three men came inside. One of them was elderly, toddling along the path with a knobby-looking cane. The two other men who flanked him were in contrast, tall and burly. Anji stood up immediately to greet them.
"Ohayo Gozaimasu. (4) Is there something I can do for you, Mr. Mayor?" Anji asked congenially.
"Hmm…" The mayor glanced around at the children, and then Kenshin and said. "It's best if we discuss thing matter alone."
"Ah, yes." Anji slid open the temple door and ushered the three men inside before disappearing into the temple himself.
After Anji had disappeared within the temple, curiosity rose once again among the children, as Tsubaki's anger had waned considerably. It was Yoshi's idea to eavesdrop on the adults through a narrow crack made by the sliding door. Although Tsubaki had chided them for their childish antics, she had given up on suppressing her own inquisitiveness and joined the other children along the crack in the door.
The conversation was albeit muffled by the screen door, but it was possible to hear the conversation taking place inside.
"Leave the village?" Anji's startled voice could be heard.
"Yes, you've heard of Haibutsu Kishaku. (5) We met and decided to obey Meiji policy by tearing down the temple."
"Wait a minute." Anji's voice could be heard again. "It doesn't matter what happens to me, but what about the children? They lost their parents in the Boshin War. They don't have anywhere else to live . . ."
"Of course they'll leave. They have to leave. Tsubaki's father, the old mayor, and his followers fought for the Bakufu. Our standing with the government is perilously low. And also, now you're being associated with that swordsman…this temple is a danger to the village." The mayor explained.
"I understand."
Sensing that the conversation was over, Tsubaki and the children scurried away from the door as the three men left. Anji watched the three men depart with a sense of sadness until Haru's voice brought him back to reality.
"Oshou-sama. Is the temple really going to be knocked down?"
"I'm sorry, Oshou-sama." Tsubaki apologized. "This is all my dad's fault."
Anji quickly shook his head. "Don't apologize. I know what your father wanted was to bring peace more quickly. There's nothing for you all to worry about. Cheer up. Your parents would want you to be happy. That's what I want too. We're not going to cause trouble for the village by staying here. What do you think about moving out and finding a new place to live? Where should we go?"
"I want Tokyo! Tokyo's the best!"
"I want to go to Kyoto!"
"I want Hakodate!"
"Baka! Hakodate's in the middle of the fighting!"
As Anji listens to their opinions, he gazes up at the statue in the middle of the temple. Hotoke-sama, such terrible things have happened to these children. Somehow, let them have a better future…Please watch over them…
Not eavesdropping on the conversation that sent on in the temple, Soujiro was outside near the gate writing in the snow. As the three men happened to walk past, he heard snippets of their discussion.
"…Don't you think you're going a little easy on them?"
"It's just a run-down temple, and monk and a bunch of dirty kids. You can do whatever you want with them, and no one's going to complain…"
After they had exited the temple, Soujiro stared at their retreating backs. These people…they're planning something…
Glossary:
1. Oshou-sama – Monk
2. Hotoke-sama – Buddha
3. Hai – Yes; yeah; responding in the affirmative.
4. Ohayo gozaimasu – Good Morning
5. Haibutsu Kishaku – The Anti-Buddhist movement.
Author's notes: I got my hair cut! 14 inches off! Now no one can recognize me! (Of course, now I can hardly do anything with it either…) But, yeah, school started, and my classes are starting to kill me, so I can't update as often…why won't AP Government give me a break...?
Yay! The first installment in Haibutsu Kishaku! I am going to have fun making all the character's different personalities! And even if they are OOC, I have the excuse that it's a very different plotline! :D (Darn, took away the underscore symbols too.) On the other hand, I was trying to follow the manga for most of the fanfic, but I stuck in a few anime scenes in it too because I thought it was cute. You know, there really aren't enough fanfics based around Anji even though he is quite a redeemable character.
Tsubaki: Ack! What's going to happen to me?! Am I going to burn to death or what?! You're so evil, Meii-chan…
Meii-chan: Thank you. Ahahahaha :P
And a thanks to you, my faithful reviewers!
Sekihoutai: (Did you mean to review the first chapter??? Gah! Gomen! Sorry for being so nitpicky!) Do you still think the beginning's dull? Okay, that was a rhetorical question…maybe I should just label it one big prologue or something…And…nope! It's not the end! (The end is when I finally get tired of writing this fanfic and people aren't reviewing!)
Lord Cirenmas: Again, not much I can say in response to your review, but aren't you glad I wrote more? (Please say yes.)
Babygirl: I'm not doing the romance part yet. But bear with me, time passes swiftly in a fanfic.
Okay! All you people reading this! Review!..................................
.......please?