"speech"
'thoughts'
THE ONLY ONES LEFT
Chapter 4
"Jo-chan!!!!"
"What??"
"What time is it??!"
"Uhm.. two in the afternoon?"
"Wah!! It's already late!! Why didn't you wake me up??"
"I know better than to wake up a sleepyhead like you!!"
With that, Sanosuke went to the kitchen, gobbled up the remaining riceballs in the kitchen counter and went to the bathroom.
'If I am to face the kitsune, I have to at least look decent.'
After that, he ran outside the dojo earning him a questioning look from Kaoru.
"Now what's with that guy?"
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Sanosuke walked briskly to the clinic, all the while practicing what he should tell Megumi.
'Uhm.. You see, kitsune.. No.. No.. I should be serious.'
'Look, Megumi, I didn't mean to.. Ugh.. this doesn't fit me at all!'
'....'
'....'
'....'
'I'm sorry.'
He sighed when he realized he was finally at the entrance of the clinic. He walked to the door but his world fell when he read, "The doctor is out."
At the bottom, an additional note was hanging. It said,
"And will be out for a few days"
Sano sat at the bench and thought,
'I was too late.. Why? Where could she have gone?? Why did she go? Did I hurt her that much for her to leave??'
He sat there for about an hour, thinking and reminiscing. This clinic meant a lot to Megumi. This was her new hope after what happened to her.
'Yeah.. Her dreadful past that I even reminded her last night.. Argg...'
This clinic also meant a lot to him.
'This is where I go when my hands are bruised or my bones are broken from a fight.. This is where I get to spend most of my time with her.'
Then he sighed.
'This place brings back too many memories. Maybe I should just go home.. After all, it just said: Out for a few days.. C'mon Sano! Cheer up!! She'll be back!!'
He left the clinic and walked back to the dojo, now sauntering.
But he couldn't help but think of a certain fox doctor, how he held her in his arms that night and how cherubic she looked.
'I'll just have to go through every freaking day until she comes back...!!'
Then he sighed again for the umpteenth time that day.
'And I don't even know how many days I'll have to endure.'
He continued walking and walking, telling the people from the bars who called on him that he'll pass on for a few days.
'Going to the bar is not the solution. But what else would I do??? I can't get into fights!! No one would...' He was hurt again when it reminded him of Megumi. '...cure me..'
When he arrived at the dojo, he was greeted by a cheerful child. Ayame. At the sight of her, Sano's face lit up. She is are always accompanied by Suzume and Megumi or Dr. Gensai when she goes to the dojo.
"Ayame-chan!" He called on immediately.
The child heard her name being called so she looked at the person curiously at first. When she saw it was Sano, she ran up to him immediately and tugged at his gi.
She looked up at him and squirmed, "Uncle Sano!!"
The tall man looked down at her and smiled at her. "Ayame-chan!!" Then he carried her up and carried her at his back.
Ayame just smiled at him. Sano carries her and Suzume most of the time in his back when they go to the park or somewhere else that required lots of effort to walk on.
Sano ambled to the dojo with only one thing in his mind. When they arrived at the entrance, he asked Ayame immediately,
"Where's Suzume? I thought you two are inseparable."
"She went with Auntie Megumi." Ayame said as she was being put down the ground.
Seeing that it will be hard for both of them to talk with his tall figure and the child's small one, he knelt in front of her and continued his interrogation.
"And where could your Auntie be?"
"Gensai-sensei said she's in a far pwace wight now." Ayame said, gesturing a far-off place with her arms stretched at both sides.
Sano's hope was again, broken into pieces upon hearing this. He expected something like the market, the park or even in the dojo. No. he didn't actually expect those. He wanted to hear that Megumi was just near them, somehow.
So, he absentmindedly told the young kid, "Oh.."
Seeing that her 'uncle' became sad, Ayame said,
"But don't worry, Uncle Sano! Gensai-sensei said that she'll be back after a few days so that I can pway with Suzume again!!"
"And do you have an idea how long that few days they were referring to could take, Ayame-chan?" Sano asked.
Ayame shook her head and said an innocent "No."
"Oh well.. So who brought you here? Is Gensai-sensei with you?"
"No. Auntie Meg bwought me here before she weft. Gensai-sensei said he'll also be away to a far pwace, farther than where Auntie and Suzume are today. Uncle Kenshin said he'll take full responsibility on me.. Although I don't know what exactly he meant by that." Ayame said.
At that, an idea formed in Sano's mind.
"Hey, how about I take care of you while you Auntie Megumi and Suzume is gone?" Sano said.
Ayame shrieked with joy and said, "Oh! That would be nice and fun, Uncle Sano!!"
She then hugged her 'uncle'. Sano smiled at this and returned her hug.
Ayame loosened her grip on Sano's back and faced him.
"We could go eat an ice cream, pick flowers in the park, go shopping for candies and toys, visit the carnival, and watch cartoons everyday!! Auntie Megumi won't be here to scold us!!"
Sano couldn't help but feel hurt at the mention of Megumi's name but this feeling was immediately replaced by happiness upon hearing the child's innocent laughter.
"Okay, okay. We could do that. That sounds like fun. Besides, Uncle Sano has nothing to do for the next few days so I could take Ayame-chan anywhere she likes." Sano said at the now-jumping-in-joy child.
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'One more station..'
Megumi was riding the train with a delighted Suzume sitting beside her.
"Look, Auntie Megumi!! It feels so nice! I haven't gone out this far before!!"
Suzume was literally bouncing on her seat and Megumi was afraid she might fall down or someone might scold her for being so noisy.
"I know, Suzume-chan. Just keep you voice low, okay?"
"But Auntie Megumi.. The view here is sooo nice!!"
Megumi was being impatient and it didn't help being with a blatant child in such a peaceful train. There aren't much passengers but.. 'Still, it would disturb the other passengers.'
She then pulled Suzume off the window and sat her down the chair.
"But Auntie.. I was looking at the---"
Seeing that the child is being stubborn, Megumi scolded her in a low voice,
"No but's, Suzume! If the train goes into stops, you might fall off the chair. If you keep on screaming like that, the police will come and get you."
Seeing that her Auntie is angry, Suzume just sat there, pouting, with her hands on her lap like a shy student who went to school for the first time.
Satisfied, Megumi sat up straight in her own chair.
Suzume was still disappointed but she can't do anything else but think.
'I wonder why Auntie Megumi is being so hot-headed since this mowning.. I haven't seen her like this before. Normally she would say, "Oh, Suzume-chan, the view is indeed nice!".. Hmmm.. now she's like those in cartoons with smowke coming fwom their ears when they're angry.. Hihihihi..'
At the thought of the cartoons, Suzume muffled a laugh with her tiny hands.
Megumi looked at her with curiosity and thought,
'What could she be laughing at?? Is my sermon funny?? How stubborn could this kid be? She reminds me of somebody I know.. Grrr.. Someone I don't want to remember anymore.. Not right now, anyway..'
Her thoughts if that somebody was stopped when they heard the train come to a halt.
"Let's go, Suzume-chan.." Megumi said, putting the little child's hands in her own. They walked hand in hand outside the train.
Megumi stopped a bit to look at the map.
'Now where is the bus station??'
After a while, 'There it is!! Let's see.. A few streets from here...'
"Come on, Suzume-chan!" Megumi said. But Suzume was looking at something else. She followed the young girl's gaze and saw..
An ice cream parlor.
She knew that Suzume and Ayame both like ice creams so she pondered on it first.
'Maybe it won't hurt giving her a compliment for coming with me..'
"Okay, Suzume-chan, Auntie Megumi is going to buy you an ice cream so you'd stop looking at it."
Upon hearing the word 'ice cream', Suzume woke from her reverie. She had to register what her aunt has said to her first.
Seeing this, Megumi walked to the ice cream parlor and told her,
"Do you want an ice cream or should I just buy one for myself?"
"Of couwse I do, Auntie!!"
Then she bounced off and held Megumi by the arm to the said place.
When they were in the place, Megumi asked what flavor Suzume wanted and bought her vanilla ice cream with a second layer of chocolate, topped with chocolate chips and candy sprinkles. She bought the strawberry flavored one for herself. She liked it plain.
When they got their orders, they went to the table for two in the corner of the small place and sat there.
They chat as they ate their ice cream off.
In the middle of their snack, Megumi stopped and looked at the ingenuous child. When Suzume looked up at her, she said, "I'm sorry for what happened earlier, Suzume-chan."
"Which one, Auntie? The one when you scowlded me in the clinic, in the dojo or the one in the twain?" Suzume said, counting with her fingers.
Megumi laughed a bit, realizing she's been quite rough with the kid the whole day.
"All of those, Suzume-chan.. Auntie Megumi is just tired, that's why I was all angry earlier."
"Oh, then, I fowgive you, Auntie Megumi." Suzume said, returning to her ice cream.
Now that she thought about it, Megumi envied the kid's ability to just forgive and forget so easily.
When they were through, they walked again to the bus station. In the bus, Suzume fell asleep and Megumi just watched the scene outside the window. Then, she saw a farm with chickens and pigs, and did I mention chickens?
'Kami-sama is so sarcastic. Why does He have to remind of that roosterhead once in a while??' Megumi just sighed and looked at the sleeping Suzume-chan in her lap. She stroked the child's hair and thought to herself once again.
'Maybe I should have just told him it's okay or something like that before he left..'
'But what he said really did hurt me!! That insensitive roosterhead!'
'But it's my fault, too.. I insulted him first.. How bad of me! I should have at least thanked him for bringing me home!!'
'Now my conscience will be haunting me for the next days..'
When the bus stopped, she woke Suzume up and walked out..
She looked at her trusty map again and spotted the place with the X mark. Since there were no more vehicles in that part of the village, they had to walk. The place is probably a one-kilometer walk away.
"Let's go, Suzume-chan."
Suzume was still drowsy and she kept on tripping. Megumi just held her tighter whenever she trips.
"I wish Uncle Sano was here. If he's here and he saw me twipping, he'd pwobably scoop me off my fweet and carry me on his back instead."
Megumi was hurt at the statement partly because she knew she can't do the same things Sano does to them and partly because she was reminded of him again. So she stopped and looked at Suzume.
This caused Suzume to stop, too.
"I'm sorry, Suzume-chan. I can't carry you on my back like what your Uncle Sano does.. You can just imagine what we'll look like.." Megumi said.
When Suzume saw that her auntie was blaming herself for it, she immediately told her, "No! I'm not bwaming you for it, auntie!! I can walk perfectly fine!!"
She ran three meters away joyfully to prove her statement then she faced her auntie again and said with her arms stretched proudly, "See?"
Megumi just smiled at her and walked to catch up with her.
Unfortunately, in the second half of the kilometer, Suzume's legs can't take it anymore and she tripped again. This time, she couldn't stand up from exhaustion anymore.
"Oh, poor Suzume-chan..." Megumi said. She eyed the place and spotted a store nearby. Then she gathered up all her strength and carried the little girl in her arms to the store.
She sat Suzume in one of the benches and went to buy some snacks. She returned with two glasses of fruit juices and two packs of crackers.
"Are you tired, Suzume-chan?" She asked.
Before answering, Suzume drank first.
"Not really, auntie. I just need to chawge up some energy!!"
Megumi smiled at her and after they finished the snacks, they sat there for a while.
"Auntie Megumi, what are the things that you love?" Suzume asked out of pure curiosity.
"Me? I love.. Curing people of their injuries, I think.." Megumi replied.
"And who are the people you love?"
Megumi's heart skipped a bit at the question and she didn't know why.
"Why do you ask, Suzume-chan?"
"Well, you see.. our teacher in school asked us to dwaw a picture of the things and the people we love for our homework. When i got home I didn't know what to dwaw because I didn't exactly know what love means.. So I went to Gensai-sensei and asked him abouwt it." Suzume said, all the while gesturing about her story.
"And what did he say about it?" Megumi asked.
"He said that if I love something, for example, I love ice cream because I like eating it anytime, any pwace.." Suzume said, imagining some ice cream.
Megumi nodded at her. "Uh huh.."
"He also said that if I love the people, I'm happy with them and when I'm not with them, I feel lonely and I think of them all the time.." Suzume said.
'Oh,, that reminds me of somebody again..' Megumi thought. The thought just popped out of nowhere and she berated herself afterwards. 'Megumi!! It's love you're talking about here!! Love and that stupid baka can't come together!'
Suzume moved closer to her auntie.
Megumi asked her, "So, what did you draw?"
Suzume smiled at her and said,
"You want to see it, Auntie Megumi?"
"You have it with you?" Megumi said a little incredulously.
"Yup! I got a perfwect score for it so I kept it in the small pouch that I bwing everywhere I go." Then she pulled out a piece of paper folded neatly from the pouch.
Megumi unfolded the paper and smiled at the little child's drawing. Sure enough, there were ice cream cones scattered throughout. There were also toys and books. In the middle was a drawing of five people. There were also other people at the back of those five but they were drawn a bit smaller.
Megumi tried to analyze the drawing but gave up. "And who are these people?"
Suzume pointed one by one at the people. First, she pointed at the two little girls in front.
"That's me and Ayame!! I'm always with Ayame and like today, I always think of her 'coz we're not twogether.."
Next, she pointed at an old-looking man whose hair was white in the drawing.
"That's Gensai-sensei. He takes care of us all the time so I love him."
Then, she pointed at a girl taller than her and Ayame whose hair was flowing past her shoulders. "That's you, Auntie Megumi!!"
Megumi smiled at the child and sincerely said, "Thank you, Suzume!!"
Now, there was only one person left.
"And that's Uncle Sano."
Megumi laughed a bit before saying, "Uncle Sano?" She looked closely at the picture and recognized the spiked hair of the rooster-head.
Suzume looked at her and wondered why she was laughing.
"You see, You and Uncle Sano always take us to the pwark, to the dojo, to the Akabeko, and to lots of places."
"We do?" Megumi said and thought, 'Hmm.. I didn't even realize that. Do we really go out with them that often?'
"Yes!! And you look cute twogether!!" Suzume said, clapping her hands.
Megumi blushed at this and looked at the young girl. "Cute? Us? Together?"
"Yes! My teacher even asked mwe if the woman in my dwawing was my mother and the man was my father." Suzume continued.
"That's embarrassing!! Imagine Sano and I raising children together? That's impossible!!" Megumi said, a shiver running down her spine.
Megumi stood up to leave when Suzume talked again. This made Megumi stop in her tracks and look back.
"You know what I told her? I told her "No, But I do wish they were.".." Suzume said. Then she walked a bit faster to get in front of the befuddled fox lady.
It took a while before Megumi realized what the child has just meant.
