Notes: First, thank you very much for all your kind reviews. Second, I´m very sorry for the delay, but I´m currently suffering from a neck problem that doesn´t allow me to be at the computer for extended periods of time, and for a while I haven´t been able to be there at all. But, isn´t it better late than never? ,)

Now, as for some things in your reviews… Wistful Eyes, hehe, I really don´t think Kaoru was so stupid for thinking that Kenshin was the Battousai, was she? But yeah, she was surely very pressured, and I tried to depict that. Shiguru, LOL! Well, isn´t Kaoru fighting crime? ;) And I´m a Tomoe and Megumi fan, too. (Who would tell…?) Lucrecia leVrai, it was precisely the mindless character bashing what made me write this. I wanted to use the same cliché (that is, putting them all together) with different results. Aikawarazu Ai, don´t worry.;) I have to point, though, that in grammars and dictionaries, British English is considered technically correct in all places where English is spoken (if it´s well-written, of course. It´s very possible that I have tripped in many other places, and, sadly, if my beta didn´t point it I will never know. /wails/)

And to all the others, thank you very much too! ;) (Ooops, so I said it already…)

Doll House

Chapter Three

Kamiya Kaoru

In spite of all her courage and her forwardness, if there was something that Kamiya Kaoru had not expected it was that her strike would hit home in such a successful way. She had expected her opponent to counterattack, or at least to parry, and her mind was already planning a manoeuvre to pin him down when the man was surprisingly knocked away, and fell among the piled up boxes with a stupendous crash.

"Ororororoo…"

Piqued by a vivid curiosity, though without committing the error of lowering her guard, the young girl slowly approached the mess she had made, and studied the complaining heap on top of it. He was a short and scrawny man with strange red hair, far too young to have fought in the Bakumatsu. His clothes were very old and worn, and they looked to Kaoru as if they had been mended a hundred times already.

Darn…

"Are you…" The girl's voice lowered, as she started to realise the extent of what she had done. Had she just… attacked an unsuspecting innocent in the middle of the street…? "Are you the hitokiri Battousai?"

The man ceased complaining abruptly, and scratched the back of his head with his hand. His mouth curved into the most perfectly innocent of all harmless grins.

"Me? Oh, no! This unworthy one is just a wandering swordsman, a rurouni, that I am," he replied with a cheerful voice. Kaoru felt the heavy weight of dismay settling in her stomach at those words, smothering even her guilt and her wish to apologise. Why, if it hadn't been for that misleading intruder who had made her hold false hopes by carrying an illegal sword…!

"Look at my sword," he continued, unsheathing his weapon and putting it in front of her eyes. The girl's eyes widened when she saw its strange shape. The cutting part of the blade was in the place of the flat one, and vice versa.

"What's this? It's… reversed?"

"This sword does not kill, that it doesn't," the man explained, as if very proud of himself. Kaoru was starting to find his exaggerated politeness infuriating, especially because of the circumstances.

"Swords are forbidden!" she yelled, tossing it back. The man did a very funny dance trying to catch it before it reached the floor, something he did not accomplish until the last possible moment. Genius swordsman, she thought sourly. Legendary indeed! "Carrying one openly is a great imprudence. Especially when that bloodthirsty legendary killer is roaming around! You could have…!"

In that moment, though, and fortunately for the target of her tongue-lashing, a police whistle cut the atmosphere of the night. Kaoru closed her mouth at once, as she felt a ray of hope filling her heart again.

"Now, stay here!" she warned him in a serious tone. "I have things to do!"

When the girl started her mad run towards the place where the noises were coming from, adrenaline rushing through her veins and pumping in her head, she failed to notice that she was being followed.

Minutes later, Kaoru arrived at last to her destination. Exhausted, she paused briefly in order to regain her breath, and then lifted her head to take a look at the scene that was unfolding in front of her eyes.

Her long research had born fruit this time, or so she thought with an increasing anxiety that mingled with her satisfaction. A police squad was surrounding a gigantic, masked man with a sword, to which they did not seem to dare to get closer in spite of the odds being at their favour.When two of them rushed at last to attack, they were immediately projected backwards, wounded by a powerful strike.

This is him, Kaoru. This is the bastard. He's the one who…

Still, and to the girl's great frustration, now that she was there in front of him she felt paralysed with fear, unable to approach him. He could really kill her. This was no joke or practice session, but her first real fight with a legendary killer who wielded a true sword. Would she throw away her life trying to.?

Wouldn't her father have given his life as well?

Kaoru advanced one step, then two, in an almost unreal slow motion. She had to do it. She recalled her empty dojo, the things that were said about it, her boarders… the honour of her school….

…Before it was too late…

"Pathetic weaklings!" the monster laughed. "See what Battousai's Kamiya Kasshin Ryu can do!"

With a yell of fury, Kaoru got in position, and charged against the murderer while the policemen backed down in surprise.

"Prepare yourself, Battousai!"

In spite of his bulk, her opponent did a good job dodging her attack. Surprised, but without allowing her surprise to affect her capacity of reaction, Kaoru stayed firmly planted in her ground and turned back to face him again. This wasn't like the fights she had taken part in for all those years; instead of being careful of doing all the moves as well as possible she was robbed of all capacity of even thinking what she was doing. Now, the sole force driving her forwards was instinct.

"A girl challenges me?" The killer laughed from behind his mask.

"I'm Kamiya Kaoru," she declared proudly, withstanding his glance. "Assistant master of the Kamiya Kasshin style."

"Really?" Battousai got into an unknown stance, and shrugged his shoulders. Not only was he not using her style, but he also was left-handed, Kaoru noticed as she looked at him more closely. "Then you might want to die!"

Both gave the leap at the same time on this occasion, causing their swords to meet in the air with a sickening thud. Then, Kaoru felt a strange sensation, as if something was giving way under her arm, and felt herself falling to the floor. With a great effort, she managed to land in a decent position and struggled to face him again, but what she saw then robbed her of her breath. Her sword…

Broken.

"The stupid girl challenged the hitokiri Battousai with a wooden sword!" the giant laughed. "Now you will pay dearly for your imprudence!"

Afterwards, Kaoru would admit to herself that the only reason why she didn't show her fear was that she was too paralysed as to even move. The bloody sword glittered in the moonlight in her direction, and she only could stay there, clutching a broken stick as if it was her only board of salvation. Salvation…

What could save her now?

For the first moment since she had started that fight, the girl found herself wishing desperately to be back in her warm home, even without students. Could she have moved on, sold the dojo, and then started a new Kamiya Kasshin dojo in another town? Could she have…?

Too late.

Kaoru breathed heavily, trying desperately to find a way out of her imminent death. Dodging to one side, she managed to avoid part of the strike, but her shoulder was wounded and she gave a hiss of pain. Next time…

In the middle of a blur, the girl lunged forwards. She was already seeing everything black around her when, all of a sudden, she felt two arms encircling her body and lifting it. The air rushed in her ears as if she had just been moved at an inhuman speed, causing her broken sword to fall from her hand.

She didn't even hear it fall.

"Uh?"

Little by little, she tried to open her eyes. The first thing that they were able to meet was a blur of red hair, but, as she focused them somewhat better, she realised that she was in the arms of a man who looked only too familiar to her. What wouldn't have been her surprise when she recognised him as the wandering swordsman she had attacked earlier by mistake! "What are you doing here?" Her voice became frantic. "He will kill you! Battousai will kill you!"

"Who has given you the permission to interfere?" Battousai towered upon them, furious. The red haired swordsman turned his face towards him, and held his glance for a long instant of deep silence.

"Bah." Finally, the visible part of the monster's face creased in disdain, and he took his eyes away. "I am Battousai. The hitokiri Battousai of the Kamiya Kashin school!"

Before Kaoru could do anything to prevent it, the killer started a mad run, shoving aside the policemen who obstructed his way. A nagging feeling in her head told her she had to get up, to run behind him… but she was wounded and still affected by her fight, and two arms were holding her with a surprising strength.

…It was that second circumstance which caused her ire to come back in a burning rush.

"Let me go!" she yelled, struggling. "This impostor is tarnishing the reputation of my father's school by killing people in its name! I have to stop him!"

"It was very imprudent of you to attack that man with a wooden sword, that it was," the red haired man said, with the same goofy smile he had gifted her with only some minutes before. "Besides, he's stronger than you."

"What?" The girl's furious struggles increased, but his only reaction was to sling her over his hip and walk away. Kaoru kicked and protested indignantly for a long while, to no avail.

"May this unworthy one escort you where you live?" he said a while later, when they were already at some distance from the place. The girl furrowed her brow.

"Not if you don't put me down," she growled. To her immense relief, the man obeyed her request and began to clutch his hip with a pained expression.

"I think I've hurt myself there. Ouch," he complained, causing Kaoru to shake her head in shocked exasperation. "Must be a contraction…"

"You're impossible!" she sighed. "And now, you'd better tell me why you did interfere in my fight. See, you even… got wounded," she added, lowering her voice as she noticed a bleeding slash in the man's left cheek.

"Well…" The wanderer followed her, rubbing his head. "I already had that wound, that I did. And the reason why I came… I thought you needed my help, that's all. You had lost your sword, and you were wounded. And that murderer is a dangerous man, that he is."

"Battousai has been killing people in the name of my dojo for about a month now," she explained in a bitter tone. "There, this way. I decided that the only thing I could do was to defeat him, because my students have all left and my father's dojo is empty. He worked too hard to create this technique, and now that he's dead… Well, I shouldn't be telling all this to a stranger!" Now, it was the girl's turn to look awkward. That man radiated such kindness and comical harmlessness that she had immediately started to trust him before she had even had time to notice. "They're my problems, after all..."

The wanderer didn't answer anything to this. He seemed to be lost into his own set of musings, though after a while he seemed to snap out of his oblivious state, and turned towards her again.

"Did that Battousai really study in your dojo?" he asked, in an obviously very wrong move. Before he ever was able to gather how, Kaoru was on top of him, yelling into his ear.

"Of course not! He's, he's… he's an impostor! My father's style is a style that protects life above all things. Swords are for protecting, not for killing! This killer is trampling over every single ideal that we always cherished!"

"Ah…" For the first time, the girl was able to spot some kind of deep emotion crossing the man's face. "I see… But... are you sure that he's Battousai as well? If he lied in one thing, why wouldn't he lie in the other?"

"Uh? Well…I suppose I can't know." Kaoru looked to the floor for a while, as if pondering something that hadn't ever occurred to her before. Her wound hurt, so she pressed her training gi against it in an effort to palliate the pangs. "But what does it matter? Between a killing sword and a sword that protect lives, there's a crucial difference. But between a bloodthirsty killer and another bloodthirsty killer, what do I care? I suppose they deserve each other."

A sudden, strange heaviness fell over the man's soft features, mitigated to a certain extent by his ever present smile.

"You're right. This unworthy one simply wondered whether there could be yakuza involved, that's all."

Kaoru felt a commotion inside her at that unexpected reaction. If someone had asked her, she would have had no idea about where did it come from, but she suddenly had the sensation that her companion had lost his youthful appearance for a brief second. Strange… she had barely made the acquaintance of that man, and his attitudes were already affecting her in a mysterious way.

"Oh, and thank you," she muttered, in a much gentler tone. "For… saving my life, I mean."

The red-haired swordsman stopped for a moment in his tracks, and bowed to her in serious silence.

Takani Megumi

The doctor shivered, willing herself once more to sit down and cross her arms over the table. She was aware that this did not become her reputation as an unfeeling woman without fears, but sometimes, at certain circumstances, she was afraid of the dark. It brought her terrible remembrances of unseen eyes which spied and tracked her every movement, and of the fear of the terrible consequences if she made a gesture in the wrong direction. Even up to that day, this made her smother her emotions behind a sculptured smile that she had long ago created as a substitute for her tears.

Where had that stupid girl gone? She had left without telling them anything, no, without even wanting them to know that she had gone away. Only a day ago, she had said some mysterious words that Megumi hadn't even heard correctly at the time, but that now she remembered to be "I was planning to finish this as soon as possible" with exasperating clarity. And even if her only wish was to get hold of that young ardent fool and yell to her until she burst, she could not help feeling somewhat guilty for it. She had been condemned to a guilty silence, and now, if this silence caused a person to be harmed for her sake…

Foolish, foolish girl. When she returns…

Megumi started playing with the fabric of her yukata, her sober substitute for pacing in circles across the room since years ago. She should have left already. They were at her heels. They always got what they wanted…

Almost always, a voice corrected her inside her mind. She needed to have hope. He had showed to her that the tyranny could be overcome, hadn't he?

"Oh, yes, but where is he now?" she grumbled to herself, shaking her head. Alone, she could only rely on herself, and there was only so much she could do. In fact, she hadn't even been able to prevent that girl from exposing herself to the greatest dangers…

As the woman was lost into those disheartened musings, a noise was heard coming from outside. Her heart started to beat quickly, and she tightened her hold on her dagger. Who…?

The noises drew closer, and Megumi tiptoed now towards the side of the closed shoji. Thery were the footsteps of more than one person coming towards where she was, and Kaoru-san, she knew it very well, had got into her own messes alone. But, if they thought that they could catch unawares, they were going to have a surprise. They wouldn't catch Takani Megumi unawares again, never ever.

One of them has stopped, she noticed after a while. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead, soon followed by another, but she did not leave her position or even dared to breathe. Maybe they could sense ki?

Do not even think that!

One of the intruders laid a hand on the shoji outside, and the doctor watched, almost in fascination, how it was slowly slid open. That was the moment of pure action, without any doubts or thoughts. She wasn't afraid of death, but if there was something that she knew for sure, it was that they weren't leaving with her.

Now!

The woman raised her weapon, and her hands were immediately caught in a vice-like grip. Dismayed, she tried to struggle, but she soon found it was to no avail. The man pried the dagger away from her fingers, and it fell to the floor at their feet with a loud clatter.

"Who…?"

"What a surprise!" an unmistakeably familiar voice exclaimed next to her ear. "This unworthy one did not imagine he would meet you here at all… Megumi-dono."

"What?" Kaoru's voice stormed through the dojo. "You know each other?"

The corners of Megumi's mouth twitched. She rolled the bandage some more times around the girl's arm, and then made a strong knot that made Kaoru hiss mildly.

"Don't change the topic! What did you do patrolling the streets at night with a sword? And alone! How could you ever think of doing such a stupidity?"

The girl sent an uncertain glance towards the place where the red-haired man was standing. He seemed to be immersed in a detailed exploration of the dojo plaques, to all effects blissfully ignorant of the storm that was raging around him.

"I…" she started. Little by little, she seemed to regain her confidence. "It's not a stupidity, Megumi-san. I went to find the hitokiri Battousai and stop him… to protect my father's school and the rest of things that were threatened by him."

"What?" Confused, the doctor threw a furtive look in the newcomer's direction, only to check that the man hadn't even budged. Did she know…?

What was really going on?

"And... have you stopped him?" she asked, trying to keep a cool tone that hid the fact that she was gradually getting lost. But Kaoru's cheeks reddened in shame, and she clenched her fist.

"No, I haven't," she confessed. "I fought him, but he cut my sword. It was this wandering swordsman who rescued me, in fact."

Megumi started to collect back all her medical items, regaining her calm as she felt things to be falling in their place once more. Of course, it made sense. He wouldn't have allowed that idiot to fall at the hands of an impostor, not while he was alive and breathing somewhere.

"Oh, really?" she asked in sarcasm. "And now you will say that tomorrow he won't be so lucky again, and that this time your wooden sword is going to break through his katana, right?"

The girl got up, repressing a grimace of pain.

"Don't be so mean to me!" she hissed. "I'm doing my duty, which is protecting my father's reputation. I don't care what you say! He created this sword school to fulfil the dream of swords protecting people instead of killing. He believed in this! And now that he was forced to die against his principles as a soldier in the Seinan war, I won't desert him!"

Megumi breathed deeply, willing herself to keep calm. Kaoru's words sounded so suddenly familiar to her ears that she was glad that the red-haired man wasn't looking at her in the face… and this, unlike what would have been only usual, did not bring the slightest sympathy for the girl to her mind.

"Duty? To rush for a sure death is your duty at present? You can't strive to die because you're unable to find a solution for your problems!"

"Kaoru-dono." Both women closed their mouths, and turned towards the man who had given his first signal of life since they had got inside the dojo to tend to the girl's wounds. He was still watching the names written on the wall, but while he spoke he turned around and walked a few steps towards them. "You should stop those night patrols, that you should."

"I can't get you two!" Kaoru was gradually becoming very flustered. "Do you think I do it for pleasure?"

The wandering swordsman intensified his smile.

"You say that your father's sword school protects life. Wouldn't all those ideals be nothing more than a joke if you let yourself be killed for them?"

For a moment, Kaoru looked as if she had received a deep shock, and closed her mouth as she had opened it. Before she even realised what she was doing, Megumi found herself nodding.

"I'm sure that your honoured father would not have wanted his only daughter to die to protect any sword school, that I am," the man continued after a brief pause, heading towards the open door. "Excuse me."

Little by little, Kaoru started to regain her capacity of speech.

"You're just a vagabond. You… cannot understand!" she said.

Megumi felt the blood inside her positively boiling at this.

"Stop being so selfish!" she shouted. The girl, who was already gathering herself to leave after the wanderer, turned a surprised face towards her. "He understands far better than you, and I do, too!" With careful and studied movements, she sat down again and forced herself to regain her calm, a bit ashamed at her outburst. She never… "You….you're not the only person in this world who has problems. I have endured enough as to tell you this: to sacrifice oneself uselessly for your family's honour is cowardice, and it's not what they would have wanted for you. You're supposed to do something for your father as a living person! Who will teach the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu to anyone if you lose your life? Who will remember that it ever existed?"

For some instants that looked like ages, no one lifted their faces from the floor. Kaoru was the one who did it first, minutes later, and gave Megumi a serious glance in which the doctor thought she was able to find a spark of… recognition?

"Something tells me that you know what you're speaking about," she concluded in a strangely flat whisper. "And he… I'm sorry. I… I did not know what came over me." She got up, and was about to help the older woman to do the same when she staggered, and was forced to withdraw her hand and lean on the wall. "Ouch… I'm feeling dizzy. Please, do me a favour and entertain him. I want to apologise to him tomorrow."

"Maybe he has left already," the doctor sighed, curving her mouth in a characteristic gesture. Kaoru stopped in mid way again, and frowned.

"How did you two…?"A second later, however, she seemed to think better about it, and shook her head. "Never mind. Forgive my nosiness."

Megumi walked towards the shoji, and leaned on it as she saw the girl's figure disappearing in the night. A tired expression started to take over her features, but she shrugged it away, and lifted her medical bag from the floor.

"Thanks for that," she muttered, before stepping out herself.

The night was in an eerie state of quiet when Megumi wrapped herself in her shawl to venture her first steps into its darkness. Everything was calm and silent, as there were no noises coming from the streets, and the gentle light of the moon filtered some rays through the mass of clouds to show her that the yard was empty as well, except for a black cat that was probably searching for Tomoe.

The woman stopped in her tracks, disheartened. Her heart had unconsciously started building more and more hopes since she had seen him standing there, and now there was no turning back; she felt as if she would not be able to bear his disappearance. He was the only one who could help her, maybe the only one whom she trusted to an ample extent in this world.

"Are you. are you here?" she hesitated, feeling a bit stupid at the question. A vagabond never knows where he's going or for how long…

Nonsense. Why would he leave so early?

"Do you… want some tea?"

"No, thanks," a voice answered from the middle of the shadows. Megumi could not suppress a startle, and cursed softly to herself even in the middle of her relief. Just like him…

The cat who had been scratching its ear conscientiously for a while now turned its back to her and started walking towards the direction of the voice. The woman followed it almost involuntarily, and found the red-haired man propped against the wooden wall that separated them from the street.

"Oh… you're here," she smiled, taking place at his side. He was watching the cat in apparent fascination, though when he felt her presence he snapped out of his reverie for long enough as to greet her with a bow.

"Is that cat yours?" he asked at last. Megumi shook her head with a smile.

"No. Together with many others, it comes and goes frequently around this place, because a woman who lives here is very friendly with them," she explained. Lifting her eyes to the sky, she suppressed a sigh. "She gives them her own food sometimes."

"Really?" The animal's yellow eyes seemed now to be locked into Kenshin's, glowing in the dark as if withstanding a confrontation. "That's curious."

"Do you like cats?"

The red haired man stayed in silence for such a long time that Megumi almost let go of waiting for an answer. Finally, he shrugged his shoulders in a somewhat dismissive gesture.

"Sometimes." His mouth curved into his usual smile that shielded so well the expression of his eyes. "Sometimes I do."

In the weak light of the moon rays, the doctor thought in that moment, his face looked like nothing short from the epitome of innocence. It had always fascinated her, how he could hide so many enigmas within a single expression. His body looked young, so young that it could fool anybody into believing that he wasn't more then fifteen years old, but his violet eyes were burdened by the weight of ages in which they had seen too much to even stay wholly sane. His smile was as warm and contagious as it was empty, and in his pretended foolishness and exaggerated humbleness the woman could almost envision the scope of so many years in constant struggles with himself and a destructive ego. He was constantly playing around with the people who surrounded him, and did it so well that almost no one got to realise how he hid behind those false superposed personalities and states of mind with which he made them believe and see what he wanted in every situation. But, what was really behind those cunningly woven threads of contradictions? He never stayed around someone long enough as to give away this secret, no more than that of the never healing wound in his left cheek.

And, speaking of wounds…

"Do you want me to put something on your wound?" she asked. The wanderer turned his head towards her, and the cat, as if driven by a sudden impulse, stood up and fled into the night.

"Thank you very much, Megumi-dono," he smiled. "It's useless. And it has ceased bleeding already, that it has."

For now, the doctor finished for him in silence. Suddenly, as they were there, her world seemed to get into motion, and she remembered for the first time that there was something urgent that she needed to tell him.

"I… have something to ask you," she started. "That's why I came here… and it's very important for me."

He lifted his eyebrow.

"About Kaoru-dono's problems?"

"Yes," she nodded, not surprised at his intuition. "It was a fleeting chance that we met each other here, but now I think it must be something related to fate and providence." She shook her head, and let her hair fly loose with a characteristic false smile. Maybe they weren't that different, after all… "I'm leaving tomorrow."

"Are you?" A slight frown.

"Yes," she nodded quickly, before she even had the opportunity of starting to feel ashamed. "And I would wish that you protected that little girl until those people stopped harassing her. As she said, they have already robbed her of all her students, and I wouldn't stay at ease unless I knew she is with you."

For a moment, the woman was so sure that he was going to ask her the dreaded question. Fortunately enough, all he did was to smile once more and nod in reassurance.

"I was already planning to solve this problem, that I was," he said. "I can't allow that man to continue spreading terror in my name."

"But…" About to raise an objection, Megumi realised the scope of the implications of her words, and closed her mouth again. Immediately after, however, her mind registered the disheartening truth that there was probably no other way. To make him get things right, something he sorely needed after making such an offer, she was forced to be more sincere than what she had been in years.

What had she done with her life?

"Is something the matter, Megumi-dono?" he asked in concern. Maybe he already knew, she tried to think to encourage herself. Maybe he was waiting for her to say it by herself…

"I…" She swallowed a long gulp, and changed her expression again into that standard smirk that never failed to give her such warm confidence. "I think I am the cause of what's happening to Kaoru-san."

No sign of surprise or astonishment greeted her glance.

"Yes?"

"I'm not sure, but… I think they have returned once more,," she continued after a dark pause. "The other day, we received a written threat, and I think that the person who did it was deliberately trying to make me recognise the handwriting."

"Blackmail. And that's why you are leaving?" he asked, after a couple of seconds which he needed to process the information. Megumi was glad now of the relative darkness that could hide and shield the expressions that were crossing her face.

"Yes," she nodded at last. It was becoming really hard to resist the urge of searching for sympathy, even begging abjectly for some morsels of understanding from him. "If I don't leave, they won't cease making her life a hell."

"Even if it might be a trap, to leave you without anyone who could know about your disappearance?"

The woman's body straightened, then fell again into her normal position.

"You know I won't allow myself to fall into their hands anymore," she said. "But I can't rely on innocent people who aren't strong enough as to face the consequences. I have some honour left at this point… or so I prefer to think."

"Do you know the real reason why Kaoru-dono risked her life those nights, trying to face the murderer?"

"The…?" Megumi lifted her face, speechless at the sudden turn of the conversation. What the…?

"She… cherished her father very much," she finally offered, after putting her ideas in order for an instant. "Even though he has died, she tries to do whatever she can for him still. That's what I think, at least."

"This unworthy one thought so at first, that I did." The red haired wanderer smiled. "But then, it struck me as if she suddenly… reminded me of someone else, and what you have said now has given me the last clue I needed. It's not so much the technique, the school and her father's memory, as the fact that she feels horror of being alone again."

Megumi stayed motionless for a moment, thunderstruck.

"That murderer was robbing her once more of what was most important in her life, and that's why she did not hesitate to face him," he continued, taking the cue. "Her students had left her, and now you were going to do the same. She isn't a seer or a person with privileged knowledge, and she can't know the real truth behind everything. All she knew was that you were leaving her in the face of danger."

Sudden images… vivid remembrances of the girl turning her back to her when she had told her about her departure flooded Megumi's mind as waves crashing in the sea.

You don't have to explain. Really. I…understand.

"If she has to think ill of me," she muttered, biting her lip, "so be it. It's not as if she would be the first, and she still has a companion. Besides… she is better off alone than dead, you know."

"She reminds me of you, Megumi-dono."

Silence fell over the courtyard for an endless succession of seconds.

"What?"

"When I met you, you were desperate," the redhaired man explained, his eyes fixed on some distant point behind the shadows. "You were suffering, you felt guilty for what you were forced to do, but above all, you felt lonely. You had lost the hope of seeing your family again, but you couldn't bear the thought of living alone for the rest of your life. That's why you tried to kill yourself." The woman opened her mouth as if to protest, but he asked her to be silent with a polite gesture. "I saw hope in your eyes when I left you, that I did. But now it's gone again, or so it seems to me."

Megumi put her hand over her forehead, trying to avoid being swept away by the force of the truth behind those words. She felt as if she had been exposed, laid open in front of the world, and this brought the unpleasant effect that her walls were crumbling again, her self-contention broken by the knowledge of its own uselessness. It would be so tempting to give way now, forget herself…

But no, what was she thinking? She couldn't let herself be swept away. She couldn't…

"There are many people in this world forced to live alone, isn't it? No one asks us what we do prefer," she replied in a cold, defensive tone. The wanderer did not even blink, only intensified his smile almost imperceptibly until she lowered her voice to a fleeting whisper. "Probably because we don't deserve it."

"You do deserve happiness, Megumi-dono, that you do," he answered. Slyly, of course, he had avoided talking about himself, but that was only to be expected. "You are trying your utmost to do things right."

"And what would you have me do? Is there any other way?" she exclaimed. Her previous defensiveness had vanished now as well, leaving her alone with a true, disquieting vulnerability.

And a ray of hope…

"Stay here, Megumi-dono." The red haired man got up, and helped her to do the same. "I promise you I will take care of this."

For a moment, through the blur of the tears that she was fighting back, the doctor thought she was able to see that the bleeding of his wound had stopped again. Slowly, she gathered herself, as she felt a true smile starting to form on her lips for the first time.

In years.

"Thank you," she whispered. "Once more… thank you."

Himura Tomoe

The wind was blowing harder and harder, causing the snowflakes to collide with the woman's shaking legs and her wet kimono as she slowly came closer. The yells were filling her ears now, with such an intensity that couldn't be smothered anymore, as much as she covered her ears.

She shouldn't…

What did Kiyosato mean to you?

Tomoe…

She couldn't stand it. She had tried to, but she couldn't stand still like a samurai woman and accept Fate. The man she loved was gravely wounded, deaf and blind, and he was stil struggling to get to his feet once more and defeat his opponent. And he… he…

He was in this situation because of her.

Tomoe shivered at the cold, imperceptibly trying to curl around herself to protect her body from the rush of the wind. Soon, that would be nothing in comparison with the searing pain that would tear her in two, taking her away from that wretched life that had meant nothing but the ruin and dishonour of many. She was ready to die, if only that could take her away from watching him suffer so much!

Tatsumi-san got up, and took her dagger in his right hand while he waited for his opponent to rise. Among the rain of snowflakes, Tomoe could get a glimpse of his lips curving in an ominous smirk of triumph. As if drawn by an invisible force, her eyes turned instantly to her husband's pitiful figure, and they widened in pity and horror at his situation.

Poor, blind, bleeding child…

…lost child…

The woman's mouth opened, as a broken, anguished yell broke free from her throat and got lost among the deafening noise of the wind. She had tried. She had tried so hard, but she wasn't able to imagine a life without him, without his hopes, without his dream of a peaceful future. She could not erase from her mind the remembrances of his gentleness.

There was no forgiveness for what she had done.

In an impulsive rush, her legs got tangled into a mad run towards the battlefield, at the same time as the two warriors started their charge against each other. Her eyes were fixed on the gleam of the dagger, and, with a last sharp and agonic intake of breath, she jumped with all her forces to get it with her hands. A searing pain tore through her shoulder, and she wasn't able to suppress a strangled cry as she hurled her own body towards the opposite side, holding the ninja's right arm in a vice-like grip.

"Tomoe!!!!"

At her side, lying on the frozen ground, the old man's eyes were wide open with the horrible rictus of death.

The woman woke up with her forehead covered with sweat, her breath coming out in heavy gasps. Those dreams were smothering her mind, again. She couldn't stop herself from obsessing over and over with those things that had happened so long ago, no matter what she did to forget them.

Maybe that was her punishment…

Tomoe got up in a brusque motion, and slid open the shoji of her room. While she tiptoed through the dark house, she found herself touching the wound of her shoulder more than once, as if she felt it bleeding again. She was lucky that she could not yell, because at nights, when she couldn't control the sounds coming from her mouth, she would have roused the whole house and frightened its inhabitants with her cries. How she could have kept so much pain to herself at nights throughout the years without breaking was sometimes a mystery even to her.

Water. Water does me good, she thought, in an effort to compose herself. In complete silence, she entered the kitchen, and discovered to her surprise that the shoji that led to the porch of the house was wide open. There was light outside, and she thought she could hear voices.

So late? she wondered, for a moment feeling something remotely connected to what in a former life she had called curiosity. Soon enough, however, the feeling was over, and she shrugged her shoulders in sad dismissal. It had nothing to do with her. Nothing in the world had anything to do with her. She had to fetch the water and turn back to bed.

Still, after she had managed to fill the cup with the liquid, she heard the tone of the voices increasing, and began to feel the shadows of a presentiment inside herself. It was irrational, an obsession… it had happened to her too many times before now to give it any credit. Sometimes, he was just everywhere, she remembered with a sad smile.

Repressing a regretful sigh, now that there was no one to hear it or wonder at its meaning, Tomoe leaned against the shoji and peered outside. The night was calm and beautiful, and she felt an indescribable relief when a slight breeze cooled her forehead. The two people who were talking were starting to approach in search for the lights of the house, and little by little she could clearly recognise….

The cup fell to the floor, crashing with a sickeningly loud sound as the terrified woman fled into the shadows.

Just another nightmare…

(to be continued)