Author's Note: Hi all… to be honest I've let down readers with the sucky sounding Chapter Two… here's an explanation: someone is about to enter the story on Megumi's side. 'Nuff said. And since Megumi has made her appearance, time to go on to the world's most loved rooster!

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Here Without You

Chapter Three: Shanghai Noon

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Hui finished bandaging up Sanosuke's hand, noting with a frown the cuts and bruises that were inflicted on the young man's hands. An individual at his age should have calluses on his palms to show the hard work he put in, not injuries that suggested a drunken fight or two.

But Sanouske wasn't like any one of those loud-mouth fellows who never failed to drop by to harass her for a loan or for a buffet on the house.

"Jeez, thanks, Hui." Sanosuke mumbled, getting up from his seat. "I owe you big time for this."

"Sanosuke, you've got to stop getting yourself beat up like that!" Hui called after him, her large brown eyes filled with concern. The tall man strode out of the eating house as if he hadn't heard her, or rather, pretended not to have heard her.

"Hey, Sanosuke!" She called again, louder this time. Hui caught up with him and slapped him on the shoulder rather roughly.

"Ow!" He winced. "How do you expect me to get better if you keep on hitting me like that?"

"Why you-" Hui narrowed her eyes in a (failed) attempt to look sinister and ran after him. A laugh escaped her as she ducked past disapproving customers. "Get back here!"

I'm going to die from over-exertion of my legs every day. Sanosuke groaned inwardly. Not that he totally minded, though. Hui was the only one who ever looked in his direction, let alone bother to speak a syllable to him.

Just then, a rather large man with a round belly that would have made Iwanbo run for his money appeared at the door, hence abruptly ending their merry little chase. This time, it was Hui's turn to groan inwardly with displeasure.

Zhou Chu Wei was one whom you adore on the outside and thoroughly depise on the inside.

Confused?

The reasons for these mixed feelings are as such; it would be easy to understand once you met him: Zhou was the richest man in all of Shanghai, with enough business associates and connections to create a giant spider web with him right in the middle of it all. As a result, many big-shot wannabes flocked to him like bees to honey in the hopes of getting stuck to his web.

But on the inside, all the smiles and bows became fake. Zhou was a tyrant, a money-minded miser. He never once spared a thought for the needy and visited his tenants only to collect their rent or to throw them out if they had no money to pay up.

Zhou paused to give Sanosuke a mild look of contempt, as was his habit with "strange foreign men who could pay for a ship ticket to travel abroad but could not afford his dirt-cheap rent" before stepping into Hui's, or as he liked to say, "his" shop. Almost instantly, every customer, especially those who still owed him rent, froze and an air of uneasy tension hung in the usually bustling eating house.

"Xiao Hui," he drawled, his oily voice permeating every dusty corner of the place. "What time is it now?"

Hui winced. She was so wrapped up in tending to Sanosuke's hand that she had forgotten about Zhou coming to collect her rent.

Zhou had a habit of chasing after his tenants, especially Hui, for the money they owed him at precisely twelve noon. Why at that time, they would never know. Perhaps it was another one of those strange obsessions of his. Or maybe he simply liked the way he looked with the light of the noon sun spilling onto either side of him.

That is, if one could ever trace out his sides without the use of a map and a compass.

"I'm sorry, Mr Zhou!" Hui began apologizing profusely. "It must have slipped my mind; I was just so busy. I promise I will have it ready by tomorrow."

"Hmmm? Busy with what?" He cocked one thin eyebrow suggestively in Sanosuke's direction. The former Zanza glared at him. How dare he make such a suggestion about Hui!

"I'm very sorry…" said Hui again. Zhou waved a fat hand dismissively in her direction. "My, my, you seem to be taking after your parents, Xiao Hui." He remarked coolly, knowing full well that by now, everyone was listening with rapt attention. "Your father took up quite a lot of space, and now you…"

Sanosuke clenched his fists angrily. You're the one taking up more space than you should, you big load of lard!

Hui lowered her head in shame. She hated it whenever her landlord brought up the issue of her parents who had tried to evade paying rent when they ran out of money.

The landlord sighed. "But since you're such a pretty, innocent little girl, I can't simply turn you out into the streets. It's so unsafe for someone like you to be outdoors at night. Tell you what: I'll give you another two weeks. Two weeks from now, and I'll be back at noon sharp." He held up two stubby fingers in front of him and walked out, shoving past Sanosuke.

Hui heaved a sigh of relief. At least he was gone.

For now.

What would she do two weeks from now?

She hated noon because of Zhou Chu Wei. And what he did to "pretty, innocent little girls" like her.

The young girl felt a warm hand on her shoulder. She glanced up and looked right into Sanosuke's eyes. The tall man grinned at her. "Daijoubu," he told her. "It'll be all right."

…

As the day faded into evening, which in turn faded into night, the sun began its slow, gradual descent down the sky. Finally, the orange globe melted into the sea of azure blue, setting both water and sky on fire as its glow spread throughout.

It was a beautiful sight to behold.

Two people sat together on a grassy hill, admiring this scene as was their daily ritual every since they first met each other. Even though she knew that many would disapprove of their doing so, Hui still stubbornly carried out the practice. With both her parents dead and buried, and no relatives that she knew of, what "family name" did she have that she could tarnish with her actions? She has no use for the family pride nonsense that most people living in Shanghai treated like a fragile vase that could shatter any time.

She liked- no, enjoyed- the time she spent with Sanosuke. He was the only who understood all her troubles.

Sanosuke, on the other hand, appreciated Hui for being able to help him without so much as a disgusted look with an equally disgusted comment about "foreign strangers".

He still remembered clearly how they first met years ago when he first stepped foot in Shanghai.

…

"I'm so hungry," Sanosuke grumbled to himself as his stomach growled for what seemed like the tenth time that day. How many days has it been since I last ate?

He allowed his mind to travel back to the unfinished bowl of noodles that he had consumed when no one was looking a few days back. The thin strands of noodles tasted cold as they slid down his throat.

The former Zanza made a face. He certainly did not want to think about the last thing he had eaten it was enough to make him feel like throwing up.

Just then, he noticed a rather attractive-looking young girl who had been cornered by a group of large bullies. They seemed to be demanding something from her, gesturing to her purse. Their victim kept shaking her head as if refusing.

"Come on Hui," one of them was saying. "Surely you need a fuller purse than that? Why don't we help you achieve that?

"No, no!" the girl called "Hui" protested, shaking her head. "I told you I don't want to!"

"What if we want to?"

"Then that's too bad. She doesn't want to and that's the end of the story." Sanosuke heard himself saying.

The large men turned toward him with a glare. "What's that?"

"Please, don't." begged Hui. She looked clearly frightened."

"I say we take him on." Suggested one of them. "That scrawny chicken won't even last a micro-second…"

"Heh," Sanosuke interrupted him, cracking his knuckles.

…..

……

…

Soon, all of them lay slumped on the ground.

"I hate being called a scrawny chicken." Sanosuke muttered. "Are you all right there?" he asked the girl, Hui.

"Oh, I'm all right, thank you very much. How about you?"

Sanosuke looked up at her and grinned. An idea has just presented itself in his mind.

"Actually, if you wouldn't mind, I haven't eaten anything in days…" he began, hoping she wouldn't whack him with her purse and call him a beggar like so many others had.

A smile spread across Hui's face. "I can fix that. Come with me!" And with that, she tugged him along.

That was how they met.

…

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Author's Note: IT IS DONE! FINALLY, I FEEL A GRAT ESSENTIAL RUSH OF RELIEF! And no, I'm not talking about a trip to the loo. Heheheh.

Hui is a girl Sanosuke met in China… I think that fact's pretty clear to you all by now… some of you were asking whether Megumi and Hui are two separate characters or what.

As for the term "xiao"… it's actually an affectionate term used by adults to address children… the word means "little" in Chinese. So as you see, Zhou was actually being rather sarcastic when he called her "Xiao Hui"… he did not use it in an affectionate way at all.

Next chapter will most likely be focused on Sanosuke and Hui again… I will not say anymore. I will try… no I must update more often… as often as I can, when my studies allow me… I am taking a major exam that will influence the next step of my life's happiness… -stress!-

Until the Next Update

-grin5-

mC