Author's Note: MibuWolf apologizes for the lack of updates due to her heavy schedule. Anyway, "A Girl Named Sakura" is to be re-started because of the poor phasing of the story so far. So anyway… on with the show! (Not much for this chapter, save for some minor adjustments…)
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A Girl Named Sakura
Chapter Two: Homecoming
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"Sanosuke…":
Nani… Where the heck was he? This place didn't look like China at all!
I'm back in Tokyo! And just who was calling his name over and over again? His eyes searched through the crowd but he couldn't identify the speaker from so many faces.
"Baka rooster head, does this mean you have forgotten how to recognize me, not after all those nights when I whispered sweet nothings in your ear?" The voice was sad, disappointment heavy in its tone at his failure to recognize the speaker. The voice was soft, gentle, like the soothing lullaby he once had the chance to hear back in Tokyo, Japan. The voice belonged to a woman.
That voice, he realized, was Megumi's.
"Megumi!" Sanosuke called out when he saw her face, a captivating picture of beauty.
"Reach out for me, Sanosuke, it's been a long time, too long…" she told him softly. Obeying, Sanosuke's hand reached out to touch her, to stroke her ivory white cheek, to grasp her slender hand in his again, but to his utter shock, he found out that he couldn't do so! His fingers stopped short of reaching her, the desperate flick of his wrists a feeble attempt to get hold of the one woman he ever loved. Panicking, he looked back at her, "Megumi…What's going on? Why can't I reach you?"
She shook her head, sadness crossing her face. "You can't… you can't…" she kept repeating over and over again while shaking her head.
Frustrated, Sanosuke started to say something, but realized that the ground he was standing on was not the stone-grey concrete of the harbour, but on the ship's deck! It was then he realized that he was re-living the day he left Japan! "No…matte-MATTE!" He finally yelled out, desperate to get back to the harbour.
Though the distance between them was great, and Megumi's voice was but a whisper, he could still hear her words loud and clear as they echoed in his mind.
"Come back to me, Sanosuke. Come back to us."
Come back…
…
"Megumi!"
Sanosuke woke up with a start. It took a few minutes for the former Zanza to get his thoughts in order before he realized where he was and what had happened.
Rubbing his eyes, he grumbled to himself. "That's the fifth time this week… am I ever to get any rest or not?" (Actually, he didn't really need any rest due to the fact that he was forever lazing away, but anyway…)
In the midst of his grumbling, he recalled his dream. It was the same as usual, with that fox coming back to pester him again.
Except this time, she asked him to come back home.
Even when he was miles away from home, she was still putting him in a dilemma like this.
"Kuso…" he muttered, banging his bandaged fist against the wall a few times.
It wasn't as if he didn't want to come home; he was ashamed to. Every time he thought of what he put her through that night and the very next morning when he disappeared, he cursed himself for doing so.
It was much better if he stayed put and not return to cause any more trouble for them.
But now…
"Bleargh…" he said finally, falling back down, his eyebrows furrowed as if in great concentration. "Shall I go home, or shall I not go home? Maybe it's better if I just let them be?"
"On the other hand, I could give the others a surprise… after all they haven't seen their beloved "rooster head" for years now…"
"Or they might just jump me for taking off like that six years ago."
Argh, decisions, decisions.
…
Back in Tokyo, Megumi was clearing up after dinner. Sakura was playing in a corner by herself while Outa helped to take the dirty dishes into the kitchen.
"Megumi-san." Said Outa suddenly, as he was carrying the last plate into the kitchen to be washed clean.
"Yes Outa?" Megumi replied, looking up from where she was.
"I've got something to ask you…"
"Go ahead, Outa," she replied, turning back to the table which she was fervently wiping to get that annoying soy sauce stain off it.
"Have you ever thought of going back to Aizu where you came from originally?" he said.
A few minutes passed as the lady doctor stared intently at the young adolescent.
Darn it! He chided himself. I knew I shouldn't have asked her such a sensitive question. Now she's definitely going to give me those fox ears of hers and probably throw me out the window or something like that.
Finally, Megumi replied. "Why do you ask such a question at this moment?"
"Well…" Outa began hesitantly. "You've always spoken about your missing family members in Aizu, and since my brother's not around anymore, and the doctors there need your assistance, why are you-" he stopped short, thinking that he must have crossed some line.
The lady doctor smiled back at him, even though somewhere in her heart she felt a tinge of sadness that Sanosuke wasn't in Tokyo anymore. "Because I chose to remain here." She told him honestly. "There's still Ken-san and his family that I have to look after, and I can't say that that brat of a Yahiko will never get another injury owing to those fights and injuries he gets for the rest of his life. Besides, Dr Gensai needs my help here, and there's little Sakura to think about she could never bear to leave this place."
Outa nodded. "Sou desu ka." He said.
"How about you Outa?" she asked him now. "Why aren't you going back to stay with your sister Uki? She's probably so busy that she's written quite a few times asking when you intend to return home."
The young adolescent shook his head. "I don't intend to go back home so soon." He said. "Besides, she's already got a lot of help there and she's got a family of her own now, so why should I disturb her? I also want to live on my own… like my… brother."
Silence shrouded the room once more as the memory of Sagara Sanosuke re-surface.
Clenching his fist, the younger brother of Sanosuke vowed, "And I'm not moving an inch until that egghead of my brother comes home so I can give him a really good punch!"
I wish he'd come home too-no. The time is long past for such wishes. He'll never come back. And I don't ever need him.
Just then, Sakura jumped up excitedly and pointed out the window. "Mommy, Mommy!" she cried, "There's a little yellow bird perching on that branch there! Kawaii ne!"
The pair rushed to the window and spotted the yellow bird making its nest in the sakura tree. "It's beautiful," Outa agreed.
"Look, it's making its home here!" Sakura pointed out.
She turned to the two older members of her family. "Does this mean Birdie will be staying here?"
Megumi nodded. In response, Sakura shrieked with joy at this new addition to the family and the entire place was filled with cries of "Welcome home!"
…
They didn't need to move anywhere else. Here was as perfect a home as any place could be. The important thing was they had each other, and nothing else to get in their way.
Every day they could be sure that they could return home to a safe, warm place and sleep peacefully in a warm bed, taking comfort in the knowledge that they could wake up in the same place.
In the evening when the sun sets, all birds flock to the nests they built; to their homes, or to their chicks to feed them. And by the time the moon is in the sky, each nests houses the residents, all nestled up and awaiting the next day.
But some birds… they continue to fly even after the sunset… and they forget the nest they left behind…
Not even know about the girl named Sakura.
…
He was going back. Sanosuke decided that if he wanted his dreams to stop and his "beauty sleep" to come back, he would have to go back to Tokyo and see how they were doing.
And then-?
The former Zanza didn't really feel like thinking of "and then"s now. He was way too tired for such thought. This was probably due to his lack of sleep, credited to the constant dreams or rather "nightmares" that interrupted his sleep from time to time.
Sanosuke stood at the railing, watching the ship leave the shores of China where he had spent the past six years.
"Jan e," he bid farewell. He was going to miss the place.
Just as he had missed Japan, the Kenshin gumi, and of course his Kitsune.
…
In time, those birds that still circle the night sky in a somewhat aimless manner will eventually grow tired and want to return to their nest.
They will descend slowly to that nest, searching out the home that they built. They will return to find their "family members", who also have been looking out for that missing resident.
Every bird will eventually return home to its nest.
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Author's Note: like I said, not much done here, but there will be a LOT of changes for chapter three. Stay tuned!
Until the Next Update!
-grin5-
mC