The Best of Intentions: Chapter 6
Aoshi could have sworn that he had only closed his eyes for a moment, but apparently he was wrong. Someone was shaking him gently. Annoyed, but not giving any sign of this, he opened his eyes to find a small boy of approximately ten years of age grinning down at him.
"Wake up sir, dinner is ready," the boy ran his fingers through his copper colored hair. He burst out into giggles and slapped his hand upon his knee. Aoshi merely quirked a brow at the odd behavior. "The pretty lady is a terrible cook."
Anxiety quickened Aoshi's heart rate. He should never have suggested that Kaoru offer to help the inn keeper. "Is dinner so bad?" He asked, keeping his voice cool, calm, and collected.
The boy waved his hand in dismissal. "No, no, grandma set her straight. Dinner will be good as normal." He looked around the room in wonder, dark eyes wide. "Did you see the ghost yet?" He asked in a whisper.
"Excuse me?" Aoshi asked, sure that he must have misheard the youth.
The boy turned to face him and blinked in astonishment. "Didn't grand-mommy tell you two about the ghost?"
"No she did not. Perhaps you could share the tale," Aoshi suggested. He was mildly curious. He didn't believe in ghosts, other than the memories that haunted his past.
The boy looked around the room nervously once more before taking hold of Aoshi's elbow and urging him out into the hallway. He closed the door behind them and took a deep breath. "Well, you see, before my grandparents moved here there was a newly wed couple that lived in this house. The husband went mad and murdered his new bride before he killed himself."
"I am guessing that it happened in this room?" Aoshi inquired.
"Of course not!" The boy exclaimed. He looked at Aoshi as if he was a particularly dim-witted child. "But this is the room that the couple haunts. The husband had not intended to kill his wife, it was an accident. When he recovered his sanity and realized what he had done, he took his own life."
Aoshi remained silent, in case the child had more to add. When it became apparent that was the end of the story he broke the silence. "Dinner is ready you said?"
"Oh yes sir, by the way, my name is Roku." The boy's previously somber expression morphed into a cheerful façade.
"Aoshi!" Kaoru greeted from the door of the dining room where she had been waiting for him. She had a big smile plastered on her face as she ushered him towards the meal. An older gentleman was sitting at the head of the table, presumably the master of the house. The old woman sat beside him and the boy took the vacant seat to her left.
Aoshi nodded his head in greeting to the woman, who was obviously proud of something. He looked past her towards the items of food on the table. Nothing appeared to resemble her usual disaster. He was optimistic that perhaps she had done a good job helping with dinner.
He took the seat on the other side of the older man with Kaoru sitting on his right. Kaoru used the serving spoon to place a large portion of a certain soup onto Aoshi's plate. Her sapphire orbs were intent on his reaction, so he surmised that the soup must have been her responsibility.
Determined not to be too harsh, but to neither be dishonest, Aoshi braced himself for the taste that would probably give him indigestion and be much more alarming than a possible ghost in his bed room. Correction, his and Kaoru's bedroom.
"You're smiling!" Kaoru exclaimed as she clasped her hands together in glee. She beamed at him. "You really like it don't you?"
Truth be told, Aoshi found the soup to be rather bland, but it wasn't bad or anything. He didn't realize he was smiling. No need to be too honest. "I'm proud of you Kaoru," Aoshi answered, being vague about his answer.
Happy with the answer, Kaoru spooned some more soup onto Aoshi's plate. Aoshi over heard the older couple talking something about young love and how a husband will flatter his wife.
Aoshi looked across the table at the older woman. "Your grandson was telling a little about the history of the room we're staying in," he began.
The old woman laughed softly. "Our Roku has an over active imagination."
Her husband turned to look at Aoshi with a serious expression on his features. "There is nothing harmful in that room," he assured him. Aoshi didn't question further and ignored the curious look Kaoru gave him.
Dinner passed peacefully. None of the food would be keeping the residents of the house up late at night with unfavorable side-effects. Aoshi's heart felt lighter than ever as he watched Kaoru from the corner of his eye. She seemed cheerful and it was a pleasant exchange from her melancholy of late.
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Kaoru tossed and turned on her bedding. She simply couldn't sleep. It was hard to tell if she couldn't sleep because Aoshi was only about five feet away from her, or if it was for some other reason.
"Problems?" Aoshi asked, the restless woman across the room causing him to not be able to fall asleep. His insomnia had nothing to do with the creepy story Roku mentioned earlier. It had nothing to do with that creepy story at all.
"I just can't get comfortable," Kaoru admitted sitting up in bed. She squinted her eyes at a sharp orb of light that shot across the room and squealed, covering her mouth with her hands in shock. "What was that?" She whispered, fear evident in her voice.
Aoshi opened his eyes and turned to look at the frightened woman. "What did you see?" He asked calmly.
"Light, light just shot across the room." Kaoru's voice was gaining a frantic edge to it.
"Light shot across the room?" Aoshi repeated skeptically. He sat up and peered over at his roommate. Her gaze was fixed steadily on the other side of the room. He blinked twice. There remained a light hovering in the air a few feet from the floor.
The light came charging at Kaoru, but she was quick.
The next thing Aoshi noticed was his bed suddenly got a lot more crowded. Kaoru jumped beside him on his futon and buried herself under his blankets. Aoshi watched as the light went back to the far corner of the room.
"What is that?" Kaoru whispered urgently. Her hands fisted at the waistband of Aoshi's sleeping pants. He wore no shirt to sleep in because of the summer heat. Her forehead was pressed against his bare chest. Her quick breaths against his skin caused him to involuntarily lock his arms around her small frame. He kept his eyes upon the ball of light that seemed stationary.
"I don't think you want to know," Aoshi told her calmly. Roku's tale about the ghosts suddenly was ringing bells. "I don't think it will hurt us," Aoshi explained gently. He wasn't sure if he was trying to convince her or himself.
"How do you know that?" Kaoru asked, she peeked past the blankets and sought Aoshi's face. She was not going to look in the corner. She didn't want to see that strange light.
Aoshi pulled the covers over his head and settled under the heavy material. He pulled Kaoru closer to him and tightened his arms around her. "I would prefer to believe that," he answered simply.
"Aoshi, it's a ghost isn't it?" Kaoru's voice wavered with emotion and fear.
"Yes, I believe it is. But I don't think it will harm us either," Aoshi answered. He could face a psychopath killer heads on. A supernatural specter was another matter entirely. It may have been a childish belief that by hiding under the covers he and Kaoru would be safe, but he was certain that if the ghost was harmful the older couple whom they were staying with would not have housed them in the room.
"Don't you think we should leave?" Kaoru asked, her grip tightened on Aoshi's waistband and it was all he could do not to groan aloud at her actions. Normally the ninja wouldn't complain about a woman wearing a silk gown, but right now he wished that Kaoru had chosen something less clingy. His nerves were strained enough dealing with sharing the room with a ghost, but sharing his small futon with this woman was almost too much.
"We'll be perfectly fine," Aoshi assured her. He began counting to ten in all the various languages that he had learned over the years. He needed to meditate. He needed to remain calm.
"Can I sleep with you?" Kaoru asked in a small voice. Aoshi turned on to his side so that Kaoru's back faced the wall and he could shield her from the ghost if for some reason it came in their direction. However, what was the stop a ghost from coming through a wall?
"Just go to sleep, we'll leave at first light. I honestly don't think the ghost means us any harm. Perhaps they are just curious." Aoshi breathed a sigh of relief now that Kaoru wasn't pressed so intimate against his frame.
"Ghosts? As in plural?" Kaoru asked frantic. Her hands came to rest on Aoshi's chest as her face pressed against his neck.
Aoshi tucked her head under his chin. "Just go to sleep," he ordered. He was on his tenth language by now and starting over in his counting. The ghost across the room was the least of his worries. His friend's girl sleeping in his arms in the little bed as he was traveling across the country, alone, with her was his principle concern.
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Yahiko proof read over the letter that he had finished writing. He supposed it was legible. It wasn't like Misao should complain. She couldn't write much better so she should be able to read what it said, or get the general idea.
"Are you ready to send it out?" Yutaro asked from the doorway. He was standing alongside a mail carrier who's horse was waiting for the first stretch of the journey the letter would take across Europe and Asia before crossing the sea to Japan.
"Yeah, I guess so," Yahiko answered as he folded up the letter and placed in the envelop Yutaro had given him. He then placed the wax seal over the candle fire to melt the red wax before placing it over the envelope to close it securely.
Yutaro took the letter and handed it to the carrier along with several coins for payment of the speedy delivery. "I'm sure Misao will agree to us visiting in Kyoto."
"I just miss Kaoru and I don't want her to be alone at this time of year. I know how hard it can be for her," Yahiko admitted. Kaoru was family to him and he hated seeing her distressed and depressed.
Besides if the Raccoon had only Misao and Aoshi to choose from for company then she would desperately want his presence. He might just preserve her sanity!
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"Wake up," Aoshi gently shook Kaoru in his arms. Somehow her fingers had traveled up and had threaded themselves in his dark locks that normally fell across his forehead. He wasn't sure how, but he managed to fall asleep even with a pair of ghosts watching over him.
"Five more minutes," Kaoru mumbled as she burrowed her face against his neck again.
"No Kaoru, wake up, its day break. Don't you remember the ghosts?" Aoshi's prompting reminder got the effect he desired. Kaoru's eyes snapped open and locked with his under covers that were no longer dark with the light filtering inside.
"Are they gone?" Kaoru asked worried. Aoshi didn't bother answering with words as he threw off the covers to bath them both in sunlight. Kaoru closed her eyes against the harsh assault of light.
Then it hit her.
She noticed how she was laying across Aoshi, who wasn't wearing much and she also wasn't wearing very much. A fiery blush stained her skin from her scalp to her toes.
Aoshi laughed softly, eyes fixed upon her chest. "I didn't realize a woman could blush there," he commented in a tease.
Mortified, Kaoru forgot all about the ghosts and flew across the room to throw on her robe and gather her clothes. She rushed out into the hallway, heading for another room to change in.
Aoshi leaned back against his pillow and stared at the ceiling. The orb of light hovered near him. He glanced at it and grinned. "I guess I could thank you," he commented, trying to not be panicked.
The orb transformed into a shadowy figure of a young man in a fancy suit, another orb materialized beside him of a woman in a long billowy white dress. They seemed like Europeans to him, not Japanese.
The two ghostly figures reached for one another's hands and held them. They smiled down upon him. "Arigato," the man told him before they both disappeared into thin air. Aoshi got out of bed and dressed quickly.
He wanted to get on with their journey as soon as possible.
TBC
Happy Halloween!