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A/N: Revised and reposted.

Thanks to all who reviewed and appreciated this one. Special thanks to asga, your reviews were heartwarming. Bear with my grammar. Please review.

Chapter Seven

Abridged

"Kyoto," Megumi repeated faintly, her eyes wide with horror for a moment but she immediately masked her face and laughed. Whatever she had expected, it was not this. Something about Ryusei perhaps.

"I can't just leave Aizu." She was shaking her head however.

"It's an opportunity, Takani-sensei. I need…. I mean, the Aoiya needs a doctor. While Okina was still about making pranks among the staff, undeniably, his health is deteriorating with age. With the expansion, we will be serving more patrons and in-housing more staff, I wanted to ensure the well-being of these people by having a resident physician. Besides, there's this permanent position in the university that Okina's friend mentioned. They needed someone for the botany and herbalogy department. Okina had mentioned about you and they are interested with your qualifications."

Megumi said nothing, but her eyes, relentlessly without expression, held their focus on his face for a minute. Then her gaze fell to her cup and stared at the black liquid almost undecidedly.

"Shinomori-san, I can't believe you just wasted your time coming all the way here. There are a lot of excellent doctors in Kyoto who are even skilled more than I do. They are even skilled in Western medical practices."

Megumi stared at him as if he'd taken leave of his senses.

"I just don't trust anyone," he said openly. Unbelievable for someone like him, she thought. But as far as Aoshi knew, her skills were more than a match to those doctors she was referring. Her name was not unknown to the medical society, being the only known surviving blood of a long generation of doctors. She had proven her worth when she was invited to do a demonstration during a seminar with young aspiring female medical apprentices. She had proven herself competent and had established her name in the male-dominated profession.

"So, you trust me then. That's nice to know," she said sarcastically. "Unfortunately, Shinomori-san, I refuse to be convinced with flattery."

"Because you know exactly what would convince you. And you know that you needed this opportunity more than you admit it to yourself." His tone was flat but a bit caustic.

When she didn't say a word, he knew that she would still be adamant to see his point.

"You are not safe here. Your son is not safe here."

Megumi gulped. She had known this man for being very clever at getting what he wanted but she had never expected him to use emotional means. And she had a nasty feeling about where this conversation was getting into. It's getting into a very sensitive topic about Ryusei.

She stood up and turned towards the window. It was already dark outside. There was nothing but the velvety black blanket of nightfall. She couldn't make out anything from the view but still she stared blankly.

"Your offer is extremely generous and tempting," she said after a moment of tensed silence. "But I can't."

"What will it take for you to accept it?" he asked, devoid of emotion as it had ever been.

"My refusal had nothing to do with its terms." Her tone was deliberately decisive.

"And everything to do with me."

She didn't answer, unable to decide if it really was, aside from the fact that it was not really a question. It was a statement.

"If you don't understand why I can't, then there's probably nothing I can say to make you understand."

Aoshi, for some reason, thought that maybe she was still for something, perhaps someone to come back. It's been six years, yet, she had no luck finding any surviving relative which she came back for. He wondered for any other possible reasons for her enduring stay at a town that despises her. Then he bowed and turned for a leave.

"I need to be on my way."

"You can at least stay for dinner," she said softly. "I assure you, you won't be eating something of those Kaoru-san prepares," she added.

He gave a wry small smile.

"Next time," then he bowed and left quickly without saying another word.

He can't push her any further, for now. She had a strong will. He would certainly find another chance to convince her to change her mind. But he is not a very patient man. A long wait is a waste of time. The sooner he got this over, the better. He had spent his time long enough to be put down.

And though he knew the woman to be defiantly strong, he found himself unable to dismiss from his mind the strange inkling that she needed help. Or maybe protection. From what? From the scandal? He couldn't figure and he hated not being able to understand.

oooooOooooo

Megumi didn't understand all the emotions that were cutting up her peace that night. She felt a deep sense of unhappiness with her life that she hadn't openly acknowledged in years. Because, she thought, what would be the point of admitting it?

Ryusei had already taken his supper and been to bed. This was normally her favorite time of day, when the work was done and the whole house was silent and peaceful.

And Megumi could not quite decide why suddenly she herself was so… unpeaceful. So discontented with her situation, she thought again. Which was futile, of course.

She picked up her book, determined to find contentment from this simple mind activity, but somehow tonight… Disgusted with herself, she gave up, laying the book on the table.

She stood stretching out her back like a cat. Her eyes were drawn to the reflection of that movement in the huge mirror over the mantel. She brought those after attending a seminar in Tokyo and briefly visiting the Himuras with their new family member, a two month old Kenji then. She closed the distance between herself and the woman in the glass. Only then did she realized how long it had been since she had really studied her own reflection.

There was nothing reassuring about doing so now. If she found Aoshi changed by the long years that had intervened between them, the same might very well be said for her. Her face was thin, she acknowledged, touching her cheekbones with fingers of both hands. She looked jaded. Looking like years older of a twenty-nine year old woman. Now the weight of her responsibility was evident in her face.

And my hair, she thought in dismay, pulling the strands to her shoulder.

Dull, she thought, watching her lips compressed into a line. Dull and colorless, she pushed her hair back in a flip and pinched both cheeks giving them a series of sharp nips with fingers, designed to induce some rose into them.

So, if Aoshi had been here in Aizu long enough, it was most probable that someone in the village was cruel enough to relay to him the explanation for Ryusei's birth that they themselves had long ago decided on. She made no explanation, so the people speculated their own, branding her a disgraced, scandalous woman. She had endured and turned herself deaf against their scorn. And though they admired her courage at some point, it would not lift her from the cruel status of isolation they tossed her into.

But she preferred that story than the truth to reach his ear. She will be more than glad if Aoshi believed what he heard from the gossips.

The scandal, she thought bitterly, staring unseeingly into the mirror as the splotches of color along her cheeks slowly faded, returning her face to the same paleness she had despised.

A scandal that had not been her making, but one for which she could offer no defense. Not without breaking the vow she made on Izumi's deathbed. She was bounded by that oath forever.

"- She had an illicit affair with the hospital director so that she can take charge with the rich patients. That affair bore her that bastard. That man's wife had a weak heart. She died in heart attack when she found out about it.….."

At dawn, Megumi woke from a restless sleep, full of weary dreams. Ryusei's face covered with bruises and cuts, blood trickling out of his nose. And although she had wakened, the sense of despair those dreams had brought, haunted her.

She pushed her covers and walked barefooted across her room towards the adjacent room where Ryusei was sleeping. She had often made this silent journey to check on him.

She paused in front of the door and waited before opening it, cringing a little at the sound it made. She knew she might wake him but if he did, she could tell him good morning, she thought. The room was still dark but her vision gradually adjusted to the dimness as she approached the bed.

It was empty. Her realization of what might that meant was slow in coming, however. It seemed impossible that her boy should not be here. After all, there was nowhere else he could be.

Megumi's eyes scanned the room, searching every corner, wondering if the boy could be playing a game. Hide and seek, perhaps.

"Ryu-chan?" she called softly, holding her breathe, listening for a stifled giggle. Ryusei had never been able to remain silent when she came close to discovering his hiding place. He knew how sharp his mother could be. But there was nothing. No sound. The room was empty. It even felt empty. As cold and as lonely this house would be without the dear presence of Ryusei.

"Ryu-chan?" she called more loudly. "Answer me, Ryusei," she demanded, although her heart had already accepted what her mind denied. Ryusei wasn't here.

She ran her hand across the tangled sheets and found they were cold. Wherever Ryusei was, he had been gone long enough for his body heat to fade. So he had not hidden when he heard the creaking door.

She hurried out of the room, her heart beginning to pound, frantically looking on one side to another to locate the child.

She found him sitting at the engawa.

"Ryusei? Why are you here? You should be in bed." Sighing in relief, she sat next to him.

"Shinomori-san hadn't even stayed for dinner. I could have at least thank him and ask how to ride a horse," the child said disappointedly. "I thought he would stay just like he stayed at Himura-san's house but…"

"I'm sure you will see him again," she said, catching the quivering chin with her thumb and forefinger, smiling determinedly at the little boy.

"He would not like seeing a boy cry."

"Because he doesn't cry?" Ryusei asked, blinking back his own tears.

"No, I don't suppose he do," Megumi agreed. "At least not where anyone else could see."

"He's a brave man, he would never cry," Ryusei vowed with conviction.

"Oh, but he did, I knew he did."

And she wondered now if the assurance she made to her son would hold true.

Three days had passed since Aoshi's timely rescue of Ryusei. Megumi had been waiting for the child to come home. It's getting late and he had not returned yet. He had sneaked away from the house without her permission despite her stern prohibition. The old man Fujiyama had already volunteered himself to look for Ryusei.

She went outside and stood by the wooden gate waiting expectantly but seeing nothing in the shadows of the darkening afternoon. Worry was written all over her face, as she couldn't comprehend the sudden increase of her heart rate.

"He was late again." The voice that resonated from behind her was not asking. What was said is the obvious fact.

"Shinomori-san! How long have you been there?" She whirled to see him propped at the wooden pile of the fence.

"Not very long."

"Megumi-sensei! Megumi-sensei!"

The shouts broke Megumi from making another word as both looked up in response to the cry to see Fujiyama Yuri running the long way of the dusty road towards them. His face was white indicating exhaustion from an exertion that was unfavorable for his old age. "Come quick," he shouted, waving his arms over his head.

Accustomed to reading men and their voices, Aoshi was on his feet immediately. By the time he had, the old man seemed totally out of breath and near collapsed if not for the wooden gate where he leaned for support. He bent over in front of Megumi, his hands on his knees. He was, however, able to gasp out the plea for assistance.

"Ryusei," he managed to say, pulling enough breath into his starving lungs to push those words out.

"What happened, Yuri-san?" Megumi questioned.

The old man lifted his head to look up into her face. His breath was sawing in and out.

"Those boys… at the lake - " The old man seemed to be fainting. It was more than five hundred meters to the lakeside. Apparently, the poor old man had run at full speed all the way.

At the word boys, both Megumi and Aoshi had felt their breathing faltered. Aoshi waited for the rest of the message. Finally, he stepped beside the crouched man.

"What about the child?" he demanded sternly.

"They got him," Fujiyama gasped out.

"Where are they?" Megumi asked nervously.

"They caught him as he crossed the bridge," he said.

Without waiting for another word, Aoshi dashed off to his feet, using the same shinobi skill he had, leaving the still panting man. Megumi hesitated a while before she followed Aoshi.

"Just get inside Yuri-san and rest. I'll see to you later." Then she ran as fast as she could, trying to catch up with Aoshi without even waiting for the old man's reply.

Aoshi didn't know if he'd arrive in time to prevent the village boys from taking their revenge against the child he had already rescued once from their clutches. They had chosen Ryusei as their victim and were enraged at his interference. They had probably been bidding their time, waiting for another chance.

Aoshi remembered the leader's taunting sobriquet and the gesture that had accompanied it. That contempt had been taught, and had been directed against an illegitimate child of someone whom they considered better of in terms of living.

Finally, the said bridge came in view. He was almost at the end of the structure before he became aware of the noise they were making. They were much quieter than they had been that first day. Their champion did not appear to need their cheers to urge him on. He was pounding at the head and shoulders of the smaller child with a rhythm that seemed dodged, almost mechanical. And this time, Aoshi realized, his heart skipped a beat, there was no resistance. Ryusei lay limp and unmoving on the ground.

With a mastery of speed, Aoshi charged himself into the group grabbing the collar of the boy who was pummeling Ryusei. Fighting to control his fury, Aoshi pulled the larger boy up and flung him away from the unconscious child. The boy stumbled backward, almost falling. And together with his troop scattered quickly away.

He was aware of them scurried for an escape but his attention focused completely on the motionless figure he cradled. His fingers quickly found the reassuring strong pulse in the delicate throat. He remembered to breathe then, knowing, at least intellectually, that his terror had been out of proportion to the danger the child was in.

Few people who had been crossing the wooden bridge had started to crowd around them but he was too preoccupied to even care to look at them.

"Ryusei," his voice was softly controlled as he gently cupped the white face with his thumb and fingers. The child's skin was as fair as his mother's, he thought irrelevantly, and the line of his jaw as fragile as the bones of a bird. Too fragile.

"Ryusei," he whispered again, running his thumb across the pale, slacked mouth. Even as he watched, the blue eyes opened, the pupils almost glittered when it looked in recognition at his face.

"You haven't gone," Ryusei exclaimed.

"Aa."

"I thought I won't see you again. But mama said I would and she had been right."

"She did?" he asked, puzzled.

"She assured me," Ryusei said a matter of fact.

"I… see," he said more to himself than to the boy.

"Are you alright?" he asked the child.

"I'm feeling dizzy." Ryusei struggled to sit rubbing his fingers against the back of his skull. Then he grimaced.

Apparently, he had acquired more bumps and bruises and cuts from that assault, in addition to the blow to the head that had rendered him briefly unconscious.

"Ryusei!"

Both Aoshi and Ryusei looked up at the sound of Megumi's voice. She was short of breath, apparently from her futile attempt to catch up with Aoshi. She wouldn't be able to catch up with him, of course.

She sank recklessly next to the boy. However, her movements were still graceful.

She hugged him as if the child had just come back from the dead.

"Are you hurt?" she asked, her voice faltered as her eyes searched all over the boy's face.

"I broke my head," Ryusei offered. With the resilience of childhood, he was beginning to bask in the attention.

"Hit by a rock," Aoshi supplied. Megumi's eyes lifted to meet Aoshi's.

There was silence as two pairs of eyes regarded each other.

"You'd better see to his injuries now," he said brusquely as the waiting silence expanded, stunning Megumi. He held out a hand to her as he stood. Her eyes reflected her surprise at the gesture but she took it anyway.

"Thank - " she was cut short as a scorching pain shot through her ankle. She bit her bottom lip as her face wrinkled in pain while struggling to her feet. Only then did she made painfully aware of how great a price she would pay for carelessly falling on her knees beside Ryusei.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I think I twisted my ankle," she said, her eyes looked distressfully at Aoshi.

"Can you walk?"

"I'm not sure. But it will surely be an agony."

Aoshi's eyes fell to Ryusei.

"Are you still feeling dizzy, Ryusei?"

The child nodded truthfully.

Aoshi sighed.

"Ryusei, climb on my back, quick."

The child did as he was told. When Aoshi was upright on his feet again, one arm behind him supporting Ryusei's weight, the other started to fasten around Megumi.

"What are you doing?" Alarmed, Megumi slapped his arm. The force of her action however pushed her weight on the injured foot. Her beautiful face contorted and she let out incoherent curses under her breath.

"Helping," he taunted.

"I can still walk, Shinomori-san," she said stubbornly but even a single step hurt like hell. And to think that she had to endure more than five hundred meters walk back to her home.

"Apparently, you can't." He grabbed her by the waist and took a step beside her. She glared at him, feeling defeated, humiliated. She watched Ryusei who had started to relax at Aoshi's back. His small head resting at the juncture of Aoshi's head and left shoulder. She smiled and almost giggled at the picture. Her gaze came to him and smiled impishly.

"Help," she said and that's all Aoshi needed to start there long, long way back to her house.

Gravid whispers from the onlookers and bystanders floated through the air to Megumi's ears.

…same blue eyes

… does looked like him…

… back at least…

… I had always thought so…

… does this mean…

"That would be fine now," Megumi said after she finished applying cold ointment and bandaged Ryusei's cuts and bruises. "Go to your bed and rest. I'll bring in dinner later."

The child obeyed silently. Too exhausted to even bother say a word to his mother. He simply kissed her on the cheek, a sign of gratitude to which Megumi acknowledged by cupping his small cheek briefly. He bowed to Aoshi slightly then left the room.

Her eyes followed Ryusei through the open doorway then she averted her gaze to Aoshi who had been watching her the whole time.

"For the second time, I do thank you for your timely rescue," she began picking her materials.

"We have to talk," he said.

"Good thing your realized you need to at least say something. I have been talking the whole time," she retorted. But he ignored her irritation.

"Yes." She limped her way to her cabinet to return her materials back, assisted by Aoshi.

"Which reminds me of something that concerns you. I really think you shouldn't be here anymore, Shinomori-san," she continued.

"This is very humiliating," she said after a moment when she finally sat back to her chair. Aoshi moved her feet obligingly into a better position. "I'm the doctor but I am incapable to even walk on my own feet.

"You hurt it," he said as he rose to his feet looking at her. "I don't mind helping."

"Thank you."

"Why shouldn't I be here?" he asked, reminding Megumi to continue. Megumi sighed.

"You are being mistaken for someone you are not. I'm certain you heard what those people were murmuring about. Don't you dare play dumb on me."

He shut his eyes and shook his head slightly.

"What?"

"It concerns me, not you," he replied.

"It does! They thought you were Ryusei's-"

"It doesn't matter. Would you put what the other people say over the boy's well-being? Besides, I am a stranger here, so they wouldn't know a thing. It is much better this way." He overrode her with a deep cold tone. "Still, I believe your son is in danger."

He noticed that she clamped her mouth, hazel eyes slightly mirrored surprise and disbelief.

She didn't answer at once, her chin lifting minutely as Ryusei's did when he was being challenged.

"What happened today won't happen again."

"You know that I'm not talking about it," he muttered.

"Then from what? From the village boys?" she asked calmly, but then she spoke again before he could answer. "They're children. They don't understand."

"They understood too well. That seems to be the problem." Slowly, he relaxed himself against the door frame. "Someone has taken the trouble to give them a very clear understanding of the circumstances of the boy's birth."

Megumi's eyes widened, and then they fell. However, that was only for a moment. When she raised them again, they seemed to be calm and assured.

"I'm not all too surprised, you know." She smiled weakly. "I assume you know now the story. So, you believed he is being victimized because of the circumstances of his birth?"

"Because he's not one of them. A bastard son of a woman that the people used to look up to," Aoshi said. "Because of his size, perhaps. But certainly, primarily, because of what they have been told about his parentage."

Her lips which had been tightly held together through that listing, moved, almost loosening before they tightened again. Megumi felt the burning sensation in her eyes, tears begging to be let out but she adamantly refused to shed. She simply can't, after she made her decision, not after all these years, four years and eleven months to be exact, and certainly not in front of Shinomori Aoshi.

Time dragged.

"As far as I know, you are a very sensible man, Shinomori-san. You would not squander your time for pity excuses of emotions. I don't understand why you are doing this. I hate to think that you've been investigating, hopefully not prying into my life. But then, you seemed to know quite enough. What am I suppose to believe now?"

Her words were delivered sharply despite the occasional drop of tone which Aoshi suspected was due to her efforts to control her emotion. And he allowed her to collect herself by keeping his silence.

"But since you're so willing as to be tangled up in our own mess as to ignore how people looked at you right now, then may I ask your suggestion on what I should do with my boy." Now her tone was getting more severe. If her words had been blades, she's certainly making good aims.

But Shinomori Aoshi refused to be affected. He wouldn't give away his piece, not just yet, until this conversation would turn into where he planned it to be. So he let her on her tirade.

Megumi's current emotional turmoil would lead her to a psychological and mental state where she would be vulnerable to him. That's exactly where he wanted her to be, that is the perfect time for him to impose his point. Manipulation of the existing circumstances, after all, was something the Okashira had been known to be very good at. He wouldn't have survived many battles if he lacked a superb analytical mind, calculating and manipulating situations to his own advantage. Even with his quite life now, he found that running the business required these mental tools to be exercised on a daily basis which Aoshi was very glad about.

While Aoshi's look on her had turned calculating, Megumi was not capable of noticing it. She should have known better but her logical side had turned slow to regain control.

"What? Tag along with him wherever he goes? Keep him prisoner, perhaps? Or, flog him if he ever leaves the house again?"

There was an edge of bitterness to her questions. And Aoshi certainly had an answer. She needed to realize it on her own however.

"Your son is an outcast," he said deliberately. "He will never be anything other than that unless you do some modification on your plans."

"What do you mean plans?"

"I believe you understood what I meant."

Megumi certainly understood. What she can not understand is why she hadn't found the courage to accomplish such plan.

"You had the courage to do extraordinary things in your past. Why can't you find that courage this time? Your son needed that much from you." He was reading her mind, she thought annoyingly. And annoyed she might be, she had no other way than to acknowledge that he was right. The change should come from her. She needed to sacrifice few more things in order to better protect Ryusei not only from those children but from the rest of the world who would certainly always look askance at who, and what Ryusei was.

She closed her eyes as images of Ryusei, covered with cuts and bruises, intruded her mind.

"What should I do? I don't want to see him hurt," she whispered. "None of this is his fault." Or mine, she longed to say. What happened four years ago was not my fault. If only Izumi lived, nothing of these will happen. But Megumi can't change the past. And she shouldn't be asked to.

The luminous blue eyes had gazed at her and looked away when she opened her own to look at him in confusion. Aoshi was unsettled meeting the confusion he himself had stirred inside her.

Looking at him, she realized that Aoshi had actually offered her a choice, a good choice in fact. She sighed heavily. For the sake of Ryusei, she would have to give up the hope of finding her family here in Aizu.

"I hope I still have a place at Kyoto," she glanced at him, making sure he heard her.

He stared at her intently as if to assess her words, almost daring her of the surety of her decision. And she would have to gulp the lump that had suddenly crowded her throat when she met his gaze.

"You have a place at the Aoiya."

Her lips finally tilted into a smile. "And I hope you stay for dinner. Ryusei would be upset again if he wakes up finding you left already. Besides, that walk took us forever to get back here." She winked playfully at that.

Both hands on the table, she pushed herself up. Aoshi came beside her, one strong arm fastened securely around her waist.

"I could get used to this," Megumi teased.

"I don't mind, for the time being," he replied with humor.

"Mind helping me at the kitchen?"

"Aa."

She stifled a laugh.

"Takani-sensei." He whispered as he led her gently.

"Hai?"

"I'm offering you another favor." Amazingly, Aoshi's cold eyes lit with a hint of mischief. Intrigued, Megumi asked.

"What?"

END OF CHAPTER SEVEN

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