That day had started like any other. A few hours after Saitou had left for work Kaoru and Kenshin had dropped by the Sagara household and invited Sano, Saitou, and Saiko to dinner at the Akabeko. Sano had happily agreed writing the note as soon as he said good bye to Kenshin. Little Saiko was still sleepily rubbing her eyes as Sano had capped the ink. "Dada?" she crooned asking nothing in particular. Sano smiled at her joining her on the floor. "We are going to have a big special dinner tonight" Sano answered.
Saiko smiled and climbed into Sano's lap. "Dada hair" Saiko said patting her messy locks. "We really need to get it cut, did you know that Saiko?" Sano responded. "Cut cut cut cut" Saiko repeated happily. Sano got to his feet and held Saiko close to him. "We should talk to daddy first, I am not sure if he would like your hair short" Sano continued. "Da e cut?" Saiko asked confused. "No...well yeah Saiko Daddy can cut your hair" Sano answered.
Sano set her on the bathroom counter gently and pulled out the soft brush and brushed her hair slowly. He could not figure out for the life of him why it stuck straight up in the air like that. Sano had always tied his own up with a ribbon, was it really naturally like a rooster, he could not remember. Sano just took a deep breath and looked at his daughter. She looked up to him with big round eyes like she was waiting for him to say something inspired.
Sano smirked and stared back in Saiko's eyes. "Dada loves you Saiko" placing a finger on her lips before she could repeat finishing his sentence "Dada and daddy both love you, you are our little chick." Saiko smiled even bigger when Sano moved his finger. "Sa-chan Love dada! Sa-chan love da e!" Saiko squealed happily. "Now" Sano said softly "time to clean the house so we can go out tonight!"
Note triple checked to be on the counter Sano packed a bag for Saiko and headed out the door with her in his arms. The Kenshin-gumi were already at their reserved table at the Akabeko so Sano knew he could convince Kaoru to watch Saiko for a minute so he could go get Saitou a present. Since it was a good twenty minutes before Saitou would get off work and make it to the Akabeko Sano kissed Saiko good-bye and let her kiss him on the cheek and hurried out of the door.
With a fresh pack of cigarettes in the right pocket of his gi, small red flower barrette for Saiko's unruly locks in the other Sano smiled. The store that sold Saitou's favorite cigarettes was only a few blocks away from the Akabeko, but Sano was already feeling lonely. He toyed with the barrette in his pocket when something out of the ordinary caught his eye. This young girl, no older than 15, was stiffly walking into an alley with a gruff looking way older man. Sano deviated his path a bit and noticed that between the cloth of the girl's yukata and the creep's shirt sleeve Sano could see a knife.
"Hey you punk" he called out a few seconds before he reached the awkward couple. The gangster turned to him just in time to get a hard punch in the face. This sent the knife in his hand a few yards away and the gangster on his back. "Arigatou" the girl cried out running back to what looked like a worried man who was scanning the crowd for her. The gangster shakily got up to his feet eye already starting to swell. "Where does some punk like you get the idea you can get in the way of someone like me and my woman?" he spat out. Sano scoffed "Your woman? You were going to rape her you have no right to call her your woman."
The gangster lunged at him but Sano dodged him easily. A few more punches and Sano had thought the fight was over. A crowd had started to gather, this particular gangster had been terrorizing the neighborhood over the past few weeks so all around were interested in seeing what was going on. No one noticed the scrawny street kid that picked up the gangster's knife and quickly slid it back to him. Sano had the man on his knees and was looking for the girl to make sure he was safe before he flagged down a cop. It was strange, he knew one was on the street before the fight, Sano wondered where he went.
In reality the cop knew the fight might get out of hand and had sent for more reinforcements. Out of nowhere the gangster jumped up and smashed the knife in Sano's shoulder, right in the middle of the scar that Saitou had put there so long ago. Sano choked out a surprised sound before he even realized what had happened. The crowd went silent, none wanting to mess with either man. Sano bit his lip and pulled the knife out of his shoulder. He smiled and spoke clearly hiding all pain "That's nothing you should see the mark from the last guy who knifed me in the shoulder."
Knife still in his hand Sano did not feel threatened at all. Unfortunately the gangster, while a poor fighter, was a lot bigger than Sano. So when the gangster jumped on Sano, Sano was unable to stop the gangster from grabbing his hand and plunging the knife into Sano's abdomen. With a sick look of happiness the gangster ripped more of Sano's flesh before the police were able to pull him off of Sano.
Blood rose in Sano's throat and spilled down his lips. He tried to think clearly, but all he could feel was horrible pain. The police were restraining the gangster and someone had grabbed some poor kid to be a doctor. "Oh no this is not good, I hope Dr. Gensai is not busy, this laceration is at least 4 inches long" the youngster said. 'Well' Sano thought 'at least he has had some medical training'.
Sano was not sure how long he was lying on the dirty street. It smelt like blood, his blood and that made Sano feel sick. He swallowed hard trying his best not to throw up at the metallic taste on his tongue. The young doctor had been pressing hard on his stomach, but all of the sudden the heaviness was gone. Sano was confused, why would the doctor leave? Before he could try thinking any more about it he saw Saitou's face. Not the normal almost emotionless face he was used to, but a distraught Saitou. His eyebrows were furrowed and it looked like he must have been chewing on his lip. All he said was "Saiko."
Sano told him were she was, safe with Kaoru and he left. It was odd to Sano how reassuring it was that Saiko was Saitou's first priority. It was odd but somehow pleasant. That little girl was the reason that everything in his life was all right now. She brought Saitou to him and gave him such unbelievable happiness. Saiko should be both of their first priorities. He just hoped he would live so it could stay like that.
Slowly everything faded to black for Sano. The next thing he saw was Dr. Gensai who looked very worried. He was mumbling orders to some young girl, but it was not Megumi. Sano wondered if that meant something. The pain was so unbearable he could barely hold a thought so he gave up trying to think about the absence of Megumi, it was just too complicated. Sano was wrong however, about Megumi not being there. His stomach wound was just so painful he had forgotten about his shoulder. Megumi had been the one who had carefully stitched his cut muscles together before closing his seemingly minor stab wound.
Once Megumi noticed Sano had fallen unconscious again she spoke up "Dr. Gensai." "Yes Megumi?" he responded trying to focus on stopping all of the internal bleeding. "Make sure to tell him when he wakes up that he needs to go easy on his shoulder a lot of the muscles were cut" she finished. "If he wakes up" Dr. Gensai said sadly. "He has lost so much blood" he ended his thought trying his best not to be negative.
Sano woke back up right as Dr. Gensai was closing the cut to his abdomen. It was still painful so Sano did not even open his eyes not wanting to admit that this was actually happening. Dr. Gensai however noticed the change in his breathing and spoke softly to him. "Sanosuke, if you have not lost to much blood you will live, but you must be careful of your shoulder, while the abdomen wound was dangerous because of blood loss your shoulder muscles were cut and it will take a long time to heal. On top of that you will be in a lot of pain, I am sorry, but if I give you any more drugs you will die." With that he left to clean up making plans to check up on him every few hours. He sent word to the police that Sanosuke would not be able to talk to anyone until the next afternoon, but he anticipated seeing Sanosuke's friends by 9 the next day. If Sanosuke was awake Dr. Gensai figured, he would allow it.
Megumi, Dr. Gensai, and the young girl all took turns checking on Sano through the night. No one realized however what immense pain Sano was in. They all knew Sano had a baby named Saiko so when they heard him crying her name they thought nothing of it. It felt like a knife every time Megumi heard him say it as she checked his bandages and sponged his sweaty and tear stained face. The silly girl did not even notice that half of the time the name Sano cried was not Saiko, but Saitou.
A/N: So I hope everyone likes it. It is always fun going back and showing the same part of a story from the other point of view, plus I know you Sano lovers all wanted to see him be all macho and stuff. Another long chapter, hell maybe I will make a habit of it. I may rehash it later on, but I like ending on a clear thought for the best flow of the story, cliffhangers there own sort of ending ;0 Please review!