Chapter 2: The Empty Woman
"It's way too cold out here," Yahiko commented as Sano trailed behind him. "Do you see Kenshin?"
"No… I think we lost him in the crowd… Damn it," Sano replied, arching his neck to try and find a spot of red in the masses. "I can't see him anywhere! We're gonna have to do our chores!"
"This sucks!" Yahiko yelled. "How does he disappear like that? I bet he could tell we were following him."
"Knowing Kenshin…" Sano shrugged. "Was that--- no, that wasn't him."
Two bare feet stepped through the snow, pale with a blue tint to them. Heavy breathing erupted from her lips, also turning blue. She stumbled along until she reached the road and began to take off running again. There was no feeling within her legs or body; she was merely an empty shell bounding through the street running from what she did not know. Something was wrong, she knew that, because she remembered… Yes… she remembered what happened to her…
Sano sighed in frustration. "Man… this is impossible. Walking around in the snow, following Kenshin, and freezing our tails off… it's all so pointless.
The crowd started looking in a certain direction, whispering to themselves. Sano, who was taller than most of the people there, could see what was happening.
"Oh, my God…" He whispered. "She's… wow…"
"Focus!" Yahiko yelled, but Sanosuke took hold of his shirt and lifted the boy into the air.
"Look at her, Yahiko. She's beautiful…"
"What is she running from?" Yahiko asked, blushing. His blush faded as his face became more serious. "Something's wrong, Sano. Look at her! She's running barefoot in the snow in nothing but a yukata. We gotta help her!"
"I'll help her!" Sano chimed.
"No, way! It was my idea!"
"Fine! We'll both help her!" Sano complained, dropping Yahiko on the ground and taking off after her. Yahiko stumbled along behind him, their previous mission forgotten.
Her feet did not stop, as if they were moving automatically by some sort of greater force. She did not know where she was or who she had woken up too, but just looking into the man's bleak, red eyes… she knew he was going to use her for some sort of evil. What could she do, she wondered?
"HEY!" A hand snatched her wrist, and she let out a noise that was halfway between a whimper and a scream. Turning her head slowly, expecting to meet those menacing red eyes, she was somewhat relieved to find a rather tall man with spiky brown hair staring at her.
"Hey, Miss! What're you doing out here in the snow like that?" The little boy behind the man asked.
That was right. It was snowing… yet she hadn't noticed. She could not… feel it… She stared at them blankly, as if they had spoken to her in another language.
"Do you think she speaks Japanese?" Sano whispered to Yahiko.
"Well, she looks Japanese," Yahiko whispered back. "Hold on, I'll try something."
She looked from one man to the other.
"My name is Myojin Yahiko. Do you speak Japanese?" He asked her slowly.
"Y… Yes…" She responded, shaking her head up and down.
"See, I told you she was Japanese," Yahiko told him. "She's probably just scared because you grabbed her so suddenly, Sanosuke."
Sano ignored Yahiko's aggravated tone. "So, missy, what are you doing out here all alone like this? A pretty girl like you shouldn't be walking around without a man's protection."
"I… I shouldn't be here…" She tried to pull her wrist away, but his grip was stronger than her weak attempts.
"We're just trying to help," Sano said kindly. "You're going to freeze to death out here like this. Come on. I know where you can go to get warm and safe. Do you have a boyfriend somewhere? A fiancé? A husband maybe?"
"Husband…" She whispered as a vision of a certain red-headed lover of hers entered her mind. The word fiancé also struck a cord with another lover from a more distant past… Both of the men who brought her happiness.
She burst into tears.
"SANO! What'd you DO!" Yahiko screamed.
"I didn't do anything!" He retorted. "She just started crying!"
She didn't know where the one living man could possibly be or even how to contact him. Surely it had been awhile since her… death…
"Please!" She took hold of Sanosuke's shirt. "What year is it?"
"1878," Yahiko answered for him.
Surely that had to have been a mistake… Fifteen years… since her end…
All of this was coming at her so fast, and her body didn't seem to know how to react. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed into Sanosuke's arms, unconscious.
"What'd you do, Yahiko?" Sano mocked, glaring at Yahiko.
Yahiko sneered back at him, then grew serious. "We'd better get her somewhere safe and warm before she dies."
Sano shifted her in his arms so that he could carry her with ease and sniffed the air. "Why does… this place smell like Haku Baikou?"
"She must wear perfume," Yahiko commented.
"Come on," Sano took off down the street. "If I just walk around with her this way, someone might think I'm some sort of pervert."
"You ARE a pervert!"
"AHH! That's besides the point!"
"You disgust me!"
-
"Himura-san…"
Kenshin lifted his head suddenly, as if ripped away from a dream. "What?"
Tsubame was looking at him shyly through the front door of Akabeko. "Himura-san…" She practically whispered. "You should come inside and get warm before heading back with those groceries… Tae-san says that your joints stiffen in the cold, and I don't want you to fall or anything, and-"
Kenshin just beamed at her. "Sessha will come in for a moment."
"O… okay…"
As he headed inside, he froze and looked out towards the street.
"What's the matter?" Tsubame asked.
"Nothing… I just thought I… smelled a flowery scent…"
"Flowers? No, Himura-san… Not in the snow…"
He entered, and she shut the door. "Himura-san, you seem troubled with something…"
"Sessha… is just not a big fan of the snow…"
Tsubame downcast her eyes, remembering a story he had once told them. It made perfect since, she supposed, but she wasn't about to say anything about it.
"It will probably be even colder tonight," Kenshin comment. "You should bundle up when you go to bed, Tsubame-chan."
She nodded nervously. "Would you like some lunch? It's on the house…"
Kenshin looked at her in surprise for a moment. "That would be lovely," He then said, beaming at her. "As long as you share it with me."
Tsubame blushed in embarrassment and nodded. "Okay…"
She didn't want him to think about the past and those horrible days in the snow. He wanted him to concentrate on the present. She would even try to carry out some sort of small talk with the older man, even if his interests were probably far from hers. Kenshin was kind. He would politely listen and voice his own opinion afterwards.
-
"Kaoru! Open the door, busu!" Yahiko yelled, running towards it with Sano behind.
She slid it open. "Did you find something out about Ken---" She trailed off at the sight of the woman in Sano's arms. "What… is going on…?"
"She was… running in the snow like this!" Yahiko told her, out of breath from the sprint. "When… we stopped her…"
"She fainted," Sano finished. "She's was acting a bit strange, like she didn't know where she was, and then she asked us what year it was."
"Please, Kaoru, she'll die out there in the snow. Come on, let's just bring her inside for a minute and get her some real clothes. Somebody might have tried to attack her, and we don't know if she might be hurt!"
Kaoru slowly took it in, and then nodded. "Well, fine, but if she tells me any differently than what you said, then it's your heads!"
They both gulped. "Yes, ma'am."
Sano brought her in, and Kaoru sent him to her room to lay her down.
Her body was already returning to the original color. Sano supposed she'd be fine… Of course, her grip on her yukata was pretty much proof of that. She wasn't going to let it loose, even in her absence of consciousness.
"Leave the room, please, Sano," Kaoru said. "I'll take care of her."
"Pssh, you'll kill her," Yahiko said from the doorway. Sano broke out into laughter.
A moment later, they were both bruised heaps on the floor outside the room.
"You just had to go and open your big mouth, idiot," Sano mumbled.
"You're the one who laughed…"
-
Kaoru leaned over the woman and stared at her for a few moments. She's so… beautiful…Her skin is so fair… Her hair is so soft and dark…and that scent… I've never seen someone like her… but… for some reason… I feel an emptiness here…
Kaoru reached to pull open the thin, wet garment she wore, when a hand snatched her wrist. The woman's eyes flew open.
"Who are you?" She asked in a panic.
"Ah…" Kaoru smiled sheepishly. "I'm Kamiya Kaoru… I run this place… my friends brought me to you after you fainted."
"What were you going to do?" She stammered, clutching more tightly to her kimono. Should anyone discover her…
"I was just going to get you into a dry kimono. One of mine… see?" She showed her violet kimono covered with a pink flower pattern and stripped obi.
"I can do it…" She whispered, lowering her eyes. "May I do it myself…?"
"Err… sure…" Kaoru replied, standing. Her face hurt from smiling. "If you need me, just call!"
Tomoe bowed. "Thank you… Kamiya-dono."
Kaoru left, lightly closing the door.
"How is she?" Sano and Yahiko asked at the same time, now off the floor.
"She woke up, and I think she'll be okay… She speaks so properly, like someone from high society, so I know she couldn't possibly be a woman of the streets."
"I don't know if she's mentally stable," Yahiko commented finally, as if getting something off his chest. "Her emotions swirl around out of control, and if she was a woman from high society, she would most definitely know better than to run out in the cold, in broad daylight no less, wearing nothing but a white yukata. Surely, she'd be smarter than that, right?"
"I agree with you, Yahiko, but there could be other reasons as to why," Kaoru said. "I don't think it'd be very polite to ask, would it?"
"Kamiya-dono…" A whisper said from the doorway behind them. Kaoru yelped and turned around, blushing furiously. Had she heard their conversation?
"Do you have something that I can use to put my hair up with?" She asked.
Yahiko and Sano traded glances as Kaoru laughed a bit nervously.
"Oh, of course," She said, entering the room and closing the door on the boys again.
"I'm starting to get a bad feeling," Sano commented.
"You're not the only one," Yahiko replied. "Maybe we shouldn't have helped her…"
"Nah. She's not a threat," Sano shook his head. "I just feel like… she might end up leading us to one… She's gorgeous, smart, most likely rich… she's a man's dream come true… yet… something about her isn't right… She's… eh… how do I say this?…" He scratched his head, trying to think of a word.
"Detached…" Yahiko finished.
"Yeah! That's it."
-
Kaoru pulled out her box of assorted hair accessories and held it out to Tomoe. "What do you need from here?"
Tomoe lifted a red tie from it, slowly, carefully… The color was bright and vibrant, not unlike the other ribbons and combs within the box. She looped her hair at the nape of her neck and tied it together, letting strands of it fall in front of her ears, against her snowy cheeks.
Kaoru couldn't help but stare at this woman. Her eyes were so dark that they looked as if there was not life in them. She did not smile, a thing that made her seem cold and distant. There was hardly color to her lips and cheeks. The violet kimono and obi she was wearing seemed too bright for this woman. Why did Kaoru feel so cold just now?… This woman seemed to be… almost… dead…
"Thank you," Tomoe said quietly.
"Err… you're welcome… Oh! I didn't catch your name!" Kaoru slapped her hands together and put on her brightest smile.
"Oh…" Tomoe replied. "I am…"
"Kaoru! Food's here!" Yahiko called through the door.
"Uh… excuse me," Kaoru bowed in apology and left.
Tomoe felt a wave cold air wash over her, but it was not on her outsides. No, this was inside of her. She could feel a presence… this presence… she knew.
-
"Kaoru-dono," Kenshin beamed at her, handing her the bucket of tofu and giving Sanosuke the fish. "I've bought some vegetables from Akabeko as well. Sessha knew that we will not be seeing some for awhile."
"Kenshin, you're so smart," Kaoru acclaimed.
"You flatter sessha…" Kenshin replied sheepishly, handing Yahiko the vegetables. The three left to put them away.
There was a sound of quiet footsteps in the hall. He could hear them. "K-Kaoru-dono…?" He called. "Do we have a visitor?"
The three seemed to exit in unison and reentered the room. "Oh, yes. Sanosuke and Yahiko found a girl out in town. She was nearly frozen to death, can you believe it?"
"In this weather, yes," Kenshin said, smiling. His smile faded as a familiar scent wafted through the air… this scent was too familiar.
"She doesn't talk much," Kaoru continued on, catching Kenshin's attention only partly.
"Kamiya-dono…" Her small voice asked.
Kenshin's head jerked in the direction immediately, and he physically paled; his usually calm eyes were now wild and stunned.
"Ah--- Kenshin?" Kaoru asked, suddenly afraid. He looked as if… he had seen a ghost. She turned to the doorway to see her new houseguest staring at him in the same way that he was staring at her. No one knew what was going on… until he spoke the name that none of them expected.
"To… TOMOE!"