Be My Future
Disclaimer: This fanfic is based on the manga series "Please save my earth". All characters Belong to Nobuhiro Watsuki from Rurouni Kenshin series.
Chapter 8 – I am me
"Heyy- Aoshi-sama, are we really going back tomorrow?" Misau asked with a sad voice, almost grabbing an end of his sleeve. They were walking trough the corridors of Kamyia's dojo.
"Aa" he replied instantly never turning to her.
"If Misao-dono would like to," Kenshin said with a smile, eating a piece of kasuteira. "How about letting her stay a while longer, Aoshi?"
"If that's the case, then sure." Kaoru also said holding a tray full of kasuteira. "It's fine. If only Misao-chan remains."
"Himura! Kaoru-san!" Misao said happily, approving their decision.
"Season in the mountains are a step faster than the plains." Aoshi suddenly replied "If we leave even later than this, the earth will freeze and we'll have to wait until spring." The three of them stared at his back confused by the sudden sentence. "Before that happens," he continued, "We should bury them in a place with more sunlight."
Silence filed the room for brief seconds. Misao was looking at the back of her master with great surprise, and when it hit her what he was saying, she suddenly turned to her two friends with a wide smile.
"Himura, Kaoru-san, sorry!" She told them bowing "On second thought, I'll return home with everyone!"
I wanna see them, Aoshi-sama…
Her eyelids slowly opened revealing a white ceiling. She tried to focus the image in her eyes, trying to see what surrounded her. "Where..?" A certain young man's image came to her head and her eyes opened wide as her figure suddenly sat up, letting the sheets fly all over to the floor. A "huh?!" escaped her lips and her surprised stare remained.
"Wow, wow calm down." Yahiko's voice reached her ears and she turned to it. He let down a book he was reading and came to sit next to her in the bed. One of his hands came to her temple and a sigh escaped his lips. "It seems you're all fine now." Misao looked confused.
"What happened? Where am I?"
"You don't remember?" He replied with a surprised question.
"I-don't know…" She answered looking down. Yahiko watched her uncertain eyes waiting for her to continue. "Yahiko…I don't want to be absurd but-I think I saw-"
"You did," he replied before she could finish her sentence. She looked at him with wide eyes. "You saw him, Aoshi. But you fainted, we had to take you to infirmary but as it was getting dark, I had to take you to my home." She looked down sadly and he noticed. He got up and neared a table where he held a jar of water and a cup. He started to fill it in and when he turned around , he saw Misao's face hidden in her knees as her arms embraced her legs. "What's wrong?" he put the cup in the table and approached her worried.
"Did you-?" she started never lifting her face, sobbing "talk to him?"
"I did," He replied sitting again in the bed next to her.
"Does he-have the dreams?"
"He does have the memories although he didn't know what they really were. He was the person Kaoru mentioned about, but it seems she didn't recognize him." He told her. She never reacted. He was starting to feel worried and when he saw her shoulder's trembling from crying, he felt even more worried. "Oy…"
"I've always been waiting for this moment-for this day to come-" He watched her as she talked lowly "I thought I was prepared, that when I saw him, I would give one of those embraces that had no limits in the present time. But I was wrong…I made a fool of myself by collapsing in front of him." Her hands came to her face, still hiding her eyes. "Now-now I don't know how to face him!"
He watched her in pain not knowing what to say. Misao had been one of his first passions long years ago, she never seemed to notice or know anything which was more than fine with him. He knew how much she liked her elder. As he realized he had found Misao, she would find Aoshi, along with many others that belonged to their past. It didn't affect him now, he realized too that the passion he had was only to be taken as a friend.
"I feel so…ashamed." He couldn't hear her talking like that anymore. His hand came to push one of her hands gently as he hold it, looking at it.
"You don't have to feel like that." Her sobs stopped to hear what he was saying "I don't really know how things went for you two, after Enishi's incident. But the only thing it matters now it's the present, the new you and the new him. You don't have to act around him, that's not like you at all." Her face lifted, revealing her tired eyes of crying. "Denying the fact that you loved him is…undeniable, which explains your surprise of seeing him again. Just be yourself, as you always have been since I met you, let things go on the way they have to. That's the one thing you should only do." He wiped one of her tears with one finger "If he makes you nervous, smile for the feeling. Take your time to approach him."
Tears fell again but she didn't hide it from him. Only closed her eyes as his strong arms embrace her and she answered with one of her own. She didn't need to hurry and be close to him again right? Bit by bit, slowly, she will get to know the new Aoshi she longed to see and meet.
"What a beautiful thing to say Yahiko-chan." She said smilling with closed eyes.
"Only for my weasel girl." He replied and she laughed.
Arigatou Yahiko…
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"Kay, mom, I'll cal you later then, ok?" she smiled and hung up the phone. A long conversation this one was with her mother. She was one of the persons she hadn't talk much. She missed her so much already. Kaoru wished she was with her now, by her side. The girl didn't know how to react around her friends. She needed to talk to them, maybe she would tell Sanosuke. He was the one she knew the most and trusted. Her phone rang. As she saw it, she read her friend's name.
"Mochi mochi?" She asked
"Kaoru, hi."Sanosuke replied with a soft voice.
"Hey, how's everything?"
"Ok, how about you? Is everything ok?" he asked worried.
"Yeah, everything's alright."
"Good, where are you now? Classes?"
"Actually no, I don't have classes today morning, I'm at home right now."
"Oh ok then, open the door, I bought lunch."
"What?"
Ding!? Dong!?
She looked at the door surprised, was he already there? She looked down at herself, she was still dressed in her pj's. Rolling her eyes not caring much about, she approached the door and opened it with a smile. She saw him holding a sack in front of him. "You really shouldn't have." She told him, taking it for him and let him come inside.
"I should and I did," he told her following her to the kitchen "I wanted to apologize to you." She looked at him for a moment with sad eyes.
"There's nothing to apologize, you were right." She paused putting the sac in top of the table. Sanosuke looked at her back surprised by the sudden mood. "I've been busy, a lot more busy than I thought. I haven't talked to Megumi yet, even though I know something is wrong with her, I can't manage myself to pick up the phone and call her. Something in us changed."
"You just came to Japan, It's natural for you to be running from place to place to get your things organized, it's ok-"
"That's what I told myself, lied to myself." She turned to him with head down. "But since I got to university, I already had my life organized. I didn't pay much attention to Megumi in that process either and even though I know she needs someone to be there for her, to talk with her, I can't do it…I can't talk to her."
"You've been away for like-4 years! You've only talked with us by letters and emails!" Sanosuke explain worried "It's only normal! And this dreams thing appeared in our lives out of nowhere and-"
"It didn't appear in mine." Kaoru suddenly said making him look at her confused.
"What do you mean?"
"The dreams you so all talk about, I don't think I have them." She answered looking down "I'm not the person you think I am, the Kaoru you so talk about, isn't me."
"What are you saying? You had the dreams! You told us!"
"They didn't match," she told him clamly "The second dream I just think it was only imagination, wanting to believe I was part of something you and Megumi had." He was choked looking at her
"You're wrong! It's too much coincindence! You are Kamiya, the Kaoru Kamiya!"
"Then why can't I recognize people from the past?!" her voice was louder than before and he looked at her surprised "Why didn't anything hit inside me when I saw Yahiko and Misao? Why doesn't any stories everyone talks about seems familiar to me? Why couldn't I recognize Aoshi? Why-"
"What?" Sanosuke interrupted her "Aoshi?"
"I passed more than tree days with this guy and it never ring a bell." She said desperate "After introducing Yahiko to him and Misao faint in the floor after seeing him, did I realize this person was someone that belonged to their past." Sanosuke never said anything, choked with the new. He was at loss of words to tell her. "If I'm this so talked Kaoru who has an affair with Battousai, then where are my memories? Where are my senses of noticing anything, huh? WHERE?" The room was filled with silence. He just looked at her with pity, not knowing what to really tell her. Tears fell from her eyes with all the speech and she never seemed to notice. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment.
"I won't be attending the meetings anymore, so don't call me to talk about it."
"Kaoru…" She passed trough him going to the living room and going straight to her room. Before she closed the door behind her, she heard his few footsteps from afar.
"I'm sorry…could you please tell the others?"
……………………………………….
Megumi walked trough the corridors of the hospital with a mask below her chin and dressed like a nurse. She already started internship, a serious one. She was almost ending her course and this was the fourth internship she was taking, so she almost walked around the hospital as if she really worked there. She came to the front of the hospital to the reception and started to see the files of the patients that needed to be attended. A nurse came to her side smiling.
"Konichiwa Megumi-san!" She asked cheerfully and the woman smiled never taking her eyes from the files "How's work today?"
"The usual." She replied
"So, I didn't know you already had patients of your own." Megumi chuckled
"What are you saying?"
"There's someone in the waiting room that insists on only be seen by you." Her eyes turned to her doctor friend surprised "He's a cute kid, with red hair, I would say he's like 14 years old, do you know his name?" Megumi's eyes widened and instantly grabbed one of her doctor's friend arm, scared.
"Miki, what did you tell him?!" she asked making her friend confused "You told him I was here?!"
"Why are panicking? Of course I told him you were here, he's waiting for you, are we talking about the same person?"
Megumi breath was uneasy, she could feel her heart beating so hard, wanting to jump out of her body. Her eyes looked blankly, what was Kenshin doing there? And most importantly, how did he know she was working there? She never mentioned the name of the hospital where she would be taking her internship to Sanosuke. Her hands let go of the files she was holding and turned around from the table. Her friend called her but she never answered. She walked slowly to the waiting room, where lots of people were waiting to be attended. Coming to the entrance, without showing herself too much, she observed. There he was, in the corner of the room, staring at his own feet that just seem to balance up and down like a kid. Seconds later, he looked at the door curious and it was too late for her to hide. He showed her a smile and got up excited, running to her and embracing her form happily.
"Mi-tsu-ke-ta!" He said and everyone only looked with love and passion in their eyes. Megumi stood there, arms a little higher, not reacting by the cold hug he was giving her. She was breathing along with confused eyes. She soon noticed everyone was staring at her worried. She looked down unsure what to do but soon his arms came to be hidden behind his back
……………………………
"So, this is where you work?" The boy said sitting on the doctor's bench and started turning around happily. "It looks really professional, you must be really proud."
"The doctor of this office doesn't work at this hour." Megumi answered still standing at the closed door, watching the child's movement's. "What are doing here? How did you found I was working here?"
"I didn't know where you were, I looked around." Her eyes widened choked
"You came to every hospital to look? Aren't hospitals a little big?" She asked and he stopped to look at her and showed one of his evil grins.
"Of course they are, baka." He got up and sitted on the marquise. "I asked at university where was the location of the internship's place seniors taking medicine were having. I was just a worried brother with his parents out, I didn't know what to do." He lifted one his legs and pulled his jeans up. "Besides, I have a wound I liked you to tend."
She looked at it with a serious stare, it wasn't that bad. She turned to one of the cabinet's in the room and took medical gloves from it. Then, she approached the kid and sat on the bench he first sat when he got to the room. As she approached her face to examine his leg, his face came near too and she found herself staring at him with a serious gaze.
"Ne, I heard some pretty bad things." He started and grabbed one strand of her hair, playing with his finger. "You've been missing meetings, how odd."
"Don't-"
"And you seem weird around everyone. They're suspecting." He continued smilling "It's fine for me if they find out, especially Sanosuke. Uh that would be really amusing." She got away from him, slapping his hand and getting up from the chair.
"Your wound isn't serious, you can go." She said turning away from him, removing her gloves.
"Is it now?" she stopped by the sudden change of humour. His voice was serious "Oh yeah, that's what you thought about Kaoru back then, no? 'It's nothing serious, she'll survive!'" he paused and she looked at him with angry eyes "'But Ken-san is much more important.'"
"I won't be frightened by you treats." He smilled and got up, walking towards her. She never moved afraid, till he got hold of one of her arms and stared at her. His hold on her suddenly got stronger and made her arm turned around her back, in a way that she got herself in her knees, screaming with pain. His eyes were deadly serious as he stared at the back of her head wich was now in the same level as his form.
"Why have you been missing meetings?" He asked angry
"I didn't know they were having them!" She desperately said. "Since I started intership, I haven't talked much to anyone."
"From what Sano told me, you were like that before you started whatever shit you are doing now." Her face stared down as he heard her sob. He tried to look at her face "Are you trying to lie to me Megumi Takani?" she never said anything, letting her sobs answering his question. The other arm came to give balance to her body from the ground. "I noticed that all your speeches of courage came from a recent drama you've seen on a tv broadcast. I suppose you haven't talked with my Kaoru yet, have you?"
She never answered his question and his eyes passed from angry to a furious and narrowed stare. "I see, what I've been making doesn't seem enough for you to understand." Kenshin chuckled turning around from her and coming to the table that laid there for a doctor's files. In top of it remained her cellphone she seemed to bring with her. He picked it up and Megumi watched, starting to panic. "Well, it doesn't compare to 7 years of solitude on a dojo."
"What are you doing?" She asked getting up once she saw him writing a number on it and putting on his ear. As she approached him he turned and pulled her away , into the ground.
As she hit it, unexpecting the fall, she came to look at him again, with the same panic eyes. He smiled to her.
"Just sit there as a good a girl." Her eyes widened and tears started to fall. She couldn't stop, she couldn't do anything but just stare. "Ah mochi mochi Sano." Her face looked down where more tears fell. "Ah gomen I just wrote the numbers fast, It's just that Megumi is kinda strange…I found her at the hospital she's taking her intership...Ah I'm fine, just got a bruise in my leg. Hhm ok ok" he looked at her with a serious gaze, putting a hand over the speaker. "It's for you." He stretched his arm to hand over her phone. She didn't move and once seeing that it wouldn't happen soon, he approach her form. Coming down to her level, he pulled one of her arms and putted the phone in her hand with force. More tears fell and she never looked at him, that's when she felt an impact on the side of her head, he had just pulled the phone to her ear.
"M-mochi…"
"Megumi are you all right?!" A feminine voice came from the phone and she just stopped. It was Kaoru, he fooled her. What was she supposed to say now? His face just stared at hers, deathly serious. His lips started to make words with no voice: 'Do it'. Her eyes widened and tears came down again. "Megumi?"
"Ah Kaoru…" she muttered with eyes shut in fear
"Are you ok?! Want me to pick you up somewhere?" She heard the worried voice of her friend making her hand hide her face with her sleve.
"No it's ok, I'm fine…" She paused and became silent for a while.
"Megumi..?" She started to feel one of his hands massaging her hair and distanced a bit afraid.
"Ne…do you have anything to do tomorrow?" She asked and heard Kaoru's confused voice on the other side "I have nothing to do…And I need to talk to you…can you have lunch with me?" Kenshin smiled.
"Oh sure…but if you want I can come to pick you up now-"
"Tomorrow then, ok? Can you make it?" Megumi's voice asked a little agressive.
"Yeah…sure."
"I'll come by your house then, ja." She turned the call off and stood there with eyes staring down. Kenshin finally release his hand on her phone and distanced a little until he turned his back to her walking to the door. She heard the door open and no word came out from him. She sensed in his behaviour that he was anxious and with that losing his pacience. She started to wonder if it was only her presence that bothered him so much.
…………………………………………..
"She said WHAT?!" Misao' voice came from the other side of Sano's phone. He had to back away his ear a little. "But why?!"
"Misao you're too loud!" he complained " Kaoru is confused, she believes she doesn't belong to our past lives. She's to down because she doesn't have any memories. Anyway It's her choice" he paused "We can't do much about it."
"Why are you talking like that?" The girl asked "It's like you agree with her! And now that we found Aoshi, we can't back out now! This is a great opportunity."
"She mentioned to me," He paused sighing "It seemes she's been his friend and never noticed nor thought he could be part of her past life." Misao was silent now. Sano just sighed more. "We can't force her to go to the meetings, she has to believe in herself she is able to remember. We can't do anything."
"I think you're right." Misao finally agreed "If only we knew where Kenshin is…He would help her for sure." Sano's eyes were choked once hearing those words but never said anything. "Okay, I'll call you once we set up a new meeting, by the way, how's Megumi?"
"Ah- She's taking her internship now." He closed his eyes taking a hand to cover his face "I think it's good for her, it'll help her get her mind of unnecessary things."
"Yeah, you're right." She paused " Ok, we'll take later, ja ne!"
Sanosuke now looked at his phone remembering Misao's comment: "If only we knew where Kenshin is…He would help her for sure." His hand pressed onto his phone frustrated. Sat inside his car, Dano now looked at the road in front of him. His eyes shown a mixture of feelings, but one stood out: determination. He started the engine and set way to his house.
"And you say you feel useless Kaoru."
……………………………………………….
Kaoru now sat in a chair in the kitchen of Kenshin's mother. The older woman was walking back and forth arraging something for them to eat. She was kind of nervous, she came so sudden.
#Flashback#
She was in front of Kenshin's house. She had just knocked and waited for any response. After a few seconds, she was able to hear footsteps coming her way and finally the door opened reveiling Kenshin's mother. "Oh hello Kaoru!"
"Hello," She answered with a smile. "Say is Kenshin home?"
"Oh no, he's noot at the moment." The older woman replied "He went to play some football with his friend, if you come back later you'll be able to catch him."
"Actually," Kaoru started hesitating a bit "It is you I want to talk to."
"Oh?" His mother askedconfused "Oh, okay come in then! I'll prepare tea."
"Now," The older woman finally sat in front of Kaoru and started to serve tea. "What do you want to talk about? Is everything alright with you?"
"Hm yeah, everything's fine. But," the girl paused looking at her cup of tea "It's not about me I need to talk, it's about Kenshin." That got the mother curious, making her stop to listen to her. "I noticed something from him that isn't usual to his age." she paused again looking at the woman now "One night he came to my house to visit me and I kind of scared him and he just seemed to be in pain, I mean, he looked like he was going to have an heart attack." The woman's eyes got schoked once hearing that. "And finally, just yesterday I saw him taking some pills." She paused once again looking once more "I understand It's nothing to do with me but…I know him since he was a little kid and I kind of grew with a bound to him. So I came to ask…If everything's alright with Kenshin." Kenshin mother was now deep in thought showing concerned eyes and Kaoru looked back at the woman hesitating. The woman took a deep breath litting a hand come to her cheek. After a long pause, she decided to talk:
"I understand your concern Kaoru." Her voice came out fragile had she had never heard "But I'm afraid I cannot answer that question."
End Of Chapter 8
A/N: SO finally here it is my lazy chapter 8.I'm really sorry everyone for the time I took to write this, things haven't been right and just now I got the motivation to finish this. I'm trying to keep this fic as short as I can but it's kinda difficult because there's so much to happen and so much details that have to be explain so nhe. I've been receiving reviews so I was really happy )
And now about this chapter, The very first part (if you hadn't noticed) it's from the original watsuki's story, the original manga. It takes place on the 28 volume, right after the Enishi's incident. Aoshi had that promised cup of tea with Kenshin and then he wanted to suddenly be off lol Now Kenshin is just a little evil to Megumi but he's kinda growing desperate and it shows on his actions. The first time he threatened Megumi he didn't touch her or tried to harm her so I think you can see my point. Ah and one thing more PLEASE don't think I hate Megumi, I love that character as much I love all the others AND I don't want to be a spoiler so xD
I'm sorry this is taking so long but all your questions will only be awnsered in next chapter, you don't want me to go ahead and spoil everything do ya? ;)
Thanks for your reviews on the last chapter! Please let me know what you think about this one!