Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ The Journey Home ❯ Seperate Lives ( Chapter 4 )

The Journey Home

Separate Lives

Chapter 4

Kaoru walked around the compound interior walls one hand resting on her protruding stomach the other hand followed her path along the textured prison walls of her dojo. Her gait was slow and steady as she moved. Her pregnancy was more advanced than when she had been sentenced to spend it inside the dojo. The small child kicked bringing a sad smile to her lips. It was active in her sixth month of pregnancy.

"It," she said stopping in front of a vine with little yellow perfumed flowers on it. "Sanosuke and Yahiko have already deemed you to be a boy." Kaoru pulled one of the tiny flowers off its life support. Lifting it to her nose, she inhaled its nice aroma. "They say it's to even out the ratio." She patted her rippling belly. "I don't care what you are. As long as you're healthy…and you look like me."

"Sayonara, Yahiko-sensei," said as chorus of voices claiming Kaoru's attention. She watched as several students dressed in their dogi's came out of the dojo. They bowed to Yahiko standing on the porch dressed in his sensei outfit that she had made him. It consisted of an all white dogi with a green and yellow stripe belt around his waist. The children spotted her averted their eyes, as they quickly filed out the door, each of them forbidden to acknowledge her presence, even the ones who were her past students.

It was a new part of her punishment. Since, Sanosuke's fighting gym had more students then he could handle they split it up in four rotating classes--the last one for the day had just left. The classes were taught in two shifts, sword techniques in the morning and then barehanded fighting techniques in the afternoon. When the Moral Matrons heard that she was having contact with the outside world, beyond her small circle of friends they sent Kaede-sama to issue a new addendum to her punishment. While classes were held inside her dojo she could not converse with the students, nor could they interact with her. It was as if she was in a prison with no walls.

Yahiko came down off the porch as the last student shut the door behind him. "Hey thanks, busu," he said breaking into her musings.

"For?" asked Kaoru, turning lack-luster blue eyes to her one student.

Yahiko sighed. As the months droned on, he had hope the fire would return to her eyes. It was weird looking at Kaoru without her lapis lazuli eyes shining bright. Now, they were just a dull blue color. Devoid of any emotion. She wouldn't even react to his insults. "You know for helping me with my classes." Earlier in Yahiko's class, too many students had shown up and he had run out of teaching shinais. So, Kaoru suggested he teach another of the many forms of Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu to the students.

Kaoru moved away from him to continue her mid-afternoon promenade around her dojo. "It was nothing. You're smart enough; you would have figured something out. All I did was give you a foundation."

"You did more than that and you know it," he snapped back. "Damn it, Kaoru! I'm tired of you walking around this place like some fuckin' ghost."

"What?" Kaoru stopped and whirled back to her now angry young charge. An answering flash of anger entered her blue eyes. "What did you just say?"

Yahiko let out a cleansing breath. The flare of anger he just witnessed was the first sign of emotion he'd seen in her face since the Moral Matrons had imposed her forced imprisonment. "I said you've been walking around this damn compound like you're some damn ghost!"

Kaoru clenched her hands into fist by her sides. She began to shake with fury. How dare he say such a thing to her? She thought he understood. But I guess he does not. "How dare you, Yahiko! Do you know what it's like? Cooped up inside this dojo for several months until a human child pops out of you. Once that happens allowing you to emerge from your own prison, half the people who previously called you 'friend' will now shun you." Tears began flowing down her face, "Do you have any idea what it will feels like to know that you will be publicly humiliated, because you made a bad decision." She rubbed violently at the tears cascading over her cheeks. "When you feel all those emotions, then you can criticize me about not feeling happy all the damn time."

Unbeknownst to the sparring pair another couple had entered the dojo that had caught the whole tirade of emotion that spilled from the crying female. Emotion that was pass due, since she had resigned herself to being restricted to her dojo. "Well someone needs to criticize you, Jou-chan," replied the male of the other couple. "You've been getting on my nerves with your spiritless attitude."

Kaoru and Yahiko spun around to see Megumi and Sanosuke in the dojo courtyard. They'd been so caught up in their own argument they failed to see or hear their friends come inside the dojo.

"I have to say I agree with Sanosuke," said the female doctor as she stepped forward to her friend. "Kaoru-san, you've been acting like the end of your life is coming. However, it's not the end of your life. And I hate to say something so trite, but think of this as the beginning of a new chapter." Megumi stopped and paused preparing herself for the grumbling that she was about to hear. "I know when Ken-san left us, it felt like the end, but it's not. You have been given a whole new chapter to write on, with a whole new life to help you."

Kaoru clenched her teeth. She still refused to have His name mention in her house. "I'm not as strong as I pretend to be. I don't want to lose my friends. I don't want to be shamed in my hometown. I thought I was strong when my mother died. I thought I was strong when my father died a few months later. And I thought I was strong when He left me…but I'm not. I am tired of people I love leaving me behind."

Sanosuke walked over jerking her into his arms. "You are not being left behind Jou-chan. Yahiko, me, nor the Fox are not leaving you." He wrapped his arms around her as she sobbed more tears. "I know you're scared about giving birth, but you'll have Dr. Gensai with you." He began rock from side to side. "I also know you shouldn't worry about what the damn townspeople say about you. And when you welcome your babe into this world, your real friends will be with you. Your real friends will be standing outside waiting for you."

Kaoru pushed away from his chest and moved back sniffing. "I know. I'm just so afraid. I've let my ancestors down. I've dishonored my family. I keep wondering what the fates have in store for me again."

"Whatever happens, busu," said Yahiko as he put a hand on her shoulder. "We'll be here for you."

Kaoru turned and smiled at her friends. "By the way Yahiko…did you just call me, the Rose of Kenjutsu in this town…ugly?!"

***********************************************

Kenshin added more wood to the kiln his Shishou was using. He had been staying at the mountain for three months, and his Shishou hadn't once asked him why he had suddenly returned home.

He was grateful.

During his time here he had trained some, and tried to keep his mind off Kaoru. But he couldn't. He lay awake at night wondering what she was doing. Wonder if she was thinking about him. Wondering if she was still angry with him although some time had passed. He was always dreaming about her. Sometimes he would dream he was still at the dojo.

It was always the same dream he would be carrying the laundry to wash for the day. The children would be shouting, "Ken-nisan, come play with us." And of course, he would answer, not until he finished his housework. They would agree to help him, and then he would hear the most beautiful sound in the world: The sound of Kamiya Kaoru yelling at Yahiko. He would look up and see Yahiko scramble around one corner with Kaoru follow fast upon his heels. The sight never failed to warm his heart. However, the minute she stopped to smile at him, his dream would end. Because her shining smile would disappear in a quiver and her, shining blues eyes would fill with tears.

Kenshin would wake up drenched in perspiration most of the time wondering if his suffering for his wrongful ways during the revolution would ever end. He had tried to atone, by not killing and protecting life instead, but Fate refused to let him atone. He was destined to be alone with nobody in his life to care for, or to care for him.

Kenshin sat down on the log in front of the kiln. "Maybe, I should take Aoshi out for tea." It would at least help him get my mind off Kaoru and friends for a few hours. "But then again do I want to hear another lecture from Misao-dono?" Staring into the fire Kenshin sighed.

"Oi, Kenshin," called Hiko appearing in the small doorway. "I'm out of sake."

Kenshin turned to him and frowned. "You drank both of those big jugs last night?"

"How do you think I ran out of sake?" asked Hiko as he moved to stand before his daydreaming student. "Sake is for drinking. Not for sitting around and looking at."

"Sake is also supposed to used in moderation," pointed out Kenshin. "You're not supposed to drink a lot sake it dulls your reflexes--and mind."

Hiko moved forward threw a bag of money at Kenshin. "When you become the teacher, then you may instruct me." He drew his sword and pointing it at Kenshin, who had left his own sakabatou inside the small hut. "See, this perfect balance. Only a master genius, such as I, could be able to balance a sword like this, while living an entire existence on sake." Hiko sheath his sword. "Now, insolent pupil go and fetch my sake, before I show you how my master reflexes have yet to wan."

Kenshin stuffed the bag of money inside his pocket and moved toward the hut. He began to mutter underneath his breath. "...Always bossing me around.... How did he ever survive without a slave...." and he continued with his tirade picking up his own sword as he slammed the door on his to make his way down the mountain. "See, if I get him the good kind this time."

******************************************************

Kaoru looked down at protruding stomach lately she'd been having a craving for sake, but she'd been told by Megumi that any alcohol was bad for the baby. However, she couldn't help the craving she was having. She was even craving catfish, and she detested that fish. Kaoru let out a big sigh and rubbed her lower back for the last month the baby began to sink lower, telling her that she was close to giving birth. This morning however, the strain on her back was more prominent then had been a couple of weeks ago. It was as if someone was unceasingly beating a drum on her back.

She could not wait to give birth and be able to see her feet, stop waddling, or having someone push her by the back when she needed to get up from her position. Kaoru gazed up at the workmen who were currently redoing the roof she had asked Sanosuke to replace. Technically, Kaoru was not allowed to talk to them either, but since they were Sano's friends, they flagrantly disregarded the rules set down by the Matrons. Their comments were like: "What are they going to do to us? Raise our social standing?" However, she worried every time she spoke to one of them what repercussions the Matrons would decree.

"Oi, Kaoru," called Yahiko as he came around the back as he nearly missed by one of the old tiles thrown off the roof. "I brought your lunch."

Kaoru rotated very slowly toward her young protégé and smiled at him. "Is it sake and catfish," she asked hopefully. She batted her blue eyes hoping that this time he would remember to bring her sake.

Yahiko made a face as he made his way toward the small makeshift table they had put in one corner of the dojo. During Kaoru's pregnancy she began to eat outside, so they fashioned a makeshift table for her. It was crude, but she seemed to like it. "No, sake," he said as he laid out her food. "You know Megumi said you weren't allowed any sake until after the baby is born."

Kaoru pouted. "But I may not want any sake later." The baby gave a kick or so she thought as paused a minute and rubbed at the tightening pressure across her protruding stomach. She waited until the pain passed. She moved steadily forward her gait extremely slow. "So, what else did you bring me, Yahiko?"

Yahiko finished arranging the food neatly and smiled. "I brought you fried tofu, two rice balls wrapped in seaweed, and a nice piece of fish, which I think could be catfish."

"What do I get to drink," Kaoru demanded her voice suddenly going haughty.

"Milk," he responded flatly. He watched her face wrinkle up in distaste. "Other than tea or water that's all you can drink."

Kaoru grimaced. "Then I would have preferred teeeeeaaaaaaaaa!!" She doubled over in pain. Tears sprung to her eyes as she blindly flailed about for something or someone to grip up onto until the pain subsided.

Yahiko rushed forward and griped her outstretched hand. "Kaoru what's wrong?!!" He cringed as her grip tightened on his hand nearly crushing the tiny bones in his hand.

Kaoru looked up and snarled at him. "I don't know maybe I'm having an adverse reaction towards the fact that I keep asking from sake but people keep bringing me milk!" She panted as another contraction hit her as she prepared to give her errant pupil another dressing down. "Or maybe…just maybe I could be giving birth right now!" As the words left her she felt a warm gush trickle down her legs.

Yahiko looked down at the wetness, which he fervently hoped, had been water that splattered on his sandals. He knew he couldn't leave Kaoru to run to the clinic and back, but there was no way he would be able to carry her all the way to the clinic either.

Kaoru let out another scream yet one more contraction ripped through her womb. "I take it all back," she panted gripping Yahiko harder. "I don't want the baby out any time soon. It can stay right where it has been all this time."

"I don't think that's going to happen," muttered the young swordsman as he tried to disengage himself from her crushing embrace.

Kaoru began to wail. "Don't say that! You have to believe or it won't come true." She sniffled again as tried to pull Yahiko closer to her. "Damn him, damn him, and double damn him…stupid hut…stupid firelight…stupid blanket, stupid, stupid!!" She began to shout out more curses as she sank to the ground, singeing Yahiko's ears as her language got increasingly creative. A few of them he thought he could keep for himself to use later he rather liked those.

Yahiko glanced up as one of Sanosuke's friends appeared in front of him. "Oi, Toji."

Toji looked at Yahiko and the cursing female at his feet. "The roof is almost finished, but it looks like you could use some help with her too." He bent down and pulled Kaoru into his arms only teetering once underneath her enormous bulk. "Sano would kill me if I didn't help. Besides I can't leave a female in tears."

"Domo arigatou," replied Yahiko as they began running out of the dojo.

************************************************

Megumi looked up as Sanosuke walked into the waiting room where she wrote the final prescription for a nice old lady, before she closed down to for a small lunch break. "What do you want?" She smiled as the grandmother thanked her walked away.

"Che, Fox," said Sano as he stood over her with his hands crossed over his chest. "I come to take you to lunch and this is the way that you treat me."

Megumi sniffed. "Aren't you supposed to be supervising the new roof at Kaoru's?" She got up and closed the door to the outpatient room.

"No, she didn't like the way I was directing my friends," he snorted remembering the scene when she kicked him out of the dojo saying that he was not helping and he should go bother someone else. "Just like when she kicked me out of the baby room, saying that I wasn't painting the room the right way." He dug his hands deeper into his pockets.

Megumi smiled wistfully. "She's just nesting right now. It's the final month of her pregnancy." She moved around straitening things and putting other medicinal stuff away.

"Nesting," scoffed Sanosuke as he muttered a few choice words. "Anyway do want to go out to the Akabeko, you know since I've got my bill paid, I've become a preferred customer." He flashed her toothy smile.

"That's nothing to be proud of," replied Megumi as she stacked the last of the medicines. "You should have been paying your bill long before you got your own business."

Sanosuke gave her a pouting look. "You know if Kenshin hadn't stopped me from contracting myself out to moneyed people, I could have afforded to eat at Tae's before I got my long account."

Megumi turned arms akimbo, "Don't go blaming your bumming attitude on Ken-san," a hint of smile was in her voice. "Bad manner are what you embody Sagara Sanosuke." I wonder how Kenshin is doing she thought for a fleeting moment before dispelling those thoughts from her mind. Kenshin was part of the past now, and dwelling on the past brought nothing but heartache.

"Then I guess you don't want my bad manners taking you out for lunch, hmm?" He rocked back on his heels as he held a triumphant smirk inside as he watched her wrestle with the idea of going to lunch with him. In the last few months, he had become increasingly aware of Megumi's presence as more than just the irritating Fox doctor. No, he began to notice her as the irritatingly pretty raven-hair Fox doctor with the ruby lips that he couldn't help thinking about.

Megumi saw the smirk inch its way up Sanosuke's lips. There was know way he could know that she enjoyed his company, and that her thoughts lately had begun to take a path, that would make a Zen monk blush. No he could not know. He was just being his same old arrogant self. She opened her mouth to speak, "I---"

Someone was pounding at the door and shouting very loud. Megumi hurried to the front parlor to open the door with Sanosuke following behind her. "This must be some emergency," remarked Sano as the beating on the door increased.

Having roused from his mid-afternoon nap Dr. Gensai met them at the door. He opened it to see a frantic Yahiko, a guy he wouldn't want his grandchildren around which meant it was one of Sanosuke's friends, and a crying/cursing Kaoru. He stepped back beckoning them in, "I'll go get washed up," he sighed and trotted off to get himself prepared to bring Kaoru's baby into the world.

"She's about to burst, and he walks off," screeched Yahiko as he watched Dr. Gensai move down the hall as he stared in disbelief. "I don't believe it." He turned to follow Megumi, Sanosuke, and a laden down Toji to the private room used for surgery.

"When did you go into labor?" asked Megumi assuming the roll of efficient doctor. "When did the pain start?"

Kaoru regarded her out of glazed eyes full of pain; her raven hair was now soaked in sweat and plastered to her head. She looked like a lost child. "When did the pain begin," she repeated and began to laugh hysterically. "It began when I was born! Pain has been with me since the beginning."

Megumi finished tying on her apron as turned toward the pasty looking faces of Sanosuke and Yahiko, "I think it's time to wait outside," she began shooing them out of the room. "I'll call you back in when we welcome in the new addition to our family."

"B-B-But," sputtered Yahiko who was now gesturing toward a hysterical Kaoru who was now giving a run-down account of all the times she had felt pain in her life.

Megumi glanced back and smiled. "It's all right, Yahiko. Kaoru-san is going to be just fine." She steered him out the room shutting the door once Dr. Gensai came inside the room.

Dr. Gensai looked at Kaoru and grinned. "Just relax Kaoru-chan, and follow my instructions."

Outside the room, Sanosuke and Yahiko paced. The screaming inside had them jumping every few minutes. It was horrible. First, there would be a long silence followed by a sound of some wounded animal. But they knew no man nor beast could make that sort of cry of agony. No, that was defiantly the sound of a woman…a woman in extreme pain.

Sanosuke moved away from the door where he had been listening for some sort of sound that wasn't painful. All he heard was the deep rumble of Gensai's voice and the melodic voice of Megumi each pitched too low for him to accurately hear what was going on inside the room. He gazed over to Yahiko who had taken out his shinai and was practicing downward swings as if his life depended on it. However, he knew the boy was listening too. "Relax," spoke Sano cutting into the small moment of silence they had in the room. "Jou-chan has two doctors looking after her, there's no way anything could happen."

Yahiko nodded but refused to break rhythm.

A cry pierced the deafening silence.

A baby's cry. Yahiko stopped and looked up at Sanosuke. They looked toward the door beseeching it to open.

Megumi's tired form slid opened the door her apron spotted with blood she coughed politely gaining their attention. "Want to come inside and meet the new addition?"

Both men scrambled through the door. Lying on the bed completely exhausted was Kaoru cradling a small bundle in her arms. She looked up and smiled at the guys whom had both fought each other to get through the door. Now they were tentatively standing back not wanting to intrude. "Come in, Sano, Yahiko," her voice a small whisper.

The guys moved closer to the bed were she was lying. "What is it?" asked Yahiko his voice barely above a whisper. He was staring down at the little bundle of ugly splotchy baby and wondering if it was human. He could see some red hair; but then again, it could be fur, judging from how ugly the child was.

"It's a boy."

Sanosuke and Yahiko smirked. "So, what's his name Jou-chan?"

Kaoru smiled. "Tamashii. His name is Kamiya Tamashii."

As he heard his name, the baby opened his eyes for the briefest of moments displaying blue-violet eyes to look his mother and say, "Tadaima," before they quickly closed.

"Okaeri," whispered Kaoru as she closed her own eyes.

================================================================== ===============

End Chapter 4. Created [11/04/01] and Finished [01/04/01]. Well, Kamiya Tamashii welcome to RK. Yeah, I know this chapter was short and could have been posted a long time ago, but I was working on the next chapter, and forgot that I hadn't even finished this chapter yet, so I had to do some back tracking. Sorry. Coming next time: The Letter. Send all comments to me at: pmchivas@hotmail.com. Shishou M.

Lunatics Ravings:

Tamashii--Is written with the kanji meaning, soul. Yes, I do know that Kanji is the actual name of the boy child that Kaoru and Kenshin produce. But I named him Tamashii for a reason.

Tadaima--means "I'm home."

Okaeri--Welcome home.