Part VIII: Clouds

     Kensan is the hero who saved my life.
     Tomoe looked at Megumi for a moment, The doctor's eyes were closed.
     Kenshin shifted his grip on the sakabattou, his expression flickering for the barest instant.
     Kensan is the hero who saved my life.
     The slow, evil sneer deepened contemptuously.  "So our Battousai is a hero now, is he, rescuing damsels in distress instead of killing, is that it?"
     Kensan is the hero who saved my life.  "He taught me how to live with myself, when I would have died by my own hand to atone for the deaths I've caused."  Megumi opened her eyes to Tomoe's frank gaze.  She nodded, continuing.  "Yes, I am a doctor, but there was a time in my life that I was making opium under the control of Kanryu Takeda. He was...  A very cruel man."  Megumi looked ill at the thought of him.  "He forced me into it, and I don't even know how many people I killed.
     "It turned out that one of them had a friend named Sanosuke, who had in turn a friend named Himura Kenshin.  It was to them I ran one day, not even knowing who they were, only that one of them had a sword.  They were gambling in some old apartment, and to this day I don't know what made me throw open that door.  Sano had dragged Kensan along that day, and it was a good thing for me that he'd been there."
     Kuzuyama's eyes never left Kenshin's even though he began to listen to the story Megumi whispered to Tomoe.  One could learn much by listening.
     "But then, after I'd spent some time living with Kensan, Kaoru, and Yahiko -- they were all living at Kaoru's dojo, and Sano spent most of his time there too, I was forced to come back to Kanryu.
     "It was Kensan who fought for me, with Kaoruchan and Yahikochan and Sano, but it was Sanosuke who caught my knife just before I --  I would have killed myself.  I thought that the end of the gunfire meant the end of my new friends...  I don't think I've ever been more glad to be wrong.  Not that I was all that joyful at the time..."  Megumi smiled ruefully, pausing a moment, watching the two men feinting and teasing one another with the promise of full battle.
    "Kensan was the one who told me...  ‘I know my death won't bring back the people I killed.'  He told me I should use my skills as a doctor to help those who needed it.  I don't know if Kensan truly realizes it, but any of us would die for him in a heartbeat.  He's given us all our lives back.  He doesn't kill anymore, even if the rest of us wonder if we'd be better off if he had. Like Kanryu..."  Megumi's whisper trailed off into the stillness and the rueful smile returned briefly.
     "But that's just me being silly.  What he did, he deserves everything he gets, and what he got was more than I expected and certainly more than he bargained for."  Kanryu was locked away in prison now, living a hard life and no doubt trying to bargain his way free.
     Megumi barely noticed the two men circling as she told her story; they themselves seemed barely aware, to an outsider, of the slow rotation they were making.  She missed the sharp slice of the reverse bladed sword as it swept almost languorously beneath the pink socks.  She only looked up when Kuzuyama spoke aloud.
     "You call this a fight, Battousai?  This is how you fight for the people you care for?  What sad fate has befallen the legendary Hitokiri?"
     Megumi had noticed that Kenshin had not been fighting with his usual style.  Even when Kenshin was trying to gauge an opponent, he would fight with more aggression than he was.  This relatively slow, almost lazy method...
     "What has happened to the legendary speed?  The strength?  You haven't lost your skill so quickly, have you?  It would be such a shame," the bare fisted fighter mocked.
     Then it hit her.  "He's smiling," Megumi whispered to Tomoe.  "Kensan is smiling."
     Indeed, a small ironic smile touched the former Hitokiri Battousai's lips as he seemed to dance, as if this fight were a game and not a battle for lives.  It was not a pleasing thought.
     "He knows something.  He's realized something," Tomoe whispered back.  "He's seen something inside the man that he can use to his advantage."
     "But what?"  Megumi suppressed a shiver; there was something truly disturbing in that violet gaze.
     "His weak spirit."  Tomoe watched the contestants.  "Watch -- I think I've seen it too."
     Megumi's eyes tracked every movement, yet she could see no signs of physical weakness.  Still, she watched and listened.
     "Getting lazy in your wanderings then, are you, Battousai?  Letting time take its toll on you?  I never would have expected the best assassin of the Ishin government to have gotten so soft so soon!"  Kuzuyama attacked now, without warning.  Kenshin barely ducked the older man's knife as it flew from his sleeve, followed closely by several punches aimed at key pressure points as the attacker swept his legs around to knock Kenshin off his feet.
     Barely, but he did duck.  Tomoe smiled to herself.  "Yes.  Despite the man's speed, he knows what it is.  You can see it in his eyes.  The battle is already won."
     Megumi shook her head slightly in confusion, studying the two closely.
     Wait...  Sano had mentioned something, when shed gone to meet them in Kyoto.  He said that Kenshin had fought not like he wanted to win, but merely enough to survive and conserve his strength, until he'd absolutely had to give his all.  What the ex gangster hadn't had to mention was that Kenshin had been past death's door, and only his sheer will had driven him to endure.  At least he wasn't going to be stubborn and push his limits to their utmost again.  But was that what he was doing now?  Of course she believed in him, but it was not impossible that after all he'd been through, he was losing his touch?
     No.  It was more likely to be the former -- yet that couldn't be it.  He'd always fought for what he believed in to the best of his ability.
     Then it hit her.  The only reason Kuzuyama was fighting was because he enjoyed it.  He enjoyed pain, far more than Kanryu ever had.
     "You see it now, don't you."  The older woman looked at the younger.  "He's not truly in it, so neither is...  Neither is Kenshin."  She hesitated over his name, which she had not spoken in so very long.
     He was even more attractive than he'd ben as a teenager.  With the eyes of long lost love, she followed his movements around the floor.  The lines of his face were softer, better defined yet not as gaunt.  He had lost the drawn look of a tortured soul and looked happy -- more accurately, as if his life was full of happiness.  He still had that uncanny ability with a sword, though Megumi had told her before his arrival that Kenshin had sworn an oath after believing her dead, that he would never kill again.  Nor had he -- and though there had been those who had died after a fight with him, it had been by the opponent's own hand or by another's or by accident.  In the case of Shishio Makoto, a name Tomoe remembered with a shudder, he had spontaneously combusted.  Tomoe had not wanted details.  Yet, Kenshin had stayed true to his word though on several occasions it had nearly cost his own life.
     Tomoe's mind drifted as she watched the battle, contemplating what she'd heard of the man who fought for her freedom once again.
     "Takanisan?"
     "Eh?"  Megumi looked surprised at the formality.
     "Gomen.  Megumisan, is he happy?"
     Megumi blinked.  "I...  He's never complained, even though Kaoruchan treats him so violently sometimes.  He has a home, and a family of sorts, it's more than he's had in so long.  He's had more than his share of hardships but I think...  I think he is happy."
     "I'm glad.  Once, I believed he had stolen my happiness.  He had killed my betrothed, whom I had known since our childhood together.  And then we were forced to live together, and I learned happiness again.  I thought he was dead.  I hated myself, believing it was my fault.
     "Only he isn't dead, and he has learned happiness again.  I did not steal it away irreplaceably as I had thought for so long.  And now once again he fights for me, for my life.  It is something at which to wonder.  He has always been a truly remarkable man.  Even more so than Benjiro, as happy as I am with him."  She sighed softly, not realizing the effect her words would have.
     "Benjiro?"  Megumi's eyes left the battle to focus on the woman next to her.
     Tomoe smiled to herself, with only a hint of regret.  "My husband."