Part VII

     Kenshin was excited.  That much was obvious as he came down the road, helping Megumi along on her crutches.  The doctor, too, looked thrilled.
     "We're so close, Kensan, so close to a cure!  My delay idea is working, and I think one more day ought to do it!"  It wasn't the first time during the walk home she'd said so, and Kenshin could hardly blame her.  The idea of being relieved at last of the burden of his occasional womanhood had definite appeal.
     Megumi had altered the formula so that from a few seconds' delay, there was a good ten minutes before the change took effect.  The point was not to make it a very long time before the change, nor even to be able to counteract it in advance, but to cancel it completely, and Megumi's last trial had turned Kenshin female but with his own red hair and certain other features not as obviously altered.  It was a good thing, he reflected, that he only changed gender.  If Sanosuke had to walk around as a part chicken, part human some of the time...
     He did not run ahead to the dojo, but the others heard the excited tones in Megumi's voice and his own and came outside.  In the three weeks since her ankle had been broken, Megumi had only been working for about one and a half on the cure, and Sano had barely spent any time at the dojo. He no longer lent his time to the doctor for her experimentation on finding a cure.  She couldn't really fault him.  Things were getting too awkward.
     Well, once Ryouga went home, as there could be no doubt he would, perhaps he and Kaoru might find comfort with one another.  Kenshin had been spending more time at the clinic helping her than the others, and it was becoming clear to everyone that the chicken's pursuit of the fox was fruitless.
     Kaoru felt bad for Sano, but she and Ryouga spent more time practicing than anything else.  Kaoru had been shocked when, after being knocked off balance by Ryouga's strength and developing skills, he'd kissed her after helping her up.
     Practice had been cut short that evening.
     She knew he would leave soon, once the cure was found.  She knew she couldn't go with him; their lives trod different paths.  But for now, she would enjoy her time with him.
     When she and Ryouga were off together, Yahiko had been wandering over to the Akabeko to visit with Tsubame.  Their young friendship was definitely growing into something with potential.  Of course they were taking their time about it.  They were young, they had all the time in the world.  Why shouldn't they make the most of it at their own pace?
     Sano, however, spent a lot of time gambling with his friends and getting drunk.  He knew that the answers were not found in a bottle of sake, but he simply couldn't cope with the idea that he'd lost out.  Certain competitions weren't the kind you could fight out and have a clear-cut winner; sometimes the one who lost the fight won the prize.  Did he always have to lose out to Kenshin?  He knew he wasn't being fair, but sometimes it seemed to him the redhead had it all.  He always won the fights, got the girls, earned respect wherever he went, and he was one of those guys that you couldn't hate once you knew him, no matter how much you might want to.  It was so damn infuriating!
     The worst part, for him, was seeing the shy smiles and long looks Kenshin shared with Megumi.  They never kissed or held hands or anything.  Kenshin was almost thirty, for crying out loud!  What was he doing acting Yahiko's age?
     The ex-gangster decided to head down to the dojo to see what was going on.  If you were going to kick yourself, after all, why not go for it with both legs?
     When he got there, he was surprised to see the party that seemed to be getting into full swing.  It wasn't a very big party, granted, but Kenshin and Megumi had cooked and Kaoru had decorated the dojo a little.
     "Sano!  Come in!  You're just in time!"
     "What's going on?"
     "I'm finally getting close to something."  Megumi beamed ecstatically from the porch where she sat.
     Sanosuke's eyebrows rose.  "Is that so."  He stifled the impulse to ask, "Other than Kenshin?"  It really wasn't fair of him to be so petty.  After all, she did deserve to be happy, and it wasn't like he treated her all that well most of the time.  Besides, Kaoru was much too violent for Kenshin, and too young.  And here he was trying to rationalize to himself that the woman he loved was better off with another man.
     "Hai!  I think within a week at the extreme, I'll have it.  I'm definitely getting close to finding the cure!"
     At least maybe she'd stop grabbing his ear and dragging him around by it all the time.
     No one had seemed to notice his black mood until Ryouga pulled him aside a few drinks later.
     "I've got this great technique, if you want to learn it.  You use your depression to kick some serious butt."  He smiled tipsily, trying to focus on Sano.
     "I think I'll pass, thanks.  You gotta learn to hold your liquor better first."  Sano grinned.  "Now that's something I can help you with."
     "Why would I wanna hold it when I can drink it?"  Ryouga giggled as if he'd said some classic line.
 Sano looked at him askance.  "Umm, yeah.  Sure, kid."  He rolled his eyes and took another swig from the jug he hadn't put down.  Some people just couldn't take the good stuff.
     "Hey!"  Yahiko piped up giddily.  "I wonder if cold sake works on you guys as well as water!"
     "Oro?"  Kenshin backed away quickly, afraid to be the test subject.
     "EE--"  Kaoru was not so lucky.  An inebriated raccoon made for an interesting sight, but Ryouga and Yahiko were least prepared for it.  They lost it completely, collapsing in hysterics directly proportionate to the amount they'd each imbibed.  Megumi stopped in the middle of pouring for Kenshin to giggle.
     "Oiy, oiy, jouchan, you look funny as a drunken raccoon!"  Sano was beginning to feel the effects as well; he'd been drinking like there was no tomorrow since before he'd come.  And until it had started kicking in, he hadn't cared if there would be, but the alcohol and the general mood affected him as much as his friends with less capacity for drink than himself.
     Yahiko waved the now empty jar of sake triumphantly over his head.  "She's almost tolerable to look at now!"
     "Drink 'til she's cute," Ryouga giggled.
     Sano stared at him in wide-eyed wonder.  "That's brilliant!"
     "Kensan...  Would you like a little more, Kensan?"  Megumi smiled slightly out of focus at him as she poured him another round.  "Can I have a ship... sip... of yours?"
     Kenshin smiled a little nervously as she took it from him and tossed it back.  He was beginning to think that maybe this party wasn't such a good idea.
     For once, the normally sadistic being that dictated their lives had a shred of mercy, or maybe not.  Genzaisensei popped his head into the dojo, followed by two very excited little girls.
     "Party!  Party!  Can we have a party too?"  Ayame led her sister inside.
     "Yeah, we want to party too!"  Suzume bounced happily after her sister, until Genzaisensei shooed them outside.
     "Go on and play for a moment, girls.  I've got to do a little doctor work for our friends."
     The girls nodded and trudged out, Suzume sadly proclaiming, "But we wanted to party too."
     "We can party soon, girls."  The grandfather turned to his friends.  "Well, I might have expected this of some of you, but even you, Megumisan?"
     The woman, who had been hanging adoringly on Kenshin, looked up at her colleague.  "Would you like some, Genzaisensei?"  She waved a jar in his direction.
     "No thank you.  I have something even better."  The old doctor smiled benignly.  "It's in my bag outside."  He turned back to the door.  "I'll be back in an instant."
     A moment later, there was a very loud cacophony of yipping, clucking, "bweeee"ing, and feminine outrage, plus the disgruntled and abruptly sober yells of an infuriated Yahiko; the raccoon had already been doused.  "What'dja do that for?"
     Genzaisensei merely kept smiling.
     Kenshin pouted.  Megumi had been teaching him the art of using his feminine wiles to get the best of a situation.  He'd been a quick study, especially when she had told him to think of it as merely another form of fighting.  One, she had reinforced, that had often stood her in good stead in many a conflict; it was a wonderful thing to be able to throw your opponents for a loop.  He had to agree.  Except now that the cure was in sight...
     Well, seize the moment and the advantages thereof.  "But Genzaisensei, Megumidono's close to finding a cure for this.  What's wrong with a little party?"
     Jaws dropped as everyone else turned to Kenshin.  Even the svelte vixen herself looked surprised.  the problem with the progress she had been making was each time you changed, the cure lost potency if it wasn't taken first.
     "Well, Ken- ahh, Himurasan..."  Talking to a female Kenshin always seemed to throw the doctor off, and this new tactic definitely left him flatfooted.  "Ah, I suppose a little celebration is all right, but I believe this passed the limits of a small celebration.  Now," he continued as he began regaining his composure, "Let's get you all cleaned up and back to your normal selves.  I think I may have some information Megumisan may find useful in her search for a remedy.  But not before you've all been restored."  Genzaisensei looked stern.  "And only after I have been fed."
     Somehow no one seemed surprised at that condition.  Fox and raccoon slipped out of the room towards their own chamber where one heated kettle waited, with Kenshin in red-faced tow while Yahiko got the hot kettle from the main room.  Megumi's face was pained as she hopped on three legs.
     "Kaorudono, please help Megumidono with her leg," the blushing rurouni said with her eyes closed.  for Kenshin, it was the principal of the thing.  He wouldn't look, whether he was a he or a she at the time.  For some reason, every time he changed, he remembered that discussion at the baths, and how the girls had tried so valiantly not to look.  Well, he'd hoped they were trying not to look.  He put down the kettle and ran out of the room, still red-faced, to go affect his own cure.
     "He's such a character," Megumi smiled affectionately as she was dressing with Kaoru's help.  Her leg, of course, had to be resplinted -- under the circumstances it would be impractical to put on a proper cast.
     Kaoru went to get Megumi's crutches without a word.
     They gathered back in the main room to find Kenshin and Ryouga mopping up the water while Sanosuke and Yahiko collected the empty bottles and jugs of sake.  Those that still had liquid in them were stacked neatly by the wall.  Genzaisensei sat with his granddaughters on his knees watching the whole production.
     "Good.  Everything seems back in order.  Well, Megumisan, as for the news I have..."
     "Hai?"
     "The information...  Oh dear.  I seem to be unable to recall on an empty stomach."  The old doctor's eyes gleamed with mischief as his granddaughters giggled.
    "Well, I do have some onigiri left over from before."  Kaoru rose to get them as she spoke.
    "That will be wonderful.  Now, Megumisan, a friend of mine sent me a letter.  He'll be coming through this way very soon; in fact I expect him tomorrow.  He's been traveling for several years, and I mentioned to him the problem at hand.  With luck, he happened to be in China when he received the news, not far from Jusenkyou."  He smiled as Kaoru came back with the onigiri and began stuffing his face.  Sano and Yahiko watched him in something close to awe.
    "How can he eat those?"  Yahiko's voice wasn't quiet enough.  As often as Kaoru hit him, it was a wonder his skull was in one piece.  Sano, for once, kept chewing quietly on his fish bone.
    "Genzaisensei?  Please continue."  Megumi was straining to be patient with the other doctor.
    "Hm?  Oh, yes."  He paused in his voracious consumption of Kaoru's rice balls.  "As it turns out, he was able to get a sample of the water you all need to change back.  The problem is he doesn't even have enough of each for one person and diluting it will have some bad repercussions."
    "But what good will that do?"  Kaoru looked confused.
    "If I have the original, I might be able to dilute the effects...  I could recreate the water!"
    "We could be cured!"  Sanosuke dropped his fish bone in his mad dance of joy.
    "That's wonderful news."  Kenshin smiled.  "Megumidono, how soon do you think it will take?"
    "Well, now...  I can't really say until I try, can I?  I don't expect to take long."
    Ryouga had not said a word, instead hanging on to this new hope with every ounce of his energy.  It was thrilling news; once he had the cure he could try and get back to his own time, except it would mean leaving Kaoru and all these others behind.  That was a difficult prospect to face, but there was always Akane, and he did have a score or three to settle with a certain gender switching martial artist about a hundred years or so from now.
    "I suppose I'll go back to my own room tonight, so that the sooner I have the water, the sooner I can start working on a cure."  Megumi smiled and rose with the help of her crutches.  "Thank you all for the support.  And here's hoping within a week, that we get this over with!"
    No one seemed to have any objections.