Part XI:  A Journey of A Thousand Miles...

    "Do you know where Ekkususan is?"  Kaoru emerged from the kitchen with a bewildered expression.  "She said she'd be back before lunch, and it's already almost dinnertime."
    Sanosuke looked exasperated.  "The onna can take care of herself, you know.  I'm sure she found something to eat and is probably hanging around the clinic with the Kitsune."
    Kaoru nodded.  "I'm sure you're right," she said, though she was clearly still skeptical.  Ekkusu wasn't one to break a promise.  She might have secrets, but she was very careful about her responsibilities.
    The redheaded rurouni came out bearing a bucket of water.  "Don't worry, Kaorudono.  If it makes you happy, we can go to the Akabeko for dinner and stop by the clinic."  He smiled blandly, but there was more than just concern for Ekkusu behind his suggestion.  He wasn't in the mood to cook, and while Kaoru's cooking was better than it had been...
    "That's a great idea, Kenshin!"  Sano suddenly seemed very enthusiastic to help out.  Of course, the way he saw it was another free meal not cooked by Kaoru.  His strained relationship with Ekkusu was never mentioned, least of all the fact that he obviously cared for her deeply.  It was just as clear that his similarity to her dead husband made her uncomfortable and sad.  He wished he could overcome that, but, as with many things, he remained very much skeptical.  "Oiy, jouchan, did you mail that letter yet?"
    "Hai.  There's nothing to do until we hear from Misaochan and Aoshi."
    "That sucks.  We gotta wait on the weasel and the old sourpuss?"  Yahiko grumbled.
    "Stop calling her a weasel.  Although I can't argue that he's a sourpuss, you know Misaochan has enough energy to get them moving quickly."
    "If for no other reason than to shut her up," Sano smirked.
    He looked annoyed but not surprised at the lump that sprang forth from his head where Kaoru whacked him a good one.
    "Maa, maa," Kenshin sighed.  "Kaorudono is right.  Misaodono will certainly have them all here in no time, especially if it will help Ekkusudono."
    A delicate sneeze followed that statement, and Ekkusu walked in, sniffing slightly.  "I'm sorry I was so late," she said.  "I ended up working at the clinic longer than I thought.  I'm sorry I've been so snappish lately."  Her smile was tired; she had always been more expressive than her counterpart.  Sometimes it was refreshing: the others sometimes had trouble deciphering Megumi, but Ekkusu's intentions were almost always clear as a bell.  She thought she was hiding her feelings, and to most people she was, but those who knew her well read her easily.
    "It's okay, Ekkususan, none of us have been very patient lately."
    "Except Kenshin.  Sometimes he's too patient for his own good," Sano grinned.
    "Oro?"
    Ekkusu smiled.  "Have you eaten dinner yet?"
    "Well, we were going to go by the clinic and see if you wanted to join us at the Akabeko, but since you're back, maybe I'll make something instead."
    "No way!  I ain't eatin' the ugly toad's cooking!"  Yahiko made a face.  "You'd have to tie me down first!"
    Kaoru growled.  "That could be arranged, you little brat."
    "Maa, maa.  Don't you two ever get tired of fighting?"
    "Like you're one to ask!"  Kenshin looked surprised and confused at Kaoru's snarling retort.
    "Oro?"
    "I think the ugly toad's PMSing or something," Yahiko made a comical face which lasted just long enough to be interrupted by the force of a wooden practice sword connecting repeatedly with his skull.
    The scarred older woman shook her head.  "Perhaps I should have stayed at the clinic."
    Sano shrugged.  "Maybe Genzaisensei has something to eat?"
    "Do you ever think of anything other than food?"
    "Hey, food!"  Yahiko rubbed his head, though he looked decidedly better at the prospect of dinner.  "We may as well go to the Akabeko.  It beats sitting around here getting my head beat in."
    No one seemed to have an argument, and the not quite disorderly group made its way through the streets without further incident, which is to say Kaoru left her bokken at the dojo.
    A nagging voice in his head told Sanosuke that the plan he hatched over dinner would most likely backfire, but that didn't mean he was going to give up on it.  Watching Ekkusu as surreptitiously as he could, he'd decided that he was going to convince her of just how attractive she really was, scars notwithstanding.  He thought perhaps he might even convince her that the scars made her even more attractive...
    That was, of course, the reason they were summoning Misao and Aoshi.  Still, Sano found himself thinking more and more about Ekkusu, and less about Megumi or Tae or any other woman.  The scarred doctor was more of an enigma to him than anyone else, being at once so like and so unlike the Megumi he'd known.
    He was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he barely noticed how quickly the others were eating until Yahiko called his name.
    "Oiy, what's with you?  You sick or something?"  The younger man barely paused between bites to speak, and Sano was immediately on the defensive which only confirmed his suspicions.
    Sano glared at him, but it was already too late.  "I just ain't that hungry."
    "You ARE sick," Kaoru gasped, only half teasingly.  "Maybe you should take him to the clinic after dinner, Ekkususan, and give him a checkup.  It might be fatal!"
    Ekkusu nodded, a mischievous gleam in her eye.  "Especially since he's refusing to eat.  You may well be right."  She sipped her tea, giving Sanosuke an appraising look over the rim of her cup.  "As soon as we're done, you're coming with me."
    Since that was according to his plan, the former gangster didn't see any reason to argue, but to be complacent would only invite more teasing.  "I have plans.  Maybe tomorrow."
    "If you're sick, you shouldn't be running around and gambling."
    "Kaorudono has a point, Sano.  It isn't as if you'd come home any richer, anyway."
    Tae heard the discussion and, as she passed by, added her own two yen.  "Which reminds me, when ARE you going to get around to paying your tab?"
    Amidst the others' laughter, the tall young man groaned.  "Suddenly I really don't feel so well..."
    "Do you want us to come?" Kaoru asked Sano as they left the restaurant later.
    "Nah.  I'm fine," he said crossly.  "I don't even need to go."
    "I just offered," the young sensei replied, a little surprised at how surly he was being.
    As they parted ways, Kenshin noted to her and her pupil what he thought was on Sanosuke's mind.  "He wants to try and help Ekkusudono on his own, Kaorudono.  Don't be upset with him."  He smiled brightly, attempting to reassure his friend.
    "Not another one of his bird brained schemes," Yahiko rolled his eyes.  "He should know better than anyone how weird it is for her to be around him at all, what with him being...  well, him..."
    "It can't hurt for him to try.  Not much, anyway," Kaoru said thoughtfully.  "I hope."
    As they discussed their concern for their friends, the two were making their way back towards the clinic, Sano grumbling all the way about how he felt just fine and there was no point in him going to the clinic.  They were only about halfway to the clinic when Ekkusu turned to him, clearly fed up with his mumbling.  "I'm beginning to think you need to be locked away, not looked at.  If you don't stop whining, I see no reason not to leave you to your own devices," she snapped.  "I know as well as you do that you're not really ill, but whatever is on your mind had better be important!"
    For a long moment, he could only stare at her, blinking in astonishment.  Of course, he should have known that there was more to her going along with the ruse than simply believing his charade.  He wasn't very good at hiding things, while she was quite skilled at seeing through thin facades such as the one he presented.  It shouldn't have caught him by surprise, but it did.  It definitely put a bit of a damper on his initial plan.  He'd thought only about getting her into a situation where he could talk to her alone and uninterrupted, and being seen through was not part of his intended scenario.  He was floored...  There was no way he could imagine bringing up the subject delicately.
    "Well?"
    She was so amazingly beautiful to him; even the way her scar pulsed faintly, threatening to open again, somehow heightened her appeal.  His first impulse was to sweep her into his arms for a kiss, but the very notion set off al sorts of alarms.  She would NOT appreciate such a move, so he defaulted to his second course of action.
    "Oiy...  You're beautiful when you're angry."  Sano was inwardly pleased with himself; such an original line could hardly go unappreciated!
    Contrary to his expectations, she didn't soften and glow with gratitude at his praise.  If anything, she looked even angrier and more mistrustful.
    "You're always beautiful."
    "What do you want, Sano?  Money?  Food?  I don't have any for you.  Why not go bother your little friends?"  She whirled, ebony hair flashing in the light of the setting sun even as her eyes flashed with anger -- and perhaps pain?  It was hard for him to tell.
    Suddenly he, too, was angry.  It was time to go for broke.  "No, I don't want money, and I don't want food.  I want you."
    She froze.  He could not see her face, but the rigid set of her shoulders spoke rather loudly in and of itself.  The way she did not turn or move screamed clearly enough for him to understand perfectly just how upset she really was.  All bets were now, officially, off.  For some reason, he felt as though he was on the verge of a major battle as opposed to a relatively simple conversation with a friend who just happened to be a beautiful woman.  Then again, the injuries he'd suffered before were usually only physical and healed eventually.  This was a whole different war, and one with which he didn't have a lot of experience despite his boasts to the contrary.
    "I don't care what you think of me for saying so, but you're a hell of a woman and I ain't gonna give up just because you don't think you're good enough.  I know you don't want to hear it, but there's gotta be a reason you married that other me, and there's also gotta be one that he died, and I think it's 'cause he couldn't stand seeing you suffer and not be able to do something about it.  And I don't think you should be pitying yourself so much, either.  Get over yourself, onna."  In a softer voice, half turning away from her, he muttered, "One of us has to."
    Ekkusu stared at him, utterly at a loss.  She wasn't precisely surprised, but by the same token, how difficult it was to remember that this was not the same man who had died in her name...
    "Sanosuke...  Please don't..."  Her scar stood out bright against her skin, nearly white as it was with shock.  "I'm not..."  Suddenly, she seemed to regain her composure, and the look of uncertainty flashed into anger.  "There's only one of us sunk in self-pity, and I assure you it isn't me!"  They both knew she was lying, but for once Sano didn't point that out.
    Instead he sighed and turned away from her.  "I ain't gonna fight you.  But I don't like seein' you like this," he muttered as he stormed off.
    She was left standing, her directionless anger pushing her to run as she hadn't since she'd come to this world, driving her through the streets of Tokyo in blind, desperate determination to get far away, to be anywhere but where she was.
    Yahiko, on his way back to the dojo from the Akabeko, saw her as she fled, though she didn't seem to notice him in return.  Concern and curiosity got the better of him and he followed her at a safe distance, watching carefully for pursuit.  He was more than a little bewildered that he seemed to be the only one following her, and few others noticed the woman who cried as she fled an unseen enemy.
    Of course, it wasn't hard to follow her.  Even if he had lost her, the occasional drop of blood from her scar had laid a trail even a fool could follow.
    She reached the woods and he followed her to a small clearing...  A very familiar clearing.  As she collapsed to her knees, wracked with sobs, Yahiko realized what was so familiar about it -- years before, this was where their own Megumi had gone to meet with Kanryu.  Sano had pointed the place out and in fact was known to go there on occasion when he wanted solitude.  Yahiko wondered if she'd known, or if some other motivation had brought her to that place.
    Still, he wasn't foolish enough to think she wanted company -- anyone's, much less his own.  The way she gave herself over to tears made that very clear.  It also made him uncomfortable; crying girls weren't his favorite thing to encounter.  That didn't mean he was going to leave her alone.  She might need solitude now, but that might change later.  Plus, if she was in some kind of trouble, who better than Tokyo Samurai Myoujin Yahiko to protect her?
    He grinned to himself slightly.  It was a wry grin; he hardly ever thought of himself that way anymore.  It seemed like a lifetime ago that he'd first met Kenshin and Kaoru.  In a way, it was.  They'd all grown and changed a great deal, and it was in large part due to one another.
    He stood a little straighter in the shadows, keeping one eye on the crumpled figure, and watching their surroundings with the other.
    Whether she knew it or not, Ekkusu wasn't alone.