Part VIII:  The Truth Will Out

    Megumi and Genzai stared at Ekkusu in shock.
    "That whole story was a lie?" the old doctor asked slowly.
    "No.  Not all of it.  But some parts...  I know Kensan knows but I couldn't stop it.  When I was with Kanryu, there were times the truth would have been my death.  I've learned to lie to save myself, but I can't stop it when it's not necessary.  Although I'm not very good at it," she said wryly, smiling without humor.
    "I suspect it's more likely that Kenshinsan's better at knowing truth from lie," Genzai told her gently.
    "Genzaisensei, you've all been more to me in the past few months than I can ever explain.  Megumisan, you've been where I was.  You know what he's like."
    The other woman nodded.  Slowly, but the look in her eyes was fading from ne of distrustful shock to a grudging understanding.  She, too, had once learned to lie to protect her life, but she'd also not been through all of the things that this mirror image of hers had.  No, she couldn't honestly hold the falsehoods against Ekkusu.  She did, however, want to know the truth...
    "You didn't get that scar by trying to maim yourself."  She looked at the other woman shrewdly.  As a doctor, she should have recognized that, at least.
    "No.  Not by trying to do what I said.  I did it the day Sanosuke died, the day I heard he died.  Kensan, Kennii that is, had told me how he got his scar and how it didn't heal until he found his own peace.  I believed his story, but I suppose I've forgiven myself."  She smiled wryly.
    Megumi shared a glance with Genzaisensei.  The woman didn't realize that her scar was bleeding.  Very slightly, but the glisten of red was noticeable.
    "Are you sure about that, Ekkususan?"  The old doctor rose to get something to clean it off, showing her the red stain on the white cloth bandage.
    "What?"  Though she was obviously not expecting blood, she had been aware that the old wound was hurting more than usual.  The other two physicians had seen it clearly in the way she spoke so carefully.  That was even if one disregarded the fact that Kenshin had come by the clinic on his way to the market that morning and mentioned that he'd seen blood on Ekkusu's pillowcase when doing the laundry.
    "So how did you do it, anyway?  The wounds look rather haphazard.  You didn't plan it out very much," Megumi said by way of a question.  Genzai applied a fresh bandage as Ekkusu told them.
    "Not entirely.  I wasn't acting very rationally, and I wanted to hurt myself because I thought it might make the loss seem more bearable.  I know that goes against our training, but, Megumisan, if you had lost one of our friends, what would you have done?"  She smiled with the left side of her face.  "What if it had been Kensan?"
    The other woman was silent.  No, she knew rationality wouldn't have been her primary course under similar circumstances, but none of them doubted that her reaction would have taken a different direction, if no less intense.
    "And the whip?"  Megumi smiled, sharing a look with the woman who was her and not her.  "Where'd you learn those techniques, and could you teach me?"
    "I don't know if that's such a good idea, Megumisan," and though the doctor's tone was cautious, Genzaisensei's eyes glittered with amusement.  The use of a whip was undoubtedly a good skill to have around the group of friends they usually associated themselves with.  It was a great way not only to pull people and things out of compromising situations, but also to keep Kaoru and the boys in line when they seemed to be ever so slightly overstepping their bounds.
    "And if you had the flexibility and strength, you'd ask Ekkususan to teach you as well."  Megumi grinned, every inch a vixen.
    She was almost surprised when Genzaisensei didn't argue.  "True, Megumisan.  But if I had your youth and versatility, I suspect I'd be even more of a handful than the others combined."  Now it was his turn to look overly smug, and the two women turned to one another with a shrug.
    "So why did you make up that story?  Why tell us something as stupid as trying to cut your eyes out?"  Couldn't you come up with anything better?"  Megumi eyed the scarred woman skeptically.  "I would think that learning to lie for your life meant learning to lie well and come up with a good story."
    "That's as may be, but I'm trying to break the habit," Ekkusu replied evenly.
    "You don't have to torment the woman," the old doctor chided gently.  "Although I admit my own curiosity about that whip..."
    "Dirty old man," Megumi muttered, twitching in unison with Ekkusu as they eyed the wide grin their colleague wore.
    "I did learn the use of the whip under Kanryu's...  tutelage.  And I had to make myself believe it was enjoyable, when I was...  with him, if I wanted to survive.  It got to be so that I couldn't tell the truth anymore; though I didn't like inflicting the pain, I did enjoy knowing that if he was well pleased I might be rewarded with leniency.  Small rewards, big prices, but I knew I'd be free of him eventually, either through escape or death.
    "Whipping was one of the things he enjoyed most, so I became proficient with it, even developing techniques he hadn't thought of but found...  enjoyable," she grimaced.  "Then when Kennii and the others came after me, I tried to use it in a way he didn't like.  I believe that was the final straw for him, what made him decide to kill my child.  I might even have my baby now, if not for him..."
    Genzai exchanged a glance with Megumi, shocked.  Had she been there that long already?
    "I was nearly into my fourth month when it happened," Ekkusu said softly, not having missed the look they'd shared.  "I've been here almost five more.  But there isn't anything I can do about that child."  The bandage, so recently still white, was showing a stain of red beneath a darkly wet spot at the upper edge.  The tears only flowed freely on her left cheek.
    "Oiy, anyone home?"  Sano's voice echoed in ahead of him as he and Kenshin entered the clinic.  "Hey, there you are.  Got anything to eat?"
    "Genzaisensei, Megumidono."  Kenshin nodded a greeting at them.  "Ekkusudono?"
    She composed herself almost as soon as she heard them, but the traces of tears didn't fade that easily, nor could she hide the bloodied bandage.  She didn't try.
    Kenshin reacted as though someone had struck him when he saw it.  Memories tore through him; though he'd changed a great deal and put that part of his life behind him, sometimes still he would wake up in a cold sweat.  Remembering what it had been like to be a killer.  To lose his first love to his own sword.  To wander for months with a bleeding wound that would not heal. echoing his heart.  To go through life unable to forgive himself for what he'd become.  The signs of the same self torment were written on Takani Megumi Ekkusu's face.
    Clear as blood.
    "Why didn't this happen before?"  Sano wasn't looking at Ekkusu, but instead focused on the older man.  The way he figured it, the doctor had to have all the answers; but it was Kenshin who answered.
    "Because Ekkusudono was too busy living to focus on what happened."
    "Huh?"
    Now Genzai spoke, glad of Kenshin's intervention.  "Talking about something makes you face it, though sometimes not as much as denying it.  When Ekkususan, ah, embellished her story, she was brought face to face with  those issues that she'd been hiding from."
    "Like I once did, dwelling on what had happened and what I'd become.  That was why my first cut didn't heal for many months."
    "It does seem a little odd that Ekkususan's did heal, and only began to reopen up now."  Megumi studied the woman who could be her twin.  "Then again, under the circumstances I suppose it's only sensible.  It's only now that we're beginning to understand what's going on, and so is she."
    Ekkusu nodded.  "I must admit I don't think I like it, either."
    The group fell silent for a long moment.
    "Kenshin," Sano spoke up suddenly.  "When you brought her to the dojo, you said her scar's been healed for a long time."
    The rurouni looked at his friend with an apologetic smile.  "Even I can be wrong, Sano.  Besides, it looked that way, and I had other things on my mind that night."  Even before he'd finished speaking, the smile had faded, and a deeply troubled expression took its place.
    "What is it, Kensan?"
    "Megumidono, the night I found Ekkusudono, I realized something that I don't know why I never saw before.  Maybe it was the way I found her, but you -- both of you -- look very much like someone I lost."
    Four pairs of eyes looked at him in sudden understanding.  They all knew about Yukishiro Tomoe, though none said the name aloud.
    "You make the night rain blood.  Those were the first words she said to me."
    Ekkusu finally broke the long silence.  "And you found me in a puddle of blood and rain.  Forgive me, Kensan."
    "Oro?"
    "For waking up painful memories.  I never knew--"
    "Don't be foolish!"
    They all looked to Megumi in shock.
    The unscarred doctor was carefully studying the ends of her hair, the way she di when about to impart wisdom in her usual sardonic fashion.  "You didn't choose to be left for dead in the rain, any more than Kensan chose to remember.  And if either of you would care to look beneath the surface, you'd find out more than certain people would like to know."
    "Where is jouchan anyway?"  Megumi almost laughed at Sano's seeming non sequitur, and he stared at her in complete confusion.  "What?"
    "Nothing.  Chickenhead."  It broke the tension, and Ekkusu rose to rebandage her bleeding cheek.  "Why don't I make dinner here?  Sano, run to the dojo and get Kaoruchan and Yahiko, will you?  Since you and Kensan were kind enough to bring fish,"  she pointed at the bucket that Kenshin had nearly forgotten he carried.
    Sano grumbled but went off.  It was easier than arguing, and besides, it meant he wouldn't have to eat Kaoru's cooking.  That in itself was worth it.
    "Ekkusudono, may I ask you something?"  He knew that he wouldn't get the answers he was looking for, not yet.  It didn't stop him from asking, "Is there anything left?"
    Dark eyes turned to him over the white bandage.  Dark eyes that suddenly held too much, for the briefest instant, eyes that captured something in him he'd thought lost, but the words were already out of his mouth.  Something had made him change the question, but it had been asked nonetheless.  Only, it was worse now, not what he'd thought he had intended, and she knew what he'd meant.  He himself wasn't as sure.
    "Of course, Kensan.  Don't be silly; we haven't even started cooking yet."  The look was gone and covered with a flip remark and an unconcerned smile, but something had definitively changed.  The balance had shifted.  He smiled nervously and went outside to get water.
    Kaoru was probably not going to like what she saw, Megumi mused to herself as she walked with Ekkusu to the kitchen.  The change that had suddenly come over Kensan when he'd admitted that she (they?) looked like his first love was unmistakable to the trained eye.  Kaoru was definitely trained in Kenshin's ways; after all, she considered him practically her property.  She could catch him when he was thinking about considering looking at another woman, even in passing.
    "You don't want him to know yet.  What I don't understand is why," she said quietly to the other physician as the two women cleaned the fish Kenshin and Sano had brought.
    "You should, Megumisan.  After all, you're the one who knows me best of all, ne?"  Ekkusu's quietly ironic smile only frustrated Megumi more.
    "You know he knows when someone lies to him.  You know he'll find out, soon enough.  Why try and make it worse?"
    "I don't have an answer for you, Megumisan.  I'm afraid; that's the best i can come up with."
    "Afraid?  Of Kensan?  What do you fear from Kensan?  Kaoruchan's got him more terrified of anything even remotely female than you could ever be of him!"  Ekkusu looked at her counterpart in surprise.
    "Now I know why Sano calls you Kitsune-onna all the time," she said as the other woman laughed evilly, and Ekkusu could swear she saw Fox ears and tail sprouting from Megumi's hair and kimono.  "I suppose it works for both of us."
    "Kitsune and Eki-Kizu (large scar).  What a pair, ne?"  The humor was back in Ekkusu's smile.
    "He calls you that?  And you let the tori-atama get away with it?"
    "He IS A tori-atama, after all!"  There were two Kitsune-onna laughing evilly at Sano's expense when Kenshin carried the bucket of water into the kitchen.
    "Megumidono?  Ekkusudono?"  He set the bucket on the floor and started edging back out nervously.  "Is there anything else I can get for you?"
    "No, thank you Kensan, we have everything we need," Ekkusu said as Megumi smiled at him teasingly.
    "Especially now that you're here, ne?"  She sent a look that served as a nudge to Ekkusu, who returned the glance with a haughty flair of her own.
    "You may go now, Kensan," she said imperiously.  The redhead backed out as quickly as he could without falling over himself.
    After he was gone, the two women giggled again, but it was a more relaxed sound than their usual evil Kitsuneonna persona which they'd cultivated separately and perfected together.
    A long silence ensued as they concentrated on flavoring and cooking dinner, but when it was finally in the oven, Ekkusu looked at her friend.  "I'll tell him, Megumisan, but only when the time is right."
    "And when will that be," the other replied, her skepticism obvious.
    "When I make it so."