A Road Less Traveled
by Tin Mandigma


---------------------------------------

This is a Rurouni Kenshin-inspired fanfic
written entirely for entertainment purposes
only. Standard disclaimers apply.

---------------------------------------

Part 5: 

Megumi stared up at the ceiling blankly.
The visitors have long since left, the
remnants of supper cleared away and the
entire house was now dark and silent.
Eerily so.

It must be nearly dawn, she thought with
a sigh. Somehow, she couldn't bring
herself to sleep as the night's events
replayed themselves over and over in her
mind. The dinner was hardly a success.
After the first horrified scream, Kozue
had fainted and she had to attend
to the already feverish woman while
ruthlessly forcing down the hysteria which
kept rising to her throat. Megumi shuddered.
'Hardly a success' was an understatement.
The entire evening had been *horrible*.
After Kozue had regained some vestige of
consciousness, Akiko had called for her
carriage, had Sano carry the woman to the
vehicle and had left hurriedly with a
mutter of thanks and a promise to come
back as soon as possible to resolve matters.

Megumi smiled wryly to herself. At least
Akiko was indefidgetable. She had been
totally in control of the entire situation,
considering that Kenshin had disappeared
with Kaoru soon after what--'happened' and
Yahiko had started running around the room
looking for the vegetable seller's ghost.
As soon as Akiko and Kozue had left, Megumi
had gone straight to Kaoru's room where
a grave Kenshin met her on the hallway and
told her that the girl was already asleep.
'I should have insisted on seeing her,'
Megumi thought as she remembered making some
lame excuse to Kenshin and fled to her
own room where she had curled on her futon,
hands shaking, face beaded with sweat, as she
finally gave in to the terror which refused
to be appeased by her constant denial. She
should have held off the torment for a while
longer, if only for Kaoru's sake. You are
weak, Megumi, she told herself bitterly. Weak. 

But she had also been confused and--Megumi's hands--
curled on the sheets--afraid. The fear had
mercifully receded to some deep dark aspect of
her consciousness but the uncertainty had
only been magnified with the passing of the
hours, had, in fact, been staring her in the
face like another unwanted specter since its 
realization. She desperately wanted to be there 
for Kaoru but she knew that she could only do 
that if she could confront the reality of what 
had happened directly, objectively. And her
consistent inability to do so, Megumi decided,
was the root of her lack of conviction, the
only thing she was sure about now being the
knowledge that the price for truth entailed
painful questions, most of which she didn't
really want to address much less answer.

'You can try, Megumi.'

OK then.

For instance, what defines a person? What makes
an individual unique, special, something which
takes him or her above the level of a somewhat
confused mass of spatio-temporality to the concrete
manifestation of the delicate balance between
impermanence and immortality, conditionality
and the absolute? Was it the curve of the
cheek, the subtle flicker of the eye, the 
tips of one's fingers? Megumi let out a frustrated
breath. There was something. There *had* to
be something. She had seen Kaoru lose, for 
a few brief moments, what made her 'Kaoru,' 
had found herself confronted with a stranger
watching her through Kaoru's eyes.

Megumi rubbed her forehead wearily. Her uncertainty
seemed even more troubling when concretized in this
way especially since the issue she had been
avoiding the most had been pushed at the forefront
of her musings through the process. The issue of her 
sanity. Maybe she had been imagining things.
Maybe everything that happened had only been the
combined product of the vague fears and niggling
doubts which she had kept persistently at
bay these last few days. These last few *weeks*.
That she had merely been projecting her inability
to see the present for what it was into something
she had been raised to dismiss as an impossibility
and, in the process, lent it credence and thus
affirmed her own credulity. And, in a way, that 
explanation was even more difficult for her to 
accept. Somehow, it was easier to believe in 
'insane' ideas about ghosts and possessions than 
to acknowledge that the true madness lies in herself.

She rose and padded gently to the open window.
Pale streaks lightened the fast retreating nightsky.
Dawn. In a few more minutes, the sun will be
rising. The tomorrow she had been alternately
dreading and hoping for throughout the long
sleepless night had come. But what does it
hold? Megumi wondered.


Tomorrow turned out to be another glorious
sunny day. Megumi had been on edge when
she went down for breakfast but the combined
effect of a lazily awake Sano, an exuberant
Yahiko, the usual gentle banter from Kenshin
and a remarkably cheerful Kaoru had done
wonders to her blood pressure. Gradually,
she felt herself unwind, relax even. No one
made any mention of the events of the past
night and she chided herself for getting
too worked up about it. True, she had the
impression that Kenshin wanted to talk to
her privately, he approached her several
times, but she chalked that up to his usual
concern about Kaoru and not because he was
impelled by some need to discuss the--issues 
she had tortured herself with for half the night.

The men left early in the afternoon to 
go fishing. Megumi and Kaoru had declined
to go with them, smiling impishly when
Yahiko accused them of having no
appreciation whatsoever of the great outdoors.

"But my complexion!" Megumi protested with
a simpering smile. "It's soooo hot...!"

"And my hair! My clothes!" Kaoru protested
in a high-pitched squeal. "I don't want
to ruin them, Yahiko-chaaan..."

Yahiko snorted, threw up his hands, and told
them politely to stuff their clothes, their
hair and their damn complexions. "Women,"
he muttered. "Why do you put up with them,
Kenshin? Sano?"

A plaintive question which the two men
answered with benign if somewhat suggestive
smiles.

Freed of what Kaoru jokingly called their
"excess baggage," the two girls spent the
afternoon pottering in the house and 
gardens before setting off for a walk to
town to buy some supplies and to send
letters to Genzai-sensei and Tae.
They stayed in town for nearly an hour,
leaving only when they noticed the darkening
skies and the flash of lightning in the
distance which boded of a summer storm.
They barely managed to reach the house before
the heavens cracked open and rain fell down
in heavy torrents, rendering everything from
the gardens beyond nearly invisible. Megumi 
hurriedly went about the house, closing windows and
securing doors, before heading back to 
the kitchen where Kaoru remained to boil
some tea. She found the other girl already
seated in the dining room with two steaming
bowls of tea arranged beside a delicate porcelain
pot. Kaoru silently held out one bowl to Megumi
who took it from her with a grateful smile
as she sat down.

"They're probably stuck right now," Kaoru commented, 
her voice barely rising above the noise of the downpour.
"I'm worried."

Megumi nodded. "Yes. I hope they find a shelter 
or something," she added, frowning in concern.
"They might get sick in this weather."

"At this rate, they won't be able to make their
way back until morning," Kaoru said. "It'll be
too dangerous to go traipsing in the forest,
especially since the rains show no signs of letting
up." 

Megumi felt a chill course through her body. She
ignored it, taking a sip from her tea instead.
"They'll come back."

"I don't think so. Not tonight, at least," Kaoru 
murmured. "Which means we'll be alone in the house."

Megumi swallowed her tea quickly, wincing as
the hot liquid scalded her tongue before
making its painful way down her throat. "A
dangerous occupation," she responded half-jokingly.

"True," Kaoru answered. She turned to look at 
Megumi, her features barely discernible in the
half light. "We must be on guard then..."

That last part sounded pretty vague, somewhere
between a joke, a serious comment and an
unconscious observation. Megumi resisted the
urge to tell Kaoru that they should go look
for the others instead. 

On second thought, maybe she should it give
it a try. Braving the rains seemed to be a 
better option than sitting around here waiting
for something to happen.

Megumi slid a glance at the silent Kaoru and
clasped her bowl more tightly between her
hands, seeking to preserve the warmth which
seeped through the thin covering. 

'Something *is* going to happen,' she thought,
feeling suddenly dizzy.

She was sure, so sure of it now.


It was still raining by dinnertime.

After a quiet supper, Megumi haltingly suggested
that they go to bed early. The others will
most probably not return that night. In any
case, she was sure that they were safe somewhere,
probably having the time of their lives at
Akiko's house which is where they probably
hied off to at the first stirrings of the
storm. Kaoru agreed to her admittedly confused
rantings with surprising complacency. Even
doing the dishes, which Kaoru had insistently
maintained was *her* job in the kitchen,
was surrendered to Megumi with a mere nod.

Later, as she lay on her futon, Megumi thought
that Kaoru looked tired. She wondered uneasily
if the smiling veneer which the other girl
kept all day was just a facade. 'But of what?'
Megumi thought morosely. Did she know--did
she remember what happened last night, if
anything *did* happen at all? Megumi closed
her eyes, unwilling to pursue that particular
train of thought. She suddenly felt weary,
achingly drowsy. Maybe tonight she could dream
about Sano, the only madness which she
would willingly, if ever, allow herself to 
be part of...

Instead, she dreamed that when she woke
up, she was lying on a cold hard floor.
She jerked into a sitting position
instantly, her heart pounding, as she
scanned the room where she was in. Her mouth
went dry when she realized that she was in
*that* room of the house. It was very dark...
The shadows seemed to blend eerily with
each other to create an impenetrable cloak
of night--Megumi gasped when she saw the
cloak move, heave, take slow painful shape
as it approached her. She watched with horrified 
fascination as the darkness branched out into 
different directions, all twisting coiling arms 
of black empty mass reaching out for her. Her mind
screamed that this was all a nightmare,
that she should wake up...wake up...!

Megumi's eyes flew open and she was in her
room again. Gasping, her gaze frantically 
skimmed the ceiling, the walls, her hands
clutching the crisp reality of her sheets,
the painful tingling in her palms as her
fingers dug in. 'Just a dream,' she told
herself soothingly. 'It was just a dream...'

And it was then that her real nightmare
started.

Cold. It was cold. Megumi's vision dimmed
as the terrifyingly flat enveloping darkness
descended on her like a shroud and she
was was being dragged down a miasma of
stifling horror. All of a sudden, the
darkness parted as if sliced through with
a knife and the scream which was building
up throughout her entire being died in
her throat.

Kaoru stood by her bed, dressed in her
white sleeping kimono, her hair loose
around her shoulders. Her face was very
pale, her lips nearly colorless as they
opened in an echo of Megumi's silent anguished 
scream, her eyes frighteningly blank and
unseeing.

The darkness reared behind her like a
sinister predator, reaching out menacingly
to draw her into its cruel embrace. Megumi
wanted to reach out, to yank the girl 
to her, but she was immobilized by terror,
by the shadows which chained her arms to
her side, by the sheer agony and pain she
could feel from Kaoru herself.

It was at that moment Megumi finally, truly, 
woke up and the nightmarish vision fled. She sat up
slowly, her shoulders shaking, and
she took deep even breaths in an effort
to calm herself. That was horrible. Just
plain horrible... Megumi buried her
face in her hands, desperately trying
to hold on to something as the pieces of her
world tried to find each other
through the jagged edges of her
tattered nerves. If she hadn't woken 
up...

Megumi drew a sharp breath as a faint
whisper of a sound broke through the
barriers imposed by semi-consciousness.
She straightened immediately from her
slumped position, her eyes narrowing
as she tried to identify where the sound
came from.

She expelled a sigh when she realized it
was coming from outside her door. The
floor boards creaked ominously as bare
feet stepped on it in agonizing slowness.

Megumi knew what was waiting for her
outside. Somehow, she forced herself
off her bed and made her way slowly
to the door. She slid it open in a 
state of numbed acceptance, terrified
premonition.

Her nightmare all over again.


End of Part 5