Takani Megumi

Name: Takani Megumi

Nicknames: Ahen Ona

Month Of Birth: December

Age: 22 years old

Height: 166cm

Weight: 45kg

Blood Type: B

School: Western Medicine

Weapon: -

Technique: -

Appearance: A beauty

Personality: She likes to tease people and has some interest in Kenshin, which Kaoru does not like at all. When she first appears, she seems cold-hearted and selfish, but later on we see her true self, a young woman who is lost in the world, searching for her family, and friends. Megumi usually acts stouthearted, but she is actually just trying to hide her loneliness and the guilt she holds in her heart. She blames herself for the spreading of a new type of opium, and the deaths the opium caused.

Background: Megumi Takani's family was prestigious in the medical field for generations. They treated all their patients disregarding any class difference. During the Aizusensou, all of them except young Megumi went to the battlefield, to fulfill their roles. As a result, Megumi's father was killed, and Megumi was separated from her mother and her two brothers. She was left alone in the world to fend for herself.

When she was 17 years old, she became a doctor assistant. However, that doctor was working with Takeda Kanryu to produce opium. When the doctor created a new type of opium that was stronger yet cheaper, Kanryu killed him while trying to obtain the formula. Unfortunately for Megumi, she became the only one left in the world who knew the formula. Kanryu forced her to produce the new opium and Megumi wanted to kill herself for she knew she was making a drug that was not curing people. But she could not kill herself, for she still had a small spark of hope that she would someday be reunited with her family.

One day, Megumi took all the opium that she had produced and fled Kanryu's mansion. While being chased, Megumi ran into a house where Kenshin and Sanosuke were. Kenshin learns from Megumi, Kanryu, the Oniwabanshuu and the Oniwabanshuu's leader, Shinomori Aoshi. When Kanryu knows that Megumi is hiding at Kamiya dojou, he threatens to burn it down if Megumi does not return to Kanryu. Megumi, with no alternative, agrees and leave a note at Kamiya dojou, saying that she is going back to Aizu, her hometown. However, Kenshin knows she was forced to return to Kanryu, and goes to rescue her. And Aoshi is waiting...

Making of Takani Megumi: I did not have any specific model, but made an image of an adult flirtatious woman. There were a lot of readers that were confused that she was completely different from the Megumi in the short story, but I did not think they were that different. They both have the same place in my heart. The Megumi in the short story was the middle of three children but cast the faintness shadow and was content to not be active. But, as it came out in the books, it was imperative that she is flirtatious, and as I never done that kind of character before, I did a lot of research. Reading it over now, It is too bad I did not cut the flirting. Well, discord is the essence of drama, so there is nothing I could do...

Individually Megumi was fun to draw, so I thought I would introduce her as a minor character, the only other woman that Kaoru interacts with. And on top of that, it was necessary for her to have special skills... I got a lot of letters from readers that said "Aoshi and Megumi look good together" and "Sano and Megumi look good together" but I think that of the former, their art looks good together, and of the latter, their personalities look good together. But, just like I have not decided whether Kenshin and Kaoru will get together...

The theme of the Megumi story is atonement, and although it was a story where I could think about Kenshin / Hitokiri Battousai's feelings about atonement, the second half gave me headaches. When it comes time to write about Kenshin's own atonement it will give me even more headaches, but right now my head hurts too. My design came from young Baichi-chan from Obata's "Cyborg Grandpa G". It was a great deal of work, and of course I cannot draw like him, so in my style it became a bad Megumi.

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