This is a repost of a short RK fanfic that's based on the events in
episodes 8 and 62.  It takes place after the final battle with
Shishio.

As always, C&C is greatly appreciated!   ^_^

---------------------------------
IMPRESSIONS
---------------------------------
A Rurouni Kenshin Fanfic

---------------
Disclaimer
    All rights and privileges to Rurouni Kenshin belong to Nobuhiro
Watsuki, Shuiesha, Sony Music Entertainment, and associated parties.
The characters of this series are used without her permission for the
purpose of entertainment only.  This work of fiction is not meant for
sale or profit.
    English translation of Episodes 8, 62 by Shinsen Gumi and/or
HECTO.

**********************************************************************

    Megumi carefully peeled the bandage away and examined the long,
deep gash underneath.  To her relief, it was healing well and the
muscle damage seemed minimal.  But from Sano's story, she knew that
her patient had come dangerously close to getting slashed clear
through to his backbone.  If Soujiro's blow had cut just a little
deeper....

    "The wound on your back is healing nicely.  But just to be sure,
I'll change the bandage."

    "Thank you."

    She put her hands on his shoulders to check the joints for
swelling.  From the descriptions she'd heard, the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu
succession technique had to put an enormous strain on a person's body.
 And to use it repeatedly in the space of a single day....  It was a
miracle that he hadn't torn his body apart in the process.

    Megumi wondered just how many women had ever had the privilege of
running their hands along his strong, sleek muscles.... to feel the
smooth warm skin of his back.  She was certain that Kaoru hadn't...
but was there -- or had there been -- another woman out there who had
touched him like this?  Sometimes he acted like such a naive innocent,
she'd swear that he was still a virgin.  But other times, the look of
quiet sorrow and endurance in his eyes told her that he was all too
well acquainted with real life in all forms.

    Bandage in hand, she stared fixedly at the slowly healing slash
that reached across his entire back.  Considering the life that he had
led and the amount of fighting he had done, he had surprisingly few
scars.  It was a testament to his consummate skill and extraordinary
luck.

    In her heart, she knew what each scar meant.  On other people,
scars were often reminders of carelessness, stupidity, or reckless
actions.  But for him, each represented a brush with certain death --
an encounter with an opponent or with opponents bent on his
destruction.

    ....the three thin slashes across his chest where Shinomori Aoshi
nearly cut his heart out... the fresh cuts on both sides of his neck
-- again, Aoshi's deadly work -- that lay perilously close to vital
blood vessels....

    ....the small scar on his right side where Saitoh Hajime had
nearly nailed him to the ceiling of the Kamiya dojo....

    ....the healing slash along his back, left by a boy with
superhuman physical abilities and no heart....

    ....and the burns, stab wounds, and bite mark -- a BITE mark, by
all that was holy! -- left by a beast calling itself Mokoto
Shishio....

    Those were just some of the injuries she personally knew about.
There were others -- older scars whose stories Megumi doubted she
would ever know.  Kenshin kept his secrets too well.

    Like the crossed scar on his cheek.  Over ten years and still
unfaded....

    But Megumi couldn't help but wonder to what extremes the Hitokiri
Battousai had driven this body.  She remembered all too vividly his
vicious battle with Saitoh Hajime.  The Battousai had chosen to
deflect Saitoh's broken blade with his bare hand rather than give his
opponent the smallest tactical advantage.

    And these were only the marks she could see.  What about the
injuries that didn't leave visible reminders -- the broken bones, the
strained joints, the torn muscles, the bruised flesh?

    So much pain he had endured.... and knowing him, there would be
more to come....

    In her darker, wearier moments, she sometimes wondered why she
even bothered.  True, he was healing nicely from his current wounds,
but she also knew that there would be plenty of new injuries in the
future, simply because of the man he was.

    For some people, he was an obstacle that had to be removed at any
cost, because of his abilities and his beliefs.

    Megumi thought bitterly, (Isn't that the way of the world?  To
constantly destroy the best and the greatest things simply because
they ARE the best and the greatest?)

    As for himself, if a new threat arose, Megumi had no doubts that
he would fight again... and again... and again....  He might do so
reluctantly but he would accept the challenge because there was no one
else who could do what he did.

    And he would get hurt again... and again... and again....

    If he continued this way, it was inevitable that he would die...
and die young.  There would be no happily-ever-afters for him and
Kaoru.  There might be children, if Kaoru got her act together NOW and
was very, very lucky.  But the chances of him living long enough to
see those children grow up were so remote....

    And he would be such a good father....

    Himura Kenshin deserved so much more than an early grave.

    Megumi struggled to control her voice as she whispered, "But if
you get hurt like this again, I don't know if...."

    There was a brief silence, then she heard his soft reply.

    "Then I'll be more careful."

    Her vision blurred as tears slowly filled her eyes.  Megumi slowly
lowered her head against his back and remembered the first time she
had seen him,... the first time she had held him in her arms.

    What a blind and selfish fool she had been back then.... in so
many ways.

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

    Megumi fled down the crowded street, desperately trying to elude
her two pursuers.  She cursed her wooden clogs and their distinctive
clacking sound.  Megumi wished that she was wearing her sandals
instead.  But the opportunity to escape had been too good... and she
was running out of time.

    She dodged down an alley, doing her best to move quietly.  For a
brief instant, she thought she'd lost them.

    "There she is, stop her!"

    She glanced frantically to her left to see Kanryu's two goons
charging down the alley toward her.  Megumi bolted.

    Finally, after a few more minutes weaving and dodging through the
narrow lanes and alleys, she paused a moment to catch her breath.
However, the thud of rapidly approaching feet told her that all her
efforts had been in vain.  They were right behind her.

    Desperate for any place to hide, Megumi ran into a small compound
and ducked behind the fence.  Luckily, Kanryu's henchmen kept on
going.  But it wouldn't take them long to double back.  She had to
find a better hiding place or a temporary protector -- someone capable
of fending off her pursuers just long enough to give her  a good head
start.

    She caught the sound of men's voices in the ramshackle house near
her.  Megumi bit her lip and hesitated.  She could be running away
from Kanryu's clutches and right into another gangster's lair....

    Suddenly, in the distance, she heard a man shouting, "The sly
bitch must have ducked into one of these houses!  Come on!"

    She was out of choices.  She lunged up the stairs and flung open
the door.  Luckily, it wasn't a Yakuza den.  Instead, it looked only
like a casual gambling game among some scruffy looking men.

    The five men sitting inside stared up at her.  She frantically
looked them over.  The three men closest to her appeared young and
harmless... too harmless.  There was no way they could face down
Kanryu's hardened thugs.

    (Useless!  Useless!)

    Another young man with spiky black hair and white clothes looked a
bit more capable and tougher than the others.  He looked like a
streetfighter....

    (Maybe he'll do....)

    But he was only one man and none of these men were armed.  Her two
pursuers had swords and were all too willing to use them.

    (Wait!)

    Her gaze dropped to the floor between the white-clad ruffian and
the slim, delicate-looking young man sitting to his right -- the one
she had nearly mistaken for a girl if it hadn't been for the crossed
scars on his cheek.

    (A sword!)

    For an instant, she thought... no, hoped that the weapon belonged
to the spiky-haired fighter, but then her heart sank as she
realized....

    (No, the way it's turned, it must belong to...,) Megumi's eyes
shifted to the small, almost fragile man with the long, red ponytail
and the patched purple robe, (....to him!?)  As for the young man, all
he did was give her a bewildered stare with those big violet eyes.

    (What can he possibly....)  But then she heard her pursuers coming
up behind her.

    (I've got no choice!)  Megumi dashed inside, kicked her clogs off,
and flung herself at him.

    "Help me, PLEASE!"

    "Oro?"

    As she frantically clung to him, she babbled, "Gangsters are after
me!  Please save me!"

    She felt his head move slightly against her shoulder as he uttered
a soft, confused sound.

    "Huh...?"

    Megumi nearly cried with frustration and disappointment when she
heard that single word.  It was so gentle, so sweet,... almost
child-like in its innocence.

    (Oh god!  He's just a boy!  What can HE possibly do to stop scum
like Kanryu's men?)

    Caught up in her predicament, she failed to comprehend what her
hands and arms were telling her.  From appearences, the red-haired
young man looked frail and positively scrawny.  But underneath those
loose purple and white clothes lay the firm, sleekly developed
physique of a full grown man -- and a master swordsman.

    "We finally found you, Megumi!"
 
    A large dirty hand fell on her shoulder and started to yank her
backwards.

    "No!" she shrieked.

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

    At their first meeting, she had been so consumed with her own
problems that she'd completely missed his hidden depths.  She had
utterly failed to see the shadows lurking in those wide violet eyes --
failed to hear the underlying strength and resolve in that soft voice.

    Later, Megumi would gradually come to realize just how wrong she
had been.  She would learn that the young man that she had so
carelessly dismissed as an useless innocent could strike like
unchained lightning, defeat opponents like the leader of the Oniwa
Banshuu,... and could know so much about pain and guilt.

    And as time went on, she would also learn of his dark past and the
man he had been -- the killer known as Hitokiri Battousai, a name that
still chilled people's blood over a decade after the vicious fighting
of the Bakumatsu no Doran... the same Hitokiri Battousai whose skill
and ruthlessness set a standard by which nearly all assassins were
measured by, even to this day.

    (What a bitter legacy for someone like Kenshin to leave
behind....)

    Like so many, she had mistaken his gentleness for weakness.  But
in Kenshin's gentleness, there was a terrible strength that demanded
more from a person than any brute show of force.  Soujiro had phrased
it very well when he had called Kenshin "a harsher taskmaster than
Shishio-san".

    But if he asked for a lot from others, he asked even more from
himself.  Despite the guilt that would crush any lesser person and the
untold amounts of blood he had spilled, Kenshin refused to take the
easy way out for himself because he knew that he could do more for
others by staying alive.  And fighting.

    It was a tremendous burden, but one he willingly accepted.  It was
his way of atoning for his crimes... no, that wasn't the right word
for it.  Atonement for his sins,... for all the lives he'd cut short.

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

    Kenshin froze as he felt Megumi rest her head against his back.
But instead of her usual, playful flirting, she did nothing more.

    Then he felt a warm droplet of liquid slowly run down his spine,
stinging ever so slightly as it seeped into his wound.  It was
followed by another droplet.  And yet another....

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

    She heard the same soft, bewildered voice she remembered from
their first meeting

    "Huh...?"

    There was a brief pause.
 
    "Megumi-dono...."

    Her fists clenched into fists as she choked back her urge to sob.
There was so little that she could do to help him.

    ....so little that any of them could do....

    Yes, she treated his injuries but that care was all she had to
give him.  Any competent physician could do the same.  Sano and Yahiko
both had the will and the heart to help in Kenshin's battles.  What
they lacked was the skill.  And the only ones truly capable of
fighting by Kenshin's side were people like Saitoh or Aoshi, people
who certainly couldn't be considered his friends....

    Megumi slowly lifted her head.  He hadn't moved except to turn his
head slightly in her direction,... but she didn't need to see his
expression.  With his gentle violet-eyed gaze, he would be patiently
waiting for her to regain her composure or speak.  He would be ready
to do anything he could to help with her problem.

    (Kenshin....)

    But this wasn't about Takani Megumi at all.
 
    She opened her mouth, then slowly closed it.  Somehow she realized
that Kenshin already knew what lay before him -- knew and fully
accepted it.  He was no fool.  He had no delusions that he was
superhuman or immortal.  Himura Kenshin would live his life to the
fullest, no matter how short, as the man he was, doing what he
believed to be right....  Nothing she could say would ever change
that.

    But then she realized that there was something that she COULD do
for Kenshin.

    There was one person who could give him what no one else could --
that extra 'something' that might tilt the balance between life and
death in his favor during some future battle.

    Yes, she would have to speak to Kaoru.
 
    And soon.

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