Kendo no Go
In the Language of Kendo:
A Fanfic in 100 Chapters
by Akai Kitsune
82: Mago
~*~
Doctor
Gensai had been a close family friend to Kaoru for a very long time - since
she was a little girl - and he had been taking care of her injuries as far
back as she could remember. He was a trusted figure in her life, and a
treasured friend when all those who she deemed as important disappeared.
She knew from the beginning
that she loved him, as a grandfather or even as a father when her own was not
around, and he treated her like a true grandchild. Even after little Ayame's
birth, he treated her no differently, and through his actions she found it
easy to love and care for the girl and her younger sister.
She could remember Gensai's
soft words of comfort when her mother died, his comforting embrace when a pair
of swords was delivered to the dojo and her father was not, his bright smiles
in the days she lived alone.
She could remember, with an
amused expression on her face, the cautious warning he gave her when Kenshin
first began to reside at her home.
"You've
got to be wary of some of these ronins," he told her one day, after Kenshin
had left to go shopping. "They can be filthy lechers, charming to all the
world until they're left alone with an innocent girl."
He hadn't even known who
Kenshin actually was, at that point. Hadn't seen the rurouni rescue her from
that same fate at the hands of Gohei and his men, either.
"I've seen
how gentle he can be," Gensai added as she began to object, "And he seems
sincere. But... be careful, Kaoru-chan."
She hadn't been, truth be
told. She allowed Kenshin into her home, and very soon, he filled it with new
people, wanted or not.
'All were wanted,'
she thought guiltily. 'Even if I seemed reluctant... even if I
argued... I wanted nothing more than to fill the dojo with laughter again.'
'Kenshin... Kenshin
did it. He was the only one who could do it, even if it wasn't he who was
laughing.'
'He brought joy to
everyone... every life he touched...'
Kenshin would argue with her
if she ever told him, she knew. He might bring up examples - Jin'ei, Saitou,
Shishio - of men he knew or had known who couldn't really feel joy in just his
presence, but she believed in the truth even if he couldn't.
She also acknowledged that
all three men had laughed because of him, though the reasons wouldn't allow
her to point that out to him.
Although
she had always cared for him, Kaoru found that she never loved Gensai more
than on the day the doctor brought her son safely into the world. With Megumi
far away in Aizu, she and her family once again came to fully rely upon the
older man's services. Neither Kaoru nor Kenshin wished to disturb Megumi's
apparently blooming practice in her hometown, and so sent her many updates on
Kaoru's pregnancy without any requests to visit for the sake of aiding with
the child's birth.
"As a
friend only," Kaoru said sternly to Kenshin one day as he scribbled out a
letter seven months into the pregnancy. "I don't want her to think we want her
here just because we're paranoid. I trust Gensai-sensei - but of course if
Megumi-san wants to see us, she's welcome."
Megumi did come, in fact, but
it wasn't until several days after the birth. She admitted later that she
meant to be there in time to help, but Kenji had come earlier than expected.
Once again Kaoru waved aside any apologies - a rare gift from the elder woman,
but not really needed - and gave her friend a grateful, albeit weary welcome.
She was never quite sure why
she was grateful Megumi hadn't been there for the slow, painful process which
the birthing had become. Perhaps she feared the woman's gentle taunting that
usually accompanied her treatment. Perhaps she didn't want her friend to see
her so weak and terrified. Perhaps she felt that Kenshin, for all his frantic
pacing and wide-eyed questions, had been enough to deal with.
Or perhaps she wanted Gensai
alone to guide her through childbirth, his calm vice and gentle hand a comfort
to rely upon. She wanted to give him the chance to bring her child into the
world without the aid of a younger, more scholarly doctor offering her advice.
Kaoru knew that Megumi always looked out for her patient's welfare to the best
of her ability, but Gensai's practiced hand was far too often overshadowed by
her, a fact which annoyed Kaoru sometimes.
She wanted Gensai to be the
first to see his great-grandchild.
It was something he was
grateful for - there had been tears in his eyes, she remembered noticing, even
as her gaze focused on the wet streams of joy on her husband's cheeks when
Kenji was pressed into his arms - and something she would never, ever regret.
~*~
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