Tact and Tactiles
All in all, Kenshin supposed he kind of deserved that punch.
"You think you can just walk in after all this time." Megumi was practically hissing, rounding away from him to set a knocked over chair upright. "Do you know how worried I was? Cutting me off like that, and you have the nerve to visit on today of all days--"
Kenshin held his hands up in surrender, taking a step back as she hefted a bottle of hand soap from the floor, and breathing a faint sigh of relief as she just slammed it back down on the bench. "Megumi-dono--"
"Don't you Megumi-dono me!" she flared.
"--you're smarter than that," he finished gently. "I'm sorry. I truly am, but you should know well why I wouldn't contact you."
"And yet you're contacting me now," she shot back tartly, but she dropped into her chair, hands clasping together on the table to prevent them shaking. Her knuckles were white, and Kenshin felt a faint pang of guilt. "Don't tell me that's a coincidence."
"It's not, no," he agreed soberly, eyeing the chair opposite her-- and deciding against sitting down at the dangerous look Megumi shot him. Instead, he drifted over toward the bed, peering through the skewed curtains at the rumpled blanket. "I'm officially here on behalf of Sumitomo."
"Officially." Megumi gave a snort. "Officially, I will of course give you every assistance as is my duty as a medtech of Lesser Tokyo. Unofficially, you can go to hell."
"I'm glad to hear it." His tone was light, but Kenshin didn't glance at her. Instead, he reached out, smoothing the blanket down neatly across the bed. His fingers touched on the strand of long black hair still caught on the pillow; the small stain of blood by it. Nosebleed or earbleed? "Unofficially, I'd much prefer to do just that, than give the company what they want."
After a moment, Megumi gave a shaky laugh. "Trusting, aren't you. What makes you so sure those two guys aren't right outside the door listening in?"
"I'm not working alone," Kenshin said cautiously. "Let's just leave it at that. Megumi-dono... I know it's been a long time, and I'm glad to see you're well--"
"Apart from having a bunch of trigger-happy idiots charge through my surgery," she muttered.
"--but I don't have much time." His violet eyes flicked to hers. "Tell me about Kamiya Kaoru."
"Tell you what?" Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "I already gave full records to the other two. I wasn't lying about that. And not that I don't appreciate your help, but you're a troubleshooter for Sumitomo, aren't you? She broke the law. Aren't you on their side? Unless you've suddenly decided Katsura isn't worth your loyalty."
"Katsura is dead."
Megumi's breath caught, and she gave him a stricken look.
"It was a long time coming," he said quietly.
"Oh, Ken-san." Megumi bit her lip, glancing back down to her hands. "I'm sorry."
Kenshin gave her a small smile, and finally dared to sit in the other chair. "I appreciate it."
"But you don't have time," Megumi said thoughtfully, echoing him. "Who's in charge of DA now?"
"Shishio Makoto."
It was all he needed to say, really. Megumi's eyes widened, and then she stood abruptly, heading back to her workbench. Kenshin glanced toward the door, and then qualified anyway. "My role in the company has been restructured. Shishio wants me to bring Kamiya Kaoru in."
"And that means you're not going to do any such thing." Megumi sighed, but the tension had gone from her shoulders. "Tell me."
"I don't honestly know what to do," Kenshin admitted. "I haven't thought that far. I think she may have valid reasons for breaking the law and I want to know what they are."
"I can't tell you that." Megumi returned to the table with cotton swabbing and a bottle of antiseptic. "I told her a long time ago I didn't want to know."
"So you do know her." Kenshin smiled at her.
"I'm her doctor," she sniffed. "And she happens to know certain other people I have the misfortune to see on a regular basis."
"So you know the man with her, then," Kenshin confirmed. "Megumi-dono, do you have any idea where he would have taken her?"
Megumi stayed silent, deep in thought as she reached over with professional hands to gently comb Kenshin's bangs back from his forehead. He closed his eyes and stayed still, letting her examine him.
"I don't ask Sanosuke about his work either," she said at last, reluctantly. "He has mentioned a friend of his, though. It's possible he could go to him for help, but I don't know him, either. His name is Katsu."
"Can you give me an address for Sanosuke?"
"Not that still exists," Megumi said tartly. "His store blew up this morning."
"His--"
He made the connection. Of course. Sagara Sanosuke was the name of Soujiro's targeted suspect. He'd been familiar because Charlotte had pointed him out. Hurt, stumbling away from wreckage, and coming straight here because Soujiro had goaded him into it. Standard tactics. The guy looked in better condition now, but he frowned.
Sano. That wasn't their first meeting, was it? Mentally he added a white hanten jacket and red headband and pictured a cocky grin instead of the desperate snarl--
Damn you Sano, this is important! Blue eyes, shadowed face, lifting her hands to vanish--
"Small world," he said softly.
Megumi paused in her work. "What?"
"Never mind." He frowned. Kaoru had needed to see Zanza. Zanza was a dealer in all kinds of designer software. Kaoru had spiked Sumitomo's system. He felt an irrational wave of irritation that Zanza would send anyone knowingly into Sumitomo's databanks, especially a girl who had an outdated headset.
Maybe he didn't know.
And the headset had saved her life.
Clearly they were more than dealer and client, or Zanza wouldn't have stumbled his way here to pull Kaoru out, and he certainly would have sacrificed her on the street to save his own skin even if he'd gone that far. Friend? Boyfriend? Brother? His hand had been a wreck, and he'd been in that building when it went up...
"Megumi-dono, I need--" He broke off with a blink of surprise as she sprayed something cold along his hairline. "What's that?"
"Localiser," she said shortly, smoothing his hair back down with a gentleness that wasn't reflected in her sour expression. "You're going to have one heck of a headache in an hour or two. This will dull the pain and let you think. If you're going to help, you'll be more useful this way."
She didn't bother asking why he was injured to begin with. Kenshin smiled sweetly at her in thanks, and then continued on. "Kaoru-dono is unconscious. How badly hurt is she? How badly hurt is ...Sanosuke?"
Megumi froze-- just for a second, before she put the spray gently on the counter, washing her hands at the sink, her back to Kenshin. "Sano has second degree burns on his back and he sustained a knife injury to the hand. I've repaired the damage to his hand, but it'll only hold as long as he doesn't stress the injury over the next few days. That's not going to happen."
"And Kaoru-dono?"
"I'm not sure about Kaoru-chan." She turned the tap off, wiping her hands on a towel, before facing him with a troubled look. "Ken-san. She mentioned a samurai. She ran into Battousai, didn't she?"
Kenshin took a breath, face expressionless. "She got far enough into the network that Sumitomo's black ICE defences engaged."
"A yes would have sufficed," Megumi muttered. "The other girl dragged her in here hardly able to walk, but between headset and 'net trauma and whatever she took to keep her awake, that's not so surprising. But she told me she can still see him."
Kenshin started. "What?"
Megumi's tone turned waspish, her worry clearly written on her face, and she turned away again, this time yanking open the cabinet to pull out a bottle of... beer? Kenshin blinked at it. "Exactly that. She's hallucinating your killer program. I'm only a medtech. I can't undo the damage that scrambling her signal has done. She might get better with rest, she might--"
"--get worse." Kenshin closed his eyes. Of course. Battousai had registered a kill. Kaoru had only survived by detonating her chronological data path. Reckless tactics; she was scrambled, Battousai was scrambled, and the mind wasn't meant to cope with what was, essentially, being rebuilt with corrupted data. Damn. "The sooner we find her--"
"Himura." The interruption was smooth and low and inflectionless, Aoshi appearing at the front door without a sound. The look he directed Megumi's way was completely without apology. "Trouble."
Kenshin moved.
The bottle Megumi was holding dropped to shatter across the floor.