Twelve Lies I Told Shingen Takeda

Chapter Forty-One - Miles to Go Before I Sleep

"What the hell did you guys just do?"

Maybe it was my imagination, but Mai's question felt like it echoed in the quiet temple. What the hell did we just do? Saved his life, saved his life, saved his life. Was that the answer? Or a mantra? Please, let them be able to save his life. What if all we had done was send him to a new world where he would die alone?

"It was necessary. Sasuke will take him to a healer in your time, and they will cure him." Kenshin spoke firmly, as if no modern doctor would dare fail in that task, or Kenshin would hop into the next wormhole and stab them in retaliation.

"Cure... of what?" Mai turned to me. She'd not only been kept out of our plans – she hadn't even known they were necessary.

"I don't know. He was dying. He told me he didn't believe he would s-s-survive..." I took a deep breath. "Survive past this winter." Honestly, I couldn't talk, or even think about it any longer, so I gave Mai an apologetic smile, made an excuse about wanting to check on my horse, and went outside. Kenshin or Yuki could explain it to her.

Once outside, I ignored the muzzling rain and buried my face in Moonlight's neck. Up until that last moment, I had hoped that one or all of us would call it off, or that Shingen would change his mind and volunteer to go to the future. But the look of shocked betrayal on his face, and Mai's horrified What the hell did you guys just do, was playing like a skipping record in my mind. I had no way of turning it off. It would likely loop all the way to Ikuno.

"Katsu?" I lifted my head to see Yuki standing there, looking about as uncomfortable as I had ever seen him. "Aw geez, you aren't crying, are you?"

Was I? I brushed my hand across my face. "It's the rain." Who was he to sound so horrified over a few tears when his own eyes were wet? "What?"

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Nothing. I wanted to make sure you hadn't up and left for Ikuno."

Oh. Actually, I'd probably been about ten minutes away from reaching the conclusion that I could just leave. I gave him as much of a smile as I could manage. "Well, to quote Sasuke, there was a nonzero chance of that happening, but I won't leave without saying goodbye."

He scrubbed his hands through his hair so that it stood on end. "Kenshin and Mai will be out in a moment. We can say goodbye to them then."

"Alrigh- what?" We? Them? Did I hear that right?

"He's going to be mad enough at me enough already. There's no way I will let Shingen's woman travel alone to Ikuno." It was said in a casual tone of voice, but the set of his shoulders told me I shouldn't argue.

Even so, I put up a token protest. "I can take care of myself." I could. However, to be honest, I felt torn between wanting to stew in private misery and wanting company to keep me from doing just that.

"I know. You don't have to. Besides -." He looked over his shoulder to where Mai and Kenshin were emerging from the temple, looking like they were a single unit unto themselves. "The last thing I want is to be the odd man out on their trip home."

Hm, ok, yeah. Yukimura trapped for four days with Kenshin and Mai without the mitigating presence of Sasuke was a stabbing incident in the making.

Mai hurried over to me and I braced myself for a lecture. "I'm not sure I agree with what you did."

Fair point, given I wasn't convinced it had been right either.

"But I can't say that I wouldn't have done the same thing, if I were in your shoes, so I understand." She hugged me, and I imagined that she was also offering a shoulder to cry on, if I wanted.