The moaning was getting on Yahiko’s nerves.
There were always people making noise here, that was one thing he didn’t like about the place. The abandoned tenement was home to a shifting population of squatters: countryfolk new to the city, the temporarily dispossessed, drunks and opium-smokers on their way down the long slide to Rakuninmura or death in some alley. Mostly Yahiko ignored them, unless they tried to cause trouble. But that moaning…
It was coming from one of the newbies’ rooms. A girl, he didn’t know her name. Took in sewing, kept to herself. Didn’t sell herself, unlike the last woman who lived there. She’d liked it rough, been noisy, and her partners even noisier. But she’d moved on, and now there was this quiet one.
Maybe she’s sick. He knew what that felt like, burning up with fever and no one to care if you lived or died. Not good.
“Oi! You okay in there? Oi!”
“Tasukete…” She sounded like she was at the end of her rope. He pushed the shoji open. The tiny room was dark; this one had most of its wall-panels intact and no hole in the roof. He could just make out a rounded shape in the dim recesses.
“Hey, you sick or somethin’? Lady?”
“AaaAAAIEEEE!”
There was a funny smell in the room, blood and worse. The woman was lying on her side on the bare floor, knees drawn up as far as the bulge in her belly would allow.
Aww man, she’s havin’ a BABY? I didn’t even know she was pregnant!
“Tasuketee…!”
Yahiko swallowed, hard. “I’ll go get Gensai-sensei!” he said, and bolted.
Gensai-sensei wasn’t at the clinic. A note pinned to the door said he had gone to deliver a baby and didn’t know when he’d be back. Chikusho. I got a baby needs help too. He wished Megumi hadn’t returned to Aizu. He wished Kenshin hadn’t gone off to some meeting at the police headquarters. He wished he had some help. All that’s left is Tae, no, she’d be at the market at this hour – and Kaoru. I guess it’ll be okay, she’s a woman, she’s gotta know something. He took off for the Kamiya Dojo at a dead run.
He skidded through the dojo gate, almost into Kaoru, who was waiting for him with her shinai ready. “It’s about time you decided to show up for practice, Yahiko-chan.” She advanced on him, shinai raised to strike.
“Oi, busu, I got no time for this! There’s a woman back at my place, she’s havin’ a baby an’ I can’t find Gensai-sensei an’ Tae’s gone to the market – and I don’t know who else to ask for help,” he finished lamely, looking at his sandals. “I mean, you’re a woman, you’re married… you gotta know what to do. I think she’s in trouble, she can’t move or really talk she hurts so bad.”
Kaoru didn’t know what to do. Most of her early life had been spent in a womanless world. Her friends had been her father’s students; her mentors had been her father, Maekawa-sensei, and Gensai-sensei who had been the one to answer her frightened questions and teach her the workings of her own body. Of her women friends, only Misao was married, and she too was childless. Kaoru knew little of the mechanics of childbirth, only that it was supposed to be terribly painful. The whole idea frankly scared her… even though she wanted, more than anything else, to give Kenshin a child.
But it wasn’t part of Kaoru Kamiya’s nature to ignore anyone in distress, no matter how inadequate she felt. She found a couple of old futons and some blankets, figuring they might be useful, and set off with Yahiko without bothering to change out of her practice clothes.
Kaoru pulled aside the battered shoji and wrinkled her nose at the smell coming from inside. She opened more of the panels, as much to air the place out as to give herself light to see by. “Go boil some water, Yahiko,” she told him. She wasn’t quite sure what she’d need it for, but it wouldn’t hurt to have some and it would keep Yahiko busy.
The woman raised her head a little. “Are you the sanba?” she asked. “I can’t pay…”
“No, I’m Yahiko’s kenjutsu teacher, Kaoru Kamiya. Our doctor was away delivering a baby, so I came to see if I could make you more comfortable. Eew, you’re a mess, let’s at least get that wet kimono off you. I know you’ll feel better if we just move you onto someplace dry…”
“Thank you – OH!” The woman doubled over, her slender body racked by another contraction. She clutched at Kaoru for support. All Kaoru could do was hold her and marvel at the strength of the new life trying to emerge. The young woman was not strong; she had the soft muscles of someone who spent her life in sedentary pursuits. It seemed the contraction’s force would tear her apart.
At last the contraction eased. “How long have you been like this?” Kaoru asked.
“The pains woke me, not long after dawn I think,” the woman replied. “I tried to get help, but they were so strong, I couldn’t even get out of the room.”
Not long after dawn… and it was nearly noon now. If the girl’s pains were that strong… somehow it didn’t seem right that her child should still not be born. But Kaoru didn’t know what, if anything, she should do. She settled for helping the girl remove her sodden kimono. “Let’s get you over here into the light, so Gensai-sensei can see what he’s doing when he gets here,” she said briskly, trying to pretend a confidence she didn’t feel. “What’s your name?”
“Emiko… Emiko Nishino. I’m from Otsu…” she broke off in the relentless grip of another contraction. When it subsided she went on. “My husband came to Tokyo six months ago to look for work. At first he wrote… but then two months and nothing… so I came to look for him. But I couldn’t find him, and I don’t know anybody in Tokyo and I don’t have any money…”
“Well you know us now,” Kaoru told her firmly. “Yahiko, is that water hot yet?”
Emiko’s legs were covered with blood and worse. Kaoru wrinkled her nose at the smell as she sponged the young woman off… and then she saw something that absolutely terrified her.
A foot. A tiny foot, emerging from Emiko’s body.
Another contraction. More blood-tinged fluid leaked from the girl’s birth canal, but the foot didn’t change position. That didn’t make sense to Kaoru. She might not know much about birth, but she wasn’t stupid and she knew the contractions were supposed to push the baby out. But the baby wasn’t moving, and that didn’t seem right.
What should I do?
“Yahiko? Would you please go try to find Gensai-sensei again?”
But each contraction seemed longer and harder than the one before it, that tiny foot wasn’t moving, and Emiko was in such pain… Kaoru had a horrible feeling that her student wouldn’t be able to find Gensai-sensei in time, even if it wasn’t too late already.
What should I do?
If I mess with anything, I could hurt her worse, and the baby could die. But the baby’s going to die if I don’t do anything.
“Emiko-san, I don’t think we ought to wait for Gensai-sensei any more.
“What…”
“I’m going to try something. I want you to get on your knees, no, on all fours like a dog. That’s it.”
“I’m so embarrassed!”
“I know, I would be too. But there’s nobody else here and I’ve got to see what I’m doing. I think your baby’s stuck somehow, and I’m going to try to get him unstuck.”
She laid her hand on the tiny foot. It was wet and slippery, covered with blood and birth fluids, and warm from its mother’s body – she couldn’t tell if it belonged to a living child or a dead one. Slowly, carefully, she wiggled her hand up the baby’s leg. It was very tight; Emiko’s body squeezed down until she could hardly move.
She found a bend, a knob. It must be the baby’s knee… but there’s only one! Her hand was in up to the wrist; she felt higher, up to the smooth buttock. It was slow going; she could only move when Emiko’s body relaxed between contractions. She felt to the other side of the baby’s body, and tried to find the other leg.
“What are you doing?!” Emiko gasped.
“I think his other leg’s scrunched up, that’s why he’s not coming out,” Kaoru said. “Just try to relax as well as you can, and breathe. Count three as you breathe in, and three as you breathe out.” It was the most basic breathing technique her father had taught her when she was very small.
She felt up the tiny thigh. The baby’s leg was drawn up to its chest and then bent back down.
“That’s it!” Another contraction clamped down on her hand, but she kept hold of the baby’s leg and held on until Emiko’s body relaxed again. “Come on, little one, let’s get you straightened out so you can get born. Don’t you want to see your mom?” Slowly, carefully, she drew the leg down until the offending foot was next to the other one. “There. Now maybe the next time you’ll get somewhere!”
“Oh!” Emiko’s tired muscles made an even harder effort to expel the baby. No longer stuck, it squirted out of her like a houzuki seed, straight into Kaoru’s waiting lap, along with a gush of warm red liquid that poured over her hands, splashed into her face, and soaked her kimono and hakama.
“Yatta!” Kaoru cried. And Emiko, exhausted, collapsed onto the floor.
Kaoru picked up the furoshiki she’d carried the blankets in, and wrapped it around the baby. The infant made a little noise that sounded like a cough, and then started to cry. Emiko turned around. “Is he all right? Let me see him!”
“Just a minute, there’s a thing.” A rope of pulsing bluish flesh extended from the baby’s middle into Emiko’s body. As she watched, the other end of the cord slithered into view, attached to a glistening dark-red mass. Just looking at it made her want to be sick. She didn’t know what to do about it, so she bundled the whole mess into the furoshiki along with the baby and handed it to Emiko. “Here,” she said. “I think he’s okay. Let me get you cleaned up and onto a dry futon, and I’ll get this mess out of here.”
“Tadaima!” Gensai Oguni called, more out of habit than expectation – he didn’t expect to find his granddaughters home.
“Okaeri, Jiichan!” came the answer from Ayame, to his very great surprise.
“Okaeri! Okaeri!” Suzume chimed in.
“Huh. Why aren’t you girls over at Kaoru’s, playing with Kenshin?”
“Ken-nii isn’t home,” Ayame said. “He went with a policeman.”
“The nice one with the glasses, not the scary one,” Suzume hastened to add.
“And then Kaoru-nee went over to Yahiko-nii’s house,” Ayame went on. “There’s a lady having a baby and Yahiko-nii wants you to go over right away!” She finished her announcement in a self-important tone, full of pride that she’d remembered all of it.
Gensai sighed. “All right, just let me change my apron and get some fresh supplies together…”
“Gomen kudasai,” called the familiar voice from the alley. “Anybody here?”
“In here, Sensei!” Kaoru called.
“A doctor?” Emiko protested weakly. “But I can’t…”
“Don’t worry about that,” Kaoru told her firmly. “You just concentrate on your baby.”
“Ah, Kaoru-chan.” Gensai poked his head into the small room. The baby started to fuss. “I guess you didn’t need my help after all.”
“Oh yes I did,” she objected. “The baby was stuck, and I… and there’s this thing coming out of his belly…”
“Well, let’s see.” He turned to the bewildered Emiko. “My name’s Gensai. I brought Kaoru-chan into the world and she turned out well enough, so I suppose I must know what I’m doing. Will you let me have a look?”
She rolled over so he could examine the baby. “He’s a boy, all right. Breathing nicely, good color… got all his toes and fingers…”
“He wouldn’t come out,” Kaoru said. “There was just his foot, and Emiko-san had been in pain all day… I reached inside and found his other foot…”
Gensai nodded. “You did right, Kaoru-chan. Once a baby starts on his way, he can get in a lot of trouble if he gets stuck – and they’re supposed to come out head first so they can start breathing. As it is, this young man seems to be fine – a little on the quiet side, but he’s had a rough morning and he’s probably tired. Now, lift the cord up and hold it so, and we’ll get it cut…” He suited the action to the word, then ignited a little heap of moxa on the stump – though so much time had elapsed that the cut end hardly bled at all. The baby howled in protest. A dusting of charred gallnut completed the operation. “Hand me that little square box, Kaoru-chan. Yes, that’s the one. Now, Emiko-san, I’ll just put the cord away in salt for you, and then you can take care of it when you go back to your home.”
“Thank you, sensei,” Emiko murmured. “Though I don’t know how I’ll be able to pay you, or when I’ll be able to go back to Otsu. My husband, you see…”
“Don’t worry about it, Emiko-san,” Kaoru repeated. “And when Kenshin gets back, I’ll ask him to look for your husband. I’m sure he’ll be able to find him.”
Kenshin felt Yahiko’s ki before he heard him, and heard him before he saw him. “Kenshin! Have you seen Gensai-sensei?”
Terror sliced at him. “Kaoru-dono!?”
“She’s over at my place,” Yahiko replied. “There’s a lady that’s havin’ a baby…” he added, but Kenshin was already gone, threading his way through the midday crowds with the speed that had made him a legend.
When he dashed into the courtyard of the rowhouses, the smell hit him like a wall: sweat, excrement, smoke, and above all the heavy, sickening aroma of blood. Images flashed through his mind: bleeding corpses in the alleys of Kyoto, Tomoe dying in his arms, the carnage of Toba-Fushimi, the dead thing with Kaoru’s face.
“Kaoru-dono!” he called.
“Kenshin!” She emerged from the open doorway of one of the tenements – and just for an instant, Kenshin’s heart stopped.
Her lovely face was splashed and smeared with dried blood. The whole front of her kimono was red and soaked; her hakama clung wetly to her legs. She held her hands up as though she had been washing them; the water dripping from her fingers was tinged with pink.
She flung herself into his arms and he held her tightly, unmindful of the blood seeping from her clothing into his. “Daijoubu de gozaru ka?” Somehow her hair still smelled sharp and clean, like the seaweed stuff she used to wash it.He buried his nose in it, avoiding the sickening blood-scent.
“Any time you want a job as my assistant, Kaoru-chan, just say the word.” Gensai appeared in the doorway. “Ah, Kenshin! Kaoru-chan telling you what a fine job she did today?”
His words hit Kenshin like a bucket of icy water. “Oro?”
“Aa,” Gensai beamed. “Figured out what to do all by herself. Prettiest job of baby-catching I’ve seen since Megumi left.”
Kenshin nearly fell over. “You delivered a baby?”
Mutely, she nodded.
“And not a moment too soon either. A fine job, a fine job,” the old man repeated.
Kaoru shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Why? Kaoru-dono…”
She looked away. “But I’m soaked, and I smell like blood… and I got it all over you… and I made you remember!” Her eyes met his, full of pain. “I never want to do that!”
“Kaoru!” Yahiko almost skidded into her. “I looked everyplace and couldn’t find him – you’re here!?” he blurted, staring at the doctor. “Che, Kaoru, you’re a mess!”
“Birth’s a messy business, Yahiko-kun,” Gensai chuckled. “Now why don’t you run along to the Akabeko and ask Tae-san to send Tsubame over with some soup for Emiko?”
“Che, how come I gotta go?” Yahiko grumbled, more for form’s sake than anything else. Of course Kaoru couldn’t go – and neither could Kenshin, he looked like he was almost as much of a mess as she was. And anyway, somebody was going to have to walk over with Tsubame…
It didn’t take the boy long to return. Tsubame came with him, bearing a pot of Tae’s delicious beef-and-vegetable soup. “Tae-san said I could stay,” she told them with a shy bow.
“Well, I’ll leave it to you and Yahiko then,” Kaoru replied. “All I’m looking forward to right now is a bath.”
“I’ll walk with you,” Gensai offered.
“I feel like I’ll never get clean again,” Kaoru grumbled, walking home.
“Yes you will,” Kenshin replied. “You give life, that you do.” It’s not the same…
“Aa, birth’s a messy, bloody business,” Gensai said. “And the midwife’s likely to get soaked. That’s why they wear those big aprons.” His old eyes glinted, and he looked straight at Kenshin. “And the responsibility doesn’t end with the birth; when I was young a midwife always kept an eye on the mother and child afterwards, especially if it was a first baby. By the way, Ayame-chan told me you had a meeting with the police. How did that go?”
Kenshin shook his head ruefully. “Uramura-san is investigating a shipyard owned by one of the men who was in the Choushuu group, in the old days; he thinks the meeting will go better if I go with him.”
“A shipyard?” gasped Kaoru. “Kenshin! Emiko-san’s husband came to Tokyo to get work in a shipyard, and he’s disappeared. Could you try to find him?”
“It’s likely a matter for the police, that it is,” Kenshin replied. “But sessha will ask.”
“That’s right,” Gensai mused, seemingly to himself. “You help a child into the world, you’re partly responsible for seeing he turns out all right.”
“Oro?” Kenshin blinked. Midwife to the new era? It conjured up a ludicrous picture of the diminutive, fierce-eyed Battousai swathed in a sanba’s voluminous apron. That’s even sillier than me in Shishou’s mantle. But the sun seemed to shine a little brighter, and for once the smell of blood failed to oppress his heart.
NOTES, EXPLANATIONS ETC.
Sanba means midwife. If this has a source, it’s probably a frame in the Jinchuu flashback where Tomoe comes into the inn’s kitchen and finds Kenshin washing his hands; in my head I saw the scene reversed, with Kaoru dripping blood-tinged water while Kenshin stares at her in utter shock. I started playing around with the image and came up with Kaoru-delivers-a-baby. Technical details come from Great Pulse and from my own experience playing midwife to a series of cats; I actually did have to extract a stuck kitten once.
Emiko and her missing husband are two of the children that Kenshin used to play with in Otsu. This was actually the first idea for a Kenshin fic I ever had, even before Snow, but it never went anywhere. I may do something with it, maybe tying it in with the Katsu fic.
At this period there wouldn’t have been much in the way of delivery service to restaurants, and owners probably went to the market themselves to select the best foods. The great central fish market – still a Tokyo institution – was in Kenshin’s day located near Nihonbashi, not too far for Tae to go herself. (It did not move to its present location until after the Kanto Earthquake.)
As for having Yahiko boil water, at least in the West this is something of a universal constant. Even though it serves no discernable purpose, you always set the men to boiling water. It keeps them out of the midwife’s hair and is a more harmless occupation than getting drunk. Besides, the well in that tenement is probably bad, Shitamachi wells tended to be. People usually bought their drinking water from street vendors and bathed at the sentou.