No, it’s not an update. Don’t you just hate these?

Okay, firstly I just want to say sorry for not updating in eons. Yes I am alive ha ha. But it’s just that school has been crap, and it’s getting really hard to find time to even read fanfiction anymore. The tests and performance tasks and presentations just keep coming, and to top it off there are carnivals and forums to organize, preparation for concert is starting soon and I have a Jap oral presentation right after my tests and my group is, err, very screwed. My grades are already suffering; I can’t afford to do anything else at the moment.

Secondly, the reason why R52 has not been updated is because of my friend’s dad. He is no longer around, and I didn’t think it’s appropriate to continue the story actively, at least for the time being. I will continue the story, but it might take a while. I hope you guys understand.

Thanks, and hope you guys are doing okay (: in the meantime, here’s a short scene I was thinking of putting in the next chapter.

Andrina.

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“Yukishiro Tomoe.” His voice was deceptively calm, and she pretended not to notice the way his shoulders had stiffened to an almost impossibly tight degree.

“Room 73, third floor,” the clerk at the reception said politely, pointing in the direction of the elevators. She paused then, and fixed them with a scrutinizing gaze. “Are you family of Miss Yukishiro?”

Kaoru opened her mouth to mumble out some excuse, but Kenshin beat her to it. “Old friends,” he said quietly.

The clerk smiled brightly then. “How nice!” she said cheerfully. “Miss Yukishiro hasn’t had visitors for the longest time. And such pretty flowers too,” she added, glancing at the simple bouquet in Kaoru’s hands. “Irises are lovely. Oh, did you know? They say irises are most fragrant in the rain.”

Kaoru’s smile faltered briefly, her hands tightening around the flowers. “I’ve heard,” she answered after a pause. “I hope she likes them,” she continued helplessly.

“She will,” Kenshin said suddenly. “She loved irises.”

She could only nod.

They made their way up to the third floor. In the soft glow of the elevator, Kaoru looked over fleetingly at Kenshin, and was suddenly struck with how tired he looked.

The doors opened then, the pleasant alto of the pre-recorded voice bidding them a good day as they left. It took a while, but eventually they found the room, tucked away in a far end of the hospital corridor. She wanted to knock, for some inane reason, but Kenshin seemly shook his head and pushed the door open. She looked inside automatically, a mix of curiosity and unexplainable apprehension bubbling up rapidly.

“Oh!” someone exclaimed from inside the room, and they saw that it was a young nurse opening the windows of the hospital room. “You startled me,” the woman said good-humoredly, turning around to the visitors. “Miss Yukishiro has never had visitors before… Are you friends or family or…”

But whatever else she had to say was lost on Kaoru. Her eyes traveled onto the still form of the woman on the bed.

Yukishiro Tomoe, thought Kaoru faintly, had been beautiful once.