Fan fiction
Flashback: Childhood Memoirs
It was a crisp summer morning and the sun was shining joyfully over the crowded streets of Kyoto, and after a busy night everyone in the Shinsengumi Headquarters were resting. The wind was blowing gently making the green leaves rustle lightly under the summer sky. The dense silence, covering the place was undoubtedly appreciated by one of the members, as all were enjoying their well-deserved rest. One was lying on the veranda gazing at a tiny pond with its towering rock splashed with millions of microscopic water drops, making it glitter like a new polished diamond.
Hijikata Toshizo was enchanted by this rare scenery, and set quietly sipping his tea. His eyes closed slowly, after a sleepless night dealing with work he wanted to feel the warm sunbeams touching his skin and hear the sound of nature. Little did he know what was about to emerge in this Zen like scenery of calmness. His dark eyes opened as he lay on his back and stared into the infinity of blue shades that painted the sky marvelously.
The pleasant silence was interrupted by a roar of laughter coming from some soldiers who were just passing .Their radiant faces and wide open smiles made him wonder at what or maybe why were they laughing .He could not notice the tiny pieces of paper that they were holding into their hands and pointing up towards his direction. Their eyes met his and each trace of radiance was cleared away shocked by the vice captain appalling glare. They could feel his evil aura emerging and run away leaving him puzzled, anyhow being left alone, he gave a sigh of relief and sat down to enjoy the scenery.
Suddenly small feathered creatures seemed to dash into the air elegantly, hit by curiosity, he raised his hand to catch one .It was a thin and tiny creature on which black spots seemed to appear all over. "What an interesting work of origami" he wondered. Then struck by a revelation he unfolded the tiny creature, only to discover the an elegant write with thin and confident lines, an write so familiar that made him shiver at the thought of an possible tragedy for his undiscovered and hidden work, was spread all over it. He shook his head to release his negative thoughts and stared at the piece of paper, he could read with ease the following "even if only one plum blossom bloomed, plum blossoms are plum blossoms. Almost unnoticeably, the man's cheeks were covered in a cranberry shade, only to disappear the next second. Hijikata Toshizo was not the man to fool around with and he certainly did not want anyone to mess with his secret collection of haiku "The Hagyoku".
The sound of laughter made him burst with anger and pierced the surroundings. Suddenly his eyes fell upon the silhouettes of two small children folding paper teared out of a notebook with dark brown covers, and turned it into the feathered creatures like the one he was now crushing in his hand .The children stopped their playing and looked down at the fearsome man.
"Okita Soushi! Hajime Meiyo!" cried the man glowing red with anger.
The two children stared into each other's eyes and looked down at the towering man glaring with anger.
"You… evil little brats get down here immediately…how could you …why …who gave permission to enter my room…"
As more and more words the man screamed, the more scared they become. They could not understand why was he so angry about and why was he screaming and calling them out loud. His eyes pierced straight into their tiny hearts and they rolled down in shock with a loud noise.
….Buff….
"Ouch….said the little girl"
Their huge watery eyes met his, the look of innocence and purity was lying on their face while his eyes complexion bursted with anger.
Small Soushi with grass green eyes and rusty hair ,tied up in a ponytail ,bit his lip and stared bravely at the tall men .Teary eyed he struggled with the raising need to explode into tears ,he raised helping the little girl near him. "Men do not cry, "he told to himself, so he grabbed his courage and stared angrily into the man's purple eyes. Pouting he was determined to face the man's glare until the very end because ,as he claimed that is what men do, they don't let themselves bitten even in a staring contest with the notorious demon vice captain.
The small girl, Meiyo ,fixed her loose side ponytail and raised her head proudly .Her almond shaped brown eyes depicted a calm and strong personality, although, scared by the death glare of the vice captain ,encouraged by her companion's determination she joined the staring contest telling herself "women must be strong and I'll be by all means a strong woman".
Hijikata was now finding himself in front of two glaring brats who destroyed his carefully arranged haiku collection and by the looks on their faces they did not hold the smallest grain of remorse. He could not bear the huge amount of tension and roared in anger.
"You little evil brats... How you dare you ruin my haiku carefully written collection. Moreover, how did your dirty little hands reached it while I knew it was in a safe place! You will be punished…I'll make sure you pay for it"
The small children faced each other and grinned.
"Why Hijikata-san? We didn't do anything wrong .We were folding origami and everyone was laughing when they caught them. We made people happy," said Meiyo and Soushi replied with a malicious smile, "It is good to make people happy… neh …Hijikata-san?"
Under the influence of this defiant words the man's purple eyes changed their gaze into a steel cold one and his dark evil aura that had made him so famous around soldiers emerged giving him an eerie look.
"What did you just say?" he said raising his voice with an intimidating look.
The two children swallowed hard and took a step back; nevertheless, they did not change their sharp glare, still defiant, still proud. Deep inside, the famous troublemakers fought with the fear and despair of being punished. It was so easy to run away into the arms of their parents but that was not the path they had chosen, once they decided to do something, they do it until the very end. Now, they had chosen to stand up for themselves and face the vice captain.
"It's just as, Meiyo said we didn't do anything wrong and we...don't... even know about what are you talking...what haiku collection ...since when do you write haiku Hijikata-san?"Said the small boy.
" You little brats …you think I'll buy that? You will be punished...I'll give you a lesson you will never forget...I'll…..and…and not forget…you always do this and after that you put an innocent face and everybody thinks "they are just children" but I know ,only I know the evilness that lies deep in you…" replied the Vice Captain in an avalanche of words.
All this seemed an endless road of words and threats, and the well pointed out theory that depicted their evilness and how they do all the bad things and did not raised the children interest, not even a tiny bit. Suddenly, the echo of the most feared and hated word came to their ears "grounded" .A roar of protest emerged from their tiny figures and the uproar that they were causing was loud enough to wake everybody up. The sound of someone running made the two troublemakers shut up and each run toward opposite directions all in the furious and outraged sight of Hijikata-san.
Meiyo run toward left in the arms of her beloved father, Hajime Saitou, and bared her head into his long white scarf sobbing while her father patted her gently over her head.
Soushi run towards right, straight into the open arms of his father, Okita Souji, and was lifted up in the air giving a scream of joy that seemed to wash away all the tension gained up just a few moments ago. The small boy wrapped his arms around his father neck and then rested his head over his shoulder.
"What's up with all this noise in the morning, didn't you, Hijikata-san told us that we must not make noise in the morning because we will wake everyone up?"said Okita-san in a sarcastic tone" can't you see you are giving a bad example to the children, not to mention a headache" he added giving his characteristic smile.
"Thank you for reminding me Souji but if it was not for these evil brats I wouldn't be screaming!" said Hijikata-san regaining his calmness a little bit.
"Vice Captain here I must disagree with you, Meiyo is not at all evil ,she is a very sweet and caring young lady ,moreover I expected vice captain of Shinsengumi to be more composed and not to lose his temper in front of such innocent children." Said the man dressed in a black kimono holding the little girl who was now glancing at her companion, him too in the arms of his father.
"Innocent...you say. Said the man turning red of anger,...They teared my haiku notebook and folded origami out of every page and not to mention that they must have entered in my room and took it of the drawer I was sure I looked it! They have invaded my privacy and so they must be punished accordingly. We can't have them fooling around in every room, especially in mine."
"Well if the drawer was closed they could not take it now could they Hijikata-san?" pointed out the green-eyed man while smiling at his son, the two of the looked so much alike.
"See so they must have turned everything upside down and then they took it," said the purple-eyed man angrily.
"Vice Captain, please excuse me, but was the use of that they could have taken any book, they needn't have looked everywhere for paper to fold origami, after all they wanted was something to fold origami from" said Saitou-san
"Not you too Saitou…" sighted the man before raising his fists exclaiming "To make me suffer, that is why, they must have known how much I want that notebook hidden and in one piece"
"Oii Hijikata-san why don't you just admit that you unconsciously gave them the book knowing how horrible your haiku are and hoping you will never be forced to see that embarrassing piece of work ever again and be reminded of your failure" said Okita-san
"Souji ...you bastard I would never do that!" screamed Hijikata
"Now, now don't get so nervous is bad for old people "and leaving his son down he looked towards the children and told them
"Old! Who are you calling old!" yelled the Vice Captain beaming with anger
"Vice Captain, please calm down, there is no need to strain yourself. Lately you have been working very much, and even a great man like you can ruin his health by being reckless with himself" said Hajime Saitou, putting his small daughter down and giving her a gentle smile.
"Why don't you to go my room to play until me a Saitou-kun solve things up with Hijikata- san?" said the man ignoring the vice captain's words.
The two children looked at each other and nodded in agreement .They seemed quite content and all the fear had faded away in the comforting presence of their parents.
"Hai ... we will go otosan" said Soushi smiling widely and dashing towards the room
"Good morning Hijikata-san "said Meiyo bowing politely in his direction ,then in the direction of Okita and her father's and dashed to catch up with her friend.
They run and suddenly stopped abruptly "Hijikata-san !", Soushi yelled .When the man turned toward the child direction he met his grass green eyes that blinked once and opened his small fist revealing a tiny golden key ,that was so familiar to him, grinning with satisfaction.
"Have a nice day!"Said the small girl and giving him a serene smile.
It all took just a few second and when he wanted to show that to Okita and Saitou the children were all long gone leaving him with a bitter taste of defeat.