Standard disclaimers. You know I'm not Watsuki, I don't own Ruroken, Watsuki and some big name companies do. AND I'm not Nick Cave (but a fan). BUT: the characters and the story-line here is mine, I don't mind when you use them, but it would be nice to ask me FIRST. =^^=

First posted: January 1st 2002
Revised: March 30th 2002
Edited by Morgane: April 7th 2002
Re-posted: April 18th 2002
Second re-post: December 11th 2002
Third re-post: April 28th 2010

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
This story is already finished, but it was rated NC-17 and was therefore removed from on October 12th 2002. As soon as I rebuilt my homepage, the original version will be available again, the lemon can't be posted here anylonger.

Historical correct? NO!

Furthermore I am not a native speaker, so mayor grammar and vocabulary mistakes might be ahead, hopefully you are not distracted by them.

Enough blabbering, on to the story =^^=:

CHAPTER 1: ARRIVAL

I found her on a night of fire and noise
Wild bells rang in a wild sky
I knew from that moment on
I'd love her till the day that I died
And I kissed away a thousand tears
My lady of the various sorrows
Some begged, some borrowed, some stolen
some kept safe for tomorrow
On an endless night, silver stars spangled
the bells from the chapel went jingle-jangle

words by Nick Cave (Do you love me?)

/

Today is June 26th, the 13th year of the Meiji era. I'm Saitou Tokio and I'm thirty years old.

I'd say it is a wonderful day, sitting in a room opened to a small Japanesestyled garden, in the middle of our house. Hearing our children's play and feeling the warm summer-sun on my skin. Times haven't always been this peaceful.

I will tell you some episodes of my life and I will start with the day I met Saitou Hajime. One of many fateful events, but this was the most cutting one. The one, that changed my further life more than any other day. Looking back, I'd say it was destiny, we were destined for each other and our meeting was something that could not be avoided.

Everything started when I reached Kyoto at late afternoon in May 1867.

/

'What a beautiful city,' I thought, looking over it from a hill. I dusted of my hakama and kimono, arranged my swords and entered the streets of Kyoto. In those days of chaos and bloodshed I always travelled as a Samurai, it was safer. I preferred being killed within a fight than being raped and killed afterwards.

The box with my belongings was settled on my back and it was getting heavy. Of course, I did not own many things, but I carried the box all the way from Osaka and with the time the weight lasted on my shoulders. I decided to drop it in the house I was told to go and stay for the night. The house was in the Mibu district of Kyoto, I had been ordered here by the family who had sheltered me last year, to take part in an arranged marriage meeting.

Although I didn't like the idea being married to a foreigner, I had agreed and joined in. I'm afraid my education about obligations, honour and tradition was too strict. To be honest, the thought of stepping out of an arranged marriage never occurred on my mind. There would be some other women, we would be introduced to the suitor and his "boss" would choose the woman fitting to him. There was a good chance he would take one of the others.

After wandering around and asking some passer-bys for the right way, I reached Mibu and spotted the house, the Shinsengumi headquarters, which was comfortable and large. In the basement was a kitchen, a ceremony room, an eating room and a bit separated a bath-house. In the back was a wonderful Japanese garden with arranged stones and water floating out of a spring. And a large dojo, of course, being the house of a "military" organisation.

The rooms for the men and their families living here were upstairs, obviously only some more important members of the organisation were residing here. Being a visitor, pretending to 'prepare' the room for the woman arriving later, I got a guest-room near the dojo, it was space enough to put down my box and to unfold the futon I was given.

I had some time left, the meeting would be in the next morning and I decided to have a look around Kyoto. The sun was settling down as I wandered through the streets again. It seemed so peaceful, despite the fact we were in the middle of a revolution, the end of the Tokugawa era.

Deep in thoughts I walked down an isolated street as I heard a woman's scream. I shrieked of my dreams and rushed forward, I had been so absent-minded, that it had passed my attention that it was already dark.

There they were, two women, threatened by six guys of the Ishinshishi as I could tell from their clothes. The women's kimonos were sliced, two of the men were approaching them, the other four obviously already had their pleasure.

These bastards! A raping was something I was not able to ignore. I felt my blood lust building up and drew my katana.

"Fight me!" Taking an offensive stance I challenged them. They turned around facing me, realised I was serious and rushed forward against me.

At that point I got pissed off. No honour, all attacking at once, no strategy or order in their attack, they seemed to be low ranked. I figured out quickly, that they were no match for my sword-fighting skills, there would be no need for my wakizashi, no need for a special attack.

"Kya!" I took the offensive, leaping over the first one in full speed, kicking him my foot in the face, feeling his face bones cracking. He was prepared to defend my katana, not my foot. I turned around in midair, raised my sword and slammed it down on the second man, slaying him from right shoulder to left hip. Blood was spreading. I landed on my feet, challenging the other men.

Seeing my first move, they seemed a bit more aware, realising I was a threat. I attacked again, moving my katana from bottom to top through the third man, cutting him up from stomach to throat. I twisted my sword a bit and rushed it down on the forth man right through the middle of his head, while kicking the fifth in the throat what finished him. Not completely. I used my katana again. They were too shocked to even defend their-selves.

Bad luck that I was around, while they tried to commit a crime (a crime in my eyes, of course). Blood spilled everywhere now. I lifted my sword and licked away some blood, while staring at the last man standing. His eyes panicked, but not for long, a second later I decapitated him.

I cast a glance around for the women, they had disappeared, a wise decision. Turning back to the limp corpses I told them what I thought about men like them.

"Justice is to slay evil immediately, remember!" Suddenly I noticed the obvious presence of two more men, I had sensed them already before. They had been there during the fight, but stayed hidden and I had decided to ignore them. I took out a cloth to clean my sword while speaking to them. "You can come out now!"

They stepped out of the shadows that had hidden them before, allowing me to have a closer look at them. Light-blue haori with white triangles on the sleeves. I recognised them by description: The wolves of Mibu.

There was rumour nobody could tame one, I was alarmed but showed a cool expression to them, re-sheathing my swords.

"What an impressive fight, boy." One came a step closer. He was tall, long black hair bond in a high pony-tail. I took a closer look on his face. Small, amber eyes, sharp features and a deceitful expression around his lips. I bet at that point most people would have run as fast as they could to escape him, but to me he looked damn attractive. His fighting spirit and blood-thirstiness nearly let the air around him explode.

But stop! What did he say? BOY? IMPRESSIVE? A bad joke? I shot a death glare at him, always aware of hiding my eyes. They would betray me everywhere, being of an intense green colour.

"Don't call me boy again, DOG. And don't try to be funny. That was impressive as a cup of tea. You are making a fool out of you." 'Was I gone nuts? Tokio, he is dangerous!'

His eyes began to gleam in the darkness of the street. "Insulting a miburo in his district, at night time, slaughtering men. You are
really courageous or stupid to no end, SQUIRREL." He prepared to fight.

'SQUIRREL? What was that for? A second bad joke? Oh, there are two of us, remember!' I longed for my swords.

"Ma,ma. Calm down." The second man interfered and stepped between us. He was smaller, brown haired and he had a baby-face for sure. "No need to kill each other here. If we would have wanted, we had interfered earlier."

The taller man relaxed, baby-face seemed to have a strong influence on him.

"Remember, we are still looking for men like him." Baby-face addressed sharp-face and sharp-face's will to fight fainted, not completely. He even smiled at me, but I still remarked a sarcastic expression.

"You are right, Okita-kun. Would you join us with sake and soba, SQUIRREL?" His smile got wider and my feeling of lust to punch him my fist in his face grew stronger.

I still didn't understand the squirrel-thing and this self-content grin was annoying. But my need for sake and soba was stronger than my need to fight, besides, it would be quite interesting with these two. My third thought was, that sharp-face would kill me if I refuse.

I nodded my head, only a little bit, I didn't want to lower myself too much. "Yes!"

Sharp-face laughed out loud. "You are a courageous SQUIRREL. Don't try your luck." I felt anger rising up.

"Ma,ma." Baby-face managed to calm us down again. "Maybe we should introduce ourselves. This is Saitou Hajime-san, leader of the Shinsengumi squad three, and I am Okita Soushi, leader of the Shinsengumi squad one." Indeed, quite high ranks. I should bow lower. Next time.

"I am Takahashi Toki from Osaka." Using my male name I bowed back.

"What are you doing in Kyoto, Takahashi-kun? You have Samurai swords. Are you a Ronin?" Saitou inquired. He was really insisting and annoying, but he did not ask for my travel-pass or another identification.

"No, I'm not a Ronin. I was sent to Kyoto by my father to participate in a meeting here, which is none of your business." I decided it was wise to give them a bit information, but not too much. Hopefully he would not investigate further.

Much to my luck, Okita coughed and distracted Saitou from his investigation by this. "We should look for a place in a pub." Okita suggested, Saitou longed in his sleeve, revealed a cigarette and lightened it.

"ONE of your bad habits, ne?" I gave it a sarcastic under-tone.

"My habits are none of your business. I really start to like you, SQUIRREL." Saitou answered in an icy tone. I felt my jaw dropping to the ground, he can't be serious, he makes jokes about me! IDIOT!

"Let's go." Okita waved Saitou and me indolent to follow him.

The pub was in the same street as the house, at which I was staying, how lucky. The place was crowded, but with two wolves of Mibu, one looking scaring, we found a free recess. To be precise, Saitou stared at the men sitting there, just for a second, and they left. I started to like him, he was not only attractive, but impressive also.

We ordered sake and soba and began to drink, talking about politics, the way of a samurai, bushido. They tried to figure out my attitude, but it was not my intention to choose a side in this revolution. I wanted justice in my way. Kill evil immediately, the way of a samurai. As long as I could pretend to be male, of course.

During our discussion Okita started to look worse and began to cough harder, some time later, he stood up. "You have to excuse me, I must have a rest, Takahashi-kun. It was a pleasure to meet you and I hope, we meet again." He nodded, I bowed. "The same to you, Okita-sama."

Alone with Saitou, it started to get interesting. We ordered more sake, and despite the fact the place was crowded, the sake arrived in no time. He was smoking one cigarette after another during our conversation and he made no effort to stop either drinking or smoking. I felt the alcohol in my veins and liked him more.

"What about women?" I started to get private.

Taking a deep, voluptuous drag of his cigarette, he gained his bored expression "Nothing interesting. Just a short pleasure. They can't even handle a sword."

You are completely wrong, guy. I raised an eyebrow questioning.

"Go to a brothel, pay money, have your pleasure and leave. Nothing worth a second thought." He flicked the ash from his cigarette to the floor.

I had to cough and he turned his attention to me. "I meant the handling of a sword, excuse me."

"Oh, I see, you are still too young, SQUIRREL!" There he goes again, teasing me. "I mean, have you ever seen a woman handling a sword?"

This guy was completely clue-less. Before I could answer, a brawl came up the next table. One man drew his sword and cut another from shoulder to hip, Saitou took another delightful drag of his cigarette. Blood spread over the place, people jumped up, screaming, it crowded. He flicked away some ash from his cigarette.

Looking in my cup I saw the clear liquid intermingling with a thicker, red one. "There is blood in our sake." What mattered, it was still sake, I swallowed it with one gulp.

"You know," he smiled,"I really like you." raising his cup and drinking his bloodied sake "Bring a woman inside here and you scare her to death. There is no fun in that. They can't handle a little bit violence and blood. Too sentimental. And this romance stuff, boring to death! I prefer being killed by a sword and not by boredom.""

The brawl around us began to settle down, they dragged the dead man out. We continued to drink, Saitou continued to smoke, of course. I liked him more. When I started to imagine his hands running across my body and to feel over-sexed, I decided it was time to leave and stood up.

Oooo, the world was turning, or was I? Saitou stood up in front of me, eyes clouded, he seemed a bit out of his way. I nearly fell down the step from our recess to the ground, but I managed to grab Saitou's kimono and re-gained control. I stayed clinched to him, it was safer. He was not turning after all, like the restaurant was.

"That was more than I can handle." I resumed hardly.

"I was surprised how much you are able to handle, SQUIRREL!"

Huh, he was speaking a bit "unclear", he was obviously drunk, too. He laid an arm around my shoulder, over-sexed as I was, it felt wonderful.

"Where are you staying, SQUIRREL?"

'IDIOT! What's that squirrel-shit about? Attractive or not, I can take of myself!' "Just down the street. Can manage alone."

"Oh, you don't look so."

I had to sneak in. And with him around, I had no chance to do so. For a second I considered to knock him out. To stay realistic, I had no chance to succeed. In this condition, no chance. I stiffened, stood upright, determined. Still wondering why everything turned and doubled. Analysis. Advanced stadium of alcohol consume. VERY BAD. I started to walk in one direction.

"Wait, squirrel-boy. I have the same way." He caught up uncoordinated. I let myself drop against his chest, relieved I had a fixed point in the turning world, not bothering anymore about the squirrel and boy.

"I think I can give you some guidance", I offered him.

"You are welcome." He smirked recognising my offer for what it was, a lie, and laid an arm around me. We walked down the street arm in arm, better: he dragged me down the street until he stopped in front of an house.

"Here's my place." Could it be? It was the house I was staying at! My eyes nearly bulged of their sockets. 'Tokio, you are an idiot sometimes. You should have realised earlier.'

"Oooo, mine is only a few steps away. I can walk alone." I forced him to enter the house, by pushing him in the direction, he looked weird back at me.

"Really?"

"Yes!" I was lucky, that he was too drunk for a discussion, I had trouble forming a clear thought. The alcohol, I can tell you!

"So desu ka? I hope we meet again." 'Huh, that is for sure, Saitou.'

"Have a nice sleep, Saitou-sama."

I bowed and was relieved when he finally entered and closed the door. Before I sneaked in, I waited for few minutes to be sure not to run into Saitou.

It was a miracle I wasn't discovered, drunk as I was. Seeing my futon, I happily dropped everything including myself and fell asleep.

/

I hope you all liked it, I'll put up the following fourteen chapters ASAP.