A/N: I'm not sure what to make of this one. It just kind of came out of nowhere.
Slight knowledge of pre-Hakuouki/Reimeiroku might be useful, but really not needed at all :D
READ. ENJOY. HISTORY LESSON AT BOTTOM~
Sources: Shinsengumi-no-Makoto website, Tokio_Fujita LJ. Thank you.
EDIT: Made a few changes when I noticed mistakes in flow and spelling and stuff. This is what I get for writing at a very late hour orz
Saitou was used to discrimination.
From the time he had picked up his practice sword, he had been punished and abused by others for using his left hand instead of his right. The other students at his dojo had laughed and spat at him for being left-handed. He was treated much more harshly than any of the other disciples there.
When he reached the age of eighteen, a hatamoto challenged him to a battle. The hatamoto had clearly believed that because Saitou's left-handed swordsmanship was nowhere near his, it would have been an easy win.
How wrong that hatamoto had been.
Saitou remembered that day clearly - his sword had been gleaming brightly in the sunlight before it had broken past his opponent's blade. Red droplets, not unlike the scattering petals of a lycoris flower, had flown into the sky.
Saitou fled to Kyoto afterward.
He was a murderer.
He was not a warrior.
He was an outsider; a leper. No one in their right state would have agreed to become close to him.
But he had found the Shinsengumi.
The Shinsengumi - a troop of organized ronin to protect the Shogunate. Made up of Kondou Isami's Shieikan faction and Serizawa's faction, the Shinsengumi patrolled Kyoto and were feared, almost hated.
There, Saitou hadn't been treated as an outsider.
Kondou, Hijikata, and the rest of the members had welcomed him with open arms. They didn't question his left-handed swordsmanship, or his blood-splattered record. He had been treated like a normal person.
That was why he was willing to swear all of his loyalty to the Shinsengumi.
He fought to protect the comrades, the friends that had accepted him. No matter how large the enemy was, he would fought to protect the ones he held dear, and the morals he believed in.
I will fight for the Shinsengumi.
Notes:
A hatamoto is a very high ranking samurai. Saitou was in big trouble when he killed one. And yes, this event really did happen~!
The Shinsengumi, known as the Roshitai or the Roshigumi before they were renamed the Shinsengumi were made up of two factions-Kondou's Shieikan Dojo faction and Serizawa Kamo's faction. Serizawa's faction kind of fell to pieces later but...that's for later XD
About Saitou's left-handedness-it's debatable on whether this is true or not. He's depicted in Hakuouki as left-handed, but whether he really was left-handed is quite a myth today.
A lycoris flower is also known as a spider lily, or higanbana. They are often thought to be from Hell, since they often bloom near cemeteries.
And...that's it :'D
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