A Dark Haori and the Sweet Taste of Mochi
She was on her usual errand for the Shinsengumi this forenoon. The dark-brown haired girl huffed and puffed because she ran all the way from the headquarters, while she ignored both the cicadas' concert and the hydrangeas in full blossom. It felt a little hard to breathe the humid air which lay dense as a coat over the city of Kyoto, but Chizuru did not think too much about the unpleasant feeling of a wet fringe stuck to her forehead. Most important to her was the fact that she had arrived in the little store and that she was mostly dry. The young woman nervously looked out of the window to make sure that the charcoal grey clouds would not approach as fast as they seemed.
She pulled a list out of her sleeve and studied once more the things written on it. It was almost everything of supplies they usually needed, except for green tea and rice which they still had enough of. It would be hard to carry these entire things home, but she ensured Kondou that it was not necessary to have Yamazaki or Shimada with her. Sometimes she enjoyed being by herself and not with any men. Chizuru sighed by the thought of the weight she had to carry.
The salesman's voice reached her ears: "Good morning."
"Ah, good morning." Chizuru replied while slightly bowing forwards. She read everything from the list aloud and the salesman handed them over.
"Is there anything else?" He asked and caught Chizuru hesitating.
"May I buy some of those mochi?" She answered with a counter question. It was more or less a rhetorical question and the salesman kindly reminded her of another place, a tea house, which sold much better mochi. The girl of course knew about it, Okita introduced her to that tea house a while ago, but the money she could use to buy the groceries hardly allowed her to get anything else. So it had to be two of those mochi and if she explained to Kondou that she wanted Okita to have another reason to smile, it would be alright.
As Chizuru was about to leave the store, the sound of turbid drops against wooden material came to be audible. The dark-brown haired girl was too late to reach the headquarters after all. Before she thought twice, Chizuru ran out of the door in hope that she would not get all soaked by the torrential rain.
"If you want to, you can borrow an umbrella," the salesman tried to yell after her, but the girl already headed home with a huge bundle packed with valuable groceries.
Chizuru wore at least geta which were high enough that they would prevent her white socks to get all dirty, but as the raindrops poured down, they did not help much. Why did she even leave the headquarters without an umbrella? Even so the rainy season had just begun; it did not mean that Chizuru could allow herself to let her guard down. The bundle in her hands already drenched within three minutes and her hair lead water to drop into her eyes. She did not slow her pace, but ran as fast as she was able to. She heard a weird sound near the ground and the following thing she felt was losing contact to the ground. Chizuru gasped for air. The strap of her geta tore. The girl knew that she would eventually fall on all of her purchasing.
"No!" She yelled in panic; the more she thought of the mochi for Okita, the more afraid she got to squash them to mush. But she never felt the hard, cold ground. She felt a jolt and that she was lifted up.
"Hey there, you should watch your steps," a deep voice stated. Chizuru startled by the sound of it. She knew exactly whom it belonged to.
"Ka-...Kazama-san!?" she almost screamed his name. "W-what are you doing here?"
"That's not of any importance. A demon lady like you should not be out in this kind of weather," he mumbled and made Chizuru stand on her own feet again.
"I bought groceries so I can make some lunch and-..." The girl started but Kazama made an annoyed noise. "They still do not understand your value, demon lady," the pure blooded demon scoffed.
"My name is Chizuru." Her eyes rebelled against the red ones of Kazama. He smirked mischievously. This was of course a perfect situation to capture his hypothetical future wife and of course Chizuru thought the same, especially when Kazama took off his black haori. Chizuru's eyes quizzically looked at the blonde, but she did not need to utter a question. Kazama covered her head with the haori as if it was an umbrella to keep her at least a little bit warmer from now on.
"Well then Yukimura Chizuru, let's go." Kazama calmly stated and lifted her up to his arms.
"What!? Where are we going?", Chizuru asked in a slight fear of being abducted. Kazama's grin widened before he replied: "Well, tell me where we should go. I will gladly take you with me if it's what you want me to do..."
She gave him a sceptical glance. "Could you bring me home to the Shinsengumi?" She finally asked and her cheeks blushed a little bit. Kazama nodded. He expected that destination and followed the path. Chizuru was safe under the haori, but the blonde demon was now the one soaked by the downpour. The demon girl felt somewhat guilty and worried if Kazama would catch a cold without this extra layer of fabric. On the other hand, it was June and warm enough to walk without a single layer of clothing.
"Kazama-san... may I ask you why you are this kind? I mean-..." She obviously was confused about his actions.
"Just be grateful and don't question my reasons. Am I even in need of a special reason to help a young demon lady in distress?" He simply answered and caused some astonishment in Chizuru. She never expected the other demon to be this kind. She remained silent. Only the wind howled and the drums of rain fell contentiously down to the ground. Her soaked hakama and kimono stuck to her skin and she felt cold to the bones. Chizuru clung to Kazama without realizing it, but the blonde demon did. He recognized everything about her fragile figure and even the slightest shiver due to the cold clothes she wore. Kazama said nothing but held her a little tighter to his chest. They both secretly enjoyed the silence.
Their walk was quite short and to their surprise Kondou waited outside the gate. His eyes narrowed when he saw Kazama approaching the Shinsengumi's headquarters. Chizuru saw his hand touching the grip of his katana. Suddenly Yamazaki jumped from a tree and ran into the house to get help.
"Your friends apparently aren't so happy with this." Kazama smirked.
"If you think about it, it's no surprise; they are not used to enemies visiting them directly." Chizuru explained and it did not take very long before Hijikata, Okita and Saitou rushed out to fight along with Kondou.
"Please put down your swords!" Chizuru called, "Kazama-san kindly helped me when I was in trouble." She turned to Kazama and continued: "I think you can put me down now. I can walk the few steps myself now."
"Alright." He nodded and put her down again. The demon girl smiled brightly as the sun towards the blonde and took his hands: "Thank you, Kazama-san! It seems that you really have a nice site. You should show them more often."
He lay his hand on her chin and gently forced her to look directly into his blood-red eyes. For the Shinsengumi it seemed as he was trying to kiss Chizuru, but Kazama was whispering words towards her: "You only know me as a warrior, but if it's you, stubborn demon girl, I'd show you many other traits."
"Uhm..."
"Now, go home." He added and released her from his gentle grip. Chizuru nodded and walked towards the others. Everyone looked annoyed by Kazama's arrogance, but the girl suddenly stopped. She almost forgot that she still had Kazama's haori.
"Kazama-san! Your haori!" She yelled.
The blonde turned towards her again. "Keep it for now. I'll get it back when I come to get you, Yukimura Chizuru."
"And you think that's a clever plan?" Okita Souji's voice suddenly appeared. "Hey, Oni-captain!" He took the dark haori off of Chizuru's shoulders and threw it towards Kazama, who received it. The demon widely sneered. Okita had placed his own light-blue haori of the Shinsengumi over Chizuru's shoulders.
"At least mine is still dry and warm. Come Chizuru-chan, let's go inside." Okita said and laid an arm around the girls' shoulders.
"Ah-uhm... Okita-san, I have something for you." The girl said and got the smaller bag out of the huge bundle. "I know you like sweets, so I got you some mochi from the store."
"Thank you, Chizuru-chan." Okita smiled and hid the astonishment he felt at that moment. Luckily for all them, there was no further fighting that day.
The End