Hello! Thanks for stopping by! ^_^ This is my second fanfiction, also about Hakuoki~ XD with Saito and Chizuru as main pairing.

This story takes place in the present days, so it's AU and has nothing to do with the Shinsengumi's era...or should I say, it's related a bit XD Just read then if you're curious! ^_^

However, since English is not my first language, I hope you could forgive me for some mistakes T_T Please bear with me, but I promise it's still understandable XD

Let's start reading! XD I hope you'll like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Hakuoki, wish I did. They belong to Idea Factory. No profit obtained by writing this story.

PETALS OF TIME

CHAPTER 1: FAKE

A warm light of the morning sunshine gently woke a girl up. She laid around for a few minutes more before finally getting up and changed into her school uniform. She stared at the mirror for quite some time and sighed. This girl hated morning, not because she was lazy, not even close to it. She was known for her cheerful personality, surrounded by many friends, and also a first-year student in one of Kyoto's most famous high schools.

However, it was all lies.

She looked at her own reflection in the mirror and smiled, wearing her usual poker face, "Today, you're going to be alright...just like always, Chizuru."

Chizuru took her bag and glanced at the mirror again. She let out a long sigh while looking at her reflection one more time, "It's nice to be you...You have nothing to worry about..."

Although she seemed like an ordinary young girl, actually she was crying inside. She was always afraid of getting hurt. Her mother had long died in a car accident, along with her twin brother. That tragedy had made Chizuru, who was still five years old that time, cried and didn't want to meet anyone for quite a long time. When finally she had moved on from the sadness and came back to school, her friends mocked her as a crybaby and even bullied her.

It was not completely their fault. They were just a bunch of kids, so they still didn't understand. However, their words and behaviour had hurt Chizuru so much and left a traumatic experience. In this desperate time, her father decided to move from Tokyo, their previous home, to Kyoto, so they could start a new life.

Ten years had passed, now Chizuru had grown into a girl who always wore a happy mask. She couldn't say 'No' to everyone, because she thought that it would make people hate and hurt her in the end. Just smiled and pleased everybody, then she would be safe.

Chizuru was lost in these thoughts, that had become her morning routine, when suddenly she heard a loud bang from downstairs. She quickly ran to the source of the noise, her father's laboratory. Chizuru's father was a doctor, even their house was also a clinic. But, that old 'mad scientist' just didn't listen to his daughter's advice, for not experimenting something strange and weird in his spare time.

"Dad! Not this again!" Chizuru coughed when she opened the lab's door and greeted by stinky black smoke. In the middle of room, Yukimura Kodo was lying on the floor along with suspicious-looking machine.

With Chizuru's help, the doctor got up and rubbed his head before looking at the three-feet tall machine, "Looks like I've failed again..."

"Of course! Tell me, what kind of device that you're trying to make this time?!"shouted Chizuru. Although she couldn't object almost everyone's decision, she was brave enough to scold her father. After all, Kodo was her only relative now, and she felt obligated to do something before everything went worse. Kodo was a kind and dedicated doctor, but he was just always a bit...or very...eccentric, when it came to his hobby.

Kodo grinned, "A time machine..," But before he could ramble more about this new invention, Chizuru had glared at him, "You know it's impossible to make such thing. Just stop, or else you're going to blast this house." She let out a long sigh until finally she realized of something, "Oh no! I'm gonna be late!"

Chizuru was ready to run with all her might, but she turned her angry brown eyes to her father once more, "And don't try to do something strange while I'm still at school, Dad."

Kodo sighed, "Really, Chizuru...It's better for you to find a boyfriend, rather than scolding your own dad..."

A bitter smile started to form on Chizuru's lips, and she bowed to her father before running out of the house. She couldn't afford to be late, or else she would be asked to run the laps. People seeing her flaws was the most scary thing in the world. While running, she remembered Kodo's words to her.

A boyfriend? I already have one, Dad...I just don't want to tell you...No, it's better for you if you don't know about it...

"Safe!" Chizuru panted when she had entered the school gate, just seconds before the bell rang. She walked to the classroom with a fake smile, greeted her friends, and pretended to enjoy the classes.

...I'm bored...

"Hey, Chizuru-chan," suddenly she heard a whisper from the girl who sat behind her.

...Again? Sigh...I know what you want to say...

Chizuru turned her head around and smiled, "What is it, Yui-chan?"

Her friend giggled and gazed at Chizuru with hopeful look, "Chizuru-chan, could you take my place to clean the classroom after the lecture ends? Please? Actually, today is my turn, but I have a date, so..."

...It's been always like this.

"Alright," answered Chizuru quietly and she was facing her desk again. Since she never refused someone's request, some people had used that trait as their advantages. They often looked for Chizuru when they needed something, knowing that Chizuru would help them, just like this one.

It was a lie if Chizuru said that she didn't feel annoyed, although she never showed it. However, if she refused it, she was scared that people didn't want to befriend her again. She tried to please everyone so they wanted to be her friends, although it was ironic.

The same went for her boyfriend...

Chizuru just finished cleaning the classroom, all by herself, when suddenly her phone rang. She gasped upon seeing the name that appeared on the screen.

Kazama Chikage.

"Um...Yes, Kazama-senpai?" Chizuru answered the call hesitantly. She forgot to tell her lover that she was going to be late.

"I've said that I'll be waiting for you today in my classroom after school..." She could hear Kazama's irritated voice from the phone. "Are you trying to run away?"

"No!" answered Chizuru. "It's just...today is my turn to clean the classroom! I-I'll be there soon, just wait for me!"

She ran as fast as she could, just to find Kazama smirked at her. Chizuru hated this jerk, who was two years older than her. However, he had saved Chizuru from a group of thieves about one month ago. It couldn't be helped, though, the blond man was the heir to a well-known yakuza family, and mere thieves just wouldn't match him. He was very proud of his identity and always bragging about it.

After being saved, Chizuru asked him about what she could do as a gratitude. Surprisingly, Kazama knew about this girl, who had never said 'No' to others. So, he asked her to be his girlfriend. Although Chizuru's eyes widened upon hearing that, she just nodded, couldn't bring herself to object. Even so, their relationship was hidden from public, just like what Kazama wished.

It was because Kazama only saw Chizuru as his toy...not as his lover...

Kazama pushed Chizuru to the wall roughly, and his crimson eyes glared at her, "How dare you make me wait!" Chizuru tried to hold back her tears when Kazama gripped her wrist and planted a forceful kiss on her lips. She could feel Kazama's hands were lingering freely on her body. It had been always like this. Unconsciously, Chizuru pushed the man's body away from her.

Chizuru glared at Kazama, she couldn't take it anymore, "Kazama-senpai! I want to-" But she couldn't continue her words. She never spoke her mind, and was not able to do that, even in a time like this.

I want to break up with you, bastard!

"You want to...what? Do you know who I am? You know what I could do if you ever displeased me..." Kazama's face was just inches from her now. A malicious grin forming on his lips and he slapped his girlfriend's pale face.

Chizuru tried to ignore the pain and wiped her tears away, "Nothing...Forgive me..." With that, Kazama gave her a satisfied smile before kissing and touching her small figure once again.

The sunset accompanied the sad girl, who was walking back home alone after being harassed by her own boyfriend. Fortunately, Kazama didn't do anything worse, but Chizuru knew that it might happen anytime. That man could do anything, even killing, to get what he wanted. Chizuru was afraid that Kazama would threaten her father as well, if she ever said that she wanted to end this mad relationship.

"I'm home..," said Chizuru weakly while entering her house. She felt relieved everytime she was already home. And the fact that tomorrow was already weekend had relaxed her heart a bit. At least she didn't have to act for two days, although she was really worried that Kazama would call and ask her for a 'date'.

I will take a bath now...I'm sure it can calm myself down, after this unlucky day...

Chizuru was about to go upstairs, when she heard a loud noise all of a sudden.

...Or should I say...a terrible day?

She slammed the lab's door open. The thick black smoke had filled the room. She coughed and shouted, "Dad! How many times should I tell you until you understand?!"

"Sorry, Chizuru..," She could barely hear her father's voice behind the smoke. And when finally the smoke had completely gone, Chizuru glared at him and his strange engine, "Stop all these jokes, otherwise there won't be any patients who come here again, because they're afraid that you might use them as guinea pigs!"

Kodo let out a sigh, "I'm not that crazy, Chizuru..," and then he looked at his now already broken time machine, "So, I still fail until the end..."

"Of course! It was obvious to begin with!" said Chizuru angrily and she walked closer to the device. Visible cracks were all over it now. It looked like this one was also a failure, just like Kodo's previous works.

Chizuru touched the part of the crazy machine that seemed like a door. Even she could tell that Kodo wanted to use this door as a gateway for travelling through the time, which was really impossible, even in this modern era. She turned her eyes to her upset father and smiled, "Now Dad, how about becoming a normal doctor? Just forget this strange hobby of you-"

However, Chizuru didn't continue her words, or more precisely, she couldn't. An uncomfortable shivers ran down her spine when she felt something wet had tickled her feet from behind. She immediately turned around and looked down. She gasped upon seeing the red liquid, flowing slowly from a small gap between the time machine's door and floor.

She froze. Their house was a clinic after all, so she had helped her father treating a lot of wounded patients and she had seen this scarlet water many times. She knew what it was, and absolutely sure of it.

It was someone's blood.

"Stay away, Chizuru..," Kodo noticed that and walked closer to the time machine. "I have a feeling that I've succeeded on this one..." There was a slight of excitement in his tone, although his expression was still stern upon seeing the blood.

"Dad...you're talking like a real mad scientist now..," Chizuru's body was trembling while Kodo tried to open the door. It was difficult since it had already broken, and Chizuru took a deep breath, preparing herself to see whatever that would come out from the machine. She didn't afraid of blood, but if that whatever thing was a corpse in horrible condition, then it would be a different story.

Finally, Kodo had successfully opened the metal door by force. A sudden sharp scent of blood filled the room, and from inside the time machine, a body of young man fell.

Kodo's eyes widened in shock and he froze in place. But Chizuru managed to catch the severely wounded man before he hit the floor. She could feel his breath, although it was very weak. His messy and blood-tainted long purple hair fell to Chizuru's body, and the girl was surprised upon seeing a katana, being gripped tightly in his left hand.

However, Chizuru realized that this was not a right time to be shocked. She tried to stay calm and spoke to her father, "Dad! Whoever he is, we have to help him! He is barely alive!"

"Ah, yes..," Kodo was snapped back to reality and they rushed to the patient's room. The doctor laid the man's broken body on the bed after getting rid of his katana, and a wakizashi that was strapped on his right hip. Chizuru untied his hair and quickly opened his clothes to see the injuries closely. He was wearing a black yukata with white scarf wrapping around his neck. On top of that, he wore a light blue haori, with mountain-like white patterns. Chizuru felt that she had seen that kind of haori before, but she didn't remember it precisely.

After hours, Kodo and Chizuru finally had finished cleaning and bandaging up the mysterious man's wounds. Chizuru borrowed one of her father's pajamas and changed the man's tattered clothes into that light material. Now he was already clean, Chizuru could see his face clearly, and she had to admit that this unconscious man had a charming face.

"...The time machine worked, although it didn't perform like I wished," Kodo broke the silence, and when his daughter glared at him, demanding a logical explanation, he continued, "The main purpose of that engine was to bring us to different era. However, I think a reversed effect has happened here...It caused a chaos in the flow of time and has accidentally brought a random person from the past..."

Chizuru listened to each word closely and thought that she had been going insane. Such thing was impossible. She even thought that maybe Kodo had asked someone to act as a bloody time-traveller who came out from the machine and surprised her when she came back from school. But no matter how she looked at the injured man, his wounds were real, he wasn't acting. And Kodo was not that crazy to lock up a barely alive person in some dangerous device. Judging by the man's appearance, and if her father's words were true, Chizuru was quite sure that he was a samurai, and was on the battlefield or duel with someone else before accidentally being sent to the present days.

"So...what will we do to him, then?" Chizuru tried to calm herself, "The machine has broken, right? Does it mean we couldn't send him back to his era?"

Kodo nodded, "Yes...I hate to say this, but it's not possible for me to send him back, at least for now...I guess we don't have any other choices except for letting him stay here with us...We have to take a full responsibility."

Chizuru's eyes widened, "What do you mean by 'We'?! Just if you didn't work on that crazy thing, this incident wouldn't happen!" But her eyes softened upon seeing her father's hopeful yet slightly excited eyes. She knew that the doctor had planned to question the man after he regained consciousness, if he was really a samurai from the past.

There was a moment of silence before finally Chizuru sighed, knowing that there was really no other choices, "Alright then...I guess you're right...Now, how about moving him upstairs? We have an empty room just next to mine. It's not wise to leave him in this patient room..."

The doctor gave Chizuru a relieved smile and thanked her, although the girl kept ignoring her eccentric father, who had dragged her along into this matter. She had read some novels and watched movies about time-travelling before, either by some devices, magic, or being sucked into a black hole. But she never thought that it would occur in her real life. Together, they brought the mysterious man to a room besides Chizuru's and laid him down on the bed.

For a security reason, Kodo took the samurai's swords, knowing that that man most likely would do something dangerous in panic if he woke up and found himself in a whole new world. Actually, Kodo wanted to lock up the room as well, but Chizuru gave him a scowl, saying that it was inappropriate and could raise the man's suspicion at them.

After a short debate and convincing her father that she would be okay, Chizuru won. They went out of the room and Chizuru glanced at the sleeping man one more time before quietly closed the door.

Finally, she was already in her bedroom. She was not in mood to take a bath anymore, and changed to her sleeping clothes before throwing herself on the bed. She stared at the ceiling and cursed herself for having such pathetic life.

...It seems that problems could always find me wherever I go...

She was already stressful enough with her fake daily life without having to deal with her father's strange hobby and not to mention, a weird time-traveller who was sleeping in the next room. Chizuru was already about to sleep when she recalled of something...

The light blue haori...I've seen it somewhere before...

Just seconds after that, her eyes widened and she quickly got up from the bed. She went to her bookshelf and reached a book about Japan's history. After opening a certain page, she was sure that there was no mistake this time. If she remembered correctly, she had even seen the real thing in a museum when she was on study trip a few years ago.

That haori belonged to Shinsengumi, an élite samurai force that protecting Kyoto in the past...

Chizuru's eyes followed the letters on the book closely. Shinsengumi was officialy formed on 1864, and its existence was ended with Hijikata Toshizo's death, the Vice Commander, on 1869...And the current year, was 2012...Chizuru's body trembled upon reading that fact. If that man was truly a member of Shinsengumi, it meant he had gone through almost 150 years of time journey.

Slowly, she stepped out of her room and quietly opened the man's bedroom. Instead of afraid, she became curious all of a sudden, and now she wanted to take a closer look at this unexpected guest.

The man was still asleep when Chizuru entered the dark room, which she felt grateful of. She gazed at the man's face and tried to find the difference compared with nowadays people's faces, but she found none. Actually, she admitted that he was even more handsome than the boys in her class, or her cursed boyfriend. With beautiful moonlight that shone from the window, his charming features were even more obvious for her eyes to see.

...W-What am I thinking?! And more importantly, why did I come here in the first place?!

Chizuru turned around and prepared to go back. But suddenly, a hand had gripped her wrist from behind and pulled her small body into a strong chest. Before she could even react, another hand had covered her mouth so she didn't scream. Her body was shaking when the captor's long violet locks tickled her face.

"Don't worry...I won't hurt you since you're a woman..," A cold deep voice whispered at Chizuru's ear shell. "However, I'm quite sure this is the Choshu's or Satsuma's place since my swords have been taken away from me...I didn't even think they managed to capture me like this, though...Are you one of them? I'll release you if you could answer my question without screaming."

Are you nuts?! This is Yukimura clinic! And I have helped you instead of capturing you!

Chizuru struggled to free herself, but it was useless. That man's strength was too strong. Although he had said that he wouldn't hurt her, but she was still afraid that this freak would harass her, just like what Kazama did.

After quite some time, Chizuru gave up and nodded in silence while holding back her tears. The young male released her and Chizuru caught her breath before staring at his deep cerulean eyes. His reaction was surprisingly calm. He didn't look panic at all, or maybe, had not. More importantly, he managed to stand up with such wounded body. The people from past were truly something.

"Forgive me..," the man whispered, but his gaze never left Chizuru. "...for touching you like that. However, it's better for you to wear something more appropriate than it."

Chizuru stunned and looked down at her cotton tank top and short pants. Somehow her fear had slightly disappeared upon hearing that man's words, it seemed that he didn't plan to harass her or something like that. She calmed herself before answering, "Well, it's normal sleeping clothes...at least, in this era."

The man frowned, it was obvious that he didn't get what Chizuru meant. But Chizuru continued her earlier words, "And this is not Choshu's or Satsuma's prison, but my family's clinic. My dad is a doctor and we have treated your injuries. As for your swords, we just keep it for security reason. We will give them back to you later."

There was an awkward silence between them. Chizuru kept praying that this weird guy could accept this quick explanation. She chose not to tell about the time machine thing yet since it was better to take one step at a time in this situation. The man took his gaze away from Chizuru and stared at his surroundings. He also touched the pajama he was wearing with a slightly confused face. Well, just slightly, because this man seemed to lack expressions.

The young male closed his azure eyes and spoke quietly, "And then...how could I end up here?"

"You...you're not afraid?" asked Chizuru hesitantly. This man's reaction was too calm for a person who was in a whole new situation, in the strangest place he ever visited in his life.

"Why should I?" said the man coldly. Much to Chizuru's surprise, he walked closer and gazed deeply at her chocolate eyes, "...I could tell that your eyes said the truth...although I demand more explanation after this."

...So, this man could tell someone's lies just by looking at their eyes?

Chizuru gave him a bitter smile. True, she said the truth this time. But he didn't even know that she had been living with lies in her whole life. Her tears had started to fall upon remembering the fake life she was living on. Now, she felt like a fool. How could she cry in front of a stranger? She had successfully hidden her feeling for a long time. But after meeting with someone who could read her soul, she felt that her weakness had been exposed. She didn't want anyone to know about that. She was scared of other people's judgement. To make it worse, this emotionless man must have thought of her as a crybaby in ridiculously inappropriate costume now.

"Did I hurt you?" asked the samurai quietly, but Chizuru just shook her head. There was no way she told him that his earlier casual words had made her feel afraid. The tears had refused to stop. It was embarrassing. She couldn't wear her poker face in this cold man's presence, knowing it would be useless.

The man gazed at the crying girl for seconds more before slowly walking away from her and looking at the modern houses from the window. Chizuru didn't know what his reason was, but she felt grateful that he gave her time to be alone. She tried her best to stop the tears while gazing at the young man's back. After quite some time, she walked closer to him.

"I'm sorry..," murmured Chizuru, feeling embarrassed.

"That's alright..," said the young male, without looking at Chizuru. "I just thought that you didn't want me to see you cry, so I left you alone...I won't ask the reason, either. It's not my business. And if you need to go back, that's okay...I can wait until tomorrow for the rest of explanation, because I don't feel a killing intent from you nor this place..."

Unconsciously, Chizuru chuckled. This man still said something like that. It was understandable, though. A samurai used to always stay aware in every situation. But now she felt relieved that he could stay calm and believe her words. More importantly, Chizuru was surprised that she could show her honest feeling in front of this stranger. She felt that her burden had been lifted a bit after crying, although she still hated herself for doing that.

"Hey..," whispered Chizuru. Against her will, she rested one of her hands on the man's back. She blushed when she realized it and quickly pulled her hand away. Much to her surprise, suddenly the time-traveller turned around and they glanced at each other's eyes. The flow of time had frozen until their lips spoke the same words, at the same moment.

"Who are you?"

This is the end of first chapter~ I hope you enjoyed it!

I would be very happy if you leave a REVIEW!^_^

Thanks for reading! XD