Hi! I present you my own take on the anime and mangaHakuouki, staring my own character (OC) Nakamura Keiko and involving mainly Harada Sanosuke and Kyuuju Amagiri. The story is entirely happening between the first and second season of Hakuouki, without modifying anything. Chizuru is also present.

I would greatly appreciate any comments or questions you may have, for I love to write and I want to improve my skills. The story is under reviewing by beta-readers and myself since it's finished, so you may see some changes take place. We're putting some flesh on the bones.

The series, animes and mangasHakuoukido not belong to me and no offense is intended toward their actual owner and creators.

Thank you for reading and leaving your comments!

Some timid first rays of sun where barely showing in the east the day a stranger set foot on the wooden gates at the entrance of Kyoto. The air was crisp and fresh in the early morning and the streets calm and peaceful as a breeze softly brushed the alleys and the clothes of the traveler. The Edo period seemed to have had been good for the town and the folks as the traveler could see from the many shops and inns available, even if they were closed for the moment. Peace suited the city.

A sudden gust of air nearly swept away the pointy straw hat from the head of the new-comer, who tried instantly to press it back on her head. Once tied down, it didn't try to fly away again, but the rising morning light had caught a glimpse of gold from beneath. Once carefully tucked back in the hat, it became much less of an attention getter.

As the stranger made its way around the capital, time passed enough to see a bright sunrise light the city and awakes the town. In a matter of an hour, the streets became a hive in which the newly-arrived one just tried to blend in in order to get the important information she was looking for. But the young woman strayed a bit from the original objective as she was distracted by peddlers, shops, and by all the people dressed in the prettiest kimonos and other garbs she wasn't used to being from a small village in the outskirts of the province. Most of these city folks did not have any answers to give her, many gave her the cold shoulder treatment as well, and all of them were busy with something, had somewhere to go, or just didn't make time for a passing stranger dressed in, well, dirty rags from the journey.

Patience and kindness still made the cut as she strolled around. She did find the information she was looking for, but she didn't make it before dusk: Koudou-san hadn't been there for a while, but he used to go in and out the Mibu wolves headquarters before. Looking for the doctor was unexpectedly hard in the capital: it would have been so much easier in a rural area where everyone knows each other!

Having only that one hint, the wanderer chose to take a peek at the place, and maybe ask some questions to the people around on the way. She learned the group had a sour reputation. So much that she started to doubt of her own motivations to approach such a bunch of unruly warriors, savage cluster, hellhounds, dangerous individuals, as they were described by some folks. Some others also said they were otherworldly handsome, but it was impossible to see the truth from the rumors at this point of her search.

The stranger tried to silence her grumbling stomach on the way, but its protesting didn't stop until a kind lady gave her an apple. Maybe she had noticed the hungry glares she had towards food stands and inns. Greatly surprised and thankful, the traveler bowed and looked at the woman with a smile, but the granny seemed to frown when she noticed the golden hair stranding from the bun that was carefully hidden under the straw hat. She left without bowing back with a distant attitude, leaving the traveling young woman alone. She tipped her hat a bit more to re-cover her face and took back her pseudo-male attitude in front of the lady's reaction, letting her smile go down an inch even if she had gotten quite used to this. Whatever, the girl still had an apple and the will to see her quest through.

She got her atypical features from her family. Her mother was a fisherman's daughter and another fisherman's wife until the death of her first husband. She had met with a stranger arrived at the port from another land, and had fallen for his foreign looks and behavior against the protest or her relatives over the months. Both of them had moved inland after her father's work had brought him to suffer from a grave illness, and there they started raising a small family together in a secluded rural area, still against all odds. Her mother was a kind woman that aged in grace and beauty, although she was shallow and picky, Her father came by boat from another country, he rarely talked about it, and was a trained Karateka initiated back in his homeland by a wandering monk. He used to work as a sailor for a company transporting various goods: he was hired by Yukimura Koudou-san, a well known doctor, also known by the said monk who put the two other men in contact.

Used to this kind of reaction by now, the young lady turned around and resumed her walk toward the headquarters. The apple was tasty, the heat was slowly going down with the sunset and she had a hint. It had been a great day, for most of it. She left the prejudice wear off as she strolled and finally arrived to her destination as the night fell on Kyoto. Made of stone, the portal guarding the place was huge, and its wooden doors closed for the night. She shivered at the thought of the soldiers lurking in the premises, an all-male ground devoted to war. She was not to be caught in there, or else…

I'll make a quick check around, then I'll find a hotel to sleep, the traveler thought to herself.

But a fast inspection of her purse made the girl recognize she might have to sleep somewhere less expensive. In other words: outside. But she would have to get out the city since it was dangerous to sleep in the streets… being a woman was a pain when travelling alone. But the need to sleep in a relative security was the most obsessing thought that ran through her head day and night since her departure from home two weeks ago, just as much as the idea of a good meal which would not be made of grass and roots. She had very few coins in her light purse, they would be used for mail at the moment she'd find what she had come looking for in Kyoto.

She was interrupted in her calculations suddenly by a piercing scream coming from inside the walls and listened with attention to the ruckus that exploded a few seconds later, although muffled by the high walls and the many structures in the property. She dared not to move, as the cries were familiar to her ear, and the words spoken were also well known for she has heard them before:

"BLOOD! I WANT BLOOD!".