Author's Note: I can't believe I'm doing a multi-chapter on this, but a while back, I talked to FrenchieLeigh about the possibility of writing a story starring Harada Sanosuke's hair (not even Harada himself).

It might take me a while to update, but I really couldn't resist this, and I hope there's some interest here.

And thank you, FrenchieLeigh.

It was really something else.

What? You may ask. What could it be, that is so unique and wonderful that it's worth reading an entire story about?

Well, friends, the answer to that question would have been simple and self-evident, had you been around to see it. It shook Kyoto with awe as the beautiful capital was bathed in the raging red blood of the Bakumatsu and the streets were like rivers of the dead.

What could it be? You may ask, a tad bit impatiently. You may start guessing, perhaps. Is it the hitokiri Battousai, perchance? Or the Shinsengumi?

Close.

We should probably start from the beginning.

Once upon a time, there was a head of hair that belonged to a man in his early twenties. The man was indeed a member of the Shinsengumi at the time, and he himself was no eyesore, but his hair...it was godly.

Some people said that Hijikata Toshizou was a demon. Others claimed that Kondou Isami had once been a farmer (which was, in fact, true).

Some said that Okita Soushi was the strongest swordsman of the Shinsengumi.

Some said that Saitoh Hajime was immortal.

And some starry-eyed worshipers claimed that Harada Sanosuke's hair was in reality a demon crow spirit sent to Kyoto by Fate and Amaterasu herself.

Saitoh Hajime hated patrolling with Harada because of this—people would stop them in the streets and wax poetic about his fellow captain's hair as he stood by coldly and rolled his notably unnoticed golden eyes with exasperation. Okita Soushi didn't mind these occurrences so much, as it was always kind of funny to watch his friend get mobbed and Hajime stand ignored in a corner, so to speak.

And Harada? He was a low-key kind of fellow who didn't really let it get to his much-adored head at all. As he put it, "It just kinda happened that way, so I don't really care...now, my seppuku scar, now that's a hell of a lot cooler...wanna see?"

Indeed, not to say that Harada was not a proud man, but he just preferred to be proud of things he actually worked to get, which was an admirable trait in itself. However, it did not necessarily stop him from enjoying the trappings of his popularity. His hair helped him get into many a kimono (and, rumor had it, hakama) on nights when business was slow.

Now friends, you might say: This is all well and good for Philandering Chill Guy Harada, but why? Why would his hair be so astonishing and inspiring that it could turn the manliest man bent? What the hell did that admired hair even look like?

To this day, nobody knows how that fabulous, enigmatic demon-crow-spirit hair achieved its peculiar style, as fellow Shinsengumi captain Nagakura Shinpachi, survivor and writer of memoirs failed to document his comrade and friend's hair styling ritual. However, historians generally agree that it was not actually deliberately styled, due to Harada's vague quote mentioned earlier. Some conspiracy theorists even like to believe that it was fashioned by extraterrestrials who infiltrated Shinsengumi headquarters overnight for the sole purpose of taking over the world via artistic hair styling prowess. Believers in the occult tend to buy the Amaterasu story of the Hallowed Hair.

During Harada's time, common consensus was that the hair had a mind of its own.

But I digress.

The hairstyle has not been actually photographed, but was discovered in a long-lost illustration by the assassinated Shinsengumi leader Serizawa Kamo, likely drawn for entertainment purposes. Unlike the mysterious styling process, Nagakura Shinpachi did, in fact, write an entire detailed description of the hair's appearance in his final memoir:

He must have been sakayaki for some time before we met; his hair was shorter in front but stuck about in all manner of directions, black as a crow's though it rose up like a rooster to greet the sun in the early dawn.

However, this indicated nothing of the rest of his hair; he neither trimmed nor tied it in a topknot as is custom, but rather let it fall smoothly to the level of his obi in a long tail; therefore in its entirety it bore a close resemblance to a flamboyant, shining blackbird.

And if Nagakura's words and Serizawa's artwork rings true, then it surely must have been a sight to see.