Hi...it's harari24 again. Here's the second chapter of My Sins. I umm...hope you...uhh...e-enjoy it!
Another note: I am so so so so sorry that this took me forever to update! Why does school give me all the homework...
Yet another note: This chapter goes on a little longer than usual, so sorry if it seems kinda dull in the beginning.
Special thanks to: XxXWolvesInTheNightXxX, Tomatosoup inc., Arcee-chan, milan, Kaori, and ichigonotstrawberry for being the only people to review so far. 6 people, huh? That's pretty good! Anyway, your reviews made me feel all nice inside. Thank you!
Disclaimer: I do not own Hakuouki in any way at all.
Italics are thoughts.
"Quotes are in quotation marks." (Duh!)
The POV, author notes, and words that are to be emphasized are bold.
The chapter title, words/phrases that will be translated at the bottom, and time changes are underlined.
These are normal words.
Chapter 2: Demon
Still Kagura's POV
"Why do you always want to do these risky things? It seems kinda...risky..." Otou-san said after I told him about my plan.
"Hence the word risky!" I informed. I swear, he's like a mother who nags like there's no tomorrow. I guess that shows he cares about us a lot. Still...
"Wait, what's your plan again?" I heard Naoi say.
"You didn't hear me? Well, earlier when I saw the Shinsengumi, a bunch of questions came to mind: what happened, who was that girl, etc. I'm going to answer those questions because I'm an idiot like that. I haven't really figured out the gist of it, but here's what I got. I gonna go around Kyoto asking the locals if they know anything about last night while I'm dressed as a boy." I said.
"Why a boy?" Naoi asked.
"I'm in less danger as a boy."
"Can you even sound like a boy?"
"Does it matter?"
"But once people know you're a girl, aren't you going to be in more danger?"
"Well, duh."
"Just be careful. I don't want you getting hurt like that one night." Otou-san said. I remember that night. This, by the way, isn't the night that happened 7 years ago. This night...I was attacked by some kind of demon. I remember: the white hair, the scary grin, the evil, blood red eyes. I was lucky to be alive after that. Those stupid things wouldn't die!
"Okay, I'll be careful. Oh, and one more thing. Otou-san, keep an eye on the store. I should be back by tonight. If not, I was most likely captured by the Shinsengumi. But don't worry. I should be able to check on things after about 2 weeks if that happens." I went to my room to fix a few things.
After I folded my futon, I went to grab my 2 swords in the corner of my room and strapped them onto my waist. I looked at myself in the mirror for a moment. My hair was dark brown, leaning towards black, and went down to my lower back. I was wearing a dark blue kimono with a length that ended above my knees. Then I looked at my eyes. My left eye...was covered with strips of bandages that wrapped around my head. I raised my hand to touch the bandages covering my left eye. My right eye, a dark yellow, became filled with melancholy as I remembered what happened on that night, 7 years ago.
'I can't let the past haunt me now!' I thought. I walked out of my room.
"Well...I'm off." I said to Naoi and Otou-san as I walked outside.
Upon walking out the door, I saw something that I found very funny.
The thing that I found funny was seeing Nagakura Shinpachi running for his life while, say, 20 girls chased after him carrying pitchforks and torches and screeching swears at him. This is, what, the second time this happened? The first time happened because of me.
FLASHBACK
'I'm gonna kill Shinpachi!' I thought as I held him in a headlock.
"Shinpachi, you're gonna die!" I said as we neared a door.
I slammed the door open.
"Are you the girls who want to destroy Shinpachi? Here he is! Do whatever the hell you want to do to him!" I exclaimed.
Shinpachi then escaped my grasp and ran like hell while a huge group of girls carrying pitchforks, torches, swords, and some...thing that I'm not familiar with chased after him angrily. I pinched some of my hair to take out the small flame that had begun to grow because of 1 of the torches.
END OF FLASHBACK
Ah...good memories.
What's my relationship with Shinpachi? Let's see: we call each other by our first names, he hits on me, I punch him when he does. Long story short: we're...almost friends. Yeah, that's it!
Anyway, let's get this plan into motion! First of all, I gotta find someone who can make me look like a boy. Hmmm...
A few minutes later...
"Shitsureishimasu..." I said when I slid open the door.
"Hello? Anyone here? Kanae-chan?" I called out. I walked through the hallways.
"Kagura-chan?" I heard from another room. "Ohayou!" She poked her head out of the room, her light brown hair hanging, and walked into the hallway. This is Sanada Kanae. (A/N: When I write names, I write it in the eastern last name, first name order. So her first name is Kanae.)
"Ohayou, Kanae-chan!" I said.
She shot me a grin so wide that others would think that half of her face was mouth. "So, what'cha need?" she said, walking towards me.
"You're good with disguises, right? I need you to make me look like a boy." I said bluntly.
"Why? Think that guy ya like is gay? Y'know, the one with that green headband?" she asked.
"What? No...and I DO NOT LIKE SHINPACHI!"
She shrugged. "Well...okay, but this may take a while. It'll be real hard to make ya look like a boy with those...things." she said, looking a little lower.
Things?
...I'm still confused...
...Oh, she means my boobs! That's understandable! My boobs are bigger than normal people's boobs. (A/N: In real life, her size is a 32C cup. That's big for a 21-year-old...right?...Sorry, Too Much Information.)
She lead me to a different room. "Okay, I'm gonna start by measuring."
Half an hour later...
"Tada!" She exclaimed, handing me a mirror.
My hair was cut short, possibly to my shoulders and was held back by a high ponytail. Instead of my blue kimono, I was wearing a blue male kimono and a bright blue hakama. (A/N: Just think of the new clothes as Chizuru's clothes, except with a blue color.) My bandages were still covering my left eye.
'Holy crap, my hair's short' is what I could have thought. Honestly, the fact that my hair is shorter is the least of my problems at the moment.
"Well, how is it?...hey, why're you all bent down like that?" Kanae-chan asked.
"...my chest hurts..." I said quietly.
Somehow, Kanae-chan managed to make my boobs appear to be flat with tons of strips of bandages. I don't know how she got that to work, but it still hurt like hell.
"It's fine, it's fine! You'll get used to it soon!"
"I sure hope so..."
"Okay, then. Can you make yourself sound like a boy?"
"...well, I can try..."
I cleared my throat and tried to make myself sound like a boy.
"Well, how's this?" I asked in a different voice.
"Little deeper."
I forced myself to cough.
"How about now?" I asked in a different voice.
"Perfect." (A/N: If Kagura had a voice actress, it would be Marina Inoue. She can make a somewhat deep female voice and a decent male voice. Some of her roles include Tachibana Wataru from Hayate no Gotoku!, Senou Natsuru (both male and female) from Kämpfer, and Mondial Erio from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS.)
I thanked her for her help and left.
'Okay, I'm safer now. I just need to ask people in town if they know what happened last night.' I thought.
I looked from side to side, wondering which way I should go.
'Gee, where should I start? I think my best bet will be...in the area around the Ikedaya Inn! I'll go there!' I thought finally.
I made my way to the area of Kyoto near the Ikedaya Inn. It's not all that far, really.
The moment I got there, I immediately started asking people questions.
Most people ignored me, but some of them answered.
"Excuse me? Do you know anything about what happened in this inn?" I asked an old woman.
"I'm sorry. I'm sure there are others who can help you, though."
"Oh, okay. Thank you!"
I continued asking people.
"Excu-" I began to ask a man, but he punched me in the face before I could finish.
"Damn you!" I said to the man. I'm starting to see a flaw with dressing up as a boy.
I kept asking people.
"Excuse me? Do you know anything about what happened in this inn?" I asked another man.
"Hmm? Well, I heard something about a Choushuu plot, but that's it. Hey, I'm betting you'll get more info if you sneak inside the Ikedaya." he said.
That's actually a pretty good idea. "Okay, thank you!"
I walked near the building and stopped. I looked around to make sure no one saw me, and ran inside.
I closed the door quickly. I turned around and my right eye widened with what I saw.
There was blood everywhere. On the walls, the floors, everywhere. It looked like someone had completely demolished the back door, too. I walked up to one of the walls and placed a hand on a stain of blood. I removed it to see that some of it had gotten on my hand.
'It's rather fresh...wait, why am I checking the blood? I already know this happened last night.' I thought to myself. I smeared the blood on my hand on the wall.
I walked up the steps and slid open the door to one of the rooms. This room had a HUGE bloodstain on half of the floor. The other half was rather clean except for one thing. I walked over to the other side of the room to pick up the said thing.
It was a clip of blond hair. A rather small one at that. With this, I was already guessing what happened in this room.
There were 2 people here. One of them was blond. Whoever was fighting that blond person could only chop some of his hair off. The blond person was probably skilled enough to make the other person lose that much blood. Or it's the other way around. No, it's probably the first way. I put the clipping of hair down and left the room.
I opened the door to another room and examined the room.
This room had no blood, but it had a partly demolished wall and something else on the floor. I walked over to it and picked the pieces up.
These were pieces of those headband things that samurai wear sometimes. I made an assumption of the events in this room.
Whoever was in here didn't or wasn't able to use a sword. That person probably received some type of blow to the forehead. I doubt it was from a fist, though.
I stood up and sighed. 'It's this dark already?' I thought as I looked out the window.
I left the room, went down the stairs, and left the building through the back door.
'I need to get home before Otou-san gets annoying.' I thought as I walked. 'I'll take a shortcut.'
I was rather familiar with the town's layout, so I knew every shortcut. Seeing an alley that would shorten the walk home, I turned and used the alleyway.
Then I heard it: the sound of heavy breathing. A sound that was all too familiar. My eyes widened as I remembered the physical features that went with the heavy breathing: the white hair, the blood red eyes, the evil grin, everything. I stopped in my tracks as I noticed the heavy breathing getting louder.
'It's right behind me, It's right behind me...' I thought.
Grasping the handle of one of my katanas, I looked over my shoulder.
There were three of those evil things. Three. I turned around to face all of them with a fearless look on my face.
That wasn't true. I was almost terrified.
I know where to attack them, but it will be hard with three of them there.
I ran toward one of them and, with no hesitation, neatly cut its head off. I stood up just in time to block the next attack, but the third one landed a huge gash on my shoulder. I stabbed the second one in the heart and used its sword to stab the third one in between the eyes. I got my sword, cleaned it off, and sheathed it once again. I turned around to see the mess I made.
Then I noticed that they were wearing sky blue haoris. 'The Shinsengumi's reputation is bad enough at the moment. Does it need to get worse? I might as well burn the haoris.' I thought.
After I found something to set fire to, I removed the haoris and threw them into the flames. What do I do with those things? If someone saw a headless thing, a dead thing, and another dead thing that was on a wall with a sword in between its eyes, that someone would surely die of fear.
I sighed as I realized what I had to do. Picking those evil things up, I threw them into the fire as well.
Great, now what?
"We followed those things to deal with them, but it looks like someone else did it for us, Hajime-kun." A voice said.
I turned my head to the direction of where the voice came from. There were 2 men there, both of them wearing sky blue haoris. One of them had light brown hair and some creepy smirk. The other one had dark violet hair and a serious expression.
"Who are you?" The one with darker hair asked. I'm assuming he's the one called Hajime because his voice is different from the first one.
"You're part of the Shinsengumi, no? What the HELL is that?" I said in my male voice as I pointed to the fire.
The brunette looked at the fire, then back at me. "A fire." he responded.
Ugh, I was referring to the evil things. "Shut up! You know what I'm talking about!" I yelled.
"Who are you?" Hajime asked again.
I sighed. "A stronger person than you!" I attacked with my sword.
Hajime easily blocked that attack. I sensed that the brunette was going to attack, so I unsheathed my second sword. But then, I suddenly became weak and the second sword fell from my hand. I fell to the ground, using my first sword to keep me in a sort of sitting position.
"Did you do anything?" the brunette asked Hajime.
Hajime shook his head. "There's a gash on his shoulder." he said.
I looked at my shoulder and, sure enough, there was a huge gash there. Now I remember! I got it when I was fighting those evil things.
I started losing vision as I collapsed onto the ground.
"What should we do with him?"
"I say we kill him."
That was the last thing I heard before everything went black.
END OF CHAPTER 2
Um, how was it? It took a little long and I'm sorry for that. Here's what I have planned out for the story. It's not very specific:
Many chapters of actual story
Some chapters of filler
1 spin-off like SSL
A bad and good end
About the spin-off: It's based on SSL. I have a few jokes planned out, but not really the whole thing. If you want to see it, you HAVE to send me info on SSL. What happens, what kind of teachers some people are, everything. The sooner I get the info, the sooner the spin-off will appear here. So hurry!
If you have any questions or ideas for the story and filler chapters, either PM me or send it along with a review. I will update the third chapter as soon as I can. But for now, thank you!
harari24
Words:
Otou-san: Father
Shinsengumi: The 'special police force' of the late shogunate period. Shinsengumi translates into "newly selected corps."
Kyoto: A city in the central part of the island Honshu, Japan. The city where this story takes place.
futon: A Japanese bed that is laid on the ground and looks like a comforter.
kimono: A Japanese traditional garment worn by men, women, and children.
shitsureishimasu: Excuse me
ohayou: Good morning
hakama: a type of traditional Japanese clothing. They were originally worn by men, but today they are worn by both male and female.
Ikedaya: An inn in Kyoto. The inn where the Ikedaya Jiken takes place.
Choushuu: a feudal domain in Japan during the Edo period.
samurai: the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. Samurai means "those who serve."
katana: a Japanese sword
haori: A hip or thigh length kimono-like jacket that adds formality to an outfit. It was worn by men until the Meiji period when women started to wear it.