Disclaimer:

Hakuouki © Idea Factory

OCs © Author Sia Leysritt

Summary

"'This world was never normal to begin with. There are somethings that is hard to believe and you need a strong proof in order to prove it'.

A little girl named Maria was saved by a member of a soon to be Roshigumi, Saitou Hajime. A young girl and a foreigner also. How will the story cahnge with the addition of this little girl here along with five other girls and a wandering swordsman from the west? Also, how come this swordsman know all of the member of Roshigumi?"

Sia Leysritt Present

Hakuouki Reimeiroku: Our Little Happiness

Chapter II

The Beautiful Falling Snow

"Well, I know now. I know a little more how much a simple thing like a snowfall can mean to a person"

― Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Morning greeted Maria like how a smell from a bakery greeted the people who walked pass by it. Pleasant. For the first time after her rough week, she is finally able to sleep on something soft. She remembered that Hijikata called it Futon, last night.

Maria rubbed her still heavy eyes as sunlight fill her sight. Last night she let her door open a bit. Only a bit. As she felt the air was too hot last night. She sat on her futon, still trying to comprehend whether the event of last night was a dream or not. She truthfully didn't expect for them to let her stay here. If she remembered correctly there are some who protests for her living here, since this is a house full of men and all that difficult stuff. However in the end, they let them stay, something she will be forever grateful for, as Maria herlsef does not remember where she came from. Heck, she doesn't even know whether she still has a home or not and who her parents is. But for now, she is glad that she has a place to stay.

"Oh, good morning."

Maria blinked. She didn't realize someone has entered her room. A middle aged man, wearing a similar clothing like Hijikata and the others. He smiled gently at Maria and the white haired girl looked down in embarrassment, realizing that her appearance is not very much fit to welcome a guest.

"…Good morning…" Maria said timidly.

The man smiled. "Did you sleep well last night?"

Maria nodded.

"That's a relief. Ah, I haven't introduce myself. My name is Genzaburo Inoue. Everyone here usually call me Gen-san. Nice to meet you Maria-chan."

Maria look at the man, Gen-san, carefully. He seems nice and look like those kind grandparents that will give their grandchildren candies every chance they meet them. Deciding that he must be a nice person and because he is also lived here, Maria offered him a smile, showing that she trusted him enough.

"You are really cute like everyone say." Gen said, complimenting her. "Ah, speaking of, everyone has gathered at the hall for breakfast. Come, I will escort you there."

Maria nodded. She stood up and was about to fold her futon and blanket when Gen-san stopped her.

"You don't have to fold that. I'll do it for you. Let's go and have a breakfast with everyone."

Maria obeyed and follow him to where she will be having her breakfast. She walked through the empty hall with the man—Gen, if she remembered correctly. He looked like a nice person, at least his face didn't look as scary as the other men yesterday.

"Is there something on my face?" Gen asked kindly as he saw Maria was staring at her face for quite a while.

"Ah. No… Nothing is on your face…" Maria said, embarrassed that she had been caught staring. Gen chuckled at her shy behaviour. It was quite cute and a nice change of scenery. It's not everyday you can see a child running around Roshigumi and he, himself, is quite fond of children.

Arriving in front of the dining hall, Gen slid open the door and went in. Maria followed after him and see that everyone she saw last night was present here. In front of them was some sort of small wooden table with foods placed on top of it. Her stomach rumbling and she blushed in embarrassment. Realizing she was really hungry as she actually didn't have dinner last night and went straight to bed.

"Looks like we have a hungry kitten here~" Okita said playfully.

Maria's face went bright red because of his remark. All the men laughed at her reaction and Gen kindly escort her to sit beside Saito, who is the only one in the room that didn't find anything amusing from Maria's reaction. Something that Maria is thankful for.

"Well, since everyone's here, let's dig in!" Shinpachi said as he went and eat his food.

Maria only stared in awe as Shinpachi stuff all his food into his mouth as if there's no tomorrow. Maria, seeing that everyone around her has began to eat, decided that she should start eating too. However, there was a slight problem. She had never used chopsticks before. The poor girl was trying very hard to pick up her food with her chopsticks to no avail. Every food she tried to pick will eventually fall back to the bowl before she can even lift it and put it in her mouth. She sighed in frustration and pouts.

"What's wrong Maria-chan? You've never used a chopsticks before?" Heisuke asked from where he sat. Maria nodded. Her face was red due to embarrassment.

Saito, seeing Maria difficulty in using chopsticks, silently put down his meal (he was already finished, anyway) and quietly took her chopsticks and bowl and without a word, he started to feed her.

Maria looked a bit taken aback, but she was happy at the same time. She happily opened her mouth wide and eat.

All the Roshigumi member (minus for Hijikata who only chuckled at the scene) looked a bit surprised. Saito always looked so quiet and serious that they never thought he has a soft spot for children.

"Okay, yesterday Hijikata-san lost his Oni-like demeanor, and now Saito has soft spot for children?! The end of the world is upon us!"

Shinpachi felt chills running down his spine as he saw both Saito and Hijikata glaring daggers at him and decided to shut his mouth and eat his meals quietly.

"Hijikata-san, have you talked to Serizawa-san about Maria-chan?" Heisuke asked curiously.

Hijikata sighed heavily. "I haven't. And I certainly wish I don't have to. I doubt he let her stay here just like that."

"Knowing Serizawa-san, the possibility of that happening is very high." Heisuke cringed then looked at Maria with sad look.

It's not a secret anymore that Kamo Serizawa is a nasty man. Though Heisuke had only spent several months with him, he already dislike how he behaved. He behaved like any other bad ronnins out there and worse yet, most people in town thought he and his friends are the same as him as they were always seen together with him.

Because of his nasty personality, Heisuke highly doubt that Serizawa will let Maria stay here just like that.

"Come now, don't be negative." Kondou said. "If we talked this out with Serizawa-san, he'll surely listen."

I highly doubt that. Heisuke thought as he finished his food.

"So Heisuke… Why the hell are we playing hide and seek when we're already this old?"

Heisuke rolled his eyes as he hides in one of the room along with Shinpachi.

"Because Maria-chan needs to do something other than sitting around, doing nothing but staring at the sky." Heisuke said in annoyance. "Besides, if you have noticed, Shinpat-san, there's no one here who could play with her except for us."

"I know that, but out of all games that kids could play, why hide and seek?" Shinpachi asked.

"Because this is the only game I could think of!" Heisuke snapped.

-Earlier-

"Maria-chan, what are you doing sitting there all alone?" Heisuke asked as he come across her when he was about to take a walk outside town.

Maria slowly looked up at him. "Umm… Because there's nothing to do…?" She said, rather confusedly.

"Huh? There's a lot of things someone your age can do." Heisuke said, sitting next to her. "Why don't you try playing with kids outside of the compund?"

"I try to talk to them but they avoid me." She said sadly.

Ah. That was rather understandable. Here in Japan, foreigners were not treated kindly. People belived that foreigners could bring disaster to Japan just by talking to them alone. Heisuke and the rest of his friends didn't really think much when they decided to take Maria in – Heck, they didn't even think of discussing this with Serizawa first—but they were not the type of person that would believe in such nonsense. But it seems some of the kids were told not to speak with foreigners.

"Oh … Is that so…?" Heisuke said, rather awkwardly. "Then how about playing with us instead?" Heisuke offered kindly.

Maria looked at him. "Aren't everyone busy?"

Heisuke thought back. He was definitely not busy and was bored to be honest, that's why he is planning on heading out and was planning to take Sano and Shinpachi along as he was sure they were lazying around in their room. Souji and Saito were probably sparing for the who-knows-how many times already. Hijikata-san…. Was out of question as the man would surely try to make himself busy even if there's nothing to do. Kondou and Sannan… Nah, they were too old to play with Maria. While Ryuunosuke… is on an errand for Serizawa. Definitely buying him a sake.

"Well… Me, Sano-san, and Shinpat-san were not busy." He said. "As for Souji and Saito, I could ask them if they want to play or not." He said.

Maria only nodded.

"Great! What would you want to play?"

Maria tapped her chin. She actually didn't know what children her age usually playing. Her amnesia has taken into the most ridiculous state that she also forgotten about the most simple thing such as what games children usually playing.

"… I don't know…" She said honestly. "What do children usually play?"

"Eh? Er… Maria-chan, you asked that question… As if you have never played with children your age before."

Maria was quiet for a moment. "I may have… But I don't remember." She said.

Heisuke was silent. It seems her amnesia is already on a whole new level already. She even forgot about what games children her age usually would be playing. But then, none of them know what was she like on the past, there is a possibility that she just simply not used to playing with others or some other reasons.

"Sorry! Sorry! I didn't mean to be so insensitive." Heisuke said quickly. "Then let's play hide and seek. I'll go and gather everyone."

-End-

"And that's why I ended up suggesting this game! Though I was surprised that Souji and Saito agreed so quickly though." Heisuke said.

"Shh! Keep it down will you?" Shinpachi hissed. "Saito's It now, and you know how focused he can be. We'll the first one discovered if you raise your voice like that."

Heisuke rolled his eyes. "And here I thought you were just complaining about us playing this game…"

A young girl, with strawberry blonde hair walked through Kyoto streets. Her foreign appearance made people around her avoids her almost immediately while some looked at her with interest. Her green eyes scanned the street in curiousity before turned back towards the paper she was holding.

"I wish the weather won't be this hot…" She said as she moved her hand in front of her in an effort to fan herself. "And worse yet, I'm starting to think that I'm walking towards the wrong direction."

She looked around, trying to find the place she was looking for, but since her skill in reading Japanese words is so limited, she has given up in trying to reading the address her friends have written on the letter and instead, trying to look for a person that could help her.

Her eyes then, fell on a young man with dark blue unruly hair which he tied in ponytail. He has tan skin and amber eyes with unhappy expression on his face.

The foreign girl decided to try her luck with this young man. Maybe he is kind enough to show her direction.

"Excuse me."

To her relief, the man turned to her.

"Would you happen to know where I can find the Roshigumi?"

Maria has been looking for a perfect hiding spot ever since the game started. After decided who's It with Janken, it was decided that Saito's It, and now Maria and the others have to hide. She had never played this game before so she definitely didn't want to lose on her first game.

She was thinking of hiding in a room, behind the bushes, or maybe climbing a tree but those are obvious choices. She then went to the kitchen, thinking that maybe out of all her choices, the kitched would be less obvious than the rest. Hopefully.

She was greeted by Gen-san who was cleaning the kitchen.

"Oh, Good day Maria-chan. Is there something that you need from the kitchen?"

Maria nodded shyly. "A hiding place…" She said.

"Hiding place?"

Maria nodded again. "I'm playing… umm… Hide and seek… So … umm I must hide…."

"Ah." The older man nodded in understanding. "How about you hide by crouching among those barrels?" He offered as he pointed towards several barrels at the corner of the room. "I doubt they will find you easily, seeing that you are so small."

Maria nodded and gave Gen-san a grateful smiled then she hurriedly went and hiding among the barrels, hoping that in this first game of hide and seek, she would not be the one that was found first.

"You know, you two sucks at playing this game." Souji said as he smirked towards Shinpachi and Heisuke who were glaring at each other.

"Well blame it on Shinpatsu-san!" Heisuke said. "He was being noisy the entire time we were hiding and he practically squashed me against the wall!"

"It's not my fault that you are so small and noisy!" Shinpachi retorted back.

"I'm not small and I'm definitely not noisy!" Heisuke yelled back at him.

"Would you two please cease your bickering?" Sait said calmly. "I had yet to find Maria."

It was true. He found Heisuke and Shinpachi easy enough as they were being noisy and the place they choose to hide themselves was not creative enough. He found Harada next as the man choose the general choice for place to hide, behind the bushes (Saito concluded that he only play just to entertain Maria) and Souji was not exaclty hiding. He was sitting on a branch of a tree, just beside the bushes that Harada choose as a hiding place.

Now all that's left is finding Maria. He hasn't able to find her. Perhaps as she was a child and this is her first time playing this game, she has taken the game very seriously and was trying to find a tricky place for her to hide.

"Well she is small." Harada said. "It could be pretty tricky for us to find her."

"She could be hiding behind the bushes and we won't realize." Shinpachi added.

"Let's just find her now. I bet she would feel pretty happy to find out she won the game." Heisuke chuckled, completely forgot that he was bickering with Shinpachi earlier.

"Oi."

All the men turned at the sound of the voice that was addressing them. There, Ryuunosuke Ibuki enter the compound with the same unhappy look on his face while carrying a two jars of sake.

"Yo, Ryuunosuke." Harada said, grinning at him. "Running and errand for Serizawa-san again?" He asked.

"Can't you tell by just looking?" He said, rather rudely. "Anyway, you guys got a guest."

"Guest?" Souji asked curiously.

"Guess who~" A voice said. Then, coming from behind Ryuunosuke, is a foreign girl. A girl with strawberry blonde hair. Some of her hair were tied in a braids. Her skin color is pale. As pale as candle and her green eyes twinkling in happiness at the sight of her old friends.

"Oh! Miyuki!" Shinpachi greeted with booming voice. The others looked at her with a hint of recognizion and the trio (Shinpachi, Harada and Heisuke) greeted her with a hug and ruffling her hair.

"Finally a sight to behold!" Shinpachi said with overly dramatic tone. "I was getting tired of seeing men so often in this compound. You are truly a sight to behold, Miyuki-chan~"

The girl, Miyuki, was overwhelmed by the greetings but she was happy nonetheless that she start giggling.

"Shinpachi-san."

Shinpachi looked up, seeing Souji smiled at him (and his two friends who were hugging Miyuki as well). "I don't mind that you three hugging her, but don't you think her childhood friend deserved to hug her first? Hmm?"

"Ehhh don't be over-possesive like that Souji." Shinpachi said with a pout but ended up realeasing the girl, Harada and Sanosuke do the same.

"Miyuki." Saito called her and nodded, showing that he is also acknowledged her prescense. "As much as I want to greet you like the others, I have urgent matters to attend to. Excuse me." And just like that, Saito left.

Miyuki blinked in confusion. "Okay…"

"Ara~ It seems our stoic Hajime-kun is really getting attached with our kitten, nee?" He looked to the other three. "Why don't you guys help him find our lost kitten?"

The trio nodded, knowing full well that it was his way to tell them to go as they know he wants to spend his time alone with his childhood friend. Though for the three their friendship, Miyuki and Souji, has exceeded from the level of "Just a friend" already.

"You too, Ibuki-kun. You better get your little feet moving or else Serizawa-san is going to hit you with his iron fan again." Souji said playfully.

"Tch, I know that." He grumbled and walk away, leabing Souji and Miyuki alone.

"Uh… Just want to ask… We have kitten here?" Miyuki asked curiously.

"Oh no, not actual kitten." Souji said, amused by his friend's innocent comment. "Last night Hajime-kun found a girl being chased by two ronin. He saved them. She followed him here. And we decided to let her lived here for now." Souji said. "But enough of that."

Without any warning, or anything, Souji embraced Miyuki. Tightly. It was as if they haven't met for several years while in all honesty, they were merely seperated for several months. Though it was a long time for Miyuki herself. She doesn't know how long it feels for Souji but judging from how he hugs her, it was, more or less, the same.

She returned the hug.

"I miss you Miyuki-chan." He said.

Miyuki blushed.

'Stop it. He is doing this because we were friends. Just that. Nothing more.'

"I miss you too, Souji-kun."

To be continued

Author's Note:

Hello~ Hope you guys enjoyed the revised version. I'll try to fix the other chapters as quickly as possible and update as quickly as possible. By the way the chapter's title is literal meaning to Miyuki's name.