Takara awoke to the sun shining in her face. Stirring from her sleep, she immediately bolted upright in realisation and scrambled to get ready. Sunlight was not a good thing. It only meant that she had overslept and Hijikata-san would probably find some way to punish her.
Still struggling with the sash of her kimono, Takara stumbled rather ungracefully out of her room, only to face the rest of the members of the Shinsengumi clad in their training outfits casually choosing padded spears. There wasn't the usual sense of urgency and discipline around that morning. Instead, the atmosphere was casual and relaxed, and she sensed that something was rather amiss.
Takara stood stunned and frowned. 'I'm sorry. Did I miss something? What's going on?'
'Takara!' She heard Kondo-san's voice boom. 'You came at just the right time! The first event is just starting.' He walked to towards her, waving a piece of paper between his fingers.
'….Event Sir?'
'That's right! Toshi's out on an errand today so I thought the Shinsengumi should take a break today. So we're having a friendly events competition. And you're just in time for the spear fighting event! So go grab a spear and get ready!' The head commander said excitedly, probably the most enthusiastic among all the soldiers. Takara wondered what Hijikata-san would do when he found out.
The vice commander would never agree to such things. But what he didn't know wouldn't kill anyway.
Takara shook her head and grabbed one of the padded spears. She hardly fought with spears, as it was hard enough for her to lift it up, considering her short stature. Although she was still slightly groggy, she took her stance, and turned to face her first opponent.
-
'Hah! Take that!' Sanosuke gave his opponent a finishing blow and twirled his spear triumphantly. Around him lay a few other men groaning after getting trashed by Sanosuke.
'And the winner of our first event, Harada Sanosuke!' Kondo-san announced, which was met with moans from the soldiers all around
Everyone had already expected the outcome of the competition anyway. If they had a choice, they wouldn't even had entered in the first place. Both Shinpachi and Heisuke had surrendered before Sanosuke could deal them a finishing blow. As for Takara, she had been knocked out in one of the first few rounds by another one of the squad members. It was rather embarrassing really, for a captain to be knocked out by a soldier. Of course she gave the excuse on the pretext of her having just woken up.
Just then Tetsunosuke walked by, picking up all the spears discarded on the ground and carrying them to the training hall. He said nothing, and carried out his page duties without a single complaint. It was arguable that this was a good thing, but the change from the lively page to the now dead one, was way to extreme for many of them to take. Stranger still, since the demon vice-commander was no where to be seen, Tetsunosuke would normally have taken the opportunity to shirk his duties.
'What's up with puppy boy?' Sanosuke asked, concerned about how the usually noisy boy was extremely quiet instead. He had looked forward to having fun sparring with the feisty page. However, this time the puppy had shown no interest in partaking in such events, despite the fact that the commander had made it clear it was open to anyone, and everyone in the Shinsengumi.
'Who knows.' Shinpachi shrugged, looking at the page sulking off. Sighing, he turned to the scroll in his hand, and squinted as he read the following events. 'They've got a long distance race at the next event. Around Mibu Village.'
'That'll be fun.' Takara commented, still feeling quite sore from getting beaten so easily in the spear competition. 'At least I'll have a fair chance in that event.'
Shinpachi looked at Takara and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 'Are you sure? With your short legs…OW!'
Shinpachi immediately regretted what he said.
'Have you heard? Winner of the race gets to eat Ayu's special Okoa!' Heisuke said, closing his eyes and picturing himself indulging in Ayu-nee's custom dish. 'This is one race that I'm going to win.'
Everyone was lined up for the race, raring to go. They were doing last minute stretches, gearing themselves up for a long sprint. However, Shinpachi merely stretched his arms and said casually, 'I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not going to strain myself in this race. After all, it's just a friendly competition isn't it? No point in taking it seriously.'
Heisuke and Sanosuke looked at each other uneasily, unsure of what they should do. True, they wanted to be the one to get Ayu's cooking, but after all, it was just a friendly race, there was no point in straining themselves.
'I agree with Shinpachi.' Yamanami said, smiling. He held his abacus in his hand as usual, and Takara wondered if he brought it for luck. 'This is nothing more than a friendly race. Don't you?' he said, looking directly at her.
'If you say so Yamanami-san.' Takara answered, trying to suppress a grin. Of course, she had other plans. If all of them were going to take it easy, there was no way she was going to pass up a chance like that. Once she started off with a rapid sprint, she could get an easy lead. By then none of the others would be able to catch up with her.
'Alright then, the first person to reach the finish line wins the race, and Ayu's Okoa!' Kondo shouted to the soldiers lining up. A few of them, after hearing Yamanami and Shinpachi's comments, began to have doubts if they should strain themselves.
'Ready?' A few of them had relaxed considerably by then, deciding to take the race casually.
'GO!'
There was a large cloud of dust as they set off, blurring the vision of many. When the dust had settled however, three figures stood out in the lead. Takara had immediately sprinted for her life at the starting signal, and found herself in the lead. However, to her surprise, she was tied down with Shinpachi and Yamanami. Apparently those two had the same ideas as well.
'Don't let Nagakura-san get away!'
'Why you little cheat Takara! Come back here!'
'Catch up with Yamanami-san!'
'The three of them are too far ahead! There's no way we can catch up!'
The voices of the other men from behind rang through the air, between their huffs and puffs as they tried to catch up with the the sneaks in front.
'So much for taking it easy huh?' Takara said shortly between breaths.
'Look who's talking!' Shinpachi snorted back.
Yamanami merely gave an innocent smile, and pushed the glasses up the bridge of his nose. He had already gotten a clear lead from the rest of the soldiers, and hence was not taking it as hard as both Takara and Shinpachi. Instead, the two short captains were almost killing themselves trying to outrun each other.
Just then, the three of them heard footsteps nearing them, and turned around to see Sanosuke and Heisuke close behind, catching up. The 8th and 10th unit captains sprinted as fast as they could, their expressions annoyed from being fooled by three of the sneaks. They overtook Yamanami, and closed in on Takara and Shinpachi.
'Uh-oh.' Takara muttered, pushing herself to run faster as well.
'You cheats! We're not going to let you win!' Sanosuke yelled, he and Heisuke falling in line with Takara and Shinpachi. The four of them kept going, each refusing to slow down. There was a lot of cursing and swearing as they all tried to overtake each other.
Just as she thought her lungs were going to explode, Takara saw the finish line ahead of her and an invisile source of energy made her sprint all the way to the finishing line. Of course, this was along with Shinpachi, Heisuke and Sanosuke, who each were driving hard to win as well. It was an awfully tense moment, each of the four had their minds bent on winning the race.
20 meters away from the finishing line, Sanosuke, with the longest legs out of all four, pulled himself forward and took the lead.
15 meters away from the finishing line, Heisuke, motivated by the thought of Ayu's mouth-watering Okoa, dashed ahead, overtaking his taller friend.
10 meters away from the finishing line, Takara, determined not to lose, willed her legs to push her as fast as possible. She lunged for the finishing line, overtaking Sanosuke and Heisuke in the process.
5 meters away from the finishing line, Shinpachi broke out with sudden speed, getting a clear lead from the other three, who were already panting and running out of energy. He gave them a grin as he overtook each one of them, confident of winning the race.
Just as he thought nothing could stop him, a blur passed him, and he heard the sound of abacus against concrete.
'What the!' Shinpachi stared bewildered at the blur, which made out to be Yamanami-san himself. All four of them stopped dead in their tracks with their jaws hanging wide open. Yamanami was gliding on his abacus! The vice-commander gave them a friendly wave, and glided towards the finishing line. He passed the line, and stopped next to Kondo-san, removing the abacus from his feet.
'AND THE WINNER… YAMANAMI-SAN!' Kondo announced, holding up the vice-commander's hand.
'…..' The captains were speechless, staring hopelessly from Yamanami-san, to his abacus, then to the tub of Ayu-nee's Okoa rice. Only Shinpachi broke into a rage, furious at how close he had come to winning.
'THAT...THAT CHEAT! COMMIT SEPPUKU DAMMIT! THAT'S NOT FAIR! I DON'T CARE WHO YOU ARE!"
Takara, Heisuke and Sanosuke tried desperately to hold a very, very angry Shinpachi down, while watching Yamanami enjoy an entire tub of Ayu-nee's speicial Okoa rice.
All by himself.
-
The night was still, the moon overcast by dark clouds. Two figures ran silently and swiftly, leaping from the top of one roof to another.
Slowly, three more figures slinked out of the shadows, approaching the younger two.
'I see you haven't learnt your lesson have you spy-boy?' Her voice cut through the silence like a knife. The blond ninja turned to the unfamiliar figure that stood beside the young boy, taking note of her appearances. The new spy wore a hood which covered her hair, while the bottom part of her face was entirely covered with a sash, revealing nothing but a pair of deep brown eyes. Despite that, given her short stature, the blond ninja estimated her to be a kunoichi of no more than 17.
'And this time, you've brought a friend as well.' The blond laughed icily ,'Does the Shinsengumi really think that sending a couple of inexperienced kids will be enough to take on full fledged spies?'
The blond ninja and another one of her companions lunged at the young man, while the other ninja went for his companion.
Susumu leapt quickly out of the way, the enemies' ten-point stars missing him by a hairline. He drew his sword just in time to block their attack. Susumu grimaced. He knew that fighting with two full-grown kunoichi's was no easy task. However he was determined not to allow a repeat of the last time.
On another rooftop, Susumu's companion dodged attack after attack from the third ninja. Although her attacker was much stronger and skilled, she was agile enough to avoid any injuries.
Susumu saw one of the ninja's launch a kick at him and he responded quickly by grabbing her ankle. Then using the momentum of her weight, he sent her crashing down into a few boxes lying outside the houses. He was prepared to go for the second ninja but she leapt down to her injured ally instead. Signaling to her third companion, the three of them ran off, almost disappearing into thin air. Susumu then heard noises coming from inside the house and he motioned to his companion for them to leave as well.
The two of them then disappeared into the night.
-
Takara pulled her hood and her sash off, letting her brown hair fall freely down.
'No spying tonight I guess.' She commented.
'We attracted too much attention. We would've been able to listen in on the Choshuu if those kunoichi hadn't spotted us.' In response, Takara got nothing more than a cold answer from Susumu.
'Oh right. So now it's my fault is it? Well I happen to think that I did a good job.' She got the vibe that somehow he was accusing her for screwing up.
'You slipped.' Came the monotonous reply.
'Only one time!'
'More than that.
'Fine! I haven't been running about on rooftops for a long time so I'm not exactly used to it.' Takara replied exasperated. She hated to argue with him. Firstly, his calm and cool composure pissed the hell out of her. And secondly, he was so void of all emotions that she couldn't help but feel she were talking to a wall.
Susumu looked at her with another icy glare. 'I'm only accepting your assistance because Hijikata-san has said so. Even though I've insisted that I don't need any help.'
By now Takara was furious by his comments. She picked up her night wear and walked out of the room. Before she slid the door shut, she turned back to Susumu. 'Well, then, I believe I will prove you wrong Yamazaki-kun. Goodnight.'
