A/n: Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing! I realized after some research that other authors add their comments about the reviews that they get to their Authors notes so I figured since I have gotten so nice reviews (thank you super much) I should make the effort and do the same.
To t42n24t2 Thank you for that thought. I was just reading through 6 and thinking to myself; what's with all the babble…And yup, I figured it would be fair if Kazumi gets to tell something about himself also. Hopefully it leads to an interesting and enjoyable direction, at least I promise to try to deliver that.
To Titeseve Thank you so very much! I don't know what else to say really, just that I was very happy to get your review and I am really happy that you like it. And when it comes to time I just feel really bad when it takes me so much time…
Also I just wanted to say (and it is not really necessary to read this so if you want just jump to the chapter), that for the story I use the net my info about Japanese names, so if a name in contemporary society is considered female/male/unisex it is possible that it was not so in the late 19th century when names in many societies were more tightly tied to gender. Also when it comes to the ages of the characters (and since the anime is not very informative about it) I used Wikipedia as reference.
Chapter 7. A day off, continued
It was of course absolutely futile but for a fleeting moment Kazumi was hoping that the sound was a result from something really harmless and normal, like a lonely runaway firework painting the midday sky. Something boring like that would be great; he would be really happy and promised to never ever think badly about food that almost managed to remind him of nikujaga. He looked to his side at the next table only to see people very unaware of any weird noises talking loudly about the bad state of all things. It seemed that also Okita-san had not heard it and was contemplating if they should actually go to the bathhouses next time instead of having lunch. It was so depressing to be hearing noises other people did not hear Kazumi thought.
"I see" Saito-san muttered.
"Huh? Did you say something Hajime-kun?" Okita-san stopped to ask and looked at him curious.
Ah, of course, Kazumi thought, he heard it also and didn't know if everybody else had heard it too. He then remembered Setsuna waiting outside the shop.
"Setsuna? Are you alright?" He asked trying not to get up from the table and hurry outside to make sure.
"Don't be ridiculous. Of course I am alright. I am not saying that it didn't hurt my ears though, they are still ringing. I would like to know if that was really absolutely necessary" she said a bit grumpy and Kazumi sighed of relief.
"What happened? Did anyone get hurt?"
"Well, I think you heard it as well as I did. But despite the loudness it was entirely harmless. I thought that after something like that at least a higher level ayakashi if not a real devil or something would appear, so I went to the street to look, but there is nothing there. Well, that is not exactly true. There is a hole" Setsuna reported sounding like she didn't quite believe herself either.
"What? A hole?" Kazumi asked perfectly dumbfounded. He was really not expecting that.
"Yes. A hole. As in lack of soil on a specific almost round spot on the ground. It is a big hole at that too" Setsuna observed rather coolly.
"Was it an explosion?"
"I am not sure, but I don't think so. I mean those things make ugly smoke and flames and even uglier holes, but there was just the noise. Not to mention it looks like no one cares. You know, I don't think you will believe me until you come and look. I will come and wait for you at the food place, don't worry no need to hurry. Bring me something to eat will you?" Setsuna ordered sounding convinced she deserved a reward for her hard work.
Initially he thought it was an explosion of some sort, but the sound was odd, more like something suddenly and very quickly collapsing on itself. What was very bothersome about the sound was that even though seeming to be very loud and destructive, there was no indication of it being harmful or even occurring; no one was screaming, there was no yelling, no unusual hurried movement, no one wondering what just happened. Actually it seemed to be quite the opposite; people in the other tables were sitting perfectly unaware of anything out of the ordinary, continuing their conversations as if nothing had happened. Refusing to accept that he might have imagined something like that, Hajime turned to look at Sekiya-san who seemed suddenly very interested in his surroundings with a slightly depressed and tired look on his face.
I see, Hajime thought, he had not imagined it. Sekiya-san heard it also and was wondering about the same thing.
"Huh? Did you say something Hajime-kun?" Souji asked suddenly.
He had been rambling something about going to the bathhouse to get a proper bath and how the water was too cold to wash with at the headquarters. Hajime did not recollect having had said something about that though.
"Nothing" Hajime answered him.
Curious he turned to watch what Sekiya-san was going to do. He actually looked like he was spacing out and it got Hajime thinking again about him and his shikigami. It seemed to Hajime they had a way to communicate without the need to utter any words or having any other kind of exchange; the dogs were always there very conveniently and seemed to know exactly what to do and what their master wished from them.
"Well, I guess we should head back" Souji declared and was getting up from the table "You didn't finish your sake Hajime-kun" he pointed out.
There was a drop of sake left in the cup and Hajime drank it. It seemed to him Sekiya-san was very eager to go out also; he probably knew something. Hajime followed the two outside where they were greeted by the white dog enthusiastically trying to lead them towards the bridge and the street hawkers selling anything from food and snacks to toys, puppets, souvenirs and jewelry. Sekiya-san was looking also towards the end of the street and the bridge as if trying to figure out what to say to excuse himself and to hurry there. Souji on the other hand seemed unaware of the vendors as well as of the white dog and was starting towards the opposite direction where Mibu was.
"Souji? How is it going with your sister's gift?" Hajime asked taking a few steps to follow him.
He didn't like admitting it, but he was very curious, he wanted to see what it was that was waiting at the end of the street.
"Ah! I totally forgot about Matsu-neechan's gift!" He said a bit dreading "Thank you for reminding me. You don't think Hijikata-san will be mad if we are a bit late? Do you think I could look around just a bit before we go back?" Souji was wondering torn between the two.
"I guess it is fine if you don't take too long" Hajime agreed and watched as Souji made his way towards the street vendors. Also Sekiya-san watched him go and then turned to look at Hajime with an accusing look.
"You think you are pretty clever don't you?" Sekiya-san asked a bit dryly.
"Not really" Hajime said. It didn't have anything to do with being clever but with optimizing.
"How did you know he needs a gift for his sister?" Sekiya-san asked curiously while they made their way through the throng towards the end of street.
"He told me that his sister had a baby and that he wanted to get something for her to congratulate her. He was putting it off last month because he didn't have money, but we just got paid" Hajime said.
"You know, I was wrong when I said that I think you are stalking me. It is not me, it is everybody" Sekiya-san said smiling "Now I am just curious to know why" he added not really asking. Not that Hajime had any intention to answer him anyways.
Even though there were a lot of people it was difficult to miss when they arrived at the end of the street; the hole in the ground was huge. You could have driven a carriage through it easily. Definitely it was not something created by an explosion; the hole was perfectly round, symmetrical and seemed very deep.
"I think I really do want to go home now" Sekiya-san said looking down.
They were sanding about a half a dozen paces from the edge in the middle of the street. It was not really the hole that Hajime was impressed by, it was the fact that people obviously did not see it and more than that it was that they did not fall into it. Perfectly unaware they walked over it as if it was not there.
"I take it is not an ordinary hole. Do you know what it is?" Hajime was forced to ask since there was nothing more than Sekiya-san saw fit to say, he was just staring at the hole as if it had just ruined his day, if not even the whole week.
"Yes" He sighed as if really tired "It is a gate trough space and if we don't have any luck, time. We need to figure out how to destroy it" he said a bit worn out.
"How is it that people do not fall into it?" Hajime asked watching how they just easily walked over the hole "Do you know what's on the other side of the gate? And do you wish to destroy it because you think it is dangerous? Should we not let people to just walk on it?" He asked trying to look closely if there was something in the looming darkness.
It seemed even light did not fall through and that there was no movement and no shadows in the hole, just a feeling of empty space. He turned to look back at Sekiya-san as he failed to provide any answers. He was looking back at him blankly as was the white dog and then he suddenly smiled as if there was something horribly funny that he had just realized.
"I think I was being misled" He just said and made no sense what so ever and then he seemed suddenly slightly distressed "And try to be more worried about the fact that it is not supposed to be there? I mean, if you go through it you go to a totally different place, so it is very worrisome" He just said and nodded to himself "Well, I have a guess, which we should test. If I would make a portal I would make it so that I can control it. This one probably has a lock on it, probably on the other side that prevents anything from here to go there, but allows for something from there to come here. Maybe not even that, which I think would be absolutely great, especially since we don't know where there is. I think it is dangerous, but as long as nothing goes or comes through it, it should be fine. I think I should come back later and try to see if I can find out anything. It is just that I need help with it. I have to go back to the headquarters and write a few letters" Sekiya-san said suddenly perfectly serious.
They went to find Souji and Sekiya-san bought fried squid which he gave to the white dog. They started off towards Mibu village as the day was turning towards evening.
Even though for him and a few of the units it had been a free day from their duties, it was not the same for all members of the group. Some unfortunate ones were passing in haste to be in time for their rounds or lazying towards the sleeping quarters after a long day. It seemed a few members including Maeda-kun of the third unit had set up a card game at the porch. Kazumi had a faint recollection of that not being exactly allowed, but as long as no one else cared he might as well have joined them.
"I promised to do something for the Vice-Commander, so I won't come tonight. Try not to lose" Saito-san said to Okita-san and left.
"Does he mean the shogi game?" Kazumi asked "Did he bet against the Vice-Commander?"
"I don't think Hajime-kun does that. He was just being nice" Okita-san said cheerfully.
"If you say so" Kazumi answered a bit unsure. He was not sure if Okita-san was just delusional or if Saito-san put a lot of effort into misleading people to think he was scary.
"Oh, I am very sure, after all Hajime-kun is very adorable" Okita-san said perfectly serious. Kazumi decided that he was going to go with delusional for now, even though he had his doubts. Something must have happened in the past two weeks that had made Saito-san less scary but Kazumi was sure it was not him becoming more delusional.
"I usually agree with people who say that you can get used to things, but I have to admit that I found Saito-san rather scary when I joined and I am not sure if you get used to such things" Kazumi said remembering back and testing his delusion-theory.
"Really? Well, I guess a lot of people have that misconception about Hajime-kun. Also people don't really understand him, like when he says: 'It is ill-advised' he means to say: 'Don't do it, stupid'. But, now that you said that, it is true that he did not seem to like you much at first, he didn't seem too happy to be having you in his unit. I think you convinced him otherwise though?" Okita-san pondered aloud.
"I wonder how that happened" Kazumi muttered to himself, he had no idea what so ever and he was ready to accept his ignorance on the matter as was the case with many other mysteries of life he had no understanding of.
"Well, maybe you managed to convince him you are not that useless? Or maybe you did something in the first place that annoyed him? Did you steal food from him? Not many things do though; I find it as personal challenge to find a thing that will annoy Hajime-kun. Though it seems to be hard, I think he already heard some of the worst things so he is pretty good at not letting them get to him" Okita-san said a bit more serious. Kazumi hoped he would elaborate on the matter, but instead the Shinsengumi captain smirked "Might be he got used to disliking you? Anyways in the future, whatever you do, try not get caught for lying or running away from your duties or doing him favors. I think he might really hate them. Or actually I think it might just be that he doesn't like being indebted to people, he hasn't really grasped the real idea and meaning of favors yet" Okita-san was saying with an almost serious tone.
"The real meaning?" Kazumi asked curious now; he was ready to accept no lying and no running, but no personal favors was a surprise.
"Yup, he takes it all a bit too seriously. He is getting better though, you should have met him back in Edo" Okita-san said cryptically.
"And that makes it so that he feels bad about being indebted to people?"
"Uh-huh. Like there was this one time back when we were all still in Edo and staying at the Shieikan and Hajime-kun came to stop by. Kondo-san knows the person whose dojo Hajime-kun was in and apparently that person had asked Hajime-kun to visit Shieikan while in Edo. In any case we had a really fun time. But he decided he was indebted to Kondo-san and Hijikata-san. It is along story, you know for taking him in and all the teaching and food and all the other stuff. So, I don't know how he did it, he refuses to tell me, but somehow he gathered up enough money and went and bought Kondo-san the katana he has now. Well that was after we came to Kyo though, Hajime-kun was already here at that point" Okita-san said and smiled "I told him he is being silly, but I guess that was to be expected though, considering the circumstances and how he is. It is a bit embarrassing, but he is probably the only one of us who actually does not owe Kondo-san anymore any money either" Okita-san said sounding just a bit guilty and more delighted about something "Well I have to go and get ready for the game. Next time I will gossip everything about Hijikata-san and his haiku collection. Wish me luck" he said lightly and turned towards the main house.
"Good luck and thanks for the advice" Kazumi said after him, trying to guess if he had heard right when Okita-san had said haiku collection.
"Sure, I like it best when everybody's all chummy. And of course, now you owe me one right? See ya" Okita-san said with a slightly evil grin and waved carelessly. Kazumi could not help but doubt that chumminess would probably be a bit too much to ask and had to admit that he had totally fallen for the trap. Owing one for Okita-san sounded somehow daunting. Left all alone and nothing he had to do Kazumi concluded it was a brilliant moment to get some work done. If he didn't hurry about it, there would definitely be someone who had a task for him to do.
"No wonder then he hates you" Setsuna said as they were walking towards the quarters of the lower ranking members.
"What do you mean?"
"Isn't it rather obvious?" She said a bit surprised at Kazumi's question.
"I am afraid it is not. I am sorry my intellect is not at as high a ground as yours, not being all supernatural and really very old" Kazumi said back "So I beseech you, enlighten me"
"That is so unnecessary. I am not old" Setsuna said emphasizing the last words "Anyways, I just thought that if someone would find it displeasing to be indebted to other people, would not such a person be very troubled if they didn't want to owe anything, but still do? Especially if they owe much, like you know because of not losing something really important?" Setsuna said trying to sound very obvious, presenting her thoughts very slowly.
"Oh crap" Kazumi said aloud when it dawned on him and felt suddenly horribly heavy and anxious and very guilty for no obvious reason.
"Do you really think Saito-san thinks now he owes me for that time in the forest with the ayakashi and all?" He asked from Setsuna hoping she would not say what she was obviously going to say.
"Well, I was just thinking that we should consider it a possibility. Unless you come up with a better more likely explanation. Which I doubt. It has to be something. I mean he does not seem like a human who does things on a mere whim. He might be thinking you saved his life, which of course I am well aware was a mere accident on your part" Setsuna was saying and looked up at Kazumi grinning.
"But apparently he disliked me from the start"
"You can only blame yourself; you are bad at pretending to be a normal human and you are not the most likeable person ever; calling others old…"
"I am very sorry Setsuna. Please forgive me, but this is not the point. So I was just thinking maybe he got bored with really disliking me and now he just thinks nothing of it?" Kazumi asked hopefully.
"Right and while he was at it, he figured that it is his responsibility to help us out because….?"
"Maybe because of the red string, he thinks that now that he can see the youkai, it is kind of his responsibility to help out with getting rid of them and protecting people?" Kazumi suggested; Saito-san seemed to be someone who took their responsibilities very seriously "Oh, which reminds me, don't tell him about the string. Not about the binding spell and not about the Ki".
"Oh please, I won't tell him. If someone gets to murder you, I has to be me. But, seriously the youkai is your responsibility. And he is not actually helping to get rid of them; he is not helping us to cut them down. He is helping you to do your responsibilities, regardless what they are" Setsuna pointed out very reasonably and uncharacteristically seriously.
"But it is not like I really saved his life" Kazumi said truthfully, but a bit defeated.
"Well that is open to debate. But in the end, if you had done nothing what so ever, he would now be dead. Though, not sure how he knows that? Did I tell him? Anyways, if the moving corpses would not have gotten him, then the ayakashi definitely would. You know that. Even though the fact that he was in danger in the first place is all your fault, so probably he should not take it too seriously" Setsuna said analytically "But then again, it makes it your responsibility to get him out of it and you still end up saving his life, since you did not really force him to come there. Saving a specific human being should not really be that big of a deal, it is your job after all. Actually, you would be an even greater failure as an onmyouji if you had let him die" Setsuna concluded being very unhelpful and Kazumi felt rather depressed. There was no way around it then.
"So did he forget about it or is he considering his debt paid now?" Kazumi asked wondering what brought about the change in his treatment.
"Nah, I think he just figured he was being too proud and that is not good. He was probably curious what kind of person you are and really annoyed at you. I can't blame him. I would also be really embarrassed if I was saved by you. I mean you are kind of lame; being bad at fencing, useless and just fainting suddenly in the middle of the road. It would be really frustrating. Well there is the positive side of you being like that. Since you are so hopeless he might get to pay back his debt really soon considering you get in trouble a lot with humans" Setsuna pointed out brightly.
"Whose side are you on, anyways?"
"Ours of course. I take pride in telling you the truth and not letting you to think too highly of yourself. But I like Kaoru so there is no reason not to help him out. Maybe if I am nice to him, he will let me eat him" Setsuna said dreamily and sat down in front of the house "Besides it is not like I don't owe you also. I will wait here" she said and turned back into her own form.
Hurriedly Kazumi scrapped together some paper and his writing utensils. He did not know too many who could help him with the portal, but wrote the same message into all three letters, describing the events of this afternoon and what they had seen on the Third street. He only added a short note to the last of the three letters and sealed them. He called out three small winds that very diligently came over to the real world and took the likeness of small falcons. He gave his letters to the spirits and asked them to safely deliver them.
"Have a nice trip" He wished to them as they took flight and disappeared into the darkening night.
"Kazumi, what's this about a portal in the middle of the city?" Yasu asked him the moment he stepped outside.
"Well, come with us and you can see for yourself. I have no idea" Kazumi admitted.
It was already late and it was not exactly allowed in the rules to leave the headquarters after curfew. Kazumi waited for about an hour that everybody slowly drifted to the main house and then he slipped away from the sleeping quarters and out of the side gates and started to walk back towards the city center. Everybody was so curious of the shogi-game played, if not every day, but weekly by Hijikata-san and Okita-san at the main house that it always managed to make the headquarters seem completely deserted. It would probably be noticed that Kazumi was not there, but he decided to leave figuring out a good explanation for later. There were very few people out that late and Kazumi could not blame them, the city was not exactly safe during the nights. He, Setsuna and Yasu reached the Third Street and decided to wait for a while on a side alley where they could see the street and the portal. There were still people leaving from the teahouses that lined the street and Kazumi had calculated that that the fifth unit should be making their patrol through the street soon. The hole in the ground was the same as before and it didn't give any further clues of its existence. Kazumi was not sure if he could figure out anything without help, but it did not hurt to try. While trying to come up with a reliable experiment for the portal, he felt a very inhuman presence from the other side of the street. There were some house sprites around the teahouse but on its awning there was a much stronger presence. A lone and very out of place peacock was sitting on the awning looking at them.
"Kazumi, the teahouse" Yasu growled.
"Yeah, I see it" Kazumi answered and scratched the caramel colored ears.
"Should I go and talk to it?" Setsuna asked and got to her feet.
"I think it is a shikigami. Go ask what he wants. Be careful" Kazumi said and watched lightly anxiously as Setsuna made her way to the other side of the street.
The two youkai exchanged some compliments and finally the peacock came down to the ground. It had come to deliver a letter that it gave to Setsuna and then, unlike any other of its kind it took flight. Setsuna turned around and jogged back, the letter between her teeth.
"Just a messenger. I think he belongs to the mysterious onmyouji-san we saw. He smelled the same as her" Sestuna said as Kazumi took the letter.
"What does it say?" Yasu asked as Kazumi was reading through it.
"This one" Kazumi said and held out the much longer of the two slips of paper "is a letter to me, asking if I know anything worth telling about the portal and inviting me to have a talk with the sender tonight. And this one is supposed to guarantee me entry to see her, as she says it would otherwise be and I quote 'very difficult for you to accomplish on your own' and 'please ask for Kiku'. Does this mean we have made new friends?" Kazumi asked not really from anyone thinking back at the odd lack of onmyouji in Kyoto and wondering if this person knew anything about it.
"A bit suspicious ones. Is that supposed to be her name? That does not really help us find her" Setsuna asked.
"That is the only name given, it is not really signed but there is an address. But before that comes work. Let's go see if we can found out what that thing is" Kazumi said folding the letter into his sleeve.
"She wants to meet you tonight?" Yasu asked peeking around to look at the street "Don't humans sleep during the night?"
"Where does she live? Is it far away? Her shikigami would not tell anything" Setsuna said a bit annoyed.
"No, it is very close. It is somewhere inside of the gates of Shimabara, so I guess there is no worry about keeping her up too late" Kazumi answered and lit the lantern he had brought.
To figure out what he was dealing with Kazumi wanted to make a few tests and see exactly how the whole portal thing worked. He actually did not have any evidence to support his theory that the hole indeed was a portal, but he had heard enough talk about them to have it as a very strong hypothesis. Now he just needed to do some research. The street was nearly empty and if anyone found him crouching in the middle of the street and staring at the dirt suspicious and odd no one came to complain to Kazumi. Well, almost no one.
"Is that the only way to find out what it is? It is a bit suspicious what you are doing right now"
"What?" Kazumi said startled and shaken out of his thoughts after hearing the unexpected voice and turned to look at his side where all the Ki came from "Have you been there for long? Why didn't you say something" he demanded. Probably being so rude to your superiors was not really what he was expected to do, but Kazumi had proven to be bad at doing what was expected of him.
"I did. I said 'Good Evening'" Saito-san said not really as if he was trying to make a point.
"But-"
"He actually did" Yasu mumbled where he and Setsua were kind of lying in a comfy pile. Setsuna said nothing, just looked at Kazumi with a look that clearly said: Could you at least try to pretend that you are not so hopeless?
"What constitutes a long time in this context?" Saito-san asked horribly uninterested.
"Never mind. It is just, well I didn't expect to see you here, so I think you scared me. I mean you did scare me. What are you doing here?" Kazumi asked while he was laying carefully the slips of paper onto the perfectly smooth surface of the portal.
"I just came to see if you are getting anywhere" Saito-san said and didn't manage to sound interested "You weren't at the game. Maeda told me that you went to sleep early, so I thought you came here"
"Weren't you supposed to be doing some errand for the Vice-Commander? You told Okita-san that you won't go to the game"
"Yes" Saito-san said looking a bit doubtfully at the papers "But I finished already so I went to ask permission to come here"
"I see" Kazumi said amazed at how responsible it was that some people asked for permission to leave the headquarters and just for this. It reminded him of the conversation he had earlier had with Setsuna. "Did you come to help me?" he asked interested.
Had he known that the question would have such an effect he definitely would have thought a bit more carefully about asking it, just for the sake of consideration towards people who came to help you. It seemed to Kazumi that had Saito-san been a person who knew how to blush he would have done exactly that, but instead he just looked a bit confused, got quickly up and turned to look the other direction.
"Helping you is not my job" he just said sounding a bit annoyed.
"Yeah, I guess that is true. Well, it is nice to have company though" Kazumi said regretting for asking. It would be horribly discouraging if he had managed to anger Saito-san again. He had rather enjoyed not being disliked.
For a moment they were all very quiet and the calm was only broken a few times by some late customers and people hurrying home. Very disappointingly Kazumi's experiment was not very helpful, it only proved what he almost for sure knew anyways; nothing from this world could go through the portal and it seemed nothing came through it either. Or if something did manage that, it was not constructed out of the Five Elements. He got up and collected his things and took the slips of paper. He looked over to where Setsuna was dozing and Yasu eating something which looked like the rest of fried squid sticks, both happily ignoring everything else. Saito-san was still standing closest to him.
"Uhm, I am going to go and meet with an onmyouji. She invited me to talk about the gate" Kazumi said and didn't get much of a response "It seems that she lives in Shimabara. Do you want to come? Or at least give me the permission to go?"
