Here´s the new chapter!And before you start there is something totally cute I just have to share with you: It´s the angsty version that wyrdsister jr. thought up for this story!

Okita: No one loves me. I can't even pretend to be beloved. I wrote the haiku and wanted to deceive myself that it was from Hijikata. It was my little fake happiness. And now Toshizou hates me for weakness and self-delusion. Oh, cruel world… *commits seppuku*
Saizo: No! My master. You can't leave me alone. Wait up for me…*commits seppuku*
Tetsu: *steps on Saizo's body* A! I've killed Okita's pig. I don't deserve forgiveness. *commits seppuku*
Yamanami: I should have done something more. It's all my fault. *commits seppuku*
Sanosuke: Ha. And you call it seppuku? Watch as a professional works. * commits seppuku *
Kondo: oh, my men. I don't know why you do this. I am such a bad captain…* well you know. commits seppuku *
Suzumu: Okita´s dead, so I can't observe him now. I… I can't discharge my mission. I am so terrible a shinobi *commits seppuku *
Tatsu: hmm. Everybody did it. Maybe only I didn't hear the new order. *commits seppuku JIC*
Hijikata: *standing by the knee in blood* I was wrong. And now I'm punished by fate. Guys, you showed me how dark the world is, which I chose for myself. You shattered the ice around my heart and now I can't stand the pain of loss. Exist the only one way for me to deal with it…*writes haiku*

-the end-

Haha, of course the story won´t progress like this, but I found it too funny. And in a way it seems almost realistic, doesn´t it? ;)

Now, on with the actual chapter!

Enjoy, and thanks to my awesome beta faichan 5 for her help!


7

"Good morning, Okita-san!" Tetsu exclaimed behind the mountain of dirty, smelly clothes that were piled on his tiny little arms. Well maybe he was not that tiny anymore, he´d grown quite a bit lately… Craning his neck, he looked past the mountain he was carrying to the well to wash and beamed at the first unit captain.

Okita Souji was sitting on the porch, illuminated by the warm sunlight that made his violet hair look all soft and shiny, and glistened in his huge, gorgeous eyes. He was clad in his white yukata, Saizo was sitting in its master´s lap and glared at him and there was a smile on Souji´s lips as he waved at him.

Everything was just as usual. Yet somehow it just wasn´t.

Frowning, Testu let the pile slip from his arms and unceremoniusly fall down on the porch. Scratching the back of his head, he awkwardly stepped over the clothes and plopped down beside his friend, who eyed him curiously.

"Good morning, Tetsu-kun," he smiled, stroking over his piglets rosy back. "Are you selected to washing again?" The mieschievous twinkling that normally went with his teases was absent this time, or at least Tetsu had a hard time seeing it.

Throwing the stinking pile a morose look, Tetsu´s shoulders slumped down as he exclaimed with some indignant self-righteousness, "Yeah. You wouldn´t believe it! I mean after all that happened at Ikedaya, you´d think I´d get some real important jobs now. But nooooooo, here I am washing stinking rags!"

He gave an angry huff, adding through gritted teeth "Hijikata-san is such a demonic slave-driver sometimes…"

He looked up at Souji, expecting the other man to defend his demon vice commander with a good natured laugh, but the man just continued stroking his piglet, the thin smile on his lips not reaching his eyes.

Frowning, the redhead rubbed his arm in a nervous, unsure gesture, because Souji´s behaviour stressed him a little. He could sense that something was wrong, despite Souji´s efforts to behave like his usual self.

"Are you alright Okita-san?" he therefore asked, worriedly eyeing the first unit captain from out of the corner of his eye.

"Of course, Tetsu-kun!" Souji beamed at him, making the page jump a little in surprise and consternation. "The weather is beautiful, and Saizo and me are bent on going to the shrine and meet with some friends of ours!" He hummed a little laughing noise, staring Tetsu straight in the eyes.

The redhead had to avert his gaze though, feeling even more strange. Somehow he knew that Souji was lying and that he wasn´t alright at all. It seemed, though, as if the first unit captain did not intend to tell him what exactly it was that made him sad and angry –because that was what Tetsu felt he was.- So the redhead gave a short laugh, scratching his head and saying "Ahahaha, I see."

He felt extraordinarily awkward and stupid, but didn´have much time to marvel on the feeling because the next moment a shadow came around the corner and Tetsu jumped, in a split second humbly kneeling before his master. Inwardly, he cursed himself for having neglecting his duties again and foremost, being caught at it.

Hijikata, standing high above him, didn´t spare him so much as a look though, and announced in a distracted, but calm voice, "Here you are. I expect you at my room in 5 minutes."

Dumbfounded for not being yelled at and given insulting names, Tetsu remained with his head lowered to the floor, trying to look up at the demon vice commander.

"Sir, but I have to do the laundy today, sir."

Hijikata just gave the smelly pile of formerly white training clothes a brief, alienated look, then his eyes lingered on Tetsu for a moment before he turned away his attention completely, not sparing them another look.

Awkwardly, Tetsu got up from his kneeling position, leaving the clothes be, and hurrying to get out of the… awkward zone. Because really, he´d rather have being yelled and kicked at than having this atmosphere.

Curiosity naturally getting the better of him though, he just went far enough away to still be able to overhear the demon vice commander and his first unit captain, hiding around the corner.

"Good morning, Hijikata-san," said Souji in an utterly neutral, sober tone that made Tetsu´s jaw drop to the floor. Despite the fact that Souji had failed to greet the man upon his arrival, he was so uncharacteristically cold towards the vice commander that it gave Tetsu the creeps. Something was very wrong here, not only with Souji but with Hijikata as well.

Perking up his ears, Tetsu leaned a little forward, one eye glancing around the corner and at the two figures.

"Did you get another one?" the demon vice commander just asked, sounding as unperturbed as if Souji´s behaviour was perfectly normal and expected.

Wordlessly, the first unit captain stared straight forward, his hand having stopped to stroke his piglet. Then, after a moment that seemed as if he was contemplating something with himself, he just reached as quietly into his sleeve, and pulled something out that he held into Hijikata´s direction without leaving his eyes from the spot he was staring at.

The vice commander took the red rose just as wordlessly, letting it vanish in his own sleeve.

After the exchange, Souji stood up rather abruptly, putting his piglet down on the ground and with his back towards the other man saying, "Well then, Hijikata-san, I don´t want to steal more of your precious time. If you´d excuse me…"

He was just about to leave when Hijikata made a sudden step forward, reaching out and lying his hand on the genius swordsman´s slim shoulder.

"I am sorry," he said quietly, voice sounding truly genuin and somewhat resigned, defeated and now Tetsu was REALLY freaked out! He´d always thought that the day Hijikata Toushizou would apologize to anyone was the day the world would go down!

But the birds kept on singing, the puffy clouds still idly moved over the crystal blue sky, and the cicadas didn´t stop their noises in the high, green grass.

Despite the natures normal humming, it was silent for a moment. It was that kind of silence that emerged between people and managed to suffocate everything else with its tenseness. Holding his breath, Tetsu waited for Souji to answer something, and after another second he did.

"Don´t be," the swordsman said, stiff back still facing his superior, voice distanced and devoid of any emotion. "If someone has to apologize it should be me. I withheld crucial information, after all."

"This is not what I wanted to apologize for," Hijikata answered just as quietly as before.

"Oh, you mean to apologize for calling me a naïve little kid and a murderer, then?" Souji asked, with just the slightest, biting undertone in his coolly spoken question.

Tetsu felt like someone had just punched him in the guts and his narrowed eyes instantly darted to Hijikata.

Before the man could give an answer though, the long haired first unit captain continued in a more controlled, utterly indifferent tone, "Don´t do that either. There is no need for apologizing for speaking the truth. If you could excuse me now."

With that he took his leave, not waiting for Hijikata to withdraw his arm and vanished around a corner with his head held up high and his gaze looking straight forward.

Unfortunately, Tetsu couldn´t see his master´s face, since he was standing with his back to the redhead, but it wouldn´t have changed much about the facts.

Tetsunosuke Ichimura was fuming with rage and disgust for a certain demon vice commander who had dared to insult one of his best friends, and the soft-spoken, lovely first unit captain at that. The newfound respect he´d recently gained for his master evaporated into nothingness, and the pained expression briefly shown on the man´s face when he turned around, didn´t change that either.

Silently, before Hijikata could notice his eavesdropping, Tetsu crept away, to wait for the demon at his room.

*

Hijikata gravely looked at the group of young men that had gathered for the secret meeting he had initiated. He had managed to get the commander´s permision for this gathering rather easily, just telling the man that it was a serious issue about possible traitours amongst them. Naturally, Kondo had taken the issue very seriously and left the rest to Hijikata, oblivious to the fact that the 'horrendous, traitorous act' that had to be taken care of was more of a 'Hijikata´s-personal, -out-of-raging-jealousy,- revenge-'mission. Even if he had known, however, he´d probably just give a generous smile and nod his approval, happy to see Hijikata so 'lively' and 'determined'.

Anyway, the first thing in the morning Hijikata had done was to convene a meeting with the men he could trust. Those would be, a nervously fidgeting Tatsunosuke Ichimura who repeatedly shot accusing, worried glances at his cranky little brother, and inwardly asked himself what Tetsu had done now that a special meeting had to be announced.

Yamanami had calmly taken place by the closed doors, adjusting his glasses with a small smile on his lips and patiently waiting for Hijikata to let the cat out of the bag.

Saito was leaning against the paper wall in the background, seeming to be staring into nothingness.

The comedian trio sat together, their frolicing, unnerving attitude for once being absent. It was clear to everyone in the room that this was about a serious , they judged from Hjikata´s grave, overtired face and demenor that it was ,at the very least, important to him; so they gave the necessary respect to the case.

Letting his gaze wander over the 7 men again, his eyes were drawn to the now vacant spot Suzume usually occupied. It gave his heart just the tinniest stab to see it empty now, but of course he´d had to make sure that the shinobi was nowhere near his secret meeting that was sat up to bring him down. Thus the ninja was on a fake mission right now, getting utterly useless information while the demon was planning on how to best stab his back -just like Suzume had done to him.

Taking the pipe out of his mouth, Hijikata finally raised his deep voice.

"As you may know there is someone placing unrequested objects before first unit captain Okita Souji´s room," he intoned, a dark look briefly flickering over his face as he slowly walked up in front of the men.

"We have reason to believe that this is of danger to our facility. Despite our hardest efforts, we have not been able to identify or catch the culprit. We do not know who it is and if he means any harm, but the fact is that he roams our quarters. To prevent possible dangers, I decided that we will get him tonight. It is highly likely that he will appear again and this will be our chance to catch him. We will draw a circle around Captain Okita´s estate that leaves no escape route. Saito and Todo will flank the north, Yamanami the east, Nagakura and Harada the south and Ichimura the west. Make sure no one sees you, least of all- captain Okita. We wouldn´t want to make his behaviour make the culprit wary. Be at your posts after dawn. Any questions? "

He threw a grumpy look at the crowd, daring them to bother him with their stupidity, but none of them did. They just sat, nodding at him that they had understood.

The brat of a page was glaring daggers at him for a reason Hijikata could not comprehend, since he hadn´t done anything to him as far as he knew. Then again, he didn´t really give a damn about Tetsu´s whims, he had more important things to do.

It was after a moment to gather his courage that Tatsunosuke Ichimura hesitantly reached up his hand.

"Excuse me sir, but what am I supposed to do?" Licking his lips, he nervously eyed the dark aura radiating from Hijikata Toshizou.

Taking the pipe out of his mouth again, the demon vice commander growled, "You will make sure that your brother doesn´t screw up."

"Yes sir!" Tatsunosuke eagerly saluted, ignoring the exasperated look his little brother graced him with.

"Good. I´ll see you at sundown. Just a last warning, though," Hijikata said, intently staring at every one of them, "the culprit might be someone you know, and I expect you to not let judgement be clouded by this."

After a collective, "Yes, sir", he released them and went to take his own preparations.

Determined, scheming demon vice commander: 4

Easily fooled wanna-be ninja: 3


Faichan5 - HEEHEE this is awesome as always. I feel so awesome and special since i get to beta it. I can NOT wait to do the next chapter!

Shadow Hylian: Thank you! Yes, I thought I should point out that Hijikata´s accusations weren´t totally unreasonable, at least to him. And in a sense he is right, he just exaggerated the facts. Now he´s ashamed of himself... Heh, it´s always the quiet ones, or so they say ;) Thanks again for the feedback, and I´m really glad you liked it!

Naokiru Michiyuki: Hehe, it´s always the ones you´d least expect^^ Thank you for reviewing, and I hope you liked the new chapter as well!

Evanette-chan: Oh, you may be right, I found many different pronounciations on the net (looked it up again, after I read your comment). (Personally I thought that the second 'z'/'s' was spoken softer than the first one. And since a soft spoken 's' is written as 'z' in Japanese I thought Suzumu was rather plausible... But I really don´t know^^). I suppose I´ll just stick to Suzumu, since I´ve written it like that all the time. But thank you for pointing that out to me!

wyrdsister jr.: Hiya! I hope you don´t mind that I put your version at the beginning of the new chapter, but it was so funny! I had tears in my eyes when I read it, because I laughed so hard! (If you want me to take it out, I will of course!). Hm, so you do not believe it´s Suzumu? Well, we´ll have to wait for the next chapter, and then you´ll see! If I was your personal slave-author, what would you make me write? (Btw: you´ve such a wondeful, dry humour, I bet you´d be a great writer yourself!!!). Thank you very much for the review!

Lo: Thank you! I´m glad you liked it, and hopefully you enjoyed the new chapter as well!

Review please?