I'm back!

Alright, so I have been busy this last week, my grandparents wanted to get the house ready for Christmas and I had a lot of homework. So any chapters that I upload this weekend will probably be a little shorter and less edited because I'm going to be doing a lot of my writing this weekend as well, and I'm not sure how many I'll actually be able to write.

That being said, I don't know who I want Blaise to end up with. There should be a poll up on profile for all of you to answer this very question, or you can just let me know who you think she should end up with in a review of PM. And yeah, I included Yamazaki and Sannan. I don't know if they were playable in the game, but I think that the two of them have the potential to be really good partners.

Also, I have officially run out of outlines for this story, other than a few scattered scenes that I want to put in later, so please send me any ideas that you have in a review or PM.

Thanks for your patience and enjoy the chapter.

At breakfast that day, Shinpachi and Heisuke had been fighting each other for food, like every day. However, rather than being interrupted by Sannan or Hijikata, this time Harada chose to interfere in their brawl.

"Both of you idiots shut up already."

Everyone looked to Harada, surprised. While it wasn't uncommon that Harada had to calm those two down, he normally didn't bother to try to stop their arguments over food, more often than not, joining in with the two of them.

He went on to explain to the now quiet room that if all of the captains went out together, it might help to prevent all of the ronin from coming out today. They had become an even bigger problem than normal, but if they knew that more samurai than usual would be around town, it would probably help to deter them.

Many of the captains figured that he just wanted a day off, but none of them could fault his logic. Eventually, it was ordered that all of the men would go about their normal duties, but at noon those captains who didn't have patrols would go out to lunch together.

This notion gave all of the men new energy because even though the regular members wouldn't be attending, it meant that they would also have a break from training.

Once afternoon was getting close, the captains headed into town wearing their official haoris, not exactly patrolling, but also not simply shopping around. As they went around, Saito became distracted by a display of daggers in a shop. As he went over to inspect it, Heisuke noticed that a ronin was about to attack him and quickly alerted the others.

But they were too far away, they knew that they wouldn't be able to either protect or warn Saito of the coming danger. Then, they didn't have to.

All because a strange man stepped forward and killed the ronin for threatening Saito. All of them were shocked by the fact that someone would go so far as to protect a member of the notorious Shinsengumi, let alone a captain.

At first, they all fought their way through the crowd in order to thank the odd man. But such light-hearted intentions were lost the moment that Okita identified him as the witness that had escaped the previous night, and Saito then confirmed it with a nod.

Upon this realization, they knew that they couldn't let the man go. All of the captains moved to form a circle around him, cutting off any possible escape routes. They had already learned how eager this man was to run and they wouldn't give him a chance to escape them again.

But, the man didn't make any attempt to do so. Instead he stood in the center of them calmly, though with his head cocked slightly to the side. Not as though he was afraid, more as though he was considering his options.

Hijikata was the one who finally broke the staring contest.

"We would appreciate it if you would come with us now."

"Appreciate, huh? You say that as though I have a choice in the matter," was his sarcastic reply. All of the captains were surprised by how calm he sounded. Most men would have been terrified to even speak in their presence, and here this man was giving them sarcasm. He had spunk.

Especially given the fact that when he spoke, they could detect a foreign accent in his voice. While this wasn't entirely uncommon in Kyoto, they had all assumed that this man was Japanese. After hearing him speak though, now they weren't so sure.

"Well, you do have a choice in where we kill you. It can be either here or at our headquarters, but at least at headquarters we probably wouldn't have to kill the people you are traveling with," Okita broke in to say. While many of the captains thought his words were harsh, they couldn't deny that they may very well be true.

Despite this, Hijikata didn't want to let go of the idea of a more peaceful resolution and said once more, "Please accompany us to our headquarters."

When the man didn't move for a moment, Okita began to move draw his sword and step towards that stranger. Seeing this, he sighed and snapped at him, "Give us a minute. We're coming already."

And then, all of the captains had the same thought. Us?

However, their confusion was soon cleared up as the foreigner reached down to pick up a bag that had been resting on the ground and throw it over his shoulder. Even more surprising though, was when he reacher to pry an as yet unnoticed child from his leg and lean her against his hip.

Looking at Hijikata, he said, "Well, are we going or not?"

This shocked them all out of the stupor that they had fallen into at the realisation that the child must have been their for the entire confrontation without any of them noticing.

Quickly, the captains formed a unit around the man as they led him towards headquarters.

As they walked, the child eventually removed her head from the man's shoulder to look up at Harada who was walking next to the man. Seeing Harada looking back at her, the child let out an alarmed squeak before hiding her face in the foreigner's shoulder.

This caused Blaise to search for the source of her distress and once she noticed the man beside her, she snarled at him, "Stay the hell away from her," while shifting Bella closer to the center of her chest, rather than resting against her hip.

At this noise, Hijikata looked back and told him that they meant no harm, to which Blaise's reply was, "You expect me to believe the words of a group of men who just threatened to murder a child in cold blood less than ten minutes ago?"

Wincing as they realized that Okita had technically made that threat, though not knowing that it was against a child, they also began to wonder about the child's identity.

They supposed that it could be the man's daughter. In some areas, people did still tend to marry young and it would explain why the two of them looked so similar, though that resemblance also prompted them to wonder if the child was Japanese either.

Regardless of any inane speculation that the captains might have had, they didn't ask the man for any answers, knowing that they would have to wait until they reached headquarters in order to interrogate him. Though, it was unlikely that such questions as who the child is would come up during the interrogation when there were more pressing concerns, such as how much he knew about the Rasetsu and why he had saved Saito.

They walked in tense silence until they came to the gate of headquarters. There, they could hear the man whispering.

At first Hijikata turned around to yell at him, until he realised, at about the same time as the rest of the men, that the foreigner was whispering words of comfort and promises of protection to the child in his arms. All of them felt guilt for scaring the child so much that she would need such words, but they knew that they couldn't do much about it now, when anything that they said to the child would likely be false comfort, as well as having the chance of scaring the child further.

However, as the captains continued to escort the two sisters inside, they didn't hear Blaise quietly whisper to Bella in English as they stepped inside.

"Remember that I am your elder brother."

Blaise knew that they were already captured, but she didn't want to give up that secret just yet. So far, the men had a reason to keep her alive: information.

While her true gender wouldn't be a question that they would really ask, it was an important secret for her to keep if she wanted any chance of escaping this situation unscathed, thought she would admit that she had no idea how she would do that.

With each step, she kept hoped more and more that the words that she had said to Bella really would be the truth, rather than lies told as cruel comfort.