The night was eerily absent of noise as Hijikata arrived at the place specified by Gin. The light of the city didn't reach this far, and he was grateful for that, the moon lending enough light for him to see. The gates to the junkyards were thick bars of metal with barbed wire lining the top, a heavy duty lock and chained wrapped around. He drew his sword and broke the lock without much resistance. The metal clattered noisily to the ground. He held his breath, listening to anything that would indicate he'd been spotted. Nothing. He exhaled and slipped through the gates.
The yard was scattered with broken-down parts of what used to be large machines, creating perfect places for him to hide behind. The place was fairly large, and he was starting to think that he'd been misinformed. He swiftly moved towards the next spot, when he tripped over something. He composed himself and pointed his sword at the offending item. It was a body. He frowned in confusion as he nudged it with his foot. The man was dead, attacked from behind with a sword. He didn't understand what happened but at least it confirmed that the place wasn't abandoned, so he moved on.
Every now and then he would spot another body, taken out in the same way as each other. He concluded that he wasn't alone, when he heard a pained scream, followed by yells for reinforcement. He sped ahead to the source of the noise.
Hijikata's eyes widened in shock at the scene that was unfolding. A woman was being surrounded by four men. She danced around the blades slashing at her, easily dispatching them one by one.
"What the hell are you doing here?!" Hijikata ran to Nachi's side. She turned towards him, her eyes half-closed and panting heavily. A few of her wounds had opened, the blood soaking through her clothes. Her sword hung heavily by her side. She beamed at him.
"I knew you would be somewhere around here, Hijikata-sensei." Her words were light-hearted but her tone hinted that she was holding back the pain she was in. "I beat you here so I thought I should get started."
Before he could chastise her, the reinforcements charged towards them. Nachi took her stance and sprinted towards them. He followed her, striking down those trying to take advantage of her weakened state by charging in all at once. Hijikata slashed the last one down the front of his torso. Nachi had stopped to try and catch her breath. He grabbed her face, his sword clattering to the ground as he forced her to look at him.
"I want you to leave, right now." He growled. She tried to shake her head but he refused to let her do the movement. "This is an order."
"I refuse to follow such an order, sensei. I came here on a mission and I will not leave until I have finished." She glared at him, wriggling her head around in an attempt to loosen his grip.
"What mission? You're in no state to be doing anything."
Her glare changed into a warm smile. "To protect my burden. I heard everything you and Gin-san talked about while you were in my hospital room."
"I thought I told you to stop pretending to be knocked out, idiot!" He head-butted her. He sighed as he rested his forehead against hers. "You're the one who is the burden in this situation. Please leave."
"I won't, unless you leave too."
"Unfortunately I won't be letting either of you leave." Hijikata let Nachi's head go and quickly picked his sword up, looking for the voice that spoke.
They were surrounded by a large crowd, and estimate of around 100, just from what he could see. A single man stepped out from the crowd, and from the disgusted look that spread onto Nachi's face that he could see in the corner of his eye, he assumed that he was Waru Iyatsu.
Waru spoke. "I have waiting to meet you, vice-chief Hijikata, but I am surprised that you brought your bitch with you." He laughed at the double set of glares shot at him by the two of them. "You really should keep dogs on a leash."
"You should know by now that I'm the type of dog that bites the fingers of anyone trying to leash me down." Nachi piped up, her teeth bared into a nasty smile.
"Oh I do know." He looked at Hijikata. "You know, she refused to let a single sound of pain out of her mouth, only speaking to yell curses at the men," He sighed happily at the memories. "Even when we carved her pretty skin and beat her. Even when each of my men had a go with her. It's always much more fun when they fight back." He sauntered towards them, keeping his eyes locked with Hijikata's. "Oh but she did have a bit of trouble holding onto her howls when we dug that hot poker into her flesh. The smell.."
Hijikata didn't let him finish his sentence as he flung himself at him. The man had pulled out his sword just in time to block his attack.
"You better shut your filthy mouth, before I cut your tongue out and stuff it down your throat." Hijikata snarled at him, enjoying the sight of the man's eyes dilating in fear.
"Sensei, his sword is laced with a tranquilising poison. Don't get cut by it!" Nachi yelled.
Waru laughed shakily. "You should be more worried about yourself, Shinsengumi bitch." He turned to his men. "Hurry up and kill her."
Just as the men were about to charge, they were thwarted by an ambush.
"It's the Shinsengumi!" one of the Joui screamed as they were struck down by the arriving men.
"Don't be afraid, we can easily trump them with our numbers. Let us claim the honour of destroying them!" Waru yelled, pushing Hijikata back with his sword. He jumped back as Hijikata waited for the right moment to strike.
"How does it feel to watch your precious Shinsengumi fall around you over a woman?"
"You must be joking, it'll take more than just a hundred men to destroy us." He chuckled.
Waru glared at him in disgust. "Don't underestimate us. Our bushido is a strong enough fuel to annihilate you and the corrupt government that you fight for."
He held onto his glare as he smirked. "We might be honour bound to protect the Bakufu, but we are fighting a battle more important than the petty war between you Joui and the Government."
He snorted in disbelief. "What could be more important than the wellbeing of your country? You call yourself samurai, yet you say you could care less about the land you live in."
"It's the people that make a country. The country that my soul fights to protect is the one that fights alongside of me." He smiled at the thought. "My Edo consists of a bunch of rowdy, stubborn men, and an even rowdier, stubborn woman. Their burden gives me a reason to fight and survive."
"That isn't something that a police officer should be saying." He ran at him.
"I don't want to hear that from someone whose name is a bad pun!" Hijikata launched himself at him, his sword positioned to pierce his heart.
Waru sidestepped his attack, striking down towards his back. Hijikata twisted his body out of the way and blocked the incoming strike as he landed. He pushed Waru's sword slightly, giving himself enough time to slash his sword horizontally at his stomach. He missed his mark as Waru jumped backward, bringing his sword around to strike at his side.
Hijikata promptly pulled his sword close to his body in time to block the incoming sword, but he didn't notice Waru snap back his arm and punched him in the face. His nose crunched under the impact, his head snapping back from the force. He let out a growl, dropping his sword and lunged at him. He dug a fist into his stomach following it by punching his mouth, revelling the sounds that his fist made against his face. Waru grunted in pain but Hijikata continue to smash his fists into his face, not giving him a chance to strike back.
Hijikata jumped back to where his sword lay, his fists now dripping with Waru's blood. He picked up his sword, and ran towards Waru, who was still composing himself from his relentless beating. Hijikata let out a yell as he slashed his sword along Waru's legs leaving a trail of blood following the tip of his sword. Waru's legs gave way under his weight, causing him to crash to the ground. Before he could slice at him, Hijikata stepped on the hand holding his sword.
"It's over Waru. I really just want to yank your heart out with my bare hands, but as the Vice-Chief, I'll give you the choice to surrender."
"I'd never bow down to a mutt. You and that woman will die a dog's death, by my hands or by the hundreds of other factions out for your blood." Waru hissed, secretly pulling out a knife out of his pocket.
He made a grunt of pain as a sword pierced his heart from behind. He looked down at the sword sticking grotesquely out of his body, the metal a glittering ruby red in the moonlight.
"One day I might die a dog's death. But for today, I'll show you what it's like for free." Nachi pulled her sword out from his back. She lifted her sword, licking the blood off the flat of her blade. She crinkled her nose in distaste. "It really does taste like poison."
"Oi, you just stole my one-liner space." He scowled at her. "I had something really cool to say too."
She turned to him and lifted an eyebrow. "Oh really? What were you going to say?"
"I can't just tell you, it would just sound stupid now!"
She smirked. "Oh stop sulking, I'm sure there'll be plenty of other times to use your 'cool' one-liners."
He turned as a couple of Joui ran towards them.
Before he had a chance to attack them, Nachi had already jumped in and quickly slashed them across the stomachs before they had a chance to strike down on her.
She grinned at him. "I'll get kidnapped again so you can use one of your passionate one-liners that sounds cool but also wins the princess' heart." She held her hand out to him.
He walked up to her and grasped it. "I still don't think you have a heart, and that just sounds like too much work for me." He sneered. "This time don't run ahead of me."
They ran into the ongoing battle around them together. Nachi leapt from opponent to opponent, her strikes sweeping up any attacks and sliced back down as they were left open. Hijikata followed her movements, his brute strength breaking the swords aimed towards him, allowing Nachi to twist around and finish them with a clean strike to their stomachs. They covered each other's mistakes and combining their technique to move through the opponents efficiently.
Most of the Joui were wiped out during the Shinsengumi's initial ambush, but once they had joined in, it didn't take long to completely finish them off.
It took a little while for Nachi and Hijikata to find Kondou and Okita. Nachi waved and called out to them. Okita walked up to them and smacked them both with a rolled up newspaper. "Bad dogs. You don't run off your leash without your owner's permission."
Nachi saluted him. "Yes Master Okita-senpai, I am sorry." Nachi turned to Hijikata, looking at him expectantly.
"There's no way in hell I'm repeating that."
Okita turned to her, ignoring the glowering Hijikata. "Did you do it?"
She placed her hands on her hips and grinned proudly "Yes I did."
He cursed, pulling out his wallet.
"What was the bet this time?" Hijikata groaned.
She winked at him. "He reckoned I couldn't ruin one of your one-liners."
"How do you even think of these stupid bets?!"
Kondou chuckled as placed an arm around Nachi and Hijikata.
"Sougo's right, you shouldn't have ran off on your own. We might not have made it in time if the Yorozuya boss didn't get to me when he did. We were worried about you two." Nachi looked around as her new brethren gathered around them. Their yells were muffled by each other, but she could hear the concern in their voices. She sniffled and broke out of Kondou's embrace to turn to her new family.
"I'm sorry for making you worry!" She shouted, trying to overpower their yells. "As compensation, I'll let you have a peek at my tits!" Cheers broke out around her.
"Oh no you won't." Hijikata smacked her head, much to the amusement of the men. His smirk dropped when she fell to the ground. He dropped down and shook her. No response.
He sighed, lifting her in his arms. "You better not be pretending again."
"Don't worry, I'm not." She whispered.
"Someone take her off my hands before I kill her myself."
He walked towards the entrance. Everyone followed them, chatting together about the fight, boasting their kills and laughing at their blunders. Nachi tried to muffle the small giggle that left her mouth, overjoyed at the thought of having a new home.