Shinsenvember 11 - Espionage
It's said that Hijikata Toshizo dreamed since childhood of becoming a great samurai. Yamazaki Susumu, in contrast, was going to be a ninja. The dream was born from a puppet play that Susumu watched around the age of four. He couldn't recall the play itself, but his family told him that from that moment on, he had been obsessed with ninja stories. One of his earliest memories was being scolded for having poked holes in all the household screens to make ninja "spyholes."
He didn't give up on his dream as he grew. When he was seven, he fell off the roof of his neighbours' house while practicing the ninja arts and broke his arm. The pain was bad. Having to explain to the neighbours why he was there in the first place was worse.
His family went from being amused at his creativity to being deeply worried about his obsession. The adults in his life insisted that the ninja in storybooks weren't real. There were no glamorous practitioners of near magical arts. Instead, there were spies and informers doing grubby, dishonourable work for their masters.
At first, he refused to believe this. After all, what would his parents know about real ninjas? But as he grew up, he came to realize the adults were right. So, he settled down to learn his father's trade, training in acupuncture and medicine-making. As far as anyone else knew, he'd left his ambition to become a ninja behind in childhood, where it was supposed to stay.
Then one day, a group of Edo ronin calling themselves the Roshigumi came to Osaka. They were looking for local men to join their ranks. Yamazaki answered the call.
"So you want to be a samurai?" the man named Hijikata asked him on their first meeting.
Yamazaki said yes, he did. He listened carefully as Hijikata laid out the challenges he hoped Yamazaki could aid them with. As a local, he could better gather intelligence for the Roshigumi. He had no history with the other men, so he would be impartial in watching their behavior.
A smile lit up his face when he finally realized. The Roshigumi didn't want another samurai, really. What they wanted was a ninja.
Notes: Yamazaki in Hakuouki is so into the ninja stuff, way more than his actual job requires. I can only think he always wanted to be one and is living his dream. YAMAZAKI STYLE TATAMI FLIPPP!