Sorry for taking so long. The semester just started back up, and it's been homework and quizzes from day one. On the bright side, I only have two pieces of homework due by tomorrow, one for Tuesday, and one for Thursday. So it's starting to slow down a little.

I've also reworked the chapters just a little, mostly correcting spelling mistakes. But I have added a little bit of...well I don't know if I would call it fluff, but I don't know what comes before that. So, added a little of that into the last few chapters. Now, I've actually got direction and motivation. So, let's go!

A few nights later is yet another Fury attack, though this one gets skewered by Saito while the rest of us run around chasing it. Nimi's experimemts are getting out of hand. This is the third Fury that we've had to deal with. And it's only a matter of time until one of them manages to get far enough away to start killing people.

I see Saito after his meeting with Hijikata. And the look on his face is sterner than usual. "Saito? What's wrong?" I approach cautiously, unsure of his current temperament.

He glances at me. "I am off to Osaka. There are orders to put the Fury's head on display there."
I cringe at the thought of putting someone's head on a pike, even though it's a longstanding tradition around the Mediterranean. "Serizawa gave the order, didn't he?"

Saito nods. "I presume so."

I glare angrily into thin air. "Why can't that man get his own lackeys to carry out his obscene orders? This is going to come back to bite us in the ass, I just know it. And if that man can't see it, then he's a fool."

"A bad reputation is better than no reputation at all…" Saito's voice is empty, which tells me that he's repeating the reasoning behind this atrocious act. "That is what Serizawa said to Hijikata-san when he protested."

"Of course…" This does not sit well with me, but unfortunately, I'm in no position to do anything about it. But as Saito is leaving soon, I give him the best smile I can muster. "Be safe on your way to and from Osaka."

Saito looks at me, and I see traces of one of his rare smiles. "Of course."

I watch him leave with Shimada and Yamazaki, knowing full well that this is only going to make things more difficult for us in the days ahead. Someday, I will see Serizawa in a pool of his own blood. I will not allow him to get away with this forever.

A day after Saito returns, Heisuke pulls him out of training the new recruits. "Hajime-kun, it's just about time for patrol duty.

"Ah, right." He turns to the recruits, who are still swinging wooden swords through the air. "That is all for now."

After the recruits file away, Saito gets himself dressed in his uniform, and the three of us head out into the city to do our rounds. But as we pass by people in the streets, the muttering is less than pleasant.

"Ugh, look, it's the Wolves of Mibu."

"I heard they put a rogue samurai's head on display."

"In Osaka!"

"How frightening!"

And while the comments don't seem to perturb Saito at all, Heisuke's head droops, and he almost looks like he's going to cry. So I grab his hand and squeeze it. "Don't let it get to you, Heisuke."

"Yeah…I know…" And despite saying that, it sure looks like he's letting it get to him. Not that I blame him, since he's not used to being looked at like that. I'm pretty used to it. Being a female assassin used to get me some pretty creative insults whenever I was about to kill someone.

When we get back, Heisuke trudges off alone to the back garden. He goes there whenever he needs to think. I drop my uniform off in my room before following him back there.

And I find him sitting there, right next to the pond, staring into the water at his own reflection. I sneak up on him, until I'm close enough to pounce on him without him realizing it until I'm leaning on his shoulders. Though I dig my knees into the ground to prevent him from falling forwards into the water.

His alarm is evident in his voice. "Ciara? What the hell? What are you doing? You could have knocked me into the pond!"

I snicker a little. "Well, don't worry about it. I'm balanced enough to not let you fall in. Besides, if you had fallen in, I probably would have fallen in with you."

Surprisingly, he quickly lets it drop. "What are you doing here…?"

I rest my chin on his ponytail and rub his shoulders with my elbows. "Well, you looked like you could use a friend. You've been looking pretty depressed ever since we heard those people talking shit about us on patrol. Do you want to talk about it?"

He gives a distinctly unhappy sigh, and leans his head back a little. "I just hate what they're calling us…they really hate us. We didn't come here to be hated by the people we're trying to protect. What's the point of protecting them if they're just going to hate us for it?"

I mull over his question, trying to come up with an answer. "Well…I don't think it matters whether they like us or not. They're not the ones I'm here to protect." A small smile crosses my face. "I'm here to protect all of you guys."

Heisuke shifts a little, and I can already tell he's pouting. "Hey…I don't need you to protect me. I should be the one trying to protect you!"

I snicker a little. "Well, if you want to do that, then you might want to polish those skills of yours. Because you can't really protect me if I'm the one covering for you."

"Yeah, yeah, I know…" But it sounds to me like he's finally starting to cheer up. Or, he's at least dwelling less on things he can't change, and focusing on the things he can.

And speaking of things that can change, I sit around with Heisuke, Sano and Shinpachi, as we watch Ryunosuke getting some basic lessons in swordplay from Saito. I sit in front of Sano and lean back, using his shins as something of a chair as I watch the ensuing hilarity.

But Heisuke just doesn't understand what's going on. "There's no need for Saito to teach Ryunosuke swordsmanship."

"Why not? He finally decided to learn it." Shinpachi sounds a little bored, but at least he's not poking fun.

Sano is far more sympathetic. "That's right. If Ryunosuke is trying to change, why don't we let him?"

I grin as I watch Ryunosuke trying to go through the basic stances. "If nothing else, it's good exercise."

Heisuke's eyes drift to me at that comment. "Speaking of exercise, I'm bored. Wanna go spar?"

I grin and jump to my feet. "You know it!"

Heisuke jumps up as well, and takes off towards the other side of the estate, where we like to run away to for private sparring. I laugh and chase after him, following him all the way to our secret little practice ground.

He heads to the deck, and pulls a couple of wooden swords out. "Here, catch!" He tosses one at me, and I catch it in my left hand, before spinning it in a circle, switching hands, and holding it behind me in a ready position.

"Ready, Heisuke?" I grin, and bend my knees a little, ready to spring into action at any moment.

He grins right back, holding his sword out in front of him. "Of course."

I watch him carefully, waiting for an opening. Depending on which of us moves first, the mistakes that might be made can vary. If Heisuke goes first, he might move too early, or give away his plan ahead of time. And if I go first, the fight will be over too quickly, and the whole point of sparring will be lost.

This time, however, Heisuke doesn't make a mistake. His timing is perfect as he brings the wooden sword down towards my head. Luckily for me, I'm even faster than he is, and I raise my sword to block it in time. I smirk a little at Heisuke. "You're going to have to be faster and trickier than that if you want to finally beat me."

He shoots me a determined smile. "Well, then I'll work hard until one of these days, I can beat you."

His confident assertion warms my heart. Well, I can't promise that you'll ever be able to beat me. But if this gives you the motivation to get stronger, then who am I to shoot down that hope? I level my sword at him, ready to strike again. "Then prepare yourself, because that day is not today."

A while after me and Heisuke finish with our sparring match, which I won, again, Hijikata and Sannan return from their patrol, covered in blood. So we congregate in the kitchen, so that they can wash the blood off, and tell us what the hell happened out there. And I'm not far from snapping, if the situation gets much worse.

Kondou's main concern seems to be for their health. "What happened Toshi? Sannan-kun?"

Hijikata goes about scrubbing the blood off his uniform. "Sorry, we ran into some thugs using the Roshigumi name to forcibly borrow money. It turned into a sword fight, but they got away."

Souji isn't impressed. "Huh, Hijikata-san, Sannan-san, it's unusual for you to let scum get away."

Sannan offers an explanation. "The ones we fought…had friends hiding nearby. " And he looks ashamed of himself as he turns to Kondou. "I'm sorry sir, it was our fault."

"No, it couldn't be helped." Kondou is very forgiving, and it's no wonder, it's not as though two people are usually well equipped to deal with a larger group.

But Sano spots the problem. "So, there are some guys using the Roshigumi name to steal money."

"And here they were calling themselves imperial loyalists until recently."And Shinpachi is quick to point out the ironic hypocrisy.

Sannan looks rather grim. "I'm sorry. But that simply goes to show how far the Roshigumi's reputation has dropped."

"You think putting that head on display had the opposite effect we were going for?" Clearly, Heisuke is still very bothered by everything that's been going on lately. And frankly, I can't blame him.

I glance at Heisuke and nod. "Clearly. I knew this was a bad idea from the start. An order like that…goes beyond unreasonable. It's downright inhumane."

No one says a thing, though I'm sure that they're all running through whether or not they think that it was the wrong thing to do. Finally, Souji speaks up. "That man…has been out of hand lately."

"If the Roshigumi develops a poor reputation, it could injure the Aizu domain's good name." Sannan makes a very good political point. "We cannot allow things to continue as they have."

No…we certainly cannot.