It was an afternoon of calm and peace. Chizuru had just returned from a good soak in the onsen that Kazama had showed her when she found him outside her room in the Kazama manor. "I have good news for you," he told her, although with an apparent scowl on his face. "The guardians of your gilded cage have now left Edo and are heading towards Kagoshima city, making most of the journey on land."

Overjoyed with the news, Chizuru's expression brightened immediately and asked him, "When will they arrive?"

"In about a month, if they survive the journey," Kazama replied coolly, causing Chizuru to smile even wider. Her handmaiden left them both to make tea for them, and he entered her room with the door left ajar. "Perhaps we should have our wedding soon, then it would be too late for them to take you away from me."

Chizuru glared at him. "Kazama-san, do not make threats that you do not intend to carry out," she chastised him, not bothering to turn towards him to see the look of utter satisfaction that she knew came from her reaction. "You promised me one year, and barely a month has passed…"

"And in these few short weeks, you have already chosen me over those ennobled peasants," Kazama returned. "Why don't we spare them the pain and heartbreak, as well as the time to come all the way from Edo?"

"Kazama-san, you've gone too far!" Chizuru exclaimed, clearly exasperated by him. She had not forgotten what she had indicated to him after he had brought her to the onsen, but she never guessed that he would use it against her so quickly. She had thought him to be of a higher quality than that. It turned out that she was wrong.

Smiling evilly, Kazama circled his arms around her waist from behind her, a gesture that she did not reject. In fact, she rested her hands on his own, sighing deeply as he held her. "You have gotten easier and easier to bring to anger, my future wife," he observed. Her fair face was flush with annoyance and irritation, her breathing slightly shallow, but was normalizing as the seconds passed. "You do not know how much it pleases me to see you thus."

"You are insufferable," Chizuru retorted. She thought that she had been used to his teasing antics, but she realized that he was worse than ever. Yet, for his bad qualities as a person, he had other ones that redeemed him. She knew that he had chosen to act this way around her, partly because she was gullible enough to believe everything he said, even for that brief moment. "I… do not like that part of you Kazama-san…" She decided to speak her mind, knowing that Kazama would not willingly back down.

"So, you are saying that even after all this, you still dislike me," he interrupted her. There was disappointment in his voice, something that she had never heard before. It was something of a low growl, giving his baritone, slightly louder than a whisper, but softer than his usual tone.

Sighing, Chizuru protested. "Kazama-san, I do not hate you," she protested. Turning to face him, she realized that even his expression had changed. His brow was furrowed, ruby eyes not meeting hers. What had gotten into him?

"Then do you love me?" he asked further, almost turning away from her. Too shocked by the sudden change in him, she was unable to find an answer worthy of him. "If you cannot find a place for me in your heart, then I shall have to stop pursuing you thus. I cannot force you to feel what was never within you…"

It was at that time when Chizuru realized that she had already lost the battle of wills between herself and Kazama. If everything had been a trap, then she had fallen for it. The effects of such a mistake was hers to bear. "I… love you," she said in a small voice. "You have given me more than I ever imagined… I…"

Mercilessly, Kazama turned her around to face him, returning to his usual self. "Finally, I have heard you say those words on your own volition." Victory was written across his handsome face, his smile something more than being sly and wicked. Kazama Chikage was evil personified.

"You… you lied to me?" Chizuru demanded, and was now convulsing in utter anger.

"Come now, I was only providing the conditions for you to speak your mind," he explained, tipping her chin. "You look strangely lovely when you are angry, my beautiful future wife." Chizuru decided in finality that silence was the best weapon against him. She did not respond to him at all, but her heartbeat gave her away. She was still furious, and he smiled slyly, nevertheless.

She gave up. "I'm going to take a walk," she said in a huff, quickly releasing herself from him.

"You've only just returned," he reminded her, and stopped her from moving further away by holding onto her wrist. One gentle pull was enough to bring her back into his arms. Although he seemed to utterly antagonize her, Chizuru knew that everything he had done had been in her best interests. He had stood by her in the hardest moments of her life, offering comfort when there was no one else she could turn to, giving her the strength to move on when she felt that she no longer had the will to step forwards. There was once she thought that to love was to give selflessly, as she had given to the Shinsen-Gumi, as hard as she had toiled for them, but she also knew now that there was another side to it, a side that only Kazama could have shown her.

"You have an awful personality," Chizuru told him, making him chuckle.

"You would get bored of me if I were meek and pleasant, I assure you," he returned. "But such a proclamation troubles you somehow," he added, sensing the little hint of distress in her, as if a deep realization had dawned upon her. "Is it because of your precious Hijikata Toshizou?"

This time, Chizuru blushed, not out of anger, but something else. Hijikata had clearly told her that he loved her, but was it love that she felt towards him? She had wanting nothing but to lessen his burden, although she knew that there was nothing that she could have done to help him, and at the same time, she had hoped to see him smile, a rare gift that he had awarded those around him with. In that brief moment in Edo when he said those words of love to her, she had clearly felt the depths of his heart, and the joy that followed those words, but now, she could no longer remember precisely why she was so happy to hear them. That memory had been significant to her, doubtless, but its meaning no longer was.

"He means a lot to me still," she told Kazama, burying herself in his arms.

"I know," he broke in, catching his fingers in her long, brown hair. Of course he had known what she had felt towards Hijikata, who had been her protector through the terrors of the conflict that gripped the humans of their country. If anything, he doubted that he would be able to secure her heart should the human fool refuse to release her when he had come for her that night in Kyoto. "You are a greedy woman, my future wife."

"If I am not like this, I wouldn't be able to be your equal," Chizuru replied, once again revealing the amount of insight she had in her. She was a woman who found her joy in things that were simple, and she was anything but. It was as if she had already set herself to be his wife, but he knew that the quest for her heart had not been fully won yet. She might have finally admitted to love him, but he knew that there were ties other than just love that bound one to the other. Loyalty, gratitude, honor… they were all enough to move mountains, it was the same in the world of the humans, and it would be the same amongst their people as well.

By that time, he heard Sayo's footsteps approaching and he gently drew away from her. Straightening himself, he kissed her on her forehead and told her, "I return to my work with the illusionists. I will return in the evening to escort you to dinner."

They camped out under the stars. Somehow, something was not right. A village had been clearly marked out on the map that they had brought with them, but there was nothing there. It was as if the village had not existed at all, and they did not believe that the village had disappeared overnight.

"We're supposed to have entered Amakusa Village by now," Saito commented, looking around him as they gathered around a fire that they had built, using a pile of dried leaves that seemed too conveniently placed before them.

"It's almost as if we've walked into a trap," Shinpachi whispered, his words only loud enough for those around him to hear.

Hijikata harrumphed. "If this is a trap, then what was the bait?" he asked. They were sitting right in the center of what was supposed to be a village with proper, planned roads, but there was not a single structure in sight.

"The strangest thing is, you can actually sense Ki here, but there's no one else around except us," Souji added. They were all swordsmen of the highest quality, and were able to sense the existence of other individuals, and gauge their prowess by the Ki that they possessed.

Heisuke agreed with Souji. "This place feels like a real village," he said, clearly confused about the situation that they were in. Teal eyes then scanned the area around them, and found Harada walking towards them. "Sano-san, did you find anything?"

"Nothing but a well in the center of this so-called village," Harada replied, making himself between Shipachi and Heisuke. He then took a nearby stick and started to draw the perimeter of the village on the dirt. "However, I sensed strong Ki at the four corners of the village, as if… a huge net has been cast from above, and whatever's there in those corners are pinning it down."

"Which means someone is trying to protect this village by hiding it," Hijikata summarized from what Harada told them.

Souji cocked an eyebrow at Hijikata. "Hijikata-san, are you trying to say that someone made this village invisible to our eyes? Is it even possible?"

"Remember what Kimigiku told us?" Hijikata asked them all in return. "The Kazama clan is famous for creating illusions. This village might just be something similar…"

"So, we've gotten ourselves into an Oni village?" Souji replied. "This is very interesting indeed."

Hijikata got up and lighted a torch. "We'll take a walk around this village then, see what it has to offer us."

No one went against Hijikata's decision, and they all quietly walked behind him in single-file, keeping their footsteps as quiet as possible. They walked the streets of the village, and found that it was neat, and well-organized, by the manner the streets had been laid out.

They soon arrived at the western edge of the village, where Heisuke spotted something most peculiar. There was an object on the village's fence, an ofuda, a talisman, that was glowing blue. It was attached to the fence at a position near to the ground, and the nearer they got to the ofuda, the stronger the… Ki, if such an energy could be termed as Ki, grew stronger.

Heisuke stretched his hand out to touch it, but his hand seemed to have hit something hard mid-air, as if he had touched a wall. Everyone saw what Heisuke did, and Hijikata, who was closest to Heisuke repeated the same action. He could clearly see the ofuda, but, he could not reach for it…

"Your intrusion of this village shall end here," a voice from behind them said. The men of the Shinsen-Gumi turned around to find a man of tall, stocky build. This man… looked like Amagiri Kyuuju for some reason, for he had the same red hair and the same body-type.

"What are you going to do to us?" Hijikata asked the man, readying his katana. If it was a fight that the person wanted, he would willingly give him a fight.

The man took a step forwards nonetheless. "I will have to ask you to leave this place, or I will have to silence you. Permanently."

"We are travelers in search for a place to stay," Saito reasoned despite Hijikata's readiness to resort to force of arms. "Forgive us for the intrusion."

"Sadly, your intrusion must end," the man said. "This village was not meant for human eyes."

Hijikata sighed, and retrieved a piece of paper from his sleeve. "Perhaps this will clear everything," he said, passing the piece of paper to the man, who read it with an unchanging expression. It was the document that Sen-hime had given him, one that bore her seal.

"I understand now," the man concluded, and returned the piece of paper to Hijikata. "So, you are the Shinsen-Gumi endorsed by the princess of Yase… Forgive my previous rudeness."

The man snapped his fingers, and immediately, the entire village came to life. The houses, shops and gardens of the village was now revealed to them, and so were its inhabitants, which solved the mystery of the massive amounts of Ki with the apparent inhabitation of the village. The villagers all looked at them in awe, but dared not come close to them, as if they were to be feared.

"What… what is this?" Harada asked aloud, not caring who heard him at that point of time.

"An Oni illusion," the man answered. "This village is under the joint protection of the Kazama and Amagiri clans, and thus uses illusions as a line of defense. Come, we will speak under roof and near warming fire. If you are not threats to us, then you are our esteemed and honored guests."

Having said thus, the man led them to a medium-sized dwelling, and were served tea and a modest meal of rice, vegetables and river-fish. "We thank you for your hospitality," Hijikata said after their meal.

The man accepted their gratitude and said, "My name is Amagiri Ichiro, judging by your expressions, you must have met my younger brother, Kyuujuu before." Hijikata gave this new Amagiri a cautious nod. "Then the rumors that the Shinsen-Gumi has many dealings with my kind are true."

"We're heading towards the Kazama clan's village at Kagoshima," Souji said directly, somehow sensing that the direct approach would work better with this particular individual.

Amagiri Ichiro scratched his chin. "May I ask why you are headed towards that direction?" he asked them. "As I recall, with the draw at the Battle of Edo, neither side plans to prosecute the other…"

"We're not there to fight the Oni on the Satsuma-han," Harada explained. "It's just that…" Words failed him, because he was unsure whether or not to reveal the reasons to their quest.

"Kazama Chikage has someone that we want to see again," Hijikata continued for Harada. Seeing as to how Amagiri acted around Kazama, he assumed that his brother would know a thing or two about the leader of the Kazama clan and his designs for Chizuru. "We're not going back until we see her."

It was then when realization dawned upon Amagiri Ichiro. "You are seeking the new leader of the Yukimura clan, are you not?" he asked them. News that the Kazama clan would soon gain a powerful and young daughter-in-law had spread far and wide, and the Amagiri clan, long tied to the Kazama clan, were the first to know about it.

"Yes," Saito answered. "We are determined to bring her back before the wedding commences, if she so wishes it."

"I think that is unnecessary," Amagiri's brother replied. "Oni do not marry against their will. All the Oni clans have been notified of their wedding that is to be held during the next New Year, if Yukimura-dono had disagreed to such a union, such information would not have been disseminated."

Such words put a great stone into their hearts, but they remembered that Chizuru had only agreed to do so to protect them. She had offered herself to Kazama to spare their lives, and to stop his raid on the Shinsen-Gumi's headquarters. "We'd still like to try," Heisuke said. "She only said yes because she was forced to…"

"How peculiar indeed," Amagiri's brother noted. "However, I am not privy to the matters of the leader of the Kazama clan, so I cannot divulge anything that I do not know."

"Could you help us find the village?" Hijikata asked.

"That I cannot do," Amagiri's brother said flatly. "The Oni clans have all started to distance themselves from your race by hiding their dwelling-places using every means available to them. It would not do for me to reveal the location of the Kazama village at all. Such an act would be seen as tremendous treason."

"But, you're sheltering us for the night aren't you?" Souji asked. "Wouldn't that be treason as well?"

"That is because you have seen through the illusion with your own efforts," Amagiri's brother explained. "That is why I chose to reveal this village to you. The protectors of other villages will certainly do the same if you manage to deduce the nature of the lines of their defenses. However, you must swear never to speak of these places, under the pain of death."

The men of the Shinsen-Gumi nodded voluntarily. They would have nothing to gain at all by telling the world that there were entire villages where Oni called their home. They would be regarded as crazed fools too engrossed in the tales of children anyways. They were then led to another part of the house where two rooms had already been prepared for them.

"You shall sleep here tonight, and be ready to leave at first light," Amagiri's brother told them. "I now take my leave." Like Amagiri, he gave them all a low, deep bow, a gesture that was duly returned.

HAN: The earlier scene with Chizuru and Kazama was derived from Kazama's last chapter in Reimeiroku. Yes, he was actually THAT much of an asshole. Chizuru was so angry that she wanted to go into the other room to clean it just to get away from him! I altered it a bit, because in the actual scene, Chizuru went all emo on the Shinsen-Gumi just before she finally decided to follow Kazama back to his lands. And oh, the boys have now reached their first Oni village, yay! Could they be closer to Kagoshima now? Oh yes, Amagiri has 2 brothers now.

Lord of Judgement: Bye! *Waves*

Scarlotte O'Hara: She'd visit Sen-chan to catch up about her bevy of man-concubines on Sundays after they've given her breakfast in bed. ^.^ Of course they won't be so stoic. The first one to go berserk would actually be... (insert name). As for grandma, she's a grandma. I think all grandmas have this magical "third eye" that they see things with.

KatsuyaSaya: Heh heh I totally agree with you. However, their zeal and passion for the subject surely garners some amount of respect, no?

Guest: All of them just worms their way into your heart, don't they? Thanks for dropping by!

Divine Rosa: She's his grandma, of course she'd be happy for him. ^.^ As for their reactions... we'll just have to wait and see. Knowing the boys, they'd just huddle together with their swords drawn and... Wait... did it sound like a very bad yaoi innuendo to you?

Alice: Heh heh heh, you share the same love with many here, methinks. Still can't say that I'm a whole Kazama X Chizuru convert yet though. ^.^

Susan: Well, you never know what bombshells Super Grandma would put out in the future, just saying. ^.^