It's suddenly occured to me that I may have not spell checked the last chapter...hopefully there wasn't too many mistakes! And sorry for the delay, I've been struggling with the last couple chapters. Well here's the next chapter!

A month later Kaiya walked into her room to find the door of her closet door slightly opened. Frowning Kaiya grabbed her katana and approached the door. She pulled the blade from its sheath and held it ready as she quickly opened the door. When nothing jumped out, she peered inside and noticed a rather large package on the ground with a note on it. Kaiya picked up the package and read the note.

Happy belated birthday, my love. I'm sorry I could not be there with you. I miss you every day.

-H

Kaiya smiled as she held the note to her chest, then sighed sadly as she went to her desk and burnt the note like the one before. Kaiya was surprised that he would do something so dangerous, even if it was late at night. Kaiya wondered with Heisuke returning to the Shinsengumi, if that put Hajime into more danger or at least under more scrutiny.

Kaiya excitedly unwrapped the package and found a beautiful kimono inside. Kaiya sat there staring at it flabbergasted. It was definitely not a cheap kimono, it was the sort that you only wore to special occasions. What would possess him to buy her this? She loved it but when would she wear it? She supposed he hadn't really thought that far, just that he thought she'd look beautiful in it. And then there was the money that he had to have spent in order to buy her it. Money seemed to hold little value to Hajime, though; he had already spent ridiculous amounts of money on her.

Kaiya stood up and held the kimono up to her body. He had bought her a complete three layer kimono with two different obis. Kaiya shook her head as she thought of its value, how could he even afford it? Kaiya decided to try it on. She had to get dressed for sleep soon anyways. When she finished putting it on, she looked down at herself, she wished she had a full body mirror so she could see herself.

Kaiya nearly jumped out of her skin as her door slid open, she quickly reached for her katana but stopped just as she touched it and saw Hajime quietly enter. He turned to her and smiled.

"You put it on! I'd hoped you would." He said quietly as he approached her.

"What are you doing here? You'll get caught! It was reckless enough that you entered my room once already!" She hissed.

"Let me worry about myself. I was already here on other business." He said as he looked her over. "It really suits you like I thought."

"Don't let your affection for me be your undoing? I could never live with myself if something happened to you just because you wanted to see me." She looked at him worriedly.

He smiled at her softly as he wrapped his arms around her. "I'm not being as reckless as you think and I can't remain for much longer. Do you like it?"

"Yes but..." Kaiya had started to respond but he put a finger to her lips to silence her. He pulled her more tightly to his body and kissed her passionately. When he finally pulled away they were both breathless.

"Now I should go." Kissed her a couple more times before reluctantly releasing her and walking to the door.

"Be careful Hajime. You have to come back to me!" Kaiya said as he walked to the door.

He stopped at the door and looked back at her. "I'll do my best. Hopefully my mission will be done in a few more months and then I can return."

Kaiya just nodded and he turned and quietly left the room.

For weeks afterwards Kaiya worried that word would reach her that Hajime had been caught spying. From what Heisuke described, both he and Hajime had been easily accepted amongst the other warriors. Although the two of them weren't the only Shinsengumi to go with Itou, they were the only captains.

Heisuke acted like he had never left and nobody seemed to hold it against him for leaving. You could see the relief that it brought to the whole Shinsengumi to get an original member back and it put less stress on the other captains with another one present.

When Kaiya had told Heisuke that she'd been doing rounds with the rest, he seemed shocked and you could tell he felt guilty. It wasn't just his or Hajime's fault for her having to do extra duties but also the loss of other members as well. Heisuke had come to her the day he had come back with a minor sprain and an upset stomach. Kaiya had noticed other subtle things that led her to believe that his diet had been very poor. More than likely he'd been cooking solely for himself and he hadn't really learnt to cook properly since Chizuru took over the vast majority of the cooking.

By the middle of September Kaiya was put back on to patrols as things had begun to heat up. Hijikata no longer let Kaiya go out to do her shopping on her own, after recent attacks from Ronin who claimed to have no alliances but Hijikata suspected that they were involved with either the Choshu or Itou. They wanted to question her attackers but they ended up either dead or escaped.

The first attack, Kaiya had been rummaging through a pile of herb. Kaiya happened to look up and saw the shop keepers eyes go wide with fear so she instinctively rolled to the side and watched as a blade slashed down in front of her and strike the countered instead. Kaiya pulled out her blade and lashed out at her attacker, striking him across the chest and gutting him before he had another chance to strike at her, seconds later the commotion had drawn Shinpachi's unit. When the men had finally broke through the crowd, the all stared at her shocked as she stood looking down at the dead body, blade still drawn and blood splatter on her face and clothes.

Shinpachi finally stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey are you okay?" He asked with a small smile on his face.

Kaiya looked up at him for a moment, then looked down as she flicked the blood off her blade and slid it back into its sheath as she answered. "Yes, just a little shocked. I had my back turned to the street…if I hadn't seen the shopkeeper's face I wouldn't have seen it coming!"

"Good thing you've got a good sense for danger." He patted her shoulder.

Kaiya sighed and looked up at Shinpachi. "When you get your life threatened enough you start getting a sense."

Shinpachi laughed. "I guess so. Anyways, you should probably accompany us for the rest of our rounds."

The second time happened a week later. Kaiya had gone during the middle of the afternoon with packed streets. As she turned down a main street, a group of men approached her. Kaiya had purposefully timed her visit to the market to coincide with the approximate time that a patrol would be being passing through, and thankfully her timing was perfect.

As the group approached her Souji's patrol also came onto the street from a block away. Souji and his unit quickly took notice of the situation and by the time they had reached her, she'd taken down one man and was desperately deflecting attacks. Kaiya's attackers took notice of the rapidly approaching Shinsengumi only two remained behind to finish the job while the others took off in multiple directions.

Before Souji had managed to strike down the last attacker, the last man managed to snag her on her right shoulder before he went down. Kaiya gasped and grabbed her shoulder.

"Kai!" Souji rushed up to her as the man crumpled to the ground. Half of Souji's unit had run off to pursue the men who had bolted while the other half had stayed with Souji to protect Kaiya.

Blood rushed down Kaiya's arm and her blade clattered to the ground as she lost the strength to hold it. Souji immediately pulled a fold of fabric from inside his sleeve and tied it round Kaiya's arm tightly. Souji turned to the two men standing at his elbow. "Help her back to the compound, take her straight to Yamazaki-san!"

"Right!" They said in unison.

As they stepped forward to help Kaiya, Souji looked at her worriedly and said "I'll come see as soon as we get back!" Picked up her blade, flicked the blood off and returned it to its sheath. Kaiya nodded weakly as she was turned gently towards the direction of the compound.

As they got within view of the front gate, one of the men ran on a head, Kaiya assumed to alert Yamazaki. By the time they had reached the clinic, Kaiya had begun to feel very light headed and when she looked down at her limp arm, she saw that she had bled through Souji's wrapping.

Yamazaki came running from a completely different direction than the clinic, followed by the man from Souji's unit. Yamazaki grabbed Kaiya's good arm and wrapped it around his neck, then wrapped his arm around her waist.

He looked at the two men, "Return to your patrol. Okita-san may still need your assistance."

The men turned and left as Yamazaki helped Kaiya into the clinic. He helped her sit down and as he sat down, he removed her bandage. Blood was still oozing from the wound as he tried to inspect the wound.

He looked up at her. "It looks pretty clean but very deep." He got up and fetched his own suture kit. "I think I should be able to repair the damage."

He grabbed a bowl of water and a cloth and wiped the wound down as best as he could. "I'm sorry Kaiya-chan but you're going to have pull your arm out of the sleeve so I can fix it properly."

Kaiya nodded and smiled weakly. "Yeah of course. I trust you Yamazaki-kun, it comes with the territory of doctoring people but you're going to have to help me. I can barely feel my arm."

Yamazaki nodded and helped peel back the one side of her kimono and gently pulled her arm out of the sleeve. He did his best to keep the front of her kimono up enough to protect modesty then went to work on her arm. After about ten minutes, Chizuru rushed into the clinic and behind the screen Yamazaki had set up, just as he started to wrap her arm.

"Kaiya-chan!" Chizuru said as she rushed forward.

Kaiya looked up, "Chizuru can go to my room and get my spare kimono. This one is very bloodied up."

Chizuru nodded and rushed off. Yamazaki helped Kaiya put her arm back into her sleeve, then got up and made a tonic. He handed it to her, when it was finished, and then went to pull out a futon for her to lie on while she drank the tonic.

"I'd like you to stay here for the rest of the day, at least, so I can better keep an eye on you. You lost a lot of blood and I don't need to tell you what that means." Yamazaki took the cup from her as Chizuru rushed in again with Kaiya's kimono in hand. "Yukimura-kun, could you assist Kaiya-chan in changing and then help her lie down. I'm going to go report to the vice commander, he will want an update on Kaiya-chan's status."

"Of course!" Chizuru responded. Yamazaki nodded, then turned and left. Chizuru helped Kaiya get to her feet then helped her out of her bloodied kimono and into her clean kimono. As Chizuru was helping Kaiya lie down, Souji poked his head around the corner.

"Kai!" Souji said with a worried look. He came and sat down beside her, grabbing her good hand.

"Please, Okita-san, don't stay too long. Kaiya-chan needs to get some rest!" Chizuru said as she got to her feet and picking up Kaiya's soiled kimono.

"Yeah, yeah whatever." He said waving her off. Chizuru gave a bit of a worried look but turned and left them alone.

Souji looked down at her worriedly and stroked her forehead. "How are you doing?" He asked. He must have come straight from his patrol, as he still had his blue haori on.

"Mostly tired right now, I lost a lot of blood so it might take me a day to get back on to my feet." Kaiya mumbled as her eyes started to sag.

"How bad is it?" He asked

Kaiya shrugged then winced. "It's hard to say without being able to see the wound myself. I lost feeling in my arm but that could be my body going into shock."

Souji hung his head. "I should have been faster."

Kaiya patted his knee with her good hand. "You didn't even know I was there, Souji. You couldn't have been any faster." Kaiya was really struggling to stay awake.

Souji stroked her forehead again. "I'll let you rest, you're barely keeping your eyes open." Kaiya nodded and finally let her eyes close. Kaiya wasn't sure how long he stayed because she almost immediately fell into a deep sleep.

By the time Kaiya had been put back on to patrols, her arm had been almost completely healed, just lacking a bit of strength. In the evening Kaiya stayed up late most nights working on her research. She felt like she was on the verge of a breakthrough but was missing something. Sannan had been donating a vial of fury blood every week so she could do testing. She had seen some temporary success but for whatever reason, they blood always turned back into fury blood.

September had been a very busy month. With the harvest festivals and various other festivals, people from surrounding villages had flooded into the city. Then there was the change of the Shinsengumi headquarters. The temple had become way too stuffy and wasn't the easiest to defend if they were attacked. So they were moved to a massive mansion that left them with more than enough space and easily defended.

As the season moved into October, everyone was shocked as the Bakufu returned to Imperial rule causing Kyoto to erupt into further violence. A month later the man responsible was murdered and Sanosuke blamed for the murder, which Kaiya thought was absolutely ridiculous. It was obviously an attempt to sully the Shinsengumi's name.

A few nights later everyone was called for a meeting late one night. Kaiya was shocked when she saw Hajime sitting with his head bowed. Kondou indicted for the seven of them to take a seat as they entered together.

"Everyone, gather 'round." Kondou said.

"Saitou?" Sanosuke stared hard at Hajime, obviously confused with his presence. "What's he doing here?"

"As of today, Saitou will be returning to the Shinsengumi." Hijikata responded.

Sanosuke looked at Hijikata confused. "What does that mean?"

"By Toshi's order, Saitou-kun had infiltrated the Itou fraction as a spy." Said Kondou.

Souji laughed. "Geez, Hajime-kun! You did something that fun and kept it secret from me?"

The shock of seeing Hajime was finally starting to wear off and Kondou's words started to sink in. Kaiya couldn't help but smile and it was all she could do not to rush forward and hug him.

Heisuke frowned. "So I'm the only idiot here who left willingly?"

Shinpachi made a sour face as he looked at Heisuke, "Yup, apparently so."

"Shinpachi-kun!" Kaiya scolded.

Shinpachi sighed and looked over at Kondou. "Kondou-san, that was pretty mean of you guys!"

Kondou laughed and rubbed his head awkwardly. "Well, it was top secret. Sorry we had to keep it under wraps."

Chizuru suddenly gasped and got to her feet. "I-I'll go make some tea."

Kondou looked over at Chizuru. "Yeah. And make it a little hot please, Yukimura-kun."

"Okay." Chizuru turned and left.

As the door closed Hajime finally spoke up. "In terms of Itou's faction movements, they're clearing trending toward aggressive action against the Shinsengumi."

"Aggressive action?" Asked Inoue clearly concerned.

"To hasten the fall of the Bakufu, Itou's trying to expose the existence of the Fury Corps." Hijikata put in. "They're also the ones who've spread rumours that Harada being involved in Sakamoto's murder, attempting to bring the Shinsengumi down."

"What was that!?" Said Shinpachi angrily.

"Itou Kashitaro…that crafty bastard!" Sanosuke said, also angry.

"We have another problem facing us." Hajime continued. "The Itou faction is working towards a plan to kill the Shinsengumi Commander."

Souji's face became deadly serious, in a way that made Kaiya uncomfortable. "Kondou-san?"

Everyone in the room remained silent as they took in what was being said. It was Hijikata who broke the silence. "That is where we stand. Itou-san must die, period."

"So we're going to take on the Guardians of the Imperial tomb?" Asked Heisuke flabbergasted.

"Yes." Was all Hijikata responded as he got to his feet, walked passed a shocked Chizuru, whom had just arrived with the tea. Kondou followed immediately after as did pretty much everyone else, except Kaiya, Hajime and Chizuru.

It took a moment for Chizuru to realize that neither Hajime nor Kaiya were moving. So she smiled said "Excuse me" and walked away with her tray full of tea. After the door closed Kaiya was immediately on her feet and practically tackled Hajime with a hug but the sudden movement caused her to hiss in pain, despite being healed.

Hajime frowned at her concerned. "What's wrong?"

Kaiya reluctantly sat back and rubbed her shoulder, smiling at him sheepishly. "It's nothing. You're not going back again, are you?"

Hajime finally smiled. "No, they still don't know that I've left but they will soon enough." Hajime smile fell flat again. "Now tell me what wrong with your shoulder!"

Kaiya got to her feet and grabbed his hand. "Come with me and I'll show you." She said while smiling mischievously. Hajime let the smile return to his face as he also got to his feet and followed her out.

Well I hope you all enjoyed the latest chapter! We're slowly approaching the end! Have a good one everyone!

-Shockra