After they had finished their tea, the trio decided to walk around the town for a little while. Blaise wasn't certain about what had possessed them to take their prisoner out on the town like this, but she was grateful, even if she thought they were fools. Taking her to a restaurant was one thing. There were only so many ways she could escape from a restaurant, but here in town, it would be easy for her to take off any way she wanted and get lost in the crowd. Briefly, she revisited her thought about them taking her out here to test how easily they could control her by keeping Bella with them, but eventually decided that she didn't really care. She had been cooped up in their headquarters for too long, only allowed out to go on patrol, that it felt good to stretch her legs without having to watch her back because of that damned blue haori marking her a target.
Of course, that didn't mean that they didn't still attract attention. Even without the gaudy uniform, almost everyone in Kyoto knew the faces of at least the captains of the Shinsengumi, and some of them might even be recognising Blaise from when they had seen her with Saito. But at least Blaise could pretend that she still had some anonymity, even as she realised that when she finally was able to leave the Shinsengumi, and she still had every intention of doing so at the first opportunity she saw, she would probably have to dress as a woman for at least the first few miles out of the city to avoid drawing attention to herself. It would seem that staying with the Shinsengumi had put an even bigger target on her back than having a foreign accent had.
Sighing, Blaise tuned back into the conversation that was taking place between her companions, only to realise that she didn't really care if Sano was stealing women from Shinpachi or not. But as she listened, she couldn't help but chuckle inwardly, recalling that movie about the girl who took her brother's place on a soccer team and overdid the whole guy act. She definitely wouldn't have had that issue with these two.
Just as she was about to break in, hoping that giving Shinpachi some advice would cause her a little pain for the long term gain of getting him to stop griping about Sano's luck with women, she heard a man shouting. As she stopped walking to try to locate the voice, Sano and Shinpachi also seemed to hear it.
Blaise would have written it off as not being her business and continued on her way if not for the fact that as she walked, she could just barely hear a sound that she knew very well, even with the crowd blocking her view. The sound of a blade being drawn from its sheath, albeit very clumsily to have been heard from this distance.
Realising that her escorts would feel obligated to break up the fight, and that she herself didn't really want any more deaths on her conscience, Blaise began to move through the crowd only to be very surprised by what she saw.
In the center of the crowd was a scruffy looking man with his sword drawn, something which Blaise had expected from the start considering that most of the larger conflicts in this city seemed to involve either ronin trying to steal something or bully someone. What did surprise her was the person who, Blaise assumed, he had tried to steal that something from.
In front of the store there was a young girl, Blaise estimated that she was a year or two younger than herself, wearing a brightly colored kimono and, most shocking of all, she was holding a katana in her hands as though to fight off the ronin. Even as she hurried to get closer to the combatants, Blaise couldn't help but notice that the girl's handle on the sword was horrible and her stance was nonexistent. Did she think it was some sort of toy?
Even as these thoughts crossed her mind, Blaise began to move faster as the ronin luger towards the girl who, to her credit, did attempt to block the blow but only succeeded in getting her sword knocked from her hands. Seeing that the ronin was making no move to step back, Blaise quickly knocked his sword out of his hand and held her blade to his throat.
"Would you care to tell me what is going on over here?" she asked him coldly.
Surprisingly enough, it was the girl who answered. "This man was attempting to steal from my family's store, saying that a samurai shouldn't have to pay at a low class shop like our's."
Immediately, the ronin tried to explain away his actions, saying that it was all a misunderstanding. Even when they're caught, they still don't have the balls to just own up to what they've done, Blaise thought in disgust. She considered simply killing him for a moment, but decided that she didn't need all the trouble of such a public kill which would cause the people to both remember and fear her. If she ever did need work in this town, it wouldn't help her any to have ingrained herself in their memories in such a way.
Leaning down, Blaise told him softly, "I suggest that when I let you up, you run out of this city. If I ever see you again, I won't stop at this, understand?"
Seeing the fear in the man's eyes increase, Blaise knew that he did and removed her sword. Apparently following her words to the letter, the ronin ran as though he was being chased which, considering her threat, he may very well have thought that he was.
Satisfied, Blaise turned to see Shinpachi and Sano talking to the girl. As she walked closer, she heard Sano say, "Look, it turned out alright this time, but next time someone bothers you, call for help instead of trying to take it on yourself."
Blaise was surprised when the girl said angrily, "And I supposed you're saying that because I'm a girl? You think you're so different as men that a woman can't even compare."
Blaise couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her at the girl's words. She was really starting to like this girl.
Obviously mistaking Blaise's noise of approval for one of derision, the girl's eyes narrowed. "Pompous men like yourselves-"
"Just saved your life," Shinpachi cut her off, surprise taking the smile off his face for once.
At this the girl deflated slightly as the truth hit home in her. Sighing, she said, "Yes, you did, and you have my thanks. I am Kaoru Fujita and my family owns the store that is behind me."
At this sign of acceptance, Sano immediately restarted his spiel about how a girl like her should just let herself be protected instead of taking her father's sword. Getting irritated at Sano's continuously misogynistic point of view, Blaise moved closer to the girl. As she got a better view of Kaoru's hands, Blaise realised that the girl's swordsmanship was very sloppy, but not from lack of trying if the callouses she saw on her hands were any indication.
Realising how much she really did want to help this girl who had the balls to take up a sword in a man's world, Blaise did something she knew that she would regret. She stepped well into the girl's personal space and, brushing against her, picked up her sword. She wrapped her hands over where Kaoru's held the sword's sheath. Leaning in, as Blaise moved to sheath the sword, she also whispered in Kaoru's ear. "Meet me at the bridge at eight tomorrow if you want to use this sword."
Stepping away, Blaise was satisfied that anyone who had been looking on would have simply thought that she was flirting with the girl, even Sano and Shinpachi. Deciding that she had heard enough about how men should protect women while the women sat at home cooking for them, Blaise said in a normal tone of voice, "You should really sharpen that blade, otherwise it won't even be able to cut wet paper," before walking away.
When Shinpachi and Sano caught up to her, Sano asked angrily, "What were you thinking, telling her how to take care of that sword? She could be hurt."
At this, Blaise's patience finally snapped and she turned to face him. "And why do you say that? If that girl were a boy, you would have been patting him on the back for standing up to that rogue samurai. But you didn't, and all because she was a girl. Why?"
Looking shocked, Sano said, "Women should have a man to protect them."
"And why do they need protecting? Oh that's right, it's because of men like you, forcing them to be china dolls instead of asking what they want." Having said her piece, Blaise began to walk towards headquarters, angry and already worried about whether or not she'd be able to meet that girl tomorrow. But then she realised that it probably wouldn't be as hard as she thought it would be, considering that they had already allowed her out like this, though she wasn't very happy about being babysat all the time.
So it's been a while and this is a day late. I ended up catching a cold cause I'm an idiot and then because I'm an even bigger idiot, I forgot to post this yesterday. So here it is.
And one last thing. I put things like this at the end of the chapter to show that even though the Shinsengumi are great guys, they do tend to be misogynistic idiots, like when they found out Chizuru was a girl and decided that they wouldn't kill her, or how they try to keep her away from fights (which is a good thing with her fighting skills) with the excuse that she's a girl, so I can't see them easily accepting a woman who can fight (hence why Blaise hasn't been discovered yet).
