Chapter 54
"The calendar was a mathematical progression with arbitrary surprises." ― Paul Scott, The Towers of Silence
"You're not going to pass out again are you?" I asked the man stirring on the bench. Finally, after about ten or so minutes, Isao-kun had just started to stir. He blinked several times in confusion while staring at my face dumbly as I hovered over him.
"I just had an interesting dream…" he said as I backed up to allow him to sit back up. "I could have sworn you just introduced me to the 'Oni' Vice Commander of the Shinsengumi."
Hijikata-san snorted at Isao-kun's dazed words, "That was no dream and besides, how the hell would you have fallen asleep mid conversation?"
"W-What?! T-Then it's t-true?" Isao-kun said as he lost all color in his face once again.
"Don't you dare faint again." Hijikata-san snapped with displeasure. "If you faint again, we're not going to waste our time to wait for you to come back to reality."
"R-Right! S-Sorry!" Isao-kun cried as he leapt to his feet and quickly bowed several times to Hijikata-san, who was still sitting on the bench and drinking his second cup of tea.
"You know, you don't have to be so nervous around Hijikata-san." I said as I stood up to place a comforting hand on his shoulder. "The rumors about the Shinsengumi may have been bad, but they're not all true. Hijikata-san's not going to eat you or anything like that."
"'Not all true'? So that mean some of them were true." Isao-kun said, picking out some keywords in my previous statement.
"Well, yeah… But there are very good explanations behind all the ones that are." I defended. "All those rumors were caused by the behavior of one person and that person is no longer a part of the Shinsengumi." I said while leaving out the fact that it was because said person was dead because he was assassinated by… Well, us.
Isao-kun narrowed his eyes to survey me before he turned to examine Hijikata-san, as if he was trying to judge whether or not he could trust us. The atmosphere grew quiet and tense as the two men stared at each other, neither backing down as they both examined and judged the other's worth. Isao-kun must have seen something he liked or believed he could trust because the tense moment ended when he relaxed his rigid form and nodded respectfully to Hijikata-san. Hijikata-san reciprocated the gesture. It felt as if the men had a silent conversation and had come to a mutual understanding.
"Alright, I'll take your word for it." Isao-kun said with a sigh as he slumped back down into his previous seat. "I can tell Hijikata-san is a good and trustworthy man."
"Likewise." Hijikata-san said with acceptance. "You're a good and honorable man, even if you're a bit of a coward."
"Coward?!" Isao-kun exclaimed, insulted by Hijikata-san's backhanded compliment. "Oh, whatever…"
I really didn't know what to say about the conversation they had. It was pretty interesting that some men could just suddenly seem to understand each other without saying a word.
"While it was nice to see you again, I'm afraid Hijikata-san and I must leave soon. We have an injured companion back at the inn we're staying at and I'm supposed to prepare lunch for him." I said after I finally found my voice again. I had lifted up the basket that contained the pesky fish to emphasize the lunch part as I spoke. The fish had finally grown limp and I wanted to cook it while it was still incredibly fresh. Besides, I'm pretty sure Hijikata-san and I had kept Sannan-san waiting long enough.
"And we still need to capture that mysterious thief before we leave Osaka." Hijikata-san added as he stood up. "We're low on manpower right now so time is crucial."
"Wait!" Isao-kun called out to us as he leapt to his feet just as Hijikata-san and I were preparing to leave. "You're after the thief plaguing Osaka right now?!"
Hijikata-san's face grew serious as he turned around to question Isao-kun. "What? Do you know something about the thief?"
"No, I only really know what the public knows, but if you're low on manpower… Please let me help you in this endeavor." Isao-kun said as he bowed deeply while asking for permission.
"Wha—?" Hijikata-san said, taken back by the sudden force of Isao-kun's words. "Why would you want to help the 'dreaded' Shinsengumi with official business?"
"Because that thief stole from me too and I have to get it back no matter what." Isao-kun said with steely determination.
"'It'?" I questioned. "What's 'it'?"
"A gold-plated ivory comb." Isao-kun answered before his voice grew soft. "My business isn't doing very well right now, so I don't have a lot of money and I need that comb back so I can sell it to get the money I need to marry my Sei-chan…"
Wait, marry? He found a woman that he wanted to marry? With the amount of affection he said the woman's name with, it appeared that this wasn't going to be one of those common arranged marriages. Who would have thought that little boy I often felt like I was babysitting matured this much? Hijikata-san and I looked at each other before we both turned to look back at Isao-kun.
"How committed are you to capturing this thief?" Hijikata-san questioned seriously. "How far are you willing to go?"
"I'm ready to die to get that comb back." Isao-kun said with determination. "I'd rather die if I can't marry Sei-chan."
Hijikata-san's face broke out into a sharp confident grin. "I like your resolve. Very well, come with us back to the inn and we'll pool all our information and resources. Our investigation officially begins after lunch.
I bit back a gag as I cut the snapper open in order to clean out the inside. I've done this hundreds of times, so when I gagged it wasn't because I thought cleaning out a dead fish was gross but because the scent of raw fish seem far stronger than it was normally.
"You okay there? You look a bit sick." the cook, who I found out was named Waka Jiro, asked me as he diced the spring onions for the meals he was preparing.
"I'm fine." I said as I turned my head away from the fish to take a deep breath. "It's just that the scent of fish is a bit strong and it's not agreeing with my stomach."
"Hmph! You're quite the amateur if you can't handle the scent of raw fish!" Waka-san mocked me as he walked over to where I was working just so he could flick my forehead. "The fish is fresh so it doesn't even stink yet."
I bristled at his insult. Seriously, this man!
"I'm not an amateur! It's just I don't get to cook snapper very often so I'm not use to the smell yet!" I adamantly defended myself.
Although, the snapper really just smelled like how raw fish normally smelled. It was that I just couldn't really handle the scent of raw fish well right now even though it was originally something that never really bothered me before. I huffed angrily at Waka-san, who was currently teasing me immaturely by making faces at me, before I turned around to focus on the meal I was preparing. I was going to grill the snapper and use it as filling for rice balls I was going to make for everyone. Sannan-san was unable to use both hands while eating and I didn't want to single him out as the only one who couldn't eat with chopsticks right now since I was sure Sannan-san wouldn't appreciate that and also because he had to eat with everyone this time if he wanted to partake in the meeting. If Sannan-san was going to eat rice balls then I would make rice balls for everyone to avoid making Sannan-san have self-depreciating thoughts about not being able to feed himself.
After Hijikata-san had given permission to Isao-kun to help us with the investigation, we stopped by his shop on the way back to allow him to drop off his rolls of cloth before he came with us to the inn. Isao-kun was currently in a meeting with Hijikata-san, Sannan-san, and Shimada-san to exchange information and to create a plan for capturing the thief. Quickly finishing up cleaning the insides of the fish, I tossed the fish into the pan afterwards. I wanted to finish up cooking as fast as possible so I could hurry up and join in on the meeting.
Just as I was finishing putting all the finished dishes on the tray after I had finished cooking, a loud thumping sound caught my attention. I turned to the source of the noise to see Waka-san chase off a large azure-winged magpie that came in through the kitchens' open window.
"Damn things!" Waka-san growled after he chased off the magpie. "There's been a recent population boon with those birds living in the area. I'd suggest that ya keep ya windows closed if you don't want those damned birds sifting through you're stuff." he explained when he saw me staring at him.
"What do you mean by 'sifting through my stuff'?" I asked curiously as I cocked my head to the side.
"Exactly what it sounds like." the man said gruffly as he returned to the miso clam soup he was cooking. "Those damn things will make off with anything that they can carry that's shiny and ain't tied down. That thing from earlier was after my knife I left on the cutting board."
I nodded absentmindedly as I picked up the food and left the kitchens. It was nice to be informed about the problems the magpies were causing around Osaka. I made a small mental note to myself to not leave anything valuable outside where the magpies could see. It would be a big problem for me if the birds did end up going after my medical equipment.
"Lunch is finished everyone." I called through the door of the room before opening the door and letting myself in. Isao-kun, Hijikata-san, and Shimada-san were all seated in a circle around Sannan-san's futon and were discussing the thefts. Sannan-san was sitting up in his futon with his injured arm in the sling I created for him earlier.
"Ah, thank you very much for the food." Sannan-san said kindly with a smile as I walked over to him to pass him a rice ball. He shot me an appreciative glance as he reached over to take a rice ball from me.
"So what have you gathered on the thefts that have been occurring in Osaka, Shimada?" Hijikata-san asked as he reached over to the plate to grab a rice ball.
"When the thief steals he will always steal valuables not kept on a person, the thefts always occur in broad daylight, and no one has ever even seen the thief." Shimada-san listed off the information he had managed to collect this morning.
"Another piece of information that might help is that the thief will only steal from the floors above ground level if there is some opening to the floors above that connects to the outside." Isao-kun added before taking a bite of the rice ball he grabbed. "If there's a small hole, a loose roof tile, or anything that would allow entrance to the second floor or above then the thief will get in. My ivory comb was stolen through a hole in my roof that was caused by a loose tile shifting."
"I see…" Hijikata-san said as he processed the information. "This thief is talented if he can move through broad daylight without being seen even once. So if all the conditions are met then the thief will appear, right?"
"This will make it easy to set a trap to capture the thief." Sannan-san said after he swallowed a bite. "If the thief has never been seen or caught, he is most likely over confident and will not suspect a trap. We can recreate those same conditions artificially and capture the thief as he walks into our trap."
"Oh!" Isao-kun exclaimed with his mouth full. He swallowed before he continued speaking. "I have an acquaintance that would be willing to help. He runs a small jewelry shop and his shop been hit by the thief more than once. He wants to catch this thief as much as we all do. We can recreate the same conditions for the thief to appear at his shop and use one of my acquaintance's jewelry pieces as bait."
"That's a sound plan." Hijikata-san nodded in agreement before he turned to me. "You should eat some food. You'll need some strength if you're going to join us in capturing the thief later."
Hijikata-san had noticed I wasn't eating anything. Honestly, I had lost my appetite when I was preparing the snapper earlier. Just thinking of the scent of raw snapper was enough to make me queasy right now, so no thank you for actually eating the fish.
"No, I'll be fine." I said with a small smile. "I'm not hungry because of the amount of dango I ate earlier." I lied.
Hijikata-san silently raised his eyebrow at me, but let what I said slide without an argument.
"Shizuka-chan," Sannan-san said with a glint in his eyes, "Okita-kun would be displeased if he found out you were skipping meals. You don't want me to have to make you eat, right?"
… Scary Sannan-san was back. Not wanting to take my chances with whatever Sannan-san had planned for me, I quickly grabbed the last rice ball on the plate and took a bite out of it. There was nothing wrong with the rice ball and I really liked the taste of the snapper filling, but the taste just wasn't really settling well with my stomach right now. Disregarding the queasiness building in my stomach, I forced myself to swallow as I watched Sannan-san smile sadistically at me. I narrowed my eyes unhappily at Sannan-san. This was his revenge for forcing him to eat this morning, wasn't it?
"Ahem." Isao-kun cleared his throat to regain everyone's attention. "So we'll go with this plan and create a trap for the thief?"
"Yes, this is our best bet now." Hijikata-san agreed. "Shimada, go with Tsubaki to speak to his acquaintance to see if we can borrow his shop for this operation. After we get his approval, we'll set up our trap tomorrow."
"Understood." Shimada-san said as he stood up. Isao-kun licked his fingers clean before he stood up too. He gave Hijikata-san a nod before he was escorted out by Shimada-san.
When the two men left the room, Sannan-san reached over and placed the palm of his hand on my forehead.
"There's no temperature." Sannan-san said. "So, tell me why you looked so queasy while you were eating earlier."
Queasy? How could he tell?
"It was written all over your face." Hijikata-san answered the questions going through my head. "You're not sick are you?"
"Not that I'm aware of." I said as I brushed Sannan-san's hand off my forehead. "It's just that snapper wasn't settling well with my stomach. I do feel like being a picky eater right now. You know, like those times I really like nattō[1] for some strange reason while hating it for most of the other times."
Hijikata-san sighed. "Your eating habits are really strange sometimes despite the fact that you're not a picky eater. Anyways, our plan goes into action tomorrow, so why don't you take the rest of today to do some research on the nerve graft?"
"Okay." I agreed. "I'm going to my room then. Call me if you need anything, Sannan-san."
"Alright." Sannan-san said before he laid back down on the futon.
"Okay… Just how much longer do you think we'll have to wait before anything happens?" I asked Hijikata-san from my hiding spot.
After Isao-kun had gotten permission from his acquaintance to use the jewelry shop in the plan, we set up the trap on the second floor of the building. The window was left wide open and the bait was a platinum hairpin with jewels embedded into it. The bait was to lure the thief into the room deep enough so we could jump out of our hiding spots to apprehend the thief when he came in to steal the hairpin. However, there was a problem. When creating our plan, none of us actually took into account how long it might take for the thief to appear. Well, Sannan-san might have, but he probably said nothing so he could laugh at us later. It had been five days since we set up the trap and no one had appeared yet to try to steal the hairpin.
"Who knows?!" Hijikata-san huffed impatiently next to me as he blew a speck of dust away from his face. "Damn thief really knows how to make people wait, doesn't he?!"
"Can I move yet?" Isao-kun whined with tears running down his face from his hiding spot. "My back hurts from being so still."
Isao-kun was stuck with the worst hiding spot out of us all. While Hijikata-san and I were hidden behind a shoji screen divider and Shimada-san was hidden behind a large cabinet, Isao-kun was hiding in the space under the large cabinet. From lying on the hard wooden floor for so long, it was inevitable that he was going to grow stiff.
"No!" Hijikata-san snarled as some hilariously, sharp, pointy teeth magically appeared in his mouth. He was losing his temper from being force to wait this long for a simple thief to appear. "You stay where you are until the thief appears!"
"Shizuka-chan." Isao-kun whined to me pathetically just like a puppy that had been placed in a cardboard box with the sign "take me home please" attached onto it. I offered him an apologetic smile, but didn't really do anything else. Poor Isao-kun, just grit your teeth and hang in there! I'm sure the thief will appear any second now!
But what really happened was that seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours. Just as the sun was starting to set and I was losing hope for the thief appearing at all today, there was a thumping sound from outside. There was someone scaling the wall from outside. Everyone's focus sharpened as they waited for the perpetrator to reveal himself as he hauled himself into the room through the window.
The thief was dressed in a quaint fashion. He wore normal civilian clothing with a bandana tied around his head as he carried a sack that was thrown over his shoulders. He looked exactly like how a child would picture a thief would look like back in the Tokugawa era, which would beg the question: How the hell did this man not get caught yet if he was dressed very obviously like a thief? Just walking outside with that bandana tied around his head and the sack tossed over his shoulder basically screamed, "Hey look at me! I'm a suspicious character and I dress exactly like a thief! Come arrest me!" Without looking around or surveying his surroundings, the thief tiptoed towards the jeweled hairpin in a very cartoonish like manner and just as the thief was reaching out to grab the hairpin, Isao-kun leapt out of his hiding spot with an impressive speed and knocked down the thief before sitting on him.
"Hahaha! I got you now, thief!" Isao-kun boasted loudly as the rest of us emerged from our hiding spots.
Isao-kun got off the thief as Hijikata-san grabbed a hold of the thief by the collar of his clothing and slammed him against a wall nearby.
"You're going to tell me everything, got that?!" Hijikata-san growled darkly at the thief while looking absolutely terrifying. I'm glad that I was never on the receiving end of Hijikata-san's ire.
The thief grew increasingly pale as he stared wide-eyed at Hijikata-san's furious snarl and started to shake quite visibly as he dropped the sack he was carrying. The sack spilled open when it hit the ground and all sorts of valuables spilled onto the floor.
"Y-You'll n-never g-get me to t-talk!" the very terrified thief said as he put on his poorly created brave face.
"Ho? Is that so?" Hijikata-san threatened darkly.
While Hijikata-san was trying to get the thief to speak, I went ahead and pulled out a medical needle I just happened to have with me at the time. Just as the thief was hissing and spitting profanity out at Hijikata-san, I took one of the thief's hands and poked one of his fingertips with the needle. As soon as I did that, the thief let out a loud high-pitched scream.
"KYAAAAAA! OKAY! I'LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING!" the thief screamed before dissolving into a blubbering mess of tears and snot, causing Hijikata-san's eyebrows to disappear into his hairline as he stared at the thief in disbelief.
Interesting… So this man could put on a brave face up until the moment there was the smallest threat of physical pain. When I poked him with the needle earlier it shouldn't have even hurt. There was no blood drawn and the skin wasn't even pierced. It really should have tickled if anything. Just the knowledge that I had a needle in my hand that I could possibly push into his finger under his fingernail was enough to set him off. This man was mentally very weak.
"We're stealing traditional Japanese valuables to trade to the Westerners for guns and cannons!" the man blurted out in a sob. "Then we were going to sell these weapons to the Choshu ronin for some fast money! Please don't hurt me!"
"'We'? Whose 'we'?" Hijikata-san demanded as his voice hardened after hearing the Choshu ronin were involved. "How many people are involved and where is your base of operations?!"
"And where do you keep the items you've stolen?!" Isao-kun added to the demand.
"T-There are only eight people, including me, involved in this operation. O-Our b-base is located in a small warehouse near where all the ferries d-dock. Everything w-we've stolen is still at the warehouse." the thief spilled. "P-Please don't hurt me! I b-bruise easily."
Hijikata-san growled in annoyance at the thief's cowardly attitude and tossed him to Shimada-san. "Tie him up and leave him with the shopkeeper." Hijikata-san instructed. "The local authorities should swing by and pick the thief up while we go target their base of operations."
"Wait! You're not going to request back up from the local authorities?" asked Isao-kun.
"No." replied Hijikata-san. "The Shinsengumi is going to be the one to claim credit for this, not some half-baked authority figures that refused to move until the thief had stolen from one of them!"
It was impossible to argue with Hijikata-san when he was in his "glory and honor" mode. I just shrugged at Isao-kun because it was just easier to roll along with Hijikata-san when he was like this. Besides, I doubted that we would need back up. There were only seven people left and usually an organization would only send a member out into the field if the member was capable of handling himself. If the skill level of the thief we had just capture was the best they had to offer, then we would have nothing to worry about.
"We'll hit their base tonight under the cover of darkness for an element of surprise and if we hit their base tonight, they won't have a chance to prepare for our attack because the news of their comrade being captured wouldn't have made it back to them yet." Hijikata-san said.
"So are we all ready?" Hijikata-san asked all of us.
"D-Do I have to go in there t-too?" Isao-kun said nervously as he raised a shaky hand.
"Ha? Of course you do!" Hijikata-san snorted. "You did say you would help and if you gave your word that you're going to help then you should go all the way!"
"B-But…" Isao-kun said as he played with his fingers before drifting out into a quiet mumble. "I don't know how to fight…"
"W-What?!" Hijikata-san stuttered as he was stunned by Isao-kun's confession. "You don't know how to— Why didn't you tell me that before?!"
"Because I thought we were just going to capture a thief, not perform a raid on a smuggling operation!" Isao-kun sobbed as he turned away from Hijikata-san to rub his eyes dry. "I wanna go home..."
Hijikata-san just stared at a sobbing Isao-kun with a flabbergasted expression while Shimada-san avoided looking at Isao-kun while rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. I sighed and pulled Isao-kun over to where I was standing so I could whisper into his ear.
"Imagine just how IMPRESSED Sei-chan will be when she hears that her WONDERFUL husband-to-be helped take down the FEARSOME smuggling ring that had been PLAGUING the people of Osaka for the past several months." I whispered while emphasizing a few keywords. This ought to do the trick.
Isao-kun slowly turned bright red from a blush that had risen from his toes to the top of his head after I whispered my part into his ear. He instantly became courageous and he blew out what appeared to be steam from his nostrils as he grabbed a nearby wooden pole he could carry and use as a weapon.
"Just wait for me my lovely Sei-chan! I will become a hero that's worthy of your love!" Isao-kun declared loudly to the world before he charged recklessly towards the warehouse.
"Ha?!" Hijikata-san exclaimed as he stared at Isao-kun charging towards the warehouse by himself after leaving us in his dust. "Just what the hell did you say to him?"
"I wonder…" I said cheerfully as I grabbed my naginata and shuffled after Isao-kun. Hijikata-san facepalmed before he drew his katana and followed after me with Shimada-san.
Isao-kun, in his reckless charge, reached the doors of the warehouse before the rest of us. He kicked down the doors with strength he didn't possess before and ran inside while waving the wooden pole wildly over his head.
"Surrender now you vile thieves before I, the great and mighty Isao-sama, is forced to take action!" Isao-kun declared while he was still red-faced with confidence and waving his makeshift weapon around like a madman.
"What!?" one of the men inside cried in surprise.
"Hey! Look, it's only one man with a wooden stick! We can take him!" said another man.
Just as the men who were a part of the smuggling ring stood up to prepare themselves to deal with their intruder, Hijikata-san strolled into the warehouse with confidence with the rest of us behind him with real weapons, with cutting edges, drawn.
"I am Hijikata Toshizo, Vice Commander of the Shinsengumi and all of you are under arrest! All those who resist will be killed!" Hijikata-san yelled with unshakable authority.
"T-The Shinsengumi!" one of the smugglers cried in panic before giving the order, "Run!"
However, that order wasn't very effective. In fact, it was absolutely useless and counterproductive. After the men received the order to run, they all proceeded to run around the warehouse like headless chickens. We didn't have to do anything to apprehend the smugglers. Two of the smugglers ran into each other and knocked each other out; one tripped and fell down the stairs, knocking himself out; one tripped over a box of stolen goods and hit his head hard enough to pass out; one ran into one of the warehouse's support beams and passed out as well; and the last two smugglers tried to run out the back door only to crash into each other and knock each other out.
Hijikata-san just stood frozen in place as he stared on in disbelief at the smugglers' incompetence while Isao-kun continued to stand in place while waving the wooden pole around wildly and yelling, "Feel my wrath you vile evil-doers for the righteous shall not fall!"
When Hijikata-san finally shook off his disbelief, he facepalmed again. "I don't even know if I should be happy this raid ended well or cry at how pathetic all these smugglers were." Hijikata-san muttered under his breath.
"Well, at least this was an easy victory." I pointed out while Shimada-san agreed with me.
"P-Power surging uncontrollably!" Isao-kun declared as he continued to wave the wooden pole in the background. "Behold the scope of my newly awakened powers—" he managed to say before he accidentally hit his own head and knocked himself out as well. Hijikata-san did another facepalm. He was now sporting a nice bright red spot on his forehead from the number of times he smacked himself.
"I guess these guys weren't the thieves we were originally after." I said to Hijikata-san as we sifted through the stolen goods in the warehouse the following morning.
After all the smugglers were hauled away by the local authorities, we had been given the order to search through all the stolen goods to find the government official's family heirloom. The smuggling operation that those men formed was actually rather new, so they didn't have the chance to actually trade anything for Western weapons yet. The fact that the family heirloom and Isao-kun's missing comb was not in the stolen stash was proof that we got the wrong thieves.
"I need to get some fresh air." I sighed tiredly. I was exhausted. "I'm going to the second floor to get some fresh air. It's too stuffy in here."
Hijikata-san nodded absentmindedly as he continued to sort through the stolen goods. I put down the box I was sorting through next to Hijikata-san before I made my way to the second floor, where there were some windows open to let in fresh air. I took a seat next to the open window and stared blankly at the jade necklace on the small table directly across from me as I relaxed my stiff shoulders. However, I was snapped out of my little trance when a magpie flew into the room through the window and landed on the table. The bird stared at the jade necklace and picked at the necklace before grabbing the necklace with its beak and flying out the window with it. The magpie landed on a branch in a tree nearby and dropped the necklace into the hollow of that tree before flying off again. Wait…
"Those damn things will make off with anything that they can carry that's shiny and ain't tied down. That thing from earlier was after my knife I left on the cutting board."
"Another piece of information that might help is that the thief will only steal from the floors above ground level if there is some opening to the floors above that connects to the outside."
Don't tell me that the thief we were after all this time was a magpie…
"Hijikata-san!" I yelled so that he could hear me downstairs. "I think I know who the thief is!"
"What?!" Hijikata-san exclaimed as he scrambled up the stairs to get to the room I was in.
"I need you to climb that tree." I said while pointing to the tree with the hollow.
"Who would have thought that the thief was an azure-winged magpie?" Sannan-san said with an amused laugh as he drank his miso soup during dinner.
That magpie I observed was indeed the one responsible for all the thefts in Osaka in the past few months. When Hijikata-san climbed the tree and reached into the hollow, the first item he pulled out was the comb that Isao-kun had stolen from him. Isao-kun was so happy when the comb was returned to him that he nearly kissed Hijikata-san. That course of action ended poorly as Isao-kun was punched across the face by Hijikata-san. Isao-kun had certainly grown eccentric in the past couple of years we've been apart.
When the missing heirloom was returned to the government official, Hijikata-san received a small payment of 3 ryō for his efforts. But other than the money, there was no other real reward for solving this case. Hijikata-san sighed when he received the money and passed it off to me to put into the Shinsengumi funds. Now that all of our business was complete in Osaka, we would all be returning to Kyoto tomorrow morning.
"That's nothing to laugh about!" Hijikata-san protested. "You have no idea what I had to go through!"
"At least everything ended well." Shimada-san said good-naturedly as he took a bite of his dinner.
"It could have ended worse in so many other ways, so you should be thankful that it ended the way it did." I agreed cheerfully before I took my first sip of my miso soup.
As soon as I took a sip of the soup, I gagged. This time it was the taste of miso that upset my stomach, not the fish. I quickly put a hand over my mouth and ran to the open window and threw up out the window. Thankfully there was no one directly below on the streets. It would have been fairly nasty to have vomit fall on someone's head.
"Shizuka!" Hijikata-san exclaimed with worry as he ran over to my side and placed a hand on my back. "Tsk! So you are sick!"
"It's strange. I don't feel sick. I only threw up because the taste of miso was upsetting my stomach…" I said before drifting off.
Wait… Now that I think about it, my period was late, very late. I didn't realize my period was late until now because I was so busy helping Hijikata-san with the theft case. Not only was my period late but I was now becoming more fatigued easily. I was also more sensitive to certain scents on some days and my sense of taste was off. These were all classic signs of pregnancy. I honestly thought that my next pregnancy would be like the one I miscarried on, but I was clearly very wrong about that.
"Why didn't you tell me you were sick?" Hijikata-san scolded me as he gently pulled me away from the window.
"Because I'm not sick. I'm pregnant." I said in quiet realization as I gently placed a hand over my lower abdomen.
Hijikata-san paled. "Pregnant? You mean I dragged a pregnant woman around to help search for a thief? Kondou-san and Souji are going to kill me!" he cried as he placed both of his hands on his head in his panic. Poor Hijikata-san and his high stress level.
[1] Nattō (なっとう or 納豆) is a traditional Japanese food made from soybeans fermented with Bacillus subtilis var. natto. Some eat it as a breakfast food. Nattō may be an acquired taste because of its powerful smell, strong flavor, and slimy texture. In Japan nattō is most popular in the eastern regions, including Kantō, Tōhoku, and Hokkaido.
