FIRST! I don't own Rurouni Kenshin nor Saitou Hajime (although I wish)...
RK is owned by Nobuhiro Watsuki.
It's time for me to write again! Yey! This time, it'll be a fic about Saitou's life before Kyoto and the Shinsengumi. This will be a romanticised tale of what he was before joining the Shinsengumi and why he left Tokyo (Edo). There will be times when Saitou will be OOC, I intend to keep most of his personality just twisting it now and then. But the OOC will be very apparent when it comes to his fighting abilities, I don't think Saitou became a great swordsman overnight. Agree? :O)
About Midori... Well I just thought of her. I like the name Midori since my code name since childhood is Green2 (from Bioman). What's interesting is I got interested if the real Saitou Hajime had a woman before Tokio, since I was writing this fic. On one of my searches (about chapter 2 in this fic) I found out that there was a rumor that he did. It's located in www.3- hajime.com but you'll have to babelfish it because it's all in Japanese. I then posted this in the miburo group in yahoo and several people who were very knowledgeable in Japanese and the Shinsengumi found out more. Suffice it to say that there is a good probability that there was another woman and this woman whose name is Yaso, he probably married her too. Cool isn't it? I suggest to anyone interested in Saitou and the Shinsengumi to join the two groups; miburo and SHQ (the new mailing list).
Oh by the way as most of the readers know.. In this fic both Saitou's parents are already dead. In case you wanted to know what their names are. It's Yusuke Yamaguchi and Masu Yamaguchi.
Okay here comes some of the Shinsengumi members.. Note this is not the Shinsengumi, I think the Shinsengumi was formed after this group led by Kondou-san left Tama for Kyoto.
*denotes sound/music/etc
*Thoughts are in italics (having trouble with my wordprocessor, so in the event thoughts doesn't come up in italics they will be denoted by ~)
CHAPTER XXII - At the Shieitan I
Saitou woke up covered in sweat. He had felt a bit of a fever come over him during the course of the night, but he didn't dare get up as he knew Midori was wide awake staring at him.
~Baka... Can't you do anything else than watch over me?
He did get in an hour of sleep at most and when he woke up he stole a glance at the two still sleeping soundly. He gently got up and left the room. It was just too hot in that room and he thought that the morning air might cool him down a bit. As he walked outside the small garden smoking, he noticed that there was light coming from the dojo. Curious as to who might be practicing so early in the morning he threw his cigarette and investigated.
He slid the door quietly expecting a number of men practicing but only one man was at the far corner of the room.
*SWISH* *SWOOSH*
~Hmm... Good form... Straight back, stable stance, quick strong swing. Well done.
*SWOOP* *SWISH*
~What the? Now that's stupid. Why thrust directly like that and than swing to the side? Sheesh... That's a wasteful move. Surely a front thrust of the sword can easily be parried and evaded. Just swing diagonally from side to side. That's much better Ahou...
~Ahou...
Suddenly an image of Tatsuo entered his mind. How many times did his older brother call him that? He smirked, lately he became very fond of the word.
His attention went back to the tall man. It was a little dark, he could barely make out the face. No doubt though, the long hair tied neatly at the back, relatively tall and well built. He'd seen him before, Kondou's right hand man Hijikata. Saitou continued to watch Hijikata, once in a while shaking his head as he kept seeing the forward thrust coupled with the sideward swing. Really wasteful.
He turned to leave, a bit disappointed.
"Leaving so soon?" Hijikata was staring at Saitou's back.
"Hai. There's nothing to see here."
"Sou ka. Quitting again?"
"So what?" He turned to Hijikata. "I saw enough."
Hijikata's brow shot up. Cocky bastard... He held his tongue though.
"Are you sure? Want to try it out?" He smirked back at Saitou. "If I remember correctly, you were a bit desperate to join this dojo."
"I'm not that concerned now. I've found out what's important."
"Really? May I ask what that is?"
"It's none of your business." Saitou turned again to leave.
"How long do you think you can keep things the way they are? Associations might not be important to you now, but it helps to be affiliated and have connections. Surely one man can't do everything."
Saitou turned his head slightly to Hijikata's direction. "What are you trying to say?"
~Saitou. Saitou... I've got you.
"Nande mo nai (It's nothing). I just heard you were in trouble back in Edo, possibly because of the girl?"
"Where'd you HEAR that?" Saitou's voice pitched as he got more annoyed.
"Connections are always a good thing Saitou-KUN." He smiled devilishly at Hajime.
"I saw enough. What you did earlier will not satisfy me." Saitou sneered.
Hijikata couldn't help himself and blurted out a laugh. "Care to back that up? Meet me here around 3PM, if you win I'll give back your katana. If you lose you'll have to join this dojo and abide by it's rules for insulting our fighting style." He ended it in a serious note.
"Ahou. I'll be there." Hajime left not knowing whether he was feeling tipsy from all the nonsense Hijikata poured out that day or whether it was just plain dry and hot that morning.
~Pick your fight Saitou...
Hijikata left feeling quite accomplished that morning.
---------------------------------------------------------
"Oh that smells good Onee-san!" Okita exclaimed as he entered the kitchen.
"It's my specialty for today."
"Hontoni? What is it?" Okita asked as he tried to peek at their lunch that day.
"It's good old soba."
"What? Plain soba?"
"Hai Hai! Hajime loves this Okita-kun..." Midori blushed...
Okita sweatdropped. He wasn't particularly fond of soba, in any variety, especially if it was PLAIN.
"Hai..." Okita's voice trailed to quiet whisper.
"OKITA! Heads up!" Midori shouted as she threw something towards the young lad.
The young man caught all three pieces easily. He smiled happily as he pocketed the meat bun and a couple of grass cake that his adopted sister made for him.
"Make sure you don't tell those two." She smiled at him.
"I sure won't! Thanks Onee-san!" He left, careful to take the backward entrance lest Shinpachi and Sagara should appear out of nowhere and ask for their share.
~Hahaha! Everyone else will have plain soba for today, but not me... Hahaha!
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Where's Okita?"
"Oh he's probably off playing with the kids down the street."
"How's the soba Hajime?"
"Good."
"Just good?"
Saitou sighed. He wasn't feeling top notch and Midori was up to her old antics again.
"Don't turn this into the sashimi event... You know I'm a bit picky when it comes to soba. So when I say it's good, it really IS good."
"Hai. Hai." Midori smiled at him. "Geez you're a bit edgy today. I'll leave you for now and look for Souzi, he probably has something good to say about the meat buns..."
Saitou sighed deeper. "Sit down PLEASE. Why are you always with Okita? What is your business being familiar with him?"
"Familiar?" Midori cocked her head slightly.
"Hai. You just called him Souzi. By his FIRST name. If I remember, it took weeks before you called me "Hajime"". Saitou failed again in sounding annoyed, he sounded desperate in his mind.
Midori broke out in a laugh. "Saitou-KUN! Let me see... Last night you were annoyed at Souzi and today you still are... Why Saitou-KUN! You must be JEALOUS..."
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and nuzzled her nose at the back of his neck. She waited for him to take her arms and remove it but he didn't. Her smile grew wider as Saitou cleared his throat.
"I'm just curious as to why you are close to him. It's only been a matter of three days." He said seriously.
"Well Jealous-sama..." she said teasingly.
"Stop that." he grunted
"Hai Hai!" Midori was smiling so much that you couldn't see her brown eyes anymore... All there was, were slits where the eyes should have been. They were even narrower than Hajimes in a kawaii (cute) way.
"Be nice to him Hajime. He saved my life." she whispered softly in his ear.
Hajime stiffened. He stopped eating and stood up from the low table.
"I was searching. I didn't make it on time. Suma... (sorry)" He looked at the floor, ashamed.
"Kami-sama. Get over that quickly!" She again embraced him from the back encircling her hands on his waist. "You couldn't have possibly known what would have happened AND you can't be in two places at the same time. It was my fault, I just left without thinking."
Silence.
"Souzi was there. I lost consciousness but I heard he got rid of them. He took me back here and he and Hijikata-san cared for me. That's why as you can see I've been staying here and doing the chores, it's not much but that's all I could do."
"Sou ka."
"I've come to like it here. They're almost like civilian police here in Tama. You know I never was an advocate of keeping the peace by force, but I've come to understand, at least a little. It's not like they enjoy everything they do, especially when I looked at Souzi that time he told me what had happened that night."
She sighed.
"I know you wanted to join here. At first I was hesistant, but I've come to the resolution that I'll support you. It is after all a noble cause."
Hajime removed her hand from his waist and turned to face her.
"I've got to go, I'll be back soon."
"Okay. I'll be waiting."
Hajime was almost out of Okita's quarters when he stopped for a moment and turned back towards her.
"By the way. About Okita..." He didn't finish, she understood.
"Arigatou... Anata..." She smiled. How many times did she do that today? She felt so good to be with him.
TO REVIEWERS:
Ooka-chan - I can't make HUGE make-out sessions... Oh man that'll be boring!!! HAHAHA (joke only)... More mushiness and romantic stuff again in this chapter.... Well I took your suggestion about the Hirazuki, I think I'll use it big time next chapter. I know it's getting OOC, I've given myself a bit of leverage when it came to that because as I've said this is the "younger" version of Saitou-sama we are talking about. Do you like him the way he is right now or am I going overboard? OMG got to move this story along... Saitou's not even joined the Shieitan yet! Well now I've got internet back up.. But it's still only dial-up so.. it still sucks. :P
MissBehavin - Hmm.. I'm still deciding on where to go with the cold... :O) You know I never did find out why Saitou and Okita was close, so I hope you don't mind that I make my own version of it. I thought of taking the jealous thing out of proportion, but decided against it since it really wouldn't be relevant and Okita is younger than Midori in this fic. Oh take note I'm not being accurate with dates/age. Instead though I wanted to show a love hate relationship between Saitou and Hijikata.. Right now though it's mostly hate... HAHAHA! Also as I've asked Ooka-chan, am I going overboard with the OOC'ness? I've warned about OOC'ness before since I'm making a younger version of Saitou-sama, but let me know if the OOC'ness is now to distasteful so I can do something about it.
I finally got to watch PMK... OMG, did you watch ep 18 and 19 yet... I think so far those two episodes are the most moving eps in the series. I wish though that they'd make Saitou into a deeper character but I doubt that.
It's time for me to write again! Yey! This time, it'll be a fic about Saitou's life before Kyoto and the Shinsengumi. This will be a romanticised tale of what he was before joining the Shinsengumi and why he left Tokyo (Edo). There will be times when Saitou will be OOC, I intend to keep most of his personality just twisting it now and then. But the OOC will be very apparent when it comes to his fighting abilities, I don't think Saitou became a great swordsman overnight. Agree? :O)
About Midori... Well I just thought of her. I like the name Midori since my code name since childhood is Green2 (from Bioman). What's interesting is I got interested if the real Saitou Hajime had a woman before Tokio, since I was writing this fic. On one of my searches (about chapter 2 in this fic) I found out that there was a rumor that he did. It's located in www.3- hajime.com but you'll have to babelfish it because it's all in Japanese. I then posted this in the miburo group in yahoo and several people who were very knowledgeable in Japanese and the Shinsengumi found out more. Suffice it to say that there is a good probability that there was another woman and this woman whose name is Yaso, he probably married her too. Cool isn't it? I suggest to anyone interested in Saitou and the Shinsengumi to join the two groups; miburo and SHQ (the new mailing list).
Oh by the way as most of the readers know.. In this fic both Saitou's parents are already dead. In case you wanted to know what their names are. It's Yusuke Yamaguchi and Masu Yamaguchi.
Okay here comes some of the Shinsengumi members.. Note this is not the Shinsengumi, I think the Shinsengumi was formed after this group led by Kondou-san left Tama for Kyoto.
*denotes sound/music/etc
*Thoughts are in italics (having trouble with my wordprocessor, so in the event thoughts doesn't come up in italics they will be denoted by ~)
CHAPTER XXII - At the Shieitan I
Saitou woke up covered in sweat. He had felt a bit of a fever come over him during the course of the night, but he didn't dare get up as he knew Midori was wide awake staring at him.
~Baka... Can't you do anything else than watch over me?
He did get in an hour of sleep at most and when he woke up he stole a glance at the two still sleeping soundly. He gently got up and left the room. It was just too hot in that room and he thought that the morning air might cool him down a bit. As he walked outside the small garden smoking, he noticed that there was light coming from the dojo. Curious as to who might be practicing so early in the morning he threw his cigarette and investigated.
He slid the door quietly expecting a number of men practicing but only one man was at the far corner of the room.
*SWISH* *SWOOSH*
~Hmm... Good form... Straight back, stable stance, quick strong swing. Well done.
*SWOOP* *SWISH*
~What the? Now that's stupid. Why thrust directly like that and than swing to the side? Sheesh... That's a wasteful move. Surely a front thrust of the sword can easily be parried and evaded. Just swing diagonally from side to side. That's much better Ahou...
~Ahou...
Suddenly an image of Tatsuo entered his mind. How many times did his older brother call him that? He smirked, lately he became very fond of the word.
His attention went back to the tall man. It was a little dark, he could barely make out the face. No doubt though, the long hair tied neatly at the back, relatively tall and well built. He'd seen him before, Kondou's right hand man Hijikata. Saitou continued to watch Hijikata, once in a while shaking his head as he kept seeing the forward thrust coupled with the sideward swing. Really wasteful.
He turned to leave, a bit disappointed.
"Leaving so soon?" Hijikata was staring at Saitou's back.
"Hai. There's nothing to see here."
"Sou ka. Quitting again?"
"So what?" He turned to Hijikata. "I saw enough."
Hijikata's brow shot up. Cocky bastard... He held his tongue though.
"Are you sure? Want to try it out?" He smirked back at Saitou. "If I remember correctly, you were a bit desperate to join this dojo."
"I'm not that concerned now. I've found out what's important."
"Really? May I ask what that is?"
"It's none of your business." Saitou turned again to leave.
"How long do you think you can keep things the way they are? Associations might not be important to you now, but it helps to be affiliated and have connections. Surely one man can't do everything."
Saitou turned his head slightly to Hijikata's direction. "What are you trying to say?"
~Saitou. Saitou... I've got you.
"Nande mo nai (It's nothing). I just heard you were in trouble back in Edo, possibly because of the girl?"
"Where'd you HEAR that?" Saitou's voice pitched as he got more annoyed.
"Connections are always a good thing Saitou-KUN." He smiled devilishly at Hajime.
"I saw enough. What you did earlier will not satisfy me." Saitou sneered.
Hijikata couldn't help himself and blurted out a laugh. "Care to back that up? Meet me here around 3PM, if you win I'll give back your katana. If you lose you'll have to join this dojo and abide by it's rules for insulting our fighting style." He ended it in a serious note.
"Ahou. I'll be there." Hajime left not knowing whether he was feeling tipsy from all the nonsense Hijikata poured out that day or whether it was just plain dry and hot that morning.
~Pick your fight Saitou...
Hijikata left feeling quite accomplished that morning.
---------------------------------------------------------
"Oh that smells good Onee-san!" Okita exclaimed as he entered the kitchen.
"It's my specialty for today."
"Hontoni? What is it?" Okita asked as he tried to peek at their lunch that day.
"It's good old soba."
"What? Plain soba?"
"Hai Hai! Hajime loves this Okita-kun..." Midori blushed...
Okita sweatdropped. He wasn't particularly fond of soba, in any variety, especially if it was PLAIN.
"Hai..." Okita's voice trailed to quiet whisper.
"OKITA! Heads up!" Midori shouted as she threw something towards the young lad.
The young man caught all three pieces easily. He smiled happily as he pocketed the meat bun and a couple of grass cake that his adopted sister made for him.
"Make sure you don't tell those two." She smiled at him.
"I sure won't! Thanks Onee-san!" He left, careful to take the backward entrance lest Shinpachi and Sagara should appear out of nowhere and ask for their share.
~Hahaha! Everyone else will have plain soba for today, but not me... Hahaha!
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Where's Okita?"
"Oh he's probably off playing with the kids down the street."
"How's the soba Hajime?"
"Good."
"Just good?"
Saitou sighed. He wasn't feeling top notch and Midori was up to her old antics again.
"Don't turn this into the sashimi event... You know I'm a bit picky when it comes to soba. So when I say it's good, it really IS good."
"Hai. Hai." Midori smiled at him. "Geez you're a bit edgy today. I'll leave you for now and look for Souzi, he probably has something good to say about the meat buns..."
Saitou sighed deeper. "Sit down PLEASE. Why are you always with Okita? What is your business being familiar with him?"
"Familiar?" Midori cocked her head slightly.
"Hai. You just called him Souzi. By his FIRST name. If I remember, it took weeks before you called me "Hajime"". Saitou failed again in sounding annoyed, he sounded desperate in his mind.
Midori broke out in a laugh. "Saitou-KUN! Let me see... Last night you were annoyed at Souzi and today you still are... Why Saitou-KUN! You must be JEALOUS..."
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and nuzzled her nose at the back of his neck. She waited for him to take her arms and remove it but he didn't. Her smile grew wider as Saitou cleared his throat.
"I'm just curious as to why you are close to him. It's only been a matter of three days." He said seriously.
"Well Jealous-sama..." she said teasingly.
"Stop that." he grunted
"Hai Hai!" Midori was smiling so much that you couldn't see her brown eyes anymore... All there was, were slits where the eyes should have been. They were even narrower than Hajimes in a kawaii (cute) way.
"Be nice to him Hajime. He saved my life." she whispered softly in his ear.
Hajime stiffened. He stopped eating and stood up from the low table.
"I was searching. I didn't make it on time. Suma... (sorry)" He looked at the floor, ashamed.
"Kami-sama. Get over that quickly!" She again embraced him from the back encircling her hands on his waist. "You couldn't have possibly known what would have happened AND you can't be in two places at the same time. It was my fault, I just left without thinking."
Silence.
"Souzi was there. I lost consciousness but I heard he got rid of them. He took me back here and he and Hijikata-san cared for me. That's why as you can see I've been staying here and doing the chores, it's not much but that's all I could do."
"Sou ka."
"I've come to like it here. They're almost like civilian police here in Tama. You know I never was an advocate of keeping the peace by force, but I've come to understand, at least a little. It's not like they enjoy everything they do, especially when I looked at Souzi that time he told me what had happened that night."
She sighed.
"I know you wanted to join here. At first I was hesistant, but I've come to the resolution that I'll support you. It is after all a noble cause."
Hajime removed her hand from his waist and turned to face her.
"I've got to go, I'll be back soon."
"Okay. I'll be waiting."
Hajime was almost out of Okita's quarters when he stopped for a moment and turned back towards her.
"By the way. About Okita..." He didn't finish, she understood.
"Arigatou... Anata..." She smiled. How many times did she do that today? She felt so good to be with him.
TO REVIEWERS:
Ooka-chan - I can't make HUGE make-out sessions... Oh man that'll be boring!!! HAHAHA (joke only)... More mushiness and romantic stuff again in this chapter.... Well I took your suggestion about the Hirazuki, I think I'll use it big time next chapter. I know it's getting OOC, I've given myself a bit of leverage when it came to that because as I've said this is the "younger" version of Saitou-sama we are talking about. Do you like him the way he is right now or am I going overboard? OMG got to move this story along... Saitou's not even joined the Shieitan yet! Well now I've got internet back up.. But it's still only dial-up so.. it still sucks. :P
MissBehavin - Hmm.. I'm still deciding on where to go with the cold... :O) You know I never did find out why Saitou and Okita was close, so I hope you don't mind that I make my own version of it. I thought of taking the jealous thing out of proportion, but decided against it since it really wouldn't be relevant and Okita is younger than Midori in this fic. Oh take note I'm not being accurate with dates/age. Instead though I wanted to show a love hate relationship between Saitou and Hijikata.. Right now though it's mostly hate... HAHAHA! Also as I've asked Ooka-chan, am I going overboard with the OOC'ness? I've warned about OOC'ness before since I'm making a younger version of Saitou-sama, but let me know if the OOC'ness is now to distasteful so I can do something about it.
I finally got to watch PMK... OMG, did you watch ep 18 and 19 yet... I think so far those two episodes are the most moving eps in the series. I wish though that they'd make Saitou into a deeper character but I doubt that.