I don't know if anyone else noticed this but the sword name of Seta Soujiro's katana is actually the same as Okita's, which made me wonder… How did Shishio-san end up with Okita-san's sword so that he could give it to Seta-san? Well, this is my explanation to that story.

Also the characters of R.K. are not mine.

Kikuichi Norimune
Okita couldn't believe that it was all over.

For years he served the shogunate, he had used every glimmer of strength left inside of himself to make the world stay whole… to stay sane… but now there was a new regime. He could only hope that the world would somehow stay whole.

His knees gave out from beneath him as he coughed violently into his handkerchief. His coughing had been getting steadily worsening, and he knew that he didn't have much more time left in the world.

It was just so ironic. No one was able to do more than to scratch him with a sword and here he was escaping from the hospital with a body withering away from consumption. His all too familiar smile flickered across his face. It was truly an irony among ironies.

He forced himself to walk down the street. His katana, Kikuichi Norimune, was held tightly to his chest. It was an important part of himself, but he didn't want the blade to suffer the same fate, as he was about to have. It was a sword truly worthy of life, a blade capable of teaching it's owner so many things about swordsmanship that couldn't be revealed through any other means… but now… with the Meiji era beginning how was he to find a worthy successor for his blade? It couldn't be just anyone it had to be one who would carry it and make it be there other half… there soul… there had to be someone. He couldn't let the sword fall into… unworthy… hands.

His body was torn with another rack of coughing; it felt like he was shredding his lungs. The blood just kept coming; he knew that there was nothing he could do to stop it. He just had one thing though to do before he could die.

It felt like the world around him was spinning still he tried to walk. Every few feet he would stumble and try to pick himself off of the dirt path.

In the blurriness, a single form caught his attention. It was a person in the alleyway he was covered in bandages and looked every bit as bad off as he was. Okita didn't want to look at him. He didn't want to see the same ugliness that he knew plagued his lungs, yet he forced himself to look at him… to see the man in the bandages sitting there, with his sword at his side.

"Go away."

Okita didn't mind he merely smiled at the man. He felt just so dizzy he knew that he was about to collapse.

"I'm dying anyway, so if you really want to you can kill me in a minute. You're ki… you're a very skilled swordsman. It's too bad it would have been fun to have fought you when I was well… still better late then never."

"Do you want to die boy?"

"Not really, that's why I have a favor to ask."

"I don't do favors."

Okita extended his sword to the man. He barely managed to keep his arms outstretched. It wasn't so much the weight of the sword, but what it entailed that weighed so much.

"You won't take this?"

Shishio merely arched an eyebrow at the man. This wasn't done. You didn't just hand over you're soul to a total stranger. He didn't know what kind of a man he was. His burns meant that he couldn't ever really fight again. That sword was almost useless to him… still the feeling that he was getting… who was this swordsman? His ki was so incredibly strong even in his weakened state.

"Please…" Okita collapsed onto the ground, his coughing fit the worse he had ever had he was seeing little flickers of light dance across his vision, he knew he was about to die, and this was his only chance… "Give this to a worthy… pupil…"

Shishio just watched as the man across from him slumped to the ground his coughing fit had ended and he could hear the faint wheezing sound that was his breathing.

"My sword… a pupil… Kikuichi Norimune… please…"

Shishio wasn't really even sure what he was doing but the presence from the man was something he hadn't felt in a long time… an honest desire to share his floundering strength… he could tell at a glance that the blade was of top quality, and rivaled that of his own. It was a sword to truly be proud to own.

Strength was the only thing that Shishio understood. The strong lived and the weak died. The man lying on the ground in front of him was strong in will… it was amazing that he had found the strength to go out onto the street on his own. He could appreciate that kind of strength.

"If I run across someone that needs it I'll give it too him. What is you're name?"

"Okita…"

Shishio's eyes widened in surprise… this was Okita? The Okita, of the Shinsengumi?

There had been a rumor that three members had survived the fall, and Okita was said to have been one of them, and now he was this. A warrior who was feared as much as Battosai the manslayer was to die in a backwards ally giving his sword away to a total stranger…

No that wasn't a fitting end.

His blade would see blood a plenty. It was such a strong warriors soul, a soul that would now serve him and his purposes. He'd see to it that it found a worthy student… one worthy of the strength of the strongest of the Shinsengumi, one that was willing to help him realize his dreams.

It was a strange quarter to get aid from but he could appreciate it. They were no longer enemies after all. The Shinsengumi fought to protect the Shogunate, and Shishio wanted nothing more than he wanted the fall of the Meiji era.

They would work together. Indeed it would be interesting to see how strong 1st Captain Okita Kaneyoshi truly was.