Author's Note

Seppuku: ritualistic suicide. The more vulgar of the 2 terms for it. For guys they slit there bellies open and girls slit their throats. It's VERY ritualistic, requiring 3 seconds (other people) when dealing with it as punishment and for woman it was one of the few ways they could show protest against how they are treated. Also the Shinsengumi had a very gruesome rule. You break one of the rules you get punished and (especially when Serizawa was around) punishment was this. I'll probably list the Shinsengumi codes in here eventually.


Chapter 7: A Blood Red Flower


A girl like that had no place in a den of wolves. Perhaps now that she knew the truth of her master the girl would finally go home. Women definitely were nothing but trouble.

He watched as she ran down the alley behind the building. He hoped she would go home. He had no desire to spill a young girl's blood, nor did he want to see her spill her own blood. She had already violated the first rule of the Shinsengumi, to obey the code of the Samurai.

She had lied. Plain and simple. Her identity was false, and that was punishable by seppuku.

Perhaps no one would learn the truth of the girl's identity but the moment it was revealed her life would end. Yes her disappearance would be for the best... whatever her intentions may be.

He walked back out into the main room and headed towards the table where Kondon Isami sat at the table drinking sake and flirting with the Geisha's that waited on him. Tonight was an important night, he could only hope things would go smoothly and well. He nodded at Yamazaki to come and join them, before bidding the girls to leave them in peace for a while. The three of them had plans to discuss and they still had the information that Shimada had dug up for them on Serizawa to go over.


Tokio scuffed at the road with her foot. How did things manage to get like this anyway? Last night had proven that she was a failure as a swordswoman, Saitoh learned her only secret, and her master was a mad man.

Tsuguji Kimura...

How had his poem gone... she knew she had heard it somewhere but... it was something like...

"Coming, in this world, ahead of the beautiful flowers in the snow and mist,

And still giving off its scent after the scattering of the petals; such plum is the perfume."

"Well, well. That's a poem I haven't heard in quite a while!"

Tokio's eyes went wide in fright. She hadn't meant to be heard. She hadn't meant...

"A beautiful night isn't it?"

She knew that voice but... who?

A tall man stepped free from the shadows only for a moment before slipping back into the darkness it was long enough for Tokio to get a glimpse of his face. It was a man she had seen only once or twice before, and it had always been fleeting.

"Shimada-san, it is! The stars are just beautiful."

"Yes, indeed, and so is the red blossom blooming over there but it's best to be avoided."

"Red blossom?" Tokio peeked out over the horizon and could barely see the glowing light coming from not to far away.

"You should head back. It's not safe here." Shimada whispered his voice held low so that no one could hear him speak. He knew who was at fault; after all he was a watcher for the Shinsengumi. It was best not to involve the young whelp in tonight's hunting.

"I am NOT going HOME!" Tokio couldn't keep the anger out of her voice. Everything that she had wanted to shout at Saitoh, all the anger she felt it spilled over into her words and they rang so sharply into the night that somebody heard. Somebody who was not supposed to know heard.

Tokio could hear the footsteps beating on the road.

"We've got to get out of here!" Shimada hissed angrily at Okita. He'd been trying to help but Okita didn't have to go and blow his cover! He grabbed Okita's wrist and tried to drag him into the shadows. Tokio pulled her arm free from his grasp and stood to face the opening of the alleyway, her saya and sheathed blade in her hand and her other ready to pull the blade free at anytime.

"Hide yourself. GO!"

Shimada climbed to the top of the building and did his best to hide in the shadows. That little fool! He swore under his breath.

He was going to die.

Okita didn't know whom he was about to face but he knew. He knew about the men who were setting fires in Kyoto, and he knew about the hotokiri that went with them. He knew how merciless of a murderer he was.

So far there wasn't a target that he had been sent after that had survived the fight.

Tokio simply stood there at the ready. She knew that if she was seen she would instantly be recognized for her patrols on the streets of Kyoto. She could feel her hands shake she hated this part. It was almost like a part of her was dying every time she picked up the sword and took another life. It was as though Tokio was slowly withering away and leaving only the shell called Okita in its place.

She knew that her work was robbing her of her humanity but she also knew this was the path that she had chosen and she could never walk away from it. This was her choice. Life or death... it didn't matter she just had to be here.

Slowly the lighting became stronger as the flames licking the nearby housetop became even stronger, and she could hear the footfalls stop right outside of the entrance to her alleyway. She focused as best as she could in the poor lighting, and saw a slender man standing there. The light was so poor she couldn't see his face clearly at all, but his motions were clear, and so was his voice.

"If you don't wish to die. Drop you're sword and go home."

Tokio was more than simply surprised by the fact that she hadn't been attacked on sight. Had he not noticed her clothing? They were enemies! They shouldn't be talking they should be fighting.

'A woman has no right to be on the battlefield. Especially if you only mean to hold us back as you did last night.'

Saitoh's words echoed in her mind, making her blind with her anger. She was not useless! That man was an idiot. He wanted to know just how useful she could be well damn it she would make him understand that it was better for her to be an allies than an enemy!

She didn't care who she was fighting. She didn't care that she was still in a fighting stance. She didn't care about Serizawa. She just didn't care about anything anymore. Nothing mattered, except proving she was useful!

Tokio deepened her stance a fraction of an inch her eyes carefully watching the area around her. Right now she was the hunter, and this man was her prey.


Chapter 8: to be continued