The Female Shinsengumi
By Female Sesshoumaru
Kyoto, 7 years before the Revolution
The forest surrounded them in a choking darkness, seeming to have no way out. A red haired, violet-eyed boy of about 7 clung to a red-haired, green-eyed girl of about 9, and both were terrified.
A group of dirty bandits surrounded them in a circle as the moon peeked through the trees, weapons drawn and their eyes shining with bloodlust. They didn't seem to care that their victims were young children, just that they were living; breathing creatures they could inflict pain upon.
"Onee-chan, I'm scared!" The little boy wailed, clinging more tightly to his sister.
"Hush, Shinta." The girl said, even as the thieves' circle grew tighter around them with each second that passed.
A twig snapped somewhere in the brush behind them, and one of the thieves went flying into a tree with a deep cut across his throat, blood spilling forth from the wound to stain the front of his dirty gi. Shinta whimpered, burying his face in his hands. The culprit concerned the bandits more than the children, and they saw a brown-haired man with a red-collared white cape.
"Are you so cowardly that you would attack defenseless children?" He asked, his hand on the smooth wooden hilt of his katana.
"So what if we are? It's not any of your concern! Now back off or you'll be the one to lose your life!" The leader threatened, drawing a dagger.
The man lay on the ground, his face forever etched into an expression of shock as blood flowed from the wound in his chest.
The samurai glared. "I will not allow you to shed the blood of innocents. They are merely children."
"W-Who are you?" One of the remaining thugs questioned, the whites of his eyes showing in his terror.
The remaining bandits fell before they could cry out, their blood flowing from their lifeless bodies to be absorbed by the thirsty ground.
"The last name you'll ever know. Seijurou Hiko." The samurai sheathed his katana and turned to the children, taking a few steps towards them.
The girl hissed at him and pulled a dagger out of her ragged green gi, pushing her brother behind her like a tiger protecting her young. That hiss just wasn't human. Hiko knelt in front of the two children, and touched the girl's forehead, stroking her hair almost like one would pet a dog. She seemed to calm down a bit.
A single drop hit Hiko's nose, and he looked up. The full moon, which had been out a few seconds ago, had been shadowed once more by large storm clouds, which were now shedding their tears upon the earth. "Damn."
He picked Shinta up, holding him in one arm and covering him with his cloak. The rain began to turn from light sprinkling to a steady drizzle, and he held out his hand to the girl. "Come with me."
"How do I know I can trust you?" She questioned, extremely untrusting for someone so young.
"Do you have another choice? Or would you rather I leave you and your sibling here in the rain all night to get sick and die?" He questioned.
The girl glared. "Fine." She put her dagger back in its sheath, and took the offered hand.
Hiko heard a soft sigh and felt Shinta curl up against him, falling asleep.
"Get under my cloak, kid. I don't got all day." Hiko tugged the girl underneath his cloak so that she had the freedom to walk, yet was protected from the rain.
He sighed softly, muttering under his breath. "Why must I always play the hero?"
Next Morning
The girl woke up in a very warm, very large futon. The source of the warmth was right next to her, and she curled up against it, unaware that it was Hiko.
The master of the Hiten Mitsurugi arched an eyebrow. "Hey kid, get up. If you want food, you have to wake up."
She rubbed her eyes clear of the sleep that lingered there with a dirty hand, blinking to adjust her eyes to the light. "Oro? Where's Shinta?"
Hiko rolled his eyes and pointed to the red haired ball curled up at his feet. "Sleeping at my feet like some faithful dog. Does he always do that?"
"He goes for the warmest spot he can find." She replied.
Hiko sat up, tossing his blanket over the still-sleeping boy. "Where's your family kid? Shouldn't you have been with them instead of getting chased by a group of bloodthirsty bandits?"
The girl sat on the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. "I don't know where they are. Someone tried to attack 'tousan and 'nee-chan, and 'nee-chan pushed Shinta and I away so that we wouldn't get hurt. I was trying to look for them."
"So tell me kid, what's your name?" Hiko stretched and grabbed his boots, pulling them on to protect his feet from the cool morning air whisping across the floor of his hut.
"Himura." She said softly.
"You surely have another name. Himura isn't a proper name for a girl." Hiko said.
"I don't have a proper name." She murmured, feeling ashamed.
"Then tell me why he does." Hiko gestured at Shinta, whom was still sleeping soundly at the end of Hiko's futon...snoring softly.
"Because 'nee-chan gave him one. She promised to give me one when we reached China. 'Kaasan didn't know if I would survive the famine...so she just called me by our surname. But 'Kaasan died two years ago of the terrible sickness." Himura replied, tears threatening to spill from her green eyes.
"Hey, no crying. I have a proposition for you. The longer you and your brother stay here and eat my food, the longer you study my sword style." He knelt down in front of Himura, who rubbed furiously at her eyes.
"...Okay." Himura said, looking up at her new master.
"Get your brother up. I can't have my students looking like street rats." Hiko pulled Himura roughly to her feet and gave her a shove towards Shinta.
Kyoto, marketplace
"Ah, Hiko-san!" A female voice called out. "What brings you here?"
Hiko grunted something that sounded like hello to the strange, but pretty little woman that approached him. The stranger's eyes widened when she caught sight of Himura and Shinta.
"And just who are these two adorable children?" The woman questioned, kneeling in front of Shinta, who clung to Hiko's leg in fear.
"Cut the bullshit, Sakura. I need some new clothes for these children now." Hiko snapped.
Sakura noticed Himura's state of dress and gasped in horror, grabbing both of the dirty, ragged children by a hand. "Oh my. You poor, poor children. Come with me, come with me."
Himura looked pleadingly at her new master, who nodded and followed Sakura into the little clothing shop that she owned. A little boy ran up to Sakura, no older than Himura at very most.
He saw Hiko and smiled. "Ohayou gozaimasu, Hiko-san!"
"Ohayou, Kazuki." Hiko replied gruffly.
Sakura bustled back up to Hiko, pointing to the children. "Their names? I need to know their names or I'll just end up confusing them."
Hiko inwardly groaned, mentally kicking himself. He should have known that Sakura would ask that question. He sighed, pointing to Shinta. "His name is Kenshin. And the girl's name is---" Hiko fumbled, almost ready to say Sakura, but he refrained from doing so, and said the first name that came to mind. "Eimi."
Sakura did not notice Hiko's uneasiness, (she was a bit on the ditzy side) and bustled back to "Kenshin" and "Eimi", measuring the boy for a hakama and gi, the girl for a kimono.
Hiko realized what Sakura was doing when she pulled a green silk kimono off of a shelf. "Eimi doesn't need a kimono, Sakura. Eimi needs a gi and hakama, just like Kenshin."
"But Hiko-san," Sakura protested, "A little girl can't grow up to be a tomboy. She needs a kimono!"
"A student of the Hiten Mitsurugi doesn't need a kimono. How the hell do you expect her to practice katas?" Hiko argued. He left shortly after to run an errand.
An hour later, a very annoyed Hiko returned to Sakura's shop and left with Himura and Shinta in tow, remembering many reasons why he didn't come into town often. When they were near Hiko's hut, Shinta could hold back his question no more.
"Hiko-sensei, why did you lie to Sakura-san about our names?" Shinta questioned.
"Those are your names now. Kenshin is too weak of a name for a boy who will become a swordsman, and just Himura isn't a proper name for a female samurai." Hiko replied.
Himura, who held Hiko's hand, tested her new name. "Himura Eimi..." She whispered, smiling. "I have a name. A real name." She looked up at Hiko and smiled. "Hiko-sensei, thank you."
Hiko said nothing, as if he didn't care. Once on his land, Hiko withdrew something from within his cloak wrapped in cloth.
"Hiko-sensei, whatcha got?" Shinta, err, Kenshin, questioned as his master knelt on the ground and unwrapped his parcel.
He pulled out a full-length katana and held it up to Kenshin. The sword was almost as big as he was tall! Hiko sighed and pulled out the wakizashi that went with the katana. This was more his size---at least until he grew bigger. "Here. This is what you will train with."
Kenshin looked terrified. "But Hiko-sensei, it's dangerous!"
"It won't do you any good to pick up a bokken and swing it around like a baka. You don't get the proper feel of a blade that way." Hiko replied, handing the other wakizashi in the cloth parcel to Eimi.
Six Years later, at the beginning of the Bakumatsu
Eimi looked around for her master, ready to finish her training for the day. She found him by his kiln, passed out and reeking of sake. She wrinkled her nose and kicked her master as hard as she could in the ribs. "Hiko, you drunken ass!" She snapped, turning away. "No more...I'm outta here! I'm sick of finding you in a drunken stupor in front of your kiln!"
Kenshin noticed his sister turning to leave. "Onee-chan?" He called, but she paid him no heed, merely continuing to walk away from him.
Eimi walked until it was nearly dusk, finding a small stream she knew was never visited because of the thick, undisturbed foliage surrounding it. She grabbed the end of her long red ponytail, which came to her hips, and tugged at it until it was taught, and then, taking a small tanto hidden in her gi sleeve, hacked it off at her neck. Not the neatest job in history, but it would have to do. She looked almost exactly like a boy, except for her upper body.
She ripped off her gi and undershirt, with only the linen strips wrapped about her torso covering her. She knelt and ripped the undershirt into small strips, rebinding her breasts. You couldn't mistake her for a girl unless you really tried, and she pulled her green gi back on, making sure it was closed. With that, she headed for the richer side of Kyoto, knowing that that would be the best place to find a job as an assassin or bodyguard.
Takagi Tsuru looked out into the driving rain, her chin resting on a slender hand. She sighed.
"Tsuru-chan, close that window. You'll catch your death, and I am quite sure there is nothing out in that storm." A male voice said.
Tsuru saw a shadowy figure approaching the house. "Tousan, there's someone out there!" She cried.
Kojuurou snorted. "Don't be ridiculous, Tsuru-chan. Only a madman would be out there in this---there is someone out there! Grab a blanket! Quickly!" He ran towards the front of the house.
Eimi could walk no longer. She had just reached the largest mansion in the neighborhood, and the rain had worn her out. She tripped and waited to become acquainted with the ground, but she found herself caught by a pair of warm hands. A blanket was wrapped tightly around her, and she was set down in front of a fire.
"Young man, what on Earth possessed you to go out in the driving rain like that? Are you mad?" Kojuurou questioned.
"One, I'm not a boy. Two, it wasn't raining when I started out, and three, as to whether I'm mad or not is a matter of opinion." Eimi replied.