Chapter 1: The Death Okaa-san

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"Toshi! Come here, my son!"

A young boy ran to his father. His brown, shoulder length hair was swept up into a ponytail and his eyes held all the expectations of an eager puppy.

"Yes father?"

The man beamed at his son and his wife did the same. "Today is the day!" He cried, puffing his chest out proudly and crossing his arms. Toshi tilted his head to one side enquiringly.

"Day? What day father?"

"Kyousuke-kun, just tell him!" Laughed Toshi's mother. Kyousuke grinned broadly and gestured to his son. Toshi moved towards his father and yelped in surprise as he was grabbed by the shoulders.

"Today is the day I teach you, Hijikata Toshi, the honourable way of the Samurai!" boomed Kyousuke, shaking Toshi's shoulders slightly. The boy blinked at him in bewilderment. Kyousuke's smile faltered a little. "Why aren't you jumping around with joy?"

His wife intervened. "Kyousuke-kun, don't you think he's a little young to be learning this sort of thing? The code of the Samurai is too severe for a boy of nine years."

Kyousuke snorted loudly and released Toshi from his grip. "Nonsense ! The boy is more than ready! Aren't you, my son?" He said, ruffling Toshi's hair and ignoring his protests. The nine year old wriggled away from his father, smoothing his hair down. His father laughed heartily as he got to his feet. "Come, Toshi!"

Both he and his son left the little house, and his wife watched them walk away with a smile on her face. Kyousuke was off to visit the young Kondo-san no doubt, since the man was a samurai and a well trained one at that. She sighed as she entered her home again. Kyousuke had always had this obsession with samurais, since he had never been one himself. He was a humble pharmacist that dutifully supplied the town with herbs and medicines for the sick. He had begun teaching his son Toshizo the names of herbs and medicinal plants already, as his own father had since the profession ran through the whole family, generation from generation.

But Kyousuke greatly admired the way of the samurai, and wished for his son to achieve what he never could. Become one. So, he had sought the guidance of the Kondo family, to who he had supplied herbs year after year, ever since he was a boy. The eldest son, Isami Kondo had offered to be Toshizo's Sensei in the way of the samurai and Kyousuke had readily agreed.

Toshizo's mother didn't really agree on his decision, no mother would want her son trained as a killer but her husband was so enthusiastic about the notion of their boy becoming a samurai that she kept her worries to herself and supported him.

She went to fetch tea for herself and set it on the low table, kneeling before it. She cleared her throat of an itch, and sipped at her tea slowly. She was afraid of not being able to watch her son grow, that was what it was, she wasn't worried about him becoming a samurai or anything of the sort. Her illness was steadily getting worse and although Kyousuke's medicine helped, it still wasn't a cure for this all consuming disease that threatened to snatch away her existence at any moment.

She coughed lightly as she lowered the cup from her lips. She rubbed at her throat. Any day now, she thought sadly, any day now Kyousuke-kun will find himself without a wife and Toshi without a mother.

And as if her inner sadness had triggered a reaction in her body, her shoulders began to heave and she coughed loudly, dropping the cup of tea on the floor where it smashed. She covered her mouth with her hands as the coughs racked through her delicate frame, a thin line of blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. She collapsed to her side, convulsing with the heaving coughs and she fought for air, she fought for a breath… one last breath.

Any day now…

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"Yes, I think young Toshi-kun will be ready in a few months, and then I'll begin to teach him the most basic of skills." Smiled Isami Kondo.

Toshi looked up at his father who beamed at him. Kyousuke bowed to the young Isami and got to his feet.

"I thank you, young Kondo for giving my son this opportunity."

"Think nothing of it, after all my family is a healthy one, thanks to your constant supplies of medicine."

"Thanks again." Said Kyousuke with a big smile and he left the house of the Kondo family with Toshizo.

"Father, does this mean I am to become a samurai?" asked the boy.

"Yes indeed, my son. I think this calls for a celebration! As soon as we return home I'll have your mother prepare our favourite meal."

He picked up the pace and his son followed eagerly behind.

As they neared the house the sun had already set and the sky was darkening. Kyousuke wondered why no candles had been lit inside. As he and his son walked closer Kyousuke strained to hear any sounds of movement coming from his home, but there were none. He suddenly feared the worst and telling his son to stay outside he dashed into the house and searched for his wife.

He found her. Lying on the floor beside a broken teacup and a bloodstained handkerchief, he found her. He rushed to her side and knelt down, using his hands to raise her up from the floor and into his arms.

"No…Yumi-kun…"

With a shaking hand he stroked the side of her cold, pale face, watching for any signs of life. He gingerly felt for a pulse in her throat. He heard nothing but silence. Such deafening silence. She was dead.

"Y-Yumi…please…come back to me…" he whispered, his voice beginning to crack. He knew she couldn't hear him and he knew she never would. She was gone and if he had only been there instead of at the home of Isami Kondo, he could have helped her. She could have been saved. Now it was all his fault.

Hot tears fell from his eyes and onto the cheeks of his beloved wife. He held her close and sobbed into her clothes, not hearing the footsteps of a child coming closer and closer.

"Okaa-san?"

Kyousuke lifted his head and turned to look at his son.

"Toshi! I thought I told you to wait outside!" he said harshly.

Toshizo took a step back in fear, he had never heard his father use that tone before. He then saw who his father held in his arms.

"O…kaa…san?"

Toshizo moved closer and reached out to touch his mother's face, bringing his hand back at the feel of cold skin. His father was crying. Something he never used to do and Toshizo was scared. What had happened to his mother?

"Toshi…" Kyousuke gasped between sobs, "Your mother is gone."

And Hijikata Toshizo began to cry.

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The death of Hijikata Yumi affected the town greatly, she was well loved and always cared for the sick, delivering much needed medicine. There was a sense of great irony to her death, the wife of a pharmacist who had succumbed to an illness that no medicine of that time could cure. Tuberculosis was a terrible, terrible thing.

A part of Kyousuke had died with her. He was less cheerful, his hearty laughs were seldom heard and his enthusiasm had all but diminished. He thought himself completely at fault for his wife's passing, even now seven years later, he was constantly reminding himself why she had died. Not even his sixteen year old son Hijikata Toshizo could comfort him.

Hijikata trained almost everyday with Isami Kondo, who was not so young now but had the reputation of an honourable samurai all throughout the town. Kondo was a kind of mentor to the young Hijikata who had given up hope of ever bringing his father out of his constant grieving. Hijikata greatly missed his mother but he had learned to move on, something his father hadn't managed to do. His mother's death hadn't completely left his mind though, as he worked with his father on making medicine. Hijikata wanted to find a cure for the disease that had killed her and he often spent late nights, mixing, crushing and boiling herbs to find a solution.

Many late nights meant that he was not always on top form on training days. Isami Kondo noticed this and tried lifting the boy's spirits in order to make him train harder. Hijikata was tired almost all the time and this exhaustion made him gloomy and reflective.

In his spare time he would compose. Simple haikus that held profound significance for him. He hid his poetry books from his father, who had gotten possibly more obsessed with his becoming a samurai and could get easily angered at anything that would be a distraction. Kyousuke encouraged anything that had to do with being a warrior, on Hijikata's twelfth birthday he even gave him a small katana with the word 'HiTo' engraved on the blade. Hijikata Toshizo. The sword was more like a dagger though and he often reminded his son that one day he might have to commit seppuku, thus expressing the wish for his son to use the small katana in that ceremony. Hijikata couldn't help shuddering as he imagined killing himself.

One bright morning Hijikata was occupied scribbling down a haiku when he heard his father's footsteps nearing his room. He was probably coming to wake his son for another day of training with Kondo-san. Hijikata hastily slid the poetry book and ink brush beneath his pillow and slid further down his futon to make his father believe he was sleeping. He heard the shoji screen being pulled open.

"Toshi!" His father barked. "Wake up boy, you have training!"

Hijikata slowly got up and dressed himself, leaving the room under his father's stern gaze. Kyousuke was about to go as well when he thought he saw something peeking out of his son's pillow. He walked over and knelt beside the futon pulling out what seemed to be a small book. He flicked through it, his eyes falling upon the haikus his son had no doubt composed. He clutched the poetry book tightly in his hand and he got to his feet, marching to the front room where Hijikata quietly sipped his tea. He stopped in front of the low table in the middle of the room where Hijikata was sitting at and he threw the book upon it.

Hijikata looked at it and swallowed.

"What is this?" Kyousuke asked in a dangerously calm tone.

Hijikata looked up at him, challenging his gaze. "It's a book."

"I know it's a book!" Kyousuke spat. "It's a poetry book!"

Hijikata said nothing.

"Poetry is for homosexuals! My son is training to be a samurai! He is not a homosexual!"

Hijikata became angered. "Of course I'm not, father! I compose because that's my way of expressing myself! I don't keep it bottled up inside, I'm not like you father! Why can't you accept that Okaa-san is not coming back?"

"Silence, boy!" cried Kyousuke, knocking the tea from the table with his hand. Hijikata flinched.

"I am no longer an infant, father." Hijikata said quietly. He watched his father breathe heavily. Kyousuke stared into the eyes of his sixteen year old son.

"But you're not yet a man, Toshi."

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"Come now Toshi! You can do better than that!" cried Kondo-san as Hijikata was once again knocked to the ground. Kondo walked up to the sixteen year old and helped him up. They sat by a well and had a cooling drink of water. Kondo turned to Hijikata.

"What's bothering you, Toshi?"

Hijikata looked at Kondo-san and then shook his head. Kondo chuckled.

"Toshiiii…you're one of the best students I have ever taught, your skills are progressing greatly and you have a lot of potential. I can tell when something is on your mind because I manage to knock you down which is almost impossible to do on one of your normal days. So tell me, what is it?"

Hijikata sighed deeply. "My father…is taking me to the Shimabara." He said, lowering his head.

Kondo burst into peals of hearty laughter, slapping Hijikata on the back and almost causing him to lose his balance.

"To…the…Shimabara?" he gasped, and he threw his head back and laughed some more. Hijikata was now feeling greatly embarrassed.

When Kondo calmed down he placed a hand on the boy's shoulder reassuringly.

"Your father wants the best for you. And now he wants to make you a man. There is nothing you should be ashamed about."

Hijikata stared at the ground. "But what if I don't want to be a man yet? I don't think I'm ready for…for…"

Kondo chuckled and removed his hand. "Don't worry about that." He bent his head lower to Hijikata's. "Don't tell anyone but I was scared when my father took me there for the first time." He whispered.

Hijikata said nothing, but he felt a bit better knowing that his mentor and friend had confided something like that in him. Kondo walked to the other end of the yard and held up his bamboo stick.

"Alright, Toshi. Try and hit me."

Hijikata gripped his stick tightly and charged.

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A/N okay, this is something very new and I'm not sure about how it will finish but I'm hoping for some reviews at least before I get the story on full throttle. I know this chapter was a little short but that's how I start all my stories. It's like a sort of test, to see how people will respond to it. Please read and review!