Disclaimer: I do NOT own PMK or its characters.

So Kichisaburo of Yogotoya has appearances in only 2 episodes. However, there are still too many unanswered questions about the man to let him off so easily.

I have not yet decided on the nature of Hijikata and Okita's relationship for this particular fic yet. It might be a brotherly thing, or more. If so, the rating may rise.

An Assassin's Tale

Chapter 2

"Brother, I can't sleep. I don't want to go with uncle…" He slipped his hand under the blankets to grab his twin's. His brother sat up. It was dark in the room they shared. "Hush, there's nothing to be afraid of." An unseen arm held his head against a young chest.

"But auntie's very fierce…" He snuggled close, pressing his face into his twin's clothes, taking in the smell of medicine and candy. The older twin was always a tad sickly, though the little boy bore it with a smile.

"You know the way back from uncle's place. Mama took us there before once."

"Turn left from the main gate, walk until you come to the blowfish sign…"

"Turn right, go into the second alley on the left…keep walking to the end, don't turn. Just go straight…"

"Until you reach the pin-wheel shop…the one with the rainbow pinwheels, niisan likes…"

"From there, follow the canal, cross the willow bridge and you will be home." It sounded so easy to the eight-year-olds.

"Niisan, can you hold me a little longer?"

"Sure…Oyasuminasai." The pair snuggled against each other, fully aware it would be their last night as room mates.

"Oyasuminasai…" His brother's heartbeat's so soothing…

Kyoto gay pleasure district. Yogotoya

Kichi stirred in his futon. The sun's still high in the sky. It was too early for him to be awake. The old hag who ran Yogotoya was insisting he awake by repeatedly prodding him with, horrors, an utterly filthy broom that has probably been poking in the privy. "Osu! Knock it off, I'm awake." He grabbed his sword from under his pillow and drew it. Crackling, Osu blocked the blade with her broomstick. After all, it was she who taught him that move when he was twelve.

"You got an early customer, Kichi-boy," the retired ninja woman poked him one more time in the ribs to make sure he got the message. Scowling, he got up and combed his hair. "What type of customer?"

"This type." Osu quickly placed a very girly hairpin in his hair. "The futon's waiting and so's the man, so get into your outfit, pretty boy…" Kichi took one look at the cat outfit and choked. "I'm NOT entertaining that pervert!" He recalled on Master Cat's last visit, he had a rather unpleasant time being smothered by a dozen black cats in some kinky bedroom ritual.

"Kichi, you know full well since they got in those professional hitokiris from outta town, your other business has been in the dumps. It doesn't reflect too well on the Ishin if their killers are effeminate boys with a brothel address, if we ran a genuine inn or restaurant, it'd be a different matter." Osu clucked like some grotesque mother hen. She had been his pimp since his last one met an unfortunate accident. "You had to kill your last contact… "

"The madman was thinking of committing double suicide with me!" Kichi snorted. That man wound up seeing the bottom of Kamo River as fish food.

"Come on, you are a seasoned professional, since you started here under old Fatso at age eight. I wonder if he's done pickling in the old soy sauce factory. Maybe we could fish him up someday and take a look-see." On went the powder. "This customer's a close aide of emperor or so he claims… Entertain him and maybe you'll bring in some other jobs…" Osu was hinting as she started on the rouge.

"Maybe pigs will fly!" Totally irked, he stomped out before Osu could force him into that loathsome outfit. He rubbed off the rouge and powder Osu had managed to paint his face with and stepped out into the afternoon. Osu would probably threaten him with torture or worse, but she'd get one of the other whores to see to the customer. People were sniggering at him. Drat! Forgot about the hairpin… He quickly amended that and hid it in his sleeve. Maybe he could trade it for a little fun with one of the oriyan girls. Although he was in that profession, he did not have any inclinations towards manly love.

It was too early for the pleasure district to wake up, so he went downtown for a short stroll…

Passing Umeya, he caught sight of a familiar pair of figures in the streets. One of the figures had the exact same face as his, except this face was youthful, lively, without the weariness from years of abuse in the brothel. Again! And he thought that glimpse he had from under the temple cherry trees was some trick of the light on top of weariness after his last assassination… After all, he had been up on his feet 15 hours that day waiting for his target to come pay his respects in the graveyard. It was a simple kill that paid miserably little. Osu took the bulk of the payment anyway.

Pain, sharp and dry… then a burning, senseless anger… Kichi slipped off, back to the debauched familiarity of Yogotoya.

Osu pounced on him as soon as he entered the front door and ushered him into a room where the old pervert waited for his favourite plaything. The black cats started their yowling chorus as he started entertaining. Bloody cats…

It had happened again. Okita swung his shinai through the air. That afternoon, he had been wheedling Hijikata to buy some candy for him in the market place much to the vice-chief's chagrin. As usual, he would succeed. Then he appeared like a fleeting phantom passing through the throng of humanity in the market place. He would have run after him, if only to prove he was mistaken. However, he was too late. By the time he turned the corner into Shimabara, the object of his pursuit was gone.

Swing, swing, swing… The repetitive action did little to calm his mind. The sounds of the Ichimura brothers bickering floated in with the breeze. They were lucky. Only Tatsu didn't know how much. Tatsu was always worrying about Tetsu… Whether he'd be able to be the big brother Tetsu needs. Actually, saving a brother from the burning house was an action Okita wished he could have done for the brother he lost so tragically.

Many times he had pictured the horror his bother must have felt as the building burnt and collapsed about him. Akira. That was his name, chosen for him by their mother. It seemed fitting a name for the twin who was born when the eclipse ended and light shone on them again. After the fire, Soujirou had fallen so dangerously ill with grief that his parents thought they might lose their remaining son as well. Finally in desperation, they decided to remove all painful reminders of his dead twin from his life.

Most of Akira's belongings had been moved to the Uedas' when he moved in with them. So there wasn't much left anyway. Still, the blanket they shared as toddlers was burnt, the toys they shared discarded. Even the spirit altar of the dead boy was not spared. Mitsu probably still kept Akira's spirit altar in the storeroom. Okita Soujiro recovered eventually, only to face the loss of his parents in an epidemic.

Finally, he tossed the shinai aside. "Saitou-san, you have said that I have a shadow over me. Can you tell me more?" he yelled finally.

The third captain broke out of his meditation. He sighed. "You have a shadow that is been with you seen I first met you. It has been with you for a very long time behind your smile and laughter. It doesn't suit you to have such darkness… It started following you when you were a child, didn't it?"

"Is it Akira?" He sat down next to Saitou, unconsciously mimicking the strict sitting position his colleague so favoured when meditating, with his back ramrod straight and legs crossed.

"The shadow is not communicating with me. Whatever your shadow is, it is not a ghost."

"You mean Akira's still alive?" Dare he hope? Saitou shrugged. "What I can tell is that you seem to have a strong emotional bond to this Akira… You feel responsible for him. We can't change whatever has happened or whatever will happen. Remember this, Okita."

"I guess you can't change the past, but you can always try to make the future."

"That is if you have a future …" Saitou replied cryptically. "Now, how about some soba for supper?"

Author's Notes:

I am not too sure about Okita's actual birth date. However, one version tells of an eclipse in the year of his birth. I took some liberties with that.

Ack! I threw in Umeya again? I have no guarantees the Umeya nut gang from my other fics will appear in this. (ie. Kenni, Umeko-dono and the ninja girls). Lunatick's Smile series is real good... Wonder if Okita's buddies can tell the difference if they were to run into Kichi by chance.