Chapter 2: cuter than expected
The middle-aged man walked unhurriedly down the street. He wore an expensive haori over a plain kimono, and was humming the song they'd all be singing in the teahouse. From the shadows, Souji watched him with pity. He was a political ally of the Shinsengumi, yet tonight he would be sacrificed so that they could capture the one hitokiri who threatened to bring down the shogunate all by himself.
In addition to Souji, captains Nagakura, Saitou, Toudou, and Harada were all stationed along this street, waiting to spring the trap, with both of the Yamazaki spies watching from the rooftops. Any minute now, the hitokiri would appear.
"Excuse me," said a soft, clear voice behind Souji. The Shinsengumi captain froze, swept by the force of a deadly presence…how had he missed the approach of someone with that kind of aura? Slowly he turned around.
Standing in the shadows just a short distance back there was a young boy. He stood with his shoulders slightly slouched, looking at the ground. He was shorter than Souji, and his long hair was tied in a high ponytail. He had two swords at his side. There could be no mistake. This was Battousai.
Silently Souji stood aside and the hitokiri moved forward, barely picking up his feet as he walked. Without even glancing up, the boy shuffled past Souji and into the street. Eyes wide, Souji peered around the corner to see what would happen. It happened so fast, he could barely see it at all-- the boy leapt into the air behind the man in the nice haori, drew his katana in midair, and brought the blade down directly on top of the unfortunate man's head, splitting him from skull to navel. The body fell forward heavily, and the murderer hadn't even gotten a drop of blood on his sandals. His blade flashed as he shook the blood from it with one swift motion. He tossed a folded scrap of paper at the body, not caring that it landed in the puddle of blood beside the corpse. Everyone already knew what the paper said: tenchuu… the justice of heaven.
The boy turned away, and Souji stepped out into the street. "Wait!" he cried. The boy stopped. "You know you're surrounded, don't you?" Souji asked breathlessly. The boy didn't reply.
"Gaagh!" came an exasperated voice from further down the street. Sano stepped into view. "What the hell are you doing, Okita? You're ruining the plan!"
"So it's the Shinsengumi." the hitokiri muttered listlessly, closing his eyes. And then suddenly his blade was out and thrashing the air, defending against a flurry of projectiles thrown expertly from the rooftops. None of the little darts touched him, but as he slashed them out of the air they crumbled into dust, forming a dense cloud.
Poison? Clenching his teeth, the Ishin-shishi began to run, but by now every exit was blocked by a Shinsengumi captain.
Souji knew that the chemical would make the assassin's eyes sting and water and, if he'd breathed enough of it, would make him lose consciousness, but not for a few more minutes. Grimly drawing his sword, Souji prayed that the chemical would take effect before the hitokiri killed anyone else. "Battousai," Souji called out calmly. "Put both your swords on the ground and step away from them."
The hitokiri only tightened his grip on his katana, but he was shaking his head and blinking painfully, so Souji knew that the chemical was taking effect. The five captains started to move in closer, all of them with expressions of mixed fascination and determination… except for Saitou, who looked only slightly bemused.
Without warning, the hitokiri attacked. He would have completely skewered Sanosuke, except that Shinpachi was just as quick as he was, and diverted the blow.
"Argh!" Sano said, as blood poured from the slash across his ribs. "That was close. Thanks, Shinpachi!"
Shinpachi, meanwhile, was fighting for his life. "He's strong!" Shinpachi panted, barely dodging the boy's next two strikes. A second later, Sanosuke and Heisuke had joined the battle, and Sano managed to hit the boy with the side of his spear. The hitokiri staggered but did not fall, and then immediately charged at Sano, slicing the spear in half- and he would have sliced Sanosuke in half as well, except that Shinpachi materialized in front of him again and blocked the blow with his own blade.
"How many times am I gonna have to save you before you catch a clue?" Shinpachi screamed at Sanosuke, as he and Heisuke took turns blocking for each other.
It was obvious to Souji and Saitou that even with the drug slowing him down, Heisuke, Shinpachi, and Sano together, while they might be able to defend themselves, would still have no chance of overwhelming the hitokiri. At least, not until he finally passed out.
"Isn't he supposed to be going to sleep soon?" Heisuke called out nervously.
"He might fight unconsciously for a few minutes," Saitou predicted. Sure enough, the hitokiri's eyes were already clenched shut.
"What?" screeched Shinpachi as he narrowly avoided being eviscerated for the tenth or twelfth time in the past minute.
"I've had enough of this kid," Sano roared, throwing his broken spear at the hitokiri. With Shinpachi's sword blocking the hitokiri's left hand, and Heisuke's sword trembling against the hitokiri's blade, which he held in just his right, the young Ishin-shishi had no way to defend himself against the improvised javelin. It crashed into his chest, breaking the skin but fortunately bouncing off rather than shattering the breastbone beneath.
With an abbreviated moan, the hitokiri staggered backwards, and then turned to try once more to escape, but ran right into Saitou.
Saitou grabbed the boy by the throat, lifting him off his feet. The hitokiri gasped for air, and tried to cut off Saitou's arm, but Souji intervened and expertly held the boy's weapon at bay. Finally, the struggling body went limp. Saitou lowered the boy to the ground and stepped on his right wrist until the unconscious Battousai let go of his sword. Silently Saitou collected the hitokiri's saya and wakizashi as the other Shinsengumi captains gathered round.
"Well, that wasn't too bad," Ayumu said quietly, as she and her brother landed cat-like beside Saitou.
"He looks like a girl," Sano observed, peering down at the smooth, childlike face of the sleeping Battousai. There were tears around the closed eyes, a side-effect of the chemical dust he'd been exposed to.
"Did you see how fast he was? And how he took out that guy from midair?" Shinpachi said, clearly in awe. "Souji, can you do that?"
"Hm," Souji said thoughtfully. "I've never tried."
Meanwhile Saitou had taken the time to examine the wound on the boy's chest. "He'll live," he determined.
"Yamazakikun," Souji said quietly. "Will you please tie him up? We don't want to be in the way of whoever comes to inspect the assassination." Silently, Susumu tied the hitokiri's hands and feet. "And Sanosukesan, please carry him," Souji added.
"What am I, your packhorse?" Sano asked, throwing the limp little body over his shoulder as if it were a sack of potatoes.
"You're more like a pack mule," Shinpachi commented, smirking. "Horses are a bit more dignified."
"Hey hey hey, be nice to me, this shrimp almost killed me! In fact, I'm still bleeding, but do any of you care? Does anybody ask if Sanosuke's okay? No! It's 'carry this, Sano', and 'you're an ugly mule, Sano'. Geez, where's the respect? Where's the love?"
With Sano still griping, they made their way back to headquarters.
"Vice commander Hijikata!" Tetsu exclaimed. "They're back! They're back!"
"All of them?" Hijikata asked gruffly, and Tetsu realized that the stern old demon actually looked worried.
"Yes sir!" Tetsu answered promptly.
"Hmf," Hijikata snorted.
Hijikata and Tetsu met the returning party at the gate. Heisuke patted the unconscious boy on the shoulder. "Well, here he is! The legendary killer," he declared. "Alive, intact, and cuter than expected!" Heisuke smiled, his face almost kitten-like. "I can't decide if he's like a taller version of our darling lil' koinukun, or a red-haired version of Souji."
"One thing is certain," Souji said solemnly, looking at the prisoner. "The stories we heard about Battousai… were not exaggerated." Everyone felt their skin prickle slightly at the deadly serious tone of his voice. Hijikata shifted his weight.
"Well, lock him up," the vice commander ordered. "Make sure there's no way he can get his hands on any kind of weapon. And post a guard."
When Battousai woke up about an hour later, he realized immediately what had happened. Captured… he'd never even thought that being captured was a possibility… but of course they would want to torture him for information. Should he kill himself? No… he was no good to Katsura dead. He would escape. He sat up, noticing that his chest had been bandaged. He turned his head, and locked eyes with the guard. Souji smiled at him happily, returning the boy's deadly soulless stare with an expression of patronizing cheerfulness.
"Hello," Souji remarked amicably, tilting his head. "Say, wasn't it a bit careless of you to carry out your kill with so many witnesses?"
"It was an ambush," Battousai replied. "So it wouldn't have been witnesses I killed, but enemies."
"I see." Souji nodded, wide-eyed. "So you really thought you would take us all out." Battousai didn't reply, just continued glaring at his captor. Souji blinked several times. "Ara?" he said, surprised. "Those eyes! You're like a dragon in a cage. I believe you'd eat me if you had the chance. But it looks like our information was wrong-- your eyes aren't purple, they're… well, 'cold' is the color I'd say, except that's not a color." He smiled again, and was pleased to see the boy's brow furrow slightly in confusion. "Really though, I suppose 'colorless' isn't a color either, so I'd have to go with grey for now. But perhaps… they used to be purple?"
Battousai thought this was a tedious conversation and lay back down on the floor, closing his colorless eyes and pretending to sleep.
"Souji," Hijikata said from the door. "Stop smiling, for god's sake." Souji's expression melted away into a quiet frown as Hijikata moved further into the small room and stared down at the young hitokiri in the cell. "We know all about you, Himura Battousai," Hijikata said. The prisoner opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling, not bothering to look at the man who was addressing him. "Now. Tell us where Katsura is."
The young face, framed by dark red bangs, remained expressionless. Hijikata's mouth twitched. "Fourteen years old…" he muttered, and shook his head angrily, glaring at the boy in disgusted disbelief. "It is really true?" he demanded, clenching his fists. "Are you the imperialist hitokiri who has killed sixty men?"
"More," the boy said tiredly, closing his eyes again.
"More?" Hijikata repeated "More than sixty of our allies and comrades… why… I should… I'll make an example of you!"
"Ahem," Souji interrupted. "Hijikatasan? May I talk to you for a minute?" he pushed Hijikata out the door.
"What?" Hijikata asked gruffly.
"Let me talk to him, please," Souji said.
"Fine. Do whatever you want with him." The angry vice commander stomped off down the hall. Souji sighed and turned his attention back to the prisoner. For the rest of the afternoon, he tried to get the boy to talk to him, without any success.
Katsura's deadliest hitokiri was now a prisoner of the Shinsengumi, and he knew that the friendly chatter of his prison guard --who happened to be the captain of the first squad-- was all an act: soon they would torture him. He had no doubt that they were capable of breaking him, and he wasn't going to be fooled by Okita's pretense of kindness.