I own nothing but my OC.

Chapter 29: The Flurried Dance of Commotion

Kazama could still hear the ruckus from the ongoing fight as he started making his way back to meet up with the men from the Satsuma clan.

"Come and get me!"

"Don't underestimate geikos, you bastards! Show some damn respect!"

"Ah! That's no geiko! That's an oni!"

Kazama smirked. Those men had no idea how close to the mark they really were with that comment.

"Wait, woman!"

"Hn?" Kazama said, turning when he heard soft and fast footsteps approaching him from behind. Yukimura Chizuru had just rounded the corner and was heading his way. She seemed to be too preoccupied with the man chasing her to notice this, though.

"Eh?" Chizuru gasped, surprised, when she nearly ran into him.

"Oh? Did you come back to let me take you?" Kazama asked her.

"Kazama-san!?" Chizuru said, taking a step back.

"Well, looks like I've caught ya!" A drunken rogue samurai said as he wandered up behind them, reaching for Chizuru.

"No! Please, don't—!" Chizuru started to yell.

"Back off, pervert!" Sumiko shouted as she took Chizuru's would-be molester out with a beautiful flying kick that caused the skirts of her kimono to fly up slightly and give them a nice view of her legs up to her knees.

"S-Sumiko-san!" Chizuru said, blushing out of embarrassment on her friend's behalf.

"Man, these guys are persistent! Are you all right, Chizuru…" Sumiko said, trailing off when she noticed Kazama. "Wait, weren't you just—"

"Heheh!" Another drunk pervert exclaimed as he suddenly came out of nowhere and threw his arms around her. "Gottcha!"

"Ugh!" Sumiko grimaced. Kazama narrowed his eyes and stepped forward, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her away from the letch. "Huh?" She said, surprised to find herself being rescued.

"What the—Ah!?" The man who grabbed her exclaimed in pain and surprise when Kazama grabbed him by the wrist as he stuck his foot out to trip the other man, and twisted his arm behind his back. Kazama knocked the troublesome man unconscious and let him drop to the floor with a thud.

"Um… thanks." Sumiko said a little awkwardly. "But I could've handled him." It felt weird to suddenly be saved by a guy who had insulted her and tried to kidnap her best friend.

"Hmph. I know." Kazama said with a slight smirk as he glanced back at her.

"Eh?" Chizuru said.

"Oi, oi! You think you have enough guts to fight me!?" The three of them glanced up when they heard Heisuke's voice.

"I'm on your side, hothead!" Shinpachi said. They could hear the grin in his voice.

"Um, this…" Chizuru began as Kazama turned and walked up to look over the balcony into the courtyard below.

"Pick fights with us, and we'll return the favor!" Sano said.

The two girls approached the balcony, too, and saw that Sano, Shinpachi, Heisuke were having a rough and rowdy free-for-all fight with the roshi and anyone else who happened to come at them. Sumiko sighed.

"Looks like our covert mission ended up turning into a battle royale…" She commented, smiling wryly, as she sweat-dropped.

"Hmph. Thanks to you people, my investigation for Satsuma seems to end here." Kazama said.

"What's all this noise?" One of the men from the room on the corner just a few feet away from them asked as he stepped out to have a look for himself. Kazama and the girls turned to look at him just as more men stared coming out after him. "Oh, very good! They're really going at it!" Judging by the small crests on their haoris, they seemed to be from the Satsuma clan.

"I really enjoyed this evening." Kazama said, glancing back at the girls over his shoulder.

"Huh?" Chizuru said, while Sumiko blinked and glanced Chizuru, assuming he was talking to her.

"Now, hurry up and disappear." Kazama said as the men from the Satsuma clan started to approach him.

"Kazama, what are you doing here?"

The two girls quickly and quietly bowed to him and left before they ended up getting dragged into Satsuma's business, too. Kazama smirked slightly as he watched them escape together out the corner of his eye.

–∞–

"Come on, Chizuru." Sumiko said, leading her friend to collect their shoes so they could leave the Sumi-ya. "We need to get you back to headquarters so you can tell Kondo-san and Hijikata-san what you found out."

"Ah, but the others are still…" Chizuru said as Sumiko lifted part of the shop's curtain aside for her to step through, trailing off and stopping when she saw Hijikata standing a few yards away, staring at the entrance, as though he had already been coming to get her. Sumiko glanced over her friend's shoulder and smiled a little wanly.

"Go ahead." She said, giving her friend a gentle push forward. "Hijikata-san will take care of you. I'll go see to the others."

"Eh?" Chizuru said as she stumbled out of the shop entrance. She glanced back but Sumiko was already gone.

"Chizuru?" Hijikata called out when he saw her, surprised by how beautiful she looked.

"Hai." Chizuru said, smiling shyly, as she stepped forward to meet him.

–∞–

"Hm?" Kazama said, furrowing his brow slightly when he caught sight of Sumiko running out to join the noisy brawl in the courtyard below without Chizuru. What did she think she was doing?

"Kazama, are you listening to… Oh!" The man who had been lecturing him for suddenly disappearing said, perking up when he saw what the oni was staring down at. "Now there's a beauty entering the fray!" He exclaimed as he and the other men turned their attention back to watching the fight. Her movements were so fluid and graceful, it almost looked like she was dancing with her opponents.

"Oh! Our avenging angel is back!" Sano said, grinning, as Sumiko blazed her own path over to them wither fists and feet.

"Somehow, it's even scarier seeing her take down so many men while dressed like that!" Shinpachi remarked.

"You want a piece of me, too?" Sumiko asked tartly.

"Eh? You're not still mad about earlier are you?"

"Why? What happened earlier?" Heisuke asked.

"Not now. I just came to tell you guys Chizuru's safe." Sumiko said. "It's time for us to skedaddle!"

"Eh? No way! It was just getting good!" Heisuke said.

"Well, be sure to hold onto that feeling while you're being scolded again by Hijikata-san later!" Sumiko advised him.

"Geh!?" Heisuke blanched at the thought. "You wouldn't tell him, would you?"

"He already knows. Who do you think I left Chizuru with? You guys are so loud the whole of Shimabara can hear!" She chided them.

"Aw, man! We're so dead!" Shinpachi exclaimed.

"Well, if we're already that deep in it, we might as well take our time and enjoy ourselves!" Sano said. "Let's do the geikos a favor and clear out all the rubbish. After you, Sumiko-san!"

"Well, if you insist!" She said, charging forth with a rueful smile.

"Hmph." Kazama said, smirking as he leaned against the railing and continued watching their spectacle of a fight with the men from Satsuma. It looked like the komainu was enjoying herself.

—∞—

"A-ah. We got scolded big time…" Sumiko said, sighing tiredly, as she joined Chizuru in their room back at headquarters later that evening.

"Ah. Sorry, Sumiko-san, If I hadn't…" Chizuru began to apologize.

"No, no. Don't worry about it. It's not your fault Heisuke and the others got too excited and openly declared themselves as members of the Shinsengumi half way through." Sumiko said, smiling wryly. "Anyway, let me see your ankle. I heard from Hijikata-san you sprained it on the way back. I'll wrap it for you while I tell you what I happened to overhear this evening…"

"Eh? You were able to gather some information too in all of that, Sumiko-san?" Chizuru asked, surprised. "Why didn't you say so sooner? We could have gone back together."

"Ah, but then you wouldn't have gotten to have a walk back with Hijikata-san all to yourself, would you?" Sumiko asked knowingly with a wan smile. Chizuru blushed. "Besides, what I heard has nothing to do with what they sent us in to investigate." She added as she started bandaging Chizuru's ankle, even though it was almost already healed anyway. "You ran into Kazama while you were still on your own, right?"

"Eh? Ah, yes." Chizuru said, nodding. "How did you know?"

"I heard from Osen-chan that she saved you." Sumiko replied with a wry smile. "How on earth did she manage that, by the way?"

"Osen-chan hit him on the head with her fan." Chizuru replied, blinking. So she had meet Osen-chan, too?

Sumiko paused for a moment as an image of that popped into her head.

"Pfft! Haha! Oh, man! I wish I'd been there to see that!" She laughed. "Osen-chan's the best!"

"I-It wasn't very funny at the time! I was worried about whether or not Osen-chan would be able to get away all right afterwards…" Chizuru said, a little flustered at the memory.

"Yeah, don't worry. Osen-chan and Kimigiku-san were just fine when I ran into them later." Sumiko reassured her, smiling brightly in amusement. "In fact, it was mostly thanks to them that I was able to learn what I did…"

"Which was…?" Chizuru asked a little nervously.

"Why Kazama keeps coming after you." Sumiko said, frowning, as the conversation took a more serious turn, and she began recounting the conversation between Sen and Kazama that she had been witness to earlier in the evening.

–∞–

"N-No way…" Chizuru said, stunned, after hearing Kazama's arbitrary reasoning and learning that her new friend Sen and the geisha Kimigiku-san were also oni.

"Yeah I know." Sumiko said, sighing. "I told him to give up and find someone else, but I doubt he'll pay any attention to that. He doesn't seem like the type to listen to others." Although, he did seem to have made more of an effort to be nice to Chizuru after Sen scolded him… "Don't worry." Sumiko said, smiling reassuringly at her troubled friend. "No matter what happens, I've got your back, and so do the others. We won't let them take you away without a fight. Come on, let's get to bed. Inoue-san said he thinks it'll snow tomorrow, so we'll need our energy to play in it!" She ended on a happier note to cheer Chizuru up.