I own nothing but my OC.

Chapter 40: Silver Bullet

By the time Shimada returned with their injured commander, Kondo was already in such a serious condition that both Sumiko and Yamazaki had felt the need to team up and collaborate with each other in order to save his life.

"At this rate, it will continue to bleed." Yamazaki said grimly while they worked together to apply as much pressure as possible to the gunshot wound in a futile attempt to staunch the blood flow. They didn't even have the time to give the suffering man a pain killer. Every second counted now. "We're cauterizing it." He said, glancing over at Chizuru, who was waiting on standby to assist with the preparation of tools and medicine.

"Hai." Chizuru said, about to about to fetch a hibachi to heat the implements with, when Sumiko stopped her.

"No. If we cauterize the wound, there's a chance we could miss some of the smaller blood vessels, and they'll continue to bleed inside the burned skin." Sumiko stated firmly, furrowing her brow.

"But if we do nothing, the commander will die." Yamazaki said urgently, furrowing his brow.

"Don't worry. Kondo-san ain't dying today. There's a better way." Sumiko replied calmly. "Chizuru, bring me the jar from the bottom left drawer of my tansu that has a shrimp painted on it. We'll close the wound with that."

"Hai." Chizuru said, immediately fetching the jar and placing it in her outstretched hand. Sumiko broke the wax seal on the jar and brushed Yamazaki's hands aside so she could pour its the powdered contents over the wound.

"Gaah!" Kondo screamed in pain as she grabbed a clean cloth and pressed the powder firmly into the wound.

"Hold him down! We need him to stay still so the powder can settle into the wound properly!" She shouted as she struggled to hold Kondo down with the help of Yamazaki and Chizuru.

"Commander!" Saito said as he and Sano rushed over to help hold him down.

"Kondo-san!" Sano said earnestly. "What are you doing to him!?"

"Forcing the blood to clot. The powder I just applied is a homemade hemostat. It has a heavy concentration of chitosan and its salts, which act as an anti-hemorrhagic." She explained as Kondo began to stop fighting and settle down. Sumiko removed her hands and left the cloth stuck to Kondo's chest. She didn't want to disturb the large scab that was already forming.

"The bleeding… has stopped!" Yamazaki said, amazed.

"Hey, what's that miracle powder made from?" Sano asked as they stared down at the closed wound in awe.

"Hm? The crushed shells of crustaceans mostly." Sumiko replied as she wiped the sweat from her brow. History may not be her best subject, but Sumiko had always been an undisputed champion when it came to tackling chemistry and biology.

"A-Amazing… I had no idea…" Yamazaki said, staring a her in awe.

"I'll give you the recipe later. Anyway, we still have to get the bullet out." Sumiko said, frowning.

"Eh? It's still in there!?" Sano asked. It looked like it had gone straight through since there was both an entry and exit wound.

"The bullet actually shattered when it hit Kondo-san. Even though we were able to take most of it out, there's still a fragment left in there. We'll have to take it out of course, but with Kondo-san losing so much blood, stopping that became more a priority." She explained. "If we kept the wound open any longer, he could have died. And I don't want to open him up again while he's still suffering from such major blood loss. As it is, we'll have a hard time keeping him from slipping into a coma… I wish I could give him a blood transfusion, but I don't have the equipment for that, and we'd need to find a donor first."

"Hold up. Blood transfusion?" Sano asked dubiously.

"It's just how it sounds. It's a process where you take blood from a healthy person and put it in the patient to replenish the amount of blood they've lost to a more stable level. But it has to be the right blood type, or Kondo-san's immune system will attack it, and he could end up dying from that. I can start doing a simple test to make sure his blood won't reject the donor's, but first we have to eliminate anyone who might have an illness that could be transferred along with their blood. Even if they look healthy, they could still be a hidden carrier for certain things… I'll have to review the health logs for the troops." Sumiko said thoughtfully.

"Yukimura-kun and I can do that. Just tell us what to look for." Yamazaki said.

"What else do you need?" Saito asked.

"If possible, I'd like to get my hands on that medicine the rasetsu use to suppress their bloodlust." Sumiko said, surprising them all.

"What?" Sano asked, furrowing his brow.

"Relax." She said before they could get any more worked up. "It helps suppress their bloodlust because it imitates the nutrients in blood, right? If so, then it can be used to help treat Kondo-san's anemia to a certain extent, too."

"I'll be right back." Saito said as he got up and left to get some medicine from San'nan-san. Yamazaki and Sumiko began applying a proper dressing to Kondo's wound.

"The war council at Nijo Castle was finished," Shimada continued, explaining how the terrible crisis came about to Hijikata and Inoue while the others worked desperately to save Kondo, "and on the way back to the magistrate's office he was suddenly shot."

"You brought him back here like that on horse?" Hijikata asked.

"Yes. If he'd fallen from his horse, he could have succumbed to his injury. I'm very sorry." Shimada said regretfully, bowing deeply. "I couldn't protect the commander…"

"No." Hijikata said tiredly, closing his eyes. "Kondo-san insisted he needed no guard, but his protection was lacking. Being able to persuade him otherwise, the fault is mine." He said grimly.

"Vice-commander." Yamazaki said as he approached them, wiping the blood off his hands. "Tonight will be the worst of it." The four men glanced across the room and watched while Sumiko gently elevated Kondo's head and carefully administered the faux blood nutrients that Saito had returned with, mixed with water, to Kondo-san with help from Chizuru. Tonight would decide whether Kondo lived or died, whether he would slip into a coma or not.

They didn't notice when Okita watching everything while hiding behind the shoji.

"Kh!" Okita winced as he leaned against the wall for support while staggering back to his room. "Nngh!" He grunted in pain when he fell to his knees, but he grit his teeth and pulled himself to open the door and enter. "Ah-ungh!" He fell to the floor and crawled over to his futon, where he had left his swords lying on the floor, covered in a sheen of cold sweat as he forced his trembling arms and legs to keep moving while he reached for his sword. They were going to pay for this, the people who hurt Kondo-san! Okita closed his hand around his long sword and used it to brace himself as he struggled to get back on his feet, but his sick body refused to listen. "Ungh!" Okita groaned and gasped in pain as he fell and sat back on his heels, unable to get past a kneeling position.

"No matter how much I want to kill who did this, I can't even wield a sword, huh?" He said bitterly, berating himself for having fallen into such a pathetic state while Kondo's life was in danger. Hadn't he decided long ago that he would always follow and protect Kondo-san for the kindness he had shown to a brat like him, back when everyone else was against him!? When did he become so pathetic? All he was ever good at was killing, and now he couldn't even do that…! Okita pulled the vial of Ochimizu out of his sleeve and stared at it. Nagumo Kaoru's words from that time floated through his mind.

Are you able to fight?

"I can… fight!" Okita said determinedly with a fierce gleam in his eye as sweat dripped down his pale face. He removed the stopper and quickly downed the entire contents of the vial. "!" Okita the empty vial fell from Okita's hands as he clutched at his burning throat and fell forward onto his futon, curling into a fetal position from the immense pain of the transformation taking place within the very cells of his entire body. "Ugh!" He grit his teeth as his hair began to fade to white, and his eyes shot wide open as they began to glow that eerie rasetsu red.

–∞–

BANG!

Chizuru and Sumiko, who were now outside by the well, getting cleaned up and drawing water to boil and clean the surgical tools with, looked up when they heard the sound of a gunshot echo loudly through the night.

BANG!

BANG!

"!" Both girls shuddered when an eerie sensation of dread suddenly washed over them. It wasn't the gunfire. It was something else entirely…

"What's that?" Chizuru wondered aloud nervously.

"You felt it, too?" Sumiko asked, furrowing her brow. There was something dangerous nearby. It felt similar to the foreboding sensation that had awoken them the night that rogue rasetsu broke into their room and attacked them…

They both turned when they heard the sound of running footsteps fast approaching them.

FLASH.

Sumiko's eyes widened in shock as a figure streaked across the gap between the buildings a few yards ahead, heading for the gate leading out to the city. She recognized that silhouette. His hair was pulled up in the same style as always, but now it was white, and his eyes flashed red in the dark.

"Did you just… was that…" Sumiko struggled to ask, not wanting to believe her eyes.

"Okita-san!?" Chizuru gasped, alarmed. The two girls exchanged a worried glance before quickly dropping what they were doing to run after him.

"Ah!" They both gasped in surprise when they had to skid to halt in order to avoid colliding with San'nan and Heisuke, who were on their way out for a night patrol.

"Please calm yourselves." San'nan told the girls.

"They're just trying to rile us up." Heisuke said, thinking it was the gunshots that had them wound up.

"It's not that!" Sumiko corrected them. She was relieved to see them actually, as rasetsu, they might be able to help them bring Okita back more easily than Hijikata and the others.

"Okita-san just went out on his own!" Chizuru said anxiously as she turned and ran after him without thinking.

"Ah! Chizuru!" Sumiko shouted, immediately taking off after her reckless friend.

"Wait!" Heisuke shouted as he chased after both girls. "Chizuru! Sumiko!"

"Toudou-kun!" San'nan said, though he made no move to follow them. Now was not the time to be running around blindly. Didn't they realize it could be a trap?

—∞—

BANG!

The rifleman and his pals smirked as they loaded another round and prepared to fire again.

"Ah?" He said, glancing up when he heard the sound of footsteps approaching them. They smirked when they saw the blue haori of a Shinsengumi member. "Henh. He fell for it!" He took aim at the approaching man and fired.

BANG—ZHNG!

In an instant, Okita drew his sword and deflected the bullet with its blade.

"What the hell is he!?" The rifle man exclaimed, agitated and unnerved by the inhuman display of dexterity. He and his comrades all drew their swords and took up a defensive stance as Okita drew closer and stepped out from the shadow of the row of buildings into the bright moonlight.

"Are you the ones?" He asked dangerously, glaring at them with glowing red eyes. "The ones who shot Kondo-san, that is." A bead of nervous sweat rolled down the side of the rifleman's face.

"Uh, aaah!" He yelled, charging at Okita when his 'fight or flight' instinct kicked in. Okita narrowed his eyes. Wrong choice.

SLICE.

In one swift motion, Okita decapitated the man with a one handed-swing of his blade. His sword slid through the man's throat like warm butter. The rifleman's comrades stared in horror as a blood spurted high into the air and gushed from the dead man's neck like a fountain as his body fell to the ground.

"Dammit! Now you've done it!" One of them shouted as two men ran forward to avenge their friend.

SLASH! SLICE!

"Ughh…" The two men groaned as they fell to the ground dead. They never had a chance. They had been cut down instantly at such a speed, the two attacks appeared to have occurred simultaneously.

"!" The remaining men gasped as they took a nervous step back and began to break out in a nervous sweat. This guy was no ordinary swordsman… He was a monster!

Okita continued forward, drawing a short sword from the hip of one his felled foes as he passed.

SWISH.

"Agh!?" one of the men gasped in surprise and pain when, with the flick of a wrist, Okita threw the short sword with enough force to spear him to the wall behind him.

"Ah!" The last one trembled as he stood alone to face Okita. "Yaaah!" Okita simply deflecte his blade and stabbed him through the throat, barely even pausing on his way over to finish off the guy he had pinned to the wall. The man on the wall was still alive and groaning miserably as he hang there like a fly that had pinned to a board for display. Okita yanked the sword out from the wall and let the man fall to the ground with a harsh thud before finishing him off.

"Aagh!" The man cried out in his death throes. Okita paused and turned when he felt someone approaching him from behind.

"Nagumo Kaoru." Okita said, frowning, as he took in his latest opponent's appearance. Though Kaoru was now wearing male clothing and the long hair had been cut, the face was still the same. "Was it you who shot Kondo-san?" Okita asked, narrowing his eyes dangerously at the cross-dresser.

"You drank the Ochimizu, didn't you?" Kaoru asked as Okita stalked towards him. Kaoru smirked. "To make Okita, praised as Shinsengumi's greatest swordsman, into a rasetsu is an honor."

"Just answer the question." Okita said coldly, pointing his sword at him.

"You have no proof, yet you doubt me?" Kaoru asked sardonically. Such gratitude. "Incidentally, those men were former Guardians of the Imperial Tomb. As much as they longed to avenge Itou Kashitaro, they lacked the courage to raid the magistrate's office. Maybe I advised them to lay in wait by the roadside."

"Keh!" Okita furrowed his brow and grit his teeth as he glared fiercely at Nagumo Kaoru. He didn't care what this brat's relationship was to Chizuru. He was going to kill him.

"Oh, dear. It's not as if I did it out of spite." Kaoru said mockingly with feigned concern. "Still, for the commander of the Shinsengumi to be that careless…" Okita's hand trembled with anger as he tightened his grip on his sword. "I wouldn't have dreamed it possible." Kaoru finished with a devious smirk.

CLANG!

Okita instantly shot forward and their two swords crashed together when Kaoru managed to block him.

"What are you after?" Okita demanded.

"Do you know what I've suffered since being taken in by the Nagumo family?" Kaoru asked him. His voice trembled with anger. He deflected Okita's sword and jumped back to put some distance between them as he continued to speak. "I've been the subject of humiliation, simply for not being a female oni. Meanwhile, Chizuru completely forgot about me, her older brother, and is treated as a comrade, even protected, by the humans that wiped out our family! To be unable to protect that which is dear, to be protected by no one, to not even know why you live… I want my cute little sister to experience this, the same suffering that I have!" He declared scornfully with a manic look in his wide, brown eyes.

"Hmph. How sad for you." Okita remarked derisively as he smirked and narrowed his eyes while he continued to glare at the crazy oni. The may be twins, but he was about as different from Chizuru as night from day. Chizuru would never be so pathetic to have to make others miserable in order to feel better about herself or blame her hardships on others.

"!" Kaoru said as he twitched and grit his teeth, detesting the look of superiority in Okita's eyes. "By the way, I lied." He said, quickly recovering when he remembered he still had an ace hidden up his sleeve. "That Ochimizu won't cure your tuberculosis.

"!" Okita grit his teeth and furrowed his brow, clearly shaken by the news. However, he quickly reminded himself that even if that were the case, he could at least still fight for now. He inched forward, preparing to attack.

"Okita-san!" Chizuru called out when she spotted him, alerting them to her presence as she ran down the street towards them.

"Chizuru, wait!" Sumiko shouted as she and Heisuke chased after her.

Kaoru wasted no time in leaping up and out of the way, landing on the roof of the building above. Okita furrowed his brow as he followed the oni's movements, wondering what he was trying to pull.

"Okita-san!" Chizuru called.

"Souji!" Heisuke shouted.

"Okita Souji, you are so much trouble!" Sumiko started to scold him, looking furious. "Angry grizzly bears are going to look tame next to what's waiting for you at home!"

"Chizuru-chan." Okita said as he watched them approach, ignoring Sumiko's ominous threat. He glanced back up at Kaoru and followed the oni's gaze to see what he was looking at. "!" There were two more riflemen set up in another alley between him and the others. They were aiming for Chizuru, who was ahead of the other two. "Look out!" He shouted anxiously, springing forward.

BANG!

BANG!

"Ah!" Chizuru and the others gasped and their eyes widened in horror as they skidded to a halt. Okita had thrown himself at the riflemen so that he was standing right in front of them, taking both shots at point blank range.

"!" The riflemen gasped as they stared up at the white-haired and red-eyed man who was still standing and glaring fiercely at them despite having just been shot twice. Was he some kind of monster!?

"Shit! Let's go!" one of them shouted as they both scrambled away anxiously and ran off with their tails between their legs.

"Okita-san!" Chizuru screamed as she, Sumiko, and Heisuke ran over to him.

"Okita!" Sumiko cried out in alarm as he started to fall to his knees.

"Souji!" Heisuke quickly slid over to catch Okita and break his fall.

"What a fool. Still, I thought Okita might protect you." Kaoru commented as he observed them from above, smirking. "Chizuru… you will suffer even more." He disappeared just as Sumiko glanced up in his direction.

'Was it just my imagination…?' She wondered, furrowing her brow as a bead of nervous sweat slid down the side of her face. She could've sworn she sensed someone else there…

"Souji… you became a rasetsu?" Heisuke asked the unconscious Okita grimly, furrowing his brow.

"Okita-san! Why?" Chizuru cried.

"We'll find that out later. First, we have to get him back for medical treatment. He might be a rasetsu, but these bullet wounds are no joke." Sumiko said determinedly. "Let's go."

"Hai!" Chizuru and Heisuke agreed.

–∞–

Okita lay beside Kondo now. They were both being kept in the same room to make it easier to monitor their health over night since they were both in critical condition.

"It's strange." San'nan said as he walked over to Hijikata and Inoue, carrying the small tray containing the bullets Sumiko had removed from Okita, while she finished wiping the blood from the surgery off of her hands. "Now that he's a rasetsu, extracting the bullets should make the wound heal." Was it because of his illness…?

"What are those bullets?" Hijikata asked, furrowing his brow. "They aren't lead." They were too bright and shiny for that.

"No." San'nan agreed.

"They're silver." Sumiko said, causing them to glance at her. "I bet that's why his wound isn't healing. In European legends, it's said a magic silver bullet can be used to kill vampires and werewolves, legendary creatures that seem to share many common traits with our rasetsu: varying degrees of photosensitivity, being more active at night, drinking blood, enhanced strength and healing abilities, and now an added weakness against silver. The similarities are starting to really pile up. It's giving me the chills. They were said to be monsters, but now I'm beginning to think they were humans who drank some version of the Elixir, the Western version of the Ochimizu." She said, furrowing her brow.

"You're saying you believe in magic now?" San'nan asked, raising an eyebrow. He never thought he would hear that from someone as scientifically minded as Sumiko.

"No way." She said with a wry smile. "I think everything in this world has a natural and scientific explanation, even if somethings are still beyond our current scope understanding. They probably just began to think the bullets were magic since they could bring down something that normally couldn't be killed by any other means. It's rare, but normal humans can have a silver allergy, too. The thing that sets it off isn't the silver itself, but the nickel in it. I think this is what's happening to Okita. He's having an allergic reaction to the nickel in the bullets, so his wounds can't heal properly because his immune system has received a shock and is in a panic. I can try making him a mild antihistamine, which will help ease the symptoms of the allergy, but I don't know how much help it'll be in speeding up the recovery of his wounds… I wish I had some hydrocortisone to give him too…" She said, frowning as she glanced back at the unconscious Okita and furrowed her brow. "He'll probably need a blood transfusion as well. He hasn't lost as much blood as Kondo-san, but since rasetsu naturally need more blood than regular humans, it may help him heal faster. I really wish I had brought more of my equipment from our clinic in Edo… Well, I'll figure something out. As it is, I'll need lots of help with the intensive care I'm going to have to provide for our two patients."

"At this rate, our only choice is to have Matsumoto-sensei help you treat them both." Hijikata said after a moment. Osaka was much closer than Edo. Hopefully Matsumoto-sensei would have the necessary equipment with him.

"Huh?" Chizuru said as both of the girls and Yamazaki glanced up at him.

"Hai." Yamazaki agreed, nodding in understanding. He thought that was an excellent idea.

"We'll be taking them to Osaka Castle." Hijikata stated decisively.

Two days later, Kondo-san and Okita-san were taken to Osaka for treatment. It was fourteen days before the outbreak of the Battle of Toba-Fushimi.