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Chapter 43: The Fall

Hijikata and Saito worked together to dig a grave for Inoue-san while Chizuru wiped the blood from his body's face and neck, and Sano and Shinpachi took care of treating Yamazaki's wound as best as they could.

"Inoue-san…" Chizuru said sadly. "Sumiko-san…" The oni had taken her and disappeared without a trace, leaving behind no trail for them to follow.

"Those three seem to be Bakufu army samurai…" Saito said as he paused in digging and glanced over at the forgotten bodies of the three soldiers that were also in the area.

"They killed Gen-san and shot Sumiko. Just leave them." Hijikata said darkly as he continued to dig.

"How do you know that?" Chizuru asked.

"Though you faced Kazama, you didn't draw your short sword." He replied.

"Eh?"

"Knowing you, I'm sure you'd strike down Gen-san's killer. I knew that Kazama didn't kill Gen-san, and that Sumiko needed medical attention, but… At that instant, it built up inside of me. I couldn't help it. That bastard challenged me as if he'd seen through everything." He said, furrowing his brow as his voice wavered with frustration and guilt. "But don't worry about Sumiko-san. He wouldn't have bothered to wrap her up with such care if he intended to let her die. I'm sure he's taken her to have her wounds treated by Koudou-san. With herself and Yamazaki out of commission, we have no doctor left in our troop. I don't know what he wants from her, but right now, in her condition, she may be safer with them. Don't worry. Sumiko won't die so easily. We'll see her again. We'll get her back, I promise."

"Hai." Chizuru said softly as a tear rolled down her cheek.

–∞–

After helping to giving Inoue a proper burial, Chizuru faithfully relayed his final message to Hijikata, and they made their way to Osaka Castle with the other remaining four. It was a difficult journey for Yamazaki, whom they had to take turns carrying. Night had well finished falling by the time they reached the castle and reunited with Kondo and the others, only to receive some even more disheartening news.

"What do you mean, the Shogun's not here!?" Hijikata demanded incredulously, unable to believe what he had just heard.

"It was a little while before you arrived." Kondo replied calmly. "The Shogun headed for Edo, accompanied by the ruler of Aizu."

"Edo!?" Hijikata asked.

"You're saying the supreme commander turned tail and ran in the middle of battle!?" Shinpachi exclaimed incredulously.

"Do not blame the Shogun." Kondo said. "I'm sure he has his reasons."

"I couldn't care less." Hijikata said, furrowing his brow. "We stay here and fight." He had promised Chizuru they were going to get Sumiko back. They couldn't leave yet.

"However, next to no gunpowder or provisions remain in the castle." Shimada informed him regretfully as a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face.

"What was that!?" Hijikata said, furrowing his brow. Did the Shogun take it with him? They couldn't have used the entire Castle's store up so quickly!

"There's something else." San'nan said. "The Rasetsu Unit launched a nighttime attack, and most of them were killed."

"The Rasetsu Unit!?" Sano said, astonished.

"It's those silver bullets from before." Heisuke explained.

"The ones that got Souji last time, huh?" Sano asked, furrowing his brow. Heisuke nodded.

"It looks like someone on their side knows all about us."

"Even we rasetsus cannot recover from wounds made by silver bullets." San'nan said. "After we ran out of that medicine Miyagawa-san made that helped Okita-kun, our fatalities more than doubled."

"The Shogun ran off, we've got no weapons or food, our resident miracle-worker's been kidnapped… And our ace in the hole, the Rasetsu Unit, is almost wiped out, huh?" Shinpachi asked, gritting his teeth in frustration.

"Between a rock and a hard place, aren't we?" Sano commented, frowning as he furrowed his brow. If only they could have at least gotten Sumiko back…

"Hijikata-kun. Let us, too, make for Edo for now." San'nan suggested grimly. Hijikata furrowed his brow and grit his teeth.

"Dammit…!" Hijikata cursed, clenching his fist. There was no choice. With the way things were, they'd have to leave for Edo. Staying here while everyone else fled would be suicide. Sumiko's rescue would have to wait… They couldn't do anything for her if they were dead.

—∞—

"Mnh…" Sumiko mumbled as she slowly began to open her eyes and stir, wincing slightly against the bright light and sharp pain in her chest and shoulder.

"Are you awake?" A familiar voice that she hadn't expected to hear asked, causing her eyes to widened as they adjusted to the light in the room.

"Koudou-sensei!?" She exclaimed, shooting up into a sitting position despite the pain. She couldn't believe it. The man she and Chizuru had gone through so much to find, the man who had supposedly turned his back on the Bakufu, was sitting right next to the futon she was lying on, as if waiting for her. "What are you… where am I…?" She asked, lowering her voice, as she glanced cautiously around the room.

"Now, calm down. Don't strain yourself!" Koudou chided her as he gently but firmly placed a hand on her uninjured shoulder and back to guide her back down into a reclining position. "You're safe. You're inside Yodo Castle."

"Yodo… safe? You know these guys shot at me earlier today, right?" She asked, chagrined. What Kazama had said about Koudou siding with him and Satsuma really must be true if he was able to be this calm about being inside a stronghold on the Imperials' side…

"They shot at you two days ago." He corrected her. "That's how long you've been unconscious. You gave us quite a scare. When I asked you take care of Chizuru for me, this isn't what I had in mind."

"Yeah, well… stuff happened." Sumiko said, sweat-dropping, as she tried to avoid his look of stern disapproval while stuck in the futon. "Where's Chizuru? Is she safe? Kazama didn't get her, did he?" She asked, furrowing her brow with concern.

"Kazama is the one who brought you here, you know?" Koudou told her with a wry smile and a shake of his head. "He saved your life. Would it be so bad for him to have brought Chizuru along as well? To be honest, I was surprised he left her behind with the Shinsengumi. I think she would be much safer here, unless you know something I don't…" He added with a pointed look.

"Two days, huh?" Sumiko said, frowning, as she furrowed her brow again. "That makes this, what?"

"February 2nd." Koudou replied calmly. "Is that significant?"

"It's the fall of Osaka Castle." Sumiko replied with a tired sigh. "Hijikata-san and the others were supposed to be headed there, but you don't have to worry. Whatever happens, those guys'll protect Chizuru, and they'll already be long gone by the time the Imperial forces show up to take it. I don't know if you know this yet, but the Shogun fled the same night I got shot. Once the Bakufu forces learned their leader left, they followed."

"Hmm?" Kazama hummed curiously from the doorway, alerting them to his presence. "I see you're speaking of events that have yet to transpire in the past-tense." He remarked as he entered the room. "Is it because you're from the future, Miyagawa Sumiko?" He asked with a smirk as he looked down at her. She was looking much better now that the color was back in her cheeks, but he could do without the glare she was giving him.

"Sensei… Why did you ever tell this guy about that?" She asked sternly, glancing over at Koudou as the crease in her brow deepened. "You swore you'd never tell anyone! I only told you because you were there, and I thought you deserved to know what kind of person you were taking in, since you went out of your way to help me."

"Well, given how your first encounter with Kazama-san went, I thought it might help your chances of survival if I gave him a reason to keep you alive… I was trying to keep something like this from happening. Don't worry, Kazama-san is the only who knows." Koudou said with another pointed look, gesturing to her almost fatal wounds. "Though, it seems you're still reluctant to take me at my word…" He added with a glance at the other oni.

"Well, normally no one would." Sumiko said reasonably. "Not without any proof."

"Hmph." Kazama smirked. "I still don't see how you can expect me to believe such a story when someone who should know better chooses to fight on the losing side and allows herself to be shot like this."

"I'm not omniscient, okay? I've just had a sneak peak at what's around the corner, is all." She retorted with a frown. "As for picking the 'losing' side, I did know, aside from the being shot part, how this was going to turn out. But what was I supposed to tell those guys? Don't fight, you'll lose? Switch sides while you still can? As if they'd have gone for that. You're right, I could've avoided the battle if I'd wanted, but they're my friends. I wasn't about to let them walk into hell alone. But whatever. It's better if you don't believe me. Saves me the trouble of being shaken like a Magic 8 Ball by someone every time there's a situation."

"Friends?" Koudou asked, blinking. "Weren't you being held captive by them?" He asked as he furrowed his brow, looking troubled.

"Maybe in the beginning, but now they treat me like one of the guys, and Chizuru's pretty much become our little 'Hime-sama'." She said with a wry smile. "They let us come and go as we please, and we help them out with odd jobs here and there to earn our keep. If there was a guard on us, it was meant to be a deterrent against kidnappers." She added, shooting pointed look at Kazama.

"As if that would have stopped me."

"It did a few times."

"Yo!" Shiranui said as he stepped in through the doorway, followed by Amagiri. "I see you two are getting along just as well as always."

"It's time for us to go." Amagiri stated calmly. "Satsuma wishes to send us out ahead to gauge the situation at Osaka Castle before sending in the rest of the troops."

"Hmph. We'll finish this later." Kazama told Sumiko as he stood up and turned to leave. "Incidentally, what do you think we'll find there?" He asked, pausing to glance back at her.

Sumiko furrowed her brow and frowned, wondering if it was a good idea to confirm her status as a time traveler. She didn't know why Kazama had bothered to save her, since she was always getting in his way, but…

"The castle will be surrendered without resistance." She replied after a moment of silence. "Satcho will seize and burn it to the ground. Osaka Castle will be in ruins before the end of the day. This event signals the official start of the Bakufu's fall from grace." As much as she didn't want to, Koudou had a point. She needed to make herself useful enough to be kept alive until she was well enough to escape.

Shiranui let out a low whistle.

"Wow. Not much confidence in your friends, huh?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "You don't think they'd stay so they could try to get you back?"

"I'd never forgive them if they did." Sumiko said, frowning as she furrowed her brow. "Everyone else on the Bakufu side will have left. Staying would be suicide. I'd much rather they lived to fight another day, wouldn't you?"

"Heh. Yeah." Shiranui said with a rueful grin. "I still haven't finished my match with Harada yet. It'd suck if he let someone else take him out before then."

"Well, that's not quite what I meant…" Sumiko said sweat-dropping, as she watched the three oni leave to carry out their mission. "Anyway, Sensei," Sumiko said as she turned her head to glance back at Koudou, "there's still a lot that I—"

SMACK.

"!" Sumiko exclaimed, surprised when the older man suddenly delivered a swift smack to her forehead with the palm of his hand. "Ow! What was for!?"

"Don't do things like this in the future!" He said sternly, referring to her gunshot wounds. "Chizuru isn't the only one who's important to me. I care about both of you girls. I never told you this before, because I didn't know how, but… I didn't just take you in out of the kindness of my heart that night I first found you."

"Eh?" Sumiko said as she paused in rubbing her sore head to stare up at him in confusion. "Sensei, what do you…?"

"I used to have a sister." Koudou said with a kind, sad smile as he stared down at her with a far off look in his eyes. "A half-sister, to be more precise. We had the same mother but different fathers. Even though my father was a lesser oni, and she had special powers that were rare even for the most pureblooded oni, she never looked down on me or treated me like I was inferior. She was always a very happy and lively girl, kind to everyone… but that all changed when she reached a marriageable age. A prestigious oni clan from Tosa, had their eye on her. They wanted her to marry the heir of their main branch, but she refused, claiming she had already fallen in love with someone else. Our parents continued to pressure her to accept the arranged marriage, claiming it would be good for her and the family, but in the end she eloped with the human man that she had been seeing in secret. We were all shocked. Even I hadn't known about him, but she was already pregnant and couldn't bear the thought of marrying any man other than the father of her child. While the Yukimura clan was still stunned by this development, the other oni clan took it as a grave insult and hunted my sister. When I heard what they were up to, I tried to find her and warn her before they could get to her, but I was too late. They killed her human lover when he stayed behind to by time for her to flee and give birth. They wanted to kill their child as well to punish her for 'shaming' them, but when they found her, she had already given birth, and the child was gone. They questioned her, but she refused to give any details, saying only that she had sent it 'somewhere safe and far beyond their reach'. I arrived just in time to witness her commit suicide in order to avoid being taken by them…" Koudou finished regretfully, clenching his fists as he stared down morosely at the floor. "For the longest time, I thought my both my sister and the infant had perished, but then, about five years ago, when I was walking back home one night from making an emergency house call… a girl suddenly appeared in the middle of a dark street in a bright flash of light." He said, glancing up at her with a wan smile. "You looked so much like my sister, that at first I thought you might be her ghost. I wasn't sure at first, but the longer you stayed with us, the more certain I became that you had to be my sister's missing child." Sumiko's eyes widened as she stared up at him in astonishment.

"But, I…"

"Came from the future? Yes, that threw me through a loop as well. But as I mentioned before, my sister was said to have had mysterious powers, even for an oni. And the charm you had on you at the time, the one you said you'd had ever since they found you and brought you to the orphanage as an infant, was something that belonged to her. She used to have one just like it in her possession before she passed away, but it disappeared along with the infant. Magatama are said to be stones of power. I think she used it to cast some kind of spell to send you 'somewhere safe and far away', and as a result, you were sent to the future. And then, when your life was in danger in the future, it acted on its own to bring you back to the past to save you again. I know this whole time you've been worried because you felt like you didn't really belong in this world, but I think you were meant to come here. You might have grown up in the future, but you were born in the past. You belong here, with us." He said, smiling as he placed his hands on her shoulders. Sumiko stared up at the ceiling as she tried to take it all in and process everything she had just heard. It was a good thing she was already lying down, because her head was spinning. She didn't know what to think. All this time, she thought she had been abandoned. She had been walking on eggshells and constantly worrying about whether or not she would ever be able to return to future, because she thought she didn't belong in this time… And now…

A tear slid down the side of her face as one of her oldest memories floated to the surface of her mind. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly as she tried not to cry.

"Sumiko…?" Koudou said worriedly, furrowing his brow in concern. "Sumiko, please. I know it's been hard on you, but please don't hate your mother. She only did it to protect you."

"I wasn't just abandoned… Deep down, I always…" Sumiko said, holding her hands over her face to cover her eyes as she cried. "I don't know whether it's real or just a dream, but… my earliest memory is that person's crying face. Her tears kept falling as she apologized over and over again before letting me go. It's hard to hate someone after seeing them like that… I knew she hadn't done it lightly, but now I know… I finally know how much they really loved me, my birth parents. I was wanted a child, after all...!"

"Of course you were." Koudou said, smiling wanly as he gently placed a reassuring hand on top of her head and stroked her hair, like he used to do for Chizuru when she was younger. "And you still are. So don't do such reckless things, like playing catch with bullets anymore, okay? Don't make me bury my niece, too."

"Hai…" Sumiko said, sniffing, as she wiped her tears and smiled for him.