Previously:

"She asked if I was going to fight that man again." He said with a slight frown.

"Are you?" Sumiko asked.

"An oni keeps his promises. I will finish things with him." Kazama answered seriously, looking her straight in the eyes. "I swore that I would."

"…" The crease in Sumiko's brow deepened as she stared back at him. His resolve was clear as day. He was determined to do this, even if it meant losing his status with his clan. There was nothing she could say or do to change his mind. She let out a heavy sigh. If that's how things were going to be, then she would need to start taking steps of her own. She had loitered around here long enough. "I see." Sumiko said, closing her eyes for a moment before walking over to Chizuru and gently talking her friend's hands in her own. "Chizuru, I'll be going with Kazama now. You should hurry up and go to Hijikata-san."

"!" Chizuru's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Sumiko…?"

"Don't worry." Sumiko told her with a soft smile. "Whatever happens, I'll always be on your side. We're friends aren't we? More than that, we're family. This goodbye isn't forever. We'll see each other again. I'm sure of it. Hijikata-san may think he's doing this for you, but the truth is he's just afraid to lose any more of the people he cares about. I know, because I've been there myself. But life doesn't work that way. Unexpected things are always going to happen. But that's why it's so important to hold onto the ones you love and be with them as much as you can, while you can. We can't let fear keep us from living. Being deeply loved gives you strength; loving deeply gives you courage. So go to him, and this time, don't take 'no' for answer!" She finished determinedly, giving Chizuru's hands a light squeeze of encouragement.

"Sumiko-san… Hai!" Chizuru said, nodding her head as she smiled with renewed determination.

Chapter 61: Closer

While Chizuru stayed behind in Sendai, Sumiko and Kazama returned to the girls' home in Edo, because Sumiko would need some equipment she could only get there, and some of her more delicate equipment had been damaged from being jostled around in her tansu with too much running, and it was going to take a while for the replacement parts that she needed to order from the blacksmith and glassblower to be ready.

"How long is it going to take for everything to be ready?" Kazama asked Sumiko as she was making dinner. He was watching her cook. She looked rather fetching in the kimono she had on. She had started dressing as a woman again now that they were back at her home. He was glad her bangs were pulled up again. Her face was much too pretty to hide behind them.

"Just a few more minutes," she replied with her eyes on the food she was making.

"Not that. I was talking about those parts you ordered," Kazama said.

"Don't worry. It'll all be ready by the time we need it. We can't do anything before April anyway," Sumiko said.

"Why not?" Kazama asked, frowning.

"Because the Imperial ships won't land in Ezo until then," Sumiko said. "And Hijikata-san isn't supposed to die until June 20, 1869. So I would appreciate it if you would wait until then to fight him. If he dies before that time, it'll cause major problems and disrupt the timeline. Of course, I'd prefer it if you didn't kill him at all..."

"You are going to a lot of trouble to save him, after all," Kazama said, jealous.

"Well, he's my friend, and it would devastate Chizuru if he died," Sumiko said.

"Is that all?" Kazama asked seriously.

"Yes, it is," Sumiko said firmly, bringing the finished food over to the table so they could eat. "If you're worried I'm going to try to run off into the sunset with him, don't be. It's not going to happen. I promised I'd marry you, and I will." Kazama thought she could stand to sound a little happier about it than that. Sumiko was a little surprised when he came up behind her and put his arms around her, holding her close. "Kazama?"

"If I left Chizuru alone whether you married me or not... would you still marry me?" Kazama asked.

"Huh?" Sumiko said, a little taken aback. She managed to get a look at his face and saw that he was wearing an incredibly serious expression. So she gave him a serious answer. "Yes, I would," she said, giving him a small but very real smile. "Although, it would probably have taken longer for you to get me to seriously consider it," she admitted a little wryly.

"Is that so?" Kazama said, looking relieved and very pleased. His usual confident smirk came back. "I'm sure I would have found a way to persuade you..." His hands started to travel to more intimate areas. Sumiko blushed deeply as she grabbed his hands and held them to prevent them from wandering over her body.

"Not until after we're married!" she said firmly.

"You're so strict," Kazama said, pouting. "Then let's get married now."

"We already agreed that we would get married after we've settled everything regarding your rivalry with Hijikata-san and my attempts to save him," Sumiko reminded him. "Besides, I want Chizuru to be at our wedding."

"You should have said so before we left her," Kazama said, annoyed. He wondered now why he had made such a promise. Waiting was too hard. "You're using that as an excuse, aren't you? You don't want to marry me after all..."

"That's not true," Sumiko said, frowning a little in annoyance.

"Then prove it," Kazama challenged her.

"How?" she asked.

"Kiss me," he said. Sumiko's cheeks began to turn red as she stared at him.

"W-What? Just like that?" she said a little nervously. It wasn't as though she had never initiated a kiss with someone before, but she felt like a deer caught in a pair of headlights after suddenly being put on the spot like that.

"Just like that," Kazama confirmed, suppressing a smirk at how cute she was when she was flustered.

"A-all right..." Sumiko said a bit shyly. Her cheeks were bright red as she moved closer to him and closed her eyes as she brought her lips to meet his. She kissed him lightly on the lips, but before she could pull away, Kazama pulled her closer and deepened the kiss. Sumiko was overcome with the suspicion that she had walked right into a trap. But even if it was a trap, she wasn't sure she wanted to escape. Kazama was an excellent kisser, and she could feel herself melting. She was actually disappointed when he pulled away, but she gasped for air while she had the chance.

"Ah, that was a mistake..." Kazama said while he continued to hold her, frowning and furrowing his brow slightly, looking troubled.

"Huh?" Sumiko said, confused. Did he not like it?

"I want more," he said, looking at her with piercing red eyes filled with desire. Sumiko knew her cheeks were red again.

"If, if it's just kissing..." she said, inviting him to start again. Kazama grinned and kissed her before she could change her mind. He kissed her until she was dizzy, and then the room seemed to move as her back touched the floor. In her haze of pleasure and desire, Sumiko became aware that she was lying underneath Kazama, and he was tugging her kimono open at the top and sliding it down her shoulders. "Wait—" she gasped as his lips left hers to leave a trail down her neck that led to her chest. She could feel that her breasts were about to be exposed. "I said—wait!" she scolded Kazama with a small vein throbbing on her head as she grabbed his hands to stop him before that could happen, holding them in place. "I said it was okay as long as it was only kissing!"

"I am only kissing you," Kazama said innocently.

"Not there!" Sumiko snapped, blushing furiously. "Not yet, anyway..." she added under her breath, avoiding eye contact as her face turned beet red.

"Oh? I'll look forward to it, then," Kazama said slyly, looking excited.

"Can't you show even a little remorse?" Sumiko asked, furrowing her brow a little bit.

"I'm kissing a beautiful woman. What is there to be remorseful about?" Kazama said.

"How about that fact that if you go too far, I won't let you do it again?" Sumiko retorted with a straight face. Kazama looked truly disappointed.

"And if I promise to behave myself and not go any further tonight?" he asked.

"Then... I have no objections," Sumiko said. The truth was she didn't really want to stop, but she wanted Kazama to respect her boundaries. Kazama smirked victoriously.

"And my hands can stay where they are?" he asked.

"Hands?" Sumiko said, blinking. She suddenly realized that she was holding his hands directly over her breasts, which were thankfully still covered by her kimono. She gasped and quickly moved his hands to her shoulders as she said, "No, they cannot!"

"Ah, so strict," Kazama sighed, but his crimson eyes twinkled with amusement. Sumiko frowned a little at him, but she let him kiss her again. Their food lay forgotten on the table and grew cold before they finally got around to eating it.

—∞—

The next day, Sumiko reopened the clinic, deciding it would be better for her to work in the meantime. She had Kazama help her to keep him out of trouble.

"Oh my, what a handsome man!" one of the older ladies in the neighborhood, Minoshita-san, said when she saw him.

"I am Kazama Chikage, Sumiko's betrothed," Kazama introduced himself.

"Betrothed?" Minoshita-san asked, surprised, looking at Sumiko for confirmation. Sumiko nodded, trying not to blush but failing. "Oh, that's wonderful!" the older woman said kindly, truly happy for her. "You're not getting any younger, so we were starting to worry about you!"

"I'm only thirty-one..." Sumiko said wryly.

"Yukimura-sensei and Chizuru-chan must be so happy for you!" Minoshita-san said as if she hadn't heard her, making Sumiko sweat-drop.

"Ah, about Yukimura-sensei..." Sumiko said as her expression fell. The rest of the neighborhood didn't know his fate yet. "I'm afraid he won't be coming back."

"Why ever not?" Minoshita-san asked curiously. Sumiko took the older lady's hand in her own. She and Koudou had been good friends, so she tried to let her down as gently as possible.

"I'm sorry," Sumiko told her. Tears began to form in her eyes at the memory of his violent death at the hands of his own rasetsus when he shielded Chizuru from them. "Yukimura-sensei... has passed away."

"Ohh!" Minoshita-san gasped and her knees nearly buckled from shock, but Sumiko held her steady. "How did such a thing happen?"

"We were in Sendai when... I'm sorry. It's still too difficult to talk about it," Sumiko said, allowing herself to shed a few tears. She really hoped the older woman wouldn't ask for more details until she had thought of a decent cover story that didn't involve rasetsus.

"Oh, of course, dear. You poor thing. You were with him when it happened?" Minoshita-san said, petting Sumiko's hand to comfort her.

"Yes. I couldn't save him," Sumiko said mournfully. She truly regretted that, even thought it had probably been for the best, after everything he had done.

"Ohh!" Minoshita-san said sympathetically. "And Chizuru-chan? Surely she's not..."

"Oh, no! Chizuru is fine," Sumiko reassured her quickly. "She's still in Sendai."

"I see. She couldn't bear to leave him, huh?" Minoshita-san said, nodding her head in understanding. "I must admit, I am surprised you two aren't together, though."

"Well, I needed to replace some of my medical equipment, and we thought it was about time someone came home to check on all of you. We've been gone for much longer than we intended," Sumiko said. "Sorry about that."

"Don't be. We were all concerned when you stopped hearing from him," Minoshita-san said. "You shouldn't be working today. Not after whatever you've been through."

"No, working helps take my mind off of it. So, how can I help you today?" Sumiko asked with a smile, drying her tears.

"Oh, my joints are aching again, but I've run out of that pepper cream you made for me, and the poultices another doctor recommended for me are inconvenient for when I need to move around. They always move or fall off," Minoshita-san said.

"Then I'll make more for you. I'll bring it to you later," Sumiko said kindly.

"Oh, thank you," Minoshita-san said, looking relieved. "It's so nice to have you back. My son bought too many radishes. I'll bring some by."

"Thank you very much," Sumiko said, giving the older woman a smile as they waved goodbye to each other while Minoshita-san walked off to continue going about her business.

"Pepper cream?" Kazama asked.

"The capsaicin in peppers can provide immediate, temporary relief from pain caused by various forms of arthritis," Sumiko explained. "She rubs the cream into the skin over her aching joints, and it helps her feel better."

"I see," Kazama said.

After that, there was a steady stream of patients and well-wishers who had heard about their engagement from Minoshita-san. There were also a few women who just wanted to gawk at Kazama.

'There's absolutely nothing wrong with her...' Sumiko thought, a little chagrined that a young woman, Watanabe Reiko, had come in with a false complaint about a sprained ankle just so she could stare at Kazama. Reiko had been a kid when she and Chizuru left, but now she was eighteen and irritatingly beautiful. "Can you get me two packets out of that drawer over there?" Sumiko asked him, pointing to the one she was talking about.

"Sure," Kazama said. He crossed the room to get the packets for her.

"However did you snag such a gorgeous man?" Reiko whispered to Sumiko.

"Just lucky, I guess," Sumiko said as she accepted the packets from Kazama and placed them in Reiko's hand. "Take one of these at your next two meals, and you should feel better by the end of the day."

"Okay, thank you!" Reiko said cheerfully, smiling as she stole another look at Kazama. "I'll be sure to come back if anything else is bothering me," she added brightly.

'Just don't make anything else up,' Sumiko thought, annoyed. She had the feeling Reiko was going to become a hypochondriac. Hopefully those vitamin powders she gave her would be so nasty that she would think twice before she did it again, if she bothered to take them. Sumiko glanced sideways at Kazama. It seemed to her that he either didn't notice or didn't care that he was being admired by the other women.

"Yes?" he said.

"Nothing," Sumiko said, but he noticed that she seemed a little more protective of him around other women, which made him happy to know that she was capable of becoming a little jealous, too.

—∞—

Later, Sumiko was doing the washing up for the used tools and empty medicine jars. Kazama was watching her again. It seemed to her that he did that a lot. She figured he must be bored with nothing else to do.

"You could help," she said with a sigh, tired after a long day.

"How?" Kazama asked, moving closer. "I've never done anything like this before."

"Never?" Sumiko asked.

"Never," Kazama said. "Unless you count how I maintain my own sword."

"Oh, that's right. You're the head of your family, right? Does that mean you were like a 'young master' growing up?" Sumiko asked.

"Something like that," Kazama said. "Are you interested in me?"

"Maybe," Sumiko said a little slyly.

"I'm interested in you, too," Kazama said, smirking as he moved even closer, so that he was only a couple of inches away from her.

"Good. Then we can talk about it while you help me clean," Sumiko said with a bright smile. Kazama couldn't help feeling that he had been tricked, but he went along with it and let Sumiko show him how to do the washing up. It seemed simple enough, but the small jar he started with somehow slipped from his grip and popped out of his hand to land on the floor next him, breaking into pieces. "Yeah... Please try to avoid that," Sumiko said wryly as she set down the jar she was working on and moved to carefully collect the pieces of the one Kazama broke. The breaks were clean and the pieces were large. "Fortunately, we should be able to glue it back together..."

"... Sorry," Kazama apologized.

"It's all right. It wasn't anything important," Sumiko said, giving him an encouraging smile. She didn't want him to get discouraged and quit.

"I really want to make you mine when you look at me like that," Kazama said frankly.

"I'll be more careful in the future..." Sumiko said, wishing he wasn't quite so easy to provoke.

"... I'm sorry," Kazama apologized again.

"I told you, it's not a big deal," Sumiko said dismissively.

"No, about my position," Kazama said. "I'm going to lose it if I continue on my current course. When you marry me, I won't be the head of my family anymore."

"I realize that," Sumiko said. "It must be hard for you."

"Is that all you have to say?" he asked.

"What would you like me to say?" she asked.

"Are you not disappointed?" Kazama asked. He thought Sumiko could have been great ruling over the family by his side. She would have been good for them.

"This is probably a terrible thing to say, but... I'm actually relieved," Sumiko admitted. "If I had to take over such a high position, I probably would have needed lessons on how to handle it and present myself and so on. And I've never really been comfortable with the idea of having so many restrictions and expectations placed on me. I like who I am now." Kazama watched her clean another jar with practiced ease. Martial arts, medical knowledge, and domestic skills. She was such a capable woman. He had seen how respected she was by the people around her that day. He wouldn't want her to change, and he wouldn't have expected her to, but now that he thought about it, others certainly would have wanted her to change before they accepted her as his wife. He was sure she could rise to the challenge, but...

"I like you best the way are you are now, too," he agreed. Sumiko smiled, looking relieved. He was the one who was relieved. He regretted that he wouldn't be able to give her the grand wedding she deserved. She was basically marrying into nothing. Well, not that he was nothing, but without his family's connections, his influence was drastically reduced, and he couldn't touch his family's fortune.

"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll find something you want to do," Sumiko said. "And I don't intend to stop practicing medicine, so we'll always have income from that. It's perfectly normal for women to work, too, in the future," she added when she thought he might object.

"Hmph. No matter what I say, you won't change your mind about that, will you?" Kazama said. He didn't need to look at her face to know that her expression would back that decision up one hundred percent. "Very well. It would be a shame to stop an artist from practicing their craft." Her skills were far beyond that of a normal doctor, from what he had heard. It would be a pity to waste them.

"Thank you," Sumiko said, glad he understood.