Chizuru sulked as she walked next to Souji on his routine patrol. She could barely sleep the night before after Kondou's meeting with the other captains, and seemed to keep herself upright on sheer willpower alone. Souji continuously watched her out of the corner of his eye, amused at her wobbly walking and worried she would fall over any second. While Souji didn't get much sleep either, he didn't look any different; he could hide his fatigue a lot better than Chizuru.
"Why the long face, Chizuru-chan?" Souji asked with his usual teasing tone.
Chizuru sighed. "I feel so useless right now. I want to help get Hijikata-san back, but I don't know how. And I can't look for my father with Hijikata-san still missing," she ranted. Souji continued to walk alongside her, listening attentively. Despite how often Souji teased Chizuru, he did care for her, deep down. Unfortunately, his upbringing at Kondou's dojo did not teach how to express himself without a sword in his hand.
Souji cleared his throat in a sarcastic manner. "Don't worry, Chizuru-chan. I'll cut down those bad guys and bring Hijikata-san back, safe and sound," he declared, playfully flexing his biceps under his sleeves. Chizuru chuckled at his impression of Shinpachi showing off.
"I will bring him back, Chizuru," he assured, his tone more serious. "And Hijikata-san is strong. He won't go down without a fight."
"I know," Chizuru responded quietly. After a few moments of silence, Chizuru started a new thought. "Can I ask you a question?" she requested. Souji didn't respond, but looked at her curiously. She took this as his sign of approval and continued. "Why do you always tease Hijikata-san?"
"In my defense, I tease everyone," Souji offered, holding his hands up in playful surrender. "In the case of Hijikata-san, he makes it so easy to push his buttons that I simply can't refuse. What is this about, exactly?"
"Nothing, really," Chizuru explained. "I just think that once we bring Hijikata-san home, you should apologize to him."
Souji looked at her with a mix of shock and confusion. "Me? Why should I apologize to him?"
Chizuru did not think about what she would say past her statement, so she immediately flustered and exclaimed, "I don't know, but I think you owe him an apology for poking fun at things he likes and wants to keep private!" With that, she ran off ahead of the patrol. Souji called her name to get her to come back, but to no avail. The other patrol members gave Souji a concerned look, to which Souji responded with, "You have something you want to say?" The soldiers immediately glanced away in fear and continued behind him.
Chizuru didn't run too far ahead of the patrol, but far enough to have her own space, and stopped just outside a tea shop to catch her breath. As she slowed her breathing, she felt her senses flare as her ears clearly picked up the conversation of a group of rogue samurai inside the tea shop.
"Hey, Sakamoto-san, are you still working at that manor house outside of town? You know, for that one weird guy?" one of them asked.
The one called Sakamoto responded, "Yeah. It's been kind of boring lately, but things just got more interesting recently." A conniving smile slid onto his face as his friends perked up in curiosity.
"Oh yeah? What's so interesting?" another samurai asked.
"Well," Sakamoto continued, "let's just say, we have a special guest staying at the house, and me and the boys have had a lot of fun roughing him up."
"Spit it out, who is it?" another samurai asked.
Sakamoto motioned for everyone to lean in towards the center of the table, which they did with excited looks on their faces. If they had to keep this secret quiet, they knew it would be good.
Sakamoto's smile spread even further across his face as he whispered, "The Demon Vice-Commander of the Shinsengumi." Chizuru's eyes widened in horror as she looked up and saw the group of men sitting at least thirty feet away from her. They leaned back into their original seats, all wearing mixed expressions of shock, intrigue, and pride. How could she possibly hear them from this distance? It had to be impossible, right? Unless… was Kazama-san right this whole time, telling her she's a Devil? Was this another Devil ability of hers that had stayed dormant until now?
"Chizuru-chan!" Souji yelled as he jogged towards her. "Why did you run away like that? I was worried–"
"Okita-san, do you trust me?" Chizuru interrupted.
Souji looked at her, confused, then paused for a moment and said, "I suppose. Why?"
"I don't know how, but I just overheard a group of men inside the tea shop talk about Hijikata-san," Chizuru explained. Souji immediately shot her a serious look and peered over her to get a good look at these men who would dare take the Shinsengumi's vice-commander.
"Did you go into the tea shop? What did they say about him?" Souji asked in a low tone.
"One of them said he's currently working at a manor on the outskirts of town, and Hijikata-san is there, too. I think they've been beating him up," Chizuru explained, with a pinch of worry in her voice.
"Which one?" Souji asked, fuming.
"The one wearing the dark red kimono. One of the men called him Sakamoto," Chizuru responded.
"You're sure about this? If you're wrong, I might have to kill you," Souji asked.
"Yes, I'm sure. Please don't kill him," Chizuru responded pleadingly.
"I won't," Souji responded calmly. "Not yet, at least." He walked back to the patrol, out of view of the rogue samurai, and motioned for one of his men to step forward.
"Give me your blues," Souji commanded. When the soldier started looking confused, Souji explained. "There's a rogue samurai inside that tea shop by the name of Sakamoto that I want you to follow. Follow him until he reaches a manor house on the outskirts of town. Report back to me tonight where that manor is. He's wearing a dark red kimono. And please be discreet. This could be a matter of life and death," he instructed. The soldier nodded along, listening attentively to Souji's orders, then when Souji finished, passed by Chizuru as if he were a complete stranger, heading in the direction of the tea shop.
"Come on, Chizuru-chan," Souji said as he looped his arm around her shoulder, "let's finish up our rounds and report back to Kondou-san. After that, you're going to explain to me how you overheard those men from over thirty feet away." Chizuru's breathing stopped for a moment as she continued to walk alongside Souji, his arm around her shoulders keeping her at his side, unable to escape. She continued to look at the ground as they pressed on, thinking up a way to explain her newfound ability to the Shinsengumi captains without getting killed.
Satoya quietly crept down the narrow staircase holding an oil lamp until she reached the cold stone floor of the cellar. She watched her footing to make sure she didn't fall. Although these steps were quite large, they were also quite steep; she almost fell the night before, and swore to herself it would never happen again.
She lifted up the lamp to illuminate four small prisoner cells, each of them surrounded by more cold and damp stone, except the entrance to each cell sported a wooden door locked in place. She held up the lamp to each wood frame to inspect the inside until she reached the last cell on the right. There she found Hijikata-san leaning against the wall furthest from the door, his clothes slightly torn and dirtied. She brought her eyes up from his shivering frame to his face. His left eye, swollen shut, and his busted lip caught her attention first; the dried stream of blood down his chin almost made him look like a vampire, or even a real devil.
Her gaze followed the stream to find a noose tight around his neck, then realized the noose connected to his bound hands behind him, like a criminal; she could see sore marks clawing at the skin on his neck. She couldn't help but feel yet another pang of sympathy hammer through her heart. What made it worse is after she tried to defend him in the courtyard, Bando forbade her from taking any food or drink from the kitchen, so she couldn't feed him. She wished she could give Hijikata something; he looked terrible, and at this rate, he could use some help.
His eyes were closed, but as Satoya approached with the lamp, they slowly opened to the dim orb of light hanging above him. As his eyes focused on Satoya, he noticed she left her mask down. His brows furrowed as much as they could, but he avoided making eye contact with her.
"What are you doing here?" he asked in a disgusted low tone, robbed of the energy he once had the day before.
"I came to see if you were still alive," she responded. "You're still my charge, after all."
Hijikata shot her the tiniest smirk. "Don't fuck with me," he huffed, trying his best not to move but still aggravating some injured areas. "We both heard your boss outside. I'm not your responsibility anymore, so what are you really doing here? Come to take another look at your trophy prisoner?"
"I came to apologize," she said quietly. "I didn't know my boss would be here so soon. I never meant for them to beat you like that."
"Spare me your pity. If you came here to kill me, just do it," Hijikata spat. For the first time in a long time, Satoya felt hurt.
"Why would I kill you?" Satoya asked, confused.
"I've heard stories through the city that an assassin has killed high-ranking government officials and patrons of the Bakufu over the past few months. An assassin by the name of Sparrow," Hijikata explained, pausing for a moment as he took in Satoya's genuinely surprised expression. He took this opportunity to lick his dry lips. "Your boss called you Sparrow when we were outside. You're the assassin, aren't you?"
Satoya closed her eyes, her secret revealed, and took a deep breath. Why did she care so much if he knew? He would've found out eventually.
"Yes, it's true," she stated calmly. Hijikata didn't react.
"Then why haven't you killed me yet?" he asked.
Satoya chuckled. "To be honest, I don't know," she replied. "My boss wants you alive, and I don't know why." She paused, then laughed more. "You know, the more you ask why I haven't killed you, the more it makes me want to kill you."
Hijikata remained quiet and still for a few moments, ignoring her statement. Then he slowly looked up at Satoya through the bars.
"Look, I appreciate what you did earlier, but don't bother. If you're not going to open this cell and get me out of here, then leave. I'm not some pet or trophy for you to gawk at," he whispered angrily. After a few more moments, he added, "Do you want to kill me?"
Satoya did not expect that question. Her smile immediately disappeared, then she swallowed dryly to clear her throat. She thought about it for a few moments, but to Hijikata, it looked more like she was afraid of answering him. She then filled the empty space between them: "No."
Hijikata chuckled. "That's funny. An assassin who doesn't want to kill," he said. Even though the lamp didn't illuminate much in the darkness, he thought for a moment he saw Satoya blush. It reminded him of Chizuru's blush when she felt embarrassed during their daily encounters, and he felt himself relax a little at the thought.
"I don't need to like what I do in order to do it well, but…" Satoya retorted. Hijikata didn't see her clench her fists, but he could hear a tremor in her voice.
"But what?" Hijikata asked.
"I have no choice. I may not be in a cell, but I'm trapped too, just like you," Satoya stated as she walked back up the stairs, lamp in hand, and shut the door behind her. She leaned against the door and took a few deep breaths. What was happening to her? She couldn't remember the last person she opened up to like that, let alone a complete stranger. Granted, she didn't open up very much to Hijikata just now, but she still gave a voice to that fact constantly itching at the back of her brain: how could she do anything else in life without being truly free?