Cover by このえ. This story was made for the Heisuke2020 event ! I hope you will like it, it is my first Heisuke story ever so I'm not sure about it but hey, I tried.
Unofficial Rescue mission
« Yukimura fled. »
The announcement of Hijikata-san sounded like a cannonball in the meeting room. It was true that the kid had been terrified to be in the headquarters at the beginning but after a few months, she seemed more relax, more at ease with each and every one of them. They weren't sure if she was to be treated as a comrade yet and they stayed cautious but never would they have expected her to fool them enough to be able to flee right under their nose.
« Saito. » ordered Hijikata-san before anyone could oppose « you take care of that. »
« Ha, Fukuchô. »
There was no question to be asked. Saito was the one in charge to execute deserters and everyone knew it. Sending him to catch Yukimura was a death sentence.
« Ho... Hold on, Hijikata-san ! » yelled Heisuke « isn't that a bit fast ?! »
« Kid's been warned. She runs, she dies. » stated Hijikata, crossing his arms « she hasn't been there long but she knows about the Rasetsu, that's the reason why she's here in the first place. We can't afford to have her spurting informations out of our headquarters. »
« Can I do it ? » asked Okita, a glimmer in his eyes « or go with Hajime-kun ? »
« Whatever. » sighed the vice-commander, knowing that that brat would do what he wants to do despite all the orders he could give. « You two turn the whole city upside down and find her. »
« Can we at least bring her back here to give her a chance to explain herself ? » asked Harada, confused « are we sure she's not in danger somewhere ? »
« She's been forbidden to go out the headquarters without at least one of us. » stated Hijikata again, a vein of annoyance popping out his forehead.
« Maybe she was kidnapped ! » yelled Heisuke « Chizuru-chan wouldn't go without a very good reason ! »
« Yeah, gotta align with Heisuke there » nodded Shinpachi « She's been helping around, cooking, cleaning... that's not the behavior of a traitor. »
« It is exactly the behavior of a traitor » corrected Sannan with his laconic voice, glum as ever since his arm was of no use « to lure us into inaction, make us believe she's inoffensive and then betray. »
« Sannan's right. » nodded Hijikata « Plus, do you really think some bastard could come and kidnap Yukimura without us noticing a damn thing ? And why Yukimura ? She has no political or military value whatsoever. She fled. Period. Breaking the rules is death penalty. Now, everybody dismisses. »
Everyone stood up in the meeting room and Heisuke, panicked, saw that Okita and Saito were already going out to find the girl. He had no doubt these two wouldn't bother to bring her back alive to the headquarters, Saito because of orders and Okita... well, because Okita.
« I wonder why she fled » sighed Harada next to him « I mean, I figure we can be scary for a young lady but still, she was safe here. »
« Yeah, well, when you see how the Shinsengumi handles her getting away, I can't blame her for trying. » sighed, Shinpachi, showing the two men getting out the compound with a thumb over his shoulder.
« Souji probably scared her away. » continued Sano « filling her head with death threats and stuff. »
That was enough for Heisuke. He wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed but that girl, she was nice and she was his friend. He had to find her before Saito and Okita, at least to give her a chance to explain. These two won't let her. Clenching his fists, he started running towards the exit, deaf to the protestations of his friends. He quickly got pass the first and third divisions captains and kept running.
« Hey, Heisuke ! » called Okita with a chuckle « where're you running ? »
« I'm gonna get Chizuru-chan ! » he yelled in response « don't you dare get to her before me ! »
« Ara, that's making things interesting... » commented Okita « Don't you agree, Hajime-kun ? »
If the latter answered, Heisuke didn't hear him, his legs moving like those of a deer. In the capital, he started at the logical choice for Chizuru to be : the market. If she didn't flee, this was the only destination he could think of. He started to ask around, asking people about a young man, around his age, with a white hakama, a ponytail and a salmon kimono... a kodachi on the side... He tried every merchant but no one seemed to have witnessed her until he heard one of them call him.
« Hey, young man ! Isn't it a girl you're after ? »
Heisuke turned to the merchant, sure that he saw Chizuru. How else could he devine her to be a girl with the description he gave ? He surely had seen her with his own eyes and noticed her big chestnut eyes, her round face and her delicate features that were way too pretty to be a boy's.
« Yeah ! Yeah, a girl ! » he nodded vigorously « in a hakama ! »
« I saw her this morning. » said the merchant « pretty early. She left with some ronins. »
Ronins ? Why would Chizuru-chan leave with some ronins ? The only roshi she should be with were Shinsengumi ones !
« Where did she go ? » he asked, angry and grabbing the merchant by his collar, surprising him with this sudden violence.
« They took her ! » he said « she yelled and everything but two of them held her by the shoulders and forced her to go ! »
« Forced her ? » he repeated, astonished « where ? Who were these guys ?! »
« I don't know ! » said the merchant, terrified now « they had an accent from the west but that's all I can say ! »
An accent from the west... They could be Choshu or Satsuma... maybe another domain of the west... Probably not loyalists... What could be their business with Chizuru ? It didn't make any sense. Heisuke got loose of the merchant's collar and ran in the opposite way to go investigate the Choshu and Satsuma estates. When he got to the Satsuma one, he asked around again and got confirmation that Chizuru was indeed inside, and not from her own volition. She had been brought here flanked by ronins who then exited the manor with playful banters and hands full of money but without the girl. She had been sold to the Satsuma... Why ? What value could Chizuru have ?
He didn't know what she was going through inside but he already saw Hijikata, Okita or Saito torture to get informations and that wasn't pretty ! No way he could let Chizuru endure that ! If he had more time, he would have got back to the compound, ask for reinforcements from his division or Nagakura and Harada's. Yet, time wasn't on his side, neither on Chizuru's. She could be suffering like hell in here...
« Shit ! » he cursed before looking around to find a way to enter the estate unnoticed.
He had never been on spying missions the way Yamazaki, Shimada or Saito did but he was a good climber. Hell, he was nicknamed « the monkey » in his early years ! Noticing a piece of wall that could be easier to climb, he started his ascent, careful not to let anyone see him, and dropped silently on the autumn leaves mat on the other side. Yosh, that was stealth ! He could goad about it to the others later, when he'll come back victorious with Chizuru. He stayed back to the wall, walking while crouching to kept hidden by the decorative elements of the beautiful garden and noticed a half closed window. He looked left and right and slid himself inside the manor. Now he had to find Chizuru. Was it normal for this place to be so silent ? When Kondou was going to the Aizu estate, it was always buzzing with activity... Heisuke expected the Satsuma one to be a bit the same... That silence wasn't really reassuring. There were no guards, no officials, not even women or maids...
« Chizuru ? » he dared to ask, whispering a bit loud for her to hear him but still whispering because he wasn't stupid enough to start yelling in the tiger's den.
No answers and so, he started walking in the empty corridors, careful, his heart madly pumping adrenaline through his body.
« Chizuru ? » he asked again and he heard something like a shattering bowl on the ground.
It was the first sound for him to hear since he was here and it couldn't be a coincidence that it came at the exact same moment he called her name. She must be there ! He went in the direction of the sound and slid a shoji.
As soon as he saw her, a swirling tempest of relief and anger cursed through his veins. She was gagged and her feet and wrists tightly bond together. Her foot was bleeding a bit because of the shards of ceramic that she probably managed to break to get his attention. He rushed to her side and took off the cloth from her mouth to allow her to speak and breath better.
« Chizuru ! »
« Heisuke ! » she started crying « I'm sorry ! »
« It's okay, Chizuru ! » he said, trying to unbond her feet « I'm gonna get you out of here ! »
Yet, before he could, he felt a sharp dull pain in his temple and fell. The only sound he heard before his world became black was the girl he loved screaming his name.
When he woke up, he was tied in the state she was and gagged too. There were two guys in front of them that had a satisfied grin on their face.
« So the ronins weren't mistaken then. » commented one of them « that girl has connections with the Shinsengumi. Are you one of their soldiers, boy ? »
So they don't know who I am then ? Not gonna tell them... I need to find a way to get us both out of here.
« I don't think he can answer if you keep him gagged. » commented the second one and the first snarled before coming closer to take off the cloth out of Heisuke's mouth.
As soon as he was close enough, the eighth division's captain bit him with all the strength he could put in his jaw and the man screamed in pain and tried to get his hand back but Heisuke's teeth wouldn't release him until the second one kicked him violently in the stomach.
The first was abundantly bleeding while his comrade had trouble to hide his hilarity.
« Yep. That's a Shinsengumi mad dog, alright ? » he chuckled « nothing more than a rabid beast. »
« Come closer and you'll see the beast I can be. » said Heisuke with hatred.
Yet the two man did no such thing and they left to treat the injury, threatening the prisoners to come back soon. Alone with Chizuru, Heisuke sighed.
« Why did you leave, Chizuru-chan ? » he asked « You're lucky I found you first... »
If the girl was making tremendous efforts to answer, it didn't help him understand a thing under that gag. Shit... What a pathetic savior... Now he was captured just like her... That's not what a real man like Sano or Shin would have done...
Chizuru writhed next to him and managed to put her back against his. It was nice to feel her warmth... and the... What was that ?
He took the thing in Chizuru's hands and it seemed to be a piece of the broken vase she exploded. The guards had picked them all but they didn't check the girl's hands. That was their way out.
« Great, Chizuru ! » he praised, working the shard on his ropes « You're so smart ! »
In no time, he got his hands free and soon enough, his feet. He ungagged the girl again and detached her limbs, giving her a hand to get up.
« Okay. » he said « we need to find my swords and your kodachi and get the fuck out. Can you walk ? »
« Y... Yes ! » she stuttered.
« Stay near me. » he ordered « I'm taking you back home. »
The girl nodded but before they could get out, they heard ruckus outside and Heisuke put Chizuru behind him, ready to jump feet first on the first person to enter their cell. The shoji slid and Heisuke attacked, his limb deflected by a wooden rod that then landed on the top of his head.
« Aoutch ! » he complained « Sano ! Shit, that hurts ! Whatcha doing here ?! »
« Rescuing a maiden. Two maidens, I guess. » smiled his friend, Nagakura behind him laughing his ass off.
« How'd you know we were there ? » asked Heisuke, massaging his painful scalp.
« Yamazaki alerted us about an ugly monkey spotted entering the Satsuma estate. Come on, we don't have much time, Saito and Souji are cleaning things up in the garden. » explained Nagakura, throwing his swords to the small captain.
« No way these two get close to Chizuru ! » yelled Heisuke as Sano was giving her back her kodachi.
« It's fine, we're taking her back. » nodded Harada « quick, if a Satsuma official sees the Shinsengumi here, the Aizu's gonna be in a terrible mess and Hijikata-san's gonna pull all his hair off his scalp. »
They ran to the inner garden and found Okita and Saito there, surrounded by corpses. The first one was grinning widely when he adressed them.
« Mission accomplished. » he stated « I don't think anyone here will be able to give our description. »
« We shall go. » nodded Saito, confirming that all the witnesses had been taken care of.
They all went back to the compound together and Okita and Saito insisted for Chizuru to be locked up until the vice-commander made a decision on her account. She was still a deserter, even with these new evidences. Had she been inside the headquarters as instructed, she wouldn't have been captured. Hijikata-san organised a meeting to give Chizuru a chance to explain herself and she shamefully admitted that when she went grocery shopping the other day, she misjudged their supply in miso and when she wanted to make the breakfast that morning, she realized there wasn't enough... Since no one was up to accompany her and she was worried about breakfast not being ready in time, she hurried to the market place to get some. The patriots there recognized her since she was often going on patrol with the Shinsengumi and sold her to the Satsuma domain to be used at their advantage. She was crying the whole time, eyes locked on the tatami, unable to look up and meet the vice-commander's gaze.
« Really... » he sighed « I hope you realize your mistake. Never do that again. »
« I promise, Hijikata-san... » she sobbed.
« Hun... » smirked Okita « guess I'm not killing you this time... What a pity... »
« Souji. » scolded Saito and it seemed that even him was relieved that Yukimura didn't need to be executed.
« And Heisuke » added Hijikata and Heisuke waited for his sentence for disobeying an order « good job. »
Hijikata-san sent Chizuru away and she bowed and informed them all that she'll prepare lunch for everyone. At the end of the meeting, Heisuke stepped by the kitchen to give her a hand and the girl gladly accepted, blushing. As he was stirring the pot, blushing a little too and closing his eyes in embarrassment, Chizuru gathered her courage.
« Thank you, Heisuke-kun... » she said shyly « for saving me. »
« Yeah... » he blushed, raising his eyes to the ceiling « Well in the end, we all saved you, I guess... »
« Maybe. » she smiled « but you were the one who tried to find me and didn't give up on me. For that, I am grateful. »
« Ah... Yeah, okay... » he stuttered.
« You're a hero, Heisuke. » she smiled wider « I won't forget that. »
« A hero... » he repeated, now flushed red « I guess... You... Chizuru... I... »
He sighed and showed her the pot, frowning.
« Do you think it's enough ?! » he changed the subject awkwardly.
The girl smiled shyly and took a spoon to taste the mixture, nodding with enthusiasm.
« It's perfect. » she grined and even if it was autumn, that smile was as bright as spring for Heisuke's heart.
You're perfect.He thought before he helped her cut some vegetables. Life in the headquarters wouldn't be the same without you here.