Author's Note:

It's a long weekend here in Canada (Happy Victoria Day!) so I've had a lot more time to write. Also, I was anti-social and stayed home; so nice! Once RL returns it will slow down again...

A few thoughts on pacing and related: So, I didn't mean to take 15 chapters to cover the "introduction". I know the anime covers all this in 2-3 episodes. I can only plead my interest in the characters (and I want you to care what happens to them later - except you're reading this 'cause you already do, oh well!). Also, I liked the slower pacing of the game with the added stories. I have an overall plot outline. I know where things are headed with Chizuru and with whom. ;) The demons are coming. [Kind of like "The Eagles are coming!" but not. Yes, geek reference.]

Once again, thank you to those who sent me reviews for Ch 13, especially since I've posted a fair bit this weekend: red1Rogue (great minds think alike - skip the "fools seldom differ" part), ArchimedesAckermann (awww... so appreciated! :), kathryn1995 (and here it is!), eireannlily (lovely name and such kind comments, it's great!), AzureArchxngel (you know how much it helps to get a nice review, thank you!). [And to anyone I missed, mea culpa. Also, thank you for the new adds to Favourites/Follows - it usually means more people stop by to read which is very encouraging.]

To all my readers, doumo arigatou gozaimasen!

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Chapter 14 – Intrigue at the Inn, Part I

Her interview with Hijikata-san about going out on patrol with the divisions had been quite short. Of course, by the time she had gotten there, Okita-san and Saitō-san had already made the request and provided the details. She could tell that Hijikata-san was not entirely happy with the proposal, but he acquiesced with reasonably good grace.

In fact, the Vice Commander's main concern seemed to be the increase in Chōsu warriors filtering into the city and the building tensions between the political factions. The streets had been more violent than usual lately, as Chizuru had already heard.

The girl was not as well-informed as the Shinsengumi leaders when it came to politics, but she had now spent enough time with all the captains to understand better why the Shogunate-supported Shinsengumi were not favourites with the primarily Imperialist citizens of Kyoto. All the parties claimed to be Nationalists of some kind – wanting to expel the foreigners from Japan – but Chizuru privately wondered how that could really be true since clearly somebody was dealing with the foreigners.

From a personal point of view, however, she cared more about the fact that Hijikata-san's hesitation over her joining the patrols seemed to have more to do with her safety than a fear that she would run away from or harm the Shinsengumi. His actual orders to her had been brief:

"Obey the patrol leader's commands immediately. Don't wander away. This isn't a good time for you to go into the city, but at this rate there will never be a good time, so you might as well go now. We still want to find Kōdō-san."

That was it, apart from Okita-san's comment that if she got into any trouble with masterless samurai then he would abandon her to her fate. This plan was expressly vetoed by Hijikata-san and silently vetoed by Saitō-san's expression.

Chizuru's first week out on patrol with the captains was fascinating for the curious girl. Not surprisingly, she was only allowed on morning or afternoon patrols, and Hijikata-san chose which routes she would be following and with whom. In fact, on the first day, Saitō-san unexpectedly sat next to her at breakfast, displacing a mildly protesting Nagakura-san.

The Third Division Captain had brought with him a schedule for Chizuru which allowed time for four patrols every six days, kitchen duty and other chores, tending the garden, and preparing dried herbs or medicines. Chizuru recognized Saitō-san's clear, distinctive handwriting and a second, elegant script that she suspected belonged to Hijikata-san. She was not surprised to see that her first patrol with Okita-san was not until the following week.

Chiziru was about to thank the reserved man for his work on her behalf, when she remembered what Harada-san had told her. Saitō-san preferred not to be thanked too often or too effusively for things that he considered to be part of his duties.

"I will be ready, Saitō-san. May I keep this schedule?"

"Aa. I will see you this afternoon, Yukimura-kun."

The dark-haired man rose and returned to his usual seat near Hijikata-san. The three captains around Chizuru leaned in to study which days she would be going out with each of them.

"Great! You're coming out with me tomorrow, Chizuru-chan!" Heisuke was obviously looking forward to his turn escorting – no, patrolling with – the brown-eyed girl.

Chizuru found patrolling with the captains and their squads to be different than she had expected. For one thing, she hadn't realized just how hostile most of the citizens had become toward the men who did, after all, protect them from various rogues and thugs. For another, she hadn't considered that the regular soldiers would view her with curiosity and, in a few cases, a certain amount of jealousy. The soldiers were told that the officers' page had basic medical training and was now considered strong enough to take on light military duties. On the whole, it served well enough.

Not surprisingly, Saitō-san's men were efficient, disciplined and not inclined to talk much while on their rounds. The captain himself had said little to her on her first day out with him, but he had been clear about her duties and reasonable about her requests to ask after her father. Heisuke's men were more open and less dour, but Chizuru quickly realized that they too were well-trained and alert. Not surprisingly, Heisuke-kun, Harada-san and Nagakura-san were all at ease with her, and only slightly more formal than they were without their soldiers present. But even Heisuke remembered to refer to her simply as Yukimura while out in the city with the soldiers.

Nothing of note happened while she was on patrol until her first trip out with Okita-san toward the end of the first week of June. In retrospect, she felt that this was just her usual bad luck. That being said, she found the First Division Captain's company to be less challenging than she had anticipated and she could only be glad that his skill and speed were as good as she'd been told.

They were near the end of the patrol, and Okita-san hadn't threatened her more than once or twice, when her questioning unexpectedly bore fruit. She had given a kind-looking, moderately well-dressed man a description of her father and he had immediately nodded.

"Yes, I'm sure I've seen a man just like that very recently. A shaved head, middle-aged? Looks like a doctor?"

Chizuru felt her heart-beat accelerate at the possibility of the first news of her father in almost a year. It did briefly register that there was shouting behind her from the First Division squad, but when her informant pointed with reasonable certainty to a shop toward the back of an alley just off the main street she thanked him fervently, bowed, and ran off.

"Yukimura!" Okita shouted after her, pausing to see where she was going. "God damnit!"

He had to get to his men, who were on the verge of facing off with a bunch of well-armed (but obviously uninformed) swordsmen amusing themselves by taunting the "piss poor excuses for warriors who have to join the Wolves of Mibu." Cursing, he shoved his way to his soldiers, took a good look at the bravos hurling insults, and unsheathed his sword.

"I will cut down any of you who are still here in five minutes when I get back."

Then he turned and snarled to the men in the blue coats: "I'm docking your pay for even listening to these assholes. Move!"

Without looking to see if they followed, he raced back the way he had come and dove blind into the shop that Chizuru had entered a minute before; Hijkata-san would have had him gut himself for sheer recklessness. Oh well. Instinctively, his drawn sword swept up and caught a descending blade with a ringing clash. Why, oh why wasn't he surprised to see Chizuru on the floor and a whole group of men ready to attack?

Chizuru was more stunned than frightened, but she was very glad when Okita-san showed up just in time to save her from finding out whether she was going to be fast enough to dodge the stranger's blow.

She had run to the shop her informant had indicated, referred to simply as "Masuya's". Just before entering, she had paused to regain her composure a little, so that she would be able to ask the proprietor about her father in a properly calm and respectful manner. That extra moment had saved her, it seemed.

She had walked into the small shop and approached the counter diffidently. Several armed men were gathered off to one side, speaking quietly among themselves, but Kyoto was full of armed men these days. The shopkeeper, Masuya-san, had inquired politely if he could help her and she had asked about her father… And then one of the armed men had yelled something about her being "that kid who's always with the Shinsengumi lately" and had pulled his sword. She had a confused impression that another man had told him to stop and then she had stumbled back, the sword had come down, and Okita-san had turned up.

The green-eyed man was speaking now, as he casually disarmed her attacker and sent him to the ground bleeding heavily.

"I see you and I have the same luck, kid – bad. 'Course so's theirs…"

Okita stepped back a pace as his squad rushed into the shop, swords drawn. Casually, he hauled Chizuru to her feet and then watched critically as his men methodically cut down their opponents or took the weapons of those who surrendered.

He was a little disappointed when Takeda Kanryusai, a recent and little-loved recruit, jumped the counter and captured the proprietor Masuya as he tried to escape out the back. Kondō-san had been impressed by the man's military knowledge - or flattery - about a year before and had insisted that he join the First Division. Okita still hadn't found a way to drive him out without killing him, and Kondō-san couldn't understand why nobody else liked the little toad-eating brown-noser.

Two hours later, Chizuru found herself kneeling beside Okita-san, facing an irate Deputy Commander. Most of the other officers were in attendance, including Kondō-san, who sat quietly with his eyes closed. Only Saitō-san, Nagakura-san and the Vice Commander were missing.

"Well, capturing Furutaka was lucky," Harada was saying peaceably. "A Chōsu spy who's been operating here for quite a while, right?"

"And I heard there were a lot of weapons seized as well," put in Heisuke.

"A spy and a major weapons' cache isn't bad, Sannan-san," said Okita, coaxingly.

"Don't give me that, Okita-kun. You knew that shop was already under surveillance by our investigators. We were hoping for something that would lead us to whoever was supplying Furutaka. You weren't supposed to go anywhere near that place!"

Chizuru couldn't let Okita-san take the blame any longer.

"Gomenasai deshita, Sannan-san," she said, bowing her forehead to the floor. "It was all my fault. If I hadn't rushed off when I heard the news about my father, I'm sure Okita-san wouldn't have gone into the shop."

The Deputy Commander remained unmollified.

"You were in his charge, Yukimura-kun. He must take responsibility for your actions."

Chizuru thought this was terribly unfair, but it also gave her a better idea of what Harada-san had been trying to tell her earlier in the year. It was never just her own life at stake. A soldier – especially an officer – who let slip information that aided an enemy, or that hurt the Shinsengumi, could be severely punished or even ordered to die. So... every officer who had allowed her to stay alive after what she'd seen, or who had taken her out on patrol, had put his own life on the line. It was a very sobering thought.

The inner door to the common room slid open and she could sense Hijikata-san's presence a moment before he spoke.

"I should share the blame as well as Sōji, Sannan-san. I gave the girl permission to go out with the patrols." He sounded calm, but a little tired.

Kondō-san opened his eyes and looked up at Hijikata-san, his face unusually serious. The Vice Commander crossed to his usual place and sat, folding his hands into the long sleeves of his hakamashita. Like a dark shadow, Saitō-san followed him into the room and knelt nearby. Sannan-san didn't pursue his rake-down of Okita-san; instead he waited like the others for Hijikata-san's report.

"He talked," the Vice Commander began, his voice neutral. "Eventually. It was a crazy plan. They were going to wait for a day with the right kind of wind and set fire to the city. Then, in the ensuing panic they would kidnap the Emperor."

There were shouts of dismay from around the room. Chizuru looked up from the floor in shock.

"Kidnap the emperor?!" cried Kondō-san. "Infamous!"

"And they call themselves Imperialists!"

Even Sannan-san could not restrain a startled exclamation.

It was one of the oddities of politics that even the strongest supporters of the Shogunate could see the Emperor as a revered figure to be protected at all costs. Lately, Nagakura-san had been trying to explain some of these things to Chizuru, but she couldn't always follow his points once he started to bring up incidents and key historical figures that she knew very little about.

Without meaning to, she closed her eyes against the noise and started to concentrate on filtering the various impressions. Kondō-san was ready for action, mildness set aside as necessity and honour dictated. Hijikata-san was more closed-off, but he too seemed to be reviewing immediate needs; there was something else there, a kind of barely concealed distaste.

Sannan-san… She felt a flash of fierce resentment – of his unresponsive arm, she assumed – but she could sense very little after that. Harada-san was contemplating battle; it was strange to find the protective, compassionate man so undeniably fierce. Heisuke-kun too radiated a kind of harsh purpose that Chizuru found utterly foreign to the cheerful boy – young man – who had befriended her. And yet it was what they did and part of who they were. She kept forgetting.

As usual, Saitō-san was simply unreadable. For the first time, she found that perfect stillness a little frightening instead of calming. She opened her eyes again, as though to use visual input to counteract the emotional blank. For just a moment, their eyes met, and she felt an eerie sense of reversal, as if he were reading her instead of the other way around.

It was Gen-san who made the most sensible suggestion at that point, and knowingly or unknowingly gave Chizuru the chance to recover.

"By your leave, Commander, Yukimura-kun and I will go prepare tea and a light meal now. That would be beneficial to everyone."

A/Note: So... exciting times ahead. Investigators (Yamazaki and Shimada). Demons (Kazama, Amagiri, Shiranui). I found Shiranui annoying at the beginning, but developed an appreciation for him later on, especially since the game lets you take a pretty different path with Harada. I've always thought that it would be interesting to learn more about Amagiri, though. It's both funny and kind of cool how he always bows politely before he leaves.

Hope you enjoyed today's chapter. :)