His eyes were the color of the dark sea woken by the howling winds, the hue of the crashing waves against stone, and a serene as the calm before such an event. They were home to Usagi, looking into the eyes of her new master called her back to her younger years when her days were spent at the sea side, watching the rocking of the waves day after day and night after night. He held those silent, peaceful nights in a single glance, and Usagi couldn't get enough of the cozy feeling. She stood on her hind legs, paws digging into the kimono sleeve, her head leaned against him, her muzzle snuggling the neck of Saitou who very calmly meditated in the center of his room. To anyone who entered, it was a very strange image to see: an unmoving Saitou with a mewling cat at his throat.
The damn thing was at it again, Shinpachi thought. There was never a moment in which he could walk into a room during the night and not find Usagi sitting in the center, her head thrown back, staring at nothing in the corner roof. Her odd-colored eyes glowed a horrifying brilliant color with the streaming moonlight that came from the open door. They were round and large and absolutely black with a red and blue rim to them that slowly grew wider until consuming the entire eye. Her mouth opened to a black abyss, fangs as white as the pale moon, and a heart piercing meow that sent shiver through Shinpachi's entire body, which also serve to send him flying out of the room. Usagi tilted her head curiously, her eyes twitching back and forth for a second before directing her attention once more to the small hole located at the corner of the roof in hopes that the common piece of food would be hung from there would appear again like any other slow night for the Shinsengumi.
It was only seconds later that her ears picked up the shrilled voice of Shinpachi speaking to Saitou, of him announcing to her master his stupid cat was being weird again in the back room. She also picked up the unmistakable giggle of the man who gave her half a portion of fish during dinner. Somewhere behind the wall she was facing. The food portion appeared a second after Shinpachi's desperate attempt to have Saitou get rid of his demon cat that saw spirit failed, and before Usagi left in search Saitou and to hiss a devil's hiss at Shinpachi.
It was subtle. Barely noticeable to those who paid very close attention to the feline that made the Shinsengumi's headquarters its home. She was a very smart creature, but no one expected anything less of Saitou's companion. Hijikata had only noticed the change in the creature because it had decided to stay within his quarters when Saitou was out and she wasn't allowed to go. She would lay beside him, closest to the door, her head rested on her paws and her ears laid flat against her head as she slept. No amount of noise coming from the Shinsengumi could rile her from her sleep, but there were those silent alarms that would send her to her feet and towards the door. She would wait for Hijikata patiently at the door, her ears perked up and moving from side to side as if she heard something, something other than some random Shinsengumi men making a racket.
Once he opened the door, Usagi would bolt from the room and towards the entrance of headquarters. She would stay within the compound most of the times, but there were those rare instances that she would leave towards town and leave Hijikata wondering what had gotten into her. Often her strange behavior had to do with Saitou as he was present at the end of her run, jumping onto his shoulder as soon as she would see him. But there was still that mystery of where she went when she left the compound. Only a few of those escapes lead to Saitou, he had reported finding Usagi perched in front of him in a deserted road, but other time he would arrive looking for her only to find her gone. She could have mistaken his location, but Hijikata doubted it. The feline knew very well where each one of the Shinsengumi captains was patrolling, although he couldn't prove it, and knew Usagi didn't get lost. Side tracked, tempted into another house hold, but all in all, the cat would always end with Saitou before his arrival.
If she wasn't with him, if she wasn't in the compound, then she would have to have a destination she would disappear to. It was foolish of him to put any sort of thought in the actions of a simple cat, but Usagi just seemed too intelligent to him for her to act in ways without reason. Everything she did was due to some reason, to some logic of her own, and it was only during certain dates in the calendar. Saitou kept record of her disappearances, but also found nothing to explain her strange behavior or if it would affect them in any way. It wasn't easy to train a cat, but it wasn't impossible. They would simply have to keep watch of her.
He said the man was a wealthy merchant with a beautiful, kind, and gentle daughter whom everyone loved. He said this dear and beloved daughter of the wealthy merchant had a cat which was loved and pampered. He said the cat and the girls were inseparable, where the girl went the cat went, both slept together and so they were almost never apart. Like her and him, Saitou had said, stoking Usagi behind the ear. He said the father of the girl thought the cat evil, a sorcerer or monster there to take his precious daughter away from him and sought to rid himself of the cat. That night, however, the cat appeared to the merchant in his dream with a sorrowful expression. The cat explained his attachment to the girl, that he had been sent by a kami to protect her from a rat spirit in the man's store, but he wasn't strong enough and so he only stayed beside the girl. He told the merchant to go to his friend's house, ask them for their cat, and together they would hunt the rat.
Upon waking, the merchant lost no time in sending for the cat of his friend and the two cats went to the place the rat lived. The next morning, all three animals were found completely torn, so greatly that not one could stir. As the sound of the people approaching, the rat desperately tried to get away, but the cats fiercely clutched to his throat so she couldn't run away. Seeing the much larger rat, greater in size than the cats, the people quickly took a sharp knife, cut open the rat's neck, and threw its corpse in the river. The cats were free of the cat, but too weak to move, eventually dying from the wounds they had sustained. They were buried with full honors and a portrait was drawn to place in the shrine to commemorate their bravery and faithfulness.
At times when Usagi had trouble sleeping, or simply on a whim of her master, Saitou would often tell her tales he had heard to help her sleep. Tonight he had remembered a tale called the Cat Guardian, and although he didn't clearly remember the story, he tried his best to tell it to Usagi. Her large eyes sparking at him and those long ears taking each word he said, easily gave away that she indeed liked the tale. But she hadn't fallen asleep and was more awake then ever. Her constant meowing had caused some men in the compound to wake, one in particular screaming to shut that monster, ghost seeing cat, and another who leaned against the door frame with a grin.
"I don't think you should have told her that story, Hajime-kun," Souji said with a grin, Usagi hissing at him for cutting into her time with Saitou. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
Indeed Saitou couldn't say anything about what happen two days after he had told Usagi the tale. She had appeared at dinner late, which was highly unusual for her, and had appeared with a large, gray object impaled on her fangs. It was Hijikata who yelled at her, the one that cause her to present her gift to Saitou before turning to bristle at the commander. Usagi had brought a very, very large gray rat into headquarters, into the room they had dinner, and placed in at the center of the room while facing Saitou. The other complained and scolded the feline, Souji laughing on the side and managing to distract them from the cat as Saitou quickly took her away.
Saitou couldn't scold Usagi for bringing that dead rodent after seeing those large round eyes filled with what he characterized pride and joy. Usagi probably thought she had done something great, something disserving of praise, but all she had gotten was disapproval and a band to be present at dinner. She didn't care, or didn't understand. Usagi only kept pushing the rat towards Saitou and sat patiently in front of him, but he was sure what she wanted. She kept that position for the longest of time, Saitou's heart breaking as that bright light in her eyes diminished, her hears dropping flat against her head, the sad almost dripping from her fur as she took the rat and left the room.
She had left, and he couldn't find her.