a/n: A few people have asked me why this story is so short and the short answer is because I don't get paid to write.
-x-
She wonders why she doesn't just kill him. Wonders why she doesn't throw that kunai and call it a day, because there is no doubt that something bad is going to happen. There are some things that you don't question, and whoever this man is - Shinsuke, if that's really his name in the first place - he spells trouble.
And he's not a good guy. She's certain of that. She's lived a long enough life to know that people like him are a little insane. He walks around in broad daylight with a metal sword by his side as if he doesn't give a damn. As if he thinks he can get away with it. He's not crass enough to be a gang member; something tells her that he's a lot more than that.
She watches him go after he tells her to wait for the spectacle that will take place tonight in Edo. She is simultaneously relieved and disappointed that nothing else happens between the two of them.
Tsukuyo doesn't have any ties of loyalty to the Bakufu. In the realm of Yoshiwara, she's seen all sorts of Amanto and human politicians alike. What matters to her is that the women of the city are kept free from harm as they do their business in the red light district. That takes priority over risking herself to save the Shogun and his sister, though that's not to say she doesn't like them. She just places certain duties over things that aren't in her jurisdiction. After all, that's why the Shinsengumi exists: to protect the royal family in times where they finally emerge from their palace. She isn't going to interfere with Shinsuke's plan.
A darker part of her wants to see what he can really achieve. After all, she's intrigued. She goes home back to Yoshiwara, aimlessly chats with Hinowa and Seita at the end of her patrol shift before sitting in bed in her undergarments. Her blonde hair is brushed down and she's having one final smoke before she goes to sleep.
She wonders if he's seeing the same moon as her right now. Then she snuffs the ash out and slips inside her futon.
-x-
The newspaper says there's been an incident two weeks later. Says the Shogun's military strategist has been kidnapped on some spaceship beyond Earth's atmosphere. The Shinsengumi's best agents are on the hunt. They won't clarify who's responsible for the mess but Tsukuyo knows better. Her expression darkens and she knows that the newspapers have postponed the news as best as they can, but in the age of post Amanto technology, it can't be hidden forever. One of the top leaders in the country has gone missing.
She puts two and two together and hopes that he never comes back to Yoshiwara again.
And yet, another part of her knows it's a lie.
-x-
He sends her a letter to meet him at the docks of Edo, where the ships have cast their anchors. She intends on taking him down; if he's a threat to the Shogun then it's best if they sever whatever is tying them together.
She walks around the area before he appears behind her.
"Good evening," he says, blowing out the smoke from his pipe.
She is fully armed with her sharpest kunai. He knows this but still comes alone, by himself. She is his moon, a dim light at the end of the tunnel.
"What did you want from me?" she asks.
"The pleasure of your company," he replies, just like the time he did back in the opulent room of the Yoshiwaran palace.
"I should kill you."
"But you won't," he said easily. He doesn't flinch when she throws a kunai a millimeter away from his bandaged head. A strand of his hair falls neatly on his foot and all he can do is admire her precision.
"Ah, Tsukuyo, Tsukuyo, don't you understand?" he asks, smiling as if what she does amuses him. Walking closer to her, she panics at the sight of him.
"Get away from me!" she yells. But he comes closer, unafraid and bold. Wildly she slashes the kunai in front of her, taking steps back but his strides are longer than hers and he catches up to her in seconds. Like lightning his hands twist her wrists, clamping them down before she can react and his knee jams her waist so that she is temporarily paralyzed, pinned helplessly to the wall of a warehouse. The kunai slips from her fingers, falling to the ground with an empty clang.
She struggles to escape but the seconds of pain is too much to ignore. Swallowing, she blinks rapidly to get rid of the stars in her eyes. She realizes that he must have done something to her head too - otherwise she wouldn't be feeling so dizzy.
Fuck, she thinks. Fuck fuck fuck -
But then he stops moving, except to whisper silkily in her ear, "I want you. That's all I'm asking for."
Her breath momentarily stalls at the sight of this beautiful man, so close to her. But she has resisted the call of men for so long that refusing the attentions of another becomes remarkably easy.
"What if I say no?" she retorts.
"You won't," he said quietly. As quickly as he incapacitates her, he lets go of her entirely. "I'll be seeing you the next full moon. Come dressed in red."
He escapes while she struggles to run after him. But he's already dropped a smoke bomb, and when it clears up it's like he's never been here in the first place.
-x-
It's her hands, he decides. They are calloused but they are incredibly nimble, fetching kunai or her sword in the blink of her eye without her needing to look down. It is all instinct, just like him with a sword. No doubts to be had, just trust in a carefully fashioned piece of metal.
Matako's hands aren't the same. Pistols are different. Shooting a gun doesn't involve the same amount of skill that swords or kunai holds. There is power and skill and the weight of the hand totally determining the precision of such weapons.
He waits in one of Yoshiwara's most opulent rooms this time, smoking his pipe, carelessly dripping ash on the luxurious carpet because he can, waiting for her.
This time she dresses in a bright red kimono, brilliant to behold like the scarlet ibis against the setting sun. For a moment he is reminded that the image of the Shingami Dayuu is almost as glorious as the scroll paintings Shoyou used to hang up in the walls of his private library.
A slight thrill runs through his blood. Ruin her. Burn her. Break her. The echoes of destruction enter his mind like a sonnet waiting to be composed.
"My lord - " Her head bows down to the ground, exposing her neck to him. She has surrendered her will to him.
"I don't know what you want with me," she whispers. "But leave Yoshiwara the way it is. Please."
If he didn't find her so beautiful he might have found it almost disappointing. But instead new possibilities are opening up. "Allow my men free reign in your city," he suggests, setting down his pipe. "Oh, and I'd like to be able to see you anytime I want."
"Why?" she asked. "Is this to avenge your men I've killed?"
He laughs, and the sound is as pleasant as nails scraping on a blackboard. "I don't give a damn about my men," he said. Without further ado, he pushes her to the futon. "This is what I want," he says, and points a kunai to her neck.
-x-