I don't own PMK or any of it's characters. I only own Din and Setsuna.

Enjoy!

Tatsunosuke and Din were walking through the streets, which were now quiet that it was so late. They hadn't said much of anything since they had left the Shinsengumi headquarters; instead they were looking around and listening to the sounds coming from the nighttime air around them.

"Tatsu-kun?" Din asked, breaking the silence.

"Yes?"

She sighed. "Thank you for coming to drink sake with me."

Tatsunosuke scratched the back of his head with his left arm. "No big deal, I didn't really say anything."

"But you were there when I needed you to be," Din said as she looked over at him. "It made me feel comfortable to have you there."

Tatsunosuke looked away, trying to hide the blush coming across his face for some reason. He couldn't understand why he was blushing; he just figured that it was because he was getting a compliment from what he thought to be an attractive woman.

The rest of the trip was in silence and before they both knew it, they were standing in front of Tarason Bakery. Din slipped her arm away from Tatsunosuke's and walked over to the front door, and turned to face him.

"Thanks again for bringing me down here," she said gently.

"No problem." Tatsunosuke laughed.

"If you ever want bread or anything you can just come down here." Din pointed behind her. "It was nice meeting you and Tetsu-kun."

"You too."

Din opened her front door, and walked inside, giving one final wave to the dark red head before she closed the door. Tatsunosuke sighed, turned around, and began to walk back home, feeling a bit uneasy that the ninja who had been killing people had been seen in the area he was in.

Dammit. Tatsunosuke thought. I just hope I make it back home in one piece.

Din leaned against her front door a sighed. She opened her eyes once more to see how dark her bakery looked at night. She pushed herself off of the door behind her, and walked over to the small island she used for showing off her products to look for a candle and matches. Her hands searched over the wooden bakery, looking, and she finally found a small candle. She looked around, hoping to see the matches she always left out when she felt a man's arm wrap around her neck.

"Shit," Din hissed as she struggled against the arm.

"Looking for these?" a male's voice said as he tossed a small pack of matches in his left hand.

"What the hell do you want?" Din growled as she moved around in his arm, trying to get lose once again but failed.

"You are to die by the order of Yoshida Toshimaro-sama," Tthe man said, placing his sword near Din's neck.

"Yoshida Toshimaro?" Din repeated, her eyes growing wide. The name caused her heart to pick up and pound away in her chest but she ignored it the best she could for she needed to think of someway to get out of the situation she was in now.

Din picked up her right leg and stomped down on the swordsman's foot, and slammed the back of her head into the swordsman's face, causing him to release her. In his pain he moved his sword quickly, hoping to slash something, and caught Din's right shoulder, cutting it, and allowing blood to seep out.

"Damn," she whispered as she ducked into a hidden corner, and grabbed her wound. She looked towards the samurai and saw him looking around for her.

"Shit she got away," he hissed as he knocked over a box of wheat. "I'll just smoke her out."

He grabbed the small box of matches he had teased Din with and stuck one against the box. The small flame shown brightly in the dark room, being the only thing Din could see. The man then dropped it down on a small wooden basket, which quickly caught fire. He then lit another one, this time accidentally catching the whole box on fire.

"Crap!" He dropped the box on the floor, catching another box on fire. "She'll have to come out now."

Din watched as he ran out of the bakery, leaving her alone. She looked at the fire burning down her store and knew that she wouldn't be able to put out the fire. She cursed and kept cursing as she ran around the bakery, gathering everything she could. She ran over to a small closet on the other side of the bakery and opened it, pulling out a small metal box, and then a small wooden box. She ran back over to the main door and opened it a little only to see the man standing near the building across the street.

Shit! Din thought as she looked out. That bastard is still out there!

Din looked as her store burned and spotted a small knife she had left out for cutting bread. She grabbed it and held it close to her body, as she got ready to go out.

"Your arms are too small to fight against a sword of a samurai."

Din shook her head, trying to ignore the sentence running around in her head over and over again. She got herself ready and began to count in her head when she heard someone's voice.

"Din-chan! Din-chan!"

The door in front of her opened and she looked up to see Tatsunosuke standing in front of her, panting.

"Tatsu-kun…," Din said breathlessly.

"Come on! We've got to get you out of here!" Tatsunosuke pulled her away from the door and brought her out into the street.

"Tatsu-kun wait! You don't understand!" Din froze once she stopped moving and was in the middle of the street. She looked around franticly, looking for the man that had started everything but couldn't see him. Suddenly, a shadow moved from the corner of her right eye and she quickly threw the small knife she had in her hands.

"Damn," the man whispered.

"Tatsu-kun, come on! We have to get out of here!" Din tugged on his green kimono.

"But what about—"

Din saw the shadow move once more. The man was still able to move around so Tatsunosuke and her were still in danger.

"Tatsu-kun, open the metal box!" Din yelled as she gave him the small metal box and backed up against him.

Tatsunosuke did as told and opened quickly only to find a small handgun inside of it with a small yellow envelope next to it. He blinked, not sure what it was at first until he remembered reading about it.

A gun. Tatsunosuke thought. What is Din-chan doing with one of these?

"Give it to me!" Din ordered as she opened her right hand. Tatsunosuke did as told and gave her the gun. She grabbed it firmly in her hands and looked around only to see the man coming right at her with his sword drawn.

"Din-chan!" Tatsunosuke yelled. He stood up to see what or where she had gotten hit only to see her holding the swordsman's sword back with the gun he had given her.

Din felt her arms begin to shake from the impact and the struggle of the other man. Wanting to hold on longer, she dug her heels into the dirt and pushed back only to feel her hand begin to slip.

"With small wrists like this, you'll never be able to hold up a sword against another sword."

"Red head," Din said with strain in her voice. "Take the two boxes and go back."

"But…" Tatsunosuke stood there, helpless and not knowing what to do. He had to do something but he just didn't know what to do.

"Do it!" Din ordered once more. "Just go! I'll be there soon!"

Tatsunosuke picked up both boxes and began to run back towards the Shinsengumi dojo to get help. As he ran, leaving Din behind, he heard a small bang and then the scream of a man and then a woman that stopped him dead in his tracks. He turned around to see if anyone was coming towards him.

Din-chan… He wondered.

As he stood there he saw a figure running towards him. He felt like he should keep running but something was stopping him. He moved a bit closer to see who it was and the more and more he looked he could see who it was. Din.

"Din-chan!" He called out as he ran over to her. It was then he saw that she had been injured; her back was bent over a bit as she ran over to him, panting. "Din-chan!"

"Tatsu-kun…," Din said as she caught up with him and grabbed his right arm. "You have to take me back…. To…the dojo."

"I will, I will just calm down okay?" Tatsunosuke petted her gently, letting her know that he was going to take her back. "We'll be there soon."

"Hijikata-sama!" Susumu called as he dropped from the ceiling and next to Hijikata's open door to his room.

"Report," Hijikata answered back seriously as he looked up.

"Another business has been put on fire sir." Susumu reported. "It's somewhere downtown. Kondo-sama is already down at the scene, I had informed him as I passed him when he was on his walk with Yamanami-sama."

"Dammit." Hijikata stood up, grabbed his sword, and placed it on his waist. "Any survivors?"

"I didn't see anyone sir," Susumu answered as he stood back up and looked Hijikata in the eye. "The business, sir, was Tarason Bakery."

Hijikata stopped moving. For that instant, everything seemed to stop. His mind went blank, and just for that second everything became empty. He didn't know what to feel, nor what to say or how to react so he just went with his gut instinct.

No. He thought.

"You are dismissed," Hijikata ordered as he quickly walked out of his room, and into the main building. He stepped past everyone until he got to the front gate, his mind still blank save for the word, 'no' which kept playing over and over in his head.

As Hijikata began to walk out of the front gate he spotted two people walking towards him. He stepped forward a bit, trying to see who they were.

"Hijikata-sama!" Tatsunosuke called out as he walked over to the vice commander.

Hijikata walked over to him and saw Din, hunched over with her right arm wrapped around Tatsunosuke's neck allowing the red head to act like a crutch for her so she wouldn't fall over and hurt herself.

"She's been injured sir!" Tatsunosuke said as he moved Din so that she wouldn't slip off of him.

"Let me take her," Hijikata said as he leaned down and picked up Din, cradling her in his arms.

"My boxes," Din whimpered as she held her stomach. "Tatsu-kun, hold them for me for now."

"Sure," Tatsunosuke said gently. Din looked down at him and gave him a gentle smile that caused Tatsunosuke to smile back at her. Din's eyes then closed as she sighed and rested her head against Hijikata's chest.

"Ichimura," Hijikata said seriously, catching the young man's attention. "In a half an hour I want you in my room to talk about what happened."

"Yes sir." Tatsunosuke bowed.

Hijikata then walked back into the house, leaving Tatsunosuke outside to only wonder what was going on, and how Din was going to be. He sighed and looked down at the boxes in his arms, and then down at the blood staining his green kimono.

Din was awoken by the sound of a grinding noise near her right ear. She opened her eyes to see that Hijikata was grinding something on her right side with his wheel. She blinked, wearily, and looked down towards her stomach to see a large cut now covered in white powder and that the bandages on her chest had been left intact. Her kimono was pushed down to her waist where it was left on.

"You must have done a good job," Din said as she looked back up towards Hijikata. "I can't feel anymore pain."

"Your wound wasn't too deep," Hijikata said as he stopped moving his grinding wheel and grabbed a bundle of bandages.

"Sure felt deep." She moved up, wincing once, moved in front of Hijikata, and sat down with her back facing him.

The two were quiet for a moment as Hijikata placed the end of the roll of bandages near Din's chest and she brought her hand up to hold the end in place. He then began to wrap it around Din's torso over and over again to prevent infection. She sat up a bit more to make sure that the wrapping would turn out well by nature; Hijikata used to do this for her when they were younger and when she got injured while working. Only back then they talked more then they were now.

"Yoshida is after me," Din said, breaking the silence. "It was an assassination attempt."

"What connection do you have to them?" Hijikata asked, his bandaging becoming tighter.

"Nothing."

The two were quiet once more as Hijikata finished bandaging. Din felt him stop, and then move away and go back to his grinding wheel. Din stood up, holding her stomach a bit. She grabbed her kimono hanging off of her waist and put it back around her shoulders and tied to gently.

"You don't trust me anymore do you?" she asked, not bothering to face the vice commander. She stood there, waiting for an answer but didn't get one so she continued.

"It's almost like I'm a stranger around you now. If that's what I am to you now, then I guess it's right of you not to trust me. But…this also means that…I don't have to worry about lying to you."

Hijikata stopped moving his grinding wheel. "Kondo-sama, Sannan, and Tatsunosuke-san will be in here to talk about what happened in a few moments. After the talk, we'll discuss what to do about Yoshida."

Kondo, Hijikata, and Yamanami were sitting around Tatsunosuke and Din as they both told their stories about what had happened while they were both out. Once they had finished telling each side of their stories, the room fell silent.

Din pushed the small wooden box she had saved earlier out towards the three men of power. "I'm asking you if I could just stay here for a while, just until I hear from my mother and father. This is everything I have in this world right now, it's everything I have to offer you."

Kondo took the small box and opened it to see stacks of money looking back at him. There were also small slips of paper; the papers were small writings and calculations of tabs and how much people owed her.

"Please Isami-kun." Din bowed down, her right hand clenching beside her from the pain in her stomach. "I'll work here, you know what a hard worker I am, and I won't let you down."

"A woman cannot join the Shinsengumi," Hijikata insisted as he brought his lips.

"If anything put me on as an extra cook," Din whispered loud enough for the men to hear. "I know my arms are too small to carry a real sword so I'm not asking to join, I just need housing for a while."

"What about your ex fiancée?" Hijikata asked, letting go of a small puff of smoke in the meantime.

"He's unreachable as of now," Din explained.

"Tatsunosuke-kun," Kondo began as he looked towards the red head, "I need you to leave the room at this moment."

"Yes sir." Tatsunosuke stood up and walked out of the room, taking one last look back at Din before he closed the door, leaving her alone with the men.

"Din-chan, please sit up," Kondo said gently, knowing that she was in pain. She sat up carefully and looked Kondo in the face. "I hear Yoshida is after you."

"Yes." Din nodded.

"Well then that changes a few things doesn't it?" Kondo laughed a bit, causing Hijikata and Yamanami to look at him strangely. "It seems as if we need to protect you, so of course you can stay here!"

"Isami-kun," Din said breathlessly. She bowed back down. "Thank you so much Isami-kun! I'll do my best to work around here! I'll take the household chores!"

"Din-chan please sit up, I don't want you hurting yourself," Kondo requested. "And on the chores you don't have to do them, we have a page for that."

"Who has a page?" Din asked as she sat back up, wincing once.

"I do," Hijikata answered, letting go of another puff of smoke. "The small red head, Tetsunosuke Ichimura."

"Ichi…mura…" Din muttered, as her eyes grew wide. That's why…the two of them looked so familiar. They're the sons of Ichimura! She thought as she shook off the shock. "I would like to start working the day after tomorrow."

"After tomorrow?" Yamanami asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"Tomorrow, if it's alright with you Yamanami-san, I would like to go back to my bakery to see if anything has been left behind," Din explained as she looked over towards the man with the glasses.

"I would also like permission from you to use your dojo for practice," Din asked as she lowered her head. "I have to keep up my fighting skills."

"Fighting skills?" Hijikata asked as he looked over at her.

Din brought her wrists out and looked down at them. "They're too small to hold a sword, so I would never be able to defend myself nor hold a sword against someone else so I began training in hand-to-hand combat to use my body as a weapon in case of anything."

"What are you doing that requires you to be fighting?" Yamanami asked.

"My searching leads me to dangerous places, and to dangerous people. I have to be ready to fight at anytime." Din brought her hands back down to her side and let go of a shallow sigh. "Everything about my search was in that store and now I only have a few things left…everything's…gone."

Din lowered her head and stayed in that position for a few moments, not moving or making a noise. The three men didn't know what to say so they looked towards each other, wondering. Kondo looked towards Yamanami who shrugged his shoulders, so Kondo turned to Hijikata for an answer but he just sat there, smoking his pipe as if nothing was happening. Kondo sighed; everything was on him once again.

"Din-chan, why don't you go to bed for now? It's late and you've had such a hard day." Kondo said gently.

"Right." Din stood up and took a deep breath. "Where am I staying?"

"Why don't you go and stay with Souji-kun?" Kondo offered. "I'm sure he'll let you room with him for the rest of your stay. He's right down the hallway from here."

"Thank you." Din stepped out of the room, closed the door behind her, and began to walk down to Souji's room.

"Toshi-kun how could you be so cruel?" Kondo asked as he looked over towards the demon vice commander.

"How was I being cruel?" Hijikata asked. "She's got a place to stay now so she has nothing to worry about."

Kondo shook his head, amazed that Hijikata didn't understand what he was talking about either that or he wasn't paying attention to what he had to say. "Never mind Toshi-kun."

Noise filled another dojo, miles away from the Shinsengumi headquarters. A man ran in through a pair of open doors over to another samurai who was cleaning his sword outside of the dojo in the silence of the night.

"Yoshida-sama!" The man said as he bowed down to him. "Tarason Bakery has been burned down to the ground but the owner has escaped."

"Dammit," Yoshida hissed as he continued to clean his sword.

"Yoshida-sama!" Suzu called out as he ran over to Yoshida, panting. "I found out who the business owner of Tarason Bakery is!"

"What is it Suzu-kun?" Yoshida asked as he stopped cleaning his sword and moved it down, away from his face.

"Her name is Din Hinto," Suzu answered.

"Hinto?" Yoshida repeated as a small smile crossed his face and thoughts filled his head. "Hum, this whole thing has begun to become more and more interesting. Suzu-kun, see what you can find out about this Din-san and if she is related to Setsuna in anyway possible."

"Yes sir." Suzu bowed.

"But Suzu-kun?"

"Yes?" Suzu blinked curiously.

"Take care of it in the morning, it's far too late for you to be running around." Yoshida brought his sword back near his face where he began to clean it once more.

"Yes Yoshida-sama." Suzu nodded and bowed once more.

R&R please!