I don't own PMK or anyof it's characters, I only own Din and Setsuna.
Enjoy please! Remember to R&R!
Yoshida walked into the burning shack, searching. He knew the small red head was in the shack; he had nowhere else to run after all. He stepped through the shack slowly while the smell of wood burning filled his nose. A small whimpering noise brought his attention to a small closet. Figuring that Tetsunosuke was in it, he walked over to it and slowly drew it open.
Tetsunosuke couldn't move as the door opened. The fire brought him through all of his old emotions and through all of his old memories. The smell of his parents burning, the smell of the wood, and the sounds, all of this just putrefied him.
There he was, Tetsunosuke was sitting there, hardly breathing. Yoshida drew his sword back and was getting ready to push it into the small boy when he felt someone else grab his arm.
"Yoshida-sama!" Suzu begged, holding tight to his master's arm. "Please Yoshida-sama!!"
"Look a fire's broken out!!" someone yelled from outside.
"Someone get some water!!" another person called.
"Damn." Yoshida pulled away from Suzu and ran out of the shack, Suzu following behind him.
Tatsunosuke and Din ran as fast as they could towards the area where they could see and smell smoke.
"Tatsu-kun! I'll take this way go the other!" Din said as she spotted an alleyway that might lead her to the area faster.
"Right." Tatsunosuke continued to run down the main street while Din ran through the alleyway.
Din ran as fast as she could through the alleyway, waiting for the light to show at the end of it. She finally saw it after a long moment and soon emerged from it only to slam into someone. She fell from the hard impact and looked up only to see Yoshida standing in front of her with a tried Suzu behind him.
Din's eyes widened. "Yoshida."
She quickly got back to her feet and began to run away but was pulled back as Yoshida grabbed the back of her kimono.
"You're coming with me this time," he said in a cold tone.
"The hell I am."
Din grabbed her knife on the right side of her hip and quickly slashed it back, cutting Yoshida's wrist.
"Yoshida-sama!" Suzu yelled.
Yoshida pulled his arm back and held his wrist as he hissed in pain. He reached out once more to grab her but missed as she ducked out of his reach and hopped backwards, ready to strike again if she had to.
"Tetsunosuke-kun!" Din heard Tatsunosuke's yells from where she was.
"Tetsu-kun," she whispered.
Fearing that something was wrong, Din turned away from Yoshida and began to run once more, hoping that he wasn't behind her. She ran as fast as she could towards the smoke, and yelling. She finally reached the shack and stopping running when she saw Tatsunosuke being held back by a bystander.
"Tetsunosuke-kun!!" he yelled over and over again.
Tatsunosuke grabbed a nearby water bucket and threw it over his head, soaking him. Din did the same as the younger man began to walk into the shack, and then followed closely behind him. They both walked into the shack and began to look around.
"Where do you think he could be?" Din yelled as she began to cough.
"I've got a guess!" Tatsunosuke yelled in answer.
Tatsunosuke walked into the living room of the shack and bent down to the small closet. Taking a large breath in, he opened the door and found Tetsunosuke sitting there, with a dead look on his face.
"Tetsu-kun."
Darkness. All Tetsunosuke could and wanted to see was darkness. A small light came from the darkness and a hand came out towards him. Fearing that it was that man again, Tetsunosuke scratched out causing the hands to retreat and the light to disappear.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Tatsunosuke warned Souji who stood in front of the closet where Tetsunosuke was hiding. "He's biting and scratching now."
Souji walked over to where Tatsunosuke was sitting to see Din sitting beside him and wrapping up his scratched up arm. She applied a cloth to clean out the wounds, and then placed the bandages over them.
"I'm sorry," Souji said, as he took a seat.
"For?"
"Not knowing what to say." Souji moved a bit, slipping his right left underneath himself. "I thought I knew what it meant to be psychologically scarred."
"You did know," Tatsunosuke answered. "Just as you said, it isn't something that would heal so easily."
Din reached next to her and grabbed a small glob of white cream out of a small bowl. She brought it up to Tatsunosuke's wounded arm and began to rub it up and down his arm; he to winced once.
"It's just that, nobody know how deep one's scar is. Who could understand? It isn't something you can see or touch especially if that person himself forgets about it," Tatsunosuke continued. "The only thing I can understand," he took his arm away from Din, "is that he witnessed his mother being slain and he saw his father's head flying into the fire and that caused his brain to go haywire. He smelt his parent's bodies burning and now he can't come out again!!"
Tatsunosuke covered his eyes and Souji looked away. Din moved closer towards the dark red head and began to rub his back, trying to relax him.
"That's all I can understand." Tatsunosuke took his hands away from his face and began to shake as he lost control. "That boy…he won't grow up. His height…his body…hasn't changed for two years."
Tatsunosuke lost it. Before he could stop himself, tears from his eyes and landed in his open hands. He thought of Tetsunosuke over and over again and how he looked the same as he always had. He gripped his hands together and felt someone else's hands in his and squeezed, knowing that they belonged to Din.
"It took two years it sew it back together," Tatsunosuke finished.
Souji began couching suddenly, and stood up to try and relieve himself. Din watched as Souji walked away for a moment, and as he became lost within his own, personal thoughts.
Two years. Souji thought as he began to walk away. I wonder when…my problems will be sewn together again.
"Tatsu-kun," Din said gently, "everything will be fine with Tetsu-kun soon but please worry about yourself."
Tatsunosuke didn't respond. Din sighed and moved until his folded legs met with her folded knees. She grabbed his hand tighter, and moved it down into his lap.
"That fire may have effected Tetsu-kun but I'm worried about how it effected you as well," she began. "Seeing that again had to be hard on you so please take care of yourself."
"Din-chan…I—"
Tatsunosuke stopped. He couldn't stop and think about himself, he just couldn't, there was too much to think about…too much. He moved his empty right hand away from his lap and ran it through his short hair.
"Tatsu-kun," Din whispered.
Din reached forward and pulled Tatsunosuke towards her, and wrapped her left arm around him. She hugged him tightly, telling him over and over again that things were going to be okay. He wrapped his other arm around her also, and held tightly to her.
Hijikata stepped into a dark room and looked at the man hanging upside down with blood dripping down from him. It was Masuya, or rather Furutaka the man he had been integrating for the past few days. The stubborn man wouldn't confess anything to him and after the hours and hours of failure; Hijikata had grown tried of being "nice" and decided to push things further.
"So you're not going to confess." Hijikata walked over to Furutaka's head. "Someone who is not useful is to be discarded." He pulled out his sword and moved it towards his face.
Furutaka's eyes widened as Hijikata's blade come closer and closer towards his face and decided that Yoshida wasn't worth dying for.
"Okay, okay!!" Furutaka yelled. "Yoshida-sama is going to set fire to Kyoto! They know that you know something about their plan so they're having a meeting at the Ikeda-ya tomorrow night!"
"Set fire?" Hijikata whispered in surprise.
He moved his sword upwards, Furutaka screaming, and cut the rope that held him upside down. Hijikata shoved his sword back onto his hip and walked out of the room, mumbling to himself.
"We're going to raid the Ikeda-ya and all businesses in Kyoto," Hijikata repeated to Kondo, and Yamanami. "I want to move out tomorrow night."
"Sounds good." Kondo nodded. "Souji-kun, Shinpachi-kun, and Heisuke-kun will join with me and we'll raid the Ikeda-ya and all businesses surrounding the Ikeda-ya."
"I won't be able to go," Yamanami interjected. "It seems that I've managed to catch the cold that Hinto-san has."
Hijikata let go of a small laugh. "You better just go lie down then, she won't."
Kondo sighed. "Moving on, we'll move out in tomorrow night. Prepare yourselves, I'm going to go and inform the others."
Kondo stood up and walked out of the room without another word. Yamanami looked over towards Hijikata who looked back at him with his right eyebrow raised.
"I wonder what's wrong with him," Yamanami said. "He doesn't seem like himself."
"I noticed." Hijikata lit his pipe. "The stress must be getting to him. He'll be back to normal in a few days."
Yoshida stood inside of a building hidden by large cuts of wood, talking to Miyabe. As Miyabe spoke, Yoshida wrapped the cut Din had made across his wrist.
"Yoshida-sama, why aren't you at the Feudal Lord's house?" Miyabe asked. "You would be safe there!"
"I don't want to have to start over with this plan," Yoshida answered.
"Yoshida-sama," Miyabe bowed, "the meeting to decide what to do with your plan will be held tomorrow night at the Ikeda-ya."
"Very good." Yoshida finished wrapping his wrist. "I'll be there."
The next day came, and night fell slowly. Every man was on his toes, worried and excited about what would happen when the sun finally set. Most of the men now were getting ready; putting on their armor and cleaning off their swords.
Hijikata was in his room, putting on his armor when he heard the back door open. He turned around to see Din with her arms crossed, and figuring she wasn't going to talk to him just as she hadn't been for the past few days, he turned back around and began to dress.
He heard footstep but ignored them. He tightened a loose sting on his chest armor but felt a strange pressure against his back. He stopped moving and stood still, knowing that it had to be Din.
"What is it?" Hijikata asked.
Din moved her mouth to the side so Hijikata could hear her. "I got two letters today. One of them says that my adoptive parents have died."
Hijikata narrowed his eyes. "The other?"
Din gripped Hijikata's armor. "The only other person I can live with won't be able to reach me for a while. At least two years without writing me or being able to see me."
"Is that it?"
"No." Din pressed harder into Hijikata's back. "Please come back just as you are now. Please try not to get hurt. I've already lost you once, if I lose you again I'll fall apart."
Hijikata sighed. "Why do I matter that much to you? After everything that's happened while you've been here you still act like you used to, like nothing's changed when so much is different."
"Because," she sniffled, "I didn't get to finish what I had with you. You're the same person I had before only…the feelings are different."
"What do you want from this?"
"I don't know."
"We can't start anything again."
Din's eyes widened a bit then closed tightly. "Maybe I'm jealous. I passed up a perfectly good man because I was still waiting for you even though I thought you were dead. I was waiting for a dead man because I knew in my heart you weren't dead." She laughed a bit. "I don't know what I want…but I just want you to know that I still love you."
"You can't."
Din pushed herself away from Hijikata's back after hearing his comment. She turned around to walk out of the room when he turned around and grabbed her wrist.
"I only cling to you because everything is falling apart around me," she said. "You feel like home, that's why I keep coming back to you. You were part of everything back when I was happy and now I'm so miserable so maybe that's why I'm in love with you. That has to be it right? I mean the person I want to see the most in this world won't talk to me for at least two years! I guess that's why I'm clinging to you now."
Hijikata grabbed Din's left shoulder and turned her around so that she faced him. He looked at her eyes to see how wet they were and the trail left behind from the tears gently running down her face. He didn't know why she was crying or whom she was crying for but he knew he was a part of it.
"Right?" she asked.
Hijikata moved towards her, and moved his face down towards hers. She pulled away slightly, not knowing what he was going to do, but Hijikata pushed forward and pressed his lips onto hers gently. Din blinked for a moment, then wrapped her arms around his neck, having a bit of trouble because of the armor he had on. Responding to what she was doing, Hijikata wrapped his arms around her also.
After a few moments, Hijikata moved his lips away from Din's and moved them towards her ear, and Din doing the same.
"You are my happiness," she whispered.
"I'm sorry," he whispered in return.
"Please Yoshida-sama!" Suzu begged as he kneeled. "Please let me go with you to the Ikeda-ya!"
"No," Yoshida answered as he dressed himself. "I want you to stay here Suzu-kun. Don't move from this spot while I'm gone. I'll come back for you later."
"But Yoshida-sama!"
"Good bye Suzu-kun."
Yoshida walked towards the entrance, leaving Suzu behind. Suzu sat there in surprise that his master didn't let him go, and told himself that he was going to gather enough courage to go to the Ikeda-ya to help his master.
Hours had passed and now Hijikata had set up a small camping ground. He was talking to everyone, and heard the men behind him talking about wanting to go and fight already.
"I think we should go," Kondo said, looking towards Hijikata. "All of the men want to go. Do you want to move out?"
"Yes." Hijikata looked around. "I'll take Harada-kun, along with the other men."
"I'll talk Souji-kun, Nagakura-kun, and Toudo-kun." Kondo smiled. "We're moving out men!" he yelled. "Everyone!! Move out!!"
Yamanami was sitting up in bed, reading when his door opened. He had just woken up from a dream that he been bothering him lately, the dream of when he and the others killed the former chief. He looked up to see Tatsunosuke coming in the room with a small tray in front of him. Wanting to talk, he lowered his book and pushed up his glasses.
"Hello Tatsu-kun." Yamanami smiled.
"I made you some rice pudding." Tatsunosuke brought the food in and placed it in front of Yamanami. "I thought it might make you feel a bit better. After all you can't eat something big, being as sick as you are."
"Tatsu-kun," Yamanami lowered his head, "I'm not really sick. I just didn't want to go to the raids, I don't want to kill anyone any more."
"Actually," Tatsunosuke scratched the back of his head, "I believe in the same thing. I would rather have Tetsu-kun believe the same thing but…well you know." Tatsunosuke stood up. "Now that you're feeling better, there's some leftover broiled fish, do you want some?"
"Sure." Yamanami smiled.
As Tatsunosuke walked back into the kitchen he looked outside and spotted Din standing near the front gates. He stopped walking, and wanted to go over towards her but stopped. The way she was looking out towards the street, with her arms up at her chest, and sighing while looking out into to the street once in a while. He wanted to go over to her and ask her what was wrong but remembered Yamanami, his superior, waiting for him, and walked back into the kitchen.
Susumu was tired of this. He couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed the closet door that hid Tetsunosuke and pulled on it. Tetsunosuke, out of fear, pulled back on it, trying to stay in his own little world but Susumu cursed and ripped the closet door off of the hinges.
"Now," Susumu panted, "hurry up and come out. You have to go and fight in the raid, after all," he tossed a uniform and sword, "you won't want Hijikata-sama to have wasted all of this."
Tetsunosuke slowly looked down towards the uniform that told everyone in the streets that he was a member of the Shinsengumi, and the sword he had been waiting for. He was a member. A member.
"W-What have you done?"
Susumu turned around to see Tatsunosuke standing in the doorway with the look of shock on his face. Susumu rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.
"What have you done!?" Tatsunosuke yelled once more.
"Why? You don't like the idea of Tetsu-kun being out in the real world? Are you that scared? You want Tetsu-kun to stay in the closet don't you? You want him to never come out don't you?" Susumu asked over and over again.
"You…you have no idea what you've done!!" Tatsunosuke yelled.
The anger inside of Tatsunosuke boiled over inside of him. He ran towards Susumu with his fist outwards and pushed it forward, aiming for Susumu's face. Susumu, being used to combat, put his hand up and blocked the dark red head's attack.
"I say that it's time you sit back and let Tetsu-kun make his own choices," Susumu warned.
Susumu was now on the roof, and had left Tetsunosuke and Tatsunosuke alone to do his job. He was running on the roofs, going towards the Ikeda-ya in case his fellow comrades needed him.
Suddenly, a ninja knife shot out in front of Susumu's right foot; he stood up and looked to the right where the female ninja stood.
"You're still playing these ninja games? Even after what happened to your sister?" she asked.
Susumu gripped his fists together. "These ninja games end tonight."
"Tetsu-kun?"
Yamanami walked into the room where Susumu had ripped off the closet door, and where Tetsunosuke still hid with the uniform covering him now. Yamanami sighed, and walked over to the wall and sat down, leaning against it.
"I wanted to tell you something, I'm not really ill, I'm just too scared to fight," Yamanami confessed. "It's just that when times like this come, I think of these fish, Medokas, I used to watch when I was younger. They would always try to swim upstream and always fought they're hardest. The fish were so courageous, not like me but maybe like you Tetsu-kun." He laughed. "I'm sorry to have bored you Tetsu-kun."
Kondo lead his group into the Ikeda-ya and up a set of stairs and to a door he quickly kicked open. There, in a circle, were Choshu members all drinking, all of the men who the Shinsengumi had been looking for.
"This is a raid!" Kondo yelled. "Anyone who protests will be killed!"
"All of you stay and fight!" Yoshida stood up and grabbed the handle of his sword.
"This is your second warning!" Kondo ordered.
"We can take them all!" Yoshida yelled to his men. "There are more of you! We out number them!"
"That's it!" Kondo raised his sword. "Kill everyone who opposes without mercy!"
R&R please!