I don't own PMK or any of it's characters, I only own Din, Setsuna, and Seimura.
::Coughs:: This is the chapter that will change everything! Yay! I finally get it done! Anyways, I won't be able to update next week because I'll be busy for the hoildays, sorry. Be safe everyone and I hope you get everything on your list!
Enjoy!
Din had managed to serve dinner a bit later then usual because of her little trip she had gone on with Tatsunosuke but everything had gone rather smoothly. While that was going on in the Shinsengumi, Ryoma had awoken to a loud banging noise coming from the top of the roof where he had been staying.
An assassin 'eh? He thought as he jumped out of his futon. I wonder if they're here for Katsu-sensei or me.
Ryoma grabbed his handgun and jumped out of the window, grabbing the roof as he did so. With one arm he pulled himself onto the roof and looked around to see a figure in the dark.
"How's about a shooting game right here on the roof?" he asked out loud. "I'm pretty good at playing games like that."
The figure that had been coming after him in the night stepped into the light of the moon, showing the figure of a tall, blond woman with bright blue eyes. Ryoma paused as he took in her looks, and allowed his mouth to drop open.
"Blonde girl," he whispered in awe.
Ryoma rolled around on the roof with Akesato until she managed to punch him in the face. Getting that close to him, he grabbed her chin and brought her face next to his.
"It is you!" he cheered. "Blue eyes! How pretty!"
They stood there looking at one another until a tall man with long black hair appeared on the roof beside them with a smaller man on his back. Ryoma stopped rolling around with Akesato to look at the two men standing on the roof, recognizing the black haired man as Aotani and the smaller man as Katsu.
"Ryoma?" Katsu asked. "What are you doing up here with that blond woman?"
Ryoma placed his hand over Akesato's mouth, preventing her from saying anything else against what he was about to say.
"She's a new recruit!" Ryoma said happily.
Recruit? Akesato thought. So he's not going to kill me?
Ryoma released Akesato and she pulled away, allowing herself to take in all of Ryoma's image. Instead of doing what she thought he was going to do, Ryoma grinned and moved his hand out towards her.
"Let's see the world together!" he said in a playful tone.
"…What?" Akesato asked.
"Why not?" Ryoma asked over the sound of a dog howling.
Katsu sighed. "Come to bed Ryoma, you're going to see Din-san tomorrow remember? You need some sleep."
"Right!" Ryoma grinned. "We're finally gonna head out together?"
Din-san? Akesato asked herself as she thought over that name. She remembered that she had heard it over and over a few years back but the face wouldn't come back to her.
"Come inside!" Ryoma wrapped his arm around Akesato. "We've got a lot to talk about!"
The next morning back at Shinsengumi HQ, Kondo was getting ready to move out with Susumu and Ito to Hiroshima in order to look for remaining Choushuu leaders and rebellions. He was planning for a long trip, perhaps over a year or so and today was the day he was finally going to get out in order to stretch his legs.
"I can't wait!" Kondo said.
"Do you have everything you need?" Hijikata asked as he looked at the bags Kondo had packed.
"I think so." Kondo looked around. "Can I trust you to take care of the Shinsengumi?" Kondo laughed.
"I think you can," Hijikata answered with a small sigh.
"Let's move out into the courtyard, I want to say goodbye to everyone before I leave," Kondo said as picked up a bag. "Gather everyone in the courtyard alright?"
"Yes." Hijikata nodded.
Tatsunosuke's day was going just as wonderfully as the night before had. He found himself running through his work with ease when he found a small section of papers that hadn't been organized yet. Knowing that it was his job to look through them and check to make sure that they weren't receipts for anything he began to search through them when he came across a paper with a familiar name.
Yoshida Setsuna.
This is Din-chan's sister. Tatsunosuke thought as he put it down on the floor to separate it from the rest of the papers. I'll give it to Din-chan once I'm done sorting through the rest of these.
Hijikata walked into the kitchen, a bit hesitant to talk to Din after what happened the last time they talked to one another but he figured it was for a good reason so he walked in to find her reading a book. He twitched for a moment but saw that she was waiting for her water to boil.
"Something wrong?" she asked, looking over the top of her book.
"Kondo-kun is leaving and would like to say goodbye to you in the courtyard," Hijikata explained.
"I'll be there in a moment," Din answered, closing her book. "Let me finish things here first."
"Fine. Get Tatsunosuke-kun while you're coming will you?" he asked as he turned away from her.
"I will. Thank you for telling me."
Moments later Din finished what she was doing in the kitchen and was walking towards the courtyard when she remembered that she had to get Tatsunosuke. Taking a detour she walked into his work room to see him reading over a piece of paper.
"Isami-kun wants to meet us in the courtyard to say goodbye," she said with a smile. "You coming?"
"In a moment," he answered. "Oh yeah, I found this paper about your sister."
"Really?"
Tatsunosuke grabbed the paper he had left on the ground and handed it to her. She eagerly read over it but as Tatsunosuke looked up at her to see what her reaction would be, he saw her face go pale and her smile instantly disappear. Without saying anything, Din moved away from Tatsunosuke and ran down the hallway.
"Din-chan?" Tatsunosuke asked. "Din-chan!"
Tatsunosuke stood up and ran after her to see what was the matter. Running behind her just as he had been the day before only this time he got a painful, sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"Din-chan!" he yelled.
She led him out into the courtyard where everyone in the Shinsengumi stood in uniform, laughing and carrying on as Kondo got ready to leave. When Din stopped walking for a moment and stood in front of everyone, Tatsunosuke managed to catch up with her, and stood by her side.
"Din-chan! What's the matter?" he asked, trying to catch his breath.
He looked at her as she didn't respond but placed her hand inside of her kimono. She grabbed something underneath her clothing and took it out a bit to reveal that she was holding a sai.
Tatsunosuke's eyes widened. "Din-chan…what are you doing?"
Din ignored Tatsunosuke and sprinted over towards Hijikata, taking the sai fully out of her kimono. She ran passed everyone who was standing in front of Hijikata and he turned to see her running towards him. Before he could react to seeing the sai in her hands, he was slammed up against the wall, and could feel a small trail of blood start to drip down his right cheek.
"Din-chan!!" Kondo said in surprise.
"It was you," Din said, placing her face next to Hijikata's. "You're the one who killed Setsuna."
"W-What are you talking about?" Hijikata asked as his eyes grew wide.
"Stop lying to me!" she screamed, stabbing the sai by the right side of his head deeper into the wooden wall behind him. "I saw the damned paper you kept about her! You're the bastard that killed her! All this time! All this damn time you've been hiding it from me when you knew I was looking for her!! You fucking knew you bastard."
As Din spoke Hijikata noticed a small trail of blood had begun to move down her mouth. He looked down towards her abdomen as her breathing became labored to see a sword had cut through her side.
He looked back towards her face. "Din."
Din's face changed from being angry to a smile. She backed away from Hijikata to show the vice commander that it was Souji who had stick her with his sword, just as he had done to Yamanami months earlier.
"Din-nee," Souji whispered as he realized what he had done.
Souji withdrew his sword from Din's body, causing blood to spill out of her. He let his sword fall to his side as his eyes grew wide and he backed away from her as well. Din stumbled back as pain ran through her body but through that she managed to laugh.
"Din-chan," Kondo lowered his head. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't tell—"
"You're all a bunch of lying son of a bitches," Din said through her laugh as she lowered her head. "Damn Shogunate dogs! How can you sleep knowing that you've done this to a family?!" She fell to her knees as the pain got the better of her. "How could you kill someone like that? You morons killed Setsuna and then Yamanami!!"
"Din-chan," Tatsunosuke whispered.
Tatsunosuke started to move forward in order to touch Din when Sanosuke, Shinpachi, and Heisuke moved in front of him, and held him back. He moved against them as they blocked him, hitting his shoulders over and over again against their strong chests.
"Din-chan!" Tatsunosuke yelled, moving his hand out towards him.
Din moved her hand to her side as the pain grew. She bent forward; trying to rid herself of the pain but it was growing and growing no matter where she moved. The blood draining out of her grew darker and darker as the pain escalated, and seeing this, Kondo turned his head away.
"Souji-kun…," he said as began to cry, "Do as you did with Sannan."
"Din-chan!" Tatsunosuke screamed.
Souji walked over to Din as she withered in pain and began to raise his sword up when Tetsunosuke ran out in front of her. He stood there, in front of Souji and stopping the sword Souji was holding to stop moving upwards.
"You can't kill Din-chan," Tetsunosuke said, moving his arms out in front of her. "We have a doctor now, please let him look at her wounds!"
"Ichimura," Hijikata hissed. "Move now."
"Tetsu," Tatsunosuke whispered.
Even though this was happening right in front of Din, she was blind to it. All she could think about was her little sister and how she had been with Hijikata and Kondo so many times. Hijikata had been lying to her as he watched her look for her smaller sister and went to the grave of her sister even though he had been the one to kill her. Even though he could have told her at anytime, he hid it from her and waited for her to find out on her own. For the past few months that had almost become a year they had been laughing together, and going through so much with their emotions with one another but he was lying to her about something so important to her, and that was something she would never be able to forgive him for.
"I love you."
"Shit," she hissed as she grasped at the ground underneath her.
"Move!" Hijikata yelled towards Tetsunosuke.
"But—"
"I'm sorry Tetsu-kun," Souji whispered.
Souji moved forward with speed that he had gained from his long training, and pushed Tetsunosuke out of the way. Tetsunosuke hit the floor and looked back up as the dust cleared from around him to see Souji raising his sword once more.
"Okita-san!! Don't!!" Tetsunosuke screamed out.
As Souji brought his sword up fully and started to move it downwards and while he did so, a single shot ran out, breaking the silence that had come to the small courtyard. When everyone looked towards Souji their eyes met with seeing his sword on the floor instead of his hands, and a small, smoking dent in the middle of his sword.
"Din!" a voice called out.
Everyone's eyes looked up towards the roof to see Ryoma standing there with a smoking gun in his hands, and a deathly serious look on his face. He hopped down from the roof and began walking towards Din when Souji picked up his sword once more to fight. He began moving towards Ryoma to fight him when he felt a tug on his uniform. Looking back, Din was gripping onto his uniform.
"Please don't Souji-kun," she said through the blood falling out of her mouth. "Please don't hurt him."
"Din-nee," Souji whispered as he looked down towards her.
Ryoma walked towards Din and stood in front of Souji, waiting for him to either move or fight. Without saying another thing else, Souji moved away from Ryoma, lowering his head.
"Din," Ryoma said as he ran over to her once Souji had moved.
He ran over to Din and held her as he fell back into his arms. She looked up at him with a bloody smile. He moved his hand down her body until he found where she had been injured, and placed his hand over the wound in order to stop the bleeding.
"Ryoma," she whispered.
"Don't worry about anything," he whispered back to her. "I'll get you fixed up."
Din laughed, and then closed her eyes, allowing her head to fall to the side. Ryoma shook her a few times, trying to get her to wake back up but he wasn't getting a response.
"Din!" he yelled. "Din! Dammit, don't die on me. I'll take you to Ryojun Matsumoto-san, don't worry."
"He's here," Tetsunosuke said, alerting Ryoma to look up at the small red head.
"Where?"
Tetsunosuke looked back towards Susumu. Susumu shook his head and stepped over towards Ryoma, and took Din from his arms. He moved her until he could hold her without worry of dropping her, and then looked back up towards Ryoma.
"I'll take care of her, don't worry," he said. "Matsumoto-sensei and I will take care of her injuries."
With the help of Tetsunosuke, Susumu carried Din away into what had been designated the medical room, leaving Ryoma out in the courtyard with everyone else.
"You know that I'm taking her once Matsumoto-san heals her," Ryoma said, moving his gun around on his finger.
"Where?" Hijikata asked, stepping up.
"Where she belongs," Ryoma answered with a cold tone. "She's coming to help me lead the Choushuu alliance."
"What?" Hijikata said as his mouth dropped open.
"You can't be telling the truth!" Kondo yelled. "Why would Din-chan deceive us like that?"
"Lemme tell you something," Ryoma said, now looking towards Kondo. "She was doing this before she came back here. If I hadn't been forced to take off then she never would have come back here so she hasn't been doin' anything wrong. Her being here is my fault."
"I can't let her go then," Hijikata said, drawing his sword from his hip. "I can't allow her or you to leave this land. You're both going to jail to be executed."
"Toshi-kun!" Kondo said in shock.
"All of you head back into the sleeping quarters!" Hijikata ordered. "NOW!"
Tatsunosuke ran back into the dojo once Hijikata had ordered it, but instead of running towards the sleeping room, he headed to the examination room to check up on Din and her condition.
Meanwhile everyone else ran into the sleeping quarters and stood together, not saying a word to one another about what had just happened. They knew what their duties were and they knew that they were not to disobey them no matter how important the person was to them.
"So what are going to do?" Ryoma asked, watching Hijikata draw his sword.
"I'm not letting you go," Hijikata hissed with a firm look on his face.
"It's gonna come down to a fight is it?" Ryoma sighed. "If that's what you want Captain but remember if I win, Din and I are leaving."
"And if you lose?"
Ryoma grinned. "You get to kill us both."
"Toshi-kun!!" Kondo yelled as he stepped forward. "You cannot be serious! Please don't tell me that you're going to do this! Toshi-kun!"
"I'm doing it Kondo-kun," Hijikata answered coldly. "Remember, this won't be on your record, you are not here today."
"No Toshi-kun!" Kondo demanded. "You cannot do this!"
"Please Kondo-kun," Hijikata asked without turning back around to Kondo. "If you truly do trust me, then allow me to do this."
"Trust you?" Kondo asked, blinking. "This has nothing to do with me trusting you!"
"Don't worry about it!" Ryoma said as Kondo looked at him. "I won't hurt the guy too much, trust me, I wouldn't want Din to cry over him."
"Shut up!" Hijikata barked.
Tatsunosuke ran into the examination room to see Din lying down on the ground with a futon underneath her, and blood spilling onto the floor. Susumu had placed something Tatsunosuke couldn't make out against her side to keep the blood from spilling out but it hardly made a difference.
Matsumoto had gathered the items he would need in order to clean out Din's wound and stitch it shut in order to stop the bleeding. With the items he had found, Matsumoto walked over to Susumu's side and handed the items to Susumu.
"You want me to do it?" Susumu asked in awe.
"Yes," the older man nodded. "Hurry now, she's losing a lot of blood."
Susumu nodded. "Yes sir."
Susumu opened the small box and began taking things out. Tatsunosuke stood there, watching as Susumu moved the object he had placed against Din's wound and began to stitch her wound shut. He moved in only to have Matsumoto step in front of him.
"Don't worry Ichimura-san, Susumu-kun will be able to take care of the young lady," Matsumoto said gently.
"But I need to see her," Tatsunosuke insisted.
Matsumoto shook his head. "I'm sorry; she's out from the medication we've given her. She won't be able to see or hear you. Please Ichimura-san; go into the main sleeping quarter with everyone else."
Tatsunosuke hung his head. He wanted to stay here and help Din get through what was happening but he knew that he had to follow the orders he had been given by the vice commander. He had already broken the rules by coming to the examination room and he didn't want to push it any further then that and risk losing his job.
"I'm sorry," Tatsunosuke said as he took a step backwards. "I'll be going now."
Once Tatsunosuke was far enough from the door, Matsumoto slid the door over until it met with the wall. The dark red head stood there with his head down in front of a closed door, gripping his fingers into his hands.
Standing there with the door shut in his face once more made Tatsunosuke feel so helpless. Here he was again standing there instead of helping the person he wanted to help more then anything else in the world. No matter how much he hoped, no matter how much he waited, he knew that he wouldn't be able to help again. He was nothing but a bystander to the person he wanted to be with the most.
What kind of person am I? Tatsunosuke asked himself. What kind of person am I just to stand here like this? I have no use to the people I love the most.
R&R please!