Author's Note: Okay, let's try this again! There were some issues with coding and a couple other things that some of you reviewed and/or PM'ed me about when these chapters were first posted so I'm hoping that this time, everything will go smoothly! I apologize for my errors! Please enjoy~

CHAPTER ONE

When I woke up early the next morning, my body was sore from being bound in the same position overnight. I normally toss and turn in my sleep so the blankets had been completely mussed with. A man walked in just as the girl opened her eyes. He was older with a balding head and looked almost frail, but the way he carried himself and the sword on his hip spoke otherwise. He said a few words in a way that instantly calmed me, and proceeded to release the ropes around our legs and loosen the ones that bound our arms together. The short-tempered one must have been out to show his knot tying skills.

We followed the man into a common area, where the men we had seen last night and more were sitting around the room. My eyes fell on the calmest one who was nearly in a corner. We locked eyes for no more than a second before the chattering began. The calm one spoke amongst the laughter a bit with a small smile on his face. My face scrunched up a bit at not being able to understand why everyone was laughing all of a sudden. The one who seemed like the leader of the group spoke only briefly, but the entire room quieted, broken by three men who seemed to form a sort of clique of their own. It shocked me to see that one of them had to be younger than I was.

It was easy to go off into my own mind while the others talked with each other about whatever it was. The conversation drifted so much from one person talking after another, it was difficult just moving my head 'round to look at them all. The older man who had taken us into the room placed a hand on my shoulder, causing me to realize just how quiet the room had become again. All eyes were on me. Oh yeah, stare at the girl who couldn't talk. The one who seemed in charge of the meeting spoke slowly, but I didn't catch a word of what he was saying to me. "I'm sorry, but I really don't speak anything other than English."

I felt rude for interrupting him, but the room seemed to ease with a few chuckles here and there so I blushed while the leader ran a hand over his forehead and used the same hand to gesture to himself, "Hijikata Toshizo", and then to the group, "Shi-n-se-n-gu-mi."

Familiar, way too familiar. The similarities were far too much to even begin with, but how could it be possible? That was a completely different time, and even then, the real timeline wasn't even close to that of the… My eyes grew wide and jolted around the room, placing names to faces and matching what was happening at this very second to hours of completing a video game and curious Wikipedia research and dare I admit, fan fiction. How in any way could I actually be in the 1800's with the legendary Shinsengumi in what seemed to be a fictional timeline? Was this one of those weird dreams that you have for fifteen second but it seems to last forever? I brought my hands together and pinched a palm. Pain, so it must be real, but still.

They had soon after taken us back to the room and left us there for a few days, only coming in to bring the girl—I mean Chizuru and me food. They were also kind enough to bring me clothes after one day that constituted at much more than just a light over coat (I learned it was called a haori). It was in various layers and I guess meant to help me keep warm, especially since the winter seemed to be getting harsher every day. Although they still seemed oblivious to the fact that Chizuru was a girl, she was the one to help me with all the layers but the first.

I'd lost track of how long they'd kept us in that room together, but something strange had been happening in those few days. Every few sentences that Chizuru spoke to me, I seemed to pick up a word and add it somewhere in the back of my mind, as if I were suddenly understanding what she was saying. I was amazed to say the least, but annoyed just as much. Things like this just don't happen to people in real life. I'd already established this wasn't a dream through all but one method I could think of. And this learning the language just by speaking it and having someone talk to you was bogus.

Chizuru was becoming desperate by the time I could grasp the main ideas of her sentences. "We need to leave," she would say as slow as possible so I could soak up all the words. I remembered this from the game as being the first choice a player would make. "Explain?" I offered, but she shook her head and got up to leave. Just as she was reaching for the door, Kondou Isami slid it open. Shock covered his face momentarily. "I assume you were trying to escape," Keisuke Sannan spoke from the hallway, "How bold. But, running will only make your situation more difficult than it already is." I sighed, I knew they had been watching us the entire time. The only reason they'd open the door besides a meal was if we'yd tried to leave. Of course I knew that, but I guess that's why I didn't try harder to stop her. Hijikata appeared as well, issuing a death threat to the both of us even though I'd been rooted to the same spot for days. Okita Souji followed with an empty death threat of his own, "I'm sorry you broke your promise, so now we have to kill both of you." Chizuru seemed to fall for it though and I sighed inwardly. "Chizuru, explain."

I grabbed the attention of the entire room, who'd once believed me to not know a lick of Japanese. We were brought to the common area. Chizuru explained the situation, of her coming to Kyoto to find her father, and then of her meeting me in the alley, and then the Shinsengumi. "I just found her there, unconscious and unclothed. I covered her in my haori and right after that is when…" The whole group nodded in understanding then turned to me, I suppose for the rest of the story. My Japanese was still broken pretty bad, but I explained the best I could, "Woke up, alley, forget all, know English, no Japanese, no memory." I couldn't exactly tell them I came from another dimension or time and the reason my hair had been wet and I wasn't clothed because I was trying to… I brought the sleeves of the innermost layer of my clothing down over my arms and covered my eyes with my hair. I felt Inoue's hands on my shoulders as the others must have been looking on with sympathy. "Even so," Okita spoke, "It's not like we could house two women in the Shinsengumi compound."

"Two women?!" Kondou broke out of the sober mood that had fallen over the group. "I was sure everyone else had figured it out by now." Chizuru was then compelled to re-explain everything again, being stopped when she confirmed her father was Kodo Yukimura, the doctor specializing in western medicine. The building he had been practicing in had been burnt to the ground, but the good doctor was still missing. Suspicion was that he was forcibly working for an enemy group of the Shinsengumi and they were still actively looking for the man. "But with you," Sannan offered, "We have a better chance of finding him. I myself have only seen him a few times. Surely you would recognize him no matter how disguised me may be."

"Well, if she is his daughter we can't really kill her, can we…" Hijikata turned towards me, "But the other girl is a different story." My eyebrows furrowed together. If they thought I was a threat, then he wouldn't hesitate to kill me. And truly, I was even though they couldn't possibly comprehend the reasons why. I felt like a Mary Sue, sitting there while they contemplated my fate. I knew everything, thrust into an anime like some self-inserted-original-character in a poorly written story by a twelve year old. This is definitely not what I had in mind for an afterlife. I met Hijikata's gaze, "If threat, kill." Surely even broken, it must have reached their ears as their expressions turned to mirror my own. All except Okita, who stood up with his hand on the hilt of his long sword. "If she has a death wish, I don't see why we can't fulfill it!"

"Okita!" Kondou stood up as well, "She's just a girl!" The tension in the air grew with each passing second. Eventually, Kondou ordered Inoue to bring Chizuru and me to our rooms while I assumed they continued to discuss my fate in the common area.

"Why did you ask for them to kill you like that?" Chizuru moved to sit in front of me with her legs tucked under herself. Her arms were unbound, but they had tied me up the same way as before and left me on the futon. "No reason to live."

That night after Chizuru had fallen asleep, I lay there listening to crickets and watching the moon pass by the small, round window. It must have been cold outside, and even colder inside when the door slid open. A shadow passed through and over me, but no footsteps followed. The figure knelt down and began to untie my leg restraints. "I guess they decided, huh?" The hands stopped for a second, and then started again after a hum. He pulled me to sit up, and then we walked together, side-by-side, to the courtyard where he drew his sword. "I apologize," He spoke under his breath. I nodded in understanding while his hand on my shoulder guided me into a kneeling position. His last words to me were cryptic as I gazed up at him through the dim moonlight, "I want this to end, now." His blade was the last thing I saw.