"So, what you are trying to tell me, is that my second in command forced himself on the girl he has been waiting on day and night for the last...four months?" incredulous Kondo looked the blond in the eye.
Nonplussed Kazama answered. "Basically yes."
He took a sip from his pipe and sight. "Of course it is way more complicated that that."
"From what I gathered from Chizurus tale, we can assume that Hijikata was stubborn enough to neglected 'feeding' his blood lust for quite some time. As I'm sure you know, something stupid like that, can have very nasty side effects. If we add Yukimuras own emotion into the equation..."
"What does that change?", Kondo interrupted irritated. "Don't tell me she bought it upon herself, or similar nonsense."
"You are forgetting that Yukimura is Oni, human." Kazama corrected. "No, she did not bring it upon herself. It may have helped the situation along, but it was no way her fault. Neither was it your commanders for that matter, besides his carelessness."
The blond oni purred them both some more sake and took a gulp of it.
"Chizuru has been harbouring a deep fondness for that man ever since I first set eyes on her. That is why I wanted to distance her from your group in the first place. To be honest, it has been very amusing watching the two of them dancing around each other for the last 18 moons or so. At first, he may have reacted to me out of pride, but sooner than later your demon commander got himself trapped into something that grew way over his head."
Chikage refilled his cup.
"Because she was not raised as an oni, it was very obvious for any of us watching. And those intense feelings your humans take so much pride in, and we onis condemn, are like beacons of light.
As Hijikata changed into his rasetsu, loosing all control because of his overwhelming blood lust, the rudimentary oni instincts must have taken over. He may have understood on some level what was going on, but like the overpowering blood lust, he had no say in the happenings. For all instance and purpose he mated, or married, Yukimura that night."
The oni prince sight and looked at Kondo again. Defending his declared rival was not sitting well with him.
"I don't think it would be prudent to deal with him, at least not in your normal fashion."
Kondo Isami had closed his eyes and contemplated the past happenings and the future actions to be taken. It had been shocking to discover, at his return from the shogun, that Chizuru had gone into labour while headquarters had been under attack. More disconcerting thou had been the news that his best friend had been the one, to father Chizurus child. What could he do, to maintain the order of his troops without harming the young woman they cared so much about or his childhood friend for that matter.
"Speaking of Toshi, how is he doing?" He asked, his heart heavy. Hijikata Toshizo had not woken once since the battle three days ago. Chizuru had opened her eyes the next morning, confused and exhausted, but fine none the less. Her happiness over her newborn daughter was only shadowed by her concern for the unconscious man laying in the room next door.
"It is up to him now. With the transfusion Sannan made from my blood, he should be able to heal his wounds without problems." Chikage blew more smoke from his lips. " He seems to be fighting himself, or more precisely his rasetsu side. Perhaps he has been for a while now, without anyone noticing."
The prince reclined more against the armrest, eyes half closed, enjoying the beauty of the summer garden.
"I hope he realises in time, that he is more oni than rasetu now. Not even my blood could save him if he keeps self destroying." A big, predatory grin spread on Kazamas face. "If he survives, he will be one of a kind. And he will wake to a whole new life." He twirled his pipe ideally." I suppose he will be my responsibility, as he is part of my blood now, part of my clan... What to do?"
A malicious, impish smile played on the onis face as he watch out for the humans reaction. Isami had closed up, his face a mask of stone resembling the one Toshi wore on occasions. Not wanting to push the commander of the Shinsengumi to far, Chikage relented.
"I think I'll leave him to you for the moment. Chizuru will not take it kindly if I whisk away her mate any time soon and I myself have some preparations to make on this matter, too." The blond refilled their sake cups.
"Be prepared for quite a ride, human" He toasted to Kondo and throw the alcohol back. " Young Oni tend to be... wild." Kazamas laughter filled the room.
The leader of the ronin troop only asked himself, to whom his interlocutor was referring to, the small child that was peacefully sleeping at her mothers side, or the man he would always call brother.
Chizuru rearranged her Kimono and sat in a more comfortable position on the cushions at the side of the futon. Her little girl was peacefully sleeping in a bundle of white line cloth at her left, her mate laying in the bed on her right side. With a small smile on her face she draped the washing cloth in the basin with cold water, wrung it and placed it on Hijikatas forehead. With worried fingers she traced his face and tucked a strand of black hair behind one ear.
"Please come back to me," Chizuru whispered into the quite room. "Wake up Hijikata-san."
With a deep sight she sat back and watched the unconscious man for some time. A new idea came to her and careful not to wake the newborn, the young woman took her child from its bedding and lay it on it's fathers chest. She lowered herself until she was mere inches away from the demon commander.
"Don't you want to see your beautiful daughter, Hijikata-san? She has your stunning eyes, and Okita swears, your nose too. She will be an able warrior when she grows. Will you deny her a fathers teachings?" Chizuru tried to be as persuasive as she could. They weren't even sure Hijikata could hear them, but Matsumoto-snesei had told them to talk to the unconscious man, even Kazama had agreed on the likelihood that something so seemingly pointless would speed up his recovery.
She places one hand on her child's back and rested her head on her other elbow. Closing her eyes she listened to the summer wind playing with the window chimes, the crickets singing in the garden, the water of the small pond rippling whenever a fish broke the surface and the distant voices of the day to day live of headquarters. So many things had changed in such a short time...
"It's so strange having Kazama around without fighting him," she mused. " Even his two companions have stayed behind and are getting along quite well with the others. The occasional turmoil notwithstanding. But what would you expect when you pack a bunch of human wolfs with three proud Oni into one house?"
Opening her eyes again she started playing with Hijikatas hair.
"You know, Kazama has been really agreeable this last three days. I think I scared him for the rest of his life." Chizurus monologue was interrupted by her own giggles. "I fear the Kazama clan will have some severe difficulties getting a heir any time soon. But to his defence, he kept his cool very well. That stuck up Oni even explained things to me, you see."
"It's embarrassing..." the young mother fished for words. "How am I to tell you this without stepping to close. It took me months to muster up the courage to tell you about the pregnancy..."
A deep sight escaped her lips. " If I understood everything correctly, all of this mess was because I was raised as a human and have no idea of Oni customs...because, Oni repress their feelings, it seems, as else they would mix up very badly with their instinctual magic side." A deep frown graced her forehead. "Well, with the white haired and horned beast they change into when in their true form. So, to keep a clear mind they repress their feelings, the opposite of humans, who draw strength from them.
Kazama said, that rasetsu have some Oni in them, a very small part that acts mostly unconsciously.
All this is more confusing than I thought possible."
She let herself roll onto her back and stared at the celling, time passing her by without any reaction from her audience. "When... when two Oni really like each other, something this days is very rare, and they meet on a certain time, then their true forms will take over and act on instinct. That is how oni mating was done in the past said Kazama. I... I will not deny that I harbour some affection for you, Hijikata-san. And..." Chizurus cheeks heated up." And.. your Oni side at least, has some very strong feelings for me, and when you changed into a rasetsu because you ignored the blood lust for to long, it took over. It seemed to be the right time for mating, and as we... liked each other enough, well... those things happened."
Out of breath and embarrassed out of her mind the brunette stopped. Taking deep breaths she sat up.
It was nearly noon and lunch would be served very soon. She had promised the captains she would eat with them that day, bringing along their charge to be ogled and cooed upon some more. It surprised her even now how well they all took the news of Hijikatas parenting. But she suspected Souji and Heisuke would give him hell when he woke up again, not to mention Shimpachi and Harada. Saito had frowned deeply for a day and then decided Hijikata was not the worst person to father their collective daughter. Sannan was way to occupied with the medical aspects of the commanders treatment and the peculiarities of an Oni birth to focus on anything else. Besides Hijikata had become his favourite research project.
Taking her daughter into her arms, Chizuru bent down to the demon commander.
"Please wake up soon, my mate," blushing deeply she placed a chaste kiss on his cheek. "Don't fight the Oni inside you." Afterwards she made her way to the common room for the meal.
It was some days later deep purple eyes opened to the world, overloading his new keen senses with the chaotic and over active bustle of the Shinsengumi headquarters. Strange times were coming, with an Oni commander of the Miburoshi, a hime residing in the ronin household, a new alliance with the Oni clan of the west and a bundle of joy crying her way into ever changing history.
Ya ttttaaaaaaaa! Finished! The End. Whatever you wish to call it ^^.
Sorry for the long wait. Life got in the middle of me and writing, and in the end, it took longer than I thought to completly edit this.
My next big, but unfortunatly OnHold4UntoldTime, Hakuouki project is called Yukimura-Hime. Let me rewrite history for you, forge new alliances, make unlikely friends, start a family and who knows, perhaps get a happy ending.
If you liked 'Taking care' and are DBZ fans, please look into my first story in that fandom: "Infinity" (comming (hopefully) soon)
P.S.: If anyone has a better titel for this story, please please suggest it. It's still bugging me that I could not come up with anything better.