Author's note: The (*) will continue to be used as previously, and I thank you for your patience with this story so far.
kuraireikan
Determined Devotion
You'll need something sweet to offset the flavor. I suggest honey, though the boy will have candy with him. What kind of candies do you think he'll bring to your tea party? More importantly, what kind of tea goes best with poison?
"Souji, would you and Hijikata-san care to have tea with me before you leave?" she asked, "I doubt you'll have had time to really warm up before he's finished bandaging my ankle. It's the least I can do."
"I'll ask Hijikata-s—," was as far as he got.
"We don't have time for anything fancy," Floated out of the kitchen just then. Not surprising he could hear them as the doors to both rooms were open.
"I only wish I could do something fancy," she trailed off as Hijikata came across with bandages and a ready poultice for her ankle, " I have nothing like that."
She knew it would take only a couple of minutes before he was ready to go but Souji had taken the opportunity to head into the kitchen and return with both of the teapots and the only two cups she had.
"I know it's getting late but shouldn't Souji at least have his medicine before he heads back out into the cold?," she said, in an attempt to keep Hijikata here a little longer.
The manner in which Souji froze in place and scrunched up his face told her all she needed to know about his thoughts on that matter, "That's very kind but not necessary. I can wait until we get home," he deflected with impressive grace, but Hijikata did not agree.
By now he had finished with her ankle and was already pulling the medicine pouch fron his sleeve. He reached for the smaller of the two teapots and Souji reluctanly handed it over.
"I have a few snacks, rice cakes actually, in the pantry," she said in way of an aplology to Souji.
"Ah, rice cakes sound nice," said Souji with a slightly forced expression.
"I'll understand if you'd rather not," she replied, then waited exactly two heart beats before setting the hook.
"I have a bit of a sweet tooth and tend to drown mine in honey."
The change in his expression, while subtle, was obvious all the same. "Most people can't stomach them but I'm afraid they're all I have here today."
"Please, don't apologize. We'd love to stay for a bit, wouldn't we, Hijikata-san?"
Another taciturn, "Mm," was the reply. "As if you haven't had enough sugar today."
And from that moment on, they were hers; hook, line and sinker.
o0o0o
Souji volunteered to go to the kitchen for the rice cakes but Hijikata decided he'd best do that himself. "They might not all make it back across the hallway otherwise," he explained.
"Stay and take your medicine," and as Souji began to protest, "there's no reason not to start on it now: I'm coming right back," he said as he climbed to his feet.
"But Hijikata-san," Souji whined, "I just thought..."
"Souji," and the tone of voice, though not angry, made it absolutely clear; this conversation was over.
Souji stopped acting the part of the spoiled child and gave Hijikata a smile and a nod before sipping the foul smelling medicine. But even though he had given up on his little charade, he could not hide the scrunch between his eyebrows when he drank it.
"This is your worst brew yet." Souji said in little more than a whisper.
"You always say that," came the reply, made faint by the distance of the kitchen pantry. A distance from which he could not possibly have heard Souji.
Souji smiled and Akiko found herself doing the same.
"Because it's always true," he said as Hijikata came in with a bundle small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, wrapped in bamboo leaves.
This was obviously a ritual for them and seeing it answered a couple of questions for her.
According to the widow's information, Hijikata was the second in command of the Shinsengumi, and yet he regularly went out and walked to town for supplies. Akiko had been around long enough to know that things don't work that way. Officers as highly ranked as Vice Commander Hijikata—and even First Squad Captain, Okita Soujirou—don't make supply runs. Such tasks are left to the rank-and-file.
In fact, they had little in the way of supplies with them. Any they might have paid for earlier today were likely sent back on a cart with a few other members of their group. These two men did not come for supplies but for something completely different.
One such thing was the candy. It was true that Souji did love his sweets, and he did share them with the nearby orphans that he sometimes played with, when his health allowed.
The other was medicine.
Hijikata came to town himself so often because he couldn't trust anyone else to do it; to buy the correct medicinal plants, herbs and roots, dried or fresh, that he needed. For what, she hadn't known, until now.
And worst of all, the fact that he had to do this meant that every other possible cure for Souji's illness had already failed, and a long way back from the look of it.
Once again she found her resolve waivering. How could she cause this young man to suffer any more than he had already? The widow herself had not suffered the sort of lingering, horrifying pain and fear Souji would know before his end, even should Akiko turn and walk out the door right now.
Her reason for harming him no longer existed; her being here was counterproductive. The widow wanted them both to suffer, yet giving Souji a relatively quick death tonight would be a mercy.
And there it was.
The reason she needed to continue on this path, to not break her promise to the widow.
Souji might be a demon in battle, when he faced off with other demons as intent on killing him as he was them, but here and now, he was a very young man dying far too soon of a wasting disease most often seen in people twice his age or older.
And she was in a position to give him peace.
She was a healer after all, and though she could not heal him in this life, perhaps by setting him free to begin the life cycle anew, she would be healing him in the next.
Once she had regained her composure she went about making them tea. She went ahead and divvied up the rice cakes for Souji's sake so he would have something to help with the taste of his medicine, something he seemed to appreciate.
She and Hijikata waited for the tea she was brewing in the larger of the two pots to steep.
During those few minutes they all seemed to decide that now was the time to shift, all three at once, by degrees or by feet, into different areas or positions.
Hijikata had chosen to sit in the corner formed by the front wall of the house and the wall closest to the hallway, for easy access to the kitchen if need be. Now he shifted so as to lean back into a more comfortable sitting position.
Souji scooched backward a little and leaned against the opposite wall with the one pillow in the room to separate him from the coldness of the stone.
And she settled at the hearth, but on the side closest to Souji, whom she beilieved to be the least threatening of the two.
Once they had seated themselves comfortably, Akiko poured tea in the remaining cup and when she nodded at Hijikata, he came over to receive it politely, then returned to his seat.
At this point she looked toward Souji who brought over his cup to be refilled, with something far more tasty than medicine this time, before returning to his seat as well.
She then offered Souji the rice cake bundle again and he was more then happy to help himself to another one. But when she turned in Hijikata's direction...
"No, thank you."
Obviously he was disinclined to eat something so sweet but she hadn't been worried. The idea of staining the Shinsengumi reputation by being discourtious would never occur to him. And if his manners as a "wolf" were so bad that he refused without realizing his misstep, Souji would be sure to set him straight. All she needed to do was act the perfect hostess while in obvious pain. To refuse under such circumstances would be more than discoutesy, it was outright rudeness.
That's what the widow had told her; it's what she had told herself!
He had said it in the least offensive tone of voice she'd heard from him thus far. But the worst was yet to come.
"You're going to need your strength to get through this next week with that injury. It would be best for you to keep a few of them for yourself," he said, with a polite nod.
This can't be happening, she thought,
Impossible.
The widow had promised her that Hijikata would not be able to decline no matter how much he might want to. But if, by some bizaare twist of fate he did so, pressing the point of politeness, especially with Souji there to back her up, was a sure win. And yet, it was Hijikata, one of the most surly men she'd ever had to deal with outside of her hospice duty, who was using politeness in order to refuse.
She was stunned into silence to the point that she wasn't even aware...
"Takeshi-san, are you alright? You're crying," Souji's voice was calm, but ice cold; it was not loud, and yet it seemed to roar. After which he turned to Hijikata with a look that spoke volumes in a language Akiko did not understand. This took her completely by surprise.
Souji was more than angry, he was furious! and it seemed to her that he was furious not with her but with Hijikata. Why?
"No, no, it's nothing," she said hastily as she turned away to wipe her eyes with shaking hands.
Why?
Why was she shaking at the possibility of this not working? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't she now be relieved?
What's happening, she thought to herself as her heart raced and her hands shook. Was it possible that she really wanted to kill this man?
No.
Then why?
Panic.
After all; everything the widow had said would happen so far had done so, exactly. But if she were wrong about this—a truly crucial part of the plan—then she could be wrong about anything, maybe even everything, from here onward!
And if that were the case, then this could be the last pot of tea she would ever brew. For the first time since the widow had mentioned this idea, Akiko knew true fear.
o0o0o
You needn't worry that they will see it coming. You have no bloodlust for the wolves to sniff out, as long as the herbs you choose combine with the sweetness of the honey to mask the poison perfectly.
She suddenly felt very sick and before she realized it she was rewrapping the rice cakes. The sickening sweet smell was making her worse.
"Please don't," it was Souji now who had moved close enough to see that she was badly rattled, "He's right. Please, you should try to eat, and I would be happy to join you, with or without the need to be polite enough for the both of us."
And with that he glared at Hijikata again. His voice was almost back to normal but in his eyes was that same piercing look that he'd leveled at Hijikata a moment ago; the one that said, "Here there be Dragons..."
She had to tear herself away before it swallowed her whole.
The "Demon's Child" indeed, and in deed. Wasn't that what the widow had said? For the first time, Akiko believed it. She had assumed that in any fight between the two of them, Hijikata would win hands down. Now she knew better.
Now she understood.
The widow had explained to her that it was Hijikata she hated most, and Hijikata that she wanted to make pay. That's why Akiko had been so confused when told that her target was Souji.
She understood that it would hurt Hijikata terribly to lose a subordinate under his care, but it still seemed an odd way to go about things.
But now she understood.
Souji was dangerous.
And if she was to have any chance in all the hells of surviving this...
Souji had to die.
