Well this Chapter starts off with what happened before Kanari fainted as her dream. So don't get confused!
Disclaimer: I do not own Hakuouki. Idea Factory/Design Factory/Otomate does.
Kazanari's POV
I was by the fountain, and had taken off my clothing to take a bath at the fountain. I had walked out of the hut immediately, since Kazama and Amagiri were discussing serious matters where I did not want to bother with. I had brought my Kodachi and my throwing knives for self-defence, just in case someone attacked.
I sighed. Why did I have to tag along with that Kazama to go home in the first place, when Amagiri could just take me home?
However, while I was thinking, I sensed a presence close by. It was closing in towards me. I went closer to my weapons. I took the throwing knives and threw them towards the presence. It hit, and I heard some sounds of a person growling in pain.
I thought that I was safe, until some men dressed in white surrounded me. They didn't make any sounds, they were just closing in on me to attack.
"Dammit, now I'm surrounded, and they're seeing me naked. Either way, I needed to get rid of them." I thought.
The group of men closed in on me, and tried to attack, when my chest glowed a dark, velvet purple.
"Dammit, not now!" I shouted internally. This wasn't the time for her out yet. This was a dangerous situation, and she wanted to come out now? I tried to hold her back, while fending off those men.
"Why…why won't you use me, Kazanari? I'm your strength, and I can help you get out of this dangerous situation now."
"No…not yet! Don't…" I screamed. Soon, I felt myself sinking deep into the darkness, and I was slowly falling. "Don't…hurt anyone…please…"
"Ah!" I woke up with a startle. What was that? Was that the memory of what happened? My brain was fuzzy and I didn't know what was going on around me. Ah…this was the hut. Kazama was by the side of my futon, and he was rubbing his neck for some reason.
I thought, "Everyone thinks that I won't have any memory of what happened, so I'll play dumb for now. It's not the time…to talk about it yet."
I began to pretend that I had woken up. Kazama had turned around and said, "Took you long enough to wake up, Kazanari." I shrugged it off.
Before I could even say a word, Kazama went outside to do something. I didn't know what that was, but it was weird for a guy like him to do so.
Ignoring him, I decided to get out of the futon to do a bit of stretching, when Amagiri came back. He was astonished to see me awake, and exclaimed, "Kazanari! Are you alright? I was worried when you couldn't wake up."
"I feel better now. Much better, in fact." I replied.
He heaved a sigh of relief and asked, "Where's Kazama?"
"Don't know. He went outside to do something, and he isn't back yet."
Amagiri had brought some food back for us to eat, and I sat on the floor eating while waiting for Kazama. Soon, he returned, but unfortunately, with a bloody Katana.
"You're late. And what happened? You look like you got into a bad fight."
"Found some people lurking outside the hut, and I went to dispose of them. I believe that we should move our location soon, as more people are finding us."
Amagiri had the answer to that question. "I managed to make contact with one of my acquaintances who lives in Kyoto, and he is willing loan us his house when he is away. We should go there."
"Is he an oni?"
"He is. He will be leaving the state for quite a while, so we can stay over there until there are further orders from the Satsuma."
I didn't say a word throughout the conversation. I merely nodded and we soon set off to get back to Kyoto. Amagiri had left us alone again as he had "matters to attend to". Being someone's right-hand man was much tougher than a bodyguard, huh?
Once again, Kazama didn't say a single word. It was weird, he would usually comment about something that was annoying about me or something like "I should improve on my fighting skills", but he didn't. He looked like he was in deep thought, and looked like he was in a very serious thought. I decided to ignore him and continue walking, until he asked, "Kazanari, do you know anything about your origins?"
That was certainly a weird question. Why was he asking this now? Did he want to know something about my family? I couldn't tell him about the Kage-hime inside me. She had been inside me since I was five, and she was a spirit that only the Tsukikage clan knows about. The war between light and dark, was still continuing between the two families. I wanted to tell Kazama all about it, but I had to hold myself back. I decided to play dumb.
"Not much, my parents didn't tell me much about our origins and history, and I don't really know."
"Hmmm…I see." Right after that, he continued to be in deep thought. He was actually unnaturally normal after I woke up. I wanted to question him a lot, but I decided not to.
Soon, we reached Kyoto. The Shinsengumi headquarters was in this area. We soon got to the place where the mansion was, and Amagiri was there, waiting for us. Well those "matters" were extremely fast. Kazama had been quiet throughout the whole trip and it was still really weird not hearing him say anything.
We walked into that mansion without a sound. Amagiri was puzzled by the quietness of Kazama, but he never did ask him what was going on his mind.
"We're free to use the things in this house, since you have a much purer oni bloodline, it's natural that we let have the comfort."
Kazama smirked and walked inside. I just sighed and continued on walking inside. At least, we have somewhere proper to rest now. The fact that pureblood Onis get treated much better than any other oni was quite unfair, and I didn't like it either.
Once we walked in, Kazama walked off to someplace where I didn't know. I decided to ask Amagiri some questions.
"Amagiri-nii, what's up with Kazama right now? And have you guys come here before?"
"I'm not sure about Kazama, but this is Shiranui's place. His sister lent it to him for usage and we're currently using it. The fact about the owner going on the trip isn't true."
"Wait…so this is the Shiranui family's property?"
"If you didn't know, the Kazama family is related to the Shiranui family. Shiranui and Kazama were childhood friends. But their personalities are twos ends of the same pole."
"Hmm…Thanks, Amagiri-nii."
With that, everyone went on to their own activities. I decided to get a bath, since my last one was disturbed by those men. I got a towel, and a change of clothing, and proceeded to the indoor bath. I had removed my clothing and walked into the bathroom when I realized…Kazama was in there.
"Hyaaaaaa!" I screamed.
Kazama turned his head to look at me. "Didn't you realize that I was in the bath?"
"I didn't see your clothes, or any signs of you to show that you were in the bath."
"Whatever. Get in."
"What? We can't in the same bath together at the same time! It's wrong!"
Kazama then came out of the water, and moved to another bath which had a lower depth. He sank his feet into the water, and said, "I'll be over here, you can have the warmer bath. I don't want Amagiri to get mad at me for catching a cold."
The same excuse as previously again. His face obviously looked like he had cared about me, and he wasn't admitting it.
"Fine," I muttered.
I moved towards the bigger bath, and sank into the water, face extremely flushed. I could just listen to him, right? It wasn't that much of a big deal. But there was one thing I had concluded, he really was a pervert.
Well that ended nicely! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please do review since I really want to know what you guys think about his story. ^0^