Happy early Chinese New years! :D

Onii-sama turns the small vial in his hands carefully over and over again, watching as the red liquid sloshes around slowly. "...so this is the 'Elixir' that Kirino ani-ue said was capable of strengthening humans?" I stare as the red liquid casts a red beam of light onto the table from next to Onii-sama and stifle another yawn. While I like the fact that the leaders of the Tosa royalists trust me enough to allow me to participate in meetings, having to sit still for hours are boring. Nakaoka Shintarou-nii gives me a sympathetic smile as I rest my arm against him and yawn a little less subtly than before.

"That's what I was told." Seated next to him is a slightly older man with shoulder length brown hair, Takechi Hanpeita-sama, who is the leader of the Tsutomu Tosa royalists; which Onii-sama and myself are a part of. He raises an eyebrow and reaches a hand for the vial, which Onii-sama hands over and frowns at it. Not that it's unusual for him to do so, Takechi-sama has a permanent frown which ruins his otherwise very good looks. " ... Hmmm. Just think of the increased strength we would have is we used this!" His eyes have a nasty glint as he taps his fingers against his folded arms and smirks at Izo and I. "The Tosa already wield the upper hand in terms of strength; we have the weapons from the West and two of the four famed hitokiri are within our ranks, just think of the possibilities if we could produce 50, no 100 more men of your calibre." He stretches his hands outwards, smiling to himself as Onii-sama and a few others frown disapprovingly at him.

"Begging your pardon, but Takechi-dono, I think it would unwise to rely on something like this." Shintarou-nii shakes his head, making the long ponytail hanging over his shoulder swish back and forth as he frowns "The Bakufu are already utilising this, if we were t-"

"-All the more reason to use it. It would be foolish to ignore an opportunity to hold the advantage." Takechi-sama cuts in bluntly and tucks the bottle into his obi " Just like those idiots from Choshu." he shakes his head sadly and turns to face me and Izo "That aside, I have another assignment. Specifically for Izo and Oboro." He gives me a look and continues as I nod my head indicating I understand what he means. "I heard from Yukito that Niimi from the Roshigumi has fled to the Fuse district. It would be in our best interests to kill him before the Roshigumi can do so."

Izo stops playing with his scarf and nods silently before glancing sideways at me as he mumbles an "...Understood" to Takechi-sama. I nod politely back to him as he taps his finger on his arm, as though he expects me to say something. Which I do. "Takechi-sama. I can't agree with your views regarding the Ochimizu." He raises an eyebrow and curls his lip at me "Oh? I guess even a 'living weapon' like you is capable of opinions." He chuckles softly as I slam a hand on the table and stare at him "...Yes. Even a killing machine like me is capable of emotions and thinking. I'll just tell you one thing. Onii-sama, this concerns you too. If you continue to have anything to do with the Ochimizu, I'll leave the Tosa royalists and join Takasugi's Kiheitai."

Onii-sama sighs and rubs his forehead as I exit the room "Try to keep your cool my dear little sister. It's the coup d'etat tonight. The Roshigumi will be on high alert." I smile cheerfully at him as he sighs with defeat and Shintarou-nii pats his shoulders comfortingly.

~X~X~X~

The Fuse district is unnaturally quiet, usually at this time the blacksmiths would still be hammering at the forge and craftsmen would be packing things up. Maybe they all sensed the danger and decided to stay home. I crouch beneath the shadows on top of an inn, from my vantage point, I can see a few Roshigumi on patrol, walking in a set formation and occasionally stopping to scan their surroundings. It's pretty tempting to just gun down a few, however that would make me no better than them. "This side's clear." Izo leaps onto the roof next to me, his blue scarf flapping behind him as he sits down and withdraws a package from within his haori. "...you want some?" A slightly squashed riceball is shoved in my face as Izo stares unblinkingly at me. "Thanks." I accept it gratefully and eat it slowly, while watching the empty streets with slight irritation. Ever since we'd discovered the Ochimizu and Rasetsu, cool headed people like Takechi-sama were becoming...scary. Now that I think about it, I haven't seen Chikage-dono and his guys since the last SatCho meeting. "...Would you really leave?" Izo breaks the silence and stares at me intently as I absentmindedly lick the rice off the palm of my hand. "...I don't know." I answer him honestly as he furrows his brow and shrugs "I guess you wouldn't. Since we're both technically swords for Tosa, there's no point in overthinking things."

He munches another riceball and coughs as he chokes again from eating too quickly. I stretch out my legs and resume my stealthy journey across the rooftops to Machika-ya, the inn where Niimi is supposedly hiding. From my vantage point, I carefully scan the windows as I edge past, looking to see if our target is there. "Hey Izo, first one to find him has to buy a week's worth of dango for the other." I cock my Spence at the window, aiming it at a random man who is in the middle of telling some sort of exaggerated story to the woman with him. "..sure." Izo nods and rushes ahead staring sideways before continuing on. "..Kiricchi. He's in there." Izo stops suddenly and his finger points towards the window and then back to me as he smiles "Looks like I've won." He chuckles as I grunt in answer and lower my gun away from my face. "*pfft* I let you win on purpose. Alright, I normally operate alone but how about you clean up and I'll provide backup from af-"

"h-h-h-hiyyaaaaaa!" A loud piercing scream interrupts us. Hang on, that voice sounds awfully familiar. "S-someone! help!" It's Ibuki-kun's voice. Why the hell is he here? The Roshigumi headquarters are close by, but I could have sworn they had a curfew or something. "Help! gyaaaa!" Ryu-kun shrieks again, this time from a distance somewhat close to us. The candlelight within Niimi's room suddenly goes out , no doubt he's going to flee since the Roshigumi might be heading this way. Pulling the green Hannya mask from within my haori, I place it over my face and give Izo a tap on the shoulder. "Izo! I'll head that way! You get rid of him." He nods and leaps down lightly onto the opposite roof, kicking his feet through the wooden shutters and flying into the room.

~X~X~X~

Ryu-kun is standing with his back pressed right against a wall, his hands trembling as they clutch a katana, which from the looks of it was one he managed to pick up from the rasetsu I killed before. "Gyaah! Stay! Away!" he dashes forward and desperately slashes the nearest approaching Rasetsu. Tch, that idiot! I suppress the urge to facepalm at his stupidity, if Ume-chan were here, she'd have marched over and knocked him out. "uuh...ahh...eeeeeeyyaa!" he falls to the ground as the katana shatters, leaving him holding a useless hilt with a broken chunk of blade. I guess his confession that he knew next to nothing about swords was true. *Blam* I fire at the nearest Rasetsu, opening a neat hole at the base of it's neck and leap down towards the group. "Get down." Ryu-kun shakily gets to his feet and quickly obliges as I gun down the group of Rasetsu. Among the Ishin Shishi, Kyo, Glover-san and I are the best marksmen; though they can't match me in terms of speed and accuracy. "..." I stretch out a hand to help Ryu-kun up, but instead of saying a word of thanks, his eye widens with fear as he looks at me with a mixture of apprehension and pure terror. "s-s-s-s-stay away from me!" he scrabbles backwards, managing to trap himself between me and a wall and covers his head with his hands "I didn't see anything! I don't know anything about Serizawa-sama being killed today! So please! let me-..." his eyes widen as he realizes what he said and he gasps loudly, covering his mouth as he shakes his head desperately. "...p-p-please don't kill me..."

"...you're mistaken." I pull him roughly up and forcefully drag him along with me to safety. "W-who are you?" he tries to free himself from my grasp and looks pleadingly at me to let go. Smirking at him from underneath my mask, I switch my grasp from his wrist to his collar, pulling him close enough to whisper "Benigawa Oborodzuki" into his ear. He squeals with terror and squirms out of my grasp "I don't want to die! SOMEONE!"

"...Ryu-kun!" We both turn to the source of the new voice to see Harada and Toudou, both dressed in their armour complete with blood splatters. Guess they were cleaning up as well. Ryu-kun rushes towards Toudou and pants heavily, while Harada looks at me with a hostile glare. "One of the Ishin Shishi? You're with the Choushu aren't you? or is it the Satsuma?" Harada's eyes look coldly at me as I remain silent and point my Spence at him. "...Neither.."

I fire towards him as his eyes widen with shock, Toudou pulls his sword out ready to intercept the path of the bullet but stops short when it reaches its target. "...shit! More of them!" The approaching Rasetsu's head crumbles and the corpse falls onto the ground with a wet splatter."...Hey." Harada turns to me with a strange look in his eyes " Since we've established you aren't one of the rebels, how about lending us a hand here?"

I jerk my head up at him in surprise, as if to say "what? What are you talking about?" He catches on and shrugs "Look, me and Toudou here, we're strong. But if someone like Benigawa Oborodzuki were to help us out, it'd make everything so much easier." Toudou nods grudgingly and quickly cuts down a Rasetsu before looking at me. "...regrettable but true..." I nod slowly and switch out my naginata "...alright then..."Harada grins at me and leaps forward with excitement "To think I'd be able to fight alongside one of the legendary hitokiri. Though, I'm warning you, I'm pretty strong myself." I ignore him and cut through a line of Rasetsu with ease as he pauses to kick off the limp corpse stuck to the tip of his yari "I bet I'll kill more than you." His smile fades as I slash a Rasetsu and fire the remains of its arm towards his face to which he ducks and cringes "Eugh! Well, I'll take that as a yes then!"

~X~X~X~

"Whew." The last Rasetsu flops onto the ground as Harada pulls his yari out from its head. "You alright there, Ryu-kun?" Ryunosuke-kun nods timidly and breathes a sigh of relief which quickly switches to an annoyed grunt as Harada ruffles his head. "...a-ah!" his eyes widen and focus on me as I leap forward, naginata raised towards Harada's neck from behind. "SANO!" Toudou yells loudly as Harada dodges, just in time to avoid being decapitated. "Guh! What's wrong? You still want to fight?" He strains to hold back my naginata, sweat dripping from his brow as I push harder "...maybe.." I leap backwards, landing on one knee and jump up, kicking him heavily in the side. "Ugh!" He manages to endure the blow and coughs as I retreat, skidding backwards as Harada falls onto his knees and breathes heavily. "You're a hitokiri aren't you? Just tell me one thing. Who's the coward who ordered you to take my head?" He looks angry, gritting his teeth as I spin forward and knock back his yari. "Tch." He steps to the right and dashes forward again, jabbing his spear towards me as I duck below the point and kick him in the stomach. "...I can't say..." His eyes widen as he coughs out a mixture of blood and saliva and groans heavily. "That's just bullshit!" We clash again, this time I don't put all my strength into pushing him back but sweep the ground with my feet to knock him down. Obviously being a well-built man, he easily stands firm and steps over my feet, forcing me back and lunging forward with a well-timed strike.

"Gotcha." He grins as the tip of his yari heads towards my neck , I bend my body backwards, ducking underneath his yari and slashing across his throat with my naginata. "..." Just as the blade is about to make contact, he leans all the way back, bending his knees forward and flips backwards to dodge. "Hah!" He jabs forward with his yari almost instantly, as I raise my arm and absorb the blow with the tekko on my right hand.

"...hey, you haven't been taking me seriously right?" He pants and maintains his stance in case I attack. "...perhaps. ." I spin my naginata once around my body and spread my legs in a slightly squatting stance "..who knows?..." As soon as I say this, we're both sprinting towards each other, blades drawn to kill. The same thing happens again, only this time I have the edge on him. His yari keeps on moving at an incredible speed ; only someone of high skill could manipulate so well, however that isn't enough to beat me. I dodge every single one of his blows with ease, even with sweat pouring down his face, he doesn't seem to be losing his edge. "...give up."" I grab the shaft of his yari, just underneath the blade and push it easily out of the way as I punch him right in the face. "...you can't win.." He grits his teeth trying to win back control of his weapon as I twist it away from him in a clockwise motion, "ungh!" he strains harder, twisting it anti-clockwise when he loses his footing and falls forward. "...tsk." I let go of the yari and aim a kick at his knees, hoping to break them in the process.

"..ugnh.." he grunts as he loses his balance momentarily but recovers in time to sweep his leg across the ground. "Ghcck!" The sudden shift makes me falter as I quickly fall forward on my foot and push myself backwards, landing on one hand with the rest of my body in the air. I push downwards on my hand and use the boost to kick backwards at Harada, knocking him back as he grabs my foot with his free hand and attempts to disarm me. "...rghh!" shoving my naginata behind my back, I switch to my Spence and shoot him in the shoulder "hguh!" he grits his teeth and maintains his grip as he throws me to the ground and jumps on top of me, keeping his knee pressed against my stomach and raises his fist to pummel my face. I roll over and reverse our positions, clenching my fist tightly as I concentrate. "...die." My fist hovers a short distance over his chest before connecting with his body and slamming right into his chest. "GWAAAAAAH!" The sounds of ribs cracking mingles with his screams as I raise my fist again and prepare to repeat. ...huh? The idiot somehow managed to catch my fist. Guess he isn't that much of an idiot then. "s...stop...*cough*" he coughs again and tenses his body as he tries to break free. "..yah!" he manages to push me off and grabs his yari from the ground and holds it tightly. "...hey...you're...a...woman?" Blood trickles down his face and onto my arm as he coughs again, his gaze fixed on my face and then moves lower. I follow his line of vision and calmly raise my naginata. "...so?..." I raise the blade so it is parallel with my arm and look curiously at him.

"*ptuh* I'm impressed." He wipes the blood from his mouth and places his hand gingerly over his chest "man, you're tough. Wonder how many ribs you broke with that punch." I slowly lower my weapon and step backwards as he clenches his fist a few times and coughs again ", it's in my nature to protect and respect women, but when I'm on the battlefield, it'd be going against my principles to underestimate another warrior based on the fact she's a woman." He cracks his neck, and with some effort, spins his yari to attack "now, how bout we pick up where we left off?"

"..." I stare back at him and slowly grip my naginata with both hands. "on the battlefield, gender is completely irrelevant..." words that someone once said to me resonate in my mind...now that I think about it. Harada and...him...they're a little similar to each other. "—no matter what I'll always have your back. Like a curse." his smiling face appears briefly in my mind when a whooshing sound brings me back to reality. "sate.I'll fight you properly then." I rush forward with my naginata held horizontally, then slash forward, as expected, he sidesteps away and heads towards my other side. "Bang." I shove the naginata onto my back with my right hand, and with my left pull out my Spence and fire right in his shoulder.

"Gwoah!" he yells in pain as I quickly switch weapons again, slicing through his stomach guard as a trail of red spurts through. "...if you surrender, I'll spare your life." Knowing the kind of man he is, he'd prefer to kill himself than be granted mercy, even more so from a woman. He shakes his head violently and winks at me "No way. We haven't been on a date ye-gwoah!" I shoot him in the wrist without a moment's hesitation. "...disgusting." He is just like that man. and that pisses me off more than it should. "die." I ready my naginata, preparing to strike as he spreads his legs apart and readies his yari. "...!" Sensing something approaching from my right, I raise my hand and quickly flick the flying senbon back towards its owner. Seems like more enemies have shown up.

"Himesama!" A woman yells out as her female companion shrieks with fright from a short distant away from me. I turn towards the two new arrivals, and fire, shooting the taller one in the arm and leap towards them. "..ghh!" the taller woman, who is dressed in a shinobi uniform spreads her arms to protect the slightly younger girl behind her, who is dressed in fine clothes...she must be a lady of high status or something. "...don't get in my way..." I speak quietly to the shinobi with my naginata pressed directly against her neck, while my other hand is pressed firmly around the neck of the noble lady. "...acck! *cough*" she flails around, her fingers clawing into my arms as she tries to free herself. "...stop! Leave them alone!"

Harada staggers forward, a dangerous gleam in his eyes as he throws his yari towards my head. "Don't you dare hurt these girls!" I lift my hand from the noblewoman's neck, kicking her to the ground and catch Harada's spear mid-air. "...hmph. Such a gentleman." I twist the yari around and toss it right back at him, piercing through his already bleeding shoulder. "gyaaaah!" he groans and pulls it out of his shoulder "...Ryu-kun stay back!" Toudou rushes towards me, his katana raised with fierce determination in his eyes "yaaah!" his katana swings downwards towards me and slices through the shinobi as I throw her casually into its path. "...KIMI!" The noblewoman screams as she lies on the ground, her hands stretched towards the bleeding shinobi. "...hime...sama..." The shinobi coughs as Toudou withdraws his katana with fear etched onto his face. "...Benigawa OBORODZUKI!" his face twists with anger as he turns towards me.

"Ok! ok! That's enough now. Beni-chan, come over here! " Everyone freezes as a completely out of place voice enters the scene. I turn my head slightly to see none other than Setsura standing in the middle of the street, one hand on her hip while the other is waving cheerily at me. "..who are you?" Harada is the first to speak as Setsura blinks back innocently at him "Me? I'm just here to pick up my rebellious little pet." she points to me and shakes her head "Just as I thought. No matter how strong you are, that doesn't change the fact you need a reliable man to act as your voice of reason. Be~ ni ~chan."

I slowly step back as Setsura walks calmly towards where the shinobi called 'Kimi' is being cradled by her companion. "I sincerely apologise. Sen-chan. " she kneels down and holds her hand over the two girls.. To everyone's amazement, a soft light emanates from her hand as the wounds heal almost instantly and Kimi sits up with a faint look of surprise on her face. "...you're..." her sentence is stopped as Setsura places a delicate hand on her lips and turns towards the injured Roshigumi men. " Toudou-dono. Harada-dono." She bows her head lightly and pushes me playfully forward "I'm not at liberty to say much, however, as thanks for assisting my lady with removing the rasetsu, I'll get Benigawa Oborodzuki to withdraw..." she beams cheekily at them as a soft light appears and heals their wounds. "now, let's do what Ankou Gozen said. Mmmm?" The two women look at her with surprise and a blinding light surrounds us as I feel the ground under my feet seemingly collapse.

"Oi! Where'd they go?"

"Who cares! Sano, let's just go now!"

The Roshigumi's yells become distorted as the light brightens. "Setsura! What the hell are you doing?" I sense her presence next to me and grab her by the wrist "Answer me! What's going on?" Setsura giggles next to me "Don't you worry Beni-chan.!" Tch. I'm worried. Seriously worried.

~X~X~X~

Ugh. I feel a wave of nausea as the ground steadies under my feet and blink to see myself in a completely different place. Instead of a bloodied street in Fuse, I'm inside a richly decorated room, maybe a palace of some sort? Lavishly decorated furniture adorn the spacious room and a strong somewhat sickening sweet smells fills up the place.

"...I believe I asked you to bring me Oboro. Not some human woman." A bored and arrogant sounding female voice from above me draws my attention to the owner of this room. Lying casually on her side atop a raised bed is a young woman dressed in a purple furisode, with the opening exposed as she clasps a pipe, almost a metre long with her free hand. What surprises me the most is the pair of large black wings flapping gently behind her as she puffs out sweet smelling smoke throughout the room. "...well, at least you brought the other brats." she glances lazily behind me and smirks to herself as I turn to face behind me.

The two women from before are seated seiza style towards the far right, they make every effort to avoid eye contact with me, Setsura waves cheerily to me when I notice her, seated demurely next to Setsura is a shy looking girl dressed in male clothing and slouched against the wall towards my left...is...Chikage-dono? He raises an eyebrow with boredom and directs his gaze towards the front. "Hag. Get to the point, what's your reason for dragging us into your problem?" Chikage-dono breaks the silence and directs a haughty look at the winged woman who scowls at him and mutters something under her breath. "Shut up. Brat. Haha, it certainly has been awhile since the heirs of the oni clans were all together." She ignores Chikage-dono completely and jabs her pipe towards the girl sitting next to Setsura "oh? the Yukimura brat. Which one are you? Chizuru or Kaoru?"

The cross dressing girls blinks with surprise and manages to squeak out a "eh? W-what are you talking about?" the woman sighs and looks towards the two women. "Sen. Don't tell me she doesn't know." I turn to look at the cross dresser and she meets my gaze, flinching at my masked face and lowers her head. Well, at least I'm not the only one who feels completely lost here. For some reason I feel like I don't belong here at all, though being referred to as a 'human' by a woman with wings might be a big enough clue.

"...No, my lady. Chizuruhime's memories were sealed by Kodo." The noblewoman , Sen speaks politely as the cross dresser, now known as Chizuru stares wide-eyed at her. "...K-kodo? That's my father!" she points a finger shakily at Sen who smiles kindly at her with her hands raised amicably "I am sorry for the sudden nature of this meeting. Chizuruhime, I had intended to explain things to you, however Ankou Gozen gave me specific instructions." she places a hand delicately on her neck and glares at me "If I had known what would happen, I would have done things my way." Sen coughs lightly and sniffs, turning to 'Ankou' who shrugs and blows another stream of smoke "The future I see changes constantly. You must have done something unexpected." Sen pouts and looks down at her hands as Kimi pats her hand comfortingly.

"well~ Since Tsuru-chan doesn't remember her past and Yu-chan here is completely in the dark, I'd say introductions might be needed." Setsura's sing song voice switches the mood as Chizuru blushes and looks gratefully at her while the two girls look at her with confusion. "If you don't mind, Yukimihime, who exactly is Yu-chan?"

"Who's this Yukimi?" I butt in, earning a hostile glare from Sen as she purses her lips and turns away "Yukimi (千実) is my personal name." Setsura smiles lazily and giggles "Chikage, Sen, Chizuru and Yukimi. All the th generation successors of the main oni clans have '千' in their names, teehee, well, I suppose Ankou-sama might be able to tell us exactly what's going on." Again with all this oni talk. Honestly, what the hell is going on? Maybe I ...died during that fight before? Nah, impossible. I KNOW for a fact that I'm alive...right? I move my hands around my body, confirming that I'm not missing anything and touch my head lightly, feeling for any suspicious bumps that might explain this...weird situation. My fingers close gently around my tied up hair and freeze in place, feeling my hair again and falling limply to my lap. Dammit. My hairpin. The last thing I had left to remember that man by. It's gone. "...gone..." I subconsciously echo my thoughts as Ankou glowers down at me.

"If you refer to your ignorance of our kind, then yes." I blink back dumbly at her and choke out a 'huh?' complete with bugged out eyes "...what?"
"...What a pain." Ankou scowls and sits up, tapping her pipe gently into a vase, which I guess serves as her ashtray. "Oi. Human. Her sharp violet eyes seem to look right into my soul as I point to myself tentatively "Cheh. Who else is a human besides you? Tsk." she seems angry and sighs loudly before jabbing her pipe towards me "... explain to me how a mere human like you holds the title of 'Benigawa Oborodzuki."

I hold both my hands up with confusion and stare at her "how about you explain to me what's going on. I'm completely lost at the moment."

Thanks for reading! :D I hope people are enjoying this XwX !

ahh, I really wish Hakuouki Urakata gets an anime! the heroine, Kirishima Kozue is AWESOME! way better than doormat Chizuru and Ryunosuke! she's a tough girl who can defend herself in a fight but at the same time she's cute and girly ...she's just cool!not to mention... also the guys *swoons* so so much dateable hotties!

~Mei's babbles~

It's kinda funny how all the 'noble' oni in Hakuouki have '千' (read as : sen/chi/kazu/yuki) meaning '1000' in their name ! So, in my fic, Sen, Chikage (yep his first name is Chikage XD) Chizuru (I'm calling them the 1000 trio XP ) and Yukimi / Niou'u Setsura (oc)are the heirs of their respective clans. This also kinda works out since Kaoru is the ...inferior? twin and doesn't have '千' in his name. Though it could be coincidence?

Another thing, Japanese mythology is a little complicated. 鬼read as 'oni' (or ki) can mean 'demon' however it usually refers to the monsters we know as 'ogres'. As in ugly (stupid) muscular horned monsters carrying huge clubs with a fear of beans (just think of Setsubun masks ). I'd say the Hakuouki oni are based on these guys, though obviously made prettier. Also, we don't ever see other oni species in the Hakuokiverse, but I decided to include other species of oni in my story like Shuten Doji! (spoilers teehee~) and other yokai (cos Japan has a lot of cool demons XD) like tengu!

Next time! The 2nd arc begins! we'll have none other than Chikage do the introductions!*throws mic*

Chikage:...*crushes mic in his hands* Such a waste of my time. *throws scattered pieces to the ground*

Mei: Aww come on, I'm only asking you since you're the most err powerful oni *whispers*so far. *whispers*

Chikage: *sigh* Next time. On this *mutters quietly* pathetic attempt at story telling *mutters* 'Oni Yuugi'

Mei: *raises hand* it mean's 'Demon's game'! pureeeze review!