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The storm grew worse with every clash of their blades.
Their azure blue haories, wet from rain, tainted by blood and dirt, lost their brilliance.
But neither the ongoing storm nor the growling thunder above made them lose their focus. For them, it was just like sparring in the rain way back when.
Just like the in the good old days, training under the roof of the same dojo.
Her eyes darting towards the quickly approaching blade from the left, the female samurai quickly raised her own, blocking before it could the edge could slice into her delicate neck. But just as the sharp sound of striking metal pierced her ears, the other sword already approached from above.
If she were just an ordinary thug, this combination of instant reaction to her block, would have meant her skull would be split in half.
But if there was one thing that defined this samurai…it her gifted speed.
With a swift, almost instantaneous backward step, the edge of the katana sliced through the air, inches away from her face.
Her golden shimmering glare hungrily gazed at the opportunity of a swift kill, lunging for the unguarded neck.
A firm grip on the handle, the samurai thrust forward, the tip of her blade shining like that fangs of a white wolf.
However, her opponent was still quick enough to react, swiftly raising his right katana to strike her blade away.
With the sharp edge passing her opponent’s wet, curly hair, the samurai coldly looked into the wide brown eyes across from her. In another lifetime, these were some she trusted the most. Yet now, she felt only betrayal. And she made sure he felt her anger with every slice of her katanta.
Her golden gaze never left his own, making him feel as if he was punctured by her noble phantasm a thousand times.
Equals. Friends. Rivals. Siblings. They were many things and yet right now, they were fighting like arch enemies. Once upon a time their blue haories were supposed to be a symbol of peace, prosperity and order.
Though now…it was the symbol of an organization filled with traitors.
The symbol of the wolves of Mibu. Respected, yet feared.
Now though, they were meaningless, stripped of their purpose.
The combatants swiftly jumped away from another. Lowering their katanas at the same time, they both began to circle another in the rain.
“You know…”, the man sighed amidst the rain, his eyes closed as he remembered the days of their childhood. “You had been pissed at me about many things. Like when I’d snatch one of your dangos as a kid or as a Shinsengumi. Man, you were worse on me than with your own students.”. His small smirk was followed by a deep frown. “But now that I think about it, I don’t think you ever glared at me as if I was one of Takechi’s goons or any other of the Tosa Kinnoto…”.
A brown eye opened, returning the glare of gold across from him.
“…Souji.”.
The woman never allowed her gaze to avert from her former comrade. It was exciting as it was terrifying. Now he knew what it was like when criminals were hunted by her and the first unit.
Okita Souji’s eyes were much like those of a wild wolf let loose. A dangerous beast released from shackles and ready to take down her prey for the sake of her master.
His own friend looked at him with the intent to kill.
Even then, even with that incredible discomfort of having his own best friend attempt to snuff out his life for betraying her master, it was the fight he wanted to have. He had been yearning for it. All this time as he travelled through Yamataikoku with Souji and her master, his blade hand was itching. So much his desire to fight her took over, that he swung his sword until his hands would bleed, late until the moon was the only witness.
He NEEDED it. This fight was all he ever wanted. But…his desire wouldn’t get fulfilled without a sacrifice that would mark him as a traitor, and lose any respect he ever had.
“How is master-cha-“.
Before he could even ask how her master was doing, the sound of a sharp steel cutting air and water drops strangled his voice.
Without a single word, Souji raised her sword immediately, coldly staring back at him. Even so far away, the swiftness of her sword arm made it seem as if not even the very air was safe from her. That was how clearly he could hear her raise her sword.
“Never say that again.”, she retaliated calmly, her glare overshadowed by her wet bangs. “You have lost every right you had to call my master that. Not after you betrayed us.”. “Sheesh…that bad, huh?”, he muttered under his breath with a small, somber smile tucking on his lips. “Guess that is what happens when you betray the significant other of the leader of the first unit, the great Okita Souji. I definitely earned that.”.
His awkward answer and chuckle only seemed to further aggravate the Shinsengumi across from him. Her sword arm began to shake violently and his laugh soon died.
“It never had to turn out this way, Saito-san...”.
His smile faded almost instantly as her scowl was replaced by confusion and frustration.
“Why did you betray us? Master accepted you. He believed in you.”, she demanded as her hand rose to her chest. “I believed in you. I told him of our greatest successes. Our infiltration of the Ikedaya inn. Of the history the Shinsengumi wrote. But you…”.
Forming words was a battle all on its own inside of Souji.
“Why did you go that far and pointed your blade at him, Saito-san?”, she growled, her teeth clenched together tightly as she attempted to not roar in anger.
Saito Hajime. The master of a sword style that was fluent as water and unable to be predicted. One as legendary as Souji’s own. Even someone with a perfect photographic memory had trouble keeping up. Okada Izo realized that himself when he briefly rattled blades with the Shinsengumi, unable to predict Saito’s next moves.
Saito quietly turned his head away, frustrating Souji even further.
“You had a home here with us, Saito-san! Hijikata-san was here! Yamanami-san too! But not only did you throw all of that away, no. You…”.
“…made him lose faith in the Shinsengumi?”.
Lightning bleached the entire world a bright white. But Saito’s hardened gaze hadn’t change. A heavy sigh escaped him as he returned look at a distraught Souji.
“The Shinsengumi…had fallen apart a long time ago, Souji.”, he answered. His voice hung heavily over his comrade’s head, for she knew every word of it was true. “We thought that getting rid of Kamo would restore the Shinsengumi’s face. But it was a single string of that haori that needed to be pulled for it all to become undone.”. Saito’s face lowered. In the puddle below his feet, he stared at himself in disgust.
“We always only were the wolves of Mibu. You cannot deny the fact that for the many people who believed in us, there were those who would gladly spit on our graves. Yamanami leaving us was the final blow. If he himself left, then the Shinsengumi would soon die with him. It would be an agonizingly slow death. First him and soon after…”.
Souji stared quietly at the tip of the katana slowly raising towards her.
“You…because of your damn tuberculosis.”.
Souji didn’t know how to answer this. For the year she had been summoned, her deepest desire was to die on the battlefield. Never would she wish again to perish in that sickly state, bedridden and unable to move as she did in her final moments. But over that year, due to having spent so much time around other warriors, including Musashi Miyamoto whom she heard so much about during her time alive, slowly that wish changed. Her bond to her master was stronger than the desire to die with honor.
She had something to live for. Someone to fight for.
And that person was betrayed by two of her best friends.
“Listen, I am sorry for having made your life harder, Souji. For what is about to happen here, our reputation had to take another blow if we ever want to have our haories be clean again.”, Saito rectified his choices with a sympathetic smile. “Besides, I doubt you have to worry about your master not trusting you anymore.”. “This is not just about him trusting me.”, Souji cut him off, swiftly and coldly. Her left hand pressed over her chest, her heart racing and aching.
“Master entrusted his life to me, yes. I am aware that he would never leave my side and I devoted myself to him. My sword, my life, everything. What is making me suffer this instant, is that I have always told him the tales of our successes. Of how reliable you are and what an asset you could be to us.”.
Holding her palm in front of her face, nails began to dig into her skin, allowing the first drops of blood int his fight to mix with the rain and mud below.
“Did you even consider for a second how I would have to face him if you were the one to betray him? After Serizawa took Nobu and turned her into a puppet?”.
Saito’s breath was still. Even if she was multiple steps away, her anger felt as if that shaking blade in her hand was already hilt deep inside his chest.
“Did you and Yamanami-san ever consider how I would have to face him afterwards, when I spoke so highly of both of you?”.
Golden daggers, sharp and jagged, dug deep into him. If Saito wasn’t already soaked, he was sure that he would be drenched in sweat upon seeing her calm façade shattering for just a few seconds.
“You and Yamanami-san…I have told master so many stories of all of us. I was happy to see you all. I was excited to have you both meet Musashi-san, whom I met in Chaldea under his care. Nothing would have made me more happy to have the Shinsengumi united in Chaldea.But…if that is how you wish it to be, Saito-san…”.
Saito’s body flinched the moment Souji grasped the hilt of her katana firmly in both hands. He would recognize her movements anywhere, swift like the wind and ready to pierce through her foe. How she raised her blade with the hilt close to her face.
Her trademark style. Prepared to jump and end this fight instantly.
“Then I will rectify this mistake. I deal with the traitors amidst our ranks myself.”.
The storm inside of him grew worse at the sight of her cold blade aimed at him without a hint of doubt. As if he was one of the very criminals he hunted back in the day. One half of his heart was in deep pain for betraying his friend and her master like that. He wanted to apologize for him and Yamanami turning their back on what could have been home.
Though another…
…grinned wildly in excitement.
“Finally…”, he whispered coolly amidst the approaching storm, the fierce samurai across from him steady at the excitement coming off from him. “I have been waiting for you to get serious. Those eyes of your…”. His right katana slowly rose towards her, accepting her challenge. “Those eyes of yours…no wonder you kept them hidden from the children. They would creep out anyone. Even a corpse underneath the earth would begin to shiver.”.
In a burst of speed, Souji lunged at him swinging her katana upward. Evading deftly to his right, Saito aimed her left flank, only to find his blade deflected. Though his attack in the midst of movement caught her off guard, making her retreat before he could attack with his other sword.
His blades lowered with a slow, amused chuckle, his arms lowering and swords crossed. He could still feel the vibration of the blow in his very bones.
“You always had one hell of a reputation. Demon instructor from hell. Fastest blade among us all.”, Saito angrily muttered under his breath. His grin faded as he bared his teeth. “So much that they all ignored my very existence, hehehe. And when you were gone…I could not even prove myself anymore.”.
Souji looked on quietly as her comrade’s teeth chattered violently, his shoulders twitching violently.
“I ALSO EXISTED!”.
Thunder growled with the below of the man below.
Never letting her guard down, Souji watched how Saito’s rage consumed him.
“You and I…we started in the same school. We were taught the same basics, trained together until our styles diverged. But in the end, it was always you! People spoke of us and thought of you as the best of us. Even to this day! And now…I will rectify that.”.
His arms relaxing and consumed by his own desire to prove his worth, to fight his equal, show the world who was at the top, he didn’t even notice Souji clicking her tongue.
“I will prove it here and now, once and for all, that I am the better of us. I-“.
“Are you done?”.
Saito came to an abrupt stop, swiftly cut off by his opponent shaking her head. “My friend was temperamental, but he was no crybaby.”, Souji reprimanded her annoyed comrade with a visible shake of her head.
Never dropping her stance, she observed how the water on her blade dropped down towards the tip without any resistance.
“He was a master of a style that I could never hope to master. Something even Miyamoto Musashi would struggle against. A form unable to be grasped, like fluid water running through one’s fingers, escaping and returning with a crushing force. You were never second place as you claim.”.
Souji sighed as she stared at him with dropped eyebrows, his expression unchanging. “You left your mark on this world in a way no one else did. Maybe some people, like Okada-san, see you as a turncoat from leaving when the Shinsengumi were meant to die. From what I can see though, you were smart enough to go while your life was still worth living.”, she tried to reach out to him, pressing her left hand to her chest.
Any second her tuberculosis could jump in. Blood would gush out from her mouth with every cough pounding against her chest.
“My life was short. I couldn’t even die with a blade in hand. Hijikata-san went down as the Shinsengumi’s demon and…”.
Saito’s eyebrows furrowed, but he couldn’t bring himself to look into Souji’s eyes.
“Yamanami-san…he was just too gentle for his own good. He wished only for the best.”.
Rage and excitement for battle drowned in the sound of the rain as guilt washed it all away. Normally that meant death to a samurai, but that was still his comrade over there. She wouldn’t be that dishonorable.
And never would he forget the sin she bore. Taking the head of Yamanami Keisuke, at his own request.
Souji’s chest tightening from the painful memories resurfacing, she silently gazed at her own reflection inside her katana. The fearful scowl from before was replaced by pure sorrow.
“Serizawa-san was power hungry. Maybe he loves Japan as he says. Maybe he is more of a patriot than any of us. But his path would lead to purge the weak. Those who we are meant to protect. Kondo wasn’t a better choice. We all know that, for the Shinsengumi lost and are no more.”, she whispered somberly. “I know now whom we would have needed. Someone who would lead our colorful group down a path of justice with a clear mind. One strict, yet with love in his heart. Yamanami-san would have made the Shinsengumi what they needed to be.”.
Remembering the last time he saw his colleague before his death, Saito mustered up the courage to face Souji as she whispered with grief deep in her voice, “I can never forget the peaceful look on his face when he asked me to help him end himself. And yet…he still bore regrets to this day.”. Taking a deep breath, she confronted Saito once more with a defiant look. “If you just wanted to clash blades, I would have done so whenever you wished. But not in this state and not against a wannabe that is pretending to be my acquaintance from long ago.”.
A small smirk on his lips, Saito raised an annoyed eyebrow with a dismissive grunt. “So I am just a wannabe now? Not even worth the effort anymore, huh?”. “Wrong.”, came the instantaneous answer. “If you were clear of mind, you would have broken through my defense already. Water doesn’t have a solid form. It adapts and changes, flowing through every crack without being stopped and crashing down like a waterfall the very next moment.”.
Saito scoffed, though his blood froze the very next moment.
“Okada-san also had trouble deciphering your style.”.
Okada Izo. The ghost of Tosa and one of Takechi’s henchmen.
Very briefly Saito had crossed paths with him days ago and they immediately locked blades. After that, the Ghost of Tosa kept a keen eye on him.
It was what Saito wanted. In order to be able to save her master and Okada’s own, he wanted to Ghost of Tosa to be distrustful, so that neither Yamanami nor Serizawa could get the upperhand on them.
Saito threw Souji a look of shock as she continued calmly. “His ability to copy any move by merely seeing it once is one of the most dangerous abilities a samurai could have. And yet even he had trouble when he faced you. You fight in an unpredictable, calm and fluent manner. That adaptability was always your strength, never allowing them to learn your style or striking twice in the same manner.”.
A part of him still had to process that she spoke of one of Takechi’s men respectfully when they were enemies in their past lives. Though he also had no idea that the Izo he knew from then and the one he clashed swords with in the singularity were not the same anymore. The one who was here was nurtured by a loving, kind-hearted master. A woman who always had space in her heart for people like him.
He had changed so much that Okita Souji would allow him near her own master, watching as they became as close as brothers.
Okada Izo was a protective shadow whose blade would sink into your back the moment you touched a strand of his master’s hair. And even though he had a disdain for the Shinsengumi, he had felt sympathy for the distraught Souji having had to witness two of her comrades betraying her, showing that there was more to the Ghost of Tosa than the stories revealed.
“All this fight has done…”.
Her voice dragging Saito out of his thoughts, he dropped his gaze once more when she couldn’t help but look at her shaky palm.
“All this conflict has done is trample on my beliefs that the Shinsengumi were something better. Making me break and seek relief against my master’s shoulder.”.
She glanced at the now soaked dark blue fabric that was once bright as the clear sky. “I wanted him to believe in our haoris. Yet all I did, was make him feel helpless when he already had enough to fight against. You have no idea what we have been through, Saito-san. This was the last he needed.”.
“Gomen, Souji…”.
Souji made no instance to look him in the eye again despite his apology.
“I really mean it.”, Saito continued despite Souji being deep in thought. “I never meant to make life for you and master-chan miserable. But the Shinsengumi’s name had to take another blow for things to turn better. And it has been done. The only thing I have left now…”.
His blade rose to the sky, swiftly swung to his side and ready to finish their battle.
“Is to prove myself superior to you.”.
Her blood began to boil hotter than lava. The heat from anger rushed through her body. All of this. The clashes of blades and words, all this pain…just to be betrayed by her friend and having to hear his excuses.
“Give my apologies to master-chan for me being an ass and dragging our name into the dirt. I will take full responsibility for i-“.
“Urusai.”.
Saito bit his lip, but accepted that Souji had enough.
The only thing that was left now, was to either beat his comrade, or be beaten by her. He took a deep breath.
Souji calmly widened her stance, raising her blade with a firm grip into her signature position.
“I have not suffered being ridiculed by Okada for the sake of the Shinsengumi, survived the horrors of Olympus…only to hear excuses from you!”, Souji growled, ready to lung for her prey’s throat.
Saito prepared himself. This would be it. His moment.
Finally he would prove himself. Show the world that he was alive.
That he existed beside Hijikata, Yamani and Souji.
“If you say you are sorry…”, Souji’s enraged whispers cut through the rain like a sharp blade. “I will drag you in front of him and have you lower your head in apology. But first…”.
Eyes fueled with rage snapped wide open as the wolf jumped, propelling herself through with air with insane speed.
“I WILL BEAT THAT ATTITUDE OUT OF YOU!”.
Barely able to react to Souji approaching in a mere second, he raised his katana’s to block.
Shards of sharp steel flew everywhere, some grazing his forehead before he was thrust right into the tree behind him with a violent crash. With a painful gasp for air, the bladeless hilts slipped out of his grasp and into the dirt.
Warm blood dropping from his forehead, a weary laugh escaping as he sank into the mud.
Quietly Souji swung her sword, sheathing it calmly, ignoring the chuckle of the defeated Shinsengumi.
“Man…this sucks…”.
After making sure her blade was secure in its scabbard, she stared sadly at her defeated comrade as he laughed to himself. The broken man who thought that history had forgotten him, vanquished by the one presumed superior, stared at the puddle of water at his side.
And guilt began to wash all over her with the rain.
“Here I was trying to finally prove my worth. And you…”, he continued to chuckle, ignoring the blood dripping from his forehead. “You break my katanas and send me flying through the forest right into a tree. That is the leader of the first unit for you. Impeccable blade. Demon instructor from hell.”.
Souji quietly bit her lip, enduring his quips.
“And destroyer of dangos.”.
If he were in a better condition, she would have punched him straight in the jaw. But she wouldn’t beat someone who couldn’t defend themselves any longer. Much less her own friend.
“A snarksengumi to the very end huh?”, she returned, unable to join his round of laughter, yet attempting hard to smile. “Why the long face, Souji”, Saito asked weakly. “You won. You should-“.
“Why were you trying to prove yourself?”.
His laughter dying, Saito’s lips pursed as he watched Souji throw him a pitying look. She had been trying to figure out what it was that made him want to prove himself by dueling her. But through their lives together, she never found him to be someone who’d allow jealousy or fame to affect him. Neither could she understand why he thought he was forgotten in history.
Pressured by her unwavering gaze, a disappointed sigh escaped the weary Shinsengumi.
“I…lived too damn long for my own good.”, he began, forcing a smile on his lips no matter how bad his body was hurting. “After most of you were gone, the time of the shoguns was coming to an end. Me and Hijikata were some of the few left of our original group. And I, well…just watched everything go right down to hell. Became a cop later on.”.
Listening attentively, Souji allowed everything he said to sink in.
“You could say I…missed the good old days. Sitting at a parlor. Enjoying the sun. Drinking tea with Yamanami and eating sweets together. Hell, even Serizawa’s laugh at the time was memorable enough, at least before he became an asshole big enough to fit the shogun’s castle inside.”.
With a pang of pain coursing through his body, he slowly cracked his eyes open, only seeing his murky expression in the puddle. “I…was the only one left of our merry band.”, he whispered, glancing at his shaking hand. Just like it did when whenever he had a bottle of sake in hand. “And I died a drunkard missing the old days…and his chance to best his rival.”.
A delicate hand firmly grasped his shoulder
Fighting to lift his head, he met Souji’s sorrowful gaze.
“Do you have any idea how it was for all of us to see you constantly spit more blood every day, Souji?”, Saito grunted, remembering every time he could hear Souji vanish behind the bushes, only to spit blood. He always had done his best to hide what was happening from the public eye, always lying to the children about Souji’s condition. “You were dying and we knew that. I could only watch helplessly how you got constantly slower and I had to make up stuff for the children to believe that you were fine. Your swordsmanship sloppier and your battles won not decisively, but barely.”.
Souji had always been grateful that he had hid her sickness from others. She wouldn’t have been able to bear it if she could never see the children of Kyo again. Eating sweets with them. Play with them.
Hear their laughs, watch their smiles and hear of their declarations to become great samurai, all because they looked up to the Shinsengumi.
“I saw you sit outside and stare into the sky often.”, Saito muttered. “I knew you were counting the days already. Soon enough, you were bedridden. And yet, you kept smiling for all those children who came to visit you. Coughed into your sleeves to hide the blood, told them you were alright, chasing them around on shaky legs. Even while your sickness was dragging you underground, you were strong. And in that regard…”.
In quiet acceptance, Saito closed his eyes with a satisfied smile.
“You bested me…even in death.”.
Her lips pursed, Souji took a deep breath through her nose.
“I have cursed my sickness for far too long.”.
Hearing his friend’s voice return to normal was soothing his aching body. Souji watched his quiet smile. It looked to her like a samurai having made his peace, ready to die. A sight that made her chest pound painfully inside her chest. “I wanted to die on the battlefield, Saito-san.”, she began to explain, a firm gaze on her hand so often coated red in her own blood, keeping him from falling over. “I did not want anyone to see me as weak or unable to be depended on. It would always come back to haunt me. My way of life. I thought…the moment they would see this, I would be unable to prove myself in a pack of beasts led by a greek huntress.”.
Even to this day she still remembered the first time she was taken to the battlefield after her summoning under her master’s orders and Atalanta’s watchful emerald gaze. She performed incredibly well until the moment she returned. Her legs shook, her chest hurt and all of a sudden blood spurted from her mouth, covering the pristine white of Chaldea’s walls a dark red.
Every cough was more painful than the last.
In the wild, a sick animal was easy prey. In a pack, it would be abandoned to save the others.
And as a natural huntress, she thought that Atalanta would see her as a weak link in the food chain. But instead of having been ridiculed, a firm hand had gripped her shoulder that day. When her eyes cracked open and adjusted to the light, she found Atalanta smiling warmly and proudly at her, keeping the samurai from falling to her knees and straight to her comrade, Asclepius, for a thorough inspection.
“They still took me in. Accepted me. Told me that fighting with this curse on me is a symbol of strength and nothing to be ashamed of.”.
Souji’s brief smile of the fond memory and the trust she got from who was regarded as the queen of the group she was in, faded for sympathy for her friend’s confusion. “You lived longer than all of us, Saito-san. You watched with your own eyes what we build. You saw the end of an era that none could witness.”, she pressed on, ignoring his widened eyes and halted breath. “Okada-san was always left to fend for himself by his own group. He died for their ideals and lost his head for it. I got taken by my tuberculosis. Yamanami-san…killed himself.”.
Taken aback, Saito gazed in awe at Souji’s warm smile.
“You are the strong one, Saito-san…because you saw it through to the end and knew when to quit.”.
A bright smile on her lips, Souji nodded to Saito, who still processed what she said.
Maybe he survived longer than them, but for what purpose? In the end, he had no warrior’s death. He died a drunkard. Though…
He didn’t die alone. There was his family who was at his side when he left this world.
Was that what Souji meant? That unlike them, who all died by themselves, he had his family?
A slow sigh escaping his lips, Saito decided to give up and give her this victory. “I will just accept it. After all..”.
Cracking his signature smile, he lifted his throbbing left arm, pointing into the heart of the forest.
“You still got a job to do, taicho. You better get a move on, or Serizawa will kill master-chan.”.
“Oh, he will not.”, Souji interjected coldly, her gaze hardened as diamond. “He might be a demon now. But…”.
With a small smirk, Souji thought of a woman with blazing red hair. The demon king who Serizawa thought was dead would come back soon to drag him to hell.
“Even demons have kings they have to bow to.”.
Souji’s eyebrow rose as her beaten friend struggled to laugh. “Man…you got strong. Brutally strong. That is what I get for fighting a girl in love, eh?”.
A sudden shudder down her back was followed by a harsh blush, only widening Saito’s grin at her meek ‘huh’. “I knew it. Master-chan is your special someone. That is why you were so fierce, eh?”.
Souji’s heart began to beat rapidly. But soon accepting the blush, she smiled back. “Maybe he is. Maybe not.”, came the playful answer, spinning on her heel to leave. Leaning against the tree he crashed into, Saito closed his eyes, allowing the relaxing rain to ease his pain as he laughed, “Come on. Not even that you want to share with your buddy?”.
Tilting her head behind her, Souji gave a cocky smirk.
“If you want to know…apologize, pay him a drink and maybe he will tell you something. You snarksengumi.”.
Picking up the pace, he glanced from the corner of his eye as the blue haori vanished into the darkness. Chuckling, accepting the world getting blurry around him, he remembered the last few days.
He had purposefully pissed off Izo and his female master to make sure that both would be on his heel, slowly letting information about Serizawa’s plot flow to them through their distrust. Saito knew that this would make him low on the list of the girl, because she was very protective of him. And he would be even lower on the list of the guy who could have been his future master.
But it had to be done. That was his and Hijikata’s plan to cleanse the Shinsengumi of Serizawa.
Though, while that conflict with the Tosa Kinnoto annoyed him…he found the time enjoyable.
He had noticed that this Okada wasn’t the same as the one from back then. He wasn’t a dog of Takechi anymore, but his own self.
And Souji…she had changed as well.
Being able to tease Souji again was a delight, even more so that she had found a master of her own. A man who was normally rather composed with a hidden temper that could make an erupting volcano feel like a toy, but a heart big enough take in people like Atalanta, Caenis, Souji and many others who suffered in their lives. Even Izo, despite not being his own Servant, had a place reserved only for him, being called his brother by the Ghost of Tosa for that.
A man that Saito himself had to betray on Hijikata’s orders.
Watching the azure blue vanish in the shadows as the rain stopped, his inner eye could see them again.
Back when the cherry blossoms bloomed…their haoris bright and shining like the spring sky.
The Shinsengumi, standing proud and tall. Maybe…they could have had that chance in Chaldea.
He sighed, his smile fading. “Wari, Souji…”, he quietly apologized. “I doubt I will get the chance. I don’t think someone who threatened a person they care about, would find a home with a master like him. Maybe when I am summoned next time and my memory is wiped…”.
Not noticing the approaching shadow, Saito whispered on, unaware of the man in front lifting his right hand.
“Wari…master-chan. You just made Souji smile so much. While Okada was a thorn to me in that regard given our history, heh, if I had known you’d care so much about one of Takechi’s men…I might have not antagonized him that much. Heh…but the likes of us can never get along…”.
As the man was ready to return to the throne…
…a red light began to coat him as the numb feeling from his body vanished.
Cracking his eyes open instantly, Saito felt his heart stop as one of the command seals on a man’s clenched fist vanished.
His surprise vanished for his signature smirk at the fierce look he was given from above. Daggers from the glare above pinned him to the tree trunk.
“I guess that is the look of an angry boyfriend, eh? Do you want to punch me that badly, master-chan?”, he smirked. “Or do you want to put me to work?”.
It was not his place to die yet.
This Shinsengumi would make amends today. And his friend’s master would make sure of that. So that she herself could believe in her own group once more.
The Shinsengumi would return once more, stronger and united. For now, the master of the first unit’s leader would lead them, until the true successor would return from hell.
For now though…one black stain on the Shinsengumi’s legacy still needed to be wiped.
The enemy was waiting, holding the rage of the land in his hands.