HAKUOUKI: Back in Time

Chapter 68

~Why not listen to music while you read?~

"Captain Saito! Are you here?!" The quiet of Saito's quarters was shattered by Shimada's sudden arrival.

"What's wrong?" Saito said standing up from his desk. 

"We've been surrounded! You need to escape immediately!" 

"What? Surrounded by who?"

"I don't know what domain they're from, but... I heard that one of them tried to come onto grounds and one of our guys took a shot at him. Our man hit the bastard, but he just stood up again like nothing had happened."

Saito's expression went grim. "Rasestsus. Bring all our soldiers here, immediately. This is an emergency."

"Yes sir!" In only moments, all the Shinsengumi's remaining warriors gathered in the hall.

"Where did they come from? We only just got here..." Kondou's face was filled with worry and confusion.

"Too soon for someone to have figured out what we're up to. This isn't just a good guess..." Even Hijikata seemed to be at a loss.

Looking around the room, I saw that two people were missing. "Wait. Where are Sanan and Heisuke? I haven't seen them around."  

"Uh..." Shimada's expression shifted from serious to anxious.

"Aren't they still in their quarters?" Shimada shifted uncomfortably as Saito turned to look at him.

"Um, no, actually... We've looked everywhere, but we can't find them. We thought they would be sleeping, considering it's the middle of they day, but..."

The faces in the room turned grim as the implication of Shimada's words began to sink in. Saito and Hijikata looked especially unhappy. It was Kondou who finally spoke the word everyone was thinking. "Traitors..."

No one wanted to believe that could be the case, but given the situation it was a depressingly likely suggestion. After all, what could anyone say to refute it?

"Our friends have left, and now our men are betraying us... There's only one person to blame for all of this, isn't there? ...Me" Kondou's voice was quiet and miserable. There was a moment of silence before Kondou straightened his shoulders and lifted his head. "I will take care of this. I can buy you some time. It should be enough for you to get you far away."

Hijikata was the first to speak. "Kondou, don't tell me you're..." He turned and stared into Kondou's eyes, his own moving subtly back and forth as if he were searching for something in the other man's expression that he couldn't find. 

Kondou only smiled. Hijikata's eyes widened for a fraction of a second. He pursed his lips and looked away.

"Saito, take the girls and the rest of the men and head to Aizu. . Leave through the back. You should be able to get out without being caught."

Saito had always obeyed orders without question, but this time he didn't move. "Commander... I apologize for my impertinence, but I find it hard to believe that the two of you will escape this unscathed. We stand a better chance of surviving if we commit all of our manpower to our defense. ...I would prefer to remain here."

"I want to stay too! How can I just run away and leave you to face them alone?!" Shimada's voice was loud and clear.

"Did I hear you two jokers right? You suggesting Kondou and I aren't good enough to fight off a couple guys?"

Saito ignored Hijikata's attempt to be flippant and remained silent. He must of sensed somehow that Hijikata wasn't acting as he usually did. Then suddenly, Hijikata's expression softened into something almost approaching warmth. "You're right. We stay here and fight, we might survive. But if we die here, who's gonna carry on the name of the Shinsengumi?" 

Saito's eyes widened a fraction. "If we all die here, trying to fight off those bastards outside, then we'll go down in history as a bunch of crazy idiots who decided to get themselves killed fighting the Imperial Army. Sure, we're farmers, ronin, and generally just violent bastards who kill anybody the shogunate or the Aizu don't like, but... There's two sides to every story right? Saito, you're the only one who can survive and pass on our side of the story."

Hijikata and Saito looked into's one another's eyes for several long moments and an understanding that was beyond words passed between them. At last, Saito inclined his head slightly and spoke. "I understand. We will meet again one day."

Hijikata gave him a short smile. "Right. We'll catch up with you in just a bit." 

And that was that. We made our way to the back door as quietly as we could, and stepped out into the bright sunlight. 

"Ungh!" Saito grimaced and threw up his arms to shield his face from the sun.

"Saito, are you alright?" I asked turning to him. He ground his teeth, but nodded and squared his shoulders. "Yes. Everything is fine. This escape is our priority."

He gestured forward and we began to move, doing our best to stay silent and hidden. We were nearly in the clear when Shimada suddenly stopped. "What?"

Chizuru, who was beside asked him what was wrong. He then proceeded to guide her eyes. "Look over there. Is that...?"

We all followed his pointing finger toward the gate of the Kaneko mansion. There stood Sanan, talking with several men dressed in western fighting clothes. He didn't seem to be distracted, and the men didn't appear to be threatening him. In fact...

"Those guns... They look just like the ones the Imperial Army had." Saito quietly said while looking at his comrade or at least, former comrade.

"They must be men from the Imperial Army then. Did Sanan really commit treason?" I asked

"They're too far away for us to hear what they're saying. Let's move closer. Shimada, Chizuru, and I nodded and we made our way carefully toward the front gate.

"This way... All of the riflemen are currently out drilling. If you act now, you should be able to capture the leaders with relatively little effort."

"You hear that men? All the soldiers are gone right now!" Go! Capture their commanders!"

"Yes Sir!"

They immediately broke into a brisk job and headed toward the mansion. An ice cold drop of sweat trickled down my spine. Our enemies had found us and by the way Sanan spoke to them, the source of their intelligence was all too clear.

"It would seem Kondou guessed correctly." Saito's voice was low and troubled.

There could no longer be any doubt that Sanan had guided them straight to us. "We don't have a choice. We have to leave. My voice shook as I spoke. 

"Right. We have our orders and we were given them for a reason." I had no doubt that Saito and Shimada wanted to return even more than I did, but our duty was clear.

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