HAKUOUKI: Back in Time

Chapter 74

~Why not listen to music while you read?~

"What's wrong Saito? We don't have time." But he didn't seem to hear me.

"In the tine I spent with the Shinsengumi, I've killed countless men. My sword is soaked with blood. I'm not such a hypocritical food that I would claim it's wrong to take a life. In a way, I suppose what I've done is hardly different than killing a man for the sake of research. Can one really argue that one sort of murder is superior to another?"

He paused and after a few moments, he started speaking again. "Still... There is a sort of evil that can only be judged by those whose own souls are also tainted with evil. I have judged the men who created these rasetsus to be evil. I will kill them." His eyes fairly glowed with determination and restrained rage. But at last, it began to fade and he turned to look at me. "...Sorry to keep you waiting. We should go."

I said nothing and we ran to join Nagakura and Harada on the way to the castle.

"Well, there's the gate. ...Huh. Don't seem to be any guards..." 

"They're conducting some sort of crazy experiment in the middle of a war and they don't post a guard? That's beyond weird..." Harada scanned around the area with a face of confusion.

"It may be a trap. We should move slowly and be careful." We all nodded silently after Saito and stepped forward. 

The explosion of gunshot shattered the cool night air. We crouched down silently in an attempt to hide.

"C'mon, I know you're there. Don't play around like that, hmm? I'm real excited to fight you guys." 

That voice... "You might as well come out. I can practically smell you..." Standing in front of the gate was the demon Shiranui Kyo.

"You. Do you understand what they're doing in there?" Saito revealed himself to the blue haired demon.

"Eeeh, I get the gist of it, but I'm not interested in whatever Kazama and the old man Kodou are cooking up. What I am interested in is getting the chance to fight you guys! It just seems like a waste to throw away an opportunity like this." He flashed a toothy grin and hefted his gun. "I've been dying to see you, you know. I really hope you've gotten better since last time. It'd be a shame if you didn't last too long..."

He didn't seem to be motivated by the same things as Kazama and Kodou, but he didn't seem likely to let us pass without a fight either.

"I take it you don't mean to let us through? ...No, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. We do this the hard way then." Saito reached for his sword.

"Saito, you take her and go on ahead. We'll deal with this chump." 

"Sounds good to me. Never did settle things last time..."

"What?!" Saito was clearly surprised with Nagakura and Harada. "No, this man is a demon. He has a gun. The two of you can't-"

"Whoa, what is this? You don't trust us? C'mon man, how many battles have we been in together? That's cold..." Nagakura's face suddenly went a bit forlorn.

"It's not that I don't trust you, you just-"

"So, I'm fighting you two? Look, I really don't care alright? Just make up your minds. They didn't tell me I had to deal with all of you."

"See? Our demon doesn't mind. Now get out of here Saito. We'll finish him off and catch up to you later. You probably won't even notice we were gone." Harada put his hand on his hip and gave Saito a confidant smile.

Saito looked from one of them to the other, his mouth drawn into a tight hard line. "Fine. I'll leave this one to you, but I expect you to be finished  soon. Understood?"

"Yeah, yeah, we know! Don't you die either , alright?"

Saito turned and began to run, with me scrambling to catch up. "I hope they'll be okay." Neither Nagakura or Harada a drunk the Ochimizu, meaning they were still both only human. To try and fight a skilled demon with only a human body made me uneasy.

"...They don't make promised they can't keep. They'll catch up. You needn't worry." There was confidence in Saito's voice. He believed in Harada and Nagakura so I tried to desperately feel as sure.

The castle interior was suspiciously quiet. Even though they were under siege, everything was completely silent. If what the rasetsu had told us earlier was true, then the castle should have been full of Aizu soldiers and rasetsus, but instead, there was... nothing.

"Why is this place so quiet? Didn't Harada say that this was the rasetsus' new headquarters?"

"Either they're situated farther in, or..." Before Saito could finish, doors on either side of the hall slid open and two waves of rasetsus poured through them, screaming wordlessly.

"Nghh...Gah!" Suddenly, Saito's hair was white and his sword whipped out of it's scabbard in a flash of silver. Rasetsus screamed and fell, dead. The hall was a narrow one, which made it difficult to fight properly, but Saito had spent years fighting in streets, alleys, and merchant houses of Kyoto. He was accustomed to tight quarters. The lack of space worked against the rasetsus as well, and with he rasetsu strength, it was Saito's skill that tipped the scales. It took him only seconds to kill every one of them.

Suddenly, a round of clapping caught our attention. "Well done. I didn't think you would be able to destroy my new rasetsus so easily." I knew that voice... "Ah, it's been too long. We last met in... Koufu, I believe?" Kodou stepped out of the shadows with the same made smile I had seen in Edo, and Koufu twisting his face into something alien and horrible.

"It's not my daughter, but thank you for going through the trouble of bringing a bride. You have saved me a great deal of time."

"She isn't here to be handed over to you." Saito's voice darkened.

"Oh? Well, it doesn't matter if you hand her over or I simply take her. I get what I want in either case. But more importantly, you seem to be enjoying the Ochimizu. Tell me, how many ties have you turned into a rasetsu? Once? Twice? Many times? How often have you used your inhuman strength?"

"I have no reason to answer your question."

"Oh, no, of course not. I only ask because there was one thing I neglected to mention at our last meeting... Do you know the source of a rasetsu's power?" Saito said nothing, but Kodou didn't seem to care. "It comes from you, or perhaps your future might be a better way of putting it. You are borrowing the accumulated strength and healing that you would have used throughout your entire life, and spending it in vast quantities. Every time you become a rasetsu, your life gets much, much shorter."

What?! If what he said was true... then all the times that Saito became a rasetsu were...

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