Samurai's Blossom - A Hakuouki Fanfic [HAITUS]

Chapter 13 - Tottering

Up until now, I had only been thinking about the negative things that had happened to me while in the Shinsengumi but there had been many good things that had happened too. Kondo san had always given me his trust and so had several others including Harada san. In fact, when I had told everyone that I was from the future and Kondo san had left the decision of what to do with me to his men, everyone had supported me. Harada san and Nagakura san and Heisuke had said that they trusted me. Okita san trusted me and let me treat his illness. The rest of them too put their lives in my hands during any treatment session, thanked me for my efforts, and treated me like I was one of their own.

How could I doubt their transparency?

"I'm such an idiot," I mumbled to myself with a soft laugh.

"Huh? Did you say something, Sara?" I heard only to meet Nagakura san's gaze when I looked up.

"Oh, hey, Nagakura san," I greeted and stood. "Is there something you need?"

"Yeah, I got hit by one of my squad bums during sparing – damn, he can hit hard. My shoulder's aching so could you take a look?"

"Sure, have a seat," I responded.

He sat down and took off his haori. His back was to me and I grimaced at the ugly bruise that was forming on his left shoulder, "Goodness, what did you get hit with to end up with a bruise this size?"

"We were fooling around with batons," he said with a nonchalant shrug.

"Fooling around with batons? Really, Nagakura san?"

"Well, we wanted to practice sparring with different weapons," he mumbled, pouting.

I shook my head with a smile and gave him a few minutes of cold water bag treatment to ease the swelling following which I applied a pain-numbing salve. I wrapped his shoulder and upper arm with something similar to a crepe bandage and gave his arm a friendly pat, "I'd suggest you take it easy for a day or two so that you don't aggravate the strain in your arm and shoulder. I'll give you a tonic to help you heal faster but try not to spar for the next two days, okay?"

"I'll try." I rewarded his Cheshire grin with a roll of my eyes. "Oh, by the way," he continued, "you and Chizuru chan don't have to prepare dinner for any of us tonight."

"How come?"

He leaned in to whisper, "We're going on a stakeout and termination mission."

"Um, okay?" I mumbled. "Can I ask who or what you're going to be keeping an eye on?"

"Itou san," he answered. "We've found out from Saito that he's planned to assassinate Kondo san. I knew that b****** was a sly one, all the more after he called us to a secret meeting so we can deflect to his side."

"I knew he was up to something but I didn't expect to hear this...but why would he want to kill Kondo san? I mean, I thought the Shinsengumi and Itou Dojo were partners!" I said, narrowing my eyes.

"He found out about Sannan san being alive, remember? He doesn't like the fact that he's been kept in the dark...and I don't think he trust Kondo san anymore."

I sighed, yet again seeing another instance that only proved that people could be so fickle-minded and act on what they found advantageous. But that was the way of life and I'm sure that Oni too would show the same attitude when faced with a similar situation. Well, if there were as many of them as there were humans, that is.

"Be careful, okay? I don't want to be woken up in the middle of the night to treat bloody wounds," I warned, earning a grin and a thumb's up in return.