(Kichisaburo)
I turn around, slowly. “So, what do you think?”
Asato-san claps her hands like a child, her eyes bright. “Oh, Souji, it’s just perfect!”
I’m quite pleased with the entire -look-. I thought I’d have to kill the old man Muraoka – he’s the only one (besides those horrid Yagi brothers) who -may- have had real, authentic Shinsengumi haori – but he had already died by the time I got there. Just slumped over. Too bad for me, and my blade… but I did manage to make off with some choice bits, as well as any cash he had laying about.
Then I spy -her-, just sitting there. “Hide-chaaaaan,” I call out, whirling over to her. “So, how many nights did you dream of seeing me again, holding you in my haori of as asagi-iro?” I stare into her eyes, but she turns her head. It’s then I notice her staring at the sleeves…
“That’s Todo Heisuke’s haori, that’s the crest he used,” she says.
I frown at her. “No, it’s -mine-. -Mine-, do you understand?”
“She’s addled,” Asato-san interjects.
I grin. “Ah, so you… did you lead him on too? How many of my friends did you ensnare?” I laugh. It’s very funny. Even if I liked girls, she’s so plain and now she’s all pale and tired-looking. “I know you’ve betrayed me with Saitou now…”
She just looks away. Oh, this is -fun-.
“Maybe that’s why she couldn’t commit to you, Souji,” Asato-san says. “Just too many others…”
I touch her chin and pull her face to look at me, my other hand holding hers. “This talk of how unfaithful you were, Hide-chan, makes me so sad.” She tries to pull away – like the night I plucked her out of that tacky garden, it’s cute when she fights – “do you still seek to deny me?”
She says nothing as she struggles.
I push her away so that she falls back, and I laugh. She lands on that bad hand again. Maybe I should make it worse? I don’t think her hand will matter, where she’ll be. But then she’ll know how serious I am. I don’t think she gets it!
“Asato-san… I just can’t even -look- at Hide-chan right now. Take her to her room.” I cover my eyes with one hand, and make a waving motion with the other.
Besides… she just has to try one of her little tricks soon. And I need to get what I want out of her before I hand her over.
(OOC – to continue)
(Hide)
I’m sleeping…
I’m walking down a hallway – impossibly long.
Eventually, there’s an open door. I step inside, it’s pitch black.
But I keep walking. Eventually, a mirror. I peer through the darkness, and on the other side… it’s me?
Then I realize that it’s not.
“Sister?” I ask. Then, relief, “oh, you’re here to help me!” I feel almost limp with relief. Of course I can get out of this.
She just looks at me. “I thought you could use this time for some self-reflection. You stand at the crossroads of your life, and perhaps, the ending of it.”
She’s not here to help…? I look at her, pleading with my eyes.
“Go back out there. Behind each door is something… something you created. Something you made happen.” She turns away. “It’s going to be hard, but, it’s time you face them – they all are here to bear witness…”
Then the room is dark. Am I still sleeping?
Slowly, slowly I open my eyes. Crazy dreams, for crazy days.
Outside, I hear the third voice, and that imposter’s voice and his lilting tones.
“Ooh! Look what we have for lunch today!” My stomach lurches, as I’ve not had much food still… “You know, the food here is quite refined. One hears bad things about the food here, that it’s all fried, all street food, but this…”
“Eat slowly Souji, I’m so glad you’re enjoying food!” Asato-san sounds so -different- when speaking with him. She didn’t talk like this… all cajoling, even when I realized that she felt something strong for him.
But Kichisaburo enjoys himself with the food. “If I knew Osaka had classy good like this, I would have been here years before!”
Osaka? I knew that it was possible, because I -think- there was a boat journey, but I was so out of it… Osaka? Who will ever find me here… I curl up on the futon. I know if I start crying… that’s when one of them will come in.
Stay calm.
Stay calm.
Hajime… I’m so far from home, our family. So far from you…
(OOC – will continue)
I’m in the dream again. I approach the only door I can see in the long hall, it’s ornate, heavily carved… the room is sumptuous – heavy carved furniture, swags of velvet and brocade, dark colors.
Inside is a man. He’s… European, middle aged, with a moustache. “Sir Charles Rosvear,” he introduces himself. My eyes open wide.
“Ah, Hide…” he smiles over at me. “Of course you’re surprised to -see- me. You never bothered to give me a face, after all.” He chuckles, a little. “Just a name. And some rather terrible personality traits. And then when I wanted to come back and see you, my little oriental pearl, you blocked it at every turn. Afraid of the delicate feelings of that man who said he loved you.” He shakes his head.
“So my testimony against you – you used me. You slandered me – accusing me of just marrying you to have a trophy! Writing me off as a homosexual.” He coughs. “Well, certain things happen, in my schoolboy days, but that’s the British way. Did I ever get my way with you? Who’s to know? Only we two, and he certainly thinks we did, so that’s all that ever matters.” He pulls out a pipe, fusses with the tobacco, and lights up, puffing to get it started. “Just the -idea- of it.”
“You used my name, my money, the status as my widow – and yes, you killed me off before it all even -started- – and for what? To chase after that unwilling man in another world?” He exhales smoke. “He was there, and you…” he tilts his head and looks at me. “He creates new versions of himself, wherever he goes. After fighting with your “sister”, you insist on always being you, but playing a role. Here, the Victorian widow. A virtuous woman.”
And then he laughs, and it’s a terrible sound. I fall to the floor, covering my ears with my hands but he just keeps laughing…
…
I sleep.
I wake up. There’s sunlight coming in through the windows. It smells familiar, cozy. It’s… my room back in Mibu. When it was my room… and from the decorations, it’s…
I stand up and look down at myself. It’s a younger body. Were those years with Hajime a dream? Or is this?
I run down the stairs, and find my mother, sitting in the garden, on the sunny engawa that was her favorite.
“Okaasan!” I cry out, running to her.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she says, quietly, but she strokes my hair as I bury my head in her lap.
“Okaasan…. what….”
She sighs. “There’s nothing I can do here to help you, where you are now.” She looks out across the garden, and I see… the Shinsengumi. Todou-san’s troupe, and Harada-san’s, preparing for a night patrol. “Nor them. This is the land of the past, of the dead.” Kondou-san and Hijikata-san walk by, deep in conversation.
I look up at her, my face tear-stained. “Then who? Who will help me?”
She says nothing. “You can rest here, for a minute.” She sighs. “Your father and I left you alone too early. We should have been more involved with the boys, to make them learn how to be responsible once we were gone.”
My eyes search the scene outdoors, looking for him. “He’s not here. It’s only for the dead – no matter how close he gets he’s never made it here,” she says, as if reading my mind. “Nor is the other one… I’m not certain… of anything about him, you – ”
Then –
(OOC – to be continued)
(Kichisaburo)
I step into the room and watch her sleep. I… I can feel it, as Maro once showed me. And she’s agitated, in her sleep! As it goes on… I feel something darker… the shiver of death. But is she actually sleeping? Or is she up to something? Then I hear Asato-san’s voice – she’s going out to the washroom again….
“Wakey-wakey, Hide-chan!” I call out once it’s just the two of us. She’s still a little… stuck. So I do what I -must- and smack that left hand of hers.
She cries out as she comes out of it, and tries to pull it away, but I hold on.
“You’re such a lazy, sleepy thing, aren’t you?” I laugh. “Well, I need you to tell me something.” I reach over and bring out the sword I “recovered” from that dead man a few weeks ago. “Tell me about this sword.”
She just looks at me. “I -know- you know swords.” Asato-san said that she had been -trained-, after all. “So tell me.” To get my point across, I squeeze her hand again, and she whimpers. Haha, that’s cute. Like a puppy.
I finally let go to unsheathe it. “Is it signed? It doesn’t look to be anything special.”
I hold my breath, “is it the Kikuichimonji Norimune?”
She frowns at me, and again I reflect how this woman caused such a stir? “Obviously not.” Then she adds, “wouldn’t you recognize it anyway?”
How -dare- she?
“When my brothers interviewed Matsumoto-sensei, he said that Kikuichimonji Norimune went with his sisters. And I know the other katana he carried, and this isn’t it.” I hear Asato-san come back in.
“No, this was -my- sword, Hide-chan. You’re too stupid to remember.” I say, glaring at her. “And why would my sisters have -my- sword? Oh, they probably stole it when they decided to burn me away – and Matsumoto was in on it too! Only Asato-san knew the truth!”
She watches me with wide eyes, and shakes her head. “It’s not your sword and you’re not – ”
And with that I bring down the saya of the sword onto her left hand, and she -screams-. I hold it down with the force of my weight and I can feel bones breaking. “Do you hear her, Asato-san? She was in on it too – she wanted me dead and she still does!” I get up, and she’s gone all pale. But I didn’t take her as a screamer!
“Foolish girl!” Asato-san runs into the room, glaring at Hide-chan. “What did you make him do?”
I turn away. “I can’t with her anymore, Asato-san… how she betrays me still.” I turn to both. I bite my lip, and look sad. “Please, Asato-san… tend to her… to what she made me do. Even, if you can… Give her something to rest?” I smile over at Hide-chan, who has tears running down her face but still glares at me. How naughty, and I’m being soooo good to her.
The more she sleeps, the more I get… and the clock is ticking! If he let me just steal his woman out of his house, I doubt that old cop can find us… but my benefactor will be ready for his prize any day now. But before then… I’ll find what even Maro couldn’t harness…
(OOC – to be continued)
(Hide)
“You did this to yourself, you know,” she says, feeling my hand. “Two metacarpals broke, the other two probably fractured. No more than a sprain on your wrist.” She also finally puts my dislocated finger back into joint, which sends another jolt of pain… then she covers it all with a stinky balm, and begins to methodically wrap my hand.
“Does he hurt you?” I ask, in a low voice, it’s all I can manage…
She looks at me. “Of -course- not because I take care not to vex him. You know how his mood swings always were… and after all he endured, the fire… he lost -many- memories.” She sighs. “It was a … miracle, that he’s here.”
I look at my hand, and where I am. He certainly doesn’t feel like a miracle to me… and the man I knew would never hurt a woman.
“Did he know you?” I can’t help but ask. “When you found him?”
She smiles as she turns to my head wound. “No… but he did, in time. He remembered it all. How good I always was to him…” I wince as she applies something to the wound, but that pain is a nice distraction to my hand. But then she sits back and looks at me. “But why… why aren’t you happy too? Of all people….”
I want to tell her that he’s not the real Souji, he’s an imposter, and… a dangerously unstable man. But I’m now afraid of how unstable she is. But I give her the answer I’d give… if it was the real Souji, and a good man. “It’s been twenty years, almost. Souji will always be special to me – ”
“But you -moved on-?” She says, now glaring at me. “Stupid girl, he -loved- you and -adored- you. I’d give anything for what you had, for just a fraction of it, that you threw away, that you’re willing to throw away again…”
“Asato-san…” I say, starting to protest. But the arguments that don’t work with Hajime… won’t work with her either.
“Ha! Well, you’ll get your wish soon, to flutter onto someone else.” She rummages through her bag. “Souji and -I- will be free and happy and able to live as we want, far away, and he’ll see that I’m the one who really loved him all along. And you…” in one quick move, she grabs my right arm, slides up my sleeve and I feel the prick of a needle.
“What does that – ” but then it all goes dark. I didn’t want to sleep. Sleep is taking me to a terrible place right now. And it only reminds me that time is passing… time that Hajime and I had so precious little of already.
Find me… find me…
(OOC – close)