Saitou:
“Oi! You’re new here aren’t you?”
I look up but can’t see them clearly. I’ve had a bit more to drink on my way back. It wasn’t the brightest of ideas.
“Here why don’t you share some of that?” One of the men who blocked my way sneers and I grin up at him and throw the now empty bottle his way. I was planning on going to sleep.
“Go throw it in the trash.” I raise my hand in a gesture of goodbye and try to move past them. But as I try to do so, there seems to be a wall of bodies in front of me. How many are they? I narrow my eyes trying to count.
“You’re one jackass you know that?” The guy who I threw the bottle to, smashes it and held the broken bottle by the neck. And I can only grin a little. Are they really going to try me?
“I’d like to wipe the smirk off you face you jackass!” He takes a swipe at me and I take a step back and curiously enough, feel myself off balance. It takes me a bit to right myself up.
“HAHAHAHA!” They all laugh. “The seems like the jackass is nothing more than an old man after all. Here do you need some help in getting up OLD MAN?”
Do they really want to fight -me-? I wipe my hands on my hakama and reach for my sword and confused I look down and it’s not there.
“Woah! Did you forget something old man?” They keep laughing. “You’re so fucking drunk. Did you lost your wallet?”
“Not his wallet idiot!” One of them replies to the other, “His fucking -cane-!”
Cane? I’m not so old… Even if I do feel like it lately. “So what if I don’t have my sword.” I strike a fighting pose. “Come. I’ll show you.” I remember fighting Zanza the fighter for hire with my bare fist and I remember -winning-. “Come and I’ll wipe the dirt with your face.”
“Ooh…. This one’s got some spirit.” The larger of the group comes up and puts up his fist. “Come come come! Old man!”
I lunge at him and I feel myself go much farther than I planned for and the group of men part, letting me through as I almost stumble to the ground. God damn it! I turn around and shout, “Kyah!!!” And this time I lower my head and charge him like a bull.
“Woah!” The group cheers and I miss my mark, that stomach of his that I was aiming for. “Better be careful Musame! He’s angry now.”
Damn -right- I’m angry! But I feel a knee hit my chin that sends my face up and then a hard punch that hooked my face all the way to the right. Shit…
I fall to the ground but I get up and put up my pose again. I see them sway a bit or is it me? “Who are you people?” I ask. Are they the thugs Muraki was talking about. Why I’m here keeping the peace? Am I keeping the peace?
“Oh the old man wants to know our names!”
“You got to beat it out of us newcomer!” I feel someone kick me on the back and that pushes me forward to a waiting fist that would’ve broken my jaw had I not slipped just enough but he still managed to cut my cheek. I touch it and rub the blood off. It’s a bit deep.
“Hey you! Get off him!” I hear someone shout. “I’m warning you.”
“Oh come on! A -bokken-? Are you kidding me?!”
“He’s not kidding.” Another man comes out. I can’t make him out. “Get lost or he’ll beat you up with a bokken and I’ll follow it up with my bombs and you -know- he’s the son of the legendary manslayer.”
“Fuck! That’s not fair!” The group grumbles but I see them back away. “You two always get in the way! This isn’t the last you’re going to see of us!”
“Scram! And don’t come back!” The younger man shouts but I end up kneeling on the ground and trying to catch my breath. I blink a few times trying to focus my eyes but I guess I drank a little too much and I end up doing a dry heave. I feel nauseous.
“Easy. Here let me help you up.” I’m stood up by the older man, I think I know him. That friend of Zanza’s… The one who tried to bomb the Department of Ministry. “Do you know where he lives? We should take him there. He’ll be fine but I think he needs to lay down.”
“Well…” I know that voice too. It’s one of the Battousai’s brat. The one who came to my office looking for my help but also the one who, I shared a head space with. “I think that’s his house… for now.”
I’m half dragged to my room and put on the wooden floor.
“Get me that pillow.”
“Here you go Katsu.”
“Thanks Yahiko.”
“I think he’ll be okay but someone should stay here in case those people show up.” I hear a sigh, “Now what is the former leader of the third squad of the Shinsengumi doing here of all places?”
“He’s Fujita now. A Meiji cop remember?”
“That’s even more troublesome. So the police are sending undercover agents here? I guess that’s not a bad idea. Ruffian’s row has become very dangerous lately.”
“Yeah but… Hey Katsu. I’ll stay with him. You can go home and thanks for the support back there.”
“Hey no problem! To be honest I don’t think you needed my support. You could’ve beaten those guys even with a bokken.”
“I know but it’s better I didn’t.”
“Oh right. Himura taught you better huh.” I hear the door open, “Well I’ll see you Yahiko.”
“Bye Katsu.”
Yahiko:
There’s nothing I can use here. He doesn’t have anything here. Not even water.
I look down at Saitou. I’m not sure what I preferred, the cocky cop who gets on your nerves, the cross dressed “woman” that Hiko sensei ceremoniously ridiculed or this one, the drunk who just got his ass kicked. I don’t like any of it. I sit down by the lamp, thinking at least there’s a lamp here. I heard from Kaoru that he’s separated from that lady, Yagi. But before her, there was that Tokio right? Eiji said she was alright and Yagi-san seemed alright too. So he’s probably the problem.
I’m annoyed at this cop, coming over here and giving us more problems. If the inhabitants of Ruffian’s Row find out who he really is, they won’t stop coming. And for now he doesn’t seem to know how to defend himself. I’ve only heard stories of Kyoto but I saw him fight in Enishi’s island. He fought with us. He fought -well-. Cocky but as good as Kenshin. Do I tell anyone? Telling Kenshin is impossible, this cop will probably insist on a fight if they met in private. And telling Kaoru? What would she do? Well maybe run to Yagi-san but she probably doesn’t want to be burdened by him anymore. And I heard from Kenshin that Eiji said he’s returned to the Military.
“You can go back.” I turn and look at the man lying on the floor, propped by a small pillow. “I don’t need watching over.”
“You sober now?” I ask. It’s weird sitting here alone with him. I remember back in the blackness of the wilderness we spoke a little.
“I’m fine.”
“What are you doing here Saitou?” I decide to ask him straight up. He seems to be that kind of man.
“I’m stationed here.” He looks up, “For now.”
“I thought the Police was supposed to keep the peace.” I throw him a glare, “That wasn’t what you were doing.”
He’s quiet, not acknowledging me. Then he closes his eyes. “It won’t happen again.”
That’s… A good answer. I almost expected him to deny he was making trouble. “Well you shouldn’t walk around without your katana.” My gaze spans the room, “Where is it?”
“I left it… at a friend’s place.” He looks up the ceiling, “I have a bad habit of wanting to kill people when I’m drunk.”
Did he mean that? But he is a Shinsengumi and I heard they were blood thirsty. It’s said quite a few of them would roam around Kyoto threatening the locals to give them money which they spent on women and drink. He’s probably one of them.
“Then I’ll stay here.”
“Tch.”
“I can’t leave the weak and defenseless.” That’s what I learned from Kenshin and even if this man is far from weak or defenseless… Something is wrong with him that I can’t quite place.
“You’re giving me a headache boy.”
Boy huh? He thinks of us as boys. Eiji, myself and especially that son of his “Tomu” they called him.
“You’re lucky Katsu and I were passing by. Otherwise they’d have done a number on you or you might’ve been killed.” I look away from his face across the room, “That wouldn’t be a fitting end for a Shinsengumi Captain and Kenshin’s greatest rival.”
I hear him chuckle a little, “You’re as much as an idiot as your benefactor.”
“Say what you must, but right now, Kenshin’s got you beat and he didn’t even lift a finger.” Because Kenshin is happy with Kaoru and they have a son named Kenji and we live happily in the Kamiya dojo. But I also know what Kenshin did and now, what Hiko sensei did to meddle in Saitou’s life, but after that? The rest would be his own doing.
“Maa… You always did worship that idiot. Though I remember a time he got angry at you for not being appropriately impressed by him.”
Ah he talks about the time in the wilderness. That time I was not only looking at Kenshin’s back, I was looking at Sano’s, Aoshi’s and even… this Wolf.
“Kenshin was the -best-, but I saw others who in their own way…”
“Sorry, that was a low blow.” He dismisses the rest, obviously not wanting to talk.
I look at him and see his pulled himself up.
“Did Yagi-san kick you out? Is that why you’re living here? You don’t really expect me to believe that your official mission are the thugs here in Ruffian’s Row…”
He feels under his hakama and pulls out his cigarette and lights up. “I -left- her. And -yes-, this is my mission. I suppose you’ll blow my cover.”
Damn. That’s quite the fall from… “I won’t blow your cover. But get it together Saitou or I’ll…”
“You’ll what?”
“I’ll definitely think that Kenshin is a better -samurai- than you.” I grin. Kenshin has always been the best but… back then I was looking for someone who was the best embodiment of a samurai, because just as I am Yahiko a child of the Meiji, I’m also Yahiko a Tokyo Shizoku.
Saitou glares at me for a moment, but then some other expression crosses his face… Disbelief maybe? As the smoke leaves from his lips, he adds “Idiot.”
(OOC: Yahiko leaves when the sun comes out. Saitou returns to the TMPD mid-morning after doing his morning rounds)