Title: Jidai Monogatari (Chapter 9)
Author: Shimazu Masayoshi
E-mail:
patriot014@...
Source: Original
Main character(s): Entire Shinsengumi
General Rating: PG-13
Warning: Here we are at the Battle of the Ikeda-ya. It was obviously
bloody. Read at your own risk.
Disclaimer: This story is entirely mine, and is not based on anything.
You _may_ read it, but if you try to steal it, I will get the entire
Shinsengumi to descend on your head and Aku Soku Zan you mercilessly.
Thank you.
Chapter 9
July 6th, 1864
Dusk
The time had come for the departure to the Ikedaya. The entire
Shinsengumi was lined up in the courtyard, armored and ready to deploy.
Hiro waited impatiently. He knew what no one else didand he was
beginning to struggle with himself. With the information he possessed,
he could very well change the course of history. If the information
was revealed what he knew to the right people, the Choshuu clan would
be utterly, totally crushed, and Hiro's family, the Tokugawa, would
never have been driven from power. The shogunate would be free to
pursue its systematic plans for Westernization at its own pace,
solidifying the support of all the great feudal domains of the north
and west, and then might turn its attention to the neighboring
countries. It might conquer China, as the Imperial forces had, or it
might decide to simply trade with it. And then as time went on, Japan
would probably send samurai and conscripts to the European war in
1918. And then there was World War II
that would not be the same,
either. Might not even happen at all. But there was something that
Hiro realized after all this-- if the shogunate survived, he himself
might not exist, and then
he might not have met Yuki, either
The power of his clan, or his and Yuki's existence. Which was more
important? Which to
Hijikata's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Attention!"
There was a wave of motion that passed through the Shinsengumi, and
then a tense, overwhelming silence. Hijikata nodded to Kondou, who
stepped forward. Unlike the blue and white haori that everyone else
wore, Kondou and Hijikata wore white and black ones, denoting their
rank. Kondou cleared his throat, and began.
"Rebel activity has peaked in Kyoto over the last month. Murders,
arson, ambushes
they're going all-out. Acting on good information and
evidence, tonight we are going to investigate the area of
Kawara-machi, on Third Street. Tonight is a pivotal night. In fact, it
is much like a game of shogi or gowe must seize the initiative, and
eliminate as many of them as we can. Captains Nagakura, Toudou, and
Okita will each accompany me, along with a few men from each of their
units. Also, the following men will accompany me personally: Shimada
Kai, Hayashi Nobutarou, Kondou Shuuhei, Ikeda Kotarou, Tokugawa
Hirotada, and Abe Juurou. All other captains and men, follow
Vice-Chief Hijikata. That is all."
Nods and grunts of approval rippled through the assembled crowd.
Okada, Hiro's friend, patted him on the shoulder.
"Congratulations, Tokugawa-kun! You're going to accompany the commander!"
Hiro managed to smile weakly, nodding his thanks. He looked over to
Saitou, who indicated Kondou with a tilt of his head, granting his
permission to go. Hiro bowed, and headed over to the commander.
"Ah, Tokugawa-kun, glad you could join us. Here, take this." Kondou
handed him a paper lantern with go-yo"official business"written on
it in big, black letters.
"Everyone here?" asked Okita, who came up just then with three men
from his unit.
Kondou looked around, counting the people in his group.
"Yes, it seems so."
Hiro tightened the strings of his chain-mail helmet, and took a deep
breath. At long last, it was time to move out. Suddenly, he saw a
familiar face out of the corner of his eye. Yuki, accompanied by the
other women, stood on either side of the gate, armed with naginata and
kodachi. While all the men were out, it would be their job to protect
the headquarters.
Hiro's gaze met with Yuki's for a moment. A lifetime of conversations
and an eternity of embraces seemed to be expressed in that one gaze.
After what felt like an eternity, the inevitable, dreaded order came.
"Move out!"
They each turned away, ready to do what had to be done.
*********
After about two hours of quiet yet meticulous searching in the
Kawara-machi district, they finally arrived. The Ikedaya, a small,
two-story inn, was right there before them. Aizu clan forces were
supposed to have joined them over an hour ago, but they hadn't shown
up. Kondou had ordered the lanterns put out for the sake of surprise,
in case this was where the rebels were meeting.
Hiro breathed deeply, and steeled himself for the battle that was
about to begin. Something his father had told him years ago suddenly
came back to him.
"Remember, son, the samurai treats death as an honored guest."
Death will certainly be a visitor tonight, Father, he thought, as
Okita, Nagakura, and Toudou's men moved around the building to close
off the escape routes. Hiro and the others who remained moved closer
to Kondou.
The commander gave a nod to them, and then strode confidently for the
door.
"Open up! Open up!"
A lantern came on, and soon a short, disheveled man answered the
door. He paused for a moment to let his eyes adjust to the ambient
light. Then he saw Kondou and the men around him, and more
importantly, their uniforms. His eyes went wide with shock.
"Hey! We're being searched! Get r" Kondou's blade passed through his
neck, cutting him off.
"Move! Move! Move!" shouted Kondou, bounding up the stairs. Hiro,
Okita, and two others were right behind him, drawing their swords in
near-unison. They ran for the first room, where the single lantern
that had been on was suddenly extinguished. Kondou tore the sliding
door open.
About twenty men sat in the dark, many of them with their swords
already drawn.
Kondou spoke up, eager to at least try to get them to surrender.
"I am Kondou Isami, Commander of the Shinsengumi. We have this inn
surrounded. In the name of the Kyoto Military Commission and Lord
Matsudaira, I order you to surrender, or face the consequences."
They never want the easy way out, thought Hiro, as he moved to a
chudan stance. There was an awkward silence, as neither side seemed
willing to budge. Finally, one of the rebels moved. In the stillness
of the night, Hiro felt like time had no meaning, as he watched the
man slowly rise up and draw breath in for a kiai. Suddenly, though,
time snapped back to normal speed, and the man's kiai erupted across
the dead silence of the night.
"KYAA!"
Hiro's eyes widened in shock and horror as Kondou unleashed the full
force of his Tennen Rishin Ryuu training, slashing the man in half
across his chest. The rebels tensed, and suddenly, all of them fell on
Kondou and the others.
Now was not the time to think. Hiro parried the first incoming
strike, sweeping it aside with the usual grace of his Yagyu Shinkage
training. The man jumped back, and then returned, his eyes gleaming in
the moonlight that filtered in through the slats of the inn's high
windows. Hiro suddenly remembered that he couldn't be gracious. He had
to be lethal. Strengthening his grip, he allowed rage to flow through
himpure, unabated, rage. He had felt this rage every time he read
about his family's fall from powerit was a burning, searing fire
unlike anything he'd ever known. When he first read of it in a history
book at school he'd wanted to torture and slowly kill every western
samurai he could get his hands on, but since they'd all been dead for
over a century, he did the next best thingafter returning home, he
set his textbook up on a bamboo stake and slashed it to pieces with a
kitchen knife. His parents punished him severely for using the knife,
but had understood his rage, advising Hiro to channel the energy into
his martial arts training, instead.
Now, though, he was there, in the midst of the fire and rain of blood
of those days. He was capable of satiating his burning desire for
retribution. At last, I will have vengeance, thought Hiro, as he swept
the man's sword and slashed upward across his chest with a
right-handed upward diagonal cut. At last
"Miburo bastard! I'll kill you!" shouted another man, running at him
with his sword held in jodan position. Hiro slid into a countering
position, sword vertical to one side, and met the attack, shattering
his enemy's sword and then going into an upward slash across his chest.
"Worthless Choshuu scum! I'll kill you!"
On the other side of the room, Okita shouted at Kondou to get
downstairssomething about Toudou and Nagakura needing help. Hiro saw
Kondou race back down the stairs to the ground floor, where there
seemed to be sounds of even fiercer fighting.
Just then, about ten more rebels came in from the other rooms, armed
with swords and spears. Hiro, Okita, and the four other men still on
the floor backed in toward each other, tightening up their mutual defense.
Outnumbered five to one. Not a bad way to go down.
Okita stepped into the Tennen Rishin Ryuu's highly lethal hiraseigan
stance, ready to continue the attack. With a kiai, he launched himself
at the enemy again, while the others did the same.
On and on, they slashed left and right, cutting through the summer
night and the rain of blood. No matter how hard they fought, though,
the enemy's number didn't seem to dwindle at all. The only thing they
could do was fight to hold them off, hopefully until Hijikata's group
or the Aizu forces of the Military Commission arrived.
Hiro was lost, intoxicated in the crimson tide. He smiled
grotesquely, taking pleasure in his enemies' pain, remembering
accounts of the slaughter of the pro-Tokugawa domains in 1868,
especially that of the Aizu clan, who suffered until the 1920s as
"enemies of the Court". He recalled all that had happened, and took
pleasure in paying them back in advance for what they would later do.
Suddenly, the rebels knocked open the screen doors that led out onto
the small balcony, and jumped off onto the roofs of nearby buildings.
The Shinsengumi members pursued them, not wanting to let anyone get
away. Picking a target at random, Hiro went into a hiraseigan stance
himself, and ran, not paying any attention to his enemy's spear.
Closer and closer he came, on a collision course with both the man and
the spear. Just then, at nearly point-blank range, the man let go of
his spear and began to slump. Hiro still didn't pay any attention,
running the man through with his blade. Yanking it out, he noticed a
long, metal dagger protruding from the corpse's back. He looked up. A
man in black clothing and armor stood in front of him, and nodded in
approval.
"Next time, Tokugawa Hirotada-san, pay attention to the spear."
Hiro gasped. How did this man know who he was? Then he rememberedthe
Shinsengumi had a spy at the Ikedaya incident: Yamazaki Susumu, the
head of the investigations division. It all made senseno one else
would be snooping around in the dead of night in support of the
Shinsengumi's operations aside from Yamazaki.
"Oh, and look behind you," Yamazaki added, tossing another dagger
inches over Hiro's shoulder. Another rebel samurai slumped over and
fell, his sword passing barely a foot away from Hiro's neck as it
fell. By the time Hiro turned back around, Yamazaki was gone. Just
like a spy, too, Hiro thought for a moment, before turning back to the
matter at hand.
By now, the rebels were losing ground, and fleeing back into the inn.
Okita and the others once again gave chase, running back up and
leaping for the balcony.
Hiro picked out his last man, dashing toward him with his sword held
high. All the rage he'd felt, all the anger and resentment toward the
Choshuu clan and its historic aggression against his familyall of
those emotions seemed to radiate from his sword, charging the air with
a raging, uncontrollable energy. The rebel's sword started moving
upward, inch by inch, second by second, just as Hiro's sword swept
downward, inch by inch. There was a resounding clang of metal, and the
night was illuminated by sparks for a brief moment. Hiro laughed, a
maniacal, sickening laugh, as he saw his opponent's head fly off his
neck, sending a shower of blood flying everywhere. Feeling wetness on
his left shoulder, he paused to touch it, holding his hand in front of
his face and turning white at the realization that it was his own
warm, wine-red blood he was feeling.
"Tokugawa-san?" asked Okita. "Tokugawa-san? Are you alright?"
Hiro couldn't hear anything but the loud whooshing sound that
suddenly reverberated in his ears.
"Dirty Choshuu scum peasant dogs
Should've slaughtered you all when
we had the chance
"
His grip on the sword suddenly went slack, sending the blade
clattering to the blood-soaked floor mats. Remember, my son, if you
should ever be in any serious situation which merits the thought of
the next life, just remember one thing-- the samurai treats death as
an honored guest
the voice of his father reminded him, as did the
voices of all his ancestors, all the way back to Matsudaira Hirotada,
his namesake. Wanting to be a dutiful son and heir, he obeyed.
As he fell forward, he suddenly remembered one other thingwhat he'd
said the night before.
Yuki
I will see you soon