Disclaimer: I do not own Peacemaker Kurogane or the Shinsengumi.
An onsen is a traditional Japanese hot-spring inn. (Hope I got it right). They are very popular with Japanese and tourists. A good one can be very expensive. Hot springs were also credited with boosting health.
Chapter 1: School Outing
Dear diary
I'm spending my vacation rooming with an idiot. How the heck did I wind up doing community service with Tetsu-baka? It all started on the class outing to the mountains after the exams. I was trying out my niichan's compass…
"Listen here! You are allowed to explore the surrounding forest, but be careful! And don't trespass on the neighboring onsen." Ichimura Tetsu, naturally, was not listening to Matsuya-sensei's warning when he scooted off with the rest of his middle-school classmates. It was just after the exams and everyone was letting themselves go on this outing.
The girls were picking late autumn flowers. Hana had her hands full of assorted blooms and the cheerful young girl was soon giving Saya pointers on ikebana. Tetsu watched them for a while before getting bored and wandering off.
It was late afternoon when Tetsu chanced on Kitamura Suzu in the forest near the chalet. "Hey, Suzu, where's the chalet?" Tetsu warmed his hands with his breath. Dusk was falling and it got cold quickly up in the mountains.
"Tetsu, you aren't lost, are you?" Suzu asked. He had a map and compass in hand. His late brother had given him the compass as a gift. Suzu was out to prove he was as much a woodsman as his bro was before he got into trouble in New Shimabara.
"Am not!"
"Are too," Suzu smirked as he watched Tetsu following him from a discreet distance. According to his map, they should come to a bridge that led to the main road. Crap! They found the bridge spanning the ravine, or what was left of it after the spring floods were through. The boys stared in dismay. It was getting dark and cold, fast.
The sun dropped below the mountains and they were soon wandering about the undergrowth in the dark. Then Tetsu saw a light. "We're saved!" He ran towards the light and found himself standing in front of a bamboo fence.
"Ichimura, this is the onsen Matsuya-sensei expressly forbids us from trespassing on," Suzu hissed a warning. But Tetsu was too carried away at the prospect of finding civilization.
"Yippee! I'm saved!" Tetsu yelled and tried to scale the fence. The fence gave. The female guests enjoying their soak in the bath shrieked as the fence enclosing their pool collapsed…
Matsuya-sensei was worried when two of his charges failed to show for dinner. He went to confer with Yoshida-sensei, who was also overseeing the outing. He was rudely disturbed when the irate onsen owner showed up with the two missing boys. Yoshida was relieved to see that despite being a little singed, Suzu was unhurt.
"Master Yoshida, I'll take responsibility for the damages…" Suzu knelt before Yoshida, Matsuya and Aunt Makoto from the onsen. True, the fence was Tetsu's fault, but Suzu had accidentally knocked over a lantern during the ensuing chaos and set fire to the changing room.
"Good to see you both taking responsibility for your foolishness like men," Yoshida growled. "Especially Ichimura!" He caught hold of Tetsu as the boy tried to flee. Tetsu did not like the way Yoshida was looking at him. "Both of you bend over…" Yoshida reached for his switch… Tetsu shut his eyes in anticipation of the coming blow.
"Wait! I don't approve of corporal punishment!" Makoto spoke in her surprisingly musical voice. She was a middle-aged matron. "Let them work for me until they paid for the damages, that is, if it is alright with their parents…"
"Tatsu-nii!!! How can you do this to me?" Tetsu brawled over the phone. Tatsu-nii thought it would do his kid brother some good working off a debt incurred by his own reckless stupidity.
So both Ichimura Tetsu and Kitamura Suzu will wind up spending their school break at Makoto's Hot Springs Resort scrubbing floors, doing dishes and other assorted chores.
Postcard from Tetsu to Saya
Saya, I'm going nuts here with Psycho Yoshida's lap dog. I swear he's trying to kill me. Our lady boss is an absolute witch. Sorry I can't be at your shamisen recital this week. Wishing you the best. Miss you, Tetsu.
Both boys stared at the sheet caught on the roof. There's something obscenely wrong about the lack of a working washing machine and dryer in an onsen. They had to do laundry the old-fashioned way. Makoto-san's undergarments included. Then a frosty gust of wind took one of their sheets onto the roof and left it flapping like a great white bird on the tiles.
"You go get it. My leg's still aching from my accident." Tetsu was already on the roof when he recalled that Suzu's broken leg had healed well enough for him to compete in the fall cross-country race and come in second. Baka! I've been tricked! Tetsu chided himself silently and cursed the white-haired boy.
Then Tetsu slipped on a patch of ice that had formed on the roof tiles…
"YAAARRGGHH!" A pair of muscular arms caught him just as he was expecting to feel his bones breaking on the gravel drive.
"Gotcha, Puppy-kun!" Tetsu found himself looking up at a familiar face. "Nice catch!" Another familiar voice called out. Was it possible?
Back in Kyoto, Ichimura Tatsunosuke felt his eyelid twitch. Kami-sama, don't let Tetsu come to any harm… Then the line sounded and the dispatcher went back to his work. They'll be a little shorthanded during their annual department vacation, as always. He hoped the others were enjoying themselves at the onsen.
Author's notes:
Sakura-Shinguji, Sirith, Night-owl123:
Glad you loved my modern take on the Shinsengumi. Here's the sequel.The deeper the rivalry, the more times your paths cross, Tetsu-kun, Suzu-kun.
Makoto, as pointed out in other PMK fics, was the motto chosen for the Shinsengumi. It means sincerity. The kanji means honesty. BTW, Aunt Makoto is my own creation. She runs the onsen.
A twitching eyelid is a sign of impeding misfortune.