Somewhere in the time suck that is Tumblr, someone (I cannot for the life of me remember who's blog it was… my apologies!) brought up the fact that Hijikata and Kondou would have been responsible for answering all of Souji's embarrassing coming-of-age questions as a child. They both would have been delightfully and hilariously awkward in their responses!

Disclaimer: Hakuouki is not mine.

Hanamachi

Souji looked curiously at the now familiar looking box sitting outside the dojo. Hijikata was passing through again and had obviously left it sitting unattended on the veranda. Smirking to himself, Souji took one last look around to make sure no one was watching before he picked it up discreetly and moved quickly to a hidden part of the yard he often frequented. Settling himself comfortably under the shade of a large tree, he opened the lid and began rummaging through its contents.

"What does Kondou-san see in him?" He quietly mused. After all, that was the reason he was going through Hijikata's things. Perhaps it would shed some light on the biggest mystery in Souji's life currently: why Kondou-san liked Hijikata-san so much.

So far his search had been less than illuminating. Mostly the box was filled with packets of that worthless medicine Hijikata was always going on about. He was about to give up when something at the very bottom of the box caught his eye. An attempt had obviously been made to hide it, which naturally perked young Souji's interest. Pulling out the small book, he opened it and began reading.

"'In a rundown shack, lying there it is most cold, I see the spring moon.'" Frowning at the pages in front of him, Souji tried to make sense of the poem. It looked nothing like the poems his sister had made him read. Was it supposed to be a haiku? Granted, he knew nothing about poetry but this seemed… especially bad. Flipping through the pages, he only found more of the same. Nothing at all that explained why Kondou liked the medicine salesman so much. If anything, poetry this bad should have been more points against Hijikata.

Sighing dejectedly, he reached to put the book back when some seemingly loose pages fell to the ground. Picking them up, he noticed immediately that they were different from the paper in the book. They were letters that had been hidden in the last few pages. Unfolding them carefully, Souji began reading.

Toshizou,

I look at you and contemplate this one question: how could I have lived with the absence of you from my life for so long? Before you, I could not give love, but only moments of caring. I never showed my true feelings, I hid behind a façade I was taught to wear. But I opened my eyes when I met you, your beauty so resplendent that it captured me and I was enthralled.

My heart began to beat again when we made love, the darkness that contained it slowly disappearing. And with every encounter, every look into your violet eyes my heartbeat stronger and faster. Until the black was dispelled and I could breathe again, and the feelings of love filled me. With you my heart finally skipped a beat, or fluttered with excitement; never before did it act this way…

Apparently Hijikata had a girlfriend. Souji snorted at the thought. He could barely stand being in Hijikata's presence, he couldn't imagine why a girl would willingly do so. His answer became clearer as he continued to read through the letter (which went on and on, praising Hijikata's handsome looks to the point of making Souji nauseous). Near the end of the letter was a plea for Hijikata to return to the hanamachi soon. Hanamachi? Souji was confused. As far as he knew, there were no towns by that name around here. Maybe Hijikata-san met her during his travels?

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Kondou's booming voice echo from the dojo, telling the older students that lessons were over for the day. Souji quickly stuffed the letters back into the book of poetry and put them in their original hiding place at the bottom of the medicine box. Not wanting to get caught snooping, he looked carefully around the tree he had been sitting underneath. Seeing that he still had some time before the students exited the dojo, Souji hurried back to the veranda and left the box where he had found it, and just in time too! He had barely had time to appear to be nonchalantly waiting for the lesson to finish before Hijikata himself appeared on the veranda. Said man narrowed his eyes in suspicion at the young boy and began walking towards him.

"Souji, what are you doing out here?" Hijikata asked warily. He knew from past experiences that an 'innocent' looking Souji was a dangerous Souji. For some reason unknown to him, Hijikata always found himself on receiving end of Souji's tricks and insults. Honestly, he had no idea why the child disliked him so; he'd tried very hard in the beginning to be kind to the boy since Kondou was so fond of him. In the end though, his efforts had been for naught as Souji was an expert at making Hijikata lose his temper, usually with only a sentence or two. Honestly, it was uncanny how well the child knew how to push his buttons! He really could think of no other reason for Souji to be sitting so serenely on the veranda other than making him the victim of another of his nefarious jokes. "Don't you have chores to be doing?"

Souji had no trouble directing an annoyed glare in Hijikata's direction. He had briefly thought about maintaining his innocent pretense, but seeing that Hijikata already sounded suspicious would only heighten the man's misgivings. "I finished them a while ago." He replied shortly. As Hijikata continued to look unconvinced, Souji added, "Not that it's any of your business, but I've been waiting for Kondou-san."

Of all the answers Souji could have given, that one was the only response believable enough to make Hijikata rethink his initial suspicions. The boy was constantly following his mentor around, forever asking questions and attempting to wheedle extra lessons from the kendo instructor. Hijikata often wondered which would be worse; having Souji's admiration or his disdain. Either one forced you to be in constant close proximity to the boy, which Hijikata was finding to be increasingly intolerable. He had never been especially patient to begin with. Sighing deeply, as the long suffering often do, he replied, "He should be done in a minute. He was helping one of the visiting students."

Souji made a noncommittal noise indicating that he had heard him before getting up from the veranda and entering the dojo, seemingly unconcerned that Kondou was still finishing up the previous lesson. Brat… Hijikata thought in annoyance before heading to the bath to rinse off after his vigorous training session. Trying to outthink Souji was rarely productive and often left him with only a headache to show for his efforts. Let Kondou-san deal with him for now. At least he's safe from the kid's tricks!

Fortunately for Souji, it seemed as though Kondou had finished helping the other student rather quickly which meant he finally had him alone for a time. Maybe he would be able to tell him where this hanamachi was… or what it was. He could ask him after they sparred.

Kondou smiled seeing his youngest pupil enter the dojo. It always amazed him how eager Souji was to practice and learn Tennen Rishin Ryu. Despite all of his chores, the young boy always made time to practice no matter how worn-out he was. Even though Kondou had been teaching all day and was tired himself, if Souji could push himself to practice so late in the day so could he. "Ah, there you are Souji! I thought maybe you weren't coming today."

Souji looked stricken for a moment before he recovered himself. "But why wouldn't I come Kondou-san? You were working with that other student a minute ago and I didn't want to interrupt you."

Chuckling softly, Kondou replied, "I was only joking Souji. Are you ready to learn something new?"

Souji's eyes brightened and he nodded enthusiastically to Kondou's suggestion. Picking a bokken off the wall, he turned his attention to his mentor. Kondou took a few minutes to go over the basics of the kata with his pupil, before allowing Souji to start practicing on his own. It was in the middle of this work out that Souji finally worked up the courage to ask Kondou about the hanamachi. "Kondou-san, you're pretty familiar with this area, right?"

Kondou looked momentarily startled by the unexpected change in conversation, but he quickly recouped. "Hmmm, I'd say so. I've lived here for many years now. Why do you ask?"

Determining it would be best not to mention where he actually found out about this term, Souji made the decision to change a few of the details of his story to keep himself from being scolded. After all, Kondou did like Hijikata and would probably be cross with Souji for going through his belongings without permission. "I heard some of the other students mention how much fun it is to go the hanamachi. Do you know where it is?"

"H-hanamachi?!" Kondou spluttered, stopping his kata in mid-motion.

Souji tilted his head to the side in confusion. Why was Kondou blushing and why did he look so uncomfortable? "Yeah. I hadn't heard of a town by that name before but I thought you might have."

"A town?" Kondou was quickly coming to very welcome conclusion that his young pupil had no idea what the hanamachi actually was. After all, if one took the literal translation of the word to heart, as Souji was apparently doing, it made sense that the boy actually thought there was a flower town nearby. But how do I explain to him what it actually is? Souji was still too young in Kondou's opinion to have that particular conversation. Perhaps he could… not mention a few details. "Well, a hanamachi isn't really a town, more like a neighborhood or district."

"I see. So it's close by?"

"Erm…" Kondou hesitated. Souji was extremely curious and if he found out that Yoshiwara was relatively nearby, he would certainly want to explore which was exactly what Kondou was trying to prevent. "Not really. It's on the other side of Edo." Which could technically be true, considering there were several hanamachi in Edo. There had to be one on the other side of town, which was a distance that would discourage Souji's curiosity.

"Oh." Souji replied, looking a bit crestfallen. "So I guess it would be hard to go there?"

Looking immensely relieved, Kondou nodded emphatically, "Yes, it certainly would."

"But what happens there that makes it so much fun?" Souji asked inquisitively.

"F-fun?" Kondou really did not want to have this conversation. He wasn't a vindictive man, but he was giving serious thought to punishing whichever student had told Souji about the hanamachi. "Well, there are teahouses there which also provide some entertainment like plays and music." That sounded innocent enough, no to mention boring. Souji often complained to Kondou about the numerous tea ceremonies that Gen-san had forced the child to participate in so he was desperately hoping this would end the conversation.

Souji gave up practicing all together at this point. He needed to focus on the conversation, as it was getting rather confusing. "Teahouses? But what does that have to do with flowers?"

"W-well… well, you see Souji…" Kondou stammered while turning an even more impressive shade of red. How could he possibly explain about the 'flowers' that resided in the hanamachi without also explaining other things? "The… decorations are flowers. That's how the hanamachi got its name." Kondou prayed to every deity he could think of that Souji would accept this answer.

Frowning, Souji looked skeptically at his mentor. "But I thought teahouses were where you went to spend time with oiran. So a hanamachi is just a bunch of teahouses decorated with flowers? That doesn't sound like fun at all."

"Well perhaps when you're older you'll find them more interesting…" Kondou said weakly, before realizing exactly what Souji had said. It took everything Kondou had to make himself sound stern, "Wait, how do you know about oiran Souji?"

"Everybody knows about oiran Kondou-san." Souji answered matter-of-factly.

Looking at Souji seriously, Kondou placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Souji, there's nothing wrong with visiting the hanamachi. Watching an oiran perform is entertaining and definitely something you should experience when you're older. But men who frequent these establishments often lose more than just their money; they frequently lose themselves as well. There are other ways to have fun that don't involve such a questionable atmosphere. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Souji nodded obediently. If Kondou didn't think it was good idea to visit the hanamachi, then the prospect of ever going to one held no interest to the boy. Smiling up at his mentor, he answered, "Thanks for the lesson Kondou-san, and for answering my question. It's getting late. I should go start helping with dinner." Souji then quickly bowed in respect before replacing his bokken on the wall.

Kondou waited until Souji was out of sight before burying his face in his hands. I don't think that conversation could have been worse! He had not thought that Souji was old enough to know about such things as oiran and hanamachi, but it had already been two years since the boy had arrived at Shieikan dojo. And while he may still think of Souji as a young child, the reality was that the dojo was filled with young men. It was to be expected that an impressionable boy like Souji would pick things up here and there.

He resolved then and there that he would keep a closer eye on Souji. He had to make sure that when Souji did learn about such things, that it came from a reliable and accurate source. Smiling in satisfied way over his decision, Kondou began to leave the dojo himself before a stray thought brought him to an abrupt halt. How do I tell Mitsu-san? Souji's older sister was… formidable. She also expected frequent reports on her brother's well being. Perhaps he could gloss over a few details in his next letter. Calming down significantly, Kondou continued to make his way to the hall for dinner. Maybe Gen-san would make some tea; he needed something to calm his nerves after such a trying afternoon.

Author's Notes:

1. Hanamachi, which literally translates to 'flower town', are the oiran districts. Yoshiwara was the main hanamachi in Edo, similar to Shimabara in Kyoto. Oiran were often called flowers, so when Kondou says the hanamachi are decorated with 'flowers', that's what he means XD

2. If anyone has any ideas about what mischief Souji can get into next, I'm open to suggestions!