Author's Note: Written for Gajevy Week 2017

Bonus Prompt—AU

General:

Some reincarnations are harder than others. Left behind in Kyoto at age five, Levy is a servant-girl in late Edo Japan (1864), at a time when girls are barely taught to write. When the Kyoto police raid the inn where she lives and works, how will she defend herself and her adopted family? Can she trust a certain black-haired, red-eyed police officer who seems to know magic when he sees it?

Chapter 1—Gajeel of the Shinsengumi

She couldn't remember having a name other than Levy, and nobody called her that anyway. The first part wasn't especially surprising, since under the laws of the Shogun, Lord Iemochi Tokugawa, only members of the samurai class were allowed to use a surname. The second part was also simply explained: the family that housed her, and more or less fed her, found the name 'Levy' too foreign for either safety or convenience; instead, they called her Aoi, meaning blue, which was the colour of her hair.

Levy remembered the day that her father had brought her to the Ikedaya, a mediocre inn found in the central part of the vast city of Kyoto. She didn't know his name, because to her he had just been otosan,(1) but she wished he hadn't left her in this place. He was the only person she'd ever known with hair like hers. Of course, he was probably dead now. It had been a dozen years since he had gone out to meet some friends and never come back. Ikeda-san was now the master of the house, instead of merely the heir. Levy didn't like him much, but fortunately his mother was still alive and she had been the one to insist on keeping the girl in the first place. It was assumed that her father had been swallowed up by the dangerous streets of Kyoto like so many others.

The day had started out like many others: she'd gotten up before dawn, started the cooking fire, and taken her mistress her morning tea. At this point, Ikeda Keiko-san was the one person Levy cared about in the household. Keiko-san had been kind to Levy when her father hadn't returned, and the only member of the family to return the tentative embraces of an affectionate child. There was a lot of gray in the woman's hair now, but otherwise she wasn't much changed. She had been stoic when her husband had died, but Levy thought that she was rather lonely, and didn't approve much of her son's friends. However, apart from refusing to be parted from Levy, she had acquiesced to all of her son's orders: after all, he was a man and the head of the family.

"We have special guests arriving today, Aoi-chan," Keiko remarked as she sipped her tea. "At least, my son thinks they are special, so he will want to have extra food and drink on-hand."

"Yes, Keiko-san."

"I will be down to help you shortly. After breakfast has been cooked and served, we will go shopping."

"Yes, Keiko-san."

The day had progressed accordingly, although the shopping trip had been more extensive than usual. As Levy had gotten older, she had learned that tying her hair back into a severe ponytail minimized the odd colour. Nevertheless, on a sunny day like today, she drew curious looks from those who didn't recognize her as the Ikeda's servant-girl. Lately, she'd also been subjected to the occasional nasty comment from the inn's patrons, who assumed that her parents must have been foreigners. Anti-foreigner sentiment had risen sharply in Japan since the Americans had forced the Japanese to trade with them more or less at gun-point about ten years earlier.

As Keiko-san had predicted, men arrived at the inn throughout the afternoon and early evening, many showing signs of wanting to avoid notice. The master himself stood at the door turning away the occasional potential client who wasn't part of the group of grim-faced men currently assembling in the inn's main rooms. It didn't take long for Levy to notice that all of the men were armed. She did her best to ignore the ongoing conversations while she silently served sake and brought out trays of food. Keiko-san had also insisted that she cover her hair that evening, and Ikeda-san had growled his approval of the precaution. Apparently his so-called friends were members of a particularly militant faction intent on ejecting all foreigners from Japan.

By ten o'clock, the meeting was in full swing, the rumble of male voices clearly audible to Levy, who had been sent to bed by Keiko-san once dinner had been served and cleared and the kitchen had been tidied. Levy slept in the storage pantry adjoining the kitchen, which suited her, as it allowed her to slip out the back door into the garden whenever she couldn't sleep at night.

Tonight she sat on top of her futon, still fully dressed and alert. She'd been increasingly twitchy all evening, and even the placid Keiko-san had told her to keep a knife by her pillow that night, in case one of the men decided to find out what other services the inn's serving girl might provide.

The first intimation of disaster was when the front door was flung open with a force that splintered the wood and a powerful voice called out:

"I am Commander Kondō Isami of the Shinsengumi. You are all under arrest for conspiracy! Those who do not surrender will be killed."

It wasn't so much a hint of things to come as a declaration of war. The Shinsengumi were Kyoto's ruthless, Shogun-backed police force. The known facts about them were bad, and the rumours were worse. More importantly, in the present situation, they were fierce enemies of the men gathered at the Ikedaya that evening. Levy didn't fully understand it, but she'd learned enough in the last year or so to know what while everyone said they wanted the foreigners out of Japan, there were some who felt that the Shogun should return full executive and military power back to the Emperor in order to accomplish this goal.

As the inn exploded with the clash of swords and the screams of men, Levy realized that her master's friends were part of this anti-Shogun group, and were under attack by one of the most dangerous quasi-military units in Kyoto. She stole noiselessly into the kitchen and peered out the back window, just in time to see figures in the unmistakeable light-blue coats of the Shinsengumi take up guard positions around the back of the inn.

"Bloody fucking hell." Levy had learned a number of words from the inn's patrons that she didn't use around Keiko-san.

She wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. She'd heard that the Shinsengumi could be just as ruthless with women as with men when it came to those who collaborated with the anti-Shogun forces. An undersized seventeen-year-old girl, who looked like a foreigner (supposedly), would be in considerable danger around such men. In fact, she could be in danger from either side, since the rebels wouldn't necessarily want her around to identify them.

After a short debate with herself, she placed her right index finger on the palm of her left hand. With a last nervous glance at the door, because the noise of battle was growing closer to the back areas of the inn, Levy traced the word light onto her skin. It was one of the very few things she had been taught to write as a young child, and of course she had been taught almost nothing as a servant. Keiko-san had shown her how to recognize a few basic words, but not how to form them. She'd never shown the Ikeda family the magic writing, of course—somebody, maybe her father, had drilled absolute secrecy into her well before the ill-fated trip to Kyoto.

Just then, she heard the sound of feet running toward the kitchen. Levy quickly opened the sliding door to the pantry a crack, and confirmed that it was Keiko-san, with tears glimmering on her face. Before she could hurry out to help the older woman, who was panting heavily, there was a crash and a scream. A massive figure wearing Shinsengumi blue had exploded out of the short passage behind Levy's mistress, and felled her to the floor with a single, punishing blow.

Heedless of her own safety, Levy dashed out of the pantry, knife raised.

"You bastard! Shinsengumi dog! She's just an old woman—leave her alone!"

Almost unconsciously, she flung out her left hand, and her passionate wish gave power to the flickering word traced on her palm. There was a flash of actinic light—much brighter than anything produced by human technology—and the intruder staggered back slightly, flinging an arm over his eyes.

"What the hell, you little bitch!"

Seen in the sudden flare of illumination, the intruder was even bigger than Levy had thought, his rough mane of black hair barely contained by his high ponytail and iron-reinforced headguard. His katana shone with wet blood and his jacket and loose trousers were liberally spattered with gore.

Realizing in despair that the police officer filled the whole doorway, Levy gave up any hope of escaping the kitchen and dropped to her knees beside Keiko-san, who was motionless and bleeding from her mouth and nose. Abandoning her knife without a second thought, Levy frantically dabbed at the blood and tried to rouse her mistress.

"Keiko-san! Keiko-san, wake up!"

To her surprise, the woman's eyes started to flutter open. "Aoi?" she whispered, in a thread of a voice.

Just then, Levy felt a massive hand close around her wrist. A moment later, she was yanked upward until her feet dangled several inches off the floor. The officer was holding her level with his eyes, and Levy almost blacked out from the wrenching pain in her left arm. The light was fading quickly, now, as it usually did, but there was more than enough to see that her captor's eyes were a sparkling, ruby red.

"What is your name, girl? Aoi? Is that it?"

"Yes… yes it is…" Levy could feel her determination slipping away from her to be replaced by fear. Her life might not be wonderful, but she didn't want to die just because the inn's owner was a rebel.

The man gave her a little shake, and she whimpered.

"Try again, kid—what's your name?"

Confused and overwhelmed, Levy blurted: "Levy. I'm Levy. B-but nobody calls me that."

She was set on her feet as suddenly as she'd been picked up. Her left wrist was numb with little shooting sparks of pain, and her whole arm ached desperately. She cradled it against her chest.

"Levy, huh." The Shinsengumi officer seemed to be thinking hard. Even stranger, he said her name perfectly, the way she remembered her father saying it. "That's… very interesting."

Levy crouched beside Keiko-san, who still seemed to be breathing.

"We weren't part of whatever was going on," she said, successfully keeping a whimper out of her voice.

The strange red eyes narrowed.

"No, huh?" The man had sheathed his sword and folded his arms over his chest. "Maybe you weren't. But that woman came between me an' the guy who owns this place; almost got me hurt. That makes her guilty, no matter what."

"But Ikeda-san is her son," Levy retorted indignantly. "Of course she tried to protect him!"

"Levy-chan? Doesn't matter at this point, done is done. If she's still alive when we clean up, then she goes to jail with her son. You too. If you're still here that is."

"Huh?"

Levy stared at him. He'd come into the room in a murderous rage, and almost killed a harmless older woman. He was the scariest man she had ever seen, bar none. But it sounded like he might let her go.

"Not gonna say it twice, kid. Hope it works out for you and… I'll find you later, if you make it." He turned on his heel and started to walk out.

"Wait!" Levy called after him.

He didn't look back, but he stopped.

"What? I've got bad guys to catch."

"Your name. What's your name?" Was she crazy? Why did she care?

"Hmm. Well, the Shinsengumi call me Tani Mantarō. But you can call me Gajeel—if we meet up again."

Levy suddenly had a thousand questions for Gajeel-san. Unfortunately, he was gone before she could even open her mouth, and she had an escape to plan. With a sigh, she gently squeezed the hand of Keiko-san, who was unconscious again.

"Thank you for everything, Keiko-san. I hope you live and I can help you some day."

It took her less than two minutes to put together a small bag with her meager possessions. Then she slid out the back window and disappeared into the night.

[END]

A/Note:

(1) Otosan = "dad"

Yes, I have a fascination with the Shinsengumi and late Edo Japan. I also have an inability to write short, fully stand-alone stories (though I've managed a few). I hope you enjoyed this story. Reviews and comments would be *greatly* appreciated. Also, would you be interested in a sequel chapter? ~ Impracticaldemon