Sorry for the long pause between updates. There wasn't as much time as I would've liked for writing, even after I got back from vacation. ^^" However, as a treat, I've decided to speed up the plotline! xD That means not as many fillers as I planned, but… well, at least we're going to be heading into the interesting things soon. ^^

Oh, and I just realized that the url didn't show up the second time, either. -.- Sooo, just delete the spaces here: tokio-fujita . liverjournal . com

… Alright, here we go! Sixth chapter! :D

Ch 6 : Memories

Tonouchi was confirmed as a traitor to the Roshigumi. Observations had shown that he often slipped away and disappeared when he thought no one was watching, and over the last month his movements had gained a degree of furtiveness and jumpiness that most certainly hadn't been there before.

It seemed like he wasn't a very successful spy, at any rate.

There hadn't been any orders to put him down as of yet, since they wanted to use him to find out who was behind him, but lately he had been spreading ill words about Kondou-han amongst the soldiers. Kondou-han himself was oblivious to this, but...

"-nd Serizawa-san was kind enough to tip me off to this." Okita-han smiled darkly, eyes glinting dangerously under the shaky light of the pale moon, "There were going to be orders to kill him anyways. Although, I guess you beat it to me..."

It was strange, to hear someone talking so casually about death (aloud, at least).

"He... he may have been trying to meet with whatever party he was spying for tonight," I said, my eyes drifting to the dusty ground rather than meet those emerald orbs. It was then that I noticed that, like him, my walk was completely silent. There was no sound of any footsteps, a habit I'd developed early on to-

I cut off that train of thought and began deliberately making sure that my tall okobomade soft little clunks as I continued to walk. It was a little harder than I thought to get the hang of leaving noises with my footsteps, since I messed up the first couple steps and sent loud clacking noises echoing around the street...

I would've cringed at the noise, had I not seen Okita-han give me a suspicious glance from the corner of his eye. So much for pretending to be an ordinary maiko...

A dull red glow flickered onto the dirt-worn path, and I looked up to see the vibrantly decorated doorways of my new okiyaagain.

"I'll go back to clean things up," Meaning dispose of the body to avoid scaring ordinary civilians like me. Okita-han turned around to leave, before another thought seemed to strike him last-minute, "Oh! And we might send a few people over to question your okiyaabout Tonouchi later."

"... Why not now?" I cocked my head at him, not that he could see it anyways... "They're more likely to be much more agreeable and go along with whatever you say when everything has just happened."

If you give them a chance to gather their wits, then you'll have to pay money to get anything useful out from their lips. Not that there'd be too many people willing to offer information anyways, considering how Tonouchi had killed-

-I pursed my lips.

"Well, maybe if I was Sannan-san, I'd do it now rather than leave it for later," Okita-han turned around, and I saw the barest trace of a smirk on his face, "... But you really think that I'm the nice interrogation type here? I really don't have the patience to be sitting around and trying to fish out answers from a dozen people..."

"There won't be a dozen people to question," I muttered under my breath, "You'll be lucky if there's even three."

"... Oh?" He arched an eyebrow.

After a brief moment of hesitation, I started formulating my words, "Look... Tonouchi, he... he killed at least five of my sisters. That means you won't have many people to question in the first place. Any others who were related to it will most likely keep their heads down to avoid trouble. Not even money will make people talk if their lives are at stake. I'm also going to take a guess here... and say that Kondou-han probably won't condone torturing people for information. Even though it's quite effecti-"

-Damn. I think I said too much.

"Hm..." Okita-han seemed to ponder what I just said for a moment, while I prayed that he would ignore the last little bit I said. It wasn't to be so, since he turned his head around and lowered a sly grin on me, "We-ll, you certainly seem to know a lot about this stuff, maiko-chan."

I froze, a memory coming to me, unbidden, overwhelming me in a tidal wave...

…

"Che," The burly man spat out a mouthful of blood, hate-filled eyes burning with disdain, "So what now, *****? You're going to make that devil child kill me? You have no proof!"

Father's eyes were rough and cold, "I don't need proof. You made sure that I wouldn't have any, and, I'll admit it, you did quite an admirable job in... making sure the witnesses would keep quiet."

The man regarded Father suspiciously, "... What did you do?"

Father shrugged, "Oh, nothing. It's just... well, you kept your wife close around, didn't you?"

The man stiffened, before gritting his teeth, "I don't know what you're talking about, *****."

"I'll show you what I'm talking about, then," Father turned towards me, "Get that woman out. Now."

I scrambled to obey.

The lady was pretty. She would've been prettier if her long raven hair was still glossy and well-combed, if her face wasn't a sickly ashen shade, if there wasn't dried blood caking her skin...

"Midori!" The man lost it when he saw her, lunging forward despite the ropes coiled around his arms -and Father's foot smashed into his face.

I think he broke his nose.

"Now," Father practically purred, the satisfactory gleam in his eyes streaked with sadism, "All I need, Taka, is for you to confess and give me written proof. Then you and your lovely wife will be free. Isn't that perfect?"

"You-... you bastard!" The man, Taka, was trembling now, "I... You know I can't betray them. They... anyone that goes against them dies, I-"

Father turned his gaze on me, "You know what to do."

"Yes, Daddy."

Almost as if she knew what was going to happen, the pretty lady tried to run. I felt no inhibitions whatsoever when I took out the small dagger in my hand and crouched, slicing through the tendons in both of her ankles with two flicks of my rest.

The way she crumpled to the ground, screaming in pain, was very ungraceful.

Ignoring the violent outburst from Mr. Taka, I sat on top of the pretty lady to make sure she wouldn't run anymore, and stabbed the dagger into her shoulder.

She screamed. It was louder this time. The sound only magnified when I dragged the small blade downwards, watching the crimson liquid pool out wherever I let the dagger in my hand wander...

"STOP! STOP IT, STOP! MIDORI!"

"Hmm..." Father flicked a lazy eye over to Mr. Taka, "Feeling a little more agreeable now?"

"I..." He looked frantic, completely torn and desperate, "I...!"

"Ah, guess not," Father sighed, "Continue."

"Yes, Daddy."

"NO!" Mr. Taka's eyes never strayed from the pretty lady, only growing more and more anguished with each scream she let out.

"Just remember, you can stop this anytime you want," Father whispered in his ear, "All you have to do is write me that confession in blood. So, how about it?"

"... I... you..." The man was going to break soon, they always did... "No. NO! YOU'RE GOING TO KILL MIDORI!"

"Tch. Stubborn fool," Father shook his head, and looked over at where I was still drawing little red pictures on the lady's back, except they were all blurring together now and the lady wasn't screaming so much anymore... "Here, catch."

I caught the little vial of red liquid he tossed to me and uncorked it, forcing its contents down the lady's throat.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING-" The man broke off as the the pretty lady's wounds began disappearing right before his eyes, stitching themselves together without leaving so much as a scar, "... How... wait... it-... all along... you were the one, *****?"

Father smirked, "I can torture her as many times as I need to make you talk, Taka. Continue, Rima!"

"Yes, Daddy." My eyes flickered over to Mr. Taka. He still wasn't quite breaking yet...

Ah. So what if I...

My hand grabbed the pretty lady's hair and I yanked it, hard, so that her face was uplifted and looking into mine.

I smiled. Daddy would be happy if Mr. Taka broke, right?

"You're really pretty, Midori-san," Her forest green eyes showed fear when they caught how I was twirling my dagger with one hand, "Really, really pretty. I especially like your eyes, Midori-san."

In all honesty, I didn't even know if that haunting, childish little voice was mine anymore... But that didn't matter, as long as Mr. Taka would break...

The smile on my face widened, and I stopped spinning my dagger, grabbing it firmly in my hand, "Can I keep your eyes, Midori-san?"

…

…

…

"Good job, Rima."

Mr. Taka had broken. They always did.

Father laughed, "Your creativity astounds me. Sometimes, it seems like you really know a lot about this stuff..."

I smiled. Daddy had complimented me!

"You'll do that for me again, won't you?" His voice was soft, dark, dangerous, but I didn't care.

"Yes, Daddy."

…

…

…

"-llo? Still there?" I blinked, startled, as a hand passed in front of my face. Okita-han looked at me with a small frown, "It's rude to space out on others when they talk, ya know."

"I... Did I...What..." I trailed off, before my mind finally came back to the present again, "S-sorry, Okita-han."

I quickly bowed, hoping that he hadn't noticed anything from my eyes. Eyes were a fatal weakness, the one thing you couldn't control. There was a reason that they were known as windows to the soul...

"Well, I'll go tell Kondou-san about this," Had I only imagined that calculative look in his emerald eyes? The small smile on his face was throwing me off... "Even if we can't get anything out of the others we can still question you, right?"

I blinked.

Then my mind processed what he just said.

"Ehh?!"

Okita-han was already halfway down the street now, a soft laugh trailing behind him, presumably at my expense. I could only stare at his retreating back, mouth gaping like a fish as he silently faded away into the distance.

…

"You didn't listen to me."

I jumped, completely caught off-guard, and spun around only to find myself staring into the brown eyes of one Nagumo Kaoru. When did she even get here? No, wait –howdid she get here? It was like –almost as if she'd appeared out of thin air!

"Why did you go looking for information on your own?" She seemed unaware of my shock, either that or purposely ignoring it. Personally, I think it's the latter.

"I didn't!" It wasn't hard to project the bewilderment and incredulity I felt, "I haven't done anything!"

"Oh?" She arched an eyebrow and took a step forward, "Haven't you?"

I rubbed my temples, taking in a deep breath to calm my frazzled nerves, "... Look. I almost got killed a little while ago. You coming up here and accusing me of doing something I haven't the faintest remembrance of doing isn't exactly helping right now."

Kaoru-san frowned, "Killed?"

I sighed. Much as she seemed to know, apparently she didn't know everything, "Never mind."

"No, I think I do mind," She blocked me when I tried to step into the okiya. Idly, I wondered why nobody had even noticed us standing over here at the doorway. Then again, considering the clamor that was going on inside right now... most likely, they had just found the bodies of my new sisters.

"Let me pass, Kaoru-san," I said quietly.

"If you almost just died," She seemed to be unusually agitated today... "Then it means that... no, no, it doesn't make sense. Why would they want to kill off... unless... they didn't know? If that's the case, then..."

I blinked at her ramblings.

"What?"

"You don't get it," Kaoru-san shook her head, before a sudden thought seemed to occur to her, "Wait. Were you hurt?"

"I-... what?" I was surprised by the abrupt question, "Pardon?"

"No, stupid question," Her eyes locked onto the bloodstained patch on my shoulder, where Tonouchi had cut me, "... This really, really complicates things, then..."

I let out a frustrated sigh, "Just what are you talking about? If what you know has something to do with why I almost died today, I think I have a right to know."

Kaoru hesitated, her eyes darkening... before she relented.

"It wouldn't have mattered too much if you hadn't gotten injured..." She said slowly, "But you did. You bled. That means... that means he caught the scent of your blood."

"... Excuse me?" Talking about the scent of blood was nothing new. But what did she mean by 'the scent of your blood'?

"They'll know," A grim look crept over her face, "Oh, they'll know all right, once he goes back to report. He's probably reporting to them even as we speak right now. After all these years… they'll finally know where you are, and then they're going to come for you... listen to me. As long as you still have even a single drop of blood left in your veins, they'll never stop hunting you down."

… :3 Hint: I told you that the oni were going to take a more active role in this fanfic… see if you can guess what's going on! xD