Walk Through Hell with me [Shinsaku Takasugi]

Chapter 12

Having destroyed Kondo’s room, Ai moved on to the rest of the base. She walked,
slowly, the hurricane following her. Soldiers rushed at her, but couldn’t get close before being blown away like twigs. Her intention wasn’t to kill anyone, but she would
injure and destroy. And that was exactly what she did, until there was nothing left.
“Yukimura!” A voice called out to her just as she was on her way out. Ai turned
around and smirked.
“Well if it isn’t the big, scary Demon Deputy. How does it feel, being in the presence
of a real demon?”
“Take one step off of this base, and I will consider you my enemy.”
Ai threw her head back and laughed. “You’re telling me this now, after what I’ve
done? I’m already your enemy. I always have been.”
“The next time we meet, it will be as enemies… I will kill you, and I will show no
restraint. Remember that.”
“You’re awfully full of yourself if you think you can kill me.” Like mist, Ai vanished.

Ai seemed to have disappeared in the night, no trace of her remained. Not as far as the Shinsengumi were concerned, anyway. They considered her a dangerous criminal, no different from the Choshu. And she was on their list. The Shinsengumi’s orders were to kill her on sight. They couldn’t risk capturing a demon like her. Ai knew that, but she kept close. The Choshu’s scent were all over town, and she couldn’t pin down
a location. She had found her demon cohorts, but they didn’t know where the others were, either.
Ai decided her best course of action was to keep close to the Shinsengumi as they
desperately tried to rebuild while searching for fugitives, listening for a whisper
that they may have found Shin or Maro or Gen.
“We’ve arrested two more Choshu ronin! Genzui Kusaka and Toshimaro Yoshida!”
Ai gasped softly when she heard that. Her feet didn’t move.
“What about Takasugi?” one of the soldiers asked.
“He’s the only one whose whereabouts are still unknown!”
Ai sniffed the air, but there was no scent of Gen or Maro. Which must have meant
that they weren’t being kept at the base. Of course not. There was no place to keep
them; she destroyed everything. Even the storehouse. Where would she even begin to look for those two? Ai gnashed her teeth as anxiety gripped her. She wanted to be with Shin, but she didn’t want to leave them, either. What could she do? What was the best course of action? In the end, she couldn’t find an answer.

Ai looked up at sky before changing into her oni form. Hidden in the shadows, she stripped out of her kimono and changed into her armour. She tied a band around her hair to keep it out of her way as the wind whipped it in every direction. Ai made haste to find Kazuya and the others. Their scents were more distinct than any human's.
"Gen and Maro were captured," she said upon finding them.
"And you want to save them?" Kazuya asked, his expression unreadable. Ai nodded. " I don't know where they are, but it's probably a safe bet that they're being held at the Aizu base." Ai nodded again before she took off running.

A large commotion broke out inside the headquarters of the Aizu. The fighting could be heard all the way to the basement where criminals were kept. A white figure rushed through the building, sending soldiers flying but not really fighting. After all, they weren't worth fighting.
Ai came to a stop outside one of the prison cells.
"Ai!" Maro exclaimed.
"What on earth are you doing here?" Gen questioned.
"Save the small talk for another day." Ai wrapped her fingers around one of the bars of the cell door and ripped it off its hinges. "Let's go!" She handed her friends their weapons and led them off the base.
"Did you do all of this on your own?" Maro asked as he ran after her, his eyes scanning the damage.
Ai snorted. "This is nothing. You should see what I did to the Shinsengumi base." Ai stopped running when they were a good distance away. The wind ripped around them, so strong it might blow a small child away. "We need to split up from here. I'll find Shin." Ai smiled wryly. "Please don't get captured again. Leave town. I hope we meet up again." Ai threw her arms around the two in a group hug.
"Ai..." Gen muttered.
"Be safe."
Ai turned her back on her friends and ran in the opposite direction, following the scent of smoke. Shin was sure to be in the middle of the chaos that had slowly begun to take over the capital.

Without a star in the sky, the path forward was dark. But Ai didn’t need a guiding
light. Tonight was the night; She’d memorised that map the minute Maro put it in front of her.
She sped down the streets at lightning speed.
Ai smelled the fire before she saw it. Heard the townspeople running, screaming, trying to make their escape. She felt sorry for the people. They were the unfortunate calateral damage. A price that the Choshu had been willing to pay. Whether they were right or whether they were wrong wasn't something that Ai knew. Maybe... It didn't even matter in the first place.

The inferno illuminated everything around her, so bright it almost looked like midday.
Ai didn’t bother dodging the flames, and ran right through them, her armour
covered in soot. Ai squinted through the brightest until she saw the back of a
familiar kimono. There! She ran faster.
“Shin!” she yelled. The man was staring into the blaze as it rumbled and roared. “Shin!” she called out to him again, but he didn’t turn
around. She wrapped her arms around him from behind. “I told you I’d find you again,” she whispered, the corners of her eyes damp. She let go and Shin turned around.
“If you choose to come with me… you’re choosing a life of pain, and chaos.”
Ai smiled brightly. “No…” She shook her head. Shin arched an eyebrow. “The only
thing that could pain me now… is to be without you.”
Shin laughed. “All this opium smoke must be clouding your head. Listen to you…” Shin
put a hand to his forehead and laughed out loud. But when Ai looked into his eyes,
she saw a tragic sadness lurking there.
“Shin… If good and evil do exist, and we’re on different sides… All you need to do is
take my hand, and walk me through the fires of hell.”
Shin grabbed Ai’s shoulders. “There will be no turning back.”
“There’s nothing to turn back to. I’ve never felt at home anywhere, not even in this
town where I’ve lived my entire life. But that changed when I met you.”
“You really are crazy, aren’t you?” he whispered and nestled his head against her
shoulder.