What makes history (Hijikata x OC)

Tengu vs oni

The temperature dropped a thousand degrees around us as the three men tensed. Even Sōji-kun, whose usual stance was falsely relaxed, seemed suddenly ready to rip my head off. Somehow, the woman was the only one amused.

"I will handle this, Kondō-san", Hijikata said, his expression so thunderous that Kondō scratched the back of his head sheepishly. This wasn't a request; Fukuchō was ordering Kyokuchō. Was the Kitsune sworn to him somehow? A life debt perhaps?

"Ah, yes, thank you Toshi", Kondō-san responded. "I trust you to care for Hachirō-kun. I'll send Yukimura-chan to your room."

"Kitsu, you're with me", he all but growled.

"Aye aye, sir", she responded ... in English?

I didn't get time to dwell upon it for Okita hissed like a snake. "Nani ?"

The young prodige seemed livid, his anger directed at both Hijikata and myself. Kondō forcefully grabbed his arm, but Sōji would have none of it until Fukuchō gave him a decisive glare.

"She's not going anywhere, Sōji."

The look he received in return would have frozen hell over, and they remained locked in a staring contest until the young woman turned to me with an exasperated expression.

"Might be a while. Want some tea?"

Her lack of formality was refreshing, and I nodded. She gestured for me to follow. Her carefree attitude didn't fool me; wariness lingered in her gaze, and she was ready to cut me down at the slightest sign of danger. But she smiled nonetheless, and I studied her strange features without shame. Button nose, pointed chin, wide golden-brown eyes – too wide - and high forehead framed with a few loose strands of fire that had escaped her makeshift bun. Exotic oozed from every pore of her skin.

"If there was Kitsune in the Shinsengumi, how did you expect you to submit her to your will?", she asked coyly, leading me to the Vice Commander's office.

"I had hoped to plead my cause", I responded, catching hurried footsteps behind us.

"Mmm. So no force involved, except that or persuasion?"

I gulped. Of course, she couldn't know that four of my colleagues waited at the inn in case an abduction turned necessary, right? But the woman wasn't stupid, and neither was Toshizō. The fact that he wasn't jumping at my throat, right now, and taking the lead of this conversation baffled me. He'd never struck me as the kind of man to take a step back and watch events unfold.

As we settled in his office, a young page wearing a pink hakamashita left tea for us, and disappeared. My katana wouldn't have been enough to cut the tension in the room and I regretted that this reunion had gone from smooth to bad so fast.

"Toshi", I started.

This time he interrupted.

"Kitsu is not going anywhere. She is one of us now."

I frowned. "Surely we can compromise."

"Shinsengumi desu", she confirmed, bowing to both of us in the process. "There is no way around it. Leaving would mean seppuku."

I couldn't believe any of them would order it, given how attached they seemed to be. And you didn't order a Kitsune to death.

"Still. Before you men start doing your posturing thing - confrontation and growling and stuff - I must point out that I am not a Kitsune. At all. I'm just a gaijin."

Tch. Just a gaijin. Fighting, twisting and jumping like this. I watched her with blatant disbelief.

"You speak japanese as if you belong to its very depth", I countered.