Something To Protect (A Hakuouki Story)

The Day the Village Burned

(Mitsuru's POV)

Our village... it was always so peaceful... But now that peace is gone along with that village.

The day everything was destroyed... I'll never forget it.

"Mitsuru!" a pair of voices called out to me as two young children came running up to me.

"Good morning you two," I said with a smile. Kazuto and Yukina Kotobara... the two were twin brother and sister. They had just turned six then. I was just barely fifteen. "Don't tell me you're trying to hide from Takeshi again?"

"Nope!" Yukina's bright and cheery voice said as she spun around in a circle. "We wanted to ask you something!"

Before I had a chance to ask, a familiar voice beat me to it. "Oh? What might that be?"

"Hello, Takeshi," I said to my childhood friend. He slowly approached me and his twin siblings. "On patrol again today?"

"HEY!" little Kazuto shouted at us, reminding me that the twins said they'd had a question.

Takeshi and I laughed. "Sorry children. What were you going to ask?"

The twins moved to stand next to each other and asked the question at the same time. "Are you going to marry Takeshi?"

The question caught me off guard. "Well... I... that is..."

Luckily, Takeshi saved me from having to answer such an awkward question. "I haven't even asked her yet." Realizing what he'd just said, his face tinted pink. "I mean... Mitsuru and I are only friends! Even though she is a very lovely girl, she is my friend and likely does not want to be anything more than that!"

"Aww!" the two protested. "We wanted Mitsuru to be our big sister!"

After sending the twins back home that morning, Takeshi informed me that he would be leaving to train for a few years. Since childhood, he'd dreamed of becoming a samurai. Now he was finally getting his chance. Little did I know, that would be the last time I would see him.

The attack on the village happened that evening, just hours after Takeshi had left us. Without him, we were almost defenseless against the small hoard. He was the best fighter we had and now he was gone.

The village was helpless. Within minutes, half of our people were slain. Within an hour, all but the twins and myself were killed. Desperate to survive, the three of us ran, eventually taking shelter in an abandoned shrine. But there was no way for us to escape.

We were cornered. I stood between our attackers and the two children. Even though I knew nothing about combat, I could try to buy the twins enough time to escape. But the attempts I made were all in vain. We were captured. Prisoners.

One of the men grabbed my arm and threw me backward onto the ground. "You're a pretty one. Maybe the boss will let us keep you."

It wasn't hard to guess the things they might do. A bunch of men who destroy entire villages for fun? You really don't want anything to do with them... All they do is cause pain... and not just the physical kind.

"Kazuto, Yukina." My voice was shaking as I spoke with my back to the twins. "I want you to close your eyes. Whatever happens, don't open them. No matter what you hear, don't look until I say it's okay..." I never told them, but the reason I told them not to look then was because I wanted to protect them from everything that would happen after that.