Utsukushī Omoide Shinsengumi

Prologue

There was absolutely no good reason as to why the young girl was walking around alone in the very early hours of the day at which the sun wasn't even peeking through the clouds yet. Hopefully she knew that, because all of the men stumbling around in the middle of the nearly deserted streets knew it.

The girl rounded a corner near a shop that she was very familiar with and pulled at the sleeves of her torn, blood stained kimono. She pulled the fabric tighter and forced her arms to hug herself as she walked swiftly through the small alleyway, away from the street, and towards the front of what appeared to be a rather fancy estate.

She turned her head to look to see if anyone was following her at that moment. Upon seeing no one, she knocked on the large wooden doors that were closed before her. She took a step back from the door and looked back behind her again out of fear.

A man on the other side of the door walked towards it and stopped. He raised his hand and knocked twice. The girl took a deep, shaky breathe before responding with her own two small knocks. The wooden doors creaked open just barely and a dark, nearly black eye shown in the moonlight from the man behind the doors.

"What is it that you want, girl?" The man asked in a gravely voice that seemed a little too old for how he looked. He looked the girl up and down, deciding that she wasn't called to the compound from a man's request since she did not look too well. He didn't budge the door open anymore than it already was, even though the state of how she looked alarmed the man to a high degree.

"M-my uncle...." The girl replied, her voice barely raising above a whisper. Her teeth were clattering, which was strange since the night was not cold, nor was it raining. It was quite the opposite really. The man couldn't recount another night in the last month at which it was such perfect weather.

"What's his name?" The man asked. His gaze never wavered from the girl that was standing in front of him. "Does he work for the Shinsengumi?"

The girl nodded, her head shaking slightly at the same time. "Hasu... Hasu Senryaku... H-he's my u-uncle..." The girl's voice was barely audible as she spoke the last sentence before her eyes started to slowly close. The man's eyes, however, snapped wide opened at the recollection of the name. Hasu was the name of one of the higher up officers.

Hasu wasn't one of the men that travelled with the commander all the way from Edo to Kyoto, but Hasu had raised in the ranks quickly thanks to his conviction and loyalty to the Shinsengumi. If this girl was his niece, then she should already be inside these doors! Not out there looking like she was just attacked by wolves!

The man opened the door and rushed out, his arms abandoning the spear that he was holding for his guarding duties. His arms stretched out to grab the girl's shoulders as her eyes finally closed and she started to sway back and forth a little bit. The man was able to get a small hold on the torn fabric of her kimono right before she started to the fall to the ground.

Unfortunately, the cloth of her kimono ripped as her body fell away from the man's grip and she fell to the ground on her side with a loud thump to be heard as her head soon followed suit and also hit the dry, hard ground that rendered her unconscious.