Hakuouki: Demons Within

薄桜鬼16

Almost an hour had passed by the time the sound of inhuman yowls and the clashing of swords subsided. Finally, Souji had returned. His coat was drenched in blood, and his face was painted in that ghastly crimson color. My muscles were beginning to seize up as I had kept one foot on my prisoners back, and held his arms tautly behind him.

"Are you alright?" I asked Souji.

"Yeah." He panted, passing by me and grabbing the prisoner's topknot. With a bloody blade and a fine slice, the prisoner's symbolic hair fell to the ground.

"I'm sure that meant nothing to you. You can hardly call yourself a samurai." Souji seethed, grasping what little was left of hair on the captive's head. He pushed the man's face into the ground. Suddenly, Souji began to cough. I felt my face contort as I rammed the man deeper into the ground with my foot, driving him into the dirt with my heel.

"I'll *cough* be back." Souji said, trying to walk away as he looked up at me with pained eyes. His back was hunched and he used the wall to support him. I frowned and decided to express what I was feeling on this despicable being.

"What's your name." I asked in a monotone, cold voice.

"..." The man kept his mouth shut. I pulled back on his arms just a bit more, causing him to groan.

"Name." I repeated. Again, no answer. I yanked his left arm to the side, breaking it with a disturbing snap.

"Nngh...." The captive grit his teeth clenched his eyes. I let his incapacitated arm drop to the ground.

"What is your god damned name." I scowled.

"Ikuto." He spat. I pulled back his right arm enough to where if I pulled it just a bit more, it would have broken.

"Ikuto, huh? What were you doing here?" I interrogated him furtherly, eventually getting out of him his generic motives and what he was assigned to do here. I listened attentively with a firm grip on his right arm, frequently seizing his wrist and digging my nails into his flesh. Little drops of blood began to form at the puncture wounds inflicted by me. Ikuto Yamada- one of the lowlier officers in his organization. He refused to give the name of his group, much to my irritation. I had given up trying to squeeze the group's name out of him, and waited for Souji to arrive, which didn't take long.

"How's it going?" He asked,his coat stained red at the sleeves and in the back. It was dotted with blood and smeared across his face, and his blood still dripped of the fluid. He smelled disturbingly metallic.

"Better than I'd've thought. Are you okay?" I questioned, looking him over and finding small gashes on his hands, along with distinct tears in his clothing.

"A few scratches here and there. But yeah, I'm good. How's this fool?" As he finished his sentence, he drove the man further into the ground, almost knocking the captive unconcious with his kick.

"Name's Ikuto Yamada. He's basically an errand-runner for whatever he works for, and that's the part he won't tell. Says he was sworn to secrecy."

"Hahahaha!!! Sworn to secrecy huh? That doesn't mean anything now. Not that it ever did...." He crouched down and roughly pulled the man's head to face him. "Your group. What's it's name?"

"I-I can't say!!" Ikuto croaked. Souji's malicious grin left his face and he frowned. Somewhere inside of me became excited, yet also somewhat anxious.

"Then what were your intentions here?" He asked.

"He and the furies came to eradicate the Shinsengumi." I answered instead.

"Why?"

"He's in a group who has an alliance with the Choshu domain. His group wanted to destroy as many enemies as they could before the war."