Love at first sight (Heisuke x OC)

Chapter 41: Reunited at a grave cost

Hey guys! Another quick note regarding the music.

I suggest you play it when the protagonist talks to her significant other after running to him on a battlefield.

Okay, that will be all. Enjoy the chapter!

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Night

Kyoto was a city with many streets, some of them more quiet and isolated than others. Aburano Koji was one of these streets and it was where Nagakura, Harada and I hid with the rest of the men assigned to this task. "They'll be showing up any minute..." Nagakura whispered, warning us that the time for battle was near. To lure the Guard into our trap, we had set out Itou's corpse as bait. If Itou had been allowed to live, he would've been a danger to the Shinsengumi. That much I understand, but this...As much as I hated the guy it just seems...Is this something that Heisuke could forgive us for? My teeth bit into my lip as we waited anxiously. I have to remember that it doesn't matter what I think or how I feel about what we're about to do...This is my only chance to save Heisuke and that's what matters the most right now.
"Chiyeko" Harada placed a hand on my shoulder and I looked up at him. "We'll get Heisuke back, don't worry"
"I can't help, but worry..."
"Well if you're going to worry, don't hurt yourself doing it"
"Nani?" Harada lifted one of his thumbs and wiped it across my lip and chin.
"H-Harada!?" My cheeks grew hot at his unexpected touch.
"You were biting down on your lip so hard that you drew blood" He showed me his thumb which had a line of blood across it. "I'm pretty sure Heisuke would kill me if he knew you came to any harm while I was watching"
"Oh..." I hadn't even noticed. I relaxed my jaw and wiped away whatever blood was left. "Gomen..."
"It's not your fault, you're worried about your lover. It's natural"
"I guess you're right"
"But like I said, you don't have to worry. We're going to save Heisuke and bring him back with us"
"Yeah, I'm not leaving here without him!"
"That's the spirit!" Harada smiled as he ruffled my hair.
"Seriously Harada? How many times do I have to tell you I'm not a little girl!?" I pouted.
"Gomen, gomen" He chuckled while I fixed my hair.

We sat there for quite a while until the Guard finally arrived. "Oh? What's this...?"
"Sir Itou! Who could have done such a thing?!" Several of them rushed forward to examine Itou's corpse. I immediately spotted Heisuke among them.
"Heisuke..." I accidentally whispered. Luckily, none of the Guard had heard me. The downcast boy standing in the street among the Guard bared no resemblance to the Heisuke I knew and loved. Harada and Nagakura continued to stare at Heisuke before closing their eyes in silent prayer. I hastily joined them. Please let us all survive this fight so things can go back to the way they were. Our moment of prayer ended and we all opened our eyes. We looked at each other before nodding.
"Let's go" Nagakura ordered.
"Yeah" Harada agreed.
"Right" I also voiced my agreement before we made our presence known.
"...Shin, Sano-san. You're here too, Chiyeko...?" His eyes widened as if my presence here had never ran through his mind.
"Nagakura! Harada! Was it you who killed Sir Itou?!" The Guardian's cry was interrupted by a sudden gunshot.
"Nani?!" I cried out in surprise.
"What's going on?!" If they were confused and shocked as well then it couldn't have been the Guard who fired. It also couldn't have been the Shinsengumi as there were no more men who had been assigned to this task.
"All right, who's the idiot out there who fired that gun?!" Nagakura questioned angrily.
"Idiot? I don't think I'm an idiot and that's not a very nice thing to say. Anyway...Kon'nichiwa, ningens! I'm here to play with you" Two shadows drifted out of the darkness in response to Nagakura's question. I recognised them all too quickly.
"Shiranui?! Amagiri?!" I exclaimed.
"What're you guys doing here?" Harada questioned.
"What do you think we're doing here? We're working. Watching you idiots lure the idiots of the Guard into a trap" He waved one of his arms casually, in some sort of signal. Suddenly, a ton of men gathered behind Shiranui.
"I'm a little surprised to see you've got so many men. Looks like they're from Satsuma, right?" The moment 'Satsuma' was mentioned by Nagakura, the Guardians of the Imperial Tomb began to shift back and forth while mumbling among themselves. What's gotten into them?
"I apologise for the ambush, but we have our orders and they must be carried out" Amagiri spoke as formally as ever.
"Orders from the Satsuma?" Harada rose an eyebrow at that. "I'll buy that from you, but I'm pretty sure your nakama there is allied with the Choshu...Don't tell me you've gone and switched sides, Shiranui?"
"Unfortunately for you, the Satsuma and Choshu are buddies right now...Though, I'd say you should currently be more worried about yourself" As Shiranui spoke, the men from behind him began to inch forward. I reached for Aka Tatsu, but Harada stopped me.
"Keep your back to the wall and stay behind me. I'll kill anyone who gets close"
"But I'm a soldier of the Shinsengumi too!"
"I know and you'll fight, just not now. When you think the coast is clear, I want you to go to Heisuke. For now let me protect you"
"O-Okay..." I trusted Harada would stay true to his word and swallowed down my unease.
"Wait! If you are from the Satsuma Domain, do you mean to attack us as well?"
"Huh? Oh right, you're with that guy...Itou, was it? Anyway, I hear we've got you to thank for Sakamoto" Wait, if he's talking about the assassination of Ryoma Sakamoto...then does that mean the Satsuma and the Guard are allies? "Good job on that. Happy? Good. You can die now" The crack of a pistol shattered the night air and the Guardian who had been speaking flew backwards, his chest now a bloody hole.
"You bastard! How dare you betray us, Satsuma dog!"
"Just following your lead boss. Didn't you betray your old allies too? Because I recall hearing something about how you spread rumours that Sakamoto was assassinated by Harada from the Shinsengumi..."
"I knew it..." Harada grimaced. "So it was you guys spreading such dumb rumours huh?" It was just as Hijikata-san had suspected, Itou and his followers were behind the rumours of Sakamoto's assassination. Heisuke's gaze was glued to the ground, he was silent. Had he known about them framing one of his best nakamas?
"We don't really need you anymore, but we do need to make sure you keep your traps shut. Now, I'm just thinking out loud here, but it seems like the best way to make sure you stay quiet is to make sure you're dead!" At a motion from Shiranui, the Satsuma marched forward, a solid wave of men and swords that tumbled over the Shinsengumi and the Guard alike. I obeyed Harada and stayed behind him while observing Heisuke. He seemed to be hesitating, his sword moved slowly and more cautiously than I knew it should. He was conflicted. I could see it in his eyes, he was unsure of his enemy. Was it the Shinsengumi, the Satsuma or the Guard? The battlefield was a storm of men, swords and blood, but in the middle of it all stood Heisuke. All alone. I can't take seeing him like that! I unsheathed Aka Tatsu, took a deep breath and threw myself into the melee. I came here as a soldier planning to ambush the Guard, but I couldn't ignore the true reason I had begged to come along with the captains of the 2nd and 10th Divisions.
"Heisuke!"
"Chiyeko?! What are you doing here you baka?! You're going to get yourself killed!" He shoved me around behind him, his voice a mixture of surprise and anger. I felt ecstatic hearing his voice again after so long. So much so that I found myself smiling.
"Ouch Heisuke, are my sword fighting skills not good enough for you?"
"This isn't like the Battle of the Ikeda Inn! You aren't ready for this yet!"
"I'm perfectly ready, you're the one who's not ready!"
"Nani...?"
"You're not ready to let me fight because you think you'll lose me"
"I..."
"I'm right aren't I? I joined the Shinsengumi knowing I'd be risking my life in battles for them. Battles like this. You can't stop me from coming to these battles so the least you can do is support me as my lover"
"Chiyeko..."
"Anyway, that's not important right now! You have to come back to the Shinsengumi! Everyone misses you..." Swords clashing and men's screams surrounded us, but I ignored them. "Kondou-sama, Hijikata-san, Inoue-san, Shimada-san, Yamazaki-san...They're all waiting for your return!" The only thing that mattered was getting Heisuke to listen. "I miss you Heisuke! I want you to come back! Please!"
"I...I can't go back. Not now...I did what I did because I thought Itou-san would be better for the country than..." He faltered and directed his gaze away from me, towards the ground. "...well, better. I thought by leaving, I wouldn't have anything to do with that serum any more. That I won't have to sacrifice my comrades any more. That's what's brought me here and..." He trailed off.
"Do you still believe that?" I asked seriously, trying to get him to look at me.
"I don't know! There's no way for me to tell!" He raised his gaze back up to mine, but it was heavily troubled. "When he said that he would have Sakamoto killed and then make it look like Sano-san did it-It felt wrong. No matter how you spun it around, but..." Heisuke looked pained. He had a self derisive smile and remorse was swirling around in his eyes. It hurt me to see him so conflicted and my heart cracked when I thought that my words were making him suffer. "But then the Shinsengumi just kill him in the street? That can't be right either..." One of the Satsuma men charged towards Heisuke with a yell, but he batted his sword away with his own. He seemed to do this in an almost lazy fashion. He laughed, but no humour was carried within it. "So, did I fail? No mater how harsh and difficult it was for me...I thought I was making the right decision by going down this path alone because it was for myself..."
"Heisuke..."
"...I guess I was wrong to choose a path that was just about following someone else...Lately I keep thinking about the time I spent with the Shinsengumi. The serum, the furies...All that stuff seemed a million miles away from me" He then smiled, though it wasn't a very bright one. "It's so weird...It seemed like I could only remember the stuff that made me happy"
"I tend to only remember the good stuff too" I chuckled quietly. "But that's only because I think about you a lot too Heisuke...And I know I'm not the only one"
"That so..." The clatter of sword on sword filled the air like rain as the battle raged around us. "I want to go back!" Heisuke swatted away another attack and gave me a smile. "I'd like to go with you guys, I really would. But if I go back to the Shinsengumi...I don't know what I'm supposed to fight for anymore"
"What do you mean?"
"What are you doing Toudou?! That little brat's Shinsengumi! Kill her!" A member of the Guard leapt at us from the side, I easily dodged him and pierced Aka Tatsu through his chest.
"Little brat? Well, that's a new one. But I'm not a little anything, why can't people get that in their heads already?" I sighed exasperatedly as I pulled my sword out causing him to collapse to the ground.
"You'll pay for that!"
"Huh!?" I turned around to see another Guardian charging towards me, but he was much closer than I expected. He jumped into the air, his sword diving towards me. I quickly raised my sword to block. His sword landed against mine with much more force than I anticipated, causing me to stumble backwards. He used that to his advantage and kicked me in the abdomen. I kept a firm grip on Aka Tatsu as I was sent skidding across the ground. I grunted as I pushed myself to my hands and knees.
"Now it's your turn to die!" My head whipped up to see his blade coming down towards me. I wouldn't be able to dodge or block in time. Damnit!
"IIE!" Suddenly, another sword was in front of me and pushing against the one intending to harm me. I looked up to see the owner of the sword was none other than Heisuke. He pushed the man back before spinning and driving the hilt of his sword into his stomach. The man groaned as he doubled over.
"Heisuke...? You saved me...? But you're a Guardian..."
"Oh..." Heisuke stared at his hands in shock, then let his eyes fall to the man doubled over on the ground. He almost appeared to move subconsciously. It was like he thought he was inhabiting another person's body as he stared at his hands incredulously. "...Gomen, but I'm a pretty sad excuse for a Guardian. Itou-san is so smart. He has so many connections and he always appears to be ahead of the times. I followed him into this mess because I thought what he said would be right, but-" His voice was only just above a whisper. Heisuke slashed at Satsuma warrior after Satsuma warrior as he protected me. Heisuke...Angered at his betrayal, more of the Guard began to inch towards us as Heisuke's grip around his sword hilt tightened. "But I've had enough of politics and ideals and all that crap! Loyalism...nationalism...None of that matters anymore!" His voice grew stronger as his hesitation withered and fell away. "I don't care if I have to fight a hundred men or a thousand demons..." He turned to look at me over his shoulder and the grin on his face lit up like the sun.