HAKUOUKI: Back in Time

Chapter 1

~Why not listen to music while you read?~

December 2015

"Excuse me? Can I get another order of pork cutlets?"

"Yes, coming right away sir!" I say as I deliver food to other tables.

After this my shift will finally be over and I can get to that sale at the market I think before resuming my activities.

"Hey, Haruna, come over here." my companion and coworker calls me while waving her hands. I sigh while shuffling through the tables to reach my only companion who smiles brightly at me.

"Do you need something Nao?" I say while putting on my winter coat. "I went to the temple with my family last weekend and got you a charm. Isn't it cute?" She hands me a red and gold charm with intricate patterns and a gold strap. "Thank you Nao!" I cheerfully say as I hug my friend.

My shift has now ended and I part ways with my friend. I start to walk to the market while holding the charm Nao gave to me. While walking across the street and admiring the charm given to me a speeding car came my way. Utterly terrified I stopped all movement and closed my eyes waiting for the worst.

Am I dead? I slowly open my eyes and see a person facing someone with a sword. The person is holding their sword very tightly before starting to run. The people chasing the person soon takes notice of me and start to corner me. Frozen with fear I stare wide eyed and stay planted on the spot.

Then someone takes me by the wrist and drags me to run with them. It was that person before. We both run in different directions trying to lose the people chasing us. The person finds some sheets of wood and we hide there.

I start to cry silently while shaking as we hide. The person doesn't look to well either. He looks just as terrified as me but stays quiet.

"EAHHHHHHHH!"

"Wh-What?!" the person exclaims.

"What is this?! Why won't you die?! Damnit! We gotta get out of here!" one of our chasers yell.

True fear started to seep in at this point. Something was very dangerous and possibly lethal. The person hiding with me decided to check out the scene a bit and poked their head out from the corner.

"AHHHHHHHH!"

A high screeching laugh cut through the man's scream. The person's legs started to crumble as he returned to his position.

Something warm and coppery smelling then brushed on our faces. It was blood. Icy fear ran through my body freezing me in place.

"We-We have to run." stuttered the person. But our bodies were paralyzed with fear and was not responsive.

The person flinched a bit causing the planks of wood to collapse. The creatures with white hair turned, blue coats drenched in blood. Insane grins spread across their faces as they looked for another prey to slaughter.

I am going to die.

They raised their swords before a flash of metal halted their movements. The smell of blood was overwhelming.

"Hmmm. And here I was planning to take care of them all on my own. Couldn't you pick another day to work so fast, Saito?" As he spoke, the strange man smiled, as if he were enjoying himself.

"I only did my job. Unlike you, I take no pleasure in battle. said the other man with a cold icy tone. "Well that's not a very nice thing to say." the other man said as he laughed. "You don't even bother to deny it."

The man called Saito sighed as he looked over at us. "Maybe you should have sit back and let them kill those two. You could have saved us some trouble." The man said in a light but cold tone. "Perhaps. That decision is not ours to make however."

"Huh?" said the person next to me. I looked at the person and saw that he was thinking about something before saying, "Ah!"

My vision was obscured by a dark shadow. With a sword raised at us he said. "Luck is not your friend tonight." His voice was cold and quiet, like a blade of ice. Then I saw his eyes. The were a fierce and hard but there was something else. Without a doubt, he was ready to kill us but he looked somewhat troubled. "Run and I will kill the both of you. Do you understand?" We nodded. He stared for a moment, then grimaced, and with a sigh put his sword away.

"What? Wait Hijikata, are you sure about this? These kids saw... well everything. That can't be good." As he spoke to the man named Hijikata, his eyes narrowed. The man called Hijikata frowned back at him. "Shut up" "If you keep that up, you know what we're going to have to do."

I was not sure what they meant but it was clear enough that we saw something they wanted to keep hidden.

"I really think it's gonna come back to bite us in the butt if we let them go." he said while looking at us. "So we should just kill people so they don't bother us later? No, I will decide what we're going to do with them when we get back.

"I agree with with commander. If we remain here, we are likely to be seen. Again." agreed the man called Saito."If the have this sort of reaction to blood, then they don't seem like they'll be very practical."

"Damn. I didn't think they'd gotten this bad." grimaced the man known as Hijikata as he looked at the corpses. "As for you two...drop the 'Hijikata' and 'commander' stuff. We are supposed to be keeping low profile."

"What? You can't be serious... You don't think our blues are a bit of a giveaway already?"

My mind was being swirled with thoughts and worries. I was being dragged into their world.

"What should we do with the bodies then?" "Just take their blues. Yamazaki can deal with the rest." "As you wish."