HAKUOUKI: Back in Time

Chapter 21

~Why not listen to music while you read?~

Without warning, he scrambled away from me screaming in agony.

"Haaaaa... Gyaaaaaaaaah-!"

One last scream seemed to almost lift him from the floor. Then he suddenly collapsed, as if her were a marionette whose strings had been cut.

"S-Sanan...?" Chizuru whispered before edging toward him before I stopped her.

"Don't. Let's wait."

That's when I heard the door slide open.

"Haruna, Chizuru. Sanan..."

Okita's voice was a brilliant ray of hope that I so desperately needed, and I spun to face him.

Crying out to Okita, Chizuru spoke. "Okita! I-It's Sanan! H-He's-!"

"Let me get a look at him."

His eyes narrowed and I saw them flick around the room; from Sanan's limp body to us to the shattered vial. Okita's mouth tightened and he bent down to lift Sanan off the floor.

"They say that when you drink that stuff, at first your body just can't handle it. It hurts like hell, and you start to lose it. He probably couldn't take it and just passed out."

"Oh." Chizuru said in barely a whisper.

Wait. If this is the secret the Shinsengumi have been trying to keep from the world, then...

"Well, the real painful part comes later." 

With a quiet grunt, he picked up his unconscious friend and carried him through the door and away.

No sooner were they were gone than the last of my strength left me and I slumped to the floor. 

We just found out the meaning of the Corps and the entire secret. They're going to kill us. They're going to...

Woken by our voices, several captains burst into the room. They all began to talk at once, but I couldn't hear them. I was so tired and so much had happened. If I could just lay down...

When I awoke, I found myself back in our room, with Okita sitting across from me.

"You two can really be a pain, you know that?"

I stayed silent, unable to say anything and looked down. Beside me Chizuru did the same thing.

"How about you two explain what was going on last night. Why were you two in there with Sanan?"

Okita had never been particularly pleasant to me but his tone was even harsher than I had grown accustomed to.

"I went out for a walk and I felt like someone was in the common room." Chizuru said quietly.

Then Okita looked at me.

"I was curious of Chizuru's whereabouts so I decided to follow her..."

"I was curious, so I had to look, and I found Sanan in there."

"And the situation was getting serious so I decided to go into the room as well."

Okita narrowed his eyes but said nothing.

"Is it true that my father had something to do with that...that stuff that Sanan drank?"

"Did Sanan tell you that?"

His voice was even colder.

Chizuru nodded.

"He said it...makes you stronger, but it drives you mad." 

Okita remained silent for a few moments and then at last, he sighed and his shoulders relaxed.

"You are the daughter of the man who made that stuff and you two have seen what happens to the men who go crazy."

"So, you two got any questions? I suppose I can answer one."

Chizuru decided to ask. "...Why did the Shinsengumi get involved in something like this?"

"Well, you two know that our job isn't as simple as rounding up ronin and bringing them back to the authorities, right?"

Chizuru and I both nodded before Okita proceeded with his explanation.

"When we started out, we were really short of men. We didn't have many people asking to join and those that did were pretty disappointing. That was when some guy from the shogunate showed up and offered to make us part of this experiment."

"Then, you knew the side effects were and you still make them take it?" I asked.

He smiled. "We didn't make them take it. It was their choice. Usually, if you break our rules, we make you cut yourself open. But for these guys-"

"Wait, what?" Chizuru said confused.

The fact that they made them commit honorable suicide wasn't that much of a big deal to me to be honest. I had heard about their code before while in school so hearing them again didn't surprise me as much as it did for Chizuru.

"For these guys, we gave them a choice: kill yourself, or drink the shogun's concoction. You get it? Don't you feel bad for them? He said while giving a light chuckle.

This guy is really messed up his thoughts are as well. A certain death by your own hand or madness and death by someone else's? What kind of choices are those?