6 more days!
6 more days! @mongrelofulster
Title: The Bitter End
“So you really killed Kondou-san. Who would have thought you’d have the guts to do that?”
He doesn’t get a reply. He didn’t seem to mind and continued to speak.
“No, everyone knew you had it in you to do what’s best for the Shinsengumi.” His voice hid no malice behind it, only amusement. Even so, the captain of the first division drew his sword from his sheath at his side. “To kill Kondou-san, you should have expected that I would make a visit.” Okita Souji spoke to the back of the oni fukuchou, or should he say, oni kyoukcho. Without the commander around, the Sannan occupied with the task of the Ochimizu, there was only one person left who would rise to the spot of the commander.
The person he spoke to doesn’t even turn from his work, the ends of their sleeves of their purple light kimono was still stained in blood. From what Souji could understand, he doubted the man even cared if people within the Shinsengumi knew it was him who had done the deed. But that didn’t irritate him, what irritated him was how Hijikata Toshizo didn’t acknowledge him in the slightest, even with his sword out. He scowled, opening his mouth to speak again.
“Oi, you’re being noisy. Come in and close the door.” The voice stuns him, and Souji frowns in mild confusion before doing as told without realizing it.
Finally, Toshizo turned to face Souji. “I did expect you, and you should have been more careful. Saitou was ready to slit your throat, visiting me with a weapon by your side so late at night.”
Saitou? It takes Souji a moment of silence as he thinks over what he had done. He had been so consumed with the need to find Hijikata-san that... he didn’t notice Saitou’s presence. But that could mean that Hijikata-san was lying...”If you think I’ll lose to Hajime-kun, think again.” The haughty tone dropped as he continued to speak, but on a different topic.
“Kondou-san was mine. If he was to die, he should have died by my hands. Who do you think you are, taking that from me? Taking him from me!? Kondou-san is mine!” The tantrum was thrown, and Hijikata waits it out till Souji quietly coughed themselves into silence.
“Then the problem can be solved easily, if I become yours. I killed the person that was yours, so carrying that burden is the natural order.”
The way his serious tone hits the air makes Souji fall quiet for a moment before he starts laughing, then bursts out into louder, hysterical laughter. “You... You’re mine now. And I’ll kill you one day.” Then perhaps he should drop the honorifics. After all, the other was his - and it wasn’t like he was Kondou-san.
“...Toshizo.”
Hijikata Toshizo never does anything that isn’t for his sake as well. While he has given Souji the advantage of calling him their own, this also allows him to use Souji much more easily.
He had to carry on the name of the Shinsengumi, after all. There was never any doubt about that.