closed starter | @fckin-multi
Relief could not begin to describe how Naritsune felt when the tea shop owner officially adopted Miyuu as his daughter, allowing her to move out of the Shinsengumi headquarters. She would be safer that way, away from the shogunate secrets... away from soldiers and codes of conduct. He often hoped to see her outside on his rounds through Kyoto and stopped by the shop whenever he could if he wasn’t working but tonight...
Every fiber of his being hoped Miyuu was safe in her room, already sleeping.
The tea shop’s proximity to the Ikeda Inn had him anxious. The raid would either be at Ikeda, where he and a small number of other men had come with Kondo Isami or at the Shikoku Inn, where Hijikata Toshizo and the others had gone. The way things looked at the moment, it seemed like Ikeda would be the one.
He glanced at the tea shop. Closed for the night, it stood directly across the street from the inn. One window would provide the perfect spot to watch the chaos. He knew Yamazaki occasionally got permission to watch the streets from that window, but he had no clue what room it connected to.
Steeling his resolve as Okita nudged him, Naritsune snapped out of his thoughts. Kondo made the decision, they were not waiting for back-up from the Aizu Clan. They were going in. Now.
Kondo announced the raid as they burst through the doors. Immediately swept away from his captain as the ronin attacked, Naritsune gripped his blade tightly as he plunged it into a man’s chest. Once those who attacked him had fallen, their blood staining his uniform, he heard the pained groan of one of his companions in the darkness. Grabbing the man, he slung him over his shoulder and dragged him out to the front of the inn, sweat dripping down his own face from the summer humidity.
Why a raid in July? The weather felt awful, sticky and hot like the blood on his hands. Dropping the injured man outside with Takeda, who decided to guard the front door, Naritsune took a deep breath, ignoring the screams and clanging of steel coming from inside as he plunged back into the fray.
Please, please don’t let Miyuu see this...
He wanted to spare her the bloodshed, the horror... any other civilians could see it and he wouldn’t feel quite as bad but Miyuu... please, gods, just let the woman live in peace.
