Hi! Personal life is hitting hard right now. Grandfather
just died and I have to deal with a few things. I'll
just send this off and delay answering my mail for
a week.
Sorry if you sent anything, but you'll have to wait for
awhile.
Disclaimer:
Rurouni Kenshin is owned by Nobuhiro Watsuki. All licenses
belong to the proper people. This is used without permission.
Kasumi Gundan was conceived by the inestimable Mana-sensei
from the Kurotokage ML. All licenses belong to the proper
people. This is used without permission
This disclaimer also applies to several intellectual
properties referred to in the text. Please be guided
accordingly.
This file can be freely distributed so long as it appears in
its complete form and proper credit given. No part may be
reproduced for monetary gain without permission from the
author.
*******************************************
A Wolf's Tale
A Rurouni Kenshin/Kasumi Gundan vignette
Part of the "Dances Set To The Music Of Time" sequence
by Elsa Bibat
*******************************************
1883:
The cigarette butt glowed briefly in the dark before
it was crushed by a shiny boot.
Saitoh Hajime, properly known to the world as Inspector
Fujita Goro, smirked as he looked up the lighted front of the
Aoiya. Golden eyes glowed as he put a hand on the hilt of his
sword and entered the establishment.
"Irrashai- oh, it's just you."
Omasu was obviously expecting him. Saito just smiled at
her. You would think they'd have developed a little respect
for him but the look on her face was more like as if she was
dealing with a flea-bitten street dog.
"The Okashira is waiting for you in the main hall."
He walked by her through the service entrance and
sauntered to the main hall. He needed no guide, being familiar
with the layout of the building from several visits and other
less-polite means.
They were waiting for him.
"A good night for a little business, eh, weasel girl?"
"Saitoh, I'm twenty years old. You really think that
teasing me like we were children is going to do anything?"
Saitoh nodded with a smile. The girl's finally grown up.
Aoshi sat on her left side, while Okina on her right. The fact
that she didn't seem to be out of place between the two older
men was another sign of Misao's maturity.
He drew his sheathed sword and held it in the
traditional manner of setting it aside, hand close to the
tsuba in a position that clearly showed he was no threat.
The three persons before him showed almost no response, the
arch of an eyebrow from Okina and the relaxing of Misao's
shoulders being the only visible reactions on their part.
Saitoh sat down in a formal manner. He felt the
stirrings of unease in the pit of his stomach. Hino and the
others of the inner circle had entrusted him to do
something tonight that he hadn't done in a long time.
This wasn't going to be easy. But, the Kasumi Gundan
had recognized the dawn of a new age and that meant new
defenders for a Japan that had opened itself to the world.
It was a bit late by a decade or so, but better late than
never.
"You are troubled, Saitoh-san."
He flicked his eyes to Aoshi. Observant as ever, it
seems.
"That is correct, Shinomori." The stunned looks from
Okina and Misao saiid it all. They had not expected such
frankness from him, especially a confirmation of a
weakness. Saitoh heaved a sigh of resignation. Time to
toss the dice.
"I guess you're wondering why I requested for a
meeting."
Misao favored the former Shinsengumi captain with a
slight smile. "The thought has occurred to us."
"I am here not as a representative of the government
but to represent a group of individuals that seek your
membership in a small group."
Okina frowned. Saitoh wasn't surprised. His opening
made him sound like a revolutionary idiot recruiting them
into some conspiracy against the government. The
recruitment and conspiracy were correct, the idiot part
maybe even a bit on the mark considering what he did for
the Kasumi Gundan, but revolutionary and against the
government were totally wrong.
"Do not worry, Okina. I'm not asking you to join
something that would go up against the government.
Actually, some of the individuals I mentioned are placed
in the higher echelons of the current administration. To
be more truthful, I'm recruiting you for something that
we believe will benefit both the government and the
country, as a whole. Not to mention help your
organization.
"And why do you think that?" They were testing the
waters. The reports must be slightly true then, Saitoh
thought to himself.
"My superiors in the organization have heard of
your recent troubles. The Oniwanbashuu is not what it
used to be."
Okina was fidgeting, along with Misao. Aoshi just
gave him a level stare. They were obviously worried for
a breach in their security.
"I can guarantee more than a recovery from your ...
little slump," Saitoh continued. "My organization would
like to have the help of your information network and your
other ... useful assets."
The three before him looked at each other, carefully
considering his words. Misao was the first one who spoke
up.
"Maybe you should enlighten us on who do you exactly
represent?" The tone of her voice clearly meant that the
'maybe' part of her question was just there to be polite.
Saitoh smiled. Now this is the part where I make a fool out
of myself, he thought to himself dryly.
"Enlightening you would take a bit of storytelling
first."
Another arched eyebrow from Okina and a decidedly
unpleasant look on Misao's face appeared as he
reflexively pulled out his pack of cigarettes and lit up.
He never could tell this story anymore without the
artificial warmth of tobacco in his lungs.
"Tell me, do you believe in the old stories?"
"What old stories?" Misao was obviously puzzled by
the question.
"The sort of old stories that have been told by our
ancestors to their children. Especially the ones that are
used to frighten them."
"Fairy tales." Aoshi snorted in disgust.
"More like legends. Myths that have some basis in
truth. Truths that have a nasty habit of being all too
real and deadly."
"Enough with the mysterious introductions! Either
say it straight out, Saitoh, or leave!" Misao was getting
impatient. Then she noted the white-gloved hand trembling
a little. The former Shinsengumi captain noticed. A thin
smile crossed his lips.
"My story makes me shiver as I talk about it, girl.
I talk about myths and legends, because I have _seen_
them walking. I have seen men eaten by monstrosities you
wouldn't stomach the sight of. I have seen horrors flying
high in the sky on moonless nights, wings trailing ice
from a place beyond the stars. I have seen creatures from
the deep, half-men, half-fish, take young women to their
lairs. I have seen what our forebears called the oni. I
have seen tengu. I have seen things that have no name ...
and I have fought them all. But for you to truly understand
I must begin with how I first got into this entire mess."
The vehemence in his voice silenced Misao and drew
her two companions' attention. Saitoh took a long drag from
his cigarette, drawing warmth from it in an attempt to fight
the biting cold that was creeping into his limbs. Kyoto was
warm enough but he wasn't in Kyoto anymore as his gold-tinged
eyes took a distant air.
"Over twenty years ago, during with my time with the
Shinsengumi, I had to do a little favor for an old family
friend. This little favor involved a little trip. At least,
he called it a 'little trip'. It took me almost all over
Japan hunting down a rather unpleasant individual...
*******************************************
1864:
Saitoh Hajime damned himself for a fool.
Going after his target in a middle of a cold winter
night wasn't exactly one of the smartest things he could
claim to have done in his life. He could still turn back
to the inn and pick up the trail tommorrow.
But there was no way in hell that this fellow was
going to take the cheap way out and die in the middle of
a snowstorm. No way. The target was going to die. Die
very painfully if he had any say in it.
Saitoh had followed the trail of slaughter this man
had left all over the country. Entire families butchered
and defiled in ways that made his stomach churn just
thinking about it. Considering that Saitoh wasn't exactly
a newcomer to slaughter and death this was saying something.
Aku Soku Zan. Saitoh smiled. Well, Evil wasn't just
going to be destroyed tonight. It would be ground into
mincemeat and be left for the mountain wolves to feast on.
Vengeance and a sense of justice can drive a man to
do a lot of stupid things.
Which was the reason why he was trudging through
probably two to three feet of snow, trying to track a man
through blinding white snow. But for some strange reason,
he knew he was on the right track that, if he kept on
going, his prey would soon be in sight.
His concentration and focus on his prey was so total
that it was almost a miracle that he survived the first
attack. Only his finely honed sense of danger and lightning
quick reflexes enabled him to evade his opponent when
a nearby snowbank erupted and his quarry attacked him.
Leaping away just in time, he could see the ragged
figure that he had been hunting for the past months. He
looked like a demon out of myth, ragged clothes and unruly
appearance giving him an aura of wildness that clung to
him like dirt.
Wild eyes seemed to blaze from behind the tangled
bangs as the madman before him regarded the Shinsengumi
swordsman.
Saitoh narrowed his gaze and drew his katana. A fight
in a snowstorm was no battleground a sane man would choose.
Unfortunately, he wasn't fighting a sane man.
Steel met steel as Saitoh frantically blocked one
of the madman's leaping attack. He almost got bisected when
the man twirled like a tornado and followed up his initial
blow.
Fast. The man was fast. He also had very bad breath
as he breathed into the Shinsengumi captain's face across
their clashing blades. Saito was close enough to see those
mad, reddish eyes and the strong, sharp, white teeth of
his opponent.
With a burst of strength, he disengaged from the mad
man, stumbling backwards a few steps. The blizzard
intensified, but it didn't seem to worry his opponent, a
fact the savage demonstrated by attacking mercilessly. The
Mibu's Wolf gritted his teeth as he mentally kicked himself.
His quarry was obviously used to fighting in snow. From the
past months of trailing the damned man, he had noticed that
a snowstorm had always seemed to be a signal for the man's
rampages.
Now here he was, up on some damned mountain in the
middle of a blizzaed, trying to fight off someone who
could ignore the blinding whiteness as if it were nothing.
Time for a strategic retreat, he thought sourly, as
he took advantage of the mad man's powerful yet uncoordinated
attacks and swiftly punched the man in the face. It was
enough to give him a breather and a chance for escape.
Stumbling through the snow, Saitoh was too deep into
mentally kicking himself that he didn't notice the little
girl until he almost trampled her.
Saitoh looked at the small figure before him and
concluded that he was hallucinating. It was probably one of
the most frightening sights of his life.
Dressed in an expensive white kimono tied with a red
obi, the little girl before him was like an apparition. Her
ghostly alabaster akin was set off by her long black hair
that reached the snow-covered ground. A white marten was
perched on her shoulder.
Her appearance alone would not have frightened him. It
was her eyes that did. Wide, beautiful eyes, black as
midnight, yet a silver light seemed to swirl in those
ageless orbs. Saitoh was so entranced that he did not notice
that the snowstorm seemed to have stopped falling. For an
area of ten feet around them, the storm was non-existant.
Her voice shook him out of his reverie.
"You do not belong here." Her voice was as cold as
the blizzard that was currently bypassing them.
Saitoh was speechless. Those terrible silver-black
whirlpools looked at him and he could see the oldness of
them, the age of them. They told of the deepest sorrow and
the deepest loathing.
They were old eyes and they pierced him to the soul.
The silence between them was broken when the madman
exploded into the small unnatural clearing. Saitoh dodged
an attack by diving sideways. However this left the child
open to the savage's attack.
He never reached her.
For suddenly the world had stopped, turning a dark
gray as the girl narrowed her eyes. Her albino marten's
bloodred eyes winked with an unnatural light as it shifted
its position around her neck.
"You also do not belong here." The girl declared as
she examined the figure frozen in time. Her wide eyes
narrowed perceptibly. Saitoh finally noticed that the white-
clad girl had not once blinked since he had stumbled onto
her.
"You are not totally human. Devourer of flesh. Drinker
of blood. Wind-walker's spawn. I know how to deal with you."
Time unfroze. The demon clothed in human flesh resumed
his trajectory.
Ice froze him centimeters away from his goal. The human
shaped icicle fell to the snow before the girl's feet.
The child then looked up to the sky and Saitoh could
see the unearthly glow of her eyes.
"False god. Here I rule. You have no power here. I am
the mistress of these mountains. Leave."
The blizzard whipped around them as if in anger. The
area of calm around them shrank a little. It seemed as if
the snowstorm itself were raging against the unnatural
force that maintained the barrier.
The little girl frowned and the Shinsengumi captain
felt a prickly sensation run up his spine. He didn't know
what happened, but he knew in his heart it wasn't good.
An unnatural screech howled out of the maelstrom. It
was the sound of a wounded beast, but not of any beast that
Saitoh knew. It was like the howl of wolf at bay, mixed
with a trapped bear's roar along with an undefinable
something that made his spine shiver once again.
Suddenly, the blizzard weakened, its strength flagging
and, within moments, Saitoh Hajime could see the twinkling
stars high above.
The child then looked at him. Silver light swirled
within those dark orbs. In the dark night, the eyes seemed
to burn in argent fury.
"Leave. Now."
Then she and the block of ice were gone.
He would never forget those haunting eyes that seemed
to be pools of silver and black for the rest of his life.
*******************************************
1883:
Saitoh took a long drag from his cigarette to fight
the cold that seemed to permeate his skin.
The three people before him just stared at him,
waiting for him to continue his story.
"That was one of the first times I encountered the
things I'm asking you to help me with. The 'family friend'
that sent me on the mission explained to me that the person
I hunted wasn't exactly human. He was a gaki, a flesh-eating
creature created by the possession of an entity that is
older than humanity. He knew of my skill and thought I could
have handled it by myself. And I would have, if I hadn't
been too rash and too hungry for justice."
"The girl I encountered was another old thing. She's
been the source of the tales of Yuki-onna, a woman who
could control the very forces of blizzard and snow."
"After that, my friend told me the truth. That there
are very old things out there. Things that lurk in the
darkest shadows, things that threaten the existence of all
that live."
"Now, the story may sound crazy, but it's true. That's
why I'm here. A new age is dawning on Japan, Misao. A new
age that brings with it a new bunch of monsters and horrors.
Me and my superiors are fighting a war against them. And a
war needs soldiers. The Bakumatsu and the upheavals that
followed hit us hard and we're lacking in troops."
"So this is what we're asking. Work for us in fighting
these things, and you will have the full support of the
government, at least the part of the government that knows
about us."
Saitoh finish his cigarette and flicked it outside. He
watched as Misao and her two advisors thought it over. Aoshi
and Okina believed him, that was obvious enough in the body
language. Misao was on the brink, still undecided.
The silence was broken when Misao asked.
"What are you called?"
Saitoh smiled. Hook, line and sinker.
"We are the warriors who fight in the mist. We come and
we go silently in protection of country and our people."
"We are the Kasumi Gundan."
*******************************************
Author's Note:
Kasumi Gundan is an original concept for the Kurotokage
Delta Green Supplement as conceived by Edward Lipsett,
Mark Macfadden, Davide Mana and Dave Farnell. It's
supposed to be a group of Japanese defenders against
the occult. I kinda borrowed it and tweaked it a bit
to fit in this universe. Kurotokage and Delta Green
don't exist in this timeline, mostly because AEGIS
is in charge of what they're supposed to be doing.
Anyway, as those in the know might have guessed, the
Oniwabanshuu will form the core of Kasumi Gundan Meiji-
gumi. Throw in some Juppongatana survivors, the Yukishiro
family and the Kasumi Gundan Tokugawa-gumi descendants
and mix well. Have one Saitoh Hajime as the chief...
mmmmmm... really tasty. ^_^
Kasumi Gundan Taisho-gumi will be the pseudo-
Teikokukagekidan, the Hagane Tenshi and other idiots,
though I'm tempted to just write them as an alt-universe
story. The Sakura Taisen world is just too cool to be
written off as a crossover. Kasumi Gundan Showa-gumi will
be some pretty nasty people both pre- and post-war, before
they are integrated into AEGIS.
And yes, that is Yukino Hojo from Gatekeepers. ^_^
***********************************************************
* *
* DANCES SET TO THE MUSIC OF TIME *
* An Epic History of Humanity *
* From The Age of Silver *
* To The Age of Crystal *
* And Beyond *
* *
* http://rakhal.com/florestica/elsa-bibat/index.html *
* *
* Other fanfiction by the same author: *
* http://rakhal.com/florestica/elsa-bibat/index.html *
* *
* Kindly archived by Larry F and *
* The Lost Library of Florestica: *
* http://rakhal.com/florestica/ *
* *
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