Masks
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* The Secrets of Saitou Hajime *
by Jitou <mosquiton@crosswinds.net>
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<Insert Standard Disclaimer>
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(How do people see me?)
The slender tip of his katana cut
through soft, yielding flesh, spraying the
air with a shower of crimson. The cold,
calculating eyes of Miburu's wolf shone in
the moonlight, a trace of a smirk running
along the edge of his lips.
The dead body of an unknown man,
dressed in old peasant clothes, lay in a
bloody heap on the street. Above him stood
ex-Captain of the Third Troop of the
Shinsen-gumi, Saitou Hajime. Dressed in a
blue policeman's uniform that did little to
hide his well-toned muscles and his fearsome
fighting stance, Miburu's wolf looked every
bit as deadly as he did in the robes of a
Shinsen-gumi. The katana in his left hand,
extended from the execution of a hirazuki
slash, was tainted red from the blood of his
victim.
He resumed a standing pose, sliding out
of his gatotsu stance with a feral grace,
swishing his katana through the air to run
most of the blood off the blade. With a
piece of cloth he wiped off the remaining
blood from his sword as he slid it back into
its saya.
"Fujita-san!" an officer ran up,
checking his messy handiwork on the ground.
"As good as usual," he said in awe.
"The suspect ran, so I had to take care
of him," Saitou replied. The cool
dispassionate way he said it, coupled with
his the stern, emotionless face, made it
seem as if he were talking about a piece of
meat rather than a human.
"I still have another lead, however. I
will look into it now." Saitou stalked off
as the other officers caught up with the
scene. Unconcerned, he just went on, leaving
his men to clean up the mess.
(What do people say about me?)
"He's too cool..." one of the men said.
"He's so fast, I wish I could fight
like him..."
"Always so cool and mysterious like
that..."
"He's so scary..."
"You know, Kawaji-kyuuchou speaks so
highly of him..."
"They say he's the best officer on the
force..."
Saitou smiled, pulling his policeman's
cap lower over his eyes as he did. Their
praises were not lost on him, not to his
highly sensitive ears, which could pick out
a whisper from the furthest corner of a
room.
(Hahahahhahahahahaha)
He slid out a cigarette and lit it with
one of the new instant matches the Dutch had
brought in their last shipment. Truly an
ingenious invention, and it made his job
easier. After all, he would have to finish
the cigarette before he got home...
"Hajime!!" a sweet voice called from
behind him.
Saitou almost swallowed the cigarette
butt he was about to dispose off. Had he
already gotten so close to home? But the
house wasn't until down the street yet. And
it was already well into the evening, what
was Tokio doing in the streets?
"Hajime!" Tokio called again.
Panicking, Saitou swallowed the
cigarette butt and tossed a mint into his
mouth before turning around. His face was
plastered into a perfect smile, his eyes
closed and his cheeks puffed up in a perfect
grin as he greeted his wife.
"Tokio, what a pleasant surprise," he
said in a polite voice, dripping honey. "Why
are you out so late in the evening?"
"I was worried for you," Tokio replied.
She was a beautiful, petite woman, dressed
in a red yukata, her long black hair framing
a gentle face with deep, penetrating eyes.
"Being out so late at night, really, I know
the force expects a lot from you, being
their best officer and all, but to keep you
from home like that..."
She brushed his cap back a bit as she
pushed a strand of hair that was out of
place from his face. As if on impulse, she
quickly straightened out his slightly
ruffled uniform. "How do you expect to be a
model officer if you don't keep your uniform
in shape? Honestly..."
"Uh, sorry, hon, but we were chasing a
criminal tonight..."
"I don't want to hear it!" she
retorted. "You have to be able to keep your
form no matter what you're doing! You can't
be a bishounen otherwise!"
Saitou sighed.
"Now hurry up and get back home. The
dinner I prepared is getting cold, so I'll
have to reheat it first. While I am doing
that, be sure to change out of those clothes
and into something more comfortable. My
gosh, you've been sweating in your shirt
again..."
(I only started sweating when you
shouted out like that...)
"... and I don't want you to catch cold
or anything..."
"Yes, dear," Saitou replied meekly.
(If this weak, hen-pecked, submissive
shell of a man seems to you to be the
complete opposite of the Saitou Hajime you
saw at work just this evening, well...
YOU'RE COMPLETELY CORRECT!)
A few minutes later, Saitou sat at the
table with his wife. No longer dressed in
his uniform, he now sported a soft white
yukata, and his long hair was tied back with
a white sash across his head. The wife
always got mad at him when his hair dipped
into the soup, so...
"How do you like the soup this
evening?" Tokio sweetly asked.
"It's magnificent, as usual," Saitou
said after his sip, nodding his head in
recognition of his wife's culinary prowess.
Setting the empty bowl aside, Saitou shifted
slightly in his sitting position to get some
of the pickled daikon to go with his rice.
Elegantly, he used his chopsticks to pick
some up as his wife watched on.
"You're so cute when you eat your
vegetables, dear," she said with a teasing
grin. "Would you like some sake?"
(Dressed like a tourist in a hotspring,
this ridiculous sash on my head... and
begging for sake! It seems harsh, but...)
"Please do," Saitou replied,
profferring his sake cup. "You know that
sake always makes me feel like cuddling," he
finished with a smile.
(... the truth is...)
"Finish your vegetables first, or I
won't let you cuddle," his wife replied, a
bit mischievously.
"Oh please! Don't kid me like that, you
know I can't live without your cuddling!"
Saitou bowed his head down, touching it to
his hands on the floor.
(That psycho attitude of mine is all
just for show!)
"Oh, come on, you know I was just
kidding," Tokio said with a wink.
"Ah, hahahha," Saitou laughed, as his
wife laughed with him. He continued to pick
at the pickled daikon.
(Yes, it's true, the way I act in the
world is all for show!)
Saitou finished his daikon and raised
his rice bowl to his mouth.
"Do you want some more, dear?" Tokio
asked.
"Yes, please." Saitou raised his bowl
to hand it to his wife.
(I've fooled them all these, years,
even little Okita-kun back in the Shinsen-
gumi. They all thought I was such a
ferocious, vicious killer, almost impossible
to anticipate because I always kept my
feelings tightly hidden behind a mask of
evil. But I hid my emotions more than anyone
could have imagined! All this time, I'd been
actually hiding my weak, craving emotions so
that no one would guess that I'm really just
a hen-pecked wimp!)
"There you go, dear," Tokio smiled.
"Thank you, hon," Saitou smiled back.
(I even got that idiotic Himura
Battousai fooled! The Battousai always
thought I was just another cold, psychotic
Shinsen-gumi killer. All these years he's
been holding the terror of our fights in his
mind, never once imagining that I'm just
every bit as much hen-pecked as he is! Would
that he would probably be laughing his head
off if he ever guessed that I am every bit
as subservient to my woman as he is with his
raccoon-girl. And that chicken boy, it's so
nice to take out my frustrations on him, he
almost reminds me of Okita-kun back when he
was still new in the Shinsen-gumi...
All those slayings, all those powerful
derogatory remarks that leave my enemies
quaking in their boots... Hah, even that
moron Usui thought I was so scary. The truth
is that I'm just a complete fake! The
psychotic me is just a cover for the
submissive me, a facade which has served me
well all these years, a facade which I have
cultivated and perfected until everyone
thinks that it is the real me!
It is only here at home where I can let
my guard down and let the real me come out.
It's only with Tokio that I can show my true
self, a person who is sweet and caring and
kind and loves to cuddle... A person who
belongs only to my dear Tokio. And so I hide
my false personality from her, just as I
hide my real personality from everyone else,
because I'm sure she would hate me then, and
I couldn't bear the thought of her leaving
me. I would just be devastated. I sometimes
feel guilty fooling Tokio like this, but
it's alright, deception has been part of me
ever since I was a child. I give her my
complete love and devotion, something which
I will never give to another. I only show
her the real me, and she adores it, so much
that I must keep my other fake self from
her.
But that's not a problem. I've fooled
the Shinsen-gumi, I've fooled old Okita-kun,
I've fooled the Battousai, I've fooled the
Chicken-boy, I've fooled Kawaji-kun, no one
can discover me! That's because although
I've always been a kind person at heart,
I've always been the best at what I do! I'm
so cool that no one will ever discover the
real me! Besides, it gives me such a great,
sadistic pleasure in fooling everyone, in
being able to play to their ears all the
time, telling them this and that when in
truth I'm think something else, being able
to bask in the fear, praise and respect
others afford me when I put on my mask. No
one can quite deceive other people like me!
HAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!)
"Hajime, what are you doing posing like
that with your chest puffed out, your mouth
wide open and your chopsticks in the air?
You look like a complete moron."
"Gah!!" Saitou's face dropped.
{He's so cute, puffing himself like
that, thinking he's fooled me and everyone
else into believing that he's someone else,}
Tokio thought, {I put up with it, keeping my
perfect housewife's mask on, because that's
what makes him so interesting, and that's
why I love him...}
====BLAH, BLAH, BLAH====
For those of you who care, this wasn't spell-checked
or grammar checked or whatever. So have fun picking
on the typos.
For the record, I got the idea of writing this
fic while watching my Kare Kano, if some of you
are getting that itch thinking, "This sounds
familiar."
Other mistkaes: I have no idea what Kawaji's rank is,
I just made a wild guess. Also, I know that married
women aren't supposed to wear red, and they should
never be out of the house after dark. But hey, Tokio
is a very liberal woman, okay? ^_^ And finally, does
anyone actually think Saitou is a "bishounen?"
I just posted this now cuz I realized I forgot to post
it on this ML. ^_^
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Jitou mosquiton@crosswinds.net
http://www.geocities.com/jitou.geo