Falling
by L. Sith
Author's
Ramblings: I recently came across a book on Do's and Don'ts for a
Romance Novel. According to it, romances should be written partially,
if not entirely, from the heroine's POV ...
The author eyes Saitoh
doubtfully, "You'll just have to be charismatic enough for both you and
Tokio!"
"Ahou." Saitoh takes a
drag of his cigarette. "You should point the readers toward Kamorgana's
'Verdict'
instead, and start
begging them for reviews. This story badly needs all the comments and
criticisms it
can get."
--------------------------------------------------
Chapter 4: Betrayal of Trust
Saitoh
stood in the tastelessly flamboyant room and watched Hijikata watching
him. Saitoh could not think of a worse waste of time for both of them.
There was a possible Ishin infiltrator out there, and he was stuck
'playing house' with nitwits.
Saitoh took out another
cigarette and set it on fire. The woman in front of him, for some
inexplicable reason, insisted on telling him, yet again, her prediction
of the weather for tomorrow. She had been the sixth airhead to do so,
and thus far, he had had six different predictions. At this point, even
a forecast for a blizzard in middle of May would have ceased to
surprise him.
But despite his disgust, the mixer around him
continued on uninterrupted, and so did the airhead. And while she
gossiped on incessantly, his thoughts wandered, right back to the same
accursed topic: Tokio.
Yamazaki's section had already spent
the whole morning investigating the girl and still had no answers. And
those people called themselves the 'Intelligence Division'. He had yet
to see those idiots display anything resembling intelligence. Saitoh,
himself, never needed that long to 'persuade' someone to talk. Enough.
Yamazaki already had a chance, now Saitoh would do it his way. And as
for Yamazaki's standing order, Saitoh knew exactly what to do with it:
shove it down Yamazaki's throat. Idiots that didn't belong in Saitoh's
chain-of-command ought to learn better than to issue worthless
instructions.
Saitoh grabbed the airhead in front of him by the arm and dragged her
towards the garden.
"I'm flattered, Captain." The airhead said.
He
ignored her and exited the building. Upon encountering the first man in
Shinsengumi uniform, Saitoh pushed her towards the chap. At which
point, the airhead stumbled into the boy's awaiting arms, right in
front of the boy's lady companion.
It didn't take long for the
situation to blow into a full incident, and Saitoh quickly left before
all could be sorted out and reported to Hijikata.
With no one
the wiser, Saitoh skipped out of the estate through a back gate and
swiftly tracked down Tokio. The girl sat at the same spot as the day
before, but this time, a different book occupied her attention.
He seized the bonded papers and pushed its cover before her. "Read the
title for me."
Tokio blinked up at him in confusion, but recited the complicated
kanjis without any hesitation. "A discourse on botany."
Rather
a large vocabulary for a little maid. He had no doubt, if tested, Tokio
would prove herself better educated than Takeda. But only samurais and
the most privileged schooled their children, so where did the girl
learn her letters? When Saitoh first saw her read, he simply assumed
she had come from an ex-samurai background. Too many warriors had
fallen in this war, and they left behind them widows and children -
victims who must then fend for themselves. And increasingly, those
orphans sold their services to teahouses and merchant households.
Tokio could be one of them. But even then, Saitoh had no way of
verifying which side her father had fought on.
"Who did you borrow this book from?" He asked.
"It's mine. I bought it. I love to study about plants." Tokio said
shyly.
And with such innocence. So very idealistic and untainted: the perfect
combination that the Ishin preyed upon.
And totally unlike any orphan he had met.
Saitoh turned Tokio's book upside down and started shaking it. No slips
of paper and no secret messages fell out.
Unfortunate.
Time to shake the girl.
"Why are you working as a maid?" Saitoh asked.
"Because
no one would hire me as butler?" Tokio flashed a dazzling smile, one
that had probably melted men's hearts in the past.
But he only
watched her coldly. Yamazaki had been right. That conniving little
witch was exploiting the samurais' respect for the families of their
fallen comrades.
And like a sucker, he fell right for her trick.
Saitoh
grasped several pages of Tokio's book and started ripping it in half
lengthwise. He flung the tattered papers into the wind and repeated the
deed until the entire book fell apart. But Tokio just sat there, stock
still against the wall, watching him.
So many things gave her away. He didn't know how he could have missed
them all. "You can start your confession now."
"I don't know what you are talking about."
"Really?"
He grasped Tokio's ponytail and used it to drag her to her feet. "If
you are a maid, that book would have cost you a month of wages. You are
usually so impulsive, yet you did nothing while I ripped your precious
book apart." Saitoh jerked Tokio's head back until he looked straight
into her eyes. "You can confess now, or you can wait until I beat the
truth out of you. Either way, I will get what I want."
"What am I suppose to confess to?"
"Being an Ishin infiltrator."
"An infiltrator? Why would someone want to infiltrate a merchant
household?"
"But
that's only the first step. Infiltrating the Shinsengumi is your final
objective, and you plan to use Takeda and me to accomplish that."
"I really don't know what you are talking about. I am no Ishin." Tokio
said, exuding an air of sincerity.
But she had not stopped exuding sincerity since he first met her. What
a superb actress.
Saitoh had no intention of falling for the same ploy.
And
perhaps aware of his growing blood thirst, Tokio attempted a verbal
gambit instead. "My parents died and left me without a means of
support. Is getting a job a crime?" Tokio cried out.
But her
excuse, as reasonable as it might sound, could not cover her deception.
He had seen through her facade and sensed her increasing desperation.
However, her 'maiden in distress' act had gathered a sizable crowd
around them. He could hardly extract a 'confession' from her in front
of that many prying eyes and would be rescuers.
On the other hand, she had just provided him with the perfect idea.
Saitoh pushed Tokio in front of him, into the middle of the street.
"Let's go and pay a visit to your parents' graves."
There, the girl could scream all she wanted and no one would hear.
And
so, he drove her onward, limping, across the city. She tried side
tracking and leading him in circles, but Saitoh knew the streets of
Kyoto like the back of his hand, and she got nowhere. Soon enough, he
put a stop to it all. He grabbed Tokio by the throat and growled into
her ear. "If you don't prove to me that you are a Kyoto-native by
finding your parents' graves within the next fifteen minutes, I'll
decapitate you on the spot."
That got her attention. And it
didn't take long thereafter for Tokio to locate the graveyard. But as
soon as they stepped into the cemetery, Saitoh knew that her story had
all been a lie. The burial grounds were extremely well maintained and
the headstones downright extravagant. On top of that, Tokio could not
produce her father's grave, only her mother's, who had died over ten
years ago.
Game over.
And like a marionette with her strings cut, Tokio collapsed onto the
grass beneath her mother's tombstone.
She curled herself into the fetal position.
And
Saitoh wondered if she imagined herself lying in a coffin of her own.
To be caught in a lie and to be forced to face the death of hope often
had devastating psychological effects on the prisoner. Saitoh could see
that he had chosen correctly.
"We never mean to hurt anyone, and
we haven't. It was all so stupid ..." Tokio said softly. "And you are
going to kill me now, aren't you?"
"Not yet. I would need a full confession first."
"A
confession?" Tokio turned her tear filled eyes to him, pleading for
mercy. "I'll do whatever you want, just promise me that no one else
will be hurt. It is all my idea, mine alone. They are innocent."
Her words hung in the air between them.
Saitoh
had sat through enough confessions to know that all he had to do was
play along. But he never made false promises to anyone, not even a dead
person. "What you are asking is beyond my control. All your cohorts,
even those not directly involved, would share your fate. That is the
law."
And she clammed up.
"It will be easier for you
if you come clean now. Once I hand you over to Hijikata, it will be too
late. You won't last five minutes in his torture chamber." Saitoh said.
And a shudder passed through Tokio's frame. She curled into an even
tighter ball. But she remained silent.
Part
of Saitoh felt annoyed by his failure to extract a full confession, but
part of him admired Tokio for her courage. Either way, he had
accomplished what he came for. He pressed no further. Instead, he slung
her over his shoulder and started heading back to the Shinsengumi
headquarters.
The matter was no longer his concern. But he made
a silent promise to make certain that her death would be as painless as
possible when her time came.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Next Chapter: Judgment Day
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TO
CHAPTER 5
BACK
TO CHAPTER 3
BACK
RUROKEN
FANFICTION
HOME
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------