Hakuouki: Memories of the Shinsengumi (Chapter 3)

Chapter 3, April 1867

(I see a glance of Saito’s face here. Saito’s a really kind and nice guy, but I’m a bit miserable at the moment…I’m definitely heading towards Saito’s route right now)

Kaika is on patrol with Okita. They talk about a few things: ronin who run away from Shinsengumi = usually petty criminals, blue outfits → usually a symbol of strength, but were unfashionable, Itou’s coming back from the imperial states, where he was supposedly gathering new recruits, Okita thinks Kondou is too soft and should just kill Itou. Kaika spots Kaoru in the crowd, and starts chasing after her. Okita is left behind.

Kaika catches up to Kaoru, and questions her about her involvement with the notice board thief arrest night. Okita catches up and mentions that if she was the one who interfered, they would have to arrest her. Kaoru denies her involvement, but does admit that she passes by Sanjo Ohashi, the place where the incident took place, a lot during the day. Kaika tries to end the conversation by quickly affirming that she knew it wasn’t Kaoru who interfered. Okita, however, is unconvinced, and Kaoru leaves. Okita starts having a coughing fit. Kaika shows concern for him, but Okita starts lecturing her how although it was a good idea to question Kaoru, it wasn’t a good idea to run off alone, especially if there was an ambush laid out. Kaika apologizes multiple times, and Okita stops her, telling her to let them take care of her once in a while.

Kaika gets attacked by a fury, she decides not to call for help, because the secret of the Fury Corps would be exposed. After getting injured, however, she calls for help.

Toshi comes to the rescue, along with Heisuke, Shinpachi, and Harada. They kill the fury, after determining that the man is too far gone now. Itou comes in the room and questions why the captains had to kill their own man, and Sanan comes in the room, taking the blame. This alarms Itou even more, because he’s been told that Sanan’s dead. Sanan goes mad at the sight of Kaika’s blood and tries to lick her bloody hand. He has a vice grip on her arm, and Kaika seems to be in danger. Toshi gives out orders for them to deal with Sanan, despite their hesitation and protect Kaika. However, before they can attack him, Sanan seems to come to his senses. Since Kaika’s room has been bloodied, Toshi offers for her to stay in his room for the night. She asks if this is ok, and he tells her he doesn’t have much choice, and she’s injured and needs rest. The rest of the men and Toshi stay to clean up the room.

Kaika wakes up the next morning with her wounds mostly healed. She rebandages herself, however, to keep this a secret.

Itou forms a group called Guardians of the Imperial Tomb, to guard the imperial mausoleum. He leaves with Heisuke and Saito from the Shinsengumi, and agrees to keep quiet about their secret in exchange for being allowed to leave peacefully. Kaika decided she was more worried about

• The Guard

• The soldiers

The soldiers

(i.e. the members of the Shinsengumi, rather than the Guard- of course, I’d worry more about the Shinsengumi! We have less men now, and some of our skilled men left!)

She wondered how the soldiers who were left behind felt about their companions joining the Guard. She decided to ask someone about it:

• Someone high-ranking

• Someone neutral

• Someone close to the separatists

Someone close to the separatists

(This made more sense, seeing as someone close would be more affected than the other choices)

Kaika runs into Shinpachi and Harada. All in all, they’re pretty grim about Saito and Heisuke’s departure, though they’re happy Saito finally left. They also imply that they think that Itou was let off too easily.

It almost seems as if the Shinsengumi is breaking apart

July, 1867

Sen comes and visits Kaika. She explains to Kaika that she is actually Princess Sen, a demon. She also explains that the person who came with her is her bodyguard, who is actually Kimigiku, the girl who clinged to Toshi. Toshi deduces that Kimigiku was actually trying to spy on the Shinsengumi. (… I missed this event, I think it’s because I didn’t choose that I was more worried about the sign board. … I’ll do that next time around). The demons have been around for a long time, but humans in power came to want to use demons to their advantage, and those who refused often were declared war on and raided. As a result, many demons were separated and far apart and in hiding, and most interbred with humans, resulting in there being only a few pureblood demons. Chikage is part of the largest pureblood demon family in the west while the Yukimuras were the largest pureblood demon family of the east. With this, it is revealed that Kaika is a demon and that Chikage wants her as his bride so they can have a super powerful pureblood baby. Princess Sen tells the Shinsengumi that Chikage has been taking them lightly so far, and would not be able to protect Kaika very well once he got serious. As a result, Princess Sen has come to take Kaika so her clan can better protect Kaika from Chikage.

The Shinsengumi don’t like being taken lightly and tell Princess Sen that Chikage can bring it on. Princess Sen asks how Kaika thinks about the matter. She tries to stutter out a response, but it is difficult. Kondou sees that, and allows her an audience alone with Princess Sen, despite everyone else’s protests.

Sen talks to Kaika and asks her if her reason for wanting to stay was one of the men earlier in the room.

• Yes

• No

Yes

(Of course, yes- Toshi- though things may not end well because I haven’t been choosing all the right choices so far, unfortunately…)

Sen decides to accept Kaika’s wishes, and leaves with Kimigiku. That night, the oni come to attack. Shimada tells Kaika to stay in her room while the others fight outside.

• Go outside

• Stay in my room

Go outside

(Might not be the best idea, but seems like the best idea for me- don’t just let the men do the work!)

Kaika goes outside with Shimada, Shimada gets attacked, Kaika gets captured (OTL … I seem to be making horrible choices… I’m going to become Chikage’s baby machine OTL OTL OTL)

Chikage is surrounded by the Shinsengumi

• Try to attack

• Try to escape

• Trust the Shinsengumi

Trust the Shinsengumi

(……….OTL not thinking too much anymore, I’ll just trust my gut. Stupid choices. OTL )

So for some reason, Kaika decides to look at Harada and trust him, and he attacks Chikage first, and then Toshi, and then the combined attack gets me out of Chikage’s grasp. That battles look even, and the Shinsengumi regroups, so the demons decide to get out of there

Then there is this random touching scene with Harada calming down Kaika who has collapsed on the floor. (And I am so confused at this point because I have zero love points with Harada, why do I get this scene? I am really confused OTL )

Apparently the fight caused the Nishi Hongwanji to not want to house the Shinsengumi anymore, so they provided an alternate place for them to set their headquarters, the Fudodo Village. (…..*sigh* I don’t get the feeling I’m going to end up with a nice ending at this point… I’m doooomed)

November 1867

A lot of historical things happened.

The Shinsengumi become the shogun’s vassals, and although most of the imperialists already left to join the Guard, many are not happy with this development. Some have a big problem with it due to their political views, and try to leave the Shinsengumi. Some are allowed, while others are forced into the Fury Corps. Shinpachi and Harada are not too happy with being vassals either, but life goes on.

The shogunate handed over power to the imperial court. This was an idea proposed by Ryoma Sakamoto- in this way the imperial court regained power and the shogunate was still there. However, not much changed, so Shinpachi thinks that the shogunate may still be controlling a lot of things. Kaika accidentally blurts aloud that she didn’t know that Shinpachi was so smart.

Saito comes back and Kondou explains that Saito was spying on the guard as a direct order from Toshi. Apparently Itou has been plotting against the Shinsengumi- he wants to expose the Fury Corps and defame the shogunate. Also, in the recent assassination of Ryoma Sakamoto, the Guard spread the rumor around that Harada was the killer and Sakamoto’s personal enemy, Miura, told the Shinsengumi to kill Sakamoto. There are also plans to kill Kondou.

Toshi concludes that they must kill Itou- he plans to invite Itou to Kondou’s second home, kill him, and then use his corpse to lure the rest of the Guard and kill them. Saito tells Kaika that if she wanted to have Heisuke back, this was their chance before they killed the Guard. Kondou requests personally that Harada and Shinpachi, who are leading the plan, to try to persuade Heisuke to come back. Kaika wants to help with the mission, but Kondou tells her that it was a dirty job.

• Still wanted to help

• Decided to stay home

Still wanted to help

(*sigh* I don’t know what I should go with anymore…but at least she can try and help persuading Heisuke)

Kondou asks Kaika what she intends to help with.

• Help with Itou

• Convince Heisuke

Convince Heisuke

Amagiri and Shiranui from the Satsuma and Choshu appear after Itou’s been dealt with and the Guard has been lured. The Satsuma turn on both the Guard and the Shinsengumi and the demons try to strike up a deal trading Kaika for leaving them alone.

• Was worried about Heisuke

• Tried to negotiate with the demons

Was worried about Heisuke

… well, this is an awkward turn. Kaika tries to convince Heisuke to come back to the Shinsengumi, but he’s confused about who and what he’s fighting for- he eventually decides that he’s going to fight for Kaika. Satsuma and the demons are pushed back until they withdraw. Heisuke was attacked by Amagiri while he left himself defenseless trying to defend Kaika by throwing his swords at her attackers. All the Guardians were left dead

The assassination of Itou and the destruction of the Guardians was later known as the Aburano Koji Incident. During the fight, Heisuke was mortally wounded, and had no choice but to drink the Water of Life and become a fury, or die. As the battle was taking place, the headquarters of the Shinsengumi came under attack from Chikage Kazama (……I get the feeling I’ve veered way off Toshi’s route by now)

December 1867

Saito leaves because the other men think he’s a coward who left the Guard when he sensed that their luck ran out. Most of the furies had been killed during Chikage’s attack, which left their quarters mostly empty.

Kaika decides to tell Heisuke what was in her heart

• I want to be with you

• I’m sorry

I’m sorry

(………..*sigh* I’m still stupidly loyal to Toshi… )

Kaika feels apologetic, but Heisuke tells her not to sweat it and it was his own decision.

Sanan tells Kaika that her blood may be able to combat the madness that goes into the Water of Life and starts pointing his sword towards her. Toshi comes in the room and asks what Sanan’s doing. He tells her that she’s the key to making the Shinsengumi survive and tries to persuade Toshi to help him. Toshi says that Sanan’s violating their Code and that it doesn’t allow in-fighting for any reason. Toshi considers Kaika as part of the Shinsengumi so the rule applies to her as well. After hearing this, Sanan decides to put away his sword. Toshi tells him that he was against the idea of cutting Kaika up for her blood, and asks Sanan that although his reasoning was sounds, was there even a hint of a sick desire in him that wanted to drink Kaika’s blood. Sanan replies that there wasn’t, and takes his leave.

Kaika asks Toshi why they’ve been protecting her. Toshi tells her that it was because of her father, Kodo, and that they were just fighting their enemies like usual. Also, they promised that they’d protect her- so even though they found out she was a demon, “A samurai doesn’t go back on his word. A man who breaks a promise just because something’s changed isn’t a man.” Kaika feels like he’s just using her father as an excuse, but had a feeling that if she pointed that out directly, he’d get angry. But the fact that he could make excuses like that and let her stay and keep her safe- it only meant that Toshi and the Shinsengumi finally accepted her.

• I want to help

• Stay here

I want to help

She tells Toshi that she wants to help.

Toshi hesitates at first, but eventually tells her to send a letter to Saito, who is at Tenma guarding Miura (the person suspected of assassinating Ryoma Sakamoto). She is a good option, seeing as other men would draw too much attention. She goes to meet Saito and he tells her that Toshi made a good choice, since she was loyal to the Shinsengumi and she wouldn’t draw attention like the other captains. She gives Saito the letter, and after reading the letter, Saito burns it. Now that job is done, Kaika must decide what to do next.

• Return immediately

• Stay and talk

Return immediately

(I’m going back to Toshi as soon as I can 🙂 )

Kaika mentions that she took longer than expected, so she needs to hurry back. Saito tells her to be careful. Kaika goes to Toshi’s room and once she steps in, she can sense that he was in a foul mood. She automatically starts to apologize, which makes him wonder if she lost the letter or if she got lost and ended it up not making it to Saito. Kaika then states that she completed the task successfully. Toshi comments that that’s good, but asks why she apologized. Kaika mentions that he looked really upset, so she thought he was mad she took a long time. Toshi tells her that he’s not mad at her, but the situation with the shogunate’s position directly ties to the Shinsengumi, and things were a little shaky right now. Toshi then tells her how it was pointless to worry about it now, and that he can make some educated guesses on what would happen, and thus prepare the Shinsengumi for them. Kaika realizes how much Toshi does for the Shinsengumi and how his decisions directly impact the group. It was an unimaginably heavy burden. She asks to if there is any way to help, and bows as far down as she can to him.

He lifts her chin and tells her that if she doesn’t think what she’s doing is wrong, then she should hold her head up high and look straight, and never bow or yield. “You won’t win if you don’t keep your eyes on the prize.” She then asks him again to let her help- he gives in, and tells her to make him some tea.

(Gives love points for Toshizo Hijikata)

(Man, I’m happy right now ^_____^)

Kaika prances out of the room with a smile on her face. Once she leaves, however, Toshi is left worrying about what will happen to the Shinsengumi again.

Several days later, orders were given to begin the Imperial Restoration. Words taken directly from the game here: The emperor would be restored to power, and his court would once again rule the nation. The position of shogun would be abolished, and Kyoto’s Military and Judiciary Commissioner positions would be eliminated. All that the Shinsengumi had fought for and believed in was falling to pieces