The Raven and the Wolf: Chapter Three

a side story to "To Forgive and Forget" by Ayame-chan

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Aiyaa!!! I'm sorry for not updating! *bows* Please forgive me! After the second chapter, I...uh...how can you say...got writer's block? I wrote at least three different versions for this chapter and neither of them seemed right to me until this one. Hopefully, this will satisfy all your hungry needs of "what-the-hell-is-she-going-to-do-next" to this fic. Enjoy!

You have five days to either marry or follow in your mother's footsteps.

As she looked up at the clear morning sky, Tokio's mood darkened even more. It had been a day since her father had issued that choice, increasing the pressure that she already had from the society's letter. She knew that both had good reason to challenge her capabilities: the society for their secretiveness and her father for her own well-being. However, her father's ultimatum was more personal and reminding her about her mother was a memory Takagi Tokio did not want to remember.

Her mother, Mitsuragi Tetsuko, was also a Riskbreaker in the past along with her father; they were continuing a long time tradition in both noble families. When Tetsuko died, though, her father Kikuo broke that longtime tradition; and it was never taken up again until Tokio's curiosity of her ancestry and mother's true death got the better of her.

Rumors had it that Mitsuragi Tetsuko, known as Hitokiri Kaiten at the time, was a successful Riskbreaker like Tokio. Not one mission was foiled by the enemy and those who had found Tetsuko's true nature would soon no longer live to see the next day. It was not until a month after Tokio was born when her mother's assassination spree was put to an end. Nobody knew how she died with the exception of Kikuo who dared not to remember.

Tokio paused in her kunai throwing when the sound of footsteps reached her ears. A young maid just a bit younger than her came scurrying into the practice area.

"Tokio-sama!" the maid shouted upon recognizing her.

Tokio calmly put away the remaining kunai she had in her hand into their respectable pouch.

"What is it, Oshin?" she asked as the servant ran towards her.

Oshin paused for breath as soon as she reached her mistress. Then she finally uttered out, "Tokio-sama, it's Aiko-sama! She...she's in labor right now!"

Tokio's almond colored eyes widened in shock. "Nani?"

Oshin nodded furiously, her nicely kept hair beginning to fall out of its ponytail. "Hai! Mitsuko-sama asked me to find you."

Oh, thank you very much for giving me all the work, sister. Tokio thought annoyingly. She tightened the belt around her hakima.

"Oshin, take me to them."

Okita couldn't help it but laugh. Although Saitoh's explanation seemed reasonable enough, it just seemed impossible to happen. When the young captain finally managed to subdue his laughter, his face turned back to stone.

"It seems reasonable, but Saitoh-san, maybe you're just suspicious of Tokio-san because you have killed one too many," Okita suggested.

"Or you can be just a tad bit interested in her," Shinpachi added nonchalantly, polishing his katana.

Saitoh ignored the annoying comment. "It's just a thought."

"A rather vague one, but one that will be looked into," their superior, Hijikakta, said. "Besides, I'm beginning to wonder about Takagi-san."

This last comment sent a minor ripple through the captains.

"You mean, you don't know our own patron?" Tadaji, the fourth captain, asked incredulously.

Hijikakta burst into a fit of laughter. His laughter echoed in the room like a deep, rumbling earthquake. The captains remained silent. It was not the best time to interrupt their superior, the founder of the Shinsengumi.

"Takagi is a good friend of mine," he began to explain, "but there are things about him that I don't know about, such as his daughters and why he hasn't contacted me after his wife's death nearly twenty years ago." He stroked his chin thoughtfully as if realizing something. "I hear rumors from the servants that the young daughter is rarely home at night and that she is following her mother's footsteps, whatever they are."

"You don't believe what Saitoh-san has said, do you?" cried out one of Tokio's fans, Suzuki Mikisaburou, eighth captain of the Shinsengumi. Noticing the glare that the higher captain mentioned was giving him, he slowly sunk back down on the cushion and mumbled. "I'm not saying that he's lying..."

Hijikakta shook his head. "I am not saying that I believe nor do I deny it, but the suggestion is rather intriguing." Receiving some grumbling from the group, Hijikakta frowned.

"Now, I know that the majority of you and the rest of your troops have a little fanclub for her, but you must realize that every person can have two sides to themselves," he said in a loud voice, waving one hand. "Case solved. Let's get onto other matters."

As the rest of the Shinsengumi turned to other matters, Saitoh tuned it out to ponder silently to himself. He didn't bother about the other issues addressed; they were all politics. What came up in his mind now and again was the woman Takagi Tokio. He could have sworn that he smelled blood on her. Either that or, as Okita had suggested, the assassinations he accomplished were getting to him. Yet he could not get her out of his mind. It was not just that he was suspicious of her; it was something else. Something that kept on nagging at him to remember something. Love? he mentally shook his head. No, such things were useless to him. Then, what was it?

Saitoh figured that Tokio's eyes, which had enraptured him each time they met, would give him an answer.

Tokio wiped away the sweat on her brow as she washed away the blood off of her hands in the nearby basin. Childbirth. After being the midwife to her own cousin, she wished to herself that she would never have to go through what Aiko did. Although the reward was something good, the pain was excruciating. She watched from the corner of her eye to see her elder sister Mitsuko tend to her bruised hand. Tokio suppressed a shudder. How could Aiko handle such pain after not once, but three times?

"Ne, Tokio," a voice murmured from the other side of the room.

Tokio dried her hands and turned to look at the voice's owner, Aiko. "Nani?"

She looked horrible. Over ten hours of labor made Aiko weak from exhaustion. Her face was pale as a ghost with perspiration clinging onto the skin. Her hair stuck around her sunken cheeks and damp neck. Cradled in each arm was a squirming bundle of blankets waiting to be fed. Despite all that, Tokio saw something that in her cousin's eyes she wished that she could have. Joy.

"When is Masaki coming home?" Aiko asked.

Tokio retied her hair back to perfection. "I asked Oshin to send a message for him to come home right away. He should be here later tonight, why?"

A mischievous smile spread across Aiko's pretty face. "I want to kill him."

All the women in the room giggled, and Aiko tended to her newborn twin girls.

"And I thought that after giving birth to two other children, you would be used to it, Aiko-chan," Mitsuko said sarcastically.

"Are you kidding? I would rather fight a hundred Shinsengumi than go through this," Aiko replied as she gazed down at her children. "Although, I don't mind the reward given."

Silence fell in the room once again. Then Mitsuko stood, straightening her kimono as she did so. Her right hand was wound tightly in the bandage wraps.

"I'll go check on the other two munchkins," she whispered loudly, gesturing to the adjoining room. "They might have been awakened by all the noise."

"And I'll go see if Masaki is here," Tokio added. "I need to make sure he isn't seen."

As she had predicted, Sasaki Masaki was coming towards the rarely used back gate of the Takagi household. His unruly midnight hair covered hair covered his eyes; a lean yet muscular figure was clearly seen through his dark clothes. A rather ornate katana hilt was tucked in his obi. Tokio patiently waited for him just inside the gates, completely unaware that someone was watching her from afar.

MORE AUTHOR'S NOTES (yet again): Wheee....I hope that kinda suits out. You see, what I had been planning to do was to add a little father/daughter scene between Tokio and Kikuo, then decided against it. I was also going to add the entire pregnancy scene where Aiko's screaming hell and fury...but.....writing one is very hard to write out, if you know what I mean. Labor isn't a very nice thing in childbirth.....for us women, anyway ^_^. R&R!

Chapter Four