Hakuouki Winter Chapter - Companion

The two stood at the gate, quietly watching them drift away until they disappeared at the end of the street.

Silent for a long time.

Saito watched Lingzi silently, but didn't see her wavering, and couldn't help but sigh for her strength.It was she who broke the silence first: "Let's go back~"

"Ah."

"From now on, I'll leave it to you! Hajime~"

"Ah."

"By the way, there are so many rooms vacant in the testing hall anyway, do you want to move here? It can save a lot of trouble~" When the two of them walked around the room in the testing hall to prevent someone from leaving something behind, Ling seed proposal.

"Oh? Oh, let's not use it for now. I'm used to living in the previous place. The distance is not too far, so I'll come here every day."

"That's fine~"

Seeing that Lingzi didn't continue to ask, he didn't explain.

On the way back after dinner here, Saito had an inexplicable feeling, as if there was a tacit understanding between the two of them, Saito had never felt so comfortable: when speaking, he only said what he wanted to say, and the meaning behind his words She understood it naturally, and never asked too much; she never asked him for anything, she trusted him completely, and she was not worried at all that he would say things that she didn't want others to know.He thought of this and shook his head again, denying his thoughts.The reason why I feel so comfortable is because she is considerate, she treats everyone like this, and there is nothing special because he is Saitoichi.Even if it's special, she probably has a better understanding with Okita...

But she couldn't leave his mind, and by the time he realized it, he was already on his way to the testing hall again.He lingered at the door for a while, then decided to go home.But within a few steps, an uneasy premonition struck him, lingering in his heart.He was worried.After thinking about it again and again, he made up his mind that even if she misunderstood him, he had to confirm it.He patted the door and pushed it open.The sense of uneasiness increased again. While observing his surroundings, he ran quickly to Lingzi's room, and heard the sound of something colliding in the distance, followed by a male voice cursing. He drew out his sword and used the fastest speed Run into her room with the light on and the door open.Lingzi was covering the back of his head with his hand, and was sitting on the ground in pain. With the other hand, he was struggling to hold the sword for protection. On the other side of the room was a strange man getting up from the knocked debris. , one of his arms was stabbed in one place by a sword.Seeing that his eyes were fierce and he was about to pounce on Lingzi, Saito rushed over and stabbed the man in the abdomen, blood gushed out, and he lay down on the ground howling in pain.

"Don't..." After Lingzi uttered two words weakly, he lost consciousness.

"Lingzi!" Saito was furious, but extremely calm. He quickly knocked out the attacker, stopped howling, then picked up Lingzi, ran to the room next door where Okita used to be, and quickly checked her injuries: her The back of the head seemed to be hit by something, and blood was slowly oozing out.He tore off a piece of his clothes, wrapped up the bleeding place, went back to her room, and found the daily supplies for treatment in the most conspicuous place, this time, he carefully cleaned her wound, wiped After taking the Ishida powder left by Hijikata before he left, he used a clean cloth to nurse the wound, and after confirming that she was not in danger, he felt relieved.With a sigh of relief, he went back to deal with the assailant.

The man was still lying there, and Saito searched him carefully, but there was nothing that could identify him.The sword wound on his arm was new, and he looked very professional, and he frowned.After tying up the attacker Wuhuada, Saito threw him into a small warehouse that had not been used for a long time in the testing hall.

He returned to the room where Lingzi was, and checked her condition. Her breathing was fairly steady, and the bleeding had stopped, but she was still awake.Saito couldn't understand how she could be attacked, how could someone want to hurt her for such a beautiful person?Seeing her pale face from blood loss made her heart ache like being pulled.He stood up abruptly and returned to the room where the attacker was held.

The man had regained his sanity a little bit, and was groaning from the pain. When he saw Saito come in, he wanted to pretend to be dizzy.Saito saw through his disguise, put the hilt of his sword on the wound on his arm and asked, "Who are you? Why did you come here to kill someone?"

"Let go of me! Otherwise you will die a miserable death!" Seeing that the pretending didn't work, the man became arrogant, trying to frighten him.

"Sorry, I'm not afraid of anyone." There was a cold light in his eyes.

The man was frightened by his appearance, and changed into a submissive tone: "Samurai, spare your life! The little one is just following orders, and I have to save my life too!"

"On orders? On whose orders?"

"..."

Seeing that he hesitated to answer, Saito moved the hilt of the sword from his arm to his abdomen, and pressed down hard.

"Ah! I said, I said! A brother came to me yesterday and said he had a job for me to do, just set the house on fire."

"Who is your brother?"

"It has nothing to do with him. He also obeys other people's orders. I heard that that person often threatened him before. He is an amazing guy and even gave us a lot of money! Who would not do this..." Maybe It was because of excessive blood loss that the man's voice gradually dropped.

"Give you money? Threatening... just to set fire to the test hall?" Saito was puzzled.

The man was getting weaker and eager to save his life. Hearing Saito mention money, his sanity was not clear enough. Although he didn't know why Saito appeared in the testing hall, he thought he was someone who could be bought by money, so he left the worst One move: "My lord, you must not be from the guarding hall. Anyway, everyone here is gone, and you don't need to make a fuss. Why don't you let me go, and I'll give you all the money later?" Jian Zhai Teng didn't respond, he thought Saito was dissatisfied with the conditions, and said desperately: "Isn't it enough? Hey, didn't there be another woman just now? I think she is quite good, how about giving her to you too? Anyway, the initial condition is that this woman is at my disposal. Let me...uh..."

Before he finished speaking, his eyes widened, and he swallowed his breath before he could react.

Saito withdrew the sword that had stabbed him in the heart, and shook off the dirty blood on it, with unconcealable anger on his face.The stupid thief actually used feather seeds as a bargaining chip. The crime of hurting her cannot be forgiven, and insulting her is adding to the crime.Dazed by anger, his hands were quicker than his brains, and he ended the man's life.

After calming down, Saito worried about Lingzi, would there be any remnants?He rushed back immediately, and he was relieved after confirming with his own eyes that she was still lying down safely.He sat quietly by her side, staring at her beautiful face even though she was injured. The face that was full of smiles on weekdays had lost its vitality. He unconsciously held her hand and placed it on his chest. Before, bow your head and pray.

Lingzi clearly knew that she was in a dream, but she was not surprised.She is looking at the world from a perspective that others cannot know, and she doesn't know why.In the vast world, she concentrated her attention and quickly found a few people she cared about. They were talking in a large army, and their actions seemed to speed up several times. She watched them from morning to night, from a town When I went to another town, there seemed to be some problems during the period, but I finally arrived in Kyoto smoothly.Just when she wanted to continue watching what would happen after they arrived in Kyoto, her consciousness gradually began to blur. She knew that she was about to wake up from a dream, so she desperately remembered the image she saw just now.then……

She opened her eyes.With a severe headache and some dizziness, Lingzi wanted to raise his hand to rub his temples, but found that he couldn't move.She moved her gaze, only to realize that someone was holding her hand.It turned out to be Saito, who fell asleep against the wall, propped up on one knee, and held her hand tightly with one hand, as if he was afraid that she would run away suddenly.She blushed slightly and wanted to withdraw her hand.This movement woke up Saito, who was not in a deep sleep. When he saw that Lingzi woke up, his face naturally relaxed, and then he let go of her hand in a hurry, so panicked that he forgot to explain.

"Thank you~" She thanked him hoarsely.

"Stop talking about that. How are you feeling?" He worried about her head injury.

"Fortunately, I guess it will be healed in a few days. Don't worry~ You came in time, fortunately you are here~"

"What happened last night?" He inspected the test hall in the middle of the night while she was resting. Apart from Lingzi's room, there were still a few signs of damage, especially the kitchen, where dry firewood was everywhere. They are all, and it also confirms the attacker's statement of setting fire.

Lingzi closed her eyes for a while, recalling what happened last night.

After dinner, Saito left, leaving only herself, although she didn’t show it in front of people, but when she was alone, she felt a huge sense of loneliness, and she walked around in the museum, going from room to room Turning around, I want to use this to recall some of the previous daily life.Suddenly a sense of exhaustion hit her, and she felt a little dizzy. She wanted to go back to the room directly, and she happened to catch a glimpse of something on the ground at the door of the kitchen. A similar scene flashed in her mind. She recalled the scene in her previous dream, and walked to the kitchen Go, sure enough, the ground is full of firewood. "Oops..." She was aware of the danger. There was a wooden knife in the training center, but it was far away from her room. The fastest way was to go back to the room.She rushed back to the room, passed by a few places and found out from the corner of her eye that some places had been destroyed and the ground was covered with hay, "It seems that they want to burn this place..."

She pushed the door open, not aware of the sense of disobedience, but felt dizziness increased. The moment she stepped into the room, she remembered the scene in her dream, someone was there...but it was too late, before she escaped , she was hit hard on the back of the head by something, and her whole body instantly became limp and lost strength, she took a step forward with inertia and fell to the ground.Vaguely, she heard someone smirking behind her: "I didn't expect such a beauty~ It's a pity to kill her..."

Lingzi tried her best to stay awake. Although her head was in pain and her limbs were heavy, she still crawled forward.The attacker grabbed her left ankle playfully, and she put all her strength on her right foot, taking advantage of the fact that he was belittling her, and kicked his arm away.

"It's quite exciting. You can't be arrogant for a while!" The other party was furious.

It was at this moment that she burst out, and she jumped forward with her strength, reaching the sword that had been placed on the wall.She stood up holding the sword, but it was wobbly.She just drew the sword out of its sheath, but the other party laughed: "That's not something you can play with casually, you can't even hold it! Idiot!"

"Who is that idiot... not sure..." She stabbed out with a sword and hit his arm. "Is it crooked..."

"Damn it! How dare you hurt me!" the attacker yelled viciously, "Next time you won't be so lucky! See how I can make your life worse than death!"

He ran towards her suddenly, she was not in a hurry to dodge, but tried to stay awake. The moment he approached, she turned around deftly and hid behind him. With a kick, he fell straight into the house with curses and screams of pain. After hitting the cabinet, he struggled among the messy piles of debris.

Because of the excessive force, Lingzi staggered and almost fell down. She covered the back of her bleeding head, while barely supporting the sword in her hand, telling herself that she must persevere and not be defeated.Until the familiar figure appeared in her field of vision, a sense of security that she had never experienced came along with a sense of exhaustion. She knew that he could easily defeat the opponent, but the only remaining reason told her not to let his hands get dirty. Blood: "Don't kill him..." It was too late to finish her words, but before she lost consciousness, she was still very happy to hear that voice that made her feel more secure calling her name.

She picked up important things and explained them to Saito, skipping the violent part.

"But, who did this?" Saito told Lingzi what the man said, skipping the disgusting part.

"Who knows..." She was thoughtful.

"Oh, by the way, your room was messed up yesterday. Although I basically tidied it up last night, you really should not live in that room. Anyway, there are so many rooms here now. You are in the chief office. Let's stay in your room." Saito worried that it would bring bad memories to her.

"Okay~" she obediently agreed.

"Also..." He hesitated for a moment: "From now on, I will also live here."

"Good~"

The eyes of the two met, but there seemed to be something different from the usual flow, and they were so surprised that they looked away at the same time.

Under Saito's careful care, Lingzi almost recovered from her injury within two days.She didn't just lie down, but got up and helped him repair the damaged room, or just sat in the training hall and watched him practice swords, or the two of them cooked and cleaned together.She smiled and said that she felt more relaxed than ever since he came, and Saito explained that it was because she had too much work before.She knew that the sudden departure of Okita and others left a huge void in her heart, thanks to Saito's efforts to fill it.She also wanted to fill the gap in his heart.

She returned to her original room that had been cleaned up by Saito, and found that the sword she used had been put back in its original place.When she took it down and looked at it carefully, someone behind her called her: "Lingzi."

"Oh, Hajime, thank you, put away everything for me~" She closed the scabbard.

"I have something to ask you, can you tell me?" He pondered for a while, but still asked the question.

"It seems that there is no way to hide it~ Can I go to the training hall?" She returned to the original place and followed Saito to the training hall.

She silently picked up two wooden knives, threw one to Saito, and kept the other in her hand. "Come on~" She held a knife in one hand, a move that Saito had never seen before.

Saito understood what she meant, but because he didn't know her level, he tentatively charged at her with ordinary moves.Unexpectedly, she flashed to the right and deftly lowered her center of gravity. Taking advantage of his surprise, she lunged and stabbed the wooden knife straight forward with one hand, and stopped in time after touching his ribs.

"This is?" Saito exclaimed.

"You didn't use all your strength, I won you only after calculating this point~"

"No, it was my mistake to underestimate your strength, and failure is a matter of course. I have never seen your moves before, are you holding a sword with one hand?"

"This is Western swordsmanship. There is still a gap between the sword I use and this wooden sword, because I can only hold it with one hand because it is a wooden sword. If it is a real sword, I can't perform so well~"

"Does there still teach this kind of swordsmanship in the test guard hall?"

"No, I didn't learn it here. To be precise, no one, except you of course, knows that I can use a sword..." She put her finger on her lips and winked at him.

"why?"

She sighed: "It's a long story... Hey, Yi, are you willing to listen to me?"

"Ah."

The two sat side by side on the porch with late winter snowflakes in the sky.

"It's snowing~ It's so beautiful!" Lingzi's eyes flashed and he stretched out his hand to greet her. The crystal snowflakes fell under his warm hands and melted in an instant, leaving only a few drops of water.

Saito looked at her rare cute appearance, and the beautiful profile that dazzled among the flying pure petals was breathtaking, and replied: "Mm, so beautiful..."

"The atmosphere is pretty romantic~" She suddenly turned to look at him, scaring him away quickly.

"Just now, what you wanted to say was..."

"Before I say it, I have a question to ask you, Hajime." She felt that this might be a good opportunity to untie his knot.

"what is the problem?"

"You killed the attacker that day..."

Saito's body stiffened, he didn't expect her to ask this question out of the blue.It turned out that she didn't care about that matter these days just because she had already guessed what he did.He gritted his teeth and nodded calmly.He didn't know why she brought this up now, was she complaining that he knew she wouldn't let him kill him but still did it?But he didn't understand even more. They were inseparable these two days, and she should have no way of finding out: "How do you know?"

Lingzi said in a soft, almost inaudible voice: "Because... Ah Yi... your eyes are different..."