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saitou hajime | shinsengumi hakuouki kitan | not reserved | 4 of 5

[auguriesofinnocence]

Aburano Koji Incident and the Meiji Restoration

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Saitou remained with the Guardians of the Imperial Tomb (called “the Guard” for short) for six months, never drawing suspicion from either side as to his purpose. He would formally return to the Shinsengumi in November of 1867, days after the first act of the Meiji Restoration began.

The Meiji Restoration is the name given to a culmination of events that led to the revitalization of boy-emperor Meiji and the imperial court as Japan’s central power. Officially, the Tokugawa shogunate was stripped of most of its power before the new year arrived. Privately, control of the government still largely rested in the shogun’s hands.

A ronin allied with the Aizu and Satsuma clans, Ryoma Sakamoto, was responsible for orchestrating the abdication of rule in a way that allowed both powers to exist. As is true of any fair compromise, the results left few happy and had many calling for Sakamoto’s head.

Before too long, that call was answered by an unknown force. Orders had been handed down to leave Sakamoto unharmed after the restoration was complete and stayed the Shinsengumi’s blades. To the public, however, the discovery of Harada’s scabbard at the scene of the crime was damning evidence in itself.

Saitou shed some light on the subject.

Itou’s faction had circulated rumors that the Shinsengumi was hired by Kyotaro Miura of Kishu to eliminate Sakamoto, the first of many steps to sabotage and subvert. What’s more, Itou planned to assassinate Kondou.

Naturally, they returned the favor. Saitou and Souji remained at Fudodo Village while the other captains dispatched, luring Itou out after a night of drinks and carrying out their mission. Leaving the corpse for Itou’s men to discover, their plan had to been to draw the Guard out in an ambush.

Kazama intervened, alone, before the Shinsengumi was able to carry out the second stage of the assassination. Saitou engaged him in the courtyard, but the demon withdrew before any blows were traded.

Itou’s assassination became known as the Aburano Koji Incident, and despite failing to eliminate the snake's body, the loss of its head was considered a victory.

A month after rejoining the Shinsengumi, Saitou took refuge in the Tenma Inn to protect Kyutaro Miura. Most of the lower ranks were never made privy to his role as a spy, mocking him as a coward who had turned tail when his new master ceased to be convenient. He made no efforts to correct these misconceptions, content to live with the dishonor rather than bring it down on Hijikata or Kondou.

Battle of Toba-Fushimi

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Soon after the new year, retainers of the Satsuma Domain began to gather in Kyoto. In an effort to balance out their presence, the Shinsengumi was ordered to defend the Fushimi Magistrate’s office.

Two days later, Kondou sustained a bullet wound while on his way back to base from a conference with the fading shogunate army. He was sent with Okita to Osaka for recovery, Hijikata assuming leadership of the Shinsengumi in his absence.

On January 27th, the Battle of Toba-Fushimi began. To the Shinsengumi men, it had no name or apparent cause. Canon blasts shook the magistrate’s office violently, Satsuma forces pouring around the edges and threatening to overwhelm them. The disorder continued until Hijikata reached the main hall, impelling them into a counterattack.

Saitou was sent to Ryu’un Temple to take out the heavy artillery. This endeavor resulted in a confrontation with Amagiri and a possibly broken arm, ending in reluctant retreat when Chizuru implored. When they made it back to the complex, flames had all but consumed the hull and blocked their view.

Next, Saitou led the rest of his division and Chizuru to Mount Hanchiman. Here, they encountered enemy riflemen and hid until nightfall to confuse the shooters' arm. In retrospect, the daylight bullets would have been a kinder fate. What waited for them just behind the trees when they resumed moving was a far worse adversary than any gunman could be.

Between slashes through Saitou's body, Kazama taunted the samurai's sense of vengeance unsuccessfully, going on to appeal to self-preservation instincts that no longer existed.

His body broken, Saitou kept fighting even when his arms could not handle the weight of his katana.

Then, as Saitou lay dying in the dirt, Kazama tossed him a red vial. Ochimizu. Without it, he stood no chance of defending Chizuru or the rest of his men. He probably would not survive the wounds of this battle alone.

His mind settled, he drank his poison and resumed the fight. The transformation into rasetsu was not enough to level the playing field, but it significantly closed the gap and kept him moving. Had Amagiri not come to retrieve Kazama, it's questionable if Saitou would've stopped before one of them died.

Taking no time for rest, Saitou waited a few moments after the demons disappeared from view and headed for Osaka Castle.

CANON PERSONALITY:

every wolf and lion's howl
raises from hell a human soul.

At a careless glance, Saitou is little more than a shadow chasing after the light. He often enters and leaves a room without drawing attention to himself, sustained by fluidity that runs quietly deep. Those who have not earned some semblance of his loyalty are faced with unflinching stoicism and frozen formality, but it would be poor understanding to write this young man off as cold or even indifferent. Once past his steely layers of observation and taciturn deference, he is a highly empathetic, perceptive, and sentimental person.

The quickest way to understand Saitou’s approach to the world is to examine the tenets by which his life is based around. The five prohibitions of the Shinsengumi (Kyokuchi Hatto) are as follows:

• Deviation from the Bushido.
• Leaving the Shinsengumi.
• Acquiring funds privately.
• Taking part in litigation.
• Engaging in private fights.

The punishment for failing these regulations is forced ritualistic suicide regardless of rhyme or reason. This strict standard not only guides Saitou’s expectations of himself, but of all other members of the Shinsengumi as well.

When Yamazaki Susumi and Ibuki Ryunosuke began to quarrel, he reminded his comrades of the rules with a well-placed blade and cold intent.

Out of those five decrees, the first (to adhere to Bushido) can be broken down into its seven constituent virtues:

• Rectitude (義)
  • Growing in a time of government instability and mounting violence, righteousness has never been a clean decision for him. Rather, his piety manifests in the utmost devotion to carry out his orders as a tool of the Shinsengumi. That is not to say that he never questions a directive nor that he lacks his own opinions, but that his personal feelings are rarely, if ever, factored into his actions. Further, he believes that there is more to following a command than simply obedience. In order to fully serve, one must both understand the context in which the order was given and the superior's natural fallibility.
• Courage (勇氣)
  • Those who enter a battle of their own will are obligated to see its completion unless explicitly told to retreat. Even if there is great fear and certain death, he will fight to the last drop in his veins with steadfast purpose. Neither honor nor obligation drives cowardice asunder in the heat of the battle for Saitou. Instead, he relies on the strength of his emotional attachments to tether anxiety, suspending his self-preservation instincts by overwhelming them with the desire to protect the people important to him.
• Benevolence (仁)
  • A man of few words and scarcely given to unnecessary sentiment, Saitou's kindness comes through in his actions, both subtle and overt. On the surface level, he can act as a den-mother to the Shinsengumi (with a particular emphasis on the Vice-Commander) in his own politely insistent way. More than that, his softness comes out in the way he brings tea at midnight and tells a friend to look at the moon instead of work for a while, or the white lies he might construct to alleviate another of burden.
• Respect (禮)
  • Seldom as he has received respect in his life before the Shinsengumi, he still extends the utmost courtesy to those around him. Especially during a heated confrontation, one can expect Saitou to maintain an air of politeness and graciousness towards enemy and friend. In the unlikely instance he cannot justify respecting a person, he will continue to regard them with cold civility to the best of his abilities. This is not passivity; more simply, it's stubborn reverie for the other individuals present and his own dignity.
• Honesty (誠)
  • Honesty to those he serves and to those he serves with are entirely different matters. To his masters, he must be plausibly convinced it is in their best interest to be anything less than perfectly candid. Conversely, he will tell lies or allow them to perpetuate at the expense of his own reputation if it means protecting those same superiors. When he does need to be false to someone of relevance, a life spent speaking truthfully hinders his efforts greatly. He can become noticeably distracted and falter over words such that his default position for these scenarios is to be silent and very, very still. If a man could be such a bad liar as to be always honest to his friends, Saitou would be the textbook example.
• Honor (名誉)
  • Similar to his disposition about candor, honor is preserved through his results for the Shinsengumi rather than the actions that bring them. Saitou is still very rigid about his own convictions, but little argument is truly required in the face of necessity. For instance, when Hijikata ordered the patrols to attack lone targets in multiples, he showed immediate reservation. But still quickly enough, he acquiesced with mostly unspoken understanding. To be a weapon of the Shinsengumi, he accepted the destruction of his idealism from the start.
• Loyalty (忠義)
  • It is not necessary for others to understand Saitou's loyalty. Mockery of its integrity will get no rise, no matter how cruel or exceptional the circumstance. For the incredible gift of existence, he lives and dies for the sake of the Shinsengumi and Aizu clan. Perhaps more importantly, he kills for these sacred things, even if the red on his katana must belong to a friend. His devotion could be misconstrued as blind, but he refutes such claims to innocence. Every action, no matter how selfless the intent or socially obligatory, is a direct result of his conscious choice alone.

As much as Saitou would desire to be defined purely by the traits of a warrior, he is not without idiosyncrasy. In fact, very much of his inner personality is a contradiction to the outer appearance, coupling merciless killing with a profoundly deep care for those around him.

If his conviction to the organization can be likened to the adoration of a child, his devotion to its persons would be the realistic understanding of an adult. Those he has chosen to follow, no matter how great, are inherently flawed. To best oblige them, he is always cognizant of their faults - and at times, forces the person to reckon with them.

As an individual and not the Shinsengumi captain, Saitou is a textbook introvert. His locked-away world is rich, filled with subtle shades of meaning and a deep appreciation for beauty. He places great value on symbolism and sentiment, staking his life on the ideas of the Shinsengumi on a daily basis. The samurai tenets are upheld as being fundamental truths, greater than the breadth of men and their petty spirits.

In interpersonal relationships, he operates on a keen sense of intuition and would be naturally well-equipped to meet the emotional needs of others were he not so painfully shy. Indeed, his empathy and nurturing inclinations are overshadowed only by his want to avoid them. By his own admission, his mastery over words is shoddy and cumbersome. Faced with the prospect of expressing himself or field training recruits for three days solid, he's very likely to choose the latter.

His life's dedication to the battlefield has resulted in relatively stunted social know-how outside of war and he usually depends on templates of formality and politeness. When spontaneity inevitably requires him to deviate from his comfort zone, he embarrasses easily and obviously. This is especially true with subjects of a romantic nature, the mere mention of which is capable of leaving the ruthless samurai blushing and stammering his way into a quick escape.

POINT OF DEPARTURE: N/a