Being the Fury is not that bad, you decided.

Of course, if you take away the fact that you could only travel by night, and that in near future you'd probably die; then yes, it wasn't that bad. You weren't so tired from travelling to Edo by foot, since your physical condition increased. You had yet to see your hair turn white and eyes red.

It was a few days, rather nights, since you left Fujinomiya. You took katana and kaiken with you; the sword was secured on your back, along with your small baggage. You hid the dagger in your obi. At first you could feel it through the material, but now you were accustomed to carrying it.

You felt a little safer with two swords. And the fact you couldn't be injured like a normal human made you calmer. You instantly refused your fathers offer to bring one of his henchmen along. You agreed to take a horse. Also he gave you money and new clothes since everything you possessed burned down in Kyoto.

You walked on a pebbled road. It was just your luck that you had to run across a thieve. A man stood before you with ugly smile.

"You've got pretty horse here," he said. "Mind if I take a look?"

"Uhm...," you shook your head. You tightened your hold on horse's reins.

"You don't have much a choice," he laughed and put a sword your neck. "So better be a good girl and give me this horse."

You glared at him but let go of the reins. The thief jerked the horse and swung katana at you. You tried to dodge, but even with the Fury's strength and speed he slashed your arm, leaving bloody trail on your kimono. A sharp pain jerked through your body as you fell on your knees.

You cried clutching your arm. It wasn't a deep wound but it hurt nonetheless. He tried to swing again when the horse shied. He neighed and distracted the man for long enough for you to drew out kaiken.

When he tried to calm the horse down you pierced the dagger through his guts. He screamed loudly when you pulled the dagger out. The blood spilled on the ground when you got on the horse and ran away.

In the next village you sold the horse.

As you expected, Edo even at night was bustling with life. You reached the gates early in the morning. By now you were used to night life, yet you were rather tired. Miraculously you found an inn to stay in and slept through whole day.

Gathering information about Yukimura Kado was tedious work. Inn's owner or his guests knew nothing about his whereabouts or where he actually lived. You wondered how to obtain the information since you were restricted to the night time. A week passed and you had no clues.

Being the Fury sucks, you decided.

In the end you got one of yours not entirely deliberate idea. It was crazy idea, but you were established to be a crazy woman, so why not?

"Oh gods!" you cried in the middle of street in the evening. " I'm bleeding! Somebody!"

You held your bleeding hand up. Earlier you cut your right hand with the dagger and dirtied it with a street dust, only praying that it wouldn't heal too fast. Few heads turned to you.

"Is everything alright, miss?" a young man asked, concern visible in his eyes.

"I cut my self and it hurts so much," you showed him the cut. After being stabbed in the hand and being shot, this wasn't as much painful.

"You need to see a doctor," he concluded. You nodded vigorously. "I'll lead the way. I'm Takagi Tooru, by the way."

The man was around your age, with dark hair and had bright green eyes. Just like Souji-san's, you thought. But he wasn't as tall as him, or muscled. He looked rather scrawny, but had pleasant, now worried face.

You let him take you to the doctor and thanked him. The doctor turned to be a kind old man that quickly cleaned the cut and bandaged it.

"Uhm, may I ask a question?" you asked when he finished.

"What is it, child?"

"I was on my way to my distant relative, Yukimura Kado," you lied. "I just arrived to the town. I had an address but lost it somewhere during the day. I was wondering if you could show me directions?"

"Oh," the doctor slowly nodded.

"I just thought since you were a doctor too, you'd know," you smiled at him. You prayed he'd fall for it and just tell you. The doctor took out a map and showed you where to go. You bowed deeply and thanked him.

"Be careful, it's dangerous for a young woman to travel all alone by night."

"I will, I promise. Thank you again."

You left the clinic with Takagi who wanted to make sure you were alright. You smiled at him.

"You came here all alone?" he was surprised when you told him you were staying at inn. You laughed a little and nodded. He opened doors for you and winced. You saw scratch on his hand and blood dripping from it.

You stared and red liquid as he tried to wipe it. Your eyes were focused only at his wound and delicious substance.

Delicious?

Since when the blood seemed to be 'delicious'?

"Clumsy of me," the man laughed. "________-san? ________-san, has something happened?"

You shook you head and moved past him to the inn.

"Thank you, Takagi-san. I-I'll be off," you said and almost ran to you room. You closed the doors behind you and fell onto the floor.

What was that feeling? That hunger inside you when you saw the blood. You've never felt something like this before. You saw lots of cuts and gushes wounds on your way, even after turning into the Fury. Why now? Was it bloodlust dr. Matsumoto talked about? You thought of it more figurative sense, like wanting to kill somebody or just being more ferocious. You've never imagined it would be craving for a real liquid in human's body.

Your body shook violently. The urge passed and pressure in your lungs decreased, but now you were afraid that it would come back. You were sure it would, dr. Matsumoto told you it would.

You made your way to the futon. You postponed search for Yukimura's house for the next night. You were sure in that state you won't be able to even stand up from the floor. You were too afraid.

Next night you sneaked out of the inn and followed directions the doctor gave you. Your hand was fully healed now and you thanked gods that you didn't get an infection. Yukimura's house looked like a normal house. You mentally apologized Chizuru and her father for breaking-in. Inside it looked like it wasn't cleaned for a long time. You weren't surprised. You lighted a candle and started rummaging through the shelved and closets.

You spent almost all night at searching till you found something useful. In meantime you got lost in information describing the Furies. Finally in one of Yukimura's notebooks you learned about some kind of medicine that could soothe the bloodlust. But every ingredient sounded foreign to you and some of them you couldn't even read the name. You hid the notebook in your kimono and started to search more, maybe you'd find more useful information. Though you doubted there would be a notebook titled 'how to un-Fury the Fury'.

You got immersed in your work and you hadn't noticed when the morning came. Still, while hiding in the shadows you tried to read the notebooks. At some point you fell asleep and woke up only to feel a dagger held to your throat.

"Who are you?" the assaulter asked. You gulped and cold sweat broke on your forehead.

"_________-san?" new voice joined. You looked at very surprised face of dr. Matsumoto. "Let her go, Yamazaki."

The man behind you hesitated but followed the order.

"Dr. Matsumoto, what are...?" you asked messaging your neck.

"What are you doing here?" he asked at the same time. "You first."

You took a deep breath. There was no excuse for you in this situation. You stood up and dusted yourself off.

"I was looking for an information about the Furies," you said honestly. He scratched his chin deep in thought. The second man, Yamazaki moved and glared at you suspiciously. He was alerted and ready to strike at you, you noticed. You couldn't blame him though. You smiled nervously.

"But how did you know where to look?"

"I overheard your conversation with my father's medic, and then you slipped a little, I guess."

There was no need of telling him about Chizuru or the Shinsengumi.

"I see," he shook his head. "Have you found anything?"

"Well, I've got information about medicine, but I don't really understand it," you showed him the notebook. He read the part you showed him.

He hummed in response and nodded.

"I'll prepare it at my clinic," he decided. Then he proceeded with gathering the ingredients from the house. He turned to Yamazaki. "The Corps might get a use from it."

Black haired man nodded. So he was in Shinsengumi too, you thought. You wondered what about you, were you to stay here? Dr. Matsumoto looked at you as if he was reading in your mind.

"Do you have a place to stay?"

"I stayed at the inn up until now," you replied.

"Well, you can stay with me of in one of the guest houses at my clinic," the bald man smiled. "I've got a favor to repay to your father."

"Really? Thank you!"

You smiled at him. At this point you didn't know what to do. You supposed you'd be going back to Kyoto, to the Shinsengumi headquarters later. Now you wanted to know more about that medicine and perhaps look more into Yukimura's notebooks.

Dr. Matsumoto led you to his home. On your way he asked about your gunshot wound. You told him everything is alright.

"We found out that the Furies are weak against silver, and the bullet you got shot with was made of silver."

"I see. But no, it doesn't hurt, " you frowned. The wound was fully healed.

"I suppose it was healed by time you were changed, so perhaps that's why you don't feel anything," he concluded. You nodded agreeing with him. You felt relief that you were alright, at least in this domain.

Yamazaki was still looking at you suspiciously, but didn't make any comments, so you were startled when he finally asked you a question. You were sitting at dr. Matsumoto clinic with hot tea.

"What was your name again?"

"Oh, sorry!" you apologized. You totally forgot about introduction, since dr. Matsumoto knew you and you had more important things on mind.

"I'm __________ ______, pleased to meet you."

"Yamazaki Susumu," he gave you short reply and small bow. "Are you from Kyoto?" he looked at you intently. You blinked. What a peculiar question, you thought. You glanced at dr. Matsumoto. He was also seizing you with his gaze. In the same manner he did when he asked you about your wounds back in Fujinomiya.

"Yes," you said slowly. "I lived there for past few years."

Yamazaki hummed in response. He was ready to ask you another question. You felt as if he was interrogating you. You heard a groan on the other side of the shoji doors.

"If you exuse me," Dr. Matsumoto stood up. "I need to see my patient."

He swiftly slid the shoji doors and your blood ran cold.

"Souji-san!" you shrieked.

~~***~~Hello there!
As promised, longer chapter. Only six more chapters to go, you know? I hope I didn't bore you in this Okita-less chapters, but watch out for next! ^^

I hope you enjoyed!