Kagura sneezed. The November morning was really cold. Kagura tried to pull her white wool hat over her ears but it was no use, the hat couldn't stretch any longer. Her buns got in the way. No choice, Kagura removed them and let her hair down, cover her ears, which made she felt a little bit warmer. For the ears, that was. As for her body, it was still trembling every time the wind blew. Kagura took out a box of sukonbu, popped one of them in her mouth and immediately hid her hands along with the sukonbu in her black coat's pockets. The taste of sukonbu was comfortable, but as soon as Kagura finished it, the cold hit her mercilessly again. God, she hated day like this, it was so cold. Quickly shoved a bunch of sukonbu into her mouth, Kagura looked impatiently at the street. A bus was coming.
That's right, Kagura was waiting for her bus in a cold, early morning. Kagura had been standing there for quite a long time. She waved energetically at the bus.
Must because of the cold, there were very few people in the bus, most of them were students like Kagura. They all seemed sleepy and some have already dozed off. Kagura decided to take a seat in the back side of the bus, next to the window. As she sat down, she realized she had to get ready. Yes, get ready, not for school (she's not a nerd, though she did try to look like one by wearing a glasses), but for a war. A seat-taking war. And for her opponent, it was no other than Okita Sougo, the sadistic boy who was in the same class as her. They were born to be rival. And, god must be cruel, they both took the same bus to go to school, though his house was 8-bus-stop-closer-to-school than her. Well, that was irritated. Kagura just remembered what had happened the day before.
-Flashback-
The day before:
It was a cold afternoon with some drizzle. Kagura and Okita were waiting at the bus stop. Keeping your blood boiling was a good way to prevent the cold. Therefore, Kagura and Okita glared at each other. A promising beginning of a fight over seat. After 15 minutes of glaring non-stop, the bus came, calmingly as usual. The two youngsters ran fiercely to the bus. Then the exit door slid open, revealed the dense crowd inside. Kagura and Okita stunned for a second. It turned out not to be a fight over seat anymore, but rather, a fight to get on the bus. At the exactly same moment, they stepped up the bus, bumped into each other. Another glare was sent out and they started to jostle the other out.
-Let me go, Sadist!- Kagura yelled.
-Little girl shouldn't stay in crowd place, China.- Okita smirked.- Though I'm not sure if you are a girl or a monster brat.
-I am a lady! And lady's first! -Kagura said, tried to take another step on the bus.
Okita didn't let that happen. He grabbed the door handle with his left hand, while his other hand landed on Kagura's face, and pushed her away. "Shock!" was written on all the passenger's faces. Well, not Kagura, though. She knew Okita was famous for hic sadistic character. Therefore, with face's still being pushed, Kagura nabbed the red sleep mask that was hanging around Okita's neck.
-Ha ha ha! That's it! Lose or you'll never see your trademark item again.- Kagura laughed.
The hand on Kagura's face stiffed for a second. And a second was more than enough for her to let go off the sleep mask, grabbed Okita's face instead, and pushed him off the bus. Victory was in her palm of her hand. There was no way Okita would give up his sleep mask, it was a part of him, a part of Okita Sougo.
Just when Okita's bound to lose, a cold wind flew through, caused Kagura to sneeze. Okita immediately snapped out of his hesitation and took the change to force all his strength that was on Kagura's face. The situation quickly reversed, Kagura lost her balance and as she fell on the icy street, she could see her rival smirking through the closing door.
-End of flashback-
Kagura shivered, she could still remember how cold and angry she had felt when she stood at the bus stop, waited for the next bus.
-That damn Sadist! How could he push such a delicate lady like me off the bus! – Kagura mumbled.- You bastard! I'll pay back! I'll pummel you into a pulp! I'll revenge!
Revenge. That right, Okita'd go to the school on the same bus as her. If they didn't catch this bus, they'd have to wait 15 minutes for another, and late. And of course, those two would never go to school early, so after 4 more bus stops, he would get on this bus. Then, Kagura just had to sit still, and watch Okita suffered. The bus was quite crowd already, by the time that bastard got on, he'd be squeezed into a flat-fish.
Most of the people on the seat had fall asleep. Well, that's normal, for an early morning like that day. Kagura herself would usually doze off right when the bus began to run. But at the moment, Kagura was just too eager to sleep. Kagura's glad that she chose the seat at the back side of the bus. This way, she could easily watch he depressingly put up with the crowd. "Just 3 more bus stops and the fun will begin!"
Three bus stops left. A leg-shaking-granny got on the bus. Kagura looked at the sleeping people on the seats; and stomped the foot of the man next to her. The poor man snapped out off his slumber and before he could realize what had happened, He found himself was standing while Kagura gently pulled the granny toward the seat next to her.
Two bus stops left. A man dragged his bandaged leg on the bus. Kagura kicked the right seat in front of her and after a few minutes the bandaged-leg man got his seat.
One bus stop left. A pregnant woman got on the bus. Kagura punched the left seat in front of her and a few second later, the pregnant sat down difficultly, sighed in relief.
The bus stopped. Okita got on the bus among the people. Kagura took off her nerdy glasses, pulled her wool hat, tried to cover her face. It's best to show her face at his most miserable moment. Kagura could see Okita's eyes searching. "Hahaha, you moron! Couldn't you tell there is no seat left by looking at the crowd?" Kagura grinned delightedly, she just needed the bus to move and Okita'd suffer.
But the bus didn't start yet. A little girl got on, and immediately clung herself to the pregnant woman's seat. Clearly, she knew she wasn't tall enough to hold the handle, and also, she knew that with such a tiny body and such a big school bag, if she wasn't mentally prepared, she'd be crushed! The little girl's eyebrows straightened in determinate and nervous. The bus suddenly started and inertia made the crowd inside leaned backward, pushed the girl away from her place. The girl couldn't help but let go of her hand and closed her eyes, ready to bump into someone or worse, some seat. But the "Bang!" sound didn't happen, the girl opened her eyes to see someone was holding her arm. With just one hand, Kagura lifted the little girl, dropped her into her own seat.
As Kagura turned away from the little girl's thankful eyes, she took a quickly glance at Okita. He hadn't recognized her yet, but then, how can she made fun of him while she was in a worse situation than him? It was so crowd! She couldn't even take out the box of sukonbu in her pocket. While Okita, put one hand on the handle, comfortably leaned his body on one seat. He was standing near the exit door. There are few people there, because people got on/off all the time and every time the door open, wind shoved in, cold enough to cause shiver. Even so, Okita didn't seem to mind. In fact, he seemed kinda…passive. Being the school's best sword man, Okita had many challengers, opponents. He must be on guard all the time. But when some man accidently hit him on his way to the door, Okita didn't react. "Must be sleepy." Kagura thought as a brilliant idea popped out in her mind, and she grinned. "Well, lack of sleep is not good for your health, Sadist."
Kagura pulled her orange hair up, hid it under her wool hat, folded up her black coat's collar to cover some part of her face, then moved closer to Okita, until her back faced him, she then waited.
A few minutes later, the bus stopped. Instead of hold on tight to the handle, Kagura let it go, allowed herself to be push backward by the crowd .Kagura clenched her right fist and thrust her elbow into Okita's stomach.
-Urgh!- totally unaware, Okita took the attack fully.
-Oh my god! I'm so~ sorry, sir. The bus was so crowded, I didn't know what I was doing…- Kagura raised her highest tone, imagining those "moe" characters she had watched from TV. Then, she turned around, stomped on Okita's foot and give a deadly head-butt to his chin.
A perfect KO. Okita was knocked down, fell to the ground. Kagura faked a "surprised" face, with both hands cover her mouth like a "moe" character (a convenient way to hide her face), tears were swelled up in her ocean-colored eyes (from trying not to laugh).
-I'm so sorry~~~!- Kagura continued her act as she saw Okita got up, his face darkened. Kagura had nothing to worry about, though. The sadist still hadn't recognized her yet, he wouldn't do anything too dangerous to a weak "moe" character. There'd be no paid-back, she'd be safe even after having directly torture her rival. What an amazing move!
Right when Kagura declared her victory in her head, Okita found something familiar on the ground. He picked it up.
-My sukonbu! Give it back, you despicable thief!
Okita glanced at Kagura, who had turned as stiff as a stone.
-China…- Okita crushed the sukonbu in his hand.
Kagura dropped the "moe" act, looked at the boy with a "Got cha!" smirk. She had ready for battle.
But before either of them could perform any attack, the bus stopped abruptly. Kagura lost her balance and accidently thrust her head into Okita's chest. The poor boy smacked his back with a seat.
-Hahaha! Serves you right, Sadist! This is what you get for pushing me off the bus yesterday. – Kagura laughed awkwardly, it maybe was a little bit too much. Killing intense was pouring out of her rival. Dark aura surrounded him.
One second of silent was like a thousand year of tension…
Okita was about to make a sudden move when the exit door slid open. Immediately, cold wind shoved in, replaced the human warm inside. Kagura couldn't stop herself from sneezing…at… Okita.
-Gross, China! I don't want to catch some lethal monster cold.- the disgusted feeling had seem to snapped Okita out of his anger.
-Shut up! It was all your fault, you-push-girl-off-the-bus-when-it-was-raining!- yelled Kagura, wiped her nose with one hand.
-It was not raining, just a drizzle. Isn't it romantic to walk in a autumn drizzle like that?- Okita monotoned.
-I didn't walk! I fell on the street! It was wet, and cold, and muddy. When I got on the bus, it felt even worse, I…Achoo! – Kagura sneezed again, for the many time of that day.
Okita took a minute to look at Kagura, with her loosen, messy hair ( the wool hat had fallen somewhere in the revenge proceed). Her tears were swelling up from he sneeze, her nose was red, and her whole body was shivering. Okita smirked, this was all his doing, huh? She sure looked defeated, pathetic, miserable…just like an abandoned puppy.
-What are you looking at, you bastard?
Kagura shouted when she felt something warm softly grabbed around her neck. It was a scarf, a snowy white scarf. Kagura looked up at Okita, her eyes full of confusion.
-I forget my dog collar. – Okita deadpanned, fixed the scarf to look like a collar, with one end around Kagura's neck, the longer one in his hand.
-What? You…- Kagura clenched her fist ,ready to punch her rival.
Quickly, Okita tightened the scarf, made the girl choked in surprised. He then pulled the "chain", dragged Kagura out of the bus. They had arrived at Gintama high school.
In 3-Z class:
-Happy birthday, Kagura! This is my gift to you. – Otae said with a cheerful voice, handed out a pink box.
-Oh, that's right, today is my birthday. Thank you so much.
-Where is Okita? I thought I saw you two at the school gate.
-That damn Sadist! He said he had to patrol around the school. He must be slacking off somewhere right now. –Kagura frowned.
-Now, now, don't let him ruin your important day, Kagura. Look, there was a guy in some other class came and asked me to give you this. – Otae smiled.
Kagura didn't notice the meaningful eyes from Otae, she received the stranger's present and lifted her head to say in a proud voice:
-Well, I am the queen of beauty. This is kind of thing is expected to happen.
Otae smiled. Kagura was still just a child afterall.
-Kagura, what am I going to do with you. You even tie your scarf all wrong. Come here, I'll help you redo it. – Otae started to undone the scarf, then she and Kagura saw something at the end of it. It was a big K letter in orange color.
-This sure is a lovely scarf. Where did you get it?...Kagura, are you okay?
Kagura was fine, even with the hot fire burning at her cheeks.
-You looked all red. Be careful, it kinda cold these day.
Kagura didn't feel the cold. In fact, she had never experience such warm, sunny day.