A/N: Hello! This is set in the five years later time period before the "other" Gintoki shows up. Some OkiKagu but that's not the focus in this one shot. ^^ Somewhat ooc on Okita's part. This one shot was inspired by David Guetta's "Titanium". Thank you for reading this story!

~meowmeow814

Why did it always have to be like this? Every. Single. Time.

"You'll never kill me," he hissed. "I'll never let the Yorozuya fall to disgrace. Especially to some Yato, some alien, some stranger like you," he spat, metal-gray eyes blazing in hate.

"I will never fall…! As if I could let Gin-chan's name be destroyed by some weakling. You abandoned the Yorozuya first, you gave up first, you can't come back now." Her sapphire eyes glinted coldly as she stepped forward, umbrella ready.

Why did he have to leave her?

Shinpachi stared at her, mouth slightly open before crushing itself into a thin line. "You were the one who left the Yorozuya first, I took a, a break-"

"Who the hell takes a break when Gin-chan's been gone for a year?!" She practically screamed, her heart wringing itself out dry, dry, dry. "Who the hell leaves for a month for a 'break', who the hell leaves without saying a word for a 'break', who the hell are you to leave me for a 'break', who the hell-" Her voice cracked and stumbled into a whisper. "Who the hell ...who the hell… who the hell are you?"

He looked. At her. Blankly. And then she knew.

Hurt was just the leaves to her dull, brilliant flame. She sprang forward with a cry and he met her, all too eager to stop her breath.

She swung her umbrella, gritting her teeth. And he, he had the nerve, to counter it with the wooden sword before leaping up high. She barely had time to snap open the umbrella before another building fell victim and crashed down upon her.

Kagura collapsed under the weight, barely holding up the umbrella with a shaking, clenching fist. Light flew out and she was all alone beneath the deafening avalanche of rubble and dust. Is this what being dead is like? Something like fear chitter chattered into her ear. Or maybe that was just insanity.

I won't go down like this. Her hand buckled. I need to end him. Her eyes would've flashed if there was any light to shed on them. I trusted him then… To return… But he never did. Her breath would've been ragged if sound could be heard. He left me and I'm all Gin-chan has left… He can slice me, he can sneer at me, he can leave me, but I won't fall. Her heart would've ached if there was any care left in them.

But she didn't and that was that. Like how she no longer had her Gin-chan nor her Megane nor anyone. She had nothing but memories, mocking specters to respect. She had nothing to say, her wails of despair just mumbles to steel walls. Oh how she wished walls had ears. And then maybe, someone could hear her. Someone could catch that flailing hand falling down and down like Alice in the Wonderland called Hell.

Her eyes closed though.

"..."

He uncovered the familiar porcelain hand. Okita stared at it. He gently held it in his own calloused hand. He then held it between both hands, a crazed desperation slowly building up as he tried to smother the crashing flood. No, no, no, she wouldn't go that easily, she's, she's, she's China for crying out loud, she'd live through… a… building like that, she… she… she can't just leave...

A crunch on the gravel was all it took. Okita slashed back, fury screeching as metal clashed with metal, the molten red eyes screaming at the blank gray ones.

"You killed h-!"

"She was only weak, she would've never been able to continue the Yorozuya anyw-"

"She never was going out to kill you you fucking idiot and you went and killed her and she, she was just-!"

The wooden sword clattered to the ground as Okita stabbed Shinpachi straight in the chest. Blood spluttered out of the mouth. They tumbled to the ground.

Shinpachi stared up at the normally stoic swordsman, his default blankness battling with his toxic hate. "You can only say that because she knew you, she had you," he snarled . "I had no one when my sister was sick. No one to ask for help, no one to rely on, no one to cry to. Kagura was off frolicking with you, having a grand time, when I came back to the Yorozuya. She did nothing, experienced nothing, felt nothing compared to me."

Okita regarded him with cold contempt. "What do you know about her? Her tears? Her fears of being alone? The Yorozuya a 'family'? What a joke." Okita sneered and leaned down, staring at the vortex of contagious hate. "Yet she only loved the Yorozuya, she only loved you and Danna. Don't you understand?"

He paused for a minute in consideration. " ...she didn't deserve such assholes. In the end, they all left her didn't they?" A bitter smile laced across his expression as he sunk the katana deeper. "Because they never cared like I did."