Hi ! It's been a while, isn't it? I've been at a French Anime Con, Japan Expo ! I wore a Kamui cosplay and a Kagura cosplay, I was so happy whenever someone recognized me ! We also made a Gintama group when I was wearing Kagura. It was so much fun!
Anyway, here's another OkiKagu one shot! (T for Sougo's swearing) Hope you'll like it!
On this morning of May, the Shinsengumi was proving that they deserved their nickname of "tax robbers": their salaries were high, their roles were to protect both city and citizen, but still, Yamazaki was practising his smash with his badminton racket, Sougo was making a voodoo doll and sewing Hijikata's hair on it, the Demoniac vice-commander was drinking tea while watching TV, Kondo was selecting the best of the thousands pictures he had taken of Tae.
"Oi, Sougo."
The latter didn't react. When he would finally have finished his doll, he wouldn't have to take care of Hijikata anymore, better getting used to it.
"Sougo!"
Sigh.
"What, go-die-somewhere-Hijikata?"
"Heard that bit. You go and die. Remind me why that kid came earlier?"
"What kid?"
"You know, that Yorozuya Chinese..."
"Oh. Her."
Sougo winced. When she came, she kicked him right in his man pride. Even before starting to talk. And it still hurt.
"She came to announce me she was leaving Earth for a while, to train with her father on Allia. She promised me that she would be so strong when she'd get back that she could kick my ass while reading a JUMP and eating Sukonby. I answered that..."
"Shut up and watch."
Hijikata turned up the volume. It was the newscast. It showed a picture of something exploding, before going back to the live and showing a burnt, devastated area, with firemen running everywhere, busy. The journalist spoke.
"Yes, the ship that exploded was the NHL2987, supposed to leave for Allia. The explosion happened twenty minutes before the took off of the ship, and forty people are seriously injured. We still have no news of the people inside the ship, but it is highly possible that the explosion blew up the bodies. This attack could be an act of Harusame, who...
Sougo didn't heard any more. He had already grabbed his sword and left the mansion quickly.
When we'll meet again, my arms are gonna be sooo musculars that I will kick your ass easy-peasy!
Better train your brain then, at least if you've got one... You might learn you can't kick with arms...
…
…
Hey... Stay alive while I'm gone, okay?
Only if you're not killed by the first ennemy you meet, China.
This conversation was echoing in his head. When they meet again, right ? But she was probably gone were you could not come back...
When he arrived at the spatioport, all he could see was a crowd gathered around barriers, stopped by the police. A voice was shouting louder.
"Let us go! In the victims you found, was there a little girl? She's 16, that tall, red hair, with...
The voice struggled. Sougo recognized the Yorozuya's boss, or rather didn't recognized him. A face ravaged by worry, he was only a shadow of himself. Sougo sighed, amused. His face was probably similar.
Next to the perm head, the (not so) tiny four eyes. Fists clenched, he was trying to hold back his tears.
Sougo hurried.
"Shinsengumi. May I go?"
The policeman hesitated.
"Um... The spatioport security staff is in charge... I don't know if I can... I mean, about the accreditations..."
Sougo glared at him. The man shivered and gave in, letting him go.
"And allow those two to come with me. They'll be handy."
Gin and Shinpachi joined him. They didn't ask. Gin's face had switched to a nameless rage.
"They said Harusame were proud of them... That bastard, I'm going to send him a picture of his sister's dead body, we'll see if he's still that cheerful..."
"Gin-san, calm down. Nothing proves that she's... I mean, we don't have any official information yet..."
"You," called Sougo, to a security staff member. "Why isn't anyone allowed to identify the bodies? You have to have found some, right? Why can't we see them?"
The man stared at him a while.
"We found some, indeed. But the forensic experts are still trying to... reconstituate the bodies. There's no official announcement yet, but it seems that within the twenty-six people inside the ship, flying staff included, there is no survivor."
Shinpachi's legs gave way beneath him. Gin took him to a bench. They watched from afar all the staff taking pictures of every element they found, just like in the series on tv. There was nothing but chaos, chaos everywhere. Almost all the floo had been blown up, and evey the area where they were, even if quite fare, was covered with ashes.
Gin's eyes were dead blank, staring at the void. Sougo was nervously playing with his sword. He just couldn't believe it. In a few minutes, he was sure he was going to hear an annoying voice, calling...
"Gin-chan, Shinpachi?!"
They all turned back in the same time. A red-haired girl was staring at them, shocked. Not a single wound, not a single bruise. There she was, standing in front of them, staring at them with her big cerulean eyes, safe and sound.
Shinpachi turned pale, nearly fainting. Gin was opening and closing his mouth, unable to speak. Sougo walked by her, slowly.
"Oi, what it that...?" Stammered Gin. "A gh-gh-ghost... Her ghost is coming to... Haunt us... Maybe she doesn't know she's dead? Better not tell her then... Oh, but I'm sure she heard me.."
He was talking nonsense because he was lost. He couldn't believe his eyes and his brain was working too much. He couldn't think. Two seconds before he thought he would never see her again, and there she was.
Sougo was now really close to her. He streched a trembling hand in her direction. And pinched her as strong as he could. It gave her a start and she punched him in the face.
"Danna... I'm pretty sure she's fully alive." He said, massaging his painful jaw.
Gin, Shinpachi and she were facing each other, not moving. Sougo decided to lend a hand, or at least to kick the girl in the back, pushing her right into Gin's arms. He hugged her right away and grabbed Shinpachi to include him in the hug. Hard to say which one began to cry, but now the three of them were spilling every tear of their body.
Sougo smiled at that scene. It remembered him one day, when he was a kid, and he got lost in the forest for the whole day. Kondo finally found him and brought him back to his sister. He had dashed into Mitsuba's arms, and they cried a long time, letting all the pressure going out. Then Kondo had grabbed him and threw him into the air several times.
Was it the memory, or was it the fact he had thought he would lose his nemesis? The fact remained that a tear ran down his cheek. He whipped it straight away.
"Kagura-chan, how come... You were supposed to be in the ship, and they said..."
Kagura shrugged and laughed.
"My visa was expired, they said, and they didn't let me board. I was busy insulting them when we heard the explosion..."
No one mentionned Harusame. There was no need to tell her that.
"I think I need... Fresh air. Need to calm down. Coming with me, Shinpachi?"
Shinpachi looked at Gin, curious.
"What? But, Kagura-chan is..."
"Oh, I'm sure she's still got visa issues to settle... Come with me."
He showed with his head in a not so subtle way Sougo, standing back. If Kagura understood what he meant, she kept quiet. They left, leaving the two rivals together.
"Looks like... I'll kick your ass later, Sadist."
"Ha, even with years of training, that would still be impossible for you, China."
Silence. They were looking at each other, eyes on the eyes. Gauging each other. Then, suddenly, Sougo smiled.
"It is sad that morons can't die. Looks like it's true."
She ran into his arms.
Three days later, life had become somehow normal again. Shinsengumi did nothing of their days, Yorozuya did nothing of their days, Kagura and Sougo were fighting as usual.
The whol country was mourning, and yet, everyone acted as is this tragedy never happened. Forget to accept. The only things that remained from the attack were the graves of the twenty-six victims (both amanto and earthlings), glass and metal fragments that would scatter for a while, and this corpse, throat cut, litteraly crucified near the door of the spatioport, a paper pinned on his jacket. "Here's the true culprit. Take care of yourself, little sister."
Hope there wasn't much typos or mistakes... English's not my native language :(
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