My last fic for OkiKagu Month. This is the Day 27 Prompt 'Waiting for you', and is the sequel of the fic 'Red Strings'.
All my thanks to the readers of my works, as well as those who have reviewed the recent one I have uploaded, namely 'Of Alliances and Promises'. You are the ones who fuel my passion to write more for the fandom and for the pairing.
With OkiKagu Month coming to a close, expect less updates from me as I am preparing for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test this coming December. I'll be taking N3 this year, and I hope to pass.
For the meantime, please enjoy reading the fics I have written for the fandom. I can't thank you all enough for your reviews, your support, and for your awesomeness. I hope my updates are good enough for your tastes. ^^
Without further ado, here's the sequel fic I promised. There's a shoutout to Final Fantasy IX (which happens to be my favorite Final Fantasy series game), and if you played the game, you'll spot it easily. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Gintama. It belongs to Sorachi Hideaki.
Matsu
matsu 「待つ」
1: to wait;
2: to await; to look forward to; to anticipate;
"Little girl, that thing on your hand..."
The girl clad in her yellow raincoat looked at the old woman sitting behind a small desk, her smile gentle. "Hmmm?" Kagura asked, walking over to the old woman. "There's nothing on my hand 'xcept this umbrella."
The old woman chuckled. "Oh, no, no. What I mean was this." she raised her right pinky. "You see, I have this ability to see everyone's red strings... do you know about that?"
Spending time with Mami made her smart about things like counting, reading, writing... but this one was quite weird to her ears. "Ummm, no. I don't think Mami told me about it..."
"May I see your hand then?" when Kagura opened her right palm, the woman took it gently and began peering over it. "Hmmm... your fortune... is not here, but some other place."
"R-really?" all her life, she had just wanted to stay here in her planet, take care of her Mami, never leaving her side...
The future warrior in her was still dormant, still waiting, still biding time.
"Yes. Your fortune is beyond our planet... maybe even that place they call 'Earth'. And this red string of yours... it points upward. Your other half, the person whom you'll be seeking out when you're older... he' may be located in the vast galaxy beyond our planet." the old woman said.
All Kagura could do was gape at the woman in wonderment.
After all, it was difficult for a four-year-old to comprehending a very complex subject.
She was back in town, yet no one gave her a second glance, despite the fact that among her people, she was one of the few who sported this type of colored hair, a bright vermillion. The female Amanto figured out that the ones whom she passed by were the new generation of Yato clan members who probably haven't been born by the time she left. All of the people her age, as well as those older than her, have all left their homeland in search of new prey to kill, or have joined with her brother Kamui as members of the Harusame's most powerful division, the 7th Division, more often called the 'Lightning Spear' [1]. With all of them wreaking havoc across the galaxy, she wouldn't be surprised if her clan becomes extinct in three years' time, or maybe five at most. The only ones who were here along with her were children too young to fight, or those still in training.
As for her, she had managed to contain the call of her blood… although at times, she was still having tendencies of wanting to rip people apart, especially this one person whom she couldn't, wouldn't get along with: Okita Sougo.
That man had always been the bane of her existence.
It was unfair, really, for her to be always drawn together with him. Personally, for her, it felt as if fate was playing a very cruel trick on her as it did everything to always pair them off together, which annoyed and irritated her. She wanted nothing to do with him, that stupid jerk, yet he kept appearing before her, ruining both her day and her routine. It was easy to hate him as she kept telling herself that someone like that sadist would get tired of her one day and just leave her alone.
On the contrary, he became more merciless in his teasing as they grew older, their fights bordering to destructive and violent. At the end of the day, he would smirk at her cockily before leaving while she resisted the urge to rip him to shreds.
As they grew older, he would pick on her more and more until finally, she could not take it anymore and she just… snapped.
"What the hell do you want from me?! Leave me alone! I hate you! I hate your guts! I wish you'd just die and leave me in peace!"
The summer heat does weird things to one's mind, and combined with both the weather, her whimsical mood at that time, and the tension she felt, Kagura had never felt angrier her entire life. She had been minding her own business that day when the jerkass decided to piss her off by calling her nicknames. It had been fine… until he went too far and started becoming downright mean to the point that it was becoming offensive. She finally lost it when he began calling her a monster who did not deserve to be called a girl, which she usually just let it get over her head until now.
Rage coursed through her body, and before she knew it, she had punched him in the gut, sending him flying across the park. Despite the punch, she still felt rage, and so, she marched on towards his direction, sat on his stomach, beat him to a pulp… until she screamed that fateful sentence.
She remembered him giving her a blank look, a quiet mumbling of his response ('fine'), and before she knew it, he had walked away.
The very next day, Okita took great lengths in avoiding her. Whenever they would cross paths, he would turn back and go to the other direction just to avoid her, or whenever they were drawn together in a social situation, he would pretend that she didn't exist and just acted as normal as he could ever be. She, on the other hand, felt as if something was missing...
Their lack of interactions had been the subject of interest by her close friends, particularly Imai Nobume, of all people.
"Someone told me you and that guy are destined for one another." The vice-commander of the Mimawarigumi said in-between bites of her favorite pon de rings as she and Kagura spent that one lazy afternoon inside a Misu Do café. "Even if you try to get rid of him, some external force will pull you two towards each other."
At this, she sighed. "… Why am I even stuck with that guy…"
"'Cause of that red string." Nobume said.
"The what?" she asked.
"This." Nobume raised her right pinky finger.
Right then and there, she remembered her fortune from years ago... and did what she usually did best: run away
It had been a hasty departure. Two days after she had met up with Nobume, she found herself at the Terminal crying and hugging her Yorozuya family goodbye. The excuse she gave was that she was going to visit her mother's grave, but it was more of running away... and probably testing fate in her own way.
It was laughable, really. Her and the sadist?
Impossible.
'Of all the times I'm reminded of that guy, why now?' the female Yato asked herself as she made her way back to her old home.
It had been a total of fourteen years since she had left her home planet, and she had been staying here for a total of five days, yet nothing else had changed. The place she called home was still dreary, rainy, and worst of all, it looked like a wasteland. This was the result of a war among her clansmen that had turned their planet into ruins, and with blood lust still running through their veins, they went off to outer space.
'Well, at least the house is still in one piece.' she reassured herself, referring to her home that would have been called an architect's worst nightmare. The place she lived in was dubbed a 'wall city' as it was densely populated, the rooms between houses were separated only by a wall, and houses were stacked up against one another. Lawlessness was rampant in the walled city, but everyone was tightly-knit and looked out for one another.
'I miss this.' Kagura told herself as she passed by the entrance to her home, her umbrella still opened to shield her from the leaking water pipes that ran along the alleys of the city. 'But too bad, hardly anyone is living here anymore, except for the kids and the retired warriors.'
She made her way to the fifth floor, and with her room located at the far end of the hallway, she welcomed the silence. Before, her neighbors would greet her whenever she passed by, but now, she would rather not talk to them. There were a lot of things in her mind, and now was not the time to-
Kagura turned left, and the sight by her door made her heart jump.
Okita Sougo, the Shinsengumi's First Division Captain, was slumped against the door of her home, fast asleep.
So shock was she that she dropped her umbrella, which then woke him up immediately. Through bleary eyes, the young man scanned his surroundings before finally looking at her. Kagura found herself turning red when his blood-red eyes were on her, his gaze intense.
"W-what are you doing here...?" she asked him.
"... I was waiting for you." he replied back.
Kagura had been stunned by his presence that it took her a while to register the fact that the person that had been tormenting her for a long time had embraced her quite tightly. Awkwardly, she placed her arms on his lower back, hugging him back. "W-what are you doing-"
"I've come to take you back to Earth." he said. "I was supposed to be here two days earlier, but those damn paper works to file were a pain to do but I- ah, crap, I'm rambling." he sighed, pulling away from her. This was when Kagura noticed that there were dark circles around his eyes, all probably because of the lack of sleep. "... Will you go home with me?"
Not surprisingly, she shook his head. "I can't. Not yet." 'Way to go, sadist. I wanted to be alone, yet you're here... and will probably mess up my thoughts.'
He nodded his head solemnly, which she found irritating. "Okay. Tell me when you want to leave." at her puzzled look, he shrugged. "I'm barred from going back to Earth unless you're with me. We're stuck together, China, so better get used to it."
Day 2 of their cohabitation situation, and it was getting uncomfortable for her.
He did nothing but sit against the wall of her house, ate what she cooked (she was probably horrible at it, as she and Gin-chan left most of the cooking to Shinpachi when she was in the Yorozuya), and slept in the living room. She tried her best to keep everything clean, but she had an inkling that he was slowly becoming miserable...
... or maybe not.
The next day, she found him playing with one of her neighbors' children and had laughed when one of them had accidentally hit him too hard, making him double over from the pain in his abdomen when one of the children had hit him there as a joke. To prevent any further damage on the human male, Kagura grabbed his arm, excused themselves, and pulled him inside her place.
"What the heck were you doing?" she asked him as she began to apply a soothing balm on his torso. Shirtless Sougo had been making her uncomfortable, so she decided to look at the balm tube instead.
"... Playing with the kids. They said they were bored, so we played around while you were away." he shrugged.
"You can leave, you know." she told him haughtily, but he shook his head. "And why not?"
"Like I've told you, I'm not leaving without you."
A week had passed, and Kagura had decided that she had enough of this... running away. It was time to face the music, and the first thing she wanted to do was visit her mother's grave. That morning, just when she was about to leave, he asked, "Where are you going?"
"... Columbarium." she mumbled.
"I'm going with you." before she could protest, he shrugged. "I'm bored, and I brought my own umbrella. We don't have to share so people won't get the wrong idea."
Why did she feel her heart sink after he said that? People were already getting the wrong idea ever since he stepped inside her house, so him and her sharing an umbrella wouldn't be a big deal anymore... though the connotation of being under the same umbrella would give a message that they were... are lovers.
"Suit yourself."
Her mother's grave hasn't changed.
They were currently inside a columbarium where an old man maintained the place. At least it was kept clean, even after fourteen years, and with this, she lit an incense and bowed her head. 'I'm back, Mami... I'm sorry for leaving you.'
At this, she sighed, wondering what else to say. 'I'll be leaving again for Earth... and I'll visit you as much as I can, okay...? Watch over Papi and Kamui for me, wherever those two are...'
As she did all of the customs and rituals for visiting the dead, Okita Sougo stood behind her in silence, waiting.
They went home in silence, umbrellas resting on their shoulders, the air between them filled with awkwardness. After they left the columbarium, Kagura had told him that she would be going back to Earth with him, as she had finally done everything that she had been planning to do.
All Okita did was nod, which surprised her, as he was usually the most vocal and expressive, yet all he did was *nod*.
She had been lost in her thoughts that she had failed to see an elderly woman and nearly tackled her to the ground, if it wasn't for Sougo, who had caught the woman in his arms.
"China, for the love of- watch where you're walking." he glared at her.
"S-Sorry..." she mumbled.
"Oh... you've grown up." said the old woman as she stood up and grabbed Kagura's hands. "And you've found him!"
"W-w-what...!" she exclaimed. "Found who?!"
The old woman smirked at her. "Don't deny it. You've found him. The red strings, my dear, remember? I told you about it when you were younger." she reminded gently.
"Y-yes... yes, you did." she said quietly.
"When's the wedding?" asked the old woman.
"When we get back to Earth, of course." he said it with so much conviction that Kagura wondered how his lie was accepted by the old woman. After the congratulations, she grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back to her house.
"What the hell was that, lying to the old woman?!" she yelled at him as they began removing their footwear by the entrance.
"... It wasn't a lie." he said.
She could only gape at him in shock.
The next day, inside the shuttle back to Earth, she knew her answer.
If fate had been continuously pushing her to that guy, why not... take the plunge and just do it? This was probably not the worse decision she would be doing in her life... and there was always another option to take, which was to run away, just like what she did before. She was okay with starting all over with him, wiping the slate clean, whichever you phrased it.
... Another option was to beat him into submission.
"Hey, about yesterday..." she turned to him.
"What?"
"... Were you serious?" she asked for a final confirmation before giving her word. Kagura was the type never to back down from her word, after all.
"Of course. Why wouldn't I be-" she grabbed the collar of his uwagi to kiss him, and before he could recover from the shock, she took his left hand, intertwined it with her own, and leaned on his shoulder. "C-china...?" for the first time in his life, he stuttered.
"Quiet. Wake me up when we've landed. I wanna sleep."
As Kagura settled herself by sleeping on his shoulder, the Shinsengumi member could hardly contain his excitement. For China, no, Kagura to change her mind... he could nearly believe that the fates had a hand in this. For once, that Mimawarigumi guy wasn't lying: those damn red strings did its wonders, and now... well, he'll have to wait and see again.
He didn't mind waiting anyway.
After all, like everyone else, he had been waiting for her his whole life.
"Sadist, I just want to know... why did you come with me?" she asked him as the shuttle landed in the Terminal back in Edo.
His initial response was a snort, but upon seeing her glare at him with her azure-colored eyes, he sighed. "... Obviously, I wanted to be with you." was his simple reply. [2]
Notes:
[1] Harusame's 7th Division, Lightning Spear - they translated it as 'Thunder Guns' in the subs, but it's inaccurate. The 7th Division is actually called 'Kaminari Yari', which translates to 'Lightning Spear'. I'll definitely go with that over 'Thunder Guns', because it's obvious that guns =/= spear.
[2] That whole conversation was inspired from Final Fantasy IX. It was the conversation between Ipsen and his friend Colin.
I actually finished this before the deadline, but I had a meeting, so I was unable to post this here in time for OkiKagu Month. Still, it's the fic that counts.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this piece. Drop me a review and tell me what you think! :)