And there I am, back with a new story! Last of my summer holidays... I'm going to spend 3 weeks eating fudge, shortbreads, cream teas and CARROT CAKE. Oh god I love Carrot Cake. Could eat it all day long.
Hope you'll enjoy it ! (by the way if you read the scans, isn't this just being more and more EPIC ?)
I do not own Gintama, Soraki Hideachi does :p
Minors Yoshiwara arc spoilers.
Edit : removed the French bits. If you see any left, just let me know, it's like they're hiding when I look for them! xD
It all started when the Shinsengumi received a parcel from an unknown sender. It was a big box, twice as long as large, and really light. The Shinsengumi soldiers were gathering around the package whose addressee was 'one of the three leaders of the building'. This alone was enough to make anyone suspicious : was it a trap? A bomb aimed at Kondo, Hijikata or Okita, the three biggest threats to any hoodlum out there ?Gossips were gettint worse. They said it was a box sent by the Joui. That it contained all the pains in the world, a true Pandora's box, and that the opening of that box would mean the end of the world.
But, making his was through the crowd, a man had another idea of what could be in the box. He grabbed it, shaked it, listened to the noise inside. With an inspired look, he nodded, filled his lungs with air and called.
"Hijikata-san? Your inflatable doll is here! Couldn't you ask a discreet delivery instead?"
Hijikata appeared, furious, and glared at Okita.
"I have no idea of what you're talking about, but if there is indeed a doll in there, and if you have something to do with it, you're dead."
"Hey, don't blame me when I'm innocent! To prove you I am sorry to accuse you, let me poison you. After all, might me Kondo-san's, right? Would be the kind of things he'd do!"
Kondo popped out of nowhere, looking at the parcel whith curiosity. He looked at it carefully and shook his head.
"Nope, that's not for me, mine is still in a good... I mean, such a charismatic man doesn't need this kind of thing!"
The three of them were glaring at the others with a suspicious look. With a cold and sadistic voice, Okita asked.
"Well then, why don't we open it? At least we'll know!"
And they continued glaring at the others. Who would be the one to show a sign of weakness? Sighing when he understood they wouldn't move, Yamazaki opened the box On the inside, no inflatable doll, just an umbrella.
Not just an umbrella in fact. A purple one.
"Oh, Sougo, it's for you then, your Chinese girlfriend sent you a present."
"Girlfirend ? I'd rather die. Speaking of dying, why don't you go, Hijikata?"
They heard a strange noise at the bottom of the box. A vibration. Kondo was about to make a lewd joke when Okita stopped him by catching the small phone moving under the umbrella.
It was a cheap phone you could buy with prepaid cards. Even though he didn't know why, Okita thought the presence of that phone made the package gloomier.
"Shinsengumi, Okita Sougo speaking. May I ask you who you are?"
"The Vice-Commander Okita? How fun, yes, it will truly be funnier... Let's play a game, will you?"
"Ah, Hijikata-san, it's your mother. She's telling you she's dishineriting you and that she's willing to see you doing a parachute jump without a parachute from the Empire State Building.
Hijikata gave him a cold look. Kondo silently articulated "phone prank?". Okita shrugged.
"I guess you had our package."
"Oh, you sent a package? Sorry, we thought that was just some extra cardboard to use in the fireplace."
He could hear a laughter from the phone.
"Looks like the phone made it through the fire, then, since we are able to talk. Anyway, I was telling you that we were going to play a..."
Clic. Okita just hung up. Somebody asking stupid questions and doing stupid and obvious comments wasn't worth his attention. He was about to throw the phone as far as he could when the phone vibrated again. He sighed and picked up.
"I have a feeling you don't wanna play... Yet, this is a wonderful, very sunny day, and there is a prize to win... Or let's say there's a prize put at stake: win and you win the prize, lose and the prize is destroyed. And the longer you take, the worse it'll be."
Okita rose an eyebrow.
"A prize? What kind of prize?"
"Ah, if only you saw that seesight I have! That's splendid, is there a better place to sunbathe? By the way, don't you find it weird to see that some people are hiding behind their umbrellas when there is such a beautiful sun? Why would they need it?"
Okita froze a moment. What prize? Just how dumb was he? He just dropped the phone and started running, under the puzzled eyes of his companions.
While he was running with all his strength, his brain was also working at full speed. The best place to sunbathe? Couldn't be a crowded place, he could forget the parks. Another place... He was sure he knew what would be that "perfect" place.
And then, he stopped. He knew where that was. When they arrived in Edo, when he was younger, Kondo told him they had to keep under surveillance an amusement park in the town, at the top of a hill. He suggested Okita to try a lot of attractions in order to "be able to see any Joui terrorist, wherever they are". Okita never had the chance to go on any attraction before, and he discovered rollercoasters, merry-go-round, haunted houses and of course the ferris wheel with all the joy a kid could feel (but of course, neither him or Kondo ever told anyone, even though everyone guessed just by seeing the kid's shiny eyes). The park had closed the year before because of a loss of tourists, and it was officially closed to the public. Yet, its attractions were still there, all exposed to the sun.
He turned on an alley, then another, and another one, until he made it to the park.
The place seemed empty. Far away, he could hear a bell ringing twelve o'clock; the sun was litterally burning. He didn't know how long he had before it was too late, but the dark aura surrounding they place confirmed he was where he should be. He climbed up the locked portal and made a few steps. He stepped on the left, naturally, to duck the shuriken that would have killed him.
"I even have a welcome comitee? I thought you called me to tell me I just had to win my prize, was I tricked?"
The same gloomy laughter, the one heard on the phone, echoed, and he just couldn't find where it was from.
"So you came alone? Oh disappointing, I thought you would have come with your friends... Ha, I could have killed the three Sinsengumi leaders in a row! Well, let's start with you, I'll take care of them later."
Okita smirked (well, that was his usual smile).
"You know, I've been trying for more than ten years to get rid of Hijikata, I'm afraid he won't die that easily. And you won't be able to scratch our Commander, whatever weapon you're planning to use."
"Is he that strong?"
The voice was ironic, but Okita's dark aura grew.
"That's not what I meant. It's just that... None of you will get out alive."
He had unsheathed his sword and disappeared in a blink of an eye to appear again behind a man standing on a tree branch. He cut his throat without further ado.
He could feel another fifteen men. It would take some time, but that wasn't impossible to take them all down. Quite easy, in fact.
He was getting sick of this sadistic laughter, sadistic enough to compete with his own. He would have liked to know where it was from to stop it forever, rather than taking care of the minions.
"But, Captain Okita, have you forgotten your special prize? You know, there are a few things that don't like much heat..."
Okita swore. He couldn't chose. His mind was telling him to forget the minions and to think about what was more important, but his instinct called for blood, whispering him that as long as there were living people out there, he couldn't leave the park anyway.
A blade, ripping through the air next to his ear, helped him chosing.
A strong smell of tobacco made him sick.
"Eh? You wanted to keep this all for yourself? Sougo, have I not taught you to share?"
He looked behind him. On his left, Kondo was holding his sword with a provocative attitude. On his right, Hijikata had his hand on his sword's guard, still on his belt, and was quietly smoking. Behind them, a dozen of men wearing the Shinsengumin uniform.
"Didn't know you were running that fast, it was hard to follow you... But we thought you were going to keep all the fun for yourself so we brought some mates to play. Heard you won at the lottery? Shouldn't you be taking your present before someone else does?"
Okita smiled at Kondo.
"Just leave me giving their boss the final blow. Have as much fun as you want with the others.
He left them. Two men tried to stop him, but Hijikata killed them on one blow.
He had to hurry: he already lost too much time. He was looking all around him: the ground was smoking because of the heat, and whatever lying on it would bake. Still, there was nothing. Nothing but the attractions.
And he understood. There wasn't nothing, he wasn't looking were he should! As soon as he rose his eyes, he saw her.
The ferris wheel, still and rusted, was the perfect place to see all Edo. It was the highest point of the park. And, tightly tied to the burning metal beams, a fifteen years-old girl was the only colored point of all the attraction. Her eyes were closed, her head hanging. She looked... Lifeless.
But Okita refused to be negative. He would only trust what he could check.
The metal was burning his palms, melting his shoes. He could smell something between burning flesh and melted plastic. But that didn't matter. He climbed, and climbed again, until he reached that frail motionless body. When he got next to her, he noticed that the red of her dress was contrasting with the white of her skin, paler than ever. It was damn hot out there, but instead of getting redder, her skin just got whiter. Okita saw with horror some kinds of cracks on her arms, on her face – as if she was cracking with the heat. He remembered the story he heard about that Yato in Yoshiwara, who had been sun deprived so long that the day sun touched his skin, his whole body cracked to death.
The beams were wide enough to sit on them, even if the heat went through his clothes and burnt him even more. He unsheathed his katana and cut the ropes, holding her so that she wouldn't fall.
As soon as she was free, he covered her with his coat to protect her from the sun, and he carefully got down the wheel, holding her tightly with one arm, hoping she wouldn't break – he couldn't know if the cracks were just on the skin or if they were deeper.
He noticed that every bit of skin that had touched the metal was badly burnt. Just like a regular human. But humans don't cracke to death, he thought bitterly.
When he finally landed on the ground, he hurried to an area with trees, and shadows. The heat was still there, but at least she wasn't directly exposed to the sun. He took the coat that had been protecting her and folded it to use it as a pillow. And he finally decided to check her pulse.
At first, he couldn't feel anything. But, just as he was ready to do CPR, he felt a heartbeat. And another one. A third one. More and more. Yato's healing power was doing its job : her body was healing itself. At least, it was fighting to stay alive.
She moaned. That sounded like a pain moaning. She was probably suffering a lot. Okita removed the hair sticking on her face, gently ruffling her hair, doing his best so that she wouldn't be too hot. He whispered.
"Hold on, China. I'm not going to let you down, so hang on."
He had felt the ennemy's presence on his back for a while. But he still made sure she was comfortably lying, that her face was starting to show any sign of life, that she was starting to move her fingers. And then only he grabbed his sword with his burnt hand and turned back.
"Congratulations, you won! Ah, but if no one take care of her, no matter if she's on the shadow or not, she won't make it out, right?"
Okita clenched his fists. He was boiling up with rage.
"Don't you worry, I'm gonna slaughter you and then I will save here – that's our job, in the Shinsengumi. Just to know? Why her? And why the Shinsengumi?"
"The second question is far more easy. Why the Shinsengumi? Well, you're in charge of the order here. And, as you can guess... I want to destroy this order. I want to rule that country, so I have to take down everyone that would stop me. And since you're only three to be a real threat, I didn't want to lose my time taking down your weak soldiers."
"And her?"
"Well, she was a... bonus. At first I just wanted to use a regular citizen as a bait, so I looked for someone close to you and weak. I was about to kidnap that glasses boy when I saw her fighting against you. I got straight away that she was a Yato, and a Yato boy looking a lot like her just attacked some of my men two weeks ago, killing them all. I knew their sun weakness, and, thinking I could get my revenge on their specie while taking down the Shinsengumi, I stole her umbrella while she was taking a nap and I even could move her to a sunny place to weaken her. She didn't even woke up!"
Okita smiled.
"I don't get it. Why did you 'move her to the sun'? Why not kidnapping her at that time?"
"I know how strong the Yatos are. If she had woken up, with all her strength, I wouldn't have much chance to get out alive."
"Really? Only a few chances? Then, let me warn you..."
The two swords banged together with a loud noise.
"I'm way stronger than her, so your chances go from few to none."
The man smiled and jumped backward. The fight was impressive to watch, but it was obvious that Okita was winning. While he was attacking non-stop, all the man could do was protecting himself and dodging.
Final blow. Okita's blade went through the man's chest as if it was made of butter.
"Rule the country? Don't make me laugh! The only reason you could kidnap a little girl was because she is a heavy sleeper! You might have accessed to the throne, but you wouldn't have last more than two minutes."
He drew his sword back and calmly put it back in its scabbard, while the foe's body was collapsing.
"Be grateful I was the one taking care of you... If Danna heard about that, you would have known a living hell."
He slowly walked to Kagura. Her eyes were still closed, but her chest heaved with every breath.
A voice came from behind.
"Captain... You might need this, don't you?"
He turned back. Yamazaki held on one hand the purple umbrella, on the other a bottle of water. Okita first took the bottle, watering his eyemask and using it as a glove to moisturize her skin. He noticed with relief that when the cracks were moisturized, they were slowly disappearing. He then took the bottle again and tried to make her drink, holding her head up so that she could choke.
"Captain, your hands!"
"Let's talk about that later, Zaki. Tell me you came by car."
"We didn't, but the reinforcement we called did. It's parked in front of the main gate."
"Great. Zaki, help me." asked Okita, putting Kagura on his back.
Yamazaki opened the umbrella and walked next to Okita, protecting the Yato girl from the sun beams. When he put her in the car, Hijikata sighed that they were all going to walk home as their car was being stolen by his young comrade.
When they arrived at the hospital, doctors took care of her right away, while Okita was telling them all he knew about the Yato constitution. But when the nurses wanted to take care of his many burns, they just couldn't.
The small hand of the Yato girl grabbed his own and for nothing in the world she would have let him go.
If you liked it, if you didn't, if you like Carrot Cake, if you don't, just tell me ! You guys make my day at every review!