I dedicate this story to Jerkygirl, who asked me to write a New Year story... Well that's probably a bit different than what you might expect for a "New Year themed story" but I hope you'll all lke it!
Gintama belongs to Hideaki Sorachi (Didn't do any mistake this time ! :p)
"Hey. You sure you wanna go?"
"Yeah. I'm not that much into traditions, but it's the tenth anniversary... I need to."
This strange conversation between a silver perm haired guy and a red haired girl was happening in the middle of the spatioport. A boy wearing glasses and his sister were also here, silent.
"Kagura-chan, come back quickly, okay?"
"Shinpachi, I'm only leaving for a week or so, you know !"
She tried to sound cheerful, but everyone could see how sad her eyes were. Otae spoke.
"It's just that we all wanted to eat mochi with you, to watch the first sunrise of the year... And you won't get to ring the shrine's bell... And there's only six spaceships a year, so if you miss the return one... "
"Anego. I'm fine. I won't miss my flight. I will be back in ten days. And it's something really important to me."
Gin smiled at her and held her in his arms for a few seconds.
"To think you would ask a spaceship ticket instead of money for New Year... Take care of you."
Kagura returned his smile. The stewardess came to tell her it was time to board. She left her friends without looking back, knowing there would be nothing but sad faces.
Another steward showed her her seat. There was someone sitting next to her, his face glued to the window. She sighed.
"Tell me again why you wanted to come? I told you, you will get bored, and it is forbidden to fight with anyone."
The boy looked at her with a deadpan face.
"China, I don't have any family left to celebrate New Year anyway. I was already bored. At least I'm travelling!"
She put her fist on her hip.
"And you secretly hope that you will find someone to fight."
He opened his eyes as big as he could, wearing an angel face.
"China, I am offended to find out you have such a low opinion of me. You met my sister when she was alive, and I feel it would be fair that I get to know your family too!"
"You already met my father and my brother, so your excuse sucks. Anyway... Ruin the ceremony and I ruin your life."
"You already are ruining it!" He hummed and she punched his arm.
She sighed again. Twelve hours next to him, right?
She felt like she just blinked, but when she opened her eyes and saw her natal planet by the window, she guessed she fell asleep. Okita was barely waking up too. All you could see from the outside was a land covered with dust and clouds pouring tons of water. Kagura felt like a pinch on her heart. With a shaky voice, she whispered "Welcome to my planet, Sadist."
Okita kept silent until they left the airport to meet Kamui and Umibozu. When his rival's father stared at him and said with a cold voice "Kagura, can you tell me why this human is here?", he couldn't stop it. "Hey baldy, looks like there are even less hair on your head than last time! You must be cold without it!"
Kagura plunged her elbow into his hip and gave him a cold look.
"If you came to say that, you are free to stay at the airport and to take the next rocket, got it? And, Papi, I'm pretty sure that we were allowed to be accompanied... He's my plus one."
Kamui smirked.
"That only meant you could bring your wife/husband. And since I doubt the two of you are married.."
The two Yato males were glaring at the human boy, menacing, as if saying Don't you tell me you're dating my daughter/sister.
"Oy, are we staying the night here or are we going?"
Umibozu turned around and started walking, his umbrella above his head. Kamui did the same, and Kagura opened hers, offering Okita to share it with her.
He could see by the way she was looking straight ahead that this place was bringing many memories to her. And by how she was gripping the handle, not only good ones.
They soon arrived to a house. A simple house, looking a lot like Earth houses. Occidental ones. A tear rolled down the girl's cheek as she looked at her house, and when she passed the door, she murmured a soft "I'm home" that Okita was probably the only one to hear.
The house didn't look like someone was living in it. It was clean, but more like someone dusted it a few days ago. There weren't any personal belonging : furnitures weren't full of mess, the coat rat was empty (but the coats they just put), and there wasn't any smell of food, laundry, flowers. Not even a clock ticking.
"You, you will sleep on the sofa. The ceremony is starting tomorrow, and I will not allow any mess. This is something important." Umibozu was almost barking at Okita. It was almost night, and even though they ate and slept in the plane, they shared a meal in silence and they all went to sleep without exchanging a word.
Okita woke up to see Kagura sitting on a chair next to him, her hands holding a frame.
It was the picture of a young woman, maybe in her late twenties, and incredibly pretty. She looked like an older version of China, thought Okita. Kagura raised her head, her cheeks soaking.
"This is my mother. She was very ill, but she still kept on raising Kamui and me. Papi was never home, but she was always smiling. Telling us he would soon come back. When she was angry she was the scariest person ever. Even Kamui avoided doing anything wrong before her. And one day, Papi wasn't here, Kamui was outside fighting, and I was playing in my room... I heard a plate breaking in the living room. She was there, lying on the ground. And no matter how much I would call her, she never woke up...
Her voice broke, and Okita jumped to hold her in his arms. She was shaking so much she had to hold him not to fall. He stroked her head until she calmed down. Her head still buried on his chest, she started to speak again.
"About the ceremony.. The tradition tells that no one must talk. Everyone of the Tribe will put an object they chose in a box. Then there will be a banquet, and the box will be burnt at the beginning of it. Only then we are allowed to talk. As an outsider, you won't have to do anything. Just sit when everyone sits, stand when everyone stands."
He stroke her back a last time and she removed her head from his chest. A minute later, her brother came.
"Get ready, we're leaving in five minutes."
He didn't say anything about his sister's swollen eyes. Okita noticed that Kamui eyes matched his sister's even though he probably washed his face to hide it.
They left the house and silence fell.
Okita didn't really know how Yato took care of their dead. And then he saw the cemetery. The umbrellas.
There were umbrellas dug in the ground, opened to protect a plate with a name carved on it and a single white and beautiful flower, ivy climbing up their handles. There were people gathered around a bunch of "graves". He followed his trope, unable to take his eyes off the flower.
"That's a memory flower, whispered Kagura. They bloom once a year, the last day of the year."
Her hand searched for Okita's and he took it.
The ceremony went as she said. Everyone was leaving something in a big black box, one by one. Kagura left what looked like a child's drawing. She stayed a bit looking inside of the box and came back next to Okita. Some people didn't go to the box. The "plus one"s. Then everyone stood up and walked a bit, until they reached a big tent, a table full of food under it. There was a pile of wood next to that, and Umibozu, Kamui and Kagura carried the box on it, before setting fire to it. When the box was nothing more than ashes, people started to talk, some serious, some cheerful. There were a bunch of kids, looking like they were five or six, who were fighting each other with strength that no human would have.
"Let me introduce you some of my family, as you wanted to know them. Here's my aunt Lei. She's my mother's younger sister. She lives on another galaxy with her husband, there, Thom. Here's my father's cousin, his wife, and the three kids you saw fighting are his. And there..."
For twenty minutes, she showed him people, talking cheerfully, as if nothing happened.
"And finally, there is an old friend of the family, Mira."
Okita saw a girl a bit older than him, with curly blonde hair, a frank look, and a big smile. She was talking to Kamui.
"Our fathers wanted them to get married some day, but you know my brother... Well, when he left home he made clear he would never marry her, or anyone. But I still think he likes her a bit."
Okita tried to imagine them as a couple. Imagining Kamui being with somebody just seemed... Awkward.
"Hey, Sadist, thanks for coming. There is a ceremony every tenth anniversary on the last day of the year, when the flowers are blooming. And... I am happy I didn't come alone. It's been ten years, but the wound's still open. Thank you."
He slightly squeezed her hand on his. If her father saw them, he didn't say anything about it.
"Hey, you know what? Go to my mother's grave. Meeting you here in five minutes!"
She left him, running away. Curious, he did as told. He sat in front of the umbrella. It wasn't raining but the ground was still a bit wet.
Five minutes later, she was back, a backpack on her back, two bowls of something fuming in her hands, a third one holding who knows how on her head.
She put the bowls on the floor, opened her bag to take a tablecloth, laid it on the ground, put two of the bowls on it, the third one under the umbrella.
"Hey Mami! Let me introduce me my friend. He is a sadistic bastard but I'm sure you would love him. Sadist, let me introduce you my mother."
"That's a pleasure to meet you, Ma'am. I might be hitting a bit your precious daughter, but don't you worry: I won't let anyone else hurt her."
Trying to ignore the blush on her cheeks, Kagura continued.
"As you know, I am now living on Earth, with a poor useless guy who treats me well. Anyway, there is a tradition on Earth where you eat soba and mochi and you watch the first sunrise of the year... I might not be on Earth right now but this is important for them so it is for me. If you're watching me from up here, please have fun with us!"
She took some mochi from her bag, smiled at Okita and gave him some. They ate, they lay side by side, talking about random stuff, joking, fighting a bit.
The moon was high in the sky when Kagura turned her head, gave a light kiss on her rival's lips, and whispered.
"Happy New Year, Sadist."
Okita locked her fingers between his.
"Happy New Year, China".
And they fell asleep.
They woke up too late to watch the first sunrise. They let each other's hand go. They acted as if that night, that kiss never happened. They kept on fighting, Okita eventually managed to fight some Yato, and got severely beaten up. They did not miss their return flight.
Even on Earth, they never talked about that night again. Never told anyone. Because they both knew that their feelings were mutual, that they would always be, they decided that being grown-ups and formalise it all could wait a few years.
Thanks for reading ! Feel free to leave a comment. And Happy New Year everyone~
By the way, I was reading Divergent spinoff lately, and I noticed that everything was written using present tense. I checked other books and present, present everywhere! In France we use past in our books, hence the fact all my stories are written in the past... I wanted to know, does that bother you? Would you rather read a story written with present tense or past tense? I'm curious so let me know!
Oh and if you read my ongoing story, "Dear Diary", it might come out Friday and not tomorrow, depending on how much sleep I'm getting tonight, hehe...