Hello, it's me, Akely. I'm sporadic as always right now— f*ck schools. Actually, I've written a lot, there are like 4 chapters of K&C and some one-shots but they need revisions.
So, here. It's going to be a little angsty, probably the only one from this fanfic too as it will be a lot more fun starting from chapter 2 :D
New Moon
Chapter one
The Shinsengumi was a wreck at this instant.
"Pops, you can't be serious. They wouldn't request this kind of mission from us, they usually get the Mimawarigumi, we're not assigned to do the guards anymore. Elite stays with the elite."
"Mah you're wrong today Sougo," Matsudaira blew off his smoke onto Hijikata's face— much to his displease— "But seems they're busy this month with someth'ing, I forgot what exactly. Anyway we have to keep an eye on the Joui patriots and protect Soyo-sama during the festivities, they'll aim for her. The Shoguness." Matsudaira inhaled more of his large cigarette, his whole body was slouched against the wooden chair while his legs rested on his study. In front of him stood the commander, the vice-commander, and the first captain division. "You three shou'd be happy. We'd earn money, lot of money."
Kondo looked too white to admit the truth, Sougo never cared so naturally, Hijikata had to announce the news. Bad news, to be exact. While this kind of request would have been welcomed as an amazing opportunity— they never appreciated losing against the white police— this time, not. "Matsudaira-san, we have a problem."
"What?"
"Shimamoto, Kusanabe, Yamamoto, Yamoto, Kusanagi…" He tried to list the men in his mind, the whole group of men that had decided to end their duties for...Well. "It's June, after all. Lot of our men married and decided to resign from being an officer for their future family's well-being. Nothing surprising since it happens each year but we lost lot of good'one. And now, this…"
Kondo nodded— albeit in a more embarrassed manner— Okita sighed. He didn't want to recruit. He hated recruiting, especially since had been the one to do it recently. Most newbies never last long, it was probably just a pass when every boy had dreamt of being an officer and protecting Edo. Then, they'd notice what the job actually implied and run the tail between their legs. Cowards. "We're not enough for this job. Newbies need training first, it will be too late."
"We have plenty of remaining men." Matsudaira cocked an eyebrow, not impressed by the situation.
"Of men, yes, of skilled men, however," the red-clad captain shook his head. "Can't say the same thing."
"I see." He removed his legs from the table and stood up. Kondo was shrieking as one never pleased to anger his superior even when it wasn't his fault. They were just out of luck this time. Hijikata gulped and Okita waited until the old man just laughed at their face with a pointing finger, none of them respectful. "Don't make this' face, are you guys constipated?"
"Matsudaira-san! B-but what about the request, then?"
"Don't have to worry bout' it, I have a plan. Did'you guys heard of the Amanto Mercenary Guild?"
They shook their head. Lately, Yamazaki had been busying the TV with records of his beloved android and frankly speaking, none of them had wanted to bother him when he resembled more of a maniac than the kind anpan-man he usually was.
"Amantos are hardly accepted'ere now, you guys know it, right?" Okita uncomfortably agreed. "So they've made a guild, people request them for cheap and the popularity of their service is rising. Even here. It's mostly for the three warriors' tribes" He chuckled to himself. "No one fears that stupid antenna prince, but the Shinras, Yatos, and Dakinis marked people's minds."
"You want to request them, then?"
His laughter only amplified and Hijikata felt stupid, all of sudden. "Them? One of them's enough. Elite stay with the elite? We're rebels, have been ones, so we'll request the best. At least to bother the whities, they never request them. Too proud'."
"Wouldn't it cost too much, Pops?" Especially with all the Dom Perignon you buy at Boss lady's cabaret.
"Nah. They're cheap, I said. Even the elite." He smirked at the youngest, "I believe in'em. They're strong, and the Guild taught'em how to handle duties and missions. Or do you have a better plan, Sougo?" The concerned paused. He pondered, and shook his head.
"No."
"Then, the case is closed. The mercenary will show up in three days or a week if they're far. Depends on what they're doing right now." He rummaged in the pocket of his large black coat and his face lightened when he caught what he had wanted. The three others stared curiously at the small card he was extending to them now, "That's their mark, this card is the proof. You get the identity, their rank and success rate."
"Fine. So how do we request one?"
"Don't worry bout' it. I met a friend who works there," actually he was a superior much like himself— albeit in the Amanto Mercenary Guild— and was drinking at the cabaret. They quickly befriended each other for their similar tastes which led them to offer disposition if one of them needed help. "Well, you guys can dispose of yourselves," Matsudaira refrained of prolonging the sentence with the truth that was I promised Sen-chan that I'll visit her at the cabaret today!
With a sigh escaping from his lips, Okita Sougo had just finished his daily shift composed of one morning patrol and paperwork, a lot of paperwork. It had been very tiring for him who was once more of the rather than the passive as an officer, before, he did afternoon and night patrols, fought Joui patriots or trained his men but then, since the Shinsengumi had changed, there was less of action and more diplomacy. Each day, he tried to motivate himself on the work, perhaps, because there was once a close girl to him that had been cast away from the Earth.
For that same reason, after a hard and very much boring day of work he always found himself meeting with Danna at Snack Otose. He strolled the rather large street until reaching the destination, a small bar just below the Yorozuya. Being a familiar there Sougo saluted the old day that he called granny much to her displease and took the seat just at the silver perm's right.
"The usual please," he said to Otose. Warm sake, always warm sake because when he was with the silver perm they always talked about the topic he couldn't possibly avoid no matter how much it hurt. He didn't spare a glance at his drinking companion and sipped a cup of the beverage first, only after did he talk. "How's today?"
"Same as yesterday, and before yesterday, and before before yesterday," Gintoki answered, "Still can't believe how things turned out. The brat is away, somewhere chasing alien asses to kick in space and I'm here. We're here. I never knew she was going to make the Yorozuya feel so empty, this vulgar snot kid." He looked up at him. "What about you?"
"Hijikata-san is still breathing, what can I say?" He didn't expect less from Danna, he was still at it, same always the same old topic which keeps coming back relentlessly. "This is the end of the month; did you receive her letter?"
"Well yeah," the samurai rummaged in his pants pocket for the missive carefully enveloped in a red paper. It seemed, with all the years that had passed, Kagura still loved the color dearly. Or perhaps she was feeling nostalgic? He honestly didn't know, but he did instead find the letter and put it on the bar. "It's shorter than last time, she's not too far from the Earth. Mars, she said, just had finished a mission. I still don't know what she does in outer space, sometimes it looks like alien-hunting, sometimes like a Yorozuya kind of request."
"Must be fun, it's not fair, that she got all the fun up there." Okita's comment make Gintoki groan.
"I know," he raised his voice and glanced at the young man, "You're not here for that. You're here to know if she will return one day. Oogushi-kun said so, that you don't look preoccupied the day because there's work to do but you don't sleep at night. You look like a panda."
"…I could say the same for you."
"I'm worried as a father, I don't know how did she grow, this brat. It will be the death of me when she'll come back with a stomach round as a ball and certainly not from eating too much," he explained. Otose was blowing smoke, as usual, she listened to them and their words, it surprised her at first upon seeing the officer all sullen, now she was used to his frowns. "You still feel guilt over this. The rival you had protected— you failed, just this time. And you should have turned the page long ago."
"Don't make it sound so cheesy Danna, it's not like that." Of course not, it wasn't so simple or else he would have turned the page a long time ago, as Gintoki has said. "It was just my duty to guarantee her…staying there. She fought with us, she got injured so she should have been recompensed."
"World is unfair, humans are weak and have doubt. They are scared of the unknown, perhaps she's better up there, Souichiro-kun. This brat doesn't fear anything, she fought head this stupid Utsuro, even if he was stronger. Far stronger than all of us. This world is too little for her and humans too foolish."
"She didn't want to leave, Danna. She had no choice." Okita had just finished gulping the whole bottle, he needed the alcohol in his head to have the courage and let the words come out of his mouth. Usually, he didn't think much of China— he was busy and had a life to lead but when there was nothing to do, there's just her face suddenly appearing. He didn't confide himself in anyone but perhaps Kondo-san or even Hijikata, though you could add the Yorozuya boss to the list now. Kondo-san and Hijikata hadn't known the girl very well to the point it became uncomfortable to discuss about her with them, so he let himself be under influence and throw everything he kept in his stomach to Danna. The very father of the brat.
"She would have either case. Her idiot of a father, the baldy, said so too. That she was bright and curious that had been in the shadows for too long. Earth was her first sun but she wants more, she'll explore the universe, kick villains' asses like the violent girl she is," a clang echoed as Gintoki crushed the floor with Lake Touya for the nth time. (Otose growled but didn't orally reprimand him, she understood too, what he felt.) "You couldn't have stopped her, nor you, nor me."
"Will she come back?" The flaxen-haired captain pitifully dropped his head on the table, his voice sounded dizzy as his mind and with a bit of surprise, Gintoki saw in him the eighteenth teenager who loved to anger Kagura so much, yet wanted to protect her as well. She was innocent, naïve, not totally unaware of what happened in the harsh reality but she was different nonetheless.
She was undirtied by blood yet, unlike all of them minus Pachi. The heartless murderer in the form of Okita Sougo had been caught by this light— he cherished it. Like he did, or like Kamui did in his own twisted way.
"I don't know. Kagura never talks about returning, she's too busy, I think, or she's not ready to get back here. Y'know, if I was to be tormented by hate-burning stares and to be called a monster, I wouldn't come back, too."
"She's not a monster."
"Why do you miss her? That's unlike of you to be sentimental."
Okita raised his head to meet Gintoki's tired face, then he shook his head. "I don't know. She's not always here in my mind, she shows up when I'm at the worst, like always. That brat. How was I supposed to know that she'd let me like this?"
"You sound in love— bu you two weren't so intimate Sofa-kun, you're a hundred years too young to dare to even target her as a female," he threatened as ill intent oozed from the silver perm before he sighed. "I think that should be what you feel when you lose a great rival, especially one like Kagura."
"We didn't share secrets. China had never heard of Ane-ue, but she was just there, you know. Grinning like a madman and turned around, before throwing a sukonbu at me when I was mourning Ane-ue." They never discussed about their nightmares or deep, deep fear but there were times where they conversed about which food was the best, or who was the worst— Gorilla or Madao? And it did mark him. It just did. "She was just…here."
Gintoki patted the red-clad officer with empathy. "I guess gorilla wasn't so wrong then. Losing a great enemy is like losing a great friend, Sofa-kun. That's how this damned brat is, she comes suddenly, enter your life and burn memories of her in your mind and as suddenly as she came, she leaves and let you a sukonbu-shaped hole in your whole being and that, while she had broken your bones and used all of your money for disgusting sea weeds."
"It's not Sofa-kun," Okita breathed out before falling asleep. "It's Okita."
"Yeah yeah, Sofa, Souichiro or Okita— it's all the same."
Before leaving, Gintoki dug one more time his hand in one of his pockets to get out a creased white paper. On there, a doodle of Kagura herself, drawn by her hands too. Apparently, she had problems mailing pictures of her so instead, to show him how much she had grown overtime, she sent him a badly-drawn girl in an outfit he'd have banned and fighting tentacles-aliens with Sadaharu.
He put out the drawing besides Okita and finally quit the room, not paying, as usual.
"Ahh— today is a sucky night too. Better play Pachinko!"
"Come back you stupid perm head !" Otose cried out, chasing after him.
Sougo looked at the drawing, a sigh had escaped from his lips once more. The alcohol was not doing him any good— he'll be better once sober. Not more whimpering of China, like every morning, he'll wake up, do his jobs and forget her. Perhaps the mission will do him, he just missed the past— the 'before" the change and everything included in it, China was just the fucking cherry on the top of everything. Perhaps, he just missed the time where he had fewer responsibilities and well, a life that was less dull and more fun.
The good old times.
