She's Beautiful when She Fights
A young man distinguished by the black Shinsengumi uniform he wore sheathed his katana, a smug smile on his face. He found it strange that even though the Shinsengumi had been in operation for more than a few years now, and his skill with the blade had become little less than legend, he still came across those few brave souls who thought they could challenge him in a fight. Cowering on the ground near him was one of those brave souls. A mugger. The mugger's sword had been stabbed into the ground, the temper patterns of its steel blade glistening in the light of the late afternoon sun light. The young thief's hand lay over the pommel of the sword, grasping at it as tightly as a drowning man clutched at a straw. His breathing was ragged and his clothes were blood stained but in reality he was none the worse for wear, the officer had not aimed to kill him but had instead executed a number of shallow cuts and strikes to wear him down.
"You going to return that coin purse now?" the officer asked leaning down from the hip as he asked, his face now came up almost level with that of the mugger.
Without a word, the wounded man took out a fat, heavy looking, silk embroidered coin purse from the folds of his hakama. His hands trembled violently as he handed the purse over.
The officer took the purse and raised himself upright. He did not turn to leave but stood over the mugger for a moment. The mugger shivered as he took in the form of the Shinsengumi officer who stood impassively before him, eyes hooded in a shadow cast from a nearby building.
The officer at last turned to leave.
"Y-you're not g-going to arrest me?" the mugger called his voice tremulous, confused by the sudden change of events.
He had stood over the mugger earlier to assess that the cuts he had administred to the criminal's forearm and wrists would leave him incapable of the quick and deft movements that a purse snatcher required. There was no need to arrest him if he no longer posed a threat.
"I don't need to," he replied not pausing to turn back.
Sougo Okita sat on the bottom stair of a dango shop taking advantage of the shade the linen awning forming the verandah of the store offered against the hot mid afternoon sun. He was supposed to be on patrol but the heat, coupled with a genuine lack of interest in his current duty and a deep desire to annoy the vice commander of the Shinsengumi who had assigned him this particular patrol had prompted him to strap on his red sleep mask and take an impromptu siesta.
"Oi Sougo! Heard you recently got into some money, come on treat me to a parfait!" a familiar voice called.
Okita tugged the sleep mask an inch up his face and peered at the man that stood before him, his curly silver hair rustled faintly in a passing summer breeze and he bore a huge grin on his face.
"I don't know what you're talking about, danna-sama," he replied at last.
"Eh? Come on Sougo! You caught some mugger a few days back, right? And the victim gave you a little cash bonus for the effort you put in to retrieve his coin purse, right? So come on, treat me!" the man had now moved closer.
There was no reply.
"Oi Sougo, I thought we were friends," the man said, his tone suddenly serious.
Sougo merely readjusted the sleep mask over his eyes. He liked the silver haired man well enough and even considered him a part of his rather limited circle of friends but he could not resist the chance to torture him a little. He could not quite place why he regarded the man in such great esteem, it may have been based on respect, for the silver haired man-once known as the white demon during the Joui war- was one of the most skilled swordsmen he had ever encountered, maybe even better than he was. It may also have been due to the similarities in their personalities, a thought that brought a small smile to his lips. Most likely though, it was the fact that a few months earlier, when his sister Mistuba had come to visit, the silver haired man named Gintoki Sakata, had agreed to help him convince his sister that he had managed to improve his unapproachable personality enough to make a friend.
"Tch! Hey, Don't ignore me you bastard!" Gintoki whined flicking at Okita's head.
The corners of the young officer's lips twitched, "Shouldn't you be ashamed, asking for money from your junior danna?"
Gintoki opened his mouth to retort but finding his mind blank remained silent. He stood up, having given up on getting a free parfait he thought he would make his way to the pachinko parlour. His horoscope as predicted that morning by his favourite news anchor, Ketsuno Ana, had alluded to good luck that day.
Okita pulled out his wallet and fished out a few coins. He threw them at the silver haired man who caught them easily in one hand.
"Thank you!" Gintoki said before running off down the street.
The monotony of the afternoon broken by the exchange, Okita pulled off his sleep mask and slipped it into his blazer pocket. He considered following Gintoki for a moment but thought better of it. What would they talk about he wondered? Sweets? He was not particularly fond of them. It was strange that he considered the man a friend but knew next to nothing about him save for his penchant for sugary snacks and his occupation . Sakata Gintoki owned the Yorozuya-Gin-Chan, a freelance odd jobs business, which took work from all sorts of clients doing any kind of work for a fee. Business at the Yorozuya was however, almost always slow. It didn't help that Gintoki took to doing quite a few charity cases.
Okita stood up and stretched before walking out onto the street. His patrol duty was almost over and another officer was scheduled to replace him in another half hour. It wouldn't hurt to cut off early, he resolved.
As he made his way down the main street of the Kabuki-chou, his mind wandered to the other 2 workers of the Yorozuya, the bespectacled Shimura Shinpachi and a young girl, Okita snorted, the term girl seemed laughable when used to describe Kagura.
The shinsengumi officer thought back to his first meeting with the red haired pocket hercules.
He had been wandering from stall to stall at a festival that marked the 20th anniversary of the end of the national isolasionist policy when he had arrived at a stall where a particularly amusing exchange was occuring. A girl in a red chinese dress was shooting at the owner of the stall and demanding that he give her the items she shot off his person as prizes. Okita had then himself grabbed a toy gun and shot at the stall owner's gold plated watch. He smiled at the memory, he supposed it was then that their rivalry had began. The red head had shot him a deathly glare, and then leaned down to take aim. He had followed suit and they had began a competition that involved shooting at and claiming different items on the stall owner's body, Kagura had even gone as far as claiming a nipple!
She had been awfully accurate,Okita mused.
The temperature had fallen slightly as the sun moved further to the Western sky and a cooling breeze wafted through the air causing Okita's light brown hair to whip gently over his eyes. He folded his arms behind his head and used them as a head rest.
She was no ordinary girl that one. Literally and figuratively. She was a member of the Yato, the strongest beings known in the universe, and thus an alien on earth, but Okita was sure that even amongst the Yato, Kagura was one of a kind. She did not coo and gush as many girls her age did on occasion, she picked her nose and ears in public and he had personally heard her make comments that would make a life long Yoshiwara girl blush without batting an eyelash!
"She's probably off playing with that damn dog of hers," he mumbled.
Okita turned left off the main street and onto a side street lined on both sides with small restaurants, the path was empty save for a few pedestrians but from inside the restaurants he could hear the clinking of cutlery on bowls and the murmur of voices and laughter.
He was nearly at the end of the street, and thus close to his destination, the Shinsengumi headquarters when suddenly a loud crash rang out, breaking the peace of the late afternoon. The origin of the sound seemed to be ahead, in the open space that marked the junction between the side street he was on and the adjoining street that led to the Shinsengumi headquarters.
Okita's body seemed to move of its own accord, his hands closed around the handle of his katana and his feet spread into a defensive stance. He walked forward carefully into the junction, silently urging the few spectators gathered to move back to safety. As he stepped into the junction however, all was quiet. For a second, he thought he had imagined the sound but out of the corner of his eye, he spotted movement. A blur of red and purple. 3 loud shots resounded through the still air and he turned in the direction of the sound, only to once again merely catch movement out of the corner of his eye. The same blur of red and purple but this time interspersed with green and black. It was a fight, on the roof top of a nearby building. The fighting figures sent a scattering of gray tiles clattering down as Okita struggled to focus on the them. At last he made them out.
The red and purple blur was Kagura, the green and black an unknown female Amanto. Kagura struck the first blows, 2 knee kicks followed by a round house kick that sent the green skinned alien flying through the air and over the roof edge. A sickening thud signalled her landing on the ground. However, the Amanto female stood up, her arm hanging limply at her side. Dislocated. Kagura jumped down off the building, the paved tiles beneath her cracking at the sudden pressure of her landing. She held her purple umbrella out and fired off 5 shots around the Amanto female. Okita saw Kagura'smouth move but could not make out what she said, the murmuring of the spectators, who had now increased in number and the low moan of the wind blowing through the side street seemed deafeaning in that moment.
Kagura's hair, now dyed crimson in the waning light of the late afternoon sun, whipped around her face in the wind. Her eyes seemed to glow, a penetrating azure blue. Her lips were slightly parted as she caught her breath from the exertion of the fight. She stood with her back ramrod straight, her chest out and legs spread in a stance that seemed both to echo both offence and defence, she held her umbrella loosely in her hand.
"Beautiful," Okita murmured for a moment forgetting the situation.
Suddenly, the green skinned alien's face curled up into a sneer, she bared her strangely luminescent white teeth and bolted toward Kagura, her immobile arm dragging behind her in an almost comical way. The young Yato female easily side stepped her opponent before smacking the back of her head with the umbrella. She then sprung into the air, executing an intricate flying kick that caught the green skinned alien square on the jaw. The force of the kick sent the unknown female Amanto flying back a few feet, the second sickening thud of the day reached Okita's ears.
All was still for a moment as Kagura watched her opponent, who lay unmoving on the ground where she had fallen.
The fight was over.
Okita ran forward toward Kagura. He suppressed the strange feeling of excitement that had welled up in the pit of his stomach. It was not just excitement he corrected but admiration too. Usually watching two women fight amused him, seeing the ugly looks on their faces as they sneered and taunted each other was first rate comedy by his standards. However, seeing Kagura fight, the nobility of her impassive face as she faced her opponent, the line of her body as she both defended and attacked was...beautiful. He brushed the embarrassing thought aside.
"Oi China, kids shouldn't pick fights you know?" he called.
"Tch! You're a kid too you know," she replied, flicking her umbrella open and resting it lightly against her shoulder. "Besides, I didn't start it. I was walking back home with Sadaharu from the park when she came out of nowhere, claiming she wanted to buy Sadaharu from me for her freak show circus or something. I said he wasn't for sale but she insisted. I refused again and then she just threw a punch at me," Kagura raised a hand to the right side of her jaw.
Okita caught sight of the small red bump she ran her fingers over. "Well if that's what it was..." he replied at last casting a look at the unconscious Amanto female.
As he surveyed the scene a Shinsengumi squad car pulled up, called in by one of the spectators who had witnessed the fight. Okita explained what had happened and statements that corroborated Kagura's version of events were taken from the witnesses who had been present since the onset of the fight were taken. The Amanto female was taken into custody.
Soon after the crowds dispersed. Okita stood before Kagura unsure why he was reluctant to go on his way. He felt oddly compelled to express his admiration for her after watching her fight but could not quite bring himself to say the words.
Kagura twirled her umbrella and raised her hand to her jaw again, an indescribable happiness bubbling within her.
"Does it hurt?" Okita asked. A wave of panic washed over him, the tone of his voice had come out concerned and not indifferent as he had intended, not to mention the fact that the question was quite simply the most inane he had ever asked.
"Mm...yes...and no...I guess you could say... its a good kind of pain," Kagura replied. "That...doesn't make sense right?"
Okita's only reply was a puzzled stare. Kagura smiled and began to walk up the restaurant lined side street. Okita followed, curious to hear an explanation of her strange statement.
"...I didn't duck, when she hit me. I didn't see it, the punch I mean, coming," she paused for a moment. She turned to Okita and seeing the concerned gaze he fixed on her as he awaited her reply she resolved to continue. "Somehow, today feels like the first step in pulling away from the hold my Yato blood has on me, she said. I wasn't a fighter or a warrior in that moment, I was just...a normal girl."
Okita's eyes widened in surprise. Unaware as he had been that she had waged a private war on her own nature, he was now struck by her words, by the gentle tone of voice she used as she spoke and by the look of quiet joy on her face at achieving that first step to her victory.
They walked in silence for a short while. Okita glanced awkwardly around, normally in a situation like this he'd have something clever to say, but now for some reason he found it hard to come up with a single coherent thought other than that one singularly embarrasing thought that for the past hour had been running through his mind.
"You looked beautiful just now, as you fought that Amanto." Okita cringed inwardly, somehow making a statement like that seemed like triggering his own death flag. "I admire your fighting skills." He sighed, that sounded like something a dojo master talking to his favourite student would say. Okita sifted through a string of expressions to describe his admiration, most of which made it seem as though he were either mocking her or confessing feelings of some sort.
Feelings of murderous intent perhaps? he thought dryly. Well, that was not entirely true he corrected. He and Kagura may have been excessively (some would say violently) competitive but there was never any malice in their actions. Okita thought back to a few months earlier when grave but false charges had been brought against him and he had been unable to confide in anyone. Kagura had been one of the few to immediately support his innocence and she had fought side by side with him against the gangsters who had preyed on and used a misguided woman in order to falsely accuse him.
The young officer cast a glance at Kagura. In their own way, they were friends.
Kagura suddenly stopped short and turned to face him.
"You planning on walking me all the way home or something?" she asked, a cheeky glint lighting her eye.
"Its my job to escort violent criminals." He considered replying in that way but instead he turned to face her.
"Isn't that what friends do?"
Fin.