A/N: Ch 2 is up!

madison camelia, lolz it's okay. While I was writing this I was binging on chocolate in the middle of night thinking, "What the hell am I doing?" So while I was half-drunk on chocolate and probably lucidly dreaming, I came up with this nonsense xD.

Eizleina-chan, Thanks dear, always happy that you like my stories ^.^

meowmeow814, Ahaha, thanks a lot xD. Yep, this is after the Yorozuya when they *information shall be disclosed later on in story* and Kagura is left all alone. So due to the trauma, it's forced her to grow up; well, technically speaking, I think Kagura's already grown up. Since her family is the perfect definition of a dysfunctional family (father who rarely comes home, terminally ill mother, brother who doesn't give a damn about her), not to mention that the type of environment she lived in was practically for the strong rather than the weak. . .and I just went on a total rant on her family. . .haaaaahaaaaa. . . . .Well technically, I guess Kagura was forced to grow up again; live without a family, etc. etc. . .that sort of stuff.

I am so sorry that this didn't get to you guys sooner. I had this chapter all edited and everything. . .and then my internet broke down. Yep, I had to spend five days without any internet and it was hell. So thank you guys for patiently waiting for this.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN GINTAMA IT BELONGS TO SORACHI HIDEAKI

Enjoy~

Glass Fragments

Ch. 2: Acid

.

.

.

The moment Kagura opens her eyes she sees a pair of jade and burning bright red.

"Took ya long enough."

His breath is warm, sending her dusted kisses that jolt her from the light that is nowhere near the end of the tunnel. "Dammit," she curses when she feels the full extent of the damage spreading like wild fire across her skin. Once she realizes that she is not dead and God must want her miserable, she immediately snaps her eyes wide open and demands, "How long?"

"Two days," he waggles a finger, "I'm disappointed imouto, thought you were stronger than that."

"I beat him in the end."

"Mn?" Kamui's eyes follow hers, which lands on the luxurious blood colored tatami mats. She doesn't even flinch; he supposes that the months have done a number on her.

"The guy who gave me the job told me he was harmless—bullshit." She spits, "Took off an arm, yeah. . .snapped his neck just like that," she maneuvers two hands upwards and swishes— slices them through the air like knives. There is an almost feral look in her eyes when her hands make the motion, but the abyss is far away and she is only at the shallow end of its wrath.

Kamui's eyes stay the same, aside from the slight tint of appraisal as he whistles, "Not bad. Still got a long way to go though."

Kagura waves a bandaged hand that is decorated with cuts and the smell of disinfectant, "Why am I here?" She looks around the room to see extravaganza everywhere. Velvet-tinted cushions glowing from the kerosene lights hovering over them like something that's worth remembering, tatami mats lining the whole entire room coupled with the ordinary futon she is lying in; "Wait," she says, pauses, then looks back to jaded eyes, "Isn't this—" She feels something wet building up around her eyes, but they don't fall. Good. Kagura keeps it like that.

"Yoshiwara?" Baka-aniki's quirked up lips morph into the Cheshire cat's smile as he sees her sapphire orbs light up with recognition, bitterness, and tears; of course, there's always tears.

"Why—"

"Did you forget?" Kamui swishes his hands and Kagura feels imaginary magic fly from his fingers, "I'm the overlord of this place."

Kagura says nothing as she presses a fist to her eyes and rubs away dewdrops filled with acid and salt. Baka-aniki merely observes, magic still evaporating from his fingertips as he taps the heel of his bare feet against the tatami flooring. At this mere motion, Kagura is immediately reminded of something old and dusty and placed in the small corner of her universe; and just like so many other things she has poorly patched up over the month with free-lance jobs and shitty glue, it comes crashing down.

Goddammit.

There are always tears in tragedies; Kagura has no more tears to spare because hers are all used up on perm-headed samurais and glasses-wearing otakus and just maybe sadistic bastards. There is no more room for big brother but her last statement is quickly wiped out once the prickling sensation is back and the scent of blood quickly floods her nostrils again.

"Gin-chan?"

"Yeah?"

"How many people have you killed?"

"Depends, you?"

"Depends."

"Then there's no point in worrying about that now, right?"

A month. A month of coping, a month of wasting away on old pictures and tobasco sauce and strawberry milk, a month of traveling and fighting, fighting, fighting—

Be a yato.

I can't, and that's when Kagura's mouth opens just a fraction and is overcome with the severity of everything once again as she opens her eyes wide and is ready to scream and rage in delirium and do just about anything to block out the images of blood, blood, blood—

But there is always more, coming from an inconsiderable pair of lips that used to kiss her goodnight and read her bedtime stories—

"Just forget, imouto. They're not here anymore."

And once those words leave those cold lips, Kagura growls like a lioness who has lost everything and everyone and lets loose and stops the self-restraint she's placed on her body for years as she roars away with demons perched on top of her shoulders; whispering gore into her ears, chattering away in their little audience box on the sidelines. Kagura feels the blood rushing to every part of her body as she lunges and spins and ungracefully stampedes over self-caused craters because titanium china girl is taking over now and god, it roars with red and salt and acid in her cracked song that is strung together with something ugly and useless.

She manages to force him to use his umbrella—but really, there is nothing appealing this situation right now because you don't just forget about family.

Aniki's forgotten.

He's the only one who'd do that, she tries to convince some sinister part of herself and leaves it at that when she stumbles over the bandages and feels the stitches ripping away at her skin like the crows and the people on Earth—

Fucking Naraku.

Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.

Gin-chan? Shinpachi? Sadist?

They're all dead. No revenge to find.

Give up.

Forget.

Demons whisper; Kagura crouches; Baka-aniki lands a strike only after two minutes; all hell breaks loose.

"Is that what you did, Kamui?" She spits out his name like it's arsenic and pulls her mouth up into a something numb. Gone is her doped up thoughts on nii-chan and "don't leave, nii-chan"—something along those lines. The drugs are out of her system but her mind is clouded with thoughts stained with blood and rain and soury-sweet memories and "You're still a weakling."

She lunges again, twisting in the air and ripping even more stitches, but even if there is this hot, searing pain running down her back and into every nook and cranny of her body, you just don't forget about family.

The smile she gives is horrifying, and it's a mirror of his own.

"Forget mami and leave because she was dying?"

Her response is a blow to the gut as she feel the wind knocked out of her and a fresh wave of red being coughed up in shallow heaves. There is no time to comprehend everything, but Kagura is a stubborn china girl, and china girls don't crack unless they're meant to. "Is that what it was all about, huh? Do you even remember what mami's kisses felt like?—"

It's barely a whisper, but it's there. There is the one moment where Kagura just wishes she could take it all back, rewind everything that's happened and pull the stupid clock around so that baka-aniki's hair stayed black and mami still cared for the hydrangeas in their withered garden—

—Because I sure can't remember what they felt like.

There is debris flying all around and kerosene lights highlighting the main event of catastrophic sins; velvet cushions torn and strewn everywhere like useless toys as baka-aniki's fist is this close to her head, lodged in its very own personal crater as Kagura, having her back pinned against the floor, has only been able to barely dodge it.

She is still stubborn as ever.

"You don't just forget." She refuses to let him.

Kamui looks at her with jaded eyes filled with nothing but misconceptions and misdirections, but there is this thing in his eyes that are not supposed to be there—never supposed to be there, and it is something that makes her want to cry like when she was little Kagura-chan.

"I don't remember what they felt like," he says softly, smiling emptily like all cold-hearted yatos are supposed to do and that's all it takes for Kagura to start the countdown of nononononono and the shout of inconsistent profanities like she's fifteen again; stupid, naïve, annoying little girl. But she knows what she's saying, and it's along the lines of, "Fucking bastard! You asshole of a brother! You don't forget about family! You don't forget about Mami!"—

You don't forget about me—

Then why did you try to forget Gin-chan? Shinpachi? Sadist?

Something crashes, crumbles, and that's all it takes.

The feeling of helpless is stronger than ever before as realization dawns upon her body and before Kagura even knows it, she can't stop. Gravity forces everything to cascade down her face in messy heaps and leave trails of so many complexities that she can't even begin to answer; across her neck and into the pool of blood that they are situated in. Titanium and rage simmering down; she doesn't sob one bit as she tries to remember back then, but all she can pick out are hazy moments filled with storytime and rain. And it is then when she can't choke back a sob, so she grinds her fists against her eyes to stop her from bleeding dry, to stop the numbness, to stop the emptiness trying to swallow her whole. Because the stench of blood and the rain-scented memories and the demons on her back are waiting for her to forget, but she won't. She won't be like Kamui.

She won't.

And yet, it's so painfully obvious that that is a lie as well as she realizes she is just as dirty and tainted as the man who weaved magic through her hair and shot them from his fingertips.

"I don't remember them either," she finally whispers, something bitter yet truthful stretches her face and it hurts to look at him at the moment because she is a bloody coward.

Silence is the thing that kills this time, as they are stoned in a massive crater filled with blood and straw and broken kerosene lights that hold remnants of the color of blood. Kagura feels hands pry away her fists and then there is something cold and soft against her cheek, but she never opens her eyes, because the magic only comes back for so long and despite the contradictions her mind is screaming out at the moment, she wants to stay doped up for as long as possible; with nii-chan's cheek resting against hers like old times; with mami's hydrangeas and rain-scented nostalgia; with his hands that wave the wand and weave the magic.

She feels a pair of cool lips against her ear.

"Then you know what it's like to forget."

There is ice in his voice.

And just like that, the magic is gone. Shattering upon millions and millions of tiny pieces in titanium and bitterness and acid, the glasses are left for her to pick up as Kagura can no longer feel the cool on her cheek as the host of the man owning it stands up and steps towards the tatami door screens.

Once the sound of his quiet footsteps stop echoing through her ears, Kagura sits up, ignores the pain kissing her back, and cries.

A/N: So, if you guys are still confused: Gintoki, Shinpachi, Okita, and practically the whole entire main cast was obliterated because of the Naraku trying to take over Edo. The Naraku do fail, however, that is only because the cast was able to stop them and in the process, lose their lives. Kagura was only spared because of her superior insanely enhanced senses and healing rate. I guess this could be considered an alternate storyline, where they all lose against the Naraku but the Naraku is dead as well and Edo lives in peace. . .that kind of thing.

Yes, stereotypical past storyline, I know. But I had to get rid of the main cast in order to create a broken Kagura soooooooo. . .yeah.

But I do believe that in my opinion, that storyline was probably the best option to go with. Naturally, when you look at it in a realistic perspective, people die in war. The main reason that no one in the Gintama cast doesn't die is because the show wouldn't be Gintama without the cast, and the cast is too amazingly powerful to be killed off. But most of them are only human, and because Gintoki was the main leader of this thing, every other cast member banded with him and helped in one way or another. Kagura, who is an amanto from a planet with the rule "kill or be killed," had the best chance of surviving because she is the only character besides the yato antagonists, Mutsu (well, she and Sakamoto are in space so they haven't heard about the tragedy), and Housen (who is already dead), who has superhuman strength and mind-boggling healing capabilities.

Also, I don't believe that Gintoki would've survived this. Remember, he is only human too, so before you guys start flaming me and throwing me strongly languaged PMs, I think that Gintoki would've died anyway. No offense to any Gintoki lovers (believe me, I love him too), but even if he were to slaughter Oboro or whoever the leading male is (I won't give out any spoilers), everyone else in Edo will be out there for his head. Because the Naraku would indeed pull some strings to see this man dead because good ol' Gin is just more than a thorn in their side.

Now then, regarding Umibouzu, if you guys still remember him (I almost forget lolz), he's not aware of her situation in this story. Technically speaking, since she was very young, he neglected his family to go space-pirate hunting. Not saying that he's a bad dad or anything, considering the fact that he loves Kagura very much, it's the fact that he's not present enough in her life to know the important things going on. Also, Kagura's already a grown woman in this story, so she expects him not to butt into her business anymore, and Umibouzu trusts her to take care of herself.

Wow, that was a long explanation. If you guys read through all of that then you get a free cookie. *hands out cookies* Oh and btw, have any of you guys read the latest chapter? O. M. G. I definitely didn't see that coming. . .

If you guys think there are plot bunnies in my opinion, feel free to leave a review or PM me.

Critiques are greatly appreciated.

Til next time~