I See Red
Chapter 2: Red Cut
"So, basically, since you and that girl wrecked the classroom on her first day, you're babysitting her until further notice."
Okita said nothing. Hijikata and Kondo were waiting for him outside of the faculty lounge, and upon being told personally by Sakata-sensei that Okita was suspended from all extracurricular activities, including the Disciplinary Committee, the two older students treated him to a nearby café.
"Can't say that you didn't deserve it, Sougo. You should know better than to hit a woman. It's much easier for the other students to demonize you."
"That's no woman. That's a gorilla in a sailor uniform. And she hit first. Aren't we supposed to control delinquent behaviours like that?"
"You know, Sougo, with women, you have to handle things as if carrying delicate petals in your hands," began Kondou. "Indeed, that's how I've always approached Otae-san~ Ah, her beauty just makes me want to do this and that to her, but I've always restrained myself until the proper time…!"
As the gorilla commander of the 'Shinsengumi' gushed on and on in his perverted monologue, the demon vice commander tried to ignore this by looking at Okita again. "As much as I hate to agree with Ginpachi-sensei, I think it's good for you to lay low first. Yamazaki tells me that a bunch of girls were already spreading rumours about you and that girl."
"What kind of rumours?"
"That she got kicked out of her previous school for being a delinquent. That she's related to Yakuza. And that she's chosen you as her Yankee prince." His hand twitched. It was clear that he craved a cigarette, but he clenched his fist instead. Okita rolled his eyes.
"You know how it is, Sougo. Anyone can make a rumour out of anything, and the students of this school don't exactly cross-check their facts. So it would be bad for us if these rumours affect the Disciplinary Committee's reputation…" Kondou said this in a low voice with his arms crossed. "And we can't afford that, since we're expecting him to come back to school…"
Okita frowned. "You mean… they're letting that guy back in 3Z?"
Hijikata nodded gravely. "We thought he was expelled for good. Seems like Sakata's not giving up on him. We know that for the past year he spent out of school, he's been involved in gangs doing petty crimes and shit like that. But he's coming back to repeat his 3rd year of high school, and he's bringing his gang with him. I don't know about you guys, but I'm sure that the likes of him won't just go "hai, sensei" and avoid trouble. The school will need us in full force very soon."
"… so, the legendary delinquent, Takasugi Shinsuke, is coming back…" Okita smirked. "Is it just me, or is this school year suddenly rife with Yankees?"
"Like we've been saying, if you're not careful, people are gonna think you're one of them. So make sure you and China-girl stop acting out." The Mayora clicked his tongue. "You said that Sakata will let you back with us without further demerits if you help her out, right? I think if they see how well she does in the upcoming long exams, sensei'll let you off the hook."
"I don't know if you've noticed it, Hijikata-san, but she's not the sharpest crayon in the box. I bet her grades are worse than yours."
"Now, now, no need for that kind of comment, Sougo~!" Kondou desperately tried to break the two of them apart when Hijikata suddenly collared Okita. "Anyways, you're pretty smart, and you get good grades without studying too much. Since you'll have a lot of time to teach her, I know she'll do well!"
"Yeah. You just have to keep that rancid mouth of yours shut."
Okita felt an annoying throb forming in between his temples. Seems like he has no choice, really, but to repress his cruel side, set his haunches down, and teach that China-girl.
And… be nice. His usual fake-nice wouldn't cut it, he knew.
He felt a rash crawl up his arm. My Sadistic cells are already protesting.
"That's that. Let us know if you need our help, Sougo. We'll support you and China-girl as much as we can," said Kondou, giving him a thumbs-up.
"You can start by dying, Hijikata-san. I feel all my niceness draining when I see you eating dog-food."
Hijikata ignored him and continued eating his Hijikata Special Tonkatsu-don.
And so it continued for the next two weeks. The spark of something, that strange feeling, didn't go away as he had hoped. In fact, it got worse since he had to be around China all the time. The class president, Tokugawa Soyo, was told to keep an eye out for them, so at least in class, they had to sit next to each other and to work on group projects together. On top of that, from the corner of his eye, he saw Hijikata and Kondou-san giving him warning looks every time he felt like raising his hand against the China-girl.
Ginpachi-sensei demanded that they spend lunch break together too. And it was stupid really for the teachers to force them to be nice to each other like this, because how was he supposed to remain nice or even keep a fake façade of nice when she kept running to class late, her face full of rice straight from a rice cooker, when she slept in class so audaciously, when she has trouble reading Japanese script meant for grade-schoolers, when she kept eating hotdogs or tater tots or whatever during their 10 AM history class, and when she spoke in that vulgar, heavily-accented way of hers?
She must have been having a hard time with him as well. She was bright and cheerful and popular with everyone else in class, especially with her new sadistic best friends Soyo and Nobume, and Shimura Tae's group of girl-friends. She even got along with the guys in class, to the point that she got that glasses-wearing human to give her extra food to feed her bottomless-pit-of-a-stomach, and that rebel-wannabe Katsura called her Leader.
Heck, he heard the despaired whispers of a number of deluded third-years from the other classes, who wanted to confess to her, but couldn't because of him. Even though the making-out rumour never made it out of the office, the amount of time they spent together under everyone's eye were enough to spread rumours about them dating. To his disdain, the yankee prince and princess rumours didn't cease at all, and in fact got worse.
But all anyone had to do was to look at her every time she had to take her seat next to him to dispel these rumours. She had a perfect scowl on her face each time, and she refused to look him in the eye. For Ginpachi's sake, she said, she did her best not to be violent when she was around him, and he relished the fact that she was having a hard time. He pushed her buttons each time, wanting to push her to the edge—if she snapped and kicked him in the face again, all he had to do was to take it, and this farce would be over, because she would have drawn first blood and she would be the only one in trouble.
But she never snapped—she was always, always close to it, he could almost hear her clench her fists, ready to throw a punch at him—but she always stopped before she lost control. Instead, she would grit her teeth, look away, and say something inconsequential after. Her comebacks got weaker as time went by, and to his surprise, even though she obviously hated him with all of her being, she tried her best to study with him, and began asking him as many questions as she could about schoolwork. Because the only way that Ginpachi would stop hovering behind them is if Kagura produced a decent report card.
Okita helped her out as expected, but not without peppering his personal lessons with insults. It got old easily when she quit responding, and he had hoped that the uncomfortable spark in his chest would go away, but still, it lingered.
Within the two weeks, the two of them reluctantly and quietly developed a routine, beginning at lunchtime, where they would eat facing each other as if competing with each other (her, with her bento of octopus-shaped hotdogs and eggs and five cups of rice plus additional offerings she wheedled from Glasses, and him with whatever bread and milk he could get from the cafeteria). After classes, if neither of them had cleaning duty, they would go to the library, where Okita would help her with the day's homework until closing time at six.
Then she would pack her things without a word, without once looking him in the eye, and rush off, probably to go to a café or something with her friends.
He would then quietly leave the school by himself, as he always did, avoiding his fan girls and whoever else might get in the way. He would take a train a bit of ways from the school, and he'd go into an Italian restaurant, where he'd put on a white shirt, black pants, and a black apron, and wash dishes and serve tables for a few hours. Then perhaps at around nine he'd go home, completely exhausted, making sure that he was clad in his school uniform with a graphic tee on the inside, before he went in his apartment, to study by himself a couple of more hours before sleeping.
That evening he was an hour late to get home. A woman in a mask was seated at his table, already quietly staring at him as he took off his shoes.
"Sou-chan… it's late." Her red eyes gleamed in the low light.
"I know, aneue… I'm sorry. It got busy in the restaurant," he said, in that special polite voice that he reserved just for her. As tired as he was, he gave her a big smile, just so that worried look in her eyes would go away.
It didn't. "You know, Sou-chan… maybe it's better if you quit that job and focus on school? Hijikata-san tells me that you're spending most of it with Kagura-chan and you don't have time for extracurriculars anymore…"
He sighed. He took a mental note to put a laxative in Hijikata's coffee milk the next day. "That thing with that pi—I mean, with China girl isn't permanent, Aneue. They'll probably let us off of the arrangement in a couple of weeks after exams and she gets passing grades. After that, I can go back to how things were."
Mitsuba, his beautiful older sister, smiled at him. "I don't think she's bad for you, Sou-chan. You haven't been as focused as you are now when it comes to studying."
He hadn't noticed it for himself, but it was true. He had to study harder than usual to be able to teach China the next day. He knew he wouldn't be able to live it down if she knew material that he didn't.
"It's your part-time job I'm worried about, to be honest… it takes too much of your time, and it would be bad if anyone from school sees you—"
"Aneue, we've been through this," he said. Absently, he took her pale hand in his and held it, unable to ignore how fragile she felt. "I… do my best to support myself and to support you… We need all the money we can get for your medicines-"
"I'm fine, Sougo," she said, cutting him off. The way her voice cracked told him that she was suppressing another cough. "We have enough. The money mom and dad left us will hold up. And I earn a little bit with my work." She embraced him. "I would… hate myself if anything bad happens to you, Sou-chan… so please…"
He embraced her back. He felt the lost weight, and he felt her thorax rattle uncomfortably as the cough she was suppressing escaped from her body, and he knew he hadn't been working hard enough. "I'll be okay, Aneue. I promise I won't get expelled."
She sighed, already feeling too weak to argue. She let go of the embrace and smiled at him. "If you do, you're eating nothing but spicy rice crackers until the day you die. Got that?"
"Got it," he said, giving her a cheerful smile.
He led her to her room and made sure she had taken her evening dose of antibiotics (during her last visit to the doctor, she was diagnosed to have another upper respiratory tract infection apart from the drug-resistant TB) and let her sleep. He made his way to his own room and studied and studied until his head hurt, and as what happened multiple times that week, he fell asleep on his desk, that intangible discomfort lingering in his chest, and the colour red (or… fuchsia?) invading his dreams.
It was probably another week later, when all the students were on edge since exams were dangerously close.
Okita looked at his wristwatch and counted the minutes that China was late. 15, 20, 25. He drummed his fingers impatiently, earning him a few glares from the other students reading quietly nearby. At the 27th minute, Kagura stomped her way to his table and unceremoniously dumped her things in the seat next to him.
This earned them even more angry glares, but a dark look from Okita was all it took to dispel the glares. "I thought you were gonna take this seriously, China. If you waste my time like this again, I won't bother teaching you anymore." He tilted his head at her, noticing then how she looked. "What happened to you?" he asked in a deadpan voice.
She had her red track suit's jacket over her uniform, and her track pants underneath her skirt. Her buns were in slight disarray, and she was undeniably out of breath when she got to him.
"I ran, obviously. Why do you care?" she grumbled. "Let's hurry up, Sadist. I don't want you to miss your crappy drama reruns."
He frowned at her, but when she showed no interest in answering his questions, he shrugged and helped her with Japanese literature. The red-haired mess was quieter than usual, and even though she struggled visibly, she didn't ask any questions.
"Oi, are you sure you get this? The exams are in a few days. If you flunk this, I'm seriously beating you up."
She scowled at him, that perfect little scowl again, and looked away. "Go ahead. I don't care. I'm going home," she announced, standing up in a huff. As she grabbed all her books and threw them carelessly in her bag, Okita saw a bit of her pale skin under her sleeve.
"Hey." He grabbed her arm and pulled the red sleeve down. A discolouration marred the pale skin of her forearm, and her knuckle had a small, red cut that he hadn't noticed before. "Have you been in another fight? This isn't my handiwork—"
"Let. Go." Her voice was low and dangerous, and she roughly pulled her hand back as soon as he loosened his grip. And without another word, she turned and left him alone in the library.
He frowned as he watched her small, strong figure leave the building.
Author's note: ... is this... a plot...?