What Pumps the Blood (Faster)
Chapter 2 – Sisters
For the past five years, Soyo always woke up in a foreign room.
It was not due to the fact that she could no longer call Edo Castle her home (after her brother's death, Nobunobu 'requested' her to move out of the castle to a more modest (yet still grand –to Edo's standard) house). It was simply the constant reminder that her brother, her last family, was no longer with her and it was then, always, that rooms felt foreign.
And eventually, the world did feel foreign.
Though, she thought to herself as she got up from the mattress and gazed around the room she was in then, this time it is indeed not my room.
"You're awake?"
Soyo turned her head to the direction of the voice (and her mouth immediately let out a suppressed groan –the painful strain on her neck reminded her that she should not have moved it yet). An arm as pale as hers was extended to touch her neck, and carefully corrected the position. The voice resonated in the room again.
"I really should have slammed that idiot brother's head harder. I'm so sorry, Soyo-chan. I should have saved you earlier," the woman said with a sincerely apologetic voice.
"Kagura-chan," Soyo softly muttered the name; and regretted it instantly. The moment the name slipped off her tongue, Kagura blinked and immediately drew her hand from Soyo's neck as if it was a boiling kettle pot.
Kagura stood up on the tatami floor and turned her back against Soyo. "I don't know where you live now, and you had no escort or bodyguard with you," the bright-haired woman said in her attempt to explain the former princess' current presence in the small room –which Soyo later recognized as the one Gin-san usually disappeared to after he received his guest. This was the old Yorozuya's Household. "If you let me know your escort or bodyguard's number, I could call them and ask them to pick you up."
Soyo took a moment to study her (best?) friend. She had been doing so for the past few weeks since Kagura arrived back again to earth, but this was the first time Soyo was able to examine Kagura up close. If it was not for the face, Soyo would have had a hard time identifying the woman as Kagura –no longer was there the trademark 'yes?' in her speech, no longer was there the happy, mischievous glint on her blue eyes…
And the blue eyes were now staring at her –reminding Soyo that she still owed Kagura an answer.
"I no longer have any escort. Or bodyguard," Soyo said.
Kagura kept her back facing Soyo. "Anyone else you want to call then?"
"I have no one else," Soyo stated. Something bitter in her heart urged her to say something bitter to Kagura as well. "Perhaps you don't know because you have been away for almost five years, but things are different now."
"…In any event, you should leave. I know the White Plague's effect is thinning, but still, it's not safe for you to be around here."
Soyo looked down to her lap. Bitter. Soyo was still bitter, but she had other ways to show it to Kagura.
"I'm sorry if I'm a bother…"
Kagura finally turned around to face Soyo again. With an exasperated sigh, she muttered, "You're not a bother. It's just that –" Kagura couldn't finish her words because the next instance, Soyo coughed hard; holding her neck as if her life depended on it. "Soyo!"
"I'm," (cough) "…sorry. It's just that my neck has been hurting a lot," (cough) "B-but my presence must have made you felt uncomfortable, I'll," (cough), "I-I'll just leave now. D-don't worry, Kagura-chan. My body might have been weak, but I-I'm sure walking through Kabuki-cho with the remains of White Plague germs still in the air will b-be nothing for –"
"Stay," Kagura decided eventually. "For a couple of days. I-I'll… try to get someone to pick you up when you're feeling better."
"But that will only bother you. A weak, sick girl like me –"
"Just rest," Kagura insisted as she placed both her palms on Soyo's shoulders and slowly pushed her down to the futon. "If there is anything I can get you –"
"Gyokuro, then," Soyo replied quickly. "The one in Uji is especially good. Ah, but it's expensive. It was my favorite before things went downhill five years ago," Soyo said with a sad smile. "Forget it, Kagura-chan. I really should know my place and not request something that is so –"
"I'll go get it. Oba-san might know where they sell it around Edo. Meanwhile, you should just rest here. I'll get Glasses to look over you."
"Gyokuro must be brewed promptly upon picking," Soyo told the other girl who was already on the doorway. "It's a shame if such precious leaves are wasted, so… make sure to come back in less than an hour, alright?"
Kagura nodded firmly and in a flash, made a dash out of the door. Soyo smiled and exhaled a deep breath. Perhaps she shouldn't have tortured Kagura this way –as natural as it was for her to torture people, she should have refrained herself so that Kagura could stay longer there with her. Oh well, Soyo tried to get rid of the regret. Kagura would be back soon and they would be able to spend a lot of time together. Soyo was brewing ideas on how to make Kagura agree to sleep by her side that night –and was so focused was she on the idea that she did not realize another person that stepped into the room and casually leaned by the doorway.
"Nice plan guilt-tripping my stupid sister," Kamui commented nonchalantly with arms crossed in front of his chest. "But I bet you forgot to calculate my presence here as a factor, eh, Hime-sama?"
"Relax," Kamui declared as he invited himself further into the room where the former princess was resting. The said girl was now back to her sitting position, her brown eyes showed alarm –and they widened even more so when Kamui decided to sit against the wall right in front of her futon. Munching the karaage he found in the microwave (Kamui was sure the human-wearing Glasses secretly prepared it for his gluttonous sister –but everything that was his sister's was his too), he continued, "And don't flatter yourself. I don't have plan killing those who are flat-out much weaker than me." He paused to lick the remains of sauces on his fingers. "Unless they get in the way, of course."
Kamui could see that the girl was forcing herself not to look deterred in front of him. It was a commendable try. "And am I in your way now?" she asked.
"Depends," Kamui said with a shrug. "Are you willing to tell me where the policeman is now?"
The tightening grip on the sheet did not escape Kamui's observation. Soyo lifted her chin slightly in a grace Kamui supposed could only be possessed by those who were well-raised in a monarchy.
"…You can try breaking my neck and I will still never let you know where Okita-san is."
"Ah well," Kamui said as he scratched his head. "That's troublesome."
And before Soyo could come up with her next retort, she felt her bones froze –for she felt the same fear, that same terror only a genuine devil's incarnation could inflict upon mortals.
Kamui smiled as he gazed straight into Soyo's eyes. He had bridged the distance between him and her, informally knelt on her futon, and had his index finger hovering just right in front of her left chest. One dip of a finger was all he needed to make the Tokugawa Main Branch family lost their last lineage.
So close. Rabbit ears or not, he could nearly hear her accelerating heartbeats. So fucking close.
Kamui drew himself back instantly. Someone just came into the house. The entrance on the ground floor was opened in the most silent way possible –Shimura Shinpachi had learned to turn his wallflower personality into something that would work for his benefit instead. But Kamui's ears were trained to hear even the softest steps of a rabbit. Standing up, he looked down to the black-haired girl (who was unable to stare up to him due to her neck injury) and noticed that she just exhaled a relieved sigh.
Ridiculous.
Shrugging, Kamui smiled and stepped out of her futon. "Kidding. You are not the only one who can prank the others, you know? As I said, I don't see the benefit of killing those weaker than me."
Shinpachi had not realized Kamui's presence, but his footsteps got heavier and now even Soyo could hear that there was someone else on the floor below her. It sent tingles to her spine how close Kamui had come to nearly kill her –again. Had it not been for the new presence, had it not been for the mere chance –
Something in her heart suddenly broke as the memory flowed again.
"Bullshit," Soyo spat, and Kamui raised an eyebrow at the choice of words he never would have thought a royal like her would say. Turning his attention back to the little brat again, he decided to wait for what she had to say.
"You were serious. You were trying to kill me, and you would have done so, had you had the chance," she stated the fact –and Kamui couldn't help but to silently agree to it. Well, Soyo did not have to know that, so he played innocent.
"Come on, Brat, you're still my sister's best friend and I –"
"A-and you would have," Soyo interrupted (again, Kamui noted in masked irritation –his fingers twitched at the thought). "H-had you been given the chance, y-you would have been the one to kill my brother, wouldn't you?"
Kamui noted the sight of a lone drop of tear that fell from the brat's eyes. She maintained her composure well –at least well enough for someone whom he knew was seething with burning rage and irrevocable hatred inside.
"Why is it noisy? Who –" Shinpachi stepped into the scene. His eyes widened upon looking at the crying girl and despite not seeing her very often, Shinpachi recognized her immediately. "Hime-sama?! W-why?" Shinpachi exasperated before his violet eyes were quickly directed to the detached, braided-haired man who was now walking out of the room. "You?!"
"Well?" Kamui shrugged as he easily dodged the fist that Shinpachi aimed at him and answered Soyo's rhetorical question with an equally rhetorical response. "Who knows?" he muttered whimsically before he leaped out of the Yorozuya Household –escaping the sway of katana that Shinpachi just swung.
Contrary to her previous plan to spend the night in the Yorozuya Household and have a heart-to-heart talk with Kagura, Soyo ended up deciding to leave the place. She told Shinpachi to pass her apology to Kagura and that 'she lied about Gyokuro tea leaves must be brewed immediately' and that 'she would love to drink tea with Kagura again sometime in the future'. Soyo had refused Shinpachi's offer to take her back home, but Shinpachi, despite his now seemingly much colder appearance, remained Shinpachi after all. There was kindness and most of all, determination to stick true to what he had chosen. Now that Soyo thought about it, Shinpachi's willpower was something so undeservingly underrated. With a small smile, she decided to award his persistence and allowed him to take her home.
From Shinpachi, Soyo learned several things –not particularly things she wanted to acknowledge, but they were new information all the same. She learned about Kagura and Shinpachi's current battle to take over Yorozuya's leadership following Sakata Gintoki's disappearance; she learned more about the latest condition of Otae Shimura (who, despite the progressing medication for the White Plague, still somehow had the effect on her body); she learned about, to her surprise, Umibouzu's death several months prior.
Soyo halted her steps there. "Kagura-chan's father died?" she echoed –not believing the notion. She might not have witnessed the display of Umibouzu's strength herself, but the strongest person she ever knew –Kagura – secretly worshipped his strength, and it seemed impossible for that kind of strong person to…die.
But then again, Soyo remembered that she should have known better –of all people. Death was the most merciless; and it seek no reason or justification. It just, well, happened.
Her brother had the country on his palm, and yet death still took a liking of him.
Soyo shook her head. If the thought of her brother's death five years prior still ached her entire soul, Kagura's recent loss must have been multiple times harder for her. Soyo suddenly had the intention to turn back and run back to where Kagura was, but Shinpachi held her arm and reminded her.
"So long that the monster is still around Kagura, I don't think it's wise for you to go near her, Hime-sama."
"But Kagura-chan –"
"– is not a weak girl. Truth is," Shinpachi sighed and put up a smile that made his feature look innocent –resembling the old image of Shimura Shinpachi that was always engraved in Soyo's mind. "Truth is, it is I who is the weak one. I know I cannot stand a chance against Kamui. And if he hurts you when you're in my care, I don't know how I could face Kagura-chan ever again."
Soyo understood Shinpachi's point, and she did not want to bring unnecessary hassles to him. But it just seemed ridiculous she could not meet her best friend just because her best friend's brother was one psychotic bastard who could not control his lust for blood. In the end, Soyo sighed and told Shinpachi, "Would you kindly arrange a time for me and Kagura-chan to meet then?"
Shinpachi chuckled darkly –back to his more aloof choice of personality (or character cosplay –Soyo mused mentally). "You seem to forget that the Yato girl and I are not exactly on a good term now –"
"Otsuu-chan promises to come to my birthday party this week –"
"–But I will see what I can do," concluded Shinpachi a little too soon.
"Hey, Abuto?"
"Yes, Captain?"
"Can I kill you?"
Abuto laughed in his trademark deadpanned tone. "Very funny, Captain. Unfortunately, you do know that I don't support the idea of cannibalism."
"So you're confident you can defeat me then, Abuto?!" Kamui turned his face towards his subordinate (completely ignoring Abuto's mutter of 'That's not what I meant') and clenched his fist in excitement, "Yosh! That's the spirit, Abuto! Come on! Here's fine! I'd give you to the chance to attack me first!"
"Wait, wait, Captain. I never said I agree to fight you, whoa!" the older man shouted when Kamui jumped and swung his umbrella to the spot where Abuto stood half a second earlier. The ground shattered easily and Abuto took leaps as his captain pulled his umbrella back and was ready to launch another attack. "You said you'd give me the first chance to attack!"
"Eh? But you're too slow and we don't have all day!" Kamui reasoned brightly as he managed to lay a punch to Abuto's cheek.
Sent flying in Kabuki-cho's night air, Abuto grabbed whatever he could grab to prevent his body from hitting the town's walls a couple of feet behind him. He threw out the molar that fell and regretted doing so, because the action bought Kamui more seconds to advance his further attack. Abuto caught the look of the face of his eager-looking captain up in the air –ready to land his next blow that would surely crash his skull and –
A big umbrella entered Abuto's line of vision and he witnessed how, like a skillful baseball player, his captain's younger sister stepped into the fight and knocked her brother's away with a single bat (or umbrella, in her case).
A loud thud was heard and Abuto could subsequently hear the panicked voices of the townsfolks who woke up from their slumbers to see what the cause of all the commotion at two AM in the morning was.
"Geez, Sister," Kamui commented as he effortlessly got up from the hit Kagura gave him earlier and walked to where his sister and subordinates were. "If you're so intent in hitting me, just say so and I'd gladly accommodate a proper fight with you."
Kagura slammed the pointy edge of her umbrella to the ground (enough declaration to the curious townsfolk that 'Gura-san' did not like to be watched). She turned to the other two Yatos that came in hurry behind her and instructed them to take Abuto away and treat him while she was to talk with her brother.
Heaving a disappointed sigh upon the sight of Abuto being carried away, Kamui was about to complain to Kagura, but his younger sister beat him to it.
"What the hell did you just do?!"
"Exactly what you saw. I was fighting Abuto."
"Why the hell would you do that?" Kagura shook her head. "He's your friend," Kagura paused with the argument, because she remembered that the word meant nothing to Kamui. Sighing, she then tried another way, "I really can't understand until this point why are you following me back to earth."
"Well, I did promise our pa–"
"You never cared for promises," Kagura stressed with gritted teeth.
"Actually, I do stick through to what I promise," Kamui said as he tapped his fingers to his chin, as if he was trying to dig something in his memory. "Don't I?"
"You have no reason to be here," declared Kagura. "You can't be here. A Yato like you –"
"Well, here you are –"
"I have a duty here," Kagura hissed; trying to draw the line. "But you don't. And you don't care for promises. And you just ruin things. And if your presence here is just to fuck around and –"
"I thought I could live," Kamui interrupted.
Kagura frowned. "You are alive," she hissed –and she found his earlier remark to be inappropriate. Just how many livesher brother had taken? How darehe said such thing?
"No," Kamui corrected, and chuckled to himself. "You won't understand, will you? A traitor who has thrown away her Yato's truest identity like you would never understand."
Clenching her fist tight, Kagura challenged her brother back. "You're right. I don't understand. I will never understand. I thought you've changed. I thought you promised our parents that –"
"I only promised them not to kill you, sister," Kamui reminded. "Babysitting may come in the package, but protecting you is another deal on its own."
"I've never asked you to protect me," Kagura clarified.
"I know," Kamui mused. "You're strong enough to protect yourself. I'd love to fight you myself, to be honest."
Blinking, but subsequently trying to ignore the subtle compliment Kamui just gave her, Kagura pressed the matter. "Then why don't you? Why don't you just fight me instead of randomly picking fights with these earth people, with your own subordinates?" she spat. It felt funny questioning a family member that kind of question. The term fighting in their clan meant more than just a couple of bruises –sibling childish fights were even more out of the context. Fighting meant that one would lose their life; because even Kagura could not guarantee 100 percent that she would not be tainted by the maniacal monster inherent in her Yato blood.
But these questions were necessary to ask, because even as a Yato, Kamui did not function like a normal one, and his idea of a family (if he ever acknowledged it) was almost always questionable.
Kamui sighed instead. "I don't like heavy talks. You're always a bore, Sis. But lately, you're even more no fun."
"Earth is in a critical situation now," Kagura reminded. "If you're here just to play around, then just leave," Kagura said as she turned her back and walked to Yorozuya Household's direction again. She knew that Kamui's reason to come with her back to earth was to find some strong people (whom he believed to all reside in earth –galaxy was dull lately), so he would not back off that easily –especially now since he had not encountered any real challenge to –
"Fine."
Kagura heard the swift of wind and when she turned around, she only managed to catch the sight of her brother –leaping away in the dark of Kabuki-cho's night.
To be continued
A/n:
madison camelia: Thanks for welcoming me back! Ah, Gintama vol 56 must be very cool -seriously, Shogun Assassination Arc is my favorite arc in the entire Gintama arcs so far. Okikagu? Very well noted -I am an Okikagu shipper myself, so I'd gladly put /some/ hints of Okikagu here, although I can only say it would be very, very subtle and won't be that much.
Guest: Thank you for reading and commenting!
Gakupoid's writing domain: Ah, now I'm afraid for the expectation T-T. But I'll try my best!
