Hello hello hello! This is the third, and last, chapter of 'Hers, his, theirs'. Thank you so much for following me until the end! I've received so much support, it's quite amazing, really! My thanks goes out to all the readers and reviewers!
Special mention to the reviewers:
Yato Rumi, soralove45, Rueto, Crying Person 2, KimikoAu, Guest, scaar15, BruceT, Negman, T-T, Hana and Guest (2)!
Yato Rumi: Ahh, thank you for reading! Your compliment touched me, really. It made my day! I was really happy about it :3
Scaar15: Ahh, I had to use Google Translate for your review, too! It kind of did a horrible job but I understood a bit. Thank you so much for adding me to your favourites :3 it's an honour!
As for those who wanted a happy ending: I tried to make this as happy as possible! Because I truly love this couple. They are so perfect and adorable for each other.
Sorry for taking such a long time to update, by the way.
Enjoy this chapter!
"I'll go alone."
"You can't go alone; someone has to go with you. It's too dangerous, Sougo." Kondo Isao tried.
"I can handle it. I've killed what, one hundred men in two seconds flat. They're probably terrible fighters," Sougo Okita shrugged. "It'll be fine."
"It's too risky!" Kondo protested. Even though he was a stalker, he was a stalker with a golden heart.
"I'll be fine." Sougo repeated, his glare icy.
What choice did Kondo have? Sougo was not a man to be messed with.
"F-fine."
It was a perfect day in Kabukicho - sunny, not a cloud in sight and certainly no sadist in sight. Kagura couldn't help but grin.
"Young miss, what are you grinning for? You're creeping me out," Gin shivered visibly.
"It's such a great day today – don't you feel like smiling too?" Kagura said enthusiastically.
"Yes, but not to the point of scaring everyone and everything within a two mile radius!" Gin replied.
"Could you guys at least try to focus on buying our weekly groceries so we don't starve?" Shinpachi rolled his eyes. "You're so immature."
"Says the glasses which go crazy when Otsu's new CD comes out," Kagura responded, shooting Shinpachi a triumphant look.
"Hey, I'm not just gla-"
"It's the Shinsengumi's Shinpachi!" Kagura interrupted.
"'Shinsengumi's Shinpachi' again?" Yamazaki said to himself, tears streaming down his eyes.
"WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?! DON'T JUST MISUSE MY NAME!" Shinpachi screeched furiously somewhere in the background.
"What are you doing here?" Kagura demanded, completely ignoring Shinpachi.
"Doing a little 'investigation'," Yamazaki answered, squinting through his eyes. "Although it might not be needed anymore."
"Oi, Kagura-chan, who is that?" Gin frowned, staring Yamazaki up and down. "Ah, it's Jimmy!"
"It's Yamazaki, not Jimmy," Yamazaki cried again.
"What investigation is it again?" Kagura asked.
"Oh, nothing. It's top secret – I can only tell the Vice-Chief and Chief."
Within two seconds, Kagura had captured Yamazaki in a head-lock. "Care to tell me now?"
Yamazaki gave up and proceeded to tell them the whole story. When he finished, everyone was silent.
"What is that idiot thinking?!" Kagura said angrily, shoving past Yamazaki. "Sorry, Gin-chan, Megane. I forgot I had something to do." She pushed the apples she had been holding into Shinpachi's arms, and sprinted off.
"You can't go, Kagura-chan! It's a top secret investigation and Captain will be distracted if you muddle!" Yamazaki yelled after the running girl.
"Ah, what can you do? It's a young, pure girl in love; warms my heart every time. Normal girls will yell for help when their boyfriends are in trouble. Our Kagura kicks ass and leaves them crying for mummy." Gin smiled. "So she'll be fine."
"… That's a bit scary."
Kagura arrived at the scene just in time to see a guy raise his sword high above his head, ready to split Sougo clean in half.
"Give me back the sadist!" She hollered, firing four shots, all landing their mark. The two people holding Sougo hostage collapsed to the ground. She climbed through a man-made hole in the barbed fence, presumably made by the sadist.
"Oi, China, what are you doing here? This place is in lock-down by Shinsengumi," Sougo freed himself and walked towards Kagura.
"What am I doing here? I'm saving your sorry butt," Kagura replied, arms folded. "Which I just did. Kiss my feet and say thanks."
Sougo ignored her comment. "Great. Mission accomplished. Now leave."
Kagura squared her shoulders defiantly. "What's wrong with you, you on your man period or something?"
This brought a small, amused smile onto his face. "If this is what you call a 'man period', you must be on your period 24/7."
"Why you-"
"China, I really need you to leave. Now." The sadist interrupted, the cold look returning to his face.
"Why?" Kagura frowned.
"Because I want to claim all the glory and be promoted to Vice-Chief. If you interrupt, they'll split credit half-half and I won't be able to move up. So go away," Sougo deadpanned.
"I can't."
"Yes, you can. Just climb back through that little hole." He shut his eyes tiredly.
"You idiot, open your eyes and look at the world around you," Kagura took a sharp breath. "We're surrounded."
"… Could've told me that earlier."
"CHIEF, CHIEF, CHIEF! BAD NEWS!" Yamazaki screamed as he ran through the corridors of the Shinsengumi headquarters.
Gin and Shinpachi followed, having a heated conversation about how teenage girls in love were/not annoying.
They finally found Kondo, who was having a peaceful cup of tea with the second-in-command.
"Yamazaki, how many times have I told you not to run in the corridors?!" Hijikata looked up from his tea with a deadly glint in his eye.
"I'm sorry, but this is an emergency!" Yamazaki said breathlessly. Gin and Shinpachi entered the room.
"Yo, Hijibaka-san," Gin greeted, using Sougo's nickname for the guy.
"Spill it. But why did you bring the Yorozuya here?" Hijikata hissed, shooting the members of Yorozuya a pissed look.
Before either Gin or Shinpachi had a chance to speak up, Yamazaki butted in. "Kagura's gone to their base in search of Sougo."
Hijikata swore. "Couldn't you have at least kept an eye on her?"
"I did, I did! And then she had me in a head lock and was threatening to kill me and all that, I told her, and she shoved me and sprinted off!" Yamazaki exaggerated.
"Oi, Anpan-man, that's not how it went!" Gin argued.
He was ignored. "That's bad. Sougo works best when he doesn't have to protect anyone, much less the girl he loves. He's an independent worker." Hijikata paced the room.
"Calm down, everyone. We'll get back-up and go there," Kondo shrugged. "It won't be that bad."
"The majority of our troops are at the other stakeout, Chief!" Yamazaki took out an anpan from his pocket and started eating at it worriedly.
"We'll make do with our remaining troops," Kondo showed them a thumbs up with a huge grin on his face.
"So that leaves… us." Hijikata stared at the five people in the room, glasses included.
"Well, uh, let me grab my keys and let's go."
"Man, they never end, do they?" Sougo dodged a katana and stabbed his opponent in the stomach.
"You sound like you're giving up, sadist," Kagura smirked, kicking another opponent away and firing a few shots.
"Never. You, on the other hand, sound as if you're utterly exhausted and at the end of your wits," Sougo deadpanned.
Kagura responded with a sigh. "I'm just tired." She admitted. "They never end."
And no, they didn't. Thousands of dead bodies littered the compound, but they were still coming. Hell, there were lots.
Truth to be told, both Kagura and Sougo were at the end of their wits. They were hanging on, but barely. Scrapes and bruises were visible all over their body, and it was as if they were hanging onto their last scraps of clothing.
They kept going. Sougo killed the drug dealers while Kagura focused on hitting their nerve points to paralyze them for a while.
"3087293840264 down, five more to go. You think you can do it?" Kagura panted, back to back with the sadist.
"Do I think I can do it? No. I know I can do it," Sougo cackled. At the same time, they both leapt forward, slicing and shooting the five opponents. They went down pretty easily.
"Whew, that was tough," Sougo wiped sweat off his forehead.
"We're done. I'm so glad," Kagura let out a sigh of relief.
"I just have to get the evidence, and we can go," Sougo started towards the warehouse. The walkie-talkie on his chest beeped.
"Sougo, we're coming to get you guys. Or help you. Are you done? Over." Kondo's voice projected into the air.
"Yeah, we're done. They're all dead here. Get the cleanup squad," Sougo smiled devilishly.
Kagura followed Sougo. "Oi, Gori. Sup."
"Ah, that voice must belong to-"
"KAGGUUURRAAAAA-CCHHHAAAAANNNNNN! Good job." Gin's voice drawled.
Kagura giggled. "I expect my sukonbu."
"Ha, in your dreams, brat."
The connection broke. Kagura, who had snatched the walkie-talkie off Sougo, gave it back to him. He took it back with a glare.
"I'm looking for the evidence. You can go now." Sougo repeated.
"I'll look for it with you. Two heads are better than one, right?" Kagura offered generously.
"You don't have a head, so you can't help anyway," Sougo replied, leaving Kagura to fume angrily.
"Stupid ungrateful sadist!" She growled.
They entered the warehouse and were searching the many boxes when a 'tick' started echoing through the walls.
"Oi, sadist, what was that?" A shiver shot down her spine.
Sougo unsheathed his sword, looking around suspiciously. "Stick close to me, China."
"Ha, I can fend for myself thank you very much!" Kagura readied her umbrella for an attack.
The ticking kept going. Tick, tick, tick. The metal walls of the warehouse made the ticking ten times louder than it actually was. They followed the ticking noise, but it lead them in all directions as it just bounced off the walls.
"It's here." Sougo said confidently, tapping a wooden box. He dared to open it.
"Oh fuck…" Kagura whispered.
Sitting in that small wooden box was a very familiar thing called a bomb. The timer showed that it had less than twenty seconds to go before it blew.
"A suicide bomb," Sougo said quietly. "The person was prepared to die along with it."
"Sadist, run." Kagura didn't give a chance for Sougo to reply before she started running. Sougo grabbed a hold of her collar.
"Oi, oi, you could at least stay with me while I clear it," Sougo deadpanned.
"DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO DEFUSE IT?!" Kagura shouted, panicking. "Lemme go, lemme go, lemme go!"
"Calm down. Every Shinsengumi member is taught the basic skills of bomb-defusing when they join," Sougo said calmly.
Kagura stopped panicking and turned to stare at him with huge, watery eyes. "Really?"
"No."
And then they both ran like crazy, crossing each other's paths as they did so. They left the warehouse safely, but Sougo tripped over a dead body.
"Geez, you're so clumsy! Get up!" Kagura shouted, stopping in her tracks and hoisting the sadist up onto her shoulders.
"You gorilla, no ordinary woman could pick up a grown man," Sougo sniggered in her ear.
"You're not a grown man, you're a sad-"
"Can't you drive any faster, Gorilla?" Gin demanded.
"Oi, I'm not a Gorilla!" Kondo protested.
"What Gin-san mean to say is, please drive faster." Shinpachi said politely. But he couldn't stop a tick mark from appearing on his forehead.
They all saw the big explosion, the smoke emerging from the tops of the buildings.
Kondo pressed the pedal down. "We'll answer to the police later. Namely, ourselves."
"It hurts, sadist," Kagura whimpered. She could feel the sadist's hair brushing into her eyes. They were head to head on the cold dirt.
"What a coincidence. Same feeling here," Sougo said sarcastically.
"Aah, I never wanted to die next to a sadist," Kagura sighed dramatically.
"What, you think I wanted to die with a masochist next to me?" Sougo replied.
"I'M NOT A MASOCHIST! But yes, I think you wanted to die next to a masochist," Kagura chuckled. Her stomach ached painfully. She received no reply.
"Oi, sadist? You're still there, right?" Her voice rose one octave higher in panic. She still received no response.
"SADIST!" In a last attempt, she grabbed his hair and yanked it, hard.
"Oi, you sure you should be doing that to a dying person, China?" A hand shot out and grabbed Kagura's wrist.
Kagura winced. "As long as it's you, I'm fine. Get your butt over here."
"How do you think I'm going to do that, China?" Sougo coughed.
They ended up wriggling in the dirt like worms just so they could lie closer to each other.
"Your breath stinks," Kagura gagged, burying her face in his chest. She used it as an excuse to cover her blushing face.
"Deal with it. I'm having to deal with your horrendous armpits," Sougo replied, resting his chin comfortably Kagura's head.
They lay there, listening to each other's breathing.
"You know what? I love you, China." Sougo said, his voice casual, as if he hadn't just said something that changed Kagura's life.
"W-what is that?!" Kagura pushed herself away from him, staring up into his eyes with a blushing face. "What d-did you just say?!"
"I'm not saying it again. You heard me," Sougo grinned sadistically.
"Y-you're so dumb!" Kagura said as a last resort, unable to think of anything else for the situation.
"Do you love me too?" Sougo asked. There was a moment of silence.
"As much as I love sukonbu…" Kagura mumbled, burying her face in his chest once more. He stroked her hair fondly.
"It kind of hurts that I'm being compared to food," Sougo deadpanned.
"B-be grateful I'm comparing you to the great sukonbu!" Kagura stuttered.
"Sukonbu is disgusting."
"Why you-" Kagura went to head-butt him, but she stopped. Her tiny body shook in Sougo's arms.
"I don't want to die yet…" Kagura said, her voice shaking. "Or rather, I'm not ready to die yet. I still have to make peace with Baka nii-chan and at least say goodbye to Papi. I haven't said goodbye to Gin-chan or Shinpachi either! Sadaharu will be waiting for me to feed him at home, but I won't be able to. I can't see Tae-chan again… I'll be leaving so many regrets behind."
"I don't want to die when I feel like my life has just begun. I don't want to die knowing that I'll never see you again…" She sobbed, unable to stop her tears.
Sougo gritted his teeth and stared at a strand of orange, waving at him.
"Then we'll just meet each other," Sougo finally said, hugging the fragile China in his arms. "In Hell, in Heaven, anywhere. We'll find each other and party on like nothing ever happened." He waited for the sobs to quieten down.
"Do you promise?"
"I promise."
"Promise, promise, promise? Do you cross your heart and hope to die, never ever tell a lie?"
"I'm dying anyway. But if you really want me to, then fine, I promise. I cross my heart and hope to die, never ever tell a lie. Let's find each other and party on, China." The last bit of energy faded from his voice.
Kagura smiled and closed her eyes. "It's a promise."
I hope, hope, hope you guys enjoyed it! Please leave a review to let me know about your thoughts regarding this 'Three shot'. If you have any questions, or you'd just like a chat, shoot me a message and I'm sure to respond.
See you next time!