Hey guys! I'm so sorry for going MIA for like a year! I'm back! Here's the 4th chapter and I promise that this story will get done! If anyone's interested this story can also be found on archive of our own under the same name: rhysandh. Without further ado, the story continues! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Gintama
Rani stood at the head of a long table warily facing Kamui and four other men who stared up at her with blank unreadable expressions. She felt her stomach clench in nervousness. Most likely, none of them were happy at the prospect of having a woman on board working with them.
Even though none of the men were yelling bloody murder, it was obvious that some were more passionate in their disagreement with their young captain's decision judging by the glare one of them was shooting her.
She swallowed. Her mouth suddenly feeling incredibly dry. How was she supposed to live here if no one was willing to work with or help her?
She glared right back at the man giving her a dirty look. It's not like she wanted to be here either. If she could leave she would be out the door she was forced through. She wanted to leave as much as they wanted her dead, probably. This wasn't her decision, which was quite apparent thinking back on what transpired in her room with Kamui earlier.
Her face heated up in shame remembering what exactly he did to her and she stared down at her feet. Anything to avoid the piercing stares of the men in front of her.
Kamui chuckled at her expression, probably sensing exactly what it was she suddenly felt embarrassed about. He didn't give a damn about the tension in the room as he leaned back in his chair and kicked his legs on to the table, a wicked smile adorning his lips. "So...everyone, this is Rani aaaand as you can see she is a girl," he said, motioning towards her chest.
How dare he! Her face flared up and she resisted the urge to fidget or squirm under his crude jokes and simply crossed her arms, boring her eyes into his from across the table.
He winked back at her and she clenched her fists. She would not let him or any of them for that matter, see her discomfort. If she was going to assert herself she would have to desensitize herself to their stupid sexist comments.
"Now that you've stated the fucking obvious - "
"Oooh, what a mouth you've got on you," he said, mirth dancing in his eyes.
She rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to continue, but noticed that all of Kamui's subordinates were still looking at her as if she'd grown a second head.
"Are the others just going to stare at me like they've never seen a woman before or introduce themselves?"
One of them sat up and began to lowly growl at her in warning. She met his intense gaze with her own. "Gods, I feel sorry for you lot. Can't imagine how out of practice you must be if this is how you react to seeing a young girl. You're dicks must be all shriveled up from disuse," she laughed. "How are you even still alive? Doesn't it hurt after not doing it for so long?"
Silence was her response and her hands started to moisten due to nerves. Maybe she went too far. Even Kamui didn't seem to know what to say and stared at her with wide eyes before slapping his hand over his face and throwing his head back in laughter. To the other men's credit, they were all at a loss as how to react and opted to look anywhere but her.
"You're too funny," he chortled. "Guys, introduce yourselves. Come one I've got things to do." He gestured for one of them to stand.
One of them stood. "Elias," he stated and promptly sat back down. He was a large man with thick brown hair and tan skin. If Rani ever got in a fight with him he could easily crush her skull. She gulped at the thought.
The next two introduced themselves as Reo and Touma. Both as large as Elias and equally as intimidating. She simply nodded to them in acknowledgment and they sat back down, choosing to ignore her existence.
The final pirate stood. Upon first glance she could easily see that he was much younger than the first three. Probably, closer to Kamui in age and like the captain, he had sharp features with light stubble and keen hazel eyes. What was different between them was his golden brown skin and tousled black hair. He was incredibly attractive and if he weren't shooting daggers at her, Rani wouldn't have minded getting to know him more.
"I'm Kaz," he spat. "Just for the record, you don't belong here. This isn't a place for spineless little girls."
Rani sucked in a breath and glanced at Kamui. He narrowed his eyes at his subordinate, but didn't say anything. Hmph, he's lenient.
Obviously, Kaz speaking out directly against his captain's decision didn't warrant discipline. Or, in this case Kamui's version of discipline, death.
"You don't know anything about me. How do you know whether I'm spineless or not?" she raised a mocking brow at him. "For all you know, I could be a samurai or something."
"Yeah, but you're not," he hissed pushing his chair aside till it hit the wall and stalked towards her.
His tall figure loomed over her as he approached. Cold fury lit up his eyes as they bore into hers. In return, she smiled back. She could take him, perhaps most of them. Her forte was distance fighting, which was easy through blood manipulation, and keeping these big brutes at a distance shouldn't be too difficult.
"Try me," she said. "I may not be a samurai, but I can do other things, I promise."
Kaz clenched his teeth and grasped the front of her shirt getting in her face. "Listen here girl, you just do as your told and keep out of our business, otherwise..."
Abuto, who had been quietly observing began to rise from his seat, preparing to intervene but Kamui placed a hand on his arm, silently ordering him to back down. His attention focused on the spectacle in front of him. The other men observed with mild curiosity.
"Do your worst big guy. I can take what you dish out," she retorted wrapping her hands around his fists. Screw hiding her abilities, these fuckers deserve it. "I'll show you just how spineless I am." At that moment, she dug her nails into his fingers.
"Fuck!" He released her as if she were hot lava and hissed rubbing his sore fingers. Rani could see the small red indents where her nails had dug in almost breaking his skin.
She smirked at him. "Oh, did I hurt you? Is the poor Yato in pain, oh my," she mocked, tilting her head to the side.
Still holding his bruised hand he growled, "You little bitch! I'll kill you - "
"Ok that's enough," Kamui said standing up. He glared at Rani and she looked back dumbfounded. What did she do? She was just defending herself the way these people would defend themselves.
"All of you leave, meeting's over."
With that command, they all filed out without so much as a backward glance. Kaz on the other hand spat in her direction on his way out.
Her face scrunched up in disgust. She hated spitting, it was a nasty habit, but one she would have to get used to.
"You may as well get used to him and the others," Kamui said from across the room. "They're my highest ranked subordinates that I..." he paused searching for the right word, "trust the most so you better get used to dealing with them."
She groaned in frustration. "Fine, but why? I don't have an issue with them. They have one with me," she pointed to herself. "If anything, they should be trying to get along with me, not the other way around."
He looked at her with bored lidded eyes and strolled around the table. "Get them to like you then," he suggested as he approached the large window on the opposite side to stare out into space.
Despite the number of years of traveling through the vast darkness that was space, it never seized to amaze him how large it truly was. There were so many planets they have yet to see, and will probably never see. Life is only so long, he thought bitterly.
Rani frowned at his broad back. "And how exactly am I supposed to do that?" she said.
He turned to her and shrugged. "Not my problem."
"What?" she scoffed placing her hands on her hips. "Of course it is - "
"No, it's really not," he argued. "You're your own person, figure it out. I may have brought you on to this ship, but I can't fight every battle for you when one of them decides your shit. You gotta figure out how to deal with that yourself. That's why I didn't intervene when Kaz was about to kick your ass, if you were wondering. Now, leave," he finished and waved his hand, dismissing her from the room.
She crossed her arms and fumed at his statement. Sure, he was right. But, she didn't want to be here to begin with!
"I don't know how to get back," she said, glancing back at the other pirate who had stayed throughout this whole ordeal silently observing.
Kamui huffed, placed a hand on the small of her back and guided her towards the door.
"Hey!" She protested but allowed herself to be pushed nonetheless until the door slid open and he roughly shoved her outside. She stumbled for a moment before righting herself.
"Figure. It. Out." He said then shut the door on her.
She grit her teeth in annoyance and turned to find her way back until the door slid open again and Kamui's head popped out. "Also, Like I said before, don't use your abilities on the crew. They won't like that, trust me."
With that final statement he slid the door shut and she rolled her eyes. How was she supposed to defend herself against these brutes. Her knife could only take on so many people.
Now that everyone was gone, Kamui and Abuto had some time to themselves to talk.
The young captain sat back down, leaned back and glowered at the ceiling in deep thought. A small frown graced his lips.
Abuto sat back in his chair with a relieved sigh, waiting for his captain to share whatever was on his mind.
He was thankful that no one had gotten hurt. No doubt the girl could do some considerable damage to their men and, there's no doubt that Kaz could have seriously maimed her. Despite his Yato heritage, Abuto preferred to avoid violence if he could.
When their eccentric leader showed up earlier that day with a young girl in tow and told them she would be joining them in his own unique way, he had no clue what to think. They had never had a woman on their crew much less a girl no older than their leader.
And later, when Kamui told him that she was a blood manipulator when they were waiting for one of the crew to escort her to the meeting room, Abuto was even more stunned.
It had been a while since he'd met one and while he didn't have anything against blood manipulator tribes, he knew crew members that would sooner see Rani's head on a pike than fight alongside her.
However, what Abuto wanted to know was what could have possibly driven the captain to make such an unexpected decision. Admittedly, Kamui had always been a sporadic and unpredictable young man. He changed his mind and carefully thought out plans without informing anyone. But...this was something else entirely!
There would be fights. There already almost was one. If the captain hadn't intervened, things could have escalated to extremely violent levels between Rani and Kaz. Not to mention, she could be killed within a day and neither he nor Kamui would now because no one would bother to report it. Her body could be found one day rotting on the ship somewhere.
In his opinion (not that it mattered) the girl was safer on that corrupt desert planet than she was on this ship. But, Abuto was curious to know what compelled the captain to make this decision.
He just hadn't decided how to broach the topic, yet.
He had become attuned to the boy's moods throughout his career, letting him know when to back off or save certain discussion for later. Seeing Kamui's reserved mood now, he decided to take a gamble and just start. The worst he could lose was his arm or leg, nothing too important. He chuckled, amused at his own humor.
Alerted by the sound, Kamui glanced at Abuto out of the corner of his eye.
"Captain, I'm curious about something," he said warily.
Kamui simply hummed in response signaling for him to continue. He knew exactly what his second in command was 'curious' about. He began to idly play with his braid.
Abuto cleared his throat and asked, "Why bring her here? A blood manipulator no less."
He rested his arm against his forehead and exhaled. "I dunno. She looked interesting," was his curt reply.
'Interesting' could mean many things with it came to the captain. Being a blood manipulator, she must be pretty strong and he was attracted to that. He probably wanted to fight her. If so, why not just fight her, kill her, and be done with it? Why bring her here where she was a lamb walking into a den of starving lions.
"If you were looking for a fight, you would have killed her...but you haven't. Instead you brought her here," he said tapping the table. "There must be a reason."
He wanted Kamui to be honest with him. But he knew that wasn't something he was accustomed to open communication and honesty. It was something Kamui would have to learn. Who knows when that will happen, though.
He blinked and sat upright in his seat. Normally, he would scold Abuto for talking down to him like that. However, he knew he was going to have to share this story sooner or later and decided to just get it over with. He couldn't keep the weird dreams hidden much longer; they were going to affect his sleep at some point.
Plus, his second in command was observant and persistent. There was no getting around him. Abuto was too questioning and perceptive for his own good sometimes.
Resting his head against his hand, he drummed his fingers on the table nervously. He didn't know how to tell the older man about his visions, dreams, whatever they were. It felt too personal for him. He felt like an adolescent who got caught for jerking off by their parents.
Abuto waited patiently for him to say something and Kamui gazed out the window refusing to meet the older man's gaze.
"What I'm about to tell you is...weird to say the least," he started.
Abuto's expression remained blank urging him to continue. He crossed his legs and waited.
Kamui clenched his jaw. He really didn't want to do this. It was humiliating enough to admit even to himself that he was so affected by mere dreams of her.
Despite his conscience screaming at him to shut the fuck up and forget this whole conversation he continued. "About two years ago, I started having these...dreams - visions, whatever," he said running a hand through his bangs. "I wasn't sure what they were. Still not sure to be honest."
He glanced at Abuto who was still just patiently listening. His face expressionless, not revealing any of his thoughts on Kamui's story so far.
Swallowing, he went on. "The dreams were about Rani. But, it was weird. It was like I was in her body seeing everything through her eyes. But I knew I was still me," he said placing a hand on his chest.
Abuto let out a stressed sigh. He knew exactly what was going on. He just didn't know how to break the news to his commander. Why did he have to get stuck dishing out bad news, or what would be bad news in Kamui's eyes. It was going to get him killed one of these days, if not today. He desperately hoped that today wouldn't be that day and mentally prayed. This was going to be a long night.