Dead silence followed. Not a glass clinked nor a word fluttered. More than anything that had ever lived or that had never lived, this was Silence. This was Death.
No, something is off. Very off. The eyes are wrong, all wrong, no, just everything, everything is very, very wrong.
Okita's mind raced, frantically trying to fill that gap, that vital piece in his memory. He had felt close, tantalizingly closer than ever before to reaching it, but now it had slipped away again, a garden snake among ivy.
"And would I be correct in assuming that you are Okita Sougo?" he pleasantly continued, practically oblivious to the silence. No, that would be wrong; he was not oblivious, he reveled in it, for it was his silence and no one else's.
"I, I am."
"Well what are you waiting for? Sit down, sit down!" Kamui excitedly patted the seat next to him as he propped himself up to his own chair. Okita hesitantly sat down.
"So, why did you call me out-"
"Wait, we need to order something! You can't start without eating of course!" Kamui grabbed the menu and began flipping through it rapidly. He vaguely muttered something every few items.
"...So doesn't your… friend need a seat?" Okita nodded at the black haired girl. She stared at him blankly.
"Hmm? Her? Nah, she's my daughter, she isn't anyone important enough to take a seat," he said absentmindedly. "More importantly, do you think meat buns are better than-"
Crash. Cups shattered and plates clattered as Okita jerked from his seat.
"I'm done. With this. With you. Goodbye and I hope to never see you again." He turned around, fuming. He briskly walked towards the door when a voice questioned, "But don't you want to know your memories?"
He froze, one step out the door. He was half uncertain whether that was a real voice or just his own thoughts.
"Didn't you feel a sense of recognition when you saw me? Some hint perhaps? Maybe even… a longing?" The now velvety voice coaxed him back. "Okita Sougo, I know all about your amnesia, how you know the name but you don't remember any interactions with her. The owner of this cloak and hat. She who is my sister. Kagura."
At the name, a cold finger trailed down his spine, those familiar shivers from every time he heard it. That name. That horrid, bewitching, beautiful name.
Okita silently returned to his seat. Kamui gave him an approving smile, a patronizing one to say the least.
"Now then. It's storytime. Why not have my daughter tell it," he said viciously with an animalistic, toothed smile. "It'll be fun."
Okita glanced at her. Her shoulders might have caved in slightly, but her eyes were glassy and blank. She opened her mouth to speak.
"I was born in wedlock. Master slept around with many around the time, including princess Soyo. My birth is a disgrace to the royal family so… Kagura-san took me away the moment I was born. We traveled space together; me because I had no one else, and Kagura-san because she had sworn to end someone's life. At that time, I never knew who I was and I had always thought that I was her daughter. I didn't need anyone but her, and we were happy. But sometimes she would look lonely and tell me to live without regrets. Her one wish that she desired for was impossible, she would say. I vowed to change that though; I couldn't bare her sad face and I, naively, thought that I could change that."
She inhaled deeply before plunging into the rest of the story...
...
"Kagura-san, it reeks of mold here…"
The gray sky stretched over the rotting buildings, the rain splattering its fat drops on the concrete. The air stank of decay and the pungent scent of mold. The girl shuddered in disgust.
Kagura laughed at her companion's expression. Nothing delicate but rather a warm chuckle from her heart. "Yup, this is my hometown. Believe me, I've thought the same exact thing for years. If not still now." Her expression twisted into a gag as the wind picked up.
They picked their way through the rubble and towards the houses, dark and intimidating silhouettes in the pale background. Nothing but water could be heard; water falling, water splashing, water trickling, water draining.
At last, they reached an alley, and they slipped through. A small, dank stairwell down led them to Kagura's house. It was dark, with only a single light bulb in the entire house of three rooms. Shadows swayed nauseously with every draft, like drunk ships in a storm.
"You stay here where it's dry. There're some rations left from the planet we last visited so you can eat those. I have somewhere I need to go…"
She placed her knapsack in front of the girl and opened it, carefully taking out a small bouquet of lilies. She saw the girl stare at it in awe and smiled knowingly.
"Pretty aren't they? I'm going to see my mami and give these to her. She's near where we docked our space yacht."
"What? But there weren't any houses there Kagura-san."
Kagura winced a bit, her smile turning into something a bit more bittersweet and pained.
"She's dead. I'm going to see her grave."
The girl's jaw opened, but she quickly closed it and instead looked down ashamedly, her pale face becoming a tinted rose color. Kagura tousled her hair kindly, murmuring, "Do not worry. She is happier where she is now than where she was before."
Kagura turned to leave when the girl hugged her fiercely from behind.
"I love you mami! Thank you, thank you for giving birth to me and loving me so much. Thank you for never leaving me."
Kagura's throat constricted as a sharp stone suddenly lodged in her throat. Overwhelming guilt crashed down, drowning her in the waves of sorrow, grief, guilt. She could still see Soyo screaming, fighting, crying to take back her baby, her rightful treasure, before she fainted and her life blood slowly drained away. In that dark alley where no one would be able to find them, she left her, her best friend, the one person to whom she could share everythings and nothings with, she had taken the baby and she left the mother to die. Alone.
"Kagura-san?"
Kagura snapped back to reality and saw her dear friend's daughter look up with shining eyes. Passion to protect her and fury to the one who started the grief burned through her, evaporating the guilt and the sorrow. She hugged the girl back, almost crushing her in protectiveness. "I will protect you no matter what, at all cost. I swear it upon everything I have," she said fiercely, the oil of anger only burning her fire higher.
They clung onto each other, one to a lifeline in a storm. Then they finally separated, smiles warmly lighting their faces.
"I will be back soon," Kagura promised, as she left the house.