Street War – Chapter 3

Sougo grimaced and gently felt his face, his cheek stinging. That is definitely gonna leave a mark. He glared at Kagura.
"What in the name of hell do you think that you're doing?!" yelled Sougo, his eye twitching as his blood pressure rose.
Kagura blinked her eyes a number of times, not quite believing what she was seeing. She gave Sougo a look of disgust and stepped backwards so that she stood next to Soyo.
"So sorry, my bad," Kagura's voice dripped with as much sarcasm as she could muster. "You see, my foot was just really excited to see you. Not my fault."
"So, because your foot has some sort of attraction to my face, you're just gonna barge in during our training session and kick me?" At Sougo's venomous jab, Kagura scoffed and narrowed her eyes.
"Should I have not held myself back?" she threatened.
Seeing no reason to further associate himself with Kagura, Sougo gratefully took the ice pack that was held out to him by Shimaru Saitou and walked over to the water bottles to grab himself a drink.

The Kendo Club members alternated between looking at Kagura and Sougo in confusion and whispering amongst one another. Their gossip was halted by Sougo's glare and a seemingly innocent question from Soyo.
"Are the two of you friends?" Her question sparked an immediate reaction from Kagura.
"That poop-head with the shoe-print on his face and dumb limp is my mortal enemy!" she announced, earning herself a look of chagrin – courtesy of Sougo.
"'Dumb limp'?" he repeated. "This was your damn fault! And what about you? Where're all your battle wounds? You monster."
"Ha! You're only saying that 'coz you're weaker than me. Don't be so petty!"
"Weaker than you? Don't kid yourself – you were way more beat up than I was. The only reason your scrapes and bruises are all gone is 'coz you're some sort of behemoth." He smirked as Kagura snarled at him, her face slowly growing red.
"Who're you calling a behemoth?!"
"If the shoe fits."

Before Kagura had a chance to jump Sougo again, Soyo gently gripped her friend's waist and massaged Kagura's back to calm her down. She looked around at the training hall, hoping to find something to distract her new friend from murdering the 'poop-head with a shoe-print on his face', and suddenly remembered the cameras in her hands.
"Um, excuse me," Soyo asked one of the Kendo Club members that was closest to her. "Would I be able to meet the captain of the Kendo Club? We were sent by the Newspaper Club to get a few photos…"
"Ah," Sougo lifted his head up from his drink. "That'd be me."

Kagura gave Sougo a critical glare, eyeing him from behind Soyo.
"We were told he would be the best looking in club, and that obviously isn't you."
"Well, it's a shame that you can't see what everyone else can."
"Ew." Kagura tugged at Soyo's sleeve and started pulling her out of the training hall. "Let's get out of here, Soyo-chan. I don't think anyone wants a photo of his messed-up face. We'll get some photos of the Basketball Club, instead."
As Soyo walked outside, she quickly turned and gave a short bow in apology for interrupting their practise session. Kagura, on the other hand, made a rude gesture at Sougo and stuck her tongue out to blow a raspberry. When Sougo mirrored Kagura's hand actions, Soyo quickly grabbed her friend's hand and ran from the building before a fight could ensue.

As he watched the two freshmen girls run away, Sougo could only sigh and rub the ice pack in his hand against his cheek. He could already feel the area start to inflame and knew that a bruise would soon appear.
"With the way things are going, I don't think I'll be the best looking in this club anymore…" he groaned at Saitou. "Call for a five-minute break. I'm gonna go wipe the dirt off my face."
He limped towards the water fountains, his face frozen in a scowl, as Saitou silently directed the rest of the club to cool off and take a break. Saitou watched in concern as the majority of the members move about mechanically, still dazed from their encounter with Kagura. Most of them crashed into the wall behind the benches, stumbling before falling in front of the drinks. The club members that managed to sit on the bench ended up dousing themselves in water as they missed their mouths with their water bottles. Saitou pulled up the black mask that hung around his neck and furrowed his brows as he watched them. A bead of sweat trickled down his neck as two of the younger members walked into each other and fell into a heap on the floor. Is this club gonna be okay…?

When he got back to his shared apartment with Hijikata, Sougo crashed onto their couch in a single, tired motion. His face hit the armrest of the couch and he winced as he felt his cheek sting upon impact. He quickly repositioned himself so that he lay on his back and closed his eyes, breathing deeply and soaking in the silence of the apartment.

Hijikata had been in the kitchen, making his usual mayonnaise special, when he heard the sound of Sougo crumpling onto their couch. From his position at the kitchen counter, he slowly peered into the living room area to quickly check on his young ward. That was when he noticed the dark bruise that was forming on Sougo's cheek.
"Was kendo practise that bad?"
"Nah, same old," Sougo replied. "Though – could you tell that Yorozuya boss to knock some sense into that China girl? Who greets someone with a kick to the face? Honestly."
"Hah?" came Hijikata's guttural response. "You've gotta be kidding. Why should I talk to that stupid perm-head? You know, in high school he-!"
"I don't care that he spilt your mayonnaise or dog food or whatever it was," Sougo sighed. "Just hurry up and get into another fight with the Yorozuya soon so that I can teach that China girl some manners."

Hijikata smirked and turned from the living room, picking up his mayonnaise special and opening the cutlery tray to find himself a pair of chopsticks.
"Hmph, you don't need to worry. Tonight, the usual time and place." Sougo sat up from the couch and grinned back at Hijikata.

After school had ended and Kagura had parted ways with Soyo, Kagura rushed back to her apartment and all but broke the door down in anger. She kicked off her shoes haphazardly, not bothering to place them upon the shoe rack, and ran into the kitchen to find something to stress eat. As she passed the hallway, she found her brother making himself a sandwich with his back turned towards her. Swiftly, she threw her school bag onto their kitchen counter and pounced on Kamui, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Kamui grunted in surprise before leaning forward against the kitchen counter so that his sister could rest comfortably on his back. He grabbed his sandwich from its plate and began eating in nonchalance, waiting to hear what Kagura had to say.
"Gah! I wanna kill him so bad!" she exclaimed, clutching onto her brother's neck with one hand and pulling on his braid with the other.
'"Kill'?" Kamui perked at the word, bread crumbs flying from his mouth as he spoke. "If it's killing you want, consider it done!"
"Urgh, stupid big brother!" Kagura slid down from her brother's back and placed her hands on her hips, pouting at him. "If I ask you to take him out, then I don't get to enjoy beating the crap out of him myself!"

The two siblings continued their conversation, neither one noticing their surrogate father arriving home and approaching them from the hallway. Gintoki narrowed his eyes at the 'beautiful' family bonding scene, and promptly cuffed both of his children behind the ears.
"No killing," he growled. "I'm not getting my ass hauled by the police because my kids are breaking the law. We're already in pretty tight places with the gang fights."
Kagura stuck out her bottom lip at Gintoki while Kamui smiled and took his sandwich over to the dining table. As her brother walked out, Kagura quickly moved to the pantry cupboard to find a packet of sukonbu when she noticed a folded piece of paper in Gintoki's hand. The yellowed white of the paper was marked with black calligraphy ink, but Gintoki had crumpled the piece of paper with his grip such that Kagura could not read what it said. However, she had an inkling as to the identity of the piece of paper in her father's hand.

"It's tonight?" she asked, excitedly.
"Yeah," Gintoki sighed. "But, seriously, who sends a letter of challenge these days? That stupid mayo-freak. It's, like, 2017 – come on. Just text me or something."
As Gintoki shook his head at Hijikata's archaic method of correspondence, Kagura skipped out of the kitchen with renewed vigour and a piece of sukonbu in her mouth. She grabbed her bag from the countertop as she hustled back to her room to find herself an outfit that was less physically inhibiting.

Upon arriving at her room and opening the door, Kagura found herself being tackled by a gigantic, white ball of fluff. Sadaharu, Kagura's gigantic Samoyed puppy, had also been adopted into the Sakata family when Gintoki found him muddied and abandoned by the side of a nearby river. Not having the heart to leave him to die, Gintoki picked him up and took him to the local vet before bringing him home. Needless to say, Sadaharu and nine-year old Kagura had formed an immediate bond and the two became inseparable. Though Gintoki had muttered about needing to 'stop picking up brats in the rain', his expression softened at the happy smiles within his household and he momentarily forgot about his financial situation.

While Sadaharu had been a tiny, skinny puppy when he was first adopted into the Sakata household, he had since grown healthily and was easily larger than Kagura when standing on his hind legs. Now, a tackle from her huge dog resulted in the both of them tumbling to the ground. Gently pushing the heavy fur ball off her chest, Kagura ruffled Sadaharu's fur with joyful mirth.
"Hey, hey, Sadaharu!" she crooned. "There's gonna be a gang fight tonight. I won't be letting that stupid sadist get the better of me this time. Whatever he dishes out at me, I'll throw back twice as much!"
"Arf!" Sadaharu replied with enthusiasm, placing his front paws on Kagura's shoulders and wagging his tail.
"Hm? You want in on the fun too? Ah, but we can't have this soft, white fur getting all dirty! Don't worry about me – just stay home and hold the fort, okay?"
"Arf!"
"Good boy!"

Sitting up from the ground, Kagura made her way to her small wardrobe and found herself a comfortable pair of dark jeggings and a black tank top. She quickly slipped off her school's sailor uniform and wiggled her way into her more form-fitting outfit. After a bit of deliberating, she deemed the night air cool enough to require a bit more outerwear and speedily grabbed a camo-patterned military-style jacket to throw on.

Checking her watch, Kagura decided that she would leave for the meeting place a little early so that she could fit in a pre-fight warm up. She hurriedly ran outside to notify Gintoki, only to find a note signed from her brother lying conspicuously on the kotatsu in the living room.
'Sakamoto and Katsura needed us for some help with a last-minute job. Head on over to the meeting place by yourself and we'll meet up with you there. Be careful not to talk to any strangers on the way!'
Kagura scrunched her nose at the message. She crumpled the piece of paper into a ball and threw it over her shoulder into the kitchen area, not caring whether or not it made the bin basket or not.
"Oh well," she said. "Hey – maybe I'll hit the streets earlier and beat Kamui to some of the Shinsengumi groupies. He's always beat up, like, half of them already by the time I get there."

Such was her plan. However, reality did not ensue the way that she had planned it to.

Having finished her warm-up run through Tokyo, Kagura had been intending on jogging over to the back alleys of the city to meet up with the rest of the gangs for the street fight. However, as she traversed the moonlit streets, she ran head-first into none other than Okita Sougo. Reeling backwards in pain from having knocked her head against his shoulder, Kagura rubbed furiously at her head as she glared up at the older boy.

Sougo also rubbed at their point of impact, staring down at Kagura as she narrowed her eyes at him, as if daring him to fight her then and there. He shook his head.
"There's no point," he drawled lazily. "The gangs are gonna be duking it out at the meeting place. There isn't much reason for me to wreck your face here in the middle of nowhere."
"Oh, yeah, there's a point," Kagura shot back. "I get to fight you without anyone interfering!"
"Listen, little girl-"
"You're only two years older than me!"
"-I'd love to destroy you right now, but I also wanna destroy Hijikata. And I can't do that unless I'm on the streets with him. So, I'm gonna get going before I'm late."
"Ah?! You get back here right-!"

A loud crash cut Kagura off before she could finish her threat. Both teenagers turned sharply towards the sound which had emanated from a shadowy alleyway. From the darkness stepped a large group of men, their faces covered by either black surgeon's masks or bandages, each holding weapons with varying levels of lethalness. Some held iron pipes dotted in dried blood, while others had daggers and electric drills. The sea of masked men parted down the middle to reveal a beautiful woman with electric-blue hair, her face covered by a peacock-feathered fan.
"What do we have here?" she announced with a slow tone. "A couple of rats from the Yorozuya and the Shinsengumi?"

Her face darkened with a sinister expression that Kagura could feel even though it was covered by her beautiful fan. Both Kagura and Sougo swallowed in silence. They recognised the men as well as the woman who appeared to be their leader. It was the Kada gang, a group of gangsters in Tokyo that operated more as a yakuza than anything else. While both the Yorozuya and the Shinsengumi did community work and helped out within the city of Tokyo, the Kada gang – led by 'Peacock Princess' Kada – held reign over many gambling rings and used swindling and violence to earn their keep. They had originally been the strongest street gang in Tokyo before the Yorozuya and the Shinsengumi took their throne, fuelling a deep hatred for both gangs from the members of the Kada gang.

"Is it just the two of you by yourselves?" Princess Kada questioned, her tone ostentatious. She fluttered her fan against her cheek. "My, my – look at you. You're only children. The 'Kings of Tokyo' sure have lowered their standards, haven't they?"
The men at her side snickered and sneered at Kagura and Sougo, who watched them warily. They both shifted their legs into a stance that allowed them a bit more freedom to choose whether they would fight or run. While they both knew that they were phenomenal fighters, neither of them was quite up to taking down an entire gang without support from their comrades.

Princess Kada laughed at two, allowing her eyes to rest on the shadows behind Kagura and Sougo. Sougo, having noticed the change in her line of sight, heightened his senses and shivered slightly. They've got us surrounded. He glanced at Kagura to see if she had noticed and found her moving her weight forward into her stance. He turned his eyes back towards Princess Kada, satisfied that Kagura was no longer moving to flee and was now poised to attack. I guess we don't have much of a choice.

Without wasting any more time, Sougo leapt towards the men to the right of Princess Kada. He quickly pulled his right sleeve up, revealing the iron pipe that he had hidden beneath his sleeve, and made a wide swing towards the group of men. Managing to strike about four of the Kada gang members, Sougo quickly ducked as he felt a rush of wind from behind him. Using Sougo's shoulder as a springboard, Kagura leapt up and went into immediate close combat with three of the Kada men. After knocking a good number of the gang members away, Kagura hit the ground and pulled up as many rocks as she could, swiftly flinging them towards any masked man that she saw.

Sougo, on the other hand, was a couple metres from Kagura fending off the half of the Kada gang that had decided to go after him. He spun out of the crowd, swiftly catching one of the wayward rocks that Kagura had haphazardly thrown, and re-aimed it at the closest Kada member. He heard a visceral groan emanate from the man who promptly fell to the ground, clutching his eye. Sougo smirked at him before his attention was pulled away again by the onslaught of men at his heels, their weapons on a collision course with his vitals.

Noticing his predicament, Kagura quickly shook off the last few men who were targeting her and leapt backwards towards Sougo. She shoved against him using the blunt of her shoulder and managed to disentangle him from the grips of the Kada gang. Quickly, she looked for an escape path but was disappointed to find none. Back to back with one another, both Kagura and Sougo were completely surrounded by a hundred or so Kada gang members. Their leader, Princess Kada, had long since left the scene – leaving the dirty work to the grunts.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend, huh?" Sougo grinned wearily, his head throbbing from having to handle so many attacks from every direction. His pain was further increased with Kagura's swift elbow jab to his back.
"Don't even suggest something as disgusting as that!"
However, as she turned to yell some more at him, she found him shooting a fist at her face. Quickly, she dodged out of the path of his punch and aimed a kick over Sougo's shoulder. With perfectly timed precision, both fighters narrowly missed each other and made impact with the Kada gang members that had snuck up behind them during their short moment of bickering.

They both watched as the two large men fell to the ground, their hearts pumping with adrenaline. Kagura shot a disgusted look up at Sougo.
"That thing that happened? Just now?" she started. "Like it came straight out of an anime? Gross."
"For once, I can agree with you."
"Don't do it again."
"How about you worry about yourself, then?"
"Fine!"
And thus, the fighting started again. However, this time, both Kagura and Sougo stuck closer to one another in an attempt to have a cover for their backs. Neither one would admit to that, though.

It did not take too long for the numbers of the Kada gang to dwindle. While the men may have been big, muscle-bound and equipped with dangerous makeshift weapons, they were too slow to keep up with the fast combat abilities of the duo they were trying to take down. Kagura and Sougo were both very familiar with quick methods of knocking out an opponent thanks to their individual training sessions with their respective mentors. Kamui had made quick work of teaching Kagura where all the human vital points were while Kondo Isao, one of the Shinsengumi's oldest members, had wanted to make sure that Sougo was able to defend himself from a young age. Regardless of their size and weaponry, Kagura and Sougo were well-versed in a myriad of techniques to deal with the Kada gang.

With a fluid motion, Kagura side-stepped from Sougo and knocked one of the Kada gang members off his feet with a jab behind his knees. She made to plant her foot in his face when she saw a glint of silver in her right peripheral. Surprised, Kagura quickly evaded the incoming attack only to trip over the man she had knocked to the ground. She felt a weight on her back which she identified as one of the gang members pinning her to the dirt and turned her neck to reposition herself so that she could flip him over. However, she froze as her eyes landed on a polished, silver knife making its way swiftly towards her neck. A memory flashed against her eyes; her father's body burned red as blood flowed from the knife wound in his heart. Without thinking she squeezed her eyes shut and screamed.

As quickly as the man had pinned her to the ground, Kagura suddenly felt his weight being thrown off her. She opened her eyes at the sound of metal against metal and found Sougo crouched above her, his breathing harsh as sweat trickled down his temple. Kagura blinked as her eyes readjusted to the moonlight. That's not sweat. As the droplets landed on her face and the familiar sting of the metallic scent made its way to her nose, Kagura shot up and gaped at Sougo. Though his bangs worked well to cover it, the trail of blood that ran down the side of his face did nothing to hide the fact that he had been cut by the knife. The knife that was meant for me.

Sougo gave Kagura a lazy side-eye as she glared at him.
"What was that for?!" she yelled. "What do you think you're doing? That was unnecessary!"
"Hah?" Sougo hurled back. "Some thanks I get. You can bet that's the last time I help you out."
"Oh, yeah?" Kagura rolled away from Sougo and aimed a kick at a rock that had been thrown at Sougo. The offending stone ricocheted off her leg and flew back at the Kada member that had thrown it, knocking him square in the face. "That's something I can be grateful for."

The two continued their street brawl which had, somewhere along the line, evolved into a contest to see who could beat up more people. At the end of the night, when the Kada gang had retreated due to the overwhelming ferocity of both Kagura and Sougo, Kagura turned back to Sougo with a grin on her face.
"I got thirty-four!" she exclaimed proudly, puffing out her chest.
"Yeah?" Sougo replied, taking off his jacket so that he could stop the blood flow from his forehead. "Well, too bad. I got thirty-five!"
Kagura hissed at him in anger.
"Ah?! Then – I got thirty-six!"
"What kind of idiot are you? You just said you got thirty-four!"
"Well, I obviously did better than you. So, I got thirty-six!" Kagura stuck up her nose at him and Sougo could only sigh in response, turning away from her.
"This China girl is a waste of brain space. Please, God, delete her from my memory…"

Before she could retort, Kagura's phone began vibrating in the pocket of her jacket. Quickly, she pulled it out, squinting at the light of her screen, and answered the call.
"Where in the world are you?" boomed Gintoki's voice from the speaker of her phone.
"Sorry, I was just cleaning up some trash. I've got one more thing to chuck in a garbage can and then I'll be right there."
"Too late, it's already been dealt with." At that, Sougo's ears perked up.
"Eh? What happened?" Kagura asked.
"Tie, like usual," Gintoki sighed, a tired air coating his voice. "Hurry up and get home."
"Alright."

Kagura hung up the call and slipped her phone back into her pocket before shooting another glare at Sougo.
"Next time, stay out of my face."
Sougo shot her a dirty look back.
"I could say the same to you."

Author's Note

Hey! Sorry, I was gonna upload this chapter a bit earlier but I felt like it was a bit too short. So I ended up combining two chapters together to make this one. I really hope this chapter won't be paced weirdly…

Oh, also, I didn't have my friend read this one before publishing it for you guys. It's, like, two in the morning where I am right now and I don't think she would be awake. ^^;;; I have, like, an awards ceremony to attend tomorrow and I'm kinda worried that I won't be able to wake up for it on time if I go to bed tonight. So I was just gonna try to bust out a couple of chapters tonight to keep myself awake. Which means none of them will be proof-read, so please tell me if there's anything wrong-!

One more thing. I don't think I've ever remembered to mention this, but I've never been to Japan and I don't know how things in Japan work. I have no idea about how the yakuza operates, and what little knowledge I have is gleaned from my Japanese friends who I haven't spoken to in many years. There will be inaccuracies, but I hope you won't get too mad at me for not being entirely correct. It is just a fanfiction, after all. :)

The next chapter is a short one and I'll probably keep it short, so expect it soon!