Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Chapter 6

Kagura launches forward and fired her bullets in between her enemies to separate them. The Kumoto turned around and dodged to the side.

"What the hell…!" One Kumoto guy swore. He is incredibly tall and muscular with tanned skin, like the other guy. But that, of course, didn't stop Kagura. She whipped her head around and eyed him with a dark aura, then jumped in the air and smashed her parasol on him with a powerful force that breaks the ground apart.

"That's for making me wait for 50 minutes, you bastards! Where's your shit-running Commander?!"

While Kagura was busy fighting her own enemy, Kamui and Okita recovered from her kick and started their own sadistic torturing session. Okita draw out his katana and stabbed the guy who Kagura was exchanging fists with. But then he realised something that made him froze in surprise.

His sword won't pierce through the guy's skin.

"China, back out!" Okita warned, but it was too late. Kagura punched the guy in his stomach and felt the vibration running through her, as if she had just punched an iron bar or something harder. She yelped in pain and pulled her fist back.

"Ow, shit, that hurts!"

"You're not bad at all, little missy," said the Kumoto guy who was unaffected by Kagura's punch. He smiled and lifted the surprised Kagura up by her neck. "But you're not good enough!"

With that being said, he slammed the Yato girl on the ground. Kagura felt the air squeezed out of her lungs, but she was more pissed than pained. She rolled to her side and pushed herself off the ground her hands then kicked square him on the face. The Kumoto guy was sent flying.

"BWAHAHA, look who's talking now? Sadist, get the bastard!"

"Don't order me around." Okita smiled sadistically. He lifted his katana high until it glinted in the small amount sun light there is and waited for a perfect moment when the Kumoto guy would come down. And as expected, the guy came down with a yelp of pain and pleasure mixed together when the katana went through his butt.

"GYAHHH!"

"I knew my eyes did not deceive me. You are an M, aren't you?!" Okita asked sadistically and plunged the katana in deeper.

"No, you are dead wrong, brat!"

"Don't lie to me! I know your type of guy. You acted tough at school by bullying kids for their lunch money, but when you come home, you just can't wait to be treated like a pig! You were pushed around to do chores, work and farming, but you were still happy when you saw other people's angry expressions. You were contented! S people would never be like that!"

"No way… How did you… Oh god, don't tell me… you are…"

"That's right; I'm the prince of sadists on the Sadist planet! Now, tell me you are a pig who enjoyed being…"

"Wait," Kagura interrupted, "that messed up planet really existed?!"

"No duh," Okita spoke and twisted his katana around. Another scream came from the Kumoto guy before everything will go quiet. Okita sighed and pulled out the katana. "Ah, he fainted from pleasure. I guess there's no helping it."

"Pleasure? You call that pleasure? I think you just killed him."

"You don't understand, China. M people are built tougher than S people so that they will be able to endure pain. But now, I think that we've just discovered something even more important. The Kumotos have skin that's hard and thick as hell. Even your punches barely made him feel anything at all. China2, are you done yet?"

"Hmm…" Kamui looked up from his preyed that is now lying face down on the ground with his neck twisted in an awkward angle, but no blood was found. "I think you are right. I couldn't pierce through him with my hands, so I broke his neck instead. Such a shame. I would like to see more blood splatters… wait, who is China2?"

"Can you stop with your disgusting talk already? Ah, look, there are more of them coming this way."

Okita and Kamui looked into the direction that Kagura pointed. Sure enough, more ridiculously muscled men are heading towards their way with a very fast speed.

"There they are! Captured them all!"

"13… 24… 47… Okay, there are more than 50 of them coming our way. I think it's about time we get into the damn ship. China and China2, get going." Okita said deadpanned and took out his handy bazooka. He aimed at the rushing crowd, grinned, and fired.

"Sadist! Where the hell did you get your bazooka from?!" Kagura asked as she sprinted after Kamui to the rope which leads to the door of the ship. Okita smirked.

"Everybody have bazooka in their hearts, China girl. As long as you are a true man, you can draw out any deadly bazooka from within yourself."

"Really?! Does this mean that I can do it too?!"

"Don't take his words seriously, little sister. They are all lies enveloped in his darkness. By the way, who is China2?"

They all stopped once they climbed the rope and stepped inside the small room on the cold, metal ship. Okita looked around and found the heavy iron door with a small scanning machine beside it. "Shit. They use a scan system here."

"No worries," Kagura whistled and dropped her backpack. She reached her hand inside and searched for something. "They are surely going to climb up after us. Just use one of them to get us through the scanning machine… Ah ha! I found it!"

"What is that? And who is China2?" Kamui asked Kagura when his sister stood up gleefully with something in her hands.

"It is a tamagoyagi, in scientific name, a dark matter. Anego made this for us to eat, but the chances of us surviving after consuming it are very low. So, if we can't hurt the Kumoto from the outside because of their hard skin, we have to destroy them from the inside!"

"…That's just pure evil, China. Even the Kumoto doesn't deserve this." Okita muttered when he heard sounds of guys climbing up the rope without knowing that hell awaits them in Kagura's hand. When the first guy appeared and followed by the other guys, Kagura fired the dark matter in her hand accurately into their faces.

"AGHH, it is poison!"

"Something disgusting got into my eyes!"

"Mommy, help!"

"Hurry it up, Sadist!" Kagura yelled. She and Kamui were busy fending off the Kumoto by throwing the dark matter around. Okita grabbed one of the guys who passed out on the floor by his hair, forced his eyes to open by pulling eyelids apart and slammed his face into the scanning waited and heard a robotic woman voice came from the device.

"… Scanning process failed. There's an unknown substance in the way. Please remove the…"

"Ah, damn it all." Okita swore and used his sleeve to wipe off the dark matter on the guy's face. His sleeve made a sizzling sound and rotted away as if it had come in contact with acid. He then smashed the guy's face into the scanning machine multiple times more until blood started gushing out.

"Scan, bitch!"

"Please do not call me a bitch. Scanning process failed. The user was impolite. There's blood in the way of scanning. Please remove dirty language and…"

"Fuck you. I can call you anything I want." Okita stated and wiped the poor guy's face on the white wall. "Now stop complaining and just scan. Otherwise…"

The machine seems to acknowledge the sadistic tone in Okita's voice. "Scanning process completed. You may enter."

The door slid open. Okita turned around and called for the other two siblings. "China, China2, The door is open! Hurry up!"

"Took you long enough!" Kagura called back and kicked off the guy who was grabbing her shoulders. She ran to the door beside her rival and heard the creaking noise the tubes that are holding the room together. They looked as if they may collapse anytime soon.

"Bastard, hurry up!" Kagura yelled for Kamui who was still fighting with his killer smile on and was too engrossed in his own battle to notice that the floor is shaking from the damage. Kagura swore and runs back to get her brother.

"Kamui! Move it, you bastard!"

"China… shit!" Okita dropped the guy on the floor to block the doorway so that the door wouldn't close on them and he wouldn't have to deal with the annoying machine again. He rushed to Kagura as the floor gave up and crumbled down, creating a big, seemingly endless hole below them. Kagura halted in surprise when she felt the weightlessness under her and fell backwards into the darkness, high above the ground.

Damn you, Kamui… Kagura thought to herself. Even though I couldn't care less about you now, you can still put me into my demise? Everything seems to be in slow motion. She tilted her head up and all of a sudden, she saw something bright flashes before her eyes.

Kamui's broad back was facing her. Like that time when they parted at her home planet. The time when he told her that she's useless and he doesn't need her anymore. Then, something bright orange that looks long and strong appeared once again. That something looks a lot like a rope. Like something she can hold onto.

Kagura reaches out her hand…

and grabs Kamui's braid.

Kamui is strong and he knows it.

He's the son of Umibozu, a hero sung to be a strongest fighter in the universe. He's a member of the Yato clan, the warriors blood runs through his veins. He traveled in space along with his subordinates, gained a reputation that would put any villains to shame.

But to be up-side-down with his leg hanging on an iron tube while having two people hanging on to his hair is hard for anyone, even for Kamui.

"Kagura… little sis… dear… you're ripping my hair off my scalp. Please… let go."

"Nahh~" Kagura let out a groan as she cling closer to Kamui's braid. Pieces of iron bars, tubes and scraps are falling all around her and her eternal rival into the big hole which used to be the floor. The only reason they are survived is because Kamui wrapped his legs around a big iron tube that is long enough to cross that big, empty space and Kagura was fast enough to grabbed onto his hair. As a result, Kamui is now hanging up-side-down with Kagura's hand on his braid and Okita Sougo hanging on around waist.

"No, you are seriously going to make me bald like our useless Papi. I beg of you, my whole life is ahead of me. I can't be bald." Kamui tried to smile.

"My whole life is hanging on your hair right now, bro. And I mean literally. I can't let go. Why don't you let go so it will be easier for me to get up, huh, Sadist?" Kagura looked down and asked Okita who was supposed to save her, not dragged her down to hell with him.

Okita lifted his legs to cradle around Kagura's feet. He holds on to his dear life and answered. "No can do. I won't have courage to go see my sister in heaven if I die a pathetic death like this without even killing Hijikata-san first."

"You have a sister? She's dead?"

"Yeah. Her name is Mitsuba… this really isn't a time to talk about the deceased, is it?"

"You are still alive, Earthling? Why can't I see you?" Kamui asked, a little bit surprised that the weakling species is still alive.

"Because I'm hanging on to your little sister. Look down a bit more and you'll see."

Kamui rolled his blue eyes down and saw Okita with his arms wrapped around Kagura's body tightly. His face close to her heart and his legs around her feet.

Kamui nearly snap. "Hey, get your dirty hands off my sister! You are tainting her and dragging me to my death at the same time!"

"I told you I can't do it, China2. Why don't you just try and reach down your hand for us to hold onto or something?"

"Who the hell is China2?! Here, take my hand." Kamui reached down his hand. Kagura glanced up and swat it away with her free arm.

"No way. If I let go of your hair, you are definitely going to drop me."

"Huh? Do I look that evil to you? I would never…"

"I have no use for weaklings like you."

The voice inside Kamui's head resounded somewhere from his past. Kamui paused and look deeply into his sister's eyes, only to find distrust in them. It is not really a wonder, considering the way I betrayed her…

"Trust me on this one, sister. I promise I won't let go."

"You promise? What makes you think I will put my faith in you ever again? I'm not going to let go. I'm going to survive and go back to Yorozuya again!"

"I swear upon my pride of a Yato. I swear to Buddha, God and Shogun-sama that I really won't let go. So please, don't make me go bald. The last thing I want is to look like that jackass Papi."

Kagura looked down on Okita and considers her choices carefully.

-Keeps hanging on to Kamui's braid until god knows when.

-Trusts Kamui and die.

-Trusts Kamui and survive.

-Kicks down the Sadist, chances of surviving go up 20%.

- Commit triple suicide. Go to hell with two furious sons of the guns.

Clearly, Choice 3 was the only way to get out of this alive and safely. "Fine, but if you dare let go of us, you're going to have a hell to pay, got it?"

"Okay. Here." Kamui agreed immediately and reached down his hand one more time.

Kagura lifts up her arm, hesitates, and squeezes around Kamui's hand.