Street War – Chapter 8

"Get. Away. From. Me."

It was worse than Sougo had thought. The morning after he had met with Hongou, Sougo had smacked himself in the chest and decided to ask his hated rival to go to the hospital to meet with his sickly friend. He had popped into her classroom before morning homeroom – which was not hard to find in the least since he could hear her childish laughter from the other side of the building – and did a quick scan of the students to find her distinctive head of hair. Upon making eye contact with Kagura, the girl's happy expression immediately faded as she narrowed her eyes at him and made a hissing sound. The cat-like sound only intensified as he approached her.

"Listen, I just need to talk about something," Sougo attempted, holding his hands up in mock surrender. However, with not too much warning, Kagura quickly pushed herself out of her seat and made a quick exit. Via the window. In a flash, Sougo had rushed to the window and watched in irritation as his underclassman easily made the two-storey drop, landing with poise and grace before promptly flipping him off and dashing away. He could feel his eye begin to twitch as his temple began to throb. I can't fucking believe this.

"Wow, Kagura-chan was almost like a cat, just now!" came an enthusiastic voice to Sougo's right side. As he turned his head, he came face to face with Kagura's best friend who seemed to hold no concern for Kagura's questionable method of escape. She gave him a big smile and clasped her hands together.
"I guess she doesn't like you very much, does she?"
At Soyo's remark, Sougo could only scoff. "It'd be disgusting if it was the opposite."

After slightly inclining his head towards Soyo, Sougo turned to walk out of the first-year classroom and return to the third-years' wing. He let out a long sigh. How annoying. As if dealing with her wasn't enough – the first-years and third-years are in different buildings. As he made the long trek back to his classroom, his calm demeanour betraying nothing of his underlying thoughts, Sougo began contemplating telling Hongou to give up.
"I don't wanna talk to her about all this sappy 'thank you' stuff, and she won't let me tell her to meet Hongou," he muttered. "The hell am I s'posed to do?"
However, deep down, Sougo already knew that he would go through with Hongou's request. He sighed. I really am too nice to the guy…

Sougo had almost reached the entranceway for the first-years' building and was about to make a left turn for the third-years' building when a small group of girls ran past him.
"Oh, thank goodness we made it in time!" one of them cried out in relief, her breathing coming out in short pants.
"Yeah, we were almost late!" came a reply. The girls' conversation continued, though Sougo was unable to hear any of it over the loud, clanging noises of the girls' shoe lockers being hurriedly opened and closed.

As the last shoe locker was closed and the girls ran off toward their classroom, a lightbulb went off in Sougo's mind and he stood rigidly still. A chill went up his spine. Do I really…? It's… a little cheesy. Gross. He shook his head, fishing in his pocket for a pen and some scrap paper. And, anyway, she did it first. By chance, the note that Kagura had written to Sougo when she had dropped off the bottle of iced tea in his shoe locker was still in his pocket which he unfolded and flipped over. With as much grace as he could manage with a broken arm and no writing surface, Sougo quickly scribbled a quick letter to Kagura and re-folded the piece of paper. He backtracked to the first-years' shoe lockers, did a quick glance over each shoulder to make sure no-one was looking, and began scanning the nameplates above each locker. Sakata… Sakata… Ah, Sakata Kagura.


"Oh my God, though, Kagura-chan," Soyo exclaimed, a hushed giggle at the back of her throat. "Where were you after you escaped from Okita-senpai? You should've seen our classmates' faces – I think a couple of them swallowed flies, their jaws dropped so low!"
"Heh, well," Kagura chuckled. "After I saw his disgusting face, my day was pretty much ruined. So I thought I'd hit an arcade or something to get my mind off him. I was about to just head home, but then I remembered that I had left all my stuff here at school."
Soyo smiled, the lines around her eyes crinkling cutely. "Next time, I'll drop you your bag from out the window."
"Oh!" Kagura grinned. "Nice one, Soyo-chan!"
The two girls continued their banter down the hallway, all the way to the shoe lockers. Kagura swiftly opened her locker door, only for a piece of paper to smack her in the face. Almost as if it was calculated.

With a low growl, Kagura swiped the note that had fallen onto her face and held the offending item as far as she could from her body.
"Well, well – what's this?" Soyo angled her head downwards to peek at the note in Kagura's hand. "Do you have a secret admirer, Kagura-chan?"
Kagura turned Soyo's words over in her head for a short moment – 'secret admirer' – before shaking her head vigorously. She knew better. I smell Shinsengumi rat all over this. Her mind flickered back to the events that had transpired that morning, and was almost tempted to burn the thing. However, as the thought crossed her head, her fingers twitched against the crumpled paper. Curiosity killed the cat.

Kagura slowly opened the note up, half expecting for a spider or something to crawl out, and quietly read the sickeningly neat handwriting that she knew for sure belonged to the youngest Shinsengumi member. However, as she read through the note, her face paled.
The kid from the park that you sent to the ER wants to see you again. Meet me in the third-years' wing.
"Uh, Soyo-chan?" Kagura timidly started. "I'm gonna hafta ditch you for today. You mind?"
With a shake of the head from Soyo, Kagura speedily grabbed her outdoor shoes and slammed her shoe locker closed. She quickly ran out of the school building, throwing a quick "see you tomorrow" at Soyo to which the young heiress could only wave back in confusion.
"See you tomorrow?"


Racing over to the third-years' classrooms, Kagura waited outside in an inconspicuous position to try to spot Sougo out from the crowd. Eventually, she found him slinking towards his shoe lockers, and really that was the only way she could describe the way that the older boy walked. Whether it was the years of battle experience or just his nature as a sadist, he had a way of walking about that was both silent and disgustingly calculated. Kagura could understand how this guy made it as kendo captain, with his honed form, though she would never admit that to him.

"Oi! Sadist!" Kagura called out, hesitantly jogging towards him. Sougo turned his head towards her, before narrowing his eyes and turning back towards his locker.
"Oh, so now you're okay to speak to me, huh?" he quipped childishly. "Should I jump out a window, this time?"
"You can jump off a bridge, for all I care," was Kagura's blunt reply. "But, before that – how in the world do you know about the incident in the park?! What're you, a stalker?"
Sougo rolled his eyes.
"That guy, Hisashi Hongou, is a frequenter of the hospital. He's got a pretty weak constitution and, since I'm always in the hospital anyways, I've ended up meeting with him pretty often. For whatever reason, he wants to see your gorilla of a face again."

That earnt him a swift jab to the abdomen. As Sougo was reeling in pain, mumbling something about crazy gorilla girls and their stupid brothers, Kagura blinked in slight confusion and stood quiet and still.
"Huh?" Sougo said, a questioning look on his face. "What's up with you? Don't wanna see him?"
"That's not it…" Kagura mumbled, her eyebrows furrowed. "What are you doing in the hospital so much that you ended up becoming friends with a patient?"
Sougo realised his mistake.
"Not any of your business," he quickly replied. "Come on – you wanna see him or not? Or are you gonna make this poor guy wait for you forever?"
"No, I'll go. But why do I have to go with you?"

Halfway through their bickering, Kagura had begun walking towards the hospital and, without quite noticing, Sougo had naturally started walking in the same direction. He blinked, startled by the sudden realisation, but continued walking beside her.
"I'm needing to head over to the hospital, anyways," he gruffly exclaimed. "We're not going together, we're just walking in the same direction."
Kagura glanced at him before scrunching her face up and pointedly walking in the opposite direction. Slightly caught off-guard, Sougo stopped moving. He turned his neck and, after ensuring there was a distance of three metres between the two, began quietly following after her.
"What's going on with you?" he called.
"I'm going to buy, uh, Musashi-kun a gift," came Kagura's tense reply.
"Hisashi. Hisashi Hongou."
"Whatever – a visiting gift. You go on your way."

As he watched her power walk away, Sougo subtly increased the length of his stride and followed behind her. He made sure his footfalls were loud enough for Kagura to hear, and maintained his distance. After a few moments, he got his expected reaction from her.
"What do you think you're up to now?" Kagura yelled back to him.
I really don't know, China girl. "If I leave you to get there on your own, you'll never get to Hongou's room - you're such an idiot, after all. I'll see to it that you meet up with him properly. I guess, every so often, I should at least try to do something Shinsengumi-ish."
"Hah? And what makes you think that I won't see Musashi-kun, huh?" Kagura stopped her fierce power walk away from Sougo and swiftly turned around to glare at him. She received a critical look in return.
"Let's ignore the fact that you can't even remember his name," he started, a tired look in his eyes, before turning his head away from her piercing gaze. "The other day, when you were distracted at the gang fight and I beat the crap outta you, you were thinking about him weren't you?"

His words elicited a sharp intake from Kagura. Damn, of course he has to be smart.
"What about it?" she challenged.
"You're probably worried, and think that it's your fault," Sougo stated. "You don't wanna see him because of the guilt… That's the reason you haven't even tried to visit him this whole time, right?"
The more Sougo spoke, the more prickly and uncomfortable Kagura felt. 'Cause he's absolutely right.
"I'll make sure you don't chicken out," he said as he crossed the three metres of distance between them. "The sooner you talk to him, the sooner my plaything – that'd be you – gets back to tip-top fighting shape. Now hurry up and get him that gift so we can go. Visiting hours will be over if you take too long."
With a glare, Kagura turned once more away from him and began walking toward the gift shop with renewed fervour. Sougo could only follow.


She's acting weird. Sougo had walked with Kagura to the gift store – some small business named Night Glory – and had picked a recluse corner at the back of the store to sit and wait for her. However, five minutes after Kagura had begun to search for Hongou's gift, Sougo began to notice that her movement patterns were a little strange. Her eyes flitted about to all of the phone charms, plush toys, coloured stationery and small sundries, though never quite focusing on any one in particular. She walked about the store in a mysterious, circular pattern, and seemed to draw nearer to Sougo with each cycle. Her eyes keep darting over to me, as well… Hm? Oh.

Sougo smirked. She doesn't know the first thing about Hongou, does she? With a new feeling of superiority, which he did not usually feel around Kagura despite his older status, Sougo stood up from his chair and leaned over Kagura, grabbing the Rubik's cube keychain she had picked up. He twirled the keychain on his index finger for effect.
"Want some help?" he practically purred.
Lowering her head as if to hide herself, Kagura dropped her shoulders in defeat, her cheeks a little pink with embarrassment.
"I… haven't ever bought a present for someone before," she mumbled. "Especially a boy who I don't really know."

Sougo blinked.
"A-ah. Yeah. Well, Hongou's a big fan of real boring stuff that takes a lot of time and patience. Like origami or knitting or something. Take a look in the crafts section." He spoke hurriedly and his tone was curt, his head turning from Kagura before she could even reply.
"Uh, yeah, thanks sadist. Gee, you're being surprisingly accommodating today…"
You can say that again. After Kagura was far enough from him that he was sure she could not see his face, Sougo allowed himself to turn and look at her again. What the hell was that? Why is it so hot right now?

Sougo aimlessly browsed through some of the keychains that were in front of him, hoping to look busy. His fingers brushed listlessly across the store's various keychains and plush toys. For a minute, she looked… almost cute? No, no, nah. Nah. It's, uh, what do they call it? Gap moe? Yeah, that's it; she's usually such a violent, disgusting gorilla that whatever it was just really out of the ordinary. Or, it might just be my inner sadist seeing her as a small animal that I can torture. Yeah. Okay, okay. I'm good.

As his thoughts ran amok, Sougo's fingers clasped around a small keychain, a glass dog featured on it. His eyes wandered down to it, and he absentmindedly thought that it looked a bit too uncannily like his rival's own dog, who had so graciously thanked him for saving his master. I wonder if she'd like it… At the thought, Sougo quickly released the keychain as if it was molten lava. What in the world am I doing, really?

As a Shinsengumi member, it was only a matter of course that he should despise the Yorozuya. This is only 'cause Hongou's a good guy – I'm just helping him see the stupid China girl again. There was no other reason, he continued to tell himself. No other reason.


Author's Note

Phew, how about that? Two chapters right after one another – pretty good, eh? Well, it is school break right now, so I should think about getting a couple more out. Let's see how I go.

Also, tell me what you think so far! ^^ Whether it's something nice or you're just pointing out a mistake that I made, seeing your messages is super motivating. "It's nice to know that people are actually reading and enjoying this story…" Something like that.