Street War – Chapter 9

Kagura was nervous as she walked to the hospital. Not because she would have to see Hongou, again – a boy who she may or may not have had a hand in sending to the hospital. No; her problem lied with the Shinsengumi who was walking a couple steps behind her. She fidgeted with the hem of her tracksuit jacket which she had pulled over her sailor uniform. There was no need for her to turn to look at his face – she could feel the glare that he was sending her way. Sougo had been directing his gaze at her for a while now, and she wasn't quite sure as to what she had done. For a minute, in the gift shop, she had almost thought that he was nice when he had helped her to find a present for Hongou. So, she wasn't quite sure what had caused his mood to change.

The hairs on the back of her neck raised slightly as Kagura's ears picked up on the sound of Sougo's muffled growl. She was tempted to make a light joke of it, to try to ease the mood, but thought better of it when she glanced over her shoulder to seemingly find a black cloud enshrouding Sougo's figure. In a second, Kagura had averted her gaze. Sweat started forming on her brow and she slowed down momentarily to wipe it off with her sleeve. What's eating him? However, she did not have a lot of time to dwell on it.

They had reached the hospital.

As Sougo led Kagura through the hospital, the young Yorozuya could not help but feel the need to zip up her jacket all the way to the neck so that she could bury her nose into the collar. The air was stifling. All throughout the hallways, Kagura could smell the strong scent of disinfectant and alcohol-based hand sanitiser – all, of which, contributed into a most unpleasant experience for her.

Kagura didn't often need to go to a hospital, if at all – her run to the ER a couple of days ago to escort Hongou there was the first time in many years. Often, if she were to ever be injured in training or some other physical activity, her monstrous healing abilities would take care of it without the need for a hospital trip. She was never too sure as to how her body managed to recuperate so quickly, but it seemed genetic – her brother could also heal extremely quickly, if not even quicker than she could.

Eventually, after walking down the same white hallways for ten or fifteen minutes, Kagura was finally led to Hisashi Hongou's room. Sougo stood to the side for her to enter first, though she noticed that his eyes kept drifting towards the room next door to Hongou's. Her eyes glanced up to the nameplate. Okita Mitsuba…?
"Hurry up, already," Sougo growled, looking down at her with the same glare that he had been directing to her on their way to the hospital.
"Ah, right," Kagura responded. With her gift bag of colourfully printed origami paper in one hand, she gently pushed the door open and popped her head through the small crack.

"Hello?" she called out, searching through the room with both shyness and hesitancy.
"Yes?" came a soft reply. "Come in."
With the invitation, Kagura carefully cracked the door open a little further and stepped into the dimly lit hospital room. The hospital lights had been turned down and the warm light of the Sun filtered through the trees, providing just enough light to see but not being blinding enough to induce a headache. Upon entering, Kagura kept her eyes focused on her shoes until she reached Hongou's bed. Slowly, she lifted her gaze up.

Staring back at her was the same boy that she had met in the park, a thick novel in his hands. His dark, blue-green eyes looked back at her in confusion before widening in a sudden realisation. With his mouth slightly agape, the boy slowly closed his book over a strange, grey bookmark and moved to set it aside. Kagura offhandedly noted the length of the book. Sadist was right, I guess. This guy really does like overly boring things that need lots of patience.

"Um," Kagura squeaked out, hoping to break the award silence that had filled the room. "It's nice to see you again. I'm Kagura. Uh, I hope you're doing okay after… y'know. I was pretty freaked out when you started coughing up blood like that, and…"
Her words trailed off when she noticed that Hongou had not moved an inch, his eyes still trained onto her, his face blank. With a jolt of fear, Kagura felt herself retreat towards the door, her hands clutched tightly at her sides. Sadist was also right about me wanting to run away, dammit.
"Uh, I get it if you don't wanna see me," she tried again to make a conversation. "I wasn't very much help to you, and you ended up landing in the hospital anyways."

A sense of panic began to overwhelm Kagura as she realised that the boy she was speaking to had not spoken a word, and she began to wonder if he thought that it was unforgivable that she could not help him sooner. She began sweating bullets and a voice in the back of her head started to endlessly tell her to 'abort mission now'. With a clumsy flourish, Kagura lifted up the relatively large and colourful paper bag that contained her gift. Her voice came out fast and in clipped, awkward tones.
"Um, I got you these. I'll put them here. I'll leave now, see you-!"
"Ah, wait, don't go!" Hongou exclaimed as loud as his weak constitution would allow.

Mindlessly, Kagura froze in her attempt to escape. Now what? She watched as Hongou quickly shoved his book beneath his pillow and turned back to her, his face pink and his eyes lit up.
"It was you, right? Kagura-chan was the one who saved me from those bullies the other day?" Hongou leaned forwards in Kagura's direction, and the young high schooler squirmed beneath his gaze. She slowly dropped her head, suddenly finding the hospital floor as interesting as an avant-garde art piece. Gently, she placed Hongou's gift down onto the seat at his bedside.
"Well, I wouldn't say that I helped you," she mumbled, her voice trailing off. "I let you get into such a state, even though I was right there. I failed as a Yorozuya."

Hongou's ears perked at the word, and his eyes widened in surprise.
"Eh? You're a part of the Yorozuya, Kagura-chan?" he exclaimed.
"Yeah," Kagura stated, raising her head once more in a slight show of pride.
"Wait – but I thought that the Yorozuya gang was at odds with the Shinsengumi?"
"You're not wrong, there."
"Then, how did Okita-san manage to get you to come here?" At his words, Kagura paused for the slightest of moments. She hesitated before answering him.
"Well, I was wanting to come see you anyways…" she said, looking nervously off to the side. "I wanted to ask if you were doing okay."

Kagura's words made Hongou flush even more, his cheeks darkening so much that she worried he might have a fever.
"Um, are you okay?" she slowly asked, walking closer to the bed again in case the bedridden boy were to faint. Without missing a beat, Hongou straightened his posture and waved both his arms frantically in front of his face.
"Ah, no, I'm fine!" he denied vigorously. "Either way, Kagura-chan, you really don't need to worry at all about me being in the hospital – it most certainly was not your fault! I can only imagine what would have become of me had you not been there, that day. So, please do not worry yourself any further. I'm doing just fine so thank you, Kagura-chan!"
The boy's beaming smile was contagious – he practically lit up the room – and Kagura found herself smiling along with him. Slowly, she began to feel like her usual self, again.

"I see, that's great!" she said enthusiastically, her hands on her hips. "Attaboy, Musashi-kun!"
"M-Musashi…?" Hongou asked, a nervous chuckle escaping his lips. However, Kagura had distracted herself with finding another chair to slide over beside Hongou's bed since the one already there was now occupied by his gift.
"Look here," she exclaimed, her hands grasping the large paper bag once more. "I wasn't too sure what it was that I should get you, but Sadist told me that you like origami and stuff. So, I got you all these origami papers!"
With great joy, Kagura lifted out a few square sheets of paper with varying sizes, colours and patterns out from the paper bag. She dropped a few on the ground, and a couple of others haphazardly fell onto Hongou's bedsheets. However, he did not mind in the slightest. As Kagura pulled out more and more of the coloured sheets, the splash of colour from each square as well as their reflection in Kagura's eyes seemed to paint Hongou's stiflingly white hospital room with a joyous palette. I don't think I've ever seen anything so pretty.

"I really like them, Kagura-chan!" Hongou spoke happily.
"Is that so?" Kagura exclaimed, throwing a few more squares of paper in the air in her excitement. "I guess that Sadist did a pretty good job, then. Of course, it was me who picked out the really pretty ones for you. I reckon you've got enough here to last you 'til you're old and grey!"
Hongou's face shifted a little, but his gentle smile returned in a split second.
"Sadist?" he asked, a hint of mirth in his voice.
"Ah, that Shinsengumi rat!" Kagura answered passionately, her right hand balled into a fist. "I don't know how you stand him – he's just an idiot. Though, I suppose I should probably thank him for helping me out with this gift. You seem to really like it, after all."
Hongou laughed. "Yeah, I do like it, Kagura-chan!"
"Then I guess it's okay," she responded, a grin returning to her face.

Quickly, Kagura knelt down to gather up the fallen sheets of paper. Absentmindedly, she held one up to the fading sunlight and squinted her eyes.
"Hm, so kids like you like these sorts of things, huh?" she wondered aloud. In response, Hongou's expression switched to one of amusement, and Kagura had a strange feeling that something was amiss.
"Hm…?" she murmured.
"Good God, China, I can't stand to see you make a fool of yourself for much longer."

The two occupants of Hongou's small hospital room turned quickly at the sudden voice which had interjected into their conversation. Sougo stood at the doorway, his shoulder leant against the doorframe as he looked down in disdain at Kagura and the mess that she had made.
"Just what are you on about, Sadist?" Kagura growled back as she dumped her collection of origami papers back into the paper bag. Hongou followed suit, though he placed his stack of papers back into the bag with much more delicacy. Sougo scoffed at her question.
"Hongou is older than you, China," Sougo drawled. "He's a second-year at our school."

A second-year? Kagura blinked. Wait, a second year?! In record time, Kagura had turned away from the door and whipped her head towards Hongou.
"No – really?" she questioned, her eyebrows raised in shock. With a gentle – yet amused – affirmative nod from Hongou, Kagura fumbled with her words and dropped into a ninety-degree bow.
"Uh, uh – uh?!" she blubbered. "Sorry? U-um, senpai…?"
"No, no, it's okay," Hongou chuckled, leaning forward in his bed to grab Kagura's shoulders and lift her back up. "It's fine to just call me by my name. I don't go to school, so I'm not actually considered an upperclassman."
He pulled away from her and gestured towards his skinny frame. "And, I'm not surprised that Kagura-chan thought I was younger than her. I sure don't look it, right?"

Though a small part of her still felt bad at her own mess up, Kagura breathed a sigh of relief at Hongou's reassuring smile. Keigo and all that polite speech stuff was never my thing, anyways.
"Keh," Sougo made a noise with the back of his throat, his tone irritated. "'Senpai', huh? I don't think you've ever called me that, China."
"Because you don't deserve respect, Sadist," came her immediate reply.
"Ah, Hongou – I'll take this one away from you. You shouldn't be in her presence, anymore, or she'll poison you."
"You're the one poisoning others!"
At Sougo's gruff tone, Hongou could only chuckle. There was no doubt that Sougo was only telling her to leave since visiting hours were almost over. Okita-san's always got such a roundabout way of doing things.

"Well, see ya then!" Kagura called out, having already walked to the door to head on home. Feeling a sense of panic as he watched her feet approach the door, Hongou quickly spoke up.
"Ah, Kagura-chan wait!" he timidly yelled.
"Hm?"
A little nervous, Hongou continued.
"Um, could you maybe… come visit again?" His question trailed off at the end with a squeak and he mentally berated himself for allowing his weakness to show up in his voice. Kagura, however, thought nothing of it.
"Of course!" she exclaimed. "See ya!"
With that, she gleefully dashed out of the hospital room and received more than a few glares from the hospital staff who all scolded her for running through the halls.

Sougo, on the other hand, chose to take a bit more time walking out of the hospital room. He glanced over his shoulder at Hongou and, seeing the giddy look on his friend's face, couldn't help but smile a bit. It's been a while since I've seen him look this lively. I guess that China girl is good for something. As he stepped out of the room and gently close the door behind him, he chose to ignore the tense feeling that seemed to well up in his chest.

Author's Note

It looks like we've just hit the one-third mark in the story! Two more thirds to go, according to my story scaffold. I hope the pacing of these chapters have been okay – I'm so busy with uni, I've decided to bulk write a couple of chapters today (because it's a public holiday xD) and then upload them steadily over a couple of weeks. Probably not gonna be weekly uploads, though - maybe every couple of days?

Sorry if it all seems a little bit rushed ^^ I hope I can keep the quality going, but it's a little difficult on this keyboard that I'm using (the keys are so sticky!). I reckon by the end of tonight, I should be able to get up to chapter 12 written? That's the plan, anyways. Hopefully, I can get a couple more out as well.

Also, thank you so much to everyone who reviewed (on Fanfiction . net) or replied/messaged (on Tumblr) to my chapters! Just a word of warning that I do go back and edit the chapters that are on Fanfiction . net, but not on Tumblr. That's why, the chapters might be a teensy bit different between the two, but the storyline is still the same so don't worry! Also, I have just edited chapters 0 through to 8 as of 18/04/2017. Please let me know if the process messed up and the chapters are out of order or something – I'll get it fixed ASAP.

Well then, see you when I see you!