(A/N at end this time)
Boots sharply clacked on the wooden bridge as he swaggered forward. "It's been such a long time, I've missed you, *imouto-chan," Kamui drawled, lazily flicking blood off his nails. "To think my little sister already has a lover. *Nii-chan doesn't approve of this one bit."
"He's not my lover! Just a stranger!" Kagura shouted, voice cracking at the risked a glance back and her heart dropped a thousand feet. Shinpachi was pinned beneath the overturned cart, and although Kyuubei was slashing away at it, it was far too dense for her rapier to slice through quickly.
"Oi Kamui, should we finish those two off?" A huge man with shaggy dun hair inquired, with a nod to the cart.
"Hmm? If you'd like to Abuto," Kamui said absentmindedly, his focus shifting to Okita. Kamui made a gun being shot motion and his face stretched into a smile, but the blue-white eyes were slabs of ice.
"Ka-Kamui, what are you doing here?" Kagura blurted, frantically searching for something, anything, to say. "You're not… well… supposed to be here-"
"Aha, shut up loser. No one cares about what you say." Without hesitation, Kamui exploded forward umbrella extended. Okita shoved Kagura aside and ripped out his swords with a metallic screech. The weapons smashed against each other, and the shock surged through Okita's arms, numbing them faster than a dump of ice-water.
"Heh, this could be interesting," Kamui said with a wolfish grin as the weapons trembled between the two. He slowly began twisting the umbrella, inciting a long, shrill squeal between the weapons.
"... Are you part of the Harusame? Is this about the restaurant?" Okita said flatly. His palms began to burn as the hilts grinded against them.
"Oh no. I mean, yes, we are part of the Harusame. But oh no. Not at all. Who cares about that restaurant?" Kamui broke forward and the umbrella hurtled right in Okita's face. Okita instantly crouched, adrenaline sluicing through his blood as his hair ruffled from the force of the lunge.
"What. Do you mean by that?!" Okita said through gritted teeth, sweeping Kamui's legs from beneath him with his own. Kamui rolled forward before backflipping into the air. He landed lightly on the wooden rail of the bridge. Kamui gave a peaceful smile.
"I mean, that restaurant's just an excuse for us to capture my sister," he said with a flippant shrug.
Okita blinked. "You were… expecting her to escape?"
"Oh, she had to be able to do that much for the Tendoushuu to pay attention." Without waiting for Okita to respond, Kamui bulldozed on ahead. "May I ask you a question? What do you think gets in the way of getting strong the most?"
Okita narrowed his eyes. Kamui smiled back impishly. Okita paused for another moment more, before he slowly said, "Morality."
"Oh, that's good!" Kamui clapped his hands in delight. "But, dear samurai, that is simply not true." Kamui's smile twisted into a smirk. "As you will soon see-"
"No, I'll never join!"
Okita and Kamui paused and then swiveled their eyes to the source of the shout. Kagura was snapping back her arm from Abuto's grip as she hissed, "As if I'd ever join the criminal organization Kamui's in."
Abuto gave her a blank stare. "You'd think siblings are alike," he said half to himself.
"I'm nothing like Kamui," Kagura growled.
"Hmm, true true," he admitted. "But you can't deny your Yato blood."
"Yes I can! I am and I've always done so, it's never-"
"But it has. At Okabe." Abuto gave a knowing look that sent both ice and thorns up Kagura's back.
What do you know about me?! Stop giving me that look, stop it, stop it! "Y… your people tricked me. Or forced me. I… I didn't do what I did on purpose," Kagura said, forcing a haughty smile. She clenched her fists so tight, her nails sunk in her skin. She struggled down a swallow. "It w-wasn't my fault."
Abuto gave an expression that practically shone nailed it. "But you did," he said simply. "You lost control so easily, it was like a joke. Like it was nothing. And it was. What actually keeps you from killing?" He gave a sharp clap of his hands and grinned wryly as Kagura flinched, tenser than a coiled snake, the facade of calmness evaporating. "Nothing."
Abuto waited a moment longer for a response, but Kagura was silent. He shrugged and turned to Kamui.
"We were in the middle of meeting him weren't we? He won't be happy if we're late. Maybe won't even join us."
Kamui made a perfect o-shape with his mouth. He gave a pensive look between Abuto and Okita before sighing. "Hmm, guess I'll have to save this fun for later. Shall we take her?" Kamui pointed at Kagura.
"No, we can resolve that later. The Tendoushuu can wait," Abuto said. He shrugged on a knapsack on one broad shoulder. "Let's go, Kamui." Abuto leapt off the bridge, quickly followed by Kamui, who gave a roguish wink at Okita before jumping after him. Okita followed them with his eyes as they swiftly swam to a small raft awaiting on the opposite bank. In three blinks, they were already pinpricks downstream in the shadows of the mountains.
Okita took a deep breath and rose to his feet. He sheathed his sword, and glanced back. Shinpachi was dusting off his clothes, and the cart behind him was utterly demolished. I didn't want to walk, Okita thought dimly. But then Okita's focus slid to the red-head standing in front of him stock-still. But more importantly...
"Oi, what did that guy- Abuto? Abuto mean when he was talking to you," Okita said bluntly, striding forward. Kagura jerked her head up, eyes wide. She took an unsteady step back, one hand flailing back to grip the rail.
"I...uh…" she mumbled, words jumbling in her numb mouth. "Well… um…"
"Yes?" Okita said impatiently, the irritation tinged in his voice not lost on Kagura.
"It... has nothing to do with you," she replied coldly. Kagura pushed off the rail and turned towards the cart when Okita snatched her hand. He yanked her back and snapped, "Well it kinda does when you're the reason we got involved with them in the first place."
Kagura tried to pull away, but Okita clenched harder. She winced, and her hand became limp. Kagura bit her lip, chewing it into shreds as Okita steadily watched on.
At last, Kagura whispered in a quiet, quiet voice, almost lost in the windless air, "They wanted me to join Harusame, okay? That's… that's it."
"No, but what about Okabe… that was about the restaurant wasn't it-"
Kagura slipped her hand away, and before Okita could take it back, she was already running down the bridge towards Kyuubei and Shinpachi.
What the… Damn it, she avoided the question… Okita thought. Resigning himself to ask later, he briskly followed her to the others.
Shinpachi was speaking. "Well, I suppose… we're not wanted anymore? So I suppose we don't need this cart anymore…" He gestured vaguely to the remaints, but wrinkled his nose as a foul stench spiraled into the air. "What is-? Oh."
Okita stared at what Shinpachi was looking at: the unblinking dead eyes of the ox, and a pale hand sticking from beneath it.
"... That's certainly pleasant, but we do need to clean this up. The cow and the driver. Also the cart," Kyuubei said coolly. Shinpachi whipped around, but Kyuubei already had her sword out and stepped forward.
"Wait, wait a second Kyuubei-san! We need to give him a proper burial first!" Shinpachi rushed in front of Kyuubei, barring her path.
"What? The cow?" she said blankly.
"No! Not the cow; what are you saying?! The driver, the driver! What joke are you pulling?"
"Ah… yes, that's, that's right. Yes. You're right." As though in a trance, Kyuubei backed away, and Shinpachi had to remind her to sheath her sword. Okita blinked. Usually she's so focused but… why now? he wondered as he helped drag the rest of the debris and the cow off the dead driver with Shinpachi. Kagura stood by wordlessly, in her own trance that Okita was not about to interrupt again.
The four crossed the rest of the bridge, which ended in a small plot of land in the middle of the river. Okita stared at the rigid and stern mountains crowning the land before them. Gray as angered storm clouds and complete with smoke-black tips, they seemed anything but friendly. A hurried wind skipped across the placid river, and Okita shivered at the chill.
There was enough land to hastily gather the broken frame of the cart into a funeral pyre and burn the poor driver's body. It was morning, but the unmoving expanse of clouds and moisture in the air gave a dreary feel to everything. Okita watched the body slowly catch on fire, and then eventually disintegrate.
"I wonder if someday I'll die like this. With strangers. In a random death that could've happened to anyone," Okita mused as the last ember finally flickered into oblivion.
"Why?"
Okita turned in surprise to see Kyuubei sitting on the ground next to him. She blankly stared into the fire.
"...What do you mean?"
But she didn't reply. Not then, and not for the rest of the day. Okita was left in the dark about so many things he wondered, But why was this chapter written?
A/N: Momentary 4th wall breaking, but really, this chapter is pretty important in the plot (Geez Okita). But anywhoo…
Thank you to everyone who's been reading this fanfic! Wow, can't believe it's already the 10th chapter….0-0 But, unfortunately, as school is starting very soon for me, I will no longer be able to keep up with regular, weekly updates. Updates will be scarce and around clusters of no-school days, but hopefully of good quality. I'm really sorry…
Thank you to Pure Red Crane for beta-reading as per always!
momo: Haha, yeah, it's pretty clear. XD