Chapter 11
One of the remedies for the common cold is chicken soup.
A cicada is crawling along my index finger, its well-veined wings brushing past the creases and its wide eyes darting from side to side. Its fellow insects are crying—no, wailing—as I walk under the cover of darkness, trailing along the unwary footsteps of the Shinsengumi vice commander. He stops abruptly and listens for any suspicious noise, but he hears none except for the loud tzitzikas of the weeping cicadas.
He continues to walk, oblivious to the fact that he is secretly being followed. The cicada lifts its legs and jumps from my fingertips, silently gliding into the darkness. My hand tightly clutches a machete, its glade glinting under the moonlight. The cicadas' cries have become ominous laughter.
Hijikata glances behind his back, but he fails to spot me because I swiftly detour to the side and position myself in front of him.
"Found you, Hijikata-san," I menacingly tease as I feel my eyes' pupils narrow.
But before he attempts to reply, the blade of the machete sinks into the flesh of his back and droplets of his blood scatter on the ground. Hijikata veers from side to side before his legs finally crumples and a pool of blood surrounds him. The cicadas' laughter gradually subsides.
As Hijikata's bloody corpse disappears and the background whitens, I feel a soft tap on my shoulder causing me to turn around.
"Sou-chan, it's not nice to dream about your friends like that," Ane-ue remarks with a stern expression that immediately forces me to apologize.
"Sorry, Ane-ue, I was just kidding. That was just a fake corpse. I would never kill the actual Hijikata-san," I honestly explain as she pats my head.
"Of course, you would never kill Hijikata-san, Sou-chan, not after your newly discovered revelation." Ane-ue tightly and excitedly embraces me.
Great…even Ane-ue's out of character now. Eh, but more importantly, about that revelation…
"Ane-ue, what's supposed to be my revelation?"
"Sou-chan, you know about your revelation already. Are you afraid to accept it?"
Neither could I nod nor could I shake my head.
"Very well then, Sou-chan. Maybe I can help you accept it. Sou-chan, how do you see Hijikata-san now?"
I ponder for a minute, searching for the proper response, even though I feel as if I know the answer already. I…
"I no longer loath Hijikata-san's presence, Ane-ue." Why does this response seem so distant from the right answer? Perhaps it's because I actually l…love Hijikata's presence? No! That's impossible! I'm a sadist and Hijikata's an idiotic mayo-loving, chain-smoking freak!
Ane-ue sighs and withdraws her hand from my head. She eyes me, wearing a grave demeanor. Her strict sisterly mode is now activated.
"Sou-chan, whenever you're ready to fully accept your revelation, just remember that nothing will ever cause my happiness to deteriorate."
"Ane-ue…" I attempt to grasp her hand, but it seems that I cannot touch her. It's as if her hand has become a hologram.
"Sou-chan, this is the last time you'll see me in your dreams. I will be forced to leave you soon," she informs me, dysphoria lacing her voice.
She places her nearly transparent hand along my cheek, but her soft touch is not palpable. Her lower limbs are becoming transparent as well. I immediately clutch her kimono and rest my head against her shoulder. A stream of liquid flows down my cheeks and reaches my chin.
"Sou-chan, I'm alright now, don't refute your own happiness," She grazes my shivering neck with a sleeve of her kimono. She is slowly dissipating.
I gaze at Ane-ue's weary eyes. Even until the end, she remains gentle and light-hearted. I see her warm, comforting smile, which will surely be the last one that my eyes will witness, before all of her remaining traces vanish, never to emerge again.
"Ane-ue…"
A few droplets of water land on my palm with a plop. Did Kondo pour a bucket of water on my head again?
I close my eyes and reopen them.
Day 8- Shinsengumi Headquarters 7: 07 P.M.
I squint as a hanging lamp attempts to blind me with its bright rays of light. My head is throbbing with such immeasurable pain, and what's this on top of my forehead? I grope my forehead, inspecting for any foreign material. Huh? It's wet and fuzzy? I grasp the material and lift it with my thumb and index finger. A towel? All of a sudden, my nose feels itchy. I wish to scratch it to relieve the agitation, but before I can even do so…
I sneeze.
"You're awake?" I slowly lift my head to find Hijikata's eyes cautiously scanning me.
I nod in response after sneezing for the second time. Rather loudly, I must say.
Hijikata touches my forehead with his palm and quickly stands up.
"Stay here," he orders before he exits the room.
That demand is unnecessary because although I want to disobey him, my exhausted legs have been rendered me immobile.
Where am I anyway? Judging from the bottles of mayonnaise near one of the screen walls, I am definitely in Hijikata's room.
Hijikata returns with a thermometer in his hand and shoves the object into my mouth.
"Hijikata-san, where's Kondo-san?" I ask, clenching the thermometer between my teeth.
Normally Kondo would be panicking right now and attempting nurse me in a very gorilla-like fatherly way.
"He went off to buy some medicine."
Beep, beep, beep. The thermometer signals that it has recorded my temperature.
"Forty point three degrees Celsius," Hijikata states with a frown after he takes the thermometer.
"This is your fault, Hijikata-san," I remark, searching for a tissue to wipe my congested nose.
"Even when you're sick, you manage to be an idiot with no sense of propriety. How the hell is this my fault? I never told you to stay out in the stupid freezing weather for more than three hours!"
"Ah, but if Hijikata-san would've just let me find him, then I wouldn't have wasted my time looking for him outside in the cold, and I wouldn't have been forced to entertain myself by playing in the snow," I calmly defend, still looking for a box of tissues. "Hijikata-san, may I have some tissues?"
In an instant, Hijikata dashes out of the room and after a few seconds, returns with a box of tissues in his hands.
"Are those double-ply tissues?" I question, attempting to irritate Hijikata.
"Yes. Oi, your sadism still remains intact even when your temperature is high," he grumbles as I wipe my nose with one of the tissues.
Hijikata sits down on the wooden floor as he carefully observes me. Wait, Hijikata's eyes are no longer void, and he's wearing his usual scowling expression. Huh, then what was wrong with him the day before yesterday?
"Hijikata-san, what was wrong with you before?"
Hijikata's eyes darken as he diverts his stare from me and harshly murmurs, "It's nothing. You shouldn't be so concerned about it."
Hijikata, what are you hiding?
"But Hijikata-san—" A loud grumble interrupts my plans on prying into Hijikata's hidden dilemma. The source of the noise seems to have emanated from my stomach.
"I'll go get you some food," Hijikata announces after hearing my stomach's roar.
"Hijikata-san, nothing with mayonnaise," I quickly request, knowing Hijikata's taste in odd mayo-flavored cuisine.
Hijikata quietly grunts and mumbles something about people not appreciating the sweet tang of mayonnaise.
Wait. But before Hijikata exits the room, I should definitely aggravate him further.
"Hijikata-san, don't forget to wear a nurse's outfit before you come back, okay? It's going to help me feel better."
Of course, this request causes Hijikata to glare. He slides the screen door close, whispering "Idiot" in the process.
A few seconds later, the screen door is opened again, revealing a smiling Kondo holding large grocery bag with the Rofuto emblem.
"Kondo-san, why is the bag so huge?" I question with a bit of interest. "The entire bag isn't filled with medications, is it?
"Ah, no, Sougo. Here's your medicine." He hands me a bottle of cough medicine and lifts a box marked with the Shogunate's seal from the bag. "This is the newly released polygraph that the Shinsengumi will be using from now on."
"Kondo-san, how does that polygraph work?"
Kondo peels off the tapes from the box, removes the foam boards and the thick bubble-wraps, and extracts a black rectangular lie detector, which is approximately the size of a businessman's suitcase.
"You just have to push this button to turn on the polygraph." He presses a small red button on the polygraph. "Then, the polygraph will beep if it detects signs of lying such as any unusual change in breathing rate, an odd increase in heart rate, or excessive sweating."
"Kondo-san, may I borrow your polygraph? I would like to test it."
"Sure, Sougo! I was going to ask you and Hijikata to test it for me anyway," Kondo beams as he hands me the polygraph.
"Feel better, Sougo!" Kondo scurries out of the room, probably planning to visit Otae-san again now that he knows I'm not so ill anymore.
Just as Kondo leaves the room, Hijikata enters with a tray consisting of a steaming bowl and a glass of water. I place the polygraph beside me and sit up raising my hands up to receive the tray.
"What's that?" Hijikata curiously eyes the polygraph as he sets the tray on my lap.
"It's a polygraph. Kondo asked us to test it," I reply as I made a motion to clasp the lie detector. However, Hijikata bats my hand away.
"We're going to test it after you eat."
"Yes, father." This comment brings an annoyed anime-mark to Hijikata's cheek.
I gaze at the contents of the tray for who knows how much time.
No, there isn't a copious amount of mayonnaise on the bowl of soup. There isn't even a hint of Hijikata's trademark food. In fact, the soup has a delicious aroma, but I still can't find the appetite to take the spoon and sip the soup.
"Oi, Sougo, eat," Hijikata seems to be chiding me.
"Hijikata-san, it seems that I have lost my appetite because of this illness."
Hijikata ponders for a minute. He gazes at the untouched spoon beside the steaming bowl of soup. I close my eyes, about to release a quiet sigh, but I suddenly feel the taste of metal and soup along my tongue.
Hijikata's stern yet apprehensive eyes are fixed upon my own.
"If you can't eat, then at least let me make you eat, so that…" Hijikata averts his gaze, uncertain of how to finish his sentence.
"So that you won't have to commit seppuku for feeling so useless?" I complete Hijikata's sentence to lessen his uneasiness. "Ah, then I would prefer it if you didn't force me to eat!"
I snatch Hijikata's hand that still held the spoon and position his hand near the soup so that the spoon would dip out some of its contents. Of course, Hijikata is too astonished to question my contradictory actions.
But Hijikata soon retracts my grip on his hand and forces me to sip the soup from the spoon. Oddly enough, I can no longer taste the metal from the spoon; instead, the savory flavor of chicken is tickling my tongue.
"Hijikata-san, chicken soup?" He nods, submerging the spoon in the bowl and holding it up to my mouth.
"For my soul or yours? I think you need it more since you're the Shinsengumi's demon," I comment before I sip the soup and quietly add, "I hope a chicken takes your soul Hijikata-san."
"No, that soup is essential for your health," Hijikata states as he inserts another spoonful of the soup into my mouth. Then he retorts in a low voice, "The chicken will most likely take your sadistic soul first."
"Ah, but Hijikata-san, did you know that eighty per cent of the chickens prefer demonic souls to sadistic ones?" I tease as I swallow two more spoons of the soup. "They especially love mayo-flavored demonic souls."
Hijikata shakes his head and snaps, "Stop chattering, you brat, and just eat the damn soup!"
He shoves another spoon of the soup into my mouth.
Fifteen minutes later…
"Finally, you're finished eating!" Hijikata exclaims with relief as I gulp the last spoonful of soup, licking the corners of my lips to wipe away the residue.
"Ah, you won't clean that up. That's what tissues are for, idiot." Hijikata seizes a tissue and rub the remains of the soup from my mouth. Huh? Is Hijikata blushing? I blink my eyes a few times. Ah, I must be imagining things because of this cold. Hijikata's cheeks are of their normal color.
"Hijikata-san, can we test the polygraph now?" I suggest with a hopeful tone.
"Eh? What's with you? I've never seen you this eager," he notes as he stands up to leave the room with the used tray.
A few seconds later he re-emerges and suspiciously asks, "You're plotting something again, aren't you?"
I open my mouth to reply but Hijikata cuts me off, "Wait. Don't answer that. You're always scheming anyway. So how did you want to test it?"
"I was hoping to play a game with you using this," I reply, pushing the red button on the polygraph.
"A game?"
Author's notes:
Katsura, here's my thank you to you since I can't e-mail it to you. Thank you for reviewing, and I'm happy that you loved the part where Hijikata carried Sougo, hehe. (You had a nosebleed?)
To all the readers:
Yay! This chapter's done! Next up is the game! Thank you for reading!
