Street War – Chapter 12

The rain continued to fall heavily, and Kagura's umbrella did nothing as a barrier for the two teenagers. Despite his desire to just not move for the rest of eternity, Sougo knew that thought was unreasonable. Silently, he let go of Kagura's hand and stood up. Kagura did the same, feeling a little colder now that Sougo's warmth had left. It's hard to believe that the Sadist even has any warmth.

But, before she could leave for home, Kagura shivered and sneeze loudly. She was definitely feeling a little under the weather, and there was no-one to blame but herself. Gintoki was definitely going to kill her. At the sound of her rather guttural sneeze, Sougo stopped and stared down at her shivering form. Before she had the chance to walk away, he pulled on the back of her soaked parka.

"My place is closer, wash and dry up there before you get sick."
Kagura, in a state of shock, looked up carefully at Sougo. She blinked thrice at him.
"What in the world are you doing?" she questioned, her eyebrows raised. In reply, Sougo turned from her, his eyes conflicted.
"If I let you go home like this and you get sick, the Yorozuya boss will kill me. He'll probably send the entire Yorozuya over to decimate this handsome boy."
I don't believe him for a second. Nonetheless, she followed after him, her umbrella raised again despite it having little to no use. After all, she was not going to turn down a warm shower when she was freezing her butt off.

Sougo, on the other hand, was panicking under his cool mask. Someone smack me. What am I doing? If Hijikata's home, he is definitely going to be mad. He sighed. There was not much point in worrying, now. It was too late for that. He looked up at the stormy sky and glared.
"I'll deal with it when the time comes," he mumbled quietly, hoping that the rain would cover up his voice and Kagura would not hear him.

During the short trek back to his apartment, Sougo watched out of the corner of his eye as Kagura's eyes dimmed the harder the rain came down on them. He briefly wondered if she hated the rain, but then figured that she probably would not have come out in the rain like this if that were the case. It must be something else that's not any of my business, like that time when we were fighting the Kada gang.

Sougo continued walking for a bit more when his thoughts wandered back to Kagura. Although, this also wasn't any of her business… Shaking his head, his eyes glinting with a foreign determination, Sougo turned his head to face the girl walking beside him.
"Oi," he stated.
"Hm?" murmured Kagura, her eyes gazing dully at him.
"I never got my answer," Sougo prodded. "Why did you stay today?"

Kagura could not give him a response right away. She hesitated. Images flickered across her eyes – her mother, her father, the rain, Sougo's sister. They overlapped and spiralled throughout her mind and, as the rain pelted down on her back, Kagura's vision began to blur with tears. Sougo watched silently as Kagura's inner turmoil stopped her in place. He also stood still for a moment, then continued walking. They were close to his apartment and it would probably better to quickly get out of the rain than stay where they were.

Sougo had walked two steps when he felt a tug on the back of his dress shirt. He did not look back, but stopped.
"When I saw you… standing in front of your sister's grave… it really hurt," Kagura mumbled sadly, her voice almost swallowed by the sound of the rain on the pavement. Sougo blinked. "The pain of losing someone you care about, it hurts so much. But, to see you stand there without crying, that must have hurt so much more. Keeping everything bottled up."
Sougo turned and walked back to Kagura.
"'The pain of losing someone you care about'…?" he asked, tilting his head as he looked down at her trembling form, water dripping from his bangs. Kagura scrunched her face up and looked to her feet, signalling the end of their conversation.

Sighing, Sougo turned back and continued walking towards his apartment. It was getting late and he was sure that the Yorozuya boss would throw a fit if his precious daughter didn't come home on time.

When they arrived at Sougo's apartment, he quickly told Kagura to stay out of sight. Swiftly, Sougo unlocked the door to his apartment and opened it, scanning the shoes in the small foyer area. Sighing in relief at the absence of Hijikata's shoes, Sougo led Kagura inside and quickly grabbed two towels for the both of them. He told Kagura that it would be best for her to take a shower first and go home, and Kagura decided not to argue. She entered the bathroom while Sougo fished around for a plastic bag to put Kagura's wet clothes in as well as some of his old clothes for her to wear temporarily.

After he was successful in his search, Sougo knocked on the bathroom door, announcing to her that a change of clothes was right outside the door before seating himself on the ground outside the bathroom. He was still soaking wet, himself, and did not want to move around the house too much. Fifteen minutes later, he heard the shower turn off and he promptly turned his back to the door to allow Kagura some privacy as she grabbed the change of clothes. When Kagura opened the door, her breathing hitched a little at the sight of Sougo. Quickly, she grabbed his old shirt and pants and shut the door again.

Sighing, Sougo relaxed and allowed himself another small respite as the sound of thunder made its way to his ears. His eyes narrowed slightly. It's really coming down, outside. He reached for his phone and searched online for a weather report, flicking through websites until he landed on a live cast of a news report. Coincidentally, the news report was at its weather section.
"Ketsuno Ana reporting! At the moment, Tokyo's weather isn't looking too good. This torrential rain is looking to continue throughout the night, and I don't recommend that anyone go out tonight. So, I'm sorry – if you had a date night planned, it'll be best to cancel it! How about you reschedule for tomorrow night? The weather's looking a lot better for tomorrow. That's all from me."
At the conclusion of Ketsuno Ana's weather report, the news channel switched to a long spiel about the state of Tokyo's economy and Sougo – who had immediately grown bored – locked his phone and placed it on the floor beside him.

Though he appeared calm on the outside, Sougo's mind was racing. Do I send China back in this rain…? Argh, I can hardly do that. But if I don't, the Yorozuya boss might end up calling a war to get back his 'kidnapped' daughter. Damn. Hijikata will have my head, too, for sheltering a Yorozuya.
"Tu ru ru ru ru. Tu ru ru ru ru. Tu ru ru." Sougo's train of thought was interrupted, a strange song cutting through the drone of the rain. Feeling a prickling down his spine, he turned to find the source of the ominous sounding song. Eventually, his eyes landed on Kagura's phone which she had left on his kitchen table.

It had lit up and was ringing with the Yonimo Kimyona Monogatari theme song, sung a capella courtesy of Kagura. Sougo's left eye twitched at the sound. Silently, he walked over to the kitchen table, his towel wrapped around him to prevent too much water from leaking onto the floor, and checked the caller ID. 'Gin-chan'? Ah, the Yorozuya boss. Hesitantly, he picked up the phone to hand it to Kagura. However, in trying to not get the phone wet, his fingers accidentally hit the accept call button. Shit.

"Kagura! Where on Earth are you?! It's late and – have you seen the weather?! Why aren't you home, it's like a freaking hurricane out there!" Sougo recoiled from the phone, Gintoki's booming voice was way louder than he had ever heard it before. Slowly, he tried to explain himself.
"Ah, Yorozuya boss. Um, China…" he paused. "No, I mean, Kagura's drying off right now. She was caught in the rain and was soaked through to the bone, so I let her borrow the shower. But then the rain got really bad, so I'm not sure how she's going to… get… home?"
Sougo trailed off, a little worried about the lack of response that he was receiving from the other end.

Finally, after an excruciatingly long pause, Sougo heard a low rumble.
"Who is this?" Gintoki bellowed into the phone, his voice dangerously low. Sougo gulped.
"Okita Sougo," he nervously replied.
"Shinsengumi?!" Gintoki sounded surprised. "What are you doing to my daughter?!"
"Nothing, it was purely circumstantial. If you'd like, I can send her home right now."
"There is no way in hell I'm letting her go out in the rain right now." Gintoki took a deep breath, then continued. "Let her stay the night. You live with the mayo-freak, right? Put him on."
"Uh, he doesn't know that she's here. He must have gone out and got caught in the rain. I don't think he'll be home tonight…" And I'd rather he not come home tonight to see this mess.
"Fine, if he finds out about this then I'll speak with him myself. For now, just let Kagura stay. Tell her not to bother you or your sister too much."

Sougo was quiet.
"Sis passed yesterday," he said sadly, unclear as to why he was telling the boss of his rival gang something so personal. Gintoki was silent for a few seconds.
"Was her funeral this morning?" he gruffly spoke into the phone.
"That's right – due to her circumstances, we had been preparing for it for quite some time."
"I think I get why Kagura is with you, now. You have my condolences – she was a kind soul."
"You knew her?" Sougo asked, a hint of surprise in his voice.
"In passing. She seemed about the only person who could make your boss happy, and that's saying something."
"I see."
"I'll leave Kagura with you, then." There was another pause. "Take care of her, she isn't too good with rain."

Gintoki hung up the phone, though Sougo was sure he could hear a dog yipping with worry in the background before Gintoki could cut the call.

When Kagura walked out of the bathroom, she was met by Sougo's hard pectoral muscles smacking her in the face. Blushing, she turned her head up and glared at him.
"Oi, move-!" she began to yell at him.
"Your boss told you to stay," Sougo spoke curtly. "He doesn't want you out in the rain."
With that, he pushed past her and closed the bathroom door, locking it. Kagura, now clean and dry, narrowed her eyes at the closed bathroom door moved to the kitchen to grab her phone. After checking the call log, sure enough, she had received a call from Gintoki.

Sighing, Kagura got to work on trying to connect to Sougo's Wi-Fi. She made herself comfortable on the couch and laid down, her fingers tapping away at her phone. It wasn't too hard to find the Wi-Fi – the name "MayonnaiseIsLove" gave everything away. The problem was the password. Wracking her brain, something she usually didn't do, Kagura tried as many passwords as she could think of. "Mayonnaise" was rejected. "Sadism" and all its variants were also wrong. "Shinsengumi" was a no-go as well. She even tried "password", hoping that they had tried to reverse psychology people by using such an obvious password. But that, too, was incorrect. She was beginning to get a little fed up when she thought back to the entirety of the Shinsengumi, crowded around Okita Mitsuba's grave. Kagura's fingers slowly typed out her name into the password slot and clicked enter. Connected. Kagura gave a small smile. You were very well-loved.

After a short while, Sougo left the bathroom and found Kagura curled up on the couch. His old shirt may have been too small for him, but it was still much too big for Kagura and she had needed to roll the sleeves up quite a lot. His pants hung loosely against her legs and he could see that she had needed to adjust the waist of the sweatpants to be four times smaller so that the pants would stay up. He quickly turned before any strange thoughts could enter his head.
"I'll let you stay," Sougo called, heading off toward his bedroom. "But you need to make your own dinner. You hear?"
Kagura gave him a lazy look. "Alright."

Ten minutes and three minor explosions in the kitchen later, Sougo had chased Kagura out of the kitchen and agreed to make dinner for both of them.
"It's either that or the state of my well-being, I guess," he grumbled, sighing heavily. Kagura pouted and immediately began ordering him about.
"Oi, Sadist!" she yelled childishly. "I want ochazuke! And sukonbu!"
"Ah? I'm making fried rice," Sougo shot back. "Haven't you heard that beggars can't be choosers?"
"Hmph, I'm no beggar. I'm a guest. Haven't you heard that you should be kind to your guests?"
"All I see is a piggy."

Kagura fumed. Taking advantage of her athleticism, Kagura jumped from behind Sougo and landed on his shoulders, crossing her legs around his neck with her hands over his eyes.
"Ochazuke! Sukonbu!" she shouted once again, her pitch raised to an even higher tone. Sougo, surprised at the action, did not have enough time to react and his balance was put off. He began falling backwards and Kagura, sensing imminent doom, abandoned ship.
"Whoops," she said, landing to the side as Sougo landed on the ground in the kitchen. "Well, let's make a compromise. Just ochazuke, and no sukonbu, okay? I'll be in the dining room!"
Sougo could only groan, flopping back onto the ground, not wanting to move.

Patting her engorged belly, Kagura gave a sigh of content.
"Man, for a sadist you sure are a good cook," she announced with glee.
"It was tea on rice," Sougo said, his temple throbbing in irritation.
"Ochazuke."
"Which is tea on rice."
"Which is good. Though the extra toppings on top were pretty good, too." Knowing that he would not be able to get through to Kagura, Sougo leaned back in his chair and watched as Kagura flicked through her phone.
"For a girl, you sure don't look worried at all that you'll be spending the night alone with a single, very good-looking male specimen," he spoke with no hint of real concern in his voice, his half-lidded eyes staring at her with contempt.
"Where? I don't see one," mocked Kagura, her eyes scanning the room to add to her insult.
"Ah, my bad. You're not a girl. You're just Miss Piggy."
"Hmph!" Kagura growled at him, standing up from her seat and moving towards the living room.

Sougo sighed and left the table to do the dishes. When he got to the kitchen, he heard the sound of the rain intensify. Quietly, he thought to himself that they should probably go to bed soon as it was getting rather late. The rain was going to let up tomorrow and Hijikata would come home. It was probably better for him to not know about Kagura's visit to their domicile. The earlier they could wake up, the sooner she could leave.

Finishing up the dishes, Sougo left the kitchen to tell Kagura to get an early night in when he saw that the couch in the living room was empty. He quickly scanned the room to find Kagura seated by the window, her eyes staring out into the distance. Sougo walked up to her quietly so as to not disturb her and followed her gaze. There was nothing discernibly interesting about the scenery. He turned back to Kagura and found her fidgeting, her eyebrows knit together and her mind obviously very far off.

Sougo thought back to what the Yorozuya boss had mentioned to him, about Kagura's distaste for rain. But why? He couldn't believe that Kagura hated the rain arbitrarily – that was no reason for her to act like this. Silently, he sat next to her. As he knelt down beside her, he could feel her shift at their close proximity. Was that an uncomfortable shift? Or an I'm-making-room-for-you-please-sit shift? After waiting a few moments, he began speaking to test the waters.

"Sis'… was a good person."
Kagura's body tensed.
"I'm sure you know, since you've met her," Sougo said. "You know how much everyone in the Shinsengumi loved her, especially us, seeing as you managed to get into our Wi-Fi. I thought of her as a mother. I didn't have one, growing up. My parents both died when I was very young – too young to be sad at their deaths. That's why, sis' doted on me. She took care of me, she's the reason why I'm alive today."
Sougo paused to look at Kagura.
"I'm not going to thank you for what you did today," he continued, turning his head from Kagura for a quick moment. "But… I'm sure my sister would want to thank you. Thinking properly, I'm sure my sister would not want me to bottle my emotions up inside. That's why, for my sister, I wanted to thank you."

Kagura looked up at Sougo, a little surprised to see sincerity in his eyes. His face was calm and cold, as it usually was. But his eyes, still a little red from having cried for so long, held in them a gratitude that burnt at Kagura's gaze. Gratitude, and something else that Kagura was not sure of. Her heart pounded as Sougo spoke again.
"I'm not saying I'll comfort you, but I do know how to pay back my debts."
Turning her gaze from Sougo, Kagura stared back out the window and paused before whispering her next words.
"I miss them."
"Hm?"
"Mami… Papi…," Kagura wheezed out their names. "On days like this, I miss them."
Sougo quietly turned from her, his eyes resting on the rain outside.
"I don't like… death. My mami and papi were good people, but death still took them away. Days like this only remind me of the rainy nights when they left this world."

Sougo closed his eyes.
"So, my sister…" he started.
"She's beautiful. A beautiful, kind woman. My mother, too, was a beautiful, kind woman. And yet, they both fell ill. And, all too suddenly, they both passed. It's so… unfair."
A pause – then, Sougo continued.
"And that night, with the Kada gang…"
"I was scared," she answered before Sougo had the time to ask the question she knew would come. He opened his eyes.
"Scared?"
"My papi, one night, when we were sleeping… a robber broke into our house. He was armed… with a knife."
Sougo remembered the knife that the Kada gang member was wielding that night and he understood.
"Papi tried to protect me and covered me with his body. And then, there was so much blood. And…!"

A brush of fabric against her cheek caused Kagura to stop. She looked up at Sougo, who was using the sleeve of his shirt to wipe away at Kagura's tears. Sometime during her story, Kagura had begun to cry.
"Ah? Oh, sorry."
Sougo turned towards the window. "No. It's fine."
Kagura silently thanked him for turning as she began to cry. The events of the last couple of days, especially concerning Okita Mitsuba, had brought up the memories of her parents' death which she had always been trying to keep out of mind. She sobbed, the images of her mother's life fading from her face and the blood covering her father's back all too much for her to handle.

After a period of time, Kagura felt a Sougo's hand gently press her head against his shoulder. She continued to cry.
"What happened to not comforting me?" she managed to choke out. But Sougo was silent. Kagura's sobs began to lessen, the scent of Sougo's cologne and the feel of his palm on her head relaxing her. The strain of crying for so long eventually tired her out and she fell asleep against him, her cheeks streaked with tears.

Silently, Sougo picked her up and laid her on his bed. His hand reached out to undo her hair, and he smiled sadly as she called out in her sleep.
"Mami… Papi…"
Letting his hand linger for a little too long, Sougo left his room and moved to sleep in Hijikata's room. He never heard Kagura whisper his name, coupled with a small "thank you".

Author's Note

Yeah, we're about half-way through, now! If you've stuck with me for this long, thanks so much! Also, yeah – this chapter is a teensy bit longer than usual. It's actually three chapters all put together – I thought they'd flow better this way.