I See Red
Chapter 14: Red Vespa
Kagura figured that the toughest part of their mission was getting transportation. Among the ragtag group of vigilantes, only she (who had Sadaharu) and Glasses had any mode of transportation available to them. Even then, Glasses only had a bike, and it was the freakin' mama chariot he used to get to school and to do groceries, not even a nice mountain bike that they can bring on long distance.
She had considered asking Mutsu for help, but she's too close with Sakamoto-sensei, and by association, Ginpachi-sensei. If they got caught now, they'd go nowhere else but home.
Somehow, though, the said ragtag group found themselves holding the keys to a decent-looking sedan and a decent-looking pick-up truck. Mouths agape, they slowly turned to the owner of the vehicles.
"This is the best that I can do for your group, I daresay," said Kawakami Bansai after he tossed the keys to both vehicles to Hijikata.
"Careful with your jaw, Shinsengumi," mocked Takasugi with his trademark smirk on his face.
Kondou stammered, "This is way too generous, Kawakami-san!" Even though the vehicles weren't brand new like the jeep that the Kiheitai was riding, the cars were not in bad shape. They were kind of dusty, and the pick-up had a sizeable dent at the passenger side, but that will work for them to look inconspicuous.
"Yeah. Too generous. What's the catch?" Okita asked, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.
Takasugi shrugged. "It'd be in the interest of both our groups if this whole mess with that bastard is dealt with as quickly as possible, don't you agree, Sougo-kun? Besides, Tokugawa-san is my classmate too."
Nobume scowled upon hearing Soyo's name from his mouth. "Since when did you start caring about what happens to her?"
He shrugged. "I care about the welfare of my classmates equally." The way he said it wasn't convincing in any way.
"In any case, this isn't the time to be picky. We need to move," said Hijikata. Even though they were all reluctant to do it, they had all relented to trust Takasugi and his group (apparently, Kiheitai wasn't the name of a gang, but a garage band) since it was almost a day since Soyo was kidnapped and they had to hurry.
"We can lead you by convoy to as far as the last known hideout of the 7th division," said Takasugi, as the group went into the cars one by one. "But I told you before that it's no guarantee that we'll find them."
"Yeah yeah, One-Eye. If there's a chance that Soyo-chan is there, we'll take it. If she's not there, we'll let Sadaharu sniff her location out, yes." Kagura paused. The sedan was to be driven by Kondou, with Shinpachi, Otae, Kyuubei, and Sa-chan in the back. The pick-up was going to be driven by Yamazaki. In there would be the rest of the Shinsengumi, Nobume, Katsura, and Elizabeth. In other words, they wouldn't fit.
Maybe she could ride Sadaharu, but she didn't know how far the hideout was, and she wanted her dog to be in tip-top shape for any possible fight to occur. Just as she chewed on these thoughts a little more, she caught a glimpse of something shiny thrown her way. She grabbed at it automatically and she ended up catching another set of keys.
"My apologies, Red-dono. I can no longer lend you a car. I daresay that I hope that my Vespa will do." Bansai pointed to a red-and-black scooter at the other end of the garage.
Kagura nodded. "This'll do, yup." The past year, Gin-chan let her try using his Vespa, the one possession he had that he actually obsessively maintained. This resulted in a lot of screaming (mainly from the frightened silver perm) and cursing (mostly from Kagura) in the Great Edo Supermarket parking lot, but at least she learned how to ride, and to ride fast. "Nobume-chan, do you want to…"
She looked at the dark-haired girl, who only stared back at her blankly. She was already riding in the back of the pick-up, looking menacing next to Elizabeth.
She felt someone's hand clap roughly on her shoulder. "I'll ride with you, China. Let's go." Okita appeared next to her and nonchalantly tossed her a helmet before strapping one on his head.
With the dust clouding up the garage, Kagura revved up the scooter and followed the Kiheitai's jeep. The open road greeted her, and she felt the wind through her clothes and the Sadist's knees brushing against her hips, and she momentarily ignored the fear and hurt threatening to take over her heart.
It was near sunset when the faculty meeting concluded. The purple fatso, Principal Hata, wanted to call off school for the rest of the school year, or at least until Tokugawa Soyo resurfaces with all her fingers and limbs intact. In spite of the awful pressure from the rest of the city to do so, all the teachers refused. Still, the stress level among the faculty was so high that every single person in the room had smoke coming out from one orifice or the other, and cups of coffee were passed out with tremulous hands.
Hata wanted them to review over and over the events of that night, just like all the cops did. When it was apparent that no new information could be gleaned from any of the teachers who participated that night, Matsudaira practically pointed a gun at Hata's head to make him stop the incessant whining.
Ginpachi stretched his arms and gave a long, tired sigh. Tsukuyo walked up next to him, her fifth cigarette from her second pack of smokes hanging from her lips.
"Hey."
"Hey yourself, lady."
"What's with the grumpy attitude, huh?"
"Even with that shit-show goin' on last night, I haven't forgotten what you did to me after you got piss drunk on the punch," grumbled the white perm.
Tsukuyo formed an o with her mouth and blew, effectively engulfing Ginpachi's silver head in silver smoke. "Shut up. Nothing happened. Even if that giant dog of yours didn't interrupt us, your child-like crying was enough of a turn-off," she said sharply, not bothering to keep her voice down.
"I wasn't crying… that hard…" he mumbled, scratching the back of his head. He did not want to relive that moment, whether or not he had more pressing matters to think about. He shuffled a bunch of grading sheets from his class mindlessly and without real purpose before he stood up to leave.
Tsukuyo's purple eyes softened as she regarded his slumped figure. "You really didn't see anything suspicious last night?"
"Nope. Just that sadistic kid playing with my kid's heart. I'm gonna castrate that guy once all this is over," he said. He looked around the room briefly and mumbled, "Sakamoto's absent today, huh."
The blonde woman nodded. "He says he's got a Chinese virus or something and his soul is coming out of his ass from all the diarrhea."
"Guess I better visit him. Oi, old hag." He shouted to the other side of the room, where an elderly woman was smoking her cigarette next to Matsudaira.
"Who are you calling Old Hag, you damned perm?" she said in annoyance.
"I might get home late. Sakamoto owes me money. Can you just make sure Kagura-chan is home before curfew?"
Otose scowled at him. By virtue of owning the space where Ginpachi and his sudden teenage daughter resided, she had been the entirely accidental other parent of Kagura. As reluctant as she made that role out to be, Ginpachi knew that she took the role very seriously. "I thought she was grounded. Do you even know what that means?"
Ginpachi shrugged. "I allowed her to go out today. She looked like a wreck last night. Might have wanted to see her other friends because of what happened."
The old lady sighed. "Fine. But you shouldn't be out too late either, you lout. She will need someone to be with her. I know how fond she is of Tokugawa-san. Also, once you get your money from Sakamoto you better pay your damned rent-"
"You're the best, granny! Smell ya later," said Ginpachi, already on the way out of the faculty lounge. With the wave of his hand, he bid farewell to the rest of the faculty, ignoring the suspicious way that Tsukuyo's eyes narrowed as he did.
As unreliable the man in question was, he was doing pretty well.
Sakamoto Tatsuma-sensei, a humble high school teacher who taught accounting, lived in a three-bedroom condominium unit in the classier side of the city. Ginpachi had to leave his name and an ID card and a dog had to sniff his ass for any bombs or drugs he might have had in his possession before he was allowed inside. It was that type of high-end place, and the injustice of it all pissed him off.
He rang the doorbell. It took a few seconds before the door opened and revealed a bean pole sporting a mossy mop of brown hair and purple sunglasses.
"Kintoki! How nice of you to drop by!"
"It's Ginpachi, you dolt."
"I keep forgetting. Come on in then, Kinpachi. You kept us waiting for far too long. Haaa-hahaha!" Sakamoto stepped aside and let the taller man inside his unit.
Sakamoto liked futuristic designs, and Ginpachi thought that the inside of his unit looked like the control center of a Gundam. As expected, a beautiful, but fierce Chinese woman with pale skin and brown hair sat next to the coffee table in the center of the room and appeared to be hard at work on her laptop.
"'Sup, Mutsu. Lookin' like you got a stick up your ass, as always."
"Lookin' like a retard as always, Gintoki." Mutsu regarded him with the bare minimum of warmth in her eyes, nodded briefly, and went back to work.
"And howdy to you too, chief." Ginpachi nodded to the guest who sat across Mutsu.
"Sakata Gintoki-san. You are late. This type of behaviour isn't for an elite like me to tolerate. But I suppose I must be benevolent in this case." Police Chief of the Mimawarigumi PD, Isaburo Sasaki, had his arms and legs crossed as he sat on a Vantablack leather sofa. He was composing a text on an outdated-looking flip phone with his right hand. His pure white uniform and pure white hair appeared to hover unnaturally in the room.
The silver perm rubbed the back of his head in annoyance. "It's Sakata Ginpachi now, kuso jiji. I'd appreciate it if you don't use the old one anymore. I spent all that money having it legally changed and shit."
The older man clicked his tongue. "Very well. Despite obviously withholding important information during your interview with the police, I'll listen to what you say now. You claim that this is the only way we can rescue Tokugawa Soyo? I must tell you, the rest of the Mimiwarigumi elite force is hard at work tracking down her whereabouts, and I've reason to believe that we are getting closer and closer. We've had our eyes on the Harusame for some time now."
Here's another one with a ginormous stick up his ass. "I get you, Chief. I ain't here to put down your efforts in tracking down the Harusame. I just thought that you'd appreciate insider info on the situation here."
Isaburo looked up from his flip phone and narrowed his eyes at him. His monocle gleamed menacingly. "Insider information? Don't tell me you and Sakamoto-san are involved with them? I thought you two have reformed from criminal activity years ago."
"Ha-hahahaha! You're super wrong there, chief. I happen to know that Kinto—I mean, Kinpachi here illegally downloads his xxxxx movies from—" Sakamoto's gleeful confession was cut short by a fist to his bespectacled face.
"Don't listen to this low screen-time idiot," Ginpachi snarled, giving said idiot a death glare. He cleared his throat. "And you're looking at the wrong person here, chief."
The old man blinked in curiosity as his gaze fell on the brown-haired woman, who didn't even look up from her work. "So… the former Diamond Princess is linked to the Harusame? I know she is formerly of a different crime ring years ago."
"Those pirate wannabes are hacks. I have neither allegiance nor loyalty to them," she said, her voice husky and sandpaper-y. "And I've not had any interest in criminal activity for some time now, Police Chief Isaburo. The Kaientai—a legitimate company, I'll have you know—only deals in lawful transactions. You can thank that laughing retard that is my husband over there for that."
His presence acknowledged (although not in a flattering way), Sakamoto guffawed audaciously. Isaburo focused his none-too-amused monocled glance at Ginpachi once more. "This confuses me, Sakata-san. You clearly said insider information, but none of you claim to be inside of Harusame. I would hate it if you purposefully wasted this elite police chief's time," he said in a dangerous monotone voice.
"Don't get your panties in a bunch, chief. I never said that we're with Harusame, just that we have insider information." He lowered his voice, tried not to think of the orange-haired girl he was so desperate to protect, and steeled his resolve. "I take it you've never heard of the Yato before."
The room fell silent, as if sensing Ginpachi's apprehension in talking about the topic. Isaburo narrowed his eyes and glanced at Mutsu, who continued doing transactions on her laptop with an air of indifference. "I see," he said, with some understanding in his voice. "I've heard of them. A small, close-knit clan from mainland China. They say that the bloodline carried a mutation, rendering them unbeatable in a fight but very susceptible to developing skin cancer. One way or another the family became a criminal dynasty. A branch of them used to head the Harusame triad."
"Looks like you did your homework," said the silver-haired teacher. It was almost the same word-for-word monologue he first gave the baldy on the day he first met Kagura.
Isaburo grunted in affirmation. "I did hear that one of the heads who left and almost ruined the organization by doing so was the strongest of them. I didn't think that this Yato business was true, though. It almost sounds like science fiction."
The overenthusiastic Sakamoto wiggled his eyebrows and lowered his glasses, his eyes looking straight into the police chief's. "Yet, it is. Even from our infrequent and soft-core S&M plays in the bedroom, I can attest to how true the Yato strength is. Ha-hahaha! Furthermore, I don't dare to leave my dear Mutsu out in the sun for too long, else she'd shrivel like an ugly prune."
The fair-skinned Mutsu kicked Sakamoto in the face, in effect making him crash into the opposite wall and demonstrating the Yato strength that he babbled about earlier. Isaburo nodded in further understanding.
"All right. I can accept that. But I do not understand how this will help us in finding Tokugawa Soyo," said the police chief sternly.
Ginpachi nodded to Mutsu, who then turned to Isaburo. "Like I said, I have neither allegiance nor loyalty to them. But much as I hate to admit it—" she sighed reluctantly at this point, "I owe that baldy—the one you say who used to head a branch of Harusame, and who left the criminal underworld. He left me to keep tabs on his two kids. This silver perm has reason to believe that the baldy's eldest had something to do with the little princess's kidnapping."
The white-haired chief scowled at Ginpachi. "You withheld this information from the police. Why?"
The silver-haired teacher absently played with the lollipop in his mouth before answering. "Remember your promise first, old man. None of this goes on record, you hear?"
He narrowed his eyes and said nothing, but nodded and crossed his arms.
"On the night of the explosion, we ran into some members of the Harusame. One of them was a kid with monstrous, Yato-like strength, whose ass I needed to beat," began Ginpachi slowly, seeing the scene playing out in his mind's eye. "And he had vermilion hair, blue eyes, and white skin."
"…. Hm." Isaburo was a smart man. And Ginpachi knew how he was practically a tiger mom taking care of Imai, and how he must have known all about Kagura, who was one of his adoptive daughter's close friends. Ginpachi only hoped that he was able to add two and two together and that he didn't need to explain further that his daughter is related to a criminal clan. After the police chief mulled the information over in his head, he looked at Ginpachi with some understanding. "Any more secrets that you're hiding from me? What a troublesome high school teacher you turned out to be."
"Nothing more, chief. We'll cooperate with you. Just don't implicate my daughter into any of this. And before any of you bastards say anything, she's legally mine, got it? She isn't a goddamn criminal and she never will be." He looked at both Isaburo and Mutsu as he said this.
Mutsu shrugged. "She's a good one, your kid. Anyway, I promised that Baldy that I will always know where his two children are."
"So you know where Tokugawa is right now?!"
The brown-haired woman shook her head. "I only know of where Kamui most likely is located. If Gintoki is correct that he directly kidnapped the little princess, I suppose she'd be at the same location as well."
"No time to waste then," began the police chief, when an obnoxious ringing tone played from his phone, different from the other tones that Ginpachi heard so far. At the same time, his phone vibrated as well, and he fumbled through his pocket trying to look for his Bokia 3210-7.
Gin-chan! Im stayin over Nobume-chans place. tell granny 2 sleep early. gunna eat all ur snaks bye~
Isaburo shut his phone and hummed in annoyance. "Sakata-san. Seems that Nobutasu is sleeping over at your place tonight. I'll pick her up as soon as our investigation is over. Better make sure that she's safe and…
"…"
The two old-smelling, white-haired fathers looked at their phones side by side, and then blankly looked at each other. The sound of their minds adding two and two together sounded like a time bomb, and afterward, without even bothering to hop in a vehicle, the two of them exploded into an enraged run.
The late afternoon sun on her pale skin made her radiate a palpable warmth that he could feel from where he seated behind her. The wind rushed past his ears and towards his nose, carrying with them the familiar, pleasant strawberry scent of her shampoo. The autumn leaves from the trees along the side of the road painted everything orange and red, all the colours that reminded him of her.
Yet Okita could not feel an ounce of that shoujo or romantic vibe at that particular moment, as he was too busy cursing and fearing for his life.
"What do you mean you don't know how to use the fucking brakes?!"
"I know how to use the brakes, you idiot! It's just that sometimes I forget how to do it!"
"You stupid pig! Oi, at least slow down if you don't know how to stop! Why do you keep going faster?!"
"If we go faster we could open up a portal and go to where Soyo-chan is right at this moment!"
"You're going to open up a portal from my small intestines to my mouth! I'm going to throw up!"
"Go ahead, you potato boy! You couldn't take the Fast and Furious style that Gin-chan taught me!"
Okita didn't know for how much longer his sphincters could hold on. This was almost exactly like the time that Matsudaira-sensei made them go to Nezuland to spy on his daughter (who went to a different all-girls' school) and he wasn't able to lower down the safety bars on the roller coaster and he almost died.
From his peripheral vision, he saw the pick-up that Yamazaki was driving speed up next to them. "What the hell are you guys doing? Slow down, you brat! Takasugi's way behind in the convoy!" yelled the irate vice-commander from the passenger seat.
"We're going to go through a portal to go to where Soyo-chan is!" yelled Kagura.
"As expected of leader! A flawless plan!" shouted Katsura from the back of the pick-up truck. "It is time to go over the speed limit, you Shinsengumi dog! Hurry up!"
"Waaah~ even if you say so, it's impossible! I can't go any faster than this!" said the weeping Yamazaki, who apparently just obtained his driver's license a week ago.
"Then we can't leave our vehicle to this jimi! Let me drive!"
"You don't have a license to drive, you freakin' juvie!" yelled Hijikata as he attempted to push the long-haired wig back to his place at the back of the pick-up. In the commotion, the truck began to swerve dangerously near Kagura's Vespa and the side of the road (which was next to a cliff).
"Ahh~! Vice-Commander! Please calm down!" screamed Yamazaki. Saitou and Elizabeth wrote profanities in their sign boards in solidarity with the jimi's remarks.
"Toushi! Sougo! China-san! Sagaru!" yelled Kondou, as he drove the sedan closer to the swerving vehicles. "Slow down! You're leaving the Kiheitai behind!"
"No can do, Gorilla! The brakes on this Vespa are defective! We won't stop until we've crossed dimensions-"
"The only thing that's defective here is the inside of your skull, you stupid pig! Do you even know where we're going?! And keep your eyes on the road!" When he noticed that Kagura was looking at anywhere else except the road in front of them, he reached out and held her cheeks from behind to keep it from turning. Why the heck did he volunteer to ride with this reckless girl, anyway? Okita made a mental note to sue Ginpachi-sensei for being an utterly sucky driving instructor.
Hijikata shoved Katsura's head in desperation and growled, "Commander, permission to kick this rebel wannabe off this mission! You're gonna kill us before we get to those Harusame jerks! I knew it! You're in cahoots with them!"
"Now, now, Toushi! Part of good leadership is to maintain order within your unit! Look at us in our car! We're like a nice happy family, aren't we? With my waifu, her totally platonic best friend, my brother-in-law and my fellow stalker, we are the definition of a good and harmonious—"
His happy monologue was interrupted within the next moment by four pairs of fists hitting him in various vital spots in his body, and his consequent yelps of pain. An eerie silence where a driver was conspicuously absent followed. Somehow, within the next moment, Sa-chan was behind the wheel, her eyeglasses flashing furiously.
"Don't put me in the same level as you," she grumbled not-so-discreetly. Visible behind her were a serene-looking Otae, who looked very satisfied with a murder gone right, and a harassed-looking Kyuubei and Shinpachi.
Smoothly, the Kiheitai jeep caught up with everyone. Takasugi peered from the passenger seat and looked at all of them with a mocking smile on his face. "Oi. If you're done plotting to kill one another, you better get ready. We're close, and the welcoming committee's ready to greet us."
They all turned to the straight road in front of them. Approximately 1 kilometer away were a group of men in familiar black uniforms, about ten of them standing in a row. They all wielded giant umbrellas, which they aimed at the approaching group like rifles. Okita could make out the shadow of an abandoned-looking warehouse further behind them.
"China. They're gonna shoot to kill us. Isn't that right?"
"Uh-huh," she answered quietly, her shoulders tensing. She turned her head to the side, the side of her bright blue eye capturing Okita's. "Sadist. I'm not slowing down for them. Soyo-chan might be there, waiting for us to come save her."
"… right." He leaned forward and patted her on the shoulder. "Not like an idiot like you knows how to slow down, anyway. I'll take care of these bastards here."
The enemies were getting closer and closer. They raised their umbrellas, the safety clicking off almost simultaneously. She nodded. "I know you're too stupid to get killed, Sadist. I'll see you later."
What happened next was a blur. As the first round of gunfire sparked from the umbrellas, Okita leapt from his seat, then Kagura's shoulders, with his nailbat aiming for two of the Harusame pirates' heads. Simultaneously, he saw Katsura and Nobume leaping off from their respective spots at the back of the pick up truck, also hitting two pirates squarely at the back of the head. Sa-chan, Yamazaki, and Takechi drove their vehicles straight into the row of soldiers, effectively running them over.
Miraculously, as it seems to happen in bad-ass teenagers in anime, no-one was hurt in this first scene. Okita looked up at Nobume and Katsura, who were making sure that no-one among the criminals was conscious.
They nodded at each other and then sprinted towards the warehouse as pure adrenaline pumped through their veins.
AN: Hi. Sorry it took so long. Many things happened during the holidays and the New Year, and many other things will happen also. I'm going to keep writing-hoping to get my groove back, actually-but updates will be much slower than I thought (orz)!
It's so hard to write dialogue with a lot of characters on the scene so I hope they did well~
I had to make something up about the Yato clan here since they aren't aliens in this story, hence the susceptibility to skin cancer (probably melanoma hehe). Folks, please be careful with sun exposure and be diligent about using sunscreen as necessary!
As always, I appreciate reviews. Even if no reviews, I enjoy looking at the story stats. But please let me know what you think~ Thank you very much!