AN: I'm really sorry for not updating for … six months. It's embarrassing and I should be culled for this but terrible things happened and I had to stop writing for a while.

Also, I tried rereading some of my previous chapters to get the gist of what I already wrote and what I haven't since my notes for this fanfiction got lost. I have to admit that I have TONS of errors. I have LONG sentences that are a pain to read, lots of missing conjunctions, missing words, missing sentences and my abuse of the comma that made the entire story hella confusing. There were entire paragraphs that didn't make sense to me. I unknowingly used medical jargon too.

For a week I debated on rewriting but I decided against it. I will keep all these mistakes.

I will also put effort in finding someone who'll proofread the next time I write because if I was a wandering reader, I don't think I'll settle down for this fanfiction.

I am very sorry.

ALSO: LOOKAT THESE BEAUTIES:

" s ta . sh / 0aertqsxks5" by Kurozu21

"fav . me/d8vbzjn" by Xantie

I cannot stress how happy I feel right now.

Please enjoy my humblest of updates:

Chapter 21

Screams erupted all over.

The wedding was still intact but a few floors above, Abuto stood in the middle of forty crumpled bodies. Eyes alert with a manic grin, his palms faced the ceiling as his fingers dripped with blood. Not far from where he stood, Fridgeotto slit the throat of another armed individual. All in all, they looked like devils.

"Abuto-san, there are three more heading to the emergency exits downstairs!" Chiaki was two floors below them. She sat in a guard room with monitors submitting live feed of surveillance cameras. She held her phone near her mouth and yelled orders.

"I see three nearing the emergency exits!"

"I'll do it!" Kageri answered with his own phone and the nurse had to look away from a monitor not wanting to see him whirl through the air and rip heads off.

Chiaki forced her breathing to calm down. Her job was to oversee movement of the enemies. Weak enemies it turned out. The Yato was a powerful race, the best among mercenaries. It didn't make sense to send men against them that weren't at least in the level of a demon.

Something was amiss.

"Do you see anything?" Abuto's voice was quaking.

"Nothing yet." She whispered. "Worst case scenario is; the mastermind is in the wedding, waiting for an opportunity to go in for a kill… But Matako hasn't said anything yet."

"A likely scenario" Kageri said. "I suggest you run back there. Our hands are full."

Chiaki swallowed. "I can't go. My hands are full too –Fridgeotto behind you!"

"Kageri, shut the fuck up and you get to the wedding." Abuto yelled.

Kageri's reaction was to whine like a kid who didn't get what he wanted but nobody gave a shit about what Kageri wanted. He said in a really bratty voice, "fine, but I can't guarantee that I won't mock at least a dozen of those fancy teabagging guests."

The nurse leaned back into her seat and scowled when she saw another group of seven armed men run toward Abuto and Fridgeotto's direction before they stopped. The leader of the group placed his finger pads directly on his right ear and changed direction. She quickly gave Fridgeotto directions and numbly watched as he dispatched the men with terrifying precision.

"Someone is giving them orders…" Chiaki frowned.

"Fridgeotto-san, please check their ears, there should be a communication device of some sort." She asked and watched her comrade lean down to a decapitated head. He gingerly pulled the ear of the head until an earpiece popped out. Chiaki held her breath as he listened to the earpiece.

"…Good day to your sir, this is the shopping center, your order of gargantuan sized a*al plugs has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances" Fridgeotto's voice was liquid calm, but nobody replied except for the beeping tone of an abandoned call. "No luck on this one." He crushed the device between his blood caked fingers and began moving to cover ground.

"You're fucking disgusting!" Abuto heard everything.

"Abuto-san, someone can see what I'm seeing. Enemy movements are being controlled by someone who knows where I'm placing you –ah! Go two rooms on your left, someone's there– the surveillance feed might be hacked." She said.

"Bullshit." Abuto was running at full speed. "Does this look like Mission Impossible to you? You can't hack surveillance."

"Is there a separate guard room?" She stood from her seat.

"Ah, yes." The vice-captain flew in the air, with his two feet bound together; he slammed himself into the opponent. The enemy was able to shield himself with his arms, but his body skidded five meters from where he stood. "Oho! Found a good one!" He cheered.

"Fridgeotto, west wing elevators, now" Chiaki was terrified.

"Sure." He replied and his view dashed through the cameras like a bird in flight.

"Where is the other room?" She asked the vice-captain. He flipped twice in the air before he pierced his enemy with his right hand. His left still held his phone by his ear.

"It's near the main room where the wedding is, four doors from the altar's left, the one facing the comfort rooms." Abuto clicked his tongue and kicked at the floor tiles. He grinned when a tile flew and crushed against a man's face.

Chiaki's eyes followed the cameras. "Kageri are you already at the wedding?"

Kageri replied almost immediately. "I was but I got kicked out cus I'm leaking blood all over, plus the Admiral's pissed when he saw me. Said some shit about not having fun–"

Her heart sank in disappointment, of course Kamui would be. Part of the reason why she couldn't keep her nerves down was the still throbbing pain of what happened earlier, and there he was, getting peeved he couldn't murder. She gritted her teeth in frustration. "– this is bad missy, the stupid ass security guards ain't wanna let me back. I'll cause a scene if I force myself in. They're not really buying the 'spilled tomato juice' reason for all the bloodstains since I blatantly announced to the ladies at the buffet table that I was purely carnivorous an–"

"For fuck's sake, shut up, we get the point." Abuto growled.

"Abuto, Fridgeotto, do you have bloodstains as well?"

"Yeah."

"No shit."

"Abuto-san, what's the best course of action?" Chiaki asked, no matter how she looked at it, she was the most inexperienced among the three. She was merely support, someone who could only fight as a human, someone who couldn't defeat an opponent twice the strength if luck and planning was at her side.

Abuto was eerily silent for a while.

"Geez, I dunno, my plan was to follow your plan, I'm still sorta drunk and my face hurts."

Judging by his tone, he was just being lazy. Chiaki wanted to punch him.

She couldn't use Aiko. He was guarding the newlyweds. If the pair was the target and an accident happened. Kamui would be the one who'd be tossed in the frying pan for not excelling in the 'security' department. Soon, rumors would unfold and he would be stripped from his position. Kageri was already causing a scene and she couldn't remove Aiko and Fridgeotto from the upper floors.

"Kageri, let's switch positions. Abuto-san, guard the east wing entrance. Frigeotto-san, take the west. In two minutes, Abuto should immediately transfer to the north, Frigeotto to the south. You should expect enemies coming from both doors. Kageri, you have a minute to arrive here and change plans if my assumptions were wrong." She bit her lip. "Everyone, move."

Whoever the enemy was, he chose evasion as a tactic. He used the East and West entrances to get the gunmen down the main stairs a few corners away. Chiaki tried to pursue the enemy but they seemed to appear from nowhere. Since the manipulator chose to move away from Abuto and Fridgeotto, he would change entrances to North and South. Kageri would have already replaced her once the enemy realizes his mistake.

"Chiaki, you have to bring the shit-faced Admiral with you in case the opponent is too strong." Abuto wasn't afraid of her being difficult. He was afraid of Kamui making things complicated.

He heard her sigh, or maybe it was her wheezing because she was running down the stairs in full speed. Chiaki wished Abuto had thought of a nicer, healthier plan that didn't involve her meeting with Kamui. She wasn't ready for anything he might throw her way yet. Calling someone else would take too long.

"Yeah, sure."

Abuto blinked. That was unexpectedly easier than anticipated.

Chiaki hasn't fully understood the language of Kamui's eyes so she didn't comprehend what his gaze meant when she ran up to his tense figure with her hands and knees ragged and raw. Tiny specks of blood stained her neck and her hair was plastered to her face.

He saw her rush from the main doors and his expression immediately switched to from a smile to nothing. The nurse felt her heart break into a million pieces. Kamui was speaking to a taller, older gentleman in a blue suit. Chiaki wasted no time and intervened. She had a mission to fulfill.

"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt your conversation sir, but the Admiral has something urgent to attend to." She dipped into a graceful bow.

The captain of the tenth division smiled pleasantly. "Ah, Chiaki." He knew her and she knew him. It was only three weeks ago when she found herself playing chess with the man. He was still a cheat and she still refused to make bets. "Why the rush? How are you?" His small grin gave her shivers, creepy shivers. The pressure of Captain Jiji's presence was enough to make a goat give birth early.

"I'm fine, sir, but I have to apologize. This emergency is classified." She grinned back and the old blue man paused before his six arms shook and he laughed. "Ohohohohoho, it's alright, you young things go do your business." Without the hint of reluctance, Captain Jiji strolled pass the pair and disappeared into the crowd. Kamui's sigh made it clear that he was not disappointed that their conversation was cut short.

She shouldn't have looked directly toward Kamui's face.

It was apathetic. Like she was the only one bothered by their recent argument.

Her throat was raw and her stomach felt like ice. He wasn't the only one who screwed up. She did too, for agreeing to everything. She felt like a huge idiot. With apparent embarrassment and anger fueling her, she couldn't help but think that it was a mistake to have allowed herself to become too close to the Admiral.

Maybe she would feel different if she was in a better mood and not trying to bring down a terrorist, but the blank look in his face said otherwise.

She heard Kamui crunched his fingers and suddenly felt as if her life was about to be taken my none other than him.

"Abuto-san, I've gotten the Admiral." She refused to look at him. "We're on our way, how does it look in your end."

There was a sound of ruffling, a squish. Abuto murmured to the enemy something about quizzes and he replied with: "What? My end?" more shuffling "My end is still stinky as hell. Don't you have any remedy for–" She moved her phone away. If he had the time to make jokes, that meant they were fine.

"Reinforcements?" She asked Kageri.

"Ten minutes away, there's like a rally about gross canteen food going down at the intersection. Our troops can only shove off a number of nutritionists at a time." Chiaki smiled a little.

"I appreciate it, but now's not the time to be doing jokes."

"Eh? Who said we're doing jokes for your sake? The world doesn't revolve around you." Abuto yelled.

"I never said 'my sake'. Quit assuming. " She rolled her overly damp eyes.

"So." Chiaki focused on Kamui, ready to explain what the hell was happening before he grinned and held up his Iphone that tapped into their calls like it was nobody's business. He was listening all along. Sneaky move. Then the both of them left for the surveillance room without anyone noticing.

In the back of her mind, she couldn't fathom why he waited for her. She knew Kamui wouldn't spare a second for bloodshed. She shook the thoughts off her head.

Kamui ran faster. Chiaki was at a losing pace. He turned and grinned barbwire when the door of the guard room burst open and a young man ran out horrified. The poor guy must have seen them coming from the cameras. He let out a strangled yell, arms flailing out as his boots scuttled against the slippery floor in terror. The man was able to take two desperate steps away from Kamui before he dug his fingers on the man's shoulder and dragged the screaming man backward. The force broke his arm into two and he slid off crying in pain before Chiaki caught up and knelt beside his writhing form.

She palmed his face and hissed into his ear.

"SHUT UP." She tried to push him down, but he sat up, looked at the mess that was his arm and screamed. Any louder and the guests would hear him.

"Ohmygod Chiaki, shut him up!" Abuto was yelling through her phone in her pocket. He was loud enough that the rest heard him in their phones.

"Eiji! Eiji!" The panicked man scratched away manically for help. He was getting louder by the second. Chiaki couldn't keep him quiet. She turned her head around to ask for help when Kamui's foot collided with the man's jaw. With an explosive crunch, most of his jaw and his cheekbones showered the adjacent wall. His blood drenched her clothes.

"Why did you do that?" She wouldn't be able to forget this. The body was convulsing.

"You wanted to ask me to shut him up." Kamui smiled with his eyes shut. She couldn't feel angry, not now. The man was still wearing his earpiece when he was knocked out. All enemies knew what happened then. Chiaki shut her bleary eyes. Two things, would happen, either the enemy would fall back or they would turn desperate and initiate their plans without warning.

"Hmm, Chiaki, did you ever think of interrogating any of these men?" Kamui experimentally poked the unconscious guy with his foot.

She wanted to vomit. This was the man whose affections she wanted to win. "No one would talk, we tried, they barely knew anything. Abuto-san found out that they were following orders for money, sent from a secluded account. They were asked to assemble at the wedding so we're trying our best to stop that." She started making her way to the party. Kamui followed suit.

"Do you have a plan?"

She stopped. "I have sort of a plan."

"Is it a good one?" His voice was humorous. The transparency that she was the only one getting riled up made her stomach churn. Why won't he take anything seriously? Why wasn't anyone taking it seriously? Chiaki put the phone to speaker mode and asked if the name Eiji set any red flags.

"Shit, we're going down there, motherfucker's holding a grudge against the elder, I thought he was already put to jail. Chiaki, get back and inform Aiko." Chiaki ran half a step before Kamui tugged the back of her shirt, bringing her into a pause. Her eyes met his.

"Admi-"

Her words were cut when his palm slammed into the middle of her chest. Her back hit the wall painfully; the recoil whipped her head forward where it unintentionally made hard contact with his chin. To say that it was uncomfortable was an understatement. The blood from her top soaked to his palm. His palm dug in her sternum hard enough that she was afraid a wrong move would send his arm to reduce her torso in pieces.

"Now, now. This won't do at all." He shook his head. "I didn't expect you to be in a level weak enough to begin avoiding me after a little argument. Didn't you always face your problems head on? What happened to that principle of yours?" He leaned in close enough that there were only centimeters between them.

Chiaki swallowed, her face was down and her bangs covered her eyes.

Kamui's other hand landed softly on top of her skull.

"Well, it doesn't matter now, doesn't it? I'm here to apologize." He said simply. She would have felt relieved but it didn't seem like she had any choice. If he wanted to apologize, it felt as if it was everyone's responsibility to forgive him.

"We need to help them." Her voice was small.

"Abuto and the other can handle it on their own, they're most likely here by now."

"If you are going to depend everyone else's safety on 'most likely' then you're more incompetent as a leader than what I had thought you were." She snapped.

"There is that assumption and another where I trust my men enough to know what they are capable of." He sounded irritated.

The pressure around her chest loosened as he let go. But the inward emotional pain didn't. Chiaki didn't move an inch.

"Well?" Kamui crossed his arms, finally letting her go. His face was still the same. Still the same. Smiling, like he expected everyone to understand. However his dismal eyes and inscrutable countenance gave little away.

She decided then that she was going to shove back.

"Don't expect me to forgive you easily for every stupid little mistake that you do." His eyes widened in surprise. He saw her ball her fists angrily. Her teeth grit and when she finally lifted her head to meet his eyes. He didn't realize that he began holding his breath.

"How dare you." She was shaking. "…Do you have any idea how painful it was to hear that after all I've done, you'd think of me so shallow that I will cheat on you."

"After how I ignored all those rumors, after all my efforts for your sake, after I cleaned up your messes you still doubted me? …Do I look like an idiot to you? Did you seriously think that I am a whore? Well… screw you Kamui. I guess in the end it wasn't just me who saw how stupid this entire arrangement was." She seethed. "…But I get it now... I get it." Her voice cracked and she rubbed her eyes with the base of her palms.

"I assumed like an idiot that you could accept me for what I am, how weak and pathetic I am compared to you all, how I don't seem to belong anywhere… But I guess my insecurities, as pitiful as they were, weren't unfounded." She sounded so weak and he hated it.

"…In the end, whether it was genuine or not, after you said what you thought about me… I feel like all of this was a joke." Chiaki's unstable breathing was all that could be heard for a long tense moment.

"I think it would be for the best if end this."

Kamui didn't say anything. He just stared, stared at her soft crying features and at his hands, its calluses and all the lines that scarred it. When Hosen died, he said to himself, 'you shall not feel hate, nor feel love. You are neither your father nor your teacher. You will never be like them, you shall never be pathetic like them.'

Chiaki's principles were 'serve to the extent of ability', 'do things for the greater good', 'myself before strangers'.

Abuto's principles were 'I will preserve my clan', 'I will be useful' and 'I will be loyal.'

Kamui's principles were 'I will be strongest' , 'I will not hesitate' and 'forward is the only way.'

It seemed simple at first, but unlike the first two, his were bound together by the fact that he wanted to give himself a wide berth from what his superiors ended up being. It would have been easier if he made her vanish. Yet if he did, it felt like he was walking one step closer to the two people who molded his fate. So Kamui did the only think he could think of.

He grabbed the wrist of her right hand tightly, very tightly that she wasn't to shake him off.

And slapped himself with her forced open palm.

"I'm sorry."

Slap

"Chiaki, I'm sorry."

Slap

"I'm so sorry."

Slap

It hurt her less than it hurt him, but it was painful for the both of them nonetheless. It was fitting, he thought. It was his as well as her fault and the both of them should pay the price.

"Kamui, please stop." She whispered. Kamui realized after a little while that her tears were not cold, they were warm and painful, just like his. But at the same time, his heartbeat stopped for the longest of time. But not enough for him to remember why he had a heart and when he began considering how he felt off battles. Was it after Abuto picked him from the streets? Was it after Umibozu crushed his head on the pavement, painting him black? Was it after Chiaki held his hands at night, saying things like, 'I like you'?

"Before we fought, I felt ridiculed about how you inquired of my affiliations with the Kiheitai boss. One thing led to another… and I guess I wanted you hurt too." It sounded petty, and it was. "We are always arguing. I thought I knew your limits. I was not able to anticipate that my insult would hurt you to this extent." He let go of her completely to see if she was going to run off.

"If you forgive me, I'll be more careful. I swear to that."

Chiaki didn't and he felt a surge of relief, but she was silent. It was painfully clear that he was attempting to give her a choice, and that it was genuine. Kamui learned quickly, but he needed to be shoved in the line of fire to understand.

"Do you… do you want to go back?"

She looked up to him. The question was too vague and her chest lurched when she considered the possibilities.

"Do you want to go back to Edo?" Kamui echoed the words dispassionately. If she was unhappy, then he wasn't going to force her. He was giving her a legit choice. He twisted his mouth into a crude angle that barely resembled a smile. Her decision will be followed. However, how she made everything look so vivid and sentimental, how she made adjustments to his perspectives that were small enough to make him reconsider the slight changes of values he had today will stay with him until he died.

She remembered the way she looked at the road to home.

"You're so frustrating." Chiaki wrapped her fingers together. "I've seen how you treat your subordinates. You barely listen; you'd kill anyone if they're in your way. I know how you treat your family. You're a dangerous person and I know you won't change…Why I want to see you succeed… Why I want to follow you… Why I want your approval and affection is beyond me."

Somehow, he found his fingers between her cold ones.

"Kamui, I don't want to go back to Edo but I know that I can't stay." She was breaking promises. She intended not to leave, at all. But the more she thought about it, the worse her promise sounded.

The silence was long and heavy.

"No matter how you look at it, as your subordinate I am a burden more than an aid." Kamui was about to say something but she blocked it. "Don't try to get me out of this, I might have done a number of help but I'm still useless in the battlefields, I can assist, I can heal but no matter what, I will never gain the respect from you or your men. The Yato will never respect me." She squeezed his hand.

His eyes said that he didn't care what the Yato thought.

"There might come a time when you'll have to leave me behind and I know you said it yourself that you will never look back. I will be a hindrance you'd want to throw off. I will not be able to do anything for you." Small things, yes, she could do all those small things. But the universe had a way of showing her that if she wasn't there, better results would have surfaced, for the Yato at least. Less trouble for everyone, less dragging.

"This will be the better option out of-" She began but Kamui raised his free hand.

"You have made it obvious that I cannot argue with your conviction." He began. "You say that as my subordinate, you believe yourself to be of less use. I will neither deny nor agree."

Kamui stood firm in his ground. "However, if you wish to stay here, you won't work as my subordinate any longer. You will not be thrown into war nor will be tasked to aid the wounded."

"Am I going to be your official laundry washer? Will I finally be paid enough wages?" She said with dark humor.

The Admiral shook his head and took one step closer.

"I'm asking you to be my official partner. No hiding, no more rumors. You will stay by me and when the time comes that I have rid myself of the Harusame. You will marry me."

A Day Later:

Freezing was an understatement. Chiaki eyed Abuto with mild jealousy as he stood in the docking port dressed in his usual garb without feeling an inch of cold in his system. She crouched down to conserve as much heat as possible while she tried her best to tally the arriving Yato. She was ignored by the burly men. Something she felt grateful for. She figured that it was an acquired skill to remain invisible when surrounded by the mercenary group, not while they were fighting of course, she would be crushed. While it was a comforting thought that the vice-captain was there to kick her back to health if she fell prey to hypothermia, (not metaphorically speaking). She felt antsy since yesterday. Aside from the shock of Kamui's sudden proposal, she felt that someone was shadowing her.

Abuto's pet, Abudog* sat between them with precise focus. The dog** nudged Chiaki for treats.

She obliged.

"I wasn't able to ask what happened to the guerillas." She looked up at Abuto, whose eye bags have tripled in size.

"They're dead." He said casually.

"… How about the mastermind? What happened to him?"

"He is now a corpse."

"… How about your girlfriend? Did you get dumped again?"

Abuto looked down at her sourly.

"Do you want to be a corpse?"

"No."

"Shut the fuck up."

Chiaki waited ten whole minutes before she opened her mouth once more. The newly married couple from the last chapter went away in a fancy honeymoon trip. Aiko followed them to get an advantageous and controversial scoop for the Harusame Daily and the remaining Yato that she knew thought of her as too much of a bother.

She only had Abuto left as a "friend".

"Abuto-san, if I ride the ship tonight for Edo Terminal. How long would it take me to get there?"

Abuto's obvious annoyance steamed off a little. There was a reason she was in Abuto's company right now. She was on watch. She never did give an answer to Kamui when he asked her in his own way to give up on her dreams and stay. It wasn't the first time he tried to convey those words. It was the first time though, that he was serious about it. There was always a glint in his eyes in the past that gave away his anticipation for amusement in her responses.

After she requested for time, Kamui's right hand man had been glued to her. Trust Kamui to suspect that she would leave him without a word.

"Four days and seven hours if I was not instructed to babysit you." It would have sounded rude if he wasn't dead tired. She was used to it anyway.

She went back and counted the remaining men and kept quiet as Abuto did his routinely job. She needed to make a decision, a good one. Kamui made himself busy with work and she did not have the bravery to go near his quarters anyway. However, the deadline she set with herself was very near. Her heart said yes, but the unforeseeable future drew a big no.

She saw the opportunity to talk to him when less people surrounded them. Abuto was, after all, someone anyone could count upon explaining matters clearly.

Abuto washed blood off his hands after beating a few new recruits into submission. "Always the stupid questions with you, the answer lies on the value you see yourself in. The Admiral will forever be the Admiral. The real question is if you are willing to settle for someone who is tainted with black since childhood. To dirty your hands longer than required. In my eyes, the both of you are still children, you more than him. You will have to permanently tie your life with his."

And,

"Love? I cannot answer that. My parents were absent my entire life. Hah. You already know that you'll have to make do with what he gives you right now. You'll have to settle for that if you're stubborn. Not such a tough choice, right? He's giving you a free pass home. It's just a quiz."

And,

"He's slowly finding that most people matter, not just the ones capable in fighting."

And,

"Fucking hell, he scares the shit out of me as well."

"But you still follow him around without question." Chiaki answered.

"Yes, that's my job." He countered with an expression that refused to elaborate.

"I realized, for a while now, that I might love him. But I'm scared of the damage I will cause, how selfish both of the decisions are."

Abuto thought for a moment. "You'll have to decide balancing life and death with us or risk going back home only to find that you should have stayed. Is that what you're thinking?"

"Yes, and if I die, Kamui will live knowing that I would have survived if I refused." She muttered.

"And to live your boring life in Edo thinking that you could have spent it with us, gross smelly pirates, is as equally sad." He rubbed his chin. "Selfishly speaking though, if you die and put loads of blame on him, wouldn't it make him into a better person? He might become a martyr. Lives would be saved. Unfortunately, you would have saved lives anyway if you went home." He continued, emphasizing her thick lab gown.

Abuto yawned. Rather than following her, he dragged her around his work all day. It was near his bed time already.

"I don't know why you're having a difficult time. Like I said, it's just a quiz. Only with two same answers. And we both know that you had your mind set since the beginning."

Chiaki fiddled with her clean fingernails that were always cut short. Then slowly, she nodded.

"I want to be as cool as you."

"No." Abuto said firmly, albeit a little proudly. "Admiral Nincompoop wouldn't be able to take it."

There was also the fact that.

"Abuto-san, someone has been following us since morning."

"Ignore it."

Chiaki used his cloak to wipe her sweaty hands. Sweaty hands were not for battles. Umbrellas slip from grasps, enemies slip from grasps and one is bound to slip whilst jumping from a ledge to another.

Abuto kicked her in the torso. She blocked it.

Someone clapped, "you have a set of keen senses my dear" the stranger said, stepping out from the shadows. Abuto tensed in a way that made his dog run off whining as if in pain made her skin crawl with terror. She knew from the sound of the man's footsteps that he was a full bred Yato. He moved the exact same way like Kamui when he wanted to play tricks on her. If a Yato wanted to stay undetected he could stay hidden for days if he liked. You had to know what to listen to if you wanted to find them.

The stranger raised his hand as if signaling for peace. Abuto didn't relax, but he didn't attack as well.

"Long time no see boy. How's my son?" The Yato was about her height. He was dressed similarly to Abuto, but with broader shoulders, a square moustache and a head covered with a brown hat.

Umibozu spoke to Abuto, but his eyes were set on Chiaki. There was worn out paperback novel of Romance in the Galaxies under his left arm and a deadly weapon on mass destruction –a yellow parasol– on his right, pointed directly at her.

'He's aiming to shoot isn't he?' She shifted her weight on her dominant leg, ready to dash on the slightest hint of applied hostility.

A split second passed and Umibozu hurled out projectile yellow green vomit on the floor. He dropped the sappy romance novel and proceeded to forcefully hack his lunch off his stomach. Umibozu snapped his head in Chiaki's direction, his free hand pointed at her accusingly. "You!" He announced, taking a step forward before he slipped around his own stinking vomit and dropped on the ground like a sack of dirt.

Chiaki had never smelled anything so bad. A foul stench only made possible by alcohol and rotted bits of food and body parts –more body parts than food. She knew that most of the older Yato were forgetful when it came to baths. But they do wash themselves when something reminded them, like a solar eclipse for example.

Umibozu had mixed feelings when he encountered the novel that featured his son as a protagonist. He expected death, blood, gore, the occasional lecture about obscure Yato traditions and more death. So he had to drown himself with the strongest bottle of spirits available when he read the phrase. 'Kamui and his six pack wonder abs flew from the dangerous and flaming ship in order to bravely rescue the lustrous Chiaki from the sinewy arms of death.'

"Abuto-san, shouldn't we take this opportunity to attack the drunk loser?"

"Do you even know who this guy is?"

Chiaki tried to think.

"A drunken loser?"

"Don't talk like I'm not here." Umibozu growled.

Then it clicked. There was something awfully familiar about the way Umibozu glared at her. Those soulless eyes, the way it seemed to dissect her thoughts, piece by piece.

***"You're that guy in the hair growth commercial! I love that commercial!" Chiaki beamed. "Hey, hey, commercial actor-san, would you sign my umbrella for me?" She joyously presented her very polished umbrella.

* Abuto is a large fan of dogs

** Abudog is not a space dog

***She is referring to episode 96 of Gintama where the entire time slot was spent on Umibozu's hair growth commercial.

Abuto whacked her in the head.

Umibozu looked confused.

"Wait a second." Kamui's father picked up the worn out novel from the floor and opened a dog eared page with precision. It took him no time to find the bits he hated the most: 'Kamui stood in the radiance of the moonlight as the wind whipped his majestic mane flawlessly in the night. He had absolutely no signs of balding at all. 'I'm glad you're not bald.' Chiaki lovingly stroked his muscular arm. 'Bald people are gross.'

He also went to page 453:

Chiaki grinned. 'Bald people should die'

He also went to the page after that:

Abuto scratched his head with unkempt fingernails that Kamui never had, because he is flawless. 'I might have lice because of my disgusting mullet' Abuto thought. '… At least I'm not bald!' he continued. 'Bald people should die!'

Umibozu shut the book.

She knew that her own smile was false when she said, "Come on Abuto-san! Just one picture with Umibozu-san! He was in that commercial! He was awesome! Stop looking at me like I'm insane! The commercial went to the big screen! It had four Oscar awards!" Abuto, being the loyal soldier he was dragged her back while she braved the smell of his body odor.

Abuto knocked her out.

"What exactly are you doing here?" Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to render the girl unconscious. Abuto found a hole in the tile ground and shoved Chiaki inside in case a fight ensued. The vice-captain knew Kamui's father by reputation and while he would never admit it, he knew the man personally.

He wasn't happy at all.

Umibozu tucked the book under his belt. "I was asked by the entire population of a village to hunt down a villain that's hiding in the Harusame." Kamui never knew this, but the two Yato had fought twice in the past. Umibozu despised Abuto for holding back. He always did.

"Would it be rude for me to ask you to leave? I'll even allow you to use my personal ship." Abuto bargained.

"It would if I was my past self." Umibozu crossed his arms.

"Ho, so you're a changed man now, you say? What about your son? What are you going to do if he finds you here?" Abuto relaxed for a bit.

"Kamui will not find me, nor do I intend to look for him. I already told you what I came here for, now let me pass."

Abuto nodded reluctantly and moved to the side as a sign of peace. Umibozu nodded, his eyes still trained suspiciously at Chiaki's unconscious form. Kamui's father was halfway on the room before he blinked nervously and turned back to Abuto, who was dragged the nurse off the ditch by her shirt. She mumbled a few cuss words before he dropped her on the ground. The vice-captain was glad about that, lying in her own drool was the least of what she deserved.

"She's the girl you picked up from Edo isn't she?" Umibozu remarked.

"I'm glad you're keeping yourself with the times, Umibozu-san. But this is none of your business."

"It is mine more than yours." He cleared his throat. "I will not allow my precious son to spend his life with a strumpet such as hers!" He yelled as he threw Romance in the Galaxies on the ground and continuously stepped on the book with unadulterated malice.

Abuto picked his nose. "All fiction are exaggerated 5000% to boost sales."

"You don't have proof of that! She could be, she could be– " Umibozu hurriedly picked up the book and read page 195. "Chiaki's perfectly manicured nails scraped Kamui's perfect abdominal muscles. They've only met for two weeks and she has made Kamui desperate for some lovin'" It was apparent that Umibozu was embarrassed as fuck.

The vice-captain winced. "Have you finished the entire book?" He said with calmness that he knew annoyed everyone.

"No, why do you think I was drunk? Why is this trash a bestseller?!"

"Read a portion of the last few bits of the book."

The book was whacked open. 'Umibozu, the great alien hunter, with a head full of thick black shiny hair and a body to die for dodged the squid people's attack with enough grace to put a truck load of kidnapped ballerinas to humiliation. Umibozu also doesn't have watery bowel movement and is loved by females around the universe for his perfect hair.' The book was whacked shut.

"Uhmm… this novel was published here right? So you know the writer right?" Umibozu scratched his chin.

Abuto raised an eyebrow.

"I want to fund production of this masterpiece."

Abuto wasn't suicidal, but he had multiple urges.

"That was utterly stupid." The vice-captain dragged Chiaki by her left foot. Her back burned against the floor's friction. "You can stop pretending to be unconscious now." He looked at her and stopped. Her face was dripping with tears.

She kicked his grip off her foot and stood up. "He had no right to call Kamui his son." Her burst of fangirling was all an act and Abuto saw right through it. "And you had no right to attempt to shoot him." Chiaki never wanted a picture with the baldy. She was furious and she welcomed evil thoughts in her head, allowed it to poison her nerves so easily.

"When the Admiral was a snotty brat, he attacked his father, it was his own will and if even he blames Umibozu for his actions, the final decision was up to him."

"But what kind of father allows his kid to gather dark enough thoughts to want to kill him."

"What kind of son submits to it so easily."

Chiaki looked down. "I wasn't trying to shoot Kamui's dad, but I wanted to hurt him a little." It was shameful, stupid even. It was good that Abuto intervened. "I'm sorry, Abuto-san."

"Sorry too."

"Sorry for what?" Chiaki asked.

"For this."

He grinned and the next thing she knew, he spun in a half circle and kicked her in the stomach. The momentum of his kick threw her backward into an office. She rolled like a beach ball before she crashed into a sturdy desk. After a little glaring and cussing, she dusted herself off and… met eyes with Kamui who was vandalizing his right hand man's desk with scraggly drawings of the male organ with the use of Abuto's very limited supply of hemorrhoid cream.

Chiaki crouched away from Kamui's eyesight and quickly fixed the state of her hair and clothes before she stood up again and smiled.

The room felt strangely quiet, save from her rapid heartbeat.

"Good evening." She said out of habit.

For a moment, many things stood still and the air was cold. Kamui crossed his arms. "I assume you have made your decision."

She smiled. "I have, but I need to make some things certain before I stay." It felt like the first time she went into Kamui's office. She felt chilly sweat run down her back.

"Well?"

"I know of your traditions and the ways you treat women. If I am going to be hidden away and ignored until I'm needed to please you. I will leave." She said.

"It would be a waste to treat you like that. You receive responsibilities and as my… partner, I will listen to your judgement before I act." It was difficult for her to watch him react to the idea that he was going to have someone stay by him as a loved one.

She tried to keep her voice level. "There are times where you frighten me. I want your word that if I make mistakes, if I cross the line or if I go too far, you'll try and forgive me."

"I will not raise my hand against you." He promised.

"Or blackmail me by burning my possessions."

"I will not burn your possessions."

"Or the people that I care for." She said quickly.

Kamui's lips flattened. "Or those people…"

She thought of Abudog.

"Don't harm the pets of my friends as well if you want me to agree on something…"

"That sorry excuse of a dog will not be harmed."

Chiaki was hesitant to speak.

"We can't have kids, it's not possible. Is that alright with you?"

"Yeah." Kamui stood from his seat and approached her. He knew that from the beginning.

Although she always told herself not to cry, she had the overwhelming urge to.

"Do you have any requests for me?"

Kamui nodded and squeezed her hands. "We are different people, and some of our logic does not apply to the common laws, aside from the battlefields, hit me with wisdom before I screw up, will you?"

Chiaki was tearing up. Out of nowhere, he opened his arms and she hugged him tight. They were children compared to most inhabitants of the Harusame, or even the Yato themselves. A pair of annoying, impulsive kids who did whatever they want. Kamui smiled when felt it. It was something held back and so warm it that it must be love.

She didn't say, "I love you." She said, "I'll stay for as long as I can" because that was the response he needed. He allowed himself to hug her tight. He might have kissed her a forehead but no one aside from them witnessed.

Maybe not

After minute of exchanging remarks and certain evening plans, Kamui's patience snapped.

There wasn't a Yato that existed who didn't know of leverage. He grabbed the edge of Abuto's desk and hurled the entire thing with its papers, dick drawings and ink bottles toward the door without warning. There was a cacophony of skidding leather outside, an uproar of manly yells and the table slammed into the office door. It banged open and almost squeezed the life out of two of Kamui's loyal men as it pressed their bodies against the wall and the very heavy door.

She wasn't surprised when a group of ten to fifteen Yato clambered off, yelling for their mothers.

A few unlucky ones, injured by the desk, either sat or curled in pain by the entrance. Abuto sat in the middle of panicking Yato. Kamui stood by the door.

There was no justice in the seventh division, there was only Kamui.

The group of unluckies began sweating like crazy. A regular Yato barely had the sense of danger, as he was brought up thinking that what they did was more dangerous than anything else. A regular Yato clearly hasn't met Kamui. Now, a sane person would know when faced with a dangerous adversary, say a bear, one should play dead and not provoke the bear into an exciting chase.

Two idiots ran for it and were shot down.

"I thought you all promised not to eavesdrop." Kamui clicked his tongue.

The mass of smelly, sweaty Yato raised their voices in a chorus of blatant lying and perjury as a one or two dropped loads into their pants in fear.

Then, as respect for his partner, Kamui humbly shut the very bloody door before he stuck his weapon up their asses.

Chiaki massaged her temples. She was so sure three of the seventh division's head cooks were included in that foolish bunch. She only saw two, but after living in the Harusame, she could easily recognize whom a scream of terror belonged to.

Near his desk was an ugly bronze bust of the late Hosen. She clutched Hosen's bronze head and spun it to her right. It caused a chain reaction and a small cabinet inched to the side, revealing a secret tunnel to the kitchen.

She still needed to visit the sick and needy, but she had learned quickly what to prioritize first. Kamui was ten times annoying when hungry and he tended to multiply the population of the sick and needy.

'Back to work'. She thought with a smile on her face. There were many things she wanted to say and many things that were happening. She knew Umibozu was around. She knew that yesterday, another girl with the same hair color as her was found dead in the engines. She knew when she saw Takasugi smile that he was going to burn everything in his path. She could only hope that Kamui doesn't get burned along with it.

A part of being someone who can't do anything was the ability to sense everything. Things were clicking into place. The murder of those women, Umibozu's mission and the unfinished business at planet Nexus, it all made sense to her.

But for now, she was content. The day was beautiful and she had something to look forward to.