Thanks for your patience! Enjoy chapter three.

Three successive hits. Right shoulder. Neck. Left shoulder. His opponent was dead before the final blow met its mark.

Sougo sheathed his blade with an exhale. That was the last of them. Some 'big boss' thatguy had turned out to be. Honestly, if his men were having trouble taking down common thugs like these maybe it was time he got serious about whipping them into shape.

What a pain. That meant he'd actually have to work.

"Hou, you used your Mumyo-ken. What a nostalgic sight."

Sougo's brow furrowed in annoyance and he looked up at the man casually sucking on a cigarette beside an upturned dumpster. "Hijikata," he addressed the man in a flat voice, deliberately omitting the honorific. "If you were here, you could've helped me out instead of standing by that dumpster like another filthy trash bag."

Just as he'd hoped, Hijikata's eyes narrowed in offense and he yelled, "Oy, what did you say, you bastard?!"

Sougo closed his eyes and shook his head. "Nothing. I'm leaving."

As he walked toward the mouth of the alley, he sighed internally. What a shitty way to start the day. His uniform was stained again and the yakuza he'd been specially called in to off hadn't even been worth sticking a sword into. Seriously, what was the director thinking, assigning him grunt work? It seemed like all he did these days was wash blood out of his clothing.

Hijikata took another long drag from his cigarette as Sougo passed him and the sandy-haired first captain made a grand show of not looking at him just to piss him off. He'd nearly made it to freedom when Hijikata abruptly pushed off the wall and turned to face him with his hands in his pockets. "Hey," he called, his tone suddenly serious.

Sougo stopped. What now?

"You've been taking a lot of these kinds of jobs lately," his superior officer's voice came from behind him. "Don't tell me you're vying for the third captain's position now?"

Sougo slowly turned to look over his shoulder at the dark-haired vice-commander. "I haven't been taking them; they just keep getting shoved on me. Do you honestly think picking off yakuza is how I want to spend my Sunday? Choke on a block of konjac and die, Hijikata."

He turned back to face the front and was pleased when he heard Hijikata's foot violently stomp out his cigarette. "You first, you damn sadist!" The vice-chief threw a less creative string of insults Sougo's way before his tone turned to a grumble and he said, "Che! I knew checking on you was a waste of time."

Sougo said nothing to that. He merely unfurled his headphones and rounded the corner, set on drowning both Hijikata and the rest of the world out for the next few hours.

Idly, he wondered what the Odd Jobs lot were up to today. Probably scamming some poor locksmith to remove the China girl's cuffs without having to pay for it. His lips turned upward as he pictured the redhead's furious face hissing and scorning him. Perhaps he'd pay them a visit later; just to see how she was getting along. Seeing her ugly monkey face would do wonders for his crappy day.

oOo

"Alright, Kagura-chan, I'm going to demonstrate it once slowly so make sure you watch carefully, okay?"

Kagura watched with rapt attention as Hinowa delicately slid the sleeve of her kimono back just enough to bare her wrist and daintily poured saké into the cup Kagura was holding. Her head was lowered in such a way as to accentuate the length of her lashes. "Now, when you finish the pour, it's important to look up at him just so." She pulled the bottle back and raised her face to look adoringly up at Kagura with immaculately painted sapphire eyes. "At this point, he'll likely attempt to go in for a kiss, but it's essential that you play coy. You're not like the girls downstairs. Your customer will be offended if you give in too quickly." She ducked her head and pulled out of Kagura's reach to demonstrate, giving her a flirty smile as she did so. "Of course, this is good for you since your goal is going to be to get him drunk enough to slip him a sleeping draught before he gets too frisky. If you play the evening right, he'll chalk his lack of memory the next morning up to the great time he had and won't ever realize he never slept with you."

Kagura nodded, thoroughly engrossed in Hinowa's lesson. "But what if he does remember?"

"Then he remembers," she answered breezily. "It's not optimal, but it won't be a problem. Men are prideful creatures. The customer won't ever admit that he passed out before sleeping with the star of Yoshiwara. Particularly after spending so much money to be with her. Instead, he'll boast to all his friends about how good a lay you were to keep anybody from finding out. This will help to spread your reputation, so it's a win-win so long as he doesn't ever find out that he was drugged."

Kagura nodded again, carefully filing all of Hinowa's tips away in her brain. As expected of Yoshiwara's most famous courtesan. She really knew her stuff. "Is this sort of trick used a lot?" she inquired curiously. It seemed to her that if there was such an easy way to make money without actually selling one's body, everyone would be doing it.

Hinowa smiled and shook her head. "It's useful for particularly distasteful or belligerent customers, but if you do it too much you'll wind up getting caught sooner or later. In your case, we only need to keep the ruse going until we catch our culprit, which I don't imagine will take very long as the killer appears to have a taste for the expensive women. After that, you can 'retire' without anyone being the wiser."

"I see. That makes sense."

Hinowa smiled again and proffered the saké bottle up to Kagura. "Now, then. It's your turn to try.

Kagura took the bottle and set her face into a determined expression. She would get this. She wasn't going to leave until she did.

For the next hour, Kagura practiced angling her wrists and face just so and smoothly pouring saké into Hinowa's cup. Hinowa gave her pointers on how to flutter her lashes and when to duck her head to give her customer a tantalizing glimpse of the back of her neck. It was surprisingly hard work, but Kagura's determination didn't falter. This was all part of being a splendid woman. If she couldn't even do this much, then Gintoki was right about her only being worth a few thousand yen.

She would never allow him to be right. She'd show him what she was made of.

oOo

In the end, she hadn't been there. And after he'd come up with such an excellent excuse to visit, too.

"Someone who can barf on demand? Well, I can't deny that that's Kagura-chan's specialty, but what use could you possibly have for an ability like that?" The bespectacled younger brother of the chief's flame regarded him with a confused frown.

"Oh, you know. This and that."

"This and that," the boy echoed dubiously, his gaze staring off into a place Sougo couldn't see.

Sougo waved his hand dismissively and stood. "If she's not here, then don't worry about it. See ya."

He started to walk to the door but Spectacles stopped him with an appeal. He'd pulled his mind back from wherever his imagination had taken him. "Hold on. Kagura-chan's been gone all day, but I can let her know you stopped by when she gets back. Do you want to leave a message?"

Rather than answer him, Sougo latched on to the first thing the boy had said. His curiosity getting the better of him, he asked, "Gone all day? What's an illegal immigrant muscle girl like her got to do that doesn't involve you two?" He looked between Spectacles and the currently snoozing Yorozuya boss pointedly.

Spectacles shook his head helplessly. "Beats me. She said something about taking a special job last night, so I suppose she's doing something related to that."

Sougo's lips pulled into a frown before he could stop them. So, the third Odd Jobs employee was off doing an independent job. That could only spell trouble. Trouble the Shinsengumi were likely going to have to mop up.

Well, at least it would provide a change of pace. He was getting tired of hunting yakuza.

"In that case, don't bother. Whatever she's doing, I'm certain I'll wind up getting tied up in it, so I'll just talk to her myself."

He gave one final wave and slipped out through the door.

So much for his pick-me-up.

oOo

For nearly a week, Kagura studied diligently with Hinowa while Tsukuyo and her Hyakka continued to monitor the situation in Yoshiwara.

Already, two more girls had become victims. One of the incidents, Kagura got the displeasure of witnessing herself. She'd just arrived and was walking to Hinowa's shop when a scream had alerted her to the scene. She'd pushed through a group of terrified courtesans to find a scantily clothed body with a knife in it. The poor woman had been stabbed in the belly and left on her futon for the others to find. When asked who she'd lain with the night before, only one other girl could answer.

"Keiko had been bragging that she'd bagged a particularly handsome customer," was the girl's tearful account. "I never saw him, though."

In the end, there had been no more information to be gleaned. The body had been cleaned up and the girl who had provided the account had been led away by her fellow courtesans.

The incident only spurred Kagura to work even harder in her lessons with Hinowa. The longer it took her to perfect the art of the courtesan, the more girls would be killed like Keiko.

On her fifth day of training, Hinowa decided it was time to iron down Kagura's 'look'. According to the veteran courtesan, this would be her primary selling point.

"She'll be Yoshiwara's new star, so how about a star motif?" Hinowa bounced the idea off Tsukuyo who had joined them for this session. "Yoshiwara has a sun and a moon already, so a star motif seems fitting, don't you think?"

Tsukuyo rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she peered critically at Kagura's face. After a few moments' examination, she pulled back and crossed her arms over her chest. "It's not a bad idea... But when compared to the sun, don't you think a mere star would fall short? I think we should take her theme in a different direction. Do something new."

Hinowa regarded her curiously. "Such as?"

Tsukuyo took another handful of moments to think and then her eyes darted across the room to where a small vase of wildflowers sat, courtesy of Seita. A smile tugged at her mouth and she walked over to the flowers.

Kagura's eyes followed her as she lifted the vase from its table and brought it back over to where she sat. "Tsukky?" she questioned as the tall courtesan plucked a flower from the bunch and placed it delicately behind her ear.

"In a place like Yoshiwara, Kagura's youth and spirit are going to shine far brighter than her pretty face. Don't you think a flower motif would be more fitting?"

Hinowa clapped her hands together and beamed at her. "You're absolutely right!" she agreed delightedly. "Kagura-chan is still in the spring of her youth. To decorate her like a spring flower would indeed be fitting." She turned toward the door then and cupped her hands over her mouth. "Seita! Come here, won't you? I have a job for you!"

The door opened and Seita peeked in curiously. "You need something, Mom?"

Hinowa gave her adopted son a serious look. "I need you to go out and pick as many wildflowers as you can carry."

Seita blinked in confusion. "Uh, sure. Okay." He closed the door and Kagura heard his footsteps run off to do as instructed.

That particular matter taken care of, Hinowa turned back to Tsukuyo. "Tsukuyo, I'm leaving the kimono to you. In the meantime, I'll work on Kagura-chan's makeup."

Tsukuyo nodded and a moment later, she too was gone.

oOo

The process of gathering flowers, selecting Kagura's debut kimono, doing her makeup and hair, and satisfactorily accessorizing her took a full hour. It was a good thing she had gotten plenty of practice sitting still over the past week or she might not have lasted through the ordeal.

Of course, she later decided that it was entirely worth it when Tsukuyo wheeled a mirror over to her to show off their work.

Kagura's mouth opened in shock. "Is…that me?"

The girl in the mirror was not the Kagura who had walked into Yoshiwara that morning. Her reflection looked like a doll crossed with a garden. Her hair had been swept up into an immaculate momoware shimada, and in place of the more traditional golden ornaments, Hinowa had speckled her head with clusters of tiny, colorful wildflowers. She'd also forgone the white paint, allowing Kagura's naturally pale Yato skin to shine. The only paint on her face was around her eyes and lips, both of which were now a rich scarlet. To accentuate the flowers, Tsukuyo had chosen to layer her in bright, bold colors with an assortment of floral designs.

"Now that's what I call star material," Hinowa said approvingly, appearing behind Kagura in the mirror. "Your debut is going to rock the world of courtesans!"

"Indeed," Tsukuyo agreed. "I have a feeling Yoshiwara will be full of flowers before long, once the other girls start rushing to emulate your bold new look."

"Right?" Hinowa daintily touched the petal of a purple daisy near Kagura's right ear. "I think we've stumbled upon something here."

Kagura puckered her lips like a fish, still trying to reconcile her reflection as in fact belonging to her. The pretty girl reflected in the glass' surface looked more like her mammy than her. What would Pappy think if he could see me right now? she wondered as her reflection made fish lips back at her. He'd be so surprised he might go bald!

"What do you think, Kagura? You haven't said anything yet," Tsukuyo prompted with a gentle bump to her hip.

Kagura looked at her and grinned. "I look like a flower princess!"

Tsukuyo smirked at her reflection. "That you do."

"Well, then," Hinowa chimed back in. "All that's left now is the matter of your debut." She turned to Tsukuyo. "Have the preparations been made?"

Tsukuyo nodded. "I've already had the girls start spreading the word. By now, every Yoshiwara regular has no doubt heard whispers of the town's hot new star."

Hinowa grinned. "As expected of our head of intelligence." Turning back to Kagura, she said, "Then if you're ready, we can unveil you to the world as soon as tomorrow evening. What do you think?"

Kagura gave the blue-eyed courtesan a self-assured smile. "I'm ready anytime! The sooner I get started, the sooner I can kick that sicko's ass!"

Tsukuyo and Hinowa matched her smile with grins of their own.

"Well said." Tsukuyo gave her a firm pat on the back.

Hinowa giggled and nodded. "That's our Kagura-chan! Our killer isn't going to know what hit him."