Long chapter today.

Chapter Ten

Sougo was still thinking about his conversation with Yoshiwara's head of intelligence as he settled into the spot where he'd be keeping watch on Kagura for the night. Nestled between the wall of the closet and a stack of spare futons, the range of his vision was limited to a tiny crack where the door wasn't fully closed.

Kagura had informed him it was as much of the show as he got to see without paying.

He didn't correct her by telling her that he'd prefer not to see the show at all. This had been his idea, after all, and he didn't want to risk her getting offended and throwing him out. "Just go to your station," he'd told her, unable to fully keep the irritation from his voice. "And try to keep your wits about you, dim as they are."

The insult was effective and Kagura stomped off to her cushion—though not before blessing him with the finger. The familiar exchange helped somewhat to settle his stomach. Even under the paint and expensive silk, she was still Kagura.

The client tonight was a businessman who had reportedly made his fortune through arms dealing. As the man stepped into the room, Sougo studied him carefully, his eyes picking over his clothes for places where a knife could be concealed. The client was dressed in a simple albeit expensive-looking kimono and hakama and Sougo quickly determined that it was unlikely he was carrying any blade-type weapons. Possibly a gun, but that would be irrelevant as the killer was known to use knives exclusively.

Kagura immediately got to work greeting the man in the same way she'd greeted Sougo himself the night before: hands laid delicately upon the floor in front of her head; her neck exposed to treat him to a little glimpse of what the night promised. She straightened again and Sougo watched the client eye her face with approval.

He could tell from the way the man's gaze lingered on Kagura's large blue eyes and delicate, almost childlike facial structure that he was the type who had a weakness for young girls. Not that Sougo was surprised by this. Her youth was Kagura's primary selling point here, after all. There were lots of gross old men who got their jollies fantasizing about pretty little girls like her.

He's probably hoping she'll call him 'daddy', the sick bastard.

When the man was seated, saké was poured and Kagura jumped right into conversation like it was the most natural thing in the world. She asked the man about his work and his hobbies and when he answered she acted impressed in all the right places. She laughed his jokes and was present about filling his cup whenever it became empty.

Just as Tsukuyo had said, she was good at her job. Even though the death courtesan had told him as much, Sougo was still surprised to see her actually demonstrate an aptitude for polite conversation. It was a side of Kagura he'd never seen before and it gave him pause. He'd always thought the loud, graceless, quick-tempered conduct she displayed while in Kabuki-cho was her natural state of being, but it seemed that when she wasn't pretending to speak broken Japanese and shoving fingers up her nose, she was actually capable of coming off as quite charming.

It was a whole facet of her that was unfamiliar to him.

An uncomfortable notion crossed Sougo's mind that if this was all a construct, then it could very well be that the side of her she showed to him was a construct as well. After all, her brother and her father didn't speak like halfwit tourists, which meant that she had likely crafted her Earth persona for some motive, be it benign or sinister.

Not that he really believed Kagura was up to anything sinister. If she were, she would have shown her true colors long ago. But all the same, knowing there were pieces of her she'd kept from him for two whole years caused a feeling that was not quite, but approached, vexation to blossom inside him.

Disappointment?

He'd been sure that after two years, he'd seen every side of her. Even if all they did was fight, he'd always considered them to be close.

Perhaps not as close as he'd thought.

Outside his alcove of self-doubt, the mood of Kagura and the businessman's conversation was beginning to shift. The man was becoming bolder with his flattery and Sougo could tell from the flush of his cheeks that all the alcohol he'd consumed was starting to affect him. When Kagura made to fill his cup once more, he grabbed her under her bottom and pulled her onto his lap. Kagura's eyes widened in surprise, but instead of decking him, she giggled like a floozy and merely stopped herself from colliding with his front by placing a hand on his chest. "Mr. Kambara!" she squealed in a mock scolding tone.

The man grinned and placed his cup on the floor to grip her hips with his fingers. "Kagura-chan, you're such a pretty little thing. I can't hold back anymore." He ducked in to press a kiss to the juncture of her jaw and her neck. "How did Yoshiwara get its hands on a girl like you?"

Sougo bristled watching this man put his mouth on Kagura. It made his skin crawl and caused creeping tendrils of anger to snake to his fingers, which hovered just over the hilt of his sword. He had seen men act like this with women countless times, but watching Kagura be treated as a comfort woman bushwhacked him with its wrongness.

Kagura wasn't some cabaret tart. She was the quick-tempered, hardheaded, violent monkey girl of Kabuki-cho. She spent her days pigging out on pickled seaweed and generating chaos for him to mop up. She wasn't supposed to be an object of desire for men. Before tonight, if someone had asked him if she even knew what sex was, he would've hesitated to answer in the affirmative.

To think that Kagura was letting strangers touch her like this. Night after night for a week now.

Despite his less than positive feelings about what he was seeing, Sougo stayed his hand and swallowed his anger. The blonde courtesan had warned him of this. He'd told her he could handle it. He wasn't going to be the reason their plan failed.

Kagura let out a little noise of pleasure that would have fooled Sougo had he not already known from experience what she sounded like when she was genuinely pleased. Kambara took the noise as encouragement and one of his hands moved from her hip to tug at the top of her kimono. "Your skin is so white. I want to see what you look like under these fancy clothes."

"Mmm." Kagura pulled away to give her customer a flirty look. "In that case, how about I give you a little show?"

Deflection, Sougo recognized. The girl was a sly one.

The man was clearly interested in this proposal and he allowed her to remove herself from his lap. She picked his cup up off the floor and handed it to him. "I'd hate for all this fine saké to go to waste. Please drink and enjoy yourself."

With that, she shuffled backward and seated herself about five feet from him. "You seem like the kind of man who likes to give orders, so let's do a little roleplaying. For the next ten minutes, I'll be your employee. I'll allow you to give me ten commands. You may request for me to do anything you'd like with only two rules: one, no touching, and two, you may only command me to remove one article of clothing at a time. Try to make it interesting."

From the broad grin on his face, Sougo could tell that Kambara was more than pleased by Kagura's suggestion. He sat back with his saké cup and made a show of thinking about his first order. Sougo wasn't surprised in the least when he finally said, "Remove your obi."

Kagura smiled and dutifully complied. "My, what a perverted boss you are." She plucked apart the bow at her front and allowed the long cloth to unravel slowly and enticingly. When the full length of it had slithered to the floor, she pushed it aside and asked, "What next, Mr. Kambara?"

The man took a long sip from his cup as he watched her with a satisfied expression. "All those layers must be cumbersome. Take one off."

Again, Kagura did as instructed, shrugging off her outermost layer as if she were shedding a winter jacket. Now she was down to two.

As expected, Kambara's next order was to remove the middle layer. Kagura did so, leaving only the innermost layer which was fastened with a thin belt. Now that she was down to her final bit of clothing, Kagura's expression changed to a pout. "Hey, it's boring if you only make me strip. Shouldn't you save the best for last?"

Kambara smirked and refilled his cup. "Oh, I will. I'm a man who knows the value of patience." He tossed his drink back and motioned her forward with a finger. "For my next order, how about you come over here?"

Kagura cocked her head curiously but did as instructed. "Remember, no touching," she reminded him as she plopped herself directly in front of him. With a wink, she added, "We wouldn't want you to get in trouble for workplace harassment."

Sougo rolled his eyes. Ouch. That was painful, China.

Kambara didn't seem to agree, judging by the gleam of arousal Sougo saw in the man's eyes. He also didn't appear put out by the reminder. "That's fine. I don't need to touch you to have my way with you."

Again, he filled his cup and knocked it back, probably thinking Kagura would find being left to wait in anticipation hot. Sougo scoffed. The very fact she was willing to wait was proof that she wasn't into him. Kagura had about as much patience as a freefalling boulder. She didn't wait for the things she wanted. She took them.

"Tell me, Kagura-chan," the man spoke at last. "If I could touch you, where do you think I'd do it?"

His gaze shifted down to her chest and Kagura clearly didn't miss that because she raised a hand to the locale.

The man's eyes gleamed. "It's as if you read my mind. Or…could it be that perhaps that's where you want to be touched? Well, then, for my next order, how about you touch yourself? Show me just how you like it."

For the first time that night, Sougo saw a crack appear in Kagura's otherwise immaculate veneer of confidence. Obviously, she was caught off guard by this request. She'd probably expected to be asked to dance or pose or do some other embarrassing thing for the client's entertainment. Sougo's mouth tightened. So far, Kagura had been the one in full control, orchestrating the night exactly how she wanted it to go, but now, unexpectedly, some of that control had been relinquished to her customer.

This was exactly why Sougo didn't like these kinds of things.

Hesitantly, Kagura stroked the material over her breasts. The man shook his head. "Not like that. Harder. Play with them like a man would."

With the same reluctance, Kagura brought both hands to her chest and gave her breasts a squeeze through the fabric of her kimono. It was clear to Sougo that she had no idea what to do and it seemed Kambara realized this as well. Instead of being disappointed, however, the man only seemed more turned on by her innocent fumbling.

"That's it. Just like that. Massage them for Daddy."

Put a big, fat checkmark in that box.

Just as instructed, Kagura's fingers continued to fondle her breasts, her cheeks turning red from embarrassment as she did so. She pushed them together and separated them and kneaded them with her fingertips all while her client watched with evident arousal.

"Good girl. Now, let's shed that last layer, shall we? I want to see them."

At once, a second surge of anger coursed through the Shinsengumi captain hiding in the closet. Obviously, he knew that to demand such a thing was perfectly reasonable given that the man was paying for sex, but all the same, the thought of Kagura exposing herself to him didn't sit well with him one bit.

Alas, Sougo was utterly powerless to stop her.

Kagura's hands slowly rose to grasp her collar and despite himself, Sougo felt his own body heat in anticipation. It was gross and shameful, he knew, but even though he desperately didn't want to watch this, he couldn't stop his anatomy from reacting to the show.

Just look away, he told himself. Don't shame her by watching.

But he couldn't. His eyes stayed glued to her form as with a swift tug she pulled her kimono's top apart, revealing her naked chest. Her bare breasts stared back at him, all white flesh and pretty pink nipples standing at attention. The size and shape were both perfectly suited to her figure and Sougo couldn't deny that they were lovely. Kagura's face burned scarlet and she raised her hands as if wanting to cover herself.

Kambara whistled, clearly pleased by what he saw. He knocked back another drink and palmed his erection through his pants while Kagura squirmed uncomfortably. Sougo wanted to remove the man's eyes from his skull.

Kagura, bless her, was doing her best to pretend this wasn't affecting her. She rearranged her mouth into a sultry smile and stayed her hands. "How is this, Mr. Kambara? You have four orders left."

"Exquisite," the man praised, still stroking himself as he ogled her naked chest. "Now, massage them again, and really get into it. I want you to hear you moan."

Again, Sougo couldn't tear his eyes away as Kagura's hands returned to her breasts and just like before, she grasped them in her palms. She let out a little "ah" of either surprise or pleasure as her fingertips brushed over her own nipples and the sound went straight to Sougo's dick. She continued to make little noises as she pinched and flicked the pink nubs before returning to kneading her milky flesh.

Even she was feeling genuinely aroused now, as was evidenced by the subtle way in which her hips unconsciously rocked back and forth beneath her. Their motion was flat-out sexy and without his permission Sougo's hand wandered to the front of his hakama.

He jerked it back. He would not get off on this. He wasn't the same as that perverted old bastard.

Kambara noticed the subtle gyration of her hips and said, "It looks like there's somewhere else you want to be touched, Kagura-chan. Would you like me to give you a new order?"

Sougo thought Kagura would immediately halt at having attention called to her movements, but instead, she utterly surprised him by increasing her rocking. As she rubbed herself on the tatami, one of her hands left her breasts to hide the redness of her face in her wrist. When she spoke again, her voice was breathy; a step short of panting. "Mr. Kambara… I can't take it anymore. I…" She abruptly stopped her rocking and nothing could have prepared Sougo for what she did next. He could only look on in shock as she threw her arms around the man's neck, erotically pressing her chest flush against his, and kissed him full on the mouth.

Kambara let out a noise of surprise that quickly turned to moan of pleasure as Kagura proceeded to pry open his mouth with her tongue and kiss him deep and fierce.

Sougo watched as the girl full-on frenched a man three times her age in out-and-out stupefaction. What? was all he could think as she moaned into his mouth and pressed herself shamelessly against the bulge in his pants. She rocked her hips against him wantonly and Sougo didn't think he could possibly be any more shocked by a turn of events this evening until she abruptly broke the kiss and Kambara slumped onto his side, completely unconscious.

In an instant, Kagura was on her feet and wiping her mouth with her sleeve. She wobbled slightly before making her way over to the closet where Sougo was hiding. He continued to watch, baffled, as she yanked the door violently open and proceeded to crumple to the floor before him. "S-sadist," she spoke, her voice as shaky as her legs had been. "The rest…is up to you."

The moment the words were out of her mouth, her eyes rolled back into her head and her breathing slowed. She'd passed out.

It took Sougo's shock-addled brain a protracted moment to piece together what had happened.

The kiss. To get out of shaming herself any further, she'd resorted to feeding her client the drug directly.

It was the most foolish and dangerous thing she could've done, had she been on her own like every other night. If he hadn't been here, doing something like this would be the same as freely offering herself up to the killer.

She was fully entrusting her safety to him.

Sougo's lips thinned into a line and he pulled himself out of his little self-made alcove to emerge into the room proper. He stepped around Kagura and then knelt down to hoist her out of her crumpled position and gently lay her onto her back. Her open kimono taunted him with an up-close view of her pretty breasts and he frowned deeply as he tugged it closed. He might act like an asshole most of the time, but he'd never do something as vulgar as ogling a defenseless girl while she slept.

"Idiot," he spoke softly, smoothing back a clump of her hair that had come loose when she'd jumped on the man. He didn't really know what drove him to the charitable gesture. Perhaps she just really resembled his sister with her eyes closed and her breathing slow and even. Or maybe there was some part of him that sought to comfort her after what she'd gone through.

China had guts. That was for sure. Far more than him.

With some effort, he pulled a spare futon from the closet and tucked her unconscious body into the covers. Her work was done now. As she'd said, the rest was up to him. He'd watch over her until morning.

oOo

The whole night, Sougo sat in the cramped closet keeping silent vigil over the slumbering girl. The task was long and almost maddeningly boring, but he had made up his mind to see it through and he would. Once upon a time, he'd made the fool girl promise not to lose to anyone but him, and he'd see that she kept that promise, even if it meant barring her from those who would do her harm.

In two years, his stance hadn't changed. Nobody got to kill China but him.

By the time early morning rolled around, Sougo was beginning to think their killer wasn't going to put in an appearance that night. A disappointment, really, since it meant he'd waited up the whole night for nothing. When the sun began to peek through the slats in the room's only window, he decided it was time to get the girl moving. They didn't want to risk the client waking before her, after all.

Silently, he slid the closet door open, revealing Kagura in all her slumbering glory. She looked like a kid with her hands tucked by her head and her face buried in her pillow, a stark contrast to the sensual woman she'd stage-played last night. He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a shake. "Hey," he called softly. "Time to get a move on, sleeping ugly."

Kagura's face scrunched up in annoyance and she pulled the covers more tightly around her.

Obstinate girl, he thought, his own annoyance rising. He gave her another shake. "Oy. Don't treat me like I'm Gin-chan. Hurry and get up or I'll arrest you for wasting an officer's time."

Blearily, Kagura cracked one eye open. Her expression soured as it landed on him. "Sadist," she addressed him with contempt. "You would be a nice face to wake up to if your mouth wasn't so full of trash, yes?"

Sougo rolled his eyes and none-too-gently hauled her into a sitting position. "I never planned to be a nice face to wake up to period," he informed her blandly. "Primarily because I'm not nice. Now get moving."

Now that she was awake, he was determined to get out of here and find an empty room—or anywhere, really, he wasn't picky—to crash in for a few hours. China was more than capable of taking things from here and he was dead on his feet.

Once she was up and not in any danger of simply rolling over and running back off to dreamland, Sougo gave her a wave and headed for the door. "I'm heading out. I trust you can keep yourself from getting shish-kabobbed for the next few hours."

He didn't wait for a reply. He had nothing but sleep on his mind as he left the room and Kagura behind and headed for the stairs.

Despite the early hour, many Yoshiwara staff were already up and bustling about, and as Sougo descended the stairs he saw girls already tossing bedding into laundry bins while others went from room to room pushing carts laden with disinfecting supplies. Sougo ignored them, continuing on his downward path, but when he reached the lowest floor, he was forced to stop when he encountered a group of girls crowded in the middle of the hallway.

A wave of irritation washed over him. Why was this place so bloody busy this early in the morning? He'd heard Yoshiwara called the town that never sleeps, but this was ridiculous.

The girls were murmuring to each other and upon closer inspection he saw that they were all huddled around a closed door. One of the girls' face lit up in recognition when she saw him and she broke away from the crowd to greet him. "Oh! You're Okita-san, correct?"

Sougo eyed her blandly and nodded. He recognized her now as the girl who had been doing Kagura's makeup the evening before. "What's going on?" he asked, barely caring about the answer but hoping the inquiry would alert the girls to the fact that there was somebody who wanted through.

The girl shook her head and her expression changed to one of concern. "We don't know. The door to Kana-chan's room won't open and she isn't answering."

Sougo frowned. Now that she mentioned it, he could see the girls at the front taking turns tugging on the door's handle in vain. He sighed and raised a hand to rub at his temples. He could feel an exhaustion headache setting in. Deciding that he wasn't going to make it anywhere at this rate, he pushed to the front of the crowd, ignoring the girls as they gave him confused and curious looks. He grabbed the handle and with a grunt of exertion forced it open.

The reason for the jam became apparent when a body, partially covered in a sleeping kimono, came tumbling out into the hallway, having become dislodged by the movement of the door. A puddle of red followed, trailing from the girl's stomach where the handle of a kodachi-sized blade protruded.

Directly behind him, a woman screamed.

It did nothing to help his headache.

oO0Oo

Welp, if I hadn't before, I definitely earned that M-rating with this one. Farewell, sweet innocence. My hands are now unclean. (I say even though no sex has happened yet.)