Blast it. One of my transitions got eaten in the last chapter. Always check your document, kids.

Chapter Twelve

Kagura sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. She needed to get back to work. The death of yet another girl meant that she couldn't start slacking now, shitty cop brats be damned.

The killer hadn't targeted her last night, but that didn't mean the plan was hopeless. Perhaps the killer had known she was being guarded and that's why he'd changed his target? It was only natural that the district would tighten security with a murderer on the loose. He might have anticipated that Yoshiwara's hottest courtesan would have extra protection. If that was the case, it was probably for the best that the chihuahua had removed himself from the picture.

Yes, this would make her job much easier. She'd been doing just fine before he showed up and having him around had just been a distraction and a nuisance.

A damn nuisance. The word described Okita Sougo to a T.

"I don't want to be touched by a girl with no self-respect."

Something in Kagura's chest gave an involuntary squeeze at the memory of her rival's words. They'd stung more than she thought they ought to. Of all the calumnies cast on her character by him in the past, that string of thirteen words had been the most hurtful. Sougo had spewed plenty of vitriol at her in the two years she'd known him, but this was the first time she'd felt that he meant it.

She disguised her hurt with a huff. Whatever his deal was, he'd been completely out of line. There was nothing shameful about using one's natural assets to make a little money. And especially not to catch a killer. He did far worse on a near daily basis. Who was he to pass judgement on her?

Kagura thought that justifying her stance in her head would make her feel better, but even though she believed what she preached, all she felt was hollow. Sure, the brat had been out of line in condemning her, but she knew she'd also been out of line in how she rebutted. She'd gone too far by implying that he was the same as Yoshiwara's killer. Sougo may be a deadly swordsman, a shitty cop, and an out-and-out asshole, but he was fiercely justice driven and loyal to his chosen causes. He wasn't an indiscriminate murderer and she felt bad for insinuating as much. She didn't know why he was so against her acting as a courtesan, especially when she wasn't having sex with her clients, but she knew that his protests came, in their own warped way, from a place of caring. She understood Sougo well enough after two years to know that he was only ever truly hurtful when he was being sincere.

Without really meaning it to, her hand rose to gently touch the locale where his handcuffs lay concealed. Their cold, smooth weight was a comfort against her breast. Swiftly, her musing frown changed to a scowl as she realized the feeling blossoming in her chest and she lowered her hand. That brat…

If he could only check that shitty personality of his…well, he might actually be okay to be around.

Maybe.

As if that would ever happen.

You're no angel yourself, her inner voice, which sounded in this instance an awful lot like Gin-chan, whispered from just below the surface of her consciousness, causing Kagura to growl low in her throat and shake her head violently.

Fine.

She would apologize.

If he apologized first.

Only if he apologized first.

"…Kagura-chan?"

Kagura was yanked from her musings by the voice of Saya from the entryway to her room. The girl was holding a tray of tea and grilled fish and standing uncertainly just in front of the sliding door. In her distraction, Kagura hadn't heard her come in.

"Ah, Saya-chan!" she hurriedly greeted the courtesan. "Is that breakfast? Thanks for bringing it up."

Saya nodded with a smile and walked into the room to set the tray delicately beside Kagura. The grilled fish and accompanying bowl of rice were fresh and steaming and Kagura eyed them hungrily.

"Um… Kagura-chan…" There was obvious hesitation in Saya's voice which caused Kagura to retract her attention momentarily from the tray. She tilted her head inquisitively.

"Um… well, I'm sorry… I didn't mean to eavesdrop on your conversation, but I heard you and Okita-san talking just a moment ago..."

Kagura's polite smile cracked as embarrassment flooded her cheeks with crimson. "Aahh," she uttered weakly, "I'm sorry you had to hear that. Please don't mind it." She waved her hand in front of her to as if to wipe the matter from the air itself. "That guy and I spend more time fighting than breathing." She laughed—a bit awkwardly—to chase away the girl's concern.

Saya smiled again, looking a little relieved this time. "I see. I wouldn't have guessed. With how he talked about you last night, I assumed the two of you had a good relationship."

It took all of Kagura's self-restraint not to cringe. Good relationship. Sure. And Toshi hates mayo.

"Anyway, I don't mean to change the subject, but I have to ask: Was it true what you said? That he's actually a cop?" A note of animation entered her voice as she posed her question. "Did he come here to help find the killer?"

Urk! Cat's out of the bag, Kagura thought guiltily as the courtesan watched her with a hopeful gleam in her eye. That secret had lasted what? 24 hours? She sent a mental apology to Tsukuyo.

Well, she supposed there was no point in denying it now. Looking past Saya to make sure there was nobody else in the vicinity of the room to overhear them, she leaned in close to the girl and nodded. "You have to keep it a secret, though. We don't want to make the other girls nervous."

Saya's eyes widened excitedly and she hurriedly mimed sealing her lips. "Of course!" she agreed readily, to Kagura's great relief. "But…" she continued, her eyebrows suddenly furrowing in thought, "if Okita-san is a cop…" Her eyes widened again in apparent realization. "Don't tell me… He's not Okita Sougo, is he? Of the Shinsengumi?"

Kagura drew back in surprise. "You know him, Saya-chan?"

Saya lifted a hand to her mouth and nodded. "The man-eating wolf of the Shinsengumi! He's infamous in some of the circles that frequent our establishments. They say he cuts down men as easily as breathing."

Man-eating wolf… Kagura chuckled awkwardly again and raised a hand to scratch at the back of her head. The title was laughably grand, but she couldn't very well deny the veracity of the rumors. Chihuahua, you have too many enemies. "Urm… is that so? I didn't realize that bastard was that famous."

Saya nodded again. Her expression changing suddenly to one of earnestness, she laid a delicate hand on Kagura's shoulder and said, "Kagura-chan, if Okita-san really is that Okita-san, then it really is absolutely imperative that the other girls don't find out."

Kagura blinked back at the girl, baffled by her unexpected declaration. "Huh?"

Saya removed her eyes briefly from Kagura to glance backward over her shoulder and Kagura assumed that she too was verifying that they were truly alone. When she was satisfied that nobody was loitering in the hallway, she turned back to Kagura and said seriously, "I was planning to bring this up with you and Tsukuyo-san and Hinowa-sama already, but I think… no, I'm pretty sure the killer is a courtesan."

Kagura's eyes widened. She regarded the other girl with open surprise. "A courtesan?" she repeated. "Are you sure? Why do you think so?"

Saya grabbed her hand and rose from the floor. "Let's get everyone together and I'll explain. It makes more sense for everyone to hear it at once."

Kagura nodded dumbly and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. A courtesan? The killer?

The sadist had suggested it as a possibility, but even with Saya saying the same thing, Kagura still didn't want to believe it. Would a courtesan really kill her fellow workers? Sure, the brothels could be a competitive place, but would a courtesan really murder her competition just to get ahead? In the time she'd spent here, Kagura had gotten the impression that the girls were connected by a camaraderie of sorts. In a profession as dangerous as prostitution, it was crucial to, if not full-on support each other, then at least look out for one another.

That's what Kagura had believed.

People are ugly, China, and they do terrible things for the sake of their own success. Here, in the Shinsengumi, in the Bakufu…it's the same wherever you go.

Kagura shook her head to scrub the sadist's words away. Dammit, if he was right about this… Well, he'd be sure to lord it over her like the annoying prat he was.

She hated it when he was right. But more than that, she really wasn't relishing the idea of seeing his stupid face again so soon after their argument.

Knowing that what she wanted had no dog in this fight, however, Kagura exhaled a sigh and glumly followed Saya out into the hallway to begin the search for their comrades.

oOo

Kagura was being very blatant in her mission to not look at him.

Sougo sat near the door, contenting himself with observing in silence as the girl in question, along with the dark-haired former sun of Yoshiwara and its head of intelligence sat gathered around a tea table listening to one of the lower ranking courtesans provide fresh conjectures about the identity of their killer.

On any other day, Sougo would've scoffed at the girl's behavior and called her immature. As things stood, however, this suited him just fine. He had yet to figure out what he wanted to say to her after their row in the early morning and she was doing them both a favor with her childish antics.

Still, he caught himself watching her more often than not clandestinely out of the corner of his eye as she busied herself listening to the girl's report. Her cheeks were flushed pink with righteous fury as the courtesan talked about overhearing some of the other girls chatting about how the murders were a blessing in disguise. Again, the memory of the corpse from that morning appeared in his mind eye, the late woman's skin white in death and claret blood blooming like an amaryllis from her belly. Right now, Kagura was animated, full of energy and life and obstinacy as she should be, but the incident this morning stood as proof that that could change in an instant.

This mission was in many ways far more dangerous than the myriad of life-or-death situations Kagura had faced in the past. Never before had she contended with an enemy who struck in the night; who waited for the moment his opponent was at their most defenseless. The fool girl didn't comprehend the danger of the situation she'd placed herself in this time.

If he hadn't been there last night...

"I understand," the death courtesan said after the younger girl finished her story, lifting a contemplative hand to her chin. "It had indeed puzzled me how, with all the eyes and ears we have keeping a lookout here, there were never any reports of a man wandering where he shouldn't. The night Inoue-dono was murdered, the only people allowed to the upper floors were our girls."

Hinowa nodded sagely. "We've been treating the culprit as a client or an intruder, but in light of Saya-chan's report, we'd be remiss not to consider other possibilities. I don't want to believe that one of our girls would do such a thing, but too many lives have been lost for us to turn our noses up at this lead. For the sake of our murdered comrades, we need to investigate this."

Following this statement from Yoshiwara's former sun was a menagerie of agreeing nods from the other women.

"I'll mobilize my Hyakka right away," Tsukuyo declared. "I'll instruct them to keep an ear out for any other such gossip and to report it to me immediately. We don't have enough eyes to watch every girl and look out for an intruder, so identifying potential suspects is going to be paramount." She hummed contemplatively then and her brow furrowed seriously. "But this raises another issue, unfortunately. We may need to reconsider the matter of Kagura."

Kagura herself perked up at the sound of her name. She blinked and tilted her head to the side in a show of confusion. "What do you mean, Tsukky?"

Apparently Hinowa had reached the same conclusion as Tsukuyo, because it was she who explained. "The girls all know that you're a fake, Kagura-chan. If the killer really is one of ours, they're unlikely to target you because there's nothing to be gained from removing a fake courtesan."

"That being said," Tsukuyo took up the torch again, "we don't have definitive proof at this point that the killer isn't a client or simply a particularly skilled intruder. I think it's too early to toss out our working plan. If only we could spread our eggs to multiple baskets—set another trap with a courtesan killer in mind. But we only have one Kagura." She rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

It was at this point that Saya deigned to speak again. She cleared her throat to gain the room's attention and hesitantly raised a hand. "Um, I might have an idea?"

Tsukuyo's eyebrows rose in surprise and she nodded to the girl, wordlessly granting permission to share her thoughts.

"Well," she started in a small voice, "I was thinking... what if I were to act as bait? Alongside Kagura-chan?"

Tsukuyo exchanged a surprised glance with Hinowa who leaned curiously toward the girl over the table and asked, "Saya-chan, can you fight?"

"No," Saya admitted, "but don't forget that we have Okita-san now."

From his position near the door, Sougo raised a brow. He hadn't expected his own name to be dropped in this conversation.

"Kagura-chan is strong," the girl continued, her voice gaining strength and conviction as she explained her plan. "I believe she can handle an outside killer on her own. On the other hand, aren't I the perfect candidate to lure an inside killer? If a little-leaguer like me were to suddenly be promoted to a spot on the upper floors, the other girls would naturally become jealous. I'd become a target of envy and the most logical mark for a courtesan looking to climb the ranks. It would be dangerous, but if I were to entertain Okita-san as a pretend client, then it would work out perfectly. I would be protected and Kagura-chan would still be able to act as bait for an outsider."

Sougo wanted to immediately shoot the plan down. Leaving Kagura alone to face this coward killer was the last thing he wanted. Furthermore, he rankled at the prospect of having his role in this decided for him. He wasn't these people's pawn to be moved around as they saw fit.

"Kagura-chan?" Hinowa turned the room's attention to the sixteen-year-old before Sougo had a chance to say now wait just a minute.'"Would you be okay with that? You'd be on your own again."

Sougo didn't miss how Kagura's eyes flicked to him, just for a moment. He almost thought he saw a look of hesitation on her face, but then her mouth stretched into a devil-may-care smirk and she made a grand show of looking in the opposite direction. "Ha! Saya-chan can have him," she declared, raising her hands beside her shoulders. "I don't need a useless cop watching me with pervert eyes while I work. Good riddance."

Against his wishes, Sougo's jaw clenched at the girl's flippant dismissal of him. As if following suit, something in his chest, suspiciously near to his heart, clenched as well. It was the expected reaction from her—he had no reason to believe that she'd respond any differently—but to be carelessly handed off to another girl by her...

It hurt. Just a little.

"Aah," he agreed loudly to mask the sting from her words—his first contribution to the discussion. He rolled his eyes to the ceiling and shrugged exaggeratedly. "That works just fine for me as well. Better than wasting my time guarding an ungrateful muscle girl who isn't even cute enough to lure the killer."

"What did you say, bastard!" the girl in question spun back around to shout at him, finally looking at him properly for the first time since their argument. Her blue eyes were aflame with indignation as she rose from her seat to stomp a foot irately on the tea table. "You wanna say that again?"

"Now, now," Hinowa interjected, placatingly raising her palms in front of Kagura. "Let's not call names." She turned to Sougo then with her angelic smile firmly in place. "Okita-san, can I count on you to keep our Saya-chan safe?"

Despite still very much wanting nothing to do with this plan, Sougo answered with a nod. He couldn't take back his words now that he'd said them. It seemed he would be stuck playing client to the young prostitute for the foreseeable future.

Inwardly, he cursed his damned short temper. Once again, he'd spoken without thinking and messed everything up. That fool odd jobs girl had a way of riling him like nobody else could, and with a single sentence he'd effectively barred himself from any chance to repair the morning's damage.

He couldn't protect her now. She would be on her own, just as she wanted.

On her own to face a killer.

On her own to entertain horny old men who wanted to have their way with her.

On her own to fall victim to the siren song of a man's touch.

Behind his veneer of apathy, his clenched teeth ground together as a sudden, hot surge of anger washed over him.

He wanted to stop it.

He wanted to stand in the way of any man who would dare approach her. For two years, he hadn't needed to concern himself with what she did and who she met because she'd been an unsexy, monkey-faced spazz of a girl who didn't have a care outside of her odd jobs family—a diamond in the rough whose value was hidden to all but him. She'd been his to fight. His to torment. His to tease. His to protect. His to lean on when he was all mixed up. His.

Crimson eyes widened as the realization struck him one of her brother's kicks to his gut.

His.

His rival.

His plaything,

His fake Chinese illegal immigrant.

Sougo's hands clenched and unclenched at his sides as he stood. The meeting was all but over now and he felt very strongly that he wanted to be out of this room.

His confidante.

His to quietly cherish.

Forget this room, he wanted to be out of this whole goddamned place.

But he wouldn't go anywhere. He had a job to do, and until the killer was caught, he couldn't leave Kagura here to fend for herself.

How the mighty had fallen, he lamented in the privacy of his mind. She was going to owe him for this. If they both made it out of this without being skewered, he'd see to it that she never stopped paying off her debt to him until the day she croaked.

That, he mused as he left the room, swiftly shutting the door behind him, or she would need to seriously consider how much she enjoyed the taste of her own fingers.

oO0Oo

Witty end note.