I See Red
Chapter 8: Red Bra


Hijikata had been itching for a cigarette. He thought he had willed all the cravings straight to hell, but the cumulative stress of studying for exams, taking care of the China brat, and Takasugi's return ebbed away at his resolve. He was consuming more and more bottles of Kewbie as a result, but the cells in his body yearned for nicotine instead of the gooey, eggy, rich goodness of mayo.

The only thing that kept him from rushing out to buy a pack of Mayoboro was her. It was late at night, and she had spent a considerable amount of time taking care of her psychopathic younger brother. He watched as she slipped out of Sougo's room and gently slid the door shut.

"That part will definitely bruise, but he'll be able to handle it. I gave him a pain reliever so he'd be able to sleep," she said, placing her first-aid kit on the living room table. She looked at him, and he felt that sense of awe that comes with seeing those ruby red eyes shining at him. "And you say that a stray dog head-butted him out of nowhere?"

"Y—yeah. A big one. A giant bitch." He followed his impulse to look away, worrying that he'll never find the strength to look away if he didn't do it immediately.

Mitsuba sighed. He knew she wasn't fooling her, not one bit. She had also placed bandages around her brother's hands, and not one of those bruises looked like a dog bite. Still, he had to try to keep her away from this huge mess that they walked into again. "And this giant dog… will she bother Sou-chan again?"

"No. I promise. I'll keep a closer watch on that kid from now on."

"All right… Thank you, Toushirou." She said his name in a certain way, as if it were a secret just between them. His heart throbbed a little bit. She had set out tea before them, and she wrapped her delicate fingers around her cup. "… you know, it's strange."

"What is?"

"I've watched over that kid for all these years… even though he's had worse injuries before, he's never made the face that he's making now."

Hijikata exhaled slowly. He knew it was going to end up like this one way or another. It had been obvious from the start that the kid was smitten with that China girl. He'd never seen him give so much attention to other people apart from Mitsuba. He bet that Sougo himself didn't even notice how he was spending each and every afternoon with her, capturing her attention every chance he could get, allowing himself to interact with more and more people outside of his comfort zone in the Shinsengumi, and glaring at those who threatened whatever it was that was going on between them.

The face that Mitsuba was describing was the despair of rejection. A broken heart, if he had allowed himself to use a flowery term. While he felt sorry for the guy, he's more worried about the rampage that will happen once Sougo attempts to get his bearings back. Hijikata predicted many injuries and broken-hearted girls on collars and leashes.

"Did I mention how big of a bitch that dog was?"

Mitsuba giggled and playfully slapped him on the shoulder. "I get it… you men are so secretive it's ridiculous. It's a shame though… It seemed to me that Kagura-chan was fond of him, too."

She figured it out so easily. The woman was too smart for her own good. "They're a rowdy pair. They'd end up killing each other and destroying the entire city on the way to the altar."

A sad smile made its way over Mitsuba's mouth. Softly, so that only the two of them would hear, she spoke. "I wonder… Of course I'm just speaking my mind, Toushirou. You know very well that Sou-chan doesn't, er…. get along with everyone else."

Tell me about it. He tells me to die everyday, he puts stuff in my milk that makes me shit, and he would have shot me with a bazooka long ago if he had a launcher. He's the devil incarnate, thought Hijikata. He was unable to hide his grimace.

"I take the blame for it. I've spoiled him rotten since we were kids." She laughed—the pleasant sound of it made the multiple lifetimes of Hijikata's sufferings under Sougo's rule melt away in an instant—before continuing. "As a result, as skilled as he was in anything he did, as popular as he was with everyone else in school, he never had any interest or loyalty to anyone except Kondou-san. I've never seen him take anything seriously except if it has anything to do with me and my condition… and truth be told, much as I love that kid, it makes me feel a bit.. ashamed too, and…"

She paused, suddenly marvelling at his calloused hand that automatically wrapped itself over hers. He was looking pointedly away from her gaze—dammit, why was he such a wimp when it came to things like these?—and merely nodded, urging her to continue. She couldn't stop the contented blush spreading over her cheeks, so he supposed it was a good thing.

"… and I don't want him to spend the rest of his life taking care of me, you know?" A pained laugh emerged from her. Hijikata squeezed her hand, and she continued. "So… when he took Kagura-chan home one night—the first friend he brought home apart from you and Kondou-san—imagine my surprise when I saw that kind of face on him…"

"… what kind of face?"

She smiled. "I guess… like he's excited. Like he's enjoying himself. Like he's in the moment. Like… he found something that made him look forward to the next day or next week, even though things get tough… It just… looked familiar to me, too."

She was staring at his face at this time.

"Mitsuba," he said dumbly. His voice sounded so dumb. He was dumb—it was no time to be looking in her eyes. It was a dumb thing to move in closer, to stare at her lips, to close that annoying space that kept them apart, to feel that sweet breath of hers over his face, to-

His eyes widened, and he froze in his spot. Mitsuba froze in place too, the anticipation put uncomfortably on hold. "Did you hear that?"

Not waiting for her to answer, he stood up and rushed to Sougo's room. What greeted him was an empty bed and the draft of the outside air whooshing from the open window.

"… I'm going to kill that bastard."


The moon hung low over the glow of the light pollution in the Kabuki district. It was sleazy and smelly and noisy, and the air made his skin sticky.

His head felt empty. He was dragged home by Hijikata, while Kondou-san and the rest made sure everything else was all right in that dump and if they can use anything as evidence. He had a tough day. By all means, he should be resting at home, but having that Mayora freak at home making googly eyes at his sister and talking in a soft voice made him sick.

He was uncomfortable. In a huff, he shoved his hands in his hoodie's pockets. He ought to sue the entire country of Taiwan—no, China—no, the entire other planet and solar system where that China girl came from—for making him feel so stupid and empty-headed and confused, for making his brain and the inside of his chest feel like a forgotten Chuubert that's been left out in the sun for too long.

He couldn't pinpoint what he wanted to do. He didn't want to hurt someone, and that made him worry momentarily that he was losing his identity as an S and that he was slowly transforming into an M with feelings, which is the worst kind. He certainly didn't want to go into the sleazy establishments glittering in front of him. The drunken salarymen and women of questionable motives were leering at him, else licking their lips at the prospect of such a young, handsome boy falling into their manicured hands that night.

He avoided them. He found himself at a familiar street—not much lights, not much action. A handful of common folk streamed through the entrance of Snack Otose. Soft rock from the eighties played lazily in the background.

Okita Sougo. You are a great, empty-headed, masochistic, soft-hearted idiot for coming here. You should just commit ritual suicide already (but not before Hijikata-san). His own admission to his misery came as a surprise to him, too. But it wasn't as cringey as he anticipated.

He looked up at the apartment. The lights were off. She might not be there—she might be staying at Tokugawa's mansion or somewhere else. She might be there, but she might be hiding in the dark, trying to forget the things that happened.

Or worse. She might not be there anymore.

The thought of it felt sharp, for some reason. But it didn't matter. He needed to talk to her, but he wouldn't go so far as to imitate Kondou-san's talent for breaking into women's homes where he's unwelcome.

He turned on his heel, and promptly bumped into someone coming from the bar.

"Sorry, customer-san. I—"

It was China, and she was in the middle of speaking like a proper lady. She wore a red, long-sleeved shirt, a bowtie, a high-waisted skirt, a black apron over her front. Like a little girl pretending to be a bartender, but the length of her skirt and the length of her toned, white legs exposed were not of a little girl anymore. Half of her body was soaked, and clear liquid ran down the side of one leg.

The moment she locked eyes with Okita, her polite façade crumbled like an old spicy cracker. She said nothing and began walking towards her home.

"China wait." His hand shot out and captured her arm.

"Okita. Let go." It was the first time she called him by his actual name, and it was unnerving. Much as he hated to admit it, all he wanted at that moment was for her to playfully call him Sadist again.

"No. Not until we talk. What are you doing anyway, working as if nothing happened just today?"

"Nothing happened, Okita. And nothing will happen now. You're getting in the way, yup. Some guy spilled a bottle of whiskey on me and I need to change my uniform." She looked away and downwards the entire time. It was pissing him off.

"Too bad. I'm not going anywhere until you start explaining things to me. And neither are you." Before she could protest, suddenly his hands were around her waist and she was being hoisted up as if she weighed nothing. She gasped as she felt herself being placed horizontally over his shoulders, with one of her arms and legs brought down and held in place by one of his hands across his chest.

"W—what are you doing, idiot?"

"Fireman's carry, stupid. Didn't you pay attention during the safety drills? Anyway, let's go to a nice, quiet, cool place near the main street." She smelled like alcohol and strawberries. It was not unpleasant to carry her around like this save for the fact that she was punching him and kicking him with her free hand and leg.

"There's nothing there but love hotels—"

He patted her rump smugly and kept walking away, ignoring the curious stares of various passers-by who looked away, chalking it up to teenagers' antics.

"Y-y-you pervert! What strange things are you going to do to me! I'll—I'll call the police for harassment!"

"I should call the police on you, you monster girl. They'll arrest you for breaking their future prodigy's heart."

Something changed at the mention of heart breaks. He felt her stop struggling suddenly. He stopped in his tracks. She sighed, and her body went limp. "Fine. You win, Sadist. I guess we can talk at home. Can you put me down, please?"

He smirked victoriously. "Nope. Not risking you running from me like a rabbit. You're pretty good at that." He turned and carried her like that, with her kicking, thrashing and cursing him along the way. The stairs to her apartment were steep and laborious and narrow. China's head bumped into the rails and walls when she thrashed about.

Finally, they were at the door. Kagura was stunned into silence as he lifted her off his shoulder and gently placed her with her feet into the ground in front of him.

Her face was as red as her shirt and her hair. She turned away from him, obviously to keep him from noticing. She took out a key from her skirt's pocket and opened the front door.

The apartment looked livable, but it was as dingy inside as it appeared on the outside. There was a living room with a desk and a pair of old sofas facing each other; a huge, curious sign with the characters for Sugar Content hung up the wall. A collection of souvenir swords (probably bought from class field trips somewhere) were on display. Piles of the weekly Shonen JUMP were messily stacked in random corners of the room and on the sofa.

There were two other rooms there, one for Kagura and one presumably for her old man. Okita leaned against the doorway of Kagura's room with his arms crossed. He looked away as Kagura got dressed.

"What do you want to know anyway, Sadist?" he heard her say through the partially open door.

"Maybe start by telling me why that blonde girl was after you."

She gave an exaggerated and aggravated sigh. "I wish I knew too, Sadist. I thought that it would be a fight over you again, since it was your ex who told me to go to that dump alone. Matako came as a surprise for me, too. It looks like they want me to leave town 'cause I'm a yakuza member or something, uh-huh."

Was Urara that girl from first year who let him put a leash on her for like, a week? He struggled to recall. At least Kagura didn't seem to know that the guys from the dump were connected with Takasugi Shinsuke. "And you're not really Yakuza, are you?"

"Are you stupid, Sadist? I'm not Japanese, nuh-huh. And I haven't been staying here for too long. And you saw that my fingers are all complete, yes?"

"Why face them alone then? I know you're as dumb as a pile of bricks but I'm sure you realized that it was stupid of you to face those bullies alone from the start."

He heard her rustle out of her clothes. He focused on the wooden swords, trying not to imagine anything lewd. "It's no big deal. I can fight them, yup. Plus I heal crazy fast."

"I was going to ask about that too. It took you less than three days to completely recover from five days' worth of beatings."

"It's genetics. Mami and Papi were like that so I was like that too. I can't explain it for myself."

"All right. Still, it's stupid of you to go alone. Kondou-san was insistent on keeping you safe, and you just gave him the cold shoulder."

The sounds of movement ceased for a few seconds before he heard her voice again. "… things happened before, okay? I lost a lot of my friends at my old school because people keep going after me. 'A lot of them got seriously hurt too because of me. 'Cause a lot of stupid kids want to be the strongest, they keep fighting all the strong people in their schools and even other schools, and I was one of them, and I didn't bother to hide it. And it looks like it's happening all over again, and I can't stop it." A weaker, more vulnerable voice answered him.

He looked down on the floor—was it in shame? He remembered the events of three years back. He was one of the stupid kids too, back then. It turned out he wasn't the strongest in any way or any form, because he was one of the few who escaped the incident unscathed."Mind telling me more about those stupid kids?"

"Not now, Sadist. I'm sure that the events before had nothing to do with... with what's happening now." The pause in her statement was telling-she just realized something, and she was most likely lying to him again. But maybe it isn't the right time to probe deeper.

"I hear you. I suppose that's a hard thing to have happened. But you're still a huge pain in the ass to deal with, you know."

Kagura didn't answer.

"You would keep all this stupid shit to yourself, even though your friends and the Shinsengumi were reaching out to you to help you, to protect you. After we get ourselves dragged in the drama, after all the fighting and investigating we did to keep you here with us, you would just give up and run away."

Suddenly the door flew open. The doorknob hit him right where he was kicked hours ago, and he felt the breath stop in his lungs. Next thing he knew, Kagura had her hands on his collar, and he was being pushed up against the wall. She was only in a red, lacy bra and her skirt, but Okita had no time to ogle at this fact.

"You—you have no idea what I've been through. You don't know what I've lost. And you don't know how dangerous it is to be around me. I should be alone so no-one else will be victimized by them… So please…" Her eyes downcast, her face hidden in the shadows of her undone hair, her voice cracked once more.

He felt her grip soften, and he saw small drops of saltwater fall from her face. Her lean arms fell at her sides. Her bare abdomen was flat, the skin over it showing a not-so-pretty mix of purple and maroon and green.

Yet she was there with him. She was a wounded idiot, just like him. No reason for a ditzy, mysterious, infuriating girl like this to be alone.

He probably did it in a drunken daze. He blamed the lacy bra which was half-soaked in alcohol. The vapours emanating from her skin and clothes were probably enough for him to feel heady. Shit. That bra wasn't even a D-cup, which he honestly thought he preferred before that moment. He took off his hoodie, placed it around her shoulders, and held her close to him. He felt her breath over his sore chest, felt her hands curling into fists, her small hands holding onto his shirt.

You're mine, he remembered himself saying earlier. And he remembered once more that she refused him. She was giving up. His heart felt heavy, but at least he was holding her like this, feeling his hands at the small of her back, and…

A crashing sound interrupted their quiet moment. Shit, he thought. Could it be her old—

"So… The news of a fiend forcing himself on my beloved, innocent, virginal, underage teenage daughter to do unspeakable things to her under my own damn roof…"

He felt Kagura freeze and break out into a cold sweat in their position. In horror, they simultaneously turned to the owner of that tremulous, sickeningly familiar voice.

Apparently having destroyed his own front door in a blind rage, a familiar silver-permed, dead-fish-eyed older man stared at them from across the room, his face sunken and covered in shadows, his usually dull eyes burning with anger, his glasses displaced and his lollipop falling from his open mouth—this being so loliloliloli-ed that it started a bonfire when it landed on the floor.

"… is about a Shinsengumi punk! Seta Soujirou-kun!" He pointed at him with an accusing finger.

"… Sensei. It's Sougo. Okita Sougo."

Kagura yelled in response and pushed Okita so hard that his head collided against the concrete wall and an uncomfortable cracking sound formed between the wall and his skull. She wrapped Okita's hoodie around her, hiding her bruised abdomen, and rushed to her room and closed it with a slam.

That left him to face Ginpachi-sensei alone. At that moment, the man's soul seemed to have left his body, and he was walking in a zombie-like gait towards his wooden swords.

Shit. This guy won't let me out of here with my balls intact.


AN: I don't know what the characters' ages in the 3Z universe were originally intended but let's just say that in this story Okita and Kagura are both between 16 and 17 years old (since they're in the same year of high school-as opposed to 14 and 18 in the canon story, which will make certain scenes rather problematic). Hijikata and Mitsuba are maybe between 18-20. Ginpachi would be the same age as Gintoki (late 20s). Heehee I'm so happy he's in the story now.
Seta Soujirou is one of my faves from Rurouni Kenshin and was supposedly partially based on the historical Okita Souji.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter!