Chapter 4
-Lesson 3: Rivalry and Fights Will Have No End to 'Em-
Day 2 - Continued
Bewildered, Sougo slightly cocked his head to the left and sheathed his blade. He didn't know what she was talking about with that overconfident beam on her face. Maybe, if he disconnected his earplugs, he would have known what she was spouting; he only heard "goshunjin-sama," but after she leaped away, everything was a mumble. So he did and said, with his usual un-phased tone, "What are you on about, China?"
While the young man disposed of the plugs into his pants pocket, with her laughter ceased, Kagura stomped her right foot down and in anger, exclaimed, "You bastard! You did that on purpose!"
"China, you're being - "
"You had those on just to stall for time, right!" Kagura continued, interrupting him, "Well, that won't work. I'll find that Gorilla and tell him to expel you for attempting to destroy the Shinsengumi! I spied on you and found you, kidnapping that mayo-freak." As she spoke, opening her umbrella and holding it with her left hand, she strode towards him and poked him a couple times. "I'm right, aren't I?"
Sougo knew a numerous amount of "facts:" 1. Kondo-san was the most forgiving and gullible leader (but of course, he admired his commander); 2. He and Kondo-san had been together for a long time, almost like brothers; and 3. Mayora deserved to die, for he, Okita Sougo, was more fitting as vice-captain! All these speculations led to the dauntless assumptions that he won't get suspended completely. He found it laughable of China's futile actions to abolish herself from being a slave. Oh, how he wanted to badly chastise her for committing these foolish plans and he had plenty of ideas (with a devilish smile inwardly). Foremost, he had to play along with her and find his "opportunity to strike." He responded in his usual poker face demeanor, "I think you have it all wrong China, and this is no way for a slave to act towards me, your Master. Don't you see how benevolent your Master has been to you?" Holding her chin up, he inched closer to her ear and let go of his hand. "Goshujin-sama is really disappointed," he whispered, gently and a bit menacingly.
As Okita was just about to bit on her upper ear, the Yato kneed him hard to the gut and covered her flush-looking expression by turning her back towards him. He groaned in pain, while kneeling on the ground and holding his stomach; he knew he had that coming, but it was considerably worth flustering her up. After the blow, his body forced him to cough out, thinking.. Nope, he'll get his revenge when the time is right. "Wh- what are you trying to do!" she questioned with an embarrassed tone, "I didn't come here to be sexually harassed by some freaking Sadist!" With her fist clenched, facing down at him, she declared, "I'm going to stop being a slave to you from this day on." She quickly lashed at him with her weapon to Sougo's right side.
However, reading the movement from her shadows, instinctively, he rolled over to his left, pulling out his katana, and he stood two feet away from China with the back end and tip barely touching her neck. As he rubbed his belly, swollen from pain, he managed not so weakly to say, "That wasn't very nice to do to your Master."
"That's the point! And also, you aren't my Master anymore," Kagura spoke, sliding to his back and taking a swing at him with her leg.
Again, he moved away from her kick and dodged it easily. "You wanna be serious? Let's have our usual dance and fight!" A killer look on his facial appeared.
Kagura's innocent face faded and turned into the same grimace, when she enters battle. "Fine by me, let's do it!"
They both went into their fighting stances. "In a match of - "
The river soothingly flowed - it was such a rare day for the weather to not be windy on this autumn season. No matter, Gintoki thought it was a great day to get out and take a needed stroll, after being so traumatize by that - that... He didn't even want to hear it (or have this author write about that partly explicit beep).
Even though the sky cast down a gray dull day, like the cherry blossoms but not as abundant, the warm colored leaves flew away from the trees and settled down on the ground leaving a mixture of array colors - a scenic impression to this once Samurai-packed city. There was also something about this year's fall that was so different. Maybe, it was because Kagura sweet sixteen was approaching in a month from now. Sakata's fish eyes noticed she was growing a bit, after all that diet filled with unlimited amount of sukonbu and a mountain-sized portions of rice with seasonings. It'd be a surprise if her petite body would grow anymore from that unbalanced nutrition, but it was partly everyone in the Yorozuya to not have enough money to get three meals a day for just once. He should probably ask that annoying old Yato of a father to send more money for Kagura's valley-sized stomach; as if he would beg that geezer for it, though he could request Kagura to ask for money in her letters.
Speaking of, the silver-haired samurai shook up his small wallet only filled with some pocket change and proceeded to enter the vacant food stand that sold oden and ramen. Two figures shuffled into their seat at the same time.
"Ne, ossan (old man), one medium Gin-tou special." (Tou = sugar).
"Ossan, one medium Toshi-mayo special."
"Coming right up!" the elder man called out, getting to work.
And with no surprise, it was Hijikata who was also sat here next to him; Gintoki should have sensed it from the faint tobacco and mayonnaise smell this guy emitted twenty-four/seven. Probably, his sixth sense failed him because of what happened this morning. They both thought, Of all the days, why do I have to see him!
"Hello, Hijikata-shi! What a wonderful day!" Gintoki greeted with a smile and a laugh.
"Hello, Sakata-shi! What a wonderful day!" Hijikata did the same simultaneously.
Not! they both thought, bowing down enough to cover their faces, with a sneered look, and turned to look away from each other.
Soon, their typical lunch was served and with a "itadakimasu" said, they both ate it peacefully, trying hard to obscure the fact their rival were here. It honestly did ruin their appetite horribly. At first they thought they were both recovering from that horrid nightmare, but of course, before being born, Kami-sama (God) just wished for these two to be cursed by going to the same places. No, no, there is no Kami-sama; this was certainly the work of the Akuma (devil)! Why else was this occurring all the damn time?
After a few slurps of their ramen, Sakata stared at his strange attire that would be worn by Mongolians, it seems. Toshiro was adorn in the long black fur coat, brown square fur hat, and gray snow shoes. He let out a small "pft," attempting to stifle his giggle. "What's with the getup?" he asked, snickering.
"None of ya business!" the Shinsengumi vice-captain retorted. The rough waters forced him to drift out in the unknown wintry area and he had no choice but to wear these clothes so he could survive that harsh cold environment. Somehow, in that short amount of time, he safely returned into the casket to find himself back in Edo and then, the horrible journey hasn't even ended, since he had to deal with this guy.
"I'll make it not mine, then," Gintoki mumbled, returning back to chowing down on his noodles.
Three minutes into their dish, they both stated dully, "How disgusting." Then, standing up from their seats, they both slammed down their chopsticks and faced off, with their dominant hand about to draw out their equipment.
"Are you trying to start something?" Gintoki threatened with a convulsed expression.
"No, I'm pretty sure, you're the one who's starting this fight, this time. You definitely made your move first," Hijikata growled, making the same exact visage.
Sakata crossed his arms, in an attempt to show he won't make any use of his bokuto. "Yeah right! I'm not so eager to get into this fight as you are, so you definitely convinced me into it!" The volume now getting louder.
"Che, I could do better!" Hijikata rested his hands to his backside.
In the middle of it all, the unlucky senior male attempted to talk, in a quivering voice: "Umm.. ca- can you please... take this outside?" As usual - as prideful as they were, the two quarreling samurai couple wouldn't cease, or even listen.
Gintoki placed together his hands with his fingers crossing each other and swung them to the back of his head. "Well, this stance will make sure I will definitely not touch my weapon!"
The black-haired man stretched his arms up as far as he could, as if he was exercising. "Really, your weapon and yourself are itching to fight! Your eyes tell me exactly what you want; you are so easy to read!"
"Oh ho! You think you can read into my soul! You're definitely getting ready for a battle I bet; I mean look at the form you're in."
"I know how freaking dirty your soul is! And no, I'm not! I'm reaching for the godly, golden Mayo bottle up in the sky."
"So you're trying to rely on some shitty 'dog food' to get you out of this! How pathetic!"
"As if your diabetic-inducing crap would do any better!"
"You really wanna do this, huh?" Both males clutching onto their rival's clothing.
"Not as much as you want to!"
"Fine, let's have a fair match, then!" Backing off, Gintoki tossed aside his bokuto. "Without our katana."
"Alright, you're on! What's it gonna be?" Toshi also emulated his action.
"M- my shop.." the store-owner whimpered, cowering down.
The sun setted, that was the perfect time to clash off. The two young pair were just about even in scores in almost any sports they have played - basketball, tennis, pool, and track. But before any of that, it was mostly them brawling it out and somehow, it turned out to be a mini-sporting event on school day. In the end, the events became an actual fist fight instead. They were both huffing and puffing away from exhaustion, since five hours has passed. Probably the most that they ever competed against each other.
Sitting down on the ground, with the towel around his neck, Sougo wiped off the sweat on his forehead and said, "It seems like you had enough, hm, China? I think this is my win."
Kagura got up to prove him wrong, finishing up her latest sukonbu. "Don't be ridiculous, you moron. I am plenty energetic and still willing to go on however many you please. Don't be crying to your mommy about how you lose."
"As long as you don't do the same, but you can't do that since you're an alien monster who strayed too faraway from home." His remaining strength allowed him to stand up and he massaged his own right shoulder.
"So what? You're the same as me, except you live on Planet Sadist, and you're definitely a huge threat to humanity. How did you get born into this world?" Another seaweed nibbled on.
"That's really harsh there, China. Ow, ow, my heart aches; is there any love in this cruel world?" he said, in a half-dramatic tone.
"A Sadist with a heart, that's really unbelievable." Looking away from him, Kagura waved her left hand up and down. "If anything, you have a rotten heart and it'll turn anyone you'll touch into a charcoal probably."
"Isn't there some story like that?"
"Captain Okita!" Yamazaki called from the distance, "You're gonna be late! The drama is coming up!"
The dragged-on encounter was soon coming to an end. "Oh, crap, I forgot. It's 6 PM now." Sougo walked off, waving his hand to her. "China, we'll finish this tomorrow. I will make you continue to be my slave until the end of this month. You should go home now before Danna worries."
Kagura mutters to herself, "As if, I'll let that happen." Rubbing her ear, she contemplated, Ah, that perverted Sadist infected me.
Author's Note: Sorry, it took a while. I was struggling on this and trying so hard to make this kinda perfect, but I decided to just write whatever and forget about how imperfect it is, as long as the plot is good enough to entertain you all. I'm gonna do my best to get more ideas for this story so I could at least have fifteen to twenty chapters at least, since it's supposed to "30 days." I'll work on the next chapter as fast as I can. Bye!
