Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Chapter 11
Hotsuma runs across the room to Okita at high speed pace and swings his fist forward. Okita, being the skillful swordsman that he is, was only able to block the attack with his katana. The impact sends him sliding backwards many steps.
"You… that voice… you are the one who called Kurumi-chan a b… bi… bitch back there, aren't you!?"
"That would be me." Okita grits his teeth and replies with a sadistic smile. Hotsuma goes on the rage mode.
"Kurumi-chan ain't a bitch! I named her after—"
"Yes, yes, we know." Kagura picks her nose while Kamui walks back beside Kagura with a calm smile on his face. "You named her after your favourite heroine on the TV show, didn't you? You shameless bastard."
"Lolita complex, lolita complex." Kamui sings in synchronize with Kagura. Together, the two siblings whip around, giggle and whisper in the corner like gossiping high school girls who ignore the other two completely.
"I bet he has her poster taped on his ceiling, neh?"
"You have got to be careful with a pedophile like him around, sister dear. Don't look at him in the eyes and for your own safety; avoid him at the bus stop at all cost, you hear me?"
"He is probably a stalker too!"
"I can hear all that! And I'm not a pedophile! More like, you guys went through my diary?!" Hotsuma yells angrily and smashes his fist further down on Okita's blade. He is currently stuck in the same position and can't find a way out. Kagura and Kamui turn around with their worst faces and let out an ugly laughter.
"BWAHAHA. See the power of gossip girls? See the cruelness hidden beneath that beautiful faces? This is how all girls are, including your Kurumi-chan!" Kagura shouts.
"Shut up! Kurumi-chan is special! She is kind, gentle and above all, her boobs are…"
"Don't let your Lolita complex gets in the way." Kamui shakes his head and make a 'tsk, tsk' sound. "If you look, you should be able to find it too. That twisted cruelness of young females."
"I don't want to…" Hotsuma lets go of Okita and stomps his feet back to face Kamui. He lowers his head until their noses are almost touching, but even so, Kamui still smiles. "I don't want to hear that from someone with a sister complex like you!"
Kamui ever so lively smile faltered, before he will take off his shoe and stuff it into Hotsuma's face with a murderous aura leaking out from behind him. "Hah, say that again. What exactly do I have? Sister complex? Don't make me laugh! I don't have…"
"You clearly do have a sister complex." Okita said deadpanned. Kamui turns his head around and smiles grimly.
"I don't. Do you have a dead wish, weakling?"
"Oh, really now. Let's prove it." Okita moves closer to Kagura who is busy shaking the damaged Mayo-talkie in her hands. He'd then put his arm around her shoulder casually and breathes into her ears. "What are you doing, China girl…"
Of course, he didn't get to finish his sentence. Kamui literally flew back to grab Okita's collar and threw Hotsuma aside, leaving him face down on the floor. "You keep your arms to yourself or I will chop them off and hang them up in my bedroom as a display! You dirty hands don't deserve to touch my sister!"
"What can I say? I knew I was right." Okita glances to the side with a stoic face. Kamui - who has finally come to his senses and realises that he'd fallen into Okita's trap - steps back and tries to laugh it off as calmly as possible while lying with a straight face.
"Haha… you probably think you got me… but I also knew your schemes all along, Earthling! Now that you know that I don't have a sister complex, let's…"
"The only thing I know is that you are a liar and a true siscon! You think you can cover it up in this shitty way?!"
"Come on, Earthling." Kamui tucks Okita's collar to the side, away from Kagura and whispers in a low voice. "Don't mention this in front of my sister! You are making things even more awkward for us. Here, I'll give you 300 yens, so…"
Fortunately for Kamui, Kagura wasn't paying any attention to them at all. She was knocking the Mayo-talkie on the floor with a serious face. "Why isn't it working? The Mayora must have ordered it in low quality. It broke with just a few hits! Shitty, stingy bastard…"
Hotsuma slowly gets up from the floor and tosses Kamui's shoe aside. His face is red with Kamui's shoe mark… or rage. Maybe even both. His eyes twitch angrily. "First, you called Kurumi-chan a bitch, then you read my diary, call me a stalker and lolicon… then you dare slap your shoe into my face?! Unforgivable… I'll kill you all!"
"Oh, not so fast." Kamui backs away from Okita and faces Hotsuma. His crouches down with his legs shoulder width apart and his hand gesturing open arms. "You will fight me."
"You look gay in that posture." Okita points out, completely destroyed the intense mood that is being dispersed around the room. "It's like you're saying 'come at me, bro. I'm ready to take you on anytime.' or something of that kind."
"My brother is not gay!" Kagura speaks up protectively which is out of her character. Kamui turns around with teary, glittering eyes.
"Finally, my dear sister opens up her heart to me! My effort did not go in…"
"He is a homo beast. Like the ones in trannies bar. Gin-chan told me that long ago. They don't like it when we call them gay because it sounds offensive, right, homo beast?"
"...I'm neither of that!"
"Eh?" Kagura scratches her head and tilts it to the side. "You're not? But your hair is even longer than mine."
"Sister dear," Kamui puts up his hand to signal a 'pause' sign to Hotsuma. "I'm straight. I'm not a homo beast or gay. I like woman."
"Here come your brother's shameful secrets." Okita cups his hands around his mouth and whispers to Kagura. "He likes woman!"
"Are you guys done yet? I'm tired of waiting." Said the forgotten Hotsuma who has to watch this little family drama for a long time now. Kamui collects himself and once again, faces Hotsuma in his fighting stance.
"Anytime, Kumoto-san." He smiles. Within a flash, Kamui disappears and wipes Hotsuma off the ground from under his feet. Hotsuma flips in the air, lands quietly many meters away and charges ahead into the smiling Yato guy who'd then block his punch with a straight kick in the fist.
As the battle between the two gets more intense, things in the room started to fly around, finding its way to either Kagura's or Okita's head. The two audiences duck low to avoid flying objects and think of their next plan.
"Sadist," Kagura, who'd gotten hit by a keyboard, started. "I think we should get out of here before any serious injuries will happen to us."
"Agreed." Okita, who'd gotten hit by Hotsuma's shoe, nods. "We don't really have anything to do here anyway. Your brother is hogging all the fun. But where should we go?"
"Let's see…" Kagura looks around in the mess and sees a small—no taller than her knees- secretive looking door at the other side of the room. Something which she'd never noticed before. "Want to check that out?"
"Sure. Race you there!" Okita swiftly slide himself along the floor like a human ski board. He turns around and smirked as he increased his speed. Kagura's mouth drops open.
"Not fair! I saw it first! Get the hell back here and restart, you damn bastard!"
With that, the two rival race their way to the door. They lay down flat on their stomach and slide on the floor so that the computer which Kamui had just lifted up and hurled at Hotsuma won't hit them too. Once they reach the door, Okita takes out his katana and break the lock in a single motion. He pulls off the door and Kagura hurriedly slide inside.
Hotsuma, who had just notices the other two escaping in the secret door from the corner of his eye, swears. "Shit… get back here, you can't go into that place!"
Once seeing that his opponent is distracted, Kamui spins in the air and lands a blow in Hotsuma's face. "Do you have time to think of others when you are fighting me?"
Okita's pops his head out from the door for one last comment he just had to make. "Hotsuma boy, don't let China2 grope your butt, okay?" And then he disappears before a metal piece can hit his head.
"I'm not going to grope anyone's butt!"
"You never know when you might convert, homo beast-san." Okita's taunting voice calls out one last time from inside the door. Kamui grits his teeth while Hotsuma gets up and attempts to make a run for the door, only to be blocked by Kamui.
"What's so important about that room? Is it even more important than what we've discovered here?" Kamui asks. Hotsuma spits out blood and replies;
"It is none of your business."
"You're right." Kamui lift up his hands and smiles grimly. "After all, the only reason I'm here is to kill. Ah, but don't worry. I'll make sure to send you off with a smile."
Meanwhile:
MaSuYa Group
"Hey, Sashimi-kun," Gintoki grunts tiredly, "let's rest here for a second. You snored last night and I couldn't sleep at all. I'm done for."
"How rude! I did not snore!" Hijikata yells while inhaling his cigarette. His eyes darting around cautiously in the dark, narrow space they are walking in. He predicts that this might be the lowest floor of the ship.
"You don't know that. Most people can't hear themselves when they are asleep." Gin yawns again and turns to look at Abuto. "What do you say, Abuto-san?"
"Well, I'll be damn." Abuto scratches his head. Clearly, no matter what his answer is, he will still end up in the middle of their fight like how he always does in the past 2 days. Taichou… This is the last business trip I'm going with you.
"See, even Abuto-san agrees."
"He did not! Right, Abuto-san?" Hijikata asks expectantly while Gintoki also looks at Abuto with hopeful eyes. They are just trying to mess with me. Abuto thinks. Normal people can't fight like this all the time. So I'll just reply them with…
"Um… I'm not so sure. Let's just go with whatever you believe, okay?"
"Wow, what a typical answer." Gintoki throws his hands dramatically in the air. "That's not good at all, Abuto-san. You should have an opinion of your own."
"He is the type we called 'high adaptability, but low individuality' right?"
"Yeah. I think that's what we call this type of people."
Abuto make a sound that resembles a choking noise. He enjoys being in and out of screen. He doesn't really care if he is the main character or not. His place in the ranking poll might not be high, but he was happy. He was content with just popping up in the screen for 5 seconds during the opening time. So God… what did I do to deserve this?! Being a straight man in this anime is so hard! I just want to go back on the space ship!
Finally, as if God is answering to Abuto's lament, the group arrive at the end of the path. In front of them is a door with an ancient letters labeled on it.
"What does this say?" Hijikata asks while inspecting the door. Heavy metal, tight lock… this is not going to be easy to break through…
"It says… Engine room." Abuto reads. Hijikata's eyes lit up for he has finally found one of his targets. He turns around to organize the group almost immediately.
"Okay. Abuto-san, can you please find something to unlock this? And you, damn perm…"
Gintoki knocks on the door. "Hello, anybody home? We are here to deliver pizza."
"Nah… what the hell are you doing?!"
"What… I'm getting them to open the door for us."
Hijikata pulls the two along with him to hide. When the door did not open after a while, the three slip out of their hiding place. He'd then turn to Gintoki and scolds him.
"What the hell?! What if they really open the door and find three enemies in front of them?!"
"Then we walk in."
"Is your brain a mush? Is your brain really as fluffy as your hair?!" Hijikata yells. He takes a deep breath and sighs. "At any rate, it seems like they are not in there. Let's find the key and unlock…"
Gintoki walks up to the door and undo his boot. He'd then takes out the small clip metal part out and started bending it. He inserts it into the door knob and makes a few clicking sound. He licks his lip, twist the knob, and the door cracks open. "Come on. Let's go in."
Hijikata just stares at him with his eyes wide open. This is… This is a freaking thief technique! What… how the hell did he do that?!
The trio walk into the room. There are machines everywhere, as expected. Finally, they reach something which seems to be a power source. With its crackling noises and the glowing electricity ball, it wasn't hard to tell.
"This is the older version of power source." Abuto explains to the two Samurais, for he is far more familiar with this kind of thing. "If you destroy this, the ship might crash, unless they have backups. If they have backup, they the ship will stay afloat for a little while, but just unable to move."
"I see." Hijikata looks at the power source thoughtfully. "Then we must handle this with care then we can head to the control room like that China girl told us to -"
"OHRAA!" Gintoki smashes his wooden sword down on the power source. Before any of them will have time to react, the power source glows brightly and explodes with a big lump of smoke, sending them back many steps.
"You idiot! What… What have you done!?" Hijikata yells at the silver haired Samurai who is now picking his nose lazily and rubs his snot on Hijikata's coat.
"Now, now… what's done is done. No use crying over spilled strawberry milk, Ogushi-kun."
"That's just nasty!" Hijikata take out his katana. "I'll kill you this very moment and no one will ever notice that you've gone missing! Even if they do, I'll tell them that you are done in by the Kumoto and…"
"A police planning assassination? This is why Bakufu's reputation is so bad." Gin shakes his head. "At least we know that they will have backup. Let's do our business and get out of here before the ship crash. Stop wasting out precious time, Mayora-kun! We are heading up to the control room!"
"I'll kill him one day… I'll kill him one day…" Hijikata murmurs to himself grimly as he walks out of the room. Abuto follows behind with a small smirk of pity to himself. He looks back at the power source which is still exploding dangerously.
Taichou… Even if you increase my salary (which I know you won't)… I'll never go on business trip with you again.
Hello~
Sorry it took me kinda long for this chapter. I had just started a new semester in school and things got sort of busy. But here's a new chapter!
Thank you for reading and your kind reviews. One of the main reason I love updating fanfic is because of your support! So please review and comment! 0
