Author's Note:
This...is a miracle. I can't believe I updated in less than a month. As always, I want to thank those who read and reviewed my story. It means so much and keeps me going. Forgive me for grammar mistakes and out-of-characterness; it's very late right now, but I can't help it because I can only write during the night.
While reading this fic, don't forget that the paragraphs in italic are side-stories, flashbacks, or dreams, and shouldn't be confused with the main plot. Well, at least not yet. From the next chapter and onwards, many things will be explained, so you won't have to feel lost anymore. I changed the writing style at the end of this chapter to make it easier for the reader to follow, without revealing too much - There are 3 people present: the "I"-person, a girl and a boy.
Note that this chapter has references to the Gintama wikia page. If you don't know about it, I suggest you look it up now. Whether good or bad, I hope you all will continue to leave feedback so I can know how to improve my story. That's all. :)
All I want for Christmas is…
…To Have Internet. [Chapter 7]
"Sadist, I'm bored!"
"…ngh…" The Shinsengumi captain opened his eyes and blinked a few times as his mind tried to register his surroundings. Okita was sitting behind the steering wheel of a police car while his Yato girlfriend stood outside.
"All you ever do during patrols is to take naps anyway," the girl complained as she kept knocking on the window glass, "Take me somewhere, yes? Anywhere is fine-aru!"
"Uh. Sure." The boy decided to open the door before she ended up breaking the glass, or worse—the whole car. Without another word, Kagura hurried inside and sat on the seat beside him.
"Make sure you drive super-fast, okay?"
"The 'rider' shouldn't complain about a guy's speed. As long as they reach their 'destination', it's all good." What he said could be referred to the act of making love, but that was his point in the first place.
A blush appeared across the sukonbu-lover's face. After staying with Gintoki for some time, she had actually caught on quite many of these references. "W-What rider-aru, you perverted sadist!"
"You're riding my car – what else? You dirty-minded girl," Okita deadpanned, as if he was the innocent one, "Nonetheless, you would have enjoyed any kind of 'ride' with me."
"Admit it, you said something perverted-aru! And like hell I would enjoy that! Uh-uh!" She stuck her tongue out at him, "Since you're acting stubborn, let me drive-aru."
"Not only do you want to die, but you want to drag me with you to the afterlife?"
"I don't want to die yet, I just wanna drive!"
"That statement of yours is translated to 'Let's commit a double suicide-aru! GYAHAHAHA~!'."
"What double suicide – WANNA DIE NOW, YES?" She shouted and started to lightly pull his hair, "You're meean! Just let me-aru!"
"Says the one who's pulling my hair and riding without paying. Ah. My heart. It's all twisted now." He said in a monotone voice, completely ignoring the fact that his heart was black and twisted from the start.
"Oooi, I'm not joking-aru! I wanna drive!"
"Tch, whatever. Go ahead. My valuable life is in your hands; take good care of it - the fangirls will be sad if the one and only S-King disappears from the show."
"Hmph. Those fangirls are just annoying, uh-uh!" Kagura climbed on the driver's seat to sit in front of him. They did that for safety's sake, so the police officer could take over the steering wheel in case she lost control of the car.
"It was a joke. Even if you end up being 'my angel of death', you would still be the only angel for me~…" Despite those romantic words, Okita was technically saying 'Although you suck at driving and might kill us both, I still love you. Stuupid.'
"Sh-Shut up. Wh-What are you saying-aru. As long as you're here with me, we'll be fine…" Flushed, the blue-eyed alien kissed his cheek and started the car.
"Yeah, yeah. It's not like I'll let you kill me anyway."
Excited and happy about spending time together, they drove off at full speed…
…
…
…
"Wh…Why a net café-aru?" Kagura asked, and looked at her surroundings. After they left the terrorist meeting, she decided to follow him around, but who would have thought the Sadist was into the interwebs?
Okita entered a cubicle among many, which, in addition to a computer with internet connection, provided bottomless soft drinks, slippers, blankets, and toiletries to make it more relaxing for the users. She had seen many of these net cafés around in town, but never had the chance or money to go there—and definitely not with a guy.
Without answering her question, Sougo sat down in front of the screen. The sukonbu-lover did the same and frowned as she watched her rival turn on the pc.
"Oi. Didn't I tell you to head home?"
"Are you kidding-aru? You went in there just to kick me out?"
"Sure did. Now, go home."
"Hmph. Fine-aru. I'll go home…after I finish the food I left behind," Kagura got up and was about to head back to Takumi when the officer grabbed her arm.
"He's a terrorist," the sadist said sternly as he tightened his grip on her. "Never mind. Sit."
"Do you want me to stay or leave; decide already!" The Yato freed herself from Okita and threw him a sullen look. "So what if he is a terrorist? I can go with whoever I want-aru."
This bastard annoyed her to no end. At least he could have treated her to fried chicken or something since he had ruined the party for her and all. On the other hand, that would have been too out-of-character of him.
"That guy…knows too much…" the sandy-haired male turned to the computer, "…he might be dangerous."
"Knows too much? About what?"
"Your stupidity."
"Hey, that wasn't funny! Mou…" The sukonbu-lover sighed softly, but decided to get seated on a chair beside his. "What's wrong in the first place. It's rare to see the sadist upset about something-aru."
When the Shinsengumi captain didn't reply and kept typing on the keyboard, Kagura thought back to his conversation with Takumi from earlier. It was true that the crimson-eyed boy seemed irritated by her client since the beginning, but it wasn't until that last sentence that he actually snapped. What was it again…? Something… Something about… uh… a promise…I think…
["You must be working hard to keep your promise, Sou-chan."]
Yes, that was probably it. But what promise? And how did Togae know? Either way, at least she understood why the Sadist reacted as he did. If a stranger suddenly revealed something like that about her, she would have freaked out too.
["Don't be harsh on him… That guy is trying his best…"]
The client also mentioned something along those lines. What was Okita trying his best with, though? Hajiro never explained that.
What's with these guys? How am I supposed to get it if they always talk in codes-aru! The confusion was about to drive her crazy.
Another issue was that she couldn't help but feel slightly nervous. The Yato did fine earlier, because there were people around – it wasn't until they entered this room that she became consciously aware of the other's presence. Everything he said, his every movement… She noticed them all. Even just a glance from him would make her look away quickly in embarrassment.
"N-Ne, what are you doing-aru?" She peeked over his shoulder to see the display.
"Trying to find out who that guy is." The sandy-haired male replied while he clicked around on the Gintama wikia site. "If he's a made-up character however, this will only be a waste of time."
"Oh." Of course. Why else would the Sadist lock himself inside this small cubicle? To watch anime? Read manga? Write fan-fiction? Role-play? Hah, no way. "Don't worry-aru. Takumi-san is an official Gintama character."
"…he is?" Okita's gaze left the computer screen as he turned to glance at her.
"That's what he told me-aru! Unbelievable, yes?"
"He might be lying. Who is that guy, really…" The youngster mumbled and rested a fingers on his chin, like he usually did whenever he thought hard about something.
On spur of moment, an idea crossed Kagura's mind. No, correction: A great idea crossed her mind.
"Ahh, I know-aru! You want to find out who he is, right? Then why don't we work together? I've got all the clues. Without me, you won't be able to get far; without you, I'll starve to death. So, what do you say?" With an offer like this, she was confident that Sougo had no choice but to accept. Yahooo~ Free food-aru!
"…" A long pause.
Just agree, you jerk! Stop being stubborn-aru; You know you need me~ Her inner self cheered him on.
"…fine. But after this, you better leave me alone." Okita stated coldly as he went back to stare at the monitor like he had done just minutes ago.
"T-Teme…! It's not like I want to stay close to you either-aru!"
Aside from the awkward silence which followed that retort, there was also this heavy feeling on her chest. In his eyes, she was probably just a stupid flat-chested mountain gorilla as he always called her…but her crush for him was starting to become difficult to hide.
It hadn't been too long ago that she only admired the Sadist. Since when did her feelings for him grow this strong…?
Most people don't fall in love that fast, right? Except for those annoying flirts who were desperate about getting a boyfriend, but our heroin was definitely not one of them. This was very strange… In spite of not understanding him at all, it was as if she longed for his attention. She wanted him to notice her…
"Oi. China. Are you listening?"
"E-Eh. Of course-aru!" The blue-eyed alien responded automatically. "So…what is it?"
"…" Okita's facial expression turned to a bored one, "I was asking… What did Takumi tell you? You better have some useful information."
"Oh," Kagura took a deep breath and tried to collect her memories from that conversation. The older male listened carefully as she told him what she knew about Hajiro; he appeared in one of the newer episodes, sounded quite interested in the Shinsengumi, and had been looking for her.
"He seems to know a lot about us while we know nothing about him," the vermilion red-haired lady added, as a conclusion of her talk. "It troubles me-aru…"
"That's not completely true," Sougo disagreed, which made a very puzzled China look up at him with interest. "Takumi kept referring to me as "Souchirou", which means that he didn't actually know my real name. Unless he's doing it intentionally like Danna, but I doubt that's the case. Also… It took him quite awhile to find you, right?"
"Yes. He had been looking for me for the past year-aru."
"Takumi probably saw you in one episode, but had no idea who you were. If he had known that you were from the Yorozuya, it would have been an easy chase for him. From these hints, we can assume that he doesn't know us personally."
"Then… Is Takumi a Gintama character at all?"
"Since we have no other clue, I simply have to trust him. Although Takumi really is a suspicious fella, he appears to be well-intentioned after what you've reported," the police officer concluded, "To reduce the possibilities, I suppose it would be safe to only include episodes from Gintama' (note the apostrophe), the Kintama arc, and the reruns. If there are no other hints, we'll start to go through the character profiles soon."
The young lady was amazed. After such a short time and with merely a few hints, Sougo had thoroughly analyzed her client's words. She had always known that this guy could be quite the strategist if he wanted to, but never imagined him to be this observant.
"Ohh! So you aren't completely useless, after all-aru!"
"Tch. Give me some credit, will ya."
"But…what do you mean 'profiles'?"
"She acts very 'unlady like' in terms of the ways she speaks and in certain things she does such as vomiting or picking her nose," The older male read out loud from her Personality section at the wiki page as an example.
"I'm a lady-aru! – WHO WROTE THAT?" Kagura pushed the boy aside to read it herself; but to her disappointment, the text was written exactly as what she had heard.
"Age: 14? That's so out-of-date-aru! I'm 15 years, you bastards! Uh-uh!" To get back at him, the Yato clicked on Okita's profile and scrolled down on it.
"There's no use, China. You won't be able to find anything you don't already know about me," he said and pointed at a paragraph for her to put her eyes on. "Look."
"Acknowledged as the bishounen (aka 'beautiful youth') of the series, Gintoki took a mug-shot of him attempting to slice up Shinpachi and sent it off as Shinpachi's photo in the Pen-pal Chapter, explaining that he 'looked better' than Shinpachi. Belying the innocent-looking good looks however, is an insanely sadistic person who— THE HELL? What good looks-aru? This must have been written by some fangirls! Or who knows; as much free-time as you have, maybe you wrote it!"
"That's ridiculous. If I was the writer, there would have been a few uppercased 'FLAT-CHESTED's somewhere on your profile, don't you think?"
"Oh, shut up! I know I'm irresistible-aru, but stop being a creeper."
As Kagura came down to his Relationships section, she looked for her name to see what was written there.
Kagura: He calls her 'China'. After the Cherry Blossom party, they would fight whenever they had a chance. They always try to insult each other, even when they aren't actually arguing. He saves her in two different occasions: When Kagura had some trouble in the Yagyuu arc, Okita saved her as he said only he was allowed to beat her, - and when Kagura was shot on the leg while being chased by a group of terrorists in the Rokkaku arc, he helped her escaped as he covered up for her. The two of them can be called rivals, but are friends deep down inside. Kagura is the only female in the entire series whom he had apologized to. The first one is his sister, Okita Mitsuba.
The blue-eyed alien felt her cheeks heat up. This was definitely written by an OkiKagu fan. Friends? The Sadist and her? No, she wouldn't have called it friendship…it was something else. Something she couldn't put into words… In spite of this, it was true that Kagura was the only female he had saved and apologized to. Why hadn't she noticed until now? She…was the only one. The vermilion red-haired girl didn't know why she was overjoyed by it…
"Anyway, let's stop fooling around," the crimson-eyed boy went back to the long list of characters. "What bothers me, is his name. There's no one called 'Togae Takumi' here."
"I figured that much-aru. What do you think we should do?" The sukonbu-lover tilted her head to one side as he stared at the handsome captain. Was this as far as they could get?
"Hm…" Okita mumbled before writing down the client's name on a piece of paper: TOGAE TAKUMI.
"He probably mixed the letters or something. They do that in crime series."
"I thought you were into porn-aru."
"Only if you're the star," he deadpanned at her statement, which earned him a smack on the head by the embarrassed Yato. "Now, let's see…"
Sougo lightly hit the end of his pen against his cheek as he was thinking.
"How about this?" The crimson-eyed boy asked before writing down:
{TOGAE TAKUMI}
- {OTAEG TKAMUI}
- - {OTAE KAMUI GT}
"Anego and baka-aniki? No way! That's not possible-aru! And what does the GT stand for?"
"Don't be stupid, China. This is just a try-and-fail process. You randomly mix the letters and try to make new words from them. It's only a coincidence that Takumi's name formed theirs."
"Got it-aru! Let me try!" Kagura took the pen from him and started to write down her client's name.
{TOGAE TAKUMI}
- {TOGIE MATAKU}
- - {MATAKO IETUG}
"Gyahahaha! It's dirty-Matako-aru!"
"It's not." Pen-user change: Sougo. "What the heck is IETUG anyway."
{TOGAE TAKUMI}
- {GETOA TKAMUI}
- - {GET TO A KAMUI}
"What's with you and Baka-Aniki? Do you want to arrest him that badly? You guys haven't even met-aru!" Pen-user change: Kagura.
{TOGAE TAKUMI}
- {OTAEG KITAUM}
- - {OKITA METUGA}
"YOUR SISTER WAS RESURRECTED AS TAKUMI-ARU!"
"Want me to punch you, teme. It's Mitsuba; can you even spell?"
"Well, how was I supposed to know-aru?"
The two of them continued like that for awhile, but without luck. Even though this was a lot of fun, there was no point in it if they didn't get anywhere.
"Ne, Sadist. None of us knew about Takumi-san before this fanfic. This means that he might be a completely new character, right? Then why are we trying to mix those letters into familiar names? What if he's a Gintama character with an unknown one?"
"Because we're trying to find a connection between him and other characters. If a last name happens to match, we might be able to work from there."
"So what you're saying is that… So far, Takumi-san is most likely related to you, Anego, dirty-Matako or baka-aniki?"
"Sort of. I doubt it, though…" The officer's crimson eyes didn't leave the writings they had made on the white sheet. "Something isn't right… Are you sure his name is written like that? One mistaken letter is enough to turn this search impossible."
"Of course I'm sure-aru! He even wrote down his name and number for me," Kagura showed him the note Takumi had given her earlier.
"Let me see that." Okita took the piece of paper from her and stared at it for awhile Without saying anything. From time to time, the young male would shift his gaze between the screen and her note; as if he was checking for a match from the character list.
What is he doing-aru? The lady wondered, but decided to stay quiet too so he could concentrate. She didn't want to disturb him.
"…Oi. China." Sougo spoke up after about 5 minutes, "I've figured it out."
"…eh?"
"I know who Takumi is…"
…
…
…
"I'll save you…"
I can never forget that expression she made…
Of all the things she had seen through time… This must have been the most heart-breaking moment for the young girl. She was hugging the older male from behind; calling his name over and over again, but to no avail… He could neither see, nor hear, nor feel her… They were so close, yet so far away… Her presence…was unknown to him.
"Everything will be okay…"
He thought he was alone, crying all by himself with that blood-stained sword of his. He thought he had been abandoned by everyone…by the world, where people were currently enjoying their Christmas, completely unaware of this tragedy. What he did not know however, was that he was far from alone – She was present at this moment to share his unbearable pain…and so was I.
"I-I'll save you…" the girl whispered reassuringly in the boy's ear as she embraced him tighter, her tears kept streaming down her face. "Don't worry… In the end… E-Everything…will be…ok…ay…"
I wanted to tell her that no matter how much she cried and tried to comfort him, those words would never reach…
…but I said nothing.
Humans were such powerless beings, I suddenly realized. The two of them were in so much pain…yet, there was nothing I could do…
Nothing…at all…
[End of Chapter 7]