A Weak Beast made out of China
OkitaxKagura
~3~
"I won't accept having to baby sit her 24/7! Make Hijikata-san be responsible for her since he seems least busy than anyone else."
Sougo who was told to take care of Kagura, immediately declined the order from the Commander of Shinsengumi and quickly turned his 'sadistic-mode' on as usual, dumping troublesome duties onto the Vice Commander.
"By the looks of it, Hijikata-san seems to have the most time in his hands since he has so much time to spare smoking. Baby-sitting a girl or two should be nothing. Isn't that right, Hijikata-san?"
With that fake innocent mask Sougo was pulling, and those words that slyly come from that mouth irritated Hijikata as usual.
"You know I bloody well can't! With such a huge fuss like this, you know there's a mountain load of paper work to do! You think being the vice-Commander is a joke, do you? Huh!?"
"No, you've got it all wrong, Hijikata-san. I was praising you. A person like Hijikata is so great that he can do all the paper work and at the same time take care of a girl. I believe you have the skills to, Hijikata-san. I really do believe in you."
The sincere words were not said so sincere as if he had really meant those words.
The tone was deflated and almost robotic, as if there hadn't been any sincere feelings at all, which was exactly the case.
And then it was that innocent smile.
Behind that smile he was giving Hijikata, evil intentions were there, and Hijikata saw right through that façade Sougo was putting up, which added oil to Hijikata's burning rage.
"Are you playing with me, Sougo?"
Holding the boiling anger, Hijikata calmly asked Sougo in his deep, husky voice.
"Oh, damn, you had realized it?"
Sougo's reply came as his innocent facade cracked easily, replaced with his usual, knowing smirk drawn across his face, and that did it.
"That's it! I'm gonna f*cking slice you into pieces once in for all!" Hijikata screamed hysterically that it reached an octave higher than it usually was, and so fast that the words had to catch up to Hijikata's movements.
But in the last second, Kondo-san pulled Hijikata back from pouncing onto Sougo in rage.
"Hmm, then what about Kondo-san? Could you do the baby-sitting?" Sougo asked sounding a bit hopeful and in a tone that was clearly different to the one used on Hijikata.
"I'm afraid I can't do that, Sougo."
That was the reply that came from Kondo-san who said it straight out with confidence while folding his arms like that was a definite answer and nothing could be done to change it.
"The reason to that is because Kagura-chan seems to have taken a liking in you! To compare myself to you, she would definitely like it to be better to have you in charge of her rather than someone like me!"
Kondo-san boastingly said it out loud even though he hurt his own feelings, saying so.
"That shouldn't be right, Kondo-san. I'm sure she won't mind you either," Sougo said smoothly.
But when Kondo-san neared Kagura with a huge, full-on smile…
"Uu… Uwaaaaaaaaaaan~!"
…she strated crying out loud.
And to that, Kondo-san had crawled into the corner of the room and created full-on streams of tears, flowing out of his eyes as well.
"See! See! I'm not wanted! I'm totally hated! I'm definitely sure that she hates me!"
Kondo-san became really negative and started weeping as he started mumbling how bad a person he is, not wanted, not needed, insignificant and such…
And then there was Hijikata, trying his best to take away his Commander's gloomy aura while Sougo sighed at the result and crushed up his hair into his fist while looking down at the problematic crying girl.
Again he crouched before Kagura, but without knowing how to comfort her, he just rested a hand on her shoulder.
To his surprise, Kagura then widened her eyes and stared up at Sougo's with her crystallized blue eyes that was still watery but had stopped flowing.
"Let's go eat."
Sougo stood up and raised a helping hand towards Kagura.
The problem was, that even after she took Sougo's hand to stand up, Kagura wouldn't let go of his hand.
Once again, Kagura's face was plastered with a look that Sougo just couldn't read, and what's more, he couldn't even get his hand back when he gave a small tug as Kagura kept her firm grip, not about to let go any time soon.
Sougo felt troubled and confused on what to do about this.
"…Let go."
As if not to hurt her feelings, Sougo had said it softly.
"It's only just holding hands, Sougo. Why don't you let her?" the fully recovered Kondo-san defended Kagura's action.
"It's troublesome, Kondo-san. What do you think the others w-?"
Once the word 'troublesome' came out from Sougo's mouth, he suddenly felt Kagura let his hand go immediately like as if an electricity zapped between their hands.
Taken by surprise at this, it left Sougo hanging mid-way across finishing his sentence.
Sougo quickly picked up on the fact that the word 'troublesome' was what had hurt Kagura.
He didn't even notice that he was picking up so much detail and understanding Kagura much more others, or even much more than he himself thought.
But if he took back those words that just poured out of his mouth just then, the words would become a lie, and the fact was that it wasn't entirely.
So he decided to just turn around and paced down the corridor towards the cafeteria of the headquarters and as he predicted, Kagura still stuck to him like a shadow, mimicking every step of his, just half a meter behind him.
If he quickened his pace, Kagura would also pick up the pace without a delay.
To that, Sougo felt the corner of his lip rise into a small smile and thought maybe this was what it was like when people say that pets are cute and loyal.
Finding out that you were the exceptional and only interest was a genuinely happy thought, but Sougo wasn't to forget that she wasn't an animal, and neither a child.
Kagura was like a small but wild beast-like animal, and not to mention, destructive and dangerous at times.
But now... she was different.
She had strong human personality and feelings of soft, weak, unstable, insecure, lonesomeness and fear.
She was extremely emotionally fragile, like a living bomb that could shatter her with just the smallest impact.
...All that were Sougo's least likeable standards that he could handle.
Without a reason, Kagura had been the best partner-like existence for sparring while he had rivalry motivations against her and was having fun fighting with her for all this time.
But now, it she had become his worst type to handle, and on top of that, he had no choice but to take care of her.
At the cafeteria of the headquarters, Kagura felt all the stares directed at her and became frightened, making her hold tightly onto the hem of Sougo's jacket, closing up the space between her and Sougo to feel secured and away from all the stares.
Sougo felt the tug of the hem of his jacket and quickly got rid of Kagura's hands from them.
"Don't."
The crimson eyes stared hard down at Kagura's fearful eyes.
Not being able to take those crimson eyes that stared hard either, Kagura looked away, covering her mouth with heavily shaking hands.
Sougo took notice of this behavior, and then realized what her problem was when he finally felt the stares from the Shinsengumi members in the cafeteria.
"Where the hell do you think you guys are looking at? You want to have my sword slice through you, huh?"
With murderous crimson eyes, the First Division Commander asked a rhetorical question out to those who dared to act like this, in a venomous voice.
Fearing the First Division Commander, the others immediately looked away getting back to their personal lives.
With that, Sougo straightened himself and quickly grabbed a set meal for two and U-turned back from where they came from.
When he passed Kagura, he ordered her 'we're going' and to that, the fear that clouded her eyes vanished in a flash as she followed the First Division Commander in a rush, sticking to him once again like a shadow.
The two sets of breakfast were put down on the tatami floor when they reached Sougo's room.
Sougo rested himself to the floor, followed by Kagura, silently sitting beside him.
He indicated Kagura for her to start eating as he himself raised his own chopsticks, but seeing that Kagura didn't seem have any intention of eating, he lowered his chopsticks.
"Aren't you going to eat?" Sougo asked awkwardly, trying to voice what he felt.
Until now he had been throwing insults at her and shooting provoking words at her, all without truly meaning to hurt her feelings, and he received the same.
He was so used to that kind of rivalry conversation, that with her like this, the relationship between the two became awkward, dropping Sougo down into a whirl of confusion and irritation.
What was more, to this change in relationship, the only one affected by it was Sougo.
He didn't know what to do, and how to say things with sincerity or without hurting other people's feelings, especially to an extremely emotionally fragile girl.
"You'll die if you don't eat," Sougo said as a matter-of-factly without thinking again, and that was a landmine he had accidentally stepped on again.
The frightened Kagura widened her eyes in fear and tears swelled up in her eyes.
'Die' was another word not to use in front of her.
"No, I mean… if you don't eat.. you'll get…unhealthy…okay?" Sougo immediately tried to correct what he truly meant by those words and anxiously observed Kagura's reaction.
But Kagura's tears quickly disappeared and her face expression was as if none of that actually happened between them, like part of a scene erased, and Sougo seemed somewhat surprised and extremely confused.
'Eat three meals a day properly or else your health will lose balance and you will get sick', was what Mitsuba, Sougo's older sister had used to say all the time to Sougo and for that, Sougo couldn't help worrying if Kagura didn't eat, and have an appetite at all.
"Oi, Sougo. How's that girl?" Hijikata asked Sougo as they coincidentally met up in the corridor.
"Hijikata-san," Sougo acknowledged who was talking to him, "well she hasn't eaten anything for 3 days now. But I had heard the boss complaining once that she eats so much that everyday they only had just salt and sugar at home…"
"W-well that's an abnormal appetite…"
Hearing that, Hijikata sighed in relief, glad that it wasn't them, the Shinsengumi who had taken care of her, but the Yorozuya.
(*SLS-MAYO-ITF*) (Super-Lovely-Special-MAYOra's-Inner-Thoughts-Forum)
Wait! but we're the ones taking care of her now…
But right now she hasn't gotten her appetite back, so we're safe for the moment of time being?
What are you sayin! We're trying to GET her appetite back!
You mean you want her to get her back into her abnormal monster eating…?
Of course! If she doesn't, then she'll die of starvation!
But wait… she's a Yato right? Not human. So she's probably immorta-
The hell! Of course she's not! Are you stupid? ...Damn, I shouted at myself that I'm stupid… What the hell am I doing!?
Anyway, its not like I'm the one having to pay all her expenses, so we'll leave that to that old man, Matsudaira…
Uh.. but he might say something like: Why do I~ have to do such a thing, aae? Leaving dear Kuriko aside and feeding a stranger~? Who in the world would do such a thing, aae?
Then what do you suppose we do? Cut down our own expenses? Or-
"Hijikata-san. Stop making a weird Stupid-Lowlife-Screwed up-MASOchist-Inner Thoughts-Forum. At this rate, this chapter's gonna end with this stupidity," Sougo broke through Hijikata's forum.
"Oh, sorry…" Hijikata apologized without putting it to thought, and then a second later, figured what Sougo had actually just said.
"I'm not a masochist! What's with the randomly changed abbreviations!"
Those were the first things Hijikata took notice of.
And then, 2~3 seconds later, he noticed the larger, the more important problem.
"H-hhhh how did you know I had opened a *SLS-MAYO-ITF*…?"
"Well, Hijikata-san. That's because I'm also reading this fan-fiction."
"What did you say! A fan-fiction! F*ck in hell! Who the hell is the one responsible for making this screwed up fan-fiction! No wonder this didn't seem like Gintama at all! Gintama is a comedy manga! Ya hear!? A comical parody! Which part of this whole thing is a parody, aah? Bring back that stupid main character! Revive him! Put everything back to how it was, I can't stand this craziness!"
"Quit howling like a mad dog. You act just like how you are, a dog of the military…" Sougo sighed and complained while he had his ears covered for protection.
"Who's howling!?" Hijikata said in a louder voice still, harming the poor Sougo-kun who was already having enough of the loudness.
"Oi, you! Writer! What the hell is up with the 'harming the poor Sougo-kun who was already having enough of the loudness' huh!? You're being really biased here!" complained Hijikata, but the writer ignored it completely.
Hijikata flared up in anger, his aura growing from red to black, ready to kill.
"Well, don't worry, Hijikata-san. Your stupidity is still the same, and I will be like always, trying to (attempt killing you and making it look like an accident and) take your position as a vice-commander," Sougo said in a very normal tone.
"Oi! What's up with the words in the brackets, huh? And you tell me not to worry!?" Hijikata howled, almost screaming while Sougo starts walking away from him.
"Well, anyway, that's how it is," Sougo replied and waved a hand back without looking back.
"What do you mean 'that's how it is'…?" Hijikata muttered, looking at Sougo's back, after he had calmed his breathing.
But no matter how calm and natural Sougo was acting, Hijikata was very worried.
Sougo's not familiar with these kind of situations…I just hope he won't crush himself mentally…
