Sorry for a bit of a late post on this one. Here is part two of the "festival arc"! ^-^ Please enjoy and review! Thank you all for reading. ^-^

The next day was the day of the festival. Kagura wore a kimono for the first time in her life. She emerged to the sitting room wrapped in red with a vibrant pattern of flowers after fighting for half an hour with the black sash. Gin and Shinpachi were also dressed up, with significantly less trouble, in men's kimonos. Practice makes perfect, they say.

"Alright!" said Gin, once they had all gathered, "Let's get fired up before we go to work."

"For the sake of free food!"cheered Kagura.

" For the sake of parfaits!" cheered Gin.

" For the sake of love!" cheered Shinpachi.

And on that note, the three of them left for the festival grounds.

Kagura stood behind the counter, making and selling the dango. At the very beginning, there weren't very many customers, so she made herself a plate of the dango to eat during her shift. Soon, though, a line began to form. As the festival really got under way, and she ended up making the dango as fast she could.

She furiously counted yen, and handed out dango in a flurry of fingers, yen, and sticky dango. Looking up for an instant, Kagura saw no sign of Okita in the crowd. He was probably too busy slacking off to make it to the festival. There was no way he would show up.

Kagura forced herself to brighten up. Just looking at all the hungry people was enough to get her fired up about making and serving them dango. All these people were the same as her when it came to dango. They were all there to satisfy their hunger. If the reason Gin fought was to protect his friends, the reason Kagura cooked was to protect her comrades-in-dango. She transformed into a beaming whirlwind of dango serving, bustling as she turned to get dango, turned to give dango. Each dango was her little child, out to experience the world, and make it a better place.

She smiled, therefore, like a proud mother as she worked harder than she had for a long time. Her feet began to hurt, her throat was getting sore, and she was flushed, but she was so carried away that she didn't notice until the rush settled down.

Then, Kagura rested against the counter to eat some of her own personal dango. As she closed her eyes to relish the flavor after so much work, a man in a dark Shinsengumi uniform sat down. He leaned way forward on the counter, his chin supported by his palms.

"Just so you know, I already spent all my money." he said. Kagura's eyes shone. He had shown up. She turned to her plate, putting together a stick of dango from her reserve.

"I'm allowed to have them free," she said, "so here's one for me, freshly in the sewer."

Okita's dark red eyes caught hers as he took the dango, and ate it slowly.

"It's a skewer."

"Whatever. Was it good? I'm supposed to have eaten that, you know."

His eyes were soft. "It was.

"Yum, what great dango I just ate!" she exclaimed.

He put one hand behind his head, ruffling through his hair, as if maybe he could get into his brain through there and find the right words. Finally, his eyes glossed back to their default state. He held out what could only be described as a huge water gun. It was more towards a water bazooka, actually. The thing was massive and dangerous looking.

"I won this in one of those stands back there. You can have it." he offered, his mask of apathy back in place. She lit up, and grabbed it.

"You're the best!" she cheered.

He remained at the stand until her shift ended, watching her customers coming and going, and talking to her when there were less.

"How's danna these days?"

"He's still eating more parfaits than is good for him."

"Sounds like he's pretty much healthy, then."

"Seems like it."

"Maybe its just that you're not eating enough parfaits."

"He does say all my problems are caused by calcium deficiency."

"Maybe you make up for it in all the rice you eat."

"And after he says that he drinks strawberry milk—Oh, hello! Would you like some dango?"

When she had closed up the stall, and stepped outside to admire her water gun, he revealed his own water bazooka.

"I, Captain Okita, declare war on you!" He aimed, and fired. Once, twice, mercilessly.

"You're going down, Captain!" Kagura dodged each burst of water, and retaliated.

She flew at Okita, bobbing and weaving around, firing, and then jumping back. He charged his up, hand furiously sliding back and forth, and then held the gun over his shoulder like a bazooka, and leaned backward, shooting a powerful parabola of icy water. Kagura ran toward him, dodging the huge shot, proclaiming,

"This war of water has only just begun!"

Okita seemed to have decided the same thing. She was only about a foot away, and, without warning, he shot her point blank. He laughed sadistically, watching Kagura transform instantaneously from completely dry to soaking wet. She stood there, shaking, dripping.

"You should have held onto your umbrella. It could have kept you dry." he jeered.

Kagura decided the time had come to give Okita a taste of his own medicine.

"Revenge of the sukonbu!" she burst out, attacking with various amounts of water, at random.

He ducked left and right, avoiding the attacks she was launching with wild abandon, until she fired one lucky shot, hitting him full in the face.

Their battle ended abruptly as an announcement echoed through the grounds that the fireworks were about to go off, so everyone should come to the open courtyard to view them clearly. Okita thus managed to emerge unscathed from their battle, with the exception of his dripping hair. Kagura tucked the water gun under her left arm, and, with her right, grabbed his hand, and said, "Let's go!"

Her hand was wet and slippery from firing her water gun. It fit rather nicely into Okita's hand. Not that he noticed, or anything. He was too busy drying his hands off, of course.

She led him to a spot on the grass, and they sat down next to one another.

"I wonder what the fireworks will be like this year." asked Kagura. He looked curiously at her.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, they'll be big and sparkly, but what shapes will they be? What colors will they be? What shapes?"

"Maybe there will be a big bazooka." he suggested apathetically.

"Or a big piece of sukonbu!"

"Real original." he deadpanned, his eyes on Kagura. She was smiling brightly, as if she could be content to sit here and fantasize about fireworks with him forever, although her kimono was dripping wet, and she had her arms wrapped around her knees.

"Or maybe a huge Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon!" she continued.

"The show would get canceled for sure," he mused, observing her, before turning his eyes, slowly, to the sky. It had grown dark, and, without warning, the first firework lit up the sky. A big burst of purple exploded before their eyes, shimmering and crackling and then gone in a puff of smoke.

"Whoa!" Kagura gasped. Now that it was dark, however, it had also grown colder. As a second firework lit up the sky, Okita noticed that Kagura was shivering.

He slipped his arms out of his jacket, and wrapped it gently around her shoulders.

"Just for tonight, just to you," he whispered, "I can be nice."

Kagura leaned onto his shoulder, warming herself, her nose in his hair.

"For the first time tonight," she replied, "you smell nice."

"I took a bath before coming. And I always smell nice." he said.

"Aah, that's it," she said, looking back at the sky, "Well, I'm relieved you actually grasp the concept of hygiene."

"I couldn't stand to be the bishonen character if I didn't..."

"Ah. I see." she seemed to understand, then burst out— "Whoa, look! That one looks like a pair of chopsticks!"

"No, that one is obviously a bazooka." She turned to roll her eyes at him. Her eyes found his, as he met her gaze, watching a red firework reflected in the blue ocean of her eyes, and then leaned toward her. Their lips met for just an instant, and the she whispered,

"Happy New Year, Sadist."

"Happy New Year, China." And then she slipped her warm hand into his, and they both looked back up the sky.