This chapter is the third part of this "arc." It will probably take me some time to get back on a regular schedule, but I hope to continue adding to this story. Thanks again for reading! ^-^.
Kagura knocked two men down with her umbrella, then slipped it into the back of her dress. She placed both hands on Okita's shoulders, lifted herself, inertia carrying her until her body was almost vertical, in a handstand on Okita's shoulders. He crouched, touching the tip of his katana to the toes of a pirate's boots.
She loosened her grip on his shoulders, and swung her legs back down the way she had come, knocking out two pirates, then letting go and following up by punching two others. Using the momentum from the release of her weight, Okita swung his katana in an upward arc, standing up, taking out another opponent.
Okita kept his right hand fending off attackers, and tapped Kagura's arm with his left. She nodded. Two attackers closed in on them.
He waited, calculating a trajectory. He tapped her arm again, a push, and both simultaneously sidestepped their attackers, who collided with one another in the center.
Kagura, now surrounded, crouched low, then leapt to the outside of the crowd. Okita followed suit, onto the other side of the mass of people.
Sougo met her eyes for an instant, and he yelled,
"Race you to the middle, China."
"It won't even be a competition, Sadist. I'll make it to that side before you can take a step. And I won't kill a single man."
She ducked a stab, balancing herself with one palm on the ground, and kicked a man, sprang to her feet, and began swinging her umbrella furiously.
Okita laughed. "You think you have a hope against me, China? All mine will be alive, too. I'll be next to you before you can say 'sukonbu.' "
He countered one man's swing with a one-handed grip on his katana, leaning forward and closing his hand on the hilt of the other man's katana. He pried the katana out of the man's now clammy hand, fending off attempts of the others to stop him with his original katana. Two deadly sickle moons now swung deftly in his hands.
Kagura locked her umbrella against one pirate's sword, simultaneously jumping up and kicking two attackers from either side, doing a split in midair. As she rose into the air, her umbrella was freed and it connected with the man's chin to send him headfirst at Okita.
"Want a handicap, then?" she asked him. He was using both swords to dig his way into the thinning crowd, and, using one sword, flipped the man upward over his head, unfazed. The man flew up into the air, and Okita muttered,
"Set, spike."
As the man came back down, Okita lifted one sword back over his head, and used the flat side to hit the man back towards Kagura.
"You can have this one back, China. It's defective."
He continued to fight his way through the crowd.
Kagura, who was swirling and twisting through the men as though swimming, hit the man backwards over her head, and, continuing to push through people, hit another one over to him.
"Want a refund, Sadist? You can have another one free."
He kicked one pirate to the side, then hit hers back.
She swung her umbrella like a baseball bat, hitting the man off to the side, and making her way towards the middle.
"Oy, sadist. I don't need to give you any handicap. I'll make it to the middle before you can blink."
He continued attacking with the double swords.
"I just don't blink very much. Got a problem with that? I can blink in dramatic parts!"
Kagura elbowed another attacker out of the way, and found herself one man away from Okita. She fluttered her eyelashes at him mockingly.
"Don't blink, you might miss how much faster I am than you!"
Okita's blade danced in a figure eight, and Kagura found herself back to back with him once again.
"I can top you, China." Both of them lifted their right hand, with umbrella and katana, and hit an opponent behind them, over each other's shoulder.
"You think you can make it next to me quicker," he nodded, "I can stay next to you for longer." They stood back to back. His voice was deep, serious, "I'll stand by you for as long as you want."