Chapter 7

Kagura and Okita walked into the Shinsengumi base to see Yamazaki heading out. The badminton lover and Shinsengumi spy was carrying a bag filled to the brim with anpan and milk, causing the red-haired Yato to raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"Ah, Yamazaki, heading to work?" Sougo asked.

"Yes, the commander and vice-chief want me to continue spying on the Yato, in case he doesn't follow his normal routine," Yamazaki replied.

"Where are Kondo-san and Hijikata-san?"

"The meeting room, waiting for you, Okita-san."

"Enjoy eating your anpan," Sougo said and Kagura noticed a sadistic smirk appear on his face. Yamazaki gave him a dark look at the word 'anpan', which Kagura thought was out of character for the young man. Yamazaki didn't reply and walked away to do his job.

"Why did he look so upset at what you said?" Kagura asked.

"He hates anpan," Sougo replied.

"Why did he have so much anpan then?"

"It's his act of sacrifice to the myriad of gods for a successful operation."

"What?"

"Why do you even care? Just stop asking questions, idiot," Sougo replied, flicking her on the forehead, "let's go see Kondo-san and Hijibaka-san."

"It's 'Hijikata'."

"I know, Bakagura." (*)

"STOP ADDING 'BAKA' INTO PEOPLE'S NAMES, YOU BAKA!"

"Oi, oi, China, there's no need to shout."

"Let's just find Mayora and the stupid Gorilla," Kagura muttered. Walking ahead of Sougo, she mumbled inaudible comments about him.

"Do you even know where to go?" He retorted, glaring at her as she walked away from him quickly.

"Sougo, Queen-sama, how was shopping?" Kondo asked as he saw the two rivals walk into the Shinsengumi planning room, the younger of the two carrying a bag.

"Very good, thanks, Gorilla!" Kagura said with a large grin on her face, clearly satisfied that she had got some new clothes and in addition to this, got to spend some of the sadist's money.

At the same time as Kagura said this, Sougo muttered, "it was awful."

Kagura quickly sent a hard punch into Sougo's side and he let out a groan and then sent a glare towards the strong girl. Ignoring Sougo as he whispered the word 'bitch' to her, Kagura looked at the two other men in the room. "So, have you planned the mission yet?" She asked, blue eyes shining in curiosity.

"Yes, we have," Kondo said, "Please sit down."

The two immediately complied, sitting down next to each other. When Kagura noticed that their knees were touching, she felt… electricity? Sparks? She started to blush because of her confusion. What was happening to her? On that soap opera she had been watching – mainly to laugh at the stupid characters – they said something about feeling sparks… Something to do with that word she never really understood 'love.' Shinpachi and Otae had tried to explain 'love' to her but she was confused because there were so many different types of it. There was the friendly love and the other one… Surely this was just friendly love…? Kagura could not love that bastard in the other way, could she? No, there was no way she would love that idiot either way. She quickly moved away from him a little so there was now a gap between their knees. Sougo gave the girl a weird look, what the hell was she doing? He never did understand his little China girl. Wait… his China girl? What was he saying? The China girl was not his.

"So, what's the plan?" Sougo deadpanned, looking at his boss.

"The enemy has a tendency to just do the same thing every day," Hijikata said, "he follows the same routes, stops at the same places, does the exact same thing. He picks his targets from the Kabukicho District."

Sougo noticed Kagura's horrified when her district was mentioned. It surprised him, her worry for the Kabukicho residents. With the way she acted around him, he could not imagine her being the caring type… although, when he thought about how she spoke about Gintoki, he realised that she did care a lot for her loved ones.

"He's attacking Kabukicho?" She asked. Even though she'd heard about the killings, she had not known that the attacks were happening in Kabukicho. "They're all in danger… Gin-chan, Shinpachi, Anego, the old granny..."

"Queen-sama?" Kondo asked softly, worried about the watery-eyed young girl. Sougo and Hijikata both stared at her too, they had never seen her cry before. Sougo felt his hands ball into fists, he didn't know why but he was furious with that Yato for making Kagura cry. Kagura looked up at her Anego's stalker and he continued speaking. "Nobody else is going to get hurt. We've sent Zaki to watch the killer and he is going to contact me when the target has been picked. You and Sougo will be transported immediately to fight him and kill him... We can't let him kill anyone else."

"Y-you want us to kill him?" she asked, her expression becoming even more upset. There was a look of horror in her eyes as she looked down at her hands. Confused by how upset the normally-violent girl was by the plans, Sougo grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the room, leaving behind a bewildered pair of policemen.

"What just happened?" Hijikata asked the commander.

"I think our Sougo is in love," Kondo replied.

"Rivals in love, eh?" Hijikata commented, taking out a cigarette and smoking. "Well, that's a new one."

"SADIST, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Kagura screamed, being dragged by the police officer. "GET OFF, YOU BASTARD!"

He continued to drag her, ignoring her persistent screams, insults and questions. He pushed her into a room and she landed on a bed. She looked up at her rival with wide, fearful eyes, which were still a bit teary from before. "Sadist, what's going on? Where is this?" She asked.

"My room," he deadpanned.

"That means… I'm on your bed?!" She squealed, standing up quickly. "SADIST, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! ARE YOU TRYING TO RAPE ME? GO AWAY!"

"Why would I try to rape you? I could do so much better."

"Bastard! Why did you bring me in here then?!"

"Why are you so worked up over having to kill him? He's a murderer… We would lock him up but he's too strong, he could escape easily. He's a danger whether he's caught or not. He needs to be killed or more people will be killed. Do you want the killings to continue?"

"No…Of course I don't. It's just… I… It's none of your business!" She yelled, tears running down her face.

"China?" He asked.

"WHAT? I SAID IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!" She screamed, staring angrily at Sougo. Then, after a moment of silence, she spoke quietly. "Let's just go back to the meeting room; I don't want to stay in your room anymore." She headed towards the door but was stopped and then pinned against the wall by the brunet. "S-sadist?"

"You don't want to go back to the meeting room. If you wanted to stay in there, you would have tried harder to get me off of you when I was pulling you here. I know you're strong enough, you're a Yato," he said in his normal bored tone. "On top of that, something is bothering you. I don't understand why a violent girl like you wouldn't want to kill that guy… I know if it was murdering a civilian, it would make sense for you to react like this but this guy is a murderer, China. You don't want anyone else in the Kabukicho area to be killed so you obviously want this guy to be gone, especially because he's putting your loved ones in danger… but why don't you want to kill him?"

"I… I said it's none of your business," she muttered, fighting against his grip. She realised that she really wasn't trying hard enough and she realised why. She wanted to tell him… She didn't understand why but she had recently felt closer to the sadist than normal, she felt able to talk to him. She wasn't just closer to him emotionally though, Kagura realised, looking at their positioning; his body was extremely close to hers, particularly his lips to hers. She felt her cheeks heating up again.

"Tell me," he retorted, staring into her eyes, trying to avoid paying attention to their closeness.

"I don't want to kill anyone… I don't want to be a murderer like the rest of the Yato. I don't want to give into my blood, I want to fight against it and be a normal girl… and I can't lose control again," she commented, no longer crying but staring up at her rival with a serious expression yet still tear-stained cheeks.

"Lose control again?" Sougo asked. To be frank, he was confused about what the girl was going on about. He had thought she loved fighting, that she was proud of her blood. On top of that, Sougo could never think of her as 'a normal girl'.

"Shinpachi and I fought against a Yato named Abuto once…" she said, shuddering a little at the memory. "I can't remember it all… I lost control..."

"You won?"

"Yes."

"Maybe you should lose control again," Sougo suggested, "it'll make you stronger, right?"

"I couldn't think properly when it happened. I couldn't control myself at all."

"You can't think properly anyway."

"This is why I didn't want to tell you, you asshole. I hope that if I do lose control, I kill you as well as him."

"Ouch, China. That really hurt my poor policeman heart."

"I hate you."

"I hate you more."

"Tch, asshole. I don't want to talk to you anymore," she muttered, pushing him off her. This time he let her go. "I'm taking my cheongsams home and getting ready for the job, I'll meet you in the meeting room."

Sougo sat down on his for a few minutes, thinking over the conversation and about Kagura. "Fighting against her blood, huh? That was really unexpected," he said aloud. He leaned back, arms behind his head. His rivals had even more to her than he thought. He knew that she had said before that she had been trying to suppress her Yato blood, but he had assumed that was because she was living in Edo now. He was surprised at how complex the girl really was. He had always thought she was an open book and he knew all about her, but thinking about it he didn't know anything about her at all. She was a closed book and it was as though he had only read the blurb and to his surprise, he was dying to read more.

About half an hour later, Sougo was walking back into the meeting room. As soon as he sat down, he was bombarded with questions from his boss.

"Sougo! Where's Queen-sama? And what were the two of you up to? I know she's old enough now, but I hope you didn't do that with her! Oh god, you did, didn't you? Did you use protection?"

"She's taking her new clothes home and I did not and would never have sex with her! She's a stupid brat," Sougo retorted.

"Why not?" Kondo asked.

"We've seen how you look at her, Sougo, and she definitely is a pretty girl," Hijikata said, smirking. He then added, "Maybe you should hurry up, before she ends up with someone else. It won't be difficult for her and she does live with a man already."

Something snapped in Sougo then, he felt an intense anger over a mixture of what Hijikata had just said. He felt jealousy at the other man's suggestions of Kagura being no longer available and the fact he called her pretty but he also felt resentment to the fact that the two of them were insinuating that he had feelings for her. He unsheathed his sword and held it to Hijikata's neck.

"What are you doing, you bastard?" Hijikata asked, his cigarette falling from his mouth.

"Sougo!" Kondo yelled.

"Stop it now, both of you. I don't like the brat, okay?" Sougo muttered, seething with anger.

"I would believe you, if it wasn't for the way you reacted just then," the mayo-loving samurai replied.

"Shut up or I will kill you."

"Sougo, don't do it," Kondo said, patting his arm softly.

"Why shouldn't I do it? This bastard ruins my life. He takes everything that's precious to me away!" Sougo yelled. 'And he even joked about the silver-perm taking her away too,' Sougo mentally added.

"Sougo, calm down, I was kidding," Hijikata said, hand on his own sword, ready to unsheathe it quickly if worst came to worst.

"I really hate you," Sougo replied.

"Maybe you should save that for our actual enemy," came a new voice to the conversation. The three men turned their heads towards the owner of the voice. They all stared at her and noticed she had gotten changed. She was now wearing a short red kimono which was tied together by a large yellow fabric, tied in a bow behind her. Her hair, normally tied on either side of her head and covered by ornaments, was now up in a loose bun with her fringe falling in parts on her pale forehead. Sougo dropped his sword in surprise over many things; the sudden interruption, the fact that the girl they had just been talking about was right there and how beautiful she looked. Not only beautiful, he thought, looking at the pale skin of her leg between her short kimono and her striped tights, but sexy too. She gripped her umbrella in one hand and some sukonbu in the other.

"Oh, Queen-sama, did you hear our conversation?" Kondo said.

"I heard Sadist yelling something about Mayora taking things away from him and then Mayora telling him to calm down and then Sadist said, "I really hate you." It was quite a sight to see, Sadist, what did Mayo-samurai say that got you so mad?" She said, grinning.

"Nothing," Sougo replied irritably.

"Ohohoho! Poor little Sou-chan is all upset!" Kagura said and then turned to Hijikata, "what did you say to him, Mayora? The mood you put him in is fun."

"Queen-sama? Can you please not wind Sougo up now? By all means, fight and hate each other after the mission, but I honestly can't have the two of you fighting during the mission or the enemy will have an even bigger advantage," Kondo said.

"Fine, fine. Just tell us when the Shinsengumi-Shinpachi has called. Meanwhile, I need to talk to Mayora," she said, an even bigger grin on her face this time.

"Eh?" Hijikata said in surprise as he lit his cigarette.

"Just quickly, Mayora," she said, pulling him outside.

"Why does she want to speak to him?" Sougo muttered bitterly.

"I don't know… Who's Shinsengumi-Shinpachi?" Kondo replied.

"Yamazaki," Sougo said, a frown was on his face.

"What's bothering you, Sougo?" Kondo asked. "If you're worried about Kagura talking to Toushi, I'm sure she's not interested in him."

"I don't care about her," Sougo retorted but then quickly added, "why are you sure about that? How do you know?"

"You see, I'm great with women," Kondo began.

"No, you just stalk them," Sougo said.

"I'm great with women," Kondo repeated, ignoring the sandy-haired boy's comment. "I can tell when they like a person and Kagura most definitely doesn't like Toushi in the way you're worried about."

"I'm not worried… and who does she like?" Sougo asked, forcing himself to sound uninterested.

"You're not interested."

"True…"

"What do you want?" Hijikata said, looking down at the girl who had just dragged him with her inhumane strength. He knew all along that Sougo and her were perfect for one another. Well, not perfect… more perfectly imperfect. Ever since Hijikata first met the redhead, she had always reminded him of Sougo; not only her anger, her strength and her rude, sadistic personality but also her sweet, kind-hearted moments, like when she was crying over the safety of her friends, that reminded him of how Sougo would be around Mitsuba.

"I want you to tell me about the sadist's sister," Kagura replied.

"Mitsuba?" He said, a sad look appearing on his face. "Why?"

"Because he got upset when I called him 'Sou-chan' and told me Mitsuba called him that… but I don't know why he got upset," she answered and the black-haired policeman noticed the concern on her face.

"Mitsuba passed away," Hijikata said simply, wanting to escape from the conversation as quickly as possible. "She and Sougo were orphaned from a young age so she took the role of the mother and brought him up. She's the only person he would ever treat with courtesy."

"They were close then, huh?" she said softly. "That's all I wanted to ask. Let's go back now."

As they walked back in, Kagura wished that she and Kamui were as close as Sougo and Mitsuba were.

Kagura sat down next to the already sitting Sougo and began eating her sukonbu.

"Do you ever stop eating?" Sougo asked drily.

"Do you ever stop being an idiot?" she replied.

"Oh, good comeback," he commented sarcastically.

"Better than anything you could think of."

"Can you just stop arguing?" Kondo asked, frowning at them. "Zaki should be calling soon. Are you both ready?"

"I'm ready," Sougo said and Kagura nodded, both sporting a determined expression.

"Great, now we just have to wait for Yamazaki to call," Hijikata said and as if on cue, Kondo's walkie-talkie began to make a noise.

"Commander!" came a voice from it.

"Ah, Zaki! You've found him then! Where is he?" Kondo asked.

"The anpan is in the anpan," Yamazaki answered, his voice monotone. "Anpan's got an anpan anpan!"

"What? Anpan…?" Kagura whispered to Sougo.

"Don't worry, the commander will understand," Sougo deadpanned.

"Okay, Zaki! I'll send them there," Kondo replied and turned to the two sitting rivals. "Go to the park."

"The park? He doesn't usually go there," Hijikata said surprised.

"He doesn't? Why do you think he's gone there?" Kagura asked.

"I don't know why he changed his route today, but he's holding a child hostage," Kondo said urgently, "you need to go now."

Kagura and Sougo nodded and both ran quickly out of the Shinsengumi headquarters.

Time to fight.

Hiya, thanks for reading.
Many thanks to all who reviewed the first six chapters and to everyone who reviews this one. It's very, very helpful.

(*) 'Baka' is Japanese for idiot and I was adding it into their names. I don't know Japanese so I'm not sure if it would actually work in Kanji or whatever but you all get what I mean, right? So it's okay? :S xD

This whole chapter is kind of messy and tedious. I don't really like it and I felt like everyone was really OOC and awkward... but review and tell me what you think.
KYAHAHA, THE ACTION BEGINS NEXT CHAPTER!

pricis, another Gintama + Fairy Tail fan! :D Yay!
C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only, everyone's stupid in Gintama xD except maybe Elizabeth! xD
Hachibukai, pervert Sougo is the best! I loooveeee Fairy tail! It's awesome :3 This chapter took a long looong time and your review made me fear my life! xD Haha, hope this update wasn't too long... I don't think it was as I'm still alive.
ElleinadOtaku0w0, he's so riiichhhh. All rich, sandy-haired policemen have Loli fetishes! Hahah, with their personalities, they kinda have to be tsundere!

Thanks again, everyone!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
I will update as soon as possible.
I don't own Gintama or the characters. :P