Chapter 9
Sougo's eyes were closed. He was prepared to die.
"My, my, Pet-chan, I wonder what it's like for you samurai to be slaughtered by your very own sword. Tell me, is there any honour in that kind of death? Oh, Kagura-chan! Say goodbye to your pet," Katashi had said in a strange sadistic tone that had not been heard previously.
"He's not my pet," Sougo's rival… no, Sougo's China girl had replied.
"Whatever, Kagura-chan! It doesn't matter what he is to you anymore. He's dead," had been Katashi sneered response. He was right. It no longer mattered what he was to her, he was about to die, and then she would be killed too. It was over. The battle was lost. He wondered though, what was he to Kagura? What did she think of him? Did she realise that he- Wait, no. It couldn't end with him falling for that repulsive beast. He smirked to himself, he had had the last laugh between him and the China girl. She probably wasn't insulting him internally. Not that anything mattered anymore, for pretty soon he would be gone. Non-existent. Nothing. Would anyone even care?
And then his life flashed before his eyes.
He saw everything… He saw his parents, their passing, Mitsuba and her raising him… and her illness, training with Kondo-san, that idiot Hijikata – Man, he hoped China would win the fight so she could kill Hijikata for him when he was gone – joining their dojo, leaving for Edo… He saw the Shinsengumi, meeting those idiots at the Yorozuya, trying to capture Katsura time and time again… He remembered the time when he and China were at the festival, winning all of the MADAO's possessions, and then fighting alongside her against those robots… And the time when he, Hijikata, Kondo-san, the stupid silver-perm, the four-eyes and China went to the Yagyu dojo to rescue Otae, and he and Kagura fought together again, although China showed how truly sadistic she was when wiping him out as well as their opponent. She was sadistic like him.
He was beginning to accept that, even though he was still young, he'd had a pretty full life and he was ready. The trouble with that thought is that the sword never came down so it didn't mean anything.
Sougo opened his eyes slowly and in front of him stood Kagura, standing tall. He looked up at her figure, facing away from him. As his eyes reached her shoulders, he noticed something, the sword had gone down. "C- China!" He yelled in shock as he realised that she had taken the blow for him. No response came from the girl, who he knew would be unable to move her right arm for a while. The sword had struck her right on the shoulder.
"Ah, Kagura-chan! It wasn't your turn! That was a bad move too… your arm was at least useful in this fight, Pet-chan isn't," Katashi sang.
Kagura didn't argue as she usually would, however she raised her left hand slowly, grabbed Sougo's sword by the blade and, slicing her hand as she did so, pulled it out Katashi's grip and threw it to one side. Sougo silently and swiftly moved in the direction it was thrown, and fumbled around for it as he stared at his rival. She looked different, as though she was absent, no not exactly absent, but she looked as though something had taken over her. Sougo noticed that her normally pretty eyes had become wide and the cerulean irises had shrunk and a wide grin had appeared on her face. It was like a monster had taken over his beautiful rival. Ignoring the fact that in his head he had just called that irritating brat 'beautiful', he wondered if this was what China meant when she mentioned losing control. He pondered what had caused the girl to lose it… was it because he had been about to die? Did she lose control to save him?
Why would she do that to save him?
"China?" he whispered in bewilderment, yet he was ignored by the two Yatos, who had begun to fight one another. This time it was clear that Kagura was winning, all her kicks and punches landed and with brute strength too. Kagura was obeying her blood. No, it was not Kagura but a monster. That was not the violent yet somewhat sweet girl Sougo knew. He stared at the two fighters. Although Kagura was not using her right arm and it hung by her side, she was using her bloodied left hand, which Sougo was sure should be causing her excruciating pain. The inhumane girl was fighting with such extreme injuries and was not even flinching when Katashi added to them. This was her true strength, one which could not be matched, not by Katashi… or by Sougo.
"Kagura-chan, this side of you is truly amazing – just like he had said. Fighting like this even after sustaining those injuries," Katashi said breathlessly. It was clear he was being worn out by the insane girl. "I'm afraid I have to beat you though." As he said this, he brought one leg up and slammed it down on Kagura's damaged shoulder, knocking her to the ground. Sougo leapt up as he heard the crack of Kagura's right shoulder, and, carrying his sword, ran at Katashi.
"CHINA!" He yelled as he sliced at the strong Yato male and sliced one of him arms nearly off, only to be knocked away as he went for the other one.
Kagura, upon hearing her rival's voice, resurfaced for a moment and saw that Katashi had turned on Sougo. She rose, the monster inside had taken over again. Her pain had vanished and was replaced by pure rage and bloodlust. Katashi, not expecting the girl, was kicked aside and let out a yelp. Sougo stared at her as she turned away from him and walked, swaying from side to side, towards their enemy. He rose, holding his side because he had landed badly on it, and silently took a quicker route so he could ambush the enemy Yato.
Katashi glared at her and spat out some blood. "My, oh, my, Kagura-chan. Even in that form, you're protecting your weak pet. Could it be love? Oh, how fun it will be to kill you both. Ah, just like Romeo and Juliet…" Sougo smirked slightly, that was the perfect opportunity for one of Shinpachi or Yamazaki's straight man lines. Knowing that neither of those two were here to deliver a line, he took the job upon himself.
"THAT'S NOT HOW ROMEO AND JULIET WENT, THEY KILLED THEMSELVES," Sougo said, jumping out at the enemy, fully hacking off the arm that he had attacked before, and then jumping away before Katashi could fight him back.
"Ah, Pet-chan, you're so silly! Coming to fight me was killing yourselves!" Katashi replied, giggling to himself.
"You've got a lot of guts for a guy who just lost his arm; do you want me to get rid of them as well?" Sougo deadpanned.
"Oh, naïve, little pet, you are not strong enough."
"Wow, nice arm," Sougo commented, a sadistic expression on his face and he stared at the bleeding shoulder of Katashi, which once had had an arm attached to it.
"Foolish pet!" Katashi sang, and kicked Sougo hard in the stomach, and then turned to Kagura who had been slowly approaching them with that maniacal grin on her face. He grinned back at her. "I won't lose this battle, Kagura-chan! Now we only have one arm each, fair right? Except you have that injured hand as well…"
They ran at each other, throwing kicks and punches. Katashi managed to push down on Kagura's unusable shoulder, freezing her for a moment, before she eventually swung her head forward and pushed him back. As he recovered, Kagura had grabbed his good arm and then she pulled it off. He stared down at his two shoulders in horror. Kagura then swung a leg around and pushed him to the ground. He cried out in pain, and Sougo, seeing that Kagura was about to crush the Yato male's neck, rose without thinking. He grabbed Kagura's good hand and whispered to her. "China, you don't want to do this. You said you don't want to kill. Stop, you know you'll regret it."
Kagura turned to him, with that maniacal, mad expression of hers. He hadn't reached her… She quickly, releasing herself from his grip, kicked him away and stared down at Katashi, who was grinning back at her. Infuriated by this, she rose her foot and was about to crush his windpipe when she was knocked away by something. The monster looked up at the annoyance which had taken her away from her prey. Sougo stared back, his usual deadpan expression. He pinned her down, knowing she could easily get him off.
"Listen to me, you idiot. You are not a killer, so stop. China, I… I can't let you do this. I can't let you do something you'll regret," Sougo said, and moved his head to the side to avoid the incoming head-butt that he had been expecting. "This is not the China I know. The China I know wouldn't do this. The China I know is sweet, and although she's violent, I know she's not a killer. She's really beautiful too, with lovely eyes… and she does pull some disturbing expressions and does disgusting things… but that's her character… and Danna's fault. Those things aside, she had a good heart. She wouldn't kill a man that can't get up. She wouldn't kill anyone at all." He touched her face with the hand he was using to pin down her damaged arm. "She did this to protect me, and everyone else, from that monster – but she wouldn't kill him. She'd show mercy – that's what Kagura's like."
"My, my, Sadist, you just called me 'Kagura'. What's wrong? Do you like me or something?" A familiar voice said. Sougo stared down in shock at the redhead, who had an arrogant expression on her face.
"China…" He whispered, and she noted the wide eyed expression. Suppressing her laughter, she decided she would act as though nothing had just happened, that she had not lost it – most certainly not for that sadistic bastard anyway.
"Get off of me, Sadist, you're heavy!" She said, grinning evilly at him.
"Isn't that a little hypocritical coming from you, the gluttonous pig?" he deadpanned, but quickly got up. She was about to retort, but realised he had walked away towards Katashi, carrying his sword. She sighed and relaxed a little, realising how much pain she was in. She allowed herself to cry for a bit.
"You're showing me mercy? You're an idiot; you should've let Kagura-chan kill me. That's the problem with humans, you're merciful and weak. I'm a Yato, I may not be able to get up now, but once I'm healed I will kill you, and her. I'll kill everyone you love, Pet-chan," Katashi said, looking up at the sandy-haired man standing over him.
"You seem to have misread the situation, Bakashi. I couldn't let the China girl kill you – she's not a killer. You've got me completely wrong. For one thing, I'm not her pet," Sougo deadpanned, then smirked at the other man.
"What are you talking about, Pet-chan? What are you to her then?" Katashi asked, staring up at Sougo.
"I'm not her pet, I'm her sadist, and, like I said before, I'm going to spill your guts."
Kagura heard a bloodcurdling scream and soon Sougo returned. She glanced at him with a bored expression, "did you kill him, Sadist?"
"He couldn't commit seppuku because he didn't have any arms, so I decided to help him out," Sougo muttered, laying down next to her. He noticed her tears, did it hurt that much? He was glad he killed that bastard. "You okay, China?"
"I'm fine. This won't take long to heal. What about you?" She replied.
"I'm alright. Just a couple of bruises probably. Maybe a damaged rib."
"You should probably go to hospital, I heal fast so I'm okay."
"No, it's fine. I didn't get too injured."
"That's because I did most of the fighting. You just let yourself be thrown around."
"Do you remember the whole fight?" 'Shit, does she remember what I said?'
"Yeah, you called me 'beautiful'. I knew you were in love with me." 'Does he really think that? I'll ask Anego what she thinks about all this.'
"Who'd fall for you, pig?" 'I would… WHAT AM I THINKING?'
"Thanks, Sadist."
"I just insulted you, why are you thanking me?"
"You saved me from myself."
"Oh. You're welcome, I guess."
"What do we do now, Sadist?"
"Go back to the Shinsengumi Headquarters," He said getting up. Once he was up, he offered her a hand, and she grabbed it with her working hand, wincing a bit because of the pain.
"But... but… I want to see Gin-chan!" She argued, feeling nervous about spending any more time with the sadist. He had called her beautiful, protected her several times and just helped her up. She felt their relationship had changed recently, and it wasn't that she disliked it, it was just that she wasn't used to this emotion he was making her feel.
"You can go home after we go back. Do you want your pay, brat?"
"Yes. I think I deserve extra too! Take me out to an all-you-can-eat buffet, Sadist!"
"Oh, China, I didn't realise you wanted to go on a date with me that badly."
"As if I would want to go on a date with you! I know – I'll get the Mayo samurai to take me!"
"NO."
"What?"
"No, Hijikata-san is busy…" 'That bastard is not taking China out for food.'
"Well, we can just go when he isn't."
"He's busy indefinitely." 'He's dead.'
"Fine, fine. I'm sure Jimmy-zaki will take me. If worse comes to worst, I'll get the gorilla to take me."
"I think they're busy too. I'm not that busy. I really don't want to but I could take you, I suppose."
"YES! Free meal!" 'Gin-chan will be proud'
"You're just scamming me and spending all my money, aren't you? I hate you, China." 'Not really.'
"The feeling's mutual, Sadist." 'Not really.'
Hiya, thanks for reading.
Many thanks to all who reviewed the first eight chapters and to everyone who reviews this one. It's very, very helpful.
Sorry for the long waits between the chapters! . I am ultra busy at the moment!
AnabellaGC, sorry about the cliffhangers! :o Cookie please? :3
FeyrisNyanNyan, that is exactly how I feel! I reread stuff and I'm just like "oh god... why?"
THANKS EVERYONE ELSE YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME LOADS OF HUGS FROM ME 3
I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
I will update as soon as possible.
I don't own Gintama or the characters. :P