This chapter is dedicated to my little sister on Tumblr, whom I shall call "Soyo-hime". Here you go, little sis! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Gintama does not belong to me. It belongs to Sorachi Hideaki.

Nankai Renai lines translated by me, as always.


The Sweetest Lie


I willingly fell in love with you, it's all my fault,

Don't worry, I'm not asking for anything in return

That's because your looks, your gestures, the sound of your voice, are all enough for me

The me who fell in love that much

is feeling so much pain in her chest

I'm aiming way too high, because I want you all to myself


"Hey Kagura, you free this weekend?"

It was a cool Friday morning, and as soon as Kagura settled down in her seat, the class representative of class 3Z had approached her immediately and had asked the question. The foreigner's forehead wrinkled a bit before shaking her head. "Yeah, I think so, unless Gin-chan wants me to help out with household chores." She said, yawning a bit. "What's up? Another goukon?"

Otae immediately shook her head. "Nope. I was thinking of a girls' day out. Arcade, karaoke, and probably some shopping. What do you think?"

At this, her eyes sparkled immediately.

Never in her wildest dreams would she get invited to a girls' day out. Goukon was a school girl standard, but a girls' day out was another thing altogether; it involved shopping, karaoke, and just girls being, well, girls. Because of her tomboyish nature, her female classmates thought that she was more interested in hanging out with the boys than go to beauty salons and have their nails done. Despite the actions that she usually showed, Kagura really was a girly-girl.

Who the hell wore hair ornament these days anyway? Wasn't that enough to at least show them that she was girly enough to join them in their shopping escapades?

But then again, that was their loss.

"Ohhh! I can't wait for that!" immediately, Kagura began spinning in her place, skirt be damned. She was wearing shorts now, ever since Gin-chan told her that she was disturbing other people by unintentionally flashing her panties. "Oh, oh, oh, let's go to Harajuku, then to Shinjuku! Oh, Ikebukuro too, since I need to get games for Gin-chan and myself." Suddenly, the exchange student felt more alive and energetic than ever before. "And, and, and, I get to wear my really cute outfit!"

"How cute is cute?" Otae asked.

"Oh, you'll see, anego!" was all the foreign exchange student said before their homeroom teacher came in, a cigarette-looking item in-between his lips. "Ah, sensei, sensei!" immediately, Kagura ran to the teacher's table, eyes gleaming.

"What?" Sakata Ginpachi asked, finding it unusual and really weird that his surrogate daughter was more hyper and happy than usual on a Friday morning. "I assume you haven't done anything illegal?"

"Nope!" she said, grinning widely, which immediately alarmed him.

"Okay, Kagura, spill it. What the hell did you do today?! You're grinning like a murderer who is now face to face with his final victim!"

She stood on her toes so she could whisper it to her guardian's ear. "Can I go out tomorrow with anego?"

Ginpachi never really understood why his ward would refer to the female Shimura as 'anego', but said nothing on that matter. "No boys?" he asked, his eyes narrowing at the thought of his 'daughter' interacting with males outside of school.

"Yep." Unless stalker gorilla comes in and ruins everything. At Gin-chan's glare, she nodded her head. "What? It's true!" At least, not that I know of. And besides, anego wouldn't let any guys join us tomorrow. Shinpachi won't allow it either.

"Well fine. Just be home by 9 in the evening." At this, she jumped up and hugged her language teacher.

"Yay! Thank you, Gin-chan!" she squealed.

"Geez, stop hugging me!" he said, prying her hands off his neck. "And get back to your seat."

Immediately, she released him from her hug and skipped back all the way to her seat, grinning madly at the fact that her unusually strict guardian had allowed her to go out tomorrow. And with a nine in the evening curfew to boot! As soon as she sat down, she gave a thumbs-up to the class representative, who smiled at the gesture.

Tomorrow would be the best day ever.


… Or maybe not.

As soon as Kagura made her way to the meeting place, which was train station in Harajuku, she was dumbfounded at the sight of her anego surrounded by three additional males.

She blinked at the sight of the gorilla.

She narrowed her eyes at the sight of the mayonnaise freak.

Lastly, she tried hard to fight down the blush that was making its way to her face when she saw him with the usual bored expression that he wore.

Immediately, she took out her mobile phone and dialed Shimura Otae's number.

"Yes?"

"Anego, I thought this was a girls' day out! What the hell are they doing there, hanging out with you?!" there was panic in her tone, and the female Shimura simply sighed.

"It was unfortunate that the stalker found me… and before I knew it, the other two suddenly surrounded me. Where are you right now anyway?"

"Just… behind you. I'm leaning against the pillar." She mumbled.

"What?" Otae asked, as she was unable to hear what the foreign student had just said.

"Nothing. I'll be there soon." She hung up and tried to take deep breaths.

Was the universe playing a prank on her again…!?

Not only was this annoying, but it tested her limits as a maiden in love. As much as she didn't want anything to do with that guy, she found herself longing for him. It drove her crazy to the point that she was losing sleep over him, and when she did fall asleep, she dreamt of him. It freaked out her housemate so much that he told her to settle her 'girly dreams' and face it head-on like the aggressive, wild girl that she was.

Face it head-on, she would.

In her cute dress and fashionable heels, even!

… Or maybe not.

She could feel her courage leaving her faster than Gin-chan gulping down a whole carton of his favorite strawberry milk, so before she could even stop herself, she immediately made a run for it.

"Anego!"


Shimura Otae was in the midst of beating up that stalker gorilla that went by the name of Kondo Isao while the two other members of the disciplinary committee looked on when someone had called out to her. She looked up, and immediately, the sight of Kagura had made her eyebrows rise up in surprise.

The tomboyish foreign student who had been reprimanded several times for wearing sweatpants underneath the school skirt was currently clad in a red tartan skirt that reached the quarter of her thigh. Her upper garments consisted of a cream-colored wool sweater and a white tank top that reached a third of the length of her skirt. The white handbag that she had slung over her right arm was a pink and purple checkered designer brand that Otae knew so well; it was from a store that catered to girls who loved wearing sweet Lolita dresses. On her feet were a pair of dark red heels that had two straps wrapped around her ankle and the lower part of her legs. Her vermillion hair wasn't styled with the usual hair buns, but was tied up in a bun over her head while the locks that were too short to be tied up were curled instead to frame her face.

All four of them stood silently and stared at the foreign exchange student before Otae squealed and made a move to hug the girl. "You're so cute!" she cooed, hugging Kagura as tight as she could.

"A-ack, anego, can't breathe…" she said weakly, tapping the female Shimura on the shoulder, signaling her to loosen the hold.

"I can't help it; you're so damn adorable! You managed to convince Gin-san to buy you these?!" Otae knew the latest trends, as well as expensive brands that she could only hope to buy.

"Ah, well… kinda." She mumbled.

"It really suits you. You're so cute!" she gave a final hug before turning to the three men who had tagged along. "Right?"

"It's just as Otae-san said. China-san looks cute!" Kondo Isao said, and Kagura knew that he was very much sincere. He was never the type to lie, though he had rather… scary stalking abilities. Nevertheless, the comment had made her red in the face, which she tried to hide by continuously patting her cheeks.

"Not gonna answer that." Came the reply of Hijikata, and Kagura rolled her eyes in reply. He knew that Mayora probably never really cared about girls in their class, except only when she did that skirt stunt. She knew that his nose bled, but it was only because he got scarred at the sight of her in that state. "But whatever floats your boat, China."

"Gee, thanks a lot, Mayora." She responded back sarcastically.

"Yeah, I think China girl looks pretty."

All four of them, including a now tomato-red Kagura, looked at the resident sadist of their class, surprised at his comment. He never was the type to compliment, nor was he nice towards Kagura. In fact, right after their argument over the whole Sengoku Jidai warlords, he was back to taunting her as if nothing had happened. For him to say that she was pretty was something surprising.

As much as she didn't like to get her hopes up, her heart began beating madly against her chest, hope soaring within her.

Was this it…?

"Yeah, she's really pretty. Pretty ugly."

Something snapped inside her, and before she knew what was happening, she grabbed him by his face and threw him on the sidewalk as hard as she could and walked away, heading towards the direction of the arcade she and Otae frequented in. "Let's go, anego." She said, never looking back to see what the result of her actions had done.


The game center was one of Kagura's most favorite places in the neighborhood. The games were cheap, up to date, and wasn't usually crowded. The ones in Akihabara were for the pros, and she really wasn't the type to be really competitive, for the games she played were for fun, and to relieve stress. She and Otae went here whenever they had money to spare after school, which was done once a week. This time around, after two week of no arcade, she was pretty much ready to spend all of her 100 yen, which she estimated to be worth at least two thousand.

"Oh cool, no one's using the Dancing Songstress [1] machine!" she said, opening her handbag to get a hundred yen.

Otae frowned. "Wasn't that the machine that you nearly broke 'cause you couldn't get past the first stage?" she commented.

"W-well… yeah." At this, she scratched her head. "But I've been practicing a lot at home—" she said before she got interrupted.

"Wait, how can you practice at home?"

"Uh, videos on the internet? People love to post the gameplay there, so I just play it over and over again and follow the dance steps." She didn't mention that Gin-chan was so sick and tired of hearing the same old song playing in their house that he told her to 'go play that damn music elsewhere, just not in this house!'. Taking advantage of the situation, she then proceeded to play the song on a loop one night, and when he told her that he would break her music play, Kagura told him that she would only play the song outside the house if he gave her money for the girls' day out. He obliged by giving her a stack of coins, but not before making her sign a waiver that she would keep her end of the bargain. "Okay, I'll play for the meantime!" she announced, dropping a coin in the slot.

What made the Dancing Songstress arcade game unique was that it not only required you to dance, but to sing the song correctly and be not off-tune. Most players found it difficult to play, for after a while, they were already gasping for air because they were not used to the song and dance features.

Kagura wasn't the best singer around, but she knew that she could dance without embarrassing herself. She had practice, and she could execute the steps perfectly.

Besides, if she failed at singing, she could at least laugh over it with anego.

She inserted her 100 yen, pressed the buttons, and chose her song. A catchy song began to play, and Otae raised an eyebrow as soon as she heard the lyrics. "Wasn't that the song that got stuck in your head recently?"

"Yup. Found out that it's available for this game, so I kept practicing and practicing at home so I won't look stupid when I pay in public." She said before stepping up the platform, preparing herself to start the game.

'Well, no wonder Ginpachi-sensei hated it.' Otae thought as the music began to play, and Kagura's head was down, singing it softly.

The song practically screamed ear worm when it began blasting loudly, combined with Kagura's singing and dancing. While her singing wasn't really that good, her dancing skills made up for it.

"Oh, China-san sure is graceful when she dances!" Kondo Isao said as he walked towards Otae's side.

"Of course she is!" Otae defended. "Underneath her roughness is a cute teenage girl."

"I would've immediately believed you, nee-san, but this is China we're talking about." Okita said in a bored tone as he came up behind the president of the disciplinary committee. "There's nothing in her that says 'cute teenage girl', and all I can read in her is 'female gorilla'."

"Well, Okita-kun, if you don't shut your mouth right now about Kagura-chan, I'll shut it for you." At this, the female Shimura cracked her knuckles, all the while smiling.

"… Fine."

Now she understood why Kagura felt so much frustration towards this crush of hers. No matter how handsome he may be, he had a huge attitude problem that was certainly a force to reckon with. No amount of sarcasm was enough to make him shut up, and despite Kagura's recklessness and tactlessness, she still gets hurt, like when Okita had made her cry with his comment. Otae remembered comforting the exchange student as she cried her heart out for a good hour before she went home to the house she shared with her homeroom teacher, her face and eyes totally red.

Okita Sougo was bad for anyone's sanity, especially for someone as sensitive as Kagura.

Ah, hell, if that was what it took, she would gladly talk to the exchange student over and over again to discourage her from pursuing him. He really was a no good trash whose only redeeming feature was his handsome face [2].

Otae nearly smiled to both the lyrics of the song and how Kagura did that part of the song, which involved her swinging her arms madly, pointing them skyward and her crouching down a bit, acting all cute.

At least she admitted that she was… not honest with her feelings for the class 3Z's resident sadist.

A minute later, Kagura was done with the first song, and had sighed when it was done. She had gotten an A for her efforts, but it wasn't the perfect grade, which was S.

"Huh. I still need to work on my singing." The vermillion-haired girl tsked, pressing the buttons once more to choose a song. Yet another familiar tune began playing, and at this, she squealed. "Oh gosh, that song is here!"

"Errr... can you dance in heels?" Otae asked, gesturing at the footwear she was wearing.

"Of course!" and just as soon as she said that, she began to dance once more to a Eurobeat song this time around.

"... Never knew China could move like that." Hijikata remarked as he watched Kagura bounce up and down before singing the first few lines of the song. "Hard to imagine that someone like her can dance."

A few minutes later, she hopped down the machine, grinning herself silly. "Okay, done. Where else do you guys wanna go next?"

"Geez China, you made us wait." Okita said, rolling his eyes. "Nice going."

Immediately, she took offense to his remark. "Fuck off. You three just had to ruin our girls' day out, so deal with it." she replied hotly, sticking out her right middle finger to make her point. "If you were so bored, you should've gone somewhere else and left us alone, you stupid jerk."

"Now, now, you two, don't fight—" as Kondo tried to play the peacemaker, Sougo ignored him and immediately grabbed Kagura's face, using his four fingers to press her right cheek inwardly while the thumb was used on the left. Right now, she looked awkward, as she suddenly sported goldfish-like lips.

"Tch. For a girl, you sure have a foul mouth."

"For a boy, you sure can't treat a girl properly." she shot back.

"You're a girl? Ah, my bad, you don't act like one—"

She used the heel of her boots to step on his toes, though she was not satisfied with what she did, even if he was howling in pain and cursing her. "Jerk." she spat angrily. She then faced, Otae, then said, "Can I just go...? I'm really sorry..."

"B-but we haven't done karaoke yet—"

"I'm sorry. I just... can't. I'm..." she sighed, shaking her head. "Sorry, anego, I'm not in the mood anymore." before the brown-haired girl could even say anything, Kagura walked out of the gaming arcade.


What the hell was his problem anyway?!

As much as she wanted to pick a fight with him right then and there, it wasn't worth it. The pretty outfit she wore for today didn't deserve to get dirtied or ripped just because the resident jerk (and, to her annoyance, her crush) had managed to provoke her.

Still, if only he could be nice—

'Geez Kagura, you're asking for the impossible. It's like you asking Gin-chan to give you a monthly allowance of ten thousand yen when he can't even give you a hundred unless you force him to.'

She did give out the excuse that she wanted to leave, but it didn't mean that she wanted to go home. On the contrary, she wanted to roam around for the meantime…

… Or maybe go to that place.

That person did say to go over there whenever she needed to talk to someone, and right now, Kagura was sorely tempted to contact that person so they could meet up.

'Ah, hell. I need someone to talk to right now.' Immediately, she grabbed her phone and called up that person. Before she knew it, she found herself heading over to a small tea shop hidden in Harajuku. She had been here before when she had bought the clothes she was wearing right now, and the person who had sold the clothes to her for a discounted price had brought her here to have tea.

"Ah, you're here. It's been a while since I last saw you, Kagura-chan."

She bowed her head at the person who was sitting on the couch, smiling at her. "It's been a while, Mitsuba-san." She said. "Thank you so much for being here."


Notes:

[1] Dancing Songstress - Obvious pun to the game 'Project Diva', a rather popular game on the arcade, then it was ported to the PSP, 3DS, and now, the Vita.

[2] He really was a no good trash whose only redeeming feature was his handsome face - a paraphrase on a certain recent manga chapter. If you've read it recently, you know who said this~