The sky, just a vast horizon of gray, reflected her mood well. Perhaps grim would be the right word for it. Kagura crouched by the edge of the street. A single gingko leaf was caught in the flowing stream of rainwater, tumbling uncontrollably in somersaults as it slowly ripped apart. It disappeared down the drain.

The rain fell. The drizzling came down harder now as pellets of rain. The soft and playful drops had become harsher, colder, meaner, as it shattered the mirrors of the puddles. Kagura stood up and shook herself. Water streamed from her hair in rivulets, and she was dimly surprised at how drenched she was. She shivered.

"Oi, what are you doing out here."

It was that stupid police officer sadist again.

"What does it matter to you, I can go outside whenever I want to. It's not like it's hurting anyone." Her voice caught as she coughed, and she turned around.

He was staring at her dryily (both literally and figuratively) in silence, to her annoyance.

"Well, maybe I'm sick then," she admitted grudgingly. "But I assure you, mister police officer, that your mere presence is currently bothering someone right now, and it would please them very, very much for you to leave? Now?" Kagura pointedly glared at him, matching him eye for eye.

When his expression didn't change, her irritance finally boiled over and she was just about to punch him to next week when he raised a finger and pointed at her.

"What-"

Wumph. A black jacket landed on Kagura's head.

"Honestly, you're already pushing it with your natural ugliness, but when you cry, now that is just plain hideous. A crime against humanity. Therefore, under my jurisdiction, you are going to stop crying for the public eyes' sake. I'm censoring that expression."

Suddenly, Kagura was painfully aware of the ball of sandpaper scraping her throat and the blurriness, which wasn't from the rain anymore. A low rumble of thunder boomed in the distance.

"... H-huh? Could it possibly be that the Sadist is trying to comfort me?"

"Don't get too full of yourself, China. Just shut up and do what I say."

She pulled the jacket down harder on her bowed head. Her umbrella lay on the ground but she felt a warmth that not even her brother's gift, the one that had secretly made her so happy, could give. Her shoulders shuddered. The smell of sweat, grass, soil, and maybe even blood, cloaked her like a dizzying fog.

A hand gingerly, awkwardly, patted her head through the jacket. It was so endearing, her heart felt like it was melting around the edges. A sob escaped but she quickly clamped it down. Blood trickled from her trembling lip, the rain diluting it.

When she made no move, the hand slowly moved into a gawky embrace. Kagura pressed against his broad chest, gently at first but then more limply, like an overused, ragged doll.

"There's no one here; Say whatever you want, anything. I will hide you from the rain…" A rough voice whispered into her ear, sending a different type of shiver down her spine.

"I… I... "

There was so much to say, so much to vent, that not even a lifetime would be enough. But how could she ever say how her heart was trapped in briars and how every breathe, every living moment, hurt as the thorns drew in deeper? How could she ever tell him that she was leaving, that she was going into space and might never return? How could she ever tell him, the one who lost his dearests person, his sister, that she wanted to grow stronger only to kill her own brother? How could she tell him that she was crying because she had sworn to murder and could never turn back? How could she ever convey him such tragedies?

"I… I… I am in love with you."

The slow rings that his fingers were tracing on her back froze. As soon as she blurted those words, her mind fell into a numb shock.

Okita drew away, his hands on both of her shoulders so he could look into her eyes. Too many emotions were flooding him as he stared into her, such that made his crimson eyes look like kaleidoscopes or opals. She couldn't tear herself away, even as her face steadily grew into a scorching blaze.

He finally settled on the emotion of emotionlessness. He silently took his hands away and lifted his jacket off Kagura's head, who, to her embarrassment, still had it covering her. He shook off the rain, turned around, and began trudging away.

"W... Wait!"

The feet stopped. "What."

"You… You don't have a response to that?"

"Look China. The only reason I bothered myself with you is because I thought you weren't like all those other, weak women who trail after any and all sort of men only for their bodies. Over time I came to think that we, at least to some degree, trusted each other and were maybe even friends." His voice hardened. "I guess not."

"What?! If you think that I'm someone who c… confesses to just any random person, then you are dead wron-"

"That's not the point!" Okita spun around, fury leaping in his eyes. "I saw you, I watched you make the vow to kill. And there's only one person you really hate isn't there." His lips curled into an ugly sneer. "Me. You plan on killing me."

Kagura's jaw dropped.

"But despite that, I gave you the chance," he continued. "I said that you could say anything, didn't I? If you trusted me, if you… if you had any feelings for me, then you would've told me the truth. But no, you hid it with a complete lie-"

"That wasn't-"

"It is a lie no matter how you pretty it up."

"But-"

"I should've never trusted you," he hissed.

The words sliced at Kagura, creating ribbons of pain and hurt, but that last one made everything snap and overrode her indecisiveness.

"It was Kamui, damnit, it was never you I planned to kill!" she screeched. "I want to kill my own, cursed bastard of a brother! Me, kill my brother! I'm the only one, the only one, who can-" Her voice splintered abruptly.

Silence. The rain had stopped. A mist remained, a thin veil of water vapor, almost as though the drops were suspended in the air. Like time had stopped. Shock and utter confusion reflected clearly in Okita's eyes. He opened his mouth but nothing came out.

"Maybe you only thought that I hated you like so because that is how you see yourself." She finally said quietly. "There is no one, no one, whom I hate more than… Kamui."

"But… he's your brother. He's still… alive. Breathing." Okita's voice caught.

"No." She shook her head, a hard glint surfacing in her cerulean eyes. "No. I refuse to see that… that being as my brother. He isn't the brother whom I've once adored. If it's blood you want, if it's blood you need, then I have more than enough for one person. Blood is nothing to the precious bond between siblings. But I won't stand still any longer. I must be the one who ends his disgusting… joy. I will end his insanity and put him to rest. On my identity as a sister."

She staggered but picked up her muddy umbrella and gave it a good shake before opening it. She stood firmly, feeling more grounded under the coldness of duty than the strange, fuzzy, weak, feeling from before.

"Sadist, I take back everything that I said before. Forget it. And forget me too."