No long spiel. Enjoy guys!
DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING
Its quiet, not the deafening type of silence looming in nightmares but a serene silence. The repetitive ticking of the clock and the vibration of soft snoring, with some mumbled gibberish here and there, was lulling. The white noise, more often than not, would send Kagura straight to slumber land, factor in the rigor of her exercise regime and it was a recipe for sleep, but not tonight. For the past four days Kagura had practically passed out from exhaustion, the woman still shocked by the difficultly of military life. But tonight was different. She felt tired, her body aching from head to toe, and yet sleep eluded her. At first she tried counting sheep but after the thousandth sheep she gave up, her weariness continuing to grow. Then she tried listening to the ticking of the clock, surely the white noise would induce sleep, it had in all those physics classes with Gintoki. She thought of everything but him, the thought of him would drive her to tears and so she fought the urge to think of his face. The line of his jaw, one she had traced a million times in her mind, the red of his eyes that reminded her of the warmth of a sunset, and that smile, halfway between a grin and smirk and yet she knew it to be the most genuine smile he could muster, and a smile for her eyes only. Kagura went back to counting sheep, one sheep, two sheep, three sadists, four sadists, and again her mind wanders to him. She feebly attempted to count more, alas though; sleep eluded her like the plague. Her mind grew sluggish, thoughts no longer coherently forming, but her gut forbid her mind from falling asleep. Her stomach was churning. Kagura quickly ruled out bad food as the reason, her iron stomach would never lose a battle to food, it was something on a grander scale, it churned in trepidation. Something was going to happen, and soon.
Kagura abruptly awoke to the sound of incessant ringing. She bolted upwards, hitting her head on the bunk above her, she must have briefly dozed off last night after all. Giving a quick glance outside, Kagura saw that the sun had barely risen; the time for morning drills was at sunrise, punctually.
"What's happening?" she asked one of the other girls moving towards the entrance of the barrack.
" Our fire alarm went off. Don't know why but we should all get out of here first." She offered Kagura a hand and gently pulled the Yato to a standing position.
Kagura filed out along with everyone else, everything seemingly in order besides the unremitting shrills of the fire alarm. The world had yet to awaken, oddly not even the singing of the robins or cardinals could be heard. Only the occasional yawning or sniffles combines with the deafening alarm. With orders from the platoon leader to head south towards the canteen, the girls lethargically trudged their way towards the center of base. As the sound of the ringing fire alarm faded, another wave of noises quickly filled its place. It was sheer and utter chaos near the canteen. A throng of men gathered in a circle, shouting words that she could not make out in the clamor noises. Was there a fight going on? Kagura was not-so-gently shoved as a herd of men from the nearby barracks came outside to see firsthand the cause of the commotion. Seriously, what was going on?!
A hand suddenly grabbed her wrist. She looked up with full intention of pounding the fool who dared touch her to smithereens but her gaze immediately soften when she saw that it was none other than the sadist. Her chest tightened uncomfortably, a surge of emotions racing through her. Kagura wanted to kiss him, to melt in his embrace, but she refrained herself, the tightness in her chest only continuing to grow. He placed a finger on his lip and gestured for her to follow him, she obediently complied. He guided her further north, taking the path that lead back to her barracks. After what felt like an eternity of silence, Okita finally spoke to her.
"Your brother's damn good at making distractions. I can't say anything about his abilities as a strategist but it was bloody brilliant of him to have Abuto pretend to have snapped and begun beating the daylight out of him. I bet Abuto was thrilled." He said as if he was mentioning a mundane detail like the weather. His ability to be apathetic in nearly all situations ceased to amaze Kagura.
Kagura released the hand she was holding, stopping in her tracks. " Sadist, what are you trying to say. Distraction? Distraction for what?!" It didn't take a genius to figure out his insinuations.
"We're getting you out of here. Now." He said, grabbing her hand again and pulling her forward. The Yato would not budge and god knows that Okita's strength greatly paled in comparison to hers. " Don't make this any harder. We can get you out. Away from the fighting, away from the shit show that's going to happen."
She leered at him. " You're an idiot sadist, like dumber than Sadaharu dumb. Wait, that's an insult to Sadaharu to be compared to you." She made the decision to join the battle, it may be a reckless and selfish decision on her part but one she did not regret. If they had to separate once again then she would go kicking and screaming, blood and all.
Okita was losing his already thin patience. " Stop making this difficult. Why can't you just stay out of trouble for once? You didn't need to join the military and endanger yourself and yet you did. You fucking did. Now who are you calling dumb, China?!"
"It was my own choice to join this fight. I wasn't going to act like some weak princess in distress that couldn't do anything as she watched her prince die." Kagura said, half shouting now. " I watched you die last time, sadist, I have no intention of doing that ever again."
" So you're going to let me watch you die then?! Is that what you want?!" His face was red from the shouting. Why couldn't Kagura just understand that he was doing this to protect her? Could she not see his good will?
" I don't need your protection, Sadist! Stop being a chauvinistic pig! I can handle myself perfectly fine, why can't YOU see that?" she said while jabbing a finger at his chest. "If I can punch a crater in the ground then I think I have a better chance at pummeling some scrawny Amantos. What about you then? You're a human without superhuman strength or expedited healing like me, how well do you think you'll fare?"
" That's not the point." He said exasperated. "I don't care if you can burn people with laser vision or go Getsuga Tenshou on their ass, I just want you to be safe. I want you to live Kagura. It would be so easy for you to walk out of this alive and yet you're being so incredibly stupid about it, so incredibly stubborn. A mule is less stubborn then you."
"What if I want you to live then? It's not fair that you'll die in my place, that's not how it'll work this time."
"THEN ARE WE DYING TOGETHER AGAIN? IS THAT IT NOW!?" Okita was beyond frustrated. Trying to talk any sense into this woman was like talking to a tree, at least the tree would be a better listener. Okita cupped the Yato's scrunched up face with his hands. " I love you so much and it kills me to see you here. Don't kill me before the fighting even starts."
"Sadist." Kagura gently said as her forehead touches his. " I love you more than anything. You are my sun and stars. It kills me not to be by your side. Can't you just let me stand by you? Aren't we equals in this relationship?"
Just as Okita parted his lips to answer, a flash of red and the shaking of the ground diverted his attention. Kagura and Okita looked towards the south end, where the arsenals are held. A sea of smoke and flames enveloped that quadrant. Then the sirens blared, the wailing exponentially louder than the fire alarm this morning.
"This is not a drill. This is not a drill." Droned the voice from the nearby intercoms." Proceed to the north gates. Proceed to the northern gates."
Kagura and Okita stared at each other in disbelief, the color drained from both their faces.
" This must be Kamui." Kagura began saying but then another explosion went off, this time in the western quadrant, close to the barracks. The world was in disarray. The blaring siren and the screaming of her fellow soldiers mix together to personify one of her worst nightmares, the fight was beginning.
" It's an airstrike." Okita said quietly. This wasn't child's play, it was war, he had almost forgotten the horrors of battle after this lifetime of peace but those hellish memories could never be forgotten, never. He wrapped his finger around Kagura's. "Run."
The events after the second missile's explosion were a blur for Kagura and Okita. With all their might, the pair sprinted towards the northern gate, but unlike Okita initially intended, they were not alone. Soon after came the wave of uninjured soldiers carrying those who unfortunately became victims of the explosion. Kagura saw one man bruised and shaken but clearly still alive, limbs all attached. But then she saw a sight so gruesome that it made her iron stomach churn furiously. The urge to puke at the man's grotesque state was unavoidable. He was screaming, terrible horrific howls of agony. Some others were trying to calm him down but without proper medical treatment there was nothing they could do to ease the pain of a man with a severed leg. She could see the bone, not soft cartilage by strong bone broken, like a twig, protruding from the messily cut leg. And the amalgamation of tendons and flesh and blood and Kagura was starting to heave. The blood kept gushing in an endless reservoir until someone finally wrapped a clean shirt around it, the best that they could do for now. Kagura quickly looked away while grabbing her upset stomach. Had the battle last time been this gruesome or had she grown soft with the years?
Okita gently patted her back, " You going to be okay?"
Kagura dry heaved onto the nearest patch of grass. If she had food in her stomach then it would surely be staring back at her but her stomach was empty. "I'll manage. War was never meant to be pretty."
And in another flurry of blurs Kagura and Okita were ushered into a tightly packed truck and driven out god knows where. They could only count it as a blessing to be together. Okita sat close to Kagura, their bodies flushed to one another, his hand never leaving hers. In a world so wrong this was what felt right and yet he knew they were heading towards imminent death. The true war had only just began, call it a sixth sense but Okita could feel the real storm approaching after this little rainstorm. He squeezed her hand, engraining this brief moment of peace with her as his last.
He mumbled three words under his breath so quietly that only the people to his sides could hear. Kagura leaned her head against his shoulder and repeated the same words in a voice only meant for his ears.
"I love you." The sound of their words mixed into the loud grounding of gravel by tires and an engine that roared ferociously, deafening all else. But even in the cacophony of noises their declaration of love, potentially their last, resonated loud and clear. Everything would be okay, it would be okay.
Night had fallen as the truck's loud engine slowly rumbled to a stop. Another dozen or so trucks filled into this clearing of sorts, a poorly maintained patch of grass where weed ruled like kings alongside Mother Nature. Medical tents were assembled first with the injured immediately carried into them. Kagura could not break her gaze from the injured, blood was not a pleasing sight but she felt compelled to continuing looking, her eyes refusing to see anything but the unadulterated horrors of war. And then she saw him, the wisp of his white lab coat and the shine of that black hair. Her blood ran cold and she tightened her grip on Okita's hand.
"It's him." She whispered. "It's Takasugi-sensei."
Okita whipped his neck towards the medical tent, his crimson eyes searching for that man, the man who sent chills down his back and his adrenaline running. And there he was, calm and collected, tending to a broken arm on another soldier. Okita's frown, Takasugi only meant trouble, he was like vulture waiting in anticipation for its prey to show a moment of weakness and then in he would swoop, mighty and fierce. Truly a deplorable man, Okita turned, walking as far away from him as possible with Kagura close behind.
"Stay away from him, China, he's bad news."
"I know, I don't need to be told twice." She hesitated for a second, " I feel so unsettled around him but I can't remember him clearly, I just remember the hatred."
"The hatred is evidence enough to not trust him. My guts tell me he's dangerous, and not just the Kamui sis-con type of dangerous but a man that should truly be feared. We just need to stay away."
Kagura opened her mouth to reply but then she caught sight of a familiar silver perm hair that was too distinct to be anyone other than her Gin-chan and a pair of meganes that could belong to none other than Shinpachi. She looked to Okita first, her cerulean eyes pleading him to let her go, and he could not but help succumb to that gaze. He curtly nodded, a gesture of approval, and then he let go of her, let go of that hand. His hand grew cold, her warmth leaving him, leaving a void. But the sight of her joy, of her smiling as she embraced the two other men that gave her such happiness, filled his heart in another way. He was happy from her happiness. And more resolute than ever Okita promised to protect that happiness. Anything for her, always anything for her.
But then it happened, his brief smile disappearing as terror consumed him, the situation nearly knocking him to his knees. There was more screaming, more blaring sirens. A fire from an explosion he failed to hear in the wake of his shock grew in the background. A scaly green Amanto grabbed Kagura by the arm, gun in hand and a lecherous smile on his disgustingly deformed face. Kagura punched him with her superhuman strength, sending him soaring across the night sky as Gintoki and Shinpachi watched with equally horrified expressions. But there was more of them, hundreds, maybe even thousands, it was a raid. Oh my god, it was a raid!
Cliffhangers, am I right? Aha, jokes aside, a lot of stuff happened in this chapter and a lot of stuff will be happening in the next. This series will probably wrap up either next chapter or the chapter after that, regardless the finish line is in sight! Just a little more! Thanks to everyone for reading and liking this series! Also kudos to Abuto for getting to punch Kamui in the face. And also many apologies on not really including the other characters but I wanted these few chapters to just be about Kagura and Okita, its their story that needs to be told.