A Weak Beast made out of China
OkitaxKagura
~8~ A flower unwilling to blossom

"Oiiiiiii KAGURA! GET YOUR ASS RIGHT BACK HERE YOU BRAT!"

A shrilling alarm clock, coming from the mouth of a certain Demon-Vice-Commander of Shinsengumi, echoes down the hallway of the headquarters early in the morning.

And in contrast to that, soft pitter-pattering of small feet running across the said hallway is also heard, accompanied by soft and cheery laughter that may have well belonged to a fairy if such things existed in this world.

When the soft running footsteps become louder, the captain of the First Division slowly stirs awake from his slumber and peeks an eye out to glance at his clock.
He groans at the time and pulls his blanket above his head to drift back into dreamland which of course, is never granted.
The owner of the pair of the light padding of footsteps finally reaches right beside his ear before he feels her join him under the blankets for cover.

Sougo lazily shifts his eyes further down under the duvet covers to lock his gaze onto azure orbs that stares straight back at his.
Heaving a great sigh, he pops his head out of the covers to greet a figure he wanted to see dead last.

"Oi… Sougo."

The voice is maintained in a calm tone, yet the smirk on the Demon-Vice-Commander gives a very menacing aura as he stands in the doorway with Sougo's fusuma door open to the maximum extent.

The short jet black hair of his wavers not the slightest as they all point downwards like black icicles that are slowly melting, as they are continuously dripping droplets of water.
Moreover, the neck and shoulders of the Kinagashi, roomwear kimono, is so obviously darkened than any other part that you can tell it's drenched.

His looks are self-explanatory enough making Sougo laugh evilly mentally while he masks an unemotional, disinterested face as if there's nothing out of the ordinary to spot.

"What do you want, Mom? It's only 6 in the morning, you know? Dammit, at least let me sleep for an extra 6 hours," Sougo complains sleepily.

"What time do you plan on working from!? Noon, you slack ass!? Wake up and get that lazy ass out of the futon!" growls Hijikata in frustration.

"No, I don't want to die from work-overload. That's just too lame," comes the second complaint by Sougo.

"You'll never EVER the slightest chance that you'll die of work-overload! I'll guarantee that!" Hijikata hollers.

"Well then, if you can please die from work-overload Hijikata-san, then I will gladly start working more professionally in your position," Sougo suggests a deal.

"Fine. If you like sleeping that much, then stay asleep under a grave forever!" Hijikata retorts, then realises that he's majorly getting side-tracked with the initial reason of his anger mark pasted upon his forehead.

(Hijikata to Author: Can you not say like as if it's a sticker that I happened to immaturely decide to stick it up there!?")

"…let that aside, Sougo! Bring out that sadist partner of yours that you're hiding! If you hand her over without resistance, I'll let you get away with it just this once," Hijikata makes a deal this time.

"I don't know what you're talking about Hijikata-san," Sougo replies with a straight face.

"Don't play dumb you dumbass! I'm talking about that brat underneath that futon!" Hijikata starts shouting again because poor Hijikata-san doesn't have the word 'patience' and 'anger management' in his mind's dictionary.

(Hijikata to Author: What was that!?
Author to Hijikata: Exactly.
Hijikata to Author: Huh!?)

"Even if a brat's a brat, how can I expose it without ripping my belly apart? Stop spouting nonsense, Hijikata-san," Sougo sighs.

"You're the one who should wake up and stop sleep-talking! You're a GUY! GUYS DON'T GET PREGNANT!" Hijikata madly hollers as his irritation meter just keeps rising constantly.

"Oh, didn't you know Hijikata-san? There's quite a few countries that allow gay marriages recently. For example Europe and America and C-"

"THIS IS EDO!" Hijikata screams out the correction in maximum frustration.

(Author to Hijikata: What? Was that the most valid point to point out there?"

The more the inconvenient ridiculous rally escalates, the more Hijikata's anger and frustration are indicating towards Sougo instead, while Kagura's existence seems to diminish into the background.

Hijikata suddenly sneezes and then finally realises at this point, which is a bit too late, how freezing he is with wet hair and drenching outfit.
Hijikata announces that he's going to go take a bath and leaves the room as Sougo just stares at the sight without the slightest feel of sympathy towards his vice-commander. Moreover, he wishes in his head that Hijikata would catch a cold so bad that it'll give him a hellish headache that will make him moan and groan without being able to leave the bed.

After the footsteps of Hijikata's is confirmed far away enough, Sougo flaps his futon off up to half way and smirks at the one patiently waiting at his side.

"Good job," Sougo praises Kagura, who beams a smile.

And time passes by like the wind as usual, but shockingly, it happens to be that Sougo's sadistic selfishness has also been blown away and to become one who baby-sits Kagura as if it's the most obvious task in the world that he has to accomplish. In the First Division Captain's list of who is important to him, had only been just his sister and himself, but now a new name had appeared on the list before Sougo himself realised that he had added the name, becoming like a brotherly existence towards Kagura, looking out for her.

Oh, but of course, don't forget that this is The Ultimate Sadistic Sougo we're talking about who is the one taking care of The (can be) Ultimate Sadistic Kagura.
If you hip-join the two, no matter how much Kagura is in a loss of her own memories, you can't avoid her true personality to change 180 degrees.

The two deadly sadistic pair.

And especially, I repeat, especially when the "target" is Hijikata, of course it'll make big brother feel like bathing in bright sunlight named happiness. Once Kagura finds out that she gets praised by Sougo if she pranks Hijikata, there's no stopping her as if she's on fire.

The everyday pranks and her pitter-pattering everywhere around the headquarters becomes so natural by then, that all the soldiers would greet her as she passes by.

"Snow's just around the corner, huh…" Sougo mutters to himself as he stares outside since Hijikata kindly forgets to shut the fusuma door.
When the words are spoken, he feels a tug of his roomwear near his chest and he looks down to see Kagura's small hand fisting his kinagashi.

"I don' t like… coldness," the usually mute Kagura voices her thoughts for once.

After the words escape her lips, Sougo's vision becomes darker than black and he finds himself standing before a clear water puddle stretched far out to more than he can see.

The sound of a drop of water landing on the puddle resonates the area.
The small ripples move away in all angles from its starting point.

But suddenly, just one area seems to return the ripples before it disappears into the fine surface.
The presence of someone there becomes more distinctive even though the darkness is the only thing there.
The presence of a small beast-like existence which isn't one of those horrifying carnivorous beast, but more of a youngster that has lost its mother and is just cold, scared and lonely but still hides away to prevent from being seen.
Untrusting to strangers. Fear to reach out for a helping hand.

The shivering hand upon the skin makes Sougo revert back to reality and without thinking, he wraps an arm around the small shoulders to share the body heat.

"It's not the coldness you hate, idiot…" Sougo murmurs, which catches Kagura's attention.
She looks up and stares straight into Sougo's crimson eyes with such confusion that it nearly makes Sougo sigh deeply.

"Where on Earth are you right now?"

"…where…?"

"If you hate the coldness, then hurry up and come back where it's warm," Sougo sighs and gazes up at the ceiling, only to snap back his gaze towards Kagura by her next words.

"If the snow melts… then where does it disappear to?"

The blue orbs stare with such purity like the snow.
The voice also as soft as snow.
Yet in contrast to that, the words spilt from those lips had been one that indicates that she's wandering through the darkness alone and comparing herself to snow, making Sougo's heart ache.

The snow that has to fear the coming spring that will make her disappear…

"If the snow melts… then where does it disappear to?"

A/N:

Oh yes, I am so not on the roll for this...
Low on motivation, low on imagination, low on words...
So then what am I high on?
High on karaoke, high on business (work-wise), high on watching horror movies
Actually, if people can give me suggestions on which horrors are awesome to watch.

Now relating back to this story.
We're starting to get to the main bits where Sougo starts finding Kagura and vice versa.
It is a love story (at least to some point anyways)
I wonder how many years it's gonna take for me to finish this though...(or well, that's what it seems like where this is heading at this pace)