It was just too many times, yes, that's what it was.

Every year wisps of chilling anticipation scattering up her spine drove her feet, time and time again, to beneath those trees. And now, it wasn't just spring anymore; summer, autumn, winter, every single season. Gin-chan and Shinpachi carefully busied themselves whenever she escaped away, Gin-chan sticking his nose too deep into JUMP for it to even have looked liked reading and of course Patsuan blowing his ears out with "AND YOUR MA IS AN XX! ARE YOU STILL A HUMAN?!" to even have looked liked… anything, really. No one in their right minds is human after listening to crap like that-aru, Kagura grumped irritably as she threw a casual "I'm getting my sukonbu!" yell that all three of them knew was a lie. Since she bought eight cargos worth of sukonbu yesterday, and not even little buns can finish off that many sukonbu. At once.

Kabuki-cho was different after the tax-robbers left eight years ago. Too dangerous even for the Yorozuya to lead everyday lives, as the government officials scoured the streets and they had to flee to Akihabara. They sniff the ground like replacement mutts for the tax-robbers, Kagura scoffed as she slid into the shadows of the buildings and the night, gliding forward with all the grace of an onyx swan. The zombie-NEET otakus paid no attention to the beauty as their eyes burned into the newest Love Live merchandise and proceeded onward to their home/ bunker.

Kagura absentmindedly continued onward to her own destination, a zombie lost in thought, rather than bloodlust or anime addiction. Why am I going to that place anyway? There is nothing, no one there-aru. This will all end up like an otaku getting all excited after a new Gintama chapter was updated to find that it was a re-upload of the last chapter-aru! I've waited too long, even rejecting offers for dates! Ah, but, but that one's most definitely not because I like him or anything aru, don't get me wrong; that guy obviously likes me and when he confesses, I'll laugh at his face so hard when I reject him, it'll be worth all these years-aru! Yes, yes, YES, the final laugh goes to me, Queen of Kabu- no, Queen of Edo! Ohoho, OHOHO-

Whump! Kagura smacked right into a tree trunk and snapped out of her thoughts. Black spots dotted her sight before they cleared to the orchard before her. Half-surprised at how quickly she had arrived already, Kagura strode in confidently. The trees, once flaunting diazes bejeweled with the pearliest, pinkest blossoms, straight out of the clouds of dawn, were now just green-leaved sticks in the summer. But in her mind's eye, clear as the blue sky of her true eye, the trees would always be the princesses daintly judging a stupid game between stupid people all laughing stupidly and wisely, the ignorance of all being the true elixir to the knowledge of all.

Kagura sighed and sank beside a gnarled tree. The moon was full, and, even if it was still a long, long way until autumn, she could still enjoy watching it. The leaves whispered secrets that no one could hear, or perhaps no one bothered to try to hear, as they shuffled in the breeze. Kagura watched as the leaves flipped back and forth, flashing between their pale veins and their verdant up side. The heart-shaped leaves led her to muse aloud, "Maybe trees also cannot think straight when it is windy-aru…"

She paused before adding, "But I can hear you, even in this wind. Show yourself."

A fleeting pause, and then a shadow melted from a trunk next to her. "It has been a while, China musume." Piercing eyes, so sharp they hurt, stared at her side profile. "You've been well, I hope?"

"Humph. As well as can be, thank you. Why are you here."

"I have something to say to you-"

"I don't want to hear it," Kagura cut in flatly, not even bothering to look in the man's direction. "Ever. Don't think you can do that kind of thing after eight years of kindly leaving Edo. You have other people to see, don't yo-"

"No."

Kagura raised an eyebrow, and for the first time swiveled her eyes to steadily meet the ice-blue eyes.

"No," Hijikata repeated. "I do not. I am here solely to tell you that Okita Sougo has honorably passed away while in service."

After a brief, contemplating silence, Kagura clicked her tongue and looked away again. "So weak, and he was being all 'oh, I'll be stronger than you when I get back' but wow, such disappointment, many shame, doge sad, plz. What an utter jok-"

Hijikata slammed Kagura against the tree trunk, and Kagura saw dots again as her head smashed into the trunk. "How dare you," he hissed, rage shrieking in his eyes. He snarled, "How could you when-! You… You are the single, most disgusting woman I have ever-"

He leapt back as bullets exploded in front of him. Smoke billowed beneath the trees, no longer flirtatious princesses but cold, judging kings. From behind the smoke, a voice growled, "Get out. Now."

Hijikata stiffened, clenched fists and clenched jaws strained but at last, he managed to mechanically walk away. But all that, everything, was washed away with the waves of memory, and he was left with only remorse, regret, grief, and, most of all, guilt. Complete guilt wracked him as he murmured apologies that could never be accepted. Neither to Kondo, to Mitsuba, or to Sougo. For the dead cannot speak. Any of them. There had been too many losses, and he should have been among those burned at the mound of the dead… Why couldn't I have?

Kagura slumped back down, leaning against the tree. She folded her knees up to her chest, and her eyes fluttered shut. But Kagura was not angry. Nor was she sad, or in grief, or anything, in fact. As Kagura drifted back into her deep 'sleep', her only thought about the encounter was Funny, Gin-chan said something like that three years ago.

A/N: Wow, this went down a route I did not expect… haha…ha… *goes to cry in corner* To clarify: after the Shinsengumi left, Okita (and probably at the same time Kondo) had died in the action five years later from the present (or threes years ago in this fic). However, Kagura denied the truth that Okita had died, and she kept on going to see the trees every year, in every season. Hijikata, who at last returned to Edo, goes to tell Kagura that Okita had died but she also denies him. Which is basically her 'sleep'.

Yeahhhh, it went from some hints of comedy to straight up depressing. I'm sorry, this is just a one shot to relieve stress. I'm awfully sorry if this was confusing, even I'm confused a bit…