Disclaimer: I do not own Gintama. It belongs to Sorachi Hideaki.

The Sweetest Lie

Chapter 5

This one-way red string of fate

I'll tie it to you again today

Kagura was at a loss right now on what to do.

The karaoke room they have rented out was filled with so much tension that she wanted to just run out. She knew that everything turned out awkward when anego and the three guys entered the scene, because the mayo-freak was staring at the ground and Mitsuba was doing the same. Okita, on the other hand, was glaring at Hijikata. Otae was unusually quiet and not bickering with Kondo Isao, who looked quite nervous.

Whatever it was, she knew nothing, but that didn't mean they could go sulking.

Didn't they all go here to unwind?!

Immediately, she grabbed the microphone, input the number of the song she'd been itching to sing and started singing. The effect of her singing was just as instantaneous: everyone started looking at her.

"… Why are singing that song [1], Kagura-chan?" Otae's tone was polite, though it was obvious that her statement actually mean, "What the hell were you thinking?!"

"It's got a nice tune." She said in-between her singing.

The female Shimura didn't have the heart to tell the foreign exchange student that the song had so much sexual undertones that even the first line that she sang that may have sounded normal to a foreigner would sound very sensual to a native speaker.

Immediately, Okita Sougo stood up and grabbed the microphone from the girl, who gave out an angry, "HEY!"

"Shut up, China. Your singing irritates me." He said in his deadpan voice.

"If you hate it so much, then don't listen! You can leave, you know." She informed him angrily, glaring at the same time.

"Okita-kun~ you promised to do something for me when we see Kagura-chan again~" came the singsong voice of Shimura, though under her happy tone signaled a rather violent threat. "Have you done it already?"

"Tch." Placing down the microphone on the table beside him, he grabbed the vermillion-haired girl's wrist and dragged her outside, ignoring her cries of protest. Okita Mitsuba was about to stand up from the couch when a hand stopped her from doing so.

"T-Toushirou…" she mumbled, her eyes downcast, refusing to look at him.

"Let them be. He has to say something to her." The mayonnaise lover mumbled something about 'can't go home if he doesn't say it' which she had slightly caught on, but had no idea what he meant by such.

"O-okay." Turning to the other female in the room, who was sitting two places away from her, she reached out her hand, elbowing Hijikata's thigh in the process, who was gritting his teeth from the pain. "H-hello, I'm Okita Mitsuba. Nice to meet you."

"Shimura Otae." The brown-haired woman smiled and shook her hand. "Please call me 'Otae'. You know Kagura-chan?"

"Yes. She's a customer of the store I work for."

"… Mitsuba. Your elbow…" he muttered.

"O-oh! S-sorry!" immediately, the sandy-haired woman stood up and walked over to the intercom. "I-I'll order us some drinks! Y-you guys want anything?! I-I know, I'll order for Sou-chan as well!"

"I'll have soda. Lots and lots of soda!" Otae said, grinning happily.

"If that's what Otae-san want, I want soda too!" called out Kondo.

Mitsuba looked at the other male in the room. "And… you?" when he shook his head, she sighed. "I-I see." With that, she pressed the intercom and ordered their beverages.

Okita Sougo was dragging her towards the long hallway along the room they had rented out.

Frankly, she had no idea why he was dragging her to a secluded place, but if he tried anything funny—

He stopped, and almost immediately, he shoved her against the corner of the wall, glaring at her with his blood red irises filled with resentment and anger. "Contrary to what nee-san thinks, I am not going to apologize for what happened earlier."

She crossed her arms. "Never expected you to do it anyway." She replied back, knowing that his pride knew no heights.

"Good, at least we're clear on that." He said in a hostile tone. "Next question: how did you get to know my sister?"

"I was out shopping, then I met her—"

"Oh really now? You had no idea who she was before you met her?" suspicion was evident in his tone.

"Use your brain, you brat. If I did, I would've started sucking up on you and begging you to help me meet her." She rolled her azure blue eyes. "That didn't happen, 'cause we're too busy hating each other's guts." Just when she was done with her piece, he was looking at her strangely. "What? Did I say something funny?"

"… Nevermind." He shook his head. "Anyway, China, stay away from my sister."

"WHAT?! NO!" there was no way in hell she would allow this to happen! Mitsuba had been a great friend, and no jerk was going to force her to sever her ties with a woman she admired greatly alongside anego. "Who the hell are you to tell me whom I should be friends with?!"

"Obviously, China, I'm her brother. Stay away from my sister."

"Get over yourself." She hissed at him. "Your sister can choose whom she can be friends with."

He gripped her right arm tightly. "You listen here, China—" ignoring her wince, he bent over to glare at her, his face a mere inch away from her. Kagura tried hard not to notice the nearness, and had fought down the blush that threatened to creep up her cheeks. "Stay away from her. She doesn't need the likes of you—"

"How would you know?! Unless she tells me to fuck off, go mind your own business!" she shot back, placing her palm over the back of his hand. "And don't touch me so casually! Let go!"

"Oi, oi, you kids sure are noisy. Having a lovers' quarrel?"

The familiar tone made Okita look back, and to his surprise, the person who had said the remark was none other than his homeroom teacher, Sakata Ginpachi…

… who also happened to be China's housemate.

"Gin-chan!" she pushed her classmate aside to give her father figure a rather tight hug. "What are you doing here?!"

Ginpachi doesn't answer immediately, though his usual dead fish eyes are now glaring at the sandy-haired younger male, who is also glaring back. "—I thought we agreed on the 'no boys' rule? Wasn't it supposed to be only you and Shimura?"

"Not my fault. Stalker gorilla and his two followers suddenly ruined girls' day out!" she said, sending a glare at Sougo. "And don't glare at me like that, you jerk!"

Her naturally-permed housemate sighed. "… If Baldy finds out about this—"

"He can scream at me for all I care." The tone in her voice was filled with sarcasm.

"Okay, okay, calm down, I can feel your anger meter rising." He patted the vermillion-haired girl on the head. "Why are you here anyway?"

"Was singing my heart out with a friend… then anego and them found me." At his suspicious look, she shook her head. "Can I explain later…?"

"As long as you don't send Gin-san to the hospital with all those dirty high school girl activities you do—" a punch in the arm had sent him down on his knees. "OWW!"

"The hell are you saying?!" she said.

"I'm just joking!" he whined, rubbing the sore spot. "Anyway, what time you going home?"

She looked at her wrist watch. "Around… ten? Or maybe we can go home together?" she asked. "I… forgot my keys at home."

"… Fine. Just send me an email when you're ready to leave." Ginpachi nodded. "See you later."

"Byeeee!" giving him one final hug, she let go of him and watched as he walked back to the karaoke room that he and his fellow colleagues were staying at. No doubt, old lady Otose, Tsukuyo-sensei, Sakamoto-sensei and old Matsudaira were there, noting the fact that the room looked too hazy, and that Gin-chan smelled of cigarette smoke.

"Well, isn't that sweet?" came the familiar taunting tone from behind her, interrupting her thoughts.

She nearly forgot that he was still there, still glaring at her. "The hell do you mean by that?" she looked back at him.

"Nothing, China." He shrugged nonchalantly. "As to what we've been talking about before Ginpachi interrupted—"

"I refuse. Micchan is my friend, and you're an asshole if you think you speak for her." With that, she began to walk back to their karaoke room, only to be yanked by him again as he grabbed her hand and pulled him. "W-what now?!" she yelled out, panicking at the fact that he was holding her hand.

"… Just so you know, I dislike you a lot, China."

Ouch. "W-well, s-same to you!" she screamed at him before slapping his hand away and marching back to the rented karaoke room.

The girls all ended up becoming too hyper for their own good.

After the free-flowing drinks that contained way too much sugar, Kagura, along with Shimura Otae and Okita Mitsuba, ended up singing and dancing in the mini stage of the karaoke room they had rented. Despite the fact that Okita Sougo was scowling at her, or that the gorilla had bordered on creepy (Hijikata, as usual, had looked uninterested, but his eyes were solely focused on Mitsuba), Kagura had fun. Sure, she hit the wrong notes at times, and would probably render herself unable to speak tomorrow because of the sugar, the singing, and the screaming, but she had never been so happy in her life.

Hell, the happiest she had been was when she first met Sakata Ginpachi.

Even if the guy she likes revealed his dislike for her, to hell with him.

She could deal with that… probably tomorrow. Or some other day.

For now, she just wanted to drown herself in this euphoria.

Right after they had paid the bill, the door of the rented room opened and in went her housemate. "Oi, Kagura. Ready to leave?"

"Yep!" immediately, she stood up from the couch and walked over to where he was. "Can we stop by the convenience store? I want ice cream."

"No." he said quickly.

"Please…!" she gave him the most adorable puppy eyes she could muster. "I'll be quiet the whole day tomorrow, promise!" at his skeptical look, Kagura said, "That's 'cause I'll probably lose my voice tomorrow so—"

"Deal, let's go." at her jubilant scream, he sighed, knowing that she would probably demand two to three boxes of whatever-the-hell-it-was-that-she-wanted.

"Wait, I wanna say goodbye first." She rushed back to give Shimura a hug, as well as the girl who looked eerily like his brown-haired male student. Ginpachi deduced that Souichirou and her were related, for Souichirou glared at his daughter as if she had committed a mortal sin against him. When she ignored the male Okita, he then focused his glaring at his direction, which made the teacher mentally wonder as to what he had done as well to make his student this angry. Setting that aside for the meantime, he watched as she gave a surprised Kondo Isao a hug, as well as Oogushi-kun, but the moment she noticed that Souichirou was looking at her, she looked away and made her way back to him.

"Gin-chan, let's go!"

"Right." Still feeling the angry gaze behind his back, he waved his students goodbye before exiting the room with Kagura. As soon as they were out of their sight, the younger girl let out a sigh.

"Feelin' okay?" he asked.

"… I guess." She sighed. "Or… maybe not."

"Bah. For now, get whatever-the-hell-that-is out of your mind. Tackle on it tomorrow or something." At her nod, he gave himself a pat on the back for being able to at least comfort her.

"Forgot to tell you this morning. It's been approved." He said in usual bored tone, though Kagura's reaction was of shock. "And before you say I'm shitting you, I'm not— oof!" he nearly got the wind knocked out of him as Kagura nearly tackled him to the ground with her bear hug. "Kagura, calm down—"

"D-does that mean… I don't ever have to see Baldy again!?"

"Well, depends on you but—" before he could even say anything, she started squealing and tightening her hug around his waist. "KAGURA! CALM DOWN—"

"This is the best day ever!" she yells out, ignoring the way the passersby were staring at her. "Oh Gin-chan, thank you, thank you—"

He did not have the heart to tell her to shut up when he saw genuine happiness reflected in her eyes. His student may have deceived everyone with her cheerful façade, but not him. He knew her since she was little, he knew everything about her past, hell, he even knew what she went through and—

Despite that, he was proud of her for being strong.

"… Don't mention it, brat."

Sunday, as she had expected, had passed by like a blur. Her throat had hurt, as she had anticipated, and she was unable to speak. Ginpachi had told her that it was better that way, earning yet another punch in the arm. With some warm tea, she had been able to recover, though her throat was still sore, and she still sounded very much like a weary old lady. Despite that, however, she couldn't wait to get to school and see anego to tell her about her new problem regarding Okita disliking her for being friends with his older sister. Just how absurd was that anyway?

Ginpachi had went on ahead of her, and so, she rode her bike to school. After chaining it in the shed near the vending machines, Kagura walked over to her classroom, and as soon as she had opened the sliding door to greet her classmates good morning, Sarutobi Ayame suddenly ambushes her, crying her heart out.

"Kagura, how could you…!"

The foreign girl suddenly is at a loss. "… Huh?"

The lavender-haired girl suddenly cries harder than ever. "You… you…! How could you!"

"How could I what?"

"I saw your name in the class list! Sakata Kagura…!" Sacchan bawls further.

"… And what's wrong with that…? It just happened last Saturday and—"

"JUST THIS SATURDAY?!" this time, it was Shimura Otae who stood up to walk over to her. "Oh my…!"

"Why the hell are you all staring at me?!" she demanded, making her way to her seat, and placing her back on the side of her desk. "You look at me as if I murdered someone!"

"W-we're in shock, okay!" Catherine responded back defensively. " 'C-cause you married Sakata-aho!"

"… Married…?" she frowned.

"Yes! You're Sakata Kagura now, right?!" Hammy squealed. "How did it happen?! And you sound so hoarse too!"

She scratched the back of her head. "Uh, paperwork? We've planned it for some time already and—" at this, Sacchan screamed louder than ever. "I'm seriously confused. Why are you all staring at me like that?!"

" 'Cause everyone here knows that you married Ginpachi, China." Came the bored tone of Okita Sougo, who was seated beside her. "And the whole school is talking about it."

Suddenly, everything made so much sense.

"… Married… to Gin-chan…?"

This was not some shoujo manga wherein the plot line had a student and her male teacher having a secret marriage of sorts for whatever reason [2]. She and Gin-chan were more of a parent and child duo, and she shuddered just imagining herself married to the man who was her father figure in life. "That's just disgusting." She wrinkled her nose. "I'll have you know that my last name turned into Sakata 'cause the papers have been finalized. And—" she then looked at Sarutobi. "—it isn't because I married him. The adoption has been finalized, and I'm his daughter now."

Everyone became silent all of a sudden… and then…

"Oh my god, you were his daughter all along?!" came the idiotic comment of Mone, the shrine maiden-wannabe.

"So you're now Japanese?! We can't call you China anymore?!" Yamazaki Sagaru yelled out.

"Oi, oi, what's the commotion all about, you brats?"

In came the man in question, and immediately, Sarutobi Ayame leaps to try and hug him, only to crash on the blackboard. "… And why is everyone staring at me?"

"Sir! Is it true that you adopted China-san?!" Kondo Isao in a rather loud voice.

"… And why is that so surprising?" he wanted to know.

" 'Cause that was very unexpected, sir!" he replied back.

"Heck, at least we didn't go for the shoujo manga route and got secretly married." Immediately after he said this, he felt a rather intense glare aimed at him, and quickly, he added, "Kidding aside, Kagura's my kid now, so be nice to her."

The class hollered back their responses, all of it positive, and he nodded. "Good. Now that's settled, time for homeroom." His students made their way to their seats to listen to him. "The principal has requested me to do something for this year's cultural festival and…"

Everyone in the class looked up at him curiously.

"… We've gotta do a school play. About Snow White."

Notes:

[1] – The song I had in mind for this portion is Gackt's Vanilla. Lyrics borders to R-18, and it's actually a male song, so Kagura singing it made people raise their eyebrows.

[2] - No idea why Japan loves this plot line for shoujo manga. It... kinda creeps me out, to be honest.

I've been toying with the idea of the adoption route, but seeing that the real life process is very implausible, I took the liberty of using my artistic license for it to happen, so please take note of that.

Also, it's difficult to write a fic wherein the character does not have a last name. As of now, Kagura does not have an official last name, nor Kamui ('Yato' is the name of their clan/tribe, hence 'Yato-zoku', which literally means 'Yato tribe'), so I tried becoming creative by giving her a last name.

Anyway, feel free to tell me what you think of this chapter by dropping me a review! Thank you once again for reading!