25A/N: The setting of this story is some time after Post Shirogane no Tamashii-hen and I honestly didn't give much thought whether Kagura's 16, 17, 18, or 19 (like in Kanketsu-hen). I think it would be best if she were 19, here, though. Let's make it a unanimous agreement, we can't have Sougo breaking any more laws than he has to.
Reunion with the Yorozuya girl hadn't really felt like an actual reunion after the whole mess with the altana had been over and done with.
This wasn't their actual reunion, technically, for that one happened when he and that timid glasses boy received that package which turned out to be a China monster brat that wasn't actually that other China monster's offspring but rather, herself.
But no, he was getting distracted again.
This reunion, or just going back to their old practices without the threat of some killer crow's deathly intent looming over their heads, with the China girl—not quite anymore, he struggled to remind himself—went easier than he had imagined it would.
Sure, the difference between their heights wasn't as wide as he'd hoped it would remain to be for a couple more years. She—not it (damned China pig), but she because looking at her now, he realized begrudgingly that she wasn't just some China monster anymore and was actually a grown ass lady, and fucking no, he'd never say that straight to her face—was starting to mature physically, began wearing her hair in pigtails like the pig she was—he smirked at that, and went on to flaunt those legs of hers, parading around Kabuki District like it was her business to make the men ogle her body and grovel at her feet and curse that fucking demon vice chief-turned-chief of his for not making murder legal, much less multiple counts, maybe a dozen or two. The idea was starting to sound more and more appealing by the second and he was not liking any of it.
So yeah, there was the realization that she wasn't a kid anymore and maybe, just maybe, he understood why the stupid MADAOs of Kabuki District, as China referred to those dogs who didn't feel any shame in salivating over her, desired her in that manner. But that didn't change their dynamic much because while on the outside, she had changed, on the inside, she still remained that little girl who picked her nose and flicked her booger to any unsuspecting passerby.
That was a breath of fresh air, if he did say so himself, for he really wanted some sort of normalcy, now more than ever. After Kondō Isao, his former dōjo master and chief, quit the Shinsengumi to focus on training to be a good house husband, left the planet for yet another political marriage with some gorilla alien, and was later rescued and brought back to Earth only to marry another but much more tolerable gorilla not-alien, Sougo could only hope that some part of his usual daily life would remain intact, even in this post-Shogunate era.
Being subjected to having Hijikata Tōshirō as a chief was not helping him, either, despite having just been promoted to the vice chief position from his old post of being the captain of the first division, much to his chagrin. Dumping all his paper work on the bastard's desk was probably the only thing that kept him sane (and the ease with which he could increase the frequency of his assassination attempts).
That aside, for the most part, he was able to retain some semblance of his old life by means of torturing China girl and sparring with her occasionally whenever his tight schedule allowed it so overall, it was fine. Really.
Until one day, it wasn't.
"Come again?" he heard a voice that sounded suspiciously his say.
"I said," the girl had the audacity to repeat very slowly as if she was conversing with a grade schooler and not someone who was a good four years older than her, which he was, "let's get married, yes?"
"...no."
How it got to this point, he had no idea. One moment, he was sitting down on his usual spot in the park, a bench near a streetlight and a trash bin that reminded him of his superior officer, after a peaceful stroll down the familiar street from the compound to the playground. The next thing he knew, he received a marriage proposal from his rival, of all people.
"Come on, think about it properly, yes?" she droned on, ready to present to him some arguments which, he was fairly certain, would neither be valid nor logical, since it was her speaking.
"No," he repeated flatly, but it didn't stop her from continuing.
"Just hear me out, yes?" she insisted, and before he could refuse again, she began her persuasion. "You see, I'm very pretty," he snorted at that, "and you look acceptable enough. Soyo-chan also said that kids are likely to inherit more from their mothers anyway so there's a decent chance that our kids will inherit their looks from me and not you, yes?"
He sighed defeatedly at that and decided to humor her. "I still don't see your point." Taking this as an encouragement, she just continued explaining just why it was a good idea for him to marry her, which, really, it wasn't. But he kept listening, anyway, against his better judgment.
"Also, you make decent amount of money—"
"I make more than all of you Yorozuya combined," he interjected.
"—so you'll be able to provide for me and a couple kids, yes?"
"I highly doubt that, even with just your monster appetite alone. Now triple that, I'll spend all my fortune dry in less than a month."
"What do you even intend to do with all the taxes you robbed from the innocent people of Edo?" she asked with a pout that definitely did not look cute. "Might as well use that to feed actual people."
"If by actual people, you meant you, then you must be having problems with your eyesight."
The jab, surprisingly, went ignored. "Think of it this way, you would now have an actual thing to spend on, you can ease your guilt from all the expulsion, yes?"
"You mean extortion, don't you?" he corrected drily. "And is that the best argument you can give me?" Not like he really considered marrying her, because he did not.
She puffed her cheeks indignantly, which only made her look like a combusting tomato and did not help her case at all. "Of course, not!"
He raised an eyebrow at her, but did not say anything. She took this as her cue to continue.
"You're a samurai, one of the best ones I know," he blinked in surprise at the compliment but chose not to interrupt her, "that lessens the chances of me giving birth to a child with a body that cannot handle my blood, yes?"
"Then why not marry an amanto?" he tried to look as indifferent as he could, but he was genuinely curious. "Surely, they can handle your monster blood."
"Have you seen an actual amanto? They're hideous!" She made comical gestures of monsters by baring her teeth and imitating the hands of a dinosaur.
"Says an amanto."
"I'm different! My mother had a one-in-a-million beauty, the likes of which mere mortals like you would never understand, yes?"
"Hard to believe when I'm looking at you," now this, he struggled to say with a straight face, knowing he was actually lying, a fact even he couldn't quite grasp.
Instead of getting riled up like he hoped she would, though, she merely frowned at him. Maybe she saw through his bullshit, after all. Or maybe, she just had that much confidence in her looks. Either way, she just stared at him with a pause before she spoke again. "Any amanto is out of the question, yes? Just don't ask anymore."
He sensed there was more to it than she let on, but for once, he deemed listening to her a good idea. "Fine, continue enlightening me with your marvelous suggestion."
With that, she visibly lit up and began rambling again. "As I said, you fight decently, so you won't have that much trouble standing your ground against my stupid brother who's probably going to be after your head once the news reaches his ears! So all is well, yes?"
That made a vein pop in his head. "You seem to forget that before that happens, Danna's going to be after my head, too."
"Nah, he'll come around." The pig even had the nerve to beam at him brightly, and dare he say, sweetly.
"Then if I miraculously survive Danna and your stupid brother, there's also that baldy, who will not be as merciful as the first two. That says a lot, because those two do not have any merciful bone in their bodies."
"I'll protect you, yes? I assure you." The promise went out of her mouth almost immediately that he didn't feel any reassurance at all.
"You're really serious about this, aren't you?" he asked rhetorically before sighing for possibly the hundredth time that day. "You gave this more thought than I expected. I didn't even know you had a brain somewhere in that head of yours."
She jumped at this with a triumphant grin. "Does this mean you agree?" she looked at him expectantly.
"No." Her shoulders slumped.
"Why not? I thought you were paying attention to what I was saying, yes?"
"I was," he explained, wondering why he even bothered at all, before he stood up to meet her gaze. "And while I understand why you're doing this, I don't see how any of this helps me at all."
With that, he turned his back on her and waved lazily as he began his walk back to the compound.
"Wait! I'm not done, yet!" she called out to him and for a reason that eluded even him, he paused and waited for her to say something but no words came.
Disappointed, he decided he was done.
Before he took another step, though, she cleared her throat and spoke again. "Your job is very dangerous, yes?"
"Thanks for the warning, I appreciate it."
He heard her scoff, indicating that that wasn't what she had in mind at all. "Anyway, as I was saying, with its hazards, starting a family wouldn't be the smartest idea at all, yes?"
That surprised him, the idea was the complete opposite of what she had been trying to prove so far, after all. "Why are you telling me this? You finally gave up?"
"No, of course not!" she paused, probably to sort out what she was saying, which was very uncharacteristic of her but he decided not to think too much about it. "With me, all the risks are gone, yes? I can protect myself just fine. You can continue, or start, doing your job without any worries, yes?"
...now, if he wasn't too proud and arrogant a man, he would have admitted that that made sense and was actually beneficial. Unfortunately, he was. "Why would I even want to protect you? No one would even dare lay a hand on you."
Before she could say anything further about the matter, he walked away for good and tuned her voice out, a skill he had mastered for the past several years. He could still hear her yelling at him and telling him to come back but he decided not to pay her any heed because why would he?
Now, if there was some part of him that told him to stay rooted at that place where he stood right in front of her because she was a fine scene to look at and she was warm, which, obviously, there was none, but if there was, he chose to ignore it.
She really didn't understand how someone could be that stubborn. In retrospect, though, she should have, given that it was him.
With all honesty, she didn't even like him like that, no. She only brought up the idea of marriage because it was practical. Her body clock was ticking, after all, and he was the only person that made sense for her to marry.
Gin-chan was too old and broke, Megane was just an inanimate object with an obsession on Terakado Tsuu, and Zura was, well, Zura, and other than those mentioned, there really wasn't enough men in her life to choose from. (There was also Gori, who was actually decent now, albeit too old, but he was married already to Anego, so no).
Now, Okita Sougo, on the other hand, while an absolute sadistic asshole who constantly tested her paper-thin patience on a regular basis, was a fairly decent candidate.
One, she would be fed three complete meals a day, and she could afford to finish up a pack of sukonbu or two in one sitting because Okita Sougo was basically a sugar daddy, except he was young and an actual bachelor, not some bloody senator with a failed marriage who could think of no better option for a concubine than a courtesan from Yoshiwara.
Two, he was drop dead gorgeous, or so Soyo-chan would say. She had enough sense in her to admit he looked fine at best. But she really didn't get what Soyo-chan saw in him, not to mention, the former princess was adamant that there were no harboured romantic feelings between the two of them whatsoever, "not between us, anyway." The smirk didn't make it any easier to understand at all.
Lastly, he fought well, and if by any chance, one of her overprotective relatives/guardians managed to kill him, she wouldn't be too devastated. So it was a win-win situation.
How that didn't convince him at all was beyond her. Should she come up with more arguments after all?
She shook her head, he'd come around. In time, he'd see reason and run to her like the dog he was.
She sighed dejectedly. Being a rabbit of the night was awful, to say the least. She never really asked to belong to one of the most powerful races in the galaxy, let alone be one of the kids of the most powerful alien hunters in the galaxy. It did come with its perks, but there were times when she caught people staring at her because of her ancestry that she wished she was human like the rest of them.
One major downside of it all, though, was the annoying urge to procreate.
Somehow, her body had decided ahead of her that it was time to find a suitable mate and be done with it, which was ridiculous. Couldn't she have at least gotten a boyfriend first?
But there was no time for that, now, and desperate times called for desperate measures.
She had no idea what to do about it, though. She was just rejected, repeatedly. Should she make an attempt again? Wouldn't that put her in the same league as Kondō and Sacchan, who just didn't get the hint when a person's uninterested?
Except, Kondō-san actually got the girl, and Sacchan, well, Sacchan did have it bad for Gin-chan but was later revealed to have only been putting a show due to Zenzō's incessant avoidance of romance because a shinobi's life is not to be taken lightly, you'll eventually pay the price, Sarutobi, either by losing your head or a couple limbs.
So there was that. Perhaps, consistent perseverance in romancing a person wasn't such a bad thing—she just hoped she wouldn't have to resort to stalking, because there are lines even she would not cross.
"It's decided then," she spoke out loud, startling her inugami, whose current size wasn't as large as it used it be so it looked more or less like a normal dog, now. She chuckled, which only spurred the dog to bark louder and wag its tail more. "Alright, this time, I'll get him to say yes!"
