Kids Will Be Kids by kingfishers_game

Chapter 5: Children Are Terrible Listeners Except When It Comes to

Picking up on Dirty Words..

When Kamui came to the heavily-guarded room that had been offered up for Kagura and the Shinsengumi captain, he hesitated before entering. He'd been planning to interrogate the policeman, but at the moment he honestly couldn't care less about the Shinsengumi's movements. They'd lost power after what happened with Tokugawa Shige Shige and had barely withstood the pressure to disband. Shinsuke still seemed to think the group posed a threat, but Kamui disagreed.

He nodded to the Amanto pirates keeping watch and entered. The policeman stood and reached instinctively to his hip where his sword usually hung, but his fingers met thin air—Abuto had confiscated the weapon. Kamui shook his head. "No need for that, Shinsengumi-kun. I'm just here to give Kagura a ride to Oukoku."

"Too afraid to fight me a third time? Or have you forgotten?" Sougo sneered.

Right, a third time. Kamui hadn't given it much thought, but this man was indeed the 'Earth policeman' from the Shogun assassination mission last year. Twice he'd fought Kamui and twice he'd remained alive. Hadn't Kamui noticed that those red eyes were the eyes of a killer? How did he know Kagura? "What's your name, Earth policeman?"

"You first, space criminal." Childish, sure, but it just wasn't in Sougo's nature to give without taking first. Things were looking bad. The pirates had taken his sword and bazooka (and after he'd gone through so much red tape to be able to take it on the flight). Sougo didn't know why they'd afforded him the comfort of a real room with two beds rather than the cell he'd expected, but it must have something to do with Kagura.

Speaking of which, Kagura had just emerged from the bathroom, still half-asleep and struggling to rake a brush through her tangled hair. "Nii-chan's name is Kamui. Sadist is Sougo." Yawning, she sat on the bed opposite Sougo's.

"Oh, she spoiled it. Read the atmosphere, brat."

"Why did she say that?" Kamui's usual smile was the same, but his tone had changed.

Sougo shrugged. "Like I know what goes through her head."

Kamui wasn't listening. "Why exactly did my 5-year-old sister just call you a sadist?"

Ah, that. Well, Sougo could see how bad it looked on his part for the kid to have mentioned that particular detail. "She picked that up from someone else. Probably Danna—ah, I mean Gintoki. She doesn't know what it means."

Kamui's smile remained, but he looked annoyed. "Why were you two traveling together?"

"You've seen her, right? She's not supposed to be that small. I'm looking for a cure." Without thinking, Sougo rubbed the swollen joint of his fractured wrist. "I get why you took me, but you could have left her on the civilian ship. Why would you kidnap her too?"

Kamui didn't have to answer. As long as they were on his battleship, as long as Sougo's arm was injured, as long as Kagura was a liability, Kamui had the upper hand and they both knew it. But... it wouldn't hurt to tell the policeman just a little.

He sat down on the bed next to his sister as she struggled with her brush. "Kagura," Kamui addressed her, "what did it feel like when you were being threatened by those pirates yesterday?"

Kagura was silent, still dozing off for a moment. Then, "Scary."

"The pirates scared you?"

"Yeah!"

"Then what did it feel like when you fought them off?" Kamui prompted.

"Like...like..." Kagura struggled to find the words. "Like I was s'pposed to. Even though Papi says fighting's bad." She looked up at Kamui for affirmation.