Sharp Wings; 鋭い翼 [Gintama]

42 | "That's so like him," is a trend for this one

The woman behind her, Matako – or maybe it was Mantako? She's not really sure – yelled up at the incoming ship as if she was going to be heard by the people from that far away. Even Kagura's not that stupid. Even with a megaphone it would still be hard to hear from that distance away.

"You're here for the girl, right?" Matako yelled up to the sky. "We understand very well that you want to rescue her! If you randomly fire at us, this girl may accidentally-,"

And then, just as Kagura predicted, a cannon fired at them.

Kagura laughed as the two Kiheitai members argued among themselves behind her. "You stupid?!" the girl laughed. "I don't even know those guys! You got it all wrong! How disgraceful!"

"What're you happy about?" Matako snapped at Kagura. "You're the one in most danger!"

Then the cannon from above fired at them once again and Matako and Takechi ran back along with the others.

"Oi! You guys need to take responsibili-,"

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Kagura-chan."

"Sh-Shinpachi!" Kagura yelled in relief, looking happy to see the person who saved her.

Shinpachi smiled as he held on to the cross that the girl was tied to, millimeters away from dropping at sea. "Don't worry Kagura-chan, I'll help you out of there! I snuck in with someone's help!"

Before he could say anything, however, the ship started to bolt up into the air in attempt to dodge all the repeated firing that was coming from the Katsura faction from up above the sky. The speed of the ship caused it to incline and in turn, Shinpachi had to run in order not to zoom towards the other end of the ship. Saying so was a lot easier than doing it because he had to consider the wooden cross and the girl he was holding.

"Who are you?!" the blonde woman running up near Shinpachi asked in a yell. "Oi, answer me!"

"I can't really talk while I run, woman!" Shinpachi yelled. "I could get tired!"

"You're literally yelling right now!"

"Shut up!"

"Matako-san, you're better off just concentrating on running, or you'll end up like-," the weird-looking man from beside the blonde woman suddenly got cut off as he was hit with debris from above the ship.

"This is impossible, I'm going to fall!" Shinpachi cried. "Kagura-chan! I know I came to save you but save me!"

"Not possible, Patsu-san." Kagura said with a calm voice.

"Don't be so laid back, damn it!"

"Shinpachi! I came here looking for Zura, but I couldn't find him in the end." Kagura looked up at Shinpachi with large eyes, as if curious but at the same time, hopeful. "What happened to Zura? And how's Gin-chan? Why isn't Gin-chan here? Does Shizu-nee know? What about Kusahara?"

Shinpachi looked down at the girl, not knowing what to tell her.

"Shinpachi?"

Then a blast came from above, narrowly hitting Shinpachi. But the hit caused him to let go of his friend.

"Kagura-chan!" the boy yelled, watching Kagura fly. Because she was bound, she couldn't do anything to stop herself from flying. Shinpachi immediately pushed himself up his feet and rushed to catch the girl.

Miraculously, he narrowly caught her by the arm.

"Shinpachi!" the girl yelled, worry filling her voice. Suddenly, Shinpachi felt himself slipping but he was caught by someone from behind. The same someone pulled him back, along with Kagura, to safety.