Kagura stood at the doorway, catching her breath after rushing all the way over to Soyo's villa. She had received a call from the Soyo that the sadist was about to die.

Sougo laid on a futon in the middle of the room and Soyo knelt beside him. He laid completely still, the room completely silent. Soyo raised her eyes and when she saw Kagura, her face scrunched up and her tears came flowing out.

The wooden floorboards creaked as Kagura stepped inside. Her gaze remained fixed on Sougo's body covered by a blanket. His eyes were closed and his face seemed almost peaceful.

Kagura sat down by his bed. For the past few chapters, she had suspected something was wrong with him but she never thought this would happen so soon. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know how to say goodbye without throwing any kicks or punches. If she tried, she might cry and she would never cry in front of the sadist.

Sougo's eyes opened just a crack. He looked to Kagura and his lips curled into a faint smile. He reached up for her face. Kagura flinched, thinking he was about to punch her, but his touch was gentle. He cradled her cheek in his palm just like his sister had once done.

Kagura stared at him with large watery eyes. "...Sadist?"

"Interesting... You're not barfing." So he rubbed harder, stroking and kneading her cheek, his skin scraping against hers.

Kagura narrowed her eyes in irritation and a vein throbbed on her forehead.

"Feeling sick yet?" Sougo asked innocently.

Kagura fumed in anger and raised her fist at him.

"Cough!" Sougo yelled. "Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough~~."

"Noooo!" Soyo threw herself at him and wept. "Don't die! Don't leave me too!" She got up and turned to the doorway. "Jiiya, call the Doctor! The best one!"

She dashed out of the room and ran down the halls in a pitter-patter of footsteps.

Kagura stared at Sougo with hooded eyes as she picked her nose. "Oi, if you're gonna fake it, at least sound like you're sick. I faked my death way better than you!"

"Fake? What makes you so sure it's fake?"

"You just want me to come over, yes? All you had to do was get lots and lots of food."

"Stupid Chinagirl, you think I miss you that much? What if I'm actually terminally ill and hiding it?" He turned to her with an unblinking stare that bore right into her. "What if... I'm only doing this 'cause there's no other way to tell you?"

Kagura pouted and shook her head. "The Sadist is being cheesy. He's trying to make everyone sad, but I won't fall for it, uhn uhn! The koala threw some random illness in with the rest of the crap trying to make everything stink less, but it doesn't even have a name!"

"It does have a name. Just call it Souji."

"Eh?! You named it?"

Sougo's smile faded away and his face became serious. "You know what killed my sister? It killed my parents. It killed my whole family and it's gonna kill me. That Souji guy basically cursed me to die young."

Kagura furrowed her brows. "But... But your sister was supposed to live longer in real life. If she died instead of you, then the Souji guy cursed her instead of you—"

"If I could bargain with Death like that... Sis wouldn't be dead."

Just then, Soyo hurried into the room. She glanced back and waited anxiously for a few seconds before the doctor stepped in carrying a small briefcace— an Amanto straight from the private Amanto hospital.

The doctor dressed completely in white with only his large round eyes and yellow beak showing through. He wore a long white lab coat with a tie and kept his hair in a combover.

Kagura's eyes opened wide in surprise. "Elizabeth?!"

But unlike Elizabeth, the white cloth didn't drape down his body. It fitted perfectly like skin and connected to his webbed feet that were actual duck feet, not flippers. He was not a human dressed up like a penguin/duck-thing, but a penguin/duck-thing dressed up like a human.

The doctor opened his mouth to speak in a flat voice. "I'm— quack."

The Quacks were an Amanto race well-respected across the universe for their unparalleled skill in healing. And so, many tried to emulate them, namely the Renho and whatever Elizabeth was, thinking that if they dressed up as a Quack, they could rub off on some of their prestige.

Dr. Quack stopped beside Sougo's bed. "Can I scan your ID? Quack."

"I lost it," said Sougo with an innocent look.

"I'm not supposed to treat a human, quack, without an ID check."

The doctor paused for a moment before he put his briefcase down on the floor.

His eyes lit up like bright pink lasers and scanned across Sougo's body. The laser vision of a Quack could determine with just a glance the exact nature of any illness.

Then, he took out a thermometer and stuck it in Sougo's mouth.

After a few minutes of Soyo staring in anticipation and Kagura picking her nose, the doctor took out the thermometer.

He took one look at the temperature and shook his head in dismay.

"It's incurable, quack."

Kagura froze at those words with her finger still in her nostril.

Dr. Quack started packing up his briefcase with a blank look on his face that never changed.

"Oiii!! Don't just give up on him, you quack doctor! Find a cure!"

"It's already too late," said Dr. Quack in his monotone voice. "It could have been curable had it been detected in early childhood and given therapy, but not after so many years. Even if we give him treatment it's most likely too late to cure it, quack quack. Treatment for being a spoiled attention-seeking brat, that is."

Not wasting anymore time, he got up and waddled out the door.

"Spoiled attention-seeking brat..." said Kagura with an amused smirk. "I should start calling you that."

"You can't. I'm older than you," said Sougo as he sat up from bed.

"Spoiled attention-seeking brat~~!" Kagura taunted him in a singsong voice. "Spoiled attention-seeking br—"

Sougo punched her in the face.

It sent Kagura falling back, spewing out spit.

Sougo stood up and looked down at her with a sadistic grin.

"Sougo..." Soyo rushed over to help him steady. "You shouldn't be out of bed in your condition."

"I'm all better now~," said Sougo as he walked off, not the slightest bit ill. "That punch worked miracles!"

***

The villa was quiet at noon when Soyo took her nap, or rather she was supposed to be sleeping but she found this to be a good time to work on her stories on Wattpad. It was one of those rare times of day when she had some privacy, without Jiiya finding out and telling her it was improper for a princess to write such things, or Sougo seeing what she wrote.

She jolted at the sound of footsteps outside her room, about to slam shut her laptop. The footsteps hurried past without stopping and she relaxed, returning to where she left off. After waiting for a moment, she resumed typing with quiet clicks of the keyboard. She didn't want anyone to know she was writing this— especially Sougo.

In the room next door, the silence was broken only by the sound of Sougo's fists smacking against a punching-bag that hanged from the ceiling. On the red leather surface, drawn with white chalk, was a rough doodle of Kagura's face staring ahead with hooded eyes. Soyo had ordered a few of them to be made after seeing how punching the real Kagura could cure his illness.

The impact sent the punching-bag swinging back so hard that it teared and the insides came out.

Sougo stared at Kagura's bored face and he pouted. It was no fun to punch something that couldn't punch back.

He turned to the one beside it, a black punching-bag with Hijikata's face on it. It would be better if this was the real Hijikata, but this would do.

Before he could deliver the killing blow, the door to the room slid open. Rotten Maizo opened it with his mechanical arms.

"Your Captain's right in this room." Maizo glanced back to the person he was escorting. "But be keep your voices low, both of you. The Princess is sleeping."

A stern-faced man with a mole on his forehead stepped into view. Kumanaku stood at the doorway and when he saw Sougo, he furrowed his brows in distress.

"Leader!!!" He threw himself at Sougo's feet. "I have failed!!!"

Maizo narrowed his eyes at him with a twitch of his moustache. He gave an angry huff, but left them alone.

Kumanaku pressed his forehead against the floor, begging for forgiveness. "It's a disaster, Leader! I— I have failed you..."

Sougo looked down at him and tilted his head. "You failed? Then just try again." His eyes glimmered with positive energy. "If we keep trying, I'm sure we'll succeed in killing Hijikata someday."

Kumanaku raised his head and looked up at Sougo with a grave expression on his face as if something terrible had happened. "I have failed both as our Vice-Commander's assassin... and as a clean-freak..."

"What's wrong? You forgot to wash your hands?" said Sougo, more interested in picking the dirt under his nails.

Kumanaku knelt with his head hanged in shame. "It all started a few days ago. If I'd known how it would turn out, I would have stopped it when I could..."

Sougo sat down and started polishing his sword as he lent an ear to his story.

***

Next time: The Shinsengumi are in another crisis! What happened to them? Also, there's an intense shower scene~~