5 Glimpses of Kijima Matako
By xxkoffeex
Author's Note: I don't like Kijima Matako. But I respect her guts. She's got balls to stick around a bunch of radical and dangerous men, wearing what she's wearing. Maybe that's why in this fic she's not acting crazy around Takasugi like Sa-chan acts around Gintoki. There's a parallel, but not that much.
Author's Note 2: After writing this, I just realized why I didn't like Kijima Matako. I was jealous that she got to be with Takasugi and I didn't. So lame.
.x.
There were exactly two things from Earth Matako really missed: Edo fashion and food. These two items were not readily accessible to one traveling the universe, particularly when associating with Amanto and other-worldly beings on a regular basis.
It was a small sacrifice, really, to take over Bansai's duties for a week in return for authentic Japanese food and clothes. He always knew what to bring back despite completely ignoring her in favor of his headphones, so she forgave him. The taste of real rice and real miso and real vegetables stayed in her mouth for months. She would wear her new clothes to sleep and strut in front of the mirror.
At times like these she thought, what if she was the only Japanese woman remaining after the inevitable fall of Edo? The men didn't care. The survival and continuation of Japanese food and fashion would undoubtedly fall into her gun-wielding hands. Sometimes Matako had to pause and wonder if destruction was really necessary.
Then Bansai made her listen to a single by Edo's top pop idol.
Matako decided that, after Edo burned to the ground, she would restore Japanese culture back to its former glory.
.x.
It occurred to Matako that her mother probably would not have approved of Takasugi Shinsuke.
In fact, it was likely that no mother in any universe would approve of him. What mother in her right mind would let her daughter marry a man whose sole desire in life was to destroy anything and everything in his path? Maybe the Yato clan. But even that was a stretch. Unfortunately, Matako was not a Yato and neither was her mother.
Perhaps if Shinsuke-sama didn't lose an eye. At least then her mother would have approved of his looks. But his bandages were one reason why Matako found him hot, so that was no good.
Maybe if her mother saw him from the right side only. Or maybe if all the lights were turned off. Matako even asked Takechi-senpai for possible options. He suggested several good tactics that might have swayed her mother to consider the Kiheitai leader as a potential son-in-law.
In the end it didn't matter because her mother was dead.
.x.
She didn't get cramps when she was on her period. Instead, she got intense food cravings in the middle of the night and her hands found the trigger of her guns a lot more frequently than usual.
There were disadvantages to being the only female on the ship, but they weren't a big deal. Matako knew she belonged. She had a role to play and she had a voice in this group. She knew she was replaceable in Shinsuke-sama's grand scheme, but it didn't matter if she was, as long as she could support him even a little bit. Matako had her own agenda and she was keeping to it.
Most of the time the men didn't even notice she was a different gender. This was good and bad. Good because she earned her right to stay on this ship. Bad because men could be disgusting.
On occasion, however, they made it clear that she was the only woman around. Once, when Takasugi Shinsuke was in a black mood and didn't come out of his room for a long time, the men begged her to go in. Not even Bansai would venture near the door. Apparently, according to the logic of Takechi-senpai, if a woman was sent to the leader's lair as a messenger he wouldn't kill her on sight.
Matako wasn't stupid. She chose life. She chose the ship's intercom.
But overall, being the only woman wasn't a big deal. She dealt with worse back on Earth. Little things like feminine hygiene and male egotism were tiny bumps in the road to victory, hardly worth the attention. Besides, being the only woman had its perks too.
When a foreign virus that steadfastly targeted the male organ debilitated everyone on the ship but her, it was up to Matako to find the antibiotic and save the day.
She didn't gloat. Much.
.x.
People might wonder what a lone woman in a ship full of men might do to occupy herself during lull time, of which there was plenty out in space. Matako didn't understand such a question. She wondered why other people might wonder. It didn't matter whether you were a man or woman when you were living in a spaceship twenty-four-seven with limited resources.
Let people wonder, she thought contemptuously. But, well, if they were really curious…
Recently there was an incident when one of the Kiheitai members raised a fuss because his coveted issue of Shonen Jump disappeared. A massive search was conducted throughout the ship, from the storage rooms to the mess hall—even Takasugi's room was scourged while he was out on business. The book was nowhere to be found, almost as if it had been sucked into one of the vacuums in the great universe. The mystery was left forever unresolved.
Nobody thought to search her room.
.x.
Kijima Matako was thrilled.
Because honestly, who wouldn't be excited fighting alongside a guy like Takasugi Shinsuke? It was a lifetime of guaranteed happiness which could only be topped by the sight of Edo's overdue destruction. With lots of fireworks. And bullets. And blood. Only a loser would point out she was the sole woman on board. Her guns weren't accessories. And she wasn't one either.
Kijima Matako was on a ship full of crazy men and a dangerously hot leader, anticipating the fall of the place they once called home whilst flying halfway across the universe. Wearing a hot pink skimpy kimono she custom-designed herself, no less.
Kijima Matako was never happier.
END