Around a large table sat eight of our most familiar cast from Gintama... and other who only exist in Fanfiction. Gintoki yawning as he dug his nose as he dozed off on the table. Shinpachi is trying his best to blast Otsuu-chan to keep himself awake. Kagura is sucking on her sukonbu, a sleep bubble under her nose. Next to her is Katsura, mediating, then Yamazaki eating Anpan and drinking coffee. To his left, Kondo rested his head on the table, totally asleep and adjacent to him is Sogo with the same posture, with his comical sleep mask on. His neighbor, Hijikata is wide awake, going through his paper works. Finally, Manju who is in between Hijikata and Gintoki is sorting out some papers.
Thud.
Gintoki's head hit the table, breaking the silent. "Oi, just why are we asked to come here? It is only 530am in the morning." Gintoki complaint.
"Shut up. I want to sleep." Kagura said, half awake.
"You shut up. You are the loudest." Sogo tilted his head to the left.
"You shut up! Sadist. Snoring snoring snoring. It is irritating!" Kagura's sleep bubble burst as she jumped up and yelled at him.
"Your snoring is like a pig! Scoink scoink scoink!" Sogo tugged his eye mask and look at her.
"You are a pig! Go get stuck in the mud and drown!" Kagura shouted angrily.
"You two... It is too early to fight. You are disturbing other people in the next room." Shinpachi tried to calm them down when they pulled their weapon.
"Shut up! Megane!"Kagura yelled at him. "Just remain as glasses!"
"How many times do I have to tell you I am not glasses you idiot!" Shinpachi got offended.
"Leader, Shinpachi-kun, stop fighting. Samurai should always remain calm and collect, not fighting over something so little." Katsura said, still with his eyes close.
"Oi Zura, why are you here? In the first place, why are we all here?" Gintoki yawned again and asked.
"Zura jia nai! Katsura da." Katsura corrected. "I don't know why we are here. I just appear here. That aside, can someone take this handcuffs off me!" He exclaimed. The moment he was here, the Shinsengumi chased him around, beat him up and cuffed him down. "Hey, you hear me? Oi!" They ignored him as a fight broke out with Sogo and Kagura.
"Otae-chan, don't be so rough with me." Kondo pouted his lips in his dreams as he sleeps talked. Shinpachi rolled his eyes. "Otae-chan!"
The once quiet room got rowdy and noisy with Manju and Hijikata still keeping to their work. They are used to these monkeys.
"Man-chan, what are you doing?" Gintoki leaned towards her and asked.
"Sorting some papers," Manju said without looking at him.
"Manju, I had been wanting to ask, why are you here?" Shinpachi asked above all the noise. Yamazaki had started playing badminton at one corner. When his shuttlecock flew off course and hit Hijikata, the Vice-Commander who had been putting up with all the noise snapped. "Are you not supposed to be studying mahou at home?" Shinpachi continued.
"Yamazaki!"
"I was indeed at home. Then suddenly I am here. The author wants these paper sorted." Manju answered Shinpachi's question.
"The author? Gorilla-sensei? Does he write English?" Gintoki looked at the papers. "Why are you helping him with this? That is his job, not yours."
"Not Hideaki Sorachi-san. It is MochiYokanManju. The author who wrote The Sun, the Moon and a Meteor." Manju said.
"Mochi-san?" Shinpachi asked.
"Ahh... Momochi-san ne." Gintoki said.
"It is MochiYokanManju. Just think of her as Japanese sweets." Manju checked through that the pages are in order.
"Then? What does Moyochi-san want?" Gintoki gave her another name.
"Who is Moyochi-san?" Shinpachi asked. "It is MochiYokanManju-san."
"That is too long. Dango-san will do." Gintoki dug his ears and yawned.
"Dango is not even close!" Shinpachi commented.
"It is just a name. The fault is hers for using such a stupid name." Gintoki rolled his eyes. "Manju, just what did this Momochizu-san want?"
"Something like future planning." Manju got that from looking at the papers. Bring out a bucket, she started folding papers into small paper bullets used in toy catapults and throw them in the bucket.
"She wakes us up so early just for this? That mad author." Gintoki stood up and tried to leave. "I am too hungry to put up with this."
"Here." Manju took out pipping hot manjus and mochis from under the table with tea. "Mochi-san's service. Free flow food and drinks."
Gintoki looked under the table and saw nothing. Wandering where she got the food from, he went behind her and looked under the table from her side. There was nothing. Then he saw Shinpachi pulled out a tray of rice and sides. "How did you do that?" He went back to his seat and asked.
"Just speak to her." Shinpachi demonstrate. He pulled the table cloth up, then said, "One chocolate parfait please." Gintoki watched as a black-hole appeared, a hand reached out with a cup of his favorite and gave it to Shinpachi.
"How do you know is a her?" Gintoki took the parfait from him and said.
"That smooth pale hand is of a girl." Shinpachi ate his breakfast and said.
"She can be a girly man." Gintoki lifts the tablecloth and said, "There are traps everywhere nowadays. 1 cup of Strawberry milk." A hand reached out and gave him a cup of strawberry milk. It tasted exactly like how Manju made it for him.
"How dare you two start eating without me!" Kagura saw food and got back to her seat, yelling at Shinpachi and Gintoki. "Where is my tamakage gohan?!" She looked around and asked. Manju pushed at tray to her as she continued to fold papers.
"Manju, you are totally spoiling her." Gintoki said.
"If I leave you guys to explain how to get food to her, things might get even more noisy." Manju said as she ate a bowl of mochis.
"Ano... can someone uncuff me? I am hungry and want to eat too." Katsura asked. When no one answered him, he yelled, "Don't ignore me! Leaving people in need, Gintoki, you still call yourself a samurai?!"
"It is not wrong of samurai to leave Zura on the chair." Gintoki started eating dangos.
"Manju! We are good friends right? You are a good girl. Uncuff me!" Katsura said desperately.
"I am finishing, give me a minute." Manju said.
"Jia, I will execute him first." Hijikata heard that and stood behind the terrorist with his katana raised.
"Chutto Hijikata-kun! We gather here to plan for the future. Without me, there will be no future." Katsura said quickly.
"No. The future will be beautiful without you." Hijikata said.
"Manju...Manju!" He screamed when he saw the blade coming for him.
"Wait Hijikata-san. You can't kill him yet." Manju stood up and stop him. She is already done with the author's work. "Mochi-san asked him to come for a reason. If you want to catch him, do it after this." Manju held out her hand for the keys.
"He just needs to be here right? Why do I need to uncuff him?" Hijikata asked.
"The author needs all of us to fill in some papers. He can't write without his hands." Manju explained.
"Tch... I seriously don't know what this MochiYokanManju-san want." Hijikata gave her the key and returned to his seat. Manju free her friend and got him some food. Kagura had started another argument with Sogo, with Kondo and Shinpachi scolding, yelling and insulting each other.
"Emm... I will read some instructions from here first." Manju returned to her seat and took the first paper. "We are supposed to take a piece of paper from the bucket, then answer the questions on it by writing. You can choose to leave your name if you want. After that, please fold the paper and put it back into the bucket. Manju will then open them one by one and we have a discussion over it. In the case of extreme interruption, Manju is allowed to use mahou to bring chaos under control." Taking the bucket, she approached everyone in a clockwise direction first, asking them to only take one.
"Manju, you are not doing any?" Shinpachi asked.
"I am here to only represent the Mochi-san." Manju sat back down and waited for them to finish. "You guys have an hour. No exchange, no talking and no peeking."
"Why does this feel like an examination?" Gintoki sighed and looked at his pick. He found that Manju had translated all the English into Japanese for them. Reading though the question, he took a pen and started writing.
The room grew very quite with only pen on surface sound and the air con. Manju is sketching on her sketchbook while they work. Maybe it was because Manju was authorized to use mahou, or perhaps the questions on the paper are surprisingly something they are interested in, none of them created a scene. Katsura finished his and tried to throw it in the bucket from a distance. Yamazaki decided to hit his with a racket at the same moment, causing both their paper bullet to fly off course, onto Gintoki's ice-cream.
"What are you going to do with my red bean ice-cream you two idiots!" Gintoki scolded them.
"Gin-san, you can always get another one." Shinpachi sighed and shook his head.
"We can't just waste food." Gintoki took the wet and sticky paper out and dump them into the bucket. He scaped off a part of the ice-cream and hurled it at the bin behind him and finish his ice-cream as he continues to write.
"Manju... is there really a meaning to answer these questions?" Kagura sighed in boredom as she rests her chin on her table. When the girl did not reply her, Kagura sat up and throw a paper ball at Manju. "Manju!"
"Shhh!" Hijikata looked at Kagura disapprovingly. That got Gintoki and Shinpachi to look at him. "She is asleep you idiot." He whispered. Gintoki and Shinpachi then looked at Manju. Her head was rested on her sketchbook, and an alarm clock next to her left hand.
"She must be working really hard at home." Shinpachi smiled and turned back to his paper and finish them. They did not need an hour for the question was not difficult. They just need to write how they truthfully feel.
"Is she really getting enough sleep?" Gintoki took her alarm clock and add another hour. He then threw his crumpled paper balls into the bucket and decide to get more sleep.
"Dana, You should not be sleeping. At a time like this, you should take over her and be in-charge of this meeting." Sogo threw the paper bullets in and said.
"I don't know English." He yawned and said. The others handed in their paper, all done in half an hour. Suddenly, something hit his knee. He saw a clipboard being pushed to him by the hand that handed out food. On the clipboard are some papers in Japanese. "Oi! Are you the author? If you are here, get your ass out. Why are you making Manju do your work? The hand retreat, black hole disappeared. "Oi!"
"Gin-san! Shut up, you will wake Manju!" Shinpachi put a headphone over her ears and said. "Mochi-san must be too shy. Just take over. You are the main character right?"
"Troublesome." Gintoki sighed and read what is on the first page. "Ok. We will start the discussion now. I will read out the question and answer in order. For each question and answer, we will start a discussion. Manju will be authorized to use mahou for chaos control." He finished reading. "Manju is sleeping. Change that line to 'Gintoki will be able to whack disturbance with his Toyako.'"
"Do not give yourself permission like that." Hijikata frowned and reached for the clipboard, but Gintoki refused to give him.
"First question..." Gintoki started digging the papers for the first one. He then clear his throat and said, "What do you think of the story? The Sun, the Moon and the Meteor. And the person who answer th-"
"Me! Me! Me!" Katsura raised his hand like a kid.
"Shinpachi, Kagura, heads down." Gintoki said. The brats followed his instructions as he used his Toyako and knock Katsura's head.
"Zura answered this. And his answer goes like this... "