Hey everyone. I'm back after a year and a half, but I have plenty of things I wanna talk about...which I'll do in the bottom author's note. Until then, hope you enjoy reading.
"So let me reiterate your explanation," Gintoki started, crossing his legs in the midst of holding his own chin. "You want us to protect you from your ex-boyfriend—who you state is violent—because he gave you a threat letter, also because you wouldn't get an abortion? And your name is Kanagaki Ami?"
Turning his head to frown at him, Shinpachi said, "Don't tell me you somehow forgot her name."
Sitting across the Yorozuya trio was a woman with short sleek blue hair and brown eyes. She wore a sky-blue kimono with a purple sash.
Placing her hands on her big, round belly, Ami responded, "That is correct."
"Has that thick-headed dummy always been violent? 'Cause that's what it sounds like, uh-huh," Kagura inquired, snacking on her sour treat.
She shook her head. "No. He used to be a level-headed person. I'm not fully sure why he turned violent, but I broke up with him soon after I came to realize his nasty attitude."
"Smart move," Shinpachi said.
Ami nodded in agreement, then went to slightly change the topic, "Anyway, I have another request for all of you."
"What is it, then?" Gintoki asked with a raised eyebrow. "You already want us to protect you and your unborn baby from this unstable person; what more do you want?"
"First of all, being violent doesn't automatically mean unstable," Ami pointed out. "Second, my other request is for you to let me sleep over here for the time being."
No immediate response came from any of the Yorozuya members. Rather, they appeared confused.
The woman let out a sigh. "My ex-boyfriend is roaming around Edo as we speak. Thus, I don't feel comfortable sleeping at my own home until he's taken care of."
Shinpachi pondered, wrapping his hand over his chin. "You do make a good point." Returning his focus on Gintoki, he added, "Gin-san, I think we should let her stay here for now. If she's with us, then it's less likely her ex-boyfriend will suddenly attack her. Of course, we'll still need to be cautious."
Running his fingers through his wavy hair, Gintoki decided after heaving a sigh, "All right, she can stay here for some time. Let's just hope her pregnancy hormones or whatever it is doesn't overpower her and cause her to get pissy with us during her stay."
"I can hear you, you know," Ami told him in a flat tone.
"What's your no-longer-boyfriend's name? You haven't told us yet, nope," Kagura asked as she finished her piece of sukonbu.
"Oh, right. Thank you for reminding me." Ami cleared her throat before informing the three, "His name is Hatoyama Tetsuya. Also…" Digging into her left sleeve, she pulled out a piece of folded white paper.
Shinpachi pointed at said paper. "Is that the threat letter you mentioned a moment ago?"
"It is." She handed them the letter from Tetsuya. "I saw this in my mailbox when I woke up this morning."
Gintoki pinched the paper with his thumb and pinkie before turning it to unfold it. When he did so, however, the writing on it turned out to be...messy.
He squinted his eyes while inching his face closer as though the writing would get clearer. It didn't help. Even Shinpachi and Kagura couldn't make out much of what was written.
"Uh…" Shinpachi held a crooked smile. "Kanagaki-san, we can't exactly comprehend this letter, outside of some hiragana."
Ami folded her arms over her chest. "I can't say I'm surprised. Tetsuya's handwriting hasn't always been the best."
"I'm surprised you can read this at all," Gintoki said, now his turn to frown. "It looks like he failed grade school in terms of writing."
"Yes, but I'm used to sloppy handwriting, so I can make clear as to what it says."
"That makes no sense, but okay," Gintoki deadpanned at her logic as he returned the incoherent letter to her.
Facing the writing towards herself, she began reading it out loud, "'Ami, I regret (Actually, I don't regret) to inform you that I cannot accept this baby. I've tried convincing you to abort this unwanted fetus, but I came to realize how stubborn you are. I wasn't surprised you broke up with me, in fact, I expected this to happen. Why? Because you were too much of a coward to stay with me. You want to run away from me, but knowing where you live since I've been to your home dozens of times, I won't have a problem finding you and getting rid of your unborn child. I refuse to say our child, because I don't want to deal with an annoying pest as it grows up. When will I start going after you? I don't have an answer for that yet, but I will say you better watch out.'"
As soon as she finished, Shinpachi's jaw dropped while Gintoki and Kagura barely scrunched their faces.
"S-So in other words…" Shinpachi stammered; despite struggling to speak, he managed to complete his sentence in a question, "...he w-wants to kill your baby?!"
"Unfortunately, that's the case," Ami replied.
"How are you sounding so calm right now?! This sounds like he wants to cut you open and tear your baby out!"
"Gah, too much information, Patsuan." Gintoki waved his hand up and down, additionally almost gagging at the visual of a uterus being sliced open and having a baby being forced out.
Ami spoke, "Believe me, I had the same reaction as you when I first read it. I managed to regain my composure after an hour."
"I think the fact that you're pregnant is the exact reason for Tetsuya suddenly going violent," Shinpachi guessed, still in shock from hearing the gruesome letter. "Exactly when did he discover you were pregnant?"
"Two weeks ago. He was on a trip for a while. Admittedly, even I didn't realize I was pregnant until I was six months in."
"How do you not notice you're preggers?" Kagura asked. "Babies kick a lot, scream, and play with their gross cords, yep! They even tell you, 'Feed me, mommy!'"
"Kagura-chan, that's not really how it works…" A drop of sweat trailed down Shinpachi's cheek.
Ami said, "There've been plenty of instances where women didn't notice they were pregnant initially. Heck, some didn't even know until they gave birth to their children."
"That sounds kinda scary," Shinpachi admitted.
Balling her hand into a fist and raising it in the air, Kagura said, "If that ever happened to me, I'd feel like I hallucinated to the billionth degree, uh-huh!"
"What an exaggeration," Gintoki droned.
"Kanagaki-san, did you want children?" Shinpachi probed.
"I did, but I wasn't ready before knowing I was pregnant. I mentioned I broke up with Tetsuya because of his attitude, but our relationship got rocky not long before that," Ami confessed.
"Yet you say he used to be level-headed."
"That's still true, but at one point, I witnessed him struggling to keep himself composed. He used to get snippy with me and even invaded my privacy at one point. He also frequently looked at my torso, which weirded me out because he never did that beforehand." Goosebumps formed on her flesh at the memory.
"This is just wild speculation, but it sounds like he was exceptionally paranoid by the thought of you becoming pregnant, because...well, you know how pregnancy happens." Shinpachi shifted his shoulder, avoiding to say anything more explicit.
"That would make sense." Ami pinched the bridge of her nose. "I knew he wasn't a huge fan of children, but does he hate them to the point of wanting to get rid of mine in the most grotesque way possible?"
"Well, if you're gonna be staying here until Tetsuya's in jail, you can sleep on the couch," Gintoki suggested, leaning forward.
"I can't accept that. Just sitting on it makes my bottom numb."
Gintoki groaned. "Why does everyone complain about my couches numbing their asses?"
"Only she's complained, Gin-san," Shinpachi pointed out. He turned to Ami.
"Do you have a guest room?" Ami asked.
"We don't, but you can use Gin-san's room...if he's willing to let you do that."
"Fine," Gintoki said.
Shinpachi's eyes widened. That was easy.
His head drooped. "I don't wanna deal with lots of pointless complaining all because my couch doesn't suit their needs."
Ami's eyes rolled. "Being pregnant causes certain parts of my body to feel numb; it has nothing to do with the material of your furniture. Besides, I need to have enough room so I don't risk accidentally leaving my sleeping spot."
"Understandable," Shinpachi said. "Oh, there's something else I need to ask. Does anyone else know about this threat letter?"
"You're the only ones I've told. Not that I'm planning on keeping this a secret from other people, so I don't care if you mention this to anyone. However, do keep in mind that I'm planning on having you three—and only you three—to protect me. I don't need a ton of people being my bodyguards. And another thing..." She pulled out a thick brown rectangular envelope from the same sleeve which had the letter. "While I'm unsure how long I'll be here, I'm giving you a generous amount since you're dealing with me while I'm in danger."
After handing it to Gintoki, the latter opened it to check the amount. There was no need to count, as it appeared to be a lot more than they usually received.
Now all three Yorozuya Gin-chan member's had their jaw dropped, almost certain it fell to their laps.
Shinpachi stammered again, only in a different tone, "Th-Th-Thank you for y-your generosity!"
The corners of Ami's lips barely curved into a small smile. Even then, her thoughts continued to focus on Hatoyama Tetsuya.
Calling him unreasonable would be a huge understatement. He wants to do something so violating...so horrific...and he had the nerve to order me to get an abortion.
Ami involuntarily wrapped her arms around her belly once more.
Even if I wanted an abortion, I realized my pregnancy too little, too late. At this point, I'm almost at the end of my third and final trimester.
All right, now that you've (Most likely) read the first chapter of this story, I need to bring up some important bits, mostly about what I've been up to since I finished writing "Trouble is my Middle Name!", but some things for this story will be mentioned as well.
Anyway, if you've read my profile, then you'll already know I've written a novel, titled "A Demon For A Birthday" (It was initially for NaNoWriMo 2018, but when I was more than halfway done with the story, I came to realize that it wasn't gonna end up being over 50,000 words. Hell, I didn't even finish it before November ended, but I suppose that's a good thing. Can you imagine how awkward it would've been if I did finish it within that month? lol). If you haven't read my profile and you're interested in my original story I just mentioned, then check said profile now so you can see where to find me on social media.
You may also recall that this is the first out of five future stories (Well, this one isn't "future" anymore since I'm posting this now, but you get the point) I plan to write before I retire from Fanfiction. I've stated it was because I don't feel as passionate with writing it as much as I used to. If I'm to be completely honest with you all, I think because of this, I'm feeling less comfortable with writing Fanfiction. While there're certainly ideas that sound interesting for me to write, I'm only gonna do four more after this.
Now onto the story. Funny enough, I actually finished planning this one around four and a half years ago, but because I was so focused on writing my other fic, that I had to put this off for a while. Somewhat recently, I decided, "Y'know what? I'm gonna start on this eventually." And...well, you know the rest. Sorry if this isn't very interesting, but I needed to have the main issue discussed. Hopefully, I'll be able to make it more interesting as the story goes on.
Oh, and heads up, this fic isn't gonna be very long.
That's all I have to say for this author's note.