*I Know Why It's Peaceful Here*
by: WhiteGloves
A/N: Gintama lost chapter.
"Peace ain't for everybody. Least not for me." ~ Sakata Gintoki
Enjoy Reading!
It's been days... months...a year... since Edo's fire was extinguished.
More accurately speaking it was the stagnant period where people live right after the war; the shed of blood, the lives lost, actions that caused revolts that killed plenty of people... all were a thing of the past—both remembered and lived upon.
Lives that remained are all dedicated to start a new... war was over. It was time for peace.
And among them, a curious silver haired man too, was living in peace.
Sprawled on his long couch in the middle of the afternoon, his hands at the back of his head, legs crossed and a book covering his entire face—there was no question to it—this man was the epitome of the amity everybody was experiencing. Lax, unworried, unbothered. For a long time this was his routine. And so was everybody.
Not that it meant any difference in people's behaviour for the rent was still unpaid and the landlady still harasses him. And there were still stalkers but they were quietly shut down in their dark corners till the attack period. There were still the police too who were too violent for their own good and violent hostess who was still no good and no good madaos who increased in number lately.
Peace? This was theirs in Kabuki.
And here he was, on his couch, listening to the Yato girl use indelicate words to the megane-kun who was yet again typically screaming. Shinpachi was not one to be bullied and there were rally of curses between the two but Gintoki didn't mind. Two energetic kids bantering inside his household meant everything was okay.
From the smell of smoke, sound of firearms and screams of despair... to these kids laughter, it always made Gintoki smile when nobody was looking... a self satisfaction.
Oh, but recently there was this feeling that would always make him sit up.
A bothersome feeling that had nothing to do with the fact that some four eyes ninja woman was surveying him from above his own ceiling. The feeling had been nagging him for weeks. A feeling like there was a pang inside his stomach. As if something was inside his system wanting ever so badly to come out. He didn't know its source but to feel this way when everything around him was back to how they used to be was strange for him.
As if there was something missing.
Gintoki had tried to ignore it before but it proved to be futile. Days passed. It was the same. It bothered him to his core until there was nothing left to do but to act. But what was that unsettling feeling inside him?
So when this happened again that day, he sat up, letting the Jump book fall down his lap and stood. The kids looked at him questioningly and asked what was the matter, but like usual, he raised his hand and walked toward the refrigerator where he took two strawberry shake pack and left the building quietly. Kagura and Shinpachi had tried asking him about his strange behaviour recently to which he gave varied answers. Lately, however, it seemed that the kids decided to leave him alone.
Thus, he walked around Kabuki with his right hand inside his white kimono stripe and the other leaning on his wooden sword carrying strawberry shake packs. He had thought it best to walk around to search, for the disconcerting feeling inside him felt as if it was searching for something and he had to find the way to calm it.
Calm himself? But it was just peaceful then, right? What's up with him trying to calm himself when everything was calm from the beginning?
So he set out to seek for answer.
Like a peaceful boat searching for a storm.
He walked around Kabuki and looked from left to right where he saw familiar faces of people continuing their lives. Peace as peace goes in Kabuki involves police siren for self inflicted damages (Okita-kun in his usual hyper mode), cat burglars and robots shopping, anpan being bought in dozens and suspicious ladies smiling and chuckling (hostess of some club walking around with an eyepatched heiress who's got a monkey on her shoulder and a real gorilla at their back). Sword smiths, robot inventor, ramen seller, liquor seller, carton box seller, dancing with biceps sellers... they were all there living peacefully.
Yet...
Gintoki squared his jaw and moved on. Glad as he was that they there, it was not what he was looking for. Something was still amiss in his sight, something that was making things troubling.
He had walked quite a mile before he realized where he was heading—where his feet was carrying him—at the outskirts of Kabuki.
Old broken down houses were located there and few people venture on that part of the city unless they were people up to no good. Gintoki knew he was up to no good the moment he left his house so no harm done anyways.
Funny enough, he didn't find it surprising to see ronins hanging about. Some would look at him, others would completely ignore him. Gintoki wondered if this was their peace for it had been long since the Jouishishi got disbanded.
Joushishi. Exactly where he was headed.
It wasn't long before he was met by familiar faces that he knew hang around that person he was looking for. They lead him to another closed area that seemed invisible to the eye. There he saw doors upon doors open till he reached that one last room where his escorts left him.
He stood in front of the shoji door for some time, thinking about why he was there again in the first place. Then the nagging feeling inside him poke him until there was nothing left to do but to reach out and slide the door open.
The room was small, hardly any room for running. Yet it was full of air for it faced a hidden balcony unto a small garden. There in the room too, sat at one corner a man with long black hair facing the garden. He was writing something on the only objects in the room, a table, where a half empty book page was lying. When the door opened, the long haired man stopped to look behind him, his olive colored orbs straight to the silver haired samurai's red eyes.
There was a short pause where the silver haired man scratched his head with the bothersome feeling inside him completely disappearing upon seeing this comrade of his.
"Gintoki," Katsura Kotarou's voice sounded unsurprised, "again?"
And the shoji door closed behind the man.
"Shut up," Gintoki muttered, setting one of the strawberry milkshake on Katsura's table and then dropping himself on the nearby wall just across the long haired samurai, "don't sound like you're bothered when you did the same thing a hundred times over before."
"What exactly did I do?"
Gintoki's dull eyes opened together with his mouth.
"Bothered me."
Katsura kept his eyes at the silver haired man for some time before finally looking down the milk pack on his table. He did not comment on it though and continued scribbling quietly with eyes closed while Gintoki sip on his strawberry shake with eyes on the garden.
"How long are you going to hide out here?" came the silver haired man's voice in the middle of the scribbling while his eyes were up and wandering around the clouds. It was making him sleepy. "After the war you just sort of vanished. You some kind of a snot who hides till he's needed?"
"I've never heard of such thing as hiding nor needing a 'snot'," Katsura answered looking up," but until Edo needs me again then my place is here. Not that I was wishing for it with how things are quiet now. Nor should you."
"Why should I hope to let you lash out your stupidity in the world again? Listen you—"
"Gintoki," Katsura gave a side glance at the silver haired man, his eyes unblinking, "it's strange enough that you are here when I expect you to be lying down inside your house waiting for some miracles to happen. But it's really troublesome only if you'd visit without any form of purpose. Then? Are you going to tell me why you're here again?"
And he looked back at his writings and continued scribbling as if not really hoping for any answer.
"Tsk," the Yorozuya leader dropped his back on the tatami floor and put both hands at the back of his head, his legs crossed, "Don't be so damn distant. You were the one who kept appearing in my house when I don't need you."
"So this is a payback for not coming over for a long time?"
"Like I'd bother myself with a payback with you."
"So why are you here?"
"Why are you nagging me so much? Did I ever try to kick you out of my house, huh?"
"No. You tried to bury me under—"
"You tried to blow me up—"
"You smacked things on my head—"
"You have no head—"
"You kept putting me on standby—"
"You're the one who's obsessed with being a standby—! Gaahhh! Stop your yapping!" the silver haired man turned on his one side in annoyance, his back at the long haired samurai who gave him a look, "when someone visits you it's only normal to keep a smile on your face even though you feel like shoving that person out of the house! It's common courtesy you brainless hack."
"By common courtesy, you mean..." the long haired samurai averted his eyes at the strawberry milkshake pack on his table, "to offer sweet drinks to the person you are visiting with high percentage of melting their brain?"
"Stop pretending!" Gintoki shoot up from the floor into a sitting position, his ugly face in a faceoff with Katsura Kotarou's beautiful one, "yours was melted even before you were born! Seriously!"
He snatched the strawberry shake and set it down on the tatami floor just beside him. He then threw himself back on the floor with his back on the former Jouishishi leader again, his face contorted.
Katsura kept his eyes at Gintoki's back for awhile before letting a small smile play on his lips and continued on with his work. Minutes passed with only the long haired man's neat scribbling heard in the quiet surrounding.
Then there was a snore.
Katsura blinked and then turned his eyes at the figure on his right side again. Gintoki was still on his side and apparently fast asleep.
"Seriously." The black haired samurai sighed and the scribbling sound continued.
It was already dusk when he finished his writings and finally closed his book. Silence fell in the room. Katsura looked up at the garden and saw the orange sun's brightness showering on the grassy plain. It was a sight to behold.
Putting his pen down, his eyes then fell on that shadow by the floor. It was the untouched strawberry shake a certain someone put in there an hour ago. Looking up, Katsura looked at the spot on the tatami where that certain someone had slept on.
It was empty. Gintoki had left a few minutes ago without much as a yawn and scratch on his head. He left abruptly as how he had arrived. That person. Remembering him, Katsura couldn't help but smile.
Still in the dark as to why the man would constantly come to him, he still believed that Sakata Gintoki's actions, though at times may appear pointless, is still significant for the man himself— Katsura leaned out to reach the strawberry shake on the floor.
It was out of his reach.
Undaunted, he stretched out his arms again with the aim at mind—but the object of his desire was a still a palm away. Straightening himself, Katsura looked down to the root of his problem—his legs.
After the war things were troublesome. There were things that had to be let go and things that cannot be helped but lost. Katsura pondered about it. Both his legs were intact under him without much as a scratch yet he couldn't feel them. Sacrifices in order to achieve peace.
His eyes looking up, Katsura found that strawberry shake again and had to sigh.
"Stupid Gintoki," he told himself as he closed his eyes and turned his face on the table, "you really didn't plan to give me that all along, did you?"
Walking in the shine of the sunset in the middle of the river bank was Gintoki who suddenly sneezed and rubbed his nose.
"Geez, who the hell's cursing me?"
"Ah!" said a voice and Gintoki looked up to find Kagura, Shinpachi and Sadaharu running toward him, "there you are, Gin-san!"
"You guys?"
"We've been looking all over for you!" Shinpachi said as they continued walking towards the sunset with the shadows of their backs tall behind them, "you missed your afternoon Ketsuno Ana program! Geez, what's up with you making us worried?"
"Really?"
"Yeah, Gin-chan," the Yato girl piped up with her umbrella high up to cover the bright orange sun, "where have you been going? You've been missing a lot of things like the landlady's rent call, madao's one-hour-staring-at-the-park show and Sadaharu and my feeding time too."
"Like you need me to feed you, stupid. And what are those things you're blabbering? Are they supposed to excite me? Forget it, we're going home."
"Aren't you going to tell us where you've been?" the megane boy asked.
Gintoki gave a short pause and the two waited for his response.
"It's nothing special," he then said, "just a place for idiots."
"Ah. Zura's house?" chorused the two.
"Or is it Pachinko house?" suggested the boy.
"No, it's probably some adult house." Said the Yato girl.
"Oi, oi..."
"Ah!" and the two suggested more ridiculous places that made the silver haired samurai scratch his head but smile at the same time. So putting both hands on their heads, he urged them forward the bright sun with his spirits high and treaded on the soil patch.
Things that were close, he just had to keep closer... and if ever he felt like they were slipping away, he knew all he had to do was tie them—even if it meant constantly knocking on their door to open. Peace was not something achieved by mere silence. At least—not for him. Not in Kabuki.
~THE END~
A/N: I know not of endings... but these two. Epic.
I don't know how readers would translate this, but it satisfied me :)
The current arc has no lack of Katsura too. It's just epic.
Thank you for reading!