Ah, it was hot.
Unbelievably so, actually.
Painstakingly hot.
Curse this summer heat. And the sun. And his stupid skin.
"Gin-san! You're awake! This is a first… in what? A week?" Shinpachi says, taking his shoes off at the door, groceries swinging from his wrist. Shinpachi gets nothing in reply other than a grunt, and Gintoki just flops back over, pillow covering up his head. "Why don't I open up the blinds, maybe the sunlight will wake you up a little bit!"
"No! No! No! I'm awake!" Gintoki hops to his feet, a grin across the boy's lips. There was no evil intention behind that smile, he knew there wasn't, but the way it shined still mocked him all the same. Gintoki brushed the wrinkles out of his favorite green pajamas and oh, he was still holding the pillow.
"Aw, don't be like that, Gin-san. Sunlight is good for you, you know?"
"Too bright. Sensitive eyes." He pulls down his eyelid, sticking his tongue out at the boy. "The sun is going to set soon anyways."
Shinpachi sighs, giving up on the blinds and going into the kitchen to put up the groceries. "Speaking of which," he calls out, "where's Kagura-chan?"
"Dunno, the dog isn't here so I would imagine she took it for a walk." Gintoki plops right back down in the same spot he was in before, turning on the television to a boring soap opera.
Shinpachi lets the conversation drop between them, mindlessly cutting up the fish he'd just bought for dinner to put them in the soup he was going to make. "So, when's the next job?"
"Tonight."
"Of course it would be, you never take any jobs during the day anymore."
"Too damn hot outside!" He whines, the façade necessary for their safety― and his own. It never was easy, and he knew it was never going to be.
"You say that everytime! Just borrow Kagura-chan's umbrella! We need money to eat, Gin-san!"
"The jobs I take on during the night are way too dangerous for you kids to handle anyways." Gintoki states matter of factly, however the last job he'd taken was delivering booze to a coworker party that needed more. Not that that was dangerous, he just couldn't risk the kids seeing something they're not supposed to. Therefore he had to keep them thinking he was a sensitive and lazy bastard with a terrible sleep schedule, although that might not be too far from the mark.
Just then, the door slides open and Kagura returns with the dog in tow. "Ah, Gin-chan's awake!"
"Yeah, yeah. Put it on ya damn calendar." He flips through the channels, his angel should be on giving the evening news soon… Meanwhile, Shinpachi calls out something about giving him a minute for the dinner to be done and Gintoki's already making plans about how he's going to get out of this one. Maybe he should just leave for the job early, but then the damn sun's still setting. And he'd miss Ketsuno Ana. He sighs, pillow being thrown over his head once more. What a inconvenience.
Deciding that ultimately just leaving would be his best course of action, Gintoki gets up and loiters into his room, trying not to make it too obvious his intentions. He puts on his black pants and shirt, buckling his belt and, shit, of course his yukata would be outside. Thankfully, Kagura is in the kitchen with Shinpachi, probably already stuffing her face with what he's not even done cooking, so he slips on his boots and grabs his bouken steathfully. He's halfway out the door when he calls out he's leaving, and doesn't give Shinpachi a moment to complain because he's already started down the steps, yukata snatched off of the clothesline.
The sun is setting, and it's not like he's going to burst out in flames when his skin gets a little UV rays on it, it's just irritating as hell. This time is no different, and he swoops into Otose's bar before the kids can realize he's down there. He feels bad, he really does, but there's nothing he can do about it.
"Lookie here, back from the dead at last." Otose smirks, already pouring him a glass of… something. He grins back at her, acknowledging the joke. It's between them, a small little thing, but one Gintoki treasures nonetheless. His relationship with Otose is something irreplaceable, a price so high it can't be put into currency. He loves this woman, she's the mother he never had; and he intends on keeping her last years as happy as he can.
"Baba, always so mean..." He whispers, no one needed to catch onto anything they had no business being in. He takes a swig of the drink, still not sure about what it actually was. It didn't smell or taste like anything he'd ever had before, foreign origins probably, but it was stronger than half the things he'd had at this bar previously so he wasn't complaining.
"Where's the rent, you no good natural perm?"
"I thought what I was supposed to be doing tonight was going to be covering this month."
"Where's the past three months, then?" She glares, that too a joke, well… to a extent.
"You elderly are always focusing too much on the past, let's live in the present, ne?" He claps twice, the stupid look on his face wiped off when she swings the bottle at his head and he falls out of his chair dodging.
"Who's elderly? You got more gray hair than I do!" She spats, going back to mixing a customers next drink as Gintoki picks himself up off the floor.
"It's silver! Sil~ver! There's a difference!"
"I see no difference!"
"Probably your eyes failing you, old bag!" This time she's actually successful hitting him.
"Hmmf." She looks outside, checking the sun's position. It's often that Gintoki sneaks in here to get away from something upstairs, and although he doesn't say anything about it, she knows it's hard to keep the act up. That's why he comes down so often, to be with someone who understands, if even a little bit. "Alright, Gintoki... Oi." His head darts up from the counter, and there's this lazy, dead look in his eyes. Fits him perfectly, she thinks, but decides against saying; instead sliding a paper to him with names written on it.
"What's this?" He looks down at it, the two people unfamiliar.
"Men who have been harassing some women around here recently. I think one of 'em has come into the bar once, but we get loud reckless ones in here all the time, you know how it goes. Anyways, I don't know for sure is what I'm saying. Your missing girls case, it might be them. I'd check up on it, see what you can find." She sips from her own drink, sake, and eyes the perm as he takes in the information.
"How do you want them dealt with?"
"Since when have you asked that?" She chuckles, the paper slid closer to him. "It's not my decision, is it?" He knows what she implies, and he'd shrug her off if he wasn't so fucking hungry. He looks out the window, the sun fully gone from the sky, and then back to the paper, which he folds and stuffs into his shirt. There's a silence between them even in the rowdiness of the bar and he keeps it that way, getting up and giving her a backward wave while throwing his yukata over his shoulder.
The sliding door shuts behind him, and it's too loud on the street to hear if the kids were settled in eating dinner or not. The night air was inviting, much unlike the sunlight, and almost as if it was awakened by the night air, the beast inside of him starts whining. It'd been a couple days, his tolerance seemingly decreasing over the years. He used to be able to last four days before he had to drink again, but that was after the war, maybe he was actually close to dying and he didn't know. Hell, he hardly knows now. That was beside the point, however, the point being that it was day two and god dammit he was starving.
The names Otose had given him, Kawahara Yushiro and Miyake Kazuo. He wasn't sure he was going to be able to find them tonight, and if he couldn't he was going to be in trouble. He hated having to go to innocents to supply his needs, he didn't ask for this, why should they be the ones to deal with it? Though you could say the same thing about cows, but then to justify that would be saying that humans were on a higher level in the food chain; and he really didn't want to think about himself as higher in the food chain than his friends and family, that was just wrong. And weird.
His feet carried him to the shady alleyways of Kabukicho, where all the criminals and Joui fractions gather to talk about their Evil Plans™. He was in search of a certain wig, however it seemed like the idiot moved his damn hide out again without telling him because when he knocked the most recent passcode into the door, no one answered and he couldn't feel anyone moving around inside.
Giving up, he turned away to leave, and it wasn't five steps away from the door when the eyes of someone else watching him started to burn into his back.
To say that Hijikata was having a bad day would be a colossal understatement. He was currently seething at the newest recruits, not that he should be able to even call them that anymore given that they'd been doing patrols and arresting people now for, what?― two months? They should be able to handle a single fucking vampire when the thing comes along, but even that was now a burning question for the two idiots.
Now, they had a vampire on the loose, one with an undoubtedly big mouth. They never fail to get one of those when they escape an attack by Shinsengumi officers, going around and telling all the kindred and criminals they know.
He hated it. Absolutely fucking hated it.
However the night was still young, he'd only been awake for four hours, there was still plenty of time to track down and kill the leech. He reached into his pocket, grabbing the half-full package of Mayoboro cigarettes, and fumbling to light one up with the restlessness of his fingers. He knew he had a smoking problem, one of his men had once called him a chimney and Hijikata would've hit him if he didn't think there was an ounce of credit in that. Anyways, he was at wit's end and the day, for him at least, had just begun. To make things worse, nicotine wasn't helping to take the edge off either, which in turn pissed him off more. He needed a drink, bad.
Kondo was just about to head into his room for the night when he caught Hijikata in the hallway, texting something furiously on his phone. "Oi! Toshi!"
Hijikata turns around after he finishes whatever he was typing, and flips his phone closed in a way that can only be described as violent before shoving it into his pocket. "What?"
"I know what happened earlier has you riled up―"
"No, you've got no fucking idea." The tone is harsh and he really doesn't mean it to be, it's just Kondo doesn't, and truthfully, it's better if it stays that way. Something flashes in Kondo's eyes and Hijikata has to wipe his face with his hands to calm down enough to not snap. "I'm sorry… I didn't-"
"I know, you're right. Anyways, what I was going to tell you is not to let it get to you so much. They can sense your anger from a mile away, Toshi. The group as a whole won't get anywhere if every vampire in Edo knows we're coming, you see what I'm saying?" Hijikata knows he's right, he knows, but he just can't help it sometimes. "And also, you can't do everything by yourself. I know your trust in the men is there, they are human, and all of us will make mistakes, you can't expect them to do a perfect job every time."
"But my job as a vice-commander i-"
"Is to discipline, I get it, but they're grown men."
"They act like children."
"Some, but weren't you the same way back in the day? Give them a chance, Toshi." Kondo's voice is calm and quiet, everything Hijikata is not right now. Once more, he knows that Kondo is right, and he makes his best attempt to calm his nerves.
"Thank you, Kondo-san. I'll try."
"No problem, Toshi. But you've been working yourself too hard recently, come out for a drink with me tomorrow if this mess is all sorted up by then, okay?"
For the first time in forever, Hijikata accepts, and Kondo leaves him with a stern squeeze on the shoulder. There's so much to do, he doesn't know how he's going to get it all done and track down and kill a vampire all in the same night. Almost as if it was on cue, his phone starts ringing, he flips it open and before he was able to get a word in, Yamazaki is already yammering on about a someone who he suspects to be the run away from earlier.
He grabbed his men and started heading down to the area where Yamazaki had seen the supposed vampire. Yes, tonight was going to be a long one.
If it were possible, Gintoki's eyes would be rolled into the back of his head. That's how pissed off he was. When he'd tried to walk away from the alleyway the eyes had just followed him, meaning they were either on the rooftops, or they were on the ground. Now normally he'd be able to pick up on a detail like that, but the person was either just out of range or he had a another vampire following him. What a bother. All he could think to do was to get lost in the crowd of people on the main streets to hopefully in turn, lose the thing following him. He's used to disappearing, this should be easy. Right? Right?
Since the only idiot he could fall back on didn't answer his door, he was at a loss of what to do for his… needs. If he could slip away from whatever this was, he could start focusing on fulfilling that wish, but right now he had bigger things to worry about. One of which was the road block currently blocking the rest of the main street, causing a pile up of people who were unhappy they couldn't get to the business they needed to. He cursed under his breath, it was painfully obvious who his pursuer was.
He turned, darting through a side alley, deciding that if it was him who they were targeting that it'd be better to simply play the game rather than get picked off in a crowd. The alley was small and dingy, one better used for trash and drunken flings than fighting, but he couldn't complain, not when he had multiple people closing in on him. He kept walking however, if he was to stop they would have a good amount of evidence, enough to ask some questions Gintoki wasn't sure he was going to be able to answer without a suspicious amount of sarcasm.
The ending of the alley had a small opening that led out to the street parallel to the one he was on before, which he was thankful for. The more witnesses the Shinsengumi had, the less likely they were to attack and even better, the more quiet their loud mouths would be.
God damn Katsura, this ordeal was probably the whole reason why he moved buildings in the first place. Gintoki was good about keeping the dogs off of his tail, at least better than Katsura. Now that he thinks about it, he probably should've called first, but then again he wants to blame the wig headed idiot a little bit more before he pins any blame on himself. Anyways, the point was that he was now dealing with Katsura's mess, which he would be sure to use to get at least two nights of free drinks out of. That's if he wasn't arrested, or killed.
"Good afternoon sir, would you mind if we asked you a few questions?" A deep voice asks the moment he exits the alley. Damn Shinsengumi noses too sharp for their own good.
"Pertaining to? I'm a busy man, vice-commander-san." Gintoki can get away with being snappy with the vice-commander, the majority of the populous was. It was a well known fact in the Shinsengumi's territory that the vice-commander was a bit of a prick, so everyone treated him as such.
"The public's safety. And you can call me Hijikata, if that makes this ordeal any easier for you." There's a fire in the undertone of Hijikata's voice, one Gintoki can recognize only because he knows what it's like to kill in hatred. In Gintoki's defense, they don't really know for a fact that Gintoki is a vampire, he is of course, but they could be a little nicer. Well, he hopes they don't know at least. Two more men come up behind him, not too close, but close enough to intimidate anyone who wasn't expecting them. Then not a moment later two young men run up to his left, a confused look on their faces as one of them yell-whispers "fukucho!"
Hijikata gives them a half glance, not enough for them to incite conversation, and immediately directs his attention back to Gintoki. There's a glare before he speaks and Gintoki rebukes it with his signature dead look, seemingly pissing the vice-commander off more. "What's the wooden sword for?"
"I'm sure you know, vice-commander-san, living in Kabukicho isn't always a walk in the park."
Hijikata's watching him like a hawk, every move, every twinge of muscle. He knows that the officer is a master of reading people, but Gintoki is a book that's closed and locked on the side, and few have opened his pages. "Mmm, that's definitely true." There's a moment where Hijikata pauses, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it with a stupid mayonnaise bottle shaped lighter. If it were any other situation Gintoki would have laughed. "What are you doing out so late?"
"Depends. Work, for one."
"What do ya' do?"
"Anything. Run a freelance business. I'll find your cat, beat up your stalker, fuck you into the mattress. Whatever you want, really." There's an obvious red tint that falls over the vice-commander's face and the men around them nervously glance at each other, dead silent. Hijikata's eyebrows are raised and the cigarette is utterly crushed under his teeth. The same man from before tries, once more, to get Hijikata's attention and it, once more, fails.
"Did... you just openly admit to prostitution in front of an officer?"
"It's legal, last time I checked. I watch the news daily for Ketsuno Ana, I don't think I would miss a detail like that. Though people usually don't call for that type of stuf―" Hijikata is livid, and Gintoki's scarfing this up like candy. He's got a shit-eating grin on his face, and he's sure that the vice-commander hasn't met anyone who could stand up to him in a long time. This experience has turned out rather pleasant, if he does say so himself.
Hijikata grabs him by the shirt with one hand, his back now to the wall that was previously to his left. His yukata that he still hadn't had a chance to put on yet falling off of his shoulder and into a puddle on the ground. Gintoki watches it drop, the grin on his face falling with it. Ah, now he'll have to wash it again. "I don't give a single fuck. I'll make myself real clear here bastard, what were you doing in that alleyway?"
"Work."
"So it was work when you beat up two of my officers earlier? Did you think you could escape and live to see the next day?" Hijikata tightens the grip on Gintoki's shirt, any fake kindness in his voice had been replaced by pure enmity. Not that Gintoki cares, but the lit cigarette is getting a little too close for comfort. He has no idea what the other is going on about, but if he gets burned and that thing heals before their eyes, then he's going to be in trouble. Another officer tries to get Hijikata attention, and again, it fails. The one-track mind of this one was strong. A wonder how he got to be vice-commander.
"I have zero clue what you're talking about." Gintoki says blandly, because truthfully, he doesn't. Hijikata glares again and this time when the officer actually tugs on his shirt he listens.
"Fukucho! He's not the one from earlier! The one that beat us up had long, black hair… and a weird duck cosplayer as a friend." Gintoki mentally and emotionally facepalms, and the grip on his shirt loosens slightly.
"'E's not? Whaddya mean he's not?" Gintoki has to dodge the cigarette to keep it from burning his nose when Hijikata turns his head to face his subordinates, which makes him smack his head against the brick wall behind him. He looks up to the moon, questioning all the choices he made that lead up to this moment. Why couldn't he have just been like, a werewolf or something? Or a mermaid? Wait, no, he can't swim, nevermind that idea. A werewolf was fine, he could live with that, yeah.
"I only saw him knock on the door the other one came out of, fukucho… T-that's why I called you." One of the ones that had come up behind him says, and Gintoki is slowly starting to piece this shit show of a situation together. This was definitely worth three nights of drinks, he decides.
"So you mean to say, he's not the one we're looking for? Why didn't you tell me earlier?! I nearly gave away top secret information to a god damn civilian!"
"No, fukucho... I've been trying to tell you that-" The younger subordinate says, and Gintoki can't help but laugh. "W-we still don't know why he was knocking at the door, though…"
Hijikata seems satisfied with that and once more, all the attention is on him. "Listen, the guy on the phone wanted me to buy their alcohol for them earlier, but I was busy when they called and couldn't do it till a little while ago. So, I was going to drop by their place and get money before going to the store." There's a twitch in Hijikata's eyebrow, and Gintoki knows it's because the vice-commander has realized his time is being wasted.
"What's your name?"
"Gintoki." Hijikata glares again and Gintoki knows he's not going to be let go without both his first and his last name. "Sakata Gintoki." Thankfully, with that, his shirt is turned loose and Gintoki rubs out the wrinkles, picking up his wet and muddied yukata off of the ground.
"Sorry for the inconvenience, Sakata-san." Ohoho... now this was a real treat.
"Mhm, spare a light then?" There's a smirk on his face and he knows he's pushing all the right buttons. He must admit though, the vice-commander was just too fun to not mess with. There's a loud, irritated sigh as the other reaches into his pocket to pull out his cigarettes, and Gintoki has no remorse in taking the last one. A chain smoker like Hijikata is sure to have a pack or two somewhere, not to mention his fixed income. Once again, that stupid little mayo lighter is taken out and Hijikata lights Gintoki's cigarette, which honestly, is the nicest thing he's ever seen the man do. Yeah, there's the whole "saving lives" deal but, when the man has a personality that makes you want to have a sword impale you anyways, what's the point?
"Fukucho, Kondo-san wants you to go meet him by the cabaret club…? He says you'd know which one it is..." One of the younger guys say, and Hijikata ruffles his hair with his hand. Of course, that stupid little v-shape still splitting his forehead perfectly.
"I thought that bastard was going to sleep?" The vice-commander says as a question, but it's more of a statement by the end of the sentence. Gintoki doesn't know why he's still here, there was no reason to be; however he had taken to playing a game of blowing smoke from his cigarette closer and closer to Hijikata's face, seeing if he could hit the bastard, just once-!
The officer gives a decisive wave of his hand, signalling to his men it was time to leave. Ah, what a shame. A big "try again next time!" sign flashes in his head and he mentally spits at it. What a joke. One of the older men with longer black hair looks at him, then Hijikata, then him again, bowing a apology before jogging back to the head dog. He hears something as the men walk away about the commander being stuck in a trash can filled with hardening cement? He can't say he's surprised.
Now then, onto his original business. The lead Otose had given him would have to wait until he could talk to that dumb wig about it, preferably with a substantial amount of alcohol to follow it. He needed something to drink, desperately. Maybe a hook up? He could get that rather easy if he went to the right bar. He'd rather that than some man off the street, passed out in an alley that smells of Sadaharu's shit and vomit.
Sighing, he pushes himself off the wall with his foot and starts along to the place, his kimono dripping puddle water onto the back of his pants leg as he walked.
Hijikata's about had it for tonight. Not only had that Gintoki guy been a prick, but he'd also been a dead end to a problem, and currently he was trying to chisel Kondo out of a trash can.
"But you should've seen her, Toshi! When I tried to go to sleep my thoughts were just invaded of that beautiful face~" Kondo's practically got heart eyes and he really can't understand why. The cabaret girl he was so infatuated with was nothing short of a walking nightmare. Not that he'd admit it to anyone, but even he was a little scared of her. The spear was just… too big.
"And then she told me to go fuck myself!"
"Really? Quite the love story."
There's one final crack and Kondo breaks free, fully naked from the waist down. There's a woman somewhere behind him that gasps and he can hear her run away, he doesn't blame her. He reaches into his pocket for a cigarette while the other men scurry to cover up their leader from the outside world. Oh, right. That permy haired bastard took the last one.
Immediately five times more pissed off than seconds prior, he throws a towel one of the men had run and bought at Kondo's genitals, barking out orders for them to escort their commander back to the barracks. Turning on his heel, he marches till he finds the nearest vending machine, which was, of course, out of Mayoboro cigarettes. He picks some equally cheap kind and nearly punches the button in after he puts in his hundred yen. What a fucking joke.
When he'd finally made it to the area he was supposed to patrol almost a hour and a half ago, it's well past twelve and he can't even bother to text Yamazaki and ask how Kondo was doing. He was sure everything was fine, he hoped everything was fine, but he's really got more important things to be doing with his time at the moment. Much like yelling at drunk couples to stop hooking up in the dark corners of alleys. Although he'd originally wanted to strictly track down and execute vampires, he can't say he doesn't mind the... glamours of police work from time to time.
Speaking of vampires, aside from the incident earlier, there hadn't been much activity in the Shinsengumi's half of Edo lately. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing he didn't know, the bloodsuckers never did make their job easy enough to find out. Just when they'd start to think they'd scared the leeches off, another four people would wind up drained dry and dumped in the same dumpster. No, it never was easy.
There was a certain cycle to these things, a pattern, if you will. Whenever it got quiet, that was the waiting game. Maybe plans were being made in the shadows, maybe ten more people would get turned, maybe there would be a meeting of their elders in the forests outside of the city, or in the sewers beneath it. The waiting period was the quietest, calmest, the men would get a little hope and then comes the outbreak.
Something would occur that Hijikata has to rush to cover up before hysteria breaks out, aka, the worst stage. Which, many would speculate that with the Amanto, such a thing would not be a problem; however the Amanto species that roamed the streets of Edo did not have to survive off of the blood of humans. Therefore the amanto were only scary in presence, not existence. The final stage always was the clean up. Clean up in whatever way, shape, or form. Every year he tells himself he'd seen it all and every year he'd be proven wrong. God, he really needed that drink.
It's three in the morning before Hijikata gets back to the barracks, another quiet night gone by. Taking his cigarettes and lighter out before throwing his jacket into the dirty clothes hamper, Hijikata sits down in front of his desk, lighting up yet another cigarette and getting started on reports that would last him well into the daylight hours.
It was almost too easy sometimes, to capture men and women into this web of seduction, wrap them up with a nice little crimson bow on their neck. He hated everything about this life, from the stupid shit like constantly keeping the blinds shut tight, the throwing up of food after he ate it, the having to remember to breathe. Those things were annoying, but not damn near annoying as the beast.
This thing inside of him, the urge need to take, constantly take, take, take.
The urge to kill, to feel the veins of his prey run dry because they had nothing left to give him.
It was a predatory instinct, one built on someone else's suffering for his own couple days of satisfaction. It was ingrained into him from the moment he was turned and it hadn't left in fifteen years, not like it would ever. It was who he was, forever drawn to the warm flesh of those living, the heartbeat of a human. No, it would never change.
It was a woman this time, and he'd fattened her up with lies before leading her out of the bar, genuinely laughing most of the way to the hotel at stories of her son, who he'd learned she'd raised alone. He feels bad, and everytime it's like he's going to throw up what he doesn't have in his stomach to begin with. But he'd learned to simply bear with it, he couldn't have one of his kids being the victim instead. So he slips his hand under the back of her kimono's belt, grabbing her gently by the hip, whispering more sinful promises into the nape of her neck as his hands work their way up her figure, guiding her further into the darker part of the tiny alley.
She's a beautiful woman, and the way her skin dances under his fingers is nothing short of erotic. She's ready to be taken, but not how the promises he fed her told her she would be; she'll wake up hours later, confused and scared. He knows this, so he stalls a while longer; the more lost she was, the better. She's shorter, so he picks her up, her legs wrapping loosely around his waist, arms around his neck, trusting. There's a second in between the bliss that he asks if she's ever screamed before, and she replies with a shake of her head, followed by something about how she'd never been with the right man. Gintoki's too gone to hear it properly though, because the way the beast is clawing at him is too distracting, too demanding, he's so hungry… so he covers her mouth, and bites.
