Chapter 1: Gintama already has so many female characters...does it really need any more? OF COURSE IT DOES!
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Earth - a planet and place completely transfigured during a summer day by the arrival of black ships that filled the once clear skies.
Their fearsome arrival, unknown to most, was heralded by the birth of a single babe born into a family of samurai in the land of Nippon.
So as pitch and metal descended from the heavens, that lone daughter made her first cries as the rest of the world made their cries of fear and inquiry.
Fate and Change had intertwined together and birthed her, the only daughter born on that most ominous day. Fate and Change yielded her to foretell a future that will forever connect her legacy and heir to the land and to the foreigners that invaded it.
Twenty years following that day of birth - birth to a world forever changed and birth to a child forever chained - Fate and Change will finally witness the collision.
What began in the heat of summer will end in the chill of winter.
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Autumn in Edo is slowly being consumed by a subtle frigidity. As the city's people went about their lives, unaware of the creeping of the cold, miles away and miles above, a large and ominous ship floated above them, its intentions dark. Within its forbidding walls, a dozen figures sat in veiling darkness. An electrical hum and a distinct ambiance of their great power emanated about them.
They are the Tendoshuu.
Before them knelt a man - a retainer of prestige, a kashin - shrouded in shadows and submission.
"How long has she been undergoing re-indoctrination?" a voice resounded from one of the Amanto leaders.
"A month," the man replied.
"Will that be enough?" Another asked.
"No," the man responded. "Her habit to resist always seems to endure after every attempt but anymore will endanger her chances. If I may my lords, I suggest we introduce her into society while maximizing her . If we fail to act soon, her value as an asset will amount to nothing."
"But our legacies will continue."
One laughed. "What control would we have over which direction our legacies go? Why should we depend on this one insignificant woman?"
"We have no other choice. The current shogun is getting ideas. And due to Sada Sada's actions, we have been losing our grip on the bakufu."
"If we want to continue to use Earth's resources and keep our hold, we have no other choice but to rely on this prophecy."
"Which has been substantiated multiple times."
"So all agreed?"
All of them nodded in approval and the one at the head points out above their mortal servant who asked in subordination, "What are your orders, my lords?"
"Call in the warden and order her to find the quickest way to impregnate that woman."
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"Oi, you lazy sheep. Wake up."
Gintoki batted his eyes at the sound of a female voice that did not belong to the alien girl living in his closet; yet it resonated to the point of complete familiarity. Ah, he certainly knew that voice.
"Why should I wake up early on a weekend?" he groaned as he turned into his pillow.
"Hey, hey. You need to eat breakfast, don't you?"
"Inowannaeat~" [translation: I no wanna eat]
The voice emitted a sigh of disbelief. "Honto?" she said, drawing out her vowels. "Even though there's Ichigo Gyu-nnu and waffles?"
Gintoki turned his head slightly to squint at his conversation partner, to figure out who she was.
But he already knew.
"Haru. You're supposed to be dead." He repositioned himself and placed his arm over his eyes to block out the burning light.
"Really now? I feel pretty alive." she smiled. He dared to steal a peek.
The morning sun shone with incredible brilliance behind her, illuminating her smiling face. An overwhelming white, offset by pinks and blues. Gintoki instinctively raised his hand to cup her cheek.
"Ah! Maybe it's because I'm alive in your heart?"
"Ew." His hand retracted and his arm was again placed over his squinting eyes.
"That was a harsh response." She sneered then chuckled. "But we would be the last people on earth to exchange such words. Eh, Sakata?"
"You're still as annoying as ever," Gintoki grumbled as he sat up in his futon. "Har-,"
And with that, she vanished.
Blinked once, blinked twice. No longer skewed by drowsiness, his cleared eyes revealed his empty room, his empty bedside and his empty thoughts.
Shinpachi could be heard making his way into the flat with a chipper greeting. The apprentice calls for the Yato and his superior to awake. The door to Kagura's closet could be heard opening with a slide and a bang. The same occurs with the doors to Gintoki's room.
"Oh, Gin-san. How strange. You're never awake if I arrive early… Did you have to take a sh*t?" Shinpachi said the last part with deadpan eyes and utter insolence.
But instead of giving the expected response full of yelling and swears, Gintoki simply glanced at the futon, shoved his fingers into his hair and scoffed.
"I just had a nightmare."
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"Well, we leave her in your care then," Matsudaira proclaimed in his thick, sultry accent.
The doors of his office slammed shut with a loud bang signaling the rejection of any possible objection. Thus, Hijikata and Okita stood in exasperated silence outside the commissioning room.
Hijikata sighed as he lowered his hand that was reaching for, possibly, Matsudaira's neck, and pulled out the slip of paper he was given.
"So, Yamamoto Keiko-san, I guess you will be in our care-" Hijikata turned to face his client but was met with a cold glare, literally.
A great chill overwhelmed him and a frost formed on his face.
"Che," the woman spat then began to mumble out some other gibberish.
Hijikata rubbed his hands together in an attempt to get warm. Okita stood to the side staring at the intricate embossing of the door handles while their charge stormed off in a slur of unidentifiable drivel.
"Oi!" Hijikata cried after pocketing his hot-pack, running after the mumbling madwoman but not without dragging his sadistic partner along with him.
Minutes passed and their client still grumbled out unintelligible prattle while sitting in the back of a Shisengumi cruiser as the Captain of the First Division drove through the streets of Edo.
Okita peered at her through the review mirror and inwardly smiled at the fact that she unwaveringly glared at Hijikata with incredible hatred. Lot of bitterness from a woman who looked like she was a trophy wife for some rich bigwig.
"Hijikata-san," Okita's voice droned after a lengthy moment, "I don't think that she likes you."
"Ya' think!?" he shouted as he faced his lesser, revealing the side of him that has been iced over by their client's constant cold stare.
Then a punch hit his cheek and his face swung back to facing the windshield, shattering some of the ice on his cheeks.
"Oi," she growled, "Keep your eyes on the road,"
All Hijikata could in such a chill was to go: "Kggggh" in response. He wasn't even driving, why did it matter that he had his eyes on the road or not?
Okita, on the other hand, completely approved and his previously inward smile made its way across his typically placid face.
The cruiser reached a construction site on a decently clear city road and a man dressed in an orange safety gear waved them down.
"What's going on here?" Hijikata asked as the car window rolled down with a "duuuurrr."
The man in the construction garb simply approached the car with his head down, the construction helmet concealing his features. Then he threw a small object into the car.
Hijikata and Okita blinked twice as they stared at the device that bounced in.
Beep Beep Beep and a distinct hiss resounded as a gas suddenly poured out from the device and into the car.
Thick grey smoke and the her muffled screams constituted the last few seconds before their grips on reality loosened.
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When they returned from the blackness of unconsciousness, the two Shinsengumi officers found themselves, wrists and ankles bound, in a deserted alleyway.
The grumble of the construction still audible from where they were laid.
"Dammit," Hijikata spat as he struggled against his bindings. He started churning out theories and a semblance of a plan.
(1) The sun had set considerably since the ambush. Therefore, it's been at least an hour or two, two and a half at most.
(2) The ambushers only bothered to take the woman and bind the highest-ranking officers of the Shinsengumi instead of slaying them. Therefore, their motives probably only have to deal with her.
(3) The ambushers only binded the highest-ranking officers of the Shinsengumi instead of slaying them. Therefore, they must be stupid and can, henceforth, be easily taken care of once the bindings are off.
Unfortunately, most of Hijikata's assumptions were wrong.
"Hijikata-saaaan," Okita droned again in his dead voice, "You lost our charge."
But before Hijikata could make a violent comeback, there was the sharp technical noise of static.
"Citizens of Edo!" proclaimed a newscaster from a THE EDO broadcast from a large screen on the building across from them.
Hijikata noticed the time displayed on the corner of the television. 4 hours passed since they left Matsudaira with their charge. (1) was wrong.
"We are under the orders of members of the Anti-Bakufu faction who are currently in the studio holding the staff hostage. As of now, I repeat, THE EDO is under the control of the paramilitary!"
"Oi!" a voice from offscreen shouted. "Show the damn live!"
"They are now ordering us to show you this video feed being filmed live from an unknown location."
The screen switches to television snow for a moment before focusing on a group of heavily dressed and masked individuals standing around a person bound to a chair with a sack over their head.
"We are the Joui faction Hyadaruko and this message is for our failing government and for the cowards who follow the debacle of a Joui leader called Katsura Kotaro!" The masked man who shouted the words of incitement pulled the sack off of their victim and showed her face to reveal her identity as the woman of ice.
Both Hijikata and Okita grimaced. Matsudaira was going to have their hides for this. And, (2) was wrong.
"I present to you, Katsura Haru, the recent hostage of the Shinsengumi and the sister of Katsura Kotaro!"
"Well, this escalated quickly."
"Shut up, Sougo."
(3) was a coin-toss.
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A/N: ummmm...review? Please? Really though, I have no idea if this is any good. So feedback would be much appreciated.