Above the famous Otose Snack House were the three fine members of the Yorozuya, all of them bored to their death.
-- Chocolate Parfait--
01 It's better to eat too much than none
"So bizzar."
Gintoki murmured as he glanced at his Shonen-Jump, opened at the first page of a new series. Looking at him from the side, he may seem as if he is actually reading his Manga as usual. However, if one paid close attention, he would notice that the page hasn't been turned in quite a while. Even his eye, which are claimed by some to be like those of a dead fish, have not moved in the past ten minutes.
"What do you mean, bizzar?"
Shimpachi asked from behind the sofa Gintoki is lying on. He had his bandana on his head, and a broom in his hand. The habit of cleaning the Yorozuya is clearly embedded in his soul.
"Shinpachi-kun, do you not realize?"
"Realize what?"
"No customers have arrived. And no customers means skinny wallet!"
When he finished saying this, Gintoki suddenly became meagre in his appearance, and he let out a long and depressing sigh. Shinpachi, seeing this, looked dumbfounded, and he continued his work. He knows, far better than Gintoki, how the number in Gintoki's banking account has not been rising lately.
"That's like everyday stuff. It's all because you, Gin-san, don't take work seriously."
"Yeah, probably you're in bad odor," Kagura noted from the other sofa, while eating her all-time favourite sukonbu (salted kelp).
Gintoki looked surprised as he got up and put his Jump on the coffe table. "What are you talking about? I just took a shower this morning."
"Gin-san, she doesn't mean you smell! She means your reputation is going down the drain! You have to do something, Gin-san"
"Huh, why me? This store is under the responsibility of all three of us, right? If the reputation, as you say, is going down, then that's what's called a collective responsibility."
Shimpachi sighed again, as he saw Gintoki nodding to himself and himself only.
"Gin-chan"
"What, Kagura."
"But you've always been like this. Why would your reputation go down now?" Kagura asked, and feeling that her point was made, got up to get her next sukonbu. In front of her, on the coffee table, was a mountain of sukonbu boxes, and she randomly picked one and shook it.
"You know, I think it's 'cause we have a Glasses Otaku and a monstrous girl in our shop," Gintoki mentioned lightly.
"What are you saying, Gin-san? You're not suggesting that we have something to do with the decrease in the number of customers?"
"Could be."
Gintoki, as always, felt no guilt in saying this, and he forgot that he even said it in the next 3 minutes. After all, he is the type of man, who, even if he is 90 guilty, would bet his life on the remaining 10 and never apologize. Interesting to note that when he opened up his Jump again, he was reading again.
"What an irresponsible man. I don't even get proper salary and …" Shimpachi started his yawping, and at the same time, Gintoki turned to the next page.
The normal routine at the Yorozuya seemed to have returned. However, only one was spouting out a densely black aura.
The for-a-moment-forgotten Kagura was repeating one set of activities, over and over again. And this consisted of reaching out for a box of sukonbu, shaking the box up-side-down, throwing the box to the side, and then reaching for another box. Her eyes were like those of a starved carnivore, and the sound coming out from her mouth could have easily been mistaken as a sound from a monster roaming for blood. She even kicked Sadaharu, who approached Kagura because of his never ending curiosities, over to the other side of the room without stopping her hands.
"Hey, Kagura?"
Finally realizing the weirdness in Kagura, Gintoki looked at her over his Jump.
"Su…nbu………kon……su…"
"Huh? What, Kagura, can't you speak a bit louder?" Gintoki asked jokingly. "Come now, open your mouth wide, and …" but all he could say was up to there and no more. Something was definitely wrong with Kagura.
"Where is my SUKONBU!?"
Kagura got up to her feet, and with a piercing cry, she turned over the table. Finally Shinpachi and Gintoki noticed the red boxes lying on the floor, all empty. It was evident that all the sukonbu were eaten, and the effect of the last one has died away in Kagura. Now without the vital sukonbu, Kagura was running around the room in rage, screaming something undecipherable to humans. Just as a side note, there is no mistake in saying that Kagura's withdrawal symptoms are far worth than when Gintoki is left without sugar. Therefore, at this stage, even Gintoki has a difficult time trying to tame this beast.
Gintoki took his Shonen-Jump as quickly as possible before it became one of her preys, and he placed it neatly in his bookshelf. Then he looked around the room to see whether there was anything valuable to be protected from Kagura. The sad truth, however, this is that there is nothing valuable in this house, in Gintoki's opinion, other than the Shonen-Jump.
"Come to think of it, if there were anything valuable, I would have sold it off by now," murmured Gintoki. Of course, before even selling expensive arts, he does not even remember having the money to buy them in the first place. Therefore, there were nothing to be broken, other than the furniture. Gintoki moved some of the electronics to the next room, and the only thing left for him to do was to hope that Kagura won't break those electronics (especially the fan).
On the other hand, Shinpachi, who had wisely figured out that nothing could be done, was trying to leave the house quietly.
"Shinpachi, wait, come here for a minute."
When Shinpachi was about to pass Sadaharu, who was, quite surprisingly, sitting in the corner of the room looking frightened, Gintoki called him. He tried to weigh between running out of the house in full throttle and simply going back to where Gintoki was.
(I have faith in my legs to run away fast. Probably at this moment, nobody is expecting me to run away. That means, if I run now, even Gin-san would be taken by surprise, and I can buy a couple of seconds. Even if Gin-san quickly start to run after me, I would be turning at the corner few blocks away.)
"Shinpachi?"
Hearing Gintoki's voice, Shinpachi closed his eyes and apologized in his mind.
(I"m sorry Gin-san!)
"Wait, you're not trying to run away, are you Shinpachi-kun?"
As soon as Shinpachi started to run, a wooden sword appeared in his view, and he was forced to stop.
(He couldn't have expected me to run away?)
"You're not going to leave me all alone now, are you, Shinpachi-kun?"
By the time Shinpachi noticed, Gintoki was already in front of him, and Gintoki even had a hand on Shinpachi's shoulder. His evil smile (and I do mean evil) was indicating that some sort of plan was in this man's mind.
"Eh, well, how can I explain…"
While Shinpachi was trying to find a reasonable explanation for his escape, Gintoki's face turned serious.
"Shinpachi, can you save Edo?"
"Huh, what now, Gin-san?"
Right behind him, Shinpachi could hear the screams of Kagura. Although he was distracted by the sudden change in Gintoki's contenance, he was still looking for an escape route.
"You are strong, you are capable. You can save this Edo, no, this world even!"
"What are you trying to say?"
"Shinpachi, you wanted to be strong, right?"
"Well yes, but…"
The second Shinpachi's eyes met those of Gintoki's, something was put in Shinapchi's hand. Shinpachi quickly looked down and noticed a golden key placed in his small hand.
(I wonder where I can use this key. Huh, wait, why did he give me this key? He said something about saving the world, but this has something to do with it? THIS has something to do with saving the world?)
Shinpachi was too concentrated on the key to even take note of the hand being removed from his shoulder and a small breeze coming from his side. By the time he moved his head up again, Gintoki was already closing the door to the house.
"Use it to open THE door!" was the last words Shinpachi heard of Gintoki before the door was shut tightly. Soon after that, an angry cry of O-tose-san could be heard, followed by the sound of a motorscooter engine.
"I wonder what this key would open."
Talking to him self, Shinpachi walked past Sadaharu again. Sadaharu got up right away, and followed him.
"Hey, Sadaharu, what do y…"
As soon as Shinpachi looked at Sadaharu for help, Sadaharu bit Shinpachi's hand. No, to be more precise, Sadaharu bit Shinpachi's arm, trying to chew on the key in his hand.
"No-o-o-ooooo! Sadaharu! Stop! Please stop!"
Although the teeth are not deep into Shinpachi's arm, Sadaharu refused to open his mouth again. Shinpachi quickly closed his hands, lest losing the key.
"Oh, what am I supposed to do? The key is in Sadaharu's mouth, and my hand is in Sadaharu's mouth. I can't move much, and Kagura-chan doesn't stop."
At this stage, there was nothing that Shinpachi could do other than believing that Gintoki had ran out of the house in order to get help.
"He could have gone to get another package of sukonbu," he though. But then again, Gintoki would not have the money to go buy another package.
"Come on, Gin-san! Come back with an arm full of sukonbu!" Shinpachi shouted as loud as he could, to combat with the noise that Kagura was making. The outcry of fury from downstairs could not be heard by Shinpachi.
