PT: This is what happens when I get to the more sensitive parts in Son of A Witch :D Angst. May count as a vignette or a drabble---or both.
Disclaimer: Gintama belongs solely to Sorachi Hideaki. If I owned it, it would be a complete failure :D
--
It was Katsura who brought the news first. The first one who spoke the dreaded words.
He was gone.
He was dead.
He was killed.
Gone. Gone, gone, gone, and gone.
The three of his subordinates---his former subordinates---kneeled on the cold and grassy ground, their faces down. If the faces had lifted, it would have revealed the chalk-white faces; with the lips trembling like those of children about to weep. To sob. Wail. Cry. Scream.
Because he was gone. The one who had taught them everything they knew; who had nearly raised them himself; he who had taken them under his wing. Their master. Their teacher. Their mentor. The one who meant more to them than anything in the world. Their kind and unbreakable teacher---gone. Just---like---that---
"Shouyou sensei"---Katsura's voice was hollow and raspy, as if he had suddenly lost any use of it; it shattered the anguished silence---"is gone."