Hi everybody, thanks for checking this out! This is my first story so I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Please read to the end if you can XD I hope you enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Gintama, it is owned by my savior Sorachi Hideaki, Sunrise and Shueisha
It was a blistering hot day in Edo, and the heat nipped at the men of the Shinsengumi while they trained within Headquarters. Leading the session was vice-chief of the Shinsengumi, Hijikata Toushirou. Paying the heat no mind, he practiced basic sword techniques to build strength; he showed a type of precision and deadly grace that can only be possessed by someone with a world of fighting experience. However, the ability to disregard the weather was not shared amongst the rest of the ranks.
"Vice-chief, can we finish for the day?" one of the new recruits whined. "It's so hot that my boxers feel like I have wet myself." He started fidgeting on the spot, trying to make himself comfortable. Some of the other men nodded and voiced their agreement.
"Shut it! I don't want to hear about your sweaty ass." Hijikata barked. He swiftly swung his body around, pointing his sword at them. His eyes shot discontentment at them and their protests came to a halt. The new troops trembled as the demon vice-chief walked towards the recruit who spoke out.
"If you have time to complain, then you have enough time to commit seppuku," His mouth lifted until his teeth were bared. "I could even help you with it. Yamazaki, how about you first?" Hijikata grinned while his sword searched for his victim.
"Why me?! I wasn't even protest-" Yamazaki screamed, but stopped as he noticed the vice-chief bolting towards him, ready to slice his stomach open. Yamazaki yelped, and quickly scrambled out the room, with barely enough time to spare as Hijikata struck the place where he stood a split second ago.
"Come back here now and let me kill you." Hijikata raced out of the room after him, while the rest of the men sank to their knees in relief that their guts remained intact.
Hijikata searched for Yamazaki all around the Shinsengumi headquarters, while muttering curses under his breath. The heat resulted in a raging headache, which beat against his skull relentlessly. Irritated, he walked to the front entrance, lent against the wall and lit up a cigarette. Slowly inhaling and exhaling the smoke, he felt his whole body relax as the nicotine sunk into his bloodstream. He observed his surroundings; the air shimmering with humidity, the clouds making a slow marching progression across the sky, and a giant deformed blob in the distance heading in his direction.
He snickered at his eyes forming the illusions and rubbed them vigorously. He opened them, but the distorted being was still trudging down the road towards the headquarters. Hijikata stared intensely at it, avoiding making any large movements, his breath barely more than a slight movement of air around his face, and his hand hovering over the hilt of his sword. The afternoon sunlight forced him into a squint and he raised his hand to block the sun, but at that moment, the blob arranged itself into a strange crouching position, leaning forward with what looked like hands placed on the ground. It stayed perfectly still for a full minute, Just as he thought it upped and died, it ran towards him with the power of a rocket launcher.
"Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooi you" Hijikata quickly tripped back behind the safety of the front gate as the speedy blob screeched to a stop, but lost its balance and fell on its face.
"Uh, what just happened?" Just a little bit stunned, he took a look at the motionless form on the ground, quickly realising that there was a person within the giant mass. The "blob" form was really just a shimmering material that covered them.
"Ow, that really hurt my nose." He heard a woman's voice muffled under the material. She whacked at it until it fell down in front of her. Hijikata stared at the revealed woman with a gaping jaw.
As the woman stood up, the weight of a large backpack caused her to stumble, her long ash-black hair and the white ears of her bunny hat swaying with the movement and her unruly bangs clung to her tan face. As she straightened herself up once again, she fixed up her jumper; an uncomplimentary cream coloured material with large pink block letters, exposing her shoulder as it slipped to the side so it sat on her body properly. The purple plaid mini skirt she wore; which oddly matched her red and pink vertical striped leggings, was still ruffled from the fall, but she paid no attention to it; muttering to herself angrily as she noticed that her misty blue combat boots were scuffed. She looked up and finally noticed Hijikata's presence.
She met his stare with an intense gaze; her eyes reflected the afternoon sun, the colour as warm as melted dark chocolate.
"What is it?" She spoke with a tone of a woman who thought she could conquer the world and she had a presence that matched. The woman smirked. "Do you find me devilishly attractive?" She placed her hands on her hips and burst out in laughter.
"Um, I hate to break it to you, but your nose is bleeding, at the speed of a rapid river."
"Oh," She paused, and her eager eyes dropped. "I thought it would be funny if you were a mega pervert so I could scream and run away." She pouted.
"Who's the mega pervert? What kind of retarded scenario are you trying to be a part of? And pay attention to your own body, clean yourself up!" Hijikata shouted, slightly feeling embarrassed at his reactions to this disturbance.
A little out of breath from yelling, he massaged his head as he felt the headache set back in. This woman was really starting to annoy him, especially with that look of complete and utter disappointment plastered on her face as she wiped the blood off. She definitely wasn't from around Edo. He was sure that she was that special type of idiot that would be easy to spot from a mile away, probably causing trouble for the townsfolk. He guessed from the size of her luggage, she wasn't travelling from anywhere local.
He sighed, "Well now that you have my attention, what do you want?"
For a second she looked a little confused, then realisation lit up her face. "Oh, yeah, I did call out to you didn't I?" She stifled a little giggle, "You looked pretty silly when you saw me running, like a deer before getting hit by a car."
"That's what happens when a crazy bitch runs at you as if her ass was getting munched on by hellhounds. Now tell me what you want, before I arrest you for pissing me off." His anger finally getting the best of him, he quickly pulled out another cigarette before he cut the woman down. He lit it up, ignoring the exaggerated coughing from the annoying woman.
"You're a cop? For real?" her surprise caused him to grit his teeth, practically gnawing off the end of his smoke.
"You must have lost the majority of your brain cells when you fell. You're standing in front of the Shinsengumi headquarters right now." She looked around her, finally noticing the carving on the side of the gate.
"What luck, I knew the 10th try would be the one that brings home the blue ribbon." She exhaled happily, bent down and picked up the sheet of material still lying on the pathway and placed it into one of the pockets in her backpack. Hijikata felt something in his stomach sink as the woman started walking towards Headquarters. He felt a slight tug on his sleeve and he noticed that she was pulling him along with her. She looked up at him and smiled cheekily.
"Do you mind being a darling and take me to see your chief? I have some business with him." As he dragged his feet as she pulled him along, he racked his brains of all the things that Kondou might have been involved in that could result in this mess of a female at the Shinsengumi's doorstep. There was no way in hell that she is from the government, and there was absolutely no chance that Kondou would have laid her. He glanced at her for a minute, watching the way she could drag a complete stranger into his own territory as if she belonged there. 'Wait a second, why was he letting her drag him around?'
He yanked his arm away from her. "Hey, what do you think you're doing, prancing around the place?" the look she gave him could cut stones but he didn't even flinch. "I can't take you to see him until I know of your business here. Though you look like you couldn't save yourself from a paper bag, you could easily be acting and are planning an assassination, therefore-"
"Toushi, is this where you've been all this time? I have been looking for you." Interrupting Hijikata, Kondou Isao yelled out to him as he came from inside of the building.
"Speak of the devil." Hijikata muttered under his breath, eyeing the intruder as she watched Kondou walk towards them. He swore he saw a smirk spread across her face and at that moment he regretted his words. Before he could grab her, she bounded across the space separating her and Kondou and latched onto his arm.
"Oooh are you the Chief of the super awesome Shinsengumi? Wow, you're like, way more handsome than what I've heard." The woman cooed as she squeezed his arm and flicked her hair slightly. Kondou just stood and gaped at the woman mauling at him in amazement. It took at least a minute of dead silence before Kondou could even stutter a reply.
"Um, excuse me miss, can I f- I mean, can I help you?" Kondou's inability to contain his excitement only caused the woman to giggle and look up at him with glimmering eyes. Hijikata knew that he was doomed.
"Actually, I came all this way to see you, but that man, what was his name, Toushi was it?" She threw a swift glare at him; her lips pursed into what was supposed to be a grimace. "He tried to bully me out, even though I begged and pleaded." She placed her face into her hands, and shook her head as if she was trying to swat away the horrible memories of the past. Kondou placed a trembling hand on her shoulder. She wiped at her eyes and looked at him with a gentle smile.
"All I wanted was to talk to you, but if you wanted to send me away I would understand," She moved away from his hand and kicked at the ground. She turned towards him, "Someone like me has no right to demand alone time with someone as important as you, but I swear I'll make it worth your while." She reached out and slid her hand down his arm gently; letting her arm fall back to her side once her touch was finished.
"Don't worry, I would never even think of sending you away, miss." Kondou assured her, his eyes slowly moved to meet Hijikata's, the pleading stare almost pierced straight through him.
"Please reconsider, Kondou-san. We don't know this woman and she's extremely suspicious. Or at the very least let me stand outside in the case of anything turning sour." Hijikata sighed, knowing that he fell straight into the little vixen's trap. He assumed that she was just a clumsy moron, but in only a short few moments, she was able to gain a hold of the situation, even to the extent of sniffing out Kondou's desperation for a woman's touch. Forced into the role of the villain, anything he says from this point will be turned against him. 'A formidable opponent indeed. All I can do at this point is go along with it and hope that if she has ill intentions that she'll slip up.'
She pulled at Kondou's arm, and held his eyes in a passionate gaze. "I know it's not right of me to demand any more of you, Chief, but if it's possible, I would like to have our conversation in private." She looked down and let out an embarrassed giggle. "I'm not sure how you run things here, but if you can accept Toushi's voyeuristic tendencies, I can too." Kondou burst into laughter which she harmonised with a light chirping laugh, and Hijikata slid his fingers down the hilt of his sword, itching to strike.
"Oh don't tease him miss, he's just doing his job." Kondou walked away from her and placed a hand on Hijikata's shoulder. "Toushi, there's no need to worry, I think I can handle one woman. Go handle those rowdy bastards inside while I tend to this, and I'll meet up with you later on." He walked back towards the woman, not before he turned back towards him while giving him a wink and a thumbs up.
Hijikata watched them leave together, Kondou leading her into the building. The woman, who was still keeping a firm grip on his arm with one hand, quickly turned around and gave Hijikata a sparkling smile and a slight wave with her spare hand before disappearing into Headquarters.
"That woman is going to devour him alive." He mumbled, walking back towards the training ground, hoping that he'll get to punch Yamazaki to rid some of this boiling rage.