(A/N)
My first Gintama fanfic on this site, yay! I'm aiming to enter this in a contest when I reach around Chapter 4, so I want to see how it will turn out... hmm.
Again, this is only available in FFnet and Wattpad, so if anyone sees it anywhere else, please tell me. Thank you!
[ 01: Why are Paper Flowers Not Made of Paper? ]
Sachan didn't remember growing flowers in her mailbox. She squinted at the pale, crumpled flower inside, making sure she was seeing right. Putting a finger to her chin, she thought for a possible culprit - whoever was stupid enough to give her, of all people, flowers. Suddenly, she blinked and widened her eyes.
Could it be... She screamed in delight, "Gin-san, thank you!" Reaching inside, she grabbed the flower and cradled it to her chest, giggling like an insane little kid. Her mind immediately thought of places to put the flower in, or heck, frame it in. Maybe she'll have it laminated? Or, she could build an altar for it.
Then, she paused, realizing that she hadn't even looked at the flower. Oh, crap, she thought. Did I crumple it?
She unclenched her fists, revealing a slightly more crumpled paper flower, pale and very much dead. She paused, as if doubting what she saw. She blinked multiple times, just to check if the flower was real.
But it really was a paper flower.
Her breath hitched. Closing her fists once again, she opened her mailbox and threw the flower in.
No words left Sachan's lips as she stared at the closed box. Her fists shook at her sides.
"Papa, why is the house full of white flowers?"
Shut up. Sachan shook her head, ridding her thoughts of a young child's voice. She gritted her teeth, annoyed. Sachan, get a grip. She turned and rushed into her house, but the silence that welcomed her there only served to irk her further. It enveloped her, inviting more voices and thoughts she'd rather not hear or think about.
Sachan paced around her room, wildly shaking her head. She forced herself to laugh and talk - or more like emit high-pitched gibberish - just to deafen the voices awake inside her head. She was well aware that her neighbors would be wary of a mad Amanto living beside them, but she didn't stop laughing. Or gibbering. She lived alone in her house anyway, so to hell with them. As she moved about, she stubbed her toe on a table leg.
"Oww!" She hissed, adding curses while she crouched and massaged her toe. A white paper caught her eye. Turning her head to her table, she saw the picture of the Odd Jobs that she was cutting last night, to cut out Gintoki and add it to her collection. Her eyes immediately flitted to the wall beside her bed, full of the silver-haired samurai's pictures.
Without hesitation, she changed her clothes and left her house, focused on locating her perfect distraction.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sachan didn't have to wait longer. The Odd Jobs were on their way home, making some noise as usual as they argued about where their payment would go. From her perch on the rooftop, she pounced.
"Gin-saaan!"
In a flash, Gintoki took out his sword and raised it in the air, the tip pointed up. He didn't even look her way as she 'gah'-ed in pain and fell to the ground, clutching her stomach. She rolled around as the trio stared at her.
"Ah, Gin-san, you - ouch, damn it," she mumbled while groaning in pain, "never fail - oww - to disappoint - as always - that hurts!"
"Sachan, you kinda messed that up at the end-aru," Kagura said.
"Oi, stalker." Sachan looked up to see Gintoki's scowl. "I was having enough problems just deciding how our pay is spent-"
"How about try saving it?!" Shinpachi exclaimed.
"-and now you decide to add to my problems, huh?" He pointed his sword at her face. As always, as she stared up at him, her heart beat faster. Her face warmed up. "And why the hell are you blushing?!"
Sachan sat up, one hand to her chest like a damsel in distress. "Y-you could," she paused, looking up at him through her eyelashes, "spend it on me."
Gintoki karate-chopped her head. "Like hell I would."
"Kya!" she squealed, her face blushing even further.
"And shut up." Annoyed even more, Gintoki kicked her aside into a nearby stall. "Kagura, Shinpachi, let's go," he said as he turned and sprinted to Snack Otose. "First one home gets all four thousand yen!"
"Ah, Gin-chan, you cheater!" The little redhead, Kagura, clutched her parasol and ran after him.
"Bye, Sachan-san." Shinpachi glanced at Sachan before following her. "No fair, Gin-san!"
As the two caught up to Gintoki - or in Shinpachi's case, tried to, with all his strength - Sachan got up from the remains of the abandoned stall she had crashed into. She felt around the broken wooden boards and bent nails for her glasses, ignoring the occasional scratch and prick. The moment she picked it up, and right before she put it on, she heard the loud bang of a closing door.
She didn't flinch, too used to the sound. In fact, having met with its full force upfront multiple times already, she expected to hear it approximately eight seconds earlier. Giggling, she fixed her glasses on and stood up. She stretched her arms and looked at the sky, squinting and shielding her eyes from the light.
And with that, my day's now a good day, she thought.
"Miss, stop acting like some main heroine and move. You're in the way," a gruff voice said from behind her and she moved aside, giving way for two laymen carrying piles of wood. They continued conversing about their company relocating somewhere and whining about extra work, but to be frank to herself, Sachan didn't care and walked away.
She contemplated heading to break into the Odd Jobs - and see Gintoki again - but decided against it and headed to the nearest alley. With feline grace, she manuevered her way up the walls and up to the rooftop, soundlessly landing with her body crouched low.
Taking in the sight of the district's houses and Edo's tall buildings - and scrunching her nose at the putrid smell of garbage - her mind thought of other people she can see. Or bother, whichever they preferred to call it.
Her sharp, glasses-enhanced eyes caught sight of a scraggly man in a red kimono, trudging along some nearby street. Madao-san? she thought before shrugging. Having no alternative in mind yet, she sped to where he was, her footsteps making no sound on the old wooden rooftops.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Several hours passed and the ninja's feet landed soundlessly on another wooden rooftop. Her eyes searched the premises, looking for more pranks she could do, but found none anymore.
She had done so much already these past few hours. She had messed with a certain man-wearing shades - or was that the other way around? - had taken away the shades and thrown it into the nearby trash. She had turned to the shades' remains and laughed at the useless human being as he ran around looking for his precious identity.
She had shot a kunai into Zenzo's hemorrhoids as the unsuspecting ninja immersed himself into his new JUMP issue. She had laughed hysterically as he curled up into a ball in the middle of the street with a bleeding arse.
She had also exposed Kondou as he "stealthily" stalked Otae, earning him two bumps on the head and a bleeding nose. Hiding herself in a nearby dark corner, she had chuckled to herself as she watched him get tortured by the violent woman.
Heck, she had even stolen Hijikata's mayonnaise-infested dessert and replaced it with natto. She had ran away, cackling to herself and throwing the bowl of dog food behind her back - which happened to land on Okita's head. This started another useless fight, to which she had watched for a while to keep herself entertained.
But now, she had nothing left to do. The sun was setting on the horizon, its orange and purple hues painting the skies, reminding her it was dusk and she had forgotten to eat her lunch.
She turned toward home and laughed to herself, recalling the annoyed expressions that donned her victims' faces. One particular one stood out the most:
Gintoki's scowl aimed at her.
It gave her a twisted sense of satisfaction, and it wasn't just because she was a masochist. It satisfied her to know that the person she had fallen in love with loathes her.
What a distorted mindset, she mused, chuckling to herself as she stood up and leapt to the rooftop across the street. It was her main principle in life to be despised - because come on, she liked it - and the man to blame for it was someone she'd rather not remember. But since she had started thinking about it now for once, never doing so ever since she had set foot in Edo, she realized her efforts for distraction were starting to rot.
A prickly twinge in her spine caused her to stop and grab a kunai stashed on her thigh. Despite the growing shadows and darkening skies, her refined senses searched for the slightest signs of sleuths and suspicious eyes.
Sachan remained crouched on the rooftop, her body unmoving but eyes alert. After a few moments of normal activity in the streets below her, she lowered her weapon and tucked it back to its place. More silent than she was earlier, she continued to her house four rooftops away.
After landing on her front yard, her eyes caught sight of the closed mailbox, a silhouette against the violet sky of dusk and dark streets. Lips pursed, she hastened toward it, grabbed the flower inside, and took off to her room. She didn't care if she crumpled it or held it too tight that the petals would fall off. Once inside her room, she threw it onto her dresser.
Then, she continued on her nightly routine - cooked, ate, bathed, and lied down. As if she wasn't upset. As if no disturbance rattled her mind.
Sachan knew what waited for her in the abyss of sleep, ready for her to close her eyes and surrender to its cruel tendrils. And they did come, when she laid her head on her pillow, what she feared would come out from the hollow, shadowed recesses of her mind:
Nightmares - awoken by a single tell-tale sign of a past she had long left behind.
[ Author's Note ]
Alright, that's probably going to be the longest part of the story where we center on Sachan with so little dialogue. Phew.
How did you guys like the first chapter? Please tell me your thoughts through commenting and voting. Thank you so much!
Updates will be on Tuesdays and Fridays, GMT+8. The time won't be regular, but the days are.
I was supposed to post this last Friday, but I kinda forgot... So I posted these two parts at the same time.
Anyway, see you guys Tuesday!
- Lia -
