Warning- written at 3 in the morning, will probably make edits later

And so, Yamazaki stands once more in front of the cursed Yorozuya.

To say he was wary of the place was an understatement. Last time he was instructed to investigate these people, it was utter chaos. He was almost impaled repeatedly, nearly fell into a pit of spikes, and had just barely escaped when they unleashed their death laser. To be fair, a lot of the near-death situations he was forced to encounter was the result of a certain gorilla, so he is not allowed to blame the Yorozuya members exclusively.

But just to be on the safe side, he would rather not try to sneak in.

"There is another way to gather information about a subject: ask the people close to them. Hmm...Let's see here. Sakata-san would bypass all of my questions and he would probably waste my time without letting me get any actual info. I can't ask Kagura-chan, she might kill me. As such, the answer is Shinpachi-kun,"

Fortunately, while he was having his internal monologue, Shinpachi was coming back with what looked like groceries.

"Ah, hello Yamazaki-san. Um..do you need something? You are just staring at the Yorozuya."

"Shinpachi-kun! Great timing, I need to ask you a few things."

"Sure but let me run this food up to Gin-san and Kagura-chan first."

Yamazaki nods, happy that his job is progressing smoothly.

"Would it work for me to come up too? Then we could talk inside."

Shinpachi flinched before hurriedly saying, "No, I don't think that would be the best idea. Gin-san has been really sick recently and it would be bad if we encouraged him to get out of bed."

"Oh, I see. I hope he gets better soon."

Shinpachi sounds almost grim as he replies, "Me too."

He walks inside quietly, hand gripped tightly around the bag of rice, veggies, and warm home-made stew.

Well that was an odd reaction, even for Shinpachi. Something has definitely happened. I can only imagine how Kagura acted to make our cold-hearted captain worried enough to ask me for a favor. Oh goodness, what am I getting myself into…

Soon Shinpachi opened the door and slipped out. He seemed less grim than before, and wore a small smile.

"Yamazaki-san, can we go to a family diner instead?"

"Yeah, that is fine. May I ask why you seem happier than before? Is Sakata-san's condition improving?"

A bit startled he says, "No, that's not it. He is improving slowly but that's not why. Kagura-chan gave the majority of her food to Gin-san. She never shares. Ever. I just thought it was really sweet of her. So I was thinking that I should order her something special from the diner and bring it back for her. She's trying to help but she needs to eat more than we do. She really shouldn't be giving away food. Was that one of the questions?"

"No, but they are of a similar subject."

~later at the diner ~

"Do you know of anything that might have happened to Kagura-chan lately to make her act differently?"

"What exactly are you going to do with this information?"

"Shinpachi-kun, from what I can tell someone I know met with her recently and is worried about her but isn't in a position to ask questions."

"Ok, can I know who this 'someone' is?"

"I am not permitted to disclose that information"

"I'll answer your questions but since I only have a rough idea of who is getting the information don't expect it to be super detailed."

"Sure, I can work with that."

Yamazaki pulls out a notepad and prepares to write.

"If she's acting strange it is could be a couple of things. First, as you already know, Gin-san is ill. I can't tell you how ill or the symptoms but there is a good chance she is just worried about him.

"Second, she probably won't appreciate me saying this but she met her older brother recently. She avoids the topic like the plague but from what I saw they used to be on good terms but aren't anymore. It is definitely possible that meeting him again after so many years has stirred up old memories. There is a third possible reason but it is kind of personal and could probably be grouped together with the brother thing so I won't say. Is that enough info?"

"Yeah, that's enough. Thanks a lot Shinpachi-kun."

Yamazaki, giddy with the amount of information gathered from such a small time period, rises up from his seat and pays for both their meals.

"I hope this is enough to appease Okita-san", he thinks as he begins heading back to the Shinsengumi.

Welp, third chapter over. If you guys find any errors such as spelling errors or with how they refer to each other, please send me a message or comment and I'll fix it. Also, can anyone guess what the third reason is?