Chapter 3: Enjoy!
Yoshiwara was in flames.
Tangled in an intricately woven web, Tsukuyo was unable to move from the trap that held her. The darkness made her vision fuzzy as she tried to absorb her surroundings, her arms were sore from the pressure on her shoulders from being suspended from the ground like she was about to be crucified. Tsukuyo moved her left arm, hoping to pop it free, but to no avail, she was stuck, bound by the web, completely at the mercy of the predator that trapped her.
"Are you awake?" a familiar voice popped up from the darkness. "How do you feel?" footsteps approached Tsukuyo from the darkness as an all too familiar figure appeared, Jiraia, Tsukuyo's master. This was a person she thought about everyday, the person that gave her strength and taught her how to fight, how to be strong. But now he was an enemy, threatening to destroy everything that she held dear. Tsukuyo clenched her teeth and muttered a term of the kinship and camaraderie they shared.
"Master…"
Tsukuyo corrected herself, almost instantly, shedding the label that she used to define a man she trusted for so long. A more appropriate name was best suited for this situation.
"Nah, Jiraia."
"You no longer wish to call me master?" Jiraia chuckled at the thought. "That's fine. You only need solitude and an enemy."
"So I'd been struggling in your web all these years? I believed in you. I wanted to follow in your footsteps…But was it all a lie?" Tsukuyo spat in disapproval.
"What was it that you believed in? The kind master that gave his life to protect you? Or the harsh master that taught you the meaning of selfless devotion to give up your identity, to give up becoming a woman? In that case, it wasn't a lie. Even now, am I not sacrificing myself for the sake of creating you?" Jiraia responded to Tsukuyo. The words rang through her head. This was not what she wanted, never what she had intended.
"Creating me?"
Tsukuyo began to recall the events that were penultimate to this scenario. She remembered the bloody body of Gintoki falling from its grace into the water, possibly dying. She hung her head low and stared at the ground as the reality of Gintoki dying gushed through her thoughts.
"You killed him for that reason?" she spoke softly.
A more vivid memory of blood spewing from Gintoki into the air came up to her mind. Her voice was now soft, weak, and fragile, her spirit had been broken.
"If you hadn't grown weak, I would have left Yoshiwara alone. If you hadn't learned to rely on others, I wouldn't have killed that man either. You are the one who killed him, Tsukuyo."
Jiraia's words have broken Tsukuyo down. The emotional barrier that sealed Tsukuyo's feelings had been shattered into broken pieces of glass. But Jiraia was not finished crushing Tsukuyo's soul.
"And the tragedy that will soon play out will all be your fault," Jiraia turned away from Tsukuyo and walked away towards a door in the dark room.
"What are you going to do?!" Tsukuyo screamed. It wasn't a threatening scream, rather, it was a scream of fear, weakness, insecurity. "No! Jiraia!" she went on.
"Abandon your sense of self to protect Yoshiwara and Hinowa. That was the oath you swore on that scar." Jiraia ignored Tsukuyo's pleads as he opened a door. Light poured into the room, temporarily blinding Tsukuyo.
"But Yoshiwara has become much more than a place for you to protect. It has become a place where you can rely on others. None of any of that is necessary." Jiraia continued on.
"I shall burn all the cobwebs and roots in your heart." Jiraia continued to torture Tsukuyo.
"No! Jiraia!" she screamed. Tsukuyo struggled. She wanted to break free from this nightmare.
Jiraia gave her one final glance before he turned around to face the city of Yoshiwara. The light that blinded Tsukuyo soon began to register to her as she realized Jiraia had shown her an all too familiar place, Yoshiwara, her sanctuary, her home.
"Yoshiwara?!" Tsukuyo screamed as she immediately recognized the city.
"Yes. We're in Yoshiwara right now. This is the stage I've prepared for you to watch everything unfold. I shall reignite the flames from four years ago. This time, the flames won't be an illusion. This time, I'll burn everyone you depend on to ashes. Return everything to zero! When the moon once again rises into the heavens, I shall be the one to devour it," Jiraia declared.
There were webs crafted by Jiraia that connected from where he was currently was to various points of the city of Yoshiwara. Jiraia held out his left hand and within an instant, a spark of a flame engulfed his hand. It almost looked like he was holding the flame in his hand, the complete master of it, in total control of such a delicate flame that can destroy. Ignoring the screams from Tsukuyo, he put the flame onto one of the strings of web and watched as the flame began to consume the city.
"Look, Tsukuyo. Yoshiwara is burning. The place you protect, the place you belong to is turning to ash." Jiraia continued to light the stings of web on fire.
"A large quantity of explosives has been placed at the end of this thread. Once I light it, Yoshiwara will be burned to the ground…"
"Stop! Please stop this!" Tsukuyo yelled frantically.
"I love that look on your face," Jiraia turned around to look at Tsukuyo.
"Are you scared of being alone forever? Do you care so much about yourself?" Jiraia lit his hand into flames again.
"Beyond, you will find that abandoning your sense of self will lead to true beauty and power! This won't be the end! You will begin anew from the ashes," Jiraia went over to the last string. The string that will destroy Yoshiwara was lit.
"Jiraia!" Tsukuyo screamed in agony.
The fire kept on going. And then an explosion occurred. The sound of the cackling fire coupled with the screams of people echoed everywhere. Tsukuyo herself felt the heat from the fires against her cheeks as she realized the reality that is unfolding upon her.
Yoshiwara is burning.
"No…" Tsukuyo dropped her head. Her confidence, swagger, motivation, everything was lost.
"It is impossible to escape from my threads. It is impossible to survive…"
"Jiraia…Please…I beg of you…stop this…" Tsukuyo spoke. Her voice was soft, shaken, a final plea to save everything that she held dear.
"All this…it's my fault. I'll leave. I'll leave Yoshiwara. I'll no longer rely on others…I'll no longer get involved with other people. I'll live alone. I'll live as you tell me to. If that doesn't satisfy you, you can take my life. So please, Jiraia, Master, stop all this."
"I'm begging you…" Tsukuyo pleaded. "Don't hurt my precious friends anymore! I'll sacrifice myself for my friends!" Tsukuyo eyed her master as he approached her.
"Hell No!" Jiraia was outraged. He grabbed her by the neck with his left hand, choking her as Tsukuyo was helpless to do anything.
"That's not what I want from you!" Jiraia screamed in frustration as he proceeded to punch her in the face with his fists.
"Why can't you reach my strength?!" Why can't you become me?" Jiraia yelled in confusion as he ceased his pounding of the Death Courtesan.
"Tsukuyo, do you know why I spent so much time raising you?" Jiraia's voice became smooth and calm.
"So I could kill you with my own hands. I devote myself to my webbed prey the way a servant devotes himself to his master. And then I feast on my prey."
Tsukuyo was lost in her own mind. She did not look at her master. She just stared off into her own happy world to escape the current reality.
"I want to kill myself," Jiraia announced as the words rattled Tsukuyo.
"In order to this, I needed to create an existence that could be me. The embodiment of carnage with a strong soul and strong body who could stand alone without relying on others. I placed all my hope on you.. But I was wrong, apparently. I wouldn't have expected you to fall so low. If I could've predicted this would've happened, I would have taken you while you were still beautiful."
"Such a pity…" Jiraia spat. "The death of your beloved friends won't be enough," Jiraia snarled.
"How do I make you like me?" Jiraia pulled out one of his deadly kunai and pressed the tip at Tsukuyo's vertical scar.
"If I flay off all the skin on your face, you will be unrecognizable like me. No one will recognize you, not your friends, not anybody. You will become alone. Just like me. I'm sure you'll become strong."
Tsukuyo closed her eyes. She felt the tip of the blade circle around her face, destroying everything it touched. She wanted to cry, but she couldn't and whimpered as she thought to herself.
I need a hero, a hero to save me now. I'm sure he'll show up and save me, like he has all those times. I need a hero. A hero will save me.
Her hero never came.
These memories flowed through Tsukuyo's mind all in an instant as she prepared to deal the final blow to the man she loved. But yet here he is right before her, trying to speak her name, alive, breathing, and fighting.
She held her kunai firmly. This was routine, hours and hours of practice. Taking another life with ease, this is just another one of the hundreds that she's already put away. But she struggled with this kill. This one is different as she thought her hand trembled as she lost her grip on the kunai, tears rolled down the exposed eye from her demonic mask.
"Gintoki!" Tsukuyo yelled his name. She dropped her kunai and gave him a warm embrace. Gintoki, adrenaline flowing, was too stunned to react. He was at one moment, near death, fighting an enemy that was significantly stronger than him to being embraced by a comrade, a friend.
"Where have ya been all this time?" Tsukuyo sobbed. They were still hugging on the ground, their bodies locked together.
Gintoki wanted to answer. He really did. He wanted to tell her about the pain, the struggle, his situation, his fight. But he couldn't. This was his battle and his battle alone.
"Tsukuyo…" He felt the grip of her arms around the neck tightened.
Then he felt a powerful gush of air from behind his head. The smooth arms that held his neck did not anymore. Gintoki leaned over with his right hand to push himself up. On one leg, he lifted his head to survey what the battlefield had become.
He saw Tsukuyo twenty feet in front of him, grabbing her mask, on top of the two scratches he did, and noticed that there was a new scratch. This new damage to the mask was a horizontal scratch that spread across ear to ear on top of the nasal region. He also noticed the many wounded Shinra stand behind their leader, Tsukuyo.
"Hey, hey, Big Bro!" a familiar voice from behind him spoke.
Gintoki turned around and saw a female figure, dark red eyes, vermilion hair, a straw hat in a blue kimono with two metal plates on both elbows, holding a sword in her hand, pointed directly at Tsukuyo.
"If you can't handle this witch, Big Bro, I'd gladly take care of her for you." She spoke, fixing her gaze solely on Tsukuyo. Those were the eyes of someone who had the intention to kill, to dye this sad Kabukichou street with red flowers.
Gintoki's recognized this person, immediately as he addressed her.
"Chin Pirako?"
Author's Note: Sorry for the short chapter. I felt that this was the best place to end it for now. Chapter 4 will be up soon! Thanks to everyone that has left a review, followed or favorited the story!