The smell of delicious cooking drifted into Gin's room, where the 3 idiots were all sleeping.
"Smell...meat..." Kagura muttered unconciously. She sat upright, still asleep, jostling the other 2 sleeping by her side. Sadaharu was at her feet, yawning and stretching.
"Shut up...5 more minutes..." Gintoki mumbled and shifted into a more comfortable position.
"Meat...meat? Meat?! FOOD!" Kagura finally woke, her snot bubble popping. Who's cooking at this time of the day? And in Yorozuya?!
"Gin-chan! Shinpachi! Wake up! There's food! Breakfast! Someone's cooking in our house! And it smells tasty..." Kagura shot up and stomped on the faces of Gintoki and Shinpachi, giving Gin a round of slaps when he wouldn't wake.
Gintoki (with swollen cheeks) and the crew stepped into the kitchen, to be greeted with a surprising sight of Rae bustling around, bandages still wrapped around her like a mummy.
Fried rice, roasted chicken wings, vegetables, plates of food loaded the counter, still yet to be served onto the table outside.
"Ah, Gintoki-san, Shinpachi-kun, Kagura-chan, Sadaharu-kun, good morning." (A/N: Im letting Rae call Gin 'gintoki' cuz she does not know his surname 'Sakata'. Shinpachi too. She wasn't introduced to their surnames)
"EH! MIHOSHI-SAN! You should not be running around, you need to rest more! We can cook our own breakfast, you did not need to put the effort to prepare for us!" Shinpachi yelled, trying to convince Rae to return to her futon.
"It's fine, I wanted to pay you guys back for saving my life. I would feel terrible if I can't repay you and take your kindness for granted. I used most of the food supplies in your fridge though, sorry for that." Rae was not particularly thankful for them saving her life, but their kind actions and care for her was still something to be thanked for.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
The Yorozuya members sat at the table, staring at the table of food with different expressions.
Kagura was salivating, and had picked up her bowl and chopsticks already. Gintoki looked at all the food in disbelief. How many weeks had he seen such fine food, as compared to dark matter, egg over rice, and the rare times when it was Shinpachi's time to cCook? Shinpachi felt so glad that for once in his life, there was someone cooking for him and the food that came out wasn't dark unknown fatal matter. Sadaharu wished he could eat those fine platters of food instead of his dog food.
"Itadakimasu!"
The room exploded into screaming as everyone snatched up as much food as they could (except Sadaharu, who had to keep to his own dog food), and they tried to call dibs first on each dish.
"KAGURA! YOU PIG! You should let Gin-chan eat more! Do you know how hard it is to take care of you idiots?"
"Shut up, you useless member of society! All you do is laze around everyday! A growing girl should eat more to grow out her boobs!" A kick made its way to Gintoki's head but he dodged it.
"KEEP QUIET! I'm trying to eat in peace here! I'm the one who always does the cleaning, I should be the one eating more here!"
"SHUT UP GLASSES!" And then screams of pain and pleading came from Shinpachi as the father-daughter like pair ganged up on him.
Rae's mouth lifted into a tiny smile while she watched the rowdy scene unfold around her. She ate calmly, not bothered that only one dish was left for her. Rae would starve and die a hundred times more to have a wonderful, noisy breakfast with them again.
"Ah. Shit. Today is rent collection day." Gintoki suddenly froze, his face turning white.
"Now they totally know we are here from the noise we just made—"
The recently patched up door exploded (again, poor door), and a pretty robot maid came in wielding a large mop.
"Gintoki-sama, please pay the rent for the last 3 months, or you will find this mop stuck up somewhere you don't want to know, like your asshole."
Rae choked on her rice and Kagura patted her on the back.
"Tama-chan, ne, we'll pay up for sure next month, just give us a little more time, 'kay? Business has been slow, and we're scraping by the skin of my dick, let us go this time, please?" (A/N: underlined means they are speaking in english)
"Your dick won't have much skin left to scrape by once I'm done giving it a cleaning session. Your asshole will get some special treatment too. Guaranteed to lose your ability to make babies and ensure 3 months of inability to walk." Tama calmly replied, poker face still in place. She held her mop up threateningly as if go through with what she said.
Gintoki gulped and he inched his way into the room. Kagura and Shinpachi seemed to have gotten some memo of some sorts from him, and casually put down their bowls too.
"I-I'll go get the money now, stay and wait for me there, Tama-chan." Gintoki laughed nervously and entered his room.
Then the sound of a window being thrown open was heard and Kagura and Shinpachi shot up from their seats as fast as lightning, and flew into Gin's room. Then scrambling was heard and—silence.
They...they escaped...Rae almost lost her grip on the bowl. She never had so many WTF moments in just 2 days of her life.
"Good morning, Rae-sama, sorry for the intrusion, would you like to have breakfast at the bar downstairs instead?" Tama did not bother to chase after the 3 idiots, and offered to bring Rae down to the bar instead.
A frazzled Rae followed her and met an old woman with cat ears, and an even older woman standing behind the bar counter, smoking a cigarette.
"Welcome, Rae-chan, you can call me Otose. This is Catherine." The amanto cat-eared woman smiled twistedly at Rae, trying to scare the kimono off her. (A/n: they didnt wear pants)
"Uh, um, sorry but how did you know my name?" Rae wondered out loud, and she was greeted by the dark smiles of the 3 women.
"We know everything, Rae dear." Catherine grinned menancingly.
Oh. My. God. Nothing is normal here.
"There's more rice over there. Let's eat breakfast together, shall we?" Otose snuffed out her cigarette, and sat down at the bar.
It continued into a somewhat peaceful breakfast, as Rae listened in to their conversation (of skinning Gintoki and selling his furniture) and gathered that Otose must be the boss of this bar and landlady of Gintoki-san.
Rae asked a few questions of her own too, like where they were located now.
Ah, so this is Kabukicho. Not that I know what this place is about.
"Kabukicho is a red-light district, complete with cabaret clubs, thugs, criminals, everything possible." Otose elaborated. "Where have you been all this time? Kabukicho is famous for its 3Ms : 'most dangerous district' , 'most unwanted place to live in' , 'most highly reccommended place to experience the nightlife (and possibly death)' (a/n: haha i made the last one up). I'm surprised there was someone who doesn't know about Kabukicho."
Excuse, think of an excuse damn it! Rae gripped her chopsticks and smiled fakely at them. "I was very sheltered by my parents," so goddamn sheltered I haven't stepped out into the world for 4 years, "so I don't know much about places in Edo."
Rae wiped the imaginary sweat from her forehead mentally as the 3 women just rose their eyebrows and said nothing.
"Are you from a rich family? Your yukata seems to be very nicely done." Tama-chan observed the gold embroidery of a flower creeping up Rae's kimono.
"Ah, uhm, yes. Yes I am. My parents are very rich." Parents my ass! More like a money-laden Bakufu official who loves to dress up his girls so they don't seem like his slaves. Rae felt her fake smile falter, it was getting hard to keep it up now.
"Oh. Is that so? Did you run away, perhaps? Domestic violence?" Catherine asked, intrested in knowing more.
"No, no, I...I ran away because I wanted to...have more freedom instead of being sheltered all the time." Damn right. Freedom without Yura is still hell. Keep the act up, c'mon. These 4 years of acting experience don't amount to nothing!
The atmosphere dropped to a freezing 0 when Otose, who had finished her meal and was smoking another cigarette, said, "So you cut yourself? To get the attention of your parents?"
Rae's hold on her game face crumbled. Her face was overcast with shadows instantly, and Rae stood up, placing her bowl and chopsticks down.
"Thank you for the meal." Rae bowed and stepped out into the street.
The three women in the bar sighed, and Otose spoke more to herself than the others, "It's going to be hard to crack her shell."
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•
Rae arrived at a public toilet, and she stood in front of the mirror, unwrapping her bandages. Scabs formed everywhere on her arms and legs, it looked like she had been mashed in a chopper and came out alive.
Her black hair was still held up by the silver pin Yura had given her. The same sliver pin that had been recovered at the expense of Yura's life, due to her own stupidity. Rae never cried, not even when she was betrayed and sold by her own family.
She cried enough tears these few days, and she will never again.
Rae plucked the pin from her hair, and her hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall. She aimed the sharp point at her heart and pushed down.
A pale hand shot out to grab the pin.
Why the hell can't I die in peace? Why does everyone have to stop me? Rae cursed in her mind as she turned her fiery eyes to the stranger who stopped her.
Violet eyes looked back at her, a scar running down at the left eye.
"Miss, this is not a good place to die, trust me. The toilet floor is not the best place to lie on. Especially a public toilet floor in Kabukicho." The pretty woman with the pretty eyes said, glancing at the dirt-caked floor and random pests crawling about.
Rae struggled against her hold, but this woman had an iron grip.
"My name is Tsukuyo. I work at Yoshiwara, do you want to join the Hyakka? You can learn ninja techniques too."
Is this woman trying to recruit me? The heck is Yoshiwara? Can't she see I'm trying to die here?
"Not that I'm insulting you, you are good enough to be a courtesan but sadly no customers would want women with scars. The Hyakka are short of hands, so I'm out recruiting people out on the surface too, since only a few underground wanted to join." Tsukuyo continued on, still holding the pin tightly.
"Wha-what the hell is Yoshiwara? Hyakka? And who are you? Stop touching me." Rae seethed. She hated when others touched her (maybe a few exceptions, like Yura).
"You haven't heard of Yoshiwara? You know, the land of eternal night— ah wait its been liberated— you know, the place where its famous for its lovely courtesans and men go there to enjoy themselves? Normal laws on the surface don't apply in Yoshiwara, so we have the Hyakka enforcing order there." Tsukuyo was genuinely surprised. She snatched the pin from Rae's hands, and took a puff on her kiseru.
"So, want to apply for Hyakka?"
"Return the pin to me, then I may consider it."
Tsukuyo narrowed her eyes at Rae, ready to make a move if the young woman wanted to stab herself again. She passed the pin to Rae.
Rae grabbed the pin, and gave a firm "No" to Tsukuyo.
"You'll get a ninja license! And 3 meals, a warm bed, and...and paperwork..." Tsukuyo seemed reluctant to let her potential recruit go.
Rae glared at Tsukuyo. "No thanks."
"C'mon, I'll send you back to your home. Where do you live?" Tsukuyo sighed, another potential candidate rejected. Tsukuyo wasn't going to leave her alone though, and let her take her own life.
"I don't have a home."
"Right. I'll take you someplace even better." Tsukuyo turned and strode out of the washroom. Rae took the chance and lifted the pin again but Tsukuyo was standing behind her in a flash, the pin in her grasp.
"Follow me if you want your pin back."
Rage roiled in her stomach and Rae felt like stomping her foot like a five-year old child.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•
Ah. Back to a familiar place. Isn't this the Yorozuya. Hahaha. Rae laughed humorlessly in her head. Should have known that all the crazy people are connected.
"Gintoki!" Tsukuyo slammed the sliding door open (the remaining pieces of it), and cursed when the frame clattered to the floor.
"Shit, I broke it." Tsukuyo mumbled.
"No, its fine, it was already broken this morning." Rae piped up.
"This morning? Were you here? Don't tell me you know the Yorozuya."
Rae blanched, and replied, "I've been staying here since yesterday, they treated my wounds. Gintoki-san and the rest ran away this morning to avoid rent collection."
Sadaharu peeked out from the hallway, gave a few licks to Rae and Tsukuyo, then padded out into the street.
"That idiot." Tsukuyo didn't seem to genuinely insult Gintoki, and her voice held a trace of softness when she talked about him.
Rae held a pokerface on the outside, and sniggered triumphantly on the inside. Tsukuyo-san likes Gintoki-san. Hueheueheuehue..time to have some fun.
"Oh, Tsukuyo-san, is Gintoki-san your boyfriend?"
"Wha—no! No! He's not, who would like a lazy bum like him? Why does everyone keep mentioning him?! Even Hinowa-san too! You too!" Tsukuyo vehemently objected, irritation showing bright and clear on her face.
Seems like she doesn't know of her feelings towards him. Hmm.. Rae was exceptionally good at reading people, especially in romantic matters. She just had a knack for it, even when she knew 0 things about the people in question. It was how she earned extra money in the past, giving love advice to people for money.
Rae listed down possible characteristics of Tsukuyo in her mind as Tsukuyo complained about how Gintoki was as useless as the corpse of a rotten dead fish. Independent. Strong. Rae caught a glimspe of the barely visible outline of a kunai under Tsukuyo's black kimono. Ninja skills? Check. 'BITCH' brand kiseru? Check. Kuudere? Tsundere? Oops, I got off topic.
Rae was jolted from her own thoughts when she realised a bomb had exploded nearby. The hot air blasted around the 2 women and Tsukuyo breathed out smoke calmly, their hair whipping their faces. Even Rae was getting used to the impossible becoming the possible.
•—• (poker face)
"Well, let's go check it out, uhh..." Tsukuyo trailed off as she looked at Rae to introduce herself.
"Mihoshi Rae."
"Right, Mihoshi-san, let's go, shall we? Your pin is still in my possession, by the way." Then the blond woman stalked towards the source of the explosion.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•
Great. Should have really really known that everything crazy is related to the Yorozuya.
Rae went pokerface again as she watched the spectacular battle between Kagura and the Captain of the First Division of Shinsengumi.
Bazooka projectiles fired in every direction and buildings exploded. Then somehow the bazooka was stowed away by Okita—does he have Doraemon's pouch or something?— and a katana flashed in the sunlight. A metre away on a roof was Kagura, her umbrella's barrel pointing down at Okita.
"China girl, long time no see eh? Such a warm welcome from you. Considering your social skills are as non-existent as your brain."
"Sadist, we just saw each other yesterday, your memory must be shittier than Gin-chan's runny diarrhoea."
"Oi!" An indignant yelp sounded from the opposite side, where Gintoki was standing. Shinpachi grumbled something about buying more food to stock up the fridge and walked off.
Kagura and Okita ignored Gintoki's protest, and rushed at each other while exchanging insults. More buildings exploded, not with firepower, but with the intensity of the fight. People screamed, people ran, people called the police (the police is right there, causing the fight), and it looked like something out of a zombie apocalypse. But nah, it was just a normal day and a normal fight, right?
Rae poker faced even harder (if that was possible).
•—•
Tsukuyo skirted around the battlefield to walk towards Gintoki, Rae keeping close to her. Even if Rae wanted to die, she didn't want to die by a flying debris or a bullet. Ever since that night, Rae developed a fear of guns and bullets. Her heart threatened to burst out of her chest and Rae wanted to tell Kagura to stop firing bullets, but Kagura was so engrossed in her battle Rae doubted she would even hear her over the clang of sword against umbrella. Much less over the undisguised insults thrown around.
Tsukuyo flicked kunais and used them to deflect the flying rocks. Unfortunately, her deflected debris were are scoring bullseye in Gintoki and Rae's face. Gintoki was just grimacing, and made no move to stop Tsukuyo like he was used to this happening.
"Tsukuyo-san..." Rae didn't know how to stop the woman. Tsukuyo turned, her expression apologetic once she saw her work of art, and guiltily offered her handkerchief to Gintoki. Playing favourites now, hm? Rae smiled inwardly.
Then Tsukuyo ripped her kimono sleeve off and offered it to Rae.
Rae wanted to slap herself for not expecting it. She graciously took it from Tsukuyo with a poker face that reached its maximum poker, and mumbled a thanks.
Once they were all cleaned up, Gintoki greeted Tsukuyo with a 'Sup'. Tsukuyo suddenly smacked him on the head. With a kunai.
"Ow, what did I do?" Gintoki's voice turned high-pitched as blood ran down from his forehead.
"You bastard, how could you leave Mihoshi-san alone and run? At least bring her along or something!"
Rae pretended to not hear as she stared intrestingly at a flower growing by the lamp post.
Gintoki's mouth turned down and he rubbed his head, "But it was an emergency, we had no choice..."
Tsukuyo stabbed him again before leaning in close to whisper.
Most probably about me trying to kill myself. Rae thought as she tried to further her act by picking up the roadside flower.
Something else in front of her caught her eye. Rae straightened with the flowers grasped between her fingers and took the chance to look at the thing through the flower, focusing on the object behind it.
Not 'thing'. A man. A man was tailing them. He blended perfectly into the shadows, concealing his prescence. The only mistake he made was moving further back into the shadows when Rae moved forward to pick the flower up.
The movement brought attention to him instead, but Rae gave no indication that she had seen him. She smiled like she totally enjoyed her life and twirled the flower between her fingers.
There could only be one person this man was tailing.
Her.
Rae's mind whizzed as she improvised her escape plan she had drawn up the night before. She must leave tonight, without anyone noticing. She couldn't drag the others into danger with her. She wasn't expecting them to find her so soon.
But first, she had to expose Aikake.
She had learned many secrets of his over the past four years. A slave could learn things that they were not supposed to know if they pleasured him the right way. Rae's eyes swirled with dark emotions as she remembered the revolting moments.
Rae turned towards Gintoki and Tsukuyo, both talking about something else entirely now. Rae didn't want to make further contact with them in fear of the tailer suspecting them even more, but they would have already checked the Yorozuya's background if they were in action.
"Gintoki-san, Tsukuyo-san, would you like to take me on a tour in Kabukicho? I am not familiar with this place after all." Rae interrupted their conversation. Rae could take this tour as a chance to fill in the map of escape in her head.
"Tsukuyo-san, you can recruit all the girls you want on the way too." Rae continued.
"Mihoshi-san, I'm sorry I can't keep you company, I need to head back to Yoshiwara." Tsukuyo offered a smile and bid her goodbyes to Rae and Gintoki.
Rae looked at Gintoki expectantly. Gintoki sighed, sticking his right arm into his kimono.
"Fine, but expect me to charge you a fee."
Rae grinned.
Tsukuyo stalked back, rounded the corner, and pounced on the man.
It wasn't long before the man slumped to the floor, unconscious.
Tsukuyo tied the man up swiftly, and called a few of the Hyakka members to come up to the surface and drag the man down to Yoshiwara for a round of exclusive questioning.
Gintoki and Tsukuyo had discovered the tailer long before Rae did, and during the whispering, she fed him information on Rae's latest quest in killing herself, plus setting up a meeting time with him later in the night. (Obviously for the questioning of the man, don't throw your minds into the gutter)
Tsuki flicked the blood off her kunais and sheathed them into their holder in her obi.
Dang, I forgot to return Mihoshi-san's pin. Tsuki thought and gazed at the sliver pin with a star attached at end for a few moments longer. I'll pass it on to Gintoki later.
I went to Japan for the first time recently, ate so much matcha there until I got sick of it. The best thing there was getting to stay in a ryokan, and eating kaiseki, and soaking in the onsen :3 It was so awkward there though, so many naked ladies. Saggy boobs everywhere. Its the last week of summer holiday over here, I'm Asian btw. I havent touched my homework and projects, and right after holiday ends is my EOY ( end of year = finals) & it's going to slap me in the face if I continue procrastinating. Got to start studying. Updates will be much much slower, sorry. We only get 1 month of holiday here, you lucky americans. So jealous right now. Our summers are even hotter than yours, why do we get 1 month only ;-;
Love you guys _ & the sudden way Tsuki pops up is due to plot convenience. Just take it that Tsuki needed to answer nature's call and met Rae.
P.s. Xliaf27 , I might think about pairing Saito with Rae, but it isn't confirmed yet. Dont expect too much now...
P.p.s Saito's hair is so fluffy I feel like shearing it. Its an orange sheep.
Right, sorry that there is not enough GinTsuki and Okikagu yet. Yet. XD
I'll write special bonus chapters about them when this story ends hueheuheuehuehue
