a/n: Title "kanban" (看板・かんばん) means "signboard"

Chapter 6 - Kanban (Yorozuya)

"Oi Sougo, what's up with her?"

Kagura ignored the two men who were currently occupying the space at the front of her—Sougo's actually—room. On hindsight, she could have just kept the closet door shut, which was something she made sure to do so all the time. After all, being caught in the sadist's room was probably the one of the main things she considered worse than death (some other things included rice shortages or sukonbu shortages, and bunch of other things that involved said-sadist).

Today was the exception though; she really didn't want to isolate herself today.

And her room—not Sougo's, but her little closet space—was one of the few places she felt most comfortable in. She wasn't seeking companionship at the moment, neither was she too keen about being all by herself; she simply wanted to sit here against wall, by her closet door and think. She could care less about who was going to see her sitting out in the open today.

"She's been like that ever since she came back from her old place."

"Ah, Otose's place?"

The girl flinched slightly upon hearing the older lady's name, and she was quite sure that the two men noticed the subtle action. It certainly surprised her that Sougo hadn't said anything to annoy her for the past hour since he first returned to his room and found her sitting by the front of the closet, rather than inside it. Instead, he just sat there on the other side of the room, by the open doorway, and started to polish his sword. It probably surprised Toshiro just as much when he came by just to find them in their current positions, in complete (and dare he say, peaceful?) silence rather than tearing the room apart.

"Hey."

Kagura didn't really move much, but she did shift her gaze upwards to the dark-haired man standing next to the sitting Sougo.

"Did you have another bad run-in with Shimura Shinpachi?"

She turned her gaze downwards once again. Even though Sougo's attention was still turned towards his sword, he knew that Toshiro had gotten it right on target, or very close to it anyway.

"When you have time, head upstairs and just take a look at what you might want to keep for yourselves. Whatever you leave behind, I plan to throw out by the end of the year."

Her words sounded unnaturally cold, and only the trained ear could tell that Otose really mustered all that she could to sound indifferent. The silence that followed was both deafening and brief. Both Kagura and Shinpachi opened up their mouths in simultaneous protest.

"Granny—"

"Otose-san—"

The two youths stopped, and at first they glared at each other, but once they recalled what the situation was again, they looked away from one another, willing that creeping feeling of shame to go away. Finally, it was Shinpachi who spoke first.

"Is there really no other way?"

"Look you two," Otose sighed, "Things aren't looking so great these days, and I'll need to rent the place upstairs out again. You understand don't you?"

"Shin-chan?" Tae stood at the doorway watching her younger brother, "Are you heading out again? It's almost dinnertime."

"Ah..." The young man adjusted his glasses, "I have something to do, but I'll be back soon."

With a wave, he shut the door behind him and headed out.

The events from this morning still replayed in his mind. Both Kagura and himself had gone upstairs at the request of Otose, who wanted them to at least take a look around so they have a general idea of what they might want to keep or discard. Shinpachi only realized it now, after he thought about it, that this had been the older woman's way of showing kindness towards them. She could have told them to get their stuff out right away, or just toss everything out herself, but she was willing to give them time. Time to cope with what's going on, and time to act.

They only stood inside, in the front hallway, for a mere five minutes, and those were probably the most suffocating five minutes they had to spend. It wasn't because they were in each other's presence, something they disliked increasingly in about the past two years since they've split up the Yorozuya, rather, it was suffocating because of the fact that they had to face these demons once again, the cruel thing called reality. In those five minutes, all they did was stare down at wooden signboard that was leaning against the front hallway. It was the one that said "Yorozuya Gin-chan" and had once proudly stood outside the front entrance, just above Otose's snack bar.

He still recalled how Kagura was crouched down so that she was eye-level with the object, and how she had reached out and touched it. He still recalled how he had mentally flinched when she dragged her index finger across the surface, drawing a line across the character "gin", over the layer of dust that had collected over the past year and a half since the sign had been taken down. Soon after, without even looking at anything else further inside the room, she had left, and Shinpachi left about a minute later. He too did not bother going further in.

After returning home, he simply sat in his room, still recalling the day's events, still replaying Otose's words, and still remembering their beloved signboard that was covered in dust. Hours had passed before he finally came to a decision.

Hours after Sougo and Toshiro had vacated the room, Kagura had found herself heading towards Otose's place again. It was almost like deja vu, a repeat of this morning's scenario, when she saw Shinpachi approaching the same destination from the opposite direction; they stopped when they had reached the front entrance and looked at one another. However, this time there was no trace of any animosity between them.

It seemed like they came to a silent agreement.

"So, what brings you back?" The two youths turned towards Otose who had came out to meet them, "Have you decided to start sorting the things upstairs already?"

The two looked at each other once again, and after sharing a brief nod, they both turned to the older woman.

"Granny, we decided that we would each pay for part of the rent. So please..." Kagura clenched her fists, "Please, just leave the place as it is."

Shinpachi nodded in agreement, "We'll be sure to pay you on time!"

Otose frowned at the two, but her features had slowly melted away, replaced by a light smirk, "I'm going to be very strict with collecting the rent this time, so you better pay up when it's due!"

"We'll take some of the stuff—" Shinpachi started.

"—but we'll leave the signboard there!" Kagura finished.

The two teens shared another glance before leaning their bodies forward, and surprising the older woman with their bow of gratitude.

Otose smiled at the two. Later on, she found herself directing that same warm smile at the dusty signboard upstairs. She originally hadn't planned on succumbing to their childish wishes. And as determined as they are, a part of her had a feeling she would find herself chasing at the two to pay the rent. She was hoping that they would just move on if she had rented the place out, yet in the end, she couldn't follow through with her own plans.

But perhaps, deep deep down, she too was not ready to move on.

a/n: This chapter was inspired by the movie scene where Gintoki visits his "future" old place for the first time and last time. Seeing the dusty signboard just really stood out to me. And I just thought to give another reason why the place is still empty, aside from the fact that the Plague was going around and there probably weren't people around to rent the place out to anyway (there was that alternative future scene in the movie where it was rented out).

Once again, I apologize for the long wait. I mentioned this in my profile, but updates will be excruciatingly slow since I've started graduate school so I'm really swamped with assignments which consists of much research, reading and writing on a weekly basis. Thank you for your patience and reviews :)