Hey guys, Murayama Tsuru here. Here's the 7th chapter ^_^ The semester is now over so I have time to be lazy and write…maybe…I restarted Pokemon Heart Gold version a few days ago and that has taken up some of my time for the moment…anyway, here's the chapter I hope you enjoy ^_^
Disclaimer: I don't own Gintama; it belongs to Sorachi Hideaki-Sensei.
As Hijikata inhaled the tobacco smoke from the cigarettes he loved so much but probably wouldn't be able to have a good deal of in the foreseeable future, he reflected on how hectic his day had been, and how much more hectic it was about to become. As usual, Sougo decided to be the sadist he was and force him out of the Shinsengumi (even if that wasn't his intention). But, Yamazaki, that Badminton playing Anpan eating spy, had done something surprisingly not bland by telling Hijikata how to escape (even though Hijikata said that wasn't something he would do).
And then, of course, he ended up with the man who had caused him the third most amount of trouble over the years of Gintama (With Gintoki coming in first and Sougo coming in second). But, after spending a day with him and his gang of Joui patriots, Hijikata learned that they weren't such bad guys after all (that didn't mean that he wouldn't arrest all of them at a moment's notice, though, if the situation demanded).
Soon, Hijikata found that his cigarette had shrunk down to an unsmokable length, thus bringing tonight's musings to an end. But, as he looked for a place to put the tobacco stick out, he found nothing. Feeling slightly guilty (but tired enough not the really care at the moment) he dropped the smoldering cigarette to the ground and then stomped on it quickly so as not to burn Katsura's flower shop down.
Then, just to assuage any sort of guilt, Hijikata made sure to blow the ashes off the porch after making sure that they wouldn't reignite. The black-haired man then crept into Katsura's room and realized that he was exhausted (which wasn't too surprising considering the day he'd had).
Feeling too tired to try and find the bed the other Joui members had probably made up for him outside of Katsura's room, Hijikata practically collapsed on the floor, eyes drooping heavily as he landed. After a few seconds, the man was snoring softly.
This prompted a long-haired black man and a duck-penguin thing to sit up sleepily. The two looked at each other and Katsura said quietly, "What should we do about him Elizabeth?"
Elizabeth held up a sign that said, Kick him out! His snoring is much too loud. At this rate, I won't get my beauty rest!
Katsura clicked his tongue softly, "No, we can't do that…"
Why not? Read Elizabeth's next sign
Katsura gave his companion a look, "You know perfectly well why not. We don't need to give him another reason to want to arrest us. He may not be capable of doing that at the moment, but as soon as whatever he's going through blows over, we're back to being enemies. Let's not give him any reason to want to arrest any of us sooner than that."
There was a pause in which Elizabeth and Katsura seemed to be having a staring contest of sorts. After a minute, something caved and Elizabeth wrote another sign that said, You win Katsura-san. Do what you want. But, I'm blaming you if you I don't get the proper amount of sleep tonight,
Katsura chuckled lightly then stood up and went over to the closet. After a minute, Katsura came back with a blanket and put it on Hijikata. The vice-captain stirred slightly as the blanket settled over him, but he didn't wake up fully.
Katsura then wandered back over to his Futon and whispered sleepily, "Sleep well Shinsengumi bastard-san." Then, after a while, the room was filled with the sound of three different snores.
Hijikata watched as Namakura slumped to the ground, a trickle of blood leaking out of his mouth, the light fading from his eyes. Even though the man was dead, his head turned upward to meet Hijikata's horrified face, a dark glare appearing in his dead eyes and said, "Fukucho, why did you let this happen? Why weren't you paying more attention to your sword?"
A look of pain flashed across Hijikata's gaze, "I didn't mean for him to take my sword…it just happened."
"If only you had been at HQ, this wouldn't have happened at all! That man wouldn't have escaped and I would still be among the living."
"…I know," Hijikata agreed, bowing his head in apology and regret, "I should have come back from that meeting with Matsudaira-Tocchan faster. If Kondo-san hadn't been sick, none of this would have happened in the first place."
Namakura's glare intensified, "No, you can't blame this one on Kondo-san. All this was your fault entirely, Hijikata!"
Before Hijikata could respond, another voice said, "He's right you know, if only you defeated me your comrade wouldn't be dead and you wouldn't be holed up with those Joui patriots."
Hijikata looked up to see the Sugegasa man starting down at him from the rooftop he had escaped from, those piercing blue eyes boring straight through to Hijikata's soul. The two seemed to stand there, glaring at each other for what seemed like an eternity.
And then, suddenly, the man leapt down from the roof and landed in front of him. Hijikata didn't know how it happened, but he had once again drawn his sword and was charging at the man. Just as suddenly, though, he jolted to a stop as a sharp pain pierced his belly.
Hijikata looked down to see that there was now a sword poking through his stomach, blood dripping sickeningly from the blade. He turned to see that Namakura had somehow gotten up and stabbed him with his sword.
Frozen where he stood, the only words that bubbled out of Hijikata's mouth were, "Namakura…why…?"
"Because," Hijikata's dead comrade said simply, "it's your fault that this happened to me in the first place, so I'm just repaying the favor now."
Hijikata stared blankly at Namakura in shock, unable to form a response. But just as a reply to his dead comrade's betrayal began to form on Hijikata's lips, the Sugegasa man took Hijikata's sword from him once again and sneered, "It's time for you to pay for the trouble you have cause us Hijikata Toshiro!"
The Sugegasa man then lifted Hijikata's sword above his head and let it drop in a slow, deadly arc towards Hijikata's neck…Hijikata jolted upright, not having shaken the nightmare completely, but realizing that he wasn't actually about to be beheaded by the Sugegasa man.
The vice-captain then began to wake up to the sound of birds chirping happily, the sunlight streaming in through the window that Hijikata hadn't noticed was in Katsura's room yesterday. The flower shop was relatively quiet this morning, which seemed different from the afternoon before when the vice-captain of the Shinsengumi had arrived.
Unlike the peaceful morning though, Hijikata was breathing hard, and he was sweating profusely; this was the second night in a row that he had woken up from a ghastly nightmare. Breathing not slowing even a little, his hand came up reflexively to his neck to see if it was still attached to his body.
Only once he felt that everything was in its right place did his breathing begin to slow to their normal speed. As the vice-captain of the Shinsengumi sat there, he realized that the flower shop now seemed too quiet. Even at the Shinsengumi, had everyone tried to be quiet, there would still be sounds of people walking about and doing things that made noise, no matter how small.
Feeling confident that he could stand and not hug the walls for support, Hijikata did so and wandered out of Katsura's room to investigate where everyone was. As he wandered the flower shop, his suspicions were concerned when he didn't find anyone milling around, playing UNO.
But, when Hijikata's stomach growled fiercely and loudly, he stopped caring about where the Joui patriots were (for the moment anyways) and decided that breakfast was the order of the present. And, since no one was around, Hijikata could use as much mayonnaise as he wanted!
But, as Hijikata wandered into the kitchen, he noticed a familiar duck-penguin thing waiting for him, arms crossed, looking mildly annoyed (maybe, Hijikata couldn't really tell since Elizabeth's emotions didn't really come through the costume).
When Hijikata acknowledged Elizabeth's presence, the duck-penguin thing nodded in return and pushed a plate with a tall stack of pancakes (that seemed to come from thin air) toward him and held up a sign that said, Here, eat, Katsura-san made sure that there were some left over for you. I would have eaten them myself, but Katsura-san insisted that you get some.
Despite not knowing where, exactly, the pancakes came from (and not really wanting to dwell on the subject for very long), Hijikata nodded gratefully to Elizabeth and started eating, forgetting at first that since it was only Elizabeth he could still put mayonnaise on his pancakes. It was only until Hijikata had eaten about half the pancakes that he realized that he could put his precious mayo on them and did so, liberally.
Once Hijikata had finished his meal, he looked over to Elizabeth, who had a, maybe, disgusted look on 'her' face and a sign that read, How the hell can you eat all the mayonnaise? It's so gross that watching you eat it makes me want to vomit! Why can't you be normal and not put mayonnaise on pancakes? Only you would do something so weird…
Hijikata made a small noise of discontent that his beloved mayo was being insulted, but instead decided to ask the question that had been on his mind since he had all but forgotten his nightmare, "Where's everyone else?"
Why should I tell you? Despite being on the run, you're still a member of the Shinsengumi. What guarantee do I have that if I tell where Katsura-san and the others are you won't go out and arrest them? Read Elizabeth's next sign.
Hijikata sighed, "It's precisely because I'm on the run from the Shinsengumi that I won't arrest your friends. What would be the point of going on the lam if I were to out myself right away?"
There was a pause, as if Elizabeth was trying to find some flaw in what Hijikata had just said. Not being able to find one, though, Elizabeth produced a note from somewhere (probably the same place the pancakes were hiding) and slid it to Hijikata's side of the table.
Hijikata took a look at it and frowned slightly. It was written in what was probably Katsura's handwriting; Douhou-kun, sorry to just leave you a note, but you seemed to be sleeping so peacefully. We have gone out to participate in the annual Joui UNO tournament. We shall be back later, victorious of course, so you have the run of the house while we're gone. But, just so you stay out of trouble, Elizabeth will be staying to watch over you.
Once Hijikata had finished reading the note, his frown had become a scowl; he looked at Elizabeth, and with barely controlled annoyance said, his voice strained, "They left to go play an UNO tournament? What kind of Joui patriots are you? I thought you guys liked to blow things up and do things that terrorists actually do. Not go gallivanting around, running flower shows, and participating in UNO tournaments! You guys are much too lax to call yourselves Joui patriots!"
As Hijikata finished speaking, his voice had escalated to a loud growl. But, when Hijikata was done ranting, there was only silence. Hijikata was about to start yelling at Elizabeth about how it was rude not to respond to someone when they were insulting what their organization was doing when he saw something that made him pause.
Elizabeth seemed to be shaking with quiet laughter. In fact, if Hijikata listened hard enough, he could actually hear the duck-penguin thing chuckling softly. Irritated that all he got for his lecture was a chuckled from an old man in a duck costume, Hijikata growled, "What's so funny?"
Immediately, Elizabeth composed herself and wrote a sign that said, Nothing is 'funny' exactly. But, it's just that, you always seem so adamant to arrest us; and yet, here you are lecturing on how to be a better terrorist. Isn't that just a little hypocritical?
"N-no…"Hijikata said awkwardly, face beginning to feel hot, regretting having said anything in the first place, "It's not hypocritical at all! I just think that Joui patriots should act like the terrorists that they make themselves out to be, not playing UNO or obsessing over some lady's Ramen shop…that's all…"
There was another silence that made Hijikata's face feel like it was going to burn off; if only he could just keep his mouth closed when it came to how Joui patriots acted (though, this had never really been a problem before…)
But then, just as the silence was becoming unbearable for Hijikata, Elizabeth smacked him on the head with a sign, making the vice-captain glare at duck-penguin thing angrily, rubbing the back of his head gingerly.
But, the contents of Elizabeth's latest sign made Hijikata's glare soften a little, Oh c'mon, quit moping. Katsura said that we have the run of the house while they're out. Let's have some fun without them and make them regret leaving us here.
And that is the end of this chapter ^_^ I hope you guys enjoyed it…aaand I've run out of things to say…As always if you want please leave a review, I love to know what you guys think. See you guys next week then guys…maybe…
-村山鶴 (decided to try something different this time ^_^)