The Presentation: Meet Shouyou-sensei

When Gintoki went to work this day after school, he was relieved. He didn't care what the school or the students thought of him. The only opinions he cared about were his friend's ones. And they didn't reject him. At least, now they knew. He should actually be grateful to this F4. IT was a heavy weight out of his shoulders. But he also knew that, tomorrow coming, the school will make his day a living hell again, if not ten times worse, and he was really sensitive about his sexuality. It wasn't the first time people said mean things to him because he was gay. But so many people at the same time… It was just too much. Well, he would have to deal with that.

"Gintoki, are you alright? You seemed extremely preoccupied for a while. Is everything okay at school? "Katsura cut him of his thought

Gintoki turned to his boss, who was looking at him with a worried face, as was the beautiful blond girl who was wearing a dark kimono. Today, there was also Tsukuyo, his friend who he met thanks to Katsura. She wasn't really the talkative type, but she always listened to him when he needed it. He took him some time to noticed he was asked a question and Katsura was waiting for an answer

"Yes everything is totally alright!" The silver head replied, trying to sound joyful.

The other man didn't look like he bought it "Don't you dare try to fool me. You had a mood since a week ago. Should I talk to Shouyou-sensei about this?"

'Damn, he is really observant when he wants it'

"No, it's just… It took me some time to adapt myself. It's new for me. But now I'm ok. I even made two really great friends."

"Ok, but if you have a problem or even something on your mind, you know you can come and talk to me."

"Yes I know"

Katsura sighed; well at least he had tried. Gintoki resumed the patisserie he was preparing. Tsukuyo looked at him, concerned and absolutely not convinced. "What is it Gintoki? What is concerning you like this?"

"Nothing, don't worry" he just smiled, although he knew that wouldn't work with her. Because she wasn't talkative, she was really observant, and knew him by heart now.

"Gintoki, after that you can go home." The chief informed

"Ok"

When Gintoki finished, he heard the door opened. He raised his head and saw his friend in front of the bakery. 'How did they know where I am working?'

"Hello here, can we buy a cake please?" Kagura said with a little smile, and big eyes.

Gintoki smirked at that. He didn't know this two since very long, but he knew them long enough to guess that Kagura's mouth was watering in front of the cakes. This girl could eat 10 times what he was habitually eating for lunch. It was impressive! "Yes, let me advice you. I would recommend you this." He said while showing a patisserie with raspberries. This is an isaphan, a creation of Pierre Hermé, a well known French chef. It is made of macaroons, litchis, roses and raspeberries."

"Whoua!" they stood gasping in front of the cake, which looked absolutely delicious.

They were suddenly interrupted when Katsura came stand next to Gintoki and pursued, "This realization is actually different from the original, she had been readapt by a young chef really promising" He smirked as Gintoki blushed

"Who?" Shinpachi asked, even more interested now

"He is in front of you!"

Gintoki was a red as a tomato when the two young students turned their eyes to him.

"You made this?" Kagura asked

"Euh…Yeah"

"Whoa, I'm surprised, it is so beautiful." She added, with stars in her eyes. Count on food to take Kagura into the galaxy.

"Thanks" Gintoki replied, a little embarrassed but also quite proud. It took him some time to be able to master the art of dessert's confection. It was an achievement, if even a small one.

"I think Kagura-chan made her choice."

"Yeah, I will take this one please"

Gintoki nodded and turned to Shinpachi, "And I will take a flan please."

"All right, Gintoki, I'm going to take care of it, so take a pastry too and you can eat it with your friend" Katsura said, surprising Gintoki. The silver head smile and nodded, "Ok, I will take a strawberry puff, please. Thank you again, Katsura-san."

"Oh it's nothing." When he came with the pastry ready, he acquiesced to the two new clients, "So you are Gintoki's friends. My name is Katsura. I'm pleased to meet you."

"Hi Katsura-san, my name is Shimura Shinpachi, and this is Kagura."

The blond girl advanced towards them and extended her hand that they shook," I'm Tsukuyo, you can call me Tsuki"

"Hi Tsuki" They both saluted

"Shimura… Ah, so did you sister liked her birthday cake?" Katsura asked

"Yeah, thank you very much"

"It's nothing. Take care"

"Bye" and so they were leaving.

"Gin-chan?" Kagura called the silver head. He was used to it, but she usually said it only when he was the three of them.

"Yeah?"

"Can we go to your house?" She timidly asked, and Shinpachi turned to the silver head with a serious face.

Gintoki thought about it. He didn't see why not. "Ok" He simply replied.

They walked until they stopped in front of the orphanage. Kagura and Shinpachi knew about it. Gintoki told them some time ago, and they listened with attention, because they knew he wasn't the type to confide in other people. But since that time, they secretly wanted to meet this man, who was Gintoki's father figure, and seemed so admirable, capable, and nice.

Gintoki knocked on the door, and a little boy with disheveled brown hair opened it.

"Gin-ni" he exclaimed with a cheerful face

"Hey Seita, how are you?"

"Fine… Who are this two people?"

They are friends of mine. This is Kagura, and this is Shinpachi". "Hi!" "Hello"

"Hello, I'm Seita. Please enter. Sensei is in the dojo."

Gintoki nodded and turned to them as they gave their agreement. They went to the dojo, and Gintoki went to his knee and knocked on the door. "Sensei, I have brought some friends with me today."

They heard a calm voice behind the door, "Gintoki? You can enter with your friends."

Gintoki opened the sliding door and informed the others they could enter. They went into the room used for training and saw Shouyou-sensei sitting by the window, smiling at them. There like a strange aura around him, that was warm and comforting. Kagura and Shinpachi were immediately at ease. They sat in seiza in front of him, waiting for him to speak.

"So, you are Kagura-chan and Shinpachi-kun, I suppose?" They nodded, "Well, I'm really please to finally meet you. I'm Yoshida Shouyou, Gintoki's teacher and surrogate father. I'm also the head of this orphanage. Gintoki never stop talking about you, so I may know you quite well." He said with a smirk as Gintoki flushed in embarrassment when the china girl and the brown hair man turned to him with a knowing smile.

"The pleasure is for us. I'm Shimura Shinpachi and this is Kagura" they saluted

"I'm so happy that Gintoki met two fine young people like you. He never was the sociable kid, always saying he didn't need friends. And when he met you, he was always so joyfully talking about you two. It was quite a refreshing sight. I was beginning to be worried, but it looks like he finally was able to socialize."

"Oh yeah, he was really nice, we got along very fast. He is really a great friend"

Ok, Gintoki was red like a tomato and looked like he was pleading his friends to put an end at his misery. Seeing this, they smirked. The little foxes!

"Shouyou-sensei" The silver samurai pouted, and it was such a cute sight, that Kagura couldn't help but take a picture with her phone.

"Hey, delete this" he screamed, not happy having someone taking pictures of him without his authorization.

"No way" She responded, and chuckled while she showed Shinpachi, who was smiling like an idiot, the picture. Shouyou-sensei began to laugh. It was the future he was hoping for Gintoki when he first adopted him. To be open enough with other people to call them friends and show sides of him he never showed anyone else. They stopped at this. It was quite a sight too, seeing Gintoki's father laughing. Looks like the old adage is true; Like Father like son.

"I'm really glad for you Gintoki. About that, how is school going for the three of you?"

At that moment, the air suddenly turned cold. Shouyou was taken aback. "What is it children? Did I say something wrong?"

Kagura and Shinpachi turned to Gintoki and, as their eyes met, the two friends understood immediately. Gintoki didn't tell his father. No reason to introduce a problem to someone who was obviously still in the dark for a reason. So the thought that came to them was why? Why wouldn't he tell him, when it was obvious when he came back with his uniform torn, looking like he was in a gang fight? Gintoki was the first one to regain the power of speech

"It's nothing, just that the others students were a little less friendly today"

"What do you mean?" Shouyou asked, worry covering his face. Kagura and Shinpachi were looking at the exchange, and it was clear that if his father was this worried over the students being "less friendly", he would react really badly to the knowing of his son getting daily bullied.

"There was a chemical experiment we did in class, and Shinpachi blew the class up by inadvertence. So they were quite angry at him." Gintoki invented and it was a believable excuse to explain their behavior. Shinpachi didn't seem to agree, but when he saw the look in Gintoki eyes, he retreated and played his part, "Yes, exactly." He tried to laugh

"I see. You should be more careful, Shinpachi-kun. But at least, it is not like someone was hurt."

"No, you don't have to worry Sensei. They will forget everything before tomorrow arises." He paused and smiled. "I'm going to take them to the backyard; we are going to have some afternoon snack."

"I understand. Enjoy." He smiled

They moved to the garden at the back of the orphanage and Gintoki gave everyone his snack. Kagura and Shinpachi were observing him, and knew he knew it. It had seemed easy for him to come with a suitable excuse. It didn't look like it was the first time that this situation happened. Considering the fact that Shouyou didn't know anything, it wasn't surprising. They wondered how many times Gintoki had to lie to his father, and be guilty about it, because he was always so selfless and just couldn't share his problem with other people. The silver head didn't change as much as his father would have like him to. They were determined to change that. But it was still strange. Gintoki wouldn't have put him in the dark like this normally. After all, he talked to them about it. Sure, they knew his situation, but he was still quite open. But Shouyou didn't look like he knew even the most little thing about it. No, there was something behind this silence, they were sure of it. It was Kagura who spoke first.

"Why didn't you tell him? And before, you answer, I know why you didn't. What I mean is why didn't you even share some information about it? You make the school looks like its heaven when we all know its hell especially for you. "

She looked angry, or maybe annoyed. Yes, annoyed. Gintoki knew he couldn't escape that one. And they had a right to know, after all, they were his friends.

"Well, it's quite the story." He sighed, "When Shouyou-sensei adopted me, I didn't know but he was sick. He has a heart disease. Most specifically, it is a valvular disease. When he got too strongly emotional, his blood flow is more important, which cause Hypertension, and damaged even more the heart's valves. He has a treatment, but this is not something you can cure just like that. You can live with it, without straining your body and heart too much."

Shinpachi and Kagura's eyes widened at this revelation. They began to connect the dots. It was mysterious, why Gintoki never fought back even though he was more than capable to stand his ground. If he were to fight back, the F4 would make sure he was expulsed from school, or that he would get even more problems. His Sensei would have to know and it would be dangerous for his health. It was logical. The only thing that could oblige Gintoki to play the punching bag without even more than a humpf would be his father.

"Before, I was home-schooled. We don't have a lot of money like you can see and I needed to help in my own way, so I began to work at the bakery with Katsura and Tsukuyo. When I was accepted in that school, Shouyou-sensei looked so happy, I just couldn't say no. What kind of son would I be, if I wasn't even able to make my father happy? So I just agreed. I didn't know it would take such a turn of event"

"We understand" It was Shinpachi who said it, because Kagura looked like she was going to protest with misty eyes.

They finished their pastries talking about simple things and finally it was time for Kagura and Shinpachi to go back.

"See you tomorrow" they said to each other as Gintoki closed the door with a smile.