A/n: I like pie :3
P.s: © to WB and J.K.R for the HP references in this chapter and the before chapters.
I JUST REALISED I DIDN'T MENTION SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT FOR A WHILE NOW. I DO NOT OWN GINTAMA OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS. ALL © and ™ TO SORACHI HIDAEKI.
Please review~
Love~
Glossary:
Datte: Because
Chapter 9
When there's 1, 2 more appear
Gintoki groaned and rolled out of bed as the doorbell rang and Shinpachi went to answer it. Kagura slammed his bedroom door open and said loudly,
"Gin chan~ some weird guy came to see you~" Gintoki pulled on his Yukata and glared at her.
"What weird guy?" He followed her as she went to the entrance.
"Datte~ Its so hot and he's wearing that coat." Gintoki's eyes widened as he saw the same grey-cloaked bandana guy they had seen yesterday. Gintoki patted Shinpachi and Kagura on the shoulder and walked past their guest and out the door.
"Gin san's going out for awhile so take care of things." He called without looking back at them. Once they were out of earshot, Gintoki spun around and gave the man in front of him a cold stare.
"So? You want me to thank you for yesterday?" Instead of answering, the man walked past him and kept walking, completely ignoring the other. A tick mark appeared on Gintoki's face as he followed the cloaked man.
"Ne aren't you hot in that? Why don't you take off your hood?"
No answer.
Sound of vein popping.
"Are you ignoring me you bastard?"
No answer.
The silver-aired samurai glared at the figure in front of him, as if boring a hole through his skull. The two men kept walking in silence until they were well away from Kabukichō and were walking up a single broad highway that led to God knows where. Gintoki was about to say something smart and insult the other, when the man abruptly turned left and continued walking. Ruffling his curly hair in frustration, Gintoki turned too and gaped at the sight in front of him.
The man had led them to a sunflower field that was filled with bright yellow flowers as far as the eye could see. The flowers stood in sharp contrast against the clear blue sky, waving together in the breeze as if they were parts of the same body. Gintoki followed the man as he headed towards a raised section of the field. As they climbed up the slope, the Samurai saw two familiar figures atop it, facing away from them. The other cloaked figure and-
"Tsukuyo?" At the sound of her name, Tsukuyo turned and watched as Gintoki and the cloaked man stopped in front of them. He wondered if it was just his imagination, or if her face was paler than usual, if her eyes had lost their normal sparkle.
"G-Gintoki…." She breathed, as his brows furrowed.
"Oi are you okay? You look unwell." Tsukuyo opened her mouth, as if to say something, and then shut it, as though the whole effort was too painful. Worried by her actions, Gintoki reached towards her, only to be blocked by the second cloaked figure, standing in between them.
"Oi. Move." They didn't budge.
"Didn't you hear me? I said move." Gintoki said, his voice dropping, as he reached for his wooden sword. Then the person suddenly sighed and their shoulders sagged, as if they were carrying an unbearable burden. Pulling back their hood, they said:
"This should be enough right?" Gintoki ogled at the person standing in front of him.
The wind chose that moment to blow past them, causing the woman's blonde hair to come out of her hood and fall down her lean shoulders.
"Eh? Eh?! EHHHHHH!" Gintoki shouted as he stared open mouthed at the person in front of him. He pointed at Tsukuyo, then at the woman in front of her and back.
"T-T-T-T-T-TWO TSUKUYOS?!" The Tsukuyo wearing the cloak tilted her head and smiled.
"Fufu. Its nice to see you too Gintoki." Gintoki blushed involuntarily at the beautiful woman in front of him. Shaking his head to stop him from getting distracted, he said:
"Oi oi…. What the hell is going on here…. Why are there two Tsukuyos!? Don't tell me you're from the future too!" When Future Tsukuyo did nothing but continue to smile at him, he looked at the man beside him for help. The latter raised his arms and pulling off his Bandana and hood, said:
"I told you not to rush it." Gintoki and Tsukuyo stared wide-eyed at the silver-natural-perm haired Samurai who stood in front of them.
"Eh? Eh?! EHHHHHH!" Gintoki screamed again as he fell over and pointed a trembling hand at his other self.
"A-A-A-And its me! ITS ME!" He jumped up and started to feel Future Gintoki's body.
"Wow I really became cooler huh! What's with that badass scar?! Is that why you were wearing a bandana?! No wonder! That thing could make a newborn babe cry!" He exclaimed. Future Gintoki merely raised an eyebrow and ignored his past self as he looked at the two women in front of him.
"Guess its time to spill the beans huh?"
As they all turned to the white tombstone that was erected on the slope, Tsukuyo bent and ran a delicate finger across the white roses that were carved on it.
"Looks like someone really did a good job on my grave huh?" She then ran her hand across the lettering and read it out loud.
"Here lies the woman known as Shinigami Taiyuu and the leader of the Hyakka. May her everlasting beauty shine like the moon." She smiled bitterly and said,
"It feels weird to look down at your grave."
"Gintoki has an identical one. It's in some burnt down village which was pillaged by bandits and all the people were massacred." Gintoki chose not to comment on the details of his gravesite.
"So? After Kagura and Bakaiser came here, you guys decided to visit?" Before either could answer his question, Tsukuyo interrupted.
"How are you here? If what we heard is true, aren't we supposed to be dead in the future?"
No one said anything as the wind carried Tsukuyo's sentence across the field and away.
Future Tsukuyo smiled and said, "It seems we have quite a bit of explaining to do." Future Gintoki sat down and motioned for the others to do the same.
"Might as well make ourselves comfortable. This will take a while."
(A/n: From here on, I will call Future Gintoki, Gin san and Future Tsukuyo, Tsukky in order to avoid confusion. Present Gintoki and Tsukuyo's names will stay the same.)
"I'm guessing you've heard most of the story from Sōgo and Kagura. So I'll start from when Tsukuyo and I died." When no one said anything, Gin san continued.
"I'll first explain what happened AFTER we died, then it'll be easier to explain HOW we died. First off, for some unfathomable reason, the previous time we died, only our bodies got destroyed."
Tsukky explains to Gintoki and Tsukuyo the repercussion of breaking the first rule of time travel, altering the past. By altering the past, the future of that past, also gets altered. Because of which, an infinite loop is formed, where the person returns to the past, alters it and then returns to the future. But of course, very few people actually survive the process of time travelling. The main risk of time travel would be that if you were to change your future, depending on the change, the you in the current future ceases to exist, as that future has been altered. It is impossible for a person's future to change without the person changing. Hence an infinite loop of you returning to the past, changing it and then disappearing due to the change in the future, begins.
Gin san nodded and continued.
"And in one such return to the past, instead of our bodies completely being destroyed, only our physical bodies got destroyed, leaving our minds intact. Not knowing what to do, Tsukuyo and me were prepared to remain like that for all eternity. Until Tama found us. She protected our minds from getting corroded and prepared an artificial time leap, where we jumped back in time to the moment where our bodied were destroyed, and saved them before they died. Tama then fused our minds with our bodies and with the help of the time machine creature thing, we returned to the past once again. Except THIS time, we returned to a time before our future selves arrive here." Gin san paused as Gintoki and Tsukuyo gave him confused looks. He scratched his head and tried to re-explain,
"You see, this is what happened: (A/n: I will explain it in points so it is easier to understand.)
1. Tsukky and Gin san return to the past.
2. They try to alter the future by changing the past.
3. But before they can do that, they are killed.
4. Because their future bodies are destroyed when the future itself remains unchanged, they cease to exist in that future. That is, they die.
5. In order to finish what Tsukky and Gin san were unable to do, Sōgo and Kagura come to the past.
6. But by the time they arrive, its already too late and the future has already been altered.
Gintoki interrupts by raising his hand.
"By who? Who altered the future if it wasn't you guys or Sōgo and Kagura?"
Gin san pursed his lips and replied in a tight voice.
"Kamui…." Gintoki and Tsukuyo look at him with blank expressions, suggesting they had figured as much.
"The one who killed us and changed the future wasn't the Kamui from this time, but the Kamui from the future. We came here in order to stop Kamui from changing the future. But in order to do that, we had to alter the past/present. But before we could do that, future Kamui finds us with the help of this time's Kamui and kills us. And they altered the future in the instant we died. But without realising that, Sōgo and Kagura come to the past in order to stop future Kamui from meeting present Kamui. Which is of course is impossible, as Kamui had already broken the rule once, so meeting his past self again, would be no problem."
"What happens if you meet your past self?" Tsukuyo asked. Tsukky and Gin san replied together, "You disappear."
"Eh? Eh?! EHHHHHHHH!"
"WILL you stop doing that?!" Gintoki sulked as he pointed an accusing finger at Gin san. "Then doesn't that mean you'll disappear too?!" Gin san raised an eyebrow.
"Haven't you been listening to what I said? I already told you neither Tsukuyo nor me exist in this time's future. So there should be no repercussions of us meeting our past selves. That is the only reason we even appeared in front of you." Gintoki couldn't think of an appropriate come back, so he shut up and let Gin san continue.
"The reason future Kamui could meet with his past self, is because he'd already successfully done it once before, so of course he knew he could do it again." (A/n: Um.. I think this would be a better explanation: In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban, when Harry and Hermione return to the past, Harry defeats the Dementors by the lake and saves his past self and Sirius. He later tells Hermione, 'I knew I could do it because I'd already done it once before.' I hope that helps you understand.)
"Kagura and Sōgo's visit to the past is pretty much pointless because both the Kamuis had already altered the future by killing us. The only difference that their visit made, was that it was harder for the future Kamui to kill the two of us from this time, due to their interference. Also this time's Kamui threw a tantrum about how he didn't want his future self to have all the fun and he'd kill Gintoki on his own. So it was basically a Kamui vs. Kamui showdown." Tsukky shrugged as she finished. Gintoki groaned and hung his head.
"Why is that freak even so obsessed with me?! What did I ever do to him to deserve to die?!"
"That's a lot of 'to's in one sent-"
"SHUT UP ME!" Both Tsukuyo's smiled as they watched the two Gintoki's yell at each other. Then Tsukuyo looked at Tsukky and asked seriously, "Now that you both are here though, means we have the upper hand right?" Tsukky nodded, mirroring her past self's expression.
"Yes, since we are still alive, the future might not be already altered. I have a feeling that our coming back to life was a miscalculation on the Universe's part. So somewhere, the loops must have interconnected. If our hunch is right, then future Kamui has just met present Kamui and our future selves aren't here yet. Which means, we are still alive in the future. Meaning-"
"-the future hasn't been altered yet." Tsukuyo finished. Tsukky nodded and gave her past self an as-expected-of-me smile.
"But then how come Kagura and Sadist brat are here from the future? If you guys aren't dead, there should be no necessity for them to come here right?" Tsukky rolled her eyes and said,
"Didn't you hear my explanation just now? I told you that the loops might have gotten interconnected. So you can assume that the Sōgo and Kagura, who came here, are from a different future. The ones from this time's future haven't arrived here yet as both of us are still alive and Kamui from the future just arrived." Gintoki looked at her with his dead-fish-eyes, completely betraying the fact that none of it had made sense to him.
"Well never mind. As long as you kill future Kamui before he kills us, or before us from this future arrive, you don't have to worry about the rest." Tsukky said, ruffling Gintoki's hair. Gintoki huffed and turned away muttering under his breath about being treated like a child.
A/n: Yes this chapter was relatively smaller! :D I liked it :3 The appearance of my favorite couple :3 Now there are two of my favorite couple :3 *-*
And I hope you guys understood the whole Time Travel thing :| If you didn't understand anything, feel free to review or P.M me and I'll gladly answer. The HP reference should help though xD
That's it for now!
Please review!
Love~