Disclaimer: I do not own Gintama

ACT 11

Sakamoto lead the earthlings up to the ship's bridge. He enthused loudly about something Kagura was barely paying any attention to. The words kept spewing out of the man's mouth, but she was too tired and distracted to form the words she heard into coherent and meaningful sentences; not that she thought his stories about girls at hostess clubs would bear any real significance to her anyway.

The yato hadn't though about her father these past eventful days, she felt terrible for neglecting him for such an extended period. Sure, she might have had other things to worry about, like being stranded on an island or marrying a total idiot. Either way; she hoped he was well. And she hoped he and Queen Otose had the Kamui situation under control while they were slowly progressing on their mission: taking care of the Harusame.

An outside voice breached trough her silent contemplation. She glanced at the man who'd distracted the visions of her family feud. "What's that?"

"Are you alright Kagura-chan?" the friendly officer inquired again.

"Yeah, I'm fine Jimi," she lied.

The man flashed her an awkward smile. Yamazaki was used to people forgetting his name; he felt blessed whenever someone actually called him 'Zaki' or 'Yamazaki'. Hell, he would even accepted 'Shinpachi' on occasion, deeming their shared severe plainness as an acceptable excuse for confusing the two of them.

"That's good to hear, you seemed a little… distracted."

Kagura shrugged and rubbed her chin; there was another thought that had popped up in her mind while she'd been distracted. "I was just wondering why Sakamoto would endanger himself like this, what's the story between him and Gin-chan?"

"Ah, you don't know do you?"

The yato shook her head.

"Then allow me to fill you in. Long ago, danna, Katsura-san, Sakamoto-san and… another guy," he scratched his head, "I'm sorry, I forgot the last man's name… Anyhow, the four of them defected from the People's Army, during the war between Kabukicho and Shogun Sada Sada. You're familiar with the conflict right?"

Kagura nodded. It was true that she had some knowledge about the war; her father had told her about the valiant hero who cut down the former Shogun. She had also once asked her friend Soyo for details about her uncle; the princess didn't shy away from the truth like the yato had expected, but spoke plainly about the evildoing of her relative.

"I was a toddler back then, but I've been told that he was a cruel man," she replied.

"Mmm, he ruled the country with an iron fist and wanted to expand his influence further. He slowly breached our borders; he stole our land and killed the citizens that refused to swear fealty to him. One of the men who refused to follow him, was a man named Yoshida Shouyou."

Kagura tilted her head and squinted her eyes as she tried to remember something important, "I think I've heard that name before."

Yamazaki nodded, Yoshida was well-known beyond the kingdom of Kabukicho. "He was a formidable swordsman and danna's teacher. Employed by the King, he was in charge of training the People's Army near the Edo border. He wanted to face Shogun Sada Sada head on, but the King asked him to wait 'til the Shogun made his first move."

The red-haired girl snapped her finger as she had her aha-moment, she remembered his name and the story from history class! "And he went directly for Yoshida's training facility after he took the nearby villages, right?"

"Like any good general would," Katsura intervened. "I'll take it from here Shinpachi." He placed a firm hand on Yamazaki's shoulder, "I'm more familiar with the details."

'Why won't anybody remember my name?' Yamazaki groaned as he sullenly slouched down in a nearby chair.

Katsura coughed in his hand to clear his throat, "now where were we?"

"Shogun Sada Sada led his troops to your training ground."

"Ah, I'll have to backtrack a little to make the story more vivid." He closed his eyes as he formed the right words in his mind. He opened them again and met her azure gaze with his sparkly olive one. "Yoshida-sensei was known as a kind and caring man; traveling the country side in his earlier days - helping orphaned children back to their feet. One of these children was a boy with a silver perm, the red color of blood stained his eyes when he witnessed the entire village he grew up in; perish in a grueling war. The boy roamed deserted battlefields in order to stay alive, all the while trying to fill the hollow abyss the death of his parents had created in his heart. The boy was named 'The White Daemon' by the surviving villagers, " he smiled as he reminisced about the past. "But he was just a lonely boy with a silver soul and a gentle name; the regal name you now know as Gint…"

Prince Gintoki slapped the man in the back of his head. "Oi Zura, are you telling a nonsensical drama again? Just tell the girl what really went down, geez we're fighting a war here you know!"

"It's not Zura… It's Katsura" he retorted while rubbing his sore spot. "I can't help it that I'm a great storyteller, that's my cross to bear."

"No, your cross is that married-women-fetish you have."

"There's nothing weird about wanting an admired woman."

"It is weird if you exclusively go for married women."

Katsura crossed his arms, "I like widows as well…"

Kagura banged their heads together. "Unless Yoshida had a married-woman-fetish that was instrumental to his teachings, there's no relevance in discussing it yes?"

After the headache settled a little, Gintoki told the rest of the story with ease and nonchalance; much to the frustration of Katsura who meant the key to a successful story should was suspense and drama. The prince on the other hand meant that stories should be straightforward and short.

The silver-haired man recalled that Shogun Sada Sada had led the army himself, and was the one who beheaded Yoshida when he refused to swear fealty to the wicked man. The students had witnessed the beheading with their own eyes. Prince Gintoki had singlehandedly killed the Shogun on his own, while the rest of the men had reduced the shogun's army to rubble and pieces.

The fighting lasted for nearly three days, the only men left standing by the end was Gintoki, Katsura, Sakamoto and a man named Takasugi Shinsuke. They sent word to the King in the capital, and denounced their fealty to the army and the ruler. It was illegal to defect from the People's Army - it was in fact a crime punishable by death. They left none the less, never looking back.

They stayed together for a while, but their goals differed and it became increasingly difficult to make everyone content.

Sakamoto was the first one to leave the group, he wanted to venture out in space and become a respectable merchant (with a lessened focus on the 'respectable' part of course). He soon met Mutsu, and they had been inseparable ever since – excluding the times he wandered off and met girls at hostess clubs.

Gintoki was the next one to leave. Shinsuke, who'd been a good friend of Gintoki and Katsura since childhood, had become increasingly darker as the days passed. The prince opted out when his childhood friend revealed that he wanted revenge on the king for letting Yoshida perish. The silver-haired man had tried to reason with the man, claiming that it wasn't the king who ordered Sada Sada to kill their teacher - making him innocent of the charges laid at his door.

Katsura snorted and added his part in the story. Kagura zoned out when the dark-haired man started his dramatic tale, and didn't tune in for ten minutes. What she did hear was that Katsura had left because Shinsuke's view on justice darkened by each passing day. He was no longer Katsura's friend, but a black-hearted monster who wanted to kill the king. He therefore stole Shinsuke's plans and revealed them to Gintoki, hoping his former comrade would aid him and stop the maniac from killing an innocent man.

The prince had reluctantly followed Katsura to the destination of Shinsuke's ambush. King Tatsugorou and Queen Otose had met with the new Shogun and signed a peace treaty with him. Shinsuke was repulsed by their actions and made it his business to kill them both for signing the treaty. He thought it was too soon to forgive and forget the war.

Gintoki and Katsura arrived just moments after the devious man had cut the king's throat open. The horse-drawn carriage the royal couple had traveled in was smeared with the blood of their guards. Shinsuke was standing behind the queen, his sword at her neck while she watched her husband die in her arms. The two men interrupted him right when he was about to behead the sobbing widow.

Katsura fended off Shinsuke while the silver-haired man tended to Tatsugoro's open wound. He tried to stop the man's bleeding with a strip of cloth that he ripped off his clothes, but his attempt to save the man was futile. The king grabbed his hand and made Gintoki promise to take of his wife.

"And I agreed, that's about it," the prince shrugged nonchalantly.

Kagura listened intently to the story, sucking in the new information. She already knew Prince Gintoki wasn't Queen Otose's natural-born son, but no one had told her why he'd been chosen for the crown. To be quite honest, she didn't actually think the prince deserved the title, seeing how lazy he usually was. Now on the other hand, she saw the gallant hero he could be and deemed him worthy of his position.

"Gintoki, you can't end a story like that. You left out a lot of details!"

"As I said earlier, we don't have time to embellish the story."

"You didn't even tell the girl how you became the prince, and got a royal pardon for Sakamoto and myself. And you didn't even mention how I heroically defeated Shinsuke!"

"Nobody cares about that stuff Zura."

Elisabeth held up a sign that read 'I kinda wanna know'.

Gitoki rolled his eyes "she asked me, and I said yes. And for the record; I woulnd't count Shinsuke fleeing the scene as a herioc act on your side."

"But Ginto..." Katsura was cut short when their ship started to tremble.

"Please ready your weapons." Mutsu called over the speaker system, "we're being boarded by the Harusame."

Kagura looked displeased as the pirates surrounded them. They had struck down a lot of enemies, but the thugs severely outnumbered them in the end.

She was now facing their notorious leader, a yato named Housen – he was also known as "The King of the Night". She only knew the man by reputation - most accounts were from her father; who'd refused to follow the man's violent ways.

Housen had been the leader before Umibouzu, but Kagura's father opposed his regime and had him denounced by the majority of the clan. A civil war broke loose, and the bald man had won – against all odds – over Housen's guerilla warfare. The Knight King fled and joined the Harusame with his supporters.

Housen was a tall man with broad shoulders; he had long gray hair and wore a simple, purple yukata. He stepped in front of the younger yato. He used his umbrella to tilt her jaw up so he could examine her face. "Well, if it isn't Umibuozu's youngest," he smirked. "How're you doing? Did you miss your uncle Housen?"

Kagura made a gurgle in her throat and spat a combination of saliva and green mucus on his face. She hated the man in front of her. She hated the way he wanted yato's to be; violent with a lust for killing. She hated him for corrupting her brother, showing him the darker side of their heritage. And most of all, she hated him for nearly killing her father.

The elder yato was unfazed by her action and wiped the slime away with his sleeves. He then pressed the tip of his umbrella closer to her neck. "Careful how you act now little miss, I would hate to spill the blood of a fellow clansmen."

She snorted 'that's rich'.