Genre: Humour/Drama
Disclaimer: I do not own Gintama or any of the characters.
Time Reversal Arc
It was a surreal sight. The usually composed and reliable Gin-san lying under the foot of a golden-haired automaton, distinctly helpless. The normally fiery and indomitable Kagura-chan sprawled on the wooden floor, motionless and bleeding profusely.
The bespectacled samurai-in-training screamed, but no words flowed out of his mouth. He extended a hand desperately, but they were out of his reach. He tried to run, but they just seemed to drift further away from him.
"Gin-san!" Shinpachi tried to shout. "Kagura-chan!"
It was hopeless. The Yorozuya's fate was sealed right before his eyes... He could do nothing but yell silently...
"Gin-san! Kagura-chan!"
His eyes blinked open. An azure wall stared at him resolutely, impassively.
Shinpachi sat upright and shook his head. He seemed to be in a hospital room, what with the curtains and reflective windows.
"Why am I here..." the bespectacled teenager wondered weakly. "What happe-"
Images began to flash right before his eyes, causing them to widen in shock and fear.
"Gin-san!" he yelled instinctively. "Kagura-chan!"
A sudden burst of pain erupted from his mid-section area.
"Argh!" he exclaimed, clutching a hand to his stomach. Biting his lip, he tried his best to ignore the flaring pain, making to get off the bed he was resting on.
"Wait for me, Gin-san, Kagura-cha-" he panted uncontrollably, vision getting blurry. Sheer agony was engulfing his entire being, yet he refused to stand down. Mustering all the strength he had, he began to walk towards the door. His whole body felt like it was on fire.
"Wait for me..." Shinpachi mumbled softly, before his legs gave way.
There was the sound of a door being opened.
"Shin-chan, are you- Shin-chan!"
He felt a pair of gentle hands lift him up. After a few seconds, he was lying back on the soft surface of a bed again.
Shinpachi's eyes flickered. A woman with brown hair tied back in a ponytail was gazing at him worriedly.
"Ane-ue?" he mumbled, trying to move his hapless body.
"Don't move, Shin-chan," Shimura Tae chided. "If you dare to move, I will shove my delicious fried eggs down your throat."
"Ane-ue..." Shinpachi muttered weakly. "Where's Gin-san and Kagura-chan? I have to see them..."
Otae pursed her lips.
"Kagura-chan is fine," she said.
Shinpachi waited for the latter part of her sentence, but it never came. For some reason, there was a tight expression on his sister's face.
"Ane-ue...?" he voiced uncertainly.
"Kagura-chan healed extremely fast," Otae gave a forceful smile. "Really, it's as if she wasn't a human!"
"Ane-ue...?"
A chilly feeling was creeping into his heart.
"If it was not for the training you have been doing for the last sixteen years," Otae rambled on. "Your abdominals will never have contained that blow in your stomach... Really, what were you all up to? A frantic search for a ca-"
"Ane-ue!" Shinpachi gasped. "Where's Gin-san?"
There was no mistake about it this time. She was definitely trying to avoid his question.
"Wasn't he supposed to be on a business trip?" his sister laughed unconvincingly. "He should be back nex-"
"Ane-ue! Where's Gin-san? He should have been with us! Don't dodge my question anymore!"
Otae tensed. Her fists were clenched at her sides.
All of a sudden, Shinpachi did not want to hear her reply anymore. He wanted to block out those words that were streaming from her mouth. He wanted to deny everything that he was hearing at that very moment.
"He's in the operating room. They are trying to save him right now."
The golden haired automaton gazed dazedly as Gengai prepared to reprogram his system memory.
"Old man," he said. "Before you reprogram me, could you tell me something?"
"What is it?" Gengai asked, a sceptical tone in his voice as he made the final preparations. "Are you going to hypnotize me again? It's not happening this time, I can tell you. I removed your radio wave emitter when you were in system restoration mode. You will never be able to hypnotize anyone ever again."
Kintoki could hardly bother with the unnecessary details. An unknown feeling was gnarling at him. A certain mental connection was causing an irrepressible feeling to surface in him.
"What are human emotions?" he finally churned out. "What does protecting someone mean?"
Gengai stopped in his tracks. Despite himself, he took off his pair of eye-goggles and stared at the golden haired automaton.
"He's actually looking earnest about it…" Gengai thought in disbelief. "I never thought that this will be possible…"
"Why do you want to know?" he asked. "It will hardly be of any help to your twisted plans."
Kintoki did not know the reason himself. Nothing was making sense to his computerized system. After the silver-haired samurai had broken off the hypnotism waves, the pre-established mental connection should have been cut off as well. Hypothetically, it should have been severed. Yet, why was it that he could still detect the mental connection between their minds? Why was it that he could detect the silver-haired samurai's rapidly decreasing mental activity? Most importantly, why was that fact so disturbing to him? What was this feeling arising in his system?
I think you are starting to get a hold of human emotions as well," he gave a small grin. "I don't think robots actually make miscalculations, do they?"
In that split second, the automaton realized why he had made so many miscalculations over the course of his plan. He realized why Sakata Gintoki's impending death was so disturbing to him.
Kintoki gazed seriously at the old man before him.
In that split second, he had realized the sheer significance of human emotions.
"Old man," he began. "For the first time and the very last time..."
"When humans fight for the sake of fighting," he said. "They are no different from robots. However, when humans fight for the sake of protecting, their abilities far transcend mere robots. Yes, the emotions you scraps of metals despise so much are the driving force that propels us forward."
"Could I ask you for a favour?"
