Chapter 25

Clash of Demons

Slash sat lazily on a crate by the Edo port. He was humming a cheerful song as he took a lick from his mint ice cream. The sea was calm as the soft ocean breeze blew over it and the sky was of a beautiful blue color. It was an hour after noon and Slash couldn't help but wonder if the Yorozuya had gotten his perfect message. He had broken his little sister to an extent that he knew she couldn't possibly ever be put back. He searched his pocket with his free hand and took out a pink shiny orb and made it roll on the palm of his hand. He grinned at it and took it to his lips giving it a soft kiss. The small bright orb was his precious sister's breath, he had yanked it out of her while she was trying all so hard to protect it. It was a miracle the girl was still alive after he was done with her, she had proven herself to be his sister in the end. He stored the jewel in his pocket and set himself to taking another lick at his ice cream. He chuckled as he thought of his upcoming battle, he knew Gintoki would find him. True demons knew how to track down their prey and they were always up for meeting equally strong opponents in battle. He took a bite out of the ice cream cone he held and as he chewed on the sweet treat noticed a bloodthirsty aura approach him.

"Well that was speedy lad, no hard feelings for my dear young sister right?" Slash turned to meet Gintoki's fiery eyes. "Ah, I see that this time you're planning on being full time serious, well isn't that a comfortable thought?"

Gintoki stood straight holding his bokken in one hand firmly. He glared at Slash with eyes filled with fire. His whole body seemed to be giving out a deadly aura, one that would surely infect any living thing he touched. He walked closer to Slash as the blond man finished eating his ice cream, their rematch was about to start. Slash took off his eye patch and took up his sword which was resting against the crate he had been sitting on. Both men remained looking at each other, reading their bodies, for several minutes.

"No need for introductions or more lay backs, so!" Slash said with a cocky smile on his face, afterwards the first move was made their weapons colliding with a loud bang.

Slash had aimed for Gin's head and he had blocked it effortlessly. The silver haired man pushed Slash's sword out of the way and slashed at the blond's chest in a series of continuous attacks. Slash stepped back, blocked and evaded his attempts to strike him down as fast as the other attacked. It was no surprise that they found themselves evenly matched, neither of them could get an attack through.

"Losing your edge Slasher? Thought beating your defenseless sister would get to me?" Gin spoke in a mocking voice, his face shadowed by anger and bloodlust. "Try step up your game brat"

"No mind if I do!" Slash yelled back, but didn't manage to get a chance to attack to go with his words. The foreigner was excited, for the first time in his life he didn't have the upper hand. Unlike their first duel, Gintoki wasn't getting held back by the thought of his lover and he wasn't holding back his war self. Gintoki continued striking at Slash, Slash stroke him back they both blocked and evaded. Everything pointed out that the victor of their battle was surely going to be the one who managed to strike the other first. Gintoki made distance between them by jumping back a few feet; he took firm grip of his bokken and in a heartbeat made his way to strike at Slash again. The blond man smiled widely as he took firm grip of his sword also and ran to meet Gin's sword.

A body hit the ground hard; Slash had a nasty bruise on his face and his knee hurt immensely as he had fallen face down on the ground. In the last moment, before their weapons collided, Gin stepped sideways evaded a direct hit from slash, kicked the man on his knee as hard as his momentum allowed him and also punched him in the face. Gintoki on his part had a small cute on his shoulder, no biggie compared to Slash who was feeling a sharp pain on his knee. Before Slash could manage to get up, Gintoki dashed to strike him with his bokken and his target turned to block him with his sword. Slash kicked Gintoki in return and pranced up to slash at him with his sword managing to make another cut on the silver head's arm.

"Whoaaa! This is so much fun! Look at us, it's all so surreal! Give me more of this Shiroyasha! Show me how powerful your breath is!" Slash called out excited as their weapons collided again and remained against each other. "Show me more!"

Their fight continued on with this new, fast pace until both of them were covered in gashes and bruises. Slash had a huge smile on his face while Gin had an intense bloodlust filled gaze.

"Give it back" Gintoki said pointing his bokken at Slash who stood a few feet away from him. "Give me her breath back and I'll let you live"

"Are you kidding?! I'm taking your breath away as well! And your precious Vice-Chief is next! I haven't had this much fun in YEARS!" Slash laughed and coughed a little blood peeking on the edge of his lips. "I will defeat you Shiroyasha!"

"This is my last warning, give it back or I will make sure you don't walk again" Gin knew that Slash had taken something precious of Swallow's. He had noticed the moment he saw her, the lively girl had had her breath taken away. Her life essence turned to a gem, a thing that could only be put together and taken by a Succubus. If it hadn't been for Kat's visit he would have never expected Slash would be able to pull such a thing off just to attain his. Katherine had warned them fair enough, he would have never reached his conclusion if it hadn't been for that. "I wouldn't like to have my Vice Chief do extra papers tonight because of a stupid asshole."

Slash laughed as he held his blade with his right hand. He seemed insane, not quite aware of the dead serious atmosphere that had fallen over Gin's bloodthirsty aura. He looked at Gin with glowing, excited blue eyes. He wasn't planning on backing down, he was going to stay there to the end.

"So kill me Shiroyasha!" He exclaimed readying himself for an attack.

He stepped forward as did Gin and the whole world seemed to stop as their bodies came closer to collision.

SPLAT

Blood splattered on the ground and on their clothes. Gintoki coughed and flinched at the sensation of the blade. Slash snickered and chuckled as a he coughed up blood his body giving up on him making Gintoki hold him up. Gintoki's bokken had actually managed to, painfully, make its way through the blond's body while Slash's sword had grazed Gin's skin and his fist had found its way to the other's stomach.

Gintoki held him for a minute until he stopped chuckling.

"You truly are a demon, you weren't even using a sword"

"Come's with the gig of being the main character here"

"What?"

"Nothing you ninja turtle"

Gintoki set the bleeding blond man on the floor gently. The silver head's blood lust had died out and he was just being serious and unreadable. Slash on his part had lost his insane aura as he seemed to get a leveled line of thought after being impaled. He moved his hand to his pocket and took out the pink orb he had stolen from Swallow. He smiled at it as he held it up in his line of sight.

"Sister… I guess that even now I'm not sorry" He actually spoke laughing a bit afterwards.

He looked up into a fixed spot in space and smiled, he seemed in the border line of tears as he shook his head.

"I can't go with you" He spoke, not to Gin, but to whatever he was looking at. "I really can't"

Those were the last words Gin heard from the man as the blond fell unconscious. For what the yorozuya could tell, he was dead. He found it curious how even in the last moments, Slash had remained the psycho prick he had been known as. Gintoki stood up starting to feel all the pain and numbness from the wounds he had gotten in the battle he had fought. He took his bokken from Slash's chest and started walking away.

"You took my shot at him Danna" Okita Sougo appeared before the yorozuya wearing his deadpan expression. "It's a shame he didn't kill the vice chief before you did him in"

"Sougo, sorry for that but that prick owed me big time" Gintoki showed the sadist the small pink orb he had managed to recover from Slash. "He owed me a friend… just as much as he owed justice a man too"

Sougo nodded and walked towards the yorozuya laying a hand on his shoulder.

"You need that mayonnaise monkey right now, don't you? When was the last time you killed a man?"

"Shut up Sougo" Gintoki stored the orb in his pockets and walked forwards, limping as his right leg had started hurting. The burden of taking a life, no matter it's form, was exorbitant. He hadn't taken an actual life in a long time and he had forgotten just how much it weighted. He would be lying to the Universe and his existence if he said he didn't need his mayora right now. With a soft grin on his face he slowly made his way to the barracks, hoping Sougo had informed the Shinsengumi of his duel with Slash while not informing Hijikata alone. They had managed to pull that before so he hoped that the idiot wouldn't make him commit seppuku for arriving there tattered and looking like shit without telling him what he was going to do in the first place.

"Toshi I swear, I really didn't have anything planned for today" He thought imagining the scolding he was going to receive.

It should be noted that the Shinsengumi arrived at the scene of their duel a few minutes after Sougo waved Gintoki good bye. Yet not so long before they took the body away from the port, Sougo had noticed a presence watching. It felt kind of familiar but at the same time it wasn't, he decided to ignore it for as long as it didn't interfere.

At Gintoki's request, after this was a wrap, he had to go to the hospital and check on China, glasses and bird-girl. For what he knew from Gin, bird-girl was basically dead and with the expression he wore when he asked about it after the man killed The Slasher he could assume she was definitely dead. He tsked at that thought, in the end the criminal had taken his sister down with him, what a pain.

The presence vanished once Slash's body was put in a body bag. Sougo glared at the direction the presence had been and spat. This whole business left a sour taste in his mouth, a no longer useful warning. His gut knew Slash was done with… but perhaps the presence wasn't done with them. A close friend of Slash perhaps…

"Seems that this psychopath had a girlfriend after all" He talked to himself catching Yamazaki's attention.

"Okita-san?"

"Nothing, make sure this one doesn't rise from the dead"

"WHAT"

Gintoki sneaked in to the barracks like a complete idiot forgetting no one would ask him about his wounds. He made his way silently through the corridors and stood in front of Hijikata's door hesitant to knock. He was bleeding all over the place and he was pretty beaten up. He figured the man behind the door would surely chastise him for not being 'fucking goddamn careful' as the norm dictated. His eye twitched at the thought of Hijikata getting angry at him and he had to slap himself to get his act together. He knocked twice and the door slid open a few seconds later.

"I'm working here why on earth can't you just come inside?" Hijikata was talking fast not noticing who stood behind the door or the small puddle of blood forming on the floor.

When he realized who had knocked on his door he just stared at the yorozuya for a full minute before a thousand emotions went through his gunmetal eyes. He didn't know if he should punch, yell at or hug Gintoki.

"Oi, say something to Gin-chan, anything even yelling works" The perm head broke the silence and effectively got the vice chief to respond. The black head punched Gintoki on the belly and immediately regretted his action.

"FUCKING DAMMIT YOROZUYA, I TELL YOU TO BE CAREFUL AND THAT'S THE FIRST DAMNED THING YOU DON'T DO" He yelled as the other man was bent over coughing blood and just being in general huge amounts of pain. Hijikata then hugged Gintoki as the latter was still bent over in pain. "We had a date tonight, do you know how much work I've been doing to be free tonight?!"

"Well we can still have our date, Gin-chan is not dying" Gintoki said forgetting he was in pain due to Hijikata's warm arms wrapped around his shoulders.

"You're a big ass idiot Gin"

"You bet I am" Gintoki said chuckling, pushing Hijikata back and pressing him against the floor with his body. "But I'm Oogushi-kun's big ass idiot" He planted a kiss on the vice chief's lips and placed his leg between the trapped man's legs. He pressed Hijikata's crotch with his thigh making the vice chief put more pressure on his lips as the man's back curved a little.

The vice-chief let out a soft moan muffled by Gintoki's lips pushed against his. A warm, wet feeling pressed against his lips and not having had his share of intimacy with Gin, he parted his lips and let his beloved idiot in. The sensation of Gin's tongue playfully exploring his mouth while the taste of blood lingered throughout their kiss made Hijikata's heart beat fast, his body warming up as his cock started getting hard. Some part of Hijikata liked this version of Sakata Gintoki, bloodied and wounded, fresh out of a fight. He hadn't thought of it much since they officially got together, not when Edo's biggest moron seemed to always be either on the verge of dying or too busy worrying over him after an intense fight.

Hijikata took in the scent looming over the Yorozuya. He smelled of blood, sweat and for some reason also of candy. He figured it was part of his blood scent, since Gin ate so much candy and sweet things. He took his hands to Gin's curly hair and messed around with it as he opened his eyes a bit to see his lover's face. He hadn't paid attention to Gin's eyelashes! All this time and he just hadn't noticed how incredibly surreal they looked like up close. Wavy, white and kinda sparkly, yeah those were great eyelashes. And then it hit him, Gintoki was bleeding all over the place! He stopped replying to Gintoki's kiss in an attempt to get the other to notice he wanted to talk. Gin nibbled at the other's lower lip softly before raising his head a bit to watch Hijikata's face.

"Something wrong?" He asked with a cocky smug smile on his face.

"Yes, you're bleeding all over me and the floor" Hijikata replied with an annoyed expression on his face. He wished he could ignore that fact, but he wouldn't like to find himself in the middle of making love with a fainted partner. "We patch that up and then we can continue this… whatever it is we're doing"

"But—"

"Sakata Gintoki, it's patching you up or throwing you in jail for being a dick"

"Alright, fine!"

/ / One more chapter to go to end with a big bang! It seems Gin-chan made sure Slash wouldn't hurt anybody anymore and Swallow's status isn't sure yet. Sougo notices a presence watching over Slash but he doesn't think it's much business. Kagura and Shinpachi are at the hospital waiting for Swallow's update while Gintoki seeks out Hijikata for some comfort after his fight to the death with Slash. How will this story end? find out next update! Also My writing might be a bit sloppy because I've been really tired lately with a bunch of work on my shoulders but I really wanted to get this chapter on paper so I set myself to write it~! It was fun doing something not Uni related in a while so I'm sorry if it looks bad, I actually checked it twice to make sure it didn't sound too bad! Thanks for reading guys and for sticking with me for such a long time! I send a big hug to all of you my precious readers! / /