After the episode at the hospital, Hijikata is starting to get worried. He got into a physical fight against Gintoki at the smoking area after the latter started teasing him about his relationship with Tsubasa. He had been trying to keep his cool when Gintoki teased him about being her sugar daddy but he snapped when he touched the topic on Mitsuba.
He said Tsubasa had replaced Mitsuba.
Hijikata did not understand this. He was angry because Gintoki brought up Mitsuba or the fact that he said the blonde tranny had replaced Mitsuba? No. He is confused. There seems to be a third option and he is trying his best to ignore it, writing a report on his conversation with Tsubasa.
Gintoki is lying in the ward bed beside the still-recovering monster at the moment and Hijikata is nursing a dislocated jaw and left shoulder.
The reason for the Shiroyasha to lose to the Demon Commander? He was trying to protect the stupid roses.
Another nerve ticked.
Those roses. It irks Hijikata at the thought of someone else wanting to give her roses. Why roses of all flowers?! Why it has to be that tenpaa? Why the receiver has to be Tsubasa?
"Hijikata-san, received reports from..." Sougo stops in the middle of his sentence to look at the paper Hijikata had been writing on.
"Hijikata Tsubasa, reported to have fell from the Sky. Species: unknown. Sex: Female. Blood Type: B. Height: 1.74m. Weight: 60kg. Date of Birth: 1st March.. Sadist. Flirt. Don't behave like a woman. No, she is an animal. No. She is going to die if she continues flirting around. If you continue to flirt with that tenpaa I'll file for a divorce. No. You are not more important than..." Sougo stops when he saw the last few words.
Mitsuba.
Hijikata snaps out of his trance and gapes at Sougo.
"What have you been writing, Hijikata-san?"
"Report about her adventure on Squad Seven's ship."
"Hijikata-san, I didn't know that she is married to you." Hijikata frowns at Sougo before taking a better look at the contents of his report.
Wait.
HIJIKATA TSUBASA?!
"Hijikata-san, did Boss break your skull or had he changed you a new brain?" Sougo asks Hijikata who is crushing the said document and preparing to take it out to burn in the courtyard.
"Yo." Tsubasa hears while she was developing her character in the ward.
It took her some effort to turn around to see Gintoki lying on the ward bed beside hers.
"What happened to you?" she was confused at the sight of the man reading a copy of expired Jump using his right hand to flip the pages with great difficulty. Gintoki did not reply and threw her a sidelong glance before flipping to the next page of Naruto.
This is the first time Gintoki did not initiate an argument with her when he sees her.
It felt kind of odd.
"I got into a fight with that Mayora."
"And lost?" from her observations, Gintoki is not weak to the extent of being overwhelmed by Hijikata in a fight. This is something which she had clarified with Kondo and Sougo on many occasions.
Gintoki ignored her question to try flipping to the next page of Jump without letting the book slip off from the table. To be honest, he had no idea of what he had been reading; his mind had stopped at the panel where the crow Itachi gave Naruto came bursting out from his mouth. His mind had stopped processing the information from the moment he heard Tsubasa mumbling about some senpai and Itachi shit.
His mind had been wondering: who is her senpai?
Whoever this senpai is, he is definitely pissing Gintoki off.
'By a little.'
"Who's that senpai?" he blurted.
She stiffens visibly when she heard that question. She had promised the Shinsengumi that she is going to keep her true identity from everyone as a secret. What on earth did she said while she was in coma? Did she reveal anything about her past?
'Definitely fishy.' Gintoki thought after witnessing her reaction.
"None of your business."
"Hey, I took a stranger like you into my house to live with us; I have all the right to know about it."
What Gintoki said is true but she has to keep her promise to the Shinsengumi. Unless Kondo permits it, none from the Yorozuya will know of her origins. 'Even if I tell him, I don't think he will believe me.' She thought, remaining rather composed.
Should she take the risk?
Also, why is he this insistent in finding out who is this senpai? What is wrong with this person?
"Itachi." Gintoki thought he heard it wrongly.
Did this woman said 'Itachi'?
"Itachi? Uchiha Itachi?" she kept mum. The tenpaa bursts laughing when he hears this. "You've been reading too much Naruto."
"The same goes to you too." she replies to his comment.
Gintoki sensed something not normal. Under normal circumstances, she will start yelling at him but what is with the coolness?
"As if I'm a crazy fangirl who claims that she is some Naruto character's kohai!"
"He was someone." he stops in the middle of making fun of her. "Senpai was someone I was unable to save."
He knew the feelings in her voice as she said that. He is too familiar with it. He too, had tried saving someone in avail. Someone he had harbored great love and respect for. Someone, who entrusted him with everything yet he was unable to protect what was left behind by him.
By his sensei.
He recognized those eyes.
"Oi."
"You are not fit to make fun of him." whatever happened to the person who is swearing to wallop Itachi*?
"Hey, erm." the tone in his voice changed. "I don't mean to."
Tsubasa heaves a sigh within her mind when she heard this. Great. He is going to stop asking her about Itachi. She might be trying to troll him but the emotions are real. What she said is true. Just that she had managed to project all of those emotions she had over Itachi's demise in a more accurate and raw way.
She had appeared pretty normal back in Konohagakure.
A little too calm.
"You want some strawberry milk?" he asks, offering his carton.
"Sure."
He better switch topics.
"So...errr...what happened to you when you were missing?"
The change of moods is evident. She looked annoyed and at the same time, amused.
"I was aboard Harusame's Seventh Squad ship."
Gintoki almost drown in his strawberry milk. She was what?! Aboard what? Did he hear Harusame? And the SEVENTH SQUAD?! That place is practically infested with monsters called Yatos. And there is this particular Yato who is the craziest he had ever met so far. And he happens to be Kagura's brother.
Looking at the extent of her injuries, it has begun to shed some light of the situation.
Just how in the name of his tenpaa this woman had managed to survive there? He had fought Housen with the Hyakka as his support and that fight alone had left him on the verge of death but this woman was aboard an airship filled with those monsters. To add on, she was alone without anyone to help her and without any place to escape to.
Wait.
Is she one of their kind?
"Oi, you choked on your milk."
"You went home?" Gintoki asks after recovering from the shock. Tsubasa frowns at that comment.
"No. What makes you think that I went home?"
"You were aboard Harusame's ship infested with crazy Yatos alone and made it back alive."
"Huh?" she frowns at that comment. "So?"
"I took on their King with the Hyakka before this fanfiction. Just one Yato and we were almost dead. You came back after dealing with a bunch of those things alive. Alone."
"Hello, Gin-chan, what you fought was their KING. What I took on was simply around a group of around 70 idiots and one of them destroyed my soda."
70? Or 17? Did he hear it wrongly? Be it 17 or 70 it is still a crazy number. Even by his standards. Did she mention that one of them destroyed her soda? What? Waging war at the most dangerous Amanto races over A CAN OF SODA? What in the world is her brain made of? Ramen? Tonkotsu? Kpop? Anyone with a working brain will run far away from a Yato group of that size and it is a Yato group working for Harusame.
This woman is crazy. And the Tsu-ness is unbearable.
Speaking of crazy. How did the new Overlord of Yoshiwara* let her off this easily? He is the most maniacal of all the Yato battle maniacs. There is no way he is going to let her off.
"You met someone called Kamui?"
"You know that stalker?" Stalker? Did she mention stalker. (Somewhere on another planet, someone's ahoge twitched and he is convinced that his wife is missing him.)
Gintoki did not remember that bloodthirsty psycho as a stalker. Did she mean another person?
"You know, he's quite short and looks like Kagura-chan minus the..."
"And he has his hair plaited with an ahoge sticking out. Yep. That's the stalker."
("Abuto, Sasa is calling out for me! I have to go, my Sasa needs me*!" he yells, trying to start up his ship which is in amidst of being repaired.)
Gintoki gapes at the description. Since when did the cool and psychotically hot Kamui-kun with fangirls rivaling Takasugi's and Sougo joined the creepy leagues of the Gorilla and that M ninja to become a stalker?! And why the hell is he stalking this kind of...woman?
He must be blind or Umibouzu must have dropped him on his head when he was a baby.
"Yes."
"That stalking pervert." ("Taicho, a Momotaro pod can't get you anywhere unless you are in space. Get out of it now! It's freaking expensive!")
Per...vert? Kamui? Pervert? What? What happened?!
"I caught him peeping at me when I was taking a bath." she sighs.
"Kamui peeped at you? HAHAHAHAHA!" he laughed so hard that he is starting to suspect he might break something.
Well, he broke something when Kagura came bursting into the ward yelling about how she is going to kill Kamui. The Yato girl broke his neck when her kick missed Tsubasa by a little and hit him square.
It took some time for Tsubasa to digest the information she got from Shinpachi (the only person who is calm in the room. Kagura is practically screaming about how she is going to kill Kamui for peeping at her and Gintoki is knocked out cold from the kick). That Kamui is Kagura's brother?
That says so much. And so little.
*Tsubasa was swearing to beat up Itachi in the previous chapter.
*Kamui-kun~!
*Weak attempt of the 'I have to go, my planet needs me!' meme.