"It's going to be Vice Commander's turn to take care of Tsubasa today!" Harada is in all smiles after seeing the results. He had been taking care of the lady for the past two days in a row.
Well, not that he dislikes Tsubasa but he had noticed that his usually loudmouthed friend had been acting odd lately. Also, the level of oddity increases whenever Hijikata or Sougo is in the vicinity. Given his understanding of Sougo and Tsubasa, the pair will never miss a chance in trolling Hijikata when they are around but no. Sougo merely nods at the lady to acknowledge her presence and goes on minding his own business.
Well, Unosuke is used to seeing Hijikata acting all weird around Tsubasa but he is definitely not expecting the Vice Commander getting pale when he saw the lot he drew. He lost all colour literately. However, Sougo seems pretty annoyed by the sight and turns tail to leave.
"Toushi, it's time to get Tsubasa breakfast." Kondo tells the man, patting him in the back.
Tsubasa stares down at the bowl of mayonnaise and back at Hijikata.
"Toushi, are you trying to kill me?"
"What?"
"You are planning to kill me aren't you? Why are you feeding a dog food to a recovering patient?"
"Shut up and eat the mayodon!"
"No hitou." for the love of Mayorin; can this woman stop making Nakai references?! And it is always the same damned character!
"Look, I made this for you when the canteen isn't open. You better finish every single grain of it before I send you back to the hospital." he snarls at Tsubasa.
She pauses for some time before the message sinks in.
Hijikata Toushirou made breakfast? For her?
'Shit. I blurted it out.' Hijikata, although appearing to be extremely annoyed, he was pretty nervous deep down after blurting out to her that he had made breakfast for her. She took the spoon unwillingly to dig into the mayodon.
Hijikata's heart heaves a sigh of relief when he saw her digging into the mayodon.
He chose low-fat mayonnaise for her so that she will not be running to the...
"Toushi. I..." her face scrunched in what it seems to be...
Kondo and Sougo were on their way to Tsubasa's room when Hijikata bursts out of it carrying a pale Tsubasa. Sougo's eyes narrows at the pair as Hijikata rushes off with Tsubasa in his arms to the toilet's direction. Kondo got pass the shock and starts laughing.
"I've never seen Toushi that freaked out before!" he laughs.
"Yeah." Sougo responds, eyes glaring at the path Hijikata took moments ago.
He could have given Tsubasa a piggy-back ride but no, he carried her bridal-style.
And it is an irritating sight for the Captain of the First Squad.
'Why the hell are we recycling the same plot from Chapter 8?' Hijikata wonders while standing in front of the cubicle Tsubasa is taking a huge dump in. While rushing her to the toilet, he had missed out the sign to shove her into one of the male cubicles. On top of that, the stench coming off from the cubicle is making him wonder just how much disgusting junk did she have during her stay at the hospital or is hospital food that bad to make shit smell this bad.
Whatever the reasons, his mayodon is definitely…
"If you weren't Hijikata Toushirou, I swear on my love for ramen that I would've thrown the dog food in your face before it makes its way into my mouth. You should've used regular mayonnaise." She snaps at the Vice-Commander while limping out from the toilet.
For the past 2 days, Unosuke had been giving her edible and normal food; her first 3 meals back in the Headquarters had been: anpan, anpan, anpan. Nobody understood her feelings of happiness and relief when she had been told that Unosuke will be the one who is taking care of her; she would have gone mad if she had another anpan.
She had mixed feelings when she saw Hijikata entering her room this morning. On one hand, she is glad to have the person she had been pinning for since Chapter 35 to take care of her, but on the other hand, this man is a Mayora to the end. She could see the next 24 hours having her guts drenched in copious amounts of mayonnaise and this is no good news for the recovering patient.
It would have been better if it is Gintoki though. At least the tenpaa will not serve his favorite food to her (because he is, in her opinion, a selfish prick) to make her suffer from diabetes. And he is a great cook.
Hijikata averts his eyes from Tsubasa whose face is pale from diarrhea before helping her out of the toilet.
It is during times like these that make her miss Gintoki. (A certain tenpaa sneezes while making strawberry shortcake.)
"Whatever." Hijikata exhales.
Of all the times to take care of this stupid woman, it has to be on his day off. How in the world is he going to spend the rest of the day in peace when he gets nervous and flustered whenever she is around? Whatever that is, Hijikata is sure that his day would be wasted off to find food for this woman.
That would be great though; he will be seeing less of her during the day.
'But why am I feeling uncomfortable about this?' his eyes narrows while he exhales cigarette smoke outside of her room.
"Toushi, are you done smoking your cancer stick?"
"Shut up."
"I want to go out."
"You are not going to; you're recovering from battle wounds." He is not going to let this progress into a date. No. It is just wrong.
"Toushi, pleaaaase? I beg of you? I've been kept indoors for too long; I need a breather too! Pleaaaase?" she starts purring from her room.
Is Takizawa Tsubasa even capable of doing such things? It had never occurred to Hijikata that she is capable of purring like a kitten until moments ago. Is this a product of her ninja training back in Konoha? Were ANBU ninjas trained to go moe to get out of trouble?
Well, one thing is for sure though: he finds it hard to resist her pleas.
Takizawa acting sweet and cute like Chibitalia is a rare occurrence and Hijikata is going to fulfill her request.
'No, it is not because I like her or anything. It is just wrong for me to reject Chibitalia-like her.' He thought while pushing her wheelchair around Kabuki Cho. She looks a lot more cheerful when she is outside when compared to the withered and dried-up Takizawa Tsubasa back in the Headquarters moments ago though and Hijikata has an odd feeling of satisfaction when he sees her this happy.
'No. I'm not happy because you look happy. I'm happy because….'
"Oya, oya, what do we have here? An oni couple on a date?"
Tsubasa was enjoying her time alone with Hijikata moments ago until that voice snaps her out of her reverie.
Gintoki did not look too good though.
Their eyes narrows at the man who looked as if he had lost part of his soul. For one, Gintoki's dead-looking eyes are looking even more dead than usual. His current state reminds Hijikata of how he looked like back in Chapter 32: dead in the inside, soulless and like someone who had just lost his job, his car, his wife and his motivation to live but is still struggling to look strong.
Gintoki's eyes narrows at the pair.
'What is this? You are looking as if you've found the light in your life while I'm struggling to sleep these days?' he stares at Tsubasa who is looking rather fresh and lively with Hijikata behind her. 'Where's justice huh? What is this shit happening to me?!' he wonders, eyes not leaving Tsubasa.
Sensing Gintoki's displeasure, Tsubasa smirked at the tenpaa who looked even more outraged by her action.
'Damn you woman!'
"WE ARE NOT ON A DATE YOU TENPAA!" Hijikata snaps at him.
"Ah? Hijikata-kun, then please tell me why your hands had never left her wheelchair handle bars even though you are not moving at all?" Hijikata looked pretty flustered when he hears the comment and let go of her wheelchair to prove Gintoki wrong.
"Toushi, the brakes for this wheelchair is…." She paled after realizing that her wheelchair had moved by a little after Hijikata lets go of it to glare at Gintoki.
Another thing; they are on a slope. To be more exact, Tsubasa is rolling down the slope slowly as the pair is locked in a staring/glaring contest.
Her breath hitched when the wheelchair gains speed and it is heading into Gintoki's direction. For some odd reasons, Gintoki was so focused on Hijikata that he had failed to notice that Tsubasa is coming in his direction and she is gaining speed as time goes by.
Gintoki was about to make another comment when Tsubasa crashed into him.
"FUUUUUUUUUUUU-"Hijikata stood at the place he had been in shock as he watched Gintoki and Tsubasa zoomed off into oblivion, screaming and yelling at the top of their lungs.
"PULL THE BRAKES!"
"IT'S FAULTY!" Tsubasa snaps at Gintoki while trying to stop the wheelchair desperately. "AND YOU'RE HEAVY! STUPID TENPAA!" she yells at him while trying to grab the wheels to stop them from rotating.
Kagura, Tae and Shinpachi thought they were hearing things when they heard Gintoki and Tsubasa screaming. It was not until the pair on the faulty wheelchair sped past the group with a flustered Hijikata going after them.
"Big Sis, so it was really Gin-chan and Sasa?"
Tae look at the direction Hijikata ran off and she was surprised.
"Oh! So I wasn't hallucinating!" Tae exclaims. "They are having fun aren't they? To think that Gin-san and Tsu-chan is always fighting whenever they are near each other. They seemed to be enjoying each other's company."
"Neesan, I don't think they are enjoying themselves." Shinpachi wonders what on earth is wrong with those two. "They were screaming in horror and they don't look good."
"Hmph, stupid Gin-chan. I'm going to join them-aru!" Kagura yells, heading off to the direction the pair went off.
"Kagura-chan, it looks like an accident." he tails off, watching the yato girl run off.
"My, Gin-san is so tsundere, no?" Tae told her brother facing the direction the pair of jokers went off to. "He was fighting with Tsu-chan when she was discharged and now he is enjoying himself on her lap."
Shinpachi did not know whether to laugh or cry when he heard this from his sister. Well, there is some truth to her statement though; he saw Gintoki hugging onto Tsubasa's pillow when he came in to get him up. On top of that, he had laid out Tsubasa's futon beside his and their futons were overlapping by a little.
Although Gintoki kept denying it, people around him could tell that he had taken a liking for the blonde.
"OH MY GOD, I DON'T WANT TO DIE BEFORE I GET LAID!" Tsubasa yells.
"SHUT UP! I'M GOING TO FALL OFF! HOLD ON TO ME! I DON'T WANT TO DIE.."
"I'M TRYING TO GRAB THE WHEELS TO STOP BOTH OF US FROM DYING!" Tsubasa shrieks at Gintoki who is hugging her tightly around her neck, almost suffocating her.
"IF I'M DYING, I'M GOING TO DIE WITH YOU!" Hijikata heard Gintoki's voice coming off from the front. Gintoki paled when he let slip but Tsubasa did not catch it at all. She is too busy fighting pain off while trying to grab the wheels.
Kagura, who is behind Hijikata, heard Gintoki and she could see the killing intent radiating off from the Demonic Vice-Commander.
'If that Kamui's here, I think he might dive in to kill Gin-chan-aru.' She thought.
"Abuto, I need to go to Sasa now! She's in trouble!" Kamui exclaims, forcing his way into Abuto's bedroom.
"Taicho, don't you think it's a little inappropriate now?! We are lost in space!" Abuto snaps at the younger Yato.
Gintoki seems to have noticed Hijikata (who the heck cannot sense the immense 'I'm going to fucking slaughter you' waves coming off from Hijikata?!) behind them and what he let loose to Tsubasa earlier. The blonde took no notice about his words but she felt a little uncomfortable; she is too busy trying to reach for the wheels with a heavy tenpaa clutching to her neck for his dear life.
'He's going to kill me! Shit!'
"Tenpaa, let go of me."
"No way. If I'm going to die, I'm taking you with me to hell!" the statement made Tsubasa shifts her attention away from the wheels to stare at Gintoki.
Behind the pair on who's on a malfunctioning wheelchair, Hijikata and Kagura were watching them with great interest/annoyance. They were so close that if the panel narrows down to their heads, it looked pretty much like a panel from a shojo manga. Once zoomed out, however, it looks pretty Gintama-ish. Well, that is because the wheelchair is fast approaching the river.
Also, zoomed out further, there is a pretty annoyed Hijikata and Kagura behind them and a certain M stalker is joining the chase.
Tsubasa felt Gintoki's body tensing up when she is staring at him up close and it confuses her. Whatever that is, the pair heard someone yelling behind them.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING TO MY GIN-SAN/HER?!" came Hijikata and Ayame's voices.
"Gin-chan! Hurry up and kiss Sasa-aru!" Tsubasa snaps out from her glaring at Gintoki when she heard that statement from Kagura.
"WHAT THE FUCK KAGURA! WE ARE GOING TO DIE IN THE NEXT FEW PARAGRAPHS AND THAT'S WHAT YOU CAME UP WITH?!" she screams at her.
"Sasa is a Tsu and it is too early for Sakurai-san to kill anyone off at this moment-aru."
"Oi, don't break the Fourth Wall." Hijikata and Tsubasa tells Kagura off.
"Well….not that I like it…." came from her other side as she turns to yell at Kagura.
Hijikata's face contorted in anger when he saw Gintoki inching nearer to Tsubasa's cheek. The blonde was too busy yelling at Ayame and Kagura to not notice the act.
'Just a bit more…'
And the wheelchair carrying Sakata Gintoki and Takizawa Tsubasa flies off the edge.
'FUUUUUUUUUUU-'