GRAB YOUR DREAMS WITH YOUR FISTS

It was the most dangerous situation Gintoki had ever placed himself into. No fight nor war could ever come close to this heart-racing moment, that if he messed up...could most certainly lead to his gruesome demise. He was sweating up a storm and was holding his breath the whole time, careful not to give away his location as he went in.

He got down on all fours and reached his hand to the door in front of him, sliding it open just a crack and peeking in. Everything was dark and there wasn't much inside. A futon, some spare clothes laying on the floor, and a white-sheathed sword sitting against the wall.

Canarie wasn't inside.

Gintoki squinted his eyes and looked puzzled. He swore she was in her room, which would give him the chance at long last...to peek in on her while she was changing.

No dice.

He clicked his tongue and tasted failure, deciding to close the door very quietly and accept his defeat. He got back up to his feet and did a quick search around his house, walking to the bathroom and hearing the sharp ringing of running water from the shower being in use.

"Damnit...she was in the shower all along?" He frowned, pondering if he should check the lock or not. He decided, in the end, to do the latter since he felt like he overstepped his boundaries far enough. Canarie didn't have a weapon with her since her sword was back in her room, but that doesn't mean he's in the clear. She'll freaking use a bar of soap to shove down his throat and suffocate him if she had too.

He didn't feel like dying today and walked off.

As soon as Gintoki was far away to where he wouldn't hear anything, the water in the bathroom cranked and turned off and the door slowly creaked open. Canarie peeked her head through and watched Gintoki lay back down on the couch to watch TV.

She wasn't wet at all and was very much still in her white pajamas.

She had a feeling what Gintoki was going to do and wanted to make sure, setting up a whole illusion that made it out that she was in the shower to catch him in the act. And surprise, surprise...he did exactly what she figured he would do.

Her jaw tightened. "What a dumbass," Canarie said and closed the door behind her to finish getting ready.


It was a pit of pleasure and excitement for all neckbeard kind alike, the only thing these intellectual men could agree on. A battle to end all battles, more deadly than war and Canarie's hitman career combined. At the very moment, everything was coming to a head for this single match that will, without a doubt, change the course of history. Better or for worse.

And so they all braced themselves...The battle between the woman who threw away the life of a housewife: Kishibojin Haruna...And the one and only Princess of Song: Dynamite Otsuu!

The diehard fans gave their battle cries and shouted in unison. "O.T.S.U.U. Otsuu! O.T.S.U.U. Otsuu!"

Canarie felt her soul leave her body and become hollow as she stared blankly at the fan club behind her, screaming and chanting their hearts out like the nice little cult they were. Their faces were burning red with the sheer amount of passion they were putting into their words.

Never had she been more concerned about Shinpachi's sanity until now. She was even beginning to wonder if this young man was still the glasses-wearing character she once knew.

No longer able to withstand the sight anymore, Canarie had to pull her face away so she wouldn't have to strain her eyes further with the downfall of mankind. Humanity was nearing its end. She could feel it in her bones and hear it carrying through the wind like a ghostly and haunting whisper.

"Otsuu-chan...Otsuu-chan...Otsuu-chan..." the wind said.

Canarie was shivering in her own skin before Gintoki, out of freaking nowhere, slapped the lower part of her back to stop her endless trembling. It made her flinch but it did its job and she stopped shaking because of the shock. "Ugh... Why do we always have to come here? Places like these give me the creeps." Her face contorted with unrivaled disgust.

"At this rate, Shinpachi really is going to become a full-fledged 'cherry-boy'.' Gintoki said.

"Soon? More like he already is. The term came from him. Shinpachi is the originator of the word 'cherry-boy'."

The burning insult caused the originator to snap back to attention, squawking and stuttering his words down at the two. "W-who are you calling a c-cherry boy!" Shinpachi marched up to them, his face now resembling a bright red cherry.

"I feel like I raised kagura better than you," Canarie said bluntly, face still twisted with disgust.

"You didn't raise either of us!"

The potential makings of a challenge began to spark in Canarie's ashy eyes. "Do you want proof?" She cocked a brow. "Look me right in the eyes and tell me you want proof."

Shinpachi flinched and truly did feel like she could whip out some kind of proof right there and then if he egged her on any more. He even questioned if she carried something like adoption papers that his sister might've slipped to her. Either way, he didn't press the matter cause he felt like he would actually lose somehow.

Gintoki blinked and kept his eyes on the match. "Hey, uh, Mamarie, you wanna keep an eye on your other kid over there?" he pointed.

Everyone turned around and stared blankly at the ring. Kagura somehow managed to step up onto the stage and began to shout and challenge everyone around her to a duel.

Silence rolled by the Yorozuya and they even began to wonder if they were still at an otaku infested Kakutougi competition. The sheer stupidity was way too prominent in the air.

Canarie suddenly held her hands up and backed away from the situation, washing her hands free and taking no responsibility. "Nah, I recall you saying you'll take care of kagura and I'll take care of Shinpachi."

"We never agreed on that." Gintoki's eyes twitched. "I don't even remember being married to you."

Before Canarie and Gintoki could even break out in an argument like an old married couple, a voice shouted out from the crowd that sounded oddly familiar.

"What are you doing? Pull back, China girl, throw something in her eyes!" the voice shouted. "Haruna! What are you doing? Why did you quit being a housewife? To seek thrills?"

They soon found the face that matched up with the voice, but it wasn't a good one. More like it was an unexpected one.

Okita Sougo of the Shinsengumi.

Okita stopped his shouting and turned to the Yorozuya, all three of them staring with either blank or puzzled looks on their faces.


"Now this is a chance meeting," Okita said to the four Yorozuya sitting on the stairs to his right, outside the competition area since it was now over and everyone was leaving. "I'm off today, and it's not like I have anything else to do, so I came to watch my favorite Kakutougi competition." He glanced down at them. "I didn't know you gentlemen would like Kakutougi-"

"I don't," Canarie said bluntly while eating a bag of popcorn she got from the competition, the only good thing to come from that cursed place. "Didn't think you would be a fan of these kinds of things though." She cocked a brow and gave Okita an odd look.

"Oh yeah, I do," he confirmed. "I especially like seeing the women's faces become all weird, you know? It's hilarious."

"What kind of sadistic hobby is that?!" Shinpachi shouted.

"It's really mean to be laughing at people who try so hard," Kagura frowned. "For someone who normally just jumps into a fight, you have no right to be watching this."

Gintoki smacked her on the back of the head. "Someone who just jumped into a fight should not be saying anything."

Okita shook his head and began to walk down the steps while looking back at the four idiots. "If you guys are free, would you come with me for a bit?"

That struck Canarie as weird. She leaned her head back and poured the rest of the popcorn into her mouth. "The hell are you going on about?" she said while munching on her buttery snack that dribbled down her chin a bit. She wiped it away with the back of her sleeve.

"There's an even more interesting exhibition than this that I can show you." Okita offered, which still didn't sit right with the two elders of the Yorozuya.

Gintoki and Canarie gave each other a look before all four of them got up to follow Okita. Whatever it was, it sure as hell would be better than the place they were at now.


It was like a tsunami of memories that flooded through her mind, taking everything in around her as she walked through the underground slums of the city. The irony about it though was that she never thought she would take a trip down memory lane while following an off duty cop.

The funny thing was that she still had her old habits whenever she had to pass by these kinds of places. Keep your head down, stay on guard, and have a good and firm hand on your things. Look away for one second, and before you know it, you'll be stripped clean of all your belongings. It happened once to Canarie when she first started her hitman business 10 years ago. Pissed her off for months but she learned pretty quickly after that on how to act in the underground.

It was in places like these that she made most of her deals in. She stopped counting long ago on how many unsavory characters walked up to her in the past and offered her a stupid amount of money to put a hit out on someone, most in which the hit being government officials. Though she would only ever accept jobs she knew she could fulfill and have multiple escape options.

And boy...people would get pissed when she had to reject their offer, going as far as to put a hit out on her of all people. Those were fun times.

Even though 2 years have passed, nothing had really changed during the duration of her absence, but in one last fell swoop of memories, Canarie was hit with the mother of all tsunamis when she and the rest of her idiots were led into an underground fighting arena. It was packed high with screaming and exciting people begging for blood and more gore.

"The underground fighting ring..." Okita said but Canarie cut him off, laughing to herself.

"Rengokukan," she said, breathless and obviously taken back by the sheer magnitude of how much this area had grown. "Genuine death matches..." She smiled like this wasn't new to her.

Gintoki had to take a moment to pause and look over at her. He knew of her old occupation but would constantly forget that she was once an actual assassin, a person who was paid to kill certain people. It was obvious by the way she was acting right now that she had taken place in these kinds of matches.

Canarie noticed his gaze and smirked at him from the corner of her eyes, though her gaze seemed devilish and hard. "Why so surprised? You know what my last job was, so you should know I'm not above something like this." Her voice was low and dripping with malice.

Gintoki's jaw tightened. "Is this also the place where the Kabuki-cho Ghost came from?"

She confirmed his ugly suspicions with a sharp nod of her head. "Yeah. It's where she got her name and origins." She took a deep breath and could easily smell the iron and blood in the air. God, it sure brought back some old memories. "Samurai had to make a living somehow, and those who were not afraid to die or had nothing else to live for...did Rengokukan."

Gintoki felt his stomach roll because of the pure coldness of her words. It's scary but he can honestly imagine her doing something like this. Canarie has a bigger sum of money then he does but now he knows where it all originally came from. "An interesting exhibition alright." He scoffed and balled his fists up tightly.

If he has to be thankful for anything than he's glad she's not doing death matches anymore. No matter how good someone is, all it took was one screw up...before lights out. Canarie would surely die in due time if she was still doing this.

Kagura screamed in Okita's face, shaking the man back and forth. "You actually brought me here to watch something this bloody? If I lose any sleep over this, it's your fault!"

Shinpachi frowned. "This is clearly illegal, isn't it? Okita-san, what kind of government official are you?"

Okita scoffed while still being manhandled by Kagura. "It's because I'm a government official that I can't do anything about this. Lots of money goes through this place, and what's sad is that human greed is directly proportional to one's amount of political power."

"You're saying that the government authorities are in on this too?" Gintoki asked.

"If we don't handle this carefully, the Shinsengumi will lose face as well. This is why I don't like bureaucracies and kinda envy you guys' freedom."

"Just so you know. Don't think I'll help you with this." His eyes narrowed.

"Funny, I thought you and I were of the same breed. I thought you were someone who's disgusted by things like this." His eyes trailed upon Canarie for a bit, narrowing suspiciously like he knows something. "The Kabuki-cho Ghost...was one of their strongest fighters before she disappeared. Right now though...it's him." He pointed down to a man standing in the middle of a ring, a demonic twisted face who wielded a giant iron club. "Rengokukan's newest fighter, Kidoumaru. He's beaten everyone and is the unrivaled king of this place. If you investigate him, you may find something."

Gintoki began to feel his eyes twitching again. "Oi..."

Canarie was quiet, looking upon the twisted face of the demon as her own demonic eyes softened to this almost pitiful stare. "Kidoumaru..." she mutters the name with a soft voice that no one else could've heard. Her jaw tightened just as much as her fists were shaking.

Okita grinned and held his finger over his lips. "Don't worry. This is me asking you...not the Shinsengumi. I'm the only one who knows about this place...so don't tell Kondou-san and Hijikata-san."

That gesture only pissed Gintoki off more. "Hey, Canarie." He turned back around to face her but noticed that she was gone. Gintoki blinked and began to look around the area. "Canarie?"

Everyone else finally noticed that their fourth member was gone. Without even a single warning, she made like a ghost and just disappeared.


"Maybe she's cheating on you with that demon, Gin-chan," Kagura suggested but got smacked on the back of the head for giving such a stupid idea.

"Why do I have to explain myself for a second time today? When were we ever married?" Gintoki grumbled, walking with what's left of the Yorozuya, now one member short.

Ever since Canarie up and walked out, it seemed like Gintoki's been in quite a foul yet concerned mood. He should've known that this was gonna hit close to home for her, and thinking about it, she might've walked out because she didn't want them to figure out a secret or something. They didn't know where Canarie ran off too but they had an idea that they might see her again if they followed Kidoumaru back to wherever he originally came from. Here hoping it wasn't hell.

"But wasn't it strange for her to just leave like that?" Shinpachi asked. "Do you think it might have something to do with Rengokukan's strongest?"

"Hell if I know. That chick's shadier than a sketchy black market doctor. She doesn't freaking tell us anything and it's starting to piss me off!" Gintoki was obviously upset by her actions and was even beginning to pout like a child who didn't get his way.

"Well..." Shinpachi glanced away awkwardly. "Shady means that you don't tell someone everything. I, uh, on the other hand...asked her about her life as a hitman recently...and she was pretty honest about it," he admitted in a meek voice, seeing Gintoki's eyes grow wide, seconds before an outburst.

"What?!" His jaw dropped to the floor. "The hell do you mean? So you already knew that she did death matches?"

"All I did was ask a question!" Shinpachi tried to defend himself. " She's more of an open book than you think. I never thought she would answer me but I don't think she really cares who knows her past. My sister even knows!"

"So all I had to do was ask her and she would've flippin' answered me?!"

Shinpachi shrugged and refused to meet Gintoki's gaze. "I guess so..."

All three of them quickly had to quiet down to not let the demon know of their presence, surprised though that he didn't hear Gintoki's outburst a couple of seconds ago. They trailed behind Kidoumaru down an old dirt path that no one else walked on, watching the demon with keen eyes before having to stop dead in their tracks to dive into an alleyway to avoid being seen.

A small-statured person walked out of the woods to Kidoumaru's left and marched right up to him. The Yorozuya recognized the pink clothes to be Canarie herself. Waiting at a secret rendezvous for a demon? She stood there with him for a while, seemingly chattering amongst each other.

Kagura's eyes grew wide. "So she is cheating on you!"

"Would you shut up already." Gintoki hissed.

They waited for a couple of minutes while Canarie and Kidoumaru chatted. They talked for a while but the Yorozuya wasn't close enough to make out any of the words that they spoke, only pissing Gintoki off more.

A couple of seconds later, the ghost and demon turned and headed into an old trail that led into the woods, the Yorozuya following close behind. They walked for a bit before stumbling across an old building. A ruined temple that actually didn't look like to have anyone living in it with how broken it looked...until there was the sound of a scream coming from inside.

They immediately got down low behind the bushes.

"Did you hear a scream just now?" Shinpachi began to sweat.

Gintoki jumped up and hurried over to the building. "You guys wait for me here," he said and charged to face the potential nightmare alone.

He imagined the worse before even opening the door to face reality. He imagined a bloodbath where not a single living soul was left. All that would remain was a ghostly woman standing upon the carnage. Her eyes would be bloodshot with popping red veins and her expression would be made out of cold stone, not having a single amount of sympathy left in her delicate features.

His mind mixed and meddled with the question that made him sick to his stomach: what would he do if he was faced with such a sight? Would he have to kill her? Could he kill her? Would Canarie kill him?

Actually, being killed by her hands didn't sound so bad after all.

Gintoki sank down low in front of the old door where he heard Canarie's voice mix in with these strange high pitched screams, but opening it up, he was met with an even stranger sight.

Multiple kids were running around in the room, all of them ranging between the age of 2-10. Canarie stood in the middle of the chaos too with a taxed and weary smile on her face as kids climbed all over her like a tree.

She wasn't covered in blood, but Gintoki found her to be in a situation that felt too odd to be true. It was so unlike her and he never took her to be the one to play with kids. Well...she was just standing there awkwardly while they climbed over her, but still. Putting the name 'Canarie' and 'Kids' together in the same sentence...felt really strange.

Gintoki drew up a blank. "What...the hell?"

A person stalked up behind the unknowing samurai and bellowed out in a deep voice. "Thief!" he shouted, taking his two fingers and jamming them right into Gintoki's...

A second later, Canarie was alerted to the whimpering scream of a certain silver-haired dumbass. "Gintoki?"


"I'm sorry, Canarie-chan. I didn't think he was your friend." Doushin apologized to Canarie, sitting across from her and the rest of the Yorozuya. "It's just, his butt looked a bit suspicious, so..."

Canarie's eyes were half-lidded, showing no concern for the whining samurai beside her. "Ah, don't worry about it. I come across that thought often so it's totally understandable." Even her voice was flat.

"What do ya mean 'suspicious'?!" Gintoki shouted at her while rubbing his sore behind. "And you have that thought frequently? How often do you look at my ass!?"

"As many times as you try and peek into my room, thinking I'm changing clothes when in reality I'm standing right behind you." She cocked a brow and saw Gintoki's face burn red from the corner of her eyes. She scoffed, a smirk rising to her lips when realizing she caught him.

"It's not my fault you have big knockers..." Gintoki grumbled under his breath while continuing to rub his butt. "Damn, it feels like it's going to split in half."

"Gin-san, please calm down. It's always like that," Shinpachi says.

Canarie groaned and rubbed the back of her head. "I didn't think you would take up Okita's request," she said and leaned her head down against her hand.

Shinpachi looked away out of shame. "Sorry, Cana-san, but you left on such a weird note that...we figured you knew who the demon was. It felt like we had no choice."

She blinked to process his words, opening her mouth in an 'O' shape when she realized what he meant. "Oh, you meant Kidoumaru from Rengokukan."

"Yeah. You know him?" Gintoki asked.

Canarie reached underneath the table and pulled something out, [aching a demonic demon mask over her face. It was the same face as Kidoumaru, only realizing that it was a mask the whole time. She shifted to the side and peeked an eye out. "The demon your looking for is sitting right across from us." She placed it down on the table and gestured over to Doushin. "It's who Doushin is."

Gintoki and Shinpachi blinked, staring at the demon mask on the table and back at the completely ordinary man.


"Did you really follow me all the way out here because you thought I was fraternizing with a demon?" Canarie stood in the doorway of the house and stared down at Gintoki, sitting beside the said 'demon' who was holding a toddler in his arms.

"How was I supposed to know?" Gintoki awkwardly avoided her heavy ashy eyes and indulged himself in the tea he was given. Nothing was working. Canarie was burning a Mount Everest size hole in his back.

"Canarie-chan and I met each other when we were supposed to have a match," Doushin explained, smiling sadly at the toddler. "She found out my...uh, secret though and forfeited the match soon after."

In reality, Doushin didn't want to fight Canarie for the clear fact that he would actually lose the match and die. In terms of strength, it was his win, but he couldn't do anything against her speed. It wouldn't even be a real battle against her. It would've been a slaughter.

"So what? You guys became buddy-buddy with each other right after?" Gintoki asked.

"It wasn't me who got attached. It was them." Doushin gestured to the kids playing out in the yard. "They kept on pestering me on when Canarie-chan was going to come back and play with them, so I felt like I had no choice but to strike up a friendship with her."

"I feel sorry for you-aurgah!" Canarie drop-kicked Gintoki's head and split it open like an egg. "What the hell?" He shouted with blood dripping down his forehead.

"Right back at you, you piece of shit." Canarie stared at him with a glare that could freeze hell over. "Can't you try and behave around the kids?"

"Says the chick who just drop-kicked my head open!"

"It'll take more than that to crack your noggin open. Quit bitching."

Gintoki ground his teeth together and snapped his head back around. "Anyway...these kids are...?" he asked the most pressing question on his mind.

"They're mine," Doushin answered.

"My, you must've been quite the guy back in the day."

"Uh no. They're abandoned." he corrected.

"Orphans...Let me guess, you're doing this for the kids?"

"Do I look like a good person to you? My hands are stained with blood." His words held this deep sadness that reached all the way down to his heart, honest and heavy. "I've always been like this. I'm just a demon who kills people. My one good quality was that I was pretty strong."

Canarie stared at him with her hardened eyes. She walked over to him and sat down on his right. "I guess that's why we both get along so well." She lifted her leg up and leaned her head against it. "We're both what you call...'murderers'."

Gintoki cocked a brow when he noticed the way she said that...words holding no remorse or hesitation. She stated it like it was an iron cold fact that anyone could read in a school textbook. Labeled something like: 'Manakoto Canarie: The ghost and manslayer of Kabuki-cho'.

"It seems to me like you guys and Canarie-chan want to do something about Rengokukan. Don't say I didn't want you. As even the Bakufu is involved." Doushin warned them.

Canarie scoffed at the name. "When are they not involved with something as dirty as this? Their list of wrong-doing is bigger than my own and Dounshin's combined.

Her bluntness made Doushin smile a little. He was quiet for a bit while staring down at the child in his arms. "As long as you don't do anything to his 'Treasure', the demon's not going to do anything," he said and kept a keen eye on the bright and smiling kids playing with Kagura out in the yard. "I'll do anything to protect these kids."

Gintoki laughs a bit. "I never thought I'd heard a demon say something like that. You're already a pretty good dad." He reached down and picked up the toddler that crawled over to him.

"Using dirty money to raise these kids is good parenting?"

Gintoki made an ugly face at the giggling toddler. "But you feel guilty about it now, right?"

"At first I didn't do this because of a loving heart. But because I didn't want to feel guilty."

"Yeah, but you're doing as much as you can to raise these kids." He held the toddler up. "Right, you little brat?"

Doushin went mute, staring at the man who got up.

"Canarie, come on. We're heading back." Gintoki placed his business card right down beside the demon and handed the kid back too. "If anything happens, come to my place. I'll take care of it."

Canarie blinked a couple of times before lowering her head and smiling very weakly. "I'll catch you later." She took a breath and patted her old friend on the back before heading off with the rest of the Yorozuya to leave.

One of the kids watched as the four odd-balls left. "Canarie-chan's got some weird friend. Hey, it's the second time we got visitors aside from her though!"

Doushin sighed and smiled, watching Canarie's small frame walk beside Gintoki's taller one. Seconds later she was finally gone from his sight. "Yeah...though I don't think she'll come and visit us much anymore. She has her own family to deal with."


Author's Note:

Nothing says Happy Valentine's day like Canarie being shady as hell!

Hello and welcome back once again to our favorite former hitman, Canarie. I hope you enjoyed this long chapter, knowing we got more insight into her career as an assassin. Pretty interesting, right? She participated in death matches before becoming the ghost we all know and love.

And without a doubt, Gintoki was defiantly jealous of Doushin!