Hijikata spent most of the day shivering, even though Gintoki had thrown two extra blankets on top of his futon. His fever was still high, but didn't get any closer to 40 than at night. However, in the afternoon he started feeling better and in the evening he was sitting up, eating rice gruel Gintoki had made. He had said he liked eating it for supper, but Hijikata knew Gintoki must have had him in mind when preparing it. It kind of pissed him off, because it made him even more indebted to this man, but very deep inside he felt a bit moved by that.

Presently, Gintoki turned on the TV. Hijikata looked up to see 'The Brave Princess Magnolia', a TV series he liked to watch. Impossible… This uncultured man watched something like this?! But there was no time to think about it. The new episode had so much action he had to focus on…

'Oi! What's she doing!' Gintoki yelled suddenly, 'Why does everyone try to conspire against Akiko-san, you bastards?!'

'Because she's a treacherous slut, that's why!' Hijikata replied without thinking.

'Huh? How did you call her?! She's just a girl lost in this cruel world…'

'You're only saying that because like almost every guy in this series you're entranced by her big boobs!'

'And you don't like them?'

'I don't judge a woman based on the size of her chest!'

'Whom do you like, then?'

Hijikata dropped his eyes for a second like a schoolboy ashamed to say the name of his crush.

'Minami-chan,' he muttered.

'Her? She's plain dumb!'

'She's not! She's just so kind…'

At that point, a fight scene began.

'Ahhhh, what's he doing? He's going to lose!' Hijikata exclaimed.

'Nonsense, he's got a plan!'

'What plan? He's finished!'

At that moment, the character was saved by the titular princess leading an army.

'You see? He just had to stall for long enough for her to come.'

'How did he know she'd come?'

'She always comes in the end!'

'That's not a reason for not doing anything!'

'Oh, that stupid Ben is here…' Gintoki noticed.

'He's smarter than you!'

'They only make him look so in the series, in reality the guy is dumb.'

'You're talking about the actor now? It was supposed to be about the characters!'

'I don't know about the character, but I hate his damn face!'

'Ah, I know! He once won a celebrity popularity poll over that Ketsuno-ana of yours!'

'That's not the reason, he's just dumb!'

The next half of an hour passed in this way. After the episode ended, Hijikata and Gintoki kept discussing the series until late at night…