It was nearly 10:00 when the search party arrived at the magazine door. It comprised of Gintoki, Hijikata, Otose, Tama, Catherine, Shinpachi, Otae, Sadaharu and Hasegawa, whom nobody asked to join, but he joined anyway. Presently, Tama was pointing in the direction of the building.

'Look, Gintoki-sama, everyone! This door is ajar, let's look there!'

'I guess if they were there, they'd have heard us until now, but we'd better check,' Gintoki said and pushed the door.

Daylight fell inside, illuminating two silhouettes sitting at the wall opposite to the entrance, leaning their backs on it, and their heads… on each other's? The sudden exposure to light made Kagura and Sougo wake up and bump their heads trying to move at the same time.

'Ow, what's going on?' Kagura muttered.

'Kaguraaaaa!' Gintoki yelled, running toward her. 'Are you okay? What have you been doing?'

'Don't yell so early in the morning, Gin-chan,' Kagura said 'Anyway, how come you're all here during lockdown? Is this a dream?'

'It's 10 o'clock! The lockdown ended two hours ago! Kagura, why have you been sleeping next to that bastard?'

'Uh, we were playing a game and must have fallen asleep.'

'What game?!'

'Calm down, big guy, it was nothing special,' Okita said, 'Just a few dares… Before you ask, the dares were nothing inappropriate!'

'Alright, I think I can believe you… Let's go home, Kagura… Ah, hell with that, lockdown has been tough, hey, everyone, how about we go and have a drink together?'

'It's ten in the morning, you know,' Otose pointed out. 'But you know what, let's all go and have a snack at my bar to celebrate lockdown's end.'

'You mean it'll be on the shop?' Gintoki had to make sure.

'Fine, so be it, let's go!'

They all started walking back.

Gintoki had finally let go of Kagura and was arguing with Hijikata.

'No, what he did then was really dumb! He is the dumbest character there exists!'

'You're dumb! He couldn't have known-'

'Stop yelling in the street on a Sunday morning, you're disturbing people!' Otose yelled at them.

'You're yelling, too, old hag!' Catherine shouted in turn.

'You're yelling even louder!'

'It's nice everything has ended well,' Otae smiled. 'Oh, Hasegawa-san, why are you looking so sad?'

'Well, you know… Those three days in the quarantine place… It almost felt like I had a home and now it's gone…'

'Ah, true… AAAAAAAHHHHHHH! What is this gorilla doing here even after lockdown has ended?!'

'My heart has always been in lockdown because of you, Otae-san!' Kondou exclaimed.

'Go climb an electric pole and die!'

Okita maneuvered between people until he was walking next to Kagura.

'We didn't finish the game,' he said.

'That's good for you, isn't it? You were losing so badly,' Kagura laughed.

'That was only because you were using dirty tactics!'

'And you weren't?!'

'I wasn't in my top mental capacity because of the fever, you know! If it weren't for that, I'd win easily.'

'In your dreams, perhaps,' Kagura smiled. 'How about we find out for real?'

'You mean a rematch?'

'Yes.'

'Fine! Next time, we'll play for real!'

'Fine by me! Just don't blame me if you get hurt!'

Both of them turned their backs to each other not to let the other person see they were smiling.

THE END