a/n: Canon says that Gintoki is officially 29 post SSA arc, so to give this story more of an "canonical" timeline, there is probably about six months to almost a year's worth of time in between the last chapter of Gintama and the first chapter of this story.

"They're getting that look again," Sakamoto once said to Gintoki, hours after the Kiheitai troops would retreat from yet another defeat.

"Who?" he had asked.

"The soldiers," Sakamoto replied, and he'd been thumbing through a deck of UNO cards, shuffling them out of habit more than an actual desire to play a game. "They've got that look in their eyes."

"What are you talking about?"

His friend sighed.

"The new recruits. You know what I'm talking about. The siege from a few months ago - don't you remember?"

Gintoki did, but he hadn't paid much attention to it. Another day meant another opportunity for a new battle, and they barely had enough to mentally prep for the next one, much less to reflect on their latest casualties. By now they'd all lost track of how many close calls they had, preferring to focus on the present.

"Maybe. Remind me which one it was?"

"The one where they blasted a man with a laser and exploded his body to bits."

"Oh. That one."

Sakamoto stowed his cards away, and finally let out a big sigh. "They're useless, Gintoki. They don't know how to get back up when they're knocked down. It's going to cost us in terms of strategy and... well frankly, victories, if we're going to be even more honest."

It wasn't in his nature to complain. In hindsight, they all should have seen it as a sign of things to come, instead of caught blindsided by Sakamoto's desertion.

"I don't think they're useless."

"They're scared, and that's understandable, but I wish they'd desert if they were going to be a liability in battle."

"They're not liabilities," Gintoki snapped. "They're human beings, Tatsuma."

"Easy enough for you to say when you're not doing the accounting for them," Sakamoto snaps back. It'd been the first time Gintoki had seen him so angry. "We have to find money to feed them, and they can't even fight properly - "

"Well that's your job, isn't it?"

Sakamoto turned pale, and punched Gintoki in the face. It took all of his willpower not to punch back.

"All you guys have to worry about is fighting," he snarled at Gintoki, his face lined with anger. "You and Takasugi and Zura - all you assholes only think about are these battles, and you can't even fucking win. Meanwhile, I'm the one who has to lie to these daimyos, who are financing this whole goddamn operation - "

"What do you want me to do about it?" Gintoki shouted at him, his left cheek stinging. "If you wanna quit, then quit! No one's holding a gun to your head, Tatsuma! We're all just trying our best to survive here!"

"If that's the hill you wanna die on, then fine!" Sakamoto spat out. "Just don't blame me when some strategy goes wrong, because of these guys going through some fucking panic attacks - or - or whatever the hell you're calling them!"

Without another word, he turned his back on his friend, and walked away, presumably to vent his anger somewhere else. Gintoki wouldn't forget that look of pure hatred as long as he lived.

Deep down, Gintoki knew why Sakamoto was blowing off steam. He'd been in the middle of testing the new artillery out. The Kiheitai's recently acquired rifles were promising; and some had the potential to fight back the Amanto on equal terms. The sound of a shot bullet had caused an uproar in the troops; some soldiers trying to run away thinking it'd been an ambush with the enemy.

Takasugi had chewed him out for an hour or so before kicking him out of the commander's tent. Morale had been down. No one was happy, and it was a bad sign that the most well-adjusted member was starting to crack.

Sakamoto yelling at him wasn't the issue, even if it was unusual.

But to call their comrades weak, especially the men who'd taken an oath to fight for the country, risking their lives...

It was unforgivable. Even if it was a reasonable complaint, and an opinion widely shared by the higher ups.

Gintoki wouldn't ever shake off that feeling of weakness since then. It'd been one of the reasons why he preferred to suffer alone. And even when Sakamoto came up to him later, to apologize, Gintoki wouldn't forget what he said.

-x-

Tsukuyo rings the apartment the next afternoon. He deliberately chooses to not pick up the phone, and Kagura is the one who comes up to him, confused when she reports that he doesn't have to come to Yoshiwara anymore to repay his debts.

"Did something happen between you two?" she asks cautiously, and generously offers him a stick of sukonbu, sensing his dark mood. He takes one and sticks it in his mouth.

"She complained too much about me flirting with the courtesans, so we decided in the meantime I should stay far away from them," he says. "Apparently, she'll sue me for sexual harrassment if I go to Yoshiwara too many times."

Kagura chews on her own seaweed thoughtfully. "I see. Is it because she's jealous?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Gintoki says, and frowns. "Where would you ever get that idea?"

"Papi says that when a woman is in love, she'll try to keep the man she's in love with far from s**** - "

"WHAT KIND OF DISGUSTING THINGS IS THAT BALDY TEACHING YOU, YOUNG LADY - "

" - and so, she won't want anybody else to get closer to him," Kagura finishes, relishing his expression of horror. "I mean, it makes sense, yes?"

He resolutely has to nip this train of thought in the bud. "Kagura-chan, I simply paid off my debt. And next time, if I go to jail, don't ask Tsukki to pay it off. She'll just add interest to it, like the rest of those extortionate banks."

"Tsukki says men are like banks, though." Kagura leans back on the sofa, plopping her feet on his lap. He pushes them off. "She says that once they make a withdrawal, they lose interest - "

"That is definitely NOT what she meant! Kagura-chan, how many times have you been going down to the red light district? Gin-san won't allow you to go there anymore!"

"I haven't been there in ages!" the teen protests. "It's more like she and that stalker go out on the surface, because they have things to plan."

"Oh, right." Gintoki has almost forgotten about the incoming wedding, which he'd received an obnoxiously gilded invitation along with veiled threats of dismemberment if he didn't manage to R.S.V.P. in time. Shinpachi had dutifully filled it out and returned it in due course.

"Anyways, I reckon she's a bit sad about Sacchan tying the knot," Kagura says, and takes out another fresh stick of sukonbu. "Not that much, but a little bit."

Gintoki keeps on sucking his own pickled seaweed, eying her suspiciously. "Don't tell me you're hoping to tie the knot with Soichirou-kun. Gin-san won't allow it."

"WHY WOULD I - " Now Kagura stands up indignantly. "I would never do such a thing with a Chihuahua, yes?" At his amused smile, she huffs and tosses her long hair back angrily. "What kind of suggestion is that? Mami told me a long time ago that I have to stay free and footloose for a long time, otherwise I'll end up in a loveless marriage."

The more Gintoki hears about her parents, the more disturbing pictures of their family come to mind. Still, he rolls his eyes and deftly changes the subject by giving her a lifeline to end the conversation.

"You don't have to hide it from me. Otae told me enough to trust whatever decision you make."

"I broke it off," Kagura says matter-of-factly. He blinks.

There's a frustrated noise at the back of her throat. "I guess I wasn't ready. I still wanna travel to faraway places. I still wanna go with my Papi and be an alien hunter, you know? I mean, like - we've been friends forever. We tried it out but it just felt... wrong. Like I was going to get something wrong and make mistakes... plus, I still don't understand what romantic love is."

There's a lot that Gintoki could say about that, but her words are poignant, and he wants her to finish her thoughts. "I see."

"So I guess the plan is, I still wanna fight him, and call him names when he deserves it, but as for the other romantic lovey-dovey stuff..." Kagura takes a deep sigh. "Well, we decided to put that on hold, even though ... even though I knew that... he's always cared about me, I guess."

Huh. So maybe they really had been playing Prance Prance Revolution.

It's a careful approach to a relationship that somewhat underscores their aggressive dynamic, Gintoki muses. Well, it wasn't surprising. Considering Okita's backstory with his sister, and the lack of a healthy relationship model from Kagura's own family, it was no wonder that they'd come to this conclusion.

Regardless, it still makes him sad.

He pats her head, and Kagura turns towards him, chewing her lip.

"I'm really proud of you," Gintoki says.

He's taking small steps at a time to vocalize things, to give praise to people who deserve it - things that he's missed out on in the last two years, simple things he'd taken for granted before then on the assumption that he'd have enough time to say the right things, enough time to fix things before it got too bad.

Now, he won't do that anymore.

"How long do you think boys can wait, if you're not ready?" she asks nervously.

He considers it.

"For the right one? Probably a lifetime, I think."

-x-

Gintoki doesn't visit the graveyard anymore, and he doesn't go to the red light district for a long time. He doesn't let himself drink, either, so what he does instead is to work as hard as he can until he can't possibly do anything but to drop straight into bed when he gets back home. It works about half of the time.

The problem with getting older is that time goes by too quickly, and he's starting to forget things; not even aware that it's officially time for the summer festival until Kagura hangs up a yukata on the hook of the sliding door, near the closet.

At his confused expression, Shinpachi sighs. "Gin-san, you didn't remember us talking about this? We were going this festival together, right? I mentioned it over dinner..."

Lately he'd been on autopilot, keeping his interactions with most people short and limited. There had been more than a few times where he forgotten his keys, or that the three of them were supposed to do a job that had slipped his mind completely.

"Otsuu-chan is rereleasing one of her more underrated albums, and she's promoting it at the summer festival - "

"You mean, she's promoting an old album from five years ago? What a ripoff!" Kagura exclaims, in the middle of painting her fingernails neon pink.

"How dare you slander her name! 'Our Coming Together was Bitchin', Tandoori Chicken,' was a masterpiece! Her finest work! I've listened to it 700 times!" Shinpachi argues, his fist clenched in passion.

Kagura picks her nose. "It wasn't any different from Your Grandmother Wears Your Basketball Shoes - "

"That was the name of a song, not an album!"

"Quiet, already!" Gintoki barked. "And Shinpachi, I didn't forget, I was just a bit distracted."

The doorbell rang, mercifully interrupting their short argument.

Tae had arrived, right after they all had an early dinner. She was there to help Kagura get dressed, but she was also there to assist the teenager with her hair and makeup. In the interim, Shinpachi scrolls down on his smartphone for directions to the festival, and Gintoki rereads his copy of Shonen Jump for the fourth time.

"Hey, Patsuan," he says, after idly turning the page where Kurapika is talking about some Nen rule. "This... thing with Soichirou... how long was it a thing?"

Shinpachi looks up at him, eyes oddly sympathetic. "I guess ever since she came back to Edo. Kagura came back as a kid, but he figured out it was really her all along."

"Oh."

One aspect of teenagerhood that Gintoki had forgotten due to his age, was the fact that they liked to keep secrets. It was hard to keep track of what was going on, but he still hoped that there was an open door policy between him and his kids. He'd spotted Shinpachi the other day writing a letter to someone named Kirara, and had wondered if it was another pop star before remembering that she'd actually been in the show before.

Obviously the teen wasn't interested in asking him for any advice this time. It was remarkably ungracious, considering Gintoki had hired a few prostitutes for him back in the day, but who was he to dictate love lives? Especially as his own was virtually nonexistent?

His train of thought is interrupted as Tae and Kagura come out of his room, looking as pretty as a pair of dolls. Kagura was dressed in a sky blue yukata, delicately patterned with white peonies on the fabric; her kanzashi pins had been carefully pinned in a long braid wrapped around her head. Tae's yukata, on the other hand was brighter in appearance; though the underlying color was dark navy, bright sunflowers embroidered on the silk would bring out a warmth that was generally lacking in the woman herself. Her ponytail had been curled for the occasion, and the effect was dazzling.

"What do you think?" Tae asks cheerfully.

"You two look beautiful," Shinpachi says sincerely, which made his sister beam in happiness. Kagura only turned pink, still shy about receiving compliments.

"Pretty is as pretty does," Gintoki adds, just as sincerely. "I feel sorry for the men who might take you two as real women rather than the mountain gorillas that you truly are."

With no further ado, Tae delicately takes a step towards him with a poisonous smile, and punts him off the balcony with one of her trademarked roundhouse kick. It catches him by surprise - he after all, usually could deflect the punches from the two of them, but he didn't expect himself to be flung out of the door from his apartment!

It hurt, goddammit! Why couldn't anyone take a joke these days?

-x-

As expected, the festival had been filled with people, and Gintoki could smell the familiar scent of fried yakisoba in the air. Though he'd already eaten dinner, he was already contemplating buying some more food; Kagura was already spending her pocket change on cotton candy.

The concert would begin in an hour, so the four of them were walking around the premises, and if there was a booth that caught somebody's eye, they would stop.

Shinpachi caught more goldfish than Kagura, but she had managed to win more rounds knocking down bowling pins, winning a medium sized teddy bear with a bow wrapped around its neck. Gintoki had only tried his hand a few times, but didn't feel like wasting too much money after turning up empty handed.

Tae was interested in the shooting games, and so they four of them headed over to the booth. By the time they were in distance, he'd spotted someone he really, really, didn't want to see.

"Tsukuyo! Yoo-hoo!" Tae waved, her hand up in the air. She looked over, and saw them, smiling. If she was surprised by Gintoki's appearance, she didn't show it. She was holding a rifle in one hand, and handed it over to the vendor.

"Did you come here alone, Tsukki?" Kagura asked.

"No, I came with Hinowa and Seita, but we went our separate ways. He saw one of his classmates, and she wanted to go shoppin' with a few of the girls, so I decided to have some fun on my own in the meantime."

"Oh, but that's so sad!" Tae said. "You ought to hang out with us instead."

"I'm used to doin' things on my own." Tsukuyo flashes a grin, and holds up her newly acquired prize. "Latest Bitch bag. Nice, huh?"

"Wow, it is pretty nice," Tae said. "What a shame, because I was looking forward to winning it as well... "

"I'll leave you ladies to it, shall I?" Gintoki asked. "I just spotted a very nice stall with mitarashi dango, so if you don't mind - "

Tae jabs her elbow into his ribs, causing him to stumble momentarily. "How rude, Gin-san! What a shame it is, to leave a perfectly beautiful, young, and single woman alone with no company, when you yourself are a perfectly capable, single and pathetic man - "

"HOW DOES THAT MAKE ME PATHETIC? AND HOLD ON, WHY IS IT OKAY FOR HER TO BE SINGLE AND NOT ME?"

"That's right, Gin-chan," Shinpachi says with the moral superiority of the worst cherry boys. "Here you are, abandoning young maidens right and left, while the rest of us have to grovel and kneel just to even look at them. It makes me sick."

"That's seriously not my fault if the only girls you consider happen to pop idols, you virgin!"

"Now, now - " Tsukuyo's cheeks are slightly pink. "I'm really fine walking around by myself. I enjoy it, actually." But a vote is taken, and no one will allow her to do that for tonight until the rest of her family comes back. Gintoki keeps a distance from her and doesn't engage her in conversation unless he has to.

Now the gang of five amble into the live open ampitheatre, killing some time until the concert would begin. Tsukuyo buys everyone a shaved ice. Shinpachi meets up with his fanclub, who are appropriately dressed in the uniforms.

When Otsuu comes out, dressed in a brilliant yellow and purple miniskirt, the audience goes crazy.

Gintoki lasts about three songs into the concert before he calls it a night. The crowded venue is suffocating, and he needs fresh air.

-x-

He thought he'd picked a pretty good place to go AWOL, but then she had to turn up near the adjacent park near the venue, where couples looking for privacy are secluding themselves away from prying eyes. Goddamn ninjas.

"Knew it wouldn't a bathroom break," Tsukuyo says, smiling as she lights up her kiseru. "The kids are gonna worry 'bout you if you don't come back soon."

"Nah, they're not. Shinpachi is having the time of his life, and Kagura's way too happy just going along with the ride."

"But - "

"If you're so worried, you can go tell them that Gin-san has no other plans but to drink until dawn."

"I'm not running away," Tsukuyo says softly. "You can push me away, Gintoki. But you can't do it forever."

She takes a puff from her kiseru, and releases the smoke from her mouth.

"Why do you care so much?" he finally asks. "You... and everyone else... "

"Because we all know what it's like to lose someone. And we care about you, Gintoki. You're the one who fixes everything, when the chips are down."

"I haven't - "

"It's Takasugi, isn't it?" Now Tsukuyo looks at him, really looks at him as if he matters. As if he's always mattered. "Takasugi Shinsuke."

He can't bear to look at her.

Of course she'd taken a glance at the grave that he'd been standing next to, after all this time. He'd been stupid to think that she wouldn't figure it out.

"How did you find out?"

"I asked Hijikata about him," Tsukuyo admits. "He was your friend at one point, wasn't he? During the Jouishishi war."

He doesn't answer the question.

"Gintoki, you're not the only one who's lost someone dear to them before. Otae-san, or Kagura-chan... or Shinpachi... I know they've lost one o' their own before - "

"It's different."

"Tell me, then. How is it different from them?"

I killed them.

But Gintoki doesn't say this. Instead of answering her question, he counters it with one of his own.

"What am I supposed to do when everything I knew to be true, is turned upside down?" he asks. "What am I... how am I supposed to - "

Confronted by his own uselessness, he notes with a touch of irony all the problems he's solved. He can mend the relationship between long-lost lovers, can reunite a police force with their commander, can plead with a crying sister to make peace with her crybaby older brother... He can even save the world once or twice, when pressed.

But he can't save a friend. Or a master.

They'd been two most important people in the world, and he had let them down. Terribly.

"Gintoki."

Her voice is measured; quiet, but neutral. "Nobody can help you if you don't talk to anybody about what happened."

He shakes his head. "If it were that easy, don't you think I would have done it by now?"

A moment passes. Then another. He finally turns his head to look at her, and to his surprise, her eyes are damp.

"Do you remember when we... " Tsukuyo pauses, and swallows. "When my master... when I was in that tower, hanging from his web? You told me something. I've never forgotten it... "

Without any prompting, his mind easily retrieves the memory. A room, filled with darkness and despair. Silver lines of sharp thread, hanging in the balance, glistening in the moonlight as he silently raised his wooden sword behind her. Tsukuyo, wrists trapped in a spider's grotesque rendering of a cobweb. She'd been held captive, but not as a damsel in distress. It'd been a chosen martyrdom, one that he had understood all too well once he'd heard the short conversation between the student and her master.

"What did I tell you?"

"Trying to shoulder the burden alone? Don't be such a stranger. Cry and ask for help. Lean on me with your runny nose. Cry when you feel like crying. Laugh when you feel like laughing. When you're tearing up with an ugly face, I'll give you a cry with an uglier face. When you're laughing so hard your stomach hurts, I'll laugh in a louder voice. That's how it's supposed to be."

There's a pause. In the darkness, in the solemnity between the two of them, he finally gives up.

He's tired of carrying this weight alone.

Chuckling, he admits, "I was never that good at taking my own advice."

She laughs a little at that. "I don't think either of us are."

In the night air, the noise of the concert is muted. The audience sings, "Worked myself to near-death, finally saved enough for my deposit…" before fading into the sounds of the booming bass.

"What song do you think that is?" Tsukuyo asks.

"The Redback Spider in My Newly Built Apartment," Gintoki says. At her amused smile, he defends himself. "I sometimes hear Shinpachi singing it in the shower."

"I see."

There's a moment that passes by, and then he asks the question he's always wanted to ask her.

"How did you get over it?"

"Get over what?"

"Your master."

Her eyes widen, but then she thinks about it.

"He was suffering. All I ever did was to put an end to his suffering."

"But you killed him."

"I did." Tsukuyo doesn't question why he's asking her these questions. "And it hurt me to do it. But he needed me to do it. So I did."

She plucks a daisy from the grass, and starts picking off the petals. "I went to his old village and saw his sister's grave once. His people had been massacred. He thought it was his fault, and so he made the wrong decisions, goin' down the wrong path because there wasn't anyone else to tell him otherwise. Eventually he couldn't even escape his sins, even if he wanted to."

"And that gave you... closure?"

"I don't know if it did," Tsukuyo said, and her fingers twist the stem of the daisy into a ring. "I couldn't forgive him for leavin' me behind once, but I thought if I knew more about him... or understood him... it would all make sense. And it did. Somehow, over the years, I ended up accepting the reasons why he did what he did, one way or another."

Not for the first time, a pang of jealousy hits him.

"I s'pose that once I knew that he wanted me, maybe even designed me to kill him, I shoulda been angry. But I wasn't. Because in the end, he gave me so much more than what he took away. I get ta protect the people I love, and that woulda never happened without Shishou."

"But let's say that he could've redeemed himself. Maybe he was starting to realize he could have been a good guy all along."

Tsukuyo laughs. "It's ironic ya said that, because Shishou used ta be fond of saying this to me all the time when I was a little girl. It's our choices, ya see, that define us. Maybe Shishou wanted to be a good guy on his deathbed, right before burnin' half the city. But it doesn't mean that he's gonna be redeemed jus' because he said sorry in the end. We all gotta make our own choices, no matter what happened to us in the past."

A silent spark exploded into a thousand extraordinary particles of light, creating a blooming, fiery flower against the inky sky. They watched it fade into oblivion, before another spark of light rose up to replace the previous firework.

Gintoki looks at her. She's busy looking at the sky, the shimmering lights illuminating the angles of her face.

Sometimes people just have all the luck. When he looks at her, all he can see is a clean soul and a pretty face. Tsukuyo has both and lives, yet again, for another day. Like a flower blooming in the crack of a sidewalk, she flourishes in the chaos of this upside down world. She was a flawed woman, of course, but that had never taken anything away from her inner or outer beauty.

"My friend never really had much of a choice," he admits, and the moon goddess turns her head. "He had a shitty dad, right before he nearly got disowned from his family. Then our teacher picked him up, right into our school. I guess the reason why I feel so fucked up about it is because I felt like I could have saved him before he wanted to destroy everything we used to stand for."

For now, this is all he can admit. Maybe someday in the future he can confess more of his sins. Not today, though.

Tsukuyo takes a puff on the pipe. "Even if he was a terrorist who killed people like Hijikata's men?"

Gintoki smiles. "You know, I was there before he decided to do those things. No one grows up to be someone like that. He could've been a politician. Maybe even a legend."

"But... "

"But you're right. We all have choices to make, in the end."

The fireworks suddenly increase in quantity, multiplying before the sky is nothing but multishimmering colors. They watch the finale in silence, right before the very last one blooms before their eyes.

"Guess the concert's over by now," Tsukuyo says. "We'd better get back."

"Guess so."

-x-

Closure is a myth, and there'd been very little of it in Gintoki's life.

But this time is different.

Nobume Imai's office is imposing, and she sits in her leather chair with an learned authority that comes with more than a decade of deadly skill. On her table is a photo of Sasaki, the Mimawarigumi's former chief. There's a small pinch of guilt when he thinks about all the text messages he's ignored from the man, but he pushes it aside for now.

Power, he's learned, is best kept in those who wield it not for ego, but for the good of the people. Sasaki Isaburo had always been the embodiment of that.

"Ten minutes, Shiroyasha," she says crisply, her sword at her side. "Otherwise, I'll cut you up into ribbons. I'm a very busy woman, you know."

"Right," he says, eying her with some skepticism. "You sure you weren't looking for the hottest bakeries in town? Kagura-chan told me that you and Soyo were out of Pon-de-Rings the other day - "

"The three Sadisteers have a long and cherished history with each other," Nobume says without blinking. "The Prime Minister also needs to take a break from time to time. I'm here to make sure of that."

"You just wanted some donuts, didn't you?"

Nobume ignores his statement entirely. "Katsura told me you'd come eventually. I just wasn't sure when, but I had a notion you would show up randomly."

"Did he, now?"

"Yes. Despite his eccentricities, he's had a very good nose for people." Her eyes meet his. "So then, Sakata Gintoki. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

"Ah. Well then..." Gintoki fidgets. He's not exactly sure how to bring up his question up. "I just wanted to know more about Shoyou-sensei."

Nobume's eyes widen, and for a fleeting second, Gintoki remembers that she's only twenty years old. She's the same age as Tae, the same age as Kagura's brother - hell, even the same age as Soichirou, too. All of them still remain on the cusp of youth, barely legal enough to have a proper drink. She would've been so young, back when Shoyou was alive.

Still, Nobume maintains her composure. "What do you want to know?"

Gintoki swallows. It's never been easy to talk about these things "Ever since... that day, I wondered why he didn't tell us, his students, about the truth. I mean... I knew there had to be a reason to it, but if... If there was something that we could have done - "

"Utsuro was a government-sanctioned biological weapon," Nobume says curtly, and now she places her sword on the desk. "He was as close as you could get to an atomic bomb hundreds of years ago, and so, it was imperative that he was kept a secret. Shoyou-sensei knew that if his students possessed any prior knowledge of him as the former head of the Naraku, the government wouldn't have hesitated to kill you all to keep his existence classified, even if you were children. Civilians, after all, have been massacred for less."

Indeed, the Kansai Purge was proof of that fact alone.

"Right. But I thought we were just on the run because he was against the Bakufu."

"He was, at first..." Nobume said, and now walks towards a filing cabinet, pulling out a manila folder with a few sheets of paper inside. "Here. A statement of his crimes from twelve years ago."

Gintoki reads it through the list for the gist of it. Sedition and insurrection happen to be the most common offenses, but there are a few high-profile murders attached to it, too.

When he finishes, he gives back the file to Nobume. "I suppose you weren't there the weeks before he was... executed?"

Now the Mimawarigumi chief looks stricken. "I was his guard, yes. He was ready to go. After the Naraku resurrected Utsuro, the Tendoshu sent him on a ten year mission to colonize the other planet's Altana for their own quest for immortality and wealth. I never saw him again, and I took the opportunity to defect from the organization when there was a leadership gap."

With a sigh, she turns around, and lifts her hair so that he can see the nape of her neck. There's a tattoo of a Tengu bird, branding her for eternity. "You can see it here, if you don't believe me."

So he and her share that in common: marked demons since they were children.

"I believe you. Did Sasaki know any of this?"

"Not enough to anticipate him coming back after Shigeshige was assassinated, no." Now Nobume's voice is flat. She sinks down into her armchair again "I thought he would have preferred to stay in space, to be honest with you."

"Not your fault," Gintoki says. She chuckles.

"What I think is," he says, and now Nobume turns to him again. "If you'd told Takasugi about this a while ago, he might have felt better about our teacher."

"There wasn't any way to prove it to him at the time," Nobume said, sighing. "Maybe I should have. But overall, he was smart enough to go after the right people. He made a promise to Isaburo to bring down the crows, and he more or less succeeded, didn't he?"

-x-

There's a tug on her lips when he walks towards her on a Monday evening, and somehow, he thinks things are going to be okay.

"Nice to see you back, mister." Tsukuyo takes another puff from her kiseru, her gold studded earrings glittering in the moonlight.

"I might've accrued some interest on that debt of mine," he admits. "Maybe I could pay more of it off."

"Patrol shift, then?"

"Whatever you want," he answers.

She laughs.

His heart throbs uncomfortably, and then, with trepidation, he realizes something that he resolutely has been denying for the last three years.

He's in love with her.

He's always been in love with her.

And he's not sure if he'll ever have the balls to tell her, this time, without the pretense of incense.

- tbh

a/n: Please don't forget to review if you enjoyed reading this chapter! It would mean a lot to me to know what you guys thought about the story so far. I've been quite surprised at the low level of reception this piece has been getting, to be honest!