a/n: Thank you SO SO much for all the nice reviews last chapter! I am so grateful to all of your support - this story wouldn't be on its 21st chapter if it weren't for you guys!
21. void (part I)
When Gintoki had made his way down to the ground floor of Hinowa's tea shop that morning, he'd been surprised to see the courtesan sitting on a bench, waiting for him.
"I saw your boots," she said as an explanation, delivered with a carefully formed smile. He couldn't tell if she was being friendly or not.
"I see."
"Sit," she gestured, and he took one next to her, not one to argue. With an elegant lift of her wrists, she took the teapot and poured a cup of hot tea for him. He took a sip.
"What were you doing here last night?"
He nearly choked on his drink, and coughed. Hinowa waited patiently, the careful smile still there, unchanging.
So that'd been why she was waiting for him here.
Courtesans were quite frightening, he thought ruefully to himself. "She invited me here," he said, and if his tone of voice happened to be more on the defensive side of things, well. Nobody could blame him, really.
Hinowa had only raised an eyebrow, and he didn't deign to respond any further than that, choosing to sip on his tea. They were in Yoshiwara. There wasn't any need to explain such things, especially to a former high-ranking courtesan.
"You know, after she got back from the prison that day, I knew something was wrong," Hinowa said. "She's a very strong person, but... "
There was a sigh, and it sent a pang through his heart, causing him to dread the next thing she'd say.
"... I knew it crushed her. She never talked about it to me, but I knew she wasn't the same person after that."
Now she poured herself a cup of tea. "What you have to know is that she's still a woman, at the end of the day. If we fall in love with someone, it doesn't matter how unrealistic it is. We'll still hope and dream for the best. I've seen more than one courtesan in this city fall for it, even though we all know it's a fairy tale ending."
He absorbed this calmly, and gave the courtesan a gentle smile in return. "So you're saying that I'm the fairy tale ending."
Hinowa chuckled. "You've already proved yourself, Gin-san," she said, gesturing to the window in the ceiling. "But... just be careful. I've known her for a long time now... and she's the type to go all in, or not at all."
"I know."
When she had stood in front of him that day in the prison, willing to risk her own life so that he could escape, it was only then that he'd known the depth of her devotion, and it had taken a colossal amount of effort to turn himself away from her. The guilt had gnawed at him since then, but it had been the right decision for him at the time.
"Once upon a time, she wanted to become someone strong enough to protect me," Hinowa said, and now her eyes turned sorrowful. "I sometimes wonder if it was the right decision back then, for me to ask Jiraia to take her on as his student."
"I think it was," he said. "Otherwise, she would have never given me the time of day."
It was only too easy to imagine Tsukuyo climbing to heights unseen as an oiran, standing in a place beyond his reach had she made a different choice long ago. But she hadn't. Her strength and conviction had gotten her to where she needed to be - whether it was the Shogun's palace on behalf of a wronged courtesan, or protecting the downtrodden; and despite the fact that he'd granted her only hearts' desire to free Yoshiwara, he still felt unworthy of being in her presence.
Hinowa's expression had softened momentarily. "I see."
"Can I tell you something?" he asked.
"Sure."
"I want to do the right thing by her. She's the only one I've ever wanted. But there are things I have to take care of until I've proven to be enough of a man for her."
The former courtesan was quiet for a moment, before giving him a slow smile of approval.
"Don't take too long, Gin-san."
"I'll try not to," he replied, and stood up, slipping his boots on before exiting the shop. "Thanks for the tea."
-x-
Oboro's personal spaceship was compact, but currently stood as one of the latest models on the market, customized to see that he had easy access to go anywhere he desired. It was offset by lunar clocks, measuring the time on ten of the nearest planets in proximity to Earth, and the technology was even more advanced than the ships than the Bakufu's top military officials had access to.
It was an unexpected perk that came with his job, schmoozing with people who needed him to commit heinous sins. Not everyone could kill so cleanly, with no traces left behind.
Takasugi had come to, blinking blearily as he took in his surroundings.
Where... am I?
Then his eye snapped open as he realized he was bound in rope to a chair.
Oboro was sitting across from him, looking at him intently.
"You're awake. Good," he said.
"What the fuck - why am I - "
"Takasugi Shinsuke, you're here because I think you can help me grant Yoshida Shoyou's last wish." There was no change in Oboro's expression. "If you don't acquiesce to it, then I will erase your memory and you will have no recollection of being here; it will be as if I had never met you. I will not harm you as promised, and at the end of our conversation, I will let you go provided you listen to what I have to say."
He'd given the spiel to enough participants that by now he'd memorized the disclaimer by heart.
"Not like I have a fucking choice," the commander spat out. "But go on. Tell me what you're trying to do for Sensei." Oboro had recognized the derision in his voice, and chose to ignore it for the time being.
"Your master had demons of his own," the assassin said. "The demon inside of him was named Utsuro."
-x-
Right before his meeting with the Harusame Space Pirates, Kankou had given Gintoki his first recruiting mission, and he'd been aghast once he'd seen the location of where he was to go.
"They'll shoot on site," he protested.
"You humans haven't invented bulletproof materials yet? Once they see you, you'll be fine." The Yato grinned. "Lucky for you, not only have I already plotted the coordinates ahead of time onto my ship, I've also inputted the route when you're ready to come back. In either case, you should be able to send me a message the same day."
"Right... "
"Do you trust me, Gintoki?" he asked, putting a hand on the samurai's shoulder. "If you don't feel confident with it, say so now and I'll give the job to someone else."
"I do, but... " Gintoki's expression of worry hadn't changed. "What do you expect me to say? What if they don't believe - "
"The Coordinator picked you because I told him that you're the best person for exactly this kind of thing," the Yato said. "Think about what you mean to these men. You're a symbol, and you can't ever forget that."
And so, he was on the ship now, pacing forwards and backwards, thinking. The timer of the clock showed there were three hours left on the trip, and yet, the length of it was already too long for him.
-x-
Kankou never intended to lie to his wife. He'd always felt the stinging burn of guilt whenever he had to do things that directly went against her will, and had always been utterly aware of what a scumbag he'd been. And that was the problem with undertaking a long mission, years after accidentally creating a family with his wife. True, Kamui had been more an accident than Kagura had been, but with a family on the line that depended on him, it was a tricky balance to weigh which priority came first.
He always swore that he would always try to do the right thing; but had promised to himself that for now, he'd take care of Kamui a bit later.
At least he was trying to save his wife in the process.
When the clock struck nine o'clock, he cleared his throat, attracting the attention of the attendees.
"Gentlemen," Kankou began, "Thank you for coming today."
A motley crew had gathered in Shoukaku's expansive, larger than necessary, spaceship, which had been the only place he trusted to keep things a secret. The men in front of him were all people he'd come into contact with through his travels in the universe; and they all respected him in some manner because he was strong, and lived up to the legends when they recruited him for one thing or another. The second, seventh, and ninth division captains of the Harusame Space Pirates were sitting in the front, their expressions ranging from a polite interest to utter boredom.
Regardless, he'd put together a short presentation. The Coordinator of the assault had tipped him off for potential recruits, and Yoshiwara had been hiding a surprising amount of Trojan horses, who were here because of one reason, and one reason only: profit.
"As we know, Earth is in the finishing phase of building a terminal which will allow wide-scale mass transportation of goods from one planet to Edo." He clicked his remote, and the overhead projected an image of the construction in progress. "With us pirates, we don't need such formalities to dock our ships for now, but in the future, when they recognize the legality of galaxy trade agreements, we'll eventually have to use it as well."
He clicked his remote again. "What makes this nation particularly unique are their rich sources of Altana, which has historically powered most of our spaceships. At the time, humans were, of course, too backwards to take advantage of it, having never traveled in space before, but... " He shrugged. "Eventually they got with the program, and the government chose to capitalize on it."
The next slide had pictures of various planets. "I'm getting ahead of myself, though. Before we took over Earth, the greater space war took place fifteen years ago, and there was a certain... individual who decided to invade and destroy more than a few planets in the Milky Way galaxy."
And just like that, the mood of the audience had shifted ever so slightly. Every Amanto had all remembered that particular war. Some of them were in this room right now due to the ramifications of that deadly, horrible event.
"For a good decade, we all scoured the universe looking for the culprit who went to destroy these planets with no motive save to destroy Altana ports. We couldn't find him back then. But thanks to my sources - which have asked me to be discreet - I've confirmed that the individual was a being originating from Earth, with a genetic mutation of the rarest kind: immortality."
On the right, there was a video of the assault on Burei. Kankou pressed the play button, and hit pause when there was a particularly clear shot of Utsuro in frame.
"And there you have it, the man himself. This video was taken well over a decade ago."
And then he clicked on another video - the one he'd shown Gintoki a while back - and played it for a minute.
"This one, on the other hand, was taken about two or three weeks ago."
Batou felt the hairs of his arm standing up.
"What we know about this... being, from prior investigation, is that he goes by many names. But for the sake of convenience, we'll call him Utsuro, which is the Japanese word to mean empty. A void, to be even more precise."
Shoukaku stood up, angry. "So he's here, on this planet? Why the hell don't we go ahead and kick his ass?"
"Gentlemen, we knew how that turned out, didn't we?" Kankou replied in clipped tones, and the ape reluctantly sat down in his seat, fuming. "He is by far the most dangerous and powerful being in the universe, not to mention that he is immortal. All in all, quite impossible to take down."
"So what are you proposing?" One of the commanders, Shirei - a lion from the 1st division - had crossed his arms, looking perplexed. "I've always wanted to take revenge on him, myself, but if he's as powerful and undefeated as you say he is, then what's the point of gathering us all here?"
"Because time is of the essence." Kankou finally turned to all of them, his face grim. "If we don't manage to kill him in exactly three weeks, it might be the very end of the Earth as we all know it. Overall, it would be a terrible loss even if it didn't happen to be the last living planet with renewable Altana resources."
The projector now showed a different picture on the screen.
"You may all recognize this organization by different names," Kankou said, with a deep look of contempt, and there was a shadowy, blurry photo of the Tendoshu Elders. "For the last fifty years, their agenda has been to set up a complete monopoly on Altana. They've been using Utsuro to convince him into destroying planets with once-rich sources of Altana on them, strategically allowing Earth to be manipulated into a position where they've been dominated completely by the Amanto. At the moment, the civil war is still ongoing, but we can safely conclude by now that the samurai have lost this time."
"Utsuro's method of corrupting sources of Altana was a mystery to us at first - but we've now recognized that he's an aberration who has the power to manipulate energy sources into becoming volatile forms to where once stable ports can explode without warning. When he touches these ports, he can corrupt them to the point where inhabiting those planets is nigh on impossible. Most living things can absorb traces of radioactive Altana and can handle the exposure of it in limited amounts, but over time, Utsuro been able to raise it to a level unlike anybody else in the universe."
Kankou took a sip of water before continuing. "Over the years, I've been enlisting the help of other planets who've been a victim to Utsuro's destruction to research ways in which we could destroy such a seemingly unstoppable being. We've collected cells, footage, and every piece of evidence that we could find. Not to mention we've been exceptionally lucky that we have another living example of an immortal creature."
Now a picture of Kouka was displayed, and her haughty expression did nothing to disguise her beauty. A few wolf-whistles were heard, but Kankou ignored them.
"Yatos share the closest relation to Utsuro precisely because we have the ability to take in Altana at ten to twenty times the rate of a normal human being. Similar to Utsuro, we can heal from wounds almost instantaneously, and because of this ability, we can live to well over a hundred years provided we're not fighting to the death with our kin."
"Here we have an example of a Yato who has managed to live for a little over six hundred years. A fairly remarkable length of time, for most. But at the current moment, she is on her deathbed. Her mutation was linked directly to her planet that Utsuro unfortunately destroyed. She is unable to absorb Altana from any other planet."
"We've taken samples of her blood in order to synthesize a weapon that would be toxic to those who share a similar mutation as hers. A full blast of Altana beam at high intensity seems to eradicate her cells well enough, but again, the differences between her and Utsuro still remains at best a liability with no guarantee as of yet. However, this is a step in the right direction from decades ago."
"What I'm asking from you all is your cooperation. I understand that it might be a tall order, but... "
-x-
"So you're basically saying that Sensei asked you to help him die for good," Takasugi said. "And if you make it happen, it means that Utsuro, Shoyou, and his other personas - will be gone forever?"
"Yes. He thought he could remain as Yoshida Shoyou for eternity, but it wasn't possible. He knew Utsuro would destroy his persona if he kept at it long enough, and rather than have that happening, he preferred to restart the cycle of immortality again. So technically, our master is alive. It's just that he's inside... Utsuro's mind."
"But then... Why at Gintoki's hand? You could have done it yourself."
"I wanted to, but Shoyou had his reasons. When the Bakufu put a price on your heads, he made an ultimatum with the Naraku, and we promised him that we wouldn't pursue you anymore if that meant we got our leader back. It was his justification to end the war, I suppose."
"We could have taken care of ourselves," Takasugi replied, and half of him was resentful; half of him touched. "That was no excuse for him to sacrifice his life in exchange for ours."
"It was his last parting gift to you three," Oboro said. "If you wish to throw your life away, it won't be at the hands of us."
It was Yoshida Shoyou that had given him a second chance to live. He would not go back on his word to serve the man who had granted his hearts' desire at the cost of his own life.
He inserted a disc into a slot, and a screen popped up behind him. When he verified the audio and display was in proper working order, he simply left, choosing to leave Takasugi by himself in the dark room.
-x-
Across from his chair, a teacher had appeared on the monitor, and it had stolen his student's breath away.
"Shinsuke, if you're watching this, then you'll know by now that I am dead."
Shoyou's expression of serenity had cast a melancholy - yet not unwanted - swell of emotion inside of Takasugi.
"The rumors of my death will be greatly exaggerated, I assume."
Yes and no, Takasugi thought to himself. The Bakufu had been too distracted with their capture - and subsequent escape - of Sakata Gintoki, leaving nothing but a footnote for the very man that had led to the Shiroyasha's greatness. He'd been infuriated by it all - furious that Gintoki had been careless enough to be caught, furious that the Bakufu would be the one to kill him before he did, but most of all, he'd been disappointed again that nobody would remember Yoshida Shoyou as the shining beacon for so many of his students.
"What you need to know, that despite what you may think, is that none of this was your fault. This was simply destiny, or a natural ending to an unnatural life. I will be gone, but it will be for the greater good. If I reappear once more, I hope it to be on my deathbed in front of you three."
Shoyou cleared his throat, as if to pause in the middle of his thoughts. It was a habit that hadn't disappeared years after he'd been forced to leave the classroom. Against his will, Takasugi found the corner of his mouth lifting upwards.
"There was no one I would have entrusted with my head than you, Gintoki, and Kotarou. No one else," he reiterated, his gaze calm, but holding an inner strength that gave Takasugi the chills. "In the wrong hands, things may have gone far worse than I have feared."
"You may be wondering why I am choosing to cooperate with my enemies, the Tenshoin Naraku. The truth is, I - as Utsuro, being twisted beyond comparison, had founded the organization five hundred years ago. I took in some of the nation's most unwanted children, and shaped them into killing machines, giving them a meaning and purpose against the twisted wretchedness of humanity. However, after a few centuries of engaging in such barbaric practices, a version of myself was reborn as an aberrant. And that was, of course, me: Yoshida Shoyou, in the current form that you know as of now."
"You see, I am an immortal. I was unlucky to exist as an immortal being before you three were born, and if I am unluckier still, I will remain immortal after you three will die." His fingers were pressed against each other. "Many people are interested in possessing the gift of living forever, not understanding the repercussions of such a thing. I have outlived all the people I once cared for, and have suffered more than any human being ought to in a thousand lifetimes."
"My greatest wish to myself, and for the rest of the universe, is to die. I have destroyed countless planets in pursuit of my twisted wish, have taken away more lives than even you and Gintoki combined ever could, and have destabilized mighty civilizations that should have been left well alone in order to find something that might be able to take my life away. And despite all this... death eludes me."
Now there was a troubled expression on his face, his eyebrows furrowed in worry. "Regardless, my wish would have remained out of my grasp even if my will was not so weak. For now, I am more interested in reducing the harm that my alter-ego will wreck onto my home of origin... Earth."
"For his thousandth birthday, Utsuro has decided that this will be the year where he finally destroys the world from whence you and I come from. His logic is that if he has no longer any access to the Altana energy that has tied him to humanity for so long, he will be able to achieve death for once and all. I have no doubt in his capabilities to do so, as I have seen him do the same thing to other planets before."
"Over the past few years, Oboro has been working behind the shadows to deny me any potential exposure to Altana, for it is the energy that extends my life by unnatural means. By now I have deprived myself fifteen years without going near any shrines nor unnatural, supernatural locations where the presence of Altana are strong, in order to weaken my physical form. If you remember when you, Kotarou, and Gintoki were children, I usually had an older student escort our students to other temples for precisely the reasons listed above."
"Back to the subject at hand. Oboro is not the person you may assume he is; in fact, he was my first student when I came into being as Yoshida Shoyou. This time, I intend on stopping the cycle of rebirth again entirely. If I may be so presumptuous on my deathbed, I ask for nothing from you except for your cooperation with him, and if there was one thing you could do to make my death worth commemorating, it would be to work with him as you would follow my commands."
"I will be taking care to conceal most of my memories from Utsuro, which will confuse him, I'm sure. But for the sake of the country, it has to be done. If you still care for this nation, Shinsuke, for what's left of its hallowed carcass - I believe you'll be able to work with the Amanto, for an enemy of an enemy is a friend. As you've surmised by now, I unfortunately will become that enemy very soon."
Shoyou leaned back, and gave the screen a warm smile. "I'm afraid that I don't have much time on this earth left, which is a shame as I would have liked to have walked with you three once more before succumbing to the void. And so, this will have to be my last words to you. My little samurai, I truly wish you the best of luck. And... goodbye."
The screen faded, and it was only then that Takasugi had recognized the reflection of himself on the blank display, realizing that the wetness came from his tears, slowly rolling down his cheeks.
Oboro came into the room a minute later, and switched back the lights on. He untied Takasugi without saying anything, and for a moment, neither of them wanted to break the silence.
Finally, the commander lifted his arm, slowly wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his haori.
"When do we start?" he asked, his voice dark and low.
The assassin gave him a wry grin in return.
"Well, I have a meeting with one of Shoyou's students this evening. I was thinking you could come along... "
-x-
As expected, the soldiers down below kept a close eye on the incoming ark. There were swords drawn, guns cocked and ready to shoot, and yet they hadn't done so... yet.
Their leader, Gintoki supposed, was too intelligent for that anyways.
When he finally descended from the spaceship, he was wearing his old war uniform - a relic fashioned from new materials, courtesy of Kankou - and a brand new sword on his hip. In a way, it had felt like reuniting with an old friend again. This was his territory, after all.
Hagi.
This was the birthplace of Shoka Sonjuku. Even the smell of the nearby rice paddies here brought back memories from long ago.
He took a step forwards the small band of soldiers, and smirked slightly, for the person he'd wanted to talk to was already standing there, right in front of him.
Katsura had been smiling back at him.
"Welcome back, Gintoki."
-x-
- tbc -
-x-
a/n: Y'all didn't think I forgot about the space aliens, now did you? ;) And holy exposition, Batman!
Shirei is the lion guy who gets cleaved in half by Kamui in the Rakuyo arc like 10 seconds after he talks for the first time LMAO. Anyways, his character design was really cool so I wanted to recycle him again. Yay for fanfiction!
Also things Sorachi won't explain: how does everyone know how to speak Japanese? LOL