a/n: I'm half convinced that I was insane to tackle on a longfic of this size and genre. LOL

This chapter needs a lot of major editing, but for the purpose of getting it finished on time, I'm afraid that this is what y'all will get for time being.

24. void (part IV)

The weapon in question had actually been quite old.

Named after the god of fire, the Hinokagutsuchi had previously been the weapon of a planet that had long waged too many wars in the past. When that particular planet had disintegrated after picking a fight with the wrong enemy, no one had been interested in claiming such an old piece of technology until Utsuro had stumbled across it, and lugged it back to Earth, piece by piece. A few modifications, especially with the help of the connections from the Tendoshu Elders, had kept it up and running in no time.

Not that he'd been planning for the destruction of the whole world at the time. Sometimes he just liked interesting things that might have been destructive.

Oboro had been well aware of its existence ever since Shoyou-sensei had sat him down for a very long, and very convoluted explanation of his origins. The possibilities of Utsuro's mind had ranged from the morbid to the frivolity of certain subjects, and Shoyou was fortunate enough to possess the ability to go through his alter ego's memories whenever he had the opportunity.

But he never would let Utsuro go through his mind, unwilling to relinquish him control by any possible means.

The weapon was a last resort. Utsuro had been confident enough that the sheer force of his immortality would be enough to conquer wars, with enough examples to prove him right. But having the foresight of a thousand years meant he never went into battle unprepared for any possibility, and though it was extremely rare for him to actually fear death, it didn't mean he was unaware of potentially facing it.

As Oboro laid on the floor, his eyesight gradually turned darker and darker, and all he could think of were his last memories of Shoyou-sensei, hoping that he would see him soon.

-x-

Neptune Shoukaku of the Fourth Division had arrived on the scene before anybody else, and had pocketed ten of Hankai's virus clones in tow, suspecting foul play in the midst of battle. He'd spotted an aberrant object over the horizon, and after he'd launched his own attacks on the Naraku zombies, he raised the concern to Kankou after verifying it wasn't one of their own ships.

"Go," the Yato had urged him, and though Shoukaku hadn't wanted to retreat from the battle so soon, he wasn't one to dismiss his battle-honed instincts.

Unlike Batou or Enshou, he didn't have a vendetta against Utsuro. His planet was actually one of the very few ones that existed without the ley lines of Altana, and they'd been dependent on imported energy sources to keep up with the technology of the times.

Still - having been a rogue space pirate for some time, and specializing as a mercenary, he'd gotten to know more than a few of his men that'd been directly affected by Utsuro's destruction. The despair. The identity crisis that came with the loss of a home. The unwanted questions that none of them wanted to answer - where were you from? How did you get here? What happened to your planet? By now he had stopped asking new recruits their story, even if he could tell by one look what had happened to them. The damage would last for years, and the diaspora of different Amanto meant they were looking for different places to settle down.

He took out one of Hankai's clones as soon as his spacecraft landed on a nearby docking port, punched a nearby wall of the massive death trap, and plugged the clone in. Waiting for a few seconds to let the clone weave its fiber optic wires into the infrastructure, he stood there, idly twirling his staff.

So far he couldn't see any Naraku yet, but he wouldn't be surprised if they'd figure out a way to come here soon.

"Well? How protected is this damn thing, anyway?" he asked, adjusting his earpiece.

"It's... quite secure," Hankai said. "I've detected about twelve levels of security clearance on this old weapon, which is more than I can say for your average missile."

"Fuck," Shoukaku said. "I was hoping that it'd be a lot easier to take down."

And then the first clone died without warning, the disk drive disintegrating to dust in Shoukaku's hand. The ape swore again. He could replicate Hankai's clones again, but it would take some time.

He punched another wall, this time adding an anti-virus component to the next clone. Again like last time, the clone wrapped its wires around the broken tiles, and another holograph of Hankai popped up.

"How much time do we have left?" he asked, already itching to swing his staff at something, anything.

"Twenty minutes, by the look of things." Hankai paused, and Shoukaku waited tensely. "If you attach a clone on every quarter mile of the ship, maybe I'll be able to deconstruct most of the layers of security."

"Will that buy us extra time?" Shoukaku asked.

"I'll try to activate the emergency override," Hankai said, but seemed somewhat unsure. The ape groaned.

Abuto was right. Life really was like a pop quiz sometimes.

With the tap of a button, a holographic map of the weapon materialized in front of Shoukaku, courtesies of Hankai, and he grinned.

He wasn't really all that interested in dying today, but well - if it had to happen...

He might as well go out with an explosion.

-x-

Mukuro had deftly stepped down from Oboro's spaceship, which had landed safely on a nearby docking port, to everyone's relief. With narrowed eyes, she scanned the horizons. The antigravity functions of the death ship had already been activated, which had triggered her suspicions. The air mask - which gave her about two hours' worth of oxygen - was securely attached to her face.

"Someone's been here already," she said.

"Is it the Naraku?" Takasugi asked, hand already prepared to unsheathe his sword.

"... Doesn't seem like it," she admitted. "Still, Utsuro would have normally asked for some of us to serve as backup."

"I see," Takasugi said.

Oboro's directive had been clear. The core of the Hinokagutsuchi would need to be destroyed; if the laser managed to connect with the stream of Altana from the last port under the Edo Terminal, it would create an explosion not unlike the worst nuclear bombs that had been created to destroy much bigger planets than Earth itself.

Mukuro led the way, walking briskly into the corridors of the weapon of mass destruction, Takasugi following her lead.

Oboro had told him it was a likely possibility that the Naraku would have imbibed Utsuro's blood, and so at the moment he carried two weapons. One of them had been his original sword that he had relied on during the Jouishishi war, but the other one was much more recent and newer.

The Shoryuumon sword that had been strapped to the back of his Kiheitai uniform was fashioned with genuine articles of Altana shards, gathered from all corners of the Milky Way galaxy. He'd been informed that such a weapon had been reserved for him and a few other special warriors, but Takasugi hadn't bothered to ask who they might be.

It didn't matter to him.

What mattered, at the end of the day, was stopping Sensei from his own self-destruction. He had known that his impeding death was coming.

Takasugi wanted to honor that.

-x-

On ground level, the situation was getting more and more precarious. Though the Liberation troops were slowly chipping away at the immortal army, they were having no such luck with Utsuro himself, who had finally descended from his spaceship, intent on doing a clean sweep of them all.

Kankou had been trying to mitigate the losses by employing a strategy where only missile drones would be used to drop Altana-laced bombs on the Naraku closest to Utsuro, but the immortal would always remain standing long after the explosions cleared, completely unscathed by the destruction. The synthetic Altana weapons worked fine on the Naraku, but for Utsuro, it was simply just another case of regeneration.

The problem was that the Naraku were starting to spread apart in different directions, leaving Utsuro an open pathway to the Edo Terminal.

Kankou frowned. He didn't want to deploy either Gintoki or Katsura just yet. The first Altana bullet that Batou had already shot into Utsuro's heart would need at least ten more minutes for the radioactive particles to thoroughly seep into every cell inside his body.

And the war would be effectively over if Utsuro chose to fall into another Altana port, taking the easy way out of being reborn once again instead of dying for good. If that happened once more, it would mean that countless lives would be wasted, and years of preparation down the drain.

Not to mention that this was the monster who was effectively responsible for his wife's incoming death. He wouldn't get a second chance to make things right if they didn't win this time.

He turned to Shirei, the leader of the Harusame First Division, who was sitting next to him. "Can you take over?" The lion nodded, and gave him a reassuring hand on the Yato's shoulder.

"Godspeed, Umibouzu."

Opening the door to his spaceship, he jumped out - having no need for a parachute - and landed squarely on his feet about twenty feet away from Utsuro.

Wasting no time, he pulled out his umbrella, immediately shooting four more Altana bullets at his enemy; two at the back of Utsuro's knees, two of them at his eyes. Relying on an expert precision that came with decades of alien hunting, he chose not to verify that they had hit their target, and instead sprinted towards the immortal, slamming his enemy into a building that instantly crumbled into the ground.

With grim satisfaction, Umibouzu proceeded to take out his second weapon.

His laser cannon, customized to work in harmony with his prosthetic arm, would emit radioactive Altana at an incredibly high frequency, and was beginning to build up momentum. When Utsuro finally came out from the clouds of dust, parts of his body were beginning to regenerate, and Kankou released his first Altana hyperbeam, aimed at his heart.

This time it pushed the immortal about fifty feet further away from the Terminal, which was admittedly more efficient than sacrificing fifty soldiers at a time.

Running ahead to close the space between them, Umibouzu wasted no time in pumping more bullets into Utsuro, every move taking full advantage of the immortal's limited time to recover from his injuries.

He'd seen enough combat footage to not let his guard down. He had barely tilted his head to see an incoming sword thrown in his direction, and he was lucky enough to dodge the projectile just in time.

"Oh, is this a rabbit of the night?" Utsuro asked calmly, emerging from the dust and debris. Half of his body was gone, but it was slowly reforming and shaping anew once again. "I do wonder what your qualm with me might be, as your clan is equally as responsible as I am for the destruction of this universe."

He picked up his sword, raised it, and ran to Kankou with a speed that the alien hunter had only encountered with the most elite of warriors, including Hosen. Indeed, the blow to Kankou's fortified umbrella was no less heavy than any of those he encountered from King of the Night.

Kouka had lasted ten days against this man? How? He reminded himself he'd take her out for a goddamn ten day vacation if both of them survived this mess.

"I don't give a damn about the universe," he replied, gritting his teeth as he pushed against Utsuro's sword. "I just wanted my family back, that's all."

"Oh?" Now Utsuro raised his eyebrow, as if Kankou had told him something mildly interesting. "A family? I suppose it's a change from you all are killing each other. In that case, let me send my congratulations - "

Kankou was barely listening to him. Instead, he pushed back Utsuro with all his might, finally hurling the immortal into yet another building, pulverizing it into ash.

He checked his watch. Five minutes left.

-x-

Tsukuyo had been busy evacuating the inhabitants in Yoshiwara to the surface that evening, correctly surmising that the damage done to the Altana ley lines would eventually reach the underground city. Though Batou hadn't given her all the details on what was happening, the fact that all members of the Harusame had suddenly left this morning had given her grave suspicion for things to come.

Plus, there was the fact that Kankou had left Kamui in her care, for some reason. The boy had actually listened to his father, and had told her the gist of it. Immortal beings responsible for the planetary destruction, and intent on destroying Earth that very same day? She had blinked a few times just to let it sink in, but the look on his face was all too serious, too jarring for her to dismiss it as complete heresy.

Once the first explosion of the Edo Terminal was heard, rocking the entire city, it had been much simpler for the Hyakka to organize the people into lines, all of them waiting for the elevators to pack them in towards the surface. It was hard to say which sort of death was preferable; the bombs and fire seen from the window were terrifying, but nobody wanted to die buried under the rubble, either.

She swallowed, antsy so far. Only half of the population had already safely escaped, and she'd been running around, making sure that the elderly were on the way towards the entrance of Yoshiwara. She'd checked every teahouse - most of them having gotten the memo already. She would find them mostly empty, but she'd made sure every alley, every hidden room was unoccupied, no stone left unturned. Hinowa and Seita had been the first in line, after making a pinky promise to the both of them that she would soon meet them on the surface.

Another rumble - almost like an earthquake - shook the ground which she stood on, and for a minute she was half-convinced that a boulder would drop onto the city, killing them all. When it passed, she breathed a sigh of relief, and continued to briskly jog to the next block, continuing to search for more inhabitants.

She would protect Yoshiwara, no matter what happened. That was her duty, after all.

-x-

Shoukaku had finally completed a full circle around the Hinokagutsuchi, attaching a clone to the wall each time he passed a quarter of the weapon's circumference. Once he had done that, Hankai had told him to go straight through the center, and he was preparing to do that before he came across two other individuals.

Twirling his stick, he hurled his weapon, intent on protecting himself before the other man had deflected it with a sword. "We're with the Altana Liberation army!" he shouted, and Shoukaku had lifted his staff, his eyes narrowed in surprise.

"What's with the little girl?"

Takasugi looked at her, and then back at Shoukaku. "She's a spy for the enemy. We've come here to destroy the weapon."

"Oh." Now he scratched his head, a bit sheepish. "My bad. You can't be too careful - those guys are tough as hell."

"Did you see any enemies yet?" Takasugi asked, his voice slightly muffled by his air mask.

"Nah, not yet. Haven't gone inside." Shoukaku tapped his interface, bringing up a hologram of Hankai once again. "How much time left?"

"Fifteen minutes... ? I've disabled the first three levels of security, so you all should be able to pass through Corridor A and B. The rest might have to be manually disabled."

"Manually, huh? Lucky for us, manual is how I like to do things."

The automatic doors of Corridor A had opened and the electric lights turned on. The three of them ran after each other into the corridor with Shoukaku taking the lead, knowing that time was of the essence.

There was no one in the first hallway, and so they proceeded to run ahead towards Corridor B, which was just as empty as the one before them.

With Corridor C, Shoukaku twirled his weapon, smashing the door apart.

Takasugi's eyes had widened at the display.

An array of dead bodies, remnants of the Tendoshu Elders were encased in glass cylinders with strange, florescent liquid.

Mukuro looked shocked. "I thought I burned them all down. It was on Utsuro's orders after he killed them all."

Shoukaku, on the other hand, was unimpressed. "He's just probably planning to resurrect them again."

At Takasugi's questioning glance, he explained it. "On Earth, he made his army immortal - able to fight even if they were critically injured. But thankfully, we engineered weapons to counteract the mutation - or whatever the hell it was that would turn them immortal."

Still, the display of the bodies was ... unnerving. They made their way to the next corridor, trying their best not to think of what would happen if Shoukaku had accidentally destroyed one of those cylinders.

Corridor D was different, and something ominous was looming over their shoulders before the gates forcibly closed down on them and the rogue hole that Shoukaku had punched through, preventing them from escaping.

An emergency alarm started to blare. An automatic warning was issued - Intruders, detected. Intruders, detected. Intruders, detected -

"It's a trap!" Shoukaku shouted, and swung his staff to the wall ahead of them. It barely made a dent.

Takasugi gritted his teeth in frustration. "What should we do?" he asked Mukuro, and she bit her lip, not knowing the answer.

Oboro had given her a general idea of what to do, but not explicitly how to do it.

The hologram of Hankai popped up. "I'm disabling the emergency alarm. Utsuro now knows you're here, but I think he's rather preoccupied at the moment."

Not too long afterwards, the alarms stopped abruptly, leaving behind a silence they all appreciated, but the gates were still firmly entrenched behind them.

"I think the first two corridors will self-detonate," Shoukaku said sourly, still trying to figure out how to get through to the next corridor.

"Is that common?" Takasugi asked.

"With weapons of self-destruction, the defense mechanisms are necessary because it's not like a stun gun. It needs time to load up all the energy particles at such a high frequency. So it's natural that it would have layers to protect heroes like us from stopping it." Shoukaku stared at the door to the next corridor, studying it.

He whacked the four corners of the fortified door with his staff, letting it crumple like a sheet of foil. "Heh. That was easy. Guess the older weapons didn't use pig-steel yet."

They followed him into the next hallway, and by now they could see more components of the weapon, its intricate wiring and machinery whirring away as the Altana energy began to materialize into a visible form.

Shoukaku tapped on his interface again. "How many minutes left, Hankai?"

"Five," he said crisply. "But with any luck, I should be able to push for the contingency override option. You'll get there fairly soon, I think."

When the three of them arrived to the command central, Shoukaku saw that the bulk of the weapon was surrounded by an empty pit.

He turned to Mukuro and Takasugi. "Got any long-distance weapons?"

To his surprise both of them took out stun guns. "Yeah," Takasugi said, and uncapped the safety. "Is this the time where we shoot things without giving a damn?"

Now the ape grinned. "Well, not quite. But close enough. We don't want to shoot the antigravity functions because it'll collide with Earth. Wouldn't want it to crush your city."

Takasugi scoffed. "You're saying it like it's a bad thing," he said.

"I mean, I don't give a damn." Now Shoukaku grinned, taking a second glance at the commander, tilting his head curiously. "But if the Coordinator says we have to use my squadron's spaceships to break its fall, then I'll be annoyed, because that's extra work when I could have just taken a bit of time to not... have to do that."

Personally, Takasugi would have thought that Oboro would have wanted Edo to be destroyed entirely - they both shared a similar sense of nihilistic humor - but again. It wasn't his call to make the executive decisions, for once in his life. He was glad that someone else was calling the shots this time.

"So? What should we do, then?"

-x-

The zombies were starting to head towards the Shogun's castle, which was a cause for concern. Momochi Rappa - who'd had had sent her squadrons of shinobi from the village to Edo that very morning - pulled her ninja puppets away with a tug of her chains, taking with them the heads of the Naraku.

She thought the Marishiten clan had been paranoid, but Zenzou had a point when he said that coup d'etats weren't exactly that uncommon, especially with how tumultuous the nation had been with a civil war in the making. The power of the Shogun was absolute, to the point where every last samurai could willingly wreak havoc and the Bakufu would still send out enough troops - backed by the Amanto, of course - to suppress them all.

That Zenzou brat had been right on the money, she thought ruefully. Originally, she had came here under the impression that the Shogun would have been assassinated by his fellow men after the speech he planned to publicly broadcast. Her first guess would have been some lone backstabber from the Hitotsubashi clan - and had been on the lookout for political sabotage. Never in a million years did she expect an intergalactic battle taking place, like this.

Still. Being in action in broad ... not daytime, but close enough - it was fairly exciting. The shinobi world had chosen to keep their stance neutral on the Jouishishi war, but now that the state-sanctioned death cult had collectively turned their backs on humanity, it was all fair game to join in, as long they were working together against the enemy.

The ninja village had known about the existence of the Naraku for a while. They just didn't actually expect world destruction to be on their agenda.

Beside her, Jiraia had peered at the immobile assassins with a look of morbid admiration; their heads and limbs had been neatly cut off and stacked on top of each other. "Nice job," he said.

"Thanks," Momochi said, eying another incoming squad of the Naraku. "Think you can take those out?"

He snorted. "I'm old, but not that old."

Truthfully, he'd came here to check up on his old student. He had spent the last half of the year repenting for his sins, requesting capital punishment, but the ninja village had refused, choosing to rectify his sins in a different way, even though he had committed enough atrocities against their kind to justify killing him off. Instead, they had sentenced him to five years of hard labor, and he'd been diligent about doing it without a single complaint. He'd been a model prisoner and once he found out that the Rappa clan was headed to Edo, he'd requested momentary leave - and they'd granted it to him.

Strange, how forgiveness, rather than self-hatred, had eased his burdens. With every day he started to forgive himself for his sister's death bit by bit, and he was looking forward to the day where he could walk side by side next to Tsukuyo with his head held high.

With his spider web, he'd set multiple traps, and more of the enemies had walked through it only to be sliced to pieces. It was a rather gory way to go, he thought. But at least it stopped them from moving their limbs.

-x-

"This is madness," Takasugi said. "I'm not escaping while you two are stuck here - "

"Umibouzu asked you to land the final blow, when the level of Altana radiation freezes his immortality." Both him and Mukuro were running around the periphery of the weapon, blasting bazookas while the Altana energy cube whirled, slowing down gradually with each projectile. Shoukaku was taking the other side, and was spotted not too far behind them doing the same thing. "That means you have to leave soon."

"But - "

"Sensei said the same thing. If Utsuro dies, it must be at your hands." Now Mukuro stopped, causing Takasugi to halt, nearly tripping over himself. "I promised Oboro-nii. I promised him that you, Sakata-senpai, and Katsura-senpai - you'd all meet Shoyou-sensei once he was ready to die."

"I see ... "

He hadn't expected the young girl to be so emotional. Nor did he think that he deserved to be called senpai - not by a girl who now wore an expression of grief so tender, so raw that his heart ached at the sight of it.

Maybe his prior assumptions that he'd been the only one to grieve as deeply as he did for Shoyou-sensei had been all wrong.

"If I'm your senpai, then rest assured I will fulfill my duty of granting our sensei's wish," Takasugi said, smiling. "Now, let's take down one thing at a time."

He'd barely remember the details later - that he'd launched himself into the middle of the weapon using his stun gun, using the force of it to propel himself to the core of the Hinokagutsuchi, carving the weapon in half using his sword - that Shoukaku had used the last clone of Hankai to completely disable the system, letting the electricity die down to nothing but a buzz - that Mukuro had blasted a hole for him to crawl out, allowing him to escape on Oboro's spaceship one last time...

There'd been a slowly congregating army of spaceships in front of the Hinokagutsuchi, but he had paid no attention to it, preferring to put all of his focus on escaping. Lasers were fired on sight of his spaceship; orbital strikes had been initiated. Still, he weaved his way through, bypassing them all by some miracle.

What he did remember the collective effort it had taken for him to come back to Earth, hoping that they'd all remain alive.

-x-

When he entered the Earth's atmosphere, a coordinate had already been sent on his navigator, and the landing had been tumultuous. But he had survived, despite his shaky navigation skills, managing to miss crashing his ship one of Edo's ghastly looking skyscrapers.

The cloud of dust that ensued from his rocky landing had caused his lone eye to water, and as he clambered out of his spaceship, he coughed. It almost caused him to miss a nearby Naraku who'd spotted the commander from afar, and he had grabbed his sword -

- only to find that someone had gotten ahead of him.

The body fell to the ground with a dull thud, revealing a familiar face behind it.

"Yo," Gintoki said, with Katsura not too far behind him. "How's it going, mastermind?"

-x-

Kankou was struggling.

He'd been prepared for this battle for years, and yet facing the reality of his enemy was a far different story. Not only was Utsuro a methodical, powerful, and immortal being, but he was also a highly experienced tactician with little to no blind spots. For every mistake, for every bit of hesitation that Kankou exhibited, Utsuro would capitalize on it immediately.

His body was really starting to hurt as a result of those small mistakes, despite his enhanced healing abilities.

Yatos were fast. But Utsuro was even faster.

"Do I detect weakness?" Utsuro said, his eyes glittering with anticipation of another victory. "I must admit, you've pushed me further than anybody here on this planet."

It was interesting to him how most of his foes during this battle were choosing to not respond to him. Either they had collectively picked up on the fact that he liked to play with his food, and they were refusing to give him the satisfaction... or they were all deaf.

This one was particularly tenacious, though. Not only was he a rabbit of the night, but he was an especially strong type that was keeping Utsuro completely entertained. God knew how much longer he would last - Utsuro had already punctured one of his lungs, and though it had only subtly changed his foe's combat ability by a margin, it'd been enough to nick his arm, putting a dent in his hyper beam cannon.

He kept glancing at his watch, as if he was looking for a time to escape. Utsuro hadn't paid it much attention, assuming that his defeat was coming soon.

Still, it was insulting for someone who would soon be resting in his deathbed.

Utsuro sped up, preparing to swing his sword; intent on slashing the Yato's umbrella in half - and then Kankou looked up from his watch, stared at the immortal straight in the eye, shoot two more bullets; one in the forehead and one at his foot.

With a look of pure hatred, Kankou had said to him, rather menacingly, "Kouka sends her regards."

Then he punched Utsuro so hard in the chest that his heart nearly stopped beating in the process.

He lifted the intercom to his mouth. "Shiroyasha. It's your turn now. His cells won't regenerate anymore."

-x-

After Utsuro emerged, limping, it was clear to him that the city had been reduced to a state of pure anarchy.

The shrine maidens were busy suppressing the ley lines of the Altana port that was connected to the terminal - which was now reduced to a barely standing pile of rubble, if that, and Utsuro found the whole scene irritating.

Why wouldn't they give up?

Why did the humans - and he supposed, in conjunction, the Amanto race - insist on survival, like the miserly rats they all were?

Couldn't they see how pointless it was, to continue living on the way they all were, with war, disease, and the twisted evil had that plagued all of humanity throughout the ages?

Why couldn't they see his logic?

Why?

He limped his way towards to the center, intent on submerging himself into another crater of Altana.

He would not underestimate his foes next time. Perhaps they had bested him today, but unlike them, he was capable of living forever. Though he had wished for death, he also wished for it to only happen with the advent of humanity's destruction.

Only then, would he permit himself to die.

Utsuro was about to take another step, until he saw three soldiers in front of him, their eyes determined, and full of hope.

-x-

The last three students of Yoshida Shoyou stood defiantly in front of him, knowing that they were the last defense against humanity.

The immortal had finally turned mortal, and it showed with the cracks in his skin. The tiny bit of Altana energy in his body that was left uncorrupted by the bullets, did the barest amount to seal his wounds temporarily.

Gintoki took out the light saber that had been a gift from Prince Enshou, and pressed the button on the handle. The green electrodes started to buzz loudly, even in the midst of the chaos surrounding them - the bullets, the fire, the smoke notwithstanding. His left hand held his Altana-tempered sword, ready to strike on command.

"Ya know, I have to say that it's really not every day that I meet a complete bastard like you," he said casually, but there was the smallest hint of fury behind his red eyes. "You just killed one of my friends a few hours ago, and he was really looking forward to cutting your goddamn head off."

The prince had waited fifteen years for his revenge. Gintoki hadn't forgotten what he'd learned since the day of Shoyou's execution.

Behind him, Takasugi and Katsura had unsheathed their Shoryuumon swords, and by now they had realized that it was only the three of them that had been granted the final honor of vowing vengeance on the enemy that had caused so much anguish and despair to countless victims.

Utsuro only smirked. "Vengeance is simply a waste of time. I only gave him what he wanted - which was his desire to die."

He knew what it was like, to be consumed with such rage that the only outlet was to take it out on those who deserved it.

Gintoki's stance tightened at that.

"I see," Gintoki said coldly, and without a warning, had sprinted in a frontal attack, serving as a diversion while Takasugi and Katsura ran towards the immortal's back. It was their cue for Takasugi to slash away at Utsuro's neck while Katsura was hacking away at Utsuro's feet. Gintoki, being the strongest of the three, had chosen to simply stab Utsuro in the chest, crushing the body into a nearby concrete wall.

Their momentary victory didn't last long, though. It had caught them off guard when Utsuro grabbed all of them like rag dolls and hurled them far away from him.

"He's still dangerous!" Katsura shouted, rolling to his feet. He was the first to run back to the enemy, charging straight at him, finding that Utsuro was not only still incredibly strong, but now was intent on escaping into the Altana port. "He's running away!"

Gintoki growled, and pressed another button from Enshou's beam saber. Multiple laser dots materialized in the air, and he flicked them towards Utsuro's direction.

Some of them had made contact, causing him to trip over the stairs. All three of them were sprinting as fast as they could, intent on inflicting as much damage before it was too late.

And then everything began to blur together, as if time had stopped entirely.

There was Katsura, managing to stab Utsuro in the back, only to withdraw his sword from the immortal's body without a single battle cry, his eyes solemn and sad -

Gintoki at the helm, furious and intent on hurling electrodes at Utsuro, as if his life depended on it -

Takasugi, elegantly slashing away at the immortal's defenses, knocking away Utsuro's sword from his hands once his grip had weakened with the toll of his injuries -

Utsuro punching Gintoki so hard that he landed face down on the concrete ground -

Katsura cutting off Utsuro's wrist in retaliation -

Another slash -

Another blow -

Another slice of someone's blade, cutting off Utsuro's leg this time -

And suddenly, Takasugi found himself in the perfect position to stab Utsuro in his heart, with Katsura gripping the Utsuro's head with his strong arms, completely preventing him from escaping -

"DO IT, TAKASUGI!" Gintoki had yelled, his eyes frantic. His nose was bleeding, and though he was twenty feet away from the monster, he knew he wouldn't be able to reach there in time if his comrade hesitated.

This time, Takasugi understood what Gintoki had done for him last time they had seen each other, and he nodded.

Gritting his teeth, he plunged his sword into Utsuro's heart, and it was simultaneously the easiest and hardest thing he had ever done in his life.

The monster, after all this time, still looked like Shoyou-sensei.

-x-

- tbc -

-x-

a/n: Thank you.