So... This was supposed to be from Chibisugi POV. But I ran out of idea from that front. So this came from Gintoki's POV, or is it Narrator's POV? Anyway, Long time no see. But college is hell and this idea only came today. When I was watching Gintama Opening 18 this suddenly bloomed.

Well, have fun reading~

Time moved quickly for the spirit child. The man called Yoshida Shouyou gave him the name Sakata Gintoki. He taught Gintoki how to read and write, Shouyou also taught him swordsmanship. Gintoki always wondered about Shouyou, the spirits of Life and the spirits of Death always hovered around him. And not only a few like normal people, but hundreds, So many that Gintoki lost count. As if Shouyou had lived and died numerous time. There was also aura great sorrow and guilt around him, like he lost someone important to him. Not only that, sometimes in a bad day, Shouyou woke up different. As though someone else took over Shouyou's body. Whenever that happened, the spirits of Death always felt agitated and the number of Life spirits were reduced significantly. Gintoki always called Shouyou's name and he would return to normal.

"Shouyou-sensei. What are you?" he asked one day.

"A monster." Shouyou said. The dark bluish aura of melancholy came and settled around him. Gintoki fell silent. He saw the weird mix between spirits around Shouyou. He also saw something that he never seen around other normal people. Between the many spirits of Life and Death around Shouyou, he also saw the flow of energy between the spirits of Earth to Shouyou.

"I see. I guess we both are abnormal." He said.

"Hmm, I suppose so."

Together, they travelled from place to place. Until they finally settled on a small village. It was a quiet place. Everyone was nice to each other and they were given an old temple to use as school building. It took a few weeks to clean it up and prepare it for a school. At first only a few kid came, slowly, the number of students grew until almost twenty. Gintoki watched over everything with his apathetic eyes. He saw the spirits buzzing with the new children, and yet, no one ever made a connection with him just like Shouyou did. So he often left wandering across the village. He still attended the dojo, but rarely showed up to normal class since he already capable of reading and writing way before they reach the village.

One day, when he slept above the tree, the spirits of Life buzzed again. It's not normal, new people came kind of buzz, but almost similar to the one with Shouyou. Curious, he opened his eyes and saw two kids talked in front of the temple. Around him, the spirits of Life flew in intricate dance, forming a thin strand of red strings. He heard them talking about unimportant thing and felt the incoming number of people. He kept silent and stay hidden among the tree branches. Just as they started to fight, Gintoki stepped in and threw his sword.

"Gyaa, gyaa, gyaa, gyaa. Is it mating seasons around here, bastards? If you wanna train do it at the temple school. Have you guys not even learned how to cut classes? If you haven't how about I teach you?" and so, Gintoki jumped and landed straight at the leader's face. Just as the angry mob went to strike him, the all fell down courtesy of the fist to their head. He felt the aura before he saw the person and chill went through his spine. Shouyou was smiling with angry aura and that combination never bode well for his safety. True enough, before he realised it, Shouyou hit his head and everything went blurry. Just as Shouyou dragged him back, he heard Shouyou told the two kids to go back.

Two days later, the spirits told him that the kids came again. So he went to the front of the dojo and saw the purple haired kid. Apparently, the kid wanted to challenge the temple school. And so Gintoki fought him, and beat him quite swiftly. The kid fell down and passed out, so Shouyou brought him to an unused room to treat his wound. Gintoki followed them and saw the thin thread became thicker and stronger. Not only to the purple kid, but the ponytailed one that lurked around as well. Gintoki knew, sooner or later, his life would intertwined with those two. The silver haired child overheard them talking about the way of samurai. Even without seeing it directly, he knew the aura of melancholy descend upon Shouyou again. He wanted to stop the aura from ever appearing around Shouyou again. But he knew it would be difficult if not impossible. So he left to prepare for dinner.

The purple kid, whose name was Takasugi Shinsuke (Chibi, in Gintoki's mind) came again and again to challenge Gintoki. Until finally, unexpectedly he managed to hit Gintoki (Gintoki inwardly swore he was distracted by the spirits). Everyone cheered so hard that someone finally managed to touch Gintoki that they decided to celebrate with onigiri that was made by the ponytailed kid. Gintoki was flabbergasted on why everyone seemed to be all friendly to each other. He tried to remind everyone that Takasugi was an enemy, and yet everyone including sensei decided to celebrate. So he decided he will join the festivities anyway.

A few days later, Takasugi came again and warned him that the some whiny brat made a false report about Shouyou's teaching. Because of this, the police might came and capture Shouyou. The kid wanted Gintoki and Shouyou to run away warning him, Takasugi immediately left. As Gintoki walked back inside, the spirits of Time suddenly buzzed. They gave warning that tonight is an important night. 'Really, so many warning in one night' he thought. He found Shouyou enjoying tea in the garden and so, he told him of Takasugi's warning. Shouyou had a pensieve look on his face, as though he was considering something quite unpleasant. He then smiled and told the silver haired child not to worry. Of course, this made Gintoki worried.

Night came, Gintoki grabbed his scarf and sword. He hesitated when he passed the wooden sword normally used for training. If his guess is right (which usually is), then those two will try to hold the officers back. If he used real blade, he might traumatized the kids. As ruthless as Gintoki might be, he knew that normal kids rarely saw true death. In the end, he decided to grab one wooden sword. He still brought his sword, he never felt comfortable without it anyway. And so, he left while asking the spirits of Light to brighten his way. As he walked, he saw the strands getting thicker and thicker. This makes him sure, those two will be his fellow student. Students of Shoka Sonjuku.

He saw the two kids talked at the junction near Shoka Sonjuku. And so he interjected, he saw no noble kids. All he saw was Shoka Sonjuku's brats. He did wonder why they looked so surprised when they heard him. Apparently, they thought he was going to run with Shouyou. Not that that will help anyway. It's better if Gintoki and Shouyou handled this. Better them rather than two sheltered kids. Of course, at that moment the spirits of life sang and the slowly growing threads became as strong as the invisible rope he had with Shouyou. At the same time, those two kids, no, Takasugi and Katsura decided to ignore Gintoki and fight with him anyway.

Together, they moved to fight against the officers. Or they would, if Shouyou didn't suddenly came from behind the officers and destroyed their swords. Shouyou warned the officers to not unsheathe their swords. The bright red aura of anger clearly visible around Shouyou to Gintoki's eyes. When the officers finally ran away, Shouyou turned to them. Gintoki was still wary, Shouyou still had that angry aura even if it's slowly disappearing. He told Takasugi that he didn't have any dojo to be challenged again. Apparently, both Takasugi and Katsura decided to follow Shouyou anyway. And so, those two joined Gintoki and Shouyou in their travel.

When they reached another village, again they built a temple school. Gintoki felt comfortable enough with Katsura to gave him a nickname. Zura, he called him. Naturally, Zura was enraged. Chibi said something about Zura being General or something, that's why he won't fight. Gintoki thought this was silly, and decided that he will be the general so Zura could fight. Again, Takasugi responded with something inane and Zura concluded that he will fight the both of them to see who could be the general. All in all, everything is calm and peaceful.

One day, the spirits was agitated. The spirits of Time gave Gintoki a terrible premonition. For a whole week, he was as agitated as the spirits around him. And then, on the seventh day, Kansei Purge begun and Shouyou was taken. The invisible rope that connected his life to Shouyou slowly unraveled. Thus, the students of Shoka Sonjuku joined the war.

Not sure when the next update will came. Probably about the Joui War for a chapter. Since not a lot of material in canon so I need to write some made up stuff on my own. Might incorporate the second movie since I put in some spirits of Time. Maybe in the next chapter. I need to rewatch the second movie to get better understanding of the war. I can't wait to write about Gintoki meeting Gintoki. It will be a headache and a half. Maybe two headache. And now I'm rambling.

Well, see you next time. Whenever that is.

Don't forget to give a review

Bye~