Chapter 2 : Goners
Maybe it was finally time she let him know. It was time for her to be free from her own secret.
"Gintoki..."
"Hmmm?" Gintoki replied with his eyes still shut.
"Can I say something?"
"What is it?"
"I'm...uhmm...how to say it...," she had troubles finding the correct words to start her sentence, a quite hard task for her.
"Come on, did you bite your tongue?" he grumbled, finally opening his eyes to look at her tensed face.
"Sheddep! It's hard for me to say it, okay?"
"Fine...," he clicked his tongue and sighed.
She took a deep breath and calmed herself before saying things.
"Well... did you consider me a great woman?" collected enough resolve, she addresed the question fluently.
"... Why'd you ask something like that?"
"I wonder if I actually looked good for someone"
Someone... he wondered who was the man that made her care about appearance. All the things she cared about were fighting and guarding a city, and he was sure as hell that nobody would want to mess with her.
"Who is this someone?" he rised from his sleeping position.
"I can't tell you," she refused to open up early.
"I need to know if you wanted to look good in front of old leeches or teenagers with overwhelming hormones," he said jokingly before receiving a punch to the stomach.
"Just answer it, you jerk"
He winced about his stomach for a while before answering her.
"Well, maybe you look good but you have terrible temper and love to smack guys on the gut. Happy now?" he said while caressing his abdomen.
No answer from her, just silence. Awaiting the moment of truth.
"What if that someone is you?"
"Me? What do you mean?" he gulped.
"I asked if I am to your liking, dullhead. Out of all people, I happened to be falling for a dumbass like you"
"W-What...," He was dumbfounded by her sudden confession.
"I only wanted to blurt that out because I can't keep the secret to myself any longer, although you don't have to reply it since I already know the answer..."
She faced him to look him in the eyes before continuing, "I ain't the person for you, am I? You must have someone else in mind already"
He just sat there, unable to let out any word from his mouth.
"I just hope we can stay as friends after I said this to you," she continued.
Before he could say any words, a voice called for her. Tsukuyo followed the source of voice and found Seita running towards them.
"Tsukuyo-nee! Tsukuyo-nee! Can you go with me to the bazaar? There are so much stuffs there!" Seita asked her to follow him excitingly.
She stood up from her place before facing Gintoki again to say something, "Guess I'll go for now," and then she went to accompany her 'brother' at the crowded festival. Her figure slowly got smaller and eventually vanished from his vision.
He was still fazed from all the things that happened in such a short span of time. She had said the least words he expected to say, and he couldn't think of a way to respond. Quite lucky for him, their last chatter was only when he returned her pipe, saving him from the awkward situation for the rest of the day...
...
The day after, Yoshiwara
"I'm home," Tsukuyo entered her house after a long usual day of guarding the city. She really felt exhausted and the only thing that came to her mind was sinking in a tub filled with warm water and go straight to sleep after that.
"Oh, you're home," Hinowa came out from the door to greet her. "I actually heated some buns for you," she continued.
"That would be nice, thank you," she then mentally added eating buns into her to-do-next list, a little detour from the original plan. She picked a bun in the kitchen and ate it thoroughly when Hinowa reappeared from the door.
"So Tsukuyo, I've been wanting to say something to you, and it seems like the only proper time is now," Hinowa spoke with a large smile that could mean a lot of things. Tsukuyo only knew that it wouldn't end up nice for herself.
"What is it?" she replied, trying to act cool by continuing eating.
"About yesterday...," Hinowa started.
Bad sign... truly a bad sign...
"I've heard something interesting from Gin-san"
Of course, she should have seen that coming.
"What did he tell you?" she asked Hinowa.
"Mostly about your words to him. I never thought there would be a day when you finally spoke out your feelings" she answered with the same smile she had before.
"So you found out about it, then. It won't matter much though" a small frown formed on Tsukuyo's lips.
"Why would you say that?"
"He'll reject it. Besides, I only told him that because I wanted to shake this feeling off"
"How could you be sure with his response?" Hinowa felt sad about her pessimistic attitude.
"Can't you see it? It's clear that he never looked at me as more than a nuisance. Plus I don't have any lady-like demeanor that he would fancy..."
Hinowa chuckled, "I don't think you'll need any of that. Just have more faith, you're better than you think you are". Hinowa approached her and held her hands like a caring mother, "I promise, you will have the answer soon enough"
Tsukuyo was intrigued by the last statement, "What does that mean?"
Hinowa didn't give any clear answer and only winked one of her eyes accompanied by a mysterious grin, "Nothing, hehe. By the way, don't you want to clean up and rest for now?"
"Yeahh.. right...," she answered with a weird tone, still agitated by the unanswered question.
She left the kitchen not long after and went straight to bed after taking some time in the warm bath tub.
You will have the answer soon enough
An answer for what?
She laid down on the futon she had spreaded and immediately trying to sleep the night away, not letting the events from the past bother her too much. All she needed was a nice rest that she had craved from the start.
The soothing wind calmed her down as she entered the land of dreams and went deeper into nothingness.
To Be Continued
...
Nothing really matters here
In these gusts of black winds
...
Should I awake to the glints of lights
Or lull deeper into the looming dark
...