The Gintama anime is back! Woo-hoo! It was a hilarious episode too XD Between that and the One Piece chapter (783 O_O), this week was a pretty enjoyable one for me. Anyways, here's another really long chapter for you guys! Enjoy!
Silver Moon – Book 1 Chapter 13
Everybody inside of Odd Jobs Gin was currently staring in silence at the party's newest arrival. It was none other than the infamous Joi Patriot, Kotaro Katsura himself. To everyone's surprise, another person was soon climbing in through the window after him. The group continued to stare as the odd bird-like creature known as Elizabeth landed next to his leader.
It was then that the two of them stood up and took a glance around the room. An awkward silence seemed to have fallen as everyone continued to simply look at one another. Elizabeth decided to hold up one of his trademark signs in an effort to communicate with the group. It read simply, 'Um, is this a bad time?'
Shinpachi looked over from his place on the couch and decided to ask the question that was on everyone's mind. "Katsura-san, Elizabeth-san, what are you two doing here?"
"Ah, hello, Shinpachi," said Katsura as he raised his hand in greeting. He seemed to be happy that someone had broken the silence. "It's nice to see you. Might I ask, what are you doing sitting there all tied up?"
"It's…kind of a long story," replied the boy.
Kagura then decided to speak up. "Zura, please answer the question, what are you doing here?"
"Well, you see, Leader," said Katsura as he looked at the girl, "we came over here as soon as we heard about your dilemma concerning Gintoki."
"You mean Gin-chan's girlfriend?" asked Kagura with a slightly confused look. "But, how did you even find out about that? It's not like we called you or anything."
'We have our ways' said Elizabeth through a signboard.
"One of our scouts found out about your investigation and reported it to us earlier today," said Katsura with a confident grin.
Shinpachi gave the two a look of complete disbelief. "You used your scouts to find out about something like this? I thought you were supposed to be fighting for the sake of this country!"
"Now, now, Shinpachi," said Katsura as he shook his head. "You're too young and naive. You just wouldn't understand the ways of us nationalists."
"You're right! I don't understand!" shouted Shinpachi out of frustration. "Besides, where have you two been this whole time? I thought you said you came as soon as you heard about this!"
"Ah, yes, we were waiting on standby."
"What? Standby!? So you were just sitting outside the whole time like you always do? Don't you guys ever do anything productive?"
"Well, we couldn't just come in while the Shinsengumi chief was hanging around, now could we?"
"Hey, don't ignore my question! You guys are just messing around, aren't you!?"
"Anyways," said Katsura, "as one of Gintoki's closest friends, I decided that I must come here and introduce myself to his new girlfriend. It's only the polite thing to do."
"Are you guys asking if you can join us?" asked Kagura as she looked at them.
'If you will allow it' said Elizabeth.
The group glanced around at each other for a moment before Sachan made the call. "We don't care if you join us," she said casually. "You guys can take the Gorilla's place since he's gone now."
"Really? That's great!" said Katsura with an excited voice. "Oh man, this takes me back. I remember that Gintoki used to have a couple of lady-friends back in the day. I can't wait to find out who he has taken a liking to this time. We'll help you guys find out as soon as he gets here. That's the plan, right?"
"Yeah, that's it," said Kagura.
"Sorry, we couldn't help but overhear everything while we waited," he said with a small laugh. He then took another quick glance around the room before he looked away. The smile slowly faded from his face. "It's honestly a shame that it had to come to this though. I can't believe that Gintoki wanted to hide this from us. It just isn't right; there shouldn't be any secrets between comrades."
Upon hearing this, Tsukuyo couldn't help but look down to the floor out of guilt. I'm starting to feel kind of bad about this she thought. It seems like they are all really upset that Gintoki has been keeping this a secret. Maybe we should have just told them from the start instead of hiding it. After all, aren't they our friends? I can't help but feel like this whole situation is entirely my fault…
As Tsukuyo was starting to feel ashamed, Shinpachi suddenly decided to speak up and defend Gintoki's actions. "Now hold on a minute, what's the big deal if Gin-san wants to keep his relationship a secret? He doesn't have any obligation to tell you guys anything. He has every right to keep it private if he wants. Why do you guys care if he's seeing someone?"
The group was silent for a second before Otae looked to her brother. "Well, we're Gin-san's friends aren't we? Don't we have a right to know what he's up to?"
"Yeah," said Sachan in a defensive tone. "We don't hide anything from him, so why is he hiding this from us? Why doesn't he want us to find out, huh!?"
"Face it, Shinpachi, we all have our own reasons for wanting to find out about this girl," said Kyuubei as she bowed her head.
"Yeah? Well you know what I think?" asked Shinpachi as he looked at the girls in front of him with a scowl. "I think that the only reason you guys want to know is because you're all jealous."
The whole room seemed to go quiet upon hearing this. Everyone turned to face the three women who had just been accused of having feelings for the samurai. Surprisingly, Otae and Kyuubei slightly blushed as they looked away from the boy.
"W-what are you talking about, Shin-chan?" asked Otae nervously. "W-why would we be jealous?"
"Yeah," said Kyuubei, "why would we want to go out with that idiot? There's no appeal in that."
Sachan, however, simply glared at the boy and shouted at the top of her lungs. "OF COURSE I'M JEALOUS! HOW'S COME SOME RANDOM BITCH GETS TO GO OUT WITH GIN-SAN AND I DON'T!? WHAT'S UP WITH THAT, HUH!?"
As Sachan continued screaming her head off, Hasegawa quietly leaned over towards Tama, who stood next to him. "Um, I thought this was some sort of welcome party," he whispered to the robot girl. "Now I'm just really confused. I've had no idea what's been going on since I got here."
"Me neither," she whispered back with a small smile. "But it's kind of fun, isn't it? Watching them all go crazy with worry. It's kind of cute in a way. Don't you agree, Catherine-sama?"
The cat-like girl simply let out a puff of air as she leaned against the wall with her arms crossed. "I honestly don't care about any of this," she said. "I'm just here to find out who's the dumb bitch going out with that idiot. As soon as I find out, I'm leaving."
Soon enough, the other girls were doing their best to calm Sachan down from her sudden outrage. After all, there was no point in being worked into a frenzy at that point in time.
"Save your energy for when Gin-san gets here," said Otae calmly as she put a hand upon the Shinobi's shoulder.
"Yes, let's try to relax until then, shall we?" said Katsura as he sat down on the couch next to Shinpachi. He didn't seem to mind sitting next to the boy, even though he was obviously the group's convicted prisoner.
As the group started to settle down, Kagura came and leaned over the armrest of the couch so that she was facing Katsura. "Hey, Zura," she said, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Fire away, Leader."
"Is it really true that Gin-chan used to go out with girls?"
"Yep, you better believe it. If I remember correctly, there were a quite a few girls that he had crushes on back in the day."
Shinpachi suddenly took an interest in what the man sitting next to him was saying. "Wow, seriously? I never knew that," he said.
"No surprise there," said Katsura. "There's no doubt that Gintoki tried to keep that a secret too. Hey, I'd bet you kids would like to hear some stories about his past girlfriends. You'd like to hear that, wouldn't you?"
At the mention of this, Kagura's face lit up in excitement and even Shinpachi looked curious. The rest of the group also quieted down as they started to listen to the young veteran. Tsukuyo also listened in, as she was interested in the subject as well.
"Well, let's see," he said, putting his hand to his chin as he started to recollect his memory. "The one that I remember the most about would probably be the beautiful young lady known as Anise."
A smile came to Kagura's face as she listened to the story. "Anise?" she asked excitedly. "Who was she? What did she look like?"
"Now, now, calm down and let me tell the story," said Katsura with a modest smile. "I'm sure you kids are going to love to hear this story. It was back during the time of the Joi war. It all started when our group took a little trip to the red light district-"
"Hold on a second!" screamed Shinpachi from his seat next to Katsura. "The red light district!? Are you sure this is something you should be telling us about!? Aren't we a little too young to hear about this sort of thing!?"
"Oh, don't worry, Shinpachi," said Katsura with a confident look. "You two are plenty old enough to hear about this. So anyways, we had stopped in the red light district and we were going to take the opportunity to enjoy ourselves-"
"I seriously don't think that we should be listening to this!"
Katsura just ignored the boy and continued telling his story. "So, we all ended up choosing women for ourselves that we found suitable. However, a problem arose when Gintoki and our former comrade Takasugi chose the same girl! At first, it seemed like a fight was going to break out between the two, but the girl ended up settling things by deciding that she would rather spend the evening with Takasugi. Gintoki was so upset that he ended up leaving the place and wandering off on his own. That was when he met Anise."
"What was she like?" asked Kagura as she daydreamed about the story.
"Anise? She was a very kind young lady who was also a very hard and dedicated worker."
"What kind of work did she do?" asked Otae out of curiosity.
"Oh, she was a prostitute."
"A prostitute!?" shouted Shinpachi, taking on his straight man role. "Gin-san dated a prostitute back in the day? Is that where his interests lied back then!? And what do you mean by hard and dedicated worker? How dedicated was this prostitute?"
"What's a prostitute?" asked Kagura in an innocent voice.
"Ah, well you see, a prostitute is someone who-"
"Don't tell her what a prostitute is!" Shinpachi screamed towards Katsura. "Just skip it and get back to the story!"
"Oh, right, the story. So Gintoki ended up taking a liking to the lovely maiden known as Anise. He fell in love with her and actually started going out with her for a short while, but sadly, it wasn't long before he broke up with her."
"Why? What happened?" asked Kagura.
"Gintoki ended up finding out that she was sleeping with several other men aside from him."
"Well of course she was!" shouted Shinpachi once again. "Wasn't she a prostitute after all!? Wasn't that her job!?"
"Gintoki was also unhappy that he had to keep paying just to spend time with her."
"He had to keep paying!? Were they even in a relationship in the first place!? Are you sure you didn't just imagine their relationship inside of your head!?"
Kagura tilted her head to the side as she thought about the story. "So, Gin-chan is really into these 'prostitute' kind of girls, huh? Do you think that's what his new girlfriend is like?"
"Wait a minute," said Otae as she put a hand to her forehead. "The woman Gin-san is dating now is another prostitute?"
"Of course!" shouted Sachan as she clenched her fists. "I should have known that this bitch was also a slut! I'll bet she doesn't even like Gin-san! She's probably just using him for her own personal reasons! That whore!"
Tsukuyo just quietly stood in the corner as she listened to the insults that were starting to be thrown out. She heard the words 'slut', 'bitch', and many other names called out several times for Gintoki's new girlfriend. Tsukuyo didn't want to accept it, but she knew deep down that they were actually talking about her. They were insulting their own friend right in front of them and they didn't even know it.
I feel horrible she thought as she looked to the floor. They're only acting like this because we kept our relationship a secret. I guess I never realized how upset I was making everyone by going out with Gintoki. I never really asked anyone if they were ok with it, I kind of just did what I wanted to do. I didn't think about what anyone else wanted. I was only thinking about myself. Was that wrong? Was it selfish of me to want to go out with Gintoki?
Tsukuyo then lifter he head up towards the group in front of her and felt a bit of guilt. It was never like this before. Not because of me anyway. They all used to get along and smile and laugh. Now they're all upset and about ready to kill someone. And it's all because of me.
Maybe…maybe everyone would just be better off…if me and Gintoki weren't in a relationship at all…
And with that, the group continued to insult and criticize the poor girl who stood in the corner while she went ahead and placed all of the blame on herself…
It was not long before evening arrived and the sun had started to set. Gintoki was on his way home after a long afternoon at work and he was clearly tired. He was still grumbling about not having any help that day, and he was planning on lecturing Shinpachi and Kagura the first chance he got.
Once he arrived at the building where he lived, he slowly climbed up the stairs and made his way to the front door. He went ahead and opened it and was surprised to find Sadaharu waiting just inside the doorway. He stared at Gintoki as if he had been awaiting his arrival.
"Arf!" he cried with his tongue hanging out.
Gintoki was still tired and didn't really want to deal with the dog at that moment. "Get out of the way, would you? I'm exhausted and I just want to relax."
He entered the building and started walking down the hallway when Sadaharu suddenly clamped onto Gintoki's arm. The dog pulled back with all of his might to prevent the man from going any further.
"Let go, you damn mutt!" yelled Gintoki as he tried to free his arm. "What's the matter with you? Can't I just enter my own house in peace?"
Gintoki managed to pull his arm out of the dog's jaws and quickly held it away from him. Sadaharu then started barking continuously at the samurai in front of him.
Gintoki just gave him a weird look as he turned around and started walking again. "Geez, stupid dog. What the hell was that about? It's like you don't want me to enter the house or something. Well, whatever. It's been a long day and I just want to sit down and read Jump, ok? Sheesh."
Sadaharu simply shook his head as he watched his master walk away. He had tried to warn the poor man, but he just wouldn't listen.
Gintoki arrived at the closed door that led to the main room and paused. As he stood there, he could suddenly hear voices coming from inside. It didn't just sound like Shinpachi and Kagura either; it sounded like it was quite a few different people.
What the hell? What's going on in there? Did Gran come to collect the rent or something? And with that, Gintoki's curiosity got the best of him. He quickly slid open the door and received the biggest surprise of his life.
Standing in different places throughout his living room were most of his friends. His mouth immediately fell open out of shock as he looked at all of them. It was not long before they all noticed his presence in return and the entire room went dead silent.
Gintoki had only a brief moment to look around and take everything in. Kagura was there. Otae, Kyuubei, and Sachan were all there. Shinpachi was there and was tied down to the couch with ropes. The two girls who worked downstairs were there. The Madao was there. Katsura and his pet were there. The biggest surprise of all was that his girlfriend was there. Gintoki managed to notice all of this in just a split second. It was then that the questions started.
"Gin-chan, why didn't you tell us you had a girlfriend?"
"Gin-san! Who's the bitch you're going out with!? Tell me right now!"
"Gin-san, how long have you been seeing this girl?"
"Gintoki, how long have you been taking advantage of this girl?"
Gintoki was utterly speechless as he heard his secret being tossed around like it was common knowledge. Beads of sweat started to show on his face as he became extremely nervous. He wasn't quite sure what was going on right at that moment. All he knew was that he was suddenly scared for his life.
He quickly put his hands up in front of him in an effort to get the group to calm down. "N-now hold on a second," he managed to stutter. "W-what are you all t-talking about?"
"Gin-chan, we're asking about your girlfriend. Now tell us about her," said Kagura in a very serious and demanding expression. It was clear that she really wanted to learn about this secret and would be willing to do anything to get it out of him at that point.
Gintoki, however, was still a few steps behind. "W-what? A girlfriend? Y-you mean m-me?" he said as he pointed to himself. "Come on, you guys know I don't have any-"
It was then that Gintoki noticed Shinpachi out of the corner of his eye. The boy simply stared at him and spoke in a barely audible tone.
"Gin-san, they know."
It was then that Gintoki fully realized that everyone in the room was aware of the fact that he was indeed going out with a girl. A sense of fear was felt running throughout his body as he pictured what was going to happen to him in the next instant. He then attempted to do the only logical thing that his brain could think of in his current situation. He turned around and tried to make a run for it.
The others, however, had been expecting this long before Gintoki had even arrived at all. They knew that he would probably try something like this, and they weren't about to let him get away. Gintoki had barely even taken a few steps before Kagura had grabbed him from behind and lifted him off the ground. She then started dragging him back towards the room using all of her strength.
Amidst the struggle, Gintoki somehow managed to notice that Sadaharu was sitting in the exact spot where he had left him. Out of desperation, he held his arms out in front of him and cried for help. "Sadaharu! Please, save me! Save your beloved master! Can't you see he needs you!?"
The dog only looked at the man with a disappointed expression as if to say, 'I tried to warn you.'
"You damn mutt! See if I ever feed you again! Ah!" he screamed as he was violently dragged into the room by several people at the same time.
"Quick, put him on the couch!" shouted Sachan. "I'll bind him with my ropes so he can't go anywhere!"
"Right!" shouted Kagura as she practically threw the poor samurai to the seat. The group managed to hold him in place long enough for Sachan to permanently confine him there. Within a few seconds, Gintoki found himself in the exact same situation as Shinpachi.
"What the hell are you guys doing!?" he screamed as he struggled against the ropes. "Why am I tied down to the damn couch? Let me go, would ya?"
"Don't even bother, Gin-san," said Shinpachi with a sigh. "They know your secret. They're not going to let you go until you tell them what they want to know. Trust me, I've been like this all day."
"Seriously? You've got to be kidding me!" shouted Gintoki as he continued to fight with the ropes that bound him. He looked over to the boy next to him. "I was only gone for a few hours! What the hell happened? How did they find out!?"
"It wasn't my fault! Honest! Everyone was suspicious of you since this morning, and one thing just led to another! I couldn't even do anything to stop it! I really tried too! But just look at what they did to me! They're an unstoppable force, Gin-san!"
Gintoki stopped struggling for a moment as he started to realize the full extent of the situation he was in. "Damn it," he said. "So it's really come to this, huh?"
Gintoki looked up at the group and noticed that some of them seemed kind of amused by his frantic struggling behavior. Some of them even looked like they were fighting back laughter. This only seemed to piss Gintoki off even more than he already was.
Grrr, why are those idiots laughing? Is it really that funny watching me desperately squirm around here?
He quickly took a moment to stare at Tsukuyo as she stood in the corner away from the rest crowd. She looked at him with a slightly worried expression before her eyes then fell towards the floor. I wonder when she got here he thought with a curious expression. She must have ended up getting dragged into this by the others. They must not know that she's the one going out with me.
As he continued to stare at Tsukuyo, Gintoki started to notice something. She was keeping to herself and looked like she felt really bad about something. Something is off. She seems like she's kind of upset, but she won't look at me to let me know what's up. I hope that she hasn't had a hard time being here…
His thoughts were then interrupted as Katsura placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a soft smile. "Congratulations on landing a new girlfriend, Gintoki. How's come you didn't tell us until now?"
It seemed like Katsura's sudden words had managed to gather everyone's attention. They all stopped their giggling and started to focus on their new prisoner once again.
"That's right, Gin-chan," said Kagura as she crossed her arms. "We want to know everything that you've been hiding from us. Perhaps you would be willing to share?"
Gintoki simply gave the girl a blank stare before he gave a small chuckle. "Like hell I'm going to do that. You guys think that I'm just going to tell you everything now that you have me tied up here? Well, tough luck. I'm not saying a word."
Kagura growled out of agitation with the man in front of her. "Damn it, Gin-chan! How long do you plan on keeping this a secret? Just look at yourself! You can't hide it any longer. We know you're dating some girl, now tell us who she is!"
"Do whatever you want, I'm not talking," said Gintoki with a look of indifference.
Sachan then stepped up to the samurai and gave him a scowl. "Haven't you played with my emotions long enough? We have a right to know about this bitch that you've been seeing. I don't want to do this, but if this is what it takes, I'm willing to torture the both of you to get the information out."
Tsukuyo's head perked up upon hearing this. No way, she's going to try that again? Shit, I can't let her do this to them! They don't deserve this. I've got to stop her! But then again, will I even be able to stop her this time? The group is getting desperate; they're not going to listen to me! What should I do? How do I stop them?
It was then that Tsukuyo realized her last true option. She didn't want to accept it, but she slowly came to the conclusion that she had no other choice. It was the only way to save the two men at that point.
Meanwhile, Shinpachi started screaming as he was overcome with fear. "Torture!? I thought you said you weren't going to do that anymore!"
"I know, but what are we supposed to do?" asked Sachan as she glared at the boy. "We tried being nice, but you guys just wouldn't give in. But now we're going to make you give in. I'm not going to stop until you tell us what we want to hear."
"Wait, is she being serious!?" screamed Gintoki as he started to struggle against the ropes again. "I knew it! I knew you idiots would act like this! You're completely out of control!"
"This has gone on long enough," said Kagura as she started cracking her knuckles. "I've been waiting to hear this secret all day. I'm going to make you talk now, Gin-chan. I think I'll start by punching you in the face one hundred times."
Sachan started to approach Shinpachi with a kunai in her hand. "I'll start by cutting the boy to ribbons," she said.
"AH! You can't be serious!" the two men cried in unison.
"Are you going to talk?" asked Kagura as she started winding up her arm, ready to swing.
"Hell no!" screamed Gintoki, still fighting desperately to keep his secret safe.
"Ok then, here we go-"
"Kagura! Sarutobi! Stop!" cried a voice from the back of the room.
The two girls froze in place as the owner of the voice suddenly appeared in front of them. It was Tsukuyo, and she was standing in between the women and the prisoners with her arms up in defense. Everyone in the room looked at the girl out of confusion.
"Tsukky? What are you-"
"Please, just…stop this," she said in a desperate and pleading tone. "They don't deserve this. They're not the ones you want. I'm sorry, but I can't take this any longer."
Kagura gave the courtesan a confused look as she spoke up. "Tsukky, what are you talking about?" she asked.
Tsukuyo looked down to the floor and gave a sigh. "The truth is…the one that you have been looking for all this time…is me. I am the one who has been going out with Gintoki."
Author: A quick announcement! This is the second to last chapter of Book 1! Wow, I can't believe how far I've come. Anyways, I should be wrapping everything up in the next chapter (hopefully), so please look forward to it! And as always, here is a Gintama character for me to chat with. Here's Zura!
Zura: It's not Zura, it's Katsura.
Author: Yeah, yeah, I understand. I'll call you Katsura from now on.
Zura: Hey! Don't just call me by that name! Change the way you write my name too!
Author: Huh? Oh, right.
Katsura: There, that's better. So, the Book 1 finale is next chapter, eh?
Author: Yeah, I'm really excited to start wrapping things up.
Katzura: Yes, it is probably for the best that this horrible story comes to a close.
Author: What? Horrible? It's not horrible! And it's not ending yet, either! There's still plenty more Books to come after this one!
Catzura: You plan on writing more? That's just going make this story a bigger disaster than it already is.
Author: Oh, shut up. In my eyes, this story is only going to get better and better!
Catzora: Yeah right, I doubt that- Hey! What have you been doing to my name!?
Author: Huh? What do you mean?
Catzoorah: You've completely messed up my name! It's hardly anything like it was before!
Author: I…I have no idea what you're talking about…
Cat-Zorua: Don't lie! You know what you're doing! And why is there a Pokemon in my name now!?
Author: …I'm pretty sure that's always been in your name…
Cat-Zoroark: What the hell? Now the Pokemon evolved! This is getting ridiculous!
Author: You're right, time to wrap things up. Goodbye everyone! Please leave me a review and look forward to the next chapter, the Book 1 Finale!