Silver Moon – Book 2 Chapter 10

Shinpachi and Kagura were making their way through the streets of Edo as Tsukuyo followed behind them. The rain had recently stopped and all that remained of the previous night's storm was a dark and cloudy sky. The group was currently heading for a place where they could hopefully find some information on Gintoki.

"Are you sure about this Tsukuyo-san?" asked Shinpachi, turning around to face the courtesan as they walked. "Do you really think that Katsura-san knows something that could help us?"

Tsukuyo simply stared at the ground as she gave a sigh. "Well, I'm not exactly sure if he'll actually know anything, but I really do think he's our best option right now."

"Why is that, again?" asked Kagura as she started picking her nose.

"Don't you remember?" asked Tsukuyo as she stared at the back of the girl's head. "I already told you all of this. When Gintoki showed up at my house last night, he was carrying a real sword with him. When I asked him about it, he told me that he had received it from Katsura. From what I can tell, that means that Katsura must have something to do with all of this."

"Well, if you say so," said Kagura, simply deciding to go along with it.

"That makes sense," said Shinpachi, facing forward again. "Hopefully, Katsura-san will be able to give us some answers."

"I hope so too," Tsukuyo replied quietly as she started staring at a puddle on the ground. Maybe then I'll find out why you did this, Gintoki…

Tsukuyo then gave a frown as she thought about the man. Even though she had managed to calm down, she still felt upset about the whole situation. Just thinking about it made her feel depressed.

As they walked, Kagura took a look behind her to see Tsukuyo silently staring at the ground. She then gave a frown as she watched her.

Poor Tsukky she thought. She must still feel really sad. I should probably try to help her feel better. After all, I did make a promise to look after her…

"Hey, Tsukky," she suddenly called to the courtesan.

Tsukuyo immediately looked up to find Kagura staring at her. "Yeah?" she asked.

Kagura stared at her for a second before giving her a small smile. "Don't worry, it's all going to be okay," she said. "We're going to figure this out."

Tsukuyo simply stared back at the girl, not quite sure what to say.

Kagura then faced forward again before she continued speaking. "You know, Gin-chan sometimes goes off and does stupid stuff like this. I know that it can be hard to deal with at times, and that it doesn't always make a lot of sense, but no matter what happens, everything always seems to work itself out in the end. That's just the way it's always been."

Kagura paused for a moment before finishing. "So, I guess what I'm basically saying is that you don't have to feel bad about this anymore. And that's because, in the end, you know everything will turn out okay, right?"

Tsukuyo continued staring at her for a second before a small smile came to her face. "Right," she replied.

"So do you feel better now?" asked the girl, still looking straight ahead.

"Yes, thank you, Kagura. Your words did make me feel better."

Kagura smiled to herself as she quietly looked over to Shinpachi. He simply smiled back as he gave her a thumbs up. He was just letting her know that she had done a good job on keeping their promise.

The group then continued walking on in silence, each of them feeling a bit happier with themselves. After a while, they came to arrive at the front door of the Joi's 'secret' hideout. They all patiently stood outside as Kagura pounded on the door.

It took a minute before somebody actually came and answered it. One of the men on the inside slightly cracked the door open before peering out with one eye. "Hello? Who's out there?" he asked rather defensively.

"Hey, it's us," said Kagura simply. She casually pointed to herself and the other two that were with her.

The man's eyes went wide as he suddenly recognized who was standing outside his door. "Oh! It's you, Leader!" he said as he quickly slid the door all the way open. "Please, come right on in," he said with a welcoming smile.

"Thanks," said Kagura as she entered the building. Shinpachi and Tsukuyo soon followed behind her.

Once everyone was inside, the man quietly closed the door behind him. He appeared to be just another one of Katsura's many followers. "So, what brings you here today?" he asked curiously.

"We're here to talk to Zura," she told him. "Do you think we could do that right now?"

"Why of course," replied the man with a small smile. "I'll take you to him right away."

"Great," replied Kagura.

"Please, follow me," instructed the man, starting to lead the group into the building.

As they walked, Tsukuyo couldn't help but lean forward and start whispering to the boy in front of her. "Hey, Shinpachi," she said.

"What's up?" he asked, slightly turning back to look at her.

"Why does it seem like Kagura has so much power around here? That man is doing whatever she tells him to do. I mean, she's not a Joi rebel or anything like that, is she?"

"Who, Kagura-chan?" asked Shinpachi with a look of doubt. "No, she's not one of them. They just like to treat her special for some reason."

"Why do they call her 'Leader'?" asked Tsukuyo, still curious.

"Beats me," he replied with a shrug, "but they really seem to get a kick out of it."

Suddenly, the man who was leading the group stopped outside of a door. "Alright, here we are," he announced. "Let me just tell him that you're all here to see him."

With that, the man opened the door and stuck his head inside. "Excuse me sir, some of your friends are here and they would like to talk to you. Shall I let them in?"

The group was able to hear somebody give a reply from inside the room before the man retracted his head. "Go right on in," he said as he stepped out of the way.

"Thanks again," said Kagura as she walked into the room.

"Anytime," replied the man with a pleasant smile. He seemed like a really nice guy considering the fact that he was actually a terrorist.

The group took a look around the room once they were all inside. It was small and mostly empty. Katsura was silently sitting on the floor, apparently looking over some papers that he held in his hands.

Eventually, Katsura looked up from his papers and recognized the people that stood before him. "Ah, Leader, Shinpachi, Tsukuyo," he said as he scanned over them. "What are you all doing here?"

"We came to talk to you," said Kagura in a serious tone.

"We were hoping you might be able to answer some questions for us," Shinpachi explained.

"Oh, I see," said Katsura as he stared up at them. "What would you like to know?"

"We want to know what's up with Gin-chan," said Kagura, getting right to the point.

"Gintoki?" repeated Katsura as a troubled look appeared on his face. "Well, what do you mean?"

"Can you tell us why he's been acting so strange lately?" asked Shinpachi. "We don't have any idea where he is right now, and we were kind of under the impression that you could help us."

Katsura continued staring at them for a moment before he lowered his gaze. He then gave a small sigh. "I can't help you," he said bluntly.

"What? Why not?" asked Kagura, starting to look upset. His response was clearly not the one she had been expecting.

"Look, stop worrying about this," said Katsura as he looked away from the group. "Just forget about it and go back home."

"What? We can't just forget about this!" Kagura shouted at him.

Shinpachi suddenly put a hand on her shoulder as he sighed. He then turned to Katsura with a calm expression. "Look, we know that something suspicious is going on, and that you must know something about it. Please tell us, Katsura-san. This is really important."

Katsura lightly clenched his teeth before bowing his head. "I'm sorry," he replied, "but I'm not supposed to say anything. Gintoki demanded that I keep quiet about it."

"So you do know something about all of this?" asked Kagura, still upset. "Damn it Zura, just tell us already!"

"Please Katsura-san," begged Shinpachi. "We really need to know what's going on with Gin-san right now. He's been doing some pretty nasty stuff to us from the shadows. We can't just let this go."

Katsura simply stared at them with a look of guilt on his face. "I…I'm really not supposed to say anything…" he kept on telling them.

"Damn it Zura!" Kagura shouted again. "Didn't you just hear Shinpachi? Gin-chan has been hurting the three of us! He left us a freaking note saying that were fired!"

Katsura immediately froze and gave them a look of surprise. "He…he did?" he asked softly.

"And that's not even the worst of it!" Kagura shouted at him. "What he did to Tsukky is almost unforgiveable!"

Katsura quietly turned to face Tsukuyo, who had yet to say a word about any of this. "What…what did he…?" he tried to ask her.

Tsukuyo stared at him for a second before looking at the ground. A single tear managed to slip out of her eye. "He…broke up with me," she revealed quietly.

Katsura looked completely shocked upon hearing this. "He…he didn't…" he whispered. Katsura knew how much that relationship had meant to the two of them. He had a hard time believing that Gintoki would have suddenly ended it out of nowhere.

"He did," Tsukuyo said, looking back up at the man. "He broke my heart and then he said goodbye…"

"It's all true, Katsura-san," said Shinpachi with a serious expression. "Gin-san fired us and then he broke up with Tsukuyo-san. It's almost like he's trying his best to hurt us."

"But…but why would he…?" asked Katsura, looking extremely confused. He then stared at the floor as he thought back on the events that had taken place two nights before. "Damn it, Gintoki, just what are you trying to do?" he mumbled to himself.

Kagura, Shinpachi and Tsukuyo simply watched the man as he sat there. It was obvious that he was deep in thought about something.

Katsura suddenly slammed his fist down on the floor as he clenched his teeth. "Shit!" he cursed. "Is that what you're planning, Gintoki!? Is that why you did all of this!?"

The three onlookers went silent as they stared at the rebel. They had not been expecting such a sudden outrage.

"Katsura-san?" asked Shinpachi.

Katsura simply gave a sigh as he put a hand to his head. "Forgive me," he said, "but I'm afraid that I fear the worst for our friend Gintoki."

"What are you talking about?" asked Shinpachi, starting to look concerned.

"What's wrong with Gin-chan?" asked Kagura, who was also looking worried.

"Is he okay?"

"Where is he?"

"Silence!" Katsura suddenly shouted at the two of them. "Please, try to calm down and listen for a second. Let me explain just what exactly is going on."

"Huh? What do you mean?" asked Kagura, still looking worried.

"Are you finally going to tell us what you know?" asked Tsukuyo quietly from the back. She simply crossed her arms as she stared down at the man with a serious expression.

Katsura gave a sigh before answering her. "Yes, I'm going to tell you what I know about Gintoki and his strange behavior. I think I might actually have an explanation for why he is acting the way that he is right now. However, before I can explain this to you, I must fill you in on the events that took place a couple of nights ago. Do you all think you could listen to a story for me?"

Each of them silently gave a nod as they started listening carefully. They were ready to finally get some of the answers that they had been searching for.

"Very well," said Katsura, quietly looking away from the group. "Please, listen closely. This all seems to have started a few nights ago, when Gintoki and I randomly met up in Yoshiwara…"

Flashback to the night of the 13th, when Gintoki, Katsura, and Elizabeth snuck into the palace…

Gintoki clenched his teeth once more as he stared at the overlord in front of him. "So then we have met before? I knew you seemed familiar!"

Kami just laughed as he listened to the samurai. He then started walking towards Gintoki before stopping a short distance away.

"It's funny," he said with a smile. "Tonight, you came here looking for me, when the last time we met…"

Kami then paused as he slowly removed his glasses. He then stared at Gintoki with his bare green eyes.

"…I said I would come looking for you…"

Gintoki suddenly froze as he stared at the overlord. "I know…" he said quietly. "I know who you are!"

It had finally clicked. He now recognized the man.

"I remember you! You're…!"

Gintoki paused as a previous memory of the man came to his mind. He was standing underneath his umbrella, a small grin on his face, and the sun shining brightly behind him…

"You're Kagura's brother!" he yelled.

Upon hearing this, the overlord simply gave the samurai a big smile. He quietly took the pair of glasses that sat within his hand and stuffed them into his robe. "So you finally figured it out, eh?" he asked softly.

Katsura and Elizabeth simply remained still within their captors' grasps. They could only give a surprised look to the overlord that stood before them.

"Leader's…brother?" Katsura mumbled to himself.

"I know it's you!" Gintoki shouted at the man. "You may look different from before, but I definitely know that you're him! You're Kagura's brother!"

The overlord simply gave a smirk as he listened. "Perhaps some introductions are in order?" he asked somewhat playfully.

Gintoki glared at the man from the position he was stuck in. The guard that was holding him was still keeping up a tight embrace.

"Please, allow me to formally introduce myself," said the overlord as he slowly brought his hands up to his eyes. He then carefully removed what appeared to be two small contact lenses. After that, he closed his eyes for a moment before opening them wide. Instead of his usual green color, his eyes were now a deep shade of blue.

"The name is Kamui," he replied with a malicious smile. "And yes, I am that weakling's older brother."

Gintoki clenched his teeth as he stared back at the man. His long black hair was still neatly tied up in a ponytail, but aside from that, he was the spitting image of the kid he had met before. Those blue eyes and that smile were definitely the same as back then.

Katsura could only look back and forth between the two of them out of confusion. He currently had no idea what was going on. "Hey, Gintoki," he called, "do you know this guy or something?"

Gintoki paused before he gave a reply. "Yes, a long time ago I met him here in Yoshiwara. I had actually almost forgotten about him…"

"Who is he?" asked Katsura, turning to Kamui with a curious look.

"Well," said Gintoki, also staring at the man, "simply put, he's the problem child of Umibozu, and Kagura's twisted older brother."

Kamui simply gave a sigh as he listened to the two of them. "Oh, come on now, surely I'm known for something other than those two? Are they all you think about when you see me? That's just upsetting…"

Kamui then turned to look at Gintoki with a blank expression. "Oh, by the way," he said casually, "I'm not here alone. I also brought my friend Abuto along with me."

"Oh, please," said the man known as Edward, suddenly walking up to the group. "Did you really just call me your friend? You're starting to give me a warm feeling over here."

"Fine then," said Kamui with a shrug, "this is my assistant, Abuto. Perhaps you remember him as well?"

"Heh, and now I'm starting like the term friend again," said Abuto sarcastically. He removed his monocle from his eye and he started messing up his well-kept hairstyle. By the time he was done, his light brown hair was looking shaggy once again.

Gintoki simply froze as he watched. "I…I recognize him too," he said quietly.

"You do?" asked Katsura, still confused about the whole situation.

"Yeah, Shinpachi and Kagura took him on way back when…"

Kamui simply gave a smile as he watched the reactions of his prisoners. "I suppose I should also mention that I brought quite a few Yato guards along with me."

"Yato?" asked Katsura, looking around the room. "The guards here are all Yato?"

Gintoki turned back to the guard that was currently holding him. "I suppose that would explain why they're so strong…"

The guard simply smirked as he tightened his hold on the samurai. "Hey now, give us some credit here," he said with a laugh.

Gintoki clenched his teeth as he faced forward again. "I don't understand," he said. "So what, you were pretending to be the overlord this entire time? You were wearing disguises?"

"You got it," said Kamui as he slowly undid his ponytail. "All we really had to do was dress ourselves up and look nice. The expensive robes and neat hair basically did the job for us."

"But even then," said Abuto with a small grin, "we didn't want to take the risk of having someone accidently recognize us, so we made sure to take some extra precautions."

"Extra precautions? You mean like that stupid monocle?" asked Gintoki with a smirk.

Kamui, who was currently holding his hair, gave a small laugh upon hearing this. His long black hair was now loose, and it looked like he was slowly braiding it a certain way.

"Precisely," he explained while he worked. "I myself wore a simple pair of glasses that I didn't even need. You see, the lenses inside were actually dull and didn't do a thing. In addition to that, I wore a couple of green-tinted contact lenses in order to hide my true eyes."

"And your hair?" asked Gintoki somewhat sarcastically. "It didn't look like that before, did you just bother to dye it while you were at it?"

"On the contrary, he stopped dying it," said Abuto with a small smile. "You see, the captain's hair is naturally black, just like his father's. However, he has such a strong dislike for the old man that he actually dyes it a different color just to spite him-"

"That's enough, Abuto," said Kamui with an upset look on his face. "Another word about that and I'll kill you right here and now."

"Sheesh, so sensitive," mumbled Abuto with a smile.

"Anyways," said Kamui, finally finishing up with his hair. "All I really had to do was change my hairstyle along with the color. And in the end, it certainly fooled a lot of people, didn't it?" He then gave a smile as he let go of his newly braided hair

"Well, what do you think?" asked Kamui, his arms stretched out to the sides. Save the color of his hair, he was now looking the exact same as he usually did.

Gintoki simply stared at the man before he spoke up. "I still don't understand," he said. "Why did you even come here in the first place? Why are you acting as Yoshiwara's overlord?"

Kamui silently stared up at him, giving him a small grin. He did not say a word.

"Well!?" Gintoki shouted, starting to get angry. "Answer me! Why are you here right now!?"

Kamui simply turned around and put his hands behind his back as he slowly started walking away. "Why did I come here?" he repeated to himself. "Why did I wear a disguise? Why did I act as overlord?"

Kamui then stopped in his tracks. "You see, it's all very simple," he said. "I did all of those things for one reason and one reason only."

"Yeah, what is it?" asked Gintoki, clenching his teeth again.

Kamui paused before he slowly turned around and showed Gintoki the large determined grin on his face.

"I came here to fight you," he said simply.

Finally some answers! Well, it looks like the secret is officially out. Kami is Kamui and Edward is Abuto. How do you like that? Was it a good surprise? Well, maybe not, I think some of you knew it was them XD

Anyways, this chapter clearly doesn't answer everything, so I'll have to do more explaining in the upcoming chapters. Rest assured, this flashback will continue when I update next. Let's hope that I can explain everything well! I'd really hate to screw this up XD

But for now, let's explain some stuff I probably won't be able to fit into the chapters! You know, stuff that's interesting but not really relevant. In other words, stuff that Gintoki and the other characters don't really care about XD

First off: the names Kami and Edward. Where did I get them? Well, please allow me to explain. When I was originally writing the outline for Book 2, I knew that I would have Kamui and Abuto appear under disguised names. So I thought to myself, what would be a good disguise name for Kamui? Hmm…what about Kami? Yep, sounds good, moving on XD

Abuto was a bit trickier. I didn't want to just give him a name that sounded similar to his real one, as that would make their true identities way too obvious. So, what I ended up doing was going through characters from different anime/manga series and looking at their names. Eventually, I decided to use Edward Elric, from Fullmetal Alchemist. Why? Simple, both Edward and Abuto have a mechanical arm. That's all there was to it XD

But yeah, that was that. It took me about 5 minutes to come up with Abuto's disguise name and about 2 seconds for me to come up with Kamui's XD That was quite a bit of hard work for me, eh?

And finally one last thing: Kamui's grin. You know, the one that Gintoki thought looked so familiar. Well, it's basically just this evil smile that Kamui gives when he has his eyes open. You can see it in Opening 9, right after Kamui licks his hand. I think it's kind of rare, but I do notice it from time to time. I'm not sure if Gintoki has actually ever seen this look before though XD I just added it for plot purposes, enough said.

But wow, look at me! I've never rambled on for this long before! My apologies, this must be a real eyesore! I'll just wrap things up now. Please leave a review with your thoughts on Kamui and his appearance within the story! I myself am really excited about it! Let me know! See you later!