Silver Moon – Book 2 Chapter 11

Katsura's flashback continued…

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

Gintoki could only stare back at the man out of confusion. He was starting to wonder if he had heard him right. "You want to…fight me?"

"That's right," replied Kamui, as if the answer were obvious.

Gintoki looked over to Katsura and Elizabeth for a moment to find that they were just as confused as he was. "Why?" he asked as he faced Kamui again.

"Why?" repeated Kamui, still showing his large grin. "Well, that's an easy one. I want to fight you for fun. That's all."

"For fun?" asked Katsura, looking appalled.

Elizabeth managed to pull out a small sign that read, 'This guy gives me the creeps…'

As for Gintoki, all of this only seemed to ring a bell. He was soon starting to remember something that the young man had told him a long time ago. It was just after Hosen had been defeated underneath the light of the sun. Kamui had turned away from Gintoki with a smile on his face.

"I'm the kind of person who saves his favorite part of a meal for the end. In other words, I've taken a liking to you. Make sure to heal those wounds. Well, you probably have a lot to deal with, but don't die…until I kill you. See ya, Samurai-san."

Gintoki just stayed silent as he thought about all of this. That's right. He did say that he was coming for me, didn't he? He's been patiently waiting to fight with me this entire time…

"I still don't understand," said Gintoki, staring directly at Kamui. "Why were you pretending to be the overlord?"

"Pretending?" asked Kamui, a surprised look on his face. "I wasn't pretending to be the overlord, I was the overlord." Kamui then gave a small smile. "I still am, actually."

Gintoki glared at the kid out of frustration. It was obvious at that point that he was just toying with the samurai.

"Well, I suppose I should answer your questions," continued Kamui, still smiling. "You deserve to know what's going on. Please, allow me to calmly explain everything."

Kamui then did something surprising. He turned to the guard that was currently holding Gintoki and started giving him orders. "Go ahead and release that one," he said sternly.

"Are you sure, captain?" asked the guard, looking a little surprised.

"No worries, he won't try anything," said Kamui, looking rather confident. "And even if he does, well then, so much the better for me."

"Alright then," replied the guard, immediately releasing his hold on the samurai.

The moment Gintoki's feet touched the ground his hand instinctively went to the sword at his side. He firmly held onto it, ready to draw it and defend himself at a moment's notice.

Kamui just laughed when he saw this. "Oh please, you don't have to be so edgy, Gintoki."

Gintoki winced when he heard his name. He didn't like the way the kid said it. He wished that he still called him Samurai-san like he had before he learned the samurai's real name.

"Hey, aren't you going to release us too?" asked Katsura from the place where he was being held captive.

Kamui stared at him for a second with a blank expression. "I don't know you, so I can't trust you. I think I'll just play it safe and keep you two right there for now." He then turned to Gintoki with a curious smile. "Now, are you going to calm down so we can talk, or are we just going to fight here and now? Your choice."

Gintoki glared back at that smile of his. He then took a glance around the room. Any chance of escape looked impossible. It would be pointless to resist the group that stood before him. He eventually decided to release the grasp on his sword and give a sigh. "Fine, go ahead and explain yourself," he finally answered.

"Wonderful," said Kamui, looking pleased with himself. "Let's see, where should we start?"

Kamui soon started pacing back and forth as he began. "Well, I suppose it all began about a month ago when I suddenly felt the urge to fight you. I had just remembered our previous encounter here in Yoshiwara and it was rather refreshing. I desperately wanted to see you again. I wanted to see you in action. I wanted to see how you would fair against me." Kamui was now looking very excited.

"So, I decided to do the thing that seemed most obvious given my situation: come here and find you. I quickly convinced my men to set a course for this planet. I was going to find you at any cost. Before long, we had arrived in the land of the samurai."

"Excuse me," said Katsura suddenly from his place across the room. He was staring straight at Kamui with a determined look in his eyes. "I hate to interrupt, but there's something I've been meaning to ask you."

Kamui stared at him with a blank expression. "Fire away," he replied.

"The ship that you arrived here on, it belongs to an extremist group known as the Kiheitai. My men have already confirmed this. Tell me, what exactly are your ties with them?"

"The Kiheitai?" repeated Kamui, looking confused for a moment. "Oh, you mean Shinsuke's group. We're in an alliance together."

"A what?" asked Katsura, looking alarmed.

"An alliance," explained Kamui. "My group and his are working together for now. It would seem that we both have something to gain from it."

"You and Takasugi?" asked Gintoki, also looking worried. "Is he here too? I mean, is he playing a part in all of this?"

"No, of course not," said Kamui, looking at Gintoki like he had just asked a stupid question. "I'm only here for my own personal reasons. Shinsuke has nothing to do with any of this. I just borrowed one of his ships and took it straight here. I doubt he even knows where I am."

"He probably noticed that one of his ships is gone though…and us along with it," mumbled Abuto from his place off to the side.

"Perhaps," said Kamui, who didn't seem to care.

"This is bad," Katsura whispered to Elizabeth. "This guy looks dangerous, and he's working with Takasugi. We definitely must keep an eye out for them in the future."

Elizabeth just gave a small nod to show that he understood.

"Anyways, can I get back to my story now?" asked Kamui, looking annoyed.

"Huh? Oh, of course," Katsura replied mindlessly.

"Right, so where was I? Oh, yeah. So we had just set a course for Earth when we soon discovered a small problem." Kamui paused as he looked over to Gintoki. "We knew absolutely nothing about you."

Gintoki just stared back as he patiently waited for him to continue.

Kamui soon looked away as he resumed his pacing. "We didn't know your name. We didn't know where you lived. We had absolutely no clue how to find you. It was at that point that we realized that we would need a plan. You see, we couldn't just walk into the country and hope to find you by chance. We had to find a way to draw you out. We had to make a plan."

"Well then, what was it?" asked Gintoki, even though he felt like he already knew the answer.

"Simple: play overlord," said Kamui with a grin. He then slowly reached into his robes before pulling out an important looking document. "It all started with this, the deed to the city of Yoshiwara."

"Where did you get that?" asked Gintoki, suddenly clenching his teeth again.

"It was a gift," he explained, "or rather, it was a part of my inheritance. You see, when my old master, Hosen, died at your hands, my superiors quickly granted the document to me. I was allowed the right to have total control over this city."

Gintoki stood still as he listened. All of this information was starting to sound familiar. He was almost certain he had heard it somewhere before.

"However," said Kamui, a small frown coming to his face, "I never actually did anything with the city. It simply failed to provide anything useful for me. The deed served no real purpose…well, until now, that is."

Abuto suddenly cleared his throat as he walked up to the group. "I was the one who came up with the entire overlord plan. You see, I thought it would be best to hide our true identities under a position of power. I didn't want to risk anyone discovering us until we found that specific samurai that the captain was looking for. I figured being the temporary overlord of Yoshiwara wouldn't be such a bad idea."

"You thought being in a position of power would be a good way to lay low?" asked Gintoki, looking skeptical.

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" asked Abuto with a grin. "Nobody would ever suspect such a kind and wonderful overlord. I'd say that we played our roles quite nicely."

"I could hardly stand it," said Kamui as he crossed his arms. "Having to be polite all the time, I thought I was going to die."

"Don't worry, you did a good job, captain," said Abuto reassuringly. "Everyone we met fell for you performance. In fact, you almost fooled me a couple of times."

Gintoki quickly thought back to the night when he had first met the man. He remembered seeing the way that the citizens had treated him. It was true; they had all fallen in love with this fake overlord. Up to this point, even Gintoki had failed to notice anything wrong with him.

"Anyways, we only wanted to find a way to attract your attention," Abuto continued. "We didn't want any unnecessary commotion to get in the way of that. Rather, we didn't want any uninvited guests, if you know what I mean." Abuto then turned to Katsura and Elizabeth. "Although, I suppose we must have screwed up at some point, because these two ended up becoming suspicious of our presence here."

"The Kiheitai and their affiliates are always suspicious," replied Katsura with a glare.

"Basically," said Kamui, "we didn't want anyone coming after us except for you, Gintoki. So we came in and politely introduced ourselves as the new government to Yoshiwara. I became Kami; he became Edward. We managed to make up some stupid backstory to explain our sudden appearance. After that, we did our best to help the city so that people would trust us. And, within a few weeks' time, they did, easily. After a while, nobody questioned us. Instead, they welcomed us. They didn't want us to leave. They loved us."

Kamui then smiled as he continued pacing. "Once we had their trust, our disguises and positions were secured. The rest was easy. All we had left to do was set the trap: something that would deliver you right into my hands. So, we thought it over and came up with the perfect trap. It would be something that would seem harmless at first, but by the time it was over, would definitely attract a lot of people's attention."

Gintoki suddenly froze. "You can't mean…"

"Yes, the Hyakka celebration ceremony," Kamui answered with a grin. "Man, you all thought I was so nice for coming up with that idea. I can't really blame you though; you all trusted me. It really did look like we were going to have a day of thanks for those wonderful Hyakka. Nobody ever considered that it might actually be something different…"

"You see, at some point during the ceremony, there was going to be an accident…or maybe not an accident, but rather a terrorist attack. Hidden explosives would unexpectedly go off and destroy everything within sight. Most, if not all of the Hyakka, would die. And with that, Yoshiwara's police force would be out of the way. To the public, the incident would appear to be a terrible, tragic accident. Who would dare to attack the city and its police on their day of celebration? Surely it wasn't the overlord? No, of course not, he would never do something like that…"

Kamui was now smiling insanely. "We knew that you cared about Yoshiwara, at least a little bit. After all, you were the one who set the city free from Hosen, the king of the night. We knew that you would be alarmed upon hearing of this accident. We hoped that you would come straight here, to see what had happened, to see what you could find out. And when you did, I would be waiting. I would finally find you, reveal myself, and then we would fight. This was our ultimate plan."

Kamui then paused as he glanced over to Gintoki. "However, something unexpected happened. I found you with no trouble at all. You were just sitting in a restaurant, relaxing with your girlfriend. I could hardly believe my eyes when I recognized you. It had been so easy. I mean, I figured you probably came to visit Yoshiwara from time to time, but I wasn't expecting to simply bump into you like that. I immediately became excited. I could hardly believe my eyes. There you were, right in front of me! I wanted to fight you right then and there, but I knew better. I knew that it would be best to stick with the plan at the time. Abuto drilled that into me…however, that didn't stop me from collecting some information about you. I learned your name, where you lived, how often you come to visit Yoshiwara…it was all very useful."

"The captain told me about you later that night," explained Abuto. "He told me that you were the samurai he was looking for and that he wanted to fight you immediately. I managed to convince him otherwise and advised that we stick with the plan. Like we said before, we didn't want to risk any unnecessary attention. It was best to keep laying low until the time was right."

Abuto then gave a sigh. "However, the captain is rather impatient and he was itching to get his own way. He was desperately hoping that you would become suspicious of him and come looking for him. He wanted you to figure out his true identity so he could fight you sooner."

"And you did!" exclaimed Kamui happily. "You came here tonight and recognized me. You see, I had no choice but to reveal myself then. I guess that means we'll have to abandon the plan. Oh well, what a shame."

"Don't act like you're all disappointed," said Abuto with a frown. "You could hardly wait for that guy to recognize you. You actually couldn't be any happier right now, could you?"

"Well, maybe I was hoping he would recognize me," admitted Kamui with a guilty smile. "It doesn't matter, everything I cared about still fell into place. I found the samurai I wanted to fight without having to go through with that stupid ceremony! It all worked out in the end."

Gintoki simply remained silent as he tried to take everything in. He had no idea that such an elaborate plan had been in the works this entire time, and it was all for him. It was almost unbelievable.

Kamui suddenly turned to face Gintoki with an excited grin. "There's nothing left to hold me back. I can fight you now."

Gintoki stared straight back at the man. He was silent for a moment before he eventually replied. "Are you crazy?" he asked. "I'm not fighting you."

At this, Kamui tilted his head out of curiosity. "Oh?"

Katsura also started staring at the samurai. "Gintoki…" he muttered.

"Why should I fight you?" asked Gintoki rather defensively. "There's nothing for me to get out of it. And I honestly couldn't care less about giving you a fun time or anything like that. You're insane."

Kamui simply smiled.

"I'm out of here," said Gintoki, suddenly turning around. He was soon making his way for one of the doors. It looked like the samurai was completely uninterested with his current situation.

"What the-?" muttered Katsura. "Hey, Gintoki! Wait!"

Gintoki suddenly stopped in his tracks, but not because Katsura had just called for him. Standing in front of him, a devious smile on his face, was Kamui.

Gintoki blinked as he stared at the man. So fast! How did he…?

"You're not going to fight, you say?" asked Kamui, looking curious. "It looks like you might need some motivation. If you'd like, I can go ahead and carry out my plans for that celebration ceremony. Or even better, I can just leave the palace and start killing people right now. I think I still remember where your girlfriend lives…maybe I'll pay her a visit. Would that make you want to fight me?"

Gintoki clenched his teeth again. "Y-you wouldn't…"

"I'd do just about anything so long as I get what I want. Right now, I want to fight you. I want to test our strengths and see who comes out alive. What? Is that too much to ask?"

"Hey, kid!" Katsura suddenly called from across the room. "Tell me something, would you? Just exactly how strong are you?"

Kamui glanced at him with a surprising polite smile. "Oh, I'm about as strong as my master Hosen was. Probably even stronger actually…"

Gintoki's mouth fell open. He was starting to realize just how inferior he really was to this kid. He felt intimidated. He felt powerless. He felt weak.

This is bad he thought. If I were to fight this guy, would I really have a chance at winning? From what I've seen, he'd probably kill me in an instant. The smart thing to do would be to avoid fighting him at all costs. But I can't just do that! He's starting to threaten innocent lives! Everyone in Yoshiwara is in danger! Especially Tsukuyo!

Damn it he cursed. Damn it damn it damn it! What's the right choice? What am I supposed to do?

Gintoki stayed silent as he started looking for a solution to his current situation. Of all those present, nobody disturbed him, as he was clearly deep in thought.

After waiting for a while, Kamui eventually asked, "Well?"

Gintoki slowly looked up at the man. "Alright, I'll fight you," he said quietly.

"What?" shouted Katsura. "Gintoki, you will?"

Kamui gave him a smile. "Really?" he asked excitedly.

"Yes, I'll fight you," Gintoki repeated firmly. He then looked at the floor as he clenched his fists. "But," he said suddenly, "I have two conditions that you must fulfill if we are to do this. These are nonnegotiable."

"Yes?" asked Kamui politely. "What would you like?"

Gintoki looked back up at him, his expression completely serious. "First, no matter what the outcome of our fight is, you must promise to leave Yoshiwara alone. Whether I win or lose, I don't want you to ever come back here. This city and its people will forever be off-limits to you and your men. Do you understand?"

Kamui paused before giving a small nod. "What else?"

"Second, I'm going to need a day or two to prepare before we can actually fight. I'll leave the palace tonight and then come back once I'm ready. That's all."

"I see," said Kamui as he quietly considered the requests. "Very well, I suppose I can accept those conditions in exchange for a fight with you."

"So you'll agree to it then?" asked Gintoki, giving the man a small glare.

"Of course, but first, let me state my conditions," said Kamui with another malicious grin. "I want to have an all-out fight with you. That means we both need to be at 100% with no holding back. I want you at your absolute best. I will expect nothing less from our match."

Gintoki nodded in agreement. "I can promise that," he replied, sounding determined.

"Well good," said Kamui with a pleasant smile. "I suppose I could also use a few days to prepare. I want to take the opportunity to get my hair back to normal before we go at it."

Kamui then took a glance around the room. "Well, I guess that settles everything. Come back here within the next few days for our fight. I'll be waiting," he said, looking absolutely thrilled. "In the meantime, you're all free to go."

And with that, all of the guards started to disperse. The two that were still holding Katsura and Elizabeth had started making their way for the exit. "Come on," one of them grunted to Gintoki.

Gintoki silently began to follow them when he stopped in his tracks. He turned around. "Hey, Kamui."

"Yes?" asked the Yato boy.

"Remember to keep your promise, or the deals off," said Gintoki, looking dead serious.

"Of course," he replied simply.

Gintoki turned around without another word. He then followed the guards out of the room.

Outside the palace, Katsura and Elizabeth were picking themselves up off the ground. The two guards that had been carrying them had just roughly tossed them out. Gintoki was silently standing off to the side, facing away from them.

Katsura lightly spat on the ground before gently wiping his mouth. "Gintoki," he mumbled, "what the hell was that all about? Are you seriously going to fight that guy?"

Gintoki was quiet for a minute. "Yes," he eventually replied.

"Why?"

"Didn't you hear him?" asked Gintoki somewhat harshly. "He was threatening the lives of innocent people because of me! What was I supposed to do?"

Katsura didn't know what to say. Gintoki had a good point. "I don't know," he finally said, "but is this really the right thing to do?"

"I don't know," he replied honestly.

"Do you think you could beat him in a one-on-one fight?"

Gintoki went silent again before he answered. "I…I'm not sure. I mean, that kid said that he was as strong as Hosen. I don't think I can compete with that."

"You can't?" asked Katsura, a little confused. "But, I thought that you were the one who defeated Hosen in the past. I remember hearing about it. How is this time any different?"

"I didn't beat Hosen by myself," said Gintoki truthfully. "I was only able to do it because I had a lot of help. And in the end, he was mostly finished because of his weakness to the sun. If you think about it, I basically just got lucky with that fight. If I had fought with Hosen one-on-one, I am sure that I would have easily lost."

Katsura stared at the samurai, trying to take all of this in. Elizabeth simply stayed quiet.

"I think this time will be no different," Gintoki continued. "Kamui probably won't have any trouble killing me. It will be an easy win for him."

"You can't be serious," said Katsura, looking upset. "How do we know he's not just bluffing?"

"He's not," said Gintoki firmly. He finally turned around to give Katsura a serious stare. "Do you remember earlier, when he blocked me as I tried to leave the room?"

"Yes," said Katsura, sounding a little confused.

"When he did that, did you see him move?"

"Well, I-" Katsura suddenly paused. Now that he thought about it, he actually didn't remember seeing Kamui move at all. It was like he had just appeared in front of Gintoki. "Well, not exactly," he finally answered.

"Me neither," said Gintoki, looking straight at Katsura. "Do you understand? That was his speed. We couldn't even see him move. He's clearly on a level above our own."

"So then, how exactly are you going to beat him?" asked Katsura, looking concerned.

"I don't know," he replied somberly.

"Damn it, Gintoki," said Katsura, getting upset. "Look, if you can't take him by yourself, then let me help you out. We can fight him together. At least that way, we have a better chance of-"

"Hell no," Gintoki replied sternly. His face showed that he was completely serious. He almost looked angry. "I don't want anything changing Kamui's mind when it comes to the promises we made tonight. If you and me go in there, he'll immediately break the deal. Don't you see, Zura? Yoshiwara will only be at risk once again. I can't let that happen."

"Who cares!?" Katsura suddenly shouted at him. "Are you just going to lay down and die? You need my help! Let me fight alongside you!"

"No! Shut up!" Gintoki shouted back.

"Make me! I'm going to help you whether you like it or not!"

"DAMN IT KATSURA, DON'T YOU DARE!" Gintoki roared.

Katsura immediately went silent. Something unexpected had just happened: Gintoki had correctly called him by his full name. It didn't happen often, but Katsura knew that whenever it did happen, it meant that Gintoki was being completely serious with him.

"If you interfere at all, I'll kill you! You got that?" Gintoki then went up to Katsura and grabbed him by the front of his shirt.

Katsura was surprised. Gintoki almost never acted like this, especially not towards him.

"Promise me you won't interfere!" Gintoki hissed.

Katsura gave him a scowl. "Fine," he said quietly. At this point, he knew better than to argue with Gintoki. It would only prove useless in this situation.

"Good," grunted Gintoki as he dropped Katsura to the ground. He then started walking off. "And don't tell anybody else about this either!" he demanded loudly. "Don't let the others know a single thing about what happened tonight! If you do, it will only make things worse for me."

"Hey, Gintoki!" Katsura called after him. "What's your plan? How are you going to deal with this?"

"Don't worry about it," Gintoki growled. "I'm going to handle this by myself."

And with that, the silver-haired samurai disappeared into the streets of Yoshiwara…

End of Flashback…

And thus, everything was explained! Mostly! Well, I do have a little bit more to do in the next chapter. Hopefully, this chapter provided you with some of the answers you were looking for. If not, then wait for the next one. More answers on the way! Yay!

As for this chapter, did I do a good job of explaining everything? Was it confusing at any point? Did it all make sense as you followed it? Let me know, I always feel nervous about this stuff. If you do have any questions, just ask me. I'll respond the best that I can.

Here, I'll go ahead and ask myself one of your questions so that you don't have to! Isn't that nice of me? Here it is:

Author, how's come Katsura could hear Gintoki's thoughts in his flashback? How did he know what Gintoki was thinking and remembering?

Ah, a good question, yes, yes…uh…well, he could hear Gintoki's thoughts because…uh…because…because it's Gintama! How about that? What? Of course it makes sense! Grrr, just stop asking questions already! Sheesh!

Well, that's all for now. As always, please leave a review with your thoughts and questions about the chapter. Also look forward to the next one! Thank you! Goodbye!