Drops of drizzle began to fall from the sky as the army of umbrella-wielding men moved forward. Their steady, purposeful march signalled the beginning of what would be a bloody dawn. They walked to a single tune, as if they were one, behind the man to whom they had sworn their undying loyalty. The young Harusame Admiral in question led his unit into battle with a blood lust he had not felt in a long time, and a slight smile crept onto his face as he realised just how worth the wait could be when the reward was finally given. He recalled his earlier impatience before Shinsuke had briefed him on their plans.

'We will eliminate most of our enemies in one swoop.' The olive eyed samurai had told him, sitting leisurely against the window. 'And then...many things will come into place.'

Kamui remembered crossing his arms.

'Such as? How about some more details?'

Takasugi had snickered at that before helping himself to a whiff from his pipe. Kamui began to tap his finger impatiently against his arm as the one eyed samurai slowly exhaled and turned to him with an amused smile.

'You must be really bored if you're so interested in knowing the intricacies of our plan.' He remarked.

Kamui found himself smiling at that and shrugged his shoulders carelessly.

'You have yourself to blame for that, you know? I haven't fought in ages. All I've done for the past few weeks is wait, wait, WAIT.' At the last word his voice had became rough and his hands clenched unconsciously.

Takasugi nodded his head slowly and raised a sheathed sword which had previously been on his person for Kamui to see.

'I can understand that. A blade which is left idle for too long will eventually rust and become dull.'

He unsheathed the sword in his hands, revealing a sharp, silver blade with a gold hilt. Kamui gave a slight whistle in admiration.

'Are you going to be using it?'

'Like I said before, we'll be cutting down most of our enemies in one swoop. I plan to use it at the right time.'

Kamui cocked his head to the side, silently asking for an elaboration. Takasugi obliged him with an instruction.

'Kamui, I need you and your unit of Yato to take down the Shinsengumi.'

'Hmm? The what?'

'The law and order that protects the Bakufu.'

Kamui puffed in disappointment and waved his arms, irritated.

'You want us to take down a bunch of policemen while you go and fight that silver haired samurai? No way! And besides that, my Harusame have a warrant out for him and one of the Joui patriots. It only makes sense that we take him out!'

Takasugi only smiled at his response and leaned back quietly.

'If it makes you feel better, those 'policemen' have some of the best samurai you could ask for and they will not be easily taken down. I believe they would interest you greatly.'

'Herhh?' Kamui's face brightened up almost immediately. Takasugi nodded his head, though he now had a grave expression on his face.

'As for that 'joui patriot' you spoke of... leave him to me. If you happen to see Gintoki before I do, I suppose I could forgive you for fighting him.'

Kamui laughed at that.

'What makes you think he will show up?'

'That's just who he is. He has a knack for being at the wrong places at the wrong times. Even if he doesn't, I will not leave things to chance. Whether he wants it or not, he'll be coming to his final resting place.'

The Yato's smile had widened at that.

'Shinsuke, you'd better hope YOU don't meet him first then. Because I wouldn't forgive you if you killed him.'

With those last words he stepped out, leaving Takasugi in the room.

With a smile, Kamui began to whistle a slow tune against the quiet of the night. His men soon joined in.

Gintoki couldn't believe he had been crammed in his cell for as long as he had without going insane. How many chapters has it been since he's been locked up?!

He was snapped out of his musings when he felt someone coming up to his cell and turned to see Hijikata. He sighed dramatically and began to pick at his nose.

'Another interrogation? You're even worse than Soichirou-kun!' He lamented, causing an angry vein to pop on Hijikata's head.

'What nonsense are you spewing?' The Shinsengumi Vice Commander wondered as he placed his arms in his pocket. Gintoki noticed his ever present cigarette was no longer, well, present. For some reason, he felt a different emotion coming from the black haired samurai, as if he had come for another purpose.

'Sougo contacted us not long ago. Apparently, an army of Yato are coming to wipe us out.'

Gintoki's eyes widened in shock and his heart stopped. An army of Yato was bad news for any one they planned to take on. Now he understood why Hijikata almost seemed resigned, as if he knew there was little they could do against them without suffering heavy casualties.

'So, why have you come here?' He asked the officer. Hijikata turned to him coldly.

'There are some things which aren't making sense and I don't like it when I don't know what's going on.' He had replied.

Gintoki felt his eyebrow rising, slightly in curiosity as he still didn't get why Hijikata was confiding in him, of all people. Then again, it wasn't like he had much doing so he allowed him to continue.

'The day you got arrested, we had received a tip off that Katsura would be having a meeting. But, this was not the first of such information we had received on him. Who would provide us with information like that? Does Katsura have a traitor in his ranks?' Hijikata mused.

Gintoki found that hard to believe. Katsura may be a brain dead idiot, but if he realised someone was onto him he would have done something about it. Of that at least he was very sure about his friend.

When he didn't respond, Hijikata continued with his thoughts.

'Also...the information is always given to us by Kondo-san who has insisted we keep you locked up until we get something. He has also been very serious of late which is as unlikely as his chances of ever being accepted by Miss Otae!'

'Are you saying that because you know he's not around to hear that!?'

Hijikata continued talking like nothing had been said.

'I think Sougo had the same misgivings. But what's the connection? What the fuck is going on?!'

He was panting now, as he released the vent up frustration he had kept within him for so long. Gintoki looked at him silently, and didn't say anything until Hijikata finally sighed and returned to his calm façade.

'I suppose I wanted to let off some steam...even if it was to someone like you.' He said eventually before turning round, so that his back was now facing Gintoki.

'Listen, I don't know whether we'll live to see tomorrow, but we will protect this place and the Bakufu with our last breath.' With that he approached the door.

'At least let me out so I can help! You can't take them all on!' Gintoki found himself shouting to the Vice-Commander's back.

Hijikata turned to him with cold, blue eyes.

'A prisoner's place is behind bars.'

The only thing that had stopped Matako from shooting Katsura as soon as she had spotted him was the fact the Lord Shinsuke was next to him. What the hell?!

She was sure her senpai sitting next to her had the same expression on his face, which meant that this was something even he was not aware of.

'K-Katsura?!' He had blurted.

Lord Shinsuke had simply moved forward, leaving the area, and Katsura had followed him. All they could do was look on in dumbfounded shock as the two eventually faded from view, leaving them alone with Bansai.

'Bansai-dono, what's he doing here?!' She had all but screamed.

Bansai had only shrugged and walked off, leaving them even more bewildered at what they had just seen. Unable to take it, Matako turned her frustrations on Henpeita and grabbed him by the collar.

'Senpai, how can you not know what's going on? Aren't you supposed to be our tactician?!' She cried out as she violently shook him.

'I-I suppose this is how we are d-dealing with him! Instead of killing him, Takasugi-sama has gotten him to j-join our cause and- Oi let go of me already!' He cried out.

'There's no way this could have happened without some correspondences. You were too busy being a lolicon to pay attention to what was going on!' She barked.

'I'm not a lolicon I'm a feminist! And this was NOT in our plans!'

As they kept bickering, Katsura followed Takasugi's lead. He remembered the one thing that Takasugi had told him that had caused him to reconsider his stance.

I avenged Shouyo-sensei