Gintoki pried open his heavy eyelids, instantly regretting it as a headache started to form. It took him a moment to get his bearings, and he was surprised to find himself on his own futon in his own room. Sunlight flooded the room, and he guessed it was already in the afternoon. Gintoki let out a big yawn and stretched, his body aching in response before slowly subsiding. He was still wearing yesterday's clothes and he knew he needed to take a shower, but right now he had other concerns. He tried to think back to figure out how he had gotten there, but the last thing he could remember was that bizarre glowing marble thing sinking through his arm which currently bore no sign that anything had happened.
Had that all just been some weird dream? Shinpachi and Kagura should know. As Gintoki sat up, a few bird feathers fell on top of his comforter. Confused, he ran a hand through his hair and found that it was even more unmanageable than usual, as though it was windblown. A few more feathers tumbled out of his hair as he combed through it with his fingers. Now he really had questions.
Gintoki walked over to his bedroom door, various joints popping along the way, small pains accompanying it before receding. He didn't think he had slept wrong, but it sure felt that way. Sliding his door open, he found two pairs of eyes immediately landing on him.
"Gin-chan!" Kagura exclaimed, a grin on her face.
"Are you feeling alright, Gin-san?" Shinpachi asked, a grin also on his face, although there was a nervous look in his eyes.
"Uhh, I guess so? I mean, I'm not hurt or anything, but there were some bird feathers in my hair, so I feel like something happened to me while I was out." Shinpachi let out a sigh of relief which just made Gintoki even more paranoid. "Oi, what happened after I passed out?"
"You passed out while that light was blinding everyone. When it disappeared, I felt kind of funny," Shinpachi said, adjusting his glasses. Something seemed different about them, now that Gintoki's attention was drawn to them, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what. "Then Okita-san was suddenly by you. He moved faster than my eyes could follow. You see…"
"We all got superpowers!" Kagura finished, bursting with excitement.
"What?" Gintoki asked in disbelief. "Are you guys just trying to mess with Gin-san since he doesn't know what happened?"
"Kagura-chan's telling the truth. Okita-san teleported a few meters at a time to get over to where you were so fast."
Gintoki still couldn't help but feel skeptical. "You're telling me that brat can teleport now?"
"Yes, now do you want to know what happened or not?" Shinpachi seemed to be getting annoyed with being interrupted so much.
Gintoki shut his mouth, keeping himself from asking any more questions for now and just nodded his head in affirmation.
"As I was saying, Okita-san teleported over to you and picked up all the pieces of the broken orb. Right after he finished, a blur attacked him, but he managed to dodge it and tripped it. It turned out to be the Amanto who first pulled a gun on us. She tried to get the shards from him a few more times, but he was too quick for her. She gave up and grabbed the Amanto that had shot at us before running away with him. Hijikata-san told us later that she had already rescued the other two as well. So for now the Shinsengumi have whatever that orb is and they're protecting it while they get into contact with the people who actually own it. They said to come visit them after you woke up so we could figure out what needs to happen together."
"So all this crazy stuff actually happened?" Gintoki still wasn't sure if he could believe it. A lot of weird things had happened to them before, but getting superpowers seemed a bit out there, especially since they still didn't know almost anything about the situation. "What kind of mess have we gotten ourselves into? Although you still haven't explained why I had feathers in my hair."
"After the Shinsengumi left, we grabbed our things before leaving. Kagura was carrying you home. When we got outside, she felt like she knew what her power was and just leapt up into the air."
"And then I flew! Shinpachi had the dumbest look on his face when I didn't just fall back down, you should've seen it! He was yelling at me too, afraid I was going to drop you or something."
"Which you did!" Shinpachi pointed out.
"What?!" Gintoki screeched. "From how high?"
"I wasn't that high above the rooftops, and it's not like you woke up from it or anything, although I definitely heard some bones break," Kagura replied, disturbingly unworried.
Gintoki looked at her in horror. How had she not already killed him? Sure he was the main character, but that didn't mean he was invincible. Falling multiple stories to the hard, unyielding ground wasn't a minor thing for him. He wasn't made of rubber like Luffy.
The look on his face made Kagura go on the defensive. "I dropped you accidentally. When I was flying a bird got stuck in your permy hair, and that's how those bird feathers got in it. It looked like it was going to poop, so I shooed it away, but I kind of lost my grip on you. I was worried when you fell, but when I checked on you, you seemed alright. We're pretty sure you can heal super fast now."
"Healing? That's kind of…lame. You guys are teleporting and flying and all I do is heal? Isn't the main character supposed to have a flashy ability? Oi, Shinpachi, what power did you get? Don't tell me you also have a cooler power than me."
Shinpachi didn't answer, only sullenly glaring off to the side, refusing to make eye contact with Gintoki.
"Wait, don't tell me…Your glasses have superpowers?"
A vein popped out on Shinpachi's forehead and Gintoki braced himself for a rant. "Yes, of course my glasses got superpowers! Everything always just happens to my glasses! It's like I don't exist! And I don't even know if just anyone can use my glasses!"
"Oi, Shinpachi, let me see if they work for me." Gintoki held out his hand and Shinpachi grumpily took off his glasses and handed them over. As he put them on, Gintoki asked, "So what can they do?"
"There's a little button on the right side of them you can press. It flips through different abilities. There's night vision, heat vision, and x-ray vision. A button on the left side lets it shoot laser beams."
"Laser beams?! Man, I really did get the most boring power. And x-ray vision…" Gintoki trailed off thoughtfully, a sly look on his face as he pressed the right button.
Shinpachi blushed suddenly, blurting out, "I am not!"
"Patsuan, you're a pervert who can see girls' underwear with these?" The words left Gintoki's mouth before he realized what had happened. Shinpachi also looked surprised. "Wait, how'd you know what I was gonna say?"
Eyes wide, Shinpachi replied, "I-I think I just saw a little bit of the future. You said that exact same thing, so I responded, but then you just said it again."
"You can see the future too?! And these glasses don't work for me, they must only work for you." Gintoki sullenly handed the glasses back.
Shinpachi beamed. "I think I just have to squint to see a few seconds into the future."
"Just a few seconds? Can you see far enough into the future that we could win the lottery?"
"You just want to use me to make money! I mean it would be nice, but I don't think I can see that far into the future. I guess it would be good to test it." Shinpachi turned to face the clock. He squinted at it for a few seconds before saying, "I can see ten seconds into the future."
"Ten seconds, huh?" Gintoki said half-heartedly, his eyes dull and lifeless now that his hopes and dreams were crushed. "Well, I'm glad you got a power that your glasses didn't. Good for you."
"You don't have to sound so disappointed! I may not be able to win us the lottery, but at least my ability can be useful in a fight." No sooner had the words left his mouth than he was punched in the shoulder by Kagura. "Ow! Why'd you do that, Kagura-chan?" Shinpachi rubbed where he had gotten hit, sure it was going to bruise.
"You need to practice using your power, right?" she asked as though he should already know the answer. "If you can't dodge my punch then it'll be useless, yes?"
"Yeah, I know I need to practice-" Shinpachi was cut off when Kagura attacked again, and this time he dodged slightly out of the way so she just grazed his arm. "But not right now! Gin-san's awake, we should go visit the Shinsengumi like we told them we would."
"While I agree it would be nice to find out more about what's going on, I don't see why we have to go visit them unless they're giving us a job and paying us," Gintoki said, crossing his arms. "I can already tell we're going to be stuck in some kind of a mess, so I wanna be properly compensated for it."
"Bring that up when we get there then," Shinpachi replied.
"I will. Let me get ready real quick then we'll get this over with."
There were a number of things Gintoki had to do since he had just woken up. First, a piss. Then, a quick shower. While soaking in the hot water, he examined his arm, but he didn't see anything different about it. He also couldn't feel a difference, even though he now knew the orb gave people superpowers and was what had caused him to be unconscious for half a day. This was probably something he should bring up at their little meeting, but he didn't want to. After all, it could end up being nothing since so far there didn't seem to be any effects from it. No need to unnecessarily worry the others.
When he was clean and dressed in a fresh pair of clothes, he ate a quick breakfast of egg on rice made by Kagura. He wondered if she'd made it because she still felt guilty about dropping him. He wasn't mad about it, but he didn't think he wanted her flying him around again. A fall from a few stories high wasn't something he wanted to experience while conscious.
It was already the middle of the afternoon when Gintoki finished getting ready and the three of them left. It was annoying that they were basically being summoned to the Shinsengumi, it's not like they were their underlings or something. Gintoki wasn't going to let them wriggle their way out of paying the Yorozuya for a job this time. They'd saved the Shinsengumi's asses enough times without getting a proper reward.
Thinking about the Shinsengumi, Gintoki found himself wondering about what powers the other three cops had gotten. He only knew about Okita-kun's teleportation. "You guys know what everyone's powers are?"
Shinpachi shook his head. "No, we only know Okita-san's. We didn't stick around long enough to learn about the others since you had passed out and we wanted to get you home."
"Well I won't be surprised if the gorilla can now transform into a gorilla. I'd be more surprised if he can't."
"He would be Gorilla Man!" Kagura exclaimed. "We need to come up with our hero names."
"Hold on, we don't need hero names," Gintoki said. "Just because we have superpowers now it doesn't mean we're heroes."
"You're no fun, Gin-chan."
"We need money. We can't just go around helping people for free. And besides, if we became heroes that would mean we'd be stuck working with those tax thieves as some sorta team."
Kagura pouted, unhappy with his answer, but Gintoki refused to cave in. Kabukicho didn't really need a bunch of super-powered vigilantes running around. Gintoki could only imagine the amount of destruction Shinpachi and Kagura could cause now. Kagura had already broken his bones and Shinpachi could shoot laser beams. Gintoki didn't know where Shinpachi had discovered that, but at least he hadn't noticed any new holes in the apartment so presumably he hadn't damaged anything important. Yet.
They walked through the streets, the sun blazing down on them. Summer was just starting, and Gintoki found himself sweating in the heat, already yearning for fall. Once you got to be an adult, there was no purpose to summer, it was just a terrible time of year where you melted unless you had air-conditioning. Gintoki started fantasizing about demanding popsicles and ice cream from the Shinsengumi when he noticed a billowing cloud of smoke in the direction of the barracks.
"Have they already been attacked?" he asked as he saw Kagura and Shinpachi also staring.
"I'll go ahead!" Kagura said, jumping into the air before Gintoki could respond. She flew off, a blur of red, stunning Gintoki momentarily. It was one thing to be told she could now fly and another to actually see it in person.
It took Gintoki a few seconds to return to his senses, and then he took off at a sprint, Shinpachi following right behind him. This time Gintoki was prepared for a fight, his trusty bokuto at his side. He only wondered what they would find at the source of the black smoke.
