Hey guys, Murayama Tsuru here. I have returned from my vacation in nice, cool Ireland, to humid, hot summer back at home…at least the house has air conditioning ^_^ And since it will soon be Tanabata, here's a story for that ^_^ it's a little different from the other's in this series…I hope you like it ^_^

Disclaimer: I don't own Gintama; it belongs to Sorachi Hideaki-Sensei.

"Bye Gin-chan," Kagura called out, her umbrella open in one hand, a full-to-bursting bag in the other, "I'm heading out now to se Soyo-chan. See you tomorrow."

Just as Kagura somehow managed to open the door without breaking it down completely (seeing as both her hands were full), Gin came out of his room, looking sleepy, "Where exactly are you going now?" He asked, poking a finger in his ear

Kagura turned around, looking at Gin like he was a complete idiot (which is how he pretended to be for sure), eyes narrowed and said, "Don't you remember?"

Once it was clear that Gin had no idea what Kagura was talking about, she rolled her eyes and said, "Yesterday I told you that I was going to go visit Soyo-chan today and celebrate Tanabata with her, uh-huh. I even asked you if you wanted to come with me, since Soyo-chan invited you and Shinpachi as well. But you waved me off and told me 'go do whatever it is it by yourself, brat, you're interrupting my Jump time!', uh-huh"

Gin blinked the rest of the sleep out of his eyes as he vaguely remembered Kagura telling him something like that yesterday while he was reading his Jump manga. Gin blinked again and said, "Well, you shouldn't have told me that important bit of information while I was reading Jump. Had you told me later, I probably would have agreed to come with you. Did you tell Shinpachi about this? You do know that we're probably still considered wanted criminals in the Shogun's palace, don't you?"

Kagura pouted, making Gin roll his at the fact that she had thought of none of these things and made the plans anyway. But all Kagura said, after the gears of thought seemed to be attempting in her head was, "Well, my offer that you could come with me has expired. So, I'll see you tomorrow."

And before Gin could say anything else to make sure that she wasn't doing anything reckless (and therefore causing the Yorozuya trio to dig their grave deeper than it already was), Kagura was out the door and it clacked shut in Gin's face. Once it was clear that Kagura wasn't going to come back anytime soon, Gin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, hoping that Kagura would stay out of trouble today.

Once Gin's worrying was done, he wandered into the kitchen and said aloud, to no one in particular, "Well now, I guess it's time for me to get ready for our new year's party, it's sure to be a big hit this year…"


When Kagura arrived at the Shogun's palace, the guards looked both suspicious and fearful of Kagura. They knew that the young Yato girl was friends with Soyo-Hime, but, at the same time. They were also there when she and the other four tried to take over the castle, and therefore, were suspicious of her motives of being here at the moment.

As Kagura got closer she shouted, "Soyo-chan, I'm here!" making the guards wonder what that meant.

But, before they could even think about an attempt to bar the red-head's entrance the large, gaudy palace, Soyo-Hime herself came out and called back, "Kagura-chan, I'm glad you came!" the black haired princess then came down to the guards and nodded to them to open the door.

The guards looked a little leery about opening the gates for fear of what this red-headed girl might do, but when they took another look at Soyo-Hime to see if she was sure she wanted to let Kagura in, the slightly cold look on her face told them all they needed to know and they opened the gates without hesitation.

Once Kagura was inside the gates, she dropped her bag to the ground and raced over to Soyo. As the two embraced in a friendly hug, Soyo said, "I'm so glad you could make it Kagura-chan. I was afraid that Gin-san wouldn't let you come because of that incident a while ago."

At that, Kagura grinned shrewdly, "That's why I told him about out plan while he was reading his Jump manga, uh-huh. He'll say 'yes' to anything as long as it gets you to leave him alone while he is reading. It works with almost everything, uh-huh!"

Soyo laughed softly, "I hope he wasn't too mad at you Kagura-chan. Shall we go make our preparations for Tanabata?"

"Oh, don't worry about Gin-chan;" Kagura huffed as she retrieved her bag from the ground, "I'm sure he's too busy getting his new year's party ready to be mad at me, uh-huh."

As the two friends walked back into the palace, Soyo asked, "What new year's party plans? It's the middle of summer; don't you celebrate Tanabata today like we do at the palace?"

"Exactly," Kagura responded, "we like to celebrate the New Year in the middle of summer, uh-huh. So, Gin-chan is probably getting ready for this year's party as we speak. I'm sure it'll be a big hit this year, uh-huh."

This made Soyo's brows furrow at how little sense that made. But, she decided not to question it, as celebrating the New Year was probably something many common people did; she still had a lot to learn about the ways of the commoner after all. So, with a small shrug, Soyo resumed her chat with Kagura about Sukonbu and Tanabata.

Kagura and Soyo spent the day both preparing for their Tanabata celebrations that evening and talking about things that they thought girls would talk about…meaning things that Gin had told Kagura that girls didn't talk about (and things she didn't really understand, but felt compelled to talk about because she was told not to).

And then, once they had exhausted their well of things to talk about, the two decided that they would play a game instead. The first thing that came to either of the girls' minds was tag. But, after playing that for a while one of the Shogun's servants told them that tag was a dangerous game to play in a palace with many breakables and that Soyo-Hime should know better than to play such a dangerous game indoors in the first place.

So, instead, the two decided to play hide-and-seek instead. But that was also cut short after a while as Sasaki Isaburo found Kagura first and 'reminded' her of how dangerous it would have been to her if the captain of the Mimawarigumi had thought that she was an enemy and not one Soyo-hime's friends.

So, after some more thinking between the two of them, Kagura suggested that they play kick the can. Soyo paused and then said with a quiet sniff, "But…we don't have enough people to play that game…"

It took Kagura about a second to realize that kick the can reminded Soyo-Hime about her former caretaker, Rotten Maizo, who had died (maybe, it's a little unclear whether just Suzuran or the both of them died at the end of that arc…). Seeing her friend looking down about how that bastard Sadasada had manipulated many people back in his day, Kagura said cheerfully, "Soyo-chan, since we're outside now, why don't we play tag again. I'm sure that they can't yell at us now, uh-huh!"

So, the two began to play tag once again, despite there being only two people, to get both their minds off what had happened in the palace not that long ago. And, before the two knew it, it was evening and it was time for the Tanabata celebration Kagura had come here for in the first place.

Even though Tanabata was usually celebrated at a street festival, the Shogun thought it best that Soyo and Kagura not leave the castle in case there was anyone who recognized Soyo and decided to do something untoward to her; the Shogun converted many of the palace grounds into what he thought of as a typical festival in Edo.

There were food stalls, game stands and all sorts of amusements for the two Kagura and Soyo to enjoy thanks to the Shogun's love for his little sister (even though he thought she should act more like a princess, he was willing to allow her one day to celebrate as a regular girl).

Once the two had almost exhausted themselves, the servants brought out a large pot full of bamboo so that the two could make their Tanabata wishes. After the two had attached their wishes to the bamboo, they decided to call it a night and go to bed.

As Kagura was passing by the bamboo, though, she saw that Soyo's wish paper said that she wished for Jiiya and his princess to be happy, and suddenly Kagura felt bad; she had wished for Sukonbu and for Gin-chan to let her eat as much as she wanted…

So, when the two friends were alone in Soyo's room, Kagura whispered, "Soyo-chan, I saw your wish earlier and I have an idea."

Soyo yawned widely, and asked sleepily, "What is it Kagura-chan?"

"Let's put out some Sake and Takoyaki so that those two can have something good to eat if they meet each other tonight, uh-huh. I'm sure that if Orihime and Hikoboshi can meet tonight that those two can as well. Also, there have been a lot of appearances of ghosts in Edo lately, so I bet those two will come around too, uh-huh."

Too tired to make any sort of objection to Kagura's plan (and not really knowing what she was talking about), Soyo nodded sleepily and the two snuck out to the kitchen to get the Sake and leftover Takoyaki. Once they were put out in an obvious place for the two lovers, Soyo collapsed and Kagura brought the futons outside to the 'offerings'.

Feeling too wired to sleep, Kagura planned to stay up and see if Maizo and Suzuran would come; but after a few minutes of waiting and staring at nothing but the starry sky, Kagura's eyes began to droop and soon the red-headed Yato collapsed onto her futon fast asleep and snoring gently away.

Later, though, a slight sound woke Kagura from her slumber. At first, she didn't open her eyes because she thought she had imagined the sound, but when she heard it again, her eyes flew open and she thought someone might be coming in to Sho-chan's castle to steal something.

Kagura only sort of registered that she and Soyo had somehow been transported back to Soyo's room as she wandered sleepily to where she thought she heard the sound. When she arrived at the source her eyes widened at who she saw and she decided to hide behind a door in case she was spotted (even though she had wanted to see those two in the first place).

Outside were two much younger versions of the courtesan, Suzuran, and former Shogun Sadasada's retainer, Rotten Maizo. For some reason Kagura didn't feel like interrupting the two lover's conversation, so she stayed hidden and listened.

The two were talking about how unexpected it was that they were brought back on Tanabata and how it was too bad that they missed seeing anyone that they knew that night. Suzuran made the suggestion that they go look in on Maizo's charge, but the old retainer shook his head and said, "No, Soyo-Hime-sama needs her sleep. Besides, I'm sure she's doing fine, after all she has those people looking out for her even after this poor old man could no longer take care of her anymore."

Kagura heard Suzuran shake her head, "You may not be able to take care of her anymore, Maizo-sama, but you'll always be looking after her. It was our time after all. But, maybe after another year has passed and the Milky Way Bridge connects this world and the next, you'll be able to see her one more time."

There was pause and then the old retainer sighed, "I'm sure you're right. Shall we go? Now that we've eaten what the girls have offered us, it's time for us to depart this world for another day."

Kagura blinked, suddenly feeling exhausted again, and as her eyes drooped heavily and she practically collapsed onto the floor, she saw the two old lovers ascending a translucent bridge into the sky.

The next morning Kagura awoke once again in Soyo's room, happy about what she had seen last night and yet sad that she couldn't share really share it with Soyo (talking about it only got so far), so after she left the Shogun's palace, as there was much to do after a festival and Kagura would be in the way, she returned to the Yorozuya.

Kagura opened the door to a messy living room with Shinpachi and Katsura passed out near an overturned Kotatsu and Gin sitting serenely a ways a way reading this week's Jump once again. When the silver haired man heard the door shut, he looked up at Kagura and asked, "How was your Tanabata sleepover?"

Kagura nodded appreciatively at the mess that had been made and answered, "It was fun, I got to see Suzuran and Jiiya one more time, uh-huh. How was the New Year's party? Sorry I missed it, uh-huh."

There was a pause and then Gin said, "Well, I'm glad you had a good time. We really seem to have ghost problem here in Edo, though, you'd think they'd all want to come during Obon like all ghosts do…Oh well, this is Edo after all. The New Year's party was great, it really is too bad you missed it. We made sure to eat all your Sukonbu." At that, Kagura half-playfully punched Gin in the arm and after Gin rolled his eyes and rubbed his arm in half-mock-pain, he went back to reading his Jump.

And that is the end of that…I'm not sure it turned out very well…I hope this story isn't too bad…as I said it was going to be different from the others…well, I guess that's all I have to say at the moment. I think, that there will be one more chapter to this story during Obon and then this set of oneshots will end. As always, if you'd like please leave a review, I love to know what you guys think. Well, see you next time then.

-村山鶴