Here's the first part of another multiple chapter "arc." Thanks for reading! Please enjoy. ^-^
The next morning, Gin was in bed until lunchtime after staying up too late the night before. Kagura sat in the office, swinging her legs as she chewed on sukonbu on the couch, watching the shopping channel.
Without warning, the doorbell rang.
"But if I leave I won't be able to learn what the Round and Round Fat Burner[TM] does. I might get a double burger, Johnny," muttered Kagura.
The doorbell rang again.
"Danna!" came a familiar voice. Kagura flicked off the TV, walking to the door.
"Hai," she greeted Okita, who looked annoyed.
"Where's danna?" he asked.
"Sleeping." she replied.
"Still?"
"Nun's habits die hard." misquoted Kagura.
"Old habits." corrected Okita. Mostly out of habit.
"Well, whatever," she said, leading him inside, "Like they say, you can't teach a gold dog new tricks," thinking, "although he's more like a silver dog..."
"The saying was 'old dog' anyway," Okita said, dismissing the problem with a wave of his arm, "If I was going to bazooka him to the next galaxy, would you try to stop me?" he asked lethargically.
"Let sleeping dogs fry," said Kagura dismissively.
"Well, that's no fun for me then. I'd rather fight you about it than actually do it." he said.
"I'll go bang on his door then. Bring a bucket of cold water?" she asked.
"Certainly." he answered, as one seemed to materialize in his hand. "I was saving this one for Hijikata, but.."
He heard Kagura bang on the door, then slide it open. Okita walked in, bucket of water in hand.
"Wake up!" Kagura hollered into his ear, "I have JUMP!"
"Juuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmp.." muttered Gin, "Giivvve the JUMPP..."
Okita promptly dumped the ice water on his head.
"Not.. JUMP." Gin was bewildered, sitting up, looking around. Kagura looked over at Okita.
"The sadist interrupted my shopping channel to ask for you." she informed him. Gin sat up. Okita sat down on the floor.
"The Shinsengumi requires the services of the Yorozuya Gin. You will do anything for money, right, danna?"
Gin scratched his head. "That is the idea." he affirmed.
"Right then. We need you to hunt down a certain person."
"How much will you pay us? In terms of how much sukonbu it can buy me." demanded Kagura, as they walked to the sitting room.
"About a week's worth." he answered.
"Only a week?" asked Kagura.
"We're not going to spend it all on sukonbu." Gin entered the room, dressed.
"The Shinsengumi is low on funds after hiring Otsu-chan."
"What else would we spend it on besides sukonbu?"
"Besides, you eat a lot of sukonbu per week."
"Parfaits."
"You need to watch your blood sugar, uh-huh, old man."
"Your week of sukonbu is anyone else's lifetime supply."
"And JUMP."
"Everyone else just doesn't eat enough sukonbu."
"Plus, I was actually going to pay the rent this month."
"Does calling him an old man mean you acknowledge you're just a kid?"
"You never pay the rent."
"Maybe you just need to eat less sukonbu."
"Who are you calling a kid, kid?"
"I don't know if she could eat any less sukonbu, danna. Maybe its in her programming."
"All right, I wasn't going to pay the rent."
"I missed my TV programming today thanks to you, sadist."
"I never got my JUMP."
"I haven't even got to the point yet. Anyway, if you weren't going to pay the rent, what were you going to pay, danna?"
"For sukonbu!"
"I was going to pay Kagura and Shinpachi."
"In that case, you really could spend it all on sukonbu."
"What about Shinpachi?"
"He doesn't need a paycheck."
"I thought maybe she wanted you to pay him in sukonbu."
"Who ever heard of paying in sukonbu?"
"Sukonbu fixes everything."
"Who would work for sukonbu, anyway?"
"I would."
"You've got one, there."
"So that's one."
"She counts for ten."
"I'm the Most Fallible Employee!"
"Valuable."
"No, probably fallible."
"Ten failed employees is better than one."
"On what planet?"
"It's the principle the Shinsengumi works on."
"Which tells us what?"
"The first step to healing is admitting that you have a problem."
"Indeed."
"The only one with a problem-"
"Why not get paid in-"
"-is the one getting paid in sukonbu."
"Sadaharu says-"
"Parfaits?"
"Arf-arf all the time."
"So don't accuse me of-"
"JUMP would be ok, too."
"Being weird."
"But he never accuses me of having problems. People should"
"I would say-"
"arf-arf all the time, too."
"I really did want the-"
"-that if I could I would get paid in chances to injure-"
"I think the solution is-"
The door opened, and Shinpachi walked in.
"Good morning, Gin-san, Kagura-chan. Oh! It's Okita. What brings you here?"
"JUMP."
"Hijikata."
"Sukonbu."
"Excuse me?"
Okita shifted in his seat, sensing logic, and aimed toward it, like a plant growing toward the light.
"The Shinsengumi would like you to find this person," he said, sliding a manila envelope across the table. Shinpachi lifted the envelope, pulling out a picture, a brightly colored flyer, and a coupon.
Kagura grabbed the coupon. "Mayo?" she read.
Gin looked at the picture, while Shinpachi lifted the flyer.
" 'Prince of Badminton Racquet Camp' ?" he read.
"Those are the possible places the criminal could have gone. He was being held at the Shinsengumi headquarters, and was shown both of these documents, so those are likely things for him to have investigated." Okita informed them.
"What kind of criminal are we dealing with?" asked Gin.
"Maybe a ninja? A zombie? A pirate? Do the details really matter?" Okita replied.
"Of course." answered Gin, "Have you ever heard of the space pirate Captain Katsura?"
"Who's that?" asked Okita.
"Never mind," answered Gin, "Zura wouldn't want me to blow his cover if that was who this criminal was."
Kagura leaned over the picture.
"This doesn't look like Zura anyway." she added. Suddenly, a large white shape appeared in the window holding up a sign, which read:
"It's not Zura. It's Katsura."
Okita happened to look out the window at that particular moment.
"Well, I leave the rest to you," he said, sprinting to the window, eyes gleaming red, "Die, Katsura!"
I realize that the dialog in the middle (without names) is probably a bit confusing, but I did feel it created a nice sense of chaos. If you think it is simply too confusing, though, please review and let me know, and I can fix it straight away. Thanks for reading. ^-^