Not-Lesson 9: This is horrible but I'm posting it anyways
Winter was slowly approaching, and the Sakata twins took a moment to breathe into their hands.
"Should've worn scarves."
"And gloves."
"You don't even need a glove. Your sleeves are warm enough!"
"You know better than I do that these sleeves don't do anything to stave off the cold!"
The woman argued with the man, though it sounded more like a man was arguing with a woman. The 'woman' was carrying a plastic bag, the corners of a book or a thick magazine of some sort poking through the bag. The 'man' was walking at the same pace, the left arm slung inside the fold of the white kimono.
"Seki, you're sounding like me. Go back to sounding like a woman. You can do it!" encouraged the so-called man. His voice sounding much like the real Gintoki's.
Seki put a hand to his face. "I can't believe I let you do this."
Gin grinned. "Well, we haven't switched places in a long time."
"For good reason. You're how many centimeters shorter than me?"
"We can just say that someone chopped off your feet and made you shorter. Maybe shorter than Takasugi. He'd loved that."
Seki rolled his eyes. "And now I have to worry about both you and him sneaking during the night to cut me down to size."
"I don't know. Considering how he acted during the festival, he might just outright kill you." Gin gave a sidelong glance at him. "Mind telling me why he wants to kill you so much?"
"What are you talking about? He's always wanted to kill me."
Gin hummed as she crossed the street ahead of Seki. "Whatever you say."
Seki shook his head, about to say something regarding her skepticism as he crossed the street, when he saw something coming.
"Gin!"
The last sound he heard was the screeching of tires.
He heard people laughing. At first, he ignored them in hopes that they'd ignore him back. But eventually, when he could no longer feign nonchalance, he turned around, only to be met with a snowball to his face. He wiped the snow off, a yell bubbling in his throat…
...And he was running around a battlefield, sword in hand, yelling battle cries and orders for the men to stay alive because the last thing he needed was…
...Another funeral. They've finished burying the dead and making the graves, but they still couldn't move on. He stared at the graves, lamenting his lack of power. He was weak, a failure. Couldn't protect anyone, couldn't save anyone. A comrade—male, long hair, wig— comes out of the tent, carrying a book with great care as if it was a precious family heirloom and asked if he wanted to bury it because…
...Really, no one was going to look underground for food and it was the best way to save it, the girl said, patting the mound of dirt. She frowned after he said something back and told him not to worry about when it snowed. Secretly, he thought that she thought they were going to die before winter came. Why'd she have to be…
...Such the goddamn optimist. There was no way she was going to survive this, but she laughed and told him he was being a pessimist, pushing him towards the ominous door with one arm. What was so bad about going in a haunted house? If anyone was going to die, it would be him. Cause of death would be…
...Beheading.
A cry died in his throat as he shot up from the futon. He felt his heart beating too fast. He ran a hand through his hair, suddenly needing a drink of water; his throat's dry. Oddly enough, his pillow was wet, but he figured it was from his drool. No wonder his throat was dry if he drooled that much.
The dream was forgotten as he got up to get a cup of water. Later, a coworker wondered why his eyes were so puffy. After looking in a mirror, he wondered that as well.
Shinpachi overturned a slab of stone, mildly disappointed and not surprised to see just the floorboards underneath. Groaning, he plopped down on a clean patch of floor and looked around. Stone and wood littered the floor, all of them once used to make the roof of the office.
Four days ago, Sakamoto accidentally piloted his spaceship into the building. They were lucky that no one had been inside at the moment of the accident. The Yorozuya had been busy trying to help Gintoki regain his memories, and the thought of resting in the office never occurred to them. In a way, Gintoki's amnesia had been a blessing in disguise. However, the sight of his home destroyed had given the amnesiac the excuse to disband the Yorozuya and walk away from their lives.
The memory was a bitter one to recall. Over the last four days, Kagura had repeatedly gone out to look for Gintoki while Sekishin had been going to work in preparation of something. The spaceship had finally been removed yesterday, and that morning, after Kagura left again, Sekishin asked him if he wanted to go to the ruined office with her. He said yes because there was something he wanted to look for.
Half-heartedly, Shinpachi threw a piece of wood at the wall. It knocked over another piece of wood, which acted as a lever for a slab of stone that fell to the floor with a thud that shook the whole room, causing a precarious pile of rubble to stir and a stone to roll down it, coming to a stop near Shinpachi's feet.
"Somehow, that was really anticlimactic."
"What were you expecting?" Sekishin asked as she emerged from a nearby room.
She was carrying a cardboard box. Alarm bells were going off in Shinpachi's head. Quickly, he ran to hold the box, but it was already too late. The box tumbled out off her hold, emptying its contents on the floor.
"That was heavy," she commented after a moment.
"Of course it was! You should have asked me for help. You can't carry a box with one hand!"
"Now, Megane-kun. Some people get offended when you start thinking that they can't do anything by themselves. I had it all under control...until I didn't."
"Geez. My name is Shinpachi," sighed the boy, bending down to clean up the mess.
All sorts of objects were strewn on the rubble-covered floor, including a camera, and envelope labeled 'Photos,' and a skeletal artificial arm. Shinpachi and Kagura had found the arm on the floor one day, and the latter mistakenly believed that it was a new toy for Sadaharu. When Sekishin came home that night, she shot a look at Gin, who had the gall to look nonchalant, and used the slobber-colored arm to slap him in the face.
To her dismay, he had blocked it with his wooden sword.
Sekishin picked up the arm, giving it a once-over, before setting it on the floor.
"You're not putting it back in the box?"
"'Back'?" She gestured to her left sleeve. Her empty left sleeve that had a slight tear in it, most likely from when the box dragged her arm down with it. "No, it's broken right now. I'm going to give it to Niki for repairs. Or maybe Gengai. Ooh, Niki or Gengai, which to choose?"
"Who's Niki?"
"An acquaintance."
Ah, a vague answer. Time to drop the subject. "In any case, there's a lot of things in here."
It was the truth. It was best called a collection of junk. He found three parts of a broken shinai, a fox mask, several lacquer boxes, something that looked like a laser gun, some worn-out kimonos, and more.
"Well, Gin insisted, in case any of us got amnesia and needed something to remind us." She winced. "We probably should have told you and Kagura this earlier."
"No, I guess we were too preoccupied with getting Gin to talk to other people that we didn't even think that there was something inside that could help. If we'd only—"
"Found it!" Sekishin exclaimed, cutting him off. In her hand was a CD case, with a picture of Otsuu on the very front.
It was the very thing that Shinpachi had been looking for. However, the boy couldn't let himself rejoice just yet since he could have let Gintoki regain his memories. Then he wouldn't have left, wouldn't have disbanded the Yorozuya, wouldn't have made his sister so sad.
Because even though she put on a cheerful facade, she didn't fool him. He'd seen how she clasped together her hands, for once visible behind her overly-long sleeves, digging the nails of her right hand into an unfeeling, unmoving left hand as they waited in the hospital. He'd heard how distressed she was when a call from her workplace came, telling her that she was needed there when all she wanted was to remain at the hospital. And then she had come to the Shimura's late in the night, eyes wide, having heard everything from Otose.
A light tap to his head brought him out of his reverie.
"Don't worry about it," Sekishin said, placing the case in his hands. "Talking to his friends was a good idea, too. There's no way of knowing if he would regain his memories looking at all this. Besides, if you stayed in here, you might have ended up in the hospital."
She was smiling like nothing was wrong. Everything was wrong.
"How can you be so optimistic?" She was the one who lost everything, so why he the only one who seemed to be upset? It made no sense.
Nothing made sense.
"Because I know that Gin will come back. We're twins, after all."
Being twins had nothing to do with anything.
"Well if I recovered from amnesia, it only makes sense that Gin will, too, right?"
An hour later, the two were standing on the foot of the staircase leading to the second floor. The cardboard box had been entrusted with Otose for safekeeping, along with the month's rent. Sekishin had a travel bag slung over her shoulders and another bag in her hand. In the end, she didn't tell Shinpachi anything about her experience as an amnesiac, but then again, she never did tell him much.
"Well then, I'll see you...some time soon, I hope," she said, pulling out two envelopes from her still empty sleeve. "This is a list of furniture that needs to be replaced. Here's a letter to give to Gin when he gets his memories back. On the off-chance that he's still an amnesiac when I come back, I'm going to kill him, so make sure he gets his memories back."
In a factory miles away, one of the new workers felt a chill.
"Do you really have to leave?" Shinpachi asked, accepting the two envelopes.
"I'd love to stay and beat Gin's memories back myself, but my boss is a jerk, so yes, I have to go." She grumbled something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like 'Hiji-jerk,' and Shinpachi was suddenly reminded of Akatsuki.
"Got it." Feeling slightly uncomfortable about what seemed like a farewell, he added, "Bring back souvenirs."
She laughed. "Of course."
A/N: So around last week, after rewriting this for the fourth time, I just went screw it. SCREW IT. The title expresses my feeling very well. So not only do you guys get a short chapter (almost 2k words), you get this lovely bit of information: Seki's not coming back until Benizakura arc. The only arc between this one and Benizakura that I'm moving to be after Benizakura is the Umibouzu Arc. And before we get into Benizakura arc, I might post an intermission chapter telling what Seki's up to in Kyoto. Completely original, completely oc, and completely okay to skip.
So clearing things up.
In the first scene, we have Gintoki dressed as Seki and Sekishin dressed as Gin. Gintoki gets run over by a car, and we're at the beginning of the Memory Loss Arc. By the way, please note that Seki does not know about chapter 519 spoilers.
For the anime-watching people wondering about 519 spoilers, have fun with the Shogun Assassination Arc. WE'RE DEAD. WE'RE GONNA DIE. EVERYTHING AFTER THIS ARC IS GONNA KILL US. WHY'D YOU HAVE TO ANIMATE THE ARC SO EARLY ;;_;; EVERYONE'S GONNA DIE ;;_;; WE DON'T NEED TEARS DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON
On a lighter note, it's almost winter break. Merry Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, or whatever you celebrate. And happy New Years. AND BRACE YOURSELF FOR THE FEELS AND HOPE THEY DON'T ANIMATE THE NEXT ARC RIGHT AFTER THIS ONE
AND I'M DISAPPOINTED IN YOU ALL FOR NOT CELEBRATING ISABUROU'S BIRTHDAY ON OCT 10 BECAUSE HE DESERVES IT AFTER *SPOILERS*. ISABUROU SHARES HIS BIRTHDAY WITH GIN FYI (This is why I wanted to finish this by Oct 10, so I could wish him happy birthday. I'm late by two months *cries*)
Okay, I'm done ranting. Maybe. Sorry. wAIT.
Name Trivia Kozakura up there in the last scene is Seki, if you didn't know. Kozakura Tsubaki. There's a reference here. Written as 小桜 椿(lit. Small cherry blossom, camellia). And I don't know if I mentioned this yet, but Yamanami's full name is Yamanami Chiyuki, with Chiyuki written as 血雪(lit. Blood Snow). In story, it was supposed to Koyuki [小雪(lit. Small Snow)] before someone got drunk and wrote 血 instead of 小 (In his defense, they look somewhat alike; no one believed him). So if you swap the ko with the chi, you get the original Koyuki and Chizakura, which would mean blood cherry blossom, which is kind of symbolic for Seki and some others considering the past-that-has-not-yet-been-stated-but-has-been-hinted-at. And camellias are a kind of flower (given name needed to be a flower considering the reference) that are a symbol for bad luck to samurai because it falls all at once. (For ordinary people, it means love)
I imagine Seki likes to think that it means all or nothing.
Next is that I edited Nan-san to be Sannan. Sannan is just an alternate way to read 山南(Yamanami).
Okay, now I'm done. Next chapter are some highlights that were deleted when I rewrote this. (I was going to put it on the end of this, but there's a lot.) (This is to make up for the long absence and short chapter)