(I am Hirari who didn't have the ability to be able to finish this oneshot as a oneshot.
So I changed this into a 'series' versioned story.
And as always, I'm sorry for the late update~~ (ノ◇≦。)

Please feel free to read!
Enjoy ~Hirari)

Beast and Rain
Part: 03 –Takasugi or Gin-san... which path?-

After going aboard on Takasugi's ship, a whole day is about to pass.
I am left alone in a room at night and I feel uneasy.
The room is too big for one person alone, and I feel myself take a deep sigh.

"This wasn't how it was supposed to be..."

This isn't where I belong.
I wonder what Otae-san and the others are doing right now...

"...Oh, that's right."
While thinking about Otae-san and the others, something crosses through my thoughts.
When I mentioned Gin-san's name, Takasugi's eyes had changed.

"Gintoki...? ...more of a reason that I can never let you go now."

I wonder what he had meant by those words.

He most probably knows Gin-san, so I wonder what kind of connection they have between them.
With that piercing glare, I can tell that the connection isn't the best...

"I'm coming in"
While I am deep in thoughts, a voice comes from the other side of the fusuma.

"Come in," I give permission where then Kijima Matako and Takechi Henpeita comes in.
Kijima Matako is the girl I saw the day I first met Takasugi.
They both seem to follow Takasugi.

"Here's dinner," Kijima says, and brings forward a tray of food before me.

This kind of treatment again...
From yesterday onwards Takasugi hadn't shown up in front of me.
It's as if I'm just being imprisoned, and my face hardens.

"Um... when can I get out of this place?" I ask as I raise my head towards the two.

"Ask Shinsuke-sama. ..Why he'd keep such a girl like you..." she starts mumbling.

"Hey, hey. You shouldn't bully her," Takechi scolds.

"Shut up, you lolicon!" she snaps back at him.
The two glare at each other, until Kijima turns this way.

"Hurry up and eat!"
Her glaring eyes were strongly penetrating mine before she turns her back towards me and stomps out of the room.

"Excuse us."
Takechi bows and follows her suit.
I had just gotten used to the slightest kindness that they had been giving me, but now that I have become alone again, I feel the solitude and my face doesn't stay up.
I don't even feel up to eating what is given to me at all.

Standing up, I open the window and a slightly chilling wind blows into the room.
The slight slapping of the small ripples upon the ship sounds comforting.
To think that I won't be able to look at this view anymore, I feel myself sighing deeply again.

When I lazily stare outside, a white smoke suddenly appears in front of my eyes and surrounds me.
Giving a few coughs at the smoke, I turn my head around to the side.
The smoke drifts slowly out from the window right beside mine.

"...Takasugi-san."
Leaning out of the window a bit, I see Takasugi whiffing out from his long pipe.
I feel the surprise, and the solitude lift a bit somehow and the constriction again.
Even though I know for a fact that as long as this person is around, I can't get out of here...
But just looking at him makes me feel at easy and calms my feelings down.

...But that doesn't mean I should belong here...

"Takasugi-san... How long am I supposed to be here for?"

...Because there's a place I have to go back to.

"There's no limit" Takasugi says without looking this way and blows out a puff of smoke.
I ball my fists and stare at him.

"Why... why is it me!" I shout at him.
I don't know what Takasugi is doing.
What it is that he wants to do, and why am I confined here.

Am I just going to be imprisoned here for life without knowing the reason for all this?

...I'm in love with this person.
Even if this is a fact, this is not the kind of life I've been hoping for!

Takasugi doesn't seem startled at all and instead, chuckles in his usual tone.
He then looks my way for the first time, angling his face towards me with an upward smirk plastered across his lips.
His silky, purple lightened hair wavers amongst the wind.

"Is there any other reason than the fact... that I've fallen in love with you?"
His eyes lock upon mine.
His calm, peaceful tone in his words is something I can't believe hearing, that makes me just stare hard into the others' eyes.

"It must be boring just sitting there all day long... wanna go out?" Takasugi offers to me who had been unable to talk.
To his confident smile, I feel my face burn up.

"G-go out...where...?" I ask in a rush, and now I avert my gaze from him.
My heart won't stop pounding so fast and so loud.

Right now, he just said fallen in love with me.
He said that... to me...

I press against my hot cheeks that rise in temperature by the second.
I then steal a glance towards the side...
... but Takasugi is no longer there, and instead, I hear the fusuma door slide open from behind.
When I spin around, I see him leaning against a wall.

That's right... going out...
The sounds like "a date'.

Liking the sound of it, it makes me happy and I feel myself form a smile.
...Just then.

"Minaaaa!"
At the same time my name is called out, a huge spray of water springs up from below and I look up in shock to find a drenched Kagura-chan jumping high into the air.

"Wha- ...K-Kagura-chan!"
She grabs my arm as I stare, dumbstruck.

"Hurry! Let's run away!" Kagura-chan shouts and falls into the river while pulling me along.
And so I also get swallowed by water.
After becoming fully drenched head to toe, I surface for air.

"Ha-...! Kagura-chan, why are you here!" I manage to ask while panting.
I grab onto Kagura-chan since I'm not best at swimming.

"We were worried because you didn't come back, and then I found you poke your head out of that window!" Kagura-chan says as she starts swimming, carrying me along.

"You mean...you came to save me?" I ask calmly and I earn a confused face from Kagura-chan.
After getting out of the river, I feel the water dripping off me as I stay downcast.

"...What's wrong? You look kinda depressed..."
Seeing Kagura-chan's face harden in concern, I feel bad.
If Kagura-chan had come here, it probably means that Gin-chan and Shinpachi-kun is here to find me too.

I'm going back to Otose night bar now.

...Normally if I think that, I would have been happy.
But why...?

I want to go back to Takasugi...

To be thinking that way... is maybe because I am really in love with him.

"Kagura-chan... M-Mina-san!" Shinpachi's voice comes from behind.
Turning around, I see Shinpachi-kun with a very surprised face.

"I'm so glad you're okay!"
My heart constricts, watching his happy smile.

...I'm the worst
Everybody had taken the trouble to come and find me, but I can't say any thankful words to them at all.

And moreover, I have a feeling that betrays them.

With such a feeling... I have no right to be with them...

I can't look into their eyes and I keep my eyes downcast.
The overflowing tears start dripping onto the surface of the ground.

"What's wrong! You've been acting so weird..." Kagura-chan stares into my face with a worried look.

"...I'm sorry"
After I quietly mumble that, I turn away from them and start running.
...but my feet soon halt to a stop.

In my downcast eyes reflect a pair of boots.

"...Mina"
To the quiet, weak voice, I raise my head where I see Gin-san with furrowed brows.

"Gin-san..."
To him, I can only call out his name, and I stare back down.
I can only just apologise.

"...I'm glad you're safe..."
I look up again at Gin-san who says those words with such a sad tone.
In that moment, a hand comes round my waist, and before I know it, I'm embraced by Gin-san.
I can feel the fast pulse from that usual slow and lazy Gin-san.
As I stand dumbstruck with widened eyes... he whispers right beside my ear.

"I love you so much... that it's unbearable..."
And he tightens the embrace.
My voice doesn't produce and my body becomes rigid from shock.
My mind is swirling so much that I can't even find the ability to think up of any words to say.
My heart constricts so hard that tears start forming as I tightly close my eyes to prevent them from escaping.

What am I supposed to do?

Closing my eyes, in the darkness, I see two light rays.
One is a warm and kind sunlight that embraces me gently.
One is a not so warm, but strong bright moonlight that shines upon me.

Which light am I going to depend on to guide my life?

To think that both are equally important to me... is that too selfish of me?

Coming up with no answer, I just let my tears fall.
Then Gin-san let's go of me and takes a small step back.
Looking up surprise, Gin-san sighs and wipes my tears away.

"Don't cry... I didn't come here to make you cry..."
Seeing Gin-san scrunching his hair, looking troubled, I scrub away my tears.

"I'm sorry..." I manage to croak and to that, Gin-san's brows frown as he pulls a saddened smile and pats my head.

"Don't apologise. There's a guy you want to see... right?"
I stare at Gin-san in shock after those words.

"How...?"

Gin-san is amazing.
He can see through me so easily.

"I'm not too selfish to force you by my side.
...Hurry, and go to the guy you want to see."
And he says that he will tell Otose about the situation after that.
Gin-san then gives me a vibrantly warm smile.

...I'm really, really the worst.
To betray such wonderful people...

The happiness and the sadness entwine.
I bow down low in respect.

"Thank you very much... Gin-san."
Gin-san then averts his gaze from me and opens his mouth to speak.

"Hurry up and go... or else I won't be able restrain myself from keeping you to my side."
To Gin-san's words, my eyes start watering and dare to slip down my lashes, but I try my hardest not to let them out as I bow again once more, in deep respect.

Up in the sky, is a big moon.
I depend on that light as a guide to walk me out of this darkness.

I had never intended to write a serious-mode Gin-san...
It seems that I love to write a very kind Gin-san←
This story is starting to become a long-story fan-fic rather than a series fan-fic ；；
But thank you very much for reading!
Comments are my fuel to keep me going (ノ◇≦。)

I always appreciate it!
I will be really happy if you would offer to read my next chapter too!