This story actually has a plot. Omfg.
Why couldn't Emeralds actually have a plot.
No but seriously, there's some stuff to come. WHOAAAAA.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gintama, but I do enjoy watching the Yoshiwara arcs. As I am now. Whooo Kamuiiiiiii. Whoooo Kaguraaaa. Whoo GinTsu scene that I still fangirl over hardcoreeeeeee.
Eyes of Wolves
- 12 -
.: Friday, THREE WEEKS AGO :.
He expected time, but the clock was hardly his friend. His hand just reaches the doorknob to his room when Abuto seizes him by the wrist. Zenshi inwardly curses, because he could never sense the older Yato's approach.
"There is no time, they're coming for you in your room," he hisses. "Cameras are off along deck two's aft and port sides. Go through down the back aisles and take the crew stairs, not the regular ones."
The spacecraft was designed luxuriously, almost in the style of a cruise ship. Zenshi knew its dimensions and configurations well.
"You still haven't told me," Zenshi insisted, stubbornly immobile. "Who else was involved?"
"A lot of people just like you, bud," Abuto replies quickly. "A lot of people."
"Who? And how did you know—"
"There is no time," Abuto growled, clenching his jaw. "Run. Now."
The voices that began to creep around the hall grew louder. Zenshi, abandoning all common sense, strained against his screaming instincts and shot down the path that Abuto had delineated, with nothing but his umbrella strapped to his side.
.: End of MARCH, ONE MONTH AGO :.
"One fifth of the crew rebelled, yet no evidence of a ringleader…"
There is nothing like the drone of an interstellar reporter's voice to grate upon the nerves of several tense Amanto pirates. Kamui glares at the screen with half amusement, half distaste. The bridge is clean, but there are spot traces of blood still lingering on the poorly scrubbed floor.
"The code team still has not retrieved any lost footage," Abuto narrates over Zenshi's shoulder. The dark-haired man has clipped the mute button for the news, and Abuto remains reading the captions that flash below the purple-skinned reporter's face. "A leaked disaster for the Harusame pirates, and a sigh of relief for the planet of Sciuttla."
"Cannons one and two are partially refigured," calls one of the techs, flying solo on his missions down to the weapons harbor. "Where's—oh, right."
Habitually, Zenshi knows that the man was tempted to ask where his two partners were. However, seeing as Kamui had brutally murdered the two in cold blood — for their vicious treason, he said — there were no partners to ask for.
"What's this?" Abuto quips, almost amused. "Precious ore of Aokaminyte found? How fascinating."
"Abuto," trills Kamui, his voice light and singsong. He twirls around on a wheeled desk chair, exemplifying all but the captain he is supposed to be. A child at heart, Kamui's lightness on his feet is both distracting and contagious. Nonetheless, the crew working in the bridge, familiarized with their young leader's constant pomp and dance, finds his lightheartedness to be pleasant. "Can you go help out Shaojun with the cannons?"
"Danchou, we're coasting through an asteroid belt," groans Abuto. "I'm needed."
"Mei will go," Zenshi offers, waving his aide over. She nods curtly, accepting her executive orders and following the harried tech down the hall. Always a friendly one, that Mei. Zenshi recalls that Mei has a sister, a pretty thing with hair as orange as a carrot. Mei's hair would be the same, except that she crops it short and bleaches it nearly white.
"And why are we in an asteroid belt?" asks Kamui, dramatically sighing.
"Because we had orders to meet with Daraku's crew," Abuto explains.
"That clean freak? How boring."
Kamui finally stops twirling in his chair, staring unfocusedly at the crewman who typed furiously into a database. Zenshi proceeded to accept updates and status changes, all the while studying the abyss of space. As they navigated around various asteroids and space debris, it occurred to him that though the objects moved passed them in an ascertainable direction, he still could not tell up from down, left from right, forward from back.
.: Friday, THREE WEEKS AGO :.
He clattered down the steps, landing on deck two with utmost caution after his crashing and echoing. Pushing the door to the main hall open, Zenshi stole a glance into the infirmary. Not much activity.
The lights were dimmed, and the curious red light that constantly flashed on the security cameras was disabled. He sprinted down toward the back of the ship, ducking into a closet when he heard voices approaching. When the coast was clear, all that was left was to crawl back up to deck five on this end of the ship and hop out the back.
The ship, currently docked in Edo's harbor, had all decks below four beneath the waterline. Abuto had very cleverly devised an escape route that would take Zenshi down to less occupied decks, before rising at the very tail end of the vessel. Deck five had a balcony-like outcropping for landed surveillance. With any luck and Abuto's planning, there would be no one there.
Unfortunately, Zenshi assumed wrongly. Someone was posted right at the exit on deck five. All the way up, the way had been open. Zenshi cursed his luck. He prepared to draw his umbrella and fire upon sight.
When the door swung open, he came face to face with his own aide.
Mei.
.: End of MARCH, ONE MONTH AGO :.
"What is that?" snorts Kamui, reviewing any salvaged video material from the damaged cameras. He rewinds, points derisively to a man who is thrown rather comically against the windows when the gravity core deactivates and the entire ship tilts tremendously.
"The guy who fell?" says Abuto.
"Yeah, the guy who fell over." Kamui pauses the video again. "And that thing."
He brings his finger up to a dark blur that shoots past the camera after the screen stops shaking. Before the vibration, several people stumble — that was the gravity core's shut down — and collapse against the floor-to-ceiling windows. The camera is jolted from its place, and when the ship finally stabilizes again, the black flash darts across the screen. It almost ricochets from floor to slanted windows and back to the floor again.
"Spiderman," Abuto offers.
"I thought it was an actual spider," attempts an officer. The joke is apparently not appreciated, because even Kamui doesn't spare a smile.
"One of our perpetrators," Kamui declares, running his tongue over his teeth in sadistic relish. "How fun."
"Can't see him very clearly," notes Abuto.
"If he's heading toward the bow, then there should be someone at the gravity core at this time," Zenshi says, sitting in on the conversation. "Check the cameras there again."
"Have we recovered any more footage?" asks Abuto. He taps one of the crew members working on securing lost video. A shake of the head, a few frowns, and he comes back with nothing. "The most we have is before the generator goes out, and that's about a minute before the gravity core goes out. It's the first time the camera shakes," he explains, rewinding Kamui's current project. "Here."
"Abuto, Zen. Go check out that spot again," Kamui says, still peering at the screen. "I want every single piece of evidence returned."
"I never knew you to be so insistent," sneers Abuto, looking fatigued. "But oh well."
Zenshi turns to follow Abuto, but there is only one thing that makes him look back — Kamui, hand hovering over the screen, staring directly at the back of the hooded figure.
.: Friday, THREE WEEKS AGO :.
Zenshi ground to a halt, unsure of whether or not to lower his loaded parasol. Mei, on the other hand, did not lift a finger in defense. Instead, she gasped and reached for the door behind Zenshi, hurriedly pushing it shut.
"Hurry, Lieutenant, this way!" She was a flash of platinum hair, and then she was gone around the corner.
Zenshi followed instantaneously.
.: TWENTY YEARS AGO :.
"There are certain people in this world you can learn to trust," says his mother. Her hands glide across an old guzheng, a family heirloom from her side. The strings that are plucked resonate with ticklish fervor, yet they only ring softly in the room. "And you will also learn how to find them."
"How?" he asks, naturally.
"By their eyes," his mother says. He looks deep into hers, and they are brown and soft and they complement her pink cheeks and pale lips. "You will know when you look in their eyes."
"What will I see?"
"Everything, Zenshi," she tells him, chuckling. "You'll be able to see everything you thought you knew, and everything you didn't."
"I don't understand."
"No one does, really."
.: Friday, THREE WEEKS AGO :.
Mei flashed a plain, silver band on her left index finger to the guard at the balcony's edge. In return, he displayed the same ring visibly on his own hand. He nodded respectfully at Zenshi, urging them to hurry along.
"Release the ladder after I come back up," Mei told him. She then turned to Zenshi, a grim, apologetic expression set in her pursed lips. "I'm sorry, Lieutenant. Some of our plans were skewed, and so the only way out is by water."
"The boats were confiscated," said the guard. "If you creep over to the starboard side, you'll be closer to the spare lifeboat that Delong assigned in secret."
Delong? What does a dead man have to do with this?
"We'll trust that it's still there." Mei nodded and briskly strode to the unraveled rope ladder. "Lieutenant, this way."
"I recognize the urgency, but I also detest being in the dark," he stated flatly. Mei and the guard exchanged glances.
"Again, my sincerest apologies, Lieutenant, but please just accept that the time will come."
"I also don't appreciate mysteries," he nearly snarled.
"Lieutenant, please!" Mei went as far as to tug at his sleeve. "Please believe us."
"Are these Abuto's orders?"
"Yes."
But he didn't believe them.
.: APRIL, PRESENT :.
It took a long time for him to fall asleep. Haunted by the blood of his comrades, he could still feel the gushing warmth of Yato lives on his hands, between his fingers. When the essence seeped into his core, wound itself around him several times, he threw the covers aside and leapt to his feet. The imaginary blood seemed to drain, sliding between his toes like sand on a beach. No matter how hard he tried, the sensation would never leave.
Zenshi exited the room.
.: Friday, THREE WEEKS AGO :.
He found himself descending, he found himself hardly surprised at the small canoe strapped to the underside of a secondary deck.
"There it is!" exclaimed Mei, dropping to boat's small platform. "Hurry, we're almost out of time."
"And I am to trust you?" Zenshi said coldly. Mei looked up then, and he was startled by the clarity in her anomalous eyes. She had coral eyes that often darkened with her mood, and at the moment, they shone such a pristinely pure gold that he was taken aback.
You'll be able to see everything you thought you knew, and everything you didn't.
"Lieutenant," she said slowly, a hint of a smile on her face. "I have been your loyal aide from day one. I have known you since our school days. I'd hope with all my being that you'd trust me."
And the fact that she didn't swear on her Yato blood made him trust her all the more.
Whoo! Kind of long?
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now... *DONDAKEEE aWaYYYYYYYY*