I forgot what comments I was going to add.
But: THERE IS A GINTAMA GALLERY ON MY DEVIANTART WITH ZENSHI, lots of ZENSHI. :'D
and whoaaahh TIME SKIP.
Disclaimer: Gintama's not mine, it's Sorachi's, and MUTSU IS A PIRATE AHHH
Eyes of Wolves
- 15 -
.: MAY, PRESENT :.
There were times when he easily forgot to keep his guard up, but there were also times where his defenses were dialed so high that even Tsukuyo felt alienated.
"You okay?" she would ask softly.
"Fine." But there was always the feeling that someone was watching.
.: SIX YEARS AGO :.
"I've been assigned first watch," says Mei, staring at her new assignments. She leans against the bulwark, looking exasperated. "Looks like I'm up late tonight. You?"
"I had forenoon watch today," Zenshi informs her. "I can stay if you'd like, though."
"No, no," she insists. "That'd be mean."
He shrugs and wanders off, having nothing to do save a few shipment processing issues to clear up and perhaps a mandatory training session that would be unwise to miss. Suddenly, the intercom buzzes to life and a string of announcements is rattled off. The words strain past Zenshi, some actually entering his comprehension, and some trailing off without meaning. It is only when he hears his name that he jerks to attention.
"Seaman Zenshi from Squad Fifty-two to cabin one at 2000, Seaman Zenshi from Squad Fifty-two to cabin one at 2000."
It appears he won't be going anywhere besides cabin one this evening.
.: MAY, PRESENT :.
"The investigation ceased after a short week," Sa-chan summed up when Tsukuyo looked ready to burst a vein. "I wasn't able to pull much from it."
"So what did ya pull?" Tsukuyo asked tersely.
"Tsukki," the other woman began, slowly. "Be patient."
"Sarutobi," hissed the blonde courtesan, "I have none to spare."
"Well!" declared Sa-chan loudly, patting Tsukuyo on the shoulder as if to brush dust from her clothes. "I see you keep it in reserve, don't you?" She gestured towards Zenshi, who was tempted to make a face but refrained politely.
At this point, Tsukuyo looked ready to pull out the weapons, but the purple-haired kunoichi merely sighed.
"All right, I found this — your terrorist is actually a bomb specialist known throughout the solar systems as 'Raku the Rapid' for his speedy ability to escape unseen." Sa-chan unrolled a few crinkled documents. "He's on wanted lists from various planets, and usually visits at random. No one knows where he hails from, but intergalactic police have taken to shady methods to see where his money is coming from. He's usually a hired hit, but often takes month-long leaves to randomly terrorize the galaxies."
Tsukuyo stared.
"Do you have any idea where he's headed?" Zenshi picked up easily when his companion continued staring blithely into the distance. As if fixated on Sa-chan's glasses, Tsukuyo's eyes narrowed critically.
"Well, while Tsukki is being a little slow there, let me answer that." Sa-chan scanned her papers, flipping with surprising efficiency through her research. "Aha! Here." She pointed to a specific paragraph. "According to sources that will remain anonymous, he's headed for Sciuttla."
The kunoichi looked up, but all she found was two dumbfounded visitors staring blankly at her face.
.: SIX YEARS AGO :.
He pauses respectfully by the door when Abuto slaps it open with far too vigorous a growl than should be appropriate.
"Oh, it's you," he says blandly, adjusting the dark grimace on his face to a slightly relieved frown. "C'mon in."
Zenshi steps inside the cabin, which he knows is used for the top officers' main meetings, but has never actually frequented.
Abuto suddenly holds up a piece of fabric to his chest.
"Will this fit you?"
"Red's not his color," snorts Kamui.
"I figured." Abuto pulls the clothing away, rummaging through a stack he'd appeared to have produced from the hands of many officers. A few point at Zenshi's shoulders, and an older woman mentions the fact that he's rather tall. "How about this?" their vice-captain suggests, pulling out a dark blue Yato-styled top similar to the one he wears now.
"Well, Abuto," drawls their young captain, "don't go giving him the same thing now."
"Obviously," Abuto replies, exasperated, "we'll modify it."
The older woman that had walked up to him earlier shakes her head.
"Poor thing hasn't even said a word," she mutters, taking the clothes from Abuto. Zenshi recognizes her as the usual head chef from down in the galley, also known as the head medic's wife. "Let him breathe."
"Zen won't say anything unless you ask him," Kamui explains. "Zen, wanna know why you're here?"
Zenshi raises a brow, looking bored.
Abuto shakes his head. "Gotta be more specific. The kid only talks when he's arguing."
"All right. Think fast!" Kamui grabs a glass plate from the table and chucks it rashly in Zenshi's direction. Before the older Yato can even reach out, the old woman spins around and deftly snatches the plate from mid-flight.
"No throwing dishes, young man!" she snaps irately. "Captain or not, I will not stand for horsing around. Proper young men will display proper behavior."
"I'm a pirate, though," Kamui attempts.
"I knew your mother, child," rallies the old woman, "and she didn't raise such a ruffian. Sit down."
To their amusement, Kamui sits. He looks all but happy, however.
"Back to business," announces Abuto, clapping his hands. He puts a firm, guiding hand on Zenshi's shoulder. "Take a seat, bud. You're about to be promoted."
.: MAY, PRESENT :.
"You don't seriously intend to follow this guy, do you?" asked Sa-chan, eyes widening. "Tsukki, what personal grudge do you have against him? I don't get it."
"Ya said hired hit, didn't ya? How do I know this isn't a targeted scheme?" Tsukuyo folded her arms.
"Well, first of all, I told you he does it for fun, too," argued the other woman. "Besides that, do you know how expensive it is to get to Sciuttla?"
"How do you know, then?" sneers Tsukuyo, her upper lip curled into a bitter, derisive smirk.
"Tsukki, you're overreacting. I didn't do anything wrong! Why are you so mad?"
"I'm not mad."
"You're mad."
"I am no—"
"Average cost of traveling to Sciuttla is five times the pay the Shinsengumi receives per year, and getting there is practically impossible unless you are a pirate or a merchant."
Both women turned sharply on Zenshi, who had then resumed his habitual tendency of observing passersby when he had nothing better to do.
"And how do you know this?" Sa-chan asked.
"He's a pirate," offered Tsukuyo.
"You're a pirate?"
.: FIVE YEARS AGO :.
"Damn you, Lieutenant."
"Watch your language," scolds Zenshi complacently, holding up a hand to indicate that no, he would not currently like to accept that stack of papers. Mei heatedly slams the documents down on the table anyway, jarring the petty officer to her left from his nap and startling the rest of the crewmen currently seated.
Zenshi's sudden rise through the ranks had her uncomfortably envious, somewhat resentful, but mostly maliciously obnoxious. Despite the fact that he has since promoted her as the lieutenant's first aide, she has hardly any qualms about giving him trouble. In fact, her efforts to reform her tomboyish, raucous behavior have backfired severely, and her somewhat improved mannerisms have digressed into consistent insults.
"Ma'am," whispers the boy who usually does the ship announcements. "Please lower your voice."
"Shut up, squeak box," she snarls.
"Whoa there," Abuto breaks in, stepping into the room. "No need for fireworks, m'dear."
"Vice-captain, what a lovely day it is to see you," Mei calls, dripping with sarcasm. Her irritation has aggravated more than one crewmember, and it shows evidently on their faces.
"Mei," comes Zenshi's voice, with caustic clarity. "Sit down."
She tetchily complies, settling herself with an unceremonious thump into the seat beside him. If anything, it is the negotiator's voice he has so meticulously perfected in the past year that prompts her to obey. Since the day the upper echelons of the Harusame called him to cabin one, Zenshi had been climbing the ranks, even unconsciously. Abuto had first suggested the idea that the politician's boy, so adept in diplomatic negotiations despite his bull-nosed objections, would serve perfectly as their much-needed communications officer.
And so, Lieutenant Zenshi came to be a permanent member of cabin one's seating arrangement.
.: MAY, PRESENT :.
"I've done my own research," Tsukuyo said. "There've been mysterious withdrawals from Hosen's old savin's. Anonymous transactions that Hinowa was unable to negate."
"And?" prompted Sa-chan.
"We're thinkin' Harusame," Tsukuyo explained, touching upon the wrinkled papers in Sa-chan's hands. "And I was suspicious of a hired hit."
"But why? Have you even wondered why, yet?"
"Well, they don't have a reason to attack their own conquered grounds," Tsukuyo agreed. She made a face, disliking the fact that the Harusame considered Yoshiwara an old conquest. "There haven't been uprisin's, but they haven't watched us much either."
Zenshi's eyes flickered to the ground, and Tsukuyo caught it from the corner of her peripheral view.
"What?"
"I did just tell you I was a pirate," he stated dryly. "They're probably after me."
Tsukuyo stared at him hardly, as if uncomprehending. But her violet eyes caught his meaning without much effort, and the slight shake of her head confirmed it.
"Don't tell me yer gonna run again."
He looked away.
"If I have to, I will."
"Like a coward?" she taunted, deliberately.
"Is this part of the same conversation?" A resigned sigh.
"Yes. Yer gonna run again, even after I said we could fend for ourselves?"
"I don't run, Tsukuyo." He squared his shoulders, looming ominously over her. "I hunt."
.: FOUR YEARS AGO :.
"Mei," he summons, without ever looking up. "Take these two gentlemen to the hind generators. We're darkening ship."
"Right away," she replies, never forgetting the quick lilt in her voice that can't quite leave her demeanor. As she exits, she tosses a paper airplane at Zenshi's head; he catches it with his free hand, the other scrawling various preparation statements for the next day. Mei leads to the two deck hands down to the generators, where they will program the ship's external lights to discontinue use, extinguishing all light visible from outside the ship.
When she returns, most of the crew is silently working, some observing, and the rest on watch.
"Sir." She has repeated herself five times, but Zenshi is so utterly absorbed in his work that she knows better than to disturb him. From across the way, Abuto is duly impressed by the improvement she has shown in her manners. Though still a ruffian at heart, Mei has cleaned up her act so well that she has become Zenshi's second right arm.
"Yes?" he finally answers, never setting down his pen.
"You've got ink on your face," she comments gently. She smile in her tone indicates that she is teasing, mocking. Mei has learned to hide her snarky insults within well-timed and smoothly overdone politeness.
To her disappointment, Zenshi no longer falls for the same tricks. He doesn't reach for his face, rubbing his cheek as if he is a cat pawing itself clean. He simply stands and hands her the papers.
"We're passing through an asteroid belt," he states dully. The tempted snarl that flashes briefly on her face is quelled by a practiced smile.
"Good to know, sir."
"Make sure," he says, before leaving, "the lower levels have checked their schedules. There's been a change."
"Yes, sir."
Zenshi exits.
"And Lieutenant?" Mei hurriedly adds, following him a ways out the door.
He turns.
"There really is ink on your face."
Mei goes through ultra reform! How many detentions did she serve in Yato Industrial High?!
WE MAY NEVER KNOW.
Anyway. Sort of a filler-ish thing.
It's 11 and I haven't done my hw.