a/n: This is a story I wrote as a tribute to Sarutobi Ayame and the GinSachi fandom. I've given it much love and I hope you will love it too, no matter how tragic it may be.

Prologue:

Though I visit you

continually in my dreams,

the sum of all such ethereal trysts

is still less than one actual, solid glimpse.

-Ono no Komachi (825 - 900)

The flowers of a huge, mystical wisteria swayed from the gentle spring wind. Some petals detached themselves from the cluster of drooping flowers, scattering their sweet scent of peas and lilacs around the forest meadow.

Some caressed the cheeks of the young silver-haired samurai underneath the tree. He had been there since morning.

The chilly spring wind did not affect him. His entire body was warm like coal from practicing with his sword since he arrived. Every swing he made was deadly and created a clean, sharp sound.

He smiled when he noticed that he just halved a petal in midair.

He was satisfied to know that his training had been productive. For the past few months, he poured his heart into getting better with the sword. An impending war was brooding in Edo City – the capital of Japan a few days' walk away. The brother of the current shogun had just launched a coup d'état. It was a traitorous turn of events. The brother received the land of Kamakura from the shogun, transforming him into a powerful daimyou. It seemed that he got drunk with power and wanted more.

The young samurai didn't really care much about the politics of his country at the moment, but he saw the impending war as an opportunity to put his fighting skills to the test. He thirsted for a real battle. After years of training under Shouyou-sensei, he was more than ready.

A spark of pain shot through his arm muscles and interrupted his thoughts.

He realized that he was tired and needed rest.

He placed his sword on the grass and got ready to lie down when suddenly, he heard a mysterious rustling from the wisteria's branches. The sound got louder, characterized by the sound of many breaking twigs and then – a young woman's shriek.

A woman just fell on him!

It took him a few seconds to recover after his breath got knocked out of him. When he opened his eyes, he saw that his face was just a few inches away from a stranger's. A beautiful one at that. She had porcelain-like skin that was strangely glowing in the daylight. Her hair, also ethereal in appearance, had the same color as the wisteria flowers. The petals speckled on her hair blended with it so well that it seemed like none of them were on her hair at all.

He found himself entangled with her and couldn't move. He thought,

'Who on earth is this?!'

The woman in front of him slowly opened her eyes, revealing a pair of striking grey irises.

Then, her eyes widened. She gasped.

She quickly detached herself from him, standing up and patting away the stray, little petals.

The young samurai also followed, feeling suddenly irritated at the twist of events. A strange lady suddenly came tumbling down on him, ruining a supposedly peaceful moment of rest. He had the urge to shout at her but before he realized, the words already came out of his mouth.

"What is wrong with you?! You can't just fall down from the sky! You almost knocked me out!"

She yelped and profusely apologized.

"I didn't mean to do that, Gin-sa-, I mean, I'm sorry! It won't happen again!"

"What was that? It sounded like you were about to say my name!"

"I wasn't!"

"Anyway, who even are you?"

"My name is Ayame. I – I live around these parts."

"Hah? But I've never seen you around here. And? What were you doing on top of the tree?" He raised his eyebrows at her which made the lady blush.

"I – uh, I climbed it this morning and fell asleep on one of the branches. When I woke up, I was already falling towards you." Had the samurai been paying closer attention, he would have noticed that there was a slight awkwardness in her tone – indicating that she was being untrue.

"What a silly thing to do. Be careful next time, alright?!" He dusted off the remaining petals from his yukata. "Anyhow, since you introduced yourself to me, I should do the same. I'm Gintoki Sakata, a samurai."

He reached out his hand to her. The lady, seeming unsure on what to do first at first, held it. It shocked Gintoki how cold her hand was. It was not icy cold, per se, but was cool and gentle and oddly felt pleasant against his large, warm hands.

To say that Ayame was elated would be an understatement.

It was her first time to take on a human form. It didn't start out well – she almost knocked out Gin-san and might have injured herself if not for him – but in the end Gin-san acknowledged her! She was even holding his hand now which was so warm. It made her swoon.

She knew that it belonged to a strong samurai.

Ayame couldn't help but soak in the image of Gin-san. He was so much more imposing with his broad, muscular chest and piercing red eyes. She could feel the warmth emanating from his body. She thought that he could just melt her.

She yearned to be with him ever since the day that he saved her. But she could only watch him from afar in her invisible spirit form.

From time to time, he would come to this meadow to train under her wisteria tree. She knew how much the sword meant to him. He had dedicated himself to this art. A samurai – that's what he was called.

She also already knew his name before he introduced himself. She found out about it one day, when a man with long, light-brown hair found him training here.

"So this is where you train while I'm gone, Gintoki." The man who was approaching them both had a gentle manner of speaking.

'Gintoki! Gintoki is his name. Gin-san!' She thought happily, her legs swinging with glee as she sat on the branch of the wistera.

Gin-san immediately stopped what he was doing and bowed to the man. "Welcome back, Shouyou-sensei!"

The man in question smiled and gestured to him to raise his head. His face was gentle and bore lines that Ayame could only deduce was a sign that he was aging. He looked around, and for a few seconds his eyes locked with hers, and he smiled again. She did not know if that was intentional. She felt like she was seen even though she knew that she could not be perceived with human eyes.

"You also picked a nice tree to train under. A wisteria, isn't it? I didn't know that you had an eye for plants, Gintoki."

Gin-san looked at the wisteria beside him – almost looking at her who was sitting on a branch. But his eyes bore no spark of recognition of her. They were looking past her.

"It just keeps me cool during the day. But I have to admit that I also picked it for its beauty."

The man named Shoyou-sensei laughed.

"You have to take care of that tree then, Gintoki."

She did not know that she could take on a human form. She was just a yosei, not a cunning and shapeshifting kitsune, that inhabits this wisteria tree. But, inhabiting a tree also binds one to it. And sometimes, the tree and its inhabitant's consciousness would align. Trees are very wise creatures, collecting knowledge from living for centuries. Sometimes, trees of similar kind would even communicate amongst themselves through their roots.

Ayame never thought that the tree she inhabits would impart her with its knowledge.

For the first time ever, the wisteria appeared in her consciousness. It spoke to her in a language that she never heard before and yet understood. It told her that yosei have the ability to become humans – but such practice had been forgotten amongst them given how dangerous it was to mingle amongst humans.

This knowledge coursed through her veins and she at once, knew how to perform the act to become human.

"Can you let go of my hand now? You've been holding it for a while."

Gin-san's voice broke her trance. She let go at once and felt embarrassed.

How long had she been holding his hand?

For sure, he sees her as an oddball already.

"Uhm – if you don't mind, can I go back to rest? I've been up and swinging this sword since morning," Gin-san said. He was being polite to her as though he hadn't just shouted at her earlier. Ayame inwardly smiled. He too, was an oddball.

He laid down on the ground again, put his arms behind his head, and finally closed his eyes. The wisteria spirit simply watched him, taking in the satisfaction that she could finally be near him as a human. She always tried to interact with him even when only in her spirit form. She used to wave her arms in front of him but he never saw her. One time, she tried to embrace Gin-san but she only slipped past through him.

Being able to turn human made her so happy.

She knelt beside him. She watched his eye lashes flutter ever so gently in the breeze. His face was so peaceful and unguarded. Up close, Gin-san looked even more handsome.

"Does it hurt somewhere, Gin-san?" she asked softly.

Gintoki pretended to sleep, not wanting to be disturbed yet once more by this stranger.

After giving no answer, he felt her cool hands touch his temples. Then, they slowly wandered down his neck. He was not supposed to feel so welcoming towards this strange woman's touch, but he was in a daze.

She caught him under her spell.

Her hands trailed sidewards from his neck towards his shoulders, and up towards his arms behind his head. Everywhere they went, her hands left a soothing feeling. And that's when he realized –

He no longer felt in pain. His muscles were no longer sore. He felt energized again.

The young samurai rose from his pretend slumber but the lilac-haired woman was no longer to be found.

"Ayame?"

A strong wind blew past him. It seemed like it had carried away the strange woman towards the sky.

"Ayame? Where are you? What did you do to me?"

He kept looking around, but he could not see that she was in front of him the whole time.

The wisteria yosei had unwittingly gone back to her spirit form. She had been answering his calls but they no longer reached his ears.

"Gin-san, I'm here, Gin-san…!" she said.

Tears were falling down from her eyes. It was back to square one. She did not know that there was a time limit. The wisteria never told her. She only wanted to make him feel better.

Suddenly, she began to feel weak. Her vision started to blur. Her body rapidly grew faint.

The last thing she heard was the echo of her voice calling out Gin-san's name over and over again.

a/n: *Fun fact: Ayame's hair color resembles the color of a wisteria. She does look so magical, doesn't she? She can totally pass of as a mythical being because of her unusual hair color. Also, I decided to go for Ayame instead of Sacchan for this story because it's more fitting for a spirit's name.

Please leave reviews, kudos if you can. See you in the next chap. 3