Chapter 3: Moonlight in Between the Seams
By such pale moonlight
even the wisteria's fragrance
seems distant.
—Yosa Buson
"That makes it ten!"
"You lose, mine's fifteen! I'm stronger than you, after all."
"Ah! See that pile over there? That makes mine fourteen!"
"Liar! They're MY kill! Get your glasses fixed!"
"Do they look like they're riddled with bullet holes to you? Your kill is on another pile over there!"
The loud bickering of Kagura and Shinpachi should not have fallen deaf on Gintoki's ears. But when he stepped out of the carriage, all of his attention went to the dead bodies scattered around him. There was the stench of blood - both from humans and Amanto - and it gave him a brief flashback of being in the battlefield. His trained eyes made a quick estimate of the bodies on the ground - thirty. It took the two kids less than a minute to obliterate the enemy. He looked at them both. Still in their teens. Their sibling-like banter made for an unsettling contrast against the blood stains on their clothes. They were not who they appeared to be. They were frighteningly powerful which was why the shogun chose them to keep him safe. Gintoki stubbornly noted, however, that even in his wounded state, he still would have protected himself just fine at the same speed.
"Just…who are you?" Gintoki asked.
The two stopped, looking at him. Then, they smiled while pointing to themselves.
"We're the Yorozuya!"
The silver-haired samurai blinked. "Yorozuya?"
"Yep! We do odd jobs for anyone in exchange for a pay. The shogun hired us this time to ensure your safe journey," Shinpachi answered.
"This odd bandit of humans and Amanto were likely after you," Kagura commented. "The Shiroyasha may be considered a hero, but he has many enemies. That or a more simple explanation would be that this is a Bakufu carriage. Bandits think that ambushing one would make for an easy payday." She rested her purple parasol on her shoulders and began to walk towards the carriage. "We will be with you until you reach your doorstep."
"That's not really necessary," Gintoki replied, a little uncomfortable now because of their concern for his safety. He often did the protecting, not the other way around.
"It's our job to keep you safe, Gin-san. We should get going before the daylight runs out," Shinpachi said. He gave a nod to the coachman who was still shaken (but unscathed) to ready the horses.
Gintoki had no choice but to comply.
The next few hours of traveling were more silent and uneventful. Outside was the endless view of the forest that had donned autumn's colors. It was already past noon. Only the sound of birds and the clacking of the horses' hooves could be heard. Kagura and Shinpachi were also in a pensive mood.
He didn't notice that he had nodded off. It was warm inside the carriage. Everyone was cloistered from the dropping autumn cold outside. The occasional soft thud of the wheels on the dirt road, and the steady rhythm of the horses coalesced into something akin to a mother's lullaby that lulled him to sleep.
Tsukuyo visited him in his dream. She was a shadow in the dark. Faintly, he saw the silhouette of her hand reach out and touch his face. Cold: comfortingly, familiarly, yet strangely cold. He remembered that her hands were always warm. She opened her mouth and uttered his name:
"Gintoki -
…Gin-san."
Then the ominous shriek of a crow.
He awoke. Tsukuyo's voice changed into someone else's. Someone from so long ago that his mental image of her has already gone hazy. He longed to forget her voice. He remembered feeling remorseless when he told her how he felt. But when her voice hitched - as though the pain had choked her right then and there - and cried, his chest panged with guilt. She always fondly called him 'Gin-san, Gin-san' but he felt nothing for her. His heart and mind already laid elsewhere, to a blonde beauty in the streets of Yoshiwara.
He sat in silence in the dark.
The bright autumn moon was filtering through the seams of the carriage. The two kids in front of him were still sound asleep, their gentle faces softly illuminated by the moonlight.
Slightly restless, he pulled down the bamboo blinds and saw that they were already in Bushu - a sleepy, backwater town, a peaceful nook from the war. A river that originated from the mountains flowed through the center of the village. Sagging willow trees dot the riverbank, a few tied boats bobbing up and down on the water. The faint candlelight from the houses and the streetlamps reflected along the surface of the river. Some stragglers meandering along the bank were holding their own lamps which from afar looked like orange fireflies.
As if sensing that they were near, Shinpachi and Kagura awoke.
"We're already in Bushu," Gintoki declared.
Kagura rubbed her eyes, yawning. "That was a long ride."
"Is your house nearby?" Shinpachi asked, taking a look at the village outside.
He shook his head. "No, I live up in the mountains. This is the main village. It would take us about an hour more to reach my house, but we are almost there."
The sun had already sunk behind the mountains. Under the red sky, the shadows on the trees had grown darker and longer, and the world was cast in an otherworldly glow.
Ayame busied herself with preparing the house for Gin-san. His wife must have been ill for a while because thick dust had already accumulated on every surface of the house. So, she swept the floor, wiped the tables and pots, and fluffed the pillows and futons.
Nearly everything in the house came in twos as if to tell her that only Gin-san and his wife could live there. Ayame pictured them sitting on their green zabuton as they shared a simple meal over the fire. They would be using the only two bowls and cups in the house, and would later on sleep on the only two futons in their bedroom. Gin-san's futon was lovingly tucked inside a closet, waiting to be used when he returned. They lived here together happily for years. She, on the other hand, was forgotten on the sides - withering away with a broken heart.
Ayame caught her reflection in the mirror. Gin-san's wife was beautiful. She did not know how they met, but she imagined how captivated Gin-san must have been when he saw her beauty for the first time. Her gaze drifted to the scar that ran from her eyebrows to her cheeks. It was like a wound on a magnificent tree. She must have had a dark past, from which Gin-san valiantly rescued her from. Then he married and brought her here where she would be safe - and cruelly, where Ayame would see them, unable to escape the heartbreak.
Her heart twisted in pain for the thousandth time ever since she met Gin-san. Briefly, she questioned what on earth she was doing. She wasn't supposed to meddle in the affairs of human beings. Much less, fall in love with one.
'I've already accepted that Gin-san is not mine. But it does not mean I cannot protect him in any way I can. I'm doing this for his sake,' Ayame mused.
'Or are you only doing this for yourself?' Another part of her questioned, arising from the depths of her heart.
'No, I'm doing this for him. I would never deceive Gin-san for my own happiness,' she stubbornly retorted, banishing the thought away.
It was already dark by the time she finished her chores. She thought of food - but she did not know how to cook. What will she serve Gin-san when he arrives? She knew that humans often foraged and hunted in the forest, but she was clueless about the procedure that goes into preparing those ingredients into a dish. They used fire but that's as far as she knew.
Fire.
It was already dark - the house now filled with shadows. She needed to light a fire soon but she didn't know how. Ayame lamented her lack of knowledge about human practices. But no worries, she told herself, because Gin-san might be yet to arrive. She has plenty of time to learn these things for her final act of staging Tsukuyo's death. Then, she will be gone from Gin-san's presence and will content herself by watching him on the sidelines.
All her relief was short-lived when she suddenly sensed his presence which was growing stronger by the second. Her heart started to pound on her chest.
Gin-san was coming home.
He didn't feel it before, but as he drew nearer to Tsukuyo, he couldn't help but be overcome with anticipation. His impatience worsened after the horses slowed down when they began the ascent up the mountain. Gintoki had the urge to get out and run for the last stretch of the journey.
Restlessly tapping his foot, he kept looking out of the window for any sign that they might already be there. But it was pitch black outside.
"Someone can't stop fidgeting around. Do you feel the urge to poop, Gin-chan?" Kagura asked innocently. Shinpachi, beside her, frowned. "Kagura-chan, that's not a nice question to ask from the Shiroyasha. And he's just excited to come home and see his wife."
"I-I'm not! I'm just wondering why it's taking so long!" Gintoki denied, embarrassed that even the kids took notice of his behavior.
Just then, the carriage slowed to a stop.
"We seem to be here," Shinpachi said.
Then, the coachman opened the door for Gintoki. "Shiroyasha-san, we seem to have arrived at your house. Although it doesn't look like someone is inside because all the lights are out. I had trouble seeing it from afar as my lamps were dim and it was very dark," he said. He then held out a lamp for the samurai.
Gintoki stepped down, confused. Maybe Tsukuyo had already gone to sleep. Shinpachi and Kagura also followed, except they gave each other a glance, secretly readying their weapons.
When the lamp had cast light on his surroundings, he knew instantly that he was home. The backyard has been overridden by dead leaves, but the maple and beech trees that border his house were very much there. He had been walking so much that he did not notice that he was already at his front door.
Breathing in and out, he steeled himself to knock when the door opened with a creak.
In front of him stood his beautiful wife, Tsukuyo, with a flustered look on her face.
"Gin–...Gintoki! You're…you're back," she breathed, breaking out into a hesitant smile.
Gintoki smiled back at her, his eyes gleaming with warmth.
"I'm home, Tsukki."
a/n: They're about to meet. I loved writing this chapter because I got to depict lots of beautiful scenes.
Writing is such a lonely job though :( I hope you guys would leave a review, whether good or bad. Just a thoughtful one matters a lot. Reviews are a substantial input because I get to hear what you actually think. Also, I like replying to reviews. I don't mind if you don't have an account because I'll reply to you in my next chap:D I'm also dying to talk to fans of this ship loooool
