Heaven Knows Everyone Is Miserable Now
Chapter 20: Unexpected Visitor
Tumult set throughout the estate. As Sarutobi dashed through the outer corridors and wooden bridges of the connecting buildings, she heard the gasps and whispers as news of Gintoki's arrest spread all over the compound. However, it was not Gintoki's name that leapt from one mouth to another. The inhabitants had no way of knowing it thanks to Toujou's recklessness of action, which only a self-important idiot like him was capable of, without any regard to the imprisoned man or the panic his sudden arrest would cause. Instead, the whispers carried the dreaded moniker already familiar to the ancient walls of the Yagyuu estate. The Crow.
Sarutobi quickened her pace towards Kyuubei's meeting room, prickling with regret. Parting ways with Kitaoji had been a careless move. Kitaoji would have had enough leeway with Toujou to stop Kyuubei's right-hand man from jumping to conclusions. The arrogant prick might have listened to Kitaoji, unlike Sarutobi, who had all but lost any hope of reconciliation with the hateful man—if there had ever been any sort of amicable feeling between the two of them.
Toujou's blind loyalty and overprotectiveness of the estate's master were both his best and worst qualities, not to mention the reason why he resented Sarutobi so much. He knew of her ability to get Kyuubei's ear, to persuade them. Moreover, the terrible truth of it hung unspoken between them: that Sarutobi might one day replace him by Kyuubei's side. Sarutobi was well aware of it, and she planned to play on that strength now. To get Kyuybei's ear. To have Kyuubei listen. Whatever it took, Sarutobi would exert all the influence she could to see that Gintoki was set free. To prove Gintoki was not the monster Toujou and the others painted him to be.
The notion was simply ridiculous. It made no sense.
Gintoki a killer? A self-aware rotter? The idea was as plausible as Kyuubei's miraculous immunity.
Bullshit.
Guards stood by the entrance to Kyuubei's door. On Toujou's orders, no doubt.
Sarutobi slowed down to muster the apparent calm the situation required. Hysterics would not work on these people. She had learned that the hard way. They enjoyed the long game, the wear and tear. What did not withstand their pace had no chance of prevailing, though Kagura had proven to be quite the exception. The thought of her brought a smile to Sarutobi's face, yet the feeling faded just as quickly. It was impossible not to think of the fiery girl without imagining the havoc she would wreak once she got word of Gintoki's demise.
Sarutobi had no time to waste.
She addressed the two guards by the door with her hands clasped behind her back.
"I have an urgent matter to discuss with Master Yagyuu, please let me through."
"We're under express orders not to let anyone through. Especially you." one of them told her.
Sarutobi took a deep breath.
"The man they have arrested is innocent. Wouldn't you like to have someone fighting your corner if you were him?"
"I'm no freak." the guard scoffed.
"You're all freaks here, that's the problem." Sarutobi muttered under her breath.
The observation seemed to have struck a nerve.
"W-what did you say?"
"I said we are all humans here," Sarutobi cleared her throat and put on a pleading look, "Do you really think someone who got bit would willingly give themselves up like he did?"
"Miss, we have our orders."
"Well, I'm not moving until I can see your master, so-"
The door to Kyuubei's room slid open. Toujou's expressionless face appeared before Sarutobi could finish her sentence. Her outburst had clearly been heard on the other side of the room.
"The Young Master would like to see you," Toujou said ominously, "Please come in."
Sarutobi pushed through, bumping her shoulder against Toujou on purpose. Inside the room, Kyuubei sat at their usual spot behind the low table, where maps and blueprints were spread out across the entire surface.
"Kyuu-chan-"
Kyuubei raised a hand to stop her and gestured towards the seat in front of them.
"Sarutobi-san, please," Kyuubei's voice was grave, inviting no rebuttals.
Sarutobi sat down without protest, mindful of Toujou's somber figure behind her, who slid the door shut again.
"Toujou has told me the gist of it," Kyuubei said, meeting Sarutobi's troubled gaze, "And yes, I know you don't agree with us imprisoning your alleged friend-"
A burst of indignation shot up Sarutobi's throat.
"He is not my alleged friend! I know him! He is-"
Kyuubei raised their hand again. Sarutobi's explanations seemed doomed to fall on deaf ears. Sarutobi glanced at Toujou, now sitting a courteous distance from Kyuubei, and swallowed the bitter words she wanted to throw at him.
How the hateful man had managed to poison Kyuubei's mind so swiftly, Sarutobi had no idea. One minute he had looked at Gintoki, found him guilty and had him arrested, and the next he had been opening the door to Kyuubei's room like everything was right in the world. All under control. All according to plan.
There could only be one justification for Kyuubei's stubbornness, and it mortified Sarutobi.
"Yes, so you say," Kyuubei said, the condescending tone grating on Sarutobi's ear, "But that is your word against half the estate's. Toujou himself says the man fits the exact description of the Crow."
"But that's not him!" Sarutobi exclaimed, "You do know the Crow is a fiction, don't you? Just a bunch of scary tales people tell each other to make sense of things they can't explain. He can't be real!"
"Your friend seems pretty real to me." Toujou observed.
"His name is Sakata Gintoki," Sarutobi said, ignoring Toujou's comment, "He is innocent. He's wounded, and he was never bit! If you are as smart as you think you are, you would have checked him for bites before you tied him up and chucked him in a dark room!"
Toujou shrugged.
"The shed has one window. We're not complete savages."
"Toujou." Kyuubei admonished him with a stern gaze and Toujou relented, though not without another smug remark.
"Well, I was just correcting her, Young Master."
"Regardless of your feelings, Sarutobi-san," Kyuubei continued, "The safety of the people here takes precedence. The mere sight of your friend has people panicking. I can't let fear consume this community. We have lost too much and endured too many hardships to let it all go to waste now."
"You mean, you can't let the guys from Biwa see how bad things really are around here." Sarutobi snapped, seeking to hit Kyuubei where it hurt.
"Sakamoto-san, knows perfectly well the state of things here," Kyuubei replied unfazed, "That's why we can't afford to lose his kindness because of this… fiction, as you say."
"What do you intend to do, then?" Sarutobi asked,"Wait for Gin-san to rot in that shed? Send one of your men with a rotter to bite him before the truth comes out? I wouldn't put it past him," she said, sending Toujou a dirty look before laying her eyes on Kyuubei once again, "Or you. That eye-patch can only cover up so much."
Kyuubei's seeing eye widened at the provocation, keenly aware of every word Sarutobi had left unsaid. Their hands curled into a fist, too outraged to even reach for their sword. Yet Sarutobi still felt the edge of a cold blade kiss her throat and the sharp pull of fingers at the roots of her hair.
"Watch your tongue, wench."
The perverse smile that adorned Sarutobi's face at Kyuubei and Toujou's reactions seemed to incense their indignation, but Sarutobi couldn't help it. When the people she cared about were at risk, she had to push the limits, she had to rebel.
Sarutobi's previously held belief that anybody could turn into a Sweeper under the right circumstances rushed to the forefront of her mind. She had spent too long in the company of decent people—Shinpachi, Kagura, Gintoki, they had made her believe in fairytales, but now the hard, bitter truth Zenzou had warned her so much about stared her right in the face.
"I understand this is a personal matter to you and that's why I'll forgive you for speaking out of turn," Kyuubei said after a long exhale, "However, don't expect to avail yourself of my kindness again. You have been warned."
"So much for your kindness, you have the life of an innocent man in your hands!" Sarutobi exclaimed.
Toujou pulled at her hair harder, but Sarutobi bit her tongue not to let the pain show.
"We have heard your plea and will discuss what to do with the prisoner after we've heard the testimony of other people. I will let you know once we come to an agreement. Toujou, release her."
"Yes, Young Master."
The fingers twisting the roots of hair at the back of Sarutobi's scalp disappeared. Her ponytail plopped against her sulking shoulders. The lenses of her glasses fogged from held back tears and the hot air escaping her mouth.
Sarutobi pinned a hard stare on Kyuubei while checking her neck for cuts. Her skin was clear, but she could not say the same for the spot on the back of her head where Toujou's fingers had dug in.
After a brief pause, she managed a short reply before standing up to leave.
"Thank you."
Kyuubei didn't raise their eyes from the papers in front of them, but their voice carried Sarutobi to safe port by the door.
"Make sure those two kids don't do anything foolish," Kyuubei told her, "I know I can trust you with that much."
Piles of boxes packed ceiling-high filled the small space inside the shed. Thick beams of wood, which seemed to have withstood the test of time, divided the place into two areas. One where the floor could barely be seen for the piled boxes of junk and another which was stripped of anything but a smelly cot where Gintoki stood leaning against the wall. Mouth gagged and hands tied. A prisoner.
He focused on his breathing to keep the gag-reflex under control. Then, after his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, he sought the light gust of wind that entered the shed through the small window outside his cell.
In other circumstances, Gintoki might have spared the old structure a thought of reverence, but being mistaken for some wild rotting freak again deprived him of any intellectual sensibilities he had left.
The throbbing wound in his arm kept him tethered to reality. One of his stitches had split apart in the scuffle and sullied the bandage Sarutobi had carefully wrapped around his arm. The scent of blood was inescapable. As were the minutes and hours without an audience.
Chatter came through the window. People stopped by to ask his guards questions, scream absurdities at Gintoki through the locked door, or just to cry.
Eventually, the sun lowered and a short conversation outside the shed preceded a shadow before the open door. Gintoki swallowed whatever saliva he could without breaking into a coughing fit and squinted his eyes against the bright light as the figure stepped inside. Gintoki steeled himself for another show of Toujou-The-Asshole's stellar array of vile commentary, but the person who came into view was the last Gintoki expected.
Okita Sougo closed the door behind him, engulfing the place in dim gray shadows once more. He walked to the wooden beams separating Gintoki from his only exit and crouched. The expression on his face was unreadable, but Gintoki could see the dark blotches on Sougo's neck where he had squeezed hard enough to paralyze the boy—a reminder of Gintoki's true monstrosity. A reminder of his fear.
Gintoki looked into Sougo's eyes and watched as Sougo beckoned him close.
The kid was nothing if not ballsy. Gintoki crawled towards his outstretched hand by the wooden beams and gasped as Sougo pulled the roughspun rag from his mouth. After a couple of deep breaths and coughs at the acrid taste Toujou's makeshift muzzle had left on his mouth, Gintoki presented Sougo with his tied hands.
Sougo faked a pout and shook his head.
"No can do." he said.
"Worth a try." Gintoki shrugged. He shook his head to brush a few annoying strands of dirty hair from his eyes, then gave Sougo a long once-over.
"So you got a taste for bribery as well as a death wish?" Gintoki said, wondering how the kid had managed to convince the guards to let him inside the shed. They must have trusted him a lot to allow him to convene with the fabled monster all by himself.
The observation seemed to please Sougo. He bounced a little on his haunches and pointed towards Gintoki's bandaged arm.
"Felt like I owed ya' a proper introduction after stabbing your arm like that."
Gintoki mirrored Sougo's vicious smile with a deliberate glance towards the marks on his neck.
"Did ya'?"
"Yeah," Sougo nodded, "But I guess you already know all about me, Boss."
The nickname had Gintoki furrowing his brow. He had a good joke radar, but Sougo's had flown right past him. Perhaps it was the cell and the tied hands and the bleak future ahead of him. Gintoki had never been farther from any position of power—farther from being the boss of anything, not even his own fate. Maybe that was the joke.
"Boss?" Gintoki asked.
"Yeah, you gotta be," Sougo answered, bouncing on his legs again, "To have Hijikata-san wrapped around your little finger like that."
Gintoki scoffed. The mere name lit a fuse inside of him. He leaned his head against one of the wooden beams to hide the smile that crept up his face.
"Is that what it looked like? I might have to take that as an insult, oi."
"Take it however you like, Boss. I suspect you already do."
There was no escaping Sougo's accusation. He wielded his words like weapons and Gintoki was an easy target, tied up and alone, about to face the wrath of an entire community.
Gintoki held back a laugh.
"You're a nasty little kid, aren't you, Okita-kun?"
"Is that what Hijikata-san told you about me? Wow, you made him into a talker. Not even sis could do that."
There was no winning against him. The jabs landed relentlessly, blindsiding Gintoki into speechlessness and making him wish he had squeezed Sougo's neck just a tiny bit harder so he might have at least lost his voice and, consequently, the ability to rile Gintoki up with his brazen remarks.
Outside, the buzz of agitated voices continued, supplying Gintoki with the opportunity he needed to change subjects. He looked at Sougo between the wooden bars of his cell and took in the cool, collected expression that failed to mask the pair of dark eyes itching to burn a pair of holes into his head. Gintoki wondered if that was how Hijikata had felt under Sougo's scrutiny, like the kid could peer inside his soul and see all the shameful parts hidden there.
"What do you want, anyway? Didn't bring me any snacks, did ya'? A leftover carton of strawberry milk somebody left lying around? Canned peaches? I could do with something sweet."
"Nah, you're out of luck, Boss," Sougo replied, leaning back on the other side of the bars and crossing his arms behind his head, "I mean, they got you a room with a window in it. Let's be fair, it could be worse. I've spent nights in tighter places."
"Well, I appreciate the company, Sougo-kun, but I still don't know what I can do for you."
"I told ya'. I just wanted to meet ya'. See what the fuss was all about."
"What fuss?"
"Folks out there think you're some kind of freak of nature. They haven't told you yet?"
Gintoki shook his head.
"You're my first visitor."
"Oh, what an honor." Sougo exclaimed in a singsong voice.
Gintoki appreciated the sarcasm. It fell right in sync with his own.
"Couldn't put in a word for me, could ya'? Pass the visitor badge to someone else?"
Sougo looked over his shoulder. His fake pout reappeared.
"Brushing me off already? You're high maintenance. Is that why he likes ya'?"
"Yeah, it might be. Who knows. Wasn't your sister?"
"Shut up. You know nothing about her."
For a second, Sougo's mask slipped. Gintoki smiled into the dark, savoring the small victory. But Sougo's inability to take the same as he dished out reminded Gintoki of Sougo's young age. From that realization, it was only a short leap to the memory of Gintoki locking his arms tight around Sougo's neck, stealing all the breath from his lungs.
Gintoki looked down, feeling the burn of his wound mingle with that of unbearable guilt.
"As much as I know about you, Okita-kun." Gintoki said.
Bitterness coated Sougo's words as he replied.
"Whereas I don't know anything about you except-"
"OI! YOU FUCKING PIGS!"
The loud voice zapped Gintoki out of his grisly thoughts. He jerked on the spot and hissed against the zip-tie biting into the skin of his wrists. His heart started to beat faster, as if it was possible for Kagura to hear it pumping from the other side of the shed. So close, so impossibly close!
Gintoki closed his eyes, steeling himself. He tried to shut out every noise other than the sound of her voice. Loud and demanding and alive. Just like Shinpachi's.
"Kagura-chan, stop!"
"HEY BOZOS, GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
"You know her?" Sougo's voice was quiet. His mask of nonchalance had slipped back in place.
"LET ME SEE GIN-CHAN RIGHT NOW OR I'LL SNAP YOUR NECKS!"
Kagura's shouts rang inside the silent shed. They vibrated through the wooden beams and up Gintoki's spine.
"Is that who I should pass the visitor badge to?" Sougo wondered.
Gintoki watched him stand up in silence, too desperate not to give in to the merest nod of hope.
"You would?"
"Yeah," Sougo nodded with a twinkle in his eye. He glanced at the door before looking back at Gintoki and shoving his hands inside the pockets of his pants.
"But I want something in return."
"GIN-CHAN! GIN-CHAN! CAN YOU HEAR ME?! LET ME THROUGH! I WANT TO SEE HIM RIGHT NOW! GIN-CHAN!"
"Anything." Gintoki told him.
"That ring around your neck. Must be worth something. I want it."
Everything was red. Kagura felt her body boil. Blood pumped through her veins. Steam came out of her nostrils every time she took a deep breath. She would probably piss lava if it came to it. She was ready to blow everything to smithereens if the trio of idiots puffing their chests by the front of the shed didn't let her through.
"Let me go, Pachi! I'm telling you! Let me go!" she wrestled against Shinpachi's hold on her, which was currently keeping her from strangling the guards one by one.
"Kagura-chan, stop! Making a scene won't do us any good. They said nobody can go through right now!"
"Shut up, Pachi! I don't care! I want to see Gin-chan right now!"
"Girl, we've told you how it is," one of the guards said, "Unless Toujou-san or Master Kyuubei personally unlock that door for you, you ain't seeing the inside of this shed any time soon."
"Over your dead bodies, then!" Kagura snarled.
The three men looked between them before breaking into a boisterous laugh.
Kagura clenched her jaw. The deliberate humiliation added to her fruitless, bubbling anger and, for a few seconds, she blanked. Shinpachi, who had his arms wrapped around her like an octopus, yelped as Kagura whirled the two of them around and shoved him into the nearest guard.
Shinpachi clashed with the guard and the two men fell to the ground. Kagura stumbled but did not lose her feet. She turned to face the other two guards, who by then looked at her flabbergasted, but by no means afraid of action. One raised his firearm as the other moved to block Kagura's path, ready to exchange blows.
Nobume's swift intervention prevented the worst from happening.
"This is not the place," Nobume said, looking into the blistering face of the guard with an icy, piercing stare, "Nor the time."
"You're tellin' me?!" the man yelled back, baring his teeth.
Kagura huffed behind Nobume's long, dark locks of hair. Her chest heaved, yearning for a fight. She had been cooped up in that damn estate for far too long. Too many days locked in that cellar doing inventory, too many days lying down in the infirmary with a burning fever, too many days wandering about trying to make herself useful at boring, meaningless tasks that did not help her get any farther away from that place and closer to the people she missed the most. She had been holding in her frustration for too long and now that Gintoki was finally within reach, now that Gintoki was finally there, she couldn't deal with the fact she was powerless to help him. Barred from seeing him, from speaking to him.
She had to do something. Anything.
"Kagura-chan…"
Shinpachi's strained voice stopped her. Kagura looked to the side and watched as Shinpachi untangled from the other guard and dusted himself off the ground. Half the fight went out of her at the sight of him. She approached him with short, quick steps, raised a hand to fix his glasses back on his nose, but Shinpachi dismissed her touch.
Kagura saw both hurt and understanding in Shinpachi's expression when he met her eyes. The apology flew from her lips at once.
"I'm sorry Shin-chan, I-"
"If it isn't the feral mutt. I didn't know there was a welcoming party for the freak. How does the saying go? Birds of a feather flock together?"
There were few things in the world Kagura hated more than rotters and the Uptight Asshole Duo of Otaki and Toujou. Most people at the estate, including Eyepatch Lord, were too focused on their daily tasks to be much of an eyesore. Kagura found the bunch quite bearable, some of them even pleasing. But, as always, there was an exception, one she tried very hard to ignore for everybody's sake.
Sougo's observation shattered the fragile bubble of atonement around Kagura and Shinpachi with the subtlety of a starving rotter.
Kagura felt her skin recoil. She turned towards the front of the shed and the usual gut-reaction Sougo's voice unleashed in her increased exponentially as she saw him step out of the very shed she was desperate to enter with a smug smile on his face and a hand in his pocket.
"I'll kill you. I will so kill you."
The threat tumbled out of her mouth without thought.
Sougo smiled.
"Yeah? Why don't you try, mongrel girl?"
Kagura lunged forward, but Shinpachi's hand found her shoulder again.
"Kagura-chan! Stop it!"
Kagura stopped in her tracks, but her eyes did not leave Sougo. They followed him without blinking.
"Why are you here! What have you done to Gin-chan?!"
Sougo walked past the guards and shrugged his shoulders at her question.
"Nothing. He's done it all on his own. Kinda amazing, isn't he? Just shows up and throws this place into chaos without batting an eyelid. What's he to ya'? Your dad?"
His gleeful tone was all but mocking. Kagura heaved with rage, shoulders shaking under Shinpachi's staying hands.
"Let me go, Pachi! I swear, I'm gonna kill this bastard! Let me go!"
Sougo's attention, however, turned to the other person close by, keeping a watchful eye over the passive guards.
"And you? Haven't you gotten bored with her yet?" Sougo asked Nobume, "You must be more desperate than I thought."
Nobume barely acknowledged him. Her gaze remained on the guards as she replied.
"Go away."
Sougo shook his head, hiding a bitter smile.
"Good luck catching up with your freak-dad, I don't think he is in any rush to see ya'."
Kagura's head snapped from Nobume to Sougo. She saw him stare at his empty hand before closing it into a fist.
"Well, I'm in a rush to squeeze your scrawny little bitch-boy neck, so come back here!".
Sougo waved his hand dismissively at Kagura's threat and walked away.
Kagura growled, itching to go after him, but Shinpachi stepped in again.
"Kagura, leave it, you're not helping our chances of seeing Gin-san." he sounded tired and hopeless and, as always, unbearably right.
The guards barring the door of the shed stared at Kagura with shaking heads. Their expressions writhed into permanent scowls.
"Sorry about all that," Shinpachi apologized to them. It seemed all he had done since the minute he had arrived, "Gin-san really isn't who you think he is. We can prove it to you. We've been together since the beginning, I mean, since before everything happened. Gin-san knew our parents, my sister… Please, we are begging you-"
"Shinpachi."
Sarutobi's voice washed over Kagura and Shinpachi like a bucket of icy water. The faces of the guards, halfway to a sympathetic frown by then and softened by Shinpachi's honest plea, hardened to stone. Their gazes moved past Shinpachi and locked on Sarutobi's somber figure behind him.
"Come with me. You're needed in the kitchens." Sarutobi said, voice flat. An order.
Kagura opened her mouth to protest, but she was shut down just as quickly.
"You too. Haven't you had your fill of being a spoiled brat today?"
Kagura's expression dropped. Anger and humiliation colored her cheeks. She turned to Shinpachi for assistance, seeking some way to counter Sarutobi's belittling charge, but Shinpachi had his head cast down. The look of defeat.
Suddenly, the shed felt like an insurmountable mountain behind Kagura, casting a shadow that ate everything in his path.
Reality crashed in. Tears welled up in her eyes.
Kagura didn't dare look back when she started following Shinpachi and Sarutobi towards the kitchens.
But she heard it all the same.
That familiar voice, just as annoying and heartening as the last time she had heard it.
"Oi, you, Group-Of-Voted-Most-Likely-To-Be-A-Guard-During-The-Apocalypse, could you disperse the crybabies?! I'm trying to have a nap here!"
One of the guards scowled.
"Shit, the kid took off his gag."