It's not a FanFic without shipping angst
"Hijikata-san! Vice-commander! It's urgent! An amanto syndicate has taken over the shopping centre!"
"What?!"
"They managed to hold some of the citizens inside. They're making demands!"
"Tch." Hijikata cursed, pulling on his uniform jacket and fixing his sword to his hip where it always sat like an extra limb. "Ransom, eh? Give me the details on the move. Let's go."
Arriving outside the cordoned off shopping centre was like entering the gates to hell, or what Hijikata imagined the gates of hell to look like. There was screaming, wailing and general confusion as civilians swarmed around the scene and basically got in the way.
"My son is in there!"
"Can't you do something?"
"It's been an hour! Why haven't you rescued my aunt?!"
With the arrival of the vice-commander of the Shinsengumi, the racket only escalated a few hundred decibels, grating in his ears like the sounds of wasps. He was patient for under thirty seconds, biting his tongue and trying to calmly push the jittering crowd aside so he could get to work, but then his fuse snapped.
"Get out of the FUCKING WAY." He cursed, hand flexing over his katana, itching to use it to sweep the bastards aside and part them like the red sea. The crowd immediately descended into soft wailing and angry glares, but no one got in his way any longer. His menace was infamous, after all.
"There's at least 100 civis in there," Okita began reeling off the facts before Hijikata could even ask. It was a serious situation with lives at stake, so even Okita wasn't one to waste time and joke around. "How about we just bazooka the entire place?" Hijikata retracted this thought immediately. "Well, they said if there's no response, they're going to push one off at a time starting from 16:00." Okita gestured to the roof of the three floor building with long glass panels and futuristic twisting turrets, courtesy of the aliens themselves. There was a single door on the top of the building for maintenance and repairs that led onto the rooftop. No doubt this was where they planned to begin the mass killing of innocent people.
"What time is it?"
"15:47."
"Their demands?"
"Didn't ask. Since we won't be abiding by them anyway. Ne, Hijikata-san?"
"Damn right," He grunted in reply, beginning to walk to his left to scour the rest of the building. "But at least we'd know their motives."
"Yamazaki did some investigation and it seems that we arrested some of their commanders not long ago. They're now on death row."
"Hmm. S'that so? Do we have a visual?"
"We hacked into the indoor CCTV, though I don't think they tried particularly hard to stop us."
"Lemme see." Okita gestured and one of the members following him rushed across to grab the device from one of the vans they had brought. Hijikata took it and flicked through the images. It looked like they had all the citizens enclosed within one of the shops with guards throughout. Looking through the images, the majority of the rest of the place was empty, save for the occasional lackey keeping watch with one finger in their nostril. In total, he guessed there were 30 of the thugs. He flipped back to the main image of citizens and decided Okita's original figure was not far off.
"We outnumber them easily, the problem is getting-" The words caught in his throat as he scoured the hazy images flinching across the screen and saw a familiar face amongst the restrained citizens. A further glance showed two familiar faces, expressions fierce amongst the crowd of scared, terrified people. Okita raised a curious eyebrow and leaned across to check out what had made the vice-commander stop mid-speech. "Where's Kondou-san?" He asked.
"Out of town with Matsudaira. He won't be coming today."
"Good. If he knew the Shimura siblings were there, the situation would get much worse."
Time crawled by with every second of preparation and diligent surveillance they conducted and each time the clock ticked, the deadline raced closer. What they needed was someone to work from the inside so that they could wreak havoc without paying mind to the threat to the hostages. At 15:53, Hijikata made a decision that had been playing on his mind. His gut was telling him something and he rang a number he never thought he would to settle that uneasy churning.
"Yorozuya-dearu. What do you want?"
"Is Gintoki there?" Hijikata was impatient and the laid-back kid on the end of the line wasn't helping the bomb threatening to explode in his head. He felt a headache coming on already.
"Gin-chan? He left a few minutes ago in a hurry."
"Why?"
"Dunno." The definition of pulling teeth, just like the owner of that damn place. Hijikata took a deep breath. They didn't have time for this.
"What was he doing before he left?"
"Same thing he always does," she drawled and Hijikata could practically see her picking her nose like the bastard guardian she had adopted. "Lazy about avoiding work. Watching the weather woman on TV."
"Watching TV?" Hijikata removed the receiver from his ear and shouted to any one of the police around him. "Have we kept this from the media?"
"No, we couldn't," came one response.
"They already released an emergency announcement a few minutes ago."
He knows. The yorozuya was no doubt on his way here now.
"Does that bastard have a mobile?"
"Ehh? We can't even afford to pay for more sukonbu over here and you think we are living lavishly with such luxuries as that?!"
"What about Shinpachi?"
"Shin-chan? No?"
"Shimura, ah, Otae?"
"Anegyo? Who knows. What's going on, mayo? Need someone to bail you out of jail? Too bad we don't have money for that either."
"Jail, what are you- I am the police, brat!"
"Ah, well, Gin-chan doesn't have a phone but you will probably find him in the nearest pachinko parlour like the jobless bum he is."
"Jesus, I don't have time for this-"
"Or," Kagura began, a new tone seeping into her voice that led Hijikata to press the speaker closer to his ear. "If it's really urgent, if you call his name he'll come."
"What nonsense are you spouting, kid." He sighed, heavily, checking his watch. 15:56.
"It's a power all shonen JUMP heroes have. Anyway, unlike some tax robbers, I have things to do. Bye, mayora!"
The phone beeped gently over the sound of Hijikata's irritated swearing as she hung up on him.
"Call his name and he'll come? Jesus, all that and I've gotten nowhere. What a waste of time." At least he'd learned one thing worthwhile. The yorozuya was on his way. That would either complicate everything into a situation ten times its size, or the silver samurai would provide a vital, unstoppable force in freeing the hostages. There was no in-between with that moron.
Shiroyasha. Hijikata let his thoughts stray for a second. Somehow the name would suit him.
All of a sudden, the volume of gasps and screams escalated and Hijikata knew his time had run out. Not just his either, but the time for the poor woman being pushed out of the rooftop door at gunpoint.
"Vice-commander!"
"I KNOW!" He yelled back, heart beginning to pound adrenaline through his veins. What could he do? What should he do? The man holding the gun was joined by another amanto with a yellowed face and small horn-like protrusions on his forehead. This one carried a megaphone device.
"SEND IN THE COMMANDER OF THE SHINSENGUMI THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR, UNARMED AND ALONE. IF NOT, WE BEGIN TO DROP THEM UNTIL YOU DO."
"How about it, Hijikata-san?" Okita nudged him in the side with a sharp elbow. "Go valiantly to your death and I'll take over from here."
What would Kondou-san do?
"I'm going in." He declared, beginning to make his way to the front door, sword still attached firmly to his hip. Okita's eyes twinkled in unrestrained delight.
"Are you giving in to their demands?"
"Of course not, idiot. I'm going to take as many down as I can and clear a pathway for you guys."
"What if they drop the woman?"
"Then that's one woman for 99 other citizens." Hijikata's fingers brushed over the grip of his katana, blood rushing through his veins, the beast inside him screaming for battle. He knew this was definitely not what Kondou-san would do. But he wasn't Kondou Isao and he never would be.
"Wait!" Someone called, desperately, running over with the earlier CCTV device in their hand. "There's a disturbance inside!"
"What? Show me."
Sure enough, all attention inside the shopping centre had turned inwards. The guards were on high alert, stalking collectively back towards the centre of the commotion with radios pressed against their ears. Flicking images, more of the disturbance was shown as civilians scattered away from the scene. The rebels ran towards one location, guns grasped tightly, which Hijikata didn't have the footage for. Looking at the hostages once more in desperation to see what was going on, he saw a smile appear on Shinpachi's face as he stood up. Next to him, Otae muttered something in shock.
Gin-san?
"ALL TROOPS. WE'RE HEADING IN!" Hijikata commanded. Okita immediately lifted his bazooka and pointed it to the rooftop where the two men were distracted by their radios. Everything had dissolved into confusion very quickly, even for the criminals. In a second, a carefully aimed missile plucked the two from their perch and sent them spiralling for the concrete floor below.
"One hundred and eighty~" Okita smirked, waiting until the now-free woman had scampered back to safety. He then joined the force of men sprinting towards their battlefield.
Gun shots ricocheted, punctuating the roar of voices and the clattering of swords. Each one made Hijikata flinch, because fighting with swords was one thing. Fighting with guns … for some, that meant certain death. Regardless of your skill. Bullets were indiscriminate and harder to dodge. You just had to pray you spotted them before the barrel was pointed in your direction. The conflict didn't last long though. Two, scratch that, three of the greatest swordsmen in all of Japan were there after all. Well, Hijikata assumed the yorozuya was there. Who else would be able to sneak into a fully locked down shopping centre and cause so much havoc? The Shinsengumi had secured the safety of all 100 civilians and detained all but 5 of the criminals. Two had died and three had escaped in the brawl. There were troops stationed outside waiting for them to run for it so Hijikata left it up to them. He found who he was looking for in a few minutes.
"Hijikata-san!" Shinpachi ran over, his face twisted with concern. "Have you seen Gin-san?"
"Huh? No? Wasn't he with you?"
"He got into a fight with some of the leaders and disappeared. We haven't seen him since."
"Which way?" He asked, already striding away from the shop. Shinpachi pointed down one of the empty shop lanes and Hijikata followed the littering of blood spatters on the floor, suddenly on his guard again. Now, he wasn't so sure he'd secured all of the amanto. His nerves were on edge and the sword in his grip clattered occasionally, too loud, too loud. As he strayed further from the commotion, further down the emptied shopping lanes, the eeriness only grew.
The shops were all open and lit, void of life as though something had come along and sucked up anything with a beating heart. All that remained were the buzzing fans, the sliding doors which gave him a heart attack each time he set off their sensors and those ominous splatters of blood pooling on the floor. Further down the lane, a body laid motionless. Hijikata jogged up to it and kicked the body of an amanto to check it was unconscious. Not a grunt sounded. He continued, eyeing the smudge of red across the floor where it looked like someone had been dragged. The fight mapped out in his head, faces unknown but actions clear from the patterns of destruction that had been left behind. One smashed shop window with fresh, dripping blood across the remaining shards. Someone had been thrown through this glass. Footsteps littered the floor in a concoction of blood and mud. He passed another body, this one likely to be dead or close to it- the crimson halo around its head was evidence enough to show that.
Finally, he knew he was reaching the end as he saw a staircase spiralling downwards to the ground floor in the middle of the lane and a ring of shops encircling it. It was at this point that Hijikata froze. He could hear panting, someone wheezing for breath as though there was a choke hold on their throat. Moving forwards with his heart thudding in his mouth, he strained his hearing. He reached the top of the staircase and prepared his sword.
A familiar patterned kimono splayed out under a fallen warrior. The white material for the most part was dyed a new colour. Collapsed halfway down the staircase laid the heaving body of Sakata Gintoki, a crimson flower blooming across his chest.
"Uk-!" The breath caught in Hijikata's throat and before he knew it, he had leapt down the stairs hastily, kneeling beside the samurai. "Yorozuya? Can you hear me?" His words were frantic, panicked. The man didn't turn his head. Gintoki didn't even seem to acknowledge his presence. His eyes were open but hazy, unfocused. His breathing halted, then restarted faster than before, choking on the blood in his mouth as his fingertips curled in pain. Hijikata took out the radio in his pocket and bellowed out commands, stammering over his words.
"M-medic! Section E stairwell. Hurry up!"
A voice crackled over the speaker in response, but Hijikata ignored it and set about halting the blood flow from the bullet wound oozing crimson over Gintoki's right lung. The rest of the blood appeared to be someone else's. He'd fought well, taken down the enemies one by one but one damn bullet - …
"Oi, yorozuya. Can you hear me?" He continued talking to the man convulsing beneath his fingers, trying frantically to ignore each time the man's breathing choked and stopped. Hijikata swallowed the sickness swirling in his stomach and took a breath to calm his shaking hands. "Yorozuya!"
"Hkk-" With a start, Hijikata realised that Gintoki had tried to force words out of his narrow windpipe. The man tried again, gasping desperately for air. "Hij- … kata." Good, he was conscious enough to recognise him.
"That's enough, that's enough. Listen to me. There's a m-medic on the way. Stay awake until then. Stay awake. You have kids waiting for you. And other people. A-and. S-stay awake, f-for now." A warm liquid brushed against Hijikata's fingers as he pushed the cloth in his hand over the wound. The problem wasn't the blood. He knew that. It was the hole in the idiot's damn lung and- jesus. What should he do? How could he help? Anywhere else, a bullet would have been fine. Anywhere- jesus. Jesus.
The world was a blur, even when the medic came and took over, even when his team surrounded him, asking pointless, pointless questions. So many pointless questions. Gintoki was taken away on a stretcher.
"We've secured the area, sir."
"Should we head back?"
"Sir, what should we do about those who escaped?"
"Sir-"
Hijikata realised that his breathing was loud and erratic. Every breath he took seemed to do no good and stars began to enter his fading vision, his legs feeling weak beneath his weight. Someone laid a hand on his shoulder, calmly telling him how to breath. He knew how to breathe, idiot. Shut up. Everybody shut up.
"Gintoki."
…
Gintoki woke up in bone-crushing agony. His chest was on fire, throat burning as flames choked him. It was painful to breathe, but he gulped oxygen down and opened his eyes with a start. He'd definitely broken a few bones too, but that was almost a normal occurrence now in his life. Though, that didn't make the pain any more bearable.
"Gin-chan!" someone called to him, bringing the world back into focus as he forced the pain in his expression to ease.
"Gin-san! Are you okay?"
The walls were white and therefore he concluded either he'd been admitted to a psycho ward where he probably belonged, or he was in hospital. The events of the day began to trickle back into his conscious mind. Government official. Joui raid. Hijikata. Shinpachi. Shopping centre. Amanto. Hijikata. Pain. Hijikata.
He stirred, unwilling to sit up because the throbbing in his chest hurt like hell and he was gagging for air as it was. Instead, he turned his head and blinked away the shadows in his vision.
"You two." He commented, fondly as Kagura and Shinpachi smiled in relief.
"What were you thinking, Gin-san?!" Shinpachi scolded, trying to feign anger with clenched fists. "You should leave such terrorist attacks up to the police! The shinsengumi were there. They could have helped you."
"Damn right." Gintoki became steadily aware of another presence in his room, lurking behind the kids. "You charged in there and messed up our plan."
"Plan? Shinsengumi? Don't make-" He descended into a fit of coughs, each of which felt like it was ripping his chest apart. The kids stumbled forwards, hands outstretched. Gintoki rested his hand gently on theirs to let them know he was okay, finishing up his coughing with a few scratchy breaths.
"Do you remember what happened?" The figure behind the kids moved forwards between them and leered down at Gintoki, eyes darkened with immense stress and a fatigue that seemed to drag his shoulders down.
"Ketsuno Ana was shining brighter than ever today~" He purred contentedly, earning himself a grunt of irritation from the vice-commander looming over him.
"Today?" He spat, hand reaching up to his mouth until he realised with a twitch of his fingers that there was no cigarette sat between his lips. He lowered his hand and folded his arms across his chest, expression stern. "You've been out for three days." This made Gintoki start, eyes slowly widening in surprise, the time he had lost slipping away between his fingertips.
"Three days?"
"Don't think a bullet wound in the lung heals that easily, moron."
"Does that mean..." Gintoki despaired, mouth opening and closing like a goldfish out of water. "Does that mean that I've missed the one hour Ketsuno Ana broadcast special?!" He cried, bottom lip wobbling comically. Hijikata refrained from throwing something at the bastard, though his hand yearned to grasp something sharp.
"Don't worry, Gin-san." Shinpachi smiled at him assuringly. Hope twinkled in Gintoki's eyes.
"You recorded it, Shinpachi?! Please tell me you have!"
"No, but me and Kagura watched it. It was really good."
A wail of agony came from the injured man as he writhed in despair on the bed. For a second, Hijikata couldn't understand this outburst. Was the guy stupid? Was he really this moronic that he was more preoccupied with some weather girl presenter than the previously gaping wound in his chest that now left a raw scar and was cushioned by painful looking blue-black bruises?
It was the giggle of happiness and relief leaving Kagura's mouth that made the man pause. Shinpachi also let out a small chuckle, casually wiping the sweat that had accumulated on his forehead from three days of worrying. Both of their shoulders lifted slightly and the dreary atmosphere which had clung to the room like a disease for three days had been cured in three minutes. Gintoki stopped his wailing for a second when the kids laughed, also allowing himself a small smile.
And Hijikata understood.
It was weird. Hijikata wasn't used to hanging around with children, living in a block full of men. The closest thing to a child had always been Sougo, who was really nothing like one. And Sougo definitely did not care for Hijikata, nor did he want to be looked after. Kondou was the proud father and all the troops were just a gang of brothers fighting and bickering. No one had ever been directly under Hijikata's responsibility in such a way that those two were to Gintoki. The Shinsengumi put their lives on the line for their team, and then for their city. Gintoki had no such obligations. He had simply rushed into a hopeless situation with just a wooden sword to fight with for the sake of protecting the two idiots he looked after (or who looked after him, as it was).
Looking down at the complaining bastard on the hospital bed, an occasional squint of pain creasing his brow hidden by his jovial, ceaseless babbling, Hijikata felt something he had never thought possible towards the same guy who would handcuff his feet together whilst he was asleep (yes, that had happened).
Respect.
In any case, he still had work to do and now that the idiot was awake and talking, he could finally progress the investigation.
"Oi, yorozuya. I've got some questions. Can I?" The two kids turned around and Kagura sent him a murderous glare that clearly showed her disapproval. It had been three days, after all. And either Kagura was worried about her guardian's health, or she wanted the next few wakeful moments together with Gintoki to herself. Shinpachi also hummed in disagreement.
"Sure, go ahead. Might not answer 'em though."
"First of all. Tell me from start to finish. Everything."
There was a heavy pause as Gintoki sighed silently, his chest heaving and a sudden tiredness that would obviously come with three days in a coma descended onto his expression. Then finally, his eyes flicked to Kagura and Shinpachi. He didn't need to say anything, they stood up to leave (though Kagura thumped Hijikata in the stomach on her way past).
(Which hurt like hell though he was never going to admit that).
"So I was watching Kestuno Ana-"
"I swear to fucking god-"
"Fine fine, I got it." Gintoki waved his hand with a small grin twitching his dimples. "And I was wondering which prank to pull on Hijikata-kun next-"
"Do you want to keep your balls or not?"
"-when I saw the report on the news. I knew Shinpachi had gone there, so I looked at the weather and decided it was quite nice out. I might take a looksie."
"How'd you get in?"
"The shopping mall's a big place. Couldn't have security everywhere, so I just busted in one entrance at the side and took down a few o' 'em."
"Then?"
"Patience, Oogushi-kun. You have to tell it like a story. So, I went round a few shops and nicked some supplies whilst the assistants were pissing themselves elsewhere-"
"How many crimes do ya want me to arrest you for?"
"Then I mused on over to McDonald's and swiped a strawberry milkshake. They sold them in the shop next door cheaper, but when I looked it was made with real strawberries. Like, who the fuck drinks that?" A vein throbbed angrily on Hijikata's forehead. He felt himself tense like a dog getting its fur ruffled backwards.
"My five a day comes from Terry's. And candy apples. Anyway, then I found myself in the mix of some terrorist attack, 'pparently. Beat a few up by accident and then got chased by a bunch of 'em. Half of them came after me, other half went out front where some big commotion was apparently occurring. Took 'em down. Fast forward all the gory action stuff where I threw a few guys through a window and such. Then next thing I knew, it was me versus a guy with a gun. The gun won but the guy probably left with a few cracked ribs and less teeth than a new born jellyfish. Then I fell down some stairs and the last thing I knew, there was some dark haired babe leaning over me tending to my wound."
"Dark haired babe?" Hijikata frowned. The medics had all been men.
"Yeah. Leaned over me with a killer glare that sent a shiver down my spine. Though that might have been the pain, who knows." The confusion stayed in the air until Hijikata caught Gintoki snickering to himself. His cheeks burned and without thinking, he brought a hand down and hit the annoying bastard in the stomach. He immediately regretted it, tensing as he saw the man writhe a little under the blow and struggle for air. His fingers dug deep into the sheets, threatening to rip them. But he didn't let a single moan slip from his throat, holding firm until his breathing steadied.
"S-sorry." Hijikata muttered, honestly.
"S'fine. If that dark haired nurse will come and lay her hands on my chest once more, I'll gladly take a few hits."
"Is it in your quota to flirt with anything that breathes?"
"Hmm, I wonder." Gintoki mumbled, finally resting on the bed again.
He considered the information he had been given- basically, Gintoki had rushed in and saved all their asses, albeit by accident. Shinpachi and Otae definitely owed their current beating hearts to Gintoki's rampage, and the rest of the hostages too in some form. Because this idiot had charged in so brazenly, it had opened up a hole for the shinsengumi to exploit. After all, how many of the terrorists were looking out for a slack-faced perm? They had a sharp eye on Hijikata and anyone in uniform, which made it extremely hard to manoeuvre. At the same time, so much could have gone wrong.
And to some extent, it had.
As a calm silence stretched between them, Hijikata noticed Gintoki's eyelashes fluttering open and closed like curtains in a light breeze. Sleep was calling him and he was clearly finding it hard to resist. He slipped in and out of consciousness, hand dropping by his side and eyes losing their focus. Soon, his head began to relax back into the pillow and his eyes fell closed.
Peace settled into the room for the first time.
After moments of watching the sleeping samurai, Hijikata started as he realised he had been openly staring. Which was creepy now that he thought about it. Not only that, but he hadn't got round to asking any of the questions he had wanted to. They now only had half of the information. The burning question in his mind had surfaced following a tip-off that the same government official who had been attacked by Joui the other day was actually linked to the drug syndicate who had taken over the shopping centre. An unhealthy link. Without proper evidence however, they couldn't incarcerate him. Yet, with the fact that the Joui had attacked this official just days before, it was likely that they knew this information and were acting upon it. Joui getting important information like this before the shinsengumi didn't sit well with Hijikata's stomach. Not well at all.
He left the room before the two younger idiots arrived to avoid them complaining about reduced Gintoki time or whatever. He was met just outside the door by an unwelcome visitor holding a bunch of flowers.
"What the hell are you doing here, Sougo?"
"Visiting danna." He gestured casually to the door and Hijikata eyed him, not letting his suspicion go unnoticed.
"He's asleep, don't bother."
"Then you've just spent fifteen minutes staring at a sleeping body? Creepy." Okita pulled a face.
"He's just fallen to sleep, bastard."
"Your talking put him to bed?"
"Just leave the poor bastard to recover, will you?"
"Did you get what you wanted to know? Was the official involved in the attack?"
"Don't know. I didn't get round to asking questions before he nodded off on me."
"Hmm," Okita finally decided to fall into step beside Hijikata and hummed thoughtfully. "Must have taken a toll on danna."
"Yeah," Hijikata pulled out a cigarette as soon as they were footsteps away from the front entrance, already preparing to light it despite the fact they were still breathing hospital oxygen. "He seemed tired. Winced quite a bit too, though he hid it."
"Manly." Okita chuckled lightly.
"Stupid. Pretending he's fine when he ain't." He countered quickly, until Okita thumped him hard on one shoulder and Hijikata had to grit his teeth as the barely healed wound on his upper back burned.
"Yeah, stupid." Okita nodded, patting the wound with an unnecessarily heavy palm.
"Fuck you."
AN- Another chapter uploaded and I still haven't got round to writing any more... so I'm catching up worryingly fast … These chapters are really really long though. Anyway – enjoy another splurge of nonsense soon!