[Gintama] Immortal

The sky is high, and the whistling wind passes through the plank road, which is transparent and refreshing.

After the sound of the wind left, the Japanese room was very quiet, and Yae looked around for a while by the door——

The table is empty.

Alcove, empty.

By the window, empty.

well.

no one.

She quietly closed the partition door leading to the corridor.

Holding a large bouquet of flowers in his arms in a good mood, Yae came to the alcove, spread out the washi paper, and carefully picked up the flower branches.

Her living space has now been moved to the Japanese room of the academy, but the privilege of arranging flowers in this room is, after all, earned by herself. Every time I see the bare clay pots in the alcove, I always feel that something is missing.

Click.

Cutting the picked flower branches into uneven and appropriate lengths, Yae raised his head and glanced at the dusty clay pot with a long history.

During the day, the Japanese room is not lit, and natural light comes in through the panes.

Hovering for a moment between deliberate vulgarity and meaningless splendor, Yae imagined someone's expression after returning to the room, feeling satisfied, and chose the most simple and simple flower arrangement with the least possibility of being thrown out went in.

The materials she brought excitedly this time were obviously more, and the remaining flowers and plants were wrapped in washi paper and decided to take them back to the academy.

In the past few years, Xu has been busy nibbling away at the Heavenly Daoists from within, and she has seen him less often, and the constraints she received at Amaterasu Temple Naraku have also loosened.

Naraku seemed to be used to having a person like her.Time has proved that, as an idler, An Ansheng has been in the organization for so long, and her head is still well connected to her neck.Although nothing has changed on the surface, the attitude of others is different after all.

Picking up the handful of washi, Yae accidentally bumped into the corner of the table, bent over and pushed back the moving table, and saw the things on the table when he raised his eyes.

...It's just information about dragon veins.

She has also read a lot of relevant research reports in the past few years.Yae glanced at it casually, and when he was about to get up, his eyes touched the old yellowed paper, and he paused slightly.

The book with missing pages and corners is not so much a rigorous document as it is an ancient religious book mixed with a lot of strange symbols.

...When did the taste become so complicated.

Yae blinked his eyes, and turned his gaze slightly. Unknown volumes were mixed in the snow-white research report, as if the other party had collected everything related to dragon veins, including ancient legends and records.

In addition to the documents related to dragon veins, there are also records of natural disasters in ancient times piled up on the table.

The ancient scrolls are written in Chinese characters, which are uncommon and difficult to pronounce: "On the [-]th day of the fifth month at the end of the fifth month, there was a great earthquake in the land of Mutsu, and the stream of light was like the shadow of the day. In a short while, the people shouted, unable to get up, or the house servants pressed die, or be buried in the ground.”①

Yae thought about it, and remembered that this seemed to be an earthquake that occurred in the 11th year of Zhenguan, 869 in the Western calendar.

This book... She turned it over and saw that it was indeed the history book "Three Generations Records" in the early Heian period.

... natural disasters.dragon veins.

After a moment of silence, Yae put the ancient book back in its place.

Only stayed in the Japanese room for a short period of time, and the outside world was still sunny.

The breeze is blowing from the distant sky, and the vegetation in the mountains is verdant. Yae climbs down the bluestone steps, and the historic stone steps are covered with moss, like green spots.

A familiar cry came from the air, and an old crow with pitch-black feathers flew towards her, as if it had been looking for her for a long time.

Yae couldn't help but smile slightly, the smile on the corner of his mouth was bent halfway, and it froze there.

The feeling of discomfort comes suddenly and goes away quickly.

As if accidentally stepping on the air, her heart throbbed, Yae squatted down covering her head, and the bouquet in her hand was scattered all over the ground.

My head hurts.As if someone was holding a saw and trying to saw her skull from the inside, Yae opened her mouth unconsciously, unable to make a sound.

…A few years ago, she saw the medical report of this body in the experimental area.

What is the cause of brain death?

She squatted on the spot covering her head for a while, and the old crow landed on the stone steps in front of her, opened its neck a little restlessly and let out a hoarse cry, its chest feathers fluffed up.

The severe pain disappeared quickly, as if what happened before was just an illusion, Yae took a breath and looked at his palm.

She thought she would see blood on her hands, and the pain was real, as if her head had been gouged through, leaving a bloody hole.

Nothing at all.

Panting for a moment, Yae picked up the scattered flower branches and wrapped them in washi paper.

When she stood up, she was completely back to normal.

She remembered the pale medical report.

The cause of death in this body was severe brain trauma caused by the accident.

……

——Tokugawa will definitely "abdicate".

When he heard the news, Yae was holding a cat teaser, trying to attract someone's attention.

The little girl code-named Muke sat at the table with a blank expression, holding refreshments with a blank expression.She didn't make a sound as she ate, only thin crumbs occasionally falling onto the table.

His Excellency Zuo Jin, who was in charge of teaching her, praised her as a rare talent once in a hundred years. At a young age, she already has the talent to be among the "Three Feathers of Naraku". new star.

Yae held the cat-teasing stick, shaking it in front of Mukuro, but to no avail.

"...Don't you like teasing cats?"

The dull eyes moved slightly, Muku raised his face, the corner of his mouth was covered with biscuit crumbs, and there was no expression on his white face.

"Why do I like teasing cats?"

……Super cute.

So cute that a thousand arrows can pierce the heart.

Crackling and exploding in the bottom of my heart, Shengtian beat the ground and scratched the wall ten thousand times, Yae coughed lightly, and put away the cat teasing stick.

"Oh, so that's the case." She said calmly.

Mukuro looked away, ate the matcha biscuit without saying a word, and then looked at the refreshment placed in the middle of the table.

Matcha cookies on a plate, only the last one left.

Oboro, who was sitting across from her, was equally expressionless.

After throwing away the heavy news that "Public Ding Ding intends to abdicate", the other two still tease "cats" who should tease "cats", and eat snacks who should eat snacks. Will peck his finger to show that he hasn't been completely ignored.

Unblinkingly looking at the last piece of dim sum placed in the middle of the table, Mukuro was silent for a moment, and when he raised his head to look at Xianglong, his eyes were slightly vigilant.

Hazy: "...you take it."

The last piece of snack on the table disappeared immediately.

Once again crackling and exploding in the bottom of my heart, ascending to heaven and hitting the ground and scratching the wall [-] times, Yae remained calm and smiled kindly: "As for the matcha biscuits, there are still many."

Amaterasu-in Naraku's imperial law is very strict.

But this very strict royal law was established hundreds of years ago.

Matcha cookies?Did Yu Fadu say that matcha biscuits are not allowed?

No.

Ladies' tea party?Is there any afternoon tea party that prohibits women in Yufadu?

No.

"Oh, the general is going to be replaced again." Yae took a sip from the rough porcelain teacup.

"What about the successor?"

"Mr. Tokugawa Shigeru of the Kii family."

"The one who is only 14 years old now?"

"Exactly."

Yae stroked the teacup, noncommittal.

Tokugawa is determined to put his young nephew on the throne of general, and his ambition to retreat and manipulate political affairs has been revealed since a long time ago.

She cares about nothing else.

The general is about to abdicate. In other words, the political cleanup of the past few years has almost been completed.

Since the end of the war against the barbarians, the anti-barbarian patriots who opposed the current regime have been ruthlessly suppressed. This is an obvious trend.

What Tokugawa decided to secretly remove were political enemies in the shogunate cabinet, such as the Hitotsubashi faction who had the right to succeed the shogun.

Those nest fights didn't interest her.

But the patriots...

"No news."

Knowing what she was thinking, she opened her mouth lightly.

No news is good news.

Yae has persuaded himself so many times.

In this period of political turmoil, the leader of Tenshoin Naraku is a busy man.

Yae: "Thank you. Would you like some more cookies?"

Shaking his head, he stood up and left.

The crow hopped forward and looked back at her.

Yae shook his head calmly, indicating that he was fine.

Spreading its wings, the crow fluttered to Oblong's shoulders, and left together.

After sweeping away all the refreshments, Mukuro was obviously full.

Yae resisted the urge to touch that little head.

"Before class starts, would you like to take a break? Do you want a quilt? You can take a nap."

It is said that it is a class, but it is the simplest reading and writing.

Her right wrist is no longer seriously affected, although it is still difficult to hold a knife, it is no problem to hold a pen.

What she can give has always been limited.

Things about Yoshida Shoyo are one of the few things she holds in her hands.

She exchanged with Oboro, hoping that he could tell her some information about the outside world.

She exchanged with Mukuro, hoping that the other party would stay by her side for a little longer.

Eat snacks with her during afternoon tea, listen to her talk, practice calligraphy together, and remember Songyang silently.enough.

"Where do we start today?" Yae opened the textbook written from memory.

She glanced at those familiar articles. She had seen the words written by Songyang in the candlelight, and the passages that had been crookedly transcribed on paper by young students.

"Is there anything you want to learn in particular?" Yae looked at Mukuro, who shook his head slightly, sitting at the table with a serious posture.

"Well," after thinking for a moment, she finally made a decision, "Then let's choose haiku."

If I had to describe it as liking, Matsuyo prefers haiku to waka.

Yae pointed to the paper with a serious expression: "This is one of my personal favorite haiku."

Mukuro looked at the sentence she pointed out.

"You boil water for me,

I'll show you something nice,

A round snowball. —— Matsuo Basho"

"..."

"Cute, right?"

There was a completely incomprehensible expression on her small face.

If it were more lively and lively, the other party's face would seem to be wrinkled.

With a chuckle, Yae switched to a haiku.

The time in the Japanese room is quiet, the breeze and sunlight are soothing and silent.

While Yae was explaining the meaning of these haikus, Mukuro was taking notes.

As time ticked by, she turned the pages, and another haiku came into view:

"I know the world is as fleeting as dew

however,

However. "

Yae's movement of flipping through the book stopped.

Mukuro raised his head and glanced at her, then at the "Kobayashi Ischa" written behind the haiku.

"……What does this sentence mean?"

"The poet who wrote this haiku was over 50 years old at the time."

As if regaining consciousness, Yae smiled at her: "This haiku was written after his young daughter died."

"Why?" The childish voice was cold and unwavering.

"Everyone is mortal, why did you write this haiku?"

Yae stroked the dry ink, brushing the short words with her fingertips.

"That's why there is "however". "

Mukuro is still puzzled.

As if remembering something, she repeated the words as if she got it from someone else:

"Because he is an 'important person'? "

Yae thought for a while: "You can put it that way."

"Then do you have it?" Muku looked at her, his expression unchanged, he was simply asking, "An important person."

"...Yes." Yae narrowed his eyes, as if the sun was too dazzling, and laughed.

Knowing what the other party would ask next, she stretched out her hand and touched the little head: "Let's end today's class here."

As a deal, she received Xu's blood, and it is now the fourth year.

There was a faint chirping of insects among the bushes, and there was no wind in the courtyard.

Yae put the textbook back on the shelf, and she was left alone in the Japanese room again.

In the past few years she stayed at Tianzhaoyuan Naraku, her daily activities were quite regular.

Except for the time of teaching Mukui to read and gossip, she is not wandering around, listening to lectures, occasionally watching Naraku's training, or wandering around the back mountain. No matter how she walks, she is within the range of Amaterasu-in Naraku Inside.

The world outside is bloody and bloody. According to the agreement, she just stays in this isolated place.

Yae put away the cups and plates on the table and was about to get up when the pain came again.

The cups and plates fell to the ground crisply, and the tea soaked the tatami on the floor. She squatted down by the table, covering her head.

Her breathing became short of breath, as if someone was gouging her skull with an awl. Yae squatted for a while, but the severe pain did not fade away, but gradually intensified, becoming unbearable.

...a severe brain injury.

Yae suspected that a blood vessel in his brain had ruptured.

As if to accept her guess, she felt a heat in her nose, reached out to touch it, and saw scarlet blood in the field of vision gradually eroded by black spots.

...is it about to dry up?

This thought flashed through her consciousness like lightning, her breath trembled, and her heart beat desperately.

There were footsteps outside and outside, and in the dimness, she saw someone's shadow reflected on the paper door.

"...I'm fine!" she said anxiously.

Is it Mr. Jia and Yi?Bingdingjun?Or is it the other Naraku who is in charge of monitoring her?

Heard something so come check it out.

No.

"I accidentally knocked over the cup, I'll clean it up myself."

If you die, you can go out.

Get out of this body.

The world seemed to melt and become blurred, the consciousness was squeezed into a ball by the severe pain, and Yae wanted to tremble in pain, but he still gritted his teeth and tried to make his voice sound normal.

"I'm going to take a nap later, don't disturb me."

She often takes naps.

She was bored in the Naraku of Amaterasu, and would lie down on the table when she was free.

The footsteps outside the door seemed to have gone away.

The desperately tense heartstrings were loosened, the vision seemed to go dark for a moment, and there was a dull pain in the forehead. Yae opened his eyes again and found himself lying on the ground.

Once the brainstem dies, the body stops activities necessary for life.

The consciousness and the body are separated, the lungs slowly stop functioning, and the lack of oxygen is a very painful thing. She has never tried this kind of slow death.

The body struggled on its own, the veins on the back of the hand were bulging, and the fingertips were digging the ground tightly, leaving moon-white scratches on the tatami.

It's all in vain.

The head hurts, the cerebrospinal fluid is churned up, but the sharp, dizzy pain is distant.

After a long time, footsteps sounded again in the corridor.

The door was torn open, Yae heard the order "Bring the blood sample" vaguely.A shadow fell in front of her eyes, and cold fingers pulled her sleeves to her arms, revealing light blue blood vessels.

She squinted her eyes desperately, barely making out Oboro's cold face as usual.

...Sure enough, I have already prepared.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a sharp needle, and there was dark red blood in the syringe.

The moment the cold needle came in, the dying person didn't know where the strength came from. Before everyone could react, he suddenly waved his hand and knocked out the needle, breaking it into pieces.

slap.

There was a crisp cracking sound, and dark red blood dripped down along the sharp shards of glass, staining the tatami mat scarlet.

The world goes dark.

She may not have closed her eyes, but her vision dimmed until she could no longer see anything, nor could she hear the flurry of voices in her ears.

Reassuringly dark.

The darkness she couldn't wait to embrace.

The sound of the heart that has been beating in my ears is slow and distant.

Disappear quickly.Disappear quickly.

The moment her heart was about to fail, she tasted rust and salt in her mouth.

The vague consciousness gradually became clear as the rust smell spread, and the five senses returned to their original positions. Yae was at a loss for a moment, and suddenly realized that this was the smell of blood.

There was a warm touch on her lips, someone was feeding her blood, mouth to mouth.

Her first reaction was to turn her head and spit it out.

But the other party seemed to expect her to do this, and kept pressing the back of her head to force her to raise her head and swallow.

Choking on the blood, Yae opened his eyes and coughed, scarlet blood foam overflowed from the corner of his mouth, dripping onto the phantom black kimono.

She thought she was more likely to die from lack of oxygen than from heart failure.

The body resisted subconsciously, and Yae turned his face away, trembling and trying to take a big breath, the sound of half whimpering and half coughing hadn't reached the throat, and was blocked back again.

Turning her face away, he pressed her lips and kissed her again, pouring blood into her mouth.

"...let it go...um..."

With a plop, the heart in the chest thumped.

Her pupils shrank slightly, and she clearly felt that the life force that was about to dry up in her body surged again, sweeping violently.

The breath was taken away, and the warm smell of blood filled her mouth. She raised her hand and wanted to push it on Xu's shoulder, but after a few pushes, he grabbed her wrist and pressed it to the back of her waist, unable to move.

Heck.

Hell power gap.

Yae wanted to bite him, but his tongue was pressed down, and he couldn't even close his mouth, let alone bite.

The remaining hand pushed and grasped the opponent's body, almost pulling the opponent's long light-colored hair. In the end, like a drowning man clung to a life-saving straw, he could only hold on to the skirt of the opponent's clothes tightly.

……dying.

The mind is left with only this thought.

Looking up, his vision became blurred again, and Yae realized that it was tears overflowing physiologically.

When she felt that she was about to die, the man who had been pressing her down suddenly let her go.

Regaining the ability to breathe freely, Yafold coughed reflexively, with tears all over his face.

Not caring that the person she was leaning on was the culprit of all this, she leaned against Xu's shoulder, struggling to breathe, letting her body tremble uncontrollably.

"...Want to die?" A deep voice rang in my ear.

Holding Yafold's loose hair around her cheeks, Xu raised her face, her slightly curved red eyes looked indifferent. "It's not that easy."

Yae didn't even have the strength to stare at him.If she could, she wanted to pull out all the broken hair that he lifted up.

She closed her eyes: "I don't think it's okay to die naturally."

Pressing the corner of her lips with his fingers, he wiped away the blood around her mouth.

"...It's not up to you to decide."

"How to die and when to die."

With red eyes narrowed, he said softly:

"It's all my decision."

The author has something to say:

①From "Three Generations Records"