[Gintama] Immortal

The houses in Huajie are traditional wooden buildings, and the fire quickly spread into the sea, and the crowd was evacuated collectively.

Flying flames hit the night sky, the faint full moon was embedded in the darkness, only the firewood was crackling and cracking in the blazing sea of ​​fire.

The last ronin lay on the ground and was dying, Gao Shan stepped on his back, with a flash of cold light, he raised the knife and dropped it.

The dark red color of Datan Datan spread out, and the person did not move.

After a while, Takasugi turned his wrist slightly, shaking off the wet and warm blood drops on the knife.

"...As you can see," he unhurriedly retracted the knife into its sheath following the rustling sound, "the person you are looking for is not here."

Facing the raging flames behind him, Gao Shan turned his head, the corners of his mouth curled into a thin and cool arc, his green eyes were deep like a lone wolf in the night.

"The Takasugi Shinsuke you were looking for is long gone."

Across the corpses, a man with a bandaged left eye strolled towards her.

"What a pity, if you come back from Santuchuan with this kind of thought in mind..." His voice paused, and he sneered lightly, "Then you're going to be disappointed."

Takasugi stared at the expression change on Yae's face.

She blinked her eyes first, with a dazed expression on her face, both surprised and puzzled, she didn't continue to move, but stood there blankly and looked at him.

……Too.

Regarding the impression of Shinsuke Takasugi, the memory of the other party is probably still in the period of Matsushita private school.

What the other party cared about was the young man who was arrogant and stubborn, unruly and flamboyant, with a vicious mouth and a bad temper, but who would laugh with his teachers and classmates, and challenge Yinshi with a bamboo knife in high spirits.

……

The man who was no longer a boy lowered his eyes, gave a low laugh, stopped paying attention to Yae's reaction, and walked past her——

Someone pulled the sleeves.

The force was very light, but there was no intention of letting go after pulling it.

Takasugi turned slightly.

Yae raised his hand, pointed to her cheek, and mouthed to him:

...stained with blood.

Bi Mou narrowed slightly, Gao Sugi didn't move, Yae naturally stretched out his hand, wiped the blood off his cheek with the pulp of his finger.

The skin of the living is warm, and the fingers touching the cheeks are icy cold, without the slightest warmth.

Withdrawing his hand, Yae looked at the corpse on the ground and asked him:

Don't need to deal with it?

She pointed to the corpse, then pointed to the burning building nearby, and suggested with all sincerity:

I can help you drag the body over there and burn it.Free cremation service.

"..."

Before Yae could move, Takasugi reached out and grabbed her back.

"No need." He glanced at her, as if getting to know her all over again, and looked away lightly, "Others will deal with such trivial matters."

……other people?

Takasugi grabbed his wrist and took him away from the scene. Yae's remaining hand was used to lift the hem of the kimono's obstructive skirt, and followed the pace of the adult male.

"You'll find out soon enough."

Takasugi walked a little slower, and he glanced back at the kimono Yae dragged to the ground.

The women in the profile are all canaries in a cage, with layers of clothes, the more complicated and delicate the better.

He was dragging him to escape at a brisk pace before, but now once he regained his senses, Yae couldn't keep up.

With a troublesome click, Takasugi turned around, held the scabbard and pulled out the knife.

...Wait...wait a minute!

With a stabbing sound, a cold light flashed across, and Yae watched in shock as the excess rags from the lower edge of the kimono fell to the ground.

"Let's go." Without giving her time to react, Gao Shan sheathed the knife, pulled her wrist and left.

"...Looks like it's too late to come down."

Heshang Wanqi, who came to take care of the aftermath, was thankful that he was wearing sunglasses, but the expressions of the ghost soldiers behind him were not so good.

Putting his hands in the pockets of his long windbreaker, Wan Qi, who has always followed the mysterious Wenqing route, calmly nodded: "The enemy has been dealt with by Jin Zhu."

"No, there are still some troublesome tasks that need to be done by you."

Takasugi snorted.

Without missing the "Jin Zhu" that Wan Qi called, Yae suddenly raised his head, almost looking at him with bright eyes:

...are you friends?

Wanqi Heshang was silent for a moment and coughed lightly, having never been watched with such ardent eyes.

"The next thing will be left to you." Takasugi interrupted the eye contact between the two.

Before being half-carried and half-dragged away by Takasugi, Yae had been lip-synching to him desperately.

——Are you Jinsuke’s friend?

That look of anticipation was like saying that Takasugi Shinsuke had no friends.

After realizing this, Wanqi Heshang fell into a longer silence.

... parents?

Is this a parent who is worried about their child's social interaction?

He had a strange illusion that if Gao Shan hadn't stopped him, the other party would have wanted to run over and hold his hand, inviting him to have an afternoon tea and talk.It's still the kind of heart-to-heart talk with a kind elder face throughout.

"Senior on the river?" The subordinate's call brought Wan Qi back to his senses.

"...Nothing." He said calmly.

Forgot to ask the other person's name, which is really rude.

However, the chance to meet each other in the future is definitely more than this one time.

……

The ghost soldier's ship is moored in the port.

After anchoring, the huge houseboat sailed away from the harbor, and drifted like a ghost into the dark and boundless sea under the cover of night.

The corpse would not get seasick, and Yae leaned against the porthole, looking at the looming moon among the clouds.

As the only female in the ghost army, a girl named Matako brought her a change of clothes.

He untied Younu's complicated bun, and took off all the jingling hairpins and combs, only the makeup on her face remained unchanged.

After a person dies, the corpse will begin to rot. Although it has only been a short time before dying, the limbs and joints of this body have become stiff.

Even if she wasn't facing the bronze mirror, she knew what this face would look like without makeup.

She doesn't mind jumping around in front of Xu with no arms or legs.

She had seen the musculoskeletal re-growth when he came back from the dead, and he had also seen the strange posture of the decomposed corpse when it moved.

But Takasugi is different.

If possible, she would like to maintain a human appearance in front of the students of Matsushita Village Juku.

……If you can.

"You can't talk right now, can you?"

Leaning against the hatch, Takasugi took out the pipe from his pocket, lighted the tobacco casually, brought it to his mouth and took a puff.

Yae sat down at the table, on which was the pen, ink, paper and inkstone that Takasugi ordered someone to bring.

She wrote the reply on the paper, then lifted the paper, and showed it to Gao Shan very seriously:

——When did you learn to smoke?

"..." Gao Shan didn't answer her words, but hummed softly, "It seems so."

He sat on the opposite side of the table, biting his cigarette holder in silence for a moment, then suddenly said:

"How long can you stay in this state?"

Yae picked up the paper:

——When did you learn to smoke?

Takasugi: "...I'm asking you something."

Yae continued to pick up the paper:

—I’m also asking you a question.So, when exactly did you learn to smoke?

"...I don't know." Gao Shan said coldly.

What he said was true.

When did he start relying on the pungent and choking taste of tobacco... That time was too dark and muddy, he couldn't remember clearly, and he didn't want to remember.

The finger that was twisting the washi was lowered slightly, Yae opened and closed his mouth, and finally lowered his eyelashes silently.

The grayish-white smoke drifted away like an epiphyllum, Gao Shan put his hands up, and the pipe brought to his mouth stopped there.

After a moment, he casually removed the cigarette and repeated the previous question:

"How long can you stay in this state?"

The tip of the pen tapped the paper, Ya Chong wrote down a line:

——Why don't you ask me who I am?

Such a basic question has only now been brought to the fore.

Takasugi narrowed his right eye: "Yae."

The name that had not been spoken for a long time fell in his own ears, and it sounded like someone else said it.

The person opposite fell silent.

After a while, Yae let out a sigh, and wrote down another sentence on the paper:

……why?

Why did he recognize her so quickly.

...It was as if the other party had been expecting the past person to be brought back to life.

Otherwise, how could he guess who she is in an instant.

It was not so much that he made a correct judgment, but that the paranoid fantasy that the other party had been hiding in his heart for all these years found a foothold in reality at that moment.

Already guessing what Takasugi wanted to ask next, Yae was quiet for a moment, then slowly picked up a pen and wrote a sentence on the paper:

——My situation is special, how long it can last depends on the rate of decay of this body.

The moonlight on the sea was covered by black clouds, and the world fell into the domain of shadows.

Takasugi was smoking a cigarette, looking at the dark scenery outside the porthole, with a careless voice slightly hoarse:

"……yes."

After a moment of silence, he added an unnecessary sentence:

"I see."

Takasugi stood up and walked to the hatch.

"...It's very late, you don't need to worry about other things, just rest here tonight."

……Wait a moment!

Yae stood up suddenly, her stiff body couldn't keep up with her anxious will, she tripped over the corner of the table, and staggered to the door. Thanks to Takasugi's sharp eyesight, he bent down to support her.

Holding Takasugi's arm, Yae raised his head in a daze for a moment, and thought up his speech in just a few seconds.

——If I need you, where will you be?

"..." Gao Shan lowered his eyes to hide the expression in his green eyes.

"I'll be in the room."

After a pause, he whispered: "I will find a solution to the problem of rot."

... No, that's not what she's worried about.

Holding Takasugi's arm and stood up again, Yae opened his mouth and finally nodded.

--Good night then?

The corner of Gao Shan's mouth curved slightly imperceptibly, as if he was smiling, but he didn't seem to be smiling.

"Good night," he said.

It's been a long time since he said good night to a human being.

The moment he turned around, that slight smile faded away and disappeared without a trace.

……

Another familiar nightmare.

The desolate battlefield, the leaden cloud sea, and the blood-stained white robe are hunting and flying in the cold wind.

He watched that figure walk the same path thousands of times, to the end of his past life and the beginning of all future nightmares.

With a low vision and a slanted sky, he was bound by Naraku, bound by the sins that he could no longer get rid of in this life, crawling on the ground in extreme distress and despair, mourning like a beast that had its heart ripped out.

……I beg you.

Please - Silver Hour.

The scene of refusing to let him go reappeared again.

With a flash of cold knife light, the head with light-colored long hair flew down, and the broken world was silent.

The left eye was in severe pain, and in the field of vision stained red with blood, Gintoki lowered his hand holding the knife, and the corner of his mouth still curled into a ridiculous arc.

Tears he had never seen before fell down that face.

……

Why, he is still alive.

He who has seen hell, who brought hell to others, why is he still alive.

Why……

Why……

Why……

——Jin Zhu.

Icy cool touch.

—— Jinsuke!

With a trembling body, Takasugi woke up from the nightmare and found that there was a light on beside the bed.

He heard the sound of pattering rain, he turned his head slightly, and the porthole was closed, blocking the dark wind and rain.

The night is dark, the sea is boundless, and the pouring rain has no form but sound.

The dim light in the room was very soft, and Yae was sitting beside his bed, her cold palm pressed against his forehead.

Seeing him looking over, Yae withdrew his hand and silently gestured to him:

...I thought you had a fever.

People who are stuck in a nightmare and cannot wake up look like they have a high fever.

Trembling, sweating, pale, wrinkled in pain.

Before Takasugi said "go out", Yae lowered his head first:

—Sorry, I came in without permission.

Then quickly sat up straight again.

——Now that I have apologized, can I stay here tonight?

Takasugi: "..."

Same bandit logic as before.

— A dead body does not need to sleep.It's a little lonely when one is awake.

Yae showed a somewhat regretful expression.

——At times like this, it would be great if there was a storybook.

She reached out and patted the back of his hand lightly through the quilt.

As if he was still a child in private school, he patted the back of his hand childishly and ridiculously.

...quickly fall asleep.

Yae silently clapped and counted, as if singing a song to lull a child to sleep.

Having just escaped from a nightmare, Takasugi found himself very tired.

Too lazy to care about Yae's childish behavior, he closed his eyelids, tiredness rising like a tide.

Outside the dark window, the rain continued, and the lighted candles quietly radiated brilliance.

Yae counted lightly and slowly, seeing that Takasugi's breathing became steady again, he gradually stopped his movements.

——The person you were looking for no longer exists.

She stood there in a daze and didn't respond.

Because after many years, spanning life and death, the other party saw her again, a person who should have been dead for many years, and saw a corpse that defied the common sense of the world and could act autonomously. His first reaction was not surprise or fear, but asked her:

——I have become like this, will you still approach me?

……

As you can see, this is what I have become.

I have become like this.

The Takasugi Shinsuke you knew is dead.

The rain overwhelmed the sound of the sea in the darkness, Yae raised his hand, and gently brushed the broken hair that fell on Takasugi's left eyelid.

……idiot.

Only one person's breathing could be heard in the quiet room, and Yafold bent the corners of her mouth happily and sadly.

Isn't this... still alive?