[Gintama] Immortal

"It's a 'smile'. "

Yae put her index fingers on both sides of her mouth, bending upwards into a crescent-like arc.

"People smile when something good happens."

She blinked her eyes, then pointed her fingertips down, and the corners of her mouth slowly fell down: "If something bad happens, people's expressions will become sad."

The red-eyed child tilted his head, lying on her lap and staring at her movements.

There were no emotional fluctuations on that soft face, the bright red pupils were like a mirror, clearly reflecting every move of others, the empty pupils lacked their own feelings, beautiful like cold glass beads.

"It's 'happy'. " Yafold smiled with crooked eyebrows.

"It's 'unhappy'. "She lowered her lips.

"Do you understand?"

"..."

Yae wasn't discouraged when she didn't get a response, she thought about it and added, "Do you know the meaning of 'good' and 'bad'? "

The other party looked at her without blinking, not at all like a child of this age who loves to cry and fight, and is as well-behaved as a little mute.

Considering that he was a baby in swaddling a few days ago, and now he can run off the ground by himself, it's not surprising that he doesn't speak.

Rather, the fact that he can't speak is more in line with his current state of being just born.

"For example, you," Yae poked lightly on his forehead, "is "good". ” is delightful.

The child finally blinked his eyes, and his expressionless face was a little more innocently dazed.

Yae unconsciously softened his eyes, and then the corners of his lips curved, revealing a brisk look.

"Come on, come on, try laughing too."

As expected, the child didn't respond.

So Yae eagerly stretched out her hand——

This is the good thing about the shape in childhood, the cheeks are soft, like white and soft dough, and it feels very good when pinched.

"Like this." Yae gently raised the corner of the other's mouth with his fingertips, "Smile like this."

"Hey, have you had enough fun?"

Gintoki, who had been busy for a long time, turned his head while lighting a fire and cooking by the river.

There was a small iron pot on the fire in front of him, and hot wild vegetable porridge was cooking in the pot, and the aroma wafted from the gap in the cover that was bubbling with white smoke. , the line of sight fell on lunch at noon today.

"Not yet." Yae said sternly, "I am performing my duties."

The little guy's body grows very fast, almost as soon as he sees the wind. At first, Yinshi couldn't grasp the problem of food intake and frequency. He secretly grabbed the "Encyclopedia of Parenting" and read it for a long time. Later, he found that the little guy never cried hungry. , Eat what you give, never picky eaters, and it is no problem to eat three meals a day like ordinary people after walking by yourself, so I gradually feel relieved.

Yae feels that the two of them have a clear division of labor, one is responsible for taking care of the children, and the other is responsible for teasing the children.

very perfect.

The weather was fine, and the clear water glistened with the sun.The cool sound of the water flowing over the polished boulders sounds leisurely and relaxing.

Yinshi lifted the lid of the pot, sprinkled the last bit of chopped green onion, scooped the porridge into the wooden bowl prepared in advance, blew it on his lips, and tasted the temperature.

The little guy's eyes were fixed on the porridge in the pot. It was an expression that had nothing to do with desire, but an instinctive reaction to need to eat.

"Here."

With dead fish eyes hanging down, Yinshi raised his hand expressionlessly, and brought the wooden bowl of porridge to the little guy.

"It's ready to eat."

He lowered his head, before his mouth touched the edge of the wooden bowl, Yinshi suddenly withdrew his hand: "Wait, it's still a little hot, I'll blow it again."

The little guy raised his head expressionlessly, but Yinshi felt a little guilty.

After a slight pause, he coughed lightly and handed out the bowl again: "You should blow it yourself."

The little one waited for a while, as if judging whether he would put the bowl back again.When he saw Yin, he didn't mean that, so he just lowered his head and drank the porridge quietly, looking as cute as he could with lowered head and narrowed eyes.

Yinshi held the wooden bowl, and when he finished drinking, he scooped up another bowl, blew on the porridge, and handed it to his mouth again.

The little guy drank two bowls of porridge without saying a word, and when the third bowl was reached, he didn't move when the bowl was brought to his mouth, so Yinshi knew he was full.

After eating, the little guy didn't go to the river to play like ordinary children.

He sat down by the fire, watching Gintoki and Yaehe's every move, as if observing and learning.

For young creatures, the world is full of unknown dangers.Children with red eyes grow fast and learn fast at the same time.He is currently like a sponge, desperately absorbing all knowledge about this world and survival, recording useful or useless information in his mind.

This speed of growth and learning is as if he knows that his existence will attract countless dangers.

"You're getting more proficient."

Yae said to Gintoki with a smile.

"It seems that those books are very useful."

Yinshi choked, and he raised his eyelids, looking hopeless: "Is there anything else you haven't prepared for?"

When the god master of the shrine, who was more than seventy years old, solemnly handed over a large package of things to him, he thought it contained some precious magical artifacts, but he opened the package and took a look: three parenting heart sutras, a complete set of mother and baby supplies, and There is a small rattle toy, the kind specially used for coaxing children.

His mentality was a little broken at the time.

But Sakata Gintoki held on.

He has recently come to understand the meaning of widowed education.Yae's biggest contribution in the past few days was throwing a bunch of mission supplies for him. The rest of the time, she was completely a hands-off shopkeeper, and her only skill was to tease children.

Yae gave him a "I like you" look, and Gintoki expressed indifference.

There was the rustling sound of leaves in the forest, and a small bird left the branch and took off.

The little guy sitting by the fire raised his head following the sound, his eyes followed the bird that was flying farther and farther away, and he gradually leaned back.

Seeing that his body was leaning back a little too far, and suddenly swayed slightly like a tumbler losing its center of gravity, Yin Shi's eyes were sharp and his hands quickly stretched out his arms, supporting the back of the little guy's head before it hit the ground.

"... Be careful, really." Yin Shi let out a long breath, picked up the little child, and sat up straight again.

The child blinked slowly and sat still.

"...No, it doesn't mean that you are not allowed to move at all." Yinshi twitched the corner of his mouth.

His expression was helpless, but there was restrained gentleness hidden in the corners of his eyes and brows.

It is precisely because of restraint that when this tenderness is revealed inadvertently, it appears extra careful and soft, like a beast showing its most fragile belly, and even a slight touch can kill it.

The child without a name just looked at him.

The beautiful eyes were a little deep red, and there was no emotion in them, and no trace of memory.

The other party is now like a blank piece of paper, it may be stained black by dirty things, or it may degenerate into something that no one can think of.

She understands this, and Yinshi naturally understands it too.

"Silver time." Yae suddenly said.

"I know what I've left behind."

"What?" Yinshi didn't react for a moment.

Not so long ago it was in baby form, the red-eyed child sitting quietly, with the straps of a cloak tied around its neck.

He looked at Gintoki, then at Yae.

Yae tapped his palm very seriously: "We need a camera."

"..."

Yin Shi: "Oh, what you said makes sense."

Neither of them has much money on them. To be precise, Yae doesn’t have any money on him. All the money they have is only enough for the three of them to occasionally have a meal in a tea house. The usual accommodation is either in the wild or in a Buddhist temple. .

When they came to the nearest town, the owner of the photo studio went out on business, and it was said that he would not come back until the evening. The three of them walked around and found a very popular buckwheat house.

The Buckwheat House happened to be having a promotion that day, if you buy two copies, the second one will be half price, Yae excitedly raised the curtain and got in, Gintoki had no choice but to heel up.

"Everyone, please use it slowly."

The proprietress with a cloth towel on her head smiled and brought three sets of soba noodles, all of which are the most common set meals, without fried golden and crispy tempura, the soba noodles sprinkled with seaweed are served on a bamboo plate, with sauce on the side Juice and finely shaved white radish puree.

Yae sat across from the two of them. She picked up the chopsticks, clasped her hands together, and lowered her head reverently: "I'm starting."

The small shop is full of customers, the atmosphere in the shop is relaxed and happy, most of them are regular customers.

There was a chirping sound, and the red-eyed child seemed to be eating in the house for the first time. He looked at the guests at the next table, observed for a while, and tentatively picked up the pair of chopsticks in front of him.

Ordinary bamboo chopsticks were too long for the little guy's hands. He grabbed the chopsticks and poked at the soba noodles in the bamboo plate - but failed to pick them up.

Still expressionless on his face, he looked down at the chopsticks in his hand.

"It's not what you use." A sigh suddenly came from beside him, and then, the warm and dry palm covered him, and he put his whole hand into the palm of his hand.

"Looking good." Yinshi's voice was lazy, like the afternoon sun and the lazy wind in midsummer.He held the little guy's hand, stretched out his arm, moved his fingers slightly, and easily picked up the soba noodles and put them back into the bowl.

"Should I do it again?"

When Yinshi said this, he didn't seem to expect the other party to answer. He bent slightly and demonstrated a few more times, telling the other party how to hold the chopsticks, where is the trick to pick up vegetables, and how to use force.

Yin Hong's eyes widened slightly, and the little guy raised his head.

For the first time, Yae saw something that could be called an expression on that face.She thought it was a reaction to learning something new, but soon she realized her mistake.

He moved his lips, and his vocal cords vibrated faintly, like a cough when someone drowned in memory suddenly floated to the surface of the water.

"One..." he said, "Silver..."

The sound of a metal Zen staff.

Not here, but the location isn't too far either.

Yae stood up suddenly, and all the people in the shop looked over for a moment.

"We have to go, Silver Toki."

——Nearly two years have passed since the war started by Xu.

The eyes of the two met in the air. Needless to say, this town can no longer stay.

After the war, the world seems to be back on track, but the uncleared obscurity has been waiting in the dark for an opportunity.

Tiandaozhong no longer exists, replaced by an organization called Tianyuanjiao.Amaterasu-in Naraku, who has lost his leader, has not been idle for the past few years. He has been exploring the dragon's lairs in various places, and the secret movements and Yinshi's traces have repeatedly overlapped.

"Haven't you ever thought about how I found you?"

Half of the roof of the abandoned Buddhist temple collapsed, revealing half of the night sky and starlight. Yae leaned against the rusty bronze statue, and his downcast eyes evoked a meaningless smile:

"At present, I have merged with Longmai for more than half, and my abilities have naturally increased. What have Naraku been doing these past few years, what are you doing, where are Jinsuke and Kotaro, as long as you are still on this planet, as part of Dragonmai, I will can know."

The shadows swayed with the firelight, and the piled firewood burned quietly on the moss-covered stone bricks.

The small figure was lying on the warm quilt, covered with the cloak given to him by Yin Shi, sleeping soundly without moving, only his chest rose and fell gently with his breathing.

I thought the other party's memory had recovered, but the name that came to my lips at that moment seemed to be just a flash of inspiration.

The young existence fell silent again, neither speaking nor expressing any thoughts, and fell asleep as quickly as before at night.

"However, I can only look at one place at the same time. For example, when I am talking to you now, my attention is here, and I cannot see what is happening in other places."

There was a slight pause in the voice, and Yae raised his eyes: "Naraku is looking for him, Yinshi."

"...Is that why you came to see me?"

There wasn't much emotion in Yinshi's voice.

"There seems to be something wrong. If it's like what you said, you sound completely capable of protecting him alone."

The dark red pupils became sharper, and the silver-haired man, who had always been lazy and sloppy, lowered his voice, and his tone was no longer frivolous.

"What's the matter with merging with the dragon vein?"

"...As the name suggests, that's what it is."

The sleeping figure turned over in the dream, and the cloak on the shoulders slipped down a little.Yinshi picked up a corner of the cloak, covered it back up, and covered it tightly, making sure that there was no place for air leakage.

"Because I haven't dared to sleep, I haven't closed my eyes for two years." Yae said jokingly.

"Now that you're here, I can rest assured for a while."

Silver was silent for a while.

"How long are you going to be away?"

"Just a few days." Yae said, "Don't worry, transformation is not difficult for me now, so I'll go back and have a rest."

……

Takasugi's movements in the past two years have been very unstable.

In order to wipe out the seeds left by Xu, he wandered around the world, running between various galaxies, and recently returned to Earth with great difficulty. She must be looking for him.

After meeting, the two didn't talk too much, but quickly finalized their next move.

Finalizing is too serious a word and an inappropriate action.In fact, Yae just told Takasugi the current locations of the other two, and Takasugi immediately expressed that he wanted to see him—whether it was Xu, Matsuyo, or something else, he would see each other immediately.

The man's eyes lit up instantly, no, it was a ignited light, which made it impossible to refuse, and she didn't intend to refuse.

Done, it should be said that after Takasugi finished talking, Yae quietly went to the newly built government hall in Edo to find Katsura, who is currently the Prime Minister.

This big man, who should be so busy at the moment, whispered to her that he would find time to sneak out recently, which would be within 24 hours.

In short, all three can be present.

Yae let out a long sigh of relief.

When I returned to Silver Hour, only two days had passed.

This time he chose a dilapidated shrine to settle down. The ancient torii gates were mottled with vermilion paint, and light and shadow fell from the dense leaf gaps, reflecting on the open paper door.

"Good morning." Yae walked over, and before he could cross the dividing line where the torii stands, his waist suddenly sank, but something rushed over and hugged him.

It's only been two days since I've seen him, but he seems to have grown a bit taller again, with a faint shadow of a boy.

The soft, light-colored hair rested on her waist and abdomen, and her hands were tightly wrapped around her waist, as if she had used all her strength. She kept silent, but suddenly made people feel that he was wronged and confused.

Yae was startled.

"...What's the matter?" She raised her hand, as if she wanted to touch the light-colored hair.

The red eyes raised up, that face still lacked vivid expression, sinking like stagnant water without waves, but something seemed to have changed in the depths of the pupils, like the tiniest crack in the ice, gushing out blood More intense color.

He opened his mouth, but couldn't make a sound for a while.

But then, he grabbed her clothes tightly and whispered:

"……not good."

This sentence broke the shackles, and the other party's expression calmed down.

"Don't go," he said.

At that moment, Yae wasn't sure who she was seeing.