Gintama; Takasugi x reader (Finale) [Take Me With You]

Chapter 5 {Kawakami Bansai}

     "The shogun?" I repeat, incredulous. I want to brush his remark off as one of his distasteful jests but the look he gives me says he means it as anything but serious. Decided.

I throw a glance at Y/N. She looks as if her captain has grown two heads. I give voice to what she must be wanting to say. "Have you gone insane?" I say to Shinsuke, who's already beginning to turn his back on us. "It's too risky. And with the government dogs still after us since the time we've been here..."

     "Calm down," he says with his back still to us. I can see the quirk at the corner of his lips from where I'm seated. "Why waste more time when we have so little left? And besides," he adds with his casual, lazy tone, "Utsuro decided to go through the pain of delivering the message to us. I doubt he'd leave his puppets in the dark."

     "C-calm down?" I turn to Y/N's ghost of voice. And just like the stated, she doesn't seem to go far from the description. She stares at Shinsuke with eyes that shows fear and concern. Even after a long duration of time of being together, his ruthlessness still doesn't seem to ease her anyhow, I dare say.

She speaks like she's running out of breath. "You tell me to calm down when you plan to go into the enemy's headquarters alone?" Y/N seems to snap any moment, but one can hardly brush the hoarseness of her voice as mere anger.

Shinsuke tilts his head to face her. Whatever look he's giving her, it makes her own palpable stubbornness pale in comparison.

     "Don't fret," he assures her with a voice rarely used. Then he turns away and walks to door before muttering, "I'll be back shortly." Then he's gone as the door slides shut.

I sigh audibly and murmur a groan. Y/N looks like she's going to be sick, her skin almost matches the ivory of her kimono.

     "Don't worry," I attempt to soothe. She turns to me as if I've just entered the room. "If that man wants something, you know he's not picky on his methods. And you know that there's no stopping him until he gets it."

Whether she's allowing herself to be soothed or she's quietly soothing herself, her paleness subsides a little as it leaves the flush back on her cheeks when sunlight dances on face. Y/N raises a hand to her face and murmurs at the top of her breath. "I swear I'm going to have heart attacks because of him someday."

A short laugh sounds from me, urging a smile from Y/N. But before I look at her to make sure, it disappears entirely from her oddly disturbed face. It's as if she's really sick.

     "Y/N, are you all right?" I ask, taking in the furrow of her brows. Instead of answering, she simply nods, eyes glued to the floor, haunted. I take a guess. "Is it happening again?" Judging by her look and the positions of her hands; one on her mouth, the other pressed to her chest, it can only be that.

A look of agony clouds over her features. Alarm makes me edge closer to her, and only from this distance that I notice she's shaking. A breath later, she settles back to her casual look.

I place a hand on her shoulder, steadying her dazed form. Then suddenly, as if the weight on her shoulders becomes too much of a burden, Y/N lets her head rest on my shoulder.

     "What should I do..." I hear her rasps beneath me, her voice crackling. Her body quivers. I stare down at her for a moment, not knowing what came over all the sudden. Then the moment when she recited the passage comes back to me. How she avoided eye contact and the look on her face when Shinsuke wasn't looking.

     "The message," I begin, putting my hand on her back in a comforting manner. "There's more of it. Isn't it?"

There's a slight lurking movement of her chest before Y/N reaches out her hand to her face and slowly sits back upright. Something catches the light and glints as she moves away from me. It disappears behind the collar of her kimono.