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

Chapter 8 {Takasugi Shinsuke}

     A sound comes from the door.

Bansai stops mid-sentence as he averts his attention to whoever is outside. Though I'm sure he needn't guess. Matako turns to me and I gesture to the door.

Y/N's eyes stray to me the instant the door slides aside. A haunted expression of fear makes her pupils wide.

Matako makes a sound by the door frame. "What do you want?"

I ignore her annoyance and focus instead on Y/N. She still has her eyes on me, and distressed as they are, I sense the fear coming from her as clearly as it is my own. Although from how she appears, I can only assume she doesn't plan to share her thoughts with anyone.

A sword is on the floor near where she stands, the black one I remember giving her that day. Something bright and dark at the same time brings my attention to her clothes. Something I didn't notice earlier when I look at her outside. Spots of blood dot her ivory kimono where her left hand is resting by her side. I send her a look, but her gaze answers nothing back.

Bansai clears his throat and speaks. "Well," he starts, looking at me, "now that we know what the government is up to, we'll speed things up a bit and get what we need here." I nod. He stands and turns to Takechi, who is still thinking. "Let's go," Bansai urges. The other man nods before following him to the door.

Matako gives me another glance and I dismiss her along the others. She steps past Y/N, knocking her shoulder slightly before vanishing down the corridor. Bansai approaches near her, and they both share a look before he bends down, takes the blade on the floor and tosses it to me.

I catch it just as the other two leave. The room becomes more spacious without their attendances as a thick silence befalls. I cannot even hear the faint fluttering beats of Y/N's heart as I usually do whenever she's close to me. Something is bothering her so much that she hasn't move in inch since the others left.

     "Are you intending to stand there all day?" I say as I set the sword aside before turning to her.

Y/N gives me a blink of her eyes, as if she has just returned here. She looks at me now, tensing and all previous trouble returning to her face. Stepping in the room, she comes to where I'm sitting but she doesn't settle, her movement ghostly.

I might have think it results from what she overheard from the discussion, but then she speaks.

     "I-is it as what Bansai said?" she questions, her voice sounding ashen like her face. "That a war is going to befall Edo?"

I stare at her for awhile, trying to place where her fear is directing at. She doesn't prompt when I don't reply and her odd behavior does a part to cause me unease.

     "Sit down," I say instead, breaking eye contact.

     "My parents," Y/N's voice raises suddenly. And so does her noticeable fear. "My parents are there." Her horrified eyes bore into mine as if searching for a place she could hide from all we know. "I have to go there and take them to somewhere safe. They can't be involved," she says hardly, her delicate brows twist tight together.

     "And where would that safety be?" I ask her in a mild tone. At her tormented silence, I lightly add. "If there is war, then nowhere in that city would be safe. Not even the outskirts."

     "Then the more I have to go to them," Y/N briskly exclaim, still rooted to her spot close to me. "If nowhere is safe then I can take them somewhere outside of Edo."

     "It won't be that easy." Although I don't mean to squash her hope to save her parents, there are things she must know and understand before she rushes after her somewhat worrisome impulse. I don't intend for her to chase after some risky choice and end up in a deeper pit, regardless of she thinks of me.