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

Chapter 29 {Ayano Yokade}

     "I'm sure you know what you're all here for," says Matako. She's standing near Takechi-san facing us in the command room. The digital screen hangs shut behind them, and so as all the computers that line the walls of this cool place.

Everybody's been assembled in here, about twenty guys sprawled all over half of the room, and I spot a few missing faces. I suspect that the vice-commander took them with him.

I step near the manager, Suguru-san as he's instructed me to address him, who's perched quietly near a computer at one of the walls. He has his hands crossed, eyes to our superiors before us, and nods in acknowledgment when he sees me.

     "How is she doing now?" I ask him quietly when the others are still elbowing each other about to get some space and view of the front.

     "I gave her some medicine earlier. She maybe is resting now," he says, then is about to say more but Matako's higher voice beats him to it. The room once falls hushed, all movements still as the members listen. 

     "As you all know," she begins, Takechi-san looking blank as always next to her, "both Shinsuke-sama and Bansai-senpai had left for Edo without us. And I don't know what you think, but I assure you that they did it to protect us all." She pauses, eyes going along all of us. Her look, compared to her superior, is enough to convince us that what she's saying is true.

Matako goes on. "Shinsuke-sama told us to stay behind and gave us freedom. Now we'll use that freedom to do what he did for us. We choose to go after and protect him." She casts her eyes down for a short quick moment, one can barely notice the movement as anything else. But as she looks back up to us, from the grimness of her eyes and lips, she seems not too different from Y/N when she's on edge to burst to tears.

I cross my arms, mimicking Suguru-san, and instead stand there and contemplate at the possibility of there being some connection between the commander's absence and the two girls.

     "It is our choice," Matako's voice carries easily through the silent room. She sends a glance at Takechi-san. He returns her gaze with a blank look, but somehow it gives her some kind of consent to continue.

Matako turns to us, her green eyes momentarily glides past mine to the manager beside me. He's been so quiet that I forget I almost trample on his feet when the others press closer to me. I try to elbow a guy near me further away from squashing the manager.

     "Right now, I want you all to make a choice too," Matako announces, her voice unusually leveled and sounding almost sympathetic. "You're all free to do what you want, be it to leave or come along with us. To our leader."

Slowly, murmurs begin to rise up in the room, and soon the entire place buzzes with low talks. Some of the guys turn to each other for opinions as if aren't sure what to do, while the others simply stand and stare at the people waiting for our answers in front, their back and gaze straight and unwavering as their loyalty. Suguru-san is one of them.

I don't need to take a moment to give it a thought. My purpose here hasn't been mislead. Where the commander goes, I will go. That was - and is - how I chose to let him be the guideline of my life. And Y/N...

If the commander is the guideline for revenge of my lost in life, then Y/N will be the center of my atonement for the wrongs I've done, including coming here. I will help and protect her on the leader's behalf. I would do better things for Y/N that I failed to do for my sister.

     "We will take a safer route," Takechi-san suddenly speaks up, snuffing out the sound of conversation as the murmurs die down. The crowd in the room turns to face him, most of them appear like they've come to a decision, wearing faces similar to each other.