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

Chapter 44 {Takasugi Shinsuke}

     "I will return. Until I wake again, go wild as you like, and please...take care of my parents."

That had been her words. Her last request as I held her on my arms. Right before her head fell to my shoulder.

I stare at her face now as I walk. Calm washes over her whole features. Her closed eyes and tranquil lips remain neutral, as if a dream has drowned her in a peaceful reverie. I wonder what she's seeing now, if she's seeing anything at all, behind those tender lids which tend to flutter when I stare for long that, even as I tread among war, now doesn't make them flutter so.

The path ahead is unclear, obstructed by ruined remains of everything that's fallen. Smoke mists the air, thickening as more smokescreens explode, thrown to confuse the enemies and seize for advantages. Black smoke bellows from nearby explosions and pollute the winds with ash and gunpowder. Flashes of silver flicker in and out through the haze as I carry nonchalantly down the road.

One amanto notices my approach. He fires his gun blindly through the smoke when I disappear and reappear again behind him, knocking him down with a jerk of my sword to his neck.

Instinctively, I glance down to see if the sudden movement wakes Y/N before remembering a second late that she wouldn't wake. Her face holds its serenity, so still that I can support her entire weight with only one arm. I'm not sure anymore if the warmth as I hold her really belongs to her or if the blood that soaks our clothes is either mine or hers or both of ours. The fresh wound at my chest but is a dull ache.

I don't pause.

Not a single soul roams the harbor by the time I reach the dock. Military ships line the port's expanse on dark waters below, looming mightily but empty of any crew. I head toward the sailboat bobbing at the edge, the only decent craft out of other destructive vessels.

Tides crush against the ships body, the night winds washing clear of the ash and smoke of battles to the refreshing odor of the free sea. Ironic that a massacre is wrecking the city on such a nice night like this. Even harder to believe that the person who risked her life to heed us of the situation is now cradled to me, looking very much asleep. I make my way toward and up into the sailboat.

Two of the guards greet me near the entrance. Confusion takes shape on their faces when they see the unrecognizable girl I'm carrying.

     "I'll leave the watch outside to you two," I say to them before striding to the infirmary. Their compliance barks behind me.

Suguru appears as soon as I push the screen aside to the finely lit room. A second passes before he realizes who I'm carrying. When he does he turns and makes his way toward an empty bed without a word.

Carefully, I set Y/N down on the white mattress. Suguru grabs a pillow and I ease her head on it. Her face doesn't change, her body moving only by my will.

     "Commander, is she..." the doctor trails across from me, probably noticing the certain stillness of her. His voice is cool, in contrast to the tensed crease of his brows, as he assesses Y/N.

     "She isn't dead," I hear myself say. Hearing that, the doctor's face falls even further. "She's not dead," I repeat, slower this time. It isn't meant to be a denial for comfort, not for me nor anyone.

I look past the doctor to the porthole on the opposite wall. The sea unfurls and melts into one with the night. Her voice sings in my mind.

I will return.

She left her burden with the simple act of letting go. She chose to end her suffering, but she did not choose to die. And she will not die.

Suguru, with his unusual wordlessness, must have come down to the same thing as I.