Chapter 8: Gintama (Era of Rebellion)

"Ah, I want to drink strawberry milk. I've lost so much blood—I need some strawberry milk to make up for it."

Is your whole body filled with strawberry milk or something?! Okakura Take stared speechlessly at the White Demon wailing on the bed. There had been no sudden attacks these past days, so all the wounded were recuperating in the backyard, and the White Demon had been ordered to rest there as well.

Sakata Gintoki felt as if he couldn't take it anymore—life without sweets was pure agony!

"Lord Gintoki, I've brought you red bean rice," Ueda entered with a steaming bowl, his face beaming.

"Red bean rice!" Sakata Gintoki sat up straight, his eyes glowing as he stared at the bowl in Ueda's hands.

"Okakura, Lord Gintoki's hands aren't convenient right now. Come over and feed him," Ueda ordered, glancing at Okakura Take, who was lounging idly nearby.

Okakura Take and Sakata Gintoki exchanged deadpan and fish-eyed stares.

"Alright," Okakura Take didn't mind the chance to shut the White Demon's ever-chattering mouth.

"No need, Uncle Ueda, why don't you feed me instead?" Gintoki quickly objected, not wanting that kid, who looked just like Kayako from a horror film, to feed him. Being stared at by that brat would give him nightmares. Sakata Gintoki blinked pleadingly at Ueda.

Ueda, oblivious to the White Demon's shoujo-manga-style gaze, simply handed the bowl and chopsticks to Okakura Take. "Okakura, take good care of the wounded. I'll go make dinner."

"Yes, Uncle Ueda."

After Ueda left, Okakura Take smiled, holding the bowl as she walked toward Sakata Gintoki. To Gintoki, that smile was the menacing grin of a demon come to claim his life.

"Lord Gintoki, ah—" Okakura Take picked up some red bean rice with the chopsticks and brought it to his lips. She felt she was being quite gentle—her own mother had coaxed her the same way.

As that pale face drew closer, Sakata Gintoki suddenly remembered the movie "Ju-On." That ghostly woman Kayako, mouth agape, emitting eerie sounds as she twisted her body down the stairs. It was Katsura, that eccentric, who had rented the DVD, claiming it was a film exploring the dark side of human nature, and Ritsuko Sakai also starred in it.

Back then, Gintoki had actually liked Ritsuko Sakai. Hearing she starred in the film, he happily watched it with Katsura, Takasugi, and the others, only to be utterly terrified. For a whole month afterward, he didn't dare go to the bathroom alone at night.

Now, seeing Okakura Take's face, Gintoki recalled the film all over again, scaring himself pale.

Only when the warm, sweet red bean rice touched his lips did his terror subside a little. Drenched in cold sweat, he reassured himself: This kid casts a shadow—he's not a ghost, just a bit frightening to look at. Calm down, I need to calm down.

Seeing the White Demon sweat and tremble in terror, Okakura Take felt a strange pleasure. It was surprisingly amusing to see this man so afraid.

But compared to Lord Takasugi, the White Demon was really quite a mess. She couldn't understand why Uncle Ueda held him in such high esteem.

Yes, Okakura Take had become a total fangirl for Takasugi Shinsuke.

A couple of days ago, after Sakata Gintoki was sent to the medical quarters, Katsura, Takasugi, Sakamoto, and the others came to visit.

Everyone knew that Katsura, for all his refined looks, had a mind full of bizarre ideas and often did things no one could predict; Sakamoto was tall and always laughing foolishly, sometimes inexplicably out of touch; as for Sakata, well, in Okakura's eyes, he was just a curly-haired, dead-fish-eyed guy.

Thus, surrounded by these oddballs, the noble and aloof Takasugi Shinsuke stood out.

Whenever Okakura Take saw those fools acting up, only Lord Takasugi would seriously question the wounded about their condition and carefully arrange everything. His martial skills were impressive, too. Even though he was the shortest among them (shh, that’s a secret), he still managed to keep those troublemakers in line. Lord Takasugi was simply incredible!

Her admiration for Takasugi Shinsuke was as boundless as a river, endless and ceaseless. Every time she saw him, her heart would skip a beat.

That day, after visiting Gintoki, Takasugi said to Okakura Take, "Are you new? Take good care of the wounded."

Just those simple words moved Okakura Take deeply. What a considerate leader! So much better than that silver-haired guy always clamoring for strawberry milk or the long-haired one obsessed with housewives—this was the model of good leadership she’d imagined!

Her devotion to Governor Takasugi ran so deep that, much later, when she saw him dressed in flamboyant purple-and-yellow kimono with his chest half-exposed, she just wanted to ask: Governor, what on earth happened to you?!

Two days later, the White Demon recovered and left, lively as ever. Okakura Take couldn't help but compare his astonishing resilience to that of a cockroach.

But it was true—every shounen manga protagonist needed cockroach-like vitality. Though Gintoki was already past "youth" when the main Gintama story began, at this point he was still a fresh young man. As the old saying goes, the young are full of vigor.

That day, the anti-foreigner army clashed with the Amanto once more. The Amanto had devised a clever strategy, leaving the shogunate to bear the brunt while they sent only a minimal force themselves. The shogunate, well aware that the Amanto's plan was to make them exhaust themselves, was nonetheless forced by the Amanto's overwhelming strength to turn their weapons against the anti-foreigner patriots.

Takasugi Shinsuke was a staunch supporter of the "Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians" movement. The Choshu domain was rich in talent, producing many heroes during the anti-foreigner war—Takasugi Shinsuke, Katsura Kotaro, Sakata Gintoki, Kusaka Genzui, Yamagata Kyosuke, and others were all outstanding. They were all inheritors of Yoshida Shouyou's ideals.

Now I die for my country, and in death I do not betray my lord and parents.

The affairs of the world are long and winding; let the gods judge them.

Yoshida Shouyou was a man of great ambition. Beneath his gentle appearance burned a passionate heart. Yet his sincerity made the shogunate fearful, and claiming that "Shouyou's teachings are impure and disturb the public mind," they imprisoned him. His life ended at twenty-nine, leaving his disciples to mourn him—none more fiercely than Takasugi.

Takasugi, a devoted student of Chinese classics, once defended his harsh retribution against the shogunate by quoting Liu Zongyuan's "A Refutation of Vengeance": "The Rites of Zhou: 'The judge of vengeances oversees the grievances of ten thousand people. If someone kills righteously, they are not to be avenged; to do so is a crime punishable by death. If someone kills in vengeance, the state will avenge in turn.' How can kinfolk end up avenging one another? The Spring and Autumn Annals says, 'If a father is executed without cause, the son may avenge him. If the father is executed with cause, and the son avenges him, it becomes mutual slaughter. Not forgetting a father's death is filial piety; not fearing death is righteousness. Yuanqing did not overstep ritual, and died for filial piety and righteousness—such a man is truly wise.' How can a wise man take the law of kings as a personal enemy? Those who argue otherwise only corrupt justice and destroy rites; their views cannot be the norm, and this is clear."

If a father is killed unjustly, the son may seek revenge. If the father was guilty, and the son still avenges him, it only leads to endless blood feuds. To remember your father's murder is filial piety; to face death unafraid is righteousness.

Liu's argument, so full of human feeling, was twisted by Takasugi to his own ends. In his heart, Shouyou-sensei meant more than a father. Shouyou-sensei was blameless, and Takasugi's hatred toward the shogunate that took his teacher was deeper than the sea, higher than the mountains. For him, anything done against the shogunate was justified.

The corrupt shogunate, the regime that took Shouyou-sensei, the government guilty of killing comrades and subordinates—its sins were endless.

Divine retribution!

He would reduce everything connected to the shogunate to ashes.

As for the other three oddballs, they too hated the shogunate, but their sense of balance kept them from becoming as extreme as Takasugi. What they hoped for was a win-win outcome: expel the Amanto, return rule to the Emperor, and free Japan's economy from alien control.

They desired a peaceful world, unity under heaven, and the well-being of the people.

Sakamoto Tatsuma, meanwhile, set his sights even farther. He left to travel the universe as a merchant. Outwardly simple-minded, Sakamoto actually had great vision and was decisive to boot—once he made up his mind, he acted.

He knew he had friends on Earth, but he himself needed to venture into the wider universe to fight for Earth's future.

But Sakamoto's departure had an impact on the anti-foreigner army, an effect even Okakura Take could feel—she noticed the meals had gotten worse.

It turned out Sakamoto had been in charge of finances, and he was especially skilled at raising funds. While he was around, he secured much of the army's war chest. Thanks to those funds, the poorly equipped and outnumbered anti-foreigner army managed to hold out against both the Amanto and the shogunate. Now that he was gone, money was tight, and they had to become even more frugal—though they'd already been living on the bare minimum.

Sakamoto was gone, but the anti-foreigner army had to press on. So long as the Amanto remained on Earth, the fight would continue.

"I'm so hungry..." Okakura Take lay on her bed, clutching her stomach and groaning softly.

Uncle Ueda had been making the meals with less and less. Rice had given way to thin porridge; once, there were chunks of meat, now even a speck of meat was rare. Tonight, she drank three bowls of porridge like water before she felt barely full, and now that the liquid had digested, she was hungry all over again.

She turned to look out the window. The stars in the sky twinkled like diamonds, glittering brightly.

Okakura Take decided to get up and go outside for some fresh air. The men around her hadn't bathed in who knew how long—foot odor, sweat, all kinds of stench filled the room, and she could hardly stand it anymore.

She stepped outside and decided to climb onto the roof to admire the moon.

Once on the rooftop, she discovered someone was already there—a head of conspicuous silver curls swaying in the night breeze.

The White Demon!

She was about to slip away when Gintoki noticed her and let out a horrified cry, "Ghost!"

Here we go again... Okakura Take was helpless at Sakata Gintoki's extreme reaction every time he saw her.

"Lord Gintoki, it's me, Okakura Take. Sorry to disturb you."

Gintoki forced himself to calm down, his lips twitching. "Ah, it's nothing, I definitely wasn't scared by you just now. I just saw a cloud in the sky that looked like a ghost, that's why I yelled out of excitement."

Okakura Take looked up. There wasn't a cloud in sight.

"Ah, that cloud just drifted away," Sakata Gintoki explained, and if one ignored the cold sweat on his face, his tone was entirely sincere.

But Okakura Take knew he was lying—his dead-fish eyes were darting around nervously. Still, she chose not to call him out. He was, after all, technically her superior, so she'd spare his dignity.

"Is that so? Clouds shaped like ghosts are really rare," Okakura Take said as she walked over. "Lord Gintoki, may I sit here for a while?"

Gintoki nodded stiffly. Seeing his agreement, Okakura Take sat down.

Tonight, the night was truly beautiful. Across the deep blue sky, stars were scattered like splashed water, dense and irregular, a magnificent sight.

Sakata Gintoki shifted uneasily.

Help! Gintoki didn't want to spend the night stargazing with this kid who looked like Kayako—it was terrifying! His little heart thumped wildly every time he saw her (from fear).

"Lord Gintoki," Okakura Take spoke.

"Ah? What is it?" Gintoki turned nervously.

"Are those stars all inhabited by Amanto?" Okakura Take gazed at the vast sky.

Gintoki paused and looked up. The endless night sky was studded with countless stars.

"Besides the Amanto, maybe... there are friends as well."

Tatsuma, safe travels.