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Ask the Great Aya anything


Aya♥

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“-But what’s wrong with that? So that’s why I want to live with that pain. because it’s proof he still lives on inside of me.” FLTBC said while the two stared at the grave of Jebediah. “But I’ve only come to feel this way because you and this child are with me.” FLTBC gently felt on her pregnant belly. 

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Enshou turned around and started walking away without a word. “So Enshou, don’t you die in battle and forget me. You must live longer than me and cry when I die.” Enshou reflected deeply on these words as he was moving farther from sight,

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That was the last time I spoke with her, she said she would continue to live with the pain-

FLTBC then punched her stomach as hard as she could, Enshou spun around and ran back to her, getting on his knees.

“NOOOOO LIL ENSHOOOUU- though I totally support your decision to yeetus the fetus, FLTBC. Our child would have been an abomination.” He got up and dusted himself off, his little fantasy world collasped as the detectives facepalmed. 

“Come on why are you trying to add to this world Sir, we got to go! This place is crumbling!” Stephen grabbed a hold of his hand as they all started to bolt it as Jebediah’s mind was crumbling around them, slowly turning back into the void it once was before when he was imprisoned.

The ballroom had disappeared, Roberta and Suave quickly opened a portal and flew into it.

“WORMY YOU COWARD!” Enshou shouted. “And I thought better of you Sex god.” He crossed his arms.

The mortals kept running through the tunnels dungeons, avoding falling debris at every turn. 

“Haha, see Overlord, the baby bump just was an imaginary pillow!” FLTBC pulled it out from under her dress, Enshou made a shocked Woutuber thumbnail face.

“That would explain a lot since we haven’t had sex much after BOD arrived.” Enshou got hit in the head by some debris, knocking out and falling back into Stephen’s arms. 

“What happens if we don’t make it out in time?!” Haji exclaimed. 

“Then you’ll all become like me inside a mind! Ooh, more imaginary friends to play with!” FLTBC clapped her hands excitedly.

“Yeah we’ll certainly become imaginary if we are crushed to death.” Umibozu got ahead of everyone and slid through the final dungeon cave, suddenly it completely collasped with rocks covering the door. The others stood at the other side of it anxiously worried. 

“W-What are we gonna do now?” Heiji asked. Umibozu simply punched the landslide of rocks, shattering them into pebbles. 

“COME ON!” He yelled. 

They continued outside of the dungeon and into the open air. The sky had turned eerily dark, a great thunderstorm was happening and started to spew off purple and green lightning everywhere. They ran through the village, the ye olde buildings crumbling and falling before their very eyes. FLTBC too immersed in her surroundings that she didn’t notice bricks from one shop were about to fall onto her head. 

“LOOK OUT!” Kintoki swooped her up and away from the pile. He continued to carry her, looking determined and straight ahead while FLTBC just stared at him in awe. 

“Come back again brave warriors!” The deteriorating Lord George waved to them as they passed him by. His skin melted off his face and his burnt black bones on his still alive body then crumbled into dust. 

The world itself was completely crumbling behind each step they took forward, literally trying to beat them before Jebediah’s consciousness would fade. They saw a bright light at the end of the dark void, sprinting even faster. 

“HOW ARE WE GONNA OPEN IT BOSS?!” Haji yelled.

“THE ONE WAY WE KNOW HOW, HAJI. CONTROLLED CHAOS!” 

Roberta and Suave came out of a portal right at the bright light. They made it larger enough for the mortals to be able to pass through.

“Come on! Hurry!” Roberta urged them. 

“IT’S NOW OR NEVER KIDS!” Heiji yelled.

They all stepped inside of it at the same time the final part off Jebediah’s world collasped. 

The next moment they awoke, they saw Poe was frantically flying over their wet and cold bodies inside the Long Wohn after dragging them all out himself. He pecked at Umibozu’s bald noggin to make sure he was alive but the yato shooed him away. They all groaned as they sat up from the restaurant’s floor. 

“We really did it..” Stephen rather surprised. He took off his captain’s hat and brushed back his hair. Enshou was sucking his thumb next to him, still peacefully asleep. 

Heiji put his arms around his protégés in joy. Umibozu got off the ground and walked over to the ice hole, surveying it for himself. He heard a loud thump underneath it, the coffin was sinking lower and lower into the lake until it went through the ground itself, still continuing where he couldn’t see it. He raised an eyebrow but got up from one knee. Kintoki looked down into his arms where FLTBC was. 

“Where did that lady go...” Kintoki looked around for answers. 

“Probably back into his conscience.” Stephen looked over at Enshou still sucking his thumb. 

“C’aww!” Poe trying to drag another person out of the ice hole, getting Umibozu to help him.

“What in the hell..” Stephen stood up and approached them. FLTBC loudly coughed as Umibozu gave her his cape to get warmer. “FLTBC..?” 

“Captain?” She asked back. The detectives then circled her as well. 

“How is this even possible, she was just an image of Yuka.” Umibozu said staring at her who was just as confused. 

“Quite the mystery but I say that’s hardboiled mystery solving enough for one day. Who’s up for some Camus and Burgers?” Heiji asked them. 

“Yeah!” Haji and Kintoki smiled and started to walk away with their boss.

“Come on Sir.” Stephen smiled over his shoulder. Enshou then opened one eye up,

“FLTBC?”

They walked outside the restaurant, casually strolling through the chaos of the drag queens vs the Dakini. 

“Take this!” Azumi blew a visible kiss in the direction of one of the Dakini. 

“AAAH, I’M IN LOVE!” The man put a hand to his forehead and overdramatically fell to the ground.

Meanwhile inside the restaurant, Jebediah’s purple crystal popped out of the ice hole and into the air, Roberta flew out of a portal and quickly grabbed it. She put it in her bag for safe keeping. She noticed Umibozu standing there looking at her and nodded to him, 

“I’m gonna collect Jazzy.” He nodded back and watched her as she went back into the portal, disappearing as quickly as she came. 

Umibozu walked over to the cashier counter and leaned against it for some time. He smiled and decided to wait there until his idiot son returned from whatever he was doing. He had a lot to tell to both his kids once he would see them. Poe flew on his shoudler and cocked his head.

“Yeah, yeah. And I’ll take you to the Old Man after I’m done here.” Umibozu gently petted his beak.

Stephen and the others had walked off the ice and tread through the snow, still freezing from their wet clothes. They could be heard in the midst of a conversation. 

“So where do you think you’ll go, Lady?” Stephen asked. 

Enshou stumbling out of the rink, taking off his boot and dumping the water out of it which had a fish inside of it. He sped walk up to them and pushed his way in between FLTBC and Stephen. 

“She’ll be living on Burei in the castle with us, Captain. You’ll make a fine edition to one of the tops of my minion army, FLTBC.” He said, she smiled.

“Well I already know all there is to know about Buerian politics, Overlord! Maybe I can study abroad for a change.” She replied.

“You could study on Earth, there’s lots to learn about how things work here!” Haji chimmed in.

“And what better way to learn about Earth than through the eyes of a detective.” Heiji said, Haji and Kintoki turned their heads to him, shocked. “What you did back there was very hardboilian, Lady-san. What do you say? Care to join us and our unending venture for action, justice and tomfoolery?” Heiji smiled as the trio looked at her, Haji and Kintoki were in suspense waiting for a reply. 

“That sounds wonderful! I’d love to!” FLTBC grinned, Haji and Kintoki cheered.

“Wait Boss, we barely have enough room in your tightpacked apartment for the two of us!” Haji said.

“Well Genghai-san is always looking for some help around the place. You could stay with us if you like, FLTBC.” Kintoki offered.

“I’d love to! Thank you!” She replied back. Enshou’s expression went dark. 

“...You gotta be fucking kidding me.” He said.

“I promise I’ll visit Burei as much as possible, Overlord.” FLTBC kissed him on the cheek, Enshou made an annoyed sigh.

“Fine. You better keep your word on that FLTBC. Come on Captain, let’s go celebrate a late Hanukkah.” Enshou then smirked. 

“Yes Sir!” Stephen pulled out a fully lit candelabra and the two walked away in another direction. The four detectives continued heading into Edo. While on the ice rink both sides were starting to get tired of their fighting but continued on. Tatsuma was gracefully making figure eights through all the mayhem while Mikey looked like he was dying from exhaustion 

“Ahahahaha! Come on Lieutenant! We gotta break the world record for longest nonstop skating!” Tatsuma cheered him on. 

“I-I.. I’m gonna pass out now.” Lt Simon collasped in the ice. Somewhere in space with their ship, Mutsu could be seen rolling her eyes. As Ougai was slaying the powerful crossdressers or moreso they were just skating around him pretending to have been slaid, one of his men whispered in his ear.” 

“Soutatsu was captured..?” He said in shock. Hedoro came gracefully skating up to him. 

“Well it looks like the Earthlings weren’t as weak and treacherous as you thought, Ougai-san.” Hedoro softly said and Ougai let out a big sigh. 

“Retreat!” Ougai yelled out to his men, they dropped whatever they were doing. Azumi pulled out a pen and paper from his shirt and wrote out his number to some excited Dakini. The Saigou whistled and the crossdressers dramatically skated out of rink to meet him. 

“All this action~ has made us tired! What do we do now Mama?” One of them said. At that moment the ice rink started to crack from the sheer amount of abuse it had been suffering and Tatsuma and Mikey bolted out of it just as the ice completely crumbled up into pieces, miraculously and thankfully the restaurant stayed afloat. 

“That was my only source of entertainment in this entire arc! Now what will we do Lt?” Tatsuma said bummed out. Suddenly the Wurvivor chopper flew above them and Ketsuno pulled out her megaphone.

“Follow us and watch the GRAND FINALE OF WURVIVOR LIVE downtown!” The crossdressers and tradesmen eagerly nodded and started to run. Meanwhile the detectives were walking through the city streets now.

“You know FLTBC, now that you’re a real person you could totally pick out a name if you like.” Haji said.

“Ohh.. a real name. I’d really have to think about that.” She scratched her non-imaginative chin. 

“You’ll have plenty of time to think of one now, Lady-san. You got the mind of a hardboiled detective.” Heiji said, FLTBC smiled and nodded. Kintoki then excitedly picked FLTBC up in the air and twirled her around. 

“Oh this is so exciting, now there’s four of us! Who knows all the adventures we’ll have!”   Kintoki then opened his eyes and looked directly into hers for the first time,

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His pupils shrunk, he then realized what he was doing. The android put her down and awkwardly looked away flustered. FLTBC just put a hand to her face and giggled a little. 

“..This might get a little more awkward than we thought, Boss.” Haji whispered to Heiji who also had made a confused and uncomfortable face.

The chopper finally arrived at the center of the city, citizens were lined up behind the ropes and guards of the set. 

“Wow, I know the city is literally falling apart and we can be murdered in cold blood by several amanto species that hate us but I can’t believe we snagged a spot in front row!” Pakuyasa excitedly said behind one of the barriers to Ikumatsu who smiled. Their hands accidentally touched as they leaned against the railing and they both retracted them, blushing. 

“Hello everyone and welcome back to the FINALE of the WURVIVOR! Shinsuke, Pirako and Otae our Final Three are all lined up to face the greatest obstacle of the game yet! Climbing Edo’s Terminal Station!”

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“Is that even legal? Wouldn’t they get killed by an aircraft if they don’t die from the fall?” Tetsuko asked Tatsumi. 

“Don’t worry babe, we have the entire fire department right here just in case!” Tatsumi kissed her guns. 

“I cant believe I got shoved from massive screentime just to see Shinny make an ass of himself on live TV, again. He’s probably gonna lose, anything heigher than 5 foot scares him.” Gintoki said fully decked out in supportive merchandise of Shinsuke’s face and a number one foam finger, Shinpachi’s face just darkened. 

“Go Boss Lady! Go Pirako-chan! Woo!” Kagura cheered. 

Pirako, Shinsuke and Otae looked at the building from the base they were at. Otae and Shinsuke looked at it nervously but Pirako spit on her hands and grabbed onto the rope attached to her harnness. The other two followed and so would begin the slow progress for the grand million dollar prize. 
————————

“Your Majesty, a gift from your older brother.” A pair of Oukokuan guards dropped a tied up Soutatsu at Barkas’s feet of his castle’s throne room. Barkas raised one eyebrow, Soutatsu was making the same ugly scowling face as usual. “He is being charged for his war crimes on Earth. He also finally admitted to poisoning your father the Royal Highness. What do you wish to do with him?” Soutatsu stared straight ahead of him as Barkas kept looking at the former Shinra leader.

“Go on your Majesty, kill me already. My soul has already been dead for a long time.” Soutatsu squinted his eyes. 

“I don’t think I will..” Barkas then untied his ropes himself. 

“W-what..” Soutatsu dropped the rope off of him and then stood up. “Why didn’t you kill me, Barkas..”

“All these years of army service and yet you still don’t know the meaning of being a soldier, Soutatsu.” The Shinra man raised an eyebrow at these words. Barkas continued to clarify his point. “You have suffered enough, I have suffered enough. Would our fathers want us to continusly engage in our worlds hate against each other? Even if I slain you there would be just another man filled with wrath and revenge in his heart. I am not gonna allow this.” Barkas extended his hand out to Soutatsu who just looked at it in shock. 

“You’re seriously trusting someone like me again..?” He said rather taken back. Before the blue haired man knew it, he heard a familiar voice behind him.

“Soutatsu-san, we can’t do this without you. We’re an united army together against a universe filled with enough enemies.” Ougai crossed his arms. Soutatsu turned around to see, Eren, Fumiko, Enshou with Stephen, Shige, recovering Sooyoung and the Skolexians next to him. 

“Plus, you like, totally interrupted my Hankukkah subplot. I’m reporting that as antiseptic.” Enshou crossed his arms.

“Sir, it’s.. nevermind.” Stephen said. 

Soutatsu stood there for once without an angry look to him. 

“So what do you say, Soutatsu?” Barkas asked. Soutatsu stood there for some silent moments before he looked away and extended his hand. Barkas met his and gave him a hearty handshake. Soutatsu finally faced him and gave him a slight smile. The two broke it off and the others came up to them in positive spirits.

“So where are we gonna build this new Liberation headquarters of ours, big admiral?” Eren said patting Barkas on the shoulder with his flipper.

“I was thinking.. on Shinra.” Barkas smiled at Soutatsu who looked surprised once again but smiled.

“I would be honored to.” Soutatsu nodded. Shige went to put his hand on his shoulder but Soutatsu flipped around and pointed a ninja star at him.  Everyone stared at him shocked. “Sorry Shogun-sama, force of habit..” He sheepishly put it away. Shige just made a mild chuckle and grabbed him in an unexpected hug. 

Suddenly Bores, B.H. and Tatakin came hopping in the room,  in who also had been tied up to be punished. They fell on their faces, Bores sweared out in frustration.

“What about us Boss?” Hercules asked Soutatsu who just loudly sighed. 

“Well, you three did help me out a lot. After we give Kada-Hime a proper burial you’re free to help us on Shinra with building the headquarters, I guess.” He redundantly said. 

“LOOKS LIKE ITS TIME FOR A LITTLE CONSTRUCTION BOYS.” Bores broke free from his bindings as did the other two. The trio gave each other a loud high five.

“And you ugly peasants all call me the odd ball of the group. Come on Captain, we WILL have our Hanukkah subplot.”  Enshou snapped his black acrylic fingers and turned around with his dark cape flowing behind him, Stephen following close. 

Everyone else there had their faces darkened as he walked away. Fumiko then leaned in to whisper to Soutatsu,

“Next time you plan on getting stabby chief, maybe aim it towards that guy.” He nodded in agreement, Barkas’s expression just darkened. Ougai then turned to Sooyoung,

“Hey Sooyoung, how are you feeling? You’ve been rather quiet.” She communicated something in his head. “You’re right, with the Tendoshu’s feat you would think we’d be celebrating... But all that happened was the smaller predator was eaten up by the scariest beast on the food chain. And now all the vulnerable is freely open for him to prey upon.” The two leaders continued staring straight ahead as the rest of them were still congratulating Barkas.

The screen cuts to a zoom up of Nobunobu closing his phone and putting it back in his shirt pocket.

“Welp, looks like Shige headed back to Oukoku after all, they got them blue haired bastard in chains or somethin’. “..Probably should’ve had said that outloud..” He was still aboard the terrorist ship with his little cousin at the mercy of the shipmates.  Before he knew it though, Katsura, Matako, Takechi and Elizabeth with the rest of their crew returned to their ship. 

“Big cous-“ 

Nobunobu got up defensively in front of Soyo as the terrorists folded their arms. The pressure in that room was intense until Katsura nodded and his crew stepped aside for the royals to exit the front door to the Shinsengumi just outside. Nobunobu nodded back as he met gazes with the terrorist captain right as he stepped out.

“Oi come on your highnesses before those crazed extremists pull out weapons.” Hijikata said turning around once the royals were okay. They begun escorting them away from Edo’s bay area and into a private limo with the dogs as well.

“Whoever thought we’d see the day when we were working with those greasy piglets, eh Hijikata-san? NobuNobu-sama?” Sougo said, Nobu just looked straight ahead and nodded, knowing exactly what he meant aiming it at him.

“Sougo, what the hell are you doing.” Hijikata said as he was driving the car. Sougo had a skull in one hand and a script in the other for reasons this author wasn’t gonna explain either.

“Seems like white coats aren’t the only ones willing to bend back rules and come crying for our help when the Bakufu have a bigger threat than us on their backs, huh Katsura-sama?” Matako said as the main terrorists were still leaning on their door. It was silent for a moment.

“Sometimes I wonder who’s helping who..” Katsura simply said. His crew begun to reflect on his words as they started heading inside to celebrate their second Christmas together as a united family.

“Hey guys, Shinsuke is still hanging in there in the competition!” Kyoushirou said putting back on the television for the rest of the members to watch. Matako with stars in her eyes eagerly ran to the couch as Bansai, Kyuubei, Takechi followed to sit next to the bunch of bandmates. Katsura and Elizabeth were hanging out beside the wall as the Oukoku put back on his Renho disguise.

“Long month?” Katsura smiled.

-Eh, rather not think about it. A thing of a king’s past as far as this terrorist’s concerned.- Elizabeth shrugged it off. 

“Elizabeth, I’m really proud of you you know. This has been quite hard for you and I’m not just talking about what happened to your brother. You have dealt with a lot of personal changes in the past year but you put inside all your reserveness and doubts to come out of your shell and help Barkas out. And for that I’m really proud of you.” Katsura put a hand on his best friend’s shoulder. Elizabeth made an embarassed kind of smirk in his costume that he thought thankfully his friend couldn’t see.

-Family bonds run much deeper than I ever thought, no matter how many years apart.- Elizabeth and then Katsura looked over at the rest of the crew intensely into the TV program, sharing snacks and cheering on their captain to win. -..I guess that emotion I felt is how you feel with that midget after all those years seperated.-

“And I’d feel that way with anyone here if we were seperated, Your Majesty.” Katsura patted him on the shoulder. The warm buzz of conversation around them and Christmas decorations continued inside the boat, Elizabeth briefly looked outside one of the small circular windows and caught a glimpse of a figure idly standing there in the rapid falling snow. He raised an eyebrow. 

-That’s odd, I thought all the black coats had left by now.- Elizabeth signed, he squinted his eyes trying to make out who it was. Katsura begun looking as well. Once some of the snow storm had cleared, Katsura and Elizabeth could better make out who it was. Katsura’s pupils shrunk. 

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“Nizou...” Katsura softly said. Elizabeth then make a loud whistle with his flippers and beak, getting everyone else’s attention. He gestured them to come closer, their faces went pale as well.

“K-Katsura-sama.. how is this possible after Okinawa..?” Matako said fearfully. Katsura furrowed his eyebrows.
———-

Yuka could hear the sound of a door creaking open causing her wake up. She slowly opened up where her eyes would be and sat up in bed. She then turned around to see Roberta in her bedroom by her dresser. Yuka pushed up against the headboard in fear, Roberta heard this and turned around,

“D-Don’t be frightened! Please. Sorry I was just.. didn’t want to wake you up.. Valentino said I could just pick up Jazzy here. We finally defeated Jebediah.” 

Yuka looked surprised, not sure if we was more surprised they defeated that nightmare of a Bureian or that Valentino had trusted that woman enough to leave her alone in a room with her. Yuka eased up a little but still kept her guard up. 

“We’re gonna use Jebediah’s purple crystal to restore the Altana inside Jazzy.” Roberta explained. Yuka nodded a little and then turned her head away. Roberta looked at her for a moment in sorrow but then looked down. The angel then snapped her fingers and the Stairway to Heaven appeared. Roberta looked ahead and begun climbing it, but suddenly Yuka spoke up,

“What.. the hell is wrong with you Roberta...” Roberta paused and looked a little confused at this statement. “..How am I suppose to attend to your grave when you’re in and out the living realm now? To an empty casket?”

Roberta got tearful not knowing to smile or not if it would offend Yuka, so she just looked down. Yuka misinterpreted it as her being upset with her half-joke. She slithered outof bed and spoke up to ease the awkward tension a bit,

“Roberta. I need to be alone. I will be damaged for a very, very long time about everything...please understand.” Roberta felt very surprised at that last part, it almost seemed friendly.

“I completely understand. Thanks for even talking to me, Yukes. T-that means a lot, more than you could imagine.” 

More tears streamed down Roberta’s face as she nodded and continued up departing from her ex-lover once again. Yuka was safe and okay as long as Roberta stayed away, the Skolexian was content with that. But then Roberta shook her head and went back down, Yuka raised an eyebrow where it would be. Roberta snapped off an edge of the crystal and then did a chant. She crushed it in her hands and then blew it into the air. Before Yuka knew it, the purple dust was swirling around her and lifted her up into the air. Roberta put her hand up as the spinning Altana produced a blinding light and then exploded. It safely carried Yuka down to the ground. Yuka opened her eyes to a very familiar sight of her own hands in front of her.

“My..my body..” Yuka put her hands on her arms and face in disbelief, looking at herself. Roberta made a shy little smile not looking at her,

“It’s amazing what some chants and crystals can do huh, Yukes? Don’t tell the gods learned that trick. We’re on good terms but they might be pissed at me for sacrificing some crystal for Jazzy for you. I could only get it to its previous state but it should hold it up and you’ll probably be able to morph freely!” Yuka got up from the ground, standing some feet away from the other woman. Roberta looked awkwardly around, scratching her neck.” I-I know I can’t exactly resurrect the dead Yukes otherwise I would. But honestly you’re perfect like this too, it has a-always been b-b-beautiful to me-“

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“Thank you, Roberta.”

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Some long moments went by and they broke their hug, a frozen Roberta just walked backwards with the fish bowl and onto the staircase. 

“I-I.. have to go talk to Sophia..” She uttered out.

The two kept a locked view on each other the entire time, Yuka looking somber as Roberta with a look of shock, until she faded away. Yuka then snapped out of it with a surprised expression. 

“Wait, ...Sophia?” Yuka’s bedroom door then came busting open by a gooey hand.

”SORELLA! Are ya alrite?! I heard a lotta noise comin’ in hereah- S-S-Sorella?! YA BODY IS BACK?! YO SKELS! FEMURSON! GET IN HERAH!” 

Roberta went back to Heaven, her and Suave were met with a wonderful celebration of raining confetti and cheering people as they got there with the cure for Jazzy. Suave broke away for some time and then came back with a pep in his step,

“Father says the purple transfusion will work! Isn’t that great Robes? ..Robes?!” 

However Roberta was still completely frozen with her look of shock. She put her hands on her chest, the embrace and warm scent of Yuka still lingering on her where the ex-lovers bodies met. Meanwhile on Earth, Valentino had Skele and Femurson knelt down in playful headlocks.

“I’m tellin’ ya! We gotta go hit up tha pizza joint across tha street and celebrate with a cheesy holiday pie! Dis is a Christmas miracle! Whatya say, Yukes? .. Yukes?!”

Yuka had a blank expression as she kept staring at the wall where the stairway previously was, her mind not even on her restored physical state or Valentino and the others babbling about. After some time she let out a slight smile.
—————-

Oboro was digging his feet into the sand of a secluded beach as the sounds of seagulls and waves crashing and splashing were very apparent. His knees were up to his chest as he was in a deep thought. 

“Who knew Sensei could travel at will to a place like this.. Or who knew I could.” 

Oboro had been there for several hours already, but felt like his medication was only just beginning. The fact he even got to that location with mere simple actions and thoughts was alarming. If he could do this so easily, how would the rest of his powers change the world once he tapped into them? Did he even want to tap into something that enormously dangerous and possibly unlimited? He couldn’t even face the Sensei of the past at the moment because like how he fixed the unraveling of the universes by himself, he had to do this again by himself otherwise he wouldn’t grow as a person. As he was getting more lost in the deep end of his mind, he thought he heard a peculiar faint buzzing sound in the back of his subsconscious. He shrugged it off merely as an illusion and resumed his train of thought. But the sound gradually become less faint and less like a buzz. Oboro paused all his thoughts to address the noise which was increasingly becoming stressful for him. He furrowed his eyebrows and put his hands to his forehead, trying to concentrate on it. That’s when he heard it, his entire body went cold and numb. He lost any sort of realization he had on the outside world on the bone chilling familiar tone of that voice... that damn, cursed voice..

“Hello Oboro.~”

“Jebediah-dono.. How could that truly be you? Your soul is imprisoned inside a void.” Oboro said very serious and uneasily now. 

“We share blood my dear Oboro. As they say, blood runs thicker than water. Your Sensei also had these powers with me.”

“I-impossible..” Oboro stood up from the sandy floor looking around the palm trees of the tropics. 

“Hmmm?~ He never told you? Well get use to all the things he failed to mention to his ‘prized first student’. Such as the fact we were in regular contact all these centuries. Especially during Okiwana! We talked endlessly during that time.” If Oboro didn’t have chill sweats and a pale face, he certainly did now.

“What do you want Jebediah-dono...” Oboro regained his composure and now fearlessly stared at the sky. 

“Relax. I don’t want anything, at the moment at least. But remember...” Jebediah said this last part rather seriously and paused drawing the white haired man’s attention even more. “I may not input myself in your most critical trials to come ahead. I may not talk to you for days, weeks, months, years, centuries, millennia.. But I will always be there. Whenever you feel like I have finally given up on you, when you have a quiet rest after a long day, whenever you are peacefully sound asleep, I will be there to communicate through our minds interlinked together for all eternity of your immortality. You will never ever even for a moment forget who I am, Oboro. I am greater than you, I am greater than your teacher or I am greater anyone who has ever lived and died inside or outside the comic book. And the wrath of my revenge on its universes will be greater than any reset or unravel imaginable. With that I bid you farewell Keeper of Peace. Enjoy the beaches of Bermuda, I’ve heard they’re lovely this time of year.” 

Jebediah was silent after this, Oboro fell to his knees and stared at the skies surrounding the Triangle.

———————

“Hey can you not vacuum so loud? Geez.” Billy said as he laid about on the couch as Ungyou vacuumed under his feet. Ungyo just stared ahead and kept cleaning. Then a portal opened and an individual stepped outside of it. 

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“Wormy Mommy!” Gedomaru got up from the living room and hugged her around the waist. Roberta returned it. 

“Aah, almost forgot.” She handed over the Bang skull to the kid.

“Perfect! Thank you!” Gedomaru excitedly clutched onto it and put it on top of her skull throne. Billy painfully sat up on the couch and looked over it. He turned back around and resumed watching the TV, grabbing the remote to flip through the channels. 

“Nice outfit Wormy, but your little girlfriend is that a way.” Billy lazily pointed to the ceiling. Roberta stepped in fromt of his plasma tv, still smirking. “Yo your stupid slimey worm body is blocking my football!” She then turned off screen’s power button, Billy scrambled up. “HEY!” 

“You honestly weren’t gonna tell me. Were you Bills?” Roberta crossed her arms.

“How stupid your get up is? Congratulations, did you get your wings?” He said sarcastically. He went to pick up the remote but she snatched it from him and his face darkened.

“They made me a Cherub actually.”  He looked a little surprised but laid back in the sofa again. “You gave your Pops a tremendous amount of energy to fuel that last dream catcher, didn’t you? That wasn’t just all of his power alone.” 

“That would explain why Billy-sama is acting more of a lazy ass than usual. Gedomaru stated from her throne. Ungyo was wrapping up the cord of the vacuum in the corner but nodded agreeingly. Billy squinted his eyes.

“UHHH ‘NEWSFLASH’ as your caterpillar crawlin’ ass always says, I was stuck here the entire time. How could I even have reached that Old Fart up there if I’m banished forever from there?” He asked.

“You tell me. It’s like you’ve said before Bills, you and your brothers are all connected, you can sense when something is wrong. Daddy’s little favorite temporarily was in telepathic connection with him.” 

“Tsssk.” Billy sunk even deeper in the couch and rolled on his stomach. “Even if that was true, it’s not like those stuck ups would ever acknowledge what I did for them this time.” He buried his head  in arms into the arm of the sofa.

“I didn’t come here just to pass some greetings, dude. I came to bring you to the celebration ceremony in Heaven.” At this Gedomaru and Ungyou looked very surprised. Billy peaked his eye out of his arms and then slowly stood up from it. 

“What did you just say..?” He asked. Roberta just sighed and put her hands on his shoulders.

“Billy, you have done a lot for me over the years. More than I ever deserved. You never gave up on me even when the entire universe had. You and I are both in the same in so many ways that it was only fair that I showed the amount of trust, faith and love you showed to me back to everyone else to prove who you truly are. You’re a damn hero Billy. There, you got me to finally say it you assface.” Billy made a sort of chuckling smirk and put a hand to his face. The angel walked away from the living room, snapped her fingers and the Stairway to Heaven appeared just beside the poker table. “You deserve more than anyone else to walk up these stairs with me to the party. Now, are you gonna join me and visit your recovering Fishy bro?” Billy finally wiped his hand off his face. 

“I don’t think I’d exactly fit up there, Robes.” But before he knew it, Gedomaru and Ungyou had locked their arms around each of his. The God looked caught off guard.

“That makes four of us, then.” Gedomaru stated. 

Billy stared at the staircase for a long moment and begun to walk chained together with his friends as Roberta joined in. 

“Can’t believe you bozos talked me into this.” Roberta and the other two smiled at these words. The four took the first step up and slowly worked their way up to the clouds high above.
————
“Welcome back to the exciting conclusion of Wurvivor!” Ketsuno exclaimed as the crowds around her cheered.

“Don’t look down Shinsuke.. don’t look down...” He kept telling himself. The three of them were now half way up the chrome terminal. It was quite tiring but at least they weren’t strangers to climbing after their previous ice challenge. Even as a trained samurai use to hardship, Shinsuke’s legs were getting a pounding by the stress onto them. “Gotta... do this for Honey..” 

Pirako had Otae and Shinsuke beat by some feet, but her zealous efforts were starting to catch up with her. She slacked back for a few moments catching her breath, Otae used this pause to take a big stride upwards. Both the black and white coats arrived to the scene after they dropped off the royals to a secret place of safety once the castle could be repaired. Hijikata took out a cigarette once stepping out of the car and shook his head st the event.

“I don’t know how this was approved.” He said.

“The Shogun-sama is quite a Wurvivor fan, so that’s how. Though us white coats being assigned to work down here with you filthy coats instead of being with them is a crime in itself.” Isaburo said fastly typing Nobume who was watching said royals somewhere. Hijikata let out an annoyed click and looked away. 

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“Now then Lady Who Shall be Named Later-“ Heiji started.

“I would have went with FLTBA Boss. Fake Lady To Be Announced!” Haji chimmed in. 

“You see Jebby, what is the first thing you do?” He asked. The four were in one of Genghai’s abandoned sheds filled with all sorts of gadgets. 

“Uhh, Uhh. Buy him some Camus. No. Take his wallet! No.. Stare at the wall! No.... Call his bird friends to help him sing a little tune and sweep the Overlord’s Dark Castle of Doom. Darn!” She snapped her fingers in disappointment. Heiji got behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. 

“Come on kid, you got this.. Remember your hardboilian training of twenty minutes since our last subplot ended.” He urged her. She took a deep breath in and eyed the Jebby bag. 

“Okay..” She put up her boxing gloves again but right as she was about to punch it, she pulled out a coconut cream pie out of nowhere onto the bag instead. “SPLAT! ACME BOMB!” FLTBC threw an old timey bomb at it and it blew up. “WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP!” She spun around on the heels of her shoes and then rolled up her sleeve while scrunching her face at the mutilated bag. “WHHHY I OUGGHTTA... PUT ‘EM UP! PUT ‘EM UP!” She circled her fists around. “Nyuck Nyuck Nyuck. Exit left, stage right!” She got in a frozen motion to run away. “WILMAAAAA!” She fell to the floor dramatically, looking at the gods heavens above. Heiji and Haji clapped impressed, their eyes watering up. Heiji wiped a proud tear from his eye.

“-BLUSH ACTIVATED.-“

The two turned to flustered Kintoki who sheepishly covered up the sensors voice box inside of his abodemen. 

“Boss, look! It’s almost time for end of the Wurvivor Arc™️!” Haji pointed to her Wickey Wouse gloves watch.

“Great Scott, kids! That’s enough training for one day, we gotta vamoose!” Heiji pulled out a black hole from his cartoon pocket, he then grabbed all three of them with one arm and jumped into it. They jumped out of it, Kintoki landing in Haji’s strong child arms. 

“Nice catch!” He said, she smiled and put him down. 

“Dear God...  this large of a crowd makes me miss the Wacy’s Thankgiving Parade.” Heiji dropped his cigar from his mouth and on the floor. However, he didn’t know it a parked gasoline tank truck was next to him. It fell in a puddle of leaking oil and then burst into flames. The flames then caught the truck on fire, exploding it into the air and sending it straight into the terminal, which started to catch on fire. 

“BOSS!!!!!” Haji yelled. 

“I-I.... BARELY DID ANYTHING! Why do these things keep happening to us!?” Haji blubbered, falling to the floor.  Kintoki then slapped him.

“You gotta snap out of it Boss! Sorry, I didn’t mean to slap you. But in times of situations like this its at our upmost we focus on the safety citizens of Edo at hand. I don’t make it a habit of using physical violence, except of course if it involves self defe-“ Haji proceeded to slap Kintoki and FLTBC slapped him as well a seconds later. 

“Sorry I thought this was another training exercise!” She said.

“We got to evacuate all the citizens here. Someone’s got to get to the chopper to rescue the Wurvivor contestants!” Hijikata ordered his men who begun filing out. Isaburo begun ordering out his men as well. Sougo ran up to them, panting.

“Hijikata-san! I think one of our men already got to the chopper.” The man told him. They squinted their eyes and behold the individual.

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“SAITOU-SAN WAIT!” Hijikata and Sougo yelled but it was too late, the chopper came spiraling down back to Earth as people were screaming and running away. The impact firey explosion was heading fast for the citizens. Gintoki grabbed Kagura as him and Shinpachi were running for their damn lives.

“OIII THIS IS NOT WHAT TOTALLY MAIN CHARACTERED FOOOOOORRR!” Gintoki screamed out as the fire was coming up quickly behind them. 

“That was the last of the choppers after Saitou did that the last arc too..” Sougo said to Hijikata as they were just staring at the roaring blaze of the downtown city. Hijikata clenched his hands in his hair in disbelief of the level of escalation this was happening at.

“We got to help our fellow officers. Kids you know what to do!” Heiji said. 

On it Boss!” The trio replied back and got into formation.

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“WAIT BOSS THIS IS RIDICULOUS THIS WON’T SAVE THE FIRES!” Haji yelled.

“I GOT IT!” fe24a4d199f0661cc03777191f03360164048c9d

 Tetsuno blasted Heiji with gallons of water out of visible view.. 

“THAT’S NOT GONNA HELP ANYTHING EITHER!!” Haji exclaimed. 

“I got an idea, Vice Chief!” Tetsu then ran back into the fiery downtown.

“TETSU WAIT!” Isaburo started to run after him. 

“Don’t look down..” Shinsuke then glimpse to see a bright orange light and then smelled smoke. “DON’T LOOK DOWN DON’T LOOK DOWN. DEAR GOD WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE A HEIGHTS CHALLENGE?!”

“What is he screaming about down there now.” Pirako said finally catching up back to Otae. The two then looked down, their surprises were shocked. “Woah where did that fire come from, bro?!” 

“Oh my this doesn’t seem like a part of the challenge.” Otae commented back. Shinsuke was visibly sobbing.

“Unless it is a challenge..” Piracho scratched her chin and then begun reclimbing.

“Pirako-chan, I don’t think-!” Otae tried to say but the woman was already further away. She shrugged. “Well, maybe it is.” 

Isaburo was still chasing Tetsu through the downtown as the buildings close to the terminal were busting with flames. 

“Testu where are you going?! Damn it. What the hell are you doing you oaf..” Isaburo tried to avoid thinking about the extreme heat he was facing all around him and to focus on the task at hand. He then saw it far above in the smokey distance, Tetsu had been knocked by some debris that had fallen off one of the buildings.  

“TETSUUU!” The white coat sprinted even faster, despite the heat becoming more intense. He crouched down to Tetsu’s body and started frantically picking off the heavy pieces off of him. 

“I-Isaburo..?” Tetsu said while opening up one eye. “I can’t feel my legs..” He mumbled out. Isaburo ignored him and tried to heave up a piece of ceiling.

“This last piece is too heavy for me to lift up alone, you got to help me Tetsu.” Isaburo grunted. “LISTEN! Don’t fall asleep on me now!” 

“Isaburo.. I’m sorry.. I thought I could take matters into my own hands but I just proved to be a nuisance to you as always.. Maybe you had the right to want to kill me back then.” He coughed, spacing out again. Isaburo begun tearing up.

“No.. Testu.. you are not a nuisance to me.. I’m the nuisance to you. I should be the one being killed. And I should have told you how much you’ve meant to me. But all I have done growing up is pushed you away because I felt embarrassed. When in reality I feel the exact opposite now.” Isaburo’s tears begun running down, Tetsu made a somber and surprised expression, forming tears of his own. “I love you.. And we’re gonna get out of here, Tetsu. Now help me lift this, okay?”

“O-O-Okay..” Tetsu even though he was very weak pushed upward with it with the strength he had left. He knew he couldn’t leave this world and his big brother now. The two finally pushed it off of him and embraced in a big sobbing hug. “I love you too.. Isaburo..” After they broke from the embrace, Isaburo managed to piggyback him slowly out of there. But smoke was becoming more intense on their lungs, Isaburo begun coughing up blood and collasped underneath Tetsu. Tetsu laid there, just only able to stare at the pure grey smog above his head. He shakingly pulled out his phone and pressed a number. “Just what I was looking for, a signal. I hope you will hear this... Don’t worry big bro, I’m gonna get us both to safety.” Tetsu begun coughing up harder and harder until he eventually closing his eyes, the camera fading to black with him. But then suddenly he woke up with someone shouting out his name next to him. 

image2.png“Don’t worry, my ping pong buddy. Jackie will get you to safety!”

Jackie had the ladder of his emergency chopper lowered down, Tetsu smiled before passing out again. He loaded them on there with the sheer strength of his upper bodder strength and laid them down. He then pressed a button on his Dragoncopter and the bottom of it opened up with a giant water balloon twice its size. “Taste the flames power of a REAL dragon evil arson!” He pressed it again and it dropped down below onto the terminal and buildings around it, instantly pulling it out. The citizens on the outskirts of town cheered but Shinpachi’s face went paled

“SISSSTTTERRRR!” He screamed. However he then heard the sound of the Dragoncopter above him. He looked up and Jackie slid down the ladder.

“Do not worry Shinpachi-san!” Jackie smiled,

“..How do you know my name..” He said in a monotone. Pirako, Otae and Shinsuke peaked out of the chopper, Shinpachi made a smile of relief. Meanwhile close by the hardboilian detectives were being arrested by the Shinsen and placed in cuffs.

“Didn’t Enshou tell us Jebediah killed him?” Kintoki asked as they were escorting them to a car.

“Who knows, our Lord works in mysterious ways.” Heiji said quoting the good frenchie himself. Haji made a sigh of despair at their situation her Boss lead them in. 

“And to think, this happened on such a beautiful sunny day!” FLTBC exclaimed but then gasped. “HHHH! That’s it! I’ll call myself Sunny!” Sunny said as they were pushed inside the squad car. “Hey guys! Look even the writers are usin-“ The door slammed behind them and begun driving them away. 

Isaburo and Tetsu had been brought down by Jackie and stared at each other from their stretchers. They made little smiles as they were being loaded into the ambulance. Pirako, Otae and Shinsuke were sitting on the ground covered in warm blankets and drinking hot chocolate. Ketsuno walked up to them with two camera men.

“I’m so sorry for what happened you three!” She then turned to the cameras.
“Folks, we have just witnessed the first ever Wurvivor ending in tragedy.” 

“But we’re still alive, so like. Who won?” Pirako asked.

“Yeah who won?” Shinsuke asked the host.

“Well technically none of you did make it to the top. And the challenge was to reach the top of the Terminal.” She plainly said. The three contestants faces went dark at her. “But to avoid any...” She put a hand over her mic and made a gesture to stop rolling and whispered. “Legal issues..” She made another gesture to resume filming, “We’re gonna have a rock paper scissors competition for whatever money in the suitcase that wasn’t burnt on the top of the terminal!” Their faces went dark again.

“Who the HELL puts the grand prize up there?!” Pirako said. The trio sighed and begun to play the game with each other. Pirako started with Shinsuke, he threw paper and she threw rock.

“NO!” She exclaimed.

“YES!” Shinsuke said. He turned to Otae who threw up scissors as he threw up paper. “Damn...” Ketsuno then picked up Otae’s hand high in the sky.

“WINNER OF EDO’S WURVIVOR, SHIMURA OTAE!”

“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it!” Otae smiled big as she put her hands to her fade in disbelief. She stood up, Ketsuno got the mostly burnt suitcase handed to her by the director. She slowly opened it up to see the contents. “Huh, twenty-five thousand dollars, it’s not a million but it’s still pretty great!” 

“Well there you have it folks! Several grueling weeks of intense challenges and incredible players finally led up to an extreme devastating turn out of events that somehow ended on a very positive note! Tune in next time for more unpredictably and drama, here on WURVIVOR!” Ketsuno waved off her cameras. They wrapped it up and then went to get hot cocoa somewhere else. Shinsuke and Pirako got up annoyed and walked away as well.

Otae sat there looking at the money as Yorozuya slowly came inching up behind her.

“Oi, that would be uhhhh, a perfect amount to you know for rebuilding the work place for your little precious brother...?” Gintoki said.

“Alright, Gin-san. I’ll give you the funds to rebuild the Snack Bar and Odd Jobs.”    Otae answered.

“Wow, really Sis?!” Shinpachi smiled big.

“You’re the best Boss Lady!” Kagura collasped her arms around the woman in joy.

“W-wow that was easier than I thought.” Gintoki said rather surprised.

“But you have to do a favor for me.” Otae said smiling with her eyes closed.

“Sure anything, I mean anything for the person who did this for us.” Gintoki scratched his hand on his neck, chuckling it off. The scene cut to the Shimura dojo, the Odd Jobs were sitting merrily at a table when Otae came out of the kitchen with loads of plates and containers filled with mysterious and scary burnt up food.

“Try all my recipes from this new cookbook I got!” She smiled and brought out many more after that.

“Anything but this.” Gintoki said in a painful tone. 

Meanwhile Josh, Joe and Steve were inside Mr. Salt’s house and were flipping through the comic book to get to the right page with Edo. 

“Boy am I glad to finally be on winter break!” Josh said with a smile on his face. 

“Well a break after a month’s straight of work would do us good. Steve said stretching his arms. 

“Aw, that’s finally the spirit Stevey!” Joe pointed his finger to the right location. They begun saying their ska-dooes. 

“I wonder if we missed anything important while we left.” Josh wondered.

“Nah, the holidays are usually pretty calm around this time of year.” Joe answered.

They begun shrinking and teleporting inside. Their jaws dropped at what laid before them. Tatsumi was continuously hosing down the already put out burnt buildings, the city was completely evacuated and barren of other people. In the corner of their eye they can see the posh golden castle that overthrew Kada’s still there, glitzy and overshadowing the rest of the city. Hijikata came casually walking up to them scribbling some notes for reports.

“Oh there you three are, man you missed the biggest disaster we ever had.” Hijikata said with little concern. Joe went to open his mouth,

“St-“ 

“Don’t even say it.” Steve said and the audience laughed.

The screen cut to some days later, the detectives were standing on trial for burning the entire city down.

“In my defense I had to use real illegally imported cigars, I’d look too old to juul.” Heij said. The judge narrowed his eyes and then banged his gavel. The four were thrown into Edo’s Maximum Prison and had the door slammed behind them.

“LEMME OUT LEMME OUT!” 

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...

 

The Looney Tunes ending card zoomed out to reveal to be on an old timey antenna TV. A pair of silk glove hands were slowly clapping in front of it as the credits to the authors were being played. 

The individual snapped their fingers and the TV disappeared. They sat down and took a sip of their tea in the vast emptyness imprisoning them. 

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“What a delightful display of comedy those people in Edo made since my absence.” Jebediah closed his eyes, savoring every moment of it. “Mmmm.~ My dear, dearest dear.” He looked down in his teacup, the image of FLTBC’s face appeared in the leaves. “The seed I have planted has just begun. You were my demise and one day I shall make you the demise of the entire real world you now live in. All of you will remember that day marked as the universe’s armageddon and my revelation.” Jebediah made a humming laugh. His teacup and plate disappeared and he got up from the ground. He politely bowed. “Shall I have this dance?” 

He begun dancing with himself, he twirled around, the camera facing his back as the scene transitions into his back again but this time a long time ago. He was ballroom dancing this time with a woman who he was a stranger to. When their dance led them near the balcony doors, Jebediah took this as an excuse to finally be free. He let go of the woman’s hands but courteously bowed to her and then quickly dashed outside to the balcony. He hung on the railing and wiped his forehead drenched with sweat. 

“Finally broke away?” The other person there across from him said. Jebediah stood back up and regained his composure. He stared at the dark glow of the night at his kingdom’s castle. “You’re usually quicker at parties to ditch the crowds, Jebby.”

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“I’ve just never really been a fan of dancing, especially with women I never met. I just wish people wouldn’t care about it so much.” He spoke out his natural accent. He uneasily wringed his hands. 

“Oh I don’t care that you’re into men too, Jebby.” The lady joked, Jebediah’s face grew dark.

“Remind me why you’re here Professor before I toss you and your labcoat over the railing...” Jebediah said in a monotone.

“Such the shy and reserved man finally cracking a joke, you invited me here Jebs!” She smiled and jokingly punched his shoulder. She then looked a bit more serious and sighed. Jebediah turned to face her as she stared at the sky.

“I’m guessing you and your team haven’t found any change in the atmosphere, Zara.” He said and she ran her hand through her hair. 

“It’s deteriorating at an even quicker rate than we expected.” She turned around and slouched up against the railing. “Jebs, we’ve been friends for a long time haven’t we? I’m gonna give it to you straight, with all the strains of war and pollution this damn planet won’t survive another thirty, maybe even less than twenty years.” Jebediah pinched the bridge of his nose in grief. There was a brief dreadful silence as inside the bright castle it was bursting with joyfulness and partying.

“Despite everything Burei has accomplished for millennia after millennia, evolution, enlightenment, arts, intellect.. and yet we still act like damn cavemen killing our own kind and for what? None of us will be able to remember once we’re all bloody dead.” Jebediah’s concentration was broken as Zara was chuckling at him. “What’s so funny..?” 

“What the hell is that accent at the end of what you said?” Zara asked him and then they both broke out into laughter, cutting the tension.

“Oukoku has been meddling with this planet from a close by solar system lately, they call themselves Earth. Quite fascinating cultures really, especially those British chaps.” Jebediah’s light up with joy for the first time Zara saw that night. He realized he had still been doing the accent and awkwardly stopped it.

“Quite fascinating!” She imitated his dialect inflections and flicked her wrist, they laughed a little again. It was silent again as they stared at the smoggy polluted sky even visible at night through the capital city. “Jebediah.. we will get through this. Even if we have to leave Burei, we’ll all stick together.”

“Zara, that will never be an option for me. Do you know what I have done since I became king? Really a whole lot of nothing. What people say about me, even what you joke about me, is right. I’m a reserved man, shy and quiet to the touch. I’m a coward who didn’t deserve this title when he recieved it five years ago. But.. Jebediah looked farther into the bright distant lights of the skyscrapers. “But if I shrink back and let this world rot out, then I’d be the biggest coward of them all.” Zara took a surprised look at him. 

“Jebediah.. You’re not a coward, you have the heart. Not the scientific facts, but the heart.” She sighed and put her hands in her coat pocket. “But heart won’t cut it in this case.”

“Prof, have you heard the rumors lately about those extraterrestrials from out of this solar system? Pointy ears and green skin, not like our similar neighbors mind you. Legends of straw hat men who have these incredible supernatural capabilities. We just barely know the universe outside our system, so many aliens to know and find out about.” Jebediah said, Zara just raised a Buerian eyebrow.

“Jeb as your best friend, I know you have an active imagination but you honestly don’t believe in those rumors, do you? Crazy aliens from another space with powers to make miraculous miracles?” She asked.

“Who knows..” Jebediah looked intensely into the horizon and then squinted his eyes. “-maybe we could use a miraculous miracle right now.” He looked at Zara again who met his gaze. “Would you care for a dance, Professor?”

“Really? I thought you were uncomfortable with dancing with a burning passion, Jebby.” She said raising an eyebrow and smiling. “What’s with this all of a sudden.” 

“Call it something to distract our minds for the moment.” He replied. She just shrugged,

“Sure.”

He then took her hand and the two lightly whirled around on the balcony of that moonlit night centuries ago. Jebediah twirled around his future wife and he spun around as well, the camera on the back of his coat until it switched to his modern day one. Present day Jebediah continued to sway around alone as the camera slowly zoomed out revealing the immense darkness of the void once again.

TBC

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"What is today's date, Mr. Takasugi?"

"January 5th.  The first Monday after the New Years and the 2nd year anniversary of my wedding with Kotarou."  Shinsuke leaned back in the chair he was sitting in and looked up at the ceiling.  A small fan was spinning, causing the smoke from his pipe to disperse around the room.  "Adjusting back into society after playing Wurvivor has been easier than I really thought.  Anyway, I have a feeling this isn't the reason you brought me here today is it?"  Shinsuke sat upright and smirked at the person across from him, holding a notebook.

"It's about Okinawa."  Shinsuke looked down at the floor and snuffed his pipe out.  He placed it on the desk that was in between him and the person who was interviewing him.  The room was small, a bit cluttered, but it seemed organized specifically for them.

"It always comes back to that day, doesn't it?  Why don't you just ask your cousins?  They were there that day.  Joe dealt a lot with Sensei that day."  Josh rubbed his hand on his chin, and tapped his pencil against his lip.  Shinsuke had looked back up and made eye contact with Josh.

"You were also there, Shinsuke-san.  In fact, you were fairly close with Utsuro during that week.  I'm just trying to understand all that happened there and what happened with that Jebediah person.  Joe and Steve are counting on me."  Josh said, with determination.  He knew this was the case, the thing that would make him just as good as a detective as his cousins.  He needed to prove himself.

"Well, like I said Josh, I was busy with Wurvivor so I don't see the point in interviewing me about that Jebediah person.  Why don't you speak with the people that were there like that bald bastard or that caterpillar brained idiot?"  Shinsuke said, beginning to stand up.

"W-wait Shinsuke-san!"  Josh put his hand on Shinsuke's shoulder, sitting him back down in his seat.  "This has to go back deeper than just the past few weeks.  This is bigger, bigger than you and I may even think."

Xr4MsED.png

"I mean, how can I say no to that face?"  Shinsuke smiled as he sat back down.  "I'll tell you what I know about Utsuro, but you have to do a favor for me and Honey."  Josh reluctantly nodded as Shinsuke began to recall about that Valentine's Day week and the tragedies that unfolded.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Cut!  Alright that was a nice job Tachi-san!  We'll keep in touch."  the actor bowed at Guano as he stepped out of the LilyMu Studios.  Ozu was pacing behind Guano, mumbling to himself.  Guano turned back to face the producer,  "He was alright...I just don't really know if he was the right fit Ozu."  Ozu's head began to produce steam, but he pinched his nose and let out a sigh.

"Guano, you know how stressful this whole ordeal has been for me, for my business.  Yes Man."  Yes Man stood to attention,

"Please call Yorozuya..."  he said, sitting down in a chair next to Guano.  Yes Man saluted and hit the phones.  The other actors were sitting in chairs and reading the scripts for the re-casting.  Lily sighed as she put hers down.

"I already miss him Mitsuki.  I know he had do some stupid thing regarding the comic book, but then he leaves us!  No fair, I miss my Obby-Bear."  Lily said frowning.  Mitsuki patted her on the back while Raj scoffed.

"GOODT RIDDENS!  That camera hog has taken MY spotlight for far too long.  It's time for Supercodplayer1995 to FINALLY TAKE HIS PLACE AS LEAD ROLE!"  Guano shook his head while the girls were grieving.  Guano was flipping through the papers and list of actors and spotted who was next.

"S?  They just go by one letter?  What kind of pompous..."  but before he could finish his sentence the door to the studio was kicked in, landing next to Ozu who was sitting at the new bar he installed in the studio since he wasn't in a kid's show anymore.

SnHeRYm.png 

"Hello LilyMu.  I want to introduce myself...well it seems I already have with that door."  Sougo began to walk on the set when he paused and grabbed my hands, twisting them so that I typed "S" instead.  Owie.

"So, you're S.  And just what makes you special.  Your resume lists only one stage play...directed by...oh OH NO.  NO NO NO, YOU'RE NOT HIRED, PLEASE LEAVE THE STUDIO!"  Guano hopped out of his chair and began to push S out of the door, but the door was blocked by someone standing in the way.

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"My, my, my.  ICHIRO!  LONG TIME NO SEE!"  Guano sighed,

"Douman."  Douman pushed S and Guano back into the studio.

"Douman?  COME ON BABY!  Call me D-Man like you used to in our college days!  God, how long has it been?"  Douman scratched his chin.

"It's been years Douman.  Anyway I am not calling you D-man and you aren't allowed in the studio.  You've been on the list for years."  Guano said, trying to push back, which caused Douman to push Guano back instead of S.  "ALRIGHT SO IT'S GONNA BE THAT WAY HUH?!"  Guano yelled.

"YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT IT IS PIPSQUEAK.  THIS IS THE BEST ACTOR ON THIS ENTIRE PLANET AND YOU WILL HIRE HIM."  Douman yelled back.

"YOU'RE A HACK STAGE DIRECTOR WHO THREW HIS DEGREE IN THE TRASH!"  Guano retorted.

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"OOO HOW DARE YOU ICHIRO, AFTER ALL ME, MY CLAN, AND THE KETSUNO CLAN DID FOR YOU.  AND I'M BANNED FOR WHAT?  WORKING FOR THAT NITWIT PRODUCER'S WIFE?!"  Douman shoved Guano which caused Raj to hold Guano back and S to hold Douman back.  Ozu stood up from the bar and walked over to the two who were spitting at each other, calming them down with the wave of his hands.

"So, you are the long rumored Shirino Douman.  I figured the time would come when you would walk into my studio.  Kiyoko has long talked about you, and how you've adopted many of her comics into stage plays all across Tokyo and Edo and beyond.  But, of course, I refuse to attend them based on principle.  However, you have respected my wishes for years not to tread on my territory...until today.  What makes this man special enough for you to break that agreement, Shirino?"  Douman calmed down and took his hat off, brushing his shoulders with it.

"He has IT, Ozu-san.  Trust me on this, there is something in his heart that is burning.  Something that has been eating at him, that he needs to express it.  The eyes tell the story of the soul, and his eyes tell me a story that everyone, even to the highest heavens, must hear."  Ozu nodded as he scratched his chin.

"This is it Shirino.  Your one opportunity to prove me right and find my new leading man."  Ozu extended his hand, to which Douman firmly gave a handshake to.  S bowed to Ozu as he began to prepare to rehearse the scene with the rest of the cast.  Guano sighed as he handed the script to S, but he denied it.

"I need no script.  It will come to me naturally."  S said, as Guano just slouched down in his director chair.

"Alright everyone, places.  And, action."  Guano said in a rather monotone voice.  S stepped onto the set and lifted up a skull made to resemble Oboro, even having the banter face and began to perfectly articulate the script without even giving it but a mere glimpse.  Guano sat there, mouth agape, as the TheSpian began to out act, began to do stunts that were not asked of the other people auditioning, and leaving the co-stars in the dust with his emotion.  As the scene ended, Guano stood up and gave a rousing ovation, as did the production team surrounding the cast.  Ozu walked up to S and extended his hand,

"Sir, you are hired.  Welcome to LilyMu."

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"Ane-ue, can you lend me some cash?"  Shinpachi was sitting at Otose's Bar with his sister, and Kagura.  Kagura was downing some rice while Tama was sweeping up the bits and pieces that were falling on the floor.

"Sorry Shin-chan!  I'm using the rest of this money to open our dojo back up.  I have just enough after helping Otose-san rebuild her snack bar."  Otose blew a puff of smoke at the comment.  Shinpachi looked dejected, since he was really looking forward to buying that new Exploding Feminism x Otsuu-chan's ***cking Cool Live Album.  Kagura let out an Earth shattering burp as the sliding door to the bar opened up.  Gintoki and Sadaharu walked in, Gin looking rather tired as he just woke up.  He walked over and sat at one of the booth tables across from the bar,

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"Gintoki-sama, is something the matter?"  Tama walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"The Old Man called me.  He's asking us to do a job for him."  Gintoki said, as Tama sat a glass of water in front of him.

"What's so bad about that Gin-chan?  We always help that Old Geezer, and he pays well."  Kagura said.  Gintoki looked up at her, 

"Do you know how much less screen time those Lily-Idiots get?  We're doomed to be stuck as side-characters.  He even talked to me about that coconut head getting hired to his show.  The most invisible Shinsengumi character through the entire series is getting a push."  Gintoki pinched the bridge of his nose.  "Why can't that hideous being Emiko call us or something.  Someone who's had ample screen presence."  Shinpachi chimed in,

"Well Gin-san, we're obligated to help our friends, even if it means sacrificing our time!"  Shinpachi was a fool to think this.  Gintoki moved his gaze to the glasses talking nonsense.

"I know what I have to do, as much as I don't like it."  Gintoki stood up and sighed.  "Oi, Sadaharu, take us to that maximum security prison.  You too, brats."  Sadaharu arf as Gintoki climbed on top of him.  Shinpachi and Kagura shrugged and hopped on.  "The Old Man can wait, I need to consult with a few people first."  Yorozuya began to head towards the prison that was just outside of Edo Castle.  They were cleared inside, as Kagura flashed a picture of her and the princess doing patty cakes.  The 4 of them walked into the prison, and eventually made it to the very back.  They passed by Nobu-Nobu, who's sentence had been reduced after good behavior and his efforts in the Shinra Attacks.  He was staring at a picture of a giant truck in his cell, not paying attention to the Odd Jobs as they walked past.  Eventually, they reached the final cell, where a harmonica could be heard,

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"Life in the brink isn't one fit for a hard boiled detective like me."  Kintoki could be seen facing the back of the cell.  Gintoki turned to the other cell and saw Haji and Sunny sitting on their bunk beds.

"Hello!  You must be Pako!  I only really know about you because Enshou works with you from time to time."  Gintoki put his head down into his hand seeing the creation of that squirmy eyed weeny.

"Uh, yeah.  I, uhh...you're not that Globby Princess are you?"  Gintoki asked.  Sunny shook her head,

"I'm simply a representation of her brought to life through Jebediah's subconscious and Enshou-sama's extremely powerful will!"  she said, smiling.  Gintoki gave her a dead fish-eyed look as he turned back to Heiji, who threw his harmonica into the concrete, causing it to bounce back and smack him in the face.

"I'm glad we don't have to worry about that soft-boiled pest anymore.  Yet, us heroes are stuck behind bars as if we are hardboiled criminals.  Quite the opposite, we should be hailed among the greatest."  Heiji said as blood dripped to the floor from his nose.

"Gin-san, how are these 4 going to help us in any way?  Aren't we supposed to go and help Ozu-san with something?"  Gintoki put his finger on Shinpachi's lips.  Kintoki turned from his wall facing position and showed a grill popping out of his chest with eggs cooking on them.  "OI HOW IS THAT USEFUL?  WHY DID GENGAI-SAN MAKE THAT?!"

"It's simple Shinpachi-san.  Gengai-san always updates me with the latest techs whenever I visit him.  I try to stop by at least twice a week, now that I'm fully employed or in prison.  He's told me that he is proud of me, proud of the man...robot that I've become.  He even complimented me on my sick abs."  Shinpachi's face grew dark as his abs were not abs at all, but a toaster that had toast popping out of it.

"Good thinking Kintoki, toast and eggs are the ultimate hard-boiled pairing.  It's right up there with a glass of Camus and a beautiful woman."  Heiji grabbed the toast from Kintoki's body and took a huge bite.  Haji stretched her arm out from her cell to reach for some eggs that fell off Kintoki's chest.  Kagura picked them up and ate them herself.

"Gin-chan, this is getting us nowhere!  We're just going to get caught up in their hi-jinks like last time!"  Kagura said, spitting the eggs out on Kintoki's face.

"No, this is exactly what we need Kagura,"  Gintoki took his sword out and slashed the bars of the detectives' jail cells.  "Now, we can get to work."

"OIII NOW WE'RE JUST BREAKING THE LAW?!"  Shinpachi yelled.

"It's not like we haven't done it before Patsuan."  Shinpachi shrugged in defeat.  The detectives all scrambled (like eggs!) out of their cell and thanked Gintoki.  "Alright!  Now we can head to the Old Man's place."  Yorozuya and the Hard Boileds began to head for Tokyo. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oi, Tetsu."  Tetsunosuke was awoken by the sound of his Vice Chief knocking at his door.  He was bandaged from the accident at the terminal.  Him and his brother were released from the hospital a few days ago and returned to their duties as police officers/chiefs.  It was strange though, for Tetsu, as Isaburo had invited him over for dinner just two night prior.  It felt that he was finally getting closer to his brother, and breaking down the barriers that were built so long ago.  Tetsu managed himself up, grabbing at his waist after saluting Toshi at the doorway.

"Y-yes Vice Chief?"  Tetsu said, a little nervous.  Hijikata took a drag from his cigarette, putting it back in his mouth.

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"Could you please come with me to Kondo-san's quarters."  Tetsu gave him a puzzled look, but followed his superior through the hallways leading to their leader's room.  Tetsu was fiddling with his fingers as Hijikata opened the door and ushered Tetsu into Kondo's room.  Kondo was sitting in front of a table with a paper and quill sitting on top of it.  He gestured for Tetsu to sit down across from him as Hijikata stood in the doorway, smoking his cigarette.

"Am I being..stripped of my badge?"  Kondo shook his head and extended his hand.  Tetsu noticed he was holding something in it, so he cupped his hands underneath Kondo's.  Kondo dropped a patch into his hands.  Tetsu brought it closer to himself and examined it,  "But...this is Okita-nii-san's Captain Badge..."  Kondo smiled at Tetsu as he looked up from the patch,

"I could never keep a short leash on that kid.  He never would admit it, but I knew how much this organization and these people meant to him.  However, these past few months I've noticed just how distant and alone he seemed.  As if, he needed to take a new direction.  I sat down with Okita yesterday, thinking he would just go over the daily happenings of the Shinsengumi.  However, he handed me his resignation-"

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'I hope you understand why I'm stepping away Kondo-san.'  the flashback showed Kondo looking down at the papers with a more serious face than usual.  Kondo sat the papers down and brought Sougo in for a hug.  Okita looked surprised, but accepted the embrace,

'Of course I understand.  I've realized how unhappy you've been, and I'm always here to help you.  If leaving us and starting your life over makes you happy, then I will always support you Sougo.  However, I don't want to see that frown ever again!  So cheer up, and tackle the world.  Be who you desire to be.'  the flashback ended as Tetsu clinched the badge.

"And I want to assign you as the new Captain of the 1st Division, Tetsunosuke.  After your brave heroics and handling of the Shinra's invasion, Toshi wanted me to promote you from his assistant, to being a Captain.  I always received a text from someone who wished to remain anonymous, backing up your promotion.  And, I too believe you have the heart of the Shinsengumi, and are more than qualified now to lead our main division.  Congratulations!"  Kondo gave Tetsu a hug, who was now visibly crying.  Hijikata smiled through his cigarette smoke.

------------------------------------------------------------------

"And, that's pretty much it about Utsuro.  Honestly, it was a tough time for me and Kotaro.  Our real first fight happened on that island."  Shinsuke said as Josh was jotting down notes in his handy dandy notepad.  Josh looked up at Shinsuke and extended his hand,

"Thank you for your time Shinsuke.  I think the only thing I need to do now is visit Okinawa myself.  It's a shame though, that I couldn't get an interview with Oboro."  Shinsuke shook Josh's hand as they both stood up.

"Everyone's been clambering for that jizz head ever since he left.  Although, he would be the one to try and talk with about Okinawa.  He was by Sensei's side the entire time, and he killed him.  Did you talk with that Captain?  I heard he was there too."  Shinsuke said, remembering what had happened at the Renho's Baby Shower.  Josh nodded,

"I've already spoken to him about his time with Utsuro."  the scene flashed back to a couple of days prior on Burei,

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"Welcome to Extended Hanukkah, cherry boy."  Enshou was wearing a XXXL sized sweater over his usual robes.  Josh nervously laughed as he spotted the Captain standing by the punch bowl talking to one of the lower ranked Enshou Minions.  Josh walked over to Stephen and greeted him.

"Hey Josh!  What brings you to the comics?"  Stephen said, giving the kid a hug.  Josh smiled as he began to speak,

"Well, Joe and Steve tasked me to do a big investigation.  They want to know more about Jebediah.  I figured I would talk with you about it since you were close with Utsuro and you faced Jebediah."  Stephen looked at his arm, which was still in a sling from the last few fights he had, both in the courtroom and the sub-conscious.

"I think we should take this conversation out of his sight, he'd get pretty pissed off if we started talking about it at his party."  Stephen said, pointing at Enshou who was hammering shots.  Josh and Stephen made their way out of the party and began to discuss Jebediah.  Josh jotted everything down, all the events that happened from Sweetcheek's perspective.  Then, they got to Utsuro,

"Well, unfortunately I wasn't there at Okinawa.  He ordered me to go to Edo, as I assume he knew I would stop him from resetting the universe again.  Or maybe he sent me there because he I knew I would meet Enshou.  I never really doubted Utsuro's intuition.  But, I'm starting to question his methods about why he kept Jebediah's presence from us.  Did the God's put a gag order on him?  And what about Oboro?  It all doesn't really make sense why Utsuro wanted to keep Oboro's powers a secret from himself.  And now, Oboro is gone.  Gone to meditate and hone his newly found powers."  Josh looked up at Stephen,

"Was there anyone else there with Utsuro on Okinawa?"  Josh asked.  Stephen put his head down,

"Well, you killed one of them,"  Josh sported a somber look on his face, remembering the first real test of his powers against Kaname.  "Hitsugi...has also passed."  Stephen looked dejected thinking about his old friend who sacrificed himself but a mere few months ago.  "The only other being there that's still in the comics are Shinsuke and Poe.  If I were you, I would at least talk with Shinsuke first, and then if you can try and communicate with Poe.  I'm not sure how that bird is handling his owner, his best friend being gone.  But he's been with Utsuro and Oboro for centuries.  He's seen everything, but alas is only a crow.  I suppose if you can find what's left of the Naraku, you may get some information from them.  But I've heard they've long since disbanded and scattered across the universe, especially now that the Tendoushu was murdered by Jebediah."  Josh gave a somber, but hopeful look.

"I'll speak with Shinsuke when I get back to Edo.  I'm not really sure how I can meet with Poe, but I'll try."  Stephen put his hand on Josh's shoulder,

"I believe in you Josh.  We may not be blood related, but your family is my family.  I'm so proud of you three boys."  Josh embraced Stephen, the old man accepting the hug.  "You'll make your cousins proud."  the two stood there for a minute, soaking in the moment before the flashback faded away.  Shinsuke nodded and began to head out of Josh's office,

"I'll help you out with that bird.  I think what you're doing is going to be beneficial to us all in the long run."  Josh lit up at Shinsuke offering to help him,

"I-if you don't mind!  That would be extremely helpful.  I'm just not sure how to...well talk to birds."  Shinsuke gave him a...wink?  Maybe he blinked, I wasn't sure since he only has one eye.

"Don't forget that favor either Josh.  I'll be counting on you."  Josh nervously smiled as he watched Shinsuke walk out of the office and close the door behind him.  Josh sat there and opened his notepad,

'I still have to talk to a few people, even if they weren't involved with the fight on Okinawa.'  Josh pulled up his contact list,

GznUWfB.png  'Doesn't hurt to try I suppose.'  Josh thought to himself as he clicked the call button.

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The scene cut to a different office, one that had a paw print on the glass of the door.  Joe was sitting at his desk, doing some paperwork to pass by the day.  His work was interrupted by a knock on the door.  Joe stood up and opened it, being met with two police officers.

"Are you Joseph?"  Joe was starting to get worried,

"Is Steve OK?  He went out for groceries, and now you guys are here..."  the cops shook their heads,

"There was no accident sir, but your house has been broken into.  Neighbors reported it.  We haven't investigated it thoroughly just yet, we just wanted to come and let you know.  Just to confirm if anything is missing."  Joe's eyes widened as he grabbed his coat and dashed out of there with the officers.  The three of them arrived at the house, Joe noticing Steve's car was parked outside of the house.  Joe ran from his car and met up with his brother who looked distraught,

"It's...it's gone Joe.  Someone stole the book again."  Joe looked mortified, as he knew Josh was in there.  "Do you..."  Joe nodded,

"I think I know who.  The only question is, can we find him."  Joe said, rubbing his chin.  The scene shifted to the clouds above and came down on a man wearing a hood, holding the comic book in a bag around his shoulder.  He was sitting at a library of unknown location,

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"Dylan, had secured the comic book once again.  He had begun to hear voices ever since he left the small island in the Triangle.  A voice with a very distinct British accent telling him to get the book.  Perhaps, all those purple crystals that Dylan stole while on the island were coming in handy after all."  a librarian walked up and shushed Dylan as he smiled to himself.  The scene faded to black as it zoomed in on his bag with the comic book inside.

"Slowly but surely~"

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"Eh Yukes, seems yous been workin ovatime dis week!"  Valentino leaned on Yuka's desk as she was filing some paperwork,

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"There's been a lot of back up since my absence Fratello."  Yuka said, focusing on her work.

"All dat work is no good for yous and your mental state Yukes.  Let's go out and get dinna together.  Just me and yous.  Skels here has a date tonight with Mutsu, so you knows I got nothin betta to do."  Yuka was still focused on her work.

"I'm sorry Valentino, but I have all this work."  she stated again.  Valentino gave her a slight smile, and grabbed the paper she was working on.  "Hey!  Come on now Val, I don't have time to mess around."  she said stubbornly.

"Yous comin to dinner with me and dats final.  You gotta lightin the load on yourself.  Take a break, for my sake."  Valentino said, placing the paper back on the desk.  Yuka sighed as she pushed her self from the chair.

"Fine, I'm only doing this because you're guilt tripping me.  You have a lot of work to get done when we get back, because I'm not losing work time because of this."  Valentino smiled as he patted Yuka on the head.  He began to walk from her room when he turned back in her doorway,

"Yukes, I've been thinkin about the past few weeks.  There's been a whole lotta confusion, and a whole lotta people gettin hurt.  Just...appreciate da little things in life sometimes.  I don't want yous to just work forever.  I want you to live life an experience it a little.  I'm sure everyone here will undastand Yukes, they love ya here."  Valentino said, smiling at his godsister before leaving her in her room.  Yuka shifted her eyes back to her desk where there was a picture of herself, Roberta, and Valentino together in a bright park on Globberious.  She smiled as she held the photo up to her face, before placing it back down.

"Maybe I should take it easy..."  Yuka lingered on that thought as she got ready for her dinner.

TBC

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Roberta kept looking down on Earth from the Heavens, a dreamy face plastered on her the entire time. She was fixated at looking at Edo’s downtown city watching the people continue to do their normal routines after the fire had happened, but her mind was on something different. She sighed contently as her hands were supporting her head. 

“I’m tellin’ ya Sophs, she’s always been a lost cause tis worm.” A man’s voice joked behind her.

“Give her a break Rick, that hug from Yuka was a very important step for her!” The woman voice said. 

Roberta didn’t take much interest but rolled on her back to face the two solids, who were standing some few feet behind her.

“Robbed any banks lately old man?” Roberta said addressing Rickbones.

“Ah, if I did I wouldn’t be in Heaves! Val would kill me if he knew his numbah one solid hadn’t been here to greet him one of de days. And I swear I ain’t made no shady deals since tradin’ some saxophone parts to dat carrot top.” He stated.

“You bought your way into Heaven? Why didn’t I think of that?” Roberta sat up from the clouds and pondered this more than she should have.

“Which he is very sorry about and has earned his right in Heaven ever since.” Sophia put a heavy basket of flowers into Rickbones boney arms, causing him to almost drop it.

“Hey if da god didn’t like it he didn’t have to do da deal! Nah’mean?” Sophia proceeded to put the other basket on top of it and Rickbones collasped to the fluffy floor. Roberta got up chuckling and begun walking with them back to the kingdom’s city. 

“What is with you and Yukes crazy strength, Soph? Ya dames are killin’ me!” Rickbones says as he was barely managing to carry both flower baskets. Sophia smiled and turned to Roberta in conversation,

“Was he always this silly?” She asked.

“And by silly ya mean complainin’ don’t ya.” Rickbones said listening in. Sophia smiled bigger.

“Rickbones? Old bag of bones, and also Val’s best friend. Without him Val and I  have never been able to perform all illegal shit we got into behind Yukes back.” Roberta recalled with a slight smile. 

“Aww ya makin’ an old skull blush, Robes. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without ya kids and mah pocket knife comb.” Rickbones said. Sophia then put her hand on Roberta’s arm, she gave her a look of wanting to talk privately which she returned back. They begun to break away. “Hey, were are ya dames goin’? This is heavy remembah?!”

“Don’t worry Rick! We’ll come into the city soon, I just want to tell Robes something alone.” Sophia said, Rickbones nodded and continued his way. The solid and Skolexian walked farther away on the outskirts of the clouds, eventually leading to the gardens. Roberta was staring at some sweet peas as Sophia was looking at the tall sunflowers coming from the grassy grounds.

“That meant a lot to you, more than you lead on to believe, didn’t it?” Sophia started, Roberta knowing exactly what she meant. The worm blushed and looked away.

“Managing to gain Yuka’s trust, even just a little bit?... I know, it’s my limit. I’ve reached the peak of how far I can get. And I know I’ve been lost in a daze lately, I guess there’s a part of me that clings onto some chance of any kind of a relationship.” Roberta rubbed her hands on her face uneasily. 

“Why are you limiting yourself?” Sophia asked behind her.

“I.. I shouldn’t have gotten involved in the first place in her life.” Roberta looked down fiddling her pearl colored dress. 

“Well you did and you know what? If it wasn’t for you getting involved last month, Yuka would still be in a cage and Jebediah would still be on the loose. And that happy girl down there wouldn’t have the confidence to be getting pizza in public with her brother.” Sophia said more sternly than usual and pointed down to the clouds as they seperated, revealing the humanoid Yuka lightly chuckling as Valentino was making some joke at their table. Roberta made a warm smile at seeing them and turned to Sophia to give her a big hug as Roberta begun to stream tears.

“It’s baby steps, okay? You’ll make it where you want to be with them Robes, with her. You do it for me, you do it for that mafia goon back in town.” Sophia said. Roberta made a little snicker and departed from their embrace. 

“You really love picking on him don’t you?” Roberta smiled.

“Nah I just like to tease him, ...guess it just gives me a glimpse of a memory of how those two acted with each other too.” Sophia said, the two continued to eavesdrop into the godsiblings conversation.
——————-

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“This is not Lilymu Towers, Gin-san..” Shinpachi said in a monotone.

The rest of gang got out of the Hardboilianimobile™️ (previously the Kintokimobile™️) as Shinpachi was staring at the sign of the Forgotten Cat Cafe above him. The detectives ran inside and took a look.

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“I declare this restaurant and group photo to be, a win!” Kintoki exclaimed.

 They then sat at the bar stools which were covered in cat hair. Gintoki and Kagura strolled in and took the seats closest to the TV on the wall and glued their eyes to Wamily Weud.

“Well, I guess a pitstop is ok.” Shinpachi brushed the disgusting dandriff off the seat and grabbed a menu. Their Cat Not Burgular waitor came up and wiped the bar for them.

“What will it be today fellas?” He asked.

“Yeah I’ll have uhhhhhhhhhh.” Gintoki drooled as he watched Marco Antonio Regil reveal the top answers on the survey board.

“Hairball Hamsandwich? Cat Scratch Fish Fillet? Eugh..” Haji almost barfed a little in her mouth. “I’ll just have some OJ.”

“Ditto..” Shinpachi put down his menu, also covered in cat fur and dandriff.

“Ooh ooh! They got eggs here, or at least I think that’s what this cat pun was referring to!” Sunny said pointing to her menu.

“I’ll take my egg on twelve pounds of rice, please!” Kagura said.

“That sounds great, Kagura-chan! Maybe I’ll do the same.” Sunny smiled.

“You know Sunny not everything you eat has to be eggs. It has to be the only thing you eat. I’ll take forty Eggs Meowentics and one large cup of Camus, Sir.” Heiji said, causing Haji’s face to darken. He closed his menu and handed it to the bartender. 

“Excellent choices! I’ll be out with your orders soon.” CNB said.

“But I didn’t order anything...” CNB ignored Kintoki and continued into the kitchen. Kintoki swizzled on his bar seat to the others. “You know with my calculations we shall be at Ozu-san’s apartments in 12.5 minutes of a walking distance.”

“Good tinhead, and when we do I’ll have to give that Old Man a piece of my mind.” Gintoki said while digging into the table chips. Shinpachi leaned in closer to his boss as Kagura sat between them scarfing down the rest of the chips on the entire bar.

“What exactly did you have planned with these guys, Gin-san?” He asked. Gintoki leaned in closer as well, whispering with his hand clasped over the side of his mouth,

“They’re a hivemind of screentime, Patusan. These idiots are the key to landing loads of it.” Behind them Haji and Sunny were balancing multiple spoons on Kintoki’s magnetic face to make the eiffel tower.

“Well, I guess there was no harm bringing them along to whatever we’re doing.” Shinpachi shrugged. He then took a look around, noticing all the scratching boards and health hazards. But what interested him the most were the people. “Eh.. a lot of forgettable faces here, huh?” 

“WHO ARE YOU CALLING A FORGETTABLE FACE YOU FOUR-EYED FREAK!” The person sitting next to Shinpachi said, he spun his stool and sweatdropped at them,

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“Catherine-san? What are you doing in Tokyo?” Shinpachi asked.

”You should be in the pits of Hell where your hideous kind belongs, uh-huh!” Kagura said while downing more chips.

“Did the ol’ Granny let you out of your cage for once so you could meet more of your lesser screentime furballs here? ..D-Does that mean she’ll let me off her short leash of me.?” Gintoki said hopeful of the future.

“Hah yeah right, that ol’ fart is still waiting for your wavy-haired ass’s rent money at home! I’d run all the way to Peru to have a subplot if I was you, loser!” She resumed loudly swearing at the football game on the screen and banging her hands on the table, Gintoki’s expression went fish eyed. The Cat not Burgular brought them their dishes and set them on the bar.

“It’s now or never, if you want to eat.” He said to them.

“Don’t you mean it’s meow or never?” Kintoki said with a little smirk.

“Jesus fucking christ...” The owner shook his head and went back into the kitchen, causing Kintoki to look sad. Right as they were about to take a bite, they heard the doors bust open.

“Alright this is a, er uh, stick up! Hand ya hands in the air-a!” 

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“Oh no, it’s that phantom janitor creep..” The Cat not Burgular peeked out his kitchen door. The members at the bar and the rest of the joint stood up with their hands up as dictated.

“W-What does he want with this shop mister owner..?” Shinpachi nervously whispered.

“..I uhh might have borrowed some big money.. not relating to cats or burglary of course.” CNB replied sweatdropping.

“ALRITE! EMPTY YA POCKETS! Or my boys are goin’ to er uhh, empty ya heads with bullets!” The Phantom of the Soundstage said using his gun to point at the customers individually. 

“This is bad.. They’re gonna take the twenty cents I have in my pocket! Y-y-you four are cops aren’t you?! D-D-Do something!” Gintoki said through his teeth.

“You’re right!” Heiji slowly stood up, his protégés were a bit intimidated but followed. They flashed their golden egg badges and finger guns to the robbers who turned around to see them.

“WHAT ARE THEY DOING?!” Shinpachi loudly whispered. 

“Securing my bank account, Patusan..” Gintoki said holding two dimes. Shinpachi just gave him a dead look.

“Stop, in the name of the Hardboilian Law-“ Phantom shot a bullet in the badge Heiji was holding up, causing him to cowardly jump over the bar table and to the ground.

“BOSS!” Haji angrily whispered.

“You, do something stupid samurai!” Catherine ordered.

“Me? How about you! No one would care of an old fleabag like you dropped!” Gintoki shot back. The Phantom could now be seen hustling Tetsuko now who was with her girlfriend at their booth table. 

“I’m not giving you a cent you creep.” Tetsuko furrowed her eyebrows.

“Really? Well, this shiny sword of yours you’re-ah carryin’ looks like it could cost uhhh pretty penny! Boys!” Phantom snapped his fingers and had the clown masked two try to snatch it from her. She grasped onto it with all her strength but the men ripped it from her. When she got even more upset they pushed her head down onto the table and pointed their guns at it.

“LET GO OF HER YOU FREAKS!” Tatsumi demanded. 

“QUIT YAPPIN’ BLONDEY!” Phantom shot his own gun at Tatsumi but before she was hit, the bullet deflected off another man’s sword, who got in between them. 

“Gin-chan!” Kagura exclaimed from where they hid.  

“Oi pig mask, aren’t you a small fry even for a loser’s dump like this.” Gintoki said in a more serious tone than usual and his sword still extended. The Phantom of the Soundstage narrowed his eyes and snapped his fingers for his clowns to let Tetsuko go as Tatsumi ran up to comfort her.

“Small fry?” Phantom made a boisterous laugh. “Me? Silver head, ya can’t walk by anyone in Tokyo and them not er recognize the Prince of Pranks!” 

“Some kind of ‘prank’ this was!” Tatsumi barked while holding her lover.

“So the prankin’ life wasn’t workin’ out and I had to resort to crime! They’re kinda tha same thing, they both make people smile, ya know!” Phantom replied.

“WHO smile?! Who’s smiling?!” Tatsumi yelled.

“Well, uhh me!” Phantom maniacally laughed and gave his clowns knuckle touches.

“Prince of pranks.. Wait.. I think I recognize that guy!” Sunny said still standing next to her fellow protégés, she started walking up to Gintoki and the others.

“Sunny DON’T!” Haji exclaimed. 

“Heart racing increased twenty fold..” Kintoki said robotically.

“SACRIFICE YOURSELF FOR THE GREATER GOOD GLOBBY PRINCESS!” Catherine chanted out and gave a thumbs up as Shinpachi dragged his hand down his face.

“Hi, are you Mark from Enshou-sama’s old college fraternity?” Sunny cheerfully said behind Phantom, he narrowed his eyes and quickly turned around.

“Who wants to know? Wait did you say....Enshou. Why do ya speak of that disgustin’ name to me little gahrl?” He asked. The smiling clown masks loaded their guns at her as Gintoki clinched on his sword harder.

“Oh it is you! Your mother was so nice and she let all of you boys stay there and use her place for your Weese Witherspoon movie discussion meetings. Her delicious sugar cookies were my favorite part.” Sunny smiled. Phantom lowered his gun.

“Why do you speak if you were there little gahrl? Our frat was a no gahrls only policy, so one couldn’tve snuck in.” The man looked to his beefy clown on the left who just shrugged. 

“Well in a sense I was there with Enshou-sama, even if I didn’t exist yet. I share all his memories and experience them as if they were my own!”  Sunny explained. 

“Enshou.. how he ignored me, took advantage of my matha’s hospitality, even slept in mah bed! Not in that way, we were just platonic roommates. How I vowed to outclown that clown..” Phantom clutched his hands, at this point Gintoki had zoned out in space ages ago. “ESPECIALLY WHAT HE DID TO ME-“ Phantom removed his mask for the world to see.

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“This is literally the most pointless disturbing subplot..” Shindownchi McDowner barked at me.

“HAHA! What a loser!” Kagura hysterically laughed with Catherine next to her who put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t touch me old hag.” Catherine then gave her a scowl.

“So you kind of have a victim complex with him like he has for Dragonia!” Sunny exclaimed. The Phantom made a dark sneer and put his mask back on.

“He is unimportant to me these days. But I have thought of somethin’  more useful of my time than squeezin’ dimes outta broke bastards like you.” He put his gun to Gintoki’s head now as he supported a dull look. “Uhh I’ve seen you around these parts before. You’re a friend of old man Ozu. I heard that bastard got a new star recently. Figures, once agayn leaving his original star out to turn to dust. We’ll just pay him a little reunion though, eh permhead?” Gintoki blinked boredly. Phantom turned around Gintoki with his men, and exited the cafe, the other two Yorozuyas running now close at hand.

“Gin-san!” Shinpachi exclaimed.

“...A-Are they gone?” Heiji said from still behind the counter. 

“Unfortunately for my entertainment.” Catherine said dipping her hand in the chips bowl and taking a bite. Heiji slowly raised up, only to see a darkened face Haji, a confused Kintoki and smiling Sunny looking back at him. 

“Uhh, follow the funny circus mask guys, kids.” He awkwardly coughed.

“Okay Boss!” Sunny and Kintoki said enthusiastically. Haji could still be seen shaking her head as their boss cautiously looked around while exiting the building. 
—————

“One more time and I’ll be back out, I swears!” Valentino said dashing back into the restaurant for the upteeth time to use the restroom. 

‘Why does he insist on drinks if he can’t even hold down the light stuff.’ Yuka thought to herself as she shook her head. 

She stood outside watching the snow of mid-winter gently drop on the reconstructing buildings of this city she was growing to appreciate. Time and time again these Earthlings had their home destroyed by foreign intruders and yet they kept rebuilding and strengthening themselves. It actually impressed her. The humans even seemed more eased around the presence of Globberians ever since they helped defend them last autumn. People didn’t seem too taken back with her appearance either these days, she still got the occasional stare but she’d be asked for autographs for being royalty as well. How the Majesty thought of her “mutated” half of herself had begun to slowly fade, a more appreciation of her uniqueness taking its place. Her being stuck in her liquid state for so long had made her begun to appreciate the aesthetic she has built for herself in her humanoid form and memories she had as one for countless decades. Her people were rebuilding their lives for themselves and putting their trust in her to care for them. It’s really all she could have really wanted as a leader. The Globberian woman was always so ready for the shoe to drop on the other foot, but for this brief moment in the crisp weather in the after-holidays, she could exhale. But Yuka didn’t realize she had been walking down the sidewalk for quite some blocks until she accidentally bumped into someone in a trenchcoat, knocking them to the ground and one of their wings popping out of their coat.

“Oh my mistake,” Yuka‘s pupil shrunk when she looked down at the sidewalk. “...Robe..rta?”

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“I-I was just doing some observation work on Edo’s reconstruction for the gods, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to..” Yuka extended her hand to help but Roberta scurried up without her and begun to walk hastily aaway into the crowd of pedestrians, accidentally bumping into them with her scattered mind.

“Wait!” Yuka could hear herself saying outloud. 

Even with the extra voices, Roberta could clearly hear the silky low voice of that of the woman. Her heart felt like if it sunk any lower it would fall out. Nevertheless, Roberta peeked her eye out of the crowd, Yuka was some short distance away. Roberta knew to look past her own bashfulness since Yuka paying attention to her was something not to be messed with. The Skolexian woman came back, the sound of her golden sandals hitting the pavement matching the fast beating of her heart.

“I didn’t mean to scare you off.” Yuka simply said, Roberta was just looking down guilty and unworthy as ever to be in her ex-lover’s presence. However, what she said next, Roberta couldn’t believe it. “How are you?”

“...Me? Oh, I-I’m just doing some work in Edo for the gods.. Wait, I already said that.” Roberta said. 

“Oh.. that’s good to hear.” Yuka replied back. There was a long, awkwardly painful silence as the two women stood there, people passing through and by them to get to their destinations. Roberta felt worse by the second, Yuka feeling more and more unwilling to say something else, or maybe not knowing what to say. It might have been because of Roberta’s past, or maybe she just wasn’t good at conversation with her just like when they were friends. Probably moreso the latter now, but these mixed feelings kept bouncing around the parts of her head until someone else broke the tension. 

“AYY YUKES! Ya left me back dere! Where’d ya go?” Valentino slithered between them, Roberta hid her face with her hat and Yuka drew back into her reclusiveness again. Valentino just stood there, moving his gooey head left and right to look at them both. “....Ya know Sorella, if yous wanted some private ti-“ 

“It ISN’T like THAT!” Yuka proceeded to hiptoss her godbrother to the ground, other people on the road stopped momentarily to stare at them. Yuka had surpsingly yelled it and insecurely at that, causing Roberta’s eyes to grow bigger. 

“I-I didn’t imply dat, sorels!” Valentino coughed from the floor.

Yuka looked around her awkwardly at the people and then helped Valentino up. She then tightened up her tie and pretended it never happend. 

“I-I’m sorry I really need to go..” Roberta backed away slowly only to bump into a large fish man right behind her.

“Yuka-dono, we need to talk in private. Roberta-dono too.” Jazzy said, Roberta and Yuka looked at each other confused.

“Ahh, it’s alrite. I was goin’ home to vomit some more anyways.” Valentino said shrugging with his goo. Jazzy snapped his fingers and away they went to somewhere more secluded like Yuka’s office back in the village.

“So what’s this all about?” Yuka asked, she was sitting behind her desk. She noticed Jazzy, Roberta and now Suave on the couch and seats surrounding it. Suave spoke out with a look of concern as he fiddled with the keys on his saxophone,

“Hey Yukes. Well you see we have reason to believe the comic book was taken away by that friend of Josh’s again.” 

“And that he may be under the influence of another poisonous mind, perhaps exactly who we think it would be”. Jazzy said with a look of upmost seriousness. Roberta quickly shot up at this,

“That would be impossible, that posh idiot can’t be communicating with anyone outside his void. Suave and I made sure of that in the spell ourselves!” She exclaimed.

“Well whatever is happening, it has effected Oboro-dono too. We felt his presence leave the comic book shortly before Jebediah-dono was casted into his prison.” Jazzy stated.

“You’re not implying the jizz head has something to do with this nonsense? He may be a bird brain but he is in no way a traitor.” Roberta said still standing. Yuka was a bit surprised at how she stood up to figures of power like that, but then again the Skolexian always had the habit of barging her way into situations that were seemingly too big or none of her concern, Yuka noticed.

“Of course not Robes, we’re just worried about him. We’re about to contact Josh and Stephen too and see what they know.” Suave commented, Roberta nodded and sat down.

“So where do I come into this?” Yuka asked. 

“You had the longest direct contact with Jebediah than any of us, Yuka-dono. If he’s communicating with Dylan-dono or anyone else, you might feel a sense of that as well. Just keep an eye out for anything you feel unusual.” Jazzy then squinted his eyes, the room kept looking at him. “Plus, we felt a new life come into this world, based on your design.” Jazzy swiped his hands across the open air and appeared in a purple mirror to somewhere, they could see Yorozuya and the Hardboilian detectives, it zoomed up to Sunny as Yuka looked absolutely taken back. 

“Hey I remember that bimbo she was created by that stupid squiggly eyed goth!” Roberta said somewhat loudly, Yuka briefly looked at her with a blank expression. The worm sweatdropped and uneasily sinked into her chair.

“Jebediah has the powers to create things out of thin air so this was no coincidence. I believe Miss Lady-dono to be of good heart after she finished off Jebediah but there is no doubt he will use her.” Jazzy explained, the girls understood. He stood up and snapped his fingers, the Stairway to Heaven appearing. Him and his brother stepped aboard. Roberta started getting up as well when Jazzy spoke again. “I bid you two farewell for now.”

“U-Us t-t-two?” Roberta stumbled.

“Roberta-dono, if Yuka gets contacted by Jebediah-dono again you must be constantly there to protect her. Jebediah’s rage will no doubt be greater than the previous time.” Jazzy said. “Until then, keep an eye out on Miss Lady as well.” 

The two faded into the steps, as Roberta and Yuka watched. When they were gone, they stared at the ground. The clicking of clock on the office wall was the only sound for some painfully long minutes. Roberta then made a little sigh,

“I’m sorry Yukes.. I didn’t mean to get you wrapped into another issue.” 

“It’s okay, it’s not your fault, Roberta. At least I have the protection of an angel.” Yuka said this a matter-of-factly, not realizing until seconds later how it really sounded. Roberta covered herself with her wings and looked away brightly flustered. Suddenly the door busted open, causing the women to jump a little. Valentino was breathing heavily,

“Are yous tellin’ me you dames were just teleported herah?! I had to walk twenty BLOCKS cuz I couldn’t hail a cab!” He collasped onto the ground, Yuka sighed and shook her head, especially at this teamup to come.

——————————

“Yep, this is the apartment from the address given by him alright.” Shinsuke said as they were in some new homing area in Edo. 

“Thanks again for coming, Shinsuke-san. I know you were gonna help me with Poe too, so this means a lot.” Josh said, Shinsuke just made a little smile. 

The detectice then looked down to see a matt that said ‘Please Remove all Shoes and  Angels capable of starting Second Impacts at the door, Mahalo.’ He just stared at it weirdly not sure if he was more impressed by the very specifics of it or how they could fit that entire transcript on a tiny floor mat as Shinsuke rung the door bell. It played the entire End of Evangelion song which lasted seven minutes and forty-one seconds. Shinsuke checked his watch boredly as Josh made confused expressions. Finally a (sticky!) individual opened the door and let them in. He greeted them and had them follow him to the living room where the other two yato were.

“Yo Chief! They’re here for the interview.” No Man called out. Kamui temporally paused what he was doing to face them,

“HA! Shinsuke, Shinsuke’s Childhood Friend’s Cousin. It’s ABOUT TIME!” 

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“H-help me..” The stupid Shinji squeaked out.

“A-actually it’s just Josh!” Josh said trying to make it easier for the pirate Chief. Shinsuke just shook his head,

“He likes it, you should see what he calls the most distant people I know.” He whispered to the kid. Kamui surplexed Shinji onto the couch next to a slumped down Abuto. Little Gendo Jr clapped his hands in delight from his crib. Kamui then went to face Josh,

“So you’re my INTERVIEWER!” The pirate grabbed a nervous Josh over his head and rammed him and himself into the kitchen door. Shinsuke took a seat in a sofa across the couch. 

“Hey man what’s biting you?” He asked to a depressed Abuto. 

“His girlfriend broke up with him.” Shinji commented. 

“Groomer! Ha!” Gendo Jr said with Kamui’s inflections on the laugh. Shinji awkwardly put his hands up to make him stop. 

“Ooh, that’s rough man. Women come and go you know? But Honeys are forever.” Shinsuke said trying to sound poetic, a tired Abuto just sunk his head lower. Meanwhile Kamui was piling a giant (kosher!) ham sandwich from the Ikari’s fancy fridge as Josh took out his Handy Dandy Notebook. 

“So Kamui-san, you were at Okinawa right? Although you weren’t in direct contact with Utsuro most of the time, you did help Shinsuke-san and the others a lot.” 

“Damn right I did!” Kamui said slamming the fridge with his foot. He carried the large plate of grub to the dining room table and begun chowing down. “Ttose tinheads coudlnt get tere without me!” He said spitting food out on Josh’s face, who just wiped it away with his hand.

“You also spent a lot of time with Gintoki-san right?” Josh said, at this Kamui lit up. 

“I-I don’t think talking about Katsura-san helps in Abuto-san’s case, Shinsuke-san.” Shinji said trying to comfort his big bunny. Shinsuke just shrugged.

“Helped me out of my dire situations.” Shinsuke sighed and took out his most precious posession to glance at. 

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“Me and Honeys anniversary is this weekend, but I can’t think of what to give him that he hasn’t already given me.” Shinsuke rested his head on his hand as he fiddled with the little doll of his husband.

“I’m sure whatever you give him he’ll know it’s from your heart! He’s rather nice that way..” Shinji made a little smile to himself. Shinsuke then suddenly stood up, catching the teen off guard. “I-I swear I meant it platonically!”

“No, from the heart isn’t enough. After everything Kotarou and I been through this year this has to be the PERFECT gift.” Shinsuke started leaving the living room. “Brat, tell Josh I’m sorry but I got to do some planning.” Shinji nodded and heard the front door slam momentarily. 

“And THEN me and Samurai got stranded on this weird island oooh! It was fun and games until he got this note from his Sensei, not sure how the old man got there. Maybe one of those stupid portals everyone keeps blabbing about it lately!” Kamui kept going on and on about Gintoki, Josh could barely keep up writing this on his digital pad. Suddenly his phone begun to ring, the ID was Stephen.

“One second Kamui, please if you can.” Josh said and put it up to his ear. 

“I think I might have located Poe for you, kid. Meet me in Okinawa when you can.” The old man said from the other line. 

“Oh wow, thanks! I’ll see you there as quick as I can, Captain.” Josh smiled and closed his phone. Kamui made a even bigger grin than Josh, the detective’s smile turned into a nervous one. 

“Well I don’t have anything to do but babysit these mongrels!” He jumped out of his chair and strolled into the living room, Josh close at hand. “COME ON BOYS, we’re going on a trip!” Abuto was still looking down at the carpet as No Man popped his head out from the bathroom with an apron on and a toilet cleaning brush in his hand.

“Uhh. Sure you can come along, Kamui-san!” Josh scratched the back of his neck. “I kind of needed a ride to the Okiwana island anyway, haha.” Shinji uncomfortably shifted in his seat.

“Uhh you know, I can stay here, my dad and Billy weren’t gonna be out that long from getting drinks-“ But before Shinji realized, he was thrown onto his wheelchair by Kamui who piled everyone on there as well. He grabbed the chairs handles and speed out of the building, down the endless bumpy stairs flying directly into their giant ship parked over several cars in the parking lot. 

“ROADTRIP! KICK IT ASS!” Kamui exclaimed,4th clicked on a button on the radio and then punched the ship into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (HA!) 

Shinsuke could be seen walking down the apartment stairs and putting his strawhat back on to conceal his identity in public. He was walking through alleyways when his phone started to vibrate. His heart fluttered and he smiled as he saw the ID on it. He swiped it open,

“Hi Honey.” 

“Shinny, Nizou came by the ship again just twenty minutes ago. Fortunately he didn’t combat with anyone but just be on the look out. I don’t like this, I don’t like this at all. We keep changing the location of the ship and he still follows us without a word. Something very wrong is going on here. I don’t know whether to approach him or not.”

“Well don’t worry Honey, everything will be okay. Just stay indoors and I’ll come there soon, alright?” Shinsuke said trying to defuse the situation, Katsura agreed on the other end and they said their loving goodbyes. Shinsuke put his phone back in his breast pocket and pitched the bridge of his nose. “I thought I made sure he was dead..” 

The samurai kept treading as the snow was falling on his hat, getting deeper into his thoughts on that dreadful February week of last year. He didn’t realize he was now at an secluded alley with a dead stop, he looked up to see a few individuals just standing there. He just turned around not really caring.

“Hey Mr. Big Shot Terrorist is finally showing his face again to the lower masses!” One of them taunted.

“The guy goes soft and doesn’t even bother to look up his old buddies.” Another terrorist said.

“That’s funny, I don’t remember the Kiheitai collaborating any other factions, especially some small fries such as yourselves.” He started walking in the direction he came.

“I know why Takasugi went soft.” Another man said and then made smoochie sounds as the other guys laughed. Shinsuke still didn’t take any heed to this.

“Man I wish it was that easy to take the big bad guy down by getting on his good side.” Another said sarcastically.

Then one of the guys walked in front of Shinsuke and acted all effeminate around him. “Mmm, kiss me next homo boy!” Shinsuke reached out and pitched his lips down with sheer force. He tossed the man into the trash cans and continued to walk as the men kept guffawing. 

“Now now, there’s no need for backwards attitudes like that, especially in something like TBC.” 

Shinsuke froze as he heard this voice behind him and begun to draw out his blade. He spun around but didn’t see them. In a millisecond he heard the land of footsteps and pointed his sword at the man’s neck.

“What the hell do you want, Nizou.” Shinsuke said narrowing his good eye. The grey haired man adjusted his tinted glasses with a smirk plastered on his face.

“A second chance?” He said in a melodic tone.

“I’m not sensing that. You’re seriously gonna have to try harder leathery fossil lookin’ ass.” Shinsuke retorted.

“This isn’t the same Edo that you once knew, Shinsuke. People are fed up with all disgusting Amanto barging their way and destroying Edo lately. Tendoshu, Globberians, Skolexians, Shinra, Dakini, Buerians from the past universes. Aren’t you tired of it?” Shinsuke lowered his sword a little,

“Of course I am, every single week its some new bone head trying to cause something. But I’ve been actually doing something about it, fighting with my crew at my side during every occasion.” He said. 

“Yeah really fighting, saving the Shogun’s sister and cousin and protecting them on your ship.” One of Nizou’s goons said.

“Oh would you have wanted the Shinra to slay them? Is that a conflict of interests? Big bad alien destroying the big bad government is too hard to think about for your pea sized brains to decide on one to stick your swords at.” Shinsuke said, the goons just rolled their eyes.

“An uprising is happening, Shinsuke. And it’s not just of extremist factions, even the common day people are growing tired of these intruders tearing down their homes and terrorizing their loved ones. Just be aware of it when the time comes.” Nizou said. Shinsuke put his sword back in its sheath, giving them a look before turning around and heading out of there.

————

There was a bright light in Enshou’s room as he was cozy in bed from partying all weekend long. He opened his eyes to see Yuka, Valentino and Roberta standing there.

image0.png“....Old Wpice and raging little Enshou, this is the best day of my life.” They facepalmed at the sight of this man. 

“Did Jazzy really want me working with this caterpillar ugly again?” Roberta said outloud enough for Enshou to squint his eyes and flip out of bed like a pro Olympic gymnastic. In reality, that was just in his head, he got tangled in his Italian black satin sheets and fell to the floor on his head. 

“You DARE call ME-“ 

“Aye bushy face, yous know where dat Renho king’s room is?” Valentino asked scratching his gooey tummy and looking around. Enshou scowled from the upside down angle he was still at. Yuka just gave her big brother a look. 

“Enshou, we, unfortunately, need your help to locate an associate of yours... that looks like me for reasons I don’t want to think about.” Enshou make a fangsy dastardly smile. “She might be the next target of Jebediah.” Yuka said. Enshou scrambled up and faced her. Yuka taking four steps back, Enshou taking four steps forward. She squinted her eyes. 

“FLTBC, first she leaves me to be apart of some bunch of hillbillies and now you’re telling me my DOOFUS brother is back already? And here I was totally not crying from her absence in my subsconscious- hold me Lady TBC.” Enshou jumped into her arms, she had a look of disgust. Her arms morphed into goo and she threw him against the bedroom wall, causing a large hole in it. “WOAAA MAMA!!! TWO LITTLE ENSHOUS!!!” Enshou excitedly screamed as he slid down out of it.

“This is fucking pointless. We’ll find her ourselves.” Roberta was about to snap her fingers to teleport the three of them away but Enshou got up, dusted himself off and put his fake fangs back in.

“Alright, alright, I’m in, I have all my minions bugged so you punys wouldn’t get anywhere without me.” He pulled out a tracker device out his festive sweater.

“Couldn’t he just used a cellphone to ask Sorella 2.0 where she’s at?” Valentino whispered to his sis who made a confused face that title he gave the woman.
 
“I flushed it down the toilet, don’t ask why.” Enshou replied and the siblings just looked tired. Then moments later the Bureian put his arms around them. “Now my spicy Italians, how do go about exterminating the bug-“ Roberta morphed her arm into worm tentacles and threw him back into the hole, making it bigger.

“Great, now they’re gone.” Enshou said in a monotone about the items in his pants. He slid to the floor again. 

Roberta snapped her fingers and the four teleported back to Edo. They begun walking as Enshou begun tuning his FLTBC Tracker™️. Yuka and Valentino were in the front of the pack talking amongst themselves in Italian to have more privacy.

“Fratello, are you sure you’re ok with coming along... with her?” Yuka asked, Valentino made a slight smile.

“I don’t think she’s gonna do any harmin’ dis time. She done a lot of good lately and even gave ya body back.” He said. Yuka made a little glance over her shoulder. “Ya know sorella, you don’t have to come along if it bothas ya. I’ll be alrite.”

“It’s alright Fratello. I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving you alone.. including with that scribbly eyed freak. ..Besides, the gods said she would protect me in case Jebediah came back.” Yuka said. Valentino looked at his sister and nodded.

“Well she protected ya last time Yukes, I believe in her word there.” Valentino said, Yuka kept staring straight ahead gathering her thoughts. From the back of the pack, Roberta made a sigh,

‘I wonder what they’re saying up there, if they’re talking about me. I’m sure they are.’ She thought to herself. Enshou’s blank expression at her slowly turned into a look of shock.

‘Was FLTBC actually right about this vixen’s advances? No one dresses that good unless they’re up to stealing.. STEALING SPICY MEATBALLS THAT IS!’ Enshou loudly exclaimed in his head.

“Nice garbage bag you’re wearing Wormy, are you PLANNING to STEAL MY ENCHANTRESS RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME?!” Enshou said looking down at his tracker, he smashed on the buttons with his fist furiously.

“Come again?” Roberta said with a bored expression. Enshou looked up, getting right in her face and made a bitter scowl.

“Nice fake big tits, meanwhile mine are 100% REAL.” Enshou groped on his own wonderbra. He proceeded to get punched by a wormy fist and impacted against a building’s brick wall. Yuka and Valentino looked back and then resumed their conversation like nothing important had happened. Enshou peeled himself off of it like a cartoon and spit out a tooth or two. “K-Keep pretending you don’t care about her you winged cockroach, but I SWEAR on my fishnets and googoo boots before this arc ends I GUNSMOKE PRINCE OF BUREI, WILL finally reach her gooey ooey heart and be the dark wicked sexy bride to my handsome groom, LADY TBC!” 

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Enshou manaically laughed into the sky, but when he finally looked down, Roberta had walked ahead with the siblings. He narrowed his eyes again, grand revenge plan against the bug, possibly his #1 enemy even more than stinky Dragonia and stupid fucking posh BOD, would Begin.
——

“YAR HAR FIDDLE DEE DEE!” Kamui crashed his ship into the shore rocks of Okinawa, sending his crew flying back on the walls.

“...We could have parked normally, Chief..” 4th said. Kamui slid out of the ship with a slightly shooken up but still smiling Josh.

“Have fun you guys! We’ll just over the little kiddies from here.” Monika said holding a giggling Gendo Jr. The scuffled up pirate ship was about to take off into the sky again as the engines were roaring.

“YOU DEADBEATS BETTER KEEP MY LONG WOHN BUSINESS AFLOAT!” Kamui waved at them from the ground. “AND KEEP POUTING YOU OLD GROOMER, HA!” 

“Chief, I’m right next to you..” Abuto proceeded to look even duller with this comment as the boat disappeared back into the clouds.

Josh was texting on his phone to Stephen as Kamui was skipping on the beach. No Man put his hands in his pockets and Abuto was barely making it. It was reaching sunset so the yatos didn’t take much concern concealing themselves their umbrellas.

“So where did that old man say he was gonna meet you Shinsuke’s Childhood Friend’s Cousin?” Kamui asked as he balancing on rocks and eventually did a flawless flip. No Man gave it four dogs out of five, could use a bit improvement dog, but still very good.

“He said around the shore is where he found Poe. He must have skadoo’ed over here. I’m not really sure I understood.” Josh said inquisitive. “Thanks again for helping me out though, guys!”

“No problem! You know Shinny, putting his love life above everything else. Kind of annoying but cute.. if I had GROSS FEELINGS that is! HA!”  Kamui jumped off the last rock, purposefully almost knocking down No Man in the process. 

“Yeah Shinsuke dog did leave rather quickly. Barely said two words to a brother.” No Man shook his (sticky) head. Suddenly Josh and the others ducked as a crow came swooping down, passing them. Behind it was a seagull who was following him. 

“Woah! What’s going on there? Poe?” Josh wondered. They fastly walked and watched as the two birds landed on some rocks near by them. The seagull then strangely begun to morph into something else.

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“Woah.. the hell?” No Man put his shades down on his nose.

“Birbs turning into humans, COOL!” Kamui chimmed in. The woman then addressed them there,

“I didn’t mean to frighten you children. There, worms aren’t so bad now aren’t they little brat? Maybe next time you’ll think before pecking at me to be your lunch.” She kept petting the top of Poe’s head as he was purring.

“You must be a Skolexian then!” Josh said with a smile. She finally looked up at him.

“Ah yes, Josh that Detective from out of the comic book. I’m Eisenia from Council on Skolex. Sit!” She said outwardly, he shrugged and did so. She put her hands on his face as he sat there awkwardly. “Huh, I never expected to see an immortal at such a young age.” 

“Oh I’m not from Altana Miss, that would be my cousins! And I don’t think they’re immortal just inherited the powers.” He said as she pinched his cheeks.

“Hey Chief, that makes three of you! I guess four counting your little sister aaaannd I’m gonna stop talking now from that look.” No Man looked away as Kamui made a bigger smile. He took a spot between them breaking them up. 

“You’re that Kankou’s boy. Have you tapped into your powers yet?” Eisenia asked, No Man and Abuto just looked at their Chief with concern on how he’d react.

“I was born without them as I’ve already mentioned to those pointy earred strawhats as they tried to poke pins and needles into me!” The Pirate captain replied calmy. 

“Huh, was expecting some sort of demigod, oh well. Can’t choose your fate.” Eisenia shrugged. “I heard from your old man your latest merchant investment is doing pretty good, eh?” Kamui grinned more at this, 

“Long Wohn Silver’s, We know fish! We’re thinking of buying restaurant franchises all across Edo, Wormy!” Eisenia mildly chuckled and patted him on the head, he surpringly not ripping her hand off.

“Did you come here with Stephen Harvestein by chance then, Miss Eisenia?” Josh asked.

“Yeah, he should be somewhere over there talking to the rest of the Liberation Army.” She pointed in the distance in front of them. They could see figures coming towards them in the twilight hour of the night. Barkas, Umibozu, Ougai, Soutatsu, Eren, Sooyoung and Stephen could eventually be seen.

“I don’t know why you dragged us all here to this island, Barkas. And I don’t know why we’re having the Skolexians boss us around when you’re the admiral.” Soutatsu said as his arms were crossed.

“Ever since Oboro-san’s disappearance there has been a rise of suspicion in the galaxy and its up to us as allies, Soutatsu, to keep tensions at ease, between all our worlds especially.” Barkas simply replied to the man. “And there’s only one Skolexian this time, Enshou said he was ‘uncomfortable with too many squirmy wormies in one room’.”

“Enshou’s not even HERE, in fact no one from Burei is here except Eren and Enshou’s First Officer from the trial case.” Soutatsu said, Stephen just made a little wave.

“He said he couldn’t attend because he got a wicked bad tummy ache from Hankukkahing.” Stephen replied.

“Oh that Enshou!” Eren playfully and pretended a sitcom laughter from his favorite shows went off.

“The Tendoshu controlled the Skolexians, the Skolexians were forced to help out in the Naraku. Eisenia-san was one of the top that infiltrated Earth’s government. She was aware of what happened on this little island during last year’s chaotic spell I unfortunately was apart of. What the..” Umibozu said and then squinted his old man eyes at the distance sight of a ginger colored single hair poking out from a top of someone’s head. “Oh great..”

“And a damn good job at diplomating at that. Those worms might have been brain eaters but Eisenia-san always had a collected sophisticated approach from what I’ve heard of her. No jobs stamped done without her work.” Ougai stated.

“Captain!” Josh shot up as they were close to them now. Stephen waved to him.

“You managed to capture his bird, Eisenia. Now what brought him all the way out here?” Ougai asked as they reached the rocks the others sat on.

“C’aw...” Poe squawked depressed.

“What’s wrong little guy?” Eren put his flippers on his knees as he addressed his fellow bird. “You can speak to me, I know a little Crowlish from Fumiko’s raven uncle.”

“Captain, why Okiwana? Why is everyone starting to find interest in this place again?” Josh earnestly asked as he turned to him. Stephen just sighed,

“Oboro contacted me, I don’t know how he did. Maybe it was through a dream. But he told me to gather everyone here. Some odd things are happening to him and around this place, Josh. I can’t really describe it, call it a feeling of mutual shared Altana.” 

“Caw caw caw caw caw?” Eren asked still communicating with the crow, Poe nodded back. “He says Oboro told him to wait for him here when he returned. Maybe the Captain’s hutch is right then.”

“Ask him where he thinks Oboro is now.” Umibozu said as Kamui now locked eyes with him. Eren spoke to him in Crowlish and then later about the upcoming Wonic movie.

“We should probably head in, it’s getting pretty dark for people like us out here alone.” Ougai said to Barkas who nodded.

“Well, Shige set aside private rooms for us in one of the hotels for us.” Barkas stated. “You’re welcome to come with us, Josh. We can use all the investigating help we can get.” Josh nodded excitedly. The others followed the prince through the sand back to the buildings. Soutatsu was in the back of the group now on a phone call, he was starting to get more and more irritated at the persons on the other line. He clenched his phone and a little stress ball in the other.

“No.. I told you guys a million times. Listen to the construction workers, they know what they’re doing.” He could be heard saying.

“Tell that to HERCULES! He hammered one nail and he fell to the floor in pain! None of these doofuses know what to do!” Bores said in annoyance, Tatakin could be seen eating a pb&j sandwich from a ledge on the construction site of the new Liberation Army Headquarters. 

“Look.. you’re there to help them. Just go along with whatever they say okay?” Soutatsu put a hand through his blue hair.

“YOU DICKBAG I WASN’T DONE WITH THAT POWER DRILL YET!” Bores could be now heard yelling into the background at B.H. “Hey, hey dumbass, be careful with that! HEY!! Woah!”

The phone hit the dirt ground as was a super loud crash of the entire structure and then silence for a couple of moments until Tatakin picked the phone up, chewing on some tobacco.

“TWO MORE HOURS, TOPS.”

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At the hotel, the rooms were split up like Barkas and Eren (and Poe!) in one, Ougai and Soutatsu another, Stephen and Josh, Umibozu and the pirate rapscallions, and then Sooyoung and Eisenia. The latter two were sitting out on the balcony with cups of hot cocoa, looking at the night time sky overviewing the ocean.

“It’s funny, I usually stray off to do my own thing for better or for worse, but I’m still not use to traveling without the rest of the Council. So thanks for rooming with me, Sooyoung. It’s always great to catch up with an old friend.” Eisenia stated, Sooyoung nodded. They were wearing matching silk pajamas. Sooyoung then telepathed something causing the Skolexian to look down at the marshmallows in her mug. “I should be more at ease, but I’m not.. Skolex has come far in the last couple of months than we ever hoped for especially after those pesky strawhats grasp on us for decades. But we still have demons from the past we have to face even before their arrival. A life time of purging other species for our owns survival. And we essentially taught our children the same ways too.”

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“Hey Roberta, there you are. You know Council’s been worried about you lately. A little girl like you living on the streets alone. But if you come back with me we can see all the other children, and maybe we can talk about what happened to your parents.”

Roberta looked up with her poor vision and squinted her eyes. She put on her goggles to see better and then scurried up out of the dirty alleyway. Eisenia sighed as she sat there, the child out of plain sight again.

“How do we undo that damage?” Eisenia said outloud, Sooyoung telepathed something again. “Time.” She nodded and smiled at the Justaway’s wise words. “Optimistic. But that’s something no one has really at the moment I’m afraid my dear..” They kept staring at the bright full moon overlooking the crashing waves of the ocean.
——

“Do you think Dylan is at Josh’s college dorm?” Joe asked his older brother. They were walking down the streets of their hometown in Burbank. Steve had his hands in his coat looking down as he shook his head. 

“I don’t think he could have traveled that far that fast. Plus Josh is on semester break, so there’s no need to go back there. He could still be around here, or maybe he lives somewhere in Neveda. Who knows.” Steve looked more down than usual, Joe raised an eyebrow.

“Come on Stevey, we’ve had much harder cases than this. What’s eating you up? Is it Josh being stuck in the book?” He asked as they got to a cross walk and pressed on the button.

“It’s that and the fact we missed so much during our month of straight work.” Steve looked at the red hand symbol on the sign. “Joe, how can we do this. How can we keep trying to make a living for ourselves in the real world while also looking over the book’s world? How can we honor our parents last will to look over it for them?” There was a long pause as cars came flying through the intersection. 

“They didn’t want us to look over the book, Steve.” Josh said in a more serious quiet tone. “They wanted us to look over Stephen.” The symbol turned and he started walking the crossroad, Steve’s mouth was agape. He stood there for some seconds before catching up to his younger brother. 

“Joe.. They meant the comic book too, it is everything to this universe.. and everything to me-“ Steve pointed to his chest, Joe butted in though,

“And everything in that book belonging to that old man, who can watch over it like he has most of our lives.” They got on the curb and once again walked down the streets. “Steve, your love of them is tremendous, I know even someone like me who loves it very much can’t grasp the depth of your love for it completely. But Mom and Dad didn’t want us to become slaves to the book. We can’t control everything as much as we would like, as much as we thought we could in the beginning.” Steve furrowed his eyebrows, it was rare that Joe actually saw him tearing up. 

“We can’t even control ourselves from people like Utsuro or Jebediah.. how could we ever have protected it for Mom and Dad in the first place..” Steve begun walking faster, passing Joe. 

“Wait! Steve! Come on, bro. Let’s keep talking, please!” Joe called out. But suddenly Steve was pulled by a hand into the alley, Joe’s pupils shrunk.

“STEVE!” He yelled out and started running towards where his brother was taken. 

“Don’t be afraid, Steven-dono. It’s me. Please keep quiet, he could hear us.” The man said, his hand was over Steve’s mouth to keep him from yelling. 

“Ob...Oboro..? Is that you..? Who can hear us..?” Steve whispered. Oboro then let him go as Joe came storming into the alley but then looked shock. 

“O-Oboro..?” Joe asked.

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“Why the hell do you look like that?” Joe said.

“How in the world are you outside the comic book?” Steve exclaimed astonished. 

“My powers are becoming much greater than I expected. I was propelled to the Bermuda Triangle and then came here once I sensed he was up to something and a threat to you both. I had to disguise myself, you wouldn’t want to see a cartoon character walking about with real people.” Oboro explained, the two detectives were just in awe. 

“Who is this ‘him’ you keep referring to?” Steve asked, Oboro gave them a grave look.

“Jebediah-dono. He’s making his plans for revenge much sooner than I expected.” The two brothers held their heads in grief as Oboro continued. “He is aware of where I am and can communicate telepathically with me. I am not safe to be around, but I might be able to help you locate where his accomplice is at least. Let me ask you Steven-dono, Joseph-dono.. have you ever tried to use your ska-dooing powers in the real world?” 

“No Oboro we haven’t.” Steve replied.

“We kind of try to make a habit to lay low of things like that here, you know.” Joe chimmed in. Oboro begun to slowly pace about.

“I have traveled thousands of miles across your world in mere seconds on portals alone, if my powers can work out here so flawlessly.. just imagine what Jebediah-dono could do.” Oboro looked up at them again, their expressions even more grim. 

“We have no time to lose then.” Steve slapped out his Handy Dandy notebook and begun to work. 

Meanwhile in some library in some place, Dylan was flipping through the pages of the comic book, somewhat of a bored expression plastered on his face. 

“Dylan really wishes he could have a plan to do. But the funny accent speaking man had stopped talking to him hours ago. Maybe Dylan should go get some fresh air outside, perhaps a Churro even.” Dylan stretched himself out of the wooden chair and scratched his back. He put the comic book back in his backpack with the other purple crystals that allowed his communication with the comic book people and slung it over his shoulder. The kid begun to head towards the exit, but when he begun to walk out of the doorway, he was suddenly stopped by a loud boisterous laugh.

“Better make that two churros then, chap!” Jebediah suddenly said within his head, causing Dylan to yell and fall to the ground in terror. “My apologies, my apologies for my absence my dear boy. I’ve just been collecting the most scrumptious information all across the book world’s and yours!” Dylan crawled his way back to the table slumping his way to sit up. “That blasted Oboro is coming soon, or so he thinks! He clearly knows I can sense what he’s doing so he has something else in mind first.” 

“Mr. Scary Disembodied voice, Dylan wants to know how long he’s gonna stay here because his mom was gonna make him some mac and chee-“ Dylan was interrupted again, perhaps.

“As long as we’re collecting information in this library of yours! Mhmm~ quite, so if I was you young man I’d keep at it! Got to keep the wheels turning and all of that, hm.” Jebediah simply replied. “I will be checking your progress on those books on dark magic so keep at it! They may be fairy tales compared to the real powers of purple and green crystals, but even fairy tales have their bases in truth.”

Dylan sighed and tiredly strolled to the supernatural section of the library to pick some of them up. The screen cut to another man’s hand trying to clamp onto the note cards he dropped on the floor, as he heard footsteps. The man looked up at the woman above him.

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“Jebs what the hell are you doing? Your conference with the Oukokuans and Shinra starts in like two minutes and you’re out here goofing off!”

“M-minor set back.” He collected the last card and got up with the help of his friend. He was once again speaking in his natural accent.

“Don’t tell me you’re doing a last minute cram like in college.” She smirked, Jebediah shook his head.

“I only wish it was something that easy, Zara. They’re gonna wonder why as allies they’re just standing by as we let our world destroy itself without their help on delivering out people and I gotta tell them which in turn they will tell billions of their people that I’m not letting this world go.” He put the cards in his jacket, took a deep breath in trying to soothe his shaking nerves and then begun walking to the hallway of the Bungan Alliance conference room on Shinra. 

“Good luck! You’re pants are inside out but good luck!” Zara called out. Jebediah looked down at himself in shock, felt like sliding down a wall but continued on in as he had run out of time. Zara would wait there in the lobby until he returned. Shinra and Oukokuan filed out a few hours later until at last Jebediah came. He was rubbing his hands all over his uneased face.

“So.. how did it go Inside Out Pants Boy?” She said trying to get an answer our of him.

“Oh yeah I forgot about that...” Jebediah said in a monotone looking at the back of his pants. “Anyway, they were a bit surprised but said they’d do everything they can to help our deteriorating lost-cause of a planet.” Jebediah slumped in a seat next to her.

“They didn’t call it that those words.” Zara gave him a look.

“No, but I called it those words to myself.” He laid his head back in the chair. “It’s not like you to stay back here with a doofus like me this long, what’s on your mind Profess?”

“Nonsense, I stayed back for endless hours when you vomited your brains out from your first drink.” She joked. She then looked outside, the first crisp looking skies of Shinra, the first clear ones she had seen in years on the smog and poisonous air filled skies of Burei. “My parents have made their decision, they’re leaving Burei.” Jebediah sat up from his chair. “They’re getting older, Jebs. I don’t want to leave my work but I worry about their future and the care they might need.” Jebediah looked around, having these thoughts sink deeper and deeper into him. He then clutched Zara’s hand, she tilted her head in response.

“I’d understand.. but I’d really miss my best friend if she left.” He uttered out.

“I never said I was going, Jebs. There’s far too much research to be done on a way to miraculously get cleaner air.” She replied. “So you don’t have to hold my hand.. besides it’s really sweaty.” She smiled, he made sort of an awkward, nervous chuckle in reply. The two friends kept sitting there waiting for their notification that their aircraft landed to take them back to Burei.

TBC

 

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19 hours ago, Old Man Jenkins said:

Do you think Fastlane 2017 is gonna happen again where Goldberg takes the Universal title off another big boi right before Mania?

God I hope so, that'll kick so much ass

 

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"Alright uh you Lily FOOLS.  Drop what yer doing and put your uh hands up!"  the cast and crew dropped what was in their hands as Mark kicked the door in.

"Why in uh the hell did I get THIS OST?!"  Mark yelled as he pressed the gun harder against Gintoki's temple.  Gintoki sighed as Guano stood up from his chair.  Shinpachi and Kagura walked in after the clowns filed the room with their guns drawn.

"Hey Guano-san!"  Shinpachi waved at the director who had his hands up.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!"  Ozu yelled from the installed bar area,

"Oi Old Man, you finally got that bar installed.  I might have to come over more often."  Gintoki said, using the gun to scratch his chin.  Mark ripped it quickly back from the samurai.

"Oh yes!  I just had it installed a few weeks ago.  With that whole uprising and Jebediah thing happening, it halted production just a bit.  But I think it turned out quite nice, we have a fine collection of all kinds of adult beverages!"  Ozu said with a shining smile.

"ALRIGHT WOULD YA STOP UH CHUMMIN IT UP!"  Mark said waving his gun around while his goons fired rounds into the ceiling.  3 detectives peeked into the studio from the door that Mark kicked in,

"What are we going to do Boss?  The situation really picked up!"  Haji said, biting her nails.  Heiji's face went white as he slunk down,

"We...we must find a way to stop this.  We owe Yorozuya for saving our butts from that hardboiled jail.  Sunny, do you have any suggestions?"  Heiji looked up at her, but she was looking at the opposite building across the street,

"Kintoki-san!  What are you doing over there?"  she asked, waving at him.

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"You guys like my jorts?  I just picked them up at the department store next door...oh uh Sunny...oh my this is embarrassing, please look away."  Sunny closed her eyes as a grappling hook shot out of Kintoki's crotch.

"WHAT THE HELL?!  WHY IS THERE COMING OUT OF THERE??"  Haji yelled.  Sunny giggled as she was still closing her eyes,

"I've heard Enshou-sama say that exact same phrase before!"  she said.  Kintoki's circuits began to spark,

"L-look just grab onto my rope and climb to the top of the building,"  he pointed to where the hook landed, on top of Lily Mu studios.  Heiji finished the sentence,

"To enter the studio from the roof!  Great idea Kintoki, that's hardboiled thinking at its finest.  Come on Haji, get Sunny and start climbing!"  Heiji grabbed on Kintoki's rope and began to climb.

"What an absolutely horrific image this is..."  Haji said, tight rope walking on Kintoki's rope, holding Sunny's hand as the two walked across Heiji's hands.  Eventually the three made their way to the roof, while Kintoki launched his body and crotch towards where the grappling hook latched to the roof and retracted the rope back into himself.

"A-a-alright Sunny, you can open your eyes up now."  Sunny opened her eyes and covered her mouth as she pointed at the hook still protruding from Kintoki's jorts.  Kintoki, in embarrassment, fell backwards off the building and shattered into dozens of pieces.  The noise distracted Mark long enough for Gintoki to twist his hand and rip the gun from him.  The samurai grabbed Mark and did the ol role reversal on him.  Outside, Kintoki gave a thumbs up from the ground, er at least his thumb moved as it had been broken off from his hand from the impact.  Heiji lit a cigar and took a puff from it,

"You did good kid!  Now, let's finish it here.  On the count of three, we jump down and make a heroic entrance.  1, 2...3!"  Heiji, Haji, and Sunny jumped through the glass ceiling and landed directly on top of Yorozuya.  Ozu's face grew dark as Mark (hey that rhymed!) grabbed the gun from Gintoki and held him and Heiji at gunpoint, while his goons held everyone else at gunpoint. 

"Well that was certainly climatic!  Now then, Ozu.  Nice to-a seeya again!"  Mark said chuckling as the headlocked the two hostages.

"And you are...?"  Ozu asked as he held his hands up.  Mark fired a round in the air,

"YOU-A STILL FORGETTABOUT ME?!  AFTER ALL I'VE DONE!  It's me-a...Mark!"  Mark said,

"I don't remember hiring a man with such vulgar tattoos."  Ozu said, pointing at the cocksucker.  Mark narrowed his eyes as the camera began to drift to the door behind him and zoom in on Kintoki as he laid there in a heap of scrap and spilled oil.

'Pull yourself together Kintoki...you're a brave detective.  You can be the hero you've always striven to be.'

"Why exactly did you model me after Gintoki?  Getting sentience like this and seeing that you based me off an already existing human..."  Kintoki's internal memory chip kicked in as a flashback flew across his processors,

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"He's a hero Kintoki.  I just wanted...a boy I could see grow and become someone my son never had the chance to become.  I want you to live on Kintoki.  And I don't mean it like your functions will be kept juiced, I mean for you to live on and be proud of yourself."  Kintoki remembered staring at the back of Gengai's head as he was knee deep in tinkering on his next invention.  He turned his back to his creator and headed to his room, directly across from Gengai's.  He looked around his room, noticing it was a bit bare.  He had only been created but a mere 3 months ago, so he was still trying to find who he was, what it meant to have a personality and be someone.  He took a seat on his racecar bed and stared at the only poster that dawned his wall.  A simple, but cute poster that was made by Tama.

'Hang in there!' and picture was a small robot hanging to a telephone wire.  He solemnly blinked at the poster as he put his head down on the table next to his bed.  His body being programmed to auto-pilot sleeping for him, as to better adjust to human life.  However, this night felt different as his processors in his memory banks were working overdrive.  A dream, at least unknown to him at the time, was being produced.  The first one he would ever have in his life.  Kintoki was laying in a patch of flowers.  A blue sky was overhead as he was staring at the lazy clouds sluggishly moving their way across the skies.  He looked to his right and saw bright yellow flowers as they danced in the wind.  The grass on his back felt nice, or at least it was producing a sense of warmth and earthliness.  He wasn't sure what was happening, as if he was still awake.  He stood up and looked around his surrounding.  Large mountains encapsulated him in the vibrant valley he was placed in.

"Where am I?"  Kintoki looked at his hand, but was quickly snapped back to reality.  The morning sun was shining through his blinds as he was snuggled up in his vroom vroom bed.  On his sidetable was a small envelope that read "Open me when you are in need of guidance ".  Kintoki scratched his chin as he examined the note closer.  No indication on who it was from as he scanned it back and front.  He placed the letter in the left pocket of his jean jacket that was hanging from his closet's doorknob.  He stood up and walked to his mirror, examining his blatantly copied features.  Sighing, he grabbed a baseball cap, the same leather jacket, a pair of jeans and a really nice pair of Air Wordan Sneakers.  He assumed Gengai was some sort of sneakerhead, but that word was not in his database.  He grabbed his phone and saw that he had a text from Genos, a close friend of his since creation.  Gengai and Genos's doctor are very close, and introduced the two while Genos was getting repaired from the fight in Okinawa.  The text read, "Me and Yes Man are going to get frozen yogurt.  It would be excellent if you could join us Kintoki."  Kintoki smiled, as he didn't get many chances to hang out with people other than his family.  He gleefully responded with a "You betcha!" a phrase he picked up from Gengai's frequent expression to his customers.  Kintoki opened the door to his bedroom and immediately noticed how quiet it was in the shop.  Usually Gengai was tinkering with gadgets or Tama was home cooking a meal.  But that day, it felt different.  Something was off and he could sense it.  Maybe it had something to do with that letter?  At the time, he couldn't quite discern the handwriting on the envelope.  It seems dignified, as if it had been written with a hand that's seen millions of words.  Yet, it was elegant and graceful.  His processors were interrupted by the sound of a car horn outside his home.  He snapped to attention and peered out the window to see only Genos sitting in a red sports car outside waiting for him.  He waved and smiled at him as he grabbed his keys and wallet on the counter-top in the kitchen.  He took note of the date on the calendar above the fruit bowl.  March 20th, there was a picture of a chameleon blending into the brown bark it was sitting upon representing the month of March.  He opened his door and smiled at Genos as he climbed into the sports car,

"Kintoki, it's great to have the time to hang out with you.  Although, Yes Man couldn't be with us.  He is participating in a charity event for the awful tragedy that happened last month."  Kintoki took note of Geno's condition.  He was heavily bandaged and looked as if he had been installed with new parts.  Kintoki took shotgun in the fancy car and gave Genos and concerning look,  "Don't worry about me Kintoki, I'm doing fine.  I was able to get to safety after Utsuro defeated me in a valiant fight."  Kintoki looked down at the floor of the car and rubbed the back of his neck,

"I'm glad that you are alright Genos, though I just wish I had been there to help all of you guys...all I want is to be friends with them but I couldn't even be there to be a hero.  Even if I'm just a cheap copy."  Genos turned his head to Kintoki as he shifted the car into first gear,

"You shouldn't have to kick yourself like that Kintoki-san.  You may be designed after that samurai, but you are your own being.  And you are proving that every day by just having your own thoughts.  Now, lets get some frozen yogart shall we?"  Kintoki put his shades down and pressed a button to lift the roof of the car.  Kintoki forced a smile as he stared out the passenger side of the car.  The two cybernetic boys were letting the cool spring breeze drift through their blonde hair.  It was an easy pace as Genos kept the car in second gear.  The two were heading to a town pretty far from Edo, a smaller one than Tokyo but larger than Edo.  It was on the southern coast of Japan, one of the nearest city to Okinawa, Kagoshima.  It was a bit of a car ride, but Kintoki anticipated it.  The two had visited the Southern Island, Kyushu before.  Genos made note of it the previous roadtrip that a special Yogurt shop was opening there,  "He's expanding his business.  I'm sure you remember him.  He gave us those once in a life time frozen Yogurt cups last summer.  I just couldn't wait until then, so I had to make it as soon as possible.  Sensei said he didn't need me for today, and said I had the day off!  Plenty of the heroes are patrolling Tokyo fairly well since the Utsuro incident, not a lot of crime has been happening.  Also, I figured you wanted to at least be near Okinawa and not be near it."  Genos nodded to Kintoki who gave him a half smile.

"I suppose you're right Genos.  I did get this note this morning...I wonder if it has something to do with what happened on that island."  Genos gave him a puzzled look, but waved it off,

"I don't have business in snooping into your personal life.  I don't want to breach our trust, since I believe building a relationship is very important.  Sensei always told me that, and I want to follow that philosophy to a tee."  Genos gave Kitnoki a genuine smile as he turned the radio on.

The two were cruising as Denzel was blaring over the speakers.  It felt good to Kintoki, or that's what his processors told him.  The ocean's breeze was familiar but distant.  He touched the envelope in his breast pocket as the car whipped into a transition into a small parking lot.  It was located near the beach, the sun was out and children were running with beach balls followed by their parents as Genos placed sunglasses on and offered a pair to Kintoki.  Kintoki thanked him as he put the glasses on.  Kintoki was beginning to remember this very parking lot, he had been here before.  That tree Genos parked in front of, his scan of it matched his memory bank,

"Do you remember when we sat under that tree last summer?  The one with the three claw marks just above our heads."  Kintoki pointed to the tree with the unique markings as Genos tipped his sunglasses down,

"Of course, me and Yes Man both noted that our Sensei's would also enjoy the cool shade of that tree.  Should we sit under there today?"  Genos suggested.  Kintoki smiled and nodded.  The two began to walk along the strip of small shops.  The walkway was lined with dozens of people as the two metallic men made their way to a small, placed away shop just to the right of a bigger ramen shop.  "The Frozen Goods."  a small sign read just outside of the door.  It was a bead door, the two brushed passed them as they were greeted by a man with unreal abs and hugely spikey hair.

"Welcome to the Frozen Goods, I'm Garou and apparently the author wanted to really write me into the story since I'm his favorite OPM character.  I am also not wearing a shirt for some reason."  I gave into it and placed a black apron on him.  He showed the two the daily special, a small vanilla with extra fruit.

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"That actually looks pretty good.  I think I'll take that one."  Kintoki said.  Genos scratched his chin,

"I'll have the double dipped chocolate with extra whipped cream."  Genos said very sternly.  Garou sighed and began to get to work on the complex yogurt.  Genos and Kintoki sat down at a booth not far from the kitchen.  Genos was rubbing his shoulder, where bandages were visible from his jacket.

"Still in pain from Okinawa?"  Kintoki asked as Garou placed the yogurts in front of the two.  Genos tilted his head down as he began to eat his yogurt.

"Not just physical really.  I'm scared that my Sensei could be beaten."  Genos put his spoon down,  "He couldn't stop Utsuro.  He was outsmarted by that man.  I've never once doubted Sensei and his powers...but I knew eventually he would start to meet his match in someway."  Kintoki reached across the table and patted Genos's shoulder, his healthy one at least.

"We all can't be the hero we think we are Genos.  If want Gengai-san has taught me in this life, it's that you need to be the best you CAN be.  Not the one you strive to be."  Genos lifted his head back up and smiled at Kintoki.  The yogurt shop was quiet, as they were the only two customers.  As the meal went on, Kintoki's processors reverted back to present day.

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He was still staring up at the sky, it felt to him that hours had passed.  There were no noises coming from inside the Studio.  A few streets down, he heard a "swooshing" noise, but wasn't able to move quick enough to react to it.  He did, however, manage to sit himself up and crawl closer to the studio walls.  There were no paparazzi outside, so he was able to make it to the side lot without being seen.  He leaned against the wall and felt around his jacket, eventually locating what the letter he always kept in that breast pocket.

"I suppose now is a better time than ever to get some words of wisdom."  he took the letter out, it was a little damaged but he managed to keep it safe for the entire year.  He carefully opened the seal and produced a small lined piece of paper from it.  He turned it around and read the singular sentence printed onto it.

9LyYkca.png  Kintoki gripped the letter tight as he neatly folded it back into the envelope.  He looked up with a single droplet of oil in his eye, filled to the brim with determination to help his friends.

---------------------------------------------------------------

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"Yeah I'm in the lingerie section right now.  I'm not really sure what he'll like, he's got a few really nice fits already.  It just seems a little corny to get him lingerie again."  Shinsuke said while talking on the phone.  "He already has a pink one....I have a purple one.  That just seems really contradictory."  Shinsuke's eye shifted over down the aisle and saw someone wearing an obvious wig looking through the lingerie also.  "I'll call you back."  Shinsuke ended the call and faced the man who was peering back and forth from the underwear to Shinsuke.  "Are you seriously still following me Nizou?  Or whoever the hell you are."  

"The blonde wig fits me best."  Nizou said, still looking at the clothes.  Shinsuke sighed,

"Can I please buy my anniversary present in peace.  First you corner me in an alley and now you're stocking me in a mall.  Do you want to fuck me or something?  The answer is never in any universe."  Nizou flipped his bangs,

"Look around you Shinsuke.  The people are restless,"  Shinsuke turned his head to the patrons of the mall, milling about and doing some typical shopping.  "A grand war, an upheaval of the Shogunate.  The people will claim this land back."  Shinsuke rolled his eye and began to walk out of the Wictoria Secret.

"So, do you like, want to get some Wanda Express or something.  There's a food court just down the way."  Shinsuke said, pointing at a sign that had a pink panda on it.

"No, I'm trying to steer you towards the right of the people!  Fight for what the Kiheitai stood for all those years ago!  Before Katsura and his men joined and softened you up."  Shinsuke wigged Nizou and threw it in the garbage.

"Don't bring my husband into this.  Whatever stupid uprising game you're playing, I'm not falling for it."  Shinsuke began to walk up to the cashier and stared at the menu.  Nizou crept up behind him,

"I'll do whatever it takes to get you to see your errors.  Where's the Shinsuke of old!  There's got to be some-"  Nizou stopped as he met eyes with someone across the food court.

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"What the hell is he doing here?"  Nizou pointed at Elizabeth who just whistled.  Shinsuke looked over and rolled his eyes,

"Great, why the hell are YOU following me now?"  Shinsuke said, pointing at Elizabeth.  He stood up and put a mask over his head before walking over to Shinsuke,

"Look, I was just...ok I was stalking you dude, but look, I had to make sure you bought Katsura something nice!  You've always cheaped out on gifts for him, so I wanted to make sure you got this one right.  But, now I see why you stopped in the food court, cause some ghosts are following you around."  Elizabeth pulled the mask up and glared at Nizou who simply smirked.

"I'll be back Shinsuke, just you wait.  I'll haunt you forever if I have to get you to see how the tides are changing in society."  Nizou put his hands in his kimono and walked off into the sea of people,

"Fuckin Joker headass, society lookin old ass dead man havin-"  Shinsuke carried on his insult train for several minutes as Elizabeth began to fall asleep in the seat across from him.

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"Do you see this picture?"  Enshou sat his wallet down at the table him, Valentino, Yuka, and Roberta were sitting at.  It was in a main hub of Tokyo, bustling citizens getting to work and cars were zipping past them, honking as the traffic was never ending.  The train was rumbling just above them, bright neon lights from the large buildings were beginning to flicker on as it was reaching dusk.

"Uh, yeah what about it and why is it in your wallet?"  Roberta asked, puzzled.  Enshou rolled his eyes,

"IT'S WHAT LIFE MEANS!  God you worms will never understand.  HERE!-"  Enshou pointed at Lady Gaga,  "Peak of beauty.  Her dress is flawless, her heels are flawless, her hair is FLAWLESS."  he then shifted his finger to the burger, "VEGGIE BURGER!  Like the Queen she is sticks to her morals.  AND THEN!  The sweet tea.  The furniture.  It all comes together, a true work of art in photography."  he folded the picture up and reached for his wallet, yet nothing was there.  "Great, none of you imbeciles could even LOOK AT THE TABLE.  Now some low-class scum is going to steal my identity.  This is what happens when I am left alone without Sweetcheeks.  I get stuck with a wrigley worm, an icky Italian, and a Goddess.  I cannot fault you Lady TBC."  Yuka threw her tea glass at Enshou's face, causing the hot tea to explode all over his face.  "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"  Enshou fell backwards out of his chair and knocked into the person next to him,

"Maybe your karma is catching up with you, rich scum."  the customer got up and stormed away.  Enshou's entire foundation was beginning to melt off his face from the hot tea running down his body.

"Aren't we supposed to be finding that Fake Me?  Why did we make this useless pit stop.  I'm not even hungry."  Yuka said, sighing.

"Well you knows Yukes, me an da red head were a bit hungry!  I gotta appetite ok?"  Val said, sipping on his tea.

"That's right.  I heard this place served kosher salad.  I had to see it to believe it."  Enshou said, sitting back in his chair.

"You're positive she's here in Tokyo?"  Roberta said, staring at her "kosher" salad.  Enshou narrowed his eyes,

"I've never EVER been more positive in my life.  Well, that's not true.  Nevertheless, that story must be told for another day.  But, I am without DOUBT she is within the city limits."  Enshou yelled.

"You do realize that Tokyo is deceptively large, don't you?  Why wouldn't she be in Edo?"  Roberta retorted.

"CAN IT WORM BRAINS.  She is here.  And I'll prove it."  Enshou held out his wrist which had a diamond studded watch on it.  He tapped a button on the side and smirked as a holographic Tokyo appeared from it.  There was a blinking, yellow smile hovering over the city.  "As you can see, FLTBC is ever the optimist.  No one else in recorded history can produce this smile on my tracker.  And trust me, I track a lot of people."  Val and Yukes gave each other nervous looks at that statement.  Roberta's gaze lingered past the three at the table and listened attentively to the table next to them,

"Yeah of course I heard about that hostage situation at LilyMu!  Well, it's about time that old crook Ozu got his comeuppance.  No, no!  I don't mean to disparage the hostages, but it's really time someone stepped up to those producer tycoons.  I'd be lying if I didn't admire the motives of...The Phantom!"  Roberta looked down as the girl said that, sitting her drink on the table at the same time.  The 3 all looked at Roberta as she coughed.

"I think we should pay the Lily Mu crew a visit.  She might be there with them."  Enshou scoffed,

"And mingle with THOSE people.  I can't brush my infinite screentime cape against their dirt poor floor.  No way."  Enshou said, shaking his head.  Roberta sighed as she snapped her fingers, causing the group to appear just outside the studio, after all the paparazzi had died down.  "I really, really hate when you do that."  Enshou said, flipping his cape up.  Enshou stopped dead in his tracks as he turned to his left and was face to face with Kintoki.

"Oh Jesus, can we just leave already?  Can't I just get a mani-pedi or something?"  Enshou said face-palming.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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"Hold still please."  a camera bulb flashed as Dylan stood there holding his incarceration number and name on a small plate.  "Turn to your side."  Dylan obliged and turned to face the left.  On the other side of Las Vegas County Jail sat Steve and Joe.  They were waiting in an interrogation room, the one with a two-way mirror.  The weather outside began to pick up, as faint sounds of rain were hitting against the old brick walls.  Distant sounds of thunder rumbled as Joe loosened up the tie he was wearing,

"They booked him on trespassing, made our work a lot more easier."  Steve nodded as he opened the file on the suspect,

"Dylan Chillin, born January 31st 1998.  Previously booked on minor charges; failure to appear, loitering, several speeding tickets.  Nothing too major on a surface level, but none of that really matters to us."  Steve said, closing the folder.  An officer walked into the room,

"He's ready for questioning."  Steve and Joe nodded as the officer walked back out of the room and began to escort Dylan into the small room.  He took his seat and stared blankly at the mirror.

"Did you make sure that Oboro's burner phone was turned on?  I'm not sure how well versed in technology is here in the real world."  Joe asked.  Steve nodded,

"Yeah, I set everything up.  He should be at Dylan's dorm any time now."  Steve picked up the folder as the two brothers began to switch rooms.  The two opened the door and grabbed a seat for themselves to sit across from Dylan.  Joe produced a picture of the comic book and slid it to Dylan,

"Let's cut to the chase Dylan.  You know why we're here.  Where is it?  If you tell us right here and now, we'll make sure all your charges are dropped.  You'll leave tonight and head right back to your campus without any incident.  All you have to do is tell us the location."  Joe said, beginning to sound a little stern.  Dylan picked up the photo and examined it,

"Dylan has no idea what you are talking about."  he sat the photo down and slid it back to Joe.  Joe narrowed his eyes, but Steve put his arm across Joe's chest,

"Let's not get off on the wrong foot here!  Let's start elsewhere, you were at the library for an excessive amount of time, so much so that you were forced off the lot, but you refused to leave.  Is there any reason why you stayed at the library that long?"  Steve asked, with a lighter tone than Joe.  Dylan shrugged his shoulders,

"Dylan, needed to study.  There was a big test coming up and he needed to study.  Number 11, The Huge-"  Joe grabbed his mouth and closed it shut.  Steve gave his brother dagger eyes as Joe was obviously playing the "bad cop".

"Cut to the chase kid, tell us where it is or we'll make your life hell."  Joe said, letting go of his mouth.  Dylan shook his head,

"Dylan, in good mental state, cannot give up the location of the book and his crystal supplies."  Joe stood up and put his hands on his head.  Steve began to get nervous his brother might take his bad cop role a little too seriously.  Steve turned back to Dylan as Joe was pacing around the room,

"Well, no one is going to post your bail.  We'll just have to keep prying into you until your court date.  Me and my brother have all the time in the world.  We just want you to come clean and do the right thing."  Steve said.

"And what?  The comics, are nothing more than just that.  Pictures and words on a page."  Joe threw his hands down from his head and started towards Dylan, lifting him up out of his seat with both of his hands,

"JOE PLEASE!"  Dylan was struggling, but Joe relented and put the man down,

"They're not just words and pictures...not to us."  Joe opened the door of the interrogation room and slammed it shut as he walked out.  Dylan was huffing and puffing as Steve sat there with concern plastered on his face.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okinawa was at the twilight of the night.  It was pitch black, with nothing but the milky way lighting up the expansive sky.  Stephen was meditating on a large rock just off the coast, on the beach of the hotel all the leaders were staying at.  Poe was flying above him, taking in the cool ocean breeze on his feathers.  Stephen opened his eyes towards the coast and saw someone standing there, waving.

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"You know Mr. Harevestein, the sky is made up of so many crazy colors!  Remember a few weeks ago when the sky was that blinding purple?  It's crazy to think just how much this comic can effect the sky like this."  Stephen smiled as he stepped up,

"Please Josh, just call me Stephen."  Josh nodded and smiled back,

"Alright Stephen, I take it you couldn't sleep either?"  Stephen shook his head and sat on the rock as Poe landed next to him.  Josh took a seat on the other side.  The two were watching as the waves were crashing on the beach.  The tides were raising, but ever so slightly.  Wind was soft but not absent.

"No, my mind is all over the place kid.  This old man just wants to rest, but this place is always in need of heroes."  Josh agreed,  "Did you talk with Eisenia-san at all?"  Josh nodded and handed Stephen his handy-dandy notepad.

"She had a very interesting story, telling me all about the story of her planet and what she does there.  I think I'm starting to slowly understand this world a little better than when I first came to the comic."  Stephen scrolled through the text, reading about Skolex and how she ran the planet with the rest of the council.  "She also explained to me more about what happened on Okinawa.  This is for sure going to help with the report I'm writing for Steve and Joe."  Stephen handed him back the notepad,

"And what did she tell you?  I'm pretty curious myself."  Stephen said with enthusiasm.  Josh sat the notepad down and began to explain;

---------

"I've been living on Earth for over 10 years."  Josh seemed surprised,

"And did you know about the comic?"

"I did.  Being associated with the Naraku...whether I enjoyed that or not, I did know about Utsuro and what he was doing.  I played diplomat all over the lands of this planet, but I always ended up back in Edo."  Josh jotted that down,

"Did you closely observe Utsuro?  I never met the man myself but my cousins were raised by him essentially."  Eisenia nodded,

"I wish I could someday meet your cousins.  Their powers along with Oboro and Jebediah have always intrigued me.  Anyway, I did observe Utsuro rather closely...but of course from a safe distance.  I was never able to get into the Naraku easily, I mainly stayed on the government side of these lands."  Josh continued typing,

"So, you said you were watching Okinawa closely, what did you mean by that earlier?"  Josh questioned,

"As a Skolexian mainly.  We were on high alert, especially from the Tendoushu.  They put pressure on all of us not to interfere."  Josh paused and looked up puzzled,

"They DIDN'T want you to interfere?  Wouldn't that time be the perfect opportunity to strike while Earth is completely focused on one thing?  Your species and the Tendoushu seem like the quick to conquer type."

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'Do what's in our best interest Skolexian, observe closely but don't interfere.  We need Utsuro to die.  His power manipulating time and space needs to come to an end.'  Eisenia thought to herself during the interview, "No, they told me to stay out of the fighting.  They wanted Utsuro to lose.  They were perhaps afraid he would turn on them and change his mind.  Whatever their reason, fate is still the same I suppose."

"Would you have saved Utsuro if you had the chance?"  Josh asked.  Eisenia thought to herself briefly,

"That's a difficult question to answer right now Josh.  If he hadn't died, then Jebediah would not have returned and killed the Tendoushu.  Essentially that man dying friend my people from the slavery of the Tendoushu.  On the other hand, if I had saved Utsuro given the chance he perhaps would have seen the errors of his ways."

"And what do you mean by that?"  Josh quizzed,

"Perhaps he wasn't in error...to himself.  To others, he was in the wrong.  Maybe he was too afraid to tell the world just what evil could be lying just out of our site.  The crow, Poe, has told me about what Oboro learned.  It seemed that even Utsuro would hide such important things from the man closest to him.  What his true motives were on that fateful weekend could have perhaps went to the grave with him."  Josh continued writing,

"Do you recall that weekend well?"

"Of course I do,"  she smiled to herself,  "It was inspiring to see how everyone banded together to fight Utsuro.  It was a sight to behold, poetic perhaps.  Maybe, that's what he wanted all along.  What he was doing was maybe the first test to his student."  Josh put his hand to his chin.  Eisenia continued to smile as she moved Josh's hand from his face,  "What I'm saying is that Utsuro wanted to make sure Oboro was the right person to succeed him.  He needed to truly test his student, and what better way than to have him kill his teacher."  Josh felt that he finally had that "ah-ha" moment, as he began to type faster.  "As for the rest of the weekend, I stayed quiet in the hotel, silently watching how everyone was living their lives, including your cousins.  I wish I could have shared those memories with them...but I was strapped to my post."  Josh looked up, a bit concerned but he pressed on,

"Do you recall the following days after that?"  he asked,

"Of course I do.  I was still on Earth during the peach period that followed Utsuro's death.  In fact, I became more involved with the government here.  That's when Ougai-san mentioned earlier that I infiltrated near the top.  I was working nearly underneath the Shogunate, the people who are behind Shigeshige-sama.  Perhaps you knew of the former Joui rebels?"  Josh nodded,  "I was the reason they ended up on Globberian."  Josh looked up confused,  "Mhh, perhaps you did not know of what happened to those men.  They got drunk at a charity event and ended up on Globberious.  They competed in their annual eating competition, something they pride themselves on very much.  They won tickets to return back to Earth, that I had arranged with the Madam Yuka.  Of course, my abilities to disguise my identity played in my favor back then.  I managed to strike a peace deal for Earth and Globberious.  This, was done in secret against my Skolexian brothers and sisters.  I couldn't for the life of me let them figure out that I was trying to bridge a common ally among the two planets.  I was hoping I could help begin to mend all the fences that were torn down between our two species.  However...it seemed that we were destined to always fight each other.  I just wish we could have resolved this in a diplomatic nature."  Josh was furiously typing and looking back up at Eisenia to get her answer down in his notes.  "Of course after they returned, Edo fell to the remaining Naraku and Kaname."  Josh's face went slightly pale at the thought of the man he defeated in battle.

"How did the Joui rebels get to Globberious from the charity event?"  Eisenia chuckled to herself,

"I mustn't answer everything now, let's save some talk for later.  Perhaps you and I can get together with some of the other leaders and discuss further tomorrow?"  Josh agreed and shook her hand,

----------------

Stephen nodded as the waves were inching just slightly closer, but not really to where it was noticeable.

"It's always nice to her other people's perspectives on life and the struggles each being goes through.  She has her own story that day, I have my own story that day, and hell, even you do.  You could have been sitting in your room all day doing nothing while your cousins were putting their lives on the line to save this beautiful place."  Stephen said with a small tear in his eye.  Josh looked up and embraced Stephen.  The older man felt like a grandfather to him.  Stephen was as close to Josh as family gets even if he has only known him for this short amount of time.  The two's familial hug lingered as the silence of the waves and nature continued on,

"Do you regret all the things that has led up to this?"  Stephen broke the embrace and looked at Josh after he asked that question.  He simply gave a tearful smile,

"I wouldn't trade this world for anything.  There's a reason I'm here and...and Maria and the kids aren't.  I have to live on for them, and for that, I have no regrets."  Stephen wiped the tears from his eyes at the thought of his family.  Josh gave a sad look at Stephen as the two sat on the rock, watching the ocean continue to kick up on the shore, soaking in the moment.  A moment they wish they could stay in forever.

TBC

Edited by Moxley♥
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15 minutes ago, Cha said:

what if he showed up like this at the birthday partyIMG_0660.WEBP

Hata would probably blush, but still turn him down in someway.  Not in a hard way though, you know

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57 minutes ago, Cha said:

kagura b like for those keeping score at home, hes been with a digital girlfriend who kept him on a leash, a sword’s scabbard-

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Having a romantic longing for an incidental smooch caused by a flower.  Very on brand for Ol S

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1 hour ago, Cha said:

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This broken gif scares me almost as much as this man does

1 arc villains in Gintama have a different aura to them, especially in TBC

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5 minutes ago, Katniss said:

TBC is still alive and kicking, huh?

It does, 2/3rds of a chapter sit in my Google Docs and it's still alive in other ways

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