Sharp Wings; 鋭い翼 [Gintama]

12 | You'll never know when festivals become significant

"Wow, would you look at that?" Gintoki suddenly sprang up to his feet. "I feel brand new again!" he said with a laugh before he walked over to the robots. Shizuku chuckled before she watched Kagura play with Saburo on the side of the river.

A few hours later, Shizuku and the Yorozuya stood back as they wiped their foreheads to get rid of sweat. The sun was already setting and was lighting everything up with a warm, orange and red hue, indicating that it was almost nighttime, only hours until the performance.

"We somehow managed to finish on time." Shinpachi sighed in relief as he looked at the robots standing tall in front of him. "Though, there are problems in some spots."

"Just a bit more, then." Shizuku said as she picked up her closed umbrella from the ground, not really needing it anymore since the sun was already setting and it was already getting colder.

Hiraga scoffed. "If you guys hadn't showed up when you did, I wouldn't have any problems." He said as he placed his hands on his hips.

"Get off your pedestal, you public hazard geezer!" Gintoki scoffed while rubbing his head. "We only came because the old hag forced us to, and because she knew that Shizuku was helping you."

Shizuku slapped the older male's arm as she frowned at him.

A small bag of coins was thrown towards Gintoki and he caught it with no effort.

"There's some for Shizuku, too. She did more than you lot, so don't get greedy." Hiraga hissed as he walked towards the robots. "I still have final adjustments to make. You'll only get in the way, so go to the festival or something. Take Shizuku with you, too. She deserves the break."

Without hesitation, Kgura grabbed hold of Shizuku's hand, as well as Gintoki's, and started to pull them away from the riverbank. "Come on, Gin-chan, Shizu-nee! Hurry, hurry!"

"W – wait, Kagura-chan!" Shizuku called as she steadied herself to prevent her from tripping due to Kagura's fast running.

"Thank you, Hiraga-san!" Shinpachi bowed before he joined in on the run and left the riverbank.

Hiraga scoffed again. "They sure are a rowdy bunch." He muttered under breath before he turned around. "Right, Sabu – Saburo!" he yelled the robot's name repeatedly as Saburo walked away from him.

"Hey, you can't go! Saburo!" Hiraga shouted as he followed the robot.

A pair of olive eyes watched the whole scene from the bridge hovering over the riverbank where multiple robots lay deactivated and idle. Even when it was only for a few minutes, the whole time he was there, his hands were balled into fists with his knuckles already turning deathly white from the force.

He said nothing, but his sharp olive eyes spoke for him, his gaze solely focused on one person until they disappeared from his sight.

Shizuku ended up getting dragged across the festival by Kagura and Shinpachi until the moon was already up in the sky. It was a good thing that it didn't rain. Shizuku was actually enjoying herself so much that she almost didn't want to leave. She had a lot of fun being dragged into places and being fed with a lot of food. Most of their expenses was on Gintoki's card, so the two younger members of the Yorozuya were spending money to no end. At some point in the night, they even passed by some of the Shinsengumi officers that were on guard there, but they have yet to see their top officers.

"Are you getting tired, Shizu-nee?" Kagura asked as she sat on top of Saburo with a stick of cotton candy in her hands. "It's both our first festival here in Edo!" she beamed.

"You're right, Kagura-chan." Shizuku replied as she walked around with a cone of ice cream in his hand. "I don't know why, but I don't get tired at festivals." She said. "Especially when it's a winter festival or something that goes on at night. Maybe it's because I actually enjoy the event."