Sharp Wings; 鋭い翼 [Gintama]

29 | In all seriousness, you shouldn't leave important tasks to the young ones

XXIX

Manga: Lesson 65

Anime: Episode 35, part B

EIGHT-year-old Shizuku blinked as she looked at the teal haired male that was sitting directly in front of her.

"Who are you?" she asked with her head tilted to the side.

"I told you, kid. My name's Noriyasu." The man replied, his legs crossed under him and his arms crossed in front of his chest as he looked at Shizuku directly in the eyes.

"You know, for an eight-year-old, you're surprisingly smart." He said with a smirk. "And docile."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shizuku glared in response as she scooted farther back in her corner. It's been hours since she woke up and during the entirety of her being awake, she has been squeezing herself between those two cabin walls to get as far as possible from the teal haired man with her. The man didn't move from where he was sitting cross-legged on the cabin floors and he just stared back at Shizuku when she was looking at him.

"Nothing, it's just that I thought that you were more like your friends. I heard that they are stupid." The man – Noriyasu, but the author is too stubborn to write "Noriyasu" so she'll settle for "the man" – replied with a chuckle. "But, then again, you are the only girl and you need to keep them on course, so I guess I should've guessed that you're the mature one among you lot."

Shizuku didn't answer as she pulled her legs close to her, making herself small as her hands clutched the snowflake pendant around her neck.

"What happened?" she asked with a glare. "Where am I? What about the war? Who are you? Where are we? Where is Gin-san? Where are the others?"

The man was silent as his eyes turned unemotional, the smile that he had earlier when Shizuku woke up was nowhere to be found as if it didn't exist in the first place. "You sure talk a lot, too." He said. "Well, I guess that's expected. Your friends are blabbermouths, too."

Shizuku glared even more.

It was safe to say that she was not liking the man one bit.

No, she was beginning to actually hate him.

The man sighed. "Well, I can't answer all of your questions at once because, you know, I don't want to do that."

"My god, I'm really hating you, right now." Shizuku suddenly spat.

"Feisty." The man nodded in satisfaction before he hummed. "Well, too bad, kid. I don't like the situation we're in any more than you do."

"Will our conversation be like this all day?" Shizuku asked as she rolled her eyes.

The man chuckled as he stood up from his spot and dusted off his dark kimono with his hands.

"Well, we can, but I'd rather not. We need to move." He said as he looked at Shizuku.

The girl raised a brow, her hand still clenching her snowflake pendant. "Go? Where? I don't even know you. I don't even know what you did to me. Do you honestly think that I would follow you anywhere?"

The man sighed heavily as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't know if I'm supposed to be grateful that you're smart for your age or not." He said with another sigh. "But I guess it's better than you being dumb as a rock."

"You know, I wish I have a rock with me right now."

"Why is that?"

"So I can bash your head in with it."