Sharp Wings; 鋭い翼 [Gintama]

4 | Getting hit by almost a hundred officers isn't enough to get a concussion

IV

Manga: Lesson 23

Anime: Episode 14, part B

SHIZUKU and Kagura spent the entire day with Soyo. The three of them had become closer and closer together as they went to different places around Kabuki-chou. Truthfully, Shizuku has never been happier in her life. Being surrounded by friends was the feeling that she always craved for whenever she looked out the window. Her thoughts would always go back to when she was imagining when she was inside the small room in the Harusame ship. It was nice trying to experience something that wasn't from her imaginations.

"Soyo-chan, did you enjoy your day out with us?" Shizuku found herself asking the slightly younger girl when they watched the sunset from bench outside of a small dumpling store.

"Very much." Soyo smiled brightly before she looked at Kagura. "Jou-san is so amazing. She's younger than the two of us, but she knows so much."

"I suppose I do." Kagura said as she ate the last of her dumplings. "All that's left is to go have a drink and stay out until the morning. That's what the kids do. Though, of course, everything I know, I heard from Gin-chan."

Shizuku's eyes widened. "Kagura-chan, I think you should stop listening to whatever Gin-san is teaching you. Sometimes, he's not exactly child-friendly."

"What? But Gin-chan is a nice teacher, Shizu-nee." Kagura pouted.

"He is, but not all the time, Kagura-chan." The oldest among them replied with a smile.

"You both are so lucky You're so free." Soyo suddenly said after a while of comfortable silence in between the three of them. "I hardly ever left the castle, so I don't have friends and I don't know anything about the outside world. All I can do is gaze out at the distant city and use my imagination, wishing I could skip along without a care in the world and go out, free to play." She paused.

"To live freely."

Shizuku looked down on the ground. Her story seemed familiar, she thought to herself. Soyo was just like her, wanting to be free, but she can't so she used her imagination. Shizuku smiled to herself.

"We're the same." The teal haired girl said before she could stop herself. Kagura and Soyo looked at her from the side. "I always wanted to be free of everything. I wanted to live freely and play outside with my friends, to be able to hold on to the closest people in my life and to run with them." She smiled, remembering her imaginations back when she was still captive by the Harusame.

"I wasn't this free back then, Soyo-chan." She said as she looked at the dark haired girl beside her. "I was once a caged butterfly with no friends and no one to talk to, but look at me now." She smiled brightly, her white teeth showing as her eyes turned into crescents.

"I'm talking with my friends and we had spent the day playing together."

Shizuku pasued before she sighed. "Maybe, you are just like me." she said, looking back at the sun, watching it slowly sink down. "Maybe that's why you ran away from your home. Maybe you said that it was just only for one day, but know this, Hime-chan, if you were to vanish, it would cause grief for so many people."

Soyo's eyes widened before she suddenly started chuckling softly. "I heard the same words from someone, back when I was a little younger." She said in a soft voice. "I don't quite remember, be she was just like you, Shizuku-san. I may not remember what she looks like, I don't even remember her name, but I know that she was always trapped with even stricter rules than me, but it didn't stop either us from causing trouble."