"Beetle hunting? At this age, Gintoki?" i asked the Yorozuya who was decked up inside my restaurant. "Yes! And i want you to come, nee-san!" Kagura said excitedly as she held my hands. "Mmm.. what's the catch?" i narrowed my eyes at Shinpachi causing him to push up his glasses. "Apparently there are some beetles which are worth tons of money" he answered. Hmm seems legit.. but i have to take care of the restaurant. I can't always push the responsibilities to the twins. "Sorry guys, looks like I'll-" "Go, nee-san. We'll take care of the shop" Miriko interrupted me. "Moreover, you've been working nonstop the past few days. You need to have a break" Kiriko added. I looked at those two affectionately, thinking how much they've grown up. "So, whaddaya say?" Gintoki asked swinging his arm around my shoulder. ".. Alright. Let me get ready first"
We hiked up the mountain and stopped at an isolated area. This should be alright i thought after finishing building the tent with the help of Shinpachi. Thank God i wore tshirt and pant in this heat. Otherwise I'll be long gone I unpacked our bags inside the tent and helped the boys. "Kagura-chan, that's an awful lot of snack" Shinpachi commented. "Don't worry, i came here all prepared. And vinegar sukonbu doesn't even count as a snack" she replied shoving all the candies inside her backpack. I turned towards Gintoki to see him shoving water bottles inside his backpack. Why's the water blue? "Gintoki, just having those beverages would only make you more thirsty. Take some water too" i said. "W-What do you mean? It's water I'm taking!" he replied all flustered. Water my ass. "Alright, let's go! Remember, we're strictly here for business. Nothing else!"
"They're pretty hard to spot. What do we do, Gin-san?" Shinpachi asked. "Smoother yourself with honey. That'll attract them immediately" he replied. "Haha as if. It will only attract perverts" i chuckled before something caught my eyes causing me to turn left. "Hmm?" i narrowed my eyes at a familiar gorilla who had honey all over his body. The others noticed me stopping and mimicked me. Suddenly the 3 of them walked forward hurriedly. "Gin-san, this forest is scaring me. Let's go home" Shinpachi said. "Don't mind him. It's the Gorilla fairy and that's how he protects the mountain" he replied as if he saw nothing. "That doesn't make any sense Gintoki.." i mumbled before we went on the next scene.
We heard squirting from our left causing us to look at that direction. We were met with a familiar nicotine-addict who was applying mayonnaise on the tree trunk as if he was painting it. The 3 again walked hurriedly from the area. "Gin-san, i really think we should go home. This place is seriously scaring me" Shinpachi said. "Don't worry. It's Mayonnaise, the monster. That's how they mark their territory" he replied uninterestedly. "Gintoki, how long will you run away from reality? Those are 2 of the people we know very well. Maybe they're here for something. Let's ask them" i suggested. "Like hell i care! I'm not splitting my money!" he said. "Money, money, money. You shittyass! Stop playing at the pachinko parlor if you wanna save money!" i pulled on his cheek. "Nee-san, is that true? Gin-chan, is that- ohh! What's that?!"
"That's a pretty bigass beetle there" i commented looking where Shinpachi pointed. "Alright, that's our cue!" Gintoki said out loud before the 3 of them started kicking the tree to make the large beetle fall down. "Hey, be gentle. It's also a living thing" i said and after a few more kicks the beetle fell down. "Is it dead yet? Hanae, go check" Gintoki said pushing me forward. "What? You coward!" i said before going towards it. It shouldn't be dead yet, i mean it's hu- "Sougo?!" i gasped in shock after turning the beetle around. "Oh Hanae-san. Glad to see you he-" he couldn't finish the rest of his words because the Yorozuya idiots kicked him to death. "Alright, stop stop. That's enough"
"Uh, will you help me up? I can't do it by myself. My plan to blend in with them failed" Sougo said wriggling in that costume. "Sure" i picked him up easily and helped him stand on his feet "Tell me this, why are you 3 here? We saw Kondo-san and Hijikata-kun too. Though i can't really explain what they were doing.. " i said looking at him hopefully. "Oh, we? Well, we were-" "Sougo! Are you alright?" a voice interrupted him and in came the whole Shinsengumi. "Well well well. What do i see? Are the Shinsengumi people catching beetles with the tax money we pay?" Gintoki asked evilly. This caused a mini arguing-war to break in between them causing me to move away from the scene.
Shinpachi and Yamazaki also joined me and we 3 watched the argue battle between Yorozuya and Shinsengumi. I was roaming my eyes around the area looking for any beetle until my eyes fell on a particular tree. "Oh look. There's a beetle on top of that tree" i pointed towards a tree that was a bit far away from us. This caused the Shinsengumi and Yorozuya to break the fight and head towards the beetle. "Are you guys also here for beetle hunting, Yamazaki-kun?" i asked. "Beetle hunting?" he looked at me in confusion. "Yeah, it was shown on the TV that there are a few beetles who are worth a lot of money" Shinpachi said. "Wait really? I didn't know. Well, we didn't come here for that actually. We came here be-" his words were interrupted by a sudden loud noise. "It flew away" Yamazaki said looking at the flying beetle. "It sure did" Shinpachi added. "Well hopefully they'll stop fighting now"
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To be continued.
