Sharp Wings; 鋭い翼 [Gintama]

28 | The past holds a lot of truths but nothing's truly a lie in the present

XXVIII

"ZURA-nii! I thought that you're not going to go through this one? You're hurt, for heaven's sake!"

"Shizuku, I'm fine. I already recovered. See?"

The bloodied bandage that peeked out from Katsura's armor was enough for even an eight-year-old Shizuku to know that he wasn't fit to fight another battle as long as he had that on him. The barely eighteen-year-old Katsura chuckled at the girl when she huffed at him.

"I'm not stupid, Zura-nii." Shizuku frowned deeply, her small hands resting on her hips as she looked up at the tall male. "If Tatsu-nii's here, he'll already be telling you to stay down while pulling you back. Though, I doubt that you would actually listen to him if he were to really be here."

Katsura just chuckled at her as if he wasn't just shot seven times in various parts of his body only three days ago. The girl resisted the urge to hit the taller square in the shin.

"You don't have to worry about me, Shizuku. Just worry about the others, alright? Although I agree that Tatsuma probably would do that, you're right; I wouldn't listen to him anyways. We'll head out in the morning." He said with a smile. Shizuku knew that he meant well with that smile, as if he was telling her that she didn't feel anything and that she was fine. The girl knew how well built that guy's body is, but she still couldn't help but worry for him.

Eventually, with little to no influence on the taller male with how young and small she was, Shizuku just gave up and let Katsura go out of the makeshift infirmary that they had in the main base. The rest of the helpers that were around berated Katsura when he went out of the tent, but like Shizuku, they couldn't exactly stop him from going. It was a war, after all, and it wasn't like the enemy's going to wait around for them to strike.

"Seriously, ever since Tatsu-nii left the battle, they've been pushing themselves to the limit." Shizuku muttered as her eight-year-old brain got crunched with a headache already forming. The people there often asked whether or not she really was an eight-year-old because of how she was acting. Shizuku never really thought about it before. It was as if she just matured earlier than others.

"I get that it's a war, but still." She muttered to herself as she stacked up the small boxes of gauzes by the cabinet at the end of the makeshift infirmary.

"Just because you guys are the strongest of the strong, doesn't mean it's alright for you to go all out only to die because you didn't' take care of yourselves when you had the chance."

"Are you still sad because of Sakamoto-san leaving?' one of the older helpers that were around asked. By that time, they were only three people inside that infirmary. There was a sleeping and heavily wounded soldier at the end of the small tent and the one attending to him, a fifteen-year-old girl named Kiko, looked at Shizuku with soft, light brown eyes.

"No, I'm actually alright with it. He has an injury, after all, and I completely understand." Shizuku replied as she shook her head. "But it's just that why do I keep having the feeling that our three remaining generals are feeling the need to up their game just because one of the four already retired. Yes, I know that Tatsu-nii has an influence as being one of the four generals and him leaving left a hole in the defense, but still...." Her voice trailed off before she spoke again. This time, in a much softer voice than before.

"The war's about to end and why do I feel like they're not going to stop until one of them actually dies? I feel like that's they're true objective for some reason."

"Well, Gintoki-san is like that so that's not new for him. But we all know that it's just because of his personality." Kiko replied with a chuckle. "The other two are probably just thinking the same as him. That's not new, either. It's the perfect definition of 'Monkey see, monkey do.' You know that better than anyone, Shizuku-chan."