It happened the next morning. BANG! The Yorozuya's door flew open with a tremendous crash. Gintoki jolted up from the sofa. The Jump magazine he'd been reading last night scattered across the floor. "[excited]I haven't eaten anything! I've been starving since this morning!" The girl who burst in had long crimson hair tied in two bunches. Her golden eyes gleamed brightly. A Yato——the race known as the universe's strongest warriors. Her long ears, distinctive to her kind, stood straight up, and a cat-like tail swished back and forth. She was slightly shorter than Gintoki. Her frame was slender, but the muscles in her arms were anything but ordinary. Gintoki stared at the girl's mouth. Caramel was stuck there. Clearly, around her lips. A glossy, amber-colored smear. "[angry]……You ate pudding, didn't you" "[excited]I didn't eat it!" "There's caramel all over your mouth." "[sarcastic]This is from yesterday." "……From yesterday." "[excited]Yeah. I ate a different pudding yesterday. That one's caramel." Gintoki fell silent for a while. He couldn't refute her. It wasn't logic, yet somehow words wouldn't come. This girl's nonsense had a structure where the more seriously you tried to counter it, the deeper you sank. "[angry]How did you get in here" "[excited]Otose said I should work here!" Kagura walked around the room with heavy footsteps. She opened the closet door, peered inside, and immediately declared, "This is my room." Otose's voice drifted up from downstairs. "[serious]Gintoki, that girl was sleeping rough in Kabuki-cho. Put her to work. She's a hard worker." "[angry]Don't decide stuff like that without asking me!" "[sarcastic]Don't complain when you can't even pay rent!" There was no comeback. Gintoki looked up at the ceiling. Three months behind. He was in no position to argue with Otose. Kagura was already hauling her belongings into the closet. A large bag appeared from somewhere, and she hummed to herself as she carried it in. Genuinely carefree, completely indifferent to anyone else's circumstances. (Well……she doesn't seem like a bad person, at least.) Gintoki sat back down on the sofa and picked up the Jump. --- About ten minutes later, there came a polite knock from the entrance. Knock, knock, knock. Three times. Methodical. "[gentle]Excuse me. Is this the Yorozuya?" Standing at the door was a boy wearing glasses. His black hair was neatly trimmed in a bob style, and his straight black eyes gave off an air of politeness. He was slightly shorter than Gintoki. His posture was good, his movements precise. His clothes were clean, and he gave the impression of being earnest. "[serious]I was referred here by Otose. My name is Shimura Shinpachi. I'm looking for part-time work." Gintoki glanced at the boy. "Can you keep books?" "[serious]I can. I managed the accounts for my family's dojo." "You're hired." "Eh, um, shouldn't we talk a bit more——" "Too much trouble. If you're useful, I'll use you. That's all." Shinpachi still seemed to have more to say, but he stepped into the room. Then he saw Kagura moving her belongings into the closet. He froze. "[surprised]……Um, who is this person?" "[excited]Kagura! Nice to meet ya!" Kagura turned around with a beaming smile. Her golden eyes sparkled, and her long ears twitched. Shinpachi adjusted his glasses. "[surprised]A Heavenly Person……?" "Yato. The universe's strongest warrior race." "[serious]I……I see." Shinpachi looked around the room. Jump magazines scattered across the floor. A worn sofa with springs poking out. A refrigerator left wide open. A peeling sign. A cracked wall. "[whispers]I can at least……keep the books." His voice came out weak, dissolving into the room. The hardship was already beginning. --- Then came footsteps climbing the stairs. "[serious]Gin-san, I've got a favor to ask." The man who entered was in his forties. He was Murata, the owner of "Murata-do," a general store on Kabuki-cho's main street. A merchant with a sharp eye for profit, selling everything from daily necessities to incomprehensible goods for Heavenly People. Today his complexion was poor. "Products keep disappearing at night. It's happened five times now. The culprit seems to be a Heavenly Person, but……the Shinsumi won't do anything about it." Gintoki's eyebrows twitched. The Shinsumi——the Bakufu's special police. Their main job was suppressing anti-foreign activists and maintaining order, with nearly three hundred officers. They seemed reliable enough, but they dragged their feet on cases involving Heavenly People. The reason was simple: Heavenly People enjoyed something close to extraterritorial rights. Human merchants doing business in the same district as Heavenly People had to pay triple taxes——such unfair rules filled Edo. The Shinsumi moved within that structure. "The reward is……honestly, I can't offer much." When Murata mentioned the amount apologetically, Gintoki grimaced. It was cheap. But. (Three months behind. Otose's face. And my pudding got stolen.) "Got it. I'll do it." "Really!? Thank you, you're a lifesaver!" After Murata left, Shinpachi raised his hand. "[serious]Um, Gin-san. What's the strategy? What equipment do we need? How do we divide the personnel? What's our contingency plan?" "[sarcastic]Go at night, catch whoever shows up." "That's it!?" "[sarcastic]What else do you need." "[angry]There's such a thing as proper procedure! Preliminary investigation, communication methods——" "[excited]Sounds fun! I'm going!" Kagura popped her head out of the closet, grinning with enthusiasm. No particular reason, just full of energy. Shinpachi muttered, "S-so this is how the Yorozuya does jobs……" and started writing something in his ledger. --- Kabuki-cho at night wore a different face than during the day. The lights of snacks and izakayas dyed the alleys, and the sound of shamisen leaked from somewhere. Signs for Heavenly People glowed pale blue, and characters mixing Japanese and the Heavenly language floated in the night sky. There were still plenty of people around, but the crowds thinned gradually as midnight approached. The three of them were hiding in the depths of an alley across from Murata-do. Thirty minutes in. Kagura was asleep. Her back against the wall, eyes completely closed. Faint snores. The Yato's sleep came fast. Shinpachi was holding his stomach. Tension had given him stomach pain, and he kept muttering "I'm fine, I'm fine" while occasionally wincing. Gintoki had taken out a Jump. Under the moonlight, he was turning pages. "[sarcastic]Oh, this character died." "[angry]We're on a stakeout!?" "[sarcastic]If you make noise, they won't come." "That's backwards logic!" Shinpachi's voice got a bit loud, and he quickly covered his mouth. Kagura kept snoring, unmoved. Gintoki turned pages while casually watching the alley's depths and the corner of the street. His eyes were on the magazine, but his gaze was moving. Which shadows entered which alley, which footsteps were different——his body was picking it up automatically. Habits ingrained during the anti-foreign war didn't fade easily. Past one in the morning. Movement. Three shadows came out of Murata-do's back entrance. Builds more solid than human. Skin color that even in dim light was clearly not human. Heavenly People. All three carried packages, checking their surroundings as they moved. Practiced movements. Gintoki put away the Jump. He stood. Shouldered the Toyako wooden sword. That souvenir from Hokkaido was just a wooden sword to look at. The Sword Abolition Edict banned swords, but wooden swords weren't classified as swords. A loophole——but when Gintoki swung it, the power was nothing like an iron pipe. "[excited]They're here!" Kagura jolted awake. Her eyes opened in an instant. The Yato's reaction speed was a different dimension from humans. She raised her fists and moved forward. Gintoki walked past her. One of the Heavenly People noticed Gintoki and raised his arm. In that instant. A dry crack. The wooden sword had struck his side. The massive Heavenly Person's body folded, and he collapsed. The second one tried to grapple from behind. Gintoki saw the start of the movement, sidestepped half a pace, and drove the sword into the shoulder joint. A heavy thud. The Heavenly Person dropped to one knee before he could even cry out. The third tried to run. Gintoki took one step. The distance closed at an inhuman speed. The Heavenly Person's feet were swept out from under him, and he crashed onto the asphalt. The whole thing took less than ten seconds. The alley went quiet. Three Heavenly People lay on the ground. Only groans could be heard. "[sarcastic]Turn them over to the Shinsumi." Gintoki returned the wooden sword to his shoulder, saying it casually. The same expression as when he'd put away the Jump. Kagura and Shinpachi couldn't speak. Kagura stood frozen with her fists still raised. As a warrior, she'd been about to move when it was already over. Her golden eyes blinked, watching Gintoki. Shinpachi's mouth hung half-open. His glasses were slightly askew. "[surprised]Gin-san……" "What." "[serious]You're not just a regular Yorozuya, are you. Definitely not." "[sarcastic]Just a sugar-deprived old man." With that, Gintoki started checking the packages the Heavenly People had been carrying. They were filled with goods stolen from Murata-do. "Check them." Shinpachi took out his ledger and started cross-referencing the contents. Thorough. Even now, he moved with precision. Gintoki checked the pockets of one of the Heavenly People. There was a folded memo inside. Shinpachi's hand reached out. Gintoki's hand was faster. He grabbed the memo and shoved it into his pocket. "[sarcastic]Nothing important. Come on, finish checking the goods." "[serious]But we need to properly verify it as evidence——"" Gintoki was already walking. He was five meters ahead before Shinpachi's words even finished. Kagura tilted her head. "[serious]Gin-chan, you hiding something?" Gintoki didn't turn around. In his pocket, he felt the folded memo. If he opened it, there would be a delivery address and quantities. Part of a distribution network. Numbers and symbols. And——the same mark that had been carved into the side of a wooden crate in the back alley last night. This wasn't a shopkeeper theft. It was part of something bigger. (Not a story to drag those two into. Not yet.) Gintoki kept walking. --- They returned to the Yorozuya after two in the morning. The three of them climbed the old stairs of the Otose Building. Creak, creak, the wood groaned. They entered the room and each sat down. Kagura plopped onto one end of the sofa with a big yawn. Shinpachi sat on the floor, removed his glasses, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Gintoki sprawled on the other end of the sofa, leaning back against the armrest. No one said anything. But it wasn't an uncomfortable silence. The exhaustion of finishing a first job, and the fact that it was finished, hung in the air. Shinpachi said quietly. "[serious]……The job's complete, right?" "[sarcastic]Yeah." "We collect the reward from Murata tomorrow, correct?"" "That's right. Put it in the ledger."" "[serious]Understood." Shinpachi put his glasses back on. Earnest. Even tired, he confirmed the ledger details. People like that were rare, Gintoki thought vaguely. Kagura suddenly stood up. She headed to the kitchen. Opened the refrigerator. Inside was a new pudding Gintoki had bought yesterday. Kagura took one out and, without even saying grace, stuck a spoon in it. "[excited]Delicious!" "[angry]…………Hey." "[excited]What?" "That's mine."" "[sarcastic]There's no name written on it in the fridge." "So if there's no name, it's okay to eat it!?" "[excited]That's the rule." "I never agreed to that rule!!" Shinpachi watched the two with tired eyes and wrote "pudding cost" on the edge of his ledger. The night in Kabu