Ok so um I'm back with another story, but it's shorter (by like a lot) and it's like an actual story instead of a book. This one is Gintama (as you probably already know)! So I recently got into that anime and immediately attached myself to Hijikata-San because I mean who wouldn't (also because he has zoros voice actor but shhhhhh), so yah, naturally I had to write something. Um it's still angsty as heck but I hope you enjoy anyway.

Ly all!

Disclaimer: Gintama doesn't belong to me (again, I wish lol)

Prologue

The young man streaked through the shadows, the streetlights and waning moon the only things occasionally illumination his panting figure. He was looking for someone, someone very important, and he had to find them fast. There was something that he desperately needed to tell them, and this cannot wait, not even another minute, not even—

Except. Except…

He does not remember the one he so desperately seeks.

He was so tired, his steps were stumbling, his breaths coming in short rasps that sawed into his throat, yet he kept running. Because he couldn't stop. It was impossible, his legs simply had to keep moving.

His eyes swiveled, stormy blue taking in the surroundings that flew past in nothing more than blurs of color.

Wasn't this the Kabuki District?

In the silence, his steps thudded across the dirt road, falling into rhythm with the strained pounding of his heart, the sounds thundering in his ears, until something stopped him so suddenly that he tripped over his own feet, landing face first into the dirt, coughing as his breaths brought dust into his heaving lungs. On unsteady arms he rose, dark hair falling into his eyes as he clambered up and leaned against a wall that had suddenly appeared at his back. When he finally caught his breath, he looked up, and found himself somewhere very, very familiar. Confusion clouded his eyes for a split second before the fog that had wrapped itself around his mind suddenly lifted, and he remembered who he wanted to find. They were right here, and adrenaline coursed through his body as he sprinted up the stairs, taking them two at a time, the wood creaking dangerously beneath his feet.

Grabbing ahold of the handle to the door, he threw it open, a name forming on his lips as the frame crashed against the wall, the wood splintering and rattling in protest, but the sound stops dead before the first syllable can even make its way out. Gunmetal eyes widen in disbelief as the man beheld the signals that they now send to his brain.

What were they doing here?

And what were those expressions on their faces?

"K—"

Once again, he was cut short as he felt the distinct coolness of metal seeping into the delicate skin on his neck, the familiar glint of a katana illuminating the darkness swimming in his peripheral vision. He didn't care.

They shouldn't be here, these people, they're in danger, and in him rose the unexplainable need to protect them, protect them all, even that sadistic brat, but he's too late. They're in danger…

How?

Reality flickers for a split moment, and the world seemed to tremble before everything came back into focus, and the katana solidifies at his throat, the metal now digging into his skin.

He didn't care.

They were in danger.

"Ko—"

The air escaped him in a rush as the one who held a sword to his throat drove a fist into his abdomen. He almost crumbled, but somehow stayed upright. A growl rippled out of him, but he didn't look back, every part of his soul was focused on the group in front of him whom he had come to call family, he couldn't see their eyes. Why couldn't he see their eyes? Long shadows fell over them, brown ones and red-tinted ones. And those smiles, what's up with those? They literally stretched from ear to ear, rows upon rows of too white teeth flashed in the dark, and he shook his head, the blade drawing blood as he pushed his neck into it.

"I thought I told you to stop moving."

The voice that suddenly murmured from behind had him almost jumping of his skin, but confusion soon replaced the shock. When did this man ever tell him to stop moving? He didn't.

But that voice… shouldn't he know it? No… but it sounds so similar. Was this who he was looking for? No, no it's not, it's not that stupid samurai who only uses a—

The thought was interrupted as he was jerked back by his hair, and the voice sounded again, this time infinitely louder and sounded like it was in his head more than anything.

"You belong to me now, you hear?"

He heard, but he disagreed wholly. He didn't belong to anyone, he was a demon, and there wasn't anyone who could hold him down. Or at least, there wasn't supposed to be.

"Mine."

It sounded serpentine, and if it wasn't for the hand that gripped the roots of his raven dark hair, he would have thought that it was a snake at his back. He thrashed, but the sword drove only deeper, though the voice sounded no more. Speaking of, why did it sound so much like his? And speaking of that, where was that stupid diabetic, this was his home, wasn't it? So why isn't he here? And why are they here? There were so many things that made absolutely no sense, and another growl-like sound escaped him in his frustration when suddenly everything changed, shifted like images in a movie, and he was no longer the one at the mercy of a blade.

The hilt in his hand was unfamiliar. Too heavy, too rough, and too sticky…

Sticky?

The wound at his neck still bled, dripping a steady flow of red onto the gently swaying grass underfoot, joining with a larger stream that rose to his ankle. Disoriented, icy blue eyes traveled up the blood-stained blade in his hand to meet pain filled wine red ones, sunken into a too-pale face, strands of silver dancing in front of the bottomless whirlpool of maroon.

A strangled scream ripped out of him, and he jerked the blade back, the voice coming back as he stumbled back from the figure that had fallen at his hand.

"Mine~"

The demon jolted awake in bed, blood staining the fabric beneath his neck, previously icy blue depths now an unsettling shade of the bloodiest red.

Also I update weekly so feel free to come back next week if you enjoyed this smol chapter :3