Katsura stared down at the teacup on the table, watching a tea stalk floating perfectly upright inside it. Resting his index finger and thumb against his chin to form the letter L, he gave it a stroke and suddenly murmured in admiration.
"This is truly an incredibly exquisite tea!"
"Exquisite my foot! This is just the cheapest tea bag available for 500 yen for a pack of 20. What on earth are you admiring over there, huh?!" Gintoki could not restrain himself from slamming his teacup onto the table while grumbling.
"Besides, why did you come to my place just to freeload on food and drinks? You absolute bastard of a Toupee!"
"It's not Toupee, it's Katsura!!!" Katsura shot back reflexively in retaliation.
Gintoki used his pinky finger to pick his nose with an incredibly indifferent expression.
"I'm still calling you Toupee, what are you gonna do about it?"
Katsura instantly grabbed Gintoki's collar, pulling their faces close together as the veins of anger on his forehead bulged right out.
"You are truly testing the absolute limits of my patience over and over again, you damn Curly Hair!"
Right at this moment, Mahiru carried an incredibly massive hotpot with both hands, placing it onto the table before wiping the sweat from her brow.
"There are a lot of people eating today, so we'll just have a simple hotpot. My small kitchen wouldn't be able to cook this many dishes in a short time. If it's hotpot, the preparation process is much easier."
Elizabeth held up a white board that read: [It's fine!]
Gintoki and Katsura stopped fighting. They sat down quietly near the table, picking up their chopsticks and bowls, then filling them to the brim with white rice. After uttering a collective "Let's eat," they immediately began devouring the food voraciously. Their gluttonous manner of eating clearly demonstrated that they didn't feel reserved in the slightest.
Shinpachi, whose spectacles were his actual body, adjusted the position of the glasses on his face and said to Mahiru with a bit of embarrassment, "I'm sorry, Mahiru Anego. Gin-san is just that kind of person, please don't take it to heart."
Mahiru shook her head to signal that it was perfectly fine. After all, she actually quite enjoyed a lively atmosphere like this.
(If only my husband were here, it would certainly be much better.)
Kagura also didn't hold back as she grabbed her bowl and chopsticks, immediately starting to scramble for the meat inside the hotpot together with Gintoki and Katsura.
Elizabeth refused to be outdone. Using his two white mascot hands that resembled penguin flippers, he grabbed two pairs of chopsticks. Heaven knows how he managed to hold those chopsticks... and it wasn't clear whether he was actually a human or not either... what was certain was that he also plunged right into the food warfare raging among the three of them.
Now, these three people plus that one rare creature had fully transformed into four massive rice sacks. They ransacked the contents of the dining table, leaving Shinpachi and Mahiru not even knowing where to aim their chopsticks.
Shinpachi had just intended to direct his chopsticks into the vortex of the four rice sacks, but his chopsticks were instantly deflected away. He couldn't squeeze his way in to snatch any food at all.
One could well imagine just how fierce the food-snatching action of these four entities was.
"Haaah..." Shinpachi let out a long sigh. "It seems I'll have to endure hunger again..."
Seeing this sight, Mahiru also didn't know what to say. As an ordinary person, it was impossible for her to snatch food right out from under the noses of those four monsters. Fortunately, she had been prepared from the very beginning; the milk and bread she bought from the supermarket were indeed provided to anticipate an emergency situation like this.
After all, this wasn't the first time she had seen Kagura and Gintoki's manner of eating. Every single mealtime always felt like a battlefield, leaving someone like her who was a regular human unable to even slip a pair of chopsticks onto the dining table.
Mahiru handed out her milk and bread to Shinpachi, implying, "Just eat this for now."
Shinpachi uttered a "Thank you" and then accepted the milk and bread.
He was fully aware that he, whose strength only excelled slightly above an ordinary human, would never win against the food-hunting instincts of those four monsters.
Mahiru and Shinpachi locked eyes, and then both let out a long sigh simultaneously.
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Not long after, Gintoki, Katsura, Kagura, and Elizabeth pressed their palms together at the same time and said, "I'm full, thank you for the meal."
Katsura rose to his feet, preparing to take Elizabeth away. Before stepping away, he uttered a sentence that sounded mysterious.
"I will help settle the trouble that lies outside. Just consider this as the food expense for this time."
Gintoki swirled the tea inside his cup. "You bastard just wanted to freeload on food and drinks for free, didn't you?"
Shinpachi instantly slammed the table and stood up. "Do you even have the right to call out other people, Gin-san?!"
"Shinpachi is starting his straight-man routine again, aru." Kagura delivered a spot-on critique while quietly continuing to chew the rice in her bowl, clearly showing she still wasn't full yet.
Of course, Kagura was also aware of the movements outside. After all, because there were many high-level experts present in this place, most of them had already noticed it.
Gintoki pretended to act indifferent. While drinking the cheap tea worth 500 yen per two bags from his cup, he also uttered a sentence whose meaning was ambiguous.
"Clean it up neatly, don't go making a commotion that's too big and ends up disturbing the neighbors."
"Hmph! My business doesn't need your interference. Let's go, Elizabeth."
Elizabeth followed behind Katsura. While walking, he held up his white board to bid farewell to the people behind them: [Sorry for causing so much trouble this time!]
He even paused to bow politely.
Kagura grabbed a meat bun and chewed on it. "That strange white creature turns out to be quite polite."
At that location, only Mahiru was left completely in the dark about what they were discussing. Even Shinpachi appeared to adjust his spectacles, which briefly reflected a flash of white light, showing clearly that he had already guessed something, though he chose to remain silent.
(It's better not to let Mahiru Anego know, so as not to make her worry...)
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
Meanwhile, Katsura and Elizabeth, who had already walked outside, closed the door firmly. The moment they turned around, they were immediately greeted by the sight of a dense, packed ocean of humans in black suits—there were at least several hundred people.
One glance was enough to tell they were the men dispatched by Atsuomi.
Katsura extended his hand, requesting a weapon from Elizabeth who stood beside him.
Elizabeth very obediently pulled a katana that looked wet and slimy right out from his mascot mouth, then handed it into Katsura's hand.
Katsura showed an incredibly disgusted expression on his face, but he pulled the sword out anyway and cast the scabbard aside while protesting, "For a long time now I've really wanted to ask, where exactly do you hide my sword? Why does it have this slimy texture?"
Elizabeth didn't reply; after all, he truly couldn't speak. Usually, he only used a white board with words written on it to communicate with others.
Seeing Elizabeth using the same method, the creature tried to extract a weapon from inside his mascot duck beak. However, because his mouth was too small, he couldn't get it out. Consequently... he ended up pulling a slimy bazooka out from behind his pants instead.
At this split second, Katsura appeared to start realizing where his weapons had been coming from all this time. However, he didn't want to admit it, and didn't dare to admit it. He tried to flee from reality for the sake of forgetting this particular fragment of memory.
Otherwise, his outlook on life would shatter into pieces, even though his outlook on life had actually been completely shattered a long time ago anyway.
Katsura raised his katana, while Elizabeth shouldered the slimy bazooka that was capable of firing in rapid succession. The two of them then straight away charged into the encirclement of those hundreds of people, slaughtering them until not a single one remained!
Meanwhile inside the house, Gintoki, who listened to the sound of explosions outside rumbling like missiles, instantly knew that the bastard Katsura must have used heavy weaponry like a bazooka or something similar... He felt completely resigned.
(I already told that bastard to move quietly, but Katsura didn't listen to him at all...)