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Shogun-sama...
Lord Tokugawa Shigeshige Assassinated
Watch Gintama in a bright room and at a safe distance from your TV!!
A country doesn't need two shoguns.
And a puppet that defies us holds no value whatsoever.
What a pitiful man Tokugawa Shigeshige was.
He wouldn't have lost his life if he'd been our obedient pet.
But he tried to abolish the position of shogun by establishing a new administration.
Did he think he would render us powerless if he asked for the emperor's help?
Truly foolish.
And truly an end befitting that man.
I heard the assassin had been a close friend of his since childhood.
The shogun staunchly refused to be accompanied to the meeting by bodyguards.
I'm sure it was partly because he trusted his retainers,
and partly because he wanted to show that he trusted them.
The Tendoshu took advantage of that.
The shogun believed in his friends to the last,
and paid for it with his life.
So he wouldn't have died if he hadn't met us, huh?
Who knows?
He'd been a puppet of the times,
but in the end, he chose how he would live and where he would die himself.
It was because he met you, his friends.
Unfortunately, I no longer have the right to call myself that.
A guy who killed his friends to protect his friend...
A guy who sacrificed so many,
and still couldn't protect that friend...
A loser
has no right to call himself that.
I couldn't protect a thing.
I couldn't change a thing.
All that's left is the man with their blood on his hands...
A sinner.
Special Police Shinsengumi
I see doubt in your sword.
A police hound shouldn't be ignoring a lost cat and getting lost himself.
Want me to spar with you?
Right now, I bet I could beat you with just this.
I'll pass.
Not even the police can say where a forever lost stray cloud will end up.
At the very least, I wouldn't wander into such a filthy place when sober.
What do you want?
Where are the others?
Beats me.
Probably at the funeral.
I don't have the right to go.
But it's convenient that nobody's here now.
We haven't paid you guys for that time, right?
Well, you know,
if the situation weren't what it is,
a legendary Joi Rebel and the Shinsengumi chief
would never get the chance to share a drink.
Join me for a drink,
White Yaksha.
On your knees!
Can't you hear me?!
You're in the presence of shogun—
Shogun?
I'm sorry, but there's only one man I ever served.
It's my policy not to change my cigarette brand or master at the drop of a hat,
Lord Nobunobu.
You impudent bastard!
That's an impressive show of loyalty, Matsudaira.
You don't sound like a good-for-nothing who couldn't protect his master's life.
Not as impressive as a certain treacherous shogun who stole that position
by murdering his former lord right under the emperor's nose.
The assassin immediately killed himself by taking poison,
but I'd wager one of his relatives had been taken hostage or something.
Once I dig into his background, finding the mastermind will be easy.
If I were the mastermind,
the proof you seek would no longer be in this world.
Don't be in such a rush, Lord Nobunobu.
I haven't mobilized anyone yet.
This is something I've got to do myself.
I'm sorry, Lord Matsudaira,
but you no longer have the right to judge anyone.
Please drop it.
The cigarette,
and the other thing.
Sasaki...
I thought for sure you'd have been cast aside along with Takasugi and the rest.
You're still wagging your tail at Lord Nobunobu?
Takasugi? Whatever might you be talking about?
Lord Nobunobu has always been the only man I serve.
I can't imagine why he would cast me aside.
Exactly.
Matsudaira, are you aware of who that man standing before you is?
He's Sasaki Isaburo, Commissioner-General of Police.
Unfortunately for you, former Commissioner-General,
your era has come to an end.
Who asks an injured guy to drink with him?
If you keep caring about stuff like that,
you won't ever be able to drink, since you were dropped on your head at birth.
Go suck on a rotten fruit in some jungle, gorilla.
Besides, there are wounds that only this stuff can heal.
War really is cruel, huh?
Whether you win or not, you always lose more than you gain.
The victor can still console themselves by counting their gains,
but the defeated can only count everything they've lost.
The allies they couldn't protect,
the enemies they cut down,
and the crimes of war...
All of it weighs heavily upon them.
They wonder what they even fought for,
and whether there was any point in paying the price and sullying their hands.
Is that how you've felt in all the wars you fought in?
There's no point.
No matter whether you win or not,
no matter what you protect or lose,
there's no meaning to war.
Glorify it all you want, but it's a pointless exercise
that leaves behind nothing but corpses and sins in its wake.
There's nothing worth going that far to protect.
If there is anything,
it's the will to create a world free of such senseless crap
by fighting oneself instead of the enemy.
And that will isn't dead yet...
Not as long as there are others who carry the torch.
You are the only ones I can entrust with Edo.
Then we don't need funerals or farewells, do we?
Sharing this drink is plenty.
Odd Jobs.
I'm glad we feel the same way.
That no matter whose corpse you have to walk over,
there are some things that must be protected.
Give Toshi and the others a message for me.
Tell them not to do anything stupid, and that Edo still needs them.
Well, I've passed the torch.
I'm glad the three of us got to share a drink in the end.
Though I wish we'd done it sooner.
Let Sasaki investigate the case.
Matsudaira, what you need to do is take responsibility for it.
Lord Shigeshige's assassination was the result of your failure to keep him in check.
Thus, I order
Matsudaira Katakuriko and his subordinate, Shinsengumi Chief Kondo Isao,
to be beheaded,
Special Police Shinsengumi
and the Shinsengumi
to be disbanded as of today.
How horrible.
Those guys were maintaining order in Edo until just the other day.
Why did they meet such a fate?
What are you talking about?
They're the horrible ones.
Apparently it's their fault Shigeshige-sama died.
Who needs police who can't even protect their lord?
Sheesh.
Falling asleep during a stakeout? Talk about a shameless newbie.
But I guess that's understandable.
You haven't slept properly these past few days, have you?
S-Sorry.
Go home for today.
Don't worry.
The only criminals here are petty ones that'd put you to sleep.
That won't do. Switch with me.
Don't push yourself, Vice Chief.
Don't call me that.
The vice chief is no more.
Let him do as he pleases.
Boss...
All men have times
when they want to forget everything and drown themselves in work.
That's right.
The only thing you can do for a hard-boiled man like that
is take him to a bar after work and treat him to a glass of Camus.
Bartender.
The usual, please.
Strawberry Milk
You won't find that crap here.
All men have times when they get bars and perms mixed up.
Odd Jobs Gin-chan
Who're you calling a perm, you perm-boiled constable?
But I didn't expect him to be transferred to your place.
How's he doing, Kozenigata?
"How," you ask?
I invited him to join me for drinks and hijinks, but he just wouldn't accept.
What do you mean, "hijinks"? What the hell are you inviting him to?
That's the demonic vice chief for you.
He won't be tamed so easily.
I've ended up with one hell of a subordinate.
Some men are noble wolves that can't be tamed by the leash of authority.
Come on! Listen to your queen!
Apparently he's one of them, just like me.
Leashes don't arouse me anymore.
Bring out the chains!
You've totally been tamed!
Use those chains to hang yourself!
What about the others?
Similar story for all of them.
Following the new shogun's appointment,
the police force underwent a complete change.
All that sounds well and good,
but all it means is that Lord Nobunobu eliminated those who opposed him,
leaving only his soldiers.
People who had been under Lord Shigeshige's patronage got purged,
and those who weren't purged ended up unemployed or assigned to dead-end jobs.
And the Shinsengumi were disbanded, splitting everyone up.
Edo no longer has a hard-boiled group of watchdogs...
It no longer has a Shinsengumi.
Hold it right there.
What's the meaning of this?
Gorilla, you...
Too bad.
I thought there'd be sword fights, but the others are away.
Would you like to take me on instead?
Depending on your answer, I'd be glad to dye that uniform blood red.
What's the meaning of this?
What a surprise.
You were always at odds with them.
And yet here you are, making that face.
Did sharing the sin of letting the shogun die
develop a sense of camaraderie between you?
He must be smiling up in heaven.
You lost something that meant the world to you,
but you've recovered to the point where you hold something dear again.
You're unusually talkative today.
What the hell do you know about me?
Nothing.
But if you don't want to lose it all again,
then don't you have something else to do?
That man probably knew
that the Shinsengumi wouldn't last long in Lord Nobunobu's administration.
If he were to be arrested in front of the squad,
they definitely wouldn't take it lying down.
That's why he put them on funeral detail.
But he called you alone here.
You should know what that means.
Give Toshi and the others a message for me.
Tell them not to do anything stupid, and that Edo still needs them.
Mimawarigumi
Well, I've passed the torch.
Forgive me.
This is bullshit!
What crimes has the chief committed?
Is Nobunobu trying to make him take the fall for the shogun's assassination?!
Let's raid Nobunobu's place!
The Shinsengumi will be destroyed anyway!
Then let's use our lives to save our general!
Yeah!
Even so,
he told us to live.
The Shinsengumi organization may disappear, and we may be torn apart,
but we each have to do what we can as members of the Shinsengumi.
Isn't that what Kondo-san said?
Even if it means walking over his corpse?
Is it really worth it, Hijikata-san?
If we have to watch Kondo-san die,
is there any point in serving this rotten bakufu and being samurai?
Do we still have to protect Edo, even then?
I say to hell with that.
If we can't protect our general after failing to protect the shogun,
then we're no longer samurai.
Just cowards.
Do what you want.
If that's your brand of Shinsengumi, then I won't stop you.
Vice Chief!
I can't tell who's right at this point.
But just like you guys, I don't want to let Kondo-san die.
And just like Kondo-san, I don't want to let you guys die.
I don't have the authority to tie you down anymore.
The demonic vice chief and Shinsengumi code are no more.
But if there's still something that ties down your hearts,
then I'm sure that's the most important thing to the Shinsengumi.
Believe in that and fight.
No matter what path it takes you down,
you guys are Shinsengumi.
That's just cheating.
When the demon gives us a look like that,
we can't do anything.
It's raining, huh?
Yeesh.
Being homeless is tough.
Farewell Shinsengumi Arc Part One
The Day the Demon Cried
Preview
I can't do anything.
Forget something?
We know that you're cops.
I'm going with him.
The promise we made as friends...
I'll definitely fulfill it.
Kondo-san, I'll be honest.
Gintama Farewell Shinsengumi Arc
So this week marks the start of
the "Farewell Shinsengumi Arc."
Don't miss the soulful screams
of the samurai who crawl and fight.