A/N: Extra long final chapter. I wanted to continue, but I'm out of ideas and nowhere near updated on the anime... I hope you enjoyed the story, though.

The three stared in shock. It wasn't enough that they had to execute Shouyou sensei? The Bakufu had to mock them as well? Tomoe felt a grin form on her lips, and she threw her head back, laughing uncontrollably.

The other two stared blankly at her as the psychotic laughter filled the air. So this was what happened when someone ran out of tears. They could only laugh. And when even that ran out… Only blood would be left.

"It's over," Tomoe said, laughter disappearing. "Everything is over."

Katsura sat with his head buried in his knees, depressed, as Shinsuke clenched and unclenched his fists, turning his grief into anger and hatred. Gintoki had disappeared a few nights ago without a word to anyone, and Sakamoto had gone into space.

"We're the only ones left. The only ones," Tomoe shouted. "Damn it!"

It was true. The Amatsukaze had been wiped out, and all of Shouyou sensei's students except the four of them had been killed in battle. And the Kiheitai… Those that hadn't died in the last battle had been taken by the bakufu, and there was no question about what happened to them. Executed, every last man, and their heads put on display for the world to see.

"Tomoe," Takasugi said, putting a hand on her head. "Enough."

"If we had been stronger…"

The pressure from his hand increased. "Enough."

They had lost. That much was clear. To continue the war would be pointless. Takasugi already knew—an all-out war was no longer possible. They had too few people left, and too few resources. To keep fighting only meant that the rest of them would die too. Seeing the heads of his Kiheitai mounted sent surges of anger through him. Seeing his fellow students die ached. Seeing Shouyou executed dropped him into rage and despair. Seeing Tomoe fallen amongst the dead Amatsukaze had frightened him more than he would like. If she had died too, he would probably have continued fighting the Amanto in the pointless war until he was in pieces too.

"Yeah," Tomoe agreed finally. "Enough. It's over."

It was impossible. He should be dead. He was dead. She watched him die, she saw his head completely separated from his body. Tomoe barely noticed falling to her knees, the combined forces of sickness and shock taking the strength out of her muscles.

The sound caught the attention of the two males, and they whipped around, staring at the girl on the ground. Her eyes widened. The man's eyes were cold, too cold, and the warm smile she knew was absent from his face, as if it had never been there.

"Hey, human! How much did you hear?" The Amanto snarled, taking a few threatening steps towards her.

She stared through him as if he didn't exist. "Se—"

"Hey!" The Amanto repeated, picking her up by the collar.

But even as she dangled in the air, she didn't notice the alien who had taken hold of her. It was as if the entire world had gone blank except for her and the man standing a few feet away, who stared coldly back without any recognition in his eyes.

"I'm asking you a question, you damned human scum!"

Pain blossomed in her stomach where he punched her, and finally her instincts returned her to her senses. Eyes blazing red with fury and bloodlust, she turned a freezing gaze on the Amanto who dared lay a finger on her. The creature faltered for a brief second before he scowled.

"You dare look at me like tha—"

Those were by no means uncommon last words for Amanto, especially not in the last twenty years. They had once only said them to Yato and Shinra—the Dakini were too frightening and the Renho were more often faced with 'what the hell is that' looks before their prey died—but in the last twenty years, those who had underestimated humans died with that phrase on their lips.

Tomoe dropped more lightly to the ground than the severed head did. "Sen…?"

"How much did you hear?" The man asked.

"Just the part where you said the price doesn't matter, but—"

He didn't look quite satisfied with the answer, but he spun sharply on his heel and began to walk away. Tomoe's eyes widened, and with an almost desperate expression, lunged forward and gripped his cloak.

"Shouyou sensei!" Tomoe cried.

The man halted and turned. The girl didn't dare hope, but even so, she faltered at the look in his eyes, the recognition in the eyes only for Tsukikage the assassin, and not his student Sakata Tomoe.

"Shouyou… sensei?" Tomoe repeated hesitantly.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," the man said. "Now release me."

Her body automatically obeyed the command of the man who's face and voice all belonged to her—their—beloved teacher, but with every step he took away from her, her heart seemed to drop a little further. Everything had started because they lost Shouyou sensei, and everything had ended because they lost Shouyou sensei. And all of a sudden he appears, alive.

What was she supposed to think now?

"Utsuro," another familiar voice said.

Tomoe's head snapped up.

"Hakuro," she breathed.

Her voice barely rose above a whisper, but the Amanto still heard it, and his gaze trained on her. His eyes were warmer than the Shouyou sensei lookalike's, and despite the fact that she had grown older since they last met, he recognized her immediately.

"Sakata Tomoe, Tsukikage," the Tendoushuu member said with mild surprise. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"You know her? Personally?" Shouyou sensei's voice said.

"I fought her in the war," Hakuro replied.

"And yet you're both alive."

"You have to admire a human who could fight like that," Hakuro shrugged. "Besides, she was still a kid."

"You should have killed her."

Tomoe's blood ran cold at the words.

"Maybe. But she's been useful to us the last few years. We've hired Tsukikage more than a few times, after all," Hakuro replied, then glanced at Tomoe. "She seems to know you."

"I have no idea who she is. Let's go."

"Wait!" Tomoe called out.

This time Shouyou's copy didn't even pause. Hakuro raised an eyebrow at her—or at least the part of his head that would have been an eyebrow on a human.

"Why… He should be dead. Why is Shouyou sensei alive? Why is he like… like that?" Tomoe asked desperately.

"Shouyou sensei, huh…" Hakuro frowned. "If I'm not wrong, Shouyou was just another personality Utsuro created. The 'Shouyou' you know no longer exists. You should just think of Utsuro as just another member of the Tendoushuu."

"Wha—"

"If you don't want to die yet, I suggest you don't go near him, little half human," Hakuro said. "I'll be the one to kill you."

Kamui sat outside the spaceship, eating a barrel of rice by the handful. The Amanto doctor had left long ago, and the humans were feeling a lot better. In fact, some were already walking around. Takasugi, on the other hand, had been in a foul mood for hours. Probably because the girl had disappeared two days ago.

The yelling had gotten on the Yato's nerves, so he grabbed a little after diner snack—two barrels of rice, a whole cow's worth of beef, and another barrel of tea—and sat outside to wait for Tomoe to return. She would probably be able to stop Takasugi from killing everyone who so much as looked at him.

Don't get him wrong—Kamui would love to take advantage of Takasugi's foul mood and engaged the samurai in a fight to the death—but this didn't seem like the time and place. After all, with Takasugi around, there would be a lot more fun fights than if Takasugi were not around.

A movement caught Kamui's attention, and he stopped chewing for a second as he furrowed his brows and concentrated. It was dark out, so it felt like all the shadows were moving, but this movement seemed more real than that. And when he saw it again, he relaxed and continued to eat.

There were only one person he had ever seen with light purple hair.

Tomoe kept walking towards him and the ship, her head down—Kamui frowned again, because that was completely unlike the girl—and she dropped to her knees in front of him.

Kamui swallowed. "Tomo-chan?"

"Ne, Kamui," Tomoe said, her voice too quiet.

Kamui's frown deepened and he twisted his head to see her expression. But since it was too dark to see clearly, he used the hand that was not holding rice to tip her chin up. Then he blinked once in surprise. The expression the girl wore when she turned her face towards him was one completely unsuitable. Tomoe wasn't supposed to have tears in her eyes… Tears didn't belong on her face.

"Tomo… chan?" Kamui asked cautiously.

"What do you do when you find out everything you believed in was a lie?"

The Yato boy recoiled. What in the world was he supposed to answer to that? Scratch that, what in the world had happened in the past two days? He thought quickly. What did people do when females had water coming out of their eyes? Normally he wouldn't care, but if Takasugi saw Tomoe like this, he really would massacre everyone on the ship.

"Ah, never mind," Tomoe said, smiling as she rose to her feet. "Sorry to say something so strange."

Kamui felt panic creep up on him. He couldn't let the girl walk into the ship like this—Takasugi would murder him in his sleep, or worse, he won't let anyone cook enough food to satisfy his stomach. His hand reached out and grabbed hers, stopping her in her tracks.

Takasugi gritted his teeth. Where the heck did Tomoe go? She could handle herself in a fight—usually—but she was sick and alone on an unknown planet. How dare she go off without telling him? She belonged to him the moment she stepped foot on his ship! It didn't help that his injured eye had been throbbing since that morning—something it did once in a while—and his pride wouldn't let him go to a doctor over something that small.

"Shit," he cursed, punching the wall.

He glared out the window into the night, seething. When was the stupid girl coming back?

Then a movement caught his attention, and for a moment he forgot the pain. How dare… Takasugi watched silently for a long moment, his rage growing with every second. Finally, with a roar, he turned and threw his chair against the wall.

Kamui waited for the water to stop coming out of Tomoe's eyes, his hand awkwardly on her head and his shoulder slightly damp. He had no idea how they ended up in that position, but the moment he grabbed her she had buried her head against his neck and asked him to lend her his shoulder.

He let her, of course. Anyone he fought and didn't kill and learned to respect and who cooked for him was a 'friend'.

"I apologize," Tomoe said as she straightened, and Kamui relaxed at her use of formal language again. "And thank you."

"No problem!" Kamui said with a large smile. "Just treat me to dinner sometime."

Tomoe's lips twitched into a wry smile. "If you do not empty my wallet."

"I'll leave a few hundred yen," Kamui answered cheerfully.

Tomoe laughed softly and bowed once to him before returning to the ship. Kamui sighed. It wasn't like he was interested in her romantically or sexually. But he still liked her. If she mated with him they could make some really strong babies. Too bad Takasugi would castrate him before that could happen.

The moment Tomoe stepped into the ship, she was met with chaos. The crew ran around with panicked expressions, either going into hiding or looking for something—Tomoe had no idea what. She opened her mouth to ask…

"Tomoe-dono!" Bansai exclaimed, relief coming across his features. "Do you think you can say something to Takasugi? Stop him from destroying everything and killing everyone?"

Tomoe blinked. Since that was Takasugi's new purpose in life, she highly doubted that.

"Not in general," Bansai corrected himself. "But at this moment in time, on this ship."

Tomoe blinked again. "Excuse me?"

Bansai's usually calm expression looked a little frazzled. "Just… Go to his room, and you'll see."

A confused expression on her face, Tomoe walked through the halls, and it didn't take long for her to hear yelling and cursing and violent banging. A distraught Matako stood a few steps from the open door, delivering pleas that, judging from the noise, went unheard.

"Shin-chan," Tomoe said, volume barely higher than usual.

Matako sent her a scathing glare, but Tomoe, of course, ignored her. Takasugi's scathing glare, however, made her a little uneasy. She had never seen Takasugi direct such a furious expression towards her, like he was willing to tear her to pieces with his bare hands.

"Bansai-san," Tomoe said. "I can take it from here."

Bansai hesitated to leave a woman with the Takasugi right now. Still, he nodded and watched as the girl stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. Bansai had the strange feeling that he had just seen a tiger walk into a rabid panther's den.

For a long while, Tomoe didn't speak. She just looked around the room, surveying the damage. All the furniture save for the bed were broken and in unsalvageable fragments, and the walls looked like some wild beast had attacked them. Said wild beast glared at her with a snarl, the single visible eye wide and verging on insanity.

Tomoe sighed. "Shin-chan… Throw tantrums outside, where we do not have to clean up and replace everything."

The calm words only seemed to infuriate Takasugi even more. His hand formed a vice grip around her wrist, and he threw her onto the bed, climbing over her threateningly.

She stared unwaveringly up at him, unafraid.

"Where have you been?" Takasugi growled. "And why were you with Kamui?"

"What I do has nothing to do with you," Tomoe replied.

Takasugi's eye widened with fury. A hand went to her throat and Tomoe stiffened, expression going blank. If he tried to choke her, she would kill him. Even if he was her Shin-chan.

But rather than wrapping around her neck, with one fluid motion, his hand traveled down to her obi and ripped it off, her kimono falling halfway open and revealing pale skin. Takasugi's head dipped and he bit her shoulder harshly. Tomoe winced. She was sure he had drawn blood. But other than that, she didn't move.

And then his fingers wrapped around her throat, just hard enough to hurt, but not quite hard enough to choke her.

The light in his eyes when he glared down at her was dangerous, the grin on his lips sadistic.

"You said before that you won't sleep with anyone you don't love, right?" Takasugi said, recalling the words from when they were still young.

"It's still true," Tomoe replied calmly.

"So," Takasugi said, hand running up her side, skin rather than cloth under his touch. "Who are you saving yourself for? You were always friendly with Zura. You don't seem to dislike Bansai either. But if anyone, it's Kamui, isn't it?"

Tomoe twitched. After all these years of flirting, he says something like this… Takasugi had to be an idiot.

But Takasugi seemed to take the movement for assent, because his aura turned darker, even more murderous than usual. The deranged grin vanished, the grip on her turned hard enough to bruise.

"Then I should take you right now," Takasugi said, voice scarily calm. "After that I'll sever all the tendons in your legs, carve my name into you, and murder Kamui in his sleep."

Tomoe sighed and sat up, surprising Takasugi into letting her. Then he scowled. If she tried to run for the door…

But she didn't. Instead she pushed his shoulder down until his back was flat against the bed, and all of a sudden their positions were reversed. He glared up at her. Did she think that just because she was on top that he couldn't overpower her again? He wasn't about to let Kamui have her. Or any other man, for that matter.

Her eyes softened as she smiled down at him, not a single hint of malice in her expression. "Shinsuke."

He froze, eye wide in surprise. She had never shown him that kind of expression before, nor had she ever called him by his first name. It had always either been 'Shin-chan' or 'Takasugi'.

"Are you in love with me?" Tomoe asked.

His brain stopped working for a brief moment. Then he frowned. "Of course not."

Her eyes fell half closed in amusement. "So if I go to Kamui, then you won't kill him, won't cut up my legs and won't carve your name into me?"

Takasugi stiffened and scowled, focusing only on the first part. She wasn't going to Kamui, not even over his dead body. "If you say you're in love with that Yato, I'll kill you."

"And yet you don't love me," Tomoe mused.

"I don't," Takasugi confirmed. He had the nagging feeling he was lying through his teeth, and that she knew it.

She hummed, cocking her head as she studied him. Then she climbed off the bed, holding her kimono closed. Takasugi propped himself up onto his elbows as he watched her, his body tense and ready to grab her if she headed for the door.

But she walked the other way, towards the window. He almost opened his mouth to warn her that sharp shards of glass were there from when he smashed the mirror, but she stopped before she could step on them. She stood motionless for a while, as if looking for something, and Takasugi watched curiously as she picked up a piece of broken glass the size of his palm.

She pressed the tip to the inside of her forearm.

"What the—" Takasugi froze, wide eyed in shock, and it took a few seconds before he had the presence of mind to roll off the bed and grab the wrist that still held the glass against her skin.

"You hate me enough to kill yourself in front of me?" He demanded, scowling furiously. "Give me that."

She let him tug the glass shard out of her hand and turn over her injured arm. His touch was surprisingly gentle considering that he had been ready to attack her a few moments ago.

"Damn it," he hissed, and tugged her lightly towards his bathroom.

She followed obediently, holding back a flinch when the cold water touched the open wound, but let him wash away the blood. It was just a matter of time until he examined it, so she waited quietly.

"What the hell were you thinking?" He demanded, angry, but it was a different kind of anger than before.

He turned the tap off and held the arm out to examine more clearly, and he froze.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" He repeated, shocked.

In the few seconds he failed to move, she had managed to carve his last name into her inner forearm, the writing not exactly pretty, but clear and legible. And deep enough to leave a faint scar.

She smiled faintly, almost mockingly. "Weren't you going to carve your name into me?"

He could only stare at her as if she had lost her mind. What idiot would actually do something like that to themself? "Damn it."

She didn't respond.

"Unless you mangle this, no man will accept you," Takasugi told her. "No man wants their girlfriend to have someone else's name carved into them."

"You really are an idiot, Shinsuke. I've been in love with the same man for ten years. Do you really think I would do something like this without thinking?" Her smile turned mocking. "But since he's rejected me now, maybe I should cut up my arm so his name is unreadable."

"Don't you dare," Takasugi snapped immediately.

"But you're not in love with me," Tomoe said, her tone just as full of mockery as her smile.

"You know perfectly well how I…" He clammed up and scowled. Like hell he was going to take the bait.

Tomoe frowned slightly and pulled away, going back to the broken glass and choosing another one.

"Oi…" Takasugi growled. He wasn't going to let her erase his name.

But rather than doing anything herself, she offered him the glass. "There's only half of your name here."

He glared at her. "I'm not going to cut my name into your arm!"

"Where, then?"

"I'm not going to cut my name into you, period!"

"Fine, then," Tomoe nodded. "By the way, if I keep bleeding I might die from blood loss."

Takasugi stared at her. "Damn it! You little idiot!"

He ripped a strip off his sleeve and began wrapping it around her wound.

"Your idiot?"

His movements paused for a moment, and while he wasn't immature enough to grin like an idiot in love, he couldn't stop the tiny smile. He turned his head up and kissed her quickly.

"My idiot," he agreed.

Tomoe smiled and faked a sigh. "It took you ten years to kiss me. How long until you sleep with me?"

He glared at her without any anger. "Two minutes, if you don't shut up and stop teasing me."

She smirked. "Then maybe I should continue."