Well, what do you know? Looks like I managed to complete this before the fourth anniversary for this story. lol Anyway, here it is. The conclusion to this fic. There is plenty I wanna say, but I'll save that for the bottom author's note. So, enjoy the final chapter!

Update as of 9/12/19: Decided to add a scene, since there was a bit from all the way back in chapter 81 where I completely forgot about it until some time after finishing this fic. To anyone who was annoyed by that, I'm terribly sorry. I kinda wished I added this much sooner...

Final chapter: Home is where two siblings belong

Upon the Wardenhall siblings returning home, the Yorozuya went into their living area, with Kagura rummaging through Gintoki's closet soon before discovering the tape Christine filmed herself with a while ago.

"I got the tape! Now we can finally watch it, uh-huh!" Kagura cheered, hopping towards the couch.

"Not to say I'm not glad we're finally going to watch it, but at the same time, I'm not exactly looking forward to it," Shinpachi said, his stomach churning slightly.

"I don't see why you wouldn't be looking forward to it. Y'all know I've been dying to know what weirdo girl said in this movie ever since she refused to let us see it, yup!"

"Let's just get this out of the way," Gintoki said, using his fingers to rake his hair. "Then Kagura won't whine about it anymore."

"Hey, I haven't whined about her refusing to let me watch it since she made this movie, nope! We never even talked about it!"

"Whatever." Gintoki waved the same hand side to side. "Go put the tape in the VCR."

"Totally~!" She sang, then went straight for the VCR to insert the tape. Right afterwards, the girl and the other two rested their bottoms on the couch while waiting for the tape to settle and play.

Around five seconds later, the screen opened up with Christine positioning the camera in living room, asking, "Is this on?" When certain it indeed was, a smile held upon her face, and added, "Good! Now to start!"

Christine straightened the bottom of her kimono before sitting on the couch, also placing her hands on her lap. After taking a deep breath, she properly started the "movie" by asking towards the camera's direction, "So Yorozuya. By the time you're watching this, Sean and I—most likely—have already gone home, safe from the wacky shit in Edo." Her own comment caused her to chortle. Waving her hand up and down, she added, "I'm just kiddin'. I like Edo, though I'll admit there're indeed dangerous places and people in this world. Then again, all places in all universes will have some dangers."

Forcing out a cough to cease for laughter, Christine quickly changed the subject, "But that's not the point I'm trying to get across. To stop beating aroun' the bush, I'm making this as a way to say...goodbye."

Gintoki didn't show much reaction outside of a small frown, while Kagura widened her eyes and Shinpachi furrowed his eyebrows.

Christine continued, "You might've already figured that out since I didn't want you all watching this until Sean and I returned to our world. It wouldn't make any sense for you to watch it beforehand, anyway, but I also feel like if you did that, you'd struggle to accept the fact that we're no longer here, animated and whatnot. Well, I doubt Gintoki would feel that way and I'm not too sure about Kagura, but I'm positive Shinpachi would struggle with that kind of reality."

Shinpachi parted his mouth. Christine...

The girl in the video scratched the back of her neck, averting her gaze away from the lens. "Man, for some reason, I'm having a bit of a hard time saying anything without feeling saddened." She rapidly shook her head, forcing herself to return her focus on the camera. "You're probably wondering, 'Why're you saddened? You've stated you and Sean wanna go home!' And you're right, I've said that, and after I finish making this video, I'll probably say it plenty of times in the future, but...who says I can't be sad?" She shrugged, raising her hands up as well. "That would mean I'd miss all of you, even if I can still watch the anime and merely see you as fictional people. But...it's not the same as seeing and talking to you in person."

The Yorozuya trio spotted her wiping her eyes with her sleeves.

"Oh, sorry..." She muttered, then soon added in her normal volume, "I'm usually not a crybaby. I'm kinda convinced part of me doesn't want to go home, but I do. I really want my brother and I to be back to where we're from. I just realized I should've brought him in this 'movie' since it's about both of us, not just me. Oh well. I can't do a second take on this. This tape won't last forever, so I should probably wrap this up."

Resting her hands in the same spot as when she began talking to the camera, Christine smiled, but unlike the previous one, the Yorozuya knew this smile wasn't genuine. It was made even more obvious when she closed her eyes, letting tears trail down her cheeks.

"Goodbye, Yorozuya. After you're done watching this video, I hope you won't forget us."

She got up from her seating, heading over to the camera once more. She grumbled, "Goddammit, I gotta stop crying. I don't want the Yorozuya and Sean to see me like this when they see me again."

Those were the last words they were able to decipher before the screen went to static.

Even when the screen turned to static and the noise from it went on for some time, none of the Yorozuya members went over to the VCR to press the eject button. Rather, they all stayed on the couch in silence. The three glanced at one another as though expecting someone to say something.

Kagura remembered what Christine said to her when she desperately wanted to watch it while she and Sean were still here.

"Kagura-chan, you're most likely going to regret it if you watch the video now."

Kagura became the first person out of the trio to speak up. "Y'know, maybe it's a good thing I didn't watch it then, uh-huh..."

"Yeah..." Shinpachi trailed off in agreement.

Christine, Sean...I don't think we'll ever forget you. Or at least I won't.

Three weeks went by in Edo. Throughout the first week since the siblings returned to their home world, the Yorozuya trio had gotten so used to seeing Sean and Christine roaming in Gintoki's house, that they kept forgetting neither of them were here anymore. Though they were finally able to fully remember not to call out their names as if they hadn't left, it didn't mean they didn't miss them, especially with Shinpachi. Almost everyday, whenever the boy opened up the closet door to wake up Kagura, he would stare at the Japanese clothes Christine and Sean wore for over a year and a half. He considered having the damaged parts of Christine's kimono to be sewed, but since these clothes were going to stay on the shelf in the closet anyway, what point would that be? Then again, he didn't own any needles or thread, so...yeah.

The Yorozuya informed the people Christine and/or Sean told about their real names and where they were from. Each of them took it well, glad that they went home. Some of them asked how, but of course, the Yorozuya weren't allowed to disclose this. Katsura was the most persistent to know out of all, which, understandably, annoyed the crap out of them. Katsura guessed if it was related to an anime god - as he remembered Christine mentioning it to him at a mansion they "worked" in temporarily - which threw them off. Despite that, they were still adamant in not confiding. How Gintoki wished he would stop asking.

But there was one person they had yet to tell of Christine and Sean's leaving.

Shinpachi, Kagura, and Gintoki all slid into their footwear, getting ready to head to wherever they planned on going.

"Are you sure I can't bring Sadaharu along?" Kagura pouted.

"I doubt the Shinsengumi will let us bring a pet, especially one as big as Sadaharu," Shinpachi told the girl.

She turned to the inugami, who barked at them once.

Gintoki raised his arm up as he deadpanned at the animal, "We'll be back in a lil while, mutt."

With that being said, the three individuals exited the apartment.

A half an hour later…

The trio went inside the Shinsengumi Headquarters. When they stepped in, Shinpachi requested to an officer, "We're here to see Eikouta Marimo."

"Follow me," The policeman ordered, waving his hand towards himself. As soon as he started promenading to where the cells were, the Yorozuya weren't far behind in following the man.

A few extra minutes passed, and the Shinsengumi member opened up a door to the area full of jail cells. Not many of the torches hung on the circle hoops were lit, thereby having this part of the Headquarters the darkest.

As the group of four passed by various cells, the prisoners inside them each glared at the trio. While Gintoki and Kagura disregarded this, Shinpachi couldn't help but frown at said glares.

Why are they staring at us like that? Are they jealous, because we're not in jail as well?

Near the end of the area, they all saw Marimo sitting down next to the wall, with one arm resting on her knees. Her hair was down, and the bangs that blocked her right eye was now moved behind her ear. She held onto a long, thin stick, dragging the tip of it across the concrete floor.

"Eikouta Marimo," The officer leading the Yorozuya here said her name, bringing her attention to him. She broadened her eyes the second she saw the three.

The Shinsengumi member informed, "You have ten minutes. When time is up, you'll be required to leave."

"Understood," Shinpachi acknowledged.

"None of you will try to break her out, right?"

"No. We're not here to do that," He shook his head.

Without a word, the man turned around, and walked away. He closed the door as soon as he stepped out of the cells area.

Marimo laid the stick on the floor before standing up, and taking three steps towards the wooden bars.

"Yo, Yorozuya," Marimo greeted them informally.

"Hey, Mari-chan," Kagura greeted back. "Were you gettin' bored in this gloomy place?"

"Yeah," Marimo admitted with a quiet chuckle. "Doesn't help that I've been here for three weeks already, so that makes this place exceptionally boring."

"Where'd you get that stick?" Gintoki asked.

"I asked one of those Shinsengumi guys to bring me it shortly after I was put in this cell. I wanted to find some way to kill time. Plus..." She rotated her head to see the stick. She finished, "...it reminds me of my guns."

"How does a stick remind you of firearms?" The samurai quirked a brow up.

Marimo explained, "When I used to live alone, I always looked at my guns, just to make sure they were in no way damaged for some reason. Not surprisingly, the Shinsengumi investigated my house, and confiscated my guns, even my favorite one. I would be angry, but since I made the choice to violate the Shinsengumi's property, it wouldn't make sense to me to get mad. So I tend to use a stick to pretend it's one of my guns...and also pretend it's a sword, because it's closer to resembling a sword than a gun."

"Ya think that's anythin' special?" The inmate next to her cell chatted. "I use a rock t' throw at the wall t' vent my frustrations out!"

"We're not talking to you," Marimo rolled her eyes.

The other prisoner hacked, and spat on the floor a couple feet in front of him.

"Anyway," She turned back to the Yorozuya, "there was something that I found really weird."

"What's that?" Shinpachi inquired.

"At one point, I was trying to help Christine with beating the gang that was attacking her. She escaped, but one of the guys from said gang threw me on a tree. I was in excruciating pain, and then the next thing I remember, I was lying in the backseat of a police car."

"Did you go unconscious?"

"I'm guessing so," Marimo shrugged. "Although my stomach hit against the tree, so me going into a coma from that sounds implausible."

"That does sound weird, uh-huh," Kagura muttered.

Something popped in Marimo's head; she asked, "Oh, speaking of Christine, how is she and Sean doing? Are they okay? Were they able to avoid the Shinsengumi?"

"They avoided the Shinsengumi, all right," Gintoki responded.

"Marimo-san, they were able to go home, hence them not being with us," Shinpachi mentioned. "I have a feeling the Shinsengumi are still looking for them, but obviously, they'll never find them."

Marimo parted her mouth at this revelation. Seconds later, the corners of her lips twirled up.

"That's good to hear," She breathed. "How did they manage to get home?"

"We can't tell you that, unfortunately," Shinpachi replied.

"Oh," She lowered her gaze. "All right. I'll respect your decision."

He corrected her mentally, It wasn't really a decision. We were just asked not to mention it.

Marimo added, "The only thing that matters is them being home."

Kagura probed, "How long do you think you'll be in jail?"

She sighed, "Probably a very long time. The Shinsengumi or whoever have yet to decide how long I'll be in this gloomy place."

"I wouldn't be surprised if you stayed in jail for the rest of your life," Gintoki said.

"Well, considering how much damage I've caused, I have a feeling that'll be the case. Honestly, I can accept it," Marimo replied. "It's a good thing they bring salad whenever they hand over a tray of food for me to eat. I'd definitely throw a fit if they didn't."

Marimo chortled at her own comment, but the Yorozuya weren't laughing along. Shinpachi was amazed at how optimistic she sounded in spite of being a prisoner for three weeks.

He decided, "We should probably get going. A customer called us soon before we went to see you, and said he'd come to Yorozuya Gin-chan's in about an hour."

"Do you think you'll be able to visit me again?" Marimo asked.

"If we have time, and if the Shinsengumi will let us," Shinpachi said.

"I see. By the way, thanks for telling me about Sean and Christine."

"Sure thing. Well, see you another time."

He and the other two began heading for the exit. Marimo exclaimed, "I'm happy you came to see me!"

Kagura waved her hand, silently saying bye to the older girl.

Holding onto the wooden cell bar, Marimo thought, I hope it won't be too long before they come visit me again.

Moments ticked by, and the Yorozuya strolled through the street. Shinpachi laid his eyes towards Gintoki's direction, and asked, "Gin-san, do you think there's a possibility of someone else from the real world somehow coming to this universe?"

Based on his silence, Gintoki seemed hesitant to answer.

"Gin-chan?" Kagura said his name.

Gintoki finally spoke, but it wasn't a direct response to Shinpachi's question, "How 'bout we don't worry about that? We already dealt with two kids for over a year and a half; I'd rather not think about another person transporting here."

"Right…" The young boy felt a bead of sweat trickle down his cheek as his cheeks turned pink. "Sorry I asked."

"Let's just get home before our customer arrives there first," Gintoki insisted, walking quicker than Kagura and Shinpachi. The two hurried themselves to catch up to the grown man.

In the real world…

Three months later…

It was the last day of school for the summer, which meant that students were more than prepared to spend two and a half months doing all kinds of fun. Some planned on going swimming constantly; others seemed more interested in hanging out with their friends.

Christine sat in her seat, tapping the pad of her index finger on her desk. Her hair was now cut short, with her bangs to her left. She wore a purple thick strap tank top and sky blue shorts; the end of said shorts reached the middle of her thighs. In addition, Christine had loose "sleeves" wrapped around her forearms to obscure the scars.

When she saw her cicatrices (Both on her arms and back) by the time she and Sean returned home, Christine shuddered at how they looked. This could've been because she wasn't animated anymore, but the sight of them, especially when it came to her back, made her stomach twist into a knot. However, she managed to get used to seeing them a few days after she and her brother returned home. The only issue she had was being in the risk of people seeing her scars she earned in the Gintama world. If it was cold, she wouldn't have a problem with that. Right now, it was late spring, so there was absolutely no way she'd wear long sleeve shirts in this weather. For this reason, she chose to get herself those aforementioned "sleeves".

As for Sean, though he indeed receive a scar, he didn't worry too much about people seeing his', since he always wore shirts to cover it up.

Christine turned her half-closed eyes to the clock across the classroom. The time ticked 2:57. Just three more minutes before the bell would ring. The other students in her classroom talked with one another about god knew what. Christine, on the other hand, was talking with nobody.

Man, I kinda wish I had friends to talk to. Even though I've changed, people still ignore me.

Christine wasn't very shocked. Many of the students disliked for understandable reasons, but even when she didn't act like a total bitch to them anymore, they still wanted nothing to do with her. Again, seemed reasonable, although it did make her pretty lonely. When it came to her teachers, she apologized to them for her behavior in the past. Her teachers forgave her if she promised to not have that kind of behavior again, to which she agreed.

The big hand on the clock struck three. The bell rang almost instantaneously, signaling all the teenagers to head out of the school building, and have tons of fun or try to come up with ideas for what they could do for summer break.

Christine's last teacher for the day exclaimed, "I hope all of you have a good summer!"

Christine pushed herself from her seat, and headed out of the classroom. Students weren't required to bring their backpacks today, so she wouldn't worry about accidentally leaving it behind.

Many of the teens cheered, "Whoo! Summer break!"

Christine was excited for summer break, there was no denying that. However, she currently had no plans for what she could do for the break. Well, she still had over two months before she'd go back to school. She had time.

The moment she stepped out of the building, an unwelcomed hot wind blew in her face. She groused, "Goddamn it."

It was a good thing her house wasn't too far from here, but it didn't change the fact that she had to walk home.

She was about to run home when all of a sudden, she heard someone calling out her name.

"Hey, Wardenhall."

Christine turned to see who it was. She saw a girl around the same age as her, who had back-length red curly hair, and brown eyes. She consisted of a blue short-sleeved shirt, a green skirt that reached her knees, and white tennis shoes.

Raising an eyebrow up, she asked, "Who're you?"

"I'm Beatrice Kleinberg," She introduced herself. "I need to ask you something."

"Can you hurry up, then? I really want to get home before I get a heat stroke," Christine urged.

"You'll be fine," Beatrice assumed. "Anyway, what happened to you?"

"What?" She frowned.

"I've seen you be a huge bitch towards everybody. I've watched some people speak with you since March, even if they all talked to you for a short time, and was surprised at how chill you were. Why is that?"

Christine would've simply responded with 'It's none of your business', since she didn't know this girl, but Beatrice did raise a good point. Christine could see why she'd be surprised, so it would've been pretty nonsensical for her to say it wasn't her business.

The young female fully faced Beatrice before answering, "I realized how awful I was as a person. I'm still pretty rude, but not as much as I used to be."

"Are you sure you're not saying that, because you want to be liked?" Beatrice squinted her eyes.

"I'm not that egotistical!" She retorted.

"Hm…" Beatrice hummed.

"Why're you even asking me this?"

"I was getting suspicious of you, that's why," She replied.

"Well, stop being suspicious of me, now that I've told you," Christine knitted her brows. "Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta get home." She only took three steps away from Beatrice ere she was halted again.

"Wait."

"What now?!" Christine snapped.

"How about we talk more at the park tomorrow?"

"Eh?" She fluttered her eyes, confounded by her suggestion.

Beatrice clarified, "I wanna try to give you a chance. I can't do it now, because I need to help my parents make dinner soon."

Christine pondered her confession of wanting to speak with her further. Because she and the other teenage girl had to get home for different reasons, she needed to come up with an answer now.

"Okay. Which park, though?"

"The one next to the marina," Beatrice specified.

"Deal," Christine complied at last, bringing the redhead to smirk at her agreement.

"See you tomorrow." Beatrice spun around to head for the opposite direction.

Now that their brief conversation was over, Christine wasted no time dashing home to get away from this unbearable heat.

Seven minutes later, the girl stopped her feet in front of the door to her house. Hurriedly, Christine opened it, and instantly barged herself in.

Unlike the calefaction coming from outside, the cold being spewed out by the air conditioner made it feel like heaven to her. Almost as if it was like heaven in winter.

"Christine!" Her stepmother, Silvia Castana, snapped her out of her trance. "Don't let all the cool air out!"

"Oh!" Christine shut the door. "Sorry."

Silvia sighed quietly, and then asked, "How was your last day of school?"

"It was fine," She shrugged. "Although, some girl chatted with me a bit, saying she 'wants to give me a chance'."

Silvia questioned, "She wants to try to be your friend?"

"Sounds like it."

Her stepmom grinned. "When was the last time you had a friend?"

"I...can't remember," Christine awkwardly replied.

"Exactly," She chuckled. "Anyway, Sean's making sandwiches for you and him, but Frank and I are going to go to the grocery store pretty soon. Is there anything you'd like for us to get?"

The first thing that popped in Christine's head was, "Stea-"

"We already had steak yesterday," Silvia interjected. "Try to think of something else."

Puffing her cheeks, the teen tried thinking of a few other ideas.

Eventually, she said, but sounded hesitant, "Spaghetti…?"

"Not a bad idea." She headed for the staircase, adding, "I'll be in my room to get ready."

As Christine watched Silvia go up the stairs, she remembered the time she apologized to her not long after she and Sean came back home.

Christine decided to talk with her stepmother in the latter's bedroom.

"What did you say?" Silvia widened her eyes in disbelief.

"I'm sorry," Christine said it again, her eyes lowered and somewhat clenching her fists. "I've been a massive brat to you since you became dad's girlfriend. I'm sure my mom wouldn't appreciate what I've done. However, I'm going to change for the better."

"Wh...What? Yesterday, you were being rude, and now you're apologizing? How did you turn a 180?"

"Let's just say that I've had a heavy realization," She vaguely answered.

If I explain any more than that, she'll think I'm a lunatic.

As Silvia pursed her lips, Christine asked, "Can you forgive me?"

The much older woman ran a hand through her hair as she exhaled densely, "I want to...but this is just so sudden. Maybe it's because I was so used to you being coarse constantly, and me, Sean, and Frank calling you out each time."

"I get it," Christine said. "Are you going to forgive me, though? Or do you think I'm bluffin'?"

"I didn't say that," Silvia frowned at her second question. "I'll most likely forgive you, but I'd like to clear my head right now. You're free to go."

"Okay." The girl left the room, leaving her stepmom alone for the time being.

Christine smiled to herself, incredibly glad for making that apology.

Sean entered the living room, holding two plates with tuna sandwiches on them. He sat on the black leather couch before placing the plates on the table in front. Christine went to sit down as well, and picked up her sandwich after thanking her brother for making them.

Sean had some facial hair, and wore a black tank top with shorts of the same color.

Frank and Silvia stepped down the stairs, the former telling his kids, "We'll be back in a little while."

"Have fun," Christine said, her mouth half-stuffed with bread and tuna.

"Christine, don't talk with your mouth full," Sean criticized.

Their parents went out of their home, and headed for Silvia's car to drive to the grocery store.

Sean used the remote to turn on the television, but all that was playing right now were commercials. He pressed his thumb on the "mute" button, leaving the audio silent until whatever show they were going to watch would come back on.

The older sibling spoke, "Christine."

She responded as soon as she swallowed some of the food down her throat, "Yeah?"

He began, "We haven't talked much about us being in the Gintama world since we got home."

"Didn't you say it was because neither of us had any clue what to say or something?"

"Actually, it was because I wanted us to move on with our lives, since we're no longer in danger."

"Wow, I was way off on that one…" She murmured.

"But it's kind of hard not to talk about it, due to the fact that so many things happened to us while we were in that world," Sean said. "And since only the two of us went there, and time stopped here, the only people we could talk to about this was, well, us."

"True," Christine replied.

"I guess the biggest thing that's happened to us were the scars." He grasped the end of his top, and pulled it up slightly to see the scar he got from Heruya stabbing him. "Honestly, if we didn't earn these scars, I would've believed us going inside an anime was a dream."

"And of course, we brought our tanto's along, but we have to hide them until we move," Christine rolled her eyes at the thought of either of their parents discovering their weapons. "I ain't gonna even try to explain where we got them if they ever find out about us keepin' them."

"We also realized our biggest problems. I was being over worried about you, and you were rude to almost everyone." Sean then altered the topic slightly. "I'll admit, even though I still won't be watching the Gintama series - or anime in general - I found the universe to be pretty interesting, and I especially enjoyed talking with Shinpachi."

"Glad you think that," Christine smirked.

"But...I much prefer to stay in our world. I honestly can't imagine us living in something fictional for the rest of our lives. To me, it just doesn't feel right. Therefore, I'm very happy we're back, and we don't have to go through something like that again."

"Yeah," She said, tilting her head as her eyelids closed halfway. "Me too."

~The end~

*As I've implied in the top author's note, the bottom one will be kinda long. If you don't wanna read it, you're free to skip this author's note.*

Wow. I did it. After nearly four years, I've finally finished this. What am I even supposed to say? Well, I guess I can start out by saying that my writing style has definitely evolved throughout the years. Compared to the first chapter and this one, I can see the vast difference between them (And to be honest, how I've written plenty of parts in the earliest chapters make me think, "You could've written this better").

Another thing I wanted to mention was this fic was originally going to be 176 chapters, but I ended up cutting eight of them out. The reasons were either me struggling immensely to actually write the chapter (Happened with the original idea for chapter 158), I didn't think I'd be able to write them without the risk of me, again, struggling so much to write it, or I had no interest in writing them anymore. To be fair, I'm very glad I cut those chapters off; otherwise I would've taken much longer to finish. ^^;

This chapter was supposed to be much longer, but then I realized there wasn't much stuff to cover, so I decided the length here was fine enough.

Thank you to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed. Even if you stopped reviewing a long time ago, and/or even if you didn't like this fic, I'm still happy you gave this story a chance.

So what'll I do, now that this story is over? Well, I'm going to take a break from writing fanfiction. I don't know how long said break will last, but I'll still be around this site.

My answer from the final question: I'd say my favorite arc in this story is the "Masked Party Arc", especially chapter 148.

I hope you readers have enjoyed this story. Once more, thank you for reading "Trouble is my Middle Name"! :)