Gintoki was not fighting alone.
Inside the venue, a dense crowd of people holding materials, bettors who had probably poured countless dull days and nights into this one instant of miracle, and who were probably really idle, raised the horse-racing tickets in their hands together with him.
“Can you face us after this? Refund!!!”
After shouting, Gintoki scratched his head.
Ah, no, he should have won.
He definitely won.
Who wanted a refund?
They should spit out the money to him with interest.
“We sincerely apologize, dear guests. Due to unknown reasons, the signal inside the venue suddenly malfunctioned. The result will be shown immediately after buffering.”
Gintoki raised his head and looked at the spinning loading icon on the screen.
“…”
Gintoki was a little anxious.
This showed as trembling hands, cold sweat, and nervously pacing back and forth.
Toji got dizzy from watching him, so he grabbed Gintoki by the collar with one hand and put his other hand on his hip.
Gintoki did not resist either.
Known fact: Gintoki had a little gambling luck.
Second, most of the time, that little bit of gambling luck was not on his head.
He looked at the horse-racing ticket in Toji’s hand with conflicted eyes.
‘Could this be a once-in-a-1,000-years chance?
If I take the chance to switch the horse-racing tickets, can I dodge the author’s malicious arrangement?’
After a brief struggle, he swiftly switched the horse-racing tickets.
Toji did know what he was doing, but there was no point in caring.
The horse-racing ticket that was about to win had run into his hand.
Did that not basically mean he won?
Horse-racing tickets, after all, were not registered under real names.
Otherwise, whether it was Toji or Gintoki, both of them, 1 and 2, would have been thrown out of the gambling hall.
Gintoki’s heart somehow relaxed.
Toji was a little expectant about getting carried to victory by Gintoki.
The 2 of them stared tightly at the big screen with the same expectation.
After the loading icon finally stopped spinning, the big screen played the winning footage.
No. 11, Ad Space for Rent, proudly perked up its ears, while Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon, right before crossing the finish line, inexplicably stuck out its tongue, tilted its head, and danced the crab dance.
“Why—! Do you want to recruit ads that badly! There are no ads, you bastard!” Gintoki suddenly raised the horse-racing ticket, but did not dare throw it away.
He glanced at Explosive Super-Spicy Big-Boob Babe’s ranking, only to find that the guy had run 2nd.
Ah, no, why!
Gintoki shook Toji by the shoulders.
“Why did you buy a win bet!”
If he had bought a place bet, they definitely could have made money!
Win bet: Guess which horse will get 1st place.
Place bet: Guess which horse will enter the top 3.
After getting obsessed with biting tails, Explosive Super-Spicy Big-Boob Babe somehow overtook a whole bunch of horses on the turn.
This was the power of a protagonist, right?
Although Gintoki’s mind was full of bright red words.
Life was over.
And.
Toji’s gambling luck was even worse—aaaah!
“Can you face us after this? Refund!!!”
This time, Gintoki shouted from the heart.
The poor brat became a poor brat again.
After shouting from the heart, Gintoki was drained from the heart.
Having seen through worldly attachments, he raised his head and looked toward poetry and distant horizons.
“Toji, the sky is so blue.”
It had already turned into a whole blue ocean, along with his exhausted body and mind.
It was hard to understand why a horse would slow down during the final sprint, and even harder to understand why it loved the crab dance that much.
“I want to eat crab,” he muttered blankly.
Before they came to the gambling hall, Toji, who had earned a full pocket, could still have taken Gintoki to eat 1 meal.
Toji was not stingy about spending money.
Earning money, spending money, then earning money again was a cycle in the first place.
When he watched money roll out of his pocket, his tired heart could be carried away from this annoying world by that unstoppable feeling.
But the Toji standing in front of Gintoki right now was a Toji who had already finished betting on horses.
His pocket was cleaner than his face.
Crab, huh.
Crab.
“There is a place where you can eat it.” He should be able to eat it, right?
Toji did not dare guarantee it, but Gintoki was easy to satisfy.
He was not picky and ate fast.
Even if there was no crab, sushi stacked on sushi could still make him yell that it was high-class.
“Seriously?” Gintoki had only said it casually, and he had not expected Toji to actually arrange it for him.
Was this what connections were!
Who exactly could provide crab for free!
That night, they were packed up and sent into the Gojo Clan.
Gintoki: ?
In fact, from the instant Gojo Satoru was born and his existence was made public, the people of the jujutsu world had been watching that moment, personally witnessing the miracle the Gojo Clan had saved up for 500 years, the holder of the Six Eyes who had remained in legend.
They waited for his awakening at 6 years old, until Gojo Satoru’s growth passed the Gojo Clan’s approval, judging that it was not only his name and existence.
His appearance, those sky-like blue eyes, could truly be placed before the world’s gaze.
“That kind of feeling?” Wasn’t that basically the same as a rare animal?
Because it was rare, it was at the level where it could be snatched away by some Baka Prince?
They were only blue eyes, right?
Though they had special powers.
Gin-san’s eyes were red, a color you couldn’t even see here!
Red was cooler, right!
Though they were dead-fish eyes.
“I can’t get excited. I seriously can’t get excited at all.” Gintoki walked on by himself, heading straight for the specially prepared Japanese-style banquet hall.
Amid the friendly atmosphere between the families, which was filled with the scent of profit deals, Gintoki and Toji strolled leisurely over to eat at the buffet.
Even if someone from the Zenin Clan came, they normally would not notify the 2 of them.
To be precise, no matter what happened, they would not notify the 2 of them.
Whether it was a family gathering to build feelings, or even a meeting to confirm loyalty.
Toji was completely ignored, while Gintoki’s position was even more awkward.
It was probably at the level of, “We strictly demand that you complete the tasks assigned to you, but it doesn’t matter even if you can’t.” At most, they would cut the treatment received by Gintoki’s mother, who had left the Zenin Clan.
It was basically like saying they were not forcing you to work overtime, while also giving you conditions where you could not survive without working overtime.
Evil capitalists.
So by comparison, Gintoki’s status in the Zenin Clan was actually not too bad despite being awkward.
A large part of that was because he was easy to use.
He would obediently do anything, just like a Yorozuya.
Toji casually mixed in, and Gintoki followed without restraint.
No one from the Zenin Clan actually objected.
Even Zenin Naoya, the main character of this visit to the Gojo Clan, who had come to see the world and interact with the Six Eyes of the Gojo Clan, had no complaints.
A little boy with black hair and black eyes was clinging to the wall and secretly watching them.
That look was basically like Hanako-kun had crawled out of the toilet and changed careers into a stalker, making people’s hearts feel creeped out.
Gintoki, who was far too familiar with the profession of stalkers, subconsciously felt a certain string that was always ready to kick him flying tighten.
But after it tightened, Gintoki felt something was wrong.
How was this related to him?
Even if it was a stalker, it should be Toji’s stalker, right?
His relationship with Zenin Naoya was at most a grudge, or a rivalry.
Thinking of this, he silently loosened that string a little, while quietly moving a bit farther away from Toji.
Toji: ?
Happy reading!