07x14 - The Reaper by Day and the Reaper by Night

[bunniefuu]

Sign: The Reaper's Request: Please watch this program in a bright room and at a safe distance from your TV.

G: Boss, I gotta close up already.

G: And they say this area's gotten dangerous lately, so you'd best hurry on home.

Gin: Dangerous? What else is new?

G: Haven't you heard of the serial k*ller going after drunkards?

G: Just two days ago, another corpse was found in a back alley.

G: And there was something really strange about it.

G: At first glance, he looked like any old drunkard with nary a scratch on him,

G: but he was cut through the neck, leaving just one tiny bit of skin attached.

G: And because of that,

G: now there are rumors that it was the work of a Reaper.

Gin: No wonder the streets are so deserted everywhere.

Gin: When things get this gloomy, it even makes alcohol taste bad.

Gin: I wish someone would have a drink with me, Reaper or not.

G: Give it a rest, Boss.

G: Or else a Reaper really might show up to pour you a drink.

Oden,Sign: Oden

G: So scary!

G: I'd better take down my lamp before the candle gets snuffed out.

Gin: How stupid.

Gin: By just a tiny bit of skin on his neck?

Gin: Big whoopin' deal.

Gin: Even I could do that.

Gin: Hell, we're always scraping along by the skin of our necks.

Gin: Financially, that is.

R: Is that true?

R: If so, I'd like to ask you

R: to help me commit su1c1de.

Title: The Reaper by Day and the Reaper by Night

Gin: I'm not sure I get it,

Gin: but you should probably rethink this.

Gin: If you committed su1c1de, uh,

Gin: wouldn't it be bad in a lot of ways?

Gin: How should I put this...

Gin: It's just wrong in all kinds of ways.

Gin: Basically, this isn't like you.

Gin: Cheer up!

R: What the hell would you know about me?!

Gin: What would I know?

Gin: I'd say it's all pretty obvious, really.

R: Stop judging a book by its cover!

R: You know nothing about my suffering!

Gin: I can pretty much guess.

Gin: You couldn't learn Bankai or something, right?

R: Wrong!

Gin: Anyway,

Gin: don't throw your life away.

Gin: You have the important mission of taking human lives...

Gin: Wait, that's not right.

Gin: You should know better than anyone how precious life is

Gin: because you take so many lives...

Gin: That's not it, either.

Gin: Man, this is a pain!

Gin: I have no idea how to stop a Reaper from committing su1c1de!

R: I must atone for all the lives I have taken.

Gin: Look, I get that.

Gin: But isn't that your job?

Gin: You don't have a choice.

Gin: Everyone understands that.

R: Just hurry and finish me off already!

R: P-Please!

R: Finish me!

R: End my suffering!

Gin: I don't even care anymore.

Gin: Don't resent me, okay?

Gin: Don't reduce my life span, okay?

R: Ow! Ow! Ow! I'm gonna die!

Gin: Didn't you want to die?!

R: H-Hurry up! Hurry up!

Gin: Hey, come on!

Gin: Quit moving around!

Gin: H-Here I come.

R: U-Uh, how much longer?

R: Hurry up and put me at ease.

Gin: J-Just a sec. Don't look this way.

Gin: I'm adjusting my aim right now! I'll take your head in one swing!

R: Are you done yet?

R: Hey, I'm really starting to hurt here.

R: Please, hurry!

Gin: S-Settle down!

Gin: This is the pain of all the lives you have taken so far!

Gin: And this one's for Krillin!

R: Hey! What do you think you're doing?!

R: H-Help...

Gin: I-I'm sorry! I can't do this after all!

R: It's too late to be saying that!

R: My guts are spilling out already!

Gin: Well, my brain's spilling out, so let's call it even!

R: Don't go wimping out on me now!

R: Hurry up and finish the job!

R: k*ll me!

Gin: I'll die! I'll die!

Gin: This isn't helping with su1c1de, it's a scene out of Tuesday Suspense Theater!

Gin: Th-This ain't my fault, right?

Gin: This ain't a m*rder, right?

Gin: I just helped with the su1c1de, right?

Gin: And surely helping a Reaper commit su1c1de isn't a crime...

Gin: What's all this? Sure is noisy.

Gin: Did something happen?

Shin: I want to know what happened to you !

Gin: What about me?

Shin: What? That Reaper hanging from your back, that's what!

Gin: Reaper?

Gin: Wait, can you see something behind me?

Gin: Damn, is something haunting me?

Shin: Like hell!

Shin: The thing's lying limp on your back!

Shin: It's covered in blood!

Gin: That doesn't sound good.

Gin: I might die soon.

Kag: The Reaper up and died before you!

Kag: What happened? Don't tell me...

Gin: No, no! It was self-defense!

Gin: All I did was turn the tables on the Reaper who came after my life!

Kag: You k*lled it? You k*lled a Reaper?

Gin: Anyway, bring in all the Zanpakuto we have.

Gin: We'll all use our Bankai and send the Reaper back to Soul Society.

Shin: What are you trying to make us do?!

Shin: Not even Bankai can clear you of this crime!

Shin: Turn yourself in!

Shin: You've totally committed a m*rder here!

Gin: Screw you!

Gin: Only Soul Society can judge me—

R: No. Only people can judge other people.

R: You don't have to assist in my su1c1de anymore.

Shin: It's alive! The Reaper is alive!

R: I'm sorry.

R: This stomach wound was a fake.

R: I figured you'd never take my head unless I did something like this.

R: But I'm not allowed an honorable ritual su1c1de.

R: I'm more deserving of having my severed head stuck on a pike.

R: A Reaper doesn't even have the right to die.

Kag: A human?

R: No, I'm a Reaper.

R: Ikeda Asaemon,

R: a good-for-nothing Reaper who can't even have her own head,

R: let alone those of sinners.

R: I apologize for causing a fuss.

Gin: Who could it be at this time of night?

Hij: Again?

Oki: Yeah. The fourth one this week alone.

Oki: I never knew Reapers were such hard workers.

Hij: Seriously.

Hij: I wish they'd spare a thought for us cops who have to deal with their messes.

Oki: And unlike us, I bet they get paid for overtime in Soul Society.

Oki: This technique never ceases to amaze me.

Hij: Yeah, no ordinary swordsman could pull this off.

Hij: But Sogo, if they were as skilled as you—

Oki: Gimme a break.

Oki: I was busy all night, targeting your head like always.

Hij: You call that an alibi?

Oki: Besides, I'm not the only one capable of this. There are loads of others out there.

Oki: Did you know?

Oki: Someone committing a ritual su1c1de first pierces his belly,

Oki: and then his assistant lops off his head before he starts to suffer.

Oki: But it's not that easy to take someone's head in one swing.

Oki: If it goes badly, you fail to finish him off even after two or three strikes,

Oki: thus making him suffer more.

Oki: As such, it's usually up to the finest swordsman in the family to be the assistant.

Oki: Some among them try to

Oki: keep the head from falling to the ground and getting dirty

Oki: by leaving just one tiny bit of skin attached when they cut it,

Oki: a practice known as the Hung Head style of execution, or so I hear.

Yae: Do you mean to say that the m*rder*r is one of us executioners?

Oki: And who might you be?

Hij: I asked him to help us with the investigation.

Hij: He's the Royal Swordskeeper,

Hij: the th Ikeda Yaemon-dono.

Oki: Royal Swordskeeper?

Hij: Basically, the arms magistrate who supervises all of the Shogun family's weaponry—

Yae: It's fine.

Yae: No need to address me so formally.

Yae: Everybody knows that trying out the swords is but a side job.

Yae: I know that we're called the clan of executioners who

Yae: behead those sentenced by the Bakufu,

Yae: no, that we are ridiculed as Reapers behind our backs.

Oki: Oh, I get it.

Oki: The quickest way to learn about a Reaper is to ask a Reaper—

Yae: Our job may seem like dirty work to outsiders,

Yae: but our swords purge criminals of their sins and return purity to their souls,

Yae: and we take great pride in them.

Yae: None in our family would swing their swords like this, bereft of conviction.

Hij: It's not like we're suspecting you.

Hij: We wanted to ask about this technique—

Yae: Or so I'd like to say,

Yae: but I don't think anyone outside the Ikeda family is capable of such a technique.

Yae: It's not that this head was left attached by one tiny bit of flesh,

Yae: but rather that it was chopped off so skillfully that its cells are coalescing.

Yae: Leaving even a person's cells unaware that they've been cut,

Yae: this art truly removes only their soul.

Yae: The Ikeda family's ultimate form of the Hung Head Technique,

Yae: Soul Cleansing.

Hij: And how many in your family can perform this technique?

Yae: Only a few.

Yae: First, the late former Yaemon.

Yae: The second would be me, who inherited the technique.

Hij: There are others, right?

Yae: No, there are none left in the family.

Yae: But there is one on the run.

B: Huh? I'm not hurt at all?

G: Are you all right, kid?!

G: Huh? Everything inside has been cut.

G: Hell, even the truck's been cut?!

Yae: Asaemon, why do you tremble so?

Yae: The man in front of you is no longer your master.

Yae: He is a criminal whose head you must take.

Yae: Waver not.

Yae: Do your duty.

Yae: When people sin and degenerate into demons,

Yae: we must make them human again at their end.

Yae: That is the Ikeda family's duty.

Yae: Would you be kind enough to make me human again

Yae: with your sword?

Yae: Never forget.

Yae: The only beings capable of turning people human again

Yae: are neither demons that take human heads

Yae: nor Reapers that take their souls,

Yae: but humans who sever their souls to save them.

C: Where'd she go?

C: That way! Look over there!

Asa: They've already got the entire town covered.

Asa: This might be a fitting end for me.

Gin: Not on my watch.

Gin: Aren't you the one who asked me to help you commit su1c1de,

Gin: my dear Reaper?

R: You're—

R: Hey, watch your hands!

Gin: Ikeda Asaemon.

Gin: I never thought

Gin: someone from a family that's served as bakufu executioners for generations

Gin: would ask me to behead them.

Asa: And I never thought asking you to assist me with su1c1de

Asa: would lead to your taking advantage of it to molest me.

Gin: I'm telling you, I didn't touch nothing!

Asa: You see, compared to girls, Reapers have one more private part you shouldn't touch.

Gin: I'm telling you, I didn't touch your private parts!

Asa: Privates of the Caribbean.

Gin: That's just a skull!

Asa: It's the skull of Caribbean, the pirate said to be the first criminal put down by

Asa: the Ikeda family of bakufu executioners.

Asa: Now that you've laid your hands on a Reaper's holy privates,

Asa: you will definitely lose your nape.

Gin: And how exactly are you gonna have my nape in your state?

Asa: Oh, did I say nape?

Asa: I meant nip.

Gin: She took my nipple!

Gin: What have you done?! And when?!

Asa: Taking a criminal's head without letting them realize they've lost it...

Asa: That's what a Reaper's sword does.

Gin: Lost it? More like "lost teat"!

Asa: No need to worry.

Asa: My sword doesn't even hurt the cells.

Asa: If you put it back, it'll stick.

Asa: Then please draw it back when the DVD version comes out.

Gin: Help, Yabuki-sensei!

Gin: Damn you! I'm seriously gonna throw you into the depths of Hell!

Shin: Calm down!

Asa: Stop! Don't touch my private parts!

Yae: A job well done, Odd Jobs.

Yae: You actually managed to bring her here before the police could.

Yae: As the head of the Ikeda family, I thank you.

Asa: Y-Yaemon-sama...

Yae: You've finally come back home, Asaemon.

W: This is Ishikawa Rokuemon's head.

W: And this is the head of Weasel Boy Jirokichi.

W: And that's...

W: Who was it again?

W: Well, it's somebody's nipple.

Gin: Excuse me.

Gin: This nipple looks familiar to me.

W: They're all heads of the heinous villains the Ikeda family has put down.

Gin: This is mine, isn't it?

Gin: Why is it already part of your collection?

W: Feel free to observe them all you like.

W: Dinner will be served momentarily.

Kag: That's the mansion of the bakufu's executioners for you.

Kag: Everything is so clear-cut.

Kag: They're desperate to show themselves off.

Shin: Uh, Gin-san...

Shin: Can we just take our money and go?

Shin: I don't really feel like eating with skulls staring at me.

Kag: Wait up, Shinpachi.

Kag: There's something fishy about that young head of the Reapers.

Kag: Oops.

Gin: Guys that put on that Sakai Masato-ish fake smile

Gin: tend to be the type to k*ll people with a smile on their face.

Gin: He might've welcomed her back warmly,

Gin: but he's probably trying to wipe out the family's black sheep behind closed doors.

Gin: They say a Reaper always approaches you with a smile...

Yae: No, that's the devil.

Yae: A Reaper would be standing behind you before you even realized it.

Yae: And he'd take your life in the blink of an eye.

Yae: I returned your nipple.

Yae: Shall we begin, then?

Gin: Uh, we'll pass for tonight.

Yae: Is something wrong?

Gin: Nah, I'm just starting to feel sick of this room—

Gin: I mean, to my stomach.

Yae: Perfect!

Yae: We've prepared a very nutritious Ikeda special course for you.

Yae: First, we have the appetizer, live frog.

Yae: Then the side dish, monkey brain,

Yae: and the main course, broiled boar head.

Yae: And then...

Gin: They're all heads!

Gin: W-Wow! They're all unusual dishes!

Gin: B-But do you have anything that's a bit closer to home?

Asa: Of course.

Asa: Here's the dessert: somebody's nipple.

Gin: That hits too close to home!

Gin: Enough with the taking it off and putting it back on!

Gin: What the hell do you think my nipples are?!

Yae: Asaemon cooked this meal herself.

Yae: I thought it'd be a good way to let her thank you personally.

Gin: That's not the point.

Gin: Why the hell are you—

Yae: Why are we welcoming back the traitor who k*lled the former head?

Yae: If you tell anyone else what I tell you, I'll have to behead all of you, as well.

Yae: Do you still want to know?

Yae: Asaemon and I are like siblings.

Yae: I'm the former Yaemon's own son,

Yae: whereas Asaemon was an orphan he adopted.

Yae: However, our Ikeda family cares not about blood lineage.

Yae: For generations,

Yae: only the most skilled swordsman has been chosen as the bakufu executioner

Yae: and inherited the Yaemon name, proof of being the Ikeda family head.

Yae: The former Yaemon thought we had that potential,

Yae: and so we supported each other like siblings,

Yae: competed like rivals, and raised the bar for each other.

Yae,Sign: Yaemon

Yae: People would say the family's future would be secure no matter

Yae: which of us became Yaemon.

Yae: But that's when

Yae: it came to light that the former Yaemon had gone against his duty

Yae: and secretly helped criminals escape in the past.

Yae: If the court were to find out, the Ikeda family would've been wiped out.

Shin: Then, did you...

Yae: We punished the former Yaemon in secrecy.

Yae: Asaemon was the one who helped him commit su1c1de.

Yae: But the court was bound to learn of his death eventually,

Yae: so Asaemon left home, unbeknownst to all.

Yae: To shroud the truth about the former Yaemon's death in darkness,

Yae: she took on the stigma of being a traitor who k*lled her lord,

Yae: and chose the path of wearing a bloodied Reaper's mask.

Yae: Asaemon is a loyal retainer who threw everything away to protect the Yaemon name.

Gin: Then were you trying to commit su1c1de

Gin: so you could erase both yourself and the truth before you got caught?

Ase: That's not true.

Ase: I'm no loyal retainer.

Shin: Asaemon-san!

Yae: She loved the previous head, our master, more than anyone else.

Yae: But I never thought she'd go so far to protect Father's name.

Yae: I'm glad we found her before it was too late.

Gin: Listen to yourself.

Gin: It wasn't just the sin of k*lling her lord she took on, right?

Gin: I mean, it'd be bad if the honorable family of bakufu executioners

Gin: produced a serial k*ller, now wouldn't it?

Gin: Especially if it were the head of the family,

Gin: because I hear the entire family would have to be wiped out.

Yae: I see.

Yae: You said Reapers approach with a smile on their face.

Yae: That might not be all that far off the mark.

Yae: A faint smile, is it?

Yae: You can't call that a crime.

Yae: They were all criminals

Yae: who would've lost their heads if the former head hadn't let them escape.

Shin: N-No way!

Shin: Don't tell me, you...

Yae: Asaemon and I shared a vow that day.

Yae: That even if we walked down different paths, the sky would keep us connected.

Yae: And under that sky, both the Reaper by day and

Yae: the Reaper by night would protect the things the previous head left us.

Yae: In my eyes,

Yae: she's also one of the precious things the previous Yaemon, my father, left me.

Yae: If I were planning to make her a sacrificial pawn,

Yae: I wouldn't have had you bring her back.

Gin: You think you can hide it forever?

Yae: So long as you're not the talkative sort, yes.

Gin: Then why'd you take that risk by telling us all this?

Yae: Please don't play dumb.

Yae: Now that you've heard all this, you'll either have to cooperate with me

Yae: or run into a serial k*ller and lose your head.

Yae: Because the list of criminals the previous Yaemon let escape ten years ago

Sakata,Sign: Sakata Gintoki

Yae: has your name on it,

Yae: Sakata Gintoki-san.

Title: Human or Demon?

Sign: Preview

text r: There's a reason why Gintoki managed to survive

text l: after being sentenced to death in the past.

text r: Was it coincidence, or fate? Lucky or unlucky?

text l: In the midst of doubt, there's a sudden twist in the story!!