[Hijikata sat on a wooden chair, his elbows resting on the small and battered dinner table in front of him. The man's tablet was just out of reach, and he glared at it with eyes heavy with fatigue. The twig in his mouth tasted foul, small splinters of wood slopping off of it to wedge themselves in the back of his throat. He fiddled with it, two fingers closing around it as if it were a cigarette.
As if he could forget what they tasted like.
Every damn day he only found himself focusing on the memory of tobacco drifting into his mouth more and more.
His tongue rolled over the base of the stick, curling back in mild disgust. Hijikata groaned. He dragged his hands from the table to press his palms into the chair, scooting it away from the table. He slipped, jerking into a slouch and yanking his hands away. The wood was wet. Somehow.
Hijikata stared at his hands, squinting at the sheen of sweet smelling liquid that coated them. The room was dark, he had to strain his eyes to get a good look. When he finally glanced away, a shadow stood right next to him.]
AUGH!!! [His chair clattered to the ground and the man's body nearly fell with it. Hijikata scuffed his feet as he leapt away from the figure. He stared at it, eyes wide and intense as if breaking his gaze would release it to attack. Strain grew and his eyes stung - he had to blink. Hijikata skewed his face, straining his lips and eyebrows into a truly terrifying monstrosity of an expression to milk every second of sight from his eyes. He could feel his eyelids drooping, his reflexes taking over. The man let out a strained growl, locked in a battle of life and death with himself and his stupid bodily functions. His teeth snapped the twig in his mouth, sending the small piece of wood clattering to the ground.
He lost.
As soon as he blinked the figure was gone, leaving a wet mess on the ground where it had been standing.
Hijikata about did too. But no one needed to know that.
He forced a smirk, rolling his shoulders and correcting his posture. That was stupid - a ghost - it was just his eyes adjusting to the light after staring at his hands for so long. Sure he was up in some creepy mountain, stranded and alone in the first cabin he'd found but...spirits weren't real. If anything, it was an alien. No, wait, it was his eyes adjusting to the light.
A shaking (it was cold!) hand reached towards his tablet on the table, though Hijikata himself kept his body as far away from it as possible. He didn't need the distraction, or anything, he just figured he'd check to see if anything actually helpful had been posted. Probably not.
The first thing he saw was a ghost story.
Hijikata slammed his hand into the device so hard he nearly knocked it from his grasp and to the ground.]
If you've got time to be telling stupid stories like that, then start looking harder for food and shelter! Or at least put something constructive on the network. [Leave it to a bunch of faceless idiots on the internet to take something that could have been a useful reference tool for the surrounding area and make it into an asinine message board.
He'd beat some organization and focus into them if he had to! The network was a place for serious questions and forum discussion.]
Hijikata Toshirou | Gintama