Gintama
One afternoon in Edo's Kabukicho, on the second floor above Snack Otose.\n\nSakata Gintoki sucked the last drop of strawberry milk with a thunderous slurp and casually tossed the empty carton toward the corner—where seven others already lay in a pile. He flipped through the latest issue of Weekly Shonen JUMP with his legs crossed, his wooden sword "Toyako" leaning crookedly against his shoulder.\n\nShimura Shinpachi, kneeling on the floor and scrubbing, felt the veins in his temple throbbing: "Gin-san, could you at least lift a finger? I'm a member of the Yorozuya, not your maid!"\n\n"Shinpachi-kun, doing housework is a form of training." Gintoki didn't even look up as he turned a page. "Once you finish scrubbing this floor, you'll grasp the true essence of Bushido."\n\n"You're just lazy!"\n\nBefore he could finish, the window was smashed open from the outside. Kagura tumbled in, a piece of pickled seaweed dangling from her mouth, carrying a sack larger than herself on her back.\n\n"Gin-chan! Shinpachi! Aru!" She dropped the sack on the floor with a heavy thud. "I found something good on the street, aru!"\n\nThe sack squirmed, letting out a muffled cry for help.\n\n"...You kidnapped someone?!" Shinpachi’s glasses almost slid off his nose.\n\n"He said he's an executive of the space pirate Harusame, he's got a bounty, aru. We can trade him for money and eat a year's worth of pickled seaweed, aru!"\n\nGintoki finally put down his manga, walked over to the sack, and poked the suspicious lump with his wooden sword. The sack squirmed violently again.\n\n"Kagura-chan," he said expressionlessly, "trafficking Amanto isn't exactly illegal, but it'll bring a lot of trouble."\n\n"Then what do we do, aru?"\n\n"At least check what he looks like first. If he's an eyesore, we return him."\n\nShinpachi ranted frantically from the side: "That's not the point at all! The point is you can't just kidnap people!"\n\nThe mouth of the sack was untied, revealing the bruised head of a man who glared at them while gasping for air: "You... you bastards! Harusame won't let you get away with this!"\n\nGintoki expressionlessly tied the sack shut again.\n\n"Kagura, return him."\n\n"No, aru! If all else fails, we'll have hot pot tonight and use him as fuel!"\n\n"Fuel?!" A scream echoed from inside the sack.\n\nShinpachi felt like his quota for straight-man commentary had been severely exceeded for the day.\n\nOld Lady Otose banged on the ceiling from downstairs: "Keep it down up there! You're three months behind on rent, what are you making all that noise for?!"\n\nThe Yorozuya trio shut their mouths in unison.\n\nGintoki lowered his voice: "Listen, Kagura, Shinpachi. The situation is—we have no money, we're behind on rent, we've kidnapped a Harusame executive, and there's a landlady downstairs who could snap at any moment. So we only have one choice."\n\n"What choice?" Shinpachi asked nervously.\n\nGintoki hoisted his wooden sword onto his shoulder, a hint of seriousness finally appearing in his dead-fish eyes.\n\n"Sell the trouble. Since this guy is an executive, someone is bound to pay a ransom for him. We just need to find a way to contact them on him—"\n\nMr. Sack shouted urgently: "I have a communicator on my waist!"\n\nThe Yorozuya trio fell into a delicate silence.\n\n"...You sure are quick to betray your organization."\n\n"I don't want to be used as hot pot fuel!"\n\nShinpachi adjusted his glasses, feeling like his worldview had been collapsing and rebuilding every day since joining the Yorozuya. Kagura had already started rummaging through Mr. Sack's pockets, while Gintoki stood by, giving serious instructions: "Don't forget to check the soles of his shoes. Amanto love hiding secret stashes of cash there."\n\n"Are you guys the Yorozuya or just bandits?!"\n\nGintoki turned to him, a meaningful smile flickering on his perennially unchanging dead-fish face.\n\n"Shinpachi-kun, to make a living in a place like Edo, the only difference between the Yorozuya and bandits is the sign on the door."\n\nShinpachi was silent for three seconds, then silently walked over to help Kagura search the shoe soles.\n\nOutside the window, Kabukicho was as bustling as ever. Not far down the street, a Shinsengumi patrol had just passed by, with Hijikata Toshiro leading with a cigarette in his mouth and Okita Sougo following behind with a bazooka. In an alley across the river, a long-haired man was being chased by three Shogunate secret agents, shouting \"It's not Katsura, it's Zura!\" as he ran. In Snack Otose's kitchen, the cat-eared Amanto Catherine was sneaking leftovers from the fridge.\n\nAnd in that small room on the second floor with the \"Yorozuya Gin-chan\" sign, three people who had just come together were arguing fiercely over how to extort a ransom—\n\n"The price is at least ten million!"\n\n"Gin-san, that's not a ransom anymore, that's extortion."\n\n"Shinpachi-kun, extortion is a crime. We call this—a service fee."\n\n"What's the difference, aru!"\n\nTied up like a bundle, Mr. Sack gazed despairingly at the ceiling, beginning to seriously consider if being used as hot pot fuel might have been better.\n\nEither way, if he fell back into Harusame's hands, the outcome would be about the same.\n\n<choice_group>\n <choice id=\"1\">Change the topic</choice>\n <choice id=\"2\">Observe current details</choice>\n <choice id=\"3\">Advance the current plot</choice>\n</choice_group>Please log in to continue the conversation.