Introduction[]
Ikumatsu, shopkeeper of the Hokuto Shinken, continues to wait for a certain customer to fulfill a promise she made with her husband. After her husband's passing and the customer's disappearance, Katsura and Gin-san look for him, learning of his unexpected identity!
Plot[]
At Hokuto Shinken, Ikumatsu tells the Yoruzuya trio a story of how a homeless-looking old man would visit her ramen shop on New Year's Eve to share a bowl of ramen with her and her husband. It became a year-end tradition shared by the three. Her husband told her to continue the tradition even if something happened to him. As it turned out, that was his last wish. However, since his passing, the man never returned, and she wonders how he is doing now. Katsura, who has overheard the story, said that the man has probably found a family to spend New Year's Eve with. Ikumatsu agrees, but the thought of him still lingers in her head. She has also not managed to return the old man's scarf.
Later, Katsura asks Gintoki what he thinks happened to the man. Gintoki guesses that he had probably died on the streets. Katsura did not think that the man was truly homeless as the scarf was made of a high-quality material. Katsura hopes to find the man to "clear his tab at Hokuto Shinken". Gintoki did not care about the man, but wanted to find out if Katsura and Ikumatsu were already in a relationship. He noticed that Katsura was always by her side whenever he visited her ramen shop. Gintoki added that he was well-aware of Katsura's tastes in women and that he had always fancied married women; his first crush was the neighbourhood widow. Katsura denied the allegations, exclaiming that he was not into married woman but cuckoldry. Katsura was in love with the taste of her soba, which she inherited from her husband, and wanted to help her fulfill her final promise to him. Her husband was not Katsura's love rival, and could never be, as Ikumatsu only has her eyes on one man.
To find the owner behind the scarf, Katsura and Gintoki go undercover into homeless community at the local park. The homeless men direct them to the "Paper Lord", the leader of the homeless community, who turned out to be Musashi. The leader said that they were unable to help the samurai, as the homeless men were not allowed to bring up their past. At that moment, a rival gang of homeless men appear, a group that used violent methods to expand their rule on cardboard. The leader of the said gang was Ikumatsu's brother-in-law, who swore revenge against Katsura was landing him in prison in Episode 39. The brother-in-law reveals that he knew the identity of the man they were looking for as his late brother, Ikumatsu's husband, had searched for him while he was still alive. The man was actually Ikumatsu's father, whom she believed had died 20 years ago.
Meanwhile, Shinpachi and Kagura visit Nishikiya, a textile store where scarf was sold at. The shopkeeper shared that the scarf belonged to their late owner. After the opening of the store, the owner passed away. His wife continued to grow the business to the success it was today, but died a few years earlier. The only surviving family member was the young mistress of the family, who turned out to be Ikumatsu. She tells the two teenagers that her family lived in poverty before they started the business. However, once the business was on track, her father found a mistress and was thrown out of the house, leaving his wife and young daughter behind. Soon after, she received news that he had passed away. Although she did not know how the scarf made its way to the homeless man, she felt that there must have been a connection between the two.
Back at the park, Ikumatsu's brother-in-law mocks the woman for not recognising her own father, and tells Katsura to bring her father to him and that his men were already waiting outside her shop. Musashi, Gintoki and Katsura devise a plan to offer Hasegawa to him instead. Musashi tells the other homeless men to distract the other gang while he leads Gintoki and Katsura out of the park via the sewers, so that they could ensure Ikumatsu's safety. The four men head into the sewers, as Katsura wonders why her father would visit her in secret. He concludes that he was probably hiding due to the guilt of abandoning his family.
Characters[]
- Nishiki Ikumatsu
- Katsura Kotarou
- Hasegawa Taizou
- Sakata Gintoki
- Shimura Shinpachi
- Kagura
- Musashi
- Daigo (flashback)
Trivia[]
- Ikumatsu's brother-in-law appears again for the first time since Episode 39.
- Katsura said that he was not into married women but into Netorare (寝取られ, most commonly abbreviated as NTR), which literally translates to "taken away by sleeping with". It is a controversial genre of porn featuring cuckoldry (an act of adultery). As a fetish, NTR is designed to provoke jealousy in the audience by proxy by having a character indulge in sexual activity with someone other than the protagonist.
- Musashi was referred to as the "Paper Lord", written as 紙さま, which is pronounced the same way as God (神様). Both are read as "kami-sama".