Headcanon
[Basically his childhood up until he was brought in by Soy sauce Shouyou-sensei. This is not finished as I also have half a mind to include the Joui War. What brought this about? Just me watching the beginning of episode 180 over and over and over and over and over and over and over.]
"I came after hearing about a corpse-eating demon. Would that be you?
Quite the cute demon, aren't you?
Did you also take that from a corpse?
A single child stripping corpses to defend himself, is it?
That's very impressive.
However, you no longer need such a sword.
For a sword that is swung only in self-defense while fearing others should be thrown away.
I shall give you my sword.
Gintoki's childhood was spent, for the most part, alone. His mother was forced to flee from her home due to rising tensions between her husband and his brother. She of course, took her child with her, but was eventually forced to abandon him in the interest of her own survival. At this time, Gintoki was perhaps only four years old. Miraculously, the small boy managed to survive on his own, but his detachment from society at such a young age left him without words. If you were to attempt communication with the boy, you would be answered with nothing but a contemplative stare. His comprehension was at a bare minimum, but that never stopped him from observing and from listening.
His survival depended solely on his ability to pick pockets, and over time, the child became rather adept at stealing food from vendors. Perhaps if he had known and understood the concept of money, maybe he would have begun to steal that instead.
For over a year, Gintoki repeatedly harassed a small town west of Edo, but was eventually caught in a trap set up by the local villagers. Due to being a mere stray and without a connection to anybody, his punishment was to be death and it would have been carried out had Gintoki's swift instincts, ones he had developed over the course of pickpocketing spared his own life and instead took that of his assailants. And that is the moment in which Gintoki first took another human being's life. His youth did not allow him to comprehend the meaning of death, and because he lacked any close connection to any other person, he continued to think little to nothing of death as a whole, and took lives wherever his own was threatened. Not once did he consider killing to be wrong; he saw it only as a means of self preservation and therefore a necessity.
Fast forward three years and the lifestyle of the eight year old Gintoki was very much the same; full of stealing and retaliating when in danger. It was around this time that the same village he had been frequenting for all those years began a quarrel with the neighouring fief. The cause of the quarrel? The young Gintoki Sakata. Food was still being stolen and blame eventually fell to that of the fief in question, resulting in a riot between the two villages. If you asked around, women as well as the elderly whispered that the cause was a small white demon who reveled in seeing human strife, devouring their corpses gleefully as it laughed at the naivete of humans.This urban legend eventually reached the ears of Yoshida Shouyou, who sought to witness the demon with his own eyes. By the time he reached the village, it was reduced to a silent graveyard, littered with the dead and marked with red-stained blades. The only signs of life were the circling carrion crows, or so Shouyou believed until he spotted a head of silver amongst the crimson.
Gintoki Sakata sat upon a corpse, a sheathed sword perhaps longer than he was tall (stolen from a corpse perhaps?), leaning against his form. In his grimy and bloodied hands was a rice ball being eaten in silence, and the sight would have been almost tranquil if not for the macabre setting. Approaching the feasting "demon", Shouyou announced his arrival by firmly placing his hand atop the boy's messy hair and upon looking up at the man, Gintoki sprung into action, drawing his sword, ready and willing to defend himself if necessary. The soothing voice and gentle words of the stranger fell upon deaf ears, and Gintoki relaxed his guard only when Shouyou disarmed himself, tossing his own katana to the boy who barely managed to catch it. Puzzled, Gintoki listened silently to the man's confusing words and watched as he turned his back and walked away.
After a moment's deliberation, the young boy followed after him.
"I came after hearing about a corpse-eating demon. Would that be you?
Quite the cute demon, aren't you?
Did you also take that from a corpse?
A single child stripping corpses to defend himself, is it?
That's very impressive.
However, you no longer need such a sword.
For a sword that is swung only in self-defense while fearing others should be thrown away.
I shall give you my sword.
Gintoki's childhood was spent, for the most part, alone. His mother was forced to flee from her home due to rising tensions between her husband and his brother. She of course, took her child with her, but was eventually forced to abandon him in the interest of her own survival. At this time, Gintoki was perhaps only four years old. Miraculously, the small boy managed to survive on his own, but his detachment from society at such a young age left him without words. If you were to attempt communication with the boy, you would be answered with nothing but a contemplative stare. His comprehension was at a bare minimum, but that never stopped him from observing and from listening.
His survival depended solely on his ability to pick pockets, and over time, the child became rather adept at stealing food from vendors. Perhaps if he had known and understood the concept of money, maybe he would have begun to steal that instead.
For over a year, Gintoki repeatedly harassed a small town west of Edo, but was eventually caught in a trap set up by the local villagers. Due to being a mere stray and without a connection to anybody, his punishment was to be death and it would have been carried out had Gintoki's swift instincts, ones he had developed over the course of pickpocketing spared his own life and instead took that of his assailants. And that is the moment in which Gintoki first took another human being's life. His youth did not allow him to comprehend the meaning of death, and because he lacked any close connection to any other person, he continued to think little to nothing of death as a whole, and took lives wherever his own was threatened. Not once did he consider killing to be wrong; he saw it only as a means of self preservation and therefore a necessity.
Fast forward three years and the lifestyle of the eight year old Gintoki was very much the same; full of stealing and retaliating when in danger. It was around this time that the same village he had been frequenting for all those years began a quarrel with the neighouring fief. The cause of the quarrel? The young Gintoki Sakata. Food was still being stolen and blame eventually fell to that of the fief in question, resulting in a riot between the two villages. If you asked around, women as well as the elderly whispered that the cause was a small white demon who reveled in seeing human strife, devouring their corpses gleefully as it laughed at the naivete of humans.This urban legend eventually reached the ears of Yoshida Shouyou, who sought to witness the demon with his own eyes. By the time he reached the village, it was reduced to a silent graveyard, littered with the dead and marked with red-stained blades. The only signs of life were the circling carrion crows, or so Shouyou believed until he spotted a head of silver amongst the crimson.
Gintoki Sakata sat upon a corpse, a sheathed sword perhaps longer than he was tall (stolen from a corpse perhaps?), leaning against his form. In his grimy and bloodied hands was a rice ball being eaten in silence, and the sight would have been almost tranquil if not for the macabre setting. Approaching the feasting "demon", Shouyou announced his arrival by firmly placing his hand atop the boy's messy hair and upon looking up at the man, Gintoki sprung into action, drawing his sword, ready and willing to defend himself if necessary. The soothing voice and gentle words of the stranger fell upon deaf ears, and Gintoki relaxed his guard only when Shouyou disarmed himself, tossing his own katana to the boy who barely managed to catch it. Puzzled, Gintoki listened silently to the man's confusing words and watched as he turned his back and walked away.
After a moment's deliberation, the young boy followed after him.