i used to talk about this a lot but i've realized not on here so. one of my fave things about early series takagin dynamic that doesn't technically exist is my certainty that if gintoki Wasn't the impossibly strong-hearted man he was. if he actually did break from killing shouyou. then there's no way takasugi would've done any of that. he would never try to kill gintoki if gintoki wasn't capable of killing him back. he would never try to hurt gintoki if gintoki was already hurt. if gintoki wasn't capable of holding his hatred and resentment takasugi would never try to inflict them on him. because there would be no point. but without that i think takasugi's mania would evaporate, and his ability to keep going would evaporate along with it. i think in this scenario takasugi would approach gintoki at the festival not from the back but from the front, slowly, so that gintoki could see him coming. i think that if a hypothetical gintoki reacted in fear to him takasugi would 1) kill himself 2) be like 'understood i will never show myself in front of you ever again' 3) be nice to him. in the way you do when you understand something is dead and gone. look at the way he treated oboro.