It was the fourth year of Keio, the fifth month of the year (July 1868). Uekiya Heigoro's house, Edo.

Okita Soji, the captain of the Shinsengumi's first unit, was sitting on the porch. His assistant, Kamiya Seizaburo was sleeping in the room behind him. They had been living in this house for about three months. Okita looked up to the bright blue sky, recalling that Kamiya had joined the group five years ago. Five years of training and quarrelling. In contrast with these, fighting the Choshu-clansmen almost seemed like a leisure activity. And he had also been struggling with his feelings during these five long years - since Kamiya Seizaburo was a girl. Okita had known this right from the start, and all the tasks they had to deal with, keeping this secret had been the most difficult one. Revenge had driven Kamiya to the Shinsengumi. Her family had been massacred by Choshu-clansmen, and she had been ready to put her life on the line finding the culprit. If her secret had turned out, she would have most probably been sentenced to death. Sometimes only Okita's intervention had saved it from being revealed.

Five years had passed. They had survived the Ikeda-ya incident, fought in the battle of Toba-Fushimi, and had gone through many things which had already been forgotten. But everything had changed four months ago. The doctor of the Shinsengumi had told Okita that he was ill - it was rogai, or as we call it today, tuberculosis. He had been to an isolation hospital, and ended up in the Uekiya-estate. Kamiya had been ordered to take care of him. They would both rather choose fighting, but vice captain Hijikata had commanded Okita to rest, and neither of them dared to oppose him.

But the disease was not the only reason for the change. The Shinsengumi was not the same, either. When had the process of transformation started - none knew. Maybe it had started with the conflicts within the troop, or with the lost battle at Toba-Fushimi. Yet Okita kept on believing in the captain and the vice captain. He could hardly bear the pain of barely getting news about them, and helplessly idling around the house day after day made it even worse. Kamiya, who sometimes went to the city, rarely heard anything about the Shinsengumi, and only told a few words about them. She either didn't know or didn't want to speak about their battles, and whenever Okita asked the doctor or Uekiya, they immediately changed the topic.

Despite this, his mood was only altered by his ever-changing state of health. Even though he had never wondered about the future, he had to learn this indolence of his after he had got to know about the disease. He had succeeded in taking up with the idea of not being able to die alongside the captain, though he tried to keep himself away from this conception.

A noise of footsteps awakened him from his thoughts. A familiar figure was approaching him, but he only recognized the visitor when he was standing right next to him.

'Harada-san!'

'Hey, Soji!'

It was Harada Sanosuke, leader of the tenth unit. He had lost some weight since Okita had last seen him, his face was stubbly and weary, but his eyes had he same naughty gleaming as ever. His right arm was resting in a sling under his kimono. However, he was not the only one changing for the worse – Harada was also surprised by Okita's appearance. The captain of the first troop was in far worse shape than the tenths: his paleness emphasized his scary skinniness, and his high spirits had been replaced by slow deliberation. As he sat down, Harada looked his friend up and down anxiously.

'Just dropped by, I don't have much time...'

Before he could go on with his questions, Okita interrupted him.

'What happened?' he asked, giving a nod towards the sling. Harada gave a wave with his left.

'Long story, some stuff happened here and there... But I won't go back to Ueno no more, the folks there are quite rude.'

Okita remembered that the other day he had been half asleep and overheard Kamiya talking about the battle of Ueno with somebody. But he had thought of it as a dream and had never asked about it. Now it turned out to be real and understood it would really be a long story to tell.

'But hey, what about you?'

Okita gave a weary smile.

'I'm okay.'

'I ain't believing anything you say! I'd rather ask Kamiya about it, I'd get a straight answer that way!By the way, where is he?'

'Sleeping,' said Okita, pointing at the room behind him. Harada shook his head.

'Fast asleep when he should be taking care of you, that's a case of insubordination if you ask me. He'll get a nice death penalty if he goes on like this' he said with a grin. Then he suddenly slapped his forehead and took out a letter from his sleeve.

'Talking about death penalty, Hijikata-san ordered me to give you this. Almost forgot about it, heh... Had they aimed a little better at Ueno, the vice-captain would have definitely killed me second time for not delivering his letter...'

Both men laughed and Okita took the letter.

'Well, gotta go, my wife's waiting for me...'

'How are they?'

'Fine. And they'll be fine if it's up to me.'

All of a sudden, he grabbed Okita's shoulder with one hand.

'Listen, take good care of Kamiya, just like you did, okay? And if...'

He clipped the end of his words and shook his head.

'Nah, death doesn't come that easily'.

He dropped his hand and struggled to his feet.

'I'll have to go now, those Choshu guys seriously want to hunt me down, I'll have to look for a safe place for the time being.'

'All right, take care.'

'You too.'

The whole conversation lasted no more than five minutes. Harada waved his hand for the last time and disappearing at the corner of the house, he went to the gate. In the next minute Okita felt as if the visit had been only a dream. The circumstances could have made it probable as Harada seemed more serious than usual, he hadn't cracked any real joke, and the recent months had deeply affected his mood – his weary, almost polite smile had shown that.

However, it must have been reality – Hijikata's letter was the proof. Okita was surprised by the message, he had rarely seen the vice-captain writing letters and those had been official ones. He listened attentively for a while only hearing Kamiya breathing smoothly in the room. For some reasons – that he wouldn't have been able to explain even himself – he didn't want the girl to see the letter. He unfolded the paper and was numbed for a moment. Vice-captain Hijikata had exceptionally awful handwriting. Of course, this was no surprise for Okita, but it had never bothered him this much before as he had never had to read his superior's scrawl.

Soji,
if you read this then by some miraculous way Sanosuke did not forget to deliver my letter, which would really surprise me. Anyway, I have two tasks for you, neither allows any delay. First: whatever happens, do not leave the Uekiya household. I command you as your superior and if you violate this rule, you shall never enter my room again. This order remains in force until repealed. Second: though it's rather an advice as I cannot order this, but marry Kamiya or something!
Hijikata Toshizo

The letter was shaking in Okita's hand. He tried to imagine the vice-captain struggling with writing. It must have been about the twelfth version of the letter and Okita could almost clearly see Hijikata with blotted, crumpled papers around. Had the vice-captain came in person, he would have presented this in a different way, with a much more rough tone.

Okita was confused about the letter, even the first part seemed hard for him to understand. What is this order good for? As long as he's ill it's reasonable to stay here, but what if he gets better? Why should they reside at Uekiya even after that? A sudden suspicion came to his mind. What if the Shinsengumi's going through a bad patch? Or if the vice-captain decided to leave him behind? But why? Why would Hijikata want him to abandon his principles? An how come the captain agrees this plan?

He had no answers for these questions and felt that his head would really hurt if he had to think about them too long. He felt dizzy already.

But he did decide on one thing. Upon recovering, he will follow the vice-captain, no matter what his orders are. That's what he needs to do according to bushido.

Yet this part of the letter was more or less predictable. Okita was more shocked about the last sentence. So Hijikata had known all along that Kamiya was a girl and yet he had not revealed her secret. But why? This was Okita's first thought upon reading it, however, the full meaning of the sentence hit him after a while, and he blushed to the roots of his hair. He read the letter again, but he was still puzzled. He put away the paper and buried his face in his hands, but this move made him cough, which he could barely suppress. He didn't want to wake Kamiya up.

Once again, he looked up to the sky, his face still red.

'Hijikata-san...' he murmured, but his mind was filled with Kamiya.

It was the middle of summer in Edo.