Oftentimes in life, you will meet people who are so different from you that you believe you cannot possibly be friends with them. They are so different, so weird, so appalling, even, that you simply cannot stand the idea of them. The mention of their name brings annoyance and the sight of their face brings disgust.

Such a person to me, Hijikata Toushirou, would be a man by the name of Sakata Gintoki.

Sakata Gintoki, or the man who calls himself the Yorozuya, is an existence that frustrates me to a great extent. His sloppy appearance, his loud unfiltered mouth, his indecent lifestyle, his dishonest tricks, and even the sugary foods he eats - all of these things bother me to no end.

When I first met this man years ago, we were at a standoff in a Joui Rebels raid. He stood out to me like an eyesore amongst the Rebels, but it was this that separated him from the common Rebel thug. His sword was strong, but his fighting style was reckless. I had wanted to cross swords again with him. It was not until I heard of his fight against our Commander, Kondo, that was I given a good reason to want to fight against him again: he had used cheap tricks in his fight against Kondo-san in order to win, and all for the sake of a woman, no less. It angered me that he had resorted to such dishonest methods in order to win a fight when he seemed a much more skilled swordsman when I had first fought him. I wanted to fight this man in a fair duel for the sake of Kondo-san's pride and the pride of our Shinsengumi.

The opportunity later presented itself where I was able to cross swords with him once again. It was then that this man puzzled me and left me in a frustrated awe. Not only did he refuse to fight me when I challenged him, he ended the fight without even truly facing me as an adversary, instead choosing only to disarm me by breaking my sword. He reasoned that he fights only to protect what is important to him, which were his own rules, although it seemed what he was truly trying to protect was far more distant. Since that day, I have been wondering what exactly it was that he wanted to protect.

For years, I have watched him fight from afar and have also fought alongside him up close. As time went on, I began to see towards what this man aimed his distant gaze. This man is not looking only to protect something as simple as his own bushido. No, this man had his eyes set on something much bigger and farther away.

I had known from the beginning, through his ties with Katsura and the later incidents with Takasugi, that he was likely a Joui Rebel, or a former Joui Patriot, although I had always questioned why he did not join Katsura's or Takasugi's forces if he were truly of Joui roots. It was not until much later did I finally discover that he was a famed ferocious fighter belonging to the last generation of the Joui Patriots who fought in the war. But still it did not answer the question as to why he is not currently affiliated with any Joui activities.

Then I thought about it all over again, from the very beginning.

When I first arrived in Edo, I was nothing but a countryside punk with a sword and some skills. It was the same for all of us. Guided by Kondo-san, we eventually became the trusted and dutiful Shinsengumi of Edo. But we knew, each of us, that in our hearts and in our roots, we were just samurai who refused to give up our swords, and that in order to continue being samurai, we were willing to put down our lives to serve the very same government that had betrayed us to begin with. While other men fought in the war for the samurai's sword and the samurai's pride, we swallowed our pride in order to keep our sword.

The Shinsengumi have been called Dogs of the Bakufu since our establishment. Others may feel that to be a grave insult, but I do not see it as such. Certainly, I am a Dog of the Bakufu - I serve the Shogunate and I dedicate my life to doing my job. However, not for a single moment in my life did I truly feel that I was protecting the Shogunate nor the Bakufu. There has ever only been one thing that I was truly trying to protect: my precious friends, the Shinsengumi. The state and the country may crumble and rot away, but my friends will always remain, and I will protect them to the ends of the Earth.

This man, Sakata Gintoki, was the same. He did not join the War to fight for the country or its people. He did not point his sword towards the Amanto and towards the Bakufu for anything like pride or bushido. It was so painfully evident - a man as carefree and lazy as him obviously would not possibly be bothered with something as trivial and pointless as being a Joui Rebel now that the War was over.

He would lend his strength to many, be it to the Shimura family, or to the Shinsengumi who has since forever been in his debt after numerous incidents, but it never seemed to exhaust his strength at all. He may be covered in injuries from fighting a battle seemingly unrelated to him, but it never stopped him from fighting for the sake of others.

Suddenly it all began to make sense. He would go out of his way to help others in their battles because he had no immediate battle of his own. He would help others protect what was dear to them because that which he wants to protect is so far away that it's intangible. What he was fighting to protect was something on an entirely different level; his battles were so far away, he was always fighting and also never fighting at the same time.

I began to feel a respect for him of which I had never once thought previously that a man the likes of him would ever deserve.

Perhaps he and I were not so different after all. We each have people and things we wish to protect. We push people we love away in order to protect them, and we make sacrifices of ourselves to protect others. We would never say it, but we'd fight the whole world if it meant keeping safe the ones we hold dear.

This man has helped me protect those dear to me. I owe him debts I may never get to repay.

The only thing I can do is watch as he fights his own battles to protect those dear to him. If there ever comes a time where his battles become close enough for me to lend my strength, I swear it on my sword that I certainly will.

Different we may be in every way, shape, and form on the outside, but on the inside, we each fight for what is important to us, and I can only hope that one day we will be able to fight alongside each other as friends for things dear to both of us.