May of the first year of Keio (June, 1865), Kyoto, the Shinsengumi headquarters in Rokujo, Nishi Hongan-ji.
It was about midnight. Silence fell on the first troop's quarters. They were exhausted from the long patrol in the afternoon and everybody had been sound asleep - or almost everybody.

"Kamiya-san!"

Thanks to her training, Kamiya immediately woke up upon hearing the whispering of a well-known voice. Okita was squatting right next to her.

"Mm, what is it?", she murmured back while stretching. But her voice must have been too loud as Okita put his hand over her mouth.

"Ssh..."

"What?", Kamiya in her softest way, even though she was not convinced how they were supposed to smoothly communicate with such a low voice.

"Try to sit up as quietly as you can, and just watch it."

The full moon must have been in a very low position as its light was enough to see not only people but the smallest equipment as well. At first, Kamiya thought that was all that Okita had wanted to show her, but all of a sudden the previously still quarters became lively.
Everything happened according to some weird choreography. It started with Ueda, who kicked Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi then dropped his arm on Nakamura, who was sleeping between him and Soda, so that he couldn't sneak away and do something nasty with Kamiya. Upon this subconscious check, Nakamura snorted, which seemed to awaken Kimura, who staggered to his feet to go out. But it soon turned out that he was only sleepwalking. He stumbled over the tall Soda's extended legs, and after a short trajectory he landed on Sakuma. Strangely enough, neither of them came alive. Kimura started to snore as if nothing had happened, while Sakuma hugged him while muttering 'Megumi...'. There was some fidgeting here and there, but the main show was over. Okita was laughing silently.

"They do this every night, the very same thing over and over again. Luckily there was enough light for you to see it."

Next morning, the members of the troop tried to get themselves together before breakfast and training. Sakuma asked the rookie Nakamura about Edo, as he had chosen Kyoto a year ago, leaving his wife behind.

"My dear Megumi..."

Okita and Kamiya looked at each other and burst into laughter.