Chapter 53

The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again. –Charles Dickens

"So is this the inn that Hijikata-san and Sannan-san are currently staying in?" I asked Shimada-san as we stood outside a large but modest looking wooden inn in the northern sector of Osaka.

"Yes, I believe so." Shimada-san answered. "Let's go, the sun has already set and we shouldn't stay outside for too long."

The journey from Kyoto to Osaka by ferry didn't actually take too long, just the average few hours. By the time Shimada-san and I arrived in Osaka it was only late afternoon. However, because we came to Osaka without writing or waiting for Hijikata-san's response, we did not know which inn he was staying at. Shimada-san and I spent the afternoon searching for the right inn and only found the inn after we stopped by a small restaurant for dinner.

"Okay." I agreed before we entered the inn. As soon as we entered, the head cleric greeted us and we were quickly directed to the room Hijikata-san and Sannan-san were staying in.

"Shizuka? Shimada?" Hijikata-san asked with surprise when we opened the door to the room. Sannan-san, who was resting on a futon, was also surprised by our sudden appearance. "What are you two doing here?"

"I came to take care of Sannan-san's injury." I explained. "I would think that coming here in person would be more effective than writing a letter. Plus, this way I can see the injury for myself and determine what needs to be done. As for Shimada-san…"

"The Commander and Okita-san didn't want Okita-sensei to travel alone and had me accompany her as a precaution." Shimada-san completed my sentence.

"I see." Hijikata-san said. "Shizuka, can you take a look at Sannan-san's arm right now?"

I nodded and went to Sannan-san's side. I offered him a quick comforting smile before I set to work on his arm. The bandage wrapped around his upper left arm wasn't dripping with blood, but there was a fair amount of blood that had soaked through to the other side of the bandage. It appeared that when Hijikata-san mentioned that they had stopped the bleeding, Hijikata-san had meant that they stopped the rapid loss of blood. Sannan-san's arm was still oozing out blood at a greatly slowed pace and the bandage needed to be changed.

"Does your arm hurt?" I asked Sannan-san. It was always hard to tell with nerve damage.

"The area around the injury is still painful, but I have loss nearly all sense of touch in my lower arm." Sannan-san informed me.

I nodded silently at the information I had just received. It was a good thing that I packed painkillers. Quickly taking my pair of medical scissors, I cut the bandage so I didn't have to waste time unraveling it to get to the injury. Like what I observed from the bandage alone, the wound was still bleeding, but rather slowly. Vasoconstriction was already in play to slow down the bleeding. The cut was deep and was rather long lengthwise. Sannan-san must have been slashed at rather than stabbed in the arm. Sannan-san suppressed a wince as I cleaned off the wound with alcohol and prodded at the injury. I was right with my initial diagnosis back in Kyoto. The radial nerve had been severed and a nerve graft was going to be required to fix it.

"What is it?" Hijikata-san asked very seriously as he observed my expression changing into one of dread.

"The radial nerve has been severed. Sannan-san requires a nerve graft if he wants any chance at being able to move that arm normally again." I said as I put pressure on the cut to slow down the bleeding that has sped up slightly due to the removal of the bandage.

"Radial nerve? Nerve graft? What do you mean?" Hijikata-san asked.

"The radial nerve is what allows the dorsal muscles of the arm to move, allows the hand and wrist to extend, and allows sensation to parts of the hand. Sannan-san's left radial nerve has been severed and a nerve graft is what is required to reconnect the two ends of the nerve." I explained. "Shimada-san, can you reach into my kit and pull out the curved needle and thread? And can you also grab the syringe and glass jar of clear liquid."

"Can you operate?" Sannan-san asked grimly as he too also saw my look of dread from earlier.

"I don't know." I said truthfully. This type of news was something that shouldn't be sugarcoated. "I lack the proper equipment to perform a nerve graft and I don't have the experience to ensure that there is a high success rate."

"Then are you saying that it's impossible?" Hijikata-san asked gravely.

"Not quite. The thing about nerve grafts is that it doesn't need to be performed as soon as possible, although nerve grafts are more effective when performed near the time of injury." I explained further before I took the medical supplies from Shimada-san. "Thank you Shimada-san. I can do more research to see if I can increase the success rate and see if I can get some equipment made that is suitable for this type of surgery. But for now, we need to suture the wound shut to fully stop the bleeding. When ready, I can go back to operate."

Quickly injecting some local anesthetic around the wound, I allowed the anesthetic to numb the area around the gaping wound before I stitched Sannan-san's wound shut. I bandaged Sannan-san's arm again shortly afterwards. The open wound would heal shut quite easily and the stitches would be fine to remove in two weeks.

"Okay, that should be it for now." I said as I placed my used equipment on a tray to be sterilized later. "The stitches will need to stay in for about two weeks. I'll go ahead and write a letter to Kyoko-chan and Kenji-san to see if they can manufacture some equipment for me while I go do more research. I'll get that arm moving on its own again, so you need to rest well to keep your strength up, okay Sannan-san?"

"I understand." Sannan-san said kindly with a forced smile, although his smile came out more like a grimace.

"Shimada-san, can you sit with Sannan-san for a while I go sterilize the used equipment?" I asked as I stood back up with the tray of tools in my hand. "Hijikata-san, can you come with me? I need some help."

"Right." Hijikata-san said before he followed me out of the room. "So what do you need me to do?"

"Can you run down to the main desk and rent another room? I would feel more comfortable if we stayed put for a couple more days so Sannan-san can recover a bit more and I don't think the four of us will fit in one room comfortably."

Hijikata-san sighed tiredly, "Got it." before he left me alone to clean off my tools.


"Sannan-san, eat." I said with furrowed brows as Sannan-san glared at his breakfast the next morning. "You can't take your painkillers on an empty stomach."

Eating normally was fairly difficult with one hand. When using chopsticks, you control the chopsticks with your dominant hand while you held the bowl with the other. Now that Sannan-san had lost the use of one arm, eating had become quite a messy chore. Sannan-san refused to have anyone feed him because he believed it was shameful and had quickly lost his appetite to eat around other people because of the mess he made when he attempted to eat his meal. At this point, I may have been more successful in making him eat if I left to allow Sannan-san to eat in privacy to save face, but I got the feeling that if I left him alone then he would skip out on eating to stew in his depression. Forget about pride! Food was food and Sannan-san needed to eat if he wanted to recover.

"I will when you leave the room like the others." he said stubbornly as he looked away like a child. While I knew he was suffering mentally from his injury, my patience was running strangely thin this morning and was not helped by the fact that women do tend to be more formidable when feeling moody.

"What did you say?" I said in dark irritation. "I never thought that YOU were capable of acting like a stubborn child." I quickly grabbed his bowl of rice and chopsticks so I could be ready for what happened next.

"'Stubborn child'?!" Sannan-san snapped before he quickly turned around to argue with me. "There is nothing wrong with wanting privacy while eat—!"

As soon as Sannan-san turned back around to yell at me, I quickly stuffed a small mouthful of rice into his mouth.

"Swallow that before you speak and don't you dare spit that out! You don't want to know what I would do to those who knowingly and willingly waste food." I threatened.

Sannan-san glared at me and quietly promised retribution before he swallowed the mouthful. "Shizuka-chan, that was quite rude of you." he said as soon as his mouth emptied.

"I know and quite frankly, I don't care." I said sternly before sighing and softening my expression. "Sannan-san, I know that you are frustrated and ashamed of yourself, but you need to eat to keep your strength up. I promise you that your arm won't be like that forever. I can operate on it, but in order to operate on it, you need to remain healthy. Eat and focus on recovering while I conduct more research so that by the time I am able to operate there will be fewer chances of complications."

Sannan-san didn't answer me but most of the tension in his shoulders left as he yielded to my request. He sat quietly as he allowed me to feed him the rest of his breakfast. When he was finished with his meal, I wiped his mouth with a small handkerchief before I removed the tray.

"You're moodier than usual. You're normally milder than this." Sannan-san sighed exasperatedly before offering me a small smile. "You won't even allow an injured man to win an argument. I miss the good old days when you were scared of me."

"Of course I'm moody." I snorted as I ignored the scared part of the comment. "I have an uncooperative patient that needs to eat properly to recover, but I will admit that I might have gone a bit overboard earlier and been a bit too forceful."

"Where is Hijikata-kun and Shimada-kun?" Sannan-san changed the topic. "I'm aware that they wanted to give me some privacy, but they have been gone for a while."

"A government official came to the inn an hour earlier and was specifically looking for the 'Vice Commander'." I explained. "There have been a series of thefts in Osaka lately and it appears that they have finally had enough of the thefts. They probably want us to investigate the thefts before we leave."

Standing up, I picked up the tray of dirty dishes to carry down to the kitchen. We were staying at an inn with excellent service and they would have undoubtedly sent a maid to pick up the used dishes, but I wanted to go down to the kitchen to speak with the cook. Sannan-san had nerve damage to heal from and I wanted to be able to cook him some meals that had nutrients that encouraged nerve recovery. Vitamin B12 was excellent for helping nerve damage recovery, so if I got permission to use the kitchen from the cook then I needed to run down to the market to purchase some Japanese snapper.

"Excuse me." I called into the kitchen as I poke my head in for a quick peek. The big, aging, burly cook, who in all honesty looked like a pirate, was doing upkeep on his knives now that breakfast was done and had been served to the guest while there was a flurry of maids washing the used dishes.

"Oh!" a maid cried when she noticed me. She quickly ran to me and took the tray of dirty dishes from my hands. "There was no need to bring the dishes down yourself. We would have sent someone to pick up the used dishes."

"Oh, I know." I said with a friendly smile. "I wanted to. Besides, I didn't go out of my way to bring the dishes down because I needed to come down to the kitchens anyways. I have a request to make of the person in charge of the kitchens."

"A request?" the cook said with his gruff voice as he put down his knife before approaching and looking down at me. "Whatcha' need?"

"I have a close friend that was injured and is now staying at this inn. May I please allow me to use the kitchens to cook some meals for him?" I asked with a polite bow.

"You?" the burly man snorted harshly before turning to walk away from me. "Does a tiny brat like you even know how to cook? Go run along kid. You'll only get in my way."

Tiny brat? Kid? Okay, who did this man think he was?! Infuriated at his words and assumptions, I pulled off a slipper the inn provided and tossed it at the back of the man's head. The infuriating man froze in place when my slipper connected with the back of his head and all the maids gasped in shock.

"Don't make assumptions about me based on my small appearance!" I growled in irritation. "If you're going to judge me then judge me based off of my merits and not my physical appearance!"

Let me be the first person to admit what I just did wasn't the smartest. The point was to be as polite as possible so I could use the kitchens, not be so rude that I was completely banned from entering the inn's kitchens. Plus, what the hell was I thinking picking a fight with this man? I was a miniature ant compared to this elephant-sized man. But this man was just so infuriating and it was just too difficult to restrain my anger any longer. Just as I was expecting the man to have me thrown out of the kitchens, the man burst out into jolly bouts of laughter. He turned back around to face me as he was wiping the tears from his eyes that appeared while he was laughing.

"I like your spunk!" he said with a wide grin. "Good sturdy women like you are difficult to find outside of Edo! Fine! You can use the kitchens. BUT if you get in my way while I'm doing my job, I'll have you thrown out. Are we clear?"

I stared blankly at him with my jaw on the floor at his sudden change of attitude before I quickly shook the shock away and gave him a grateful deep bow. "Thank very much! I promise I will not get in your way!"

"Heh! What are you still doing here?! Go buy your ingredients from the market! Don't think I'll let you use any of my supplies other seasonings!" the man said as he tossed my slipper back at me.

"R-Right!" I stuttered at another shift in attitude and scrambled back up to the rented room with the slipper in hand to where I left Sannan-san. I needed to go inform Hijikata-san that I was going to buy food at the market. He was probably going to have someone escort me, if he didn't do it himself.

When I arrived back upstairs where Sannan-san was currently residing, Hijikata-san and Shimada-san had returned from their earlier meeting with the government official. They went quiet when I opened the door and slipped back into the room.

"Where have you been?" Hijikata-san asked in annoyance. "I believe I told you not to wander off on your own."

"Relax, I didn't leave the inn. I went down to the kitchens to request permission to use the kitchens a bit later so I can cook for Sannan-san. Which brings me to ask if someone could accompany me to the market?" I said.

Hijikata-san sighed tiredly. "I'll go. I need to cool my head anyways. Shimada, start the investigation and gather as much information on the thefts as possible."

"Understood." Shimada-san replied before dismissing himself.

"Well then, go enjoy yourself at the markets while I rest a while longer." Sannan-san smiled at Hijikata-san before laying back down on his futon with his blankets pulled up snuggly to his chin.

"Got it, got it." Hijikata-san sighed before standing up and walking towards the door. "What are you waiting for Shizuka? Let's go."


"So," I said on the way to the market with Hijikata-san, "what has you so irritated this morning? Did it have something to do with something that government official said?"

"It's that obvious, huh?" he said as he ran his hand down his face. "There have been a series of thefts in Osaka lately. Small valuables, such as jewelry, have been stolen from homes and the officials have just ignored it until now. The only reason that the official that came this morning to request us to investigate the thefts now is because the thief had finally stolen from him. A ring that was his family's heirloom was stolen yesterday, in the late afternoon. These officials are pretty selfish, ignoring everyone's demands for an investigation until one of them was affected."

"Well, humans are naturally selfish creatures to begin with." I pointed out as I directed Hijikata-san towards the stall selling fish that I spotted a bit earlier. The fish at that stall were extremely fresh as most of them weren't dead yet and still flopped around in the wooden boxes.

"But still..." Hijikata-san said irritably before letting out another stressed sigh. "We're low on manpower right now, so I'll need you to participate in the investigation later."

Approaching the stall with Hijikata-san, I scanned the boxes filled with fish for today's lunch. In the last box, furthest to the left was a large Japanese snapper. It was a fairly strong and was healthy fish if the amount of flopping was something to go by. That was going to make a great meal.

"Excuse me!" I called to get the fishmonger's attention. "I would like that snapper please." I said as I pointed to the large fish that was in the process of jumping out of the box.

"Sure thing!" the fishmonger called back cheerfully as he nabbed the fish mid jump by its tail.

He placed the fish in a small wicker basket and placed a matching lid over the opening before he handed it to me. I quickly paid the man for the fish before taking the basket off his hands. This fish was impressively strong. It had been out of the water for some time and I could still feel it flailing around in the basket. The poor thing had a strong will to survive, but it was going to be Sannan-san's meal to help boost his speed in recovery.

"Do want me to carry that for you?" Hijikata-san asked me as he eyed the moving basket in my arms on our way back to the inn. "The fish looks like it's struggling quite a lot and it looks quite heavy."

"It's fine." I said before the fish gave the lid a powerful swing from its tail. The lid flew off the basket and hit me in the face as the fish continued to flop around helplessly in the basket. Suddenly, I didn't feel so bad for the fish anymore. In fact, now I couldn't wait to cook the blasted thing.

"You sure?" Hijikata-san asked with an amused, yet smug grin on his face.

"I'm sure." I huffed as I went to pick the lid off the ground. Slamming the lid back on the basket, I quickly reached back into my sleeve and pulled out my tasuki so I could tie the lid on the basket. "You know," I said maliciously with narrowed eyes as I lifted the basket to my face so I could talk to the fish within, "I was feeling bad that I was going to cook you since you have such a strong will to survive, but now, I'm going to enjoy cooking you."

Hijikata-san snorted as he held back a snicker at my behavior before he ruffled my hair. "Received some brain damage there a bit earlier?" he turned to mocked me. "Normal people don't talk to their food. Feeling moody today?"

I shook Hijikata-san's hand out of my hair before passing him the basket so I could fix my hair. "Well, it's not like other people's food is still alive, like this little cretin." I pointed out as I pulled my kanzashi out of my hair so I could fix my now messed up hair. Quickly redoing my hair bun, I reinserted my kanzashi before I took the basket back from Hijikata-san. "As for why I'm moody, well, it's not like my morning has been very smooth so far."

"Point taken. But you have been moodier lately, not just this morning." Hijikata-san said with a grin as we continued back on our way back to the inn, or at least we tried.

As Hijikata-san turned back towards to direction we were heading in, he crashed into another man who was carrying several large rolls of cloth. It was impossible to tell who was at fault here. Was it Hijikata-san's for not noticing the man or was it the man's, who was now on the floor, because he was carrying so much that he couldn't see?

"Are you okay?" I asked as I bent down to the fallen man's level to examine him for injuries and to help him up.

"Watch where you're…" the man yelled but froze when he spotted the two swords hanging from Hijikata-san's hip and the naginata strapped on my back.

"Ho? Want to say that louder?" Hijikata-san said threateningly with a twitchy eyebrow that conveyed his discontent for being accused. Hijikata-san also had a pretty crappy morning, so I really couldn't blame him for being so irritated.

"N-No!" the man panicked as he scrambled to his feet before he bowed several times in a rushed apology to Hijikata-san. "Please forgive me for my clumsiness."

Hmm… Something about this man just seemed so familiar, but I couldn't really pick out what. It wasn't his voice nor was it his appearance, though his appearance did seem somewhat familiar. Why did it feel like I knew who this man was? I squinted at him as he continued to apologize to Hijikata-san while being scolded. Ah! It was his accent I recognized! The man had an Edo accent, but that couldn't be the only thing that seemed familiar. It was his speech pattern. But I could have sworn I was more use to hearing it sounding more confident rather than the nervous tone that came out of this man's mouth now. Wait… No way…

"Isao-kun? Is that you?" I asked in disbelief as I reached down to help him pick up the rolls of fallen cloth off the floor. The man froze again as he turned to stare at me.

"How did you know my… AHHH! SHIZUKA-CHAN?!" the man, who was now identified, exclaimed with a mortified expression as he dropped all of his rolls of cloth to point at me in shock while Hijikata-san stared at the both of us in confusion. "C-Crap! I-I've got to hide! If you're here then that means that oni is here too!"

Oni? As far as I'm aware, Hijikata-san was the only one people called "oni", but it was clear he wasn't talking about Hijikata-san because they had never met before this.

"Wait… You know this man, Shizuka?" Hijikata-san asked as he cocked his head to the left as he curiously stared at Isao-kun.

"Yeah." I answered Hijikata-san. "He was the son of a man that use to attend Otou-san's dojo. Although, they both stopped coming to the dojo three months before you met Otou-san."

"Isao-kun, it's a pleasure to see you again after all these years." I said with a friendly smile, but what did he mean by oni? "How have you been?"

"G-Good. Wait… H-He's not appearing? Does that mean he's not here? Strange, he never lets you out of his sight." Isao-kun said as he calmed down and put his hand under his chin in a thinking gesture.

Never let me out of his sight? Was he talking about Souji? Souji an oni? Nope, that was totally not possible. Sure, Souji could be a tiny bit scary when annoyed but I don't believe he actually did anything bad enough to be called an oni. But at the same time, maybe the reason I didn't think Souji was scary because I was so use to him and because I knew him so well. This was a rather interesting situation. Oni was Hijikata-san's nickname, but it was now something he shared with Souji. Souji would definitely get a laugh out of this.

"What do you mean by 'oni'?" Hijikata-san asked Isao-kun with his interest tickled. "Who are you talking about?"

"He's talking about Souji." I said to Hijikata-san before I passed Isao-kun the roll of cloth I picked off the ground for him and bent back down to pick up another one. "Why don't we pick up your fallen items off the ground and go to that teahouse to catch up a bit afterwards?" I suggested before I pointed to a nearby teahouse.

"Before I agree, he's not here, right?" Isao-kun asked with caution as he searched the streets for the green-eyed samurai.

"No, he's back at Kyoto." I answered. "I know he beat you up before, but just what else did he do to make you this terrified of him?"

"Umm… I don't really want to talk about it." Isao-kun muttered as he picked up the last roll of cloth before following me and Hijikata-san to the small teahouse on the side of the street we were standing on.

"So," I said after we got settled in the teahouse and ordered a few sticks of dango with tea, "How have you been doing and what are you doing here in Osaka? I would have expected you to be back in Edo still. Oh, before I forget, the man next to me is Hijikata Toshizo."

"Nice to meet you." Isao-kun said politely to Hijikata-san. "My name is Tsubaki Isao."

"A pleasure." Hijikata-san said amicably with a nod.

"Well," Isao-kun said before he stuffed his mouth with some dango and swallowed, "to answer your first question, I came to Osaka for work. I opened my own tailoring business just last summer here in Osaka. Unfortunately the business isn't going so well because I'm not really well-known and because people think I'm just some country bumpkin because I'm from Edo."

"I see." Hijikata-san nodded empathetically at Isao-kun's dilemma. "The people of Osaka and Kyoto do tend to be snobbish towards those they deem beneath them."

"You know, I just can't seem to wrap my head around the fact that you're here in Osaka with Okita nowhere in sight." Isao-kun said to me again before he quickly turned to search the streets, like he was afraid that Souji was suddenly going to show up and beat him up again. "You guys still live together, right?"

"Of course they still live together." Hijikata-san said nonchalantly as he took a sip of tea from his cup. "He's her husband."

Isao-kun suddenly became bug-eyed before he spit out all the tea that he just sipped from his cup, unfortunately at a random person that just happened to pass by. "THEY'RE MARRIED NOW?" he spluttered at Hijikata-san as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before he turned to stare at me with his mouth hanging open. "Then why isn't he here with you? If you guys are married now then he would definitely not let you out of his sight."

"It can't be helped. Souji's the Shinsengumi's first division captain, so it's not like he can just leave his responsibilities behind just to accompany me to Osaka." I explained before I took a bite of dango. Hmm… the dango they sell at this teahouse was too sweet. I liked the teahouse I frequented often in Kyoto with Kyoko-chan better.

"HE'S A MIBU WOLF?!" Isao-kun exclaimed as he started turning pale.

"You didn't know?" I asked. Who the captains of the infamous Shinsengumi were was pretty basic knowledge back in Kyoto. Maybe it's because the Shinsengumi became less well-known the further we got from Kyoto? "Hijikata-san here is the Vice Commander of the Shinsengumi." I mentioned offhandedly to Isao-kun.

At hearing the last part of my statement, Isao-kun stiffly turned to stare at Hijikata-san before he turned paler than he was before. His eyes then rolled towards the back of his head and he fell backwards off the bench he was sitting on.

"He fainted." Hijikata-san said as he stood up from his seat so he could check on Isao-kun, who was lying on the floor. "I didn't think you would know such a pansy."

"He use to not be like that." I said as I stood up to help Hijikata-san lay the unconscious man back on the bench. "Souji chased him off when we were kids by beating him up when he thought Isao-kun was getting too close to me. Isao-kun became really jumpy afterwards, especially around anything that resembled a wooden sword."

"Just how much did Souji thrash this guy?"

"I dunno. I never asked. Looking back in hindsight, I probably should have confronted Souji about the incident and let him know that beating a person up was not okay." I said before I sat back down on the bench from before and popped another dango into my mouth. We should probably wait here until he woke up. It was the least I could do after all the trouble Souji caused for this poor guy in our childhood.

"Huh…" Hijikata-san said as he sat back down on the bench and finished his cup of tea, acting like a man fainting in his presence was completely normal. "It's strangely nice to know I wasn't the only one that suffered as Souji's target."

"You're not going to scold Souji when we get back?"

"No, I don't think I can scold him for something he did before I knew him. It should be your job to scold him for this." Hijikata-san pointed out.

"Fair point." I said as I bent over to poke Isao-kun's cheek to see if that would wake him up faster. What an interesting encounter.