This is a just a short one, but important, nonetheless. Please enjoy!
Chizuru's head pounded. She became aware that she was lying on something hard. Her eyelids felt like lead.
She thought, "Alright, on the count of three; One, two, three!"
She slowly lifted her eyelids, and noticed she was lying on the cold ground, sakura petals surrounding her. She wondered why she was there as her vision came into focus. She quickly sat up.
"Where am I? How did I get here, and why?" She remembered helping Hijikata here. "Wh- where is he?" She had a horrible feeling in her gut. She turned around. She suddenly remembered.
What she saw shocked her to the core. Her Hijikata-san, on the ground, eyes closed, face paler than she'd ever seen, even when he'd been awake for days and fatigued. She began trembling uncontrollably. She spun on her knees toward him and took his still hand in her shaking one.
Cold, lifeless.
Chizuru held her hand in front of his mouth and nose. Nothing. No warmth of breath. She panicked, screaming, "No, nononononono, no NO! It can't be! Hijikata! Toshizo! Toshi! Can you hear me?! Answer me! No, you can't be gone! You're still here, answer me!" She kissed him and willed him to come back. She just couldn't believe it, and she was in denial.
But he never answered. He never moved. He was not breathing. She came to the realization that he couldn't hear her, and that he was gone.
She screamed to the sky and sobbed to the earth. She didn't think the tears would ever stop.
Each and every time a Shinsengumi captain died, it broke her heart, over and over again. She had grown close to them, and she cared about them all deeply, even loved them. But the day Hijikata died…That was the day her heart shattered into millions of pieces. And she knew it would never heal from this.
Chizuru had cried all her tears. She saw that it was midday, and she didn't want to leave him. But she had to get back to the camp and tell them, so that they could give him a proper burial.
But it was just impossible to stand. She felt… nothing. She was soulless and empty. Every breath was a battle. She saw no point in living anymore. If she could have died right then and there, she would have. She couldn't imagine how she would go on living without him.
But the worst was yet to come.
She just found her legs, and picked herself off the ground. She took one last look at the love of her life, the one she was meant to love before she was born, and the one she would always love, to her death and beyond. Forever.
And she started walking.
