omedetou;;

[derepressed]

March 1870.
Hokkaido, formerly Ezochi.

Some people say that time heals all wounds. That might well be true, but Chizuru isn't sure if this wound has been healed so much as it's been numbed. By her count (and she has been keeping count, she can't not) it's been nine months since she and Kazama made it to Ezo, too late to do anything more than learn of the Shinsengumi's fate and look at the place where they made their last stand. Nine months since Kazama, too, left her - with the knowledge that she would have a place among demons, should she want it, but she isn't sure she wants it yet.

It might have been easier to live in seclusion, away from demons and humans alike, and for a time she had - on Ezo, even, for four long weeks while she tried to figure out what to do. In the end a decision had been made for her. Knowledge of demons hadn't died out with the rise of the Meiji government and some higher-up or another had managed to track her down, starting from her father's - no, Kodo's - work with the Tokugawa shogunate and then the Imperial Army, making the connection between his initial involvement with the Shinsengumi and the daughter he'd left behind and the "page" of Hijikata's (had she ever been of use to him, as his page?) that was never accounted for among the dead at Toba-Fushimi once the chaos died down, and she supposes she hadn't done a terribly great job covering her tracks, because she had gone outside for a trip to the nearest town for groceries one day and there he was, a government representative with an offer for her as the last of the Yukimura clan.

(She wonders sometimes if she's really the last, but she hasn't seen Kaoru since Okita took the ochimizu that hadn't been enough to save him from his tuberculosis, so she might as well be. He has always been better at keeping himself hidden than she was.)

After some thought (and quite a bit of urging on the official's part), she'd accepted. There is still some small part of her that - even now - isn't sure if she can forgive this new government for what happened to the men she'd grown to care about, but there are two things that she knows to be absolutely true: First, that if she wants any more details about the lives they'd lived, she needs to be able to make nice with the people who have survived to bear that information, and second, that if she's to be sure the Shinsengumi is, in the future, remembered for the heroes she truly believes they were, she needs to be in an influential enough position to remind people of the good they did.

And ultimately, that end goal - having enough influence to be taken seriously when she claims them as heroes - is what brings her back to Ezo-- no, Hokkaido now, the name has changed. The Sugimura family, doctors for the Matsumae daimyo, are influential enough that there are still some within the government who want to curry favor with them, and Chizuru is here on their behalf to offer congratulations on binding a son into their family through marriage. The man is to be named Sugimura Yoshie when all is said and done, and that's about all she knows, but if this Sugimura Yoshie would eventually become the head of the family, it will be good to meet him; when the elders of his family and the people she is running errands for are dead in the ground it will be him that has the influence to help her, which is why she doesn't really mind running their errands. Establishing personal relationships with the people who will have power in the future is the only way she can think of to preserve the Shinsengumi's memory.

Because, if the war taught her anything - it's that politics are important, and that history is written by the victors. She can't take up the sword, the time for that is long past, but she can try and make sure she wins this battle by surviving to keep those remarkable men from fading into obscurity - or worse, infamy.

The wedding ceremony itself isn't for another few days, and Chizuru doesn't expect to be present for it - the ceremony is special, private. But politics are always at play and she is far from the only one coming to the Sugimura house to pay respects; other clans are sure to do the same. Aizu (no, it's the "Tonami clan" now, isn't it?) - well, maybe she'll hope that she isn't seated anywhere near whoever their delegate is; Aizu, Tonami, whatever they're calling themselves now... that clan is too stark a reminder of what she's lost, and truth be told she has been turning a blind eye to their doings because the loss is still too fresh and raw. Yase - maybe she'll see Sen here, or Kimigiku, or someone else. That thought cheers her somewhat.

Tonight, there is to be a banquet hosted by the groom-to-be, where they can toast to his upcoming nuptials, wish him well, and (perhaps most importantly) give him the gifts they've brought along. When Chizuru arrives - dressed not as a man but as a girl, which perhaps is strange, but she's come as a representative of the government and so they allow it - she is brought into the banquet room and kneels to take her seat. She doesn't look up at the others who are being seated just yet; that can come once the room has been filled with guests and Sugimura Yoshie arrives to begin the festivities.