"Good, good!" Okita said, laughing heartily. He ignored the pain for now, but he knew later he'd been feeling that. "I don't want you to get discouraged from playing with us. It'd be no fun without you, Heiji-kun."

Okay, so that last bit was a lie, but Heiji's presence would certainly keep Okita from going completely out of control. Or so he hoped. If he could focus his attention on training Heiji, improving his swordsmanship, then maybe he wouldn't spend so much time thinking about the Battousai. And speaking of the Battousai and these guns... "We'll work to arm you soon, so would you prefer small knives or a sword? The sword may take awhile, but I have some knives you can borrow until we obtain better supplies."

Now to think that medicine had gone that far! Sakamoto hadn't shot his men anywhere vital and still it had put them out of commission for quite a while. The fever that accompanied the bullet wounds hadn't helped the men any, either. "I believe they can do some amazing things here with their medicine, but not all of it makes sense. I'm not entirely certain it's not just magic or something."

He hadn't coughed once since coming here. No signs of the disease or any lingering effects of having his chest nearly crushed by Yoshida. If it wasn't magic, then Okita had no idea how it had all happened and he wasn't sure he wanted to know.