Author's Notes: Will be mostly at chapter's end. This is a multi-chapter Joui War fic, focused primarily on Takasugi, with lots of Katsura, a fair amount of Gintoki, and a short appearance by Sakamoto.

The scenes set in the "present" take place not long after Episode 17 i.e. Takasugi's first appearance.

A good OC should hold up a mirror to the canon characters, revealing aspects that can be best seen from a different POV. I hope my Kiheitai medic succeeds in that. No real ships here, just Gintama-style unrequited love.

Edited September 2014: I've been fixing typos and small errors but I won't make any real revisions until I've finished the fic. Since I started writing this nearly two years ago, Sorachi's given us a few more bits of information about Gintoki's past. Most noticeably, he finally established the Joui war happened about ten years ago, as opposed to the six years I used in the fic. Since it doesn't really change the story, I'm leaving things like that unchanged for the moment.

I present my friend with both steel and blossoms
Those two elements are coexistent on this earth
Why must strife ever prevail?

- Katsura Kogoro

Chapter One: Even Terrorists Need To Visit The Doctor's Sometimes

1867 - Edo

Rat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat.

Tanaka Nishiko sat up in bed. The quiet knock from her back garden could mean only one thing. She put down her book, pulled the sash of her yukata tight around her, and got up to go.

This time it was a woman she'd never met before. A woman dressed like either a fashion model or a prostitute. Her blonde hair was tied to one side in a ponytail. A hot pink kimono-like top reached to just above the woman's bare mid-riff. A similarly tight pink mini-skirt finished off the ensemble.

Oh, Shinsuke. Where do you find these people?

"Shinsuke-sama said," the woman began, sounding unsure of herself.

"Yes, of course. I'm ready." Nishiko pointed to her big black leather bag, where she kept all the necessary equipment for these expeditions.

"Oh, good." The woman sounded relieved. "I've got a car parked a few blocks from here. Let's go."

Nishiko followed after her, still marvelling at the woman's appearance. For all Shinsuke professed to despise Amanto culture, his subordinates were often bizarrely in tune with its trends and fashions.

Settled in the car, Nishiko finally asked the woman her name.

"I'm sorry. I'm Kijima Matako. I'm glad I found you. Bansai-senpai thought you might be on shift at the hospital." The car suddenly lurched into traffic. Nishiko braced herself against her seat, watching oncoming death threaten through the windshield, as Matako cut through three lanes of traffic without signalling. Trust a terrorist to drive as dangerously as she lived.

"What's the problem?" Nishiko asked, half expecting by now to hear it was a car accident.

"Gunshot through the stomach," replied Matako, and braked hard. "Move out of the way, you stupid bitch!" she screamed at the driver of the car in front of them. "Honestly, I don't think the kid's going to make it but Bansai-senpai says you're pretty good."

Nishiko decided to just close her eyes. "I do what I can," she answered. Kid, Matako had said. "How old is the patient?" she asked.

"Seventeen, eighteen, maybe," replied Matako. "He's not one of ours. Just another would-be Joui brawler who decided to pick a fight with the police. But Bansai-senpai thinks he has some potential, so he brought him in."

"I hate working on teenagers," said Nishiko bitterly. "There are too many bad memories."

"You were in the war, right? With Shinsuke-sama?"

"Sort of. I wasn't a fighter. I wasn't even a doctor back then. Most of the time I was just . . . there. Doing what I was told to. I even made ammunition once." A dull thud shook the car. Please let it not be a pedestrian.

Matako didn't seem to notice the disturbance. "Are you from Choshu too, then?"

"My father was. He sent me and my brother back to Hagi to live with my uncle. He thought it'd keep us out of the way of the war. This was in 1859."

"Ironic," commented Matako.

"Wasn't it, just? I was sixteen, my brother was only fourteen."

"Did he survive the war?" asked Matako.

"No. He died in the Kiheitai. Of appendicitis, believe it or not. In the middle of a war, no one knew how to help him."

1861 - Shimonoseki, Choshu Domain

"So, when you look at it from that perspective, we're doing quite well," Katsura was explaining to his two friends. "We only had one death this week and that was probably appendicitis."

They were gathered together in a shabby room in the inn where Gintoki had been holed up the last few weeks, recovering from a bout of pneumonia. He had been too sick to stand up when they had left him there, lying on his futon and threatening to kill them if they went to relieve Kitakyushu without him. Now, listening to their account of the campaign, he was abnormally quiet. His skin was pale with dark circles under his eyes. But the doctor had given him a clean bill of health, and he was keen to return to battle.

"Only one death? How was that acceptable?" snapped Takasugi. "What sort of army can't deal with appendicitis? Another fighter under the ground because we don't have front-line medics."

"I admit it was tragic," said Katsura.

"Tragic?" sneered Takasugi. "What a nice, clean word, Zura. It was a lot more hellish than most battle deaths. The kid took fourteen hours to go, screaming most of the time."

"I know that," said Katsura. "I sat with him the last six hours, remember? Gintoki, you'd remember him. Tanaka Ichiro. The younger brother of that girl you used to go out with."

"I never 'went out' with her," protested Gintoki. "I just walked with her some times."

His friends began laughing, then stopped abruptly, shocked at themselves for laughing in the shadow of death.

"How old was he?" asked Gintoki gravely.

"Sixteen," answered Katsura. "He told me his sister's still around here somewhere. I was going to look her up and tell her . . . I don't know what I'll tell her. But someone needs to talk to her."

"You'll tell her he died bravely, thinking of her," said Gintoki.

"A hideous lie in this case," Takasugi interjected.

Gintoki shook his head gently at his friend. "It doesn't matter. That's what she should hear. Do you want me to go with you, Zura?"

"I would be glad of your company, Gintoki."

Takasugi sighed. "I'll tag along, too. Tanaka was one of mine after all. Oi, Zura, is it ok to call you that now?"

"What? No, of course not!"

"Only we've called you Zura twice in the last three minutes and you didn't blink."

"I was distracted," said Katsura with dignity. "It's still Katsura."

End Notes: Sorachi-sensei is delightfully vague about details, so I've been making them up, using the characters' historical counterparts for inspiration. The real Jouishishi leaders Katsura Kogoro and Takasugi Shinsaku were from Hagi, the capital of Choshu Domain in Western Japan. They studied there at the school of Yoshida Shoin, the real-life inspiration for Shouyou-sensei. So I've kept Hagi as their hometown.

Lots of interesting information about this bunch can be found at red-bird dot org /meiji2 . (this site doesn't allow me to type the address properly) Note that Kido Takayoshi is the name Katsura Kogoro adopted later. The piece of Katsura's poetry quoted above can be found there.

I'll definitely respond to any reviews/questions, so fire away.