Kyoto – spring 1865
In the Nishi-Honganji temple, the militia of Shinsengumi is selecting new recruits in presence of the commander Isami Kondo and the captain Toshizo Hijikata. The candidates have to take on the best warrior of the militia, Soji Okita.
On this day, two men stand out from the rest and join the militia: Hyozo Tashiro, a lower-ranking samurai from the Kurume clan, and Sozaburo Kano, a young man whose bewitching beauty attracts many an eye. Tashiro is immediately smitten with Kano.