Snowflake Capital

Snowflake Capital (雪華の都 Sekka no Miyako) is the first episode of the anime Hakuōki: Shinsengumi Kitan (Demon of the Fleeting Blossom: The Tale of the Shinsengumi). It aired on April 4, 2010.
==Plot==
Late December 1863
Yukimura Chizuru has gone to Kyoto in search for her father. As she walks through town at night, she is harassed and chased by a group of ronin samurai. She hides in an alleyway, then two white-haired men with glowing red eyes and crazy look on their faces attack the ronin and murder one of them with extra violence. The other one tries to kill them, but even after being gravely injured, a white-haired man laughs and finishes off the other ronin. They spot Chizuru and are about to attack her when Hajime Saitou mercilessly kills them. Souji Okita appears shortly afterwards and complains that he wanted to take them out all by himself. When they notice Chizuru, Toshizou Hijikata enters the scene, points his sword at Chizuru and orders her not to escape, otherwise he will cut her down. Chizuru narrates behind the scenes that the blowing jet-black hair took her breath away, and the snow was illuminated as it fell like cherry blossoms flowering out of season. Then Chizuru faints, and Hijikata orders to take her into custody and debate what to do with her later. 
Chizuru wakes up the next morning finding herself restrained by ropes in the Shinsengumi headquarters. Inoue Genzaburo arrives and unties her. He takes her to a meeting held by the Shinsengumi captains and the commanders. Kondou Isami introduces himself, then they discuss the situation that happened the night before. Chizuru explains what her situation was and insists that she didn't see anything. The captains decide to keep her in custody until they find a way to keep her quiet.
A few hours pass, and Chizuru decides she needs to escape in order to survive. Hijikata catches her. As Chizuru tries to escape his grasp, she tells him that she can't die yet and that she has something else she needs to do. Hijikata unhands her and says that he wants to hear her entire story. At night, she sits down with the Shinsengumi captains and commanders again and tells them her story, that 6 months earlier, her father left Edo for his work in Kyoto and, after a while, Chizuru stopped receiving letters from him. A month later she decided to travel to Kyoto to search for her father. This leads up to arriving in Kyoto and the incident from the previous night. By this point Hijikata speculates that Chizuru is a girl despite her masculine attire. Everyone is shocked by this as no one suspected her to be a girl dressed as a man. Then, Keisuke Sannan asks her if her father is Koudou Yukimura. Chizuru is shocked and asks if he is alright. To her dismay, she is told that the clinic that he was working in mysteriously burned down about a month ago, but inspectors have not found the body. The Shinsengumi are tracking his whereabouts as well. Hijikata tells Chizuru that they will allow her to stay under their protection until they have found Koudou. 
January, 1864
Half a month later, Chizuru stares out the window and ponders about her future out loud. She remembers a little while before, she was given the order to continue dressing as a man, thus was given back her kodachi that is precious to her. Souji Okita interrupts her thoughts and comments on her thinking. Chizuru is embarrassed because she did not notice him sitting just outside her window watching her. Hajime Saitou is standing there as well, and Chizuru becomes more embarrassed. Heisuke Toudou comes and tells them it is time to have dinner. Heisuke suggests that Chizuru comes and eats with the group since they are not allowed to leave her alone. She complies. At first, the others are surprised upon her arrival, but soon begin to enjoy her company. Later, Inoue arrives with the news that Sannan has sustained a deep injury to his left arm while on the trip to Osaka with Hijikata. His life is not in danger, but he is unable to use his left arm, therefore unable to use a sword. Souji says that he might have to take the "medicine". Shinpachi Nagakura protests that they cannot risk the life of a Shinsengumi leader like that. Chizuru asks whether Sannan is the Shinsengumi's Deputy Commander, and when Heisuke begins to explain the meaning behind characters in "Shinsengumi", Harada Sanosuke punches him to keep him quiet so Chizuru does not find out. Souji thoughtfully adds that the character 'sen' in Shinsengumi that Heisuke mentioned means 'a pathetic group of boys'.
==Trivia==
*The opening is Izayoi Namida performed by Yoshioka Aika. 
*The ending is Kimi no Kioku performed by MAO.
*One of the only scenes where Chizuru wears a female kimono is shown during one of her flashbacks. 
*Chizuru's theme is played during the dinner scene. 
Category:Episodes
Category:Season 1
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