Mieko Kondō

As change sweep Japan, an honest man joins the Shinsengumi out of respect for their leader and because he wants to live and die as a samurai. However, as his involvement goes, reality and idealism come into deadly conflict.

Ryunosuke awakens in the forest having no more idea what happened that previous night, as he'd been drunk & hallucinatory. He is surrounded by corpses & can surmise it's his own handiwork.

Disguised as a beggar monk, Ryunosuke's harrassed along the road by the rowdy members of a country dojo or fencing school malingering outside their fencing hall.

In the forties in Japan, a group of brilliantly qualified university students are selected to break all ties with their previous lives and form the Japanese spy service.