If there's anyone - or anything - watching for them to leave, the front door is a logical place for them to stake out first, and so Hijikata joins the group slipping out the hole in the back wall, hand at the hilt of his sword as he steps out into the night and stops to take a look around.

He can't see anything watching, but that isn't doing much to make him feel better.

"We'll be obvious targets on the road." But the road, it's quite clear, is also the only way they've got a hope of keeping the crowd together.