According to Shinpachi NAGAKURA ("Shinsengumi Tenmatsuki"), he heard Kondo saying, 'I'd like to keep Todo alive' (since this is an excerpt from a serialized newspaper article using posthumous discourse by a newspaper reporter in the late Meiji period, long after the Meiji Restoration, it is highly possible that this is a fictitious story) so he cleared the way and let Todo get away but Tsunesaburo MIURA, who was unaware of the situation, cut him down.
永倉新八の証言（新選組顛末記）によれば、彼が油小路に向かう前、近藤の口から「藤堂だけは生かしておきたいものだな」と聞き（維新のずっと後、明治後期の新聞記者による遺談をまとめた新聞での連載記事であることから、後の創作の可能性が高い）、藤堂が逃げられるように道をあけたが、事情を知らぬ隊士三浦常三郎に斬られた