I am not going to turn around. I will not let you see me cry again. All too well I know what I am leaving behind.

You're all so kind. Nowhere in Japan could I ever hope to find friends like you again. Where I am going, I will be alone. More alone even than before. I don't know if there's anyone left. My family is dead or has disappeared. Any friends I might have had would not remember or recognize me, ten years later. Oh, of course they'd recognize my name. They might even recognize my face. It isn't as though I were ugly or forgettable, as we all know so well.

Heh. I can't even fool myself.

I'm not the same person as I was when war tore my family apart. I'm not the same person who cowered under Kanryuu's threats. I'm not even the same person I was not six months ago when I came to that dried up little place you call a dojo.

I hope you get your students back, Kaoruchan. Yahiko does so much better with someone else to motivate him.

And Sanosuke, I don't know what you're going to do with your life. I hope you get a job. Seriously; Kaoruchan doesn't need to support you too. It's bad enough that she's the only one of you who has a paying job.

I'm not sure I can count Yahiko's work at the Akabeko. We all know his ulterior motive – and it does not have to do with purchasing his own sakabatou after all.

That stupid sword... Kensan, so help me, if you ever pick up that sword again I will die just so I can haunt you forever. Although forever wouldn't be very long if you do, because it will kill you that much faster... And one thing I do know is I don't want you to die.

The road is flying by beneath us. This coach is moving too quickly. I'm not ready for this! Stop! Turn around! I can't leave yet! Kensan needs me!

My mouth won't even form the words. I couldn't go back. He doesn't need me anymore, and I've got promises to fulfill. Weeks ago, when Kensan left for Kyoto, do you remember what I said, Kaoruchan? Do you remember how you demanded to know why I wasn't going after him myself, and I told you that I was honoring him by fulfilling my promise to live my life as a doctor? Well, I'm still showing my feelings for him... And it never did me any good. You win. You won his love. And I... I am going north, to Aizu, to live an unforgiving life.

No man would marry a doctor. What self-respecting woman would put her patients before her husband?

This one. This unworthy one.

I am so afraid.