Disclaimer: I own nothing, so don't sue me!
Author's Note: This is from Kenshin's POV, right after he meets Kaoru, maybe during the second episode. Read and Review but Flames will be used by Saitou to light his cigarettes.
I'm not what you think
How can you stand the thought of sharing your home, your life, with me?
You're so pure; you still believe that everyone is basically a good person. And me? I'm tainted, I'm a murderer whose hands are covered in the blood of people who were fighting for the same reasons I was.
For all you know I could only be pretending to be a good person when inside I am plotting your death.
You know I'm the Battousai and you claim you don't care, but how can you not?
You associate the word "Battousai" with a hero, a man who fought for a new era in Japan and then disappeared.
Forgot everything you've ever heard. I'm not the savior of Japan, I'm not a hero who carved the way for the Meiji era, I was just a boy then, inexperienced with the world and they used me. They told me I was doing something good but in reality all I was doing was killing other people like me who had been fed the same lies I had believed so readily.
I was known as the most feared manslayer in Japan but all I really did was the dirty work, the work that no one else wanted to do. The work that was too messy for the leaders to soil their hands performing got sent to me.
The word "Battousai" should not be honored, it should be spat upon.
I deserve the same hatred and loathing that would be given to a murderer and yet I'm called a "hero".
The real heroes are the people like you, Kaoru-dono, who welcome people like me and offer me friendship, despite what I am.
Maybe with your trust aiding me, I can finally put the Battousai to rest.
Maybe I can become the good man you believe me to be.
Fin.