A Rurouni Kenshin One-Shot fic by Caroline "CiCi" Corini
Victory is ours.
The new age has begun. Everything that we have fought for is now ours. The Shogun has fallen and the oppression of the week is at an end.
We did it.
I was so glad I could be a part of it. I've known for a long time that my skills with a sword are lacking but that couldn't keep me from the battlefield. I had to be there. History was being made. And I got to fight along side him.
Him. The infamous Hitokiri Battousai, the sword-bearing master assassin. He was there and I saw him with my own eyes.
They say that no one has seen him fight and lived. But I did.
Red hair and a cross-shaped scar. It was him. And he was amazing. I have never seen anyone fight the way he did. The way he held his sword. The way he executed every stroke. It was perfect. He didn't miss anything. He could sense his opponent's movements and react accordingly. That was true skill.
I've heard many things about him but now I don't believe them.
They say his hair turned red from the blood of all his victims, that his scar was made by his wife who he killed in cold blood. But I don't believe them. There was something about that man that made me think that he wasn't the murderer that everyone made him out to be.
It was in his eyes. There was sadness in them. There was something tearing at his heart. Something telling me that he didn't like to kill. Those were not the eyes of a cold blooded murderer. Those were the eyes of a man in torment.
I wanted to reach out to him. Find out his side of the story. But I couldn't. I was swept up in the battle. I didn't see him again after that.
Now we're all standing around congratulating each other on our win as victory banners are raised. Everyone is happy.
But I'm still thinking about him. I want to find him again. He's not here with my fellow comrades, so I step back onto the battlefield.
The sun is setting turning the sky a brilliant shade of red.
Everywhere there are corpses lying on the ground. They are no longer friend or enemy. They are just bodies. Bodies of people that, even though on different sides, were all fighting for the same thing. Their ideals.
But there is one thing standing out in this field of corpses. A single sword stuck in the ground as if by purpose.
I look ahead of me.
There are two figures walking away from the field. A woman, and him.
She's dressed all in white, pale in appearance. Like a ghost. She was guiding him. His long red hair stands out against the dark blue of his gi, like blood running down his back.
"Oi Battousai!," I call.
They turn around to look at me. They're smiling.
"Sessha wa Rurouni," he says. "Not Battousai. This one no longer kills, but protects people instead."
Then they turned around.
That was Toba Fushimi, the last battle of the Meiji revolution. Now, five years later I still remember it. I searched for the Battousai, but all I saw was a sword stuck in the ground and a Rurouni disappearing off into the distance with a ghost guiding him.
It was the most powerful thing I ever saw. A man who had killed so many and in one moment gave it all up to protect people.
A few years later I met him again at an inn. He was older, and travel worn, but he still had that red hair and cross scar.
I asked him why he did it. Why he disappeared.
He told me:
"This one wanted to protect the week and oppressed. And in that desire I became the one thing that went against that. I killed for my ideals. It didn't make me happy what I was doing. It tore at me. But she, she showed me the way. Tomoe, my wife, she showed me that I didn't have to kill with the sword. No, I could live to protect the people with my sword. She told me that. And it was her death at my own hands that made me realize what I had to do. This one now is a Rurouni, one wandering with no destination, to protect the people I encounter along the way. That is my atonement."
Those were his words.
I watched as he left that night. He disappeared forever into the darkness.
My life was forever changed.
Author's note: What did you think? This was my first one shot piece. I was sitting at ballet one night listening to the Samurai X Soundtrack and I was inspired to draw a scene featuring Kenshin walking away from the last battle guided by the ghost of Tomoe. Then today I was watching Samurai X Trust/Betrayal and the whole story behind that drawing popped into my head. I wanted to write an outsider's view of all the emotion contained in that powerful scene.
Well anyway...today is my 17th Birthday and it's been a bit of a disappointment. My total accusation of Borders gift certificates fell pitifully short of the 120 dollars needed to by the boxed set of the Kyoto arc on DVD but I still have some presents from friends and my grandparents to collect. My mom forgot about my cake and ended up giving me the one left over from my sister's failed birthday party in February (my entire family got sick that day so we had to cancel), and the worst part it had my SISTER'S name on it! My friend Katie-kun is complaining of sexual harassment again (she likes making these things up for attention) and I am completely and utterly writer's blocked on my other fic "Return of the Wolf"
Reviews are helpful! Arigatou!