The cherry blossoms bloomed this year too… The small pink-white flowers had opened their petals and now everywhere around were painting the Land of Rising Sun with the colors of spring… The Meiji Era was still in the middle and the peace of that calmness seemed to be impossible to be disturbed. The birds were singing happily the beautiful spring day. The small river was flowing through that part of Tokyo City. Children are running and playing around its banks sometimes splashing in the shallow waters… Fishermen are carrying the shallow baskets with their fish calling of what kind of fish they were selling… On another corner there was a lady that was selling fresh flowers. The city was, as always, busy but especially that day the spring fever was touching everyone… And when the wind blew a little more loudly…it made the cherry blossoms and the small petals fly…and start falling softly on earth again…like soft…sweet snowflakes…
Anyway, in a common dojo that was teaching swordsmanship, childish laughter could be heard. Inside the small garden there was a child around eight years old that was running around like a small happy horse…running, jumping and laughing. His red hair was caught in a small, low ponytail…his eyes were shining with the life of childhood… A young lady around twenty-six years old was whipping the entrance of the garden and she was watching her son playing. At the entrance of the dojo, standing on the small, wooden step, there was a man around his middle or late thirties with long, red hair caught at a low ponytail that reached till his hips. A cross-shaped scar was on his left cheek. He was watching at the lady and the child with a smile on his face. He was dressed in colorful yukata and he had a sword at his belt. Kenshin Himura was watching over his family with a calm, proud smile. Kaoru Kamiya, owner and teacher in that dojo and his little son, Kenji. It had been years since the day he had decided to stay here…that he loved Kaoru and decided to become family with her…it had been even more years since the day he was a Hitokiri for the Edo Era, during the Revolution. He was a wanderer and now…he finally had found a place to belong…a place to find peace… He smiled again…
"The things I want to protect…" he thought, "Which are not new…this obvious peace…"
He closed his eyes for a second, to feel the soft breeze on his face…the warm rays of the sun… How much things had changed all that time… Sanosuke had started having a relationship with Megumi… For sure those two appeared that they were made for each other. Kaoru said that with her, Sanosuke would start acting more responsible and with him, Megumi would start…going after Kenshin! Kenshin always chuckled at the last comment, but he knew it was true. Even if Megumi was still calling him "Ken-san" she was now in love with Sanosuke. But she still enjoyed teasing Kaoru. Even Aoshi was now going well with Misao, even though they had so many years of difference (After all… Kaoru and he had eleven years of difference as well…). He heard that the two of them were living pretty well back there in Kyoto. They had recently received a letter from Misao…
He looked up at the clean sky and then back at his small family. He remembered the happiness he had felt when he got married to Kaoru. Near her he felt loved and happy. When Kaoru told him that she was pregnant, then he was ready to fly from joy. He had tasted love before…but he never had a fruit of his love with a person. Having a child in the house… Oh, the joy of it! Kenshin loved children. He loved playing with them…making them smile… He remembered playing with the two little girls, Ayame and Suzume, here, in this yard… Now the two of them were beautiful young ladies around fifteen years old…He loved them because they represented the childhood he didn't have… Even though he loved kids, he never had kids on his own. Kaoru brought him the news that made his heart flatter in happiness. When Kaoru finally gave birth, he was always by her side… It was an easy childbirth thank all gods… And then Kenshin was able to hold his baby…his baby that came out of his loved one's body…a baby partly created by him… And he was so beautiful… He had his hair, red hair, and he had her eyes… His son…Kenji…
Kenshin smiled again and looked towards the small back, yard door… From there, Sanosuke tended to come in and say hello. Along with him, was coming Yahiko. Yahiko now was a really strong young man at the age of marriage almost. It seemed like yesterday from the day he was just a kid and he was stealing wallets to repay his depts. Kenshin was thinking to give him his Reverse Blade Sword as a gift, many times till his son Kenji became of age to use it. That wouldn't be too long, the ex-Hitokiri smiled. Kenji, even now, he appeared to have great potential with the sword when he was playing with woods in the yard and he had personally requested to go to the mountains to meet his father's master and learn the swordsmanship with him… Kenshin felt the peace inside his soul… Finally after more than ten years of wandering around, trying to find a way to make it up for all the murders he had done as a Manslayer…he finally was able to find it…to find peace…in the arms of this woman, Kamiya Kaoru, no, now Himura Kaoru…and her father's philosophy that the sword should protect people instead of being a weapon for committing murders, like Kenshin had learnt…and of course… He found peace in the eyes of his newly born son…the day he held him in his arms and the little baby opened his eyes to look at him…those innocent eyes that saw the world for the first time…
"And the first thing he saw…was my face…" Kenshin thought
Those were his thoughts as he was watching at his precious, little family… Suddenly he heard footsteps. He looked up at the small yard door to see five men, dressed in the suits of policemen. Kenshin raised a brow a bit confused at the sight. He calmly walked towards them.
"Welcome, that you are…" he said politely, "May I help you?"
The first of them looked at him from top to bottom (obviously it was the highest rank of them). He then said
"Are you named Himura Kenshin?" he asked him in a rigid, typical tone
"I am" Kenshin replied calmly
Kenshin was planning to start using his real name, Himura Shinta, instead of Kenshin. His Master had given him this name because he had thought that the name "Shinta" wasn't suitable for a swordsman. However Kenshin, for years now was merely wearing his sword. He was planning to give it away. And with it, his life as a swordsman would end…so he had planned to take back his name…the name his mother gave to him…
The policeman nodded his head once mumbling and then he said:
"Good day mister Himura Kenshin…or better… Himura Battousai."
Kenshin couldn't hold back a small gasp. Kenji had stopped laughing and he was frozen to his spot on the other side of the yard, waiting to hear what those men had to say next out of his pure curiosity. Kaoru had stopped too and she seemed alarmed…
"What…do you mean…?" Kenshin questioned
The policeman showed him a badge.
"We are a special police force that is investigating old war crimes…"
"War crimes…? Ah!" he gasped in the end
"That's right" the policeman said cause he saw that it wasn't necessary to explain him the situation
His eyes frowned.
"You had been judged mister Himura. You had been judged for war crimes committed during Revolution that include slaughter and murder in the darkness outside the battlefield, spying and taking money for that."
Kenshin looked at them and his face seemed surprised for a second but then…he felt strangely calm. So the time to really pay for the crimes he had committed had come?
"I see" he calmly said
"Do you deny these accusations?"
"No"
"Do you have anything else to say?"
"No"
"Then…"
The policeman stretched his hand out.
"…I am afraid that I will ask you to give me your sword…"
Kenshin looked at him and then looked at his sword. It was always with him…his beloved Reverse Blade Sword… It was with him during the most important battles. Because to him…the battles that he gave as a wanderer were more important than those in Revolution. This sword was part of his arm…no…part of his heart… However Kenshin, absolutely calmly and carefully, unhooked the sword from his belt and stretched it out to the policeman.
"I did what I thought it was right…" he said, "I feel guilty for many of my decisions, that I do… I tried to create a better world…with the only way I knew…"
It was as if it was the last apology he could say… The policeman took the sword carefully and gave it to one of the others that were following him.
"Kenshin…?" Kaoru now was heard and came touching Kenshin's arm
She got alarmed when she saw Kenshin like that but now…now that she saw him handing over his sword…his other heart…was something that made her totally worried.
"Kenshin what's going on…?"
Kenshin couldn't answer because the policeman spoke again.
"Himura Kenshin, Hitokiri Battousai… I am afraid that you will have to come with us!"
Kaoru gasped.
"What…what are you saying?! You have no right to take him away! He has done nothing wrong! Kenshin has stopped being a Manslayer for more than eighteen years! No matter what happened…Kenshin is Kenshin! You can't take him! You have no right!"
Her eyes were almost burning in tears
"Kaoru…"
She gasped and looked at Kenshin. He was absolutely calm. She was shocked!
"Ken…shin…"
The policeman was simply looking at them.
"I won't allow you to take him in jail!" Kaoru whispered and tears fell on her cheeks.
"I am afraid you have no choice!"
"Kaoru…" Kenshin touched her hand softly and smiled to her, "These men are not here to take me for something I did wrong. They are here because of the awful things that I did back then…and nothing will change the fact that I killed people in the dark, Kaoru…nothing."
"But…"
Kaoru's eyes were now teary like two small waterfalls. She couldn't believe in her own ears! She was aware of Kenshin's past…but…
"During these years I tried to control the Killer inside me…and I tried to make it up for everything I have done…that I did… However the past can't change…and it is still there… So are the dead people that fell from my sword…"
"…But…no matter what happened back then…Kenshin is still Kenshin!" she said crying, "A wanderer that does not kill! A wanderer that helps people! The hero that saved this country…us…many times now! The father of my child! The man I…the man I loved and got married to!"
Kenshin smiled a small smile to his wife. He was grateful to her in more than one way… He wanted to tell her something…to make her smile again…but the policeman spoke again …and this time…his voice and his words appeared really to pierce the peace of that morning…
"Himura Kenshin. For the war crimes you committed, the government has decided that you will be executed tomorrow!"
Kaoru's heart stopped right away and cracked into millions of pieces! Executed? Kenshin would be executed?! Kenshin on the other hand smiled a sad smile.
"I see…" he said calmly but his voice was trembling slightly, "I understand…"
Kaoru's eyes widened, in horror.
"Kenshin! What are you saying?! They want to execute you!" she yelled crying, "I will not allow them to take you away!"
"Kaoru…"
"No! No Kenshin! Never! What about Sanosuke…and Megumi and Yahiko…and Ayame and Suzume…and all the others!"
"Kaoru…"
"What about Kenji! What about your son! You know how much he adores you!"
Her voice was constantly breaking
"What about me! You can't leave me behind! Not like this! Kenshin!"
"Kaoru…"
And then Kenshin's strong arms were around her…hugging her warmly… Just like the other day…years ago when he left to fight Shishio Makoto… Her heart was breaking… No. This time this "goodbye" was going to be for good! She would never see him again! Never touch him again…never hear his voice again…
"Kaoru…" Kenshin whispered when she had grabbed him desperately as if her life was depending on that
She seemed fragile and devastated…but Kenshin was smiling calmly…
"Kaoru…" he whispered again, "Stay strong…please…that you should…"
And with this he kissed her on the lips… When his soft and warm lips touched hers...so softly…so lovingly…she kissed him back shedding tears of desperation.
"Himura Kenshin…"
Kenshin pulled back from Kaoru and softly, whipped her tears away with his thumbs.
"Please be strong Kaoru…"
"Mister Himura. I am afraid that your time here is over!"
The policeman held Kenshin's arm
"Wait…just a second…" Kenshin whispered
The reason was simple. Kenji had approached them, looking with scared eyes
"Otou-san…? What's going on…?" he questioned
But Kenshin said nothing. He knelt to the ground and pulled his son in his arms in the warmest embrace he had ever given him… Little Kenji was surprised and shocked
"I am sorry…Kenji…" Kenshin suddenly whispered
His voice was calm…but it was shaking slightly
"I am sorry… I would love to stay here…see you growing up…teach you things… I tried to be a good father to you… I really tried, that I did…but there are things I have done…that won't be forgiven…"
"O…tou-…san…" Kenji whispered
"You are my only son, Kenji…one day you will become far better human than I am right now…I know it, that I know… You are strong…and I am proud of you…I always was…from the very first moment you looked at me…"
Kenshin paused for a brief second…Kaoru was still crying…
"I will be going now… From now on you will be the male of this house… Please take good care of your mother…you must stay strong for her… I am counting on you, that I am… I love you…so much… Farewell…"
He then let go of little Kenji and stood up…calmly…as if those men had come to take him for a common walk.
"Show me your hands mister Himura…"
The ex-Battousai did so…and the policeman put handcuffs around his wrists. Then they started taking him away…slowly.
"Kenshin!" Kaoru called desperately, "Kenshin!"
Kenji was frozen in his place watching with his little eyes the men taking his father away… His little eyes were watery…but he didn't cry…no…he didn't…
When the policemen reached the small door of the dojo yard, Sanosuke with his fiancée Megumi along with Yahiko and his girlfriend Sanjyo Tsubame arrived there and blinked confused at the sight. Policemen took Kenshin away!
"Kenshin!" Sanosuke called
"Ken-san!" Megumi called as well.
Tsubame simply gasped and Yahiko was to shocked to speak
"You bastards! What are ya doing!?" Sanosuke growled
"Sano, please stay back that you should" Kenshin stopped him
Sanosuke gasped in surprise
"Kenshin…what in all hells is happening… You bastard what have you done again on your own without telling us?!"
"Sano…"
Then Kenshin looked up at his old friend. And he was smiling…
"Please take care of my wife and son, that you do… You too Yahiko… Please…"
"Kenshin…you damned bastard…" Sanosuke whispered shocked.
The red-haired man was sure that his friend had realized what was going on there… The policeman stopped their conversation when he said.
"Please step aside. This man will be sent to prison for this night. His execution will take place tomorrow at dawn…you will be able to witness it!"
"Execution!?" Sanosuke gasped
"What?!" Yahiko yelled
"No way!" Megumi was almost in tears
"Oh, God!" Tsubame whispered
"Please step aside!"
"No way!" Sano seemed ready to give a serious fight!
"Sano that's enough, that it is!" Kenshin stopped him, "Don't give them a reason to arrest you, that you shouldn't! Please step aside… I beg of you… You already know this don't you…? This is my last duty…please don't try to stop me, that you shouldn't…"
Sanosuke was frozen in his spot. Oh yes…he knew…he knew really well…
"Kenshin…" he whispered
The policemen started to walk away taking Kenshin with them
"Ken-san!" Megumi yelled in tears and was ready to run to him but Sanosuke held her, "Sano! Let me go! This is not right! Ken-san! Ken-san!"
"Megumi-dono…" Kenshin said, "Please stay back that you should… Leave your life…all of you…"
He then looked at her…with those eyes that had taught her not to throw her life away and fight for what she believed was right…
"Please…take care of Kaoru and Kenji… I am counting on you… Goodbye…and thank you…"
And those were the last words he said to them… The policemen took him away…
"Ken-san! Ken-san!" Megumi yelled and then fell in Sanosuke's chest and cried her eyes out…
And the nature around them continued being in peace…the birds were singing…and the cherry blossoms were still falling like soft, sweet snowflakes…
That night at his cell, Kenshin was still awake. He was leaning against the cell's room while he was sitting on the hard floor. His cell was outside so he could see the bright moon in the sky… The moon was a full moon…that was shining over them… He smiled. He remembered when pirate-girl Shura had caught him and he thought that he was going to die, he wished his last moon to be a full moon… His wish appeared to be granted… He smiled calmly
"I have gone a long way…" he thought, "My parents died of cholera when I was a child…I followed slave-sellers…I was saved by Master…I learnt the art of sword…I left the mountains to become a Hitokiri…I lived in a country poisoned from war…I killed…I loved…I was betrayed…I lost my first love…I saw the country change…I helped bring a new era…I disappeared…I became a wanderer…I took the Reverse Blade Sword…I met Kaoru and new friends…I fought for them many times…I kept my promise not to kill…I found love again…and finally…finally I got a family…a son…happiness… And now…everything will end…"
He closed his eyes with a calm smile. He wasn't feeling fear. Only calmness and a slight sadness in his soul…sadness for the people he would leave behind…
"…Finally…my journey will end…"
The next day the execution area was full with people. They had come to see the public execution of the well-known Hitokiri Battousai. The legendary Assassin from Edo period… The Shadow Manslayer of Bakumatsu… The Fast Deadly Blade of Revolution… Some people even called him a "demon"…however among them, there were others who knew Kenshin…who loved him… Those people had tears in their eyes… Sanosuke, Megumi, Yahiko and the others were there too…and of course Kaoru and Kenji… Kaoru's eyes were red and puffy from crying…obviously she hadn't slept all night… She was holding Kenji by the hand so tightly that the boy winced a couple of times… However Kenji was standing upright…with his eyes confused, sad and watery…but he hadn't shed a single tear… And then they started to bring him… Kenshin… He was handcuffed…but he was walking calmly and slowly without showing any bad or hard feelings at all… Just the opposite…he was smiling calmly as if he was merely taking a walk in countryside… When they stopped and made him kneel, the headsman came.
"Himura Kenshin, Hitokiri Battousai…" he said, "For your past war crimes your punishment is death…but because of your help, and because some people consider you a hero…you have the permission to choose the way you want to die… You can be executed by my sword, by hanging, painless poison…you can even ask to end your life as a true Samurai…the choice is yours…"
Everyone was holding his or her breath… How would the legendary Battousai choose to be executed? Kenshin took a deep breath and looked up at the headsman with a calm smile.
"I choose my sword…my Reverse Blade sword… If it is to end my life…I want my precious sword to do it…"
Kaoru covered her mouth with her palm cause she was afraid that if she hadn't done it she would have screamed and then faint!
"No! Not the Reverse Blade Sword! Not that!" she wanted to scream but no sound came out…only tears…
The headsmen appeared surprised for a second and then nodded his head to one of the policemen around. The man nodded back and walked inside. Soon he came out again holding the sword with both hands. The headsman took it and unsheathed it carefully. Kenshin smiled a faint smile to his friends and family for one last time and then he extended his neck forward ready for his fate… The headsmen held the sword up and…turned it around in the air… The movement, made Kaoru gasp and nearly have a heart attack! That movement…reminded her of what Kenshin had done when he was ready to kill Jin-ei! She wanted to scream but no voice came… Kenshin smiled again and closed his eyes… The headsmen prepared himself to strike…
"This is it…" Kenshin thought
He was strangely calm… He was because everything he ever dreamed of in his life…he got it… He wanted redemption and he found it…he wanted love and it was given to him…he wanted a place to belong and here he was… He had everything…and now he was heading to the ultimate peace… It was time for him to see…if he truly had repaid the lives he had taken…weather he would have a chance to go to Heaven…or if he would burn to Hell… For a moment he felt the aromas of spring surrounding him…and especially…the white plums that had bloomed recently…
"I am coming…Tomoe…" he thought calmly, "Kaoru…I am sorry…I'll be ahead that I am…"
He closed his eyes…he took one last breath… The headsman raised the sword… Kaoru closed her eyes tightly…she still couldn't yell… But Kenji was looking straight forward…strong…like his father wanted…his eyes were watery…but he didn't cry…no, he didn't cry… The sword whistled in the air…and then the sound of flesh and bone being cut… Red blood painted the rocks below…
The Reverse Blade Sword had taken its first life…
And it was the life of its own master…
Silence…
Tears…
And the pain of the wife…
Kaoru felt dizzy…devastated…lost… She fell on her knees and started to cry her heart out…hitting the ground… He was gone…forever… Megumi was crying in Sano's chest and even Yahiko who was trying not to show it, he was shedding one or two tears, while trying to comfort Tsubame… The soft breeze continued to blow softly and the execution grounds filled with white, cherry blossoms who were falling like snow…so many… Someone would say that all the cherry blossoms of Japan had "snowed" that specific moment at that specific place… All of them were white… Only one or two of them were different…and those were painted with blood…
Kenji was still standing upright…his eyes were watery…but he didn't cry…
No…he didn't cry…
Days moved after that… World appeared to be coming back to the original rhythm…to the usual routine… It was as if the man named Himura Kenshin never existed… However to Kaoru…he was never forgotten…to those who met him…he was never forgotten… Kaoru, with help from her friends and Kenji's pleading, she took Reverse Blade Sword back…however when she did, she locked it in the basement. She couldn't see it! She had said that the sword was evil now! It had taken the life of her beloved one! She couldn't see it! It took her days to recover from her grief, but she did only because of her son…she had to stay strong for him… For days though…whatever she did…wherever she went she would see him…his spirit… Doing the laundry like always…smiling to her like the old times… Sometimes she thought she saw him gazing by the river…like the old days…calling her "Kaoru-dono"…being careless and funny…but always helpful to others… She missed him…how much she missed him…! Sanosuke and Megumi were trying to persuade her that Kenshin's wish would be for Kenji to have the sword, but Kaoru wouldn't listen… One day while she was watching her son playing in the yard…she saw it…she saw her husband inside her son… Oh how much he had grown! She realized her mistake… She headed inside and she emerged out of the house holding the Reverse Blade Sword… She looked at it and then went to Kenji…and handed it to him…
Kenji was growing up…and Kaoru was so proud of him… Sanosuke and Megumi got married and soon Yahiko got engaged with Tsubame and also…he became her successor at taking the Kamiya Dojo…when Kaoru would retreat… And Kenji was practicing with the sword every day… Day after day he was becoming faster and better…and his hair was growing…and he resembled Kenshin all the more… Kenshin was not dead… He lived within his son…now Kaoru could see that…
When the boy became twelve she decided to allow him to go to Kenshin's Master to learn swordsmanship… Sanosuke was there to take him with him to Kyoto. She kissed her son for goodbye for one more time and she remained at the front door of her dojo watching them walking away…her son…his son…their son… And she was smiling happily…proud of him… And she could feel Kenshin's arms hugging her still…hugging her from behind like warm, summer breeze… Her eyes filled with tears…and she kept watching her son leaving…and she could feel Kenshin's presence with her… She smiled one more time…and then she walked inside the Dojo again…once her son and friend were lost from her eyes…
On the wall…there was a picture with her and Kenshin, both smiling holding their son
Outside the weather was soft and the cherry blossoms were "snowing"
At the riverbank…it was as if Kenshin was still walking there…in the snowfall of white petals…gazing. If someone red his tombstone it had craved on it:
To the Wanderer that found the Truth while all the wise men in the world couldn't even touch it… To the man with the biggest heart
Left…but never forgotten…
He'll be wandering again…to another world…that he is…
PLEASE READ. IT'S IMPORTANT!
Hello there. I decided to write a differnet sad ending for Rurouni Kenshin. This is supposed to take place after the happy ending of the main series. The first sad ending was in on of the OVAs having Kenshin dying of an illness in his 40s... However I wanted this ending for a reason...:
Kenshin was inspired by an actual hystorical person named Kawakami Gensai. Gensai was born in Kumamoto in 1834. He was an assassin during the Edo period at Bakumatsu Revolution. He entered the Chosu around 1850s. He was one of the four Hitokiris and he was a really good assassin whose technice was based on drawing the sword really fast. He disappeared right after the end of Revolution and changed his name to Takada Genbei but he was prisoned and executed in 1872.
Therefore Kenshin was inspired by this character so I wanted to give a try to make an ending similar to Gensai's. So here it is. I hope you liked it, that I do.I tried my best to make it good. Also I added some of the pairings I support in the anime (Sano x Megumi, Misao x Aoshi ech...). I hope you liked my writing.
More information about Gensai here: wiki/Kawakami_Gensai
And here a reference to the Four Hitokiri : wiki/Four_Hitokiri_of_the_Bakumatsu
Please review me... Enjoy!