I had a dream that night, about what, I cannot remember. All I remember was that it ended with a flock of crows screeching loudly. This of course, woke me up. I assumed that there was a flock of crows in the yard and someone had opened the door. I opened my eyes as I sprang into consciousness. I slowly opened my eyes and realized that Tomoe was no longer there. She must've been the one that opened the door, I deduced. I slowly got up, dressed myself and went outside to see what she was up to, but all I saw was a trail of footprints up the hill and Tomoe's far away figure walking away.

A lot of emotions went through my mind at that moment, I was so overwhelmed that I did not even notice that I was being watched. I followed my first instinct and chased her up the hill.

"Tomoe!" I screamed. Moving with the god-like speed of the Battousai feared by all. But, this time, I was not running to kill, but running for love. She kept going, most likely to far to hear my first yell.

I kept yelling nonetheless as I drew closer. She hesitated and looked as if she was getting ready to run. Instead, she had turned around and all I saw was the tears streaming down her face. I ran and embraced her in my arms.
"If you don't love me, that's fine. But, please, please don't leave without first saying goodbye," I whispered into her ear.
"That's not it," she croaked out in response, "I do love you, and that's the problem."

She broke apart from my embrace and explained everything. I had her in front of me now and there was no running away from it. She knew that I would not let her go and relented in her quest to keep her sacrifice a secret. She told me about the story of Kiyosato, how I had slain her lover. She told me that she was sent as a spy, to assassinate me. She told me of how she hated me and of how she fell in love with me. Finally, she told me that those she worked with had conspired to kill me today, and how she left to stop them. She apologized and told me that today was her effort to make up for her betrayal. She said that she understood if I did not forgive her, which had tugged upon the strings of my heart. It was a lot to take in and I was shaken at first, especially at the knowledge that I had murdered her fiancee. At the end though, I was relieved to know that she loved me.

"There's nothing for me to forgive, especially if you have forgiven me for all my heinous crimes. Worry not my love, all you ever need to do is be by my side, and that alone will make me the happiest man in the world," I replied. I moved to brace embrace her once more, until I sensed another presence nearby.

I pushed Tomoe away and drew my sword as fast as I could. I couldn't remember if it was the gust from my draw or the blade of my sword, but I threw the dart coming for me off-course. It had fallen into the snow and I was now face-to-face with a ninja with a blowdart. It turned out that there had been an ambush lying for me. After Tomoe went back to the Tokugawa spies, they planned to lure me into their trap. Of course the plan had been to daze me with the knowledge that Tomoe had betrayed me, but that plan was ruined by the flock of crows that had woke me this morning. Seeing that I had followed Tomoe, the ninjas lying in wait must have been confused about what they should do now. This one had been watching us the whole time and had finally decided to come out and play. It wasn't the best decision he made.

The ninja now charged at me, baring his weapons. However, his guard was imperfect and I managed to impale him with my sword before he could land a hit upon me. I then withdrew my sword and cut him across his torso, definitively ending his life.

"Tomoe! Where are they hiding?" I asked, worried.

"They're in a hut up the hill," she answered and then put her hand over her mouth, "It's too dangerous, you can't go!"

"It's alright, now that I know what they're up to, they are of no threat to me. But you, you need to get to safety," I said to her, "is the house still safe?"

"No, I'm coming with you!" she exclaimed. To be honest, that was more emotion from Tomoe than I had seen all year.

"I'm afraid I cannot fight as well if I must worry about protecting you," I said matter-of-factly. Although at this point I'm not sure if she should come. They definitely know about the house and having Tomoe stand out in the open wasn't safe either. It was all just so unexpected.

"I will await your return at the house then. But be careful, I will not lose you too," she said sternly.

"I'll be back in time for lunch," I said with a smile. She began heading in the other direction and I bent down to pick up the dart that was blown at me. Sure enough, it turned out to be covered in poison. This fight would have been a whole lot harder if that had hit me. I watched as Tomoe headed back to the house. As soon as the door closed, I left to slay the rest of these manipulative monsters that wanted to use my heart against me. I walked up the hill, fully alert in suspect of an ambush.

Turns out I didn't really need to be that on guard, the next one was a giant wielding an axe. There was no way that guy could have sneaked up on me.

"It looked like my comrade failed in his mission," the giant said with a worried look on his face. I had no time to mince words, lunch time was fast approaching. I held my sheathed sword in a battoujutsu stance and charged forward.

"You will fall here, Hitokiri Battousai!" yelled the giant as he raised his axe. As his weapon came down, I quickly side-stepped out of the way. The giant was faster than I gave him credit for and brought his axe around in a horizontal slash. I jumped atop the giant axehead and ran up the pole of the weapon toward its wielder. The giant's eyes widened as he realized what I had just done, but before he could react, I had leaped into the air and drew my sword.

"Ryu-Tsui-Sen!" I yelled as my sword split his face in two. The giant was now dead, but my fight was not done. Something clawed into my back. I quickly swung my sword around, but no one was there. I quickly jumped back out into the open and disengaged. I gathered my senses and heard rustling in the trees. As the rustling came closer, I quickly turned toward its direction and jumped between the tree trunks to reach its level. I saw a small man with clawed hands and pushed myself into his direction and stabbed him through the chest with my sword.

I now knelt over his bleeding boding in the snow. The man smiled as blood came gushing out of his mouth. He weakly pulled upon something with the last ounces of his strength and a sudden flash of light had blinded me.

I began walking up the hill, not being able to see anything along my path. Then I suddenly realized that I was in no hurry and I should first wait for my eyesight to recover before I fought my next opponent. I sat down and put some snow upon my eyes to cool them off and hopefully help them recover faster. My ears however, were on full alert, in case anyone attempted to take advantage of my temporary disability.

Not to far from where I was, in a cabin, my supposed comrade Itsuki had burst in with heavy breath.

"He...caught...her...leaving," he said with a pant.

"What?" asked the final ninja, pounding his fist upon the desk, "Shit, I have to call off the ambush. If the Battousai's heart is one place, I will be sending the others to their deaths for nothing!" Exclaimed the ninja as he ran out to warn his comrades before it was too late. Unfortunately, it was too late. I had killed them all. Itzuki, being much wiser, had decided to take his leave as he realized the plan had gone south. It would save his life, for one day.

The last ninja ran down the hill with weapon drawn. When I heard him coming, I stood up and removed the snow from my eyes. My vision had returned a little, everything was still blurry. I could make out dim shapes, which was quite enough.

"You must be the last one. For your plot to use Tomoe against me, I must have your life," I said as I donned the battoujutsu stance.

"Yes, that was the plan. It didn't seem to work though. It seemed that my comrades failed to even lay a single scratch on you," said the final ninja.

"No need to grieve so much, one of them did manage to scratch my back and blur my vision," I replied.

"It's my fault. My misstep in planning led the Yaminobu to doom for nothing. Your death shall be my repayment to my fallen brothers," he said.

And so we charged. Of course, even with my eyes partially damage, my hearing could still pinpoint his steps in the snow. This in combination with the moving blur in front of my eyes allowed me to know exactly where he was. His fate was sealed. Had his plan succeeded, he might have had a chance. However, against the full strength of my youthful self, there was no way he could have won.

Our swords clashed, but I sidestepped the full strength of his swing and moved past him. I immediately turned around and slashed my enemy upon his back. He then jumped away and turned around to face me, but I had already leaped into the air by that point. He moved to parry, but before his arms could make it, my blade had come down upon his collar-bone, cutting through his torso, ending his life. It was perhaps the only murder to which I did not feel any remorse.

It seemed that he had been the last of them. I cleansed my sword, sheathed it, and walked on home. It occurred to me on the way back that Tomoe had given meaning to my life and that I could not live without her. She once again gave me the will to live after I had lost it in the slaughter of Kyoto. Right then and there, for her, I would do anything.

"I'm home!" I announced as I opened the door, only to find a blade pressed to my throat. It turns out that Tomoe had been watching the door this entire time, on guard in case I had lost. Once she realized it was her fake husband at the door, she sheathed her dagger and embraced me.

"Sorry I don't have lunch ready," she said to me. All I did was laugh. I think that was the first time I heard Tomoe make a joke.

Author's Note: As you can see, this story is told from the perspective of an older Himura Kenshin reflecting upon his life. I always wondered what would've happened if Kenshin didn't lose his wife and didn't wander. Although he is based on Kawakami Gensai, his back story is significantly different. For one thing, Himura Kenshin is certainly a lot more connected to the Ishin Ishin leaders and has a far greater reputation in the original story as a war hero than Gensai. Kenshin was also never surrendered in the Choshu expedition and fought in the decisive battle of the Boshin War. This story is a way to explore one line of possibilities in Himura Kenshin's life if he had a family and a continued presence in Japan instead of fading into myth and legend.