The Emperor saw Miryu and Algren enter the throne room in their uniforms, and was relieved that they were well. But they were still in pain, their wounds had not fully healed, he could see that Algren was limping, and Miryu, his dear Miryu, looked as if every single step she took was excruciating. He could see that the two of them were leaning against one another, as they walked towards him, after bowing to him. And he could clearly see their resolve within their eyes. Algren was holding a silk-bound object that the Emperor had suspected was a katana, while Miryu, her sapphire eyes were cast down, looking occasionally at Algren and at him. She had ignored Omura completely, not even returning his glare, as she always would. With great difficulty, they both knelt to the Emperor, who heard the sharp intakes of air from them that stemmed from the pain they had felt, and the young ruler walked towards them , despite Omura's efforts to stop him. The arms deal could wait, Meiji reasoned.
Both Miryu and Algren unfurled the package they had taken to them, which was revealed to be Katsumoto's katana, and held it high above their bowed heads. They had presented it to the Emperor, and wanted him to take it, to honor his teacher in his death. A request that needed no further words, but Algren did so anyways. "This is Katsumoto's sword," he said, eyes downcast as ever. "He would have wanted you to have it, to let the strength of the samurai by with you always…"
Miryu looked into the eyes of Meiji and with it, told him the grief that had taken her. He was a teacher to the both of them, but he was a father to her. Meiji knew it, and he knew it well. "Your Imperial Majesty, it would mean more to Katsumoto-san that you take this katana, and even greater to the future of our people as well…" she said in plain English. The Emperor did not lack in the knowledge of that language, and she wanted the American Ambassador to know it too.
However, Omura was adamant that the treaty be signed. "Enlightened One, we all weep for Katsumoto but…" He was interrupted by Algren, who said that Katsumoto hoped that the Emperor would remember the ancestors that held the sword he and Miryu were holding, and what they died for. Touched and moved, the Emperor knelt to retrieve the katana, almost reverently. And all could see that for the first time, the Emperor had revealed himself to the others before him fully. Clutching the katana, housed within the black saya, he looked at it, and began to remember every single one of Katsumoto's teachings, each and every one of them.
"You both were with him, at the end?" the Emperor asked the man and woman before him, in English. Miryu nodded, and Algren confirmed it with a bow. Even as Omura stressed that Algren and Miryu fought against him, he continued to look at the katana, eyes filled with tears. If there would be a part of his life as an Emperor that would be one of the greatest sadness, it would have been that moment.
Algren lifted his head slowly, and said, "If you believe me to be your enemy, command me, and I will gladly take my life…" The Emperor then cast his eyes towards Miryu, wanting to know her answer.
"I will go, where my heart tells me to, heika," she said, looking at the Emperor, and back at Algren, making her intentions known to the young ruler. "But if you wish for me to join Algren, then I shall have no regrets, heika." Her answer was something so finite, but so graceful. In her words, she had told him that she loved the American, and to the others, that she shared the American's thoughts. The Emperor reached out to her flawless face and cupped it with his hands for the briefest moment, and nodded at her. He had given her and Algren his blessing, a secret, laid so openly, but known only to the three of them.
Rising to his full height, the Emperor looked at the two lovers and to the others saying, "I have dreamed of a unified Japan… independent, and modern." All eyes were on the young Emperor, and all wondered about what he was about to say. "We have railroads and cannon and Western clothing… But we cannot forget who we are, or where we come from…" He turned towards the American Ambassador and said, "Ambassador Swanbeck, I have concluded that your treaty is not in the best interests of my people." There, he said it, and whatever the Ambassador tried failed to turn him into the other direction. Outraged, the Ambassador stormed out of the throne room without any heed of protocol, and Miryu held up her hand towards the Emperor discreetly, telling him not to act against the insult.
What followed next was a war of words between Omura and the Emperor, who felt that what Omura had done, was already enough, he who had destroyed the last vestiges of the people who had propelled the Japanese into success in the ancient times, who created their traditions and their philosophies… "Everything I have done, I have done for my country…" Omura said, but the Emperor had had enough.
"Then you will not mind if I seized your family's assets and present them as a gift to my people!" The Emperor replied. Omura paled. It was this act that had destroyed the Tsubasa Clan, save for Miryu, and he did not wish for that dishonor to fall upon his family. Both Algren and Miryu were in tears of gratitude for the Emperor's actions. And when Omura told the Emperor that he had disgraced him, the Emperor offered him an ultimatum. "If the shame is too unbearable, I offer you this katana…" he added, causing Omura to bow his head and remain silent. He may have been a man drowning in shame, but it was still better than being a dead man.
Once Omura was defeated, and muted in the throne room, the Emperor focused his attention once again at Miryu and Algren. He commanded them to tell him how Katsumoto died, but Algren replied, "We will tell you how he lived." The Emperor nodded his head, and hence, they began their tale. Time seemed to be frozen from that moment on, but when they had finished, and when all the ministers an advisors had left, something happened. Miryu collapsed, and when Algren held her in his arms, he found a pool of blood almost forming where she had been kneeling.
Immediately, doctors were called into the throne room, and they had diagnosed that one of her wounds was accidentally opened as she had forced herself to kneel for so long, sometimes bowing even lower, when the Emperor bowed as well. She was lucky, that the bleeding had been stopped before it was too late. Relieved, the Emperor ordered that Algren and Miryu be allowed to stay in the Palace until she had fully recovered and allowed Algren to leave with her.
Three days after the audience with the Emperor, Miryu was given a clean bill of health, and was discharged from the medical bay of the Palace. "Captain Algren, you have done much for Miryu and my country," the Emperor said to Algren that very afternoon after he had visited Miryu. "As such, you shall not go without a reward." The American soldier stated that he was not worthy of such a reward, especially after he had gave her the permission to marry Miryu, which was all he had wanted. "Let this show the gratitude of my people, Captain Algren." At that, Algren relented. He was given Katsumoto's estate in Kyoto for safekeeping, and as his own, for he knew that his teacher would have had no use for the estate at all. The village in the mountains would go to Higen, in the care of Taka until he was old enough, and on top of it all, Algren was given the rank of samurai formally, and that he was allowed to wear his katana in public, as Miryu was, as well as a part of Omura's assets as compensation for the injuries he and Miryu had sustained and all the complications that would surface.
"Heika, I am honored," Algren replied, and to his amusement, the Emperor playfully remarked that it was not for him, but to ensure that Miryu becomes a wife of a man who could support her with great stability befitting her status. "Miryu will be as well."
The Emperor smiled. "Miryu is a woman that all men loved in one way or another," he told Algren. "Katsumoto and her Shishou loved her as a daughter, your little English friend as a niece, Himura Battousai as a sister, and you… you truly love her as a woman. And that is why, I know that she will be happy in her life with you. Now come, you have many things to discuss with Miryu, especially your wedding ceremony…"
However, the Emperor lied about the wedding ceremony. He had already planned a most lavish and majestic one for Miryu and Algren, and the day after the traditional Japanese wedding, another was held according to Western customs. Everyone from the Ishin-Ishishi who still lived was invited, including Miryu's maternal kin, and it was a sight that no one would have thought to see. Warriors, leaders and hitokiri from both sides, the Bakufu and the Ishin-Ishishi, converging at one single event, honoring the most unlikely of couples, the bride, a famous hitokiri Tsubasa Miryu, named "Battouryu" during the Bakamatsu, and the groom, Captain Nathan Algren, now a samurai inheriting Katsumoto's estate. Reiyama Reiji, her maternal grandfather had been proud of his granddaughter, and saw for the first time in his life, the glow of her sapphire eyes in the happiness of her marriage to Algren. Even Kenshin was there, talking to Miryu, Algren, almost everyone. It was as if Battousai had resurfaced again, and Battouryu's wedding, no less.
After the official ceremonies, yet another was held. And this time, it was in Hiko Seijurou XIII's house in the Kyoto Mountains, a quiet and private one. The Master of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu was proud of his disciple, for what she had done, and that she had found so much peace and happiness after a lifetime of rage and vengeance. And Miryu could have sworn that she saw her mother's spirit that day, when Hiko had suddenly hugged her and told her how much he loved her and was proud of her. For the first time, she saw her mother's long hair, and almond-shaped chestnut eyes. And she knew that it was Reiyama Ryumiko, because the bell on her katana had been ringing, even if was leaning against the wall, without the breeze to cause it.
"And so, Tsubasa Miryu, now Miryu Algren, or Algren Miryu, depending on where you were, and Captain Nathan Algren ended a great chapter of their lives in what love they had for one another, and began a new one in the New Age for Japan," Graham said before a full lecture theater in London. There were banners all across the venue which promoted his book, titled, "The Last Samurai, and the Daughter of the New Age". The book had been written based upon the accounts in Algren's journal, which also contained writings regarding Miryu's past, as the captain had derived from her. "And in years to come, the Rising Sun of Imperial Japan would fly in triumph over Korea, over Russia, even over China. Nations, like men, it is sometimes said, have their own destiny…"
Applause roared over the lecture theater, followed by many reporters asking where Miryu and Algren were now. "Well, I'd like to think that the two of them are having an adventure of their own, somewhere, just the two of them," he answered with a clear gleam in his eye. Far in the back of the lecture theater, the exit door creaked a little, signaling that someone was leaving, and the sound of a small bell ringing could be heard…
HAN: So, this is the last chapter of the fic, and I hoped that you liked reading it as I have loved to write it!!