By Ranma Inverse
Alone. Cold.
I felt the freezing wind brush against my cheeks faintly. My body was becomming numb as the snow fell upon my shoulders and I stared. Stared.
Stared at her grave.
Her grave.
Kaoru.
I couldn't cry. I couldn't do anything. All I felt, all I could feel, was the mind-numbing cold and the emptiness inside me. Emptiness because she had died.
I, Himura Kenshin...Shinta...promised her love, a life with me forever by her side. What had come of it? What had come of confessing those feelings to her? Happiness. Pure happiness.
A word that had now left my life completely.
My koiishi...my beloved kaoru had died of something so simple, something I, Yahiko, Sanosuke and Megumi had thought impossible to kill her after all she had been through. She had died of a virus, not a man. A man I could have protected her from, but sickness I could do nothing but comfort her and try to follow Megumi's directions.
I remember the last time I heard her voice. She smiled at me and asked if I would kill myself if she died before me. I told her I couldn't bear to live without her, but she had forced me to promise her that I would live on, for her. To try and be happy.
...Happy? I could almost laugh. How can I find happiness without her presence? Without her laughter, her smile, her tears, those expression-filled eyes, that midnight hair...
"Live for me, Kenshin..."
How can someone call this living? I have overheard Sanosuke and Megumi. They called me a walking corpse. No, not so harsh words as that, but the same meaning. I am dead. A walking dead being.
First Tomoe, now Kaoru...half of me had disappeared when Tomoe had died, and Kaoru had gotten me to find it again...with her gone, I lost both pieces of me.
...?
...what's this?
I felt a tear fall from my eyes and make a pathway down my cheek. It burned compared to the ice cold surroundings.
I bowed to the grave where my Kaoru lay, and kissed the snow-covered gravestone before rising up once again and turning to walk away.
. . .
"Kenshin?"
"Yes, Kaoru?"
"You'd give up on life if I died before you, wouldn't you?"
"..."
"...Kenshin...you would, wouldn't you?"
"...yes, Kaoru. I couldn't bear living without you."
"Don't give up. If I ever die, live for me."
"...."
"Live for me, Kenshin. Find happiness again if I die, Kenshin. Remember me, Kenshin..."
"Kaoru?"
"...hm?"
"I love you."
"I love you too, Kenshin."
