Kaoru watched Sanosuke saunter into the darkness. The aku kanji on his back stood out as a pool of thickly penned blackness. Beside him capered Suzume and Ayame, their small arms stretched up to meet his slender hands. Megumi glided next to them, her exquisite, lustrous hair gently brushing against her waist like rainfall.
Partings... Kaoru detested them with every fiber of her soul. There had been so many in her short life, each painted in stark, vivid colors in her mind.
Her zori made no sound in the soft spring grass. The tender, young blades filled the night air with the sweet scent of dew and earth. Slowly the silent streets flanked by flowering cherry trees responded to the quiet, gentle touch of twilight. No such peace settled over Kaoru's heart, however. After the frenzied stories of assassination, only Kenshin's return to Edo could ease her tormented heart. Deep inside, her uncertainty warred with her belief in the wandering Rurouni. Kaoru could not explain her present misgivings. Now Okubo-Kyo was dead. There was no reason for Kenshin to go to Kyoto. Was there?
Looking about, she saw that she had wandered to the grove where, not so long ago, Kenshin had promised to watch the fireflies with her. The delicate insects' dim shine barely illumined the floral pattern on her billowing sleeves. Farther off, like hazy reflections in dust-spattered mirrors, hovered duos and trios of the silent, ghostly lights.
Then between them, striding with a slow, easy grace, Kenshin appeared. Kaoru could barely make out the sakaba to strapped to his side at first. As he came closer, it seemed that he drew the fireflies with him. Their light framed his face with a halo of gold. It seemed that a crown of flaming red rested atop his proud head.
"Kirei hotaru de gozaru."
"Kenshin!" She could now glimpse pinpricks of gold at the edge of his azure eyes. As the Rurouni approached, his familiar smile belied his eyes. Kaoru's heart pained her, for Kenshin still gazed toward Kyoto. She swallowed. It was the same way it had been that morning when she had freed him from the troubled memories of his past. In the reassuring light of early afternoon, Kaoru had comforted herself with the fact that the Rurouni's past was just that: past. Gone. Dead. Sealed. Finished. Ended. Now, however, the matter somehow still involved the present. "Kenshin..." she repeated reluctantly.
His answer, though filled with the strong determination of a man less advanced in wisdom, did not seem meant for her.
"Okubo-kyo was assassinated this morning."
Who did he mean to hear these words? Kaoru agonized. Surely he wasn't trying to convince himself that his duty was anything but completed. Dread brushed her arms with goosebumps, despite the warm night. "Yes, I know," she gently answered.
Kenshin's eyes were distant, as if trapped in horrid reflection. Kaoru almost reached out to him then, her poor, dear Rurouni who so hated killing.
"The criminal Shishio sent someone to kill him... I can't let him do as he pleases so..."
Kaoru's eyes widened. The Rurouni did indeed speak from his heart.
"I'm going back to Kyoto."
Sorrow cut her deeper than a sword in the hands of a seasoned killer. All the blood in her body raced frightened and alone through the shadows that tangled her emotions and choked off hope. The young woman could not continue to meet his eyes...knowing... Kenshin was going to part from her life and leave her alone, terribly alone once more. "Kyoto..." The hateful name was bitter on her tongue. "When you go, will you return as the Kenshin of ten years ago?" For the briefest of instants, her mind summoned forth the many legends of Hitokiri Battousai. Some were untrue, surely! Kaoru dispelled the ominous memories uneasily. They did not become the Rurouni - none of them! But, looking upon his grim visage, she knew that in time, they could meld to him once more.
"Wakaranai," Kenshin flatly answered, as if acutely conscious of the maelstroms that coursed through her heart. Kenshin raised his gaze to the heavens. The Rurouni's eyes and the stars both shone with a pale, chill cast.
"Over these last ten years, I thought I had put away the Battousai. But fighting Saito made me realize that the Hitokiri was still living deep inside of me."
Kaoru clenched her fists. "Demo, demo!" she burst out in an agonized passion. "You could get rid of him even though you came close to being the Battousai!" All the beliefs and ideals of the Kamiya dojo rose to stand behind her plea, shedding upon it the light of conviction and reason. "Kenshin wa Kenshin yo! A Rurouni who doesn't kill!"
"If I stay here," Kenshin's low tone was as ominous as the muggy air before a thunderstorm, "I'll put you all in danger and slowly become the Battousai again, loss by loss." Sharp and cruel as steel, his eyes met hers, and Kaoru knew he spoke truly.
Unbidden reflections of happier times sprang to her mind. In each memory Kenshin's very presence shone like a candle in vast open darkness.
"When I met you for the first time, you told me that you didn't care about my past." His eyes were at first as unreadable as a chill steel blade naked beneath the winter sun. Then a warm light entered them, as if he fondly recalled the year he had spent at the Kamiya dojo. "I was so happy." The Rurouni's smile at this prospect was different from his signature grin, more wistful, tragic, and strangely serene.
Tears welled up in Kaoru's eyes. Memories of the past year, more vivid than before, whirled before her eyes like glass in a kaleidoscope.
"I thought I could live a normal life with you and just be a samurai..." Suddenly Kenshin pulled her close to him. Kaoru's eyes widened as the Rurouni's embrace shocked her from her reverie. The fireflies bathed them in an almost surreal shine.
"Ima na, arigatou," Kenshin murmured close to her ear. His hair gently brushed her face. About her, his arms were a shield from the world and its arsenal of sorrows and disappointments. However, even the closest she had ever been to Kenshin, Kaoru had never experienced such heart wrenching distance. "I am a wandering Rurouni," he gently reminded her. "I'm going to return to my journey," he continued with determination. "Sayonara." He broke the embrace then and turned from Kaoru.
"Kenshin," she was able to whisper at last. The finality of 'sayonara' had at last drawn out the stubborn tears. Now they coursed down her face, multitudinous and unstoppable. So powerful they were that she slumped to her knees. "Ken...shin..." The Rurouni continued onward into the distant rows of collected darkness. He did not look back, not once.
Meiji 11 May 14: This day Kenshin returned to being a wandering Rurouni again. He disappeared into the dark...alone.
Fin.