Rurouni Kenshin – Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story

"The Day After the Storm A Fight for the Future "

Diary 3 – Living in a Dream

by drTomoe123

The moon was still glowing in the eastern sky. Kenshin stood alone. A light mist could be seen coming out of Kenshin's mouth as he breathed into the cold, moist night air.

"Where's Keisha?" Kenshin asked, "Where is he? I can't find him."

Kenshin began to look around, trying to find any sign of life. There were dark trees and the sound of the occasional animal, but there were no visible signs of any humans.

Kenshin suddenly began to feel his heart beat faster and harder. A sick feeling started to fill his stomach as he began to get more and more nervous.

"Keisha! Where are you? We must return to your family!" Kenshin screamed out into the empty night.

As Kenshin screamed, he heard something fly behind him. It was faster than his own god-like speed. Suddenly, it began to speak to him.

"Kenshin, what are you doing here? Why are you still killing people?" the voice asked.

Kenshin, startled, turned around to see what was speaking. There was nothing. The environment had turned into an abyss. There was no sky, no ground. There was no up, there was no down. All was black.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Kenshin squeaked. He was getting very nervous. Some unknown force was scaring him.

"Aghhh!" Kenshin screamed in agony as he grabbed his cheek. His left cheek was burning.

Kenshin pulled his hand away from his cheek and looked down at his trembling hand. It was blood. Kenshin was terrified now, and wondered why his scar would be bleeding now, even after everything had been laid to rest.

Kenshin had no idea what was going on, and he turned around in circles aimlessly inside of the dark abyss. Numerous voices started speaking to him from every direction.

"Hitokiri Battousai. Why are you still slaying the lives of the present?" screamed one voice.

"Kenshin, have you forgotten about me?" moaned another.

"…my son, my wife…how could you let this happen to me?" another cried.

All three of the voices struck something inside of Kenshin. He turned around, and saw an image he hadn't seen in a long time. It was Kiyosato. He was covered in his own blood, with tears drenching his eyes. The gore around him began to disgust Kenshin. But why? He had a flower lying on his back, but the flower began to tremble on the back of the body. The body of Kiyosato began to walk again, and it started to walk directly towards Kenshin.

Kenshin was shaking uncontrollably from fear now.

"Didn't you have enough? Wasn't ruining everything I lived for good enough for you? Killing again, Battousai?" the corpse screamed into the empty darkness.

"I..I…get away!" Kenshin cried as he began to run in the opposite direction of Kiyosato.

As Kenshin ran, he couldn't breathe. Every time he tried, all that came out of his mouth was blood. Before he could get very far, he saw another body. This one hit Kenshin's heart much harder than the previous one. He was able to breathe again, but the scent he breathed in scared him more than the entire encounter with the last body. The smell was of white plum. The body was beautiful, and it was glowing.

"Kenshin, what about the thing you promised me? The vow never to kill again?" it asked.

"Tomo…Tomoe…It's you…" Kenshin stuttered.

Kenshin was reunited with his slain love, Tomoe Himura, but what he felt at this moment was not happiness or love, but fear. He began to question what was going on. He began to move his hand to his sword. Kenshin was about to break down.

"Kenshin, please, don't let it happen ever again…" Tomoe cried to him.

Tomoe began to lift her sweet, gentle hand and pointed towards something.

"Don't let it happen, my love…" Tomoe added as she disappeared.

"Tomoe? Tomoe! TOMOE!" Kenshin screamed as he recieved no answer.

A final voice called out to him.

"Do not worry about her! What about me? You promised me you'd protect me with your sword! You promised me I'd see my son and wife! YOU PROMISED ME!" it screamed.

Kenshin looked to his right side and saw the body of Keisha Seta. It had been cut in a way similar to the Ryu Tsui Sen's cut, but this…it was colder.

Kenshin suddenly couldn't move or speak as the body moved closer and closer towards him. It reached out its hand and began to get closer and closer to Kenshin's face.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU PROTECT ME THEN!" Keisha screamed as it grabbed Kenshin's face and started to crush his entire skull.

Kenshin's eyes suddenly sprung open and focused the late night sky. His eyes instantly grabbed on to the moon. He was sweating badly, and he was breathing as if he had just run a kilometer.

He began to look around at his surroundings. Trees, empty fields, a small brook, and finally Keisha, who looked pretty scared. Kenshin then realized that he had unsheathed his sword and almost attacked Keisha.

"That was really close! I've been trying to wake you up for the past few minutes! Were you dreaming about something, Kenshin?" Keisha asked, "It took me forever to find a bush that wasn't swarming with insects…heheh."

Kenshin realized it was all a dream. He slowly breathed a sigh of sweet relief. Keisha had just been gone for a few minutes so he could use the bathroom. He must of fallen asleep while he was waiting for him to return.

"Ahh, it was nothing. I just have not had a good night's sleep in a long time, that is all," Kenshin replied as he stood up and brushed off his arms.

"I was worried there for a second. I was worried I was going to end up like one of those bandits," Keisha added.

"I'm sorry if I scared you, it is just a warrior's reaction, you never know when you may be ambushed at night," Kenshin coldly said.

Kenshin felt as if he had spoken these words once in a conversation before.

"No problem, I guess, as long as I make it home soon. My son's face is really looking very good in my mind right now. I can't wait to see my family and tell them all that is happened. I won't tell my son, of course, he's too young to really understand, and I want to keep him clean like I said earlier."

"I'm interesting in meeting this family of yours when we get there," Kenshin slowly said, "That is, if they have the heart to meet a killer like me."

"Don't worry about that. You've protected me, and what you've said has made me see that you may really be able to start a new life after this war is over," Keisha complimented.

Kenshin was silent for a few seconds. He remembered everything that had happened over the past year or two. He remembered Tomoe, Katsura, Iizuka, and now Keisha Seta. He began to smile a bit and he turned around towards Keisha.

"Thank you."

The two of them began on their journey again. It was getting very late now, and both Kenshin and Keisha were hoping on reaching their destination very soon.

As they walked through the immense Japanese countryside, they encountered few living things. Keisha's love of cats caused them to stop for a few minutes so he could bandage a small wound that a small calico had had received somewhere. Kenshin just smiled and laughed.

During this entire part of the trip, Kenshin was amazed at how happy Keisha was. He was happy and he seemed to enjoy things. Kenshin was a bit…envious.

After the whole calico incident had passed, Keisha felt the air was getting very quiet between him and Kenshin, so he began to speak again.

"I know that when my son grows up, I'd like him to follow the same path you are following now," Keisha began to say.

Kenshin was very surprised by this, "You'd like him to kill in the name of a new era?"

"No, no, that isn't what I meant!" Keisha timidly laughed.

The moon was shining the brightest it had that night. The shadows of the trees in the area filled the ground like bottomless holes. Kenshin's red hair looked beautiful on this night, while Keisha's dark brown hair looked like the grainiest dirt due to the fact it hadn't been washed in days.

"What do you mean, then?" Kenshin asked as he kept walking.

"The way that you're moving on after such a violent past. The way that no matter how hard your past was, you keep fighting for the dreams that you believe in," Keisha replied, "I have no idea what happened to you, or what caused that cross-shaped scar, but I know I admire you for fighting to this day for the future of Japan…for the future of my son."

Kenshin realized something. Even while he had killed people, while he had slain the lives of many, he was saving people. He realized that by fighting for the future he'd save more lives than he'd kill.

Keisha suddenly screamed out, "There it is! There's my home!"

Kenshin looked ahead of him as his eyes adjusted. He was on top of a hill and below him there was a large piece of farmland with a small hut just a short distance away. Light was shining from inside and smoke was coming from the small hole in the top of the structure. Keisha began to run ahead of Kenshin.

"I'm home!"

Diary 3: END

End of Chapter Notes:

We're here at the third chapter of my four chapter series. After reading your reviews, I've realized how bad I am at being descriptive. So, to try to make up for it, I tried to go back in this chapter and try to describe things a bit more. If I can't get it right this time, I'll try to do my best in the final chapter. It was also pointed out that I put Kenshin's scar on his RIGHT cheek instead of his left cheek, and I fixed this in this version. I guess I'm just too used to seeing him from a head-on view. xD

The beginning of this chapter focused on Kenshin's mind and how it's still fragile from the Tomoe incident. Kenshin's fear right now is not being able to keep his promises. Kenshin is still wavering between the thought of whether or not his fighting is truly justified, but Keisha helps reassure him.

The next chapter is already turning out pretty hard. I found some plotholes that would open up if I went along with it the way I originally had it, so I had to work around it. I do hope you all enjoyed this chapter, the next chapter, and the whole story in general.

That's it for me for this chapter, please keep reading, leave reviews, and anything else you want to!

drTomoe123