A/N: This story is here because I wanted a story with this title. The idea popped in my head after writing "The Death of Happiness" and I have a feeling I'm going to end up with a lot of one-shots.
Before I start this fic I'd like to mention that this whole series revolves around Kaoru, lol. She may not be an extreme main character…but it revolves around her. It's like…Kenshin's the past, Yahiko's the future, and Kaoru is what binds everything together. So I'll probably have other fics about her, but not with her actually in the fic.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this fic.
Oedipus: A man from Greek legend who killed his father and married his mother.
Oedipus Complex: In psychoanalysis, a subconscious sexual desire in a child, especially a male child, for the parent of the opposite sex, usually accompanied by hostility to the parent of the same sex; said to be a source of personality disorders if unresolved
Ever since the day he was born, Kenji hated his father.
As if sensing what the future would bring. Knowing the pain that would be caused.
It seemed as though he was born with it. As if, deep inside his mother's womb the pure loathing for his father began to fester inside the very depths of his soul.
That man symbolized everything that was wrong with the world. He was evil incarnate in the disguise of a tiny man with sad eyes. He was a lie that would forever be told. He was pain, he was suffering, he was hate.
He didn't deserve her.
She was pure, innocent. Soft and gentle. Everything about her was love, everything about her was beauty. She deserved happiness…Happiness his father could, would never give her.
Kenji used to wish that he would leave forever, never to return. That his mother would come to her senses and make him leave forever. That on one of his journeys there would be a shipwreck, or he would finally find a battle he couldn't beat…And sometimes, in the darkest part of his mind, Kenji saw himself dealing the final blow to his father himself.
For then it would only be his mother and himself. He could stay with her forever, protecting her from the sadness of the world, wiping any and every tear away…Loving her in every way he could.
But that was never to be.
It seemed the second he was able to walk; his father decided his job was done. Yahiko had his beloved sword and he had a family he could fall back on whenever he decided he needed comfort…Or a place to stay when in Tokyo.
He left so easily it was laughable. Actually, on the days when his mother's friends told him of his father's heroics, Kenji would laugh. Laugh at the man who believed a stranger's problems were more important than his own family's. Laugh at a man that would burn in hell no matter how many lives he saved.
Because that was the only place that weak and disgusting man could go. He would go to hell and suffer worse than he ever did before. He would need to deal with the tears that he made her cry. The feeling of emptiness that he left inside their home.
He would need to deal with the wrath of his son.
And oh, his son had enough hate to last his father an eternity of suffering.
Each tear he watched her cry. One for each time he left, one for each time she awaited his return, and one for the day he actually did return. Returning in his pathetic cloud of self-pity. Reminding her of how she could never completely heal his wounds. That he could never truly be happy with the make-shift family he helped create…
All these things fueled Kenji's hate until he could barely breathe, choking on the raw emotion.
The "heroic" and "beloved" Himura Kenshin was a disgusting man who could do nothing more than break the woman who should've been cherished with every last breath of his pathetic being.
Years went by and with each passing year his decisions were consistent. Nothing changed…And when Kenji knew that nothing would ever change…He left. He knew he would return, for he would never abandon his mother like his useless father did.
No, he left for strength. His father's strength…Well…His physical strength. For mentally his father was as weak as a new born baby.
He wanted to surpass his father. To be able to defeat him. To watch his eyes as they slowly began to dull, as the blood dripped from every pore of his pitiful body.
The decision was made when he decided he had seen his mother cry for the last time. When it dawned on him that he could never replace his father in her eyes. That as long as that man was alive, she would always be his.
The conclusion was simple; free his mother from his father's evil, tainted, stained hands. Distribute him to the only place he deserved. Hell.
The training was difficult; the hateful and stupid man that taught his father was a strict master. But Kenji continued, only one thought on his mind. Free his mother, and than she would be his. He knew he would succeed…For her.
The day Yahiko, a man he had always wanted to call brother, came to find him, Kenji knew it was time to return home. Yahiko would only come if something was wrong. And Kenji knew his mother needed him…
But his mother wasn't the only one Yahiko spoke of.
The second he opened his mouth Kenji lost all respect for his once idealized friend.
It didn't matter that the brainwashed fool won their little battle. Didn't matter that Kenji had always thought so highly of him. No. Yahiko just became another fool programmed to believe all of his father's lies.
And then he was handed his father's sword, sent away to think and take in all his fathers pain. They wanted him to understand. To forgive and forget. They wanted him to see his father for who he was…… (Kenji would know his father damn well if he wasn't always away.)
Kenji didn't understand, wouldn't understand. That whole night he sat and glared at the sword. His father's most prized possession. It symbolized his father's vow to never kill, his need to atone for all his sins as a hitokiri.
No sword could ever atone for the sins the rurouni made against the angel of a woman that he married.
Nothing ever would.
That night Kenji came to many conclusions, understood many things…But not his father. At one point he tried, for he wanted to see the man that his mother loved so much. Wanted to trust that his mother could never be so foolish as to fall for something as evil as he. Wanted the comfort of knowing that he wasn't the spawn of a demon sent to destroy everything it touched.
The comfort never came. Each time he thought of the lives he saved, an image of his mother's sad and gentle eyes would come to mind. Every time he thought of the evils he had vanquished, an image of an angel crying a river of tears would fill his thoughts completely.
Even…at one point during the night…Kenji thought of the other children he'd seen and knew. Thought of the boys whose greatest hero was their father. The men, who taught them the facts of life, showed them how to be proper gentlemen. Who played with them and told them stories.
They were all right, Kenji didn't know his father. Kenji never had a chance to know his father. All he knew about his father was that he never wanted to become anything like him.
So the next day Kenji left with Yahiko, his plans no different than they were before. If he saw his father he would rip him apart; and if he couldn't do it physically, he'd rip him apart mentally. He would make the feeble excuse for a human being feel every bit of pain he put his wife and child through.
Kenji would break his father in any and every way he could. He would make that man leave and never come back. Out of shame, out of his need to atone, off to wallow in his self-pity like he always did…Off to kill himself for all Kenji cared (although that would be quite delightful). The point was that his father would be gone and his mother would be free.
His mother needed to be free…The thought was reinforced even more when he finally saw her. She was dying. Dying of a broken heart, or so they kept telling him. He tried to fill the hole that was left in her heart…But…As usual; it was him that she saw when she looked at Kenji's face.
Sometimes Kenji had the urge to cut off all his hair, rip out his eyes, and rip his skin apart until he could no longer see his father's face shining in her eyes.
She would never heal…Not without his father…His father that had given her the very disease that ailed her.
Kenji wondered bitterly to himself if his father was cursed to murder every woman he "loved."
He stayed by his mother's side of course, trying to heal her wounds. And as she pleaded with him to stop hating his father, he even began to pretend. It seemed to make her happy…He would even assure her that he would return…Just to see the smile on her face.
Some men sacrificed much more than a smile for the woman they love.
And he did return, he returned to his wife, and died in her arms. For the last time he left…Left her to die alone with a disease and a broken heart that he alone caused. Kenji thought he would find peace when his father died…But it never came.
His mother, his angel, his life would never be happy until she was reunited with the demon that was his father. Kenji's heart cried for her. Cried for the fact that her beloved would never meet her. She was destined for heaven...His was father was destined for hell.
And so Kenji went to his father's funeral. Held his mother as she cried. Tried not to visually glare at the grave.
He tried to be silent, tried not to growl in anger, tried not to yell and scream at the dead and broken and pathetic man who had left a mess that could never be cleaned. Tried not to protest when he was spoken as an "honorable", "brave", "heroic", and "kind" man. Tried not to protest when they called him a wonderful husband and father.
…It was when they spoke of the cross shaped scar that he lost his stature. They spoke of the grudge that was buried within it, spoke of the pain and regret it symbolized.
They spoke of its many meanings, and than they said that he was finally free. Finally atoned for all his sins, for the scar had disappeared.
And with the scars disappearance there came a sense of clarity, a sense of completeness. Himura Kenshin had finally cleaned his hands of all the blood and all the pain he had caused.
For the first time in what seemed like forever…Kenji laughed.
A/N: If you didn't get it Kenji laughed at the irony of the situation and the pure stupidity of the people who were speaking. And I didn't feel the need to end with the last seen of the movie. I figured you got the idea that Kenji had a bit of an obsession with his mom, and that's why his girlfriend looked exactly like her.
I don't like Kenshin in the OVA (or OAV…whatever). I see no reason for they way he acts. I'm actually thinking of another fic which involves Kenshin doing things the right way. For I love Kenshin, and I'd love to think the OVA just made up the fact that he became an ass.
ONE MORE THING! Just a question…anybody else think of Enishi while reading this? Or is it just me. Cause I wouldn't be surprised since it seems like all the angry kids in this manga remind me of Enishi…Read "The Death of Happiness" and you will understand.
So yea, Kenji definitely had an Oedipus complex in the manga, I just expanded on it. . Please, Review!