Me again, fear it! Shorter chapter this time, but goodness, you should see how short the chapter is in the source novel. It's even shorter than this!
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Diary of a Manslayer
Akai Kitsune
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Chapter 11) Vena Amoris
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Kenshin had never really been a religious type; the hardships of youth combined with the weight of a sinner's soul made him doubt the existence of higher beings - if only to save that soul from damnation. He knew that any disbelief on his part couldn't really save him, if there were higher beings, or whatever people wanted to call them, but one could hardly criticize what one did not know, and he didn't tell just anyone what he did or didn't believe spiritually.
He and Kaoru had been married in a traditional Shinto wedding - or as close as they could get, lacking true parents to join certain parts of the ceremony - in the shrine down the road from the dojo, where the wrinkled old priest with squinting eyes and an unsmiling face had purified them in the name of the gods, overseen the ceremony, instructed them on what to do when. He hadn't really cared about how they were married, or at least not as much as Kaoru did. To him, the important part came after - their life together, their marriage. The wedding was merely a symbol to the world, an announcement that yes, they were staying together, yes, their union was blessed by all. Or, perhaps, by those that mattered. They were a small group, and it was a small wedding, but somehow, everyone knew about it, and not a soul had protested.
He was grateful for that, among so many other things; he wasn't sure how he would have dealt with the issue of someone - anyone - getting in the way of his being with Kaoru.
If I didn't deal with them somehow, he mused, smiling amidst a sea of morbid thoughts, Kaoru most certainly would. And probably in a much better way than I ever could...
Despite his casual opinion about the whole affair, he couldn't forget how wonderful Kaoru had looked that day, dressed in her best kimono, face painted to make her look like a perfect china doll. Admittedly he preferred her as she was; a facade of perfection wasn't what he wanted for a wife, and he'd married Kaoru for that fact alone, faults and all. But there was nothing, nothing at all wrong with a woman dressing up for a special day, whatever the expense of it was. He'd always thought she was beautiful; better for her to think herself the same way on the day they wed.
He could tell her every other day for the rest of her life, after all.
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"Vena Amoris" is a Latin name meaning, literally, "vein of love". It is believed that it is a vein that runs directly from the heart to the third finger of the left hand - the ring finger, naturally.