The shrill cawing of a crow woke Kenshin from an all too precious sleep. In the surreal space between waking and sleeping, he thought that he had heard his wife Kaoru and their young son calling out to him; their voices full of eagerness. Reality seeped in mercilessly though, when he opened his eyes. He had gone back to wandering, and was all alone at some cheap inn. He let out a deep sigh. God, he loved his family so much that he couldn't take it sometimes. He would die and even kill for them in an instant. Ironically, it was his devotion to them that drew him away from them because in a strange way, it was kind of twisted for him to be loved so much and to feel so much joy after what he had once been. Deep inside of himself, he was sure it would end eventually somehow. After all, that was the law of karma, wasn't it? Despite the fact that he had changed his ways so many years ago, he still didn't believe that he deserved any peace. " Just a little bit more," he whispered to himself as he struggled to sit up. If I could atone just a little bit more, than maybe I'll finally stop feeling this way, he thought. That was the thought that had set him off to wandering once again, in spite of his family waiting back home. He prayed with all his heart that they would understand, and not hold it against him, particularly his son, who had inherited something of the fiery nature that he himself used to possess. I wonder what Tomoe would've thought of him, he thought. Tomoe. The scar in his heart from losing her would stay with him until the moment he died. It was as much a part of him as his red hair or his cross-shaped scar. He'd long ago learned to live with it, and time had dulled away the rawness of the pain.
Still he thought about her often lately, with an eerie feeling that he couldn't really explain. She approached him in his dreams, begging him to come and stay with her. Kenshin explained it all away by reasoning that he was probably going to die soon and would at last be reunited with her. With each passing day, he could feel himself wasting away. But if only he could press forward, just a little more.
Kenshin's travels led him to a small, remote Buddhist temple, a fitting place for his morbid train of thought. He himself had even once half- jokingly contemplated forgetting all his problems and enjoying the peaceful, though monotonous life of a monk. He chuckled while imagining his head being shaved and his long, red hair falling to the ground, landing in clumps around his feet. This day though, he simply planned to make an offering and be on his way, home perhaps. It was a windy day of the sort that made one feel restless, but also alive. In fact, he couldn't remember feeling so alive in ages, as if something interesting and amazing was just around the corner, waiting only for him.
Suddenly, Kenshin was knocked almost unconscious by a group of angry running nuns. " Isn't anything sacred these days," he joked to himself as one of the nuns stopped in front of him, panting furiously. "Please, please help us catch that crazy woman before she does something stupid," she shouted frantically. Never one to refuse a request for help, Kenshin went racing after the strange woman, while wondering what in the hell would possibly make a nun try to escape from a convent. Lingering feelings for an old flame, perhaps? The woman was fast, but she couldn't stand a chance against Kenshin, who caught up to her easily. When he grabbed her, they both tripped and fell to the ground, with Kenshin on top of the struggling woman. Not the most proper situation, Kenshin thought humorously, but something about the woman's scent nearly made him stop breathing, and his heartbeat quickened. Could it really be, he thought to himself. No, that was ridiculous. She was dead. He had killed her with his own hands, hadn't he? He started to panic inside. He slowly got up and stared into the pair of dark, crimsonlike eyes that he knew all too well. "T..Tomoe," he stuttered. She only smiled as she rarely ever did back when he knew her. "You know who I am," she said with surprise and pleasure in her voice, that same voice that he heard in both his sweetest dreams and his most horrifying nightmares. He felt like crying, embracing her, and even kissing her right on the spot, but he held back. He tried to reason with himself. Maybe Tomoe had a cousin who resembled her or something, but that wouldn't explain her scent. The curious nuns stood around them. He had to bring himself to say something. "Please,"he said to one of them. "This woman is... my sister! I've missed her so much. Our family was sure that she was dead, but now the gods have brought us back together. Please let me bring her home to see them just this once, I promise I'll bring her back," he pleaded.
"That's forbidden," one of the nuns said, but the abbess was more sympathetic. She answered," You may speak with her here in the convent for awhile if you wish. You are her family after all." After he thanked them, the two walked towards her room, but Kenshin was still in utter shock and disbelief. Could it be that on that horrible day so many years ago, he had been so blinded by emotion as he burned down their house that he had failed to realize that she was simply in a coma? Had someone come in and dragged her out before she could be consumed by the flames? He'd spent so much time in such wrenching pain and here she had been all along? Those thoughts made him maddeningly dizzy, so he quickly sat down. He couldn't think of a single thing to say to her. What would possibly be appropriate? Luckily, she was the first to speak. "You're not really my brother, are you, she asked.
Well there's the end of this chapter. Can you believe it took me like seven months to get back to this! I'm so ashamed of myself. I could've had a kid or something in all that time. I'm only joking, but I had stopped cause I didn't think that anyone was really into this story but some people are, so this is for them. If it's dissapointing, sumimasen. I know I'm kind of mediocre as I writer, but I still try. Now, I wonder how long it will take for me to finish the next chaper. MWAHAHA!