Scroll V: A Sweet, Naïve Lie

A sword is a weapon. Whatever pretty names you give it, swordsmanship is a way to kill. She speaks as one who has never bloodied her hands. Kaoru-dono maintains a sweet, naïve lie.

Kenshin's words of almost two years ago seemed to echo in Kaoru's ears. She saw the terrible look in Kenshin's eyes as he drove his sakabatō into Saitou's chest.

But in the face of such awful truth, the naïve lie she tells is so much better.

She watched the blood spurting from the wound, the look of shock on the man's face as he realized what had happened.

If this one had a wish, it would only be that her lie would become the truth of this world.

Kaoru watched Maeda Tetsuo claw ineffectually at the tantō buried in his neck as the lifeblood poured out of him. It hit the ground in fat, wet drops, the sound seeming to drown out Kenshin's words, making his voice fade.

Now she saw the look on Kenshin's face as he watched Tetsuo stagger back, the sword slipping from his insensate fingers. It was rage, and disgust, and fear, and recognition.

He looked at her, and was a stranger.

Tetsuo fell limply to the ground. At the same time, the sakabatō fell out of Saitou's chest, its blade wet with his blood.

"I –" Kenshin started. "This one –" He looked back and forth between Saitou and Kaoru, at a loss for words.

Kaoru did not share his problem. The words spilled out of her in a sudden torrent. "Saitou-san gave me the tantō just as you were coming in, and I knew I had to use it, but Tetsuo had no openings in his stance until he let down his guard as you were stabbing Saitou. I could tell he was going to – he was going to – I had to stop him, Kenshin. I couldn't let him take you from me. Not after all we've been through. But there was no other way – I had to…"

She sank to her knees, bile welling up in the back of her throat. "What in Heaven have I done?" she whispered, feeling her eyes clouding with tears. "What happened to katsujin-ken? What happened to – to us?"

Her shoulders shuddered; for a moment, she felt like she might black out. She swayed from side to side.

Kenshin was suddenly there, his arms around her shoulders, pulling her against him. "Kaoru," he whispered, his voice hoarse. "This one is so sorry."

She opened her eyes and saw, much to her surprise, that he was crying as well.

"This one has lived for so long adhering to the oath not to kill – that this one hesitated when one should not have. If this one had attacked Tetsuo first, or…"

"Enough," Saitou cut in. "From both of you."

Both of them started and looked up. The Wolf of Mibu was standing – just barely, but he was standing. His jacket hung open, revealing the stab wound in his torso. It bled, but he didn't seem to notice.

Kenshin stared at him. "How –"

Saitou sneered. "You've become soft. The blunt edge of that sword angled off my sternum and missed my heart. I don't even think you managed to pierce a lung."

Kaoru felt all the tension, all the anger, evaporate from Kenshin's body. "This one –"

"Forget it," Saitou said. "I should have known your body wouldn't have been able to do it, even if your mind wanted to." With a shaky hand, he retrieved another cigarette from his jacket, lit it. "Congratulations. You've won."

Kaoru wiped at her eyes. "But –"

"There is no 'but.' You did what was necessary. When Tetsuo saw that I was still alive, he would have killed you and Kenshin." Kaoru almost gasped at Saitou's use of Kenshin's name, but she held it in as he continued. "There was precisely one way out of that situation, and it was death. Yours – or mine – or his."

Kaoru looked down at her hands. They were stained red with fresh blood. "But that goes against everything I believe."

"Then you will have to do what anyone confronted with a contradiction of their beliefs does," Saitou replied. "You will either reject it and hold onto your beliefs, or you will find new ones. That is all. Life –" he looked at Kenshin – "goes on."

Kenshin helped Kaoru to her feet. "This one is sorry, Saitou."

Saitou scowled. "For what? If you had had a real sword, I would be in the next world. You did what I've always wanted – you tried to kill me." He went to pick up his sword. "I have no regrets."

"One more thing," Kenshin said. "You called this one by his name. Does that mean –"

"Hitokiri Battousai is dead," Saitou replied as he headed for the exit. "That is what my report will say." He looked over his shoulder, eyes glinting in the gloom. "Don't make a liar out of me, Himura Kenshin."

Then he was gone.

Kenshin, leaning on Kaoru's shoulder, limped out of Mt. Hiei and into the sunlight.

The clouds had parted and the snow had stopped falling. The bodies of Tetsuo's compatriots were gone. With a groan and a nod, Kenshin indicated that they should head for a nearby tree so they could rest beneath it.

For a long time they sat there, staring up at the mountain. Kenshin's breathing was shallow, his body a mass of pain, but he would make it. He'd been injured far worse.

"Kenshin," Kaoru finally whispered. "Was I wrong?"

"It is just as Saitou has said," Kenshin replied. "If you had not stopped Tetsuo, he would have killed you upon seeing this one's failure to finish Saitou. It truly was the only way."

Kaoru sighed. "So my father – I – was wrong."

"That," Kenshin said, "is not true."

"But –"

She stopped talking when Kenshin kissed her, his lips rough and cold. He tasted of blood and sweat, but she returned his kiss, pressing her body against his. He withdrew after only a few moments, but she knew his point had been made.

"What this one said when we first met – about the sweet, naïve lie you maintained – was wrong, Kaoru-dono." Kenshin rested his hand on his sakabatō. "The sword is not a tool for the giving of death, or the giving of life. It is merely a sword. Your katsujin-ken may still be wielded. This one may still wield the sakabatō. What you did, what this one did – it is all too easy to say that such acts forever condemn us. What is harder is to acknowledge what one has done, that it has happened, and to continue on one's path despite that." He smiled at her. "If such a thing were not true, this one would still be the hitokiri."

Kaoru felt herself returning his smile, despite the tears in her eyes. "You really mean that, don't you?"

"Yes. Even if that, itself, is a sweet, naïve lie – this one will embrace it." Kenshin reached into his robe, withdrew the gold hairpin. "As this one hopes to forever embrace you."

Kaoru kissed him again, and Kenshin did not feel the cold of the snow or the chill of the wind. The flames of rage within him were gone, replaced by a new warmth.

They returned to town. The sakabatō was no longer heavy.

Fin

The Secret Lives of Characters: Maeda Tetsuo

His model, motivation-wise, is the young Tetragrammaton Cleric who replaces Sean Bean as Christian Bale's partner in Equilibrium. (If you haven't seen it, I recommend it on the basis of it being an interesting and visually pleasing film.) Furthering his career and expanding his influence are his central motivations; he even tells Christian Bale that he'll "make [his] career with [him.]" Also fittingly enough, rather than providing a long and climactic fight for Christian Bale, this young cleric gets his face sliced off in the space of about three seconds. So there is Tetsuo in his entirety.

I only ever had vague ideas about Tetsuo's abilities as a fighter, and when I ultimately decided to have Kaoru kill him rather than Kenshin, his fighting moves became a moot point. He's somewhat like Raijuta in that he has (at least I think) a very intimidating introduction and only goes downhill in personal and moral integrity from there. Unlike Raijuta, I think this works - and, for a moment, he even manages to defeat Kenshin, making him willing to break his vow. Still, his overconfidence is his weakness, as well as his inability to look past the obvious and see what's really going on, which ultimately leads to his downfall. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that Tetsuo is not a character who will be missed.

Final Thoughts

So, thank you for reading "A Sweet, Naïve Lie." I hope you enjoyed the story from beginning to end; if the ending threw you, I can only repeat what my beta told me: "I felt like everything that had to happen in that story happened." So it is that I can look back on this piece and say I'm satisfied with it and I can only hope you are too. On that note, I'd like to thank my lovely beta, VulcanElf, for the great job she did proofreading this piece and making sure it was intelligible even to those who are not familiar with the fandom. If you're a fan of Final Fantasy VII, or if you're looking to branch out into a new fandom but don't know where to start, you should read her work.

On that note of recommendation, I will ask one favor: if you have a friend who loves Rurouni Kenshin, tell them about this story. Writers do what they do in order to be read, after all, and every new person who enjoys this story is a victory for me. Thank you and take care.