"How's your poem coming?" Algren asked Katsumoto once they were led inside to the room where Katsumoto was facing a single tanto. The man's eyes immediately brightened once he saw Algren and Miryu, and stood up to greet them, saying that the end was proving difficult. Once one the "bearers" had set down the camera equipment, he continued, "This is Simon Graham, he would like very much to take your photograph."
Graham just stood there and gave Katsumoto a deep bow. "An honor," he said. Sharing a knowing smile with Miryu, Katsumoto found that this gaijin surely knew all of the ways of the samurai and the rest of his countrymen, a most astounding person… Usually, Graham's people would look down upon them, citing them as backward and barbaric, but he proved to be completely different.
"I thought that you returned to America," Katsumoto turned to Algren, seeking an answer from the man. "I expected that you brought Miryu from this country to yours to start anew…" It was only then did Algren realize that the bond Miryu shared with the rebel was alike that towards his own son. And as such, Katsumoto would have wanted a new life for Miryu, a life of peace with him in a strange, foreign land.
Miryu smiled, and said, "We thought that he should stay, to see if we could convince you to escape." She for one would have joined him whether or not Algren returned to America, for she felt that her actions were dictated by the principles of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu. "And whether you like it or not, you're coming with us."
Soon enough, a thud could be heard from outside the room, and Algren opened the shoji doors, revealing a dead guard, impaled upon a katana, by the looks of it. The "bearer" who killed the man, was none other than Ujio. Bowing to his lord, he handed Katsumoto his katana, as well as Algren's and Miryu's, which were concealed as the stands for the camera's tripod. There would be little time left, as the other guards would have already been alerted by their presence; Katsumoto had to make his escape now.
"Mr. Graham, perhaps you would care to take pictures of my village," Katsumoto said to Graham as they made towards the courtyard, as quickly as they could, with Miryu at the front, as she had always done so. After Shishio Makoto had taken Kenshin's and her position as the shadow hitokiri of the Choushu-han, they were tasked to become mobile attackers, bodyguards to key members of the han, as well as that of every single Ishin-Ishishi comrade. And she did her job most efficiently, almost ensuring a flawless exit into the gardens, not far from the rear gate of Katsumoto's vast residence.
However, once they were on the end of the bridge that led across the artificial lake and to the rear exit, they were being ambushed by more guards armed with rifles. Narrowly being able to cut a round into half with what speed and strength she possessed, Miryu started to move backwards, looking all around her for an alternative path, to no avail. "Here they come!" she exclaimed as they began to fight their way out of the estate, with wave after wave of guards coming their way…
Meanwhile, as more marksmen surrounded them, they were being saved by several archers, namely Nobutada, Nakao and the aged man Algren had named Silent Bob, who provided cover for them as they started to race towards the other end of the bridge. Miryu leapt to into the air, landing upon the narrow railings of the bridge, rushing back to aid the archers, securing their escape as well in a feat of extraordinary grace and balance. Algren could have sworn that she was not human if he had not known her, quickly ushering Graham in the correct direction as they dodged hundreds and hundreds of incoming bullets.
After she made sure that Nakao and Silent Bob were safely across, she looked at Nobutada and told him to get to safety as well, and what Algren saw next was even more brilliant than what he had seen in the dark alley where Omura's men tried to kill them. In one single stroke, she rammed her katana towards the guard directly in front of her, and it happened so fast that if one did not blink, one could still be unable to see how she had maneuvered her katana. The end result was something short of a small, but powerful vortex, that drew the guards in, allowing her to decapitate them easily, leaving the others stunned, thus giving her enough time to flee.
"Miryu-chan never used this technique before!" Ujio exclaimed, evidently awed by the sight he had just seen. Yes, it had been a technique based upon battou-jutsu, of which she was most famous for, but the speed, it was beyond god-like, utterly flawless. However, just as she managed to run towards the end of the bridge with Nobutada in tow, they were both shot: she in the calf, and Nobutada, in the knee. At once, Katsumoto sensed what had happened to the both of them, and quickly turned back to try to save them, only to be restrained by Ujio.
Nobutada and Miryu valiantly get up, continuing their escape, but he was shot at his side, while a bullet nicked her arm, causing her to wince in pain. "Nobutada, you will get through this," Miryu said, helping him to rise, with great difficulty. And without a single moment of hesitation, Algren ran towards them, and aided them to get across, unable to withstand another second being worried whether they were going to make it. Once they were across, Nakao and Silent Bob continued to let their arrows fly, providing cover for those who gathered around the two younger warriors. "I'm alright," Miryu told Graham and Algren, "Nobutada, get him out now…"
However, Nobutada was already gravely wounded, and the youth knew that it would impossible for him to be able to get home in his condition. No, he would not remain in the shadow of his father, he would make his own stand there, in his father's own home: A stand for the samurai, a stand for his right to practice the traditions honored by his family. "Chichiue, let me do this," he murmured to Katsumoto. They needed enough time to get on their horses, and he was the only one who could grant him that time. At this time, Miryu knew that she should be getting all of them out, but somehow, she knew that Nobutada was already set in his own resolve. "Miryu, Chichiue loved you as if you were my sister… Please, take care of him…"
"I will, Nobutada," she said, giving him a final hug. "Leave it to me, brother…" There were tears in her eyes, and that of Katsumoto's as well, but there was no choice… It had to be done. Before leaving upon Ujio's insistence, Katsumoto pulled his son to his feet, and gave him one last look, before he rode out with the others into the darkness of the night, grieve-stricken at the loss of his son. Nobutada had done his ancestors well, by defending the others, by his great sacrifice, and Miryu swore that his death would not be in vain. She was the last one to see him, running towards the guards, who were all firing at him, and as Algren carried her onto Yuki, her mare, she saw him fall, never to rise again.
"So, you're hitokiri Battouryu," Nobutada said to Miryu the moment after his father had briefed her about the village and the surrounding areas. "I thought you should be older than I am, for someone so famous." Miryu looked at him, and offered him a small smile. The wind was blowing, and her scar upon her neck was revealed to him. "How did you get that scar?"
Touching the scar lightly, Miryu answered, "My friend's wife carved it before she died… She wanted me to remember the teachings of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu." There was a hint of truth in her words, but Tomoe did not really mean it. Her scar was to remind her of the victims she had claimed in the name of a new age of peace and vengeance, and that she had used her skills for naught. But now, it was all different. She and Kenshin were now fighting under their own conscience, as protectors of their comrades and as mobile attackers to their enemies. She had been assigned to protect Katsumoto during his stay in his fortress-village, where Bakufu servants were said to have lurked around the mountains.
Nobutada regarded her for one moment, and said, "My name is Nobutada… Shall we be friends?" For the longest time, Miryu stared at him. She told him that she barely knew him, that she was a hitokiri whose hands were stained with blood, but his next words almost brought her to tears. "Hey, mine are as dirty as yours, see?" he said to her, letting her see his pristine palms. "No one knows what the future brings for us, and I think that we'll be good friends…"
"Miryu," she told him her name, instinctively knowing the reason for the slight pause in his words. "My name is Tsubasa Miryu…"
It was the first time Miryu had met Nobutada, and the days that followed allowed her to become a child once again, even while she was on assignment. He was a special friend, her only friend around her age apart from Kenshin, and was able to bring out the best in everyone… If given the chance, he could have been a leader just like Katsumoto, and perhaps someone even greater… But it had to stop there… It just had to… That night, she did not feel the pain as Ujio used a pair of heated pincers to remove the bullet from her calf, or even the heat of the knife that he had applied to sear the open wound to prevent infection. She had watched many comrades fall throughout the years, but none were as close to her as Nobutada was… His death had a profound effect on her, and all Algren could do was to just be close to her.
"Ken wa kioki… kenjutsu wa satsu jin jutsu…" she murmured… Those were words that Hiko had told Kenshin and her when the former had tried to ask permission to leave to fight for the Ishin-Ishishi. The Indians had preached about the law of karma, but why would Nobutada, an archer and a swordsman, die by the bullets of the men he had fought to protect by his father's side, almost a decade earlier? It was a glorious death, but a death nonetheless… As Algren held her, she shed unnumbered tears, wishing that her friend's noble sacrifice would not go to waste. [The Sword is a weapon to kill, and kenjutsu is the skill of murder]