.
The crash of steel on steel. Kenshin was quicker than his dead sempai, but Akira's movements were precise, certain.
I will stop you, ghost or no. I will survive long enough to protect her.
Another clash. Another blow. Kenshin felt the rain and the blood from his earlier wound soaking his tunic beneath the leather and the lacquer, trickling down his skin.
Akira was grinning at him. He seemed not to weaken at all.
I will survive this.
A final burst, they rushed toward each other and Kenshin roared and used all his strength to thrust his sword into Akira's chest. He ripped it sideways and felt the flesh and armor give. Akira fell, swinging his sword toward Kenshin's face.
Akira hit the ground and lay still, his chest torn open, a dark shadow in the rain. Could you kill a man already dead?
"You have defeated your own prince, Kenshin." He could still speak, softly, still smiling. "You must abandon your name. Go to her. I'll let you take her, because I know you will lose her in the end."
Kenshin stepped closer to where Akira lay on the ground. His body was a mass of shadows – a muddy hollow. No body. No blood. There was nothing.
Kenshin noticed that his face was stinging. He raised his hand and felt a slash across his cheek where Akira had struck him.
Take her, he had said. I'll let you take her.
Let him? How? Why?
You will lose her.
Kenshin blinked away his disquiet. He felt exhausted. He could not understand.
Around him he saw only rain and mud and blood and the bodies of the men who had fallen. The battle was over. In the distance he could see banners of the enemy studding the grounds around the mansion. He saw no signs of any of his clansmen alive.
It was over.
She had said she would escape to an old shrine. That's where she would be.
The battle was lost.
It was over.
Kenshin shuddered from relief, exhaustion.
It was over.
Abandon your name.
Kenshin came to a decision. In one movement he lifted his free hand and his sword above his head and sliced through the topknot that bound his long, rain-drenched hair.
Its weight fell from him.
He was no longer Kiyosato, no longer Kenshin.
It was over.
He had no clan, no family.
He closed his eyes and collapsed to the ground.
He was free.
.