A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for all your amazing feedback. I'm stunned and humbled, truly.
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"I'm sick of the blood." Kenshin speaks quietly, sword against his shoulder and eyes lowered, perhaps unable to look at his wife as he admits these things. "It fills my nightmares, and sometimes I can smell nothing else. I only wanted to save lives and bring about a new era of peace and prosperity to our country when I entered this war. But now I'm haunted by the deaths I have brought about while seeking this new era, and even now - as this new government begins to build this new era - I cannot escape the death.
"I don't know how to protect this country, or you, without this sword. But..." Slowly Kenshin lifts his eyes, showing Kaoru the depths of his pain and torment. "I want nothing more than to seek penance for the lives I have taken. I was forged on the blade of my sword, though, and know no other way to live."
What can Kaoru possibly say? To ask Kenshin to give up that which makes him Kenshin would be impossible. But to allow him to continue destroying himself on the whims of the government and still warring fractions...this she cannot do either.
Her heart trembles.
"We will find a way," she breathes, reaching out to gently cup the side of his face. "Together, we will find a new way for you to live. I promise."
"I don't deserve you." Here Kaoru's heart cracks, wounded beyond belief by the knowledge that Kenshin truly, absolutely believes this. He does not have to speak the words (I am too blood soaked and cursed to deserve you) for Kaoru to know these are his true feelings.
"You're a good man, Himura Kenshin," she vows, and thinks this may be the mantra she endlessly repeats for the rest of her life. "Even if you don't believe me, I will show you until one day it becomes your truth, as well as mine."
The sun rises over Kyoto, and perhaps there is a new, fragile hope in Kenshin's eyes.