Chapter 55: the Request of Okubo Toshimichi

Battousai: Once of the Satsuma Ishin Shishi, now Director of Internal Affairs under the Meiji government, Okubo Toshimichi.

Yahiko: And so what?! Who is this bearded guy that just showed up out of nowhere!?

Sanosuke: You don't read the papers. Obviously a mere child wouldn't know.

Megumi: The last of the Ishin Sanketsu*, the triumvirate of the new era, the highest achievers of the new age. He has complete control of the country in all but name with the position of Director of Internal Affairs. In other words... the most powerful man in Meiji Japan. *The other two, Saigou Takamori and Katsuru Kogourou, had already died by 1878.

Okubo: I apologize for the rough treatment, but we needed to know how strong you were. You'll hear what I have to say?

Battousai:... Yes. Even if I have to force it out of you.

Akamatsu (from outside): What... this is big. Why would an important person like Okubo be involved in this... this is far beyond the Battousai issue... I gotta tell Mr. Shibumi.

Saitou (noticing Akamatsu' presence): Feh... (picking up his jacket) It's been a long time since I had to work this hard, and all of a sudden he spoiled all my fun. The conclusion will have to be postponed.

Battousai: You escaped by a hair's breath.

Saitou (with a faint smile): That was you.

Kawaji (stopping him at the door): Saitou!

Saitou: Mission report! Himura Kenshin is of no use to us. But Himura Battousai seems to be all right--report ends.

(He leaves.)

Kawaji: Damn him. He's the best spy the our Information Agency has ever had, but no one knows how the Miburo thinks!

Okubo: Come, there's a carriage waiting outside.

Battousai: You must be dreaming. I'm not the only one wrapped up in this--

Sanosuke: Kenshin?

(A pause. Then Kenshin punches himself in the face.)

Kenshin: I am not the only one involved in this. All of us will hear what you have to say.

Kaoru: Oh-- (she hugs him) I'm so glad! You're Kenshin again!!

Kenshin: Oro--

(Kaoru has managed to put her hand right on the cut.)

Kaoru: Augh!! Megumi, quick!!!

Megumi: What have you done, you fool!

Kawaji: Governor Okubo?

Okubo: Do as he says. Now there is nothing we need more than Himura's strength...

(A short time later. Everyone is seated on cushions in a semicircle before Okubo.)

Okubo: I'll come straight to the point, with no beating around the bush. Shishio is plotting in Kyoto.

Sanosuke: That's not straight to the point at all, Mr. Okubo. Who's this Shishio?

Kawaji: Watch your mouth!

Kenshin: Shishio Makoto. It was after I had been given the role of guerrilla swordsman to fight the Shinsengumi and been moved from the underground to the surface. The role of "Shadow Hitokiri" was passed on to another member of the Ishin Shishi from Choushuu, Shishio Makoto. The successor of Hitokiri Battousai.

Everyone: Hitokiri Battousai's... successor?

Kenshin: Yes... he hid himself so perfectly in the shadows that few knew he even existed. Even I, his predecessor, never saw him face to face. But what about him? I heard that he died ten years ago in the Boshin war.

(Okubo says nothing.)

Kenshin: I see... So he didn't die in the war. He was eliminated by his comrades. It would be judged safer to erase the doer of dirty deeds, rather than let them leak to the outside world. In those wild times it wasn't that unusual.

Okubo: There was no other way. Shishio Makoto's skill with the sword and quick wits made him a man of action almost on a level with you, but he had a dangerous cunning and a longing for power almost beyond comprehension. He accepted his role as a killer in the shadows only to prove his strength to the leaders of the Ishin Shishi, never thinking of the weak or of his comrades as you did. Among his assassinations are some that must never come to light... The very foundations of the Meiji government would be shaken. If we had entered the new age with Shishio alive, he could have used this weakness to play with Japan in the palm of his hand.

Kenshin: So he was killed in the violence of the Boshin war?