Chapter 90: A Death-place of Fresh Blood

Omasu: The lookout! Okina is fighting Aoshi there!

Misao (thinking as she takes off running): I have to stop them! If Gramps and Aoshi are fighting for real it won't end without someone really getting hurt. I've got to stop them somehow!

Kuro: I wonder if that was the right thing to do.

Omasu: I know. If we left now, we wouldn't make it in time. But even so, she has to do all she can. The person she's closest to and the person she most loves... she's about to lose one of them.

(Okina is knocked to the floor.)

Okina (thinking): He's strong... he doesn't even compare to the Aoshi I knew. All his emotion abandoned, transformed into a thing of violence, all his latent power has come out...

Aoshi: Tell me where Battousai is, Okina, and it ends here.

Okina: You mock me... I may be an old man but I am the spy Okina of the Oniwabanshuu. I would never betray a comrade to an enemy!

Aoshi: Then I will destroy you here. And I'll go on to the Aoiya to question the other four...

Okina: You will not! (thinking) Aoshi. Your strength already exceeds that of the old Okashira. Bur for that very reason, if it cost me my life, I must destroy you. For Himura, and to protect Japan from demons like Shishio.

(Shishio advances on Houji, hand outstretched. Houji, backed against a wall, can only scream.)

Shishio: Shut up.

(He presses his palm against Houji's forehead.)

Houji (thinking): What... this... how can his temperature be so high... ?! What on earth...

Shishio: Ten years ago when my entire body was burned, my sweat glands were completely destroyed. I lost the ability to regulate my body heat through perspiration. According to the doctors, I shouldn't be able to live sustaining such a high temperature. It's what I have left from the flames of Hell. It's not just my arms. Legs. Belly. Chest. My entire body continues to burn. And of course, (pointing to his head) here as well. So my voice became pure heat, without a trace of coolness. And one day I began to speak the truth.

Man's true nature is violence, and this world is Hell. Shishio: Himura Battousai denies his true nature and desperately clings to reason. The new government hides the sins of the past and deceives Meiji Japan with its ideals. Equally small, equally fragile. I raise my voice with my blazing-hot mind, "This is wrong." Only through violence can we live with the capacity to be a strong nation. This is indeed Hell. You're shaking, Houji. Are you scared?

Houji: No, quite the reverse. I'm shaking with joy... All those I've met serving the new government were shrunken fools, hardly worth remembering. But I finally chanced to meet a man of true caliber, greater than I had ever imagined. I'm honored to build a new Japan with this man!

Shishio: You're ready... I'm relying on you, Houji.

Yumi (thinking): So another one loyal to violence is born.

Aoshi: Give up. With only one tonfa you have no chance of victory.

(He stabs with one kodachi; Okina catches the blade with his bare hand.)

Okina: Come on, Aoshi. Even with one tonfa, one blow with all my strength behind it in such close quarters tells a different story!

Ensatsu Goukoukon

(He strikes.)

Okina (thinking): How was that... !

(Aoshi retains his stance.)

Okina (thinking): The kodachi reversed! Not good. This stance is the secret Kaiten Ken--

Kaiten Kenbu Rokuren

(The kodachi fly. Misao throws open the door.)

Misao: I... made it...

(Okina collapses, bleeding in a dozen places.)

Aoshi: It's over.