Himura Battousia Book 2: Kenshins Past
Copyright© 2007 by Trojan_85
Part 208: End of the Dream
What is a person's worth? How many people weep when they die. By that, you'll know. Many people came to the funeral of Kamiya Kaoru (deceased aged 17). Many tears were shed. But at that funeral, Himura Kenshin could not be found. (Yahiko, Sanosuke, Megumi and Tsubame are sitting outside the dojo on a hot summer's day.)
Tsubame (in tears): Why... how could he...
Yahiko (thinking): When I woke up, it was all over. I was in a bed at the Oguni Clinic. So I never saw how Kaoru died. What I saw was the purified Kaoru in her shroud. She looked like a different person. Maybe that's why, even now, it doesn't feel like she's dead... And Kenshin... no one's seen Kenshin since. Sanosuke sent his friends out to search, but they haven't found him yet... Where would he go? He doesn't have anywhere to go back to but here... The man who killed her, Yukishiro Enishi, fled with his comrade under cover of the rust-colored smoke. The man Saitou brought down, Kujiranami, is half-mad and won't talk. They found out where his hideout was from the three that were arrested, but it was already empty when they raided it. In the end... while I was out of it, everything...
(A man rushes up.)
Man: Sano, he's here. We found Himura.
Sanosuke: Kenshin--where is he?
Megumi: I could at least look at his wounds--
Man: Wait--the women and children had better stay here. He's in Rakuminmura.
From the Bakumatsu to the Meiji Era--Change in the era brought about change in people's lives. And the new era couldn't bring about prosperity for everybody. There were those who betrayed the era. And those who were betrayed by the era. Cast aside by society, forgotten by the world, they were naturally drawn together. It became a settlement outside the lines, Rakuminmura. The last retreat from those who had thrown away their lives. (Rakuminmura is a ramshackle gathering of roughly-built huts, where malevolent shadows lurk. They find Kenshin sitting against a wall with glassy eyes, his sword sheathed and wrapped in a heavy chain.)
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