Chapter 137: Divine Providence

(Shishio pushes Kenshin away and wipes the blood from his mouth.)

Shishio: Bad taste. Like it won't do me any good, but it won't do me any harm either.

(Kenshin gets to his knees, hand over the fast-bleeding shoulder.)

Shishio: After all, in this world the flesh of the weak is the food of the strong. The strong live, the weak die.

Kenshin: Those words...

Shishio: They're the words I ground into Soujirou, but they don't just apply to swordplay. They're divine providence. The weak have a duty in life to become food for the strong. Scum that doesn't become food has no right to exist. The strongest of all gains the top. The Mejij government is weak and doesn't have the capacity to hold supremacy. I alone can. My coup will be a godsend for this country. The strong live, the weak die. That's why you, the Hitokiri, passed through the storm of blood that was the Bakumatsu. Can't you understand that when you disobey this law, all your effort is in vain?

Kenshin: I cannot! The people you call food are people who survived the bloodshed of those times and now live in a world at peace. They shouldn't have to sacrifice their lives to anyone or anything. If you want to plunge them back into violence, for whatever reason, I cannot accept that.

Shishio: I spoke not of reason, but of divine will.

Kenshin: I cannot accept that it's divine will!

Sanosuke (thinking): He's not gonna give in. Nobody could beat his spirit. But if he keeps being pushed like this, his body is going to give out sooner or later...

Shishio: You can't understand it with your mind or accept it in your heart. You're stubbornly clinging to your vow not to kill, but that foolishness only shows what the great Hitokiri Battousai has sunk to. Rather than bear the disgrace of living in shame, I think it better you die with glory here!

(He ignites his sword once again.)

Shishio: You will leave behind your name in the new history I create!

(Kenshin turns the sword aside, bare hand against the flat of the blade.)

Kenshin: I have no intention of leaving my name in yours or any history. The only thing I want to leave behind me is the peace that came of this violence!

(He strikes Shishio in the ribs.)

Houji: Lord Shishio!!

Shishio: So you don't listen when people give you good advice. Then there's nothing else I can do! I'll kill you here!

(He strikes against, then seizes Kenshin by the front of his shirt and lifts him in the air, sword leveled at his throat.)

Shishio: Oops. It's a little too soon to finish it now.

Kenshin (thinking): His glove ... it smells like...

Shishio: I told you, didn't I. You'll go out in a blaze of glory.

Kenshin (thinking): Gunpowder...

Sanosuke: Kenshin!!

Second Secret Sword Guren Kaina

(Shishio strikes his sword against his glove, and it explodes, knocking Kenshin violently back. He lies as he has fallen, eyes rolled back in his head.)

Shishio: So I really killed him. And he still hasn't used the Amakakeru Ryuu no Hirameki. What a waste!

Yumi: Nine minutes fifty-three seconds. (thinking) So there was nothing to worry about after all.

Houji: The Guren Kaina! To conceal gunpowder in his gloves and ignite it with the Homura Dama is pure Lord Shishio! Never a false move!

Shishio: Shut up, idiot! Just finish things off!

(He sheathes his sword.)

(from the door): Not finishing off a wounded enemy was your fatal weakness then, and it'll cost you your life now.

Sanosuke: Saitou!

Saitou (breaking through the door): Shishio Makoto, your head is mine!