Chapter 154: Comrades

Enishi: Inui Banshin. Otowa Hyouko. You've made a long journey. Welcome. This makes five of us. There's one more left.

Inui: We can't trust some guy that can't even show up on time. Five's enough.

Gein: We only said we would meet tonight, we never agreed on a time.

Enishi: Careless, wasn't it.

Kujiranami: This is foolish. We won't get anything done like this.

Yatsume: I'm already here.

(Everyone looks up--there is no one else in the room.)

Enishi: Hiding in the ceiling? Clever trick.

Yatsume: Yatsume Mumyouni. I'm pleased to meet you.

Inui: Whadduya mean, pleased to meet you. Come on out of there!

Gein: That's right, you could at least show us your face.

(Inui gives him a dark look.)

Gein: What?

Yatsume: I don't wish to show myself before others.

Enishi: Well, that's fine. In any case, we who all have reason to hate Himura Battousai are gathered here for revenge. We are the Six Comrades.

(a dramatic pause.)

Otowa: The Six Comrades? It's not a very striking name.

Inui: Okay! Inui and his Followers!

Gein: Gein and his Merrie Men.

Kujiranami: I'm not merrie.

Yatsume: From the ceiling with love.

Enishi: Oh, you're a poet. But it hardly matters what we call ourselves. We six are comrades now. Soon we'll be united against a single enemy. Battousai is now living in Tokyo under the name of Kenshin. As long as Battousai believes that Kenshin is his true self, no matter how brutally we kill him, our revenge will be meaningless. Revenge begins when your opponent knows you will have retribution. We are gathered here to run him down and make him face the sins of his past. If we can do this, we six will separate, and the task of revenge will fall to the swiftest. For do we not all wish to deliver the final blow with our own hands?

Kujiranami: I see...

Inui: So the strongest gets to give him the final blow!

Otowa: I have no objections, but ... What is our plan?

Enishi: I've given that some thought. I don't mean to stand in front while you do all the work. We will all fulfill our responsibilities, Mr. Otowa.

Otowa: I said I had no objections.

Enishi: I am sorry. Let me explain. First--

(Later. Everyone but Enishi and Gein have left.)

Gein: Perfect. You call them comrades, but you can do anything you want with these four. Telling them they could give the final blow themselves worked like a charm. The thought of killing Battousai is irresistible bait.

Enishi: I want to thank you for your cooperation.

Gein: It's nothing. I'm like you ... I don't want to take revenge by killing Battousai.

Enishi: Yes. In the end death is only an instant of pain. That will not fulfill my sister's last wish or dispel my hatred. I will plunge Himura Battousai into the living hell that we went through. This will be Yukishiro Enishi's true revenge!

(At the Kamiya dojo. Kenshin and Sanosuke are drinking tea and looking at a map of the town.)

Kenshin: Finally, the police concluded that the attack wasn't aimed at the Akabeko, but was a test or misfiring of an illicitly manufactured gun by dissatisfied samurai.