Chapter 244: Answer

Kenshin: I finally managed to find it. My answer of how to atone for the crimes of the Hitokiri, and for killing Tomoe...

Enishi: Really. So you finally understand. Then you'll cease this pointless struggle and accept your punishment!

(He leaps forward, stabbing Kenshin in the arm.)

Misao (wincing): Ouch!

Megumi: Ken-san!

Watoujutsu Goutsui Tousei!

(Enishi's second blow sends Kenshin flying almost straight up in the air. He lands with a spray of blood.)

Enishi: The only way to pay for the crime of taking life is death! But the dead can't take their own revenge! So those who loved them have to do it for them! A killer should writhe and suffer, die in the throes of remorse and despair! That's your answer! Now get up! You haven't atoned yet! Get up!

Kaoru: Kenshin!

(Enishi looks at her; she stares at him with defiance, and in her he sees Tomoe's stern, sad face. He throws down his sword at Kenshin's feet.)

Enishi: ... You're right. Killing you would be too easy. I could do it so easily, but it'd be just the same--the same as you killing my sister before my very eyes. So you have to do it yourself.

(Kaoru's eyes open in horror.)

Enishi: Cast aside the sword of virtue you call a reverse blade and take up the sword of justice. And die. Die! Die!

(He spits out the word, over and over. Kenshin slowly regains his feet, and picks up Enishi's sword.)

Enishi: That's it. That's--

(Kenshin tosses it back to him.)

Enishi: ... What is this?

Kenshin: As I said before this fight, I still have no reason to die.

Enishi: You coward! You've taken more lives than you can count--are you so afraid to take your own?

Kenshin: Death wouldn't be so terrible. But I don't believe that would atone for anything. I can't think of killing myself or throwing away my life now. Enishi, I thought about a lot of things in the living hell you made for me. About life, about death ... About sin and retribution. And I finally arrived here, at the one truth I can't throw away. I want to protect the people I see here ... I want to help those in pain, or who are suffering ... And there was one smile I wanted to see. But to do that, I had to defeat my enemies ... I had to take lives ... not realizing that those I killed were fighting for the same reason. It was my fault, so I'll accept my punishment. But I'll live on, bearing my sins and the sins of those I've killed. More than living, more than that smile, but to keep those lights shining in the world, I'll continue to fight, without taking life! I don't know if the punishment waiting for me is death, as you say, or if it will take some other form, but until I can no longer wield this sword, I will fight! I'll risk sword and heart to achieve this fighting life! This is the answer I've found!

Kaoru (tears in her eyes): Kenshin...

Megumi: Ken-san.

Sanosuke: That's like him.

Aoshi: A painful life more meaningful than death.

Misao: But Himura'll--

Yahiko: He'll do it!

Enishi: And you ... you think this will make my sister forgive you?

Kenshin: I don't know. But when I found that answer, Tomoe finally smiled for me. Enishi. The Tomoe you see now ... is she smiling?

(Tomoe frowns down on him once again. Enishi tenses with rage.)

Enishi: I'll kill you ... I'll kill you! Not in your dreams, not in this world and not in the next--I'll kill you and send you to hell so you can never see my sister in heaven!