Chapter 221: Dreams, Reality & Phantoms

(Men surround Tsubame at the entrance to Rakuninmura.)

Men: I told you to go home! You deaf, little girl? This is no place for outsiders.

Tsubame (thinking): I'm so scared. (aloud, barely managing to get the words out) Ken ... shin...

Men: Ken ... You mean the new guy? You wasted a trip. There's nothing left of him. He's hollow--

Tsubame (finding her tongue): That's not true! The Kenshin I know is a kind, strong person! (running forward) Kenshin!

Man: Hey, watch it!

(He puts out a hand to stop her.)

Tsubame: Let me go! Let me see him!

Man: Kuma?

Kuma (sighing): Guess the samurai gets another guest.

(Kenshin sits silently beside the uncorked bottle of white plum scent.)

They say white plum has the power to ease the heart... (He is awash in a sea of memories.)

(Himself, as a young boy.)

Even if I was throwing away my life, I thought I had to protect them.

(Hiko)

From now on, your name is Kenshin. I'll teach you everything I know.

(Himself, a bit older.)

Protecting people from the suffering of the ages is the reason for the Hiten Mitsurugi school! If I can't use it now, when can I? There are so many people suffering before my eyes--I can't ignore them!

(Katsura and Takasugi, watching him.)

Let me ask you. Have you ever killed anyone with your Hiten Mitsurugi school? No. Do you think you could?

(Himself, killing Tomoe's fiance.)

I would sacrifice my life and my bloodstained sword for an age in which people could live in peace.

(Tomoe, blood on her face.)

I've often heard in plays about a rain of blood, but you really made it rain blood...

(He and Tomoe, talking quietly in the country evening.)

Do you intend to keep on killing like this? I wielded my sword and killed for the principles of the Hiten Mitsurugi school ... It was for a new age in which the weak could find happiness, but up til now, I didn't know what happiness was ... There's only one thing I can do--fight for the happiness of the people I see before me ... The happiness you once lost. I want to try and protect it for you...

(The fatal blow.)

I killed her!

(Tomoe smiling at him in death.)

If I abandon the sword now, then all the lives I've taken really will be meaningless. I'll continue to fight for an age lit by those small happinesses. But when the new age comes...

(Shakkuu, giving him the reverse blade.)

No matter how many people who kill, you'll never escape. You live by the sword, you die by the sword. That's the only way for you. Try using this for a while. You'll find out how naive you really are. When that one breaks, come and see me again, if you still believe in that weak joke...