Rurouni Kenshin Manga Translations
Volume Thirteen--A Beautiful Night
Part 111--Fists Can't Tell
(Sanosuke and Anji trade blow after bloody blow.)
Yumi: What is this . . . They're both using the Futae no Kiwami, but neither one can finish the other.
Kenshin: No . . . I wouldn't be surprised if one had already defeated the other. They're both only going on by
believing they cannot lose. Their spirits have long overcome their bodies. Since the Futae no Kiwami isn't the
deciding factor anymore, the fight is completely even.
Saitou: You really think so? Didn't you notice? He's one of the Ten Swords, but he's not a swordsman. So why is he
carrying that sword--
(Anji pulls the short sword from his belt and drives it into the ground. The force throws Sanosuke back with
considerable force.)
Kenshin: A long-range attack--
Saitou: I see . . . so the sword transmits the effects of the Futae no Kiwami through the floor.
(Sanosuke pulls himself to his feet.)
Yumi: Then it's over. The rooster-head can't attack now.
(Anji raises the sword again.)
Kenshin: Jump, Sano!
(Sanosuke leaps up, fist back to deliver a blow. Anji looks up, drawing back his own fist.)
Kenshin: Oh no, he saw it coming--
(The fists come together in slow motion, once--)
Sanosuke (thinking): That's enough, Anji. You've lived with your pain long enough. You have to accept that your
life as one of the walking wounded is over.
Anji (thinking): I'm wounded, but I no longer feel pain. I continue to fight as the Bright King to bring about
the salvation of the world that the children who perished the in the flames want of me!
Sanosuke (someone sensing this thoughts and thinking): You goddamn idiot!
(The fists collide a second time--and Sanosuke strikes a third time with his open palm.)
Sanosuke (thinking): You don't understand anything!
(Anji's fist comes away broken and bloody. He hits the floor hard.)
Kenshin: That was . . . (thinking) After the Futae no Kiwami, he added one more attack by snapping all five fingers
out . . . a Sanjuu no Kiwami.
(Anji gets to his feet and raises a fist.)
Sanosuke: Those kids don't want you to save the world. They want their priest, who survived, to be happy . . . Look.
(pointing at the tablet) It's soaked with your blood. Can't you hear them crying that it hurts?
(Anji freezes.)
Sanosuke: You thought so much of them, it twisted you . . . You have to understand how they'd feel.
(Anji is defeated.)
A Beautiful Night--End
The Making of the Characters Supplement--Yuukyuuzan Anji
After I finished writing the Anji story and revising it, I realized I'm still pretty inexperienced at this. Reader
response has been pretty much positive, but
this is only three-quarters of the original . . . I got carried away drawing it, and by the time I realized, I'd already
spent five weeks on it. Drawing any further could have got in the way of the flow of the story, so I couldn't help but
cut it . . . (In the original plot, there was a whole other chapter
about the Sanjuu no Kiwami stopping Anji's heart for an instant.)
Like I said in the previous "Makings of," planning the stories is fun, but when it
comes to drawing the manuscripts it's just so much work . . . If you read closely I think you'll understand that from
just what I've written here, Anji's heart is not
yet saved. He has only stopped spinning out of control when the story ends
I read somewhere that "Man, in the end, can save only one other at the cost of a lifetime of toil," (I think this was an essay
about religion after the Aum sarin gas attack.) I felt strongly, drawing this story, that it's true for the manga world
as much of the real one. I want to do something, but . . .
What happens to Anji next is still vague, but I've got some ideas, so if I get the chance, I'll draw another story about him.
It'll probably be sad, though . . .