Rurouni Kenshin Manga Translations
Volume Seventeen--The One to Decide the Age
Part 147--the Kyoto Story Epilogue 1 The End of the Ten Swords (Beginning)
A month after the battle with Shishio--The heavy rains have passed; it is early summer. And now---
(Kenshin dresses and puts on his sword; coming downstairs, he bumps into Kaoru.)
Kaoru: Kenshin! Are you sure it’s all right for you to be up?
Kenshin: Yes. It’s all right. I’m well.
(Downstairs everyone is celebrating wildy. A banner reads "Thirty-first celebration of the defeat of the Shishio faction! We’ll defend Kyoto to the death! Well done!")
Kenshin: Anyway, with all this noise downstairs I couldn’t sleep anyway.
Kaoru: You can say that again . . .
Sanosuke (trying to eat): Dammit, I can’t use chopsticks with my left hand!
(Okina wails a song into a spoon labeled "mic.")
Yahiko (clutching a jug of sake): I’m dizzy . . .
Omasu (to Sae): I’m really very sorry about all this.
Sae: No worries!
Misao: WHERE’S LORD AOSHI???
It will be another week before repairs on the Aoiya are finished. For now, Sae is letting us stay at the Shirobeko.
Sae: You could say it’s more like moving in than staying!
Yahiko: You don’t have to look so happy about it.
Kenshin: Miss Megumi. Thank you for treating me.
Megumi: Not at all. But you’ll still have to be careful.
When Megumi heard how badly Kenshin was hurt, she rushed down. On that day, the sun had set and the moon was in the eastern sky when Kenshin and the others returned. He was on the verge of death. No matter how I called, he wouldn’t open his eyes. But now--
Kenshin: Miss Sae, I’m sorry, could I trouble you for a cup of tea?
Sae: Coming right up.
(The party jumps on Kenshin.)
Okina: Oh, Himura, you’re finally up! Give us a tune!
Misao (bowling them all over): I said, where’s Lord Aoshi?!! (Please tell me!)
Okina: Aoshi? He’s at the temple.
Misao: What, again? Since he got better he hasn’t gone anywhere else!
Okina: He’s had a lot to think about since he got back. Leave him alone for a while.
Misao: Do I have to!
Kenshin: It’s for his sake.
(Chou approaches the Shirobeko, toying with a sword.)
Chou: This is it . . . the restaurant they’ve all gathered at.
(Kenshin and Sanosuke instantly realize something is wrong.)
Kenshin: Sano!
Sanosuke: Right!
(They dash out front to confront him.)
Chou (looking hurt): Man . . . here I thought I’d make a big entrance and pop ya one before you realized. You really are no fun.
Sanosuke: Haven’t the cops caught you yet?
(They move inside; Chou gets his food.)
Everyone: A police officer??
Kenshin: You?
Misao: He’s lying!
Chou: Actually, I’m more undercover.
Kenshin: . . . So you changed sides.
Chou: They said if I did they’d let me off. Now that Lord Shishio’s dead I gotta live somehow. But this spy thing is just to pass the time. When I find something more fun, I’m outta here.
Misao: You can’t! You can’t!
Sanosuke: Someone shut the weasel-girl up. (She’s so loud.) So, what do you want, broom-head?
Misao (being restrained by Kaoru): Don’t call me a weasel! (Everyone calls me that!)
Chou: I see you’ve still got a big mouth, rooster-head. I came all this way to tell you what happened to the other six Ten Swords who were caught and see what thanks I get.
(A pause.)
Kenshin: Well. Tell us.
Chou: Like me, they pretty much all agreed to work for the government in exchange for amnesty. The government’s making good use of their unusual abilities. Soaring Henya’s scouting the situation in Asia for the army from the air. Saitsuchi of the Destructive Army’s back to using his persuasive powers to argue tough foreign negotiations for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And Fuji’s in Hokkaido laying the first railway line up there.
Misao: And the cross-dresser?
Kaoru: The one we fought . . . I think his name was Kamatari . . .
Chou: Kamatari of the Great Scythe’s going into intelligence. He’s going to use his appearance to scout out advanced nations by studying abroad in a girls’ school. Or at least that’s the plan.
Kaoru: That’s the plan?
Chou: Yeah, he’s not healing so well.
Yahiko (nudging Kaoru): So what happened to the sword that protects life, eh?
Kaoru: I didn’t mean to--
Chou: No, he’s not actually hurt that bad. It’s more that he’s sick at heart. He took Lord Shishio’s death pretty hard.
(flashback to Chou visiting Kamatari.)
Kamatari: So Lord Shishio’s . . . then maybe I should die too.
Chou: What kinda stupid talk is that.
Kamatari: But living on now would just be boring.
Chou: Look, you wanna die, you better hurry up and do it. But don’t think that’s what Lord Shishio would have wanted.
Kamatari: What?
Chou: You got to Kyoto late so maybe you missed it. The Ten Swords had one other important duty besides the assassinations. The Meiji government is never going to allow Lord Shishio to be recorded in the history books. We have the duty of keeping his legend alive for future generations.
Kamatari: You’re joking . . .
Chou: We from Kansai may joke around, but this is no lie. Lord Shishio trusted in us. He'll be my best storyteller, he said, and he smiled.
Kamatari: A storyteller . . . now that Yumi’s died and Sou left . . . this is something they can’t do . . .
Kaoru: I feel a little better.
Misao: This is so complicated.
Okina: To think that Shishio Makoto could speak those kind words.
Chou: What’re you talking about. I made the whole thing up.
(Mass face-fault.)
Chou: That’s what the Lord Shishio that lives inside Kamatari is like. If he believes it, he’ll live for that lie with all his heart. And if it keeps him alive, who cares if it’s a lie?
Okina: . . . You’re right.
Sanosuke: I don’t care about the rest of the Ten Swords, but what happened to that Anji guy? Cause there’s no way he’d agree to work for the government.
Chou: Anji the Wrath of God? He was spared the maximum penalty by the plea for mercy, but he’s doing time by his own will. Twenty-five years in a prison in Hokkaido.
Sanosuke: Twenty-five years . . . that’s a long time.
Kenshin: And the other man? The one present at the fight with Shishio. Probably the most loyal of the Ten Swords . . .
Chou: He’s dead. Houji of the Hundred Sense has left this world.
translations by maigo-chan
last update 9 may 1999