Rurouni Kenshin Manga Translations
Volume Twenty-One--And So Time Passed
Part 179--Remembrances 14--And So Time Passed
It's all right. So please, don't cry . . .
Kenshin (thinking): It's not all right. How could this be right? If someone had to die, it should have been me,
the killer . . . How can it be right that you died? Tomoe . . .
(Two weeks later. A villager points the way, directing Katsura to Kenshin's house.)
(Kenshin sits in the middle of the room, staring at the fire.)
Kenshin (thinking): I think and I think and I can't understand. Why . . . why would she . . . Tomoe.
(The wind ruffles the pages of her diary, sitting open on a table.)
Kenshin (thinking): Tomoe's . . . diary . . .
(He picks it up and begins reading.)
April 4--Today we received word from that Kyosato Akira had been killed. Though I can hardly believe it,
I am filled with regret that I did not stop him from leaving. Now--
Kenshin (thinking): Kyosato . . so that was her fiance's name. I've heard that name somewhere before.
(Suddenly, he remembers the young man he killed in Kyoto, and his last word: To . . mo . . e.)
Kenshin (thinking): I killed him! I was the one who killed her fiance--I stole her happiness from her! Tomoe . . .
Katsura (at the door): Your misfortune in killing her fiance. Her misfortune in falling in love with you.
It was just two pieces of very bad luck. It's not your fault. I heard all about it. I've already sent
someone for the traitor.
(Iizuka is walking along a snowy mountain path.)
Iizuka: Heh heh . . . Everyone's bad, I'm just a step ahead of the rest.
Whether the Bakuku or the patriots win, pretty soon there aren't going to be any samurai any more.
(juggling a couple of medicine tablets) These are much more reliable than a sword--
(A swordsman appears on the path before, holding a blade with a serrated edge. Iizuka stares at him for a moment.)
Iizuka: Damn . . . leave it to Kogorou. He couldn't just let me go. Well, guess I'll have to rely on a sword
this time--
(Shishio smiles. Iizuka is killed in one burst of flame.)
Shishio: My first job was too easy. Is this all they think I'm worth? No matter. Let them think of me as their toy.
It won't be the Bakufu or the patriots who take this country. It'll be me . . .
(Back in Kenshin's house.)
Kenshin: Shishio Makoto . . .
Katsura: Yes . . his origins and school are unknown. He's dangerous, but his skills are on a par with yours.
It's been decided that he will conduct the assassinations from now on.
Kenshin: So I'm being fired.
Katsura: No . . you must continue to wield your sword for us. The patriot-hunting in the capital has grown worse.
If no one stands up to them, total destruction is inevitable. Himura, you must protect the patriots as a mobile attacker.
It's cruel of me to ask you, but there is no one else I can ask this of. I want you to make your heart bloodthirsty and
wield the sword that soars the heavens.
(Kenshin is silent. Katsura is startled when the door suddenly opens--it's the village kids.)
Kids: Can you come play with us? Not today either?
We're going to fly kites! (Even though it's snowing.)
Katsura: I see I'm interrupting. I'll come again tomorrow.
Kenshin (getting up and tucking Tomoe's diary into his sleeve): I understand. If I abandon the sword now, all the lives
I've taken will be for nothing. Tomoe taught me the many small happinesses people live for. Until there can be an age
lit up by these small happinesses, I will wield the sword. But when the new age comes . . .
Katsura: . . . You'll throw away the sword?
Kenshin: I don't know. But I'll never kill again. Never again . . .
(He goes outside to join the kids.)
Katsura (thinking): It's just as Shinsaku feared . . .
Shinsaku (in flashback): You're gonna ruin that kid's life.
Katsura (thinking): It's my fault . . . The Hiten sword wasn't meant to destroy the old age, but to protect the new . . . I'm sorry, Himura.
(outside)
Girl: Hey, where's Tomoe? What happened to her?
Kenshin: She had to go far away. She's not coming back.
Boy: What, you divorced her? (That's so not cool.)
Kenshin: Something like that. But after today, I have to go far away too.
Kids: What? You can't!
Kenshin: I'm sorry. So today, until the sun goes down, let's play together . . .
And so--
(In Kyoto. A group of Shinsengumi are chasing someone down through narrow streets.)
Shinsengumi: There he is! This way! Follow him! You patriots won't get away!
(A man steps out of the shadows.)
Kenshin: Withdraw. If you withdraw now, it will save your lives. If you do not . . .
Shinsengumi: Red hair--cross scar on the left cheek--it can't be--Hitokiri Battousai!
(Saitou steps up behind them.)
Saitou: I thought he was no ordinary swordsman.
Shinsengumi: Captain Saitou!
(Gatotsu faces battou-jutsu in the Kyoto streets.)
Long ago . . . amid the chaos of the Bakumatsu, there was a patriot known as Hitokiri Battousai . . .
Though he killed many, he vanished with the end of the violence. And so time passed . . . until 1878.
The Making of the Characters--Yukishiro (Himura) Tomoe
I really don't want to say this, but since the point of this corner is that it's "tell-all, no lies, nothing held back," I guess I will. Originally, I didn't have a motif for Tomoe. I had most of the story for the Remembrances arc before publication, and at that time Tomoe was just "a woman who is very beautiful, but you can't tell what she really feels;" a character you could summarize as a "cool beauty." (This is a digression, but when I was talking about "cool beauties"
with my friend, he laughed at me. Is my interpretation of "cool beauty" wrong?) In the three years before her character appeared, I didn't come up with any other image for her at all, so when the time came for her to be introduced I ended up using an Ayanami-lookalike from Evangelion.
Since the display of emotion and that transformation is the foundation of drama, and since a cool beauty is a cool beauty because she doesn't reveal her true intentions, without me realizing this crucial point, in her death scene she became a totally different character.
On top of that, the way she died, shielding him like Yumi did, was a big mistake. What I felt about Tomoe went beyond self-reproach; I felt self-hatred. Drawing the first half with Tomoe as a cool beauty was fun, but when Tomoe herself felt love, I wanted her to be reborn into a different story. Then for sure, it would have been as my original cool beauty . . .
The design was made under the same conditions, so it ended up being the Ayanami-lookalike. The only original element is the single point of light in her black eyes; I designed that thinking "This expresses her better than the image of unrevealed intention." But really, that's it. To tell the truth, in these four years while I've been drawing full-time, it seems like more things take sensivity out of me than put it back in. Even though I store up good information and come
up with good ideas, while I'm letting them ripen into my own originals, I lose energy and strength and time. Tomoe is a character in which my own condition is vividly reflected. Now that I'm done drawing her, I feel a need to find a way of drawing a different kind of manga, and I've already slowly begun. Even those of you who were angry about what Tomoe could have been, if you continue to read my manga for a little longer I would be honored.
translations by maigo-chan
last updated 7 august 2000