Rurouni Kenshin Manga Translations
Volume Twenty-One--And So Time Passed
Part 182--Confession (Beginning)
The ninth day. One more day until the day of the battle. In these past eight days Enishi has shown no
sign of making a surprise attack. Amid tension and unease, daily life goes on--
(Yahiko, soaked in sweat, is doing the exercise in the dojo.)
Yahiko: Fifty thousand!
Kaoru (hardly paying attention): Good. Now do five thousand more.
Yahiko: That's enough!! How long are you going to make me wave my arms around?! The fight is tomorrow!
Kaoru: Quit complaining. Trying to learn a succession technique in just ten days at all is pretty foolish.
Now concentrate on the basics! Forget tomorrow and focus on right now!
(Kenshin is standing in the doorway.)
Yahiko: I know that!
Kaoru: All right, then I'll teach you a special form. First I'll show you directly. Attack me!
(Kenshin silently steps out.)
(Yahiko charges her, death in his eyes.)
Kaoru: You're pretty vicious. (You mad at me?)
(Yahiko brings the shinai down on her head. Kaoru crosses her wrists in the exercise movement and traps the sword
between the backs of her hands.)
Kaoru: Kamiya Kasshin school succession technique Hawatari!
(She twists her wrists, pulling the shinai out of Yahiko's grip and throwing him to the ground.)
Kaoru: Unlike the usual way of blocking with your hands, you do it with your sword still in your grip. Restraining
your opponent's sword is the main point of this form, Defense succession technique Hadome. Then, you move to the
second form, Attack succession technique. The faster you move, the more of your opponent's strength can be
used against him! It's an extreme sword technique. If you misjudge the situation, it's certain death, but . . .
Yahiko (thinking): If it's perfected, it's an instant kill!
Kaoru: Well, you've got that, so now you try it.
Yahiko: Right!
(Kaoru comes in to attack. Yahiko raises his hands, ready to catch her sword.)
Kaoru: You're open!
(She smashes him across the stomach.)
Kaoru: I told you. Misjudge the situation and you're dead. It's a difficult technique. Even your adjunct master
has never used it successfully in a match, let alone a real fight. Never forget that! Until you can be sure it'll
work, never use it in a real--
(She turns and notices Kenshin is gone.)
Kaoru: Huh? When did he leave? Yahiko, I'm going to go look for him. Practice this on your own!
(She leaves.)
Yahiko: Damn . . .she got me right in the pit of the stomach. (A little lower and I'd have been dead.)
(thinking) But I definitely crossed my fists before she could hit me. The 50,000 have paid off!
(He gets to his feet.)
Yahiko: All right! More practice! (By myself it's all I can do . . . )
(Kaoru goes to the Oguni clinic, where she runs into Sanosuke.)
Sanosuke: Kenshin?
Kaoru: He disappeared from the dojo. I looked all through the house but he's not there.
Sanosuke: He was just here on a visit.
Kaoru: A visit?
Sanosuke: To mustache-glasses.
Kaoru: Mustache--oh!
(They go to see Chief Uramura. His daughter is in the room as well.)
Uramura: I heard all about it from Himura.
Kaoru: I'm very sorry about all this.
Uramura: Don't apologize. My family was minor samurai, and I've seen action in the Boshin and Seinan wars, so what's
a little injury or two. Tell Himura it may not be much, but the police will do all they can for him. And please don't
worry about my daughter. She'll understand, one day.
(His daughter is giving Kaoru a very cold look. Kaoru bows her head sadly to her as she leaves. The daughter looks
surprised.)
Daughter: Who was that woman?
Uramura: Himura's . . . landlady. For now . . .
(Kaoru and Sanosuke walk back through the halls.)
Sanosuke: Mustache-glasses seems okay. I don't know about the Maekawa dojo, though.
Kaoru: Yes . . . I heard from one of the students yesterday. They're all recovering. Maekawa says that "Fighting,
even for no reason, is natural to a swordsman," and doesn't blame Kenshin at all. He feels his age, though, and
is going to retire and pass the school on to a younger man.
Sanosuke: Strong or weak, that's a swordsman's destiny. He was lucky to get a second chance after Raijuuta.
Kaoru: Don't say that . . . Well, I'm going to go look in town. What about you?
Sanosuke: Sorry, I gotta get the hand checked out.
Kaoru: How is your hand?
Sanosuke: I sure won't be able to use it tomorrow. But I'm thinking of a backup plan. Don't worry about me.
Save it for Kenshin.
(He turns back into the building.)
Sanosuke: That vixen . . wonder how long she'll make me wait.
(He finds the room and is about to go in when he hears voices. Megumi and Dr. Oguni are talking to a man from Aizu.)
Aizu Man: Please, Dr. Takani. As you know, the Aizu region was the Bakufu's stronghold. The new government still
bitterly resents it. Their rule is harsh; the lands have grown wild. Sickness and famine is everywhere . . . Now,
to save its people, Aizu needs doctors . .
Dr. Oguni: To tell the truth, it'd be hard to lose you, Megumi, but you could look for your family much more easily
than if you were in Tokyo . . . What do you think?
Megumi: I understand. I always planned to go back to Aizu some day. And above all a doctor's work is to help the sick.
But now . . .
Dr. Oguni: It's this matter with Himura, isn't it.
Megumi: Yes . . . If I don't see this through, I know I'll regret it.
Sanosuke (outside): I didn't know she was thinking about the future . . . Well, she is twenty-two. (Or so she says.)
(Kaoru is walking through town.)
Kaoru: Really, where is he?
Tae: Kaoru!
Kaoru: Tae! Tsubame!
(They're standing in front of the wreckage of the Akabeko, handing out fliers to passers-by.)
Kaoru: You're reopening? You are such a businesswoman!
Tae: You flatter me.
Kaoru: But . . . I'm sorry. It was our fault that the Akabeko was . . .
Tae: What are you talking about. Tsubame told me everything and you have nothing to apologize for. What's done is done.
We'll just have to build it up again. And we'll do it someday, so don't you worry about us.
Tsubame: But, Kaoru, you look pale. Is something wrong?
Kaoru: Oh, that's right. Have you seen Kenshin?
Tae: He just came by and apologized.
Kaoru: Really? Where did he go?
Tae: I don't know . . .
Kaoru: I give up. I've been everywhere I could think of . . .
Tae: Sounds rough . . .
Tsubame: Um . . I know of one place he might go. He might be there . . .
(She tells her, and Kaoru hurries off.)
Tsubame: Tae?
Tae: Yes?
Tsubame: I hope it works out between Kaoru and Kenshin.
(Tae smiles.)
Tae: Me too.
(Kenshin is standing in the bamboo grove where Tsubame once saw him.)
Kaoru: Kenshin!
Kenshin: Miss Kaoru.
Kaoru: I finally found you.
translations by maigo-chan
last updated 7 july 2000