Rurouni Kenshin Manga Translations
Volume Twenty-Three--Consciousness of Crime and Punishment
Part 197--Once Again the Wolf
Saitou: I came to ask what your connection with Yukishiro Enishi was, but there's no need. You keep the worst of company.
Sanosuke: You bastard . . . If you were alive, why didn't you show us your face?
Saitou (ignoring him): Since I'm already in the middle of a fight, I'd like to save some time. It's not much fun if you don't know what's going on.
Sanosuke: You let on you were dead so you could look for your chance to kill Kenshin??
Saitou (still ignoring him): Explain.
Sanosuke: Don't tell me what to do! Answer me!
Saitou: Persistant, aren't you. You wanted me dead so badly?
Sanosuke: It leaves a bad taste in my mouth to say it, but if you were alive you should have told us.
Saitou: Then you shouldn't get so attached. Now explain.
Sanosuke: Yeah right!
Megumi (elbowing Sanosuke out of the way): All right, I'll explain.
Sanosuke: Wait a minute, I'm still talking here--
Megumi: I'll tell you everything you want to know. But in exchange . . please, help Ken-san.
Saitou: I can't do that. I wield my sword for my own justice alone. I reject your condition. Now explain yourself, quickly.
(Meanwhile, Mumyoui is perched on the roof, staring at Kenshin and Kaoru.)
Mumyoui: Take up your sword. Or what? Do I have to fight the woman instead?
Kenshin: I understand most of this. But there's one thing I still don't see. How did you, a miner, join up with the Dark Arts?
Mumyoui: When times change, lives change too . . . At the end of the Edo period, the gold seams of Japan, once called the Golden Country, were almost all mined out. Without gold, the miners had no way to live. We had to find a new way of life. The Yatsume clan's secret body manipulation techniques found it in me. This body contained a great deal of fighting potential. If the Tokugawa shogunate had seen this-- But you destroyed it. The patriots destroyed the shogunate. Now the Yatsume clan is just a candle in the wind . . . Dying of cold and starvation, they're searching the unclaimed lands of Hokkaido for gold . . . That's the end of my story! Take your sword, Battousai!
Kaoru (thinking): . . . This man isn't just obeying the laws of his clan. He's made all the misfortunes of his clan into hatred of the Ishin Shishi, and turned it all on Kenshin . . .
(Kenshin stands up.)
Kaoru: Kenshin . . .
Saitou: If you're planning on fighting and not killing him, then stand aside.
(Saitou has entered the courtyard; all eyes turn to him.)
Kenshin: I thought I heard your voice.
Saitou: You don't seem too surprised.
Kenshin: I've gotten used to seeing people alive that I thought were dead.
Saitou: I guess you would.
Kenshin: Why are you here?
Saitou: We were searching for the malcontents that sold the battleship Rengoku in our wrapping up of the Shishio incident, and traced it to the man you see overhead. Shishio's uprising had been put down just at the point when Japan was growing strong enough to resist foreign powers. The opening of a gate for kindling like weapons or what have you to enter from the closest direct point of contact with the outside, Shanghai, is extremely unfortunate to say the least. This man's very existence is a threat to Japan.
Kenshin: So you're going to take him down.
Saitou: Take him down, yes. Arrest him. Deport him. First, I'd like to get him down on the ground. But he said he'd come down if the others were all beaten first, yes? The only one left is this freak. This coincidence has turned into an opportunity. I'd hate to let it go by while you were busy with your petty morals.
Mumyoui: Who's this bastard?
Saitou: A freak has no right to say that to me.
Kenshin: Saitou!
Saitou: A human being uses his intellect to know when it's time to quit. Animals rely on their instincts. But you blame your failures on the victors, never realizing that your time was up. You're worse than an animal, freak!
Mumyoui: . . . Give me five minutes, Battousai.
Saitou: I won't need five minutes. Three will be enough.
Mumyoui: I've killed everyone who ever called me a freak! (leaping forward) Me! This body! Yatsume! I'll show you the true power of the Yatsume body manipulation!
(He strikes the ground with his left arm, ploughing up a gash just beside Saitou.)
Kaoru: The ground--it's like a ditch--
(Behind them, Megumi and Sanosuke are watching the fight.)
Megumi: Whatever he said, it looks like he's helping Ken-san after all.
Sanosuke: I think he just wanted a fight.
Megumi: That's highly possible.
Sanosuke (thinking): Whatever the reason, it means Kenshin won't be worn out any further before he has to fight Enishi.
Mumyoui: How was it? This strength. I'm no freak. I am more than human.
Saitou: Those fangs. Is that body manipulation too?
Mumyoui: Yes. They were ground bit by bit ever since I was little, strengthened with bone and ash.
Saitou: And the tongue?
Mumyoui: I was born with that.
Saitou: I see. So you are a freak.
Mumyoui: I'll kill you!
Saitou: Kill? You? Kill me? You don't know your own limits.
translations by maigo-chan
last updated 10 september