Rurouni Kenshin Manga Translations
Volume Twenty-four--End of the Dream
Part 211--Not Zero
Tonight, we're going to unearth Kamiya Kaoru's grave--
(Late at night, four figures gather around a gravesite.)
(Earlier)
Yahiko: Unearth Kaoru's grave?! What are you thinking? For what?
Aoshi: It's the surest way to verify that it's Kamiya Kaoru's body.
Yahiko: Verify?
Aoshi: Listen. You didn't
see the circumstances that led up to Kamiya Kaoru's death yourself,
but didn't you think they were odd? Beginning with the destruction of the
Akabeko, the persistent, malicious attacks of Earthly Justice came one after the other.
The murder of Kamiya Kaoru was the greatest and the last, the crucial finale. But he
only showed her dead--he kept her murder out of sight. Her final moments--Yukishiro Enishi
knew full well that those would be the most painful for Battousai. But his revenge was
completed when one of his friends was fighting him. Although it's not impossible that he
had to change his plans when the fighting exceeded his expectations, Yukishio Enishi got
that far by planning with singleminded intensity. Nothing was overlooked.
Yahiko: . . . But, there was a body. I saw it.
Aoshi (pointing): Look.
Yahiko: That's the second Iwanbou, that Sanosuke brought back . . .
(The skin of the Iwanbou is putrefying; flies gather around it.)
Yahiko: It's rotting!
Aoshi: It seems it couldn't be maintained without periodic treatment to prevent decay.
I've examined it. It's constructed partly out of human skin, tissue and bone.
He probably stole bodies out of graves and took them apart to make it.
Yahiko: . . . He made it out of corpses.
Aoshi: I read a great deal to prepare for the position of Okashira. I remember a record
of a similar technique in the books left by my forebears. In the Warring States period,
generals would leave substitute "shadow warriors" in their places to ensure their own
security. But training shadow warriors took great time and expense. What was developed
was a secret method of constructing dolls out of corpses that couldn't distinguished from
real people at a glance. If the puppet master called Gein had inherited these techniques--
Megumi: That's enough! I verified the body! She was bleeding, the warmth was just
leaving the skin . . . That was no doll! Maybe someone as cold as you couldn't understand,
but we're all hurting right now! I don't know anything about secret techniques, but your
groundless speculation is only making things worse!
Aoshi: You're sure? When a person close to you has died, can you make a rational,
absolute judgment?
Megumi: You . . . you're heartless!
Misao: What! I didn't get what Lord Aoshi was going on about, but I got that!
Yahiko: You idiot.
Misao: What!
Yahiko: You're saying that the body we saw could have been a fake.
Aoshi: What I'm suggesting is a possibility. When you think about it, it's pretty low.
But it's not zero.
It's not zero . . .
(They stand around Kaoru's unearthed coffin.)
Yahiko (thinking): Maybe we'll just face despair again, but--(aloud) I'll open it.
(They remove the lid. Kaoru's body is inside.)
Misao: Kaoru . . .
Megumi (lifting her wrist): I'm sure. This is no doll. This is real . . .
Aoshi (unsheathing his sword): Close your eyes.
Megumi: Wait, what are you--
Aoshi: According to the records, these dolls were very elaborate. From the surface no one
could tell. The only way to be sure was to take them apart.
Megumi (grabbing his sleeve): That's sick! How far are you going to take this!
Yahiko (thinking): It's a possibility. If you think about it, it's close to zero.
But it's not zero.
(Yahiko puts a hand on Megumi's arm.)
Megumi: Yahiko?
Yahiko (thinking): It's not--it's not zero! (aloud) Do it! Aoshi!
(He stabs. They all flinch. Then he reaches inside and pulls out a handful of bloody
steel cables.)
Aoshi: We bet on a possibility that wasn't quite zero and won. Yukishiro's motive in
employing a fake isn't clear. But we can say one thing. Kamiya Kaoru hasn't been killed.
She's alive somewhere.
Yahiko (thinking): Kaoru's alive! Kaoru's alive! Kenshin--
(Elsewhere, on an unfamiliar bed, Kaoru is awakening.)
Free Talk Part 1
And so, Kaoru is alive. The series of developments, from Kaoru's death, Kenshin's breakdown
and Kaoru's actually being alive got evaluation, encouragement and all kinds of criticism
in response. Of course I was prepared for that, but I was nearly beside myself with worry.
It was the most afraid I've been of reader's responses the whole time I've been drawing
Ruroken.
Actually, to make the theme the highest priority in the revenge arc, Kaoru should have been
killed. It would have put the theme clearly at the fore, kept the story simple, and made
the work better. Actually, before I began the revenge arc I was fifty-fifty about whether
she would live or die, and I was so worried about it I got a teething fever.
But at the end of the Kyoto arc I went back, and reasoning that the basis of a boys' comic
was smiles and a happy ending, and that there couldn't be any smiles or happy ending if
Kaoru died, I decided on this course of events.
There were some advance hints, and in the author's comments around the time she died, I tried to make it seem as though she might not really be dead. The older, more skeptical readers got this, but for my younger, more innocent readers it was a hard and bitter development. I'm truly sorry for this.
I've heard that there were some people who stopped reading Ruroken because of this sequence.
It finally smashed the framework of the period work I've narrowly been protecting. But,
the chapter where Kaoru was found alive was much more popular with readers than the chapter
in which she died.
The basis of a boys' comic is smiles and a happy ending. As long as this choice wasn't
the wrong one, heading towards the climax of the revenge arc, I'll devote myself to it
all the more. Please come along with me.
translations by maigo-chan
last updated 1 jan 2001