Rurouni Kenshin Manga Translation
Volume Two--Two Hitokiris
Part 10--One-sided Heart
(Kaoru lies awake in bed)
Kaoru (thinking): I can’t sleep . . . what’s wrong with me? I’m really worried for some
reason.
(She gets up to pace the house. Yahiko is out like a light in his room.)
Kaoru: Well, it is Kenshin. I’m sure he’ll be okay. And Sanosuke’s with him too, just in
case . . . Kenshin will be fine . . .
(the Black Hat stands framed in the window.)
Black Hat: One, two, three . . . fourteen, fifteen of you? Not as many as I thought.
Sanosuke (to Kenshin): That’s the Black Hat? Hm. Those eyes are pretty scary.
Kenshin: Do you understand, Sano? He’ll deal with me. You look after Mr. Tani.
Tani (leaping to his feet): What are you just standing there for? Get him! I’m paying you
enough! Get to work! The one who destroys him gets five times what I’m paying you now! And
I’ll get you an office at the Department of War!
Bodyguard: Five times!
An officer! (as they charge)
All right, that job's mine!
No, I’ll take it!
Sanosuke: Idiots! You want to throw your lives away for greed?
(The Black Hat chuckles again, building to a maniacal laugh. The charging guards are quickly
slaughtered.)
Black Hat: Ah, this feeling--it's good.
Sanosuke (thinking): He’s fast! He doesn’t fly like Kenshin, but he’s using some weird form
of kenjutsu! (aloud) Stay back! You can’t take him!
(The guards are pulling back.)
Black Hat (turning the full power of his eyes on them): Don’t run!
(They freeze.)
Tani: Wha--what was that . . .
Chief: They can’t move!
Black Hat: You can’t run away. Once you draw your sword, you fight until one of us dies.
Otherwise, it just wouldn't be fun.
Sanosuke (who also is having trouble moving): Why you . . . what are you doing?
What the hell have you done to me?
Black Hat: Oh ho . . . someone who can move against the "One-sided Heart" must be at
least a little more than a mere worm.
Kenshin: The Nikaidou Heibou "One-sided Heart" is also known as "the art of shrinking." I
thought it was unbelievable, but you are indeed the Black Hat of Rushes.
(He vaults over Sanosuke to exchange blows with Black Hat.)
Chief: Mr. Himura!
(Kenshin has taken a cut to the arm.)
Kenshin: I heard stories about you during the Bakumatsu in Kyoto. A man who didn’t belong
to any clan, but took contracts on people for pay. Said to be a master who had attained
the highest level of the Nikaidou Heibou.
Nikaidou Heibou--this form of kenjutsu is made up of three forms, the one, eight
and ten. (**note: the sword is held in positions similar to the characters for these
numbers; straight across, in two diagonal lines, or in a cross.) Its secret technique is
famous as it is strange and terrible. The "one-sided heart" is said to have been used only by its
originator.
One-sided Heart--This most secret of secret techniques entails sending one’s own
ki out through one’s eyes to crush one’s opponent, freezing him in place. It's said that the
technique was never passed down to a second generation. In modern times it would be called a kind of
instantaneous hypnosis.
Kenshin: I thought you’d use as an attack, but you use it to kill those who have
lost the will to fight . . . Isn’t that unfair, Udou Jin’eh?
Jin’eh: I too have heard rumors. A patriot from Choushuu, using the old style of kenjutsu
called Hiten Mitsurugi. The legendary man bearing a large cross-shaped scar on his left
cheek, Hitokiri Himura Battousai!
(He fixes his gaze upon Kenshin.)
Chief: Mr. Himura!
(Kenshin meets his gaze, breaking the spell.)
Kenshin: A match, man to man, without trickery like the "one-sided heart." If your sword is
equal to mine, you won’t need it. Release them, Jin’eh. Or you’ll face me.
Jin’eh: I hadn’t hoped for Battousai as an opponent. However. (he turns his stare on Tani.)
First I’ll fulfill my challenge!
(Tani, frozen in place, can only scream.)
Kenshin: Mr. Tani, snap out of it!
Jin’eh: Futile! However it may be with you, this rotting fat pig will not break free!
(rushing up the steps to Tani) You once paid big money for a killing, but now killing is
against the law. (almost there) You fat patriot pig!!
(Sanosuke, roaring, breaks free.)
Sanosuke: Too soon-- (grabbing a statue above Tani and smashing it down) --for checkmate!
(The statue breaks Jin’eh’s sword. Jin’eh, laughing, drives the fragment through Sanosuke’s
wrist.)
Kenshin (rushing forward): JIN’EHHHH!!!
(Jin’eh blocks his strike with his short sword. Kenshin pushes off from the ceiling for
another blow. The impact drives them both back.)
Bodyguard: I can move!!
(A series of jumps take Jin’eh back to the windowsill.)
Jin’eh (chuckling): This is interesting. More interesting than anything since the Bakumatsu.
There’s been a change in target! My next quarry is you, patriot Hitokiri Battousai!
(he leaps backwards out of the window.) I’ll appear again soon. Wait for me, and bring a
real sword this time!
Chief: Mr. Himura.
Kenshin: Are you all right, Sano?
Sanosuke: Yeah, this is nothing.
Kenshin: Chief, if we hurry and get some first aid for these men they might still make it.
Chief: Yes, of course. But Mr. Himura, now that you’re being targeted--
Kenshin: It doesn’t matter. If anything, it was fortunate that this happened.
Sanosuke: Kenshin . . . you guessed it would turn out like this from the start and you still
took this on . . .
Kenshin: I had hoped to settle it here. (thinking) But it turned out as one might expect.
Jin’eh of the Black Hat . . . this will not be easily resolved.