Rurouni Kenshin Manga Translations
Volume Three--A Reason to Act
Part 19--A Girl from Aizu
Kaoru: Yahiko!
(Kenshin and Hanya continue to stare each other down. Hanya holds up a hand.)
Hanya: Stop. I see to fight any further here for Takani Megumi is pointless. I myself want
to collect these two and report back to the Okashira.
Kenshin: You were the ones who started this.
We won’t stop you from leaving. But the little one will stay here
to give us the antidote for Yahiko.br>
Hanya: I have no such duty to an enemy.
Kenshin (charging): Then we’ll have to take it!
(Hanya drops into a fighting stance. He turns the sword aside with the back of his hand.)
Hanya: You have a calm expression, but your emotions run high.
(He punches Kenshin with the other fist, knocking him down.)
Hanya: As you shelter Takani Megumi, eventually we will fight again. This is just a
postponement.
(He picks up his fallen comrades and leaps away.)
Sanosuke (thinking): That move . . . he’s completely different from that Hyottoko. That was
kempo with the weight of experience . . .
Kaoru: Kenshin! Yahiko’s--what do we do?
Sanosuke (to Kenshin): What do you think?
Kenshin: I only have experience dealing with sword wounds and broken bones, but if it’s
poison . . . we could try sucking the poison out of the wound--
Kaoru: Right!
Megumi (pulling her back): Stop!
Kaoru: Do you want me to watch Yahiko die? Stay out of this!
Megumi: Fool! You won’t do any good if you infect the wound! This is no work for amateurs.
Stand back. (thinking) Unconscious with a slight fever . . . seems to be in pain, pupils
dilated. (aloud) The poison is jimsonweed! (to Kaoru) This is a dojo, you must have a
doctor. I'll give you a prescription, you go get it from him. Ken-san,
boil some water. I need that and a washcloth for the medicine. (to Sanosuke) You go buy as
much ice as possible. Treating poison is a race against time! Hurry!
(Some time later. Yahiko is in bed; Kaoru and Sanosuke look on as the doctor finishes up.)
Doctor: This should do it. He’ll be all right in three or four days.
Kaoru: I’m so glad, Yahiko. (hugging him. Yahiko moans in his sleep.)
Doctor: As long as he's not disturbed.
Sanosuke (slapping the doctor on the back): Thanks, old man, you’re the greatest.
Doctor: No need to thank me. The one you should be thanking is the one who wrote this prescription.
It’s amazing. The ingredients and recipe for the antidote were perfect. The
person who wrote this must have studied Western medicine at a university.
Sanosuke (darkly): Or they just knew a lot about poisons.
Doctor: Poison and medicine are two sides of the same coin. Jimsonweed is a powerful medicine
when used properly. Also known as Korean morning-glory, it’s the main ingredient
in an anesthetic called mafussan created by the great doctor Hanaoka Seishuu in the middle of
the Edo age. Whoever wrote this must have been a master who studied for a long time at the university.
I’m sure of it.
Kaoru: I’m surprised . . . And I thought she was just an ill-natured woman . . .
Doctor: Woman?
Kaoru: Yes . . .
Doctor: Not Takani Megumi . . . ?
Sanosuke: You know her!?
Doctor: Takani Megumi. She was an assistant to a doctor who was killed three years ago.
(Outside. Megumi takes a sorrowful look at the smashed dojo wall. Then she turns to go.)
Kenshin: Where are you going? (she jumps) It’s dangerous for women to walk at night!
Megumi (recovering from the shock): This guy's bad for the heart . . . (aloud)
How is the boy?
Kenshin: He’s fine. Yahiko’s a strong boy. Thank you for your help.
Megumi: There’s no thanks necessary. Beshimi was aiming for me.
Kenshin: So, where are you going?
Megumi (thinking): You can’t sidetrack this guy! (aloud) I’m leaving Tokyo for now.
It looks like they're gone for now. If I leave, you should be fine.
Kenshin: Is there someone waiting for you at home in Aizu? (she is surprised) You can’t get
rid of the accent of the place you were born and raised even if you speak so flippantly.
I know it because I fought with many warriors from Aizu in Kyoto, in the old days.
Megumi: You really are bad for the heart. All right. I'll end the silence.
Kenshin: Isn’t it time we heard the truth?
(Inside)
Doctor: The Takanis were a famous family of doctors in Aizu (*now Fukushima prefecture) They
were unusual because every generation went into medicine, and they allowed women and children to
study as well. Above all, their belief in equality and treatment for all patients was widely
known. Even in the Edo times of
fierce discrimination, when as doctors they held high rank, they took
any sick patients and devoted themselves to their treatment, no matter what their social status.
The rigid system of preference for the samurai class was offensive to them; they believed that
the true purpose of medicine was life.
Megumi’s father, Takani Ryuusei, believed this to the extreme. Upon hearing of Western medicine,
he suddenly left to take the family to Nagasaki to study.
You young people wouldn't know how much courage it took in those days to leave your province.
So at the same time her family was returning to Aizu, through special permission,
one of the decisive battles of the Boshin War, the Battle of Aizu, was beginning.
the Battle of Aizu--When the domain of Aizu didn't recognize the new government, they
were declared enemies of the Emperor, resulting in the fourth battle of the Boshin War.
Young and old, man and woman, all the people of Aizu fought together even through the siege.
In the end, though,
the modern weapons of the government army proved superior, and they were overcome on September 22,
1868. As the domain of Aizu had worked as a guardian of Kyoto peace, controlling the Ishin Shish
by setting up the Shinsengumi, it was a long time before the cruel oppression of the new government
was lifted . . .
Doctor: The Takani family left the young Megumi to serve as doctors on the battlefield. Ryuusei
died there, and her mother and two brothers were declared missing in a fire. Since then, Megumi
has been alone . . .
I think she’s borne a lot of troubles since then, but five years ago she came up to
Tokyo and became the assistant of a certain doctor. As I said, he was killed two years after
that. I don’t know what happened to Megumi after that. I’d very much like to see her. Where
is she now?
Kaoru: Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen her.
Sanosuke: She couldn’t have--
(Outside)
Megumi: Five years ago, I had no eyes to judge people. That doctor was secretly involved
with Kanryuu. Kanryuu would lay in a cheap stock of opium ingredients, and the doctor would
refine them and sell it back to him. They were good at it. Until the doctor came up with this.
(she holds up a paper packet.) It’s known as "the Spider’s Web." To the casual eye it looks
like ordinary opium, but it’s completely new. It’s made with half the usual ingredients, but
has twice the addictive power. Which means they could earn four times as much with it. If it
hit the streets in Tokyo, it could addict the city in just five years. Planning huge business,
Kanryuu tried to find out the
method of refining it, but the doctor wanted all the profits for himself and refused to tell
him. They quarreled and the doctor was accidentally killed. As his assistant, I was the only
one who knew the recipe. So I was forced to produce it. I had made it before, believing it
was medicine to save peoples’ lives. When I learned otherwise, I thought of death. But death
was denied to me.
(she drops the packet, revealing scars across her wrists.)
Megumi: Living . . . even though I was separated from my family, I thought that if I was
involved in medicine, somehow, somewhere, I could find them. So I thought . . . as for three
years I made the medicine which drove men to kill themselves . . .
Kenshin: But, if Kanryuu forced you to do this, that means there's no one else that knows the
refining method.
You kept down production of this "Spider’s Web" to the minimum, taking only the
minimum number of victims. Far from abandoning these crimes, you bore them all yourself.
(he smiles) Then, if your suffering continued for three years, it’s about time you were
forgiven and set free.
Megumi (thinking): Ken-san . . .
Kenshin: You can’t get rid of us so easily. It’s better if you stay here for a while longer.
Megumi: But . . .
Kenshin (as Kaoru, Sanosuke and the doctor come out the gate): It’s all right, isn’t it,
Miss Kaoru?
(a tense moment. Kaoru clearly doesn't like Megumi, but at the same time knows that she's
suffered. Finally . . .)
Kaoru: It’s fine. I know what you went through when you were alone. If Kenshin hadn't been here
I'd be no better off than you.
Kenshin: Now all we need to know is how to deal with Kanryuu.
Kaoru (whispering): But if you so much as touch Kenshin, that’s it. I’ll abandon you without
a second thought.
(Sanosuke regards the scene silently.)
(A room in Kanryuu’s mansion. Aoshi is studying some papers.)
Aoshi: I see. So I won’t be able to use Beshimi or Hyottoko for a while. Hanya, you’re
not badly hurt?
Hanya: No.
(He drops into the room through a gap in the ceiling. His shirt is torn over his stomach.)
Hanya: But it was close. As you said, he’s no ordinary man. Even as he
took my punch, he was taking advantage of the impact to aim for the liver, a vital spot.
Aoshi: Can you fight?
Hanya: Not for two or three days, but espionage . . .
Aoshi (shutting his book): All right. In three days we’ll know his past. We’ll find out what sort
of man he is . . . .