Rurouni Kenshin Manga Translations
Volume Four--Two Destinies
Part 27--Fierce Fight
(Aoshi’s punches rain down; one catches Kenshin across the face.)
Aoshi: No matter how many times you attack, it’s futile. When pressed my kodachi could keep
off bullets from a rifle.
(Kenshin goes down.)
Yahiko (thinking): He's too good . . . Kenshin couldn't even hit him once . . .
Aoshi: Stand up. I don’t like dealing the finishing blow to one already defeated.
Yahiko (thinking): No matter what advantage he has, he never has even a thin smile on his
face . . . he really does have a fighting heart of ice! Dammit, he must have tripped him!
(aloud) Kenshin!
Kenshin (getting to his feet): I’m fine. It would take more than that to defeat me, without
apologizing to Miss Megumi, without seeing Miss Kaoru’s face, without a word to Sano . . .
Finally, I’ve come to see how to keep off the kodachi.
Aoshi: Suddenly, you want to say, but it’s not in your nature to say such things. I’ll show
you how.
(Kenshin strikes)
Aoshi (blocking): Slow!
(he drops the kodachi to counter the next, when he sees that Kenshin is not gripping his sword
by the hilt but above it.)
Aoshi (thinking): What! The edge of the blade . . .
(Kenshin drives the hilt into his throat, driving him back.)
Kenshin: Aoshi. The secret to your strength is perfectly controlling your opponent’s
range.
Yahiko (thinking): Range . . . (flashback to a lesson from Kaoru.)
Kaoru: Okay, Yahiko, range. The distance your opponent can cover with one attack.
(Yahiko: Boring.)
Kaoru: (You want to be strong, right? So listen up.) The range changes according to an
individual’s skill and
specialty with his weapon, but in a match at the master’s level, how your reach and your
opponent’s precommit your moves become the essence of the fight.
Kenshin: While there’s an advantage to my simple thinking and way of holding the sword,
my longer reach creates a blind spot for me at close quarters. You use this blind spot when
you trap the sword with the kodachi and attack with your fists. But when you attack with the
kodachi, the blind spot is naturally eliminated.
Aoshi: To cut flesh and sever bone . . . You’ve shown me the essence of the Hitokiri. In
return, I shall bring you down with the essence of the Oniwabanshuu. (He strikes.)
Kenshin (blocking easily, and thinking): Slow! Why so . . .
(Aoshi is behind him, and then it seems he is surrounded by Aoshis, all in different positions.)
Kenshin: The Kenbu!? (dodging stroke after stroke, and thinking) This is no ceremonial
sword dance!
Aoshi: You're too used to the clearly-defined moves of kenjutsu. This ever-changing flood
of movement cannot be stopped.
Kenshin (thinking): The kempo moves and the kodachi techniques are combined in a true
fighting sword dance . . . !
Aoshi: Die.
(He rakes Kenshin three times across the chest. Kenshin falls.)
Aoshi: The Kaiten Kenbu. The technique which disposed of all who crept into Edo Castle.
Yahiko (eyes wide with shock): Ken . . . shin . . .
Aoshi: It’s over. Himura Battousai is dead.
Yahiko: Shut up . . . then I’m next! I’ll destroy you even if it’s the last thing I do!
Aoshi: Brave words. I'm almost sorry I'll have to kill you . . .
Kenshin: Yahiko is the successor to the Kamiya Kasshin school . . . He can’t die in a place
like this.
Yahiko: Kenshin!
Kenshin (regaining his feet): And I have no reason to die here either!
Aoshi: Are you immortal--!
Kenshin: Hardly.
(Three pieces fall away from Kenshin’s scabbard.)
Kenshin: This Kaiten Kenbu . . . it cut through the iron sheath like it was wood . . .
Aoshi: I see . . by quickly raising the scabbard you cut the force of the blow in half. A
great man. I see why they called you the strongest. No, I admit it myself from the heart.
So now once more! We are prepared to take your title of strongest!
(Kenshin is once more surrounded.)
Yahiko: Watch out, Kenshin! He’s going into the Kaiten Kenbu!
Aoshi: I said it before. You can’t stop this flood of movement. You’re slowed by wounds
from head to foot . . . It’s over, Himura Battousai!!
(Kenshin’s sword is knocked out of his hands.)
Yahiko: Kenshin!!
Kenshin: I certainly can’t stop your flood of movement. But, when you move to attack from
the Kaiten Kenbu, for an instant, it’s a different story.
(He grasps the kodachi between his two palms.)
Yahiko: The shirabadori!
Kenshin: In the five hundred schools of kenjutsu, there is only one way to catch a sword
bare-handed. In all of kempo, there is none. Aoshi, if you want the title of "strongest,"
it’s yours. It’s not something I’m proud of. Right now, saving someone, and returning to
someone who’s waiting--
(He twists the blade out of Aoshi’s hands and drives it into his throat again.)
Kenshin:--is a thousand times more important!