Rurouni Kenshin Manga Translations
Volume Seven--May 14, 1878
Part 55--the Request of Okubo Toshimichi
Battousai: Once of the Satsuma Ishin Shishi, now Director of Internal Affairs under the Meiji
government, Okubo Toshimichi.
Yahiko: And so what?! Who is this bearded guy that just showed up out of nowhere!?
Sanosuke: You don't read the papers. Obviously a mere child wouldn't know.
Megumi: The last of the Ishin Sanketsu*, the triumvirate of the new era, the highest achievers of the new age. He has
complete control of the country in all but name with the position of Director of Internal
Affairs. In other words . . . the most powerful man in Meiji Japan.
*The other two, Saigou Takamori and Katsuru Kogourou, had already died by 1878.
Okubo: I apologize for the rough treatment, but we needed to know how strong you were. You'll
hear what I have to say?
Battousai: . . . Yes. Even if I have to force it out of you.
Akamatsu (from outside): What . . . this is big. Why would an important person like Okubo be
involved in this . . . this is far beyond the Battousai issue . . . I gotta tell Mr. Shibumi.
Saitou (noticing Akamatsu' presence): Feh . . . (picking up his jacket) It's been a long time
since I had to work this hard, and all of a sudden he spoiled all my fun. The conclusion will
have to be postponed.
Battousai: You escaped by a hair’s breath.
Saitou (with a faint smile): That was you.
Kawaji (stopping him at the door): Saitou!
Saitou: Mission report! Himura Kenshin is of no use to us. But Himura Battousai seems to be all
right--report ends.
(He leaves.)
Kawaji: Damn him. He’s the best spy the our Information Agency has ever had, but no one knows
how the Miburo thinks!
Okubo: Come, there’s a carriage waiting outside.
Battousai: You must be dreaming. I’m not the only one wrapped up in this--
Sanosuke: Kenshin?
(A pause. Then Kenshin punches himself in the face.)
Kenshin: I am not the only one involved in this. All of us will hear what you have to say.
Kaoru: Oh-- (she hugs him) I’m so glad! You’re Kenshin again!!
Kenshin: Oro----
(Kaoru has managed to put her hand right on the cut.)
Kaoru: Augh!! Megumi, quick!!!
Megumi: What have you done, you fool!
Kawaji: Governor Okubo?
Okubo: Do as he says. Now there is nothing we need more than Himura’s strength . . .
(A short time later. Everyone is seated on cushions in a semicircle before Okubo.)
Okubo: I’ll come straight to the point, with no beating around the bush. Shishio is plotting
in Kyoto.
Sanosuke: That’s not straight to the point at all, Mr. Okubo. Who’s this Shishio?
Kawaji: Watch your mouth!
Kenshin: Shishio Makoto. It was after I had been given the role of guerrilla swordsman to
fight the Shinsengumi and been moved from the underground to the surface. The role of "Shadow
Hitokiri" was passed on to another member of the Ishin Shishi from Choushuu, Shishio Makoto.
The successor of Hitokiri Battousai.
Everyone: Hitokiri Battousai’s . . . successor?
Kenshin: Yes . . . he hid himself so perfectly in the shadows that few knew he even existed.
Even I, his predecessor, never saw him face to face. But what about him? I heard that he
died ten years ago in the Boshin war.
(Okubo says nothing.)
Kenshin: I see . . . So he didn’t die in the war. He was eliminated by his comrades. It would be
judged safer to erase the doer of dirty deeds, rather than let them leak to the outside world.
In those wild times it wasn’t that unusual.
Okubo: There was no other way. Shishio Makoto’s skill with the sword and quick wits made him a man of
action almost on a level with you, but he had a dangerous cunning and a longing for power almost
beyond
comprehension. He accepted his role as a killer in the shadows only to prove his strength to
the leaders of the Ishin Shishi, never thinking of the weak or of his comrades as you did. Among
his assassinations are some that must never come to light . . . The very foundations
of the Meiji government would be shaken. If we had entered the new age with Shishio alive, he
could have used this weakness to play with Japan in the palm of his hand.
Kenshin: So he was killed in the violence of the Boshin war?
Okubo: He was certainly killed. Oil was even poured over his corpse and it was burned. But
while his entire body is covered with burns, Shishio Makoto is alive. Now he has formed a great
army by gathering fighters who love flesh and blood, and arms merchants who hate the peace, making
his headquarters in the underworld of Kyoto. He is planning a war of revenge against this country,
splitting it in two, with these past murders as his secret weapon. All the troops we’ve sent in to suppress him have been
destroyed . . . now you're our last hope. For the sake of the people of Japan, Himura, please
go once again to Kyoto.
Kaoru: So, in other words, you're asking Kenshin to assassinate Shishio Makoto.
(A silence.)
Okubo: . . . That’s right.
Kawaji: Of course that’s not all. He’ll be amply rewarded. And on top of that we'll close our
eyes to certain transgressions. For example, the acquittal of Takani Megumi on charges of opium smuggling--
(Megumi slams her hand down on the floor; everyone turns to look at her.)
Megumi: Stop joking. If you’re using my dealings with opium as a hold on Ken-san, then I’d
rather be executed.
Sanosuke: It was your dirty work that started this whole mess. And now you want Kenshin to
cover your ass? Wouldn't that be convenient. Kenshin has chosen to live as a vagabond who doesn’t kill. And
I'm not going to stand by and watch you drag him into this stinking mess.
Kawaji: Stay out of this, you ignorant boy! The very existence of the Meiji government is in
danger!
Sanosuke: Better that a dirty government should die. It wouldn't be good to disturb the
ordinary people with all this, but--
Kawaji: Without the prosperity of the Meiji the people wouldn’t have peace, fool! (If you
don’t shut up I’ll have you arrested!)
Sanosuke: That’s what you’d like to think! (Try it, baldy!)
Yahiko: Obviously a mere child like me can't understand all these government matters, but
at least I know that you could have Kenshin assassinated as easily as Shishio. Both now
and long ago, you had people assassinated or eliminated whenever it was convenient. You guys are
pretty strange.
Kaoru: Governor Okubo, I understand that you need Hitokiri Battousai now. But Kenshin isn’t
the Hitokiri anymore. We will not let Kenshin go to Kyoto.
Kawaji: Fools! Have you no idea how important--
Okubo: Enough, Kawaji.
Kawaji: Governor Okubo!
Okubo (to Kenshin): This matter is too important for you to answer now. Take a
week to think. I'll come back on May 14, one week from today, to hear your answer.
(he turns to leave)
Kenshin: Mr. Okubo. You look much wearier than you did ten years ago.
Okubo: It’s far more difficult to build a new era than to destroy the old one. That's why.
I’ll expect a good answer.
(At Shibumi’s house)
Shibumi: Okubo Toshimichi!!
Akamatsu: Yeah!! What're we going to do, boss?
Shibumi: I see . . . so Saitou is Okubo’s dog. If I could get Saitou to tell me Okubo's weak
point by bribing him, I could dream of being the next Director!
Akamatsu: You’re crazy! I’m not going to cross that point of no return. I’m running to Shanghai where
it's safe.
Saitou (appearing behind him): There is somewhere you can run that's even safer than Shanghai. That
place called hell. (His sword tears the head from his shoulders.) Shibumi, you made one
mistake. You Ishin Shishi think that you were the only ones who built the Meiji era, but we on the Bakufu
side also wagered our lives, even as the losers. The reason I obey the government as a
secret agent is to dispose of the ticks that feed on it, as my duty as a surviving member of the Shinsengumi.
Be he Okubo or anyone else, if one who drowns in his own desires harms this country, "Kill Evil
Instantly"--I'll cut him down.
Shibumi: Wa . . . wait!! If you want money, I'll--
Saitou: You tame a dog with food. You tame a man with money. But there is nothing that can
tame a Miburo.
(Another corpse; a sword running with blood.)
Saitou: After all, a wolf is a wolf. Shinsengumi is Shinsengumi. And a Hitokiri is a
Hitokiri. Isn’t he, Battousai . . .
the Makings of the Characters--Saitou Hajime (Fujita Gorou)
There was no model; Saitou Hajime was a real person. But unlike Sagara Souzou and
Yamagata Aritomo, he has a deep influence on the story, so I adapted him quite a bit. I
adapted him so much that I
received letters in protest from fans of the Shinsengumi. (I’ve received protest letters before
but Saitou's gotten the most so far.) Saitou justs seems to get more and more
popular, though, so I’m really happy. The character Saitou is still part of the story, so I’ll keep
quiet about the historical facts and the details about the plot, but I like the way he’s drawn
as an aloof "dirty hero" who carries out his ideal of "Kill. Evil. Instantly;" he's never a simple
good guy and always antagonistic to Kenshin and the others.
Other than the above I had no real design. Since he was introduced in the beginning as a bad
guy, I gave him a villain’s face, but I got protest letters about this too. It seems the fans
of the Shinsengumi think of him as a gentle, handsome man, even though there isn’t a single photograph left of him, so . . . (There
is a portrait, though. It’s there, but those who want to think of Saitou as handsome probably
shouldn’t look at it.) I also got letters saying, "What’s Saitou doing selling the Hijikata
family’s Ishida Sanyaku?!" To put it simply, that was just a joke. And to those who protested
that Akamatsu was nothing more than a bad joke, I am very repentant. But getting so many
letters about such little things actually makes me very sad. I’m a manga artist and only human. Shinsengumi fans,
Can’t you read this manga a little more forgivingly . . .
*The Gatotsu isn’t a real technique. Saitou Hajime’s special technique was the left-handed
one-sword stab, but I changed it around for a boy’s magazine to be the Gatotsu. But the
Shinsengumi’s specialty, the Hiratsuki, is real.