* Rurouni Kenshin Manga Translation *
* Volume 16: Truth *
* Chapter one hundred and thirty: Soujirou's past - meeting beneath the
moon *
Sano: Kenshin!
(Kenshin's back spurts with blood)
Sano: *This is the first time Kenshin's received a back attack! This isn't
good... this isn't good at all!
Yumi: *There's a chance! This fellow... no, it's Tenken Soujirou... he's
stronger than Himura in every aspect now! One more time! Just one more stroke
and Himura'll be dead for sure!*
Soujirou: This is really strange...
Sano and Yumi: Ah?
Soujirou: Disregarding the other attack, I was pretty sure I saw the opening
in Himura-san's movements this time... but I still couldn't kill him... this
is too strange for words...
Sano and Yumi: ...
Yumi: Oei! Soujirou! You can think about all these things later, could you
just please do what you're supposed to be doing now?
Sano: Kenshin, now's the time to strike! His hesitance is his error! Good
chance!!
Soujirou: (as he looks down) Ah! Excuse me, Himura-san, kindly wait for a
while. I haven't been running for a long time and... look at my grass
slippers!
(he turns around)
Soujirou: I'll go change a pair right now, please rest for a while first.
Hm... now where should I change my slippers...
(walks away)
Yumi: OEI! SOUJIROU!!
Sano: Why didn't you do it, Kenshin? If you struck him down just now, no one
would consider it a foul. All's fair in love and war, so if he showed himself
vulnerable, his loss would be his own responsibility.
Kenshin: You sound like Saitou.
Sano: AAH?
Kenshin: The more the opponent displays a defenceless attitude the less one
is willing to attack. But I need to bandage my wound now. Could you spare me
some of your bandages please?
Sano: Is he really so hard to handle?
Kenshin: Um... Born to hold a sword with a pair of fast legs, that plus the
fact that his moves are unreadable... he really is hard to handle... but yes,
I have understood something.
(thinks for a while)
Kenshin: That young man seem to be devoid of everything else other than the
feeling of 'happiness', but the fact that he was unable to kill me with his
previous move seem to have struck a chord in his heart.
(finishes bandaging, putting back his gi)
Kenshin: I was thinking... what if he wasn't born to be entirely void of
emotions, but it was because of an event which happened in the past that had
chained him down... and unintentionally so too...
Yumi: Hey! Why didn't you give him the fatal stroke then? It was just that
one step close!
Soujirou: (thinks for a while) You're so bad! Yumi-sister, why are you so
angry?
Yumi: (bites her sleeves) Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee - !
(hovers over Soujirou tying his shoes)
Yumi: I say, even though you're powerful, your performance today looks so
forced! We don't know what new move Himura's got up his sleeves, so if you
think you're going to defeat him just so, you're definitely wrong!
Soujirou: I may have high self-esteem but I do not underestimate him!
Himura-san is stronger than I ever expected him to be. The Hitokiri of the
legends is true to his tales.
(smiles)
Soujirou: But no matter how powerful he is, no matter how strong, the
Himura-san of now cannot win Shishio-san or me. From what I heard from
Shishio-san, Himura-san is a fighter who wields a sword to protect the weak
and innocent with the vow of never-killing.
(opens his eyes)
Soujirou: Therefore, he can never defeat us.
(flashback begins)
Soujirou: *That's right,*
(into a flight of steps leading to a cool looking house)
Soujirou: *he can never win us - *
Voice: Stupid boy!
(door flies open, young Soujirou is kicked out of the house)
Man with wine: Didn't I instruct you to finish moving the rice sacks to the
west warehouses by today? You didn't rest because you couldn't move it did
you! Just do as I instruct you to, get it?
(drinks)
(Soujirou lifts his face up, smiling)
Man with wine: WHAT'S SO FUNNY!?
(flings wine bottle at Soujirou)
Man with wine: Listen up! You are not to enter into the house if you haven't
completed your work! You sleep in the streets tonight! Chi!
Thin lady: Don't be angry, father.
Taller man: Heheh!
Voice: It's all the new government's fault! To have remended tributes from
rice to money, the price of rice has plunged ever since! To think we didn't
already have a good life... now this!
Another voice: What concubine's son! You're earning trouble for yourself
aren't you father?
Voice: What does it matter? Just treat it as this boy's our lifetime servant,
working without pay... isn't that good enough?
Another voice: I say, that little fellow is weird. He greets us with a
smiling face all the time. Surely he understands that we only adopted him
because of pride's sake?
Voice: Don't joke! He's not going to have a share of the inheritance even as
the foster son. Whether it's this rice shack or the entire fortune, he will
not be getting a single cent! Because that's all the money for my precious
daughter!
(the wind blows, Soujirou continues walking)
(as the moon shine abright, Soujirou dips a bucket into the well and draw a
pail of water for washing up)
Soujirou: ...
(there is a noise without)
Voice: YAAAA!!
(Soujirou steps foward to investigate, and chances upon a policeman against
another man, heavily bandaged)
Policeman: OOOO!!
(his hands are cut off)
Soujirou: (widens eye in surprise)
(and then the policeman's brains get cut into two)
Bandaged man: *huffing and puffing away*
(Soujirou accidentally steps on a stick)
Soujirou and bandaged man: !
Bandaged man: You saw it, didn't you?
Soujirou: !!!
Bandaged man: Little fellow...
(he turns around, his face horribly rotting and... leaking, should I say...)
END TRANSLATION
(c) Watsuki Nobuhiro Translation: ruroken@geocities.com
(
geocities.com/athens/olympus) (
geocities.com/athens)