* Rurouni Kenshin Manga Translation *
* Volume two: Hitokiri vs. Hitokiri *
* Chapter fourteen: Downfall below the moon *
(Battousai with his sword lifted up at a squatting Jin eh. Both are staring
at each other with unintelligible eyes)
Kaoru: *Kenshin... !*
(Battousai's sword is silouetted in the moonlight. The wind rustles the tree
tops)
Jin eh: What is't? Battousai! Wherefore the hesitation?
Battousai: (staring with his sword still lifted up)
Jin eh: To unlock the one-sided heart, you can do nothing else but kill me!
If I do not go, then the little lady would... otherwise she would be saved.
Can there be anything simpler in this world?
(the lifted sword gleams)
Jin eh: No hesitation! No time for't! Do with the sword of what the
legendary Hitokiri would, as a present for sending me away now, spill these
things out! (draws a line on his head)
Battousai: ... You have spoken right! Though I myself have no desire to send
you any presents, but - as long as I may protect Kaoru, once more as
Hitokiri do not disdain!
(Kaoru snaps in absolute fear and shock)
Jin eh: Cometh! Do not behave like aunties and grandmothers! Let me, Jin eh
feel the wrath of your killer's sword! (saliva flying all over)
Battousai: DIE! DIE YOU! (brings the sword down while Jin eh stares in
absolute joy. Man that face is psycho)
Kaoru: (shocked out of her wits and remembers the first time she met
Kenshin...)
*Kenshin: A sword is a weapon. Kenjutsu is a killing skill. No matter how
you try to cover it up, that, is the truth.*
Kaoru: (snapping as she realizes the truth behind Kenshin's words)
*(Kenshin breaks into a silly smile)
Kenshin: But then again, when we compare it to the truth, my undeemed being
prefers Kaoru's childish trait of thinking!*
Kaoru: (remembering Kenshin) *My undeemed being prefers Kaoru's childish
trait of thinking!* Ken... shin! (suddenly snaps out of it all) KENSHIN!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - !!!!
(Battousai stops in mid-attack)
Battousai and Jin eh: (turns to stare at Kaoru)
Kaoru: Please do not revert back to the Hitokiri... do not utilize the
sword... to... kill...
(Battousai? Kenshin? immediately changes direction of attention and rushes
towards Kaoru as she falls down)
Battousai? Kenshin?: Kaoru!
Jin eh: Heh!
(Battousai? Kenshin? catches Kaoru before she falls down)
Battousai? Kenshin?: Kaoru-dono! Thou art all right? Prithee pull thyself
together! Kao-
Kaoru: (looking at Battousai? Kenshin? with a smile and a huff and a puff) I
do not matter now, Kenshin!
Kenshin? Battousai?: Oro?
Kaoru: (nose disappearing) You ask me to 'prithee pull thyself together'?
The normal Kenshin hath returned! I am indeed all right!
Kenshin: (nose disappearing as well) Ah!
Kaoru: I do not matter... therefore you - !!
(Jin eh stands behind Kenshin and Kaoru with a short knife in his left hand)
Jin eh: The bird's nest head yesterday night shall not be mentioned, however
I do not have previous knowledges that even your kind mayst break the one
sided heart. Mayhaps I am really worthless.
Kenshin: Please discontinue this, Jin eh! Thy elbow hath been severely
damanged beyond usage, with only a left hand, victory do not dawn in sight.
Thou hath been defeated, all hath ended! Honestly, then, give it up now!
Jin eh: (lifting the knife up) No, nothing hath ended as of yet!
(Kenshin grasps his sword on the floor)
Jin eh: You people still need to perform an evaluation! (kills himself)
Kenshin and Kaoru: !
Jin eh: Ho! The pleasant feeling of't... ! (blood shower as he collapses)
Kenshin: ...
Jin eh: What shall it be with your face of disbelief... Be I be captured
alive... be put through the tunnel of interrogation... the light at the end
shall show you how the Ishin government greatly lacks Hitokiris of our kind!
Kenshin: Par... Pardon?
Jin eh: Ho ho ho! Do you people stop at the thought that we killers hath
died when the Meiji was set up? How may Battousai be allowed these childish
and naive ways!
(this guys is almost but positively dying)
Jin eh: Ishin, Meiji, the new government, the flesh of it seems healthy to
the naked eye, powerful even, should we even stop to inspect the bones of
this structure, realize that it is as of Bakumatsu, maintaining whatever
integrity known by the theory of 'new blood washed by old'.
(background of funny patterns)
Jin eh: Wishing to be free of the rebels, yet since stepping onto this
unexplored terrain where even the police force has solidified, know of the
useless ways of Hitokiris hath been wide-spread, flipping on the alternative
side however, we who hath entered living Sheol yet are not and shall not
turn our heads, we mould into the same caste as those advantage seeking
politicians! How the mad 'Black Hat of rushes' came to adhere, is such.
(Kenshin's eyes sparkle as he realizes some truth in the matter)
Jin eh: Hitokiris may murder driven by personal motives, but never can we
choose our next bulls-eye, is't not this way?
(picture of the moon and then Jin eh lying on the ground)
Jin eh: I forsook this killer's principle, charging upon you from my own
desires, and made clear the reason of my downfall. But these do not
punctuate my satisfaction, to hath had a death duel with you, my heart
rebounds with joy. But mine smashed right elbow too hath forced me to admit
and believe the voidness of life thereafter.
Kenshin: Jin eh...
Jin eh: Keep those eyes away from me, Battousai! Give me those eyes of evil
threat and illumination as per you who had wanted to do me off. They are
your true pair.
(Kenshin looks at Jin eh, at a total loss)
Jin eh: Thou art by nature the Hitokiri of named. I share this claim too,
there shalt be no erring!
(twinkle in his eye is disappearing)
Jin eh: Hitokiri once, Hitokiri all, be buried even with it. A compromise
wouldst not be possible. How long shall pass before your rurouni make-up
runs out? I shall observe in Sheol. (darkness) Ho ho ho! (he expires with a
smile plastered to his face)
(Kenshin and Kaoru stand in front of the body staring in contemplative
silence)
Kenshin: *Hitokiri once, Hitokiri all, be buried even with it...*
(Kenshin stares at the blade in Jin eh's chest in a lot of pain and mental
anguish and turmoil. He realizes the truth behind it... that Jin eh himself
fulfilled his own words)
Kenshin: *Be buried even with it...*
Kaoru: Kenshin...
Kenshin: Let us return, Kaoru-dono! The government shall be bugged with the
aftermath, the police wouldst busy their deserved self!
(they walk back still clad with an awkward silence)
Kaoru: Kenshin...
Kenshin: ...
Kaoru: Kenshin!
Kenshin: (snapping out of his delusion) Oh! Would there be something else?
Kaoru: I wish to say my thanks, a sincere and truly felt one!
Kenshin: Prithee refrain from words of that nature! (remembering how Kaoru's
scream snapped him out) This clumsy one here do believe those speeches be
under mine belt. The extreme thanks this lowly self must give thee!
Kaoru: Oro? Ah? (full of question marks)
Kenshin: We recount the memories, had thou not forbade me from continuing,
who thou wouldst face of now be the 'Hitokiri Battousai'...
Kaoru: No... 'tis nothing much!
Kenshin: By near and by far! Once the matter be brought up this undeserving
one is reminded, the ribbons must be returned!
Kaoru: Oh!
(takes ribbon out and it is discovered to be dripping with bloodstains)
Kaoru: ...
Kenshin: Ah!
Kaoru: What is't? Wherefore are there traces of blood everywhere!
Kenshin: When this lacking one's left shoulder hath been mutilated, the
ribbon must have absorbed the traces. *Jin eh - ... please watch this lowly
one with thy most polished eyes in thy Sheol!*
Kaoru: (chasing Kenshin with a stick) Thou art too much of't! Stay still for
a lesson!
Kenshin: That was a tragic disaster which refused to be avoided! *Be mine
worthless nature by count a Hitokiri, there shall never be a day without its
suppression - *
(picture of rising sun)
Kenshin: *This lacking one would never allow another revert! 'Hitokiri
Battousai' hath died with the forming of the living rurouni, which should be
applied until the eternal sleep catches up...*
(back at the dojo)
Sano: Thou art not simple items to survive the ray of dawn be!
Kenshin: ...
Yahiko: Hey, did the outcome result in death?
Kaoru: (steaming mad still trying to attack Kenshin this time with a
different stick)
END TRANSLATION
(c) Nobuhiro Watsuki Translation: ruroken@geocities.com
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