* Rurouni Kenshin Manga Translation *
* Volume three: The reason to act *
* Chapter nineteen: The lady from Aizu *
Kaoru: Yahiko!
(Kenshin staring at Hanya and vice versa)
Megumi: ...
(Hanya puts a hand up)
Kenshin: !
Hanya: Stop! By way of situations, shall we continue longer, you wouldst all
not release our prey either... We hath left unconscious two generals, and I
shall need to report to Okashira by a quick way, I shall not confront or
wager with anyone any longer.
Kenshin: Thou art all here without invitation. If thy departure be desired
then please go in peace. However, to understand what poisoned Yahiko, thou
must depart without that fellow by your hand!
Hanya: There be no reason to accomodate a request of such by the enemy.
Kenshin: That be really! (charging) Then the hard way shall be employed!
(Hanya prepares himself)
(Kenshin strikes. Hanya blocks cleanly)
Kenshin: !?
Hanya: Thou hath the burning heart under the icy expression even!
(uses his left hand to punch Kenshin)
Sano: !
(Kenshin falls backwards)
Hanya: ... Do not be flustered! The account of which the criminal Takeni
Megumi be hidden with you shall be cleared doubtless! By then we shall truly
compare who bags the higher regards!
(carries Hyottoko [wowee] and Beshimi and jumps away)
Sano: *How nimble and agile are his skills... the difference of this and
Hyottoko and Beshimi stretches far, daringly I may profess he be of hard
trained martial art practicer!*
Kenshin: (jumping to a squat) Detestable!
Kaoru: KENSHIN! Yahiko he -
Kenshin: (walks over) Yahiko!
(picture of roof of Kamiya Dojo)
Kenshin: What is't?
Kaoru: I do not know...
Kenshin: If 'twas a swords wound or a bone fracture, this unworthy one may
still find a way, but as for undoing poison... Nevertheless, the poison must
be purged from the infected sore first-
Kaoru: All right! Immediately I do!
Megumi: (putting a hand on her shoulder) Hold it!
Kaoru: !? (turns around) Doth thou desire for mine watching a dying without
assistance! Step to one side for me!
Megumi: Foolish girl! If the poison is directly sucked out from the wound,
the matter be blown bigger should a small infection touch it! (lays a hand
on Yahiko's head) 'Tis not the time for amatuers to preside over! Step down!
Yahiko: (breathing hard)
Megumi: *Subconciousness, slightly warmed body... an unclear pained
behavior, that too that both eyes remains opened, this would be...* This
would be jimsonweed poison!
(turns to Kaoru)
Megumi: Ojouchan, since here would be a dojo there must be a local physician
nearby! I shall open the prescription, please you catch all herbs back!
(turns to Kenshin)
Megumi: Kenshin, please boil the water, then prepare the towel with whatever
available medicine in the home!
(turns to Sano)
Megumi: Avail yourself to the ice-house, and get however much ice they would
be selling there!
(seeing everyone's expression)
Megumi: To unravel the poison becomes a race with time! Thy movements be
swift!
(picture of sky)
Doctor: Huff - 'twould be all right this way! A quiet rest for three to four
more days sees recovery as possible.
Kaoru: (hugging Yahiko) Too good! Yahiko!
Sky tosses earth waves
Yahiko: Woah...
Doctor: I did mean if a 'quiet' rest was possible...
Sano: (slapping the doc hard on his back) Thank you then, flat old fish!
What a pretty picture painted by an old one-foot-in-the-grave fellow!
Doctor: Wouldst that be a praise?
(holds up a piece of paper)
Doctor: If there be need for thanking, thank the person who established this
prescription! 'Twould be an amazing piece of prescription! Not only had the
poison neutralizer been done well, even the conditioning herbs hath been
perfectly, without a single flaw, matched! He who wrote this, would be one
who had gone through Western medicine education.
(Kaoru and Sano go into a bit of a shock)
Sano: Wouldst the poison knowledge be more than medicine?
Doctor: A thin line of separation goes between poison and medicine. Let us
speak of this jimsonweed as an example, really be a most powerful medicine
in effect. The other known name "chousen asagao", mixed by the great doctor
during the Edo period - Hanaoka Seishuu, an operation requiring anesthetic
doth sees it as the chief ingredient. He who has prescribed this treatment
must be a mastered master of the Western medicines, this I am much sure of.
Kaoru: How hard it would be to swallow... And a proud and arrogantly evil
female I had thought her to be...
Doctor: FEMALE?
Kaoru: Ay...
Doctor: Then couldst it be... Takani Megumi?
Sano: ! You do recognize her?
Doctor: A past of three years, a doctor was an unfortunate victim of a
killer's sword...
(Megumi stands in the wind)
Doctor: ... and Megumi was the assistant of the former...
(she stares at the broken dojo walls)
Megumi: *...*
(she turns to walk away)
Megumi: ...
Kenshin: And where wouldst thou madame be heading for?
- Do hold thy step! -
Megumi: !!!
Kenshin: A female swirling the night lights couldst be really impending!
Megumi: (breathing hard) *My life almost went with his scare...*
(recovering) ... You do not need to attend to the youth's safety?
Kenshin: The need be less than want! Yahiko's nature wouldst be hard boiled.
Thank thee for his preserved existence, this would be what this clumsy one
states for Yahiko his worthy self.
Megumi: ... The thanks may be spared! Who else but I hath lured the likes of
Beshimi and gang here.
Kenshin: By all near and far! Which honorable place miss madame yourself has
made up thy mind for?
Megumi: Do not revel in changing the original subject! Detestable! In any
way I have to leave Tokyo. Kanryuu may temporarily stop the barrage of
pursuers, the barriers hath been greatly removed for now, put thy heart at
peace!
Kenshin: Thy deserving hometown Aizu... still exists a welcoming committee
for thou?
Megumi: !?
Kenshin: However thou mayst attempt to twist and distort the method of
speech, what thou hath spoken from dawn till noon can not be totally
abolished. This unworthy one hath battled much great warriors of Aizu fame
in the Bakumatsu era, therefore a twinge of sound avails this lowly one's
recognizing immediately.
Megumi: You... really art one who hands out unprecedented surprises.
(Kenshin lets out a huff of air)
Kenshin: Please do not be so underground anymore, the time for drawing
curtains hath arrived hath it not!
Doctor: Mentioned of the Aizu's 'Takani', 'twould be a most famed name
within the authority of the medical arena. The Takani family passes down the
medical heritage even as for females and little children, an exceedingly
special family.
(Kaoru and Sano in rapt attention)
Doctor: But the most worthed highlighted point would be their belief in
'patients shall be equally treated'. During Bakumatsu, the social status
mattered so much more than of now, but of their doctor status, the inquiry
of the patient's status never came to mind.
(roof of a house in Aizu)
Doctor: That hath earned them much dis-favor from those of warrior and high
samurai status, however 'twould be to the medical enterprise, a "doctor's
true ideals".
(he closes his eyes)
Doctor: Whilst Megumi's father - would be one of whom involved in the chaos!
Engraving upon the mastering of Western medicine, he did make for the entire
family a actual immigration pass, heading them all forwards to Nagasaki for
the ultimate Western arts of medicine. At those times, the extreme serious
nature of immigration wouldst not be easily knocked upon unto you young
fellow's heads!
(Sano and Kaoru grow red in the face)
Doctor: However, the Takanis did receive a special permission, readying
themselves back for Aizu, when the life-and-death battle of Bakumatsu and
Ishin government engaged for the final fury! The battle of Aizu hath thus
began!
* Footnote reads: Battle of Aizu
Because the state of Aizu refused to acknowledge the Ishin government as the
official in charge, they were deemed as traitors by the government and an
enemy, therefore beginning a furious war with the government, four of which
were battled in Aizu itself.
All Aizu's citizens, men, women and children alike whole-souledly devoted
themselves to this battle. Even in the final assault they gathered together
to protect the capital city, however they could not longer keep the city
walls impregnable to the Ishin government's close army force, surrendering
as of the year 1868, September 22nd.
Before Ishin, Aizu representatives had been largely in charge of patrolling
the streets of Kyoto, the Shinsengumi largely replacing the Ishinshishis,
therefore after the Ishin government was established, Aizu's citizens were
terribly treated by many...
Doctor: The Takanis left behind only a very young Megumi, while the rest had
gave themselves to the dead-ended road of destruction. Father dying of
battle unrest, and mother and two brothers disappeared with the flames of
war-torned misery without known clues whatsoever.
(picture of little Megumi staring at a burning Aizu)
Doctor: From forth the times of bitter starts, Megumi wouldst be all by
herself -
Kaoru and Sano: ...
Doctor: I do suppose she hath taken much bitter fruits as of then. Arriving
in Tokyo five years ago, a doctor's assistant's job she did take on. Because
we be of some connecting status, I too got to notice Megumi. As of mentioned
too, this doctor deceased 3 years ago... By near! Megumi disappeared at this
exact moment. However the matter though, I wish to meet Megumi again, where
would she be at the moment?
Kaoru and Sano: Ah...
Kaoru: By near and by far... we hath not catched her shadow since the start
of this discussion!
Sano: Oh no no! She couldst not hath... !
(picture of skies)
Megumi: Five years have passed yet no one would know - that the doctor put
himself in the same ranks with Kanryuu. The doctor buying the ingredients of
opium easily, then making it and surrendering it to Kanryuu, oftenmoreso
with much ease and little complications.
(she reaches into her sleeves)
Megumi: The doctor he be actually preparing this -
(she takes out a packet of opium)
Megumi: Commonly known as "Spider's Web", though begetting the common look
of no difference from normal, yet 'twould be a aliened and totally new
aspect of updated opium model. Utilizing the special ingredients of only
half, yet achieving twice the addictiveness. If we even turn the words then,
this little thing wouldst bag 4 times more powress than normal. Allowing the
mass import of't, not five years would pass before Tokyo wouldst be the
paradise of which mentioned!
(flashback of the killed doctor three years ago)
Megumi: Wishing to do exactly, Kanryuu wished to acquire the making process
knowledge of this little thing, however the doctor strongly went head-on
against Kanryuu, doing so for personal benefits, thus so, a fierce fight
occurred between both, and amidst the struggle, manslaughter on Kanryuu's
part too, happened.
(picture of black skies)
Megumi: As of a assistant's status - and of the only who doth possess the
making knowledge - of I, hath been intensively forced for the continuation
of this process.
(she leans on the walls)
Megumi: When I did realize the uselessness in saving lives of this medicine,
but the usefulness of destroying more lives, death immediately strayed into
this mind...
(she drops the opium packet)
Megumi: However dissatisfaction swelled as to dying then and there...
(her tears start to flow)
Megumi: The reason being... that if I do keep on surviving, and string upon
the possibility of a medical business, mayhaps the day would indeed come -
that the long-lost kith of mine would really regain congregation... and this
passed three years, embracing an attitude of such, continued construction of
the medicine which claims more lives than saves...
Kenshin: However, thou wouldst only receive such treatment from Kanryuu as
of the reason that thou were the only one who cherishes such knowledge of
procession.
Megumi: What?
Kenshin: The "Spider's Web" hath been compressed to the merest of levels, as
so has the victims to fall short and stumble in front of this obstacle. That
too that thou hath swallowed the crime alone without allowing anyone else to
stain their worthy hands doing the identical.
(he smiles sillily)
Kenshin: A living dream of human bitterness for three years... and currently
wouldst be the time of personal forgiveness, to regain the personal freedom
of so many eons ago.
Megumi: * - Kenshin... - *
Kenshin: Them fellows wouldst watch where they tread as of now, please do
then stay here in the meantime.
Megumi: But...
(Kaoru, Sano and the doctor walk out of the door)
Kenshin: Wouldst there be a difficulty in such! Kaoru-dono!
Kaoru and Megumi: ...
Kaoru: It shall be so then! The painful aches of loneliness lies not far
from my heart, if it truly had not been of Kenshin's existence, the lonely
figure would have been me.
(Megumi stares)
Kenshin: The final boulder to lift wouldst be that of how to repel Kanryuu.
Kaoru: (whispering to Megumi) However, could thou please do not harbour any
ulterior motive for the likes of Kenshin, or I shall without hesitation
throw you out, without forgiveness!
Megumi: ...
Kenshin: ?
Sano: ...
(meanwhile)
Aoshi: ... is't so! Beshimi and Hyottoko shall be immobile temporarily?
Hanya: Ay!
Aoshi: By near! Hanya, thy wound do not matter so?
Hanya: (showing a wound right of his solar crescent) Ay, I wouldst be able
to hold still... Just as sir hath spoken, that man be not of the normal band
indeed. He still wouldst be able to spot on a human's liver weakness with a
reverse attack even though being under attack himsef...
Aoshi: (slamming a book shut) A movement be possible?
Hanya: Within two to three days movement wouldst be scarce, however, if
'twould merely be information seeking mobilities...
Aoshi: Well! Embrace these two to three days to unearth every single
infinitesimal detail of himself! I myself do not believe his history and
background be so well hoed in!
END TRANSLATION
(c) Nobuhiro Watsuki Translation: ruroken@geocities.com
Please press your browser's back button to go back.
(
geocities.com/athens/olympus) (
geocities.com/athens)