Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Our Soujiros ❯ One-Shot

Dedicated to my favorite "Rurouni Kenshin" character, Soujiro Seta, and all the fans and authors who have made his journey their own.

Our Soujiros
By Karen

Soujiro, the Tenken. Soujiro, the sword that comes from the heavens.

He was the smiling assassin, the happy little killer, with the empty eyes and the empty smile.

We wondered about him. He was as much in our thoughts as he was in our Kenshin's.
And, like our Kenshins, we wondered "Who is hiding behind that smile?."

We would find out soon enough.

He showed us his world. A world where pain and fear were a way of life, a world where life was never fair, a world where the strong survived and the weak died.

We stood by his side as he was thrown out of the house and cruel words, and a sake bottle, were thrown at him. We stayed with him, even when he was not allowed back inside that house which held warmth for everyone but him. We would rather be outside in the cold with him, then with them, anyway.

We walked with him and helped him back up onto his feet when he collapsed from the strain of his chores. We gently washed the cuts and bruises on his young face with a cool washcloth, and we shielded him as he stared, terrified, at our Shishios, who were preparing to kill him. Like our Kasumes, Sakuras and Akanes did for our Kenshins, we begged "Please spare this child!."

And when they came for him, striking him down with a shovel, wanting to slice him with a sword, we cried for him to get up, to run. No matter what we knew he would become, we wanted this child to live!.

We guided him safely under the porch, and when they came for him again, it was us who unsheathed the wakizashi. "In the end, only thefittest survive in this world!."It was our hands which guided him as he screamed the words we, like our Shishios, would never let him forget. "If you are strong you live. If you are weak you die!."

And after it was done, we were still by his side. We smiled with him. We raised our heads and let the rain, his rain, fall onto our faces. And, though we denied it, we cried in the rain with him too.

We screamed out in pain and confusion along with him. And after the battle was over, when he lay on the floor, defeated, we, like our Yumis, cradled his head in our laps.

We advised him to leave, to start a new life. We were happy and relieved to see him finally break free, yet, deep down, we were saddened to see him go. What would become of him?.

But we really needn't have worried.

There he was again, smiling and munching cheerfully on a dumpling. "Don't worry about me," he assured us. "It's a beautiful day and I'm heading north." He smiled genuinly at us. "It's time I found some true answers of my own."

Though we smiled back at him as he started on his journey, we couldn't help but shake our heads in bittersweet disappointment. After all, we had wanted to go with him!.

Well, why couldn't we go with him then?.

So we followed him on his journey, his quest for his own truth.

We followed him back into his past, through the pain and misery of his childhood. We answered the questions of his absent parents, and his only half explained origins. We found different ways to connect him to our Okitas. We even showed him what his life could have been like had he met our Kenshins or Hikos instead of our Shishios that night.

We followed him into the present. There he stood obediently by the side of our Shishios, playfully teased our Yumis, laughed with our Kamataris, and found a fellow sufferer in our Anjis.

We followed him into the future. We had him rescue sick, injured or lost animals. We gave him abused and neglected, or orphaned, children to care for. We even made our Saitohs see our Okitas in him. We wanted to teach and show him what he had known in his heart all along.

But sometimes we would want him to be the villain. We would make him give in to his madness. Never allowing him to let go of what the past, and what our Shishios, had taught him.

Other times we wanted to turn him into a romantic hero, so we paired him with our Misaos, our Kaorus, and even our Ayames, Kamataris and Aoshis. We even paired him with our own creations.

We gave him to happy families and good homes. We took him to inns, restaurants, farms and even brothels in search of his own truth. We even guided him back to our Kenshins and the others at the Kamiya Dojo. We had him find a home there, become part of their family.

Sometimes he wouldn't stay for very long though. Sometimes he'd say "No, not this one. Not now. Not yet." So we would continue to drive him onward. The smiling wanderer, still haunted by his memories, still searching for his own truth.

But, nevertheless, no matter which direction we had him go, no matter what road we had him choose, we stayed right beside him. Because when he finally found his own real truth, we knew we would find ours as well.

He is our Soujiro, and, no matter what, we will always protect him.

E Mail the author at karenjade@shaw.ca

"Rurouni Kenshin" is a copyrite of Watsuki Nobuhiro and the many companies associated with the manga, anime, OAVs and CDs.