Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ When Angels Fall ❯ Epilogue ( Epilogue )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

When Angels Fall: Epilogue

By: Kiamirei

~By now, I'm assuming that you all know what I'm going to write here,
so I won't bother! Oh, and when I use names, sometimes I switch up the
order (Kenshin Himura, Sagara Sanosuke). This is because I pick the
order that I think sounds good. Sorry if it's confusing.

All tears had ceased. Trembling, Sanosuke, Kaoru, and Yahiko had
watched the scene before their eyes. It was over now, and the thing
they felt most was a profound sense of emptiness. Kenshin, the main
string holding their small group together, had departed forever. Hiko,
too, was at a loss. His pupil was gone. He had failed at teaching, the
pupil had failed at learning, and now the tragic result of those
failures had been reached. In shock, no one knew what to do. And how
could they be expected to? Within only a short span of time, all of
their lives had fallen apart. Perhaps Hiko could go on normally,
having been estranged from the red haired man -who in so many ways
very much like a fallen angel- for so many years, but it would be
hard. It would be hard for all of them. In the hallway, a guard began
to stir, but Yahiko kicked his head, and he fell into the realms of
slumber once again. Distantly, Sanosuke and Hiko realized that they
didn't have much time before the guards would awaken, but it didn't
matter. Besides, Kenshin struck hard with his sword, and every one of
those guards would have a hard time getting reoriented when they
awoke.

Eventually, the blood stopped flowing, and Kenshin's corpse,
thankfully fallen forward rather than backward, was still. Saito, too,
had stopped bleeding, and the room was filled with an oppressive
silence, closing in all around them and making it hard to breath.
Suddenly it seemed hot; almost too hot to bear, and still the four
people still living did not move. But something had to be done, and
done fast, before anyone found out about their presence, or they would
have more questions than they would ever want to answer. Finally, the
thirteenth master of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu pulled himself together.

Slowly, oh so slowly, the tall man walked over to the corpse of his
former student. Fighting to keep the tears at bay, he carefully
reached down, and picked up Kenshin's body. Then, cradling the empty
body in his arms, he turned and walked out of the room, Sanosuke,
Kaoru and Yahiko first making a path for him, then following, Yahiko
last, and a ways behind the other three.

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The procession walked through empty streets and up through an empty
forest without speaking a word. The three visitors to Kyoto followed
the master swordsman through many paths, until they reached a clearing
filled with many graves. In the center were three rocks, with a cross
behind them adorned with a blue cloth. Slowly, carefully, Hiko Seijuro
set Kenshin down. Picking a place next to the cross that was Tomoe's
monument, though they did not know that particular fact, he knelt down
in the dirt and started digging with his hands. After a few minutes,
still muted, the other three bent down to help him.

It was far past dawn when they finished, and as Hiko turned to place
Kenshin's body in the grave, he saw something that made him catch his
breath.

"Who...who brought the other one?" he asked.

Sanouske and Kaoru turned to where the man was looking, and they, too,
gasped. Sullenly, Yahiko stepped forward.

"I did."

"Why?"

"When they were dead, they were just bodies. Kenshin stopped being the
Hitokiri Battousai, and this man, Saito, stopped being some government
worker. They stopped being enemies, just bodies. I...Kenshin was like
a father to me...I love him as only a son can...and I want him to rest
in peace, but this other man wasn't evil either. Doesn't he deserve a
burial, too?"

Kaoru and Sanosuke stared at him incredulously, but Hiko nodded,
trying to ignore the fact that these words were so much like the ones
Kenshin himself had spoken so many years before.

"Yes. We will bury him, also."

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They buried Kenshin, and after that they dug a grave for Saito and put
him into it. Then they stood there. For hours they stood there, trying
to fathom what had just happened. Once again, it was Hiko who made the
first move.

"I am Hiko Seijuro," he said quietly. "The thirteenth master of Hiten
Mitsurugi Ryu. I was the one who taught Kenshin. I took him in as a
child. Who are you?"

"Sagara Sanosuke. Former member of the scapegoat of the revolution,
the Sekihotai. Former mercenary. I tried to kill Kenshin. When that
didn't work, I saw the error of my ways and became his friend and
ally."

"Yahiko Myojin. Kenshin saved me from life on the streets as a thief
for the mafia."

"I...I'm Kamiya Kaoru...I loved him."

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Sanosuke, Kaoru, and Yahiko sadly returned to Tokyo, and when
Dr.Genzai and Megumi heard the news, they slipped into a similar
state. Ayame and Suzume were informed that their Keniisan had business
in Kyoto and would not be coming home for a long time. Hiko, after
hearing Yahiko's plea to bury Saito also, eventually offered to
instruct the boy in Hiten swordsmanship, hoping to any gods up in the
heavens that he would not make the same mistakes twice.

"I'll think about it," Yahiko had said. "I'm training under Kaoru, but
she can always get more students. I just don't know."

"That's fine," Hiko had answered. "Perhaps, in this beginning era,
there is no need for schools of swordsmanship that teach destruction
on such a massive scale. Perhaps there is no need for swordsmen. But
think about it."

"I will."

The boy did not know whether he would take up Hiko's offer yet.
Everything seemed to have no meaning, and they would all have to mend
their hearts before doing anything else. In every activity they did,
the effects of Kenshin's death were there, making their mark. And now,
they remembered their mortality now, more than ever, because even
angels fell.