wow, so well written and well researched. I love it!

Loving this, as always! :D

I think a better title for this chapter is "Sacrifice". I love the commitment that comes across here, both to the cause and to the efforts of comrades. Kenshin steels himself as he thinks of Takasugi's sacrifice while Katsura feels he has not done enough to meet his own commitments. I especially liked how Kenshin is unwavering in his dream even as Katsura is the hopeful one. If not the man, this overarching commitment to the goal despite personal loss is what the Emperor must honor. I thought you conveyed that sense very effectively in such a short piece.

Short but very well done as always. My only complaint is that it wasn't longer!

Good use of tactile details like smell, touch, and sound. I also liked the sense I got of Katsura being human, capable of doubt and even worry, and his willingness to share his thoughts. He's not heartless, as some stories portray him, and you captured his humanity nicely.

As always, lovely characterizations. I especially liked this line for its evocative description:

...the calm, hypnotic sounds of drumming rain and rustling, shifting scrolls, the mingled smells of paper, ink and the damp streets...

When you write Katsura and Kenshin, it is like a love story. No, it is deeper than a typical love story: it is like a myth, their conversations and actions, their every gesture, imbued with layers of meaning understood by these two alone, steeped in history and heavy with portent, if one could only unravel it. Always such longing in the heart, such poignancy tugging at the soul, a sort of stillness ringing in the ears.

ah, an update! good to see that you didn't have abandoned this great story. btw, I took the opportunity to reread it ^^

Interesting thought of the young Meiji talking with Katsura about the sacrifices of himura kenshin. But I don't think it is really believable, after all not even the emperor can honor an assassin... but still an interesting trail of thought, more about a promise and honor than Meiji himself.

I really like the Katsura-san you write and I hope you keep writing... this is really a special fic, insights, quality, knowledge, everything a challenging and ambitous realder likes :)

YAY! AN UPDATE!

Great story, as always! ^_^

I'm surprised that this is the first crossover I've seen like this. I hope we get more. This is very intriguing.

That this third chapter's setting is shortly before Katsuras death makes it even more intense.
Katsura seems like he has abandoned his puppet-strings, finally. I really like how you pointed out the views of the leaders, united in the past but now so very different.

Ah, finally a more ruefully, reflexive Katsura. You find a really logic reason for this episode.
"Thus it was now, when, seven years too late, he promised to protect a young, idealistic boy from those who would use his skills for their own ends – even himself."
I really liked that aspect, that Katsura actually had, In some way, tried to repent the sin he commited, making Kenshin a hitokiri.
And Yamagatas comment and the end gave me goosebumbs...

Can't believe I havent yet found and read this gorgeous story!! it caughts me from the first line on.^^

I really like the short but precice episodes in the chapter, not much words but much more characterisation and conversation between the lines. And I also like that you wrote out of
Katsuras perspecive... It seems to me that Katsura is often characterised as a soft, warm-hearted leader, almost a father-figure to Kenshin, and if not, then something equally to his shishou. But you remind us with this sentence: " Katsura, however, knew that it took sacrifice, compromise, and heartless, political expedience..."
That are essences of his character, too.

Onto the next chapter...

So nice to see you writing again in RK!

Now I will have to rent 'TLS' to see these characters; I avoided it because of Tom Cruise.

OMG! That was so good. I love The Last Samurai! Wouldn't it be nice if Kenshin and Algren met! Pls write more! XD

Yes, more crossover! I really like how you blend the two stories together. Great job!