This was sad, yet a bit sweet that they're finally able to pass on.

I'm hoping to read "Her Most Beautiful Smile" of Enishi and Sae. :)

Wow! What a beautifully rendered piece! I really love it!

It is such a good fic that I'm not even going to let my personal opinion - that Kiyosato was a giant douchebag who went of to war trying to impress some female he didn't know well enough to figure out if she was happy with him - stop me from putting it in my favourites :D

Kudos!

I don't know much about the manga/anime as I only read Vol.1, but I do know the characters and I say, well done on this wonderful fic. I just google the characters to find facts about them and Akira and Tomoe are such an amazing pairing. And, what's upsetting is that, Akira is definately one of the forgotten characters... He had a role in Tomoe's life too people... But still, this is going on my faves.

Nessecary loss? That's harsh, man.

I'm glad Akira got his Tomoe back! For awhile I didn't think it would happen! Phew!

Nice job! A little short, but hey, that's one shots for you! Good work!

i love it, poor akira

Forget Akira? Surely you jest? Who could forget the only guy in the Bakumatsu to leave a visible scar on Kenshin? Or the sambolic trampling of the flower as he died? Or the heartless way Kenshin as hitokiri battousai told Iitzuka to 'dispose of this garbage' when speaking of Akira's body. More than any other previous assassination Kenshin made, it was Akira's demise that brought out the fact that killing people was destroying Kenshin's soul and humanity.

That said, I don't think anyone else has ever captured the pathos of Akira's situation quite as well as you. It's awful to think of his suffering continuing after death, and how conflicted he'd be. He wants Tomoe to do the right thing and abstain from revenge, yet he also is pleased that she cared enough to do something about his death. He didn't deserve the eternal loneliness he decided was fitting for him, so I'm glad that Tomoe returned to him at the end. It was very satisfying to have those two together again. The last line really tied the story together exceptionally well.

Gomen nasai for my not reviewing sooner. To be honest, if I had known "Forgotten" would have affected me as strongly as it did, I would have waited a little later to read it. But... all is done. I don't mean this in the negative sense, this is truly inspiring and it is definitely on my best author and favorites list. I guess, it was a bit too soon... for me.

I applaud the success of your Kiyosato/Tomoe collaboration. This is an astounding piece.

"She had never said anything, had never expressed how content she was with him."

I am so glad you key into that, it was even remarked upon by Kiyosato's family (or I think it was his family and not hers). I believe she grieved in silence because she and her love for Kiyosato was misunderstood. It did not sound as if many were sympathetic towards her.

"Because in order to redeem the soul of that man, your life had been a necessary sacrifice."

That appeared to be Nobuhiro Watsuki's intention; after killing many men without a thought, that the Battousai was plagued by the mark Kiyosato placed upon him. Such irony.

"... in silence, he drifted to a far corner of the afterlife."

Beautifully spoken; is that a quote or does it belong to you? Either way, it tore at my heart. I loved the way you brought them together at the end and the concept on which his spirit observed from the netherworld.

I would be honored, Ishimaru-sama, if you would be so inclined to allow your readers to hear Tomoe's POV as she grieves for her lost love... before meeting the Battousai.

Great job. I never really imagined Akira as a "jealous" type, and you did a fabulous job with that. But imagine if Akira never learned that Tomoe loved him. That'd be interesting to write about.

Well done! You are, of course, right about Kiyosato. Pretty much every fan knows his name, but who really writes about him? The thing is, that's kind of how it is for minor characters-barring Saitou Tokio, for some reason-they get mulled over because they were never much there in the first place. Can you honestly say Kiyosato was developed in the manga? Sure, he had a personality-young, earnest, in love-but he sort of, well...died before he got much development.

But it's great that talented authors (such as yourself) can add so much to what was shown so little.

So, thanks to you, Akira isn't forgotten after all.

Still, it's pretty obvious why Akira and Tomoe don't get the amount of recognition as Kenshin and Kaoru...

Moving on. Enishi/Sae is a perfectly original pairing, and yet it isn't one of those alternate pairings you see that just SHOCK you. I liked the hinting about it in this fic. (Have I read Her Most Beautiful Smile? If not, I'm thinking I should!)

However, it's late now...really late, so I'll leave it at that.

What a beautifully written story. I'm quite sure that I prefer the pairing Tomoe and Akira to the pairing Tomoe and Kenshin. Well, that might be because I prefer Kenshin and Kaoru, but I've often wondered what Akira and Tomoe's relationship would have been like. I'm sure they really did love each other.

Thanks for posting!

Good luck.

_