Chapter 1.15

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Rising out of grey dawn is a rurouni on his journey again. He is different from yesterday. He has nothing to care, nothing to worry. Living without sorrows seems to be an epitome of human desires, yet he has none. Without pains, without sorrows, without mishaps. How is a life like that possible when his rueful past remains vividly in memory? He has no intention of disclosing his past to the world; people who knew him too well may hurt him, or get hurt themselves.

Soujiro’s quietly leaving the village that terminates at a hill not far away. This place no longer wants to bear his presence or to accept him as a part of it. He hasn’t expected people to accept him after knowing his past. After all, he had already prepared for the worst to come the moment he stepped down Hiei mountain (1)

Standing as he is upon the watchtower of human Freedom, Seta Soujiro grants himself the will to forget. The regretful Tenken has readily let all pains lose in the stream of time and paving the way to the little boy in the past to strive for existence. He smiles, meaning that he's ready to move on.

If he hesitates for another minute, the sun will rise and everybody will wake up. He gazes at the place where he felt at peace for the last time. Don’t go any further... Reluctant, but he can’t keep the thought of staying and hurting more people. He has found out... that the life of a hitokiri is nothing but a series of remorse and redemption, and thus it should forever remain a secret...

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“Ohayou, Soujiro-san!”

He turns around.

“Where are you going this early?” A group of children are asking. They usually are up earlier than everyone else in town.

“Me?”

“Hai, who else should we be asking?”

“Where are you going, Soujiro-san?” Sota asks earnestly.

He gasps. Football games, collecting woods, moments in the marketplace and playing in the sun are unforgettable. But when returning to reality and realizing that happiness was vanity, it is a hundredfold painful...

“I do not know.”

“You don’t know where you’re going?”

“You’re leaving, aren’t you?” A little boy shrewdly addresses the core of his uneasiness, “Aren’t you?”

“I...”

"I'll let Shohane-san know, and she will stop you"

"Don't, Sota-chan!"

He has spoken before he thinks. Tenken, who had fought so many battles with the most ruthless tactics, now incredibly finds his throat stiffened among a group of youngsters. He swallows hard. How to explain straightly? Where does this uneasiness come from? Why do I even feel the need to explain my doing?

“I need to leave.”

As though his words were a signal, the little ones start circling around him, trying to hold him back with their little hands clutching his sleeves. “Don’t go, Soujiro-san! Stay with us! Please!”

He smiles broadly as they’re hanging persistently onto his clothes. He doesn’t know whether it’s sadness or joy. He doesn’t know anything else to express.

“Doozo,” Soujiro pats a kid’s head, and he smiles, “I will come back.”

He covertly asks his heart whether he is honest. He gently bends his head in appreciation when they begin to loosen their grips on him.

“Sayounara.”

They are longing after him.

He doesn’t look back.

He is again journeying to a distant land he knows not.

The life of a rurouni is supposed to be lonely . . . Soujiro is smiling as he ambles past the village, into the forest, his footsteps steady. Crossing this hill he will enter another world.

Only the flapping wings of the crows above sound strikingly lonesome. . . .

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(1) Hiei mountain: where Shishio’s fortress was located, remember?

This is NOT the end yet XD

Next: "Breaking Through Time and Space" ! Sorry, I can't paste a link, please search my profile for it.. XD