Disclaimer: I do not own Peacemaker or Ruronin Kenshin, nor their characters fictional or historical.
Point of contention from the last chapter: Nagakura's wife should be deceased by this time, and he was separated from his infant daughter. Father and daughter only met after the little girl grew up. However, I like to play the family card, so…
Sayonara, Sou
"Sou, what the hell was that for?"
Kenshin grumbled as he rubbed a bruise on the back of his head. After failing to get any sign of life from the hut, he assumed that his friend was asleep and that he better get a move on before the other occupants of the house get alarmed by their night time visitor. Little did he expect to get hit by a flying clog.
"Gomen nasai, Kenni. Is that really you?" Okita could not believe his eyes. Stepping forward and out of the hut for a clearer view, he almost stumbled. "Careful there, let's get you inside and out of this unhealthy night air." Kenshin murmured as he helped Okita back into the hut. It was spartanly furnished. Kenshin helped Okita back into his futon. The hut was chilly, so he lit a small fire in the crude hearth.
"Kenni, you shouldn't do this, you might catch…" Okita quickly turned away as he coughed. Kenni was looking at him almost with pain in those deep violet eyes. The cross-scar on his cheek showed starkly in the firelight.
"I'll take my chances," Kenshin replied. Finding a kettle of cool water in the hut, he set it up over the fire to boil. A warm drink might ease Sou's lungs a bit.
"Kenni, I'm not dreaming, am I?" Okita was struggling to grasp the situation. It seemed too surreal. Must be a by-product of his illness and the heavy medication Midori has been feeding him to ease his suffering. "No, I am here, Sou…" Kenni reached out to grasp his friend's pale hand. It seemed too thin and too fragile in his. Okita was almost skeletal in his appearance, the once-rosy cheeks hollow, and his garments all but falling off his gaunt frame.
Only his eyes glowed with an unnatural brightness brought on by his illness.
Kenshin poured out the warm water into a bowl he had found in the hut. "Here, drink slowly. It's hot." Carefully, Okita managed a few sips.
"Kenni, what brings you here… to Edo…"
"A friend from the Ishin asked me to visit his dojo. I was also looking for my late wife's family… but they'd moved… Then I heard about someone very much like you at Midori's place, so I thought I'd check it out."
"Gee, thanks…" For a while the pair sat in easy companionship. It was Okita who broke the silence. "Kenni, now the Ishin are wining… what will you do? What are your plans… for the future?"
"Well, I am going to try and redeem my sins committed as Battousai, if I ever can. I don't want them to give me a post in the new government or something like that for killing people. I think I'll travel around the country as a ronin, helping people where they need help. But I am afraid that my true nature… even with a sakabatou…" Kenshin clenched his fists in his lap. Could he, a person so used to killing, have a place in the new era? Could he simply shrug off the past where he waded in so much blood?
"Kenni! You are Kenni. That is your true nature, not Battousai." Okita snapped fiercely. "Umeko-san, her girls, the children, they all see you for what you really are, kind-hearted Kenni. They do not see you as a killer. Umeko and the girls knew about you being Battousai, didn't they? And yet they treat you as a friend, because…"
Okita broke off coughing. "Sou!" Alarmed, Kenshin hurried over to his friend. Okita simply spat out the blood into his bedside washbasin.
"Kenni, the future of Okita Soujirou is over. However, your future is ahead of you. When I was a child, a storyteller came to our town. He told many amazing tales about his travels throughout Japan. He told of a place in Hokkaido where the sea freezes all year round and a place where black sands give off steam. I wanted to go see them for myself but it wouldn't be proper as I'm the Okita household's only son… I can't go gallivanting too far…"
"So I trained with my friends at the local dojo like a good son. Not that I had anything against kendo. In fact, I loved it. Then I followed Kondo and Hijikata when they joined the Roshigumi… I have seen Kyoto, Edo and many of the big towns where we passed by. However, I am a greedy boy. I want to see more. What lies beyond the horizon? I guess I'll never know now."
Okita paused to catch his breath. With his eyes closed, Kenshin thought that that he had drifted off to sleep. Suddenly, those bright eyes snapped open. "Kenni, can you promise me something?"
"What is it, Sou?" Kenshin asked gently. The little speech had taken a lot of effort from his friend.
"Promise me. Since you are going to go wandering up and down Japan… please visit me the next time you drop by Edo. And tell me all about your travels… Maybe, one day, you'll meet a special someone… Tell me about that too so I can wish you happiness. Get married, have children… I want you to tell me about the new era… over a cup of green tea."
"Right. You got it, Sou."
Okita smiled brightly as Kenshin agreed. They sat in silence a while longer.
By dawn, Kenshin was already on the road after dutifully scrubbing his hands in the vinegar-water as Okita had insisted. It would be the last time he saw Okita alive.
Meiji era 10th year, in a small cemetery in Tokyo
"Well, Sou. Kenni's here to keep his promise again. It has been a while. I see your sis has visited." A wandering ronin remarked as he poured a cup of green tea over the weather-beaten tomb marker. "She brought chrysanthemums again… I have some wildflowers from the hills…" Gently, the redhead placed the already drooping blooms before the grave.
"I went up to Hokkaido. It was freezing and life there's real hard. Not just the climate, but the people in power there were corrupt and bullying the populace… Heavy taxes on almost everything… They were working the miners like slaves… Some of the people there are known as the Ainu. They are slightly different from us, different language and culture. The chaps in government don't seem to consider them human… That isn't right, is right, Sou?"
No way. Did Kenni knock some sense into their skulls with his sakabatou? Kenshin chortled as he imagined Sou asking. "Hai, I sure did. Battousai wanted to just kill them for treating the people at the mines like slaves…" But Kenni won out, right? Sou's voice replied.
"Japan is changing too fast. The city has been renamed Tokyo. It's starting to look less like the Edo of old. With all those western-type houses popping up like mushrooms and the old neighbourhoods going, I get lost too easily… I guess I better be going…"
Sayonara then. Tell me when you have met that special someone…
"Sou, you know that is highly unlikely… she isn't gonna pop out in front of me, you know…"
It may be sooner then you think… Sou teased somewhere inside his head.
After a couple of turns and winding alleyways, Kenshin stopped. He was lost. The place looked vaguely familiar though. Kenshin was sure Kamiya's dojo was somewhere in the vicinity.
"YOU!" A furious young woman brandishing a bokken came running towards him…Before he could react, BONK!
End
Author's note:
That's the end of this fic. The rest is the RK series from when Kaoru confronts Kenshin and all that. Thanks for the reviews. This one's for all Okita and Kenshin fans out there.
I mentioned the Ainu people of Japan. Actually, there were many indigenous inhabitants in Japan before the Japanese civilization as we know today was established. The Ainu's just one of them. The Ainu were driven into the northernmost island of Hokkaido as the Japanese expanded their empire on Honshu. In the Meiji era, the government started developing Hokkaido for mining. Of course, the Meiji government started 'civilizing' these indigenous people by forbidding them from practising their culture and beliefs. I watched a documentary recently on the Ainu in modern Hokkaido re-discovering their roots and unique heritage. I think the tribe numbers about 20 members or so.
You guys know something? I got the idea of Kenshin visiting Okita's grave from that scene in the anime where he visits Tomoe's grave in Kyoto (the anime didn't mention whose grave that was)