Meiji 26 ( 1893 )
My body... so heavy...
Just like this, I die.
No, finally.
I can rest...
RUROUNI KENSHIN SEISOU-HEN
After so many years have lapsed
Akabeko
Kaoru-san!
Tsubame-chan...
Are you going to the harbor again?
Don't worry. I know he'll be back.
As you know, he comes back every time, no matter what's happened.
Tsubame?
I just met Kaoru-san outside the shop.
I see...
I can't stop myself from worrying about her.
Kenji-kun left and Kaoru-san is alone.
I'll go by her house later.
Yahiko-kun,
do you think Kenshin-san was...
Hey!
But the war is over
and everybody is coming back from the continent.
Even so, I know Kaoru is going to the harbor every day.
She is always waiting
for Kenshin to come home.
The sun is sinking.
I'm gonna start preparing dinner.
Haven't you changed your mind about going back to Tokyo?
How about him?
What?
He hasn't come back yet?
Even if he comes back home, I know that he'll go off somewhere soon.
I've thought since I was a kid,
wondering why my mother married my father.
Then why did you come here?
It's useless for you to learn your father's swordsmanship, isn't it?
I wanted to know the limitations of human strength,
and what true strength is!
Himura.
It has been fifteen years since I saw you last,
I've come to see you to ask for a favor.
Please go to the continent.
I guess you already know that there are disputes on the continent.
I'm pretty sure that a war will be starting soon.
We have military force, however,
few of our soldiers understand battle.
If a person like you, who has gone through many battles,
could be their leader...
Yamagata-san, I'd rather save people who were hurt in the war
than put myself into one.
If war can't be avoided, the more I feel so.
Himura...
I will go to the continent to do just that.
That's the only thing I can do now,
and probably the last thing I can do as atonement.
It's getting colder.
I will wait for you, as I usually do,
at this place.
Until you return to me.
So...
Good luck.
Hey, Kaoru!
What's the matter?
Answer me! Kaoru!
Kaoru...
Recalling our past,
both you and I have lived with scars that won't fade.
Scars which were carved as a cross.
I've cornered him.
Hitokiri Battosai, I won't let him escape tonight.
Is he the assassin who says he belongs to my school of swordsmanship?
Help me clean the drill hall.
Since you are staying at our house, you can do things like that, can't you?
Kaoru-dono.
What?
Kamiya Kasshin swordsmanship,
created by your late father, is one which spares lives.
The more I think about it, the more I am impressed by his great will.
Kamiya Kasshin Ryu Etsujiro
You too, Kenshin...
Since you have great skill,
you could start a new school of swordsmanship using your own methods.
What kind of swordsmanship do you expect from my murdering sword?
Kamiya Kasshin Ryu Etsujiro
I guess your father must have been a gentle person, then?
No.
He was very strict and frightening.
After my mother died,
I cried all the time, but he forced me to practice swordsmanship.
I thought that my father never felt pain, even when my mother died.
However, I once saw him
crying silently while holding her kimono.
I thought, "Ah, an adult man can cry."
After that, I practiced the sword more seriously.
I wanted to make my father happy.
I'm sure that your father is still happy.
Master
Acting Master
Kamiya Kaoru
Master
Acting Master
Kamiya Kaoru
Students
Myojin Yahiko
What are you gaping at?
A man like that...
I wonder why he was able to kill people?
Don't ask questions like that of him, Kaoru.
I still wonder why I was a pickpocket before I came here.
But I can't erase something like that.
I can't forget about it either.
Sorry. I am so sorry.
You've got nerve walking down the street in the middle of the day with a sword.
You're under arrest for violating the law banning swords.
Wait, Ujiki!
Let me handle this. Sheathe your sword.
The Secretary of the Army?!
Yes, Sir!
Yamagata Aritomo?
I've been looking for you for ten years, Himura.
He came to pick Kenshin up?
Many colleagues are looking forward to you coming back.
Let's go back together.
Yamagata-san. I appreciate your concern about me, however,
I don't intend to take an honorable position as reward for assassinating people.
Himura!
Times have changed.
It's different from the last days of the Tokugawa, when your sword had power.
In this Meiji era, a sword can't do anything at all.
With a sword, I can protect people whom I can see.
Kenshin, do you need a sword no matter what?
Can't you let it go?
Back then, the sunset dyed the sky like this...
"Don't run away after you've killed so many people."
"Live with the sword and die with the sword. There is no other way for you to live."
Someone told me that.
It's been ten years since then, but I still don't understand what I can do.
Until I find the answer, I can't put down this reverse-bladed sword.
Father, do you think I can do it?
Share his pain and the weight of his sword?
Kenshin won't be back.
What?
So I was told to take care of this house while he was gone.
Why, Sanosuke?
Jinei has been targeting only patriots of the Meiji Restoration.
His next target is Kenshin.
So in order to avoid causing any trouble, he won't be back here for a while.
Look at me. Jinei is not an ordinary enemy.
Even if you go to help him, you would only be a drag on him.
Stay here quietly.
Kenshin...
Battosai has become dull since falling in love with a girl like this.
Don't look at me like that.
I didn't kidnap you to eat.
I know that. You did it because you want to weaken him, you coward!
You don't understand.
Now that I have you as a hostage, he will go mad.
The madness will make him revert to how he used to be as an assassin.
I have no business with him as he is now, having lost his spirit.
Kenshin is still strong.
You don't know how strong he was in the last days of the Tokugawa.
Just hearing stories about him, people got goose pimples,
because of his cold and cruel sword.
He is indeed the strongest assassin.
He is a man who has mastered how to kill people with the sword.
To fight him knowing it might mean my death,
it's the best murder to enjoy.
Well, here comes the master of murder.
You, girl!
Remember, Battosai!
Remember the smell of blood, the feel of cutting flesh and bone,
the fun and ecstasy of killing people.
Come.
The man who's mastered how to pull the sword out of the sheath,
I've heard that's the reason for his other name, "Battosai".
Since he is a master of the Hiten Mitsurugi style, with its godlike speed,
he must be the fastest at pulling out his sword of its sheath.
However, I wonder how fast he can draw now, since his arm is injured?
Now, time to fight!
Don't!
Kaoru-dono!
Don't go back to being a murderer.
You are no longer the Battosai, so please, don't...
Well, let's finish up.
What a nice feeling!
The end of a murderer should be like this.
Well, my arm is now useless, so it's no fun for me to live without it.
Don't look at me like that, Battosai.
Your real character is a murderer, as I thought.
A murderer still has the heart of a murderer until he dies.
You can't be anything else.
Kenshin.
We need to stop the bleeding as soon as possible.
Kenshin, thank you for coming here to rescue me.
No, I'm the one to say thanks, not you.
I was almost...
Don't say it.
This is the record of this man's life;
one more scar on his small body.
A new scar...
I am sorry.
Cherry blossoms are beautiful while they are out,
but it's also beautiful when they are falling.
Blossoms when they are falling...
Somehow I can't like them.
Sorry.
Oh, no.
You don't need to force yourself
to smile in front of me.
I had a dream this morning.
Of that time...
During the last days of the Tokugawa?
Blood was falling just like cherry blossoms.
Kenshin...
But a cherry tree is a cherry tree, not blood.
Yes, matters of the past are the same as dreams,
and they'll fade in time, and disappear someday.
I agree with you.
Someday he will show me his smile from the bottom of his heart.
I believe so.
Kenshin?!
May 14, 1878
Extra! Extra! The Secretary of the Interior has been assassinated!
Secretary Ookubo was assassinated!
I knew that the times needed him,
and I couldn't change his way of life.
I know that.
I knew that, but...
Thank you so very much for everything until now.
Goodbye, Kaoru.
I couldn't chase him then, either.
On that night, the night when Kenshin left for Kyoto,
I wanted to hold Kenshin tight.
What?
Kenshin told me,
"A crazy murderer is still living deep inside of my heart."
But, I accept him as he is.
Don't tell me things like that.
You need to tell that to him face to face.
Idiot! I can't do that, so I'm telling you.
What the hell is that?
Think about how I feel about it.
Was that too stimulating for a kid like you?
I can't believe women nowadays...
Sorry.
It's okay.
Kaoru-dono?
A guest for you?
I will take care of her for now, so hurry up and get some water.
Kenshin!
I chased you from Tokyo.
Are you mad at me?
Half.
Half?
My stupid student must be feeling that he was burnt alive by the flame,
the flame of the lives which he erased.
And it will continue into the future...
Even so,
I want to be with him.
If we can go home safely, together with him, forever...
When the pottery is done, I will give it to you.
It's a tea cup.
When you go back to Tokyo, use it and serve good tea to my stupid student.
Sure.
Kenshin?
I won't take my eyes off of you and your battle, ever.
I won't leave you, ever again.
Someday,
when you can really rest...
Until then...
Ah, look!
Father...
Father, I was not able to bring you home.
However...
Kenshin.
Welcome home.
I'm home.
His body is torn.
His athletic skill is extremely outstanding.
Other than that, he's the same as an ordinary person.
If something happens next time, it will be no surprise if he dies.
Therefore, you must be stronger,
if you want to make him believe that it is worth coming back alive.
I wish I could, but I can't. Only you can do it.
The only person he said goodbye to in Tokyo was you.
Thank you, Megumi-san.
Hurry, hurry!
Wait!
From now on,
the world will probably become calmer and more peaceful.
No more war.
And everybody can live together forever.
I hope so.
That's impossible.
What?
Time goes by, and swordsmanship is changing.
There is no way that humans won't change.
Someday, everybody will walk their own way and live their own life.
It sounds lonely, but it's a fact...
But I...
I want to be with you forever, Kenshin.
So please come back.
Promise me.
No matter what happens to you, you'll come back to me alive.
When I came back here from Kyoto,
when I heard you saying "Welcome home,"
I was really happy from the bottom of my heart.
There is a person who welcomes a man like me.
I have a place to come back to.
This is the only place for me to come back to.
(Punishment by man)
Jinchu
Jinchu...
I have to go.
Kenshin!
Don't worry.
Welcome h...
Kenshin...
You haven't eaten dinner yet, have you?
I don't need it. I'm going to go to bed today.
No! I can't ask him what happened.
I've never seen him as pitiful as that.
Jinchu
Kenshin...
Please eat something, even one bite, please.
What is this?
Hiko-san made it for me.
I have something to talk about with you, Kaoru-dono.
The story about the grudge buried in this cross-shaped scar
and the meaning of "Jinchu" which connects to the story.
I murdered my wife, Himura Tomoe, with my own hands.
I thought he had finally come back to me,
but Kenshin's mind is still wandering around somewhere.
Kenshin...
Your hand feels gentle,
Yasahii te dane
You said so.
Anata ga itta
Tears come out,
Namida ga deta yo
Very quietly.
Totemo shizukan
Seashore in spring,
Haru no sunahama
Your head on my knees and fell asleep;
Hiza de nemutta
Your hair, gently,
Anata no kami o sotto
When I combed with my fingers.
Yubi de suita toki
Suddenly, I felt like I understood everything;
Fui ni subete ga wakatta ki ga shita
All the pain in the heart goes home to the sky.
Kurushimi tachi ga sora e to kaette yuku no deshita
On your cheek,
Anato no hoho ni
The drops of the tears;
Ochita shizuku wa
I told you it's spray from the sea,
Nami shibuki da to itta
I put my hands over your eyes to blind.
Mekakushi o shita yo
Please be here with me, I am here with you.
Koko ni ite, koko ni iru yo