Ice and Fire

Passion: Aoshi and Megumi

Featured in: Kakusei, Fumimayou, Seiya no Kinen, Kaihou (and appearing in Tadagoto)

Captor and captive. Spy and doctor. Killer and healer. They were both passionate people; he for his men, for strength, for honor, for outdated, unattainable ideals; she for her patients, for knowledge, for her duty as a doctor, for her identity as a woman in a time when women were hardly considered valuable. He displayed an icy, calm demeanor to the world, speaking only when he felt necessary, and then only extreme conciseness. She, on the other hand, had a more fiery personality, and her words were sharp and acerbic, as dangerous as the blades he wielded. From the start, theirs was a fragile relationship, carefully built and easily destroyed.

-----> go to: MEGUMI AOSHI KAKUSEI POST-SERIES REASONS <-----

Background Information (Pre-series backstory)

Aoshi and Megumi first met while both working under Takeda Kanryuu, a greedy, corrupt, ruthless, yet cowardly businessman, some eight to ten years after the Bakumatsu and the fall of the Shogunate. The manga itself never states exactly when their first meeting occurred. We know only that Megumi worked under Kanryuu for a total of three years, before Himura Kenshin came along and turned their lives completely upside down. According to Megumi when she first met the Kenshin-gumi, Aoshi had just been hired recently by Kanryuu, "recently" being left open to interpretation. In the Shirakawa Yofune continuity, I have placed their first meeting about a year before the series begins, at winter's end in the beginning of tenth year of the Meiji (1877), after Megumi has already been working for Kanryuu for more or less two years.

Megumi, originally from the pro-shogunate domain of Aizu (now the Fukushima prefecture), was born in late 1857 to a relatively high-class family of distinguished doctors named Takani. The Takanis were unique in that they allowed both men and women to pursue the study of medicine, and believed in equal treatment for all patients, regardless of age, class, or gender. They believed that the true purpose of medicine was life. Megumi's father Takani Ryuusei was especially passionate about this ideal, and even obtained permission travel outside of the domain (a big deal at the time) to take the family to Nagasaki in order to study Western medicine, at the time far more advanced than traditional Japanese medicine.

By the time her family returned, one of the last battles of the Boshin War, the Battle of Aizu, was just beginning.

the Battle of Aizu -- When the domain of Aizu didn't recognize the new government, they were declared enemies of the Emperor, resulting in the fourth battle of the Boshin War. Young and old, man and woman, all the people of Aizu fought together even through the siege. In the end, though, the modern weapons of the government army proved superior, and they were overcome on September 22, 1868. As the domain of Aizu had worked as a guardian of Kyoto peace, controlling the Ishin Shishi by setting up the Shinsengumi, it was a long time before the cruel oppression of the new government was lifted...
(Maigo-chan's Ruroken translations, Volume 3, Chapter 19.)

Younger Megumi with her family.

At the time, Megumi was still very young. The rest of her family, however, went to the battlefield to help those in need. There, her father was killed, and her mother and two brothers were declared missing in a fire.

Five years later, when Megumi turned sixteen, she went to Tokyo and became apprenticed to a certain doctor who had been acquainted with her family. Despite the hardships she had been through, she remained innocent, idealistic, determined to carry on the Takani name. Unfortunately, the doctor she was apprenticed to was actually secretly involved with Takeda Kanryuu in the opium business. Things only got worse when the doctor came up with a new strain of opium, dubbed "Spider's Web," made with half the amount of materials ordinary opium required, yet twice as addictive. Kanryuu and the doctor, each desiring this new discovery for himself, got into an argument, during which the doctor was "accidentally" killed. As the doctor's apprentice, Megumi was the only one left who knew the recipe for the new drug (she had made it before, thinking it was medicine), and so Kanryuu took her and forced her to produce it for him. She was eighteen years old.

Aoshi's childhood, on the other hand, is not described in canon. Where was he born? Who were his parents? Did he have any siblings? We know only that he was born in 1853, around half a year before Commodore Perry arrived in Japan with his black ships. A more than reasonable guess is that Aoshi was orphaned early on; some have theorized that he wasn't even originally born into the Oniwabanshuu but was adopted into the group as a young boy. This is the theory I go by. Because for all his supposed ninja upbringing, Aoshi holds surprisingly samurai-like, albeit twisted, ideals. His actions throughout the series seem to hint at a near obsessive dissatisfaction at being seen as a dishonorable, amoral shinobi, fighting and hiding forever in the shadows. This does not seem to me like the outlook of a born and bred ninja.

What we do know for certain is that Aoshi became the okashira, or leader, of the Edo Castle Oniwabanshuu, which was in essence a ninja group that guarded the Edo Castle, at the tender age of fifteen. A man named Makimachi was the previous okashira. The position was initially to pass to Makimachi's best friend Kashiwazaki Nenji, known generally as Okina, but Okina proclaimed, "Now is the time for the young," and recommended the young but immensely talented Aoshi instead. It was a great responsibility and incredible burden to acquire the leadership of such a group, even for a child prodigy like Aoshi, even in those days, when a boy became a man at fifteen.

A young Aoshi in shinobi attire.

Although Aoshi and his men were indeed skilled, they never got a chance to prove their true worth. During the critical Battle of Toba Fushimi, the last Tokugawa shogun Yoshinobu, knowing that his armies were outnumbered, abandoned ten thousand loyal soldiers on the battlefield and fled with his senior officials to Edo from Osaka Castle by sea. After reaching Edo, the shogun voluntarily entered confinement in the Kannei Temple of Ueno. Meanwhile, Bakufu official Katsu Kaishuu secretly made an alliance with the Ishin Shishi, who had been fighting to topple the shogunate. He ultimately reached an agreement with the Ishin in which Edo and its castle were surrendered without bloodshed.

Thus the Oniwabanshuu were thrown out into Edo, later renamed Tokyo, without ever putting up a fight, in the spring of 1868, mere months after the position of okashira had been conferred on Aoshi. Fifteen year old Aoshi understood Yoshinobu's decision to flee from the point of view of the leader of the country, who must survive at all costs, and Katsu's wisdom in surrendering instead of dragging on the violence, but he remained unable to bring himself to terms with what had occurred.

For some time after the fall of Edo Castle, the Oniwabanshuu stayed with Aoshi, but eventually, the former onmitsu all found their way into new, peaceful lives, and one by one left, until only four remained: Beshimi, Hyottoko, Shikijou, and Hannya. For these four, it was impossible to assimilate into the new peace of the Meiji era. Beshimi and Hyottoko had only one skill, one single attack they had become specialized in, and they knew how to do nothing else but fight. Shikijou and was stronger and more talented than Beshimi and Hyottoko, but he had betrayed the Ishin Shishi during the Bakumatsu, and could hardly seek employment with the new government now. And Hannya, the most skilled, was fated to be an outcast all his life for his monstrous, deformed face.

Aoshi could have simply abandoned them then; the new government knew of Aoshi's genius and was eager to employ his skills. But perhaps in memory of what he viewed as the cowardly actions of Yoshinobu, who abandoned his followers to save his own skin, Aoshi refused to leave his remaining men.

And so, at last, Aoshi had no choice but to seek employment with the shady businessman Takeda Kanryuu. For who else would hire such monsters, men who knew only how to fight in a purported age of peace? Aoshi was twenty-four years old.

And thus these two individuals meet, one rainy day, in the great mansion owned by Takeda Kanryuu...

Kakusei Notes

When I finish "Kakusei" I will be compiling a more thorough page of notes; however, I will briefly outline here character development in the fic and how it transitions into the Tokyo arc, where Aoshi and Megumi are first introduced in the Rurouni Kenshin series.
Sparks fly from their first meeting. Megumi, both as a single young woman and as Kanryuu's prized "golden goose," is isolated from the rest of the world and from the rest of the males occupying the mansion; Aoshi, as okashira, distances himself from his men despite their love and loyalty to him. Both unconsciously seeking a kindred soul, these two lone individuals are then inevitably drawn together.
But Megumi is like a cornered fox, bitter and untrusting, snapping at all who come too close to her. Aoshi too is like a caged wildcat, restless and wary, determined to keep up his mask of icy strength. Both have lost control of their lives, both are desperate to regain it. All Megumi wants is freedom, all Aoshi wants is honor and glory for his men... Or so they think.
Both stubbornly keeping up their walls, both separately pursuing what they believe they are seeking, the two of them ultimately clash, and the fragile relationship they have built up is shattered.
Thus by the time we see them again in the Tokyo arc, the relationship between them is cool, almost antagonistic, yet with remaining vestiges of the connection they had previously formed. And by the time the arc is over, Aoshi has gone insane with guilt and frustration and anger, while Megumi has begun on the road to redemption thanks to Himura Kenshin and his friends.

The rest of Aoshi and Megumi's tale is told in the Rurouni Kenshin series, and in the case of Aoshi, expanded on slightly in "Fumimayou". In the course of the series, Aoshi undergoes a bit of a catharsis and comes back to reality during the Kyoto arc (though not before appearing with Megumi in an infamous scene simply loaded with sexual tension... and unfortunately interrupted by Saitou Hajime). "Fumimayou" charts Aoshi's journey through the various stages of his grief and guilt. Later, he and Megumi, having progressed to ambiguously neutral terms, work together briefly during the Jinchuu arc to unravel a certain issue regarding someone's "death." The series ends with Megumi returning to Aizu, presumably to open a clinic of her own and search for any remnants of her scattered family, and Aoshi returning to Kyoto with fellow onmitsu and Oniwaban member Makimachi Misao, granddaughter of the former okashira, never to meet each other again...

... Except not.

Post-series

In the Kenshin Kaden artbook, mangaka Watsuki Nobuhiro adds a special ending to the series, entitled "Cherry Blossoms in the Spring." In this six-page special, the Ruroken characters gather for a picnic reunion in Ueno park, five years after the last arc in the manga (Meiji 16/1883). Both Aoshi and Megumi have undergone a few changes. Aoshi's expression is far much softer, and nowhere can you see his kodachis. In fact, despite still retaining his old signature trenchcoat, he has apparently put aside his old ninja outfits in favor of a Western suit and tie. Megumi too looks more gentle. She has apparently stopped wearing makeup, and her hair has changed slightly; not to mention her change in color scheme outfit-wise from lavender to blue. Both, ultimately, seem to look more at peace with themselves, and more mature. Although some issues may still remain from their earlier days, it seems that both of them have mostly moved on.

Post-series fan fiction therefore could easily depict these two getting back together and reigniting an old flame. (Or igniting a new one, depending on what you believe.) Indeed, in Shirakawa Yofune, "Seiya no Kinen" and "Kaihou" are two such fics, with "Seiya no Kinen" taking place the very night of this reunion, during which Aoshi and Megumi talk and come to terms with the last of their interpersonal issues. "Kaihou" takes place another five years later, in which they meet again by chance and take care of the final few ghosts that have resurfaced from their shared past.

Reasons

I suppose now I should address the question, "Why Aoshi and Megumi?"

... I say this ALL the time, but for one thing, they complement each other visually. Shallow, I know! But few other pairs are really visually complementary in this series in my opinion, among them Kenshin and Kaoru. (See what I mean here.)

But like I said, that's just a shallow reason. :D Now onto the serious stuff...

First of all, I would like to point out that the Japanese Aoshi/Megumi fandom seems to have somewhat different interpretations of their dynamics compared to interpretations and observations made by the English-speaking fandom. Someday, I will compile a separate essay of observations comparing and contrasting these differences. For now, I will discuss English-speaking fandom opinions only.

That being said, it is perhaps easier to begin by addressing the issue of the two more popular pairings in English-speaking fandom that "get in the way" of Aoshi/Megumi: Aoshi/Misao and Sanosuke/Megumi.

Let's begin with Misao. Throughout the series, it is made more than blatant that Misao competely hero-worships/has a huuuuuge crush on Aoshi, to the point that she decides to run off and search for him all over Japan. Her willingness to do so is often cited by Aoshi/Misao fans as proof of her love. I... am not so sure this is true. Yes, on one hand, I admit that this act does show her love. Because there is no doubt about it: Aoshi and Misao care very deeply for each other. But is it romantic? Iffy. Rather, I think this act of hers shows her -- I am reluctant to use the word immaturity, because Misao isn't immature, she's just... very young. A fifteen-year-old (yes, she is fifteen, the sixteen years that is stated is from keeping age Japanese-style, where you're one year old at birth -- and to be even more precise, she's actually still fourteen at her first appearance) chasing after a man ten years older than her strikes me more as "fangirl"-ish behavior rather than a basis for healthy romance.

Yes, Kaoru, the heroine of the series, is also only sixteen, and the age difference between her and Kenshin is even greater (thirteen years), but you also have to keep in mind that their situations are quite different. Kaoru at this point has already been on her own for at least two years, as I recall, while Misao has grown up all her life with a very supportive and over-protective "family". Also, Aoshi is a man who Misao has not seen in more than ten years. Misao herself says that Aoshi left her in Kyoto at the start of the Meiji era (when she was only about four to five years old) -- they have not met each other since. It is on mere rumor that she decides to run off and search for this man whom she likely has only vague childhood memories of, perhaps boostered by stories the rest of the Oniwabanshuu may have told her about him.

Now contrast this with Kenshin and Kaoru, who live together for months, interacting on a daily basis... Although their time together may ultimately add up to less than what Aoshi and Misao had together as children, the experiences they share are far deeper than anything Aoshi and Misao have shared up to this point. Aoshi pretty much still sees her as the little girl he left all those years ago; Misao idolizes what she thinks is him without really knowing the person he has become. Therefore, at the end of the series, I believe there is no more support for Aoshi/Misao than there is for Aoshi/Megumi -- perhaps even less. Of course, if we're talking post-series, then yes, it becomes more feasible. Given a few more years, it is indeed possible that an Aoshi/Misao romance could blossom.

Though even post-series Aoshi/Misao poses problems for me. Mainly in terms of motivation. The other thing every Aoshi/Misao fan points to is the extreme differences in their personality. "Opposites attract" and everything, and Aoshi and Misao are so painfully, obviously on opposite sides of the spectrum. Tall male vs. short female. (Okay, okay, kidding!) Genki and cheerful vs. cold and aloof. Innocent and carefree vs. jaded and burdened. You get the point.

The problem with "opposites attract" is that it's inaccurate, at least in its cut and dry form. Because while it is true that "opposites" fascinate each other and provide that extra "spark" in a relationship, for a lasting, healthy relationship, there must also be some common ground. Which, in the case of Aoshi and Misao, seems to be limited to the Aoiya and the Oniwabanshuu. Granted, we probably aren't given enough information in canon to go off of. Aoshi likes tea and meditation and quiet things. Misao likes... Aoshi. And being cheerful. And people, I gather, which I have a feeling Aoshi doesn't. Other than that, their experiences are far too different, their ways of thinking probably completely alien to each other. They really don't know each other very well, given the ten year gap in both their ages and their acquaintance. (Kenshin and Kaoru at least have similar life philosophies and viewpoints, despite having completely different backgrounds, and they both share a deep passion for kenjutsu and the whole idea of the sword as "protection"/"life".) Still, it could work out...

It's a weak argument, in any case. Aoshi and Megumi are also very much opposites, in terms of the types of walls they have built up around themselves and the way they interact with other people. Megumi hides externally; Aoshi hides internally (and Misao has nothing to hide). Megumi uses her words to fluster and keep others at a distance; Aoshi uses his aloofness in a similar manner. Like fire and ice: both alone burn and destroy, but put together counteract and keep each other in check. Aoshi and Megumi would, I believe, also relate to each other more easily than Aoshi and Misao would.

Along similar lines of thought, what Aoshi and Misao really lack is sexual tension. Laugh all you want at this seemingly trivial point, but the fact is, if you want a romantic relationship, there'd better be sexual tension. Without the sexual aspect, a relationship is platonic. Misao, despite her enormous crush, seems to envision Aoshi more as an ideal or the epitome of perfection, rather than as someone hot who she really wants to jump. (The only instance I can remember her even commenting on men's looks is when she first sees Enishi on his island. "He's better looking than I thought." Previously she also mentions how cool Sano actually is despite his annoying jerk behavior.) Aoshi, icicle that he is, seems to lack any interest in that direction towards anyone.... except for previously mentioned scene in Kyoto arc where he brings his hand to Megumi's cheek in a very suggestive manner. Post-series this could possibly change... except for the fact that Aoshi was an older brother/father figure to Misao throughout her toddler years, and somehow I have my doubts either of them will forget this anytime soon. Particularly Aoshi.

In fact, I'm not really sure what Misao actually sees in Aoshi. Aoshi sees Misao as a symbol of innocence, innocence that he never had. She is someone he wants to protect. Misao thinks he's cool, he's strong. Certainly not ugly. Someone to look up to. (In themselves rather shallow reasons for romance.) But beyond that...?

Finally, though, my main issue with this pairing is really that it doesn't do the characters justice. Yet another point Aoshi/Misao fans often make is how Misao is determined to get Aoshi to smile. And how therefore Misao is necessary for Aoshi. The first flaw in this argument is that, considering how much they care about each other platonically already, why is there any need to read romance into it? Misao can easily make Aoshi smile without romance ever coming into the equation. Ignoring this for now, though, as well as the fact that I believe that more than anything what Misao and the other onmitsu need to do is to just back off and let Aoshi figure things out on his own, and just be there for him, be silently supportive, and the fact that Aoshi seems pretty much stabilized by Jinchuu...

Assuming a romance with Misao is necessary for Aoshi's spiritual well-being. What then does Aoshi provide Misao in a romantic relationship? (Other than babies. *is shot*) In the best scenario, not much more than he already does. In the worst scenario... nothing healthy for her personal development, I should think. Why do I say this? Because from all indications, Misao is utterly fixated on Aoshi. Yeah, yeah, it's sweet... except it's not. Doesn't the girl have a life outside of Aoshi at all? Because if she does, we don't see much of it. Seriously, the girl totally idolizes Aoshi. I would be extremely uncomfortable with any "romantic", non-BDSM relationship in which one party refers to the other as "-sama" (if that other person is not actually a lord or important personage of some sort to whom the first person owes very much respect). That in itself indicates a lack of balance, a lack of equality. And while it's nice and everything that, as some fans argue, Misao, like Kaoru, is willing to accept her man for who he is...

No. All she knows of Aoshi is the side of him she idolizes, and the side he showed when he showed himself willing to (almost) kill Okina in the Kyoto arc. That latter side she thinks was just a phase. Which it was. But there's even more to him than that, and I don't think she can fully comprehend that. At least not yet. Notice how she always instantly denies even the vaguest hints of an insult towards her "Aoshi-sama." That doesn't seem to be acceptance of flaws to me... (Another point for comparison: Kaoru, ultimately, wants to "always be by [Kenshin's] side," i.e. to support him. Misao wants Aoshi to come back to her, time and time again. One desire is active, one desire is passive; one desire is selfless, one desire is selfish.)

And so it really does Misao an injustice to have Aoshi suddenly waking up one day and realizing, omg she's a woman, omg I'm attracted to her, let's get hitched and go at it like bunnies. Because it's not just Aoshi who has to move on from the idea that she's no longer a girl (and honestly, she still is at the end of the series, in many ways); Misao also has to mature and develop in non-Aoshi related areas before any romantic relationship between the two can be pulled off. They both need to become their own people, not have one be utterly dependent on the other. (Whether it's Aoshi who supposedly needs her to heal and "melt", or it's Misao who makes her life revolve completely around one single person. Neither scenario is a healthy, fluffy scenario.)

And as I see it, when Misao finally does grow and mature, I think she'll finally realize there's far better men out there for her than Aoshi ("and ew, I can't even imagine the two of us... in bed"), and she'll move on. That does not compromise or discount their already existing relationship in the slightest. Because, as mentioned, I do not disagree that theirs is a close relationship. Aoshi cares for her, she cares for him. That doesn't necessarily mean it is a romantic relationship.

Of course, that is just my opinion. (I much prefer and am really fond of the complex yet subtle sibling-like dynamic between them. Someday I intend to write an essay on the platonic Aoshi/Misao relationship.)

... Phew. Sanosuke is easier to discuss. There are only two points that are a major problem for the Sanosuke/Megumi pairing. First is a point that fan fic can easily solve, but is there nevertheless as an obstacle: Sano's not in Japan. At the end of the manga, Sano runs off to avoid getting arrested and Megumi goes to Aizu. In the Cherry Blossom ending, we see that he's since been around traveling the world. And if you go by Seisouhen, ten years after the Cherry Blossom ending and fifteen years after Jinchuu, he's still hanging around in some remote place in China. Which makes romance kinda difficult... unless it's some random fling with a cute Mongolian babe. Which Megumi, though sexy, is unfortunately not.

The biggest problem though? Is the huuuge dichotomy in their lifestyles. Sanosuke is a wandering, free-spirited type. The kind of guy who just will not stay in any one place for long. No matter how attached he is to the people there. In that way he kind of provides a counterpoint to Hiko, who is a constant throughout the series, a solitary hermit, forever unchanging. Well, Sano is the solitary wanderer, forever variable.

Megumi, on the other hand, seems to want stability, family and friends, a sense of belonging. And with her past, who can blame her? It's for that very reason that she goes back to Aizu. On one hand she wants to go back to her roots, of course, and search for her family (which you must note, is something Sano also did, but with a very different attitude -- and he ended up leaving). With Kenshin and Kaoru soon to be married, she no longer feels like she belongs in Tokyo. She probably always felt like a bit of an outsider anyway: she didn't actually live in the dojo, and notice how in many "group pictures" of the Kenshin-gumi, Megumi is conspicuously missing. Not all of them, but a good portion of them.

So as much chemistry as they may have, they simply aren't very compatible. Can you really imagine Sano deciding to settle down anytime soon, taking on an honest job, having kids, raising them....? Can you imagine Megumi settling for anything less?

Yeah, that's what I thought. I think there's good reason Watsuki leaves things open-ended regarding Megumi and Sano. Not to mention all the allusions of Megumi as kitsune... in traditional folklore, kitsune/human romances do not have very happy endings.

Why then does Aoshi/Megumi work?

Because they've already had their tragic ending. And Aoshi isn't human. :D

And while that was meant to be a semi-silly answer, it certainly leads into the rest of this essay. Because no matter what kind of connection you believe they had at Kanryuu's, all readings seem to support that they did have some kind of connection -- Megumi seems to know quite a bit about the Oniwabanshuu (despite their supposed secretiveness as shinobi), being in particular seeming relatively well acquainted with Hannya, who is essentially Aoshi's second-in-command in the mansion; Aoshi had enough respect for her to show her his own brand of mercy in the end, offering her the freedom to choose an honorable way out. For a man who shows his care for others, even Misao, in such typically awkward, almost cold ways, that offer I think is especially telling. At any rate, that particular relationship, whether simply that of captor/captive or something more, definitely did not end well.

The hand/cheek scene in the Kyoto arc is oddly suggestive, but leaves things awkwardly unresolved with Saitou's interruption. We don't know how things would have proceeded, and therefore we are unable to read into this scene too deeply either way. And yet by the time of the Jinchuu arc, Aoshi and Megumi are shown in various scenes discussing and debating quite reasonably. Megumi even freely offers to go with him by herself to reinvestigate certain evidence, and they manage to work together, just the two of them, without any hint of tension. Even afterwards, Megumi feels comfortable enough to refer to him as an idiot. (For Megumi, an almost affectionate term!)

Obviously, no hard feelings remain. The one scene in which their arguing does get particularly heated, Megumi actually reaches out to grab Aoshi's sleeve. Considering how little they supposedly know one another, and even keeping in mind Megumi's atypical forwardness... such casual touching at such a tense moment is yet another subtexty, eyebrow-raising hint. That the one person Aoshi instantly seeks out for information and to voice his opinions to is Megumi is suggestive in itself. While he continues to shield Misao, Megumi is the one whose intelligence and abilities he respects and who he trusts... strangely enough, given what we are explicity shown of their former circumstances. You would think they'd have a lot more baggage to deal with. And, well, lest I start repeating myself, they work together very well -- intellectually, at least, they are very compatible.

As for attraction, I believe they see parts of themselves in each other, but manifested outwardly in very different ways. As I mentioned, Aoshi tends to retreat inward while Megumi simply ups the poison in her barbs. At the same time, Aoshi can also be scathingly, unabashedly honest, while Megumi manipulates and veils the truth to also hide within. They fascinate each other, even frustrate each other, yet at the same time understand each other. They have both seen each other at each other's worst, and are mature enough to have accepted that, learned from it, moved on.

Most of all, they both share a similar need for belonging, and both hold "family" in equally high regard. Aoshi, despite his loner status and inability/lack of desire to socialize, holds Misao and the Oniwabanshuu as the most important things in his life. Yet because of the discrepancies in experiences, and his old habits as Okashira, he will always feel somewhat distanced from the rest of the onmitsu, I suspect. I have already mentioned how Megumi's one great desire is to find her family, and how she too is a relative outsider to the makeshift family of the Kamiya dojo.

I think they perhaps will both, in the future, need to resort to creating new families of their own.

Aoshi, by all indications, seems to be seriously considering settling down as a "mere innkeeper," and Megumi wants to open her own clinic. They both want to settle down, start over.

And what better way to do it than with each other?

Because more than any other pairing besides Kenshin/Kaoru, Aoshi and Megumi truly embody the various themes of this series. Acceptance, forgiveness, redemption. Because knowing what they have gone through together, it seems only fitting that they should finish the story together as well. And they are two individuals who have shown that they will actually be capable of doing so:

To be able to let go of the darkness of the past and embrace a new future together, and come full circle at last.

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