by
Anaphalis
Summary: A journey of a thousand miles may start with a single step- but what happens if someone walks into you? Battousai the assassin gets transported to feudal Japan. The rest of his year isn't looking very good either. Rurouni Kenshin X Inuyasha crossover. Romance/Drama.
Chapter Summary: Kenshin lives. Sort of.
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Disclaimer: Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and Shonen Jump. Rurouni Kenshin belongs to Watsuki Nobuhiro and Jump. Brushes on this page courtesy of Pure Anodyne.
A/N: And I bet you were all wondering how I was going to make this a canon story :) This is not the last chapter- there is still one more chapter to go. And yes, this is a very short chapter.
When you paint yourself into a corner it helps if you enjoy watching paint dry.
Much later, when a wooden sword-wielding madwoman challenges him to fight, the black hair and fiery eyes give him a rush of vertigo. When his head finally clears, he finds himself up to his elbows in soap, scrubbing clothes. There is, he decides, a certain amount of irony in the decisions of the gods.
Kenshin loves Kaoru. He doesn't doubt this, just as he doesn't doubt that tomorrow the sun will rise and that yet another idiot from his past will challenge him. But it doesn't change the fact that every road he walks, he finds himself subconsciously hoping that this will be THE road that will bring him back to Her. He pretends obliviousness and unworthiness and whatever else it will take to avoid facing his own mind.
When he falsely believes that Kaoru is dead, something inside of him dies. He can no longer pretend to Kaoru that he doesn't love her. But when he goes to Tomoe's grave, tells Kaoru his story, it isn't really Tomoe that he is saying goodbye to. Tomoe has been a ghost in his mind for far longer than he actually loved her. Kagome was never a ghost. He knows that this is right, that he loves Kaoru,that Kagome wanted him to live and love. However, the act of giving up that last hope finally kills the last of the Battousai. Like Inuyasha many years before, Kenshin has made the decision to destroy his monster to gain a family.
Still later, when his son is born, Kenshin blurts "Kenji" without a second thought. Unfortunately, Kaoru seems to think that it is a good fit. Kenshin wonders how he is going to live every day facing that moment's folly. Lots of traveling seems to be a good answer.
Later, although not that much later, Kenshin has a moment of revelation. As he lies dying, he realizes that Kagome wasn't completely right. It is possible to love more than one person and it is possible for each love to be unique. However, in the final moments of Kenshin's life there is only one face that appears in his mind and only one name that passes his lips before his world ends.
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And that is the true reason that Kenji hates his father.
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