"We're here, at the second room." "If you open this door, you won't be able to go back." "Explanations are unnecessary, that they are." "Usui!" "Usui, where are you?" "Usui!" "Come now, keep it down..." "Usui!" "Welcome." "Now, aren't you going to attack?" "I will take both your heads and put them up along with Shishio's head as part of my victory trophy." "Usui, how dare you say that?" "I will make sure Lord Shishio hears of this immediately!" "You really are a dumb woman..." "I have always said that if I catch Shishio off guard, then I will do away with him." "Shishio accepted this?" "Of course he did..." "Despite that, he apparently needs me and my Eye of the Heart." "The Eye of the Heart..." "I see you've changed your mind." "Good, good." "You couldn't skin a cat with that dagger." "Anji..." "You came to..." "That medicine the Battousai left here seems to have worked well." "You were looking after me?" "I don't know who prepared this but it seems you have many good friends." "Ouch..." "My whole body is messed up..." "But..." "This is a good kind of pain." "I haven't felt like this since the time I fought Kenshin." "Where's Kenshin?" "He headed towards the second opponent, Usui." "He learned that the Juppongatana are going to the Aoiya, and hurried onward." "The Juppongatana are going to the Aoiya?" "You can still catch up with the Battousai if you go now." "Go." "That way!" "Yeah!" "I have thanks to give." "For letting me meet you twice, I thank the gods of fate or rather, Buddha." "There may be time when I must cross fists with you again..." "Yeah, I'll fight to become stronger for such a day!" "So that I can defeat you with these fists of mine!" "See ya!" "I see..." "That really little one must be the Battousai." "Judging from your cold sweat, you were informed of the crisis at the Aoiya?" "That means..." "I see, so Anji finally betrayed us." "Enough small talk." "Will you step aside or not?" "Hurry up and decide!" "Sano, are you all right?" "It was just a scratch." "I see, is this the next guy?" "Yeah..." "I see..." "So Anji couldn't even kill off one of you." "No, this is fine, a fine thing." "If you aren't going to move..." "It's good for you to get angry, but don't rush." "Haste will create extra tension, and cut your true strength in half." "Saito..." "I will take care of him." "You can hurry on up ahead." "You can't!" "Whether or not everyone at the Aoiya dies, you will fight here!" "That is Lord Shishio's order!" "Go!" "Sorry." "Wait, I can't allow..." "Shut up!" "You're coming with us!" "Wait a minute, you!" "The only one who can touch me is Lord Shishio!" "What a pretty friendship you have..." "Hajime Saito..." "You seem to be much more lenient than I've heard..." "I guess you're reaching the limit of what your Eye of the Heart can see..." "Battousai, who is still dragging around his wish not to kill would get in my way." "...when move I kill you..." "Hey, you guys!" "I wish Usui would just die, but I know he will defeat Saito!" "And then, it will be your turn!" "You really think our Saito will get killed by such a guy?" "You don't know about Usui's Eye of the Heart!" "His Eye of the Heart becomes clearer each time he smells blood!" "W-Who is it?" "Kill, kill, kill him!" "I see..." "Third man from the right, you have fair poise..." "I see you're from Satsuma." "How can you tell?" "Eye of the Heart!" "Don't panic!" "Everyone, stay back!" "All right, I will step forward and face him alone!" "I don't want any more casualties on this end!" "Catching me off-guard, and ambushing from both sides..." "How cruel..." "Just like the current government..." "What are you talking about?" "Surprise is now turning to fear..." "I can tell how your heart shifts, like I'm holding it in my hand." "G-Get him!" "To the left!" "Above!" "Too simple!" "I'll make you suffer the longest..." "Until your heart stops..." "Three more beats..." "One, two, three..." "It's like the power of a god!" "Kill..." "Kill me?" "I see..." "You're getting anxious..." "Can it be that you are holding a grudge because I killed 50 of your fellow officers in Kobe?" "Even if my eyes cannot see, my Eye of the Heart can read your feelings as if they were in my hands." "You cannot hide anything from my Eye of the Heart..." "Revenge is one justice." "Fine, just fine..." "I see..." "I get it." "Your Eye of the Heart isn't something like psychic powers or magic." "You can see through to my psychology, but not to my reasons." "What?" "To protect order in Japan as well as the lives of the populace..." "That is the job of the police." "It's the same as the goal of the Shinsengumi." "No matter the reason one who has done this job knows it's normal to lose your life on a mission." "I don't think about each case separately like the Battousai does and I have no desire for revenge to begin with." "If you can't see with your Eye of the Heart, I'll tell you..." "I only have one reason to be anxious..." "I'm anxious to dispense my own justice, Aku Soku Zan." "Amusing..." "Hajime Saito, previously the leader of Shinsengumi Squad Three." "No complaints about my opponent..." "I shall take that hot blood of yours and bathe in it." "Is this the Gatotsu I've heard so much about?" "How weak!" "Bouken Bougyoku Hyakka Ryouran!" "Oh..." "Three wounds, not bad..." "Looks like you were nipped by a fox." "How did I parry the tip of the Gatotsu's thrust as if I had pinpointed its location?" "Like to know?" "I see..." "Then, I will tell you." "As you say, the Eye of the Heart is not magic." "The Eye of the Heart is this..." "During the Revolution..." "I fought against Shishio, and lost my eyesight." "I became of no use, and the shogunate casually threw me away." "My days in hell began." "I got lost in the mountains, unable to tell even where I stood." "I was teetering between life and death..." "I fell, totally without strength." "I couldn't tell if it was day or night." "I couldn't tell if I was in this life, or in the afterlife." "Yes, my heart really did stop for a moment." "It was the babbling of a brook..." "A strong thirst attacked me." "I ran, and I ran heading towards that sound..." "And..." "At that time, I realized that I heard the babbling of a brook so far, far away..." "In other words, by returning from the brink of death I had been forced to develop a superhuman level of hearing." "With this superhuman hearing, humans are just a collection of sounds." "The heartbeat reveals psychological status." "Friction of the bones and the stretching or contraction of the muscles reveals any attack stance." "That is what my invincible Eye of the Heart is!" "Before the Eye of the Heart, Gatotsu is no better than an ordinary thrust!" "Oh?" "Your pulse has quickened again." "It appears that the contents of your head are as ridiculous as that outfit!" "What?" "Thanks for that long lecture..." "In return, I'll show you my Eye of the Heart." "Your Eye of the Heart?" "Your Eye of the Heart?" "My Eye of the Heart isn't superhuman hearing like yours." "It's insight possessed by swordsmen who've survived many deathmatches..." "In other words..." "Powers of observation." "I see..." "What will you see with your Eye of the Heart?" "One thing." "The real reason why you became allies with Shishio." "To kill Shishio..." "You said that, but it doesn't seem to be the truth." "During your nice lecture when you mentioned Shishio taking the light from your eyes it should have been filling you with hatred but you were sneering as you recalled it." "That was when it came to me..." "You gave up on revenge." "By gaining the Eye of the Heart, you became much stronger." "But, upon meeting Shishio again you saw he had survived countless deathmatches, becoming stronger." "Defeat was inevitable, even if you fought him again." "If you were to lose, then your entire life up until then would have been a joke." "So, on the condition that you could kill Shishio if he ever let his guard down you accepted a position in the Juppongatana." "So long as you can keep pretending that you are trying to kill Shishio at least those around you won't realize you've already been defeated." "How was that?" "Surely, that's not at all far from the truth." "What's so funny?" "Hajime Saito..." "Your Eye of the Heart is also rather amazing." "However, there should only be one user of the Eye of the Heart!" "You, with my ultimate attack shall be sent to your death!" "A beaten dog who flees battle, should not bark so majestically!" "Let's go!" "A tortoise shell shield!" "I don't know what you have hidden behind it..." "But there is nothing my Gatotsu can't pierce!" "Hidden?" "What do you mean?" "This timbey is a tool that uses the shell's roundness to deflect weapons." "Also, it blocks the enemy's vision..." "And then with this lochin I strike!" "This is one of the secret martial arts passed down by the royal family of my homeland, Ryukyu..." "The basic fighting technique for the timbey and lochin..." "Yet, you still use Gatotsu..." "The Shinsengumi are known to perfect favored attacks through specialization." "Even facing your last moments, you have nothing to rely on but the Gatotsu." "However, with my Eye of the Heart, I can see perfectly where your Gatotsu will land!" "There is no way I will make a mistake in my three-stage attack!" "I can see who will win, Saito!" "I won't kill you in one shot." "You realize what goes on deep in my heart, something even Shishio doesn't..." "I will make you deeply regret that..." "So, since you can never defeat Shishio you alleviate frustration by slowly torturing weaker people to death." "You think Shishio doesn't realize this?" "There's no way that he can be so stupid." "I would think he has already seen through to your heart and now he's playing the fool." "He's just making good use of your cheap pride." "You really are blind to the truth..." "S-S-S-Shut up!" "Fine!" "How's this?" "This close, you can't use Gatotsu!" "You can't even see!" "Right now, you are just like a daruma with its eyes covered!" "Can you still make your wisecracks now?" "Now, come on, be afraid!" "For the final blow, I'll pierce your face from behind this shield killing you!" "You can't see me but I can see everything you do with my Eye of the Heart..." "What?" "W-What was that just now?" "Gatotsu?" "Gatotsu has a few different forms." "First Stance is the standard one." "Second Stance thrusts down diagonally." "Third Stance repels attacks from above." "And..." "That was the final one." "It uses only upper body strength from so close, there is no room to move." "Zero Stance." "I was saving it for when I settle the score with the Battousai." "Aren't you honored?" "Damn..." "I didn't care if Shishio did it..." "This wasn't supposed to happen..." "How pathetic..." "When you lost against Shishio without a fight you should have given up your sword." "A man who can't hold to his beliefs is never more than pathetic, dead or alive." "You truly are a man who never shows any mercy." "You were expecting words of pity, maybe?" "You've got to be kidding..." "To hold onto one's beliefs without ever being bothered by the smallest doubt..." "It seems easy, but what a difficult thing it really is!" "Now, how long can you in these modern days of the Meiji how long can you live by the sword and hold true to your Aku Soku Zan?" "Until I die, of course!" "It looks like Himura's predictions were correct." "It's time for the final battle." "Everyone, are you ready?" "Think about protecting your lives over defeating the enemy!" "Of course!" "I won't let any of my friends die, not even one!" "Enemy count is at about 150." "Since the old man can't fight, that makes for about twenty per person." "Hey, little boy up there..." "Don't get us wrong!" "These guys are just a wall so you won't run away." "You are facing us three!" "Now, give up and come out!" "We'll snip off your little heads, and take them back as gifts for Lord Shishio!" "And if I do, Lord Shishio will surely..." "Oh no!" "Is that one of the Juppongatana, too?" "Looks that way..." "What shall we do?" "It is better to fight seven on three than seven on 150." "We'll accept their request in this case." "How should we split up the forces?" "Shall we split evenly, going three, two, two?" "No, right now, we should take the initiative and defeat one quickly." "That way, we will fare better later, with a three on one and a four on one." "Kaoru and Yahiko, you keep that black mask busy!" "Misao, take the scythe woman!" "However, don't get yourself in too deep!" "Meanwhile, you four..." "Take out that one who looks like a buffoon with an all-out attack!" "And, I will give orders from here so that we will have no casualties!" "All right!" "Let's go, guys!" "Yeah!" "Where is the next room?" "It's tough running around carrying this heavy broad!" "What?" "It's soon enough!" "Next up is the strongest of the Juppongatana, the little boy Seta!" "Sojiro Seta..." "What's wrong, Kenshin?" "You're in a rush..." "That's just Houji's room, and it's not in use right now!" "Like she said, we should hurry on, Kenshin!" "Hey!" "He's here!" "That can't be true." "The room's empty!" "Aoshi..." "Shinomori..." "Aoshi Shinomori, former leader of the Oniwaban Group he was waiting." "To quell the spirits of comrades gone finally to settle the score with his own soul..." "He waited deep inside Shishio's hideout." "The flames that quietly burn blue in his dark eyes strike at Kenshin once more." "Next time..." "Look forward to it, please!"