Chapter 211 "Zero jya nai" (It's not Zero)

(Thanks to Shizuki)

Title: "Zero jya nai" (It's Not Zero)

Midnight. At the graveyard, four silhouettes digging.
"Tonight, we'll dig out Kamiya Kaoru's grave."

Flashback to earlier that night.
Yahiko yells, "You're gonna dig out Kaoru's grave?! What the
hell are you thinking?!"

Aoshi responds calmly, "No reason other than it's the most
accurate way of checking Kamiya Kaoru's corpse.
"Listen. You also haven't seen Kamiya Kaoru's death, and heard
about it from others. Did you think there was something strange
about it?

"Starting with the cannon attack on Akabeko, this series of
attacks of the Jinchu Case...
To kill Kamiya Kaoru has to be the biggest, and the last, and
the most important compilation to it all.

"But in that compilation, what was shown was the end result
of 'death,' and the part of 'killing' is completely left out.

"Yukishiro Enishi should have known how much pain it would
give Battousai at the moment of Kamiya Kaoru's death.
But in fact, the Jinchu was completed without showing that
moment to Battousai or anyone else.

"It's possible to think that he had to change plans due to
Battousai's unpredictable fighting, but analyzing Yukishiro
Enishi's extreme vindictiveness<?> up til now, it doesn't
make sense."

After a moment, Yahiko speaks up. "But even if we didn't see
it, the end result.. the corpse is there. I saw that myself."

Aoshi points to the yard. Yahiko says, "That's Iwanbou #02
that Sanosuke brought over."

Close-up of the Iwanbou #2 shows the doll is rotting away.
Aoshi explains, "Apparently without frequent preservation
maintenance, it can't be kept. I checked it out earlier, but
that's made using human skin, fat, and bones. It was probably
made by dealing corpses from graveyards.

"I remember reading records about a secret art that was similar
to it, written by my predecessors.
During the Civil War Period, a general would place a substitute
called 'Kagemusha' to be safe. But it was too time-consuming
and costly to train a 'Kagemusha,' so it wasn't practical.
So a secret art was created by putting together corpses into a
doll that at once glance, no one could tell.

"If that doll-maker called Gein is using that secret art up
until today..."

"Cut it out!" yells Megumi. "If it's confirming the corpse, I
did it! The blood that was trickling down the wound. The feeling
of warmth leaving the body... That was not a doll!

"A cold person like you might not know, but everyone is crushed
by this! I don't know if it's a secret art or not, but don't
way anything that'll keep our hopes up!"

"Can you say for sure? Can you say for sure that you were able
to make a sound judgement with a death of a close person in
front of your eyes?"

"You... Cold-blooded person!"

Misao starts yelling at Megumi when Yahiko interrupts.
"It means that Kaoru's dead body that Kenshin and I saw
might been a fake/<doll>. It's just a possibility. If you
think realisticly, it's close to zero. But..."

"It's not zero."
Aoshi, Yahiko, Misao, and Megumi stand before a sealed barrel
dug out from the ground.

Yahiko thinks: "Maybe we might just feel the dispair once
again. But..."
"Let's open it."

The barrel (casket?) is opened. Misao starts crying at the
sight of Kaoru's dead body.

Megumi checks the body and says, "I sure about it. It's not
a doll. This is infact..."

Aoshi approaches the body and tells Misao to close her
eyes for a while. "According to the records written by my
predecessors, the doll is a very precise object. From the
outside, it's undetectable. The only way they found out was
by taking it apart."

Megumi yells at Aoshi, "You bastard! How far must you go?!"

Yahiko thinks: "It's only a possibility. In reality, it's
close to zero. But it's not zero. IT'S NOT ZERO!!"
"Please do it, Aoshi!"

Aoshi cuts into the body, and a little blood sprays on him.
He pulls WIRES out of the body.
"I guess it was worth betting on the possibility not being
zero."

He continues, "I don't know why Yukishiro Enishi had to
make something this elaborate, nor do i know the motives.
But i can say this for sure.
Kamiya Kaoru is not killed yet. She is alive somewhere."

"Kaoru is alive. Kaoru is alive, Kenshin! Kenshin!"

Kenshin is still sitting against the wall in the Raku-nin
Village. As he sits, the sun rises and the birds chirp.

In another place, the sun pours into a window and birds
are chirping outside. Kaoru is sleeping on a bed. She
slowly wakes up.

Narrator: "Kaoru was alive! But.. Where is this place?!"

- end -

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