Some Kind of Dying
by: Tenshimuyo-chan

   She found herself going to the place where they buried her. It was a ludicrous thought, considering she was laden with packages and the cemetary was a good distance from the dojo. It was a morbid thought, considering that she was getting ready for her wedding, on the day after tomorrow. But then marriage must be some form of death, she supposed. Why else would it be custom for brides to wear white? *

   Everything looked peaceful in the early night light. Nobody would think that two years ago a battle was waged to reclaim the living from the dead. They tell her Aoshi and Gein made short work of this place, causing a ruckus that must have been enough to make the dead turn over their graves. But everything was put to order now and the spirits must be resting well.

   She only wished she had the same peace of mind. There were not a few unkempt graves around, with moss and lichens sprouting between the cracks of the rundown markers. Would her grave have suffered the same fate? Her friends, would they have remembered to visit on the festival of the dead? And Kenshin, would he have ever gone to pay her his last respects? They tell her he did not even make it past the procession.

   She pushed these thoughts aside hastily. There was no need for them , she did not intend to die anytime soon, not that kind of death anyway. She stood for some time, then took off her favorite ribbon. So this is where they buried me, she thought, laying down the ribbon on the ground, some kind of offering to the girl that could have been her. I could have been buried in her place, or she could have lived... in my place. In this place, she mused, the girl who could have been me is buried.

   In this place, Enishi's Kaoru is buried.

   It was a fine spring night. As she turned on her way home, she thought it seemed a good time to see fireflies.

*  Japanese brides wear white as a representation of their symbolic dying -- their names are erased from their family's registry and added to their husband's family's registry.