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Language:
English
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Published:
2025-08-04
Updated:
2026-05-08
Words:
93,429
Chapters:
36/?
Comments:
120
Kudos:
45
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1,253

Simply Happy

Summary:

Kenshin and Tomoe end happily. Many readers of my story “Water on the Wind” expressed a desire for that. Here it is. However, he still has to learn his life lessons. Also, I strongly recommend reading that story at least up through the chapter entitled “A Bared Bodkin” (chapter #68 on AO3, #68/66 on fanfiction-net). This story may not make as much sense without that foundation.

Notes:

As much as I want to follow and honor true Japanese culture, this is a work of fiction by a thoroughly western writer. I have invented devices, some out of whole cloth. You'll see them, I'm sure. If not, all the better.

Be prepared for Kenshin, at least, to be very different than he is in canon. After all, he's experiencing a different history. Canon Kenshin is deeply traumatized: happy Kenshin is not, but still has to achieve an appropriate growth given the realities of his past. As you follow his journey, remember his age, and how mercurial young men can be during those years, not to mention how insufferably sure they are of their own judgment.

A note on how Kenshin speaks: In “Water on the Wind,” I got a comment that some of the dialog seemed “corny.” The reviewer did not elaborate, so I'm left to my own interpretation of what they could have meant. I'm guessing that they were referring mostly to how Kenshin speaks. My Kenshin uses archaic forms because he grew up with Hiko, who is himself a throwback, and a hermit. Consequently Kenshin is barely socialized and has unconventional speech patterns. I imagine Kenshin's contemporaries often wonder, “Why don't you talk properly?” If I were writing in Japanese, I could indicate that more directly, but English doesn't have exactly that kind of thing, except for stilted and formal words and grammar. For instance, as a small detail, he doesn't use contractions (which don't really exist in Japanese, anyway), and that can make him sound awkward. All that is a deliberate attempt to convey how different he is, which, I think, plays some part in his character development.

Chapter 1: Iizuka

Chapter Text

Fate has many agents. —ESBO

Iizuka crept away from the cabin above the town, celebrating his victory. He'd relished watching his rival’s face as the words in Tomoe’s diary crushed his heart, as the revelations she'd written shredded the life he'd been living with her, and that was his real goal, the final result he'd so wished for: the total destruction of Himura’s world.

He would not make the trek back up the mountainside to the shrine to watch the fight in person. Whether Himura were to manage to finish off Tatsumi’s men, or, which was more likely, one of the three killed Kenshin couldn’t matter to Iizuka in the slightest. Should the pest actually make it past the ninjas’ traps and ambushes, and get to the shrine, he would arrive wounded and exhausted. The Field Marshal would make short work of whatever was left. In anticipation of this outcome, he’d given the “death notice” to a messenger even before he’d gone to the cabin to confront Himura just to make sure the note got to Katsura quickly, no chance of it getting waylaid.

After he was sure that Kenshin would actually read the diary, he scurried back to town. There was no profit in meeting up with anyone--not Tomoe, not the ninjas, and certainly not Kenshin. He would engage his usual room in the rowhouse and hunker down for a few days there. Let the whole fracas blow over. He didn’t think Tatsumi would seek him out for any reason, but, even if he were so inclined, Iizuka could not think of a single reason that wouldn’t cause trouble for him.

He would lie low and rest, think and plan. Curious that he’d not seemed to plan beyond this day. That was not like him at all.