Alex Lindke wrote:

To protect life

To Protect Life (it's the title)

===========

      I was a wanderer, for a time.

      In some ways, it was the best part of my life: there was a
tremendous freedom in just wandering around, helping those I came
across.  I could have lived a life of luxury for my part in the war,
taking a job in the new government.

Nah. They would have whacked you like Shishio if you had stuck around. :)

  But I felt being awarded a high

office for murder would dishonor those I had killed.  I think my
comrades did not understand my reasons, but they allowed me to go,
allowed the memory of Hitokiri Battosai to slowly fade into legend.

And, I'm sure they were glad he left since he was so dangerous.

      In some ways, however, my wondering

wandering.

      For the most part, my travels were boring.  I could tell you a few
tales of various villages I saved, or even specific people.  I could
tell you the techniques I developed to avoid killing; though I no longer
feared taking a life, I preferred not to do so whenever possible.  If
you are particularly morbid, I could even recount to you the exact
number of men I had killed since becoming a rurouni, and the manner in
which they died.

Hmm. Was definitely under the impression he didn't kill anyone post war. He
was too adamant about it when Saito showed up to be as blase as this.

      "Don't play innocent with me!" she shouted.  "Only an assassin
would walk around with a sword at night despite the interdiction!"

      Clearly, she was making a guess.  In this case, it was an accurate
one, though I was not the one she was searching for.  She charged at me
with an overhead strike, and slashed with fair competence.  I simply
jumped back to avoid her.

      I saw stars: cracking your head against the overhanging roof of a
building will do that to you.  I guess I should have paid more attention
to my surroundings.

Yes. That is sloppy for him to do this unintentionally.

      "Is this really Hitokiri Battosai?" I heard the woman mumble.
"What's this?  A wanderer?"

Now I can see him intentionally doing it to gain just this reaction from
her.

      I groaned, rubbing the back of my head.  God, that was clumsy of
me.  I put on a dumb smile and replied.  "This one doesn't know what you
are talking about.  This one has just arrived in town today, a wanderer.
An expert swordsman, yes, but merely one who's

whose

      She looked at me, eye-brow raised questioningly.  I'm not entirely
sure how she learned that trick.  Try as I might, I can't control my
eye-brows independently.

Odd that that would gain his attention.

      He came at me again, with another overhead strike.  I drew my
sword, bobbing downward in the middle of the action to accelerate the
blade.  I aimed my strike not at him, but at his weapon.  This is a
favorite tactic of mine against week

weak

      I recall my shock the first time I saw her dojo.  I had assumed
that her family owned the dojo

it (since you just used dojo)

      Although I claimed I was going to bed, in truth I slept very little
that night.  I entertained certain suspicions about Kiheh.  He seemed to
me to be very upset about the defeat of the fake Battosai.  He would
bear watching.

==========

Author's notes:

      This story is a simple divergence.  It asks the question, "What if
Kenshin had never decided not to kill?"

Ah. so that explains it. I had missed that in the earlier part of your
story. Might want to make that clearer early on, since I would have realized
his more blase attitude concerning killing was the divergence.

Aside from that looked good. Enjoyed reading it.

D.B. Sommer

 I haven't come across many

fanfics that start at the beginning of the series, and this particular
idea intrigued me, so I started writing.  Hopefully someone else finds
it interesting as well.

      Comments and criticisms welcome, flames ignored.  Thanks for
reading!



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