Here goes Miko and Kristin's approximate Jump summary/translation. ^_- Bracketed text are 'thought' text... ^_^;

Rurouni Kenshin Act 211: Not Zero

"Tonight, we will open up Kamiya Kaoru's grave ---"

A full moon high in the night sky illuminates four figures in a graveyard. Sounds of shifting earth disturb the silence as Aoshi, Yahiko, and Misao set shovel to the plot where Kaoru lies buried.

Side Text: What is the true meaning of Aoshi's unexpected words!?

Title Page: Rurouni Kenshin - Meiji Kenkaku Romantan -
Act 211: 'Not Zero'

In some bright memory, Kenshin and Kaoru stand on a path, with Kenshin smiling as he reaches out to take Kaoru's hand in his. She blushes and steps toward him happily, swinging a handbag in her other hand.

Vertical Side Text: The day when I first touched your hand, and that barely noticeable intake of breath, you haven't forgotten, have you...?

Horizontal Side Text: (Minna, I've given up on that. ^_^; Just know that it is an exclaimation point-filled ad for the individual manga volumes. Oro.)

[Flashback to the earlier scene at Kamiya Doujou.]

Megumi, Misao, and Yahiko stare at Aoshi with varying degrees of shock and outrage.

Yahiko: OPEN UP KAORU'S GRAVE!? What are you thinking! What the hell are you planning!

Aoshi: *calmly* Not a thing. It's just because it's the most certain way of verifying Kamiya Kaoru's corpse.

Yahiko: *grabbing his shinai* "Verify," you...

Aoshi: *unruffled* Listen. You didn't see the particular circumstances of Kamiya Kaoru's death either, but heard it from other people afterwards. Didn't you feel that there was something wrong about it then?

Yahiko blinks.

Aoshi: Starting with blasting the Akabeko with a cannon, the series of Jinchuu events that unfolded were persistent and also underhanded. The murder of Kamiya Kaoru should have been the biggest, the last, and the most important, a culmination of the whole thing, so to speak.

Flashback to the image of Kaoru's body against the doujou wall, Enishi's sword piercing her heart.

Aoshi: But for that culmination, the result, 'Death', was displayed ostentatiously, while the process, 'Murder', was completely and masterfully cut out. Yukishiro Enishi must know just how severe a blow seeing the last moments of Kamiya Kaoru would have dealt to Battousai. In the end, Jinchuu was completed, but neither Battousai nor any one of his companions witnessed that instant...

Yahiko's eyes widen hugely; sweat trickles down his cheek. Aoshi continues to speak with perfect calm, his eyes cool and narrowed.

Aoshi: It is possible that he had no choice but to change what was planned earlier because Battousai was fighting much harder than he expected, but if one considers Yukishiro Enishi's abnormal vengefulness up until now, it still doesn't make sense.

Yahiko, Megumi, Misao: ............

Yahiko looks stunned, Megumi suspicious, Misao clueless. (^_^;)

Yahiko: ........... but even though the process wasn't there, the result... the corpse is there. Even I saw that clearly...

Aoshi: *pointing over at Iwanbou* Look.

Gein's giant, gape-mouthed puppet slumps in the yard nearby.

Yahiko: That's... It's Iwanbou Number 3 that Sanosuke got ---

On closer inspection, the huge construct appears to have developed some sort of noxious skin condition.

Yahiko: !? The dummy is decaying!?

Aoshi: It seems to be a creation that needs to go through some sort of a preservation process periodically. I checked this earlier. That thing is put together using human skin, fat, bone, and so forth as part of its components. They must have stolen dead bodies from the graveyards, taken them apart, and used the pieces, I suppose.

Yahiko: *sweating* Making mannequins from dead bodies...

Aoshi: I remember that when I took over as Okashira, there was a record of a secret method like that in the documents of my predecessors. In the time of Sengoku (Warring States period, about 1467-1560 AD), to protect their own safety, the warriors had 'doubles' called 'Kage Musha' (Shadow Warrior). But because bringing up a Kage Musha had the flaw of requiring a lot of work and money, it was not easy. What was developed was an unorthodox secret method to transform dead bodies into mannequins so that one can not tell them apart from real people at a glance--- *hand on his hip* If that doll maker called Gein is someone who has inherited that secret method in the present times ---...

Megumi: THAT'S ENOUGH!!

Clenching her hands, the outraged doctor steps forward to confront Aoshi.

Megumi: If you're talking about verifying the body, I did that! The way that the warmth escaped the flesh as the blood flowed from the wounds... That was definitely not a mannequin! Someone as heartless as you might not understand, but everyone is seriously hurt by all this! *with tears welling in her eyes* Secret method or whatever it is, I don't know, but stop giving us false hopes with such ambiguous guesses!!

Aoshi: *gazing at her levelly* Can you truly make that assertion?

Megumi stares at him.

Aoshi: Can you really assert that you can make a cool-headed judgement when someone close dies before you?

Megumi: *shaking with rage* ............ You... YOU COLD-BLOODED BASTARD!!

Misao, who has been staring rather blankly, snaps into alertness.

Misao: *snarling* What did you say! I didn't really understand what Aoshi-sama was saying, but I understood that!!

Yahiko: Are you an idiot or something?

Misao: *baring fangs* WHAT DID YOU SAY!!

Yahiko: *ignoring her, lost in his own thoughts* That is to say, perhaps the dead body of Kaoru that Kenshin and the rest of us saw was a fake... In the end, the possibility... if you use common sense, it's close to being zero... but...

[Flash forward to the scene in the graveyard at night.]

Yahiko: (It's not zero--!!)

The four stand around a large wooden barrel which they have just unearthed. Misao stares at the casket with violent dread, while Yahiko grips his shovel, white-knuckled.

Yahiko: (........ Perhaps we will only taste despair once more, BUT ---)

He clenches his teeth.

Yahiko: I'm opening it.

Moonlight spills into the casket as the lid is slowly pushed aside, revealing what appears to be Kaoru's pale and lifeless body.

Misao stumbles backward; tears spill down her face.

Misao: *trembling* ... Kaoru... san......

Megumi: *reaching out to lift the corpse's wrist* .................. There's no mistake. I told you it isn't a mannequin.

She gently lowers the hand back into the casket, her eyes downcast.

Megumi: This is genuinely...

Yahiko: (Kaoru's ---)

Aoshi: *reaching for the hilt of his kodachi* Close your eyes for a little while.

Misao: Eh?

Megumi: ! *shocked* Wait, what are you doing now...?

Aoshi: *glancing at her* According to the documents of my predecessors, the mannequins are fantastically and exquisitely made items. You can't tell them from the real thing just by looking at the outside. It seems that one cannot know for certain unless one takes them apart.

Megumi: *seizing Aoshi's sleeve to stop him* You HERETIC!! Just how far will you go...

Yahiko: *staring ahead* (In the end, the possibility... if you use common sense, it's close to being zero...

The memory of Kenshin and Kaoru's happiness lingers in his mind.

Yahiko: ...But it is definitely not zero.)

He reaches out and grabs Megumi's sleeve, restraining her. She turns to him in startlement.

Megumi: Yahiko... kun?

Yahiko: *in sheer desperation* (NOT ZERO, IT'S NOT ZERO!!) DO IT! AOSHI!!

With a swift, decisive motion, Aoshi lifts one of his kodachi and slices into the body. Blood spatters. Megumi and Yahiko fall back; Misao covers her face and cowers in horror.

Aoshi lifts his blade. The incision reveals not tissue and bone, but wire.

He pulls out a handful of the bloody strands and tosses them to the ground. As he turns to the others, he appears almost gratified.

Aoshi: ... It was worth betting on the possibility not being zero. Right now, we don't know what motives Yukishiro Enishi had that necessitated his staging this kind of deception, but one thing I can say for certain: Kamiya Kaoru has not been killed. She is still alive, somewhere.

Megumi, Yahiko, and Misao stare in astonishment. As the realization sinks in, tears well in the corners of Yahiko's eyes.

Yahiko: (Kaoru is still alive. Kaoru is alive, KENSHIN! KENSHIN----!!

Morning comes to Rakuninmura, where Kenshin sits against his wall, accompanied by the patient Old Fool. As the sun rises in the sky above, he slowly lifts his head.

Elsewhere, that same sunlight streams through the panes of a tall glass window... and falls on the bed where Kamiya Kaoru lies. When the light touches her, she stirs in her sleep and opens her eyes.

Kaoru: ....................Nn......

Side Text: Kaoru, who is still living! But... where is this place!?

*End Act*