IC Journal

[willing_sheath]

CANON TIMELINE

September 1845--Born
(June 1849--Kenshin born)
May 1854--Enishi is born, mother dies, Tomoe age 8/9
Spring 1862--betrothed to Kiysatto Akira, marriage set for Spring 1863, Tomoe age 16/17, Enishi age 6/7
Fall 1862--Kiyosatto joins Mimawari-gumi, wedding delayed to Spring 1864, Tomoe age 17, Enishi age 7
(Early 1863--Kenshin quarrels with Hiko and leaves, joins Kiheitai and is taken to Kyoto with Katsura Kogoro, Kenshin age 13/14)

1864
Early March--Kiyosatto is killed in Kyoto
April 4th--news of Kiyosatto's death arrives from Kyoto
Mid-April--Tomoe runs away to Kyoto
Late April--Tomoe arrives in Kyoto and is found by the Yaminobu
Early May--Meets Kenshin and is brought to the Kohagiya
Mid-May--discussion of "madness" with Katsura Kogoro
Late May--window incident, "now a sheath to hold back your madness"
June 5th--Ikedaya Affair
July 18th--Kinmon Incident
Late July--Kenshin and Tomoe are married and go into hiding outside Otsu, Tomoe age 18, Kenshin age 15
Late December--Enishi arrives in Otsu
December 31st--Tomoe dies, Tomoe age 19, Kenshin age 15, Enishi age 10

Comments

July 1864

[willing_sheath]

I am a married woman. I am unsure of how I should feel. This is so far from anything I could have imagined before. Himura Tomoe. It looks so strange to me. i never considered what it would be like for my name to change... to lose the name that has been mine for my entire life. But perhaps it is fitting to leave Yukishiro Tomoe behind in Edo...

I no longer know how to refer to him. "Himura-san"? "Kenshin-san"? Simply "Kenshin"? One seems far too distant now, but the other still too familiar... Even foregoing both and referring to him as "my husband" seems strange.

We are in a small house just outside of Otsu. He is to act as a medicine seller to disguise the funds provided to us by Katsura-san as well as his future meetings with Izuka-san. I cannot imagine him as a merchant of any kind, not with how awkward he is with people. But that isn't the point. He doesn't need to be successful; he only needs to provide the front.

It has taken all day, but we are settled in the house. We ate a meager dinner with what rations we took with us from Kyoto and now he has gone for fresh water, though I doubt it was necessary. It was just a convenient excuse to leave. He is nervous and unsure, just as I am. Everything about this situation has broken so far from tradition that I do not know how to act or know what is expected of me. Should I submit to him when he returns? Were this an arranged marriage there would be no question, but that is not what this is. He has always been so respectful of me... I don't know that he will ask if I do not offer. I do not know if I will be relieved or disappointed if he doesn't.

Re: July 1864

[girlofsteele]

[married. she feels a brief flare of pain, now that Connor had left her and ruined her hopes of becoming a married woman (but he would come back, he had to come back, if only he would answer his phone) but that wasn't the point, it wasn't, she had to come to the point.

and. she was probably right that it was best to leave her old self behind and try to learn to live as a wife. a fresh start. even if it was with the guy who'd killed her fiance.

which still made her head spin]