Heavy snow filled the sky, rushing straight toward the screen. Kenshin's eyes were hollow as he stepped forward, one foot after another, along the mountain path.
The color grading and composition of the shots conveyed nothing but despair and sorrow.
The bullet comments began to appear.
[Is this really necessary? He looks like he's about to mentally collapse.]
[He's just a teenager, after all.]
[He never truly understood how much pain his past killings caused the families of those he killed. He thought he was carrying out justice.]
[Now the boomerang has come back to hit him. Because he cares about Yukishiro Tomoe, he can finally feel the same pain she feels.]
Next came what the audience had expected—and what indeed existed: an ambush on the mountain path.
A nimble man wearing a mask, skilled with swordplay and hidden sleeve crossbows.
He exchanged not a single word with Kenshin. Other than leaping down from a tree and firing a sleeve arrow that struck Kenshin in the shoulder, the entire fight was silent.
His flashy, agile sword techniques were utterly insignificant before Kenshin.
After only a few exchanges, Kenshin—dazed, fighting purely on instinct—pierced his heart.
As the assassin died, tears slid from the corners of his eyes. With his final strength, he detonated the explosives hidden nearby.
Kenshin was caught in the blast's shockwave, torn by countless small wounds, yet he showed no reaction at all.
He simply continued forward, stumbling toward the direction where Tomoe was on the mountaintop.
Gao Mengwen felt her heart twist painfully.
Blood was flowing from Kenshin's ears—his hearing had almost certainly been temporarily destroyed.
A profound sense of desolation rose in her chest.
Meanwhile, at the mountaintop, Tomoe encountered the leader of the assassins—a gray-haired old man.
She believed that since she had failed to assassinate Kenshin and return, death was all that awaited her. After that, the conspiracy against Kenshin would surely collapse.
But the assassin leader told her otherwise.
Whether she chose to assassinate Kenshin or succeeded in finding his weakness no longer mattered.
His goal had already been achieved.
Yukishiro Tomoe had become Kenshin's weakness.
If Tomoe were not on this mountain, Kenshin would never have knowingly walked into an ambush, marching to his death.
Tomoe's expression changed. Realizing the truth of the plot, she attempted to take her own life—but was stopped.
"At this point, whether you live or die makes no difference," the assassin leader said coldly.
He tossed aside her dagger and even prevented her from biting her tongue.
"She really has become the bait. Dead or alive, Kenshin will come," Gao Mengwen muttered anxiously.
Many viewers understood as well, flooding the screen with comments.
[So from the very beginning, the assassin leader never expected Tomoe to kill Kenshin—or even to find his weakness?]
[From the start, he wanted Tomoe to become Kenshin's weakness.]
[Only Tomoe was foolish enough to think that coming back to die would ruin the whole plot.]
[This is a classic honey trap!]
[Even the 'beauty' used in the honey trap didn't know what role she was playing?]
[I'm kind of scared to keep watching. Kenshin isn't really going to die, right?]
[Impossible. Kenshin will definitely fight his way to the top and kill that disgusting old assassin leader.]
What followed was a stretch dominated by combat scenes.
Assassins appeared one after another along Kenshin's climb. Traps came in endless succession.
First, the sleeve-crossbow assassin.
Then, a towering masked brute wielding a giant axe.
An assassin using grappling hooks.
Explosives, flash bombs, sleeve arrows, giant axes, ground spikes…
Traps everywhere.
Kenshin's mind was shattered, yet his body—driven by instinct—continued to engage in life-and-death combat.
Gao Mengwen's eyes widened.
Unlike the earlier episodes, the bullet comments were no longer praising the high-quality fight choreography.
No matter how spectacular the battles were, the more they watched, the more tragic it felt.
That expression on Kenshin's face—
He had already resigned himself to death.
In the end, Kenshin was grievously wounded under the relentless gauntlet.
His eyes were temporarily blinded by flash bombs and another explosion.
He could neither hear nor see.
Yet he still clutched his sword and staggered toward the mountaintop.
Behind him lay the bodies of every assassin he had cut down along the way.
Only now did the bullet comments find space to breathe.
[Wuwuwu… this is making me want to cry.]
[Kenshin is basically seeking death at this point, isn't he?]
[It feels like he wants to apologize to Tomoe by dying. No normal person could keep going after injuries like this.]
[Kenshin, don't go up there! You know Tomoe is bait—why are you still climbing?]
[If Tomoe hadn't affected his fighting spirit, he probably wouldn't have been hurt this badly at all.]
["Heroes stumble over beauty." I finally understand this phrase.]
[The writer isn't really going to let Kenshin die, right?]
[Thinking back, what his master said before he went down the mountain was spot on. Once you leave, you're pushed forward by incompatible versions of justice, unable to choose your own path.]
[The assassin leader believes he's protecting the current ruling class and maintaining stability—his justice. Kenshin believes the ruling class is rotten and revolution is necessary—his justice. Sigh.]
[Who's right? Who knows. But Kiyosato died, so Tomoe suffers. If Kenshin dies, Tomoe will suffer too. This hurts to watch.]
[No… I clicked into this episode expecting a happy ending. Writer, don't do this.]
Even Gao Mengwen was starting to waver.
No matter how badly Kenshin was injured, the writer could always justify him surviving—if they wanted.
But what did those words from the assassin leader to Tomoe during Kenshin's battles really mean?
If Tomoe cared so deeply about Kenshin's life that she was willing to kill herself just to erase his weakness…
Then what was Kiyosato's place in her heart?
For Kenshin, climbing the mountain was a dilemma between reason and his own happiness.
For Tomoe, wasn't it the same?
Could she truly abandon everything—forget Kiyosato—and live with Kenshin from now on?
Or…
The more Gao Mengwen thought, the more something felt off.
The plot.
The atmosphere.
None of it felt right.
A tragic, heroic BGM slowly began to play.
Blind and deaf, Kenshin started hallucinating as he climbed.
Scenes since meeting Tomoe flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern.
[Shall we go to Ōtsu?]
Kenshin's inner monologue sounded.
Gao Mengwen froze. Ōtsu? What was that?
[Shall we go to Ōtsu?]
He repeated it in his heart.
What kind of stream-of-consciousness line was this?
She didn't understand.
"Shall we go to Ōtsu?"
In the show, Kenshin shouted toward the empty mountaintop, eyes open yet seeing nothing.
At that moment, a bullet comment floated by.
[At the end of Episode 2, when Kenshin and Tomoe left Kyoto, he suggested they go to Ōtsu and live as a fake married couple. But in the end, the organization arranged for them to hide elsewhere.]
Seeing this, Gao Mengwen's eyes instantly filled with tears.
She understood.
Even at a moment like this, Kenshin hadn't forgotten.
What he dreamed of was still taking Tomoe to that beautiful place they once talked about—
Living there as a true husband and wife.
His greatest dream was that simple.
The wind whipped at his sleeves. Snow fell endlessly.
Before him lay an infinite stretch of white.
Behind him lay the people he had killed along the way.
And yet, no one answered him.
Could the two of them really make it down the mountain…
Could they really go to Ōtsu and live as a real couple?
The more Gao Mengwen thought about it, the more her nose stung.
She couldn't take it anymore.
Using his sword as a crutch, Kenshin finally reached the mountaintop.
Waiting for him was the leader of the rival assassin organization.
An old man, yet clearly a master who had survived countless battles, crawling out of piles of corpses to reach this age.
In his prime, he was no match for Kenshin.
But now, Kenshin was blinded by flash bombs.
Deafened by explosions.
Mentally collapsing from the knowledge that he had killed Tomoe's fiancé.
And riddled with wounds from countless battles.
Episode 4 reached its climax.
Gao Mengwen held her breath, terrified that Kenshin would lose.
In her heart, she prayed.
"Don't mess this up, writer! Let Kenshin pull off a desperate reversal!"
But it was obvious the story wouldn't be so cliché.
Nearly blind, completely deaf, his will to fight worn down to nothing, Kenshin could only battle the assassin leader in this state.
It was a one-sided beating.
Kenshin could barely protect his vital points as his injuries continued to pile up.
And during their fight—
Inside the temple, Tomoe seemed to see the figure of her former fiancé, Kiyosato, beside the Buddha statue.
Perhaps it was a vengeful spirit.
Perhaps it was merely a hallucination born from unbearable grief, knowing Kenshin would die because of her.
He was covered in blood, gazing at her.
There was no blame in his eyes—only the same gentleness he'd shown her when he left their hometown.
Inside the temple: the phantom of her former fiancé.
Outside the temple: Kenshin facing death.
Tomoe's eyes shifted—from confusion, to clarity, to resolve.
Gao Mengwen suddenly had a premonition.
Kenshin was knocked down once more. Both he and the assassin leader knew it—he was at the end of his strength.
Kenshin stood up again.
Gripping his sword, still blind, his aura changed.
Killing intent surged.
He charged forward, his body erupting with desperate speed.
His inner monologue echoed.
'I've killed so many people, all to exchange it for the happiness of others.'
'But… you lost your happiness, Tomoe.'
'I took away someone precious to you, and unknowingly fell in love with you.'
'I don't have the right to protect you.'
Kenshin swung his sword toward the dark blur ahead.
'Even so, I still must—'
Even so, he would protect Tomoe.
Kill these people.
Bring her safely down the mountain.
Free her from being used and controlled ever again.
In his ears, he seemed to hear Tomoe's gentle voice from the past.
Though he couldn't see, his mind conjured a vision.
It was the grave Kenshin had helped dig in Episode 1—the one for the thieves and the women he had protected.
There, a new gravestone stood.
Wrapped around it was the scarf Tomoe had given him.
Kenshin spoke, each word clear and heavy.
"I will protect you."
The hallucination vanished.
Tears streamed uncontrollably down Gao Mengwen's face.
Kenshin's blade slashed across the assassin leader's neck.
But it didn't stop there.
That same strike also cut deep into Tomoe's shoulder—more than ten centimeters deep, bone clearly visible.
Tomoe had thrown herself in front of Kenshin.
She used her own body to block the dagger aimed at his chest, gripping the blade with both hands to stop it—
So that Kenshin's sword, in his nearly blind state, could strike the assassin leader true.
At that moment, the flood of bullet comments vanished completely.
Gao Mengwen pressed her lips together.
All hope that this story would end in a perfect, happy reunion—
Was gone.