An offer she did refuse

Another fanart piece for Ayezur's wondefull Rurouni Kenshin fanfiction story "Invictus". Invictus is an AU story, where the bakumatsu never happened and chattel slavery is practised. The Kanryuu family is profiting from new advances in how to condition the slaves, and they back the Tokugawa rule. In mids all this, Kaoru finds an abandonded slave, and decides to help him. The fanfiction can be found in ff.net: [link]

This particular picture portrays the scene in chapter 5, where our heroic trio is back from their exhausting journey to the market. On their way home Kaoru is a bit shaken up by the events and wants to take a break. However, while they are resting Kihei Hiruma happens to the scene, intruduces himself and makes an offer to buy Kenshin from Kaoru:

"Absolutely not," she bit out. "Kenshin is not for sale."

"I must ask you to reconsider," Kihei said, wringing his hands with a look of cloying concern. "Whoever sold him to you must not have been clear – he's rather badly damaged, far too much so for someone as young and inexperienced as yourself. Really, he's only of any interest to collectors; he's nearly useless for normal duties. But I'm more than willing to pay whatever his purchase price was, and a little extra for your trouble. Say, half again the original price?"

"I didn't pay anything," she said. Her hand came down to rest on the top of Kenshin's head, gently possessive. Yahiko frowned and looked a little closer. Kenshin was gripping her skirt with one hand, hidden from view by the fall of his sleeve and Kaoru's legs. His knuckles were white.

"Kenshin was abandoned," Kaoru continued, icily enough to give Megumi a run for her money. "I found him and held him for three days, as the law requires. His former owner did not seek to re-establish his claim, so I took title. He is mine, and he is not for sale. At any price."

It was a powerfull scene and it was particularly eye catching for fanart piece because I wanted to do my take on Kaoru. Kaoru's characterization in Invictus is just so real. She is fast coming up to be one of my all time favourite fanfiction characterizations.

All in all, this picture was really challenging for me to work on. I tore up my hair in sheer frustration - especiallly with the background. Also, I am not very accustomed to drawing humans - and a picture featuring 4 people all with different poses.. well it was hard. Yahiko's, Kaoru's and Kenshin's faces had a Ruroken live action movie reference that I adapted to suit the original character design better. Also I used base pictures for poses. Kihei Hiruma is modeled after screen shot taken from Ruroken manga chapter 1. However, the angle and perspective is all my work which explains all the mistakes that there might be. However, I think he is fairly recognizable character still.

I am particularly proud of my kimono pattern design for Kaoru, which was modeled after a pattern in one of Kaoru's manga appearances. (Ruroken manga chapter 1). Kenshin's clothing's color theme is something else that I really like. At the moment he is wearing Kaoru's dad's old formal wear - which restricted my choises to pick colours. I wanted to use something earthy, formal, old... and something that still fit him. I think I succeeded. The colours are bit boring - but that was the intention. However, they don't clash and they still make him look good.

Kamiya family crest that is on Kenshin's shoulders and gauntlets was based on real japanese family crest that I adapted. Also Kihei Hiruma's kimono pattern is adapted pattern that I used. Also the kanji on miso bucket is result from googling that I adapted to fit. Also the wood textures are from oak pattern that I adapted. Rest of the picture is born from my warped imagination. I had particular troubles with the background. However, when I realized that I actually get ridiculously happy by adding pointless details.. well. Then my mood started to work again. And I added a lot of pointless details.

To those who are interested in the creation process and the journey the picture went through, I posted 2 blog post featuring the WIP progress with approriate edits and updates.
Link to the part 1: [link]
Link to the part 2: [link]

Again thank you Ayezur for being an inspiration and also being a wonderful critic to help me get past the pitfalls and adjust the picture to fit her view of the scene as an illustration.