Kenshin stumbles into their lives when he stops a gang of opium thugs from seizing Kaoru’s land deed. He does not kill them. He simply redirects their strikes—using the sakabatō to break wrists and knock men unconscious. One thug slashes his back. Kenshin does not flinch. He smiles, says "oro?" —and ends the fight.
Kanryu kidnaps Kaoru and Yahiko to force Kenshin into a final confrontation. The battlefield is Kanryu's mansion, filled with explosive charges and hired killers. But the true trap is emotional: Kanryu has also unearthed the grave of , Kenshin's first wife—whom Kenshin himself killed by accident during the revolution. The Rurouni Kenshin
"You could have let him burn," Saito says. Kenshin stumbles into their lives when he stops
For the first time in ten years, Kenshin does not smile. His grip on the sakabatō turns white. Kaoru, chained to a pillar, sees his eyes go flat and cold. One thug slashes his back
Saito: "You call yourself a protector. But a wolf who wears a sheep's mask still has fangs. The only difference between us, Battosai, is that I admit what I am."
They clash. Saito's gatotsu thrust pierces Kenshin's shoulder. Kenshin's sakabatō snaps Saito's ribs. Neither wins. Both bleed.
In the town of Ueno, he meets , the last instructor of the Kamiya Kasshin-ryū—a "sword that protects life." Her dojo has one student, a terrified child named Yahiko Myojin , whose parents sold him to a yakuza boss to pay a debt. The dojo’s sign is cracked. The roof leaks. Kaoru sells calligraphy to afford tofu.