THE STORY

In the eleventh year of the Meiji Era (1878), a vagabond swordsman is wandering the streets of Tokyo. He carries a reverse-bladed sword and has an x-shaped scar on his cheek. He wants only to be left alone. However, a girl named Kamiya Kaoru accuses him of being Hitokiri Battousai. (Hitokiri Battousai is murdering people in the name of her family's doujo).

When he saves her from the real killer, however, she invites him to come stay at her doujo, since he has no other place to go. This begins the story of Himura Kenshin.

Before the Meiji Restoration, Kenshin was known as Hitokiri (Murderer) Battousai. He was the top assassin for the reformist group Ishin Shishi. However, when the old government was overthrown and the fighting had drawn to an end, Hitokiri Battousai had disappeared. Kenshin wandered the countryside for nearly eleven years, and everyone thought he was either dead or lost.
When Kenshin meets Kaoru, he has sworn never to take another life again. His reverse-bladed sword is symbolic of the fact that he is defending, not attacking.

Kenshin is trying to escape his past and create a future for himself. With the help of Kaoru and the others that he meets, he may just have a chance.