With his killer blade, legend-warrior Hitokiri Battôsai once helped close the turbulent Bakumatsu era and slashed open the progressive age known as Meiji. It's now 1878, ten years after the bloody Meiji Revolution that marked the end of the rule of the Shogun and the Samurai in Japan. In Tokyo, where swords have been banned, Kamiya Kaoru's fencing school's reputation is being ruined by a swordsman who is killing people in the streets using her signature style. But while hunting for the Battosai who is destroying her livelihood, Kaoru bumps into the wandering Himura Kenshin, and so begins an extraordinary friendship between the master swordswoman and the mysterious past-master who has vowed never to fight again.Historical detail, spectacular battles and romantic comedy combine in this wildly popular manga series about the wandering swordsman, or "rurouni", Kenshin, and the people he meets.