Yahiko's heart is moved by Kenshin and he decides to quit pickpocketing. Yahiko refuses to pay Kanto Shueigumi and resists their demands, but he is beaten up. Kenshin comes to his rescue and settles the matter. Regretful that he could not solve the problem by himself, Yahiko wishes to become stronger. Seeing this, Kenshin takes Yahiko to the Kamiya Dojo.

Kenshin confronts Sanosuke, who wields the giant Zanbato with ease. However, Sanosuke shows his incredible durability after withstanding a strike from Kenshin with ease. This leads Kenshin to instead launch a barrage of blows at him, and Sanosuke falls to the ground. For a moment it looked as if victory has been decided. However, while Sanosuke is in a daze, he recalls the reason for his obsession with victory, his past from ten years ago when he was in the Sekiho Army...

Sanosuke's friend has died from an opium overdose. However, Kenshin and Sanosuke are perplexed at how he even got his hands on the drug, since opium is banned and too expensive for the average person to afford. Then a mysterious woman, Megumi Takani, appears before them. Kenshin and the others fight off Kanryu Takeda's private army who is trying to capture Megumi. However, Megumi is carrying opium...

The pursuers from the Oniwaban Group haven't made an appearance for over a week, and during this time Megumi familiarized herself with the Kamiya Dojo group. Sanosuke, however, was still unsettled and feeling frustrated knowing that Megumi was the one who made the opium that caused his friend's death. Then one day, Megumi suddenly disappears. In a letter they found from her, it stated that she had left of her own volition, but Kenshin and the others found this to be unnatural. They decide to head to Kanryu Takeda's residence, the man who was sending spies after her.

Kenshin and the group are enjoying some tea time together. The group probes Kenshin to entertain them with an interesting story from his travels, specifically requesting "a story that's unusual, fun, and includes a villain's defeat." To answer to their demands, Kenshin decides to tell them about someone he met when he was visiting a foreign settlement in the lively city of Yokohama. A foreign doctor named Elder who was always wearing a mask.

Kenshin sees a dream recalling the Shinsengumi, who he faced off against back when he was a Revolutionary warrior. The Shinsengumi was a group of highly skilled swordsmen who he fought on equal footing back when he was the Hitokiri Battosai. He feels unsettled and ponders why he is suddenly remembering them. As the tension persists, a mysterious man with very unique-looking eyes pays a visit to the Kamiya Dojo while Kenshin, Kaoru, and Yahiko are not home. When he meets Sanosuke, who just happened to be at the Dojo, he claims that he is Goro Fujita, a medicine seller, but...

After defeating Arundo Akamatsu, Kenshin returns to the Kamiya Dojo and sees Hajime Saito. Hajime had introduced himself to Kaoru and Yahiko as Goro Fujita, the police officer, and they had invited him into the Dojo without any suspicion. Hajime criticizes Kenshin and the others for their naivety. Over the past ten years that Kenshin had washed his hands of manslaying, Hajime had honed his killing intent and skills as a hitman, and now Hajime's ferocity was aimed at them.

Sanosuke makes his way to Kyoto while trudging through the forest and getting lost at the same time. On the road there, he meets Anji Yukyuzan, a fallen monk currently in training. Sanosuke witnesses Anji unleash an astonishing strike up close, a technique that took Anji 10 years to acquire. There, Anji decides to teach Sanosuke “the Mastery of Two Layers,” an art of destruction. However, he requires Sanosuke to learn the technique within one month; if he fails, he will have to die. Against this unreasonable and excessive condition laid out to him, Sanosuke declares he’ll learn it within a week. The training for this technique, which will make or break his life, begins….

Kenshin reunites with Kaoru and the rest at Seijuro Hiko's place, who is a master of Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu. Seijuro learns from Kaoru that Kenshin goes around the country acting as a rurouni who helps people, when he then decides to pass down the last ultimate technique of the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu.