During the Meiji era, Kenshin Himura is a former assassin once known as Battosai, feared for the role he played in the upheavals that brought an end to the shogunate. Now determined never to kill again, he travels across Japan carrying a reverse-blade sword and tries to protect others without denying his past. His encounter with Kaoru Kamiya leads him to stay at her dojo, where he forms new bonds. But the ghosts of his former life, political conflicts, and powerful enemies repeatedly put his ideal of redemption to the test.