Himura Kenshin a.k.a. Hitokiri Battousai (Battousai the man slayer) is the main character of Rurouni Kenshin. He is the most feared and respected assassin of the Isshin Shishi* from the Bakumatsu war*. He has taken a vow to never again take a human life. His weapon is a sakabatou (reverse blade sword) which helps him to remain true to his vow.
As the story starts Kenshin is walking through the streets of Tokyo minding his own business and is attacked by a girl wielding a kendo stick screaming that she will stop the evil Hitokiri Battousai! (Kaoru tends to go all out about these things...)
The "evil Hitokiri Battousai" has been killing people claiming to be a student of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu which is the school of kendo that Kaoru runs and owns. The honor of school (as well as the honor of her late father) has been tarnished and Kaoru tends to stop Battousai all by herself.
Hiruma Gohei, a former Kamiya Kasshin Ryu Student has been impersonating Kenshin in order to ruin his former master's school for ruining his sword fighting skills (see gohei's profile for more detail).
Kenshin ends up at the Kamiya Dojo and helps Kaoru defeat the fake Battousai... his intent is to go back to wandering but Kaoru persuaded him to stay (and then proceeds to accidentally knock him out ^_^)
As the series progresses we see that Kenshin has an extremely dark and twisted past, and that the kind and gentle wandering swordsman is not the only side to Kenshin. When he was around 8 his parents died of cholera and he was sold. One day while travelling his entire party was killed by a band of raiders.
As shinta (Kenshin's childhood name) was about to be killed a wandering Hitten Mitsurugi Ryu master by the name of Hiko Seijuro came along and obliterated the raiders. After returning to the scene the next day Hiko decided to take in Shinta and gave him the name Kenshin, a name fit for a warrior. (see hiko's profile for more info)
When provoked his eyes, voice, and even the way he speaks change (the actual words he uses). He begins to revert back to the Hitokiri within him. Udou Jin'e almost gets the Hitokiri to emerge, but it took the infamous Hajime Saitou to really bring out the killer in Kenshin for a fight that should have ended 10 years before...
Nothing good can last forever, and Kenshin's past comes back to haunt him (in more ways than one). His successor in the Isshin Shishi, Shishio Makoto, has risen in the Kyoto underground with plans to take over all of Japan and will stop at nothing to destroy the Meiji government. An old friend and remaining member of the Isshin Shishi, Okubo-kyo tries to persuade Kenshin to return with him to Kyoto, a place Kenshin had vowed never to return to.
Shishio's plan is put into full effect and Kenshin had no choice but to leave the Kamiya dojo and return to the place of his bloody past... and leave behind his new family.
Check out the oav section for more info on Kenshin's past.
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