Even though I haven't finished reading the whole Rurouni Kenshin manga series, I have to say that so far I have been pretty pleased with what I have read.  I really appreciate the work that Nobuhiro Watsuki put in to research the Japanese history and how carefully he adapted that into the story.  This series contains a lot of Japanse words which were not translated into English, so I have to often turn to the back and look at the glossary for the definition.  At first it was a little painstaking but as I got more into the story, it became more clear as to why the words weren't translated and what mean.  I am not good at memorizing these foreign words, though.  Right now I can only recognize them but I wouldn't know how to spell or pronounce the words without first looking at the words. 

I also like how Nobuhiro Watsuki leaves some pages between Acts to explain each character, such as why he draws them the way he does and what he tries to convey to the readers about these charcters.  It seems that Nobuhiro Watsuko took a lot of time to think through his stories and his character designs; as a person who appreciate details, I really like that aspect. 

The drawings themselves were pretty good.  I like the comical chibits when Kenshi, Kaoru, Sano, and Yahiko goof around.  It's a story with serious and noble themes and yet it's funny and clever.  The fight scenes are cool and I wonder how he came up with all the ways that Kenshin manage to defeat the enemies.  For a short little guy, Kenshin's pretty attractive because of his personality, at least I think so. hehe.

The below explains what happens in each volume of the manga.  It's major SPOILER so if you do not want to know what happens in the story, STOP HERE AND DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER!

Rurouni Kenshin: Volume 1 -

After losing all its students because of the hoax, the Kamiya dojo and its "Kasshin-ryu" swords style is taking its first step toward revival.  Kenshin brings in Myojin Yahiko, the son of ex-samurai whom he rescued from the yakuza, to become its first new student.  But, still greedy for the property, the Hiruma Brothers escape from jail and hire Sagara Sanosuke, who fights the fights of others for a living, to get rid of the annoying Kenshin.  At first unwilling, Sanosuke takes the job when he learns who Kenshi really is - Sanosuke hates the so-called patriots and the chance to humble the greatest of them all is too tempting to pass by.  Ultimately, Kenshin accepts Sanosuke's challenge, and while Kaoru, Yahiko, and the Hiruman Brothers watch, the deadly serious battle begins.

Rurouni Kenshin: Volume 2 - The Two Hitokiri

The battle between Sanosuke and Kenshin continues in this volume and after some hefty fighting, Sanosuke willingly gave up a life as a fighter-for-hire to follow Kenshin's examples.  After that, the chief of the Police Sword Corps comes to ask Kenshin for favors.  Hitokiri Kurogasa (Udo Jin-e), a black hatted crazy-eyed slayer who kills both targets and innocent bystanders alike, is steadily working his way through a list of former Ishin Shishi patriots now ensconced within positions of power in the Meiji government.  Kurogasa provokes Kenshin to a duel by kidnapping Kamiya.  Enraged, Kenshin fought with Kurogasa to Kurogasa's inevitable death.   Afterwards, Kenshin was dragged into a gambling den by Sanosuke.  There they learned that one of Sanosuke's gammbling buddies is dead because of opium use.  Suddenly, Takani Megumi bursts in, asking for Kenshin's protection from the private army of Takeda Kanryu, for something that has to do with opium.

Rurouni Kenshin: Volume 3 - A Reason to Act

Kenshin takes Takani Megumi back to Kamiya dojo with him after he saved her from Takeda Kanryu's bullies tried to kidnap her in order to get the formula to Spider's Web, which has the same effect as ordinary opium, but easier to process and cost a lot less.  Kenshin was determined to help her because she was fooled by Kanryu into making Spider's Web.  Takani Megumi is the daughter of the Takani family of Aizu honored for its achievements in medicine.  She was separated from her family during the Aizu War and came to Tokyo as assistant to a doctor.  That doctor, however, was working with Kanryu to sell a new form of opium., and this is when Megumi started to assist in this process of making opium unknowingly.  Captured upon the doctor's death by Kanryu, Megumi was forced to continue producing the new opium, she being the only one familiar with its production.  When Kanryu found out who Kenshin was, he threatened Megumi in order to avoid a confrontation with the legendary hitokiri.  Feeling that the others can't her and that she can't escape from opium, Megumi left a letter for the group that she has returned to Aizu.  In reality, she returned to Kanryu's palace and tried to kill him.  Kenshin, Sanosuke, and Yahiko went to the palace to save Megumi.  When Kanryu's private army was defeated by the group, Kanryu tried to buy off Kenshin, but of course Kenshin had no interest in it.  That's good news to Aoshio, head of Kanryu's elite force, the Oniwabanshu, as a fight with Kenshin is what the battle-hungry Aoshi would like most of all.  The volume ends with Kenshin face to face with a tough competitor Han'Nya, who is a member of Oniwabanshu (ninja) led by Shinomori Aoshi.  There is an End-Of-Volume Special - "Rurouni", in which Kamiya, Megumi, and Yahiko were all sibling and they were trying ot get their father's dojo back from Nishiwaki.  Nishiwaki is trying to force marriage on Megumi so that he can rightfully own the dojo.  Kenshin comes into the picture and helps them.  In the end, he leaves the group as a rurouni wanders and he has places to go.

Rurouni Kenshin: Volume 4 - Dual Conclusions:

The volume continues with the confrontation between Kenshin and Han-nya.  Near defeat, Han-nya disclosed that he was born in a poor family in which he was meant to die due to poverty.  Aoshi took him in and he became his top spy.  He burned his face so he can be faceless in order to disguise himself in appearance.  Han-nya pledges loyalty to Aoshi for his second chance in life.  After the defeat, the group met Shikijo, who Sanosuke volunteered to fight with so Kenshin can go on ahead to save Megumi.  It turned out that Shikijo used to work as an onmitsu for the Ishin Shishi and has turned against it when he was defeated by Aoshi when he was infiltration the Edo Castle.  Aoshi gave him medicines that made him stronger than ever, and he's loyal and grateful to him.  With some major difficulty, Sanosuke finally beat Shikijo.  At last, Kenshin meets up with Aoshi, who was waiting for him.  Aoshi was found to be very hard to beat as Kenshi almost lost to him.  But in the end, Aoshi lost and Kenshi told him that Aoshi should live so that he can defeat him later on.  Meanwhile, Kanryu was panicking because he has lost his men and tries to  find alternate ways to save himself.  He found a gatling gun which shoots out 200 bullets in one minute and interrupted Kenshin and Aoshi's fight.  At this time, all four of Aoshi loyal fights all went to look for Aoshi to support him.  One by one, each sacrificed his life for Aoshi and died under Kanryu's gatling gun.  Kenshin finally stopped his madness and grounded Kanryu.  At last the battle was over and Sanosuke stopped Megui's attempt to end her life just in time.  The group did not reveal to the police what Megumi did and the police found Kenshin more believable than Kanryu regarding Megumi.  Once the racket died down, they found that Aoshi has escaped through a secret passage and now Aoshi has something else to live for.

Rurouni Kenshin: Volume 5 - The State of Meiji Swordsmanship:

This volume includes 3 Acts on Bonus Story: Yahiko's Battle, in which Yahiko works in a restaurant without the others' knowledge.  Curious of why Yahiko has not been seen around much lately, the group follows him and found him at his work, and happens to see Yahiko's co-worker, Tsubame, being harrassed by her ex-Master, Nagaoka Mikio.  Nagaoka tries to get Tsubame to give him a mold to the key to the restaurant so he and his followers can steal money from the restaurant later.  Feeling obliged to listen to her ex-Master, she reluctantly agreed.  Right at that moment, Yahiko comes out and goes head on alone against the group of bullies.  Watching from aside, Kenshin told the others that Yahiko needs to fight his own battles, unless he calls for their help.   Yahiko gets beat up but then returned to Kamiya's dojo and asked Kenshin for tips on fighting a group at once, without telling him why he was asking.  After the tips, Yahiko returns to the place of planned crime to face the group and with his wits, he beats Nagaoka alone.  The bonus story ends with the discovery that Yahiko works to save up money so he can buy a sakabato.

Then, while visiting a local dojo, Kenshin witnesses Isurugi Raijuta, who challenged the sensei of the dojo, Maekawa Miyauchi, and Maekawa was beaten with one strike from Raijuta the first two rounds.  Isurugi then challenged Kenshin to a fight, and Kenshin became the first person to ever escape Raijuta's "secret sword".  Kenshin becomes suspicious of Raijuta's overpowering strength, as it is too great for a mere dojo challenger.  After the defeat, Raijuta invites Kenshin to join "Shinko-ryu", a school dedicated to cleaning out the modern "weaker" swordsmanship and the revival of the traditional Japanese kenjutsu..  Kenshin refuses as he does not want to kill people.  The next morning, Raijuta's apprentice, Tsukayama Yutaro comes to Kamiya's dojo to challenge Yahiko.  As it turns out, Yutaro doesn't even know how to hold a sword properly, and instead received a swordmanship lesson from Kaoru.  When four men sent by Raijuta was easily defeated by Kenshin, Yutaro begins to realize how good Kenshin really is.

Rurouni Kenshin: Volume 6 - No Worries

The story continues with Yutaro's training at Kamiya's dojo.  The group finds that Yutaro is really talented with the sword.  Yutaro shares the story of how Raijuta saved his father and him one time and that's how he became Raijuta's apprentice.  Yutaro has great faith and admiration toward his sensei and would stay with Raijuta as his apprentice.   As he was telling the story, the "honorable" Raijuta attacked Kenshin from behind in the dark.  Yutaro couldn't believe that his sensei would act so low, but Raijuta, without remorse, said that he never viewed him as his apprentice, that he was with his father for the money only.  During the fight between Kenshin and Raijuta, Raijuta's "secret" sword wounded Yutaro and caused him to lose the use of his left arm.  Enraged, Kenshin vowed to avenge Yutaro and defeated Raijuta even with his injured arm and leg.   While sending Yutaro and his father off to Germany to treat Yutaro's injury, the group is relieved as they see that Yutaro will go on with training and not live like a invalid just because of his injury.

The next story is an "extra" story about Sanosuke & Nishiki Paintings.  During an errand to buy a couple of Nishiki paintings for Tae, Sanosuke saw a painting of Captain Sagara Sozo of Sekiho Army, painted byTsukioka Tsunan.  Upon seeing it, Sano knows that Tsukioka Tsunan is an ex-camrade of the days when Sano was a cadet of the wrongly named "False" Revolutionary Army.  During the meeting with his old camrade, Sano realized that Tsukioka still wants to carry on the dream of Captain Sagara and plans on an attack on the current government.  Sano joins Tsukioka without telling the others because he knows they would try to stop him.  Right before they broke into the Internal Affairs building, Kenshin appears and stop the two.  Sano realizes that Kenshin is right and talks Tsukioka out of his plan.

The last part of this volume is an "End of Volume Special" story called "Crescent Moon in the Warring States".  This was Watsuki's debut work.  The main character for the story is a wimp who gained courage.  The boy, Isshinta, is a farmer boy who was drafted to fight in a war for Kitakata.  Isshinta ran away from the war and met Hiko, who was a samurai for the princess of Kitakata.  Hiko and Isshinta were the opposite; Hiko was a brave fighter, whereas Isshinta is a coward who was running away because he didn't want to die because he wants to return to his Natsu.  Isshinta reminded Hiko of his own Princess Natsu, who was forced to wed Nagumo's lord, Iwano Hirosaki.  Instead of giving up on Princess Natsu and intending to die in the war, Hiko defeated Iwano Hirosaki and sought after the Princess.  Instead of running away like a wimp, Isshinta stayed to help Hiko so he can return to his Princess Natsu, also.  It's a happy story as in the end, both men are able to return to their love.  What kind of annoyed me was that Isshinta was crying throughout the whole story.  Well, Watsuki claimed that he as always moved by weaker characters, and I guess was a chance for a weaker character to be the hero of a story.  

Rurouni Kenshin: Volume 7 - In the 11th Year of Meiji, May 14th

First of all, this is the best volume so far, in my opinion.  I'll tell you why later.

A police, named Fujita Goro, beat up Sanosuke badly during combat, and the group was shocked to find the dojo and Sano in such poor shape.  Kenshin suspected that it was the doing of someone from the past and sure enough, Kenshin was lured to fight, but instead, with Akamatsu Arundo, who was no match for Kenshin.  Upon returning to the dojo from the fight, Kenshin finds Fujita Goro in Kamiya dojo, waiting for him.  Fujita Goro reveals to Kenshin to be Saito Hajime, former officer of the revolutionary Shinsengumi, and now a spy sent by the police to test Kenshin's fighting abilities.  With their 10 year dual overdue, Saito wants to kill Kenshin, instead, and he brought out the hitokiri in Kenshin.  Thankfully, Okubo Toshimichi, the Chief of the Department of Internal Affairs, appeared and stopped the fight.

From Okubo, Kenshin and the group learned that Shishio Makoto, the man who took Kenshin's place as hitokiri, is plotting against the government, and Okubu requests Kenshin to travel to Kyoto to confront Shihsoi Makoto.  Karoru tries to stop Kenshin from going, but Okubu is assassinated in broad daylight by one of Shishio's men.  Kenshin sets out to Kyoto, saying goodbye to only Kaoru.

I say this is the best volume so far because this is the first time that we get to travel back to Kenshin's past.  Saito is a formidable opponent, and the fighting is so intense that Kenshin actually wanted to kill Saito, which is against his own vow not to take anyone else's life.  Watsuki also introdued the short-lived Okubu and played him as according to history, which makes the story even more interesting.  Lastly, this is the first time that we actually see that Kenshin and Kaoru really cared for each other.  I am liking this series more and more as I go on!

Rurouni Kenshin: Volume 8 - On the East Sea Road

On May 14, in the 11th year of Meiji, Kenshin leaves for Kyoto to confront Shishio Makoto.  Needless to say, everyone besides Kaoru at the dojo was upset that Kenshin left without a word.  Sanosuke is determined to go to Kyoto, too, no matter how Saito tries to stop him.  After a brief fight with Saito, Sanosuke decided that he needs to know how to defend himself better before going to Kyoto.  Megumi, on the other hand, convinces a distraught Kaoru to follow Kenshin.  Kaoru and Yahiko then took the boat to go to Kyoto.  To add to the complexity, Shinomoro Aoshi reappears at the Kamiya dojo and found out through Saito that Kenshin has headed off to Kyoto.  Aoshi runs into Seta Sojiro, the smiling boy who we saw killed Okubo, and he persuaded Aoshio to go after Kenshin.  Aoshi then starts his travel to Kyoto, also.

At Kenshin's end of the story, Kenshin decides to take the East Sea Road as it would decrease the risk of innocents being killed if there were ambushes.  He takes on the road in the forest and sees Makimachi Misao, a 16-year-old girl, robbing money off a group of robbers who thought she was a prostitute or something.  After Kenshin humors her little staunts, he takes the money bag Misao robbed from the robbers and returns the money.  As Kenshin talks to Misao more, he learns that Misao is looking for Shinomoro Aoshi and his comrades.  Avoiding the subject of Aoshi, Kenshin ignores Misao when she asks of Aoshi.  Determined to get some information off Kenshin, Misao refuses to leave Kenshin and follows him around. 

As the two journeys toward Kyoto, they saw a dying man asking for help to save his brother in the Shingetsu village.  When they found  the dying man's brother, they learned that the Shingetsu village has been abandoned by the government because Shishio has been terrorizing the village.  Kenshin offered the boy help in avenging for his parents and brother.  Upon entering the village, a large group of Shishio's men appeared and Kenshin had to fight them off. When a Shisiho's man tries to stab Misao from behind while she was consoling the boy, Saito appears and killed Shishi's man, with disapproval that Kenshin is wasting time in this village instead of heading straight on to Kyoto.

Saito tells that he's at Shingetsu because he was informed that Shishio was here, and the group realizes that the boy's brother was a police spy.  The people at the village do not want them to disturb the "peace" so that they would be alive, but Eiji vows that he'll kill the perpetrator, Senkaku. 

Saito and Kenshin find Shishio in an inn and instead of battling the two, himself, he sends out Senkaku, who is in control of the village.  At the same time, Misao and Eiji arrive at the inn themselves, hiding behind the dojo wall.  Kenshin defeats Senkaku with not much effort, avoiding showing his moves to Shishio.  Next, Shishio tells Soujirou to show Kenshin the Sword of Heaven (Nagasone Kotetsu).  The short match ends with a draw, with Kenshin's bakaku broken in half, and Soujirou's blade chipped beyond repair.

Upon learning that Kenshin destroyed the Nagasone Kotetsu, he commands Soujirou to summon all of the Ten Swords to Kyoto.  On the other end, Saito takes Eiji back with him to have his wife takes care of the boy, and Kenshi and Misao continues on to Kyoto.

The story shifts to Sanosuke in the forest.  Sanosuke runs into a fallen priest, Anji) and bet that he will learn the Two-Layered Punch to shatter a rock within a week or Anji can kill him.  Almost hopeless in learning the technique, Sanosuke sees the spirit of Captain Sagara, and next time he wakes up, he has mastered the technique.

Back to Kenshin, the two travelers finally arrives in Kyoto and they return to Misao's house, Aoiyo, and at around the same time, Kaoru and Yahiko arrive at Tae's family's house and met her twin sister, Sae.  It turns out that Okina, Misao's grandfather, was the leader of Oniwabanshuu before he gave the position to Aoshi, and Okina offers help to Kenshin.  Kenshi's next goal is to find Arai Shakkuu and Hiko Seijirou, but it turns out that Arai Shakkuu is already dead and his son, Arai Seikuu, refuses to make anymore weapons because he believes in peace.  Kenshin accepts Seikuu's refusal and is spotted by Shishio's minion.

Rurouni Kenshin: Volume 10 - Mitsurugi, Master And Student 

Cho, one of Shishio's Juppongatana or "Ten Swords" assassins, is ordered to retrieve the last sword of Shakku from Seiku.  Cho kidnaps Seiku's son to force the handling-over of the final blade.  When Kenshin heard of this news, he rushed to rescue the boy even though all he had was his broken sakabato.  Seiku retrieves the last sword and gives Kenshin possession of the sword.  Kenshin rescues the boy and draws Shakku's last blade himself -- seemingly about to break his vow never to kill -- but the sword turns out to be another sakabato!  With the blade, "Shinuchi," in hand, Kenshin leaves Aoi-Ya to seek out the master of the Hiten Mitsurugi school, Hiko Seijuro. 

Misao sees the flyer Kaoru has posted looking for Kenshin and shows surprised.  Misao agrees to take Kaoru and Yahiko to Kenshin after making sure that they know what they are getting into.  Asking to be taught the final technique's final move, Kenshin is told that he does not "deserve" the secret.  Just then, Yahiko and Karu arrive on the scene, led by Misao.

Finding out that Kenshin has been helping people as a rurouni, Seijuro decides to teach Kenshin the final technique.  Kaoru did not get the warm smile that she hoped to get from Kenshin, and the two men started on their training.

Meanwhile, Kaoru fills Misao in about Aoshi and the rest of the oniwabanshu, and Misao has a hard time believing that they are all dead except for Aoshi.  Okina receives a message from Aoshi for a private meeting, and warns Aoshi that if Aoshi has just became just another killer, he'd crush him.  After the meeting, Aoshi runs into Shishio's men and agrees to go see Shishio.  At Shishio's hideout, Aoshi further agrees to atack Aoi-Ya to find out where Kenshin is. 

Shishio sends the "Owl Clan" to sneak attack Aoi-Ya, but the people at Aoi-Ya was already prepared.  Okina sends a message to Aoshi to meet alone.  After Okina has already left for the meeting, Misao returns to Aoi-Ya looking for Okina and finds out about the meeting.  Okina gets defeated by Aoshi and Misao arrives too late to stop the fight.  In addtion to witnesses Okina's final blow, she was also told to never show her face in front of Aoshi.  Aoshi goes to Aoi-Ya to seek Kenshin, and Kaoru tells him that his sword is cursed and he should not wave it anymore.  Unconvinced, Aoshi is still determined that his whole purpose is to kill Kenshin.  Shocked by Okina's critical injury by Aoshi, Misao appoints herself as the new okashira, against Okina's written final wishes. 

In jail, Sano breaks open his cell when faced with Saito.  Ignoring Sano, Saito introduces Cho, one of the "Ten Swords", who is also in jail.  After Sano and Cho exchanged hands to no avail, Saito continues to ask Cho about who was the guy that killed 50 men in Kobe, and about Shishio's Kyoto Destruction Plan.  

Usui, a blind combatant, turns up at Shishio's place, and get scolded for acting on his own without direction, referring to the killing of the 50 men.  Cho discloses that Usui and Sojiro are the two strongest men under Shishio, but Sojiro would not act on his own without an order from Shishio.  As for the plan Shishio has to destroy Kyoto, he's going to set fire to Kyoto and burn it down, like in the Ikeda-Ya Incident.  Sano and Saito conclude they need to find Kenshin to prevent the burning of Kyoto.    

Kenshin continues with his training with Seijuro and learns the secret called Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki.  Armed with his new secret technique, he meets with Sano and Saito and learns of Shishio's plans to set Kyoto on fire.  Kenshin realizes that the plans must have been leaked on purpose as a diversion from Shisho's real plot: to sail Rengoku, Shishio's ironclad warship, to Tokyo and attack the capital from the seas.  

Leaving most of the "Ten Swords" in Kyoto as diversion, Shishio and the Remaining "Ten Swords" prepares to depart to Tokyo.  Kenshin, Sano, and Saito intercept Shishio at the port to Osaka, where Sano sinks the warship with his explosives.  The Oniwabanshu have saved the city of Kyoto from incineration, and Misao has a close encounter with Usui.  Shishio invites Kenshin to his lair when he's ready for their next phase of battle.

Rurouni Kenshin: Volume 13 - A Beautiful Night

The attempt of the setting Kyoto on fire resulted in 41 casulties.  Before Kenshin sets out to Shishio's lair, Okina awakes and entrusts Kenshin to kill Shishio, who he claims has become a demon.  Kenshin refuses and in turn promises Misao that he'll bring Shishio back.  Leaving Yahiko in Aoi-Ya to protect it, Kenshin, Sano, and Saito sets out to Shishoi's lair.  On Shishio's end, he orders five of the "Ten Swords" to Aoi-Ya to bring back their heads, and Usui and Anji to stay and battle Kenshin and his group. 

The first battle is between Anji and Sano.  Anji is the fallen priest who Anji met on the road to Kyoto and who taught him the powerful technique, "Mastery of Two Layers."  Anji's dream is to reform the world in memory of children who were killed while under his protection  - but it's a violent reform.  Sanosuke's passion to protect enables him to add even more power to the blow and creates a "Mastery of the Three Layers," and so defeats Anji's Two Layers.  Telling Anji that the dead children would not want Anji to kill, but Anji's happiness, Sanosuke convinces Anji to not fight anymore with his anger. 

Rurouni Kenshin: Volume 14 - The Time Is Now

After Anji's defeat, he tells Kenshin and the other two that they'd better hurry to Aoi-Ya because it's going to be attacked, and that the Juppongatana ahead of them are Sojiro, Usui, and Hoji.  Unable to backtrack, Kenshin can only hope that Seijuro will arrive at Aoi-Ya in time. 

Next battle is Saito against Usui, while Keshin and Sanosuke go on ahead.  As usual, Saito figures out Usui's deep dark fear and shame of not being able to defeat Shishio, and in turn, Shishio pretends not to know of this fear so he could use him.  After breaking Usui's morale, Saito defeats Usui (by spliting Usui in half!).

Moving ahead, Kenshin senses the presence of Aoshi.  The two finally face each other and Kenshin failed in not using his sword.  Most of this volume is about this battle as Kenshin and Aoshi has lots to say.  This huge battle concludes with Kenshin using the secret technique, not caring that Shishio is watching his move, and defeats Aoshi.        

Rurouni Kenshin: Volume 15 - The Great Man vs. The Giant

While Kenshin and Sanosuke rush to their next challenge, back at Aoi-Ya, Yahiko and the others defend themselves.  Yahiko takes on "Flighted" Kariwa Henya while Kaoru and Misao teams up against "Giant Scythe" Honjo Kamatari, who they thought was a girl but really a man.  After Henya and Kamatari were defeated, Iwanbo and the followers all ran away.  Just as the people at Aoi-Ya are cheering, a giant, Fuji, and Elder Saizuchi show up to attack Aoi-Ya.  With the group already injured and exhausted from fighting Kamatri and Henya, the group is no match for Fuji.  Suddenly, Hiko Seijuro shows up, granting Fuji long-yearned recognition as a fellow samurai, but eventually defeated Fuji.

Back with Kenshin and Sojiro, their battle begins soon after Sojiro reassures Kenshin of Aoi-Ya's victory.  In the end, the Shukuchi (Reduced to Earth)technique of Sojiro proves superior to Kenshin's "God's Speed", leaving Kenshin badly injured.

Sojiro fails to finish Kenshin off when he could.  Instead, he asks Kenshin to wait while he gets his shoes fixed.  Backflashing to when Sojiro was a child, Sojiro was an abandon mistress' child who was abused by the family who took him in.  As a defense, Sojiro learned to smile no matter how badly he was treated.  One day, he saw Shishio killing a guard who was after him.  Shishio spared his life when all Sojiro did was smile.  Sojiro ended up hiding Shishio from the guards and fed him.  When Shishio saw how Sojiro just smiles when beat up, he told Sojiro that it's his own fault for being weak, and gave a sword to Sojiro as a gift.  The family then wrongly accused him of wasting rice, and decided to test the sword on him.  Sojiro picks up his sword and slain everyone in the family.  It was then when Shishio asked Sojiro to join him.

Continuing the fight, the unemotional Sojiro comments that somehow fighting Kenshin makes him angry.  Kenshin managed to provoke Sojiro's emotions, allowing him to see Sojiro's anticipated moves and in the end winning the duel.  

Saito Hajime meets up with Aoshi and learns that Kenshin has moved on to the next duel.  Saito reveals that the whole thing was a set up and he just used Aoshi and Kenshin as a baits to get what he wants.  

Before Yumi returns to Shishio, Sojiro entrusts the sword Shishio gave him to return to Shishio and at the same time reveals the secret to defeat Kenshin's hiten mitsurugi ryu to her so she could pass it on to Shishio.       

The time for the final battle against Shishio arrives, and it's taken place in an arena surrounded by hanging cliffs so there is no escape.  After the battle begins, Kenshin soon learns that Shishio is using gun powder to form flame against him.  With Shishio knowing the secret to defeat Kenshin's hiten mitsurugi ryu and his gun powder use, Shishio burns Kenshin pretty bad.  As Sanosuke is shocked that Kenshin is down, Saito breaks through the door to claim Shishio's head.

Rurouni Kenshin: Volume 17- 28 (end)