When a wandering master swordsman encounters bandits raiding a slave wagon he easily dispatches the, although only managing to save the life of one young boy. He tells the boy to run to a nearby village and be taken care of, and is surprised to find that the young boy had dug graves for all the deceased days later. Seeing the potential in the child, master swordsman Hiko Seiijuro takes him under his wing. The child, given the name Kenshin, learns the Hiten Mitsuruugi Ryu sword style from Hiko, and eventually starts to face the harshness of reality.