Kenshin
His real name is Shinta. He was given the name Kenshin by his sensei
and rescuer who gave him the name saying that Shinta was no name for a
warrior. He trained under his sensei in the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu style,
a tremendous sword-fighting technique that was considered to be
unbeatable. When Kenshin was a young man, he left in his pursuit to
protect people. He joined the Inshin and became the legendary Hitokiri
Battousai: The greatest assassin who is feared by all of Japan. But at
the end of the war, Kenshin disappeared. He swore off killing and
became a Rurouni: a wandering warrior with no sensei. He now protects
people without killing and will do anything to prevent himself from
taking a life, even thought of an enemy. His sword is in fact a
reverse-bladed sword, which prevents any fatal wounds from being
inflicted upon his enemies. The blade in that sword, however, can be
reversed back to a normal blade with its killing edge. This portion of
the story is somewhat of a metaphoric correlation for Kenshin's
struggle to keep the dreaded manslayer from re-emerging from him.
Kaoru
The successor to the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu Kendo style, Kaoru runs the
Kamiya dojo in Kyoto, Japan. Before Kenshin wandered into her life, she
lived alone in the dojo, although she is regularly visited by Dr.
Genkai and his two little grand-daughters. Her weapon of choice is
called the shinai, which is a bamboo sword. She has a kind-heart but is
quick to lose her temper. She doesn't do anything that Kenshin tells
her to do, but expects him to do everything she tells him to do. (She's
not very obedient towards Kenshin, hehehe). Kenshin depends on her as
much as she does on him as she - in a sense - gives him the strength to
fight without reverting to the dreaded manslayer. Kaoru is also a
terrible cook and Kenshin is the only one who seems to enjoy her
cooking (how nice). Of course, she's beaned him HOW many times with the
shinai? *rolling on floor laughing* Kaoru fills a sort of empty spot in
Kenshin's life after the death of his wife during the revolution.
Yahiko
He is an orphan who was forced into the service of a local Yakuza group
after his mother's death. Both of his parents were samurai (his mother
came from a samurai clan). His father was killed during the war. He is
a spunky kid who gives his teacher, Kaoru, grief by calling her "ugly"!
But when it comes down to learning and actually picking up on the
Kamiya ideals, Kenshin obviously chose right in "forcing" Kaoru to
teach him. Yahiko wishes that Kenshin would teach him "his" style, but
Kenshin says there will be no one to carry on the deadly Hiten
Mitsurugi Ryuu style after him.
Sanosuke
The fighting merchant known as Zanza, Sanosuke is constantly looking
for a good fight. He is called "Zanza" because of his weapon of choice,
a zanbatou or zanza. That is an extremely big sword used to knock down
horses and their riders. No one can truly master the weapon because of
its enormous size. Sanosuke, for all his strength, is only able to take
a few swings with it. He challenges Kenshin after being hired by the
two goons who tried to force Kaoru to sell her family's dojo. The
symbol on the back of his clothes is Aku. It means "evil" or "bad" and
is in memory of his master who was killed during the war when the Meiji
regime betrayed them. He hates all imperialists for that reason until
he met Kenshin. This character is a bit of a goof-off... he's known to
get himself out of paying for meals at restaurants and he has a habit
for often getting himself lost in the city.
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