Is Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan finished?

One wandering samurai, Kenshin Himura, still works to make sure the values he fought for are worth the lives spent to bring about the new era. Once known as Hitokiri Battousai, he was feared as the most ruthless killer of all the revolutionaries. Now haunted by guilt, Kenshin has sworn never to kill again in atonement for the lives he took, and he may never know peace until killing is a thing of the past.

Now in the 11th year of Meiji, Kenshin stumbles upon Kaoru Kamiya, owner and head instructor of a small dojo being threatened to close its doors. The police force is powerless to stop the string of murders done in the name of her dojo by a man claiming to be the famous Battousai. Kenshin’s wanderings pause for now as he joins Kaoru to clear both their names. But how long can he stay before his past catches up to him?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Included one-shot: Volume 28: Meteor Strike

Unbeknownst to them, Battousai has abandoned his bloodstained lifestyle in an effort to repent for his sins, now living as Kenshin Himura, a wandering swordsman with a cheerful attitude and a strong will. Vowing never to kill again, Kenshin dedicates himself to protecting the weak. One day, he stumbles across Kaoru Kamiya at her kendo dojo, which is being threatened by an impostor claiming to be Battousai. After receiving help from Kenshin, Kaoru allows him to stay at the dojo, and so the former assassin temporarily ceases his travels.

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan tells the story of Kenshin as he strives to save those in need of saving. However, as enemies from both past and present begin to emerge, will the reformed killer be able to uphold his new ideals?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

The novel is composed of two short stories, both already published in the manga: Yahiko’s Fight and Black Hat.

In the first story, Yaahiko in order to protect the young Tsubame, has to face a group of dangerous outlaws. At first, he is defeated, but his samurai pride doesn’t allow him to give up. So he faces those men again, ending up with a strategy that allows him to turn the advantage in his favor.

In the second story, the protagonists are Udou Jinne, a former Shinsengumi, and Kenshin. In order to force Himura to fight against him, Jinne kidnaps Kaoru and using Nikaido, a sort of hypnotic technique, he puts her in a condition of being incapable of breathing. This awakes Kenshin’s fury, and the two samurai will have to fight a death match.

(Source: RK Sword of Justice)

(Source: ANN)

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan - Tsuioku-hen details the origins of the man who would bear the name of Hitokiri Battousai long before he swore his oath not to kill and before he earned his reputation as an assassin. The young man’s heart is divided between justice and corruption, while the fate of a nation rests on his actions.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

It was published in the Kenshin Kaden Artbook.

(Source: The-OrO.com)

(Source: ANN)

But not everyone is pleased with Kenshin’s new direction, and enemies from his dark past have vowed to bring him down!

(Source: VIZ Media)

After a remaining faction tried to revive the revolution, Shishio’s old sword fell into the hands of Ashitarou Hasegawa, an orphan boy who has never known a home. The conflict also leaves both Aran Inoue, a 16-year-old half-Japanese, half-American boy, and a mercenary girl named Asahi Kubota with a hefty price to pay off, with nowhere else to go. But luckily for these individuals, the Kamiya dojo has always been a place to accept wanderers without prying into their pasts.

The three are keen to start fresh, so when two members of Asahi’s former clan show up demanding her return, Asahi refuses and things start to get ugly. In the midst of the chaos, the clan members drop a package containing a picture of dojo proprietor Kaoru Kamiya’s presumably deceased father and his location—Hakodate, Hokkaido. With only this information, the members of the Kamiya dojo embark on an adventure across the sea in the hopes of finding news about Kaoru’s father and the reason he is being targeted.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Years later, a seemingly plain wanderer named Kenshin Himura encounters Kaoru Kamiya, the owner of a struggling local dojo in Tokyo. Kaoru pursues a self-proclaimed Battousai who roams the streets, indiscriminately killing citizens and police officers. Furthermore, the warrior professes to use the Kamiya Kasshin-ryu—a sword style developed by Kaoru’s father deeply rooted in the essence of life, not death.

Kenshin decides to help Kaoru take down the impostor and restore her father’s dojo. Unbeknownst to all, Kenshin is none other than the real warrior whose name still terrifies the people. Although Kaoru eventually learns the truth, his oath to atone for his murderous history by bloodlessly protecting the weak moves her, and she welcomes Kenshin to stay at her dojo. However, Kenshin’s ideals are soon challenged by ghosts of the past and enemies of the present.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Following the murder of his former commander, he now has to retread the road of violence and blood to take down Makoto Shishio—the assassin prodigy who calls himself the notorious Battousai’s successor. With ambitions to overthrow the Meiji government and establish his dominion in Kyoto, Shishio has meticulously schemed for a decade, building a formidable anti-government military force. Now, Shishio has turned his sights toward recruiting Aoshi Shinomori, a cold-blooded killer and the former leader of the legendary Oniwaban Group warriors.

As Kenshin travels through a village abandoned by the government and currently under the iron fist of Shishio’s henchmen, he is determined to prevent the country from spiraling back into civil war. He allies with his former rival, Hajime Saitou, forging a fragile partnership in a battle against Shishio’s empire that will determine the fate of Japan.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]