Rurouni Kenshin, Volume 08

In the 11th year of Meiji, on the day marked in the Western calendar as May 14th, time once again begins to flow. After the shocking midday murder of Department of Internal Affairs Chief Ōkubo, Kenshin leaves for Kyoto, the scene of chaos and bloodshed — against the wishes of nearly everyone who knows him as the gentle "rurouni." Awaiting him there is Shishio Makoto, the hitokiri who replaced the cold-eyed assassin Himura Battōsai, who forswore further killing and took up the reversed-blade sakabatō. But does Kenshin go to Kyoto for a duel—or for a death match?