Now, imagine you’re a young Samurai.
You promised a beautiful young lady, who used to be your childhood friend, to ask for her hand in marriage once you’ve proven yourself to be a respectful man in this harsh world of warring Japan.
To do this you’ve taken a job to be a bodyguard for this important looking fellow.
One day, after a night of drinking, you and the aforementioned important looking fellow walk through an alley and meet a strange looking guy charging RIGHT towards you.
Your name is Kiyosato Akira:
Congratulations, you’re Battousai’s first murder victim.
Don’t feel too bad, though, at least you left a mark on him.
No seriously, you caused the first half of his cross-shaped scar.
Battousai has quite a life ahead of him.
As a Man Slayer it’s his job to kill people by order of the higher-ups. He’s encouraged not to have any emotions at all, lest he starts becoming empathetic to his victims. And we can’t have that, can we? (Like I said, he’s got quite a life ahead of him…)
One day, ANOTHER Man Slayer decided to try his hand at killing Battousai.
You can guess how well that ended…
As he literally made blood rain that day, what more of a fitting way it is to meet our next important little character.
Introducing the emotionless girl in white; Tomoe Yukishiro.
After witnessing Battousai murdering someone by slashing their body in half mid-somersault (ah, the most common way to murder someone in Japan) she promptly faints. (It’s kept vague whether it’s because of the shock, the alcohol she’s been drinking or if it was an act)
This forces Battousai to take the unconcious woman with him to a hotel he’s staying at, because as much of a killer he is, he IS fighting for a more peaceful Japan, as misguided as it is.
The next day he wakes up and finds out Tomoe has been making herself at home at the hotel, doing her job as a worker.
This means that she and Battousai are going to be seeing each other a lot during his missions of killing people.
To make the long story short, a romance blossoms out of this. They even end up getting married and moving to a house outside the city.
Sadly it’s not as romantic as I just made it out to be. See… Japan is still at war after all, and the fact that someone was after Battousai’s life means that his cover as a Man Slayer has been comprimised. Thus the higher-ups arranged for them a cover as a married druggist couple (ah, the most common way of getting married in Japan).
But what’s important is that they decided it doesn’t have to be ALL fake.
In paper it’s a fake marriage, but emotionally it was as real as it can get.
Which makes it pretty difficult for Tomoe as she was originally, in fact, secretly working as a mole to find Battousai’s weakness.
You see, that first murder victim I made you empathize with, Kiyosato Akira? Remember when I said he promised to ask for a beautiful young lady’s hand in marriage?
Well, that hand is now holding a knife for a reason…
She’s actually working for a group that tries to kill Battousai. She joined out of vengeance for the killer of her Fiancé.
See, the reason Kiyosato wanted to prove himself as a respectful person was because he thought Tomoe was unimpressed with his status as a lowly ranked Samurai, which (in case you haven’t been paying attention here) caused his death by the hands of Battousai.
In reality Tomoe was happy to be with Kiyosato, but as an emotionless girl, she has trouble expressing herself.
It’s a tragedy of miscommunication as Tomoe and Kiyosato’s different interpretation of their life situation proved fatal for one of them. It’s not anyone’s fault exactly, but Tomoe does curse her inability to express herself as the reason she lost the love of her life.
This is how she mirrors Battousai as a character, he has no trouble showing emotion, but in reality is dead inside, while she has lots of emotions boiling up inside her, but has no way of expressing it.
What’s important is that her love for Kiyosato Akira isn’t any less valid as her newfound love for Battousai, her new husband.
So yes, this is indeed a Love Triangle WITHIN a Love Triangle!
Despite her justified reasons to wanting Battousai dead, she ended up deciding not to go along with the mission she’s taken anymore and decides to meet with the group leader on a very snowy day to spare Battousai’s life. (Ah, the most common way of realizing you’ve fallen in love with your target in Japan… what?)
Sadly, this is all going according to the group’s plan.
That’s right, her mission to find a weakness was just a ploy to CREATE a weakness for them to exploit, namely Battousai’s love for Tomoe.
And thus Battousai comes to Tomoe’s rescue, fighting through the group of Man Slayers to get to the big boss. Even as they blow up several bombs that make Battousai deaf and blind as well as the cold snow numbing all his other senses, he presses on to save his beloved Tomoe.
But the sad reality is that, in his deafened and blinded state, he is no match for the muscular leader who’s in top shape.
That is… unless someone were to distract the leader by getting in the way, sacrificing themselves by blocking their attacks and giving Battousai the chance to get a killing blow on them both…
As you can imagine… not the happiest of victories…
Tomoe’s knife ended up flying in the air and slashes Battousai’s cheek, completing his cross-shaped scar.
But some good came out of this…
Tomoe’s last action before she dies is a loving gesture towards her husband, telling him it’s all right. She says it with a smile, something she had trouble showing to her previous love.
In one fell swoop, Tomoe learned to express emotions as well as pass on her knowledge to Battousai, teaching him to HAVE emotions in her last moments.
Suddenly, all the people he’s killed got a face.
Whenever he’s in a position to kill someone, he sees her, and he sheathes his weapon.
She officially became the sheath for his sword.
And thus, no longer was he the Man Slayer Battousai, he’s taken his first steps to becoming the pacifist wanderer, Himura Kenshin.
Now you might be wondering what the point of this summary is.
Find out by clicking that button for the next page!
Game Philosophy 