Kenshin, Kaoru, and Yahiko visit Akabeko, a beef hot-pot restaurant, where a group of democratic rights activists gets into a heated argument. One of them throws a bottle of sake, and it hits Kenshin, causing a commotion. Sanosuke Sagara, who happened to be in the store during the quarrel, stood up and blew away the activists with a single flick to the forehead. Seeing Kenshin's strength, Sanosuke's curiosity is roused and he asks, "You wanna buy a fight from me?"

Sanosuke's friend has died from an opium overdose. However, Kenshin and Sanosuke are perplexed at how he even got his hands on the drug, since opium is banned and too expensive for the average person to afford. Then a mysterious woman, Megumi Takani, appears before them. Kenshin and the others fight off Kanryu Takeda's private army who is trying to capture Megumi. However, Megumi is carrying opium...

Yahiko, the sole student of the Kamiya Dojo, has started to step away from his training from time to time. He says he's merely going on a walk, but it is clear that he takes his swordsmanship training very seriously, and it doesn’t look like he's ditching to slack off. Curious about what he's doing, Kenshin, Kaoru, and Sanosuke decide to follow him. What exactly is Yahiko's reason for ditching?

Sanosuke is visiting the sukiyaki restaurant Akabeko, where he always leaves his bill on a tab. One of Akabeko's workers, Tae, asks him to go buy a Nishiki painting from the painting shop on her behalf. Though Sanosuke had no interest in paintings, he finds one at the store that catches his eye. It was a painting of the man he looked up to as his master back when he was a member of the Sekiho Army, Captain Sagara. With a gleam in his eyes, Sanosuke makes his way to meet with the artist of the painting.

The current Kenshin has left his past as a manslayer and wished for a peaceful world. Though Elder looked at him with eyes of confusion, Kenshin knew that Elder also shared this same desire for a healthy society and felt a sense of comradery with him. Meanwhile, another doctor called Deian Ishizu was scheming to get rid of Elder, as Elder did not seek monetary gain in exchange for her medical services, and Deian thought this was disrupting his business. Deian hires Espiral, a master of Western swordsmanship, to get rid of Elder. However, it seems Espiral has an entirely different motive for taking on the job...