Wheels are in motion, things are happening. As is the way of epic shounen battle arcs, though not many (well, maybe only one or two) are as epic as “Kyoto”. One of the things I appreciate about Rurouni Kenshin is that as overpowered as its iconic figures are, they still have limits. Shishio can’t do what he’s setting out to do by himself. Saitou and even Kenshin can’t stop his army single-handedly. And this series always takes the time to show us what these terrifying confrontations are like for regular folks not blessed with their power. And they’re the ones who do most of the suffering when the shit goes down, anyway.

As Sano tries unsuccessfully to befriend the horse tasked with pulling their carriage to Osaka, Kenshin and Saitou are preparing in their own fashion. Kenshin is penning a letter to Misao – quite logical, given the Oniwabanshuu’s web of connections throughout Kyoto. And Saitou is conferring with Captain Arato, who’s going to have to take charge of things there while he and Kenshin are chasing Shishio in Osaka. Arato is less than pleased, to say the least – a man who seems very much in over his head. You can tell that Saitou’s instinct is to heap scorn on such a fellow, but he’s forced to restrain himself – he has to rely on Arato whether he wants to or not.

The logistics here given the reality of the early Meiji era are daunting. At best they can hope to arrive in Osaka less than an hour before Shishio’s plan presumably goes into motion. It probably grates on Saitou to rely on Kenshin just as much as does with Arato, but for completely different reasons. Kenshin is their only hope to try and foil a plan which they can’t even be sure is real, because he too is a hitokiri. And it takes a special sort of man, with a special sort of mind, to rise and fall to that role. Kenshin is also a student of history (as he’s shown over and over, including last week) and the memory of Perry’s black ships is one which he knows hangs over Edo to this day, even Edo under a different name.

The trio set off, with Sano’s usual boisterousness proving a sizable annoyance for Saitou. Left behind, Arato has no choice but to face forward. Desperate, he tries to bargain with Chou to give him more information about the fire. But the fact that Shishio used Chou and the other Juppongatana (well, most of them) as decoys doesn’t prove persuasive. Shishio is an evil man, it’s only natural that he do evil things. But to turn on him? For Chou that would be far worse – that would make him a rat (literally, a “shit”). He’s utterly disinterested in anything Arato has to say.

In point of fact it’s the arrival of an unexpected visitor – a youngster named Kitazawa Juurou (Tanabee Kousuke) – that finally shakes Arato out of his torpor. Juurou has come at Kyoto’s request for aid, in the place of his il father. Juurou is perfectly prepared to fight and die despite being only eleven, which is enough to shame Arato into realizing that he has a duty to be better, plain and simple. He orderes the reluctant Juurou to be kept away from the battle, and prepares to face the destiny that awaits him.

Meanwhile Ken’s letter (recognizable from its barely legible scrawl) has arrived at the Aoiya. Misao offers no hesitation whatsoever – she immediately starts giving orders, and all dubiousness about her role falls away in the urgency of the moment. Yahiko and Kaoru draft themselves into service too, of course, and Megumi heads to the clinic for what seems very likely to be a flood of victims. As for the opposition, while the absence of Shishio, Soujirou, and Houji is already sparking suspicion, they prepare to launch their offensive from their mountaintop staging ground.

Those familiar with this era in history will have  a pretty good idea what Shishio is planning. Yumi is singularly unimpressed when she sees the ship, Rengoku (“Purgatory”) on which they’re slated to sail for Tokyo. But he questions her on whether she chose he himself based on appearances – a pretty convincing counter, all things considered. Kenshin has deduced that Shishio plains to rely on the capital’s PTSD to send it into anarchic chaos when he starts firing on from the sea, but does he perceive the full scope of  Shishio’s vision?