Rurouni Kenshin Vol. 7

Kenshin describes the Shinsengumi as enemies, but he does not flatten them into a single moral category. When Kaoru associates strength with goodness, he says that not everyone in the group was strong or honorable. He nevertheless remembers the leading officers as people whose lives and convictions were carried into their sword fights, and he calls their reported deaths a loss. Yahiko finds this sympathy strange. Kenshin answers that opposing political sides did not make their encounters merely personal. The conversation makes room for grief without retracting the conflict that produced it. His own surprise matters too: he wonders why these dreams are returning now. The inspected pages then introduce a smiling medicine seller, without yet resolving how the conversation about the past connects to the present visitor.