Conquered Village: The Grasp of Shishio's Hands is the 35th episode of the Rurouni Kenshin anime series.
Synopsis[]
Continuing their journey to Kyōto, Kenshin and Misao cross the woods as a shortcut from the highways. But as they continue ahead, a bloodied and ravaged man holds a young boy in his hands. The two victims who appear before the duo are but an ominous sign of things to come, and will not only show the worst of men under tyranny and its savagery, but push Kenshin to his limits and bolster his determination to hone his will to a sharp and driven call to action- to confront his vicious successor himself! What is happening in the fallen village? What cruelties and inhumanities await in sight of a world molded under Shishio's ambitions?
Plot[]
Kenshin catching a snake on the forest
Continuing their journey to Kyōto, Kenshin decides to take a shortcut through the forest. With Misao following him, she hopes to entertain and enlighten him of her times with the Tokyo Oniwabanshū, but is annoyed with his choices of straying from the highways, seemingly not listening to her stories, and not stopping to have lunch. Still hoping to wring out of him his experiences clashing blades with Aoshi, Misao barters with him some hardtack for his word, but Kenshin declines, continuing to part the grass and steadily make a way out of the snakes and ticks lurking ahead for both of them.
A dying person in the middle of the forest
Realizing that Kenshin could just up and leave anytime he wanted, Misao learns of his steadfastness and devoted nature, and gives him some of her lunch (though he isn't so trusting, finding suspicion that his share might be laced with truth serum, which she takes offense to); shortly after, a rustle of foliage and clicking of a sword are heard in their vicinity. With nothing to throw caution away from, Kenshin orders Misao to leave back to the highways, taking it as a possible ambush, and dashes off to find the assailant. With her pride as an Oniwabanshū ninja and her will to help Kenshin, Misao tails him to watch his back. Not before long however, she finds Kenshin, standing over a gravely wounded man leaning before a tree.
Seeing that the young man has not long to live, Kenshin consoles him, telling him that fate has brought him there to listen to his last words, and that he will do everything in his power to fulfill his last will; the young man begs Kenshin to protect his younger brother who lays asleep in his arms, and to liberate his village away from the hands of those under the power of Makoto Shishio. Passing on, Kenshin and Misao prepare a grave for him.
Kenshin saying some conforting words to Eiji
The young boy that slept awakens before Kenshin and Misao. Hoping to find where his older brother went to, his sights turn onto a grave; Misao explains to him that by the time they found the both of them, it was too late to save him. In grief at the loss of his older brother, he refuses to talk to Kenshin, who hopes to know what is going on, scared and in bitterness; calmly explaining to him that he is to meet Shishio, the young boy tells Kenshin everything he knows. The boy named Eiji, comes from the nearby village of Shingetsu; not too long ago, an ominous man walked into the village and killed the police officer stationed there. With another officer positioned, the man then killed that officer, and in time, no more officers would come. The man then had men of his own come into his village, eventually ruling over it, and the village would eventually be wiped off the face of the map. Pulling out a map of the region, Eiji shows it to the both of them, with Shingetsu shown as to no longer be recognized by the nation. Ruled over now by Shishio, Eiji tells the two that the village sees Shishio make his way to his hometown every six months for an unspecified, but important reason.
Telling them that his older brother tried to smuggle him and their parents out of the village, Eiji feels the need to rescue the rest of his family, and goes to his brother's grave, praying for him to give him strength, and grasps the sword that rests upon it. Not shortly after, Kenshin quietly halts Eiji from brandishing the sword, and tells him that he made a promise to him before his death, to help him in his place. Though Misao wishes to accompany Kenshin as well, he tells him to stay behind as well, to watch over Eiji as he investigates the situation.
Shingetsu village looking deserted
Before a cliff, the desolate village of Shingetsu lays below. Trekking into the town, it is quiet, dilapidated, in disrepair, and in such a way that it seemed deserted. Quietly tailing Kenshin from an unnoticeable distance, Misao and Eiji follow him, hoping to also investigate the village to know of what has happened to it. As Kenshin goes around a corner, he stands still, solemn and in serious observation. Before him, two desecrated corpses, brutally murdered and hung from an execution post, lay before him. A loud scream of grief erupts from Eiji, and they learn that the two people strung up in grim example are his parents.
Shishio's soldiers surround Kenshin
Immediately afterwards, a massive company of black masked soldiers surround Kenshin. Knowing that he is an outsider of the village, their commander makes it known of the policy that outsiders are to be subject to the penalty of death with no exception. Demanding an explanation for the horrific display before him, the commander boasts of how the village was "liberated" from the hands of the Meiji Government under the campaigns of Shishio, and that the Mishima family's actions of leaving was that of an insult to the current ruler of the village, Senkaku, whose word holds the right of who lives and who dies in Shingetsu. Having put up the parents slain by Senkaku to serve as a warning to those that break Senkaku's laws, the commander demands that Kenshin prepares himself in the face of their wrath. Kenshin glares back, and tells that the one to prepare should be them.
Saitō appears in Shingetsu village
In absolute focused rage, Kenshin rushes forward and blasts the leader into his own men with a stroke of his sword. Rhythmically taking down the army of thugs without difficulty, Kenshin's mercy has now been bent into a need for punishment, striking the army down into the realm of sleep with every blow he delivers. Outside of the battle, Misao consoles a grieving Eiji, who is still overwhelmed by the death of his parents. A soldier witnessing Kenshin's wrath and the carnage that make up his onslaught, finds the two as easy targets, and rushes at them with a spear. Before Misao can toss a single kunai at him, from behind, a katana is drawn and simply jammed into the soldier's spine before the area of the mouth. As Kenshin finishes off the last of the thugs, they both are surprised: Hajime Saitō has arrived.
Surprised at Saitō's arrival, Himura goes to converse with his rival, letting nothing hinder him on his way, even the last of the foot soldiers. Thinking Himura would at least be halfway to Kyōto than ending up in Shingetsu, Saitō explains that he was supposed to have met with one of his contacts, but has no luck finding him. All are brought on the same level upon realizing that Eiji's eldest brother Ei'ichirō was an undercover cop who made surveillance on Shishio's and Senkaku's actions, but was found out too late and was killed in action.
The villagers warn Kenshin not to interfere
While with an impartial if callous respect for Ei'ichirō's attempts to smuggle his family out of Shingetsu, Misao on the other hand is not amused by Saitō's rather removed and impersonal personality, and especially towards the death of one of his own men, further being riled upon his animal name calling game of calling her a weasel. Though that be the way Saitō is, to Kenshin's mediation, there are more pressing matters at hand. Eiji, during the commotion, walks towards the executioner's rack where his parents are displayed. Hoping to take down their bodies and give them proper burials, a refusal erupts from the sidelines, from the village's elder, who is surrounded by the men of the community. Demanding that they not take down their bodies in fear of Senkaku's further reprisal, they demand Kenshin, Saitō, Misao, and even Eiji to leave the village immediately. Spurred by this absurd act of abnormal inhumanness, Misao lashes back at them for allowing the grisly site to even remain, and especially of their own people. Angered by their cold dismissal, Saitō calmly halts her, explaining to her of the hard yet common truth that not all men will have the courage to stand up for the sake of their own fellow man and their dignity, and ends his explanation with an indirect dismissal of his own, that such lowly men have no dignity or respect simply to just keep on living.
With the elder and his men seething about on the other side of the crowd, Kenshin walks in and explains himself with action, cutting down Eiji's and Ei'ichirō's parents himself. Though the men of the village try to stop him, Kenshin's own kenki by his sharp and critical sight at such men makes them back off to whence they came. Kenshin and the group then go off to Ei'ichirō's resting place, where they will give the Mishima parents their rest as well.
Eiji carrying his relatives' corpses to bury them
Violence brings fear. Fear brings cowardice, inaction, and paranoia. Used upon the weak, such cruel obedience brought by merciless force brings men to face their weakness like a mirror, and as the abyss looks back, such things seen bring out the worst of mankind as they cannot handle such truths in the face of overwhelming evil and madness. Only left with the burden of living on after such trauma, concepts and values such as dignity and respect lose all meaning, as merely surviving in the face of such savagery is all that there is left to such people. Saitō's disgust with such things and the bitter taste upon witnessing such malaise of spirit and the worst of humanity by its cowardice in the face of despair is all that he can monologue upon, to bring to the group at least some understanding of such atrocity to let pass. Wishing to know more of the situation at hand, Kenshin inquires Saitō if Shingetsu has really been abandoned by the Meiji Government. Saitō responds that Shingetsu is not the only village- At least ten more villages throughout Japan have been forced to be surrendered to Shishio, and that his forces are way too much for even the police to handle. Outraged, Misao demands why the military doesn't intervene, and Saitō harshly responds back that the economic costs of the Satsuma Rebellion only six months earlier, as well as the Meiji Government's skewed priorities of saving face by not just in Japan to its detractors, but the world stage, and Shishio's example by Ōkubo Toshimichi's assassination to any that dare stand against him, are why he and Kenshin are the only men willing to stand the line and become Japan's last hope in this shadowy and critical crisis. Even then, such an answer is never enough for what has just passed. Misao demands an answer to a question left in silence and quiet shame, of what shall become of Shingetsu Village, whose people despite now cowardly and low, has suffered tragedy by this confidential war no one even knows about, and to Eiji, who has now lost his family to this tyrannical violence, and the burden of the pain he must now bear.
As Eiji prepares his parents' resting place, Saitō lets in of Shishio's current whereabouts to Kenshin, and the two decisively make headway to confront him. As Misao adamantly demands and fiercely insists on going with them to face Shishio as well, Saitō and Kenshin refuse, and Kenshin convinces her to stay by asking her to look over Eiji now, who continues to digs his parents graves, alone.
Shishio taking a hot bath
At a spahouse in the mountains of Shingetsu Village, a panicked commander begs for forgiveness as his company reports that they have lost sight of Saitō Hajime and Kenshin Himura in the mountains of Hakone. As Shishio enjoys his soothing hot bath behind closed doors, his good mood has him act leniency on his minion, but incentivizes him to make good on his second attempt, as he might change his mind. Relieved, the commander is not out of the woods yet, as Seta Sōjirō stands on the sidelines as his bodyguard, and warns him that while Lord Shishio may grant clemency, he will act well on showing to him what happens to those who lack results in their ranks. As the commander leaves harrowed, a foot soldier rushes in to warn Sōjirō that Saitō Hajime and Kenshin Himura have been spotted in the vicinity and are making their way to the spahouse as they speak. Though bothered again and impatient with the constant reports, Shishio is pleased to hear of the two headed to their current base, as he was already planning to confront them himself after his relaxation time. Shishio then orders Sōjirō to accompany the two, and to make sure that Senkaku will be ready for battle.
Eiji and Misao praying on Eiji's family graves
As Eiji's parent's graves have been completed and as Eiji and Misao give their last respects, Eiji picks up his brother's sword and also tailwinds towards Saitō and Kenshin's direction. Before he can even leave the grove, Misao halts him, and questions him of his reasons why he is also leaving towards Shishio's location. Alone now, and with vengeance on his mind, Eiji seeks out Senkaku. Misao further reasons to him that Senkaku will not be alone- Not only will Shishio Makoto be there, but dozens of his foot soldiers like whom they confronted earlier, and that barging in at the front gate will only see his attempt to come to an abrupt end. Hoping to aid him, and sympathizing with Eiji's plight, the angstful Eiji and feisty Misao also make way to Shishio's stronghold as well.
As nighttime falls, Kenshin and Saitō close in on the spahouse's grounds. Upon making their way to the front gate, they open by themselves. Standing in the open, a young boy greets them. Before Shishio's domain, Seta Sōjirō's first appearance to them shall highlight the rest of their night- A dark journey of surprises and violence into the unknown.
Characters in Order of Appearance[]
- Himura Kenshin
- Makimachi Misao
- Shikijō
- Han'nya
- Hyottoko
- Beshimi
- Shinomori Aoshi
- Mishima Ei'ichirō
- Mishima Eiji
- Senkaku
- Saitō Hajime
- Seta Sōjirō
- Shishio Makoto
- Komagata Yumi
Trivia[]
- This is the first episode of the anime in which Kaoru Kamiya does not physically appear.
Gallery[]
