HIGHLIGHTS:
Flashback to the first time that Kenshin was forced to draw the sakabato.
In the fourth year of Keio, there was a war called the Battle of Ueno. Taking place in Ueno, Edo, it was a battle between the former Shogunate army,including the Shogitai, and the new government army led by Satsuma and Choshu men.
The battle lasted just half a day. It ended with overwhelming victory for the new government. Now they were hunting down the stragglers. Some of those hunting are very shady men. They want to find a man called Giichi of Edo-Mashira and kill him as he gave them a hard time! Sitting in a small shrine, a feverish Kenshin overhears this.
Not long after, a young pregnant woman, Satsuki, sees a stray cat in the shrine. Not only that, but she finds a very sick Kenshin. She takes them both to Mr. Giichi, her husband. Satsuki and Mr. Giichi care for Kenshin while still going about their normal lives. Thinking Kenshin is a straggler, they worry that the new government army will find him. The Giichi's call him Mr. Samurai.
Mr. Giichi was a skilled private eye. The guys called Goyoto were outlaws trying to extort money from villagers, claiming it was for the revolution. Mr. Giichi had been cracking down on them. Since he was good at it, they hated him. He got ambushed by a bunch of cowards and lost his right arm. After that he quit being a private eye. The Goyoto men still hold a grudge and want him dead.
Those hunting stragglers are ruthless. On a rainy evening, they arrive to finish Mr. Giichi off. The largest man of the Goyoto group is given a kudayari (spear-type weapon) to kill the Giichi's when Kenshin intervenes. After some fighting, Kenshin is forced to draw his sword for the first time. Imagine his surprise to find it is a reverse-blade sword. Even so, he took down all of the Goyoto men.
After a few days, Kenshin is well enough to depart. He does so wishing the Giichi's the birth of a healthy baby.
In the present, Kenshin gratefully accepts Sakabato: Shinuchi