Synopsis for
Rurôni Kenshin: Meiji kenkaku roman tan: Tsuioku hen (1999) (V) More at IMDbPro »

The story of Samurai X Trust and Betrayal (Rurouni Kenshin Tsuiokuhen in Japanese) takes place in the 1860s during the Bakumatsu Revolution, where Japan was torn asunder as revolutionaries tried to overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate, which had ruled for 300 years, and restore the Emperor to power.

In the middle of this chaos enters a young man with flaming red hair and a sword faster than the eye can see. His blade is so deadly that he is given the name Hitokiri Battousai (assassin who has mastered the art of blade drawing). Hitokiri Battousai works for the revolutionaries' side as an assassin and kills without mercy until one night, he fights a young Shogunate swordsman who is desperate to stay alive because he is about to be married.

The young swordsman is able to cut Battousai on the left cheek before Battousai kills him. As the swordsman lays bleeding to death, he cries out his fiance's name: Tomoe! Battousai then puts him out of his misery, but is so moved by the swordsman's will to live that from then on, whenever he kills someone, the wound on his cheek bleeds by itself.

One month later, Battousai is ambushed by an assassin ninja. Battousai struggles against this viscious assassin, but is able to kill the man with his own weapon. Just as Battousai splits the ninja in half, spraying blood all over the place, he sees a beautiful young woman with sad, deep eyes staring at him.

She approaches him and declares that he has made a rain of blood fall before she passes out in his arms. Who is this woman and what does she want of the assassin Battousai?