Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning

The Kyoto Watch member who wounded Kenshin was Tomoe's former fiancé. When Kenshin killed him during an earlier assassination, the man managed to inflict a wound on Kenshin before dying. This connection is revealed later when Kenshin learns that Tomoe was once engaged to be married, and her fiancé was the Kyoto Watch member he had killed.

Earlier in the film, when Kenshin is wounded, he is puzzled by the attack, foreshadowing the personal connection he will later discover.

Tomoe stayed at the inn initially as part of her mission as a Yaminobu spy to get close to Battosai and entrap him. However, as she lived among the revolutionaries and interacted with Kenshin, she began to question her mission and eventually fell in love with him, choosing to abandon her role as a spy.

Her decision to stay foreshadows her eventual betrayal of the Yaminobu and her transformation from spy to ally.

Enishi Yukishiro is Tomoe's younger brother. He is also a spy working for the Yaminobu, the pro-shogunate organization. He comes to Otsu village to remind Tomoe of their mission to trap and kill Battosai. When Tomoe refuses to continue and asks him to return to Edo, Enishi becomes angry, revealing the conflict between family loyalty and his sister’s changing allegiances.

Enishi's arrival marks the turning point that brings the hidden spy plot into the open and sets the tragic finale in motion.

Tomoe's fiancé was a member of the Kyoto Watch, which opposed the Chōshū revolutionaries during the Bakumatsu. He was killed by Kenshin during one of his assassinations as part of the political conflict between the two sides. This tragic history is what initially drove Tomoe to become a spy for the Yaminobu - to seek revenge against Battosai.

The film establishes early on that Tomoe carries a heavy emotional burden, which connects to her initial motive for approaching Kenshin.

The Yaminobu leader Tatsumi used Tomoe as a pawn to lure Kenshin into a trap. Knowing Tomoe had fallen in love with Kenshin and abandoned their mission, Tatsumi arranged for her to meet with him, using her presence to weaken Kenshin emotionally and distract him during the confrontation. This calculated move was intended to make Kenshin vulnerable and easier to kill.

Katsura's earlier warning about Tomoe's influence on Kenshin foreshadows how this emotional connection would be exploited.

Kenshin did not intentionally kill Tomoe. During the fight with Tatsumi, sulfur explosives blinded Kenshin, leaving him unable to see clearly. When Tomoe intervened to restrain Tatsumi, Kenshin was unaware she was directly in front of him and delivered a fatal death blow, killing both Tatsumi and fatally wounding Tomoe in the process. It was a tragic accident born from his impaired senses.

Earlier scenes establish that Kenshin fights based on precise sensing, making his blindness during this critical moment even more devastating.

Before dying, Tomoe used her dagger to complete the cross-shaped scar on Kenshin's cheek that her fiancé had started when he wounded Kenshin earlier. This act symbolized her completing the connection between her past as a vengeful fiancée and her present as someone who loved and forgave Kenshin. She apologized for the pain she caused, representing her final act of love and closure.

The earlier wound from the Kyoto Watch member established the cross-shaped scar motif that Tomoe completes with her dying breath.

Tomoe's diary, which Kenshin finishes reading after her death, documented her journey from a woman seeking revenge for her fiancé's death, to someone who fell in love with the man who killed him, to finally choosing to help preserve Kenshin's life by betraying the Yaminobu. The diary revealed her evolution from avenger to lover to protector, explaining her final act of sacrifice.

The diary provides closure and explains the emotional depth of Tomoe's character arc throughout the film.

I'izuka, the examiner of executions who worked alongside Kenshin, was revealed to be a spy for the Yaminobu. Katsura informed Kenshin after Tomoe's death that I'izuka had been betraying the revolutionary cause. This betrayal explained how the Yaminobu knew so much about Kenshin's movements and how they were able to set traps for him.

The film's early establishment of I'izuka's role makes his later betrayal a significant plot revelation.

After experiencing the tragic death of Tomoe and reading her diary, Kenshin resolved to never kill again once the new era arrived. At the Battle of Toba-Fushimi in 1868, when the Chōshū won and the Meiji era began, Kenshin faced a final challenge from Saito Hajime. Instead of fighting, he chose to lay down his sword and walk away, fulfilling his vow to Tomoe to stop killing and embracing the pacifist path that would define his future as the wanderer known as the Rurouni.

Kenshin's earlier vow to Tomoe about finding a way to stop killing in the new age directly foreshadows this moment of choosing peace over violence.

Tomoe's death was the pivotal moment that transformed Kenshin from the deadly assassin Hitokiri Battosai into the peaceful wanderer Rurouni Kenshin. Her sacrifice, love, and final diary entries convinced him that violence could not bring peace or happiness. He emerged from this tragedy with a permanent cross-shaped scar, a vow to never kill again, and the resolve to protect rather than destroy, beginning his legendary journey as a wanderer in the Meiji era.

The film establishes this as the origin story that connects to the later Rurouni Kenshin series.