Kenshin, Kaoru, and Yahiko visit Akabeko, a beef hot-pot restaurant, where a group of democratic rights activists gets into a heated argument. One of them throws a bottle of sake, and it hits Kenshin, causing a commotion. Sanosuke Sagara, who happened to be in the store during the quarrel, stood up and blew away the activists with a single flick to the forehead. Seeing Kenshin's strength, Sanosuke's curiosity is roused and he asks, "You wanna buy a fight from me?"

Kenshin confronts Sanosuke, who wields the giant Zanbato with ease. However, Sanosuke shows his incredible durability after withstanding a strike from Kenshin with ease. This leads Kenshin to instead launch a barrage of blows at him, and Sanosuke falls to the ground. For a moment it looked as if victory has been decided. However, while Sanosuke is in a daze, he recalls the reason for his obsession with victory, his past from ten years ago when he was in the Sekiho Army...

Yahiko, the sole student of the Kamiya Dojo, has started to step away from his training from time to time. He says he's merely going on a walk, but it is clear that he takes his swordsmanship training very seriously, and it doesn’t look like he's ditching to slack off. Curious about what he's doing, Kenshin, Kaoru, and Sanosuke decide to follow him. What exactly is Yahiko's reason for ditching?

Sanosuke is visiting the sukiyaki restaurant Akabeko, where he always leaves his bill on a tab. One of Akabeko's workers, Tae, asks him to go buy a Nishiki painting from the painting shop on her behalf. Though Sanosuke had no interest in paintings, he finds one at the store that catches his eye. It was a painting of the man he looked up to as his master back when he was a member of the Sekiho Army, Captain Sagara. With a gleam in his eyes, Sanosuke makes his way to meet with the artist of the painting.