Tomoe Yukishiro

Tomoe is quiet, composed, introspective, and unusually difficult for other people to read. Rather than state feelings directly, she records them in a diary, making writing one of the few places where her internal life appears without restraint.

Her apparent emotional coldness is misleading. Tomoe is capable of deep attachment and strong moral judgment but has been raised in a social environment where duty and restraint take precedence over open expression. Her subtle reactions therefore carry more meaning than dramatic declarations.

She also possesses considerable courage. Although she is not a warrior comparable to the swordsmen around her, Tomoe enters dangerous political circumstances knowingly and remains calm in situations that would overwhelm most civilians.

Tomoe has no supernatural abilities and is not trained as a battlefield swordswoman. Her strengths lie in observation, self-control, discretion, and the ability to move through social settings without revealing her intentions.

She carries a small tantō, an appropriate personal weapon for a woman of her class and period. Its significance becomes much greater during the climax of her story than its value as a conventional combat tool.

Tomoe is also skilled in domestic work and possesses enough composure to maintain an outwardly ordinary household during periods of intense political danger.

Tomoe's story belongs to the Bakumatsu portion of Kenshin's past, revealed during the manga's Remembrance material. She comes from a low-ranking samurai household in Edo and has a younger brother, Enishi Yukishiro, for whom she effectively becomes a maternal figure after their mother's death.

Tomoe was engaged to Kiyosato Akira, a shogunate-aligned young man whom Kenshin killed during an assassination in Kyoto. Kiyosato inflicted the first line of Kenshin's cross-shaped scar before dying. Tomoe subsequently enters Kyoto intending to learn enough about Battōsai to help those plotting his death.

Her mission changes as she lives alongside Kenshin in hiding. Tomoe falls in love with him and comes to believe that the assassin she had wanted to punish is himself a deeply wounded young man. She eventually tries to prevent the conspirators from killing him.

During Kenshin's battle with Tatsumi, Tomoe throws herself between the two men in an attempt to protect Kenshin. Kenshin's strike passes through Tatsumi and fatally wounds Tomoe as well. Her tantō cuts the second line across Kenshin's face, completing the cross-shaped scar associated with Battōsai.

Kenshin Himura is the man who killed Tomoe's fiancé and later becomes her husband during their period in hiding. Her original desire for revenge transforms into love, and her death becomes the central source of Kenshin's lifelong guilt.

Enishi Yukishiro is Tomoe's younger brother. Because their mother died soon after his birth, Tomoe becomes a maternal figure to him. Witnessing Tomoe's death causes Enishi's hatred of Kenshin and eventually motivates his Jinchū campaign.

Kiyosato Akira is Tomoe's fiancé. His death at Kenshin's hands gives Tomoe her initial reason to cooperate with the anti-Ishin conspiracy.

Tatsumi leads the group seeking to use Tomoe as part of a plan to discover and exploit Battōsai's weakness.