Aoshi Shinomori

Shinomori Aoshi was raised a ninja of the Oniwabansh who worked for the Shogunate government during the Edo period. He helped to raise Makimachi Misao from childhood as a member of the Oniwabansh. After the revolution since a few members of the Oniwabansh were unable to adapt to life in the Meiji era Aoshi and these members worked for the corrupt powerhungry business man Takeda Kanry instead. Aoshi039s subordinates included Beshimi who specialised in darts and poison Hyotoko whose name literally means quotFire Manquot and uses flintandsteel teeth to breathe fire Han039nya a skilled martial artist deft ninjutsu practitioner and Aoshi039s student and Shikijou a quotmuscle manquot. Aoshi himself remains an enigma. He rarely if ever shows emotions in or out of a battle. His weapon in the beginning of the series involved only one kodachi in combination with martial arts. However after his defeat at Himura Kenshin039s hands at Kanryu039s mansion he dedicated himself fully to revenge for the sake of his fallen comrades. When Aoshi next appears he uses doublekodachi and seems to have fully disregarded his emotions in order to kill Himura. They fight at Shishio Makoto039s mansion in order to settle the score and upon the battle039s break Aoshi realizes where he went wrong and becomes somewhat of an ally.