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(SPOILER WARNING)
Enishi is the second child and the only son of a Tokyo (Edo) samurai. The Yukishiro family were middle class. There was enough to go by, but not enough for extravagant living. This is partly because the father was more of a scholar than a swordsman. His mother died shortly after giving birth to him. Therefore the only mother he knew was his sister, Tomoe. According to his sister, Enishi was not an easy boy to handle, and was rather a spoiled little boy. But those he loved, he loved fervently.
Over the course of time, Tomoe grew up and had a suitor. Enishi did not like him very much, as he took his sister away from him. But as history would have it, he left Tomoe and joined the Shinsengumi, to prove his worth as her fiancée. He did not return. This made Tomoe go to Kyoto and find out what happened to him. When over time she did not return either, Enishi followed after her somehow. To Kyoto, alone, as a boy of roughly 11 years old.
In Kyoto, Enishi is recruited as a spy of sorts, by an organization who also recruited his sister. He is told that Tomoe is working undercover, trying to bring down the Hitokiri Battousai, the man who killed her fiancée. When finally Tomoe lives with Battousai presumably as a couple, Enishi is sent to remind her of her mission. He is sent to inform her that preparations are complete to kill Battousai.
Unfortunately, upon meeting his sister again, Tomoe refuses to finish the mission, and tells Enishi to go home. Tomoe has grown to love Kenshin. A rocky meeting between Kenshin and Enishi (the little boy bit the older one on the hand!) was only made worse.
Enishi’s final mission would be to bait Battousai into coming to them by delivering a letter. The letter contains details about where Tomoe could be found. Once Battousai comes to them, Tomoe and Enishi would be free to return home.
But several things are not told to both Yukishiro siblings. In looking for a weakness, Tomoe was orchestrated to BE Battousai’s weakness. To keep her in line, to remind her of her real purpose, Enishi was sent. To ensure Enishi’s loyalty, he was always reminded of Tomoe.They are only pawns in a larger plan.
Things did not go according to plan. Battousai proved to be stronger than expected, and he managed to reach the boss of the operation. Enishi arrived at the scene shortly after, and saw the end of the fight between Battousai and the boss.
He saw Battousai thrust a sword, through his sister.
Most of us know how this accident really goes. Kenshin, weakened by the obstacles he had to pass through to get to Tomoe, had lost proper use of most of his senses. In an act of desperation, he charged blindly and thrust at the boss. Unfortunately, he was too late to notice that Tomoe had tried to intervene by placing herself between them. Before he realized what he had done, he had thrust a sword through his wife.
Try as anyone might, however, no one will be able to convince Enishi that Tomoe’s death was an accident. To him, she was killed in cold blood by the Hitokiri Battousai. His trauma made his black hair turn completely white.
He eventually made his way into Shanghai, convinced that he would not stay in the same country with the man who killed his sister. A solitary child coming from a nation at war, coming to a city of destitution. In order just to survive, he ate rotten flesh and drank from mud puddles. According to him, he was just always at the brink of death.
A rich Japanese family in Shanghai took pity on him as a Japanese boy and took him in. They nursed him back to health and treated him quite as their own. In gratitude………Enishi killed them. Why? According to him, he did not want to see such a happy family. Because Battousai took his happy family from him.
Enishi then lived off the family’s riches. Also in the house, he found a book of Chinese sword techniques. These techniques he practiced by himself from off the book, and made use of them.
As he grew up, he made his way into the Shanghai criminal organizations, rose in the ranks, and made a name for himself. Along the way, he also acquired the “business” of making specialized weapons. By the time he is introduced in the manga, he claims to control the illegal weapons trade for the whole of China. He was powerful enough to be able to manufacture the Rengoku, Shishio’s battleship for an attempted attack on Kyoto. He had also supplied weapons to other resistance movements in Japan, helping in his way to eliminate the government that killed his sister, and the man who personally killed her.
At 24, he was ready to create hell on earth for the former Hitokiri Battousai.