Kaoru develops strong romantic feelings for Kenshin, who is constantly haunted by his past deeds and believes he does not deserve happiness. Myōjin Yahiko is an orphan from a samurai family who was forced to work as a pickpocket to repay the debt he had presumably owed, as his parents died before they could repay it. When Himura Kenshin rescues him, he decides to grow up to be just like Kenshin. But because of his strong beliefs, Kenshin will not teach the sword style he had learned. Therefore, Kenshin arranges for Yahiko to be trained in Kamiya Kasshin-ryū by Kamiya Kaoru. As the series progresses, Yahiko becomes skilled at swordsmanship and faces many opponents. Sagara Sanosuke is a former member of the Sekihō Army. When the group was destroyed by the Meiji government, he became a fighter-for-hire to calm his anger by fighting. During his introduction in the series, he encounters the wanderer Himura Kenshin, who easily defeats him and can convince him to stop his mercenary work and instead start protecting people. Sanosuke becomes Kenshin's best friend and his partner in most of their fights. Takani Megumi comes from a famous family of physicians from the Aizu region. She became the assistant to a Tokyo physician who had created a deadly new form of opium. When the doctor was killed, she was forced to make the new opium for corrupt industrialist Takeda Kanryū for the past three years. After being freed and stopped from committing suicide by Kenshin and Sanosuke, she becomes a doctor to atone for her past misdeeds. She has a wicked sense of humor and enjoys flirting with Kenshin to make Kaoru jealous (both Kaoru and Sanosuke refer to her as a "vixen" and in the manga vixen ears appear whenever she indulges in her sense of humor), but helps Kaoru come to terms with her feelings towards Kenshin. She is loyal to her friends and is always there to heal their wounds, especially Sanosuke, whom she often cautions about fighting. At the end of the series, she leaves Tokyo to open a clinic in Aizu. Nobuhiro Watsuki created Megumi as a "mature woman" but had no specific model in mind. In the first Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story one-shot, Megumi, Kaoru, and Yahiko were siblings. Despite this version and her final version in the main series being so different, Watsuki said they have the same