Everyone's grief-stricken, and Kenshin is absolutely devastated, barely even aware of his surroundings. If he were less depressed, he'd probably commit suicide, but that would be more effort than he can muster. Sano insists on vengeance and only becomes more furious at Kenshin's inactivity, eventually just walking out, while Yahiko runs into Aoshi and Misao. They were bringing Tomoe's diary from Kyoto, hoping to stop Enishi, but they've arrived too late. Misao motivates everyone; they're to go find Enishi, make him read the diary and realize what he's done, since to behead him as she really WANTS to do would violate both Kaoru's and Kenshin's principles. That night, when she lets herself cry, Aoshi seems to have a reaction of sorts. He begins investigating the circumstances around the death, pissing Megumi off severely -- if she says someone's dead then they're dead, dangit! His contention is that, if Enishi's cruel enough to do this, why wouldn't he twist the knife a bit further by killing Kaoru in front of Kenshin? And besides, he's heard of a technique wherein a dummy can be made to duplicate a human body exactly... but only on the exterior. The odds are low, but shouldn't they check? Everyone else is horrified, but they go along, dig up the grave and even allow Aoshi to perform his crude autopsy, revealing... wires. So she's still alive! Meanwhile, we see her wake up. Everyone is appropriately overjoyed, Misao takes down the shrine to the dead with her "Weird Bird Kick of Joy," and just as they're about to go tell Kenshin, Aoshi stops them; he needs to deal with his guilt himself before they let him know about this. Otherwise, he would most likely rescue Kaoru, fighting to the death if necessary, and then move on, still the Rurouni, never again allowing himself to become close to anyone.

I'm not sure I quite follow the reasoning here, or perhaps I simply don't like it... Aoshi believes that Kenshin needs to work out for himself how to atone for his crimes as Hitokiri, come to terms with that, and then they can tell him that Kaoru's alive. I want Kaoru's "death" to be more important to him than all his issues over having killed people (eesh, like no one else did? Kenshin's cute but he's dumb.) I also want her to be more important to him than Tomoe (who, admittedly, is reasonably cool, but she's NOT Kaoru.) And I don't like the notion that he just needs to recover, get over his grief... um, if the woman you love dies, are you supposed to just cheer up and go on fighting? I don't want him to get through his grief with any ease whatsoever. I suppose Aoshi's at least mostly right, though, since he's currently the closest thing we've got to a hero until Kenshin perks up.

At any rate, the Yahiko-gumi head to the police station, acquire some information from Saitou about where Enishi's base MIGHT be, and then the kids go zooming off to check out the area directly. Aoshi, meanwhile, is keeping watch at the graveyard, working on the assumption that the maker of the fake corpse (Gein) would want to retrieve it. He's right, because he's Aoshi, and the two fight. Because Aoshi is also noticeably more attractive than Gein, he wins. Meanwhile, Kujiranami (the giant, Apocalypse-looking guy I mentioned earlier) has gone berserk, broken out of his cell, and started rampaging. Yahiko eventually fights him pretty much to a standstill. Of COURSE... I mean, let's not forget that his fighting skill is more important than Kaoru's. Bleh. And when that spiky-headed kid gets himself in trouble, that's the thing that rouses Kenshin out of his stupor. Oibore says it best, though (credit goes to the RK archive's manga translations) -- Revenge is not Kenshin's truth, but protection is.

Kujiranami's defeated, Kenshin and Yahiko's injuries are treated, there's apparently a sidestory involving Sano and his family -- yes! He has one! I thought they were dead, but they're not. Sano returns to Tokyo, and Kenshin, who's either sleeping or in a coma, has a dream in which he and Tomoe talk and smile and she reveals to him that Kaoru's still alive and waiting to see him. Well, good for her. I guess I can forgive her for causing all this trouble. Thanks to the dream, he's up and moving. The group heads for Enishi's island, Enishi gives Kaoru her clothes (so she doesn't have to wear that silly-looking bathrobe which used to be shown in a picture I removed... why DID he have her in that? Weird fetishes?) and she heads out through the forest to try to escape beforehand. Probably in hopes of stopping Kenshin from fighting. While she's in transit, fighting ensues, between four of the guys (Saitou, Sano, Aoshi, and Spikyboy) and... the four gods. Suzaku, Seiryuu, Byakko and Genbu. The guys defeat them, of course (and to think those poor mikos went to all that trouble just to summon them...) and then it's time for Kenshin to fight Enishi. Kaoru finally makes her way out of the forest, and Kenshin, smiling softly, asks her just to wait a little while. The fight then ensues, lasting for weeks... at the end, Enishi realizes his sister's still not smiling, loses his focus, and is defeated. Wu Hei Shin, one of Enishi's henchmen, shoots Kenshin in the shoulder, but before he can shoot again Kaoru throws herself in front of him. Enishi stops him and is ready to kill him before he's stopped by Kenshin. And at the end of the chapter, Kenshin falls, literally, into Kaoru's arms.