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Rurouni Kenshin : The Wandering Samurai

Soujiro Seta

Soujiro is the son of a rice distributer with another woman. The rice distributer, who already had a family, took Soujiro in to avoid any public humiliation. The family more or less made Soujiro their slave and would verbally abuse him and beat him senseless as often as they could. Soujiro, after many beatings, finally figured out that if he didn't cry out and instead smiled when he wanted to scream out in pain they would become disinterested and stop beating him. This is the beginning of how Soujiro became the most incredible warrior in the Juppon Gatana.

While Shishio was on the run from the government he hid in Soujiro's family's rice storage building. He saw a strange potential in him and decided to stick around for a while, which eventually led to Soujiro killing everyone in his abusive family in defense of his own life. From that day on he became Shishio's prize student.

The fact that Soujiro is able to suppress his emotions makes him a seemingly impossible enemy to defeat. Kenshin, like many other warriors, fights an enemy by predicting his movements and countering them. Soujiro, unlike other warriors, suppresses all emotions except for happiness and serenity, making his fighting aura (Ken-ki) almost nonexistant. Without a Ken-ki not only is he impossible to predict, but it is also impossible to gauge his true skill.

His lack of Ken-ki isn't the only thing that makes Soujiro the strongest of the Jupon Gatana. Having been trained personally by Shishio from a very young age he has developed a very well disciplined god-like speed. He is so fast that if he uses the full potential of his "Shuku-Chi," he is unable to be seen by the human eye, making him faster than Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu (Kenshin's Style) or any other fighting style.

All of this coupled with his "The strong survive and the weak must die" belief makes him a fearsome foe. Imagine fighting someone who you couldn't predict, who was faster than the human eye, and to who if you showed weakness would not hesitate to kill you (all the while smiling at you without a hint of weakness). Soujiro truly deserves the title "Tenken," god-with a sword.