Kenshin and his son Kenji from the Manga version of the story.

If you have seen the anime but never read the manga...do yourself a huge favor and read the manga! Skip to chapter 149 if you have to, that is when things get very different from the anime.
Read the full manga here [link]
Read the bonus chapters here [link]

After the Kyoto story arc with Shishio the manga was not done, the anime directors did their own thing for season 3...
It pains me to know the second half of the manga will never be animated!
I never liked season 3 of the anime all that much (the feng shui magic stuff frankly had me facepalming) But after reading the manga, now I see it as almost a crime that the last part of the anime did not reflect the epic story that Nobuhiro Watsuki created T^T

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At the end of the Manga/what we see here: Kenshin is no longer able to use the Hiten Mitsurugi sword style because years of its use damaged his body. He is finally living a peaceful life with his family...and the story remarks that his scar has faded by this point too ( in the manga they explain there is a superstition that "scars left from a sword with strong emotions" will never disappear if those emotions are unresolved.)

Oh and Kenshin's hair is short at the end of the manga D: my inner fangirl was cringing at the loss of is ponytail XD lol
... I chose an angle where you cannot see if he has a ponytail or not for it would pain me too much to not draw it (I like long hair! Duo Maxwell is my other long-haired-anime-love)

Now...My only issue with the manga is I wanted to see more of Kenji, I felt kinda unsatisfied, all we got of father and son interacting was Kenji pulling Kenshin's hair while looking grumpy...and so I drew this ^___^

As this picture progressed I needed Kenshin to be holding something that Kenji would be excited about, I chose a toy top like Kenshin had in the OVA Trust and Betrayal (I could imagine him thinking something like "may this carry happier memories for you than it did for me") even though the top is not part of the manga (that OVA follows the "remembrance" story arc of the manga btw)
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PS
I...Need.....more....Rurouni....Kenshin.....dying of whithdrawl over here

X_X

I watched all 95 episodes
all the OVAs
the movie
read all 255 chapters of the Manga plus the bonus manga with 15 year old Yahiko and the family picnic

MORE I NEED MOAR!

Why... WHY could I not be into this 10ish years ago when this was popular!!! WHY did it have to come on during my high school to college transition where life sucked too much to keep up with anime T_T
Now I will be lucky to find anything Kenshin related at a con, from merchandise to cosplayers I will be lucky to have any of my fan cravings satisfied for I came into this obsession so late in the game ;__;

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PSS Yahiko was so cool. I was so shocked to find myself liking Yahiko so much by the end of the manga, the anime really really sucked in that respect.
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Line art with pencil and paper
Manga used for reference but does not copy any image from it
colored in Corel Painter X