There are only a handful of men in Japan who would stand a chance of besting Kenshin in single combat. Shishio is one of them. He took over the job of hitokiri after Kenshin "retired," and did a deadly good job of it. But the new government, wishing to spare itself embarrassment, tried to get rid of him by burning him alive, thus leading to the unfortunate dermatological consequences shown here. Now we have an extremely unbalanced hitokiri, bent on seeking revenge by taking over Japan. Unfortunately though, like so many of the other baddies in the show, Shishio has a flaw - he develops a fixation with taking down the fabled Hitokiri Battousai.

Here, he is telling his assembled "Ten Swords" - the Juppongata - that in spite of their individual desires they must come together as a unit to get Battousai. Only then can they move on to take over the country.