Partly, yes. But there are wounds far deeper than any physical scars can show. The common people suffered during the war; they couldn't have cared less if the Shishi completed the revolution or if the Bakufu remained in place.

We inflicted all of that pain and fear on them in the name of restoring the emperor and creating a new Japan, but once the revolution had been achieved, once we had our new Japan, very little changed. In our Meiji era, people still need protection--they still suffer.

So yes, Okita-dono, that is why this one left the Ishin Shishi. This one could do far better as a rurouni, wandering through Japan with a reversed-edge sword so that even those within his sight could be protected.

It is in this way that this one atones for the crimes committed by the Hitokiri Battousai.