When Ryoma was 27 years old, he joined a social group called, Tosa-kinnou-tou, which admired the emperor and believed that they could drive foreign ships away with military forces. The leader of this group was Ryoma’s childhood friend, Takechi. Ryoma and people from Tosa-kinnou-tou worked hard and killed anyone who had disagreed with them, and gained power and recognition. One day, Ryoma was heading to Edo to kill Katsu Kaishu, for Kaishu was encouraging Japan to open the country. This was the perfect day for Ryoma to use his gifted skill of swordplay. However, Kaishu told Ryoma, “Let’s talk about it before you just kill me,” and continued to explain to Ryoma what his plan was for Japan’s future. Kaishu was able to convince Ryoma that since Japan was not strong enough to fight back against other countries, it was a smart idea to open the country up for new inspirations regarding technology and knowledge from foreign countries, which made Ryoma change his mind on him and ended up becoming Kaishu’s apprentice.
As time passed, Ryoma realized the gap between the leader of Tosa-kinnou-tou, Takechi, and himself. While Takechi was getting too aggressive to behave radically, Ryoma started to feel that staying with him may be a waste of time as they would spend most of their time fighting each other rather than uniting. Ryoma did not think that the violent way the Tosa-kinnou-tou act would change Japan. At this time, Ryoma had left not only the Tosa-kinnou-tou but his hometown to work with Kaishu. Ryoma leaving his hometown was a serious crime, with many risks of being killed, as people considered people leaving a betrayal towards their hometown and people back then. Ryoma was serious to work with Kaishu to end Edo Shogunate and open the country that he risked his own life.