Here is another fic by Conspirator. She is one of my favorite authors for this fandom and I have a few I’m going to rec this month. 

In Descent Into Madness, Conspirator creates a compelling transformation of the young, idealistic Himura Kenshin straight off his shishou’s mountain into the jaded, cold-blooded Hitokiri Battousai we see at the end of the OVA. Her style of writing in this fic, grips you from the very first pages and even if you know the tragic ending, you find yourself unable to put down until the very last swordfight. You feel everything Kenshin does from his joy in actually making friends his own age to the devastating heartache at the end of the story. There are humorous moments as well as he interacts with a wonderful cast of original characters. The descriptive way she writes fight scenes makes your mind’s eye see every leap and swordstroke. Overall, if there is only one fic you ever read about Kenshin’s early days, this should be it.

Iizuka felt Kenshin's eyes scrutinizing him and found it somewhat disconcerting, so he decided to make more conversation. "Yeah, you know, we tried before just to pick out some of our top swordsmen to be our hitokiri, but it never did work out…."

 "Hitokiri?" Kenshin said before he could stop himself.

 "Yeah, hitokiri—you know, your new job. Anyway, they were just clumsy and tended to talk too much—it didn't work out, so they've got a lot pinned on you and your skills."

Hitokiri. What the men at breakfast had been talking about. 'It's me,' Kenshin realized. 'I'm the hitokiri being billeted here permanently. But I'm no cold-blooded killer….,' and he hoped his new friends would realize this, too.