"There were people who loathed one other." "Their corpses withered in the fields, their souls soaked in blood..." "And their bonds were broken by blades..." "Collapsed in the darkness, their sincerity walls..." ""My beloved, please die... "" ""My beloved, please die..."" "Clouds shroud a night with a waning moon quivering in the haze" "A cruel trap involving a pair of crucified fledglings" "Oh, since smoldering feelings lie firmly in their hearts destruction!" "Gently as the water, severely as a flower pierce with a trembling blade" "Even when I shut the fated tears deep within my eyes my eyelids still remember you" ""Entrancing Murder, Heat Shimmer"" ""Imure Bridge"" "I'm told you are an immortal shinobi who cannot die, no matter what injuries you incur..." "What?" "!" "Immortal?" "!" "Supposedly, burning you in bright red flames or removing your head are the only ways of possibly killing you..." "Tenzen... can't die?" "!" "Don't tell me you've been killed?" "!" "Tenzen-sama?" "Absurd." "That is all but impossible." "And it was Akeginu who said this?" "It was." "One of the Iga Ten, revealing a shinobi technique to an outsider..." "He wasn't dead then?" "!" "A special skill that closes any wound whatsoever and allows one to simply "wake up" alive again..." "How I'd love to see such a thing myself!" "Then let us give it a try." "Y" " Yakushiji..." "Tenzen!" "I thought that was your name?" "How?" "You were most definitely" "Such injuries are like mere flea bites to an immortal body!" "There was once an Iga who wielded a technique like yours." "During the Tenshou battle, he completely deceived the Kouga by transforming into the retired leader of Manjidani..." "T-the Tenshou" "D-damn you" "Kisaragi Saemon..." "You did well, until you transformed into me..." "Is that you, Kagero?" "Yes." ""Akeginu"" "I've slain Iga-no-Oboro..." "I see." "Well done." "Are you all right?" "Yes..." "Saemon-dono has also successfully infiltrated Ofuku's party." "Gennosuke-sama..." "Once this war is over I would like to be by your side..." "It doesn't matter that we can never touch each other." "Just please let me take care of you..." "Is this a wish that can never be granted?" "Are you certain that is what you want?" "Yes." "If the Iga's ruin will bring even further solidity to the Tokugawa, there will be no need for shinobi in a truly peaceful world." "There will be no need to pass on this blood." "Devoting myself entirely to you is my life's one true desire!" "Only one remains of the Iga Ten." "Oboro..." "I will slay you, by my own hand!" "So you've already heard?" "Shinobi are said never to reveal their techniques to outsiders, but..." "Oh, how careless of me." "I have not been an Iga shinobi for very long at all." "It was a mere 180 years ago that I found myself in Iga Tsubagakure." "I am still but a hatchling." "I see!" "I suppose that isn't very long for an immortal at all!" "I'm certain it served as a good memory for the slaughtered Kouga..." "Still, some claim to have seen the cut on your cheek close right up." "It seems many of your retainers have never killed a person before." "I can only assume they imagined things amidst their bewilderment." "Ofuku-dono." "At Maisaka, or perhaps Hamamatsu, a Kouga woman will call on me." "Please have your retainers nonchalantly grant her entrance." "Understood." "What an eerie man..." "Akeginu..." "Please come back, Akeginu..." "Saemon-dono..." "It looks like you've done well..." "Violating her made her switch sides, huh..." ""Hamamatsu Inns"" "Saemon-dono..." "What happened with Oboro?" "Come near, Kagero." "We are being watched." "Watched?" "I thought they were just lechers." "Do they suspect you?" "!" "Not me." "It is you she does not trust." "You mean Oboro?" "!" "Oboro does not know how to suspect people." "Then who?" "!" "Ofuku." "She says a Kouga would never switch sides to the Iga so easily." "If I say I won you over by taking your chastity, she will claim that I have actually fallen into your trap." "She is a most disbelieving woman." "T-then... why was I allowed to come here?" "They are uncertain." "Kagero." "S- Saemon-dono?" "We must first make them trust you." "Saemon-dono!" "What are you" "I pretended that I made you my woman at Komabano." "But to truly earn the trust of Ofuku's party, we must show it was no lie!" "Saemon-dono!" "Kagero!" "S" " Saemon-dono!" "My... breath..." "Oh, out of breath?" "Give them an earful of your flowery sweet sighs!" "Crying out will do just fine, too..." "No..." "This isn't Saemon-dono!" "This man is Yakushiji Tenzen!" "How can he be alive?" "!" "Saemon-dono..." "So you've been slain, Saemon-dono?" "!" "Damn you..." "Damn you, Tenzen!" "Kagero..." "Gennosuke-sama..." "Gennosuke-sama..." "Kagero..." "Gennosuke-sama?" "!" "Is Tenzen-dono" "What has happened?" "!" "Ofuku-sama!" "Terrible news!" "T-the Kouga girl has killed Yakushiji Tenzen-dono!" "What?" "!" "Does she carry the roster?" "!" "No!" "Oboro!" "Take this wench's life!" "Oboro?" "Oboro!" "Enlisting the help of outsiders for the Iga-Kouga war..." "Have you no shame as a shinobi?" "!" "So you sealed your own eyes..." "And you call yourself the leader of Tsubagakure?" "Hilarious!" "Listen closely." "I lied to Gennosuke-sama and said that I killed you." "Do you have any idea what his reply was, Oboro?" ""Well done," I assume?" "Oboro!" "Even if you're protected by iron walls, I won't rest" "I won't rest until I've taken your life!" "Oboro!" "Silence her at once!" "I order you to kill her this instant!" "I will not." "Not killing her may be for the best..." "Why is that?" "!" "Because if we use this Kagero as bait, Kouga Gennosuke will appear." "If we do not slay him and retrieve the roster before we arrive at Sunpu, we cannot declare that the Iga have won this ninpou war." "Gennosuke-sama..." "No thanks." "You have real talent." "Mister..." "Can you play good?" "What is your name, little boy?" "Shinnosuke." "Ah." "Mine is Gennosuke." "We're almost the same." "Y-yeah..." "May I play?" "If you can play it like my dad did..." "A memento of your father, huh?" "Gennosuke-sama..." ""Tokaido Road" " West of Fukuroi"" "I don't care if you hate me..." "I just want to see you..." "one more time..." "And then you can take my" "You can take my" "The mist of sorrow softly touches these lips blotted with red droplets" "The mirror in the sky beautifully illuminates the distance in the night" "Giving more than a passing thought to the myriad of showering stars gently, the cords of a deep bond firmly, firmly bind them" "Those beautiful eyes that sparkle with a lazuline hue..." "Even if they wind up closed by a harbinger from the darkness, since no one can steal the bridge of connected dreams they still reflect the limitless tomorrow" ""Next Episode"" "A Fujieda lodge and an uninhabited old temple." "A dying white snake writhes under torture." "Silver threads pierce darkness and carve shadow into snow-white skin." "A sword is tragically drawn." "A blade of destruction strikes." "The living dead beguilingly bares his fangs of old." "On the next Basilisk ~ Kouga Ninpouchou" ""Wails of Restless Ghosts""