General Info

First Issue: Summer Special #1

Comics Which Contain This Story

This story can be found in the following comics:

	Summer Special #1
	USAGI YOJIMBO Book 1

Characters

The following characters are mentioned in the story:

• Ame Tomoe
• Lord Hikiji
• Miyamoto Usagi
• Neko Ninja
• Lord Noriyuki
• okii

Story Synopsis

Usagi walks on a street when he is almost overrun by a horse whose rider is pulled along with his hand trapped in the reigns.

A quick cut and the man is free but when Usagi comes closer, he finds that the man is dying -- not from being pulled along with the horse but from Ninja arrows. With his last breath, the samurai tells Usagi that he is Nekohana, a retainer of Lord Nerai who was counselor to Lord Hikiji and that Lord Nerai was involved in the assassination attempt of the young Geishu lord.

To prove his words, he gives Usagi a document which Nerai has written before he commited seppuku as requested by Lord Hikiji because the attempt failed. Then, he dies and before Usagi can even take a look at the document, ninja appear and surround him. They introduce themselves as Neko Ninja and demand that he turns the document over to them. Usagi declines their request because his honor demands that he carries out the last request of the dead samurai.

The ninja then try to kill him to get their hands on the document but Usagi turns out to be hard to kill. Despite being wounded several times, Usagi can hold them back but he is trapped against a tree when the ninja call for their archers to take him down.

Fortunately, Tomoe Ame is nearby and can kill the archers. After killing the last ninja, Usagi sags to the ground from exhaustion and shows Tomoe the document. She is very surprised and decides to pass it on to her Lord immediately so he can present it to the Shogun so the ambitions of Lord Hikiji will be quelled once and for all.

Arriving at Edo, they are granted an audience at the palace but the Shogun has no time for them. In his stead, Lord Okii Ashiyubi, the most trusted adviser of the Shogun, receives them and declines Lord Noriyuki's request to see the Shogun personally with some force. He accepts the document, reads it and asks Lord Noriyuki to keep quiet about it until the Shogunate has acted.

Satisfied with that, Lord Noriyuki and his entourage leave. They look at the sky when it starts to rain but they fail to see Lord Okii who watches them leave.

But Lord Okii is soon interrupted by Lord Hebi and he doesn't seem to be too happy about this. Things take an unexpected turn when Okii passes the document on to Hebi and accepts a forged document in return which he will present to the Shogun instead of the original. Hebi asks him to tell the Shogun that the Geishu lord had been tricked and had not known that the document was a forgery.

They assume that the Shogun will charge Okii to make discreet investigations who will of course soon be quietly dropped. Lord Hebi can only thank Okii for his loyalty to Lord Hikiji.

Unknowing of these events, Usagi and Tomoe Ame enjoy their victory and share a short time of happiness.