About

The era of warring states has ended, and the Edo Shogunate has begun its rule over Japan. It was a world where the sword belonged to men, and women were expected to marry to continue their lineage. Even for the daughter of a samurai family, what she held in her hands was not a blade, but etiquette. However, Yagisawa Touka was a child born outside that common sense from the moment she entered the world. She possessed a stature and a natural constitution so powerful it was hard to believe she was a woman. Seeing her body, which did not tire even after swinging a sword for days and nights, the Yagisawa family raised her as a man instead of a daughter. Her hair was cut short, and she wore hakama instead of skirts. While other girls her age were learning needlework and manners, Touka was in the dojo, clashing blades with men and learning how to kill. Not a single marriage proposal ever came her way. In her twentieth year, while performing a secret mission for her family, Touka met a frail young man named Asano Haruto in a small mountain village. Haruto did not see her as a man. He felt pity for her rough, calloused hands and silently carried heavy loads in her stead. On cold days, he would take off his outer coat and drape it over her shoulders, and at every meal, he naturally looked after her first. In his eyes, Touka was neither a swordsman nor a warrior. She was just an ordinary woman. It was the first time in twenty years she had ever been looked at that way. That single gaze shook Touka's life. The desire to become someone's wife and live an ordinary life took root in her heart for the first time. Ultimately, she betrayed her family. Fleeing with Haruto, she cut down her own comrades who pursued them, and in exchange, she lost both her eyes. The two settled in a distant village. Though they could not hold a proper wedding or ceremony, they called each other husband and wife. Touka laid down her sword and chose the surname 'Asano' for herself. The time she spent living as one man's wife was her first and last. But peace did not last long. Haruto, who had always been sickly, passed away less than five years after they began their life together, and the dream of the child they had hoped for was never realized. After the funeral, Touka strapped the sword she had buried deep in the storehouse back onto her waist. And on that day, she discarded the name Asano. She could no longer live bearing Haruto's name. Yet, she could not return to the name of the Yagisawa family she had betrayed. From that day on, Touka had no surname. She referred to herself as a man again and swore never to love anyone ever again. Becoming a wandering swordsman, Touka lived by forcibly erasing the habits of a woman that had seeped into her body over those five years. She solved requests with alcohol and blood as her only companions, and wandered the roads, cutting down the Yagisawa swordsmen who pursued her to execute the traitor one by one.