The Battle of Adachigahara Plain

First Published: November, 1990 by Fantagraphics Books

• Miyamoto Usagi
• Lord Mifune
• Lord Hikiji
• Toda Buichi

The story begins with Usagi looking over a lifeless plain on an otherwise overcast day. With his fingers, he touches his left eyebrow, and remembers...

The sounds of clopping hooves reign all around. Lord Mifune turns to Usagi and yells, "After them! I want Lord Hikiji's head on a stake!" Usagi replies, "Yes, Lord Mifune!" And just as Mifune boasts of an insured victory with the aid of General Toda, a foot soldier struggles up to him and tells him that Toda has turned traitor and is attacking their own men.

Mifune realizes he is caught in a pincer and bids Usagi to withdraw and regroup. And just as Mifune is ordering his samurai to break through Hikiji's ranks, a barrage of arrows fall from the skies... and Mifune is killed. Usagi witnesses this and dismounts to remove Mifune's head so that it could not be humiliated by being placed on a stake for public viewing by Hikiji.

Usagi is now on the rampage, and cuts through Hikiji's forces like a madman. But they are many, and soon surround him. He decides to escape into the mountains, but can't find a way out of the slaughter. As he slices through the ranks, he hears a voice cry, "Stay back, Lord Hikiji, stay back!" Usagi yells, "HIKIJI?!" and plunges red-eyed (literally) at the Dark Lord, cutting down every soldier in his path, as they scream in terror for reinforcements.

Hikiji is noticable in the background, as his men fall to their deaths before him. And at last, Usagi confronts the mysterious five-fingered Daimyo face-to-face. His first sword-strike is dodged by the Lord, and soon after, two foot soldiers come between them. As Usagi kills them, Hikiji sees the opportunity to attack, and brings his katana down upon the unsuspecting ronin's helmet, slicing through it and cutting Usagi over his left eye. Hikiji then disappears as the injured Usagi continues his onslaught. As blood streams down his face, foot soliders attempt to take Mifune's head from him, but they are unsuccessful. Usagi breaks through the ranks and heads for the mountains...

The memory fades, and the ronin continues along his way.

Last change: 19. May 2003

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Usagi Yojimbo, including all prominent characters featured in the stories and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Stan Sakai and Usagi Studios. Usagi Yojimbo is a registered trademark of Stan Sakai. Names, characters, places, and incidents featured in this publication either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events, institutions, or locales, without satiric content, is coincidental.