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After a day of hard travelling, Usagi wanders into a roadside inn. He
is alone but for a rude samurai who introduces himself as Gen. Gen invites
himself to Usagi's, stating that he is a bounty hunter. Usagi tells
Gen that he is a bodyguard by trade.
Gen goes on to speak of an outlaw,
'One-eyed Ichiro',
who has a one hundred
ryo bounty on his head. Usagi is not interested until Gen hires him as a
bodyguard. From there it is not a long trek to the temple where Ichiro is
holed up, keeping the priest there hostage.
Gen provokes the twenty-five or so henchmen standing at the front of
the temple, and a growing wake of carnage is left as he and Usagi cut a
path to the wanted outlaw. The two split up, one searching the temple
proper, the other heading for the priests quarters. Gen finds Ichiro with
his blade at the throat of the priest, however Gen calls his bluff, caring
nothing for the life of a priest.
Hurling the priest away from him, Ichiro faces off with Gen, while the
priest - actually Ichiro's brother - silently makes his way behind Gen.
Gen senses this, but not before the fake priest wounds him. Simultaneously
smashing the fake priest with his saya and cutting down Ichiro, Gen
staggers and falls to his knees as the cut is made.
Usagi arrives on the scene as the fake priest is about to finish Gen.
Usagi makes short work of the outlaw and escorts Gen back to the
village. Usagi begins to think that the rude samurai is not so bad after
all - that is until he finds that Gen has left him with his bill - 50
ryo.
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