The Tangled Skein

First Published: July 1989 by Fantagraphics Books

• Miyamoto Usagi
• Lord Mifune
• Lord Noriyuki
• Lord Hikiji

The story starts with Usagi retelling how he hid in the forest called "The Tangled Skein" after the Battle of Adachigahara Plain to avoid being caught by the forces of Lord Hikiji who were looking for stragglers like himself. This place is a dark and thick forest and there are many rumors about obakemono haunting it.

Trying to hide deeper in the woods, he is able to avoid some patrols but he also has to kill some pursuers. At the end of his strength, he stumbles over hut. After reassuring himself that he is welcome (hiding an enemy samurai is a crime that will be punished with death, after all), he puts himself to sleep.

He dreams of a certain situation where Lord Mifune asked him if there was something that was stronger than the loyalty of a retainer to his lord. Usagi replied no to that. Mifune laughed and told him that the loyalty of a lord to his vassals is much stronger because it is his duty to ensure the wellfare or each of his people.

With that, Usagi is disturbed by the owner of the hut, an old woman, who offers him something to eat. Grateful, Usagi accepts and is about to start to devour his meal when he find a finger in the soup.

He realizes that he is facing a obakemono and not an old woman and that her plans for him are to add him to her stew! He tries to kill her but he is still exhausted from the earlier events and the demon is able to catch him in sticky webs who entangle him the more he tries to get free.

When the demon is already lying her hands on Usagi, teasing him, a voice commands her to stop. She turns and to Usagis surprise, the dead Lord Mifune stands in the room, still with the arrows that killed him protruding from the body.

The obakemono lets go of Usagi and lunges after the lord who kills it with his sword, cutting even through the furniture of the house. Usagi, not knowing what to make of what he just saw.

And Lord Mifune tells him once again that he found Usagi always a loyal retainer but a lord's loyalty to his vassal is still greater.

When Usagi regains his consciousness, he lies on the floor of the forest. The hut, the demon and Lord Mifune are all gone and he wonders if he just dreamed it or if the hut vanished with the demon.

And Lord Noriyuki, who had listened to the tale, promises to take the lesson it tells to his heart.

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.