The Phoenix
The vast universe contains many different dimensions.
Unfortunately, we humans only experience the one in which we live.
However, once in a very great while...
...an encounter with another dimension can occur.
The Transformation
M-Master Sakon-no-suke...
Yao Bikuni...
I have come to kill you.
Yes, I know.
What?
In fact, I have been waiting for you.
I cannot let you live.
I understand. I have prepared for this.
M-M-Master Sakon-no-suke...
Why are you hesitating?
No need to be worried.
The first blow from your sword will kill me.
That say that you've lived for eight hundred years...
Even if this body dies, my spirit will live in someone else...
...it will go on forever.
What kind of nonsense are you speaking?
My Lord, Yao Bikuni is here.
Oh, Yao Bikuni, I've been waiting for you.
Come closer.
Don't hesitate, come closer.
No need to be so formal, raise your head.
Let me just...
So, Bikuni, I hear you are eight hundred years old.
It is just a rumor, sir.
I see. Well anyway...
Is it true that your healing powers can cure any illness?
It is true, my lord.
Come closer.
Take a look at my nose and tell me what you see.
What do you think?
They are infected boils.
If left untreated, it will put your life at risk.
So, can you cure it?
Yes, given enough time, I guarantee it.
Excellent!
I respect your confidence, Bikuni.
Once you cure me, I shall grant you whatever you may desire.
I cannot afford to die before I conquer the world.
I am counting on you, Bikuni!
Bikuni... I must eliminate her...
M-Master Sakon-no-suke!
Kahei...
Yes.
There is a bath in the temple, isn't there?
Yes.
Boil some water, I want to take a bath.
Y-Yes.
Master Sakon-no-suke, your bath is ready.
Kahei...
Yes?
Come wash my back.
Yes, Master Sakon-no-suke.
You've been washing my back like this for 18 years already...
That's right, Master Sakon-no-suke, since before you could walk.
You're the only person in whom I can confide.
I am greatly honored to hear you say so.
Kahei, do you know why I had to kill Bikuni?
No, I don't.
My duty is to serve you, Master Sakon-no-suke, no matter what you do.
You're a fine servant...
Stand up!
If you cannot endure a little beating, what good are you!
My Lord, please stop it!
Sakon-no-suke is only seven!
One must train hard in order to rule in the time of war.
It doesn't matter how old he is!
But Sakon-no-suke is only a little girl!
If I said Sakon-no-suke is a boy, then he is a boy!
So I was raised as a man.
Didn't I tell you to bear me a son?
Sakon-no-suke is a boy!
My mother was later taken hostage in battle and killed.
I had to endure my grief alone.
Father must die.
Otherwise I will never live as a woman.
Kahei, let's go back to the town.
Yes.
Kahei, the ground is still wet, be careful.
Yes.
M-Master Sakon-no-suke, look at this...
What's the matter, Kahei?
We are back where we started.
That's impossible.
All right, let's take another route.
Yes.
M-Master Sakon-no-suke...
Kahei, it seems we're being held by the spirits of the mountains.
We have to find out what the spirits have in mind.
Master Sakon-no-suke...
What's going on?
A large group of people are heading to the temple!
What?
Lady Ama Goze, once again we have brought the sick and...
...elderly from Hakka village.
We ask you to give us our annual blessing.
Blessing?
What am I supposed to do?
Huh?
Well, last year you used that sacred glowing feather to cure them...
Glowing feather?
Kahei, go look for a glowing feather.
Yes, sir... A feather?
A glowing feather...
How am I supposed to bring something...
...if I don't even know where it is?
There it is!
This must be it!
What a beautiful feather...
And if you just touch the sick with it...
Like this?
This is ridiculous. What good will this do?
Yosaku came to!
He's been bedridden for seven years!
What?
Y-Yosaku is cured?
Granny Osugi spoke!
Look! My mother is cured too!
This feather has a mysterious power that cures illness and wounds.
Bikuni was going to cure my father's nose with the power of this feather.
But my father is an evil man, once he discovered the power of this feather...
...he would've killed Bikuni and taken it for himself...
That's the kind of man my father is...
W-W-We've got a problem!
What's the matter?
Master Sakon-no-suke, to the courtyard, quickly!
What?
Wh-What happened here?
This is the banner of my father's army...
But he only used this crest during the Ohnin period...
Master Sakon-no-suke, the date on the letter this man was carrying says...
...it's the second year of Ohnin...
I heard that Father suffered a crushing defeat at the battle of Ohnin...
...and left many soldiers to die on the battlefield.
But that was more than 30 years ago.
It was long before I was born...
Curse you, sprits!
Are you trying to trap us in some sort of maze of time?
M-Master Sakon-no-suke! What are you doing to your hair!?
Kahei, I don't exactly know how...
...but it seems like we've been trapped thirty years in the past.
If these indeed are the victims of my father's tyranny...
...then I am willing to become a nun to atone for his sins.
So Sakon-no-suke continued to use the mysterious feather...
...to cure the sick and injured people...
...who would come to the temple year after year.
Who's over there?
Are you not feeling well?
So you finally show yourself, monster!
Are you...
Are you hurt?
Let me see.
W-W-We've got a problem! Master Sakon-no-suke!
What's the matter, Kahei?
I-It's an oni!
What about an oni?
It's coming this way!
It doesn't matter whether it's an oni or a serpent.
We refuse no one.
Accept anyone and anything that comes for our help...
B-B-But Master Sakon-no-suke...
Now an ushi oni is here!
I don't know how she can get close to those monsters...
More monsters!
Kahei, there's no need to be so scared.
M-Master Sakon-no-suke, you mean you aren't scared of those monsters?
There is not much difference between humans and monsters.
My duty is to cure the sick and the injured.
That is why I was given the feather.
I must do whatever I can in this world in which we are trapped.
Twelve years passed since Sakon-no-suke and Kahei had been...
...trapped in the mountains.
One day...
It has been a while.
You seem well, Lady Bikuni.
How is everything in the town?
Very well.
And I am happy to tell you that an heir to our lord was born in the castle.
An heir, you say.
That's great news.
It is a beautiful boy who looks just like her Highness.
They have named him Sakon-no-suke.
W-What?
How could this be?
I have been born in the world below...
When she turns 18, she will come here to kill me.
The Bikuni I killed was none other than myself.
How cruel is divine justice!
Sakon-no-suke.
Who is it?
Sakon-no-suke, are you afraid of being murdered?
Then why did you murder?
Had my father's illness been cured, many more lives would have been lost!
Nonetheless, the sin is the same.
That is why you are being punished.
Punished?
You will continue to be murdered forever, time after time.
How awful...
What must I do to be forgiven?
You must continue to comfort the unfortunate for all eternity.
Forever?
This is a place that transcends time.
Not just humans, but many different creatures come to this world.
In any world, there are many creatures that are cast out and forgotten.
You mean those monsters...
That's right. And you have passed one of your tests.
Once every 30 years, this place comes in contact with your world.
And if you have atoned for your sin by the time it does...
...you will be freed from this place.
Once every 30 years...
That's only if you atone for your sin...
Many months and years passed since then.
Excuse me!
I am Jindaiyu Hanawa, I serve as an aide at the castle.
I have come to see Lady Yao Bikuni.
Our Lord Iemasa has been stricken for about a year.
No doctor can cure his illness.
But I have heard the stories about you, so I came here to ask you to...
Father has fallen ill...
I see...
Eighteen years have already passed in the outside world since then.
How quickly the time has come.
Welcome back, Master Sakon-no-suke.
So you could safely go down to the castle?
Yes, I did.
But we haven't been able get off this mountain for thirty years.
Kahei, It seems like this place is connected to the outside world for today.
Huh? How could that be?
I'm not sure, either.
But I want you to leave here now.
By myself?
Yes, by yourself.
I was able to go to the castle today, there's no mistake.
So Kahei, you must get out of here right now.
We can return to the outside world?
Then...
Then Master Sakon-no-suke, let's get out of here together!
Kahei, I cannot come with you.
Then I won't leave here either.
Kahei, I killed another human being. I must atone for the sin I committed.
You've never done anything wrong, yet served me for all these years.
I thank you.
B-But...
You must hurry.
Or this world will be sealed again.
Master Sakon-no-suke, I have no reason to live without you.
Thank you, Kahei.
But I must atone for my sin on my own.
Now go!
Master Sakon-no-suke!
It was a great blessing to have served you!
Yao Bikuni...
I have come to kill you.
I have been waiting for you.
I cannot let you live.
I understand. I have prepared for this.
No one knows if Sakon-no-suke was forgiven for her sin...
...and released from her prison.
However, it is said that, on rare occasions...
...a mysterious dimension shows itself in the middle of the one in which we live.
Someone whispers
In a faint voice
To the sparking stars
A promise I once heard
Ah, when the scars of the soul hurt
They long for their mother
Fading intermittently
I can hear the prayers in the voice
I am not alone in the darkness
It’s alright
The will to love is eternal
Next Episode
A man returns from losing a war across the sea.
The man's face is that of a dog.
The man shouts at the wild sea.
I'm a human, I won't die like an animal...
I won't!
A strange fate awaits him on the shore of eastern lands.