I want to shine on you, and always like that dazzling sun.
I will defend you from all the darkness.
This is the truth from my heart.
If only our hearts could connect, I could get you to believe me.
Even if you can't see it now, don't lose it.
Your kindness won't be in vain.
You'll be carried aloft by the wind to somewhere that isn't here.
You'll cross the sea and cross time, and I know you'll blossom one day.
Whatever the day, I'll be there for you.
I hope I can watch over you like the sun for all time.
This is the truth from my heart.
Moribito Guardian of the Spirit This is the truth from my heart.
To tell you about Jiguro, I should start by telling you about my childhood.
Unlike Yogo, Kanbal has no fields that produce bountiful harvests.
All it has are steep mountains and rocky grasslands.
The people make a living by tilling the poor soil...
...eking out what little grain and potatoes they can from it...
...and by grazing Kanbal goats.
That's the kind of place I was born and raised in.
Episode 21 Jiguro Musa
My father, Karna Yonsa, was the royal family's personal physician.
My mother died when I was five, but thanks to my father...
...I led a happy life, never wanting for anything.
I was too young to realize it, but by that point...
...my father was already caught up in a situation he couldn't get out of.
My father, chief physician to the king of Kanbal...
...had been ordered to poison the king by Logsam...
...the king's younger brother, who had his eyes on the throne.
Logsam had threatened to kill his daughter if he refused.
And so my father had no choice but to agree.
However, he knew that as soon as he'd succeeded in poisoning the king...
...his and his daughter's lives would be forfeit because of what he knew.
Caught up in Logsam's machinations, my father found himself isolated.
But he had one friend in the palace that he trusted implicitly.
That man was Jiguro.
Jiguro was a member of the King's Spears...
...a group of nine men who served the king.
The King's Spears was comprised of elite spear-wielders...
...the leaders of Kanbal's nine ethnic tribes.
Jiguro was the youngest man ever to be elected to the King's Spears...
...and was lauded as Kanbal's most powerful hero.
Although my father regretted involving his friend in this terrible plot...
...he resolved to reveal Logsam's plot to Jiguro.
In a matter of days, I will administer the final dose of poison to the king.
Once the king is dead, I will inevitably be punished.
But my daughter is completely innocent.
You are the only one I can turn to.
I realize that I'm asking you to do the impossible.
Ever since my wife passed away, though, Balsa has been my entire world.
I beg you, take my daughter and flee the country.
Apparently, Jiguro refused my father's request.
It's no wonder.
Even though the request came from Jiguro's close friend...
...to accept would mean forfeiting not only his status and honor...
...but it would also spell his own doom.
In the evening of that same day, palace soldiers came to our home.
Logsam must have already figured out what my father was planning.
I'm here at the request of your father. Come with me right now.
Although he had initially refused my father...
...for some reason, he said these words, took my hesitant hand in his...
...and we left our homeland of Kanbal.
Jiguro...forgive me...
If Jiguro hadn't come for me when he did...
...I'm certain that I would have been killed that day.
We then spent an entire day traversing the long caves along the Kanbal border...
...eventually crossing into the territory of the Shin-Yogo empire.
I was completely exhausted, but I couldn't sleep at all that night.
For one thing, Jiguro hadn't explained anything to me...
...and his tension was contagious.
Jiguro was on his guard, alert for approaching pursuers.
Five days after we began our flight, our first pursuer found us.
The man who appeared was one of the King's Spears.
At first, I had no idea that the man was there to hunt us down.
After all, the two of them were speaking so calmly.
Was it Logsam who sent you after us?
Logsam is an even worse tyrant than I imagined.
That's true.
But this has given me the chance to fulfill a dream that I've had for years.
I've always felt a sense of dissatisfaction...
...over the fact that I haven't had a chance to challenge you...
...ever since you achieved the top rank in the King's Spears.
I also have to question if it's truly necessary...
...for a spear dance to be part of a life-or-death struggle.
You do, do you?
Perhaps it's because I had those very same feelings...
...that I find myself standing here right now.
What are you doing? Are you mocking me?
No. This is a genuine fight to the death.
I'm sorry.
I can never return to Kanbal.
And so I can't bring you back to our homeland.
Let's go.
It was obvious that Jiguro had not tried to avoid fighting that man.
To this day, I still don't understand why.
But since he had reached the top at such a young age...
...maybe he wanted, just once, to see what he was really capable of.
That might have just been wishful thinking on my part...
...wanting to believe that the brief fight had nothing to do with me.
At the same time, though, it struck me...
...that my situation was even more dire than I ever imagined.
I realized that my only hope of survival was to go with this man.
After that encounter, we entered a city in Yogo...
...to get a replacement spearhead for Jiguro's broken spear.
That swordsmith was stubborn even back then.
At first, he refused to take the job.
If at all possible, I'd like to avoid killing anyone else...
...but I have no idea what that number may even be.
As I know you have the skills to do so, I would like you to forge me a spear...
...that is equal to any Yogo sword.
The implications of what Jiguro was saying terrified me...
...so I avoided listening to the rest of their conversation.
After thinking a while, the swordsmith said the following to Jiguro.
"In seven days, pay me another visit."
The next seven days seemed like an eternity.
For one thing, Jiguro didn't even try to speak to me.
It's finally started to snow out there.
Has it, now?
I thought it felt colder.
I'll go make some tea. Are those two upstairs?
Moribito Guardian of the Spirit
Jiguro, we're already soaked to the bone. Let's rest here a while!
Don't stop! What will we do if we catch cold?
Just keep running until we reach the city.
What's wrong?
Stay here.
Well, well.
I knew you would be the second...
Tagul!
I knew that you would come here.
So, what did Logsam tell you?
Did he order you to kill the co-conspirators of the physician...
...who poisoned the king?
So, you've taken the oath not to hear or speak?
I know better than anyone that you're a man who dislikes combat.
Your wife and children are being held hostage, aren't they?
Tagul!
So you too...have found something to protect...at last?
Tagul...
When I saw Jiguro break down into sobs...
...I didn't know what I should do.
I thought, "This is the only man I can turn to. What can I do for him?"
And later on, I learned the real reason for Jiguro's tears.
The second assassin that Logsam had sent after us...
...was Jiguro's closest friend among all the King's Spears.
But, no...
Logsam was an utterly fearsome man...
...and he was utterly without scruples.
We returned to the Yogo city, and from a Kanbal migrant worker...
...we learned that my father had been killed.
I had always thought that I would see my father again someday.
For the first time since we left Kanbal, I cried.
For someone at my age, that was the worst possible news I could hear.
Jiguro then told me everything that was going on...
...almost as if he were speaking to an adult.
He explained why my father had been killed...
...and why I had had to flee the country with him.
The hatred that blossomed inside my heart that day...
...still sits like a lump deep inside me.
That wish to get my revenge against Logsam one day.
So I asked Jiguro to teach me martial arts.
Jiguro! Teach me how to fight!
But Jiguro wouldn't agree to my request.
No.
The martial arts are a man's domain.
Women's muscles prevent them...
...from making any real headway no matter how hard they try.
And most of all, you're just a child.
Even though he'd turned me down so bluntly, I couldn't give up.
From then on, I secretly watched Jiguro train whenever I got the chance...
...to try to pick up how to use a short spear.
Some time after that...
...Jiguro was working as an escort for a merchant caravan.
For us, this killed three birds with one stone.
The first was that it allowed Jiguro to make a living using his martial arts.
The second was that I was continuously...
...able to witness Jiguro in combat firsthand.
This gave me invaluable insight into the martial arts.
And the third was that this allowed us to quickly gather information...
...on the people who were pursuing us.
Six people apparently searching for us?
Jiguro, look!
These are your moves, Jiguro!
Seeing the amused looks on the faces of the adults around me...
...caused me to get carried away.
That man went for your spear hand, remember?
And you let go of your spear for a second, dodged his strike, and then...
Don't ever do that again! Is that clear?
Why did you do that?
Who can say? I'm not really sure.
Maybe after seeing the worried look on his face, I wanted to help.
Or maybe I just wanted to get a rise out of him.
After all, that man never talked to me about anything.
But not long after that, Jiguro began to train me in the martial arts.
Why?
I think that one reason is that he was impressed by my little performance.
At the time, I had no idea that what I did was extraordinary...
...but apparently, I had a gift for the martial arts.
At any rate, I had pretty much memorized...
...all of Jiguro's fighting moves just by watching.
But there was something else. One other reason.
Another reason?
Starting today, practice with this.
A short spear isn't created to fit a body.
You must make your body fit the spear.
Why the change of heart?
I thought you didn't want to force the girl to live a life of bloodshed.
It's true that for any student of the martial arts...
...the more proficient you become...
...the more opponents you draw to yourself.
As much as I hate to say it, this path is her only hope of survival.
You've figured that out, have you?
Jiguro must have already caught wind of the rumors...
...that the remaining King's Spears had joined forces to hunt us down.
And so, he began training me in the martial arts...
...so that I would be able to survive in the event of his death.
Even so, Jiguro was a cautious man.
He hoped to avoid having to kill any more of his friends if he could...
...so we lived up in Yogo's mountains until our money ran out...
...and didn't take on any high-profile bodyguard jobs.
Ah, and that's when you met Tanda and Mistress Torogai.
Right.
Living that way allowed us to evade the pursuit...
...of the King's Spears for nearly ten years.
Our life was pleasant enough, although dangerous.
But then the six King's Spears came, right?
Yes.
When a skilled spear-wielder...
...with a young woman in tow takes on bodyguard jobs...
...word is going to get around whether you want it to or not.
On the way home after a big job...
...we were finally discovered by the King's Spears...
...who had been tracking our activities all that time.
Go hide in those rocks over there.
Go!
I was reluctant to leave him.
I had believed that I would be able to help Jiguro, at least a little...
...but when the time came to face the King's Spears...
...I wasn't able to do anything.
No, even if I had been able to help...
...I'm certain that Jiguro wouldn't have let me.
Stop! This will accomplish nothing!
Jiguro had already made up his mind.
He would fight the King's Spears alone.
Listen to me! Put away your spears and return to Kanbal!
How long do you intend to continue such a futile endeavor?
Jiguro had decided that he wouldn't allow my hands...
...to be stained by senseless killing.
As I sat huddled and alone, holding back the tears on those nights...
When it felt like I was about to succumb to my doubts...
...there you were, at my side before I knew it.
It was none other than you who was there for me.
I keep wishing, "I want to be strong." I stumble and hurt myself again.
But because I have you to believe in, I can get back to my feet.
I simply want to tell my dear one, "Thank you."
At the top of my lungs, again and again.
I call out to my precious loved one.
Is my voice reaching you?
In this world that always changes, human warmth never does.
I'm certain I sensed the presence of the one that I hold dear.
From Jiguro to Balsa. From Balsa to Chagum.
Inherited desires. Tested bonds.
Next time, "Season of Awakening."
Episode 22 Season of Awakening
Spring is almost upon us. Episode 22 Season of Awakening