R¿nin: Rectitude - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

Ishida Kurōbei, also known as Shining Blade, is a slippery outlaw who had been plaguing government officials throughout the summer of 1654. A rōnin, Kurōbei had been organizing an uprising of fellow masterless warriors in Kyoto, Japan's old capital. But Deputy Inspector Tanaka stopped him dead, capturing Kurōbei and locking him up in prison. Authorities can breath a sigh of relief at last.

On the other side of town, however, the senior rōnin Shimada Gorō-formerly an advisor of Kurōbei's deceased father-rallies Kurōbei's rōnin recruits and counsels them to continue their training. He promises to set Kurōbei free and revive the plan for a rōnin insurrection.

Also walking the streets of Kyoto is an unassuming young woman named Aki. Even though she's a simple firewood carrier, Aki is highly curious and has learned a lot about what's been going on from her widowed mother and her teacher, a nun at the imperial convent of Enshōji.

Aki is surprised to find two unsigned and disturbing notes, addressed to her and left tacked to the doorjamb of her home. The first note claims someone had murdered her father, and the second note alleges that the Zen master of the Enshōji abbess had also been slain. After racking her brain to figure out who'd left the notes, Aki concludes they were both written by Deputy Inspector Tanaka as a secret warning. Having spotted her mother meeting clandestinely with the deputy inspector, Aki deduces that he's her mother's boyfriend and that he hopes to protect her. Although Aki decides to stay quiet about the matter, she's suspicious of the deputy inspector and her mother, whose behavior is increasingly unpredictable.

Meanwhile, Aki begins to question the critical attitude toward rōnin expressed by her mother and her teacher. She recognizes that the masterless warriors face serious problems, and she decides to defend them as men of virtue and rectitude. Is Aki right? Are the rōnin long-suffering victims of government oppression?

Aki is about to learn the truth!

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