Baiken arc

The Baiken arc is the fifth of the story arcs in Vagabond, and it shows the events surrounding Musashi Miyamoto's fight against Baiken Shishido.

Summary

Musashi's training, Matahachi and his family's troubles, the events directly leading to Musashi's fight against Baiken Shishido, their fight, its aftermath, various displays of character backstories.

Duration

Chapters: part of 106—127
Volumes: part of 11—13

Hon'iden troubles, preluding fights

(Chapters: 106—127, Volumes: 11—13)

Late autumn. Musashi continues training, climbing mountains and challenging fighters. He gets wounded in his left foot when he steps on a nail, but he recovers.

The misterious girl fights with her chain and sickle against Shōjirō Kai.

Matahachi is cornered by his uncle Gon, who starts suspecting his fame as renowned swordsman Kojirō Sasaki is a fraud, as he never practices with a sword and is the same careless bum as before, though Matahachi's mother Osugi protests against Gon's inquiries. Pressured, Matahachi runs away. Osugi orders Gon to bring him back. Later, Osugi follows Gon's trail. When she's by a river, she has a heart attack and falls into the water. She is rescued by Otsū and Jōtarō, who pass by while looking for Musashi's possible next opponent: Baiken Shishido, the master of the chain and sickle who lives in the deepest of the mountain. But half asleep, Osugi pronounces the purpose of her journey, which disturbs Otsū. After running for a while in a mountain trail, Matahachi sees a little girl hunting a pigeon with a chain and sickle. The girl vanishes. Unfortunately for Matahachi, Shōjirō Kai appears with a minion of his, Torajirō. They are also looking for Baiken. Shōjirō still wants to challenge Matahachi, but after tricking him, he uncovers his fraud. Shōjirō and Torajirō attack Matahachi. Right then, Gon arrives and starts fighting Torajirō, Matahachi escapes with Shōjirō chasing him. Torajirō kills Gon, but gets seriously wounded, and is mercy killed by an imposing warrior that appears: Baiken Shishido. Shōjirō stops chasing Matahachi when they meet the same girl from before, and Shōjirō follows her thinking she must be Baiken's daughter. Eventually they fight, and Shōjirō defeats her, but Baiken appears and kills him. Matahachi was spying but is spotted, Baiken orders him to bury the 3 corpses. Matahachi finds his uncle Gon dead and cries feeling guilty. In a flashback, it is revealed that it was Matahachi's idea to go to war, contrary to what his mother says about him "being dragged to war by Takezō". Just when Matahachi completes the burials, he sees Musashi coming, and escapes.

Musashi's fight

Musashi fights against Baiken Shishido.

Musashi is looking for Baiken Shishido, but is really hungry and scurries to a nearby hut. The old man living there gives him food and what he knows about Baiken. Musashi continues his march and finds another hut. He enters and finds Baiken. However, they find they already know each other: Baiken is Kōhei Tsujikaze, the same bandit that 4 years before attempted to kill him. Baiken accepts Musashi's challenge and asks him to step outside. Musashi proceeds but the girl ambushes him: he dodges her attack at the last second. Baiken tells the girl, whose name is revealed to be Rindō, not to interfere. It seems this surprise attack is how all the other challengers were defeated, as Rindō comments that Musashi is different. The fight starts with Musashi receiving blows, he soon realizes he didn't come mentalized for mortal combat. Baiken dominates the fight and almost kills Musashi wrapping him with the chain, but he frees, now mentalized for mortal combat. Musashi realizes he can't win in the present state of the fight. He remembers his father lessons and draws his short sword, intentionally wielding dual steel swords for the first time. Baiken snatches one of his swords but Musashi, instead of resisting like before, lets it go: he advances and defeats Baiken with his other sword. In the fight's aftermath, Rindō tries a surprise attack on Musashi, but it is blocked by a masked Matahachi, who was spying. Musashi gets angry for this stranger's interference, and Matahachi escapes. Rindō opens a cut on herself to give blood to a seriously wounded Baiken. Baiken says he abandons the spiral of death, and asks Musashi to save him and Rindō. Musashi is last seen walking the late autumn's dry grassland. As Baiken's eyes close, he reveals he was defeated by Kojirō Sasaki.

Epilogue

Kōhei Tsujikaze as a kid.

In the arc's epilogue, Kōhei Tsujikaze's backstory is shown, completing the other flashbacks shown through the arc that dealt with his meeting with Rindō and his transformation into Baiken Shishido.