Chapter 29

## Yoshitsune's Calling

**Chapter 29** is titled "Yoshitsune's Calling."

## Short Summary

Kotsuga learns the truth about the death of his parents while a weakened Benkei escapes Daruma and retreats to his base. Daruma returns to his cat form, and the side effect of his transformation leaves him too weak to finish the job. He tasks Hachimaru with rallying the Samurai on Kenka's surface to take the fight to the enemy. Now aware of the his master's lies, Kotsuga asks his captors to help him avenge the injustice done by Benkei.

## Long Summary

Benkei confesses that he stole everything that belonged to Yoshitsune. He took his ship, his Key Holder, his Samurai Soul, even his wife, who was also his Princess. Using deception and theft, he overthrew his master. On Kenka's surface, Kotsuga hears everything Benkei says through his commlink, and becomes enraged to hear that his master was playing him all along. Daruma chastises Benkei for betraying his master, but he counters that his actions were a result of loyalty. Yoshitsune's commitment to his clan caused him suffering, so Benkei decided to be a good student by freeing his master from his pain through death. Daruma prepares to end Benkei, warning him never to call himself Yoshitsune's apprentice again.

Before Daruma can land the final blow, Hachimaru calls out that something is coming from below. Before he can react, a heavily damaged Ushiwakamaru grab his master and is ordered to return him to their ship. At the same time, Daruma's AI warns him that his time limit of his transformation has reached its conclusion, and he has 30 seconds before his body shuts down. As control of his body begins to fade, he instructs his student to expose his Key. When he does, Daruma copies the memories he took from Benkei to him. He tells Hachimaru to analyze them and use them to find a way to take care of Benkei. Hachimaru is confused, so Daruma explains that his transformation has a time limit, and he must now enter an extended sleep mode. He entrusts Hachimaru with finishing the job, and his body transforms into a ball before Hachimaru can finish questioning him.

Back on Kenka's surface, the sniper Samurai apologizes to Captain Sen, who returned to help fend off Benkei's Holders. Sen looks to the sky, realizing that Benkei has retreated to his planet-sized ship. Hachimaru returns to his allies and pulls up blueprints of Benkei's ship. He reveals that the ship is controlling the field trapping them on the planet: they must take the ship if they want to leave. The more experienced Samurai note that Daruma left them Benkei's location on the ship and a path to get to him. They begin forming a plan to get all the Samurai on the planet to help them overrun Benkei, but Kotsuga warns that they can't do so. He explains that the base is full of stolen Samurai Keys: Benkei gathers them and binds differents sets to his own based on whatever situation he faces. On top of that, over half the Samurai that were on Kenka are loyal to Benkei, using Keys that he supplies and controls. The others are edgy about listening to their enemy, but Kotsuga doesn't care. He asks Hachimaru if he can see the secrets Benkei hid from him in his copied memories. He then demands that Hachimaru show him the day he underwent a seppuku ritual from Benkei's perspective. Seeing how important it is to him, Hachimaru agrees and plays back the day.

That day, a young Kotsuga has his blood drawn by an elderly woman as part of the ritual to become a Samurai. Nearby, Yoshitsune asks a younger Benkei for his opinion about his son, Sanda. He tells him that he believes simply being his son means he will have plenty of potential. Yoshitsune tells him that he is determined to continue his family's 300 year tradition of producing Samurai to protect their world: to do anything less would mean failure at his Samurai Calling. After his blood is drawn, Sanda tells his mother that he plans to become a Samurai who can protect her in her father's place. Yoshitsune sends his wife and shield home to finish this phase of the ritual personally. Before Yoshitsune has a chance to conduct the test, someone switches Sanda's blood vial with another one, and Kotsuga recognizes that the hand is Benkei's. Ann, aware of how critical the blood is to the seppuku ritual, says that without the right vial, there was no way to accurately tell Kotsuga's chances of becoming a Samurai.

Kotsuga thinks back to the night Yoshitsune told his wife that he was unable to become a Samurai. On the monitor the same conversation i played back in Benkei's memories, meaning he was eavesdropping that night. The next memory is one of Benkei telling his master that since Sanda is his child, as long as the odds aren't a zero, he can survive the gambit. Yoshitsune trusts Benkei and has faith in his bloodline to try despite the low odds. Kotsuga recalls what happened after: Yoshitsune tried to kill him with a ritual blade, but he resisted, having heard that he is incompatible with the Locker Ball. Before his father can stab him, his mother intervenes and is stabbed in the process. Both father and son are caught off guard, and Sanda tackles his father in rage while Benkei tends to his mom. On Hachimaru's screen, Kotsuga's mom asks Benkei to stop her husband, as her wound is not life threatening. Rather than listen, he decides to seize the moment and stab her fatally when no one was looking. He then tells Yoshitsune that she was dead, making him believe he killed his wife. The pain that realization caused him to be forsaken by Fudo Myo-o and turn into a Locker Ball before Sanda's eyes.

Benkei tells Sanda that his father died because hurting one's Princess is unbearably shameful to a Samurai. Because the truth would be the end of the Shana Clan, he says that they will hide it by saying he had a mental break instead. He then takes Yoshitsune's Key and Samurai Soul, saying that death is the only result of having bonds. He tells Sanda he will take him in under a new name - Kotsuga - and that their connection will be one only of money. In the present, Kotsuga trembles with fury at all of the lies. He then bows and asks the Samurai there for help. Most of them are unresponsive to their enemy trying to be honorable like a Samurai. However, Hachimaru responds that making his request with a bowed head and genuine apology in his heart is one of the most Samurai-like things anyone can do.

## Fights and Events

* The circumstances surrounding the death of Yoshitsune and his Princess/Wife are revealed.
* Kotsuga's birth name is revealed to be Sanda.

## Characters in Order of Appearance

* Yoshitsune
* Kotsuga
* Ryu
* Ann
* Benkei
* Daruma
* Hachimaru
* Hayataro
* Ushiwakamaru
* Captain Sen

## Trivia

* MangaPlus translated this chapter "Yoshitsune' Calling' and MangaStream "Yoshitsune's Way". In japanese i義常の義 ヨシツネのぎ Yoshitsune no Gi, 義 means "1. morality; righteousness; justice; honour (honor)​ 2. meaning 3. teachings; doctrine​ Buddhist term". This kanji is the same from Eight virtues of Bushidō. The Calling here is in the sense of Vocation, Purpose of be a Samurai.