Demoralized after his disastrous defeat to Zojiro at the shogun's dance competition, Oniyasha spends a few aimless days down by the river, escaping reality with Kogane and the affable drifters encamped on its banks. He's reeled back by Toku-san, a destitute traveling monk who recognizes that he's meant for more, and who divulges that he was once a warrior who fought and lost against the Ashikaga shogunate. When Toku-san is arrested and executed for a crime he didn't commit, Oniyasha resolves to use the next competition to tell the stories of those who were defeated and those who were left behind in the shogunate's rise to power.