Fuu, a waitress who is being intimidated by the village prefect's son and his guard, begs 19-year-old vagabond Mugen for help. Across town, skilled 20-year-old rōnin Jin kills the prefect's bodyguards as they prepare to kill a peasant. Jin enters the restaurant, where Mugen mistakes him for the prefect's elite bodyguards and, seeking a worthy adversary, engages him in combat. One of the prefect's son's guards sets the restaurant on fire and it burns to the ground. The local authorities capture both Mugen and Jin, who were knocked unconscious by coal gas, and sentence them to death. After escaping their execution with some help from Fuu, she asks them to join her on a quest to find a mysterious man who smells of sunflowers.