Who are “Dochu-shi?” They are street thieves. Ankuro’s blissful holiday with his parents is shattered when a group of thieves frame his father for theft and violently take his mother’s life. Fueled by grief and a thirst for justice, Ankuro vows to become a thief himself and challenge his parents’ killers to a match of thievery skills someday. 15 years later, having mastered his skills under the training of Oshin, his adoptive mother, he prepares to face his enemies in a series of matches adhering to the Dochu-shi’s code.

Kyoshiro rescues Shizu who was being abused by her husband, even since she had been violated by the man posing as Ieyoshi. He then learned that Ieyoshi had been acting oddly ever since returning from Kyoto six months ago. Sir Fumiya's investigation of the O'oku (Shogun's harem in Edo Castle) uncovered the plot and reported that Sir Higo-no-Kami had been controlling the fraud. That's when Kyoshiro heads to Kyoto to find clues...

When the seventh shogun, Ietsugu died, shogunate officials chose Yoshimune, Lord of Kishu, to succeed him. Since then Yoshimune has led a double life.In court he remains a dedicated leader, but outside he travels incognito as a wandering swordsman, seeking out crime and corruption. With his trusted friends and his ninja, he’ll expose anyone who perverts the shogun’s justice and oppresses his people and he’ll ruthlessly put them down with his lightning-fast sword. But since he became shogun, many high-placed officials look on with jealousy, and long to destroy him. One such man, Lord Owari, tries to unseat Yoshimune by exposing his mother as a practitioner of an outlaw religion, Christianity, an offense punishable by crucifixion!