The story is set in the Sengoku period. A rounin called Nanashi (meaning "nameless") saves a young boy named Kotarou at an abandoned temple. Kotarou has no family, is pursued by a mysterious militia organization from China, and hires Nanashi as his bodyguard. Amongst the men who pursue Kotarou is a man called Rarou, a skilled warrior with blond hair and blue eyes. He obeys an old man called Byakuran and is a member of the Chinese militia. Unlike his companions in the militia, he isn't serving any Emperor and just wants to fight with the strong. 
 
(Source: Iwa ni Hana)

What qualifies a man as good or evil? Is it the amount of political power one attains, the quality of his swordsmanship, or how well he serves his lord? With the fall of the second shogunate Japan has sunk into a state of disarray historians now call the Sengoku period, or the era of Warring States. Civil wars rage on throughout the many feudal holdings, where a man may raise his station in life simply by killing his superior. 
 
Whilst wandering this war-torn countryside a nameless ronin stumbles upon a young boy by the name of Kotarou, his dog, and the many Chinese assassins dispatched to claim the boy in some strange ritual for immortality. Seeing something of his own past within the child, the nameless swordsman chooses to act as his bodyguard, but can he truly keep Kotarou from the clutches of the Ming and their bloodthirsty blonde mercenary, Luo-Lang? 
 
(Source: Bandai Entertainment)

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