Fear my aimless rambling. (Feb.13: Added a little more and corrected some info on what the masked man said to Sara. Apologies if anyone actually read all this before.)

Jin gets outclassed on the bridge. He literally cuts it in half to escape, sending both him and Sara into the river below. I figured Sara would have had a contingency plan in case Jin decided to cut the bridge. Maybe she thought he was too "honorable" for that. Ha! Never underestimate the Slim Jin! The man knows when he's in a pickle.

The next day, some villagers along with Mugen and Fuu find Sara. Jin has drifted away, leaving only his glasses behind. While Fuu is tending to Sara in a hut, she regains consciousness and asks Fuu "will you still go to Nagasaki no matter what happens from here on out?" Fuu says absolutely. Sara responds with a sad "I see..."

Later in the evening Mugen returns to the hut. He found Sara's broken shamisen and walking stick (with blades retracted) while he was out searching the river. Fuu leaves to go look for Jin (brave girl), leaving Mugen and Sara alone. As Mugen returns Sara's belongings, it's obvious he knows about the cross spear. Sara stands up and walks out of the hut, telling Mugen that she'll be waiting down by the river bed.

At the river bed, the two battle it out. Mugen spends most of the battle evading Sara's ridiculously cool onslaught. Fuu wanders in on them just as Sara gives Mugen a nasty cut to the abdomen. Mugen returns to his feet and asks Sara what she is. Sara tells Mugen about the hatred she can see in him, and that it feels like he's never been loved by anyone, just like herself. Mugen comes at her swinging but he's all out of energy and collapses to the ground. Fuu tries to tend to him but he tells her to stay back. Sara moves in for the kill but Fuu droops her body over Mugen at the last second, begging her to stop. Sara backs off and walks away.

Mugen sure knows how to bleed. Anyway, this was definitely the best fight scene this show has had so far. The animation and choreography, especially for Sara, was awesome. And I loved the little things like showing the rocks kick up as Sara spun around and when Mugen picked up a piece of the bridge.

Elsewhere, Jin has been taken in by a silly, but seemingly wise old man. He tells Jin about a technique he uses to catch fish with his bare hands (the Way of Water), which Jin interprets as more than just a way to catch fish. Back at Mugen and Fuu's hut, Fuu tries to convince Mugen to not fight Sara again to no avail.

The next day, Jin thanks the old man for his fish catching knowledge and asks his name. The old man replies "Miyamoto Musashi" then quickly says he joking and to just call him Johnny. Jin then sets out to find Mugen and Fuu.

We then switch to Sara, who is walking in her travelling wardrobe. She seems to have given up. As she passes by an old shack, the masked man from the previous episode speaks to her. "Have you gotten attached to them? (I had heard this wrong before, apologies) Don't tell me you've forgotten...that your life doesn't belong to you. And that your child's life depends on you." Sara says she understands, then senses something in the man's words. He tells the now very angry Sara to finish the job by tomorrow.

Jin shows up at Mugen and Fuu's hut, scaring the crap out of Fuu. They proceed to discuss the current situation, then get some rest. Mugen wakes up in the middle of the night to go face Sara (how he knew she was out there I have no idea, he's just cool like that). As he's walking towards the door, Jin tells him what Johnny told Jin about the water. Mugen doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.

The backdrop in the scene between Sara and the masked man was beautiful. The drab color pallette used there did a good job symbolizing the suffering Sara is being put through.

Mugen and Sara fight again. This time in the rain. At one point Mugen recalls what Jin told him about water, but it doesn't help any. When the two of them are about to deliver the final blow to each other, Sara clearly has the first strike advantage but retracts her swing just before making contact. Mugen is shocked, but it's too late; he was already at the end of his swing. Sara falls.

Mugen says "Why? Why!? You could have cut me!" Sara says she realized today that her child has already died long ago, and that she's just been being used. Mugen: "Then..." Sara: "I can't...it's the government (she says kougi, which is the shogunate government)...please live...Mugen." Then she dies. Mugen throws her spear in rage and the episode ends.

So the government is after our heroes. I'm thinking it must be about something with Fuu's father and that island of Christians. Three possible situations come to my mind:

• Some government official is pissed off at Mugen and Jin and want them dead.
• Fuu's father is part of the shogunate government and is trying to have Mugen and Jin killed so Fuu doesn't reach him.
• The government is after Fuu's father, and need Fuu to draw him out, so they have to kill Mugen and Jin to get to Fuu. (I think this one's highly probable.)

Whether or not they want Fuu alive or dead is still up in the air as well. If they want her dead, that would change all my theories. Just have to wait and see~

As for the last part of this ep - too good. The water effects with Sara's spear, the matrix spin-around, the confession, the water rushing into her downed body, and that music! The same music they played at the end of my previous favorite episode, 14. That track just screams intensity. (It's called "The Million Way of Drum" and is on the Impression OST.)

What an amazing episode. What an amazing PAIR of episodes. This was one of the best short stories I've ever had the pleasure of watching in anime, period. My only minuscule nitpick would be that I wish they had used the same art director(s) on both eps, for continuity's sake. Most of this one used a more mature (or as some would say, ugly) style by Nobutake Itou. The previous ep had the usual clean style, which was by Jun Nakai and Yumiko Iwai. Personally I prefer the art from the previous ep. Sara was hot! Here she looked like a completely different person. Not to say the art was bad - it complemented the mood of the episode (downfall of Sara) well enough - I was just a little shocked and disappointed at first. But like I said, this is minuscule, and in the end doesn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the episodes.

Looking ahead at the subtitles for the next four episodes, 22 and 23 look to be one shot silly stuff, while 24 and 25 looks to be another serious two parter. The last episode doesn't have a subtitle yet. Darn, I was hoping they'd get right into avenging Sara.